Chapter 22
Rory was just making her way from Kroon Hall, where she'd been for an interview, to York Street, where the paper was, using the 20 minute walk to catch up with her mother. She hadn't been home in weeks, there had been little time for calls even.
Her mother had just given her a lengthy overview on everything going on in Stars Hollow and with Luke, but Rory knew she was consciously keeping the best news for last.
"So, you're off the hook," Rory said, approaching the newsroom.
"Off the hook, for what?" Lorelai asked.
"Friday night," Rory said. "Grandma and Grandpa are having a party for their Yale alumni friends," she added.
" Really? This is news!" Lorelai replied appreciatively.
"So you're free as a bird," Rory said, jollily, knowing her mother suddenly very very happy.
" Wo-ow, Friday night without my mother! I don't know if I can deal! You might have to come over and force-feed me pickled herring and tell me what a disappointment I am," Lorelai responded as expected. "Hey, you want to go to the movies?" she suggested.
"Can't, I'm going to the party," Rory replied, already sensing something fishy. It felt too convenient somehow, and her grandparents had sounded almost too jolly to be believable.
"What?" Lorelai ask, and Rory could just sense the teasing coming. The amount of trust Lorelai had for her parents was several notches below what she had, but she at least chose to see that whatever they did they didn't really do to hurt them. And she did have also the agreement with them concerning paying for Yale.
"They asked me to," Rory said.
"Huh. Okay. I can get you out of it," Lorelai suggested.
"Mom…," Rory argued.
"Whoop…hold on, just a moment….Let me formulate a plan," Lorelai pondered, walking into the Inn's kitchen, going to get a cup of coffee. .
"I don't need to formulate a plan, I want to go," Rory said, genuinely thinking that if it was Yale alumni party she indeed might need those connections some day, already having sensed she'd spent her summer not too purposefully, many having already been engaged in various internships unlike her.
"You don't want to go, you feel obligated to go. That's very different," Lorelai argued.
"Mom, they're giving the party together," she emphasized another part of this.
"Ooh, I got it. Transfer to Harvard, then you won't be invited," Lorelai suggested anyway.
"Are you listening?" Rory reprimanded her mother.
"Rory, they're just manipulating you," Lorelai pointed out.
"Yes! Exactly! Them. Both of them, together. They called me together. They were on the speakerphone together, which means that they were in the same room, at the same time, together," Rory explained, excitedly.
" So what you're saying is, they were together?" Lorelai inquired.
"Exactly!" Rory responded a little too excitedly.
"Whose antennae are up besides mine?" Lorelai asked.
"Maybe they made up," Rory speculated. But she could feel it too. They were definitely in kahoots for some reason.
"They would have told us," Lorelai replied.
"They didn't tell us they broke up," Rory shrugged, slowing down her step.
"Yes, but that's because it looked bad. They didn't tell people I was pregnant 'till my eighth month. My mother kept getting numbers for fat farms from her friends," Lorelai recalled.
"They sounded so happy. They sounded like they used to," Rory said, hopefully.
"Are you sure you want to go?" Lorelai asked again.
"I'm sure," Rory assured, coming to a stop by the door of the newsroom.
"All right. Don't let Grandpa and his cronies make you sing Whiffenpoof songs all night," Lorelai said.
"I won't," Rory promised.
"Well, I'm sorry I'm not going to see you on Friday," Lorelai sighed, disappointedly.
"Well, how about I come by after? I can stay the night and then you can take me shopping on Saturday," Rory suggested.
"Ah, the lucky girl," Lorelai responded. "No Logan this weekend?" Lorelai inquired. She knew they were seeing each other a lot, but not the details - nor the specific arrangement they had.
"Nah, his parents are dragging him to some event. I'll probably see him later on Saturday," Rory said, not terribly excitedly.
"Aw… Everything alright there?" Lorelai inquired.
"I'll just talk about things when I get home," Rory suggested, clearly feeling some of the heaviness. At the very least she needed to tell her mother the 'rules' of this relationship.
"So there is something...?" Lorelai asked, clearly wanting to talk more now.
"I got to go, I'm at the paper, okay? Bye," Rory said, also seeing a rare sight of Logan at his desk as she got to the newsroom, catching her with an appreciative smile.
By Friday night, Rory was strangely nervous at whatever this was, having already generated a number of things her grandparents could have come up with, none, however, were quite what awaited her.
