A Father's Love

Chapter 13

Shelby's last day of kindergarten had finally arrived. The little girl had invited Lorelai and Rory, of course, giving them the best puppy dog look she could muster up.

"Of course we'll come, Shelster," Lorelai assured her, over breakfast.

"We wouldn't miss it for anything," Rory added.

It sent Shelby off to school with a great, big happy smile that morning.

Of course, Luke and Rachel also went. The ceremony was after lunch, but the students didn't have to go to the cafeteria to eat. Darla ordered pizza and brought drinks for everyone, including the parents and families who had come to see the performance they were putting on. The twins' parents sat with Luke's group since Shelby wanted to eat with her friends.

The boys had taken to be quite protective of Shelby while at school. Whenever another kid tried to pick on her for not talking, one or both of them would stick up for her. It was like Shelby had become the president, and Ethan and Alan were her secret service or something.

"Hey, Shelby," Ethan was saying as they ate their pizza. "Did you know there are new Pokemon games coming out this summer?"

She shook her head.

"Yeah," Alan chipped in, just as excited. "It's going to be like the ones we have now, but with the new Pokemon. I'm gonna choose Cyndaquil!"

"I'm gonna choose Totodile," Ethan replied and turned to Shelby. "Who are you gonna choose, Shelby? Maybe you could choose Chikorita so we can each try each one to see how good they are."

Shelby nodded, liking the idea.

Luke smiled at the cooperation she was having. Guess he now knew what to get Shelby for her birthday.

After lunch, Darla had the students exit the classroom and turned on the generic graduation music as they reentered, wearing black graduation caps made of construction paper. Shelby kept trying to push hers over her eyes. Rachel snapped a few pictures before both she and Lorelai noticed someone tearing up. The moment the music came on and Shelby reentered, Luke's eyes started to water. The guy had tried to hold it in but could not contain himself. His little girl was already graduating from kindergarten. Her previous teacher said she would have to repeat the following year. Now, here she was. Shelby had done it. She was moving on to first grade. Before he knew it, Shelby would be graduating from high school, and then college.

Darla introduced the class as she had done with the play, welcoming the parents and relatives, moving into the first song. The students were standing in three single file rows. Shelby stood in the back, staring at the floor. The paper cap hid her face from view so no one could tell if she was at least mouthing the words.

The students sang songs they learned throughout the school year about the months, days of the week, seasons, colors, shapes, counting, abcs, and even history and science. Each song was written by Darla, too.

After the last song, Darla called over each student, alphabetically, to present them with a laminated paper certificate that said they "graduated" from kindergarten and was moving on to first grade. It was by last name so Shelby was first of three students whose last names started with D. It took a moment to get Shelby to move, who still held her paper cap over her face.

As Shelby took the "diploma" and allowed Darla to half hug her, Luke started blubbering like a baby. Rachel had moved up to the front when Shelby's name got called and took a picture of her and her teacher with the certificate held up. They let Shelby return to her spot as Rachel returned to hers. Lorelai had wrapped her arm around Luke, comforting him when she was squeezing in front of them. Luke denied he was crying, stating something had gotten into his eye. It was very obvious he was crying.