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#i didnt even learn math with my actual class through most of middle school
microwavechild · 2 years
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In the most demeaning way possible, I think I'm stupid. I can't even spin it for myself like hehe I'm just a himbo thembo blah blah blah. Like it's just a legitimate insecurity of mine.
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witch-apologist · 2 years
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As an autistic person im gonna need everyone to shut the absolute fuck up about gifted kids/gifted kid burnout etc. Gifted kids were not "given more resources" across the board what you are thinking about is abled white middle to upper class kids who got more resources FROM THEIR PARENTS.
I was in gifted kid programs in middle school and high school (until I dropped out of most of it and went to mostly on level in HS) and they didnt give us jack shit to help with the extra workload or anything else. Literally all we got was 3 times the homework and standards of grading and told "You can do it" which is exactly why I had to leave the program I was in. I not only didn't have money for the tutors I would have needed to succeed but I couldn't afford my adhd meds which made it impossible for me to focus on academic work. I also couldn't go to my teachers for help because of the way those teachers made me feel and also by the time school was over I was already so mentally exhausted that I couldn't handle any more school work. I'd end up staying up till 3, 4, sometimes even 5 am trying to get my math homework done through frustration tears and barely pass.
I also used to be considered "so hard to handle" that in elementary school each new teacher would have a meeting with all of my previous teachers to learn how to "best handle me" and because of ableism in my elementary school I was often treated very poorly because of my autistic traits and punished far more often akd more severely than my peers for breaking rules.
There are so many disabled ppl with gifted kid burnout bc they were really good at some academic things and then got hit with a wave of overwhelming work that they were in no way prepared to handle.
Gifted kids aren't given more resources they ARE the resource and once they're used up they're tossed away like yesterday's trash. Like I get the animosity for the praise that gifted kids got but that was exploitation. They use the kids that are good at tests to boost their own ranking but don't actually care about the students at all.
Like idk how to tell you that the disabled person talking about how much it sucked that they were worked to the bone with false promises of a better future and recognition and tried so hard to succeed it made them feel suicidal or like the people in their life wouldn't love them at all if they stopped being good at it is not some privileged person whose "just upset they aren't special anymore"
(Footnote: This is not contradicting the sentiment that Special Ed kids are treated horribly and tossed aside. That is true but can also coexist that most ppl with gifted kid burnout are disabled and were cheated and exploited by the school system.)
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ccelinewritess · 4 years
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the distance between us
pairing- draco malfoy x reader
word count- 9.7k
summary- the first time draco uses the muggle post system, it goes so terribly wrong, and a letter falls into the hands of a girl who was never supposed to see it, a muggle at that.
warnings- curse words, ptsd, anxiety/ panic attacks, depression mention of death, murder, blood and burns aswell as insomia, seperation anxiety (?) and my grammar.if these may trigger you, i suggested not reading.
a/n- this took me a while to get out, sry abt that. the reader was set to live in a canadian town called kelowna, british columbia. it takes place in readers grade 11/12 and dracos 6/7 year. i hope it’s not to self inserted, and you guys can enjoy and relate to it. big thank you to @dracodear for the help on this, love you! also thanks to everyone who left owl name suggestions, all were awesome and i ended up going with @winnsmills suggestion ‘noctua’ ! tumblrs been acting weird, so i hope it lets me post the whole thing. letters are in italics. also please note, this is off the movies timeline! i tried to fit in as many details as possible but some didn’t make it.
-
the town was widespread. wineries and mountains everywhere, the okanagan lake splitting it down the middle, reconnecting the cities halves by a bridge. little snow and tons of rain. jeep wranglers in every colour roaring around into unholy hours of the night, bustling with life yet all to lonely at times. but hey, that’s kelowna for you.
rain was running down the windows of y/ns most boring class, last period biology. she knew she should be paying attention. she had a high gpa to maintain, and couldn’t afford to fail another class besides french. the last five minutes of blabbering ended after what felt like a year.
‘you are dismissed, ill see you all monday, have a good weekend’ and with that everyone rose, heading to the parking lot as fast as possible in an attemp to dodge traffic. despite pouring rain, the air was hot, and on the ride home y/ns mind raced over every single assignment she had to complete over the next two days, while her hands tapped the steering wheel.
‘english essay, math review, history paper, business management graph’ she muttered under her breath. the town was busy, many students often blew off class to go shopping, or hit a movie, or smoke weed, the possibilities were endless. her house was cool compared to outside, and empty. no one was home, not that it was a surprise to the girl, people weren’t usually home, siblings gone to university, and parents working absurd amounts.
something caught her eye on the counter, an envelope, an ordinary seeming one, but absolutely covered in small pictured stamps with ‘england’ underneath each one. eighteen of them, all different. she knew shouldn’t open it, so she didn’t. at first. but it was irresistible. there was a return address written in the smallest writing she’d ever seen. wogshell, no, wiltshire? she took it to her room, and locked the door before ripping it open. she didn’t want the one time she had something intresting going on to be interrupted by whoever might show up.
her mouth fell open at every line of the same scroll. who was snape? why was this draco boy sending him a letter? he didn’t need his help to kill who? what the fuck was an unbreakable vow and why shouldn’t snape sign it? why was his mum going to see snape? who was the dark lord and why did he pick draco for a task? what kind of name is dumbledore?
what she already knew was confirmed- this letter was most definetly not for her. but newly- she opened a letter from a potential murderer or maybe it was a prank, a sick prank if it was one.
so instead she crafted up quite the response, whoever wrote this was either hysterical or in distress, and needed some sort of company- she thought, atleast.
-
it had been thirteen days, why wasn’t the letter back yet? the owl still couldn’t fly even about the house without damaging itself further. maybe using the muggle post system was a mistake. but better have it land into the hands of a muggle, who would likely throw it out, than a wizard who would know a death eater would soon be wondering around hogwarts.
as if on que, the door bell rang and echoed through the empty manor. on the porch sat an envelope, with only one stamp, his name in the middle and another he didn’t recognize in the corner. shit, this couldn’t be good. his eye caught the stamp. canada? fuck, this was supposed to go to cokeworth not bloody canada. no one was home so he opened it right there in the foyer.
hello, draco.
i am not snape- nor do i know who snape is. i am also very unfimilar with some of the vocabulary you used. dark lord? unbreakable vow? you seem to have quite the situation going on, if i read correctly. im not exactly stupid, but i do know that this letter was most definitely not supposed to be in my possession. i didn’t know who to send it to, id send it back to you, but you probably don’t want a copy of your own letter. i also know you likely have enough on your plate, but if you’d like someone to talk to im only half a world away, have no sort of schedule and am a good listener, well reader in this case. good luck with whatever task you’ve mentioned. p.s. you had about seventeen stamps to many, first time sending a letter? unfortunate fate, huh ? what kind of name is snape and what the heck is a dumbledore? i suppose it’s none of my business, knowing you likely won’t respond, but if you do i wrote my address on the front. have a good day/ night/ whatever time it is wherever you are.
y/n l/n
tears were welling in dracos eyes, he was floored, in a good and bad way. his task was already going downhill. the letter he sent snape had fallen into the hands of a muggle, who did not throw the letter away, but responded. and snape was likely going to bine himself into the task through the unbreakable vow, which draco was more than able to complete. he wouldn’t have been chosen if he wasn’t, right?
not only had she responded, she offered him help, well distant company, to a stranger who obviously had quite a few problems and she clearly had no regard for her own safety. he couldn’t tell her about the wizarding world. not that he could tell her about anything, she could be lying. he had a task to focus on, he couldn’t write her back.
and that was true- at the time. he had no intent of writing the girl back. and yet he found himself reading the 201 words over and over, running his hands across the paper, expecting them to fade away as he wiped. counting and recounting. he surely couldn’t talk to any of the twats at hogwarts, maybe a stranger could help numb the pain. and as long as he didn’t tell anyone- she couldn’t get hurt, she was to far.
draco was packed for hogwarts, the response at the bottom of the trunk, underneath his clothes. he’d just have to get to the damn school, then he could write all he wanted- without his parents knowledge or ridicule. his mind jumbled together what he was going to say while his friends rambled on. the train pulled up to the castle after dreadful hours and he could barely sit still during the opening feast. his thoughts did falter though, when dumbledore gave his speech, he felt guilty- the shame of his family weighing on his shoulders. he looked around, all his classmates staring in adoration at a man who would be dead ten months from now, and they were sitting in the same room as his killer.
the singular room was nice, he knew it wasn’t for lounge, but for plots of death.
before he began he started making promises to himself. if i get behind on the plan ill won’t write, if snape notices anything about it, ill stop. the list went on and on.
he couldn’t put his pen down, the words continued to fly out the end, was he oversharing?
dear y/n
my deepest apologies that my last letter found it’s way to you. im sure you didn’t expect whatever you may have perceived from it. honestly, i don’t know how it arrived all the way over there. im almost positive you have better things to do than listen to my problems, and i know you had no control over the fact it arrived, but i ask you to please not share this information with anyone. i am unsure if i will take up your offer of amity, if you were serious that is. im at school now, so if you’d like to respond, not that you have to- you can send letters back with my owl, it’ll be faster (and i won’t have to worry about stamps- thanks for the tip by the way)
draco malfoy 
and with that noctua was off into the night, and he could only hope that it would make it to her.
-
droll was running down y/ns chin and she was caught in a dream. suddenly a vigorous tapping on the window pulled her into consciousness, the sight of owl knocking her backwards in a scare. a crash sounded, if the tapping didn’t wake anyone up, that surely did. she almost considered just trying to ignore it, until she noticed a letter tied to its neck and reluctantly opened the window. she’d never seen an owl in real life before, but was aware from school that they weren’t exactly the kindest of creatures. this one just perched on the window while she removed the new enevelope, no stamps in sight. just a neatly printed address, and his in the corner.
from the new letter she learned even more- this wasn’t a prank, draco was a real person, was still in school, and whatever the first misplaced letter contained was true. he had some sort of task and didnt want help, but that was all. so with what she could, she wrote another response. it took an hour and she wasn’t exactly sure what she had written by mid morning.
draco
you’d be quite suprised actually, it gets lonely over here. i still haven’t exactly deciphered your original note, so if you would like to help me understand i think i’d be ready. and no worries about me, my lips are sealed. what is an unbreakable vow, im curious? you go to boarding school? and owls, really? what the hell is up with that? im pretty sure it’s illegal to own one here, but we are countries away, so perhaps it’s different all the way over there. send whatever you want. i do not- by the way- have anything better to do in the slightest.
y/n
-
he continued to write throughout the month of september, which bled into october before he knew it. he was avoiding questions about the task, just wanting someone to talk to. it wasn’t easy, she was curious, which draco couldn’t exactly be mad at her for that since he continued to write her, accepting the distant friendship that was forming.
he was learning a lot about her aswell. besides french, which he informed her he spoke fluently numerous times, she was a very good student. she was single, he didn’t remember how that came up but made a note in his mind- he couldn’t date her, nor did he know enough about her to be properly involved.
she read a lot of books, sappy romances mostly, couldn’t cook anything deemed edible by anyone, and her favourite colour was green, he smirked when reading that for the first time. she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her future, just not a doctor like her parents wanted.
-
y/n was sitting in english as her teacher reviewed about univeristy application requirements. only next year they would be getting accepted and denied from their dream schools. she’d spent years dreaming of it, university, and yet somehow a boy half way around the was racing through her mind. she felt horrible about it, the small crush. it was incredibly selfish, falling for a boy with so much going on, he certainly didn’t need her as anything more than a friend to talk to, but he was good with his words, and making her feel important too. her dismissal came and so did a classmate, approaching confident and cocky.
‘hey, l/n’ he said, a smirk on his face
‘oh, uh hey, will’
‘what are doing tonight?’ her mind went blank, any excuse, come on, say something
‘i have plans’ wow real specific, great job, y/n
‘like what’
‘fish funeral, real important stuff, my family is just devastated’ her voice was clearly sarcastic and that was all before she walked right out. no she didn’t exactly have plans, but waiting for dracos owl provided much more company than any date could have. the sight of dracos owl flying towards the pre-opened window was somewhat relieving, she didn’t know why, just the fact that he had not failed yet, and was still out there was nice. she hadn’t had this much company. since last year at least, when her supposed best friend started ghosting her because of some petty shit.
thankfully noctua ad gotten quite good at being discreet when delivering the letters. of all the things on y/ns junior year bucket list, explaining to her parents that she had befriended a british boy with an owl who flyed into her room while her neighbours had a clear view, wasn’t one. she also began keeping a bowl of water under her bed for the owl to drink when it arrived, knowing it couldn’t have been easy travelling back and forth.
y/n
im not fully sure you want to know the depth, yet you seem to want me to corrupt you with my villain with a task baggage. i suppose it couldn’t hurt if i told you about the unbreakable vow. it’s like a promise or a bond, but if you break it then you die. if you can stomach that i may be able to tell you more. how far away do you reckon we are?
draco
-
draco wasn’t falling behind too far, but his first attemp had failed, and panic attacks were taking up most his time. he never had any, at least not this bad until this year. at least once a day he would start sweating, no matter how cold he was, unable to control his breathing or tears, feeling like the walls were caving in upon him.
that is, besides writing y/n as much as he could. apparently she was being honest, she had no schedule of any sort besides going to school. he hated to say, but he was becoming attached, he didn’t exactly know how either, but everytime he recieved a letter a small weight was lifted from his shoulders, even just when he read it.
noctua was doing the weekly, almost daily round at breakfast with the other owls and draco watched with anticipation as a letter dropped on his lap and owl on his shoulder. he tried to conceal the letter into his robes but pansy had taken matters into her own hands. likely jealous that she’d spent collectively around six hours with him the whole year, and he never talked to her like he used to.
‘ou draco whats this’ twirling the envelope between her hands. the letter had no name, no stamp, only a small heart drawing in the corner.
