AN: Wow, almost a month, I'm super sorry. I haven't forgotten about this story though, I've just been super busy with school and life and in the little free time I had I was working on Skip a Beat. Hope you like this new update :)
Oh, and a lot of the dialogue in this chapter comes from the episode "Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving"
"You ready for this?" Rory asked her mother as they walked up to the elder Gilmore's residence.
"Of course," Lorelai replied emphatically.
"Even with the Cold War?"
"That's been going on for thirty-four years? I can manage." Lorelai rang the doorbell without hesitation.
"It's been a bit colder these past few weeks," Rory reminded her mother.
"Oh no, I'm fine, you know why? Because in two hours – and I do plan on extricating us from here in exactly two hours – the night will be over and I won't have to see them again until next year. Oh, start your stopwatch," Lorelai said with a strained smile as the door swung open.
"Hello," Emily greeted her daughter and granddaughter.
"Hi Grandma. Happy Thanksgiving," Rory replied, handing over the bouquet of flowers they had brought with them.
"Thank you, Rory. Happy Thanksgiving, Lorelai." Emily handed the flowers off to the maid and motioned for Rory and Lorelai to enter.
"Happy Thanksgiving," Lorelai replied before turning to Rory and mumbling, "One hour, fifty-nine minutes, and forty seconds," as they entered the house.
Rory stood by the buffet table loading her plate up with stuffing and candied yams. Despite the fact that she'd already had three dinners, she found that her appetite was unaffected, and that was a good thing since the food at these parties was usually the only thing that made them bearable; she made a mental note to leave enough room in her stomach for one of her grandmother's famous apple tarts.
"Hi," a bubbly voice came from behind her as she scooped some cranberries onto her platter. Rory turned around to face a vivacious blonde girl around her age, or perhaps a year or two older.
"Hi…um," Rory began, trying to figure out if she knew the girl.
"Stephanie Vanderbilt. You're Rory, right?"
"Yeah, do I…?"
"No, you don't know me," Steph informed her. "I'm friends with Logan."
"Oh," Rory let out a little laugh. "Well don't worry, I'll try not to hold that against you," she said, shaking Steph's hand. "It's nice to meet you."
"Please, the pleasure's all mine. I've been waiting to meet the girl who finally had the sense to put Logan in his place," Steph smiled brightly.
"I thought you were his friend?" Rory asked, confusion etched across her features; why would Steph want her friend to get rejected?
"Oh I am, but it does that boy a world of good to get a serious dose of reality every once in a while; he's got a bit of an ego on him."
"Really?" Rory asked with mock astonishment, "I hadn't noticed."
Steph laughed. "Yeah, I was understating a little, wasn't I?"
"Seriously, you'd think a girl had never turned him down before. I can't be the first, can I?"
Steph squinted her eyes as though deep in thought. "Not the first, no," she said hesitantly. "Possibly the second; there was Miss Murray."
"Who's Miss Murray?"
"Our fourth grade teacher. He was quite taken with her but she just wasn't interested. The poor boy took it hard," Steph informed her new friend with fake pity for Logan.
Rory chuckled, "Has he ever been rejected by someone who wouldn't go to jail for dating him?"
"I don't know, how old was Alyssa Milano when he was ten?" a voice from behind asked.
"So, have you spoken to your woman yet?" Colin asked his friend as he grabbed a Salmon Puff off the tray of a passing waiter.
"What woman?" Logan asked.
"Don't play dumb, Huntz; Gilmore."
"First of all, she's not my woman; second of all- no, I haven't seen her." Logan replied with a role of his eyes.
"Well now might be a good time to have a little chat with her because if I'm not mistaken, that's her over by the buffet table with Stephanie and oh look…Honor just joined them."
"What?" Logan asked, suddenly panicked. His head shot up and he immediately began searching the room until he found Rory who was, as Colin had said, talking with Stephanie and Honor. "Crap; that cannot be good."
"Hmm, I don't know, I think it was probably pretty borderline," Steph answered the new comer, a blonde haired, brown eyed girl in her mid twenties.
"Alyssa Milano?" Rory asked, wondering why they were talking about the TV star.
"Yes, Logan had a bit of a Who's the Boss fetish back in the day," the older girl explained.
"Oh right, I forgot about that. He wrote her a letter and asked her to be his girlfriend, never heard back," Steph laughed at the memory, turning back to Rory. "So that would make you number three."
"Number three?" The new girl asked.
"Yes; Miss Murray was number one, Alyssa Milano was number two, and now Rory is number three."
"Oh, so that's why we're talking about my little brother's rejections; you were one of them. I think I'm going to like you," she smiled at Rory.
"You're Logan's sister?" Rory asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Honor Huntzberger," the girl introduced herself, reaching out to shake Rory's hand.
