"I'm trying to figure out how this episode is supposed to be scary," Aiden said.

Thea and her friends were watching Are You Afraid of the Dark?, because Thea felt a little nostalgic.

They were watching The Tale of Locker 22.

"Yeah, I agree," Sage replied. "Hard to be scared when everyone is dressed up like they're going to go to Woodstock after school." 

"The thing I found scary is the girl picking up broken glass with her bare hands," Liberty said. "Like, 'girl, put on some gloves, you're gonna cut yourself.'"

Thea laughed at that.

Thea came home from Georgia's home to find Paris lurking outside the front door.

Thea was confused, "Hey, Paris, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just realized something for my and Rory's debate," Paris told her. "You got me before I could ring the doorbell."

Thea and Paris walked in the house to hear Rory saying, "Can't we find some other really fat people to watch?"

"Jesus, that sounded really messed up, Rory," Thea said. "By the way, Paris is here."

Rory got up from the couch and went to see what Paris wanted.

"You couldn't possibly be wondering what I'm doing here," Paris told Rory.

"I couldn't?" replied Rory.

"The debate's Friday and we need more preparation," Paris explained.

"More preparation? Paris – no two people know more about assisted suicide than the two of us. Kevorkian called today for a couple of tips," Rory said.

"I know we know the material but there's issues of presentation that need to be addressed," Paris said.

Rory asked, "Presentation?"

"I was listening to the CD I burned off the cassettes I made of our mock debates against the make-believe and I realized that you were not talking fast enough," Paris explained.

Rory asked, "What?"

"You're only doing 135 wpm," Paris told her.

"Wpm?" asked Rory.

"Words per minute," Thea said.

Paris made a motion like, 'see, she gets it.' "You talk slow."

"That's not slow," Rory said.

"It's Jimmy Bob slow," Paris told Rory.

Thea went upstairs.

On the day of Rory's debate, Thea had gone to Chilton with Lorelai, Sookie, and Sage. Sookie had made Sage go and since he really didn't want to be there, especially alone, Thea ended up agreeing to go so Sage wasn't alone.

They had entered the auditorium where Rory was, since she wasn't the vending machine.

"Hey, there you are," Lorelai told Rory. "Where were you?"

"Oh, hi," Rory said.

"I thought we were gonna meet by the vending machines for a little, uh, pre-debate non-dairy snack.

"Yeah, sorry," Rory said. "Paris wanted to do a sound check and she found some problems with the acoustics in the room."

"It's the layout of this row of seats that's causing a bass problem," Paris said. "We've got to move this whole row over a foot. Esta! Just move these people out. Mueva esta gente, mueva mueva!"

Sage looked at Thea, as if wondering if the 'bass problem' was actually a problem. Thea shrugged, because apparently to Paris, it was.

"Better find a seat before she moves them all," Rory told them.

Lorelai kissed Rory on the cheek, "Have fun."

"Thanks," Rory said To Sookie, she said, "I'm glad you came."

"No you're not," Sookie joked.

Rory seemed confused, "What?"

"I'm just getting you in the mood," Sookie said.

According to Sage, that was something that she used to say to him when they were doing those awful middle school performances and Sookie went to watch. Sage usually replied with, "You're right, now leave."

Rory took off while Lorelai and Sookie spoke to each other.

Lorelai asked, "So, do you see Chrishtopher anywhere?"

Thea rolled her eyes at the mention of her father while she and Sage found some seats to sit down. Unfortunately Lorelai and Sookie sat down next to him.

It was fine with Sookie, but Lorelai would definitely embarrass herself and by extension Thea and Sage, with her overenthusiasm.

Nothing wrong with it, but it was embarrassing sitting next to the woman who cheers at everything her child does.

Sage and Thea discreetly moved down a chair so they wouldn't be associated with Lorelai.

A woman said, "If everybody could please take their seats, we'll begin. That includes all the members of the debate team."

After a few minutes of waiting the woman continued, "All right, the topic for today's debate is doctor-assisted suicide."

"That's pleasant," Sookie said.

Thea had to agree that it was a morbid topic for high school students to debate over.

"Let me introduce the debaters," the woman continued. "On the Hillside Academy team, we have Brad Lankford and Nancy Waterford."

Thea wondered why their last names had 'ford' in them. It was a little weird.

"You look sick," Nancy said to Brad.

"I feel sick," Brad replied.

"And on the Chilton team we have Rory Gilmore and Paris Gellar," the woman continued.

Sookie and Lorelai cheered rather loudly, which was embarrassing because everyone else was silent.

Sookie asked, "Were we not supposed to do that?"

