"Good morning gorgeous." Rory slowly opened her eyes, and as she woke up realized that there was another person in her bed. It took a huge amount of energy for her to finally turn her head to look at the person lying next to her.

"Hey sweetie. Happy graduation." Lorelai kissed Rory on the forehead.

"Thanks mom."

"So, how's my little valedictorian?"

"Still sleepy. Need coffee. Cannot process coherent thoughts."

"I know how you feel. Get dressed, we're going to Luke's."

Rory rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom to brush her teeth. All Lorelai could see was what she had never been. A high school graduate. A valedictorian. Her daughter.

-----

Rory came out into the kitchen fully dressed and saw her mother standing over the sink.

"Mom? You ready to go?"

"Yeah," Lorelai answered, not turning. She was sniffing.

"Mom? Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Allergies."

"OK. . ." Rory said, secretly knowing the truth. Her mother had never suffered from allergies, but she had been known to be sentimental.

"Let's go sweetie." Lorelai walked over to her daughter, any sign of tears had already vanished from her face. She was smiling proudly.

"It's. . . dark," Rory said, walking out of the house.

"Is not," Lorelai countered.

"Well, maybe not dark in the full sense of the word, but. . ." Rory glanced at her watch, "It's 6:30! It's so early!"

"I was excited. . ." Lorelai mumbled.

"Well, this will be a surprise to Luke at least," Rory said.

"Hmm. . . maybe," Lorelai said under her breath.

"C'mon Mom. Luke would bet everything he has that we wouldn't be in the diner until at least 10:00."

The two Gilmores came up to Luke's diner and pushed open the door. There was no one in there except for Luke himself, scrubbing down the counter. "Hey! Your table. . ." Luke gestured towards a table to his right. There was a pancake breakfast waiting for them. On one plate of pancakes, "Happy Grad Day Rory" was written in syrup.

"Oh Luke! That's so nice! Thank you." Rory sat down in front of her plate. Lorelai took a place across from her and grabbed for the coffee mug, which was already placed in front of her. "Grad day? Hey Luke! There's no coffee in here!" Lorelai lifted her empty mug and pouted at Luke, who was already on his way over from the counter with the coffee pot. He filled Rory's cup first.

"Hey! Why does she get coffee first?"

"Graduates go first," Luke said, wrapping his free arm around Rory's shoulders in a kind of half hug before going around the table to fill Lorelai's mug with coffee.

"Hmph. Don't you mean 'Grads'?"

"There wasn't enough room on the pancakes to write out 'Graduation', OK?"

"Hmm. Maybe you should have given her bigger pancakes."

"No, Luke. These are great," Rory said, taking a big bite. "Thank you so much." They ate in silence for a while, and Luke returned to the counter.

"Hey Luke!" Rory said, suddenly, "How did you know that we would be here so early?"

"Uh, well. . ."

Lorelai, who had been holding her coffee cup up towards Luke and clearing her throat pointedly for the past five minutes, stood and brought her cup up to the counter. "He asked me yesterday to call him ten minutes before we would be here so that he could make you breakfast." Lorelai reached for the coffee pot before Luke had time to react, and filled her cup before replacing the pot in the coffee maker. "Isn't he sweet?" She added, pinching his cheek with her free hand. Luke just rolled his eyes.

Once they had finished their breakfasts, Lorelai and Rory went back to the house. "Hey, don't you have work?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, but I wanted to hang out with you. I'm having Michel cover for me."

They walked quietly for a moment, and the Rory turned to her mother, "OK, what is it?" she asked.

"What?"

"I can tell when you are trying to keep a secret that you really want to tell. What is it?"

"Oh! You're too good."

"Come on! What is it?"

"OK, well, because you got so much financial aid from Yale, I was able to put in my half to get an inn with Sookie!"

"Oh my God! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I wasn't sure about it until yesterday, but I didn't want to steal your thunder. Anyways, the deal went through, and we're going to start work on it this summer!"

"Wow! That's awesome! Oh my God Mom, I'm so happy for you." Rory threw her arms around her mother excitedly. They had reached the house by then, and they opened the door and went inside, excitedly discussing ideas for names of the new inn.

@@@@@

At two o'clock, Lorelai and Rory left for Chilton in the Jeep. When they arrived, Rory went straight back into a classroom that had been reserved for the robes, and Lorelai went to snag some seats.

"Let's see. . ." she said, talking to herself, "Me, Diner-Man, Mini Diner-Man, Sookie, Jackson. . . I think that's it." Her pager went off, and she read the message. It was from Rory. "Get seats for the g-parents."

"Damn her," Lorelai muttered under her breath, but she reluctantly arranged her handbag and sweater so that she was reserving enough seats.

First Sookie and Jackson arrived, and then Rory's grandparents. They took seats and all five of them whispered excitedly. Jess and Luke came right after, and they both took seats as well. Emily looked with disgust at the clothes that they were wearing. Luke had at least taken off his baseball cap and tucked in his shirt, but he still was underdressed, and Jess was wearing a Metallica shirt. She didn't get a chance to say anything though, because the headmaster had just come out to give his opening speech.

