Friends Forever

Lorelai's thirteen/fourteen and Luke's fifteen

April 1982

At around seven o'clock on a Wednesday, Lorelai was up in her room at her desk, just having completed most of her homework. Dinner was still about fifteen minutes away so she quickly picked up the phone and brought it over onto her bed. She sat up against the headboard, cross-legged as she quickly dialed the most familiar number to herself other than her own. Right as she heard the person on the other line pick up, she immediately said, "So, do you have any idea what tomorrow is?" Not even bothering to wait and check if it were Luke who would pick up the phone.

"Lorelai?" She heard William ask, a smile evident in his amused tone.

"The one and only." She paused. "That you've met."

"I expect that you want to speak with Luke?"

"That is why I called, yes, but I don't mind talking to you."

"Well I have it on authority that tomorrow is your birthday, is that so?" he asked teasingly.

She smiled brightly. "It is so. And then in four years, I'll finally be a legal adult and I'll be able to finally get away from Hartford."

"Four years, the time really does seem to fly by. It seems like only yesterday you and Luke were selling lemonade so you could save up enough money to buy a dog."

Lorelai laughed. "That was, like, eight years ago, William. How on earth could you possibly remember that?"

"It's the little things that stick. And plus, you both were so excited."

"It was me that was excited," Lorelai corrected. "Luke always had that irrational fear of dogs."

"He did, probably got that from his mother, too." William paused for a second. "I think he just came downstairs, Lorelai, hold on."

She heard muffled voices on the other line of the phone before she finally heard Luke take the phone. "Lorelai?"

"Yeah, hey, go upstairs in your room. I have something I want to suggest but I don't want you to be around your dad when I do it." Lorelai demanded hurriedly.

Luke's eyes narrowed in confusion, he tucked the phone in the crook of his neck. "Um, yeah, hold on." He quickly grabbed a water bottle from out of the fridge in the kitchen before mouthing to his dad that he was going to be up in his room. "You don't want me to do anything illegal, do you?" he asked uncertainly as he shut the door to his room and sat over at his desk.

"I don't think its illegal." she said seriously after a thoughtful pause.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Hear me out, first. So you know how you said you were having trouble picking me out a birthday present?"

"Lorelai, I promise you that I picked something out you'd like. You don't have to keep obsessing over it considering I'm not going to tell you what it exactly is." he said, exasperated. It had taken him forever to pick something out for Lorelai due to the fact she had nearly everything. But in the end, he liked to believe he did a fairly good job.

"That's not what I'm talking about," she said in an oddly calm voice.

"What are you talking about?" he asked suspiciously.

"I've got a plan."

"And the chances of me allowing you to drag me into this plan are...?"

"Considering it's my birthday and you'll do anything for me, very high."

He rolled his eyes, sighing. "Go on, I'm listening."

She smiled, pausing for a dramatic effect. "We ditch school tomorrow."

Luke immediately laughed wholeheartedly; the thought of Lorelai skipping school was crazy, sure she had skipped gym class one or two times, but Lorelai skipping a whole day? Definitely crazy. Lorelai had always tolerated school, dreamt of going to Yale like her father when she was eighteen. Never in his right mind would Luke ever think he would be hearing those words out of her mouth. But when she never gave any indication that she was joking, he stopped, abruptly turning somber. "You're kidding, right?" he asked with a small chuckle.

"Why would I be kidding?" she asked in complete seriousness. "My dad gets up at, like, six and leaves before I'm even up, and my mom has to be somewhere in Litchfield early in the morning and will be there until three so she says that I have the house to myself tomorrow morning, other than the maid, of course, so they'll never know. We can sleep late and then take the bus and go wherever we want."

"So that would work for you, exactly how would it work for me? I don't think my dad will allow me to skip school when you don't even have permission."

"Don't doubt me, Luke. This plan of mine has no faults. We had to watch this boring health video today when I created the flawless 'Operation Luke and Lorelai Skip School for Lorelai's Fourteenth Birthday'."

"'Operation Luke and Lorelai Skip School for Lorelai's Fourteenth Birthday'? A little long, isn't it?" he joked skeptically.

