It was an ordinary morning for Tanner Bradshaw as he walked into Evansville Central High School wearing a wrinkled Chicago Cubs t-shirt and wrinkled shorts. Tanner’s mother had drilled the importance of presenting himself well into his head a thousand times over, and he was starting to show some improvement in consistently washing his hair and managing his acne. However, Tanner could not bring himself to hang up his clothes immediately after drying them. Furthermore, he had no idea how to use an iron. It was something he knew he had to fix eventually. Tanner felt that there were hundreds of these little areas of life he needed to improve on if he ever wanted to achieve his goals. For now, he was content wearing wrinkled clothes.
It was still twenty minutes before the start of Tanner’s first period class, so he made his way to the fine arts hallway where he knew his friends would be hanging out. Tanner had met Zach in the sixth grade, and they quickly bonded over their shared love of video games, television, and comic books. They had been close friends ever since. Tanner had known Olivia even longer, having met in the third grade, and they had bonded over many of the same things. Now they were in theatre together at Evansville Central.
“Hey, Tanner,” Zach called out upon seeing his friend. “Olivia has some news.”
“What?” Tanner asked excitedly.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Olivia said modestly.
“Is too,” Zach replied emphatically. “Christina Jefferies overheard Mr. Davenport say that it was between Olivia and Jessica Stern to play Johanna in Sweeney Todd.”
“That’s huge,” Tanner said, thrilled for his friend. “I’m so hyped for the cast list to come out on Friday!”
The three friends went on like this for a while until it was time for them each to head separately to their first period classes, which, unfortunately, were in three different places. Tanner walked briskly to his classroom not wanting to be late to his favorite class. He waved hello to his friends Brian and Sloane before he noticed Trenton approaching him with a sneer.
Trenton Graham hung out with the in-crowd at Evansville Central. He was a linebacker on the football team and was dating Melissa Clark, a cheerleader who had always been nice to Tanner. Unlike his girlfriend, however, Trenton had a reputation for being mean spirited and sometimes even downright villainous. Notably, he had a habit of saying incredibly cruel things to people he deemed beneath him, as if he had time-travelled from the 1980s where such behavior (at least according to the movies Tanner had seen from that decade) was commonplace at high schools across the land.
Trenton walked away from his good friend Harvey and toward Tanner. Trenton had a wicked gleam in his eyes, and his mouth was curled into a twisted smile.
“Wrinkled clothes, dipshit? Really?” Trenton exclaimed. Trenton turned and looked at Harvey. “What. A. Loser.”
Harvey looked horrified. As the two of them walked away, Harvey told Trenton in a serious tone, “Not cool, man.”
Tanner tried with all his might to hold back his tears until he could get to class and ask to use the restroom, but he couldn’t make it that far. By the time he reached the classroom, he was bawling.
Tanner next saw Zach in their third period class together. Tanner was still outraged and distraught, but when he told Zach about it, Zach seemed to shrug it off.
“People are jerks sometimes, dude. Don’t let it get to you,” Zach replied after Tanner told him what had happened.
How could Zach tell him to let something so rude and uncalled for go? He told Zach as much.
“Take a breather, dude. You’ll get over it.”
The teacher started lecturing, ending their conversation. After the teacher finished, Tanner avoided Zach, feeling he needed to take some time to unpack Zach’s nonchalant attitude. Zach had never known what it was like to be on the autism spectrum, what it was like to feel every day of your life that you are different from the vast majority of the people around you. Zach had never had to put up with the cruel jokes and taunts, even though such behavior had died down since Tanner had begun high school. Tanner resolved to have a conversation with Zach about empathy as well as to explain why he was so bothered by what Trenton had said.
At lunchtime, Melissa Clark was infuriated. How dare her boyfriend act that way? She decided this was the final straw.
The moment Melissa saw Trenton in the cafeteria she said, “We need to talk. Away from everyone.” Melissa led him away with furious steps to an area of the cafeteria where they could talk privately.
Trenton tried to speak, but Melissa immediately cut him off. “I told you. I told you if you were a jerk to anyone like that again, I would break up with you! And here we are.”
“Babe, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help…” Trenton began defensively.
“Couldn’t help what? Couldn’t help making fun of Tanner? Shame on you. We’re over!”
Melissa stormed off, her eyes watering. She had believed Trenton could change, but he had let her down.
Once Melissa got home from school, she started to think about Trenton and how he had failed her for the last time. She thought about Tanner and how difficult it must be for him to have all those things that were harder for him to do and then to have to deal with endless crap from other people on top of that.
Melissa’s phone began to ring. It was her father. Melissa answered, letting out a sigh of relief in the process.
“Hey, muffin.”
“Dad, I told you not to call me that!”
“Sorry…So I was thinking about getting us tickets to the Cubs game on Saturday. Would you be interested in going with me?”
“Yes. I’d like that,” Melissa replied, a sudden eagerness in her voice.
There was a long pause before Melissa’s dad asked, “Are you okay? You sound like something’s been bothering you.”
Melissa hesitated before saying, “I broke up with Trenton today.”
“That’s rough…But…Can I just say I never liked him?”
Melissa paused before replying, “Yes. You can. He was being a jerk again, this time to Tanner. Remember him from elementary school?”
“Yes mu...I mean yes, I do.”
Melissa took a deep breath.
“Honestly the thing that’s bothering me the most is that the things Trenton was berating him for, they’re because of his autism. Like, honestly, I just feel bad for Tanner. Like I want to apologize, even though I know I wasn’t the one who did anything wrong…Am I making any sense?”
“Can I give you some advice?” her dad asked.
“Yes. Please.”
“Sometimes, what a person needs the most is a gesture of solidarity. If you can show someone with your actions that you see their problems are valid and empathize with them, then that will mean more than a hundred thousand words ever could.”
And in that moment, Melissa knew exactly what she had to do.
The next day was already going better for Tanner as he walked into school once more in wrinkled clothes.
Yesterday, without Tanner saying a word, Zach had apologized to him. Zach had told Tanner that he shouldn’t have been so dismissive of Trenton’s hurtful words and promised to do better. And that afternoon, he had been able to vent his frustrations to both Zach and Olivia.
Dang, Tanner thought, it really is good to have friends.
So, Tanner walked into Evansville Central High School, mood bolstered by the conversations he'd had the night before, refreshed from a long night’s sleep, and in wrinkled clothes. Then, he noticed Melissa walking toward him. Had she been waiting by the front entrance to talk to him?
And then Tanner noticed something else. Melissa Clark, one of the most popular people in school, was wearing wrinkled clothes.
“I’m sorry for what Trenton said to you,” Melissa said apprehensively. “Friends?”
Melissa extended her hand, and Tanner took it.
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