Megan Jones

Chapter 3

Kaden's P.O.V

Jasmine wasn't like most kids. There were some cases where she was like them. Jasmine loved playing during breaks or was always enthusiastic about going on excursions. She was different though because she couldn't understand how people were feeling or what they were doing which meant a lot of the time she got in trouble. She didn't know how to tell if she was upsetting someone or if someone was happy and that was something she was learning to understand in her psychiatrist appointments. Another way she was different was how she struggled with anything academic. She's poor at maths, English, science, economics everything. She was quite far behind the rest of her class and the teachers have suggested holding her back a year so she could catch up but I didn't want my daughter feeling like she wasn't good enough to move forward with her friends. I took Jasmine to all sorts of things after school during the week to make sure she's learning about not only herself but the things around her. When taking her to these activities I realised she's really really good at talking about dinosaurs and their bones. I have no idea where the interest started but she talks about them like she's studied them for years and I've never known so much about dinosaurs lie I do now. Jasmine was different, but that is why I love her so much. We have our struggles but I couldn't have asked for a better daughter.

"Jasmine, please come do your English homework, it's four o'clock," I called out to Jasmine who was on her ten-minute play break between homework topics.

"But Mumma I didn't even get to race my car down the track," she groaned, folding her arms across her chest. She always did a car rally and always raced her car last because she knew it was the fastest.

"I know sweetie but the track will be there when we're finished okay? I'll even come race with you,"

"Mm okay but you have to have the red car because I want the blue one," she huffed, stomping her way towards the kitchen table where I was sitting. She jumped up onto the seat before grabbing the pencil with her left hand in a fist.

"Remember how Mrs Green taught you to hold your pencil?" I questioned, grabbing her hand and carefully positioning it the right way.

"This way takes too long," Jasmine groaned, writing her name slowly and messily at the top of the page. It took a while for her to be able to spell her name properly. Sometimes if she's not focused she'll spell it in incorrectly but not today.

"Okay so first we have to trace these words and then write them as perfect as we can next to the original," I explained to her. She nodded, letting her pencil trace on the dotted lines.

"What does the first word say?"

"C-A-T, cat," Jasmine spoke sounding out the word.

"And what is a cat?" I asked, watching her change her pencil grip back to a fist.

"An animal," she replied, carefully writing the word with the help of the lines. I watched as she stuck her tongue out. She always did this when she was concentrating hard on something.

"Remember your pencil grip Jasmine," I spoke softly, carefully changing the position of her hand. 

"I don't like doing it this way," she spoke, her voice raised which meant I knew she was getting upset or she had too many stimulants going on at the same time.

"I know darling but once you get used to it you'll be able to do it fast," I reassured her. I watched as she furrowed her eyebrows, pouting her lip which meant she was stressing out because she had to focus on too many things at once. Jasmine was never good at multitasking. If she ever had more than one stimulus, it caused her to stress out and have breakdowns because she already has millions of thoughts going through her brain at once and adding another task just stresses her out to the point she can't do anything.