Glitter Years

Say Goodnight, Gracie

Kyle and Marshall are cleaning up litter in Kyle's front yard. "Get the wrapper." He pointed at a wrapper. Lorelai and Anna were watching from the fence.

"What wrapper?" His friend asked. Anna thought a better question would have been which one because the yard had trash all over it.

"The Tootsie Roll wrapper." He pointed to the ground.

"What Tootsie Roll wrapper?" He looks around.

"The one at your feet." He watched him step on it.

"I don't see it." He looks down.

"It's right there." He screams.

"Where?" He continues to look for it.

"Marshall, stop arguing with me, my parents are watching." He looks back at them standing in the doorway.

Rory walks out of the house with a backpack. "Have you seen these guys? They're hilarious." Lorelai laughed.

"I got it, we can go." She held it by the strap as far from her body as she could.

"Why are you holding it like that?" She asked.

"Because when Lane left it here last night, it was a very different color." She didn't want it to touch her body.

"And has a lot more stains." She thought it looked sticky.

"Are you sure she's gonna want that back? It's been left alone all night at a keg party. There's no getting it over that. That backpack is permanently scarred. That backpack is Zelda Fitzgerald." She stared at it.

"She's going to at least want the stuff in it." Anna thought that might be savable.

"Well, Zelda's going home." She would let Lane decide what to do with it.

"Your first cop-raided party. I am just so proud." She put a hand over her heart. "I just wish I could've been there."

"Are we forgetting Rory's party where the clown got arrested?" She reminds her.

"That was not a raid, that was one arrest." She pointed out the differences. "Did they bring the paddywagon?"

"Yeah, but then we snuck out the backdoor of the speak-easy and headed straight for the Algonquin." Rory laughs at mom's wording.

"How was Benchley?" She asked.

"Drunk again." She nods.

"So tell me more about this party last night. I mean, I know the end, but what happened in the middle?" Lorelai wanted details.

"Lane's band played, they were great, and then people just hung out and talked, and then, uh, there was some sort of fight, I guess. The cops came, that's it." Anna gave the summary.

Luke walks by them. "Hey, Luke." She called for him when he didn't notice them.

He turned around to walk over to them. "I'm in bed. I have ten more minutes to sleep. Not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but still, ten minutes is ten minutes. You know what I mean."

"Yes," She was always annoyed when something woke her up before her alarm.

"And then the phone rings, and it just rings and rings and rings and rings, so I pick it up." He was hoping the person would give up but they didn't.

"And then hopefully get your hearing checked." Lorelai laughed.

"Or get an answering machine?" Anna was glad when they got theirs.

"Can I finish my story?" Luke glares.

"I'm just saying, that's a lot of rings." She shrugs.

"And on the other end of the phone is someone named John who says he's Kyle's father, and Kyle threw a party last night without permission. And two guys got into a fight and tore the place apart, so John wants me to come down and take a look at the damage and discuss some sort of solution to the problem of the damages. Now, I don't know John, and I certainly don't know Kyle, but I do know someone who would get into a fight at a party and leave the place completely trashed. It's a wild guess, but I think his name rhymes with Tess. So here I am, heading in there to talk to John about Kyle and discuss what is to be done about the Hummel." He gave the whole story.