THE PROS AND CONS OF RUMMAGE SALES
WITH their heads teetering off the end of the bed, Hayden and Rory lay side by side watching upside down as their mother raked through her closet in search of something to donate to Stars Hollow's first charity rummage sale "Absolutely nothing."
Rory scoffed "Oh come on."
"I'm sorry, I'm looking but there is nothing in here." She shrugged, turning to the pair.
Hayden turned onto her side, propping her head up with her elbow "You're kidding right?"
"No, everything in here I wear."
Rory rolled off the bed to look for herself "What?"
"I do." Lorelai defended "There's nothing to give up."
"The red and black halter top?" Rory suggested.
Their mother immediately shook her head "Oh, no."
"Why?"
"Uh, it's a classic."
Hayden snorted "It has rhinestones, zebra stripes and tassels."
Lorelai's lips pursed "I fail to see your point."
"Tassels, mom." Rory deadpanned "Tassels."
"Okay, I've had this since I was 17."
Hayden flopped back onto the bed "Is it any wonder you had two kids by then."
"Hey," Lorelai pointed to her "I was a hot mom in this."
Rory lifted her eyebrows "Did we mention the tassels?"
Lorelai pouted "You guys are heartless and unsentimental."
"And you are a hopeless packrat." Rory shot back, slumping back onto the bed beside her sister.
"I don't understand why I have to up root my happy family of clothing anyway." Lorelai argued.
Hayden raised an eyebrow "Because it's a charity rummage sale."
"I know."
"That you helped organize." Rory added.
Lorelai still shrugged "Ok."
Hayden shook her head in amusement "And volunteered to run."
"It was very, very hot in that room that day, I was dehydrated." She defended "They could've talked me into anything."
Rory scoffed "It was your idea!"
"Okay, I am a very sick woman and that should be apparent to anyone."
Hayden groaned and rolled off the bed this time "Okay, get out of the way."
Lorelai was quick to stretch her arms across the closet in a panic "What are you doing?"
"Step away from the closet." Hayden told her softly "It's for the best."
Her mother whimpered but did as told, moving to sit beside Rory who pat her knee in mock sympathy as they watched Hayden scour the closet, pulling out clothing after clothing "Outdated. Ugly. Tacky. So last season. Never should've been in season." Hayden's eyes widen as she pulled out a plaid blazer and skirt set and turned to Lorelai "God, gingham? Who are you, your mother?"
"For Halloween, yes." Lorelai shot back "That was my costume in '84. I dressed you two as my little servants, disappointment one and two."
"Okay, we need to see pictures of that." Hayden told her before dutifully tossing the suit into the donate box "And then they need to be framed and gifted to Grandma at Christmas."
Rory got to her feet and headed over to their mother's dresser and pulled open the top drawer "Mom, I want you to come over here and take out everything that you'd be embarrassed to be wearing during a car accident and then meet us downstairs."
Lorelai shook her head "There couldn't possibly be anything I'd be embarrassed ab—" her lips pursed as Rory pulled out a shirt with a picture of David Hasselhoff captioned 'Don't hassle the Hoff' and got to her feet, marching over to the dresser sheepishly as she grabbed the shirt "I'll be right down."
☕️
WITH the Gilmore girls home the hub for all things rummage, Hayden, Rory and Lane worked together to organise the donations. Rory pulled a sweater free from the black trash bag "Sweater?"
Lane held up her hands "Over here."
Rory tossed it her way before pulling out some denim "Jeans?"
"Behind you." Hayden told her as she sorted shoes by size.
Rory nodded, tossing them behind her before pulling out a fluffy hat "A big furry purple thing that could be either a hat, a toilet paper cover or some kind of dirty hand puppet."
"Mystery box on the left." Lane told her.
Hayden looked over at it and scoffed "More like my room. Gimme!"
Rory shook her head in amusement as she tossed the hat to her sister who plopped it on her head with a grin "Now you look like mom's alarm clock."
The sound of the front door opening and closing had the three look over to see Luke entering, two bags in hand "Hey."
"Hey, Luke." Hayden smiled.
"Nice hat." He told her and she beamed, shooting her sister a smug look before he held up his bags "Where do you want these?"
Lane looked to him curiously "What do you have?"
"Clothes, rags and some old pots and pans."
"Kitchenware can go in the kitchen and the clothes can go right over there." Rory told him, pointing towards the window.
