Stars Hollow was decorated with yellow Daisies that Max used to propose to Lorelai. The Gilmore Girls were walking down the street, the teens with a bouquet of flowers in their hands.

"You should get married in Italy," Rory suggested.

"Or you can get married in Japan, under the cherry blossoms." Anna smiled.

"All the way from home, same topic. There's tons of stuff going on in the world. Big stuff." For a woman who just got proposed to, she didn't seem to want to talk about her wedding.

"Like?" Rory asked.

"Balkans." She said the first thing that came to mind.

"That was ages ago." Rory scoffs.

"Yeah, read a paper." Anna shook her head at her mother.

"Ugh. They make my hands black." She put her hands up.

"Oh! You should walk down the aisle to Frank Sinatra with a huge bouquet of something that smells really good." Rory jumps as an idea pops into her head.

"Pot Roast." She joked.

"You should get a lace mermaid wedding dress." Anna bounces in excitement.

"Who am I, Ariel?" She scoffs.

"And you should wear a long veil with your hair up." Rory looks at her mother as she imagines her on her wedding day.

"Ugh, I'll take any other subject in the world for two hundred, Alex." Lorelai sighs.

"Why don't you want to think about this?" Rory didn't understand why she wasn't as excited as everyone else in town.

"Because I haven't made my mind up about the yes or no part, so I don't want to start fantasizing about dresses and flowers or doves and tulle until I do, so please change the subject." She didn't want them or her to get their hopes up.

"I think the bridesmaids should be able to pick their own dresses." Rory didn't move on from the subject.

Anna didn't want to either. "I agree, can we do that thing where the bridesmaid dresses are the same color and material but not exactly the same?"

"You know how on, All in the Family, when Edith would be yapping about something and Archie would pretend to make a noose and hang himself or shoot himself in the head?" She pretends to hang herself.

"Yeah?" They nodded.

"I don't know. Something about this moment just made me think of that." She shrugs.

"Fine, I'm done. I'm taking these to Lane." Rory held up her flowers.

"I'm going to give these to Mrs. Kim." Anna held up hers.

"Okay. Meet me at Luke's." Lorelai waves to them as they walk away.

"Oh, get me a paper please," Rory yelled over her shoulders.

"But my hands!" Lorelai groans.

The girls walk into the antique store to find Lane arguing with her mother. "It's not for you to think about. All under control." Mrs. Kim tried to calm down her daughter.

"Just give me a hint," Lane begs.

"Children will know what their parents think they can handle." Mrs. Kim told her.

"I'm sorry, was that the hint?" She wonders if that was something she could work with.

"I have to work." She walked away.

"Wait, Mrs. Kim." Anna ran past Rory and Lane to get to the older woman.

"Yes, Gilmore Girl." She turns around to give her a blank stare.

"I came over to give you some flowers that my mother got from her engagement." She held out the flowers.

"I see, she is finally going to settle down and be a good example." She took the flowers.

"She tries." Anna gave her a big smile.

"Thank you," Mrs. Kim took the flower and walked away.

Anna smiles as she walks back to her best friend and sister. "They're sending me to Korea and they won't tell me when I'm coming back." Lane cried out.

Anna's smile quickly turns into a frown. "What do you mean they won't tell you when you're coming back?"

"I mean, they bought me a one-way ticket. One way! The plane goes there and stops!" She put her index finger up.

"Are you sure?" Rory asked.

"I called the airline to confirm it, and my parents were in their room whispering all morning. And when my mother came out, she looked very happy. She was humming. I swear, they're planning to send me to Korea for the rest of my life." She walks through the crowd antique room with Anna and Rory following close behind her.

"Lane, come on." Rory knew of how she let her imagination run wild.

"It's gonna be just like that Sally Field movie when her husband took them to Iran and wouldn't let them come back, except that I won't have to keep my head covered." She would prefer it if her head was covered. That way she could pretend she was going somewhere fun like Disneyland.

"Okay, calm down," Rory said the words that never calm anyone down.

"Calm down? Are you listening? I am being shipped off to Korea!" She waves the flowers around.

"Yes, but you don't have all the information." Anna didn't think that Mrs. Kim would ship off her only daughter.

"Maybe there's some deal with the airline and that's why the ticket's one way. Or maybe they haven't worked out the plans with your cousins yet. Or there's a weather consideration or a holiday you don't know about or. . .Wow, I'm really gonna miss you." Rory finally gave in that she might never see Lane again.

