"You want to talk about last night?" Lorelai asked.

"It's nothing. Just something I said in anger." Anna stared at the coffee machine.

"No, it wasn't nothing. Rory knew about it." She sat down on the table and kicked out the seat across from her.

"It's fine. I don't think you do it consciously or anything." She sat down.

"Do you know why it's so hard to forgive my parents?" She crosses her arms on the table.

"No, why?" She was curious.

"Because we could never have a conversation about it. I've tried and it always ends up in a huge fight, with them never listening to me. I don't want that to happen to us." That would be her worst nightmare.

"I think you support Rory's dreams more than me." She told her.

"That's not true." She shook her head.

"Then why was Rory's room full of Harvard and then Yale merch? Why is there no cooking equipment? Why is there never any real food for me to practice with? Why don't we even have spices? How come we never took a trip to Philadelphia despite a promise every summer? You wanted to be there for Rory's process from filling out applications and writing essays but you never asked anything about mine." Her eyes tear up. For so long she told herself she didn't care. That it didn't matter, as long as she wasn't being discouraged from her dreams. But she did care.

"Honey… I'm sorry. I just…" She cried at seeing her hurt because of her.

"It's fine… I get that an Ivy League college is more exciting than cooking." She shrugs, sucking up her tears.

"It's not fine or okay. I am proud of you. It makes it worse that I just realize now I don't say it to you as much as I do Rory. But, I am proud of you. You found a dream and you're making it happen." She wipes her tears.

"It's…" She stopped when realize she was going to say fine. "I wouldn't ever hold it against you. I get that in some way you are living vicariously through Rory."

"Still, I should've done more. I'm going too." She nods. "We'll go out and buy all the cooking gadgets there are."

"Would be a waste, I'll be leaving in a few months." She shook her head that it wasn't necessary.

"Maybe I'll use it." She gave a small smile trying to lighten the mood.

It worked as Anna laughed. "Then it will be broken."


Lorelai is sitting at the counter in Luke's playing with her camera. "There were crab-stuffed mushrooms. They were so good." Anna gushed about the food at her grandparent's party. She wasn't going to skip Friday night just because her mom was fighting with them. Last night, her grandparents had a big party to send their friends off who decided to retire in Hawaii.

"You are rubbing it in." She was trying to ignore her.

"You asked." She sips her coffee.

"I asked how underdressed you were, not for a whole review of the night." She reminds her.

"Grandma had a dress ready for me." She changed back into her jeans and blouse before coming home. "There's a lot of fancy clothes in the closet there." Emily filled it up just in case she needed acceptable clothing as she called it.

Rory came in and joined them at the counter. "Hi."

"Say cheese." She takes a picture. "I love my little digital camera. I wanna marry it." She looks at the picture. She loved that she could see the picture right away and delete it if she didn't like it. It was so much better than the disposable camera where you were stuck with the thumb picture.

"Do you ever wanna put it away?" Rory sat on a free stool next to her mother.

"Oh, you'll hurt little DigitalDan's feelings." She pouts.

"Sorry, D.D." Rory played along.

She took another picture. "Gotcha! Oh, no, wait. Oh, I missed it." She leans over to talk to the customer next to Rory. "Got a good one of you, though. Nice cheekbones." The lady smiled at her before going back to the newspaper she was reading.

"So, could you focus on something non-photographic for a second?" Rory asks.

"Good luck, she took a picture of everything: her coffee, the special board, Kirk." Anna listed.

"I was asked to pass this along to you." She hands Lorelai an envelope.

"Something from Chilton? You've been dipping girls' hair in the inkwells again?" She grabbed the open envelope.

"One time," Anna mutters.

Lorelai read it out loud. "Dear Ms. Gilmore, with your daughters' final days of Chilton fast approaching, yours are, too…. Hm, not feeling the love here." She paused at the wording. "Yadda, yadda, yadda. The Booster Club could use your help. We would greatly appreciate it… Greatly underlined three times." She showed them. "Trying to emphasize the word there. Got it, guys. Thanks… your involvement, especially in light of your previous paucity of participation. Ooh, they got me with alliteration and an obscure word." She put the letter back in the envelope.

