“You're so stupid, you don't belong at normal school, you idiot!” snickered Isaac.

The whole class erupted in laughter. “What did I do to deserve this'’? I thought. Am I really that stupid?

Ever since the first grade I've been looked at as an outcast. I've been told things I wish I'd never heard, I've been the laughing stock of most of my peers' lives, ever since I started school. Last year I was diagnosed with autism and the respect I got has gone down ever since, if you could say I've ever been respected at all. I get good grades, I'm at the top of my classes, but nobody pays attention to the good things I do, they only look out for my mistakes. 

    To catch you up on why this is happening, I'm in class and it's Monday, every Monday we share what we did on the weekend. Isaac shared that he won his basketball game. He plays for the school team. At school I heard that they had lost and when I asked him if he was lying about it he replied, “What are you talking about? What was the score of the game?” “21 to 39,” I said.

Then the class erupted into laughter. The giggles of the kids echoed in my ear and I didn’t know why. 

“Jason You idiot! That's the score for the 5th grade team, and if you didn't already know, we're in 7th grade!”

Later that day I laid in bed and just cried. I cried so much my bed was floating like a raft in the middle of the ocean. Stranded. 

    “Honey what's wrong?” my mom said. “You've been asleep for hours, its 8 o'clock,”

“I'm just tired,” I replied. And I was telling the truth, I was tired of being made fun of. I was tired of being that stupid kid everyone called an idiot.

The next day we had a test in math. I was nervous. “You idiot.” repeated in my head. I'm starting to believe what Isaac and the others said.

    After the test was handed out my anxiety increased. My brain went blank and it was like every question was written in a different language. But then a wave of motivation swept over me

“Prove them wrong Jason,” kept repeating in my head like a broken record. 

    I finished the test and went home because math was the last hour of the day. I was so nervous about how I did on the test. i couldn't take my mind off it with every beat of my heart my anxiety grew more and more about the test

“Class listen up,” said Mrs L, “I'm very disappointed in these test scores,” my heart sank so far I felt it weigh my feet down. “But out of all of you, someone stood out, someone in this class aced this test! This person has stood out the whole year and I'm so proud of them, congratulations to Jason!” The class was silent, but my heart was jumping out of my chest. It's like 1 million pounds got lifted from my back. I didn't believe it. I did it! I really got a perfect score! 

When I got home my family and I celebrated, we went out to my favorite restaurant and I got my favorite dessert. I realized that what others say doesn't matter. What matters is what we do and how we play the cards we have even if there isn't what we want. Everyone is capable of everything.