Young Love and an Away Game

In the resplendent world of pomp and circumstance, or what Lorelai Gilmore called East Hartford, the fifteen year old woke up to the sound of her mother banging on the door. "Lorelai! Lorelai Gilmore this is your very last warning!" In lieu of knocking again she just let herself in and walked across the room to open the curtains. "Lorelai, you're going to be late for school."

The teenager groaned, rolling herself up in her sheets and burying her face in the pillows to hide from the light. "I'm up Mother!" she grumbled.

"Where have I heard that before?" her mother asked, and Lorelai could picture her rolling her eyes before she continued, "Don't make me come back up here, young lady. You need to be down at that breakfast table in five minutes."

Lorelai just let out another loud groan in response. She could hear the sound of Prada against the hardwood floor as her mother walked away. She took a deep breath and slowly sat up to allow her eyes to adjust to the morning light. "And a good morning to you too, Mom." She pushed herself up out of bed and walked into the bathroom to get ready for the day, which meant spending at least half her time trying to run a brush through her hair and tame it. For as long as she had lived she had never ever been a morning person. But she also couldn't afford to miss a day of school. She was at the top of her class and to keep Ava and Adolf off her back she'd have to keep it that way, so she quickly got up and changed into her uniform. She smiled proudly at her newly hemmed skirt. It was ¾ of an inch higher than it was supposed to be. Practice for Halloween this year as she was making both her own costume and her boyfriend's.

Once she got dressed, she took the stairs two at a time for breakfast. Her parents were sitting at the table. Her mother had a notebook in front of her detailing a list of what chores she wanted the maid to do that day and her father had his nose buried in the paper. She tried to grab a pastry and run out the door but then she heard, "Sit down Lorelai." Her mother said this without even looking up.

She rolled her eyes. "No time, sorry Mom! I've got to get to school. Don't worry Chris is gonna drive me! See ya!"

Without missing a beat or even giving her a glance she said, "Sit down Lorelai and eat your breakfast… get a plate for that."

Lorelai sighed and muttered something under her breath but she took a seat at the enormous table and quickly scarfed down her Danish. "Can I go now?" she asked mouth half full.

Emily gave her a sharp look now. "Lorelai… how many times do we have to go over table manners with you? I mean honestly…you're fifteen years old. Do I need to send you to finishing school?"

But Lorelai was up and walking out the door before Emily could even finish her lecture.

She let out a huge breath. It always took walking out the front door to feel like she could actually breathe. Luckily, right on time, her boyfriend pulled up in his brand new BMW, the third since he'd gotten his license two months ago.

Lorelai smirked at her beau's new glossy black vehicle. "Now that's a horse of a different color," she said running her hand over the undented, unscratched, hood that looked fresh from the dealership.

"Jump in Dorothy!" Chris joked as Lorelai walked around the front of the car to the passenger's side, plopping down on the new beige leather interior.

"It seems roomier than the last one," Lorelai said as she adjusted her seat before she tossed her book-loaded bag in the backseat.

"Why not upgrade when you can?" Chris shrugged with a sly smile.

The young lovebirds were in the same class at school but Christopher and Lorelai had known each other forever. They were best friends. It felt like they'd been dating forever but really it had only been for about a year and they'd been on and off three or four times since. Still, everyone loved them together, even Emily and Richard, and they never seemed to like any of her life choices. None of them except Chris. She thought he was probably the one but she also hated that she knew that so early in life. It all felt so Victorian and arranged. Chris was cool though. Albeit a little dangerous… he was always wrecking his cars.

"So…..What happened to Kevin?" She pouted at him reminiscing about the last car. It was red and had a sunroof. "You didn't have him long." Lorelai had a habit of naming inanimate objects, like cars and alarm clocks. It drove Chris crazy but then again made him laugh. "So many memories made in that car."

"Don't worry Babe, we can make memories in this one." Chris began to laugh as he started up the car but suddenly found Lorelai's lips against his. She was really good at catching him off guard. It was just one of the many things he loved about her.

