Three Little Misfits

A New Fox

Eleven fifty-nine. School had been in session for nearly four hours now. Students were awake and minds were focused and ready to learn for the day. All but a certain fox twiddling with his pencil.

Peter slumped over his desk, trying to focus, but he was having more trouble than usual. As his eyes struggled to read the board, even though he sat close to the front. He must have been tired, yet he was completely energized. He just shrugged it off as he tried to listen in to what the teacher was saying.

As the lioness recited the next math problem, Peter looked at his paper to write down everything he could gather from the lesson. Yet, he faced the same problem. His eyes were struggling to read. While he admitted this has been occurring for a while, it has never been as bad as it was today. Although, Peter didn't think much of it, so he never saw it as a possible problem. Before he knew it, the bell had rung, signaling lunch time. For some reason, the chiming was much louder to the fox today. He sighed and put his pencils and paper into his backpack.

The fox walked slower than usual. It seemed everything was getting more and more cloudy. H e could barely make out animals from posters on the walls of the cafeteria. He instinctively began to put his paws out, so he wouldn't run into anything or anyone, yet at the same time he tried to keep it discrete.

Peter successfully made it out of the lunch line without any collisions. But as he walked to his usual table, he accidentally slammed into someone, spilling his lunch all over his tray. Luckily for him, it was Alex.

The bunny held his arms apart to dry as the lettuce and salad dressing went down his t-shirt. He scoffed in annoyance. "Ugh, Peter!?"

The fox handed his brother a couple of napkins. Johanna and their friends stood aside as they cleaned themselves up. "I'm sorry Alex."

Alex looked up at his brother. He noticed that he was squinting for some reason, as if the sun were in his eyes or something. "Why are you squinting like that?" He asked.

Peter finally came clean. He breathed out. "I-I don't know. It's just been really hard for me to see today. It's been happening for a while."

The friends looked at each other in confusion. Johanna spoke up. "What? Do you think you need glasses or something?"

"No!" Peter replied quickly. He despised the thought of needing glasses in fear that they would make him look like a nerd. He already had problems with bullying, and he did not "four eyes" to be added to the roster of insults. "I don't need glasses! I just need to get some sleep tonight. That's all."

"Does Mom and Dad know?" Alex asked.

"Well, no, but don't tell them. Please?" He pleaded to them. Alex and Johanna knew how sensitive their brother could get, so they promised not to tell. "Thanks."

And with that, while with much difficulty, the fox made his way through the rest of the day. Tomorrow is another day, his mom would often say. Peter just hoped it would be better.

...

The morning came sooner than Peter would have liked. He wanted to get some sleep to make sure he could see better today, but he kept worrying that it wouldn't work, and sadly, it didn't. When he opened his eyes to see his mom open his blinds, it came as nothing but a bunch of blurry objects, and then a sudden stinging brightness.