Lorelai was leading her daughters to a surprise. "Where is this place?" Rory stares at the side of her mother's face.

"It's not too far," Lorelai told her.

"You've been saying that for miles." She sighs.

"It has not been miles." She rolled her eyes.

"My feet are sore." Anna whines.

"Hey, Tonto, when did you become older than me?" She scoffed at them getting tired before her.

"We sit at a desk all day while you're walking around the Inn in heels." Anna reminds her of their different daily lives.

"Just tell me if it's in this town or the next." Rory wanted to know how long they would be walking.

"We don't patronize the next town." Lorelai pretends to be offended that she would suggest that.

"Since when?" Rory tilts her head.

"Didn't you just buy shoes from there last week?" Anna looked down at her feet.

"I have no memory of that. I would never buy anything from them after they feed lead to our jumping frogs." She shook her head.

"Oh yeah, right after they stoned the woman who won the lottery." Rory scoffs.

"See, so the boycott's legit." She made it sound like she didn't hear the mocking tone.

"Hey, wait, stop!" They heard running footsteps behind them.

They turn around to see Lane. "Oh look, it's Michael Landon."

"Oh my God, you guys walk fast. I've been chasing you for the past two blocks." She pants.

"Hey, we were being followed." Rory looked at her mom.

"I told you I wasn't just being paranoid. Maybe next time you'll take me seriously when I tell you furniture moved itself." She felt vindicated.

"Where are you guys going?" Lane asked.

"Mystery breakfast," Anna said through gritted teeth.

"Out of town?" She didn't know of any place that was in the direction they were going.

"Does no one remember the definition of the word mystery?" Lorelai sighes.

"Sorry, I was just wondering if it's okay to practice on your pots and pans again this morning?" She pulled her drum sticks out of her back pocket.

"It's not like they have any other use." Lorelai shrugs.

"I guess I never cook. I must have imagined it." Anna crosses her arms over her chest. She drops them when she sees Lane's pouting face. "But I suppose they can have other uses."

"Thanks. I've almost nailed the fill in the Ramble On. I just have to stop hitting my face with the sticks when I pull my arms back." She practiced pulling back so the sticks were at the sides of her face.

"John Bonham had that same problem." Rory nods.

"Enjoy your mystery breakfast." She turned around to head back to their house.

"Come on, it's not much farther." Lorelai put a hand on each of her daughter's backs to push them further in the direction she wanted.

"We're not heading toward any businesses of any kind." Rory pointed out. Lorelai stops walking, making them stop as well. "What?"

"We have arrived." She informed them.

"Arrived where?" They looked to see Sookie's house. "Aw, you are without shame."

"What the hell? There is a short route to her house, why did you make us take the long way?" Anna whines.

"So, you wouldn't figure it out." She walks up the door to her friend's house. They were let in and led to the sit on the table that was filled with food.

"Sookie, you do not have to do this." Rory looks back at the woman who was making scrambled eggs.

"What do you mean? Feeding my girls, making them happy, I love doing this." She came over to put some eggs on each of their plates.

"Yeah, so feel the love and pass the salt." She nods to it. Anna passed it to her.

"It makes me feel guilty." Rory thought of Sookie having to wake up early to make this.

"Eating can help drown that." Anna stuffed her face.

"Yeah, yeah, eat, eat. I'm gonna eat." Sookie sat down across from Rory.

"Gee, can the help sit at the table too?" She teases.

"As long as they don't sing folk songs or tell bawdy stories. Hey, what's with Narcoleptic Nate over there?" She nods over to Jackson, who is leaning against the counter with his eyes closed, moaning.

"He's not much of a morning person." As if on cue, Jackson moans in agony.

"Now say, I can't believe I ate the whole thing.'" Lorelai referred to the old Alka Seltzer commercial.

"It takes him about an hour to become Jackson," Sookie told them while Jackson groaned in the background.

"He sounds like Frankenstein," Anna whispers to Rory.

"Kind of looks like him too." She nodded in agreement.

"Ooh, hey, I had a good idea for the wedding." Lorelai perks up when she remembers what she wanted to talk to them about. "Instead of those little wrapped things with Jordan Almonds at every place setting, what if we wrap up a few aspirins?"

"Aspirin?" Sookie wonders why they would do that.

"For the morning after hangovers." She smiled.

"That's funny." She giggles.

