Wilbur soot angst- The invisible kid who stood out

The weird kid

Wilbur Soot is the weird kid. Ahem, correction, was the weird kid. He was that one kid at school who tried to be social and somehow just failed every time. He was that one kid at school who the teacher had to put into a group, otherwise he would be entirely left out. And he was that one kid at school who always seemed to be in his own world.

For Wilbur, he quite often escaped from the world where he was the weird kid. He'd spend hours in minecraft worlds, building stories and planning every single character's actions in his head. There had been countless worlds by the time he turned 14, but he decided it was time for a new one. A completely different world. More complex this time. More characters, and a beginning where his character -which was somehow always intertwined into the most complex part of each world- did not take centre stage. In fact, he could read several hours of that story to you before his character even makes its first appearance. And so everyday he would be the weird kid at school, who sat at the tops of staircases and worked out storylines in his head. But at least he had a way to escape it all.

His parents were worried, like any good parents would be. But his mum was constantly busy with work and on the weeks where he stayed at his dad's, things weren't much better. His dad had pushed for Wilbur to be on the waiting list for CAMHS, and he was on that waiting list. The same way he had been in that waiting list since he was 7. Since his Dad realised that things with his son weren't all okay. That maybe passing a football back and forth in the local park, and trying to start a conversation was not the kind of help his son needed. But that's where good grades gets you: the bottom of a waiting list for mental health services.

Because while Wilbur was the weird kid at school, he was also the intelligent one. And he didn't go around brandishing that like some kind of sword, but everyone knew he knew everything they were being taught. Including the teachers. But he was just so quiet and away with the fairies, so they left him be. His head of year wanted him to do a gcse a year early (specifically his geography or history one), but he had politely declined. He claimed, "it will make me stand out." As if he wasn't already the weird kid. And to Wilbur that was funny. Irony like that was funny, even when it was him saying it.

To him being the weird kid didn't matter. So standing out was the least of his actual worries. Wilbur also felt invisible, it was all jumbled in his head. But in Wilbur's mind, the real reason he didn't want to do a gcse, was because he couldn't be bothered. And not even me as the author could blame him for that.