Later that afternoon, Lorelai waited outside the school parking lot for Rory. She had began to think about her situation with Luke and was staring distantly into empty space. Her distant empty space staring was abruptly interrupted when the car door slammed shut.

Lorelai quickly turned and saw a very emotionally distraught Rory sitting in the passenger seat.

"Hey." Lorelai greeted. Rory didn't reply. Lorelai could tell Rory's eyes were puffy and red. Had Rory been crying? "Rory, honey, are you okay?"

"Just drive." Rory mumbled.

Lorelai put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot. "What's going on?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Can I ask why?"

"No." Rory sniffled.

This was odd. Rory had always been very enthusiastic about talking. She had been encouraging Lorelai to talk more for months.

"Is something wrong? Did something happen at school?"

Not wanting to hear the truth, but incapable of holding it in any longer, Rory turned to her mother. "I wanted to believe it was all some cruel lie… but it wasn't." Her eyes became full of tears. "At least if it was a lie, I could feel somewhat better about it."

"Rory…" Lorelai could feel the heaviness of Rory's emotion. "Sweetie, just tell me."

"They knew your stupid robe had an L on it… and that you were wearing some green night gown thing…"

"Oh God…" Lorelai replied

"So it is true?..." Rory sniffled again. "Jess saw you this morning?"

"Rory, I …"

"Did he see you?" Rory persisted.

"Yes. Okay, he saw me." Lorelai turned on to the Hartford exit. "But it was a slip up. He just suddenly appeared from the basement and I was startled. I spilled hot coffee on my robe and without thinking I jumped up and took it off… It's not as bad as it seems. I mean I'm sure he's seen way more in magazines and television…."

"That's not the point!" Rory interrupted. "Jess could see women naked all day every day as far as I care, but when one of them is my mother that's a big deal!"

"Whoa, first of all I wasn't naked… And secondly, I've already taken the heat for all of this and I realize now this is going to be one of the most haunting mistakes I've ever made in my life. I mean this mistake is second only to acquitting OJ Simpson."

"You're not the only one who's getting heat from this." Rory quickly replied. "Everyone in school knows about it… Everyone… Boys are making comments that you're some hot babe and they want to come over and have coffee with you… People are asking me if I take after my mom… everyone is laughing, and being complete assholes about it. I've never been so embarrassed in my life!"

Lorelai was in complete shock. She had never expected this to affect Rory's school life. She couldn't even imagine what this must have felt like. All she could think of was this was Jess' fault. That sniveling little twerp ran his mouth and now he'd caused pain for everyone. Lorelai stopped the car and turned around.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked.

"Change of plans. We're not going to the mall today."

"Where are we going?"

"Luke's." Lorelai answered shortly. "This has gone too far."

(Dean's House)

"Hey, Dad?"

"Yeah, son?"

Dean slowly walked into the living room where his father was watching a baseball game. "Um… Can I have a couple bucks?"

Jordan looked back at Dean. "For what?"

"The movies…"

Jordan reached into his pocket. "Sure…" he handed Dean a ten dollar bill.

Dean took the money and looked back as his father. "Actually, I'm going to need a little more than just ten."

"Dean…" Jordan began. "Tickets are six dollars. That gives you four dollars to buy a soda and popcorn. That's plenty of money."

"Well, yeah for one person."

Jordan looked awkwardly at Dean for a moment and then smiled. "You're going to the movies with someone?"

"Kind of…"

"And is this someone, kind of a girl?"

Dean nervously smiled. "Yeah…"

Jordan laughed and reached back into his pocket. "Here. Make sure she has a good time."

Dean was surprised to see his dad reach him another twenty dollars. "Gee… Thanks." He smiled.

"Get her an extra large popcorn." Jordan winked.

"I will." Dean replied happily.

Dean took off up stairs to his room. He had secretly been saving his money for weeks for a special occasion. Now that his dad had handed him thirty dollars he'd have more than enough money to take Rory out on a wonderful date and buy her a gift as well. Dean counted the money several times to make sure he was counting it correctly.

"Twenty dollars for the movie…" he began. "Ten dollars if she wants to get coffee afterwards… and Twenty dollars for a gift." He smiled to himself. Now the only question was what kind of gift would Rory like?