Chapter 69

Over the next few weeks, the remains of winter were behind them and spring fully settled in Stars Hollow, along with the spring showers April usually presented them with, cancelling one of Shelby's practices. Though the air was still cool and crisp, that didn't stop Shelby from continuing to practice her soccer skills at the park, still enjoying the sport. Aside from soccer, news reached her ears of yet another set of Pokemon games. However, it was a big letdown once she found out the games couldn't be played on her Gameboy Color and Nintendo had moved on to a new handheld console.

Jess had picked up a copy for her when Luke had given him the money from her savings. Not having really any knowledge of the gaming world himself, the young man paid no attention to what the box said, only enough to see it was the new Pokemon games. So when he handed the game to his cousin, and she opened the packaging and removed the cartridge from the box to slide it into her Gameboy, the corners of Shelby's mouth dropped into a frown. Even though the cartridge was half the size of her other games, it was also wider than they were, thus unable to fit.

Jess grabbed the box from where his cousin had tossed it on the couch beside her. Looking inside, he pulled out the instruction manual and skimmed through it. "It looks like there is a new Gameboy, now."

"Is tha' why the box says Gameboy Advance in'tead of Color?" she asked, picking up the box and looking at it for herself.

"Guess so, Scout. Sorry," he told her, sincerely.

The look she gave made it seem like somebody had kicked a puppy or something.

With the table set for dinner, Luke came around the coffee table where Jess was sitting. He sat beside his little buddy, wrapping an arm around her. "I'm sure you'll be able to save up enough money for one," he reassured her.

"Yeah, I know," she replied. "I jus' though' I would ge' to play now."

Luke hugged her to him in one arm. "I'm sorry, kiddo." In his head, he was ranting about Nintendo's ploy to take money out of the parents' wallets, questioning why they had to make it where a person had to buy a whole new system when there wasn't anything wrong with the old one, not understanding the whole "advancing technology" concept. In fact, that was the topic of discussion on his and Nicole's next date, and she had to explain that was the company's business strategy, to keep making better things that would entice kids to keep wanting their products, as well as with other companies. Luke still insisted it was all about money.

So, since then, Shelby's money remained untouched as she earned and saved for a new Gameboy to play her new Pokemon game she now keeps in a shoebox with her Gameboy Color games when she's not playing them. It didn't help Lorelai's birthday was right around the corner and made things harder.

"You can do what we do in our family," Ethan suggested one morning when he and his brother stopped by the diner to ride their bikes to school.

"Wha's tha'?" she asked.

Alan was the one to respond. "We make each other something for their birthday. I bet she'll like it even more if you made her a present."

"And it doesn't even have to be handmade. One time, we wrote our mom a story and acted it out for her," Ethan added, leaning half his body on the edge of the table while standing on his knees, on the chair.

Finally, it annoyed Luke enough to scold the kid. "Ethan, come on. Get off the table. People eat off of that."

"Wouldn't they eat off a plate, not the table?" he pointed out.

Luke gave him a stern look. The kid had a valid point, but would one really expect Luke to acknowledge that fact? Though, Nicole, who was meeting with Taylor that morning, did.

"Who's side are you on?" Luke asked of her.

"The one who makes valid points," she answered and snickered as he just turned back to the kids. It was also easy to side with a kid when they were somebody else's and had no connection, whatsoever, and it was entertaining to watch.

"Shouldn't you three be getting to school?"

Alan looked at his digital sports watch. "Oh yeah. Come on, Shelby, Ethan." He and his brother hurried outside to their bikes while Shelby took two more bites of her scrambled eggs before hurrying after them. Luke stopped her at the door for a kiss good-bye, telling her to have a great day.

Shelby returned the kiss. "I will. Bye, Dad." As she turned back around to leave, she called over to Nicole, "bye, Nicole."

"Bye, Shelby," she waved back with a smile.

Taylor also said bye, which Shelby returned only to be polite.

Outside, Shelby hopped on her bike with her friends and took off in the school's direction. Not long afterwards, Taylor and Nicole finished their meeting. Taylor tried to recommend his nephew if she was looking for someone special, not understanding her interest in Luke. The annoying older man left when Nicole politely declined his offer, to Luke's delight.

Just as Luke was walking away, Nicole asked if he had a minute to discuss something. He sat down, taking Taylor's seat.

"My parents are coming into town," she explained, "and I am going to have lunch with them, and I thought maybe you'd like to join me."

"Join you," he repeated.

"What do you say?"

Luke was suddenly very nervous now. "It's not that I don't want to meet your parents. It's just that... I-I-I... I haven't met any parents for a very long time." He quickly added, "A woman's whom I am dating, anyway." He met over a dozen parents regarding whatever activity Shelby was doing. But that was different. Meeting Nicole's parents was a whole other ballpark that freaked him out.

