Because of Mr. Terupt (6 page)

“James has some things that he’s really into, and he knows everything about them,” Jeffrey went on. “A lot of autistic people have a special talent. James is great with numbers. But he has his problems, too.”

“Hey, we should have had him tell us how many blades of grass were in the soccer field,” Peter said.

“Yeah, and like, then I never woulda got hit in the tushie,” Lexie told him.

Peter grinned. “But that was the best part.”

“All right, all right, you two. That’s enough,” Mr. Terupt said.

“How do you know all that stuff, Jeffrey?” I said, even before I knew I was asking the question. I felt instantly bad. Jeffrey wasn’t looking for extra attention.

Jeffrey didn’t answer. He was quiet again.

L
exie was in my group going to the Collaborative kids. Part of me was happy about that. Part of me wasn’t. Things were a little confusing.

Every time we went to the Collaborative Classroom, and every time we came back, Lexie would talk bad about Jessica—even Anna sometimes.

“Don’t you think Anna belongs in this room? She’s, like, so stupid,” Lexie said one day.

Even if I wasn’t supposed to be friends with Anna, I knew she wasn’t stupid. I knew because she was my plant partner, and she helped me a lot during that unit. Plus, Anna was the only girl not involved in Lexie’s schemes, which made her brave, too.

“Like, Jessica should just stay down here. She doesn’t have any normal friends,” Lexie said.

The weirdest thing of all was that Lexie was really nice to the boys and girls in the Collaborative Classroom. Joey loved her. Okay, Joey loved everyone, but he always smiled and hugged Lexie. And she was really patient with Emily, too. Seeing Lexie like that helped me feel more comfortable in the room, and I had a good time with the kids—especially James.

Jeffrey told us that James had certain things he was really into, and one of them was farms. His brain was crammed with information about tractors and machines and cows and milking. So I brought in a bunch of pictures from home and James went nuts. He spouted off facts nonstop as he looked at each picture.

“Udders. These are the cow’s udders. Clean her off and use teat dip.…”

Next picture.

“Hay. Find it in bales or rolls. It’s hard work to hay. Throw the bale off the wagon and put it on the elevator. Stack the bales in the hayloft.…”

Next picture.

“John Deere tractor. Classic green and yellow. Lots of horsepower …”

James talked more to himself than anyone else, but that was okay. His mind was racing. When our time was up, I tried to take the pictures and he started screaming. Really screaming, not words, just noise—really loud noise. It scared me. I let go of the pictures and Mrs. Warner came right over. I got out of the way. “He can keep them,” I said.

“That’s very nice of you, sweetie,” Mrs. Warner said. “James, can you say thank you to your friend?”

“Aargh!” James yelled, and struggled to free his body from Mrs. Warner.

“James has a hard time knowing when time is up and switching to another activity,” she said.

I felt bad for James, watching him have this meltdown. “It’s okay,” I said, “you can keep the pictures, James. Bye.”

More yelling and crying and screaming. I hoped he would calm down soon, but I had to leave. I wanted to go. I didn’t like seeing that.

The whole situation upset me, and I think that was what gave me the courage to say something. We had just gone out into the hall when Lexie started right in.

“Like, what a weirdo. We better fix him up with Jessica. She’s the weirdest one in our class.”

“Just stop it!” I exploded. “Why do you always have to be so mean? You’re nice in the room with them. Why do you have to be mean now?” Fighting back tears, I turned and ran down the hall.

“He likes cows,” Lexie yelled after me. “Maybe he should date a cow like you, then.”

Hot tears streamed down my cheeks. I ran upstairs and into our bathroom. Jessica was there.

“Are you okay?” she asked as I came through the door crying.

Here was my true friend. I knew it now.

“I’m sorry I’ve been mean to you, Jessica. I won’t do it again.”

She walked over to me and we hugged. I felt better.

Dear God
,

It’s Danielle. I know now that Jessica is my real friend. I pray that you can help Alexia not be so mean. And I pray for James. He was awful upset today. Please help him feel better and learn to handle when time is up. Thanks. Amen
.

