"Tell me what happened." Lorelai let Rory go.
"We broke up, we just broke up," Rory said. Anna let her go, to look at her confused.
"But I don't understand." Lorelai wanted to know how she could help her.
"We… we went to dinner and then we walked by the bonfire but it wasn't lit so we went to this junkyard and we sat in this car and then… oh God!" Rory gaps making them jump.
"What?" Anna asks.
"I forgot your meatball in the car," Rory told them.
"Oh honey, forget it." Lorelai put a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh, I can't believe I left your meatball in the car." She obsessed over the meatball, so she wouldn't have to think about the breakup.
"Okay, okay, come on." Lorelai moves them to sit on the couch.
"After I told the waiter to wrap it up and everything and everyone was like what do you want with one meatball? And I was like it's a mother/daughter thing. And I'm sure he thought I was nuts but he was so nice and he did it anyway and he uh, he brought one of those tin foil swans or duck or some kind of bird and… and then I left it in the car." She rants.
"Okay, forget about the meatball? Just tell me what happened." Lorelai wanted to get to the bottom of this.
"He just broke up with me, okay?" She shrugs.
"That doesn't make sense. This is Dean we're talking about. He's crazy about you. He calls like 25 times a day. Have you seen the cover of his notebook? It's one step away from stalker material." Lorelai shook her head.
"He took you a nice dinner. You don't do that when you're breaking up with someone." Anna reasoned.
"I have to go to bed." She gets up and heads for her room.
"Well, wait. Take me through the night step by step." Lorelai follows her.
"Why?" Rory didn't stop. Anna follows out of curiosity and concern.
"So I can help decipher what happened here," Lorelai told her.
"What happened here is we broke up. He didn't want to be my boyfriend anymore, end of story." She threw her purse on her dresser.
"That is so not the end of the story." Lorelai knew there had to be more to the story.
"Yes, it is." Rory opens her closet.
"Honey, Anna is right, he did not plan an entire romantic evening complete with dinner and a junkyard, which we'll get back to later, and then suddenly decide to dump you for no reason." She argued.
"How do you know?" She pulls out a box from her closet.
"Because I have read every Nancy Drew mystery ever written, the one about the Amish country twice, I know there's more to the story than what you're telling me. What are you doing?" She asked Rory who was throwing stuff into the box.
"I'm getting rid of all this stuff." She took off the bracelet he made for her and shove it into the box.
"What stuff?" Lorelai asks.
"Everything he gave me, everything he touched, and everything he looked at." She put her favorite t-shirt inside the box.
"Honey, will you calm down for just one second." She tried to get her to stop and pay attention to what she was saying.
"He doesn't want to be my boyfriend, fine." She put more clothes inside.
"Okay, it will be fine but…" She took one of the shirts Rory was about to put in the box.
"What?" Rory finally stopped to look at her.
"Mine." She held up the shirt.
"Oh." Rory went to her closet to grab all the clothes he ever complimented.
"Is there someone else?" Lorelai asked.
"No." She shook her head taking them off the hanger to put in the box.
"Is he moving?" Anna asked.
"No." She threw them in.
"Uh, is he dying? Did his football team lose a game?" Lorelai questioned.
"What?" The siblings raise their eyebrows at her.
"It's happened. Did he, um, try something?" Lorelai's voice trailed off at the end.
"What?" Rory put the box on the chair in front of her vanity, so it would be closer to her closet. Anna got up to grab her make up from Rory's vanity. She didn't want it to get tossed in the box.
"You know, did he want to…Did he want to go faster than you?" She tried to be gentle but there was no way to.
"God, no!" She shook her head.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Lorelai was relieved that wasn't the reason.
"Jeez…" Anna and Rory reacted to where their mom's mind went.
"You're just not giving me a lot to go off of here. Honey, that's the fancy dress that I made for you." Lorelai watches Rory put the blue dress into the box.
"That I wore to a dance that I went to with him." Rory could never wear that dress again without thinking about Dean.
"That sweater's brand-new." Anna points out the next item that went into the box.
"Well, he saw me in it yesterday and he liked it." She told them.
"Well then, he's got good taste." Lorelai moved closer to her daughter that was having an episode.
"He said it brought out the blue in my eyes," Rory remembered the compliment that made her blush.
"Well then, he's gay." She teases.
"You're not funny and it goes." She glared at her mom while throwing the sweater into the box.
"I'm a little funny and if you throw away everything Dean ever saw you wear you're going to be walking around in a towel. Colonel Clucker? Are you serious? He has been with you since you were four." She took the stuffed chicken from the box.
"What Colonel Clucker? No, Chance Sassy Shadow needs her best friend." Anna cried.
"They haven't played together in years and he has to go. The first time Dean came over, he picked it up." Rory couldn't have anything that reminded her of memories with Dean.
"Well, that's not the colonel's fault. He was sitting there minding his own business and a guy comes in and picks him up, what's a stuffed bird to do?" Her mother held the bird up.
"I don't want to joke about this, not now." She grabs the bird and throws it in the box.
"Okay." She gave up and decided that this was something that Rory had to go through on her own.
"Here, I don't want to look at that anymore." Rory gives her the box.
