Chapter Text
It took a week for Thea to open the bakery up again. It just wasn’t the same without Fran being there.
Lorelai and Rory had come into the bakery, for reasons that Thea couldn’t figure out because why weren’t they at Luke’s?
They had books spread out around them, Lorleai was saying, ‘Where’s the ladies room?’, ‘More coffee, please', ‘Does Antonio Banderas live near here?’”
Rory was holding a book and told Lorelai, “We do not need to know how to say ‘Does Antonio Banderas live near here?’”
“Oh, yes, we do,” Lorelai countered.
“Mom,” Rory started.
Lorelai explained, “When we’re in Spain, we need to know how to say, ‘Does Antonio Banderas live near here?’ When in France, ‘Does Johnny Depp live near here?’”
Thea made a face at the mention of Johnny Depp. Something about that man made her skin crawl for some reason. Maybe it was because he dated a seventeen-year-old Winona Ryder when he was in his mid-twenties or something.
Rory said, “When in Rome, ‘Does Gore Vidal live near here?’”
Lorelai said, “You know, you look like me, yet my ways are completely lost on you. Come on, honey, put that down. You've been studying all day.”
Rory said, “I can’t put it down, I’ve got finals coming up.”
“I know you have finals coming up,” Lorelai said. “But you also have a piece of pie sitting there that you’ve been completely ignoring.”
“Just let me get to the end of this chapter,” Rory replied.
“Oh, fine,” Lorelai said to her. “Hey, how important do you think it is to be able to say, ‘Help, I’m bleeding from the head’?”
“Very,” Ethan whispered to Thea. “Because she might annoy someone into shooting her in the head.”
“Just bring the phrase books,” Rory told Lorelai.
“No,” Lorelai replied. “If we learn all the phrases we need, then the phrase books are one less thing we have to lug around.”
“Agreed, but I wouldn’t put it past her to accidentally offend someone,” Ethan whispered to Thea.
Thea nodded, remembering how Lorelai asked that one married Parisian man if he wanted to sleep with her because of a song, especially in front of his wife. At least that man had a sense of humor.
“We will never be able to learn all the phrases in every language that we’re going to need,” Rory explained. “Bring the books.”
“We can learn enough,” Lorelai countered. “Plus, doesn’t everybody speak English over there anyway?”
“Bring the books so you don’t ask a married man if he wants to sleep with you again in front of his wife who might not be so kind,” Thea told Lorelai.
“True,” Rory replied to Lorelai.
“Fine,” Lorelai grumbled. “We’ll bring the books.”
“Okay,” Rory said. She set her book aside, “Five minutes for pie.” She stabbed her fork into the pie and brought it to her mouth when Lane came in, excitedly.
“Finally,” Lane said, going over to sit down with Rory and Lorelai. “They’re here. I’ve got them.”
Thea joked, “Did you pick out some pictures for your first tattoo?”
Yesterday, while planning for their Disney World trip in the bakery, Mrs. Kim walked into the bakery just to tell Ethan, “Make sure that you don’t bring Lane home with a tattoo.” Then she glared distastefully at Ethan’s tattoos.
“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of tattooing someone else’s kid,” Ethan replied. After Mrs. Kim was appeased and walked out, Ethan put his arm around Lane’s shoulders and said, “I know a tattoo artist would give you a discount on your first tattoo. May I suggest a thigh tattoo? It’ll be easier to hide just as long as you don’t wear short skirts and short dresses or anything revealing really.”
Lane had looked horrified at the thought.
“I did consider one tattoo, actually,” Lane told them. “But I’m talking about the brochures for my college.”
Lorelai looked confused, “You considered getting a tattoo?”
“I haven’t considered getting it, but if I were to take up that offer that Ethan had mentioned yesterday, I would know what to get,” Lane said. “But I’m not here for that. I have decided to make this whole Seventh Day Adventist College experience a good one. I'm gonna look on the bright side, find the silver lining, and make myself some lemonade.”
“Speaking of lemonade,” Thea said, bringing over a cupcake. “Here, this is raspberry lemonade.
Lane smiled, “Thanks.” She unwrapped the wrapping while Rory took the brochure.
