My 8th grade English exam. My English teacher, my favorite person in the world (at the time) had pulled strings so that I could just toss off the class exam in my spare time, and my real exam was to head down to her silent and deserted office, watch the movie version of Clan of the Cave Bear and do a report. (This makes more sense in the context that my sensory issues were at their worst during a class exam, not that I'd ever told anyone, but she seemed to figure it out by instinct.) And not just a typical grade school book report... there were no guidelines whatsoever, she told me quite clearly that she didn't give a crap about neatness or classical format or anything except intelligent content. I'd finished the book earlier so I talked about everything from the psychology of the characters to the problems translating a book plot into a movie.
And THEN - a two-hour writer's conference with her, after school, about the project that had been my obsession for a year.
And the hope that next year I would be off to a new school with a real art program, and a new life.