‘hands off parkinson’ he said while taking the letter back. ‘a letter from my mother, if you must know’ he said knowing that neither his mother or father had written him anything, despite having all the time to do so.
he got up and left the second he was done, not wanting to draw snapes suspicion about who could possibly be more important than working on this task.
he rushed to his room, desperate for more of her words. he tried to picture her voice in his head, but had to remind himself she wasn’t british nor was she from southern america.
draco,
so you just die if you break the promise? intresting. it’s not as hard to stomach as you seem to think, very unique tradition i suppose. you are not a villain draco, you haven’t told me much about it but your to good of a person to have picked any of this for yourself. i calculated when we you were home, seven thousand three hundred something, i don’t know where your fancy boarding school where you have owls for pets is, so it may be further. im ready whenever you are.
y/n
her letter was relieving for him aswell, even in the slightest it helped, but she deserved some sort of answer for helping him take his mind off the task for a couple minutes. he could tell if she wasn’t scared off already, this would do it.
y/n
if you are sure, here it is. dumbledore is my headmaster, the dark lord is a very powerful wizard, and snape is my professor. if i don’t kill dumbledore before july, he will kill me and my family, if i can’t complete the task, snape will kill him under terms of an unbreakable vow. im not a very good villain that’s for sure, my first attemp failed, and my classmate is out cold. i understand if you dont want to write to me anymore, just don’t tell anyone about this, please.
dm.
-
the only words to describe the feeling that overwhelmed her senses as she read were devastation and shock. tears pooled in her eyes as she tried to imagine herself with that much responsibility to wildhold until july. another detail that caught her eye, wizard? what did he mean by wizard? is that the word for dictator in england? certainly he wasn’t talking about the wizards she read about in storybooks as a child. her hand shook slightly and she debated mentioning it.
draco
you’re silly if you think i’d stop writing you. you need company now more than ever. please don’t hold things back from your letters, you deserve someone to talk to. that is quite the situation, im sorry if i pushed you, you do have enough on your shoulders and i want to help you as much as i can. i hate to ask, but you mentioned ‘wizards’ and i am a bit confused.
all my love
yn
-
initially, draco went into shock. he knew he was probably oversharing, but didn’t expect to slip up in that way. he begrudgingly admitted; knowing that if this went badly he would likely be banished from the wizarding world, which didn’t seem like such a horrible punishment to him anymore. and yet she was fascinated, by the coins he sent her, the subjects he learned- which she compared to her own much less exciting ones, and everything he told her about it. he could now talk to her about much more, since both his secrets were now out in the open to her. he told her about the about the houses, and they both agreed she would probably be in hufflepuff, well he thought so, her kind and accepting nature, and she didn’t know enough to disagree. and for the first time in the long time he was seeing things differently, completely diminishing the rude behaviour he often displayed towards the house.
she even sent him a picture, the first time he ever saw her face. a large smile spread across her beautiful features, she seemed to be laughing. eyes glistening in the sun even prettier than he could have imagined. he slept with it under his pillow, and could stare at the still image for hours. no it didn’t move around, but he couldnt care less. he only had one picture of himself in his possession and he was young, about four. she was facinated by the moving image, his blonde hair and attitude shining right through. he would owl his mother for a more recent one, but didn’t want to explain why.
the letters were helping him, but the task wasn’t advancing. his second attempt had failed, he was caught sneaking into slughorns party, and harry was onto him. they were also causing him doubt. say they did get the cabinet fixed, he couldn’t see himself killing dumbledore anymore, the more he talked to her he realized he couldn’t be a killer, as cold as he was to some people, but he had to, didnt he?
most importantly every letter she sent gave him a sense of hope. that the second this is over he could move. away from voldemort, and potter, his parents even, england in whole. perhaps not to canada, but it could be a change, half way across the world with the girl who was helping him stay alive through his letters. he just needed to stay alive long enough too see her.
the seasons changed around draco, but his room stayed the same. hot from mysterious potions, for himself and some for dumbledore, he had not had much hope after the wine, though. it was lonely, not that he’d like y/n here, he’d much rather be there, all the way across the world.
-
may came in a blur, and finals were creeping up. one week y/n sat at her desk, every night, waiting for a letter that didn’t come. on the fifth letterless day she cried. not exactly knowing why, it wasn’t her that had much of a reason to cry, but dracos company had filled her lonely life up with light of its own, leaving it darker than it was before she saw the first letter. she was silly to be so attached and silly to expect him to reciprocate the feelings she had proclaimed in the last one she sent, and should have expected him to stop eventually. so she continued on with school, finding it a bit easier to concentrate now that a draco sized whole was missing from her brain, and her heart aswell.
the next week, though, a letter came, very appreciated by y/n as the whole other universe, british boy forgetting thing wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
y/n
im sorry for not writing, the classmate i mentioned all those months ago woke from the curse, and the potter twat hexed me with a spell id never heard of before. i would have tried to contact with you but i couldn’t exactly trust what my brain was planning on writing, and the cuts are still a bit sore. the cabinets fixed, but even if everything works out okay i won’t be writing very much at all. i’ll be home in july, but the manor will be infested with death eaters and i can’t let you get hurt. thank you for everything l/n.
draco
it stung a little, knowing that the empty feeling the girl just experienced would be more frequent, he didn’t mention anything about what she had said, and that this could be the last time she ever heard from him if he didn’t kill dumbledore. in hindsight, practically telling her she loved him in a letter wasn’t what he needed, she knew that.
-
he left out the fact that he the spell put a him in a huge emotinal draught. he was exhausted constantly, crying even more than before. the cuts were sore, so he wasn’t holding everything back.
the last month of school came and went all to fast for dracos liking, and death eaters now roamed around the castle, causing havoc where ever they could. his trunk had been shurken so small it looked like a small muggle toy he put into his pocket easily. the dark mark that was stretched across his left arm was now hanging in the gray sky, and the headmaster was no where to be seen. he paced anxiously around a vacant corridor until he heard a pop in the astronomy tower. he didn’t think people could apparate into hogwarts, it would have made his job much easier.
‘harry, get snape, i need snape now’ he seemed exhausted, maybe this wouldn’t be as hard
‘sir im going to sit you down okay, and then ill go get madam pomf-‘
‘severus, harry, I need severus now, go get him and talk to no one else’ he said in a shallow yet somewhat urgent and angry tone.
draco waited for footsteps to disappear, before whipping the door open with his wand already ready.
‘oh hello, draco, nice to see you on this fine evening’ he said nonchalantly, leaning his weight against the wall.
‘EXPELLIARMUS’ draco boomed, successfully disarming the man without counter attempts before glancing around to see a second broom
‘who else is here?’ he said sounding confident but feeling the opposite
‘i could ask you the same question, acting alone are you? you don’t seem supported’
‘no, there are death eaters in your school tonight, and i got them here’ he snarked ‘they’ll be up, any minute now, their fighting down below. i’ve got a job to do’
‘well done boy, if you don’t mind me asking a few questions, before you get on with it, im very intrested’ was he kidding? he knew draco was about to kill him right? wanting to stall, and not fully wanting to kill him he nodded his head yes.
‘you seem scared to act until they join you
‘im not scared, you should be scared’ he snarled, unable to contain the fear in his voice any longer any longer
‘oh draco’ he sighed ‘while we wait for your friends arrive, care to explain how you smuggled them in here? i never imagined it possible, especially not by a student’
‘i had to mend the broken cabinet that no ones used for years, there’s another one in borgin and burkes. montague got stuck in told everyone stories about it, how he could sometimes hear what was going on in the shop and sometimes hear hogwarts like a passage, and i was the only one who discovered what it meant. not even borgin, not you either, i did it right under your nose, you didn’t realize anything’ he said
‘you are right, i didn’t know that. i do- on the other hand, know that you aren’t a killer’
he raised his wand a little higher, feeling wheezy and as though his legs would give in any second
‘how you know that, I’ve done despicable things, you wouldn’t even be able to fathom’
it was dumbledore’s time to pause, glancing up at the sky and looking around the room before continuing
‘draco i know you almost killed katie bell and ron weasley. you’ve been trying to kill me all year, forgive me for saying this, but they’ve been very feeble attempts. to be honest ive wondered wheather your heart has truly been in it’
‘it has, and if you knew why didnt you stop me’
‘snape has been watching over you on my orders’
‘ it’s not on your orders, he promised my mother-‘
‘ofcourse he would tell you that, but it happens to be that i trust professor snape’
‘your losing it then, he’s a double agent, he isn’t working for you- he’s been trying to get in on the action all year, helping me and all. doesn’t matter now- he probably doesn’t even know they are here yet, he will wake up tomorrow and no longer be the dark lords favourite, he will be nothing compare to me’ confidence was building within him
‘very gratifying, we all like being recognized for our hard work, but, draco?im standing here wandless and weak, unable to defend myself, and you have not made any move to kill me, dont blame me for believing you will not, but let’s discuss your options’
‘my options’ he laughed ‘im standing here with a wand, about to kill you’
‘oh dear boy, if you were going to kill me you would have when you disarmed me, not stayed for a little chat’
‘i haven’t got any options, don’t you understand, i have to kill you, or he will kill me’
‘okay, if you don’t want to join the order with your mother where we could protect you, i only have one more question’
‘better hurry, theyre on their way’ he almost laughed which was quickly replaced when Dumbledore said his next words.
‘who is y/n l/n’ at that a tear fell down dracos face, and he lowered his wand almost completely
‘i-i don’t know who that is, odd l-last words’ he stuttered
‘draco dont play dumb now, not after we discovered you are very intelligent. we left some of the security measures from last year that Umbridge enabled, and I couldn’t help but notice hundreds of letters flowing to and from her. i looked into student files, ilvermornies too, nothing, id never heard the name, a muggle i presumed. but of all the things, that had me the most confused. i couldn’t figure out why you would be contacting her, so i did some meddling’
‘WHAT DID YOU DO’
‘fiesty all the sudden, are you? i felt bad after opening this, it seemed very personal, and i probably should given it too you sooner, but i was a bit preoccupied double checking my drinks and all’ dumbledore said handing him the letter.
draco
how is the cabinet coming? it’s raining even more here than usual, all day and night. and don’t talk like that, saying you don’t have a future. you do draco, you deserve another chance and infinite amounts of them. you are just a kid, you shouldn’t be forced to be a hero. you are protecting so many people right now, but i don’t need any. you have given my life enough light in the last few months than i ever recall, and im so thankful that letter came to me. i wish you were here with me right now, but i know you can’t be, so just stay alive, okay?
y/n
more tears fell, he hated being so weak at the mention of her, crying before he completed the blessing his father and bellatrix considered the task to be.
‘she’s right, draco, you deserve another chance’
he was speechless, and could tell Dumbledore knew he found his weakness.
‘i always pictured you and pansy, never in a million years imagined you to be in a relationship with a muggle’
‘no matter who does it, your about to be killed, and im not here to discuss my love life am i?’
‘so you do love her?’ before draco could even think he heard a door open and raised his wand, hiding the letter faster than he had ever moved.
‘shut up, they will kill her’ he said quietly and desperately
in walked fenrir greyback, yaxley, and bellatrix. they made banter of their own, but her words replayed. he couldn’t do it.
‘go on draco’ his aunt whispered into his ear, making him shiver.
‘DO IT, DO IT BOY’ she yelled, in a high pitched and annoying voice
he felt a strong arm over his chest, pushing him aside, and he saw the whoosh of snapes robes and an already pleading dumbledore
‘severus, please’
‘AVADA KEDAVRA’ snape shouted, a green flash producing from the end of his wand, hitting the old man square in the chest. draco rushed over to the edge, watching him fall. it was a long way down.
-
the rain had sudsided, sunlight leaking into her room during the day. watching the sky at night, failing to find constellations he described many times to her. her wardrobe was mostly untouched, remaining in pyjamas most of the week. the odd time she did leave, she saw her old friends walking and laughing out her car window. eating and socializing felt like a chore, and she hadn’t communicated with the boy since may. he could be dead, she didn’t know. there was no death on the ‘muggle’ news, and draco wasn’t on the top wanted list, not that he likely would be on the television all the way over here. he could be fine, in wiltshire, going to dinner parties and holding balls. or maybe, he too, was sitting in his room staring at the ceiling for days on end. she had now hung the picture of a young draco by her desk, not needing to worry about anyone seeing. her siblings were once again home, but out living their lives so much that it still felt like they were gone. for the first time she noticed his scroll on the back.
‘i was four when this was taken i believe, my hair is very similar, i was quite sassy, im sure that shows without explanation.’ she blushed while reading, it was true. his hands were on his hips whipping his head around.
-
every day was a surprise around malfoy manor. not the kind of surprise draco liked. not the feeling of butterflies in his stomach when he read y/ns letters, those were replaced by a pit as they were summoned around the large table in the dining room. the first one he attended was horrible, watching his muggle studies teacher being hung above their heads, pleading for the help of severus as she died. he bit his tongue in an attempt to avoid raging about about every comment surrounding muggle culture. each one tore his heart, as he imagined the girl all those kilometres away, the girl he had no contact with, but he looked at her picture as much as possible, and hoped one day he could make her smile again like she did in the image.
-
senior year was here, and y/n schedule picked up once again. her timetable was full, maybe it was best, a distraction, after a whole summer of thinking alone in her room. draco was on her mind at night, no matter how hard she tried to forget. she’d made friends with her creative promotions partner, logan. he was certainly not intrested in her in anyway besides friends, but company after all this time was enjoyable, just in the hour of class
-
draco had little privacy, with death eaters in every hallway, conversing with eachother. wherever he went someone was there, until he finally got sick of it and began going to the garden bench. with a book, sometimes, giving some of the sappy love stories y/n mentioned a try or even the poetry books she sent with noctua awhile back, they were okay, but his heart hurt at the feeling of relation in every line. he could only read one or two poems at a time, without tears forming in his green orbs.
sometimes he went with a pen and a notebook. he wrote about everything. the smell of the plants around him, the feeling in his chest when the dark lord called for a meeting. most of the notebook, though, was filled with poems of his own. and letters he had no intention of sending for her own safety. she wasn’t in harms way, though, other followers were preoccupied with ruining weddings and other things they considered fun. he blabbered on for pages, about how he missed seeing noctua fluttering towards him at breakfast. how he rereads the letter that dumbledore gave him the night he died. how she listened to him rant on and on, giving her support no matter how evil he felt. how he found love where it wasn’t supposed to be.
snow was falling once again, he had to dress in layers, making it hard to write often, the plants started dying as cold settled over and his mother no longer babied him like she used to before the death eaters began inhabiting the mansion. he couldn’t keep himself company any longer and gave into the pressure he put on himself. as long as they were careful, she’d be in no destruction- he prayed as he wrote what seemed to be an appropriate response after all this time.
