Guess what? I watched "Lost and Found" with my 87 year old grandmother who speaks only Spanish and she said she loved the show, especially Luke and Lorelai. Hah! I made her a Java Junkie. It transcends language barriers!
* * *
Ch. 6: Buy Me Some Peanuts and Alfalfa Sprouts
* * *
Rory had been home for two weeks now, so there was only a week left before school began. She was currently freaking out because Taylor had been out of those little folders with the bendy bits that had a funny name which Lorelai could never remember.
Lorelai was calmly sitting on the couch, watching television and craning her neck whenever Rory's frantic pacing blocked her view. It was better to let her burn out on her own.
Rory flopped down on the couch. That was Lorelai's cue. "Calm down, sweetie. We'll go to Hartford, where many an office supply store eagerly wants to be the one to satisfy your burning consumer need for dueytangs. 'Pick me, Rory!' 'No, Rory, pick me!' Then we'll hit Luke's for dinner; does that appease you?"
"Duotangs," Rory corrected.
"Either name is stupid."
"It's a wonderful idea. Thanks." She got off the couch and picked up the car keys.
"Slow down, Flo-Jo. I didn't mean right this minute."
"Why not? You're not watching anything important. Duotangs are an essential first week of school item. Because you always get those annoying teachers who have a detailed description of the type and size of the notebook they want you to have, and if you don't match their description, they won't grade it. So the duotang is a perfect, temporary substitute until you know what they really want."
"You have thought way too much about this. Anyway, this should be over soon."
Rory truly saw what she was watching for the first time. "Baseball? You want to wait so you can watch baseball?"
Lorelai shrugged. "It's not real baseball, it's a movie with baseball. Like I'd actually watch a baseball game. You'd have to be stoned or drunk or from Iowa to find that exciting." She idly wondered if Jay was from Iowa.
Rory's eyes narrowed. "This doesn't have anything to do with Luke, does it?"
"No."
Rory decided not to press the issue. "What movie is this?"
"Well, I wanted to get 'Major League' but it was already rented." Lorelai sounded hesitant.
"So instead you got…"
Lorelai hung her head in shame. "'Little Big League.'"
Rory forgot about the pressing duotang issue when she doubled over in laughter.
Lorelai frowned. "I'm disowning you. In fact, I think I'll sell you to a nice couple in one of those countries created by the end of the Soviet Union, where they'll make you train to be a figure skater on a frozen pond for nineteen hours a day in the hopes that your face on the Wheaties box will put an end to their hunger."
Rory was still giggling. She shook her mother's shoulders. "C'mon, duotangs!"
Lorelai sighed and got up off the couch, then began the hunt for her purse. Rory went to shut off the tape.
* * *
In the early evening they walked into the diner, and Lorelai whimpered.
"What?"
"Caesar's cooking again."
"His burgers are nowhere near the atrocity of his pancakes."
"Yeah, but still." Lorelai grabbed Jess as he walked by, the hot coffee he was carrying nearly spilling onto his hand. "Sorry," she apologized. "Where's Luke?"
"Out."
Jess walked away. Rory watched him go. After he dropped the coffee off, he glanced over and saw her looking. They exchanged small smiles, which Lorelai missed. She was still dwelling on the Luke issue.
"Why the hell is Luke 'out' on a Saturday night?" she speculated. They found a table and sat down; Jess brought them both coffee.
"Burgers, I presume?"
Rory grinned. "You are quite correct, Stanley."
They were still waiting for the burgers when Luke came in the front door. Lorelai sighed. "So it isn't the end of the world after all." Jay followed him through the door.
"You spoke too quickly," Rory teased. Lorelai had seemed a little obsessed by the newcomer. Especially when Luke was involved. Even though her mom denied being jealous, Rory was certain she was feeling a little threatened. Like when one tiger moved into another tiger's territory, and started getting along with the first tiger's coffee supplier and friend.
"Shush! I can't hear what they're saying." Lorelai leaned forward in her chair.
"If you fall on the floor, I'm not picking you up."
Lorelai could hear their voices, but over the rest of the customers talking she couldn't make out what they were saying. Luke gestured to the kitchen in that awkward way he had when he was a little nervous, then walked back there. Jay smiled and nodded, then went to sit at the counter.
"Jay!" Lorelai shouted, and caught her attention.
"Hi, Lorelai," she said, walking to their table. She was wearing a baseball hat and Braves t-shirt that looked like she picked it up in the kids' section. Lorelai didn't even know what city the 'Braves' played for. "Rory, right?"
Rory nodded. "That would be me." She hadn't had the chance to talk to Jay during her party, and hadn't run into her around town since. Lorelai had, though, so she'd been hearing her mother's stories. Rory was glad she was getting the opportunity to see for herself if Lorelai had been embellishing certain aspects.
"Luke's told me a whole lot of good things about you. So has your mom."
"Aw, shucks," Rory said, pretending embarrassment.
"If you're planning on eating here, you can join us," Lorelai offered.
Jay smiled. "Thanks." She sat down, and looked around the diner. "Everyone in this town is so friendly."
