New Neighbours
Chapter Twelve: An Incident from The Past

Rory and Lilly were leaning against their lockers at the end of school, waiting for Nikki and Maddy to show up. The four of them had last period together but somehow they'd lost the other two girls. The sister's already had their bags, full of novels and junk so they were ready to leave right away.

"Where are they?" Lilly asked, glancing down at her watch for what seemed to be the millionth time.

Rory laughed nervously and shrugged. Lilly was pretty amusing right now. She was nervous and edgy because of their plans for the night, or more so because of their company. Frustrating thing was that Rory was feeling the exact same way.

"I think I see them now," Rory said pushing herself off her locker so she could peer down the hall.

True to her words, Maddy and Nikki were trudging down the hall towards their own lockers. The two girls got to their lockers, right beside Rory's, and opened them without saying anything.

"Okay what's wrong with you two?" Lilly asked, coming to stand next to them.

Rory raised her eyebrows when Madeleine looked over at her. She was glad to have something else to think about right now. Ever since lunch her thoughts had been contradicting themselves over and over again, making her head hurt. One minute she was happy that she was going to spend the night having fun with a couple of friends, the next minute it was more of a nervous feeling because she'd admitted to having feelings for Tristin, and to top it all off, as much as she told herself that she really didn't like Tristin that much she was looking forward to this night more than anything in a little while. And that scared the hell out of her.

"Okay after fifth period Charleston comes over to me and Nikki and starts lecturing me about what the proper dress code is at this school. Which by the way is totally bogus because I'm not even wearing anything offensive or slutty," Maddy complained.

"I hate when he does that. It's not fair at all," Lilly divulged.

"And I know that I should have just let him lecture me about it but you know me I can't let something like that go so I kinda of yelled at him," she mumbled the last part hoping the others wouldn't catch it.

"You yelled at him?" Rory asked her, trying to hold in her laughter at the scene playing in her head. She could almost see what their headmaster would look like. His bald head going red, that gross vein on his forehead throbbing, his nostrils flaring. It was a hilarious expression but it also led to a lot of things including detention and phone calls home.

"You guys should have been there it was by far the funniest thing I've seen this week!" Nikki told them, with a giant smile that showed off her pearly white teeth.

Madeleine smiled remembering how funny it had been but she sobered up when she also remembered the consequences. "Funny yes but also a very bad idea when you had amazing plans that same night!" Maddy whined to the group, jutting out her bottom lip.

Rory cocked her head to the side. "You got detention didn't you?" she asked her friend, feeling very bad for her.

Rory got her answer when Madeleine's pout became even bigger. Rory and Lilly gave her sympathetic smiles. "Hey we can all get together another time. You won't be missing out on only a one time thing," Lilly told her trying to cheer her friend up.

It worked a little but Madeleine was really bummed out. She hadn't spent any time with Jaimie since the night at the club. "Well you two will just have to have extra fun for the both of us," she told them with a small smile, gesturing to herself and Nikki.

Rory and Lilly nodded, but then thought over what she said. "Wait a minute the both of you?" Lilly asked confused.

Nikki, who had been putting away her books turned around, a guilty expression on her face. "I won't be joining you guys tonight either," she told them.

"Why?" Rory asked.

Nikki stuck an arm back into her locker and searched through her bag. "I laughed when Maddy yelled at Charleston and he gave me a detention to."

"Well I'm sure you can probably get out of it if you only laughed. He let me out of mine last time," Rory told her encouragingly.

Nikki nodded her head a couple of times. "Yah I could have gotten out of it had that been the only thing. But sadly it wasn't," she told them.

"What else did you do?" Lilly asked her, hugging her arms around her stomach.

"Hey! Why do you think I did something? It could have easily been something he pulled out of thin air and blamed on me!" Nikki told them.

"Because you look guilty!" Lilly said, giving her a pointed look.

"Okay fine it was something I did but it wasn't my fault he saw it," she told them vaguely.