-
like it had been decades, she flinched at the noise of the owl on the window, carrying a much larger scroll that he’d ever sent before, some parts scratched out and written above. his writing was much less tidy than she remembered, like the letters on the page were anxious for her reaction.
love,
after all this time, im sorry you are just now hearing from me. you have ever single right to be annoyed with me, after you listened to me for months, helping me emotionally in ways i never be able to repay you for. you do not need to forgive me, or write me back. i just wanted to keep you safe. but i needed to tell you everything before it might actually be to late. you’ve probably moved on and forgotten about me, like you should, but i guess im saying that i am alive. i didn’t kill him either. snape did. i thought i was going to be able to, but he started talking about you. he gave me a letter from you that he had already opened, the words repeated in my head over and over. you talked about how i deserved another chance, and how you wish I’d was there with you. right before he died he asked me if i loved you. i knew the answer but didn’t have time to say it. ive read your poetry books, they aren’t as bad as i once thought, i can’t read to many at once. i try to forget what dumbledore said that night, and that night altogether. but one day i read ‘that’s how you know you love someone, i guess. when you cant experience anything without wishing the other person was there to see it too.’ when i sit in the garden i imagine you smelling the flowers, myself picking one and putting it behind your ear. when i go on walks i imagine your hand in mine. youre in my dreams. my never ending thought. i remember the way i felt when we started talking a lot, and how I felt when we didn’t get a chance. you listened to me when no one else offered. not even my parents. i hope your doing okay, and smiling and laughing. i don’t care if we talk about absolutely nothing, i just want to talk to you. i know that’s unfair to you after all ive weighed on you. but i guess that’s all, i love you. draco ♡
well this certainly didn’t get him off her mind. she didn’t need to either. ofcourse she was going to write him back, but she needed time to think about her response. she missed the next day of school, and his owl was comfortably standing on her desk, nibbling away at the water and crumbs. she took an hour long shower, multiple naps, raided her fridge, and had to email the school pretending to be her mum, excusing her for the day. before she even knew what she was going to write, she began on a new piece of paper. she’d have thought longer, but was sure draco would be convinced she stole noctua out of anger.
draco,
wow. i don’t really know what to say. i knew you weren’t a killer, and i meant what i said about you deserving more chances. i will admit i was angry, and a bit confused. i sent that letter with high hopes. i don’t know what i was hoping for at the time, i was being incredibly selfish. but couldn’t help myself feel pained when you didn’t mention it in the next letter when you said harry hexed you. i know we can’t be together, especially not right now, but i love you too. i wish more than anything you were here with me right now, and it was you i’d be graduating with half a year from now. i wish you were in the passenger seat of my car while i drive through the city. i wish you could point out the constellations in the sky. i usually can’t read to many poems either, they get me thinking to much. im ready to write again if you are.
y/n
-
draco hadn’t felt more joy in a long time. around seven months. she loved him, and that was enough happiness for a life time. he just needed to stay alive.
they continued to stay in touch, almost as if they never stopped talking, entertaining eachother as much as possible, masking their separate misery and the distance between them. he could get time away from the reality that was his life for a while, he thought, until snatchers brought the trio he spent so long bickering with to the manor.
a very distorted looking harry fell before him, his hair tightly gripped by bellatrix.
‘well, is it him’ he knew it was harry. and yet a part of him couldn’t bring himself to letting the boy get killed.
‘i can’t be sure’ he lied
‘draco, look closely son’ lucius said loudly, getting a grip on the back of dracos neck before leaning in and whispering.
‘if we are the ones that hand potter to the dark lord, all will be f-forgiven. a-all will go back to how it was’
his father and the and a snatcher quickly got into an arguement. lucius was yelling something about the manor before narcissa calmed him with a hiss.
‘don’t be shy, sweetie come here take a closer look’
draco was know level with him. the scar was still visible on his forehead, and swollen eyes staring back at him, hopeless.
‘what’s wrong with his face’ draco said
‘yes what is wrong with the boys face’ a shrill voice repeated
‘he was like that when we got him, something he picked up in the forest i reckon’
bellatrix walked away, laughing away at something. the blonde boys eyes were still on harry, before he felt a tap on his shoulder. bellatrix began acting out, yelling about a sword, putting ropes around snatchers neck from the end of her wand. sword now in her hand she walked over to ronald weasley, grabbing his collar and demanding that the boys be put in the cellar.
a different draco would have gladly watched a mudblood be tortured by his aunt. but he flinched at every scream of hermione, unable to watch he went to the next room, resisting tears as he thought of the girl he fell for enduring the same. she had moved onto the goblin- ridiculing it about who got into her vault- and hermiones screams were now gone.
‘youre lucky, goblin, the same won’t go for this one’ he heard footsteps
‘like hell it wont’ he heard ron yell, followed by the expelliarmus and what must have been harry stupefying his father. draco rushed in, now dueling a more normal looking harry, until their attention caught on bellatrix, a knife to grangers throat. they dropped there wands, and he did as instructed, picking them up. lucius was summoning the dark lord when they heard a tittering on the ceiling, and the chandlier crashing. it all moved so fast and harry was now wrestling draco for his wand back. he tried, but harry had already pried it out of his cold and shaky hands.
‘STUPID ELF. THAT COULD HAVE KILLED ME’
‘dobby never meant to kill. dobby only meant to maim or seriously injure’ the house elf squeaked, and draco had never resisted a chuckle so hard.
‘HOW DARE YOU TAKE A WITCHES WAND. HOW DARE YOU DEFY YOUR MASTERS’
‘dobby has no master, dobby is a free elf, and he has come to save Harry Potter and his friends.’ and with that they apparated out, not without bella throwing a knife into the mix.
-
meanwhile, y/n was receiving letters of her own. not from draco either. letters from the schools she applied to. so far everything was good, except for princeton, but she didn’t have the highest expectations. she was accepted to the university of british columbia, seattle university, even ucla. she only had one letter left, and the large stuffed yellow envelope sat in her hands. she wasn’t sure about it- would she even be able to go to the univeristy of london? it was far, but draco was there, well closer to there atleast. accepted- it read. it was an option, and she still had weeks to think about it.
-
draco was very hesitant to write after the incident at the manor, the screams of Hermione, and the terrifying looking potter still vivid in his brain and nightmares. he often woke from sleep in a sweat, yet freezing cold. whispers of the war around his house also haunted his mind and soul. he’d walk to the window and look up at the the stars, they were under the same sky, at least. eventually he had to write her, it had been half a month and he couldn’t leave her hanging alone again.
y/n
love, im sorry for being hesitant, but there is going to be a war. i hate to leave you contact-less, but i need you to be safe now more than ever. i couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt. potter and his friends were brought here to the manor, it didn’t last long- they escaped within the hour and a half. with that doped elf, and a goblin too. if you don’t hear from me again, remember i love you. and always will.
draco
of all the letters y/n had recieved, from draco in all, that was probably the most displeasing. a war? like with tanks and bombs? tears were shedding down her face as she wrote the shortest response yet. knowing he most definitely didn’t have time to listen to her talk about schools, and how she got accepted to london, but her parents deemed it to far, ubc would have to do, she’d find her way to him eventually, if they were meant to be.
draco
stay safe, i love you.
yn.
-
draco now stood at snapes new office, dozens of corpses on the floor, pooled in blood. the dark lord speaking parsel tounge to nagini. no one needed to speak it to know that the man was infuriated about something potter had done.
-
the information he left was lacking, was he serious? what did wizarding wars even look like? her graduation date was set, June 6th, but it all seemed irrelevant, suddenly picking out a dress didn’t seem as fun as she thought, same with getting portraits taken. should she have said more?
-
next thing he knew the protection spell was countered and he apparated in, grabbing zabani and goyle by the collar. rushing them into a corridor and waited for the door of the room of requirement to completely vanish before approaching himself. they successfully found harry, opening a box carefully before finally drawing attention to themselves.
‘well well, what brings you here, potter’ draco said, softly, much to his surprise as he meant it to sound snarky and rude
‘i could ask you the same’
‘i believe you have something of mine, and id like it back’ was he becoming… kind?
‘whats wrong with the one you have?’ harry replied
‘it’s my mothers, powerful but different, doesn’t fully understand me, im sure you know the feeling’
‘why didn’t you tell her. bellatrix? you knew it was me, and you didn’t tell her’ he wasn’t exactly sure what to say, nor did he know. harry really didn’t have anything to do with his feelings for y/n, maybe he should have just turned in him when he had the chance, it would all be over if he had.
‘don’t be a wuss draco, just do it now’ goyle whispered in his ear, making him chill the same way bellatrix did on the astronomy tower, almost a year ago.
‘expelliarmus’ hermione half shouted, causing narcissas want to fly out of dracos hands and run the other way.
‘avada kedavra’ goyle missed and weaslebee started chasing after them, yelling something about his girlfriend. turning back around after goyle unsuccessfully casted the fiendfyre curse.
fear was making his body almost rattle as he desperately climbed bookcases in an attemp to outrun the flames. he watched goyle fall, into the orange. yes, he was a complete and utter twat, but wasn’t a half bad friend during dracos bullying peek. his foot slipped, now just his hands were keeping him up, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on. in the distance he saw the three, zooming off to safety in the distance, leaving them their to die. not that he blamed them, after anything he did to them, he would have probably left himself there aswell.
but potter was flying towards him, arm out-stretched, grabbing onto his own and hoisting himself on the broom. had he already died? must not have, because the heat had finally caughten up. feeling as though he was going to pass out, he gripped tighter onto harry, maintaining his position on the broom. so much for staying safe. the second they made it out, they crashed onto the ground. he wanted to thank harry, but found himself running off instead.
explosions and hexes were being sent everywhere. people dying left and right. giants and trolls and spiders helping, he found himself in the slytherin common room. partially because he wanted to say goodbye, as he never wished to return to the building again once he had the choice. and partially as he was now aware of a large burn on his arm, and he felt a need to put off fighting until absolutely necessary. he entered through the portrait, for the last time. it felt like an aquarium, looking out upon the lake filled windows, merpeople and the giant squid often zooming by. he sat down upon the sofa, where he spent countless hours avoiding homework, plotting against potter and swimming in lust of his pure-blood status that now felt like a curse. he went up to his dorm, where he did very similar things. he wondered as to what he would be doing if he was a muggle right now. picking out a suit for graduation, buying a corsage for his date, but he wasn’t, so he best get going. running his hands along the furniture before leaving, not looking back.
the noise in the entrance courtyard had completely been diminished and draco found his way into the crowd of students pooling in. death eaters swarmed towards them at a painfully slow place, his mother and father near the head of the group. he noticed hagrid, towering above them, carrying what could only have been harrys corpse.
he watched carefully as they approached, trying to wedge himself inbetween and behind other students.
‘harry potter is dead’ voldemort paused ‘from now on, you put your faith in me’ silence fell over the hundreds of people who were know gathered. he swished his robes and turned backwards facing his followers
‘HARRY POTTER IS DEAD’ obnoxious and deafening cackles erupted
‘and now is the time to declare yourselves. come to our side, or die’ even more silence fell.
‘draco’ his father hissed before repeating ‘draco’
he felt eyes fall all over him, gazing expectantly. tears ran down his face.
don’t talk like that, saying you don’t have a future. you do draco, you deserve another chance and infinite amounts of them. was this what she meant? he’d been looking for another chance, maybe this was it.
he shook his head no, and noticed his father had fallen a shade of pale he didn’t know existed.
‘Draco, DRACO’ he yelled, clearly enranged, but before he could continue - a movement shifted in hagrids arms, and harry fell out. in a heartbeat draco threw his wand to the scar faced boy. he caught it, looking grateful as he could while casting some sort of spell at nagini. death eaters were disappearing into the air- including lucius, narcissa being dragged with him.
draco didn’t know what to do with himself, he was wandless and he couldn’t fight, unless he wanted to engage in an actual physical duel, which he didn’t. he found himself in the great hall, asking professor sprout if she needed help patching those up, she pulled him into a hug, unexpectantly. he never recalled such contact or connection with a professor. he spent the rest of the battle helping healing wounds with dittany, and caring for those left in the wake. it was a nice distraction from the fact he would most definitely be disowned, left a family-less orphan at 17.
-
y/n couldn’t blame him for not writing, he clearly stated that it might be the last time. but every night she cried until she couldn’t cry anymore, or until she fell asleep. how could she like him so much? they’d never even met. she didnt really need to see him to know him, his letters told him enough about him. and she could only hope- that if he managed through his six year without killing his headmaster, he could make it through the war.
-
he delayed going back to the manor for as long as possible, until he decided to apparate directly into his room. he considered packing his things up, but realized no one was home. he was thankful, he don’t think he would ever be able to fully confront his parents again. he fell asleep in his bed, and slept for 48 hours straight. he slept through very vivid dreams, ones of y/n being tortured the same way as Hermione, ones of the dark lord coming alive once again and killing his mother because of his choices. he couldn’t bring himself to sleep again purposefully, no matter how exhausted he was. the days weren’t much better, his mind raced at unbelievable paces. he saw the dead bodies laying around the great hall, the unrecoverable ones. maybe he should have just fallen into the fire, surely that would have been easier. he was slowly becoming thinner, and always needed multiple blankets to even stay at a somewhat warm temperature, his heart beat faster than normal. he often felt pains in his neck, and his eyes were almost always puffy from crying. he spent so much time in bed he almost didn’t hear his owl flutter onto his nightstand mid afternoon, a small package tied loosely around his neck.
he opened it to see a letter, muggle candies and a worn book. suddenly he felt more awake, and be shot up a little to fast then he should have, sitting on the edge of his bed.
draco.
i don’t know where you are, or if youre alive, if youre reading this now. i hope this doesn’t arrive at a bad time. but your 18 now, so happy birthday. if you are seeing this, i still love you. i think about you all the time. i hope you are okay, and safe. in case you don’t end up writing me back, i just thought I’d give you some random information to keep you company and away from your mind. i graduate tomorrow. i look at your picture everyday. I remember what you once told me about following my dreams, so instead of medicine, im going to study literature and business next year. im staying in kelowna aswell for now, hoping maybe you’ll be able to visit someday. im sure you’d like it. my favourite colour is still green. i don’t know what else to say.
always here to listen if you’d like to talk. yn.
was it actually his birthday? had it already been a month since the war? it felt like a year but the visions played over and over like it was yesterday. it took him awhile before it clicked. the war was over, Voldemort was dead and there was no one to stop him from seeing her. he completely disregarded the lightheaded feeling he got when he stood up to fast- and rushed to his wardrobe. it took him a bit longer than he thought to pack up all his clothes, including the thousands of letters he kept hidden in a large drawer. the trunk was a bit heavier than he may have thought, and he ended up needing to take a car, in fear that he may not be able to apparate successfully to the airport without injuring himself. he quickly found out that muggle travelling was harder than he thought, and security and customs were also apparently a thing that all people needed to get through.
he wrapped himself in his cloak and didn’t get a drop of sleep the whole plane ride. it was nighttime when they flew over montreal, and then toronto. the sun rose as they crossed through winnipeg, regina, and calgary. he didn’t know this himself ofcourse, but he aggressively hit the map on the screen in front of him, desperate to know where he was. he only got an hour of half decent sleep before he felt rattling of the plane landing, and he gripped tightly onto the arm rests. he struggled for half an hour before he even got sight of his luggage on the moving thing that went round and round. compared to London, kelownas airport was very small and easy to navigate. the air outside was hot, making draco feel even more self concious about his clothing choices.
