When Jennifer pulled into the school car park, she saw Tammy, Emily and Sara waiting for her, smoking. “Hey girls!” she called out.
“Hey, Jen!” Tammy smiled. Emily waved, and Sara hugged her. Tammy narrowed her eyes. “Wait, are you wearing concealer?” she queried.
“Yeah,” Jen said, sheepishly. “I got hit in the face by a baseball last night,”
“Really?” Emily raised an eyebrow, taking a drag. “Fair enough,”
The three of them stubbed out, sprayed themselves and the group made their way into class, where their math tutor was waiting for them. “Nice of you to finally join us, girls,”
“Sorry, Mr Madison,” they chorused, taking their seats.
Mr Madison cleared his throat. “Alright then. Now I know none of you are going to like this all that much, but we’re doing a surprise test,” the whole class groaned. “I know, I know. Remember, I have to mark ‘em all,” he handed out sheets of paper to everyone in the class. “You have 90 minutes, no calculators. Begin,”
Now, Jennifer, while being one of the most attractive girls in the school, and one of three female students who could pass off as over 21, was not the brightest bulb. She did okay, usually getting low 50s, and maybe a 60 once in a while, but math and science never really were her thing. That said, she managed to complete the test in 30 minutes. She handed it in and sighed, deciding to go to the common room and shoot some pool.
A couple of hours later, Jen was chatting outside with the cheer squad, when the intercom dinged. “Would Jennifer Smith please come to the principal’s office? Jennifer Smith to the principal’s office,”
“What did you do?” Sara asked, not bothering to look up from her phone.
“I don’t know, I haven’t broken any rules since we pants’ed that Kyle kid last week,” She groaned and pulled herself up, walking to the principal’s office. As she did, she realised that she was having trouble reading some of the room numbers. She’d have to get an appointment with the opticians. Luckily, the next day was Tuesday, and she had frees until lunch recess. She knocked on the Principal’s office door and waited.
“Come in,” she heard the principal say. Standing next to Principal Harper was Mr Madison. She sat down at the desk and sighed. Principal Harper adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat. “Now, Jennifer, normally I wouldn’t do this, but Mr Madison believes you may have cheated on your test this morning,”
“Cheated?” Jennifer’s eyes widened.
“Unfortunately yes,” Mr Madison clarified, handing Jennifer her paper. “You scored 91%,” Jennifer stared at the 91 in the corner of the page. “That’s both the highest score in the class, and completely outside your predicted grades,”
“I – I didn’t cheat, I swear!” Jennifer protested. “I genuinely wouldn’t!”
“So you’re saying this was just your academic prowess?” Madison raised an eyebrow.
“Yes! I – I mean,” she clutched her head in frustration.
“Well, would you mind retaking the test tomorrow during lunch recess?” Principal Harper asked.
“Uhh, sure, I guess,” Jennifer said, completely forgetting she had cheer practice that recess.
“Alright then. That will be all, Ms Smith,” Principal Harper smiled as Jennifer left the office, squinting to see the time on the digital clock.
“What is happening?” she asked herself, putting her head in her hand, accidentally rubbing the concealer off. She decided it’d be best to just go home. She got a sick note from the nurse and started to go back to her car. She began to squint even harder as any fine details became blurry and fuzzy. She shrieked as she walked right into someone, the both of them toppling to the floor. “Who the hell was that?!” she yelled getting back up.
“Jen? You okay?” Jen gasped. It was Troy Baker, the coolest guy on campus.
“I’m good thanks, Troy,” she said, keeping her cool. “I’m just heading home now, got a killer headache,” she laughed lightly. “And I’m super dizzy,”
“You shouldn’t be driving then!” he said, matter-of-factly. “Gimme your keys, I’ll drive you home.
“No, Troy, I’ll be fine, really!” she protested.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked.
“Uhh, four?” she said, unsure.
“Seven!” he replied, taking down both his hands.
“Ughh, fine!” Jennifer moaned, giving Troy her keys.
“And here we are!” Troy announced, pulling up outside Jen’s house.
“Thanks for this, Troy,” Jen said, giving him a quick, awkward hug.
“Hey, Jen?” he called out.
“Yeah?”
“I uh,” even when visually impaired, she could see his blush. “My sister got 2 tickets to Selena Gomez on Saturday, but she got flu, so she gave ‘em to me. Would you, uh, wanna go with me?” He blushed even harder.
“Sure, sounds great,” she replied, hugging him again before going inside.
Jen took out her phone and began to dial, before realising she couldn’t see the numbers for shit. “Damnit,” she muttered. “Siri, call the opticians,” as the phone rang, Jen took out a facemask and applied it effortlessly. This was something she could do in her sleep. “Good afternoon, Eagle Opticians, Karen here. How may I help you?”
“Hi, my name’s Jennifer Smith. Can I book an appointment for a test tomorrow morning, around 10-ish?”
Karen tapped her keyboard. “I can do you 9:45,” she replied.
“That’s great, thanks a lot,”
“Okay, see you then,” Jen hung up and laid back on her bed, letting the facemask exfoliate her skin. Martha was in Ayia Napa with her girlfriend, and Mom was away on work until Wednesday, giving Jen the house to herself.
The next morning, Jen woke up, brushed her hair, put on some jeans and a tank top and caught a bus to the opticians. “Hi, I‘ve got an appointment booked, Jennifer Smith?” the receptionist nodded and told her to go to room 3.
15 minutes later, Jennifer came back out with a prescription and handed it to the receptionist. “Could I get this in contacts?” she asked.
The receptionist, stereotypically named Shirley, typed something into her computer, and shook her head apologetically. “Sorry, we’ll have to order this prescription in. It’ll be here within a week. Until then, the only glasses we have that’ll suit you are these,” she rummaged in a drawer and handed her a pair of chunky black plastic glasses with almost circular lenses. Jen retched.
“I can’t wear these!” she protested.
Shirley tutted. “Sorry, hun, but it’s either these or be pretty much blind,”
Jen groaned. “Ughh, fine. How much do I owe you?”
“How old are you?”
“16,”
“Then it’s free. We don’t charge minors,” Shirley beamed fakely.
“Uhh, thanks,” Jen said, putting on the glasses with a furious blush.
Jen got back into school with 5 minutes to spare before her retest. Obviously she’d want to minimise the time spent at school with those… abominations on her face. She walked in with her head down, hoping nobody saw her. She got to Mr Madison’s class and sat down, ready to take her test. “Ah, Jennifer. New glasses?” Madison asked.
“Yes, sir. I got tested this morning,”
“Ah, I see,” he joked, laughing. “Well, here’s your new paper, you have 90 minutes.
20 minutes later, Jen put her pen down and handed Mr Madison her paper. “Can I go now?” she asked, scornfully.
“Not yet, I have to mark this first,” he took out a red pen and began making annotations all over the page. 2 minutes later he finished. “Jennifer, you got 94%,” he said, shocked.
“What?!” Jen exclaimed, equally shocked.
“It turns out your grade was neither a fluke nor a result of cheating. I expect great things from you in my class, Jennifer. You can go now,”
Jennifer picked up her bag and walked to the bathroom, still reeling. She splashed water on her face, then screamed. The tiny amount of acne she had yesterday had multiplied, and now totally covered her cheeks! “Oh my God oh my God oh my God!” she said, terrified. She whipped out her concealer and lathered it on, until she looked like a model who’d put on a layer too many. “Better a clown than ugly,” she muttered. Then, stomach rumbled. Checking her watch, she saw that it was 12:30, so went to the cafeteria, where she saw…