Thank you for your reviews! Thought I'd treat you to a third chapter tonight! ;)

Chapter 5

"So is this party at Grandma and Grandpa's going to be a big deal?" Rory asked.

"Nah there'll just be a string orchestra and canapés." Lorelai joked.

"Great." Rory said sarcastically.

"It'll be fine." Luke assured her. "They just want to celebrate you. They probably won't invite that many people."

Rory nodded.

"Yeh and then we can do it right on Saturday." Lorelai smiled.

"Cool." Rory smiled. "I'm going to head to my room. I've got some studying to do before going to bed."

"Ok hon. Night." Lorelai smiled.

"Night." Rory said giving her a kiss on the cheek and then doing the same to Luke.

"Night Rory." Luke said.

"I think I'll do the same." Jess said. "Come on you, let's get you to bed." He said, picking up Alice.

"But I'm not tired!" Alice whined.

"Well how about I read you a story first?" Jess compromised.

"Ok!" Alice said happily.

Lorelai and Luke smiled as they watched them go upstairs. "He's so good with her." Lorelai said.

"Yeh." Luke smiled.

They both sat down on the couch and Lorelai turned on the tv. "It's been a while since we've done this." Lorelai smiled cuddling up to him.

"Yeh. We've been so busy lately." Luke said putting his arm round her.

"I can't believe Rory's going to be 16 next week. Feels like yesterday since I came to Stars Hollow with a bundle of blankets." Lorelai said.

Luke smiled. "Yeh it's crazy."

"We finally got it." Lorelai said. "A proper family."

"Feels pretty good, doesn't it?" Luke said.

"Feels great." Lorelai smiled.

Monday morning, Rory was getting something out of her locker when Tristan came up to her. "Happy Birthday." He said.

"It's not my birthday." Rory said confused.

"No but it will be. On October 8th..." He read out his invitation.

"Give me that." Rory said taking it. "I can't believe this! Who else got these?"

"I don't know. The whole class I think." He said.

"Great. Just great." She muttered.

"I'm guessing you had no idea about it." He said.

"Well done Sherlock." She said sarcastically.

"No need to bite me head off!" He said putting his hands up in mock surrender.

"I haven't got time for this." Rory said, storming off.

"What did you say this time?" Jess asked coming up.

"Nothing. But I think she was upset about this." Tristan said, handing Jess the invitation.

Jess read it. "Great. Just what she needs..." He muttered. "She hates being the centre of attention and now they're going to make sure she is infront of all these people she barely knows."

"Sorry..." Tristan said.

Jess sighed. "It's not your fault. At least she knows about it now instead of it being a huge surprise. I better go find her. See you later."

"Yeh see you." Tristan said watching him go and thinking.

Friday soon came and Rory woke up and started getting dressed for school. She then went out to the kitchen to get breakfast.

"Happy Birthday!" Everyone shouted.

Rory laughed. "How long have you been waiting to do that?"

"About an hour." Lorelai grinned. "Happy birthday hon!"

"Thanks mom." Rory smiled and gave her a hug.

"Made you your birthday special." Luke smiled giving her a one armed hug.

"A coffee cake." Rory smiled. "Thanks!"

"I got you a card!" Alice beamed running up to her and holding an envelope out to her.

Rory smiled and opened it. "Aw thanks Alice. It's lovely!" She said giving her a hug.

"You'll get mine later." Jess smiled. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks." She smiled giving him a hug.

"Now let's eat!" Lorelai grinned.

"Oh I see why you've been up for an hour already. It was because of the cake." Rory laughed.

"It's a coffee cake! It's like my idea of heaven!" Lorelai grinned.

Rory rolled her eyes but started cutting slices for everyone.

That evening, they were all at the Gilmore Mansion and the party was in full swing. After having a very awkward encounter in the library with classmates who didn't even want to be there, she then bumped into Paris which was even more fun. She escaped into the foyer when the front door opened and Tristan came in.

"And it just keeps getting better." Rory said sarcastically.

"Happy birthday!" Tristan grinned.

"Yeh thanks." Rory mumbled.

"You don't seem like someone who's turned 16 today. You should be celebrating." He smirked.

"I'll do that tomorrow when I'm actually surrounded by people who like me." Rory said.

"I like you." Tristan said.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Yeh you like annoying me." She said.

"If I just liked that, would I have gotten you a present?" He raised his eyebrows, holding out a bag.

"You got me a present?" She asked surprised.

"Well it is your birthday." He said.

Rory slowly took the bag and looked inside. She was surprised to see a pretty silver bracelet with a book charm on it. "Tristan..." She said.

"I know you like reading but I don't really know much more. Otherwise I would have got you some more charms." He said. "It's not much." He shrugged.

Rory looked up at him. "Thank you." She said quietly.

"You're welcome." He said.

She was about to say something when Emily came into the foyer. "There you are! It's time for the speech." She said.

"The what?" Rory said panicked.

"The speech, Rory. It's your party. You have to thank everyone for coming." She said pulling her into the other room.

Tristan saw her panicked expression and followed them. He went and stood next to Jess and saw Emily clink her glass to get quiet.

"The birthday girl would just like to say a few words." Emily smiled sweetly. "Go ahead." She said to Rory.

"Uh oh..." Jess said as he saw Rory look like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He looked over at Luke and Lorelai who looked concerned.

"Rory..." Emily prompted.

"We have to do something..." Jess muttered to Tristan.

