A/N- OK, so I know you're all kinda waiting for the next chapter of my other story but I'm having a little case of writers block. So to try and get rid of the writers block I'm gonna begin a story I've had in my head for months. It's a Rory/Jess pairing and completely AU. They meet in totally different way and Jess is a year older than Rory in this version.
Disclaimer- Not mine so please don't sue…
(A/N most of the dialogue between R/J in this chapter is taken from the second season this is the work of ASP not me)
Chapter 1- A Beginning
"So honey, this is you're last first day of high school. How's it feel?" mum looks at me expectantly from the foot of my bed.
"Well, excited and a little sad at the same time. I mean I won't miss the uniform for a minute. But I like school and I'm looking forward to Harvard and everything but it's still a scary concept. So I'm going to have a great year and hope everything goes ok." I mumble through my tiredness. I glance at my alarm clock wearily "You know what I don't understand though?" I ask rhetorically but mum answers me anyway.
"The meaning of life… well you shouldn't feel bad about that babe no-one's quite got that yet anyway." She smiles.
"Good guess… but no. What I don't understand is how every other year on the first day of school I have had to drag you're lazy self out of bed and this year you get me up at six o'clock."
"Well I had a bit of trouble sleeping last night. You see after we watched the breakfast club and footloose and you went to bed I was still buzzed on the sugar…"
"Oh no…" I think I know where this is going.
"So I watched it again"
"Mum I know you love the film but you have to remember that Pretty in Pink always inspires you to make things so it's best to watch it early in the morning. So what did you make this time?" I ask not really wanting to know the answer.
"You're prom dress. But it's not finished yet" She confesses.
"What! You're kidding. It's not prom for nine more months. Oh good god… it's not pink is it?" I ask panicked. The last time she watched that movie without me she ended up making me a whole load of pink fluffy tools with rhinestones and bows for the 'rebuilding together' project I was taking part in the next day.
"No it's not pink. But I'm not going to tell you what colour it is or even show it to you until a month before prom to make sure it fits and make any necessary adjustments."
"So first you wake me up early to tell me you made my prom dress then you tell me that I can't see it for eight months. You're logic astounds me sometimes." I grumble and pull my blankets over my head in a vain attempt to go back to sleep. I hear my mum exit the room and her footsteps retreat to the living room, then I hear them come back again.
"So Luke's in ten minutes?" she asks in a hopeful voice.
"Fifteen" I answer and sigh as I get out of bed and walk to my wardrobe. Time to dress for my last first day of high school… like I have a choice what to wear…Ha!
--- --- --- --- ---
"Hey Luuuuuuuke" my mum says in a mocking tone trying to get Luke's attention. He's on the phone so you can't really blame him for answering.
"Hang on a minute would ya. I'm in the middle of something more important than you're blueberry pancakes."
"Well that was a little harsh" She grumbles to me. "He must be talking to Taylor." She assumes and grabs a menu and glances at the bottom right corner and notices that it's bare and grabs a biro from her purse and doodles her name in a flamboyant text onto the menu. It's a great ambition of hers to hit every menu so that one day people will ask Luke who she is since her name is on every menu.
"You're kidding right? Please tell me you're pulling my leg, please?" Luke's asks into the phone, rather loudly.
"No you just can't do that!" he yells.
"It's definitely Taylor" mum says as she leans back to admire her handiwork.
"You're not stable enough to get married." He says now sounding exasperated now.
"Yeah it's Taylor" I agree and we giggle slightly.
"And you WHAT!" Luke looks rather sick now. "I can't believe this! I'll talk to you later I have work to do." He states and then promptly slammed the phone down. I feel rather sorry for him as he reaches up and pinches the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. The feeling of numbness in the brain is one a lot of people experience after an incident with Taylor Doose, market owner and town selectmen extraordinaire (or sol he thinks).
"What would you like?" he asks finally taking out a pen and order pad and looking at us expectantly."
