Disclaimer: Amy and Daniel Palladino, along with the rest of the WB, own Gilmore Girls. I'm just borrowing the characters.

Jess- I'm glad you liked the chapter. I had been planning the whole thing from chapter one, and I like that you enjoyed my revealing the Rory/Dean dynamic to Tristan. I figured that'd be the smartest thing to do. Plus, I just like writing Tristan's reactions because he uses all my favorite words. Ok, drunken sailor alert. Anywho, I like writing small talk for Rory and Tristan, because they wouldn't just immediately go into a debate on Jane Austen. I don't even think Tristan would like Jane Austen... So, thank you so much. I always wait for your reviews.

Ms. Vaughn- I'm ecstatic that I could cheer you up. Hmm... August 25th to June 9th... that's not too bad. Mine's September 7th to June.... um, 20th maybe? I'm not quite sure, actually. But, I do know that Illinois can be boring. Well, not Illinois, but the mid-west in general. My whole family lives in Kansas, except for one aunt who lives in California. Cue Phantom Planet, because I live here too. Orange County, actually. They tried to change our airport from John Wayne to The OC airport. Got rejected, thank god. I heard about Alias! I couldn't believe it! But, Lauren's dead (or at least that's what Melissa George said when she said she was filming and wouldn't be coming back). But Sark's only going to be in four or five episodes, which makes me sad, and no Irina. Ok, no more Alias talk for now. I'm sorry about your cousins. And hopefully, my procrastination skills did fail, because I neither know what day it is or what day I posted it. So, cross my fingers that they did!

Smile1- I was really trying to go for simple; no other characters, except for the hostess who got a total of three words. I'm glad you liked the bite and lick thing. I always read these stories where Rory will say things like that, but Tristan doesn't say anything dirty, and that's the perfect opportunity. So, in conclusion, I'm happy you liked it and I like your incredibly original story a lot.

four51- gives you big hug There's nothing wrong with babbling. I frequently do that, as seen above. Glad you liked the conversation. It took me at least 3 hours to come up with the whole thing. No, I'm not kidding. 11 at night to about 1 in the morning. That's 3 hours, right? I'm too lazy to try to do the math. But I love your reviews. And, I haven't mentioned this before because I always forget, but I like the whole naming-your-chapters-after-songs aspect. It's clever. Especially since I love all the songs on the soundtrack.

More thank yous to OTHlover04, Allison, and PomegranateQueen (welcome!) . I love you!

A/N: I actually had fun writing this chapter. Not that I don't usually have fun writing, but this one was fun. It's a pointless chapter, really, but I liked it. There's no Trory interaction, and I'm suddenly regretting telling you all that, but there's something close. So I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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Tristan managed to drop Rory off a whole forty-five minutes before her class started, giving her time to study a bit before. The rest of the breakfast had gone rather well, despite a few more awkward pauses. The longest conversation included a variety of topics ranging from her mom to his time at military school. It almost made him forget that she was still, in fact, out of his reach. Almost.

So now he was lounging on James's couch, waiting for him to get out of class, and watching cartoons. Family Guy, to be exact. He couldn't think of anybody who loved the show more than James. He had a complete entertainment unit brought out to the suite common room just so he could watch the box set DVDs better.

At ll:20, James came barreling into his room and began his hunt for something. He lifted up everything; papers, books, cushions, even Tristan's legs. He finally gave up and decided to ask Tristan.

"Have you seen my Social Politics paper?"

"No," Tristan replied. "How'd the test go?"

"Tedious," came the reply from under the kitchen table. "My last class of the day in-" James looked down at his watch. "Crap! Six minutes!"

Tristan got up and helped look for the paper. After just two minutes, James stood up triumphantly and headed for the door. "Found it. I've got work at one, but there's a party at the room across the hall tonight."

Tristan briefly thought back to Rory, but remembered her mentioning something about dinner with her Grandma, so he made up his mind to go to the party.

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Rory sighed and collapsed against her bed, silently cursing Tristan for seducing her with breakfast, making her get up at 6:30 in the morning. If she was lucky, she could get in a nap before going to her Grandmother's house, perhaps even a bit of homework. She had just shut her eyes when the door opened and Paris barged in.

"We need to go shopping."