"Cause Jordan Almonds are so done. Huh, Jackson, what do you think of aspirin over almonds?" She looked back at the half-asleep man. Jackson moans in response. "Can we take that as a yes?" She looks at Sookie for an answer.

"No. See, everything eventually registers. He'll chime in on this in a couple of days." She explained the process.

"Days?" The sibling's jaws dropped.

"Days." Sookie nods in confirmation.

"Hey, is Jackson in the house? Let me hear you say unh." Lorelai looked back at him.

"Unh." He moans.

"A new toy." She giggles.

"Shameless." Rory shook her head.


Lorelai is studying at the kitchen table. Rory walks out of her bedroom. Anna was making coffee and a snack. "How's it going?" Rory asks.

"Just look at her, she already blew a few fuses." Anna cuts up the apples.

"I hate these books, hate them." Lorelai glares at the objects.

"Now, now." Rory sat down at the table.

A few books fell off the table. "Agh! See that? They're trying to escape. They hate me, too." Lorelai grudgingly picked them up.

"Your books don't hate you." Rory shook her head.

"Ugh, Rory, my brain is full. It has reached capacity. It's Shea Stadium when the Beatles played. It's cramped and girls are screaming and I think George is fighting with Ringo." She tried to describe how full her head was.

"You have a very active head." Rory giggled.

"I simply cannot ingest any more information." She held her head.

"So take a break." Anna put a mug of coffee in front of both of them. She went back to making her pastries.

"I don't have time." She didn't touch it.

"Close your eyes, clear your head." Rory tried to help her.

"No, because clearing my head just means that all the knowledge I have painstakingly stuffed in there will leak out. To make room for stuff, I lose stuff. It's a very vicious circle. I hate finals." She was ready to pull her hair out.

"Nobody likes finals. Rory doesn't like them and she loves school." Anna put apple slices, butter curls, and cinnamon in the mini tart shells before putting them in the oven.

"Thank God I'm graduating and this is the last time I have to cram like this because my pursuit of higher education has led me to a very interesting discovery about myself. Do you wanna hear it?" She looks between the two of them.

"Sure." Rory nods.

"I despise academics. Yup, learning, knowledge, it's all worthless. I have no idea what you see in any of it." She glares at all the books.

"Learning is fun, plus for me, there's that whole I'm a minor so it's a mandatory thing." Rory sips her coffee.

"That's what kills me, this is self-inflicted. I'm a masochist. I might as well be carrying a switch and periodically lacerating myself with it." She made a whipping motion with her hand.

"That diploma hanging on the wall is going to make this all worthwhile, trust me." Anna sat down with them.

"I guess unless I turn into John Nash and start drooling on people." She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand to check that she wasn't drooling.

"Hey, you're graduating." Rory smiled.

"I know." She groans.

"No, you're graduating, there is gonna be a ceremony." Her smile grew larger.

"Oh, hey that's right." Anna nods, getting excited too.

"Oh, I don't know. It's a community college." She shrugs.

"Well, community colleges have ceremonies," Rory told her.

"My community college doesn't even have a lawn, they won't necessarily have a ceremony." She looks down at her books.

"They must. This is a big moment for everyone. Did you ask?" Anna didn't see how they couldn't do something for the graduating classes, they worked hard for their degrees.

"No. Well, now that you mention it, I think someone said something about some cheesy ceremony for my business class." She looks up at them.

"When is it?" Rory asked.

"I don't know. . .next Thursday or something." She plays with the pages in the textbook.

"That's great, you have to do it." She insisted.

"I don't know." She shrugs.

"You have to do it." Anna agrees.

"Yes. You've never been a part of an actual graduation ceremony." Rory reminds her.

"Yeah, this is your chance." Anna nods.

"I know. That's because my stupid conservative high school wouldn't let me be in the ceremony and nurse you at the same time." She pointed at Rory.

"Don't be gross." She scrunched up her face.

"Do you think I should do it?" She felt silly for wanting to do this.

"Yes! You've worked hard for this, you've earned it." Rory and Anna witness all the long nights of studying.

"I guess." She shrugs.

"Come on, you know that deep down you want to do this." She nudges her.

"Well, I'll admit, I've always wanted to wear one of those gowns." She let the smile she was holding back glow on her face.

"And the hat?" Rory knew that was going to be her favorite part.

"For the tassel 'cause you know my thing for fringe." She giggles.

"And they call out your name and people clap and you get your diploma." Anna clapped.

