A/N: Mkay. I know the last chapter was short so I'm going to try to make this one longer. Umm. Okay. So thanks so much for the reviews and I promise I'll update as much as I can. Okay here's the story.
Chapter 2: Read To Me Dodger
5 years later…
It was Lane, Jess, and mine's first day of 8th grade and Matt's first day of high school. Matt was as usual sitting at his table finishing his summer reading like he did every year because he is the biggest procrastinator I know. And Lane, Jess, and I were as usual sitting on the stairs reading in the same position we did the day we met: Jess in the middle and Lane and I on the sides. The scene was a tad different though. I had my head on Jess' chest as he had an arm around my shoulders while Lane laid her head on his other shoulder. This was now our normal position. We were best friends and you could tell because we were always attached at the hip. The reading choices were different also. Lane was reading The History of Rock Music, I was reading The Great Gatsby, and Jess was reading Oliver Twist. I stopped reading when I realized that we were at the top of the school this year and that next year we would be in high school with Matty. "Guys, we are in the 8th grade this year," I gushed as I looked up at Jess with my big baby blues.
"Wow! Way to state the obvious Cat," Jess used his nick-name for even when he was mocking me.
"Oh my gosh! We are at the top of the school Ror! EEEE! This is so exciting!" Lane exclaimed as she also came to the realization.
"I know! This year is going to be so fun!!" I responded to Lane and totally ignored Jess' statement.
"It's not that big a deal guys. It's just the 8th grade it's not like we're graduating med school or something. Jeez." Jess was never one to get very excited.
"Oh shut-up and read to me Dodger. I'll finish this later," and that was how I replied to his nonsense. That nick-name came from the book Oliver Twist. I believed that Jess was everything Dodger was except maybe a little nicer. At least to Matt, Lane, and I he was.
"If it will make you two nuts shut-up I will. Lane, are you listening or am I going to have to lean down and whisper into Cat's ear?" Jess was considerate of people's reading though.
"Nah. I'll listen to the Artful Dodger read to us 2 lovely ladies," Lane smiled as she answered Jess.
"Okay. Here we go…" and he started to read. About 20 minutes later Luke came and told us breakfast was ready so we scurried out from behind the curtain and sat at the counter to start eating our delicious food.
"Hey Dad! Where's my coffee!?" (like I wouldn't notice if there was no coffee waiting for me).
"Come on Ror! That stuff is gunna kill you and I'm going to be responsible!" Luke didn't like that I drank coffee just as much as my mom. He tried to change my eating habits but could only reach Matt. I was already sucked into my mom's world of junk food, but I loved it there so it didn't matter.
"Don't even try daddio. She's far gone into mom's world and she's not coming back," Matt told Luke as he sat next to Jess and started to eat as well.
"Yeah Uncle Luke, she's way gone. Don't waste your time," agreed Jess with his famous smirk in place.
"It's okay Luke, we won't blame you for Rory's young death," replied Lane with her own smirk as Luke grumbled and left us to eat in peace. It was relatively quiet in the diner which totally bothered me so I started a conversation.
"So Matty, are you excited for high school?" I asked Matt as he sipped on his orange juice.
"Ah come on Ror! Why do you insist on calling me Matty? Why can't you call me Matt like everybody else?" Matt never liked that we called him Matty.
"Oh now that's not true! Mom and Lane call you Matty all the time! Right Lane?" I turned to Lane for support.
"You know Matty, she's right. We do call you Matty," I could always count on Lane.
"Dad! Make them stop!" Matt exclaimed as he called for parental help,"They're calling me Matty!"
"Ror come on you know your brother doesn't like that," Luke tried to reason with me.
"I can't just stop using my nick-name for him Dad, it's not that easy," I said in response.
"Oh come on Cat, be nice to Matt. It's his first day in the big, bad high school. He's nervous," Jess smirked as he defended and mocked my brother at the same time.
"Oh shut-up Jess!" my brother replied by hitting Jess up the back side of his head.
"Hey man! That was so not cool! It took me forever to get this hair right!" Jess had to have his hair perfect, don't ask why because no one would be able to answer that for you.
"Yeah, yeah. Go play with the little girls, "Apparently Matt wasn't in the mood for jokes this morning.
"Look! Matt, I'm sorry. Jeez didn't know you would cause such a conniption," I tried to diffuse this fight before it got too bad.
"Yeah, whatever. And I am kinda excited to start high school. I'm going, tell mom and dad bye. See you guys after school. Bye," Matt said as he made his way out the diner door on his way to school.
"Jeez, I didn't mean to upset him. I'm such a bad sister. I ruined my brother's first day at a new school before he even got there," I hated upsetting people, especially people that I loved.
