"I found chocolate turkeys!"
--☆--☆--☆--
"How much longer?" Cassie let out a tired breath as she joined Jess behind the counter.
The two of them had been left alone to close the diner. Luke claimed they could handle it, and frankly he was too tired to close himself. Everything was going fine, the usual customers came in and the two teenagers were ready with their orders and semi-polite service.
Jess tilted his head to the side to look at his watch. "Forty-five minutes," he replied as they continued to watch the two customers they had left.
"You know they were cute when they first came in," Cassie sighed as she looked at the old couple at the table. "Old people on a roadtrip to visit their grandkids. That's cute. Showing us a couple postcards, adorable."
"But then two hours passed," Jess guessed what she was going to say.
"But then two hours passed and they're still here," Cassie nodded her head in agreement. "I thought old people liked going to bed early."
"Apparently not these two. They like to keep us from enjoying a night without work."
"Big plans for a Tuesday evening?" Cassie asked him with a smile on her face as she looked over at him.
Jess scoffed at her, "Yeah right."
"Shane isn't expecting you?" Cassie asked, knowing it was a loaded question but they'd been dancing around the conversation for days, she wanted to know what was going on.
"Nope," Jess replied, not meeting Cassie's eyes.
"You know you never said what happened between you guys," Cassie remembered as she turned her head towards Jess, giving him that knowing look.
Jess nodded his head but didn't say anything. He didn't want to talk about this, in fact he's been avoiding this conversation for days. Which meant he was avoiding Cassie. It wasn't intentional, it just sort of ended up being a side effect. This was the first time they've been alone together for any extended period of time since the dance.
"You haven't said much about anything actually," She added.
"There's nothing to tell," Jess shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to talk about it.
"Oh come on," Cassie sighed as she nudged Jess' shoulder with her own. He looked at her and anyone with a brain could see the way he looked at her, but Cassie couldn't. She was the only one. "Jessica."
"Casper."
Cassie was looking right into Jess' eyes, trying to figure out what was going on between them. She knew something was different but she wasn't sure what happened or when things changed. Jess was her best friend, she didn't want to lose him.
"Hey kid," the old man spoke, making Jess and Cassie turn away from each other to look at him. "Would you mind bringing us our check?"
"Sure thing," Cassie smiled as she grabbed the check and walked it over to their table. "Enjoy everything?"
"It was great," the woman spoke this time, smiling up at Cassie as she set the check down on their table. Jess walked over to them, grabbing their empty plates so he could clean them. "Thank you both."
"Of course," Cassie kept a smile on her face as she took the money the man set out for her.
"Keep the change, you both deserve it," The old man said to them as he and the woman stood up from the table. "Have a good night."
"You too."
Jess and Cassie watched as the man and woman left the diner and headed down the street. As soon as they reached their car Cassie flipped the open sign and Jess turned out the lights. They weren't planning on having another customer even if they were supposed to stay open for another half an hour.
"Look, five bucks," Cassie showed him the tip the man left for them.
Jess shook his head as he put the plates into the dishwasher. When he walked back out Cassie was beginning to wipe down all the tables.
"You know I can finish this," Jess said, causing her to give him a confused look. "I'm sure you'd rather spend your night with Ethan."
Cassie shook her head, "Ethan left early to spend Thanksgiving with his cousins. I'm fine here."
"Oh," Jess nodded slowly.
"What was that look for?" She asked him, now giving Jess a pointed look.
"There was no look," He replied as he started putting the chairs on the tables.
"Jess."
"Yeah?"
Jess turned to look at her and Cassie opened her mouth, wanting to question him further but she stopped herself. She wasn't exactly sure why, something in her gut just told her not to say anything. So she didn't.
She shook her head calmly as a soft smile appeared on her face, "Nothing. Nevermind."
"Okay."
They both turned around and went back to work. So many things are left unspoken between them, but they aren't ready. Not yet anyway.
--☆--☆--☆--☆--☆--
"The multi-layered membrane systems of the cytoplasm are the smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and the rough endoplasmic reticulum, and the golgi body. Now the smooth endoplasmic reticulum..." as their Chemistry teacher continued lecturing Cassie sunk deeper into her daydream.
