After they'd exchanged contact information Charlotte had had to hurry back home, and Cindy had taken the bus back to Stars Hollow. Though it wasn't outwardly evident, Cindy was estatic on the inside. If she had been a kick her heels, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers kind of gal, she'd be doing just that. She felt as though she'd kickstarted something significant meeting Charlotte McCrae, and that the shake-up she was craving was finally on the horizon.
Charlotte had promised to call her tomorrow to talk schedules, and Cindy could hardly wait.
She was grinning like the cat that caught the canary as she met up with her Mom and Rory for dinner at Luke's. She had been smiling for so long, that by the time their food came Lorelai bit the bullet and asked her about it, curious about her daughter's abnormally long time spent using facial muscles she hardly ever exercised unless she was teasing someone or scheming. "How come you're so Cheshire Cat-like?" She asked.
"I met someone today at the sports club." She replied.
"What's his name?" Rory snickered, earning her a kick under the table. "Ow!"
"She's a girl." Cindy scowled.
"So who's the girl?" Lorelai pressed.
"Charlotte. She's a tennis player, she's played in all sorts of tournaments and she's gonna coach me on my tennis game. I wanna maybe try competing somewhere down the line." Cindy explained, delighting in Lorelai and Rory's equal expressions of surprise. She loved defying people's expectations of her.
"Since when?" Lorelai asked, interested but slightly confused by the out of left field turn. "That's... New."
Cindy merely shrugged in response, sticking a mouthful of food into her mouth so she didn't have to properly answer. Since everyone suddenly started having all these amazing things going on and I've just been doing the same things I always do.
"Well be sure to work on your grunting." Lorelai advised. "And buy some sweatbands. That's-" A pleasantly surprised smile slowly crept on to Lorelai's features. "That's great sweetie. That sounds like it'll be a lot of fun. I mean I don't understand the strenuous exercise of it all, but I'm sure you'll do great." She told her proudly, chuckling a little at the stunned look on Cindy's face.
A small fire was lit in Cindy's heart at the praise she'd been handed, a sheepish smile of her own tugging at the ends of her mouth as she looked down. "Ah- Thanks."
Her mom smiled in her assuring I-know-your-emotions-are-a-little-too-big-for-you-right-now way, gracefully leaving her be and turning to Rory for an update on her day. Cindy had always appreciated that about her mom. She always seemed to instinctively know even when Cindy didn't say anything, that she needed to take a beat or needed a moment or two to herself.
Cindy's thoughts drifted to tennis as she continued to eat her food, her mom and Rory's conversation merely background noise as she imagined herself in a high stakes match, her every move clean and swift as she decimated the other player. Then she'd hop on to the first place podium, pop champagne, everyone would tearfully congratulate her and-
"-we're having dinner with your grandparents tomorrow night."
The victory soundtrack playing in Cindy's head screeched to a sudden halt, as she was sharply tugged back into awareness at Lorelai's words. "What?"
"We are? But it's September." Rory blinked in surprise, equally confused.
"So?" Lorelai asked.
"So what holiday is in September?" Rory pressed.
"And why are we going short of having guns pressed to each of our heads?" Cindy grumbled.
Cindy did not enjoy their visits to see their grandparents. Though they only saw them on holidays, it was enough to put Cindy in a bad mood for days on end. They were loaded and had about as much warmth as the Inn's potting shed during winter. Their grandpa was fine she supposed, he mostly just ignored them or made trivial small talk. Their grandmother however- Urgh. At the previous years Christmas party at their house she'd made comments all evening about how "interesting" her makeup had looked, with pointed looks thrown her mom's way. She'd never said slutty but Cindy had heard it all the same. God she was an asshole. Her Mom had ironically had to play referee between the two of them all night, in order to keep Cindy from blowing up and saying what she really thought about her. Her Mom suddenly making dinner plans with them for a non-holiday time was pretty weird. Especially given that she liked seeing them even less than Cindy did.
"Look it's not a holiday thing it's just dinner, ok?" Lorelai sighed, sneaking a knowing glance at Cindy. "And I know you're not sick or on your period."
"Give me time." Cindy sulked, folding her arms in annoyance as she slouched in her chair.
Luke showed up with the rest of their food, his disapproval evident as he sat the plates down. "Red meat can kill you. Enjoy."
"Just what I was looking for!" Cindy crowed in delight, snatching the burger at once to eat as Luke walked away.
Lorelai snorted at her childlike delight with the burger, fighting the urge to laugh as Cindy practically inhaled the thing. And people said they had nothing in common.
Cindy zoned out once more as she happily dug into her food, her displeasure at having to see her grandparents again temporarily forgotten as she enjoyed her dinner. Man Luke had good food. Luke's was always a guaranteed stomach pleaser, and was especially great if you hadn't eaten much all day. Cindy often wondered if she could nag him into teaching her how he did his food, but knew if she did she'd probably break poor Sookie's heart. She'd been so happy when Cindy had asked her to teach her how to cook after all.
