Lorelai, Anna, and Rory were let into Gilmore Manor by Emily. "Thanks, man, is it cold out there." Lorelai was glad to be in the house.

"I know, I'm freezing." Rory agrees.

"I hope we're having soup instead of salad tonight." Anna needed something to warm her up.

"Well, come on in and sit by the fire. I'll make you guys a drink and then we can talk." Emily walks ahead into the living room.

"About what?" Rory whispers to her mother.

"Antennas up," Lorelai advises.

"Aye aye, captain." Rory and Anna nod as they walk to the living room.

"So Lorelai, how are you?" Emily made the drinks.

"Um, I'm fine, Mom." Lorelai sat down on the couch.

"Rory?" Emily asks.

"I'm fine too, Grandma." Rory sat down on the couch across from her mother.

"Anna?" She asks.

"I'm great." She wonders what they were being buttered up for.

"How are you, Mom?" Lorelai kept up the small talk.

"Also fine." She answers.

"Oh, look at that. All four of us are fine, just like the Judds." She stares at her daughters with alert eyes waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"So Lorelai, are you dating?" Emily passes out the drinks.

"Uh, hm, no, I'm not dating." She shook her head.

"Really? There's no one at all?" She sat down next to her daughter.

"No, totally single." She smiled.

"Any chance you'd get back with Max?" Emily wonders.

"No Mom, there's no chance." She let out a small laugh.

"What about the man at the diner, the one who refuses to shave?" She named the next man she knew was in her daughter's life.

"Luke, he's just a friend, Mom." She put down her wine glass.

"Do you think you'll be single your entire life?" Emily asks in curiosity.

"Damn," Anna whispers to Rory, gigging under her breath. Rory stares at her grandmother with narrow eyes wondering where this was coming from.

"Excuse me?" Lorelai narrows her eyes as well.

"I mean, in terms of you finding someone, what do you think the odds are?" She leaned in to ask.

"Okay, what is going on?" She needs to know the point of this.

"Well, I visited the family mausoleum today." She picked up her drink to take a sip.

"Never what you think it's gonna be!" Lorelai turns to her daughters, who nodded in agreement.

"I just wanted to check on things, make sure they were keeping it up, changing the flowers, you know." She gave her reason for going. They nod their head for her to go on. "So, I went inside and looked around and it occurred to me that there's limited space. Now of course there's a slot open for me and Richard and you and Anna and Rory, but after the three of you, that's it. No more room for anyone else."

"Ah." Lorelai let out a sound at figuring out the point of the weird questions.

"Yes. So, if you do meet someone someday, I don't know where to put him." Emily had been trying to figure out what to do with this unknown man.

"What about our husbands?" Anna pointed at herself and Rory.

"Don't include me." Rory hissed, not feeling comfortable with this morbid conversation.

"Now, you see our problem." Emily didn't have room for the other people that would be joining their family.

"Well, maybe we could just dump them at the local pool hall." Lorelai shrugs.

"Don't be silly." She scolds.

"No, because this is not a conversation for that." She looks at her daughters in disbelief.

"I looked into expanding into the crypt next door but the family that owns it wouldn't even discuss it with me." She scoffed in irritation.

"How rude?" Anna scoffs in solidarity.

"I'm getting a little crept out here." Rory raised her hand.

"So, I talked to the head of the cemetery and he suggested that we buy an annex." She told them the option to solve their problem.

"An annex?" Rory asks.

"You know, like an outlet store, it would specialize in the irregular family members." Lorelai jokes.

"So, if we do get the annex and you do eventually someday get married…" Emily turns back to her daughter.

"Mom, just says it, fat chance, will you?" She was starting to feel insulted.

"I just meant that we'll have to decide who to move." Emily finally got the point of why she started this conversation.

"Oh, oh. Well, uh. . .ugh, why don't we move Aunt Cecile? She was always so annoying at parties. She loved the knock-knock jokes." Lorelai thought of the woman everyone avoids at parties.

"Mom!" Rory scolds.

"What?" She asks.