"You can't go." Anna hugs her friend tightly. Rory joins in on the hug.

"Lane, come here please!" Mrs. Kim sang out, making the three girls freeze up. They never heard her so happy in their lives.

"I have to go. You've been good friends." She pulls away from the hug to go to her mother.


Rory and Anna smiled when they saw Lorelai reading a Bridal Magazine. They sneak up behind her and Rory asks, "What'cha reading?"

"Oh God, do not sneak up on a person like that." She shut the magazine.

"InStyle Weddings. Very interesting." Rory smiles.

"No, not very interesting." She denies.

"Get any ideas?" Anna smiled.

"Yes, we should have cake more often." She looks at the picture of the wedding cake.

"I can't argue with that." Anna laughs.

Rory took the magazine from her mother and turned to the man running the stand, "Hey Bootsy, I'll take this."

"Oh, no. I just. . . don't. . ." She tried to protest but Rory gave her the magazine back to get the money from her purse.

"It's six bucks," Bootsy told her.

"Lorelai!" Miss Patty walked over.

"Oh geez." Lorelai sighs.

"So…." She wanted to know what her answer to the proposal was.

"Hi, Patty." She smiled.

"InStyle Weddings! You said yes!" She beams at the magazine in her hands.

"Oh no, not yet!" She shook her head.

"Yet! She said yet!" She pointed at her daughters.

"I know!" They cheered.

"I'm right here." Lorelai pointed at herself.

"He's a good man?" She turns to the bride to be.

"Oh yeah, he's a great man." She nods.

"Oh, I love this! I just love this!" She gushes before turning serious. "Have you told Luke?"

"Well, no, it just happened last night." She was saying when Patty put her hand over her heart for Luke. "Oh Patty, stop it. I'll tell him. It's not that big a deal if he just finds out." She was only convincing herself.

"Well, whatever you say." She shrugs, letting her opinion show on her face.

"Well, uh, it just so happens we are on our way over there now to have some breakfast, and I'll tell Luke then." Luke was a good friend of hers, so she did want to tell him herself.

"Be gentle." She advises.

"Patty, me and Luke are just friends." She told the woman for the hundredth time.

"Just friends. Yes, yes, I know." She said, just friends with her.

"It's true." She threw her free hand into the air.

"Okay let's go." Rory grabs her shoulders and guides her towards Luke's. A crowd of townspeople formed behind the Gilmore Girls.

"Well, it is." She told her daughters.

"I know." Anna and Rory nod.

"What is with this place? Why will nobody believe me?" She sighs out of frustration.

"They believe you." Rory lied.

"No, they don't." She shook her head.

"I promise they believe you." Anna lied also.

"You two are pacifying me." She pouts.

"Just a little." She put her middle and index fingers close together to show her.

"Well, I don't like it." She glares.

"We'll see if we can stop," Rory told her. They glance over their shoulders to see all the townspeople behind them. They shared a look before turning around quickly and everyone made like they were looking somewhere else.

"I can't wait for the movie theater to reopen." Lorelai opened the door to the diner and they sat down at a table in front of a window.

"Maybe we should have chosen a different table." Anna watches the crowd standing outside the window. Some were pushing their faces against the glass.

"Hmm. Let's see, what looks good. I'm so unbelievably hungry I'm gonna have to order breakfast and lunch, crazy huh?" Lorelai grabs a menu.

"Mom, go tell him," Rory demands, uncomfortable with all the eyes on them.

"I will." She opened the menu.

"Maybe, you should do it now because I think the glass is about to break. It's going to be a bloody accident for all of us." Anne could already picture it.

"This is crazy. Why is everybody making such a big deal about this?" Lorelai looks to the side to see the people. Miss Patty waved at her.

"Because everyone knows that Luke has a thing for you." Rory pointed out the obvious.

"Luke does not have a thing for me." She denies.

"Tell him." Anna moves her chair away from the window.

"Uh, we can barely get through a single conversation without biting each other's heads off." Lorelai reasoned.

"Tell him," Rory demands.

"Everything about me repulses that man. My coffee drinking, my eating habits. Remember when I called him Ranger Bob last week, he hated that!" She listed the things he complained about.

"Will you get me a muffin when you're up there?" Rory opens up a menu.

"Blueberry please." Anne took the menu her mother was looking at.

