section 8

It didn’t matter though.

The smell of generic carpet and basketball sweat hit me when I opened the door. There was a circle of folding metal chairs in the middle of the room and a plastic table covered in cheap plastic, three half closed pizza boxes and an array of goodies. A group of ten or so people were spread through out the gym. Mostly people a few years younger than me and a few years older than me.

“Hey!” one of the semi-adults called out to me. She looked perky. She was dressed in cargo shorts and a pink tank top I had seen in the Juniors section at Wal-Mart last week. Even though it was only April her legs were tanned and her hair was showing an extensive amount of high lights. She looked like one of those people that had it all together. “Hi,” she had walked up to me and was sticking her hand out in some weird combo of waving and offering to shake my hand, “I’m Polly, you must be Brigitte. Your mother and I have talked a lot in the past few weeks. You’re gonna have a great time here. So, on the first Wednesday of the month we have a potluck and we meet up early and just hang out. What’s your last name?”

“Uhm,” all of her words had just rushed over my head and left me feeling a bit confused, “Cooper.” It was more of question than a statement but she continued smiling.

“Great, so you’ll be a side dish. It really doesn’t matter though, since Carter and I bring the pizza. I mean, you can bring whatever you want. We just have to turn stuff in to the director here so it looks like were organized since we’re getting college credit for this. So, you know, bring your favorite food or something. Just bring enough for about twenty or so, we have a few boys here that seem to have hollow legs.”

“Kay, cool.”

“We’ll totally remind you,” she was still smiling and it made me uncomfortable. “So, we’re just about to start so just take a seat and go with the flow, okay? If you have any questions just ask me after, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I crossed my arms in front of myself uncomfortably and sat down in one of the chairs, they were cold even though the room was pretty stuffy.

Polly stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled to get the group’s attention. The group ambled towards the chairs and sat down in them. I was definitely getting new girl looks.

“They aren’t as bad as they seem. It’s typical new kid stuff.”

I turned towards the voice. The guy was about my age, he had brown hair and a nice face. His nose was covered in freckles though which made him less beautiful than he could have been.

“Trust me, we’re totally accepting and might all have the whole sibling thing in common but it’s hard wired in us to weary. I’m sure everyone will have calmed down by the end of the night.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know how I was supposed to take that. “So, everyone here is pretty cool. That’s Daisy,” he pointed to a blonde girl across from us, “she’s twelve and just started coming a few months ago. Her baby sister was just diagnosed as Deaf so she’s having a hard time, feels ignored. That’s Robert, probably the most well adjusted here, his brother has Asperger’s. Jenny has twin brother’s who are are both autistic. A lot of us have autistic siblings, but in different places on the spectrum. Lucy, Margot, Helen, Mark and I all have autistic siblings. Mostly brothers, Lucy and Mark have autistic sisters though. What about you—”

“Okay!” Polly clapped her hands together and shouted to get our attention. Everyone was sitting down by now and Polly and Carter were in a sort of head position of the circle. “So, we’re gonna go around the room and introduce ourselves. We have a new person here tonight. You guys know what to do. Carter you can start.”

“I’m Carter. I’m from here in Denver. I go to Denver U and I’m studying teen psychology. I’m using this for my graduate degree. My little sister is 16, she had meningitis when she was a baby, she ended up deaf and had cognitive delays. Polly,” he looked over at her and sat down in the metal chair.

“I’m Polly. I’m from a small town in Idaho called Meadows Creek, it’s up by the border. I’m also over at Denver U. I’m studying Special Education. I don’t have a sibling with a disability, but my high school had a pretty good special ed department that I volunteered in. I just kind of fell in love with working with the kids.”

Polly passed it off to Daisy. She told us her name, age, where she went to school and something hard she had gone through this week. Like the guy next to me had said, she was twelve and her sister was barely one. Her grandmother was deaf so her mother knew Sign Language but her grandmother died before she was born so Daisy herself didn’t know any Sign. She showed off the splint on her index and middle finger and explained that she had had to miss Sign class this week.

Lucy was 14 and had an autistic sister who was two years older than her. Margot’s autistic brother was non-verbal and 3 years younger than her 17. Helen’s brother was autistic and possibly a musical savant. Mark’s sister was high-functioning autistic and they both went to my school. It was big school though so it made since that I had never seen him before. Robert’s brother was autistic, 24 and living in a home in the Denver suburbs.

Everyone’s story was kind of similar and definitely familiar. Lucy’s sister had thrown a tantrum at the McDonald’s and made them late for Lucy’s soccer game. Margot’s brother made the grocery trip two hours long because he had to organize all the red containers on the shelves. Helen’s brother had been playing late at night and refused to use headphones. Mark’s sister broke his Playstation when she was mad at him. Robert’s brother was having a hard time in the home he was in and his family was having a hard time trying to find him a new one, he was scared he was going to have to move back in and share a room with him again.

It was almost disconcerting to listen to everyone talk about these things, all these things that were things I had gone through as well. I had really thought that I was alone. I knew that there were other sisters out there that had autistic brothers, but it was almost like a fantasy.

“I’m Lyle. I’m 16, my sister is 7 and she has Down Syndrome. I live in Denver, but I’m homeschooled. This week has actually been pretty good. Sophie passed her first math test!”

The group sent out congratualtions before Polly and Carter turned it back to the topic of the night. Maybe, just maybe, this would be a little more enjoyable that I thought it was going to be. And even if it wasn’t, Lyle was kind of cute and I was getting frozen yogurt afterwards.