Madeleine, who up until that point had been quiet, stood up. "Come on Nikki you can't put it off any longer you gotta tell them," she teased her.

Nikki laughed. "You don't have to make it seem so bad," she said. Maddy just shrugged. "Anyway, I laughed after Maddy was done yelling at Charleston and he turned on me right. He gives me this huge lecture about how I should respect my elders and how I was encouraging Maddy by laughing. So I gave him this incredibly fake apology and I turned around to leave but he grabbed the strap of my bag and it kinda opened a little."

As Nikki was telling her story the girls started to walk down the hall towards the back doors of the school where Rory and Lilly had parked that morning. It also happened to be where Nikki and Maddy would be serving their detentions.

"Well what was in your bag that was so bad?" Rory asked, turning sideways to pass by a group of giggling freshman's.

"Kyle's pack of cigs," Nikki told them matter of factly.

The girls had just come to the back doors and stopped. "That's gotta suck. Charleston hates smokers," Rory told her.

Nikki nodded. "I know and it's not like he'll believe me if I say they're not mine."

"Even if he did he'd give you detention for holding them," Lilly scoffed, turning around to lean against the pair of doors that led out into the back parking lot.

"So you guys better remember to have extra fun for us tonight," Maddy reminded the twins.

"We will. But hey, if your parents let this slide or something call us, we might still be out," Rory tried to lighten her friends moods.

Lilly poked her sister in the side drawing an 'ouch' from the brunette. "Ror, did we forget about Tristin and Blake's very early curfews?" she asked.

Rory who was rubbing at her side looked over at Lilly and stuck her tongue out at her before addressing the question. "All we have to do is make it look like they did get in for their curfews. It shouldn't be that hard," she said shrugging her shoulders.

"Well now that you've worked that out we should really get going before Charleston adds more time to our detentions," Nikki sulked, and hoisted her bag up from the floor and onto her shoulder.

"Bye guys, and remember to call us," Rory told them as she to picked her bag up.

"We will," Maddy replied as her and Nikki turned down the hall and entered the first classroom.

Rory and Lilly pushed open the double doors and walked out into the chilly afternoon wind. They shared a look before taking off in a burst of energy towards their car. Lilly was fishing around in her bag trying to find the keys before they both froze.

"Hurry up Lil," Rory urged her along, rubbing her hands up and down her arms trying to warm them back up. Rory was cursing herself for not bringing her coat that morning, her and Lilly just couldn't get used to the colder temperatures.

"Aha! I found them!" Lilly announced triumphantly. She quickly put the key into the car door and turned it. Sliding into the front seat she pressed the button on her door that unlocked every other door.

Rory quickly slid inside the car as well, sighing as she was warmed instantly from the heater her sister had turned on. "I hate winter," she mumbled, holding her hands in front of the heater like it was a fire.

"You're not alone," Lilly disclosed, as she put the car into reverse and backed out of the school parking lot.

---

The two girls trudged towards their front door, trying to keep all the warmth they had from their light sweaters, inside. Quickly they flung the door open and once they were both inside, shut it quickly. The house was warm and inviting. From their spot in the foyer they could see the reflection of a beautiful, roaring fire inside in the living room. Sighing out in contentment the two girls dropped their bags to the ground and kicked of their shoes before they walked into the living room.

"Sadie!" Lilly squealed when the twins walked into the room and were greeted by the loud thumping of a tail. Lilly ran over to the small, shabby dog that was lying in front of the fireplace. Sadie greeted her happily, licking Lilly's hands and face, all the while beating her tail on the ground. "Mom what's Sadie doing here?" Lilly asked as she wrapped her arms around the dog's tiny neck, enveloping her with love.

Lorelai, who had been reading a soap opera digest magazine, un-tucked her legs from underneath her and walked over to the fireplace where Lilly had been joined by Rory who was rubbing the scruffy dog's ears. "Well I stopped by the sanctuary today and when I was leaving she was sitting by the car. She started begging with me to take her home and you know I can't refuse this adorable little dog," she gushed, rubbing her nose against Sadie's head.

