Meet Again

Fall 2019

One morning Rory found herself walking into Chilton early with Grace so she could meet her new teacher. She and Logan had decided that it would be really good for her to have a teacher that she could communicate with.

"Hi! This must be Grace" a young woman said and signed when she noticed Rory and Grace walk into the classroom. "I'm Ms Megan. It's nice to meet you"

"Mama!" Grace said excitedly and tapped Rory.

"What?" Rory asked.

"She talks like me" Grace signed. She was very aware of the fact that when she spoke she sounded different than most other people. Rory and Logan also thought that that was a big part of the reason that she didn't talk much.

Megan smiled. "I'm deaf, like you" she signed.

"Your ears" Grace signed

"She means the cochlears" Rory said and signed. "At home we call them her ears"

"I call them my ears too" Megan said and signed. "So Grace, I heard that you're gonna come be in my class from now on"

Grace nodded.

"Well why don't you go look at all of our toys while I talk to your mom" Megan signed. "So, does she talk at all?" She asked once Grace went over to where there was a little playhouse.

"Not usually" Rory said. "I think she realizes that she doesn't speak quite as well as other people and it makes her want to talk less. But she signs"

"Ok. And academically she's on track?"

"I think so. Yeah"

"She can count to ten, write her own name, knows the alphabet, and knows her colors?"

"Oh yeah" Rory said. "She can actually read"

"That's awesome" Megan chuckled. She hadn't met many young kids who could read, and she was pretty sure that Grace was the youngest. "Ok so I think that's everything. Unless there's something else you wanna discuss"

"I think we're all good"

——

One Friday night in October, Rory and Logan brought the kids to Friday night dinner at the Gilmore's. 

"Nicky, how's school going?" Richard asked

"It's good" Nicky said. "I won the word search race"

"What's a word search race?" Lorelai asked

"You know um...word search puzzles?" Nicky asked

"Yeah"

"So Mr Medina gave everybody one and we had a race who could finish it first"

"That's pretty cool" Luke said.

"Yeah. And I saw Grace today at recess"

"In the slide" Grace said before going back to playing with her play dough.

Nobody said anything. Other than the occasional 'mama' Grace never spoke, so hearing her say what was practically a sentence surprised everyone. A moment went by and nobody really knew what to say. Sammy ended up being the one who broke the silence when Shadow got a little too close. "No doggy! No!" 

"Ok. Ok" Rory said as Sammy stood up on her lap to try and get away from the dog. "Shadow, back up"

"He's still scared of the dog, huh?" Lorelai asked

"It's getting better" Logan said. "He'll actually pet him now, but only from behind. He doesn't want Shadow to look at him or put his face anywhere near him. Right, Sammy?"