Congenital nystagmus. These words mark me as different. Ever since I was born on Aug.3.1945, I’ve had this condition, and it looms over my life like a giant rain cloud that won’t stop raining on my parade. My family says that my bright green eyes are beautiful and luminous, yet my classmates think differently. Although it is not my fault, they laugh, jeer, and taunt me about how my eyes are constantly and uncontrollably shifting from side to side. I have been to the doctor about this, yet he says that it won’t affect my eyesight and that I could just leave it be. So far, the doctor’s words have rung true, as my vision is as dandy as any other sixteen year old girl I know.

I look outside my bedroom window and see the sidewalk lit by the lampposts, placed evenly at intervals close to the road. Suddenly it dawns on me that today is labor day, and that tomorrow, I am finally entering the eleventh grade. I then take the time to ponder upon school. In a way, I have a love and hate relationship with the place. I enjoy learning immensely and have a passion for writing, yet I horribly dislike my peers (although I imagine that anyone in my situation would feel the same way). My whole life has been a living hell because of my classmates. Juliet Kingsley in particular is the cause of my distress. Even thinking of her name makes my face feel hot with anger. Juliet is a popular long legged, brunette with the biggest hazel eyes I have ever seen. She lives just down the street from me and we’ve gone to school together ever since kindergarten. I remember that there were at least two classes of each grade in our school, and that I was lucky enough not to be in the same class with her until grade four. If I can recall, the first things she ever said to me were “Hey, aren’t you Evita? What’s wrong with your eyes? Actually, never mind. I’ve heard about you before from my mama. She says that you’re a devil child and that I’m not suppose to talk to you. Oops! I’m already talking to you. Oh well. Guess I should stop.” And with that she turned her back to me and pranced back to where her friends were all sitting. As I slunk into a desk near the back of the class, I saw Juliet and her friends glancing back at me and quietly whispering to each other, no doubt gossiping about me. For the rest of the year, I swear she made it her mission to make my life miserable. She and her friends would always bump into me on their way outside. Or they would pull my hair with the excuse that there was something stuck in it. Of course, these incidents were all “accidents” and “meant no harm”, but every year since then she’s gotten meaner and meaner with her acts. I am definitely not looking forward to seeing her at school tomorrow, but as I do every year, I prayed that we wouldn’t get any classes together.
The next morning I woke to a bright sunny day and got ready for school. At 8:10am I started to walk to school, as it’s only a few blocks away from my house. My blond hair was down around my shoulders and was slightly wavy from sleeping on it the night before. I hoped not to see Juliet and her friends walking to school, but soon heard the ringing call of her voice as she shouted after me.
“Evita! Wait up darling!” She called out as she and two of her friends Helena and Natalie hurried over to walk beside me.
“Good morning Evita. Are you excited for school? I really hope we have classes together this year. Oh! Your hair looks so pretty today. It almost makes up for your weird eye shifting problem!” she exclaimed giggling, while she tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“Oh…well…thank you.” I said slowly, unsure whether what she had said was sarcasm or an oddly genuine compliment.
For the next block we walked in silence, as Juliet seemed to be debating something in her head. Finally she broke the silence said “Evita, darling, I have thought long and hard about what I’m about to say next. This is difficult for me, but I would like to apologize for all the horrible things I had said and done to you for the past eight years or so. To make it up, I would like to become friends and invite you to my sixteenth birthday party a month from now.”
For a moment, my brain stopped working as I took a moment to process what she had just said. Me, Evita Price had just been asked to become Juliet’s friend. In my mind this made absolutely no sense, as we had been nothing but enemies to each other since the fourth grade, although it confused me since she had actually sounded sincere in her apology. Luckily I was spared from answering as we had arrived at the front doors of school.
“Umm, thanks Juliet,” I said, “I’ll see you in homeroom. I’m going to head to my locker first.”
Blowing me a kiss accompanied by a little wave, she and her posse of friends sauntered off into the crowd of students loitering in the hallway. At exactly 8:30am, the bell rang and students rushed to get to their homerooms. As I entered class, Juliet waved me over to an empty desk across the isle from hers. Nodding, I grabbed my timetable from the teacher and sat down in the desk she had pointed to.
