"One legged boy runs away" Headlines read

Chapter 1: Parents suck

Tw: Ableism (mentioned) Verbal and emotional abuse, bullying, breaking of medical equipment, fighting and arguing

Tom Simons, also known as Tommyinnit to the internet, was born with only one leg. The doctors and his parents knew this before he was born of course, but on April 9th 2004 he popped out with only one leg.

It didn't bother baby Tommy in the slightest, because he hadn't known a life with two legs, so he was a pretty happy baby overall. His parents were slightly ashamed of it, ashamed that he had a nub where his leg should have been, but they loved the rest of him.

By the time he was 1 and 1/2 years old he was given a prosthetic leg. He learned to walk like the rest of the children and his parents were able to pretend like he didn't have a missing leg. They covered his leg with long pants and long socks, even in the summertime.

Going to kindergarten was difficult for Tommy, once the other children found out he was bullied almost non-stop. Tommy often came home in tears and upset about what they were saying. After another kid found it funny to break Tommy's prosthetic is when they decided to homeschool Tommy.

Tommy took the time as he got older to start streaming. Inside of doing after school clubs like the other kids his age, Tommy was on twitch. He would stream Minecraft to nearly no one. He stayed at it, and he kept going even more when he met his best friend Tubbo. Tommy didn't tell Tubbo at his leg, not yet at least.

Tommy went back into public school at age 15, where he was able to have control of his leg and could pretend like he was like everyone else. It was so much better going to in person school, until Covid happened.

With everyone stuck indoors Tommy streamed more, and soon his numbers began to soar. He got more and more people watching him, which scared Tommy. He didn't show his chat his leg, he didn't feel the need to. He was scared that if he did, he would fall off. He was told his entire life that his leg caused him to be a freak, why would the online community be any different.

He didn't tell any of his friends. He feared the same judgment that he had grown up with. He feared they would poke fun of him, call him a freak, and then he would be alone again. He really hated being alone.

So he lived his life as normal as he could, he went to the doctor once a year to make sure his prosthetic was working just right and he continued on with life. His parents lived their lives continuing to be ashamed of their son, even though it wasn't something he could control.

~~~

Tommy's day started as normal as it could. He woke up around 9am, he attended zoom classes, he made himself some lunch and he watched some youtube during his break. Then he worked on his homework and got everything prepped for stream.

Prepping for the stream meant several things. The first was he had to have everything he could need near his desk so he didn't have to stand. This included making sure his mini fridge next to his desk had water, soda and small snacks he might need. He used the bathroom so he wouldn't have to during the stream, and he made sure in the camera view that nothing below his waist showed.

He then told his parents that he was streaming so he wouldn't be interrupted, and he locked his bedroom door so his dogs wouldn't try to push the door open. He took one final look at everything and thought it seemed good, so he hit the go live button.

Stream went better than he thought it would, they were in pogtopia time so he and Wilbur were down in the ravine, Tubbo coming on with things from Schlatt. It was a fun stream, he did his best at acting. After the stream he didn't really hang around vc for too long because his prosthetic was starting to bother his skin, so he announced that he was gonna leave the call.