Thea followed Jocelyn's idea and stayed out of the house, leaving early in the morning to avoid Lorelai and returning when it was late. A few times she slept over at her friends' homes. She knew that she was just avoiding Lorelai and Rory, but she'd rather not have another 'talk' with Lorelai again. She was sure that eventually Lorelai will focus on Rory once again and forget all about Thea, just like before. 

She never really fought with her mother because Lorelai never really bothered getting involved in Thea's life, so fighting was a non-issue between them; even Rory and Lorelai had their spats and like Thea said 'they were practically the same person'.

She mostly stayed with Georgia and Liberty at their homes, sometimes she went to Aiden's and Sage's home, although she suspected Sookie had called Lorelai to tell her about Thea showing up. Luke probably gave Lorelai a bit of a head's up, even though Thea was sure that Lorelai wouldn't care if she died in a ditch.

She had to tell herself that it was just two more years before she can leave her hell and her sanctuary behind.

She stopped attending the Friday Night Dinners, so if Emily and Richard were bothered by it, she wouldn't know and she didn't care.

Her friends never brought Lorelai and Rory up which was fine with Thea.

Thea had taken to making out with Sage and Aiden in view of everyone all over town because she could and to show that she had chose both boys, not one. However, it seemed like it had been a shock that the sister of the golden girl was a dirty whore. Thea didn't care if she was called that behind her back or to her face, because she was counting down the days to leave the stupid town behind.

Before she knew it, a month had passed since the argument. She didn't know if Lorelai and Rory were bothered by her not talking to them, and she didn't care. They weren't family.

So, she sat in Luke's diner with Georgia, Aiden, and Sage, trying to get food, but Taylor Doose was busy keeping Luke and Liberty from their jobs.

"You need to decorate because every other store in town has fall decorations," Taylor was saying.

"Hoorah for the mob mentality," Luke replied.

"We're talking a few streamers and a paper turkey," Taylor was saying. "How's it gonna hurt to have a paper turkey?"

Liberty replied scathingly, "You mean a paper turkey that white people murdered Natives over just for everyone to celebrate a massacre? No thanks."

Luke nodded, "When she's got a point, she's got a point. We won't have a turkey, squash, or pumpkins. Nothing colored orange."

"Okay, you don't like orange," Taylor replied. "That's fine. Autumn has many varied hues to toy with."

Lorelai said, "Excuse me, can we get some coffee please?"

"And a muffin," Rory added.

Thea almost twitched at the sight of Lorelai and Rory. Maybe whatever bridge that Lorelai and Thea had had burned completely down. She wasn't sure. Lorelai not paying attention to her wasn't unusual.

Lorelai added, "Warmed?"

"This is the Autumn Festival," Taylor told Luke and Liberty. "Your shop is right across the street from the Horn of Plenty! You're right smack dap in the middle of everything. You have to decorate."

"We have no obligation to do just that," Liberty said. "There's no handbook that has that as a rule." She poured her friends some orange juice.

"Yeah," Luke replied. "We don't have to do anything but serve food."

Lorelai smacked her hand on the counter, "And coffee!"

"And muffins!" added Rory.

Thea look at her boyfriends and Georgia, rolling her eyes.

Taylor set two figurines on the counter.

"Taylor, I'm tired of having this conversation with you every year," Luke replied, moving the figurines towards Taylor. He handed a plate with an omelet to Thea, who handed it to Sage who passed it to Aiden.

Taylor made an air escaping a balloon sound, like Luke straight up punched him in the stomach.

"Yoo-hoo!" called Lorelai.

"You two have lived in Stars Hollow for a long time. It's time for you two to become one of us," Taylor replied.

"That sounds like a cult mentality," Liberty said.

"Whoo!" called Lorelai.

"Sorry, I guess mine and Libby's pods are defective," Luke replied, handing a plate with strawberry crepes to Sage, who passed it to Aiden, who handed the plate to Thea who handed it to Georgia.

"Hey, my mom's not wearing any underwear," Rory called. Lorelai made an offended sound. "Well, you aren't."

"You two are just being selfish, Luke," Taylor said.

Luke glared at Taylor, "Don't insult my daughter, Doose."

