July 7th, 1981

11.36 AM

One could question many things in this life, but Richard and Emily sending Lorelai to a camp, a proper staying in a tent and singing around the campfire summer camp, was definitely top five. Most likely, it had had something to do with Richard's firm getting a new CEO who had a personal love for the outdoors and therefore took to start an ambitious summer program where kids got to experience 'real life'. This had led to Lorelai and, thankfully, her preferred squire Margaret Courtenfield, being sent to Martha's Vinyard for all of July to participate in Mighty Martha's Wildlife Spirit Summer Program.

It had only been three days, and Lorelai had already cut her hand trying to split a log, while Maggie had fallen from a tree and now sported a bump on her forehead. And now, they were apparently going canoeing; one could only hope there would be no casualties. Lorelai and Maggie stood by the lake shore, dressed in khaki shorts and identical green t-shirts. Since the camp required kids to wear 'plain clothing,' they had gone shopping for the best-looking plain clothes they could find – you never knew what boys might be at camp – and found this particular t-shirt, promising each other that it looked very good. Lorelai had already laid eyes on Barnaby Hamilton, who had really cute freckles, and Maggie was looking to have a shot with Alexander McGuire.

"Hey, there's Barnaby!"

Maggie put an elbow in Lorelai's side.

"Oh, yes, yes he is!"

Lorelai skipped a little on the spot, he was actually looking their direction, want't he? Oh, he had really pretty ears, ears usually didn't appeal to her but his were cute. But, ew, that's disturbing – the boy next to Barnaby was picking his nose, taking it very seriously.

"Uh, don't look," Maggie said. "Digger's started digging."

"Alright, Mighty Marthas! Today's activity is canoeing. I'm assigning partners to make sure everyone gets a chance to work together."

The camp counselor clapped his hands together.

"Josephine Adams, you and Carlisle West will be a team as will Gabrielle Carlson-Smith and Preston Scott. And, um, Gilmore… Lorelai Gilmore, your partner will be Jason Stiles."

Lorelai gave Maggie a side-eye.

"Who's Jason? Is there a Jason here? Is he cute?"

"It's Digger," Maggie whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, great."

"Gilmore and Digger, sitting in a tree!" some kid shouted. The nose picker waved at her, wiggling his eyebrows while slowly inserting his index finger into his nose. Lorelai turned her face away. There was something very interesting about the leaves on that bush.

***
Twenty minutes later when Lorelai and Digger had picked a canoe and with joint forces dragged it out of the storage, Lorelai felt a little knock on her shoulder.

"Hi, Lorelai. I, um, I just wanted to wish you a nice trip!"

She turned around and oh, it was Barnaby. Lorelai blushed a little.
"Hi, Barnaby. Thank you, see you later, I guess. Maybe at dinner?"

"Yeah, sure –"

"Ouch!"

Something really hurt there.

"Hey, Gilmore. Get your ass moving."

Lorelai turned around. Did Digger just whack her butt with a paddle? Seemed like it. Oh, well. Also seemed like this would be an amazing upcoming two hours. She sighed.

"Let's go, Diggy boy, get this over with. Bye Barnaby."

"Would you lift your end a bit higher? Or are your little girl legs too short?"

Digger tried to lift the canoe over his head, but it kept wobbling and fall over, causing it to repeatedly bump into the ground.

"I am lifting it and if you weren't trying to show off, we'd get it in faster."

Lorelai pushed the canoe the last bit down over the sand dunes, into the water. The other teams had already put the canoes in the water and started paddling out from the shore, aiming for the buoys they were told to get around before returning. She jumped in.

"I'm gonna sit up front, Digger. This trip is going to be three times as pleasant if I don't have a clear visual of you the entire time."

They paddled slowly out into the calm waters. Digger was whistling an absolutely one hundred percent out of tune version of something that might once have been 'Old McDonald had a farm', causing her ears to want to cut themselves off and jump into the waters.

"Shut up, will you?"

He just shifted to Twinkle, Twinkle, little star.

"Hey, I've got an idea: pick your nose thoroughly?"

If doing so, he would have to keep his mouth open. Maybe he took up on her advice, because the horrible tunes silenced.

Oh, okay. Lorelai took a deep breath, inhaling the salty sea air. Ah. Now, this was actually very beautiful. The sun was high in the sky, and the shoreline was just miles and miles of sandy beaches, tall grass swaying, waves lazily rolling towards the shore. As they got further out, she spotted a group of harbor seals basked on a nearby rocky outcrop. Occasionally, a curious seal would poke its head above the water to observe the canoe before diving back beneath the surface.

"Oh, look! Baby seals! Oh, they're just the cutest, I want to take one home!"

"Yeah, where?"

"Look, they're over there!"
Digger rose a little from the seat.

"Where? I can't see them?"

The canoe wobbled slightly.

"Where? Point them out to me!"

Digger stood up, shading his face with his hand. The canoe really shook, now.
"They're over there, by the rocks. Sit down, you idiot!"

Digger didn't sit down, but instead he put his foot down on one side of the canoe, trying to leverage himself to see better. It didn't work. The canoe flipped over.

When Lorelai got her head over the water again, she coughed and spat and sneezed. This day was just getting better and better.

"You absolute moron!"

Digger just grinned at her.

"What? I couldn't help the canoe wasn't stable? Wanna race to the shore?"

Without waiting for her answer, he started crawling towards land.

As they reached the shore, soaked and covered in something that was in best case seaweed, the rest of the campers stood watching them. As soon as Digger crawled out of the water he ran towards his group of friends and immediately high fived some red headed boy that stood grinning.

"Mission umlauts completed."

All of the boys started clapping and cheering, whistling and laughing. What was this all about? She couldn't tell if Digger was so dumb that he didn't understand that the canoe would flip over, or that he was so dumb he didn't realize she would notice that something was definitely up here.

The camp counselor approached them.

"Alright, everyone, show's over. Lorelai, Jason, are you both alright?"

"Wet and angry but apart from that, fine," Lorelai said. "But I recommend you to teach the genius here about gravity and what the consequences of it might be in different situations."

Digger shoved an elbow into her side.

"You can be a genius."

"Cut it out, Digger, that hurt!"

She put a hand over her ribs, that was probably gonna bruise.

"There, Jason, take it easy with the girls," the camp counselor said. "You go change your clothes and I'll see you at dinner, okay?"

Digger smiled stupidly and took off, running towards cabin five. Even his running looked dumb.
"He probably likes you, you know," the camp counselor said, looking at Lorelai. "You shouldn't take it so seriously."