Chapter 5: What I Want
Life in Stars Hollow began to fall into a rhythm for Lorelai and Luke. After much discussion, the couple decided not to postpone their June 3rd summer wedding. Around the springtime, April permanently moved into Number 37, Maple Street. It was an emotional goodbye for her when her Uncle Steve dropped her off; they hugged for a long while.
"You be a good girl," Steve told her. "Your father knows what he's doing. And if you ever need any advice, Lorelai and Rory are on hand."
April sniffled and wiped her nose noisily on her sleeve. "Promise me you'll call once a week? I want updates on your big project."
"Of course, every Friday night, as we agreed," Steve promised. He kissed her forehead. "Enjoy yourself, sweetheart." He gratefully shook hands with both Lorelai and Luke.
"Please come to visit as often as you can, Steve," Lorelai expressed.
"You can count on it."
June 3rd finally arrived. Luke and Lorelai were married under the chuppah that Luke had carved for her oh so long ago, for a wedding to another man. The immediate after-party was held under the town gazebo, with Hep Alien DJing, before moving on to a more formal reception up the hill at the Dragonfly Inn. Rory and April looked beautiful in their periwinkle flower girl dresses. And Luke treasured the sight of Kirk and a drunk Taylor getting into a food fight over who got the first piece of sliced wedding cake.
As Lorelai, Luke, Rory and April posed for pictures, the diner owner felt blissfully happy. He had a family. A daughter. A stepdaughter. And the love of his life as his wife.
The bliss of the familial union would soon die down, however. April began preparing for her first year at Chilton - after much discussion, Luke, Lorelai and Steve had agreed that the commute to Martin Van Buren Middle School in Woodbridge was too much. And though Chilton and Hartford wasn't exactly a skip through the daisies, it was still closer to Stars Hollow.
April was dutiful in helping around the house, always polite, but lately, Lorelai had noticed that her stepdaughter was feeling a little sullen. There was a distinct slump to her shoulders in most things she did. Even preparing for school - normally one of her favorite things - left her moody. Lorelai thought April would have been excited - she had secured a spot into the prestigious school on Rory's recommendation. Being vouched for by, and related by marriage to, the school's former Valedictorian had surely gone a long way. By the time the school year finally began, April would pour herself into her studies upon coming home, shutting herself up in her room without so much as a few words about how her day went.
Everything unexpectedly came to a head around the middle of October. Luke was still not back from the Diner, and Rory was expected to be home for dinner as part of a weekend home. Lorelai decided to start preparing a meal.
"April?" she called. "What would you like for dinner, sweetie?"
April barely glanced up from her Cultural Anthropology textbook. "Do whatever you want."
"But I want your input," Lorelai pressed. "Cause, you know, I can't cook my way out a paper bag the way your dad can."
"Does it matter?" April shrugged. "You'll decide no matter whether you get my opinion or not."
At this, Lorelai frowned, her parental senses tingling. "OK: what's going on? Spill."
April pretended to think about it, and frowned. "I don't think you have a right to know."
Now, Lorelai was starting to get annoyed. "Actually, I think I do. I'm your stepmother - the adult in the house. Remember what those are?"
April nodded simply, but it was tight; there was clear line to her jaw.
"Come on out of there and let's get down to business. I want to know what's bothering you."
April stalked from her room. "Well, this is a first."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
The sound of the front door opening made them both turn. "Lorelai, I'm home!"
"And he comes bearing gifts!" Rory's voice followed. Both she and Luke nearly bounded into the kitchen, excited for the whole family to be together. However, father and stepdaughter immediately paused, sensing the tension in the room.
"What's happening here?" Luke inquired.
"You never ask about what I want!" April blasted out suddenly, picking up on the thread of the conversation as if Luke and Rory had never entered.
Luke's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me, young lady? You wanna run that by me again?" Both of the Gilmore girls had heard that edge to his voice before; Luke used to get that way with Jess.
"Gladly," April countered. "Did it ever occur to you or Lorelai to ask me what I wanted out of this new family? This new situation? Because I have been living here for seven months, going to a brand new school where the kids pretend I'm not even there, and then coming home to a town that looks like it was transplanted out of a Disneyland theme park! But did you ever ask me if that was what I wanted? No..."