As Luke did as told, setting down the clothes before heading towards the kitchen, a pouting Lorelai made her way down box in hand, handing it to Rory as she glanced between her daughters "Here."
"Thank you."
Lorelai's smile returned as she questioned "Who wants cheese?"
Hayden perked up "Are there crackers?"
"Somewhere in the state of Connecticut, yes there are crackers."
Hayden raised an eyebrow "And the Gilmore house?"
"Cracker-less." She admitted "Who wants cheese?"
"Me please." Lane smiled before holding up a donated poster "Um, kittens in the toilet poster?"
Rory frowned in disbelief "Another one?"
"This one's signed."
"Ah!" Lorelai suddenly yelled "There a man in my kitchen, somebody call the constable!"
Luke was shaking his head as he came back into the living room "You're mom's a fruit cake."
Lorelai smiled as she followed "Fruit cakes by the door please."
"Good bye girls, I wish you luck." Luke waved at the twins before glancing at their mother who continued to smile "With everything."
"I appreciate that." Rory told him, stuffing her hands into her pockets.
Hayden gave him a two fingered salute "If I don't show up for my shift later you know she's finally lost it and killed me."
"I'll name a dish after you." Luke waved her off, heading towards the door.
Once Luke was gone, Lorelai clapped her hands together "Okay, so rummage sale's Sunday, today is Tuesday. At this rate, we are going to be sleeping in the yard by Thursday. We have got to start getting some of this stuff out of the living room."
Just as Lorelai tossed Lane the packaged slices of cheese, a knock came on the door before Taylor stepped in "Hello?"
Lorelai whimpered quietly "Go away."
"I have a full set of dishes." Taylor held up the brown paper bags.
"Come on in Taylor." Rory told him.
Lorelai turned to him "Oh, um, dishes in the kitchen please."
"Okay, but I have to explain something first." Taylor began.
"Fine go ahead."
Taylor was sheepish "The butter dish has a small chip in it."
Lorelai nodded "Safety tip - got it."
"It's fine." He quickly assured "I filed down the chip and if you place it strategically on the table, nobody will ever know."
"Uh, Taylor, would you like to write out some sort of instruction manual to go with the dishes?" Lorelai quipped sarcastically.
But he didn't pick up on it as he gushed "Oh, could I?"
"Notepad's in the kitchen." She sighed and watched as he rushed towards the room before peering into one of the bags Luke had donated and perked up as she pulled out a zipped sweatshirt "Ooh, that's nice."
"Put that back." Rory told her.
Lorelai frowned as she held it to her torso "But it has rhinestones on it."
"The point of this is to get crap out of here, not to trade it in for new crap." Rory argued, eyes drifting to Hayden pointedly, more so the fluffy hat on her head "Something your daughter didn't get the memo for."
"Hey Missy," Hayden turned to her with narrowed eyes "I'm also your sister."
Lorelai gestured to the sweatshirt in her hands "Okay, are you seeing this?"
Rory sighed "Yes I am."
"No, I don't think you are, because if you were seeing this, you would see that this obviously has 'Lorelai' written all over it." She argued before gesturing to her youngest daughter "Just like that hat screams Hayden."
Rory rolled her eyes as her sister smirked smugly "Fine. We'll just get rid of them at next year's sale."
"Thank you." They chirped in sync.
The side door opened as Sookie rushed in, a huge grin on her face "Okay, you guys are gonna love me."
"We already love you." Lorelai told her.
"I however would love you even more if you brought some Sookie Cookies." Hayden looked to her hopefully.
Sookie pointed to her "No, but I can make some after I give you something else to love." She held up a stack of card "I have here in my hand, as requested by Ms. Lorelai Gilmore, five fabulous tickets to the Bangles at the Pastorella theater on Saturday!"
Hayden dropped the shoe she was holding in shock "Shut up."
"What?" Lorelai gushed.
Rory's eyes widened "No!"
Sookie looked between them as Lane admired the tickets "Do you love me?"
"Oh baby do I!" Lorelai shot back.
"Are these good seats?" Lane questioned "These look like good seats."
Sookie nodded "It's 9th row, aisle."
"I can't believe you got me my tickets!" Lorelai shook her head "How did you score these?"
"Remember the Birnbaum wedding?"
Lorelai's eyebrow's raised in surprise "Fiji fantasy?"
