Rory and Susanna Gilmore were jogging through their small town to get to the local diner that had heat and coffee. "It's so cold." Rory whines.

"I know and I have on a shirt, sweater, and a jacket." Anna shivers.

They slid into the diner as someone was coming out. They each took a chair at the table their mom was occupying. "Hey, it's freezing." Rory pulls her coat closer to her body.

"What do you need, hot tea, coffee?" She looks at her two shivering daughters.

"Lip gloss," Rory told her.

"Yeah, I can feel my lips cracking as we speak." Anna rubs her poor lips.

Lorelai grabs her huge purse off the ground and pulls a large makeup bag out of it. "I have vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and toasted marshmallow." She waves it around.

"Oh, toasted marshmallow." Anna grabs the bag to dig through it and find the lip gloss.

"Is there anything in there that doesn't resemble a breakfast cereal?" Rory asks.

"Yes, it has no smell, but it changes colors with your mood." Their mom pulls out another bag of makeup.

"RuPaul doesn't need this much makeup." Rory looks down in irritation at the two bags of make up her mother carried around with her.

"Well, some of us don't have his natural beauty. I mean have you seen those cheekbones." Susanna put the pocket mirror that her mom had on top of the napkin holder to apply her make-up since Rory rushed her out of the house this morning. In Rory defense, if she waited for her sister to get ready, they wouldn't have had time for a coffee before school.

"You're crabby." She pouted at her grumpy daughter.

"I'm sorry. I lost my Macy Gray CD, and I need caffeine." Rory explains her bad morning.

"I have your CD." She pulls out the CD that Rory flips her room upside down looking for.

"Thief," She snatches her CD from her mother.

"Yeah thief, this is my eyeliner." Anna waves around the makeup she was looking for this morning. It was the reason, she ran out of time to put any on.

"Sorry, and I will get you guys some coffee." She put her purse back under the table and stood up. She walks over to the counter to order two coffees.

A man in his early twenty came over to their table. "You know, you don't need to be putting on that makeup. I saw you when you first came in, you're a natural beauty." He leans his hands on the table while smiling down at the girl.

Rory leans back with excitement knowing her sister was about to rip him a new one. "It's a good thing then that I don't put on makeup, because I want to look good for you or any other male. I put it on because I like it. It's my armor. I'm about ready to go to war, so if I were you I would sashay away." Anna closes her eyeliner to glare at the man. Rory backed up her sister by pointing back to the table that he came from.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I was just looking to start a conversation because I've never been through here before." He tried to backtrack.

"You have, too." Lorelai came up from behind him to surprise him.

"Oh, hi," He turns around to greet her.

"You like my table, don't you?" She smiles at the man as she put a mug of coffee in front of each of her daughters. Rory and Anna share a small smile of amusement. It seems that their mom had already turned this man down.

"I was just..." He couldn't think of something to say.

"Getting to know my daughters," She put a hand on the back of the chairs her daughters were sitting in.

"Are you our new daddy?" Rory asks him in a baby voice making Anna snicker.

"You don't look old enough to have a daughter. I mean it. And you don't look like a daughter." He points at Lorelai then Anna.

"That's possibly very sweet of you. Thanks." She gave him a fake smile that both the girls saw a thousand times from going to work with her at the Inn.

"So, daughters," He looks the two younger girls over. Lorelai nods. "You know, I am traveling with friends," He points back to two guys that spin around when he brought them up.

"They're 16." She informed him.

"Bye." He went out the door with his friends following him.

Lorelai took a seat as the girls laugh at the ridiculousness of the opposite sex.

The girls walk into the Dragonfly Inn. They went over to the front desk and greeted their mom with a kiss on the cheek since she was on the phone. Rory went behind the desk to dig through the draws. "What is your offspring doing?" Michel, the French man who works at the front desk asked their mom when she hangs up the phone.

"I need stamps. Can I have these?" Rory pulls out the stamps she found.

"No." He shook his head.

"Take them." Lorelai nods. "What's with the muumuu?" She pointed at the large sweater that Rory had on that was swallowing her whole.

"Stop, isn't enough that I have to listen to Anna's jokes all day." She glared at her mother.

"I resent that, I am a joy to be around," Anna leans against the desk.