"Okay. God. Fine." She walks over to Luke at the counter.

"Oh my god, Rory. They're leaning more into it now." Anne looked for another open table but couldn't find any.

"You're going to break it." Rory tried to tell them through the glass. Miss Patty gave her a thumbs up, letting them know she didn't hear.

Anne decided to not look at the window because it was giving her anxiety. She watched what they were watching. It was hard to tell how it was going because Luke was keeping his natural grump face on. "It's hard to tell how it's going without seeing Mom. He's not running to the kitchen, so he is not upset. That's good."

"Kirk just fell to the floor." Rory gasps.

"What!" Anna turns to see Kirk laying on the sidewalk outside. Some had to move back to give him air.

Lorelai walks back to the table with a plate of muffins. "Now, what's going on?" She points outside.

"Kirk passed out," Rory told her.

"Oh, here's your muffin." She passes her daughters their muffins.

"Thanks. How'd he take it?" Rory asks.

"Fine, he took it fine." She frowns. Her daughters share a look that she didn't look happy about Luke's reaction.


Anna and Rory got out of the jeep and turned to their mother with concerned eyes when they saw her involuntary jerk back to the jeep. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, I'm just stuck to the emergency brake." She reaches in to untie her purse strap from the gear shift.

"How did you do that?" Anna peeks into the car.

"With a flourish and a big ending. Okay, I got it. Let's go. Oh, my coat." She reaches in to grab her coat.

"It's pretty warm out for a coat." Rory points out.

"Yeah, well, it tends to cool off the minute I get in that house." She closed the door to the car.

"You good?" Rory asks.

"I'm good." She nods.

"Mom, your keys." Anna opens the passenger door to take them out of the ignition.

"What is wrong with you?" Rory sighs. Her mom had been forgetting things since her talk with Luke.

"Nothing." She denies.

"You got lost coming here." Rory still didn't know how that happened.

"I took a wrong turn." She didn't see the big deal anyone could make that mistake.

"Six times." Anne was sure they weren't even in Hartford when she looked up from filing her nails.

"Well, my self preservational instincts at work ladies and gentlemen." She stops in front of her parent's door to sigh.

"And then the coat and the keys and the . . ." Rory listed.

"I got stuff on my mind." Lorelai put a stop to it.

"Max stuff?" Anna asked.

"No, stuff stuff." She answered quickly.

"You're lying." Rory could see it all over her face.

"I'm being mysterious. That's what women do." She was tired of Rory and Anna trying to make her talk about Max.

"Mom." She didn't want to pressure her mom, but she felt like her commitment issues were going to make her lose a good guy.

"Oh look, doorbell. Pretty sound." She rings the doorbell.

"You know, you always make me tell you what I'm thinking," Rory remembers how she hounded her after her break up with Dean.

"Yes, and the lesson we have learned from that is you should never become a spy. Definitely not you, considering all I have to do is look at you for you to spill your guts." She pointed at Rory then at Anna. Anna put a hand over her heart.

Emily opens the door. "You're here. Richard, they're here."

"Wonderful!" Richard's joy-filled voice came through the house.

"Come in, come in, come in." Emily cheered.

"Uh, no." Lorelai narrows her eyes.

"Why?" The smile never left her face.

"Because you're scaring Rory and Anna." She points to her daughters.

"Oh stop that. Get in here. Scaring Rory and Anna, you're so silly sometimes." She giggles as she grabs their arms to pull them in. "Let's get you a drink. Put your coats down. Oh, and are you hungry? I had Antonia make some Roquefort puffs. Antonia, bring the puffs! Come, sit down, sit down. Richard!" She guides them into the living room.

"Say nothing until I get there," Richard yells from his office.

"Well, hurry up!" Emily couldn't contain herself for long.

"Mom, what's going on? Ooh, the nails, the nails, the nails." Lorelai hisses at her mother's nails digging into her arm to push her down on the couch. Rory and Anna sat down next to her.

"So, tell me what's new with you girls?" She went over to the bartender cart.

"Uh, nothing." Lorelai lied.

"Hey Grandma, what about you? Did something special happen?" Rory looks around her mother to ask her grandmother.

"Well, as a matter of fact. Oh, for goodness sake. Richard, dammit!" She screams for her husband.

