Chapter 13
The rest of Shelby's first week of third grade ended up being nerve-whacking for the kid when she learned she would have to present her All About Me report to the class on Friday. Mrs. Sweeney reserved the entire morning so every single student had a turn, and that included Shelby, who was not excused from it.
Thankfully, some of the townspeople helped Shelby prepare. Miss Patty convinced Taylor to let her practice at the town meeting, Thursday evening. Taylor let her go at the end when he was finished.
Having sung for the town plenty of times already, Shelby wasn't as nervous as she was to give her report to her class. It still took her a minute to warm up before Shelby could start. Early that afternoon, Lorelai stopped by the diner and offered to call Rory to offer her some tips in giving reports. Though, when Luke came over, he had to remind them of the No Cell Phone rule while pointing over at the sign. Shelby offered they could move upstairs so they could finish talking.
Rory ended up talking the little girl through, sharing her own process that has worked for her, even giving Shelby, the one her grandfather gave about not picturing the class in their underwear.
It helped during the practice run as well as on Friday. Shelby was all excited when she came charging into the diner and immediately over to where her dad was taking an order for a table of three.
"I was really nervous and my head hur', and my hear' was bea-ting super fas', bu' I did it, Dad," she told him while grinning from ear to ear.
"That's great, kiddo," he praised. "I'm so proud of you!" Luke hugged his little buddy with one arm, to him then started repeatedly rubbing her opposite arm.
Shelby held an arm around his lower waist as she beamed up at him.
"Are you glad it's over?" He smirked at her.
"Yeah, bu' this was only the firs' of many repor's we have to give this year."
"Well, you can only get better from here," he told her, encouragingly.
Shelby smiled again at that.
"Did you get any homework for the weekend?" he asked.
"Jus' our daily reading. Is Mom allowed to initial for tomorrow?" Another thing Mrs. Sweeney assigned to the students was a daily reading chart a parent or guardian has to initial off on every single day when their child reads for at least fifteen-thirty minutes.
Luke shrugged. "I mean, sure. But I can also sign off on it with Sunday's when you come home."
"Okay, I'll wai' then." Shelby tried asking if she could work a little bit before they leave for Woodbury, but Luke suggested packing first. If there's time after she finishes then she could work a little. Shelby then headed upstairs to start packing.
Luke and Shelby left around four-thirty. He had Shelby read him the directions Rachel had given him. For the most part, they were simple to follow. The road Rachel lived on was a cul-de-sac and wasn't easy to spot, so Luke ended up driving right by where he was supposed to turn.
Once they turned on to Laurel Woods Road, they drove down and started looking for the right house. Each house was hidden by a ring of trees like a wall.
Luke did manage to spot the house number on the mailbox and turned left into the long, curved gravel driveway, parking a few feet away from the two car garage. Getting out on their own sides, Luke grabbed the duffel bag from the back and carried it in while Shelby carried in her basketball and book. Aside from giving her dad, the directions when he asked for them, Luke made sure to give the kid a pep talk, reminding her to just try and pay attention to how she's sitting. Between having to give a report and visit her mom for the weekend, this has been a pretty stressful week for the kid.
They walked around the garage and up the cobblestone path towards the double front doors. Luke stared up at the colonial-style house. The lower half of the house, all of the garage except for part of the roof, and the chimneys were made of worn, red bricks while the top half of the house and part of the roof was wood with most of it painted white. It was a two-story house with trimmed bushes out in front. On the left side of the front door, the ground was raised with a brick lining around them and space for a garden. There was also a lone tree in front of the right side of the house.
"Mom lives here now?" Luke heard Shelby ask, looking up at the house, too.
"Guess so." It did seem like a simple little house Rachel would like. But the way the house was centered on an acre of land, reminded him of one of those horror films set in the woods despite neighbors still being just on the other side of the trees.
Luke and Shelby stepped up to the brown, double doors. Looking around the indented doors, Luke caught sight of the doorbell to his left and pressed it with his finger. Shortly after, the door on his side, opened with Rachel smiling back at them.
