Disclaimer: I don't own them still, and I probably never will.
Chapter 3: The Year to Come
Three Fridays had past and they had not heard from the elder Gilmores. Rory hadn't gotten up the nerve to tell anyone else but it was becoming harder and harder to hide the fact that her belly was growing. She knew she had to tell Paris, she would be more than a little upset to not find out until a very pregnant Rory walked into their room the next semester. She chose the very last day they were in the room to tell her, that way she could leave and Paris would have three months to get used to the idea before they saw each other again.
"So, Paris, about next year."
"Yeah I am glad that it will be just you and I in our room next year, living with Tana this year was like living with an infant and man Janet and her getting up at 5 a.m. to run, who needs that? I am glad it will be just you and me, I mean you are practically non existent, no noise, no waking up early, no infantile remarks."
"Yeah, hey speaking of infantile I have something to tell you. I mean you like actual babies right? I mean I know you don't like adults that act like children but, you like actual children right?"
"At a distance they are fine I suppose."
"What about if they were say family or a close friends child, would you like them up close then?"
"I don't have any family that might reproduce and you are my only close friend so I am not sure why you are…" Paris looked up at Rory. "That isn't the freshman fifteen hanging around your middle is it?"
"No."
"You are?"
"I'm pregnant." Rory said.
"Oh my God." Paris said.
"Yeah."
"Who?" Paris asked.
"Sean."
"Sean?"
"The guy from Spring break…remember?"
"You mean he, you…on your first time?"
"First time is a charm I suppose."
"What, what are you going to do?" Paris asked.
"I am going to take summer classes, and get ahead as much as I can, and go through November when the baby is due, right thankfully around Winter break. And then…"
"You can't live in our building with the baby, it is against the building rules, they have other housing for parents. They are going to shove me in with some weirdo transfer student." Paris said paniced.
"Wait, no, I mean, what if you and I applied for the parent housing?"
"It is too late Rory…those things fill up months in advance. Plus I don't think they will buy that I am your babies' father. Can't you leave the baby with your mom and just go see it on the weekends?" Paris said seriously.
"Paris!"
"I am sorry Rory, I don't know what to do, or how to help here. You didn't plan this very well."
"I didn't plan this at all Paris! You think I would plan something like this now! I am not ready for this! I am supposed to graduate from Yale and go travel the world, be a foreign correspondent; I can't do any of that with a baby strapped to my back. I have to scale back every dream I ever had! I have to change every list I have ever made! I am no longer Rory Gilmore prodigal daughter, great white hope of the Gilmore clan, list maker and perfect grandchild. I am now Rory Gilmore, soon to be teen mom and Yale drop out."
"Hey you are spinning, stop sit down. You shouldn't get so worked up in your condition. Listen Rory, I have never been so good at the whole supportive friend thing, it is just not my bag. Listen, I know that you didn't plan this, but uh, oh hell Rory I don't know what to say. You might have to scale back and be a local reporter and maybe you graduate Yale late, but you are going to finish. And you won't be a teen mom Rory by the time the baby is born you are going to be 20."
"I didn't mean for it to be like this." Rory said starting to cry. Paris pulled Rory to her should her and hugged her.
"You can't plan every moment of your life." Paris said.
"It is so messed up, my mom is acting like she is okay but I know she is mad and disappointed, and I have never disappointed her, and my grandparents, they are half way to disowning me, if they haven't already. Oh, my God, my dad, I haven't even told Chris…"
"You will tell him in time." Paris said.
"Are you mad at me?" Rory said.
"Nah, I really wanted to live off campus next semester anyway." Paris said.
"What?"
"We should probably start looking now, all the places close to campus fill up quick, but I am sure my dad can pull some strings."
"You would do that?" Rory said surprised by her friends reaction.
"I can't risk getting stuck with a second semester transfer." Paris said.
"You realize I will want my child to live with me, and if you live with me you will be living with it too."
"I figured you didn't like the leave it with your mom all week idea."
"Yeah."
Just then the mail fell through the slot.
"Awe, our last mail." Paris said. "I better have something from a newspaper in here, I wanted to have a plan by now."
"Yeah I can't believe you haven't heard from any of them yet." Rory said.
"It is my fault, I got the apps in late, I was preoccupied."
"I didn't even bother, I was thinking, I don't know what I was thinking, I was thinking that my mom with the Inn opening and…"
"No one is faulting you Gilmore, you have bigger fish to fry this summer. Oh my goodness."
"What."
"I heard back, from one, the Stars Hollow Gazette, I only applied as a last ditch attempt."
"You applied to the Stars Hollow Gazette? Do employers even count that as a real news paper?"
"I don't know."
"Are you going to take it?"
"I don't know."
"Where are you going to live?"
"I don't know."
"Who wrote Dead Souls?"
"Nikolai Gogol."
"Just checking." Rory said.