"That's why I shortened it to OLALSSFLFB." she added seriously.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Because that's not at all difficult to remember."

"Do you want to hear my plan or not?" she asked impatiently.

Luke sighed before shrugging and relaxing against the back of his chair. "Why not?"

She smiled before enthusiastically explaining OLALSSFLFB. "Okay, so you tell your dad that you're going to crash at your friends place for the night because you need to finish up a science project. He'll agree because your dad is awesome and will believe you. Then you hop on the next bus to Hartford and get off at the stop a block away from here. You'll walk towards the back of the house and climb that big tree big tree, you know, the one I fell and broke my arm on a couple years back? Well, you can hop the fence and then you very quietly climb up onto my balcony and I'll be waiting in my room, you following so far?"

"Yeah," he said, obviously surprised at how detailed her plan really was. "I'm following, but I've got a question.

"Save your questions till the end." she told him professionally. "Okay, so you'll spend the night on the floor in my room because we don't want to chance them finding you in the guest room. Then we'll sleep late and in the morning we'll have the maid call the school, saying that we won't be going so my mother doesn't somehow get a phone call in the middle of the day. I'll just ask her if she knew if my mother had called me in sick or not and when she says she doesn't know or if she hadn't, I'll convince her that she has to call me in, and then she can do the same for you, only we'll twist the words a bit. Trust me; this new maid is really gullible. And once that's done, we can spend the day we want to spend it and be back for dinner at six-thirty." She paused, taking in a deep breath. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, actually, I've got a couple of them. What if your mother comes in during the middle of the night and finds me asleep on the floor?"

"Um," she paused. "You could sleep in the closet?" she suggested uncertainly.

"Please, there's barely any room in there for all your clothes, let alone me." He scoffed. "Guess you didn't think this out thoroughly enough, did you?"

She paused thoughtfully. "Wait! You could sleep in the bathroom,"

"I am not sleeping in the bathroom." he protested indignantly. "I'll wake up in the morning and I'll have tiny square imprints all over my face."

"Nuh-uh, not if you sleep in the bathtub. You know, with lots of pillows and blankets?"

He sighed, pausing. "Well, first of all, we can forget about the maid calling my house. My dad won't be home until around nine and I'll definitely make it home before then to erase the message, but what about the maid? What if she tells your mom that we're not at school?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes as if it were obvious. "We blackmail her."

"Blackmail? We blackmail the maid? How?"

"We confuse her; you know, tell her we know what she was doing last Saturday and freak her out."

"What was she doing last Saturday?"

"That's the whole point," she said as if he should know. "She'll think we know what we don't know and it'll freak her out making her think we know what she was doing and then she'll agree. Trust me on this, it'll work."

"And if it doesn't?" he asked, his tone full of dread and doubt.

She sighed in mock-sadness. "Then we'll just have to accept our punishment, whatever it shall be."

Luke was baffled by her behavior. While he and Lorelai acted out on a somewhat regular basis, they were always simple and more carefully thought out to make it more difficult to get caught, this was complete unlike her. She had always hated being yelled at by her parents, she had never been that great with criticism. Over the years, though, he had noticed how she became more flippant about it each time she was accused of something she did or didn't do. This time, however, she seemed completely unlike, well, Lorelai. "You know, there are so many ways for us to get caught here." he pointed out, hoping to get somewhat of a reaction he recognized from her.

"C'mon, Luke, stop worrying about the what if's. Let's just do this without any worrying about the consequences." she said, a smile evident in her careless tone.

Luke silently and slowly shook his head, even more baffled considering it was usually him egging her on to be less careful about everything and her being reluctant to agree to what he was suggesting. "How do I get my dad to believe I'll be at my friend's house all night?" he grudgingly asked.

"I'll call you back in five minutes." she smiled. "But don't tell your dad it's me calling you back again, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll talk to you in five."

After Lorelai had called him back, she explained to Luke that he'd just tell have to tell his dad he was spending the night at his friend Tim's house because he forgot all about a science report that was due Friday. Then he'd hop on the next bus to Hartford, as planned, while she ate dinner. And now, about a half hour later, give or take a few minutes, Lorelai was lying across her bed on her stomach, leafing through a magazine as she listened to her new cassette player she had gotten as an early gift in the mail from her aunt.

