Chapter 37

Emma sat on the couch in her living room beside Alex. They were talking about school, and whatever else came to mind. Emma smiled to herself, thinking that many couples she knew of would be joined at the mouth as though by magnets, but her relationship with Alex wasn't like that at all. Neither she nor Alex had that type of personality, and Emma wasn't only content but very happy with having only kissed Alex once.

The doorbell rang, and Emma stood up, saying "That's probably Adriane." She walked over to the door and pulled it open. There stood a girl a little shorter and stockier than Emma, although by no means overweight. Her shoulders were much broader than the average girl her age due to muscle gained by swimming. Her hair was straight and naturally a dark shade of blonde, but had been highlighted to a lighter shade. Many people thought this was strange, considering how often she was in and out of the pool, but she hadn't ever had problems with it. The top layer of her hair was pulled back in the same style that Emma currently sported with her curly dark hair. She wore jeans and a green t-shirt which accented the green in her eyes, although she hadn't noticed that when she put it on. She wore a silver chain around her neck with a star-shaped charm hanging off of it, and her earrings were small matching silver stars. She wore a clump of silver bangle bracelets with tiny silver stars hanging from them. Seeing her best friend for the first time in too long, Emma immediately hugged her gently.

"Hiya," Adriane said naturally.

"Hi! Alex is in the other room, come on." Emma walked into the living room, followed by Adriane.

"Hi Adriane," Alex said politely.

"Hey Alex," Adriane responded.

The three sat down and talked a little like the old friends they were, the other two mostly talking to Emma. Not ten minutes later, Rory entered the room.

"Hi Alex, Adriane," she greeted them. "Ready to go?"

"Yep," Emma responded for the three of them. "When you are."

"I'm ready, let's go." Rory was dressed fairly casually, but Emma could tell she was trying to make a good impression all over again for the people she knew so well, but hadn't seen in so long.

"Kay, let's go. Emma stood, and Alex and Adriane followed her out to her mother's car. The three of them sat in the back seat, Emma in the middle. Once in the car, Emma focused on prepping Adriane for Star's Hollow.

"You're going to love it, I swear," she told her friend, her voice reaching a speed even faster than normal in excitement. "You'll love Lorelai, and Luke, too. He's kind of quiet, pretty much opposite from Lorelai. I think you'll like him a lot if you talk to him a bit. Sookie too, you'll love Sookie. She's Lorelai's best friend. She's a chef, her food's wonderful. She's really sweet and bubbly, but not the annoying cheerleader type. Kirk's crazy, and Lulu, his wife, isn't much better. Taylor's crazy too, but in a different way. Don't pay too much attention to him, just humor him."

Adriane sat and listened to Emma's rant, smiling. She had heard much of what Emma was telling her more than once before, but didn't mind hearing it again. Emma ranted on about everyone in Star's Hollow she knew, trying to prepare Adriane as well as she could. Adriane appreciated it, but found it a little funny how Emma didn't even realize that she had told her most of these things before.

As they entered Star's Hollow, Emma said conclusively. "I think that's everything. We're pretty much here now." The car pulled into the parking lot beside the Independence Hall. "I love this building," Emma said.

"So do I," Rory interjected from the driver's seat. "It's pretty. I like the history of it, too. Lots of good memories."

"It is pretty," Adriane said.

"I'm feeling left out here," Alex said, mocking the other three. "Should I say it's pretty, too?"

"Not necessary," Emma said. "The last thing I need is a gay boyfriend."

"Okay, well in that case I'll just say that the architecture is very well crafted. That way I'm part of the group, but still a man."

"Very good," Emma approved.

"Shall we go in?" Rory asked. "Or at least get out of the car?"

"Yea, good plan," Emma said. Adriane and Alex opened their doors almost at the same time.

"Wow, you've really got this place packed. Did you call all these people?" Alex asked, looking around the parking lot at the many cars.

"Nope, just Patty."

"Wow. Small towns…"

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Emma asked. She was beyond pleased with the outcome, but in all honesty hadn't really expected anything less.

"It is," Adriane said. Emma realized that she wasn't yet accustomed to Star's Hollow, as was Alex.

"I need to take you here more often," Emma told her best friend.

"Let's see how I like it first, huh?"

"You'll love it, I swear you will."

Adriane looked like she believed Emma. She was looking around, taking everything in, much like Emma remembered doing the first time she was in Star's Hollow, which, although only a few months ago, seemed like a lifetime ago.

The small group went inside, and was immediately engulfed in the flood. Emma tried to keep the outsiders close to her, but lost hope of staying with her mother almost immediately. Rory seemed the guest of honor; it seemed that every single person in the place wanted to talk to her first. The crowd thinned a little as Emma, Adriane and Alex made their way further into the building. "Let's try to find Lorelai," Emma said. Alex and Adriane nodded their agreement, and, oddly, the first one to spot her wasn't Emma, but Adriane, who had never even seen her.