"You can't just kick out Aunt Cecile," Rory told her.

"Knock-knock. Who's there? Pineapple. Pineapple who? That's where it ended. Never fully grasped the knock-knock concept." Lorelai never understood why the woman thought it was funny. She would stare at you, waiting for you to laugh at the joke with no punchline.

"Wel, if she tells bad jokes then move her." Anna agrees. Rory put her head in her hands, not believing that everyone else in her family is okay with this.

"She was a complete idiot. Okay, it's decided, Cecile goes." Emily nods.

"Good." Lorelai was happy with the decision.

"Look, put me in the annex." Rory put a hand on her chest.

"Unh uh. No way. You are not leaving me alone with Cecile." Lorelai shook her head.

"Well, I'm not gonna be held responsible for somebody being kicked out of their eternal resting place." Rory didn't feel right moving a body that was supposed to be resting in peace.

"Ooh, I have an idea. I'll probably go first, right? So when Rory kicks, just throw her in with me." Lorelai pointed at Rory then herself.

"I'd like my own space if you don't mind." Rory protests.

"Okay, then put Anna with me." She pointed at her next daughter.

"Why not throw your husband in with you?" Anna didn't want to share a coffin either.

"Come on, you want to be with me. It'd be fun to be there together. Plus I plan to be buried with all the good CDs and my rock star belt." She took a sip of her wine.

Richard comes down the stairs and joins them in the living room. "Sorry, I'm late. What did I miss?"

"We were just discussing who to move to the annex," Emily told him.

"Oh. I vote for Cecile. Horrible woman, and those terrible jokes." Richard gave his opinion before going to make himself a drink.

"What'd I tell you?" Lorelai shot Rory an, I told you so look.

"This is a cold, cold family." Rory gave them all a disapproving head shake.


The Gilmores were at the table eating dinner. "This is good," Lorelai said with her mouth full.

"Yeah, what is it?" Anna never tasted anything like it, but it was good.

"Well, it..." Emily was about to tell her when she was interrupted.

"No, don't tell us." Lorelai put her hand up.

"Why not?" Rory asks.

"Because every time in my life that I've tasted something great but I didn't know what it was, it turned out to be something disgusting that had I known what I was eating I never would've tried it in the first place." She warns.

"Example?" Rory wonders.

"Snails." She took another bite of her food.

"Gross." Rory grimaced.

"Eat in ignorance and enjoy it, my friend." She put the full fork into her mouth.

"Gladly." Rory went back to her plate.

"Food is food." Anna shrugs.

"So Dad, how's the retired life treating you?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, fascinating actually. I find myself noticing things, everyday things that I must've witnessed a hundred times before but just walked right past. Like yesterday, your mother moved a vase, the one in the hall, and she didn't do it in front of me." Richard gave an example of the small changes that went on around him.

"Oh no, 'cause nice girls never move vases in front of men." Lorelai teased as she watched her mom's face twitch in annoyances.

"And she only moved it a little bit as I passed it by I noticed it had been moved." He clarified.

"Impressive." Rory nods.

"Obsessive," Anna whispered.

"And every day's a new discovery. Your mother changed her hair. Or she wore shoes that didn't match her purse." He was used to going over the finer details of things.

"Richard," Emily said sternly.

"Last Thursday." He let her know.

"Oh, for heaven's sake." She sighs.

"You know what else I noticed?" He turns to his grandchildren.

"What?" Rory asks.

"A first edition Flaubert, mint condition, shoved behind several of my Churchill biographies." He said, making them perk up.

"No!" They gasp.

"Interested?" He smiled.

"My life is good." Rory got up.

"How exciting." Anna jumps out of her seat.

"Follow me." He got up to lead them to his study.

"Ooh Dad, see if you can find a pair of the new Chanel patent leather pirate boots stuffed back behind your Churchills." Lorelai teased.

"Hmm." He hummed as he led his granddaughters out.


At a meeting of the Franklin, Paris is going through a stack of articles that people have submitted.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." She harshly passes them out for the writers to redo.

"Paris," Rory spoke up.

