Lorelai shook Anna to wake her up. "Mom, go away." She opens her eyes to glare at her.

"How can you be sleeping with that?" She shouted.

Anna groans when she heard the banging noise her mother was talking about. "Easy, like this." She closes her eyes.

"Seriously, it had to have woken you up." She shook her again.

"Clearly, it didn't. You are much more disturbing. Now go away." She rolled over, so her back was facing her mother.

"Oh my god," Lorelai screams. She walked out of the room and downstairs to fail at getting her oldest daughter up, before going outside to confront the noisemaker.


Lorelai is sitting at the dining table reading the paper. Anna was eating a bowl of cereal next to her. Rory walks over and sticks her hand in the cereal box to grab a handful of frosted flakes. "I had the weirdest dream last night. We were in our house, but it wasn't our house, it was a Kentucky Fried Chicken." Lorelai put the newspaper down to tell them.

"Is the Colonel our dad?" Anna licks the milk off her lips.

"I wish. Anyways, I had to get dressed, but my clothes were in the back. And the guy manning the giant oil vat would not let me through." She went on about her dream.

"Oh my God! That's so weird. When you said oil vat, that just reminded me, I had this dream last night we were swimming in a pool, only it wasn't water, it was like oil or honey or something." Rory uses her free hand to open the fridge to grab the bottle of milk.

"Hey." Lorelai turns around in her chair to face Rory.

"What?" She put some cereal in her mouth before taking a sip of milk.

"You totally did the thing." She accused her.

"What thing?" Rory tilts her head.

"The thing where one person is describing their dream and it reminds the other person about their dream, and suddenly it's all about their dream and the first person is just standing there like, um, hey man, what about my dream?" She waves her hands around.

"I don't think that's a thing." Anna doubts that happen often enough to be considered a thing.

"It obviously is, because Rory just did it." She turns forward to tell her youngest.

"I'm sorry, the oil vat guy was being mean." Rory sits down at the table.

"Yes. And we knew him. He used to live in town. He was that guy who used to run the auto body shop before Maven Hughes bought it. Remember him?" She throws some cereal in her mouth to take a sip of milk.

"And I'm over here using a bowl like an idiot." Anna rolls her eyes.

"I'm not hungry enough to eat a whole bowl. And no, I don't remember him." Rory responds to both her sister and mom.

"Yes, you do. He's really skinny." She tried to jog their memories.

"Peter Stringbean?" Anna remembers the skinny guy that used to work there.

"No. That was the tall circus freaky guy who worked for him. This was the owner guy. What was his name?" She shook her head.

"I don't know." Rory and Anna shook their heads also.

"Yes, you do. Come on. Ugh. It's gonna bug me all day. He was short and fat and his name was." She looks at them for the answer.

"Johnny McShort-and-Fat." Rory smiled.

"Oh, now don't mock." Lorelai stands up and goes out the back door that leads to their porch to see if Luke, who was working on the roof, knew the guy's name.

"Do you know where my blazer is?" Rory asked Anna.

"I think in the front closet." Anna nods in its direction.

"Thanks." She got up. Anna drank her milk before getting up to wash the bowl. She walks towards the living room at the same time her mother is coming into the house.

"Ooh! Hey! Jim Dunning was the Dick Tracy guy. Jim Dunning, that's the Dick Tracy guy." Lorelai yells in happiness at having figured out the name. Anna and Lorelai stop in their tracks when they see Rory is standing with the Dean box in her hands. They gave each other a look, knowing that they were caught red-handed. "Oh. The Dean box. Okay, I know I was supposed to throw it away, but I couldn't. I mean, you're young and your head's all weird, and you don't have any perspective because of that whole young weird headed thing, so just please listen to me before you get mad. You're gonna want that stuff one day when you're old and married, and looking back and thinking, I certainly had an interesting life. And then you can pull out all your old boyfriend boxes. Which is good, because I threw away stuff I'd kill to have today. Look, I put it in with the Max box so they could chat and keep each other company and commiserate about how they had Gilmore girl and lost a Gilmore girl and . . .sorry." She ended her rant with an apology when she ran out of things to say.

