"How are your eggs?" Rory asked as she was sat at a table in Luke's with Charlotte and Lorelai.

"They're good." Lorelai said.

"Charlie?" Rory asked.

"Mine are still good too." Charlotte smirked.

"I'm glad." Rory said sarcastically.

"Look freak you're not going to be late!" Lorelai said.

"I want to get there early." Rory said.

"Really? We would never have guessed." Charlotte joked getting a glare from Rory in return. She laughed. "Come on Ror! We'll leave in a bit and I can definitely say we will get there early." She said.

"I'm sorry. I'm just excited. I have new classes and want to find the quickest route." Rory said.

"Alright, I'll go pay now." Lorelai smirked.

"I'll come with you. I want to swipe a doughnut for the bus journey." Charlotte said following her mom up to the counter just as Taylor came in with a group of young boys.

"Right form a line and each of you will place your order separately and then proceed to the back of the line." Taylor said authoritatively.

"I want a burger." One of the boys said.

"I want a grilled cheese. And I want fries and make them extra crispy." Another boy said.

"I want mine crispy too." The first boy said.

"You didn't order fries!" The second boy accused him.

"So?" The first boy retorted.

"So you can't order crispy fries before first ordering fries." Luke butted in.

"Why not?" The boy asked.

"Because you can't make something crispy that didn't exist in the first place." Luke said.

"Why not?" The boy repeated.

"Get him away from me Taylor." Luke said gruffly.

"Now have some respect Luke! These boys just completed their first leg of their outdoor survival training."

"Meaning you had them sit under a tree for two hours and made them glue rocks together." He said.

"You're a very jaded man Luke, what happened to you as a kid?"

"Some man in creepy shorts and knee high socks made me sit down under a tree for two hours gluing rocks together." Luke said. "Put that down." He told the seond boy as he lifted the lid to the doughnuts.

"Why?" The boy asked.

"Because otherwise you're going under it."

"I won't fit."

"Oh yes you will." Luke said.

"Hey..uh..doughnuts please!" Lorelai butted in.

"Hey we were first!" The first boy exclaimed.

"On earth?" Charlotte chipped in.

"Huh?" The boy said confused.

"Exactly!" Charlotte said. "Three doughnuts with chocolate sprinkles please!"

They were interrupted by the diner phone ringing causing everyone to groan. "Pipe down will you?!" Luke grumbled answering the phone.

Charlotte went round the back of the counter, grabbed a bag and started to put three doughnuts in it.

"Hey Mr Doose, she's not allowed to do that!" One of the boys said pointing to Charlotte.

"You're right. She's not. She's breaking the rules and if you break the rules, you will get in trouble and be very upset." Taylor said.

"Good thing Luke loves me then." Charlotte grinned causing Taylor to roll his eyes.

"What?! You are impossible, you know that?!" They were interrupted by Luke shouting down the phone. "You know what, make the arrangements, I don't care. I'm working, I have to go." He said angrily hanging up the phone.

"Is everything ok?" Lorelai asked.

"Do you have a sister?" He asked.

"Uh..no..." Lorelai said confused.

"I do!" Charlotte raised her hand.

"You have my sympathies." Luke said.

"Thanks!" She grinned.

Lorelai was walking up to the diner when she saw Luke walking with several bags, struggling to balance everything eventually dropping a bag on the sidewalk as he got to the diner. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Just redecorating the sidewalk." He said dryly.

"Nice." Lorelai said. "Do you need any help?"

"Nope." He said picking up the dropped bag with difficulty.

"Do you need any help?" She repeated.

"Nope. You can go now." Luke said standing back up but just as he got up, a box of Frosted Flakes fell down.

"So do you need any help?" Lorelai smirked.

Luke sighed. "Yeah. Thanks." He said gruffly.

Lorelai followed him in and up to his apartment. "So why have you got Frosted Flakes?" She asked. "Have you suddenly got a craving for sugary cereals?"

"No. But my nephew likes it." He said.

"Your nephew's coming to visit?" Lorelai asked helping him take the bags inside.

"Nope, he's coming to stay." Luke said.

"Your sister's moving here?" Lorelai asked.

"Nope." Luke said.

"Do I have to ask 18 more questions?" She quipped.

Luke sighed. "My nephew's got himself in a bit of trouble, my sister can't handle him at the moment so she's sending him here. Reckons a new place might be good for him."

"So he's going to live with you? You're going to straighten this kid out?" Lorelai asked surprised.

