The Gilmore Girls were having dinner at Lukes. Anna was ignoring her mom telling them about her weird death dreams to glare at the blonde that was flirting shamelessly with her boyfriend that was trying to take her order. "Hey, are you practicing your laser vision?" Lorelai follows her gaze.
"Who is that blonde?" Rory asked.
"Shane, she is a persistent pain in the ass, who makes googly eyes at Jess every chance she gets. She might as well masturbate right in front of him." She grips her mug so tightly, her family was surprised it didn't break.
"Ew, I'm eating!" She looked down at her burger.
Lane swings open the door to the diner. "Hello Stars Hollow, are you ready to rock?"
"Let me guess, band practice tonight?" Lorelai was proud of Lane for honing her skills and finding a band.
"Yes, we're going to learn our fourth song. That's practically a set." Lane sits down with them and takes a bite of Rory's burger.
"You guys have made a lot of progress." Anna tore her eyes away from the one-sided flirting to encourage her friend.
"Yeah, I know it's great. I can't wait because, once we have a set, we'll get a gig, and then once we get a gig, we'll get a record deal." Lane was speaking while chewing. If anyone else did it, it would have been gross, but Lane's excitement made it come off as cute.
"Swallow." Lorelai reminds her.
Lane did that before continuing. "And then after we get a record deal, we'll get famous and then we'll have to give all of these interviews about how horrible it is to be famous and how we never wanted this in the first place, all we care about is the music, and fame is gonna tear us apart. It's gonna be great!"
"And rehearsing in the music shop's been working out?" Lorelai asked.
"Perfectly. It's time-efficient, only a thirty-second commute from my house. We practiced for two hours. I'm home in time to watch reruns of Johnny Yune's talk show on Korean television with my mom, who thinks I hooked up with you guys, which I did, so I'm not even lying." Lane was happy with how well it was working out.
"Well, you're kinda lying." Lorelai didn't want to bring her down, but she knew if it was one of her daughters, she would be upset.
"I'm fibbing, but a fib is not a lie." Lane wasn't going to be brought down.
"Hm, I'd say it's a fib-slash-lie." She shrugs.
"No, no, it's not a lie, and I can always tell 'cause of the few times that I've outright lied to my mother, I'd get this feeling in my gut like a wild animal was burrowing into it, and I'm not getting that." She pretended to claw at her stomach.
"Wild animals burrowing into my stomach, another one of my premonitions." Lorelai looked over at Rory.
"Pretty spooky." She hummed.
"I've gotta go. I'm single-handedly improving the reputation of drummers everywhere by being on time for every rehearsal." She takes Rory's burger and runs out the door yelling, "Thanks for the food."
Rory takes Lorelai's burger. "Uh, excuse me." She gasps at her food being stolen.
"Lane took mine." She took a big bite.
"Okay, this band thing is not working out for me. Let's go." She stood up, deciding to eat the leftover pizza at home. Rory picked up the burger to take with her.
"Be right back." Anna walked up to the counter. "See you later, babe." She pulled Jess across the counter to kiss him right in front of Shane.
Anna and Jess were in their spot, the recliner. She was in Jess's lap aggressively sucking on his neck. "That's right, mark your territory. You got to let all those girls know whose I am." He moaned when she got a sensitive nerve.
"Oh, but you would hate that, wouldn't you? You seem to love the attention so much." She glares at his smirking face.
"I already told her to fuck off how many times?" He shrugs, not seeing what else he could do.
"She pisses me off so bad." She grabs the collar of his shirt to pull him into a rough kiss.
Anna jumps off the recliner when she hears footsteps on the stairs. "Shit, where's my shirt?" She looked around the room.
"I don't know." He didn't care if they got caught or not.
"Fuck." She panicked when she heard her mom's voice. She ran into the closet.
"What are you doing?" He held the door open as he watched her push herself between his band shirts.
"I'm not here. And fix your jeans" She closed the door.
"Sorry to barge in." Lorelai burst in with Luke protesting behind her.
Jess button up his jeans before turning to face them. "No problem. What was that about a toy?" He sat back down in the recliner.
