Just us- SBI adoption story (Just me and him book 2)

Chapter 34:

Tubbo's POV:

They stepped out on stage and our little huddle of families went ballistic. They looked cool and liked a proper band, which I hadn't expected them to for some reason. The backing track started and I felt an immense pride. That was my thing! My thing that I'd worked really hard on and loved making. And now my brother's band was playing to it and there were people in this crowd enjoying it. The last time I felt this appreciated, this admired was probably a piece of my work being stuck on the fridge at home before everything changed.

Tommy and I had been here with Kristin, sat on our picnic blanket, towards the back: watching the rest of the stuff that was on before Lovejoy. It wasn't a lot of music so far, but Kristin said there would be some soon. Tommy had been reading because he'd gotten bored and Kristin needed a way to keep him seated and stop him from running all over the place. The rest of the band's families were being helpful, offering him snacks and talking to me when Kristin needed to go catch him and I actually felt semi-comfortable.

If I squinted enough, I could just about see Techno walking around near the stage with his camera and Phil following behind. He had a pair of ear defenders on that I hadn't seen before. He tends to use noise cancelling headphones how Tommy uses his ear defenders, which is cool, but I know Tommy was excited about seeing him in ear defenders too.

Quickly, I scrolled through my phone to try and find the set list. I recognised the first song they were playing as their favourite song to cover that was apparently the first song they'd learnt together as a band. One day, the new song, was the last one they were going to play.

Tommy was up and dancing, which meant Kristin was too. But as I looked around I realised everyone was stood up, well nearly everyone. I got myself out of my wheelchair and stood up using my crutches. I had been nervous about this part, about standing and dancing and how that was supposed to work with the way my legs had been. But the splints and insoles had helped. In physio, I had stood up for a few seconds without leaning on anything, no crutches. And it had only been a few seconds, and I fell over afterwards, but it felt amazing. I shuffled around on my crutches and tried to see over everyone to see my brother's band on stage. Yep, my brother's band.

Time skip:

It had been 20 minutes and I realised that they were just about to play One Day. I was so hyped!

Tommy had been ecstatic and Kristin looked a little tired. Still it was nice to see my little brother getting so much joy out of something I was scared he and I may never get to do. I recognised the horns on the backing track immediately. Wilbur and I had spent hours finding the right ones on the music program, because we didn't know anyone who would play them for free and we didn't have the money to spend. Back and forth on whatsapp messages, me clipping parts of the song and sending them to him when in reality he was just upstairs and then getting a message saying he wasn't so sure if it was the right sound. But I didn't care how long it took. To feel good at something, like really good at something. To feel like someone liked me and liked what I could do. And to spend time with my older brother. That was all I really cared about.

I could just about see Mark really sending it on the drums and Tommy was stimming so happily that it felt like a huge turning point. Dad was in the past. He didn't have the same hold on our lives as he did before. We were safe and loved and wanted. And we were allowed to remember him without forgetting everything he'd done.

One day was still as catchy as when I'd first heard it, and I barely registered how tired I was or how much pain I was in because it almost felt like it didn't matter anyway.

As I looked around, people were dancing and seemed to enjoy it. Considering no one had ever heard this song before, people were acting as if it was their favourite. Kristin had a big smile and her face and seemed really proud. I hope her and Phil are.