"Hey, welcome, you two," she greeted them, cheerfully. Before letting them in, Rachel reminded them to remove their shoes and placed them in the corner of the small porch with hers and Roger's shoes, also asking if Shelby could leave her ball with the shoes for now, not wanting it inside the house. Once inside, she closed the door behind them.
Luke looked around the long foyer and up the backwards L-shaped stairs. The floor in the foyer was hardwood along with the top of each of the stairs and banister while the railing and the rest of the stairs were white to match the walls. On either side of the front doors was a closet, each with a white door. The walls were painted a light teal color. They were also standing on a fancy design, rectangular rug.
"So, this is the new place," he commented, setting the duffel bag down at his feet.
Rachel looked around, nodding. "Yeah, this is the new place. The moment we saw it, Roger and I loved it." She looked back at him. "It has a great view and the neighborhood's pretty quiet, and I figured Shelby could use a big yard to play in."
Luke looked down at Shelby, who was looking around, as well.
"Care for the grand tour?" Rachel asked of the two.
"Sure," he told her.
"Well, this is the foyer," she started, holding her hands out. Pointing over to the right of the front door, behind them, "that's the den over there."
Luke twisted around while Shelby turned her whole body. It was a small living room with a fireplace directly in the center on the far wall with a shelf above it and built in shelves on either side, all the way to the ceiling. The fireplace was also brick like the outside of the house.
Rachel started to lead them around the house. Right across from the front doors, underneath the stairs looked to be a closet, which she explained Roger was in the process of converting into a dark room for her.
"It looks like Harry Po'ter's cupboard he had to sleep in until he go' to move into his cousin's second bedroom," Shelby timidly spoke up.
"Why did he have to sleep under the stairs?" Rachel asked.
"Because his aun' and uncle are mean," she replied.
Rachel shared a look with Luke. Hearing about two of the books Shelby reads with characters who were abused did seem strange to hear if one didn't know the whole story. Then again, a lot of fairy tales were just as sad.
She pointed out the kitchen that was next to the closet as they headed inside the living room that was to the left of the front door. It was bigger than the den was but also had a fireplace on the far wall in the center. Unlike the fireplace in the den, there was only a brick frame. Around the fireplace was also a white frame that matched the baseboards with a mantel where Rachel had framed pictures and a couple candles sitting on it. A few Luke noticed were of Shelby while others were of her niece and nephews, and a few of her and Roger, together. There was a shelf over beside the open doorway to the dining room with more framed pictures and several figurines. A few spots on the walls had pictures and paintings around the room as well.
On either side of the fire place was full sized wide windows with a curtain covering one of them while the other was open to the side. On the front wall, was a matching blue velvety couch and loveseat, with a light brown coffee table in front of the couch. Across from the couch and loveseat was a large boxed big screen TV from the 1990s with the entire bottom under the screen a speaker between entryways. The room was pretty roomy and open. Unlike the foyer, though, the living room had light grey carpeting.
Next, they headed inside the dining room that was at the back of the house. The doors in the entryway, Luke noticed, was one of those sliding double doors. The dining room also had wood-flooring and was painted yellow. Rachel mentioned all the walls downstairs were already painted when they moved in and seemed fine for now. Possibly down the road, she and Roger might paint them, but for now, they only focused on the bedrooms.
Rachel had a china cabinet on the left wall with wine glasses on the top shelf and decorative plates of nature scenes on the bottom two. In the middle of the room was a brown table with six matching chairs. A rug like the one in the foyer was underneath. On the other side of the room was a set of window-paned doors.
"Would you like to see the best room in the house, peanut?" she asked Shelby.
Shelby gave a slight shrug.
Rachel had her follow around the table. She opened one of the doors and let Shelby go first, and Luke, who had curiously followed. He had thought it was a back patio back there. It was, sort of, but was actually a sunroom with a wicker patio couch and matching chair with a glass coffee table. Along the ceiling were spotlights and windows that lined the walls. To the right was a sliding glass door leading to some wooden steps, outside.