-
y/n put her hair back into a twist with a clip taking a suprising amount of effort to make sure it looked okay. her makeup was natural looking, nothing crazy but she looked gorgeous none the less. she slipped into her black romper, some canadians didn’t wear their fancy dresses to convocation, only something simple to go with the cap and gown. she arrived at the ceremony, seeing everyone, with excited smiles and laughs, conversing amongst themselves. and every memory came rushing back. they sat in rows on a stage, listening to the heartfelt and extremely cheesy speech the staff made every single year. she’d never noticed how many kids were in her age group until they were being called up one by one.
‘alex can’
‘ruth lee’
and the list went on and on until finally
‘y/n l/n’ the moment had come, and she shook everyone’s hand, receiving her diploma and flipping her caps tassel to the left. ‘y/n is staying around next year, and attending the university of british columbia okanogan, good luck l/n’ her principal said and claps continued like they had and the rest of the list finished sooner, or seemed to go by faster, she wasn’t sure. 
-
draco had never had to find a taxi by himself, but once he did he gave the driver the only place he knew, the address he saw on the top corner of her first response almost two years ago.
-
y/n pulled away from the school grounds, watching them disappear in her rear view mirror. it was hot with a breeze, but she smiled the whole way home. she’d done it, made it through every assignment and class, dealt with attention hungry bitches, and crappy teachers. the next door was truly opening. pulling up to her house, and closing her car door as she hopped out, she watched her feet carry her up to the house. turning the corner, she saw him, sitting there on her steps, a present wrapped horribly in his hands, looking very out of place in his black cloak. she stopped in her own steps and he hesitantly stood up, before she launched herself into his arms breathing in his cologne, finally together after all this time.
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blush-and-books · 3 years
Text
i'm about to pass out but needed to write this - JATP + school headcanons
*disclaimer: I am only evaluating their attitudes and performance in what are considered "core" classes in my state. Idk if it is universal. These are also generalizations -- ik theres different types of math and science that they are taking
LUKE
He inspired this so we start with the king
ENGLISH CLASS: He excelled. Somehow, unknowingly, became his teacher's favorite. Did the homework for this class and ONLY this class. A+
MATH CLASS: B-/C+. Does not like math, hates it actually, never did the homework. Somehow averaged a B+/A- on tests and quizzes because he would have Reggie tutor him days before in preparation. Teacher always shocked at how he managed.
HISTORY CLASS: Did not do the homework, but still, like, paid attention?? Had it with all the guys so there were funny moments and events to associate with each lesson and lecture and somehow he remembered it. Again, did not do the homework. Maybe if he was super bored. C+/B-
SCIENCE CLASS: Skipped it most of the time. Would show up for labs and experiments even if he had no clue what was going on. Bobby tried to help but Luke was so uninterested lol, and the teacher was v boring!!! Not fun. D+
LANGUAGE: Took Spanish because its what everyone did??? He thought it would be the most useful but it ended up being such a mistake. He thought that English was complicated, but shit!!! Hard :(( Julie tried to revive his education but fails often (but hes really faking it bc he just wants to keep hearing her speak Spanish and try to teach him). D+/C-
JULIE
ENGLISH CLASS: Aces all of her essays. Emotionally attached to all of her female English teachers!! Sometimes her interpretations of the books are a little off but literally everyone's are. Loves English. A-/A
MATH CLASS: Gifted kid syndrome but only with math if that makes sense?? Got super ahead in elementary and middle school but now that shes in high school she barely knows what's going on and is running out of math classes to take because she was able to jump so much from middle to high school. Has to study the most for this one. Thank god for Reggie. B-
HISTORY CLASS: Could take it or leave it! Likes the subject but hates the teacher. Does well on tests to spite them. Doodles too much on her homework and it annoys the teacher v much. A-
SCIENCE CLASS: kinds vibes ngl??? Something kinds cool about it. Has Flynn in the class, a fun young science teacher, and they all just have a really good time. Julie never really liked science but with the right people and environment shes flourishing!!! A
LANGUAGE: Did not have to take one -- took a fluency exam in Spanish her freshman year. Has minor superiority complex every time Flynn complains about not knowing her language.
REGGIE
ENGLISH CLASS: Got distracted hella easily... Not very fun :( teacher didn't understand that he had ADHD and learned things in a different way. Luke tried to help him cheat on tests tho so he didnt have to repeat the class. D+/C-
MATH CLASS: GENIUS!?!?!?!? GENIUS. Literally took two math classes one year bc he could. Somehow it all made sense. Really loved how numbers were consistent and clearly right or wrong; not subjective. Teachers loved him because he was always kind and positive and brought a smile to everyones face. A+++
HISTORY CLASS: Did not suck at it??? Kinda cool stuff and fun times with his besties. Did better in the class than any of them. Teacher was a total prick tho and Reggie was also late because it was their period right after lunch and he was a slow eater and the teacher didnt allow food. Again: teacher was a prick. B+
SCIENCE CLASS: Enjoyed the labs and experiments, usually aced those because he has exceptional attention to detail. Everything else, not so much. Certain concepts were just very hard to grasp and he had a hard time creating ways to remember things. C+
LANGUAGE: He took French because he knew his mom took French when she was in high school and he thought she could help him and they could bond. That plan didn't really work out -- but he still did okay, even if his mom didn't pay attention. B-
ALEX
ENGLISH CLASS: In between Luke and Reggie -- read the books and retained most of the information, but the essays were not it. He really liked class discussions even though the teacher would tell him his interpretations were wrong (how do you interpret something incorrectly?? Art is up for interpretation?? He will never quite understand). B+/B-
MATH CLASS: Kill him. Least favorite class. Hates math and has hated math since his first lesson on fractions broke his spirit in third grade. Reggie helped him through most of it but shit really did not click. Did his best because his parents would be mad if he didn't. C-/C+
HISTORY CLASS: Very into history for some unknown reason??? The TA in the class was hot so he made sure to pay attention and make a good impression. He was often apologizing for the behavior of his bandmates. A+
SCIENCE CLASS: Did not hate it!!! Had the fun young new teacher instead of the same old dude that had been there for 20 years. She was really fun and sweet (and totally got the vibe he was gay and was super supportive)!!! He didnt quite understand everything but still worked his ass off. B+
LANGUAGE: French with Reggie because he thought it was a more romantic language. Quickly realized his mistake and switched to Spanish the next year. Realized his mistake again (the mistake being that he would be good at learning a new language) and stopped trying lol. C+
FLYNN
ENGLISH CLASS: Her essays are well written because Julie edits all of them. Like Alex, is always told that she is reading the text wrong?? The two of them bond mega over that. Just because she has a wider imagination does not mean she should be punished for it!!! B+
MATH CLASS: Geometry is her jam but algebra makes her wanna commit every degree of murder. Sometimes it clicks and sometimes it definitely does not. Probably dont ask her for help because shes awful at explaining things. B-
HISTORY CLASS: Hates it here!!!!!!!! She hates the curriculum, hates the lecturing, and constantly either feels bored or singled out in every lesson. Is advocating in the district for textbook and curriculum reform to include diverse and pan-ethnic studies. C-
SCIENCE CLASS: Her favorite class!!!!!! Loves everything about it. She isnt learning how the world works through history but instead through the facts of science. She feels invincible in the lab and like she has so much more to discover. She particularly enjoys astronomy. A+
LANGUAGE: Spanish so that Julie could help her out!!! Can barely utter more than 2 sentences in conversation but is perfect on paper and that's more than half of the battle. A-
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britnxyspears · 4 years
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So funny growing up in the "kids/teens/young people self harm for attention and to get out of punishment and work" era of mental health coverage because my onset of everything was super early and while some people did care, it was never because I was fucking killing myself when I was in elementary school, it was because I was pretty and polite otherwise and my overlooming issue was that I was a waste of space because I was learning disabled. That was the pathway that allowed grown people to resent me on a legally understandable level, not being smart in the right ways. It was so awful and also so hilarious.
A little sweet girl with long pretty hair and gentle nature talks about killing herself and makes herself bleed and talks about bugs living inside of her that keeps her up at night, but because she's sweet and angelic otherwise you turn an eye to it. Then you find out she can't do math and while she never disrupts the class by talking, she rarely looks like she's even there any way but physically. You start resenting her so much you physically haul her off and scream at her all the way to a small locked off room in the office every single day. She doesn't get anything done and actually doesn't do anything in there except occasionally stab herself with the pencil. You do that for like 3 years and the only thing you say is that she should feel embarrassed that she gets sent there every day and that when she stabs herself she's doing it for sympathetic attention. She says she actually hates attention and that's why she prefers to not to talk about anything anymore.
Like literally I was so sweet and not even consciously I warped into being bitter and cunty and I was still kind on the ceiling level, I talked back to everything (while never actually interrupting class) and was at the top of my English classes writing about the most fucked up shit ever and occasionally getting a face and a shocked compliment by a sub but never real concern over the physical shit.
Like I didnt go to a big school until 6th grade, , 5th grade I went to like 3 different schools (the one that took up most of the time was a huge mess lol) so it's not like this was "I see too many kids each day" thing.
5th grade was the best, that's when I told my mom about csa and she had her 3rd worst bf and I moved schools and had court ordered therapy. My therapy took up school time so my teachers all knew about it but I honestly dont remember a time any teacher, especially my IEP one, treated me like a regular kid let alone a severely mentally ill kid (which was why I had to go to that school. Other 2 schools had no IEP.)
There was one boy in my IEP class of 5 kids (me being the only "girl") who lost his brother to an OD and while he was a total dick to me I actually treated him better than any other kid in the school because he was clearly going through it. My iep teacher was never anything but compassionate towards him, but every time she'd open her mouth I knew she was going to scream at me, usually in front of as many people as possible. She once yelled at me in the office being sick and throwing up because I had a huge fever and... it was because I was late to her pull out math class. She physically dragged me and shit, screaming that she couldn't believe I was so lazy and would waste her time like this...and I had enough. She did the same thing when I had to go to therapy and I politely reminded her what day it was, and because I was really Tired I remember telling her "unless a judge saying having to go see a shrink for sexual assault for 8 years is also what makes me a lazy waste of your time."
Thankfully mom came early to pick me up so hers and the office lady (who fuckin. Detested me fr)'s composure shifted before responding. But like, inknew exactly what she was going to say. The same as everyone else.
Like that was just elementary. It got worse in middle and high school. Every year I kept getting more physically disabled and my self harm was so much more obvious and I would do it out in the open so unaware and no one... did anything besides give me the suicide hotline magnent at random and call me lazy, obsessed, and attention seeking.
Except my iep aide who was an angel and didng really talk to me about it buy did things to ease the burden. She probably knew about my ED way before I did and that's why she brought in cookies every day to help my "low blood sugar" and she frequently just did my work for me that was obviously too advanced for me. Talked with me about her tons of cats. Always used my chosen name. Etc. Literally a saint.
Ironically the one time someone pointed out self harm, it was my paternal grandmother, pointing to my fucking thigh stretch marks... in a Tone. It was pretty insulting in the funniest way. Lol.
Tldr: I was the little girl in horror movies and crime shows level fucked up and all any adults said was that it was for attention or that it was annoying so they punished me. So fucking whack lmfao.
