Chapter 2: New Friend at Six
The Gilmore mansion is an ant hill, no, a bee hive of activity. For today is Lorelai's sixth birthday. It may seem like any other birthday to many, but to Lorelai today is the day she turns SIX, not five, but SIX! That uses fingers on both hands! Her mom has spent weeks getting this party planned, and as far as Lorelai can tell, it will be the best party yet.
Lorelai loves her house when a party is in the works. Everything is so pretty and neat, just the way her mother wants it. The candles are always six inches apart, the house and those who live there are spick and span and dressed in their best, and afterwards the cheese is always placed in individual packets. For a five, soon to be six year old, all the activity in the house can be entertaining to watch. There are always nervous moments when her mother will snap at the servants and Lorelai will feel sorry for them, because she too, even at her age, knows of the high standards here mother sets for others.
But, back to the party. Lorelai knows there will be the best food, even if she doesn't always know what the food is exactly. She'll have to be careful while eating all that wonderful food in her new party dress. Maybe she'll spin around during the party though because it is her party after all and she is positive that this is the spinning kind of dress. She will twirl really fast and the dress should fly up and around, like any good dress should. And the PRESENTS! She can't wait to see what her parents have gotten her this year. She hopes it is something she can play with for hours and never get bored.
She sits on the stairs with her brother Nicholas, watching the preparations and waiting for the guests to arrive so that the party can begin! At any given moment some part of Lorelai's body is bouncing, jiggling, tapping or performing some kind of annoying movement that is bound to get on her brother's nerves. After several minutes of trying to be patient Nick heaves a sigh that is one of a brother wholly annoyed and unable to hold it in any longer. "Lorelai! Would you stop it already!"
Lorelai comes back with a whine of "But Nicky! Why can't the party start NOW!"
Emily comes to stand at the bottom of the stairs with an air of a woman in a hurry and unwilling to hear arguments set against her during this time when things are going on all over that need her attention. "Lorelai! Nicholas! It's time to get ready for the party. Go upstairs and get changed. Nicholas if you need any help ask your father; Lorelai, ask Susan if you need help."
"MOM!" the two reply in unison as they stand up, upset at the thought that a seven and a half year old and a now six year old cannot dress themselves like big kids.
"Upstairs, now. Come down when you're ready. Guests should be arriving soon." She turns around to complete a final walk through of the house to make sure everything is as it should be.
Once dressed, (with maybe just the tiniest bit of help, not that either would admit to it), Nick and Lorelai come downstairs as the first guests begin to arrive. A majority of the guests were Emily's friends from the DAR and Richards business partners and their families. As the birthday girl Lorelai must, of course, throughout the evening eventually make it around to everyone and say hello and extend thanks for coming. Which can be a pain, because she's only just six and doesn't know everyone and old people are boring. They all say the same things: "Happy birthday Lorelai"; "Your mother did a wonderful job putting this party together, do tell her we said so"; "That's a beautiful dress"; "Aren't you just the cutest little thing, such a darling"; "How old are you this year? Six! Why you're getting so grown up. Soon you'll be helping your mother with a lot of her activities won't you?" Comment after comment, some of them were nice, but one girl can only listen to so much before she begins to get anxious to go see her friends and have fun. Eventually Lorelai was able to go see the younger guests who were her age and wanted to do something other than listen to the older people talk. Many of her friends from kindergarten, and a few of Nick's friends from school were there too, which made the night better for both. As the party gets into swing conversation fills the Gilmore home. Lorelai is as excited as any young girl would be at her birthday party with her friends all around.
Of course the night could not go without an interruption by Emily who felt the need to drag Lorelai for a time to introduce her to more people. Who she would be expected to remember at a later date but wouldn't. "Lorelai!" Emily calls, trying to find her daughter as the birthday party continues in full swing. "Oh, there you are, come with me, there's someone I want you to meet." Lorelai tries to protest being taken away from her group of attentive friends. She has found in the past year or so that she likes being the center of attention. Her parents are often very busy, and getting people to listen to her stories is a change and exhilarating.