"I'm not done." She glares.

"Sorry." Rory sighs.

"No." She ended it.

"Glad she finished that one," Louise mutters.

"Why am I the only one who cares?" Paris yells.

"You're not the only one who cares," Rory reassured her.

"No. I know you care, but I need everyone in this stupid room to care because I can't be the only one to care. Besides you." She nods to Rory.

"It's just a contest, Paris. It's not like you get a car or a lifetime supply of Rice-a-Roni." Louise sighs at her obsessive friend.

"God, I love that stuff." Madeline sighs.

"The Oppenheimer Award for Excellence in school journalism is not a contest. It's a statement. It says you're the best. The best writers, the best reporters, the best editors. It says that you have crushed all others who have dared to take you on. It says that every other single school in the United States of America is feeling nothing but shame and defeat and pain because of the people who won the Oppenheimer plaque. I wanna be those people, I wanna cause that pain." She circles the table.

"Why do we photography have to be here?" Anna raised her hand.

"I need the pictures to match the mood of the story. You gave a picture of a penguin from a zoo for a global warming article." She pointed at her.

"Unless you're going to pay for my ticket to the North Pole, that's the best I can do to showcase the animals being affected by the issue." She snapped. She waited hours to get a good picture of the penguin diving underwater.

"Our paper and pictures are good." Rory broke up the argument. Anytime Paris and Anna got into it, it could go on for a while.

"Not good enough." Paris stood at the head of the table.

"Last week's issue..." Rory was going to give an example of their excellence when Paris cut her off.

"Was a fine effort by a bunch of kids," Paris yelled.

"We are a bunch of kids." Madeline reminds her.

"Not when we're in this room, we're not. Flescher Prep Gazette, Broadmouth Banner, Richmond Heights Chronicle, these publications are not our competition." She slammed the other high school newspapers down.

"Geez." Louise sighs, wondering why she put up with this.

"The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, these publications are our competition." Paris slammed down the professional newspaper making everyone jump.

"Paris has gone bye-bye." Madeline did a small wave.

"We need to raise the bar. We need to be better, think harder, dig deeper. I don't wanna just submit a good issue. I wanna submit a great issue, the best issue." She looks ready to have a meltdown.

"When's the deadline?" Rory asks.

"One week from today." Paris snapped.

"Okay, so, then we better get brainstorming. Does anyone have an idea for a theme?" Rory looked around the table.

"Yes." Paris brought people's attention back to her.

"What?" Rory asks.

"The one that wins." She threw her hands in the air.

"Okay, good, big help. Alright, everyone, we should get to work." She announced. Everyone was quick to run off to other tables. "You're going to give yourself a stroke one of these days, you know that," Rory whispers to Paris who sat next to her.

"Well, tell me when things are assigned and I'll be there pointing a camera." Anna stood up and walked out of the room.


Anna, Rory, and Lorelai were walking around the video store trying to decide on a movie. "How about a triple feature? Three Days of the Condor, Shoah, and The Jerk?" Lorelai suggests.

"Uh, Shoah's like nine and a half hours." Rory shook her head.

"But The Jerk is short." Lorelai reminds her.

"Hmm, next." She shook her head.

"We can do a Die Hard marathon." Anna nods to the action section.

"Next." Rory waved her hand.

"The three faces of Costner, Bull Durham, Dances with Wolves, The Postman. Tom Petty playing Tom Petty, that great big speech about Once upon a time there was a thing called mail. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll make you wanna mail something." Lorelai gave her next suggestion.

"Ooh, we could do a Ruth Gordon film festival: Harold and Maude, Rosemary's Baby, and that great episode of Taxi." Rory had an idea pop in her head.

"Got it. The worst film festival ever. Cool as Ice, Hudson Hawk, and Electric Boogaloo." The only thing better than watching good movies was making fun of bad ones.

"Sold." Her daughters agreed.

"I'll get the Hawk." Lorelai walks away to get it.

"I'll get the Boogaloo." Rory and Anna bent down to get the movie.