"So what exactly are the chances of us getting caught tomorrow?" A voice from behind her suddenly asked, causing her to nearly topple fall off her bed, letting out a loud yelp of surprise in the process.

"God," she gasped, her hand held over her rapidly beating heart. She stood up, narrowing her eyes at Luke, who was smirking back from his position leaning up against her now open window. "Make a noise or something, I mean, I didn't even hear you come in."

"Well, that was the whole point of me sneaking over," he said, walking over to sit down on her bed. "Not being seen or heard."

She rolled her eyes, picking up the various papers strewed across her bed and tossing them on her desk. "Yes, but now Emily will probably be up here any second wondering why I screamed."

"Then that's your fault, you shouldn't have screamed."

"But you should have at least said something or knocked on the window quietly. You didn't have to be all stealthy."

He shrugged. "You said to be quiet, I was quiet. You made the rules, I just followed them."

"Since when do you ever listen to me?"

"It's your birthday tomorrow; I thought I'd be nice."

Lorelai sat down beside him, crossing her legs down as she cupped her chin in her hand and rested her elbow in her knee, "Yeah, well-"

She was interrupted by an impatient knocking at the door, followed by a "Lorelai? What is going on in there? Why on earth are you shrieking? Honestly, Lorelai, the neighbors probably think we're being attacked." The doorknob jiggled. "And why is the door locked?"

Lorelai's eyes widened, almost to say 'I told you so', as she roughly pushed Luke off the bed. "Where should I go?" he asked.

Frantically, she pointed to underneath her bed. "If you open the closet door she'll hear you," she whispered harshly over his protests. "Now hurry," She kicked him swiftly from behind as he tried to slide underneath it, just barely fitting. "I'll be right there, mom." she called out, jumping over her bed and quickly bounding towards the door. She swung it open, slightly out of breath. "Hey, what were you saying?"

Emily narrowed her eyes at Lorelai. "What's going on up here?"

"Nothing," Lorelai said innocently. "I just accidentally fell off the bed. I'm a klutz, you know that." she shrugged, chuckling at her own stupidity.

Emily pushed the door open wider, peering in and looking around suspiciously. "I thought I heard someone else in here, is there someone else in here?"

Lorelai forced a scoff. "Mom, why would I be hiding someone in my room, much less, who would I be hiding in my room at eight o'clock on a Wednesday night?" she asked skeptically.

Emily, still a bit wary, looked around Lorelai's room once again. "Very well, I guess. I assume you have your alarm set for tomorrow morning?"

"Six-thirty on the dot." she lied with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry mom, I don't need you to send a maid to wake me up in the morning anymore. I'm usually already awake before even she gets up here. You don't have anything to worry about." she stressed.

"I still feel horrible for not being able to see you on the morning of your birthday." she said sadly.

Lorelai shrugged it off. "It's fine. I'll see you at dinner, right? And it's not like we even have time to see each other in the morning so it all works out good."

"I guess..." Emily sighed. "So after school you and Luke will meet up-"

Lorelai interrupted her mechanically, obviously haven gone over this many times before. "We'll hang out for a bit and then be back in time for dinner at six-thirty. We'll stay out of trouble, we won't do drugs, we won't steal, and we won't get either a tattoo or a piercing." Lorelai droned on dryly. "Really, mom, Luke and I hardly, if ever, get into trouble; you'd think that after years of friendship you'd realize that and you'd trust us to make the right decisions."

"Hardly isn't exactly the word I would use, Lorelai." Emily reminded her doubtfully. "And I do trust you and your decisions, it's just that, you know that Luke grew up in a different community than you, and as much as you like to believe that he is the perfect role model for you, his town and his lifestyle isn't what you should be influenced by. Especially at the age he is now."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "What is he gonna do, Mom? Join a gang and start smoking? Even you know that's ridiculous."

"You never know these-" She stopped abruptly, narrowing her eyes at something behind Luke.

Lorelai immediately turned around, her eyes searching frantically for any sign of Luke. After not noticing anything out of the ordinary, she turned back to face her mother, a little calmer than seconds before. "Mom?"