Rory gives Lorelai a kiss. "Thanks." Rory takes the Dean's box into her bedroom. She sits on her bed and starts pulling everything out and looking at it.

"Good call on keeping the box." Anna pats her mom on the back.


Rory, Anna, and Lane walk out of Antonioli's restaurant. Rory is carrying French fries while Land and Anan have gelato milkshakes. They walk along the sidewalk. "What I wanted to say was, Janie Fertman, you are a vacuous bimbo who will be turning letters as a profession one day. And the only way you'll know which letter to turn is when it dings and lights up. And I have no desire to stop and talk to you. Ever. But what I said was what Janie? And then she goes, You're cheerleader material. Cheerleader material! Just like that. I couldn't believe it! I almost went full matrix on her. Have you heard a word I've said?" Lane looked over at the sisters when there was no commentary.

"Yes. I think for Janie that was a compliment" Anna nods.

"No." Rory shook her head.

"I resent that. I'm a witty conversationalist." Lane took a fry.

Anna and Lane look back when they realize that Rory wasn't following them. They saw her staring into the market. "What wrong?" Anna asked.

"I'm going in." She told them.

"You can't." Lane looks at her like she grew a second head.

"I'm going in." Rory had a look of determination that Anna only saw in her sister before she aces a test.

"It's Thursday afternoon." Anna reminds her.

"I know." She nods.

"He works on Thursday afternoons." Lane looks in the market to look for her friend's ex.

"I know." She nods.

"We're talking you know who." Lane squinted at her.

"I know." She nods.

"Oh my god!" Lane squeals in excitement while Anna groans.

"Calm down." Rory grabs her friend's arms.

"Oh my god!" Lane bounced on the balls of her feet.

"You're making a spectacle." Rory looks around at the looks they were getting.

"You're getting back together with Dean!" Lane screams.

"If you keep jumping like that I'm gonna videotape it and send it to Janie Fertman as your cheerleader audition." Rory threatened.

Lane took a deep breath to keep still and ask. "When did this happen?"

"Nothing's happened. I don't even know what I'm doing exactly. Or what he's thinking or whether he's burned all my letters and pictures or hates me or what, but I'm going in." She smiles. She was ready to have a talk to Dean. She was hoping they'd get back together, but if not she needed to be able to see him in public without running away.

"I encourage this. I love you, but you've been mopey, dopey, and about 12 other melancholy dwarves for the past five weeks and I miss the old Rory." Lane smiled.

"I miss the old me too." Rory smiles back at her friend.

"I've been feeling bad for the new Rory," Anna admits when her two best friends look over at her for her support.

"Well, she's staging a comeback." Rory felt good about this.

"And may it be more successful than Peter Frampton's." Lane gave her best wishes.

"Wish me luck." She hands her sister the fries.

"Luck!" They nodded.

Rory walks into the market. Anna and Lane look in the window. Rory waved them to at least hide when she saw them. They bent down so their eyes were over a sign that was tapped in the window. "How are you feeling about this?" Lane asked.

"I know that he makes her happy, but I'm not okay with how he treats her. Despite my feeling, I'm willing to support her." Anna watches Rory until she couldn't see her anymore when she walks deeper into the market. They stood up to drink the shakes and eat the fries while they waited for her.

Rory walked out the door and began a fast pace down the sideway. Lane and Anna ran to catch up with her. "So, what happened?" Anna knew it couldn't have been good by the frown on her face.

"He's not there," Rory told them.

"But he always works Thursday." Lane went two Thursday in a roll and asked around to make sure for Rory's where-Dean-is-so-I-can-avoid-him list.

"I guess he's taking Thursday afternoons off now. That's not good." Rory pouts.

"How is that not good?" Lane and Anna throw their empty cups and fry tray in a trash can.

"Because that means he's moved on." Rory looks like someone ripped up her homework.

"I don't see the connection." Anna tilts her head.

"Obviously he's met one of those Thursday afternoon girls." She slapped the back of her hand onto the palm of the other.

"What's a Thursday afternoon girl?" Lane never heard of such a thing.

