Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Much Ado about Nothing (not about the play) (07/28/11)
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TITLE: Marielle's Glasses | Previous Challenge Entry
By Sara Harricharan
08/04/11 -
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Marielle’s scream of frustration echoed down the hallway. “This can’t be happening!” She wailed, biting her lip to keep tears from ruining her neatly applied makeup.
“Mari?” Her mother poked her head around the doorway, a polka dotted kerchief tied around her red curls. “Everything okay?”
“I can’t find my contacts!” The teenager sniffled. “And I’ve gotta find them before I leave, Momma. I have to. I can’t go out with Davey Nelson wearing glasses.”
Red eyebrows rose upwards. “Really?” The bedroom door was pushed all the way open. “I thought something important happened. Something like that boy finally breaking it off.”
Marielle gasped. “Momma, he’d never do that!”
“Really? You’re always trying to convince me how wonderful and perfect he is, but the moment you’re-”
“Momma, we’ve been through this before. Davey’s nice. Real nice, in fact, he’s nicer than nice and I just wanna look my best for him. Honest! Besides, my glasses are horrible, the frame’s plastic and it’s cracked. We never got them fixed since I ordered contacts and that was my last pair. I had them last night, right here. I put them on the dresser and I went to brush my teeth.”
“The frame wouldn’t have cracked if you took better care of your things. Now, we already ordered you another set of contacts, but they won’t be in ‘till next week. You’ll just have to make do unless you find the other ones.”
“I bet Jenny took them.” Marielle’s snappy green eyes narrowed into her favorite glare. “That little brat!”
“Mari, you can’t go around accusing your little sister of everything that goes wrong. She never sets foot in your room.”
“She did last night, to borrow my hairbrush, then five minutes later to borrow hair ties and then five minutes after that-”
“But you were in the room the whole time, weren’t you?”
“Never mind that, Momma, she took it. She had to-!”
“But why?” Her mother sighed. “Besides, Jenny spent all afternoon doing her homework and she was helping me set the table a minute ago.”
“Set the table?” Marielle blinked. One pale hand went to her mouth. “Ooh, I’m gonna be late. This can’t be happening.”
“Call and cancel. If he’s such an angel, I’m sure he won’t mind.”
“Oh I couldn’t do that.” Marielle sniffled. “I couldn’t. We hardly see each other all week. H-he cleared his Sunday to take me out to dinner. I can’t just call him and-” she hiccupped.
Her mother rolled her eyes. “If you’re going, go. If you can’t find them, then wear your glasses. Don’t come whining to me about it.”
Marielle pouted at the bedroom door was pulled shut. She sat down on her bed, reaching for a teddy bear to hold close. It was the stuffed panda Davey’d won for her at the county fair two weeks ago.
Several more minutes of frantic searching didn’t produce the tiny plastic contact lens case. Marielle finally dug through the top drawer of her nightstand to pull out the dreaded pair of broken glasses. She finally thought to put a dab of clear nail polish on the plastic frame, hoping it would hold like glue.
The sound of a horn at the curb had her sprinting down the stairs after grabbing her purse.
“Marielle?”
“Davey!” She squinted in the direction of his voice. It was no use. Reluctantly, she slid the glasses on, biting her lip as the fuzziness cleared to show Davey Nelson’s adorable freckled face.
“Wow, you look um, different.”
Marielle tried to smile. “Yeah—glasses.”
He flushed a soft red and then tilted his head towards the curb. “So—dinner?”
“Sounds good.”
Marielle climbed into the passenger seat and quickly snatched her glasses off, holding them in her lap. “Did I make you wait?”
“Not long.”
The silence stretched to awkward limits.
“Marielle, is everything okay?”
She swallowed, turning the glasses over in her hand. “Y-yeah.”
Davey pulled into the diner parking lot. He reached across the seat to open the glove compartment. Marielle watched in surprise as he removed a battered glass case from within and pulled down the vanity mirror from the sun visor. She stared as he deftly swiped out his contacts, then slid on a thick-lensed pair of oversized glasses.
Her jaw dropped.
He smiled, gently. “Feeling better now?”
Marielle could only nod.
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I enjoyed this slice of adolescent intensity, which wass all too accurate.
What a prime example of what it means to make a mountain out of a molehill. The plot was a bit lean, but the resolution was impressive.