Lorelai smiled and pulling away as she looked into Chris' deep blue eyes. "Sounds like fun."

His brain delayed about three seconds after that kiss but then he got himself together. "Always!" He laughed turned the key in the ignition but the car was already on so it sputtered and he laughed it off and backed out if the Gilmore's circular driveway.

"This is why you keep having to get new cars," Lorelai quipped as Chris made it out of her driveway. The moment they were out of sight from the Gilmore mansion Chris pushed down on the gas pedal, speeding down the street. Lorelai squealed and threw her hands up in the air as she felt the wind in her hair. "Screw you Kevin! Jeffrey is so much better!"

"Check out the sound system in this one," Chris exclaimed as he turned the radio on, "Pick a station, any station."

Lorelai giggled as she messed with the dials trying to find a song. It took her a second but she finally landed on something she recognized. "Ohhh! Oh! OH!" she shrieked and started to sing, "Billie Jean is not my lover!" She sang along with the Michael Jackson hit. "She's just a girl who claims that I am the one!"

Chris chuckled, "Another hit? Didn't he just come out with that other song? The one with the fighting?"

"Beat It." Lorelai confirmed by nodding. "Actually Billie Jean was released after Beat It. You've got to keep up Chris, this man is a genius!"

Chris shook his head, "If you say so babe but..." he glanced over at her to see her expression. "…no one beats Dead Kennedys!"

Lorelai scrunched her nose in disgust, "Puh-lease! Are you kidding me! How can you even say that? How many times do we have to have this argument…? They are total sellouts! In Plastic Surgery Disasters they totally sacrificed all of their power to sound thin and plastic and they get wordier and wordier with every new album…like are you gonna play the song or rant at me for the next hour?!" she huffed folding her arms across her chest and Chris knew she was just getting started.

He couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, but you like Metallica…however we must finish this later cause this argument could take hours and we are already running late." On a more serious note he added, "I can't afford another detention. Mrs. Fredrick is already riding my tail for last week's scotch incident."

She rolled her eyes and sighed at him. "Chris, Chris, Chris." She tisked shaking her head. "If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times it doesn't matter the size of the flask but the way you sip its contents. Observe…. " Lorelai pretended to demonstrate with her water bottle and a piece Juicy Fruit. "Sip. Gum. Sip. Gum….See. That way you can't smell it on your breath. Plus …I don't understand why you even deal with the flask… Why don't you ditch the flash switch to a clear liquid and use a water bottle." Lorelai shook the bottle at him then took off the top and took a sip. She winked at him as he stared at her dumbfounded.

They were sitting at the curb just staring at each other. "So wait…are you telling me that isn't water you are carrying?" Chris asked as he snatched the water bottle from her hand. He sniffed the beverage before taking a swig of it. Suddenly the biggest smile appeared across his face. "Lorelai Gilmore, does your mother know that you are such a sneaky girl?"

"My mother doesn't know anything." Lorelai laughed and leaned in, kissing Chris before snatching the bottle back and placing in her book bag. "Ready?" Lorelai unbuckled and reached for the door handle.

"Not so fast, Gilmore!" Chris grabbed his girlfriend, planting several kisses on her glossed lips. The shade just a tad brighter than the dress code allowed. In his mind he was helping her out by dulling it a bit.

"Christopher!" she squealed "Okay Christopher Atkins, let me out." He let her go and she stepped out of the car and blew him a kiss as he sped off from the front of the school to the senior parking lot.

She pulled that cherry bomb lip gloss out of her bag and started to reapply as she walked in the school. Her best friend Brynn Strickland walked up beside her. "Look whose on time for once."

Lorelai smirked at her. "Thanks Brynn," she said sarcastically. "Actually, Chris was pulling a "Bullet" on the way. I'm pretty sure he probably totaled his new car in the parking lot." She laughed.

"Yeah, I noticed." Brynn wasn't exactly Christopher's biggest fan so she quickly changed the subject. "… So…. I heard from Shauna Christy there is going to be a pop quiz in English….did you do the reading?" There was a little bit of panic in her voice.