"Oh, and when you do that thing where you move the tassel from one side to the other, it's very symbolic, very dramatic." Lorelai moved an imaginary tassel.

"That's it, you're doing it." Rory made it official.

"Alright, if you insist." She sings.

"Okay, who do you wanna invite?" She took out a sheet of paper.

"I don't know, you and Anna." She lists.

"And?" Anna asked.

"That's cool with me." She didn't need anyone else.

"Sookie and Jackson?" Rory suggested.

"Aw, that'll be fun." She nods.

"Okay. And Grandma and Grandpa?" Anna adds.

"Oh, no. No-no-no." She shook her head.

"Come on, it's your graduation. They should be there." Rory knew they had a rough relationship, but they should be there.

"Forget it." She waves her hand to say let it go.

"But…" Anna and Rory trailed off.

"They won't want to be there." She didn't want to be rejected by them on her big day.

"Of course they will." She disagrees.

"Rory, I was supposed to graduate from high school. Go to Vassar. Marry a Yale man and get a proper nickname like Babe or Bunny or Shih Tzu. Instead, I got pregnant. I didn't finish high school, I didn't marry your father and I ended up in a career that Jessica Hahn would think was beneath her. I humiliated them. The two proudest people in the world and I humiliated them. I spoiled their plans. I took their fine upbringing in a world of comfort and opportunity and I threw it in their faces. I broke their hearts and they'll never forgive me. I guess I can't expect them to." She didn't let them interrupt her even though they tried a few times when they disagreed.

"Maybe you're wrong about how they feel about all this. It was a long time ago." Rory wondered how long someone could hold a grudge.

"Them wanting to have dinner with you every week proves they want to be in your life." Anna reasons.

"I don't want them to go. It'll just hurt them. . .and me, okay?" She put her foot down.

"Okay. You should get back to studying." Rory stood up.

"Fine. Oh, great." She looks back at her books. "I think I've already forgotten everything I read in the last two hours."

"No, you haven't." They rolled their eyes.

"Yes, I have. I may have forgotten everything that I've ever known. Children, what are your names?" She grabs their arms.

The timer chimed. "Study and you can have an apple tart." Anna got up to take them out of the oven.

"Oh, right to it then." Lorelai stuck her face in the book.


The doorbell rings at Gilmore Manor. Emily opens it to see her granddaughters, who called a little earlier to let her know they were coming. "Hi, Grandma." The sibling smiled.

"Hello Rory, Anna." She smiled.

"Thanks for seeing us on such short notice." They pulled her into a hug.

"I'm thrilled to see you on no notice." She let them go to ask. "So, tell me, what's this about? You were so mysterious on the phone."

"We wanted to talk to you about something in person," Rory told her.

"Well, come in, come in." Emily leads Rory to a lavishly set table.

"Wow." Anna drooled at the table full of pastries, fruits, and biscuits.

"It's an English tea service. One of the advantages of having an English maid. That, and the fact that she speaks English." She explained why they had the spread.

"You didn't have to do this." Rory didn't want her to go through any troubles.

"But it's tea time and I wanted to. . .oh no! Beatrice, I told you to doily line the plates!" She gasps at seeing the small detail missed.

"You don't have to doily line the plates." Rory shook her head. Anna sat down to put a biscuit on her plate along with some fruits.

"Hello?" Richard called from the hall.

"We're in the dining room," Emily yells.

Anna got up when her grandfather came into the room. "Oh, oh, Rory, Anna, you're already here." He gave each of them a hug.

"You're out of breath." Rory points out

"I ran over from the office." He was indeed out of breath.

"Oh, you didn't have to run." Anna felt bad that he rushed from work.

"Well, your grandmother said you had something to discuss with us. That certainly justifies a run." One of the perks of being the boss was that he could excuse himself when he wanted to.

"Alright, everybody, sit, sit. Pour the tea, Beatrice." Emily called for her.

Rory stops the maid. "Um, Beatrice, could you hold off on pouring the tea for just a minute? Thank you very much…" They sat down before Rory started up again. "Grandma, Grandpa, I would like to propose an idea to you. Now, you can go for it or not, it's entirely up to you, but I would like for you to promise me that you will not get upset."

"We won't get upset," Emily promised.

"And that you will try to keep an open mind." Anna knew that was going to be the most difficult part.

"Alright." They nod.

"And that you will let me finish my presentation before you respond." Rory had the whole speech plan out.

Emily turns to Richard. "She's been hanging around you far too much."