"Okay, I'll, um, I'll put it away." Lorelai nods.
"No, take it out of the house. Throw it in a dumpster, burn it, I don't care. I want it gone." Rory throws herself on her bed.
"You know honey, someday, when all of this is in the past, you may be sorry that you don't have some of those things anymore." She hands the box to Anna and sits with Rory on the bed.
"I don't care." She looks away from her.
"But Rory…" She tried to reason with her. She knew from experience that the need to want to burn everything from an ex was temporary.
"I don't care!" Rory raised her voice.
"Okay. Fine, it's gone." She put her hands up.
"Thank you." She looks down at her hands.
"So, I'll take care of this and you go to bed and get some rest. Maybe you'll feel more like talking in the morning." She leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.
"Okay." She nods.
"Honey, good night," Lorelai got up.
"Night, Ror." Anna walks out with the overflowing box in her hands.
"Mom…" She called out.
"Yeah," She turns around in the doorway.
"Far, far away from the house, okay?" She requests.
"Hey, it sleeps with the fishes." She promised.
"Thank you." Rory sighs.
Lorelai closes the door. She took the box from Anna to put it in a closet and covered it with a blanket. "She'll be thankful later, I promise." She told her youngest.
Rory drags Anna out of bed and makes her get dressed before dragging her to their mom's room. "Mom," Rory shakes her away.
"Mmm…" She mutters in her sleep.
"Mom, get up," Anna yelled. If she was up then everyone had to be up.
"Rory, what's the matter?" She asked the daughter that was hovering over her.
"Nothing, I just want to get started. I made a list of all the things we say we're going to do on the weekend but then when the weekend comes around you say they're too boring to do on a weekend, so then you say we'll do them during the week, which of course we never do. So I think that we should get them all out of the way today once and for all. And to make it interesting, we should come up with a reward system so once we're done with everything on the list. We could go get manicures or we could go to the Swiss place for fondue for dinner or we could stuff our purses full of sour patch kids and milk duds and go see the Stars Hollow elementary school production of Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf." Rory went into the closet to grab her mom an outfit. Anna lay down next to her mother in bed, wanting to get back to sleep.
Lorelai grabs her fluffy blue clock. "It's 6:00." She showed her oldest.
"I know." Rory nods.
"On Saturday morning," She waves the clock around.
"That's right." She nods again.
"It's 6:00 on Saturday morning!" She whines.
"Do you want to wear docks or sneakers?" She gave her the options that she had because going back to sleep wasn't one of them.
"I want to wear slippers." She meant her house slippers.
"Up please." She smiles.
"Rory, my heart, it is Saturday, the day of rest." She put her clock down.
"Sunday's the day of rest." She corrected her.
"Saturday is the day of pre-rest." She told her.
"Pre-rest?" She asked.
"Yeah, so that way when you get to Sunday you're rested enough to enjoy your rest." She reasoned why she needed to stay in bed.
"That makes absolutely no sense." She shook her head.
"That's because it's 6:00 on Saturday morning." She put the fluffy clock back in her face. Rory pulls the covers off of her. "Oh jeez!"
"Up please!" She sang.
"You make a rhyme." She points at her.
"I'll see you downstairs. And bring Anna with you." She points to her sister who went back to sleep before walking out of the room.
"Ugh!" She groaned as she got up. She got dressed. She dragged Anna out of bed and down the stairs.
"How long has the manic been up?" Anna stared at the living room that had been rearranged.
"Hello. Did you rearrange the furniture?" Lorelai walks into the kitchen.
"Yes." Rory nods. Anna walks into the kitchen to get herself a cup of coffee.
"Good, because for a minute there I thought we were having a problem with decorator elves and I was going to have to call an exterminator and tent the place but it was just you. Great. Good. So, now was there any reason that you just suddenly felt the need to move around large pieces of furniture first thing in the morning?" Lorelai looks at her oldest with concern.
"I was up, it was there." She shrugs.
"Okay, good thought process. Great, now I noticed you didn't move the TV though." She moved to the archway so that she could see into the living room.
"It was too heavy," Rory told her. Anna sat down next to her sister to see her long list of chores. She had more reason to kill Dean than breaking her sister's heart.
"Right, okay. Well, I like this, yeah, this is good. Now of course when the sofa faced the TV it made it a little easier to watch but you know this is good too. It'll be like um, you know like radio." She points at the couch that used to face the TV.
"Are you ready to go?" Rory asks.
"Yes I am, just uh, just one quick sec. Um… why don't you… could you put the pen down?" She walked over to stand behind Rory.
"Just finishing the list," She added another thing. Anna groans.
"Yes I see and as much as I love your list, let's just finish this particular one in a little while okay?" She sat down on the other side of Rory and took the pen from her hand.
"Okay." She looks at her mother.
"Rory, I'm concerned about you. I wish you would talk to me." Lorelai told her.
"I don't want to deal with it right now. I can't deal with it right now." She crossed her arms on top of the table.
"Fair enough, but listen, I've had my heart broken before. It's really hard. It's hard for everyone, so can I give you a little advice." She reaches out to touch her elbow.
"Okay." She nods that she was ready to hear it.
