Asperger Diaries: Jamie's New School (7 page)

It’s difficult
to remember which books I need on which days. I took my French text
book to my geography lesson today by mistake. Luckily I didn’t need
my text book, so the teacher didn’t realise. I wouldn’t have this
problem if we didn’t change classrooms all of the time. I don’t
want to risk forgetting a book again, so I have taken all my text
books out of my locker, and put them into my backpack. They only
just fit, and it is quite difficult to fasten the straps. The only
thing left in my locker is my P.E. kit, and my science overall.
When mum saw my backpack, she asked why I was carrying all of my
books around. She said I would hurt my back. It is the only way to
be sure I don’t keep getting into trouble for forgetting books.

I’ve got three
lots of homework again today even though I should only have French
and geography. The English teacher said we had to finish reading
the first chapter of the book we started. More unofficial homework
– it isn’t fair.

*****

Angela's
Diary

Jamie hardly
said a word over dinner, so I went into his bedroom after we had
finished eating. Big mistake! He went mad. He was shouting at me,
and thumping his desk. I shouldn’t let him get away with shouting
at me, but if I had stayed in there, things would have gone from
bad to worse. He had a lot of homework, so I left him to it.

Lesley was in
one of her rare, better moods this evening, so I took advantage of
it, and tried to pick her brain. I asked her if she had any idea
why Jamie has to spend so long on his homework. She has a couple of
friends who are in the top set in her year. She said neither of
them spend more than a couple of hours a night maximum on homework.
She said that he was probably messing about with his trams when he
should have been doing his homework. I’m sure that is not it. Every
time I have dared to venture into his bedroom, in the evenings, he
has been surrounded by school books.

I asked her
about the ‘unofficial homework’. She said he was whinging about
nothing. According to her, the teachers are always telling them to
finish off class work before the next lesson. She said it rarely
took more than a few minutes. She often does it in another lesson,
or on the bus, or doesn’t bother at all.

That was all I
managed to get out of her because her mobile rang. She spent the
next two hours talking to Orange.

*****

Lesley's
Journal

Orange's dad is
going to take her to London for the weekend. She doesn't see her
dad often, but whenever she does, he always spoils her. Orange said
they are going to hit Oxford Street, and then see a show in the
evening. I've never even been to London. There aren't any trams
there, so I don't suppose I ever will.

14th September
(Wednesday)

Jamie's
Diary

I received my
maths test back today. The teacher had ticked every answer, but had
only given me 15 out of 20. On the bottom he had written in red
ink, ‘You must show your working out’. I told mum and dad it wasn't
fair. Mum is rubbish at maths, so dad said he would show me what to
do. He wrote out a question, and then he wrote down some other
figures followed by the answer. I knew the answer as soon as I saw
the question. I asked him why he had written all of the other
figures. He said that was how he arrived at the answer. He said the
teacher wanted me to show the stages I went through. I don’t go
through stages. I look at the question, and then I write the
answer. Dad said I have to learn how to show my working out. I
asked dad why it was necessary to show the working out. He said it
proved you understood the problem, and knew how to solve it. If I
have the correct answer, I must know how to solve it. Dad said it
also ensured no one was cheating. How could I have cheated? The
teacher had watched while I did the test

In P.E. today
we had to climb a rope. The teacher showed us how to do it. He
jumped onto the rope, and held it between his hands and feet. He
climbed the rope really quickly by first moving his feet up, and
then his hands. He made it look easy, but I knew it wouldn’t be. I
managed to get onto the rope, and held it with my hands and feet,
but I couldn’t move at all. Every time I tried to move my hands or
feet, I lost my grip and fell onto the mat. He made all the boys
try. Some did it easily, and reached the top in no time at all. A
few managed to get half way up, but then ran out of steam. At least
five other boys couldn’t climb the rope at all, so I didn’t feel
too bad about it. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t do
it.

I didn’t get
much homework today for a change. I only had to read three chapters
of a book for English.

*****

Angela's
Diary

I had a walk
into the Job Centre Plus today and spoke to a ‘Customer Services
Advisor’. They used to be called Civil Servants back in my day. The
woman was pleasant enough, and she made a few suggestions about my
CV. She showed me a few vacancies which she thought might be
suitable, but the hours were too long. Still it gave me some
encouragement that there might be something out there for me. I've
seen a beautiful pair of boots I could buy with my first wage
packet.