She hadn't had a single coherent thought in at least nine minutes. Every time she tried to focus on the lecture her brain darted somewhere completely different. Rory tried to get her attention and that helped for about twenty seconds before another thought crossed Cassie's mind.
The bell rang throughout the school, signaling the end of the school day. Cassie looked up, realizing just how long she'd been spacing out.
"That was really distracting," Madeline voiced as she stood up from her desk.
Paris scoffed at her, "Oh. Well, by all means, Madeline, you should point out to the faculty that their annoying custom of teaching is distracting you from more important things like nail filing and daydreaming about marrying Ryan Phillippe."
"He's already married," Louise informed her.
"Then whatever strawhead actor isn't," Paris replied, clearly annoyed by the two girls.
"This was bad. For the last five minutes, every single thing she said sounded dirty," Madeline admitted.
"Yeah, same here," Louise agreed.
"Oh?" A smirk appeared on Cassie's face as she looked at the girl.
Paris shook her head, "Good God."
"I mean, reticulum? Come on."
Louise nodded her head, "Plus, the golgi body. I mean, is it me or is that majorly pornagraphic?"
"My life with the banger sisters," Paris gave them both an annoyed look.
"So..." Rory sighed, "Changing the subject."
"Hallelujah."
"What's everybody doing for Thanksgiving?" Rory asked, looking around at the group of girls.
Paris rolled her eyes, "I can't even talk about Thanksgiving."
"Louise?"
"I'm having dinner with my dad," She answered with a smile.
Cassie's head tilted to the side in confusion, "Isn't he still in jail?"
"Yes," Louise nodded, "but his company donated some treadmills for the inmates so he swung a special trailer for dinner that they're gonna set up for us in the parking lot. We have it for about two hours and then one of the Manson girls gets it."
Madeline cringed, "You're lucky it's in that order."
"My Thanksgiving is turning into a Wes Craven movie."
"How so?" Rory asked her.
"I called shelters to volunteer to serve food. It's Thanksgiving you'd think they have needs. Nope," Paris shook her head, clearly annoyed by the whole ordeal. "Every stupid soup kitchen in town turned me down because they have enough volunteers."
"Bummer."
"I'm on a couple waiting lists, but it doesn't look good."
"How can they have too many volunteers?" Cassie asked her.
"Who are all these jackasses who volunteered anyway?" Paris asked them and they all shrugged their shoulders. "They can't all be students like me. They're not all putting it on a college application. I get something out of it and these other people don't get a thing. Talk about selfish."
"Sore subject," Louise sighed.
Rory then turned her attention to Madeline, "What are you up to?"
"I've got more college applications to fill out. Backups, safety schools," Madeline answered her.
Louise nodded in agreement, "I've got some of that, too. I'm so behind."
Paris shook her head at the two of them, like a mother looking at her daughters. "I told you guys to have those things done by now."
"Sorry, mom."
"It's not about being sorry. It's about being prepared. I got Harvard and my backups in weeks ago," She informed them, as if she hasn't reminded them everyday since she finished her applications.
Madeline let out a sigh as she held her hands up, "Okay, all you're doing is making me more nervous. I'll see you guys Monday."
"Same here."
"Yeah, Monday," Cassie nodded before looking over at her sister, "Shall we?"
"Ye-"
"Harvard is going to be expecting Thanksgiving shelter work," Paris began talking before either of the twins had a chance to escape. "They'll know I called too late and will totally impugn my organizational skills."
"Well we wouldn't want that," Cassie said, giving Paris a skeptical look.
"By the way, you know I ultimately do all these things for the good of mankind, right?" Paris asked as she looked between the two twins.
Rory nodded her head slowly, "Oh yeah."
"Sometimes I don't think I come off that way," Paris admitted and then a second later her phone began to ring. Without a minute of hesitation she answered, knowing it was one of the volunteer groups. "Nothing? But-wait. Just stick me at any old pot-"
"Now can we go?" Cassie whispered.