Before she knew it Rory was snapping her fingers in front of her, a look of severe irritation on her face.
"Hey who shit in your hat?" Cindy pulled a face. What could she have done? She was just minding her own business.
"Nothing I-" Rory re-adjusted her tone, reminding herself that Cindy was basically an amnesia patient post zone-outs. "We're going."
Cindy balked at that, watching with careful consideration as their already standing mom furiously threw down some money. Cindy grabbed a hold of her plate which still had a ton of fries left over, and followed the two of them outside. Uh oh. It seemed she'd missed something.
About two minutes into their dead silent walk home, Lorelai noticed Cindy with her plate and laughed in incredulity despite her crabby mood. "You know Luke's gonna kill you for stealing one of his plates again."
"Eh it doesn't count as stealing if I plan on giving it back tomorrow." Cindy countered, dipping a fry in some sauce and chomping down on it.
"Deathwiiiish." Lorelai sing-songed. "Absolute deathwiiiiish."
"So fill me in, what'd I miss?" Cindy pressed.
"Your sister-" Lorelai raised her voice an inch or two higher. "-suddenly doesn't want to go to Chilton anymore."
Cindy gaped in surprise, moving from her spot beside Lorelai and over to Rory's side. She poked Rory on the shoulder. "You don't wanna go to Chilton anymore? You were literally vibrating with happiness about it a few hours ago."
"Yeah well things change, it's just way too expensive." Rory replied in a hushed tone. "I mean the bus ride alone-"
Cindy pulled a face that indicated to Rory just how well her fib was going. "Why are you suddenly concerned about the cost?"
As they came to Miss Patty's dance studio where a ballet lesson was currently in session, Cindy spied Miss Patty who was stood outside instructing the girls. Cindy could recall Lorelai trying to get her to join Rory for ballet lessons when they were four, but Cindy had refused and had thrown the mother of all tantrums, refusing to go on account of the fact that she thought the tutus were stupid. She stood by her statement to this day.
Miss Patty jumped to attention as she spotted the three of them. "Rory!" She called, as they stopped in front of the dance studio. "I think I found a job for your male friend."
"What male friend?" Lorelai queried.
Cindy's brows rose to the top of her head. She spared a look at Rory, finding the guilty, squirmy look she always had on her face when she'd been caught out. A hand flew to Cindy's mouth as Rory glared at her not to say a word, but a laugh escaped her nonetheless. Oh this was all beginning to make so much sense now.
"They need a stock boy at the supermarket -Cindy here can tell you all about it- I already told Taylor Doose about him you just send him around tomorrow."
"You're in troubleeeee!" Cindy whispered, wiggling the fingers of her free hand at Rory.
"Okay thanks." Rory pointed a finger warningly at her, but Cindy merely tapped it with her own, smirking at Rory who looked ready to run in the opposite direction.
"What male friend?" Lorelai pressed.
"Yeah what male friend?" Cindy chorused, earning herself an elbow to the ribs. "Are we talking Heathcliff or the Hunchback of Notre Dame?" Cindy dodged the next elbow to her side, giggling as Rory glared daggers at her.
"Oh no he's very cute!" Miss Patty all but purred approvingly at Rory, making Cindy snort. "You have good taste!"
As Miss Patty returned to her lesson Lorelai locked eyes with Cindy, her own brows raised as well.
"I sense a fight forthcoming." Cindy commented dryly, as Rory began to speed walk away from them.
"You bet." Lorelai retorted, beginning to match Rory's pace. Cindy however opted to follow leisurely behind, enjoying the last of her food as she observed the two of them.
"Oh you're gonna have to walk a whole lot faster than that! You're gonna have to turn into freaking Flo-Jo to get away from me!"
Cindy arrived home a minute or two after her mom and Rory, finding them in the midst of a fight about the boy. As she heard her mom follow Rory into her room, Cindy headed into the kitchen to wash Luke's plate. Once it was thoroughly washed and rinsed off she put it on to the drying rack, and was just finishing drying off her hands with one of the kitchen towels when Lorelai came storming out of Rory's room, looking extremely forlorn as she slammed the door shut. Cindy winced as she heard Rory's go to in-a-bad-mood music begin playing on her cd player just seconds later.
Lorelai sighed, taking a deep breath before turning to Cindy. "Do you have any idea who the guy is?"
Cindy shook her head. "First I'm hearing of it."
Lorelai nodded, joining her in the kitchen as Cindy put the towel back where she'd found it. "So you're going all tennis girl now."
"Yeah." Cindy nodded enthusiastically, a bright, hopeful smile slowly spreading across her face that made Lorelai's heart swell with joy to see. It was rare to be able to see something like that in her daughter. She so often kept her cards close to her chest, that it was difficult for Lorelai to attain her emotional state at times. She had something of a default neutral resting face. Lorelai often had to peck at Cindy to get her to open up, eventually causing her to do so out of sheer annoyance with her. She was a lot like one of her favourite literary characters Mr Darcy in that way.
