"Babysitters Club Special Edition Mary Anne's Book" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

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.
Our school nurse, Mrs. Randolph, was testing us. She told me to sit in the chair in the middle of the room facing the eye chart. She
pointed to the E at the top of the chart and asked, "Which way does the open side of the
E face - toward the door or toward the bookshelves?"
"Toward the door," I answered. "Good. Now read the letters on the next
line."
"K, Q, M, E1 R, T, Y," I said confidently. "Very good, Mary Anne," Mrs. Randolph said. She tapped the chart with a wooden pointer. "Now, the next line."
I quickly looked down the chart and counted that there were four more lines. I decided to
get all the letters on this line right, but that I would take longer to read them.
"R. . . T, M, W. . . no that's a U. . . L, K, X, C," I said.
"Didn't your teacher tell you that you should wear your glasses for the test?" Mrs. Randolph asked.
"But I don't wear glasses, Mrs. Randolph," I told her.
"Oh," she said. She looked puzzled and concerned. "Well, let's do the next line. Take your time."
I took a deep breath. Even though I could read the line clearly, I said the M was N and that the 0 was a Q. I read the next letter correctly, but followed it by two more mistakes.
"All right, Mary Anne," Mrs. Randolph said. "You've finished the test." She was frowning and writing something on my chart.
"Don't you want me to read the next line?" I asked. I already knew that the first letter was E, which meant I would say it was a B.
"No, that's fine, dear." She gave me a sympathetic smile.
I knew I had failed the test beautifully. Soon
I would have my own glasses. I couldn't wait.
I wondered if the school would let me pick
out my own frames. If they did I couldn't
decide if I wanted red frames or horn rimmed
ones like the pair I noticed Claudia's mother
wore. Or maybe I wanted silver ones like Ms. Elison.
At the end of the school day, Ms. Elison called Jeanette Thompson and me to her desk. I wondered if I'd be wearing my new glasses home.
"Girls," said Ms. Elison, "the vision test you took this morning indicates that you have vision problems. Did you notice that you had difficulty reading the eye chart?"