Luke crossed his arms over his chest, now mirroring his daughter. And in this moment, Lorelai caught a glimpse of just how much the pair resembled each other. Mutual defiance made them alike. "And is that what you wanted?"
"Maybe it would have been, if you had asked me FIRST!" April shouted. "But no, it was you and Uncle Steve who thought it was a good idea to uproot me from my school and my friends! It was you and Uncle Steve who thought it was better for me to be here in Stars Hollow than in Woodbridge with him! It was you and Lorelai who up and got married without checking with me if I was OK with it. It was Rory who got me into Chilton, and all I have to hear in the halls all day long is 'Rory this' and 'Rory that' and 'Oh my gosh, Rory Gilmore is your sister? I LOVE her!' and they don't even think that maybe I'm my own person too? That I might not be as perfect as Rory is?"
Rory's mouth now fell open. "I am not..."
"Your sister is not perfect. Nobody..." Luke tried to talk over her at the same time.
"Oh, don't give me that!" April snapped. "You never shut up about her, Dad! You're always reading her articles - hell, you laminated one onto the back of your menu, while my award-winning science project is sitting in the corner. And the only reason it's there is that I called Uncle Steve and asked him to bring it over! Look, I know she got a bad rap with her own father. I get it, I do. But I share your blood! Can't she and I at least be equal?"
"You are equal!" Luke thundered in offense.
Rory decided now was the perfect time to jump in. She gently threw an arm over April's shoulder. "Come with me."
"Where are you going?" Luke demanded.
"For a drive, Daddy Luke. She needs to cool off, we all do."
Luke softened, relenting. Rory had always been rather intuitive about giving other people space.
The stepsisters got into Rory's Toyota Prius and sped off through town, soon leaving the Stars Hollow limits behind.
"Where are we going?" April sulked, though her voice was significantly quieter.
"Wherever," Rory replied. There was silence in the car for a few moments. At last, the older girl ventured into the lion's den. "You want to pull yourself together and tell me what's wrong?"
"You wouldn't understand," April muttered.
"Yeah? Try me. You and I are more alike than you think."
Wrong thing to say. April let out a sarcastic bark of a laugh that sent chills up Rory's spine. This was not the April she knew and cared about. "Oh, no we're not! I've already heard the whole story of how Daddy has been feeding you since you were ten! You wanna know what my daddy was doing for me when I was ten? Nothing, that's what, because he didn't know I existed!"
"Your dad would have moved heaven and earth for you if he knew about you, you know that!" Rory protested.
"It wouldn't have been new for him. He already got to do it, he already got to have his perfect little angel daughter."
Rory now started to get frustrated. "I got you into Chilton!" she hissed. "I had to go up against a headmaster who doesn't exactly like me and vouch for you!"
"Someone who doesn't like you?" April scoffed. "I gotta hear how that happened."
"You know what, contrary to what you might assume, April, I'm not the perfect idol that everyone in town makes me out to be!"
"Then you're painfully naive," April quipped. "You're the inspiring success story. The fairy-tale princess who reads books and has the boys fall at her feet and has little woodland animals twittering around your head! And no matter what I do, I'm always going to be in your shadow! And I HATE it!" Clearly winded, she slouched back in the passenger seat. "Turn around, I wanna go home."
Rory laughed derisively. "Oh, now I'm supposed to do what you want?"
"Ask me what I want, not do what I want," April corrected. "But in case you wanted to know, what I want is to go home."
"Not until you've calmed down," Rory said with a small dash of sternness.
April suddenly shifted towards her. "Give me the wheel."
"What? No! What are you doing? I'm driving!"
"Either turn around right now, or give me the wheel!"
"Not until you're sixteen and nicer, you little -"
"LOOK OUT!" April's scream alerted Rory to the deer that had suddenly appeared in the road ahead of them. Throwing April back from where they had been grappling for the wheel, Rory tried to swerve to avoid it. She had already been hit by a deer once before. This time, she missed it, but barely, so that she lost control of the car and it flipped into the country field, turning over once, twice before coming to rest against a tree, which caught their tumble and landed the vehicle right side up. Flames burst into being, licking up the hood. Trapped in her seat and her door braced shut by the tree trunk, April felt herself sliding into unconsciousness.