Washing Away the Weak of a Week

Chapter One: Life as I Knew it, and the End of the Week

A/N: I've written bits of fan fiction before, but this is my favorite. I've decided to branch out, into the future, and show a week's worth of time through the eyes of a daughter. I will try my best to update once a week, though I promise nothing. Please review, I could use any advice you offer, and I hope you enjoy "Washing Away the Weak of a Week."

Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls. I simply own the original characters I have created, and the idea for this story.

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Looking out the window into the bleak, rainy night, I felt compelled. Compelled to step out into that night. So I did. With pajamas and bare feet, I quietly opened the front door-- careful not to wake my parents-- stepped into the cool, wet grass, and threw my head back. I could feel my hair resting on my lower back, and I could feel raindrops trying to enter my eyes. I closed my eyes to let my eyelashes capture those drops, letting the rain help me make sense of all that had happened during the past week, which seemed to stretch so much further back in time. That week had changed me more than any other in my life; in some ways that was great, but in others, well, let me just say that it took a while before I no longer had trouble going to sleep at night. But on that night, I simply let the rain wash away all the bad things that had happened, to concentrate on the good, and to move on in life.

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My parents named me after two writers. They both read a lot, and so do I, so I guess it's appropriate. My name is Charlie Parker Mariano, daughter of Rory and Jess Mariano. There have been teases here and there throughout my life about having a boy's name. But I really don't care. It's a girl's name too, and I have always been proud to be named after Charles Dickens and Dorothy Parker. Anyway, now that I'm seventeen, the teasing has died down quite a bit. People got used to the name, and I guess they tired of harassing me.

My parents' relationship has had its ups and its downs. But then I guess they finally got to where their heads, and their hearts, were in the right place at the right time. That's when my dad proposed and my mom said yes. But first, my mom had to realized this mistake that she made with some loser, a married ex-boyfriend she went to far with. She went after my dad, but it still took time for them to work it out. After they got married, my mom finished college at Yale, and they traveled the world for a couple of years. That's when my mom found out that she was pregnant, and they came back to Stars Hollow.

In Stars Hollow this whole time, my grandmother, Lorelai, was dating the local diner guy, Luke. It just so happened that he proposed on the same day my mom found out she was pregnant.

After the wedding, Lorelai moved in with Luke in his apartment above the diner, so that my parents could move into Lorelai's house, the house that my mom grew up in. That's how it became the house that I grew up in too.

I have heard many stories of the past. Some of them I have heard too often, and they sicken me. Stories of my parents, and stories of Lorelai and Luke. Stories of waltzes, stories of the dance marathon, stories of visits at the bridge. But of all the stories, there is one that I can stand. I love the story. It's the story of how my mom called my dad Dodger after he borrowed her book. Now, you might think I'm crazy for liking this story when all the others annoy me. But if you consider all that I have told you, the reason should come quite clearly. That moment, that conversation, is one of the main reasons that my parents decided to name me Charlie. And I love my name.

My mom and Lorelai are both coffee addicts. My dad swears that my mom snuck a little bit of coffee into my bottle every morning, and I can't help thinking that he may be right. Or it might just be those genes. Anyway, I drink just as much coffee as my mom, though probably not quite as much as Lorelai, since she lives and sleeps with the maker of the ultimate coffee.

Everyone always says how much my mom is like Lorelai, and how much my dad is a mixture of his mom, his dad, his grandfather, and Luke. I have small similarities with some of them. There's my coffee-loving nature, my love of books, and my clear blue eyes. Then there's my curly dark hair. And my love of adventure. But in my desperation to get out of the small town that is Stars Hollow, I've really always been my own person too.

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It was in Stars Hollow that the week began. I was with my boyfriend, Jake, in the gazebo, when he told me the plan.