A/N: Chapter title taken by the Fame on Fire song of the same name.

No, this chapter does not have anything to do with suicide.

Rory was sniffling, but Thea couldn't be sure if it was because Rory and Lorelai's relationship was still a bit fractured from the whole Anthony situation.

Emily and Richard had been disappointed in Rory over keeping that aspect of Anthony hidden, but they still had arms open for Rory (and Anthony). Even they knew that Rory's accidental arrest was due to "wrong place, wrong time" and that the police released her at least two hours later.

Rory would've called Lorelai or Emily and Richard, but it had been late, and she didn't want to bother them, and she just wanted to sleep.

At least, that's what Rory told them, but Thea knew that it was because she didn't want them to be disappointed in her.

Rory was at the end of one pew next to Libby, who was next to Thea, with Sage at the end.

Behind them was Todd, then Aiden, then Jess, then Dave, and then Georgia.

"I'm gonna miss Stan," Rory stated.

"Yeah?" asked Thea.

"He was so cute, with his fedora and his Hush Puppies," Rory said. "Every day, the fedora and the Hush Puppies."

Georgia asked Rory, "How come you weren't this torn up over Fran dying?"

Thea felt a wave of sadness at the mention of Fran dying. She missed Fran so much.

Sage asked, "Is Stan the guy who didn't wear pants?"

"Sage," Rory chided, still grieving over Stan.

"Am I the only one who doesn't know who Stan is?" asked Aiden.

"Not just you," Todd replied.

"He was called last week and made a lunch reservation at the Dragonfly," Thea added.

Libby grabbed Thea's hand, "Just leave a table open for him."

"Maybe lay out some candles..." Sage added. "And stand around and chant ominously..."

Libby flicked him on the ear, and it dived into a slap fight that Libby was winning, due to Jess grabbing a hold of Sage's arms so Libby could smack him. Aiden tried to intervene by smacking at Jess and Georgia turned to hit Aiden for hitting Jess. And poor Dave was stuck in the middle of it all, like Thea was.

Lane would've joined in, but she was sitting with Mrs. Kim who wouldn't approve of such nonsense, because she was glaring at Thea's friends, which went unnoticed.

Lorelai turned to shush them.

Sage glared and slapped Libby harder, making Libby smack him even harder.

He must still be salty over the ice cream thing, Thea thought.

Sookie turned to them, "Would you knock it off?"

"She started it," Sage said.

Sookie threw a breath mint at him, which hit him in the eye.

"Yeah, we're being serious now," Lorelai agreed.

"Oh, in that case..." Georgia started, smacking Aiden harder than necessary.

The slap-fight was getting out of hand.

"All of you knock it off," Ethan said.

Luke turned to them, "Stop it before I throw all of you into the lake."

They all settled down after that.

Lorelai grumbled to Luke, "Oh, so they stop for you?"

Luke just smirked at her in response because he knew who those kids respected more.

The rabbi went to the front, "You'll find the Mourners' Kaddish on page 453. 'May his illustrious name become increasingly great and holy...'"

After a while, Reverend Skinner went up to talk, "My good friend Stan Green lived her for fifty-six years. He loved this town and its friendly people, charming stores and beautiful church bells. Now, many of you don't remember the church bells. They fell into disrepair about twenty years ago and have been quiet ever since. But Stan remembered those bells and it was his wish that they ring out over Stars Hollow once again, so he generously bequeathed the funds to make that dream come true." There were excited whispers. "We're going to restore the bells in honor of our dear friend Stan and every time they ring, we'll think of him. He will be miss but never forgotten."

Rory cried, "Oh, Stan."

"Chin up, tits out, buttercup," Libby told Rory.

Rory gave her a strange look.

"Thank you, Reverend," the rabbi said and shook the reverend's hand. "And now, please join us in saying goodbye at the cemetery."

They got up to head out.

"That's so sweet," Sookie said.

Lorelai asked, "Yeah, do you remember the bells?"

"No, I wasn't here yet," Sookie replied.

"Me too," Lorelai said. "Sounds great."

"Oh, they were fantastic," Miss Patty said. "One of my most romantic memories happened during those bells."

Rory asked, "Your first kiss?"

"Uh, sure," Miss Patty replied, using a tone that was suspicious. "Okay."

It clearly wasn't her first kiss.

"Yeah, keep that innocence, Rory," Aiden said to Rory.

Sage seemed incredulous, "You had a dick inside you and your first thought was that Miss Patty had her first kiss with bells ringing?"

Hank Krutzman stumbled and fell. Everyone gathered around to help him up.

"Ow!" Kirk had somehow fell into the flowers and onto the ground. "Oh! Going dark, going dark!"

Rory borrowed a book from Lane, which was hollowed out and had CDs stashed in there.

Thea and Rory were sharing some truffles between them. Thea had made snickerdoodle truffles and sugar cookie truffles which were red and white.