"Why is your window open?" Emily wondered almost knowingly.

Lorelai's eyes widened briefly before relaxing. She struggled to keep a composed state as she shifted her feet. "It was hot up here," she explained simply. "What, am I not allowed to open the window at night?"

"You never have your window open though."

"It never gets this warm up here." Lorelai retorted.

Emily pursed her lips. "And you wouldn't lie?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Mom, I have nothing to lie about. It was hot up here so I opened the window. Case closed."

"Very well, then. I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow night?"

"Yes, mother, we've already gone over all this. I'll see you tomorrow night, Luke in tow just in time for dinner."

"Okay, and remember, don't get into any trouble tomorrow, and remember to bring a sweatshirt to school if that's where Luke is picking you up, it's still cool outside. I still can't fathom why you have the window open saying its warm when it's almost sixty degrees outside."

Lorelai shook her head slowly as her mother continued to rant then began to lightly push her mother out the open door. "Goodnight mother." She sighed as her mother finally left the room and waited until the footfalls were gone before telling Luke it was safe to come out.

"Your Mom's suspicious." Luke said immediately after he got up.

"She doesn't suspect a thing," Lorelai dismissed, waving her hand at him. "And now its seven-forty-five and I've got to get my homework done."

"But we're not even going to school tomorrow." he pointed out logically.

"Exactly, which means that if I get all my homework done now, I won't have to do any tomorrow."

"Then what was the point of me coming over so early. I could have caught the eight thirty bus if I had known I'd have to sit here and watch you do your homework."

"But if you left at eight thirty then your dad would have been wondering why you didn't leave for your friend's house earlier."

"You know, I'm starting to wonder why I agreed to this in the first place."

Lorelai smiled, walking over to her bed. "Because you wanted to listen to my new portable cassette player?"

He looked at her in disbelief. "Are you serious? Your parents got you one? Much less let you open it up before your birthday?"

"Of course not," She tossed it to him. "I got a package in the mail today from my Aunt Hopey, it arrived a day early and the maid gave it to me instead of my mother. I, of course, didn't tell my mother this 'cause she'd flip out, but instead opened it and found that. It works awesome. She also sent me twenty bucks to buy my own tapes."

"That's awesome."

"See, now you can go make your bed in the bathtub and listen to that while I do my homework."

Luke, turning said cassette player over in his hands, looked up at Lorelai with a smirk. "See, this is why I'm still friends with you. You always get the neatest things before they're practically on the market."

"Well, it's good to know that this friendship is so beneficial to you."

After a terrible and uncomfortable night sleep for Luke and a restless one full of nervousness for Lorelai, they both woke up around nine A.M. with both of Lorelai's parent's already gone. Lorelai, being the first to wake because she had the alarm on the table beside her, had the job of waking Luke up. She tiredly staggered into the bathroom and let out a short giggle, unprepared for the sight before her.

Luke, bearing a height of five feet, seven inches, had his legs hanging over the end of the tub, the one sheet haphazardly strewn across his midsection, both arms hanging over the edge and his head thrown back with him mouth open, clad in only a pair of plaid boxer shorts and a t-shirt. Lorelai walked over and lightly swatted his arm.

"Get up,"

He grunted.

"Get up you idiot or I'll turn the water on."

That seemed to wake him up a bit. He flinched before struggling to open his eyes. "God," he groaned, slowly sitting up while cradling his neck with one hand. "That had to be the worst, most painful night sleep I've ever experienced. You better appreciate what I'm doing today."

"Yeah, yeah, we gotta get up and get going soon or else the maid might call in after it's too late."

"Then stop standing there and get dressed."

"Get dressed, right, okay, well, hurry up."

"I will, you however, take twenty minutes. Go!"

About a half hour later, the two of them were hesitantly making their way down the stairs. "This is a good idea, right?" Lorelai asked unsurely, a tight, anxious knot forming in her stomach.

"It'll work," Luke assured, even though his doubts outweighed his certainty. He still felt obligated to guarantee her that her plan would work out. He had a feeling she might begin to regret her choice but after spending a night in a porcelain tub; he wasn't going to let her off that easy.

