Lorelai, Rory, Anna, and Emily are sitting at the table staring at the food. "Mom." She whines.
"No," Emily said sternly.
"We're starving." She looked at her.
"We're waiting for your father." She told her.
"This is cruel to have the food getting cold in front of us." Anna pouts.
"We are waiting for your grandfather." She didn't budge under the sad eyes of her granddaughter.
"We've been waiting forever," Lorelai emphasized the last word.
"We have not been waiting forever." She knew it couldn't have been more than ten minutes.
"Forever. Godot was just here. He said I ain't waiting for Richard, grabbed a roll, and left. It's been forever." She looked longingly at the bread.
"When we gather as a family, we eat as a family. We don't eat in shifts, you know that and Richard certainly knows that." She wasn't about to break tradition.
"When did he get that antique car anyhow?" Rory asked.
"A couple of horrible weeks ago." Emily's tone showed her distaste.
"What happened to his oil painting hobby?" Lorelai reaches into her purse to pull out a candy.
"Ah, you know your father. When he couldn't foresee rivaling Cezanne, he lost interest so he bought that car." She was explaining to them when saw her daughter put something in her mouth. "Lorelai!"
Lorelai spits out the piece of candy. "Mom, it's not dinner, it's my private stash."
"It's eating and we're not eating." She wasn't a rule bender.
"You know, you're bound by the rules of the Geneva Convention, Mother, just like everyone else." She put the candy back in the wrapper before putting it in her purse. She smiled when she saw her dad in mechanic overalls enter the room. "Hey, no one told me it was casual Friday."
"Hello everyone. You haven't started?" He wipes the grease off his hands.
"Of course we haven't started, we were waiting for you. I thought you were almost done." Emily looked up at her husband like he was silly for thinking they would eat without him.
"Well, I was but this car has a mind of its own. As I turned to leave it began spraying some sort of green solution at me." He smiled.
"Yuck." His granddaughters made a face.
"Yuck, indeed. Well, go on, start." He nods to the table. Three of them reach for the food. "No sense in waiting for me."
"Stop!" Emily commands. The girls froze with the serving spoons in their hands.
"Gomer said!" Lorelai pointed at her father.
"We are waiting for you, Richard. In thirty–five years, I have never started dinner without you unless you were out of town or seriously ill. Elsa, take everything away and keep it warm!" She yelled for the maid before turning to tell her husband. "Now, please go upstairs and get ready so we can all enjoy a nice family dinner together."
"I'll be right back." Richard sighs at Emily's strict rules.
"Right back, Dad, like right back. Change on the way upstairs. And make it a Navy shower, quick soap, quick rinse, and no excessive posing!" Lorelai yelled as he walked out of the room. They watched sadly as the maid took the food away.
Rory, Anna, and Lorelai walk through the door. "Hey there. Anywhere?" Lorelai asked Luke.
"Anywhere you want." He poured coffee for a customer.
She turned to ask someone sitting at her favorite table. "Could you move please?"
"What?" The man sitting there looked up at her confused.
"Anywhere where there are no people." Luke came over to stop her from harassing the guy.
"Oh, well, like I'm not a mind reader." She sighs to Luke before telling the guy. "I was just joking." They walked over to a free table. "Hmm, that's funny."
"What?" The girls asked.
"Something's different here, something's changed." She looked around the diner as they sat down. Anna had to hold in her excitement.
"Impossible." Rory shook her head.
"No, I swear, there's something." She continues her search.
"You know, I'd be very disappointed if something changed here." Rory liked things the way they were.
"Why are you so anti-change?" Lorelai asked.
"Because most changes suck." She liked coming into Lukes and not having to look at the menu.
"That's true, it does." She grabs Rory's arm and gasps when she finds it. "Uh! The chalkboard!"
"What about it?" She looked over at it.
"Susanna's special omelet. We made it together." Anna beamed.
"A new special? Why would you guys do that? His four-slice French toast has been up there since I was born!" Rory looked at her sister like she was summoning the antichrist.
"Let it go, Rory. Be happy for me, something I help make is on the menu." Anna wasn't about to let anyone rain on her big debut.
"What can I get you?" Luke came over.
"You have a new special." Lorelai nods to the chalkboard.