Two boys are sitting on the floor looking at a movie cover. "See, I told you." He showed the other boy the cover of Show Girls, where Elizabeth Berkly had an open robe.

"Wow." The other boy gasped.

"You think that's good you should see the cover on Coyote Ugly, a lot of legs and cleavage there." Anna nods. The boys looked at each other before running off to find the movie.

"Anna." She scolded her sister, picking up the tape the boys dropped to put it back on the shelf.

"What, like you never watch a movie for the hot guy in it." She grabbed Electric Boogaloo and stood up. Rory stood up too.

"Got it, plus four boxes of Red Vines." Lorelai waved her full hand around.

"Let's go." Rory led them to the checkout counter.

"Hi, Kirk." She greeted him.

"Evening Lorelai." As always he was business as usual while on duty.

"Um, I forgot my card at home but I think my number's 6247." She told him.

"You forgot your card?" He looks up at her.

"I might've lost it." She shrugs.

"You lost your card?" Kirk looked at her like he didn't believe what she was saying.

"I might have." She smiled.

"Was it temporary or laminated?" He asks.

"Laminated." She thought back to the card.

"That's a permanent card. You lost a permanent card." He glares.

"You can just get me a new card, Kirk." She sighs.

"Fine, but I hope you understand the gravity of the situation here." He began his speech that he had to give to more people than he thought he should.

"I'm trying to grasp it." She lied.

"I mean, these cards are agreements. It's an agreement between you and the Stars Hollow Video Store stating that you will take care of your card, that you will honor your card, that you will be very, very nice to your card…" He was interrupted by Lorelai's cell phone ringing.

"Kirk." She pulled out her phone.

"I'll be right back." He went to get the card.

"Thanks." She answers the phone. "Hello? Hello?.. Reception sucks in here, I'll be right back." She told her daughters before walking out of the store.

"It'll be ready in a minute." Kirk came out to tell them.

"Hey Kirk, there are a couple of little kids over there and they're, uh, looking at this tape cover that's kind of mature. You might wanna put that stuff on a higher shelf or something." Rory let him know.

"Oh come on, Rory. What is the harm in them looking at the cover? They can't rent the movie." Anna shrugs.

"It'll make them want to watch the movie and kids will find a way." Rory reasoned.

"Mature? How mature?" Kirk asked.

"Uh, it's a half-naked woman just standing there." She told him.

"Is she a blonde?" He asked.

"Yes, she is. Show Girls, but something tells me you already know that." Anna teasing smiled.

"I'll check it out right now." He walks away quickly.


Rory is in her bedroom getting ready for school. "Can I borrow a rubber band?" Anna walks into the room.

"Sure, they're right there." Rory nodded her head to the dresser as she tied on a cross-over tie.

"Thanks." She put up her hair into a high ponytail. She buttoned up her black Chilton sweater. "They need to think of making Chiton pants for girls because I'm freezing in this skirt, even with my wool tights on." She complained.

"You shouldn't have made all your skirts that short." Rory teased. Anna gasps, putting a hand up to her chest.

Lorelai rushed into the room like she was in a panic. "Oh my God, the most horrible thing just happened. Headmaster Charleston's office called, he's been kidnapped! Two guys broke into his house and threw him in a hefty bag, used those twisty ties, and carted him off. Classes have been canceled until further notice."

"I am going to school, Mom." Rory and Anna said in unison.

"Rory, Anna, come on, it's just one day. I'll write you a note. Dear Nazis, Rory and Anna had to miss school today on account of saving their mom from spending the entire day with her father who often looks at her like she has three heads." She pleads with them as they put on their coats and scarves.

"Out of my way, please." Rory and her sister walked around her.

"Do you know the last time my father and I were alone together for an extended period of time?" Lorelai followed them out.

"No." Anna grabs two thermoses and pours coffee into them.

"I was kicked out of summer camp for refusing to call the camp counselor Peaches because I thought the entire concept of the counselors choosing summer fruit names was stupid. So, they called my dad and he came to get me and it was just the two of us alone in the car all the way from Maine with nothing to talk about but my camp failure. Luckily, I had also flashed the swim team or even that subject would've gotten stale." She told them the story as they added cream to the coffee.