"Your Uncle Luke is getting one if he's a good boy." She opens Luke's closet.
"Can we make this more demeaning? Hey, why don't you go downstairs and help out Caesar?" He didn't want an audience for this humiliation.
"I think my education comes first, don't you?" He lifted the book.
Lorelai pulls a shirt out of Luke's closet. "Oh my God. Jimmy Buffett?" Anna had to hold in the whine at not being able to see the shirt.
"Put that back," Luke told her.
"You like Jimmy Buffett? He's so mellow." She laughs.
"I've just been to a few shows, that's all." He didn't see what the big deal was.
"A few shows? Oh my God, you're a Buffetthead." She couldn't believe the treasure she found.
"Is that the one you want me to wear or not?" He wanted to get this over with.
"Sing Margaritaville." She put it back in the closet.
"No." He refused.
"That attitude's gonna lose you that toy." Jess turns the page.
"Stay outta this!" He warns.
Lorelai pulls a blue dress shirt from the closet. "We've got ourselves a winner."
"Fine, fine, come on." He takes the shirt and walks toward the bathroom.
"Just change in here." She stares at him weirdly. He was wearing an undershirt.
"I'll be more comfortable here." He goes into the bathroom.
"I've seen you swimming at the lake so I've seen you with your shirt off." She found Luke's modesty to be funny.
"Lately? 'Cause he's really let himself go." Jess looks back at her.
"I'll be one second," Luke yelled from the bathroom.
"Lose the baseball cap, too." She told him.
"You run the risk of his head falling off without it." Jess sat up in the chair.
"I think he'll be okay." She smiled, trying to be civil. Anna curses when she knocks over one of Jess's boots. Lorelai looks at Jess' closet curiously.
"Something wrong?" He asked when he noticed her stares.
"Uh, no. . .no, I just. . .no." She shook her head, not wanting to know what they were doing that Anna felt the need to hide.
Luke walks out of the bathroom. "Happy?"
"Thrilled. Now a tie with that would be great." She turned to go back to the closet.
"We're leaving." He grabs his jacket and heads to the door. "And it's gotta be something I don't have to put together."
"What?" Lorelai followed him.
"My toy." He opened the door.
"Got it." She nods.
"Talk good," Jess yelled. He opened the closet when they left the apartment.
"I need to see the shirt." She ran to Luke's closet. She giggles at the shirt that stood out against the flannels.
"I think your mom knew because of your clumsiness." He picked up his fallen boot.
"It was nice that she didn't embarrass me." She picked up her shirt from under the coffee table. Jess whines as she puts it on.
Ann, Rory, and Lane are walking down the street. "Oh, it was a fine collection, believe me." Lane was telling them about her mom making her apply to every Christian college she found suitable.
"She made you apply to everyone?" Rory couldn't imagine filling out that many college applications. She was stressed with just the Harvard one.
"And measured my head for a wimple." She circles her face.
"Maybe it could be fun like some type of historical roleplay." Anna tried to make her feel better. Lane's face let her know that she wasn't close to her goal.
"Out of twenty-three schools, there wasn't one that you might want to go to?" Rory thought they had to be a decent one.
"It depends on what I'm looking for. Of course, all the great Seventh Day Adventist schools were represented, with their ban on dancing, gum chewing, and bowling. Quaker College was a delightful surprise, with its special appeal to Richard Nixon, who's dead but still deeply involved in campus recruiting. Oh, and the piece de resistance! She found an Amish school in Nicaragua. Nicaragua! A big shout out to Mama Kim on that one!" She threw her fist in the air in rage.
"Look, Mama Kim always starts super serious on everything but then lightens with time." Rory tried to reason.
"But I don't have time. Schools that I like will fill up and my band, my beloved band, will find another drummer, and if it's a girl I'm gonna be twice as mad." She was tired of her mom taking all her happiness away.
"Look, Lane, just try to calm down." Rory grabs her arm.
Lane pulled it out of her grip. "No, calm is for losers. I've spent my whole life compromising and being a good little girl and not doing what I want. Or doing what I want and hiding it and feeling guilty for doing it, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. I mean, I even lost my first boyfriend because of all this."