"I sure do." He smiled at Anna.
"Nice. What is the special omelet?" She was now feeling the excitement too.
"You won't like it." Luke didn't want her to tear it apart in front of Anna.
"How do you know?" She tilts her head.
"Because you've been eating here for years and I know what you like, and you won't like it." Luke pulled out his order pad.
"Can I at least hear what it is?" Lorelai insisted. This was her daughter's omelet she wanted to know.
"It's three eggs with bits of bacon." Anna started it off with something she liked.
"I like bacon." She nods.
"Cubed tomatoes." She listed the next ingredient.
"Sounds good." She didn't hear anything disgusting yet.
"Swiss cheese and a dash of oregano." She waited for her mother to say no.
"A dash, she says." She nods to Rory as she thinks about it.
"I've got other customers here." Luke reminds her.
"I'm gonna go with the special omelet...With a side of bacon." She orders.
"There's bacon in the omelet." He told her.
"Oh, then skip the bacon." She shook her head.
"The side of bacon?" He asked.
"The bacon in the omelet." She clarified. Anna sighed, knowing she was a picky eater.
"Hold the bacon." Luke wrote down.
"Can I get Jack cheese?" She asks.
"On the side?" Luke raises an eyebrow at the odd request.
"Instead of Swiss, Swiss is so stringy." She didn't care for swiss.
"Fine, Jack cheese." He wrote it down.
"Also, I think I'm allergic to oregano so hold that, too, and some coffee." She finished her order.
"So, just the eggs, tomatoes, and Jack cheese." He double-checked.
"Not too many tomatoes." She completely forgot about them.
"Light on the tomatoes." This one order was taking up the pad sheet.
"Very light, just a teeny-tiny amount, practically none." She put her thumb and pointed finger close together to show how little she wanted.
"I'm skipping the tomatoes. It's an omelet with Jack cheese." He sighed at her ridiculousness.
"Perfect." She smiled.
"You did this on purpose." Anna glares.
"Did what?" She pretends to be confused.
"I'll have my omelet." She told him.
"French toast for me." Rory orders. "That was cruel." She told her mom when he walked away.
"I know." She giggled. "Look how hard he worked on that sign and everything. Look at the handwriting, it's so precise, so determined. It's focused, Luke."
"That's Jess's handwriting," Rory told her.
"Really? How do you know Jess's writing?" She looked between her daughters, not wanting a boy to come in between them.
"He wrote some stuff in Anna's books and I read them." She explains.
"He vandalized your books?" She turns to her youngest.
"No, he didn't vandalize it. He wrote in the margins." Anna stuck up for him.
"Like what, play basketball, eat a sandwich, stuff like that?" She made a dopey voice.
"No, like analysis types of things. It gives me a new point of view about the book." She glares at her mother for insulting first her omelet and now her boyfriend.
"People like Mark Twain wrote in margins," Rory interjected.
"Pilot a steamboat, write Huckleberry Finn?" She went on.
"Just forget it." Anna looked away from her, not wanting to see her smirking face.
"No, no, I'm sure margin writing is very common," Lorelai said when she saw she took it too far. "Oh, hey, you didn't tell me Dean was joining us." She nudged her oldest.
"Dean?" Rory sneers.
"Hey." Lorelai smiled at the teen standing in front of their table.
"Hi." He gave Rory a peck.
"What are you doing here?" She looked up at him. Anna raised her eyebrows at the frown on her face.
"I just dropped by to say hello." He shrugs.
"How'd you know we were here?" She asks.
"Cause you're always here." He grabs his backpack strap.
"We're not always here." She let out an awkward laugh as she looked at her mother.
"Uh, do you wanna eat with us, Dean?" Lorelai asked, not understanding why Rory was acting standoffish. Anna narrows her eyes at her mother. It was clear that Rory didn't want Dean there and yet she was inviting him to sit with them.
"Rory?" He looked over at his girlfriend.
"Huh?" She turns to him.
"Is that okay?" He asked. Anna wasn't sure if she should give him kudos for asking or hold it against him for putting her in an awkward position. Him asking, which is something he normally doesn't do, shows that he knew she didn't want him there.
"Yes. Oh, yes, you don't have to ask." Rory looks down at the table.