Luke couldn't help point out the large fridge in the corner of the room. "Why do you have a fridge out here?"
She shrugged. "Came with the house. We're gonna keep drinks out here, like soda, water, and beer for when we have friends over."
"So, you have a fridge inside, too?" Having two fridges seemed nuts to him.
"In the kitchen, yes, like you normally would. Like I said, it came with the house, so we're just going with it." Rachel turned back to Shelby, asking if she had seen the backyard when they pulled up. Shelby only a part of it, so Rachel went over to open the sliding glass door to show her the rest.
When Shelby stepped out onto the wooden steps, even standing directly behind her, Luke could see the kid was in awe. She gasped as her mouth hung open.
"You can play foo'ball here!" she blurted out.
"You can play anything you want, peanut." Rachel smiled for the little girl. "Just be careful. We live on a hill so the yard is a little slanted."
Shelby nodded and looked back at the yard.
They headed back inside to continue the tour, heading into the kitchen next that was next to the dining room in two different rooms. All of the appliances were stainless steel, including the stove. The fridge was one of those side by side ones with the water and ice dispenser on the door. Luke had to point out once again why there was two ovens with a pizza oven underneath the extra one. Other than Thanksgiving and Christmas, when would anyone ever need to cook a lot of food? Parties, maybe? Again, it came with the house, so it was only a minor complaint.
The extra ovens were sandwiched between two cabinets next to a counter where they had a microwave sitting there with four thin drawers and a couple more cabinets underneath. On the other side of the counter was a pantry that had the same kind of doors as the sunroom's. In front of the pantry was a small but high kitchen table with four stools with backrests. The floor was all sand-color small, square tiles.
Next to the fridge was another small counter space with a dishwasher underneath and a double sink. Over the sink was a double window that slides open. On the other side of the sink was more counter space, connecting in a L-shape with the stove and more counter space on the other side of the stove next to the entryway they had came through. All along the back wall of that section was tiled with colors to match the tile on the floor. The walls in the kitchen also matched the walls in the foyer and the three windows behind the kitchen table were the same full sized windows in the living room, grouped together.
Rachel took them down a hall pointing out a half bathroom and the laundry room that had one of those wash basin sinks. The bathroom was all yellow from the tile to the floors and the mirror was framed like a painting would be, matching the cupboard under the sink. There was another back door in the laundry room that was an ugly dark brown color with a window in the top half with a diamond and X patterned frame going right through it.
At the end of the hallway was the door to the garage where they heard one of the large garage doors being opened, alerting them Roger had gotten back, who had ran to the store. The rest of the doors across from the laundry room and bathroom were more closets so they headed back through the hallway, going through the entryway that led to the den.
Roger came in from the garage at that point, announcing he was home.
"In here," Rachel called back in return.
The guy appeared from where they had come from, peeking around the corner before coming over.
Luke couldn't help feel guarded now that Roger was here.
Roger kissed Rachel, hello, letting her know he found the stuff they needed for dinner. He then switched over to greet Shelby and also Luke.
Luke returned it just to be polite.
"Glad to have you here, Shelby," he told her in a welcoming manner. "You see your room yet?"
Shelby of course didn't respond, still getting used to her new stepfather.
Rachel spoke up for her. "Not yet. We just finished showing the downstairs."
"Let me put this in the kitchen and I'll meet ya upstairs then." Roger held up the grocery bags he was holding and headed back down the hallway, turning left towards the kitchen.
Rachel motioned in the direction of the foyer. "Shall we head upstairs?" she asked rhetorically and headed back into the foyer where she led them up the stairs. On the way, Luke grabbed the duffel bag.
The railing wrapped all the way around above the stairs, too, where it opened up into a very small loft area. A chandelier hung down from the ceiling above the stairs, covered in tiny balls of light with several lights that resembled candles around the perimeter.
On the other side of the wall to their right, Rachel pointed out hers and Roger's bedroom which Luke twisted around behind him, catching sight of another set of doors like the sunroom's, that led to a small balcony. A little further, perpendicular from their room, Rachel had to explain the concept of a "mancave" to Luke that belongs to Roger.
