Sugar and Spice: Everything Changes
By Misha

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Fun Part

"Ready to get out of here, kid?" Lorelai asked Rory a little while later, when the official presentation was over and the debutantes had been instructed to mingle.

"Oh, yeah." Rory told her. She cast an awkward look at her, well, grandparents, who were talking to Christa. They had greeted her very stiffly and then focused their attention on Christa, their real granddaughter. "I just need to say goodbye to Christa."

Oddly, her Gilmore grandparents had already left, congratulating her and then making a hasty departure. Rory could tell they were upset and that worried her, but she knew she couldn't do anything about it tonight. Still, with them gone, there was no reason for her to stick around.

"We get to go?" Dean asked, perking up.

"We get to go." Rory confirmed. She was trying to force herself to go talk to Christa and the Haydens, when she saw her twin heading her way, Colin right behind her.

"So we are now officially presented to society," Christa said with a laugh, "Do you feel like a proper lady?"

"No." Rory told her. "What about you?"

"Not a chance." Christa said. "I've got a lot of fun ahead of me, before I worry about proper." She smirked. "I don't want to take it too seriously, or we'll end up like poor Libby."

Rory stifled a giggle, remembering the other girl and then she grinned at her father who had come over to join their little group. "Did you know that you're considered a hot Dad?"

"Hah." Lorelai said with a laugh.

Christopher looked taken aback. "Really?"

"Oh yeah." Christa confirmed. "All the girls at school have crushes on you. It ups my cool factor."

Rory laughed. "Libby said that it's too bad you're my real Dad because if you were my stepdad, I could steal you away from Mom."

Her parents both looked awkward for a second and Rory suddenly remembered Christopher's girlfriend, the one she hadn't met yet, but who Christa hated.

"Ugh." Lorelai said with an eye-roll and the moment passed.

"That Libby's got a good life ahead of her." Christopher said dryly.

"She's got a plan. She's had five coming outs, so that she can guarantee a husband." Christa told them.

Colin groaned. "And girls like that are why I hate these things. Speaking of which, you've been properly presented, it's time to get to the good part."

Rory assumed that the good part meant a party. After all, Christa's life often seemed to be one giant party.

"Yes," Christa agreed with a laugh, "We're heading out now. Mom, Rory, I'll stop in before I head home tomorrow. Dad, I'll see you back at the house."

"Two o'clock." Christopher reminded her.

"Got it." Christa agreed. She gave Rory a quick hug. "I'm glad you were here, Rory, I wouldn't have wanted to do it without you."

"Me either." Rory agreed with a smile. It had been fine, pretty painless actually, but having Christa there had made it so much better.

"I need a burger," Lorelai said after Christa disappeared, "so why don't we head home and go get some real food."

"Sound like a plan." Rory said with a smile, knowing it wasn't as exciting as whatever Christa was up to, but it was more her. As nice as it was to share these moments with her sister, at the end of the day, they were still very different.

"There she is, the girl of the night!" Logan called out when Christa and Colin arrived at the party, with most of their friends having skipped out of the ball as soon as they could.

There was applause from the crowd and Christa laughed.

"You were very elegant." One of the girls complimented. "I felt like an elephant going down those stairs."

"You also managed to keep a straight face," Jonathan added with a grin, "unlike someone."

Juliet rolled her eyes. "So, I laughed inappropriately, the only person who cared was my mother and nothing's going to please her anyway."

Christa laughed, because she'd heard the stories about Stephanie and Juliet's coming out and how Juliet had made an enemy for life when she'd laughed at one of her fellow debutantes, who had apparently been a complete snob who thought she was the queen bee, when she had tripped at the bottom step.

"Speaking of queen bitches, did Amelia Adams do anything?" Juliet asked.

"Amelia…" Christa gave it some thought. "Tall, brunette, sour expression? She didn't say anything to me, but she did have a hissy fit because some girl was blocking her light."

"Normally, she tries to control everything." Juliet complained, leading Christa to guess there was some history there.

"Must be a family trait," Colin said with an eye-roll that Christa noted, but didn't comment on since she had no idea who Amelia might be related to, but that wasn't unusual, after all she had only been in Hartford for a short period of time and didn't know everyone, only the members of her own exclusive circle.

"So do we start making offers to your parents now?" Logan teased, changing the subject. "Or can it wait until tomorrow?"

"I think my mother would rather wait until I was at least done high school before I picked a spouse." Christa told him.

"Proof that she's not your typical society mother," Stephanie joked, unusually friendly, "I think my mother bought it into the whole 'debutantes marry their escort' and was disappointed when I didn't even go on another date with mine."

Christa laughed and then told them all about Libby and her desire to guarantee a husband.

"If you decide to follow her lead, I'll volunteer for the next go around," one of the guys teased.

"I think I'm good." Christa said dryly. "I can't imagine doing that more than once."

There was more laughter and then people started mingling and getting drinks and Colin was taking her arm and leading her over to a handsome young man she had never seen before.

"Christa, meet Finnegan Rothschild, my dorm mate and our new partner in crime." Logan introduced.

Christa grinned. So this was Finn. She'd heard all about the Australian and how he was apparently a worthy match for Colin and Logan.

"Nice to meet you," she said with a smile, "hopefully you weren't too bored tonight."

"I'm never bored when there's alcohol involved," he assured her, "besides I was dying to meet the famous Christa and you live up to your reputation. Even if you aren't a redhead."

"Finn's obsessed with redheads," Colin told her, "Apparently they are superior to all other women."

The night passed quickly in a whirl of laughter. It was a good party and Christa was pleased that everyone had made it down for the weekend. She knew it was partially because Colin and Logan threw a good party, but she knew that part of it was her and that these people had become her dearest friends.

"You looked very proper out there tonight," Colin teased a while later, after they escaped the party for some privacy. They were lying on his bed, her head on his chest and he was running his fingers through her hair, which she'd taken out of the painful up-do Francine had insisted on. "Very un-Christalike."

Christa laughed. "I can fake it."

"It's a good skill to have in this world," Colin agreed. "So four out of five debs marry their escort, huh? Should I get my father's lawyers to draw up a contract?"

Christa laughed. "I rarely follow the crowd."

"I can think of worse things." Colin told her with a shrug.

She raised an eyebrow. "You want to run off and get married?"

"No." Colin told her. "But honestly, I know I'm going to have an arranged, socially-appropriate marriage and you're better than any of the other options because I can actually stand to be around you."

"That's very cynical," Christa told him, but she knew he had a point.

"My father is on wife #6," Colin pointed out, "I think I come about it naturally."

Christa laughed. "My mother hasn't managed to make it to the alter at all yet." Or her father for that matter, but thinking about her father and marriage gave her chills because the idea of Sherri as a step-mother was unbearable.