The women were sitting around the dinner table at Gilmore Manor. "And then she just brushed me off with a wave of her regal hand. Not even a word, just a. . ." Emily waved her hand with her nose up in the air. "..like I'm her cabana boy. Next thing you know, instead of just walking out of the room, she'll make me bow and back out. Imperious attitude, she never gives it a rest. I schlepped her to the doctor the other day, by command, not request, and the elevator operator there greeted us nice and friendly. Her doctor's on the second floor and by the time we got there, that operator was in tears." Anna ate her roll as she listened to Emily tell them her latest drama with Gran.

"Wow, Mom, you just did twenty straight minutes on Gran." Lorelai sips her wine.

"It wasn't twenty minutes." She denies.

"It was getting there." Rory looks at her watch.

"Hey, you know what Gran needs?" She thought of a solution to the problem.

"What?" Emily asked.

"A fella." She sings.

"With or without an umbrella." Rory finished it.

"He'd have to look like an olive pit to get her attention." Emily scoffs. "I think she did have a man for a time squiring her around to her biddy affairs. Richard thought so, too, and it horrified him."

"Didn't want a new Daddy, huh?" Lorelai jokes.

Emily ignores her daughter to go on. "And then he seemed suddenly out of the picture."

"So, Great Grandma never talked about him?" Rory asks.

"Never. Even though I could tell practically the day she stopped seeing him. Those kinds of things are always obvious." She gave Rory a pointed look.

"Yeah, I guess." She shrugs.

"When a couple is in a relationship and then suddenly isn't." She was digging for information that she already knew.

"Right." She turned her head away and asked her sister. "Is she still looking?"

"Yup." Anna nods.

Rory sighs. "Right. Um, you know, Grandma, did I mention that unfortunately, I'm not with Dean anymore?"

"Well, yes, I've known for weeks. But it's good that you confirmed it." Emily smiled smugly.

"How did you know?" Rory asks what everyone at the table was wondering.

"Well, you very abruptly stopped mentioning him eleven dinners ago, so I figured that was the case." She let them know, creeping them all out.

"Eleven dinners, you kept count?" Lorelai narrows her eyes.

"Eleven." Emily nods.

"So, it's been eleven weeks." Anna didn't realize that much time had passed.

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Grandma." Rory stares at her plate.

"Well, I think you should have. I mean, what if I had invited Dean to an event and you were no longer with him, and that's how I found out? It would've been embarrassing." Emily let them know she appreciated being told things instead of having to figure it out because she would figure it out.

"What sort of event would you have invited Dean to?" Lorelai laughs.

"You go to a lot of hockey games, grandma." Anna giggles.

"You know what I meant. It's always best to tell each other major life events so that there's no awkwardness. It's good to know who is coming in and out of our lives. If there is someone new I would like to know." Emily turns her pointed stare to Anna.

"Huh?" She was taken by surprise.

"I'm still having people contact me from your debutante ball. I need to know if I entertain the offers or not." She reasoned.

"Grandma, I've got a new boyfriend," Anna told her.

"Not new, it's been a while." Emily interrupted. She was more hurt by Anna hiding it. She felt like they were closer.

"Right…. His name is Jess. I was going to tell you but I was nervous for him to meet you. Your opinion means a lot to me." Anna could play the game too. She wasn't as good as her grandma yet, but she hoped to be someday.

Emily's face softened before she cleared her throat to go on. "Well, now that I know you can bring him next Friday."

"Next Friday?" She croaked.

"It's perfect timing. Richard will still be out of town and it would be nice to round off the group with a fourth." Emily had it all thought out.

"He works Fridays, doesn't he?" Lorelai tried to save her.

"Yeah, because I'm normally here on Friday, he told his boss he was available then. So, he works every Friday night." She nods.

"I guess I'll just meet him at the graduation. That's good. That way we'll all get to meet him at once. Myself, Richard, Gran. Maybe I'll bring a couple of girls from the DAR. Reverend Mahoney might like to come also." Her smile got bigger as listed the people.

Anna bites the side of her cheek, having been beaten by her grandmother again. "He can get out of work."