Rory borrowed a book from Lane, which was hollowed out and had CDs stashed in there.

Thea and Rory were sharing some truffles between them. Thea had made snickerdoodle truffles and sugar cookie cookies which were red and white.

Rory popped a snickerdoodle truffle in her mouth, "I can't believe this is the third snow of the year."

"It's the fourth one," Thea pointed out.

"The first one was when I had a philosophy final," Rory counted off.

"And the second snow was on Wednesday," Thea added. "I had a walkthrough of the inn."

"So this is the third one," Rory said.

"The third was on Saturday," Thea said.

"It was?" asked Rory. "I didn't notice."

"It was in the middle of the night," Thea replied.

"How do you know?" asked Rory suspiciously.

"Because Aiden and Sage kept me up," Thea replied.

"Oh," replied Rory. "Well, Anthony kept me up and I didn't notice."

Thea was a little weirded out at the idea that she and Rory were getting laid at the same time.

"He gets very chatty at midnight when he's running on three hours of sleep," Rory said. Thea gave her a strange look. Rory grinned, "I'm kidding."

Lorelai walked over to them.

Rory awkwardly said, "So, fourth snow of the season, huh?"

"Yup," Lorelai replied.

"Still pretty," Rory said, referring to the snow.

"Yes, we are," Lorelai said. The bells from the church started ringing. "The bells. They fixed the bells."

"Oh, Stan," Rory said.

Liberty and Sage came over.

Sage kissed Thea and said, "I think the bells are going to drive me nuts."

Rory joked, "You mean, you're not?"

Once the bells finish, people applauded.

"You know, if we had taken our tradition 'first snow of the season' walk, we wouldn't have heard the bells," Lorelai told Rory.

Then the bells started back up again.

"Bless our oppressive schedules," Rory said. "I have to go drop something off at Lane's."

"Good, 'cause I have to go drop something off at Luke's," Lorelai said.

"Good, 'cause I have to drop something off at Sage's," Thea stated.

Liberty made a face as Thea and Sage started heading off together.

Lorelai started crossing the street.

Liberty tagged along, "How long do you think it would take before my dad decides to break the bells again?"

"I give it two weeks," Sage said.

"One week for Jess to lose it," Thea added.

"Three days before you snap," Sage told Liberty.

"Make it a family affair and break it together," Thea told Liberty.

Liberty just grinned in excitement, because chances were, all three would break the bells together.

Paris ended up dragging both Rory and Thea to some kind of meeting thing.

"Smart move, jumping on my bandwagon with the International Relations Association," Paris said as they walked through some hallways.

"Like I had a choice," muttered Rory.

"You dragged me and Thea here, Paris," Rory pointed out.

"You'll thank me when you're interviewing for grad school in a few years and find those waifish looks of yours aren't quite as charming," Paris shot back to Rory. She turned to Thea, "and you'll thank me later when people realize that you're more knowledgeable about the world outside of your small town."

"Hey, I realized your point when you brought it up the first time," Thea said.

"It means that these kinds of clubs look good on your resumé," Paris pointed out.

"You know what also looks good on a resumé? Passing your classes," Rory said.

"You need more than passing grades," Thea told Rory.

"And remember to argue, even if you have nothing to say, or add, be vocal," Paris explained to them, "Very few people in life listen to what anyone else says anyhow. It's all about volume."

Rory spoke to Paris, "Can I ask why you're suddenly so interested in international relations? You're pre-med."

"It's critical to step out of one's major and experience our world's sweeping expanse," Paris said. "Plus, Professor Fleming told me about it."

Thea had heard from Libby that Paris had become intrigued by Professor Fleming and took a shine to the professor. Not like a crush – more like a father-figure type of role.

Professor Fleming apparently told Paris to enter a relationship with Liberty and that it was okay to do such things.

Thea had become a little concerned for Paris when Thea heard that the professor prefers freshmen students. Paris said that the professor never made any sexual advances towards her, so that was a good thing – although it didn't make what Fleming does any better.

"Okay," Rory said.

Paris looked at the advisor, "Oh, this to much." She signed her name on a sign-in form on the clipboard. She passed the pen to Thea.

"What does that mean?" asked Thea as she signed in and handed the pen to Rory.

"Our advisor," Paris explained. "Professor Friedman."

"You know?" asked Rory.

"Of her," Paris corrected as they went to find seats. "Her daughter was busted last spring by New Haven police for growing pot in their basement, right during harvest season. Strangely, it never made the papers."

"It's not that strange when you have money and can cover it up with some other story," Thea said. "How else do you think Anthony's family isn't well-known for their criminal history?"

Rory asked, "If this incident didn't make the papers, how do you know about it?"

"Rumors," Thea stated.

"And Professor Fleming told me about it," Paris added.