"Mom, I have the Franklin today. I cannot miss it." Rory put a pop-tart into her backpack.

"I'm scared of Paris showing up at the house." Paris had scared Anna a few times popping up outside her classes and locker. It would be her luck that she was the only photographer on the Franklin that Paris trusted to do good work.

"Rory, please. I can't handle the entire day with him. I can't, I can't, I caaaaan't." She whines.

"Mom, I promise. Just make it till the afternoon, and then I promise I'll come right home and I'll take Grandpa off your hands." Rory promised.

"I want to take Grandpa to the dance studio, seeing Miss Patty hit on him will be funny." Anna laughed.

"We can make a short stop there before going to the bookstore." Rory rolled her eyes at her sister cheering.

"Alright." Lorelai sighs.

"It'll be fine," Rory told her.

"It is not going to be fine. It's going to be horrible. It is going to be a bad, depressing Lifetime movie and Nancy McKeon will be playing me. I am Jo." She leaned back against the counter. The doorbell rings. "And that would be him."

"It's not going to be that bad." They went to answer the door. "Hey. Be nice." Rory yelled after Lorelai took her coffee.

"You need to make it sweet, for her not to take it." Anna sipped for caramel cream-filled coffee.

"I don't like my coffee sweet….Be nice." She reminds her mom before she opens the door.

"Be nice." Lorelai mocked in a high voice.

"Oh, very good." Rory rolled her eyes.

They answer the front door to see Richard standing there. "Hi, Dad." Lorelai smiled.

"Hey, Grandpa." The girls greeted.

"Good morning girls." He came in to hug his granddaughters before smiling at Lorelai.

"Did you have any trouble getting here?" Lorelai asked.

"Not at all, the directions were fine." He had been here before.

"Well, we have to be going, but we'll see you this afternoon," Rory told him.

"I can't wait to show you the book store." Anna lied.

"I look forward to it." He smiled.

"Have fun." Rory grabbed her coffee from Lorelai before they slipped out the door.


Anna was with Rory at her locker. She slams it shut to find Paris standing there. "Okay, you have got to stop doing that." Rory scolds the girl. They walked down the hall with Paris at their heels.

"So, I've been doing some research on the Oppenheimer Award, and I've noticed something. All of the winning schools had an extremely strong human interest story on page one." She ran in front of them.

"Okay." They stopped to not run the girl over, even though Anna was tempted too.

"And I think that's what we need. I mean, we've got the teen issues down, we've got a decent op-ed and political page, but human interest, that's what we're missing." She had that craze looked in her eyes.

"Ideas?" Rory asked.

"Yes." She nods.

"Do tell." Rory waves. They started to walk to their next class again.

"According to the papers, there's been a huge increase in the number of families fleeing the major cities in favor of small towns. Hundreds of thousands of city-slicking yuppies carting the trophy wife and the asthmatic kids off to small towns in search of the simple life. Milk a cow, pet a pig, find yourself, all that kind of crap." She went on with her idea.

"Interesting." Rory nods.

"Not really. All you're going to find is that people think they're giving a safer life to their kids and that living in the city is expensive." Anna shrugs.

"I thought that at first too. I'm trying to get another angle of it. They have a romantic aspect to small towns. White picket fences, low crime rate, smaller classrooms, better tomatoes. It all seems perfect." Paris went on.

"But?" Rory wondered what the twist was.

"But nothing is perfect, nothing is safe, nothing is ever what it seems. And then it hit me, our story. We are going to blow the lid off the seedy underbelly of small-town life, starting with yours." She pointed at them.

"Stars Hollows?" They squinted at her.

"Yes." She nods. Anna went into a fit of laughter.

"You are going to uncover the seedy underbelly of Stars Hollow?" Rory asks.

"Yes." She nods.

"Paris, Stars Hollow doesn't have a seedy underbelly. We don't even have a meter maid." She didn't want a craze Paris unleashed on Stars Hollow.

