Asperger Diaries: Jamie's New School (11 page)

I tried to
tackle them about the homework situation. They all said the same
thing. The homework which they set shouldn’t take anywhere near as
long as Jamie spends on it. They also said Jamie could do much less
and still get good marks. I tried to explain to a couple of the
teachers just how stressed Jamie is in the mornings and evenings.
I’m not sure they believed me.

I thought Jamie
might be pleased to hear the glowing reports from his teachers. He
wasn’t interested. He said I was hopeless because I hadn’t been
able to get answers to the questions he had given me. I said he was
obviously doing well, and should stop worrying about everything. It
was like talking to a brick wall. I feel worse today, after hearing
glowing reports about Jamie, than I used to when the teachers were
critical of Lesley. Andrew sauntered in about eleven o’clock. He
didn’t even ask about the parents’ evening.

*****

Lesley's
Journal

Mum makes me
sick. When she came back from tram boy's parent's evening she was
full of it. All the teachers think he is great. He is so clever. He
is so hard working. The sun shines out of his arse apparently. It's
different when it's my parent's evening. All I get is grief for a
week afterwards. The miserable sod is still not happy though. He's
been whinging and whining all night long. He does my head in.

5th October
(Wednesday)

Jamie's
Diary

We did circuits
in P.E. We had to climb ropes, climb a net, do forward and backward
rolls, and then jump over something that the teacher called a
horse. I was useless at everything, but the teacher didn’t seem to
mind. He spends most of his time with those boys who are good at
P.E.

Biology was
better today because the rat had gone.

My maths
homework today was twenty algebra questions. It only took me twenty
five minutes to do them all. I know I won’t get full marks because
I haven’t shown any stupid working out.

I didn’t finish
my homework until late tonight because I had to go back to school
to fetch my physics text book. I had left it in the classroom. I
told mum where it was so that she could go and fetch it for me. She
wouldn’t go by herself. That wasted a ton of time.

*****

Angela's
Diary

I saw Rocky
while I was waiting for Jamie to come out of school. I tried to
catch his eye, but he jumped on the school bus. He was with a bunch
of four or five other boys, talking and laughing together. I wish
that was Jamie. When Jamie climbed into the car, he looked
exhausted and totally miserable as usual. I did try to make
conversation, but it was futile. He closed his eyes, and leaned on
the side window. It felt as though he was trying to shut me and the
rest of the world out.

There was a
minor crisis after dinner. Jamie had left his physics text book at
school. He insisted he had to have it tonight because he couldn’t
do his homework without it. I made him take everything out of his
backpack. He got really nasty, and asked if I thought he was a
liar. I didn’t think he was lying. I did think he might be
mistaken. The book wasn’t there, so I said I would nip him to
school to fetch it. He wasn’t happy about that either. He said I
should go and fetch it by myself. He said he needed to stay at home
to do his other homework. I explained that the headmaster wouldn’t
be happy for me to be wandering around the school looking for
books. I told him, if he wanted his book, he would have to come
with me. In the end he did, but he moaned all the way there. It was
his fault! He forgot the damn book! I parked at the school gates
while he went and fetched the book. The journey home was just as
pleasant.

6th October
(Thursday)

Jamie's
Diary

The ICT teacher
was back at school today. This week’s lesson was all about the
Internet. The man is crazy. He was talking about modems. Who goes
online using a modem? He tried to show us how to search on the
Internet. Most of the kids in my class have the Internet on their
smartphones. I don’t think they need any lessons on how to search.
I’ve started reading books on other subjects in his lesson. He saw
me reading my history book today, but he didn’t say anything.

Adam Devlin
took a book out of my backpack and started throwing it back and
forth to another boy. They were both taller than me, so I couldn’t
reach it. I don’t understand why people do horrible things like
that. Mr Peters, the caretaker told them both off. He gave me my
book back, and took me into his office which is just around the
corner from Locker Alley. His office is really small. There is only
just enough room for a desk and two chairs. He gave me two
biscuits, and we talked about trams until the bell went. I like Mr
Peters. He is very interested in trams.

