Chapter 21

Emma woke up on Saturday morning feeling completely ready for the dance. The only problem in her mind was that Alex wasn't picking her up until six-thirty that night. Emma didn't know what time it was, but she knew it wasn't six-thirty. She rolled over to look at the small purple clock on her nightstand. She groaned. It was only nine o' clock. She glanced over at her closet and smiled. Her dress was hanging on her closet door, looking as perfect as she had remembered it.

As she lay in her bed, not wanting to get up, Emma planned in her mind exactly what she would wear. Her dress of course, and the earrings Luke had given her. Just thinking about the earrings made her smile as she stared at her ceiling. She still didn't know what other jewelry she would wear, though. She knew she wanted to wear a necklace and a bracelet, but she didn't know which ones. She had a lot of jewelry, it was sort of her thing. Going through all of her jewelry in her mind, she couldn't think of the right necklace or bracelet to wear with the dress and the earrings. It had to be the perfect combination, and she didn't know what that was.

She had a silver ring with blue turquoise forming the wings of a butterfly. It was just sparkly enough in certain lights to suit Emma perfectly. The color would go perfectly with her dress, too. She almost always wore the ring on the index finger of her left hand. She didn't like wearing rings on her ring fingers very much, especially on her left hand. She knew it was weird, but she wanted the first ring she really wore on her ring finger of her left hand to be her engagement ring. She knew that realistically it was a long time away, but it was just a weird thing with her.

The necklace and bracelet were really stumping her, though. She couldn't think of anything that would go with her dress, earrings, and ring. Her blue necklace with the big butterfly on the end was too dark of a color, and the butterfly was bent so that it didn't look right anyway. Her silver chain with the pink heart charm was too short for the cut of the dress's neckline, and there wasn't any pink in her dress. She really only had a few bracelets, most from when she was younger. Some were bent, and some were plastic and very little-kid-ish. The one bracelet she liked was pretty plain. It was gold with a sparkle to it in just the right light. It was pretty, but everything else she was wearing was silver, and she didn't think it would look right.

At a loss for things to do or think about, Emma got up. She put on a cute pair of sweat pants and one of her favorite t-shirts. She went downstairs to see what Sophia had made for breakfast.

Emma found a plate of chocolate chip muffins on the table, one of her all time favorite breakfast foods. She went into their big kitchen to find Sophia and get a cup of coffee. Sophia was chopping something that Emma could only assume would be part of their dinner that night. Emma though that her family was lucky. They had a maid and a cook in the same person. She had also served as a nanny when Emma had been younger. Emma loved Sophia's cooking.

"Hi, Sophia."

"Emma!" Sophia said in her light Italian accent. She always seemed excited to see Emma. "What would you like for breakfast? We have chocolate chip muffins in the dining room, I know you like those!"

"Yes, I like them very much. But first I need some coffee."

"Coffee! Yes, good. Not a problem." Sophia poured Emma a big mug of hot coffee. It was Emma's favorite mug. Not surprisingly, it was pale blue with a big purple butterfly on it. "Here you go, now go eat your muffins." Sophia said this last part as if it were a command.

"Any time."

Sophia came and sat beside Emma a few moments later. She sometimes did that when she was running ahead of schedule for the day. She liked to talk to Emma while she ate breakfast. "So, I hear you have a dance tonight," Sophia said. Emma loved Sophia's voice. It was high-pitched, but not annoying. She had a very light accent. She was born in Italy, but had lived in the United States for most of her life. She was in her fifties, a little more than ten years older than Emma's mother.

"Oh, yea," Emma said. "It should definitely be fun."

"Oh, yes. You will have fun. Your first date," Sophia said reminiscently, with the air of a mother who was about to say "My baby's growing up so fast." Sophia didn't say that, although Emma guessed she was thinking it. Sophia had been like a grandmother figure to Emma before she had met her real grandmother.

Emma just smiled. She didn't really have anything more to say about it.

"So, how are you wearing you hair?"

Emma hadn't given it much thought. "Oh, I don't really know."

"I could do it if you want me to. I can make it look very nice for you."

"I'm sure you can. Okay, you can do it. I was thinking of wearing it up, maybe some kind of fancy twisty-thing." Emma's hair vocabulary wasn't particularly amazing.

"Okay. When do you want me to do it?"

"Well, Alex is picking me up at six-thirty."

"Okay, be ready for me at five in case it takes longer than I would guess."

"Sounds good."