"You couldn't find one made of metal, in case anyone has x-ray eyes?" She looks around like she was trying to find Rory in the sweater.

"And now we say goodbye." She walks out from behind the desk.

"Have Michel look at your French papers before you go." She pointed to the French man.

"Excuse me?" He said not looking up from the mail he was sorting.

"That would be great." Rory pulls her paper out from her backpack.

"No." He shook his head.

"Come on, Michel. The only reason we took French was that you said you would look over our homework." Anna pouts.

"I said no sure thing." He kept his head down not wanting to look up at her sad face.

"Must we do this song and dance every time? You end up looking it over anyways. Do you like being nagged?" She raises an eyebrow.

"I'll tell all the ladies what a stud you are." Rory came up to pout next to her younger sister.

"I believe that the memo has already been sent." He looks up to smirk at them.

"Please, Michel. Pretty please with sucre on top? I will stop talking like this." Their mom said in a horrible French accent.

"Leave it. I'll look at it if I get a chance." He sighs.

They put the essays down in front of him. "It's due tomorrow. And pay special attention to grammar." Rory demands.

"Merci, Michel." Anna blows him a kiss before the girls walk out to meet their friend. "I feel so bad for Lane. Can you imagine having to go to a bible study on weekends? She basically has school on weekends." She gags as they made their way to the town square.

"I know, thank god that our mom is not religious," Rory giggles at her joke.

"She can't be with two kids out of wedlock. Seeing that we're ten months apart, she didn't learn her lesson." Anna giggles. "Oh that's Lane, I'm going to scare her." She sneaks behind her Korean friend and grabs her sides.

Lane screams and turns around to smack her. "Damn you." She hissed.

"Here your shirt." She hands her the tie-dye Woodstock shirt.

"Oh, thank you." She took off her backpack and handed it to Anna, then she took off her jacket and handed it to Rory. She pulls the shirt over her head.

"When are you going to tell your parents that you listen to the evil rock music? You're an American teenager, for God's sake." Rory thought it was insane that she had to hide everything she liked from her parents. That's why whatever Lane couldn't hide under her floorboards was at her best friends' house. She had a drawer on both Anna's and Rory's dressers.

"If my parents still get upset over the obscene portion size of American food I seriously doubt I'm going to make any inroads with Eminem." She fixes her shirt and hair before taking her jacket back from Rory. "I have to go to that." She nods to the bulletin board they were standing in front of.

"The hayride? You're kidding." Rory looks sympathetically at her friend.

"My parents set me up with the son of a business associate. He's going to be a doctor." Lane took the backpack from Anna.

"How old is he?" Rory asked.

"Sixteen." She told them.

"So he's going to be a doctor in 100 years." Rory rolls her eyes at her parent schemes.

"My parents like to plan ahead." She shrugs. The girls began to walk to school.

"What would your parents do if you fell in love with this guy and he ends up not being a doctor?" Anna wonders.

"I'm not sure." She tilts her head, wondering how her parents would react. Would they be happy that he was at least Korean or would they demand she marry someone else?

"You have to go to the hayride with him?" Rory asked again, still finding the whole thing crazy. It was so many eras ago that your parents got to pick your spouse. Anna was used to Mrs. Kim wanting to control every aspect of her daughter's life.

"And his older brother," She told them.

"Now you're kidding." Rory looks at her friend in shock.

"Koreans never joke about future doctors," Lane shook her head. "I guess you're not going?" She asks her with fake cheer.

"No. I'm still fuzzy on what's fun about sitting in the cold for two hours with a bundle of sticks up your butt." Rory shook her head as they climbed the stairs to the school.

"Don't expect me to clear it up for you. What about you?" She turns to Anna. She was the more social of the two.

"No, last year was enough. Word of advice, wear long sleeves and jeans that hay is itchy." She told her friend.

"I still can't believe you went with Chuck Presby." Rory giggled.

"He is good looking and he was never a jerk to me before that night, so I figured I give him a chance. Can you believe that asshole made me pay for my hayride? When you ask someone out you pay for them. Because he got off early since I did, he still insists that I owe him money for his ride." She groans as she remembers the first date from hell if you could even call it a date since it started and ended with the hayride. Lane and Rory laugh at her misfortune.