"Maybe no one noticed," Lorelai replied.

The whispers that Thea heard said otherwise. She nudged Sage, who told the two women, "Believe me, we all noticed." He was trying to act like he wasn't associated with the two women.

The woman on the stage said, "Each team will have three minutes for their openings, three minutes for rebuttals, and two minutes for their conclusions. They will be judged on the basis of content, strategy, and style. I will be the judge, along with Mrs. Gladstone."

Paris spoke to Rory as they went to the first two chairs next to the Chilton podium.

"We choose which team will take the pro or con side with the toss of a coin. A member of Hillside will make the call," the woman continued.

"Heads," Brad said. Paris gave him a look, clearly intimidating Brad, "No, tails, I mean tails!"

Sage whispered to Thea, "Do you think Paris and Mrs. Kim would get along since they're clearly intimidating?"

"Uh, I think the both of them would scare away all of the residents," Thea replied.

After flipping the coin, which was heads, Chilton had to pick 'pro' or con, which made Paris pick pro.

The debate was on and Thea promptly became bored and it looked like Sage was beginning to fall asleep.

After a while, Thea noticed that Sookie was trying to look over her shoulder at someone.

Sage noticed and asked, "Mom, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm trying to sneak a peek at the girl Christopher's with," Sookie said.

"But you see, the entire concept behind the word sneak is not having people notice you, and what you're doing is shouting 'notice me,'" Lorelai explained.

Thea rolled her eyes. She got up and moved into the aisle to leave the auditorium under the disguise of using the restroom, but she did notice the woman that her father was with on her way out. She stood in the hall for a few minutes, before returning. She purposely blocked Lorelai's view, because she 'dropped' a tissue down before sitting down.

Sookie asked, "Anything?"

"Woman kind of looks like Shelly from Twin Peaks," Thea said.

Paris spoke at her conclusion debate and the judge called, "Time."

Paris asked, "What?"

"That's it, time's up," the lady told her.

"Oh, but if I could just have a few seconds to rebut their charge of the cruelty of the act," Paris told her.

"We take it back," Brad said.

"You can't take it back, it's a debate," Paris said

"Okay, that's enough cruelty for one day, Paris. Your team has won," the lady told her. "Congratulations."

Paris spoke to the Hillside kids, before Rory asked Brad something.

They stood by the doorway, when the debate was finally, thankfully over.

"Uh! There they are," Sookie pointed out.

"I see them," Lorelai said. "What do you think?"

"She's got good hair," Sookie said.

"Yeah," Lorelai said.

"She does like Shelly from Twin Peaks," Sage replied.

"Plus, she's been sitting for an hour and her dress is perfect," Sookie said. "Not a wrinkle? How does she do that?"

"She must be a witch," Lorelai joked.

"And she's doing that no-hose thing," Sookie added.

"Yeah," Lorelai replied. "She's a chic, good hair, wrinkle-free, no-hose-wearing witch."

Sookie asked Lorelai, "You ready?"

"Yeah," Lorelai said.

Lorelai and Sookie walked to Christopher and his new girlfriend.

Thea really didn't want to go over there.

Sage asked, "You ready?"

"No," Thea replied, knowing that she'll be ignored and she'd rather not face the humiliation of knowing that Christopher never spoke about her to Sherry. "I'll wait for Rory."

Sage asked, "So you can surprise Sherry about you existing?" Thea nodded. "Okay." He kissed Thea on the cheek and walked over to where his mom was.

Sage kept giving Christopher unimpressed looks throughout the conversation that they were having.

Eventually Rory came out of the auditorium and they walked over to the group together, but Rory seemed excited, "Hi Dad! You came."

"Of course I did," Christopher replied.

"Sorry, I'm still getting used to it," Rory replied. "I'm glad."

"Honey, um, look who Dad brought," Lorelai told Rory.

"This is Sherry," Christopher said. "Sherry, this is Rory." He paused and added, "and Thea."

Sherry seemed confused at the sight of Thea.

"Thea's my twin sister," Rory clarified to Sherry.

Sherry seemed even more confused, "Hi. I heard so much about Rory, but I don't think Chris ever mentioned having another daughter." She gave Christopher a very harsh and dirty look for leaving out that fact.

That's okay. He wishes he never had another daughter, Thea wanted to say. Instead she said, "That's okay."

"Um, will you excuse us for a minute?" Lorelai said, "Rory just wanted to show me something around the corner here and we'll be right back." She and Rory took off.

Sherry seemed even more confused at the fact that Lorelai took Rory with her and not the other.