*****

Angela's
Diary

When I
collected Jamie today, he was brighter than usual. He actually
talked to me all the way home. It made such a nice change. He said
he had been in the caretaker’s office. I don’t know how that came
about because I couldn’t get a word in. According to Jamie, the
caretaker is really interested in trams. Jamie ran through all the
stuff they had talked about in the lunch break. I can’t help but
wonder if the poor man couldn’t escape. Still it worked a treat. It
is the brightest I have seen him after school since he started
there.

7th October
(Friday)

Jamie's
Diary

We had to work
with a partner in chemistry. There must have been an odd number of
kids in the class because I ended up without one. The chemistry
teacher said I could work with him. We had to wear tinted safety
glasses. We weighed a small strip of magnesium, and made a note of
the weight. Then we heated the magnesium in a crucible on a tripod.
The teacher warned us not to look directly at the magnesium because
it glows so brightly it might hurt our eyes. Some kids pretended
they had been blinded. After the magnesium had finished burning we
had to weigh it again. I might ask for a chemistry set for
Christmas.

In the swimming
lesson, Adam Devlin flicked me with his wet trunks. Then he stole
my towel, and threw it into the shower. When I went to get it, he
turned the shower on, so I got wet through. I told the teacher, and
he told Adam not to mess about.

*****

Angela's
Diary

When I
collected Jamie from school, his shirt and trousers were wet. He
said one of the boys had turned the water on while he was fetching
his towel out of the shower. I’m not sure what his towel was doing
in the shower. I couldn’t make much sense of what he was telling
me. He did say the teacher had told the other boy off.

Andrew
telephoned to say he had to work late. I asked Jamie if he fancied
something different for dinner tonight. Jamie looked at me as
though I was demented. He said Friday night was Marco’s pizza
night. I suggested we might swap nights and have it tomorrow
instead. From his expression you would have thought I had suggested
eating maggots. I had to battle the rush hour traffic to get to
Marco’s. When I eventually made it back home, by way of a thank
you, Jamie complained his pizza wasn’t as hot as it usually is.

*****

Lesley's
Journal

It's official -
I've been dumped. I tried to speak to Tony today, and he just
blanked me. I thought it was too good to be true. One day is all it
lasted - that must be some kind of record. Courtney reckons she has
seen him hanging around with Caroline Best who is in the same year
as him. She's welcome to him.

Mum asked why I
was looking 'glum'. Who the hell says 'glum' these days? As if she
cares. She didn't even wait for me to say why I was 'glum'. I'm
going to ask Orange if I can go over to her house tomorrow. I can't
stand the thought of being stuck in this madhouse especially if
grandma grump is coming over for Sunday lunch.

8th October
(Saturday)

Jamie's
Diary

I don’t have as
much homework as usual this weekend. I managed to get most of it
done last night, so I started to write my Christmas list today. I
hate it when people buy me things I don’t want. Mum said it was a
little early for a Christmas list. I mainly want tram stuff. There
are lots of models I would like. Lots of books and DVDs too. I told
mum she has to give Nana Edith a copy of the list because Nana
always buys me rubbish presents. Last year she bought me a chess
set for Christmas. I asked her why she had bought it. Mum said it
was rude to ask. I don’t see why. I wanted to know why she thought
I would want a chess set. I’ve only ever played chess once, and
that was on the computer. I thought it was boring. I kept
forgetting how the different pieces could move. There is a chess
club at school. All of the kids who go to it are nerds.

I asked mum and
dad to bring me an Argos catalogue back from town. I spent this
afternoon going through it to see if there was anything else I
could put on my Christmas list. There are a few chemistry sets in
the catalogue, so I have circled one of them. It has 100 different
experiments. It comes with safety goggles, spirit burner, test
tubes and lots of other things. I’m not sure what mum will say
about it though. She doesn’t even like me painting my models in the
house. Mum said I could have a mobile phone for Christmas if I
wanted one. I don’t. I hate using the telephone, and there isn’t
anyone I want to call. I’d rather have lots of model kits.