Lorelai looked at her as they walked. "Shauna Christy doesn't even know what year it is…so I'm pretty sure you're safe."

"But Lorelai-"

"Relax, Brynn! I've got notes in my bag. You can borrow them just in case."

"Radical." Brynn grinned as Lorelai got the notes out of her bag for her. "You're the best did you know that?"

Lorelai picked up her bag and began trying her locker combination. It usually took her two or three times to get it to open. "Mmm. I've heard rumors." She said focusing on the numbers.

Brynn put the notes in her history binder so that she could study them during her first period. "Are you guys going to the away game tonight?"

"Mmm. I hadn't planned on it. What are we away playing again?" Lorelai had never been much for sports. She didn't care about them and she couldn't sit still long enough to figure out why the guy why the ball was running around in circles for goals.

"Football," Brynn said stealing Lorelai's lip gloss and using her locker mirror to apply it. "We're playing some little town that no one has ever heard of."

"And why does that sound like fun to me?" she asked.

"Well… for one thing, I'll be there. We could have a mini road trip. And for another thing, you'll be getting out of Hartford for the evening."

"Sold!" Lorelai laughed as she finished up and bumped Brynn to check her hair. She was headed to calculus with Mr. Feldman who talked so slow that she was pretty sure he literally slowed time down. That was one class she wouldn't mind skipping. She quickly took a swig from her water bottle as Chris came up and grabbed her waist from behind.

She squealed. "Don't get too thirsty Miss Gilmore," he whispered in her ear.

She laughed a little bit, turned and kissed him. "Hey? You wanna go to that game thingy tonight?"

"Yeah, sure. Nothing more I'd like to do then spend the evening with my girl." He gave her a big loud kiss on the cheek.

She rolled her eyes playfully as did Brynn. "Okay, well I'm gonna ride with Brynn and I'll meet you there. Right out front."

"Right out front," he repeated then smiled and walked away from her just in time for the first warning bell to ring.

Cars lined the streets in front of the modest school. This whole town was probably the size of her school, Lorelai thought as she waited in front of the school. There were tons of people lining up at the gate and then pouring into the football field. She paced a little bit and glanced at her watch for the tenth time. She scanned the crowd of people in front of her, hoping to spot her boyfriend in the throng of people around her. "Christopher…where are you?" she said out loud to no one in particular.

She noticed a girl standing at the bottom of the stairs cleaning a camera lens. "Excuse me…" she started, "Do you know where I can find a payphone around here?"

The girl was beautiful. She had wild curly red hair and soft fair skin. Lorelai thought she belonged on the cover of a magazine. She was all dressed up in a red and white sweater that read 'Stars Hollow High' so Lorelai thought she must know her way around here.

"Oh yeah," The girl pointed to a store across the street. "You can find one across the street in front of the hardware store." Then gave her the once over.

Lorelai mustered up a smile, "Thanks."

"No problem." The girl extended her hand, "I'm Rachel by the way."

"Lorelai." She followed looking over her camera. Lorelai had new Polaroid camera she got for her birthday a few months ago but it was nothing like that. "Hey cool camera!"

"Thanks, it's new. My parents gave it to me this morning as sort of a congratulatory gift," Rachel said looking from her back down to the camera in her hand.

Lorelai just happened to be a little bit nosey so she pressed on. "Graduation?"

"Sort of…. More like a life graduation. I just got this really cool job that I've been dreaming about for like…well ever…."

"Really? That's kinda cool… what kind of job did you get?"

Rachel wasn't even fazed talking to the strange girl with the dazzling blue eyes. She actually found herself liking her. "It's actually an out of state job."

"Awesome. Man how I wish I could leave this state," Lorelai said jealously admiring the girl one more time. "Well I guess I should go use the phone before the game starts."

"Sure, nice meeting you." Rachel smiled and headed into the gym. She had some pictures to take.

"You too!" Lorelai smiled and walked away heading off to the pay phone. She dropped her bag at her feet and picked up the receiver. She was so angry she didn't realize she was muttering to herself as inserted a dime into the slot and dialed Chris' number.