He glares at his wife before turning to them. "We accept your terms. Please proceed."

Anna cleared her throat. "Thank you. First, let me start by saying that Mom doesn't know that we're here. She'd probably be pretty mad if she knew that we were, but we feel that this is important. As you know, Mom's been going to business school at the community college out here for three years now."

"I believe she's mentioned it," Emily remembers hearing it a few times.

"Well, she's doing very well and she's finishing up. She's graduating Thursday, and there's going to be a ceremony and I think it would mean a lot to her if you guys were there. It may not seem like it would, but it's true." Rory told them.

"If it would mean so much to her then why didn't she invite us herself?" Emily crosses her arms on top of the table.

"Because she didn't think you'd wanna go and she didn't want to put you in the awkward position to say no." Anna looks at their ashamed face in disappointment. "I understand this accomplishment might not seem like much to you, but it is a big deal to her. You going would push your relationship in the right direction. And isn't one of the reasons Friday night is so important to you because it slowly repairing the relationship with mom?"

"But we don't want you guys to feel forced. If the thought of going to Mom's graduation upsets you or makes you unhappy or uncomfortable in any way, then, please, don't go because this is an important night for Mom and if you go, you should go under the right circumstances." Rory pulls an envelope out of her backpack. "Those are the tickets. It's Thursday, at 7 pm. It's indoors so the weather is not an issue. You can use them or not, no hard feelings, do what you feel is best. And if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you would keep this conversation between the four of us."

"I think we have time for another scone before the bus leaves." Anna grabs a blueberry scone.

"Beatrice, the tea, please," Emily called for the maid.


On Thursday morning, Rory and Anna were riding on the bus to Chilton. "What's that?" She nods to the envelope her sister was using as a bookmark.

"It's a letter to Jess." She explains.

"What?" She went stiff at the name that had become taboo in the house, in the town.

"I wrote it to get my emotions out. I wasn't going to mail it but after going through four drafts, I decided I might as well. I got the address from Luke." She pulled out a piece of paper with his information.

"There's a number on here." Rory pointed out. "Have you called him?"

"No, I don't know how the dialogue would go between us." Anna wasn't ready to forgive him. She knew if she talked to him, he would find a way to get her to do so.

"Do you think he'll mail a letter back?" She asked.

"Probably not, but he doesn't get to run away from all his troubles. I'm going to mail it after school." She waves her letter around.


Right when the sisters walked through the school gates, they were met with Paris. She began telling them about her meeting with her advisor. "So I told her, '' Look, missy..."

"You called your advisor Missy?" Rory would never talk to an adult like that.

"It was attitudinal. I said I'm not taking AP calculus from Heineman. I'm going with Branch. Branch is a graduate of MIT and Henemen went to Berkeley. Berkeley! I mean, he may have majored in math but what did he minor in? Bean sprouts? Forget it. And I'm telling my advisor all this, Mrs. Schlosser, and I looked down in her trash can and there's this half-eaten banana in there. Nothing else. And I pictured her sitting in the shoebox of an office eating a banana all by herself and I almost felt sorry for her, but then she questioned my judgment about Berkley so I eviscerated her. I mean, she was welling up at the end, but she had the decency to hold it in until I was gone. I have enough faculty recommendations to run for student council, so I don't need her anyway. My locker's this way." She took a right when she entered the building.

"How can anyone have that much energy in the morning?" Anna watches Paris power walk to her locker.

"Come on." Rory grabbed her arm and pulled her outside.

"This is the opposite direction of where we need to go." Anna let Rory drag her to the bus stop. "I'm all for skipping school but what's going on?"

"We are going to New York." Rory looks at the sign that showed where all the buses went.

"What?" Her jaw dropped.

"You deserve more than that letter. You deserve a face-to-face meeting. And we need to get mom a graduation gift." She adds on when she sees her sister's unimpressed face.

"Exactly mom is graduating today. We don't have time to take the bus to New York. By the time we get there, we gotta get back on to make it." She couldn't believe she was arguing to stay at school.

"We drove to New York before and it was 2 and half hours." Rory reminds her of the concert they went to.

"Yeah, but we're taking the bus with stops that will be double the time." She didn't know why Rory was so determined to go.

"Even then we'll get there by noon. Let's leave us with enough time to find a gift and meet Jess before having to leave." After everything they've been through, she felt like the couple deserves a chance.

"What if he doesn't want to see me?" She whispers.