L
ike, Peter knew what he was doing out there on that soccer field—hitting me with that Frisbee. So, like, I was constantly reminding him that he had killed our plant. “I told ya so,” I kept telling him. Yesterday he told me to stop annoying him.

Peter’s always picking on me. I bet it’s because he likes me. Like, all the boys think I’m pretty. They like my fancy clothes and sparkly lip gloss. They sure don’t look at Danielle. Like, she got so upset with me. She’s never yelled at me before. Must be she’s getting braver as she gets fatter. I’ll have to fix things with her again.

I do like going to the Collaborative Classroom. I don’t have to worry about things down there. The kids in that room love you no matter what. It’s nice. Teach had a good
idea with that one. Joey likes my feather boas. I always wear them to his class so he can see them. Like, I think I’m going to ask if I can put some lip gloss on Emily. I think maybe she’ll like it. Like, every girl should try some lip gloss.

L
ast month Mr. T told us we had to read some stupid book and go spend time with the retards. That was what I thought at first, anyways. That was what I had always thought. The Collaborative Classroom was where the retards went to school. I guess it was James who made me change my mind. I mean,
The Summer of the Swans
was okay—sort of—but the Collaborative Classroom wasn’t what I thought at all.

The kids were actually pretty cool, especially James. If something spilled on the floor, or if there was a bunch of objects spread out on the table, he could tell you how many there were just by looking at them. I mean it, he could tell you immediately. No counting required. No matter how many there were—312 forks, or 813 Legos. He always got it right. And James was kind of cool to hang out with. He gave
me low fives—not high fives, because eye contact was tough for him—and we played games. I liked going to see him.

So I liked Mr. T’s next idea. He never ran out of ideas.

“Okay, guys. Here’s the deal,” he told us in December. “We’re going to have a holiday party like every other class, but it’s going to be different.”

“Of course,” I blurted out. “That’s no surprise.” I do that sometimes, open my mouth before thinking. A lot of times, actually. Everybody—even Mr. T—cracked a smile, because I was right.

“You’ll form small groups and work to create a center focused on a certain holiday. It might be Christmas, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah.” Mr. T kept going with the directions, but I didn’t catch most of it. I was thinking. Then I did that blurt-out thing again.

“Mr. T, can we invite James and his friends to our party?”

Everyone was quiet and looked at me. Then Jessica said, “That’s a great idea.” And the rest of the class agreed. Mr. T had a smile stretched across his face. He just nodded. And I thought I saw him wipe at his eyes. I don’t know why he did that, though.

A
ct 4, Scene 1

I chose Ramadan as my holiday. I wanted to research something I knew very little about. I ended up in a group with Anna, Danielle, Jeffrey, and Alexia. Alexia wanted to be with Katie, Wendy, Natalie, and Heather, but Mr. Terupt didn’t go for that. If he was looking for trouble, he got it.

Our task was clear. When Mr. Terupt announced the project, he said, “Your centers will need to include a research component, a game, an arts and crafts activity, and food. Your center will need to operate all by itself, because you’ll be visiting the other centers when people come to visit yours.”

My group started talking about who could do what, but Alexia didn’t let that go on too long. “Like, you need to do
the research, Jessica. ’Cause like, you’re the smartest. Anna’s too stupid to read that stuff.”

Anna stared at the floor. She used to do a lot of that, but not as much these days. It wasn’t just her head that went down this time—her entire body sagged after Alexia’s nasty comment. Alexia looked at Jeffrey next, but she didn’t have the nerve to say anything. Then she smiled at me and Danielle. She got nothing in return from me, but I could see Danielle half smiling.

Jeffrey and I collaborated on the research, while Anna and Danielle were in charge of designing the arts and crafts activity. I wanted to work with Jeffrey. I had shared my secret with him, and he needed another chance to share his with me. Anna and Danielle had done fine together with the plants, so I knew they’d work well together this time. Plus, I hoped Danielle would become friends with Anna despite her grandmother’s warnings. Alexia named herself as our group manager. According to her, she was responsible for overseeing all of our work. Or as she put it, “Like, I’ll just watch and make sure everybody is doing what they’re supposed to do. I’ll be, like, our manager.” I think she meant
boss
.