"I think what you need to do today is wallow." She advised her.
"Wallow?" The sibling tilted their head at the suggestion.
"Oh yeah, get back in your pajamas, go to bed, eat nothing but gallons of ice cream and tons of pizza, don't take a shower or shave your legs or put on any kind of makeup at all and just sit in the dark and watch a sad movie and have a good long cry and just wallow. You need to wallow." She describes the scene in every movie where a girl gets her heartbroken.
"No." She shook her head.
"Rory, your first love is intense and your first break up even more intense. Shoving it away and ignoring it while you make lists it's not going to help." She was concerned about Rory pushing her feelings down.
"I don't want to wallow." Rory didn't see how wallowing would help her.
"Try it for one day." She put one finger up.
"No." She shook her head.
"One day, one day of pizza and pajamas, I'll rent Love Story and The Champ, An Affair to Remember, Ishtar." She listed the movies that they could watch.
"I don't want to be that kind of girl." Rory never wanted to be the girl that her mother was describing. It was the reason she never went looked for a boyfriend in the first place.
"The kind of girl that watches Ishtar," It wasn't one of Anna's favorite movies but she didn't think it was that bad.
"The kind of girl who falls apart because she doesn't have a boyfriend," Rory hated it when the girls cried over the guy in the movies. Especially because the guy never cried, they just went on with their lives. She didn't want to cry over Dean while he's moving on.
"That description hardly applies to you." Lorelai never saw herself like that and she had plenty of good wallows.
"It will if I wallow." She insisted.
"Not true." She shook her head.
"So I used to have a boyfriend and now I don't. Okay, that's just the way it is. I mean sitting in the dark eating junk food and not shaving my legs isn't going to change that, is it?" She got up to wash her cup.
"No." Lorelai crossed her arms over her chest.
"Okay, so I don't even want to go there. I have things to do. I have school and Harvard to think about." She used the brush to scrub into the cup.
"Honey, Harvard is like three years away." Lorelai couldn't think of what they could do to get her into Harvard this weekend.
"But, now is the time to be preparing for it. I mean Harvard is hard to get into and I don't know why I even spend my time thinking about anything else." She rinses her cup and puts it into the drying rack.
"Because you have a pulse and you are not the president of the audiovisual club." Her mother answered her rhetorical question.
"I'm 16. I have the rest of my life to have a boyfriend. I should be keeping my eye on the prize right now." She put her plate into the sink.
"I admire your attitude." Anna gives her thumbs up.
"Thank you." She smiles.
"So should we rent Old Yeller too or is that just a guy's crying movie," Lorelai asked.
"My Girl, Beaches, and The Outsiders are personal favorites of mine," Anna told her mom.
"You think The Outsiders is a sad movie?" She raised her eyebrow.
"The scene where Johnny dies or when Pony yells to the cops that Dallas's gun isn't loaded while they shoot him down or Johnny's letter at the end asking Pony to look after Dallas." She listed the scenes that always made her tear up.
"Good points, do you want to watch The Outsiders?" Lorelai turns to Rory.
"You're not listening to me." Rory sighs in frustration.
"I am listening to you, I just… I don't agree with you." She explains.
"I don't want to wallow, and you can't make me." She stubbornly kept her foot down.
"Okay. Fine," She put her hands up.
"Thank you." She grabbed her list and took it back to the table.
"So that must be the list." She looks at the paper in her hands.
"Yes, it is." She nods.
"May I see it, please? We do not need a garden hose." She grabbed the list and pointed out the first unnecessary thing she saw.
"We don't have one," Rory said.
"We don't have a garden either." She reminds her.
"But maybe if we have a hose we can grow one." Rory thought a garden would be nice.
"Can I see the pen please?" She reaches her hand out.
"Why?" Rory reluctantly gave it to her.
"Small adjustment, a small adjustment," She writes something on the list and hands the list back to Rory.
"Mom…" She whines.
"What? It's on the list. Don't you have to do it if it's on the list?!" She reasoned.
"I'm not going to wallow" She crosses it off the list.
"But I put it after going to the recycling center." She points out where it was on the list.
"I'm going to need another cup of coffee." Anna got up to refill her cup.
"What are all these people doing up? It's Saturday morning." Lorelai and Anna expected it to be a ghost town this early in the morning but it was busy with people.
"Some people like getting up early," Rory informed.
"You lie." Lorelai accused.
"No, they do it voluntarily." She told them.
"The ones who are working are fine, but the rest of them are psychos." Anna looks around at all the townspeople. The only time she was up this early on a weekend, were the few times that Luke made her work. It never ceases to amaze her, how many morning people they were.
"Without the psychos, there would be no reason for them to get up early for work." Rory reasoned.
"Early birds, they are the evils of the world." She nods in conclusion.
"You're ridiculous." She laughs at her sister before stopping abruptly at the thought of Doose's being that way.
"What?" They turn back to look at her.
"I can't go that way." Rory looks down at the path they were heading.
"Why, we're going to Luke's." Lorelai looks down the same path.
"No." She shook her head.
"You pull me out of bed at 6:00 in the morning and then you say no to Luke's? Don't you know how dangerous that is?" She wonders what torture she was trying to put her through.