The room was small but long with a loveseat on the far wall, between two square windows, facing across from a small entertainment center with a medium sized box TV sitting on it, and a coffee table in between, with a few coasters and a game controller sitting on top, along with a few sports, video game, and journalism magazines. In the far corner, there was a computer desk with the latest Apple computer and a desk lamp next to the monitor. On the walls were several baseball and football posters and flag banners, and framed high school and college photos of wrestling teams, along with a few trophies on a shelf across from the door.
Roger came up about that point while Rachel was explaining how much of a Sunday football/gamer/huge dork he really was. "Come on, you know you love it," he playfully teased.
She just gave him a look as Rachel held her arms folded loosely but couldn't help smirk afterwards. She just shook her head. "Whatever makes you happy, hun."
He just chuckled.
Luke just mentally rolled his eyes. To play it cool, though, he brought up, "Hey, I see you used to be on a wrestling team?"
Roger looked over where Luke was motioned towards. "Yeah. Pretty much since my freshman year of high school, all the way through college. Even won state a few times. You?" At least he was being civil as well. Or trying at least.
"I ran track in high school," Luke replied. "Took State, myself, actually."
He nodded in interest. "I had friends on the track team. Takes lots of endurance, I hear."
"Yeah, yeah. I was pretty fast back in the day." Both men just nodded in response, trying very hard to make small talk. The awkward tension in the air was so thick, though, one couldn't cut it with a sharp knife.
Thankfully, Rachel spoke up again and suggested letting Shelby see her room.
Luke silently breathed a sigh of relief when they moved on.
Rachel headed over to a closed door across from Roger's "mancave" and opened it, letting Shelby go in first.
She was a bit hesitant at first but Shelby managed to move her feet and head inside the room. Shelby walked a few feet inside, stopping just before she got to the center and looked around.
Luke stepped just inside, moving to the right. He dropped the duffel bag he was holding at his feet. Though, the room only opened out to the right of the door. In fact, the room was a pretty generous size for a bedroom. It wasn't as big as the master bedroom, but he didn't recall his old childhood bedroom being this big. On the same wall as the door was two closets which apparently all the rooms had two of, except for the master bedroom. That was a walk-in anyway.
Shelby was busy looking around the room in surprise, her eyes wide. Rachel had indeed kept it like her old bedroom. Only this time, it had taken Rob about a week to paint. Right above her bed, one of those camouflage nets hung from the ceiling with what looked like fake foliage inside. In the two far corners of the ceiling were two more nets but they weren't spread out like the one above her bed.
Also hanging from the ceiling, were a few fighter planes and a black helicopter from strings. Her bed was vertically across from the door next to three more of the full sized fused windows. There were also two more regular sized windows on the wall to the right. The carpet matched the carpet in the living room, downstairs. In the corner, next to the farest closest, was an army green colored bean bag chair with the same desk Shelby had before with a small bookcase in between the two windows.
"I figured since you had such a small space in your old room to build your Legos and train set, this might be a little better for you, peanut," Rachel told her.
Shelby looked from her mom, to around the room again.
"What do you think?" Roger asked, leaning against the narrow part of the wall outside of the room.
While still looking around, Shelby gave another shrug.
Despite the walls being painted, Rachel had made sure to save a lot of her old posters including the one of the kid and Pikachu from Pokemon. Only this time, she placed them in frames like Roger's were in his "mancave". It did make them look more nicer despite being pictures of cartoons. Luke also noticed some sports flags of the Red Sox he remembered Rachel asking about a few weeks ago, on the narrow space above the door and above the headboard underneath the net.
There was still a guest room on the other side of the small loft area but the tour pretty much ended with Shelby's room when they made their way back downstairs to walk Luke out.
"The place looks great," he commented once they were back in the foyer.
Rachel thanked him. "It seemed like the most simple and nice-looking of all the houses we looked at."
"Plus, we liked the privacy the trees give," Roger added. "Not that we don't mind neighbors."