"Mom, why don't you just tell us what's happening now?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, all right. I can't wait for your grandfather any longer. Well, you know I'm very good friends with Bitty Charleston, the headmaster's wife." She sat down on a chair with a wine glass and a bottle of wine in her hands. They nod. "Well, we had this little arrangement where she keeps me apprised of all the goings-on at Chilton. You know, she tells me all the gossip on the students and their parents, and any piece of information I might find useful. Well, this afternoon she called to tell me the class list just came out. Rory and Anna have finished in the top three percent!" She screams the last sentence.

"I know." Lorelai nods.

"You do? Who do you know at Chilton?" She was stunned.

"Um, Rory and Anna." She points at her kids.

"Oh." She looked deflated.

"It wasn't definite, but I had a pretty good idea," Rory told her.

Richard walks in. "Rory, Anna, wonderful news. You both have finished in the top three percent of your class."

"Oh yeah, Dad, J. Edgar Hoover over here was just telling us." She pointed at Emily.

"What? I told you not to say anything before I got here." He looked at his wife shocked.

"Well, you took too long." She defends himself.

"It doesn't matter we already knew." Anna hoped that would put a stop to their fighting.

"It's a simple request." Richard ignores the logic to argue with his wife.

"Just hang up the phone." Emily was annoyed with how much he brought his work home.

"Okay, good news either way. Let's all agree on that." Lorelai didn't want to see this fight either. It gives her flashbacks to her childhood.

"I am immensely proud of you two." He smiled at his grandchildren.

"Yes, we knew you could do it." Emily smiled.

"Oh, we certainly did." He sat down next to his wife with his own bottle of wine.

"We have to celebrate. Next week we will have a special dinner." She was going to get them whatever they wanted.

"Grandma, all of your dinners are special." Rory smiled.

"Well, this one will be extra special. We'll make all your favorite foods, and you can invite some of your friends." Emily suggested.

"There's an excellent chance that presents might be involved." Richard winks.

"You guys do not have to do this." Anna shook her head.

"For the top three percent?" Richard gasps like it would be shameful for them not to celebrate.

"We most certainly do." Emily insisted.

"You start late, have to catch up, and by the end of the year, you've overtaken everyone. A true Gilmore." Richard praised them.

"Through and through." Emily raises the wine bottle.

"Dinner is ready." An older woman in a maid uniform walks into the room.

"Thank you, Antonia. Shall we?" Emily stood up.

"Ah ah ah ah, after the top 3 percent in their class." Richard waves for his granddaughters to go first.

"Well, thank you very much." Anna and Rory got up and led their family into the dining room.

"Uh, just go ahead and start without me. I gotta check in at the inn. Michel's there by himself, people could die." Lorelai grabs her cell phone from her purse.

"Well, hurry up," Emily told her before following the rest of her family. The four sat around the dining table. Antonia brought out the salads.

"I am extremely thrilled about this. Do you think you'll get a certificate?" Emily looks over at her grandchildren.

"I'm not sure." Anna didn't even think about that.

"Well, they certainly should give you a certificate or a plaque or something. I'll talk to Bitty about that tomorrow." She pointed her fork at them.

"I can't wait to tell Tellman McCabe about this." Richard looks smug.

"Oh, Richard." Emily rolled her eyes.

"Oh, he's always bragging about that simpleton grandson of his." He defends his childish behavior.

"William is a lovely boy." Emily didn't think it was the boy's fault that his grandfather was an ass.

"His head is shaped like a football." Richard scoffs.

"It is not." Emily couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"If he fell asleep in the park, someone would try to punt him." He went on. Anna giggled. She was beginning to picture Hey Arnold.

"Tellman is a very dear friend of yours." Emily didn't see why he hung out with the man if he was so annoyed with him.

"Yes, he is. And one should always share wonderful news with one's very good friends." He took a sip of his wine.

"You just want to brag." Emily shook her head.

Lorelai walks to the dining room doorway. Her daughters look at her waiting for an answer as their grandparents bickered with one another. Lorelai smiles and nods, making them jump up. They screamed and ran over to hug her.

"Goodness." Emily gasps.

"I just spilled on my shirt. What are you doing? What are they doing, Emily?" Richard looked puzzled at the girls jumping up and down.

"I have no idea. Stop that!" Emily scolded them.

"Sorry." Lorelai smiled.

"Yeah, sorry." They hug their mother again.

"What is going on?" Emily asked.

