Gilmore girls: your own storyline.

Chapter 23

Giselle POV:

"... so now, after school I have to rush home and basically take my grandfather off of my mother's hands." Rory continues to tell me about her plans for today. Richard, her grandfather, is in Stars Hollow today and Lorelai somehow got roped into hanging out with him, but Lorelai is terrified of the guy so Rory has to save her.

"but maybe your mom just needs some time to bond with him, right?" I ask then shut my locker door and lock it as Rory continues.

"no, trust me, that's not how Mom works," she says as she shoves one of her books in her locker. she sighs and shuts her locker to find Paris hiding behind it. "Woah!" Rory jumps in surprise, "you have got to stop doing that." Rory tells her and the three of us start walking down the hallway.

"so I've been doing some research on the Oppenheimer award, and I've noticed something." Paris immediately starts telling me and Rory.

"do share," I say and Paris nods with a grin on her face; she must think she's onto something.

"all the winning schools had an extremely strong human-interest story on page one." Paris goes on. We all stop walking to hear what she has to say but stay by the lockers on the side of the hallway to not disrupt the flow of students walking.

"Okay," Rory says so that Paris can get to the point.

"I think that's what we need. I mean we've got the teen issues down, we've got a decent Op-ed and political page, but human interest – that's what we're missing." Paris pitches and adjusts her posture.

"Ideas?" Rory asks.

"yes," Paris answers with the need to share her brilliant plans painted vibrantly across her face.

"do tell," Rory says as the three of us continue walking to our next class.

"According to the papers, there's been a huge increase in the number of families fleeing the major cities in favour of small towns. Hundreds of thousands of city-slicking yuppies carting the trophy wife and the asthmatic kids off to small towns in search of the simple life. Milk a cow, pet a pig, find yourself, all that kind of crap." Paris explains.

"interesting," I comment.

"Yeah, and I thought about it. There's a romantic aspect to small towns. White picket fences, low crime rate, smaller classrooms, better tomatoes. It all seems perfect." Paris goes on.

"but?" Rory asks, trying to visualize the story.

"But nothing is perfect, nothing is safe, nothing is ever what it seems. And then it hit me - our story. We are going to blow the lid off the seedy underbelly of small-town life, starting with yours." Paris points at Rory.

"Stars Hollow?" Rory asks to make sure she has understood correctly.

"yes," Paris answers.

"You are going to uncover the seedy underbelly of Stars Hollow?" Rory asks once more.

"yes," Paris repeats.

"Paris, Stars Hollow doesn't have a seedy underbelly. We don't even have a meter maid." Rory tries to explain.

"Look, you may be blind to it because you live there, but-" Paris begins but I cut her off.

"Paris, I don't live in Stars Hollow but I've been there a bunch of times. There's no seedy underbelly." I tell her.

"Trust me, it's there and it's ugly and I'm going to find it. I'll meet you two out front after school." she tells us then looks at me, "bring your camera, we're going to need photographic evidence." she points at the black case holding my camera that's hanging around my neck.

"Wait, I can't today." Rory cuts in.

"Why not? Are you hiding something?" Paris asks her in hopes of jump-starting her investigation.

"No. I promised my mom that I would help her with something," she explains; she's talking about Richard.

"Well, help her tomorrow. We have work to do." Paris dismisses the problem.

"Paris!" Rory slightly yells.

"This could be our chance to nail this thing. Now I have a hunch that there's a story here and a good one, and I'm going to find it. I was even going to share a byline with you on it, but if you wanna bailout, that's fine. Giselle and I got this." Paris pushes and I can tell Rory's conflicted.

"But-," Rory tries to reason with Paris.

"Are we meeting you or not?" Paris asks for both of us.

"I don't think you're gonna find anything." Rory gives in.

"Well, then the worst that can happen is that I spend some time in your town and suddenly have an urge to enter a pie in the county fair. I'll meet you guys out front, don't be late," she says and speed walks away to her class.

"That was hard to watch. What are you gonna do about your mom?" I ask Rory.

"I'll have to call her. She's gonna be so mad, ughh!" Rory slumps as we walk into class together.

After school is over, Rory, Paris, and I got on a bus to Stars Hollow where Paris yelled at me about six times to take pictures of a giant piece of lint that she thought was some sort of bug. So far I'm equally regretting and glad that I agreed to this investigation because I can tell that this is gonna be an entertaining afternoon.

Once the three of us reach Stars Hollow and get off the bus we start walking across the street as Paris complains about how disgusting that whole ride was, " I think I got rabies." Paris continues.

"It's just a bus, Paris," Rory states.

"It smelled," Paris adds.

"It smelled like a bus," Rory tells her.

"I'm gonna have to burn my clothes when I get home," Paris says with disgust on her face as she picks off a piece of lint of her cardigan.

"Paris, you have a car. We could have driven." I tell her.

"We have to get the feel of the small-town world. You're not going to get the feel of a small-town world in a BMW. Is there something crawling in my hair?" She asks as she scratches the top of her head.

