Anna rang the doorbell and the maid answered it. "Yes?"
"Hey." Lorelai nods.
"Hello." The girl's wave.
"You're new." Lorelai smiles.
"Uh, I started yesterday." She told them.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Liesl." She stood in the doorway.
"Okay, Liesl. I'm Brigitta, this is Gretl and Linzi. And, uh, Emily and Richard are expecting us." She points to herself then her daughters.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Please come in." She gave a nervous laugh as she let them in. They walk inside to hear Emily and Richard arguing upstairs. "Uh, can I, uh, get you a drink?" She asked.
"You know what, that's okay. I can get it. Why don't you go hide in the kitchen?" Lorelai took misery on the new maid.
"Really?" She looks so hopeful, that Anna wonders what her grandma did to her. Lorelai nods. "Thank you." She walks away.
"What is going on?" Rory asks. Their voices could be heard, but not what they were saying.
"I don't know. I think George and Martha are joining us for dinner." She nods towards the stairs where Emily and Richard move their argument.
"I didn't know that my every conversation needed to be reported to you. I stand corrected." Richard told her.
"I have been the co-chair of the Starlight Foundation for the last eight years." She glares.
"I know this, Emily." He sighs.
"And the Black and White Ball is the main fundraising event of the season." She reminds him of the importance of the event.
"It's one year." He puts up his index finger.
"The co-chair cannot miss the main fundraising event," Emily told him.
"Why? Won't the chair be there?" Richard asks, making Lorelai laugh quietly.
"Is this a joke to you?" She sneers.
"Emily, I have too many things to take care of at work. I don't have time for frivolous parties." He didn't know what was so hard for her to understand.
"Frivolous parties? Friv. . . ." She was so mad that she didn't even finish her sentence. She goes around him to walk up the stairs.
"Well, where are you going? Oh, come back here." He follows her.
"Wow, this is bad," Rory said.
"I know, I wish we had popcorn." Lorelai laughs.
"Mom." She scolds.
"Can't she just show up without him?" Anna asks.
"I would think so." Rory didn't see why not.
"Shh. Incoming." Their mom hushes them.
Emily and Richard come back down the stairs. Emily reads from a stack of invitations. "The Hartford Zoological Silent Auction, the Mark Twain House Restoration Fund luncheon, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Literacy Auction."
"I can read those myself, you know." He took the cards from her.
"This is the fourth event you've taken upon yourself to turn down on our behalf. And I am on the board of all of those foundations. Now, how do you think that makes me look?" She pointed at the cards.
"Like your husband is busy and has a great deal of responsibility." He raised his voice.
"Well, I have responsibilities too." She took the cards back and looked through them.
"I understand that your social engagements are important." He sighs.
"They're not just social engagements." She tips her head back in frustration.
"Anything at which you serve tea is a social engagement." His statement made Lorelai bite her bottom lip to stop from laughing. Anna nudged her side to tell her it wasn't funny. In the grand scheme of things, it was arguable that her charity events were more important than his work. Let's be honest, insurance was one of the biggest legal scams out there. You pay all this money in case something happens, then when something does happen they don't always give you all the money you need to fix it. Or they use the fine print to not pay you anything. At least, in Emily's charity events the money is going to help something and not just fatten the wallets of men who are already rich.
"That's it. I am gonna get a tape recorder so you can hear how pompous and condescending you sound." Emily walks around him.
"Wha...uh...Emily." Richard stutters.
"No, I wouldn't want you to take my word for it. I might be delirious from all that tea I've been drinking." Emily walks upstairs.
"Oh, stop this." He follows her.
"Maybe we should leave," Rory suggests.
"Yeah, who knows if she even told the cook to make anything." Anna didn't hear anything happening in the kitchen.
"That's not the point," Rory mutters.
"Are you kidding? We've got dinner theater here." Loralei wasn't leaving this spot.
"But Grandma and Grandpa are obviously in a fight." She nodded to the staircase.
"Yeah?" She didn't see the problem.
"One that they probably wouldn't want us to see," Rory adds on.
"Hey, we stumbled in here completely innocently. We came for dinner as usual, per their request. We had no idea we were walking into The Lion King without the puppet heads." She smiles brightly.
They come back downstairs. Emily follows Richard holding out a tape recorder. "Get that thing out of my face."
"Just say the tea thing again." She held a tape recorder in the air.
