Tommy's POV:
Phil promised me the proper uniform he still needed to order for me would be more comfortable. It was special accessible uniform he said. Adaptive clothes. The trousers had an elasticated waist, so I could just pull them on by myself. The shirt had velcro instead of buttons so I could do that myself too. And it was made with softer material that wouldn't bother me as much.
Techno helped me get out of the stupid uniform and back into my comfortable clothes. Then we went back out to stand with Wilbur and Phil. "Tubbo is just getting changed, then we'll buy the stuff and get going to McDonald's for lunch. Tommy, are you happy with those socks?" I nodded, spinning round Techno. "Good, we can buy those then."
The socks were fine, they were grey with coloured bits on the ankle and toe. They were smart and I liked them. And McDonald's for lunch sounded good to me! Tubbo stormed out and handed Phil some of the packaging.
"Thanks mate," Phil said, placing them in the trolley, "can you put the other stuff on that railing so the staff can put it back." He sighed and I sensed my older brother was annoyed. He got angry in a bit similar way to Dad but I knew he wouldn't hurt me so it was fine. Once he'd done as he was asked, we went to the checkouts and then walked to the McDonald's. Techno and Wilbur took a quick detour to take the stationary and clothes to the car, so we didn't have to carry the bags around with us. Meanwhile, Tubbo, Phil and I got a table at McDonald's and went over the menu again to choose what we wanted.
Happy with my chicken nuggets, as was Techno, we had a nice family meal, well half a family meal. Techno showed me the best way to dip the nuggets in the ketchup pots and Wilbur showed me and Tubbo how to pour our chips into the other side of the cardboard things; I don't know what to call them. And Phil let me have a coke zero, so I was very happy.
"Right, this afternoon we need to go get jumpers for Tommy. We can get more stuff there if you boys need it too, socks, ooh you both need sport socks, boxers, whatever. It's primark, so just whatever you need. Then we'll go to the school shop. We need to get the PE tops, blazer, tie, and sew-on school badges there. Tech, Will, do you remember if they do the navy shorts there?" Techno nodded. "Okay, well get that there too."
"Are we going to Sports Direct?"
"Yep, then we'll go to sports direct. We can get backpacks, sports bags, trainers and PE equipment there. If we can find stuff you boys are happy with, we can look online though remember?" I nodded, Tubbo was still annoyed about whatever it was from earlier and didn't answer.
"Oh I forgot to tell you," Wilbur said, "I got my PE bag out my wardrobe to show Tubbo what the PE kit looked like and it turns out I need a new mouthguard?"
"Why, what was wrong with your old one?"
"It had kind of gone moudly?"
"Oh Wilbur! Right, that is one thing we are changing this year. When you get in from school, your bags are to be emptied. Lunch boxes, if you have them, emptied! And lastly, your PE kits will be washed every weekend, whether they are muddy or sweaty or neither. Okay?"
"Okay," we collectively groaned, with a few nods thrown in.
"Good. Now are we ready to get going? It's a bit more walking this afternoon." I looked at Tubbo. He hadn't been able to walk much since everything that happened. I looked it up online, when Phil told me what it was. I explain it to myself that the stabbing lost lots of blood and that meant Tubbo's brain and legs stopped working as well because they didn't get blood for a little bit and it meant they sort of half died. I don't think that's actually what happened though, not scientifically.
I felt a bit funny, Techno said it was like when you were nervous or anxious. It felt wiggly, but not in a good way.
Phil held my hand and we walked to Primark. "You didn't like the blazer, which I don't blame you for, so we need to get some crew neck jumpers, not knitted though don't worry. Then I'll sew on the school badge, does that sound good?"
"Yea."
"Good. I think they are here. Let's try this one." He held the jumper up to me and took a step back to see whether it would fit. "That looks good. Give it a feel and see if you like it." I felt the material and then the inside too and handed it back to him when I think I've done it enough. It was fine. I liked the way it felt, but it wasn't particularly interesting. Techno came to stand next to me and smiled.
"Alright mate?"
"Yea, I just looked in the men's section but there was nothing I wanted. Wilbur's just looking at some stuff with Tubbo over there." I didn't bother to look; this was getting more boring by the second.
"Okay, well we've got these," Phil held up the jumpers, "so we can pay and get going to the school shop now. I think Tommy's fine for boxers and socks."
"Cool, Tommy would you like to wait with me?" I nodded and gave my older brother a hug.
"Sounds good to me, I'll go pay, send Tubbo and Wilbur over with anything they find."
Tubbo's POV:
I handed Wilbur the pack of school socks and we walked over to Techno and Tommy. "Oh you need to give them to Dad." I nodded and went to take them from Wilbur.
"No it's fine. I've got it." Wilbur walked off. I sighed and shuffled on my crutches. My legs were killing me. My back was hurting too. There was a blister on the same part of each of my hands and I genuinely just wanted to go home.
I hadn't done this much walking since that night and now I realised why. I needed to do way more physio before my life even started to get back to normal. The wheelchair was in the back of the car; I knew it was because I'd seen Phil put it in there. I hated my wheelchair. It made me feel stupid and small and I could see everyone pitying me. But now I was realising that if I wanted to continue shopping, which I definitely did because it was fun and I was kind of enjoying it, using the wheelchair might be a better option.
