A/N: I'm halfway done with Audrey's First Day at Chilton, the first in a six part series of Audrey as a teenager. Until then here's a little more about her as a little girl. Just so you know the reason Lorelai is not here is because she took that job with the Durham Group and is in Paris at the time of this going on. Enjoy guys.

Chapter 33: Kindergarten

Luke Danes walked in the park with his precious angel. His little buddy wasn't going to be able to play with him all day anymore. Cause that morning Audrey Avery Danes was going to kindergarten. As he walked with his angel, thoughts of someone else played in his head. He thought of his son.

What would Christian be today? Would he be like him or would he be like Lorelai? Would he be enthusiastic about starting school or would he be dreading it? What would he look like? Audrey had all the qualities of him and her mother. Long curly brown hair, bright blue eyes, a smile that could light up a room. Would Chip have had that smile?

"Daddy, why do I have to go to school?" five year old Audrey asked. "I don't want to go. I want to stay with you all day, like I did yesterday. We could have a picnic in my tree house and trade baseball cards."

As much as Luke didn't want to leave his precious Audrey at Stars Hollow Elementary he knew he had to. She had a fairly large shadow to live up to. Audrey was smart, just like her older sister. She starting reading at three and could write her whole name at four and a half. The pair stopped outside the door of Miss Fickley's classroom.

"You ready?" he asked.

Audrey nervously clung to her father's hand. "Not yet. You're going in with me right, Daddy?"

"Of course kiddo. I wouldn't just leave you here," Luke reassured her. "Come on we'll go in together."

Luke opened the door to the classroom and he and Audrey stepped inside. It was a small class, about fifteen students. Luke thought that was pretty good. Audrey would get enough one on one time with her teacher and maybe make some other friends.

"Welcome!" Miss Fickley called cheerfully. "What's your name?"

Audrey hid behind her father's legs. Audrey didn't like meeting new people. She liked what she was used to. She liked helping her father in the diner, she liked helping Aunt Sookie make cookies at the inn, she liked helping her mother put the pillow mints on the pillows and she liked going to Rory's office in the city. She peeked out around her father's legs but ducked back when she saw Miss Fickley looking at her.

"What's her name?" Miss Fickley asked Luke.

"Audrey," Luke answered.

"Audrey, would you like to go over and play with Camille? She's over playing with the blocks," Miss Fickley asked, sinking down to Audrey's level.

"No thank you," Audrey said quietly. "I want to stay right here."

Luke gave Miss Fickley the Don't-Push-It look. Miss Fickley took the hint and moved onto another set of parents. Luke detached Audrey from his knees and they looked around the classroom. They located Audrey's cubby hole. Audrey placed her little backpack in it. After that they found her desk. Audrey sat down and took out the box of crayons and began to color. Luke slunk back to the door and watched. A few other students came over to the group of desks that Audrey's was in and began to color with her.

Luke knew better than to leave Audrey there by herself without saying goodbye. Audrey looked over her shoulder and saw Luke standing by the door. She bolted from her chair and ran to her Daddy with tears in her eyes.

"Daddy don't go!" she cried. "I don't like it here."

"I know you don't like it but give it a few days," Luke said. "I tell you what, you be a good girl today this weekend we'll go to New York to the last Yankee game of the season. Now go back to your desk and make some pretty pictures to give to Mommy when she gets home from Paris."

Luke goes and sits down next to Audrey and waited with her. Once she calmed down he was still reluctant to leave her there, even if it was only for a few hours. Miss Fickley gathered up the students and brought them over to the corner of the room. Luke took that as his cue to leave.

"Audrey, Daddy has to go help Uncle Caesar with breakfast. I'll be back at 12:30. Be a good girl," he said.

They shared a hug and their special nose thing. Audrey went and sat next to some of the other kids in her class and Luke left the room. All morning, Lane was dodging broken plates, grumpy looks and terrified customers. Luke was miserable cause his angel was miserable. Finally it was 12:25 and Luke ran to Stars Hollow Elementary. He was knocked into by a curly haired little girl who was in tears.

"Daddy I don't like school! The kids are mean and...mean!"

"Oh kiddo!" Luke scooped up his little girl and she cried into his shoulder. "What happened baby?"

"Steven Forrester said I didn't have a Mommy!"

Luke's eyes burned. He would paying a visit to Dean's later that afternoon. He hated that this job was taking Lorelai from their daughter. Luke walked back up to the classroom and went to speak with Miss Fickley.

"Oh my goodness! I am so sorry. I asked the kids to share about their parents and their jobs and Audrey was reluctant to talk about her mother," Miss Fickley said. "She talked mostly about you and the diner. I had to press to get something about her mother."

"Lorelai, my wife is a consultant for a firm that owns different inns around the world. She travels quite a bit and it's getting to Audrey. She should be back thisweekend."

"I am sorry about what Steven said. I will be speaking to his parents about it. We don't tolerate teasing or bullying of any kind at this school. This will be taken care of."

Luke and Audrey left and went back to their house for lunch. Luke let her have a treat of a bowl of ice cream. That night after putting Audrey to bed he sat in his cold bedroom and picked up the phone. He hated Lorelai being gone. He finally knew what Lorelai had felt like when he had taken off. He hated the cold nights. He picked up the phone and called his best friend.

"How was the angel's first day of kindergarten?" Lorelai asked. "I hate that I couldn't be there."

"She'll be fine. She wants you to come home though. She misses her mother," Luke said.

"I'll be home Friday. Then I have about two weeks before they send me out again."

"Honey, I really don't like how this job is affecting Audrey. She's not understanding it. One of the brats in her class told her today that she didn't have a mom."

Lorelai was silent on the other end of the phone. "I'm quitting tomorrow. I'll come back and just run the Dragonfly."

"I don't want you to give up this job for us. Maybe you could just do the same job but not be so far awayall the time. We should just talk about it later. I miss you. I miss you so much."

"I know you do. I miss you so much too, Luke," Lorelai said sadly. "Maybe this job wasn't such a good idea. We'll talk about it whenI get home. Kiss Audrey for me. I love you Luke."

"I love you Lorelai. See you on Friday."

A/N: I'm not really sure if I'm going to keep going on this storyline right now. It just depends on what you my readers have to say. This started as another story of how good of a relationship that Luke has with Audrey. I don't know. I need another idea before I have Audrey grow up and start at Chilton. Reviews would be nice.