"I won't let it interfere with school or anything, I just-" Cindy trailed off, waving her hand. "Ah it doesn't matter."
"Oh no don't worry about that. And yeah, yeah it does tell me." Lorelai urged, wanting to keep this particular door open. When Cindy offered her some insight into what was going on with her, Lorelai was always ready to snatch it up like the rare gem it was.
She sighed, her shoulders tensing as she tried to explain herself. "I just wanted something to work towards, you know? Something fun. Something productive that doesn't make me wanna hurl."
"Thinking of biology?" Lorelai guessed, not missing a beat.
Cindy nodded, unsurprised. She'd been complaining about it from the second it had entered her life. "You know me so well."
"Come on." Lorelai wrapped an arm around Cindy, guiding her into the living room and on to the couch. As they sat down Cindy glanced anxiously at Lorelai, wondering just how she'd react to what she had to say. "Spill it." Lorelai urged.
"I just-" Cindy's whole face went tense with emotion as she struggled to speak, her eyes travelling elsewhere for a moment or two as she mentally put together what she was going to say. The action reminded Lorelai a lot of Christopher whenever he was trying to mentally formulate something, but Lorelai knew better than to compare her to her father. She didn't want to have two fights in one night. "Sometimes I get the sense you like Rory a little bit more than me."
"Cindy that's-"
"And I get it she's smart, she's gonna go to Harvard, she's got her whole life figured out and I've got the attention span of a goldfish, yada yada yada. Her and everyone else has got something going for them. I need something that can be mine. That I can look forward to. That-" Cindy's pride began to sting, as she stared down at the floor. "That would make you look at me the way you look at her. All proud and stuff."
"Cindy-" Lorelai stared, eyes wide with sadness. She felt as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to her heart. "Hey!" She gently urged, causing Cindy to look up at once. "Cindy I do not like Rory better than you."
Cindy shuffled uncomfortably, as she heard the deep tone of sadness in her mom's voice. "I'm sorry."
"No Cindy. If anyone should be sorry it's me. That-" Lorelai took her hand into hers, giving it a squeeze. "Is this because of all the stuff I said about school after you got detention again?"
Cindy gave her a reluctant nod.
"Oh honey I'm so sorry I never meant it like that. It's just that you're so smart -I mean hello? Bilingual!- and I want you have every opportunity you want when you graduate." Languages were admittedly something of an obsession of hers. She'd caught the bug and learnt French and Italian from some language tapes she'd regularly taken out from the library. French had been because she'd wanted to listen in on Michel's phone calls to his mother at the Inn, which he hadn't been happy about when he'd clocked on to it. And Italian had been so she could order coffees perfectly when they visited there on their Europe trip. Cindy had figured between the three of them someone should know some different languages so they weren't complete tourist stereotypes, so she'd kept going. She was currently working on Spanish and Dutch, both of which she was enjoying immensely.
"Oh." Cindy said in surprise, feeling a little silly.
"It's not because I want you to be like Rory, far from it. I just want you to have the future you deserve." Lorelai assured her, hoping her words were being heard. "Maybe you don't know what you want to do with your life yet. But that's ok! You're young. Try stuff out! Get on the horse! Fall off the horse! Get back on the horse again! You don't have to have everything figured out or have perfect grades for me to be proud of you kid. I'm so, so proud of you. Always have always will be. And I know you try your best with school, even when it's super frustrating for you. That's all I'll ever ask. You..." Lorelai chuckled. "You're so unapologeticallyyou. You don't let anyone walk all over you, you work hard, and I know in spite of that steely exterior thing you've got going on, you're all marshmallow and soft throws under there. You've got such a big heart Cindy, and I know you'd do anything and everything for the people you care about. How could I not be proud of all that?"
A warm smile of delight split across Cindy's face at her words, causing her to snuggle into Lorelai's side. "Thanks Mom." She said gratefully, quiet but unmistakeable.
Lorelai smiled, throwing an arm around her. "Anytime."
After a moment or two passed by, Cindy spoke once more. "You want me to talk to Juliet in there?" She asked, nodding in the direction of Rory's room.
"I would very much appreciate that." Lorelai smiled, giving her one last hug before Cindy pulled away and jumped to her feet.
Cindy made a brief stop in the kitchen to grab the kitchen towel once more, before slowly opening Rory's bedroom door and sticking the towel inside, waving it at her. "I come in peace!" She declared, hearing Rory snort in response.
She tossed the towel back where she'd found it, before poking her head into the room. "So who's the boy? He must be pretty cute if you're willing to ditch Brainiac Academy for him."
Rory motioned for her to come inside. Cindy followed suit, closing the door behind her before she jumped on to Rory's bed. Rory sat the book she'd been trying to read on to her bedside table, clutching her knees to her chest as she sighed deeply. "His name's Dean. And yeah he's gorgeous." Rory smiled, a dreamy look misting over her eyes.
"When did you meet him?" Cindy asked curiously.
"Today." Rory replied.
"Today?"
Rory gave her a look. "Dial down the judgement quippy."