Rory nodded again, "Oh yeah," then the two of them calmly slipped out the door while Paris continued yelling at the volunteer groups.
"A regular Mother Teresa that girl," Cassie smiled as they walked out of the classroom.
"Oh jeez."
--☆--☆--☆--☆--☆--
"Four Thanksgiving dinners..." Cassie reminded herself as she laid in bed, not ready to face the day. "Four dinners in one day."
Lorelai broke the news to Cassie last night. Informing her that they weren't just hitting the Kims, Sookie's, and Luke's, they were also adding the grandparents into the mix. The first three would be easy, Cassie could do those in her sleep. It's the dinner with the grandparents she was worried about.
After the whole Yale incident the Stars Hollow Gilmores found themselves avoiding Friday night dinners. A few weeks had gone by since they last had to see their grandparents, and even though Cassie loved them she knew this was not going to be a drama free evening.
A knock at her door signaled the start of the day and Cassie let out a quiet groan as the door opened. Lorelai stuck her head into the room saying, "Start thinking about getting ready okay?"
"Yeah okay," Cassie nodded her head smiling at her mom before Lorelai left the room, closing the door behind her. "Four freaking dinners," Cassie scoffed at her own words as she got out of bed and prepared herself for the day.
"What's on the list?" Rory asked as the three Gilmore women headed down the block towards the market. All three of them dressed in beautiful fall colors, their outfits perfect for the holiday.
"Flowers for everyone we're visiting and cranberry sauce for the Kims," Lorelai listed.
"Tums?"
"More like amateur pills," Cassie replied to her sister. The Gilmores had decided to take four Thanksgiving dinners not as a regular event but their olympic event.
Rory shrugged her shoulders, "Just in case."
"Fine, tums," Lorelai reluctantly agreed.
Rory looked up at the market, suddenly thinking of the boy she used to go in to see. The boy she'd now been avoiding. "I'll do the flowers."
Lorelai quickly caught on as she nodded her head, "We'll do Doose's," she said, pulling her youngest daughter to her side.
"But I- fine," with an annoyed look on her face Cassie followed her mom into the store leaving Rory outside.
Rory picked out four different bouquets of flowers for all the people they were going to see throughout the day. She was so busy paying for the flowers that she didn't notice who was approaching her.
"Hey there,"
"Hey," Rory sighed as she turned around to find Jess standing behind her.
The two of them had become fairly friendly in recent days. A secret about the boy's feelings lingering between them, neither of them able to speak the truth. It wasn't her secret to share and frankly he wasn't ready to say it.
"Will you be there for Thanksgiving?" Rory asked him.
Jess nodded his head, "Yup."
"Any conversation topics I should be expecting?"
A quiet laugh fell from Jess's lips as he shook his head, "I wouldn't get your hopes up."
Rory was trying not to roll her eyes at him, knowing first hand what it's like to keep your feelings for someone a secret. Except this time she was sure that if the truth was revealed, it wouldn't end in heartbreak.
"You know I still really think you should-"
"Kirk's cat might actually try to kill him," Cassie announced, not realizing what conversation she had just interrupted. "Hey Jessica."
Jess smiled, "Hi. Uh, I need to help Luke. I'll see you guys later," he said before quickly excusing himself.
Cassie turned her head, watching him go, "Was that weird?"
Rory quickly shook her head, trying to cover for Jess. "No. Seems like normal Jess to me."
"Felt weird..."
"Where's mom?" Rory asked her sister, trying to distract her from overthinking Jess leaving them..
"Uh, she's inside," Cassie answered slowly.
"She's talking to Dean isn't she?"
Cassie nodded her head, "That's why I bolted." Rory let out a deep breath, understanding why her sister wasn't exactly keen on being around Dean. Rory still hadn't confirmed whether they dislike Dean or not, Cassie was just waiting for the verdict.
"Aw pretty!" Lorelai gushed as she walked out of the market with their groceries.
Rory nodded, "Yeah, good selection today. You get everything?"
"And then some. Look."
Rory looked into the plastic bag, "Chocolate turkeys, nice!"