"Boyfriend?" Rory tilts her head.
"Are you talking about Henry?" Anna didn't know if she would call Henry, Lane's ex. More like an almost lover.
"See, that's how pathetic my life is. I'm calling a boyfriend a guy that I never even went out on a date with. My best friends can't even remember, which is not your fault because there's nothing to remember." She walks down the street with the Gilmore teens barely able to keep up.
"Okay, so besides power walking, what are you gonna do about it?" Rory was thankful for her long legs.
"Take a stand!" Lane walks into the beauty supply store.
"A beauty stand?" Anna and Rory followed her in.
"Lane," Rory called for her.
"Follow my anger," Lane yelled.
The girls found her by the first alley. "What are you doing?"
"Choosing a color." She spotted the dye boxes.
"You're gonna dye your hair?" Rory gasps.
"Yes, I am. Lots of choices here. Help me narrow it down." She looks at all her options.
"Lane, I don't see this working out." Anna didn't want to remind her of Mrs. Kim's control issues that pushed her over the edge in the first place.
"Of course it will. I just have to follow the instructions." She read the back of a box.
"And what, walk around in a hood all the time? How are you gonna hide this from your mom?" Rory decided that someone had to point out the obvious.
"I'm not gonna hide it, that's the point." Lane let them know what they were doing there.
"Lane, think about this for a second, at least." Rory needed her to calm down so she could think rationally.
"Rory, I've been thinking about this my whole life. Nothing's gonna change unless I change it, and now's the time. I need to make a clear statement, one I can't go back on or chicken out on, one that everyone can see. And this is my instrument, it says this is me, this is Lane Kim." She holds up a container of dye.
"That is you, it's black hair dye." Anna looks at the dye in her hand.
She put it back on the shelf. "This is merely a prop until we find my true color. Now, what do you think? Pink? Or is that too Pink the singer and Kelly Osbourne and Gwen Stefani. . .man, there's a lot of cheese associated with the color pink. Okay, pink's out. There. . .there's blue, what about blue?" She held up the dye.
"Blue's probably not right for your skin tone, and I agree with you about pink." Anna grabs the container and puts it back on the shelf.
Rory sighs before picking up the next container. "What about purple?"
"Yes, purple, you're brilliant." Lane hugs her.
"And bleach, don't forget the bleach." Rory reminds her.
"Bleach, right, okay, I'll get the bleach. Thank you." She ran off.
Anna walks to the checkout counter with Rory. "Shane." She hissed at the worker.
"Susanna." Shane grabs the dye to ring it up.
"And make sure that you get some. . . gloves." Rory awkwardly yelled back.
"Got 'em." Lane grabbed the rest of the things they would need. "Oh," She let out when she saw Shane behind the counter. She looked over at Anna. She told her about the blonde following Jess around school, trying to talk to him. Now, Anna looked to be out of blood every time she saw her.
"Twelve fifty-two." Shane put the things in a bag.
"And I've got exact change for you." Lane took the money out of her wallet.
"Super." She rolled her eyes as she took the money. "You are planning on dying your hair too. You could use some change." She looked over at Anna.
"See ya." Rory dragged her sister out of the shop before she could hit her.
Lane, Anna, and Rory are in the bathroom preparing to bleach Lane's hair. "Okay, combs, rags, instructions, timer, towels, tunes." She went over all the things they would need.
"All systems go." Rory put on a pair of gloves.
"So far, so good." Anna nods.
"Now, are you sure about this?" Rory wanted to know before they started the process.
"Will you stop?" Lane sighes.
"I'm just making sure." She knew this would be an irreversible step in her relationship with her mom.
"I'll sign a waiver if you want. Hit play please." She nods to the radio. Anna did as she was asked, letting the rock music fill the room.
"We should open a window, shouldn't we?" Rory mixed the bleach.
"It's freezing outside." Anna watched the strong wind that was making the branches of the tree move.
"Yeah, but the bleach is gonna stink up the whole house." Rory was getting a headache from the smell.