"Look, you may be blind to it because you live there, but trust me, it's there and it's ugly and I'm going to find it. I'll meet you guys out front after school." She told them.

"I can't today." Rory sighs.

"Why not? Are you hiding something?" She narrowed her eyes.

"No. I promised my mom that I would help her with something." She didn't want to go into detail about having to rescue her mom from her grandpa.

"Well, help her tomorrow. We have work to do." Paris demands.

"Paris, you're wasting your time," Anna told her after coming down from her laughter.

"Hey, this could be our chance to nail this thing. Now I have a hunch that there's a story here and a good one, and I'm going to find it. I was even going to share a byline with you on it, but if you want to bail out, that's fine. I'll just do it myself." She grips the strap of her messenger bag.

"But..." Rory whines. Anna's eyebrows went to her hairline. Paris sharing a byline was a big personal gesture. She wouldn't even do that with Louise or Madeline.

"Am I meeting you or not?" She asks.

"I don't think you're gonna find anything." Rory sighs.

"Well, then the worst that can happen is that I spend some time in your town and suddenly have an urge to enter a pie in the county fair. I'll meet you out front, don't be late." She walks away.

"She realized we don't live on farmland, right? The only livestock in town is Patty's chickens." Anna watches the other girl's back as she pushes her way through the hallway.

"I don't know, but we got to call mom." Rory knew that would be a painful conversation.


Rory, Anna, and Paris get off of the bus to go to Star Hollow. "I think I got rabies," Paris complains.

"It's just a bus, Paris." Rory sighs.

"It smelled." She groans.

"It's a city bus, it's going to have a bit of an odor in the afternoon." Anna rolled her eyes. All-day people were getting on and off the bus. A lot of the time these people were sweating from waiting at the bus stop.

"I'm gonna have to burn my clothes when I get home." She felt like she had germs all over.

"You know Paris, you have a car. We could've driven." Rory didn't know why they had to take the bus with the high-strung teen.

"We have to get the feel of the small-town world. You're not going to get the feel of a small-town world in a BMW. Is there something crawling in my hair?" She bent down so they could see. Anna pretends to pick something out.

"Alright, so we're here now, where do you wanna go?" Rory asks.

"Anna takes us to the bad part of town? I assume you have some friends there." She looked over at the girl with the camera around her neck.

"Why would you assume that?" She glares.

"If the guy who came to the play is your new boy toy, I assume you met him there. With his leather jacket and greasy hair." She thought back to Jess.

"He does not have greasy hair." Anna felt offended for some reason.

"Where is he?" She asked.

"He's probably at Luke's dine." She sighs.

"Well, lead us." Paris waved for her to take the lead. Anna felt her eye twitch as she led them to the diner and sat at the counter.

Paris grabbed a menu and put it up to cover her face. "What are you doing?" Rory asked.

"Trying just to blend in, fade away, observe." She held the menu up to her face, so her eyes could see over it.

"Hey Rory, Anna. Coffee?" Luke came over with a pot of coffee.

"Thanks, Luke." They nod.

"Who's your friend?" He put two mugs in front of them and filled them up.

"Angela Landsbury." Rory nods.

"Don't insult Angela," Anna whispers.

"You're the owner here?" Paris asked.

"Yup. You want some coffee, Angela?" He seriously thought that was her name.

"No thanks." She shook her head.

"Okay." He put the coffee pot back.

"So, you run the diner, huh?" Paris looked him up and down.

"Oh boy." Rory sips her coffee.

"You get a lot of truckers through here?" She asked him.

"Oh boy." Anna didn't get why she didn't understand that they weren't the small town from the movies. They weren't a rest stop or farmland, they were just a small town with quirky people.

"Truckers?" Luke shot Rory and Anna a look to ask who they brought into his diner.

"Yeah. You know, guys on the road for weeks, lonely, looking for company, a little pick me up. Things like that." Paris hinted.

"What's she talking about?" Luke asks the teens he knew.

"I don't want to know how her mind works." Anna put her hands up to say she didn't have any say in what was going to come out of her mouth.