"Yes. They were so thrilled with the volcano wedding cake that they wanted to do something nice for me and since Mr. Birnbaum runs a ticket agency and I knew you were dying to so, so I asked him if he could..."
"Make five girls very happy." Lorelai finished.
Sookie nodded animatedly "Yeah and he did!"
"Huzzah for the Birnbaums!"
Rory hesitated "Hey Sookie, if you got five tickets and you and mom go, then that means..."
"There's three left..." Hayden added, eyes alight with hope.
"Hmm," Sookie hummed playfully before grinning "one for you and you and one for Lane!"
Hayden let out a squeal as she and Lane rushed to hug Sookie while Rory beamed before Lorelai sighed wistfully "This is gonna be a very special night. And you know what a very, very special night deserves?"
"What?" Hayden questioned, pulling away from Sookie.
Lorelai smirked as she picked out a hot pink mini dress from the donation pile "A new outfit!"
"Mom." Rory warned.
She smiled in innocently "Yes?"
"No."
☕️
SITTING in her history class, Hayden doodled on the edge of her purple legal pad, chin resting in her palm as Ms. Caldecott droned on unaware that Tristan had his eyes glued to her "As I mentioned yesterday, we will be holding a debate next week. Your subject 'Did Charles I receive a fair trial'. The pros will represent the parliament who deemed they had sovereignty and the cons will represent the monarch and try and prove that the charge against him was not legal." She paused for a moment before noticing her distracted student "What is fascinating Mr. Dugray?"
He snapped to attention, dragging his gaze away "Uh... nothing Ms. Caldecott."
She raised a challenging eyebrow "Nothing, Mr. Dugray?"
"My notes." He corrected with a charming smile "My notes are fascinating Ms. Caldecott."
"Yes, they are fascinating Mr. Dugray." She continued "As I was saying, the pro and con teams will each have two minutes and 30 seconds for introductions, six minutes to debate, three minutes for conclusions and five minutes for questions from the audience. The winner shall be decided by a hand count from the rest of the class." She sighed silently as she watched Tristan's gaze move back to Hayden "Does that sound like fun Mr. Dugray?"
"What?" he questioned, eyebrows furrowed.
Ms. Caldecott folded her arms across her chest "The debate. Does it sound like fun?"
"Yes, it does."
"It does, doesn't it Mr. Dugray?"
He nodded animatedly "Oh, it absolutely does Ms. Caldecott."
She raised a knowing eyebrow "More fun than staring at Miss. Gilmore like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time?"
The class snickered as Hayden's cheeks flushed, but her lips parted slightly in surprise as she turned her head to look at her boyfriend who despite his embarrassment at being called out, couldn't help but smile as their eyes met "I wish I could say yes, Ms. Caldecott but that would be a lie."
"Yes, that's what I thought." Their teacher sighed, but held back a smile as she shook her head "Us teachers hear the gossip around the halls too, so why don't we keep young love out of the classroom, okay?" Hayden bit her lip to hide her grin as she turned away from Tristan but gave the expectant woman a nod as did the Dugray boy "Good, I'll assign your teams. You, you, you, you and you- con." She gestured between the five at the back before pointing at Madeline, Louise, Hayden, Rory and Paris respectively "You, you, you, you and you- pro."
As their teacher moved on to direct the rest of the class in their teams, Paris' eyes widened in horror as she whispered to Madeline and Louise "Who did she point to?"
"Definitely Hayden." Louise confirmed with a pleased smirk "Thank God for that."
Madeline nodded before grimacing slightly as she caught Paris' eye twitch and her gaze drifted to Rory "And well, I think..."
Paris got to her feet, tucking her hands behind her back "Excuse me, Ms. Caldecott?"
Their teacher paused in her delegation "Miss. Gellar?"
"I wasn't sure who you pointed to just now."
"Oh, uh. Let's see-- you, Miss. Lynn, Miss. Grant and Misses. Gilmore and Gilmore."
Paris failed toehold back a frown as she glanced to the twins who sent her matching sarcastic smiles "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am. But thank you for asking."
Rory sighed as she leant back in her seat to speak quietly to her sister behind her "This is gonna be bad, isn't it?"
Hayden blew out a breath, leaning forward on her arms as she glanced to a sullen Paris who sat in front of Tristan "Like Al's salute to Paraguay."
Rory whined "Oh, man."
