Ch.5 sight

     I went to sleep after I and Gabby ate dinner, then I brushed my teeth before I entered my bed. With my sense of touch heighten the blankets were much much softer. I also could feel the cool air as one of my feet is poking out of the blankets. With my comfortable posture, I drift off to sleep very quickly.

     I woke up to the sound of my alarm ringing. My alarms only go off it’s a weekday. I grab my phone and put the alarm on to snooze. Ugh, it’s Monday I don’t want to get up. My face began to scrunch up in annoyance of thinking about the tests I have to take… I hate the teacher for giving us tests right after the long break! 

     Knock knock. “Honey, don’t let your sister eat all the food or else you’d have no breakfast.” Mom came in and she opened the blinds of the windows. I hiss at the sudden income of light. I retreated back into the dark confines of my blankets to avoid the light. Mom left the room and so did her footsteps. I slowly peek my head out of the blankets. Everything seems ten times clearer today. I rubbed my eyes as I got of bed.

     My mind foggy, I tried my best to adjust myself to the brightness of my surroundings. I brushed and stared at myself in the mirror. Strange, I can see almost every detail of myself so clearly. I spat into the sink and had a had staring contest with myself. Why am I staring at myself? So stupid. 

     I clean up my bedhead and pick out my clothes. I was done, but couldn’t find my glasses. I looked all around my room for it; under the bed, in the closet, in all of my drawers. I looked and it’s nowhere to be found. I huffed in frustration, completely gave up looking for it. I closed my bedroom door and stood in the hallway. The smell of food crept into my nose as I walked downstairs.

     I sat down in my chair at the dinner table and asked, “hey have you guys seen my glasses?” 

     “Your glasses?” Asked mom. 

     “Yes.” I sighed, “mom you know I need them at school.” Mom just nodded as a reply as she worked into the kitchen.

     “I think I know where your glass is,” Gabby said after she swallowed her food.

     “Really? Where.” I looked at Gabby as she chowed down on her food. She then pointed over to the living room. I gave her my thanks as I left my chair. I walked into the living room. I saw it immediately as it was on the small white coffee table. 

     I put on my glasses but I noticed something was wrong. My eyes hurt as I stare into the lens. Weird. I thought it was the wrong glass with the wrong prescription. But when I looked at the glasses I could tell it was definitely mine. My glasses always had a small dent in their left arm. The glass had a maroon colour to it as its arm was thin. 

     I thought that was me just seeing things so I put the glasses back on. My eyes squinted as everything was blurry. I quickly took off my glasses when it became too much.

     @#$&! My eyes were still throbbing from looking through the lenses. Well, looks like I don’t need to wear my glasses anymore….I sighed and sat down on the couch. I put my glasses back on the small white coffee table. I put my chin in my hands and looked at the glasses. 

     First, it was my sense of touch, now it’s my sense of sight?? Thinking of this, I began to think of the fact that’s maybe more. Now I really wanna know what the hell she gave me. I began thinking of possible negative effects I could have. I couldn’t possibly lose something, could I? I didn’t want to continue to think of negative stuff.

     I got up, left my glasses, and I walked back to the dinner table. I told them I found my glasses but didn’t tell them about my newfound sight. I finished up on my food, so did Gabby and mom. All three of us were ready and was about to leave, but the home phone rang.

     “I got it, mom,” I yelled. I ran over into the kitchen. Once I picked up the phone I heard a stern voice from the other side. 

     “Hello? Hey, Saki I need to tell you that you have been transferred. You’ve been transferred to the counselling department.”

     “Uh, this is her son, Kota speaking. My Mom will be right with you in a minute.” I look over to Gabby, who is sneaking snacks. I tell her with my eyes, go get mom. 

     She looks over at me and gives a sad expression. I give her an impatient look telling her that there will be consequences. She gives one look at the snacks and puts them back. She rushed out of the kitchen. It is less than a minute she brought mom. She gestured to mom on the phone. Mom came and took the phone out of my hands. She began talking to the person on the other side. 