"Emma, that her?" she asked, gently pulling on Emma's shirt.

"Yea," Emma said in surprise. "How'd you know that? You've never even seen her."

"I don't know, you've described her. She looks like you, but older." Emma had realized that there were similarities in the appearances of her and her grandmother, but until this moment, hadn't realized how similar the two of them really did look. Both in jeans and similar light blue t-shirts, Emma looked more that ever like a younger clone of Lorelai. Lorelai was talking animatedly with a Star's Hollow local that Emma recognized, but didn't know the name of.

Emma led the other two to Lorelai, and she turned toward them as the other man walked away. "Hi Emma, hello Alex. You must be Adriane," she said, smiling, in Adriane's direction.

"Yep, that's me," Adriane said from just behind Emma, stepping slightly to one side so that Lorelai could see her.

"Hi, Lorelai," Alex said. Emma liked how open he was becoming around her family and friends. It was nice, particularly considering that he was normally quiet to begin with.

"Patty really pulled through with the spreading of word, didn't she?" Emma commented.

"She certainly did," Lorelai said. "I don't think I've seen this many people in here since I worked here."

"That's pretty impressive. Looks like the whole town turned up."

"I think they did. Even Luke's here, and he hates this stuff."

"He hates town stuff, doesn't he? This isn't a town thing."

"Yea, but the whole town is here. Did you see Taylor's booth? It's like a carnival."

"Yea, but still, I could see him wanting to be here."

"Well, you're right. I didn't even have to persuade him."

"That's because he likes you," Emma said in a flirtatious voice that she had often heard Lorelai use. She glanced at Alex, who smiled back at her with a look as close to flirty as a guy could get without it being girly.

"Wow, you guys are cute," Lorelai said.

"What?" Emma asked.

"You're cute. Young love. It's cute."

"Sure, okay."

"You're just lucky I didn't include the part about the old Ford."

"That I am," Emma said, pretending to get what was inevitably some reference to something Emma hadn't heard of. "Where's Luke tonight? I want to introduce Adriane to him."

"He's around." Right on cue, Emma heard a bit of an eruption.

"Taylor, no! Why are you here anyway? Get out of here!"

"There he is," Lorelai told Emma.
"Thanks, but I think I could have figured that out if I was blind and deaf."

"Hey, can't say I didn't answer your question."

"No you can't. I think I'll go see what's going on over there."

"I think I'll stay here," Lorelai said, her face saying that it would be a good idea for her to go and make sure Luke didn't kill Taylor, but that if he did, she wanted to watch. Her comment as Emma walked away, followed by Alex and Adriane, mirrored this expression: "But if it looks like Luke's going to throw something at Taylor, call me over!"

Emma heard Taylor retaliating as the three neared his booth. "I'm allowing this whole thing to happen, you cannot kick me out. This wouldn't be happening for free if it wasn't for me, and besides that, I have as much right to be here as you do!"
"I wouldn't be so sure," Luke said, purely out of anger, backing up as though ready to hit Taylor, although Emma could tell he wouldn't. She made sure of this, however, by speaking to Luke.

"Hi Luke."

Luke turned around quickly and met Emma's eyes. He seemed to forget why he was yelling at Taylor, and Emma decided to go with that. She didn't really care why Luke was yelling, and figured it was more amusing left to her own imagination. She loved how her voice seemed to have magical power over Luke, bringing him back to reality. "Emma," he said, his voice suddenly the soft grandfatherly voice she was accustomed to.

"Hey Luke. You remember Alex."

He nodded, and Alex said, "Hi, Luke."

"And this is my best friend, Adriane," Emma said, as Adriane stepped to the side of Emma so that she could be seen right on cue.

"Adriane," he said, "I think I've heard about you."

"You probably have," Emma said.

Lorelai met them a moment later with Sookie.

"You must be Alex!" Sookie said excitedly. "I've seen the dance pictures, so that must be who you are."

"Yep, that's me." Alex smiled.

"And…" Sookie looked at Adriane. "I give up," she said, turning toward Emma. "Who's this?"

"This is Adriane, my best friend," Emma told her.

"Oh, that's right. I should have known that, I've heard about Adriane."

Adriane said nothing, but smiled shyly.

The same kind of conversation went on a little while within the small group. Lorelai was mid-sentence when Emma noticed her radar go up as she suddenly stopped talking. Listening more than looking, Emma heard two semi-familiar voices that explained the pause from Lorelai. Shoot! She had meant to warn Lorelai that they were coming, but it had completely slipped her mind.