He put his jacket on the back of a chair before sitting down. "Hey, we're four," Lorelai told Luke when he walked up to the table.
"I did the math. Are you gonna eat something?" He asked Dean.
"Sure, yeah, I'll take the special omelet, I guess." He looked back at the chalkboard.
"You put him up to this?" He turns to Lorelai.
"No, I did not!" She giggled.
"Sure. You don't even know what's in it." He glares at Dean.
"I'm not picky." He shrugs.
"So, you'll send it back after I make it?" He accuses him.
"No." He shook his head. The three ladies giggling didn't help Luke's paranoia.
"Right. I'll come back when I've got time for this." He walks away.
"What was that all about?" Dean asks them.
"I think it was a little something in your attitude, mister." Lorelai smiles.
Rory, Anna, and Lane were walking down the street. "I can't believe Grandpa said no to being your adviser." Rory had asked Richard to be the adviser for her economic project.
"He's not ready yet. You know how hard it was for him to retire." Rory didn't take it to heart. "I feel kind of bad that Grandma's making him do it."
"Maybe it'll be good for him." Anna thought what Richard was doing now wasn't working for him, so some change will do him some good.
"Sales!" Lane yelled, staring down at the test in her hands making the sisters jump.
"Lane." Rory and Anna scold.
"Sales!" She waves the paper in their faces.
"It's a generic test that hasn't been updated since the 50s." Anna tried to make her feel better.
"Lane Kim, you have shown a genuine aptitude for sales." She read.
"It doesn't mean anything." Rory didn't see why she was making like she didn't have any other choice but to go into sales.
"Hello ma'am, I see you're eyeing the Whip-o-Matic, nice choice! This baby's right off the truck, and let me tell you, if you're looking for something to fulfill all your whipping needs, you've come to the right place because as Devo says, if a problem comes along you must whip it, as long as you whip it with a Whip-o-Matic!" She did a sales pitch.
"Wow, you are good." Rory was genuinely impressed.
"Yeah, where do I get one?" Anna nods.
"Stop it." She glares at her friends.
"I'll take two." Rory put up two fingers.
"I don't wanna be in sales!" She whines.
"You don't have to be." She let out a dry chuckle.
"I wanna do something cool." The thing that scared Lane was that she didn't have a solid idea of what she wanted to do.
"Sell guitars." Anna thought of music when she thought of Lane.
"You are not funny." Lane sighs as they cross the street.
"Look, you are taking this aptitude test way too seriously." Rory didn't see why she cared about this test.
"It's the fourth time I've taken it and it's the fourth time it's come up for sale." She even chose answers she thought weren't geared towards sales and she still got it.
"Lane, in ten years, we will be having lunch in Paris and we will not be discussing whether or not you made your quota." Rory was trying to calm her friend down.
"Right, so I'm gonna be a sucky salesman?" Lane was offended.
"Give me this." Anna took the papers from her to throw them in the trash.
"Hey." They turn around to see Dean.
"Oh, hey." They nod.
"How are ya, Lane?" He asked.
"Only as good as my last sale, Dean." She gave a fake smile.
"Ignore her, she's lost her mind," Rory told him.
"Got it. So, uh, what are you doing?" He looked them over.
"We're going over to Sissy's to buy some shoes." She informed him.
"They're having a sale." Anna was anxious to get there.
"And pick up a job application," Lane adds.
"You will now face the wall quietly." Rory glanced at her friend in annoyance.
"Well, after you're done shoe shopping, come by my softball game." He told her.
"Oh, well..." Rory stumbles.
"You haven't been to a game in a while." He leaned down to guilt her. Anna pulled Lane to the other side of the street to wait for Rory.
"They're having another rough patch." Lane watched the couple.
"Does she remind you of a Stockholm victim?" She asked.
"It's not that bad." She scoffs.
"She says she wants to be there, but her eyes say I want to run." Anna thought it was so obvious that Rory felt an obligation to stay with Dean.
"She is coming," Lane told Anna. She didn't want the sisters to have a big fight over this.
"Did you get out of watching the game?" She asked.
"Yesh, I have philosophy homework. I'll go next week." They walk to Sissy's.