Jamie got his
maths test back today. The teacher had given him 15 out of 20 even
though he’d answered every question correctly. All through dinner
he kept going on about how unfair it was. Andrew tried to show him
what the teacher expected him to do. From what Andrew told me
afterwards, I don’t think Jamie has grasped it yet.

Later this
evening, when I went into Jamie’s bedroom, he had calmed down. He
appeared to have forgotten about the maths test. He was painting
one of his models. I asked him about his homework. He said he had
finished his English, and the biology teacher hadn’t set any. I
hope Jamie is right. I asked him if I could see his homework diary,
but he didn’t know where it was.

15th September
(Thursday)

Jamie's
Diary

I couldn’t
sleep last night. I went into mum’s bedroom to ask her how to get
to sleep, but she just told me to get back in bed. That didn’t
help. It was after 2.00am when I finally managed to fall asleep. I
was still tired when mum woke me up this morning.

In French, the
teacher wanted to know why I hadn’t finished off the work from the
previous lesson. I told him that I’d had too much homework to do,
and that the French wasn’t official homework. I showed him my
homework diary, but he wasn’t interested. I told him that mum had
made me stop doing homework at ten o’ clock. He said I should have
had more than enough time to finish off the work long before ten o’
clock. Mum asked me if all the other kids had finished the French
as well as their other homework. The teacher hadn’t shouted at
anyone else, so they must have. Perhaps their parents let them work
on their homework after ten o’ clock.

The Physics
teacher said it was the fault of the class that he didn’t get
through the lesson today. It wasn’t my fault. It was his fault
because he didn’t control the class properly. Some boys were
messing about all the way through the lesson. The teacher should
have sent them out, so we could get on with the lesson. All he did
was keep telling them to be quiet. I had to finish the work off at
home which isn’t fair.

A boy kept
throwing balls of paper at me when I came home on the bus. One
nearly hit me in the eye. I told him to stop, but he wouldn’t, so I
moved to a different seat. I must have left my backpack under the
first seat because I didn’t have it with me when I arrived
home.

*****

Angela's
Diary

Jamie scared me
to death when he came charging into our room at some ungodly hour
this morning. He said he couldn’t get to sleep. Andrew didn't stir
of course. He never does. A nuclear bomb wouldn’t wake him once he
is asleep. I don’t know what time Jamie eventually managed to get
off to sleep. It must have been late because this morning I had to
chase him around to make sure he showered, and got dressed in time
to catch the bus. I’m sure he would have stayed at home today if I
had let him.

Jamie came home
from school without his backpack. He was adamant he had it with him
when he left school, so it had to be on the bus. It took several
telephone calls to the bus company before I eventually managed to
track it down. I had to drive over to the bus depot to claim it. By
the time I had got back, it was almost six o’ clock. Jamie had a go
at me because dinner was late.

We eventually
sat down for dinner just before seven o’ clock. Jamie was very
quiet. I made the mistake of asking if he had got any homework. He
said he had lots – as usual. Then he complained he had lost a lot
of time because it had taken me so long to fetch his backpack.

16th September
(Friday)

Jamie's
Diary

In today’s
swimming lesson, the teacher said we had to do back crawl. I’ve
never swum back crawl before. I can’t see the point in swimming all
of these different strokes. As long as you can swim what does it
matter what stroke you do? Afterwards, when we were getting
changed, one of the boys said I swim like a girl. Then he hit me
across the back with his wet swimming trunks. It cracked on my
back, and really stung. I said I would tell the teacher if he did
it again. He called me a little grass, and said I have to be
careful I don’t fall in the swimming pool and drown.

When I got on
the bus after school today, the only free seat was next to the fat
boy who pushed me on the floor last week. I didn’t want to sit next
to him again, so I got off the bus and walked home. It was raining,
and I got soaked. Mum picked me up when I was about half way home.
I don’t want to go on the school bus again. I never know which seat
I am going to be in, and I don’t like it when I have to sit at the
back because some of the boys who sit there are mean. Mum said she
will take me to school in the car from now on.