"Awww…you were homesick weren't you honey?" Lilly cooed to Sadie who laid her head on Lilly's knee and slowly closed her eyes, peacefully.

"Yes she was, and so was someone else," Lorelai exclaimed looking over at Rory who had been patting Sadie's back.

Rory looked up a bit but kept her hand buried in Sadie's black fur. "Who else?" she asked even though she was pretty sure she knew who.

Lorelai stood up and stuck out her hand, motioning for Rory to grab it. Hoisting Rory up off the ground she walked her over to the large window on the other side of the room. It overlooked their gardens and the gazebo that the whole family adored. The view was absolutely magnificent, and made better by a big, grey and white dog, pulling some of the plants from the ground. Rory and Lorelai laughed for a moment at the scene before them, but then seeing that the dog was now heading towards the stunning display of daisy's that were somehow still alive even in the cold November days, their looks turned to horror.

"Rory, please go get the dog before he destroys my amazing daisy's," Lorelai told Rory, her tone low as she watched the dog walk towards them.

Rory nodded and took off through the hallway and into the kitchen. She threw a quick greeting to the cook and a maid that was in there before she opened the sliding doors and stepped out onto the veranda. "Prince! Here boy!" she called out once, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to fend off the cold.

She was about to call him again when she saw him come bounding round the corner of the house. A smile broke out on her face as the dog started to gallop even faster towards her. She braced herself and put her arms out but even that wasn't enough for the giant dog. He crashed into Rory and sent them both falling backwards onto the wooden veranda. Rory let out a groan as the full weight of the large dog landed on top of her, but soon enough she forgot about that as she erupted into joyful laughter as the dog started to lick her face and neck, tickling her beyond all reason. The two already had an audience, the cook and the maid who had heard the crash and hurried out to see what had happened, but now Lorelai and Lilly had come out. Rory grabbed the dog's head gently and forced him away from her face so she could breathe again. That's when she saw everyone standing by the sliding door, amused smiled on their faces.

"You know you could help me," she told them good naturedly, petting the dog on his head. They all laughed at her expense, none moving to help the hundred pound dog off her. "Prince off! Come on boy, get up!" Rory told the dog in an authoritative voice and he instantly scrabbled off her. Rory picked herself up off the floor and rested her hand on Prince's head, which came to about her waist. "You guys are all going to hell," she mumbled to them before patting Prince on the head and motioning him inside the kitchen.

Everyone who had been crowed around the veranda now piled back into the house, rubbing their arms, trying to get the blood flowing again. Rory was sitting down on the ground her back to the fridge and was feeding carrots to Prince. Catching the scent, Sadie was instantly at her side mooching for carrots to.

"Are you girls going out tonight?" Lorelai asked the twins, who had now taken seats at the kitchen table, and were picking at the cookie batter the cooks had given them.

Rory looked up, her index finger stuck in her mouth. She sucked it clean and popped it out of her mouth, grinning at the sound it made. "We're going down to the docks," she finally answered, once again scooping up some batter.

"Well you better dress warm because it's getting cold outside," Lorelai told them, fixing herself a cup of coffee.

Lilly abruptly looked up, her blue eyes wide. "Getting cold? It's freezing!" she complained.

"Then why are you going to the docks, where might I add you'll be surrounded by water?" Lorelai questioned.

"I don't know," Rory mumbled, spotting the time on the Audrey Hepburn clock hanging over the sliding doors. "We should start getting ready it's already after 4 o'clock."

Lilly also glanced at the clock before nodding. "Yah and I have no idea what I'm going to wear," she exclaimed, sounding very much like a valley girl.

Lorelai smiled at the voice before it was wiped away by a frown settling on her features. "You aren't by any chance going with Tristin are you?" she asked.