Liberty passed a plate to Thea.

"Still they don't notice," Lorelai said. "I can't take it anymore."

"We're talking about the spirit of fall," Taylor stated.

"You insulted my daughter," Luke replied. "What part of that is in the spirit of fall?"

Lorelai went behind the counter because apparently she couldn't wait for her turn.

Thea ignored them to focus on something far more entertaining: Luke and Liberty's Fight with Taylor Doose.

Luke said, "You know where you can stick in the spirit of fall?" He handed Lorelai some tongs, "Here, don't use your hands." He shoved Taylor's figurines down the counter.

"I don't think you two are taking me seriously," Taylor stated.

Luke responded, "What gave you that idea?"

"Hard to take you seriously when you're wearing that," Liberty said, glaring at Taylor's cardigan.

Luke looked at the cash that Lorelai had left behind, "What? No tip?"

"Oh, yeah, here's a tip – serve your customers," Lorelai responded.

"Here's two more – don't sit on any cold benches and pay attention to your other daughter for once," Luke replied.

"Taylor, stop putting mass murderers on our counter. What they did to the Natives was disgusting and you shouldn't be proud of them," Liberty snapped at Taylor.

Taylor said, "I'm just doing it—"

"No," Luke said firmly.

"I still can't believe that Mr. Hammond decided to take his job back," Aiden, with his arm around Thea's waist, said, looking at the teacher. A few students were talking to Mr. Hammond as he tried to walk inside the school.

"I know," Thea replied.

The following Monday, after Lucas's parents threatened to sue if they don't reinstate the teacher, Mr. Hammond showed up to school because he accepted his job back.

Interestingly enough, Lucas seemed to have mellowed out a lot. He became less obnoxious in class, seemed to have become kinder apologizing to Mr. Hammond and the girl whose bra he had snapped, stopped talking in class, and started doing his schoolwork and homework. Maybe all he needed was to be thrown out a window open, and have his parents' side with the teacher, to get him to change his tune.

"I can't believe all it took was getting thrown out an open window," Thea replied.

She wondered if she can have Mr. Hammond throw her mother out the window to get Lorelai to finally become a mother to Thea.

No...that was a bad thought. Lorelai had sixteen years to become a good mother to Thea, but she chose not to be one.

"I know," Sage replied.

"I wonder what's going to happen this month," Liberty said. "Last month was boring because nothing happened."

Tyler ended up switching to a different class to avoid Brittany. Tyler had apologized to Brittany for throwing the scissors and Brittany apologized for starting the fight, then they went separate ways and tried to avoid each other.

Lane had said that Tyler was now taking anger management because it freaked him out how his first thought was throwing scissors at someone and it's been said that Brittany was now in therapy.

The good thing was that after homeroom, they gathered in the courtyard, because there was a sophomore scavenger hunt to bring in the fall festival. At least for the ones that signed up for it. Thea was sure that the sophomore teachers just didn't want to teach, but she didn't care because she had forgotten about the scavenger hunt and was excited for it.

She gathered her group which was with Liberty, Lane, Georgia, Sage, and Aiden. A teacher handed her a list. She looked over the list with her group.

A different teacher was going over the rules, "Please stay within—"

There was a guy screaming and Thea turned to see what was going on. She was sure that guy was a junior and he was naked.

A security guard was chasing the junior and proceeded to tackle him to the ground.

"Please stay within the town," the teacher continued, getting attention back on her.

"That guy did magic mushrooms in the restroom," Emiko whispered to Thea.

"We all meet back here at twelve for lunch," the teacher continued speaking in the megaphone. "We will take attendance to make sure everyone is here. Now run along to scavenge."

The scavenger hunt ended when evening fell and a girl's group won the prize, which was homework passes, to be used any time they wanted. They took down the names of who got the passes, so no one can make copies of them and sell them, like what had happened a few years prior.

Thea got home around 9:30-ish, and that was after eating a late dinner at Luke's, so when she walked in, she spotted Dean and Rory sitting together on the floor, watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She walked over and sat down, just to make things awkward, because she wanted to be petty. Dean looked at her and then at Rory.

