Black Sabbath was blaring through the apartment as Jess got ready for the day. Anna grabbed a food magazine that was on the table. "Huh?" She looked at the envelope that fell out of it. "To the family of Jess Mariano." She took the letter out to read that Jess got employee of the month at Walmart. There was going to be a ceremony to honor him.

"Oh no, you weren't supposed to see that." Luke took the letter and put it in his pocket.

"Why not?" She squinted at him.

"Well… I guess because Jess doesn't know that I'm going. I'm planning on surprising him." He bought the magazine knowing Jess wouldn't be interested in it.

"Because he would hate that." She figured that would be the only reason Luke would go. He nods his head. "I want to come."

"Alright, you can come." He gave in like he had a choice. "So, I talked to your mom downstairs and she said you got into Gillespie's Culinary Art School. Congratulations." He gave her a side hug. She froze in surprise. "Sorry, I'm not good at hugs…oh." She threw her arms around him, squeezing tightly. She had been waiting to hug Luke for so long. "Okay." He pats her back when she doesn't let go.

Jess came out of his room to see the embrace. "What's going on?"

"I congratulated her for getting into the cooking school." He told him.

"Okay… time to go." He peels her off. They walk down the stairs and out of the diner.

"I got a hug from Luke." She beams.

"Yup, you smell like grease." He sniffed her.

"I smell like a man." She puffs her chest out.

"You're lucky I'm letting you in the car." He unlocked it.

She got in before he could change his mind. "Today, we are changing all the soap to one that smells like rotten milk."

"Where do you even find that?" Jess started up the car and pulled away from the curb.

"The Internet." She sang. "I ordered it during the summer. We were going to kick it off with that, but it only came in now. I honestly thought I got ripped off. Good thing I didn't send that angry email."

He snickers. "Oh yeah, that would have made the guy cry."

"I am a force to be reckoned with." She ignored the sarcasm to pretend like he thought she was tough.


Luke and Anna walked into Walmart's breakroom where they were holding the ceremony. They took a seat in the back. The manager walked to the front and stood behind a podium. "Hello everybody. Hope you're having a good day. You folks know we do this every month, just a little get-together to honor our new Employee of the Month. Nothing fancy, just a quick thanks and a way to go. Oh, and there's two hundred bucks in it. I think that's how we got our honoree to show up to this thing. You know him as a trooper, our Mr. Reliable. The first time this young man sat down on that forklift it was like an extension of himself. And yeah, he's not one for small talk, but this boy's production is out of sight. It's Jess Mariano, everybody." He pointed at the moody teen who was leaning against the wall with his arm crossed.

Anna clapped along with the other employees. Jess walks up to accept a plaque. "Would you like to say anything Jess?" The manager put an arm around his shoulders.

"Nope." He shook his head.

"Well, that's our Jess. Give him another hand folks, and, uh, have a good one." He dismissed the workers. They got up to leave.

Jess walks to the back of the room but froze when he saw his uncle and girlfriend. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm so proud of my boy." He pinched his cheek.

"Stop it." He whispers.

"Do you have a tissue because I think I'm gonna be emotional?" He made it sound like he was getting choked up.

"I mean it, stop, now. It came with cash, it's the only reason I'm here." He held up the check.

"Don't forget the plaque. You should hang that over your bed, shine a little spotlight over it." He pointed to the piece of wood and metal in his other hand.

"I'll take that." Anna took it from him.

"For what?" He tried to grab it but she hid behind Luke.

"To keep safe. You would only throw it away." She knew he threw it in the trash after cashing the check.

"I gotta get back to work." He walks away.

"Yeah, the forklift's going, where's the extension of me?" Luke teased.

The manager walks over to them. "Hey. Saw you jawboning with our boy there. I'm Bill Borden."

"Luke Danes, I'm Jess' uncle." He introduced himself.

"I'm Anna, Jess's girlfriend." She smiled.

"Nice meeting you both." He shook their hands.

"Yeah, so he's doing good, huh?" Luke asks.

"Wish I had a dozen more Jesses. He's my go-to guy." He told them.

"That's great to hear." He was proud of Jess for being a hard worker.

"Works like a dog on his regular shift, and if someone calls in sick and they always do, Jess is there even if he's already done forty hours that week." He knew workers like Jes were hard to find.