Rory looked up, her eyes brightening at the mere mention of the boy, which every noticed except her, but then a suspicious look came over her. "We are, why?"

Lorelai shuffled towards the table where the two girls were still sitting and sorted through the mail they'd received that day. "Kinda short notice but we got an invitation to some get together his parents are holding at their new house," she told the girls, passing them the invitation.

The two read it over before they looked at each other, evil grins spreading across their faces. "Well we had to come up with a plan to be able to have him and Blake come out anyway. This will just make it more of a challenge," Lilly practically cackled.

Lorelai's frown was instantly gone as her eyes brightened at the idea. "Ooh I wanna help! Let me have fun to!" she pleaded with them jumping up and down on the spot, after putting down her empty mug.

Rory motioned her closer with her index finger and the three of them stuck their heads together over the kitchen table. "Okay so we need a foolproof plan that easy enough to pull off so that we don't waste our night," she explained to them and they all went into serious think mode.

"I've got it!" Lorelai announced, very loudly, making everyone in the kitchen jump, even the dogs. She looked sheepish for a moment she pulled the twins back closer and dropped her voice a couple of octaves. "Okay so here's the plan. Lilly will go over to Blake's house, without being seen by the parents and fill him in on everything. Then Blake will call Tristin and tell him about the plan but instead Tristin will tell his parents that he's going to work on a project or study or something to that affect. Tristin will meet Rory outside his house and they'll drive over to Blake's in Tristin's car. Rory, you'll meet up with Lilly and Blake and you guys will drive to the docks in Lilly's car, leaving Tristin's there," Lorelai finished her plan with a smug look on her face.

The twins looked at each other and nodded. "Okay great plan mom, but we need to find a way to make it so that their parents don't see that they aren't at the party."

"Well me and your father can take care of that," Lorelai promised.

Christopher had just come into the kitchen at that exact moment and even though the girls had been using their secretive, whispering voices, he'd managed to hear what his wife had said. "We're taking care of what exactly?" he asked, making the girls jump again.

They all exchanged guilty looks and smiled at him briefly before turning around to face each other again. "What do you think? Should we tell him?" Lilly asked, raising her voice so she knew her dad could hear.

Lorelai pretended to think about that for a moment before she nodded. "It would be easier if he knew the plan," she told them and the twins agreed.

"Okay well mom's going to fill you in on everything and we're going to go get ready," Rory told her dad, briefly hugging him on her way out of the kitchen.

Lilly followed closely behind her and also hugged Chris. She'd almost made it out of the kitchen when his voice drifted back to her. "How about you do some of the homework I know you have," he told her a knowing look on his face.

"Yah right dad," Lilly told him, sticking out her tongue before she jogged over to the staircase that led upstairs.

"It amazes me how they manage to get in the top percentile every year," he thought aloud, before looking back over at his wife. He walked into the kitchen and over to Lorelai. "So you mind telling a fella what you've got planned?" he asked her.

---

The twins walked into Rory's room closing the door behind them. Almost mindlessly they each went to different sides of the room. Lilly, shuffling over at a leisure pace, turned on the stereo system. After skipping through the first three CD's she stopped when the relaxing voice of Jim Morrison drifted through the speakers, which were set up around Rory's room. Rory on the other hand, walked over to the giant bay window that looked out over the front of the Hayden Manor. She loved the view she had from that window. Beautiful trees, all trimmed and taken care of by the excellent gardeners her mother had hired. The land itself was also well looked after. Green grass for miles, surrounded the house, and gorgeous flowers outlined the walkway up to the front door. As she moved to the side to take hold of the curtains, to draw them closed, Rory remembered all the days in the summer when she would curl up on the comfy, deep red cushion that was on top of the bay window. She would close the curtains and crawl behind them with a book, enjoying the wonderful tranquility that came with being their, all wrapped up in her book and letting the summer sun beat down on her. Sighing, Rory tugged the curtains closed, bathing the room in a slight dim, before walking away from the window and over to her bed.