"Don't believe anything she says," Logan's voice interrupted the conversation.
"So she's not your sister?" Rory asked, turning to face him.
"Oh, well that part's true but the rest is all lies; what did she tell you?"
"Not much, we were just having a nice, little chat about 80's sitcom stars who went on to act in a cheesy WB drama about a trio of witch sisters," Rory told him innocently.
"Oh no," Logan groaned. "Tell me didn't, Honor."
"Hey, don't look at me; Steph started it with her Miss Murray talk."
"You know what? That's OK because I'm not the one who camped out outside that New Kid on the Block singer's room at the Plaza when we were nine. Which one was it again, Steph?"
"Joey," she replied unabashedly.
"Oooh, Joey was my favorite too. The others were too old for me although Jordan was pretty hot too," Rory said.
"I liked Donnie," Honor piped in.
"His brother's way hotter," Steph dismissed.
"Well of course his brother's hotter, his brother is Mark Wahlberg. But Donnie came from the same gene pool and he wasn't too shabby."
Logan laughed at the girls, happy they were no longer discussing him. "Well, I'll leave you girls to your ever important debate. I just wanted to let you know that we've decided on the pool house in half an hour."
"What's in the pool house in half an hour?" Rory asked skeptically.
"Sub-party," Steph told her.
"Rule number one to surviving boring society parties, form a sub-party," Logan expanded.
"A sub-party?"
Yes, we get a group together and go off somewhere to have our own party within the party…makes these things bearable." Honor added.
"Well that sounds like fun but my mother will probably need rescuing soon and she'd kill be if I abandoned her in her time of need."
"I'm sure your mother can handle herself, the grown-ups love these boring parties," Steph naively commented.
"Hah! I'm more of a grown-up than my mother is. Trust me, if I leave her alone too long with my grandparents there's bound to be trouble."
"Well, if you're sure, but if you change your mind you know where to find us," Logan replied, trying to suppress the disappointed feeling in the pit of his stomach; the sub-party would be just as much fun without her…wouldn't it?
"Thanks, but I should go, I actually see her over there with my grandparents and some of their friends as we speak. I should run interference before she says something even more inappropriate than usual," Rory pointed across the room to the small group of people she was talking about.
"See you later, Ace," Logan said and Rory rolled her eyes at the nickname.
"Bye guys," she waved.
"Bye Rory," Steph and Honor called out as she went off to save her mother.
"Oh Rory, there you are dear," Emily said as she approached.
"Hi grandma; grandpa," she greeted.
"Rory, these are our friends, Natalie and Douglas Swope," Richard introduced his granddaughter to the couple standing with them.
Rory set her plate down and reached out her arm. "Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said, shaking their hands.
"You too, Rory," Douglas returned.
"Rory, your grandmother tells me you are a high school senior," Natalie said, striking up a conversation."
"Mmhmm."
"So you're going through this horrible period of applying to college?"
"It's not so horrible," Rory replied.
"She's got it pretty well covered," Richard added proudly.
Lorelai sent a sideways glance at her father, "That's right."
"All your applications are in?"
"I've applied," Rory confirmed with a nod of her head.
"We have a grandson your age, he's going through hell," Douglas joined in the conversation.
"He's already been turned down for early admission to Stanford, his dream," Natalie said disappointedly.
Douglas confirmed this. "Took it pretty hard."
"Children put so much stress on themselves these days," Natalie said ardently.
Rory nodded her head in agreement. "It's pretty stressful."
"He's waiting to hear from his backups. Where did you apply, dear?"
"Harvard."
"No word yet?" Douglas inquired.
"I'm not supposed to hear back for awhile."
"Where else?
Rory shifted uncomfortably on her feet, "Where else?" she repeated Douglas.
"Where else did you apply? Your alternates?"
"We're so curious, it's like we've been going through this ourselves," Natalie explained.
"Well, I'm pretty much counting on Harvard," Rory attempted to circumvent the question.
She had no such luck as Douglas continued with the inquisition. "Well, you didn't apply to just Harvard, did you?"
Rory crossed her arms over her chest and looked away, trying to avoid her mother's eye. "Well, no."
"No?" Lorelai asked in shock. Rory had never mentioned applying to other schools; she was supposed to go to Harvard, it had always been Harvard.
Natalie seemed to notice the sudden discomfort. "Am I prying?"
"No," Rory said unconvincingly, trying to be polite.
"We applied elsewhere?" Lorelai asked, still trying to recover from the fact that her daughter had hid this from her. "Where else did you apply?"
"Just at some other schools," Rory replied, still trying to be evasive.
"Well, if you're aiming at Harvard, that would be Princeton, Yale, maybe Vassar, Wesleyan," Douglas ticked off schools.
"Those are the kinds of places, yup," Rory confirmed uncomfortably.
