A Deaf Gilmore Girl
My name is Rory Gilmore. I just turned 16 last week. I have the best mom in the entire universe. I'm also on the honor roll at my high school. I can't really think of anything else interesting to tell you about me except maybe that I'm deaf.
That's right you heard me correctly I'm deaf. I know you're probably wondering 'how' I didn't get sick if that's what you're thinking. I wasn't involved in some kind of tragic accident either. I guess when my mom was pregnant with me my auditory nerves just didn't develop correctly and the doctors didn't catch it until right after I was born.
Don't feel sorry for me though I like being deaf I know it's a weird thing to say but being deaf is a part of who I am. It's like if somebody asked you to chop off your leg or arm would you do it? No, probably not because it's attached you and your attached to it.
Another thing you probably wondering is how I communicate with the world. I use sign language and lip reading although honestly I'm not too good at it. I don't like to speak it makes me feel self-conscious so I mostly just use sign language. This is fine because my mom signs and I go to a deaf school in Hartford. Also, my town is extremely loyal almost everyone in town uses a small level of sign language if they are alone with me.
I walked into the best of diner in all of Stars Hollow, and saw my mom sitting at our usual table. My mom singed to me "Hey sweetie" with a smile on her face that only 5 cups of coffee could be behind. I sat in the chair across from her "Hey have you seen my hearing –aids? I couldn't find them this morning." "What hearing aids?" she asked with a fake confused look on her face. "You took them." I signed with an exasperated edge. "Oh, you must mean these hearing aids." my mom signed rapidly before going into her purse and pulling out the purple leopard printed rhinestone case I kept them in. She slid them across the table and I put them in. "You're horrible stealing from your disabled daughter." I signed.
"I wasn't stealing I was borrowing." She defended "What were you borrowing them for?" I asked her curiously. "I wanted to see if they could give me super hearing like the bionic woman." She signed all too seriously. "You're delusional." "You're crabby." "I haven't had any caffeine yet." 1 cup coffee coming up" She signed and got up from the table and walked over to the counter. I watched her order sometimes I wonder if she talks as fast as she signs.
My trance was broken by a hand waving in front of my face. I looked up and was surprised to see a man. I smiled at him and he started talking he was saying something about not being from here. I saw my mom come up behind him and say something to him "you know this guy?" I signed to her. "Of course Tim and I are old friends." "You do, really?" I questioned. "Oh yeah we have full long history of flirting for about 5 minutes before you came in." she signed with a smile on her face. The guy, Tim was so confused by the sign language that he just walked away.
My mom and I laughed as she sat down and handed me the coffee. "Why did you need the hearing aids anyway? You never wear them." I sighed she was right I never really wear the hearing aids. I don't need to at school and she signs at home the only time I usually wear them is when we're going to big crowded places. "Lane wanted me to go get her some new CDs after I got out of school." "Are you going to work on the Chronicle tonight?" the Chronicle is my school's newspaper of which I was recently elected editor. "No, we finished all our stuff early this week." It's not a very big newspaper there are only about 400 kids at my school.
"You're going to miss your bus to school." Mom signed and pointed out the window. I looked back to see my bus getting ready to pull away I ran out of the door I really hate being late. I got on the bus in the nick of time I hastily found a seat and sat down. I took out my hearing aids put them in the case and put the case in my bag. I grabbed a book and started to read getting completely lost in the story. That's easy to do when you don't have any other distractions vying for your attention.
My bus finally stopped and I got off. The school's name is the Hartford academy for the deaf. As I said before there aren't many students at my school. It's a K-12 school and it's also a boarding school. Some of the students live here some because that's the only school for the deaf even remotely close to them but some because their parents don't want to deal with deaf kids.
I walked to my first period English class. I sat next to my best friend at the school. Her name is Jenna Harrington she's gone here since she was in kindergarten and she lives here to. My morning classes were a blur until lunch. "Hello, Rory how are you?" Jenna signed to me. "I'm fine. Why are you being so formal?" I asked confusedly. "I'm auditioning for Romeo and Juliet. So I have to practice being all formal and polite and what have you." "Well that explains it for a second I thought you had a brain transplant or something."
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. I got off the bus and walked to the independence inn where my mom works as the executive manager. I couldn't find her in the lobby so I went into the kitchen. I saw her standing in the middle of the inn's kitchen with a bag in her hand and huge smile on her face. "Mom what's wrong?" I asked seriously. "Nothing's wrong I'm happy." "Why are you happy?" "You did it babe. You got in." "I got in where?" "You got into Chilton." "No I didn't." I signed in disbelief. She took a piece of paper out of the bag and tossed it to me. I caught it and read it. "I got into Chilton."