"You are behaving like a child." He scoffs.
"Turn around when you talk, would you? I'm not sure how good this microphone is." She instructed.
"Oh." He stopped in his tracks when he saw them standing there.
"What?" She turns to see them having the same look of horror and shame on her face.
"Brava! Encore! I'm sorry, does Terrence McNally know about you too? Get me the phone!" Lorelai claps and cheers, getting a nudge from her daughters.
The diner was busy that morning, so even though Anna wasn't scheduled she was helping Luke out before she had to go to school. Luke kept grumbling that Jess was supposed to be helping, but he was still sleeping.
She went around the counter, to grab some orders. When Anna hears the footsteps on the stairs, she looks over to see Jess coming through the curtain. "Jess, you were supposed to be down here. . . .what the hell is that?" Luke points at his Metallica shirt.
"What?" Jess looks down.
"That." He points at the green skull with gray crossbones under it.
"That is a shirt." He said slowly.
"Change." Luke sneers.
"What?" Jess didn't see what the problem was. It was a skull, not a naked woman.
"Go upstairs and change your shirt." He points to the stairs.
"I like this shirt," Jess told him.
"How can you like that shirt?" Luke squints at it as if it would help him see what Jess saw.
"It brings out my eyes." Jess batted his eyelashes.
"Hey, part of the deal of you staying here is that you work here, and when you work here you will wear proper work attire, and that is not proper work attire. Now go upstairs and change into something that won't scare the hell out of my customers." He points at the stairs.
"Whatever you say, Uncle Luke." He goes upstairs.
"I hope you know, he's not coming back," Anna told Luke as she passed by him to give out the plates.
Anna and Rory were at the Gilmore Manor, they walked out to the lanai to see their grandma having tea with her friends. "Oh Rory, Anna, what a nice surprise." Emily greets them.
"Hey, Grandma. Sorry to butt in like this." Rory held her hands in front of her.
"Hey Grandma, ladies." Anna smiled at her grandmother's friend. They echo greetings, happy to see the young lady that would join them sometimes.
"Nonsense, come and meet my friends. Ladies, you already know Anna, but I'd like you to meet my granddaughter Rory." She waves them over. They walk to the table.
"Well, hello Rory." Holland waves.
"Nice to meet you." Rory smiles.
"My goodness, what a pretty girl you are." Sally looks her over.
"She looks just like Lorelai, doesn't she?" Marilyn notices.
"The eyes." Holland agrees.
"The nose," Marilyn said.
"Walk around sweetie." Sally moves her index finger in a circle.
"Sally, leave the girl alone." Emily scolds her.
"I just wanna see the walk. Lorelai had such a specific walk." Sally put her hand on Emily's arm.
"Fast," Holland remembers.
"That was it." Sally points to her.
"Come, sit, would you like some tea?" She points to the empty chair they had.
"Oh, no. I just came to pick up a book that Grandpa was supposed to leave for me." Rory declines.
"Go check his study. It might be on his desk." She told her.
"Okay, thanks." She walks back inside.
"I'll sit." Anna sat down. She pours herself some tea and grabs a ladyfinger.
"Emily, your granddaughters are just lovely. How old are they?" Holland leaned on the table.
"Sixteen." Emily answers.
"Sixteen, that's a nice age." Holland smiles as she remembers being that young.
"So, have you thought about their debut?" Sally asks. Anna turns to her grandmother with a mouthful of cake.
"Oh, uh, no, not yet." Emily shook her head.
"Well you know, the Daughters of the Daughters of the American Revolution Debutante Ball is next week," Holland told her.
"It is? I hadn't realized." Emily had no idea that an event was happening, something that was unheard of.
"Why don't you present Rory and Anna there?" Holland asks. Anna felt panic rising in her at the thought of having to go through with this.
"Oh. . uh. . Well, I don't know. Isn't it a little late?" Emily knew that Lorelai would pitch a fit if she asked her children to do that.
"Oh please, for Emily Gilmore, I'm sure they'll bend the rules." Sally scoffs. She may have missed a few events, but her name held a lot of power.
"Oh, you have to. With girls like that Emily, you'll be the hit of the ball." Holland smiles. With the glint in Emily's eye, Anna knew she was going to have to wear a puffy dress and do a dance.
"They definitely will be the prettiest ones there." Marilyn sips her tea.