She huffs as she is dragged over to a family by the stairs she doesn't remember having met before or greeted and thanked earlier. But really that's no surprise seeing as how many people are at her house tonight. The first thing she notices is that the couple she is being dragged towards have a son, a boy who looks to be about her age. She doesn't like boys yet she is sure, they are icky, and she is anxious to get back to her friends. "Lorelai, I'd like you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Hayden. This is their son Christopher." There is silence as the two size each other up. "Say hello Lorelai" Emily prompts.
"Hello."
"Hello there Lorelai," Mrs. Hayden says, when the greeting is met with silence form Christopher, "It is so nice to meet you. Your mother has told us so much about you, we're both in the DAR you know. Christopher be polite and say hello to Lorelai."
"Hi."
"Now why don't you two go off and get to know each other." Emily says with a smile on her face. As the two walk off Emily is heard saying, "Richard should be around somewhere Straub, probably talking shop no doubt, no matter what I do about it. Francine, can I get you a drink?..."
Lorelai makes a beeline back to her group, not paying attention to whether or not Christopher is following her. He should be able to take care of himself. She found them over near a door that led to the kitchen. When she neared the group of friends she is shocked to find Mitzi now the center of attention and looking very happy; almost as if Lorelai had never been there. "Hey guys!" she calls, hoping to turn the focus back onto her. It is her birthday party after all.
"Oh – hey Lorelai" one kid pipes up. "You just missed the best story. Mitzi's parents took her to Disney World a while ago and she met tons of characters, got signatures and pictures and everything! Isn't that neat?" Mitzi stands there, staring at Lorelai, assuming that her better story has obviously put her higher up now. Lorelai stares back and then looks around at her group of friends, beginning to understand that in order to be cool all you have to do is one up someone.
Suddenly a voice behind her remarks, "Disney World is cool and all, but I really like this birthday party don't you? There's lots of good food and decorations." Lorelai spins around to find that boy, Christopher Hayden, had followed her after all. And even though they had just met he was backing her up in front of the people who had thought she was cool just a few minutes ago, instead of being awed by Mitzi's story, which was pretty cool. That comment seemed to break up the group as people went around to find more food, their parents or to see what else there was to do. Mitzi looked slightly miffed that her time in the light was cut short and walked off to another room. Lorelai and Christopher stand there unsure what to do, because boys and girls don't mix until at least fifth or sixth grade, which is years away.
"Ummm, thanks?"
"Uh – yeah sure, no problem. So… is there anything good to eat or do around here?" Lorelai takes her time thinking. Is it okay to have a friend who is an icky boy? After a little more though she decides she really doesn't care what the other people will think. Chris seems like an okay person, for a boy.
"Yeah, wanna sneak some cake out of the kitchen and… then I guess we'll have to be careful while we eat it, because I haven't blown out the candles yet and if my mom finds us eating it she'll get mad. But I think if we're really sneaky we can get up to my room and hide. My balcony should be a good place, Emily would never look for me there, plus she's too busy talking anyways."
"Okay, lets do it" Chris agrees without hesitation, there's a spark of enthusiasm in his eyes. Lorelai smiles, eating cake on her balcony, not a bad idea.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few minutes and close calls later Lorelai and Chris have made it upstairs with their snatched pieces of delicious birthday cake. Lorelai decides that it is time to find out some information about this boy whom she just met and is eating cake with. "So, where do you live? I've never seen you around before."
Chris starts to talk with cake still in his mouth, "I like an ewe clocks broom hair." This receives a blank stare from Lorelai, who thinks the reply slightly funny but is unable to decipher it. "I live a few blocks from here. Take a left, a right, then another right and… ummm, maybe one more left? Then you're here, I think." Lorelai nods, agreeing while silently knowing she has no idea where he came from. "What about you, your in kindergarten too right? Do you go to Franklin elementary?"
"Yeah, my teacher is Ms. Jack. She's really cool, I go on Tuesday, Thursday and every other Friday. How about you?"