"Let it. Let it be the first clue that something's happened when my mom gets home. Let the thick smell of bleach meet her at the doorway like a force that'll usher her into the next chapter of Lane Kim's life. The smell of bleach is the smell of freedom!" She put a towel around her neck.
"You're very dramatic today." Rory liked seeing her so excited.
"To hell with the floor! Oh, that felt good to say." She kicked the floor that she was made to scrub.
"You done?" Anna snickers as she takes a seat on the toilet.
"I'm done." She nods.
"Take your seat, please." She pointed at the chair. Lane sits. "And here we go." Rory starts applying the bleach. "How are you doing?"
"Fine." She smiles brightly.
"Feeling good?" Rory asks.
"Feeling great. This is such a catharsis. I have never felt so naturally high in my life. Stings a little, though." She admits.
"Yeah, that happens." Anna heard from other girls that it does.
"But just a little, no biggie. More than a little actually, it's kind of a big little." She grits her teeth.
"Just keep me posted." Rory covers her head in the foaming bleach.
"In that case, it's kind of a lot. Yup, yup, a lot of sting happening here." She hisses in pain.
"Try thinking about something else. God, this smells awful." She covers her nose with her arm.
"Okay, thinking about something else, something else. Thinking about puppy dogs. Thinking about getting things in the mail. I love getting things in the mail, letters, and packages." She rambles.
"Got a package." Anna and Rory yelled having just seen the movie.
"What's that?" Lane's eyebrows raised.
"Oh, Jim Carrey says that in Ace Ventura," Rory told her.
"Good distraction. Still thinking. . .thinking about world events, lots going on there. Thinking about the last movie I saw. Vin Diesel was in it. Thinking about Vin Diesel now. Thinking about where Vin Diesel got the name, Vin Diesel. Thinking about Vin Diesel's mysterious ethnicity. Thinking about how surprising it is to have so much to think about with Vin Diesel. Who knew, who knew? Okay, now I'm just thinking about the pain, I'm in pain here." She gave up when the stinging became too much.
"Back to Vin Diesel." She coated more of the hair in bleach.
"I've exhausted Vin Diesel, but the pain... that's not exhausted!" She yelled.
"What kind of pain is it?" Anna asked.
"Ever light your head on fire? I haven't, but I don't have to now 'cause I know how it feels." She whines.
"I'll rinse it out." Rory put down the bowl to grab the pitcher.
"No, we'd have to start all over again and now that I know how much pain there is, I'll chicken out for sure!" She stood up from the chair.
"I'm getting dizzy from the smell." Anna opens the window.
"Let's focus on my pain. Now read the bottle, tell me what to do in case of pain." She bounced on the heels of her feet.
"Um, blah blah blah, do not apply to a broken scalp... is your scalp broken?" Anna reads it.
"I don't know, maybe. I don't know my scalp that well." She wanted to feel it to see if there were any cracks but the foam stopped her.
"There's nothing else about pain." Anna wished she could be more helpful.
"Oh, a girl told me once that if your scalp is hurting from bleach, drink 7UP. It's something to do with the bubbles." Rory remembers hearing a girl talking about her dyed hair in class.
"The Kim household does not have soft drinks." She reminds them she lives in a sugar-free house.
"Well, what do you have?" Anna asked, willing to grab it for her.
"Something called Salad Water imported from Korea. Believe me, it's nothing like 7UP." She whines.
"Oh my God, I need fresh air." Rory stuck her head out the window.
"Okay, I have got to do something!" She was in too much pain.
"Run around the block!" Rory yelled.
"Why?" She didn't see how that would help.
"I don't know!" She couldn't think straight with the fumes in the air.
"Good enough for me!" She ran out.
"I'll run and get sprite." Anna ran out of the room.
After some running and soda drinking, Lane had finished bleaching her hair. Anna took a picture with her camera. "Blonde Lane." She looked at the small screen on the digital camera.
"It's weird." Lane plays with her hair.
"Like straw." Rory nods. Her hair was a bright yellow.
"I feel like I should be singing If I Only Had a Brain." She put down the hand mirror.
"Now, you feel better? Burning's completely gone?" Rory walks over with the bowl of purple dye.
