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the day it was bought and Mrs Patton had cleaned all the mould that was growing inside it. She ruffled my hair and cleaned the fingerprints from my new glasses as the bell rang. She told me to go back to the classroom before I made myself late.
    As she walked back into the kitchen, I overheard her talking to the others, she said something about reporting it to the head-teacher and it scared me. I wondered if my parents would get the bill for the meal. I imagined how they’d rant at me for not appreciating what I’d been given.
    I heard nothing from the head-teacher that afternoon but it loomed over my head like a black cloud. I was in a permanent state of heightened anxiety, and each time somebody walked through the classroom door; I’d feel that familiar wave of nausea that made me uncomfortable in my own skin.
     
         I walked home dragging my feet as my sister Beryl teased me about my glasses, she called me ‘four eyes’, ‘Biggles’, and anything else her tiny mind could muster up.
    The tarmac glistened as it warmed in the heat, and I ran up the driveway noting my father’s friend Derrick had parked his car on the drive. I was relieved, as my dad rarely shouted at me if people were there. I never did like Derrick though; there was something about him that made my skin crawl.
     
         I played in the back room with my sisters little mermaid, she never appreciated her toys and the broken ones often got passed on to me when they were worn and no longer loved. I’d built up quite a good collection of things unwanted.
    I could hear my dad and Derrick giggling in the living room, there was a hatch-way where a door once used to be. Every time his friends came over, they’d chain smoke underneath the yellow nicotine stained ceiling.
    Then I heard him call my name and my heart almost dropped though the floor. My sister Beth looked smugly at me, and that familiar dizziness and cold sweat returned as I shuffled past the hatch -way clutching the mermaid doll.
         “Moll’s going to get in trouble,” she sang.
    I walked through the hallway and stopped for a moment outside the living room door. A hundred thoughts charged through my mind at that point, and I tried to recall anything I might have done. The only incident I could think of was the one with the cold pizza, and it occurred to me that the head-teacher may have called home. As I slowly opened the door, I mentally scrambled about, trying to come up with an excuse. I decided to say my frozen pizza had fallen onto the floor which was why I couldn’t eat it.
         “Don’t look so worried, you’re not in trouble” he said, “we just wanted to see what your new glasses look like.”
    I think I may have smiled a little at that point; it wasn’t often that the focus of attention was entirely on me.
         “Oh they look very special don’t they Jim?” said Derrick in his slimy, greasy voice. He wore glasses himself but they were bifocals which made his wandering eyes appear much bigger than they were. I’d never been one to accept compliments; somehow they always seemed fake and insincere.
         “Are you going to say thank you to Derrick or just stand there?” he asked me.
         “Thank you Derrick,” I said, knowing I’d have to before it escalated. Now wasn’t the time to let the awkward silence devour me.
         “Go and give him a hug then,” he said with a smile.
    I stood frozen to the spot, hugging Derrick was absolutely the last thing I wanted to do. I didn’t feel comfortable embracing my own parents in such a manner; I didn’t want to be anywhere near this slimy stranger.
         “But I don’t want to,” I said as tears began to glaze my eyes, I hoped my eyes didn’t look bigger in my new glasses because they’d see the tears.
         “Don’t be such a silly little cow and give Derrick a hug before he gets offended, because if he does; you’ll be in trouble.”
    I walked over to Derrick slowly,