Cindy held up her hands in surrender, miming turning a dial all the way down. "Okay judgement dialed down. Continue."
Her twin beamed, cartoon love hearts practically popping out of her eyes. "I bumped into him at school after you left, and we just started talking. He's seen me around school for a while, but he only worked up the courage to talk to me today. We talked all about books and the town and-"
"Dean. Have I seen him around?"
Rory nodded. "You will have. He's the new kid from Chicago."
"Tall Boy!" Cindy exclaimed louder than she intended, a hand flying to her mouth in shock. "Oh my god Tall Boy's your Romeo? I met him at the shoe store the other night!"
Rory sat up at that, eyes wide in surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah." Cindy confirmed. "Oh he's so your type! I could totally see you two together."
"Really?" Rory asked, so much hope packed into that one word.
"Really. I mean picture it-" Cindy quickly shifted so she was laid side-by side with Rory on her bed, a hand spreading across the air. "-you're in a park with him, you're reading Anna Karenina for the billionth time, he's reading -I don't know, whatever guys read- life is good, you've got the wind in your hair, the romance movie soundtrack playing, he's feeding you grapes-"
Rory pulled a face of disgust at that. "Grapes? Really?"
Cindy rolled her eyes. "You can't eat something healthy even in a fantasty?"
"No." Rory deadpanned.
"Ok, fine. He's feeding you ice cream sandwiches and helping you on your way to a heart disease diagnosis." Cindy sighed, throwing her hands up in the air. "Happy?"
Rory nodded in approval. "Now that's more like it."
"And he tells you how cool and smart and pretty you are, and how he can't believe he's dating a prep school girl!"
"..."
"Fair warning, I'm severely tempted to shove you off this bed right now." Rory grumbled, crossing her arms furiously. "Mom so put you up to this, didn't she?"
"Well..."
"Ugh."
"Rory listen!" Cindy urged, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater before you've even gone on a date with this guy. He could be perfectly nice, sure. But you've had one conversation with him. What happens if you blow off Chilton, and he turns out to be a total dick somewhere down the line? Or what if something happens with you guys? You'll have thrown away this crazy amazing opportunity for nothing."
"You were the one that didn't even want me to leave school a few hours ago," Rory pointed out. "You should be happy."
"I said I was sad, not that I didn't want you to go to Chilton." Cindy corrected, earning herself an eyeroll. "How much time would you even be able to spend with him at school anyway? A maybe two minute conversation at max out in the halls or before the teacher arrives, lunch where you'll barely even be able to hear him over the sound of Chuck Presby and his cronies re-enacting whatever video game they've played recently, and you don't even know what clubs he might be in or extracurriculars he might have to go to." Cindy didn't want to get too ahead of herself, but she could see that her words had successfully poked some holes in Rory's romantic fantasy. Her face shifted in deep thought, whatever argument she might have had dying on her lips. "It's a bunch of time you could make up for anyway after school or on the weekends. And if you want, I will gladly play wingwoman for you. I mean I'm still gonna be there."
Rory mulled over her words, a thoughtful look on her face. "You'd be nice?" She raised a brow.
Cindy held a hand over her heart. "He'll be the Velma to my Daphne before you know it."
"I don't know, I would've said Scooby Doo."
Cindy let out a noise of outrage as Rory chortled at her expression, her laughter only increasing as Cindy kicked her leg. "I'm so telling Dean about this." Cindy joked, as the two sisters smiled at one another through their laughing. After a moment or two, Cindy stuck out her pinky to Rory. "Promise you'll think about it?"
Rory nodded, meeting Cindy's pinky with her own. Cindy had introduced their pinky promises when they were four, and it was still a sacred method of reaching an agreement between the two of them. "I'll take the defense's argument into account."
"Thank you your honour." Cindy beamed, reaching over to hug Rory goodnight. "Night maneater."
"Night Steffi."
As Cindy closed the door behind her on her way out, she spied Lorelai still on the couch, having turned on the TV presumably for a late night distraction. Cindy caught her eye as she made it to the stairs, giving her a thumbs up on her way up.
Thank you.Lorelai mouthed.
The next day after school, Cindy found herself pacing by the phone. A lot.
Charlotte had said she would call at four. It was now 4:20 according to her watch, and Cindy's mind was about to hit into overdrive with theories as to why she was late. Had she changed her mind? Was she worried about Cindy being short with her again like before? Had something come up? Had she lost track of time? Had she forgotten about their phone call?
Cindy parked herself down on the couch and groaned into her hands, willing her mind to shut up. This was why she hated it so much when people were late, her mind started trying to convince her she was Nancy Drew.
A second later the phone rang, making Cindy jump out of her skin as she all but pounced on the phone. "Hello?" She began, pressing the phone to her ear.
"Cindy Gilmore?" She heard Charlotte reply, a little uncertain.
"Yeah hey!"
