Chapter Five
Lorelai was about to turn around and follow after Rory when her cell phone rang. Sighing she flipped her phone open without even looking at the caller id. "Hello. It's Lorelai."
"Hey Lor. It's me."
"Oh hi Chris. How are you?"
"Good, good. You... uh... got a minute?"
"Uh oh."
"It's not an uh oh I just wanted to run an idea by you."
"Run it."
xxxxxx
Lorelai groaned when she entered her house and her ears were immediately assaulted by loud blaring music. She walked over to Rory's door and wasn't surprised the least bit when she turned the doorknob and nothing happened. "RORY!" she yelled as she pounded on the door over the music. She was surprised when the door opened almost immediately.
"What!"
"First of all lose the attitude. Second of all your father called."
Rory immediately turned the music off. "Dad called?"
"Yeah. He invited you to stay with him for your winter break."
"He invited me over?"
"Yeah and I think you should go."
"Huh?" she asked completely confused. She had never spent a holiday away from Lorelai and she couldn't understand why she was so anxious to get rid of her for Christmas
"I said I think you should go." Lorelai repeated
"No I got that part thank you, what I meant was why?"
"Let's face it kid... I obviously can't give you what you want right now. Being around people and acting like a normal person seems to be becoming too much for you. You treat me and Dean like we're dirt, you're skipping school, you're keeping secrets that make you cry yourself to sleep at night and all of this has happened in three days. I think it's a good idea if you go stay with Chris for a few weeks. I can't handle you right now." Lorelai said spitefully
Rory nodded. "I see." at Lorelai's confused look she tilted her head to the side and smirked. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"What do they do after you have a baby. Do they pull the parents aside and remind them that it's ok... they don't have to worry at all because they can always just ship their kids off when they become too much to handle. I'm so fed up with people just sending their kids away..."
"That's not what I'm doing..."
"You're right maybe I should go..."
"What?"
"I can still call you Mom, and I'll call her Mommy Sherry." at Lorelai's unhappy face she added, "Is that what you want. I mean she'll be my stepmother someday right I might as well get used to calling her Mommy."
"Don't be mean."
"We can even split up holidays evenly. Like I'll be with you on Labor Day..."
"OK..."
"Her on Memorial Day..."
"Enough."
"I'll have to find out about her religion though to see how Chanukah will factor into this unless you want to convert to Judaism and then take over Chanukah for yourself..."
"I get the point." Lorelai snapped, "You don't want to go..."
"Good, now please leave me alone. I like to feel abandoned when I'm alone and in the dark... I don't need and audience." she said before slamming her door in Lorelai's face.
xxxxxx
Lorelai sighed as she listened to Sookie drone on about the dinner. "I've got thirty pounds of aged beef, trays and trays of trout, mountains of pruned tarts. I diced pumpkins until my hands turned orange. I've got pumpkin hands."
"I know Sookie."
"How can you stay so calm about this?
"There's nothing we can do about it. At least they already paid. We didn't lose any money."
"You know I could still make up the dinner for the three of us."
"Three?"
"Yeah... you, me and Rory."
"Oh Sookie that's sweet but you soooo don't want to be around Rory right now." Lorelai said sympathetically
"What about Luke?"
"What about him?" Luke asked
"He eats and Jess eats. Doesn't Jess eat?" Sookie asked excitedly
"What's she doing?" Luke asked Lorelai
"I think she's inviting you for dinner."
"Come on, join us. It'll be fun. You like Peacock Pie?" Sookie begged
"I'm a hundred percent sure that I don't." Luke insisted
"Let's invite everyone." Lorelai added
"Everyone who?"
"Everyone everyone."
"Everyone everyone who?"
"Everyone we know, everyone we like."
"I love it!" Sookie exclaimed
Lorelai turned towards Luke. "Spread the word."
"I haven't said I'd come yet so I'm certainly not going to suddenly become your messenger boy...eight o'clock?"
"Seven."
"Right."
Lorelai smiled happily and began telling everyone she knew to come to dinner.
xxxxxx
With the dinner set for Friday the week flew by quickly. She had just got a really disturbing phone call from her mother and was on a warpath when she slammed into the house. "RORY!" she yelled
"Yeah?" Rory asked coming out of the kitchen
"You invited my parents!" she asked angrier than she had remembered being in a long time
"I thought it might help get Grandpa out of the weird funk he's been in lately." she said innocently
"Says the girl who's been walking around here all week wanting to punch anyone in her eyesight."
"That's not true. I haven't wanted to punch Lane, or Jess, or Luke, or..."
"I get it... it's basically me, Dean and that Summer girl..."
"Don't forget Paris."
"I just can't believe that you invited my parents without even saying anything to me about it. Where are they gonna stay? You remember this thing is overnight."
"Room 31."
"Room 31 is booked."
"I know... I booked it for Grandma and Grandpa."
"Why would you do that? This was supposed to be our Friday night away from them!"
"Had you found a way out of dinner without telling them about this dinner!" Rory snapped
"Well... um... not exactly..." Lorelai stuttered
"Ok then. This way they get to have their dinner and we can ignore them if we want."
"This is payback for inviting Dean isn't it?"
Rory shook her head. "Absolutely not. I love Dean. I can't wait to see him." Rory lied
"Then why haven't you returned his phone calls this week?"
