Unable to See, Blamed for Everything

During a vision test at the optical store, I misread one of the letters on the eye chart. Mom slaps me across the face in front of everyone. "You can't even read a letter that big? Are you blind? If you don't want glasses, get out of here!" I clutch my burning cheek and shake my head through tears. "No, Mom. I haven't been able to see the whiteboard for years. Please, just let me get glasses…" Just then, my little sister, Bridget Sink, complains that the sun is too bright. Mom immediately buys her the most expensive pair of sunglasses in the store. I clutch my preion and beg her desperately. "Mom, I don't even need frames. Could you just get me the cheapest lenses? Please?" But Mom snatches the preion from me and tears it to shreds. "Bridget gets good grades. She can have whatever she wants. Meanwhile, you've fallen to the bottom of your class. "Even if you really are nearsighted, it's because you've been sneaking around playing on your phone behind my back! How dare you waste the family's hard-earned money?" She writes "I Waste My Parents' Money" on a sign and hangs it around my neck. Quiet snickers rise from the people around me. Their stares weigh on me until I can barely breathe. "Get on your knees and stay there until the store closes. You're not going home until you've learned your lesson!"