The girls both collapsed onto the bed for a minute, closing their eyes and just letting themselves relax into the luxurious bed beneath them. Slowly Rory rose from the bed and got onto her knees, clapping her hands together to get her two bedside lamps to come on. The artificial light illuminated her room, and also her sister who had her eyes closed and was well on her way to being asleep. Shaking her head Rory picked up on of the throw pillows she'd been lying on seconds before and smacked her sister with it.

"Oww!" Lilly moaned her hands going up to shield herself from the pillow.

"Cry baby," Rory muttered, putting the pillow down and hoping of the bed. She padded towards her closet, opened the door, turned on the light and disappeared inside it for a minute. "What are you going to wear?" she asked, coming back out of the large closet space, holding up a couple pairs of pants.

"I don't know," Lilly told her sister, finally opening her eyes and getting of the bed. She two walked into her sister's closet.

Rory was standing in front of her full length mirror holding up the different pairs of pants to see which one she liked best. Throwing two pairs to the side she went back into the closet and held up the ones she'd kept.

"Which one should I wear?" she asked her sister, who was crawling around on the floor picking through the mass of clothes that covered it.

Lilly looked up and stayed silent for awhile before pointing at the pair of light blue jeans Rory held in her left hand. "Hey, can I borrow these?" she asked as she spotted the pants she'd been looking for.

Rory who had her back turned and was riffling through her drawers trying to find a shirt to wear, turned her head to see what her sister was talking about. "Yah sure."

Lilly pulled at the pants, trying to get them from the middle of a giant pile of clothes. After a couple of seconds the pants broke free but Lilly went tumbling into another pile, breaking her fall. She couldn't help but start to laugh as she got up plucking a shirt off her head. She was about to throw it away when Rory stopped her.

"No wait! That's the perfect shirt!" She exclaimed rushing over and grabbing the shirt to hold it up against her pants. The shirt was a very tight white t-shirt, with an asymmetrical hem line and about a six-inch side slit. Lined with white cotton in the front, it had a lace covering with intricate flower details on it.

"Pretty!" Lilly told her sister, approving of the match. Spying something out of the corner of her eye she quickly grabbed the sleeve of Rory's long, blue and white plaid coat. "Here," she said tossing the soft coat over to her sister, who caught it skilfully.

Rory smiled gratefully before walking out of the closet and into her bedroom to change into her outfit they'd put together. Soon enough she was standing in front of her mirror, thinking something was missing. With a frown she ventured back into her closet and moved around a couple of things trying to find anything that might complete the outfit.

"You know what would look great with that outfit?" Lilly asked her sister, after she'd finished pulling on the pants she was borrowing. They were black with pick pinstripes.

"What?" Rory asked, looking away from her drawer of accessories.

"The beaded belt that I got from grandma last year," she told her sister, walking out of the closet, through Rory's room, through the bathroom and into her own room. Minutes later she came back with the belt in her hand and a white t-shirt on that read 'Love' in pink across the chest.

After Rory had put on the blue beaded belt she joined her sister in the bathroom wear she was putting up her hair. Rory sat down on the stool next to Lilly and carefully pulled her hair down, letting it cascade in loose waves around her shoulders. Taking the comb out of one of the drawers, she ran it through her hair lightly not wanting to ruin the curls. Reaching into her makeup drawer she pulled out a soft blue eye shadow and brushed it on, before re-applying her eye liner and lip gloss. She put on a silver choker, and silver hoops, not bothering to change any of her other jewellery.

Lilly on the other hand had lifted her hair up into a pony tail, leaving a couple of strands down to frame her face. Then she applied a pink lipstick, a light blush and outlined her eyes with a smoky black colour. She took out her earrings, and lifted the lid off one of the containers in front of her. She placed the earrings in their and instead chose two black stars and put them in. She left al her other jewellery on, either because everything else was silver or couldn't come out yet.

