I’ve never written a story. I do not write stories even in my own language (romanian). So it’s a first. Zakalwe started the first writing prompt, and after Nic already responded, I also jumped in.
“The new girl” by Val (Valeriu Ciprian)
Hi everybody, my name is Daniel and i’m 16 years old. It’s been a month since I started the third year of high school. I recently broke up with my “girlfriend”, Monica. We know each other since kindergarden, we are neighbours, we go to the same school. So we were “together” all the time, that’s why we were considered by everybody an item. Now we stopped doing this. Monica knows all my secrets but she is a very good friend and she does not speak to anybody about what she knows about me. So I have a clear path to find a new girlfriend. And Monica will find a boyfriend. She has dark brown hair and hazel eyes and she looks very mature for her age so she can find a guy from the senior year, even if she is 5.1 ft tall. I wear glasses about -2 D, you would say I am myopic, but I am not. My real prescription is about +0.75 D so I’m actually hyperopic. But for me it’s not a problem to wear myopic glasses, with low prescription and to see very well. Both my parents wear glasses, my mom is +5D and my dad is -2, so i’m kind in the middle. My mom and dad used to keep their old glasses in a case. Year by year the case filled up with some pairs of glasses. When I was younger, I used to try my mother’s glasses but I did not like it. When I did the same with my dad’s glasses it was different. I could see far away looking through the window. The image was a little smaller but it was more defined, crisper. When I tried to read, I felt a little strain in my eyes, but after five or ten minutes it went away. Monica had just started to wear glasses, with a prescription of about -1D, so I had to encourage her to wear the glasses by wearing myself a pair. That’s how I started to wear glasses. One time we were studying together I showed Monica the glasses case and she tried some of them. Inside there were a few pairs that were stronger than -2D. I think that my dad is sometimes wearing mom’s contacts under stronger glasses. For fun, of course…. Now, (not so many) years later, Monica’s prescription climbed up to -5D. Sometimes she wears contacts, of course. My prescription stayed the same. I don’t know how it’s not changed. I wear glasses almost all the time while at school. That’s about 5 or 6 hours a day. Of course I read everything what’s on the internet about it. It seems that I have good accommodation and that’s it. My prescription does not want to change. My parents never said anything about wearing glasses that are not mine, but at home I rarely wear the glasses. I get headaches after wearing them too long. Every time Monica got a new pair of glasses I asked her to give me the old glasses and I put them in the box along with my parents glasses. Now I have about 30 pairs of glasses in my collection, from +5D to -7D. The glasses case was now full, so I had to move all the glasses to a cabinet in my room. Only once dad asked me to borrow him one of the -7D glasses to wear over contacts. Now it was my collection. Of course I borrowed him the glasses.
In a few days, on Saturday, we will have a school dance, I asked Anne, the new girl in school to be my date. She is completely different to Monica. Auburn hair and green eyes, rather tall (for me). I’m 5.8 ft she is probably 5.7 ft tall. So we’re close. I am not in same class with her, but I’ve noticed her on Facebook, after she posted a message on the high school group, trying to find someone who lives in the same neighborhood to share a taxi or a bus home. So I jumped at the occasion. Now we are friends on Facebook so I started to browse her older photos. I saw a few where she was wearing some prescription glasses, rather strong, I think, maybe -7 or -8 D, but in school I’ve never seen her wearing them. Last evening we started chatting on Skype, so I asked her why she is not resting her eyes from wearing contacts at home. I’ve seen her pictures wearing glasses, she does not need to be shy.
- Wow, you’ve seen me wearing glasses, OK, wait a little, I will switch to glasses, said Anne. It took a few minutes, but she came back wearing a pair of glasses. - You are right, wearing contacts for too long is not good for the eyes. But I see that you are not wearing your glasses, Daniel, are you wearing contacts ? - Oh no, I can see fine without contacts. - Lucky you, said Anne. I heard a knock in the bedroom door. - Daniel, may I come in ? said mom.
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OK, come in.
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Wow you have a new friend to chat with ? - Yes mom, meet Anne.
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Hello Mrs. Ingram, I’m Anne, I go to the same school as Daniel.
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Nice to meet you Anne, said mom. Mom turned away and opened a cabinet door to search for something. It was all happening too quickly, mom did not know that I rearranged the cabinets. And I have a wide angle video camera so Anne could see everything in my room. My blood froze instantly as I realized too late that my secret would be revealed, and I couldn’t stop her anymore. My mom had just opened the cabinet in my bedroom which kept hidden my huge collection of prescription glasses, an undeniable testament to my optical obsession. There was no way I could get away without telling Anne. I could only wait in dread and apprehension for her reaction. My mom left the room quickly, but the damage was done.
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So Daniel, I see that you collect eyeglasses, said Anne.
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Guilty as charged.
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It is not something you see everyday, can you show me more?
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I can show you, if you want. I have a few glasses for hyperopia from mom and glasses for myopia from my dad.
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That does not bother me at all. If you want I will give you some glasses that I used to wear.
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That would be nice, thank you.
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Now I have to stop, because I have some homework to do, bye Daniel, until tomorrow.
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Bye Anne. See you in the morning.
The next day I met Anne at the bus stop. She was wearing sunglasses. As she came closer I could see there were prescription glasses.
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Hello Anne, nice glasses you have today.
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Thank you, Daniel. We took our usual places on the bus, for the 15 minutes ride.
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Daniel, before we get to school I wish to tell you something.
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Of course Anne, you can tell me anything.
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I have perfect vision.
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Don’t tell me you are wearing contacts under the glasses.
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You figured it out quickly. No wonder you have a collection of glasses.
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I’ve never worn contacts. But my dad sometimes does. He wears mom’s contacts under stronger glasses.
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I see, maybe you will convince him to come to my dad’s office. He is an optician. He will be happy to help your dad to find combination of glasses and contacts to give him a perfect vision.
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Of course I will tell him.
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We are close to school. I will wear the glasses all day. These have light adaptive lenses, so it won’t be a problem. And I will wear some glasses at the dance if you don’t mind.
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Oh, I will love to see you at the dance wearing glasses.
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But from next week, I will not wear my glasses at school.
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No problem, but please wear the glasses for me when we are together. And another thing, the glasses I am wearing are not mine. My real prescription is low plus, not minus. If I wear these glasses to much they give me headaches.
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I can do even more, let’s go after school by my dad’s office to see if he can fit some contacts for you. So you can wear stronger glasses without getting headaches.
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I like you very much Anne.
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I like you too, Daniel.
The day went quickly. My mind was not at school, but at Anne. After school we went to Anne’s dad office. We settled for a combination of +4 contacts and -3 glasses. Anne said that she wants us to wear matching glasses on Saturday, so we chose similar frames. A little large, but nice, black, trendy frames. After choosing the glasses frames, we had to go to the mall to find some outfits that will go perfect with the glasses.
Saturday came, my dad took me and Anne to the dance, not after taking a photo of us wearing the nice outfits and matching glasses. At the dance everybody complimented us on our outfits. Both me an Anne seem to be very good dancers, so we won the big prize: King and Queen of the dance. Monica and her new boyfriend came to congratulate us, Monica was like my sister. We agreed to go together on double dates for more fun. Like a family. Lucky me, lucky us.
Cluj-Napoca, ROU, Europe - september 2020
https://vision-and-spex.com/writing-prompt-1-the-new-girl-t1804.html