Chapter 35

Emma wondered if she had heard the news. She almost doubted it. Lorelai might have told her, but she somehow didn't think she had. Emma couldn't believe they hadn't stopped to see her the previous night in Star's Hollow, but they hadn't. I suppose they work together, so Lorelai probably told her. That was true. Emma hoped she knew, but wouldn't mind telling her if she didn't.

She dialed the number on her phone. She'd dialed it before, it wasn't unfamiliar. The voice that picked up was very familiar. "Hello?"

Emma smiled automatically at the sound of the voice. Her voice always sounded cheerful. "Hi Sookie, it's Emma."

As usual, the sound of the voice sounded even more cheerful after hearing Emma's greeting. Emma thought, or maybe just hoped, Sookie's voice sounded happier than usual today. "Hi, Emma!" she said.

"Hey, did you hear the news?"
"Yea! How about that? Our girls are finally back." The last statement sounded almost sentimental rather than enthusiastic.

"I know, it's so great. So, I was thinking…"

"We should have a big party!" Sookie interrupted enthusiastically. "It's been like twenty years, hasn't it? That would be fun!"

"That's what I was going to say," Emma said, more calmly than Sookie. "Except for I already mostly arranged it. It's going to be at the Independence Hall, perfect, huh?"

"Absolutely perfect!" Sookie said. "That's a great idea."

"I made Taylor give it to me for free. It wasn't easy, but I pulled it off."

"Wow. I'll give you extra points for that," Sookie said, sounding impressed.

"Now I just have to invite people. I don't really want to send out invitations, it takes too long."

"Call Miss Patty. She can probably get the word out to all of Star's Hollow in about a minute," Sookie said, laughing not just about Patty, but purely because she was genuinely happy.

"That's a good idea," Emma said. "Then I'd just have the out-of-town people to call."

"Who are you inviting from out of town?" Sookie asked. Her tone changed. "Are you inviting Emily and Richard?"
Emma hadn't considered this. "I don't know." She paused, and asked, in a separate sentence, "Should I?"

"Well, they're Lorelai's parents, and Rory's grandparents, so, maybe. It's going to be kind of a big thing, isn't it?"

"Well yea," she considered. "I hadn't thought about them. I only see them once or twice a year. I don't know, maybe I should invite them."

"It's up to you. This is kind of your thing."

"I guess it is."

"So who else are you inviting from out of town?"

"Well, mostly my people. Alex, Adriane, I figured I'd invite them. Do you think that's a good idea?"

"Yea, why not? Introduce them to Star's Hollow. It's a good opportunity to do that, if you don't think you'll be too busy with everyone else to talk to them."

"I think I can find the time. Besides, they can fend for themselves otherwise. Alex has already met Kirk, there's a lifelong pal right there."

"That's true," Sookie said, laughing. "I still can't believe you introduced him to Kirk before me," she said, pretending to be offended.

"Well, he was just kind of there. Given the choice, it would have been you."

"Good. I'm happy to know I rank above Kirk. That's probably the best compliment I've heard all day."

"Well, don't you feel special."

"Yea, I guess," Sookie was laughing again. Emma wasn't sure she had ever stopped.

"Okay, you're probably supposed to be cooking or something," Emma said. "I should probably let you go."

"I can cook and talk at the same time."

"In that case, I really have to hang up, for the safety of you, all you kitchen staff, equipment, and the phone you're talking on."

"Wow, I can tell you have confidence in my professional ability."
"You professional ability doesn't worry me, just your klutz-factor."

"Okay, I'll hang up."

"Oh wait, one more thing. Will you cater the party?"

"You mean would I let anyone else cater the party? The answer is no."

"Thanks so much. Talk to you later, I'm sure."

"Okay, bye, Emma."

"Bye Sookie." Emma hung up, looked again in the phone book, and immediately started dialing the number of Miss Patty's studio.

"Hello?" Emma liked Miss Patty's voice. It was low, but somehow feminine.

"Hi Patty, it's Emma." She wasn't sure if Miss Patty would know the name immediately, but she did.

"Hi Emma, what can I do for you?"

"Well I'm sure you heard, Lorelai and Rory…"

"Yes, I heard, they're back together. That's great."

"Well, the party's on Saturday. It's at the Independence Hall at five o' clock. Could you spread it around?"

"I'd be happy to, sweetheart. I'll see you then."