"Yes, sounds good." Emma smiled. She thought it was funny how sometimes Sophia would repeat what somebody else had just said. She thought it made her come off more American-sounding, but in reality it just made her sound more foreign. Sophia went back into the kitchen.

Emma mostly just killed time until lunch. She hung out in her bedroom, listening to her favorite CDs, doing her nails, reading and looking in vain through her jewelry. She went downstairs around noon and found her mother in the living room watching TV, looking totally out of her element.

"Mom?" Emma asked, trying to bring her mother back from a world she didn't belong in, the world of Saturday afternoon soap operas.

"Oh, hi Emma. Ready to go?"

"Yea, I am. Are you ready, or do you want to wait and see what happens next?" Emma said sarcastically.

"Oh, be quiet," Rory said playfully. "I was just waiting for you. I didn't want to take another call."

"Good. You actually thought of that for once, very good."

"Yea, well, I'm learning."

"I know you are. So, where are we going? I told you that you could pick."

"Well, what do you feel like eating?"

"I'm not particular. Your choice."

"Let's go for pizza. There's a really good place in that strip mall near our DAR headquarters. I went there a few times when we had meetings around lunch time."

"No DAR stops. No exceptions."

"I know, I know. I promise, just us."

"Okay, but just so we're clear, I'm bringing my cell phone. You want to make a quick stop at the headquarters, and suddenly a good portion of the town of Star's Hollow will have found their way into the pizza joint."

"Strangely, I believe that. I've never underestimated you or the oddity of Star's Hollow."

"Well then, let's go," Emma said.

Emma and Rory sat across from each other in the pizza place fifteen minutes later, with a big pepperoni pizza between them. Rory had a few questions for Emma on the night of the big dance.

"So, his name's Alex, right?"

"Yep."

"Is he cute?" Rory smiled.

"That is such a mothery thing to say."

"Well kid, I'm your mother. Get used to it." She was still smiling.

"I think so," was all Emma said.

"Does he drive?"

"I don't think so, he's my age. He probably just has a permit."

"How is he picking you up, then? Will one of his parents be in the car with you?"

"I don't know, I guess so."

"I'll let it go for now," Rory said. Emma was happy with that, apparently Rory had sensed that she wasn't in the mood for an interrogation.

"Good." Emma and Rory sat in silence for a moment, but then Emma broke it, remembering why she had wanted to do what they were doing. "Okay, my turn," she said. "I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Okay, but you can't respond automatically. You have to actually give this some thought. Answer one hundred percent honestly. If you can do that, I promise I will ask no further questions."

"You must be a good journalist."

"I've written some decent pieces. Don't change the subject, though."

"Okay, okay, fine. Go ahead, ask."

"Do you," Emma spoke carefully, "and answer honestly, do you think that you and Lorelai could ever reconcile? Do not say it's been too long, that's a new condition."

Rory was silent for a moment. Emma could tell she was really thinking about it, which was exactly what she wanted. Eventually, Rory spoke slowly and carefully, much like Emma had. "Yes," she said simply.

They sat in silence for another moment. "Good," Emma said, her expression serious. "Okay, no further questions," she said in a satisfied voice.

"So, do you know what jewelry your wearing tonight, or how you're doing you hair?" Rory asked, changing the subject.
"Hmm, sort of," Emma said. "Did I show you the earrings Luke bought me?"

"Luke bought you earrings?" Rory sounded surprised.

"Yea, he did," Emma was smiling. "Well, Lorelai picked them out, but it sounds like it was his idea."

"That's sweet. Are they pretty?"

"Oh, yea. I love them."

"I figured. Lorelai usually has pretty good taste in jewelry."

"She does," said Emma. It sounded strange to Emma to hear her mother call her grandmother "Lorelai," but to Emma, "Mom" would have sounded stranger.

"So what else?"

"Well, I'm going to have Sophia do my hair, some kind of up-thing. She's pretty good with hair."

"Yes, that's a good idea. She'll do a good job."

"I don't know what necklace I'm going to wear, or what bracelet, though. Nothing I have seems to go with anything else."

Rory dug a small box out of her purse. "Look at this," she said.

Emma opened the box and pulled out a necklace. It was a silver chain with small, pale blue beads spaced evenly across it. They were held in place so that they wouldn't all slide together when someone had the necklace on. The chain itself was sparkly when held in just the right light. "Pretty!" Emma said.

"You can wear it tonight if you want. I bought it years ago, and I think I only wore it once or twice. It looks like it would go well with your dress though, doesn't it?"

"Yea, it does. I have to try it on, but it looks perfect."

"Glad I could be of service." Rory smiled at her daughter.