"I'm so jealous, why couldn't I be in that English class? There's no one to do my nails in any of my classes." Anna whines after hearing her sister's story of the girls in front of her doing each other nails in class.

"That's probably a good thing, you end up failing that class," Rory smiles. Anna nods knowing that she was right.

"Was it a good color, at least?" Lane laughs.

"It had sparkles in it and it smelled like bubble gum when it dried," Rory said, making Anna let out another whine as they walked through the Kim's front yard.

"There's no way Mark Twain could compete with that." Lane snickers as they enter her house/family business of Kim's Antiques. "Mom, we're home!" She yells out to her mom. They waited for her to respond. "Did you hear something?" She turns to her friends. The sisters shook their heads. "Mom, are you here?" Lane tried again.

"We're open. Everything's half off." Mrs. Kim's voice could be heard faintly.

"We have contact with the mother ship," Anna smiles. Something about the lady's seriousness was amusing to her. But, then there wasn't much that she took seriously.

"Mom!" Lane yells as they move in the direction of her voice.

"Lane?" Her mom yells back.

"Mom, where are you?" She shouts.

"Lane, where are you?" Mrs. Kim shouts back.

"Back here," Lane told her mom.

"Over here," Mrs. Kim shouted.

"You both aren't any help." Anna sighs. Lane needs to check in with her mom after school before they could have any fun.

"I think she's that way." Rory points to the next room.

They went into it before Lane yelled again, "Are we closer?"

"I'm by the table." She yells back to them.

"She's kidding, right?" Rory looks at all the old tables that were around this place.

"When are you going to learn that she's never joking?" Anna turns to her sister.

"Look, we'll meet you in the kitchen," Lane yells.

"What?" Mrs. Kim yells out.

"The kitchen!" Rory yells to her.

"Who's that?" She asks with accusation in her voice.

"It's Rory, Mom. Anna's here too." She yells back. All they got back was silence.

"Wow, I could hear the disappointment from here." Rory scoffs.

"Come on. Stop it." Lane shook her head.

"It sucks that after all these years your mom still hates us." She sighs.

"Speak for yourself. I'm fine with her hating us. If she liked us, we would get invited to dinner. I'm not trying to eat that bland healthy food she makes Lane eat." Anna stuck out her tongues.

"She doesn't hate you. If she hated you I wouldn't be able to see you." Lane reasoned.

"She hates our mother." She pointed out.

"She doesn't trust unmarried women," Lane explains to them.

"You're unmarried." Anna nods to her friend.

"I'm hay riding with a future proctologist. I have potential," She puffs her chest out with pride. They walk into the kitchen to see their friend's strict mom.

"Go upstairs. Tea is ready. I have muffins. No dairy, no sugar, no wheat. You have to soak them in tea to make them soft enough to bite, but they're very healthy. So, how was school? None of the girls get pregnant, drop out?" She walks over to them.

"Not that we know of." Lane shrugs.

"Though come to think of it, Joanna Posner was glowing a little." Rory gave a small smile.

"Oh, I saw that too. It looks good on her." Anna nods along.

"What?" The older woman turns her head to them so fast Anna wonders if she pulled a muscle.

"Nothing Mama, they're just kidding." Lane calms her mom down.

"Boys don't like funny girls." She shook her finger at them.

"Noted," The sister nods their head.

"Hello! Anybody here?" The doorbell rang as a man yelled.

"We're here. We're coming." She yells back. "Have the muffins made from sprouted wheat. Only good 24 hours." She told her daughter before going to her customer. "Everything's half off!" She yells to the man.

"Where are you?" The man yelled.

"Over here by the chair." She called out.

"What chair?" The man yells making the girls laugh. They went upstairs, so Lane could pretend to eat the sad muffin that she would hide in her backpack then throw away later.

"Stop tugging on my arm, we are already at the Inn." Rory pulls away from Anna.

"I'm sorry. I just really want to taste the sauce that Sookie made. It's so good that mom said she wants to take a bath in it." She pushes the door to the kitchen open. The girls walk in to see their mom and Sookie holding hands as they jump around giggling.

"Mom?" Rory calls out, making them turn to them. "You're happy." She stated the obvious.

"Yeah," Her mom nods with excitement.

"Did you do something slutty?" Rory asks.

Anna stops looking around the kitchen for the pot that could have the sauce to her mother. "Well, did you?"

