Olive green was slowly becoming the worst color in existence.

In fact, Luke didn't think he could even look at olives the same way again. In scanning the intermittent memories of encounters across his life with lawyers, principals, and accountants, it baffles him to recall that nearly all have sported this horrible green on their walls. And sitting here in Principal Merton's office, waiting to hear what misfortune had befallen Jess (and him, by proxy), all of his deepest discomfort around starchy professionals conjures up into a ball of anxiety lodged in his throat. The realization is unwelcome: never again would he be able to disassociate this pukey, olive green with his worst anxieties. In fact, Luke was pretty sure that if he cut Taylor open, his innards would be olive green. In fact, if he thought hard enough, he could probably recall a time that Taylor wore an olive green sweater vest. Or Kirk.

Luke sighed and adjusted his hat for the seventh time, tapping his leg impatiently. He was definitely taking olives off the menu. He wondered if anyone would even notice.

He shook his head, thinking about how very like Lorelai his internal ranting was becoming.

Luke looked over his shoulder at the closed door, watching shadows move against it. The voices outside sounded remarkably like the adults in a Peanuts episode. Wah wah wah wah wah. Where the hell was he? Luke almost felt like he was in trouble, too. He looked at the wall again.

God, would it kill them to pick a new color? They probably all sign some oath, he considered gravely, frowning.

The sudden opening of the door caused Luke to jump up, grabbing his hat off his head in one swift motion. The man before him appears mildly startled, but recovers quickly with the raise of his eyebrows.

"Mr. Danes?"

"Luke, hi," Luke corrected him awkwardly, holding out a hand. "Principal Merton?"

Principal Merton's lips curved up slightly and he shook Luke's hand, gesturing for him to resume sitting. He walked over to his desk, a thin folder in his hand.

"So I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you to come in," Principal Merton asked, folding his hands over the desk as he took a seat.

Luke bit back a sarcastic response. Luke wasn't interested in rhetoricals. He'd spent fifteen minutes (but what felt like fifteen hours) going over every possible scenario in his head, all possibly worse than what Principal Merton had to say. He needed answers.

"Did he steal something?" Luke volleyed, leaning forward in his seat.

Principal Merton looked taken aback. "Pardon?"

"Jess," Luke reminded him. "Was it tennis balls this time? His mom told me he stole baseballs at one of his old schools."

"No, Jess hasn't stolen anything," the man replied, almost a question rather than a statement.

"Okay, did he get into another fight?" Luke pressed, waving his arm for emphasis. "Hit another kid? Hit a teacher? Hit another kid with a teacher? H—"

"Mr. Danes, please," Principal Merton protested, holding up his hands to silence Luke. Luke sighed, replacing his hat on his head.

"I don't think we're here for the same conversation," Principal Merton continued, shaking his head with a small smile. He opened up the folder on his desk, moving through some papers.

"Is that Jess's folder?" Luke asked, nodding to the blue folder underneath Principal Merton's hands. Luke always envisioned Jess's folder was thick and red, like his had been.

"Yes," Principal Merton answered, the raise of his eyebrows a clear indication that he didn't understand why Luke was asking.

"It's just, it's thin," Luke pointed out, folding his own hands over his lap to stop them from fidgeting.

"Judging from your outburst, I'm guessing you were expecting something held together by ropes?"

"Well, yeah," Luke admitted sheepishly, clearing his throat. "Kind of."

Principal Merton nodded, his lips twitching up in a smirk, and turned the folder around, pushing it toward Luke.

Where the hell was he?

Jess maneuvered around the counter, passing out plates and refilling coffee with the ease that only comes from too much practice.

He was in a foul mood, and he wasn't sure why. He'd woken up feeling like he wanted to throat punch the world, and no amount of trying was clearing his head. It didn't help, of course, that he'd trudged down the stairs, expecting to grab coffee and slip out the door to Rory's, only to find Cesar struggling to fill orders.

Oh, how he missed the days when he didn't give a shit. Not that he'd ever blatantly ignored Luke's requests for help, but over the last few months, he'd begun to master evasive maneuvers to get himself out of serving duty. Ringing people out, answering delivery calls, refilling salt and pepper at the end of the day — these were all things Jess didn't mind. They involved less people and allowed for more time outside of the diner. Before coming to Stars Hollow and being roped into the circus that was the town, he never would have willingly helped out unprompted. He'd have continued on his merry way, sending a silent thought of half-assed sympathy toward the poor sucker in despair. And yet, here he was, helping Cesar because Luke was nowhere to be found.

