"Hey, Laurel, you're going to be-"
Rory stopped in her tracks, as she knocked on her daughter's door before swinging it open to find her fast asleep with a very familiar book laying open next to her in bed. She knew that she had given it to her for her birthday that year, but Laurel hadn't touched it yet. When Rory asked her about it, her daughter had just shrugged and said she wasn't actually ready to yet, and Rory didn't push. Mostly because she wasn't entirely sure she was ready for it yet, either.
There were things she had kept to herself for all these years, secrets she had kept from her daughter that she knew she was going to have to own up to. For a long time she had been sure that it was for the best, but looking at the light-haired sixteen year old sleeping so soundly in her bed, Rory was beginning to doubt herself. She truly hoped she had done the right thing.
"Laur," she nudged the sleeping girl gently, "Wake up, you need to get to school."
The teen groaned and rolled over in bed, brushing her hair back from her face, "What time is it?"
"Six-thirty. Come on, your dad made coffee."
Pushing herself up, Laurel regarded her mom careful. "Hey, mom?" Rory turned to face her, expression inscrutable in the shadow of the doorway now. "It's okay that I started reading it, right?"
"Of course,." Her mother was nodding her head, but Laurel could sense her hesitation. She knew her mother, knew her looks, and knew when she was keeping something from her. "I just always thought I'd have more time before you did, you grew up too fast."
It was hard not to roll her eyes at her mom when she said stuff like that. She was only sixteen, it didn't feel like she had grown up fast at all. "I just started thinking it was time, with me going to Chilton and all. Everyone always seems to think they know you because they've read it, I want to know what they do."
Bright blue eyes met bright blue and slowly, Rory nodded her head. "I get it." Turning to walk away, the older Gilmore paused for just a second and turned back, "You can come talk to me about anything you read in there, you know that, right?"
"I know."
"Good, now up and at it. You're babysitting your brother tonight. Dad and I have a meeting."
With an audible moan, Laurel threw herself back against her bed and covered her face with a pillow. Of course she would be on Tiny Terror duty, it wasn't like she had a life of her own to lead.
"Laurel?"
The voice startled her, causing her to jump a little as she looked up from the book for her English class she had quietly been absorbed in for the ten minutes as she waited for class to start. Standing above her was likely the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. He had dark green eyes and red hair, freckles that covered his nose. Her breath caught in her throat. She knew she was supposed to answer, but right now she wasn't sure she even knew how to speak anymore.
"Uh…you are Laurel, right?"
She blinked again and then nodded her head, clearing her throat before she was able to speak. "Yeah, that's me. Laurel Gilmore, I'm new."
He laughed, and it sounded like music to her. When had she become such a dumb girl around boys? Back in New York she had been sharp and quick, running circles around the boys who had showed interest in her, keeping them on her toes. Now she felt like a bashful school girl.
The uniform probably didn't help, either.
"I know," he nodded, "That's why I'm here. I'm Caleb, I'm supposed to be your lab partner."
As if she wasn't bad enough at science, she was definitely going to flunk now because it was obvious she wasn't going to be able to think clearly around him. Get it together, Gilmore. She mentally kicked herself before flashing a smile at the redheaded boy. "Well, have your work cut out for you," Laurel found her voice finally, "I'm not great at the science stuff."
"It's a good thing you have me, then." Was he flirting? Laurel felt butterflies in her stomach, she really hoped that he was flirting with her. "We can get together after school, if you wanted, to study."
Laurel didn't miss a beat. "I'd love that." Then she remembered she had to watch her brother and sighed heavily. "But I can't tonight, I'm babysitting the Tiny Terror."
"Tiny Terror?" Caleb's browed furrowed together in confusion.
"Oh," her cheeks burned red with embarrassment, "My brother, Oliver. He's nine."
"Another time then," he answered coolly just as the other students filed into the room and the conversation came to a halt as they both turned to face the front of the class.
So, maybe this new school wasn't all bad.
"Ollie!"
Somewhere between dinner and bed time, her little brother had decided that a game of hide and seek would be fun and had vanished on her quietly and suddenly. She swore, he lived to torture her.
In a past life, she must have done something terrible to deserve this as punishment. She had never asked for a brother, but somehow she had ended up saddled with one who liked to think he was David Copperfield anyway.
She had once tried to sell him at a carnival that Grandma Emily had taken them to in Nantucket when she was twelve. Her parents hadn't really appreciated that, despite Laurel insisting that she could have gotten top dollar for him. And besides, she had tried to argue, her mom had been an only child growing up and turned out fine, why did Laurel have to be a big sister? She got grounded for a month.