"An explanation of why you have such a strong opinion on Taylor's recent nuptials." My mum asked with an astonishingly straight face and added "I think he and Al will be really happy together."
"That was my sister." Luke explains.
"Oh, why can't she get married?" she asks. "She a nun or something?"
"My head case of a sister shouldn't get married because she has a very bad history concerning men. You think Miss Patty's track record is impressive? You should evaluate hers. Her first husband abandoned her once his kid was born and the 2 others she's had since took her for all she had before bolting."
"Oh… well maybe she got Lucky this time." Mum says, ever the optimist.
"Well apparently I'm going to find out. She was calling to tell me that she, her new husband and her son, Jess, have moved to Woodbridge" (A/N I think that's the name of one of the other towns or its Woodbury but who cares, right?) he says with a little more venom than he probably intended.
"Oh so we'll get to meet your sister and nephew that's great. "How old is Jess?" mum asks.
"Nineteen this year." Luke answers. "Apparently he managed to find some job in Hartford."
"Well that's good." Mum states. And everyone's a little quiet.
"So a cherry Danish and a coffee to go please Luke?" I ask.
"You're not staying to eat." Mum looks at me accusingly "Why?"
"I want to find my new locker and find the best way around before the day starts and, if possible, have a chat with Paris about the plans for our student government initiation on Wednesday."
"Ok well, don't work to hard k sweets."
"Ok mum." I take the bag and disposable cup from Luke and head for the door. "Have a good day. Bye Luke."
"Did she just tell me to have a good day when I told her my sister is coming by?" Luke asks watching Rory walk out the door and across the street.
"I'm sure she's not that bad" Lorelai comments.
"You never had any siblings did you?" he asks
"No, but…"
"You will never understand."
--- --- --- --- ---
I open my book and pick up where I left off as t sit waiting for the bus.
"Hey there." A voice whispers gently in my ear. I turn and smile as Dean leans in for a kiss.
"Hi" I say after he pulls away. "I wasn't expecting to see you today."
"Well I have plans to meet some of the guys for a round of basket ball before school starts." He tells me.
"So am I seeing you later?" I ask hopefully. We didn't get much time together this summer with me being in Washington and stuff.
"Sure, I'll meet you in Luke's at 5, ok?"
"Yeah, great." I say stowing my book back in my bag as the bus pulls up. "Bye" I say.
"Later" he replies, kissing me again before he turns and heads in the direction of his school. I like that he doesn't go to Chilton, those two parts of my life are better separate. I get on the bus and take my usual seat. I retrieve my book from the depths of my back pack and begin reading again.
"The fountain head?" a voice questions. I look up. Sat across from me is a guy with dark hair that contrasts with his light hazel eyes one eyebrow raised questioningly.
"Yeah, why?"
"How can you read it?" he asks.
"Well this is the third time I've read it." I admit smiling.
"Really I never managed to finish it myself" he says as he moves and takes the seat next to me.
"Are you serious? It's a classic." I defend the book.
"Maybe, But Ayn Rand was a political nut." He counters.
"Well no-one could write a forty page monologue the way she could," I point out.
"I'll have to give it another shot." He concedes glancing down. He catches sight of the other books in my bag. "These for work or pleasure?" he asks lifting a few to get a better look.
"Pleasure." I read a lot. Do you read much?"
"Not much." He answers simply. "The complete short stories of Ernest Hemingway" he reads one of the titles.
"Yeah, you can borrow it if you want, I can't seem to get into it."
"Really?" You should give him a chance, after all Ernest only has lovely things to say about you."
All I can do is smile at this outright and obvious flirt, not really sure what I could respond with. Luckily he spares me the trouble.
"Well this is my stop coming up, so I have to go. Bye…" he pauses as if waiting for something.
"Bye"
"So you're not going to tell me your name?" he asks.
"Rory, my name is Rory."
"Bye Rory."