"Wow, I am so . . .forty hours? He never works forty hours." Luke didn't see how he could do that many hours. Anna sighs, knowing that he must be skipping school to work again.

"More like forty-five, that's what I'm saying. Good boy, that one." He looks down at this clipboard.

"Wait, how is that possible? He's got school, he works for me, he spends time with his girlfriend, it can't be forty." Luke would notice if he was out all night working.

"Well, I can't say I sign every time card, but I'm pretty sure it's at least that. Uh, maybe I'm mistaken." He realized he might have gotten his best worker in trouble.

"Yeah, maybe." He nods.

"Oh, thought you might like this. A little keepsake for ya." He hands him an Employee of the Month sign with Jess' picture on it.

"Great, thanks." He watches the manager walk off. Anna tried to sneak away but Luke grabbed the collar of her shirt. "Come on, I know you know." He dragged her out to his truck.

"I know nothing." She yelled when the door closed.

"I think you know everything." He disagrees.

"I assume he's working around my schedule like on Friday nights, photography club, and my Inn and diner shifts. I know he does a full shift on weekends." She didn't overthink it.

"You're right, that's what he's doing." He bought into that thought. He didn't want to think Jess wasn't going to school because he didn't want to kick him out. But, they both knew that even if he was doing that, no way would it add up to 40 hours.


Lorelia and Rory were at the Poe society event where people were dressed up as him acting out his famous works. While Poe was one of her favorite authors, she didn't want to hear a dramatic reading. She was at the diner working the floor while she waited for Jess to come home from his double shift. When he walked in, she was right in front of him. "I know, I should have told you. That you would want to be there, but it's not a big deal. It was not even ten minutes. The only reason they have the ceremony is so they can say they appreciate their workers." He went right into a defensive mood.

"The manager talks to us after. He seems to like you." She walks with him to sit on the counter.

"Please, he likes that I cover for people when they call out." He scoffs.

"Yeah, he said you're doing over 40 hours a week." She nods.

"He said that." He looks at her alarmed.

"Yeah, I covered for you with Luke. I told him you work weekends and whenever you're not with me. But, Jess, he's going to find out you're skipping school to work." She knew that was the only logical answer.

"My grades are good, so who cares if I skip a few classes." He shrugs.

"Are they?" She didn't see how his grades were good if he was skipping enough classes a week to pull off that many hours at his job.

"I turn in all the assignments and I show up for the tests. I'm good." He confirms. "So, where is the waitress here, I'm ready to order?" He grabbed a menu like he didn't live there. She laughed, getting up and taking out her order pad.


Lorelai, Rory, and Anna got out of the jeep to rush toward the crowd standing in front of the Inn. They got a call that it caught on fire. "Ah, Lorelai, thank God." Sookie grabs her arm when they push their way to the front of the crowd. "This is Lorelai Gilmore." She yelled to the Fire Chief. He wouldn't tell Sookie or Michel anything because they weren't the manager.

"What's going on?" She asked the man.

"In a minute, ma'am." He was talking to one of the firemen.

"Yeah, Mom, let him do his thing." Rory pulled her back.

"You're right." She turned to her coworkers. "Sookie, Michel, um, is everyone out?"

"Yes." Michal nods.

"Are you sure?" She asks.

"Yes. We're sure, the fire department's sure, we did a head count." Sookie told her.

"We need to double check, triple check." She paused for a second when she thought of someone who could be stuck in there. "Julio! He doesn't start 'til six but sometimes he comes here early because his sister-in-law Rita gives him a ride on her way to work in Salisbury."

"There he is." Anna pointed him out.

"Ah, Julio, Julio. Ah, I'm so glad to see you, you beautiful man." She walks over to hug him.

The fire chief went up to Lorelai. "Ma'am, I'm Chief Baker."

"Oh, I'm sorry I jumped on ya earlier." She was happy that everyone was out.

"That's okay. The good news is that this is almost out. The structure's stable, and you're probably gonna be able to get back in there in about 24 hours." He gave them the news.

"Excellent. Twenty-four hours, the structure's stable, thank you." She was relieved to hear that. "The statue of you is going up just as soon as we get back in. Eighty feet tall."

"I'm looking forward to it." He smiles before rejoining his crew.