Christopher spoke to Sookie, "So Rory was great, huh?"

"Brilliant," Sookie replied. "So, who said I was after Alan Ducass?"

"It's really just more of an impression than something I probably actually heard," Christopher told Sookie.

Sookie said, "But maybe someone implied that I was after him?"

"Mom, please don't dwell on it," Sage told her. "Especially not over something a man, who wishes his other daughter wasn't born, said." He gave Christopher a look, because Sage knew it was true.

Lorelai came back, "Oh, Sookie?"

"Yeah?" replied Sookie.

"You know what, you are the greatest chef in the world, bar none," Lorelai said.

"Uh, thanks," Sookie replied.

Lorelai asked, "So, um, are you guys doing anything now?"

"Not really," Christopher replied.

"No, we're pretty free for the rest of the day," Sherry replied.

Lorelai asked, "Well, why don't you come back and see our place?"

"Oh, that would be great," Sherry replied.

This was going to be even more excruciating. Chances were that maybe she could actually get out of this.

"Oh, that would be great," Sherry replied.

"Yeah," Christopher replied. "Sherry would love that. Thanks Lor."

Why did this man have to speak for Sherry? Not even Aiden and Sage spoke for Thea. That she could remember. They usually looked at her for her opinion before speaking up.

"I was hoping we'd get a chance to see where Rory and Thea live and their room," Sherry said.

It was strange that Sherry mentioned Thea, but that statement sounded weird as hell to Thea. She looked at Sage, wondering if that sounded weird to him as it did to her.

"Oh, my room's really no big deal," Rory said.

"Neither is mine," Thea added.

"Oh, and the books," Sherry added. "I've heard all about the books. I can't wait to see the books." She paused and looked at Thea. "And I can't wait to meet Thea, because Chris forgot to tell me about you." She gave Christopher another dirty look at that. She looked at Thea, "Are you as big as a reader like Rory is? Or am I assuming that you two are practically the same person because you're twins?"

Paris thankfully came over as they started to walk down the hallway. Sage had stopped in his tracks to watch.

"Rory! So, great job. We pretty much wiped the floor with them," Paris said.

"Yeah, we turned them into cleaning products, definitely," Rory said.

Paris said, "Listen, the verbatim transcripts of the debate will be ready in about a half hour. I thought we could wait for them and sit and talk about what we did right, what we did wrong, compare wpm's."

Rory said, "Well, I'm actually heading with my group back to our house, so I really can't."

Paris replied, "Oh. Okay, whatever. If you don't want to celebrate with me, that's just fine."

"Actually, our father is here with his new girlfriend," Thea said. "We were going to meet him."

"Oh," Paris replied.

Rory nodded and took off. Sage however went to go stand with Thea and Paris.

"Yeah and my father told his new girlfriend all about Rory and conveniently forgot to tell her about me," Thea replied. Paris nodded in sympathy. "And I just don't want to go and listen to the Rory Show."

Paris gave Thea's arm a squeeze, "Good luck. And don't let them get to you. That's how they win."

Thea nodded, "Thanks, Paris."

"Any time," Paris told her. 

Lorelai pretty much broke a bunch of speeding laws just to get home before Christopher and Sherry.

Then while Lorelai and Rory rushed around trying to organize the living room and kitchen or something, Thea went upstairs to change out of the dress she wore and into something more comfortable. 

There was a knock on the door, and Christopher called, "Hello?"

Rory called back, "Hi Dad!"

Christopher said, "You guys need some more time to clean up?"

"He knows us too well," Lorelai replied.

And he doesn't know me at all, Thea thought.

"Come on it," Rory replied. Christopher and Sherry walked in. "How'd you know we were cleaning?"

"Uh, well, when you cut us off in the parking lot and sped off doing sixty, I figured you were trying to beat his home for a reason," Christopher replied.

Lorelai took Sherry's coat to hang up.

"I hope we're not completely ruining your day," Sherry replied.

Thea's day was ruined when Christopher showed up. Sherry...she was fine. She had some cute looking boots.

"Oh, no, we love company," Lorelai said. "Please come in."

They went to the living room.

"Your house is great," Sherry told Lorelai.

"Thanks, we like it," Lorelai said. "Have a seat."

"Rory, you were wonderful in the debate today," Sherry told Rory.

"Thanks," replied Rory.

Christopher said, "Uh, that Paris was a little intense."

"Ha, a little?" Lorelai said, "The opposing team could bring her up on war crimes."

"Yeah, her approach will come in handy when she becomes a CEO or a dictator of a country or something," Rory replied.

Sherry hummed, "Well, you were very poised up there, very sure of yourself, just like your dad."