     I left mom and came over to Gabby. Her short green swayed in the wind. I stood with her on the patio. I looked at her, specifically down at her hand. She fiddles with the silky, blue bands on her wrists. 

     Gabby looks up at me and asks, “I always wondered what my birthmark means.” She takes off the band and shows me her birthmark. It was an unusual shape, a flower. It simply isn’t vaguely shaped like a flower, it is a flower. A flower with fine details. You’d almost think it’s a birthmark. Instead, you’d think it’s a simple tattoo. 

     “Did you find anything interesting about birthmarks?” I sneezed as I found the wind a bit chilly for me. 

     “Yeah, I did. This superstition but I heard that the birthmark is something that connects me to my past life.” She said this with a curious tone. She traced the details of the simple flower. She held her hand out in the sun, “you know I even looked in my grandma’s stuff, but mostly her diary.”

     I got curious about what there might be in her grandmother’s stuff. “What did you find?”

     “Since she was a witch I’d thought she would know about magic and stuff about past lives. I didn’t find anything the birthmarks because she never had one herself, but I did end up finding some spells, and recipes.” She put her hand back down, and her band was back on too. 

     I perked up at the word magic. I thought back to Michelle, but that might not have been Michelle that night. I also recalled that she, too, had green hair

     “Did your grandmother also say that all witches have green hair?” 

     She touched her green hair, “yes, she did say that.” She stopped playing with hair and looked at me, “She also said ‘witches tend to have green hair, and sometimes green eyes. However, those are only the powerful witches that have green eyes; the brighter the green, the more power one has’ So, if you ever come across a woman with green hair, green eyes. You’ll know that she is a witch.” 

     I nodded to show that I understood everything. Michelle might possibly be a witch, but Fen is something different. She did say that she was a different entity in Michelle’s body. Before I could think any further, mom interrupted my thoughts.

     “Okay kiddos, get in the car I’m dropping you two off to school.” 

     “We’ll be in the garage in a moment. Just let me grab my snacks!” Gabby left the patio, went into the kitchen. She grabbed the snacks she tried to sneak in front of me. I walk over to the garage and see mom backing the car into the driveway. 

     I was the last one to leave the garage as I had the key to lock it. I shut the door garage door. I double-checked to see if it’s really closed. After that, I walk over to the car. Once I got in mom asked me about my glasses.

     “Wasn’t it on the coffee table?” Asked Gabby, who sat in the passenger seat. 

     “It was,” I answered her. “But it looks I don’t need my glasses today.” Which isn’t a lie. I really could see it much better with my glasses. I still want to wear my glasses, I look good with glasses on. Maybe I should just replace my prescriptions and make my glasses fake? 

     Gabby was bored and decided to turn on the radio. The song love myself, by Hailee Steinfeld came on. She started to sing along. The school wasn’t that far it only took five to seven minutes to get there. Give or take if the traffic lights didn’t stop at each intersection we pass. 

     We arrived at the campus. The school’s red bricks stood from all the green pasture, trees, fields. Mom drives away once we were out of the car. I noticed that my newfound sight lets me see much farther. I saw Max in the distance. I was amazed by sight. If it was before I probably wouldn’t even see far. Gabby and I walk over to Max.

     Max took one look at me, “so you’re not wearing glasses today?” 

     “Yeah, I decided not to. Plus, all we have are tests today. There won’t be any note-taking.” 

     Gabby gave a dejected sigh, “tests...did you know that there's a rule about snacks? They said no snacks until everyone is done.” 

     “Cheer up Gabby. There’s always lunch.”

     “Right, what Max said. Unless you can’t wait for lunch...then it’s bummer.”

     Max suggested we go inside already and this day is done and over with. The two of us completely agree with Max’s words and head inside as well.