"Here we go guys, phase two." Lorelai could now think of the next things they need to do.

"Loving the pace here." Sookie was glad that she was taking control.

"Um, we need food, we need computers with the internet, we need phones. Michel, I need you on this, stat." When he just stood there, she rushed him. "Hurry, hurry." Sookie pats his back as he walks away. "Rory? Anna?" She turned to her daughters.

"Yeah?" They were ready to help.

"Um, help the guests with the kids, make sure they're not freaked out. Gather them up and entertain them for a while so the adults can catch their breath." She instructed.

"How? We got nothing. No book to read to them. No toys to give." Anna didn't know how she was supposed to do that.

"Uh, take your socks off and do a puppet show." She looks down at their feet.

"You've never entertained kids either." Rory thought that was a horrible idea.

"We did entertain ourselves." Anna realized that her mom didn't have experience.

"That's all I can think of. Get cracking." She pushed them.

"Yes, ma'am." They nod. Rory gathers the kids while Anna grabs a blanket from the jeep.

"Hi everybody. Good morning, and uh, whoa, talk about your change of plans here. Unfortunately, you, uh, can't get your stuff out for at least a day. However, if you wanna get home immediately, we will check planes, trains, and whatever you need. We will send your stuff to you later as soon as we get it. But if you can't get home yet, we will provide everything short of anything illegal, and that's gonna start with the best breakfast of your lives." They listened to their mom's speech as they took the kid off to the side.

"What are we going to do? We have nothing." Rory asked after they took their socks off.

"What are you talking about with how much TV we watch along with how much we read, we got a bunch of stories to tell." She thought it was hard to choose what they were going to do. "Who wants to watch a puppet show of Where the Wild Things Are?" The children cheered. "Alright, you got to sit down right here for the show." She put down the blanket for them to sit on. After they were seated the show began.


After taking over Luke's, Lorelai was going to check on her daughters that were entertaining the kids in the gazebo. Anna was singing as Templeton from Charlotte's Web. "A fair is a veritable smorgasbord-orgasbord-orgasbord after the gates are shut each night when the lights go out. It can be found on the ground all around. That's where a rat can glut, glut, glut, glut!"

When Rory saw her mom, she got up. "Oh, hey, guys, hold on a second."

"What? You can't go anywhere you're Wilbur." Anna stops her number to look at her sister.

"Yeah, Rory you can't go." A boy agreed.

"Anna can continue the song and I'll be right back." She promises.

She joined her mother. "So things are going well."

"Hey, they love all of Anna's voices. I didn't know why they liked me. I'm sad in comparison." She was stumbling all over the place trying to remember the plot of the children's stories she hadn't read in years.

"You're the unpredictability to the stories they know. Is Wilbur going to do the show or not?" She listens to the song come to an end.

"Come back, Rory." The boy yelled.

"They won't let us stop and we have to get to school eventually." She was worried about them throwing a fit when they had to leave because they weren't going to finish the story in time for school.

Lorelai walks over to the kids. "Hey, guys, go on over to the diner and have breakfast with your families, and then ask the nice man in the baseball hat and the flannel shirt to do sock puppets for you. And if he says no, just ask him out loud, it's part of the game!"

They got up excited about the idea of food and a new game. "Will you come back to finish the story?" A little girl asked Anna.

"Of course." She nods. They ran into the diner to find the man with the baseball hat.

"You're cruel and we love you." Rory was excited to be off babysitting duty.

"Come do check in at Patty's with me." Lorelai led them to the dance studio.

A table has been set up with a computer, phone, and other supplies as the temporary Inns headquarters. Michel, Babette, and Miss Patty are at the table. "I love computers, I just know nothing about 'em. What does pushing that F3 button do?" Babette pushed it.

"Annoy me to no end." He didn't know why they couldn't leave him alone.

"What about the F4?" She pushes the next button to see if anything happens.

Miss Patty answers the ringing phone with an odd accent. "Hello, this is the Independence Inn emergency headquarters. I'm Miss Patty, I'll be assisting you today. How may I help you?... The printer will be here in half an hour, I'll let him know. Thank you. Goodbye." She hung up and was going to relay the message. "The printer will…"

"I heard, and you've got to shorten your greeting." He wasn't even going to bring up the horrible accent.