"The kinds of places or the places?" Lorelai asked pointedly. "Rory?"
"Princeton," Rory paused before finally admitting, "um, Yale,"
"Yale?" Lorelai asked in disbelief even though she had suspected it once Rory had admitted to applying places other than Harvard.
"Yes?" Richard asked hopefully. He wanted nothing more than to see his only grandchild follow in his footsteps and attend his alma mater.
Lorelai looked accusingly at her father. "Yale, Dad?"
"Oh, this is the first I'm hearing about it, Lorelai," he said, bursting with pride.
"Oh, bull," Lorelai muttered.
"Mom!" Rory scolded.
"Lorelai," Emily also noted her disapproval at her daughter's words.
"You did this," she accused her father.
"I haven't discussed this awful subject since the debacle at the campus," Richard stated matter-of-factly.
"You forced her hand."
"I did nothing of the sort," he replied defensively.
Rory interjected at this point. "Mom, wait."
Lorelai ignored her and continued to yell at Richard. "You made it seem like you'd be deeply hurt if she didn't apply to Yale, and she's very sensitive, so that's as good as forcing her hand."
"Lorelai, really," Emily said, aghast at the impropriety of arguing in front of guests.
"You wanted her to go to Yale instead of Harvard, didn't you?"
"Well, that wasn't a secret," he'd never hid the fact that he was proud to be an Eli and that he would be honored to have a legacy at the school.
"Grandpa didn't force my hand," Rory defended her grandfather as well as herself. Did her mother really think she was so easily manipulated?
"Honey, you weren't aware he was doing it," Lorelai replied, confirming Rory's suspicions.
"She is not a puppet, Lorelai."
"I needed a backup."
Lorelai wasn't convinced, there were a million schools she could go to; she didn't have to choose Yale as a backup. "But why Yale?"
"I could live at home," Rory said as support for her decision.
Lorelai turned her head to look at her mother. "You!"
"What?" Emily asked, wondering what her daughter was blaming her for now.
"Well, you got to her. That was your thing," she accused.
"I'm afraid we started this," Natalie said apologetically.
"This is not your doing, Natalie." Emily insisted before turning back to her daughter. "I never spoke to Rory about that."
"I don't believe you."
"I figured it out on my own, Mom."
"You're saying there have been no conversations, no emails?" Lorelai asked her daughter skeptically.
"I can read a map."
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "This is unbelievable."
"And past indelicate," Richard added angrily. "We have guests."
"This is paranoia, Lorelai. There's been no conspiring," Emily added.
"I'm not being paranoid, Mom. For seventeen years, she was going to Harvard, and now all of a sudden, she's applied to Yale and she's mimicking everything you say. This is just crazy." Lorelai turned and stormed off.
"I'm sorry, would you excuse me," Rory added, turning and walking off in the opposite direction of her mother. Lorelai had taken the news worse than she had expected. Rory had known her mother would not be happy to hear that she had applied to Yale but for her to accuse her grandparents of forcing this decision on her? It was ridiculous; she was a grown woman, perfectly capable of making her own decisions. She wasn't just some pawn that people could easily manipulate; she had free will.
"Hey Ace, everything OK?" Logan approached her as she stalked across the room towards the patio. He had noticed the argument going on.
"I'm fine, Logan," she said brusquely and kept walking.
"Really? Because that seemed like quite the little scene back there," he pointed in the direction she'd just come from as he scurried alongside her, trying to keep up.
"Thanks that's very reassuring."
"Glad I could help," he said sarcastically. "Now you want to tell me what happened"
"Why?" She stopped walking and glared at him. "So I can cry on your shoulder and then you can 'comfort' me?" She air quoted the word comfort. "I don't think so."
"Yes, because clearly the only reason I would be nice to you is if I'm trying to get in your pants," Logan rolled his eyes. "It would never be because I noticed you were upset and just thought you might want to talk about it."
"Well I don't. At least not with you. We're not friends, Logan, we hung out once."
"Well then, if you talk to me now that will make twice. What's the magic number? 7? 12? 15? How many times do we have to 'hang out' before we're friends?" He reasoned.
She had startled herself with the harshness of her words. Sure Logan was a nuisance but he was trying to be nice and she was acting like a bitch. She was just upset with her mother and she was taking it out on him. "I'm sorry, Logan," she apologized. "I shouldn't be taking this out on you. I'm just frustrated."
"Well you know, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want. There's a sub-party about to start; that's a sure fire way to cheer you up," he suggested. "You could get to meet the rest of the gang. I'm sure they'll all love you as much as Steph and Honor do."
Rory thought about it for a moment. She wouldn't need to come to her mother's aid for the rest of the night now; she might as well go try and enjoy herself, right? She smiled at him. "Sure, that sounds like fun."
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