Tubbo's POV:
I double-checked my backpack again and slung it on the back of my wheelchair. Phil said the organisers would have everything I could possibly need but I had realised that having my phone, earphones and pain relief in a backpack wherever I went was way easier. I used to have to take everything I could possibly need for a day out with Tommy in my school backpack or pockets wherever I went. When I talked to Scar about it, he helped me realise that the security of having everything I could need with me, made me feel calmer. So I'd started doing it.
Wheeling myself out into the hallway, I opened the shoe cupboard and looked for a pair. I had no clue what to wear. I'd put tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie on but now I couldn't work out what shoes to put on. Like I wasn't going to be doing much walking because it was wheelchair BMX (or WCMX as it was actually called) so the shoes didn't really matter but I was just really nervous and suddenly it felt like the shoes definitely mattered.
"Those ones." Techno said, pointing at my pair of everyday trainers. "They're comfy right?" I nodded. "Then that's all you need."
I nodded and smiled up at him. He smiled back, ruffled my hair, killed himself laughing and then walked off. It was nice to see Techno back to his normal self.
"Alright mate," Phil said, appearing practically out of nowhere, "you ready to go?" I nodded. "Cool, let me grab my phone and then we'll get going." I nodded, again; I did a lot of nodding nowadays. It had sort of become my main method of communication.
I opened the front door, hoping that by the time I'd got myself to the car, Phil would be ready to go. Deep down, I knew he wouldn't be. He would need to say goodbye to Wilbur, Kristin and Tommy in the garden first. And then try and find Techno who was probably in his room playing minecraft.
I went out there anyway. It was warm enough with my hoodie on and had been a nice day. We'd all mostly spent it out in the garden. Playing games, eating and just enjoying time together as a family. I even got back jumping on the trampoline again. Just a little bit, being careful not to stab anyone's foot with my crutches. It was fun. Yea today had just been fun. Hopefully now it would get even better.
"Sorry mate!" Phil said, rushing out the house and fumbling with the car keys.
"It-it-it-it's al-right." I said, in the way I had been perfecting recently and was very proud of. Pushing the words out using my breath. It made communication a lot easier. But ultimately, even before that night, I learned that not talking wasn't a bad way to live life.
I got into the front seat, and Phil handed me my crutches (which he'd picked up from just inside the hallway after opening the car) and I placed them beside me.
"Hang out mate, let's stick them in the boot too and then you've got space for your backpack." I swapped the two over and tried to hold back my laughter as Phil went running for my wheelchair that was rolling down the driveway.
"At least some one finds me funny," he said with a laugh, getting into the drivers seat. "Oh for god's sake," he grunted, immediately getting back out of the car to open the gate. Normally he'd get whoever was in the passenger seat to do it, but of course, I couldn't.
Time skip:
I was a lot more nervous than I expected to be as I wheeled myself inside the indoor skate park. I was playing my music in the car on the way here and just sort of let myself forget about it. But now it was here and right in front of me. There was no way of forgetting about it now.
"Over here I think," Phil said, pointing with my crutches in the direction of what looked like a sign in desk.
The place wasn't that busy. There was an older lady with bright purple hair setting herself up on a ramp over in the far corner and a few people (who looked like staff) milling about. I got a bit of surprise when I looked around to see the guy behind the desk in a wheelchair doing wheelies without any effort whilst he spoke to Phil. "Alright there?" He said, looking at me. I gulped and nodded. I don't know what it was but I think I was a bit shocked. I spent a while hating my wheelchair and now I was getting a bit more used to it. But the concept of being so in tune with it that I could do wheelies was huge. I wasn't sure how to feel.
"You look like you've seen a ghost!" The guy laughed, taking a sip of an energy drink. "Sorry guess I forget how much this can be the first time. I'm Hot Wheels." Phil held back a laugh. "It's meant to be funny."
"Oh, well it is." Phil said, very nervously. I just nodded and gave a small smile.