Anna, Thomas, Austin, Eleanor, Lem, and Henry were sitting around the table at the Jensen Manor. Mr. Jensen, Thomas's dad, was with them as their advisor. "Okay, so we have to come up with a consumer product. High schoolers are our target audience. We have three weeks until the business fair. In that time we have to make a prototype, budget to mass produce, market, and distribute it." Anna took the lead as the imaginary CEO of this fake company.
"The budget is a million dollars?" Mr. Jensen double checks.
"Yes," She nods. "So, does anyone have any ideas?"
"I was thinking we can make a mini-fridge that could fit in the locker that runs on batteries," Lem spoke up.
"Can you make that in three weeks?" Anna asks.
"No," She shook her head.
"Alright, let's keep that three-week timeline in mind." She looked at her other group members.
"We can do locker decorating and organization. You're good at that. I love how you did mine." Eleanor points at her.
"That is a service, not a product. And that is something only the upper class could afford." She dismissed the idea.
"I was thinking of creative planners." Henry gave his idea.
"Details." Anna signals for him to go on.
"We can set them up blank, no lines, just sections for the days of the week, that way people can go completely nuts and buy them year-round. We sell it with stamps, stickers, and post-its." He explains.
"What stops someone from doing this with a regular planner? Anna already does that with hers." Thomas points out.
"That's actually where I came up with the idea. You know how she always complains that if it had a pouch she wouldn't need to carry her whole bag." He explains.
"Oh yeah, mention it in every photography class." Thomas groans.
"Hey!" She pouts.
"That is where we can be unique with it. We'll have a built-in pencil pouch, phone pockets, wallet sleeves." Henry ignored her protest.
"We could do sports stuff for the guys, have them look like little jerseys." Austin thought of one he would buy.
"This is your idea?" Mr. Jensen asked.
Anna looked around to see everyone nodding their heads. "Yes, it is." She told him.
"Let's talk about production and advertising." Owning an advertising company, he was an expert in that field. He could steer them in the right direction.
Lorelai is sitting on the couch reading. Anna was in the kitchen making a new recipe. Jess was sitting at the dining table, talking to her. The phone rang and this time Anna picked it up because the constant ringing was driving her crazy. "Dean, she is still not home. Stop calling. We will make her call you, no matter how late it is?"
"I'm sorry, I just want to hear from her." He sighs.
"You know what it's like when Paris is in her group, it will take all night. Unless you want to go toe to toe with Paris, stop calling." She hangs up.
"Anna," Jess calls.
"What?" She didn't mean to snap but she was frustrated.
"Rory's home." He nods to the living room where Rory was sitting with her mom.
The phone rang again. "Rory answered the phone," Anna yelled.
"I got it." She yelled back before picking it up.
"I almost feel bad for him. She's been avoiding the guy like he has the plague. He has no idea why." She cut up the cooled-off brownies. She got two bowls and made sundaes.
"Do you know why?" He took a bowl from her.
She sat down across from him. "I don't even think she knows why."
"That sucks for him." He shrugs, not caring about their problems. He took a bite. "This does taste like those frozen chocolate bananas."
"Crazy, right. I just substituted an egg for a banana in my brownie recipe. I had the idea in my food science class. We learned how you can sub out something for other things. He said bananas can be substitutes for eggs, but the banana might overpower the other flavors. I thought of things that bananas would taste good with and here we are." She took a yummy bite.
"What else can you substitute for things?" Jess watches her come more animated than usual as she talks about her passion.
Students were standing in front of their projects at the Chilton Business Fair. "So, what do you think?" Anna asked Eleanor when she came back from looking around.
"The locker alarm seems to have the teacher buzzing." She told them.
"What's going to get stolen, your textbook?" Austin scoffs. "No one leaves their actual valuables there."
"For once I agree with you, meathead." Paris walks over to their table. "A planner, how cute." She smirks at their product.
"So your first aid? How clumsy do you think teens are?" Lem smiled, mocking.
"Maybe you could buy it and use the bandaid to cover up your hickies." Paris gave her own fake smile.
"That attitude is why you can't be a puff." She said. Paris launched at her but Thomas grabbed her.
"Let's calm down ladies." Mr. Jensen reminded them an authority figure was present. Paris stomped away.
"Did the teachers come around?" Eleanor asked.