"You really like Fleming, huh?" asked Rory.

"It's not like that," Paris said. "He says I remind him of his daughter."

Thea asked Paris, "Did you just get daughter-zoned by a professor?"

"Apparently so," Paris replied. "Besides, he's banging some other girl anyway."

Sookie ended up packing Cory to stay at Francine and Straub's apartment in New Haven, to get him away from the church bells. Apparently, Cory hated the church bells and cried every time they went off – which was every hour. The worst was apparently the ones in five in the morning.

It got to the point that Cory had their schedule memorized and cried before they went off. Sookie hired Jess to baby-sit Cory since Jess baby-sat Billie, so Jess (Sookie paid him a hundred dollars) was baby-sitting Cory and Billie.

Also, Jess was staying the night in the apartment because apparently Jessie (Jess found it weird) and Luke were hooking up.

Apparently, Jessie had gone up to Luke and said, "I'm hot. You're hot. Wanna bang?" and Luke honestly couldn't deny a woman who was very direct and blunt in what she wanted.

"You know..." Jess started as he looked through the fridge in the apartment. "I bet Stan hated Stars Hollow and had them fix the stupid bells just as a final—" He paused and looked back at Billie, who was watching Cory sleep, "'screw you' to everyone."

"That's devilish," Thea told Jess. "I can get behind it."

"I am so close to destroying the damn things myself," Jess replied.

Thea was confused, "Aren't you wearing earplugs to drown them out?"

"Still annoying when I have to take them out to take orders," Jess said.

Thea asked, "How's your books coming along?"

"It's fine," Jess replied with a wave of his hand. "How's your IRA thing coming along?"

"I hate it," Thea replied. "But I can't deny that Paris had a point though."

Jess said, "I still can't believe that Lorelai thought you would've told her about Anthony's past addiction."

According to Jess and Luke, Lorelai had come into the diner and complained, "I can't believe Thea didn't tell me about Anthony being a junkie."

And Luke and Jess laughed because, "Why would Thea tell you anything?"

Lorelai had gotten offended and then said, "Wait. You two knew about Anthony being a junkie?"

"He's a former addict," Jess had replied. "And why would Thea tell you anything?"

"Yeah, she didn't even tell you that she had two boyfriends when she was fifteen," Luke had replied. "And I thought Rory told you about Anthony being a former addict..."

And that was the end of it.

At an International Relations Association discussion, Paris was saying, "When you boil it down, isn't the whole Israel-Palestinian problem a case of sibling rivalry?"

"Follow up?" asked Friedman.

"The Old Testament, it's all there." Paris explained, "Israelis are descendants of Abraham and Sarah. Arabs are descendants of Abraham and his maid Hagar. So, Israelis and Arabs both have the same dad, and both wants the great nation God promised Abraham. They might as well be fighting over who gets the TV remote."

Thea watched as a girl, Cassie's, pencil rolled across the table right in front of the guy, William.

William picked up the pencil.

"Your Biblical facts are correct, Paris, but your arguments disregard the complexities of the last four-thousand years," Friedman told Paris. "I know research takes times."

Paris muttered, "At least I don't have to worry about Cheech growing Thai stick in the rec room."

"What?" asked Friedman.

"Nothing," replied Paris.

"Okay," Friedman said. "Anyone else?"

"It's just a power struggle, nothing mysterious," William stated.

"Who wins in this game?" asked William. "And in whose best interest is it to keep the kids fighting?"

"Right," Cassie piped up. "Like they're some all-powerful entity, manipulating the population of Israel. Why won't you think about that?"

Thea was confused.

"Excuse me?" asked William, looking confused.

"It's more complex than that," Rory chimed in.

William started, "But if you disregard power—"

"That's not what I said," Cassie said. "Maybe if you would stop slouching, you could actually hear a little more clearly."

"Decorum, people," Friedman cut in.

Cassie was saying, "You know, Israel is made up of over six million individuals, who have a unique view on the situation. You know something about a unique view of a situation, don't you?"

Thea started having the feeling that they were not discussing relations anymore.

William started, "I guess—"

"Propaganda and the spreading of blatant, heinous, ridiculous lies can cause more damage than of any sort of weaponry," Cassie said.

Thea said, "I'd personally would rather have lies spread about me rather than getting knifed."

"I agree, because if I was in an alley with Osama, I'd rather he was armed with a blatant, heinous lie than an Uzi," William said.

Cassie looked at William, "That's because you're stupid."

Thea asked, "Can I call for an objection, because name calling shouldn't be allowed?"

Cassie looked at Thea, "Relax, ho, I wasn't calling you stupid."

"You know, you didn't look very scary when you came in here," William told Cassie, taking in her heavy eyeliner.

"Give me back my pencil," Cassie replied, narrowing her eyes at him.

William rolled the pencil back to Cassie.