"They're those slutty girls that get guys to switch their Thursday afternoons with another checkout guy so they can go do slutty Thursday afternoon things," Rory explains to them as they cross the street.

"Okay, you're reading way too much into this," Lane told her. Anna had to hold back a laugh at how ridiculous she was being.

"I shouldn't have gone in." Rory sighs.

"No, it's good to go in." Anna was tired of having to go in places and make sure Dean wasn't there before going back out to get Rory.

"Taylor thinks I'm casing the place. Like I would ever shoplift there." Rory sighs.

"You have shoplifted there." Lane said.

"Remember the corn starch." Rory wouldn't let Anna use any when she wanted to make fried chicken.

"Lane, I'm gonna ask you a question and I want you to be more honest with me than you've ever been before in your life. Have you ever seen him with another girl at school?" Rory stops when they reach the sidewalk on the other side.

"No." She shook her head.

"Remember Lane, no more protecting Rory." Anna reminds her of the big fight they had at the bus stop.

"No." She repeats herself.

"You'd tell me, right?" Rory asked.

"Yes. No, I wouldn't. I know I promised to not protect you but I don't want to break your heart. But, I haven't seen him with any girls." Lane sighs.

"You swear? On the life of the lead singer of Blur?" She made her promise on the latest band she was obsessing over.

"On the soul of Damon Albarn, I swear to you that I have not seen Dean with another girl." She swears.

"Oh, she hasn't." Anna nods when she sees Lane's serious face.

"He's miserable," Lane told her when they started walking again.

"Fine." Rory nods.

"Suicidal." Lane went on.

"Good." Rory needs him to be sad about the break up too if they were going to get back together.

"And in desperate need of haircutting." Lane thought the long hair wasn't a good look on him.

"Thank you." Rory smiles at her friend.


Tristan walks over to Anna when she is opening her locker. "You know what these are?" He held up three tickets.

"What the prize if I get it right?" She glances at him before grabbing the books she needs.

"I'll let you have one." He let out a sigh like it was a big sacrifice on his part.

"Then I'll have to say tickets of some sort." She unzips up her backpack to put the book inside.

"To PJ Harvey." He told her.

"What?" She grabs his hand to pull it closer to her face, so she could read the tickets. "You don't even like PJ Harvey." She looks between the tickets and him.

"Yeah, but you do." He points at her.

"I guess great minds think alike." She pulls her wallet out to grab two tickets from it.

"What are those?" He leaned in closer to see.

"Christina Aguilera tickets. I still think you're more of a fan of her music videos than the actual songs but we're going." She showed him the tickets before putting them back in her wallet. The tickets cost her a whole month's pay from both Luke's and the Inn's paycheck. She had to wake up at 6 am to get the tickets online but she got them. "Wait, why do you have three tickets?" She nods to the tickets in his hand.

"Well, I know Rory has been down lately, so I figure she could come along." He was beginning to feel bad about how depressed she was after her rage stage.

"You're the best." She pulled him down by his tie to give him a kiss.

"Don't you two need to breathe?" Anna let him go to look over at Paris. Louise was standing behind her while Madeline opened her locker.

"You learn to breathe through your nose." She winks at the disgruntled Burnette.

"Ooh, what are those?" Madeline pointed to the tickets in Tristan's hands.

"Oh, PJ Harvey tickets." He told her.

"Really?" Louise didn't think he would be into that type of music.

"Cool." Madeline smiled.

"Who's the other ticket for?" Louise asks.

"Rory." He put them in his blazer pocket. He only said Rory's name figuring they would know the third ticket was Anna's.

"What?" Paris snapped.

"Rory's going out with you?" Louise glances at Anna.

"Yes, she is going. What's the big deal?" She shrugs before walking away with Tristan following her.


"Okay, we've got food, drink, reading material, chocolate-covered espresso beans. Have I left anything out?" Max looks into the grocery bag. They were walking down the street to Max's first town meeting.

"I think that covers it," Rory told him.

"What do we need reading material for?" Anna asks.

"For when they go over boring issues," Lorelai told her.

