CHAPTER 7 - MOUSE TRAP!

Gilmore House

The next morning Rory awoke from the sound of clanking pots and pans. "Is mom making breakfast?" she asked herself, suddenly hungry. Rory opened her door to find Lorelai scrunched in a ball on the kitchen table with a pan facedown on the floor.

"DON'T MOVE! We have a mouse."

"Oh, stupid me, I thought you were making breakfast."

"Why would you think that I would make breakfast? That's why we have Luke." Rory laughed as she listened to her mother carry on. "Oh and you can ask him to make you breakfast because I just called him to tell them there's an emergency and he needs to get here ASAP!"

"Mom, did you tell him the emergency involves a mouse?"

"No..."

"MOM! He'll think one of us is hurt or something."

"Ohh... oh well. That just means he'll get here faster."

"You are a cruel woman." Rory said and she turned and went back into her room. As she lay back on her bed, Rory heard the doorbell sound. Then she heard her mother yell to come in.

"What's wrong?" Luke asked, out of breath. He had obviously ran there.

"We have a mouse."

"A mouse?"

"Yes, a mouse."

"A MOUSE! Are you kidding me?"

"No Luke, I have now said it three times! WE HAVE A MOUSE!"

"Lorelai, don't bother me with this bullshit. I thought you were hurt." Just then Luke turned to walk out the door.

Lorelai saw that he was leaving and leaped off the table and ran to the hallway. "WAIT!" she yelped, feeling sorry.

"What?"

"I'm sorry Lukey bear."

"Yeah, well..."

"What can I do to make it up to you?"

"How about never calling me again when you have mice problems."

"Will do."

"Okay, can I go now?"

"Yeah." Luke opened the front door and made it as far as the steps before he turned around.

"Forget something? No wait you didn't bring anything. But you know, I can go get you that mouse, if you want." Lorelai smiled. Just then Luke walked back into the house.

"Luke, what? You're acting craz-" Before Lorelai could even finish her sentence, Luke grabbed her into a passionate kiss. Lorelai was shocked, it took her a second to realize what was happening, but then she returned the gesture.

"I better get back to the diner." Luke said after a minute.

"Okay."

"Bye Lorelai."

"Bye Luke." she said, as she watched him go.

Rory was in her room, lounging on her bed, when her mom ran in.

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! You will NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS guess what just happened."

"Luke kissed you?" Rory asked and she turned on her side.

"You're no fun. How did you know?"

"Well, it was only a matter of time before it happened. You two have been flirting shamelessly since the first day we moved here, and you came in here all giddy, just like Molly Ringwald was when she found out from the geek that Jake Ryan asked about her."

"Okay, first of all, we have not been flirting, and second of all, I think I am ten times more excited then Molly Ringwald was, don't you agree."

"Yeah, actually I do."

"Oh my god! Every time I think about it, I just can't believe it actually happened."

"Well get used to it, cause we're going to the diner tonight before I go to Grace's."

After the girls got done analyzing the kiss and worrying about how Luke will act, they finally moved onto a new topic: Tristan.

"So...are you excited for tonight?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah, it'll be fun."

"That's good. Is Tristan home for summer break yet?"

"No, he doesn't get home until the very end of June." Rory answered.

"And are you saddened by that?" Lorelai joked.

"MOM! I don't even know if I like him."

"Rory, how could you not know. You blush every time anyone mentions his name."

"Well...for all I know he has a girlfriend and doesn't even like me."

"I highly doubt he would call a girl he doesn't like, out of the blue, on some random Wednesday night, and stay on the phone with her for half the night."

"We were not on the phone for half the night! Half an hour, maybe."

"So, what's your point? He called you, and talked to you. That means he likes you at least a little bit." Lorelai said with a hand gesture.

"I don't know."

"Why are you even fretting about this? Why don't you just ask Grace tonight? She'll know."

"No way! I don't even think I'm gonna tell her that he called."

"WHY NOT!"

"Wouldn't it be kind of weird if I go over there and tell her that her brother called me after not having seen him in two years."

"Yeah that may be kind of weird. I guess it's good if you don't tell her. BUT, if you want to tell her, you should do it."

"We'll see what happens." Rory said with a sigh.

"OH MY GOD! I cannot believe that I kissed Luke!" Lorelai exclaimed.

"MOM! I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE WITH THIS! Go and talk to him, if you're that obsessed with him." She said while laughing.

"I am not obsessed!"

"If you're not obsessed than I'm not your daughter." Rory said as she got up to go to the bathroom. She was shocked when she looked at the clock to see that it was already 4:00. She and her mom and been hangin around and talking about boys ALL day. After Rory got out of the bathroom she yelled, "Mom get dressed! We're goin to LUKE'S!"