"The bastards." Rory snickers.

"I've been summoned to duty." She hummed.

"Sounds like it." Anna nods.

"I feel like I should pack my rucksack, and kiss my loved ones goodbye." She teased.

"So, don't do it, then." Rory offers.

"Yeah, you're as good as outta there. You guys got into your places already. It's too late. We don't need anything from Chilton." Lorelai cheers.

"Except for the extra graduation tickets." Anna reminds them.

"Yeah, there's that. I just put in our requests, and it's up to them now." Rory nods.

"So, we do need one kind of big thing." She sighs.

"That is something they don't have to give us. A Lot of sad town folk if we don't get them." She looks at Kirk, who told her he had been looking forward to it since they started their senior year.

"Oh man, I'm screwed. I guess I gotta do it." Lorelai thought of all the people who asked.

Luke walks over. "Hey, guys." Lorelai takes a picture of him. "Was that necessary?" He blinks at the flash.

"Oh man, you do not photograph well." She laughed at the picture.

"What?" Luke asks.

"You've been getting some sleep, brother? 'Cause, that's forty miles of bad running." She hands him the camera so he could see for himself.

"I wasn't ready. Plus, it was a bad angle. Plus, this is a harsh light. A soft light would help with the thing with the eyes." Luke defends his bad picture which looks like a mug shot. "Delete this for me." He hands it to Anna. She did that before handing it back to her mom.

"Look who knows what light he looks best in." Lorelai snickers. Anna figures that Rachel must have told him.

"Are you ready to order?" He asks.

"I'm gonna take a picture of the menu and then order off the camera." She took a picture.

"Yell when she's tired of the thing." He put the pad down.

"It might take a couple of days," Anna told him. She had only bought it yesterday. Luke went into the kitchen to hide.

"Now I'm gonna zoom in on just the breakfast meats." She loved to zoom in.


The band is practicing in the garage. Rory, Anna, and Jess are watching. "Whoa, cool." Zack looks at his bandmates.

"We all finished at the same time." Dave nods.

"That has never happened." Lane was amazed.

"The middle of that song didn't even sound like us." Brian smiled.

"Yeah, it sounded good." Dave felt amazing after that song.

"It sounded great, guys. All of it. Didn't it?" Rory turns to the two other audience members.

"Not too shabby." Jess agrees.

"We are so ready for this gig." Dave smiles at his guitar.

"We've got a gig. I just love the sound of that." Lane twirled her drumsticks.

"Where is it?" Jess asks.

"Kyle from school. His parents are going to a Marriage Encounter for the weekend so he's throwing this mondo party." Lane explained.

"You got enough songs?" Anna was surprised by Jess' interest.

"We have enough for two half-hour sets. What we need is a name." Dave told them.

"I made my suggestion," Brian told them.

"Yeah, and we vetoed The Harry Potters. Next." Zack wasn't going to be some nerdy cosplay wizard band.

"So yours is better?" He challenges.

"Follow Them to the Edge of the Desert is memorable and classy." He defends his name.

"I run out of breath every time I say it." He felt like it was too long.

"You've got asthma, dude. You run out of breath saying your name." Zack needs a better reason than that.

"Yeah, Brian, we can't work our name around your respiratory illnesses." Dave agrees.

"Even without an inhaler, Follow Them to the Edge of the Desert is too long." He shook his head.

"Yeah, but when we get famous, our fans will shorten it to FTTTEOTD." Zack didn't know that made his argument worse.

"Do you guys have any suggestions?" Dave asked them.

"I always like the name Corrupted Royalty for a band." Anna offers the name she came up with as a preteen.

"What are we British?" Zack scoffed.

"No band name should be a whole sentence." She glares.

"HA!" Brian let out a mocking laugh.

"We can come up with a name later." Dave stops an ugly argument from happening.

"Hey Lane, how are you gonna play a party like this with your mom being so strict?" Brian wonders.

