Disclaimer: As always: Nothing's mine. It's fanfiction.

Here's yet another one-shot.

Thanks for all those who reviewed both or one of the other two I posted yesterday.

First Impressions

He entered the kitchen alongside Miss Gilmore and his uncle. The former introduced him to a short, good-natured, a bit corpulent woman named Sookie. She reminded him of Sophie. The guy next to her didn't look up while handling the kitchen knife.

"Do you eat cheese?" The question was almost thrown at him. He hadn't expected such a greeting and he didn't like being surprised.

"What?" He put his hands in his pockets unsure what to say.

The guy– Jackson – started to talk about lemons while Sookie who was surly his girlfriend or freshly married wife immediately tasted it babbling about how good they were, indeed. Unsurely he looked at Miss Gilmore who just smiled a little. Luke seemed a little exasperated crossing his arms behind his back. But although he sighed, it was clear how his uncle he was fond of the company.

When Jackson offered him a lemon, he couldn't help but smile a little. It was like comedy.

Realizing what he almost did, he controlled his features immediately. This was the first time in weeks he'd nearly smiled… It scared him. He wasn't supposed to feel happiness… not already after such a short amount of time.

Suddenly he heard Miss Gilmore calling her daughter who seemed to be in the room to his right. He hadn't noticed another person so close to him.

Why hadn't he noticed her? She sat at the desk with her computer which stood on the other side of the room. She had to have worked either for school or something else. She most certainly hadn't looked towards him since that he would have noticed.

He entered her room and she welcomed him with a smile and a "hey". She had the cutest smile and was as pretty as she had been on the pictures in the living room.

She unnecessarily introduced herself which he shrugged of with a slightly sarcastic but not scathing comment. She nodded a little obviously not discouraged since she said that it was nice to meet him

She seemed to be a polite girl, slightly shy, but there was something in her remarkably blue eyes that betrayed her intellect. Her mind worked a lot, that much he could fathom by only glancing at her.

When he looked at the shelves not bothering to reply since it was never nice for him to meet anybody, he was impressed by the amounts of books he saw. Only by looking at that one part of her room, he knew they had to be all over the place.

It only took him a glance at the collection and he knew that she had very good taste in literature.

"Wow! Aren't we hooked on phonics?" He simply said wondering what her favourite books were. Hopefully she was easy to talk to. It would be nice having someone to discuss his favourite hobby.

Once again he chastised himself. Things weren't supposed to be nice… Not here, not now.

"I read a lot. Do you read?" Though he didn't see her, Jess heard her smile.

Oh, she did have Howl in her collection. Nice.

"Not much." Even though they weren't here, Jess could see Sylvie and Chris rolling their eyes in exasperation. Jeez, he was here for two days and already missed them. He'd write them as soon as possible without his uncle noticing.

She told him he could loan the book and that it was great (So, she did have a good taste) causing him to put it away immediately.

He'd surprise her later.

She seemed interesting.

Miss Gilmore entered and interrupted their (still rather one-sided) chat.

He tried to measure Rory and decided to discuss with her whether or not to bail, but she seemed so flustered he knew they'd never leave. She was a good girl, definitely. However, it was impressive how mischievous she could hide that by saying that there was nothing going on in Stars Hollow tonight. But the first thing she said had betrayed her. She was a good kid that didn't want to get into trouble…

She seemed amused by his attempts to avoid the meal.

"Sookie made a ton of really great food… and I am starving and though it may not seem like it at this moment, it's going to be fun. Trust me."

Jess nearly laughed. He could count on one hand the people he trusted.

He decided to say: "I don't even know you."

Blue, innocent eyes looked into his asking: "Don't I look trustworthy?"

"Maybe." It was scary, but she did. It was possible he'd trust her one day. Her eyes sparkled and it nearly took his breath away. He hadn't expected the enthusiasm following his words. This was an evening full of surprises.

For the first time in his life he reconsidered his opinion that nothing good ever followed the unexpected.

The girl left the room ahead of him giving him the opportunity to take Howl. He hadn't read it in a while or taken it along from New York. He'd give it back to her tomorrow with a little surprise.

She asked him whether he wanted a soda, but he'd get it himself.

Rory walked past him smiling while he went to the fridge in order to take out a soda.

At that he heard the company already chatting. They were having a good time and he knew as soon as he entered, there would be an awkward pause and they would try to find a topic they thought he would converse about.

They would smother him with personal questions:

What part of New York do you come from?

How's school?

Do you miss your friends already?

As if he would readily answer any of those questions. He opened the fridge and when he saw the beer, he quickly decided to take one and leave the house.

Once outside he breathed in the fresh air closing his eyes. He would stay here since this terrace seemed quite nice. He'd do anything to be back home, but for now the veranda will do. While he opened the bottle he heard the door open.

It was a female but Jess was unable to determine whether it was Rory or her mother.

As soon as he opened the beer, Miss Gilmore demanded it without saying much. There was a false smile on her face, though. She didn't like him. That much he could tell.

She asked whether he was hungry, but when he truthfully answered she started talking about Sookie and even more food instead of just leaving it be.

"Well, if I'd known that." The sarcastic and almost frustrated comment left his mouth which caused the atmosphere to change within seconds and for the first time this evening he felt alright. There was almost nothing left of that smothering cheery environment inside the house.

Banters he did well and Miss Gilmore seemed to be good at it, too.