Rory knew the least about her, so she decided to ask some questions of her own. "Where'd you live before?"
"Brooklyn."
"Ah, the Big Apple," Lorelai said knowingly.
"I like to think of it as 'The Big, Dirty, Rotting Apple Full of Rude Worms.'"
"Not a city girl?" Lorelai was trying not to flashback to Luke's many rants on cities.
Jay shrugged. "Actually, it doesn't really matter to me where I live. I was an Army brat, so I've never been big on getting attached to one place." She looked out the window. "But this place does have its charms."
"Oh, if you ever want to leave, I'll introduce you to Roon. He'll de-charm you in two seconds flat."
Rory chided her. "Now that's just mean. No one should have to be introduced to Roon."
Okay, enough chit chat, Lorelai decided. She could ask the question she'd been dying to ask. "So, you and Luke go somewhere?"
"Yankee Stadium. The Braves were playing; isn't inter-league play exciting?" Jay was practically beaming. "I almost caught a foul ball from Chipper Jones, but some fat guy got in my way."
Lorelai nearly dropped her coffee mug. "You got Luke to go
into New York?" She gripped the
handle a little tighter, just to be safe.
Suddenly, Luke was at their table, holding a coffee cup. "She almost got us into a fight, too."
"What? The Yankees do suck. You don't secretly like them do you? You said you didn't but for all I know you were lying."
Lorelai clenched her coffee cup even harder. There were some definite flirty undertones.
"A Connecticut Yankee he's not," Rory assured her. She'd seen him curse out the Yankees enough times.
"Of course I don't like them. But when you're surrounded by twenty thousand Yankees fans, you don't scream 'Hey Jeter, you suck!'"
He handed Jay the mug he'd been holding. Lorelai took one look at the color of the liquid and grimaced. "Luke, something's wrong with your coffee."
"It's green tea," Luke explained.
Jay took a sip. "I quit coffee a few years back; green tea has caffeine and it's better for you anyhow."
"That's decaf," Luke told her.
"Ugh," Jay grimaced, but took another sip.
Lorelai was practically jumping up and down. A flaw! Luke hated caffeine in any form. When Luke excused himself to go check on their food, Rory spoke up.
"I still can't believe he went to New York."
"I know," Lorelai agreed. "It just seems so surreal. I keep expecting the clock on the wall to start dripping."
"Why? Is there some Luke against New York thing I'm unaware of?"
"He's not a big fan of cities. You should have heard him rant on Hartford, which I'm sure looks like Pleasantville compared to New York," Lorelai explained.
"How'd you get him to do it?" Rory asked, intrigued.
"I mentioned it the other night when I was eating here. He said he hadn't been to a game in a while, so I invited him to come along. It's not the shortest drive, so I figured company would be good."
"So black magic was not involved?" Lorelai incredulously asked.
"Not that I know of."
"Maybe the planets were aligned in some special way that night," Rory offered as an explanation.
Further speculation was cut off by the arrival of their food. "Yay, burgers!" Lorelai said. "All that back to school shopping made me hungry."
"You sat in the office chair section the entire time while I went through all the aisles!" Rory pointed out.
"Yes, but it took enormous energy for me to spin around in them for an entire hour. I've officially filled my exercise quota for the month."
Luke put the plates down in front of them; hamburgers and fries for the Gilmore girls, and some strange looking thing trying to pretend it was a burger with a side of celery sticks for Jay. Then he set a fourth plate on the table, a turkey burger with carrot sticks on the side.
"Luke is gracing us with his presence!" Lorelai said with mock excitement.
Rory nodded. "Definitely some planetary alignment."
"The end of the world is nigh."
"We didn't eat at the game," Jay explained.
"Well sure, you don't get much demand for alfalfa sprouts at stadiums." Lorelai wrinkled her nose at the thought.
"Damn shame," Luke said before biting into his turkey burger.
"At least there was frozen lemonade. It was like a hundred degrees out there. I now have a tacky tan line where my shorts ended."
Lorelai recalled the length of Jay's shorts and kept the observation that it was hardly any worse than a tan line from a bikini bottom to herself.
Jay took a bite of her U.F.O., unidentified food object, as Lorelai had decided to call it. "This veggie burger is delicious," she complemented. So that's what it was, Lorelai noted. She should have known.
"My burger's good, too," Lorelai said before she could stop herself.
Conversation ceased while they satiated their hunger. When it dwindled down to a few fries and vegetables on plates, it picked up again.
"So who won the game?" Rory asked.
"Braves, thank god. It was a real nail-biter for a while," Jay happily stated.
Lorelai watched them exchange glances of satisfaction with their stupid baseball caps on their stupid vegetable-eating heads. "Yeah, the Cleveland Braves are my favorite too."
Luke just groaned.
-end ch. 6-
A/N: I used to love that Little Big League movie. Even though I was way too old for it, I saw it 4 times. It was my dirty little secret. Now it completely cracks me up that Scott Patterson is in it. I KNEW there was a reason I liked it! Fate is a funny chica.