"I found them!" Cassie felt the need to inform the world that the chocolate turkeys were her discovery.
"Yes, terrific find honey," Lorelai smiled at her. "So, let's go eat."
"And eat and eat," Rory smiled.
"And eat and eat and eat," Cassie joined in.
"And eat some more."
They continued this all the way to the Kim's house. Lorelai reached her fist forward, knocking on the door to the house. A moment later Mrs. Kim opened it, seeming the happiest she could be with all three Gilmore women at her front door.
"Ah, the Gilmores," She sighed, opening the door fully. "Happy Thanksgiving."
"Happy Thanksgiving," Lorelai smiled politely back at her.
Mrs. Kim stepped aside saying a quick, "Come in," to the Gilmore women.
Lorelai smiled as they walked in, before quietly whispering, "She's in a good mood this year."
"Downright Chipper," Rory agreed with her mom as they all stepped into the house. Cassie tried not to laugh, not wanting Mrs. Kim to know about their whisperings.
"So, um, Mrs. Kim, we brought gifts," Lorelai informed the woman as she glanced back at Cassie who was holding the bag from the market and Rory who was carrying multiple bouquets.
"Flowers," Rory presented to her.
"And cranberry sauce," Cassie reached into the bag and pulled out the canned cranberry sauce that they brought every year. "I guess it's our tradition."
"Thank you, can never have too much," Mrs. Kim nodded her head as Cassie's eyes widened this was probably the most polite interaction she's ever had with Mrs. Kim.
"Oh, and a chocolate turkey," Lorelai gave her with an excited smile on her face.
Mrs. Kim looked down at the chocolate turkey that was now in her hand and her smile immediately fell. "What should I do with this?"
"Oh, I don't know, let the kids share it," She shrugged.
"And then send a blank check to their dentist?" Mrs. Kim countered.
Lorelai quickly shook her head in fear, "They don't have to eat it, they can play with it."
"Play with chocolate?" She looked down at it with pure disgust before looking back up at the Gilmores. "It's missing a head."
"Oh," Lorelai quickly reached forward and took it from her before grabbing one that did have a head, "That one's ours. Here, this one has a head. There ya go."
"Okay." Was all they heard from Mrs. Kim before she turned on her head and walked away from them.
Lorelai let out a long breath, "My arms are too short to box with Mrs. Kim."
"No one's up to that challenge," Cassie pointed out and Lorelai nodded in agreement.
"The singing's already begun," Rory noted as they walked further into the house where all of the Kim family was gathered.
"Hey," Cassie snuck over to her sister as she noticed a boy sitting by the food table. "Who is that?"
Rory looked over before gasping excitedly, "Oh my god, that's Lane's Dave."
"Good for Lane," Cassie smiled, realizing just how cute the boy is. She's only heard stories of him before now but never expected him to look like that. "Look at him all neat and tidy."
"He's gone corporate."
"He's gone Korean," Lorelai interjected just as Lane Kim herself found the Gilmores.
"Hey."
"Hey, yourself. How'd you get your mom to let you-"
"Come on, girls, let's get you some punch," Lane quickly interrupted Rory's question and led them away from her family into the other room.
Cassie walked with them, or rather was ushered by Lane, "We're getting kicked out already."
"What's going on?"
"That is not Dave Rygalski," Lane told them.
The three Gilmores shared a look of confusion, none of them entirely sure what that meant. "Intrigue."
"Who is it?"
"Secret identical twin," Cassie hoped.
Lane shook her head, "I mean, not the one that I'm in a band with. That is Dave Rygalski, local Christian guitar player that my mom and I met very briefly and innocently at the dance marathon, and I coincidentally ran across again when I found his ad seeking Christian guitar accompaniment gigs up on our church bulletin board," She informed them.
"Complicated," Lorelai noted.
"And not as exciting as a secret identical twin."
"I even put the fake ad up at church and pretended to find it with my mom next to me," Lane told them.
"Woah. So are you guys dating?"
"We're laying the groundwork," Lane told them, "If she gets to know him before we date and she approves of him, we won't have to hide anything."
