My First Trip To London – Part 1

I never thought  would be traveling to London on my own quite so soon. But I have two amazing friends to thank for that. Matthew and Barbara (two fellow Dyspraxics) wanted to meet me, and I obliged. They helped me plan the trip on my train and even agreed to meet me at the other end at the train station at Kings Cross, London.

The adventure began at around 9.20am, when my train was just minutes away from arriving. At the last minute, I looked up at the monitor and found out that I was on the wrong platform. I ran underground to come up on ground level again, on the right platform. Just a minute or two later, the train arrived.

Once on board, the journey lasted roughly an hour and ten minutes. I knew I had arrived in London, when I saw the Emirates Stadium (Arsenal’s home stadium). Although I am not a football fan anymore, the sight was amazing. Seeing outside of the giant Premiership Team’s stadium.

My Dyspraxia And Me Part 1

I have not written this post to gain sympathy or attention. I have simply written it so that you can understand me a lot more and can understand why I am like I am.

Now let’s go back to when I was younger. By the time I had left school, I was very very shy. This was because i was always put down. I was always told that I was not good enough by my teachers and peers. I was not bullied as such, but people would always take the piss out of me for things that my Dyspraxia caused me to do or not be able to do.

People with Dyspraxia will understand, but for those that don’t have it or have never even heard of it, I will explain what difficulties I had at school. I had very untidy handwriting, I couldn’t run properly, I could not take part in sports very well. The one thing that caused my abnormal shyness though was that I sometimes didn’t understand things as much as my friends did. For this reason, I stopped asking questions when I didn’t understand. I locked away all my queries, feelings and unanswered question deep inside my head. I just felt like my brain was locked and I couldn’t find the key.

In primary school I used to be more talkative, but only to people that I trusted. I had no proper friends and would spend my breaks and lunchtimes wandering around the playground with nothing to do. I hated it. The only friend I trusted was a teaching assistant that was in most of my classes throughout primary school. But it was not until late primary school that I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia. Before then I was just referred to as clumsy. (not in as many words, but I think that is what they thought.) I would always cry when I got told off. The only reasons I got told off was because i was told that I was not trying hard enough. I even got shouted at by my year 6 teacher and was forced to watch her tear up my work. From that moment on I felt like a nobody. I felt like whatever I did was not enough. So I gave up trying. My mum and would constantly be going up the school to complain to my teachers for telling me off and when I was getting bullied. But in the end i got told by one of my teachers to stop going and crying to my mum and dad when I didn’t get my ay. That left me broken, because then I started to hide from my parents when I had trouble at school. I had just given up with school.

When I joined Secondary school things improved, but I still faced daily struggles with not being accepted. I did now form a group of proper friends. But even then they would always take the mickey out of me for all the things I did not do as ‘normally’ like them. I now do understand whey, because they didn’t understand why. It got to the point that I even stopped being able to speak to girls, because I would get told how ugly I am and how I would never get anywhere in life.

I hated P.E. (Physical Education), because everyone was so much better at it than me. And I would always be bullied for the way I did things, so I hated that too. My P.E. teacher would even make me run around the field multiple times, because I didn’t throw a ball properly. And then he criticized my running in front of the whole class. Things like that should not have been happening in this day and age.

I started to rebel, and the only thing that I ever felt included in by my friends was when I misbehaved and we started mucking about in lessons. We would always ‘dos around’ in lessons that had non-strict teachers. I am not proud of what I did back then, but at the time, if I didn’t do it, I would have probably lose all my friends. The only ones that didn’t misbehave was the girls in my classes that couldn’t stand me and were disgusted by me (at least that is how it felt). I didn’t even want a relationship with any of them, I just wanted some proper friends. I even stopped socializing with my friends outside of school, because my parents feared i would only be causing trouble if I went out. In a way I was glad, because It did make me a lot more mature. In the later years of Secondary School, as everyone started to mature a little bit, I found myself turning extremely shy. That was when I was afraid to question anything. Because every time I did, I would get laughed at.