"I can't go that way." She told them.
"Reason please?" She asked. Rory looks at Anna, hoping that she could get it and she wouldn't have to explain.
"Because we'd have to go by Doose's market," Anna pointed out. It was funny 24 hours ago Rory used to look for any reason to go to the market and now she was avoiding it.
"So?" She tilts her head.
"So we might run into you know who?" She wondered how her mother could be so slow in the morning when she had to work at the Inn every morning on weekdays.
"Oh." She realized.
"Yeah," Rory nods.
"Right…. Um, you don't know if he's working?" She asked.
"I don't remember. His weekend schedule changes a lot." She explains.
"Okay, well we'll just take the long way." She points in the other direction.
"No." She shook her head.
"Why?" Lorelai asked.
"We'd have to go by the school," Anna remembers the times that Rory made them walk by the school to see Dean hanging out with his friends.
"But there's no school today." She didn't think he would be there.
"But on his days off from work, he plays football at the school with some of his friends." She told her.
"Well, what time?" She didn't think a teenage boy would be up this early, but her daughter didn't seem to want to take any chances.
"It varies." She told her.
"Okay, well we'll just go down Peach Street, we'll circle, you're shaking your head, why?" Lorelai sighs.
"He lives on Peach." She said.
"Rory, honey, love of my life, you realize you've completely cut us from Luke's where the happy coffee is." She needs Luke's coffee to get through this day.
"I'm sorry." She looks down at her feet.
"No, it's okay. We'll just um, well, we'll figure something out." She hooks her arm with hers.
Anna turned her head when she heard a noise to see a cat sitting on top of a trash can. "The alley," She points.
"Sorry." Rory apologizes.
"No, this is good. This is like G.I. Jane but we get to keep our hair." They had to walk in a straight line to get through people's trash.
"I just couldn't." She sighs.
"Oh honey, say no more. Think of this as an adventure. Three girls battling the elements, desperate for survival," They looked at the orange tabby cat eating leftovers that were in the trash.
"Or coffee," Rory chimed in.
"Same thing," Lorelai shrugs.
"You know I bet you can tell a lot about people from their garbage." Rory thought of a theory.
"Yeah," Lorelai nods.
"Think about it, trash is the discarded aspect of people's lives." They walked through the gate that led to another alley.
"Hmm..." Anna hummed.
"It talks about their eating habits, what they read, do they go to concerts, and do they pay bills on time?" Rory listed.
"If they dye their hair, what kind of TV they have in their house, or if they have an alcohol problem." She pointed out the empty dye box and TV box then the trash can that was overflowing with beer cans and bottles.
"Yeah, you do know honey that garbage doesn't talk at all unless it's on Sesame Street." Lorelai grabbed her daughter's hands to stop them before they got arrested.
"I'm just trying to make a point." Rory wanted to make this fun.
"That going through people's garbage is interesting," Lorelai repeated her point.
"And educational," Rory nods.
"And stinky and a little nuts," Lorelai adds on as Rory and Anna continue to open trash cans.
"There's nothing nuts about wanting to know more about human nature. Curiosity is how we grow." Rory picks up a blue shirt from a pile of garbage.
"Bah! We have to get you out of this alley."She made Rory drop it and pull her daughters out of the alley.
They entered Luke's from the backdoor, thanks to Anna's key. "Who are all these people?" She asked.
"It's the 7:00 am crowd," Anna told them. "Hey Stu," She waved to an older man.
"Hey, Luke made you get out of bed early again." He asks.
"Nah, my sister decided today was errand day." She explained to him.
"It's good to get up early and get those out of the way, you got a good sister." He smiles.
"She is lucky she is not my dead sister." Anna laughs along with Stu.
"Hey." Rachel came and handed each of them a coffee mug.
"Oh hi," Lorelai smiles.
"Coffee while you wait?" She held up the pot.
"Oh bless you," Lorelai said as she poured the coffee. "So, Luke put you to work huh?"
"Yeah, well I figured if I'm going to be hanging around here for a while the least I could do is help out." She poured Anna and Rory coffee.
"So you are staying a while?" Anna smiled. She told herself that she wasn't going to like Rachel on her mom's behalf but then she met her. She couldn't help but like her. She had many great stories. She taught her how to make a food blog and how to take pictures of her food. She even bought her a book about lighting.
"Yeah, I think so." She nods.
"That's great." She had a big smile on. She was happy that Luke had such a great person in his life and she hoped that she would stay this time.
"Oh, well that's nice," Lorelai adds. The jealousy for Rachel grew in her chest as Anna beams up at her.
"Yeah," She nods, feeling Lorelai tension.
"So, where is Luke?" Rory asked.
"Well, we were kind of up late last night so I let him sleep in." She smiles. Anna hummed while wiggle her eyebrows, making Rory elbow her.
"Sleep in? Luke?" Lorelai was amazed. The man was a workaholic.
"Oh, believe me, it wasn't easy to get him to agree to it, but in the end, a little sweet talk, a couple of Excedrin PM he finally caved." She went to fill people's mugs.
"Hey, there's a seat over there." Rory guides them to the empty table.
"Great." Lorelai forces a smile.
