"Just tell me!"

"No," Rory said, knocking on her grandparents' door later that evening. "If I tell you now, you'll just blurt it out before I can tell Grandma and Grandpa myself. Won't it be more fun if I tell you all at the same time?"

Lorelai gave her a Look. "Nice try, but no." She drained the rest of her to-go cup as the maid ushered them in. "Okay, quick. Tell me something you're not going to tell my parents so I can feel like I'm still coming out on top."

"You're always on top," Rory assured her. "And do not say 'dirty', it's too easy and that's gross."

"Hey, how do you think you were made, little girl?"

Rory shuddered. "Please, spare me. You know, I was going to tell you something about my day but now I'm not so sure. I might wait until after dinner."

"No, tell me now!" Lorelai said, grabbing her arm. "Quick, before my mo—"

"Tell you what?" Emily asked, joining them in the foyer. "Why are you girls still standing out here? Come sit down."

Lorelai and Rory followed her into the living room, sitting on the couch across from her. As Emily poured drinks at her typical leisurely pace Rory thought she would burst. She was dying to tell them about getting on the paper, but her Grandpa still wasn't there and she didn't want to make him feel left out. So far nothing exceptionally interesting had happened at school, so she was excited to finally have something real to tell her family for once. She could only talk about the paper she was working on or her reading for class for so long before everyone kind of tuned out.

"Where's Dad?" Lorelai asked, swirling her martini around in her glass. "Rory's got some big deal news that she won't tell me until she tells you guys too."

"He's upstairs," Emily said, glancing toward the staircase. "Richard, the girls are here! And they've got news!"

"Just Rory has news," Lorelai corrected. "My life is the same as always. I go to the inn, the strip club, and then home. It's not much of a routine, but it's all I have now that Rory is gone."

"Drink your martini, Lorelai," Emily said, her attention on her granddaughter. "Your Grandpa will be down any minute," she told Rory. "So, what kind of news is it? Something about one of your classes? A new friend, perhaps?" She said "friend" with a special emphasis, and Rory knew she wouldn't be interested in hearing about the girl down the hall who had invited her to marathon Arrested Development on Netflix.

"It's just news," Rory said blandly, looking up the stairs. "In a few minutes, everyone will know."

"Can't believe you didn't tell me before we got here," Lorelai muttered, sipping her drinking. Rory elbowed her in the side.

After what felt like an hour, Richard finally came downstairs. "I was just on a business call, but I'm done for the evening now. Nice to see you as always, girls."

Rory and Lorelai waved as he prepared a drink for himself. "Richard, I told you the girls had news," Emily said.

"Well, I was on a very important call and now that it's done we can get on to the very important news," he said, unflappable as always. "Rory, Lorelai, continue."

"Well," Rory started. "You guys know that I've been doing a lot of tryout articles for the Daily News in the last couple of weeks." She took a drink of her Coke, kind of enjoying seeing her mom squirm. Rory knew she was absolutely dying to know what was coming next and it was kind of fun to draw it out a little bit. "Well, today the editor decided which freshmen would be on staff. And…"

"Oh, you're part of the Daily News!" Emily exclaimed. Lorelai turned to her daughter and punched her in the arm.

"Ow," Rory muttered. Lorelai ignored her.

"I can't believe you didn't call me earlier!"

Rory shrugged. "I wanted to tell you all at once. I thought it would make it more exciting."

"It's very exciting," Richard said. "Next week we'll have to have a special dinner to celebrate."

"Tacos!" Lorelai said excitedly. Her parents just stared at her.

"Yes, well, I think we'll let Rory pick," Richard said, nonplussed.

"I won't pick tacos," Rory assured him as they headed to the dining room. Rory couldn't picture her grandpa eating tacos. Authentic tacos might be acceptable, but the Gilmore girls had no use for authentic tacos. They were all about extra cheese and sour cream.

Dinner was a lot more fun than usual that night, with everyone in a good mood for once. Emily even let the maid pour a little wine for Rory, although she pushed her glass away after one sip because drinking red wine was like drinking sand. As far as she could tell, the bitter flavors in the wine did nothing to compliment meal. Dessert was good, though. Rory didn't even mind all of the fruit on her shortcake.

"So, the Daily News!" Lorelai said on the drive home. "That's very exciting. What was that other thing you were going to tell me when we first got there?"

"Mom!"

"What?" she said with a shrug. "Of course you made staff. You're the best writer Yale has. I'm very proud of you. And now that my parents are not around, I want to know what you were going to tell me and not them."

"It's really killing you not knowing, huh?"

"If you don't tell me in the next minute I'm going to have to pull over so you can drive, because my tears will be too thick to see through."

"You're very dramatic today," Rory said. Not that it was new. Lorelai wouldn't be Lorelai without a flair for the dramatic. "But since I don't want to make you cry, I guess I can tell you that I met a cute guy today. Nothing major," she continued quickly, wanting to head off a barrage of questions. "We literally only introduced ourselves. He's the features editor for the Daily News."

"Features editor, huh?" Lorelai asked, raising her eyebrows. "Aren't features what you always did at Chilton?"

"Sometimes," Rory said. "The Daily News is really competitive, though. Who knows what I'll end up working on. Jess and I might not even cross paths."

"Or you and Jess might end up working very, very closely," Lorelai suggested much too salaciously for Rory's liking. She rolled her eyes. She had only met Jess a few hours ago, and they hadn't even said more to each other besides "hi". Between her mom and Paris, it seemed like Rory was the only person who wasn't getting ahead of herself. He probably wouldn't even remember her on Monday.