Lorelai believed it though, and after taking a deep, calming breath, rounded the corner to where the maid was standing, dusting the vase full of fake flowers.

"Ms. Gilmore!" the maid, Claire, announced, obviously surprised. "And friend," she said, acknowledging Luke, who waved in turn.

"Yes," Lorelai began, clearing her throat. "Um, why do you seem so surprised?"

"Well, shouldn't you be in school?"

Lorelai feigned confusion as the knot tightened considerably. "Didn't my, uh, mom tell you? Since it's my birthday today, I don't have to go. She said that you were responsible for calling me in sick, you did do that, didn't you?"

Claire's eyes widened in shock, "No, Mrs. Gilmore didn't say such a thing."

"You do want to keep your job, don't you?" Luke asked, faking disbelief.

"Well, of course, I-I'll call right away Ms. Gilmore." she assured, still wide-eyed, before quickly walking away.

"That part went easy," Lorelai commented.

"Now all we have to do is convince her not to say anything about me being here or us ditching school to your mom."

"But we can do this. I mean, it can't be that hard. She's easily convinced, isn't she?"

Luke nodded. "She did give in quicker than I thought she would."

The maid burst back into the room. "I'm really sorry about that mishap Ms. Gilmore,"

Lorelai waved it off. "Oh, it's nothing. And I promise, I won't even tell my mom about it."

"Really?"

Lorelai nodded. "Absolutely, I mean, I like you, Claire. You're nicer than a lot of the maids we get around here."

"And there are a lot of maid that come through here." Luke added.

Lorelai agreed with him. "I sure wouldn't want this information to get to her, or what you did last Saturday in the pool house, either."

"The pool house?"

Lorelai shook her head sympathetically. "You don't have to act like you don't know. I saw. And if my mom were to either believe you or me, I actually think she'd believe me. So if I were to ask for something in return, well, we could just pretend today and last Saturday never happened."

"I'm still not sure I understand."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "I know what you were doing last Saturday," she emphasized.

Claire blinked quickly. "But I didn't mean anything by it." she defended.

"My mom, however, would beg to differ if she were to find out. So we won't let her, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed immediately. "And what do I have to do in return?"

"Just pretend you never saw us." Lorelai explained simply. "If either of my parents ask, you never saw me."

Claire swallowed, nervously shifting her eyes. "Um, okay. Deal."

The two of them spent the majority of the day shopping for pointless items they came across in the strip mall over in Litchfield. Lorelai's anxiety had disappeared after they chose to eat a huge breakfast at a local diner. They had gotten their picture taken together, wallet-sized, at a booth on the sidewalk just to remember the day. In the picture, Lorelai had her arms looped around Luke's neck from beside him and they both smiled like idiots into the camera. After deciding to take break, Luke and Lorelai were now sitting on a bench at the town park, eating their ice cream and laughing. After they sobered, Luke looked over at Lorelai seriously. "So, uh, what's been going on with you lately?" he asked, trying to remain casual.

"What do you mean?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Uncomfortably, he shrugged and looked away. "I mean, what's with this 'acting out' phase you seem to be going through? Ditching school? Without even caring what your parents will say when they find out?"

"If they find out," she corrected before getting defensive. "And this isn't acting out; I'm not just going through a phase, okay? Can we drop it?"

"Or you can just come and talk to me about what's going on," he countered. "You can talk to me, you know. We practically tell each other everything."

She knew they told each other everything, aside from the one mishap the previous summer about his two month, now ex-girlfriend Marie, they did tell each other everything. "It's nothing, I've just gained a new perspective on life." she explained slowly.

"And that is?"

"Live life at its fullest and don't dwell on the future." She watched as his face contained his emotion well, leaving her clueless to what he was thinking. "Got anything to say about that?"

"It just," he shrugged. "It doesn't sound at all like you."

"Well it is,"

"You're always thinking about the future, though." he pointed out. "You're always wondering where you'll be in ten years and stuff. Where did you even gain this new perspective?"

"My friends." she said simply.

"Your friends...?" he asked, hoping for her to continue.

"Yeah, you know, Kristen, Alyson, Chelsea, Jake, Christopher."