After a few minutes, she got bored and went into the kitchen to get something to drink.

Lorelai was in there, "Where have you been?"

Thea took out the crumpled up scavenger list out of her pocket, "At the Stars Hollow Sophomore Scavenger Hunt?" She opened the fridge, winced at the high pitched sound it emitted and took out a can of soda.

Lorelai asked, "And how was that?"

"We lost," Thea stated. "Some kids got in trouble for trying to steal a mechanical horse outside that dollar store as a tie-breaker. Apparently they dismantled it and stuck in the backseat of a car. They didn't get very far because the manager watched them and made them put it back together. Then the manager made them take turns riding it to see if it still worked. A kid named Kian cried while riding it because he thought he was going to get in trouble. I kind of wish I was in that group just to watch a quarterback cry." She considered telling her about the magic mushrooms guy, but decided not to. There was no point to it.

She started to leave to go to her room, but Lorelai grabbed her arm and made her sit in a chair at the table.

Lorelai asked, "Who else knew about you, Sage, and the other guy – uh – Adam? When did that happen?"

"Aiden," Thea corrected her. It was a start; a little too late though, but a start. "Uh, it was early August when I got together with Sage and Aiden. The only ones who knew about it was Libby, Georgia, Annette, Fran, Marjorie, and Aiden's dad. I think Aiden's aunt and uncle knew about it but I'm not entirely sure. I think Luke figured it out very quickly but he never pried into our relationship. I'm sure he really knew once word spread."

Lorelai asked, "Aiden's dad? Doesn't Aiden live with his aunt and uncle? I'm sure I heard something like that"

"He does," Thea said.

Lorelai asked, "Where does his dad live at?"

"Wisconsin Department of Corrections," Thea stated.

Lorelai seemed shocked at that. She asked, "For what?"

"He murdered his wife," Thea said, "Poisoned her." Lorelai looked horrified. Thea felt a strange sick satisfaction at how Lorelai never really knew her friends. "She deserved it, actually."

Lorelai started, "Why would he—"

"If you found your husband coming out of Rory's room in the dead of night, you would poison him too, right? Scum like that doesn't deserve to live," Thea stated. Strangely she remembered the look the gym teacher had given her the day he barged into the locker room and crossed her arms over her chest. "So, she doesn't deserve to live either for doing that to Aiden and his friend."

"Mom!" that was Rory.

Lorelai turned her attention to her favorite child, "What?"

Rory asked, "What are you doing in here?"

"Talking to Thea about Adam's parents," Lorelai said.

Rory seemed confused, "Who's Adam?"

"She means Aiden," Thea replied.

"Oh," Rory replied. "Well, Mom, get back in there!"

Lorelai asked, "Why? What happened? Did the bag boy try something?"

Thea took that as her cue to leave and go upstairs to her room.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

She was awoken to a tapping on her bedroom window. She got up, turned the light on and opened the curtain to see Aiden there. She opened the window, "My mom is in the next room." If her mother wasn't there, maybe she would've let him in because she was loud...

"No, come on," Aiden said, motioning with his head, signaling for her to go outside. 

Thea nodded, "Okay, let me get changed." She closed the curtains, which was silly because he already knew what she looked like naked ("beautiful" the two boys said) but she changed with the curtain closed anyway.

She grabbed a flashlight and crawled out of her window. She left it open a few inches, so she can get back in after they finish whatever it was that Aiden wanted to do.

Sage was on the ground, holding a picnic basket.

"My mom made homemade made mac n' cheese," Sage said. "We noticed how upset you were that you didn't win the scavenger hunt, so Aiden and I thought a midnight picnic will cheer you up."

Thea hugged him, though she tried to imagine how that conversation went down.

"Yeah, let's go before midnight strikes," Aiden replied.

Thea nodded and they headed for the Dragonfly Inn.

"I told my mom about what your dad did and why," Thea admitted to Aiden. "I mean, she was questioning on who else knew about our relationship before she found out. And she wondered why he was in jail. So, I told her."

"Its fine," Aiden replied, giving her a one-armed squeeze and kissing her on the head.

As they ate the food, Thea wondered if Aiden was fine with Lorelai knowing.