Tristan saw a lot of their classmates start to snigger. Before he knew what he was doing he went up to Rory. "May I?" He asked.

Rory looked at him surprised but nodded.

"I know it's tradition for the hostess to say something but I feel like we should break tradition once in a while." He said. "So..uh...I'm sure Rory would like to thank you all for coming. I know I haven't really known her very long but I already know that she's a great person. So let's raise our glasses and enjoy celebrating her birthday." He said raising his glass.

Everyone did the same and then talking filled up the room again. He let out a breath.

"Why...Why did you do that?" Rory asked him.

"I know this isn't really your thing. I thought I'd help you out. Make up for the times when I annoyed you." He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

"Thank you." She said gratefully.

The rest of the evening was a little better but Emily was annoyed that Rory hadn't made the speech herself. When Rory tried to make a peace offering and invited both her and her Grandpa to her party the next day, she made an excuse that they already had plans. Lorelai sent them out to the car with Alice and Rory knew there was going to be another argument. They went outside and as they made their way to the car, Rory spotted Tristan by the gates. "I'll be right back." She told Jess. She then walked over to him. "I thought you'd left already." She said.

"I'm not really in a rush." Tristan said.

Rory was quiet for a minute. "Thank you for saving me tonight." She said sincerely.

"Oh it's fine." He waved it off.

"No, it was." She said. "Um, my parents are throwing a party for me tomorrow at our house. Would you like to come?" She asked.

Tristan was surprised. "Uh yeh ok..." He said.

Rory gave him a smile and then headed back to the car. Lorelai and Luke came out shortly and he watched them drive off.

The next evening, Rory was feeling much more comfortable in their house surrounded by all the townspeople. Tristan walked in and heard Luke and Lorelai arguing in the kitchen and then Alice ran past her. Jess came up to him. "Hey, you made it."

"Yeh." Tristan said. "What's going on with them?" He said gesturing to the kitchen.

Jess smirked. "Our mom thought it was a good thing to load Alice up with sweets. Alice is now on a sugar high."

Tristan chuckled. "Uh oh.."

"Yeh and Luke's not happy." Jess smirked.

"It sounds bad." Tristan said hearing them in the kitchen.

"Nah, they do it the whole time. Luke will give up in a bit." Jess smirked. "Come on in, Rory's in here."

Tristan followed him in and saw Rory talking to an Asian girl about their age.

"Look who made it." Jess said going up to them.

"Oh hey!" Rory said.

"Hey." He said.

"Oh Tristan, this is my best friend Lane. Lane this is Tristan. He goes to school with us." Rory introduced them.

"Nice to meet you." Tristan smiled at Lane.

"Yeh you too." Lane smiled.

Alice then came running through them.

"Whoa slow down there, tiger." Rory laughed.

"Why?" Alice asked.

"Because you're going to pass out in a bit." Rory said. "Just take a breath."

The party went well. Rory opened her presents and then Sookie brought in the cake. Emily and Richard arrived as well which made Rory happy. A food fight then broke out, much to Luke's dismay, which included Rory throwing a cupcake which hit Tristan in the face.

"Hey!" He said.

Rory grinned. "Call that payback!" She said.

Tristan smirked and picked up another cupcake.

"Oh no you don't!" Rory said and tried to dodge behind Jess but Jess ducked and it hit Rory. "I'm the birthday girl! You're not supposed to get the birthday girl!"

Tristan grinned. "Call that payback." He smirked.

After the food fight, everyone started to leave. Luke, Lorelai, Rory and Jess all cleaned up the kitchen before going into the living room where they found out Alice passed out on the couch. Lorelai, Jess and Rory all burst out laughing and even Luke smirked.

"Guess it finally got too much for her." Jess smirked.

"This is because of all the sweets you gave her." Luke said to Lorelai.

"It was a party." Lorelai defended herself. "She had fun. You have to admit she had fun."

"Yeh I guess." Luke grudgingly agreed.

"Don't worry, you can turn her back into your healthy freak tomorrow." Lorelai smirked.

"Deal." Luke said.

"Thanks for the party mom. It was great." Rory smiled. "I'm exhausted now. Think I might head to bed."

"Ok hon. I'm glad you had fun." Lorelai smiled.

"Yeh I did. Night."

"Night." Lorelai smiled.

"Night Rory." Luke smiled.

Jess headed upstairs as well so Luke and Lorelai sat down on the couch, careful not to wake up Alice.

"Hey, would you want any more kids?" Lorelai suddenly asked.

"What?" Luke asked surprised.

"It's just...seeing Alice like that. We made her. She's amazing, isn't she?" Lorelai smiled looking over at her sleeping daughter.

Luke smiled. "Yeh she is."

"I mean you probably haven't thought about it but, it might be nice for Alice." Lorelai smiled.

Luke looked over at Lorelai. "Would you like another one?"

"I think I might." She admitted. "I know it would be a lot of work again but remember how amazing it was. All the firsts. Watching them grow up."

Luke smiled at the memories. "It was pretty cool." He admitted. He smiled over at Lorelai. "It might be nice to have another one."

Lorelai smiled and snuggled into him. "Well we don't have to make any decisions now. It was a fun day, wasn't it?"

"Yeh it was. Rory enjoyed it." He said. He was quiet for a moment before he looked over at her. "What do you know about Tristan?" He asked.

Lorelai smirked. "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

Hope you enjoyed it! Please keep the reviews coming! I love hearing from you! Thanks! :)