"Christopher?" Luke asked, surprised. Lorelai had always claimed to hate him, and now she was hanging around with him? Though it did explain her careless view on life.

Lorelai nodded, remaining casual. "Yup, Chris Hayden. I mean, it's not like we're best friends or anything, I just hang out with him because he's been dating Alyson."

"Oh,"

"Yeah, I mean, he's still that annoying and bratty kid we've always known, but I've come to terms with the fact that I should at least tolerate him."

"Makes sense."

"It does." Silence ensued. "But I mean, even if he were my friend, it's not like you'd even have to like him."

Luke slowly took this in. "I guess."

"It's not like we always like the same people, take Marie for example."

He groaned, throwing his head back. "God, that was like, six months ago."

"But still," Lorelai shrugged. "I tolerated her because you liked her."

Luke's eyes widened. "You mean you like Chris, like that?"

Instantly, Lorelai shook her head. "No, no, absolutely not."

"Good, that's good."

"That's good?" Lorelai mocked, smirking at him.

"You can do much better than him." Luke told her seriously. "He wouldn't deserve you."

Lorelai smiled sweetly. "Thank you, that's, I think, the best compliment you've ever given me."

"Well don't get used to it."

"I won't."

"So, how about you open your presents now?" Luke announced.

Lorelai's face lit up. "Presents? As in more than one?" she asked excitedly.

Luke nodded. "Only one is from me, though." he clarified, patting his pocket for emphasis.

"And they both are small enough to fit into your pocket?" she asked, scooting over to sit closer to him.

He shrugged. "Well, they're both small."

"Small can sometimes be good, right?"

"That's what I thought when I picked you out your gift." he agreed.

"Then who gave you this one to give to me?" she asked.

He briefly looked down before meeting her questioning gaze. "So my dad and I were going through all the old crap in our attic about a month ago and we found this box. It was full of tons of my mother's things- books, jewelry, old clothes and pictures. Then we found this small box inside of it labeled Lorelai. Apparently it was a gift meant for your thirteenth birthday but because we didn't find it in time, you never got it. My dad and I decided we'd wait until your fourteenth birthday instead." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, blue velvety bag. "So, happy birthday."

She stared at him in surprise as he took her hand in his and enclosed her fingers around it. "You sure I should have it?" she asked timidly.

"You don't even know what it is, yet." he said, laughing softly.

"But still..." she protested, "This was your mothers, Luke. Shouldn't Liz be the one to have it or something?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "If she wanted Liz to have it, the card would have said Liz on it, not Lorelai." He nudged her still frozen hand. "God, you were so excited a minute ago. It's not going to blow up or anything, just open it or I might just consider taking it back and giving it to Liz."

"No," she said, shaking her head, waking up out of the trance she had been in. "I want it." She carefully began to open it, slowly untying the string at the top.

Luke sat still, watching her movements as if she were in slow motion. "For God's sake, Lorelai, the bag isn't part of the present!" he exclaimed impatiently.

She looked up at him, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, it's just..." she began, trailing off in hopes he'd understand what it meant to her.

He nodded. "I know, just... try and speed things up a bit."

She nodded before finishing untying the neat bow and opening the bag. She emptied its contents into her other hand, gasping as a vintage, diamond necklace fell out onto her palm. "Wow," she breathed, picking it up by the chain to stare at it. "Its beautiful." she said in awe.

Luke nodded warily in agreement. "And she wanted to give this to a thirteen year old?" He scoffed, shaking his head. "She's lucky we waited another year."

"You know," Lorelai began, looking over at Luke. "You really know how to kill a mood."

He shrugged, grinning. "It's a gift. And plus," he added, "We can't all be saps like you."

Lorelai gasped, feigning shock. "I am not a sap!"

"Please," Luke scoffed.

"It's called having a heart," Lorelai retaliated. "Something you apparently don't have."

"I have one," Luke defended,

"Right," Lorelai teased. "It's just buried under all that flannel you've been wearing." Luke rolled his eyes. "I mean, honestly Luke, what's with all the flannel lately, you're starting to give the Brawny paper towel guy some competition."

"Do you want me to help you put on the necklace or not?" he asked, silencing her jokes.