"It's pretty common knowledge that diners are breeding grounds for prostitution and drug dealers." Paris went in hard.

"What?" Luke's jaw dropped.

"Have you ever seen anything like that going down here?" She asked.

"Have I ever. . ." He never had such a puzzling thing said to him. He had to deal with Lorelai, Jess, and Anna daily.

"What about that guy over there? What's his story?" She pointed to the older man drinking coffee while reading the paper.

"Reverend Nichols?" Luke asked.

"Reverend Nichols, huh? What is that, like Dr. Feelgood?" She tilts her head.

"No, like he's a reverend at the Church." Anna rolled her eyes.

"How much do you like this person?" Luke asked Rory and Anna.

"Do what you gotta do, Luke." Rory put her hands up in a surrender fashion.

Jess comes down the steps into the diner. "Hey, where'd he come from? What's up there? Is that where you keep the girls? You got yourself a little cathouse up there?" She pointed at the teen she had seen with Anna before. She knew he was a bad boy.

"Wow, I think she got you, Uncle Luke. You better give up now." Jess was highly amused.

"Do not add to this insanity," Luke warns him.

"An innocent boy like me should not be raised in an atmosphere like this." He tapped his pencil on the counter.

"Jess!" He glares.

"I wanna be good, life's just not letting me." He put his hands up.

"Get her out of here." He pointed out the door.

Anna grabs Paris's right arm while Rory grabs her left. "Okay, let's go." They pulled her to the door.

"Why do you need me to leave? What have you got to hide?" She screamed at Luke who crossed his arms. Jess mockingly waved bye to her.

"Paris, let's go!" Rory yanked the door open and pulled her out.


Rory, Anna, and Paris were walking down the sidewalk. "Nothing, not even a cigarette butt on the ground, I can't believe it. This town would make Frank Capra wanna throw up." Paris complained about coming up empty-handed.

"Sorry, I tried to tell you." Rory needed to come up with another topic before Paris drove everyone crazy.

"I know. I know, it's just. . .I was just so sure." She pouts.

"We'll think of something else to write about, I promise." Rory nudged her sister.

"We'll find a better topic." Anna tried to reassure her.

"We're going to lose." She crossed her arms.

"We're not going to lose." Rory wondered if it was going to be like this every year when the contest came around.

As they walk past the video store, Taylor and Kirk walkout. "There she is, the girl of the moment." Taylor waved at her.

"Me?" She points at herself.

"You, young lady, are my hero." He smiled.

"Why is that Taylor?" She asked.

"Something tells me this is your story," Anna whispers to Paris.

"Because in this day and age when the kids are willy nilly with their clothes and hair and morals, it is heartwarming to see a sensible girl like you still exist. A girl who has the gumption and the guts to stand up and say, why are we allowing this trash out where all our children can see it?" Taylor praised her.

"And a few selected adults also," Kirk said, making Taylor nod along with him. Taylor didn't want to have to see that either if he didn't have to.

"Are we talking about Show Girl?" Anna asked.

"Yes and much more than that. Come on in and see for yourself." He guided them into the video store that was now half empty.

"What happened? Where is everything?" Rory looked around.

"Well, thanks to your brilliant suggestion, they are all safely stashed behind the Rory Curtain." Taylor and Kirk made a game show pose to showcase the curtain.

"The what?" Rory narrowed her eyes while Anna giggled.

"We thought it was only fitting to name it after you," Kirk explains.

"No! I don't want a Rory Curtain, I never asked for a Rory Curtain!" She shook her head.

"You told me to put that movie where the kids couldn't see it." Kirk reminds her.

"You did?" Paris asked.

"She did." Anna nods.

"Well, yeah, but I just meant to put it on a higher shelf, not to get fabric involved." She didn't want to be known as the town prude. Anna raises her camera to take a picture of the curtain. "Anna!" She scolds.

"Is this not going to be our story?" She looked at Paris.

"Come on." She pulled her beyond the curtain. Anna took more pictures while Paris made a list of the movies.