"See ya." Now all she had left were Alex and Adriane, plus maybe Emily and Richard. She hadn't decided about them yet. She did know one thing; she wasn't inviting her father's parents. Her own parents didn't even like them, and Emma was pretty sure Lorelai hated them. So she didn't have to worry about that. She decided to call Alex first; he would be the easiest since Adriane probably wasn't home from swim practice yet.

She dialed, and he picked up. She was happy about that; she didn't like to always have to go through his parents. "Hello?"

"Hi Alex, it's me." She knew he knew her voice.

"Hey, Emma. I haven't called you in awhile, have I?" She could tell from his voice that he felt bad about this.

"No, it's not a big deal though. I see you in school all the time."

"I know. Still…"

"Well anyway," Emma stressed the last word, trying to get to the reason she called.

"Sorry. Did you call for a reason?"

"Yea, I actually did," Emma smiled a little. "How would you like to come to a Star's Hollow party?"

"That sounds cool. What's the party for?"

Emma realized with regret that she had never told Alex about the fight between her mother and grandmother. He was in for a long story.

"Wow. That's actually a really long story."

"Well, hadn't you better tell me if you expect me to go to this party?" Alex asked, apparently thinking that Emma wasn't going to tell him it.

"Yea, I'll tell you," Emma said. "As long as you have a few minutes."

"I think I can sacrifice a few homework minutes for you," he said. This made Emma smile. She liked something about the way he had said it.

"Okay, well, my mom and grandma had a big fight. I mean huge, I don't think you can imagine how big it was."

"Okay," Alex said, as if to confirm for Emma that he was following.

"I guess you need to know first, before I was born, they used to be super close. They were pretty much the truest definition of best friends."

"That's cool."

"Yea, well, it was, but a few years before I was born, they had this huge fight."
"What were they fighting about?"

"My mom apparently screwed up. A whole bunch of times, apparently. She was really smart, she was going to Yale. So then she got this internship with," Emma paused, thinking, "My grandfather," she continued, having sorted out the relationship. "He told her she didn't have what it took to be a journalist, and she believed him. Mistake number one."

"He sounds like a jerk."

"I guess he was, or is, I've only met him like twice?" she said, saying the word 'twice' like a question, thinking about how many times she had met her other grandparents. "Anyway, yea. So my mom freaked out, and met my dad, although they weren't married yet, at some kind of party. Apparently they stole a yacht on impulse, and got arrested, big surprise."

"Mistake number two?"

"Exactly. But even after all that, bailing my mom out of jail and everything, they were still as close as ever. Then I guess my mom really thought about what my grandfather had told her, freaked out all over again, and dropped out of Yale. I guess she planned to go back, but she never did."

"Mistake number three."

"Yep. That's when Lorelai stopped talking to her. I guess she sort of promised herself she wouldn't talk to my mom until she got her life straightened out."

"Wow."

"Yea. I've been trying to get them back together since I met Lorelai, which I might mention was this year…"

"Wait, this year? You're kidding."

"Nope. I guess they had an agreement that I would get to meet her on the day after my sixteenth birthday. That's when I met her."

"The two of you are really close, aren't you?"

"Yea, extremely."

"That's amazing if you've known each other less than a year."

"I know it is. We're sort of soul mates, I guess. Can your grandmother be your soul mate?"

"I guess so."

"Well, then I guess that would fit our description. Anyway, my mom just sort of 'turned her life around' by Lorelai's definition. She quit the DAR…"

"The what?"

Emma loved how Alex didn't know what the DAR was. It was second nature to her and most of Chilton. "Daughters of the American Revolution. Translation, snotty rich women's association."

"I've met your mom, she doesn't seem like that."

"She isn't. That's why she quit. Now she's going to take journalism classes, that was her major in college, journalism. She'll take them at Yale, if she can, and join a newspaper staff. Lorelai's happy with that, and so now they're talking again. It's great, they seem as close as ever. Took long enough though, almost twenty years."

"So that's what the party's about?"

"That's what the party's about."

"Wow."

"Yep."

"You really don't have 'just because' parties in Star's Hollow, do you? That would have been much easier to explain."

"Well, not really. We have so many odd celebrations that if we had 'just because' parties, we'd never stop partying." Emma loved referring to herself as part of Star's Hollow. She loved that Alex referred to her as part of Star's Hollow.

"Do you ever stop partying anyway?"

"Not really. Every now and then we do."