Mia and Lorelai are sitting on the couch in the living room when Rory bounds in.

"Hey mom, you know how much you love me?" Rory says. "And how I'm your favourite daughter."

"Um, hello?" says Mia.

"What do you want?" says Lorelai, not looking away from the television.

"There's a Parent's day at school next week and as you are my parent..."

"Oh, Rory! Really? I'm really busy at the inn next week."

"Please mommy. I love you, mommy. I think you're really pretty, mommy." says Rory, batting her eyelashes.

Lorelai turns off the TV. "Is it really important that I'm there?"

"Yes." says Rory.

"Fine, I'll come but if anyone tries to make me do alegebra..."

"Then we'll leave straight away and file a complaint." says Rory.

"That's my girl." says Lorelai.

"What day next week?" asks Mia.

"Monday." says Rory "Why?"

"I've got a teacher training day that day. Can I come, mom?"

"Are you sure? I can leave you at the inn with Michel if you want."

"Michel?" says Mia, wrinkling her nose. "No thanks. I wanna come, anyway."

"Why?"

"To support Rory and learn about where I might go to school one day and..."

Rory snorts, interrupting her. Mia glares at her sister.

"Why do you really wanna come?" asks Lorelai.

"I wanna see Max again. I like him. He likes art."

"Yeah Max does like art." says Rory. "He knows a lot about it, too."

"Max?" says Lorelai. "Since when do you call him Max?"

"Since you two started getting serious." says Rory.

"I can't call him Mr Medina. He's not my teacher, he's my friend." says Mia.

"Oh." says Lorelai, concerned. This is just what she was worried about. Once the girls get attached there's no going back. What if it doesn't work out? Then they get hurt. That's not fair. Lorelai looks at the girls who are now discussing dresses for Friday night dinner. I need to break this off.

"So Rory, what do we do now as we are 20 minutes early." says Lorelai, annoyed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I thought we would be late!"

"So you told us school started half an hour early?" says Mia.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." says Rory. "And besides, if it did start at 8 we would've been 10 minutes late. I didn't want to be late for school."

"How are you related to me?" asks Lorelai, sarcastically.

"Ok. I'm gonna go to my locker. Stay here. Don't move." says Rory. "I'll be back soon."

As soon as Rory gets out of earshot, Lorelai grabs Mia's hand.

"C'mon. Let's see what this place has got to offer."

"Rory told us to stay here." says Mia.

"Rory also told us school started at 8 and made us wake up half an hour earlier than we needed to. You still wanna listen to Rory?"

"Fair point." says Mia, following Lorelai through the school halls.

"Look, creepy gargoyle number 17." says Lorelai. Mia giggles. "Hey look, a trophy cabinet. I wonder what they've won?" she peers into the cabinet. "Trust Chilton to have a trophy for curling."

"And three for fencing." says Mia. "This place is pretty fancy."

"Oh my god, I wanna know who won the trophy for dressage." says Lorelai, laughing.

"Let's leave the trophy cabinet now, mom." says Mia, pulling Lorelai away.

"But I love dressage!" says Lorelai.

They continue walking down the halls, Lorelai looking into every classroom.

"What are you looking for, mom?" asks Mia.

"Nothing, I'm just interested." says Lorelai. "You never know, maybe one of the teachers has a Dalek in their classroom."

"Why would a teacher have a Dalek in their classroom?"

"For protection." says Lorelai. Suddenly she stops.

"Mom? What is it?" asks Mia.

"Max's classroom." says Lorelai. She turns quickly to Mia. "Here." she says, thrusting a book at Mia. "Take this to him."

"What is this?"

"A book Max leant me. Proust, actually."

"Why are you asking me to give it back to him?"

"I finished it." says Lorelai, with a hopeful smile.

"Mom, I'm not Rory but I'm pretty sure you couldn't finish a book this thick written by a man named Proust in less than three months. Why are you really giving this back to him and why are you asking me to do it?"

Lorelai looks at the floor.

"You're breaking up with him, aren't you?" says Mia. There's a silence. "Do whatever you want." says Mia, with tears in her voice. "Just don't ask me to do your dirty work." she hands the book back to Lorelai. "I'm going to find Rory. Come back when you're done."

Lorelai watches Mia walk down the hall then turns to the door and sighs.

Rory is waiting patiently for Mia and Lorelai to return. When she sees Mia she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Finally! I expected you two to run off but I didn't think you'd take this long. Where's mom?"

Mia says nothing, she just stares at the ground.

"Mia?"

"I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you." Mia says, softly. "Mom didn't say I could and she might want to tell you herself."

"Kid, tell me." says Rory.

"She's breaking up with Max." says Mia. "She wanted me to give him back his book but I said she had to do it." Mia pauses. "Rory?"

"I can't believe she's doing this today, of all days." says Rory.

"Rory, don't be mad..."

"I'm not mad, I'm just annoyed."

"You look pretty mad."

"Mia!"

"Sorry but you do."

"Oh there's mom, I'm going in." says Rory, walking into her classroom.

"But Rory, she's crying." says Mia, but Rory's already in the classroom.

"Mom, are you ok? Did you and Max break up?"

"No, we didn't. I couldn't... I'm sorry, Mia." says Lorelai, wiping her eyes.

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because you'll get attached to Max. He's great, who wouldn't? But what if we split up? It could affect you or make you feel unstable. This is why you've never got to know my boyfriends before because you could get hurt."

"I'm old enough now, mom. I won't get hurt."

"Mia, babe, you're nine. That's not old enough. Sixteen isn't old enough."

"Do you really want to break up with Max, if me and Rory had nothing to do with it?"

"You and Rory always have something to do with it."

"But just pretend." says Mia.

"Well, no."

"Then why are you so worried about it? If you don't want to break up with Max, then don't. That way, me and Rory won't get hurt."

"Mia..."

"Just don't overthink it, mom."

Lorelai smiles and shakes her head. "You're too smart for your own good."

"I'll take that as a compliment." says Mia. "Let's go in. We actually are late, now."

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review to let me know what you thought. Thanks!