"Oh go, go! I'll be over in a sec." Rachel waves to them.
"Okay." Lorelai walks over with her children following her.
"I feel like everyone is staring at me," Rory said as they sat down and took off their coats.
"They're staring at mom's crazy forced smile that she gives Rachel every time." Anna put some sugar in her coffee.
"Oh please, they were staring at you worshiping your god." She shot back.
"Goddess, if you're going to tease me uses the proper gender pronouns." She mimics her mother's strained smiles.
"I'm telling you they're staring because they know," Rory whispers to them.
"We're kidding, Rory. Nobody is staring." Lorelai reassured her.
"They know." Rory looks around at the few people that happen to be glancing in their direction.
"They don't know." Anna shook her head.
"It's probably all around town by now." Rory looks around. Anna followed her gaze. People were glancing over a lot.
"Honey it just happened last night. It's like 7:00 in the morning." Lorelai tried to convince her.
"Everyone knows that I've been dumped." She pouts.
"Do you want to go home?" Lorelai reaches across to grab her hand.
"No, we have a list." She knew if she went back home that she would wallow. She was not going to wallow over a boy.
"Okay great. I'm going to order. Any preferences: eggs, French toast, the key to the dumpster?" She lists.
"I don't care." She sighs.
"French Toast," Anna orders.
"Okay, I'll be right back." Lorelai heads for the counter.
"Oh god, Miss Patty is talking to her. Oh god, people know." Rory shoves her face into her hands.
"Calm down, Rory. Even if people know, they are taking your side no matter what. You are loved. Dean is an outsider." Anna rubs her back.
"Please don't talk like that. It makes us sound like a small cult town that sacrifices unsuspecting travelers to a demon." She sighs, keeping her head down. "Is she coming over here?"
"No, Miss Patty is talking to someone else now and she never looks in this direction. Mom is talking to Luke, hopefully placing our order and not interrogating him about Rachel." Anna was hungry after having to walk through all those alleys.
"Hello, Kirk." Anna greeted the awkward man that was now standing at their table.
"I'm so sorry, Rory. But, don't worry. A better man will come along." Kirk said, making Rory lift her head. "I never liked him. I don't know what it was, something about the shape of his forehead or his height or the floppy hairstyle. Actually yes, on reflection I think it was the floppy hairstyle."
"Hey, good morning Kirk," Lorelai came over to the table.
"Lorelai, I want to express my apologies for not voicing my concerns about that floppy-haired jerk earlier because if I had…" Kirk apologized to their mother.
"Oh, you know what… you need to leave now." Lorelai didn't see why he thought Rory would want to hear this after being broken up with.
"I cannot go until you accept my apology." Kirk put his head down thinking she was upset because he didn't voice his concern sooner.
"I accept your apology." She told him.
"Alright," He nods. "It will not happen again." He leaves them to go get his order.
"Thank you," Rory said as Lorelai sat down.
"Honey, are you sure you don't want to…" She was cut off by Rory.
"Don't say wallow." She shook her head.
"Swallow your coffee before you eat?" She stretched out the first word.
"I am fine." She reassured her.
"But if you could see the look on your face." Lorelai pouts.
"It's the same look you had on your face when you broke up with Max. Did wallowing help you get over him?" Rory asked.
Lorelai put on a defensive face. "I'm not saying wallowing will help you get over Dean. It's part of the process. It's the mourning period. It's a step, an important step. The only thing that will get you over somebody is time."
"How much time did it take you to get over Max?" Anna wonders out of curiosity.
"I'm not sure exactly." She answers too quickly.
"Approximately?" Rory asked.
"I didn't clock it." She shrugs.
"Ballpark figure?" Rory pushed on.
"A while," Lorelai answers.
"Be vaguer." Rory rolled her eyes.
"Rory, come on." She pleaded with her to drop the subject.
"More coffee? Pancakes are coming right up, anything else I can get you?" Luke came over with a coffee pot.
"No thanks." She shook her head.
"Hey, I've got some strawberries back there, you like strawberries don't you?" Luke was being a little too nice to her.
"Yeah, I like strawberries but…" She narrowed her eyes at him.
"I'm getting you strawberries." He moves to the next table.
"You told him, didn't you?" She moved her narrowed eyes to her mother.
"No. Miss Patty did." She blamed someone else.
"Miss Patty didn't even talk to Luke." Anna laughs at her mother.
"Well, who told Miss Patty?" Rory asked.
"I don't know, she knows everything and never reveals her sources." Lorelai shrugs.
"If you tell Miss Patty, everybody in town is going to know." Rory glares.
"Honey people have their own lives and their own problems. I hardly think you and Dean breaking up is the main thing on their minds." Lorelai's lecture was cut off by her youngest.
"Holy Shit!" Anna stood up from her seat when she saw Luke wrestle around with Dean outside.
"Oh my god," The two other Gilmore Girls gasped. They grabbed their coats and ran outside.
"Hey, hey, hey, cut it out! Break it up!" She grabs Luke and pushes him back. "You back off! Come here! What do you think you're doing?!"
"He started it!" Luke pointed at the teen.
"By doing what," Lorelai yelled.