"I'm not that happy. Here," She giggles as she hands each of them a shopping bag.

"What's going on?" Rory looks down at the bag.

"I'm kind of scared," Anna admitted.

"Just open it." Their mother nod eagerly.

They open it up to pull out matching blue plaid skirts. "We're going to be in a Britney Spears video?"

"Oops, I did it again. I played with your heart, got lost in the game... Oh, baby." Anna sang, doing the dance move she could remember from the music video.

"You guys are going to Chilton!" Sookie scream. Their mom smacks her best friend and gives her a sharp look. "Sorry."

"Mom?" Rory looks at her.

"You did it, babe. You got in." She waves the acceptance letter around.

"Even me?" Anna points to herself. She wasn't surprised by Rory since her admission letter was beautiful and touching. It showcased the vision she had for her future. Anna did the same in her essay but there was a big difference. Rory wanted to be a top of the line journalist while Susanna wanted to be a chef. She didn't even want to be a top of the line chef that cooks in Michelin star restaurants. She wanted to be like Luke who had a connection to his customers because most of them were regulars. She figures that way, every day at work would be like hanging out with her friends.

"Yeah, babe, you too," She smiles at her younger daughter's shocked face.

"How did this happen? You didn't do it with the principal, did you?" Rory held the skirt close to her chest.

"No, honey that was a joke, they had two open spots. You guys will be starting on Monday." She told them.

"Really," Anna asks, still in disbelief.

"I don't believe this. My God, I'm going to Chilton? Sookie, I'm going to Chilton!" Rory gave both of them a hug.

"I'll make cookies. Protestants love oatmeal." Sookie told them.

"I have to call Lane." She was about to walk out, but turned back and hugged her mom again. "I love you."

"I love you." She said it back. Rory let go and ran out of the room to call Lane.

"My girls are going to Chilton." Lorelai kissed Anna's forehead before going back to work.

"Rory and Anna are going to Chilton!" Sookie did a little dance and threw a dish towel over her shoulder that landed on a burner instantly catching on fire.

Anna ran and put a pot cover on it and turned off the heat. She follows Sookie. "I'll help you with the oatmeal."

Anna was a few feet in front of her mirror, so she could see her whole body. She pulls the long plaid skirt up to see what it would look like shorter. "I think you would be sent home if it was that short," Rory looked above the book she was reading to tell her sister.

She looks at her sister on her bed for a second before nodding. "You're right mid-thigh a little much. Put yours on and we'll show mom." She throws her sister's skirt at her.

"Okay." She caught it and changed into it. They walk outside where their mom and Sookie were drinking on the porch. "Mom, so what do you think?" The girls twirl around for her.

"It makes you look smart." Sookie bounced around giggling.

"Okay, no more wine for you. Mom?" She turns to her mom.

"You look like you were swallowed by a kilt." She told them.

"Fine, you could hem it. A little, only a little," She put her thumb and pointer finger close together to show her how much.

"Okay." Her mom claps her hands as she went inside. They followed her. "Or I could hem it a lot." She wraps an arm around each daughter's shoulders.

"No, I don't want it to be too short." Rory shook her head.

"You can hem mine a lot. I'm thinking a few inches above the knee, giving a little tease of my thigh. You know, I'm trying to attract a rich husband that will foot the bill for my restaurant." She pulls her skirt up to the height she was talking about.

Lorelai looks over two daughters, smiling. When she looked at Rory she saw all her features and when she opened her mouth she heard her wit. When she looked at Anna she didn't see yourself at all, in fact, she saw her mother. This was terrifying for the first few years, but when she got older she saw herself in Anna's gestures, humor, and mischief grin. People always commented that at first glance they knew Rory was hers. If they look a little longer they would see Anna was clearly hers too.

Anna follows Sookie into the kitchen while Rory went into the living room to get her skirt hemmed.

"Where's your pate?" Sookie looks around the open fridge.

"I don't know, at Zsa Zsa Gabor's house." Anna shrugs. Despite her being interested in cooking, they didn't have much at the house. She went to Luke's or the Inn when she wanted to cook.

"I'm going to the store." Sookie closed the fridge.

"Okay, I'll go with you. I'll drive since you're drinking." Anna grabs the key from her. "Mom, we're going to the store because Sookie needs Pate." She told her.

