1. The beginning of a beautiful friendship

"So, have we discussed homecoming yet?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"I think the ritual should be put to sleep," Rory Hayden said, tossing her chestnut hair over her shoulder. "Or at least assigned a new colour scheme."

"Like your grandmother would allow you to deviate from the blue that fits your eyes oh-so-perfectly," Paris Geller teased.

"I know, right?" Rory rolled her eyes and mocked her grandmother's voice. "Oh, darling, you do look so lovely in blue. Lorelai, buy her more blue."

The girls snickered. Unlike most high schools, Chilton Academy served a perfectly edible lunch menu. Yet the two paid little attention to the salmon puffs and salad on their plates. Paris was distraught that the lunch lady has disregarded Geller's Fourth Lunchtime Commandment (Food Shall Not Touch Other Food) and Rory wanted to make sure that she fit into her dark blue dress for the upcoming school dance.

"Are you still staying with your grandparents?"

"Yeah," Rory replied. "The contractors managed to flood the entire third floor in our house, so it is completely unliveable. Of course, Mom stepped in and told them that they will be responsible for the costs incurred. I have never seen grown men with chainsaws look so nervous!"

Paris grinned.

"What are we laughing about?" Madeleine Lynn asked, sliding into her usual seat next to Rory.

"Your grades," Louise Grant shot back, sitting down across from Madeleine and Rory.

"Oh, now, be nice," Paris chastised, then frowned. "Wow, saying that felt wrong."

The girls laughed again.

"Hey, who is that?"

Paris followed Rory's gaze to a shy-looking Korean girl that just entered the lunch hall.

"Lane Hyun-kyung Kim," Madeleine said promptly. "Just transferred here from Stars Hallow High on a music scholarship."

"Nice stripper name," Louise snorted.

"Oh, great. A rube from the sticks. I do not understand why Charleston has this compulsion to allow hicks. All they do is mess up the curve and take up space. Aren't we at least pretending to some sort of academic superiority here?"

Rory just nodded and let Paris' rage wash over her like a soothing lullaby. Since the Crayon Incident at kindergarten, she had learned that it was unwise to pay too much attention to Paris's rants. Instead, Rory studied the Korean girl who had inadvertently taken a seat at the jock table. The newcomer seemed oblivious to the stares and jokes from the jocks, as she was studying a leaflet from a nearby music store.

As the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, Rory wiped her hands on a napkin and left her largely untouched plate on the table.

"You know Charleston is going to get his polyester knickers into a twist if he sees you leaving your plate on the table, right," Paris warned.

"Whatever," Rory shrugged. "Let the maids clean up."

"You get more like your grandmother every day," Louise said, approvingly.

"Oh, now, be nice," Rory laughed.

The four linked arms and left the lunch hall.

"Excuse me," a shy voice asked. "Do you perhaps know where Miss Grey is? I have her for history now and I'm afraid I'm going to be late again. I mean, I have a floor plan of the school and everything, but some sick freak decided to print it in Pig Latin or something. So I can't make out where I am or where I need to be and it's driving me insane."

It was Lane Hyun-kyung Kim, looking a little frustrated.

Paris rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to be late for class because of some rube's inability to read a map."

Madeleine and Louise left with Paris.

"Charming girl," the girl remarked. "I'm assuming she's gunning for the position of Miss Congeniality.

Rory felt the urge to laugh. "I have Miss Grey for history now, too, so I can walk you there. My name's Rory Hayden, from the Connecticut Haydens."

"Lane Kim, from the Stars Hollow Kims."

"Stars Hollow? What's that?"

"Just a little town forty-five minutes and thirty-odd haystacks from here. Take the I1 and turn right at the big rooster statute."

"You're kidding."

"Yeah. You actually turn left."

Rory laughed as they walked together to class.

"Tell me more about this Stars Hollow …"

"Hey, Mom," Rory said as she walked to her mother's car after school. "Trying to win a Cindy Crawford lookalike competition?"

Lorelai was perched on the bonnet of her silver Merc, wearing a black Prada pantsuit with a white blouse and gorgeous pink Jimmy Choos. She passed a Starbucks cup to her daughter and struck a pose. "Better than my usual Ronald McDonald look?"