"It'll probably do him good to get away for a bit." Luke said.

"Well what sort of trouble has he gotten himself into?" Lorelai asked.

"I don't know." Luke shrugged.

"You didn't ask?" She asked surprised.

"No. Why does it matter?" Luke said.

"Well because he could be off the rails. He might be too much to handle. Do you think this is a good idea?" Lorelai asked.

"Wait, are you seriously trying to talk me out of this?" Luke asked.

"No...but have you really thought about this?"

"What's there to think about? He's family. You look out for family." Luke said gruffly.

"Ok I get that but..." Lorelai said.

"But what?" Luke asked.

Lorelai sighed. "Well if you're sure then I'm here for you if you need any help." She relented.

Luke glanced at her and nodded. "Thank you." He said.

Meanwhile at Chilton, Rory was still having to deal with Paris being mad at her over the stupid concert tickets Tristan had bought for her even though she had no plan on going with him. After thinking she had managed to call a truce with her, Rory realised that things weren't going to be as easy as she thought when she found out Paris had given her the wrong time for the paper meeting.

After vowing to write the best piece on pavement possible, she left the room and ran straight into Max. She froze, opened her mouth to say something but then turned and bolted. Charlotte watched nearby from the locker and watched her sister rush off. She took a deep breath before walking slowly up to Max. She knew they were going to bump into him at some point. "Mr Medina?" She said quietly.

Max turned and was surprised to see Charlotte actually talking to him. He gave her a sad smile. "Charlotte..." He said softly.

Charlotte gave him a small smile and sighed, glancing round. "Well this is..." She said.

"Awkward?" He offered.

Charlotte let out a breath and actually allowed herself to laugh a little. "Yeah." She admitted.

"Look Charlotte.." He started.

"It's fine." Charlotte said.

"I just want you to know, I hope things won't be awkward between us." He said. "Seeing as we're going to be seeing each other a lot around here. I mean I know I'm not your teacher or anything but..." He started rambling.

Charlotte gave him a smile. "I'm sorry." She said.

"Sorry? What are you sorry about?" He asked surprised.

"I'm sorry my mom called off the wedding. For what it's worth, Rory and I were excited about you becoming our step father." She said quietly. She glanced in the direction that Rory rushed off in.

"I'm sure Rory won't avoid you forever. She's not mad at you. I think she just feels like avoiding you would be what mom would want her to do which is obviously stupid because mom knows we're going to see you around here." Charlotte said. She sighed. "I guess you're not the only one who can ramble..." She said.

"I don't blame Rory. Can you tell her that for me?" He said. "And for what it's worth, I was excited about becoming your step father as well."

Charlotte gave him a small smile.

"Mom never wanted to hurt you." She said quietly.

"I know." He assured her. "Tell her...tell her I have no regrets ok?" He said.

Charlotte smiled and nodded. "Ok." She said softly.

"I better get going. I'm glad we got to talk." He said softly.

"Yeah me too." Charlotte smiled.

"Bye Charlotte." He smiled.

"Bye Norman." Charlotte said with a slight smirk. Max chuckled and walked off into the school.

"So is he here?" Lorelai asked as she sat down at the counter in the diner.

"Yep." He said.

"So where is he?" She asked.

"Out." Luke said.

"Out? What do you mean, out?" She asked.

"He went out for a walk." Luke shrugged.

"But he doesn't know the town. What if he gets lost here?" Lorelai asked.

"Really mom? You turn three lefts and you're back to where you started." Charlotte said appearing by her side. "Hi!" She grinned.

"Hey hon!" Lorelai smiled at her.

"Talking of him, here he is now." Luke said nodding towards the door where Jess was coming back in. He headed straight to the stairs but Luke stopped him. "Hey Jess? I'd like you to meet some people. This is Lorelai, my friend." He said.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you." Lorelai smiled at him. Jess just nodded, obviously not impressed. "I hope you enjoy staying here and I wanted to meet you before Luke fills your head with lots of crazy things about this town and me. Granted the town can be a bit eccentric but it's great." Lorelai tried to get him to converse but he remained silent. "So..uh..class dismissed." She tried to joke.

"And this is her daughter Charlotte." Luke said gesturing to Charlotte.

"Hi." Charlotte grinned, taking in his leather jacket and black, messy, gelled hair.

"Hey." Jess finally spoke.

"So are you hungry because..." Luke started but Jess had already disappeared upstairs.