"What?" She didn't know why he was complaining when they were helping for free.

"You do not need to recite the Gettysburg Address every time you answer the phone." People just wanted to know they called the right number.

"I was Ricardo Montalban's receptionist for six months and he never complained." She let him know she had experience.

"Who?" He didn't know why she dropped the name with such authority.

"Don't make me hit you." She glares.

"And she will," Anna warns.

"How are we doing?" Lorelai got to business.

"Computer with Internet, phones forwarded here, printer on the way." He updated her.

"I'm the receptionist." Miss Patty was having fun using different accents.

"And I'm learning the computer." Babette wasn't learning anything.

"And I'm looking for my cyanide capsule, have you seen it?" Michel's face told them that the older women were only getting in the way.

"It's nice of you to help guys, thanks. Now, at least half the Poe group needs to stay another night, so we're gonna need to find places to put them up." She ignores him to move on to their next problem.

"Everything is booked." He didn't find a solution for that.

"You checked the Cheshire Cat, the Maiden's Teacup, the Cookie House, the Sugarbear Inn?" She named every place she could think of.

"Every place that sounds like Glinda the Good Witch threw up, yes, all booked." He nods.

"Well, then, we're gonna have to take people in." She thought of their last resort.

"Well, I can take a couple in, sweetie." She could set up sleeping bags in the dance studio.

"I can, too. We got cots. Ooh-hoo-hoo, we got cots." Babette had them for when the family came to visit.

"Great. Michel?" She looks at the first person who should have volunteered.

"Forget it. The Poes are weird. I'd fear being killed in my sleep. Plus, I don't like strangers using my toilet." He made a face at the thought.

"I bet the Kims could put people up. And Taylor. And Al." Babette thought of people who would help.

"And we've got our couch and my room." Lorelai thought of what she could offer.

"Nope." Rory shook her head.

"What?" Anna and Lorelai turn to her.

"They can have our rooms, not yours." She told her.

"What?" Anna didn't remember volunteering for that. "I don't want strangers in my room. What if they look through my underwear drawer?"

"Anna, we can do this for mom. We'll have a sleepover at Lane's." Rory thought of a way to get her on board.

"A sleepover at Lane's. We never got to do that before. Okay." She agrees.

"No, hon, mine's fine." She didn't want them to give up their space.

"Mom, no, you are stressed out enough without losing your room. You need your rest, so you keep your bed, period." Rory wanted to do this for her.

"I'll look selfish." She couldn't ask people to give up their space and not give up her own.

"Well, if anyone calls you that, I'll kick their sorry butts." Rory crosses her arms.

"Oh yeah, we'll kick some ass." Anna nods.

"Okay, we'll save your rooms as the last option." She gave in seeing that Rory was being stubborn.

"Hey Michel, I just hit F4 and the num lock key and the one with the little apple on it and it's freaking out like it's on acid or something." She pointed at the screen.

"Oy vey." He looks at his boss, begging her to get rid of the woman.

The phone rings. "I got it." Patty picked it up. "Yeah?" She gave him a pointed look.

"Well, you need to say more than that." He yelled.

She covers the receiver to say. "Well, make up your mind." He gave Lorelai another look that she ignored.

"We have to get going, but page me if there's any news or anything." Rory looks at her watch.

"Okay. You mean, like if Michel kills Babette and then Patty then himself in a bizarre murder-murder-suicide pact?" She looked at the bickering group.

"Especially that." Anna smiled.

"Amongst other things." Rory pulls them into a group hug.


"Jess." Anna poked her head into his room.

"Nope." He turned the page.

"I didn't ask yet." She whines.

"I'm not helping with your puppet show. Rory left you to try and tame the dragon. I will not be the replacement." He put the book on the side.

"But, I upgraded the puppets. I bought paper bags and had the kids draw all the farm animals." She sat on the foot of the bed.

"Why don't you have one of them do it?" He didn't want to spend time with kids.

"What?" She tilts her head.

"Yeah, it makes it more interactive, so they won't get restless." He suggested.

"Alright, I'll try but they better not mess up their lines." She got up to go back to her adoring audience.

"This is becoming about you." He yelled after her.


