I take care of my husbands uncle, he lives with us, he is 39 years old and he is mentally disabled and has partial autism. Its not really bad, its just sometimes he cant hear you, see you, doesnt even know your there. He just stops what he is doing, stares off into space and talks to himself in his own world. If you yell loud enough he will snap out of it lol but it doesnt hurt anything so we let him do it. He has been like this his entire life. In school he was one of the "special" kids who went to lunch seperately than the rest of the school because they got teased, so many people have accused him of "checking out" their kids, and he gets snickers and comments all the time. He doesnt notice any of it but we do. He has NEVER been one of those stereotypical retarded people that they show on TV. He likes kids, but not like that, so when the new neighbor down the road starts threatening to call the cops on him cause he looked over at the kids playing in the yard when he walked by to go to the bus, it is rather frustrating. Its always the new people, the ones who are ignorant, and then you explain it to them and they say ok and sorry, but they dont really believe you.
Sorry, Im ranting now, I just hate how people get treated if they are the slightest bit different. You are a high functioning autistic person, so you should do fine in middle school. People talk about how middle school is so rough, and yeah, kids can be mean, but it sounds like you got some good friends so dont worry about it, just stay away from the jerks. And once high school hits you should do okay, high school students are a bit less judgemental in my opinion.
Good luck with school next year and I bet you will do fine!