"Easy. Rory and Anna are gonna deliver my drums to Kyle's house for me, then my friend Young Chui is going to pick me up to take me to a fictional Seventh Day Adventist bowling party that will conveniently last the length of our gig." Lane had it all thought out.

"Nice going." Zack nods.

"I've got my own ball and shoes." Brian brags.

"Dude, don't tell people that." He let him know that it wasn't the flex he thought it was.

"See you guys." Anna got up.

"Yeah, see ya." Jess waves.

"Bye." They wave to the couple.

"Don't hold it against me but I think I'm looking forward to seeing them play." Jess thought it was the most exciting event to happen since he arrived in Stars Hollow.

"Can't hold it against you. How cool will it be if they get big and we can say we were at their first gig?" Anna bounced from foot to foot.

"Yeah… so I'm going to buy the prom tickets tomorrow." He told her.

"I can give you the money for that." She reached for her wallet.

"Don't be dumb." He grabbed her hand to stop her.

"I'll feel bad if you pay, you don't want to go. You're doing me a favor so I can go to prom with Lane." She laced her fingers with his.

"As long as I can grab your ass while we slow dance I'll be fine." He uses his free hand to smack it.

"Well, you don't have to go to my prom." She figures she will give him an out.

"And skip the yacht, no way. I don't know how many changes I'll get." He didn't need rich boys getting any ideas.

"At least I can use my dress twice." She thought it made the money worth it.

"Maybe I'll do a bow tie to one and a tie to the other." He teased.

"How dashing and daring?" She swings their joined hands.


The principal of Stars Hollow High was in his office. There's a knock at the door. "Come in." Jess opens the door. "Well, well. Jess Mariano. What a pleasure. Sit down."

He didn't move from his spot in the doorway. "I was just trying to buy prom tickets and they told me to go see you."

"Sit down." He pointed to the chair. He took a seat. "So, the prom, huh? I wouldn't have taken you for someone who'd wanna go to the prom." The principal sat down across from him.

"My girlfriend wants to." He mutters.

"Oh, that's too bad." He shrugs.

"What, why?" He thought so too, but he didn't know why the principal would.

"Because you flunked out." He didn't know how Jess didn't know that.

"I what?" He was shocked.

"You're not graduating, Jess. Prom tickets are for graduating seniors only. Guess your girlfriend's outta luck." He threw his hands in the air.

"Now wait a minute. I'm just a little behind. I can catch up, no sweat." He repeated the same thing he said to Anna.

"You can't, you missed too much." He shook his head.

"It hasn't been that much." He denies.

"Thirty-one days you've been out. Cutoff's twenty." He let him know that attendance was a thing that could get you thrown out.

"So that's it, just like that?" Jess thought that was dumb. Who cares how much he missed if he was doing the work?

"That's it." He nods.

"Thanks for the warning." He scoffed.

"You mean the nine warning slips we gave you weren't enough? All the meetings that I tried to set up between you and your guidance counselor, between you and me that you blew off, that wasn't warning enough?" He couldn't believe the audacity that some of these teens had.

"I can catch up. I'm smarter than anyone here." He crosses his arms as he leans back in the chair.

"And humble, too." He rolled his eyes.

"I can catch up, you'll see." He would prove it.

"There's nothing to see, you're out." He didn't know what this kid didn't get. He already missed too many days to graduate.

"Fine, I'll take summer school if that's what you want." He sighs.

"Good, but it's not enough. You have to take the whole year over." He couldn't make up a whole year in the summer.

"The whole year? No way." He wasn't going to spend another year in this town when Anna wasn't going to be there.

"Then no diploma." He wasn't budging.

"At least let me go to the prom, what's the big deal?" He couldn't tell Anna that she wasn't going to prom with Lane.

"You wanna talk about coming back next year, my door's open." He pointed at it.

Jess got up to open the door. "I'm not gonna miss this place." He said before slamming it shut.

"Vice versa." He picked up a folder to look at it.


