Outside Luke's, Jess walks to the corner, where the traffic light appears to be gone, by the way. "This is hell, this is hell," Elvis Costello starts to sing. "I am sorry to tell you it never gets better or worse." Jess watches the homey settings of Stars Hollow. They're out of control with children turning cartwheels, twins dressed in overalls, some group carrying giant bales of hay for no reason. "But you'll get used to it after a spell," Elvis promises. Jess walks through his new small town as one car drives by and we go to commercial.

Chilton. Rory sits outside her classroom, ten minutes early for the Franklin meeting. She opens a book and starts reading, but she hears Paris talking inside the closed door. Rory opens the door and finds Paris leading a full table of staff through a meeting. The teacher thanks Rory for finally joining them. Rory says she thought they started at 4:00. The teacher crisply announces that they start at 3:15 sharp. Paris just watches with a small smile. Rory takes a seat at the end of the table. Paris says they were just finishing handing out the first assignments, and since Rory was so late, there really aren't any more stories. Paris checks her list and finds that there is one story left: they are paving the new parking lot tomorrow. She tells Rory that she can cover the paving process. Rory asks whether Paris is serious. Paris says she's sure there's a story in there somewhere: if it's environmentally safe, if it's financially a good idea, if concrete is the way to go instead of brick, given the architecture of the building. Rory moans that she gets the idea. Paris says that Rory can wait until the next issue if this story is beneath her. She tells Rory that she can spend the time getting a manicure or a massage. Rory says she'll do the story. She's smiling and says she'll cover the paving. Paris brings the meeting to a close. Everyone leaves, and Rory walks over to Paris, who is typing on a laptop. Rory says she's going to write the greatest piece on paving that Paris has ever seen, and next week when she has to do something on plumbing, she'll be just as thrilled. Paris says she likes a team player. Rory says that no matter how many crappy assignments Paris throws at her and no matter how evil Paris wants to be, Rory isn't going to back down and at the end of everything her transcript will still say that she worked on the Franklin. Rory excuses herself to go do some reading on the origins of concrete. Paris barks that she needs a thousand words on her desk by Tuesday. ["A thousand words is about four times as long as a real newspaper story, by the way, unless Rory's writing it for the special Franklin Sunday supplement." -- Wing Chun]