"Do you feel like duck?" Sookie asks the room.

"If it's made with chicken, absolutely," Her mom answers. She was kneeling in front of Rory.

"I'll be back." Sookie waves and they ran out the door. Lyn got into the driver seat and pulled out of the driveway once Sookie got in.

"What's wrong, honey? If you don't want to go to Chilton, you don't have to." Mom looks up at Anna as she pins her skirt to hem it later.

"It's not that I don't want to go to Chilton, I just feel bad taking a spot when I don't need a private education to be a chief. I'm not Rory, what if I fail and all this money goes to waste." She looks down at her feet.

"You shouldn't feel bad. You deserve a good education as much as Rory. Besides having Chilton on any application looks good whether it be a top college or a culinary school." Lorelai stood up to look her in the eye.

"I guess you're right," She always knew what to say to make her feel better.

"You remember that and we can avoid so many problems in the future." She jokes. They share a laugh. She went back to pinning her skirt.

"So, what's it like there?" She asked her mom.

"It's amazing babe and filled with a lot of opportunities. Rory will be in love with all those higher-level classes. And, you will be in love with the food there. Let me tell you, it is better than any public school lunch. But you're never going to get cafe duty like you did at Star Hollow." She painted a picture for her.

"I believe that. Although something tells me nothing will compare to Luke or Sookie's cooking." She had to stop herself from bouncing in excitement.

"That's because there is love and home in their dishes." She finishes pinning her skirt.

"I was nervous at first, but now I'm excited about this new chapter." She steps off the stool and twirls around.

"I'm happy for you, babe." She beams at her.

"And we get to wear uniforms. No more people checking you out to see what you're wearing 'cause everyone's dressed alike in boring clothes, just there to learn." Rory explains to Lane as she cleans out her locker.

"Okay, there's academic-minded, and then there's Amish." Lane smirks.

"Funny." Rory gave her a sarcastic smile.

"Thank you," Lane replies cheerily. They walk over to Anna's locker that was down the hall. "Sorry, Anna I heard school can no longer be a fashion show for you." She apologizes.

"Lane, it's about how you wear the clothes." She pushes all her junk into a box.

"You have more makeup and extra clothes in there then you do school work." Rory looks down into her sister's box.

"Don't judge me." She picks up the box, so they could leave.

"I told my mom you're changing schools," Lane told them.

"Was she thrilled?" Rory asked.

"Oh, there's no doubt she was thrilled, the question is how thrilled was she?" Anna looks over at her friend. Rory sighs, not understanding how her sister found amusement in someone hating her.

"The party's on Friday." Lane smiles over at Anna, who snickers. "I gotta go. I have to have a pre-hayride cup of tea with a future doctor. How do I look, Korean?" She took a step back so they could look her over.

"Spitting image," Rory gave her a nod of approval.

"Goodbye." She waves to them as she ran off.

"Bye." Rory turns to watch her go, making some things fall out of her box. She bent down to pick them up and Lyn put her box down to help her.

Rory turned and got scared when someone was standing there. "God! You're like Ruth Gordon, just standing there with the tannis root. Make a noise." She snaps at the guy's legs for scaring her.

"Rosemary's Baby," He got the reference making both of the girls look up at him. Anna recognizes him as Dean, the new cute boy that all the girls were talking about. She smiles at how he was admiring Rory. Her smile got bigger when she noticed the way Rory was looking up at him in awes. She slips quietly away, hoping her sister would make a connection. She dropped her box off at home before making her way to Luke's.

"Hey Luke," She greets him.

"Hey, how was your last day?" He smiles at one of his three favorite people in town.

"Good, everyone was talking how much they were going to miss me. There were a lot of tears. It made me feel important." She walks into the kitchen. "Okay, where do you need me, Caesar?" She put up her hair and washes her hands.

"Did I ever tell you every time you come in here it feels heaven sent?" He smiles at the young girl that was happy to help and learn. A bonus was that Lucas didn't snap as much when she was there.

"He's that grumpy today?" She went around the kitchen to gather the ingredients to make blueberry muffins since she saw that the glass dome was empty on the counter.

"Both Kirk and Taylor talked to him a long time today." He informs her.

"Did they at least speak loudly enough so it was entertaining for you?" She asks.