"He was coming in." He accused him.
"Are you a lunatic? He's 16!" She reminds him.
"Well, what was I supposed to do?!" Luke puts his hands on his hips.
"Well, stand in the middle of the street and have a slap fight, of course! Come here!" She grabs his arm and takes him inside.
"Are you ok?" Rory asked.
"I'm fine." He mutters, looking at the ground.
"Oh good, I don't know what got into Luke. He's usually so…." She was apologizing when Dean walked off.
"I have to go." He walks past her, staring at the ground.
Anna went to go after him when Rory grabbed her arm. "Anna." She warns her sister.
"What? He breaks up with you for no good reason and then makes like you're some disgusting creature he can't even look at. I'm going to take out his legs." Anna tried to get out of her hold but thankful Rory had a good grip on her shirt.
"Get inside now. Inside… now!" Lorelai had to grab Luke's flannel collar when he went to go after the retreating teen.
"He started it." He pouts as he goes inside.
"Hey." Lorelai walks over to them.
"Hey." Rory sighs.
"So where's that list?" She asked.
"What?" Rory looked like she didn't know what she was talking about.
"The list, we've got a lot to do Missy, otherwise I'm going to be dragging your butt out of bed at 6:00 again tomorrow morning. So, where do we start?" She playful hit her arm.
"Well, we need a soap dish for the kitchen" She took the list out of her pocket.
"Ah, a kitchen soap dish. Quite decadent but what the hell, let's go." She hooks an arm with each of her daughters as they make their way down the road.
"Let's get one shaped like a mermaid's tail." Anna decided if they were going to do the list then they were going to do it right.
"Well, that was a very successful outing for us." Rory smiles back at her mother and sister. Each of them had a few bags in each hand.
"Yes, it was." Lorelai nods.
"We got everything on the list except for the brown extension cord." Rory put her bags down on the kitchen table.
"Which will be in on Tuesday," Anna put her bags down along with her mother.
"So, I think that that qualifies as a check too." Rory took the large thermos out of the bag and put it on the fridge. She thought it would be good for long days at school.
"Are you happy?" Lorelai asked.
"I appreciate a job well done, yeah." She nods.
"I can't wait to try the toaster pizza. It looks so gross which is usually the mark for great junk food." Lorelai grabs the pizza boxes from the bag.
"I'll do it." Anna grabs them from her mother.
"I'm going to go plug in my new wall air freshener. Give me five minutes and then come sniff my room." Rory held the air freshener up.
"Cheese or pepperoni?" Anna held up the boxes.
"Whatever." She goes into her room and closes the door.
"Both. Good choice." Lorelai gestures for Anna to make both of them. Babette enters through the kitchen door.
"Hey Sugar, I just heard. Where is she? Poor little thing, Rory sweetie!" She yelled out to the teen.
"Come on." Lorelai pulls her outside.
Anna read the box before putting the pizzas into the toaster. Unfortunately, Babette's voice was carried into the house. Rory came out of her room.
"Hey Rory," Anna scratches the back of her neck.
"Is she really bad?" Babette could be heard asking their mother. That one bad thing about their loving neighbor was that she didn't know how to whisper. Anna was sure she only had two volumes loud and louder.
"She'll be fine. Really," Lorelai reassures the worried neighbor. Anna tried to follow Rory when she ran back into her room, but she shut the door in her face.
"She heard." She told her mom when she came back in.
"Damn," She sighs. Rory came back out of her room, holding a paper. "Oh, they had some of our mail." She lied.
"Look," She handed her the invitation.
"Madeline's having a party." Lorelai read.
"Oh crap, I forgot to tell Tristan that I'm not going." Anna cursed herself.
"No need, we're going to go," Rory told her.
"What, we are?" Anna tilted her head.
"You're going to a Chilton party?" She hands the flyer back to Rory.
"Yes, I am." She nods cheerfully.
"Honey, why don't you just stay home and read The Bell Jar, it's the same effect." She turns when she hears the toaster pop and grabs the pizzas from them.
"Hey, I'm going to be going to school there for the next two and a half years. It wouldn't kill me to be social right? What's wrong with that?" She forced a smile. She hoped this party would pull her out of her funk.
"Nothing," Lorelai put the pizzas on a plate.
"Okay, then it's settled." She nods.
"Um, can I make a suggestion?" Lorelai asked.
"Go ahead." She looks at her mother.
"Why don't you see if Lane can come with you? You know that way if the socializing doesn't turn out how you planned you got a friendly face around." She grabbed a paper towel and wiped the grease off her hands that the toasted pizza was doomed to have.
"I would be there." Anna reminds them.
"Yeah, but you would be sucking face in the corner with Tristan. Good idea, mom. Thank you." She gave her sister a pointed look before smiling at her mother.
"That's all you better be doing. And you're welcome." She too gave Anna a pointed look before smiling at Rory.
"You're both rude. I'm going to get ready." She walks up to the bathroom to shower. She wraps her hair up in a towel and her body with another. She went to her room. She put on a white strapless bra along with white panties.