“Jackson brought over the raspberries this morning,” Thea said. “I’m thinking of having it be a summer thing. I just wanted to know what other people thought.”
“The campus looks pretty,” Rory said, looking at the brochure.
Lorelai looked at the brochure, and agreed, “Very pretty.”
Lane said, “It's got two huge parks with gardens and lakes.”
“Two parks,” Lorelai repeated.
“One for boys and one for girls,” Lane explained as she ate the cupcake. “You know, this is really good.”
“Thanks,” Thea said. She looked at the brochure. “I mean, at least the college is pretty. Maybe you can take a rowboat out onto the lake.”
“Yeah.” Lane said, “And you know, I had originally thought that this was gonna be a suffocating place with out of date rules and insane restrictions, but boy was I wrong. For example, curfew is up to nine-thirty. Nine-forty-give if you're going for your Masters. Makeup will be permitted, as long as it identically matches your skin tone. And owning a Rolling Stones CD is no longer grounds for expulsion. You can work the demerits off in the campus clean-up crew.”
Thea turned to look at Ethan, who looked ready to say something.
“I mean, at least you won’t get expelled for listening to the Rolling Stones,” Thea said. “And they might let Dave visit. Probably with a chaperone.”
“Do they also monitor your letters?” asked Ethan.
Apparently, Ethan had to tell Aiden that the police read their letters. Aiden was promptly horrified by the thought of them reading whatever he wrote in the letters. He and Ethan never really said what Aiden had written to Ethan, but Thea and Sage could guess.
“I don’t think they do,” Lane replied.
Lorelai asked, “There’s a separate park for boys?”
That must’ve been all it took for Lane, “My life is over.” She took the brochures and ran out of the bakery.
Ethan didn’t seem happy, “Are you proud of yourself for raining on her parade?”
“You were the one that was about to compare her college to prison,” Lorelai defended. “And every kid in that brochure was awkward and panicked. It looked like the Academy Award audience during Michael Moore’s speech.”
“Besides, Lane doesn’t want to go to that college anyway,” Rory said. “She was trying to psych herself up.” She looked at the crumbs and bits of frosting from the raspberry lemonade cupcake. “Hey, Thea? Can I have that raspberry lemonade cupcake?”
“Ooh, me too,” Lorelai said.
“We only have one left,” Ethan lied.
“I’ve gotta go back to studying,” Rory said.
Lorelai said, “‘Does that sexy guy in the Peugeo ad who had a bit part in Armageddon live near here?”
“Now I got Armageddon It by Def Leppard stuck in my head,” Ethan told Thea.
“Thanks, now I got it in my head too,” Thea grumbled back.
Lorelai was trying to be quiet, Thea noticed. She almost wanted to tell Lorelai that being quiet was futile since Rory was awake anyway, but seeing Lorelai pour water into the coffee pot while making faces at how loud it was, was far more entertaining.
Lorelai headed for the coffee maker and Rory emerged from her room, “Hey.”
“Oh!” Lorelai jumped, dropping her heels in the process, “Oh, god, Rory, you scared me.”
“Sorry,” Rory told her.
“I’ve been sneaking around here like an idiot trying not to wake you up,” Lorelai told Rory. “And Thea, over there, didn’t even bother to tell me.”
“Seeing you trying to sneak around was far more entertaining,” Thea replied.
Rory nodded, “I’ve been up for hours and Thea got up an hour ago.”
“I had a nightmare that I got the wrong flour brand shipped in,” Thea said.
“And I realized last night that at this rate, I will never finish all the work I have to do,” Rory added.
Lorelai seemed confused, “What work?”
“What work?” Rory looked at Thea, “What work she asks.”
“Well, you know me and that dippy Christiane, takes a little while to catch up,” Lorelai said.
Rory handed over a list, “Here.”
Lorelai read, “‘Things to do before graduation.’ A list of course. Study for finals, senior breakfast, senior awards, finish final edition of the Franklin, organize a new student government, convince Paris to give up student gavel.”
“Oh and I forgot – man the yearbook distribution table this afternoon at the stupid Senior Palooza.” Rory muttered, “Unbelievable.”
“Well, I’ll be manning the Booster Club Grad Night table at the same time, so we can feel stupid and abused together,” Lorelai said.