Rory and Paris came out to do their Valedictorian speech. Paris went first. "Students of Chilton, faculty, parents, friends, family, and staff. This is the day we've all been waiting for. It has finally arrived. Some of us have been working hard enough at this school so that we might go to a prestigious Ivy League school. Some of us have taken advantage of what this Academy had to offer, and are now moving on to bigger and better things. Some of us will show up at the ten-year reunion as successful people. This is all partially due to this school and what it has taught us as an institution. Those people who worked this school to its full advantage will be the ones who will go on to show the world what Chilton students can do. They will go on to better this world, and for that, we would all like to offer our words of gratitude to this institution.

"For me, it wasn't only this school that put me at this podium. Without my family, both in the dictionary sense of the word, and those who are my family even if we are not actually related, O Nanny, obrigado para todo que você ensinou-me e feito para mim sobre os anos. Amo-o. Thank you."

Rory stood to take her place at the podium. "When I came to this school, I was a little scared. OK, I was petrified. I came from a public high school where no matter what, I knew that I could always make the grade, usually without even trying. Chilton forced me to do better. To push myself harder. To work to earn the grade. Chilton taught me to push myself in everything I do, and not to depend on a school, a teacher, anyone, to do that for me.

"It was a hard road to get here. I couldn't have done it all on my own. Chilton taught me to be independent, but I also know that you can't always be independent. Sometimes you need someone else to lean on. To help you up when you fall. If it weren't for my grandparents, Richard and Emily Gilmore, I wouldn't be here today. They helped me in so many ways, both to get me here, to Chilton, and to get me where I'm going, to Yale. I love you very much. To my friends, who let me know when I was working too hard, to remind me that I am special, and to help me to know that I am important to someone. And of course, to my mother. Who gave up everything for me, who taught me everything she knows, who has offered guidance, support, and love. Thank you."

When Rory looked into the audience, she saw a whole row full of people who were there just for her. And not one of them had a dry eye, no matter how hard they were trying to hide it.

@@@@@

"Hey baby-girl!" Lorelai said, as Rory came down the hall. "You did it!" They came together into a hug. "You ready to go?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go."

They walked out to the Jeep and drove back to Stars Hollow. What they saw when they arrived was something that Rory was half expecting, and half not. A party.

One of the first people she saw was Lane. "Hey! How did it go?"

"Good. I'm so sorry you couldn't come!"

"Yeah, well, Mama Kim said I couldn't go to Hartford. At least I was allowed to come to the party! I just can't eat anything that she didn't make. She's afraid of preservatives."

"I'll sneak some pie for you."

"And a sandwich. I don't care what it is, as long as there's meat. Mama's been going a little overboard on the tofu lately."

"Got you covered." They hugged again, and Lane walked off to stand with her mother, who was glaring menacingly at pretty much everyone.

"Hey Rory! Congratulations," Luke said, coming over.

"Luke! Have you given it to her yet?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, no. You can do it."

"No! Oh my God, Rory, it's so sweet."

"What?" Rory asked.

"It's in the truck. I was going to bring it over to your house after the party."

They all walked over to Luke's truck. In the back was a four foot tall bookshelf with small purple flowers painted all over it. "It's for your dorm," Luke said.

"Oh my God! I love it!" Rory gave Luke a huge hug. "Thank you."

Luke didn't seem to know what to do with the hug, but he looked happy.

Rory walked back to the party with the two of them and saw her grandparents standing uncomfortably by the gazebo.

"Grandma, Grandpa. Thanks for coming."

"Thank you for inviting us Rory. It was a beautiful ceremony," Emily said.

"And thank you for your mention in your speech. It was a beautiful speech," Richard added.

"We got you something for your graduation," Emily said, turning to Richard, who was pulling an envelope out of his breast pocket. He handed it to Rory, and she opened it.

She pulled two two-way plane tickets to Paris out of the envelope. "Oh my God." She stared at what she was holding in her hand.

"We thought that you and your mother might want to take a trip. You're your graduation. The plane leaves on July 21st. There's also a suggested itinerary in there," Emily said.

"Thank you!" Rory threw her arms around first her grandmother and then her grandfather. "This is so. . . wow! Thank you."

"Have fun darling," Emily said.

"We should be getting back," Richard said, "But thank you for inviting us. We'll see you on Friday."

"See you then. And thanks again!"

Rory walked away, intent on telling her mother about the gift, when Jess approached her. "Hey you. I've been trying to talk to you this whole time, but I couldn't get a hold of you."

"Well, I'm a very popular person. What's on your mind?"

"Can we go talk? Somewhere quiet I mean?"

"Sure." Rory linked her arm in Jess' and they walked to the bridge.

"My mom wants me to come to New York." Jess paused. Rory wasn't sure if she should say anything. Luckily, Jess continued speaking. "She says that she convinced Pete to meet me. He's still not really that interested, and frankly, neither am I, but she's trying. And Luke says I have to go." He paused again and began to roll a leaf between his thumbs.

"So anyways, I was wondering if maybe you would come with me."

"To New York?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"Right after graduation. June 18th."

Rory paused before saying, "Yes. I'll come with you."

Jess smiled and reached out to take Rory in his arms. "I love you," he whispered softly, staring into her eyes.

"I love you too," she said, her lips forming the words against his before they both leaned into each other for a kiss.