"I'll call him." Rory went over to the payphone that was by the bus stop. "Come on, I know you got the number memorized." She turns to her sister after putting the coins in. Anna sighed as she pushed the numbers.


After a few confusing moments and with no help from anyone, they were able to make it to Washington Square Park. Anna's breath caught in her throat when she saw Jess sitting on a bench reading. "Hi." Rory made him look up.

"Hey." He glanced at Rory before looking at Anna.

"That's an interesting book. I'm going to look at it over there." She took the book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe and went to the bench that was a few feet away from them.

"Do you want to sit?" He patted the spot next to him.

"I guess." She sat down. "I wrote you a letter." She took it out of her sweater pocket to hand it to him.

"There's a stamp on it." He pointed out.

"I wasn't planning on hand delivering it. It's angry, fair warning." Silence fell between them. Him not saying anything, not apologizing for anything made her snap. "Rory's right I deserve to tell you to your face that I think you're a selfish cowardly asshole. You cut and run at the first sign of trouble. You left me to deal with all the judgment by myself. Having everyone coo at me for being a naive girl. I can't defend myself because they're right. Only a naive idiot falls in love with someone who thinks so little of them that they are not even worth a goodbye." She wiped the tears away from her cheeks.

"You're in love with me?" His eyes widened.

"Of course I'm in love with you. That's a four-draft six-page letter in your hand. You think I could have been hurt that much if I didn't love you." She glares at him through her tears.

"I'm in love with you too. That's why I couldn't say goodbye. It would hurt too much. I had to leave, me being there was hurting Luke and you." He glanced down at her cast.

"You love me?" She looks at him in surprise.

"Yeah, I would have left the town the second Luke gave me that ultimate about school if it wasn't for you. I enjoyed those cheesy town events when I was with you. When I think that I had fun on a sled ride I don't even know if I know myself anymore." He thought about all the corny things that his New York friends would never let him live down if they found out.

"You know it didn't have to be goodbye. This doesn't have to be goodbye. I would have… I would do phone calls, letters, emails. I'm not saying I want us to get back together or anything but as friends. Maybe more again later." It was finals and soon she will be in her senior year. She didn't want to have to worry about what and who he was doing.

"I would like that." It was honestly hard not to call her, but he didn't feel like he had the right to any more of her time.

"Okay then, Rory and I need to get a New York hotdog and a gift for my mom." She stood up.


Jess was leading Anna and Rory down the street. "I feel very urban today." Rory was cheerful to be in the place that was set for so many movies, tv shows, and novels.

"Oh yeah, the plaid just screams urban." He looks down at their skirts.

"I think I look like a native." Rory stood tall.

"How well do you know Manhattan?" He asks.

"I've been here a few times. We saw The Bangles here." She informed him.

"When was that, twenty years ago?" He scoffs.

"It was a reunion and they were great." Anna defends her namesake.

"And a couple of years ago Mom drove us in to shop, but she couldn't find a good parking place and all of the parking lots were a total rip-off, so she kept making U-turns and cutting off taxis and we were being screamed at in so many different languages that we turned around and drove home and bought a Hummel at the curio store in Stars Hollow," Rory explains the first time they went to New York.

"How very adventurous." He laughs.

"I'm just saying I'm no stranger to the Big Apple." Rory went back to her main point.

"You are if you're calling it the Big Apple." He found her confidence to be cute.

"So I don't have the lingo down yet, but at least I have the attitude." She knew she couldn't be her normal polite self here.

"You do, huh?" The only time he ever saw an attitude on her was when she yelled at him after that one town meeting.

"Oh yeah. When I was getting a locker for my backpack at the bus stop, there was this guy and he was just standing there staring at me and instead of ignoring him I fixed him with a withering stare and he turned away." She puffs her chest in pride.

"He turns away because I flash my mace." Anna twirls her keychain mace.

"Oh, that makes more sense." Jess nods. Rory deflated. "So your arm's okay?" He turns to Anna.

"It's fine. I can't wait to take it off." She was tired of having to wrap it before she showered every day.

"I like this Emily chick. Friend of yours?" He looks down at her cast.

"She's a friend to all of us, dispossessed." She points to herself and her sister.

"The best hot dog stand as you requested," Jess orders three hot dogs with everything on it. "So how's uhh..."

"Luke?" Anna asked.

"Yeah." He nods.

"Okay. He went fishing." Rory told him.