She'd been running a little late, discovering the pair of tights she'd been planning on wearing had ripped (not Logan's doing), and she'd had to go through her entire closet to find another pair, leaving her very little time for final touches. Hence she was fairly certain grandma was going to complain about her hair being too plain. But at least she'd washed it - she thought.
Her dress was probably okay, even if not her absolute favorite, the dress usually feeling too fancy for most of the events she went to, but she knew this was probably as good a time as any to pull it out and please her grandma.
Rory could already hear her grandmother orchestrating the help around when the maid let her in and took her coat, and she made her way towards her grandmother's voice, fairly innocently, pretty much thinking - how bad could it be?
"Hey, grandma," Rory greeted her, catching the end of her sentence, containing something about a treadmill.
"Rory, oh, look at you!" Emily exclaimed, sounding like she was in a very good mood. But it was then it got weird. "Will you look at her?" she suddenly demanded from the nearest catering crew member. "I said look at her," she almost huffed, finally getting the guy's attention. "Isn't she beautiful?" she asked.
"Yes, very beautiful," came a somewhat forced compliment out of the guy's mouth, making Rory incredibly awkward.
"I love this dress. Very elegant!" Emily exclaimed, never usually making that big of a deal about her outfits.
"Thanks, grandma. The place looks wonderful," Rory replied.
"Oh, there's too much blue," Emily groaned.
"It's Yale alumni. There can't be too much blue," Rory pointed out.
"Emily, I noticed the bartenders weren't planning on using proper martini glasses," her grandfather's voice said, reaching for them. "Oh, well! Rory! How lovely you look tonight," Richard said, directing the compliment to her. He sounded genuine, but he too had never really made much of an effort to compliment her looks before, so her antennae was definitely back up, no matter how much she appreciated seeing the two interacting normally and being in the same room.
"Doesn't she?" Emily reflected yet again.
Rory was truthfully already now sensing a setup - it wouldn't have been the first time. They had certainly tried setting up Lorelai as well, more than once.
"This dress is divine. But you know what?" Emily suggested. "My hairdresser is upstairs in my bedroom right now. Why don't you go have her do something with your hair?" she added.
"My hair?" Rory asked, taking all of this weirdness in.
Of course there was a hairdresser just waiting idly by? Just upstairs - really? - Rory thought, internally rolling her eyes already. At the very least her plain looking hair wasn't going to be an eye-sore.
"Just for kicks. Come on, I'll take you up," Emily suggested, no - insisted, rather.
No pressure - Rory groaned to herself sarcastically.
"Richard, could you?" Emily asked for Richard's help.
"I have it all under control," Richard replied, making himself useful.
"Thank you. Come on!" Emily pretty much dragged her up the stairs as if it was the most important thing in the world.
Emily's bedroom was indeed in full beauty parlor mode. And what had started out as Emily suggesting to do a 'little something' with her hair had turned into a ladder braided bun on the top of her head. It was beautiful, but not quite her. And a simple hairdo had naturally turned into getting her makeup done as well, there already being way more product on her face that she ever used normally.
"Oh, yes, that's very nice. Love the lashes," Emily complimented the work, having been out of the room for a few minutes.
"Grandma, this is really very nice but…," Rory began to hesitate, not feeling like herself.
"Little more cheeks," Emily suggested.
"Shouldn't we be getting down to the party?" Rory asked, feeling like she'd spent an entire hour up there already. She had, she just hadn't had a watch close by.
"Yes, one more minute now," Emily said, clearly getting some idea. "Let's see here," Emily said, fussing around with something by her dresser, and Rory was looking more worried by the minute. "This might do it," Emily said, returning with a diamond necklace with a huge diamond pendant.
Rory was yet to wear a diamond necklace, let alone something this huge.
"Grandma, I couldn't," Rory objected, but the objection was too mild to really register with Emily.
"Diamond necklaces were invented to be worn. They're doing nobody any good just sitting in a box," her grandma said, hooking the necklace around her neck. It even felt heavy.
Strangely enough Rory felt none of that same pride wearing that thing as many other girls with princess fantasies would. In fact, she'd gotten her dose when she'd had her debutante ball, that being quite enough.
"Perfect," Emily commented, approvingly. "Do you like it?" she asked, though expecting only one kind of answer.
"Well, yes, it's beautiful, but…," Rory began, her grandmother interrupted her.
"It needs earrings," Emily exclaimed, having just the pair ready for her.
Emily went on to explain how Richard had bought her those earrings in Copenhagen, and Rory hoped this meant things were warming up between the two.
But while Rory, somewhat reluctantly, attached the earrings, her grandmother was already beginning to suggest a tiara.