"Completely. I even think the Salad Water's helping." She drank it after finishing the sprite.
"Okay, here goes nothing." She starts applying the purple dye. "So have you mentioned dyeing your hair to the band yet?"
"No, but they'll be cool with it. They've all got tattoos. Dave and Zach have musical themes and Brian's got Snoopy." Lane told them.
"That is adorable." Anna giggled.
"So you haven't even mentioned it to Dave?" Rory teased.
"I just said I didn't tell the band." She thought she answered that question.
"Yeah, but not even Dave?" Anna thought she would at least tell her crush to see how he would feel about it.
"No, not even to Dave. And what's with all the pressing?" She thought they were acting weird.
"I don't know, Dave's just different from the other two." Rory shrugs.
"Of course, he's the de facto leader." She nods.
"I know, but it also seemed like from the day you guys met there was a little something happening there." Rory saw how they click right away outside of the town meeting.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She denies.
"Please, you talk about him all the time. I know more about Dave than I do Zach or Brian. Now you're doing the most drastic thing in your life to prove to your mom who you are, so you can stay in the band, to stay with Dave." Anna drank the fruit punch she got herself.
"Dave and I are professionals. The rock and roll highway is littered with casualties of band members who have dated and broken the band apart." She wasn't going to be the reason the band fell apart.
"That's a sensible attitude." Rory admires her mature stance, even though she didn't buy it.
"Very sensible, very sensible. Dave and I are very sensible people. I'm in love with him." She sighs.
"I know." Anna laughed.
"Is it that obvious?" She pouts.
"Only to a guy with sunglasses and a dog selling pencils." Rory did the back of her head.
"He's so cute." Lane smiles.
"Definitely cute." The girls nod.
"And smart, you know, that's such a rare package. It's usually one or the other." She noticed that guys didn't seem to have both.
"It's wrong, but that's the way it usually is." Rory agrees.
"It just increases the amount of competition for the Daves of the world." Lane didn't know if she could handle seeing Dave with someone else but didn't know if it was worth the risk of not being in the band.
"You're rare, too, don't forget." Anna felt like Lane should have a line of suitors ready to face Mrs. Kim for her hand.
"I've never felt this way before. I mean, Henry, yes, but we never spent any real-time together. It's not just puppy love, you know, it's different. I mean, I get butterflies in my stomach when I think about him, and when I call him to work out times for band practice, the ring of his telephone gets me excited. And last week, someone said Dave at school, it wasn't even about my Dave, and I almost lost it, I got so shaky." She looked down at her hands that were shaking at the moment.
"My Dave, that's so cute." Rory smiled.
"Stop it." Lane scolds.
"This sounds like love to me." Anna sings.
"It does, doesn't it? My first love, wow." She couldn't believe it was finally here.
"Yeah, wow." The Gilmore were happy that their friend didn't have to live through them anymore. She could feel it for herself.
"I finally have a first love, like what you and Dean have." She looks at Rory since Tristan was Anna's first love and she wasn't with him anymore.
"Right. . . exactly." She nods.
"Of course, I don't exactly have what you and Dean have because you love Dean and Dean loves you back. In my situation, I love Dave and Dave thinks that I have a decent sense of rhythm." She wishes she knew if Dave liked her as more than a drummer.
"Don't move, you'll drip." She warns Lane who was getting expressive with her head movements.
"God, you're so lucky to love a guy who knows you love him and who loves you back. That's gotta be the best feeling ever." Lane hoped she could have that with Dave.
"I think this purple's gonna look good." Rory changed the subject, not liking to think of the love she felt fading.
"I want that. I want that really bad." She got a dreamy look on her face.
"You'll have that. You will have your perfect first love and second love and any other love you want because you're great and purple heads will not be denied." Rory encourages her.
"Now that should've been put on the box." Lane smiled.
"Yeah, if journalism doesn't work out, go into advertising." Anna nods.
"Okay, now, head down please." She said so she could finish the back.
Rory and Anna are standing in the hallway. Lane laughs excitedly from inside the bathroom. "It's perfect, I love it."
