Asperger Diaries: Jamie's New School (6 page)

We had our
first swimming lesson today. The teacher asked who couldn’t swim.
Two boys put up their hands. They had to go to the shallow end.
Everyone else had to jump or dive into the deep end. I jumped in.
We had to swim to the shallow end and back. I did breast stroke.
Then the teacher said we had to do two lengths of front crawl. I
told him I can’t do front crawl. He said I should try. I couldn’t
get my arms and legs co-ordinated, so I didn’t get far. I did a mix
of breast stroke and crawl, to get through the two lengths. The
teacher didn’t seem to mind. He told me to keep practicing. I’m
going to ask dad to take me to the leisure centre, so I can
practice front crawl. I have borrowed a book from the school
library which has instructions and photos for all the swimming
strokes.

My blazer still
makes my arms itch. We are allowed to take them off in class, so I
always put mine on the back of my chair. I left it behind once, so
I had to run back to get it which made me late for my next lesson.
Mum said the itching won’t last for long. I don’t see how it will
magically stop.

Friday is meant
to be pizza night. We always have a take-away pizza from Marco’s.
My favourite is triple cheese with a thick crust. Dad picks up the
pizza on the way home from work. He forgot today. I said he was
stupid. Mum said I shouldn’t be rude to dad. He is stupid. He knows
Friday is pizza night. How difficult can it be to remember? Mum got
a pizza out of the freezer. I wouldn’t eat it. It wasn’t three
cheese with a thick crust. Lesley said I should stop complaining. I
said she should mind her own business. Mum sent me to my bedroom. I
ate a bag of crisps.

Lesley’s
bedroom is right next to mine. She had two of her friends over this
evening. I was trying to do my history homework, but I couldn’t
concentrate because they were so noisy. Mum said she would tell
them to keep the noise down. It was quiet for about half an hour,
but then it was just as noisy as before. I didn’t bother telling
mum again. I went into Lesley’s bedroom and told them to be quiet.
Lesley shouted at me for walking into her bedroom. She said they
were only talking. That wasn’t true. They were shouting and
screaming at one another. They were playing music too. The walls in
our house are very thin, and I could hear every word they said. One
of Lesley’s friends is called Orange, like the fruit. Orange called
me a name, and told me to get lost. I said she should get a new
name because Orange was a stupid name. Lesley said I shouldn’t be
rude to her friend. I said she couldn’t talk because, the night
before, I had heard her tell mum she thought Orange was a
pretentious name. Lesley went red in the face, and started throwing
things at me. Orange and the other girl left a few minutes later.
Mum told me off for being rude to one of Lesley’s friends. I said
Lesley had been rude about her friend too. Mum said Lesley hadn’t
said it to Orange. I think it is worse to say something behind
someone’s back than to their face.

*****

Angela's
Diary

What a long
week this has been. Lesley’s first week at Armthorpe wasn’t
anywhere near as stressful. She sailed through it. Jamie worries so
much about everything. I have no idea why. I hope the worst is
behind us now. He should know his way around school a little better
next week. He hasn’t had a problem with any of the lessons. If
anything, he seems to have found a lot of the work too easy. Quite
a few of the teachers didn’t set any homework because it was the
first week of term. I’m not sure how he will cope next week when he
has two subjects to do every night.

Andrew forgot
the pizza. We always have takeaway pizza for Friday dinner. Jamie
likes to know which meals he is going to have on which days.
Whenever I’ve tried to surprise him, with something new or
different, it has always backfired. I know better now. We have a
fairly set weekly menu. I had to tell Jamie off because he called
Andrew ‘stupid’. I couldn’t let that go even though I was thinking
the same thing. Jamie ended up having a shouting match with Lesley,
and then stormed off to his bedroom with only a packet of crisps to
eat.

We had just
about got over that when we had another incident. Lesley was livid
because Jamie had upset her friend with the stupid name.

*****

Lesley's
Journal

Orange isn't
speaking to me. It's all tram boy's fault. Him and his big mouth -
he just doesn't know when to keep it shut. How am I ever meant to
have any friends over when he is around? I wish he would choke on
his stupid three cheese pizza.