"Fishing?" He never knew the man to do that.

"Yeah. He didn't catch anything though." Anna was hoping to learn how to clean it.

"Probably used the wrong bait." He gave the money to the vendor.

"Yeah, that's a common fishing blunder." Rory nods.

"So he's good?" He wonders.

"Yeah, he's good. I can tell him hello for you if you want." Rory offers.

"Whatever." He shrugs. The siblings rolled their eyes.

"Thank you." They grab their hotdogs from the vendor. They walk across the street as they take a bite. "Oh, my God, this is good!"

"I'm glad you like it. So how much time do you have?" He wanted to know where he could take them to get their gift.

"We got a bit." Rory looked down at her watch.

"There's a record store you should check out. It's run by this insane freak who's like a walking encyclopedia for every punk and garage-band record ever made. Catalog numbers. . .it's crazy. The place is right out of High Fidelity." He thought of Lane when he saw it.

"Let's go." They nod.

"Okay." He went down the steps that lead underground.

"Where are you going?" Anna was nervous to go on the subway.

"Subway." He points down.

"I thought we were gonna walk." Rory wasn't sure about taking it either.

"It's fifteen blocks. Come on, I think you'll like it." He wanted to give them the full experience.

"Do they allow hot dogs in the subway?" Rory asked, making him laugh.

"Why are you laughing? That's a legit question." Anna didn't see what was funny about that.

"You are so out-of-towners." He walks down the steps forcing them to follow him.


Rory, Anna, and Jess were looking through the records. "I haven't even heard of half of these bands." Jess skimmed through the records.

"I love that about this place. God, Lane would wanna live here." Rory looked around at the musical wonderland.

"Who's Slim?" Anna pulled out a record.

"Grunge band out of Kentucky. Two albums, plus a double-A side single, disbanded in '94." A worker that was next to her said.

"Thanks." She smiles. Jess nods to them that he was the guy that he told them about.

"Oh my God! Anna, look." Rory called her sister over.

"Oh my god! It's perfect." Anna gushed when she saw it too.

"What?" Jess went over to see what the big deal was.

"Look!" Rory shows him a record.

"Go-Gos. You must have that one." He saw the collection that was all over their house. A little in the living room, in all their rooms and the kitchen.

"No, for my mom. This was her favorite group when she was my age, and it's signed by Belinda. This would be the perfect graduation present. I've been looking for something all week long, and I couldn't find anything and now I have Belinda." They stare down like Charlie did the golden ticket.

"Graduation?" He didn't know what she could be graduating from.

"Oh, from college," Anna explains.

"I'm surprised she has time for anything except lighting darts on fire and throwing them at my picture." He knew she hated him with a passion now.

"Oh, she made that her study break activity." She teases.

"Uh-huh. Go on, get it. She'll like it." He nods to the register.

"Thank you so much for bringing us here. This was fate." Rory went to pay.

"Thank you for coming." He looks at Anna who was looking for a record for Lane.


Jess walks them back to the bus station. "I think this one's ours." They walk along a bus.

"Yup, the sign says Boonesville." He nods to the bus heading to Stars Hollow.

A man taps Rory's shoulder to ask. "Excuse me, I'm so sorry to bother you. Which way is 44th?"

"Oh, um, that way." She pointed to the right.

"Great, thanks." He follows her lead.

"I got asked directions." She brags.

"I saw." Jess nods.

"He took me for a native. That's so cool." She couldn't wait to tell her mom.

"That's very impressive. 44th's the other way." He points to the left.

"Oh no." She gasped while Anna laughed. "Oh, man, I should go find him."

"We can't miss this bus," Anna told her.

"He'll figure it out when he sees all the numbers getting smaller instead of bigger." Jess thought that New York was easy to navigate because of the numbered streets. He didn't know why more places didn't work like that.

"He still thought I was a native. That's cool." She tried to pep up and not worry.

"I'm your witness." Anna would back her up on that before saying that she sent him the wrong way. "We gotta go to mom's graduation."

"And give her Belinda." Jess nods to the record in Rory's hand.

"And give her Belinda." They nod.

"Go on. I'll check on the guy, I'll make sure he's not wandering around looking for 44." He nodded to the bus.

"I'll go first." Rory went on the bus.

Jess took a step closer to her. "Do friends make out?"

"I never kissed Lane on the lips. Well once, Mrs. Kim found us and scrub Lane's lips raw. We were six and playing doctor. She was giving me CPR." She explained the traumatic childhood memory.