"OH THANK GOD!" Charlotte exclaimed in relief, her every word coming out in a rush. "I'm so sorry I'm late, I wrote one of the digits in your number down wrong! I've been calling all sorts of different numbers for like twenty minutes! I got a tanning place, I got a Mrs Oberman who thought I was the plummer calling her back, and the last number I called sounded an awful lot like a sex hotline."
Cindy let out a small laugh of incredulity, her cheeks starting to hurt from smiling so much. "It's okay," she assured her, "You've got it now though, right?"
"Fully corrected and written all big and imposing now." Charlotte told her, as earnest as ever. "I put you in my book too, so I don't lose it."
"Your book?" Cindy asked.
"My book of numbers for important places and things. People, resturants I love, all the good craft shops, that sort of thing. I wrote your name and number in purple with this new fancy pen I got the other day that I've been dying to try out." She laughed delightedly. "Do you like purple?"
"Can't go wrong with it." Cindy replied. "I can't stand orange though."
"Oh me too! I had to wear orange as a bridesmaid at my dad's wedding to Stepmother Number Four, and let's just say calling me an overripe fruit would have been too nice."
"So..."
"So..." Charlotte mimicked.
"You still up for being my tennis guru?" Cindy asked, suddenly feeling rather anxious. What if she'd changed her mind? Sure she'd promised before they'd left the sports club that she was sure, but plenty of people in Cindy's life had promised her things and let her down. She didn't want to go all in on the whole thing and have the rug pulled out from underneath her.
"Absolutely!" Charlotte confirmed, firm and unwavering in her tone. "What days work for you?"
"No, no." Cindy argued. "You're helping me, I'll work around you."
"Nah don't worry about it! I'm totally flexible." Charlotte told her. Cindy was suddenly reminded of Rory, but particularly when it came to making decisions that could hurt or annoy another person. She'd get so worked up and anxious over the whole thing, that she'd either opt out or hand the choice over to someone else. Was Charlotte afraid she'd get annoyed if she said no to a certain day?
Cindy chose not to make it a thing, and so she spoke once more. "My job schedules kind of change a lot."
"We can do it on a week-by-week basis if you want, I don't really have much on." Charlotte offered.
"Wow that's-" Cindy heart didn't often melt, but the kind offer made her want to reach into the phone and give Charlotte the world's tightest hug. "Thank you. Ah-" Kindness made Cindy get pretty flustered, she never knew what the right thing was to say in response. "I can do the first three days of the week, but Thursday one of the places I work at is doing it's yearly special Fall offers so it's all hands on deck. And Fridays a no go area for a whole host of reasons I don't wanna get into." She quipped, snorting to herself.
"Cool!" Cindy heard her grab for a pen, hearing the scratchy sounds of pen on paper. "Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday." She read back. "Straight after school?"
"You bet." Cindy laughed.
"You're a woman after my own heart." Charlotte laughed with her. "What about weekends?"
"Free and clear for those. We could do those early in the day and maximise the time. It's pretty quiet early in the day too, we'd practically have the whole place to ourselves." Cindy informed her, hearing Charlotte gasp with delight.
"Oooooo we could get all the good treats from the snack bar before they run out!"
"It's like we're one mind."
Why were they here? Why? Why? Whhhhhhhhhy?
As the three Gilmore Girls stood outside the Gilmore mansion, Cindy still couldn't comprehend why they were there. Had Grandma pecked at her Mom to come see them? Was that it? She could be a bully sometimes, so it wasn't a stretch. She'd tried getting her mom to expand on the specific reason as to why they were suddenly visiting on the way over, but to no avail. Her mom was a seasoned topic dodger, and for whatever reason clearly didn't want to talk about why they were currently stood outside the world's most imposing looking home. Cindy had tried the whole soup in the hot water bottle trick when she'd gotten home, but her mom hadn't bought it. She'd ended up pulling the whole "Not a request Cindy!" tone she always used whenever she was really pissing her off, and so now she was here.
Things weren't all bad though. Cindy had rediscovered the magazine clipping she'd used for her Christmas party makeup, and had decided tonight was the perfect time to try it out again. Some 1960s esque eyeliner and a cute shade of red lipstick brought the whole look together. And armed with her curled hair, red top, black mini skirt, cute shoes and tights she'd nearly killed herself getting on, Cindy was ready to get dinner over and done with.
"So do we go in or do we just stand here re-enacting the Little Match Girl?" Rory asked after several minutes, evidently still a little crabby with their mom if her tone was anything to go by. Cindy couldn't help but wince. Eeek. It was weird hearing them fight. It was usually the other way around.
"Okay, look, I know you and me are having a thing here, and I know you hate me, but I need you to be civil, at least through dinner." Lorelai spared Cindy a warning glance, which she answered by sticking her hands up in surrender. "Then on the way home you can pull a Menendez. Deal?"
"Fine."
The three of them walked in silence to the door, with Cindy struck by the uncanny sensation that they were about to enter the lion's den. Lorelai rang the doorbell, and not a moment later Emily appeared at the door in all her snooty glory.
"Hi Grandma." Rory smiled, the first to say her hellos.
