Meet Again

Back To School

On September 2nd Rory and Logan's alarm went off at 6am and Grace was asleep in their bed. She tended to be awake before Rory and Logan. Sometimes Nicky would be awake and they would just hang out until someone else woke up, but most of the time she'd be the only one awake, so she would just climb into bed with Rory and Logan, and go back to sleep until they woke up.

Rory and Logan got up and got themselves ready for the day before going to get the kids ready for their first day of school. While Logan went to wake up the boys, Rory got Grace ready.

Grace was standing on a step stool in front of the bathroom sink, brushing her teeth while Rory  braided her hair.

Once everyone was dressed and ready, they ask went downstairs to have breakfast. 

"Nicky, here's your medicine" Logan said and put 3 pills on Nicky's plate.

"Thank you" Nicky said. "Can we do the signs?"

"Take your medicine first" Rory said. When Nicky started kindergarten, Rory bought this sign to take pictures with. Every year she'd fill in the sign with Nicky's updated answers to the question. That year she bought one for Grace too.

Nicky took his meds and then Rory brought out the signs so they could fill in the blanks. "Ok, your name is Nicky. You're 7 years old. You're starting second grade. Your favorite color is?"

"Green" Nicky said

"And your favorite food?"

"String cheese"

"Of course" Rory said. String cheese had been Nicky's favorite food since he was a baby. "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

"A neurologist, because they help people with their brain" Nicky said.

"Ok" Rory smiled. She was glad that Nicky recognized that he wasn't being dragged to doctor's appointments for nothing. "What are your favorite things?"

"Reading and my seizure dog"

"Alright" Rory said. "Grace, your turn. Your name is Grace. You're 4 years old. You're starting Pre-K......"

——

Once Sammy's babysitter arrived at the house, everyone else left. When they got to Chilton, Logan took Grace to her classroom and Rory took Nicky to the elementary school building. While the preschoolers needed to be walked to their class, after kindergarten the kids just needed to be brought to the right building and from there they'd go by themselves.

"Alright, bubba, you remember where to go?" Rory asked. Nicky said something that was too quiet for Rory to hear so she crouched down in front of him. "What?"

"I don't wanna go" Nicky said quietly.

"Why not?" Rory asked. Nicky had always loved school and up until that point he'd been really excited to go back since he missed so much of the year, so Rory didn't understand why he didn't want to go all of a sudden. "You love school"

"I wanna stay with you"

"Does your head feel bad?" Rory asked. She thought that maybe if Nicky wasn't feeling well, he might be scared to go. Nicky shook his head. "No. So then what's wrong?"

"I just wanna stay with you"

"I know, but you have to go to school, and I have to go to work"

"No"

"Come here" Rory wrapped her arms around Nicky and hugged him tight. "I know you're nervous, but you know that if you need anything you can ask Mr Medina, right?"

"What if I need you?"

"Then you can talk to Mr Medina and he'll call me" Rory said. They'd made it clear to the school that if Nicky had a seizure or even just wasn't feeling well, they could call either Rory or Logan.

"I want you to stay. I don't wanna go by myself"

"I can't stay, but you're not by yourself. You have Shadow" Rory said. "And daddy's gonna be here to pick you up before you know it. I promise"

Without saying anything Nicky wrapped his arms around Rory's neck.

"Come. I'll walk you to your classroom"

Later that day, Logan went to pick up the kids from school.

"Daddy!" Nicky shouted when he saw Logan from across the playground and ran over to him.

"Hey buddy! How was school?"

"It was good" Nicky said. "Are we going to get Grace now?"

"Yes"

——

About a week later, Rory and Stephanie went out for coffee.

"So how's Ellie liking first grade?" Rory asked.

"She thinks that there are too many kids" Steph said. "What about you guys? How's it going with the service dog?"

"The service dog is great. Nicky's class is always playing outside when we to pick him up and all of the kids are loving on the dog and playing with him"

"Are they allowed to do that?"

"Yeah, it's fine if they play with him for a little bit the end of the day" Rory said. "Shadow will still alert"

"So it's going well?"

"Yeah. Although they want to meet with us tomorrow to talk about Grace and I'm a little worried about that"

"I'm sure it's fine. She's a good kid"

The next day, Logan and Rory headed to Chilton early so they could meet with the principal.

"So, I know that the school year has started already, but I'd like to move Grace into the other Pre-K class" the principal said.

"Is she causing problems in her current class?" Rory asked. Grace was a really good kid, but she could also be very stubborn and got frustrated easily. Rory was worried that there's might be issues at school because of the communication barrier.

"No. Not at all" the principal said. "But we've had a bit of a teacher shuffle in the preschool, due to reasons that I won't get into right now, and the other class has a new teacher who happens to be deaf, and like Grace, she has cochlear implants. Now we don't have to move her if you don't want, but it might be nice for Grace to have a teacher who she can better communicate with and who will better understand her unique needs"

Rory and Logan went home that day with a decision to make.

"I think it's a no brainer" Logan said as he and Rory got ready for bed that night.

"I know, but I'm worried about her having to adjust to a knew class and a new teacher. I mean the school year just started, she's barely settled as it is"

"That's the point. She's barely settled. It's not gonna be some crazy transition, but I do think that it'll be better for her. Don't you?"

"Of course it'll be better for her"

"So?"