“Here darling, lemme see your timetable” she drawled and snatched it from my hands. After giving it a quick glance she exclaimed, “Wow! Would you look at that. We have six out of eight classes together this year! This is going to be sooo much fun!”
Just then, a tall boy with deep black hair walked into class. He stopped by the teacher and handed him a yellow slip of paper. After a few seconds he nodded, and the boy sat down in a desk across the room. I turned around, as I heard Juliet announce to her friends, “Oh my god. That boy is so cute. I am totally inviting him to my birthday party!”
Mr.Miller, our homeroom teacher, then clapped his hands together twice to get our attention, and we spent the next hour going over timetables, attendance and such things. After the hour was up, we were allowed to leave class and head home. Immediately Juliet leaped up and headed over to where the new boy was sitting. She gestured for us to follow her, and she quickly introduced herself, Helena, Natalie and finally me. I instantly saw his shocked expression as he noticed my eyes. I looked away, my cheeks turning pink. I had always hated meeting new people because I disliked being looked at as if I was different, weird, or strange. I was so embarrassed that I ended up tuning out to most of Juliet’s conversation, and only hearing that his name was Tyler Windsor. To Juliet’s dismay, she had no classes with Tyler, although I ended up having four with him.
The next month passed by pretty quickly, and before I knew it I had become great friends with Tyler, and surprisingly Juliet too. Then came the evening of Juliet’s party. I dressed in a pretty silver dress that flared out at the waist, and headed over early to help her get ready. As she invited me inside, I noticed that something seemed odd about her.
“Juliet,” I asked, “Are you feeling alright? You just seem…different tonight”
She sighed and replied, “I’m worried about you. Ever since we became friend’s people…well…I don’t know. They just seem unhappy that I’m friend’s with you. Since you have that eye thing, they all think you’re a ‘devil child’.”
“Oh.” I said softly, “I hadn’t realized people felt that way about me.”
“I’m sorry Evita.” Juliet said and stood up to hug me. After a few moments there was the clear sound of the doorbell ringing.
Glancing at the clock she exclaimed, “The guests must be here!” and rushed to open the door. An hour later, the party was in full swing with about 70-85 guests filling up the main floor of her huge house. Suddenly, there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw that it was Helena and Natalie. They smiled and gestured for me to follow them outside to the garden.
When we got outside, I was about to ask them why they had brought me there when I felt someone savagely pull my hair and yank me backwards. Before I knew what was happening, they had pushed me roughly against the wall of the house. I doubled over in pain and grabbed my throbbing head. When I looked up. I saw Helena, Natalie, and three more of Juliet’s friends. Then Natalie strode over to me and slapped me hard across the face.
She then hissed while holding me up by my hair, “Stay away from Juliet. It’s not right that she’s becoming friend’s with a devil child like you. You’re a bad influence on us all, so stay away you freak!”
Natalie then pushed me onto the cold cement ground and all five of the girls began to kick me in the torso, head, back and wherever they could connect a blow to my body. The pain was agonizing and I felt as if I was going to die right there on the ground. Then I heard the shouting of Tyler and Juliet. They screamed at the girls to back off, and the kicking quickly ceased. Relief swept through my body, and then the world went dark.
When I awoke it was day, and I was in the hospital. My whole body was in pain and I could see several bruises and patches of scraped skin on my limbs. I reached up to touch my head and felt a bandage wrapped around it. Then, I saw Juliet and Tyler in the corner of the room. I smiled weakly at them as they came toward the bed.
“Hi.” I whispered hoarsely, my eyes filling with tears. They smiled back and we talked a bit about what had happened to me the previous night. The pair then left promising to visit soon, and I was alone with my thoughts.
Previously, I had always thought that life was unfair, and that I was just dealt a bad card to end up this way. But, these events have given me they life I have today, and for that I am glad. There is a quote that describes my thoughts so I shall end off with it.
“Everyone wants happiness, no one wants pain. But you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain”.