When Lorelai rang the doorbell, a new maid answered the door.
The maid said, "Yes?"
"Hey," Lorelai said.
"Hello," replied the maid.
"You're new," Lorelai pointed out.
"I started yesterday," the maid replied.
Lorelai asked, "What's your name?"
"Liesl," the woman answered.
"Okay, Liesl," Lorelai said. "I'm Brigette. This is Gretel, and she's Louisa."
Delilah held back from rolling her eyes, because it seemed like Lorelai was mocking Liesl. "Emily and Richard are expecting us."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Liesl said. "Please come in." She let them in. "Uh, can I get you a drink?"
It sounded like Emily and Richard were arguing.
"You know what, that's okay. I can get it," Lorelai said. "Why don't you go hide in the kitchen?"
Liesl asked, "Really?" Lorelai nodded. Liesl looked relieved, "Thank you." She took off.
There was still arguing.
Rory asked, "What is going on?"
"I don't know," Lorelai replied. "I think George and Martha are joining us for dinner."
Richard and Emily came down the stairs. Richard was saying, "I didn't know that my every conversation needed to be reported to you, I stand corrected."
"I have been the co-chair of the Starlight Foundation for the last eight years," Emily said.
"I know this, Emily," Richard said.
"And the Black and White Ball is the main fundraising event of the season," Emily continued.
"Its one year," Richard replied.
"The co-chair cannot miss the main fundraising event," Emily continued.
Richard joked, "Why? Won't the chair be there?"
"Is this a joke to you?" asked Emily.
"Emily, I have too many things to take care of at work," Richard said. "I don't have time for frivolous parties."
Emily started, "Frivolous parties? Friv – ooh." She went upstairs.
"Well, where are you going? Come back here," Richard said, going after her.
"That looks and sounds bad," Delilah said.
"I know," Lorelai agreed, clearly enjoying the fight. "I wish we had popcorn."
"Mom," Rory started.
Lorelai shushed her, "Incoming."
Emily and Richard went back down the steps.
Emily was reading from some invitations, "The Hartford Zoological Silent Auction, the Mark Twain House Restoration Fund luncheon, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Literacy Auction..."
"I can read those myself, you know," Richard said.
Emily said, "This is the fourth event you've taken upon yourself to turn down on our behalf. And I am on the board of all those foundations. Now how do you think that makes me look?"
"Like your husband is busy and has a great deal of responsibility," Richard said.
"Well, I have responsibilities too," Emily retorted.
"I understand that your social engagements are important," Richard said.
"They're not just social engagements," Emily said.
"Anything at which you serve tea is a social engagement," Richard told her.
Delilah gaped at that.
"That's it," Emily said. "I am gonna get a tape recorder so you can hear how pompous and condescending you sound." She started to go upstairs.
"Wha – uh, Emily," Richard said, getting her to stop in her tracks.
"No, I wouldn't want you to take my word for it," Emily said. "I might be delirious from all that tea I've been drinking." She walked upstairs.
It looked like someone was going to be sleeping on the couch tonight – or at least the guest bedroom.
"Oh, stop this," Richard said, following after her.
Scratch that – at least the guest bedroom for a week.
"Maybe we should leave," Rory said.
"Are you kidding?" Lorelai said, "We've got dinner theater here."
Thea asked, "Why are you happy to see your parents arguing?"
"Yeah, they're obviously in a fight," Rory said.
Lorelai asked, "Yeah?"
"One that they probably wouldn't want us to see," Rory said.
"Hey, we stumbled in here completely innocently. We came for dinner as usual, per their request. We had no idea we were walking into The Lion King without the puppet heads."
The Lion King wasn't the appropriate analogy for the fight.
Emily and Richard came back downstairs, this time Emily had a tape recorder.
"Get that thing out of my face," Richard said.
"Just say the tea thing again," Emily said, holding out the tape recorder.
Delilah was kind of amused by Emily's antics.
"You are behaving like a child," Richard told Emily.
"Turn around when you talk, would you? I'm not sure how good this microphone is," Emily said.
Richard finally noticed Rory, Lorelai, and Delilah, "Oh."
"What?" asked Emily. She noticed the three.
Lorelai clapped, "Brava! Encore! I'm sorry, does Terrence McNally know about you two? Get me the phone!"
Emily and Richard looked embarrassed.
Delilah was a little late when she got to Luke's so when she sat down at the counter, Luke came over and filled their mugs with coffee.