"Except for Katie Heathington." Sally brought up the stunning beauty.
"No, didn't you hear? Katie fell off her horse, has a scab on her face." Anna spoke up making the ladies turn to her. "It might even leave a scar." It didn't make her hideous but a flawless beauty she was no more.
"Oh, well then, if Katie Heathington has a scab on her face, they will definitely be the prettiest one there." Marilyn nods to Emily.
"It'll be your crowning moment." Holland smiles.
Rory returns with the book. "I found it." She saw the ladies stare and her sister's panicked eyes, she knew she was in for something.
Lorelai was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework when Anna and Rory came home. "We're coming out." Anna cheers. She decided if she was going to do it then she would have fun with it.
"Out of what?" She didn't look up from her book.
"Out into society," Rory told her.
"What are you talking about?" She highlights something in her book.
"I went to Grandma's house after school." They sat down at the table.
"Okay, right away, bad." She looks at them.
"And, um, her friends are all there. I sat to have tea. They started talking about this debutante ball that's being thrown." Anna explains.
"Oh no." She gasps.
"And when I got back from Grandpa's office, they invited me out onto the patio," Rory told her.
"No no no, please tell me you did not go out onto the patio." Lorelai felt like she was watching a horror movie and the girl was about to go down to the basement.
"I went out onto the patio." Rory nods.
"Ugh, Rory, that's like accepting the position as the drummer in Spinal Tap." She cringes.
"Before I knew it, Grandma was telling me how important it is for a person to be properly presented to society and how every young girl dreams of this day. And how there are flowers. And music," Lorelai made noises of disgust while Rory explained.
"Is the cake bad too?" Anna didn't think she could stand it if the food wasn't at least good.
"Oh no, the cake's actually good." She nods. Anna let out a breath of relief.
"And before I knew it, Grandma was bringing out your old dress and I was trying it on and. . . what are you doing?" Rory stops telling the story when Lorelai gets up.
"I'm getting you out of this." She picks up the phone.
"Mom, wait." Anna and Rory got up
"I swear, there is nothing in the world my mother is better at than getting someone to agree to something that in any other universe, they would never ever consider." She rants.
"Mom." Anna took the phone from her and put it down on the table.
"I am still convinced she had something to do with Lily Tomlin doing that movie with John Travolta." She tried to grab the phone.
"We're doing this." Rory grabs the phone, so she couldn't.
"Why?" She stared at them in shock.
"Because you should've seen the look on Grandma's face when she asked me. It's important to her." Rory couldn't say no to her grandma's hopeful gaze when she knew Emily was fighting with Richard.
"But. . ." Lorelai stutters.
"It's like when we go shoe shopping with you? Sure, we'll be miserable the whole time but it puts a smile on the face of someone we love." Anna pinches her mother's cheek.
"Do you know what a coming-out party says?" She couldn't believe they wanted to do this.
"It says I'm a woman now." Rory shrugs.
"No. It says, Hi, I'm Rory. I'm of good breeding and marriageable age, and I will now parade around in front of young men of similarly good breeding and marriageable age so they can all take a good long look at me." Lorelai put her hands on her hips.
"Maybe back in the day, but now if just a reason to throw a party." Anna waves off her mother's concern.
"No even now, it's like animals being up for bid at the county fair, except sheep don't wear hoop skirts." Lorelai insisted.
"Look, I promised, but you don't have to be a part of it if you don't want to." Rory didn't want her to have a PTSD attack about this event.
"No, no, if you wanna do it, I'll help. It's just weird. This is all the stuff I ran away from. I just assumed you guys were running with me." She sighs.
"Well, I would, but I heard debutantes don't run. Something about the heels." Rory jokes.
"I don't run anywhere." Anna shook her head in disgust.
They sat down at the table. "Alright then. If you're sure, where do we start? Uh, let's see. Well, you have a dress. You need a dowry, I guess. And uh, you'll need shoes, hose, gloves, some mice, a dog, a pumpkin. What's wrong?" She asks when Rory frowns at the pamphlet their grandma gave them about the event.
"Oh, nothing." She shook her head.
"Rory." Lorelai gave her a look that said you can't lie to your mother.
"Oh, no, it just says that your father is supposed to present you at the ceremony." She scratched the back of her neck.
"Oh." Lorelai looks at her daughters in pity.