10th September
(Saturday)

Jamie's
Diary

I didn’t finish
my history homework last night. I am going to finish it tomorrow. I
want a break today. Mum and dad went shopping this morning. I
didn’t want to go with them. Lesley went to her friend’s house. Mum
said I should telephone Cliff to see if he wanted to come over. I
didn’t call him because I wasn’t sure what he would be doing. I
haven’t spoken to him since I started at Armthorpe. I see him on
the bus most mornings, but he always walks straight to the back. We
don’t have classes together because he is in the bottom set. I have
seen him a few times in the school yard, but he is always with a
crowd of boys. He is usually playing football.

I started to
build the London Transport ‘Cissie’ tram that I brought back from
holiday. I built it on my bedroom floor because I knew mum would
moan if I used her dining room table. I’m getting better at making
models. When I first started to build models, I used to get glue
everywhere. My hand shakes sometimes when I try to apply it to the
smaller, fiddly parts. The last two model trams which I have made
had hardly any excess glue on them.

Mum gets on my
nerves. She is always trying to make me phone my friends They could
telephone me if they wanted to. Mum kept asking me questions about
school. I don’t want to talk about school at the weekend. I want to
forget all about it.

*****

Angela's
Diary

Leslie is in a
foul mood. She's annoyed because Jamie upset Orange yesterday. She
went over to Courtney's. Knowing Lesley, it will probably all blow
over within a few days. The three of them always seem to be falling
out, but it never lasts for long.

It drives me
crazy when Jamie refuses to telephone his friends. I am sure Rocky
would have come over today if Jamie had called him. Jamie always
has an excuse for not telephoning someone. It has always been the
same. When he was at Westlake, I would pester him to give Rocky or
David a call. I would end up calling the other kid’s parents
myself. It would look a bit strange if I did it now. He is going to
lose contact with David if he isn’t careful. I keep telling him he
doesn’t want to lose such a good friend. I am not sure it even
registers with Jamie. I’ve seen him lose touch with good friends
before. It doesn’t seem to bother him.

All Jamie
wanted to think about today was his model tram. He spent most of
the morning on it. I was glad to see he didn’t use my dining room
table. He was full of it when we got back from town. He insisted I
examined the model for traces of excess glue. I didn’t spot any –
he is getting better at model making.

Andrew’s mother
is coming over tomorrow. Joy of joys.

11th September
(Sunday)

Jamie's
Diary

I got up at six
o’ clock this morning to finish my history homework. When I had
finished I asked dad to read it. He said he thought it was very
thorough. I’m never sure what I should include, and what I can
leave out.

Dad took me
swimming this morning while mum made Sunday lunch. I asked him to
show me how to do front crawl. He told me to stand on the side of
the pool, and to watch while he did a few widths. I watched him,
but I still couldn’t do it. I asked him to tell me what to do, step
by step. We stayed at the pool for about an hour. By the time we
came away, I still couldn’t do front crawl properly, but I had
improved. Dad said my technique was much better. He said we could
go to the swimming pool again in a fortnight. I saw one of the boys
from my form in the changing rooms. I don’t know his name. I don’t
think he recognised me because he didn’t speak.

Nana Edith came
over for lunch. She comes over most Sundays since Granddad Tom died
last year. I don’t think she likes me because she hardly ever
speaks to me. One day she told mum she thought there was something
wrong with me because I hadn’t cried when Granddad died. I liked
Granddad much more than I like Nana, and I was sad when he died,
but I didn’t feel like crying. Nana Edith is my dad’s mum. I think
he is scared of her because he never argues with her. Mum is always
arguing with Nana. Lesley does too. I stay out of Nana’s way as
much as I can. Nana said I spend too much time alone in my bedroom.
Mum told Nana I was making a model. Nana said it wasn’t healthy for
me to spend as much time in my bedroom as I do.

I don't want to
go to school tomorrow. Mum said next week will be a lot better.