"Well, stop primping and get out here." Rory wanted to see her hard work. Lane opens the door and reveals her purple hair. "Whoa."
"It's everything I hoped it would be." She cheers.
"It's very rock and roll." Rory thought she looked like an edgy girl.
"We've gotta take a picture." Anna took a picture with her camera. "Give me a bad girl vibe."
Lane did a scowl. "Let's get a polaroid picture too."
They run to Lane's bedroom. "Should I scowl or smile?"
"Smile for this one." Rory took the picture.
"This is the most radical thing a Kim has done since my cousin Nam got caught reading Maxim at summer camp." Rory was taking more pictures when they heard the front door open.
"That must be your mom." All the color drained from Lane's face. "Lane? Lane, you're turning white. What's wrong? Lane!"
"I can't do this." She couldn't face the music.
"Can't do what?" Anna asks.
"Dye my hair." She wasn't ready to take that step yet.
"Um, it's kinda too late." Rory looks at her purple hair.
"This is gonna kill her." Lane didn't want her mom to hate her.
"It won't kill her, it'll just shock her." Anna thought she would come around. Dyed hair wasn't a sin, right?
"But the shock will kill her and then she'll kill me, we're talking bloodbath here. We've gotta put it back." She ran to shut the door.
"Put it back?" Anna tilts her head.
"Back to black, right now, hurry! Go, go!" She pushes Rory.
"Go where?" She asks.
"Back to the store to get the black hair dye." She told her. They went back and forth about Rory going.
"I'll go." Anna offered.
"No!" They yelled at her.
"What?" She didn't see why they were against it.
"You'll take forever arguing with Shane. I'll go, but I want it on the record that I think this is insane." She gave in.
"Rory, I drank a gallon of liquid salad. Insanity is a daily staple at the Kim house. Go, go!" She waves for her to go.
"Okay, I'm going." Rory walks to the door.
"Where are you going?" Lane ran to block her.
"You're messing with my mind here." Rory wasn't sure how Lane thought she could get the black dye if she didn't leave.
"You can't go out that way, my mom will see you." She told her.
"My head is my normal color, she can see me." She pointed at her head.
"But if she sees you, she'll come looking for me." She reasoned.
"How is she supposed to get there?" Anna askes. Lane points to the window.
"You owe me." She walks over to the window.
"Big-time forever. Now make like the wind. Go go, go go go go!" She cheers her on as she climbs out.
"Just in case she comes in." Lane put a towel over her head.
"Okay ET." Anna laughed.
Jess is looking out the window as Luke walks in. "Hey."
"Hey. So what's going on out there?" He nods to Lorelai arguing with a group of women. He took a seat at the diner table to resume drinking red bull and reading.
"Ah, just Lorelai. . .dealing with some women about something or other. So, we did that thing at the school today." Luke looks behind a chair. "Yeah, it went pretty well. All the kids seemed relatively unarmed." He looks into the closet. "Yeah, I just told 'em about the diner and cooking things, and I expect kids all over town will rush out tomorrow and buy a spatula."
"Checking for monsters?" Jess raises an eyebrow at him searching for something.
"Just didn't wanna accidentally bump into someone in there." He pointed back to the closet.
"What are you talking about?" He used his hand to keep his place in the book while turning his body to him.
"Jess, did you have a girl stashed in there before?" He asked.
"Before what?" He went back to his book.
"Lorelai said you were hiding someone here earlier, she said a girl, were you?" He asks.
"Yes." He didn't look up from his book.
"Jess, you don't shove a girl in a closet." Luke scolds.
"I did not shove her in the closet. She got in voluntarily." Jess put the book back down, wondering when he was going to be able to finish it.
"Oh, sure." He scoffs.
"Look, Anna freaked when she heard you guys coming. The next thing I know, she's in there. I personally didn't care if you guys saw us or not, but hey, women, right? You can't live with 'em, you can't keep 'em from jumping in the closet." He tried to go back to his book.
Luke sitting down at the table let him know he wasn't going to be able to finish it today. "Uh, you and I have got to have a little talk."
"Hey, if you're gonna get all Ward Cleaver on me, I gotta go call Eddie and Lumpy and tell 'em I'm gonna be late." He pointed to the phone.