Oh god!
It didn't help that she hadn't had a need to wear a tiara since she was 4.
"You look like a princess!" Emily gushed.
Rory did like seeing her grandmother this happy, hence she hated to ruin it. But she could just feel the heaviness of this all - these expectations, all of this that wasn't her…
"Grandma, are you sure you want me to wear all this stuff?" Rory asked, hesitantly, not having much strength in her. Even the word 'stuff' didn't seem to suffice for all of this.
It didn't help that she considered all these things very expensive and worried about something happening to them, the broad smile on her grandmother's face spoke for itself.
"Shall we?" Emily said, suggesting they head downstairs.
Finally - Rory thought, just wanting to get on with whatever this was.
"Everyone, here's Rory!" Emily called out, making Rory want to sink into the ground right there, as they reached the stairs. One thing would've been to simply have her blend in, but it became clear to Rory now that she had no intention doing that.
A row of compliments from her grandfather followed, some of them also directed to Emily for doing a fine job on her.
Rory was within the next minutes introduced to the Head family, more specifically their son Andrew, the Andersons and their son Donnan, the Barnes and their son Kip. And as Rory also glanced around the room she saw no women below the age of 45, making it more and more clear to her what this was. She felt… well… She would've wanted to say 'cheap' but with a tiara on her head and the heaviness of the diamond on her neck she really couldn't.
"The party is very nice, grandma. I was just wondering, do your alumni friends have any daughters?" Rory decided to ask her grandparents as she'd pulled them aside, letting them know, in her opinion very tactfully, that she was onto their game.
Emily and Richard played oblivious, as expected, not really showing an ounce of guilt for any of it. This was just like them - and Rory realized her mother had been right. She was always right, well…almost.
That conversation ended pretty much as quickly as it started by Richard directing Rory towards Paxton Campbell - Campbell - like the soup - to continue their rounds.
And while Rory actually didn't mind talking to all of them, some of them were genuinely nice guys, even the Campbell boy until he decided to call her 'sweetie' and assume she covered topics like fashion and lifestyle at the Yale Daily News without even asking her. She went on to meet Jackson Du Pont, Anthony Cargill, Ross Haas, Maxwell Scripps and Alexander Vanderbilt whom she assumed to be somehow related to Stephanie. There was Jon Oppenheimer and a few she only barely recalled, for a while there having gotten a little dizzy.
At some point, after being bored to death by the guys forming a circle around her while talking cars, she excused herself to call her mother, hearing nothing she hadn't expected from her - a list of escape routes. She felt like she was being auctioned off to the highest bidder, and that even though she was kind of flattered that even some of these no-doubt wealthy, good-looking and successful guys were actually kind of interested in her, at least they seemed to be. But she knew she was better than that. She could make it through this, she just… she needed some air.
She grabbed a couple of appetizers onto a platter and made it outside. At least the fresh air meant less crowd around, she was just hoping her grandmother wouldn't drag her back in there for another round any time soon.
But her grandmother had done one better.
"Rory?" came a sudden interruption, a tall dark guy walking up to her.
"M-hmm?" she asked, her mouth containing a few nuts.
"I'm Jordan," the guy introduced himself. He wasn't bad looking, though definitely a little too sleek to her liking. Besides, it was not like she was free to date. She had a boyfriend - even if it was a secret one.
"Your grandmother sent me over here," Jordan explained. "Apparently, we're made for each-other," he added.
"Oh, gee, well… how convenient," Rory exclaimed, mockingly, no longer putting up the pretense to be all polite and humble.
"There's nothing like having your family play matchmaker," Jordan commented, sounding like he was actually kind of getting it. "How old are you?" he asked, definitely making Rory put her guard up a little.
"Me? I'm almost 20," she replied.
"Alright, good. Just making sure everything's legal," Jordan replied, making Rory want to knee him already. "You need a drink?" he asked, getting even cockier.
"No, not a drink," Rory replied, despite being well used to having a drink or two by now around Logan. But she certainly knew she didn't want to be drinking around this guy.
"Why? Do you get a little crazy when you drink?" Jordan suggested, almost hopefully.
"Yes, that's it," Rory continued to mock.
"I'd like to see that," Jordan said.
"Rory, kitten - there you are! I've been looking all over for you! I'm late, I'm sorry - please don't be mad," Finn suddenly appeared, making a apologetic face, and placed his arm around Rory's shoulders, as familiarly as he had a couple of times when he'd been very very drunk. He was the most friendly kind of drink she'd ever seen. And somehow even him using terms of endearment never came off as condescending like it was with most men.