"Let me guess. You don't want to be here." The tone of her voice was motherly and understanding. She seemed sincere.

"Doesn't matter." His opinion and wishes never mattered, why should they now?

"I mean, here at Stars Hollow," she said with that understanding tone, but there was something in her eyes: She'd already measured him and decided not to like him. But he could accept that. He'd done it before.

"Jeez, Miss Gilmore. Why would anyone not want to be here in Stars Hollow? That just sounds plum crazy," he looked her straight in the eyes at the end causing her to look down.

A slightly annoyed sound escaped her lips… There she was.

When she looked up again her smile wasn't sincere. She was irritated, so was he. Why couldn't she just leave him alone?

"Jess, let me give you a little advice."

Now, here it comes!

"The whole 'my parents don't get me' thing… I've been there."

"You have, huh?" He was officially angry now. She sounded so condescending, it was sickening. Especially because that one sentence proved how little she knew.

He had no parents. He had no father and he'd been taking care of his mother ever since he was seven years old. All of his friends would know by now that they were on dangerous territory, his tone practically screamed it. He looked her warningly in the eyes, but her face was turned.

Stupid! When you attack you look at them to see the effect, only like this you know whether you are too harsh or not bold enough.

"Yes, I have. I've also done the 'chip on my shoulder' bit and the surly, sarcastic 'the world can bite my ass' bit. "

All Jess could do at that was shaking his head slightly while turning away. If he had continued to look into her eyes, he probably would have explained to her in detail how ignorant she was.

"And let me tell you, I mastered them all. In heels, yet."

That woman had nerve. If she really 'had been there', she wouldn't have used such a biting tone. In fact, she wouldn't have said anything at all and just left him alone until he was ready for an approach.

"Everything you're feeling might be totally justified. Maybe you are getting screwed." She didn't see his jaw muscle tense. Why wouldn't she stop?

"But Luke is a great guy. He's very special."

Wow, someone's in love.

Jess looked up again for her voice had all softened without the slightest bit of irony. She was sincere, that much was clear.

His mood didn't soften along with her. She had come too close and he would make that clear.

"And he really wants to take care of you and make things right for you. You are incredibly lucky to have him. "

Please!

"If you give this situation half a chance…"

What now? Everything would be okay? He would lose that feeling of complete and utter loss that hadn't left him ever since entering that apartment two months ago? Not very likely!

By biting his lips he bit back a sharp response.

"…you might be surprised at how good it can be…how much you like living here…" Dammit, he wasn't needed here! His friends did, though.

"…and how comfortable it feels to have someone like Luke you can really depend on."

Yeah, right! Because male adults are something you could ever count on. As if he would ever trust the man. Comfortable? The sooner, Luke sent him back home, the better.

That whole 'you'll be happy here' was even worse than the 'everything is going to be just fine. Give it time' he'd heard countless times these past two months. Did Liz really believe that a change of place would somehow make him feel better?

Probably not, she'd only wanted him out of the house and out of her hair.

All he wanted to do was leave right now and so he decided to end this conversation.

Judging by what he'd seen he knew exactly how he'd manage to do that.

"What? Are you sleeping with him or something?"

"Excuse me?" She did take the bait.

Good, finally!

"I don't know. The whole starry-eyed… 'you're so much better off, just give it a chance' speech. You're either really naïve or you're getting some."

That was harsher than he had intended, but he'd seen, done and heard too much to care. That woman was insufferable. Maybe at one point he'd have liked her wit, but she was too chatty and was completely oblivious to how badly he wanted out of here. She couldn't take a hint, so he decided to make it awfully clear.

Back off!

She couldn't look him in the eyes and he could see her hands trembling with anger. For a brief moment he wondered if she'd slap him, but then figured she wasn't that kind of person. She fought with words, not fists.

"There have been very few moments in my life where I've actually wished I had one of those enormous cream pies you can smash in someone's face. This is definitely one of them."

Yep, he'd been right. Verbally she was very gifted. Impressive.

"Now that's not very neighbourly." This would make her furious enough to let him go.

"Hey! You know what? This is my house and I choose how I get talked to in it. Ha ha!"

That was enough! She'd come outside giving him that patronizing 'I understand you' speech without really doing so and now it was his fault he retorted?

"You know? You don't know anything about me, or my life, or my mom, or Luke." He emphasized Luke, so she wouldn't pick up on the fact he was mainly talking about his life. "So why don't you Dr. Laura someone else?"

"I'm going inside. Stay out of my fridge."

He looked down shaking his head. He had to go. This was too tense.

Aimlessly he left for the streets. It was already dark which caused him automatically to be more attentive. Though if necessary a good fighter, he knew the disadvantage of his height, or lack thereof.

When he looked and listened closely noticing there wasn't a single soul within fifty feet of him probably even further he relaxed slightly.

This wasn't New York.

For the first time he was glad about it.

Don't misunderstand me! I do love Lorelai, but this story is from Jess' point of view and I really think their initial fight could have been avoided had Lorelai waited for a few days. It's certainly not all her fault, Jess wasn't exactly nice (was a bit of a jerk, actually), but it always irked me a little how she practically told him: "I know how you feel and you are an idiot acting the way you do." They haven't really talked to each other, but she already judged.

I hope you liked my point of view concerning Jess' arrival at Stars Hollow (added with some fictional aspect of course:-)).

Please read and review!