Jess sighed, looking at the clock again, before heading behind the counter. He surveyed the diner, busy, waiting for Cesar to fulfill Kirk's order.

He didn't have a lot of time before school started now, which effectively obliterated his opportunity to see Rory. Even if Luke miraculously waltzed in, he'd be hard pressed for time. And he wouldn't care typically - being on time for school? Optional - but Rory was on his case more than usual lately, and the last thing he wanted was a fight. He frowned, wondering if somehow his body had known before him that this would happen, hence the foul mood. Jess wanted to throw himself off a cliff for how dependent his mood was on this small girl with bright blue eyes; he couldn't help it if he tried. And oh, he'd tried.

Kirk moved out of the corner of his eye and Jess turned his attention to him. Kirk sat expectantly on his stool, staring intently at the kitchen window. Jess raised an eyebrow; it was often that Jess felt Kirk wasn't really a human, but some sort of abnormally formed dog. It would explain a lot of his idiosyncrasies.

Cesar brought Kirk's plate to the window and with a quick transfer, Jess served Kirk his eggs.

He frowned as as Kirk responded by dumping the nearby container of pepper onto the table.

Jess watched for a moment against his better judgment, like a car wreck you can't help but stare at. It only provoked his mood more and he shook his head, determined not to touch that one. He moved off to the side, leaning against the back counter, enjoying the slow thrum of the diner and its occupants bickering to one another instead of him.

His mind drifted back to Rory and he recalled the conversation he'd had with Lorelai yesterday night, when the person of their affection was home studying.

"God, I can't believe I'm wishing she'd go to Yale," Lorelai groaned absently. Taken aback at her directly addressing him, Jess stayed, listening.

"But she would be closer," Jess pointed out, his stomach flip-flopping. He scowled internally at his body's response to less distance between itself and Rory; he'd already decided it didn't matter because he didn't care where he stayed. He'd move closer to her if he had to, though he wouldn't dare breathe that to anyone else. Still, the prospect of being able to stay within some sort of simple driving distance to Luke was appealing - also something he kept to himself and would deny fervently if prompted.

"She'll be closer, but she'll be following in the footsteps of my parents," Lorelai mumbled into her coffee. She held out her near-empty mug to him and he obliged her, pouring the aromatic brown liquid lavishly. She smiled in thanks.

"Is that so bad?" he asked unassumingly, still not quite clear on the history between the woman in front of him and her parents. Rory had offered snippets here and there in light of her always being stolen away for the better part of Friday nights, but Jess wasn't a pryer. He figured he'd find out eventually.

"Oh, you have no idea, kid," she said, sighing in defeat. "It'd be just one more thing looming over my head."

"I don't get it," he surmised after a moment of thought, and shrugged. It wasn't his business anyway.

Lorelai snorted and adopted a nasiley, posh voice that he knew was meant to imitate her mother. "Oh, Rory got into every class she wanted, didn't she Lorelai? How wonderful that somebody in the younger generation is doing something with her life."

Jess frowned.

"But wouldn't Rory doing well reflect on your parenting? Didn't you raise her on your own?"

Lorelai looked up and smiled at him, patting his arm as if he'd just missed something entirely.

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" she chuckled.

A distinct, whispered muttering entered into Jess's subconscious and he surfaced from his reminiscing, looking around. He finally settled his gaze back on Kirk, who was depositing pepper from the pile into his open palm. Jess sighed and debated with himself, arguing that he shouldn't ask. Why ask? He didn't care, and nothing good would come from finding out.

Jess ran his hand through his hair, watching as Kirk worked methodically, continuing his muttering. Jess frowned, giving in to his curiosity.

"Kirk, the hell are you doing?"

"Counting. Shh!" Kirk reprimanded, going back to picking up grains of pepper carefully from the pile.

Counting?

No. He wouldn't be sucked into this insanity. He didn't care, he didn't care, he didn't care. Jess repeated it over and over again in his head, looking yet again at the clock. He would leave in ten minutes, whether Luke made an appearance or not. There had to be a health hazard for spending too much time in the company of the townspeople, like how you can only be exposed to certain chemicals for so long before you should see a doctor.