I look down at my book and realise I don't know his name, I look up to ask but he's already gone. I look out of the window and I see him wave. I wave back. My instincts tell me that this is going to be an interesting year.
--- --- --- --- ---
"So I ought to be going then?" Lorelai says finishing her coffee." Lots to do at the Inn and Fran has agreed to meet me and Sookie again about buying the Dragonfly. It seems she's changed her mind about selling after all."
"Well that's great" Luke smiles cheerily. "But that's not great" he says as something catches his eye through the window.
Lorelai turned and saw a short woman with blonde hair accompanied by a man with short black hair. "Is that…?"
"That's Liz." Luke answered as the couple walked through the door.
"Big brother." Liz say's as a form of greeting before rushing up to Luke and throwing her arms around him.
"Boy am I glad I know he's your brother or else I might be very jealous." The man says.
"Oh, Luke this is my husband TJ." Liz introduces. "And who's this?" she asks catching sight of Lorelai who's been silently watching the exchange.
"Oh, this is Lorelai she runs the independence inn."
"And I'm a good friend and loyal customer of your brothers too." She chips in.
"Yeah, friend and customer." Luke repeats stupidly.
"He keeps me alive in the sense that he has all the coffee I could ever need." Lorelai says smiling to try and ease the tension in the room.
"Liz, why would you move back here? You hate it. You got away as soon as you could." Luke asks staring intently at his sister.
Lorelai sensing a Luke rant approaching quickly said "I'm going to get to the Inn. See you later Luke, nice to meet you Liz."
--- --- --- --- ---
"Look all I'm saying is you had better get it down by Wednesday because I'm not having anything screw up our first day in office."
"Goodbye Paris" I say in a tone that firmly said 'I'm done with this conversation' and start walking over to the bus stop.
She's totally screwing over my vice presidential speech for our swearing in ceremony on Wednesday. It's a perfectly good speech in my eyes but Paris wants it to be more uplifting.
Luckily enough the bus didn't take to long to arrive and when I had found myself a seat I pulled out my notebook and began thinking of ways to incorporate a more inspiring message. I get halfway through my speech when the bus makes a stop and I hear something that makes me smile.
"Well, well, well, we meet again."
It's the guy from this morning. "Hi"
He takes the seat next to me and glances down at my notebook. "Bloody hell, reading this morning, writing this afternoon, when does the arithmetic kick in?" He smiles. He has an easy, honest kind of smile that reaches his eyes.
"Well, I have to confess, math isn't really my thing." I reply.
"I have something to confess too." He says smiling some more. He reaches into his bag, which I hadn't noticed earlier and pulls out a book. I glance at the title. 'The complete short stories of Ernest Hemmingway'.
"You brought a copy?" I ask. "I told you I'd lend you mine." I say remembering our conversation from this morning.
"It is yours." He admits.
"You stole my book!" I say shocked.
"Nope, borrowed it." He says "I just wanted to put some notes in the margins for you."
Curious I open the book and glance at a few of the pages, seeing the notes scrawled on the side of the pages. I read one and look up. "You've read this before?" it's not so much of a question as a statement.
"About forty times." He smiles again.
"I thought you said you didn't read much?"
"Well, what is much?"
I smile at this. I find it so weird that I can fall into conversation so easily with someone I only met 7 or so hours ago.
"Hey isn't this your stop coming up?" he asks.
Glancing up I realize he's right. I return my things to my rucksack and stand up. "Hey you never told me your name." I say.
"Just call me Dodger." He says smiling… again.
"Dodger?" I ask
"Figure it out." He says.
I walk towards the door, then smile and turn back. "Oliver twist" I say loud enough for him to hear. He just smiles and nods. I get off the bus and glance up at the windows, just to see. He smiles and waves, I wave back. Yep, senior year is definitely going to be an interesting one.
Hopefully this has got that writers block shoved right out of me and my other story will have an update very soon. Please don't forget to review in love knowing what ppl think of my writing, but if it's bad please be constructive.