"FINE BY ME!" was her mother's reply.

LUKE'S

"Can we have some coffee, oh mighty mouse slayer?" Lorelai asked as she sat at a stool.

Luke gave her a knowing smile before he replied, "Yeah, hold on one second."

"I think he likes me!" Lorelai whispered into Rory's ear, just as a junior high girl would do.

"Luke, Lorelai has a crush on you." Rory said to Luke.

"RORY! Luke, I like soooo do NOT have a crush on you." Lorelai looked at Rory and made a face.

"Good because I like SOOO do not have a crush on you too." Luke said, mocking Lorelai.

"Hey now! You're being mean. Rory, Luke's being mean."

"You two sound like you are in fifth grade...can we just order?" Rory said

"Fine grouch face. Besides, you're the one that started it." Lorelai exclaimed.

"Okay, I'm sorry I instigated it. Luke, can I have a cheeseburger."

"Me too!"

"Okay, I'll be back." he said before he disappeared to the back.

"Geez Rory, way to play it cool. You totally just blew my cover."

"Hey, you guys never would've started talking if I didn't just get it out of the way. Plus now it's all out in the open and you can talk about it.." Rory said.

"I'd rather not talk about it, I'd rather act on it." Lorelai said with a goofy smile.

"Gosh Mom, you're sick."

"Okayy, I'm sorry."

For the next hour, Luke and Lorelai playfully flirted while Rory brought them back down to earth every now and then. At around 5:30 Rory left the diner and headed over to Grace's house.

DuGREY HOUSE

The maid let Rory in, shortly after she rang the doorbell. She was led to a room, where Grace was. Grace waved and then pointed down to the phone she was currently talking in to. She put up her finger, meaning she'd be off in one second. While Rory waited, she looked around the room. She was in the DuGrey's study. It was a beautiful room. It had a fireplace and many book shelves lined with books. Rory went up to look at the pictures on the mantle of the burning fire. There were a number of pictures of Grace and then she got to a family photo. As Rory stared into Tristan's eyes she imagined that he were right next to her. "He is so hot." she found herself whispering. She looked around to make sure no one was around her...nope, Grace was still on the phone. After Rory finished studying all the pictures on the mantle she headed over towards Grace.

"I've got to go, Rory's here." she heard Grace say into the phone.

"Rory's t-there? At our house?" Tristan stuttered into his cell phone

"Yes Tristan, Rory's here."

"Is she in the room with you?"

"Yeah, she's standing right next to me." Grace replied, purposely repeating everything he was saying.

"Don't say her name out loud, she'll think we're talking about her!" Tristan said, he was starting to get nervous again. Just hearing her name made his heart beat faster.

"But we are talking about her." Grace answered, knowing Rory was listening to every word she said.

"Listen Tris, I really have to go. I'll talk to you later. And let me know if you are coming home early." Grace hung up the phone. Rory's ears perked up when she heard Grace say coming home.

"Who was that?" she asked, trying to play innocent.

"Tristan."

"Oh." Rory answered.

"Yeah, he might be coming home early, since they're not having final exams."

"Lucky." Rory said, then realizing what she said, she expanded, "I mean lucky for him, ya know, since he has no final exams."

Grace laughed, sensing Rory's nervousness. "Sureee..." she said, and then headed out of the room.

"Do you want a grand tour?" Grace asked as she entered yet another study.

"Sure, I guess." Rory answered.

For the next 10 minutes Grace took Rory in one room and out the other. Finally they got to the final floor, which held all the bedrooms. Grace stopped as she turned a corner and two more doors faced them.

"That's Tristan's room and this is my room." She said, pointing to the appropriate door. As Grace led Rory into her room, Rory poked her head into Tristan's room. It was everything she had imagined. The only thing that was missing was him. Just then she snapped back to attention, "What am I doing?" she thought to herself. "I talked to him for 20 minutes and I'm already turning to mush around anything that had to do with him!" She shook the thought out of her head and she walked into Grace's room and sat down on her bed.

"So, what do you think?"

"I'm not thinking about Tristan!" Rory said.

"Okay, number one, I didn't ask about Tristan, number two, I meant what you think about the house"

"Oh," Rory fake-laughed, "your house it great. It's beautiful." she managed to say, while inside she was cursing herself. How could she be so out there and almost blow her cover.

"Thanks." Grace answered. This is great, my plan is working BRILLIANTLY, she thought to herself. Little did she know that states away, Tristan was devising a plan of his own.