*****

Angela's
Diary

Weekends come
as such a relief. It’s so nice to see Jamie relaxed. He doesn’t
appear to have much homework this weekend. He’s like a different
boy. He was writing his Christmas list this afternoon. He always
has his list ready months before Christmas. I never buy anything
off it until December though because he is likely to change his
mind.

I had to smile
when I saw him going through the Argos catalogue. He has done that
ever since he was small. He could spend hours on it. When he was
eight years old, I calculated the value of everything he had
circled. It came to almost two thousand pounds. Needless to say he
didn’t get it all.

Lesley has gone
over to Orange’s house for a sleepover.

9th October
(Sunday)

Jamie's
Diary

I’ve had a
stomach ache most of today. I told mum. She said it was nothing. If
I still have it tomorrow, I won’t be able to go to school. This
afternoon, mum had a look at my Christmas list. I thought she might
complain about the chemistry set, but she didn’t say anything about
it. I asked her if she knew what she wanted for Christmas. She said
she hadn’t thought about it yet.

*****

Angela's
Diary

Jamie’s been
very subdued today. He was so bright yesterday too. He said he had
tummy ache, but he still ate all of his meals. I wonder if all the
problems at school are starting to take their toll. He said he
might not be able to go to school if he doesn’t feel better in the
morning. That isn’t a good sign. I managed to take his mind off it
for a while by going through his Christmas list with him. He’s got
a chemistry set on there. I hope he has a change of mind about that
before Christmas. I dread to think what kind of mess he could make.
He could end up blowing the house up.

Edith
telephoned to say she wasn’t feeling well. I know I shouldn’t admit
it, but I was pleased she wasn’t coming over for lunch. She’s like
a black cloud. Andrew went over to check she was okay. He asked if
I wanted to go with him. I would rather chew glass – I didn’t say
that to him.

10th October
(Monday)

Jamie's
Diary

Mum made me go
to school even though I still had a stomach ache. I think I may
have got a bug. I wasn’t sick at school though.

I went to the
library at lunch time and read the tram book again. I saw Cliff in
there. He was at the other end of the library, but he didn’t see
me. I think the librarian likes me. She sat next to me, and asked
about my book. She said she used to go to Blackpool on holiday
years ago.

I expected to
get my English homework back today, but the teacher said he hadn’t
marked it yet. I hope I get full marks this time.

I’m not writing
any more tonight because I have got a stomach ache again.

*****

Angela's
Diary

I managed to
get Jamie to school this morning, but only just. He said he still
had a stomach ache. But he hadn’t been sick, and he appeared to be
going to the toilet all right. Lesley didn’t help. She accused him
of trying to skive. Jamie flew off the handle. After Lesley had
gone to catch the bus, I had a chat with Jamie. He agreed to go to
school, and to see how he was during the day.

All day long, I
was expecting the phone to ring, and the school to ask me to
collect him. It never did. I picked him up at the normal time. He
didn't mention a stomach ache, but then he never spoke at all. The
pattern is the same every evening. He goes straight to his bedroom
as soon as we get in from school. He comes out for dinner, but
hardly ever speaks. Then after dinner he goes back into his
bedroom. Andrew still doesn’t see a problem. When I tried to talk
to Andrew tonight, he said Jamie had always spent a lot of time
shut away in his bedroom. This is different. I have to get him to
spend less time on homework. Maybe if the headmaster would talk to
him. He might take notice if it came from the headmaster rather
than from me.

11th October
(Tuesday)

Jamie's
Diary

I have
definitely got a bug. I had a headache today as well as a stomach
ache. I didn’t get to sleep until late last night. I didn’t go into
mum’s bedroom because she never helps me to get to sleep.