This is just an idea that came to me when I was in an Apple Watch competition with a friend, and I started imagining some humorous scenarios of Lorelai and Rory being in a competition with each other.

As I said in the description, this story is set in the AU created in my other story, "If Gilmore Girls Wasn't a TV Show" and I recommend reading that first. If you'd rather just jump into this story, here's a short synopsis: Rory's character didn't completely change (no sleeping with Dean, no stealing the boat), April never existed, and Luke and Lorelai never broke up. Instead, Luke and Lorelai got married and had twins, Valerie and Andy who are 14 in this story. Rory and her husband, Marcus, have a daughter, Laila, who is 6 in this story.

The story's pretty much finished and chapters are relatively short, so updates should be pretty regular. Hope I got the Lorelai/Rory banter down and you guys enjoy the light-hearted, silly story. Please let me know and give feedback in the comments!

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Christmas Day 2022

"Eeeeh, I'm so excited!" Lorelai squealed excitedly as she unwrapped her last Christmas gift, already knowing what it was.

"You're more excited than Val and she's the one who wanted it in the first place," Rory reminded her mother, but she was also smiling as she took her own Apple Watch from the packaging and tried it on her wrist.

"Yeah, and it was the best gift idea ever! Now, no matter where you are, it will be like always be like I'm right there on your wrist with you," Lorelai replied happily as she worked on adjusting her own watch.

"Oh goody," Rory replied sarcastically, "Because when I'm in my house three minutes away, that isn't close enough." Rory and her husband, Marcus, had moved from Boston to Stars Hollow four years ago when their daughter, Lorelai (Laila for short) was two. Rory had received a job offer to be editor for an international journal which involved travel, but otherwise didn't require her to have a specific homebase as she could work from home. Marcus was a computer engineer and could easily find work anywhere, so this gave them the opportunity to choose wherever they wanted to live. Rory immediately knew where she wanted her daughter to grow up, but she wasn't sure what Marcus would think. Lucky for Rory, before she could bring it up, Marcus had already suggested moving to Stars Hollow, the kind of place he wished he had lived as a child and had started to feel like the first place he could truly call home.

Valerie rolled her eyes, "Or you could actually use the watch for its intended purpose to, you know, track your exercise." Lorelai let out a short laugh as Rory and Andy shook their heads. Valerie had wanted the watch to track her workouts for soccer and the rest of her family had decided to latch onto the idea once they realized all the nonathletic features the watch provided.

"Luke, I still think you should have gotten one too. Marcus already has one and now Rory, Andy, Val, and I do too, so you're left out," she said knowing full well that the day Luke Danes put on an Apple Watch was the day pigs flew.

Luke looked up unhappily from where he and Marcus were working on putting together the large pile of toys Laila had received even though, at the moment, she seemed perfectly content to play with an empty cardboard box. Luke started to rant, "Those things are ridiculous. It's bad enough to have a cellphone stuck in your face 24/7, but now they made something to physically attach to your body? Then you really can't escape the constant pestering. And I'm not even going to start on the ludicrous of a piece of metal telling me when I've taken enough steps or that I need to burn more calories," he finished with a huff and shook his head.

Lorelai held her hands up in surrender, "Woah, easy there, Buster. Don't give yourself a heart attack," she replied as she turned her attention back to setting up the watch.

After discovering how to add friends on her watch and sending requests to everyone, Lorelai let out an excited gasp, "You can do competitions! Ooh that sounds fun," she exclaimed excitedly as she looked between her three children who were also still fidgeting with their watches.

Lorelai was about to continue, but Andy cut her off, "Ahh I knew you were gonna see that," he said begrudgingly, "And before you ask, the answer's no. This watch is purely for getting around the 'phone stays in the backpack all day' rule at school," he continued sternly, knowing where his mother was going.

Lorelai scrunched her face and gave her son a look, "Alright, Scrooge. I'll just take all the fun you're missing out on and keep it for myself," she babbled airily, "I challenge Rory," she said with grin as she turned towards her daughter.

"Why not Val?" Rory deflected.

Lorelai scoffed, "Please, like I have a shot against 'Ms. I exercise for fun'," she replied sarcastically, "You on the other hand, I can totally beat," she said with a confident smile.

"What, you think you exercise more than me?" Rory asked challengingly.

"Yuh huh," Lorelai responded as if it was obvious, "I have a whole in inn to manage. I'm running around all day, and in heels mind you," she said dramatically, "All you do is sit at a desk. Those pretty little fingers of yours are the only thing getting any kind of workout in," she made a typing motion to illustrate her point.

Rory had been pulled in by the trash talking, "You're on," she said determinedly as she stared back at her mother challengingly, "Now where's this competition?" she asked, intently scrolling through her watch.

"I'll send it," Lorelai replied in the same intense tone.

After a few moments, Rory responded, "Good, got it. Accepting competition request from Oscar," she said smiling a little as she remembered making the latest change to her mother's contact after Lorelai had changed Rory's to Felix in response to her disapproval of the mess in Lorelai's closet which had made it impossible for her to find the skirt she knew her mom had borrowed. She still managed to maintain the intensity in her voice until she looked closer at her mother's profile, "Mom, why is your move goal 10 calories? Did you just make it the lowest option available? That's ridiculous."

"It's my goal, I can make it whatever I want. This way I can meet it every day," Lorelai responded petulantly.

"Well, the competition is based on the percentage you get from closing your rings so that's not fair. Calories burned is based on weight, so your goal should be at least the same as mine, if not higher," Rory replied logically.

"Hey," Lorelai shot back defensively.

"What?" Rory defended, "You're just taller than me and your boobs are bigger," she replied logically.

"Oh my God, Rory! How many times have we gone over this? Your boobs are totally bigger than mine," Lorelai replied exasperated.

Rory sighed, having lost track of how many times they'd repeated this discussion. Why was this even something they argued about? It was bizarre and pointless, but that wasn't uncommon in conversations between Lorelai and Rory. "It doesn't matter how many times we've gone over it if you still won't accept the undeniable facts," Rory retorted.

"Yes, that your boobs are bigger than mine!" Lorelai responded immediately.

"Mom, this is stupid," Rory whined.

"So you admit it," Lorelai responded gloatingly with a grin.

"No!" Rory immediately defended, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Fine, I'll get the tape measure," Lorelai replied decisively, "Luke, where's Bert?" she called out towards her husband.

Nobody else was really listening to Lorelai and Rory's conversation anymore, used to tuning them out when they started babbling about things no one else understood or cared about. The twins were busy examining the features on their watches together, while Laila was still engrossed with her brand-new cardboard box as Marcus and Luke attempted to put her actual toys together. While it didn't seem like he was paying attention, Luke had heard enough, "No, you are not using my toolbox for that," he answered sternly, not looking away from kitchen set he was currently constructing, "Dirty, I know," he added before Lorelai could.

Rory, remembering what the original goal was, interjected, "Mom, we're getting off track here. Just set your goal at 300, that's what it recommended to me for a 'low activity lifestyle'" she said, attempting to refocus the conversation.

Lorelai huffed, "Fine," as she looked at her watch to adjust the goal.

Rory noted the change on her own watch and smiled satisfactorily, "Ok, competition starts tomorrow. You're going down," she said confidently with a menacing glare.