She pulled her rolling chair in front of her dresser and sat down to do her makeup. When she was finished she looked her face over. She was satisfied with her Smokey eyes, pink lips, and light blush. She grabbed the curling iron and got to work curling the bottom half of her hair. She slipped into a pink satin spaghetti strap dress that fell to her mid-thigh. She put on a pair of star earrings along with her Pandora bracelet. She put on a pair of open-toed black stilettos. She slips on her leather jackets.
She walks into Rory's room after her mother. "Don't argue with her or you'll find yourself the proud owner of three garden weasels." She put up three fingers as a warning to Lane who tried to talk Rory into wallowing.
"Mom," Rory whines as she stands up to lean against her dresser.
"Three causes one's just not enough." She wiggles her three fingers.
"She is right. We will probably break the first two." She looks over Rory in her black short sleeve skater dress that had red flowers on it. Lane was wearing a red blouse with a jean skirt. "You guys look great."
"Thanks, you look great too." Lean did a Tony the tiger impression. Anna chuckled as she sat down beside her.
"Here, turn around." Lorelai walks over to her oldest.
"Why?" Rory asked.
"14 hours of labor, that's why." She clicks her tongue.
"That means she doesn't have a real reason," Anna whispers to Lane.
"Fine," Rory turned around.
"And hair." Lorelai puts a necklace on Rory's chest. She grabbed her hair and moved it so her mother could do the clasp in the back.
"What is this?" Rory looks down at the necklace she has never seen before. She figured it must be a gift she had tucked away or a piece of jewelry she took with her when she left the Gilmore manor.
"I thought it would go with your dress and it does." She smiles at her through the mirror.
"It's pretty." She looks at the necklace in the mirror.
"Yeah, it's really pretty. Here, is the phone and some mad money. If for any reason you think you're not going to be home by midnight, you call me." She gave Rory the phone and some cash.
"Oh, we'll be back by midnight." Lane would die if they weren't.
"Hi, call me." Lorelai pointed finger guns at the teen.
"Sorry." She nods.
"Rory," Lorelai questions her daughter who has gone silent.
"The cornstarch," She pointed down at the box next to her mirror.
"What?" Their mother asked. Lane and Anna grimace at the yellow box.
"Um… the cornstarch, the first time Dean kissed me he… I forgot to put it with the other things. I'll just throw it out." She went to throw it in the trash.
"Hey, why don't you let me do that, you guys get going?" She took the box from her.
"Okay." She nods.
"Okay, bye. Have fun. Ooh hey, look in somebody's sock drawer. Rich people have hilarious sock drawers. Be good." She waves to them as they leave.
They walk to the car after Rory and Lane grab their coats. "You know you didn't have to come with us. You could have caught a ride with Tristan." Rory told her sister as she got into the driver's seat.
"That would be a waste of gas." She got into the back seat. After Lane got in the passenger seat, they took off.
"Wow, this is unbelievable. My wedding won't be this big." Lane looks at all the people in the huge mansion.
"I didn't even realize that this many people went to our school." Anna looked around the place. It was right out of a movie where a rich kid throws a party.
"This is amazing! People live here?" Lane whispers. They make their way through the crowd.
"This is Madeline's house," Rory told her.
"Hey babe," Tristan came over to kiss her. Anna pulls away when she could taste the alcohol on his breath. "Hey Rory, Lane, I'm surprised you came."
Rory shrugs her shoulders and smiles. Lane continues to look around in amazement. "Is this what your grandparent's house looks like?" She turns to Rory.
"No. I mean it's big but it's not this Hearst castlely." She told her.
"I mean there should be a map or a tour guide or Robin Leech or something." She smiles at being at a huge party. For a sheltered kid, it felt like a dream.
"She's adorable. We should show her around my house." Tristan slurs to his girlfriend as he pulls her away.
"I want to keep an eye on Rory." She turned around to make sure her sister was in sight.
"What? Why? She has Lane." He pointed at the girl.
"Don't make a big deal about it, but Dean broke up with her." She whispers to him.
"What?" He yelled.
"Shut up, I didn't tell you anything." She put a hand over his mouth.
"Let's show her a good time." He grabs four bottles from an ice bucket and walks over to them.
"They are not going to want that." She ran after him. He offers the girls the beer to be turned down. He shrugs and gives the extra two to people passing by.
"Oh my God, there's a pool table." Lane gasps when she sees it.
"And a DJ," Rory nods to the guy behind the turntables.
"It's like a teenage Sodom and Gomorrah." Lane walked around the house to gawk at things.
"You came!" Madeline threw her hands in the air when she saw them.
"Yeah," Rory nods.
"Who's watching the farm?" Louise teased. Paris was right behind her two friends.
"Madeline your house is beautiful." Rory complimented her. Tristan kissed Anna's neck. She shrugs him off, doing that kind of stuff with a drunken person while you're sober, feels dirty.
"Thanks, it's my stepfather's." Madeline smiled.
"So where is he?" Louise asked.
"My stepfather? He's in Japan." Madeline answers.
"No, not your stepfather, Prince Charming," She rolled her eyes at her friend.
"He didn't come," Rory told them.
"Why?" Louise fakes concerned. Anna put a hand over Tristan's mouth when she heard him about to answer the question.
"His white horse was in the shop." She thought coming here would help her not think about Dean.