"Coffee...coffee...coffee," Luke said. "Okay, what do you want? Eggs, toast, combo?"
Lorelai asked, "What's the rush there, Zippy?"
"I'm just swamped this morning," Luke said. "I was supposed to have help but I don't. So order right now or I'm bringing the three of you an egg white omlete with a side of steamed spinach."
"Strawberry crêpes," Delilah said.
"Pancakes," Lorelai said.
"French toast," Rory said.
"Thank you," Luke said. Jess walked into the diner wearing a Metallica shirt, "Jess, you where supposed to be down here – what the hell is that?"
"What?" asked Jess.
Luke pointed, "That."
"That is a shirt," Jess said.
"Change," Luke told him.
"What?" asked Jess.
"Go upstairs and change your shirt," Luke told him.
"I like this shirt," Jess replied.
Luke asked, "How can you like that shirt?"
"It brings out my eyes," Jess told him.
"Hey, part of the deal of you staying here is that you work here, and when you work here you will proper work attire, and that is not proper work attire. Now go upstairs and change into something that won't scare the hell out of my customers," Luke explained.
"Whatever you say Uncle Luke," Jess replied, going upstairs.
"Gross shirt," Lorelai said.
"Yeah," Rory said.
"Good band," Lorelai replied.
"I prefer Judas Priest," Delilah told them.
After work, Delilah came home to some 'good' news: she and Rory were going to a debutante ball and Christopher was going to present them at the ball.
Rory had roped Delilah into going to the ball with her.
Delilah didn't see how any of that was good news.
So after she got that news, she took an information pamphlet and went to Samantha's home, because she had to tell them about the crap that she was going through. Matt had to look over through the information about it.
Matt sounded disgusted, "So, I have to wear a suit that has tails and white gloves?"
"I know," Delilah replied, "And I've got to wear a white dress."
"It's so dumb that I can't be your escort," Samantha said.
Delilah looked at her, "You're going to be my escort too. It's a coming out ball, after all."
Samantha actually smirked at that, "I like the way you think, babe."
Lorelai had set up ballroom dance practice for Delilah and Matt and Rory and Dean.
Delilah had noticed that it seemed like there was some kind of weird tension between Rory and Dean.
So, when she got back from Samantha's house, since the blonde decided to make the for Delilah, she spotted a car in front of the house, along with Christopher and Lorelai.
Christopher turned to Delilah and smiled, "Oh, by the way..." He took out two book box set of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and handed it to Delilah.
Delilah took the two volumes while trying to maneuver the garment bag that she was holding. She looked at the cookbooks.
"I remember how you said you wanted these cookbooks," Christopher said.
Delilah really didn't have the heart to tell him that she already had the two cookbooks. Fran, Marjorie, and Elijah had gathered enough money to buy her the books to celebrate her three years of working at the bakery.
She forced a smile, "Thank you, Dad. I would hug you but..." She motioned to the load she had.
"You can hug me later," Christopher told her.
Lorelai asked, "Ooh, is that your dress?" She looked at the garment bag.
"Yeah, Samantha made it for me," Delilah said.
Lorelai asked, "Can I see it?"
"No," Delilah said, going into the house.
Samantha watched as Delilah and Matt danced, while Rory and Dean struggled with their dancing.
"No, no dear, you're going to hurt Dean by dancing like that," Miss Patty cut in. "Go stand in a corner and watch dear." Before she can grab Dean and dance, Samantha cut in, grabbed Dean, forced him to stand rather close to her, before leading him around the studio in a dance.
Dean looked rather terrified as the tiny (at least to Dean) blonde girl led him around, but at least it wasn't awkward.
Rory looked upset, so Delilah looked at her. "Are you okay?"
"I can never dance as great as Samantha does," Rory said.
Miss Patty had to cut in Samantha's and Dean's dance, "Okay, okay, dears." She looked at Samantha, "You have a natural ability, but a girl doesn't lead, especially not that aggressively. If you did that, you'll scare off a man – or a woman dancing that aggressively."
"Well, it didn't help that moose a boy was fighting me the entire time," Samantha added.
Dean looked at Delilah and Matt, "Did she just call me moose?"
"Yes," Delilah and Matt said in unison.
Miss Patty had Rory come back to try dancing once again.
A bit later Miss Patty said, "Now, keep counting in your heads. Look each other in the eye. Dean, are you leading?"
"I have no idea," Dean said.
Miss Patty asked, "Matt, are you leading?"
