Little Miss Different [in editing]

9: The New Friends

Content note: contains depictions of ableism

Katie and Lucie are sitting their bedrooms quietly, listening in on the argument below.

"I can't believe you took them to an anti-cure group!" yells Mrs. Himura. "Right when Autism Saviour said Katie's 'natural curing process' is nearly finished! God, Janetta, how selfish are you?"

"Katie doesn't need curing!" shrieks Janetta. "Autism is lifelong! You can't 'cure' it! Autism Saviour are feeding you lies."

Lucie tiptoes into Katie's room. "Why is mum so horrible?" she types angrily. "We're not diseased - why does she listen to Autism Saviour? You're perfect, Katie."

"Stop it, Lucie," mumbles Katie. "Maybe mum's right."

Oh no! thinks Lucie. She recognises this as one of the times Katie's self esteem plummets, and knows she must give Katie her equivalent of a pep talk.

"Look. Mum is being wrong, to put it bluntly. Autism is what makes you Katie. You can't just throw it away - even if it somehow happened (which it can't) you'd be a totally different person! Autism doesn't define you, but it is a part of why people like you. Remember Thalia and Qadira from Superstars? You know what they told me right before I left? 'Autism Saviour are bad'. Qadira, yes she was a little bit cautious, but she grew up with a lot of Autism Saviour until her parents realised the awfulness of that 'charity' and the lies they force fed the parents. Like you, she's got a bit of that instant worry, instant self-doubt that that group instill. But you don't have much, by the way. Just because mum treats us like babies and makes us be babysat doesn't mean we are babies!"

Katie looks up with an expression almost of defeat. "Who cares anymore? I don't. See, I'm just a burden on this family."

"No!" types Lucie frantically. She's never seen this level of negativity from her sister before and it's scary. "No, that's not right!"

But Katie's not listening anymore, shocked that her words mirror the words of so many Autism Saviour workers. Her heart beats faster in her chest with this realisation. "Lucie, no!" she shrieks, flapping her hands and beginning to hyperventilate.

"Katie, it's okay," types Lucie. "Tell me about... tell me about the new friends we made at Superstars."

"Qadira and Thalia?" says Katie, her breathing beginning to slow.

"Look, Katie, before you say anything," types Lucie. "You are not wrong, Katie. You are Katie. You are perfect. You're my sister."

Katie asks her sister if she can hug her, and Lucie says yes.

At Qadira's house

"I feel awful!" moans Qadira. "I feel like I came across really badly to the nice Lucie girl. I know I'm not meant to interfere if Thalia says the wrong thing, but I didn't want her to miss out on making a new friend!"

"It's okay, darling," says Qadira's mother Adilah. "Thalia will understand, and your reaction was just automatic after all those horrible Autism Saviour years I put you through." Adilah looks torn. She hates it when her previous mistake affects her daughter like this.

At Rebecca's house

Rebecca is still glowing from her date a couple of hours ago. The time alone with Winter, when they kissed... It sends an immediate giddy smile over Rebecca's face. She can't believe it! Winter likes her back! She starts running laps of the garden slowly to calm down. If she's too full of energy, it's better to run outside where she won't fall and hit her head on a table (like she did about ten years ago. She personally blames the table).

About three years ago, in Thalia's past

The nice therapist sat in the nice clean room. Not a single thing was out of place, there was a special packet of antibacterial wipes in the corner, everything was sorted into colours and there was nothing that could set off Thalia's OCD. "Hello, Thalia!" said the therapist cheerfully. Her name was Miranda. She had long blonde hair tied neatly back into a ponytail, perfect ruby red lipstick complimenting her skin tone. Nothing was out of place.

"Hello, Miranda," replied Thalia. She had been seeing Miranda every week for almost six months and had made a little progress. She didn't need to check every inch of the house for potential fire hazards anymore, and she didn't need to shut every single door in the house anymore.

"So, your dads want me to work on your germ OCD today," said Miranda, placing the antibacterial wipes on her lap. "So what makes you feel worried or scared about germs?"

Thalia focused on the packet of wipes to avoid having to make eye contact. She suspected she had autism long before her diagnosis - she'd looked up all the signs and symptoms, she seemed to fit the mould. But she'd also read about how unique autism is - how there isn't a mould like she'd been led to believe. She fitted her own unique diagnosis.

"Because they could make me sick. I hate being sick. Germs are bad. They make me ill," stated Thalia impassively, still watching the wipes. Wipes equalled Clean. Clean equalled Good. Good equalled Safe.

Hi again! The picture above is a (kinda bad quality - I took the photo on a phone because I don't have a scanner) picture of Katie and Lucie at the beach! Lucie's wearing a purple swimming costume (I kinda drew Lucie wrong, but I drew in pen, so no going back! I tried.) and Katie's wearing a pink dress, pink socks and pink shoes (she doesn't like swimming). Unfortunately, the Sharpies I was using to draw this didn't have a colour that matched the girls' skin tone. Also, I was wondering if anyone would like to draw or doodle a character from the story. If you think that would be a good idea, please let me know! I hope the multiple 'points of view' or 'scene changes' weren't too confusing for anyone! Thanks so much for reading! Please vote or comment (preferable both ;) ) if you enjoyed, teach me how to draw and yet again, thanks for reading!