☕️
AS class ended, Hayden packed up her belongings and headed for the door only to chuckle as hands wrapped around from behind, staying there until they made it out into the crowded hall. The Gilmore girl smirked as she spun in Tristan's arms, peering up at him with a raised eyebrow "So, I distract you, huh?"
"All the time." He admitted honestly, thumb absentmindedly caressing her side "From the moment I saw you, you're all I can think about."
Hayden's heart skipped as her smirk softened, lips parting once again in shock, but the Dugray boy soon took advantage of her surprise and gently placed his lips against her own. Hayden's eyes fluttered shut as she melded into the kiss, hands moving to the front of his blazer, pressed against his chest as his arms drew her tighter. It was just the two of them in the empty hallway of Chilton...
Except of course for the dozens of students just trying to swap out their books before their next class. Rory rolled her eyes as she closed her locker door before making her way over to the couple and grabbed hold of the back of her sister's blazer "Excuse us." Rory ignored her sister's protests as she dragged Hayden away from an amused Tristan before stopping in front of Paris, Madeline and Louise "So I guess we should make a plan."
Madeline's eyebrows furrowed "To do what?"
"To work out our debate Madeline." Paris deadpanned.
"Oh, yeah right." She nodded, rocking on her heels.
Louise sighed "We need a place to work."
"My house is out." Paris declared instantly.
The blonde raised an eyebrow "Why?"
"Because it is."
"You need a reason."
Paris rolled her eyes "My mother is having the entire place redone, she wants all evidence of my father out of there. So unless you want to sit on no furniture, while watching three Harvey Fierstein impersonators rip up the carpet and paint everything a ridiculous shade of white and call it 'angel's kiss' then we're going to have to find somebody else's house to go to."
Madeline shrugged "My brother has the measles."
"My mom's having an affair." Louise pulled out her home.
Hayden silently groaned as she shared a look with Rory before sighing "I guess we can go to our house."
"We're having a town rummage sale so it's kind of a mess, but it's there." Rory added.
"Isn't your house kind of far?" Louise questioned.
Rory shrugged "It's thirty minutes away by bus."
"Bus?" The blonde scoffed "I don't do bus."
"Not even if the driver's cue?" Hayden teased earning a mocking glare.
Rory looked to the Grant girl "Well if you have a better suggestion--"
"I'll drive." Paris interjected in defeat "After school?"
"We have dance." Hayden denied, gesturing between herself and Madeline and Louise "And then I have a shift at Luke's."
Madeline's head tilted "Luke's?"
"Diner."
"You work in a diner?" Paris questioned, eyebrows raising.
Hayden's haunches tensed at her tone "Not of all us were born into a trust fund, Gellar."
Rory pursed her lips awkwardly "Ok, so then tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow." Madeline confirmed with a blissful smile as Louise nodded reluctantly.
"Fine." Paris muttered, gaze falling on Hayden.
The Gilmore girl shook her head, scoffing under her breath as she looked away from Paris "Fine."
☕️
DEPARTING from the bus, Hayden stepped foot into Star's Hollow town square before heading towards the diner for her evening shift but paused at the sign in the window advertising her mother's rummage sale. With a shake of her head she headed inside, ignoring the jingling of the bell overhead before making her way behind there counter. She dropped her bags off by the staircase before grabbing her apron and tying it over the Chilton lacrosse sweatshirt she'd (permanently) borrowed from Tristan and sidled her way beside her boss "Hey Luke, someone put a sign for the rummage sale up in your window over there. You should probably call the cops about this. I mean we all know how you feel about public displays of town affection."
He rolled his eyes at her dramatics "Your mom asked me to put it there okay?"
"And you said yes?" She scoffed "Man, you are whipped."
"She's not real good with no." He defended.
Hayden shook her head mockingly "And yet I tell her it everyday."
Luke shot her a look before raising an eyebrow "You get your homework done?"
"Most of it." She gave him a convincing smile "On the bus."
He nodded knowingly "And by most of it you meant you haven't even started?"
She slumped in defeat, he always seemed to know when she lied "Yes."
"Go." He gestured to the reserved table at the back, away from the windows and therefore any distractions "Do your homework while I go make you something to eat and then you can help around here."
Hayden sighed as she made her way over to grab her book bag but there was a warmth inside her at his gesture. She had just taken a seat, textbook lay out before her when the door opened and she watched with a raised eyebrow as her mother joined her wearing her donated rhinestone zipped sweatshirt along with her latest grab, a leopard print cowboy hat "Margaret Atworthy just dropped off three boxes of city council pot holders and begged me to take her grandson. People are getting crazy man."