Nicole nodded in understanding. "Well, you don't have to," she assured him. "I'm just giving you the option."

At that point, Jess walked by, carrying somebody's order. He stopped long enough to tell his uncle, "geez, man. Just meet her parents already."

"Do you mind?" Luke asked of him, annoyed.

"So what if they hate ya? You've been there before." With that, Jess moved on to drop off the plate of food.

"You know what, I'm sorry," Nicole told him. "I didn't mean to put you on the spot."

Luke shook his head. "I'm not on the spot," he stammered. "I'm completely off the spot. I'm," Luke cleared his throat as he grabbed onto his ear for a moment, "spotless. Uh, what time's lunch?"

"Two o'clock on Thursday."

"Two o'clock on Thursday. Okay, two o'clock on Thursday, I'll be there," he hit the table with his finger. "I just have to find somewhere for Shelby to go after school who could also take her to soccer practice. That shouldn't be a problem."

Nicole smiled. "That's great." Standing up from the table she asked, "so, I'll see ya tonight?"

"I'll see ya tonight," he nodded.

On her way out, she brushed a hand on his shoulder as Luke stood to his feet.

Jess also was heading out the door. "I have to go," he told his uncle.

"Where?" Luke asked.

"School."

"Oh, school. Okay," Luke replied, as if it was an obvious choice as Jess reached for his jacket. "Well, have a good day...at school."

Jess just stared at him, confused. "I will." However, this time, Luke followed Jess, to make sure that was where he was going. Unfortunately, it wasn't school where he was headed and Luke ended up trailing him all the way to Wal-mart instead.

Luke pounded the top of the steering wheel with the side of his fist in sheer disappointment. He couldn't believe Jess was going behind his back and breaking their agreement.

Luke picked Shelby up from school that afternoon to head over to Lorelai's house, tossing her bike in the back of his truck. Every year for her birthday, he volunteers himself to fix whatever needs fixing. Though, after the first year, the list seemed to get longer and longer. Before he left the school, however, Luke had a talk with Mr. Harris about the possibility of being late to practice on Thursday if he couldn't find someone to take her. Mr. Harris offered to keep Shelby after school, and she could come with him to practice if Luke was comfortable. Though surprised, Luke gave the okay if Mr. Harris was really okay with Shelby staying with him.

"Your slave is here," he announced as the two of them headed inside Lorelai's house through the back door, making Shelby snicker while covering her hand over her mouth.

"And where's the French maid's outfit I requested?" Lorelai questioned, jokingly.

Luke poked at his stomach. "I've got it on under the plaid," he replied sarcastically.

"Oh, what else is new?" She waved him off with her hand and went over to the table to grab the list she made for her slave this year.

He set his toolbox he had in his hand on the counter by the stove. "So how's it feel to be another year older?"

"I'm not a year older until Friday, Fifi," Lorelai pointed out, grabbing a chocolate Mallomar from the table.

Luke noticed them lined a certain way. "What the hell's this?" he questioned.

"My birthday Mallomars," she told him as if it were obvious as she held a cookie inside her cheek.

"She says like I should just know this," he shrugged.

Lorelai handed him the list on the chair in front of him. "Here's your list."

Luke looked at it, spotting the first thing on the list. "What's wrong with the garbage disposal?" he asked, heading for the kitchen sink.

"It's not disposing," she told him, heading for the cupboard.

Looking down the drain, Luke spotted the problem, which she could have done herself. To prove his point, he let Shelby come over and pull it out, questioning if Lorelai had thought to do it, herself.

"I did consider it," she admitted, cheeky as he walked back to his original spot. "Do you want to start upstairs or down? 'Cause there's actually more to do upstairs for some reason?" It seemed like she was trying to stifle a grin as Lorelai opened the box of Mallomars. Taking one out of the box, she set it down where the one she ate was.

Luke watched her, puzzled. "What did you just do?"

"What?" she asked, just as puzzled.

"You put the cookie down," he stated.

She nodded. "Yeah."

"You ate the cookie, and then you took a cookie out of the box and put it where the cookie you just ate was."

"Yeah."

"Well, that's nuts," he told her.

"Rory made this for me. I don't want to ruin it," she explained.

"Then why did you eat the cookie?"

"Because I wanted a Mallomar."

"But why didn't you just eat one out of the box?"

"This one was right here, and the box was all the way in the," she waved her arm towards the upper cupboard behind Luke's head, "cupboard."

"But you had to go to the cupboard to get the box," he continued to argue, "to replace the cookie you just ate off the table."

"So?"

Luke stared forward, very much annoyed at this point. He turned to Shelby for help, "You see where I'm coming from, right?"