"Okay, you two," Friedman said. "Let's take a cooling off period and hear from someone else." She turned to another girl, "Sarah, your thoughts on this."

At four in the morning, someone was knocking on the door, so Thea had to drag herself out of bed to answer the suite door.

She blinked when she saw Lane standing there.

"Hi," Lane said.

Thea was surprised to see her. "Not to sound rude, but what are you doing here?" She let Lane into the suite and went to the fridge to get Lane something to drink.

"Well, funny you should ask, because I didn't know what to do and you always know what you're doing, so I thought I'd drop by and ask you what to do," Lane explained.

Thea handed Lane a cup of milk and some leftover chocolate chip cookies, "Thanks?"

"I couldn't come up with an alibi," Lane said.

Thea was surprised, because she knew that Hep Alien had a gig in New York and that Lane said she would come up with something to go. "You always have alibis."

"I know, but apparently I couldn't come up with something for this," Lane said. "I couldn't think of anything!" She sat down on the couch.

"This is bad," Thea stated.

"I know," Lane said. "I tried, but nothing I came up with sounded like she would believe it so I just left."

"You left?" asked Thea.

"I mean, I waited until she went to bed, which was about 9:15 and then I left," Lane said.

"Did you at least leave a note?" asked Thea.

"No," replied Lane.

"Did you call her?" asked Thea.

"I don't even think I locked the door behind me," Lane admitted.

"She's gonna lose her mind when she finds you not in bed," Thea said, horrified.

Lane nodded, "Yup. But I couldn't miss the gig, Thea. I mean it was the CBGB's! I had to go and she wouldn't let me go." Thea went into the dorm room. "Where are you going?"

"Car keys," Thea said. "What time does she normally get up?"

"At least five, five-thirty," Lane said.

"If I drive quickly, I think I can get you home and in your room before she wakes up," Thea said.

"I don't want you driving very quickly on those icy roads," Lane told Thea. "Your life and my life aren't that important to risk you getting in an accident."

"Then you have to call your mom," Thea said.

"No way," Lane replied.

"So, you plan on never returning home?" asked Thea.

Lane said, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I mean, living in a cardboard box under the bridge looks pretty bleak," Thea said.

"I mean, I can always live in a box car out in the woods before my very rich grandfather finds me, like in that book series you used to read in third grade," Lane said.

Thea smiled fondly at the Boxcar Children mysteries she used to read. Those were her very first mysteries.

Thea went in the room and grabbed the cell phone that Francine and Straub had got for her. She grabbed an extra blanket from the wardrobe and went into the living room.

"What are you doing?" asked Lane.

"Calling Rory because she should know that you're here," Thea told Lane, handing the blanket to Lane.

"Oh," Lane replied, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders.

Rory answered the phone, "What?"

"Lane's here in my suite and is terrified to go home, so I guess I'm adopting her now, bye," Thea told Rory. She hung up and looked at Lane, "How was the venue?"

"Well, I was anxious and kept using Dave as a drum," Lane said. "He didn't seem to mind and just smiled at me. It was canceled because no one showed up."

"I don't blame anyone because it was at one in the morning," Thea admitted. "Maybe some other day."

"Yeah, some other day," Lane agreed. "It was so crushing though. I couldn't wait to play, but it didn't happen."

"That's so humiliating," Thea said, "I would've cried."

"I almost did," Lane replied.

Thea looked at Lane, "You should tell your mother about you being in a band."

Lane started, "Thea..."

"I know why you can't, but Young Chui's family ended up accepting Lindsay even though she's white," Thea said. "Maybe your mom might eventually come around to the idea."

"Yeah, but Gil's an older guy," Lane said. "She knows that Rory is dating an older guy. She'll think that Rory rubbed off on me."

"Gil's married with kids," Thea said.

"Doesn't matter," Lane replied.

Thea's cell phone rang, and she looked at it. It was Rory so she answered it, "Yeah?"

"I talked to Mom, and she called Mrs. Kim, and she says that Mrs. Kim will pick her up at your dorm," Rory told Thea.

"My dorm?" asked Thea.

"I don't think that Lane would want to walk to my dorm early in the morning," Rory said.

Thea looked at Lane, who ended up falling asleep on the couch. "Yeah, she fell asleep."

"Exactly," Rory replied. "Bye." She hung up.

So, Thea went over and gently took off Lane's glasses to set them aside on the coffee table.

It took a week for Liberty, Jess, and Luke to crack.

Libby told them that she, Jess, and Luke ended up breaking a few bells to get them to stop working. The reverend had caught them with the tools and said, "Oh, thank god! Carry on." and left.

Thea was just highlighting something for history when there was a knock on the suite door, so she got up to answer it, wondering who it was.

When she opened the door, Lane was there, with a suitcase.

Thea asked, "She kicked you out?"

"No, I decided to move out," Lane said, walking into the dorm room.