Chapter 5. Friday night with the Gilmores
"So tell me. Where did you sneak off to last night?" Kiera asked her driver as she and Rory were on their way to the Gilmore Residence for Friday night dinner. Rory glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and made a face.
"So you were awake? You weren't supposed so find out about that."
"Oh come on! We both know that stealth isn't your strongpoint. And apparently not Logan's either. You were about as silent as baby elephants! Now tell me; what was it all about?"
Rory sighed and considered. Kiera could be an awful nag when she wanted to know something. It was probably easier to just tell her.
"Okay. But you have to promise never to mention this to any of the guys, unless they bring it up first."
"Cross my heart and swear to die." Kiera smiled.
"It's a secret society at Yale called the Life and Death Brigade. We have events sometimes and this was the last event before summer."
"Oh, so these are the guys who made you jump off a seven story building. So what did you do last night? Have you advanced to nine story buildings?"
"No. I can't tell you. It was just some average mischief-making. Now don't ask any more questions or I'll have to kill you." Rory said in mock seriousness. They pulled up on the Gilmore's driveway and Rory killed the engine.
"Ready for your first ever Fridaynight dinner slash horror?" Rory asked her friend. "It will probably include a lot of questions about you and James and a lot of prodding into my relationship with Logan, laced with not so subtle hints about marriage and gorgeous kids in our future with blond hair and stunning blue eyes."
"Been thru this before have you?"
"You wouldn't believe the things they said when I brought Logan here for dinner." Rory concluded and shook her head as she got out of the car.
"So, Rory told me that you just broke up with your fiancée." Emily said during the first course. Rory just rolled her eyes. Here we go.´ she tought. Kiera didn't look rattled though.
"Yes. That's right. I guess it wasn't meant to be."
"Well, maybe not. So many young people nowadays just don't seem to have the will to sacrifice what's necessary to keep their relationship together. They lack commitment." Emily continued. Kiera groaned inwardly and gritted her teeth.
"I guess so. But sometimes maybe that's preferable to them being stuck in a situation that's not making them happy." She calmly replied.
"Maybe so. But I still think.."
"Grandma, can you pass the dressing, please?" Rory interrupted and quickly went on: "Grandpa, Kiera has something that she needs to ask you."
"Oh? Tell me." Richard said, glad to get away from Emily's uncomfortable questions to Rory's friend.
"Well, sir, as you know I go to Stanford University, but originally my plan was to go to Yale. I applied and was accepted but I chose to go with James instead. But now that that is over," she cast a sideways glance at Emily and hoped she wouldn't change back to that subject. "I really would like to transfer to Yale and I wondered if you could help me get a meeting with the Dean of admissions. I know he is an old friend of yours."
"Are you sure that you want to transfer?" Richard wondered. "I would gladly help you, but not if this is just some spur of the moment thing brought on by recent events."
"It isn't, sir. I have been staying with Rory for a few days now and I really like Yale. I really want this transfer." Kiera answered.
"Well, I see what I can do about that then." Richard smiled and went on to talk about all of Yale's strongpoints. With this to hinder Emily's further inquiries into the two young women's lives, the rest of the dinner was quite enjoyable.
A week later Kiera borrowed Rory's car to go to Yale and her first meeting with the Dean of admissions. She was really nervous about it. This meeting would after all decide if she could stay in this place that she liked so much or if she had to go back to Stanford. Going back to Malaysia without having finished her education was not an option. Not for her and certainly not for her parents.
"Miss Wyndam?" A gentleman approached her with his hand outstretched.
"Yes! That's me. Dean Lindbergh?"
"Yes. So you are the young lady that Richard spoke so warmly of. You're a friend of his granddaughter I gather?" He said as he showed Kiera into his office and offered her a chair and a glass of water.
"Yes. Rory and I went to Chilton together."
"So I see." He looked thru some papers. "And you went to Stanford but want to transfer here. May I ask why?"
Kiera started to explain her reasons, sans James, and then they proceeded to talk about Kiera's family and her will to take over the family empire and her need to be properly prepared to do so. Overall, Kiera went out of the Dean's office an hour later feeling pretty good about the whole interview. Dean Lindbergh had obviously been impressed with her strong feelings about the family business and her plans for its future. A future that included Kiera as the head of every board meeting. Her family had raised her to appreciate everything that they had worked so hard to build for two generations. The fact that she had worked in different parts of the company since the age of fourteen had only worked to strengthen that appreciation. But at the same time, she was terrified. What if she wasn't good enough? What if she ran the whole company into the ground? She realised that that wasn't really possible, what with the board and everything, but the fears were still there. That was part of the reason why she didn't want to go back to Malaysia just yet. While she was in the U.S. she could concentrate on doing well in her education and didn't have to put it to practical test.
Her thoughts were still a little jumbled when she arrived back in Stars Hollow. She tried to put it from her mind. It wasn't much she could do about it right now anyways.
"Hi." Rory came out of the front door. "Don't get out of the car. We've got to go to the post office. The rest of you're clothes and stuff has arrived. Also, Jessie called to let you know that James won't let them take your furniture into storage." She got into the car and Kiera sighed.
"Right. Just what I need. Is he really going to fight me about MY furniture?" She shook her head. "Did you give Jessie my new cell phone number?"
"Yeah. She said she would pass it on to everyone. She seems like a nice girl, I'm sorry I haven't met her."
"Maybe you will. If I get the transfer she will probably insist on visiting." Kiera smiled.
The girls were just putting the last box into Rory's room when Loralai came in.
"Hi, my college girls! Haven't you finished with the summer move yet? I thought you finished yesterday?" she said as Rory's cell phone rang.
"We did." Kiera answered as Rory went to answer her phone. "This is my stuff. Jessie sent them to me by mail."
"Oh. That's a lot of stuff you got there. Just for this summer?" Loralai sounded surprised.
"No. I'm hoping that they'll let me transfer to Yale and even if they don't… I can't have my stuff in James apartment. It creeps me out." Kiera said. Loralai could see from her expression that this wasn't a topic that the young woman wanted to keep discussing, so she let is slide.
"That was Logan." Rory said as she closed her phone. "He and I have been "invited" to this party his parents are hosting in New York next weekend. He said that you could come too if you wanted." Rory said to Kiera. "Apparently the whole gang is going to be there. Could actually be fun if we're not completely kidnapped by Mr. and Mrs. Huntzberger. So what do you say? Wanna come?"
"Yeah, sure. A party sounds fun."
Rory just snorted. "You, if anyone, should know that these parties are rarely fun. But it's at the Plaza so the possibilities of forming a sub-party are pretty much endless. So, we'll go?"
"We'll go." Kiera concluded. "I just have to find the box that contains my dresses…"
For the rest of the evening, Kiera and the two Gilmores were busy sorting thru clothes and organising Rory's room to accommodate two college girls with way to much clothes.
A/N: Kind of a long one. But stay with me. Next chapter: the party in N.Y.
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