Autism and a Crush

by Sue Ellen Randolph

Copyright 2020, Skyheart Publishing House. Autism is not a disease, it is not a disability it is a characteristic. Scarlette Gilmore is a Japanese sixteen year old girl living in England and was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She loves the creek at the back of her home. She calls it her little river but before the summer vacation come around it was invaded by a boy Scarlette never liked a boy before and the seventeen year old boy seems like trouble. Scarlette hated school; she does not communicate and speak at all. Her mother gave her a diary in which she writes down all of her thoughts and what happened throughout the day. Carson is the new boy in the neighbourhood who invades her little river. Everyone thinks that he is a bad boy and a delinquent. He becomes fast friends with Scarlette and she is glad that she has a friend. Then one day she suddenly begins to speak again. Her twelve year old sister is surprised but not surprised as Carson. He decides to talk to Tyler a boy in her class that lives in the same neighbourhood to ask him to take Scarlette to the dance but although Tyler is a very smart kid he is also a jerk. He gets angry when Scarlette talks about Carson and he leaves her. Scarlette decides to tell Carson about her autism that she is keeping secret from everyone. The night before the school dance, Scarlette and her family and Carson and his father attends a church family meeting. There, his dad tells everyone that his son smokes. Scarlette's mum is upset and even though she is friends with Carson's dad she does not want Scarlette around him. Later that night his dad kicks him out the house and tells him to get his act right. Scarlette meets him that same night by the little river and he tells her that he will take her to the school dance. After which he goes back to Liverpool to live with his uncle. Scarlette is sad and stop speaking again. Tyler weasels his way back into her life and is happy that she is not speaking so that she can go ahead with anything he says like a puppet. When Carson returns in the winter and is made known of it, he is furious Carson comes back a new kid and exposes Tyler to the entire neighbourhood. Scarlette's secret is out Scarlette's mum, Carson and Scarlette realises that not every kid who smokes is a bad kid and some of the ones who are intelligent and smart at school can be one of the meanest kids ever Scarlette learns that people who do not know about her autism will be mean to her and even if they know some might still be mean. Learning to live with it will be the hardest thing that she will ever have to do because she knows that she will never forget the way others treat her.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1090756496
• ISBN13: 9781090756497
• Release Date: March 2019
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 110 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"