"Shut up for a second, would ya? Look, I know you're at an age where the whole girl thing is. . .you know, on your mind a lot, and it's probably not helping you to think straight with all the hormones and other things that are raging around in there. My point is that you gotta think about things a little better, you know, the way you act. I mean, if you care about Lee you have to treat her right." He knew when Lee and Jess started going out he might have to have this talk with him.
"You don't think I treat her right?" Jess was offended.
"Not if you're shoving her in the closet. Treating her like an embarrassing childhood toy that you don't want people to know you still play with. I mean half the time you don't even look at her when she is speaking to you. You let girls flirt with you right in front of her. She has to come to find you every time." He didn't like what he was seeing.
"She was shirtless." He scoffs at him for reading so much into it.
"Excuse me?" He wasn't expecting to hear that.
"She was shirtless. She couldn't find her shirt. She went into the closet because she didn't want you to see her. Normally we just fix our clothes and you're none the wiser." Jess horrid Luke with that sentence. "Just because I'm not staring at her, doesn't mean I'm not paying attention. I can't do anything about Shane flirting with me unless I can ban her from the diner. And just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I seek her out all the time. I wait by the bus stop for her, sneak into her room, or get her to sneak out of it."
"I'm sorry." Luke did genuinely feel bad for assuming the worst about him.
"It's fine." He went back to his book.
Anna, Rory, and Lane are walking down the street. "Busy day, busy day." Anna hummed.
"I'm pretty exhausted." Rory ran and climbed a tree today. That was the most physical activity she did in a while.
"I guess it was just too big of a statement for me to make right now." Lane was back to her black hair.
"Maybe. Oh, hey, I just thought of something. Technically, you have dyed hair." Rory pointed out.
"I do, don't I?" Lane smiled. "I mean, dyed my natural color, yes but dyed nonetheless."
"Not one strand of real color on that head of yours." Anna nods.
"So, I guess that means we can score this as a victory, right?" Lane looked down at her hair which was technically still an act of rebellion.
"Absolutely, put it in the victory column." Rory was happy that Lane wasn't grounded for life and she felt good about herself.
"Ah, people who like me, great." Lorelai ran up to them.
"You sure about that?" Anna teases.
"Be quiet you." She hugs her.
"How was your talk at the school?" Rory asks.
"Oh, just peachy." She turns to Lane. "Is your hair blacker?"
Lane gulped at that. Rory sighed, "Oh, I wish you hadn't said that. It's not noticeable, but just stay out of bright lighting."
"What happened?" Lorelie asked.
"I dyed my hair," Lane stated proudly.
"Uh!" She wondered why she would dye it black.
"Then I dyed it back, but for a full thirty minutes, I looked like this." She pulled out the picture.
"Whoa, you look cool! You're insane." She grabbed the picture to get a closer look.
"I got sane again, but I will always have that picture. Oh, uh, hide it at your place?" She gave them the rest of the pictures.
"Will do." Lorelai put them in her purse.
"I gotta go. And remember, we still need a plan." She reminded her friends before she ran off.
"Why do we need a plan?" Lorelai asked.
"A plan so that Lane doesn't have to quit her band," Rory told her.
"Lane can't quit the band! She has to get famous and introduce me to Bono." She whines.
"I told her that." Rory laughed.
"Too bad we can't find a place for them to practice here." Anna thought that would solve all their problems.
"Alright, let's go eat. . .see if we can figure out a way to salvage my future as a groupie." She put her hands on her hips.
"Sounds good." They nod.
"Let's go to Al's to think of something." Lorelai guides them to the restaurant. "It's good to see you out of the closet." She looks at her youngest.
Anna groans. "What?" Rory looked at her sister.
"It's nothing." She waved her hand to say to drop it.
"She was hiding in the closet from Luke because she was shirtless," Lorelai told Rory.
"Mom," Anna yelled.
"I saw your shirt under the table. Thank god, the moms don't know they would set our sinning house on fire." She sighs.
"What?" They asked.
"I'll tell you all about it over food." She was going to need fuel to relive her day.
