A/N Hey Guys! The next chapter is up! Ok, I'm really happy with where this story is going and I hope that you will be to. I have many ideas for what will happen next. As always, if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. :) Yeah well, here it is; lucky number…17 lol.

Chapter 17 The Gilmore Hideaway

When the door opened, Rory waved to Jess before turning around to see a stiff Logan and Finn, standing in front of her with their arms crossed. She just smiled and gave them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek. They both stayed as stiff as a board.

"Where the Hell have you been, Reporter Girl? I've been worried sick about you." Finn yelled, throwing his arms in the air.

"Finn…"

"I mean I try and I try and nothing I say appears to come through to you. Seriously Reporter Girl, I am NOT pleased." Finn paced, sounding like an over protective mother.

"Hold it Finn. I'm sure Ace here has an explanation to why she didn't come home with Stephanie." Logan said looking at Rory.

Rory took a breath in. Things were about to get much worse.

"Well," She said "I met Jess, we caught up, and he drove me here. That's it."

"You what?" Finn roared.

"Finn, we just caught up, that's all. He wrote a book."

"I don't care if he built Noah's Ark, you can't see him. What have I always told you about boys like that? All they want is to get into your pants."

"Oh come on, Finn. Were just friends."

"Trust me Ror, no man is just "friends" with a girl. One of them ends up having feelings for the other."

"But…"

"Don't question me! I know what's best for you."

"Ace, I just have one question. Do you or do you not have feelings for this Josh guy?" Logan asked.

"No, of course not Logan. I love you, not him. And by the way, his name is Jess."

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I believe you."

"Logan, how dare you undermine me! We are supposed to work together in this."

"Finn, I trust Ace."

"We should lock her in the dungeon and throw away the key."

"Finn…" Logan said.

"Go into the Ballroom, young lady. I have to have a word with your boyfriend."

"I love you, Finn." Rory said, making her best puppy dog eyes.

"Stop it Ror. You know I can never say no to the eyes!"

"I don't see why this is so bad. I mean all I did is talk to him. It's not like I made out with him or anything."

"I know that Luv, but he is your Ex-boyfriend. You can't trust ex-boyfriends. Remember Dean?" Finn asked.

"Yeah, but Jess is different."

"I hope so Ace, but Finn is right. Ex's are always dangerous."

"I know Jess is. Besides, he isn't even interested in that. He knows that I have a boyfriend and he isn't looking for a girlfriend so yeah, he is different. I'll see you guys in the ballroom." Rory said. After she left, Logan waited until she shut the doors before looking at Finn."

"The nerve of that guy. God, I mean seriously. He knows that she has moved on but he is still coming after her. That Jerk! Rory is with me now, not him." Logan exploded.

"I know mate, Rory shouldn't be talking to him. It's bound to be trouble."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"What do'ya think we should do?"

"I don't know but I have a feeling that he's not just going to go away."

"Maybe we can lock him in the dungeon!" Finn suggested.

After Rory closed the doors, she straightened her skirt and looked in a near by mirror to make sure she looked alright. She was irritated that Finn had been so harsh but she knew that he was just looking out for her. It had surprised her how calm Logan had been. She had expected him to want to rip Jess' head off. Maybe Logan wasn't threatened by him. Maybe he understood that he was just a friend and that Jess didn't mean anything to her. Rory walked up to Stephanie who was sitting at the front table, talking to Colin.

"So sorry to interrupt but I just wanted to tell you that I'm back." Rory smirked.

"Oh, hi Ror." Stephanie said blushing.

"So…did you have a fun time?" Colin asked.

"Yes, but the coming back part wasn't so fun." Rory mumbled.

"I'm guessing that you ran into Logan and Finn." Stephanie said.

"Yep. Finn got all motherly on me but Logan was fine with it."

"Really? Well, Finn I expect, but Logan? That sounds rather odd." Stephanie said

"Yeah, it almost bugs me that he didn't get more upset. It's out of his nature to be SO calm."

"Do you think he didn't tell you what he was really thinking?"

"I don't know…Maybe." Rory said.

Alright luv, let's start this thing." Finn yelled, smiling to Stephanie, after bursting into the room.

Logan followed Finn and stood by Colin, while Finn stood by Stephanie.

"Rory Gilmore, you were called to steal a ring and be a cheerleader for a day. Did you follow through?" Colin asked, standing up.

"Yes, I did."

"May we see the ring?" Colin continued as Stephanie handed Rory her purse. Rory took out the ring and handed it back to Stephanie, who brought it up to the front table.

"Very good." he said.

"We will now show a clip of Rory's cheer performance courtesy of Lorelai Gilmore." Stephanie announced as she put the video tape in the VCR.

"You'll what?" Rory asked in horror. How could her mom do this to her? She is so in trouble for this.

"Lorelai videotaped your performance. Didn't I mention that to you?" Stephanie asked, playing innocent.

"No, I think you left out that little detail." Rory glared at Stephanie.

"Well, she did and she gave me a copy so that I could play it for the group."

"Wait…what do you mean by copy? Did my mom make more than one?"

"Um…yeah."

"How many?" Rory asked, her voice raising a few octaves.

"Like thirty or forty copies. I remember her saying something about making Stars Hollow video fruit baskets, what ever that is."

