A/N: Hey, got me some readers for Part 3 of 3, huh? Very cool. Thanks to all who reviewed Chapter 1. Now, time to send these kids off to Yale, yes? ;)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 2
Getting Rory and Jess settled in at Yale was not a simple undertaking. In fact, even moving the two of them and all their things as far as New Haven seemed to be a trial.
"You really thought this was going to work?" asked Luke, surveying the mess in the driveway. "Really?"
"I don't know," said his fiancée defensively, hugging a box of Rory's clothes to her chest. "They shouldn't have so much stuff!"
"They're teenagers, Lorelai, they don't travel light. They can't come home every day so they're going to need a lot of stuff. It was never going to fit into the truck all at once. I told you that, but did you listen?"
"Hey, when I suggested it the first time, you did not argue."
"You were naked at the time! I would've agreed to anything!"
"Oh, geez!" Jess declared after that particular statement, actively covering his ears and moving away from the fight.
"Yeah, that took a turn." Rory winced as she followed her boyfriend further down the driveway. "Usually, I think it's cute when they get into these barely-a-fight fight things, but I did not need to hear that."
"Amen," Jess agreed. "So, you think we'll actually make it onto campus before dark?" he asked, leaning on the trunk of his own car.
"Probably not," said Rory easily. "But I'm sure everyone will understand if we show up a week late, so long as we explain we had no choice. Our families had truck-packing issues."
"I'll bet it happens all the time."
"Every year."
"Common problem."
Their witty banter was interrupted by a crash, and both Jess and Rory craned their necks to see Luke hefting boxes from one side of the truck to the other - again.
"Fine! We'll try it that way, but it's still not all going to fit!" he yelled at Lorelai's retreating form.
"How's Paris getting all her stuff to Yale?" asked Rory then.
"Hired a truck," Jess told her. "Pretty big one too, from what she told me. I think you're going to be fighting for any kind of space in your room."
"I'm sure it'll be fine." Rory shrugged. "Well, for me anyway. I kind of feel sorry for the other two girls in our dorm. I mean, we know and love Paris, but for others, she's kind of an acquired taste."
Jess would've argued in his sister's favour, but he already knew he couldn't. She really was tough to get along with at first, and it was probably for the best that she had pulled strings to get herself and Rory in the same room. As for Jess himself, he had no idea who he would be sharing with. Chances were good he wouldn't like any of them, so that was just great.
"Oh, I talked to her about Jamie," said Rory then, leaning beside Jess. "They did see each other a few times over the Summer and everything seems fine. I'll spare you the gory details," she said with a grin.
"I appreciate that," he told her, nodding his head. "So, how are we gonna do this? You want to risk the wrath of Luke and your mom? See if we can get some of this stuff split up between our cars?"
"I don't see how else we're ever going to get to Yale before midnight," Rory considered. "You with me?"
"Always," said Jess, taking the hand she offered. "Once more unto the breach."
It took a while for them to calm down Luke and Lorelai, and then to make them see sense. It was clear all the belongings of both Rory and Jess were not going to fit in the truck alone, but Lorelai was determined to only make one trip in order to save Luke's time, even though he pointed out that she had already wasted much of the day arguing with him.
An hour later, they were literally kissing and making up, Jess had a lot of his own stuff packed into his car and some of Rory's things were in her own vehicle too. The larger items remained with Luke and they all set off convoy style to college.
On arrival, Jess helped Luke unload the truck first, putting first Rory's mattress into place and then his own, followed by the smaller furniture items and heavy things that would've ruined the suspension in either car.
Meanwhile, Rory and Lorelai traipsed back and forth from Rory's car with her own boxes of clothes, books, and more. Paris helped a little, but only a very little. She was way too interested in poking around the rooms of the other girls in their dorm who seemed to have moved in but were not actually present right now.
"This one looks like she might be the athletic type. Here's hoping she keeps her sweating and stretching to a minimum. Nobody needs to see that."