She smiled up at him sweetly. "Yes, please." He took the necklace from her hand turned her around, motioning for her to hold her hair up. She did so and he clasped the necklace together. She turned around and smiled. "How does it look?"

Luke shrugged. "Fine, I guess."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "You can be such a guy sometimes."

Luke eyed her skeptically. "And other times I'm a woman?"

"No, other times you are sweet and nice. But like now, you're all," she deepened her voice, doing a bad imitation of Luke, "I need to go find me some more flannel and a comb to make sure my hair's all neat and fine, then we can go home and watch some football and drink our beers."

"I do not sound like that." Luke protested. "Besides, football isn't even in season."

"Well pardon me, then. So what's my other gift?" she asked, smiling at him hopefully.

"I hadn't intended on going with the whole jewelry theme," Luke began, pulling out a long black box. "But I found this months before the necklace, and since you're such a difficult person to shop for, I bought it."

She took it from him and opened it less carefully then she had with her other gift. She gasped at the sight of the sterling silver bracelet. "Wow Luke, you really know how to charm a girl. This is beautiful."

"It was cheap." he added, causing her to frown.

"Put it on me?" she asked, holding out the box to him in one hand while outstretching the other. He did so and she marveled at it. "You know, it feels different. Wearing these on my own accord without having my mother force me to do so."

"Well, you look nice." he said genuinely.

Lorelai gasped mockingly. "Luke Danes, was that a compliment?"

"No, all I said was that you looked nice."

"In my book, that's a compliment."

"Well your book was written by a crazy woman."

They spent the rest of the day walking around and saw a movie around four, giving them just enough time to get back to the Gilmore's without being yelled at. They paused once they reached the front door. "Do you think they'll know?" Lorelai asked, hesitating to open it.

"I don't know. Someone from the school might have called your mom to ask why you weren't in school or something."

"That makes me feel much better."

"I wasn't trying to make you feel better, I was stating the facts."

Lorelai sighed before opening the door. "Might as well get this over with." she muttered, walking in.

Luke followed her, heading strait for the living room. Both Gilmore's were sitting down, drinks in their hands, talking quietly. "Um, hi Mom, Dad, we're back."

Emily looked up and smiled. "Oh, that's great. Happy birthday, Lorelai."

"Yes, happy birthday." Richard said, standing up and walking over to the drinks. "Two cokes?"

Luke and Lorelai both politely answered yes before sitting themselves down on the empty couch. "Lorelai," Emily began, her eyes widening, "Where did you get such a beautiful necklace?"

Lorelai briefly looked over at Luke while fingering it. "Well, actually it was a present. From Amy." she added quietly.

"Amy?"

Lorelai took her drink from her father before nodding. "Yeah, uh, apparently Luke and William found it in a box of old things of hers and this one was meant specifically for me."

"Well, she always did have an exquisite taste in jewelry." Emily commented, still staring at it.

"Yeah, I really like it."

"And it will go along great with our gift to you," she added, looking over at her husband. "Won't it Richard?"

"I believe it will, Emily." Richard agreed.

"A present?" Lorelai gasped, "Can I have it now?"

Emily shook her head. "You know the rules, Lorelai; you have to wait until after dinner." She turned to Luke. "Do you know if your father or sister will be coming also?"

He shrugged. "Probably not."

"Well, then I guess this would be the proper time to escort ourselves to the dinner table, shall we?"

"We shall,"

After dinner and a short break for cake (Lorelai had, after all, rushed them so she could open her gifts sooner) Lorelai, Luke and Richard were seated in the living room while Emily went to retrieve her and Richard's gift for their daughter.

"Lorelai, this gift is from your father and me," Emily said, bringing out an extremely large bow wrapped delicately in silver paper.

From her seat, Lorelai smiled in anticipation. Usually presents that size were meant to be something good. "What could it be, what could it be?" she asked herself out loud as she tore apart the paper carelessly, causing both of the elder Gilmore's to frown in disapproval. She was left with a white box and after throwing the top off of it, she wished she hadn't. Her excitement faded instantly, though she recovered with a feigned, bright smile as she looked up at her beaming parents. "It's...wonderful." she stuttered, staring down at the enormous amounts of ruffles and frills all packed neatly into a white, extremely ugly dress.