Lorelai nodded, "Except how you met."
"And who he really is," Rory added.
"Minor details," Cassie shrugged her shoulders.
Lane smiled at Cassie, "Exactly."
"Watch it," Mrs. Kim's voice snapped them out of their conversation allowing their attention to return to everyone else in the house. "You break it, you buy it. Ten percent off for cousins, twenty percent for nephews and nieces."
"What if we break something?" Cassie whispered to her sister.
"Don't," Rory warned her and they all rejoined the party heading towards the food table that was all set up.
As they walked Lorelai greeted everyone's names that she remembered, which was a lot considering Cassie only remembered Lane and Mrs. Kim. "Great to see you, hi. Oh, Mrs. Kim, just a beautiful table, as always," Lorelai complimented.
"Try the tofurkey. Turkey is made from tofu."
The Gilmores winced in silence, already knowing they would be tofurkey's biggest fans. But instead they all smiled politely and said, "Oh we definitely will."
"And meet the guitar player," She gestured to Dave who was sitting by the table with a guitar in his arms. "Nice young man, big fan of tofurkey. David?"
"Yes," Dave immediately stood up, not wanting to do anything to go against Mrs. Kim.
"This is Rory and Cassie Gilmore and Mrs. Gilmore."
"Hi, nice to meet you," Lorelai reached her hand out to shake his while Rory and Cassie just waved at him.
"I think I've seen you around town," Rory said to him.
Dave nodded his head, "Yeah, that might be a possibility, Happy Thanksgiving."
"Same to you."
"Hymn 17 please," Mrs. Kim requested.
Dave sat back down and picked up his guitar, "Yes ma'am."
Lorelai smiled at boy before looking at Mrs. Kim, "Wow, he seems like a very upright young man." Lane smiled, knowing that any words of encouragement might help Mrs. Kim see him as a potential boyfriend for her daughter.
"And not a bad sight-reader either," Mrs. Kim quietly complimented him before walking off.
"You're taking tofurkey?" Rory whispered to her mom when she was sure Mrs. Kim couldn't hear her.
Lorelai nodded her head, "Uh huh, and extra napkins to slip the tofurkey into when no one is looking and then toss away."
"Very smart," Cassie acknowledged as she grabbed quite a few napkins and a minimal amount of tofurkey.
The Gilmores quietly took their seats in the back hoping to go unnoticed by Mrs. Kim. However there's a small chance Mrs. Kim is psychic as she watched the Gilmores everytime they tried to sneak tofurkey into a napkin. So instead of going by without ever having to eat a tofu based meat the three women were forced into eating the tofurkey.
They made a quick exit after that. The three of them were now heading down the block towards Sookie's, a grumpy expression present on all their faces.
"The best laid plans," Rory shook her head.
"Tell me about it."
"How do you feel?" Rory asked her sister who had been unusually quiet since the moment the tofurkey went into her mouth.
"It's Thanksgiving and I ate fake turkey, how do you think I feel?" Cassie responded.
"Drat that Mrs. Kim for never looking away from us the entire time we were eating... it's like she was anticipating my napkin maneuver," Lorelai shook her head.
They walked up to Sookie's yard, seeing that everyone was already outside. Sookie was quietly sitting at a picnic table, looking at the gathering of people near her front porch.
"Hi hon!" Lorelai warmly greeted her best friend.
"Happy Thanksgiving," The twins said in unison.
"Ah, Thank you. Thank god civilization has arrived," She smiled as the Gilmore women sat around her.
"What's wrong?"
Sookie laughed, "What's wrong? Uh, do you not see what's going on here?" She asked as she looked behind her where the people seemed to be gathered around something.
"What's that?"
"That," Sookie looked over her shoulder, "is a vat of boiling oil."
"Really? Where's Quasimodo?" Lorelai couldn't help but smile.
Sookie frowned at her, "This is not a joking matter," she replied in probably the most serious tone Cassie's ever heard come from her.
"What's the oil for?" Rory asked her.
"For pouring of visigoths."
"Lorelai!"
"When else am I gonna get to use my visigoth material?" Lorelai replied.