"Are you sure?" She tilts her head.

"His boss owes him one." She knew he had the day off at Walmart and Luke wouldn't mind.

"That's good, I can't wait. I'll make the lamb you like." Emily hums in victory.

"With the twice baked potato and the roasted zucchinis?" She asked.

"Sure." Emily shrugs.

"I'll be there." She eats dinner. Lorelai chuckled and Rory looked at her in disbelief that she would put her boyfriend through a painful dinner for her favorite dinner.


Anna and Jess were having another picnic at the lake. "So, what do you think?" She watches him eat the burger.

"I would say that a Kimchi burger with spicy mayo is a success." He gave a thumbs up.

"And the sweet potato fries?" She asks.

"Pairs nicely with it. The sweetness compliments the heat." He nods. "Before you ask, the blueberry mint ice tea is not my favorite."

"Me either, I like the lemon basil one I made last week better." She nods.

A loud honk interrupted them. Anna looked to see a large swan. "Oh, I didn't forget you, Drogon." She picked up a container that had a mixture of carrots, celery, crackled corn, cranberries, and wheatgrass. She dumped it in the lake. "Sweet boy." He let her pet him while he ate.

"What is this?" Jess held up a container of live shrimp. He watches them swimming around.

"Oh, they eat those too." She grabs the container to dump it in the water.

"You're going to catch the bird flu." He watched from a distance.

"You need to learn to respect the guardians of the lake, if you are going to be coming here you have to appease them." She sat next to him on the blanket.

"They aren't gods." He rolled his eyes.

"No, but we are constantly invading their home. Can you imagine if some couple came into your living room and started eating and didn't have anything to offer you?" She thought of it as being a respectful guest.

"I live in a diner, it happens all the time." He reminds her.

"In return, they give you money. Swans don't accept money, they accept food." She ate a fry.

"I never bring them anything and they never bother me." He wonders about his girlfriend's ability to separate reality from imagination.

"Drogon is tolerating you because of your association with me but I can't say how long that will last if you continue to be disrespectful. Swans are protective and if you're not seen as a friend it can be bad because his babies are about to hatch." She pointed across the pond where his mate was sitting on a nest.

"And you're a friend?" He laughed that she thought she was friends with a wild animal.

"I've known Drogon since he was an ugly duckling. I came every day to feed him for months. I waved him off every winter and welcomed him back every spring. I remember when he brought back his mate this spring." She gave him their backstory.

"Should I worry about you running off with this swan?" He smirks.

"Don't be ridiculous, I don't know where he goes in the winter." She shook her head. He scoffed at that. "So… you've been invited to the next Friday night dinner."

"What? You told them about me." He went from amused to annoyed.

"She knew I was in a relationship. She figured it out." She defends herself.

"Did you show her a picture?" He grabbed a soda, not wanting any more tea.

"No." She shook her head.

"Then, we can hire another guy to pretend to be me." He tried to get out of it.

"What happens when there is a different guy in my prom pictures or at my graduation?" She rolled her eyes.

"Plastic surgery." He suggests.

"Jess!" She yelled and a honk followed. "It's alright Drogon." She assured him she wasn't in danger.

"Jesus, how painful is this going to be?" He sighs.

"It's just grandma, so it'll be probing questions. Any information can and will be used against you later." She was maybe too honest.

"Great, and this is important to you?" He watched her nod eagerly. He groaned, knowing there was no way out of this.


It was two in the morning, Anna and her friends were all over the school hiding alarm clocks that had different timers on them. She was in the history classroom, it was set to go off when she was having an exam. She was hiding it under a loose floorboard. She found it when a few students tripped in that spot. They thought they tripped on air. Anna saw the floorboard shift under Thomas when he went to sharpen his pencil.

There were also alarms set up in all of the senior classes, the cafeteria, the locker rooms, and two in the headmaster's office. Anna meets up with her friends by going through a window where a rental car was in the blindspot. She was the last to get in the car. "I thought you got caught." Thomas hugged her.

"Sorry, I thought I heard a rat so I got scared to put my hand under the floor." She explained when Henry took off.

