Lorelai walked into dinning room. Immediately two sets of eyes beamed up at her. Lorelai knew what was coming. She was no idiot to the feelings her parents obtained to her dating Luke. If they had their way she would already be engaged to a pre-approved, prep school, business major, destined to follow in the foot steps of his father. That black and white world did not interest Lorelai, nor did she desire to be a part of it. She found more happiness with Luke, and the simplicity of which he came, than all the money stored away in the Gilmore bank account.

"You're late." Emily simply stated.

"Sorry." Lorelai replied as she scooted out her chair and sat down. "I was ... "

"I know what you was doing." Emily interjected. "You were with that boy."

"Luke, mom. His name is Luke." Lorelai corrected.

"I'm not concerned about his name."

Lorelai sighed, why did she even bother to show up? Every evening it was the same thing. Emily would pick at Lorelai, then boast about how well the DAR was going, and then it was back to picking at Lorelai again. Richard sat there, like a well behaved dog and never once opened his mouth. Speak only when spoken to boy. Lorelai humorously thought to herself. It was a miracle how well trained Emily had him. Lorelai picked around at the food on her plate. Not only did it look disgusting, it smelled disgusting as well. What Lorelai wouldn't do for a pizza. Emily, noticing Lorelai was eating, took it as her cue to begin her nit picking.

"Honestly, Lorelai, do I need to spoon feed you?" Emily asked in a voice that sounded more like she was serious than making a tasteless joke.

"Come on, mom. You don't expect me to eat this?"

"What's wrong with the food, Lorelai?"

"It smells horrible. It looks horrible. And from experience I've learned that if something smells horrible and it looks horrible, it's probably going to taste horrible."

Emily exhaled deeply. "Why do I bother? Go, Lorelai. You're excused."

Lorelai rose from the table and walked up to her room. Leaving the table was a relief, but Lorelai was still hungry. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She grabbed her phone and dialed a well known number.

"Hello?"

"Luke, we're sneaking out." Lorelai said proudly.

"We are?" Luke responded. "Why are we sneaking out?"

"Because I'm hungry."

Luke laughed. "I thought you were having your 7:00 dinner?"

"Are you kidding. I'm not eating that rat poison. "

"Lorelai, I know your mom is a little hostile, but I don't think she would put rat poison in your food." Luke teased.

"Are you coming to pick me up or not?" Lorelai replied, ignoring his poor attempt at a joke.

"Yeah, I'll be there in about 30 minutes."

"30 minutes?" Lorelai questioned with shock and disappointment. "I'll have starved to death by then."

"Fine. 20 minutes."

"Okay." Lorelai smiled, pleased with herself. "I'll meet you at the gate."

Lorelai hung up the phone. She had always wondered what it would be like to sneak out of the house. She never really had a reason to, however, until she met Luke. Most sixteen year old girls would merely tell their parents they were going out to eat with their boyfriend, but with Emily Gilmore, things just weren't that easy. Lorelai thought for a moment and soon devised a plan of escape. She cooly walked down stairs where her mother and father had retired to the living room for a drink.

"Hey, Um.. I'm going to be down in the basement for a while." Lorelai opened up. "I'm going to work on one of my puzzles." She stood waiting for a response. "I'm going to be there probably all evening." She again awaited some type of remark, a nod of the head, a grumble even. "Okay, well... bye." Lorelai ended.

Perhaps sneaking out would be easier than previously assumed. Lorelai glided down the steps to the basement and turned on the light. There lay all her puzzles that she had already worked. It was one of the only things that had kept her sane during her childhood. She gazed at one puzzle for several minutes. It was her favorite of them all. It was 15,000 pieces and had taken here nearly a year to complete. It was a picture of a snow covered valley, with children ice skating on a pond. It was nearly 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. Remembering the real reason she had came down to the basement she focused once again on her escape route. There would be more time for her puzzles later. She unlocked the basement window and heaved herself up from a chair. After a few seconds of squirming and wiggling, she found herself completely outside of the Gilmore house.

"That wasn't so hard." She bragged to herself.

Excitement filled her body as she saw the headlights of Luke's old truck pulling up the street. When he got closer to the house, he turned off his lights and coasted through the dark. Lorelai had to hand it to him, he was a smart fellow. As he slowly made his way up the street, Lorelai pulled gently on the gate doors, opening them just enough for her to slide her thin figure through them. It could not have been more perfectly planned. As Lorelai reached the curb, the door to Luke's truck was open and waiting for her. She jumped in and immediately landed a kiss on Luke's cheek. Lorelai was pretty sure he was blushing, but it was dark so she couldn't tell for sure. Once they had coasted far enough away from the Gilmore house, Luke flicked his lights on and Lorelai snapped on the radio. They were well on their way to the nearest pizza joint.