Mcyt -autistic- oneshots

Cross country in the rain pt.3 (Tommy and Mr Roster)

T/w- teasing from classmates over autistic traits

Tommy's POV:

I'm in year 8 now, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Today was my first day back at school and I didn't really enjoy it. It's weird without Will. He wasn't there in the morning or at break or at lunch. He had given me his email at the end of last year, and he sent me a good luck email before I went to school. But a good luck email isn't the same as him being there. And that made me sad. It made me feel scared too. I mean I know I can go to Mr Roster if I need someone, but I sit by myself at lunch now. Will tried to help me make friends but they found me too difficult. They weren't mean, they just didn't understand me well enough. So now I go to the library and go on the computers or if I'm having a meltdown, I go and find Mr Roster. That's what happened on my first day at school.

I got given my timetable when I went to form at the start of the day and I didn't know any of my teachers on it. All of them had changed, even Mr Roster. He had said that at break time or lunch time, I could go and find him if I needed to talk. But I didn't have him for science. I had some lady for science, but I didn't want a lady to teach me science. I wanted Mr Roster to teach me science. We went to our first lesson which was maths. It was alright. The new teacher introduced himself and we got on with the lesson. I'm not great at maths, but I pass pretty easily. I had a fidget toy in my hands the entire time and whilst he gave me some funny looks, he didn't actually say anything. The teachers were all supposed to know I was autistic anyway, I didn't see how he could have a problem with it.

The next lesson was unfortunately science. The new teacher was strict. She had a seating plan for us already, so unlike maths I was forced to sit next to a classmate. It was a girl I never truly learnt the name of and she wore a very strong perfume that made my head hurt. All I wanted was to be sat at the back of Mr Roster's classroom, by myself. Not with the stupid bright lights on. The teacher shouted at me when I didn't answer my name in the register, but I was too anxious to talk. Then she shouted at me more because I 'ignored' her. I didn't mean to, but I couldn't exactly talk at that point. Eventually she moved on and we started working out a textbook. I was fine when we worked out of the text book until the girl next to me started being funny.

During the register I had realised her name was Amber. "Why didn't you talk to Miss?" I just shrugged. "Why did you keep fidgeting with that thing Tom?" I shrugged again. "Do you even talk?" I shrugged yet again, you'd think she'd get the point. "Why do you keep screwing up your face?" Shrug. "Do you have any friends only I never see you talk to any of us?" Another shrug. "Whatever, you're weird man. Something wrong in your head or something." And at that point, I just wanted to cry. Which is exactly what I did.

"Miss, Tom is crying."

"Right, well I don't know why he is crying, but he'd best step outside the classroom shouldn't he?" I took that as my cue to leave and ran out the door. Pacing up and down in the corridor, fidgeting with my sensory toy, stimming and getting weird looks from people who walked past. But then I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey Tommy?" I just started crying harder. "It's alright mate. You want to come and sit with me? I've got a free period." I nodded. "Come on then. You remember where my classroom was last year, well, I'm really sorry mate, but they've changed it. Is that alright?" Instead of calming down I just lost complete control. They couldn't have changed the classroom, no one told me they had. I just wanted to go home. Actually I didn't even want to go home, I just wanted Wilbur to help.

Nonetheless, I followed Mr Roster to his new classroom. He pulled out a chair near the front and sat at his desk. I took off my blazer and tie, untucking my shirt too. Mr Roster put a mini whiteboard and a pen in front of me. "We are both going to take some nice deep breaths okay Tommy?" I did my best and slowly it helped. "I want you to write everything that has made you sad, or anxious or any bad feeling, in the whiteboard when you're ready."