"No, because a girl can lead a dance if she so wants," Matt replied.
"Okay okay, stop stop stop," Miss Patty said, breaking up a dance. "Now, remember, one of the most important things in ballroom dancing is to remember to spot, otherwise you're gonna get dizzy. So, what you wanna do is you wanna pick out something to focus on. I usually like to find a lonely seaman. Then when turning, whip your head around and find your spot again." She spun around three times, "Hello sailor, hello sailor, hello sailor. Now you try it." She went to mess with the radio.
Dean spoke to Rory, "You've gotta be kidding me."
"I think you can do it without the 'hello sailor' part," Rory told him.
"Rory," Dean started.
"BattleBots," Rory said.
"For the rest of your life," Dean replied, like that appeased him.
Delilah focused on Samantha and spun three times like Miss Patty instructed.
"Now take it from top," Miss Patty said, playing the music.
Delilah and Matt got in the dancing positions and started trying to maneuver around the studio without running into Dean, Rory, and Samantha.
However, Samantha cut her way in, taking Delilah and leading her. It was impressive how smooth that actually was.
"Hey, you guys are really improving," Lorelai said, coming in. "Now you're actually facing each other. Sam and Lila are very impressive."
Christopher asked, "Anyone need a break?" He held up to-go cups of coffee. There was seven cups of coffee.
"Okay, take five, but don't sit down because your muscles will get cold," Miss Patty told them. She went outside for presumably a smoke break.
Lorelai asked, "So, how's it going?"
"Actually, I'm not very good," Rory said. "Matt and Lila are doing very well though. Even Samantha is very good with them. Maybe an extra hour and they'll be good enough to go."
"Yeah, and it's really making me look bad because I'm a natural," Dean said.
"Well, maybe you just need a glittery glove and really freaky face," Lorelai replied.
"At one point Miss Patty thought Dean was gonna get hurt, she made me sit in the corner and Samantha made me watch her dance with Dean," Rory said.
"It was terrifying," Dean added while Samantha gave him an evil grin.
"Hey! Nobody puts Baby in the corner," Lorelai quoted.
Christopher tried to step in, speaking to Rory, "It's not your fault. Ballroom dancing is a wonderfully sexist thing. Any woman can do it; all she needs is a strong male lead. No offense Dean."
Samantha cracked up and Matt seemed amused at Dean being called wimpy.
Christopher pulled Lorelai towards him, making her stumble, "Oh, agh."
"Oh, well, most any woman can do it," Christopher said.
"I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready," Lorelai defended herself. "I want a do-over."
"Fine," Christopher said. "May I have this dance?"
"I don't know," Lorelai said. "Do you have a trust fund? Always make sure."
They started dancing together.
When they were finished, they clapped.
"Okay, I'm adopted," Rory said.
"Yeah, I'm never gonna be able to do that," Dean said.
"No, you guys just need some practice," Christopher said.
"Listen to your father, Rory." Miss Patty said, "Your adorable, adorable father."
"Come on; let's get you out of here before you become Patty's next husband," Lorelai said.
"See you guys later," Christopher said. He went over and said in Patty's ear, "Bye Patty."
"Oh, the way you toy with me," Miss Patty flirted back.
Matt and Samantha looked a little disgusted.
The next evening, they were a little late getting to the ballroom, but they managed to get there.
The ballroom was impressively huge.
"Wow, this place is huge," Rory said.
Delilah spotted the stairs, "Are we seriously gonna have to walk down those stairs?"
"Oh, I'm affair so," Lorelai said. "Unless you wanna make a really memorable entrance and just slide down the banister," she made a sliding motion down her arm with her other hand, "Which I totally encourage by the way."
A lady came up to them, "You are...?"
"Lorelai and Delilah Gilmore," Rory said motioning to herself and Delilah.
"Late," the lady said.
"Sorry, my fault," Lorelai said, "Took me awhile to get pretty. Not all of us are sixteen anymore, you know what I mean?" The lady with the clipboard clearly didn't get Lorelai's humor. "No."
The lady spoke to Delilah and Rory, "You two are to head up the stairs. The preparation room is on the right."
"Look for the toxic cloud of Chanel and Final Net," Lorelai said.
Delilah and Rory went up the stairs, although Rory looked back at Lorelai. Delilah tried to focus on making sure Rory didn't trip.
When they got to the room, the lady instructed, "Hang your dresses there, put your makeup on over there. You two will have to make do with a non-lighted mirror. The lighted ones went to the girls that were there here before dawn." She called out, "Listen up ladies; everyone must be beautiful and ready to go by seven-thirty."