"How is it going, Eleanor?" Henry looked at the passenger seat.

She was working on her dad's laptop. Her family had created a security system that was geared towards businesses. They were installed in many banks, government buildings, and this school. She was able to shut down the system so they could get in and out with ease. "Waiting for us to be out of the parking lot… and turn it on so they won't suspect anything." She hit a few buttons.

"Are we sure we should have turned off the security system for this prank? I mean we have other where that be useful." Roger asks. They could only do this one, twice tops before Elanore's dad found out they use the laptop.

"The other pranks are in blindspot. We can set it up where other people are passing through so they can't pinpoint one person." Anna yawned.

"We better get back home. We need to get enough rest so we're not tired in class." Elanore was feeling sleepy herself.


Anna was writing a mini-essay on the importance of the world's fairs when a loud blaring alarm went off. "Oh no, I will not have this. This is the fourth one today." Ms. Ness screamed. "Whoever is responsible for this better turn it off right now?"

"We can't turn it off, we don't know where it is." A girl spoke up when no one answers.

"Fine, if no one wants to know up to it then you can take the exam with the noise." She sat down in her chair. That only lasted a few minutes before she was walking around the room trying to find it.

It stopped going off a few minutes after that. She sighed in relief, if she was a nicer teacher then Anna would have felt bad. But, she was an older teacher who seemed to hate youth. For that reason, Anna did everything to fight her laughter when the alarm went off five minutes later. It was the type to put itself on snooze after a few minutes over and over until the alarm was turned off or the batteries died.


Emily and Anna were sitting in the living room. Lorelai was on a couples trip with Alex, her new boyfriend. Rory volunteered for newspaper duty for Paris even though they were currently fighting. She looks at her Beauty and Beast watch in frustration. "I'm sorry, he's late." She was going to be furious if he blew her off.

"It's fine, I heard there was an accident, he's probably stuck in that. Why don't you try his cellphone?" She pointed to the phone behind them.

"He doesn't have one." She told her.

"Really?" She never saw a teenager without a phone.

"His guardian, Luke, do you remember him?" After Emily nodded, she went on. "He doesn't believe in cellphones. Jess could only afford the car or the phone and he chose the car."

"That's a smart choice." Emily nods. "He can afford a car from his tips at the diner?"

"Oh no, he also works at Walmart." She told her.

"Two jobs and school, that's impressive." She didn't hear anything to hate so far.

The doorbell rang. "Oh, there he is." They got up to answer the door to stare in shock at Jess with a black eye.

"Sorry, I'm late." Jess apologizes.

"Oh, that's all right. Come in, come in. It's cold out." She waves from him to step inside.

"What happened to your eye?" Anna leaned in to get a closer look at it.

"This is new." She asks.

"New from this morning." She kept her eyes on her boyfriend.

"It's nothing, a long boring story." He looks at his shoes.

"Sounds like the perfect dinner talk." She glares at the side of his head.

"I'll go check on dinner." Emily let them have a moment to talk.

"Jess," Anna whispers.

"Anna, stop. I sat for hours in traffic, worried if my car was going to make it, to get to a dinner I didn't want to go to. If you excuse me I have to deal with noisy questions from a rich snob who is never going to like me anyway." He turned to the maid who was waiting to take them to the dining room.


They were sitting in silence as they ate their salads. "So Jess, Anna told you that you work two jobs. The diner and Walmart." Emily tried to start a conversation.

"For now, hoping to get something better later." He drank his water.

"Of course." She nods.

"Okay… tell us how you got the black eye, so we can move on." Anna glares.

"I thought we had already moved on." He glares back.

"Please, we can't move on from that. If you don't tell us then we have to make our own assumption. The story we make up in our head is going to be wilder than the truth so just tell us." She grips her fork tightly.

"What do you assume happened?" He tilts his head.

"I don't know, maybe you are secretly working for the mob and got the black eye when someone got the upper hand while you were shaking them down." She thought of the crazy theory.

"I was playing football…" He was interrupted by Anna imitating the wrong buzzer sound effect. "What?"

"You don't play sports. Sometimes you'll shoot hoops with the guys but never a real game. Horse at the most. So the truth, please." She grits her teeth.