By the time I had left school I barely spoke at all when I wasn’t at home with my family. Don’t get me wrong, I could speak when I wanted to, but I hardly wanted to because I was always afraid of what people would say to my eccentric and non understanding questions. I was helped a lot when I went to a small college in Little port called Branching Out. Although I was extremely shy,  it helped me alot. I had finally found something i could be interested in, I.T. and computers. I then left to go to CRC (a further education college) That was when I met some new friends, and started to come out of my shell a little bit.

Part 2 Preview: By the time I had left college, I was beginning to become more confident. The main reason for this was because of Social Networking sites Bebo (why did I even use that?) and Facebook (which I still use far too much) I started adding all my old school friends and started to socialise with them in my spare time. I was 21 at this point and had not even had a proper night out. That is when it all changed, and I was going clubbing and pubbing nearly every weekend.

An Heir To The Underworld: Chapter 2 – An Invislible Threat

Wake up, sleepy head”, a female voice said to Kate.

She opened her eyes. “Libby, what have I told you?” Kate replied to the lady standing at the side of her bed. “I will get up in my own time.” She rolled back over and shut her eyes to go to sleep.

Libby looked half asleep herself, her eyes surrounded by black bags. “Kate, it is 6am!”

“What!” she turned around and sat up in her bed. “I only have half an hour before my bus comes.” She got out of the bed and rushed to the bathroom to get ready for work.

“Thanks for waking me up earlier, Libs”, Kate said sarcastically as she entered the bathroom. She quickly brushed her teeth, and then started applying make-up. She didn’t wear much make up, so it didn’t take very long. She brushed her wavy blonde hair that was just past her shoulders.

She then went into the kitchen and put on the grill to do some quick toast for breakfast. Once the toast was done, she put two of the four slices on her plate and put the other two on another plate. She buttered them all and then placed them both on the table. She began eating her toast, when Libby came in and took a seat in front of her plate.

Kate began a conversation, “So how was the cinema with Derek last night?”

“It was OK, we didn’t really like the film though. Well he liked it a bit, but he said that he wouldn’t go and see it again.”

“What film was it again?” she asked her, not really interested but wanting to know how the night went.

“It was that Batman one. I quite liked it and so did Derek, I think.” She began eating her toast. “Was your night interesting, babe?”

“Funny you should say that. It was very interesting. Whether you would believe me or not is a different matter though.” She winked at Libby with a teasing smile as she finished up her toast before taking her plate to the sink.

Libby looked at her confused and curious. She wondered how interesting a boring night in could be. She quizzed her on it, “So what happened then? Spill the beans? Did some gorgeous bloke come and turn you?” She giggled to herself, waiting for Kate’s reply.

“Turn me? Who said that I needed turning?” she said also smiling a teasing grin back at her as she walked back to the table.

“So go on then tell me… what happened?”

Kate stood across the table from her and lent over glancing into her eyes as she said, “Last night I met a man dressed in a big black trench coat. He saved me from a singing woman that hypnotised me to go to her. The man saved me before taking a deep scratch from her metal clawed glove. His wound healed almost instantly before he vanished off again into the night. His name, he told me, is Axel.” She pulled herself away from the close proximity of Libby’s face and grinned, and walked in an almost dancing stride back to the sink to wash up her plate.

An Heir To The Underworld: Chapter 1 – A Song from The Shadows

The window in the bedroom had been left open before Kate went to bed. It was a very mild night. The air was still. The curtains didn’t even flicker, they were as still as the air. All of a sudden a short blast of wind shot through the window. It swept across Kate’ face. It only lasted for a second, but it was enough to wake her up. Her eyes darted open. She sat up in her bed and looked at the open window. It was still dark. The curtains were almost still, flickering lightly every few seconds in time with the mild wind. She rubbed her eyes, and looked at her bedside clock. It read ‘02:46‘ She laid down again and closed her eyes.

A beautiful humming started from outside the window. It seemed to be a tune someone was humming. It sounded to her like a young woman’s voice. Kate opened her eyes again. She was quite surprised at how peaceful and beautiful the sound was. She got out of her bed and walked to her open window. She looked out, and it stopped. As she turned to walk back to her bed, the beautiful, hypnotic female voice began again. She felt the sudden urge to explore where it was coming from.