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I’m going to win.
Miya knew with certainty that Reki was trailing behind him, but he wasn’t concerned. He had enough speed on the older boy due to being smaller and lighter that it wouldn’t matter. He crouched down, gaining speed, and prepared himself for the turn he knew was coming up.
I’m going to win.
He shoved his hand out to stabilize himself, and heard the slime shout something behind him. He rolled his eyes and crouched down further, picking up speed around the cor--oh. Oh no. No no nononononononono---
I’m NOT going to win.
The boy tumbled off his board in a spectacular fashion, head over heels, landing face-first in the dirt. He had missed something, something he didn’t see, something-- someone was talking . The preteen blinked and sat up slowly, brushing the dirt from his cheek. His hand came away wet, and he realized with a start that he was bleeding.
“-iya! Miya, are you alright?! Can you hear me?!” It was Reki, who had skidded to a stop beside him, not even trying to win the beef. He shook his head, trying to stop the ringing in his ears. He blinked at Reki, who was offering a hand out to him. He took it, switching hands so that his bloody fingers wouldn’t touch Reki’s, and trembled as he got to his feet. “Ok Miya, we’re going to stand here for a minute, alright, can you do that?” He felt himself nod, and looked around. His brand new board was lying a few feet away from him, wheels up and still spinning. The grinning Cheshire cat design seemed like it was mocking him, and he felt his stomach turn over. At least it’s not too scratched up...Reki would be pissed if all that work he did was ruined on the first go. Miya turned away from the sight, searching for whatever had caused him to bail. He didn’t see anything obvious--no rocks, cracks, sticks, nothing.
What did I miss?
Miya’s eyes landed on the skid marks his board had made in the dirt. He had taken the corner too fast, that was a given, but he’d done it before just fine, so what was the difference now? He blinked at the ground, frowning. That...that angle is off. He took a few steps forward, ignoring Reki’s protest, leaning over and touching his fingers to the marks. It’s too wide, no wonder I went flying… he looked up at the sound of a car approaching, and blinked at the shape coming closer. Is that Shadow’s? It’s hard to tell--
“Get out of the way, brat!” Ok, definitely Shadow. He stepped out of the way, watching as the car pulled up next to him. Langa was in the passenger seat, and motioned for Miya to get in the car. He looked back over at Reki, who was grabbing both boards and heading over to the car. He shrugged and got in the back. The redhead soon joined them, placing the boards in the trunk first.
“Alright, let’s go.” Shadow grumbled, putting the car back in drive and heading out of S. Miya sighed, glancing over at Reki, but the boy was texting furiously on his phone. From what he could tell, he was just texting Langa, and only doing so to keep quiet in the car. He put his head in his hands, leaning over in the seat, trying not to cry. How in the world did I manage to screw up so bad? His cheek hurt, was he still bleeding?
“Hey, Miya?” he looked up at Reki, who was holding out a band-aid. “You might want to take care of that.” Reki tapped his own cheek, presumably on the same spot where Miya was injured. The preteen nodded and took the band-aid, opening it and pressing it over the cut on his cheek. It didn’t hurt that much, not really. His pride was more wounded than he was.
“Miya,” it was Langa this time, “what happened?” the blue-haired boy asked softly. “It’s unusual for you to bail so hard.” He was half-turned in the passenger seat, to look backwards at him and Reki.
Thanks for reminding me. “Honestly?” he blinked, looking back and forth between the three others in the car. “I’m not too sure. I just misjudged the angle, I guess.”
Reki and Langa exchanged a look, and Miya bit his lip. Ever since they started dating they were like this, speaking silently in some language that Miya didn’t know. It was annoying . “Miya, have you...been to the doctor recently?” Langa asked quietly.
“What?!” he couldn’t help the snappy tone. “What does that have to do with anything, Slime Two?!” Langa huffed and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest.
Reki groaned, slapping a hand to his forehead. “Babe...we gotta work on your tact.” Langa made an offended noise from the front of the car, and Miya smirked a bit. Serves him right.
“I think Langa’s asking if you might need to see the eye doctor,” Shadow cut in, glancing at Miya in the rear-view mirror. “It’s not a bad suggestion, you know. You might need--”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” Miya bristled and turned his head away from the others. He stared out the window, eyes unfocused, as they drove into town. He could hear Shadow talking in a low voice to the two teens, but he didn’t listen to what they were saying. He leaned his forehead against the glass, watching as the neon signs went by. Hesitating a bit, he tried to read them as they went by, even going so far as to sit up and look ahead, but the words were blurry. He blinked, rubbing at his eyes, and the words got clearer as they got closer.