"It was Drogon." He puffs.

"Oh," She bit her bottom lip to stop the giggles, but Jess saw through her.

"It's not funny!" He yelled.

"What's a Drogon?" Emily asked.

"It's a swan that lives at the lake we go to. I told Jess, he had to feed it or it'll attack but he thought I was exaggerating." She told her.

"A swan attacked you?" She looks at Jess in shock.

"Yes, I was sitting under the big tree minding my business when it flew at me and beaked my eye." He uses his hand to imitate a beak that pokes his eye.

"That tree is close to his nest." She knew what tree he liked to read under.

"Can you stop defending the bird that tried to blind me?" He shouted. "If I didn't get to my car he would have got my other eye."

"The town is letting these dangerous birds stay in town." Emily was worried. Anna spent a lot of time there.

"What are they going to do?" She asks.

"Shoot them." Jess and Emily said.

"What, those swans have been there before Stars Hollow got its name." Anna shrieked.

"There are children who live in that town where birds are giving people black eyes." Emily thought people were more important than birds.

"People need to respect nature." Anna huffs.

"I was minding my own business!" Jess yelled. "This is embarrassing, first, I get beat up by a swan then you defend the demon bird. This is why I didn't want to bring it up."

"It's better than thinking you're a thug who goes out picking fights." Emily tried to make him feel better.

"I guess." He sighs before a smirk takes over his face. "Since we're about honesty, did you tell your grandma about the alarms?"

Anna's jaw dropped. "You're the one that set those alarms. You disturbed people's education, young lady." Emily scolds her granddaughter.

"God damn, Biddy." She hissed. Did she have to tell Emily everything that happened at the school? "It was harmless." She told her grandma. "No one got hurt."

"No more pranks." She glares.

"Sure." She nods while looking down at her plate.

"Oh my god, you have more planned." She gasps.

"The less you know the better." She mutters, glaring at Jess.

"You better not get expelled before graduation." She warns.

"We're here to get to know Jess." She nods to him.

"So Jess, what are your plans after high school?" She turns to him.

"I was planning on going to a trade school in Philadelphia." He told her.

"Philadelphia?" She turned to Anna, knowing that's where her culinary school was. "You guys are serious." She realized they were making plans for the future.

"The most serious thing in my life," Jess stated proudly. Emily didn't know how to feel about the moody silent teen. She saw them at their worst and he didn't storm off or call her names. He was planning on following her granddaughter in life. That was a dedication that most men didn't do. They thought women were supposed to follow them. She nodded, deciding for now that she liked him.


The ride back to Stars Hollow was quiet and tense. Jess parked in front of the house. "I know I have to be more open but you have to get less pushy." He looks at the house in front of them.

"I know, I just… it didn't matter how well the night went if my grandma thought you were a violent thug." She tried to explain her bratty behavior tonight.

"I don't care, you have to respect my boundaries. If I'm not ready to talk about something then I'm not ready. You have to learn to be patient with me." He hated when she acted like a starving dog that got hold of small prey. She wouldn't give up until she ripped it apart to get to the piece she wanted.

"You're right." She admits. "I have to be more understanding. We grew up in different households. In my house, nothing is off-limits. Sharing is never shameful or followed with punishment. When I told my mom about the alarms. She was excited to hear about the chaos. It is a privilege I have that I forget others don't."

"Being closed off was a way of life for me. I couldn't have anyone know about my situation or I would be taken away. I couldn't have people know about my druggy mom and her douchebag druggy boyfriends. Never wanted people to see the shitty places I had to live in." Jess sighes. "Sharing came with judgment, so I stopped."

"I wouldn't judge you." She looks at him.

"Judgment is natural, everyone judges." He scoffs before taking a deep breath. "But, I know you wouldn't hold it against me."

"Are you going to hold tonight against me?" She knew he could hold a grudge.

"No, we both have things we have to work on. As long as we're willing to do that then we're good." He knew he had his issues so he couldn't hold hers against her.

"Growing together, how romantic." She swooned.

"Jesus." He sneers, making her laugh.