At least Lorelai had found it a little funny. Her grandmother had snuck her ice cream in her room and told her that it was okay not to like Oliver right now, but that one day he would be a great ally and friend. Laurel still didn't completely believe her. Grandma Lorelai had never had any siblings, either.
She had warmed up to him a little over the years though and the nickname that she and her friends had given him the second he had learned how to walk, Tiny Terror, had almost become an affectionate one. But tonight she had given up an opportunity to spend time with a really cute boy who wanted to help her study science to watch him, and Oliver had decided to disappear on her. So, she figured she could be forgiven if she had no patience to find him endearing tonight, and even less so when she discovered the kitchen door flung wide open.
Of course he would run away on her.
There was only one person she could call to get help her out of this. Even if they were in Stars Hollow and there was very little trouble a nine year old boy could really get into in a town where everyone knew him by name, but Laurel figured she should call in reinforcements anyway.
"Grandma? He's gone again."
"Anthea Anka and the Great Grandma Gilmore are on the case! We'll be right there."
"Paul Anka and Emily would be so proud at how far their offspring have come," she quipped right back, "I'm putting the coffee on as we speak."
"Good girl."
While she might not always like her little brother very much, she didn't want anything bad to happen to him still. So she breathed a sigh of relief as she hung up the phone, knowing that with Lorelai's help, everything was going to be alright. There was not a thing in the world her grandmother couldn't fix.
Or if there was, Grandpa Luke was usually pretty handy with his tool box.
"Maybe he was kidnapped by Gypsies."
"That's not funny, Lorelai."
They had been looking for Ollie for the last hour and had eventually had to call in reinforcements in the shape of her grandfather. Luke had a stressed look about him that made Laurel worried that he was one more failed attempt at locating her brother from calling up her parents and telling them what was happening. Knots formed in her stomach, she hated letting her parents down. They had trusted her not to let anything happen to Oliver.
It was worse that this wasn't the first time she had lost him. That honor went to the thirteen year old version of herself back in New York who had been supposed to take him to first grade on her way to school and had instead forgotten him on the subway. Her mother had gotten a very distressed call from a stranger who had found a seven year old Oliver wandering around Central Park and called the number written on the inside of his school bag.
In her defense, she had told him to follow her when they got off the subway, he had just chosen not to.
"He's got to be around here somewhere," she insisted, her desperation seeping out now.
"Oh, hey, kiddo," her grandmother passed Luke Anthea Anka's leash and wrapped her arm around Laurel, "It's not your fault. Your brother's just trying to cope with moving just as much as you are, running away is just his way of dealing with it. Your parents know that."
"But I was supposed to watch him and I didn't want to because I could have had a study date with a really cute boy from school, so I wasn't paying attention to him like I should have been and now he's gone!" She let it all out in one breath, stopping in her tracks and burying her face in Lorelai's neck.
"I'm just going to check the diner again," Luke curtly excused himself, taking the dog with him, uncomfortable with the idea of his granddaughter taking about boys. Even if she had been doing it for years already.
Lorelai just wrapped her arms tightly around her granddaughter and squeezed her, "So, there's a boy?"
"His name is Caleb and he's gorgeous, Grandma. Like underwear model gorgeous. And smart."
"Ah, Chilton breeds them well," Lorelai laughed, "Smart and beautiful. I'm almost sure they're all made in one of Paris's labs these days. Have you told your mom about the boy yet?"
"No. Not yet."
"Yes!" Lorelai's outburst would have startled anyone who wasn't related to her. Instead, Laurel just laughed at her almost-namesake and shook her head. "I can't wait to tell my dear darling daughter that I got to be confided in first about boy stuff. I'm the cool, hip grandma! This is karma for the time she didn't tell me she got her first kiss!"
"Grandma, you know I already had my first kiss, right?"
"I know, sweetie, you take after me." Linking her arm through Laurel's, Lorelai gave her a little nudge, "Come on, I have an idea where we can find your brother."
Sure enough, Lorelai had been right.
Oliver was curled up on a bench at the bus stop, jacket draped over him like a blanket as he slept. Looking at her brother lying there with his dark hair falling into his face, Laurel couldn't help but feel guilty for the way she had been treating him. Especially lately. She wasn't the only one who had had the carpet swept out from under her when they had moved to Stars Hollow, Oliver's had too.
"Hey Tiny," she nudged him gently, watching him squirm and stretch on the bench under him as he stirred, "Let's go home." Reaching out to take his hand, she waited for him to accept it.
Blinking up in surprise at his sister, it took Oliver a second to nod his head and lace his fingers through hers. "Okay." He was exhausted and homesick, but so was Laurel. Maybe from now on, she could try and be a little nicer to him. They were family, after all.