*****

Angela's
Diary

Edith drives me
crazy. It’s as though she knows exactly how to press my buttons.
Ever since Lesley was born, Edith has tried to tell me how to bring
up my kids. Andrew just sits there, and lets her get away with it.
He has never once stood up for me. No matter what I do, it is
always wrong. This weekend, of all weekends, I could have done
without this. I had a stand up row with Edith. I wish Andrew would
back me up. No chance. He is scared to death of his mother. She
picked the wrong day to pick an argument with me. I gave as good as
I got today. After she had left, Andrew said I had been
deliberately rude to her. I agreed.

Jamie said he
doesn’t want to go to school tomorrow. I don’t think he was
serious, but I know he is worried about it.

I think Lesley
and Orange must have made up. She was on the phone to her for
almost an hour this evening.

12th September
(Monday)

Jamie's
Diary

The English
teacher has marked my essay on my St Annes holiday. He gave me 19
out of 20, and wrote ‘A promising start. Keep it up’. He corrected
the punctuation in a few places, and changed a few words. I asked
mum if she will show me how to use punctuation correctly.

Someone has
written ‘United Rule!’ on my locker. I tried to rub it off, but I
couldn’t. I was worried I might get in trouble, so I told Mr Avery.
He asked me if I knew who had done it. I didn’t. He said there was
nothing he could do about it. I said he should tell the headmaster.
Mr Avery said the headmaster wouldn’t be interested. Mum said I
shouldn’t worry because I had done all I could. I don’t understand
why people write on lockers. If they must do it, they should only
write on their own lockers. It isn’t fair to get someone else into
trouble.

The Maths
teacher is stupid. We did an algebra test today. He gave us a sheet
with twenty questions on it. We had forty minutes to answer all of
the questions. At the top of the sheet it said ‘Show your working
out’. I didn’t know what that meant, so I went ahead and answered
the questions anyway. I had finished in just over twenty five
minutes. Some kids still hadn’t finished when the forty minutes was
up. When the teacher collected my paper he asked me where the
working out was. I didn’t know what he meant. He said he wanted me
to show how I had arrived at the answer. He said I would get marked
down because I hadn’t shown the working out.

I hate
homework. By the time I get home I need a rest. According to the
homework diary we are only meant to have two lots of homework each
night. That’s a lie because sometimes a teacher tells us to finish
off work which we started in class. That happened today in French.
I already had maths and English homework to do. Mum said I should
do the maths and English first, and then, if I still had time, do
the French afterwards. I managed to finish the maths, but I only
got half way through the English. I asked mum if I could carry on
working, but she said I had to stop at ten o’ clock. I was going to
use the torch to do some more homework under the bed covers, but
mum took my backpack and books out of my bedroom, so I
couldn’t.

*****

Angela's
Diary

I wish Jamie
would see the positives. He has a real glass half-empty attitude.
The mark he got for his first English essay was fantastic. To hear
him talk you would think it had been a complete disaster. I tried
to make him realise 19 out of 20 is something to be proud of. He
can only see the one mark which he dropped, and the red ink. I
checked, and the corrections which the teacher made are minimal.
Why can't he ever be happy about anything? He asked me to help him
with his punctuation. That's a laugh. I can't punctuate my way out
of a wet paper bag.

I wouldn’t let
Jamie work after ten o’ clock. He had already spent at least three
hours on homework. He was so angry that I wouldn't let him carry on
working, he threw his books at the wall. It's a wonder he didn't
make a hole in it. He scares me when he goes off like that.

13th September
(Tuesday)

Jamie's
Diary

I got up early
this morning to finish my English homework. There wasn’t enough
time to do the unofficial French homework as well.

I wish I didn't
have to go to morning assembly. Every kid in the school is packed
into the hall, and we have to stand up all the way through. There
are so many people, and so much noise that it makes me feel dizzy.
I wanted to run out this morning, but I would get into trouble if I
did.

Today, in the
cafeteria, I sat next to the boy who I had seen in the leisure
centre. He was at a table with four other boys from my form. They
were all talking at the same time. I don’t know how any of them
followed the conversation. One minute they were talking about
football, and the next they were talking about something on TV. I
don’t watch much TV because most of it is rubbish. I felt a bit
awkward not saying anything, so I told them I had been learning
front crawl. They continued talking about football and TV. After a
while the boys stood up and left together.