"Kirk did, not Taylor." He began to tell her how Kirk came in talking about some new job at the grocery store. Like with every new job Kirk got, he made it seem like it was one of the more important jobs in the world.

The Gilmore Girls were sitting down for dinner at Luke's. It was oddly quiet, as they ate their food. "You were late getting home tonight." Lorelai looks at Rory. Anna smiles at her sister knowing that she spent the day walking around with Dean. Miss Patty told her when she came in for a muffin and coffee.

"Yeah, I went to the library," Rory said, not looking up from her plate. Anna pushes her eyebrows together, curious as to why she would lie to mom about a boy. Their mom was fun to gush over boys with.

"We're having dinner with the grandparents tomorrow night." Their mom announced.

"We are?" Rory asks.

"But it's September." Anna was trying to think of an event that would make them visit her grandparents.

"So?" Her mom shrugs.

"So what holiday is in September?" Rory asks, knowing what her sister was thinking.

"Look, it's not a holiday thing. It's just dinner, okay?" Lorelai said defensively.

"Fine," Anna didn't understand why she was getting offended by their questions. Normally, they had to drag their mom out to the car on holiday to visit.

"Red meat can kill you. Enjoy." Luke drops their hamburgers in front of them.

"This is why I get better tips," Anna yells at his back.

"I finished hemming your skirts today." Their mom smiles at them.

"Oh, I can't wait to go home and try it on." Anna smiles back at her mother while Rory keeps eating.

"I can't wait to see you in it, honey." She pats her daughter's hand before turning to the other with the attitude. "A grunt of acknowledgment might be nice."

"Why are we going to dinner tomorrow night? What if I had plans? You didn't even ask me." Rory put her fork down to confront her mom. Anna leans back feeling like she was in an alternate universe; normally she was the one upset by their mom making plans for them. And Rory was the one fine with going along with whatever.

"If you had plans, I'd have known." She took a sip of her coffee.

"How?" She narrows her eyes at her.

"You would've told me." She put her coffee down when she realized that Rory was seriously upset with her.

"I don't tell you everything. I have my own things." Rory's narrow eyes turn into a glare.

"Fine, you have things." Lorelai felt weird like Rory was upset, but not telling her the real reason she was upset.

"That's right. I have things." She nods, pointing at herself.

"I had dibs on being the bitch tonight." Lorelai tried to put an end to the argument with a joke.

"Just tonight?" Rory mutters under her breath as she looks down at her plate.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She expects her to be over the moon tonight but she was glum.

"I'm not sure I want to go to Chilton." She spat out, making her mother and sister gasp.

"What?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"The timing is just really bad." She explains to them.

"The timing is bad?" Lorelai said out loud and Anna repeated it in her head. It clicks for her. The time was bad because she meets Dean. It was the only different variable she had in her life from this morning to now. She couldn't believe that Rory would pass up this opportunity for a boy she just meant. Rory was supposed to be the smart one. She was so lost in her thought she didn't realize that her sister and mother left her until Luke handed her takeout containers.

"Thanks." She nods to him.

"Is everything alright with them?" Luke nods to the door that they went out of.

"No, Rory doesn't want to go to Chilton, because she meets a boy." She put their untouched food in the containers.

"What?" Luke had to sit down from the shook.

"Yeah, I better go before they kill each other." She got up to hurry after them with the to-go bag.

"Good Luck," Luke shouted after her.

By the time she got home since she got sidetracked by seeing Lane on the Hayride, the fight was over. Her mom was stewing on the couch. "Hey mom," She sat down on the table in front of the couch.

"Hey Susanne," She smiles weakly at her.

"Don't worry. Once she's there she won't want to leave." She reassures her mom.

"Do you know the boy?" She asks.

"I know of him. He's cute with a greet head of hair. All the people at school said he's nice." She told her what she knew.

"At least he's cute." She let out a deep sigh.

"Rory's smart. She'll realize she can still date him while going to a different school." She pulls her mother up to push her into the master bedroom.

"Do we go in or do we just stand here reenacting The Little Match Girl?" Rory asks as the three of them stare at her grandparent's door.

"Look, I know we're having a thing here, and I know you hate me but be civil, at least through dinner and then on the way home you can pull a Menendez, deal?" She turns to Rory.

"Fine," Rory nods.

