Chapter 11
"Lorelai, it's your mother," I heard, blaring from the answering machine, as I walked past it one afternoon. I quickly pressed the skip button and shuffled towards the kitchen for a snack.
I reached for a poptart and walked back towards the answering machine to hit the skip button once again after I heard, "Lorelai, really. This is ridiculous."
I walked towards the couch, took a bite of my cinnamon heaven, and brushed the crumbs off the baby bump I had been growing for 6 months. Emily Gilmore's voice once again rang through the house, but I was too wrapped up in my food to care. I heard little snippets of the message, such as "china" and "dinner" and other things that didn't really matter to me. It was just then that I heard it. It had been sitting at the back of my mind for months, eating away at me with worry. I pushed it back there after I hadn't heard from my parents in awhile, but it had just been confirmed, loud and clear. No toaster pastry of any kind could cloud that from my memory.
"Lorelai, your father and I are discontinuing our payments to Chilton."
Whatever she said after that was a blur. I didn't care about anything else. I was in deep trouble. This was no ordinary predicament. This was huge. What was I going to do? I surely couldn't call her back and beg for forgiveness. I would never resort to that. She's the one who needed to ask me for forgiveness. I was perfectly happy with her paying for Chilton and having her completely separated from mine a Rory's lives in every other way. Why did she have to go and ruin my bliss?
"Luke!" I called up the stairs. He was so graciously fixing my shower… again. I would never tell him that I kept breaking it on purpose, just to get him to come over the house. He came running down in frenzy.
"What? What's wrong?" He came and sat next to me on the couch, looking more worried than I had ever seen him.
"No, don't worry, Luke. The baby's fine." I smiled at how cute he could be sometimes.
"Oh, good." He breathed a sigh of relief. "What's wrong then?"
"We have a problem."
"We do? What's going on?"
"Well, I guess we don't really have a problem. It's more of a me and Rory kind of problem."
"Lorelai, whatever you and Rory have a problem with, I have a problem with. What's going on?"
Luke cares about me so much. I kissed him on the cheek, and got up to press play on the answering machine. I skipped the first two messages so he could hear the important one. Much to my dismay, Emily's shrill voice rang throughout the house once again.
Luke sat listening intently. "What do we care about China?"
"Just listen."
"Lorelai, your father and I are discontinuing our payments to Chilton."
"Oh… Uh Oh."
"Yeah. I have a bit of a problem," I said, as I went to join him on the couch again.
"What are we going to do?"
"I have no idea. I mean, there's no way I can afford to pay for Chilton. I swear, they overcharge way too much. They care a little too much amount the maintenance of those ugly gargoyles and not enough about the economic well being of the Chilton families."
Luke giggled at this. "How come you laugh at tough situations like this, but all other pregnant women cry their eyes out at the simplest things?"
"I'm multifaceted abnormal."
"Yeah, she likes washing dishes, too," Rory said, as she walked in the door from school.
"Hey, welcome home."
"Thanks. What's going on?" She could obviously see the worried looks on our faces. I couldn't tell her that she might not be going to Chilton anymore. It would break her heart. I couldn't deal with seeing her sad. That is what would make me cry.
"I stubbed my toe on the way down the stairs, and Luke, being the worrier he is, was just fussing over it. It's no big deal," I said, trying to change the subject. Thank god I was wearing socks, so she couldn't see how not stubbed my toe was.
"O…k. I guess I believe you." My daughter, always knowing when I'm lying to her. Luckily, she didn't push the subject, and went in her room to start her homework.
"What're we gonna do?" Luke asked, again.
"I don't know. I could call and see if there's any way to get financial aid, but I doubt there will be."
"It's worth a shot."
"Mkay. Hand me the phone?"
"Sure."
I dialed the number, and an irritated sounding woman answered the phone. "Hi, this is Lorelai Gilmore. I'm calling about my daughter… Lorelai Gilmore…. Yes I know her name is the same as mine… Well, excuse me! I was a little whacked out on Demoral… Ok, can I get back to the point here?... Thank you. Well, it seems as if I'm having a bit of money trouble lately, and I won't be able to make the full payments as normally planned… Yes, I know that's a problem… Well, is there any way to get financial aid, or a scholarship, or something like that?... I see… Well, thank you for your time. Goodbye."
"I take it it's a no," Luke said with a sigh.
"Tell him what his prize is, Johnny."
The rest of the day went smoothly, with the exception of the money thing eating away at the back of my mind. I didn't know what I was going to do. I was just going to have to tell Rory she'd have to go back to Stars Hollow High. But, I'd promise her I'd start saving money right at that moment so that maybe she'd be able to go back the next year. Fat chance, though. Chilton is a school of moochers, I swear.