Thea got up and went to the kitchen. Just like usual, she was ignored. She took out the pink blueberry cookies that she had made. She half-expected Georgia to come punching a hole in the way and growling, "I'll fuck anything that moves," through the hole in the way and then stealing the cookies. 

She went back to the living room, because she might as well eat her feelings away.

"And your uniform is darling, really," Sherry said. "I love the blue. Of course, I'm sure you look good in anything."

"Oh, yeah, you should see her in chaps," Lorelai joked.

Sherry seemed confused, "Really?"

"That's what she calls a joke," Thea told Sherry.

"Oh," Sherry replied.

"Yeah, it comes and goes," Lorelai continued. "You'll learn to notice the signs."

"The waves get really still, the animals start to act funny," Christopher added.

Just like when a tsunami hits, Thea thought, Or a tornado.

Sherry told Rory and Thea, "You know, I went to private school too."

Apparently she thought Thea went to private school, despite Thea not wearing a uniform.

"Really?" asked Rory.

"Except that our colors were white and bright red," Sherry said. "I looked hideous."

"Oh, she's being self-deprecating," Christopher said. To Sherry, he flirted, "You looked cute in that outfit."

"No, no, I looked like a peppermint stick," Sherry said. "I swear, that's where my addiction to clothes comes from. Trying to make up for all the years of having to wear the same thing everyday."

"Yeah, I can understand that," Rory said.

"I can't," Thea cut in. "I don't even go to private school."

Sherry seemed confused, "Why?"

"I didn't bother applying to Chilton," Thea said.

"I'm sure you would've gotten in if you did," Sherry told her.

Thea felt awkward at that, "Maybe."

"You know, we should go shopping sometime for clothes or whatever," Sherry told Thea and Rory.

"Sounds good," Thea muttered.

"Yeah, we could do that," Rory replied.

Sherry said, "Soon, okay?"

"Sure," Rory replied. She finally spotted the cookies, "Ooh, you should try these cookies that Thea made. They taste like blueberries."

Thea held a cookie out. Sherry took one and looked at it. She made a face, like she was thinking, blueberry? These are pink with strawberry bits in it. They're strawberry.

Then she took a bite and made a face, like what? She took another bite and another. "Rory said you made these?"

"Yeah, she did. She works at the local bakery," Rory told Sherry.

"They came to me in a dream and it took a while for me to finally get the recipe made. I'm working on making the cookies blue with blueberry bits but they taste like strawberries," Thea said.

"It's amazing," Sherry told her.

"Hey, drinks," Lorelai said. "Who wants something to drink? I've got water, soda..."

"Uh, just water for me," Christopher said.

"Me too," Sherry said.

"Oh, making it easy, I love it," Lorelai said.

Sherry said, "I'll help you." She got up.

"Oh, no, uh, well, okay," Lorelai said. "Sherry, you don't have to help me."

"No, I want to," Sherry said. She took a cookie and spoke to Thea, "You need to mass produce these. You're an evil genius. You need to hone it."

"Sure," Thea replied, feeling slightly confused.

Sherry and Lorelai went into the kitchen while Christopher and Rory made idle awkward small talk that Thea pointedly refused to engage in, even refusing Rory's attempts to get her to join in.

Eventually Sherry and Lorelai brought out glasses into the living room.

Christopher asked, "Everything okay?"

"Yup, she found apple juice," Sherry said.

Thea was pretty sure that was Todd's apple juice that he liked to store in the fridge because Tara liked to drink it up.

The phone rang and before Thea could answer it, Lorelai called out, "Rory, can you get that?"

"Let the machine pick it up," Rory told her.

"No, it could be important," Lorelai replied.

"Okay," Rory got up to answer the phone, "Hello?" Rory was on the phone for a moment before saying, "Sorry Leonard, we've got company. I'll have to call you back."

Lorelai walked in the living room with two glasses of apple juice, "Okay, here's your drink. Who was that?" She passed Rory a glass of apple juice.

"Um, that was Leonard," Rory replied, handing the glass to Thea.

"Oh, did you tell him we have company?" asked Lorelai.

"Yeah," Rory replied.

Christopher asked, "Uh, who's Leonard?"

"Oh just a friend," replied Rory.

Christopher asked, "A friend of yours or a friend of Lorelai's?"

"A mutual friend," Lorelai replied.

"Yeah, it's pretty much equal," Rory replied.

"A mutual Leonard?" asked Christopher.

"Yeah, we're constantly fighting over him," Lorelai said.

Sherry asked, "Rory, Thea, can I run something by you?"

