Oh, that's Jess (Tommy's little sister and Tommy)

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Tommy's POV:

No one knew about my little sister, Jess; no one at college and not anyone online. Well, that was until I had some of my online friends over. And the bit before is a small lie aswell: Freddie and Eryn had met her before. Sometimes us 3 would take her to the local park to give my parents time to do things and give her the opportunity to do something more than sitting in the house and reading. That was the one thing about Jess which people always picked up on, she was always reading; that and the fact that for a 9-year-old, her vocabulary and view on life was very mature. Maybe that's what happens when you spend half your Saturday reading the oxford English mini dictionary and the other half doing laps around our garden, talking to yourself. But Freddie and Eryn loved her, we even had a joke that they wanted to see her more than they wanted to see me, which she loved. I think it's pretty much a staple of your early childhood, to think you're cool because an older kid said you were. And I made sure to tell my little sister she was awesome. Yes, we would fight, and go through periods of heavily disliking each other, but in that sense we were just typical siblings. In another sense, we were anything but typical siblings.

Last year, after years of waiting for it all to be processed, scheduled and working our way up a lengthy waiting list, Jess got an official diagnosis for autism. They called her high-functioning but we don't use that term. As my mum says, if we call Jess high functioning that means we would call someone else low functioning and you don't tell anyone their function sucks, especially not a kid the same age as Jess or even younger. Mum has always been good with all this stuff, she works in the education side of things with it, and she was actually the one who suggested that Jess went for a diagnosis in the first place. My dad loves Jess just as much as my mum, but he is most definitely the pushover parent. If everything was left to my dad, Jess would have a meltdown almost instantly. He's not ignorant, just a little oblivious but it's clear he tries his hardest for her, and she knows that. Dad is the one Jess goes to for hugs when I'm not around, otherwise it's most definitely me. Mum is the one Jess goes to when something actually needs to be sorted. I'm sort of just stuck in the middle, she and I love each other as much as we possibly could, but as I've grown up I've taken a bit more responsibility when I'm around her. She doesn't get away with as much as she did when I was still at secondary school, and even less than when I was at primary school.

Now I'm at college, I'm more in between being her sibling and her parent than ever. Some days I pick her up from school, using the bus, other days we sit and watch movies whilst eating sweets, which we've hidden from Mum and Dad, but you didn't read that. It didn't really confuse her; to her, I was still Tommy, and that was all she really cared about. But for me, it felt strange. I guess that was part of the reason I started twitch and YouTube. Secondary school was a big jump in independence both at school and at home. YouTube was an interest, something I could put my time and effort into, something which I could do with just parents, if I wanted to do. But something that as I got older, I would let Jess join in with. I never showed her face, and she never spoke. But she would sit and play minecraft with me for hours upon end, watch all my videos on repeat and quite often would I choose to bring forward my twitch streams, just so that they ended before Jess had to go to bed. Not because I would be too loud, just because it made me so happy, seeing her so excited when watching them.

Jess struggled with school. We were always told she was deemed too intelligent to be offered the support she actually needed. She barely did her class work in class, and refused to talk to any of the kids at school. The adults would have hour-long conversations with her, and often mention the array of topics they would discuss. But never had Jess ever chosen to have a conversation with another kid, when at school. (Which was another reason the diagnosis went ahead.) If you took her into a separate room, she would do the work quite happily, do almost anything that was asked of her. She told me that other kids made her anxious because they didn't know what to say or do and they would upset her. She explained that she preferred talking to older kids, and teachers, because they knew what autism was, and so they knew what things they had to do differently. So in a perfect world, Jess would end up in a separate room, completing her work independently and quickly, and then reading or thinking for the rest of the day. But the school didn't have the staff for that, so instead she sat thinking and reading at school all day, and doing her school work at home. The support she needed wasn't support at all, it was a quiet, empty room and someone to supervise her for no other purpose than safety issues. As a family, we were frustrated why something so small couldn't be done, and how it was holding her back so much. We hoped that maybe, if Jess no longer had a problem with class work, she might feel like trying to socialise or even just talk to the other kids. But deep down I just felt like pushing her to do something she had clearly stated a million times that she didn't want to, wasn't trying to do what's best for her.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous when Tubbo came over for the first time. My sister is awesome and I love her, but other people don't always. Other people see being autistic, differently, and not a good differently. She was at a doctor's appointment with my dad for most of the morning and afternoon because it was a few hours away. Mum just said it was some specialist for something. But that meant that Tubbo and I had a few hours to hang out before Jess most likely joined us, which made things a little easier. We were in my room, mucking about on my computer, when the front door opened and closed again. I saw Tubbo look out my bedroom door. "Oh, that'll be my dad and Jess."

"Who's Jess?"

"My little sister."

"Why didn't you tell me you had a little sister?" I didn't get to answer his question, because Jess started running up our stairs shouting 'hug' as she went. She came barrelling into my room, and attacked me with a hug. Hugging back, I looked at Tubbo, he was smiling. Maybe I could have told him after all. But when Jess realised Tubbo was there, she hid behind me. She knew who he was, and to be honest, I don't remember a time before when she had hid behind me, but that was something I was going to ask Dad later.

"Hey Jess. You know Tubbo. But he hasn't met you before, so do you think you could introduce yourself?"

"Hello, Tubbo, my name is Jess. I'm 9 years old and I'm autistic."

"Well, hello, Jess, you can also call me Toby if you like. I'm 17 years old and I'm dyslexic." I smiled realising that Jess was repeating part of what we had told her to say when she first met someone, and that now Tubbo had copied the style.

"Tommy, please may I search up a definition on your computer?" She turned to me. I nodded my head and smiled at Tubbo, he smiled back. Jess always searched up things, I would often let her use my phone if we were out. After typing something in, and about 5 minutes of reading, while Tubbo and I continued our conversation from before, she turned round with a huge smile on her face. "Tommy, am I allowed to hug Tubbo?" I gestured towards him, and he nodded, still slightly confused. She ran into him, like she had to me, and squeezed him tightly, Tubbo just gave a light hug back, a little shocked about the situation.

"Why such a big hug Jess?" I was always intrigued by the ways in which my sister's brain worked, and this was just one instance.

"Tubbo has a different brain, like I have a different brain. I've never had a friend who also had a different brain but now I do, and that makes me feel smile."

"Does it make you feel happy?"

"Happy."

"Good." I looked at Tubbo who was still wrapped in Jess' hug, he was smiling, and gave me a look I knew meant, everything was going to be alright. Even when the rest of my online friends met her.

A/n Hey. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know if you like this where I introduce new characters with existing characters or whether you prefer the more fan fiction type of story, with all the characters being mcyt's. I would just like to add that age the age of 7 or 8, I did in fact read the oxford English mini dictionary, and that is how I learnt what the word adjacent meant, amongst many others. Part 2 of this will be out soon, and so will part 3 of he doesn't know. Comments and votes are really appreciated. Hope you have a great day. Thanks you for reading.

Thank you,

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