"Uh, I'm just really jazzed about this whole three percent thing," Lorelai told them.

"Yeah, really really jazzed." Rory nodded.

"So jazzed." Anna hugs her mother.

"Don't even try to understand, Richard. Antonia, please bring some club soda for Mr. Gilmore's shirt." Emily yelled for the maid.


Rory and Anna were in the living room with Lane on speakerphone. "Okay, so what's the latest?" Rory asked.

"I just got off the phone with the American consulate," Lane told them.

"And?" Anna asked.

"Can you say Hyung-Hyung?" Lane sat in her closet decorated with lava lamps and pillows.

"Hyung-Hyung," Anna said, but it came out funny.

"No, and what is that?" Rory squinted at the phone.

"My Korean name." She needed them to know it for when they called her when she was in Korea.

"There must be something you can do." Rory didn't think it was fair to move her across the world.

"I'm a minor. I've been put in the custody of my family by my parents. That's it, it's over." Her only option was running away, but then where would she run to.

"You have to at least try to talk to your family." Anna knew Mrs. Kim could be unreasonable but this was another level.

"I don't know." She sighs.

"Dinner!" Mrs. Kim called for her.

"I have to go. Last meal." She told them.

"Call me later." They requested. They walk into the kitchen to put the phone back.

"Do you want tater tots?" Lorelai poured some onto a baking sheet.

"That's a rhetorical question, right?" Anna thought her mom should know that the answer to food is always yes.

"Okay." She poured more onto the sheet.

"So, what kind of dress are you thinking of?" Rory looked through the magazines they had on the table.

"Um, the one Stephanie Seymour wore in the Guns N' Roses video." She didn't know why but she wasn't excited to plan the wedding.

"What about colors? Did you pick your colors yet?" Anna wanted to know what the color the bridesmaid's dresses would be.

"Yes." She nods.

"Really? What?" Rory looks at her.

"Spumoni." She teases.

"Okay, we're planning this wedding without you. You will have no say and I may not even let you come." She points to her and her sister.

"Uh!" She gasps.

The rings and Rory picks it up. "Hello? Oh, hey Max…. Ring shopping. Very interesting." She looks over at her mother. Anna looks up from the pictures of different flower arrangements. "Okay, well, anything with the word Foxy on it is a big crowd-pleaser." She joked.

"Okay, I'm listening. Gold band, square diamond, simple, classic." She looks over at Lorelai. She shakes her head. "I'm not sure that's really her."

"White gold engagement band, small diamonds around it, with a wedding band that fits into it." Lorelai shrugs and uses her hands to gesture that she might like it. "That's a possibility. What's the third one?"

"From the twenties, hmm. A large diamond in the middle. Diamond clusters on the sides. A little deco." Lorelai pants and barks like a dog. "That sounds great. Uh, good going. She's gonna be ecstatic." Rory waves her hand for her mom to shut up. "What? No….No, that's just a wild jackal that hangs out here sometimes….One sec. Here Boy." She hands her mom the phone.

"Oh, hello Max, what a pleasant surprise. I just walked in." Lorelai wasn't fooling him after that bark.

There was a knock at the front door. "Your boyfriend here," Anna told her sister before going back to looking at the pictures they were going to make a vision board out of. Rory got up to get the door.

Anna told her sister she would be civil and her version of that was only to talk to him when he spoke directly to her. Even then she only gave the teen short responses. So, she wasn't about to answer the door for him.

"Did you pick out your ring?" Rory asked when she came back into the kitchen with Dean.

"Yup, he's gonna surprise me with it tomorrow." She beams.

"Twenties deco?" Rory asked.

"Supposedly ripped right off of Zelda Fitzgerald's cold dead hand. Hey Dean." She smiled at her daughter before greeting her boyfriend.

"Hey." He feels awkward, this was his first time in the house after they made up.

"When is dinner ready?" Rory asked.

"Do I look like a timer?" She squinted at her.

"I thought you might have set one." Rory always did when she did it.

"Silly rabbit." Lorelai songs.

"Timers are for kids." Anna giggles.

"I say 10 minutes, we're there." She looked inside the oven.

"I'll get us set up." Rory nods.

"So, what's the movie for tonight?" Dean asked.

"Oh my god, a classic." Lorelai smiled.

"I don't know about that." Anna shook her head.

"The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story, starring. . ." Rory named the movie.