"Then you better hide behind someone big, if Taylor catching you read he'll blow a gasket." She advises her.

"Look for someone fat." Rory teases.

"Are you sure you wanna go to this thing?" Lorelai double-checked with him.

"You've been talking about these town meetings for months. I've got to see one for myself." Max has to see this town ritual that was described as a comedy sketch.

"Prepared to be disappointed, not that great. It's the same thing over and over again." Anna thought that Rory and her mom hype them up way too much.

"Don't listen to her, they're never dull." Lorelai protested.

"Only because you'll see some crazy lady throwing French fries at the people she disagrees with her." Anna scoffs.

"So, were they cold?" Max looks at his girlfriend.

"No, I was just full." She smiles.

"Ah. Oh, oh, I forgot." Max pulls three RingPops from the bag. "One for you, one for you, and one for you." He passes them out.

"What are these?" Rory sniffed it.

"Those are rings. And the diamond is actually candy so you can eat it." Max told them.

"Max, that's very sweet, but we're not eight." Lorelai laughs. She let Max walk ahead of them.

"What do you get?" She turns to her kids.

"Grape. Yours?" Rory told her.

"Cherry," Lorelai said.

"I got watermelon," Anna told them.

"Trade you!" Rory asked Anna.

"Yes!" They switched candy.

"Trade," Lorelai asked Anna. She nodded her head, trading again to get the Cherry. Max shakes his head laughing as he looks over his shoulder at them.


"Enough, enough of this arguing. It's time to put this to a vote. All right now, let's see a show of hands. All those in favor. . . ." Taylor yelled from behind his podium

Lorelai, Max, Anna, and Rory walk in. "Oh, rats. It started already." Lorelai sighs when she saw that they were voting on something. Rory notices Clara and Dean in the back, so she hides behind her sister.

"All those opposed," Taylor asks the room. Lorelai raises her hand. "Lorelai, you don't even know what we're voting on."

"Yeah, but I'm a-gin it!" She put on a funny accent as she pointed at him.

"Alright, the nays have it. Let the record reflect it. Lorelai, I hope that's not food in those bags. Food is not allowed at town meetings." He pointed at the bag as they made their way to their seats.

"You think he'd give up already," Anna whispers to Max.

"No, Taylor it's not. It's, um, diapers for the little ones." She raised the bag.

"What?" He wasn't aware of there being babies in their house.

"Dorsal fins and Cucamonga." She sat down next to Max. Anna sat down next to her, leaving Rory with the aisle seat.

"What did she say?" Taylor asked Patty.

"I confuse him till he loses his train of thought and then he moves on." She told Max her strategy.

"Alright, I'd like to open the meeting up for miscellaneous issues." Taylor looks out at the crowd. This meant that the town meeting was almost over. Anna was happy that they came so late.

"I have an issue." A man in the front stood up.

"Who are you?" Taylor asked.

"The town troubadour." He told him.

"The what?" Taylor didn't know of such a title.

"You've seen him, Taylor, with his guitar." Babette reminds him.

"Taylor complains about him enough, you would think he knows his face," Anna whispers.

"Maybe Taylor can't recognize him without the guitar," Lorelai whispers back.

"Right, the guitar." Taylor sighs making Lorelai pump her fist for being right.

"Yes, he plays on all the street corners," Patty told him.

"He loiters on street corners," Luke yelled from the seat in front of them.

"Luke complained about him a lot too. These two uptights have something in common." Anna giggles to get a dirty look from Luke.

"We're two peas in a pod, Luke." Taylor pointed at him.

"Scary thought, Taylor." Luke was almost ready to change his opinion.

"Go on honey." Babette waves for the musician to continue.

"Thank you. I've been the town troubadour for six months now, and I think I've done a pretty good job, and then, he shows up." He pointed to a tall long-haired man.

"Hey." He turns around to wave at everyone.

"And there's no room for a second troubadour in Stars Hollow." The first troubadour complains.

"Clearly." Morey nods in agreement.

"This is hands down the silliest thing I have ever heard." Taylor threw his hands in the air.

