AN: I'm looking for a beta for this story and one other. If you are interested, reply!
Distracted!
"Snack shack boys, life guards, maybe even a little beach volley ball! I am in. I can not wait!" Lorelai grinned as she talked on the phone with her best friend. This was going to be the best summer trip ever!
"You want to play beach volleyball?" Lorelai's friend Trish asked skeptically. Lorelai hadn't dressed out for PE in… had Lorelai ever dressed out for PE?
"I want to watch boys play beach volleyball, preferably shirtless boys, hot shirtless boys."
"You're sure your parents will let you come?" If Lorelai wasn't there she'd have to spend the whole time talking with her parents. Her parents were pretty cool and everything. But they were parents.
"I'll go down and ask. Call you right back," Lorelai hung up the phone and grabbed the latest issue of Teen Beat from her bedside table. "Sorry boys, I'm going to see real hunks, three dimensional hunks that don't have staples in them." She tossed the magazine down on the bed and ran downstairs to find her parents.
When she got to the last step, she stopped running and stood up straighter. Ladies had perfect posture, Lorelai reminded herself as she walked towards the formal living room. "Mother, Father." She greeted her parents who were both reading.
"Lorelai," Richard answered without looking up.
"Dinner will not be served until 7:15," Emily explained, "Rosaria is running behind. She probably stopped to take a siesta or something."
"Mother, her name is Rosalinda… among other things," Lorelai gasped. Emily Gilmore was infamous for firing maids. Sometimes she went through as many as two or three a week. But Rosalinda had been their cook for years. Rosalinda was practically family!
Emily furrowed her brow, "Are you sure?"
Lorelai nodded, "Pretty sure." Lorelai confirmed. She'd spent countless hours, sitting at the island in the kitchen, testing out the night's dinner recipes, as she did her homework. Rosalinda had baked her chocolate chip cookies the first time she broke up with Chris. She'd made her pudding the second time she broke up with Chris and she'd made her the most amazing desert ever this past time that she broke up with Chris. Sometimes, Lorelai broke up with Chris just for the special dessert!
"If you say so," Emily shrugged. "Anyway, dinner will be detained."
"Is there a problem with Rosarita?" Richard asked, suddenly becoming invested in the conversation.
"Lorelai says her name is Rosalyn," Emily explained.
"Her name is Rosalinda!"
"You're sure?" Richard asked, puzzled.
"Yes!"
"Very well then," Richard said returning to his paper.
Lorelai sat down on the couch, and tried to release some of her anger. If she asked to go to the beach while she was this worked up, her parents would never agree!
--
"Lucas," Bill Danes called as he walked through the front door.
"Yeah?" Luke came out from the kitchen wiping his hands on a dishtowel. "What is it?" He studied his father carefully. Ever since the last trip to the hospital, Luke had spent time everyday trying to slyly study his father, making sure his health was holding up.
Bill Danes wasn't the type to complain when he was sick. He'd nearly been at death's door before finally admitting that there might be something wrong. Luke was never going to let his father go that long again! He couldn't lose another parent.
Bill sighed, he loved Luke. He loved both his children. But the past few months, it seemed like Luke thought that he was the parent. He was tired of being treated with kid gloves, "We're getting out of the house this weekend. We're going on a trip?"
Luke furrowed his eyebrows, "Huh, the doctors…"
Bill shook his head, "You and I and your sister are going on a trip this weekend."
"To the cabin?" Luke asked, relieved. Lizzie would never relent to going to a fishing cabin in the middle of the woods. If Bill Danes was insistent upon having a family vacation the only place he'd be having it was right in the middle of Stars Hollow Connecticut.
"I'm thinking maybe the beach?"
"You hate the beach," Luke tried to remember how Lizzie felt about the beach.
"I like the water."
"You hate the people and the kids and the…"
"Lucas," Bill interrupted. "We are going to the beach this weekend, do you understand?"
"But…"
"No buts. I am still your father. You are still my son. If I say we are going on vacation, we are going on vacation. Is that understood?"
"What?" Lizzie asked as she came through the door, "Oh, no, I am not going to that smelly old cabin. You cannot pay me enough."
"Good, because I'm not paying you anything," Bill offered. "We are going to the beach. You are going. Your brother is going. The only thing that will not be going is complaints from either one of you."
"But…" Liz started to protest.
Luke turned around and went back to the kitchen. There was no way Lizzie would ever agree to go!
Bill Danes shook his head, "The next words out of your mouth better not be a complaint, Elizabeth!"
"But…"
"Liz!"
"Fine. I won't complain," Liz conceded, "I won't complain if I can bring Carrie."
"Fine," Bill agreed.
"Thanks, Daddy," Liz kissed her father on the cheek before running upstairs to call her best friend.
--
"What did your parents say?" Trish asked as soon as Lorelai came to the phone.
