A Kind Of Emotional Tether

Part Three

"You don't need them because you are too smart to waste your time with them."

-

One of Norville's earliest memories was back in 1st grade when he was enrolled in what he liked to refer to as a school for the loaded beyond all belief. His parents must have figured that he needed to be with other kids that were cut from the same cloth as him.

He was only there a week and his teacher had already called his parents in to "express some concerns."

Mainly to discuss Norville's focus issues and how they should deal with that. It was in her professional opinion (as a 1st grade English teacher) that Norville had a form of ADHD and that they should schedule an appointment to get him diagnosed.

Although he had no idea what they were talking about, he still felt embarrassed about it.

Of course his parents made no comments, not to the teacher on his behalf or anything, not defending him even a little bit. They didn't even reassure him that he hadn't done something wrong, which is the impression he was getting from everybody.

By the end of the hour he was feeling confused and worried that he had done something to disobey the teacher or his parents.

It didn't help when eventually his parents told him to go wait in the hallway and not move an inch. He was definitely in trouble that was for sure, but how was he supposed to be punished if he didn't even know what he did wrong. He stood outside of the door for a few minutes wondering what they were talking about.

Was something wrong with him?

Maybe he had a cold or something and had gotten all of the other kids sick.

In that case he could just promise them he'd never get sick ever again, that shouldn't be too hard.

"Hi!!" A loud voice came from behind him and he responded with a high pitched scream and squatted down, covering his head with his hands.

The voice sounded again, "Sorry, mommy tells me I'm too loud, but I don't know how to turn down my volume." Slowly, Norville turned around and was surprised to see one of the girls in his class.

He remembered her because she had a weird name like his.

She was always wearing really sparkly purple and pink dresses to class and she would sometimes let the other girls in the class brush her short, fluffy, soft, red hair with the shiny hairbrush. She told everyone that it was "bejeweled," Norville had actually heard that word before. One time his mother had painted a portrait of him and then bejeweled the whole thing.

"Hey you're in my class!! You're the really smart one!" He just blinked at her, not responding.

Smart?

"My name's Daphne but sometimes mommy calls me Baby because she likes to watch Dirty Dancing." She had come and squatted next to him, he still hadn't said anything back to her.

"I don't really like that movie though, I think the songs are so boring. One time I fell asleep and then when I woke up the whole house was dark and mommy had gone to bed and I was really scared." Her mouth seemed to be moving a mile a minute and her weird purple eyes sparkled with every word she said.

Norville didn't really know what to make of her.

So far he was gonna say he liked her.

"What's your name anyway?" He froze for a second before looking away from her and mumbling, "Norville." He felt his cheeks heat up, now she was gonna laugh and make fun of his weird name.