"Oh, sure," Rory said.

"Go right ahead," Thea added.

"Your dad and I are around for another night and he's totally sick of me," Sherry said.

"Not true," Christopher said.

"Anyhow, I was wondering if you two wanted to do something with me tonight, just the two of us," Sherry said.

"Sounds fine with me," Thea said. She can always use working part-time at Weston's Bakery to get out of the Friday Night Dinner.

"Oh, sure, that would be nice," Rory said.

"Really?" asked Sherry.

"Yeah, I mean, um, if it's okay with my mom because we do have a Grandma/Grandpa dinner tonight," Rory explained.

"It's fine by me," Lorelai said.

"Great," Sherry said. To Christopher, she told him, "Oh, of course this does leave you a sad little orphan."

Was that some weird couple thing between them? Thea didn't want to know.

"Oh, that's okay," Christopher replied. "I'll have one of my patented White Castle bachelor dinners."

"Or, you can come with me tonight," Lorelai said. "Uh, if you want."

Christopher asked, "To your parents?"

"Yeah, 'cause with Rory not there, I might need a hostage," Lorelai told him.

"Oh, yes, do it," Sherry said.

"Okay, it's good grub." Christopher asked Lorelai, "You sure they won't be mad?"

Considering the last time Christopher was there, they sang his praises. Nah, they won't be mad.

"Hi, they like you," Lorelai told him.

"True," Christopher said.

"Great," Sherry said. "Well, we should go get cleaned up for tonight then. Thanks for having us over like this."

"Any time," Lorelai said.

Sherry asked, "So, we'll swing by around six?"

"Oh, sounds good," Rory said.

"Okay," Sherry said.

Christopher spoke to Rory, "Bye sweetie."

"Bye Dad," Rory replied.

Christopher spoke to Lorelai, "Bye Leonard."

Thea was pretty sure that Sherry didn't notice the lack of goodbyes to her.

When evening fell, Aiden and Sage showed up while Lorelai and Rory were getting ready.

"I finally finished The Secret History," Aiden said. "At some point, I was thinking that this thing sounds a lot like a cult."

Thea was confused, "You finished it? You started that book yesterday."

"I know," Aiden said.

"You finished that book today? You read it in like two days," Thea told him.

"Yeah," Aiden replied. "I think that about two hundred pages could've been trimmed down. I know at one point, I was reading this book on the couch and I just flopped down and my dad told me that he was pretty sure that my soul left my body at some point."

Sage asked, "Did your soul ever return to your body?"

"I don't think so," Aiden replied. "It's probably just floating above our couch, condemning me for reading this book in two days."

Rory asked, "What book are you talking about?"

"Secret History by Donna Tartt," Aiden said.

"Oh, I haven't read that one," Rory replied, sounding a little disappointed that she can't talk about a book that she hadn't read.

The phone rang and Rory went to answer it.

There was a knock on the door, "Hey, can we come in?"

Thea was tempted to say, "no."

"Yeah, come on in," Lorelai said. Sherry and Christopher came in. "Hey."

"You look great," Sherry said to Lorelai, Rory, and Thea.

Thea still wore her outfit that she had changed into after coming home from the debate. She didn't see the need to get into something fancy for a movie night.

"Oh, thanks, you too," Lorelai replied.

"Hi there," Sherry said. "You two ready to go?"

"All set," Rory said.

Thea nodded. It was strange how this woman was acknowledging her. Everyone usually focused on Rory.

"We should get going," Aiden said.

Thea nodded as Sage came up behind her and kissed her on the cheek. Then Aiden came up to kiss her other cheek, before taking off.

Christopher seemed confused by the entire exchange, although not as confused as Sherry looked.

"Dad, you've known that Thea's been dating them since last year," Rory said, sounding slightly annoyed at that.

Thea asked, "Anyway, the movie?"

"Yeah, we won't be too late, probably around ten," Sherry told Lorelai.

"Okay, well, if you wanna grab a drink after the movie, Rory's got the list of places that serve minors," Lorelai said.

"Nah, I got a flask in my purse," Rory joked, holding up her purse.

"Ooh," Lorelai said.

"Okay, I'm gonna have to drink a lot of coffee to keep up with you two," Sherry said, looking specifically at Lorelai and Rory.

"Damn, our secret's been revealed," Lorelai said.

"Bye love," Sherry said, pecking Christopher on the lips.

"Have fun," Christopher told Rory.

"Okay," Rory replied.

"Bye, Sweets," Lorelai told Rory.

"Bye," Rory said, leaving with Sherry, with Thea following behind them.