"Yeah, positive feedback. We're getting a good grade no matter what." Henry told her the good news.
"That's great. But it would be cool to win." She feels her hopes go up.
"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, all the projects have now been reviewed. And before we announce the winner, I must commend everyone for their fine work. There are many, many good ideas here today. It makes me proud. Now I'd like to announce the winner... table 10, Miss Traster's class with the locker alarm." The Headmaster announced making the table cheer.
"That thing didn't even work." Lem whines.
"I guess it's the concept." Henry shrugs.
"You guys will still get a good grade." Mr. Jensen reminds them.
"I demand a recount." Richard yelled at the Headmaster getting everyone's attention. He must not have got the answer he wanted because he shouted. "Yes! This has nothing to do with me, it's for the children!" He stormed out of the auditorium.
"Woah, I thought he was going to punch him." Anna let out a breath of relief.
"That's your response to your grandpa yelling at the headmaster over a school project." Austin wondered if crazy ran in the family.
"Don't judge, we have watched you and Summer epic fights." Thomas glares at him for insulting his best friend.
Lorelai, Anna and Rory pull up and walk to the front door of Gilmore Manor. "It was awful. He looked so upset. His face was turning red and he was practically shaking." Rory told her mother.
"I thought he was going to deck the headmaster." Anna remembers the rage.
"Hey, did you notice when he gets mad he gets taller?" Lorelai asks.
"That's what it was. I thought he looked different somehow." Anna gasps.
"I don't know how he does it but he grows." She nods.
"Amazing, kind of like the Hulk." She tried to think of all the times she saw her grandpa angry, there was the diner with Dean but he had been sitting then.
"Stop," Rory yelled.
"The day I told him I was pregnant, twenty-four feet tall. It freaked the birds." She put her hands in the air to showcase the height he got.
"Hey, I'm upset here." Rory sighs.
"Honey, you did nothing. You went to your grandfather, who you greatly admire and actually like hanging out with, to ask for his help and advice. That's lovely and thoughtful." She rings the doorbell.
"Please help me out tonight, no mention of work or Chilton or school or retirement." Rory pleads.
"Nothing but politics and religion got it." Lorelai nods.
"Hello, girls." Emily opens the door.
"Hi, Mom." Lorelai smiled.
"Hi, Grandma." The girls smiled.
"Come in, come in." She closed the door once they were inside and yelled up the stairs. "Dinner's almost ready. Richard, the girls are here. Richard?" She sighed when she didn't get an answer from him. "He came home today, didn't say a word, stomped off to his study, slammed the door, and he's been holed up in there ever since." She told them as she led them into the living room.
"Really?" Rory felt guilty.
"I can't even get him to answer me." Emily felt hopeless.
"Well, are you sure he's still in there?" Lorelai wonders.
"Of course he's still in there. The door's right there. I would've seen if he came out." Emily sat down.
"Sorry." Lorelai apologized as they sat on the couch.
"Not everyone leaves this house by climbing out the window and jumping into a waiting hot rod." Emily glares at her daughter who was smiling proudly.
"Maybe someone should go talk to him," Rory suggested.
"I don't know what to do. What on earth happened today?" She asked the girls.
"Things went sideways at the business fair," Anna told her.
"What happened?" She needed details.
"It was terrible, the tenth graders staged a hostile takeover of the eleventh graders." Lorelai jokes.
"Our project didn't win and Grandpa took it badly," Rory told the real situation.
"Well, I am at my wit's end if that man is going to fall apart over a high school project." She scoffs.
"It's just a weird time for him, Mom." Lorelai defends him.
"I feel so awful." Rory looks down at her lap.
"Maybe he should go talk to somebody." Lorelai thought that would be good for him.
"Like whom?" Emily asked.
"Like a psychiatrist." She spelled it out for her.
"What?" Emily snaps.
"Well, maybe it would help." She didn't see why that would be offensive.
"We do not go to psychiatrists." She sneers.
"Mom, there's nothing wrong with getting help." She couldn't believe her mom was being so close-minded.
"Lorelai Gilmore, are you seriously suggesting that your father go to a stranger and talk about his personal life?" She stared at her daughter waiting for her to say that it was a joke.
