Love and Family | Port Orthos 4

chapter 11: fern's sensory

chapter 11: fern's sensory

~fern~

       There are some days I wake up and just feel overwhelmed by pretty much anything, but especially sounds. And seeing as high school can be particularly loud with an overlap of teenage voices, I don't really look forward to going to school on these days.

       My dads always tell me it's okay if I stay home if I'm having a sensory overload or if I'm just feeling overwhelmed, but sometimes, I just want to power through it. I do have methods I use to work through it, anyway. My psychiatrist has helped me develop these methods.

       My go-to method is just using noise reduction headphones. It really helps lower how loud everything is for me while still allowing me to hear. The school knows about my autism too and how they should accommodate me, so they always allow me to wear my headphones in class. I'm not using it to listen to music, so my teachers know I'm still listening.

       Sometimes on these days, I don't feel like talking either, but my teachers never call on me if my hand isn't raised, so I don't have to worry about having to speak up in class if I don't want to. And I really don't want to today.

       Kiro is the best at making me feel comfortable whenever I'm having a sensory overload kind of day. He doesn't force me to talk. He doesn't touch me unless I touch him first even though I've never felt uncomfortable from his hugs or hand holding.

       When lunch rolls around, we get some food from the school cafeteria before finding a quiet place to eat. By his locker, there are a bunch of tables that some people sit at for lunch but not enough to be loud like it always is in the cafeteria.

       Kiro and I sit at one of the tables and instead of sitting across from each other, Kiro sits beside me so I can hear him better whenever he talks since I'm wearing my headphones. I can take them off because it's not too loud here, but noises can be sudden. I don't want it to suddenly get load and make my sensory overload worse.

        As we're eating lunch, Harlow walks up to the table and sits down. She bought a sub sandwich from the cafeteria and begins to unwrap it, so I guess she's going to have lunch with us. She doesn't always. Sometimes it's with Kaylee, sometimes she meets up with Emmett if he's also in the city at this time.

       "If I hear one more guy talk about that list and give their shitty opinion on it, I'm going to scream," Harlow says. "And honestly, the school needs to do a better job at handling it. Just sending a letter home to warn parents about it isn't enough."

       "Conversations about it is starting to die down a bit," Kiro says.

       "But not enough," Harlow says. "Kaylee found this freshman girl crying in the bathroom yesterday because she's low on this list. It hit her self-esteem pretty hard when she's already struggling with it. It most likely hit the other girls who are low on the list pretty hard as well. You know what I'm worried about? The list updating in a week or two. That always happens in those shows and movies that the lists are made."

       "Shit, you're right," Kiro says. "And there's no sign that whoever is behind it is going to take it down anytime soon. I tried finding out who is behind it, but nothing."

       "If only there was a way to get into that account to figure out who is behind it," Harlow says. "Or even to delete it."

       "I mean, it's better to find out who is behind it than to delete it," Kiro says. "They can always make a new account."

       "True," Harlow says. She takes a bit off the sub and chews the food. Once she swallows it, she continues. "I wish I was a tech genius. Then I can hack the account and find out who's behind it."

       "Doesn't Marius own a tech company?" Kiro asks. "Can't he do it?"

       "He won't agree to it," Harlow says. "Something about 'it's not ethical to hack accounts' and 'it's illegal' and 'the business can be in trouble if anyone finds out'." Harlow sighs. "And I know those are good points. I don't want to get my poppa in trouble, so that's not an option. Besides, it's not exactly legal so we shouldn't go down that route. Yet."

       "Sorry I can't be more of a help finding out who's behind the list," Kiro says.

       "It's okay," Harlow says. "It's just hard watching a lot of girls have their self-esteem plummet because of the list. I'm fortunate enough that I don't care what other people think about me, but it's not easy for everyone, especially someone in their first year of high school. Anyway, Kaylee and I want to help all these girls out someway, but we're stuck on ideas."

       "You'll think of something," Kiro says.

       When school ends, Kiro comes over to my house so we can do some homework together. Yesterday, we did plan to finish our song today for our music class, but my sensory overload is preventing me from wanting to work with instruments today. It sucks because I love music, but it happens and I know I'm not going to feel overwhelmed forever.

       We're working on our homework in my room when Harlow suddenly bursts into my room. "I have an idea." Before she can say what her idea is, she furrows her eyebrows. "Why are you both on the floor. There's a desk for a reason."

       "I hate desks," Kiro says. "It makes me feel confined. And Fern feels more grounded closer to the floor. What's this idea of yours?"

       "Okay, so what if we scare the person behind the account to either delete the post or to reveal themselves as the person behind it?" Harlow says.

       "How do we do that?" Kiro asks.

       "We start a rumour," Harlow says. "That someone people can be scared of knows who is behind the account and is planning their revenge. Maybe it will scare them enough to talk to their friends about it and someone will overhear them. Or it will scare them enough into deleting the account."

       "I don't know if that will work, but it doesn't hurt to try," Kiro says. "But who exactly is someone that people at school can be afraid of?"

       "I'm glad you asked, Kiro Espinoza, best friend of my twin sister, guy who can subtly threaten people without verbally threatening them."

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people at their school do not want to cross kiro. he seems so nice and kind but you never want to get on his bad side lol.