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gonnabewell · 4 years
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when i think about the roots of my perfectionism... part of it is paying intense attention to detail as a way of avoiding the mistakes that come with inattention (this is most obvious in the way i take tests, or do math problems, basically the areas i used to make frequent “lazy” mistakes as a kid. i’d go over every math problem 3x before turning a test in, checking for not dropping signs, writing out every step fully to make it clear and easy to check and re-check, etc.) this is how i see it most often explained as to why adhd leads to perfectionism. other parts of my perfectionism, when it comes to things like music and art... i’d say are the usual amounts of perfectionism you’d see in an artist, nothing to pathologize.
but the most debilitating way my perfectionism manifests is when i pour way too much into assignments and projects that should be easy/that everyone tells me to “bullshit.” usually things in the humanities, like writing assignments, film assignments, outlining/other facilitated reading assignments, worksheets with short answer questions, presentations or projects with art components that are meant to be easy and boost your grade/look good... and i realized that the motivation behind it isn’t necessarily achieving perfection, but achieving a level of depth that makes the assignment/project actually worth doing to me—essentially, triggering hyperfocus by making it something genuinely intellectually engaging. for example, in gov last year, i couldn’t make myself do the short daily assignments where you’d simply read an article and write a surface level, short, informal response. i just couldn’t make myself. it was intended to be busy/easy work, and in class i just...wouldn’t do it. it was only when i went home, and took a good hour to actually engage with the article and write an in-depth response that i could even make myself begin the task. otherwise, it was impossible. (and then of course id fall behind and it would pile up, etc.)
and this was how i approached nearly every assignment. i physically could not do it if it didn’t interest me, so i had to go to extremes on my own to shift the goal posts and make it into a task that would spark that genuine interest, and then i would have fewer problems sustaining the effort unless it was just, unavoidably repetitive or something like that. in fact, i’d often get super super into it, to the point of totall overkill. and it worked for a while!
in middle school, when i had literally no homework, i could spend hours outlining my entire science textbook in-depth and following whatever tangents of interest would arise until i’d learned the material to the point of overkill (which id then be bullied for lmao). but in high school, the more work that piled up the less sustainable this approach became. and as i started missing more and more deadlines and giving up on timeliness entirely, eventually deadlines couldn’t trigger hyperfocus either. it’s really interesting to me when i analyze these behaviors through a lens of what i now believe to be adhd, because it explains so much why my efforts in school were always so inconsistent. why i could dedicate sooo much time to things that genuinely interested me to the point of being labeled an overachiever (even though that didn’t feel accurate to my motivations), but i never was able to just sit down and memorize my times tables. (like, literally, i memorized my multiplication tables by accident eventually. i didnt know my 7 times tables until like sophomore year.)
and the reason why my struggles with attention were never obvious at all? because for the longest time (until high school broke me entirely lol), i was just genuinely interested in most things, and most (not all) teachers would let me draw or read to stay focused because i was a good student. god i just think about how different pre-calculus and physics were in junior year. i loved physics and it was intellectually rigorous and my teacher loved me, and didn’t mind my zoning out or doodling (or even straight up sleeping) in class because i was smart and got good grades. but my precalc teacher hated me, because everything in that class was rote memorization and repetition, and i just couldn’t do it. not for lack of trying! i told her: “point me to the proofs, and i’ll go home and be able to learn it! i just can’t memorize it, i can’t stay focused”...but then it turned out we were learning things that, although super easy and boring to execute, the proofs for were incredibly complex and would often require calculus to comrehend. and here i was, frustrated, because WHY THE FUCK THEN ARE WE LEARNING ALL THIS BEFORE TAKING CALCULUS IF YOU NEED CALCULUS TO ACTUALLY FUCKIN UNDERSTAND IT?? anyways, that was the first class i ever got a b in because i just couldn’t. and my teacher ended up thinking my inattention was contempt when really i just could barely keep it together. i’d never before had a class, believe it or not, where i couldn’t use my normal “perfectionistic” coping mechanisms to trigger hyperfocus. ever. at all. the class wasn’t demanding and it was an “easy a” and i felt so stupid for not being able to just do what everyone else was doing! and, to make matters worse, almost every day for months she’d call me out for drawing or not having homework in front of the whole class (rsd hell), until eventually she gave up on me.
i could probably go on and on about how these behaviors made school impossible for me by my senior year. but what matters is that now i understand it differently through an adhd lense... and i think it makes much more sense? the way i would explain it concisely would be: in school i relied on raising my personal standards to make boring assignments more intellectually rigorous and trigger hyperfocus. of course this method eventually failed and then i was left paralyzed unable to do anything, yet still with the same perfectionistic mindset. my standards are all or nothing at all, because my attention is all or nothing. at least, that’s my current theory lmao. this might all sound like deranged ramblings to anyone else... originally this post was not supposed to be long but it’s mostly just a way for me to document myself so? yeahh lol
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evawelsh · 4 years
Conversation
a story about toxicity by liberty welsh
There was this guy his name was bear, bear saw eva was sad, and depressed. Bear decided to text Eva and see what was up. “Hey I know you're going through a rough time and I know it's hard, but it gets better. I've been through something similar. Eva doesn't trust anybody anymore, she's been broken so many times and doesn't know how to be fixed, but she took a risk and texted him back. “Hey…, thank you but i don't think you would understand, but thanks for checking up.”
“hey , you can tell me if u want i probably get more than u think.”
For some reason Eva had a sense of trust, a sense of understanding of this guy so she told him most of it. “Ive had 18 surgeries, ive bein raped, i get nightmares constantly every night,ive tried to kill myself 3 difrent time, ive been hurt, im broken, i have a eating disorder, im so broken and so scared nobody can put me back together.”
“ you have no clue how much i relate to all of that, every single one of things i get maybe even worse.”
“You've been raped before…? And youve tried to kill yourself?
“ Yeah i have, and yeah 30+ times i've tried and haven't succeeded.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, just know it'll get better, I promise.”
“Thank you.”
At that moment Eva trusted him more then anyone else, more then she has in a long time.
Over a couple of weeks Eva and Bear got closer, they'd talk almost every day constantly, Eva grew closer to Bear, she liked him a lot.
One day at school while sitting with friends she was texting him and decided to text him and say that she really likes him.
“Yeah i get that a lot” was his response
Liberty almost started crying, for some reason it hurt, more than anything in awhile, she really cared about him, but because she cared about him so much she decided to stay and not stop talking to him, later that night she decided to try again and told him how much she really cared about him. He said he did but doesn't do long distance relationship scenes. He lived in Virginia and she lived in idaho. She said please i can make u so happy, he said okay i'll take the chance. That night they both fell even harder for each other.
The third of dating he said i love you; she was confused and didn't know how to respond because no one ever felt that way about her before and didn't know how to respond. There were such strong words that should only be used when u truly care for each other. She finally said i love you too, it was a big deal to her
That night Eva wrote her boyfriend a very long paragraph about how much she cared for him and waited for him to wake up to respond and see it. When Bear woke up he read the long paragraph and started to cry, because he also never had somebody that cared that much about him and thanked her so much. Bear was also broken maybe even worse than ever but they brought each other back together
Long distance was hard and about 2 weeks in their relationship eva got her phone taken away, she always found ways to talk to him, at first t tell him what happened she commented on a post of his on instagram, saying it doesn't mean the end and she's trying her hardest to get it back, she found a old phone and used it to text him, and at school her old best friend would text bear videos and photos of eva to keep his hope going. Eva later broke her old phone but found a tablet they were calling one night and she go caught and go it taken away, her friend let her use her phone to tell him to add her on facebook so she could text him off her ps4 on messenger, he did and they texted that way for a long time
Eva was soon aloud to have her phone back for 2 hours a day and would text her boyfriend on her ps4 seeing if he could talk because she would use all that time talking to him, they would facetime for 2 hours or if he couldn't would text, it brought them closer together
One night bear told eva something he hadn't been telling her, bear would get these chest pains everyday 3 times a day, he said it would feel like someone put a hot frying pan up to his chest and would just hold it there and not take it off, when he told her it was happening she cried and cried and cried a lot because she knew she couldn't be there to comfort him and to help make it feel better and had to do it over the phone with what time she had left on it
Eva was happy, she wasn't broken anymore, she was happy, one time she was at a sleepover with her all time best friend kate, eva had her phone for the sleepover so she wanted her two favorite people to meet each other and they facetimed her boyfriend all night, in the middle evas phone died so she gave katelynn her boyfriends number so they could still face, kate later kept sending embarrassing pictures of eva to her boyfriend and in the middle of the sleepover eva was texting her boyfriend, and was apparently smiling a lot, katelynn texted him a picture and it made him so over filled with happiness
Later in the relationship it started to go bad; bear was still broken, he told her that if she ever broke up with him he would kill himself gain and it would all be her fault, he said this cause he was so use to being left and thought it was the only way to keep her to stay with him was to tell her that, this broke her, she felt at fault for everything, like everything was her fault
She finally decided to tell her brother to ask what to do he said it was very toxic and he shouldn't be doing thi but sense he never had done something like this before give him a couple days and see if it continues if it does then don't deal with it, it continued after a couple days and she told kate what had happened and how she didnt want to leave even if it meant risking her own mental health so he wouldn't die. Kate almost had to force her to break up with the bear because she was so afraid he would actually do it.
After that he couldn't text her anymore, she was worried, eventually she finally got back in contact and would text occasionally, everytime they texted she would cry, and couldn't stop, almost every time they texted they'd fight and it broke her all over again
One time she was at a game and she texted him they got in the biggest fight yet and she was crying even more than before, she was completely broken, what she realizes that nobody had noticed or cared she was crying and breaking down and nobody asked what was wrong.
She had realized he became the monster she feared and would dream of
One night she was at the school dance with her friends, they had come over earlier and they all got ready together, she was happy for one she found her source of happiness. When she was at the dance, she got a text. The text. He said “hey”
“Hey how are you
“Terrible i can't stop crying “
“what's wrong”
“I don't want to talk about it”
“Please i know u better than anyone tell me”
“My best friend back home in athens killed himself”
“Omg im so sorry”
He wouldn't text back the rest of the night. Towards the end of the night she texted again and “said can i ask u something?”
“Sure”
“Did u actually try,,, to kill yoursellf”
“Yeah 3 times”
“How”
“OD”
“Was it all my fault?”
“Yes”
That night Eva was broken again all over again, she was right it was all her fault, she caused everything and it was all her fault. She cried a lot at the dance and just wanted to go home.
Eva lost her sense of home after that night when she got home, it didn't feel like home, she'd cry and cry wanting to go home but she was home, but it didn't feel the same. It was filled with memories of the monster.
They stopped talking for awhile, until they later got in contact again, he was apparently happier, he told her he had a girlfriend, and how the night bear and eva broke up they got together, this broke eva all together again because she realized she still loved him so much. She pretended to be happy they talked for longer, he told her he didn't want her in his life anymore, this broke her, she told him to tell her what he was feeling before she left and got out of his life for forever
“Are u sure u want me to”
“Yes just say it”
““I FUCKING HATE YOU”
“Yeah, i figured”
“No no no, i've hated u ever scene the day you left”
Eva remembered all the times after words were see said shell just leave because it seemed better for him and he said no stay i care about u still, and she believed him
You're so selfish when it comes to relationships and annoying as hell. I literally hate u anywhere u go u cause pain and i just want u gone and out of my life.
This broke eva one more time, she didn't realize it till now that she loc=ved him she loved him so much that i love outweighed the bad and all the bad things he had done to her, she still love him and wanted him back
This relationship, was very toxic this relationship caused eva a lot of problems mentally, she began to hate herself she came very very depressed, she would cut constantly to try and relax herself and distract herself and to make it all go away even if it was for a brief time, she didn't think she was pretty enough, she thought of her sels as ugly she thought of herself as fat, and not good enough for anybody, so she refused to talk to anybody about anything anymore, she thought that if she kept it all in and bottled it up and never knew nobody would have a chance to hurt her again
One day in math class she got sat next to this person they were named jordan, her and jordan became to grow closer to each other, every day when eva would enter class, even looking like a disaster jordan would say hey gorgeous, or ey beautiful, jordan taught eva how to trust again, jordan helped ever feel better again feel better about herself again, jordan taught her that it was okay to be happy and it was okay to trust people. Jordan taught Eva to love again and to love herself.
Everyday after school Jordan would hang out with Eva at the homework club, Eva told Jordan all of her secrets and all of her stories. Jordan was the first person she learned to trust and the first person who taught her it's okay to be vulnerable. Jordan means a lot to Eva and couldn't live without her.
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linkeai · 6 years
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that’s kinda hot → wang linkai / xiao gui ( nine percent ) → summary: summer school is fun, and at first, neither is the obnoxious boy who gets seated next to you who takes a weird liking to you. → warning(s): swearing, mentions of illness, canadian school terms? idfk → genre: fluff, the teensiest bit of angst → word count: 3,751 → notes: hi i love this and it may or may not be inspired by the boy i temporarily fell in love when i went to summer school :)
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so... you suck at math
you knew you sucked at math pretty much your entire life, and you knew you were still going to suck this year when you started your grade 11 math class
but you didn’t think you sucked so bad that you would fail the class entirely
but, alas, thinking was not your strong suit
because your final mark in math 2201 was 32 :)
and you were NOT repeating a year, and you were not taking the god-awful supplementary exam, 
so summer school was pretty much the only option you had left
and your parents may as well have put a gun to your head with the way they said you had BETTER pass this time
bc summer school isn’t exactly cheap!!
so you went off with equal parts terror and determination in your heart
summer school was only a month long, and you’d already sort of done the course already
so you were feeling pretty good about your chances
until you arrived on the first day :)
the place was a janky looking middle school filled with people that divided into two groups;
group a) the ones like you who were already over it and just wanted to get your credits and get the hell out
and group b)… came in shouting at each other and being generally obnoxious and we’re treating it like they’d just arrived at the party
one boy in particular stood out to you.. not because he was probably the most obnoxious one in the bunch, but because he was kind cute even when he was screaming some nonsense
and as if it was your luck.. when you got sorted into your classes and took your seats, he plopped down right beside you
who in the name of god thought it was a good idea to have two seats pushed together in the rows in an actual summer school, you didn’t know
you just knew that when the teacher told you that these were your seats for the remainder of the month, he turned and gave you a grin that made you realize that there was, in fact, a fate better than summer school
and it was death
summer school is extremely fast paced so class started pretty much five minutes after you were seated
so you took out your notebook and your little pencil case and got ready to inject yourself with some mathematical knowledge
when this dude taps on your shoulder
you don’t even say anything you just like at him like don't you fucking dare ask for paper
and so he asks for some paper
and you’re like yeah man for sure! and tear out a few sheets and give it to him
he gives you the BIGGEST, the DUMBEST smile you have ever seen
and you would never in a hundred years admit that it made your heart do several things.
and the paper… the paper was your first mistake.
the teacher started explaining some of the topics of the first unit when he taps his pencil (thank god he at least had a pencil) on your desk
and you just.. fill with dread bc PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE I NEED TO LISTEN OR MY PARENTS WILL LITERALLY RUIN MY LIFE
and you’re like yeah… what….
and he asks what your name is 
and you’re like???? it’s y/n
and he does the smile again and … oof
he tells you his name is linkai and you just awkwardly bob your head and turn toward the front again
and linkai has the GALL to tap on your desk again and maybe you’re being a liiittle hot-tempered but in your head, its like W H AT THE FUCK DO YO U WANT DUDE
and this boy has the audacity to look you in the eyes and say “you’re kinda cute.”
your brain short-circuits at the same time your heart goes into overdrive
and you can’t really do much else but stare at him for a long minute and just as you’re about to answer him, you hear a loud yell from the front of the classroom.
“you two! is this gonna be a problem? seriously?”