"I've been busy and he knows that. I told him that two days ago." Rory said before looking at the clock. "It's almost time to go you should start getting ready. I'll meet you there." she said before walking out the house
xxxxxx
Rory sighed. The last place she wanted to be was at the inn playing hostess to a bunch of people. She plastered a fake smile on her face as Dean and his little sister walked in. She didn't mind Clara but Dean was a completely different story.
"Hey." Dean said smiling widely at him
Rory forced herself to return the smile. "Hello there." Then a real smile graced her lips. "Hey Clara." she said reaching out and touching her dress "Nice, is that a Stella McCartney?"
"It's a Wal-Mart."
"Well it's very pretty."
"My mom bought it for tonight."
"She's got good taste." she said half groaning when she heard the door open again. She looked up and smiled when she saw Jess.
Dean looked up too and saw Jess and groaned. "I didn't know he was coming."
What part of Mom invited everyone in town didn't he understand she thought to herself. "Who?"
"Jess."
"Yeah, is that a problem?"
"Not really. It's just that he got into this fight with this guy at school and when I broke it up he started in on me."
"He hit you?" Rory asked
"He tried." Dean said looking up as Jess waved to Rory. "He better not do that all night."
Rory sighed and smiled again as the door opened revealing more guests. "I have to go. I'll talk to you later." she said in Dean's direction and headed towards the new guests not even noticing if he said anything back to her
xxxxxx
"Hey everybody, will you gather round? Everyone, everyone! First of all, I want to welcome you to the first annual and probably never ever to be held again because Sookie's on the verge of a nervous breakdown Bracebridge Dinner. I also want to thank Mother Nature for snowing in the Trelling Paper Company in Chicago so I can throw this great party for all my friends instead. It's a very special night. And so, since I don't get to eat unbelievably strange food with my friends everyday, I have arranged a little surprise. Outside, as we speak, is a line of horse drawn sleighs and everybody gets a ride. So, uh, line up and keep it orderly. There's two per sleigh and no cutting in front of each other - that goes for everyone. Except me, 'cause I'll be damned if I'm gonna miss a ride in a horse drawn sleigh. Come on." Lorelai said happily and then began running outside towards the sleighs
xxxxxx
Rory had never been happier then she had been when Clara had insisted that Dean ride with her. She was trying so hard to put Tristan out of her mind and since her and Dean still hadn't discussed her outburst the other day at Luke's she didn't think that being alone with him for more than 2 seconds was the best way to continue avoiding the conversation. Rory got into her sleigh alone and pleasantly happy with that. She had told the sleigh driver that she was alone and she was for a whole two seconds before Jess jumped in the sleigh. "What are you doing?"
"Well I heard it was two to a sleigh, no more no less. You were breaking the rules."
"You could have hurt yourself."
"I'm touched by your concern."
"You got into a fight with Dean?" Rory asked changing the subject
"Is that a question or an assumption?"
"A question."
"No I didn't get in a fight with Dean. I got in a fight with Chuck Presby because he's a jerk. You're boyfriend just jumped in when he should have minded his own business."
Rory nodded. She was inclined to believe him. Dean had a tendency to stick his nose into other people's business. "So... why didn't you go back to New York for winter break?"
"Trying to get rid of me already?" Jess asked pretending to be offended
"No... I just know how much you hate Stars Hollow. I just assumed you'd go home for Christmas."
"My mom didn't want me to." Jess said somewhat bitterly
"I don't believe that."
"And you don't have to. The point of the matter is that she sent me away and didn't want me home for Christmas. She abandoned me."
Rory nodded. "You know Mom tried to send me away for Christmas too. Said something about not being able to handle me anymore. Apparently I have an attitude problem."
"You have been kind of crabby lately." Jess said jokingly
"I know. I just I guess I understand why mom pulled me away from Hartford society now."
"Why is that?"
"I've just seen the way some of the family treat their children. The girls are there for mere arm candy. They are supposed to be ambitionless and marry well. The guys are the heirs. They are supposed to be cookie cutter images of perfection and after one screw up they just send them away! Just like that." Rory said beginning to lose her composure and also completely unaware as to why she's telling Jess anything at all. "One mistake... and he's shipped off hundreds of miles away..." she said her voice wavering in disbelief
"Why do I get the sense that we're talking about one particular him?"
Rory shook her head furiously. "We're not... I'm just saying I understand why you feel abandoned by your mother... I'm sure he... I mean they feel abandoned by their families too... and when Mom tried to ship me off to Boston earlier today..."
Jess looked over at Rory who had tears in her eyes. "Ror... what is it?"
"Nothing... I'm just saying I understand..."
Jess nods. "You know you can trust me right? I mean you don't know me very well, but you're about the only thing in this town that I wouldn't want to trade for New York and I'm perfectly willing to listen to whatever it is that's wrong with you."
"There's nothing wrong."
"You have tears in your eyes."
"My eyes are watering. It's my allergies... I'm allergic to horses."
"You are not..."
"You don't know that."
"Yes I do or you wouldn't be in a horse drawn sleigh."
"How do you know I don't just like sleighs?"
"Cause you're not Santa..." Jess said
Looking around and deciding that the subject needed to be changed Rory pointed to Lorelai and her snowman. "What do think?"
"About what, the snowman?"
"Yeah."
"Kind of looks like Bjork."
"That's what she was going for, but I doubt she'll win. Not with that guy over there's snowman." she said pointing to the perfect snowman that had obviously taken days to make
"It's so overdone."
AN: Ok so another chapter… I hadn't expected it to be this long but oh well… I'll finish out the dinner in the next chapter… read and review please…