A more timely diagnosis
This is a record of a dream, not something that actually happened.
I was walking to high school on the first day of the new school year, starting at a new school--the local public--despite already completing an accelerated high school program in only two years. But some bureaucrat didn't believe the paperwork or the test scores and demanded I return for two more years.
This was a world where I'd been diagnosed correctly much earlier. Also one where bone conduction headphones were commonplace in 2004, the year I was a high school junior.
As I walked to school, I passed a teacher taking his class out for a stroll (which didn't make sense because I wasn't late and he wasn't early, also it was the first day of the year yet it wasn't the first day with his class). He was an English teacher who taught both at the accelerated program and at the local high school, and we'd built a decent rapport... but I'd been assigned a different teacher for first period English.
He offered to go out of his way to get me out of my assigned first period English class, even if it meant private one-on-one during his free (first) period. (Maybe it was a -1st period that he was taking for a walk? I have no idea.)
I walked into the school wearing my bone conduction headphones, music playing, and to my first class.
The windows outside the classroom were weird. I could see into the classroom from the hall, but I couldn't see any of the people inside the room, like the glass was polarized in such a way that it only blocked people. The classroom was almost full, the other students fairly boisterous and completely ignoring me. When the bell rang, they slowly quieted down, the teacher passed out copies of the syllabus and started reading through it with the class... until she saw me with my headphones on.
She asked me a question about something she'd just gone over, and I answered in a monotone voice with the correct answer, despite appearing to the world to not be paying attention. She wasn't happy that I was correct, and demanded I take off the headphones. I shook my head, refusing.
She abandoned her post at the front of the class and called me over to her desk at the rear of the classroom to write me up and send me to detention. I grabbed my bag, pulled out a tri-folded sheet of paper, and carried all my things to her desk, eager to go sit in detention instead of suffering through her class.
She demanded I take the headphones off again, one last ditch effort to get me to acquiesce and not get sent to detention, and I handed her the paper: it was a letter of accommodation that allowed me to wear my headphones all day, including during lessons, as long as I was able to hear my surroundings and interact with the teacher as necessary.
She read through the paperwork and tucked it away, despite me still holding out my hand waiting for her to give it back. She looked at me pointedly and told me I wasn't getting it back. I made a snide remark about an English teacher who couldn't read, because the paper clearly stated on it that that was the "student's copy" and if any teacher wanted their own copy, who to call at the office.
Good thing I'd made enough duplicates for all of my teachers to confiscate the copy I'd hand them.
I walked down quiet halls to the detention classroom, where I passed another copy to the supervisor (who actually handed it back) and told me to take a seat. I grabbed a random desk far away from the other students, and pulled out one of my notebooks.
My reverie was interrupted about ten minutes before the bell marking end of period by the teacher I liked opening the door and sticking his head in the room. He waved to the supervisor and gestured to me to follow him, without saying a word.
Back in the quiet hall, the first thing he said was to ask what I was listening to. I replied, "instrumental funk," and he laughed, before telling me he'd spoken to the office administration and was taking over my first period English after having day-one issues with a non-accommodating teacher, and refused to take no for an answer from either of us, me or the office.
We would meet outside the school office, and he'd take me somewhere depending on room availability, though if he was substituting, I'd probably have to be in the detention room (despite not being disciplined for anything). I told him I was fine with that.
Then the period end bell rang. He patted my back and sent me off to my next class.
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