“I can’t finish all this and sleep at the same time,” Rory said.
“You have to sleep, it’s what keeps you pretty,” Lorelai said.
“Who cares if I’m pretty if I fail my finals?” asked Rory.
“Okay, you’ve got this so completely backwards,” Lorelai looked at Rory’s set up, “What is all this?”
“Hm?” Rory looked at her set up, “Oh, I found that if I focus too much on one subject, I start to get a little punchy. This way, when I hit Bolshevik Revolution overload, I just shift over here and, oh, hello, Anne Boleyn is going down, and then when that gets too depressing, it's right over to calculus.”
“Saving the party subject for last, huh?” asked Lorelai.
Rory explained, “This shifting back and forth seems to produce better results.”
“I think you’re pushing yourself too hard,” Lorelai told her.
Rory continued, “I made out a schedule. Every single moment of every single day from now until graduation is accounted for.”
Lorelai looked at the schedule, “You left off the Kiwanis Luncheon.”
“I did?” asked Rory, “Are you sure?”
Lorelai said, “It's on Monday.”
“How could I forget the Kiwanis Luncheon?” Rory said, “They gave me their scholarship.”
“Oh, yes, a two hundred and fifty dollar scholarship,” Lorelai said, “That'll keep you in microwave popcorn for a week.”
“I’ll just have to move something around,” Rory said. “And I’ll have to work Grandma in.”
“Excuse me?” asked Lorelai.
“Grandma called and asked if I could come over and help her pick out a dress to wear to my graduation,” Rory explained.
“No,” Lorelai told her.
Thea didn’t get why Lorelai said no. It wasn’t like Rory was asking for Lorelai’s permission anyway.
“I have to,” Rory replied.
“Rory, my mother's been dressing herself for years and she has yet to show up at a function with her bra on the outside of her clothing,” Lorelai said.
“She asked, I can't say no,” Rory explained.
“Tell her about the koala bears,” Lorelai said. “She'll understand.”
“Grandma Emily obviously wants to spend time with Rory,” Thea said. “She’s not twisting your arm behind your back as she forces you face-down on the ground.”
“We need every cent we can get,” Rory said. “Yale is expensive.”
“I know Yale is expensive,” Lorelai said.
“Well, we haven't heard from Yale financial aid yet,” Rory pointed out.
“We will,” Lorelai said. “Relax.”
“Well, we had better hear from them soon, because I have a deposit to send in for my room and I have a bunch of supplies to buy and I wanna get all of that out of the way before we go to Europe, otherwise I’ll be obsessing about it the entire time,” Rory said.
“Okay, uh, listen, I’m gonna go out and get the paper,” Lorelai said.
“Okay, well, don’t show it to me because I have no time for recreational reading until June,” Rory said.
“Hey, could we move your, uh, chill session from four o’clock tomorrow afternoon to, uh, right now? That'd be great, thanks,” Lorelai said, getting up to go outside.
After school, there was a crowd at the bakery. Apparently the raspberry lemonade cupcakes took off, so Georgia, Liberty, and Jess had gone over to help wait on the tables or do crowd control. Todd, Sage, and Aiden however were in the back helping Thea, Ethan, and Marjorie bake.
Thea was freaking out, especially over the rather large crowd.
“I think that’s the wrong flour,” Thea told Todd as he was adding flour to a mixer.
“It is not,” Todd replied. “I looked at the recipe five times already.”
Sage had to pull Thea aside, “I think you need to sit down and relax a little.”
Thea started, “But Fran—”
“Fran would want you to relax a little,” Sage stated.
“I don’t even know what I’m doing,” Thea said.
“You’re trying your best and that’s all that matters,” Marjorie told her. “Just go and take a break at Luke’s, dear. We got this covered.”
Thea nodded and went to Luke’s and sat at the counter.
Luke looked over at her and asked, “What’s up?”
“I was told that I needed to take a break because I was freaking out over at the bakery,” Thea explained.
Luke went to make Thea a neapolitan milkshake, before giving it to her. “I remember that when I first opened up the restaurant. I wanted everything to go smoothly, but I was freaking out over everything, thinking that the diner was going to crash and burn. But I found my footing, which means that you can too.”
Thea nodded, “Thanks, Luke.”