"Well he's chatty." Lorelai commented.

"He's just adjusting. He'll be fine in a few days." Luke said.

"Hey I have an idea! How about you come round to ours for dinner tonight? I'll invite Sookie and Jackson as well. It will give him a chance to meet some more people. And Rory as well." Lorelai suggested. "What do you think?" She asked Charlotte.

"Huh? What?" Charlotte asked dragging her gaze away from the curtain.

"Dinner tonight with Sookie, Jackson, Luke and Mr Chatty." Lorelai said.

"Oh..yeah, that sounds cool." Charlotte nodded.

"So about 7?" Lorelai asked Luke.

"Sure ok. Thanks." He nodded disappearing into the kitchen.

"Hon?" Lorelai said to Charlotte.

"Yeah?" Charlotte said.

"Put your tongue back in your mouth, sweets. It's not attractive." She joked.

"I wasn't..." Charlotte tried to protest.

"Sure you weren't hon." Lorelai said patting her arm.

"Hey!" Rory said having come in and sat next to them.

"Hey hon!" Lorelai smiled. "How was school?"

"Urghh, I hate her!" Rory groaned.

"Me too!" Lorelai nodded.

"You don't even know who I'm talking about." Rory said.

"Solidarity sister."

"Paris." Rory groaned.

"Enough said." Lorelai said. "So..uh..did you bump into Max at all?" She asked hesitantly.

"Actually, no." Rory said.

"Really? Isn't he your Lit teacher?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah but I had really tall people sat infront of me so..." Rory said quietly.

"Rory.." Lorelai said softly.

"I had a nice talk with him today." Charlotte admitted.

"You did?" Lorelai asked surprised. Rory turned to her in surprise as well.

"Yeah. After you bolted from him." Charlotte said looking at Rory.

"I didn't bolt." Rory tried to argue.

"You kind of did.."

Rory sighed. "I just...I didn't know what to say." She admitted.

"So you talked to him?" Lorelai asked Charlotte.

"Yeah. It was nice. He was nice. He told me to tell you he had no regrets." She shrugged. "I'm glad we got to talk."

Lorelai gave her daughter a small smile. "Well I'm glad you got to, too." She said softly.

"I don't think he has any hard feelings, mom. He seemed...I don't know..." Charlotte shrugged. "I think he's forgiven you."

Lorelai sighed. "I hope so. I didn't mean to hurt him. I hope he knows that."

"I think he does." Charlotte said softly.

"So have you met Luke's nephew yet?" Rory asked changing the subject.

*******************************

That evening, Lorelai opened the door to find Luke and Jess stood on the other side of it. "Hi!" She smiled.

"Hey." Luke smiled. "Sorry we're late. We kind of got mixed up on what time we were meant to be here." He apologised.

"Oh don't worry, come on in. Hi Jess." She smiled.

"Hi." He said. They walked into the living room where Jess spotted photos on the fire place. He had a look at them. He noticed Charlotte in a lot of them along with another girl.

"Hey Jess, want to come into the kitchen?" Lorelai said. Jess just nodded and followed them to find two other people busy cooking. "Sookie, Jackson, this is Jess." Lorelai introduced them.

"Do you like cheese?" Sookie asked him immediately.

"What?" He said.

"Hey this is a great lemon! Don't you think this looks like a great lemon?" He smiled at Jess. Jess just looked at them as if they were crazy.

"Jackson grows fruit and then scares people with it." Lorelai quipped. She went over to the doorway of the girls' room. "Rory? Charlie? They're here." She said then walked over to help Sookie plate up the food.

Jess wandered over to the room and saw who he assumed was Rory sat at a desk. She turned round and smiled at him. "Hey!"

"Hey." He nodded walking into the room. He then spotted Charlotte sat on a bed the other side of the room.

"Hi again!" She smiled.

"Hi." He said. He then spotted the shelves full of books. "Hooked on phonics are you?" He asked, directing his question at Charlotte.

"Wow, you can do it." Charlotte said.

"What?" He asked confused.

"Say more than one word." She grinned.

"Busted." He smirked. "So do you read?" He asked.

"Nah. Well I do a bit but most of those are Rory's." She said.

"Cool." He nodded looking through them, picking out a copy of Howl.

"Do you read?" Rory asked.

"Not much." He said.

"That's a good book. You can borrow it if you want?" Rory said.

"It's ok." Jess said walking away from it. He walked over to the window. "So does this open?" He asked.

