Mia a Matter of Taste (6 page)

“Ewwwww!” I said, trying hard to keep it a whisper. I was glad I couldn't see it. I smiled to myself. Sometimes it's good to have bad eyesight!

O
n Sunday, Dad took the train with me out to Maple Grove, so he could discuss my braces with Mom. Normally, I'm alone on the train, so it was nice to have company. We laughed a little bit about Ethan's big moment in the play. Part of me was dying to ask Dad if he was planning on marrying Lynne someday, but since he never talked about it, I figured I'd wait and see. I'm still not sure how I'd feel about having Ethan as a little brother.

When the train got to Maple Grove, Mom was waiting for us. It's still a little awkward between Mom and Dad when they meet in person.

“Hello, Sara,” Dad said.

“Hello, Alex,” Mom replied. They didn't hug or shake hands or anything. And when we got to the
car, Mom said, “Mia, you can sit in the front with me.” Which meant Dad was in the back. So weird, right?

When we got to the house, Eddie was in super-friendly mode. He shook my dad's hand really hard.

“Good to see you! I've got everything organized for you two here in the dining room,” he said, leading Dad hurriedly through the house. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Water would be great, thanks,” Dad said.

Dad sat down at the dining room table, where Eddie had put all the pamphlets and forms about my braces. I went to sit down next to Dad, but Mom shook her head.

“We need some privacy, Mia. We'll let you know when we're done,” Mom said.

I groaned a little, but I knew it was no use to argue. Upstairs in my room, I texted Katie.

Mom and Dad r deciding my fate. Clear braces or metal mouth?
I typed.

Wishing on my magic unicorn 4 u,
Katie typed back.

I laughed. She can be so goofy sometimes.

I didn't have to wait long for Mom to call me back downstairs.

“Well?” I asked, entering the dining room.

Mom looked at Dad and then back at me. “We've decided that you can get the clear braces. They're called aligners, actually. Your dad is going to pay the extra cost, so you owe him a big hug.”

Mom didn't even need to say that because I was already hugging Dad as tightly as I could.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” I cried.

“Well, you made such a good case for them,” Dad said. “But you have to promise me you'll take good care of them. Like, super extra careful.”

I nodded. “I will, I will. I promise. Thanks!”

“And you'll let me know how it goes tomorrow at the eye doctor?” he asked my mom.

“Of course. As soon as she's done we'll call.”

Dad came up to see my room, and then we went for a walk to the park, so I could show him a little more of the neighborhood. Then Mom drove us to the train station, and I waved good-bye on the platform while Mom waited in the car. It was all kind of weird saying good-bye to Dad and having Mom stay in the car and everything, but that's how it is now. It's weird but it's normal, I guess.

As soon as Dad left, I texted all my Cupcake friends.

Getting the clear braces! Alexis ur a genius!

Hey what about my lucky unicorn?
Katie texted back.

U2! Yaaaaay!

My good mood last for almost exactly twenty-four hours. That's because the next day, after school, Mom took me for my eye exam. I won't bore you with the details. I had to read charts and look into machines and answer tons of questions. When it was all over, the eye doctor, Dr. Allen, explained that I was nearsighted, which means I can see close-up but not far away. He said I would have to get glasses to wear in class or at the movies—anywhere I needed to see far.

I saved my meltdown until we were back in Mom's car.

“Glasses and braces!” I moaned. “I'm falling apart!”

“You don't have to wear your glasses all the time,” Mom pointed out. “Besides, eyeglasses are very fashionable. Most of the biggest clothing designers have a line of eyeglass designs.”

“They do?” I asked skeptically.

“Of course. They recognize that glasses are as
much a part of fashion as a dress or a pair of shoes. In fact, some of my clients wear glasses with fake lenses when they want to pull off a certain look.”

“I can't believe that,” I said.

Mom reached into the backseat and picked up the latest issue of
Elegant
magazine. “Here. Take a look at the ads.”

I flipped through the pages, which were mostly filled with ads from the hottest designer lines. In a lot of them, the models were wearing eyeglasses!

“Wow,” I said. “I never realized that before.”

