I'm Not Retarded, Just Unique

“Gerard I-” Frank stopped himself feeling embarrassed. It was time for him to leave but he couldn't tie his shoes to get out of the door. Gerard was waiting by the door with a jacket over his shoulders. He stared at Gerard before ducking down to tie his shoes. It couldn't be all that hard. He watched Marie do it a thousand times. All he had to do was cross the strings, then...cross them again? No! Now they are knotted.

Frank whimpered as he began fixing his other shoes in hopes the other would magically fix itself. Gerard watched Frank with a cocked eyebrow wondering what he was doing. He looked like he was performing surgery on his laces yet-at the same time, he looked terrified of them. He'd attack them and tie them in odd knots and tangles before he cringed and stopped. Frank glanced up at Gerard and the man turned his head in wonder. Frank bit his lip and tried to untangle the laces only to find out that he was making the matter worse.

“Frank-uh..do you need-like help?” Gerard asked but Frank shook his head vigorously before going back to his shoes. It only took Frank a few minuets of desperate attempts before he was tearing up. Gerard let out a sigh before he got on his knees and gently pushed Frank's hands away.

“Gerard I-” Frank began but Gerard cut him off.

“-It's okay Frank. Mikey had issues with his shoes too. No need to fuss over it.” Gerard spent the next five minuets untying the mess Frank made of his laces. “Okay Frank, ready? What do you do first?” Gerard asked Frank, holding his laces.

“Cross them.” Gerard did that for him and looked up for the next step.

“Then?”

“Um...cross again?” Frank asked but Gerard shook his head.

“Bunny ears, Frank. You know what bunny ears are? Do them for me.” Gerard gave Frank the laces and he looked at Gerard skeptically. Slowly, Frank formed two loops and looked at Gerard for the next step. “Cross them,” Gerard said making the motion as he spoke. Frank crossed them once before and glanced up at the elder boy. “One bunny goes under the tunnel.” Frank bit his lip as he slid the looped lace under the knot and stared down at it. “Tighten the bunny ears.” Frank followed the last step and eyed his tied shoe.

“Tied!” He announced before pulling out the other one and giving it to Gerard. “Tie!” He said to Gerard causing the boy to roll his eyes but tie the shoes regardless.

Gerard dropped Frank off right after the shoe tying lesson, after they spent a few more hour together. Frank told Marie all about his tingles and how he loved being happy. Marie gave Gerard a cautious look and then thanked him for taking Frank home.

Monday morning, Frank entered his classroom at school seeing Gerard and Mikey. He grinned and launched himself at Gerard and then did the same for Mikey.

That school day was very fun for Frank. He was in such a happy mood and he let everyone know it. All the teachers laughed or smiled as Frank giggled and clapped his hands together when he did something good. Even Mikey caught onto his happy mood. The whole classroom was filled with this warm and inviting vibe.

“Frank, come on we are almost done with this.” Melissa called to Frank. Frank sat back down and turned to the lesson. Melissa was reviewing colors with Frank and Frank loved colors. Most of the time he forgot some of them but today he was trying extra hard. Melissa saw this too. Frank was speaking in normal sized sentences and had very little pauses in them.

“What colors is this Frank?” Melissa pointed to the color pink.

“Pink!”

“Good! And this,” she help up a brown one.

“Brown,” Frank smiled taking the card from Melissa.

“Last one, what color is this?” Melissa held up gray card and Frank stared at it. Frank had a hard time remembering the color gray. Melissa knew this but she wanted to see if he could remember today.

“S....” Frank stared at the color until a light bulb went off. “G-um-um! Uh! Gray! Gray, gray, gray! That color is gray!” Frank took the card and waved it around announcing it's color for all to hear.

“Good job, Frankie!” Melissa said and Frank grinned, showing off all his teeth.

“I'm doing good!” Frank spoke and Melissa nodded patting Frank's back.

“You are doing very, very good Frank. You want a sticker?” Frank's eyes widened as Melissa got out a pack of golden star stickers. Frank was practically shaking with excitement as his teacher gave him a star. He let out a squeal as he placed it on his hand.

“I'm so smart!” Frank gawked at his star. Melissa would never meet another person in the whole world who got that excited over a sticker.

“The toilet is broken.” Mikey said as he pointed to the bathroom.

“Mikey, I got a star!” Frank said but Mikey was to focused on the broken bathroom to pay that much attention to him.