We went along with Alexia’s grand plan because it was easier not to have her involved in our tasks. But that wasn’t good enough for Alexia. No, she tried her best to get everyone mad at each other. That’s what she was all about.

Act 4, Scene 2

One day during project time I was meeting with Jeffrey and Anna, discussing how to put our center together. Danielle was nearby organizing the arts and crafts materials
that she and Anna had been working tirelessly to create. Then Alexia made her move.

“Like, don’t you guys think Danielle should be in charge of the food?” Alexia said loud enough for Danielle to hear. I braced myself for what was coming next. “I mean, just look at her. Like, she’s so fat, she must be good with food.”

Danielle hurried out of the room. None of us said or did anything. It was as if we thought pretending nothing had happened would make everything better. It didn’t. My turn to be hurt came next. Alexia didn’t spare me.

Act 4, Scene 3

Jeffrey and I decided that making a trivia game about Ramadan was the perfect way for people to learn about our holiday and what we’d researched. It took loads of work. We had just finished writing all our research as questions on the trivia cards.

Enter Alexia. She must have just come from the bathroom. She wore fresh shiny lip gloss and chewed on a new piece of gum. She paraded over to us with an exaggerated hip motion in her jean skirt and zebra tights, bent down, and grabbed some of the trivia cards. She looked them over, but I don’t think she read any of them. She snapped her gum that she wasn’t supposed to have.

“Like, nobody’s gonna understand these questions.” She stared right at me. “Nobody ever understands you, not with all your stuck-up words. Like, you just want to make everyone else feel stupid. You think you’re so smart.” She flicked the card at me.

That wasn’t true. I didn’t try to do that.

Act 4, Scene 4

Enter Mr. Terupt.

“Alexia.”

I looked up. I didn’t even know he was there. Alexia didn’t, either. She spun around, alarmed.

“I think it’s time for you to follow me.”

He escorted her out of the room. They were gone for a while.

Act 4, Scene 5

Enter Mr. Terupt, without Alexia. Where was she?

“I need to talk to the four of you now,” he said, looking at Jeffrey, Danielle, Anna, and me. We sat down in our project area.

“I’ve watched Alexia be unpleasant to all of you. I hoped that one of you was going to stand up to her and tell her to stop. You didn’t.”

I looked down. I knew I should have done something. I wasn’t strong like the friends in my books.

“If you let people get away with being mean, they’re going to keep being mean. You need to stick up for each other. Even Alexia isn’t tough enough to make fun of you—not if all four of you stick together.”

I could feel Mr. Terupt’s eyes on me. He leaned forward, trying to peer up into my face. He tried to make eye contact with each of us. We all stared at the floor.

“You should be disappointed,” he said. “You should stand by each other. That’s what being friends is all about.”

Still, we sat quiet. Anna wiped her eyes. So did Danielle.

“Don’t sit and pout,” Mr. Terupt said. “That won’t help
anything. You need to keep working. Learn from this and don’t make the same mistake again.”

Exit Mr. Terupt.

Act 4, Scene 6

What was Jeffrey thinking? I wondered. What were Danielle and Anna feeling?

“I’m never talking to Alexia again,” Danielle said.

“Me, neither,” Anna added.

“That’s no better,” I said. “We don’t have to be friends with her, but we can’t shut her out. We have to be bigger people.” I looked down again. I felt as disappointed in myself as Mr. Terupt did in all of us. I wasn’t brave enough.

O
ur bathroom is positioned directly across the hall from our classroom. Who cares, right? I’d never thought anything of it until the day I felt trapped out there. I saw the
shakedown
(dollar word), all compliments of Peter.

I was in the classroom working on my holiday center. All my materials were spread out on the floor, and I was busy calculating the proper dimensions for my gameboard. Mr. Terupt was on the other side of the room checking in with a different group. I didn’t notice Peter. I stretched out on my belly and worked the math. The soles of my sneaks pointed up—a great invitation for mess-around Peter. I never felt a thing. He’s definitely sneaky. I sometimes wonder what’s the
likelihood
(dollar word) Peter will grow up to be a world-famous thief. I had no clue anything was even happening
until I heard the giggling and Peter said, “Hey, Luke, what kind of sneaks are those? Elmer’s?”