"Whatever, it's no big deal. I can get someone else to do it. Grandpa probably." She shrugs.
"Or Luke," Anna suggested.
"Rory. Anna." She sighs, wishing she picked a better father for them.
"Or Taylor." Rory thought the man would love to go to the fancy event.
"Okay." Lorelai sighs.
"Or maybe Jackson." Anna listed.
"Or the cable guy looked pretty friendly last week. Maybe he has a tux." She smiles to lighten up the situation.
"Hand me the phone." She nods to it. Anna handed it to her.
"I was kidding about the cable guy. What are you doing?" Rory asked.
"Look missy, there are plenty of things that should weird you out about coming out, but inviting your father shouldn't be one of them." She dialed her baby daddy's number.
"The number you have dialed. . ." She muttered and held her hands out.
"Umm, wra. . . gum wrapper." Rory hands her the first things she saw that she could write on.
"He's not going to come." Anna looks down at the table. He stopped calling a few weeks ago, she doubts he would show up for them.
"You don't know until you ask." She wrote down the number.
"Mom." Rory didn't want to get rejected.
"Look, we call, we ask, there's no harm. Trust me. Cable guy's not going anywhere." She calls his new number. "Ugh, hi. Where the hell are you?...Boston?" She got up to walk into the living room.
"I can bug Luke into walking us if Grandpa doesn't want to," Anna reassures her sister.
"Oh, don't look now but it also says you need an escort." She reads the paper.
"What?" Anna took it from her. It said she needed an escort to dance with. "Ah, who am I going to get?" She whines.
"There's Jess." She smiled.
"What?" She raises an eyebrow at her sister.
"I think he and his band shirts would be a hit there." She giggles.
"I guess, I can ask Henry or Thomas." She leans back in her chair.
"I still don't know how your friends with Thomas." She didn't see what she could talk about with the male mixture of Madeline and Louise.
"When he hangs out with us, he flirts with the waitress and gets us free dessert. Every Time, it's amazing." Anna didn't mind Thomas because he always made his intention known. He never played with a girl's feelings or pressured them into doing anything.
"Let's see if Mom works her magic." They get up and walk into the living room.
"Hey Little Debbies, your dad is definitely gonna be there." She smiled widely at them.
"You're kidding!" They gasp.
"No, he's gonna walk you down the stairs, and turn you in a circle, watch you curtsy, and announce that Rory and Anna Gilmore is officially open for business." She grabs their hands.
"I can't believe it. And he definitely said definitely?" Rory's cheeks were starting to hurt with how hard she was smiling.
"Definitely." She nods.
"So there's a fifty/fifty chance." Anna kept it realistic.
"I don't know. He sounded pretty sure, I'd say sixty/forty." She pulls them back into the kitchen.
Anna was walking home with a dress bag over her shoulder. She went to Patty and borrowed one of her wedding dresses to use as her debutante dress when a car pulls up on the side of her. "Need a ride, little lady." A voice calls out.
She was about to tell off the pervert when she saw who was in the driver's seat. "Dad?" She knew he might be coming, but it was still surprising to see him.
"Get inside." He nods.
She put her dress in the backseat and when she saw a box. "Is that a stand mixer?" She stares at the kitchen aid.
"Yeah, I know this teen who is into cooking. I thought she liked it. Does she?" He turns in his chair to smile at her.
"She does." She got into the passenger seat.
"So, is that your dress?" He nodded to the backseat as he drove to her house.
"Yeah, it's the dress that Miss Patty wore the second time she married Sinjin." She told him.
"Oh, she had a vow renewal." He nods.
"No, she married him, divorce him, married two other guys, divorced them, and then married Sinjin again." She explains.
"It kind of romantic that they end up together in the end." He parks in front of the house.
"Oh no, she divorces him." She got out of the car and grabbed her dress.
A confused Christopher honks his horn. Rory came running out of the house to greet him. "Dad." Lorelai watches from the porch.
"Whoa! Hold it right there. A lady never runs out to meet a gentleman caller who hasn't been announced." He put his hands up to stop her.
"Sorry, we haven't tamed my wild ways yet." She laughs.
"Thank God I'm here now." He put his arms out.
"I missed you!" She hugs him.
"Me too." He hugs her tightly.
"Thanks for the ride and stand mixer, dad." Anna put the dress over the box to carry it into the house.
