The Gilmores have a caffeine addiction and the best coffee in Stars Hollow comes from Luke's, the diner that once was a hardware store.
"Please, Luke. Please, please, please." Lorelai Gilmore, the mother, begs for another cup of coffee.
"How many cups have you had today?" Luke Danes, the owner of the diner, asks a simple question that holds a terrifying answer.
"None." She's lying with all of her teeth.
"Plus..."
"Five, but yours is better." She smiles and he melts inside, the human eye doesn't see his reaction, he hides it too well.
"You have a problem."
"Yes, I do." Lorelai hands Luke the cup and he pours coffee into it, reluctantly. "Angel. You've got wings baby."
Two girls come running from the door.
"Hey. It's freezing" One of them makes that remark as she sits down.
"I can't feel my hands." The other one adds with the most dramatic tone ever as she sits down next to her mother and twin sister.
Their names are Rory and Emma. Rory is a short for Lorelai and Emma was inspired by Emily, their grandmother's name. They are very similar but still easily distinguishable. They both have brown hair and blue eyes, just like their mother, but Emma's hair is lighter and slightly wavier, just like their father.
"Oh, what do you need? Hot tea, coffee?"
"Lip gloss." The girls chanted in unison as their mother reached her purse.
"I have vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and toasted marshmallow."
"Anything in there not resembling a breakfast cereal?" Rory inquired.
"Yes." Lorelai digs in her purse. "It has no smell but it changes color with your mood."
"Rupaul doesn't need this much makeup." Emma said. "But give the strawberry one, please."
"I guess I'll take the mood swinging one."
"You're crabby."
"I lost my Macy Gray CD." Emma ranted.
"I have it." Lorelai hands the CD to her daughter with a "I'm sorry" look in her eyes.
"Thief." Emma's voice has a sad mean tone to it, but with a "I forgive you" look in her eyes. "I also need caffeine."
"We need caffeine." Rory corrects her sister.
"I'll get it." The mother goes to the counter. Luke refuses to give her those two cups of coffee and they leave hunting for those hot cups of coffee.
✯✯✯
Rory, Emma and their best friend Lane are walking to school.
"When will you let your parents know that you listen to the evil rock music?" Rory asks holding Lane's denim jacket as the friend changes to some clothes that her very conservative catholic mother disapproves of.
"And that you're in a band?" Emma adds holding the stack of 'forbidden' bracelets that Lane was about to put on.
"If my parents still get upset over the obscene portion size of American food, I seriously doubt I'm gonna make any inroads with Eminem and my secret drum kit."
They stopped next to a sign as Rory handed Lane her denim jacket. The sign was about this Teen Hayride that was happening in Stars Hollow.
"I have to go to that." Lane confessed.
"The hayride? You're kidding"
"Poor girl."
"My parents set me up with the son of a business associate. He's going to be a doctor." They continued their walk to Stars Hollow High, leaving the horrific sign behind.
"I wonder what Dave will say about that." Emma smiled as she spoke and Lane blushed.
"Shut up." She hit her friend in the arm, softly.
"How old is he?"
"Sixteen."
"So, he's going to be a doctor in 100 years?"
"Yep. Also, I'm going with his older brother, a med student."
"Now, you're kidding."
"I wish, but Koreans never joke about doctors."
Emma stopped listening to the conversation after the 100 years remark. She got distracted. Her gaze wandered around and ended up focusing on someone she so desperately wanted to ignore. The name is Michelle and, in the Gilmore's eyes, she's actually a monster from hell. They were once best friends, confidents with an unbroken bond, until New Year's Day.
The clock hadn't strike midnight yet. The year 2000 hadn't come yet. However, Emma felt that everything was ending, not just her year but her whole world.
Her blue eyes saw Michelle making out with the devil itself: Adam Snivellus, the guy that had tormented Emma's life since 5th grade, from straightforward insults about her body, clothes and overall appearance to making up stupid rumours about her and her "family of whores", just because Lorelai got pregnant at 16 and because Adam is a real son of a bitch.
The 31st of December was the worst day of her life. She tasted the bitterness of betrayal. She felt anger and sadness pulsing in her veins. And, although she wanted to scream at them, she didn't, she ran from confrontation and never said what she felt, what she was feeling, how the knife in her back had wounded her whole body and soul. She went quiet. She left her toxic 'friends' and found comfort in Rory and Lane. The toxicity was inhuman before. Michelle made Emma think badly about her own twin sister and Lane, she made the Gilmore girl feel ashamed about her own name. She was broken.