Looking at Tommy, he immediately knew something was up. He stopped hugging Techno and smothered me in a hug instead. He hugs me the way I used to hug him. The height difference and everything. "Everything alright Tubbo?" Techno asked, looking at me with a smile.
I showed him my hand. "Heh? That doesn't look very nice. I could ask Dad if he's got a plaster?" I tried to gesture that it would be fine but didn't catch the crutch in time and lost my balance. Tommy held a hand out for me, not understanding that he couldn't just pull me up. "Stay down for a second. Wilbur is just coming and then we can both get you up." I nodded.
"Tommy come here," Wilbur moved him out the way and then helped Techno to stand me up. "You alright?" I nodded, looking at the floor.
"He's got a blister on his hand. And looks quite tired?"
"Why don't we get the wheelchair out the back of the car?" I looked at Wilbur and paused. I didn't know what to say. I wanted to carry on shopping and spending time as a family. But I didn't want to go in the wheelchair. I didn't want to feel so much less than everyone else. But it would made me more independent if I'd just used it to begin with. With the way my hand was hurting, there was no way I could push myself, but if I'd been using it since we started earlier this morning, I would be able to. Maybe I'd talk to Luke about revisiting the wheelchair. It could be more helpful if I just stopped being so stupid about it.
"It'll be fine Tubbo," Techno comforted me, "Dad will work it out, look he's coming over now."
Time skip:
"How about those, those look cool?" I nodded and Techno brought the display trainer down from the shelf.
"Do you know your size?"
"Six."
"Ah so you've got teeny tiny toes yea?" Wilbur teased. Techno whacked on the arm, telling him to cut it out.
I laughed and they both seemed to relax. I was getting fed up of everyone walking on egg shells around me. I wasn't that fragile and they weren't going to break me. "They're co-" I took a deep breath, the way I'd seen another person with a stammer do on a youtube video, and used the air to push the word out, "cool." I smiled as it worked.
"Yea they actually are." The trainers were dark grey with green accents. Wilbur came back triumphantly holding a shoe box in his hands.
"Did you want to try them on?"
"S-s-sure." Wilbur took them out the box and held them up to me. I was just glad he hadn't tried to put them on for me.
With the shoes on, I decided I should do a little walking in them to just check they were comfortable. Techno got me my crutches and walked round with me whilst Wilbur stayed with the wheelchair. We went back to find him sitting in it casually. Techno couldn't contain his laughter and I was soon laughing too. Wilbur jumped out of it and helped me back in. "The shoes good then?" He asked.
"Yea." I began to put them back in the box. "N-n-n-not-t-t sure how-how-how mu-much I'll-l-l-l use them-m-m-m."
"Dad just wants you to have options. I used to claim I was too anxious to do cross country and they can't say anything. But I quite like the tennis we do in summer. Having the PE kit just means I can do it when I want to."
"Plus you can use those trainers normally too. I had this one pair of trainers once that I had to wear everywhere. I refused to wear any other pair. They were my PE trainers but I just started using them for everything. Mum and Dad didn't mind. Except from when the sole fell off and we had to throw them away and I had the biggest meltdown of my life." Techno said.
"I can't believe we didn't realise you were autistic sooner." Wilbur said.
"Yea I know right. Anyway, that's the other thing, school are really chill about uniform for us."
"Us?"
"SEND kids. I wore those trainers instead of school shoes. There's kids who can't wear the blazer or tie like Tommy, oh and there's that year 7 this year."
"Oh that one!" Wilbur chimed in.
"He's a really sweet kid who lost his leg about half way through the year. We kind of all know each other in the SEND department. You and Tommy will meet everyone. They like the SEND kids in each year group to make friends so that they don't feel as isolated. Anyway, the school refuse to let anyone wear shorts, but when the kid lost his leg, school trousers were becoming difficult to wear so they let him switch to the shorts. It was like a huge thing in school. A bunch of the other kids complained they couldn't wear shorts too, but our SENCO fought our headteacher over it."
I nodded and realised that Tommy and I would be safe at school. Techno and Wilbur would make sure of it. And when they left, Jack would, and James. And probably my teachers, when I get to finally meet them.
Techno wheeled me over to Phil who was choosing PE bags with Tommy. Last time I had a PE bag, it ended up in a fire pit with all the other things Kristin and Phil had bought us. "Tommy's picked out a red one, they've not got green unfortunately but take your pick mate."
"We found some trainers!" Wilbur said, showing them to Phil.
"Oh they look good mate. Nice choice."
"That-t-t-t o-" deep breathe, push it out, Tubbo, come on, you got this. In a series of short, quick breaths, I pushed out the rest of my sentence, "one please."
"Of course mate," he got the grey one down from the shelf. "Nice job on the speaking by the way. Nice to see you taking control back, good on you." I smiled and felt myself relax back into the chair. Yea, I was taking control back. I was making things better for myself. Getting back to properly using the wheelchair, in a way that worked for me best, was the next step.
A/n Hey! Hope everyone enjoyed this. Can't wait to be able to finally write the school chapters. Thanks for being here!