"I'm sure she's a nice person, Paris," Rory advised, breathing heavily as she dumped the last box of books onto the floor.
"The other room is locked, so God knows what that girl is like. Safety and security conscious, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but then, do we want some kind of baby who's scared of her own shadow sharing our space?"
"Paris, why don't you wait until our room-mates come back and actually meet them before you judge?" said Rory. "And in the meantime, maybe you could come help with boxes? Jess still has his whole car to unload."
"Fine." Paris rolled her eyes. "I guess I can carry a few things for brother dearest, but quite honestly, why he didn't just let me hire someone for him like I offered?"
Despite Paris' complaining, she and Rory waited at Jess' car until he was ready and then helped transport box after box to his building. Luke was on hand to assist also, and the job was complete pretty fast. It was only after the last box had been deposited that any of Jess' room-mates showed themselves.
"Oh, hi," said a tall, dark-haired guy, seemingly almost blushing when he realised there were girls present. "I, er... I'm Marty."
"Jess," he introduced himself, shaking the guy's hand.
"Good to meet you," said Marty, smiling widely, though his eyes were straying to Rory and Paris more than a little. "You brought the whole family?"
"Not entirely" said Rory, when Jess seemed less than willing. "I'm Rory, Jess' girlfriend, and this is Paris, she's... well, his sister," she opted for eventually, deciding it was true enough. "The people who just exited stage left are Luke, Jess' uncle, and my mom, Lorelai."
"Nice to meet everybody." Marty nodded. "Uh, do you girls go here?"
"We do," Rory agreed. "We're Freshman, same as you and Jess."
"Yes, which means we have just as much to do as these guys do," said Paris pointedly. "Now we've completed our manual labour, we'll be heading back, leave you guys alone to bond," she told Jess, with a smirk he had seen before in the mirror too many times. "See you later."
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out, sis," he told her acidly, though there was a smile to take the edge off his words.
When the girls were gone, Jess let out a sigh and turned back to look at Marty again. Bonding with the guys. Yeah, because he was so good at that stuff.
"Are all these boxes really books?" asked Marty, noticing the writing on each one piled near Jess' bedroom door.
"Yup. You read much?"
"Some." Marty shrugged.
"Great." Jess nodded, turning away.
He had to assume his room-mate was at least a little intellectual or he wouldn't be at Yale. Of course, there was just as much chance that he was on a football scholarship or something. He didn't have to read much or know anything about literature. Maybe Marty and Jess would have other things in common. He could live in hope, otherwise, it was going to be a real long year.
"Hey, we found it!" said a voice then, two new faces appearing in the doorway. "Cool, everybody's here."
"You living here, man?" Jess asked the first guy that came barging past him.
"Sure." He nodded, his friend clattering in after him, not noticing or caring that he smacked Jess with his bag on the way. "I'm Mike, this is Donnie."
All the necessary introductions were made, and the new arrivals explained that they were cousins from Iowa, both at Yale on sports scholarships. It was supposedly a completely fluke that they had gotten a room together, but they were a little too happy about it, as far as Jess could tell. It was a relief to realise that Marty was no more interested in Mike and Dan's talk of sports and such than he was himself. Maybe they would get along better than Jess initially thought.
"I know. Yeah, I guess we should have. Well, it's a little late now, but it's not forever."
As Jess approached Durfee Hall, he was surprised to find Paris outside, talking on the phone. He wondered who she was talking to at first, until he heard her say 'I love you'. That wasn't a phrase that ever came out of Paris' mouth much, and Jess could count on one hand the number of people she was likely to have said it to her in her life. The most likely candidate for the phone call then was the boyfriend.
"Okay, bye," said Paris then, ending the call.
"How's Jamie?" asked Jess, coming to sit beside her on the bench.
"Fine," she told him, with a great heaving sigh to follow. "He's not exactly happy with me right now. Apparently, we didn't spend enough time together over the summer. I mean, what does he want from me? I was working, helping out family. He should understand that, right?"
