"Ouch!" Lorelai shrieked as the clutter from the closet came tumbling down on top of her. What had she gotten herself into? Cleaning the closet was a task that was supposed to be simple enough, or so she thought.

"Oh, Paul Anka, did Mommy scare you with that closet avalanche? I'm sorry," she said, scratching Paul Anka behind the ear.

A simple bet with Rory the night before was now turning into something extremely complicated. Lorelai was awfully confident in her abilities on the phone, but when she tried to put her plan into action, things were getting ugly.

"Yeah, right, cleaning out the closet? What the heck was I thinking?"

She thought back to the conversation that was the impetus for the eventual cleaning.

"What's up? Any plans for tonight? A hot date, maybe?" Rory asked.

Lorelai laughed. "Yeah, a hot date. Sure, let me give Angelina a call and see if she'll let me borrow Brad for the night."

"Seriously, Mom! Anything going on?"

Lorelai sighed. "No, I'm figuring I may resort to Spring Cleaning, I'm so bored."

Rory gasped. "Who are you, and what have you done with my mother?"

"Well, kid, I figure sometimes, you just gotta grow up and clean out that junky closet, face the music, you know? If anyone can't find me at the inn tomorrow, let them know to search here, I may be under a pile of junk."

"I bet you will never follow through with that. You'll start to clean, then you'll get tired of it, and shove it all back in that closet. You're so predictable, Mom!"

"Lorelai Gilmore? Predictable? No, way! Five bucks says I will clean that closet until I can find the left and right shoe of each pair."

"Fine. You're on. Boy, people sure wouldn't bet on you in Vegas, that's for sure!"

And now Lorelai found herself sitting in the middle of a pile of clutter she didn't know what to do with.

"I can do this," she thought to herself as she began to separate the items that had come crashing down on her. She sorted through what seemed like endless amounts of hangers, shoes, and shirts. She found makeup, CD's, and jewelry she thought she lost or forgot she had.

"Maybe I should clear everything out of the closet first. Then I can sort it out. What do you think, Paul Anka?" Lorelai asked.

The dog gave no response. Lorelai scooped up armfuls of items and dumped them randomly around the bedroom until she had almost cleared out the closet floor.

She took one last look inside the closet. Shoved in the corner was a shoebox, duct taped closed. Lorelai knew immediately what the box was. She shoved her clothes to the right side of the closet, creating a clear view of the large, dilapidated cardboard structure. She had to get Rory. This was big.

Jumping over the piles of junk she had started to sort, she finally made her way downstairs to Rory's room. Thank goodness she was visiting for the weekend.

"Wake up! Rory? Wake up!" Lorelai insisted as she shook Rory's shoulder.

"What time is it?" a sleepy Rory mumbled.

"Come upstairs, quick! I found it," Lorelai insisted.

"Mom, it's six o'clock on a Sunday morning. What could you possibly…"

"The time capsule, Rory!" Lorelai interrupted.

The words jogged Rory's memory and gave her a sudden jolt of energy. "I'll be right up," she said as she threw off her blankets.

Lorelai ran upstairs to clear a walking path for Rory. She shoved everything aside and sat on the bed. She positioned and repositioned herself, trying to get comfortable until Rory arrived. But, she couldn't seem to sit still.

She was nervous, curious, and excited, all at the same time. She really wasn't prepared for the emotions this box would bring when it was opened. Both she and Rory knew that the box meant a lot, and it was important to unearth its contents together.

"Let's get opening, Mom!" Rory said, running into the bedroom and trying to tie her bathrobe.

"Finally! What, did you take baby steps up here?" Lorelai teased.

Lorelai tiptoed over the piles she had now merged together. She got down on her knees and pulled, pushed, and dragged the box until it sat in the middle of the cluttered floor.

"Let's open it in the kitchen, so that way the stuff won't get mixed up," Rory suggested.

"Good plan," Lorelai agreed.

It was practically a race to the kitchen. Lorelai placed the box on the table. The two stepped back and stared at it for a moment, wondering where to start.

"Did we leave some sort of instruction for ourselves in opening this?" Rory asked.

Lorelai nodded. "There's a note on top of it, I'd assume that has the rituals and the spells we need to say before we open it."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Mom, this is a big deal… it's the time capsule! Our hopes, our dreams, our lives… they're in this very box! You don't joke about the sanctity of this beloved box!"

"All right, all right, I'm sorry. Now open the letter," Lorelai instructed, pointing to the envelope on the top of the box.

Rory pulled the envelope off of the first box and struggled to break the seal. "Nice job sealing the envelope, Mom!"

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure we wouldn't open it before the day you graduated Harvard, which obviously never happened," Lorelai insisted.

Rory opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper. "It's a letter to us from… us," she said.

"Oh! I remember that letter! I'll read it out loud," Lorelai said, taking the letter from Rory's hands.

She cleared her throat and read:

"Dear Lorelai and Rory,

This is younger Lorelai and younger Rory, writing to you from a galaxy far, far away. Weird, huh? Well, the date today is January 13, 1994. Since Rory had a "mental health" day, and we were both bored, we decided to make a time capsule. It shouldn't be opened until Rory graduates Harvard… if you can ever find it in that disgusting closet of yours, Lorelai. It contains many memories… have fun reminiscing!

Love, Younger Lorelai and Younger Rory"

Rory giggled. "Wow, we really were bored that day, huh?"

Lorelai grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer nearby. "Yes, and the excessive duct tape proves that we knew our future selves quite well! We're goin' in, sweets," she said.

Lorelai cut through the tape that secured the two flaps "Ready?" she asked as she positioned her hands on each flap.

"Ready," Rory insisted as she watched her mom dig through the layers and layers of tape on the box.

Lorelai fumbled with the flaps as she gasped. "Look, Rory! It's your first novel!"

Rory smiled. "Oh, I remember this! I wrote about two girls that were supposed to be me and Lane, only I changed their names! Slightly embarrassing, but cool that we still have this!"

Lorelai took the stapled pieces of notebook paper out of the box. "Let's read a passage, shall we?"

"No, Mom! Embarrassing… please don't…"

"And Laura and Sara… wait, which one is you?" Lorelai asked, giggling.

"Sara… but Mom, really! Don't read it!"

"Ah, fine, I suppose I can spare you a little embarrassment," Lorelai said.

"Finally. Let's see what else is in here. Oh, hey! Look! Remember when we tried to invent our own language? Here's the letter key we made up!"

"Oh, yeah, I remember that! We spent all that time at the Inn trying to make up that language, but we never ended up using it! I love how we just ended up using other letters instead of symbols when we ran out of ideas. That was pretty ingenious of us, huh?" Lorelai said as she poked Rory.

"Ah, yes, we are so clever!" Rory replied, reaching across Lorelai and into the box.

Lorelai's jaw dropped in shock as she saw an item that brought a distinct memory from her past. In the box, face up, was an old menu from Luke's Diner.