Shit. Maybe the slimes and the old man are onto something.
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He failed. He failed a math test . His best subject.
Miya stared at the grade marking the top of his paper and swallowed uneasily. He had gotten some bad grades here and there of course, he wasn’t the best student, but he had never failed math . The bell rang to dismiss the students, but Miya stayed seated at his desk. His teacher gave him a curious glance, but said nothing, opting to straighten the papers on his desk instead. Miya squinted at the board, trying to work out the solutions the teacher had put there for corrections, but the formulas blurred in his vision.
The boy stood, walking closer to the board, forcing himself to take a deep breath. The formulas were clearer now, and Miya could see where he had gotten them wrong in the first place. It must have happened during notes… He crumpled the test in his fist and left the classroom, holding back the tears. Belatedly he realized his teacher was calling for him, but he ignored it and continued walking.
What am I going to tell Mom? She hated it when his grades slipped--threatened to take away skating practice until they rose again. Would she do that this time? He couldn’t let that happen--he still owed Reki a proper beef, after all. He made it downstairs and found his mom’s car without too much trouble. She was always one of the first ones here, waiting for him. She gave him a look as he got into the car and slipped his seatbelt on. “Miya? What’s wrong?”
Miya sighed, and opened his fist, smoothing out the crumpled test. “I failed a test in math.” No use hiding it from her--she would find out, eventually. He looked at her, embarrassment written all over his face.
She frowned a little, but reached a hand out to brush the hair away from his face, tenderly. “Honey, that’s okay, you can make it up. Why don’t you tell me what’s really wrong?” She started the car and pulled away from the school, headed for their apartment.
He tensed. “It’s nothing. I just missed some important things in the formula when the teacher was explaining.” I don’t want to say it. I’m...I’m not old, I don't need them already… “It’s my fault, I just need to pay closer attention.” His mom hummed, skeptical, but didn’t push.
They didn’t say anything else about it for the rest of the drive home, just chatted about other things. When they got to the apartment, Miya went to his room, put away his things and started his homework. If he was lucky, he would be able to finish before it got dark, and then he could go practice for a bit. He was in the middle of his Japanese homework when his mom called him down.
Dinner was eaten in comfortable silence. He was setting his dish in the sink when his mom stopped him. “Miya, you’re not going to school tomorrow, so if you don’t finish all your homework tonight don’t stress too much, ok?”
That was unexpected. “What? Why?” He didn’t have a competition tomorrow, they hadn’t gotten any calls about sick family members, there couldn’t be anything else, could there?
“We’re going to the eye doctor tomorrow.”
Oh. There was that .
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Every minute was torture. Miya didn’t think he’d ever been to the eye doctor before, there was no reason for him to go, and so he was not expecting any of this .
They tracked his eyes following a stupid little sticker thing, they blew air on his eyes to check for the right reaction or something, and then the worst part. They put some kind of drops in his left eye--and they burned . He struggled not to move as the woman moved to his right eye, doing the same. He blinked the drops in, and tears spilled from the corners of his eyes. It hurt. It was embarrassing . The lady handed him a tissue and he practically snatched it from her, dabbing at the tears that streaked down his cheeks. He hadn’t actually cried since... the bathroom incident . They weren’t real tears, he knew that, but it still poked at that old wound he tried so hard to hide.
Before he knew it the actual doctor was in the room--he had turned off the light and turned on a projector, showing a row of letters and numbers in front of him. Now this , he recognized from TV. The doctor asked him to close his right eye and read outloud the smallest line he could. He prepared to recite the bottom line and... huh . This isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. He went up a line, but it wasn’t much better. One more up. The letters looked a little clearer, and he took a deep breath in. He got through it without too many mistakes, apparently, but then the doctor was moving on to his right eye, testing it the same way. He knew that he couldn’t see the letters very clearly, but his right eye was actually a little better than the left. He went down a row, and read them off perfectly. The doctor nodded, and confirmed Miya’s worst fears.
“Looks like you need some glasses, young man. Let’s test what kind of lenses will work best for you.”
It was mortifying. The doctor slid a machine around his head, putting lenses in front of his eyes and asking one or two, over and over again until he was satisfied that Miya could read even the smallest line without difficulty in both eyes.
