I approached the big oak doors and rang the bell. Naturally a maid answered. She let me in and led me onto the patio. Where grandma and her Daughters of The American Revolution friends sat around a round clothed table, drinking tea and eating what appeared to be scones and cakes.

"No he's been swamped at work. Night and day, weekends. You'd think he was the only person who worked at that company. Plus, he hasn't been feeling well. His back and knees. Very bad knees." Grandma said. She looked up from her tea and noticed me standing there. "Oh Rory, what a nice surprise." I stared over to them.

"Hey Grandma, sorry to butt in like this." I greeted her.

"Nonsense, come and meet my friends. Ladies, I'd like you to meet my granddaughter Rory."

"Well, hello Rory." One of the ladies said.

"Nice to meet you." I mumbled shyly.

"My goodness, what a pretty girl you are" Another woman said.

"She looks just like Lorelei, doesn't she?" The first woman interjected.

"The eyes." Said the second woman.

"The nose." Added a third woman.

"Walk around sweetie." The first woman said.

"Sally, leave the Girl alone." Grandma said with a smile.

"I just want to see her walk. Lorelei had such a specific walk." Sally defended suggestion for me to walk.

"Fast." The third lady added.

"That was it!" Sally agreed.

"Come sit, would you like some tea?" Grandma offered.

"Oh, no. I just came to pick up a book that grandpa was supposed to leave for me." I explained.

"Go check his study. It might be on his desk."Grandma suggested.

"Okay, thanks." I went into grandpa's study and found the book. It was on the desk just as Grandma had said. I wandered back out onto the patio to see Grandma and her friends giving me a strange look.

"I found it." I said. "Yay."

"Come sit." Grandma said. "How would you like to come out?" She asked.

"Come out of what?" I responded, not thinking.

"To society, my dear." Said Sally. Grandma's face lit up so much and I couldn't even think of saying no to her. I knew mom didn't get to have a coming out party, because she had me. I knew there was nothing that could make Grandma's day brighter.

"Um… Okay. Sure."I said.

"Oh that's wonderful Rory! Isn't that wonderful ladies?" Grandma exclaimed.

"We'll leave you two to do some planning then!" The first lady said. All the ladies got up excusing themselves from the table.

"What dress size are you, Rory?" Grandma asked.

"I'm a size zero." I responded. Grandma got up from the table and led me upstairs to my mom's old bedroom. She pulled a clothing bag which I could only assume was mom's cotillion dress, which she never got to wear.

"Here try this on." Grandma handed me the poufy white dress. I went behind the room divider and pulled on the dress.

"Grandma! I need help with the zipper. I can't get the zipper up." I called.

"Come on out and I'll help you." I made my way over to her. She was standing in front of a full length mirror. I turned around and she pulled and pulled at the zipper.

"It's not the Zipper it's the dress." Grandma looked pale. White as a ghost. "Are you sure you had the right size?" I looked in the mirror I had put on a little bit of a stomach I turned sideways and looked at my profile.

"Well that was out of character." Jess stated.

"Oh my god…"My eyes were wide."Jess… I just cheated on Dean… I should have talked to my mom first…What did we just do?" I was panicking.

"Listen, calm down, okay? Take a minute to think." Jess tried to comfort me in his own way."Do you like me?" Jess asked.

"Yes… But… Dean… I love Dean…"

"Do you want to just forget this ever happened?" Jess said. "It's no big thing to me." Jess got up and left.

"No, not exactly." I said "I've never worn a dress quite this fancy before."

"Well let's get your measurements and I'll get Miss Celine to make you a marvelous dress." Grandma said.

"Now I just have to go home and tell mom." I chuckled nervously.

"I'm sure your mother will be thrilled." Grandma laughed mischievously.

"Yes… I'm sure she will…" I sighed.

"Is everything alright?" Grandma asked.

"Um… What…?" I stammered. "Oh I was just thinking about the chemistry assignment. I'm paired with Paris again so I have to get home soon to answer her twenty thousand phone calls checking in on my progress."

"Oh well then you had better get going." I went behind the dressing screen and changed back into my uniform. Grandma walked me to the door and paid for my cab home. In the car ride I was silent I didn't even crack open my book. I just stared out the window.

I looked over at Dean still feeling incredibly guilty. I wanted to tell him what had happened with Jess but I just couldn't. I regretted cheating on Dean but I can't say that I regretted Jess. I really did like him. I wasn't how I wanted my first time to be but I was happy it happened with Jess. I wasn't happy it happened while I was still dating and in love with Dean.

"What's wrong?" Dean sighed."Come on Rory you haven't been this spaced out since you got that A- that you got in chemistry because the teacher made a mistake." Dean said.

"Uh yeah, Paris is on a rampage at the paper this week."

"Paris? Again? Is she related to some dictator or something?" Dean laughed.

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" I responded.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Dosey's Market bag boy, with my girl Rory." I heard from behind us. I could feel the flush spread across my cheeks.

"Get lost Jess." Dean hissed.

"Why? Rory and I are FRIENDS, aren't we Rory?" Jess said with emphasis on the friends part.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Dean was starting to get irritated.

"Jess, can I talk to you over there for a second?" I asked pointing to the other side of the road.

"Yeah, fine." Jess huffed. I dragged him to the other side of the road.

"What was that?" I whispered loudly.

"What? We ARE friends aren't we?" Jess smirked. His smirk was so sexy I wanted to kiss him.