Lee did a twirl in front of the full-length mirror that hung on the back of her door. She was wearing a purple tie-dye Hex Girls tank top with a jean jacket over it and black tights that were ripped in the front with a skull on her right hip and skeleton hands on her butt. She tied a black choker around her neck while she admired the big loose curls that were the bottom half of her hair. She put on some silver eyeshadow and pink lipstick. She put on the pearl spider earrings and black boots that had studs over the toe box.

She stopped admiring herself when she heard Jess yelling her name. She went downstairs to see Rory and him waiting for her. "Mom left for the booster club already."

"She is hoping to catch Max early," Rory explains.

She picked up her purse to have Rory take it and put it down. "What's going on?"

"Mom advises no purse at a house party. It will be an unnecessary worry." She relayed the message.

"Alright… how are you?" She looks at her boyfriend.

"Fine." He put his hands in his pocket. "Let's get the drums loaded, I brought Luke's truck." The sisters walk to the door. "Jeez." He yelled.

"What?" Anna looks back at him.

"I just saw the skeleton hands on your ass." He looks at the silly pants.

"Funny, right? I got them last year at the Hot Topic Halloween sale." She brags.

"It's something." He shared a look with an amused Rory.


The band is setting up before the party. "Does this setup feel right to everybody?" Dave asked if this was a good spot.

"Cool by me." Brian nods.

"Me, too." Lane agrees.

"How's it look out there?" Dave asked Rory, Jess, and Anna. They were watching from the couch.

"Like you're gonna bullet straight to the top of the charts, with a bullet or a gun's gonna shoot a bullet, and I'm not, uh, familiar with the precise terminology, but it's working, right?" Rory turned to them.

"I think it's good, you're in the main party area." Anna tried to be helpful.

"You need to move back more." Zack saw that they had more room to move back against the wall.

"Why?" Brian asks.

"Because when I do my double jump kick off the amp with slashing windmills, I'm gonna need more room." He pointed to the amp behind Brian.

"Well, don't do that then." Lane shook her head.

"Yeah, sounds a little too Milli Vanilli, Zack." Dave thought it was too much for a house party.

"And if I back up anymore, my extension cord might damage the miniature date palm." Brian let it be known he couldn't back up.

"The what?" Lane asked.

"It's what that's called. My aunt's got one." He pointed to the plant behind Lane.

"Dude, don't call plants by their specific names, it's very not rock and roll." Zack scolds him. Anna rolled her eyes, she liked that Brian didn't care to fit into any box.

"Let's finalize the set list, guys." Dave knew the best way to stop their fights was to change the subject.

"I'm going to check if Kyle needs any help." Rory walks over to Kyle, who is putting breakable objects in a box.

"Are you okay?" Anna whispers to Jess.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He sat on the arm of the couch.

"You've been quiet since you came to pick us up. You barely said anything." She felt a coldness from him.

"I'm not some social butterfly." He rolled his eyes.

"I know that but you didn't talk in the car." She knew he didn't like talking to strangers but he normally talked with Rory. He was even warming up to Lane lately. He shrugged, not having anything to say.

"Keg!" She jumped when two guys came in carrying a keg.

"That's my cousin Rick. He just turned twenty-one. Pretty awesome." Kyler told them.

"Twenty-one, yeah!" Rick yelled.

"Jesus, can we leave and come back before the set?" Jess didn't want to be around that all night.

"You can if you want, but I promised to stay and help." She wants to support Lane.

"I didn't take off from work to spend time apart from you." He looks off to the side.

"Jess…" She wished he would be open with what was bothering him.

"I'm going to wander around." He got up to stop her from pushing him to talk.


The party was in full swing. Rory walks up to Jess and Anna. They were watching a girl having a breakdown. "They're getting ready to go on. They're all hyperventilating to the same rhythm, so that's a positive sign." She was excited about the show. "What are you guys doing?"

"Enjoying the opening act." She nods to the crying.

"Seems a little early for that." Rory watches her friend console her.

"That's her boyfriend." Jess points behind him where he was dancing with another girl.

"He hasn't noticed she's here, which is making her sob harder." Anna loved the drama of it all.