Cindy held her hand up in a brief wave, wondering how much of her displeasure at being forced to be there was evident on her face. "Hello."
"Well you're right on time!" Emily observed, ushering them in and shutting the door behind them.
"Yeah, yeah." Lorelai agreed, as they all took off their coats. "There was no traffic at all!"
You want to be here as much as I do. What gives?Cindy thought, utterly baffled. "Not so much as a dead fox on the road." Cindy despaired.
"Do you often fantasize about roadkill Cindy?" Emily wondered, taking their coats from them.
"Ah only when the mood takes me."
Cindy could detect the precise second she recognised her makeup look, her lips pursing with disapproval. Feigning ignorance, Cindy offered her the most saccharine smile in her arsenal, the picture of innocence. "What... Interesting makeup that is Cindy."
"Thank you Grandma." She smiled, communicating everything she needed to through her eyes.I did it especially for you.
She popped right back into hostess mode though, like it never happened.
"I can't tell you what a treat it is to have you girls here." Emily proclaimed, hanging up their coats for them on the nearby coatrack. She turned her steely gaze on Lorelai's coffee cup, her next target locking in. "Is that a collectors cup or can I throw it away for you?"
"Oh!" Lorelai went to throw it away.
"In the kitchen please." Emily replied, stopping her in her tracks.
"Sorry."
"So..." Emily put an arm around Rory, leading her into the sitting room. "I wanna hear all about Chilton."
Cindy watched as Lorelai dumped the coffee cup as soon as Emily's back was turned, making Cindy snigger. It definitely wasn't hard to figure out where she got her petty streak from. Lorelai took one look at her face, only just registering for the first time what particular makeup she was wearing. A hand flew to her mouth to stop herself from roaring with laughter.
"She's gonna kill you!" Cindy giggled in a hushed tone, pointing at her mom.
"Nuh uh! She's gonna kill you!" Lorelai laughed, looping her arm through hers as they followed Emily and Rory. Both mother and daughter schooled their faces into perfect expressions, their laughter dying down as they entered the room.
Emily did a double take as she saw them enter the room together, her eyes rolling. "Are the two of you conjoined twins?"
Cindy and Lorelai glanced at one another before turning back around to nod simultaneously. "We're having the operation to seperate on Monday." Cindy quipped, earning her second look of disapproval of the night. Lorelai was forced to bite the inside of her cheek. Cindy pondered for a moment if her mom would be open to a betting pool on how many of those looks she could get.
"Richard, look whose here!"
Cindy covertly swerved by her grandma's attempt to manhandle her over to her grandpa, instead opting to disentangle herself from her mom and pop up on the other side of Rory. Thankfully Grandma went over to tend to the drinks, her personal space safe for now.
Same as ever, their grandpa had been mid-reading his newspaper when they had arrived. He took off his glasses as he looked up at them, staring in surprise. "Rory!" He exclaimed, before turning to her. "Cindy! You've both gotten so tall!"
"Really?"
"I think the heels have helped in my case." Cindy smiled, finding the remark oddly sweet.
"What are your heights?" Richard inquired.
"Five-seven." Rory supplied.
"Five-six." Cindy added.
"That's tall!" Richard remarked, turning to call to Emily. "They're tall!"
"Hi Dad!" Lorelai greeted, as she joined the twins side-by-side.
"Lorelai, your daughters are tall." He repeated, making Cindy's smile only grow tenfold. He didn't seem so bad, especially when compared to his wife.
"Oh I know!" Lorelai replied. "It's freakish! We're thinking of having them studied at M.I.T."
"Huh." He nodded, sticking his glasses back on as he returned to his paper like clockwork.
"Champagne anyone?" Emily asked, coming over to them with a tray of five champagne glass flutes.
"Oooo lah lah." Cindy gaped, grabbing a glass along with everyone else. Sometimes she forgot that her grandparents were loaded, and then casual displays like giving them all champagne would remind her.
"That's fancy!" Lorelai agreed.
"Well, it's not every day that I have my girls here for dinner on a day the banks are open." Emily casually remarked, landing her first sucker punch of the night as she put aside the champagne tray. Cindy pulled a face. Yikes.
Now if I said something like that to her, I'd be getting chewed out and Mom would be getting told what an awful mother she is.
"A toast!" Emily declared. "To Rory entering Chilton, and an exciting new phase in her life."
"Hear, hear!" Cindy heard her grandfather reply as they all sipped at their drinks, nose still burrowed in his newspaper.
Emily urged them all to sit, which Cindy was all too glad to do. Cindy followed after Rory, sitting on the opposite side of her while she sat by their preoccupied grandpa. "This is just wonderful!" Emily declared. "An education is the most important thing in the world, next to family."
"And pie!" Lorelai smiled uncomfortably, earning herself her own set of disapproving looks as her grandparents stared in disbelief at her. "Joke, that was a joke." Lorelai explained, smiling painfully.