Delilah and Rory sat down at some mirrors, sandwiching a girl.
"I can't believe we have an hour and a half," Rory said.
"I know," the girl in the middle said. "I am never gonna be ready in time. God only knows if the swelling on my nose is gonna go down. I had to go and inherit my father's nose. I'm Libby."
"I'm Rory and she's my twin, Delilah," Rory said, introducing her and Delilah.
Libby held two tubes of lipstick, "Uh, which one should I wear? I've thought about this all month and I cannot decide."
"Oh, well, that's a tough one," Rory said.
"I know," Libby continued. She held up each tube of lipstick, "This is red-read and this is orange-red. The wrong one and I will end up looking like a hooker." She hissed out, "Or a teacher."
"Wow, that's a lot of pressure for you," Delilah said.
"The two minutes you are standing on those stairs tonight will determine the social status for the rest of your life," Libby ranted.
"Wow, what if you trip?" asked Rory and Libby at her in disbelief. "I mean, not that you would. You wouldn't. I might. Probably will actually." She added, "Could be a real Cirque du Soleil kind of night."
Libby admonished, "You should not even joke about stuff like that. Ow." To the woman fixing her hair, she snapped, "There's a head under there, you know."
Delilah went to put on her dress while Libby freaked out over the lipstick color.
After successfully putting on the dress and applying makeup and putting on the white gloves, Delilah sat down on a bench with Rory, who brought a book with her.
Libby came over holding a flask. She offered the flask, "Midori sour?"
Rory shook her, "Oh, no thanks."
Delilah had to decline, too.
"More for me," Libby said. She took a swig from her flask, "At my last coming out, I shared with this girl who couldn't handle her booze." She motioned to her dress, "Neon green puke all over her white dress." She snickered a little.
Delilah asked, "So, this is your second coming out?"
"Oh, this is my fifth one this year," Libby said.
"Wow," Rory replied.
Delilah nodded, "This one is our first." Well, technically it was her second coming out, if coming out of the closet counts.
"You know, they say four out of five debs marry their escorts," Libby said.
Delilah was probably going to be the one that wouldn't marry her escorts. Same-sex marriage wasn't legal and she didn't want to marry Matt and leave Samantha out.
"Kind of like the dentists with Trident," Rory said.
Libby said, "Well, I figure, five coming out balls, five escorts, one of them has to stick, right?"
"Good logic," Rory pointed out.
Libby asked, "So, are your escorts the one?"
"Oh, well..." started Rory.
Libby asked, "Are they cute?"
Rory started, "Yes, he is very cute, but..."
"Where are you guys planning to live when you get married?" interrupted Libby.
"Okay, hold on a second," Rory started.
Another girl, with big hair curlers in her hair, came over, distracting Libby from her prying, "Katie, hi." Katie had a large pink bandage on her cheek, "too bad about your face."
Katie asked, "Is it horrible?"
"No, you can hardly tell," Libby said taking Katie's hand and walking off with her, "Just walk sideways."
"My god, she's a piece of work," Delilah said.
Rory nodded in agreement.
Samantha and Matt came up to Delilah in the staging area. Samantha wore a glittery looking black dress.
"I can't wait for this event to be over with," Delilah said. "I can't believe I got roped into doing this."
"I can't believe that they expect you to walk down the stairs," Samantha said.
"I know," Matt said.
Libby came up to them and looked at the three. She whispered to Delilah, "Is this your escort?"
"Yes," Delilah said.
"You two are gonna get married," Libby said and walked away.
Samantha asked, "What was that about?"
Delilah shrugged.
Christopher was speaking to Rory, so Samantha and Matt went downstairs to wait for her.
She was going last; to make sure that Christopher had enough time to get upstairs to her and because of what was going to happen when she reveals her two escorts, especially when one of them was a girl.
There were introductions and finally, her name was called: "Delilah Gilmore, daughter of Christopher Hayden and Lorelai Gilmore."
Delilah grabbed Christopher's arm and they walked down the stairs together. She spotted Samantha and Matt at the bottom of the stairs and smirked.
When they got to the bottom, Christopher kissed the back of Delilah's hand, she curtsied, and took Matt's and Samantha's arms, as they led her down the aisle.
And after the ball was over and done with, back in Stars Hollow, Delilah, Samantha, and Matt laughed over the 'coming out ball'.