This Is Me | Gilmore Girls

Part 3: Moving In & Arguing

Summer 2000

It was finally happening. Now that her cast was off and the summer break had started she was moving into the garage apartment. A couple weeks before she moved in Rory had used the apartment to study for her finals in quiet and opened the skylight and several windows as it had been well into the mid-90s. Unfortunately she forgot to close them afterwards and a huge rainstorm that weekend caused water damage ruining several pieces of furniture and a number of large electronics after they had been left sitting like that for over a week. As she didn't have renter's insurance yet and the damage wasn't covered by Lorelai's policy as it was caused by negligence, a fact that Rory had for some reason mentioned while Lorelai was on the phone with them, she had to buy new furniture.

She ended up replacing the entire living room set before picking up an entire dining room set from Kim's Antiques which was having yet another 50% off sale. Somehow I even managed to convince Luke to help me find someone to fix the water damaged windows and skylight. It was even done before she moved in and her new furniture and her things from Manhattan arrived. The version of her that was here beforehand had even built her own computer which was now set up in the master bedroom which she moved into after donating her parent's bed set and redoing the room in her own style while turning her old room into a guest room.

A major thing that occurred in this life from her memories is that she was apparently friends with Jess Mariano and had been since they were 9 and met at the park. Jess had spent most of his days with her family to the point her mom paid for him to join her dance classes just to make sure he wouldn't have to be around his father longer then absolutely necessary. Jess had even kept with it, joining her in competitions as they got older.

He even let her mom create a custodial brokerage account for him that he could access once he was 18 with his winnings which meant neither of his parents could take the money. They were still in contact, calling each other often but it seemed as though his mom was starting to pay attention at where he was going now and she wondered if maybe this is what would lead to him being sent to live in Stars Hollow. She wondered how that would work considering that Jess knew she was going to Chilton and living with her aunt but likely assumed they lived in Hartford, and not Stars Hollow as she never really brought the town up whenever they talked.

Either way by July she finished developing one of her favorite games, Ahriham's Prophecy, and years earlier than it would have been last time around. Lilith had decided to do like the original developer in her last life had done and released it for free on a website she had designed with the help of Lane to build a fanbase. She had even finished the next game in the series and was now halfway through developing the next one, no that those would be free. Of course this was only after Lane had helped her with the music and sound affects by using the program she had.

For some reason Mrs. Kim from what she could remember seemed to actually enjoy her hanging out with Lane but that may have to do with her parents having been married and both her and them having been good customers. She had even asked Lane if she would consider being her Game Audio Designer in the future while Jess had already agreed to be her Game Writer as she was talking about having her own game design company, Primordial Studios. Lilith had already paid for the name to be copyrighted and had started laying the groundwork. She even started writing the coding to make Minecraft.  Of course if they made it big Lane would become the Audio Director and Jess the Creative Director, even if she planned to keep things small.

Rory thought she was completely crazy for making the plans she did and had no problem making it clear that it wasn't realistic once the two of them were alone. As if dreaming of a single school since the age of 4 was realistic. Of course that led to an argument that Lorelai ended up joining when she came home and heard them.

"Rory you want to go to Harvard to study journalism. Think about that for a second because as far as I know the best schools for journalism would probably be Northwestern, the University of Missouri, or NYU. Hell even if we're just looking at Ivy league schools then Columbia, Yale, or Princeton would be the best choices but not Harvard Rory! It doesn't even make it to the top 50 schools for journalism! How does that make any sense at all to you?"

"It's one of the best schools in the country!"

"Not for what you want!"

"Really? Well what about Yale? What are you gonna major in Riley? How to mainstream?"

"A double major in Psychology and Economics before their JD-MBA program."

"As if. You're just trying to hide those stupid games aren't you?"

"Games? What games?" Lorelai cuts in.

"It's nothing." Lilith says only for Rory to hop in again.

"She wants to make video games! She's even got Lane helping her and making plans to open her own game store."

"What?"

"It's not a game store, idiot. It's a game studio meaning I'd be running my own business that would be designing and programming video games, the owner of a company when we take off."

"You mean if."

"God, you're such a bitch!" She yells at her.

"Hey."

"Takes one to know one!" Rory yells back.

"Hey!"

"Argh! This is exactly why I didn't want Lane to tell you anything!" Lilith scoffs at her shaking her head.

"That's Enough!" Lorelai yells before either of them can get another word in. "Both of you to your rooms." She says and Rory huffs as she makes her way there. "Why didn't you talk to me?"

"Maybe because you're so far up Rory's ass you can't see when she shits all over everyone else!"

"Now wait a mi-"

"No, just no. Let's face it, I'm not a Lorelai so why would it matter what I want? I'm not addicted to coffee, I prefer cooking to eating out, I play the guitar, I can actually get through PE without making a fool of myself, I cheerlead and dance, and I don't dislike seeing grandma or grandpa! In fact I enjoy going to see them. You have always taken Rory's side even when she's doing something you don't agree with. It's why you and Dad butted heads so much. You want to be her best friend instead of being her mother. Well guess what, doing so isn't going to help her in the long run. All you're doing is teaching her that no matter what she won't face consequences because you're going to be there to back her up. What happens when she doesn't get into Harvard?"

"Excuse me?"

"She talks about wanting to go to Harvard for something it's not even among the best for and then she's doing nothing to get in!"

"She makes straight A's."

"A lot of kids do! Except they also do other things like get involved in extracurriculars at school or work a steady job."

"Rory is doing that." Lorelai says losing some of her fire as her words hit.

"No, she isn't! She joined one club for a language she doesn't even know or have any intention of learning. If that wasn't enough the German club was cancelled when she became the only one in it half way through the year and then she never joined a different one. She also didn't sign up for a one for this school year. If she wants Harvard, then fine but she needs to work for it instead of thinking that somehow, someway it's just going to fall into her lap because she has a 4.0 GPA. I have a 4.83 weighted or 4.33 unweighted GPA while also being part of the cheer and dance teams which I'll be continuing this year. There's also my having gone to dance school since I was 7 and my competing internationally up until the crash, the martial arts classes Dad put me in when I was 11 which I joined the club for at Chilton. I also plan on joining their FBLA."

"What the hell is FBLA?"

"Future Business Leaders of America. Maybe I'll even go out for student government next year when I'm more settled in but the point is I show myself to have a good track record not just in school but out of it where things aren't so structured. It shows I can balance academics, sports, and a social life without falling to the pressure of it. Where has Rory shown that?"

~~*~~

To Be Continued . . .