Rory got home to Stars Hollow Friday afternoon and went looking for her mom. She found her at the inn, arguing with Sookie about flan. All three of them jumped up and down for a solid minute in their excitement to see each other, and Rory ended up with flan in her hair. Laughing it off, she dragged Lorelai to Luke's for an early dinner before movie night.
"So, tell me everything. Tell me about classes, your cute study partner I've heard so much about. Tell me about Paris. Tell me!"
"Okay, okay. Well Paris is Paris. She's currently on a war path because her life coach told her to stop crafting. Something about needing to find a new outlet. It's not working. Classes are good. We have a few more weeks and then fall break. My cute study partner, well, as of very recently, he's officially my boyfriend. He and a few friends are coming to see the festival tomorrow, so you'll get to meet them."
"Oooh - boyfriend. Tell me more. What's he like?"
"Smart, funny, nice...hot."
"Give me the scale. One to ten."
She bit her lip. "Umm - 100."
"Wow!"
"Yeah. You'll see. So, I guess I should probably prepare you. Tomorrow it's Logan, Finn, Colin, and Stephanie coming. They're...um...well...let's just say, they know grandma and grandpa." She held her breath waiting for her mom's reaction.
There it was. "Rory. Tell me this wasn't an Emily set up."
"It wasn't. You're going to like them. I promise."
"What are the last names of these friends?"
Rory winced. Here we go, she thought. "Huntzberger, Morgan, McCrae, and Vanderbilt."
"Rory!"
"Please give them a chance. I mean it, you're going to like them."
"Really."
"Yes, really. They're not society fans either. You protected yourself, and me, from society life by running away. They protected themselves by finding each other - a family of sorts to get through it, since they were little kids. They only do that stuff as a last resort when dictated by their parents, and the last thing they went to, I had to be at for grandma. So, it's fine."
"Which one is the boyfriend?"
"Logan Huntzberger."
"HPG."
"Yep."
"Okay, my kid. I guess we'll see what we see." They talked about their plan for tomorrow and agreed to lunch at Luke's.
Rory really, really hoped tomorrow went well. Her mom was so anti-society, and she was bringing in four of the biggest families. Face palm. Nothing she could do about it. Movie night went on. They stuffed themselves full of candy and mocked a series of Tom Cruise movies into the wee hours of the night.
Rory was up and bouncing Saturday morning. She was just a few hours away from seeing Logan. Lorelai was less excited, more resigned, but Rory was on her to keep an open mind.
Later, they were outside raking leaves or, more accurately, making piles of leaves to jump in, when they heard a car door slamming. Turning, Rory saw Logan getting out of his SUV and let out a whoop.
She saw his grin and took off towards him. She catapulted herself at him, and he caught her, legs around his waist and held her tight to him. She had leaves on her clothes and in her hair and didn't care. Neither did he, as she pulled his face to her and kissed him.
The others had gotten out and were standing in the front yard watching the scene. Logan had told them what was up, and they were happy to finally watch this unfold. They saw a slightly older version of Rory to the side and walked towards her when she waved them up to the patio. "Hi. I'm Lorelai, Rory's mom." She laughed. "I'm guessing that's Logan over there with his hands on my daughter's butt." They introduced themselves. Lorelai brought them inside. "Are they always like that?"
Steph laughed. "This exact scene is new, but they've been steadily working their way towards it. It's fun to see. We all really like Rory."
Lorelai smiled, "Some maybe more than others?"
Finn piped in, wagging his eyebrows. "Too bad she doesn't have red hair, or I'd give Huntz a run for his money." Colin smacked his head.
Colin told Lorelai they were looking forward to the show. Lorelai snorted. "Oh, you're serious? Rory did explain how these things generally go, didn't she?"
Colin hesitated a little, unsure how to phrase it. Lorelai told him, "Go ahead, spit it out."
"Okay, well she mentioned a shit show."
"Ha, that's perfect! Yeah, welcome to Stars Hollow. Are they seriously still out there? I'm starving – need lunch. Come on, we can have a snack while we wait." They followed her into the kitchen and looked astounded at the amount of candy sitting around. She held out a bag, "We don't really cook. Twizzler?" They shrugged, and dug in.
Outside, Logan finally let Rory slide down. "Hi Ace," he grinned, picking a few leaves from her hair.
She looked sheepish. "Hi. Sorry I jumped you! I was so excited to see you. Feels like forever since you left."
"Rory, I'm never going to tell you not to jump me. I'm glad you did, because I don't know what I would've done with your mom standing there, but I was itching to get my hands on you. Some kiss, by the way."
"It really was. You kiss me now before we go face the firing squad."
He smiled and leaned down towards her. Whereas her kiss had bordered on frantic, his was slow and made her knees weak. When he pulled away, she might have lost her balance a little. "Okay. Hmm. Wow. You're really good at that." He smirked at her, and she grabbed his hand and pulled him into her house to meet her mom.
Lorelai was begrudgingly willing to admit (to herself) she kind of liked the group and especially, much to her surprise, Logan. He was polite and not cocky like she expected. She watched him sitting here at Luke's, looking extraordinarily handsome (Rory hadn't lied), and touching Rory every few minutes as if he thought she might disappear. She watched them all interact, like it was the most natural thing in the world for them to be sitting in a diner, formerly a hardware store, eating cheeseburgers and fries. They didn't blink at Rory's appetite, telling her they knew her well. Maybe this wouldn't be the end of the world.