"Lots of people swear by it." Lorelai didn't back down from her idea.
"Yes, disturbed people, deviants, people with multiple personalities who see things and hear dogs talking to them and roam the streets talking to themselves and licking parking meters." She listed the people who have to see a therapist.
"Mom." She sighed.
"Next thing you know, you'll be suggesting I go to a psychiatrist." She shook her head at the idea.
"Too many comebacks. I cannot pick." She whispers to her daughters.
A door opens, making Emily call out. "Richard, is that you?"
"Of course, it's me." He walks down the stairs. They got up to meet him in the foyer. "Oh Rory, Anna, you're here, wonderful. Hello Lorelai. Well, I am starving. What's for dinner?"
"What's for dinner? What do you mean, what's for dinner?" Emily questions him as he leads them into the dining room.
"Well, I thought the question was relatively clear, but I'd be glad to rephrase it for you. Eh, what sort of food products will appear on various plates this evening?" He made it seem like he didn't know why his wife was puzzled while he pulled out the chairs for his granddaughters.
"Richard Gilmore, you come home in a huff and you lock yourself in that study all afternoon. . ." Emily got cut off by her husband.
"Well, I had a lot of thinking to do, a lot of thinking. I owe that to you, young lady." He took his seat at the head of the table.
"I'm sorry." Rory apologized.
"You should certainly not be sorry." He said what everyone else had been saying to her.
"Richard, what... put that roll down and explain yourself!" She sat down.
"This whole week, this whole experience with Rory and the locker first aid kit, that is a damn good idea, by the way, no matter what those yarn heads at that school of yours say. Anyway, this whole week made me realize something, I don't want to be retired." He told the table.
"You what?" Emily narrowed her eyes.
"I don't like it. I hate it. It's boring. I have no idea what to do with myself. And frankly, I am tired of trying to find something to fill up my time." He explained his frustration.
"So, what are you going to do?" Rory asked.
"I am going to work." He told them.
"Are you thinking about asking for your job back?" Emily wonders.
"Oh, God no! No no no no-no-no. I have decided to go into business for myself." He looked proud of himself for the idea.
"Wow." Anna gasps.
"What?" Emily was confused.
"Cool." Rory nods.
"It is wow and cool, isn't it?" Richard beams.
"But what are you going to do?" Emily asks.
"Well, I'm not sure yet. Perhaps I'll consult, maybe take on a partner, maybe I'll even teach." He had a lot of ideas.
"What?" Lorelai couldn't imagine her father in a classroom.
"Well, you don't have to say it like that." He scolds.
"Sorry. What?" She said it with a nicer tone.
"I think thirty-five years of experience will qualify me to teach a course or two at that local business college of yours." He defends his idea.
"Oh my God. It's Who's the Boss, the later years." She mutters under her breath.
"Richard, are you serious about this?" Emily asked.
"As a heart attack." He nods.
"But, but..." She couldn't wrap her head around the idea. She was looking forward to their years together relaxing and he wanted to go back to work.
"I haven't felt this good in a very long time, Emily. I have the buzz, and I owe it all to you." He credited Rory.
"Glad to be of service." She smiled. While Anna was glad that her grandpa was feeling better, she felt bad for her grandma whose dreams of vacationing with her husband year-round were crushed.
Lane, Jess, Rory, and Anna were hanging out listening to Elvis Costello. They were sitting in Luke's living room eating burgers. Lane was telling Jess about her music collection. "Where do you keep it all if your mom doesn't know about it?" He asks.
"In my floorboard and their house?" She pointed at her best friends.
"That's how I burned you the latest Nirvana album." She told him.
"The long-awaited album that was everything my punk heart wished for." Lane thought of it lovingly. Anna laughed at her friend making the CD sound like her long-lost lover.
"It feels nice to relax, it's been a stressful week." Rory likes not having to worry about Dean hounding her while she is here.
"Well, you had a project with Paris." Lane nods.
"I can speak from experience that those are stressful." Anna nods.
"Yeah, you came home screaming that one time you were paired with her." Jess backed away from her that time.
"Rory handles her much better than me. She is the Paris tamer." She put a hand on her sister's shoulder.
"It is a gift." She laughed, playing it off like it was her high-strung friend stressing her out.