"You're welcome." He calls as Lorelai comes over to make fun of his car.
Anna and Henry went into Luke's after dance practice. Rory and Dean had to stay longer because they needed more work. She took a seat at the counter while Henry sat down at a table where Lane was waiting for him. Jess walks into the diner to see her by herself. He went behind the counter to make it seem like he was working to have an excuse to talk to her. "Coffee?" She raises her empty mug.
"Decafe?" He smirks.
"Just spit in my face." She put a hand over her heart.
"Is that a kink?" He raised an eyebrow.
"My mug is still empty." She put it under his nose. He rolls his eyes as he grabs the pot to fill her mug up to the rim. "Happiness." She sighs as she sips it, getting an eye roll for the New Yorker.
"You're here alone, that's unusual." He rarely shows her by herself. If it wasn't her mother or sister, it was some townie. It surprised him that she ate lunch often with those two loud nosy women that she introduced to him as Miss Patty and Babette.
"I'm doing a favor for a favor." She explains. Jess stares at her waiting for her to continue. "Lane is having a date with Henry. If her mom comes in, I'll make like I just came up here to order something and was with them the whole time. So, Mrs. Kim doesn't think it's a date." She points at the table the two teens were occupying.
"Why can't Lane date Henry? Something wrong with him?" He looks at the teen sitting with Lane.
"Oh no, Henry too perfect. He is going to be a doctor. That's why Lane doesn't want him to meet her mom, or else she'll approve and there goes his sexual appeal." She mockingly waves goodbye.
"Okay… what the favor you're getting out of this." He leans against the counter.
"I got dragged into doing a debutante ball and Henry agreed to be my escort. I just had to help organize the date behind him and Lane." She drank her coffee.
"Debutante, like here is fertile daughter, who got the highest bid?" He raised an eyebrow.
"No, it's a coming of age party." She shakes her head.
"Whatever, you got to tell yourself." He laughs.
"I agree that historically it was a gross way for the wealthy to only mate with each other, but now it is just a traditional thing done for fun." She didn't want him to think she was ignorant.
"You don't have to rationalize it to me. I think you make a fine trophy wife." He shrugs.
"I'm going to get my husband to beat you up." She pouts.
"Good luck with that." He laughs at the thought of some preppy polo and chino shorts-wearing guy trying to beat him up.
Rory was sitting on the couch with Anna painting her toenails. Christopher helps Dean tie his bowtie. Lorelai walks around with a book on her head eating Chinese food. "See now, only a lady can gracefully walk around a room with a book on her head while eating Kung Pao chicken. And a great lady can even spit the peanuts back into the container without anyone noticing."
"Wow." Her daughters gave her a mocking gasp.
"Yeah, well, don't be intimidated. You have to practice and practice to get to my level." She took the book off her head and put it on the table.
"Anyone want the last eggroll?" Rory looks at it.
"Uh, no." Everyone answers.
"Heh. Where are you going?" Lorelai slaps her daughter's hand as she goes to grab it.
"To get the eggroll." She looks at it.
"You're getting the eggroll yourself?" Lorelai put her hand out like she was going to hit her again. Rory pulls her hand back.
"How else is she supposed to get it?" Anna with the Char Siu box in her lap asks.
"No! Ladies never get their own egg rolls. Ladies never get their own anything. They don't even get their own ideas." She scolds them as she passes Rory the eggrolls.
"Oh boy." They roll their eyes.
"They just sit helplessly and wait for some young strong man to come by and assist them. They don't step in puddles, they don't step over puddles. They can't even look at puddles. They actually need to be blindfolded and thrown in a sack and carried over puddles." She pretends to throw a sack over her shoulders.
"Isn't there a moratorium on how long ladies are supposed to talk?" Rory took a bite of the eggroll.
"If there isn't, there should be." Anna teases.
"Uhh, no." She shook her head before coaching them. "Now repeat after me, I am completely helpless."
"You are completely helpless," Anna repeats with a twist.
"Okay, so you pull the left side through the back loop and tug a little bit on both sides, and you, my friend, might just be mistaken for a gentleman. Or a waiter." Chris fixed Dean's bowtie.
"So, how do you know how to do this?" He asked.
"Seventeen cotillions, a dozen debutante balls, and a brief but scarring experiment with the Children of the American Revolution." He put the finishing touches on it.
