This Is Me | Gilmore Girls

Part 21: Summer and Back to School

Lilith's summer was jam packed the first two weeks of summer vacation. She had spent it doing volunteer work with Dean, Lane, Paris, Madeline, and Louise building houses. Dean had been surprised to learn how good he was at carpentry. Lane had them constantly laughing with her panicked yelps and jumping into a horribly done karate stance as if she was going to chop at someone anytime someone yelled a 'look out' or 'duck' until her flight to Korea. Paris spent her time ordering Madeline and Louise on what to do though the two other girls would run to Lilith when they wanted a break and to use her as a shield against Paris. Of course, Rory had also shown up, at least for the first couple days, before running off with Lorelai a week later.

The months that followed had seen her at Yale attending both their summer sessions while making regular calls to Emily, Richard, Luke, Dean, and Jess. Letters to Lane usually arrived every other week though they also emailed every chance they got. Dean and Clara were spending a month in Chicago. Luke was apparently talking with Mr. Medina in his free time which seemed a little weird but also made Lilith smile as he finally made a decent friend aside from Lorelai. Time seemed to go by quickly and before she knew it, she was almost finished with her classes.

Jess had shown up at the campus towards the end of the second session. Lilith found him sitting on a bench holding the pager Lilith's parents had bought, just turning it over in his hand as if trying to decide whether or not to use it. "Jessie?" Lilith called his name surprised as she hadn't expected him at all and he turned his head to her.

"Lil, I . . ." Jess wasn't sure how to start, his brows furrowed and brown eyes filled with something she couldn't put a name to.

"Come on, we'll talk in my room." She tells him and pulls him up leading the way. He's quiet the whole way just thinking over everything and soon enough they're sitting in the dorm room she was assigned to. "What's going on Jess? What are you doing here?"

"Liz found my acceptance letter to Julliard."

"You were accepted! Oh my God, Jess!" Lilith jumps forward hugging him before pulling back and slapping his arm. "Why didn't you tell me?" She pauses then. "Wait, what do you mean she found it?"

"I mean Lizzie has a new boyfriend and all of a sudden she's decided she wants to be a mother and start going through my stuff."

"Jess what happened?" Lilith looks at him already knowing that whatever he says next likely won't be anything good.

"She flipped out. Apparently, she never realized all those papers she signed were for dance competitions." Jess says before scoffing.

"Then what did she think she was signing?"

"She thought they were papers from school she needed to sign because I caused trouble."

"Excuse me?"

"A lot nicer version of what I said."

"I'm sorry, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. She thought she was signing papers because you got in trouble at school but she never bothered to read them or ask?"

"I asked about that to. She said she didn't want to know."

"Hmph, real mother of the year there." Lilith says with a roll of her eyes. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the argument that broke out is the reason you're here?"

"She's talking about having me sent to live with my Uncle Luke. I haven't even seen the man in years but she's gonna uproot my entire life. Hell, she didn't even bother calling the man but she already called my school and had them start getting my stuff to have me transferred to Stars Hollow High. The only good thing in all this is I'll be closer to you since it's like half an hour to Hartford."