"All right, so we're here now, where do you wanna go?" Rory asks her.

"I don't know, where's the bad part of town?" Paris answers.

Rory looks around and points to a green fence by the high school, "Uhh, over there," she says.

"What?" Paris asks as she looks in that general direction.

"Uh, people - they're very upset with the colour of that fence," She explains.

"come on," Paris whines. I lift my camera and take a picture of the green fence as "evidence" but the clicking sound it makes results in Paris scowling at me.

"This is the town Paris, this is it. It's not seedy, it's not rundown, it's just Stars Hollow." Rory tells her.

"Well, where's the local bar?" Paris asks her.

"Woodbridge," Rory answers.

"Why aren't you helping?" Paris asks her.

"I'm trying, you're just looking for something that's not here," Rory explains as we walk past Luke's.

"what's this?" Paris asks gesturing to the diner.

"Luke's Diner," I answer.

"Diner. Okay, good, good." Paris mumbles before rushing inside.

"where is she going?" Rory asks me and I shrug then lift my camera to take a picture of the yellow coffee mug logo attached to the door. Rory and I follow Paris inside and the three of us sit at the counter. Paris grabs a menu and starts looking through it.

"what are you doing?" I ask her.

"Trying just to blend in, fade away, observe," she whispers as she hides behind the menu.

"Hey girls. Coffee?" Luke walks up to me and Rory with a pot of coffee in his hand.

"Thanks, Luke," Rory tells him and he pulls out two mugs.

"uh, I don't want any, thanks," I politely tell him before he pours into my cup. Luke nods and puts away the second mug.

"who's your friend?" He asks Rory and tilts his head to Paris who is sitting next to me.

"Angela Landsbury," Rory tells him.

"oh," Luke nods his head and plays along.

"you're the owner here?" Paris asks him from behind her menu.

"Yup. You want some coffee, Angela?" He asks her.

"No thanks," Paris sets her menu down.

"Okay," Luke says and continues pouring coffee into Rory's mug.

"So, you run the diner, huh?" Paris begins with her investigation, interrogatory expression clear on her face.

"oh boy," Rory sighs.

"You get a lot of truckers through here?" Paris asks him.

"Truckers?" he scoffs lightly.

"Yeah. You know, guys on the road for weeks, lonely, looking for company, a little pick me up. Things like that." Paris proceeds.

Luke glances back at me and Rory, "What's she talking about?" he asks us.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Rory answers.

"It's pretty common knowledge that diners are breeding grounds for prostitution and drug dealers." Paris states and I almost choke on my breath.

"what?" Luke asks as he shakes his head in disbelief.

"Paris, look around, read the room, does any of that seem to be happening here?" I ask her and wave my hands around for emphasis.

Paris ignores me and looks back at Luke, "Have you ever seen anything like that going down here?" she asks him.

"Have I ever..." Luke hesitates not sure what to say.

"What about that guy over there? What's his story?" Paris points at an old man sitting by the window sipping his coffee.

"Reverend Nichols?" Luke states the man's name as a question.

"Reverend Nichols, huh? What is that, like Dr. Feelgood?" Paris asks him.

"Rory, how much do you like this person?" Luke asks her and I lift my camera to discreetly take a picture of Reverend Nichols sitting a few feet away from Rory.

Rory looks at me weirdly and lowers my camera with the palm of her hand, "what are you doing?" she asks.

"it's called gathering evidence," I answer and she lets out a small laugh.

Rory looks back at Luke, "do what you gotta do Luke," she answers him as Jess comes out of the back area that's draped over with a curtain. I asked Rory what was behind the curtain once and she told me that it's just a flight of stairs that leads up to the office space that Luke and Jess turned into an apartment.

Paris notices Jess walking out of the back area and her eyes sharpen, "Hey, where'd he come from? What's up there? Is that where you keep the girls? You got yourself a little cathouse up there?" she continues with her interrogation and point at Jess.

"Wow, I think she got you, Uncle Luke. You better give up now." Jess adds to the drama as he walks over to us behind the counter.

"Do not add to this insanity," Luke tells him.

"An innocent boy like me should not be raised in an atmosphere like this." Jess continues with his act.

"Jess!" Luke yells at him to stop.

"I wanna be good, life's just not letting me." Jess resumes.

"Jess, you and I both know that you are far from innocent." I joke and he throws his pad of paper at my forehead.

"Rory, get her out of here," Luke tells her pointing at Paris.

"Okay, let's go," Rory says as she pulls Paris towards the door.

"wait, I got something," Jess tells me before I get up. He runs up the stairs behind the plaid curtain and after a minute, comes back down with a book.

He hands it to me and I flip it around to read the title, "The Alchemist," I read it out loud.

"Yup," Is all he says when I was hoping for some sort of elaboration.

"why, The Alchemist?" I ask.

"you said you were half Egyptian and the shepherd boy travels across the Egyptian desert to meet said alchemist so I thought you'd like it this time," he explains.

"aww, how thoughtful," I say, stretching out the last word.