"Where you wore nothing but the bowtie," Lorelai said, making Anna gag.
"A good idea on conception, but the sudden snowstorm instantly dampened the effect." He pats Dean's shoulder to let him know he was done.
"Hey, uh, do you think it's cool when Neil Young wears a tux?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, of course, but it's Neil Young." He shrugs.
"How can you even compare yourself?" Anna scoffs.
"Alright. I should get going. I'll see you at three." Dean took off the bowtie and kissed Rory.
"Okay. Oh, wait," Rory hands him a box.
"What's this?" He looks down at it.
"Your gloves." She told him.
"I thought you were kidding." He opens the box in horror.
"No, no, ladies never kid." Lorelai laughs.
"Bye." He walks out with his head down.
"I think I'm going to bed." Rory got up.
"Me too." Anna walks to the stairs.
"Do either of you need help?" Lorelai asks.
"No." They looked at her like she was crazy.
"Wrong! The correct answer is yes. Ladies need help with everything." She scolds them.
"Goodnight." They call as their mother sighs.
Lorelai, Anna, Rory arrive at the ballroom. "Wow, this place is huge. Do I have to walk down those stairs?" Rory looks at the long staircase.
"Oh, I'm afraid so. Unless you wanna make a memorable entrance and slide down the banister. Which I totally encourage, by the way." She put her hand out and ran her other hand over it.
A lady with a clipboard marched up to them. "You are…"
"Lorelai Gilmore," Rory told her.
"Susanna Gilmore." Anna points to herself.
"Late." The lady corrected.
"Sorry, my fault. Took me a while to get pretty. Not all of us are sixteen anymore, you know what I mean?" Lorelai smiles but frowns when she sees the lady's unamused face.
"You are to head up the stairs. The preparation room is on the right." She told the teens.
"Look for the toxic cloud of Chanel and Final Net," Lorelai whispers. Rory and Anna walk towards the stairs and look back at their mother. "Slide." She mouths doing the motion again.
They follow the lady into a room filled with girls getting dressed and doing their makeup. "Hang your dress there, put your makeup on over there. You'll have to make do with a non-lighted mirror. The lighted ones went to the girls that were here before dawn." She points at two empty tables. "Listen up ladies, everyone must be beautiful and ready to go by 7:30." She yelled to the room.
Rory sits down in front of a mirror. She turns to the girl next to her. "I can't believe we have an hour and a half." Anna sat down in front of the mirror on the other side of the girl.
"I know, I am never gonna be ready in time. God only knows if the swelling on my nose is gonna go down. I had to go and inherit my father's nose. I'm Libby." She looks in the mirror. Rory and Anna stare at her nose, wondering who let their sixteen years old daughter get plastic surgery.
"Rory. That's my sister, Anna." She introduces herself and then her sister.
"Uh, which one should I wear? I've thought about this all month, and I cannot decide." She held up two lipsticks that looked almost the same shade.
"Oh, well, that's a tough one." Rory wishes she never spoke to the girl.
"I know. This is red-red, and this is orange-red. The wrong one and I will end up looking like a hooker. Or a teacher." She hisses, seeming more disgusted by being mistaken for a teacher than a hooker.
"That's a lot of pressure." Anna had to turn her head to not roll her eyes at the girl.
"The two minutes you are standing on those stairs tonight will determine the social status for the rest of your life." She explained to them that this was a high-pressure situation.
"Wow, what if you trip?" Rory said, making the girl turn sharply to look at her in fright. "I mean, not that you would. You wouldn't. I might. Probably will actually. Could be a real Cirque du Soleil kind of night."
"You should not even joke about stuff like that. Ow... There's a head under there, you know." She glares at her hairdresser.
Anna got up to put her dress on. The straps were so thin that from far they were hard to see. The bodice was lace with a V neckline, from the waist down was tulle. She put on a gold vine pearl necklace and flower vine earrings. She sat back down at her station to put on her white pumps. Like her sister, her makeup and hair were already done. It was the reason they were late.
Anna pulls out her make up bag to do some touch-ups on her pink gloss lips, white smokey eyeshadow, and pink blush.
She moved her chair over to her sister who was reading. She pulled out The Bone People by Keri Hulme and started to read. Libby walks over to them holding a flask. "Midori sour?" She offers.
"Oh, no thanks." The siblings shake their heads.