The phone rang twice and then a woman's phone came on the other end. "Hayden's residence."

"Hello, is Christopher there?" Lorelai could tell by the woman's voice that she was definitely not Chris' mother but instead on of the maids. She couldn't place the face with the voice in her head though.

"No ma'am. Mr. Hayden isn't in this evening." The woman informed her quickly.

Lorelai sighed as she realized she'd been stood up and Chris wasn't coming to the game. "Do you know who he's out with?"

"Some young boys from his school. Can I take a message?" the maid asked.

"No thank you." She hung up the phone and took a deep breath in, trying to remain calm and enjoy the night she had ahead of her. She still had Brynn. They could make it a girl's night. No way would she let Christopher ruin a great evening. As long as she didn't have to be cooped in the Gilmore jailhouse everything would be fine. Across the street the sun was setting. The stadium lights came on and the band started to play.

She slowly picked her bag up off the ground and glanced into the Hardware store. There was a young woman standing behind counter. She couldn't have been much older than Lorelai. She wondered why the young blonde girl wasn't as the game when she noticed her baby bump. She watched her flip through a magazine for a few seconds as a tall gruff man came down from what appeared to be stairs he walked across the room and handed a box of something to someone just out of Lorelai's view… but a few seconds later the person…a boy dressed in a red and white t shirt and jeans. 'Star Hollow Minutemen' was written across the front of his shirt. The young man headed across the street to the high school and Lorelai followed behind him.

"Hey Minuteman!" she called out to the boy hurrying to try and catch up with him. He didn't seem to notice until she called out again. "Hey! Wait up!"

"Huh?" he stopped and turned around. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yeah- geez…" she said breathless. It wasn't far but it was a universal truth that Lorelai Gilmore did not run because she was allergic to it, even short distances. "Dude… did you go to summer camp with Bruce Jenner's summer camp or something? What the heck man?"

He just stared at her. What was this girl talking about? He didn't recognize her and he was pretty sure she didn't go to his school. "Uhh… can I help you?"

"Yeah, my boyfriend was supposed to bring my ticket for the game but he totally bailed… think you could get me in? My friends are already inside and I was hoping since you go here… you might have an in?" she asked hopefully.

Again, he just looked at her. But this time it wasn't because she wasn't making much sense…. Which she wasn't…. this time it was because of her eyes. He had the chance to look into her eyes. They were the most brilliant blue eyes he'd ever seen, and he had definitely seen them before.

"You do go here don't you?" she asked snapping him back to reality. She obviously didn't recognize him but then again why would she. He had only ever seen her that one time when he was helping his dad fix stuff at Mia's inn. Still, he was a little bit enthralled by seeing her again.

"Oh, yeah, uh… yes. I am… I can get you in, sure. C'mon." He turned and started walking again as she began to talk a mile a minute.

"Yeah, thanks. You are seriously my favorite person in the world right now, I mean because you totally didn't have to help me. I'm Lorelai by the way. I go to EHA and I drove all the way down here with my friend and she was obviously smart enough to buy her own ticket but, like I said I was supposed to meet my boyfriend here, and he was supposed to bring my ticket, but he flaked. He's been flaking out a lot lately. Not that he's not a good guy because he is, he's just… a guy." She rolled her eyes just thinking about it not realizing the look that her savior had on his face just trying to keep up. "So, anyway, that's my story what's your name."

"I'm Luke."

"So do you work at the hardware store?" Lorelai asked pointing back at the hardware store across the street.

Luke shrugged. "Something like that."

"Well… it seemed like you were doing work related things..."

"Sure." He was still walking towards the school.

She sighed. "Not too chatty are you?"

"What?" He stopped and looked at her.

Lorelai stopped too and put her hands on her hips. "You're kinda making me do all the work here."

"Work?" he started not understanding why she was talking to him really but he elaborated. "It's a family business. My dad runs it and my sister works behind the register."

"Aww. That's nice. Sounds like your family really gets along. I wish my family got along."

