From now on, in all my stories, I will be replying to reviewers who have questions and those reviewers only in order to save space.

JessluvrLL4ever8987: Jess and Rory were 19 when Mary and Chris were born.

Sagebeth, OrangePunk, crazy-like-a-crazy-monkey, and anyone else who might be wondering: I know it doesn't take 16 years to go through college. Like in most fanfiction, all will be revealed in time

Mary-Mary

Chapter 1: Golden Bells and Oyster Shells

Mary-Katherine Mariano sighed as she misted herself with the garden hose for the third time that day. This must have been one of the hottest summers Oxford had ever seen.

A young man of age 17 with curly brown hair and dazzling green eyes came up behind her and grabbed her hips as she laughed with delight. Mary spun herself around and kissed her boyfriend.

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary how does your garden grow?" he asked her with a smirk after they pulled away.

Mary sighed and crossed her arms across her chest. "James, love; don't you think we're getting a bit too old for that?" she asked him.

James smiled and pulled her closer. "C'mon Mare," he said seductively. "You wouldn't want to ruin the party now would you?"

Mary giggled and gave in to her boyfriend. "With golden bells and oyster shells and um...cinder maids all in a row." she replied with a sigh.

James Carlton and Mary Mariano had this running bit going for quite some time now. It must have started around the age of 5 when James and Mary had first met at school. James had thought the fact that the first half of her last name was the same as her first name was quite humorous. Mary had hated nursery rhymes, said they were for kids, and replied by changing the words to golden bells and oyster shells. Every time James would ask this question Mary would respond with a different type of maid to change things up a bit.

"Cinder maids eh?" James asked Mary.

"Yep." Mary replied as she sprayed herself with the hose again. "Jessica is bringing over another author for Dad to meet. She wants to initiate some collaboration piece. But yeah, so now Chris and I are stuck with the yard work and the cleaning while Dad cooks dinner. And get this, apparently this other author is the only other person other than Dad that doesn't call her Jess."

"Weird." James replied. "I wonder why."

"I dunno." Mary told her boyfriend. "But it would be nice if you could stop staring and help me get this work done." she said with a smirk. Sure she was wearing a soaking wet white t-shirt, but hey, he got enough of that already.

James just pulled an innocent face and dumped the bucket of soap that Mary had been using to wash the patio furniture over her head. Mary shrugged her shoulders and lay down on the table pulling James on top of her when two women came up to the house.

The taller of the two, but only by an inch or so, had dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders in full, thick curls. She had bright brown eyes and was dressed in business attire, a black knee-length skirt with a three inch slit on the side, a white tank top, and a burgundy, three-button blazer. She carried a brown leather briefcase in her left hand and a tall bottle of sangria in her right. This woman was James' aunt, and Jess' manager, Jessica Lyons.

The other woman was dressed a bit more casually, somewhat similar in style to what Jess would wear while coordinating a business deal. She was clad in a deep blue sleeveless top with a sequin accented v-neck, a mid-thigh khaki skirt, and deep blue strappy sandals. Her long auburn hair was tied up into a loose French knot. In her arms she clutched a notebook and she had a pencil stuck in her hair. The strange thing-she looked almost exactly like May-Katherine. This woman's name-Lorelai Leigh Gilmore Haden.

So-what did y'all think? Sorry this update didn't come sooner-my computer was being retarded.