"Yea. I'm actually called Dex, Dexter, but when I'm here, I'm Hot Wheels."
"Cool." I said.
"Nice to hear you talk, Small Fry." I wasn't sure how I felt about the nickname 'Small Fry' but I was going to just see how I felt. "You ever done WCMX before?" I shook my head. "Let's get you in some protective gear and see how we go. It's a quiet session this evening so I don't mind working with you?"
"Sounds great!" Phil said, taking my backpack from me and putting my phone inside it for me.
I followed Hot Wheels over to a small room where there was helmets, knee and elbow pads and gloves. "A lot of this is spare stuff we have just for the sessions, so let's see what we've got in your size and give it a go?" I nodded.
I came out 10 minutes later barely recognizable and covered in padding. "Right, you've not got the best wheelchair for this but we've had people doing it in the collapsible ones so don't worry about it." He laughed, I took that to mean that they hadn't really had people doing it in the collapsible wheelchairs, "seriously, if you want to do proper tricks and everything in the future, you're going to need to right wheelchair. But we'll get you in touch with some people that would gladly help."
I looked at mine and then at his. There were subtle differences but I was just glad that Phil and Kristin managed to find the money for my wheelchair (I do think some of it was from the government or something like that) I might not have been so lucky elsewhere.
"Some pictures before you go?" Phil asked, looking hopeful.
Hot Wheels stepped in and saved me, "follow us over. We're just doing the basics today and you'll get some good pictures with that."
"Sure," Phil said, trailing behind me. Felt weird to having someone trailing after me for once.
"I'm guessing you've never done this before." I shook my head. "Just wanted to check. No gear normally means no idea, but you never know."
"Well if you enjoy it mate, we can buy you some stuff?" Phil offered. I nodded; I could already tell this was for me.
Phil's POV:
I wanted to be close, in case he needed me or wanted me to be there. But I didn't want to be a helicopter parent and I had no clue about any of this. I knew how to play minecraft on the xbox. I could just about understand the names of all the dinosaurs. And I could play at least a couple of chords on the guitar. But I had no clue about anything to do with WCMX. I felt a little guilty but promised myself I'd learn, just like I learned everything else for my sons.
They were practicing wheelies on a flat part of the skate park, with a kind of rubbing matting on the floor that the wheels stuck to more easily. I got a few pictures but didn't want to embarrass him.
Hot Wheels had some elbow and knee pads on, but he'd set his helmet just out of the way. I guessed that for him this wasn't a particularly dangerous task. "And again, find that sweet spot and move back and forth in it." He instructed Tubbo, demonstrating what he meant in his own chair.
The only other person here who wasn't staff was a lady who had spent the whole time we were here, going up and down ramps, doing all sorts of tricks and having what looked like an amazing time. I hoped Tubbo would enjoy this as much as she was. But I had also hoped that there would be more people here; maybe some more Tubbo's age that he could make friends with. Maybe some people were just late. Or maybe it was quiet because it was the summer holidays. Maybe it just wasn't as popular as I'd hope it would be.
"YES!" Tubbo cheered, immediately high-fiving Hot Wheels and looking to me for praise. I'd caught just the end of his wheelie before he'd lost control. "Well done mate! That's awesome!"
He was absolutely beaming and that smile was stuck to his face for the whole session. A few more people turned up but they were all a lot older and like the other lady looked nothing like beginners. Tubbo was happy nonetheless.
They tried a few more things but didn't make it onto any of the ramps. Tubbo didn't at all seem upset. Hot Wheels had a way of teaching him things that make them click. And a way of encouraging him when he couldn't quite work it out how to do it. I sometimes forgot that the brain injury Tubbo had suffered had made processing quite difficult, as did his dyslexia. But it was barely noticeable here. Hot Wheels just seemed to understand and work with it.
"Well done tonight Small Fry. Tell you what, you come next time and I'll get you going down the small ramps, how about that?" Tubbo nodded very excitedly and immediately looked to me for an answer.