"More for me." She shrugs, taking a sip and a seat in front of them. "At my last coming out, I shared with this girl who couldn't handle her booze. Neon green puke all over her white dress."
"Your last coming out?" Anna asks, wondering how many times she did this.
"Oh, this is my fifth one this year." She plays with her hair.
"Wow." Rory didn't know why someone would do this that many times.
"You know, they say four out of five debs marry their escorts." She looks into the mirror on the side of them.
"Kind of like the dentists with Trident." Rory thought of the commercial.
"Well, I figure, five coming-out balls, five escorts, one of them has to stick, right?" She smiles.
"Good logic." Anna nods.
"So, is your escort the one?" Libby asks.
"The one what?" Rory wonders what she meant.
"The one you're gonna marry." She giggles.
"Oh, well…" Rory hadn't even thought of marriage.
"Is he cute?" Libby asked.
"Yes, he is very cute but…" Rory was cut off but Libby.
"Where are you guys planning to live when you get married?" She gave a tipsy smile.
"Okay, hold on a second." Rory thought about her future as a career, not her husband.
A girl who had half her hair up in rollers walks by. "Katie, hi. Too bad about your face." Libby called out to her.
"Is it horrible?" She put her hand up to her bandage.
Libby got up to grab her hand and pulled her away. "No, you can hardly tell. Just walk sideways."
"Wow," Anna watches the blonde.
"Yeah, wow." Rory nods.
Anna was at the back of the line while Rory was more in the front, so Christopher would have enough time to get to her after handing Rory off to Dean.
"Hey," Henry walks up to her. "How are you feeling?"
"Like fish out of water. I should have studied for this." She kept an eye out for Libby. Every time the girl spoke to her, she'd get more freak out.
"What?" He laughs.
"It's like Stepford wives back there. They talk about husbands like they're do or die. Katie had a breakdown because her pantyhose got a rip in it. Full-on sobbing, saying she's never going to get a good husband and a membership to a country club." She points to the dressing room.
"What does that matter? No one can see your guy's legs." He looks at all the girls wearing long dresses.
"That's what Rory and I said but everyone else was freaking out with her. Thank god, Grandma gave Rory and me twelve pairs of panties-hoses each. She told me she loved me after I gave her a pair." Anna looks over at the girl who is three people in front of her.
"Just think of it like this, we dance, have dinner, mingle a little. Then, we are done. You are the best granddaughter ever." He pats her shoulder.
"Yeah, thanks again for doing this." She smiles.
"No problem, you helped me have a date with Lane. I'll see you out there." He walks over to the other escorts as they are led to the ballroom.
The line moved along as girls were announced, Chris ran up to her. "My first try was amazing, I figure my second will be legendary." He held out his arm.
"Let's blow their minds." She hooked arms with him. They walk to the entrance and wait for her to be announced.
"Susanna Gilmore, daughter of Christopher Hayden and Lorelai Gilmore." The lady read her name. They walk down the stairs. At the bottom, Christopher kisses her hand and she curtsies to the crowd. Christopher walks away for Henry to take his place and he walks her down the aisle.
Later that night, Lorelai, Christopher, Rory, Dean, and Anna were walking on the sidewalk. Henry went home after the dance. "So, did you know that you're considered a hot Dad?" Rory asked her father, making Lorelai let out a barking laugh.
"Really?" Christopher ignores her.
"Libby said that it's too bad you're my real Dad because if you were my stepdad, I could steal you away from mom." Rory laughs at the girl's logic.
"Dad's not the only catch, Henry got hit on by half the debutant girls when they learned he was going to be a doctor. I don't even want to repeat what Libby said she let him do to her if he left me." She shivers.
"That Libby's got a good life ahead of her." Chris chuckles.
"Well, I was very proud of all of you. You made it through the entire ceremony with a completely straight face. Almost all of you." She gave Chirs a pointed look.
"I'm sorry, but that fan dance was more than I could take," Chris said, making Dean laugh.
"What? Are you saying this isn't enchanting?" Anna flicks her fan open to do the dance. Chris giggled like a little girl.
"Hey, I need a burger." Lorelai pat Rory's shoulder.
"Me too. Dean?" Rory looks at her boyfriend.
"Honestly, the only thing I can think of is taking off this tux." He pulls on the itchy shirt.