"Oh well…Let's get a drink before the show starts." Rory led them through the crowd into the kitchen. Some guys were standing around the keg. "Hey. What's up with you guys?" Jess sees them staring down at it.

"Stupid keg." Kyler glares at it.

"It's not working." Marshall was hoping to have his first drink.

"Where's the tap?" Jess asks.

"The what?" Kyler squints at him.

"It's a keg, it's sealed. You need to hook up a tap to pump the beer out." He explained how it worked.

"I told you the thing in the bag did something." Kyler looks at his cousin.

Rick pulled the tap out of the bag. "No instructions." He sighs.

"Jeez." He attaches the tap to the keg. "There, start pumping."

"Alright. To Jess!" They cheered.

"I think you've been made Keg King." Anna teases, opening up the fridge to grab three sodas. They went to check on the band.

"Jess, there the cat." She stares at the cat that was above Brian's head. After seeing the cat tree, she tried to find it but Kyler said he was probably hiding from them and wouldn't come out until the party was over.

"I see it. I also see Brian panicking." He nods to the teen sitting on the cat tree.

"What's wrong, Brian?" Rory asks.

"I don't feel good." He held his chest.

"It's his heartburn again," Dave told them.

"I told you, dude, it's your citrus intake. Stop eating oranges." Zack had told him this many times.

They move back to the living room to see Lane by her drum sets. "How are you feeling?" Anna asked.

"I'm good, but can you try and find an unattached girl for Young Chui? He's been hovering over me all night." She had sent him to get her a drink.

"Rory entertains him." She nods to the single girl.

"I'll keep a lookout." She sends an unimpressed look to her sister before telling Lane.

"Lane." Dave led the rest of the band into the room.

"Oh my God, this is it." She cheers.

"Knock 'em dead." They hugged her before going off to the side. The crowd was cheering for them to start. Rory went up to introduce them by coughing out their name.


The band finishes up a song and the crowd cheers. "Okay, thanks. Uh, we're gonna take a short break and then we'll be back." Dave told the crowd.

"Guys, that was amazing. Really, it was awesome." Rory and Anna went up to encourage them.

"Thanks." Dave put his guitar down.

"Dude, you did good, you did. But you got a little too close to me when you were singing into the mike." Zack told Brian.

"I got as close as I had to." He was pumped with adrenaline.

"Your nose touched my cheek, man. That's too close." He points at him.

"Come on, Zack. It's not very rock and roll to be so uptight about sexuality." Anna defends the bass player.

"I guess." He walks off with Brian to get a drink.

"They kind of remind me of you and Paris." Anna watches them go.

"What?" She turns to her sister.

"They argue all the time, but always seem to be by each other." Her eyes went to the cat tree. "I'm going to make a friend."

She smiled at the cat. It stayed still to let her pet it. "So, can we go now?" Jess walks up to her.

"No, the band got another set." She shook her head.

"So, they can do it without us. We'll pick up the drums later." He rolled his shoulders back.

"I'm not leaving Lane's first gig early." She glares.

"Fine, but we're leaving right after." He grumbles.

"That's fine." She shrugged. "Is there somewhere you want to be tonight?"

"Yeah, anywhere but here." He mutters.

"Someone needs to learn to be more chill like you." She coos at the cat.


Jess, Rory, and Anna were waiting in line for the bathroom when Dean and Lindsey walked up to them. "Hi, guys." Rory greets.

"Hey." They nod.

"So, what did you think of Lane's band?" Anna asked when they didn't leave.

"I liked 'em. Although I didn't recognize most of the songs." Lindsey told them.

"She's not a music freak like you guys." Dean defends her before they could judge her for not knowing Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.

"Well, we all can't be freaks." Rory smiled.

"True." Dean was happy that they were able to get along.

"So what kind of music do you like?" She asks.

"I don't know. . .uh, Michelle Branch, Matchbox 20." She thought of the artists she listened to.

"Jeez." Jess sneers.

"I like their new song, Bright Light." She felt the need to make up for her boyfriend's rudeness. He scoffed knowing she didn't. She changed it anytime it played on the radio.