"About what?" Lorelai asked. Her parents had spent the meal discussing some fundraiser they were invited to and then rehashing old club gossip. She didn't think Trish would be interested in either topic.
"Harvey's beach, Lorelai! Harvey's beach this weekend, remember?"
"Oh my God!" Lorelai gasped. "I went down to ask and… I… I'll call you right back!" She couldn't believe she'd gotten so indignant about her parents treatment of Rosalinda that she had totally forgotten about a weekend of boys and beaches and boys! She was slipping!
She ran downstairs again and looked for her parents. They couldn't have gone to bed already, could they? It wasn't even 10 o'clock. She looked in the living room, and the dining room, and her father's study, but her parents were nowhere to be found. She was just about to give up when she heard her mother yelling.
She started to return to her room. If her mother was in the middle of firing the maid, Lorelai certainly didn't need to walk into the middle of that! But was Emily's voice coming from the kitchen? What if Emily was firing Rosalinda? Dinner was spectacular, but it had been served 15 minutes late. Emily had fired people for way less than that!
Lorelai hurried into the kitchen, "Mom, I've got to talk to you," she interrupted quickly. Hopefully, she could distract Emily long enough that she would forget what she was originally mad about!
"Lorelai, honestly, can't you see I'm in the middle of something."
Lorelai shook her head, "This is important. It is an emergency. It can't wait!"
Lorelai stopped and studied her daughter carefully, "You don't seem to be bleeding."
"It's not that kind of emergency."
"If you aren't bleeding, Lorelai…"
"Trish's parents are going to the beach this weekend. They've rented a cabin…"
"This hardly seems like an emergency, Lorelai."
"Her parents have to know tonight! If I don't have an answer tonight, I can't go." It was only stretching the truth a little.
"Then I guess you can't go."
"What? Why?"
"It is the last minute, Lorelai. Did it ever occur to you that your father and I might have plans?"
Of course it occurred to her, Emily and Richard always had plans. But those plans almost never included their daughter. "What kind of plans?"
"It just so happens that the Hayden's are coming to dinner on Saturday. They are bringing Christopher. You wouldn't want him to be here all alone with only adults to keep him company?"
Lorelai shrugged, she was here all the time with only adults to keep her company. Her parents never seemed to mind about that. But seeing Chris would be okay. She liked Chris. Maybe they could even un-breakup for the occasion. "Yeah, okay." Lorelai brightened up, "I'll call Trish and tell her to find somebody else."
Rosalinda looked at the young girl in front of her. She and that Hayden boy broke up weeks ago. It was their longest breakup to date. She had hoped that this one would stick. If Christopher came this weekend, no good could come of that. Since she was probably getting fired anyway, "I'm sorry Mrs. Gilmore. I forgot to inform you that you had a call while you were out. The Hayden's remembered a prior engagement. They will be unable to attend dinner on Saturday."
"Where did you hear this?"
"They called this afternoon with their regrets," Rosalinda hoped that Emily had not spoken with Francine Hayden this evening.
"So, if the Hayden's aren't coming to dinner…" Lorelai looked up at her mother, hopefully.
"And I did not get the message because?"
Rosalinda shrugged. "I am sure it is with your other messages."
Emily sighed, "fine."
"Fine, I can go?"
"I did not say that."
"But, Mom," Lorelai pleaded, "if I go with Trish and her family, then you and Dad could go away for the weekend. You could go to the Cape or the Vineyard."
"Nonsense, the notice is far too short to plan something for this weekend."
"Then you could have the whole house to yourselves. You could have asparagus and avocado on your salad and you could have soufflé for desert. I wouldn't be home to complain. And Rosalinda makes a really good soufflé. It's her specialty!"
Emily looked over at the cook, "Is this true?"
"Yes, ma'am," She had served both Emily and her husband many soufflés. Emily had never complained before. And from Emily Gilmore, a lack of complaints was high praise.
"Very well then. But you tell Trish's parents that we expect more warning in the future."
"Yes ma'am," Lorelai agreed. She hurried out of the kitchen before Emily could change her mind.
"Yes, yes, yes." She chanted as she ran upstairs to call her friend with the good news.
--
"Hey Butch," Carrie greeted when Luke answered the door.
"It's Luke, Carrie."
"But you're so butch, Butch," Carrie purred.
Luke rolled his eyes, "Liz is upstairs."
"Aren't you coming?" she gave him a wicked grin.
"Not for you, Carrie," Luke shot back.
"We'll see how you feel about that this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it."
"What?"
"This weekend, you, Liz, your dad, me, all going to the beach together? You in a swimsuit, no shirt. Me patiently standing by with the sun tan oil for whenever you need a rub down."
"What?"
"I'm coming with you, to the beach."
"What?"
"I'm coming with you to the beach."
"No."
"Yes," Carrie shot back before running upstairs towards Liz's room.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Luke groaned in anguish. A weekend at the beach with Crazy Carrie, this could not be happening!