From that point on, Amy was never without her correction, except when she went to bed at night, and even then her glasses, both pairs, were on her bedstand. They were the first thing on in the morning and the last thing off at night as she reveled in her whole new world.

For the first time she noticed that trees had individual leaves, grass was a series of green blades and not a solid carpet, and buildings were made up of individual bricks. It was wonderful. She wore her clear ones at home and her sunglasses whenever she left the house, just as she had planned. With summer winding down nearly all of her friends were with their families out of town on vacations, and the few people she did see never even mentioned the sunglasses as they were wearing shades too, probably with no power, she thought, or were they?

It didn't matter, Amy was happy and seeing clearly. True, when school started she would have to wear the clear ones, but she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. She was still enthralled by the vast improvement glasses brought, and was constantly looking over the tops of them to compare her former world of blur to her new, wonderful way of viewing things.

The big day came. On a bright, sunny August day she and a dozen other hopefuls met at the football field, where they showed their proficiency by going through set routines with the returning cheerleaders and the coach, a young phys ed instructor, Ms. Palmer. As might be expected, because of the intense sun, nearly everyone was wearing sunglasses, including Ms. Palmer.

Following the tryouts, each of the hopefuls waited their turn to be interviewed inside the high school individually, with the interview playing a large part of the selection process. Fortunately for Amy, the tryouts didn't include any tumbling or other gymnastics, so no one removed their sunglasses, and as luck would have it, when the numbers were drawn for the order of meeting the squad and the coach, she was first.

The captain of the squad, a lovely dark haired and personable young lady named Kim, whom Amy had always admired for her friendly personality, led the group toward the school, which meant they had to walk through the long tunnel under the grandstand. Just before they entered the dark cave-like passageway, Amy, who was just behind and to one side of Kim thought she noticed something in one of Kim's lenses as they all removed their glasses to accomodate for the darkness... something familiar, but she dismissed it.

Of all people, the captain herself couldn't be wearing, wouldn't need prescription eyewear, she thought, and then concentrated on following everyone into the conference room, grateful that she had someone to follow, because between the dim light and being without her now precious correction for the first time she woke up that morning, she really couldn't see where she was going. At the door to the room, Ms. Palmer said "Amy, we have some business to take care of first, please sit on the bench and we'll call you when we're ready".

When they were all in the room, Amy sat with her sunglasses on for what seemed like an eternity, but which was really only a few minutes and when she heard the door open quickly whipped them off before anyone could see her and wonder why she was wearing them indoors. "O.K." announced Kim, we're ready, come on in". Kim took her place at the head of a long table, and as it was a large room without her specs on Amy couldn't really see their faces until she got to her seat and what she saw then left her shocked and speechless.

Every single one of them, including Kim and Ms. Palmer, were wearing glasses; not sunglasses, but a variety of glasses with clear lenses. Wire rims, plastic rims, rimless, round oval and square, but nonetheless obviously prescription glasses. Ms. Palmer broke the silence by saying "it's all right Amy, we know your 'secret' and thought this was the best way to let you know that needing a correction will not keep you from achieving this goal, or any other one you really want to reach.

As you can see, we're all in the same boat, and before this you've just seen most of us with our contact lenses in." Wendy, who was a senior, said "not all of us. Mine are fairly weak, as you can tell, and I can get along without them for just about everything. They just make things I can already see at a distance, like the over head projector in class or the stadium scoreboard a little bit clearer and sharper so I usually don't wear them". And of course, the sunwear they all wore at the tryouts was prescription. Amy was relieved, and nearly broke up when Kim said "it's too bad we didn't have a way of getting your clear glasses in here so you can see us as well as we can see you" but then there was a knock on the door.

The door opened, and there stood Bobbi holding a familiar glasses case in her hand. And at that moment, Amy knew that the whole situation was set up by her sister, who'd been through the tryouts a few years earlier. She hugged her big sis, gratefully slipped on her real glasses, and made a mental note never to be so vain and stupid again.

The interview went well, and at the first football game Amy stood in front of the crowd, seeing them clearly, and cheering proudly as a new member of the varsity cheerleaders. She thought back on everything that had happened in the last few months, and thanked her lucky stars that glasses existed to give her the wonderful view of her new world she was enjoying so much.

But there was one thing she had to do. On the bus ride on the way to the stadium, she sat next to the other new squad member, Jacquie, and noticed she was squnting to see things far away. She made a mental note to get Jacquie alone someday and talk to her about glasses. Maybe, she'd even let Jacquie try hers on...