"Why do you have all that?" Rory watched her sister drag the biggest suitcase they had. "We are only staying one night."

"All my underwear, valuables, and everything I don't want to lose is in here." She wasn't leaving anything behind.

"Mrs. Kim is going to give you a lecture on being a materialist." She didn't want to hear that speech again.

"I don't care. I don't know what the Hatlestad are into but they won't be doing it with my panties. It's bad enough, I'm going to have to wash my sheets in the morning." She huffs.

"You think they'll do it." She made a face.

"Are you kidding? We had so much fun in this small town, we wanted to spend one more night." She mocks their voices. "They want to bone instead of driving home."

"Oh god, why do you have to say it like that?" She rang the doorbell.

"Hi, guys." Lane led them into the store area where three cots were set up.

"So, who do you have staying in your room?" Rory fluffs her pillow.

"The second Poe and his wife." She told them.

"Well, for your sake, I hope they are very, very tired." She sat down on the bed.

"Why?" Lane looked alarmed.

"Nothing," Rory covers her sister's mouth.

"Lane, it's Young Chui." Mrs. Kim hands her the phone.

"Thank you, mom." She grabbed it.

"Why the large suitcase?" She looks at Anna.

"Because I didn't trust a strange man in my room." She opened it to show all her stuff.

"I took all the underwear and valuables out of Lane's room too." She nodded before going into the kitchen. She stuck her tongue out at Rory, who rolled her eyes.

"No, Young Chui, it was right to break up with her. Why stay in a relationship when it's not going anywhere...Life's too short, exactly. . . .No, I told you a joke last night, I need more time to come up with another one. . . Look, it's getting late. I got my math test tomorrow, I better go. . .Yeah, I'll call you to tell you how it went. . . Okay, night." She hung up the phone.

"So Young Chui and his girlfriend are broken up, huh?" Anna figures from what she overheard.

"Yeah, and good riddance. She was very waspy." She nods.

"What about you and Young Chui? Are you broken up?" Rory asked.

Lane looked over her shoulder before answering. "No, my mom still thinks we're the perfect young Korean couple."

"Weren't you supposed to be broken up by now?" Rory remembers Lane going over the plan a hundred times.

"Yeah, but Young Chui thinks it isn't time yet." She shrugs.

"Why? He doesn't have a girlfriend anymore so there's no reason for him to be in it." Anna figures he will be more than ready to end it.

"I don't know. I bring it up every night and he changes the subject." Lane had been wondering about it herself.

"You talk every night?" Rory didn't talk to Lane every night and this was her childhood best friend.

"Pretty much. He's a little needy right now." She knew he needed someone to talk to.

"So… Do you think he broke up with his girlfriend because he wants to be with you?" Anna thought of the only reason he would keep this up.

"What? That's insane. You've been watching too many romantic comedies. Jess is right, they're rotting your brain." Her life wasn't that complicated.

"I don't know, he's calling you every night and he keeps putting off your break-up, so God knows when you'll be able to date Dave Rygalski. He's asking you to tell him jokes and to let him know how your math test went. . .it sounds like he's in love with you." Rory agreed that it was suspicious that he was trying to prolong Lane getting to date the guy she wanted to.

"No. No. Young Chui is not in love with me. And it's not for you to take an innocent friendship like Young Chui and I have, with its air of innocence and its. . .innocence. Oh my God, he loves me. That stupid boy's fallen in love with me!" She slammed her hands down on the bed.

"It's not stupid. You're a catch." Rory couldn't blame him for catching feelings.

"But not his catch, I'm Dave's catch. I've already been caught." She whines. "That fool. And I can't break up with him or my mom will never let me date Dave. It's gotta come from him. What should I do?"

The girls jumped when there was a knock on the window. They turn to see Jess. "Did you think it was Young Chui?" Anna went over to open it. "Jess, what would be the best way for a girl to turn down a guy who is in love with her?"

"I don't like this question." He refused to answer.

"It's for Lane." She points to her friend.

"Oh, Young Chui. So, the romantic comedy came to life as you predicted." He nods.

"You thought this would happen and you didn't warn me." She gasps.

"Thought, hope, I like Dave but fake relationships are what the best relationships are built on." She had the idea after watching Picture Perfect.

"Rotting your brain." He sings.