After Anna got the nod from her mom, she rang the doorbell. Her grandma opens it almost instantly. "Hi Grandma," She pulls her into a hug.

"Hello Dear," She helped her take her coat off then did the same for Lorelai and Rory.

Susanne watches her grandma move with grace. For a long time, she thought she was adopted or that mom might have kidnapped her because she looks nothing like her mom or Rory. They were tall thin beauties with their blue eyes and dark brown hair, while she was short and curvy with brown eyes and reddish-brown hair. She remembers the first holiday they went to her grandparent's house and she saw her grandmother, she thought that where I got it from. It was weirdly comforting for her to see herself in her family.

"I can't tell you what a treat it is to have you girls here." She hangs up their coats.

"We're excited, too." She points at herself then her daughters.

"Is that a collector's cup, or can I throw it away for you?" She points to the to-go coffee cup that Lorelai seems to be clutching onto for dear life. She went to put it in the trash bin behind them when her mom corrected her. "In the kitchen, please."

"Sorry." She apologizes, forgetting the rule that food and drinks are thrown away in the kitchen trash as to not attract bugs to other areas of the house.

"I want to hear all about Chilton" She put an arm around each of her grandchildren to guide them into the living room.

"We haven't started yet," Rory told her.

"We can tell you we look smashing in our uniforms." Anna put on a British accent.

"Well, if you look good, you'll feel good and learn better." Their grandma nods to her youngest granddaughter.

"My thoughts exactly," She nods back to her.

"Richard, look who's here." She pulls her husband's attention from the newspaper.

"Hello, Anna. Rory, you're tall." He looks up at her. Rory did hit her growth spurt since the last time they saw them.

"I guess." She shrugs.

"What's your height?" He asked.

"Five, seven," She thought back to her last doctor's visit.

"That's tall. She's tall." He yells back to tell his wife.

"Hi Dad," His daughter walks into the room.

"Lorelai, your daughter's tall." He told her.

"I know. It's freakish. We're thinking of having her studied at MIT. This one too for how small she is." She pats Anna's head.

"I'm only shorted by three inches." She pouted.

"Three inches mean everything when it comes to reaching the top shelf." Rory teases her sister.

"I hope you get the bottom locker at Chilton." She curses her.

"Champagne, anyone?" Emily held out a tray and they each grabbed a glass.

"That's fancy." Lorelai smiled down at her glass.

"It's not every day I have my girls here for dinner on a day the banks are open." She took the smile right off her daughter's face. Emily Gilmore was the queen of passive-aggressiveness. "A toast: To Rory and Anna entering Chilton and an exciting new phase in their lives." She put her glass up.

"Hear, hear." Their grandpa raises his glass while never taking his eyes off the paper.

"Let's sit everyone." She points to the seats. Rory and Anna sat down next to their grandpa. Emily took a seat on one of the two chairs across from them.

"This is just wonderful. Education is the most important thing in the world, next to family." Emily smiles at her grandchildren.

"And Pie," Lorelai said making everyone including her dad look up at her in confusion. "Joke," She told them. Sit down, Anna mouth to her. She took a seat and told her mom it was a joke one more time.

"Rory, Anna, how do you like the lamb?" Emily looks at them from across the dinner table.

"It's good," Rory told her.

"Too dry?" She questioned, thinking it was a little dry herself.

"No, it's perfect." Anna took another bite.

"The potatoes could use a little salt, though." Lorelai points at them on her plate.

"Excuse me?" Emily looks over at her.

"So, Grandpa, how's the insurance biz?" Rory saves everyone for another awkward conversation.

"People die, we pay. People crash cars, we pay. People lose afoot, we pay." He said in between bites.

"At least you have your new slogan." His daughter replied.

"How are things at the motel?" He asks her.

"The inn? They're great." She corrected and told him.

"Lorelai's the executive manager now. Isn't that wonderful?" Emily told her husband.

"Speaking of which, Christopher called yesterday." He announces to the table. Anna rolled her eyes. Luckily, her grandpa didn't notice but everyone else at the table did.

"Speaking of which? How is that a speaking of which?" Lorelai asked.

"He's doing very well in California. His internet start-up goes public next month. This could mean big things for him. A very talented man, your father," He told the girls. Anna bites her tongue, wanting to say he was talented at running from his responsibilities.