"Speaking of crazy..." Hayden's eyebrows lifted "The hat..."
"What hat?"
Hayden snorted "The one on your head, Annie Oakley."
Lorelai grinned as she reached up to brush the brim "It's great isn't it?"
"It's something."
The pair looked over the door opened and watched as a sullen Rory made her way over and Lorelai frowned "What's got you all frowny?"
"Mrs. Kim is holding Lane hostage." Rory sighed "No Bangles in her future."
"Oh no, that sucks." Lorelai sympathised.
Rory nodded in agreement before finally spotting the hat on her mother's head and groaned "As nice as it is that you're single handedly trying to rebuild the bridge, you have got to stop buying up other people's junk."
"The money goes to charity. I look cute. Case closed." Lorelai defended with a shrug before spotting Luke approach, plate in one hand, coffee pot in the other "Oh finally, the coffee cavalry arrives."
The plate clattered on the table as he faltered before righting himself, eyes on Lorelai "What the hell do you think you're wearing?"
"A hat."
"Take that off."
She frowned "What?"
"Now. That is not yours, take it off." He ordered.
"But I'll have hat hair."
Luke scowled "I'm talking about the sweatshirt."
Lorelai shared a glance with her daughters "Luke, calm down."
"That is not yours!"
"No, I found it in the bags of stuff for the sale."
He scoffed "Oh, so you just find something and then you take it is that it?"
"No, I paid for it." Lorelai defended.
"So that makes it alright?" He sneered.
"It makes it legal." She spoke slowly, utterly confused by his attitude "What is the matter with you?"
He shook his head, voice tight "Nothing. Nothing's the matter."
Lorelai frowned "Luke..."
"Pour your own coffee." He snapped, setting the pot down on the table with a rattle, making the three flinch as he stormed off upstairs.
Lorelai gawked as she turned to her daughters "What was that?"
"I don't know..." Rory admitted.
"Maybe you should go." Hayden told her mother softly "Give him so space to cool off."
Lorelai sighed but nodded, nudging Rory to stand "C'mon." She raised an eyebrow at Hayden "You gonna be okay here?"
"Yeah, I got this." She assured.
☕️
AFTER taking a much needed breather, Luke cursed quietly as he remembered he had a diner ti run and rushed downstairs only to find the place empty. His eyebrows furrowed knowing they were still open for another hour before hearing a muffled yelp coming from the kitchen. Making his way behind there counter, he head inside only to find it covered in flour, batter and broken eggs, much like Hayden who lay in the middle of the floor. Luke's eyes widened before he raced forward, careful not to slip on the eggs as he reached down to help her up "You okay, Hayden?"
"I don't know what cracked more, the eggs or my dignity." She muttered before wincing as she looked to the mess she'd made "I-I was trying to make pancakes for Kirk but then Andrew wanted a cheeseburger but I kept burning the patty and then Taylor wanted eggs Benedict but I don't know what that means, I mean, did the chicken they came from have a name? Was it Benedict? But that's a boys name and chickens are girls. They are girls, right?"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Luke grabbed her arms gently "Yes, chicken's are girls."
"At least I got that right." She mumbled before pulling away and heading back towards the bowl she'd been throwing together the pancake batter "I'll just finish Kirk's pancakes and then I can start Taylor's--"
Luke glanced back to the empty diner "I don't think you need to worry about it, everyone's gone."
"They left?" Hayden whipped around, almost slipping in her mess once more but Luke quickly caught her and her face fell "Luke, I'm so sorry, I was trying to take care of everything but I made a mess because I don't know how to cook and now I've scared all our customers away and--"
"Hey, hey." Luke was quick to cut her off "It's okay, it's my fault. I-I overreacted and left you here alone. This is on me. Thank you for trying, Hayden. I'm proud of you."
Her heart soared at his words before she gave him a sympathetic smile "The sweatshirt was Rachels, wasn't it?"
He sighed heavily, giving her a small nod "Yeah, it was."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He waved her off before his lips twitched up at the sight of her covered form.
She glanced down at herself and winced as she looked around "I'll clean this up."
"Sure." He murmured before raising an eyebrow "Then how about I teach you how to make my chocolate chip pancakes?"
Hayden nodded, a smile growing on her lips "I'd like that."