“no ma’am!” the two of you say in perfect unison
and class carries on
the classes last about four-ish hours every day
and for the ENTIRE first day
linkai is doing sometHING to test your sanity
when he’s not humming, he’s drumming a beat on the desk,
when he’s not trying to make conversation with you, he’s whispering little side comments about the lesson 
and you’re too afraid to tell him to stfu because he’s still really hot and you’re a little intimidated
and this goes on for the next three days of the first week until you snap
he turns to you and he’s like, “y/n, your hair looks really good today.”
and you slowly turn, look him dead in the face and say very slowly; “if you don’t shut the fuck up, i’m going to beat you to death with this calculator”
the next few seconds pass like several eternities, where you revel in the thinly veiled shock and terror in his eyes
until a cheeky grin slowly spreads across his face, and he says, shamelessly;
“that’s kinda hot.”
and at that moment, you turn back to the board and take a long, agonizing moment to grieve over both your two precious math credits as well as your life which your parents will inevitably soon take from you
things get so much weirder after that
you think he goes from talking to you to entertain himself to actually liking you after your feisty little outburst
and you quickly learn that when linkai likes someone he’s … extremely odd
but?? kind of adorable?
the weirdest thing he does is he starts bringing you ‘gifts’
and it's so creepy but so ridiculously endearing when he pulls a bouquet of crumpled dandelions out of his bag and hands them to you
theres a few ants crawling on them and they’re ruined from being in his backpack
he hasn't even put anything on them to hold them together
and you’re not really sure if you want to thank him or not but you do anyway because like.. c’mon man
and he’s looking at you with those puppy dog eyes
so you say “thanks, linkai. these are uh.. nice.”
theyre really not but when his eyes kinda light up a little and he turns away with red ears and hides his smile in his hoodie you’re like.. these are the most beautiful flowers i have ever seen in my entire life
and that, my friend, was your second mistake
he brings you a new gift every day
one time it was half of a cookie from the gas station mcdonalds down the road
once it was an actual fucking newt like a little lizard that he found somewhere and you literally begged him to keep it for himself
another time it was an eraser shaped like a cupcake that was very clearly used
but you kept every single present he gave you
except for the lizard because what the genuine fuck dude
he also comes up with new nicknames for you every day
and they’re even cringer than they were the day before every time without fail
he strolls into the room, plops down beside you and hands you your daily present with a “good morning, ___”
the blanks thus far include, honey, darling, sweetiepie, cupcake, pumpkin, gumdrop, cutie patootie, my cinnamon apple, munchkin
and you don't know why you look forward to seeing what he comes up with next
and even the very worst of the presents and the nicknames make your heart flutter
and you realize you are slowly becoming whipped for this weird kid
and that this is very bad because you’re literally desperate to pass this class and its hard when you spend all your time waiting for his next comment or thinking about him being next to you
but like a dummy, you don't ask to be moved and you don’t even ask him to shut up
well you do, you regularly tell him to shut up but this man takes insults like compliments and it seems to feed into this idea that you like him
which you do but that's none of his damn business
and about halfway through that short month of school, you realize you’re not going to be ready for the exam
you start losing sleep over it because this is really not good
and you also realize that this isn’t linkai’s fault, really, you can’t push the blame onto him because you didnt want to ask to be moved away from the cute boy
and that makes you feel even worse
so you come into school one day looking about as miserable as you feel
you actually get there after linkai for the first time because you were in the bathroom trying to make yourself look more alive
but it doesn't work because the second you walk in and linkai (who was previously looking a bit like a lost puppy) says “hi sugarpl- damn, you look rough.”
you give him a half-assed glare and slump into the seat beside him, not even having the energy to be sarcastic.
“wait, y/n, are you okay?”
the concern in his voice makes your stomach turn a little but you just kinda look at him and you’re like.
“i’m gonna fail. again.”
and he's surprised you actually answered him so he kinda stalls for a second
and then he's like “i can help you? if you want?”
and you almost want to laugh bc you have not seen the kid take a single note since you got here
but he's like “lets go sit at one of those tables outside after this and i’ll help you with what you don’t know.”
and you’re like yeah sure i guess bc i mean.. he's cute what are you gonna do? say no?
and then he gets his bag and pulls out a pack of colorful scrunchies and hands them to you
and you instinctively tear up bc they look super new so he definitely like.. went to a store.. saw these.. thought he should get them for you..took them off the shelf.. bought them with his own money.. and now they’re here
and by the will of god you don’t start weeping in front of him
and you feel weird walking with him outside as he greets all his loud friends and is like nah i cant go with you guys today i gotta do something
you two sit down outside and you whip out your book and he’s like so what is it? what are you having trouble with?
and, in shame, you admit that you really don’t know shit all
and he just kinda laughs and he’s like aight let's do this
and let me JUST SAY
YOU. ARE. FLOORED.
he starts explaining the first concept to you and everything he says is making? perfect sense?
he explains things very clearly and intelligently and you immediately understand what you have to do 
he has his own way of solving problems that is faster and more efficient and literally whips through every equation.
when he finishes explaining, you just stop and stare at him in awe for a second and he's like “sorry, did that make sense?”
and in your head you’re like nothing has ever made sense more than what you just did right now
but outwardly you’re like yeah thanks so much
and he continues to explain things to you and by the time a few hours have passed and its getting late and kinda chilly, you already understand half the things you were lost on
you tell him you should get home now and he’s like, oh, yeah, sure, okay.
and you really have to ask him how he ended up in summer school? because he’s obviously extremely intelligent with how easily he understands all the concepts
and he gets a little shy
and he tells you that during the year, he had to work a lot during the school days because his mom is sick and off work so they’re not making a lot of money
and that she had a doctors appointment on the day of the final and there was no one else to take her and it was all really last minute so he missed it
and so he ended up failing math and had to go to summer school
he waits with you until your bus comes and sends you off
and you’re just like.. sitting there.. thinking
and you start to feel like the biggest piece of shit for multiple reasons
first, because you had made so many wrong assumptions about linkai
he wasn’t just some obnoxious imbecile. he was hard-working and obviously had a really big heart
he was loud, yeah but that was just his personality
and you had gone and assumed he was dumb when he was pretty much a genius
but worst of all, you realized that he actually genuinely liked you
all the little pet names, the gifts, the constant talking to you in class was because he just… liked you. it was his own little eccentric way of showing it
and you had treated him like he was some big joke. a nuisance, even.
you didn’t sleep very well that night, either.
the next day he brought you a donut and called you donut.
and you almost cried again 
he was also wearing a different red sweater he’d never worn before and his hair was kind of different and he looked so good
and so you smiled at him and said, “morning, handsome.”
and there was nothing sweeter than the way his face turned as red as his hoodie.
he helped you that day after class too,
and the next, and the next
and you exchanged numbers so you could ‘ask him questions while you were home’
but you two would start texting and having all kinds of conversations
from the most crackheadassery shit to some really deep stuff
you never knew that you could fall so hard for someones voice, the way he talks on the phone when he’s calm and tired, his voice husky and quiet
but shit, you were whipped like whip cream
there was this one time he texted you at 6 am
and it said something like “i just got home from work and i saw a cat in my mailbox blah blah”
and you were like.. pause. just got home from work?
and from there you realized that because summer school was mandatory he was going to work at night to make up for the day shifts he had to miss
and probably getting 2-3 hours of sleep if he was getting any and all
and that was kind of the deal breaker
and you realized that, in such a short span of time,
you had completely fallen in love with wang linkai
and you were determined to do something, anything you could to just.. make things better for him?
you just wanted to be his person
the two of you continued staying after school and studying for an hour or two and then texting throughout the rest of the day, right up until the final exam
the two of you had studied vigorously together, both in person and over facetime.
and the night before the exam comes and you get a text
and all it says is “y/n, something bad happened.”
your heart immediately sinks to the floor and you abandon the petty ‘wait two-three minutes before answering’ rule and just call him
he picks up and doesn’t even say hello and you’re so frightened to see such a bright creature so… burned out
he explains to you that his mom finally got an appointment with this really important specialist after months of waiting
and that it was supposed to be next week, but it got moved to tomorrow
and it’s on the other side of the city
and he’ll miss his exam
it really hurts to hear the shake in his voice, and how hopeless he sounds
and you ask him everything like are you sure theres no one else that can drive her but you? are you sure you cant have the appointment moved back?
and its all a pretty resounding no.
and so you think and think and you’re like; you know what? i have an idea.
and you run into your moms room and explain the situation to her and BEG her to do this for you and take linkai’s mom to her appointment for him
and she asks to speak to linkai for a second and you’re just twiddling your thumbs
and he kinda makes her smile and laugh a little and your heart could just BURST
and she agrees to drive her after getting his address and his moms name and the place of the appointment etc
and when she hands the phone back to you, you go back to your room and when you put the phone to your ear, you hear linkai sniffling on the other end
and you’re like “kai?? are you crying?”
and he’s like “no… fuck maybe a little bit.”
and you’re like ?? why, what else is wrong?
and he’s like “nothing.. nothing is wrong, it’s just.” and he takes a big breath. “thank you so much.”
and you kinda tear up a little bit too and you’re like.. “of course.. you don’t have to thank me.”
and he just takes a biig breath and calms down and then he starts talking in a really soft voice.
“y/n.. you know i like, really like you, right? i know you think im just bored or playing some game, but im not. i knew you were special, and im..” he kind of laughs at himself. “fuck, im really falling for you.”
and now you are crying too
and you tell him you’re so sorry and that you wish you would have just. been better from the beginning
and you tell him that you feel the same way and the both of you are just giggling and he tells you thank you a million times and that he cant wait to see you tomorrow
so the exam comes
the two of you take it and you’re kind of lost on what to do with yourselves other than studying lol
but you both feel really good about the outcome
and there's something really special about the two of you sitting outside waiting for both of your moms to come and get you
and when they do, you get in the car and your moms are like best fuckin friends already
and you’re all laughing as the four of you go to eat lunch together and linkai’s mom tells him that the specialist set up a plan for her and it looks like things are going to get better really soon.
and theres a happy kind of pain in your chest when you look over at him and see that he’s getting teary eyed
and you know exactly what he’s feeling - its that feeling like fuck, things are so good right now, everything is perfect, please don’t take it away
and so you’re a little scared but more excited when you reach over and hold his hand.
and he looks at you and you smile at him. you don’t have to say a word for him to know exactly what you’re thinking
‘i’m here. things will be okay. things will get better. let me carry this weight with you.’
and he squeezes your hand so tight it hurts
but you dont mind
a few days later, the two of you return to get your final examination results
and you’re both shaking and bickering bc you’re like “why are you nervous when you know you passed”
and the two of you take the envelopes and go stand outside by the same table you sat at everyday.
you open your cards at the same time and look at the results and you scream while linkai lets out a big huff of relief
yours reads ’84’ and his says says ’93’
your card flutters to the ground as you jump forward into his arms
and he’s laughing and holding you so so tight, swinging you around and he’s still kind of shaking but in a good way.
and you pull away from the hug and just look at him, and he’s got that look in his eyes again
the look that says he’s so happy and he’s afraid he’s going to lose it
and before you can think twice, you grab his face and kiss the thought right out of his head
and he smiles into the kiss, grabbing you the second you pull away and bringing you back for more
you two pull away and just look at each other like.. who knew?
and he kisses you again on the lips, then kisses all over your entire face
and the horn honks a few feet away from where your mother is waiting for you with a small smile on her face.
and you kiss him one last time before you walk back to the car with your hands tightly intertwined
and you are so fucking glad you suck at math
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shadows-taller · 6 years
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bucky, 41, getting together story💘
this took way too long and I have no excuse. also it’s super long and I got carried away. whoops. usually I don’t like using the whole y/n thing but I feel it was unavoidable here. anyway. I hope you enjoy!
“I know it’s 2am but can we meet up”
The absolute best thing about getting a text from a wrong number is the sheer fun you can have fucking with the person who texted you. For example, Wanda got a wrong number one time detailing how her child was a disruption to this woman’s daughter and how she was no longer invited to this family’s barbecue. For a solid four days she pretended to be this kid’s mother, and it only ended when the soccer mom threatened to call the cops. To date, that’s your best wrong number story, and to be fair, it isn’t even yours. 
You haven’t had much luck as far as messing with strangers, your first and only attempt being the incident at the Apple Store in Times Square when you were drunk. Needless to say, you haven’t gone back to the area in a long time.
Ever since moving to New York, you’ve learned that the people are friendly when you get to know them and treat them like people rather than tourist attractions. You might even call yourself one, on occasion - god knows your whole family back home thinks you’re some sort of socialite now that you’re in the big city.
Most of the time, you’re just lucky if you go out to lunch with Wanda or Val once a week. That and the debate club you frequent once a month, held at a bookstore a few blocks down from your street. The only interaction you have with men is in class and the guy who works at the bookstore on weekends. He’s seen you at your worst, from the morning to get a book for class and in the evening when you just finished a part of a series and need to find out what happens next. And dressed in pajamas in both situations. No way will you strike up conversation with him anytime soon, that’s way too embarrassing.
All this to say, school doesn’t make for much wiggle room in your schedule. And your social skills have become a bit lacking thanks to this fact
Luckily, today, a Saturday, has left you enough time not only to get ahead on your studies, but also to get lunch with Wanda, go to the library and the small museum in your neighborhood (because you’ve always wanted to but, again, time is a cruel mistress), and be back home with enough daylight left to make a decent meal for yourself.
Of course, some fucker has to text you in the middle of the night with some bullshit like;
Unknown: i know its 2am but can we meet up
You hear the buzz on your nightstand, wake up enough to reach over and turn your phone on, and type out a response as well as your still mostly-asleep brain can.
You: who’s this?
Prepared to fall back asleep, your head has barely hit the pillow when your phone buzzes again. And then a second time, to add insult to injury.
Unknown: james, from ur anthro class?
Unknown: ur my partner for the project
Groaning, you sit up and prop a pillow behind you. Reaching for your glasses, you prepare to let the guy down, too tired to mess with him. But just as you’re typing out a sorry, wrong #, he messages you for a third time in a row.
Unknown: u know, with Banner? The man who cant answer questions for shit
Now that makes you wake up a bit. Not only because Dr. Bruce Banner is, in your opinion, one of the best anthropology professors at your college, but because he’s helped you pursue your degree in that exact subject area. Dr. Banner’s been a huge impact on your academic success, and this guy is just flat-out wrong about him.