Cindy chose to stare at the ceiling in that moment, the second-hand embarrassment far too overwhelming. They had a nice ceiling. Very decorative and rich person-y. It was hard to believe that the five of them had all once lived under this very roof for a whole year when she and Rory had been babies. Cindy couldn't imagine having to be a parent at her age. She did want kids some day, but in some far off, distant future where she had a successful career and didn't have to worry about money to have said kids. How had her Mom done it? Kept sane around Grandma, with no support from Invisible Dad or his equally invisible relatives, all while being a teenager and having to look after two babies at once?
Cindy looked down, sparing a glance at her now seated mom.
Despite all the times they clashed over things big or small, Cindy would always love and admire her mom. She'd struck out on her own, raised two children and found a safe place to land. Though her grandparents place was nice -there was no arguing that- there wasn't a day that went by where Cindy wasn't glad that she'd taken them away from this place. Cindy tried not to think about her life before her and Rory as it upset her a lot, but she couldn't even begin to imagine how lonely she must have been.
Cindy sat her glass on the table by her, heaving out a heavy sigh. God this night was going to drag.
Rory pulled out a small section of the newspaper she'd been handed by their grandpa, sensing her need for a distraction as she began to unfold hers.Thank you!Cindy mouthed, gratefully to be able to look at anything else other than the trainwreck that was slowly unfolding in front of them.
However a few minutes into her skim reading of the latest local Hartford events, Cindy's eyes fell upon a familiar person in a picture next to an article. Her eyes went as wide as saucers as she did a double take.
Local philanthropist Andrew McCrae gives back!
Millionaire and local philanthropist Andrew McCrae caused a flurry of excitement this past week, having donated $10,000 to the maternity ward at Hartford Hospital.
This couldn't be right.
Seen here pictured with his daughter, Charlotte McCrae (16).
But there was no denying who the girl in the picture was. Positioned slightly to the side next to a white haired Blake Carrington type, who bore an undeniable resemblence to her, stood Charlotte. Her hands behind her back, a polite smile on her lips that didn't quite reach her eyes as her Dad shook hands with a doctor.
Cindy sat the newspaper down, her mind running rampant.
Charlotte was rich.
Cindy was still thinking about Charlotte McCrae as her and the rest of her family began their dinner together, unable to push the unexpected discovery out of her mind. She was rich! She was rich, she hadn't so much as hinted towards it, and for some reason was playing at a sports club that wasn't even close to the rich people postcodes. What was her deal? No matter how many theories she threw out, Cindy couldn't make heads or tails of it. Why would she go to that club when she probably had access to the best clubs and trainers money could buy?
Cindy was completely tuned out from the conversation taking place in front of her, eating her food on autopilot as she thought about Charlotte. This whole thing was so weird. She would definitely be getting to the sports club asap tomorrow, that was for sure. She was dying to figure this whole thing out.
However Cindy was tugged away from her thoughts by a mention of Invisible Dad, something she hadn't been expecting. "-Christopher called yesterday." Richard mentioned, taking a sip of wine.
Blergh.
"Speaking of which? How is that a speaking of which?" Lorelai questioned.
Lorelai saw the look she was wearing on her face, that sad look she always wore creeping in whenever Cindy spoke badly about Invisible Dad. Cindy made it a point not to look her in the eye, deciding that her steak needed some attending to. Did they have to talk about him at all? Especially while she was eating?
"He's doing very well in California-"Where he's no doubt over the moon to be."-his internet startup goes public next month. This could mean big things for him. Very talented man your father."HA!Cindy's lips were straining to curl upward.Since when was talented asynonym for loser?
"They know." Lorelai insisted.
Oh mom.
"He always was a smart one that boy." If being smart meant she had to be like Invisible Dad, Cindy wanted nothing more than to be dumb. Richard turned to Rory. "You must take after him."
Wow. Cindy's mouth fell open, her mind temporarily rendered blank from the sheer gall of it all. Ok maybe he was as bad as his wife.
"Speaking of which, I'm gonna get a coke. Or a knife!" Lorelai announced, rising from her seat beside Cindy to head into the kitchen to cool down. Cindy opened her mouth to say something but Lorelai patted her on the shoulder as she walked past her, her silent code for thank you, but I've got this. Cindy reluctantly sank back into her seat, pinning her steely glare on the two culprits who'd put her mom in such a crappy mood. Her grandpa seemed oblivious, but her grandma caught her eye.
Cindy narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms as she finished her meal to glare menacingly at her.I don't like you.She tilted her head, feeling Rory's frantic eyes on her. But Cindy knew the look communicated exactly what it had needed to, as not even two seconds later Emily looked away, slightly unnerved. Her Mom may not have wanted her to say anything, but Cindy damn well wasn't going to let either of them feel comfortable around her.
A minute or two later after sensing she wasn't in a hurry to come back, her Grandma went into the kitchen after her. That was when the yelling began.
"Why do you pounce on every word I say?"
"That's absurb you've barely uttered a word all night!"
Cindy met Rory's eye across the table, both of them growing concerned. If it came down to it, Cindy would go in there. Their grandmother was out of line.