"Sure." Jess nodded, though he wasn't entirely buying Paris' argument.
True enough that she filled in for him at the diner, but they both knew she didn't have to be there every day. Even with the arrangements to be made for coming to Yale and reading to get done before classes began, Paris ought to have had plenty of time left over to spend with her boyfriend if she really wanted to. It made Jess wonder if the issue was rather that she just didn't want to. So much for what Rory said earlier about everything seemingly being fine. Paris must have implied that to her for some reason, but Jess suspected it was far from the truth.
"He, er... He didn't do anything, did he?"
Paris narrowed her eyes.
"What are you implying?"
"Nothing," he assured her, hands raised in mock surrender. "I'm just asking. Checking," he said, bumping his shoulder against hers when she looked away. "It's a brother thing."
"Yeah, well, thanks, but this sister doesn't need your help right now," Paris insisted. "He didn't do anything" she promised, looking at Jess then. "He's just... I don't know, he wanted more time than I had to give him. I love the guy, I do, but I don't want to be suffocated by him. God, even you and Rory with your sickeningly sweet romantic infatuation don't spend every minute together."
Jess didn't have an answer to that. He was prepared to admit, if asked, that he would spend almost every minute with Rory if he could, if she wanted to, if it weren't completely impractical. That was how much he loved her, and how much he had missed her when they were parted by way too many countries and an ocean besides. Paris didn't ask, so he didn't tell her.
"So, you meet your other room-mates?" she asked then.
"Two meat-heads from the mid-west." Jess rolled his eyes. "But that Marty guy seems okay. He doesn't read so much, but he knows old movies, some decent music, and he's at my end of the socio-economic scale."
"He's a punk with no cash," Paris summarised. "Wow. You two ought to get on like a house on fire."
"Maybe." Jess smirked. "How about your fellow female Yalies?"
"A fitness freak and a fifteen-year-old genius with absolutely zero common sense. It's going to be a long year." Paris rolled her eyes. "At least I have Rory as a buffer against the weirdoes."
As if she heard her name and appeared on command, Rory poked her head around the corner then and smiled at the sight of Jess sat with Paris.
"Hey, you're here!"
"Looks that way," her boyfriend agreed, rising to meet her and kiss her 'hello'. "You settled in okay?"
"Pretty much," she agreed, nodding her head. "You just come to ask that?"
"Pretty much," he echoed her words. "Thought it might be weird for you, being here, away from your mom."
"It is, a little," Rory agreed, not bothering to say it was the same for him and Paris.
She knew it wasn't. Their homes lives had not always been so great and they were used to being away from family and left alone. Rory wasn't. She always had her mom, and it was very strange to be otherwhere, knowing she wouldn't be going home to not just Lorelai, but her own house, her own bed, every night.
"At least I have you guys here," she noted with a smile. "Takes the edge off."
"That's fine, but don't expect to come climbing into my bed if there's a thunderstorm or you lose your safety blankie," said Paris, getting up. "I'm not into the whole Selma-Sarah Michelle vibe."
"Duly noted." Rory nodded once, as her friend passed by her and went inside. "Well, with her being practically your sister, at least I don't have to worry about you getting weird ideas from that comment."
The look on Jess' face proved that was true as he shook his head to dislodge the unpleasant pictures that were settling in too easily.
"So, I guess this is goodnight, huh?"
"I guess so," she agreed, putting her arms around his neck. "Goodnight, Jess."
"Goodnight, Rory," he replied in kind, before laying his lips on hers.
"I'll see you tomorrow," she said, smiling widely as they parted.
"I'll be here," Jess agreed, raising his hand in some kind of wave as she disappeared through the door. "I'll be here," he repeated to himself. "At Yale," he added, looking around at the campus shining in the moonlight.
Jess let out a sigh, pushed his hands deep into his pockets and headed back to his building, wondering how long it would take before he started feeling like he belonged here.
To Be Continued...
