After Wonder

Chapter 3/Homework with Julian

After school, I told Jack, Summer, Henry, Miles, and Amos that I was going straight home to do my homework. Julian met me at the subway and we took it to my house. I opened the door and Bear and my mom greeted us at the door,

"Welcome home Auggie. How was school?" She asked. 

"It was normal. Not everyone was annoyingly obnoxious about my face." I said petting under Bear's chin. 

"I see you brought a friend. Mind introducing him?" Mom asked. 

"Oh yeah. This is Julian, you remember Julian right?" I asked. Immediately realizing that she absolutely does remember Julian. Mom looked surprised, but she smiled. 

"Yes. Hello Julian." She said. 

"Hi, Mrs. Pullman. I just came over so August could help me with my homework." Julian said. "I hope that's okay with you."

"Of course it is. And feel free to stay for as long as you like." Mom said. 

"Thank you. August, if your room is upstairs I'll meet you up there." Julian said then walked upstairs. When he disappeared, mom looked at me like it's her first time seeing my face.

"Before you bombard me with questions. Me and Julian made up years ago." I said. "He wasn't very social today. I kind of made it my job to hang out with him, while also making time for my other friends." After explaining myself, mom just smiled. 

"At least the airs cleared and Julians changed. Now go do your homework." She said. I gave her a hug and went upstairs to my room, Bear following behind me. I walked into my room and found that Julian had already pulled out his English homework. 

"Do you remember what Miss Emily told us?" He asked me. 

"We're reading and coming up with topics for our 5 Paragraph Essays." I said and sat on the floor with him. 

"We were supposed to order our books?" Julian asked. 

"Julian." I said sternly. 

"I'm kidding. Of course I have it." Julian said, then pulled out the book. "Perks of Being A Wallflower. How much do we have to read today?"

"Miss Emily said chapters one through four." I said, also pulling out my copy. "Should we read it out loud chapter by chapter?"

"Yeah. That works." Julian said, opening up the book. I opened up to the first page and started reading. As I read out loud and Julian followed along, I noticed that Julian loved making commentary on books when something interesting happens. He made a lot of unnecessary comments about Charlie and the overall plot so far. We got as far as chapter 2 before we decided to think about our Essay topics. Which wasn't successful.

"Let's move on. We should try working on your audition." I suggested. 

"Really? You wanna hear me sing random musical theater song, looking for the right one to sing for my audition for Mamma Mia?" Julian asked. 

"I heard you sing a full song today. You were amazing, of course I wanna hear you sing." I said. "Now, I love Mamma Mia! Who do you wanna audition for?" 

"Hmm. I was thinking either Harry or Skye." Julian said. 

"Skye! 100%." I said. "Now let's pick a song. You killed Love Thy Neighbor, we should pick a song in the same range." 

"I can easily come up with a list. I'm a pretty crazy theater person." Julian said. "But maybe I'll wait another day." I stood up,

"Ok." I said. "I'll go downstairs and get snacks." I left Julian sitting in my room and went downstairs. Mom was standing behind the counter,

"Hello Auggie. How did homework go?" She asked. 

"Good. I think Perks of Being a Wallflower is gonna be a good book." I said, sitting across from her. "Since we're in honors, Miss Emily gave us a book with a higher grade level."

"That's great Auggie. Is Julian still upstairs?" Mom asked. "If he wants to stay for dinner it'll be ready soon. If you want a snack, you can bring fruit upstairs." I made a face then picked fruit out of the fridge and walked back upstairs to my room. 

"Well, good snacks were a bust. My mom made me bring a bunch of fruit upstairs." I said, sitting on the floor. "She also said, if you wanna stay for dinner you can."

"I'm not sure. I have to be home before dark. It's kind of dangerous riding the subway by myself as a 16 year old." Julian said. "When is it supposed to get dark?" I took out my phone, 

"8:00." I said. "It's 4:30. You have time. But if you don't want to stay for dinner, I'm not forcing you to." 

"Maybe I'll call my dad and ask." Julian said and started picking through the fruit. 

"Do you have a favorite fruit?" I asked him.

"Bananas and pears." Julian said, and took the only banana. "What about you?"

"It's pretty hard to find a fruit that I can chew in the very front of my mouth." I said. "It's like I'm a tortoise. But I'm soon having another surgery to fill in the hole in the roof of my mouth."

"Surgery number 28." Julian noted. "That must be exhausting. You have your physical health and I have my mental health." 

"What's been going on? If you don't mind telling me." I said. 

"I was recently diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. You remember when I left Beecher Prep. I liked saying that school was going well, but it wasn't. It was a new school so I didn't know anyone and discovered that I didn't enjoy talking to new people." Julian said. I could tell talking about his issues made him nervous. 

"What happened at Beecher Prep I kept holding onto. I thought people hated me even though they didn't know me. I didn't take the time to meet new people, I'd not keep talking to people who'd approach me. My parents realized something was wrong and took me to a therapist." Julian said, then paused for a minute to breathe. 

"Are you okay?" I asked him. Julian hung his head and clenched his fists. 

"Yes." He said. "Can you...... hand me my phone please?" 

"Yeah." I said looking around for his phone. I found it by his backpack and handed it to him. I tapped a contact and held the phone to his ear. 

"Mom? Please pick up...... I'm... having another one." Julian's voice was shaking and his hand was trembling. He put his phone down and covered his eyes. I quickly realized what was happening,

"Hey, hey. It's okay." I said, taking his hands trying to stop them from shaking. "It'll be okay. Everything's fine, shh." Julian's breaths quickened, and I noticed when he was trying to calm himself. No one's ever had a panic attack in front of me, I figured the best thing I could do was comfort him and maybe try to make conversation to pull him out of it. 

"Hey. What are your favorite WWII books?" I asked him. Julian took a second to answer,

"Ashes in the Snow." He said. "And The Hiding Place....." 

"What are they about?" I asked him, noticing that he's now shaking less. 

"The.... Hiding Place is the true story of Corrie Ten Boom and her family..... during WWII." Julian said. "They begin hiding Jewish people in their house."

"Very interesting." I said. Julian took more deep breaths then pulled his hands away and shook them. 

"Feeling better?" I asked him. Julian nodded and wiped his eyes,

"Yeah. Sorry." He said. "I wasn't expecting that to happen. But anxiety is like a shadow." 

"I understand that, but not to that extent." I said. 

"Do we still have homework?" Julian asked.

"Yes." I said then pulled out Perks of Being A Wallflower again.