Through the Eye's of a Spectrum Living With Autism

Chapter 9: The High School Experience Begins

So the biggest problem I had was figuring out which high school to go to. I could go to Americas and stick by my old friends in middle school, or I could go to Eastlake and start a new and possible make some new friends. Truth was, I did not want to go to Eastlake at first because Gianfranco was a close buddy of mine and the only person I could trust to have my back, so me and my dad planned on heading to the school and transferring me to Americas.

It was about 2 months or so before school would start again, so me and my dad went to Eastlake and asked if the could possibly transfer me. My dad explained pretty much what I said, my friends were going to Americas and of course, I already had my eyes set out for that place.

The principle, who sadly I forgot her name said she could transfer, but she asked if I really wanted to move, telling that Eastlake had a lot to offer me. Of course, I was intrigued by this, and she offered to give me a short tour of the school.

To give a small information about the school at the school, at the time the school had barely started up, so by the time I got in the eighth grade the first group of freshmen's had already arrived, which meant if attended this school, not only would it only be me with freshmen and sophomores, but the school would be fairly small and not as packed.

The school was separated in a way, I guess to simply put it, the main building, gymnasium and theatre/orchestra/choir building were not connected yet. See, Eastlake was still in the process of being built so anyone who had classes in any these buildings had to walk outside to get to them.

What really got me was the special needs services that they could provide for me, which they said could help me also meet some people who had what I had, and I was really impressed with the black box theatre room as well, seeing as how I began to develop a love for acting. So I finally came to the decision of staying in Eastlake rather than go to Americas.

I didn't enjoy the situation at first because of course I left my friends behind to be in a brand new school. Not to mention I'd be walking in with a lot of unknowns in that school, but I kept trying to convince myself I would have fun.

Then I did the dumbest thing that no kid should do before high school especially if your just about to start. I began to think of ways to get kids to hang out with me. I know what your probably thinking "Why the heck would you do something like that?" well, hear me out, alright? The way my sister talked about high school, she made it sound like a big place where people hung out outside of school everyday and I thought this would be my opportunity to make friends.

One of the plans was not even mentioning and possibly hiding the fact I was autistic fearing of others judging me. I mean what would think of me being autistic, meaning I couldn't communicate or interact with others my own age? I'd be shooed away faster than a fly in a house.

And of course I started to get anxiety a week before high school, I didn't know how I would do in that school, or how the kids were gonna be like. There were to may unknowns for me and I didn't know how to handle it.

So of course the first day of school comes, and take a big guess what happened that morning. Go ahead, guess. I was about to run late for school, my very first day of school, and in high school none the less. I had to walk as fast as I could before I was late, which wasn't that far from my house, which I estimated to be about two hundred to two hundred fifty yards far.

My classes were pretty much what you would expect in the average high school, just new kids trying to make some friends, or people trying to reconnect with their old friends. And meanwhile, I kept to myself as best as I could for most of my classes. Boy, I may not have shown it but I was definitely a nervous with a bunch of new people who I have never before.

The only class I was really excited for was my theatre, I probably should've explained earlier but I really loved to act at a young age which I say was about when I was seven years old. I would watch cartoons and literally act out everything that was happening that was happening on screen. And, to which my family found impressive, I could easily memorize anything after reading, watching, or listen to it a couple of times.

Acting even helped with my autism a little bit, I taught how to talk without stopping suddenly and even helped me with my "keeping eye contact on people" problem. I would even make my own scripts and play as all the characters giving them wacky voices and personalities.

But I'm getting sidetracked, I'll discuss theatre in my freshmen year another time.

Because of the walk I had to take to school, Jenny and my dad decided to see if any busses stopped at or near my block, to which there was one. thankfully, there was, so now I had a way to get to school and home.

I was a little nervous taking the bus, because if you now understand by now, autistic don't like being surrounded by a bunch people. Surprisingly, I learned to adapt to taking the bus and started to enjoy it.

What stunk about my bus was that after school we had to wait an extra thirty minuets or so for our bus just to show up. Of course, I did what my idiotic brain told me to do, and that was to interact and mess around with other people, so I could meet new people, which of course in my mind is extremely impossible for me to do. Little did I know that by doing this, I would meet the best person I ever met before.

Her name was Brittany, she was pretty, smart, headstrong, and more importantly, a great friend in my eyes. I would constantly do stupid boy stuff to her like scare her from behind or tapping her shoulder and walking away as fast as I could. I'm not gonna lie, I probably looked like a huge dingus in her eyes.

I started talking to her after she did what not many people have done for me in school. There was this one kid on the bus who kept on giving me problems and one day she decided to stand up for me. She basically made it clear to leave me alone and stop teasing me. No one except for Gianfranco stood up for me like that.

I started talking and hanging out before and after school, and she was nice and a very fun person to hang out with. She introduced me to some of her friends, one of them being David. He was a pretty cool dude, and funny as well.

Me, him and Brittany would talk trash about our football teams, I was Cowboys fan, she liked the Giants, and David liked the Patriots. Well, to be honest, I did talk a lot of trash, but just for fun. David was a good guy to talk about problems with, him and Brittany really helped me out throughout all of high school.

I then thought to myself, I might actually have fun this time in school.