On Monday morning at the beginning of September, Rory and Logan found themselves getting the kids ready for their first day of school. It was the first time that all 3 kids would be in school, and it was the first time that Rory would be going into the office since March. Logan had been there a few times but for the most part they were working from home since both Nicky and Sammy were home every day, and Nicky either had doctor's appointments or chemo most days.
All 3 kids were sitting at the kitchen island. Sammy and Grace were eating breakfast while Rory braided Grace's hair and Logan helped Nicky with his meds.
"Do you need help?" Logan asked. Nicky had become very insistent on doing the meds himself, which was fine, but Rory and Logan still needed to make sure that it was being done the right way.
"I can do it" Nicky said.
"Alright, but make sure you tighten it all the way before you do it"
"I know"
"Ok" Rory said and gently tapped Grace's head so she'd look at her. "I'm done. You can put your ears on" she signed before turning to Nicky. "Do you want something to eat before school?" She asked. She knew that he'd say no, but she always offered.
"Nope"
"Hey, don't use your mouth for that" Logan said when Nicky tried to open the bottle for his antibiotics with his mouth.
"I thought you want me to use my mouth" Nicky chuckled.
"Yeah, for eating" Logan said. "Not opening things. I'll open it for you if you need help"
Nicky laughed. Rory smiled. It had been a long time since she'd seen Nicky acting like himself. She knew that it was partly due to a change in his medications making him feel better, but he was also excited and happy to be going to school.
"Do you know that when we put something through the tube it feels like I'm swallowing but I'm not" Nicky said.
Rory grimaced. "Really?" She asked. The thought of the tube in his nose being down his throat and in his stomach grossed her out more than she'd like to admit. Especially when a nurse had to take it out and replace it every 4 weeks.
"Yeah, and it's cold"
"Can you taste it?" Grace signed
"Not really" Nicky said and signed.
"Ok, Nicky, I made you lunch and I put your lunchbox in your bag" Rory said.
"Why?" Nicky asked. While he might eat something like crackers or drink smoothies, it had been several months since he'd eaten an actual meal.
"Because I want you to have it in case you want it"
"Is there crackers?" Nicky asked.
"Of course" Rory said. She knew that realistically, if Nicky was going to eat anything, it would be crackers.
"Thank you"
Since Grace and Sammy both went to Chilton, but Nicky went to a different school, they decided that Rory would drop Nicky off and Logan would take Grace and Sammy, then they'd meet at work.
After finding Grace's classroom, Logan went over to the preschool building to find Sammy's classroom.
"Daddy, there's alphabets!" Sammy's said excitedly and pointed at the alphabet stickers on the wall. "And magnets! I will put it on Gracie's head!" He said. The only person in the world who Grace let call her 'Gracie' was her baby brother. Sammy was fascinated by the magnets in Grace's head and a lot of the time, if she didn't have her processors on, he'd try to stick stuff to her.
Logan chose not to mention the fact that Grace wouldn't be in Sammy's classroom with him. "Come on, let's go find your cubby" he said and brought Sammy over to the wall that was lined with little cubbies meant for each kid's backpack and when it got colder out, their jackets. Logan also knew from Nicky and Grace that anything that needed to be taken home, like art projects or letters for him and Rory, would also be put in the cubby. Each cubby had a sticker with a name on it so Logan started looking at each one to find Sammy's.
"That's my name!" Sammy said and pointed to the cubby with Sammy written on the sticker.
"That's is your name, but that says Sammy F, so I think there might be another little boy with the same name as you" Logan said. "This one's yours" he pointed to the cubby next to it. "You're Sammy H"
Sammy laughed. "There's 2 Sammy"
"That's funny, huh?"
"Yeah"
"Just remember that you're Sammy with an H at the end. Ok?"
"Ok daddy"
"Alright" Logan said. He put Sammy's little backpack on the hook that was in the cubby. "Let's go find your teacher"
Once Logan spoke to Sammy's teacher, it was time for him to leave which went exactly how he expected it would.
Half an hour after leaving Chilton, Logan ran into Rory at work. "Hey, I didn't know you were here" Rory said. "How were they? How was Sammy?"
"The truth?" Logan asked
"About my kids? Always"
"Grace was totally fine. Walked right into her classroom. Sammy screamed his little head off when I tried to leave" Logan said and could see that Rory was worried. "But before that, he was really excited about everything. He loved the classroom, and he thinks it's hilarious that there's another kid in his class named Sammy, and they have a class bunny named Fudge. He was really excited about that"
"Was it really bad when you had to leave?" Rory asked.
"He was still crying when I left, but the teacher said it wasn't uncommon for kids to have a hard time on the first day, and she texted me a few minutes later to let me know that he was fine and playing with the bunny"
"Ok...good" Rory said. "Alright, I gotta go"
"I'll see you soon" Logan said. "Inappropriate work kiss" he said and quickly kissed Rory
Rory just laughed. "See you later"
Later that day, Rory went to pick up Grace and Sammy from school.
"Mama!" Sammy shouted from across the room and said ran to Rory when he saw her walk in.
"Hi" Rory picked him up and he wrapped his arms around her neck. She kissed his forehead. "Did you have fun at school today?"
"I held a bunny"
"You did?"
"She soft like Shadow"
"That's great, baby"
While Rory was picking up the younger 2, Logan went to pick up Nicky. He was sitting in his car, in the pick up/ drop off area and about 5 minutes after he got to the school, Nicky got in the car. The first thing Logan noticed was that Nicky wasn't wearing the baseball cap that he was wearing that morning. While Nicky fortunately hadn't lost his hair because of the chemo, he did have a pretty noticeable surgical scar on his head that he was somewhat self conscious of. Nicky's school had a rule against hats, but when they'd met with the principal they were assured that it wouldn't be an issue for him to wear a hat if he wanted to.
"How was school?" Logan asked.
"It was good" Nicky said. "Lots of kids asked me questions"
"What kind of questions?"
"Why I have a tube in my nose, and why I have a dog, and some of the kids that were in my class last year asked me why I stopped going to school"
"Is it ok with you that people were asking you questions?" Logan asked. He was worried about Nicky being teased. About his scar, about his feeding tube, about anything. He was worried.
"Yeah"
"Then can I ask you a question?"
"Mhmm" Nicky nodded.
"Where's your hat?"
"Mrs Stewart took it" Nicky told him. "She said I can't have it back until I learn to follow the rules"
"Who took your hat?"
"My science teacher. She said that hats aren't allowed in school and I tried to tell her that I was allowed but she said that's she doesn't care"
"Alright" Logan said. He pulled the car into the school parking lot, turned it off, and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Come on"
"Where are we going?"
"Inside. I need to ask your principal something"
——
"Please tell me that you didn't yell at his principal" Rory said
"I didn't" Logan said. He was mad when he heard that a teacher took Nicky's hat, but he wasn't mad at the principal. "I just wanted to know why he had his hat taken when we were told that it wouldn't be an issue"
"So what happened?" Rory asked
"It was a new teacher. She was hired after they had all their meetings. She didn't know"
"I guess that's good" Rory said
"Yeah. Do you wanna take Nicky tomorrow or do you want me to?"
"Doesn't matter to me. You can ask him"
"Ok"