Hopefully, the saviours came and they glued the shattered pieces of Emma's hope with gold, turning her ache into a beautiful kintsugi vase. Emma can't understand how Rory and Lane managed to forgive her for the things she said to them in the past. She can't possibly understand how they forgave her and even helped her stand up from the ground.
Six months after it, Lane and Emma decided to create a band. Rory had a lack of musical talent so she just proclaimed herself the manager. The girls found Dave, the guitarist, and Brian, the bassist, and "Oblivion" was born in the beginning of the summer.
✯✯✯
The bell rang and they headed to band practice. It was in Rory and Emma's garage.
They were setting the drums and getting the amplifiers ready when the boys showed up.
"Hello!" Brian announced himself.
"How are you?" Dave's question was for everyone but mostly for Lane, the girl that he kissed as a hello. They were together from 2 months now. They were so cute and so in love that it was almost unreal. It was the purest and prettiest forbidden love ever. They even wrote songs for each other... One day, at the end of July, Dave came in to band practice with a fullmade song. It was called Neon Signs and it was obviously about Lane. The hook was 'I follow the neon signs to your heart'. Personally, I think it's really romantic. Especially because, a week later, Lane showed up to band practice also with a fullmade song called Don't get the deal. It was a response, a poetic and heart-warming response. It was about how sickly in love she was.
"Better now that you're here."
"That was the sappiest thing you've ever said, Lane." Emma declared. Lane made a funny face at her.
"I'm going to get some drinks. Be right back." Rory went to the kitchen and the band started to practice.
"I have this idea for a riff for that new song idea, Emma." Dave spoke as he picked up his guitar.
"For the Hell is a teenage girl one?"
"Yeah that one. I think that in the build up there should be an overlapped guitar playing something like this." He played the riff and it was incredible. "What do you guys think?"
"I like it. We should play it to see if it fits. At least the build up part." Lane suggested.
"Okay."
They ended playing it from the top. Rory came back in the middle of the song with a tray of drinks. She couldn't help but being mesmerized. They were so good together and their songs were getting better each day. She couldn't help but feel immensely proud of her sister. Emma's voice was belting as the big drop hit and Dave's guitar riff was mixed in perfectly.
They rehearsed a few more times and a few more songs. Me & My Dog was one of them. They made a pact to always play that song in every band practice. It was the best way to never forget it. It was the most effective way to never forget the first song they ever wrote together. Emma remembers it as if it was yesterday... Brian had just lost his dog, he was miserable, so, to cheer him up, Emma said "Don't think of death that way. Actually, don't think of death at all, Brian. Just picture your dog on a spaceship heading to eternity, to the greatest of infinites: space." And that's where the line 'I wish I was on a spaceship. Just me and my dog and an impossible view.' The rest of the song didn't really have anything to do with Brian's dog. However, it was about the friendship they were building with guitar strings and drum sticks.
"Girls!" They heard a voice coming from the driveway. It was Lorelai. She was carrying two paper bags and Sookie was right behind her with her typical foolish smile. Rory and Emma stepped away from the band and ran to their mother. "I have something for you." She handed the paper bags to her daughters.
There was a blue pleated skirt in each of their bags.
"Are we going to be on a Britney Spears music video?" Rory said ironically.
"Oh my God. I would love that" Emma said unironically.
"No. You're both -" Lorelai was interrupted by Sookie's voice:
"You're going to Chilton." She looked at Lorelai's frown. "Sorry."
"Mom?" They called at the same time.
"You did it. You both got in!" She went and hugged her little babies very tight. They were not so little anymore.
"How did this happen?" Rory inquired, pulling away from her mother's arms.
"You didn't... with the principal, did you?" Emma also inquired but still in her mother's embrace.
"No, honey, that was a joke." She brushed her daughter's hair with tenderness and they ended the hug. "They have two open spots. You're gonna start on Monday!"
"I can't believe this! We're going to Chilton!"
"We are going to Chilton!" Emma gave an emphases on the word We, because she knew her bright sister would get in. However, as much as she wanted to go too and as much she deserved it, she never felt good enough. Yes, Emma was also incredibly smart, but she wasted too much time hanging out with the wrong crowd and not focusing on school as much as Rory, as much as she should've done. Emma was astonished.
They ran back to the band and shared the news. Everybody was gloriously happy for them.
Lorelai looked at her daughters' euphoria and told herself that it wasn't the right time to mention that she had taken a loan from her parents to pay for her daughters' education and, that in exchange, they had to go to dinner every friday night with Emily and Richard.
She would tell them soon. Very soon. On friday, just before the dinner, just after their first week of school at Chilton.