Say what? (Fred)

[Professor Robert Wallace]

Professor Robert Wallace sat behind his desk his red pen flying across the paper he was grading. He tried to be as nice as possible when grading but the lack of effort in some papers stood out like a sore thumb. For example the hastily written assignment that Mr, Green turned in on worm compost had so much slang Robert had to use google in order to dicipher some of the words. But he wasn't to worried about Mr.Green since the boy seemed content with barely passing. What had Robert worried was an upcoming assignment. He planned to assign a speech and knowing what it was like to struggle with a speech impairment Robert knew he needed to find an alternative for students who like him were speech impaired. Robert still hadn't "spoken"or written to Chris about it but he was certain that the boy who was deaf would opt to write an essay. Fredwick on the other hand had the ability to speak but suffered from tourrettes. He didn't know if Fred was comfortable speaking in front of crowds and found it best to consult the boy before deciding how he would present his assignment.

Wallace hoped Fredwick would choose to present his own speech. After all, the students were already used to Roberts Dystharia and no doubt would be fine with Fredwicks tourrettes. From what Wallace understood tourrettes got worse when a person was nervous and Robert didn't want to stress the boy. Wallace hoped that whatever came of the situation that Fred would feel comfortable around him. Hearing someone at the door Wallace moved his papers to the side and invited the boy in. " Ish Oh-puh-en" he carefully pronounced each syllable. Today was a bad day for his intermittent dystharia. There was no telling what his brain would decide from day to day. Honestly it was frustrating because he would go from being understandable to speaking complete gibberish. It was as if he forgot to talk with in moments.

[Fredwick Olivier]

Fred walked down the hall, nerves wound so tight that he almost wanted to run the other direction and hide. Fred had often wanted to run and hide from things that scared him or things that made him uncomfortable. Fred was very much uncomfortable at the thought of being in a professor's office alone, all attention on him, and he knew that his tourrettes would probably get worse but Fred had been taught long ago that he could not run from his fears and had to face them head on. Fred's ticks had gotten worse over the years, probably at least in part because of it, but he hated letting people down and so had stood up to his fears even though he shivered both internally and externally every time.

Fred finally came to the door of Professor Wallace. Fred liked professor Wallace. He understood Fred better than most professors or faculty here or anywhere he had been before. Professor Wallace had a speech disability as a result of a stroke and always seemed to be able to connect with Fred on a level no one else ever could. Of all professors, Fred was glad it was Robert Wallace that was asking to see him, but he was still afraid. Nonetheless, he took a deep breath to try to calm some shakes and nerves and try to swallow his tourettes and proceeded to knock on the door.

When Fred heard that he had been called in, he slowly opened the door and slipped into the room, closing the door behind him. Fear flooded into his mind and threatened to suffocate him and he fought them the best he could. Fred took a deep breath again before speaking. H-hello sir. Ha-ha-how are you today? Uuu... Sir? A-am I in t-t-t-trouble? And Fred's strength went out the window as he heard himself talk. His tourettes had won once again and he hated himself for it. Fred slumped into the chair, biting back tears and refusing to make eye contact, and waited for the reply that he knew would come.

Fredwick was embarrassed and now all he wanted was to crawl back to his room and hide until the whole world would go away. The seconds picked at him with every tick of the clock and he grew more and more tense as he waited for the reply and the moment he could leave and slink back to his room where he belonged.