You: first of all, why the fuck are you messaging me (or anyone) at 2am
You: second, wrong number. but banner’s a genius and you’re wrong.
Now you’re fully awake and ready for a debate. It’s why you joined a debate club - sometimes, the need to argue should be directed in more fulfilling avenues. But it’s 2 AM, for chrissakes.
Unknown: i didnt say he wasnt a genius. he just cant answer questions.
You sigh.
You: what sort of questions could you possibly have that he couldn’t answer
Unknown: why do you care anyway
You: it’s kind of my major, smartass
Unknown: shit alright its about this project on like African masks
You: there’s lots of those can you narrow it down
Unknown: i dont know how to! thats my problem
You: did he give you parameters for the assignment?
At this point, you decide to add this guy as a contact, even if out of pity for his apparent lack of skill in the field of anthropology. Maybe this could become a thing, you help him in anthro, he helps you in… whatever he studies? That’s a good question, actually.
Wrong # James: yeah he told us to write on african masks
Wrong # James: like write abt them not like ON on them
You: ok. Well what did you talk about in class?
Wrong # James: masks? from different regions
You: so like what masks from different regions looked like?
Wrong # James: ya
You: did you have a favorite?
Wrong # James: not really?
You: well maybe you should do some research on that and find a region that has masks/symbols that interest you
You: and also get your partner’s number lmao
Wrong # James: ur more helpful than he was tho
You: tough shit u still need to talk to him
You: what major are you anyway
Wrong # James: biomechanical engineering
Wrong # James: so like the opposite of anthro
You: true
Wrong # James: sorry abt waking you up btw
You: it’s no big deal lol
Except that it kind of was. You look at the clock, and it reads nearly 2:30.
Wrong # James: still its kinda late
Wrong # James: I feel bad now
Wrong # James: (…)
Wrong # James: do u wanna meet up sometime? when its not 2am? I need so much anthro help
The smile on your face is wide, because you were just about to suggest the same thing. You take a second to think about your response, but another message comes through before you can send something.
Wrong # James: nvm thats weird pretend i didnt suggest it
You: no! I was actually going to ask you the same thing. god knows I could use some calc help
Wrong # James: calc is so much easier than anthro shut up
You: math is the work of the devil
You: so you free tomorrow?
Wrong # James: ya is 4 good?
You: sure! Campus library?
Wrong # James: yea
You: wait I don’t know what you look like
Wrong # James: tall, brown hair?
You: that’s half the school population
Wrong # James: I’ll be in a stark industries shirt with a leather jacket and a dark green backpack, in the little area behind the sci-fi stuff
You: good that actually does narrow it down
Wrong # James: Wait I don’t know ur name wtf
You: it’s y/n
Wrong # James: see u tomorrow then, y/n
It’s 3:00 and you have an hour ‘til you meet up with James, so you’ve decided to stop by the little grocery store near your place to get some snacks. You don’t know what he’ll like, so you get some water and a few different types of candy, as well as some fresh fruit. On your way to the library, you stop by the bookstore to get another copy of one of your favorite books for anthropology - Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. You figure James might appreciate a more compelling, interesting read in the midst of textbooks and scholarly articles.
You come to the register and put the book on the counter, eyes cast down like usual. The guy at the counter, somehow always working when you’re there, takes it and rings you up. As you hand him your member card, you glance up to see oddly familiar white lettering. And a leather jacket. And a secondary glance tells you that his name-tag reads James (Bucky). You feel yourself pale as you look up at his face.
“Holy shit.”
He just looks at you, confused.
“Is there something wrong?”
For the first time since your first visit to the store, you look him straight in his pretty blue eyes. You get a sudden burst of confidence, and your shocked expression melts into a nonchalant shrug, smirk dancing at the edge of your lips.
“No, just this random asshole texted me at 2am asking to meet up.”
//send me a prompt
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So, some backstory is neccessary (imo) for some of the ideas in my album to really make sense. (TRIGGER WARNING- it gets dark, and is about mental health, so if you arent in a great place maybe dont read, but it's your call)
I am the youngest of 3 biological siblings, but a total of 6 siblings, but one of them no longer remains in contact with us. And the other is incarcerared. But, my sister's are pretty freaking awesome people.(btw My parents basically raised my mom's step sister's children, so i really consider them to be my siblings). My oldest brother (bio bro) was 11 years older than me, my eldest sister and first born of my parents is 13 years older than me, my second sister is a blessed middle child and is 7 years older than me, and my youngest brother is 5 years older than me. Needless to say i was the baby of the family and treated as such 😂
Moving on, my oldest brother was 17 when he enlisted in the Army. He needed my parents permission. They talked it was what he wanted to do and so he went. I was 6, and omg it was terrible. My mom has found old school journals of me writing about how much I miss my brother. I would have really bad nightmares as a kid (up until i was 11 i slept in my parents room on a little blanket bed on the floor because of how terrifying these nightmares were i didnt want to be alone at night). And i would cry at night. And i wouldn't really be sure why. But it would be so intense and i just could not stop.
And my family would surprise me, and other people in the family, when he was on leave. He would just walk in the door late at night and everybody would be crying and be so happy and excited. One time he came home and my parent kept me home from school for the morning, and i was like "okay im ready to go to school" and they were like "let's just wait a minute" and i was like "um weird but okay" and then some time later, i hear the basement door in our kitchen open and this dude walks around the kitchen corner into the living room and then as he came closer i realized it was my brother and i was so excited and happy and im sure i probably cried.
But dont get it twisted. My brother was a dickhead. Like one time we jumping on the trampoline and he was just tormenting me and i finally broke down and called him an asshate because he kept calling me an asshole and i thought he was saying asshat (tbh he probably was, he was weird, it's were i get it from).
But anyways, when he finally got out of the military, I think it was only 2-3 years but for a 6 year old that's forever, he still lived with my parents and me and my other brother. And then he went to work for the gas companies and we would go visit him when he was out of town on the job. Dickhead was always leaving.
But, Dickhead was also one of my most favorite people I have ever known or met on this planet. I used to take dance lessons and every year they would put on a spring show and i was apart of it one year. We had an afternoon and evening show. My parents and grandparents and i think my sister and aunt and cousin probably all came for the afternoon show. Somehow it got arranged that my older brother would pick me up from the evening show (i think he still lived with us im gonna have to check with my parents). Well, the show was running later than expected and so he came at the time he was supposed to and i was still dancing, so he got to see the second half of the show for free. And then, we bullshitted in the car, called each other foul names as was the usual and laughed about it, and then he took me to the local Wegmans, and used pocket change to get us some gummy cherries. And he showed me this neat trick where if you hold the bag up just a little you can get the candy for a cheaper price. I'm pretty sure my 13 year old self thought this was totally badass and amazing. Still kind of do. Fuck capitalism. And so he's driving us home, its dark out by now, we're eating the gummy cherries and he says they look like dogballsacks. So now, that's what we called them the rest of the ride home. It was really great that he just did that for me. And he actually sat and watched the show. He could have easily turned around and waited outside in his car. His red Cadillac.
Anyways, he eventually moves out, gets an aparment near my aunts house, moves out of that apartment into a new one, his gf moves in with him, and he starts taking classes at the local college. Just gen eds, he planned on transferring to get a degree in nanotechnology. I was in high school, and one time we switched homework because he hated math and I hated english, but i didnt know how the college math class he was taking wanted me to solve the problems so basically i got him to do my hw, and he still had to do his hw too. But I'm pretty sure I had to add to mine too because my hs english teacher wanted us to annotate a certain way and shit. That was in tenth grade I think.
In 2014, the same year, my eldest brother took his life. He was 26, a few weeks shy of 27. I was 15 at the time and immediately stopped attending public school, and eventually made a full transition to home bound. It's where a teacher comes to your house and brings your work and tutors you like two-three times a week. It was really nice, but really isolating and lonely. I started tsking antidepressants and going to therapy, both individual and family, but stopped all three of those things eventually all at different times for different reasons. For my junior year i did online school through the local hs. It sucked. It was terrible. Probably the worst i ever did academically. Like C's and D's started popping up with my A's and B's. I just wasnt learning and wasnt understsnding and didnt feel comfortable reaching out for help.
I would say I've pretty much been in emotional turmoil since I became counsious and could remember things. Yes. It is all in my head, but that's the problem. And now, im ready to get professional help. Because i want to remember my brother. Every single memory of him i want to always keep. But I've spent a really long time trying to actively forget and black out the memories because it just hurts so fucking much almost all the fucking time. I feel like ive been burning my brain away with marijuana just to survive. And now im ready to change and need the help to change. But i have no money to pay for that help. And my insurance does not cover it fully which is what i need. So, im just out here, trying my best and living my life. Im always going to try.
I've found music to be really healing, and have put everything i have into making this album. It's raw, and personal, and explicit. It's physically difficult for me to express myself by talking, but singing and writing are so natural and easy to me. And no im not a great singer, or writer, but it's what i love and enjoy doing. More practice=more skill/talent.
I hope anyone who stumbles upon this, (including my future self) is inspired to do something they love not because they are good at it, but because they love it. That's the only thing that matters. When im old and wrinkly and dried up and crusty, I want to remeber myself as happy, kind, caring, strong, passionate, and i want to have so many memories of peope, places, and things that I love.
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burningalight · 4 years
Text
my binders/locker in grade school were stuffed with so much shit i couldnt find anything...always crumpled up papers, trash etc
chewed pencils/pens, broke them taking them apart in class, lost them, often didn’t have one, frequently borrowing them and forgetting to give them back to the point that certain people wouldn’t give me pencils
could comprehend reading i liked very well, but when we’d have reading groups with boring books id always be lost,  or when the teachers would have one on ones and have u read something short and ask questions after to assess ur reading level, they’d often have to tell me to read it again bc they knew how much i remembered didnt add up to my intelligence and reading speed 
moms college friend gave me an unoffical iq test and i did much worse than i know i shouldve on the reading portion bc she’d play a story and then ask me after to list every detail i could remember and i couldn’t remember anything. but when she played 10 numbers and asked me to say them out loud backwards i scored extremely high ?
couldnt do projects, would be in tears, last minute every time, parents mad bc i need a poster board RIGHT NOW ITS DUE TOMORROW . hated assigned reading, horrible at essays even when they helped us plan them. 
i remember my 7th grade social studies teacher assigning a paper, i wrote extremely detailed and well in the first paragraph or 2, and the following ones got shorter and shorter and were completely bullshit bc i got bored. she told me ‘really strong first paragraph.’ and gave me a B  
talk too got damn fast. customers constantly telling me to slow down bc they cant understand me
my mom always says she had to challenge me as a kid bc i would get bored and get in trouble. i was acting out bc i was understimulated, i happened to like learning (esp numbers and puzzles) bc smart so that’s what i could fixate on and felt stimulated by
lunch detention frequently in 8th grade in my first highschool class, algebra, bc i wouldnt do my homework, at one point he just stopped giving lunch detention for that bc i wouldnt do it. i hated that class bc the math was boring and i never paid attention but would somehow pull off a’s and b’s on tests so i ended up with a B. my first B, and i had brought that up from a D (told my mom it was almost a C, he gave a really hard test and we all did bad etc, when she had to sign a paper about my low grade) at the end of the year, during the exam i was so confused the whole time, it was my first highschool exam and i didn’t know ANYTHING. i ended up with a 92 from guessing, and a curve, and every one of my friends got at least a 93 or better and i felt so stupid bc i was supposed to be the best at math
i would take every highschool class in honors but not one english class bc it required more essays and summer reading and i knew i wouldnt do the reading and would cry over the essays
the only other class i didnt take honors was chemistry bc i knew the honors teacher had a lot of projects and i would be stressing over them. i ended up with an A in the standard chem class even tho i never finished any work in class and didnt do homework, but i was still the smartest in the class and did the best overall
lunch detention for forgetting to get papers signed like report cards. they weren’t even bad grades i just couldnt remember. one time i got actual detention for forging my moms signature bc i got lunch detention for several days straight bc i kept forgetting to get the paper signed 
often had permission slips waiting to be signed the day before the field trip, or told my mom it was picture day the day before or morning of. one time i totally forgot it was picture day and didnt dress up
acting out and not thinking ab the consequences, many referrals.. many more times that my teachers let me get away with acting out when someone else doing the same thing would’ve been punished. one time anna and i left in the middle of class to go with emma to the library, only emma had permission, and my teacher had anna and i do wall sits instead of going to the office. in gym in middle school i would never dress out. i hated the clothes and hated gym bc i was awkward and if we didnt dress out we had to copy pages out of the health textbook the entire time and i would barely write 2 paragraphs bc i was so bored and my hand hurt and he never did anything ab it. i wouldnt dress out at least twice per week if not more. told my mom I had a C bc he had it out for me but i was the problem
in elementary school if we didn’t come to gym day wearing the right shoes we had to go into the back and pick out a pair of sneakers that fit out of a box of shoes, and also borrow socks if necessary. i had to do this frequently bc i never remembered to wear the right shoes
i would extremely often forget my library books and have to sit on the couch waiting for everyone to pick out their books for half an hour
when we were even younger we’d have story time and you had to sit in the middle of the floor inside a big circle of chairs where everyone else was if you forgot your library books. i lost one at one point for months and my parents didnt just pay for it so i had to sit in the middle every time. we found the book on a shelf somewhere in the house 
my chorus teacher never liked me bc i talked too much and i always felt like the worst singer, not bc of my singing but bc she wasn’t ever nice to me
in 7th grade science we learned latin root words and every day we’d play a game where we all stood up and one by one he’d ask for a root and we’d give it. if you got it wrong on the first round you’d have to write it on a piece of paper x amount of times and turn it in. if you were the last person left you were allowed to sit on your desk for the rest of the year, during these games while everyone else had to stand up. i wanted so badly to sit on my desk, esp bc i was fidgety and couldnt stand still, but i would never study them bc i’d forget or not want to if i did remember, even tho i really wanted to know them and sit on my desk. that teacher had a huge soft spot for me and one day i just started sitting on my desk during those. everyone knew i was smart, and it was all the smart kids who got to sit on their desks, so no one questioned it. im not sure if he knew i wasnt supposed to and just let me, or didnt realize i hadnt won bc i was smart. 