The sister's looked at each other and nodded at the same time before they both got up and walked into Rory's room, sitting on her bed and listening to The Doors, letting the familiar sounds calm their nerves.

She's walking down the street
Blind to every eye she meets
Do you think you'll be the guy
To make the queen of the angels sigh?

"I can't believe I'm actually nervous!" Lilly breathed out, flopping down onto her back.

Rory mimicked her position for a while before she turned onto her side to face Lilly. "You're dating Blake," Rory told her sister.

Lilly looked a little odd when she turned to face Rory, who could tell the conversation was going to be a very serious one. "I know and I don't feel scared to be around him. I don't feel like I have to change so that he'll like me. I mean the two of us are totally different and yet we fit together so well," she admitted in a low voice, which Rory had to strain to hear.

"Okay can you repeat that again because I must have missed the problem?"

"Rory! The problem is what I just said. Everything is perfect between us!" she erupted loudly, but calmed herself down before continuing. "And call me cynical but that scares me!"

"Relax Lil; everything is perfect with you two because you compliment each other. The way you act around each other, the way you each have different interests but are still able to form a relationship. You guy's are like the perfect couple."

"How can you be so sure?" Lilly asked, still a little sceptical.

Rory smiled, thinking about that for a moment before something popped into her head. "You two have already kissed…"

"On the cheek," Lilly reminded her sister.

"It's still a kiss," Rory was adamant in her decision. Lilly was finally really happy, the kind of happy you get when you'd topped your record for the most coffee intake in one day, and she be damned if Lilly let this slip through her fingers.

The girls sighed at the same time. "You know we haven't had guy troubles like this in a long time," Rory exclaimed.

Lilly snorted a bit. "Nope, guys have been very easy for while. Something to fall back on when everything gets all messed up."

"And now they're the thing that's messed up."

Rory and Lilly were silent for a moment before Lilly sat up. "So what's tonight going to be like?" she asked.

Rory sat up besides her, thinking about it for a while. "I don't know. I'm thinking it's just a hang out…with friends?" she finished off.

Lilly's face contorted a little at the word friends. "I hate that word," she let out, thinking about her and Blake being just friends.

"You might but it applies to everyone else," Rory admitted, trying to hide how much she too hated the word.

Lilly raised an eyebrow at her sister before muttering under her breath: "Friends…sure!"

Rory's mouth dropped open; she'd heard what Lilly had muttered. "And what was that supposed to mean?" she asked in mock anger.

Lilly raised her hands in surrender. "I was just saying that you and Tristin are not friends," she explained, slowly lowering her hands.

"Yes we are!" Rory told her indignantly.

Lilly smirked. "Okay sure, you're just two friends who are both falling for each other.

Rory glared at her sister. "That's not true! I'm not falling for Tristin. I don't fall for guys!" she said as she lay back down.

"Rory don't do this again!" Lilly pleaded, her eyes showing her exasperation.

"Don't do what?"

Lilly grabbed Rory's hand and pulled her up into a sitting position. "You already admitted that you like him, you almost admitted that you've fallen for him. Now please don't do the thing you do every time you start having strong feelings for a guy!"

Rory looked down guiltily at her hands that were clasped together. She slowly raised her gaze up to Lilly. "I'm not…" she stated weakly.

"Yes you are! Rory you have to let that go! You can't dwell on the past like this!" Lilly tried to make her sister see.

"I'm not dwelling on anything! The past is over; its history. I'm not looking to relive it," said Rory.

"And there's your problem." Lilly was stubbornly set in making Rory move past what had happened and conquer her fear. "You don't want to relive the past. You're scared of falling in love again because it might end up like the last time," she ended a little more gently.

Rory shook her head resolutely. "You're wrong. I'm not scared of falling in love because I'm not in danger of falling in love ever again."

Lilly was about to protest that when she looked into her sister's eyes. Lilly felt herself deflate when she saw that Rory had actually made herself believe that she wasn't falling for Tristin. "So then what are you going to do with him?" she asked after a moment of silence.