"Don't worry about it Cat. He's just anxious about starting school. You're a great sister and a wonder friend. Right Lane?" and here comes Lane for back-up.
"He's right ya know, you're awesome," Lane replied as she hugged me.
"See?" Jess asked as he kissed my temple and rubbed my shoulder soothingly. He always knew what to do to make me feel better.
"Alright, alright. Let's just go," I said as I got off my stool and went to pick up my back-pack, "Luke! Matt left and we're leaving now! See you after school!" and with that we walked to the door as my mother came in.
"Hey Babes! So first day of 8th grade how's it feel?" my mother radiated with pride as she looked at what she thought of as her babies, minus one since Matt had already left.
"Excited!" Lane and I explained in unison while Jess rolled his eyes.
"Good, good. Now get out before you're late! Good luck!" my mom gushed as we made our way out the door.
"Bye mom! Matt says bye, but he had to leave earlier him being a big high schooler now," I said over my shoulder as Lane, Jess, and I made our way down the diner steps into the street to make our way to school.
We made our way to Stars Hollow Middle School in our normal fashion: Lane and Jess' arms hooked while Jess' other arm occupied itself around my waist. Now Jess got made fun of for being best friends with 2 girls all the time. Then he reminded them that he was from New York and that his other best friend was a guy in high school and that put out that flame. Jess didn't mine defending his friendship with us because according to him we were what made this town worth staying in. We felt very special as we made our way into school when every girl we passed glared at us because according to the girls Jess was pretty hot and he only hung out with Lane and me so everyone was envious of us. That made us pretty happy. "And there's those glares the girls love to give us," I stated as a blonde I've never seen glared the deadliest glare I've ever gotten from the girls here.
"Ignore them Cat, they know nothing," Jess whispered in my ear as we walked down the hallway to our lockers. This just made the blonde even more mad because Jess was so close to me. I just glared right back and claimed my territory by putting my arm around Jess' back. "Getting territorial are we now Catty?" Jess snickered in my ear as Lane giggled and glared right back at the blonde with me. Lane joining in laid her head on Jess' shoulder which meant hands off to that blonde. "Alright ladies, settle down there's enough for everyone," Jess stated to both of us as the blonde started to walk over to us.
"Oh shut-up. Of course we're marking our territory. That blonde bimbo was giving me a death glare and now she's on her way over here," Jess smirked, "Be nice or I'll steal A Farewell to Arms and throw it in the lake," I threatened. This was Jess' favorite book, and the place he got my nick-name from.
"You wouldn't!" he exclaimed.
"Try me," I dared.
"I wouldn't do that Jess. You know she'll do it," reasoned Lane.
"Fine," was all he said before the blonde reached us.
"Hi, I'm Shane," stated the blonde in an all too sugary voice.
"Hi, I'm Rory," I said as I extended my hand to her and then pointed to Jess after she shook it, "This is Jess and this is Lane. Nice to meet you," I replied just as sweetly while I put my hand on top of the hand Jess had around my waist and intertwined our fingers.
"Hey," replied Lane and Jess said as they tried to hold back their laughter at my need to be territorial of Jess.
"Oh you guys are so cute! Are you going out?" she asked in that disgusting voice coated in sugar.
"No," I replied before Jess had chance to be the smart-ass that he is, "just best friends," I replied.
"Oh sorry to assume. You guys just looked so cozy. Not to mention every girl in here was talking about you guys, "she leaned in, "they're very jealous," she whispered.
"Oh are they now? Well they don't know anything about us so they have no right to assume we are together. We've been like this since we were 8," Jess replied with a pinch of warning to this girl. The girl looked taken aback by his tone but quickly brushed it off.
"Oh, very sorry to misunderstand, I'll be going now," this Shane girl was as fake as her bleach blonde hair.
"I don't like her," I stated blankly as I disentangled myself from Jess and started to open my locker.
"Ror, she was so nice," Lane tried to reason, but failed miserably. I was a Gilmore, what did she expect?
"She was so fake Lane! How could you not see that?" I exclaimed as Jess wrapped his arms around me from behind and tried to calm me down by whispering nothings into my hair.
"Don't worry about it Cat. She's just trying to get under your skin. Just ignore her like all the other dumb girls in this school. You know I don't like her Cat. Don't doubt yourself," he always knew what to say.
"Yeah, okay. Let's go to homeroom," I said as he grabbed mine and Lane's hands and escorted us to homeroom.
Oh yeah, this school year was going to be an interesting one.
A/N: Okay. So? How did you like it? Good? Bad? Continue? I'm now looking for a BETA. So message me if you're interested.