"Giselle!" Paris yells at me to go with them so I dramatically jump out of my seat and scram.

After an hour of walking around town looking for any piece of gossip or a newsworthy story, Paris finally surrenders so Rory is just walking us back to the bus station. even though we didn't find our story I still took a bunch of pictures; some were candids of Paris fuming over this whole day and some were actually pretty decent shots of the town. Stars Hollow is especially beautiful through my camera lens and I can't wait to develop them in the darkroom. I'm even thinking of developing some of the funny pictures I took of Paris and seeking them onto next week's paper but maybe that's too cruel.

"Nothing, not even a cigarette butt on the ground, I can't believe it. This town would make Frank Capra wanna throw up." Paris complains as we walk down the sidewalk.

"Sorry, I tried to tell you," Rory tells her.

"I know. I know, it's just. . .I was just so sure," Paris says with a frown drooping down her face.

"Don't worry, we'll think of something else to write about," I try to make her feel better.

"We're going to lose," Paris whines.

"We're not going to lose." Rory and I both say as we pass by the video store on the way to the bus station.

"There she is, the girl of the moment," Taylor Doose says as he walks out of the video store with Kirk behind him. Just how many jobs does that guy have?

Rory, Paris, and I all turn around to look at Taylor and Kirk, "Me?" Rory asks them, pointing to herself.

"You, young lady, are my hero." Taylor points to her.

"what is going on?" I ask Paris and she shrugs.

"Why is that Taylor?" Rory asks him.

"Because in this day and age when the kids are willy nilly with their clothes and hair and morals, it is heartwarming to see a sensible girl like you still exists. A girl who has the gumption and the guts to stand up and say, 'why are we allowing this trash out where all our children can see it?'" Taylor tells her as he waves his hands around when he utters the words "willy nilly".

"And a few selected adults also," Kirk adds.

"What are you talking about?" Rory asks once more.

"Well, come on in and see for yourself," Taylor says and leads the three of us into the video store.

The store is of normal size with many metal racks lined up in rows to hold videotapes and movie CDs, except that half the store is draped behind a red velvet curtain, and most of the metal racks are almost empty.

"What happened? Where is everything?" Rory asks, referring to the missing videotapes.

"Well, thanks to your brilliant suggestion, they are all safely stashed behind the "Rory Curtain"," Taylor thanks her but I am completely lost. I grab ahold of m camera and start taking photos of everything. Maybe this is what Paris has been looking for.

"The what?" Taylor asks him.

"We thought it was only fitting to name it after you," Kirk butts in.

"No! I don't want a Rory Curtain, I never asked for a Rory Curtain!" Rory yells.

"You told me to put that movie where the kids couldn't see it." Taylor points out.

"you did?" Paris asks her as I continue to walk around, making sure to take pictures of the empty metal racks and the long red curtain.

"Well, yeah, but I just meant to put it on a higher shelf, not to get fabric involved," Rory explains.

"Oh, this is much better than a higher shelf. Now all the movies that we deem objectionable will be safely hidden from the eyes of the children. Plus, it'll make the adults think twice before they go back there." Taylor says and makes sure to whisper the last sentence as if it's a dirty secret.

"No, I didn't mean to do this!" Rory yells once more then looks over at me taking the pictures, "What are you doing?" she asks, then Paris walks over to the curtain and takes a peek behind it the takes out her pen to begin to start asking Taylor questions, "and you, what are you doing?" Rory asks her before Paris begins interviewing him.

"This is it," Paris tells her.

"This is what?" Rory asks.

"Our story. Censorship in a small town, it's perfect."

"Paris, stop it. You know I don't believe in censorship." I hear Rory whisper to Paris from across the room.

"Even better, small-town minds run amok. This is genius, it's gold." Paris says with excitement and turns to look at me, "We're going to win. Keep up with the pictures, Giselle," She tells me.

"On it," I answer with a nod as she walks towards Mr. Doose.

"Now Taylor?" Paris asks him and pulls off the cap on her pen to begin taking notes as she talks to Taylor.

"Yes?" He asks with a grin on his face since he clearly loves being interviewed for the paper.

"On the record, how long have you been working here?" Paris begins and that is pretty much how the rest of the evening is spent. Paris asks Taylor question after question, I take some more interior and exterior shots, and Rory sits down on a chair waiting for all of this to be over with. I don't understand why she hates this idea. I think this is going to be such a good story.

After the three of us finish up, Rory rushes back home and Paris and I ride the bus back to Hartford. She whined the entire way back, but overall, it was an okay day.

I walk back to my house, since the bus station isn't that far, then walk up to our mailbox. I took it upon myself to paint the white metal box part last weekend since I was bored at home. I did a good job if I do say so myself, so now the metal part has the name "Grey" on the side, painted in red, with yellow and orange swirly designs on the edges.

I open it up and grab the envelopes and mail that's inside. I look through them as I walk up to the front door of my house but stop dead in my tracks once I see it. An invitation to my father's wedding. I can't believe it.

Now, what the hell am I gonna do with this?