"Did you come here to insult me?" She sat down on the large rocking horse that was by the window.

"No, just checking on you. Maybe get you to come out." He winks.

Mrs. Kim's fast footsteps could be heard, she came in holding something that resembled a bat. "What's going on here?" She pointed it at Jess.

"He was just leaving, Mama," Lane told her.

"Why is he here at all?" She motions for Anna to step away from the window.

"He came to borrow something. Here." She picks up a small globe to give to him.

"He's got a geography test coming up." Anna went along with the lie.

"Thank you." He looks down at the thing. "Baseball bat?" He asked Mrs. Kim.

"Cricket." She walks to the window.

"Night." He ran off before she could get to him.

She locked the window and closed the curtain. "No one is getting pregnant under my roof." She looks at Anna before leaving.

"Like we would do it on the cot in front of you guys." She whispers, making the girls giggle.


Rory, Anna, and Lorelai were having breakfast at Lukes's. A couple came back, so Lorelai ended up having to give up her room. She had to crash upstairs. "Jess and Luke snore so it echoes through the apartment making it unbearably loud." She didn't get much sleep last night.

"I held my pee for half the night because I was scared that Mrs. Kim would think I was Jess and hit me with her bat." Anna sips her coffee.

"Luke and Sookie have worked things out." Rory nods to the two chefs working alongside each other. She was done listening to them complain.

"There does seem to be a grudging respect thing going on." They turn to watch the show.

"Get the ricotta fritters started, guys. I wanna serve those first." Sookie yelled into the kitchen.

"Hey, are we making the Cajun Eggs Benedict again?" Luke helped her garnish her plates.

"I don't know, we could." She smiles.

"Let's do it, it was good." He nods.

"Well, the Cajun was all your doing." She would have never thought to add heat.

"Only because I knocked the cayenne pepper into your hollandaise." He couldn't take the credit when it was an accident.

"Hey, how do you think they invented Reese's cup and penicillin, my friend? We can win the Nobel here." They shared a laugh.

Jess walks down the stairs. "Morning."

"You're up early." Luke normally had to drag him out of bed.

"Gotta catch me that worm. See ya." He buttons up his jacket.

"Where are you off to?" He asks.

"School." He told him.

"This early?" He didn't know Jess to be involved in any clubs.

"I got a lab project going on. My team is meeting early." He was going to do some make-up work and talk to some teachers about his grades.

"Well, have a good day." He waves him off.

"If I have a choice." He walks over to the Gilmore table. "Hey." He kissed Anna.

"Good morning." Lorelai greets. He nods to her.

"I'll talk to you later." He leaves.

Lorelai answered her ringing phone. "Hello. . .it is?... oh, I love you, I love you. . .thanks." She stood up while hanging up the phone. "Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention, please? That was just Chief Baker on the phone who told me in that deep sexy voice of his that the inn is officially reopened. Uh, right now it's just me and the staffers, but soon, very soon, you will have your stuff back and you can go home."

"Thank you, Lorelai. Listen, from our group, we want to give you this." Fred hands her a stuffed raven.

"Oh, well, that's the nicest dead bird I've ever gotten. Thanks, Fred." She took it from him.

"It's from all of us." The other Poe reminds her.

"Right. Thank you Poe Society. Coming Sookie?" She looks at her chief.

"I'm coming. Okay, you need to caramelize the hazelnuts for the brioche French toast, add some Madeira to the pear-poaching liquid and add some chives to the cream for the eggs." She let him know.

"Don't burn anything, get it." He nods.

"We got to change for school." Anna got up to stretch.

"Bye, Anna, Rory." Fred Jr waves to them.

"Stay Golden, kid." She ruffled his hair.

They walk out the door. "You did The Outsiders?" She asked.

"I was running out of material. I had Dallas be the wolf." She defends her choices. "So, are you putting an end to the pro and con list?"

"It's hard to let Harvard go." She thought of her lifelong goal.

"Well, should you be having five-year-old Rory make the decision?" She didn't want Rory to go because she was holding onto a promise she made as a child.

"When you say it like that it sounds silly." Rory opens the door. They step into her room to see that the Harvard decor was replaced with Yale.

"You look good here." She pointed at a cut-out Rory wearing a Yale sweatshirt.

"I do." She nods.