Beside her, Luke repressed the laugh that was forming in the back of his throat. It was hard to choose what was funnier; the horrified face Lorelai was making or the dress itself.

"Isn't it?" Emily marveled, oblivious to Luke and Lorelai's opinions.

Lorelai shook her head from side to side slowly. "I couldn't imagine a better gift." she forced out, trying her best to sound genuine. Luke let out a short chuckle, causing Lorelai to her turn head and glare at him.

"I was thinking you could wear it to the dinner we have scheduled this Friday." Emily went on, softly stroking the front of the dress. "The Yale alumni will certainly be impressed."

Her eyes widened at her mother in shock. "The Yale alumni?" she asked, her face clearly showing how horrified she really was. She stood up, tossing the box on the table before gesturing wildly at it. "I'm not gonna let them see me in this. I want to get into Yale, mom, not be rejected by it before I can even submit an application."

"I don't know, Lorelai," Luke spoke up, obviously sarcastic. "I think they'd be real impressed just to see how you get into the thing. Is there even an opening, or is just a giant mass of frills?"

She glared down at him, "Oh, shut up, Luke! You're not helping."

"Lorelai, I don't understand, you just said it was a wonderful dress. Any girl meeting someone from an Ivy League college would dream to have such an outfit."

"It's a horrible dress, mother." Lorelai retorted truthfully. "Do you really think that I would ever in my right mind wear this-this... thing?

"Why wouldn't you. It's beautiful. Obviously you just don't have good taste, Lorelai. You're lucky you have me to help purchase your clothes, if you didn't you might end up dressing like Luke."

"I'd rather be wearing flannel than that stupid cotton ball."

"Lorelai," her father warned.

Lorelai looked over to Richard. "Oh come on, Dad. Even you probably think it's ugly."

"Honestly, Lorelai." Emily began angrily. "Have you no such manners? I thought we taught you better than this." With that, she set her drink down on the cart beside her and stalked out of the room. With one last tiring look at Lorelai, Richard did the same.

"And that completes tonight's dinner at the Gilmore's." Lorelai announced, throwing her head against the back of the couch while releasing a loud, frustrated groan.

"It wasn't that bad. I've seen worse." he said, trying to comfort her.

She scoffed. "Like when?"

"Well, when you were seven and I was nine you set the table cloth on fire at Thanksgiving. And then two years ago when I slept over, your parents had friends over and they brought their two year old kid, you accidentally knocked her down the stairs." he said, not even bothering to try and hold in his laughter.

Lorelai's mouth widened. "How dare you bring those up!" she gasped, slapping him on the shoulder roughly. "Not all the dinners were ruined by me, you had you fair share as well."

"You're crazy."

"Am I?" she challenged, smiling knowingly. "Because I'm sure it wasn't me who came running downstairs in only his underwear and a cape while my parents had a business-y meeting going on. And then there was also the time where we were at the Christmas dinner and you dropped the whole bowl of steaming hot gravy on that guys lap three years ago."

"So you agree, this wasn't the worse dinner we've had." he said, ignoring the embarrassing stories.

She narrowed her eyes before reluctantly agreeing with him. "But this has been the worst this year."

Luke nodded. "This year, yes, it has been the worse. But," he playfully wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "There are still many left to go."

They were quiet for a minute, both of them staring at the dress still in its box in front of them. Luke let out a sudden laugh, not even fazing Lorelai. "You're trying to picture me in that dress, aren't you?" she asked knowingly.

"It's a very amusing visual."

Sorry for such a long wait. I really hadn't intended this to take so long. But hopefully the length satisfied more than it turned them away. I also hadn't intended for it to be this long. Starting a new school year has been tough, too and I've got to keep my grades up to be able to keep writing. This chapter, sadly, is un-beta'd. Sorry for whatever mistakes I made.

I'm dying to know what you all think is going to happen, especially on the LL romance part. Express your thoughts and opinions, whatever they may be. I love reading them.

Comments? Suggestions? Favorite Parts? Questions?

Reviews are to me as jumping off of things seems to be to the Life and Death Brigade.