He shrugged. "We have our ups and downs like most families but I guess we're close."

Lorelai scoffed. "Ha! Most families… I bet my family makes your family look like the freakin' Cleavers."

Luke frowned, "It can't be all downs."

"The only thing that's up is their noses, which are always in the air."

"Ahh," Luke noted, "Hold on a second, let me get you a ticket."

Lorelai watched as Luke gabbed with the guy behind the check in counter. He high-fived the attendant and was handed a ticket.

"Here you go." Luke handed her the ticket stub.

"Thank you sooo much. You're my favorite person!" Lorelai gushed in gratitude.

"Welcome," he said and she smiled to herself wondering what he had against multi worded sentences.

Just by the home team bleachers Luke saw Rachel and smiled. "Well …. See ya!" he called and jogged off to meet up with her.

Lorelai handed her ticket to the attendant and made her way through the gym. The gym was pretty decorated. Her mother would call the overly enthusiastic use of the color red tacky but Lorelai thought it showed a lot of school spirit. Banners and streamers were hung from the ceilings. Student dressed in white and red, faces were painted with player's numbers. Lorelai scanned the crowd for her best friend.

"Lorelai! Lorelai over here!" Brynn yelled from the second row from the top of the guest side of the bleachers.

Lorelai waved back and made her way to her friend, who sat next a strange male but Brynn wasted no time introducing him. "This is Collin, he goes here." She beamed with enthusiasm. One a scale from 1 to extremely enthusiastic Brynn usually aired on the side of too much.

"Hey. I'm Lorelai." She smiled but before she could say anything else Brynn started talking again.

"Where's Chris?"

"Don't know." Lorelai shrugged. "I called, but the maid said he was out. Probably went out with his friends or something. I'm 99% sure I've been ditched."

"Oh." Brynn gave Lorelai a disappointed face before showing a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry. Collin was just saying there is a party going on after the game so maybe this night can be salvaged after all."

Lorelai grinned. "A party you say… why Brynn you know that I always make it home before curfew. I can't imagine anything that would be fun enough to keep me away from Mother and Father on a Friday night."

They both laughed at her sarcasm as Colin began to explain that they were setting up at a dance studio in the middle of town and that usually these parties were pretty fun.

"Awesome! Fun is what I need." Lorelai smiled.

"Don't we all." Brynn gave her best friend a comforting side hug, "Hang in there Kid." Chris always has an answer."

Lorelai chuckled. "Ha! More like an excuse."

"You said it not me, but you love him too much to stay mad at him." She rolled her eyes thinking about how much slack her best friend cut the jerk.

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed. "You're right."

Lorelai didn't pay much attention to the game, not only was she not into sports but her mind was elsewhere. As much as she said she didn't want Chris to ruin her night, it was slowly taking its toll on her that he once again found something more important to do than hanging out with her.

As the game went on Brynn was steadily chatting up Collin the party guy and Lorelai was feeling more and more like the third wheel. She needed more of a distraction.

"Hey!" Lorelai shouted over the roar of the crowd. "I'm gonna go get some food. "

"Okay," Brynn and Collin said in unison.

Lorelai made her way down the bleachers, outside the double doors to the concession stand. She ordered a Coke and some potato chips and then sat down outside on the lawn and enjoyed her snack. It felt like she was only out there a few minutes but suddenly a loud sound came from the gym followed by a roaring crowd and then like a thousand people came pouring out of the gym. Some hung around and talked but most, at least the adults anyway, began dispersing. She got up to find Brynn and as she walked back towards the gate but stopped when she noticed the camera girl from earlier talking to Luke. Luke looked upset. His face was white, his mouth fixed in a downward position, his fists clenched to his side. The girl placed a gentle hand on his arm but he pulled away.

Lorelai moved in a little closer to hear what was going on but she couldn't really hear them. Just she something about Utah and she heard Luke mutter "Just leave."

Rachel looked down and moved her hand away from Luke's arm. The girl nodded and then Lorelai watched as the red curls faded into the dark streets leaving Luke frozen where she left him.