"Logan, I am going to so kill you for this." Rory fumed.

"Wait, why me?"

"Because you are Stephanie's Best Friend." Rory explained, like it was painfully obvious.

"Well, so are you."

"And my mother doesn't like you, so she wouldn't care if you were gone."

"Ouch Ace, that hurts." Logan mocked hurt.

Suddenly the lights went of and Finn pressed play on the VCR.

"Great, Now I will have to deal with Kirk asking me to reenact the cheering sequence." Rory mumbled.

"Shushhh…" Logan said grinning at her.

"You did not just shush me." Rory smiled, as Logan walked up and put his arm around her waist.

"I'm looking forward to the Cheer Video. Then maybe later you could wear the outfit for me." Logan whispered into his girlfriend's ear.

Rory playfully slapped him. "Just for that, no sex for 2 weeks."

"Hey, come on Ace. You can't do that to me."

"Well, just watch me." Rory laughed. She loved when she was on top of Logan. Wait, scratch that. She loved when she was in control. Ok, why did she have such a dirty mind? It must be because of her mother. Oh well, she knows what she is talking about.

After the tape was over, the LDB finished their Champaign and all filed out of the ballroom. Finn walked up to Rory and put an arm around her.

"Cute Costume, you got moves, Gilmore." Finn said, smiling.

"Thanks." Rory laughed.

"So, does that mean you're not mad at me anymore?" She hoped.

"Yes luv, I could never stay mad at you. I just want you to be careful, that's all. Like Logan and I said before, Ex's are dangerous. You may think they just want to be friends and then bang, they kiss you." Finn said seriously.

"Oh? And how do you know that?"

"Well, it happened to Steph. After she broke up with her ex boyfriend, um I don't remember his name. Let's call him Fred. Well after she broke up with Fred, she started dating this guy…

"Trevor Basslony. He was tall, blond hair, and blue eyes. Everything I wasn't." Colin said scornfully.

"So anyway, Stephanie and Trevor were dating for like 10 months, right Col?"

"Yeah, that seems about right."

"And then all of a sudden, Fred is back."

"He told her that he just wanted to be friends but he really didn't. He kept going out with her on what Steph thought were friendly dates and then all of a sudden, her kissed her on her doorstep." Colin explained.

"But the worst part of that was that Trevor walked up just as he did."

"Yep, and both Trevor and Fred broke up with her that day. First Trevor because her had thought that she cheated on him. And Fred broke up with her because there was no game for him anymore. Colin said with a hint of irritation lingering in his voice.

"The only reason why he wanted to be with her was because she was already taken." Finn explained.

"Wow, poor Stephanie."

"Yeah, she cried for weeks after that." Colin said.

"Sorry Colin, it must have been hard for you to see her like that." Rory said.

"Yeah it was hard for him. He was all depressed while she was with Trev. But when Fred came back, we both got really defensive. She told us that he just wanted to be friends, so we believed her. Know one knew that he would do that to her." Finn told her.

"Hey, I was not depressed."

"Colin, you sulked around for months." Finn said making Colin glare at him.

"Well luv, you should probably go to sleep. You need to be ready for your Challenge tomorrow."

"Kay Finn. Night Boys." Rory said going up to her room.

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The next morning, her alarm clock went off at 6:30 sharp. It scared her, because she jumped when she heard the annoying noise. After that, she couldn't get back to sleep. Usually, she would just roll over and fall back into a deep slumber, but today she was up for good.

Since her challenge didn't start until 11am, she had four and a half hours to herself.

She took a quick shower, got dressed in her lavender shirt and mini jean skirt, and put her hair in curls. After that, she decided to look around the Mansion. She wanted to know what hid in the shadows of the scary looking house. She crept down the long hallway and went down the stairs, making sure not to wake anyone up. After that, she decided to look around. She walked past the kitchen and the dining room. She popped her head inside random rooms but didn't bother to look around. They didn't fascinate her very much. She didn't see anything appealing and was about to turn back, when she saw that a giant painting didn't match with the rest of the pictures. She took a closer look and saw that it was a picture of a book.

There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about it but on the very top, there was something in graved. She took a closer look and saw that there was little gold writing on the very top of the book. Rory stepped closer and brought her hands and put them on the painting for leverage to get a closer look.

She saw that the writing said "A good man once said that your love for reading starts when you're young, ends when you die, and lasts the whole time in between."

That didn't make any sense, Rory thought. She leaned up against the painting and was about to reread the sentence when all of a sudden, the painting moved and Rory fell into another room. When she got up, she looked back at the painting, and saw that it doubled as a medium sized door but it opened inward instead of outward. She had found a secret study. Rory closed the door and looked around. It wasn't very big compared to the rest of the rooms, but it was as large as Rory's family room in her house. The study was beautiful with its dark brown flooring and burgundy furniture. You couldn't see the walls because there were bookshelves that touched the ceiling on all four walls. They were filled with all kinds of books. Rory looked around the room and sat on the comfy leather chair behind the giant mahogany desk. There was nothing but a computer and a letter with the LDB print on the cover. The letter looked exactly like the others that she had gotten from Colin and Stephanie that held each task in them. This intrigued her. What could be in the letter, and why was it on the desk?