"Finn Morgan," the tall Aussie offered his hand to Jordan in greeting.
"Jordan Chase," he replied, clearly caught by surprise.
"Lovely to meet you. Thanks for keeping my lovely girl busy here. If you hadn't, she would have noticed how late I am, and that would've been very very bad…," Finn added theatrically.
"Excuse me. I'm sorry. You're with her?" Jordan had to ask to have it spelled out for him.
Rory was just enjoying the show at this point, loving the look on Jordan's face.
"Going on a year and half, my mate," Finn said, patting Jordan's shoulder.
Rory added an extra, actually taking Finn's hand that hung on her shoulder, to confirm the story. Sure, she would've appreciated Logan being the one to stand up for her like this, but Finn felt like home compared to Jordan.
"Great, then what the hell am I doing here?" Jordan threw the question in the air.
"Oh, thank you," Rory exclaimed to Finn as he removed his hand.
"Anything for you, love. But you really need to thank that boyfriend of yours, as it was him who noticed this abomination taking place," Finn commented, already seeing Logan walk over.
"You okay there, Ace? I'm so sorry… I would've budded in myself, my mother was just watching me like a hawk a minute ago after I expressed my disgust about being a part of this ridiculous meat market," Logan exclaimed, sounding a little upset.
"Not quite the words I would've used but yeah…," Rory replied, strangely feeling now even more offended.
Finn had by then made his way to the bar.
"Hey, I'm sorry," Logan replied, realizing Rory hadn't appreciated his choice of words.
"No, you're right. It is an obvious meat market. It just feels awful… the entire night is awful. Jordan... He was such a jerk. God... And thank you for sending Finn… though I would've just preferred you… obviously," Rory blabbered.
"Man, I hate these parties," Logan sighed.
"Not really my bag, either," Rory commented.
"But at least the bar is stocked and I must say your grandmother has excellent food," Logan commented.
"I guess," Rory sighed.
"Logan, how are you, son?" Richard appeared from behind him.
"I'm very well, sir. And yourself?" Logan turned around and asked.
"Well, I'm fit as a fiddle. It's good to see you," Richard replied, and Rory could just see how much her grandfather liked him. She was fairly certain there wouldn't be any issue with him disliking him like it had been with Dean. Not by a long shot.
"Are your parents here?" Richard asked.
That caught Rory by surprise. That she hadn't quite linked together, even though Logan had mentioned his mother before. His parents were here. This meant being extra careful about hiding their relationship, but at the same time if she did get introduced to them - she really did need to be at her best, didn't she. Who knows - maybe someday they might no longer be a secret, even if that seemed like a very long time away.
"They're around here somewhere. Mom is obsessed with Emily's new draperies," Logan commented, certainly knowing the 'talk'.
"Ah, yes, Emily has exquisite taste in fabrics," Richard commented, once again making Rory sense like something had shifted between the two. "All right, Rory, since I see that you are in capable hands, I will make another round and end up at the bar," he explained.
Rory wondered whether their secret was already slipping out of their hands if he was making comments, however mild, like that.
"It's been good to see you, Richard," Logan said.
"Good to see you, Logan," Richard replied.
"Okay, so, lesson one in coping with painfully boring parties," Logan began, picking up some newfound energy, "form a subparty," he added, picking up a bottle of champagne from a nearby table.
Almost on automatic, Finn appeared back by their side, and Logan suggested it was a time for a change of venue, cleverly keeping the bottle hidden by its towel.
"Oh, fantastic!" Finn commented, following him, as did Rory.
Strangely enough, by now, the tiara, the necklace and earrings, the dress, the shoes and the hair… no longer felt as heavy, Rory having gotten used to them. And certainly the prospect of having her friends there, made her feel much better. Meat market or not. Logan was there, not at some other party, surrounded by all the gorgeous girls hoping to get in line, and while she would've loved a gesture like that from him - rescuing her from the likes of Jordan Chase, she was still glad that he was there, feeling the connection like she had never felt to anyone else.
AN: Thank you, thank you for your reviews, thoughts and feedback.
But I am still stuck on ideas for potential conflict situations during this party. Ideas? Should we get a blast form the past of some kind? Jess maybe? Fight with Emily and Richard? Or... the Marty topic coming up in some way ? Looking forward to your ideas! Well.. technically it doesn't have to be a conflict as I think facing Lorelai will be enough... but still.. I wonder if that moment when Dean broke up with her was kind of a important moment in the OS - showed us that he cared.