1
Chapter 1: Misunderstood
16𝘵𝘩 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 2022
It was a cold November day as I walked to school by myself, I had no siblings to walk with and I had no friends too. I was a loner kid who apparently should be studying at university not High School according to every single teacher I had met in my 5 short years at Appleton Academy. I watched as the cars rushed by on the road and I walked up the hill like I did every single day which had been the same routine for 5 straight years. I finally reached the gates of Appleton.
Appleton Academy was built with white stone and grey concrete and was quite an old looking building about 100 years old if I had to put a guess in. I walked in through the automatic doors that had not been working lately so they had just become doors. I walked into my first lesson of the day, Geography, I sat on a table with another girl and her friend and paid attention to everything the teacher said and I wrote it down to make sure I didn't miss anything. Then we got to the hands up part of the lesson.
This was where the teacher would ask a question and see if anyone knew the answer. She asked a few questions which a lot of students knew but I always put my hand up but was never picked on because the teacher wanted to give a fair advantage to others. Eventually the lesson ended and it was off to my second lesson, English, I walked into my teachers class but I could already tell she was not going to pick on me this lesson. These teachers obviously thought I was too smart to be in Year 11 but I was.
During English we were reading 'Of mice and men' a book I had read when I was a little girl but I still love it now. My English teacher asked a few people to read but not me she knew I was too smart and had already read it so she thought I would probably spoil it for others. No one understood that all I wanted was to be heard and tell people I was a normal human being like the rest of them but no one wanted to hear my voice, it was like having a temporary mute button.
I walked out of English for a break before my next lesson which was french. When I had french we did not do many french speaking activities because my teacher knew that I knew every single word in the french dictionary! When I walked into french I was given a book and told to get on with the work in it. Everyone else though got to participate in the lesson, if they gave out awards for non- participation then I would get 1st by a country mile. I sometimes wish that people would treat me like I was well normal.
I don't think I was normal though, I was smarter than most of the other kids in my classes. I had Food Technology next and this was one of the better lessons because the teacher had to pay attention to me especially when we were doing practicals. During the lesson I participated but always let others have a chance and yet the teachers called me Selfish for putting my hand up all the time. But how was that selfish? All I was doing was trying to contribute to the lesson and yet all the teachers saw me as being selfish.
At dinner I realised I finally got to escape the cycle of ignorance and non participation since my next lesson was maths with Mr Wesley and oh how I wished a clone of him taught me each lesson because he let me participate and he listened to me. I realised how lucky I was to be in set 1 now! Mr Wesley was a newer math teacher at Appleton only joining in January 2022 part time and then coming full time in September 2022. Not many people respected him because he was only 23 and he was new to teaching.
I respected him though because he's the only teacher who understood that I just wanted to be heard. Sometimes I wonder if Mr Wesley does just understand everything though. I stopped thinking about that though and started doing some of my French homework which I finished in 5 minutes! Then it was finally time for my favourite subject by a country mile Maths. I walked up the stairs of the 4 story building and reached the 1st floor, I turned right and got to MA101. Mr Wesley was inside facing the whiteboard so I stood outside to give him time.
He turned and immediately saw me and let me in!
"Good Afternoon, Maddie! Come on in! How are you today?" He said joy in his voice.
"I am okay sir, what about you?" I replied.
"Yeah, I am really good thanks for asking! Here you go just let me know when you're done with it!" He said handing me the starter.
I took my seat on the 2nd row along 3rd row back 2 nd seat along and started working out the answers. More students piled into the classroom but Mr Wesley greeted them with such nonchalance compared to me.
I raised my hand just as the 4 bullies of the school: Hunter,Trent, Connor and Kyle walked into the class. Kyle sat on the other side of the classroom, Connor sat two rows in front, Hunter sat on the row in front and of course Trent sat next to me. Luckily they really didn't have a reason to start bullying me but I still felt they would start on anyone so I was keeping my guard. I handed Mr Wesley the starter and he marked it, I got everything right. I was smiling at that moment feeling really understood.