 

     3rd POV 

     It was the fifth hour and lunch was 40 minutes away. Kota sat in the second row in his history class. His seat was next to the windows. Kota had found out a new function that his sight had in class. He found it the hard way and disrupted class. The teacher gave him a detention slip to be nosy during testing. It happened while Kota was doing his history test. On the window as a monarch butterfly. It was harmless, but the thing made him freak out in class. Kota noticed the butterfly. At first, it looked normal and didn’t seem out of the ordinary. 

     That was until he started to squint at a tiny butterfly. When he did that his view of butterflies was zoomed in. His eyes kept zooming in, then he saw its face. When it faces him he stood up and yelled in horror. The noise of his chair falling and yep mixed together. This made him remember of that one Spongebob episode. That episode traumatized him as a kid. He never looked at butterflies the same. 

     All the students paused from their tests and stared at him. Some snickers at him for being stupid. Others found him rather annoying and some thought he was funny. The only person who didn’t think it was funny was his teacher. The teacher looked up from his work. Kota felt his watching eyes on him.

     The teacher wrote something down and stood up, “Mr. Todoroki here’s your detention slip.” Kota accepted the slip with any excuses and sat back down. He then looks back at the window and the butterfly disappears. After this Kota decided it’s best not to squint at anything. 

     The tests were finally over. He was finally glad that it was lunch. He walked out of the classroom and chose to put this incident behind him. He arrived at the noisy cafeteria. He used his eyes too quickly to find Max and Gabby. He was thankful for his new sight. Kota sat down next Gabby, and Max sat across from them.

     Max, “so what do guys plan to do this afternoon?”

     Gabby game me my lunchbox, “thanks gabby.” Kota brought out his detention slip and placed it on the table. Immediately they understood that couldn’t come if they had plans. 

     Puzzled, gabby asked, “wait. Did you get a detention slip? How this your first time you got one.” 

     Kota groaned, “I got freaked out in class and made a disturbance during testing. Thus, the teacher decided to give me a slip.” 

     Gabby smirked and started poking Kota’s arm. In a teasing tone, she said, “now, what got you all scared in class?” 

     Kota told her to lay off. He didn’t want to tell them that his eyes accidentally zoomed in on a butterfly. He also didn’t want to dig up his past childhood moments. When they were little, Gabby often teased him for being scared of butterflies. It soon became an inside joke between them as they grew up. 

     Max stared at gabby for having three lunchboxes. She had already the first one and is now halfway through her second. “You know I never understood that stomach of a vortex.”

     Kota added on, “Right. It still amazes me how much you eat. I live you and I’m still not used to this abnormality. You never like this when we’re much younger.” 

     Gabby explained her reason for this abnormality. “It’s because magic takes up a lot of energy. Food is one way to gain energy back, and so is sleeping.”

     “Oh, no wonder you like to sleep a lot,” Kota said.

     Confused, Max asked what she even uses magic for.

     Gabby uses it to practice small spells and to fix stuff. Mostly it’s to fix stuff and to grow her plants. The rest of the lunch Gabby explained about her magic. She talked about what she can do, and things she can’t. She only does whatever is in her realm of possibility. 

     Lunch soon came to an end. Was the last hour, 7th period. Because of the tests, the periods are split across two days. The first consideration of 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th. 5th hour is always on both days because that’s when lunch is. After 7th hour Kota headed straight to detention. 

     In the detention room, there were not many people. There were a couple of students and one teacher. He handed his slip to the teacher and picked his seat. He chose one by the window. Kota wanted to test his sight from the window. He spent the rest of his time testing the power of his eyes. From an outsider’s perspective, he looks like he’s just mindlessly staring out into the window. He stares like the outside world doesn’t exist. He ignores that world completely and immerses himself in a new one. 

      After detention, he walked home. He didn’t bother to call Max to pick him up. He walked around to sightsee. Be it to look at small things, big things, things up close or far away. He wanted to see to it all, to test his limits. 

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I think I had too much fun with my eyes that day….My sense of touch was manageable. I still wasn’t okay with the level of sensitivity. I was happy with my eyes. But it’s not over yet. There’s still four more left.