Ann Martin - Mary Anne's Book

of girls came over to April's desk. They all wanted to talk to her.

"I have to sharpen my pencil," I told April. "I'll be right back." I made sure to take the glasses with me to the pencil sharpener, which was right next to a window. I checked to see that none of the kids was looking at me. No one was. I put the glasses on again and took a quick peek at my reflection in the window. But the image was blurred because of April's prescription, so I couldn't see just how great I looked in glasses.

April wore her glasses for English class. Every time I looked at her, which was often, I admired how neat she looked. I noticed that Ms. Elison wore glasses too. Hers were rimmed in a dull silver and looked perfect with her black hair. Ms. Elison only used her glasses for reading, so she was always putting them- on and taking them off. I loved how she dangled them from her hand when she spoke to us, then put them on her face to read a poem. I wished I wore glasses. -

That afternoon on the way home I compared notes with Kristy and Claudia about the first day of school. I didn't tell them about April.

Kristy was my very best friend and I didn't want her to be jealous.

"Are you coming over to my house?" asked

Kristy when we were nearly home.

"In a little while," I said. "First I've got to do something."

"What?" asked Kristy.

"I have to tell Patricia I'm home."

Patricia Pennybrook, my current baby-sitter, was a huge improvement over some of my other sitters. She started sitting for me two weeks before school started. Patricia said sitting for me was the perfect job because I was so well behaved and didn't need a lot of attention, which meant she had lots of time to do her homework for college. She almost always let me go to Kristy's or Claudia's instead of staying at home with her.

I found Patricia sitting at the kitchen table, studying. "Want a snack?" she asked.

"No," I answered as I flew past her. "Gotta do something in my room. Then I'm going over to Kristy's."

"Okay," she agreed without looking up from her book.

I opened the bottom drawer of my bureau and went through my things until I found what I was looking for. My purple-framed sunglasses. I put them on and studied my image in the mirror. I liked how I looked in the sunglasses. But since I couldn't see my eyes through the dark lenses, it wasn't the same as seeing myself in real glasses.

My school photo from last year was stuck in my mirror next to Claudia's and Kristy's. I took my picture to my desk, and with a red Magic Marker drew glasses around the eyes. Wow! I looked great in glasses.

The next day, during recess, I asked April if I could borrow her glasses again. She said

yes. I carefully put her glasses case in my jacket pocket. We all streamed out to the schoolyard. I stuck close to April. So did a lot of other girls. It was already clear that April would be the most popular girl in our class. One of the neat things about April was that she was nice to everyone, not just a few of the more popular girls.

A group of us, including Kristy and Claudia, were standing around deciding what game to play, when I put on April's glasses. One girl said, "I didn't know you wore glasses, Mary Anne."

"I don't," I said. "These are April's."

"They look great on you," said Claudia. "Can I try them on?"

We spent the rest of recess trying on April's

glasses. On the way back to our classroom I

made sure to walk next to April. "I wish I

wore glasses," I told her.

"They can be a pain sometimes," she said. "I'm always forgetting where I put them."

"But they look really neat on you."

April flashed her great smile at me. "Thanks," she said.

That weekend my father and I went on a shopping trip to the discount pharmacy. While my dad was picking out the things we needed, I discovered a rack of reading g1asses. I tried

on a pair. I thought they looked pretty good, but it was hard to tell.

"Can I help you?" asked a clerk.

"No, thank you," I replied. "I'm just looking."

"Just looking?" he said. He laughed. "Well, let me know if I can help you, young lady. By the way, that pair looks nice on you."

"Thanks," I said.

I took off the glasses and looked at my now clear reflection in the display's oval mirror. I wasn't blushing. I checked my hands. They weren't clammy. I'd had that entire conversation with the clerk without having a shy attack. I thought, wearing glasses could change my life.

Monday morning Ms. Elison announced, "This week our school is conducting vision screening tests for all students. You will be tested on Wednesday morning."

A vision test! I couldn't believe my good luck. Maybe they'd discover I needed glasses. The test was on Wednesday. By Friday I might have my own pair of glasses. But what if I passed the test? What if I didn't need them? Suddenly I had an idea of how to make sure that I would soon be wearing glasses.

If I wanted eyeglasses - which I did - I would have to fail the vision test on purpose. But to fail I needed to know in advance what the test was like.

When our class was on the way to phys ed on Tuesday, I noticed a few third-graders- lined

up outside the nurse's office. I figured they

were waiting for their vision test.

During lunch hour the third-graders were out in the schoolyard with us. Jennifer Searles, a girl I knew from our block, was off by herself jumping rope. I went over to her.

"Did you do that vision test thing yet?" I asked.

"Yeah," she answered. "I read every line perfectly."

"What's the test like?" I asked.

"You have to read these letters. They don't spell anything. They get smaller and smaller

until they're real teeny. But I could see those, too."

"Is it one of those charts with the big E on top?" I asked.

"Yeah," Jennifer said.

I'd taken that vision test at my pediatrician's office. It was easy and I'd passed it without any trouble. So I probably would pass this test, too. Now that I knew what the test was like, I needed a plan to fail it.

After school I told Kristy and Claudia that I had to do some homework before I could play outside. I didn't tell them that my "homework" was to figure out how to fail a test.

I sat at my desk. First, I decided that I should read the first few lines of the vision test correctly. Otherwise the tester might guess I was trying to fail it. Then on the third or fourth line I'd start making mistakes.

Now, how should I make the mistakes? It would look fishy if my mistakes were huge errors like saying a T was an 0. I printed out the letters of the alphabet in a row. Then I

squinted my eyes until the letters weren't clear. I saw that with poor vision an M could look like an N, and that an E could be mistaken for an F. I squinted my way through the whole alphabet deciding what to say for the different letters.

By the time I went over to Claudia's to play, I was confident that I could fail the vision test with flying colors. I couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.

The next morning, right after announcements, Ms. Elison told us that we were taking our vision test first thing. She explained that only three of us would be out of the room at a time - two waiting outside the nurse's office and one taking the test. "As soon as one of you comes back from the test the next person will leave," she said. "The first three in the first row may leave now. The rest of you will start the math exercise that is written on the front board."

I was the third person in the first row, so I followed Jack Luke and Maria Gonzalez out of the room.

Maria and I waited outside the nurse's office while Jack took the test. When he came out, I asked him if it was one of the charts with the E at the top. "Uh-huh," he said. "It's easy."

A few minutes later Maria had finished the test. "Your turn," she said to me. "I think I passed. It was easy." I thought, I hope it's easy to fail, too.