"More silly then if we should put the obscene shaped vegetable in the back as to not give suggested ideas to children," Anna spoke up.

"Then telling me why those young girls were buying so many cucumbers." He asked.

"To make a salad, face mask, or put over their eyes. What do you think they were being used for?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well… Ummm." He opened and closed his mouth.

"Hear them out, Taylor. It can't hurt." Lorelai saved him from looking like a pervert. Taylor stares at the bag she's holding in her hand. "These are not fries. They are farfignugen sugen dugen." Max laughs as he sips his drink.

"I opened the floor for issues of substance. This does not qualify." Taylor wanted to move on from this topic that was turning the crowd against him.

"Not cool, Taylor. Music is substance." Morey called out.

"Watch out, Morey. After that anatomically explicit epithet, your wife yelled at me earlier, you're both on probation." He pointed a finger at them.

"All I'm asking is that the town troubadour laws be enforced." The first one spoke up.

Rory looks back at Dean when he makes eye contact with her, she turns back around. "There are no town troubadour laws." Taylor sighs.

"There ought to be something." Patty thought they could at least look into it.

"I've got the town handbook right here." Kirk looks through the book he took to every town meeting.

"I don't get this, people. This man is practically a vagrant. I mean, where do you even live? What do you do for a living?" He asked the man.

"I don't want people to know those things!" He shouted at Taylor.

"Why not?" He held back from calling him a criminal.

"Because that's part of being a troubadour." He told him.

"What is part of being a troubadour?" Taylor leaned on his podium.

"The mystique!" He said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"Oh, this is absolutely ridiculous. Do you subscribe to this troubadour mystique?" He asked the second one.

"I run a Kinko's in Groton." The long-haired man told them.

"You see, that proves it. He doesn't respect the code. You're not supposed to talk. You're not supposed to run a Kinko's. You're supposed to speak through your music. That's the whole point." He was very passionate about the traits of being a troubadour.

"What is your scam buddy?" Taylor asked.

"My scam?" He looks back at the man.

"Because if you are using the fine people of Stars Hollow to make a quick buck . . ." He pointed a finger at him.

"No Taylor, he doesn't accept money. I know, I tried." Patty told him.

"He may not now, but he will. This troubadour act is a money-making scheme. Why else would he be doing it?" He shouted the question to the room as the man sat down.

Rory stood up to say, "Because sometimes you have something you need to say but you can't because the words won't come out or you get scared or you feel stupid, so if you could write a song and sing it then you could say what you need to say and it would be beautiful and people would listen and you wouldn't make a complete idiot out of yourself, but all of us can't be songwriters so some of us will never be able to say what we're thinking or what we want other people to know that we're thinking so we'll never get the chance to make things right again ever." Everyone looks at Rory, who was normally quietly snickering at other people having an outburst at the town meeting. She puts her hand on Troubadour 1's shoulder. "So give this guy a license."

Everyone clapped as she sat down. "Well, I liked that little speech." Lorelai reaches over to pat her leg.

"Yeah, good going Ror. Way to stick up for music." Anna pats her on the back.

"In the interest of not talking about this subject for another second, I hereby designate Mystique Guy over here the official town troubadour. And no other troubadour may usurp his territory, meaning this other guy." He hit his gavel on the podium.

Lorelai throws a French fry at Luke. He turns around. "Do you want some fries? We have extra."

"Nah, Rachel's minding the store so I should probably get going." He told them.

"Yeah, I agree." She nods.

"I knew you would." Luke gets up and leaves. Max pulls Lorelai closer and gives her a kiss. Anan covered her eyes to not see it. Rory looks to where Dean was sitting but sees that he left.


Tristan and Anna were leaving the school to walk to his car when Rory stormed up to them. She drops her books on the floor and slaps Tristan across the face. "What the hell, Rory." Anna pushes her sister back. Not rough enough to hurt her but enough to get out of swing distance.

"Why would you tell Paris, I'm going on a date with you?" She screams at him.

"I didn't tell her that." He held his cheek.