"Joan and Melissa Rivers. A mother and daughter were torn apart by tragedy." Lorelai gave the plot.

"Suicide." Anna smiles evilly at Dean.

"Not getting on The Tonight Show." Lorelai grabs some cups.

"Mean boyfriends." Rory grabs some plastic forks and knives.

"Identical noses." Lorelai closes the cabinet.

"You'll laugh, you'll cry," Rory said.

"Because you're laughing so hard." Lorelai smiled.

"It'll be an evening to remember." She promised.

"And in the pivotal scene where a very distraught Joan gets locked out of High Holiday Services because she's late, I will be forced to rewind it and play it over and over about four thousand times." She spoke of her favorite scene.

"You'll never be the same." Rory leaves the kitchen.

"So…" Lorelai smiled at Dean.

"So." He leaned back.

"It's nice to have you back." She told him.

"Speak for yourself." Anna got up and went into the living room to help Rory set up.


Tristan and Anna were at Gilmore Manor. They came from spending the day together and ended up coming before everyone else. Emily was asking Tristan all types of questions about his future until she saw Richard trying to go into his office. "Richard don't you dare." She ran to him.

"I wouldn't have agreed to come early if I knew she was going to grill me." He leaned back into the couch.

"Don't be a baby, she was being nice. When you said you weren't sure about your major, she told you not to worry you'll figure it out while getting your associates." She rolled her eyes. "She is a lot nicer to you than your parents are to me."

"That doesn't say much." He scoffs.

"Exactly. I smiled through those dinners, so you can suck it up for one night." She was getting sick of his attitude. She knew she asked him to be honest, but she didn't ask for him to be a brat.

"I don't ask you to go to those dinners." He whispers to her when he sees a maid passing by.

"You don't have to ask me because I know you want me there if only to take the target off your back." She got up when she heard the door ring. She walks over to refill her sprint. "Don't even think of asking me to spike your soda." She said when she saw him turn to look at her. He huffs turning back around to pout.

Emily came into the living room with Dean, Rory, and Lorelai. They sat down while Emily joined Anna at the beverage cart. "So, what would everyone like to drink?"

"Uh, well, I'll have a white wine and Dean will have a beer." Lorelai orders.

"What?!" Anna and Tristan snicker at Dean's reaction.

"Budlight, right?" Anna joined in.

"No, I don't want a beer! I don't drink beer. I'll have water or soda or anything. Or nothing. Not beer. Never beer. Beer is. . beer's bad." Dean protested.

"Relax Dean, that's just Lorelai's little sense of humor. You're very cruel." Emily passes Lorelai her wine.

"Well, yes, keeps me young." She shrugs innocently.

"I'm just gonna sit here and stare at my hands." Dean did just that.

"Soda, Dean?" Emily pass him a cup of sprite

"Please." He grabbed the glass.

"Rory?" She looks over at her granddaughter.

"Oh, I'll have a beer," Rory said, getting a laugh from everyone in the room but Dean. "I'm sorry Dean, we're not laughing at you." She put her hand on his shoulder.

"Oh wait, I think I was." Lorelia put her hand up.

"Me too." Anna put her hand up.

"I think I was a little too." Emily gave Rory her soda. Richard enters the room. "Oh Richard, there you are. Come join us."

"Hey, Dad." Lorelai waves.

"Hi Grandpa, you remember Tristan." Anna sat down next to her boyfriend.

"Hello, Mr. Gilmore." He got up to shake his hand.

"Good to see you, Tristan." He shook his hand.

"Grandpa, hi. This is Dean. Dean, this is my Grandpa." Rory introduced him.

"Hi." He waves. Tristan nudged his head for him to come over to them. "Sorry, uh, hi." He gets up and walks over.

"Hello." Richard looks at him with a blank face.

"It's uh. . it's nice to meet. . ." He stuck out his hand.

"Does everyone have drinks?" He walked away from Dean without shaking his hand. Everyone's eyes widened a little at that.

Tristan sat down and whispered to Anna. "Feeling a little better now."

"Uh yeah, we all have drinks. Thanks." Lorelai answers after exchanging a worried look with her mother.

"Should we do the beer thing again?" Dean whispers to Lorelai.

"Uh, I don't think so." She shook her head.


"Grandma, I can't believe you found the recipe for Beefaroni." Anna wasn't sure if there was such a thing as homemade beefaroni.