A written prescription was handed to his mother, and then they were off. Off to buy glasses . Like an old person .
He thought he might actually die of embarrassment.
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Scratch that, he was definitely going to die of embarrassment.
They had been to two stores already, and trying on frames was the worst . None of them looked quite right on his face, they were too big or too small or too thick or too thin. Round ones made him look like some Harry Potter cosplayer, while the rectangular ones made him look like an absolute dork.
And now they were at store number three, a fancy high-end designer place. His mom wasn’t thrilled with the idea of designer frames, he knew, but at this point they didn’t really have a choice. They were out of options.
They walked into the store, and started browsing. His mom handed him three of the cheaper pairs, and was handing him a fourth when her phone started ringing. “Hold on, Miya,” she said, pulling her phone from her purse. She looked at the screen and sighed. “It’s work, I need to take this. You keep trying on frames, ok?”
Miya stared at her back as she headed out of the store, and sat on a bench right outside. He sighed, clutching the four frames in his hands. These looked more grown-up than any he had tried on so far. They weren’t all that bad, he supposed. He tried on a navy blue pair, the rounded rectangle shape of the lenses looking a little better than regular rectangles. He didn’t like how the bottom of the frame was within his vision though, it was annoying.
He heard the door bell jingle, and he turned, opening his mouth to say he kind of liked these, and immediately froze.
“Miya? What are you doing here? Are you skipping school?” Joe’s voice cut through the store rather loudly, drawing attention from the employees. Next to him, Cherry sighed, adjusting his own glasses, and waved off the employee who had come over to them.
“I’m not skipping,” Miya hissed, whipping the frames off his face. The boy’s face was bright red. He hated that Cherry and Joe had found him here. The last thing he wanted was for his S friends to see him in glasses. He had hoped he could get contacts for S, like Cherry did, so that no one would notice. But the doctor had recommended that he not try contacts until he was a little older, and his mom was following his recommendation to the letter. But, he supposed, unless he wanted to stop skating at S altogether, he would have to show up in glasses sometime.
“I assume that was your mother outside, then?” Cherry asked, voice low. “And that you’re here because of the other night?”
His cheeks burned and he stared at the floor. Of course they would bring that up now. “Yeah.” he muttered, twiddling the frames in his hands. “I need glasses. So what?” Miya looked back up at them, daring them to say anything about it.
“So nothing, kid.” Joe spoke, giving him an odd look. “Lots of people wear glasses. And they even look good on some people, like Kaoru here.” He flung an arm around Cherry’s shoulder and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “They make him look all handsome and smart.”
Cherry blushed, and shoved the taller man off. “Stupid Gorilla, you can’t go around saying things like that.” The pink haired man crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Miya, eyes softening. He looked like he was about to say more, when his Carla watch beeped. He checked his watch and his eyes widened. “Kojiro, you have to leave. It’s almost opening time.”
“Huh?” Joe leaned over Cherry’s shoulder, glancing at the watch, and cursed. “Fine. You sure you’ll be able to pick something out without me here?” He tossed a look at Miya, who blinked in confusion.
“Yes, yes, I’ll be fine.” Cherry muttered, shoving his husband toward the door. He turned back to Miya once Joe was gone, and gave him a tired smile. “Sorry about that. He’s….you know.” Miya nodded, confused, and set the frames he was holding back onto a shelf. “Wait, weren’t you trying those on?” Cherry asked, taking a step up behind him.
“Yeah,” Miya mumbled, “but my mom’s still outside and I wanted her opinion on them. I’m tired of just holding them and looking stupid.”
Cherry paused, before taking a pair of frames, the same ones Miya had had on when they got there, Miya realized, and handed them to the boy. “Well, I can offer my opinion, if you want.”
He took the frames and bit his lip. Cherry wouldn’t be saying that just to mess with me...right? “Fine. But you can’t laugh.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Cherry watched as Miya set the frames back on his face, brushing his hair away from his ears. The older man tilted his head at Miya when he turned back, the boy’s cheeks flushed, but at least he wasn’t hiding like before.
“Well? What do you think? They’re the best ones I’ve found so far…” Miya trailed off at Cherry’s slight frown, and hastily took the frames off his face.
“They’re not bad, but they seem a little out-of-place on you. I take it you don’t like seeing the frame, either, right?” Miya nodded and huffed out a sigh. “So we’ll just find some without the rim on the bottom.” Cherry stepped away, searching through the shelves while Miya put the four frames his mom had picked out back on the shelf.
