Toms Struggle

He woke up. As he woke up he looked around his room. It was small and cramped with room for only a bed and a small television. Immediately his mind flashed with thoughts of what was happening today. He jumped out of bed and looked in the mirror. A white, young 14 year old male with curly brown hair, a tall bulky figure and black eyes stared back. It was Monday. The first day of term, he was anxious about this. “The first day of term is always the hardest” he sighed. He had to get back into routine. Catching up on your work, trying to fit in and trying to socialise isn’t exactly easy for a young Autistic boy. Especially if he doesn’t know he’s autistic. As he got ready he thought about what today will probably be like, uneventful he thought as he brushed his hair, maybe it’ll be hard to act normal but apart from that nothing else should go wrong. As he walked into school he put his hood up having his hood up made him feel unnoticed and anonymous so he always had it up. You see he wasn’t exactly the most well liked person. It was known that there was something wrong with him but no one could put there finger on it. Not even the boy himself. As he walked toward his class he heard a voice, “Ew it’s Tom!” It was the same mocking voice of his long time bully, Josh, Josh was slightly smaller then Tom but he made up for it in size. He had straight ginger hair and blue eyes. He was wearing blue jeans with a black shirt and red jacket. Tom turned around to face josh. “Why do you have to be like this?” He asked “How does It benefit you when you bu-“ “Shuuuuuuushhhhhh” His bully snapped “stop waffling.” After years of constant bullying Tom was outraged by this seemingly little thing and as he walked away he stuck his middle finger up at him. Then he looked behind him only to see a security camera almost mocking him for not noticing it’s presence. As he watched his bully run off he felt sweat begin to pour from his body. He walked into class and tried to put a mask on, like he normally did. As you probably know masking your Autistic traits would take a lot of energy. Not to mention he was already anxious about being put in re-integration, again. Normally Tom would start chewing something. For a reason unbeknownst to him chewing something made him feel quite calm and happy, but this was geography and in this lesson when he started chewing the teacher Would give him a 90 minute detention. His face turned red as his anxieties got worse and worse. His thoughts came racing. “What will when josh tells them?” “How am I going to cope for an hour like this?” “Why am I such a f*****g freak!?” This thought broke him. As tears started streaming down his face he screamed a scream of pure anguish. As he ran out of the classroom his classmates laughed. As josh sprinted through the corridors his brain was whirring “where should I go?” He thought intensely. He didn’t want to run into anyone. Students and teachers alike. He realised that any place he could think of had some teacher or student around. A lump appeared in his throat as he realised he had to go to his head of years office He hoped she was alone but he then remembered how not long ago Josh ran there to tell his HoY about Tom. But he didn’t realise there was a security camera there so Tom might just get away with it. He opened the door to his HoYs office and saw his bully talking with Ms Richards. “Isn’t stuff like that 2 days in the re-integration room?” Josh smugly stated “Yes it is but I’d like to hear Toms side of the story.” It was then that the pair noticed Tom, He then said “Miss can you tell josh to leave because I have something quite important I need to tell you. So miss Richards made Josh leave with some brief protest from Him. Tom told her everything that had happened today. How in such a short time span had he broken so easily. Ms Richards suggested it was a combination of the fact that not only was it the first day of term but he wasn’t able to chew anything and so many things had happened in such rapid succession. Of course it would be overwhelming On the first day, Ms Richards send Tom back to class when geography ended but there was something off. Something had snapped inside of him today and now he didn’t seem to care about anything really. This was probably a reaction to his burst of emotions earlier on. His mind was trying to recover For lunch he ate pizza and chips. He always sat alone on the same table, it was his choice as he really didn’t like the children his age. He saw them as immature and mindless sheep constantly following the most popular person until someone more popular came along so he sad alone. He heard someone shout his name. “Oi Tom! Get here.” He didn’t recognise the voice at first but the voice belonged to a boy called Jack. Jack was a small smart Asian kid with glasses and a bowl cut. “Why did he call me over here?” Tom thought to himself “Sit here” Jack said, as Tom saw no reason not to he obliged. “So Tom” Jack said in between mouthfuls “how’s life?” “Could be better, could be worse.” Tom said. “Is it really?” Jack questioned “everyone know about what happened in the first period just thought I’d tell you.” “Ok well thanks. I guess I’ll leave then shall I? Tom asked “I mean you could stay, or you could go because I really couldn’t care less.” “Fair enough” Tom said. And so Tom stayed next to Jack for the rest of lunch. The bell rang so Tom went to maths class. Which was one of his favourite subjects. Only because he was good at it though. If he wasn’t he’d probably hate maths.