"Mom?" I heard Rory call for me later that evening, after we had returned from Luke's for dinner. I walked from out of the kitchen and saw Rory standing by the answering machine. Damn. I knew I forgot to erase it.
"What's this?" She pressed the play button, and skipped straight to the part about the money.
"Ah, you've been snooping," I said, slyly avoiding the subject.
"Yeah, well when my mom doesn't tell me something important, I tend to resort to desperate measures. Now, what is it?"
"Well, Honey, They're not paying for Chilton anymore."
"Yeah, I picked up on that," she said in an exasperated tone. She walked over to the couch and sat down. I was quick to follow her.
"Now, don't get mad at me. I didn't make them stop paying. That was their choice."
"I know, I know. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at them. I can't believe they're doing this to us! It's like they want us to shut them out."
"They don't want us to shut them out. They want the exact opposite of that. When we stopped going to dinner and didn't return their calls or call them, and cut off all connections whatsoever, this was the only way they saw to get us back. They figured we'd come crawling back and beg for their fogiveness. But, Rory, we're not going to let them win. We'll figure something out."
"What're we going to do?"
"I've been asking myself the same thing all day."
Just then, we heard a knock at the door. I went to answer it, but there was no one there. I looked down and saw a simple white envelope lying before my feet, with "Rory" neatly written on it. I wasn't sure, but it looked oddly like Luke's handwriting.
"Rory, there's something here for you." I picked up the envelope with much difficulty because of my baby bump, and walked it over to Rory who was still sitting on the couch, sat down, and handed it to her.
"Who's it from?" She eyed the envelope curiously.
"I don't know. Open it up and find out."
Dear Rory,
Here's a blank check for Chilton. Just fill in the amount, whatever it is. Don't worry about how much. Consider it a gift from me to you.
Love,
Luke
"Oh my God," Rory gasped. We both stared at the letter and check in amazement. I knew Luke was a great guy, but I never knew he was this great. He would never know how much this meant to Rory, and to me.
"Mom, we have to go over there right now and thank him."
"Yeah, I'd say so."
We grabbed our jackets, hopped in the jeep, and sped over to the diner. We rushed in, and the first thing Rory did was go behind the counter to where Luke stood, and gave him a big hug. She surprised Luke, but he gladly returned the hug right away. They stayed like that for a few minutes.
"Come on, Rory, let me have a turn!"
She pulled back and looked Luke in the eyes. "Luke, thank you so, so, so much. You'll never know how much this means to me," Rory said, with a little sparkle in her eye. Luke hugged her again, and finally let go to give me a turn. But first, he grabbed a piece of pie and set it in front of Rory.
I pulled Luke into the storage room and kissed him harder than I'd ever kissed anyone in my entire life. I pulled back, and looked him in the eyes, and almost started crying. "Luke, you are amazing. I love you so much, you'll never know. I just… you are everything. I mean, first, you don't even think twice about dating a woman that's pregnant with another man's baby, and then, you stay with me all through the night after my mom crushes me, and you come to all of my baby appointments, and now this… Luke, I just… I'm speechless."
"Huh, you could've fooled me," Luke said with a grin. He put a hand on each arm and pulled me to him. "I'm glad to do it. I love Rory like a daughter, so I didn't even have to think about it. When you couldn't get financial aid, I knew I was going to do it right away."
I kissed him again, hugged him, and whispered in his ear, "I love you more than anything in the world."
"Back at'cha."
We started walking back out to the diner, when "Ow!"
"Lorelai? What's wrong?"
"Mom!" Rory rushed to my side, as did Luke.
"Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!" I cried out. The tears started pouring down my face. It hurt so much. "Something's wrong!" I screamed.
"Mom, this can't be happening! You're only 6 months pregnant!" Rory said frantically.
Luke led me over to a table. "Lorelai, you sit here. Rory, stay with your mother. I'll pull the truck around to the front."
"Okay." Rory bent down and held me close and cried with me. She was scared. So was I.
"Hurry, Luke! OW ow, ow, ow, ow!"
Tbc.
A cliffhanger! Ha! I'm evil! Atleast I made the chapter extra long! It may be a few days before I update again, cuz I'll be busy all day tomorrow, and then I go back to school on Monday. For as bad as that is, I finally get to escape from my mental institution of a family! By the way, can anyone help me figure out the time period, here? I mean, if she's 6 months along, what month would it be right now? I'm not too great at figuring that kind of stuff out. Pathetic, I know, but I'm not really sure what month it was when Christopher came back on the show, either. Any help would be much appreciated! Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Read and Review!
Random Question: If one f the sychronized swimmers drowns, do they all have to?