"Of course!"
"Cool. Did you want to see me do a few tricks before you go?" Tubbo nodded and looked at Hot Wheels just in complete awe.
We walked back over to the sign-in desk and Tubbo took his helmet off, resting it on the table and watching Hot Wheels as he put his own helmet on and got set to drop himself in.
I'll be honest. I had mates who were skateboarders and I always thought it was cool. I was never good enough and after falling on my face one too many times, just gave up. Now I remember what was cool about it. There always used to be one guy at the skate park who was good, really good and could pull off all kinds of tricks and be interesting to watch. Hot Wheels (even more so than the lady earlier) was incredible to watch. You couldn't take your eyes off him. He was doing something you'd never seen before every time and it was all so fluent.
Tubbo and I felt the urge to clap for him after he'd done. He fist-bumped a few of the others as he went past them and wheeled over to us. "Cool right?" Tubbo nodded.
"Very cool!" I said.
"Look, there isn't a lot of us. Most of the ones here tonight just do it for the social side, rather than the sport. They're a little older and it's quite taxing on the body. But it's growing, and the sport itself is getting bigger all the time. Watch some Aaron Fotheringham clips online. And trust me, we're on our way up."
"Yea." Tubbo said, still smiling.
"Great, why don't you stick your stuff back in the store room." Tubbo went off happily and Hot Wheels turned to me. "This sport can save lives. I know, it saved mine. But it's not the safest or cheapest thing in the world. Like I said, I'll talk with a few people for next time and we can see about getting him a chair. But no amount of kindess from strangers is going to stop teeth being knocked out or bones being broken. You okay with that?"
I thought back to our time in the hospital with Tubbo. The impact it had had on our whole family and more importantly, on Tubbo. But this was the happiest I'd ever seen my son. And we had promised him that whatever hobby he picked, we'd support. "Yes and he knows the risks too. Like you said, this sport can save lives."
"You've got it. And umm, I know it's his first time but we're such a small community that almost everyone who ends up doing WCMX competes. Well the young ones do. Competitions aren't easy to get to. Normally they are in the US and he is a while off that level yet. But just so you know, this can go from 0 to 100 very quickly."
"He needs it. Maybe he doesn't need the competitions or maybe he does. But he needs the hobby."
"Okay, well hopefully this can be that hobby for him."
"Yea. And thank you for being so brilliant this evening. What do I owe you?"
"Owe me?"
"Well you gave him a full on lesson?"
"That's how we do things. You teach each other. You build off each other. You bring up the newbies. No money. The community is similar to skateboarding but arguably even closer."
"Well how do you rent this out? What pays for it?"
"Eh, we work it out."
"Well, if there is anything we can do to help-"
"Just bring him along. And uh, answer my emails." He hand me a piece of scrap paper with his email address on it. I nodded in reply and Tubbo came back over.
"You enjoy that mate?" I asked.
"Yea!" He said, fidgeting in his chair.
"Good," Hot Wheels replied, "well, I'll see you next motnh?"
Tubbo nodded and I just couldn't help but smile the same way he was. Today had been a total and utter success.
A/n Hey. Thanks for giving me that time out. I've just got a lot going on at the moment and finding time to write has been difficult. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with uploads a bit more consistently but I'll try to keep everyone updated through the announcements.
I really like this chapter. I don't know a lot about WCMX but the research I did for this one showed me how cool the world of disabled sport really is. I wish there was more for those are who neurodivergent though. I've played sport all my life and still do, but I've always played 'normal sport'. I honestly can't explain how frustrating it can be when you don't learn or work the same ways as others. Or when the social side starts affecting the physical side of the sport. But yea, this chapter makes me smile.
Hot Wheels is a completely made up character but I hope you liked him because you'll likely see him again. Tubbo needs a role model/ mentor and I think I found the one in this chapter.
Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!