"No," Rory replied, sipping her coffee. "I miss the clown shoes and the red wig. At least you still got that clown mouth effect going."

"Shush, you," Lorelai responded, feigning a hurt look. "If you're mean to Mommy, I won't let you get out of tea with Grandma's old biddies' club."

"It's called the DAR, Mom. And I need to interview them for my article for The Franklin."

"You say potato, I say wrinkled old dragons."

"I believe that's their motto."

"You should include it in the article."

"I'm glad Paris will let me write on the DAR for The Franklin."

"Your grandmother is glad, too. How was school, kid?" Lorelai asked as they got into the car.

Rory shrugged, looking at the imposing stone-and-mortar structure in front of her. "School. Got there, learned stuff, had lunch, made Paris turned purple by answering questions on Martin Luther King before she could."

"You forgot 'made out with Tristan'."

"Tristan's still suspended for a stunt he pulled."

Lorelai tried not to frown. She couldn't understand what her beautiful, sassy daughter was doing with a jerk like Tristan DuGrey. He was tall and handsome, in a prep-school Ken doll way, but other than that … "At least you have a personal chauffeur service to come pick you up after you learned stuff and turned Paris purple," Lorelai said.

"So does most of the people in my class. Except their chauffeurs aren't their parents, but qualified drivers. I'm getting ripped off here."

"Hey," Lorelai protested, revving the Merc and driving smoothly away from Chilton Academy. "I could have been Michael Schumacher in another life."

"You could have been an innkeeper in another life, too," Rory shot back. "Doesn't mean you would have been any good at it."

"Strike Two. Another mean comment and I'm sending you home with Tweeny Halpurn."

"Bet she'll spring for a Town Car to pick me up from school."

Lorelai grinned, looking at her daughter. "Love you, kid."

"Love you, too."

xxxxxxxxx

Emily Gilmore, as impeccably dressed and coiffed as always, opened the door of the Hartford house to her daughter and granddaughter. "Hello, girls. Lorelai, that is a lovely outfit."

"Thanks, Mom," Lorelai said breezily. "You finally have something in common with my guys over at Merrill Lynch."

Emily looked puzzled.

"She means that her male colleagues also approve of that outfit," Rory translated, rolling her eyes and heading upstairs to her room.

"Remember the ladies from the DAR will be here in an hour," Emily called after her. "Wear that red dress I brought for you."

"Bring a coffee and danish to my office," Lorelai told the maid, handing over her coat and scarf. "Strong coffee. Really. I want to be able to use it as a spread on the danish."

"Aren't you having tea with me and the ladies?" Emily asked with a frown.

"No, thanks, Mom," Lorelai said. "I have to go over the quarterly reports and see what we can salvage. Hence the need for coffee and a danish."

Emily nodded, secretly rather proud of her daughter. "Remember we have guests for supper tonight, so I would appreciate it if you could change before seven."

Lorelai bit back a sharp retort and headed upstairs. After a fairy-tale wedding to Christopher at Cape Cod, a lace-and-satin affair more to Cinderella's tastes than Lorelai's, Christopher and Lorelai moved in with Richard and Emily. While the newlyweds were tasting cheese and grapes in Napa Valley on a short honeymoon, Emily had turned the third floor guest rooms into a suite for her daughter and son-in-law. Three bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a pastel pink nursery for Rory, a kitchen nook for late night pregnancy cravings and a lavish lounge all received a splash of Emily's elegance and style. Now that Lorelai's house was being flooded by incompetent construction workers, Lorelai and Rory had moved back into the suite. Christopher, of course, was still travelling in California on business.

Flopping down into the chair in her office, Lorelai looked around her and allowed herself a little nostalgic smile. While still pregnant with Rory, Lorelai had converted one of the bedrooms into a makeshift study and completed her GED. At this desk, researching universities online, she had felt Rory's first little kicks. In that corner, Rory had slept in her crib while Lorelai wrote her college admission essays. And a toddler with strings of brown hair and determined blue eyes steadied herself on those shelves before taking her first unsteady steps.

"Your coffee, ma'am," the maid said, bustling in with a cherry danish and a cup brimming with froth.

"Thanks," Lorelai smiled, switching on her laptop and getting to work.