"It just…" she paused to think of a way to put what they meant. "It's just nice having our own little private area. We've already been greeted by our neighbor right across from us," Rachel pointed towards the front of the house. "And one at the end of the cul-de-sac down there."
"Well, it seems really nice here," Luke continued to comment, positively. "It's great. What about you, kiddo? You think so?"
Shelby was standing with one socked foot on the bottom step, while leaning against the railing. She shrugged. Luke was trying to get the kid to be a little excited but he knew it was still nerve-whacking for her. Not in a bad way and he understood over time, if things got better, Shelby would warm up to being there, especially with that huge yard.
"Shelby will be safe here and we promise not to push her too much," Roger assured. "And like Rachel had said, I don't expect her to call me, dad, or anything. I know that's you, and I can't and won't try and change that. But Shelby is a huge part of Rachel's life, too, so I want to get to know the awesome kid I've heard so much about." He smiled over at Shelby. "That okay, Shelbster?"
Luke caught the kid steal a glance over at him before switching back to the guy.
Rachel snickered a little. "If it helps, peanut, Roger's a lot less strict than I am." With the guy being a gamer and into sports like Shelby was, Luke wouldn't be surprised if she warmed up to him sooner than she re-warms up to Rachel. Maybe he was the perfect stepfather for the kid. Truthfully, though, that freaked Luke out. It was foolish to think, after these last three years, Shelby would favor the guy over her own dad. Not when the two was so close. But it still terrified him, a little. If anything, Roger was more of a threat to Rachel's relationship than his.
Snapping out his thoughts, Luke eventually gave Shelby, a big hug and a kiss, good-bye and reminded her, he was just a phone call away. He then stepped outside onto the welcome mat to put his shoes back on.
Shelby hugged the door frame to watch him leave. Once Luke had his shoes on, he waved at her which she returned and made his way back down the walkway towards the truck. When Luke looked back after opening his door, the front door was closed and Shelby, Rachel, and Roger had gone inside again.
Taking a deep breath, Luke slid into his seat and shut the door. It took a lot of strength to start the truck and put the gear into reverse, to back out. Backing out actually took a moment since their driveway was so long. Being curved didn't help any, either. After a minute, though, the tailgate got to the road which he checked both ways to make sure it was clear before pulling out and headed back to Stars Hollow.
Since it was Friday, Luke didn't see Lorelai that evening. Kirk being Kirk was there, of course, and just working in general helped take his mind off of worrying. He was glad when Shelby called that night at bedtime. Luke assured her, Gexie was being well cared for.
"So, how is it so far?" he asked.
"I's okay. We had lasagna for dinner. I mos'ly read my book until it was ready. Then we watched a movie."
"What did ya see?"
"We watched a Spiderman movie with real people in'tead of a cartoon," she said.
"Yeah? Was it any good?"
"It was okay. No' grea' bu' no' bad either."
Luke decided to ask the most important question. "Has your mom gotten on you about anything yet?"
Shelby didn't respond right away.
"Shelby?" he said, firm but in an encouraging way.
"I sa' on the floor to watch the movie," she admitted ashamed. "Mom asked me, very nice, if I wanted to si' next to her bu' I go' nervous and shook my head. I'm sorry, Dad." The tone in her voice sounded like Shelby was about to cry and he would be very disappointed in her.
"It's okay, kiddo. We all have our weak moments," Luke assured her. "And, hey, you're there, trying. We don't expect you to be completely fine right away. Just take tiny steps towards the couch. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Atta girl." They talked for a few more minutes before letting Shelby go so they can both head to bed.
Before he slipped into bed, Luke checked in on Gexie and made sure to give her fresh water and tossed in a cricket.
As he laid there, staring up at a dark ceiling, Luke couldn't help miss his little buddy already. Every time Shelby was gone, the apartment felt empty without her, no matter where she was. Even whenever she slept over at Lorelai's or the twins' house, he'd miss her.
Luke turned his head to look over at the empty space of his bed. If only he had someone his own age…