"Yes, but you said what happened was no big thing to you!"

"But nothing happened, remember?" He stormed off. He almost looked hurt. Really hurt. Dean walked up behind me.

"What was that?" He asked.

"I told him to stop being a jerk to you." I said.

I got home and went into the kitchen where mom was sitting at the table doing homework.

"I'm coming out." I stated.

"Out of what?" Mom asked.

"Out to society." I replied, setting my paper down on the table.

"What are you talking about?" Mom asked sounding slightly more invested in the conversation, yet slightly concerned. I sat down in the chair beside her.

"I went to grandma's house after school."

"Okay, right away, bad." Mom snorted.

"And, um, her DAR friends are all there and they're talking about this debutante ball that's being thrown."

"Oh no."

"And when I got back from Grandpa's office, they all invited me out onto the patio."

"No, no, no, please tell me you did not go out onto the patio." Mom said quickly.

"I went out onto the patio."

"Ugh, Rory, that's like accepting the position as the drummer in spinal tap.

"Before I knew it Grandma was telling me how important it is for a person to be properly presented to society."

"Ugh" Mom groaned.

"And how every young girl dreams of this day." I continued.

"Agh"

"And how there are flowers."

"Oh lord."

"And Music."

"Please."

"And cake."

"Oh yeah, the cake is actually good." Mom smiled.

"And before I knew it grandma was bringing out your old dress and I was trying it on. And…" Mom stood up and picked up the phone. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Getting you out of this."

"Mom, wait."

"I swear, there is nothing in the world my mother is better at than getting someone to agree to something that in any other universe, they would never ever consider."

"Mom."

"I am still convinced she had something to do with Lily Tomlin doing that movie with John Travolta." She continued. I took the phone out of her hand and sat it on the counter.

"I'm doing this." I stated.

"Why?" She asked. Clearly confused.

"Because you should've seen the look on Grandma's face when she asked me. It's just really, really important to her."

"But…"She weakly objected.

"Now if it's that important to her, and it's not that important to me, then why shouldn't I do it?"

"Rory, do you know what a coming out party says?"

"It says I'm a woman now."I said.

"No. It says, 'Hi, I'm Rory. I'm of good breeding and marriageable age, and I will now parade around in front of young men of similarly good breeding and marriageable age so they can all take a good long look at me.'" Mom stated.

"You're exaggerating." I said, knowing full well that she wasn't.

"No, it's like animals being up for bid at the county fair, except sheep don't wear hoop skirts."

"Look, I promised, but you don't have to be a part of it if you don't want to." I looked at her.

"No, no, if you wanna do it, I'll help. It's just weird. This is all the stuff I ran away from. I just assumed you'd be running with me."

"Well, I would, but I heard debutantes don't run. Something about the heels." I chuckled.

"All right then. If you're sure," She sat back down at the table and I accompanied her. "where do we start? Uh, let's see. Well, you have a dress. You need a dowry, I guess." She picked up the salt shaker and placed it in front of me. "There you go. And uh, you'll need shoes, hose, gloves, some mice, a dog, a pumpkin. What's wrong?" She could always tell when I was worried about something. But I didn't want to tell her about her old dress not fitting. She would probably get upset about me having to spend so much time on getting a new dress made.

"Oh, nothing." I lied.

"Rory." She could see right through me.

"Oh, no, it just says that your father is supposed to present you at the ceremony."

"Oh."

"Whatever, it's no big deal. I can get someone else to do it. Grandpa probably." I said, I really did want my dad there.

"Rory."

"Or Taylor"

"Okay."

"Or the cable guy looked pretty friendly last week. Maybe he has a tux." I continued.

"Hand me the phone." I handed her the phone.

"I was kidding about the cable guy. What are you doing?" I asked. Mom started dialing.

"Look missy, there are plenty of things that should weird you out about coming out, but inviting your father shouldn't be one of them." I could hear the operator say the number was out of service.

"Um.. Wra..Gum wrapper."

"He's not going to come."

"You don't know until you ask."

"Mom." She dialed the new number.

"Look, we call, we ask, there's no harm. Trust me. Cable guy's not going anywhere."

I got up and walked into the living room, I knew they would be on the phone for a while. I couldn't sit around doing nothing so I decided to take a drive. I drove around town until I saw Jess and I pulled over, and he got in.

"What are you doing driving around now. Don't you have homework or something?" Jess asked.

"I do… But I have something on my mind." I replied as I continued driving.

"Oh yeah and what's that?" Jess asked.

"Grandma asked me to be in a debutante ball."

"Oh is that all." Jess snorted.

"I agreed." I said. Jess couldn't hold back laughter anymore.

"You agreed to that stupid thing?" He chuckled.

"Yes." He couldn't contain himself any longer. He burst out in laughter right there. "Haha very funny. It means the world to my grandma, and nothing to me, so I figured why not? I mean what could be the harm. My mom didn't do hers because she got pregnant with me, and that crushed my grandma."

"Well have fun with that. I suppose bag boy is going to be your escort?" Jess rolled his eyes.

"Yes. Dean, my boyfriend, is going to be my escort." I sighed. "Speaking of Dean I need to go talk to him."

Jess got out of the jeep and skulked off. I drove down Peach street and pulled into Dean's driveway. I sighed and got out of the jeep knowing that Dean was going to feel awkward about the situation.