Credits to: Littledeaddoodles
Wednesday sat at her desk, tapping the hard wood. Tap tap tap tap tap. Over and over again. It was a stim that happened when she was bored, tired, or thinking. Currently it was the ladder. Wednesday stared off into space, thinking of what to write next.
Her leg began to bounce too. Another stim. This one usually happened when she got frustrated. Normally, Wednesday would be doing her best to hide her stims; they made her feel even more abnormal than she was. For a long time, she wasn't sure why certain things happened when she felt certain emotions. Tapping the desk or her ears, bouncing her leg, shaking her fists, biting her hand. All of them just sort of...happened. Finally, her mother had taken Wednesday to get checked, and she was diagnosed with autism. "All of those movements you're describing are stims, and they're normal for people with autism and ADHD." Is what the doctor had told her. In that moment, Wednesday felt a strong urge to disagree and then burn the building to the ground.
Since then, in school, at home around her family, or anywhere in public, she had focused extensively on keeping still and not stimming. She had gotten pretty good at it over the years. Right now though, she was alone in her and Enid's room, trying to continue her novel. Enid was out with Yoko and her other friends, watching a movie or something. Wednesday wasn't sure when she would be back.
She banged the table, still frustrated. Thing jumped, he had been asleep on the edge of the bed while she wrote. Wednesday turned her blank face towards him. "Sorry." She muttered, looking back at her typewriter. She went back to tapping and leg bouncing, still upset. She froze, however, when the door opened.
"Wednesday, I'm back! Are you okay? I thought I heard a bang." Enid's voice came with the sound of the door. She closed the door behind her and skipped over to Wednesday, who sat very, very still. She had been caught off guard by Enid coming back unexpectedly, and she had frozen up in hopes Enid hadn't noticed her stims. "I'm fine." She said, still unmoving.
"Okay..?" Enid said, sounding unsure. She didn't press though, which Wednesday appreciated. Instead, she sat down on Wednesday's bed next to Thing, who clambered onto her shoulder a moment later. "How's writing going?" She asked.
"Fine." Wednesday said, relaxing just the slightest bit. Enid smiled.
"The movie was good. I think you'd actually like it a lot. There was this part where the guy was chasing the other guy through the house with this huge knife and he kept saying "I know your secret..!" In this really creepy voice and it kinda reminded me of you and-" Wednesday tuned out the rest of Enid's explanation, because she had noticed something else.
Enid was shaking her hands up and down really fast while she described the scene, then she would stop for a moment and start again. "Enid." Wednesday stopped her mid-sentence. "Hm?" Enid asked, putting her hands down and squeezing them into fists, as if she had just noticed and wanted to stop. "Your hands." Wednesday said, hoping she didn't make Enid uncomfortable by pointing it out.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. I get ADHD stims sometimes." She explained, looking slightly uncomfortable. "I can try to stop if you don't like-"
"No." Wednesday cut her off again. Enid looked up at her, puzzled. "I...I do it too." Wednesday said, looking away. "Really? Uh...do you have ADHD too?" Enid asked, now curious. Wednesday shook her head. "No. Autism." She said, still not looking back at her roommate.
"I really want to hug you right now." Enid said, standing. Now Wednesday looked over at her with a warning glare. Enid pouted a little but, holding her arms out. "Please?" She begged. Wednesday didn't answer for a moment, then she sighed, stood up, and also put her arms out. Enid looked so happy that she might cry. Then she leaned in and hugged Wednesday tightly. Wednesday could only take a few seconds before she let go, and Enid did the same.
"Do you wanna...watch a horror movie? I think you'd like Scream." Enid asked, reaching up to twirl her hair. She was also still smiling uncontrollably, and she shuffled her feet a little but where she stood. Wednesday had been so focused on keeping her own stims at bay, she hadn't even noticed how often Enid did it as well. "Okay." Wednesday agreed. "It sounds horrific."
Enid shook her hands again. "Come on, let's sit on my bed together!" She said, running over to jump onto her bed, forgetting Thing was still on her shoulder. The dismembered hand went flying and crashed right into one of Enid's stuffed animals. "Whoops! Sorry Thing." Enid apologized.
Wednesday smiled to herself internally. She walked over and perched on Enid's bed, getting as uncomfortable as she could before Enid put the movie on her laptop.
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BONUS:
After the movie, Wednesday decided to go back to writing, as she had many new ideas for the next chapter. And while she wrote, she let her leg bounce, her fingers tap, and the occasional hand bite happen.