“How is it broken?” Miss Wool asked as she got up to investigate it. The two went into the room to examine the broken toilet. Melissa and Frank returned to their lesson and by the time lunch came, Frank had three stars. Mikey had gotten jealous and finally earned one star. His was blue and he showed it off to Frank as the boys ate their packed lunches.

The two teachers ate at one of the free tables until the bell rang. Frank and Mikey then began their speech part of the day. Even though Mikey was just a few levels above Frank, the two stilled had the classes because Mikey tended to forget a few things that Frank is studying. He'll point to Frank's paper and say, 'I didn't learn this! Teach me!'

The kid liked to be at the same level as Frank, even if he didn't know he was above him.

Frank began to get fidgety in his chair. Melissa told him to stop wiggling so much but he couldn't help it. Frank desperately needed to go to the bathroom. He didn't know where to go since the bathroom in the room needed to be fixed due to Mikey trowing crayons into it.

“Murph! M-Melissa, I have to go.” Frank said crossing his legs and Melissa stared at him oddly. Frank let out a little whimper before she caught on.

“Oh! Okay-uh come with me Frank.” She helped Frank up and told Mikey and Miss Wool they'd be back. Melissa took Frank outside the classroom and pointed to a door that was three feet away. “Go there,” Melissa said and Frank quickly scurried off to the room. He entered the room and noticed that three boys were in there. They watched him for a few seconds before they began to whispered to each other. Frank nervously shuffled over to one of the stall and relieved himself. He flushed and fled the stall to go wash his hands. The three boys watched Frank intently like he was a piece of meat or something.

Frank was tense as he grabbed paper towel to dry his wet hands off. One of the boys made his way over to Frank as his back was turned and smashed his face against the metal paper towel dispenser. Frank let out a cry of pain as his head throbbed.

“Hey retard,” the boy who was holding his face against the metal snarled. He had blonde hair and icy blue eyes that made Frank's stomach knot up. Frank whimpered as the boys closed in on him. Frank began to tremble, not sure what was going on.

“Remember us you little fuck up?” A different boy asked. This one had short brown hair and muddy eyes. Frank shook his head but the boy holding him grabbed a fist full of his hair and smashed his face again. Frank let out another scream as tears fell down his face.

“No-” Frank cried, “I-I don't know. What di-did I do? I don't know you. Stop it!” Frank sobbed and the boys just laughed at his pain.

“You got us in a shit ton of trouble, you little freak.” He snarled as Frank let out a whimper as the fist tightened in his hair.

“So now, you are in trouble. You and that other mistake.” Frank was dragged away from the metal and thrown against the wall. They cornered him and one of the boys gave him a sharp kick in the ribs that caused Frank to let out a yelp of pain. The leader of the group drew his fist back with a smirk on his face. He was about to punched Frank's face in when the bathroom door opened.

“Frank! You take too long to-” Mikey stopped in the doorway staring at the group of males. The bathroom door closed and Frank let out a moan.

“Mikey.”

“Frank? You okay? Move it!” Mikey shoved one of the boys out of the way and gasped as he saw Frank curled up and crying.

“Look, we got the other fucker too!” One boy barked with laughter and Mikey turned around.

“How did Frank get hurt?” Mikey demanded to know but his only response was being shoved against the wall with Frank.

“Mikey no, go,” Frank insisted but Mikey growled. He lashed out and punched one of the males to the ground.

“Stop it!” Mikey shouted down at the kid he punched. It got extremely quite before the two boys glared at Mikey.

“You little shit!” One cursed but Mikey grabbed his arm and bit him numerous times. The boy let out a howl of pain, clutching his bitten up arm.

“You are mean!” Mikey shouted at the boys.

“Deal with it, retard.” Mikey groaned as the leader punched him right in the gut. Mikey fell to his knees and held his wounded organ. The boy let out a laugh but Mikey curled up his fist and punched it right into his balls. “Fuck!” He cried as the boy fell to the ground. Mikey let out a huff of air as he rose to his feet. He glared at the boys and began screaming at them to get out. He kicked at them until they crawled away. Mikey grunted as he turned around and saw Frank. He was still on the ground and still very upset.

“Frankie, are you okay?” Mikey asked, crouching down next to him. Frank just whimpered and formed a tight ball. “Frankie, Frankie,” Mikey called holding Frank against his chest and the boy shook as heart-wrenching sobs left his body.