"Why?" Charlotte asked getting up.

"Just wondering." He said.

"Yeah it does. You slide it up." She said.

Jess did as she said. "Huh. So it does." He said. He glanced at both of them. "So shall we?"

"Shall we what?" Rory asked.

"Bail." He said.

Charlotte smirked. "Oh I'm hurt. Are you really that bored of our company that you can't bear to be in it any longer?" She joked.

"No. That's why I said we." Jess smirked.

"Oh well in that case..." Charlotte joked.

"Stop it!" Rory laughed. "Look there's nowhere to bail to. Now Sookie's made lots of delicious food. Just stay and I promise you might even start to enjoy yourself."

"Why should I trust you?" Jess said.

"Well don't we look trustworthy?" Charlotte asked.

"Maybe." Jess smirked.

"Come on, Rory's right. I know we all seem crazy but we might surprise you." She grinned walking into the kitchen with Jess and Rory following her. "You want a soda?" She asked.

"I'll get it." Jess said.

"Ok." She smiled grabbing one for herself and Rory and then disappearing into the living room with her. Jess opened the fridge and saw the sodas. He then saw a beer. He glanced round to check that noone was coming before grabbing a beer and leaving through the back door.

*******************************

"So this thing with Luke? Is it bad?" Charlotte asked as they walked to Luke's the next morning.

"It's fine. It's not even a thing." Lorelai said.

"Really?" Charlotte raised her eyebrows not believing her.

"Because the shouting in the kitchen I heard really confirms that." She said.

"You heard us?" Lorelai asked cringing.

"I think even Babette could have heard you." Rory commented.

"You know you could just apologise." Charlotte suggested.

"Say sorry for arguing with Jess and then all three of us can go into the diner together."

"I shouldn't have to apologise! Jess was the one in the wrong. None of you heard what he said." Lorelai exclaimed.

"True." She nodded. "But he'd just got here. He's probably angry at being sent here and just wanted some piece. It was his first night."

"I don't care. I'm not in the wrong here. I shouldn't have to apologise." Lorelai said stubbornly.

"You know, he's going to know." Rory said. "Going in and ordering three coffees and three danishes is so obvious!"

"It'll be fine! Now go because I'm starving." She shooed them into the diner.

"This is so not going to work." Charlotte mumbled as she entered the diner with Rory.

"I know." Rory said back.

*******************************

"So you did the interview?" Charlotte asked Rory as they walked back into their house after school that day. Rory had been tasked with doing an interview with Chilton's most popular teacher which was Mr Medina.

"I hate Paris." Rory grumbled.

"You did it though right?" Charlotte asked.

Rory nodded. "Yeah I did." She said quietly.

"And?"

"It was...nice." She admitted. "We got to talk about some things. It was nice."

"Well that's good then." Charlotte smiled glad Rory seemed happier.

"Yeah it is." Rory smiled.

They suddenly heard banging on the back door and heard their mom let Luke in. "I pushed him in a lake!" Luke exclaimed.

Rory and Charlotte exchanged amused glances. Rory disappeared into her room while Charlotte stood in the doorway listening to Luke rant about how he'd argued with Jess about some money that had gone missing which resulted in him pushing Jess into the lake. She went into the bathroom, grabbed a towel and then quietly left the house heading towards the diner.

She went up to the apartment and knocked on the door. She had to stifle a laugh when a soaking wet Jess answered the door. "Hey! I heard you went for a dip in the lake." Charlotte smirked.

"I could do him for assault." Jess grumbled.

"But you won't." Charlotte grinned.

"Knowing him he's probably best friends with the cop in this crazy town so what's the point?" He grumbled.

"Oh Coop yeah! Him and Luke are tight!" She grinned.

"Good for them." He muttered.

"Here." She said handing him a towel.

"Thanks." He grumbled taking it from her letting her in.

"So what were you arguing about?" She asked.

"Some money went missing from that crazy old guy's store. It was for the bridge or something. Apparently I'm the number one suspect." Jess said.

"Did you take it?" She asked.

Jess looked at her. "Ok I might look stupid but I'm not that stupid."

"You so did, didn't you?" She laughed. "Why? What's the point?"

"He annoyed me ok?" Jess grumbled.

"Taylor?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah. I was in the store and he was all over me. Hovering. It was like he thought I was going to steal something." Jess said.

"So in retaliation you stole the money?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah. So?" He said. "I didn't spend it." He added.