“See?” Mom said. “Buckle up. I know a great store we can go to.”

Mom drove us to Stonebrook, a town that's really close to Maple Grove. The main street of the town has a lot of nice shops there. We found a parking spot in front of a shop called Vision.

Curious, I got out of the car. The shopwindow looked more like an art display than an eyeglasses shop. It featured one female mannequin painted purple and a male mannequin painted turquoise. Each figure was wearing glasses, and nothing else. Orange lights lit up the window with a bright fiery glow.

“Interesting,” I remarked, and I saw Mom smile.

Inside, the shop was filled with multiple neat
rows and racks of eyeglasses—more pairs than I could count. It was kind of overwhelming.

“May I help you?” A tall young woman with slick, black hair and a chic purple dress walked up to us.

“My daughter needs eyeglasses,” Mom explained. “I have her prescription with us.”

The woman smiled. “You came on a great day. We're having a special—buy one pair, get the second half price.”

“That's wonderful,” Mom said. “Mia really loves fashion, and I thought we could get her one pair that's more classic and another that's a little more playful.”

“That's very sensible,” the woman said, nodding. She looked at me. “Do you have an idea of what you might want?”

I honestly had no clue. Just like with the braces, I had thought I wouldn't really need them so I hadn't considered what kind of glasses I'd want.

“I'm not sure,” I admitted.

Mom put her hands on my shoulders. “With your heart-shaped face, rounder frames might be best. Maybe some frames with a little weight on the bottom. And you've got a warm skin tone, so copper frames would look great. Or you could go
with a bold color, like turquoise, maybe.”

The saleswoman looked impressed. “Do you do this professionally?”

“She's a stylist,” I piped up. “She's even had some famous clients.”

“Ah, well, you probably don't need me, then. Feel free to try on whatever you want,” the woman said. “In the meantime, to get started I'll pull out a few I think you might like.”

So I started trying on glasses, and it was fun! Almost as fun as shoe shopping, but not quite. I tried on pair after pair, posing in the mirror and trying out different faces. I smiled. I pouted. I frowned. I looked surprised. In the end, Mom and I picked out two pairs. The first one, the classic, were simple glasses with thin copper half-rim frames, which had no frames at all on the tops of the lenses. For my fun pair, I chose cute plastic fuchsia ones. Now, I don't have a lot of bright pink in my wardrobe, but that's the point. The fuchsia will give a pop of color to an outfit. I could wear them with blue or black or white or gray, or even green, yellow, or purple.

“It'll take about an hour to get your glasses ready,” the woman said. “If you want to wait, you can take them home today.”

“Let's wait!” I said anxiously, and I realized that
I was actually kind of excited about the glasses. So Mom and I went to the coffee shop next door. By dinnertime I was home with my brand-new glasses.

Eddie had ordered pizza for us, and he seemed really excited when we got home. “So let me see your exciting new look!” he said.

“One minute,” I said, and I ran up to my room. I quickly looked through my closet and picked out outfits to go with my glasses. For the classic one, I put on a plaid skirt and a short-sleeved sweater. Then I put on my glasses and did my best runway walk through the living room.

“Fabulous!” Eddie complimented. “I give them a ten out of ten.”

“And now for the funky ones,” I said. I ran upstairs again and changed into this purple-and-pink-color-blocked dress I have. I looked in the mirror and had to admit that the fuchsia glasses made the outfit look even cuter than before.

“Mia, that's adorable!” Mom said as I did my runway walk again. “Now why don't we all eat before the pizza gets cold?”

After dinner, when I knew Dad was home from his job, I Skyped him. We do that a lot. Sometimes it's hard to only see him only every two weeks.

I made sure I had on my classic glasses when he logged in.

“Whoa! Who is this sophisticated young woman Skyping me?” Dad asked.

“Do you like them?” I asked him.

“You look beautiful, Mia,” he said. “You will always be beautiful to me.”

“You have to say that,” I accused. “You're my dad.”

“But it's true,” he said. “Those are very nice glasses.”

Between Mom, Dad, and Eddie, I was feeling pretty good about my glasses. But the big test would be tomorrow, when I wore them to school for the first time.