Rory thought about that. "I like him, I do. But he's just the guy for right now."

Lilly, with hope shining in her eyes, tried one last time. "And you're positive there's no chance that he could actually be the long-haul guy?"

Rory sat still for a moment before she nodded her head a couple of times, set in her decision. "I'm positive."

Lilly decided to let go of that topic, she didn't want it to put a damper on their night. "So…new conversation?"

Rory looked over at Lilly, grateful that she hadn't badgered her about her decision. Rory grinned. "Well that depends on what you wanna talk about?"

"How about the suit dad was wearing when he came in?" Lilly couldn't help but burst out laughing when she remembered exactly how her dad had looked in an olive green suit.

Rory also erupted into laughter and lay down on her side. "I know that colour just doesn't work on dad!"

---

It was around 7:30 that night, when the twins finally got around to calling Blake. They'd spent the afternoon sitting up on Rory's bed with their two dogs, talking about random things. Christi, one of the cooks, had brought their dinner up to them and they'd eaten in bed while doing their project for school.

"Okay this is so not fun anymore!" Rory complained, throwing her pencil onto the bed in frustration.

Lilly copied her action. "When was this ever fun?" she asked confusedly.

"Point taken," Rory agreed. "Anyway, the project looks good enough for me, I say we stop," she concluded.

Lilly nodded her head, very much liking that idea. "And hey we should congratulate ourselves. I mean we actually finished it!"

Rory broke out into a large smile. "And on time to!"

The twins laughed as they put away all their work, piling it either onto the floor or in their bags. Deciding it was late enough to call Blake they turned off the music, which had been changed throughout the afternoon, and walked through the bathroom into Lilly's room. Picking up the portable phone they shared between the two of them, they sat down on her midnight blue circular couch and dialled Blake's number. Quickly they placed the phone in its cradle and pressed the speaker button.

"Hello?" Blake's voice drifted into the room.

"Hey Blake," Lilly said, not even trying to hide the smile that came over her face upon hearing his voice.

"Hey, what up?" Blake asked, his tone perking up a lot.

Rory smiled. She was happy that her sister had at last found the guy she'd searching for ever since she turned 13; someone who could out a smile on her face even on her darkest day.

"Listen, Rory's here too and we've come up with a plan to rescue you from a really boring night," Lilly explained, her voice all business.

There was a pause on the other end and the girls heard a couple of loud noises before Blake answered them. "What do you mean? I thought we were going out tonight?" he asked with disappointed evident in his voice.

"We are, but something came up very last minute. Tristin's parents are throwing some kind of party tonight and we're going to help you and Tristin get out of going to it," Rory explained, lying down on her side and using her elbow as a pillow.

Blake's hearty laugh came over the speaker. "You two are life savers! I mean really, we're going to be in your debt forever! Those stupid parties Tristin's parents throw are even more boring and stuffy then going to the country club," Blake rambled.

"You guys don't like going to the country club?" Lilly asked, surprised and very pleased with that bit of information.

"No we like going, just not with our parents," he explained, obviously having not caught onto Lilly's liking.

Rory rolled her eyes at his answer but decided to let it go, instead she focused on another thing he'd said. "You said something about being in our debt?" Rory started, mischievously. "How's that going to pan out?"

"Hey that's just a figure of speech," Blake told them.

"No it isn't," Rory commented dryly. "But I guess I'll let it pass this time because you obviously weren't in the right state of mind when you said that."

"Obviously," Blake chorused.

Rory once again rolled her eyes at the implication Blake had just made and apparently missed as he didn't say anything else. "Anyway, here's the plan…"

---

Once again I'm really sorry that it took so long for this chapter to get out.

I really want to thank everyone who reviewed my last chapter...Plus everyone else who reviewed the chapters before this one. You guy's are so awesome and I love you all!

Hugs and Kisses

-Ella