Cherry returned with a few pairs in his hands, varying from simple lens-and-wire frames like his own to ones that had a more visible frame on the top of the lens but disappeared about midway down the eye. He handed them to Miya, and the preteen tried them on, one-by-one. Some of them looked awful, and he took them off as soon as he had set them on. The ones that Cherry seemed to favor went in that pile, much to the older’s chagrin. Others looked like he wasn’t wearing glasses at all, which would be fine until someone got close enough to notice and then made a comment about it. Throughout the whole thing Cherry offered his opinion, and Miya was glad to have it. The older man was kind, and it helped that someone else was helping him to decide what looked good or not. He glanced outside, his mom was still sitting on the bench, chatting away.
“Hmmm…” Miya turned back to Cherry, who was turning a pair over in his hands. “I think this might be it. Try them on?” He handed them over, and Miya blinked. These had a thicker silver frame that ran across the top of the lenses and down the inside of the nose piece, but the bottom and sides of the lenses were rimless. They actually look kinda sleek and modern, for glasses. The lenses themselves were large, big enough to cover his whole eye, and were that same rounded rectangle shape from the ones he had almost liked earlier.
Miya turned to the mirror and closed his eyes as he slid the glasses on. Over his shoulder, he heard Cherry gasp. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes slowly, staring at his reflection. His eyes widened, and he leaned closer to the mirror. They...actually don’t look that bad? “Oh.” He turned his head from side to side, and then met Cherry’s eyes behind him.
“They look great.” The pink-haired man was smiling, a genuine smile. “How do you like them, Miya?”
He swallowed and turned back to his reflection. The silver stood out from his hair, but it wasn’t too distracting. He liked the sleek metal better than any plastic frames he had tried on, and they didn’t feel too heavy on his nose, either. “I...like them,” he said, surprising himself. He actually meant it. He turned around to face Cherry, and smiled. “Thanks for your help, uh…” he trailed off, not wanting to bring up Cherry’s S name.
“You can call me Kaoru, Miya. It’s fine.” They both turned at the door’s bell ringing--it was Miya’s mom. She walked back into the store, glanced around for a minute until she saw Miya, and headed their way. “See you around,” Cherry spoke, stepping away from the boy to browse the shelves for himself. Miya felt bad, he had wanted to help Cherry the same way that he had helped him, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen. It’ll be fine, Cherry knows what he’s doing.
“Oh, Miya!” his mom said happily. He turned to her, tilting his head. “Those look great!”
The boy smiled at her, nodding. “I think these are the ones.”
“Sounds great! Let’s give them your prescription and pay, then we can go out for ice-cream, okay?”
As they left the store, he noticed Cherry giving him a small wave and a thumbs up. He grinned back.
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The waiting was agony. It would be a few weeks until his new glasses were ready, and Miya could hardly wait. He hadn’t been skating as much while he waited for them to arrive, not wanting to bail like he had when he had raced Reki. He hadn’t neglected practice totally, but he could tell that his coach was not impressed with him at the moment.
School was not much better. He had to ask his teachers to clarify a lot more, because of the whole not-seeing-the-board-clearly thing. He didn’t want to move seats, because he would be able to see it soon, and so he just suffered the annoyed sounds his classmates kept making when he asked his questions. Fortunately his teachers didn’t seem to mind, they actually seemed more than happy to answer his questions.
As for his friends...He had avoided talking about his glasses with Reki, Langa, or Shadow, and Cherry and Joe hadn’t mentioned it either. He was going to let it be a surprise.
And then they were finally here. A box was sitting outside of the apartment, and Miya couldn’t help the excited giggle that sprung from his throat. The boy slipped inside the apartment, throwing his backpack down and eagerly opening the box. He pulled out a glasses case first; it was sleek, all black, and smooth. He opened it and took out his glasses gently, unfolding them. He closed his eyes, preparing himself for the moment. He slid them onto his face, and laughed out loud. They felt right. His eyes snapped open, and he sucked in a sharp breath. The world was so much clearer . “Woah,” he gasped, blinking. Everything looked sharper, like it was in high-definition.
Miya grinned.
I need to challenge that slime to another beef.
This time, I’m going to win.
Edited screenshot of Miya with glasses: 
Link to the virtual glasses try-on site: https://bit.ly/3kvCUBT