Hey, guys! Guess what!? I'M BACK!!! Sorry it's taken so freakin long, but we only just got the internet back on our computer about a week ago. My sister's all better and... yeah. All is well in the land of "me". I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the ones still to come, cause I like to write them... Have fun, be good, and don't forget your manners... Cheers!
Flashback in italics.
Chapter 6
"Twice last night and once this morning."
"Oh, jeez. Mom!"
Lorelai smirked. "Sorry, but you asked."
"Yeah, but the question did you do something slutty could have easily been answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no'. You didn't even have to say anything! You could have just nodded!"
"Yeah but where's the fun in that?"
Rory rolled her eyes. "You're fifteen."
Lorelai grinned and nodded. "Uh-huh. Hey, is it still slutty if I'm dating the man?"
Rory shot her a look and didn't answer.
"Oh! Brady Bunch Variety Hour!"
All thoughts of what Luke and her mother had been up to the night before left Rory's mind as she settled in to the Brady Bunch.
"This is sublime."
"It was the golden age of television." Lorelai agreed.
"The music, the costumes, the sets."
"All cylinders were firing on this one, boy!"
"And who knew they had such musical talent?"
"And such far-out booty-shaking abilities as well."
"Mail, ladies."
"Thanks, Eddie." Lorelai replied without shifting her gaze from the TV. Rory turned her head and got up to collect the mail from the bench seat just inside the door. All mindless conversation was lost on her as she flipped through the envelopes.
"It's here." She almost whispered.
"What's here?"
"My application to Harvard."
"Oh, my God!" Lorelai moved off the couch to check out the beautiful envelope with the impressive letter 'H'.
Rory wondered why the mail couldn't have come earlier, when she was reading. Her worries were lessened slightly (very slightly, almost not at all) when Lorelai promised to try and keep it a secret from the Harvard authorities.
Rory was studying that globe when it came. Really, she was.
XXX
They settled down in the kitchen to work on the application. Immediately, Lorelai made a joke about what Rory was doing when it arrived, and, after a couple more jokes and a dig at Christopher (Lorelai had told Rory about his little appearance shortly before telling her the PG version of her night with Luke), they got down to serious business.
The essay.
In the back of her mind Rory had always thought about writing the essay on her mother. The young, single mother who ran away from a life of privilege and comfort to raise her daughter her way. She had envisioned the 'riches-to-rags-to-riches' tale she would tell about life in a small, close-knit, Connecticut town. The funky and quirky characters and strong and steady believers that had always, and would always, be there for them.
Lorelai suggested an author, which got Rory thinking about the other inspiring women she had witnessed while growing up. Either way, she had plenty of time to write and re-write the essay before sending off the final copy.
After more jokes from Lorelai and loud music from Lane, they decided to shift the application writing and planning into the contaminated outside world. The short time cleaning was a small price to pay for a disturbance free application discussion.
XXX
Rory's plan to write the essay on Hilary Clinton was shot to flames at Chilton the following Friday afternoon. Why had it never occurred to her that millions of other girls around America would be using the same woman? And why had it never occurred to her that choosing all the interests (except sports) would be an overload? She knew she wasn't really interested in fashion – that was more her mother's thing.
She couldn't remember ever having a burning desire to look at Kate Moss or Tyra Banks or any of the other models often photographed in her mother's InStyle magazines. Sure, she read them occasionally, but it was her mother that brought and subscribed to them.
And she knew, as the panic began to rise in her chest when she couldn't get a hold of Lorelai, that panicking wasn't going to help. But once she got worked up it was hard to come back down.
And Lorelai's own freak-out wasn't helping much.
XXX
After a relatively pleasant evening at the elder Gilmore's (minus the freak-outs experienced by the three generations of Gilmore girls) Rory and Lorelai stopped off at Luke's for coffee and pie. As they were sitting at the counter talking and joking with Luke, Rory realised that the family she dreamed of as a little girl had been staring her in the face since she was 11 or 12.
Her grandmother had been right; Luke was the leading male in all of Lorelai's stories about their life.
He was the one that was there for them when the unexpected occurred. From lost school projects, to termites, to sickness and hospital visits.
"Hey, Luke? How did you and mom meet? It had to have been here, right?"
Luke looked from Rory to Lorelai and back again. "It was here, during lunch and the place was packed."
Rory smiled.
Luke rushed around the coffee pot in one hand and order pad in the other. He had a pencil tucked between his ear and the band of his faded green baseball cap.
The diner had been open for a little over two years, but it still amazed him when it got busy like this. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that his dad's old hardware store would produce the business it had now.
He could still remember hiding down behind the counter from his mother when he was supposed to be at school.
The bells that'd been there since the building first opened for business tinkled and Luke groaned inwardly.
"I am in desperate need of a massive cup of coffee." Announced the woman.
Rory's eyes danced with glee. "Was it mom?"
Lorelai shot her a dirty look and focused back on Luke.
The dark-haired, blue-eyed woman followed him around talking about 'some damned French-man' and 'new staff' and a chef, who, no matter how many years they'd known each other, still managed to amaze her with new cooking adventures.
"Aaand, to top it all off, I completely forgot that my daughter's teacher/parent conference is in thirty minutes."
Luke turned around to find the woman right behind him.
"Coffee, please!" she demanded, holding a cup out to him.
"You followed me around?"
She nodded.
Luke rolled his eyes. "Look, we're busy and you're annoying me. Will you sit down, shut up and wait your turn? I'll get to you when I get to you."
"I bet she took that well." Rory mumbled with a smirk.
The woman pouted, –
"Definitely mom. Ow!" Rory rubbed the spot where Lorelai had swatted at her with her hand.
but took a seat at the counter, her eyes roaming the small diner and falling onto a discarded newspaper. With a mischievous grin, she dragged the paper and hunted through her handbag for a pen. Finally she located one and pulled it out in triumph.
"Yo, flannel man! When's your birthday?"
"What?"
"Your birthday? What day were you born?"
He shook his head grumbling and ignored her.
"Please tell me your date of birth?" she tried again.
He continued to ignore her.
Puffing out a breath, she decided on one, last ditch effort. "I promise I won't say another word to you, ever, if you tell me your birthday."
Growling in frustration, he pulled a to-go cup from under the counter. "Fine. November 11th. I was born on the 11th of November."
She smirked and wrote something on the paper before tearing it out and handing it to him.
He read it quickly and rolled his eyes. "You don't honestly expect me to believe this, do you?"
She nodded, smiling wide.
Sighing in defeat, he poured the coffee and capped the cup. "Here. First time customers are on the house."
She grinned and slid off the stool. She'd walked all the way to the door before she turned and spoke to him. "Keep it in your wallet. One day it'll bring you luck."
Luke reached into his back pocket and extracted his wallet. Without looking at either of the girls, he opened it and pulled out a yellowing piece of paper. He unfolded it and sat it on the counter in front of them.
"You kept this? You kept this –"
"Six years."
"You kept this in your wallet for six years?"
Luke nodded.
"What does it say?" asked Rory, intrigued. She had never heard that story.
"You will meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee and she'll go away." Luke and Lorelai replied in unison without taking their eyes off each other.
"But she didn't go away." Rory stated.
They shook their heads.
"Man, mom. You will say anything for a cup of coffee."
"I meant what I said last night, Lorelai. I am all in."
Lorelai nodded. "I'm glad I decided to come back."
Luke smiled. "Me, too."
They leant forward and kissed just as Babbette and Miss Patty walked in.
The news was all over town in ten minutes.
Next one to come in a few days...