"She thinks it's only you and me going to PJ Harvey. Now, she is planning to screw me over next year because she is the school editor of the newspaper." She pulls at her hair.

"Calm down Rory, it's a misunderstanding. I'll tell Paris that it's a group thing, not a date." She didn't know why Paris would think she would allow Tristan to date her sister.

"It doesn't matter, she got it in her head that we're sharing him. That we're backward hicks that share a boyfriend and kiss our cousins." She looks ready to cry of frustration. Things were finally going well for her with three friends and no bullies. Now she was back to square one.

"Rory, I swear I'll talk to her," Tristan promised.

"I don't think even a sweet talk from you is going to work." She wipes the tears from her eyes.

"We don't know if we don't try." Anna rubs her back.

"Hey Rory, you drop this." Thomas held her books in his hand.

"Oh, thanks." She smiled.

"I'll walk you to your bus stop." He walks ahead of her, leaving her no choice but to walk with him.

"The guy knows nothing about history but he knows how to get a girl." Anna follows them out.

"Dean." She gasped when she saw her ex standing in front of his family green pick up truck. "Dean, What are you doing here?" She ran over to him.
The three watch as Dean tries to open his car door to leave, but Rory closes it to get him to talk to her. "I'll take those books." Anna took them from Thomas.

"Better luck next time." He shrugs and walks away.

"Sophia is right, slut just heal quicker." Anna giggles before frowning at her sister arguing with Dean. "He came all this way to argue." She rolled her eyes.

"He did see another guy holding her books." Tristan knew when they were broken up for a few days he was mad about Henry walking her to all her classes.

"Please, they were going out for three months and it's been five weeks since they broke up. If another guy holds her books that is not his business." She glares at Dean.

"Because I love you, you idiot," Rory yelled at Dean's back. Dean turns around to kiss her.

"I'm going to need tums." She rubs her chest.

"Be nice. Rory didn't like me in the beginning but she was civil for your sake." Tristan reminds her.

"Since when are you so self-righteous." She grabbed his hand to pull him to the car.


Anna was waiting for her mom and sister in Lukes. Luke is standing at a table pouring coffee for Kirk. "Rory! Anna!" Lorelai bursts through the door.

"Geesh, you made me spill." Luke jerk making coffee spill on the table.

"Sorry! Uh, she's not here?" She looks for her missing daughter.

"No mom, what's the matter?" Anna got up to meet her frantic mom.

"I got news, but we have to wait for Rory," Lorelai told her.

"I'm damp," Kirk complains. Luke throws a hand towel on his table.

"Where is she?" Lorelai looks out the window.

"Calm down, is everything okay?" Luke came over to check up on her.

"Yes, maybe, I think so. I don't know." She said quickly.

"So, what's going on?" Anna asked.

"Big things. Big potentially life-changing things." Her pitch gets higher as she speaks.

"You get a promotion?" Luke wonders.

"Oh yeah, they made me head salesman of the Northwest Territories. No, I run an inn, there's no place to promote me too." She teased him.

"So it's nothing to do with work?" He crossed that off the list.

"Where is she?" She pulls her phone out to text her.

"Have some coffee while you wait." Luke went to get a pot.

"No, I couldn't take coffee, big hole, through the roof, very bad." She made a motion like her brain was going to blow up.

"No coffee?" Anna never heard those words ever leave her mom's mouth, not even after she had six cups of it.

"You're saying no to coffee. This is big. Can't tell me what it is?" Luke tried his luck.

"I need to tell them first." She put an arm around Anna.

"But you're happy about this news." He was assuming by her energy.

"I might be. Maybe. It's just kind of a, wow I can't believe this is happening to me, kind of a mindblowing moment…" She was interrupted by her phone beeping. "Oh, there she is! I'm gonna go." She hands Luke a daisy. "The whole town gets one today." Lorelai leaves, pulling Anna along with her.

"Bye," Anna waved to the man.

They were outside in front of the diner when they saw Rory down the street. They smile and run towards each other. They were talking at the same time about having big news.

"You first! You first!" The two jump around laughing while Anna looks between the two. She decided to join them even though she didn't have any news to share.