"Oh, this is much better than a higher shelf. Now all the movies that we deem objectionable will be safely hidden from the eyes of the children. Plus, it'll make the adults think twice before they go back there." Taylor was filled with pride for furthering the idea.

"No, I didn't mean to do this! What are you doing?" She looked at Paris who was standing behind Taylor taking notes. Anna was standing next to her whispering in her ear.

"This is it." Paris pointed at the curtain.

"This is what?" She asked.

"Our story. Censorship in a small town, it's perfect." She hurried over to Rory.

"Paris, stop it. You know I don't believe in censorship." She didn't want her name on this.

"Even better, small-town minds run amok. This is genius, it's gold. We're going to win. Now Taylor?" She turned back to the man.

"Yes?" He nods.

"On the record, how long have you been working here?" She began her interview.

"Do you need a picture of me?" Kirk asks Anna.

"No, I'm good." She shook her head.


"Rory, Anna we're home!" Anna heard her mother yell from the front door. She hurried from the dining table to save her. "For the love of God, be home!"

"I'm here. How was your day?" Anna smiled as her mother pulled her into a tight hug.

"Thank god." She whispers.

"I'm here, sorry! I was on the phone. How was your…" Rory came into the room and Lorelai pulled her into the hug. "Ooh, okay."

"I don't think I've ever loved you guys quite as much as I love you right now." She squeezed them.

"Ah, ribs cracking, organs crushing." Rory wheezed.

"I need to breathe." Anna felt like her face was turning purple.

"Yeah, well, love hurts." She let them go to walk towards the kitchen.

"Hey, Grandpa." They greeted him.

"Oh, lovely to see you Rory, Anna." He smiled.

"How was your day?" Rory asked.

"It was very pleasant." He told them as they went into the living room.

"I heard you saw Mom in action," Rory remembers her mother telling her on the phone that he was at the Inn.

"Oh yes, he did." Lorelai came in with a beer in her hand.

"She's great, isn't she?" Anna smiled at her mother.

"She's. . uh, spirited." He thought of a positive word to say.

"Spirited." Lorelai had on a fake smile.

"Spirited is nice. Hey, let's talk dinner. How about Chinese?" Rory offers.

"Very spirited food." Lorelai sips her beer.

"Grandpa, do you like Chinese food?" Rory turns to him.

"If prepared properly, yes, I like it very much." He nods.

"I'll go call Al's." She walks into the kitchen.

"Al's?" Richard asks them.

"Al's Pancake World," Rory told him.

"I thought you said we were having Chinese food." Richard went into the kitchen to question Lorelai.

"Al's has the best egg fu yung in Stars Hollow." She grabbed the take-out menu.

"Is that, um, saying anything?" He looked at her questionably.

"Girl, come entertain your Grandpa while your spirited Mommy orders please!" She yelled.

"It's just called pancake world. But it's been years since he served pancakes. He does all types of cuisines. Chinese and Mexican are his best." Anna explained.

"Hey Grandpa, do you um. . .do you wanna see my room?" Rory opens the door in the kitchen that leads to it.

"Yes, I would." He walks into her room.

"Twenty bucks if you lock him in there." Lorelai whispers.

"Thirty if you chill," Rory whispers back before walking into her room. Anna sat down at the table to finish her notes for the food science class she was taking. After Lorelai finished the menu for tonight, she went into Rory's room to show them. They soon came back out. Rory cleaned up the table. Lorelai and Richard whispered to each other as they walked into the living room.

"Hey!" Anna yelled when her textbook got pulled out from under her.

"It's not homework, you're reading ahead." She knew her sister was all caught up with that class.

"I'm reading the parts that we aren't going to cover." She wanted to learn everything she could from this book.

"You can do that on a night Grandpa isn't here." She put the book in her sister's backpack.

"Alright." She put her notes away.

They heard a horn from outside. "I'll help carry the food in, you finish cleaning up the table." Rory orders. Anna mimics her as she wipes the table down. After hearing some yelling, she went to peek out the window to see Dean and Grandpa yelling at each other. She grabbed her backpack and went up the stairs to finish her notes.