Rory opened one eye to look at her frazzled roommate who was currently pacing back and forth. Her frazzled roommate who hate shopping. "Reason?"

"Asher and mine's one year anniversary is tomorrow, and I have nothing to wear," Paris explained.

Flashback to sophomore year, Rory thought. Somehow she knew all of this was Tristan's fault for waking her up so early.

"We're stopping for coffee first," agreed Rory.

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Rory found her mom waiting for her as she pulled up to her grandparent's estate. Emily got the house while Richard was out of town, which was turning out to be a lot more often than usual.

"I think Mom's having a party," Lorelai whispered in a conspiratorial manner.

"What's your evidence?" Rory asked.

Lorelai gestured around. "Are these your cars?" Sure enough, there were four or five cars also parked in the driveway.

"No. Are they yours?" Rory replied.

"How would I get them all here?" Lorelai pointed out. "Change of subject: Tell Mommy all about your day."

Rory pointed to the door. "Are you going to knock?"

Lorelai grinned. "You changed the subject."

"Knock, please," Rory repeated.

"Wasn't planning on it," her mom replied.

"Mom," Rory warned.

"Daughter," Lorelai warned back. "Fine, I'll knock." Lorelai walked up to the door, prepared to knock. Right as she put her hand up, the door opened. "That is too creepy."

Emily, ignoring Lorelai's comment, exclaimed, "Lorelai! Rory! I thought I heard your voices."

"Hi, Mom," Lorelai said.

"Well, come in." Emily was looking happier than she had the last times they had seen her. There was music coming from one of the many rooms that frequently held parties, Lorelai noted as she took off her jacket.

"What's going on, Mom?" Lorelai asked.

Emily ushered them into the party room, where there were eight to ten people mingling around. "You see, Janlan and Helen are in town for the weekend. I figured the only proper thing to do was to throw them a small get together."

"Janlan?" Rory questioned, fearing of what the answer may be.

"Yes, Janlan DuGray," Emily replied. "I believe you went to Chilton with their grandson." Lorelai started to snicker behind her hand. "Lorelai, what's so funny?"

Lorelai composed herself, but couldn't keep the knowing smirk off her face as she glanced at her daughter. "Nothing, Mom. So Janlan and Helen are here?"

Emily beamed. "Yes. In fact, they're coming this way right now. Lorelai, behave."

"I'll refrain from having a sudden regression in behavior," Lorelai replied with a straight face.

"Emily, lovely party." Janlan's eyes landed on Rory and Lorelai. "Why, Emily, you didn't tell me you had sisters."

"Janlan, you remember my daughter, correct?" Emily asked, nudging Lorelai forward a bit.

Janlan took Lorelai's hand and brushed his lips over her knuckles. "Lorelai, you've grown. The last time I saw you-"

"Straub and Francine had just kicked me out of Christopher's sixteenth birthday for dancing on the tables," Lorelai finished. "Rory, sweets, meet Janlan and Helen."

"Lorelai, is this your daughter?" Helen held out her hand for Rory to shake. "She looks so much like you."

"It's the coffee," Lorelai joked. "Speaking of which, Mom, the drinks?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "Over there."

Lorelai walked over to the wet bar with Rory in tow. "You really got kicked out of dad's sixteenth birthday party?" Rory asked.

"Chris and I decided it'd be fun to see who could handle the most liquor," Lorelai explained, pouring herself a martini.

"Naturally," Rory dead-panned. "And was I around at this time?"

"Not at that time," Lorelai said. "But there was this one time that-"

"Mom!" Rory exclaimed.

"I'm kidding!"

"You're not funny."

"Sure I am." Lorelai smiled at her daughter. "Now, I can have Luke call in fifteen minutes telling us there's been an emergency, if you'd like."

Rory raised an eyebrow. "What kind of emergency?"

"Touché. That wouldn't work. Sookie! Emergency at the inn!" Lorelai suddenly burst out. "But that would leave you stranded here without your only source of amusement."

"I'm glad your inferiority complex has disappeared," Rory replied sarcastically.

"I guess we'll have to keep thinking of a plan. Now-" Lorelai put an arm around her daughter. "You never told me how your day has been."

"I thought you'd forgotten."

"A Lorelai never forgets," was the reply.

"You're insane."

"Thank you."