Seeing Sleeping Beauty

Geeky Glasses Rule #1

Don't get upset if someone secretly thinks your glasses are ugly. They are ugly.

ATLANTICVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOL REMINDED ME OF A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT GONE WRONG.
A maze of blue lockers snaked around the school with beige tile floor and light brown classroom doors. I felt like a lost lab rat. There were about eight hundred other rats, some looking as nervous as I felt.

"Bell!" I heard someone yell down the hallway. I turned around, seeing Elli dashing towards me. "Elli!" I yelled back. She ran up to me and hugged me. I hugged her back. "So, how was your summer with your mom?" She asked me after we separated. "Um. . . Good?" I hesitated.

The truth was, I actually didn't go to my mom's. My mom and dad are divorced, and I'm supposed to go to her house every summer. But, my dad took me to the beach instead.

"How was your summer?" I shot the question right back at her. "Fun." She said in a flat tone. "Well, I gotta get to my locker." She looked around, probably searching for her blue door. "What's your locker number?" I asked her, reaching in my pocket for a Jolly Rancher. Those are my favorite candy for when I get nervous. I popped one in my mouth quickly, and stared at her. "#4590. . ." She responded, sounding distracted. "Dang it! Mine is #3120!" I said good-bye to her after this 'incident', and left to go to my locker. I opened it, and put in all of the stuff I didn't need for the first three blocks.

Elli and I had been blessed with two classes together: Math and Drama. Just thinking about Drama class made me want to barf, but I figured, I was lucky to have two classes with my best friend. Elli had asked me to pick up applications for the Yearbook Club so that we could join. I didn't want to join, so I went straight off to class. I slipped my glasses on while I walked in the hallway, and a million blue screens popped up next to people's heads.

What ugly glasses! What the heck were her parents thinking? One girl's screen read as she stared at me. On another screen, next to a teacher, said this, Why do I even have to work here? I have to deal with dumb kids!

In Math class, we had a quiz. Once I finished all of the questions, Mrs. Saber was going on us to answer the questions aloud.

"What is number five?" Mrs. Saber asked loudly, which brought me back into reality. I saw Elli raise her hand. "Sixty-two." She answered confidently. "That is incorrect." Mrs. Saber shook her head. I saw a blue screen appear next to her head. Sixty-five it read in big, bright neon green letters. "Ms. Pond?" She called on me, even though my hand wasn't even raised! "Um. . . Sixty-five?" I decided to say the answer in her screen. I continued to raise my hand for every question, and continue to get it right. When class was over, I saw that Elli was mad. She cornered me with a rude expression.

"How did you know the answers?"

As Elli asked the question, a blue screen appeared next to her: There is no way on Earth could've known the answers to those questions. Maybe she cheated off me. Maybe that's why she gets good grades in English. Maybe she's a cheater.

"I am not a cheater!" A few students going into Mrs. Saber's class turned and stared.
Elli paled. "I never said you were a cheater."

The words on the screen changed. Did I say that out loud? But she's right, I guess. Something's definitely up. Bell stinks at Math.

"Did you pick up the applications?" I blinked and turned my gaze away from the screen. "Ugh, what? Oh, no. I got distracted." By floating screens. I thought in response to my reply.
Elli sighed, and the words on the screen changed again: Figures. I swear, I should've just picked them up myself.

I stepped backwards in shock. What I was reading, were Elli's thoughts?

"Um, Bell, are you okay? You're acting really weird."
"I'm fine," I said. I decided to perform an experiment.

"What do you think of my new glasses?" I asked with a brilliant smile. "They're cute." Elli said. But, that's not what the screen hovering beside her said: They're hideous. They make you look uglier than you already are.

I blinked in surprise. Ouch. "I gotta go, bye!"

I ran off with tears rolling down my face.

She thinks I'm ugly?