“I don't get it. They-They are mean. I d-didn't do any-anything. I-I didn't..” Frank trailed off his words turning into a jumbled mess of sobs and whines.

“Frankie, I'm gonna go-go uh get Melissa, okay? Stay,” Mikey set Frank down and quickly rushed out of the bathroom. Frank's aching ribs stared the grow numb as he sat up a bit. His breathing was erratic and his tears wouldn't stop. Melissa ran into the bathroom with Miss Wool and Mikey behind her watching as Frank began his panic attack.

“Lizzie, call Marie,” Melissa told Miss Wool who nodded and pulled out her phone instantly. Melissa crouched down next to Frank and took his face in her hands. Frank tried to push her away but his attempts were feeble and useless.

“Frank, shh, Frankie honey look at me.” Melissa hushed but Frank shook his head mumbling words that Melissa didn't catch or understand.

“Frankie,” Mikey frowned worried about him.

“No, boys, mean, name, don't-don't, hurt, metal, pee, rib, no! No! No! NO! NOO!! NO!!!!” Frank shrieked pushing and kicking at Melissa, desperately trying to get out of her embrace.

“Frankie!” Melissa called as Frank sprang to his feet. He backed away from Melissa before making a run for it. He threw open the bathroom door and took off running down the hallway. Kids and teachers who overheard Frank screaming were poking out of their classroom and watching as Frank ran down the hallway with Mikey and Melissa calling him.

Frank ran all around the school. He didn't want to leave and get lost but he wanted to get away. He quickly saw a closet door in the hallway and desperately tried to get it opened. He managed to open the door the second time and closed it behind him. His lungs and heart ached from the exorcize as he curled up in the corner, hiding behind mops and buckets of cleaning supplies.

Frank rocked himself back and forth, trying to calm himself down by humming or muttering sweet things to himself. He failed through as his thoughts began to run wild. Frank quickly tried to block out the evil images but they consumed him. Flashbacks and forgotten memories flashed before his eyes and all Frank could do was scream and cry. His nails dug into his flesh as he clutched onto himself. Trying to find any form of comfort.

“Not hungry. Not eat. No eat...” Frank mumbled as the childhood memory began to play out.

“Eat it, you little shit.” The foul man snarled as he pointed to the molded food that was being picked away at by cockroaches and flies. Frank shook his head, backing away from it. Frank's father grabbed onto his son's hair and pointed to the mess on the floor.

“No.”

“Eat it you fucking retarded! You made the mess now you pick it up!”

“Broom,” Frank said clawing at his father's hand.

“Eat it!!!” Frank father smashed Frank's head against the floor. His face landed in the smelly and gooey mess. He could feel the roaches crawl around him and he began to scream and flare around.

“Quite down!” Linda screamed from the living room. “I'm watching my program!”

“The fucking freak it's picking up his mess!” Frank's father shouted back, taking a long swig of the bad tasting water. Frank didn't like the water his parents drank. It tasted like gasoline.

Frank's father lifted his son's face from the mess and looked at him. He reached down and picked up one of the roached before looking back at his son. Frank attempted to free himself, desperate to get away from the harmless little bug.

“Eat it.” The oldest male demanded. Frank bit his lip and shook his head. Tears fell down his cheek and his heart raced. Frank's father yanked on his son's hair and Frank screamed. The roached was shoved into his mouth. A hand was placed over his mouth and Frank went ballistic. He could feel the six legs wiggle around his tongue as the bug explored the new territory. The seven year old flared his arms and legs around trying to get his head free in order to spit the bug out.

The father glared at his son. His strong hand covering the mouth of his child, ensuring no escape of the pest inside of his mouth. Frank cried out as the bug slipped down his throat. His gag reflex kicked in and the hand was removed from his mouth right as he vomited all over himself and the floor. He continued to gag, his body was insuring nothing was left inside of his stomach.

Frank stared down at his vomit and watched in horror as the roach he swallow writhed around in agony as his stomach acid burned him. He torn his eyes away from the bug in order to looked up at his father. The drunken man pointed to the bug and looked at Frank with disgust.

“You are as fucking foul as that roach is.” He cursed before leaving the room.

Frank stared intently at his shoes as the one memory faded and another one took it's place. The cycle continued for an hour or so until Frank couldn't and more and collapsed against the ground. Hoping someone would find him and give him the hug he so desperately needed.