*****

Angela's
Diary

Jamie didn’t
arrive home on time after school today. I had no idea where he was.
I rang Lesley, but she had gone straight into town with Courtney. I
thought about ringing the school, but I didn’t want them to think I
was a paranoid mother. I know there are lots of after-school clubs,
but Jamie had never shown any interest in them. I did wonder if he
had left his backpack on the bus again, and was afraid to come home
without it. In the end my nerves got the better of me, so I decided
to drive to school. About half way there I spotted him walking
home. He was soaked to the skin. He said some of the boys on the
bus had been nasty to him. They had called him names, and had
thrown his stuff about. He said he didn’t want to go on the school
bus again ever. I have promised I will take him to and from school
from now on. So much for the free bus pass. So much for my part
time job.

I had hoped the
second week would be better than the first. If anything, it has
been worse. It can’t be healthy for him to come home so exhausted
every day. By the time he gets home, he is so stressed he can
hardly talk. I have tried talking to him, but that only makes
matters worse. He either bites my head off, refuses to talk to me,
or throws a tantrum. I want to help, but there are so many problems
I don’t know where to start. He is still getting lost around the
school. He is carrying all of his books around with him because he
never knows which lesson is next. The maths lessons are stressing
him out because he doesn’t know how to show his working out. He’s
annoyed at the marking system in geography. The unofficial
homework, as he refers to it, is driving him mad. He hates P.E.,
and to top it all, he said a boy hit him with a pair of swimming
trunks.

I asked Andrew
what he thought we should do. He said it would all sort itself out,
and I shouldn’t worry. That’s easy for him to say.

17th September
(Saturday)

Jamie's
Diary

Mrs Parkes came
over today. Michael didn’t come with her because he was playing
football at school. I don’t know how he finds time to play football
with all of the homework we get. I was glad he didn’t come.

I have a
history essay on the Industrial Revolution to finish for Monday.
Today, I am going to read my text book, and do some research on the
Internet. Then, tomorrow I will write the essay. The teacher hasn’t
said how much we should write.

*****

Angela's
Diary

I asked Jackie
to come over. I wanted to find out how Michael’s first two weeks
had gone. It’s a terrible thing to admit, but I was hoping she
would say it had been a nightmare for Michael as well. I was out of
luck. It sounds as though Michael has settled straight in. I asked
her about the homework situation. She said he seemed to be well on
top of it. I know Jackie will have checked that he is doing it. She
said it hadn't taken him more than an hour on any evening so far. I
asked her if Michael was finding his way around the school. She
looked at me as though I was crazy. We talked for ages. Or at least
she did. I just listened to what a wonderful time Michael is having
at Armthorpe. According to Jackie he has made lots of friends, is
in the football team, and is coping well with the workload. I
mentioned some of Jamie’s problems. I could tell she didn’t
understand. In fact she asked me if I thought I was worrying too
much. There is more to it than that. It wasn’t like this with
Lesley.

I don’t know
what to do.

18th September
(Sunday)

Jamie's
Diary

Dad had a right
go at me this morning. He was mad because he thought I had
forgotten mum’s birthday. I hadn’t. I bought her a card three weeks
ago, but I forgot to give it to her this morning. I couldn’t
remember where I had put it, but then I found it in the drawer of
my computer desk. I wrote on it, and gave it to mum over Sunday
lunch. She said it was lovely. I didn’t buy mum a present because I
didn’t know what she wanted. I asked her a couple of weeks ago. She
said I should surprise her. I hate it when people won’t tell you
what they want for their birthday, or for Christmas. I always tell
people what I want to make sure they don’t buy me something
useless. Nana Edith never asks me what I want, so she always buys
me something I don’t like. For my last birthday she bought me a
book about aeroplanes. I put it in the bin, but mum took it out and
gave it to a charity shop. How am I supposed to know what to buy
mum if she doesn’t tell me? I should have bought her a model tram
kit. That would have been a surprise, but I don’t think she would
have liked it very much. Lesley bought mum a purse. Mum said she
liked it, but I think she was only trying to be nice because she
already has lots of purses.