A Father's Love

Chapter 51

Not only was Shelby's first day successful, but the first week ended up being a success. Even when they started doing actual school work, she still enjoyed second grade. The first few days were mostly review, seeing what they knew or remembered from the previous school year, not really grading them on anything and afterwards. Mr. Harris briefly would then go over the assignment with them to refresh the kids' memories before presenting them with a test on Friday.

The evening before the test, Jess ended up being home and helped Shelby study, going over everything that would be on the test and then testing her on it while they sat at the kitchen table. He snuck in some of his own reading while Shelby worked on the practice test he wrote out for her.

Things seemed to go smoothly with little to no issues. That is until Friday came and Luke caught Taylor snapping photos of the space next to the diner. When Taylor noticed Luke was watching him, he pretended to point the camera in different directions. What exactly was Taylor up to?

When Luke went to pick Shelby up from school, she dashed right over with great news, beaming from ear to ear.

"Guess what, Dad," she asked when he lifted her up.

"What?"

Shelby held up three fingers. "I only missed three problems on the tes'."

"Really? So you did good?"

She nodded, happily. "Yeah."

"That's great, kiddo," he praised.

"I can' wai' to tell Jess."

"I bet he'll be happy for you, too. You two were studying for a long time, last night." Luke started walking, setting Shelby down on her feet. This time, he walked to the school instead of driving. With how much attention Jess was giving to Shelby with her schooling, Luke hoped he was giving his own schooling the same amount. That kid read so much alone and was even smarter than he was. He knew Jess could do so much if he put in the effort.

As they headed back to the diner, Shelby remembered something else. "Oh, yeah. Guess wha' else, Dad."

"What?" he asked. More good news? This kid was on a roll!

"Look," Shelby opened her mouth, showing her teeth up to him. She touched one of them where Luke noticed she could wiggle it, back and forth. "I have my firs' loose too..." Shelby paused, realizing she was about to say one of the words she and Jess had been working on to be able to say, correctly. 

"Too..." When she tried to pronounce the TH sound, Shelby struggled with it. Luke helped her by slowly sounding out the word with her, reminding Shelby on her tongue placement. After a few tries, she was able to get the word out, "too-th," along with some spit.

"Close enough," Luke gave her credit for trying at least. So his kid was now starting to lose her baby teeth. Wait! What was he supposed to do with it? Personally, Luke would just throw the tooth away once she lost it. But was that what a parent should do? And wasn't there some ritual kids did with their lost baby teeth? Something about money and hiding it somewhere?

Since it was Friday, Lorelai and Rory didn't stop by the diner that night. They did come for breakfast, Saturday morning. Thankfully, the tooth hadn't fallen out yet, so he was safe in asking Lorelai what to do.

Pulling her to the side, looking around to make sure Shelby didn't sneak in on their conversation, he blurted out, "Shelby has her first loose tooth."

"Wow, really? That's awesome. Congrats." She then abruptly paused. "Wait. Her first loose tooth? Rory lost hers when she was six."

Luke shrugged, "Well, guess Shelby's a late bloomer."