"Hey, watch it, you're talking to a lady now." Lorelai points at his girlfriend.
"Well, how about if I do it at home?" He put his hands in his pocket.
"Better." Lorelai nods.
"Thanks again for going with me." Rory plays with the fan in her hands.
"Tomorrow you start paying. Bye." He gave her a peck before walking away.
"Bye. And then there were four." Lorelai counted.
"Actually, I have to get back to Boston first thing in the morning so I'm gonna call it a night too," Chris informs them.
"What? Not even time for fries?" Rory gave him those big puppy eyes.
"I'll tell you what. I'll get up a little early and have coffee with you before I go. Deal?" He offers.
"Deal." She smiles.
"Go ahead and order for us. I'll be there in a sec." She nods to her daughters.
"Okay." They walked to Lukes.
Lorelai walks into the diner to see her daughters taking a big bite of their burgers. "Hey!"
"What?" They look at her.
"After all you've been through tonight and I come in here and find you eating like that." She gasped like it was a big scandal. Rory raises her pinkie while Anna crosses her legs.
"There you go." She smiles.
"Being a lady is hard." Rory sighs.
"So tonight, what's the consensus?" She took off her shawl and put it on the back of her chair.
"The fan dance was humiliating, I'm never doing a curtsy again, but having Dad around was great." Rory gave a review.
"I like the fans, not the dancing. I don't want to talk to any of those girls again. Having dad around wasn't too bad." Anna fans herself.
"Yeah, it wasn't." She agrees.
"He's got a new girlfriend, you know," Rory told her.
"Sherri," Lorelai said her name. Anna pulls a face. "What's wrong with you?"
"She's jealous." Rory rolled her eyes.
"You don't find it annoying that he got himself together for a woman, but not for us." Anna pouts.
"He seems happy and that's all that matters." Rory reminds her.
"He does. He really does." Lorelai nods.
"I'm glad." Rory ate a frie.
"Me too." Lorelai gave a small smile.
"I feel kind of bad for Grandma though. She was so into this night and then she ended up being so miserable." Rory felt like tonight was a waste in that sense. She did it for Emily and she didn't even get to enjoy it.
"Don't worry. She'll have more fun at the next one." Lorelai smiles.
"Excuse me?" Anna tilts her head.
"Yes, we have you guys signed up for the next six balls." She couldn't keep a straight face.
"Not funny." Rory throws a fries at her.
"Hey, you're doing this until you bring home a prize." She teases.
"Ignoring you now." Rory focuses on her burger.
Luke brings Lorelai her burger. "So, back from the ball, huh?"
"Yes, I left behind a glass slipper and a business card in case the prince is dumb." She smiles.
"Good and desperate thinking." He plays along with her.
"Thank you. Hmm, Luke." She nods to Jess. He was wiping down the counter wearing a flannel shirt and the backward baseball cap.
"Woah, it feels like I'm seeing Luke's past."Anna giggles.
Luke walks over to him. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Working." Jess points to the rag.
"So, you think this is funny, huh?" Luke glares.
"I'm sorry. I thought this was the uniform." He looks down at his flannel shirt.
"Okay, you know what, that's fine. Have your little joke. It doesn't bother me at all. You just go over there and clean off that table, okay? I'm ignoring you. You do not exist." He points to the table.
"Okay." Jess wipes it down. Anna couldn't stop giggling. "I know, you're not laughing at me when you look like a marshmallow." He looks at the tulle.
"That's Mrs. Stay Puft Marshmallow to you. You better watch yourself or I'll have my husband tear down New York city again." She pointed a warning finger at him. Jess did his famous eye roll.
"That's it, get upstairs and change." Luke exploded.
"Whatever you say, Uncle Luke." He put his hands up and went upstairs.
"It's Luke, just Luke. Mister Luke. In fact, don't address me at all." He yells up the stairs after him.
"You know, I'm really lucky." Lorelai looks at her daughters.
"Yeah, why?" Rory asked.
"I have people to complain to when life sucks or work sucks or just everything sucks. I have people I can talk to." Lorelai had them, Sookie, Luke, and many other townspeople.
"Yeah, who?" Anna smiles.
"Oh Shecky, you kill me. It just must be really lonely not to have that." She looks down at her burger.
"Are you thinking about Grandma?" Rory asks.
"I'm just. . .thinking." She was planning on paying her mother a visit.