"Why do you have visigoth material readily available?" Cassie countered.
"What's the oil for?" Rory asked again, trying to get them to move off the topic of visigoths.
"The turkey," Sookie finally answered as a curious expression appeared on the faces of all three Gilmore women. "My beautiful, expensive, organically grown turkey."
Lorelai shook her head, "I don't get it."
"A couple of days ago, Jackson asked me if he could cook the turkey-"
"Rookie mistake," Cassie was already shaking her head. She knew well that Sookie is a world class Chef, and you do not, under any circumstances, mess with a world class chef on Thanksgiving.
"-I thought he was gonna roast it, stick a couple of onions around it, something simple. So I said yes, figuring that the minute he puts it in the oven and leaves the kitchen, I can sneak in and give it a nice herb-butter rub and stuff it with a pancetta-chestnut stuffing."
"Sure, cause he'd never notice that," Lorelai laughed.
"Exactly," Sookie nodded, not getting the joke. "Then the propane tank arrived, and the industrial burner, and the fifteen gallons of peanut oil. Then he springs it on me, 'I'm gonna deep fry a turkey."
"Deep fried turkey," Lorelai repeated.
"Interesting."
"At least it sounds better than tofurkey."
"I tried to talk him out of it, but I'd already promised and he was excited about it," Sookie sighed with a saddened expression on her face.
One of the men Jackson invited moved towards the picnic table they were sitting at, wanting to talk to Sookie. "Hey, what's keeping Jackson? Is he on the pot or something?"
"The pot," Cassie repeated with a smile.
"Lots of precious memories in the making here."
"Hey Jackson, get your butt out here with that gobbler!" The man yelled loud enough that they could probably hear him from Lane's house.
"Maybe it won't be that bad," Rory hoped.
"Yeah, deep frying is kind of in now," Lorelai added.
Sookie shook her head, "I don't care. You don't deep fry turkey. A filet of fish, yes. A batch of fries, yes. A donut, yes. Not turkey."
"Come on, let's get going!" The man yelled again.
"We're hungry!" Another one chimed in.
Then the chanting started, all the men outside raised their fists saying, "Jackson, Jackson, Jackson..." over and over again.
That's when the front door opened and Jackson walked out, "Did someone say... Jackson?" He proudly held up the turkey and the men started cheering.
Lorelai looked around in amusement, "Wow, it's like Thunderdome in here."
"He should've just driven it out on a monster truck," Sookie added as she watched the men gather around her husband. "He's shamelessly catering to his demographic."
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah!" The crowd and Cassie cheered, which of course earned herself a sad look from Sookie. "Sorry. Sorry. Heat of the moment."
"I can't look," Sookie admitted.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..."
"Oh my god, they're counting down," She gasped.
"Five, four, three, two, one!" and just like that the turkey was lowered into the vat and everyone began cheering loudly.
Lorelai turned and looked at Sookie who was still hiding her head in her hands. "It's in the vat."
"It's like a death in the family."
"Oh, hey guys," Jackson smiled at the Gilmore women like he didn't just accidentally break his wife's heart by putting the turkey in a vat of oil. "Neat, huh? And it only takes forty minutes."
"Cool," Lorelai smiled.
"Forty minutes," Cassie repeated, still unable to hide how amused she was.
"How ya doing, hon?"
"Oh fine, Sweets," Sookie smiled up at him. Jackson walked away and Lorelai immediately handed her a beer. "And keep them coming."
"Well hopefully we've maxed out on weird Thanksgivings," Rory quietly hoped as she whispered to her sister.
Cassie laughed a little remembering that they're supposed to go to their Grandparents later. She already knew they hadn't maxed out on anything yet. Except maybe weird ways to serve turkey. "Yeah, hopefully."
a/n: hey guys, sorry it took me a little while to post this but I'm hoping to have pt. 2 of this episode up soon. I wanted you guys to know that I've read all the comments you left on the last chapter concerning Jess and Cassie, from what I saw a majority of you wanted them together at some point. Personally I haven't decided how to handle their relationship yet but I am excited to dive into it more. < 3