"You used to go to our school." She pointed at Jess.

"No, he still goes." Anna corrected.

"Really? I haven't seen you around much." Dean knew he had to be lying to her again.

"What are you, the attendance monitor? I'm gonna go see what the hell's holding up this line." He walks in the opposite direction of the bathroom.

"He's not feeling well." Rory tried to cover for him.

"Yeah, he's suffering from asshole arthritis." She follows him up the stairs into a bedroom. "What's going on? You were looking forward to tonight. And now, you're being the biggest jerk."

"Nothing happened." He sat on the bed.

"Jess, is it school?" She tippy toes over to him.

"Are you my mother or my girlfriend?" He sighs.

"I just want to help." She stood in between his legs.

"You want to help, fine." He pulled down on the bed to roll on top of her. She let out a whimper when he kissed her hard. She got lost in the kiss until he slipped his hand into her tights.

"Jess, wait, the door is unlocked." She disconnected. "Stop. Jess, stop." She wiggles when he rubs her lower lips with his whole hand. "Jess!" She uses all her strength to shove him off. "Are you fucking insane? I said stop." She stood up to glare down at him panting on the bed.

"I'll lock the door." He went to get up but she pushed him down.

"Fuck off. Do you think I want to have sex with you after that? You've been hot and cold with me all night." She crosses her arms.

"What do you want from me? I'm at your fucking becking call doing whatever you want. You can't even give me space. I walked away from you. You can't even take a hint to not follow me." He ran his hand through his curls.

"Jess, I never make you do anything. You could have skipped this like you do the town meetings or the dance recital." She tried to hold back the tears. Jess always wanted her around. Even if it was sitting next to him while he read.

"OH, YOU WANTED ME TO LEAVE YOU ALONE AT A HOUSE PARTY WITH DRUNK ASSHOLES WHO ARE LOOKING FOR AN EASY LAY! YOU THINK THAT SHOVE WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING IF I WANT TO FORCE YOU! ANY OF THOSE GUYS WOULD BE HAPPY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU WHEN THEY SEE THE DIMPLES IN YOUR ASS IN THOSE TIGHTS!" She jumped back when he moved to grab her while he was screaming.

"Jess, I'll tie my jacket around my waist just don't be mad at me." She wipes the tears.

"It's not the tights." He calms down after seeing her tears.

"Then I can give you space. I'm sorry." She grabbed the doorknob, wanting to get out of there before she started sobbing.

"Susanna." He tried to call her but she went out the door. He took a moment to take a few deep breaths before following her. He felt guilty for taking his anger about not graduating out on her. Through her tears, she didn't see Dean and bumped into him at the bottom of the stairs. "Anna?" He grabs her to stop her from falling. He was surprised to feel her shaking under his hands from how hard she was sobbing. "Anna?" They might not always get along but he was concerned.

"I'm fine, I just need some fresh air." She took a deep breath.

He looks up to see Jess coming down the stairs. He looks back at Anna to see her lipstick and hair was messed up. He could see where her tights were pulled down showing some of her hips. When her boyfriend got in reach, he pushed Anna to the side to punch him. "Dean, what the hell?" Rory yelled from the other side of the room. They were punching and pushing each other. They were moving around a lot, knocking over things and people.

"Stop it!" Anna fixed her tights before running into the kitchen after them. Dean threw Jess on the counter, but Jess was able to kick him before he could jump on top of him.

"What's happening?" Rory asked her.

"Dean thought Jess did something I didn't want him to." She knew the big idiot's heart was in the right place.

Both their fighting styles were shoving each other into things and punching. Dean shoves Jess into the door, sending them into the living room. They knock over the band equipment. "Bogus," Zack yelled.

Some kid pushing Dean and Jess out the door. They were fighting on the front lawn. Rick and another guy were able to break them up when the cop cars showed up.

"Okay, dump your cups and go home. Now." The police got out of the car. Jess walks off. Anna was debating about going after him when she heard someone throwing up.

"Lane." Rory rushed over to her. Anna followed to hold her hair back while Rory rubbed her back.