"So… that's a no?" He tilts his head.

She laughed and kissed his cheek. "Write to me. I know you aren't going to call in fear of my mom answering."

"I'm not scared of your mom." He scoffs.

"Sure." She got on the bus.

"I'll write." He called after her.


The bus is still at the station. "It was supposed to leave already, right?" Anna looked down at her watch.

"I'll ask." Rory walks up to the bus driver. "Excuse me?"

"Yes?" He didn't look up from his paper.

"Are we leaving soon?" She asked.

"I have no idea." He shrugs.

"Well, should you have an idea?" She wanted a real answer.

"There was an accident, which closed the interstate. All outbound buses were told to stand down." He looked up from his paper.

"Oh. And you don't know when we're going to be allowed to stand up again?" She didn't want to be late for the graduation when she convinced her mom to go to it.

"Soon, I hope. I hate missing dinner." He went back to his paper.

"Yeah. . .me, too." She went to her sister to tell her the bad news.


Rory and Anna are waiting out front as Lorelai pulls into the driveway. "I'm so, so sorry." They ran to the jeep door.

"You're okay, right?" She got out. "Everything's working? Your wrist is okay, nothing new is broken?"

"I'm fine." Anna nods.

"Anyone, you know, like Lane or someone, suddenly get sick today or break an arm themselves or get in a car wreck?" She asks about the next dark thought she had when she found out they weren't there.

"No." Rory shook her head.

"Okay, good. Then I can get past my worries and move onto other things." She walks up the porch steps.

"I know you're hurt." They followed her.

"Yeah, you bet I'm hurt. I wanted you guys there today, more than anything. You guys were why I did this stupid thing in the first place. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. You should've been there. My best friends should've been there. Whatever it was that kept you, you should've gotten out of it, at least this once. Was it school?" She knew that kept them away a lot.

"It wasn't school." Anna didn't know how to say they didn't even go to school.

"Was it Paris? Thomas?" She asks about their best friends from school.

"It wasn't Paris or Thomas." Anna didn't even see Thomas today.

"Well, what was it?" She wanted to know.

"I made Anna cut school!" Rory blurts out.

"You what?" Lorelai had heard it the other way around before but never this.

"I made her cut school and get on a bus and I don't even know why I did it. I...I have no excuse. I was just standing outside of Chilton, and I don't know, I must have had a stroke or something. What does a stroke feel like?" She felt like she was having one right now.

"I don't know. Not good, probably." Lorelai watches her spiral.

"And I left school and I got on a bus and I went to New York. And that's it! I'm grounded for six months, or seven, and no TV, no stereo, no reading. Take all of my books away from me and lock them up." She was grounding herself.

"Hold on here. You went to New York?" Lorelai couldn't believe they left the state.

"And no magazines, either. And I'm going to do all of the housework. Laundry, dishes. . . in fact, we're going to start eating at home so that we have dishes." She went on punishing herself.

"Rory," She called. "Stop. Why did you guys go to New York?"

"I wrote a letter to Jess and Rory felt like I should face him in person. I didn't agree at first but she was right. I need that. But, I wouldn't have done it if I knew we would have missed your graduation. I should be grounded too." She bows her head in shame.

"So, you saw Jess. How was it?" She thought they got him out of their lives.

"We agree to be pen pals." She knew it wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Pals?" She asks.

"Just pals." She nods.

"Oh my god, I left your present on the bus," Rory screams, scaring them.

"What present?" Lorelai asks.

"It was a vinyl copy of The Go-Go's original album and it was signed by Belinda, but it's not the only copy and I'm gonna find another copy," Rory promised.

"Don't worry about that, let's go out to eat," Lorelai told them.

"We don't deserve a nice dinner." Anna felt bad seeing how hurt and blindsided her mom was.

"No, but I do." Lorelai was looking forward to it all day.

"Okay, just let me take a shower and get the horrible smell of this horrible day off of me, and then we'll go anywhere you want my treat, and I won't enjoy it. And then we'll come home and I'll go straight to bed and I'll have a terrible night's sleep, okay?" Rory thought of a way they could go out and still be punished.

"Me too." Anna nods along.

"Sounds great." She smiles weakly.

"I'm so, so sorry, Mom." They hugged her.

"Oh? Really? 'Cause, you didn't make that clear." She hugs them tightly.

"We won't be long." They went into the house.