Rory was going to take them on a tour around town. Logan told Lorelai he was really hoping to meet Kirk, and she told him she was certain there'd be a Kirk sighting at any moment in the town square and very likely also a Kirk meltdown at some point today. Lorelai excused herself to go check in at the inn before she had to get to Miss Patty's for makeup.
Two hours later, they'd seen everything Stars Hollow had to offer. They watched a 10-minute fight between Kirk and Taylor about the broken table Woodbridge sent over for Kirk's moment of glory. And when Taylor suggested canceling Kirk's portrait because of the broken table, and Kirk lost his shit, Rory went to get Luke, knowing he was the only one competent enough to fix the table on short notice. Steph calmed Kirk and talked to him about how to cover up all the scratches he'd recently received after getting mauled by his cat. They got stuck in the middle of an impromptu town meeting at Miss Patty's with surprisingly large attendance for a Saturday afternoon, about proper behavior so they'd impress the Connecticut Arts judges. It may or may not have included an admonishment to Lorelai not to flinch this year as the Renoir girl, which had caused Rory to wince because she knew what was coming. Lorelai didn't disappoint and told them all to pound salt. They watched in horrified silence as Miss Patty performed a number from Guys and Dolls, and hooted when she pulled Finn up on stage and made him dance. He jumped when she pinched his ass. They saw the Dragonfly Inn, met Sookie who plied then with cookies, and also met Michel who told them the people in this town were lunatics. They met Lane, who came running across the town square when she saw Rory, hugged her, and then ran away again when she saw Mrs. Kim heading that way. All in all, Rory thought she covered enough of the freak show before the real show.
She and Steph went to do makeup, and she sent the guys to a pub one block over to have a few drinks until showtime.
In the beehive of activity in the back of Miss Patty's, Rory sat while Steph and others turned her into a golden renaissance girl. The dress weighed a million pounds and was so uncomfortable, not at all like her new blue ballgown. She told Steph, who told her how she looked for hours for that dress and how thrilled she was to find the perfect one for Rory for that night. Steph herself usually dressed to pump up her own hot sex vibe, but she enjoyed finding one that gave off the sexy princess vibe for a change. And, she told Rory, smirking, boy did it work with Logan. Rory smiled.
Logan sat in the Stars Hollow town square waiting for the show to start, still amazed that people actually lived like this. He could picture Rory growing up here, with these over-involved and seemingly well-meaning people and in that picture perfect little house surrounded by wildflowers, with a mom who jumped in leaves with her. It was a far cry from his own childhood.
He smiled when Rory did her portrait thing, and managed not to flinch, and laughed silently when a cell phone rang during Lorelai's, but she didn't flinch. Kirk and his disciples, kind of sadly, didn't flinch either.
By 8:00 that night, Steph and the guys were on the road back to Yale, taking his car, and he was waiting for Rory to get cleaned up so they could go back together. When she emerged all freshly scrubbed, they said goodbye to Lorelai.
"Okay, kids. Study hard. Do Yale-like things." Rory rolled her eyes and hugged her mom. Logan thanked her.
Driving back, Rory talked a mile a minute. She wanted to know about his trip, what he had to do as far as make up work, what he thought of Stars Hollow and the festival. He kept up. He told her the best part of the trip was when she agreed to date him. She looked over at him, smiling when he reached for her hand. She told him it was the highlight of her week, too. As they neared Yale, Rory wasn't ready to leave Logan. It wasn't even 10:00 yet. She chewed on her lip.
"Um, Logan. What are you doing tonight?"
"What are you worrying about, Ace?"
"It's just, before, you would have walked me home, um, and, well, now, I don't know. Do you have plans?"
"Rory, my plans are to be with you. Whatever you want to do. Isn't that how this whole dating thing works?"
She nodded. "Can it be just us tonight? Like maybe a movie? Your room?"
"Sure. Are we avoiding Paris?" She laughed.
"Paris is having issues. Her life coach is changing things up on her."
"Wait, Paris has a life coach? How did I not know that? What does a life coach do?"
"Makes her the best Paris she can be." Logan shuddered.
They were glad to find Logan's dorm room empty. He grabbed them each a beer, while she flipped through the movie options on Netflix. They settled into the couch and watched Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson crash weddings. He had her on her back on the couch within a couple of minutes, telling her he just needed to see her left hipbone to finish the job. She laughed, until his mouth was on her, and then she wasn't laughing any more. Seeing she was a little out of it, he took advantage of the situation and re-did the right one too so they'd match. Marking someone was a new thing for him, and he liked it.
As they started to fade, they shifted so she was spread out on him as usual. They woke to a black screen when Colin and Finn came stumbling in. "Awe, if it isn't the love birds," Finn cooed.
Logan sat them up and told Finn to fuck off. He dragged a dazed Rory to his room as Finn saluted them. "You okay sleeping here?" She nodded and, still half asleep, took her jeans off and climbed into the bed. Logan yanked off his shirt and stripped down to his boxers and climbed in with her. She was on him and asleep within seconds.