"It wasn't easy. Antonia thought I'd gone insane." Emily told her.

"Well . . ." Lorelai shrugs.

"No one needs a comment from you," Emily warns her daughter.

"No, I was just gonna say, what's the secret?" She smiled.

"Lair," Anna whispers to get a pinch in the leg by her mother.

"Well, let's just say it's not beef." She winks.

"Oh, okay, I'm done." Lorelai put down her fork.

"Me too." Rory looks at the food in horror.

"Who cares if it's good?" Anna put some more into her mouth.

"Then you can take the leftovers home." Emily nods to her before turning to Dean. "Dean, would you like some more?"

"Uh, no. I'm fine, thanks." He felt the pressure of Richard's glare.

"Well, then I guess it must be gift time." She got up to grab the two gifts on the cabinet next to them.

"You didn't have to," Rory told her.

"Oh yeah, Mom, you didn't have to. Unless you got something that'll fit me too, in which case, good going." She looks at the gift boxes.

"Here you go, Rory. Anna. Congratulations, we're so proud." She hands it to each of them.

"Thanks, Grandma. Thanks, Grandpa." They smiled at their grandparents.

"Now go on, open it." Emily nods to the box.

They open the box to see a set of pens. "Oh, pens. All yours." Lorelai looks to see they got the same thing.

"It's beautiful." Rory ran her fingers over them.

"I think the top student deserved the top tools." She smiled at them.

"Now, you won't look ridiculously with your crown pens." Tristan teased.

"I was the queen of my own country for a little while." She thought back to the project.

"What happened? Did the peasant overthrow you?" Lorelai teased.

"Thank you so much." Anna ignores her mom.

"Yes, thanks again." Rory looks over at her grandpa. He looks down at his plate making Rory frown.

"Uh, uh, well, pens are very nice, but I just bet there is a fabulous fancy dessert just sitting out there in that kitchen of yours." Lorelai turns to Emily.

"As a matter of fact, there is. Twinkies and Ding Dongs." She smiled at the odd pastries her grandchildren requested.

"What?" Lorelai did a double-take.

"Well, Rory and Anna told me that those are their favorite desserts." She did want them to leave tonight feeling special.

"Emily Gilmore, you are one classy broad." Lorelai smiled at her mother for putting such an effort into tonight.

"Antonia, please bring out the Twinkies and Ding Dongs." She called for the maid.

"I can't believe I just heard you say those words." She giggles.

"Well, don't get used to it." Emily throws her an unamused look.

"So, Dean, where are you planning to go to college?" Richard's loud voice made everyone at the table jump.

"Oh, uh, well I. . ." Dean wasn't prepared for the question coming out of nowhere.

"Geez Dad, start off with what's your favorite baseball team or something." Lorelai thought he was coming in a little hot.

"I'm talking to Dean." He gave his daughter a warning glare before focusing on the young man.

"I don't know yet." He shrugs.

"You don't?" He scoffs.

"No, not yet." He shook his head.

"Well, what kind of grades do you get?" He needed to know if this boy even had good options.

"Richard please, don't grill the boy." Emily didn't want this good night to be ruined.

"I'm not grilling the boy, Emily. It's an easy question. A's, B's, C's?" His tone turned nicer like that would help the situation.

"I get a mixture actually." He told him.

"Mixture?" He let out a little chuckle before turning serious again. "What's the ratio?"

"Richard." Emily scolds.

"I'm just trying to get to know the boy, Emily. After all, Rory brings home a young man to dinner, the least we can do is learn something about him." He didn't see anything wrong with being protective of his grandchildren.

"He changes a mean water bottle." Lorelai offered.

"I get a couple A's, couple B's, few C's." Dean answers.

"Really?" Richard gave a mocking smile.

"I'm not great in math." He admits.

"Yeah, except who is really? You know, except mathematicians or the blackjack dealers, or I guess Stephen Hawking doesn't suck, but you know… You know what else is good though Mom, is a Ho-Ho. Because if you can't find a Twinkie or a Ding Dong, you know, treat yourself to a nice Ho-Ho. How long does it take to open a box?" She looks at the kitchen door.

"She's making them," Emily told her. She wasn't about to give them processed food.

"She's making the Twinkies? You're kidding." Lorelai gasp.

"I'm torn." Anna sighs. On one hand, she wanted to go to the kitchen to see how one makes a Ding Dong but on the other hand, she wanted to see Dean get ripped apart.