"They know." She told them.

"He always was a smart one, that boy. You must take after him." He looks at the girls.

"Speaking of which, I'm going to get a Coke…. or a knife." She slams her fork down before going into the kitchen.

"I think I'm going to go talk to her." Rory went to stand up.

"No. I'll go. You stay and keep your grandfather and sister company." Emily stood up and went into the kitchen. Anna looks over at her grandpa who was eating his dinner peacefully like he didn't ruin his daughter's night. She looks over to her sister who felt as awkward as she did. It got even more awkward when they could hear the yelling coming from the kitchen.

"I wasn't too proud to come here to you two begging for money for my children's school, was I?" Their mother yelled making her daughters turn their heads to the kitchen.

Once the front door shut behind them, Lorelai leaned against the wall letting out a long sigh. "Mom?" Rory looks at her.

"I'm okay. I just…. Do I look shorter? Because, I feel shorter," She looks up at the sky.

"Just don't get shorter than me, can't have you taking my spot at MIT." Anna smiles when she gets a chuckle from her mom.

"How about I buy you a cup of coffee?" Rory gave an olive branch that made her mom's night of hell worth it.

"You drive, though, 'cause I don't think my feet will reach the pedals." She wiggles her legs around.

"Nice dinner at the grandparents' house," Rory said once they got out of the car that was parked in front of Luke's.

"Yeah, her dishes have never been cleaner." Lorelai sighs.

"You and Grandma seemed to have a nice talk." Anna brought up making them stop in front of Luke's door.

"How much did you hear?" Their mom groans.

"Not much, snippets." She told her.

"Little snippets," Rory adds on.

"So basically everything," She wishes she listened to her mother for once and kept her voice down.

"Basically, yes." They nod their heads.

"The best-laid plans," She pushed open the door and took a seat on the first table she came across.

"I think it was really brave of you to ask them for money," Rory told her.

"I so do not want to talk about it." She shook her head.

"How many meals is it going to take till we're off the hook?" Rory asks.

"I think the deli spread at my funeral will be the last one." She let out a sigh thinking how Friday nights were ruined for her. "Wait, does that mean…" She instantly perks up when she realized what she said.

"Can't let a perfectly good plaid skirt go to waste," She shrugs.

"Honey, you won't be sorry." She promised her.

They look up in shock when Luke came over to their table with a collar dress shirt and his hair comb back. "You look nice," Lorelai told him.

"Really nice," Anna playful winked at him.

"I had a meeting earlier at the bank. They like collars." He explains to them. "You look nice, too." He nods to Lorelai.

"I had a flagellation to go to." She told him.

He looks at her for a second before shaking his head, deciding it wasn't worth asking. "What'll you have?"

"Coffee, in a vat," She said, making the man roll his eyes.

"I'll have coffee also and chili fries," Rory orders.

"Oh me too, I need to get that dark lamb out of my mouth." Anna looks up at her boss.

"That's quite a refined palate you got there." He told them before walking off.

"Behold the healing powers of a bath." She points at Luke's back. "Tell me about the guy. All I know from Anna is that he has great hair and that he's nice." She turns to Rory.

Rory glares at her sister. "I didn't tell her his name, so she couldn't hunt him down." Anna defends herself.

"You know what's really special about our relationship? The total understanding about the need for one's privacy, you really understand boundaries." Rory turns back to her mother.

"So tell me about the guy." She repeats herself.

"Mom!" She whines.

"Is he dreamy?" She bats her eyes.

"That's so Nick at Nite." She rolls her eyes.

"I'm going to find out anyway." She shrugs.

"Really? How?" She tilts her head to the side.

"I'll spy. Or, get it out of your sister. You know she's terrible at keeping things from me." She points at Anna.

"No," Anna shook her head. She was weak when it comes to keeping secrets from her mom, she couldn't help it. She felt bad lying to the woman that works her ass off to give her everything she got.

"Coffee. Fries." Luke put their food down in front of us. "I can't stand it. This is so unhealthy. Rory, please, put down that cup of coffee. Anna at least chews the fries. You do not want to grow up to be like your mom." He looks at them with concern.

"Sorry, too late." Rory shrugs.

"Yeah, we're ruined already." Anna gave that large mischief grin.