"You guys didn't break up, did you?" Louise couldn't take a hint to drop the subject.
"Hi, I'm Lane." She stuck her hand out.
"As in walk down a...?" Louise looked unimpressed by it.
"Yes exactly." She nods, not letting the girl's snobbiness detour her.
"Hi, I'm Madeline." She waves to the new person.
A blonde came over and wrapped his arm around Louise while a brunette wraps his around Madeline. "So, when does the tour of the pool house start?" The Brunette asked.
"You've seen the pool house before." Madeline smiled.
"Yes, but they haven't seen it at night, right?" Louise put her hand over the guy's arms.
"Right," He nods.
"But…" Madeline wasn't sure what the difference could be.
"Madeline, you are not confused. Think, Process, Focus." Louise put her friend on the right track.
"Oh! Bye!" Madeline grabs the guy's hand to pull him away.
"Later Paris," Louise told her friend.
"No glove, no love." Paris reminds her.
"Lovely." Louise pulls her guy along.
"Pool house sounds nice." Tristan hums in her ear.
"I'm not an orgy kind of girl." Anna rolls her eyes.
"So, I didn't think you were much of a party girl." Paris nodded to Rory.
"I'm not usually but I thought I might come by and check it out," Rory answered her as they followed her through the crowd.
"Come on, she has Paris. Nothing sexual will happen with Paris around." Tristan pulls her back.
"I guess. They do have some weird friendship type thing going on. I don't think Paris will let anything bad happen to her." Anna sighs.
"That's right. Now here," He passed her a bottle. She took it and tipped it back into her mouth.
Anna giggles as Tristan spins her around quickly to the slow song. It didn't match the music at all, but they were too drunk to care.
"Wait, stop, I'm getting dizzy." She grabbed into his arm to stop him.
"Sorry." He pulled her close to stop her from falling on her face.
"Oh look, Lane dancing with Henry." She pointed at the two. He hummed in response before kissing her. "Oh my god, if Lane there, that means Rory by herself." She pulls back in a panic.
"No, she has Paris." He cups her face to kiss her.
"No, I have to check on her." She pulled away from him to push her away through the crowd. Tristan groans as he follows her. "Rory is going to be somewhere reading. Where is a place to read?" She kept turning her head to searching the house. The alcohol in her veins was making her anxious.
She screams when she walks into a room with a piano in it to see Rory kissing Thomas, one of the biggest players in school. Rory runs into her sister's arm crying. "Did he force himself on you?" She cups her sister's face and glares at the teen.
"I didn't." The teen put his hands up.
"He didn't. He kissed me and I let him. Then I thought of Dean and …" She put her face into her shoulder and sobs.
"Go to the car. I'll grab Lane and we'll go." She rubs her back. Rory nodded and went to the car.
"You're seriously going?" Tristan grabbed her arm when she went to go get Lane.
"My sister is crying, so yeah I'm going." She looks at him like he was an idiot.
"Oh my god, we're finally doing something I like and you got to go. It's so typical." He rolls his eyes.
"What does that mean?" She glares at him.
"It means I sit through all your shit: movie nights with your family, all the crazy small-town events, and taking you to every fancy restaurant in town. And you can't even do one thing I like." He threw his hands in the air.
"How am I supposed to know what you like and don't like if you don't say anything? The way you act, I thought you liked movie night and town events." She screams at him.
"I should have been a jerk like you're being now. My mistake for being considerate and making like I enjoy them for you." He scoffs.
"You're an asshole." She shoves his hands off her. She turns to walk away to get Lane.
"You can leave but I'm staying. I'll find someone else." He yells at her back.
"You do that." She choked back a sob as she found Lane dancing with Henry.
"We have to go." Her voice cracked as she tapped Lane's shoulder.
"Anna, are you okay?" Henry and Lane asked at the same time.
"I am, but Rory needs us right now." She tried to hold the tears back but the alcohol in her system wasn't letting her.
"Okay, I have to go." She turns to Henry.
"It's fine." He looks at his friend in concern. "Call me when you get home."
"I will." Anna gave him a weak smile.
"Wait, can I get your number?" He asked Lane.
"The last name's Kim and we're the only ones in Stars Hollow." She yelled at him as Anna dragged her away. "I can't believe I just gave my number to a potential Korean doctor." She told herself in amazement.
"Henry is great, I don't blame you," Anna told her.
"Oh my god, that's Henry, your best Chilton friend, Henry." She gasps in realization.
"Yeah, so be gentle okay." She pulls her out the door and to the jeep.
Lorelai walks in with a small smile on her face to find Rory and Anna sitting on the couch, crying, eating out of a large bucket of ice cream. The Outsiders were playing on the screen.
"I'm ready to wallow now." Rory sobs.
"Oh." She sits on the couch next to her and kisses Rory on the forehead. "What happened?" She turns to Anna.
"Tristan gave me an ultimatum to stay at the party with him or leave with Rory." She put her head on Lorelai's shoulder and cried. She puts a pillow on her lap and Rory lies down as she sobs. Lorelai picks up the phone and dials. "Hey Joe, it's Lorelai. I need a pizza with everything okay? Thanks."