"Oh Richard, wasn't there a book you wanted to give Rory?" Emily reminds him.

"In a minute. So Dean. . ." He turned back to the boy.

"Uh, Grandpa?" Rory tries to interrupt but he talks over her.

"You do know that Rory is going to an Ivy League school?" He wanted Dean to know that Rory was out of his league.

"I know." He nods.

"Harvard, Princeton, Yale." He lists.

"He said he knew Dad." Lorelai's effort was also pointless.

"You need top grades to get into a top school," Richard told him.

"Yeah, well, Rory's really smart." Dean thought that Rory could do anything.

"Yeah, she is really smart." Richard leans in to say.

"Mom?" Rory pleads with her.

"Yeah, why don't we all go sit in the uh. . ." She thought about going into the living room while they waited for the dessert.

"So, how are you planning to make a living once you graduate from this college you haven't thought anything about yet?" Richard asked.

"Grandpa, can we talk about something else?" Anna asked not for Dean's sake but for her sister who looked ready to cry.

"I'm going to get that book." Emily got up to get the book.

"I asked you a question." Richard reminds Dean.

"I don't know what I want to do." He gave him honest answers.

"Don't you know how to lie?" Anna sighs. Tristan nods in agreement. Even he knew to lie when he got that question from Emily.

"You know, when I was ten years old, I knew exactly where I wanted to work," Richard told him.

"That's because you were always picked last for dodgeball." Lorelai was trying to get the attention on her.

"I knew I wanted to go to Yale, and put on a nice suit every day and be a very important man in a very powerful firm. And I knew I wanted to travel and see the world." He thought by now the boy should have some kind of goal.

"Well, that's great." Dean didn't see how that was related to him.

"I wanted to see La Traviata at the La Scala Operahouse. I wanted to walk the ruins of Pompeii. I wanted to travel far east . . ." He went on about his childhood dream he made come true.

"And be a ballerina or a fireman." Lorelai gave normal kid's answers.

"Lorelai, this isn't funny." He glares at her.

"It's a little funny to think of a ten-year-old kid dreaming of the La Scala Operahouse." She giggles.

"Rory does. Rory wants to travel. Rory has plans." He spoke of his granddaughter that reminds him so much of himself.

"Rory's special." Lorelai always knew that Rory was different than most kids. When she took them to the park, Anna would play with the other kids while Rory read under a tree.

"Yes. Exactly. Rory is special" Richard said each word like they were their own sentence.

"Well, I know that Rory is special," Dean spoke up.

"I got it." Emily came in holding the book up.

"Dean is special too, Grandpa. You don't even know him." Rory was tired of seeing him be bullied by her grandpa.

"I know enough." He could tell by looking at him that he would drag her down.

"No, you don't. Dean is incredible and he's special to me and I bring him here and you attack him." Rory raises her voice for the first time to her grandfather.

"I will not be spoken to like that in my house." He glares. Lorelai felt like she was watching her younger self get yelled at.

"Richard, here, give her the book." Emily put the book in front of him.

"This family has standards. You live up to them, and you should expect that everyone that you spend time with lives up to them also. You are a gifted girl with immense promise, and you should learn very early that certain people can hold you back." Richard lectured her. It was clear classism in his voice that was disgusting to both his grandchildren.

"Grandpa, stop it! You cannot treat Dean this way." Rory defends him.

"I'm sorry, excuse me, I have to work." He leaves the table.

"Grandpa! Thank you for the dinner and the gift Grandma, but I really think we should be going." She puts her napkin on the table and walks out.

"Thanks. Sorry." Dean followers her out.

"Am I crazy? That's supposed to be us, right?" Lorelai points to herself and her mother.


The Stars Hollow residents got out of the jeep when they got to the Gilmore house. "Well, want to come in and have some dessert? You never did get your Twinkie." Lorelai asked Dean.

"Uh, no thanks. I think I should get going." He wanted some time to think to himself.

"Are you sure?" Rory didn't want him to leave feeling bad about himself.

"Yeah." He nods.

"Okay, well, Dean, all I can say is that tonight, you officially became a Gilmore Girl. Feels good, huh?" Lorelai smiled.

"Yeah." He laughs.

"See you later." She grabs Anna's hand to pull her into the house.

"He needs to learn to lie." Anna went into the kitchen and grabbed a Ding Dong before going to her room.