Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls, or any of the characters.

Confessions of a Five O'Clock Ballerina

Summary: Georgia Hayden finds herself trapped in a world of tea parties and ballet classes, everything she hates. When Sherry leaves, Chris can't handle her and sends her to spend a year with Lorelai, Luke, and Rory. Written as if Sherry didn't leave during the show.

August 7

This is crap. Mom handed this stupid book to me the other day and told me I had to write in it, or I wasn't allowed to go out at all for the next two months (except for Ballet class of course, but I'm sure the instructor wouldn't mind. I accidentally kicked Susie James in the head last week doing a pirouette. ). So here I am, supposedly pouring out my heart and soul to some dumb book.

I suppose I should say something about myself. My name is Georgia Hayden, Gigi (ech) for short. I'm fourteen and going into ninth grade this September. I can't stand my mom some of the time, but my dad is usually pretty cool. I have a half sister, Rory, who graduated from Yale, nine or ten years ago. She's my hero, my idol, everything I want to be, except I want to be an author instead of a journalist. I don't see Rory that much these days, though, considering she's got a job as a correspondent on some little news station I've never heard of, and they've sent her off to Alaska (apparently there's some big scandal brewing with the Eskimos up there). She gets back next week, but I won't see her for a while after that, anyway, because she'll be in her home town with her mom. They're really close. I can't see how they do it.

So I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to write. Everything is pretty quiet in the Hayden house at the moment, which is a little surprising, considering mom and dad have been having some colossal fights lately. They think I don't notice, mainly because they think I'm not exactly that smart (due to my far from perfect grades in math), but I'm actually much more observant than they realize. Most of the time they fight about – what else – whose fault it is that I don't want to be a debutante when the time comes, or that I don't want to join the junior division of the DAR (which my grandma is in), or that I still suck at ballet. The truth is, I can't stand the debutante stereotype, the girl that always needs a man to escort her everywhere and help her with everything, the DAR just seems extremely boring to me, and I just really, really hate ballet.

Problem is, I'm the only one in this household that is brave enough to admit that everything isn't working out how they planned. They refuse to get divorced. I've heard those arguments, too. Mom says marriage is for life and divorce is a sin, and dad doesn't want me to have to deal with that (he tries so hard). And even thought they're on the same side of this issue, they still manage to fight about it.

Well, I'm leaving off here. This was strangely satisfying though, I might do it again.

-Georgia Hayden

PAGEBREAK!

Four days later...

Christopher Hayden fumbled with the keys on his key ring, trying to find his house key, which he always managed to lose. "Aha!" he exclaimed, pulling it from between his Black Sabbath key chain and his car keys. Just as he was about to put it in the lock, the door swung open, and he jumped back a bit as he came face to face with Sherry, who had just opened the door. Chris opened his mouth to say something, but then it registered in his mind that Sherry had something very large in her hand. A suitcase. There were at least three more behind her.

"Were you even going to tell me?" he asked, trying to look Sherry in the eye. She looked at the door mat.

"I left a note." she whispered. Chris silently moved aside, allowing Sherry to load her bags into her car. As she picked up the last of her luggage, she turned to Chris, trying hard to hide the tears in her eyes. She placed a piece of paper in his hand. "I'm going to Paris." she said, "That's my address and phone number incase...well, just...incase." And with that, she was gone.

OMG!PAGEBREAK!

"MOOOOOM!" Lorelai Gilmore's head shot up from the magazine she had been reading at the kitchen table when she heard a familiar voice yelling and she leapt up, racing to the door. Before she could get there, she ran smack into her daughter, and nearly screamed.

"You let yourself in!" she exclaimed, as she finally regained her composure, then threw her arms around Rory.

"Well yeah! You kind of gave me a key when I left and told me to let myself in when I got back!" Rory exclaimed, hugging her mom back. Lorelai finally let Rory go and stepped back a little.

"Okay, let me look at you. Hmm...you look thinner. Did the Eskimos starve you? Did you have to sleep in an igloo?" she said with a gasp.

"No, and no. Plus, they prefer to be called Inuits, not Eskimos. And I stayed in a nice hotel, which wasn't made of ice, and had heating. The story turned out to be a bust though. I think the station knew that. I'm pretty sure it was some kind of initiation thing. You know, send the newbie off to some remote location to chase a story that doesn't exist." Rory said, rolling her eyes. "Oh, my God, I missed this place! Ah, a real couch!" She stumbled to the couch, collapsing onto it.

"So, you're saying you had a ice time overall, right?" Lorelai said, laughing at her own lame pun. Rory rolled her eyes.

"So where's Lola?" Rory asked, looking around for the quiet, blonde nine year old who could usually be found in a corner, reading.

"She's at the diner with Luke. The girl loves to cook, God knows she didn't get that from me." Lorelai responded, lifting up Rory's legs and sitting down next to her oldest daughter.

"So what else did I miss while I was stalking the Inuits? Any gang fights, murder conspiracies, that sort of thing?"

"Well, someone sabotaged Jackson's newest tomato crop, and he's investigating who, even though everyone knows it was Davey. The kid loves to do that kind of thing. Taylor started a petition to instate a town dress code, only he signed it. Kirk...well, I'm sure you can imagine."

Rory let out a little laugh, then closed her eyes and smiled. "It's good to be home."

LYK,TTLYPAGEBREAK!

Christopher drummed his hands on the kitchen table, staring at the phone in front of him. He couldn't believe he was actually going to do this...but he didn't know what else he could do. Gigi would hate being sent to a boarding school, he wasn't about to send her to Paris with Sherry...and he just couldn't raise a teenager by himself. He couldn't. But he knew someone who could. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the phone and dialed.

"Hey..Lore? It's Chris. Look. There's something I need to ask you..."

pagebreak.

August 14

I can't BELIEVE him. Sending me away like this? I always thought things might be easier if Mom left, not that I don't love her, but apparently dad just 'can't handle' raising a teenager by himself, so he's sending me to Lorelai for the next year, just to 'see how it goes'. Which means it might be permanent. Scratch that, with dad, this is definitely permanent.

I also can't believe I'm CRYING about this. I don't cry! I haven't cried since that idiot in my first grade class pushed me off the swing, and even then I hit the guy and almost got suspended. And yet, I'm sitting here with all my stuff packed in boxes around me, waiting for dad to show up with the U-Haul truck, crying my eyes out. I know he loves me, and he thinks this is best, and I love Lorelai and Rory, but for once home has been quiet. No fights, no yelling, and now I have to leave. This is the happiest I've been here for a long time.

Dad's home with the U-Haul. See you in Stars Hollow.

- Georgia Hayden