"Um, I 'topped trying to figure Lor-lai ou' a long time ago, Dad. I' only makes my head hur'," she explained.

"Smart kid you have there," Lorelai said.

Taking a deep breath in and letting it out, Luke just took a seat in the chair in front of him, to read over the rest of the list. "I'm looking at the list now," he said, still annoyed. "Okay. Stairs, gutter..." He ran a finger down, skimming through the contents. "Electrical outlet. Which one?" He looked up at her, who had sat in the chair next to him.

"In the bathroom," she answered.

"By the sink or by the bathtub?"

"Bathtub."

"Okay. So we can do most of this list today," he declared. "But I can't put up the towel rack until later. I didn't bring my drill."

Lorelai chuckled at that comment.

Luke quickly raised his arms out to her. "Dirty, yes. I know," he told her with his eyes closed, wishing he had used better wording, and reminded her of the child present in the room, even though it had clearly gone completely over her head.

"Um, that's okay. I'll be here tomorrow afternoon if you want to come by then," she assured him.

"I can't tomorrow. I'm having lunch with Nicole's parents, and Shelby has soccer practice," Luke explained, rubbing under his nose.

"Really," Lorelai replied, surprised.

"Yes, Shelby has practice every Tuesday and Thursday," he reminded her, clearly knowing that's not what she meant.

"I'm talking about having lunch with Nicole's parents," she said.

"Oh, well then, yep. They are coming into town," Luke nodded at the table.

She smiled, impressed the man has actually made it to this point in the relationship. "Okay."

"So Nicole thought I should meet them," he shrugged a hand partly up in the air.

"Makes sense," she nodded in agreement.

"Do I get to mee' them?" Shelby spoke up, curious.

"No, not this time, Shell," he told her. "This is just adults only, for now."

"Okay," she said, but sounded disappointed.

Luke felt badly leaving the kid out when it seemed like she would be okay joining them, but Nicole did only extend the invitation out to him. Plus, the first meeting with the parents should only be just Luke, and Lorelai pointed out it was good they weren't including Shelby yet since they were still technically in the early portion of the relationship. She also thought it was great Luke himself was even doing this and couldn't be more happy for him.

With that out of the way, Luke suggested to Shelby, they should get to work and got up from the table. Shelby tried offering to take his tool box for him when he grabbed it off the counter.

"Shell, this is way too heavy for you," he pointed out.

"Nuh uh, I'm 'trong like you are, Dad," she argued with him, and flexed her arms to show off her not-yet-formed muscles. "See?" Shelby was wearing one of her basketball jerseys without a T-shirt underneath, so her upper arms were bare.

"Yes, I see those muscles, however, they are not strong enough to lift this."

"Way to be supportive there, killjoy," Lorelai told him with sarcasm.

"I am not gonna pretend she has something she doesn't and let her hurt herself," he pointed out to her.

"Just let her try for herself," she stood up for the kid.

Letting out a sigh, Luke turned back to Shelby, "Alright. Here ya go." He held the large tool box out for her to take. It immediately dropped on the floor regardless of Shelby grabbing onto the handle in both hands. "I told ya, kiddo."

"No, I go' this." Shelby lifted one side of the toolbox off the floor, and proceeded to try and drag it down the hallway towards the stairs. Luke had to admit, the kid was bound and determined, and had to smile.

"Good effort, kiddo."

She held a thumbs up out to him as Shelby continued walking backwards.

"I'll be right behind you in a second," he quickly added.

"Okay," she replied.

Luke then turned back to Lorelai, lowering his voice so only she could hear and not Shelby. "Oh, by the way, you were right about Jess."

"What about Jess?"

"He's not going to school."

She sighed. "Are you sure?"

"Yep. I watched him head right towards the school, and when he thought nobody was watching, he drove right in the opposite direction. So I followed him."

"To where?" Lorelai kept her voice down since Luke was keeping his, down.

"To Walmart."

She nodded like she had already figured before looking down at the floor, her hands on her sides.

"He's been lying to me this whole time," Luke continued.

"What are you gonna do?" she asked, looking up again.

"I'm gonna tell him I know what he's been doing," he shrugged. "Remind him that we had an agreement, that he's supposed to go to school, that he's supposed to graduate from school, and then..." Luke stopped and just shrugged. "Ah, I'm gonna tell him I know what he's been doing."

Lorelai shrugged one shoulder. "I'm sorry, Luke."

"Yeah, well..." Luke stared off to the side before he told her, he'll be upstairs, which she told him to call if they needed anything, or send Shelby downstairs since kids make great carrier pigeons.

With that said, he headed down the hallway towards the living room, where Shelby was now trying to lift his toolbox up the steps. It ended up slipping out of her hands and back down onto the floor. Thanking her for the effort, Luke lifted the toolbox up and took it from there.