hyperlexia? mom said i could practically read before i was taught. i’ve always obsessively air written, ie writing words out w my finger in the air, on my leg etc. 
esp during lectures i doodle excessively to the point that my papers margins have always been covered with random scribbly overlapped words, or song lyrics. the words are usually something someone in the class said. ive started keeping an extra sheet of paper just for scribbling when im taking notes or listening in class. when we finished end of year tests in school i would write down full lyrics to songs on my scrap paper so i wouldnt be so bored. my hand cramps up so much but it was better than staring or trying to sleep with the lights on 
doing things and forgetting to turn them in
hyperfixating on books to cope w boredom and social anxiety, at one point read one per day, i was definitely one of the most frequent people in the library 
‘ The way I see it is if I can get information into my mind, I can do a lot with it but getting it in there in the first place is the really difficult part.’ - not mine
none of my teachers ever told my mom any of this i dont think, bc i was the smartest and i always got good grades, most had a soft spot for me BUT COULDNT SEE I HAD ADHD like damn. one time my fourth grade teacher whom i liked a lot was mad at us and indirectly calling people out, and referred to the fact that some of us never stopped talking , then made direct eye contact with me and i felt rly embarrassed bc i didnt realize i did that until she mentioned it
i often had to move seats if i was near friends bc i wouldnt stop instigating talking
at big lots when i had to run the register i was so painfully bored , fidgety, had to sneak my phone soo much bc i was so bored. when i was on the floor i would put away the go backs very quickly and then take upon myself a project like going through the entire wall of individual drinks and pulling out all the expired ones, it was like 5 carts full. my manager put me in charge of organizing the entire makeup section and all the gross clearance makeup bc she knew id do it the best and fastest 
when bosses have me do inventory i can count the products super fast and efficiently, but then when they have me put them into a spreadsheet i stare at it for hours getting nothing done bc distracted and its boring. ammar told me if i’d just get off my phone i could get it done bc he’d been asking for it for weeks, i wasnt trying to ignore it 
when im trying to do something at work that needs more concentration, i want to cry with frustration whenever i hear the door chime and have to get up and help customers and break my focus
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...Therapy.
I have to go back. 
After the years of happiness. Of finally getting over things from my past, a memory resurfaced and here I am. Crying, Shaking. Screaming. 
His hands on my skin. His hot breath in my face.  I didnt want to continue, I didnt want to look at him. I couldnt look at him, not anymore. no. maybe it was I didnt want to be seen. maybe I didnt want my shame to be seen by the one who I loved. 
The tightening muscles. That smell. 
the blood.
Im screaming again and I cant move. All I can do is sit and wonder how I let this happen. How did I let someone steal this from me so easily. I am sitting here, four years later, drunk and scared trying to figure out where I went wrong. Sitting on the floor of my bedroom while my boyfriend of two years is asking what to do but all that can escape my mouth is more screams. 
finally he just holds me till I stop shaking. My whole body aches and my throat burns.My head still pounding and flashing with images. I told him what I had experienced and what had happened to me four years ago, That I didn't want to remember this, or him.
But I remembered. 
“So what are we going to do?” he asked, “I dont want to push you to do things you dont want to, but I feel closer to you when we are intimate.” He was obviously worried. And so was I. I had never experienced anything like what had just happened and wasn't sure how to respond to him.
“I think, we should stop having sex for awhile.” I finally whispered out as I held myself. I didn't want to look up at him, into his eyes, because I know that hurt him to hear me say that after we had been together for so long. But I knew I couldn't be intimate, not after remembering that memory while being intimate with him.
Later that week, I finally got in to see my therapist. She had helped me with anxiety and depression over a year ago after I finally moved out of my parents house. 
“So, what brings you back?” she asked while looking through my file on her computer, reminding herself of my past. “Did the thoughts come back? The thoughts of suicide?”
I shook my head.
She turned to me finally and asked, “Then what is bothering you? How can I help?”
I could feel my face get hot when I thought of why I had come by. I was ashamed. My list of tragedies had grown and I haven't gotten any better at solving them. After a few seconds, I spoke up, “I remembered what happened four years ago.” but it only came out as a whisper.
She leaned in a bit, “Remembered what?” I could feel her eyes on me. Staring me farther down in the shameful recesses of my heart. But I had to say it. I had to let it out and I had to face this.
“I remembered that four years ago, I took away my consent.” Why do I have to be so vague. Just say it, say what he did to you. Say what he took from you. Tell her about how you've stopped eating because it makes you feel nauseous. Tell her that you cant sleep because you can still feel his hands on your body. Tell her that. Say it. Say it. Say It. Say It SAY IT SAY IT SAY IT SAY IT SAY IT SAY IT.
“Hana?” Her face was more concerned than before. “Took your consent away from what.?”
“He didnt stop when I asked him to, Jen. He just kept going.” I could feel the hot tears running down my cheeks as I finally spoke, “He didnt stop and he took my virginity, even when I was crying in pain. I told him to stop...” And now the tears were pouring down my face like open faucets.
I said it.
As I walked out of the building, the sky around me seemed dull and colorless. The air tasted bitter as I breathed. Nothing felt right anymore. 
“I want you to try to practice some deep breathing techniques in order to help you better calm down, just in case you have another panic attack like earlier this week.” The advice she gave me seemed like it would only fix my attacks, but I imagine we will deal with the memory soon. 
As I walk, I think back to when I was younger. I mean, I am only 20 as of now, but high school was rough. Since I was a kid, I had been the target of most bullying because of my speech impediment. I only had two friends until about middle school where they turned on me because I liked a guy that one of them had liked. I remember the threats, the insults and how they got a lot of people to join in on making fun of me.
High school was a maze of fake friends and sexual innuendos that weren't actually that funny. Its where I met more people like me. Its where I felt safe enough to finally develop crushes again. Its where I finally found a boyfriend who said he loved me. And I believe he did. Even when he did what he did to me.I dated him for almost a year after the incident because I was alone and I wanted and craved for someone to love me fully. So I did wind up doing more things I didn't want to do. We finally did break up though. And I had boyfriends after him. I gave them parts of me I didn't really want share because of the fear of being alone with myself, with my thoughts.
I spent my years in high school filled with self loathing. I remember staying up all night with a blade in my hand, cutting open my thighs and watching the blood slide off my skin and fill the crevices between the tiles on the bathroom floor. I remember thinking that I was going to kill myself before I turned 18. That I didn't have to worry about my future because I had none. 
But here I am. Three-ish years into college and nothing really to show for it other than some projects for digital art and poorly drawn faces. I’m not really sure where to go from here. No one really gives you an idea of how to deal with resurfaced memories when your in high school. But I do know how to fail my math classes or how to make fun of myself as a coping mechanism. 
But. That doesn't solve my problems. I’m not sure I will ever solve these problems. The list keeps growing without me actually fixing any of them. I just learn to live with them, but is that really so bad? To learn how to adapt to myself? Even if it hurts in the long run..?
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itsjayyyy · 5 years
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January 10, 2019 12:13 pm
it’s a week after i planned on writing an update, but it’s a thursday so i’m technically on time. I worked tuesday, as i said, and on wednesday rose came over. we first went to the mall so i could show her how decrepit it was, and got auntie anne’s there. I like the mini pretzel dogs, but hate the hot dogs inside them; i just like how the pretzels are rolled up to look like croissants and how the hot dogs imbue the bread with that umami flavor. Then we went back to my place and watched train to busan (the main character was the same guy from coffee prince!), and then went to baanchan for dinner. I remember that she borrowed a shirt and got a stain on it and took it home and said shed wash it but i can’t remember which one. thursday and friday i just kinda lazed around, relaxed for a few days before the semester started. i signed up for postmates, and just today i got an email saying the prepaid card was sent to my address so i’ll activate it when i get home. the weekend was work, as always.
i would like to thank every god for allowing me to live so close to campus, because if i had to wake up any earlier for my 7:30 am calc class i would die. On the first day I woke up at 6, but tbh the earlier i have to wake up, the longer i have to take to get ready so I was kinda rushing and ended up forgetting my wallet. I didn’t want to give up my parking space to go back to get it, so I took the on campus shuttle back to my apartment to pick it up, since i needed my id to get my textbooks. got my textbooks (with no line whatsoever!), went to my evening classes, then went home. oh, and apparently i’m so bad at math. i saw my schedule’s weekly chart and said “oh nice, i have a 4 hour gap in the middle of the day for studying or getting lunch” but apparently it’s a 7 hour gap, from 8 am to 3 pm. coolio.
my calc professor was a bit timid, and has a slight accent. the first day i made the mistake of sitting in the back like last year, and could not focus on a word he said. psychology was chill, we just covered the syllabus. apparently, the psychology department (not my professor) mandates that all intro psych classes’ grades are 10% participating in psychology studies, bc otherwise nobody would volunteer to help them. i hate being forced to do anything, so of course I’m gonna lie and fuck with their studies. asl was my fav class, it’s at 6:30 when campus is empty. we just learned the alphabet (and by that i mean she ran through it once and then we had to go to the front of the class and introduce ourselves). the whole class is immersive, meaning that even on the FIRST day of class we weren’t allowed to speak. as if i understood a single thing she said. there’s a cute girl in that class, we didnt speak to each other (obvs) but when i got stuck while introducing myself, she helped me out since she was in the front row. can i just say i’m PISSED that it seemed like everyone was fluent in asl while i barely knew the alphabet. yall this is an introductory class.
tuesday was a disaster. i woke up at 6 again, but was so beat from the day before that I decided to skip calc, on the grounds that it was all just review and the first unit was my best anyways. i forgot to set a follow up alarm, though, so i woke up naturally at 8:55. and then looked at my class schedule. and saw that my next class was at 9. luckily since i live by campus i was only 6 minutes late, but i forgot literally everything (didn’t bring my phone or my backpack) except for my wallet. I didn’t even have time to shower, or brush my teeth, or comb my hair. immediately after i was done with that class i went home and did all of those. I also went to the pet store to get a new filter for my fish, since my last one broke (after 2 years of having it, which i think is a good lifespan). I installed that, knit more of my gloves, then went back on campus for programming at 6. The professor didn’t even cover the syllabus, he just jumped straight into the lecture. one kid asked about the structure of the class, and at that point he gave a quick summary. it was clear we were all expecting him to start the lecture with the syllabus. i’m so annoyed that last semester i deleted codeblocks, the program used in the course, because i thought i was done with it, and now i have to reinstall it. tuesday evening i watched hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, which i watched when i was like, 7, but forgot most of. 
wednesday, i woke up at 5:30, so that i would have more time to get ready. I sat in the front of calc, and took really great notes. we finally started getting into psychology, all about behavior and stuff. I did one of their stupid studies before class, it was this survey about “human social perception” but honestly it was asking about how lonely i am. and when you have to actually sit there and quantify how many friends you have, and how often you see them, it really puts it into perspective. kinda felt called out.
ya know how every semester, i creep on webcourses’ list of students in my class? well the cute girl in asl is named “anna” (as per how she introduced herself, it was the only name i could catch), and there’s only one anna in the class, and she has a crazy last name so it was p easy to find her on ig and twitter. i was scrolling down her twitter when i accidentally liked one of her tweets. i quickly unliked it, and i didn’t think she would have gotten the notification bc it was a retweet anyways, but shortly after that she followed me. and then i remembered that my most recent tweet was “so uhh whos gonna tell the cute girl in my asl class that i want to go out with her bc it sure as hell ain’t gonna be me” (cue my death). i deleted it and hoped she didn’t see it, but honestly if she followed me she prob saw it. i hoped that maybe bc i don’t have my real name listed on twitter that she wouldn’t know it was me, but in class i introduced myself as “jay” bc i forgot the symbol for s. pls kill me. and this all happened like 10 minutes before class started. I sat in the back, though, so we weren’t near each other. but at the end of the class we did an activity where we got a card with a word, and we had to find the person with the same card by signing it. we did like 4 rounds, and i was hoping we wouldn’t be together, but in the last round we were. we didn’t talk tho, and as soon as it was over i was gone. 
despite my period being nowhere near, i had a huge depressive episode last night. like, by her ig and twitter, she’s a Distinguished Gay in which she did a high school summer program with Stanford where she did heart surgery on a porcupine, and was an award winning thespian, and has tons of friends and a supportive family, where i’m the complete opposite: no friends, failed 3 classes, family hates me, chose a low paying career, needs alcohol to cope with life. This is one case where opposites don’t attract: she’s not gonna want to be with someone whose life is a complete mess. And then i just got to thinking about how rose tells me that mom lowkey thinks I’m a complete dissapointment for being gay and she only puts up with me bc it’s the muslim thing to do, and how the only way i can make her happy is me being single my whole life so she wouldn’t have to know. how i can never have love. and then rose texted asking for an update and i just kinda lashed out at her. why does she feel the need to tell me about mom talking shit? why would i want to hear that? yea i get the whole “don’t let others talk shit behind my back” idea but sometimes ignorance is bliss. i just don’t want to feel like a pile of shit for once in a while. and of course I’m still so resentful about the way that mom and dad treat rose like a damn golden child while i’ve never gotten 1/10 of the support she has.
This morning i went to calc, then comp, didn’t really pay attention in either. while in comp, heather texted me and was like “we should meet up soon.” rose also texted me; last week we were planning to meet up today but it was kinda dicey since we had that issue last night. and anyways at 11 she said “i got a job interview with izziban at 4, should i go” and i was just like “yea sure” bc i really don’t give a fuck. she always puts everything before me so why bother. then she got all like “if something’s wrong you need to tell me i can’t help if i don’t know what’s wrong” like, how about you read what i sent you last night, that details EVERYTHING that’s wrong. she later said she was gonna skip the interview bc she already has a job and she’s gonna do uber eats, and that she was just gonna have lunch with mom (since mom loves her enough to cook for her) and then head out my way. heather responded that we should meet at 1 today, so i told rose. rose said “should i wait for yall to finish and then come by?” but i havent responded bc i don’t want to see her (ever again).
I soft blocked anna on twitter bc i didn’t want her to see me talking about how i wanted to kill myself on main lmao. anyways i’m gonna go get a smoothie.
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