"Why would he bring up Christopher? Was that really necessary?"
Finally someone was asking the real questions here.
The next few minutes devolved into their Grandma ranting about how their mom had ruined her life by getting pregnant with her and Rory, and how her bright future had gotten squashed because of it. The words stung slightly, hitting an old wound Cindy didn't like reopening. It was clear her grandparents were still very much living in the past, holding on to a bunch of hurt and anger that nearly sixteen years hadn't put a dent in. It was pathetic. It was all so god damn pathetic. When something didn't go your way, you processed, you got over it and then you moved on.
"Well I wasn't too proud to come here to you two, begging for money for my kid's school, now was I?"
Cindy's eyes went wide with alarm.Did you know?She mouthed at Rory, but she shook her head, appearing just as mystified. Oh. My. God. That was why they were here. No wonder their mom had been so crabby lately. The Dean thing must have felt like a gut punch after willingly choosing to subject them to this.
"-you have your prescious pride, and I have my weekly dinners!"
And the hits just kept on coming. Weekly? WEEKLY?!
Cindy picked up her dessert spoon, turning her attentions to their grandpa, who'd somehow completely dozed off in the midst of all the yelling. This was so going on his nose.
As the three Gilmore Girls filtered out of Emily and Richard's house, Cindy wondered if it was possible to file for compensation for being put through an evening like that.
Cindy poked Lorelai in the ribs accusingly.
"Ow!" She exclaimed, crying out in distress as she rubbed at the area. "What was that for?"
"Weekly dinners?"
Lorelai pulled a guilty face. "Ah. Did I forget to mention that?" Cindy opened her mouth to speak once more, but Lorelai beat her to the punch. "Look, I'm sorry. I wouldn't subject you to this if I could, believe me. But your delightful grandmother insisted on all three of us being here."
Cindy tried to speak again.
"I will owe you. Big time!" Lorelai promised.
Cindy glanced at Rory and sighed. "You had to be smart didn't you?" Cindy grumbled.
"You have my sincerest apologies." Rory snorted, patting her on the shoulder.
"Thank yoooou." Lorelai sing-songed, still looking worn out from the evening.
"You were really brave to ask them for money." Rory complimented, with Lorelai throwing an arm around them both as they walked to the car.
"Oh I soooo do not wanna talk about it." Lorelai let out a self-deprecating laugh.
"You okay?" Cindy asked, her voice soft.
Lorelai gave them both a reassuring nod. "I am, I just- Am I shorter? Because I feel shorter."
"Hey, how about I buy you a cup of coffee?" Rory offered. "And Cindy can go give Luke his plate back."
Cindy clasped her hands together in delight. She'd put it in the car in anticipation of a much needed coffee infusion after this shit-show of a dinner.
"So nice dinner at the grandparents house." Rory commented, safe and sound back in Stars Hollow and on their way to Luke's.
"Oh yeah her dishes have never been cleaner." Lorelai retorted.
"So how many meals will it take till we're off the hook?" asked Rory, once they were inside and seated.
"I think the Deli spread at my funeral will be the last one." Lorelai replied, chuckling as Cindy buried her head in her hands and groaned in despair. "Hey, wait. Does that mean-"
Cindy bolted upright, grinning in realisation. Awww. She'd seen sense.
"Can't let a perfectly good skirt go to waste." Rory shrugged.
"Awww honey you won't be sorry!"
The three of them were soon distracted by the sight of Luke arriving to take their order, who was minus his default baseball cap and plaid shirts. He was dressed all nice, like he'd had to go somewhere special. It was positively freakish.
"Why do you look nice?" Cindy stared in confusion, her nose crinkling.
"Gee thanks Cindy." Luke grumbled, uncapping his pen to take their order.
"Oh!" Cindy reached into her bag, pulling forth Luke's plate and handing it to him.
"You're a menace." Luke glared, snatching it back from a sniggering Cindy.
"You do! You look nice." Lorelai observed, her jaw hanging slightly open. "Really nice."
"I- Had a meeting at the bank earlier. They like collars." Luke explained. "You look nice too."
As her Mom and Luke pretended not to flirt with each other for what felt like the millionth time, Cindy pulled out the article she'd ripped out of the newspaper from her coat. She took a good look at it once more, still unable to believe it. Why didn't you say anything? She thought, going over everything Charlotte had said to her for clues.
"Cindy?"
She looked up, to find everyone staring at her.
Noting her blank look, Luke filled her in. "What do you want?"
"Fries and coffee please." She gave him a thumbs up, immediately returning to her article. Salty fries were her go-to late night snack.
"Hey what's that?" Lorelai frowned, seeing how intently Cindy was staring at the ripped scrap of paper.
"Oh nothing." Cindy dismissed, sticking it back into her coat. This was her thing. She wanted to get to the bottom of it on her own. "The museum has an new exhibt opening this weekend. I figured I'd take Charlotte, maybe bond with her over something other than whacking balls."
Lorelai and Rory both began to snigger. "Children." Cindy sighed jokingly. "I live with children."