"I go Monday, Wednesday every other Friday. I've got Mr. Smith, he's pretty good I guess."
They go on questioning each other, finding out the normal things that new friends should know about. They have finished the slices of stolen cake, which could have tasted better because they weren't supposed to be eating it. Lorelai figures that it's about time for her to make an appearance to cut the cake; and if Emily can't find her it won't matter if it's her birthday party, her mother will be unhappy that Lorelai had skipped out for a while and would make it known at a later time. "C'mon, we'd better get back down before any one realizes we were gone for a while. Plus more cake sounds good." Chris agrees and they climb back in through the window and sneak downstairs with out too much incident. They make it back down just minutes before Emily calls for Lorelai to come and blow out the candles on her cake. The cake is brought into the dining room and everyone gathers around to sing happy birthday. Once the candles are out and the cake is taken back to the kitchen so it can be served, Lorelai decides that now is the perfect time to make sure her dress is the perfect party dress. She makes sure that no one is in the way… and away she spins! It is the perfect dress; as she spins, the dress floats up just as she imagined, hovering in the air around her as if there is a slight breeze meant for her dress alone.
Sadly Lorelai's moment of triumph is shattered as Emily stops the spin and tells her that it is not appropriate to spin in such a manner during a party in her honor. Lorelai is slightly upset that she is no longer spinning, but her disappointment is replaced by excitement. As she remembers that with people now eating cake and getting ready to leave, it is almost time to open her presents! She sees Chris and his parents getting ready to go and doesn't run over, but walks very quickly to say goodbye. Emily is there as well thanking the Haydens for coming, "I think it was a good idea for Lorelai and Christopher to meet, they seemed to get along quite well. We really should have dinner sometime soon so they can spend more time together." Mrs. Hayden agrees and they promise to call to set up something at a later date. Meanwhile Lorelai and Chris were saying goodbye, hoping that they would be able to see each other later sometime, because they had had fun eating cake and sitting on her balcony. It wasn't too bad hanging out with someone who was supposed to have cooties.
Final goodbyes were said to all the guests and at last the Gilmore's are alone. Lorelai is back to her pre-party jitters, annoying her brother and parents in anticipation of opening her presents. It may be getting late but there's nothing like presents to keep a six year old awake later than she should be up. All the presents are wonderful really, picked out for a young girl growing up in high society: dolls that are not exactly Barbies but nice to look at; jewelry to wear later when she likes that kind of thing more; a few games; many cards with money inside to be put away for future use. Then she opened the gift from her parents, which was quite large, and she could only guess as to what would be inside; maybe one of those small pretend motor cars that she had seen on t.v., that would be neat. Once completely unwrapped Lorelai finds a very large dollhouse that would very nice in her room. Oddly it is still in the glass and she wonders how she is supposed to play with her dolls in the house if she can't get inside. She does love the dollhouse though and gives her parents large hugs and polite kisses on the cheek.
The gifts have now been opened so Lorelai and Nick head up to their rooms while Emily sees to the last of the clean up and Richard heads to his office for one last check that all is complete and ready to begin once again when the next day arrives. Lorelai climbs into bed, exhausted after such an exciting day. Lots of memories for a now six year old to think about: her party dress that floats perfectly; sneaking cake up to her room to eat with Chris and making a new friend; and Nicky vowing that he'll never play dolls in that dollhouse with her as they walk up the stairs, no matter how much she whines, he's a boy for pete's sake!
As Lorelai sleeps she dreams of cake, dresses, new friends and all the fun she had during the past day. Somewhere in her dreams food fights take place and clowns arrive, which seems to her to be a marvelous idea for a party. Even in her dream state she realizes sadly this will never occur, for her mother loves lavish parties including well to do people. As much as Lorelai loves her dresses and fancy presents she faintly begins to realize that what her parents like may not be exactly what she likes. Her dreams then shift to other fun filled dreams for a six year old and the realization is put in the back of her mind for another day.