Jess looked at the diner front door, willing somebody he could mildly stand to walk in. Admittedly, he was surprised that Rory hadn't come in to say hi. He almost always went to her house to walk her to the bus; it felt strange that she hadn't made it a point to come by and look for him.

Jess shook his head, moving his gaze from the door back to watch Kirk. He hated that she held this power over him. He hated that he waited expectantly for her to saunter in.

Jess sighed; it wasn't just about Rory. It was the concept of "waiting" that really dug its claws under his skin. He had spent a lot of time waiting for things and people to walk through the door as a kid—food, the utilities people to turn things off, Liz, her next flavor of the week. Because that led to nothing but disappointment (and an empty stomach), Jess had learned to stop waiting for people to rise to the occasion and to stop anticipating the presence of love.

Rory was simply the manifested symptom of a deeper problem. He didn't want to expect anyone, and what was more, he didn't want anyone to expect him. Sure, his relationship with Rory was a stark contrast to his convictions; it seemed his allegiance was more to the curve of her body against him, the smell of her hair, and the pitch of her laughter than to his own resolve.

A fleeting thought of how this is how it might always be entered Jess's mind. When she went off to her Ivy League university, if he stayed around here, he would always be in a perpetual state of anticipation, waiting for her, hoping she'd walk through the door. He realized begrudgingly that even if he lived in the same room with her, that would probably always be the case. Jess from a year ago would punch Jess right now's face in for being such a sap. Jess ran his hand down his face, groaning internally.

He loved her. That much was becoming more apparent every day. Not that he'd admit that to anyone else. He had little left to himself upon falling for this girl, but he had his pride. That was something he couldn't give up; it'd protected him this far.

And it was something he would have to deal with when it was in front of him, when she was ready to head off officially. He'd have to make a decision, really; to stay in Stars Hollow or to leave, explore a little?

At least then she would be waiting for him.

The more college came up in conversations, the more committed he was to ignoring it. It had never really crossed his mind that he was capable of college, and so he'd never really made the effort to put himself in position to get there. Jess knew he was smarter than most people around him; it wasn't arrogance, it was fact proven by longitudinal studies of everyone around him. Rory was the only person he'd met that rivaled him.

But intelligence didn't get you very far when you were a poor kid from New York with thick red folder and no extra curriculars. College made sense for people like Rory; not for people like him.

Cesar called for orders up, so Jess grabbed them, moving around the diner, dishing out the plates in his hands. He found himself almost happy to have the distraction from his thoughts, a stark contrast to how he'd felt this morning.

Jess returned back behind the counter to ring Babette out, noticing from the corner of his eye Kirk, who was still counting pepper. He handed Babette her change and scowled, coming back to Kirk.

Damn it.

"Kirk, why are you counting pepper?" Jess asked, exasperated.

"To know how much pepper I'm putting on my eggs," Kirk replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"But why Kirk? Can't you just sprinkle it on like normal people and move about your day?"

"Mother only lets me have 43 grains of pepper. She says I might have an allergic reaction and die if not."

"It's too early for this," he muttered, regretting his decision to find out like he knew he would. The bell over the door jingled and Jess looked up expectantly, a feeling of relief and annoyance washing over him at the jovial expression on Luke's countenance.

"Where've you been?" Jess barked, shoving past Luke as he entered the diner. Pushing the pencil and order pad into Luke's unsuspecting hands, he tore down the steps, making his great escape.

"Hey, wait a second!" Luke bellowed once his body caught up to the initial shock, and he pivoted quickly, jogging down the steps to catch up with Jess.

"No deal," Jess said flatly.

"In a hurry to get to school?" Luke asked, a lightness to his tone. Something about it made the hairs on the back of Jess's neck stand up and he turned to look at Luke, never slowing down.

"Why do you care? Don't you have a diner to run?" He quipped, eying Luke suspiciously.

"Well, I just got back from your principal's office, actually," Luke offered casually, stopping as the teenager in front of him slowed to a halt.

Principal's office? A quick succession of incidents flashed through Jess's mind, but none of them felt severe enough to warrant a visit. He knew by now what constituted trouble and what could be written off as a misdemeanor. Stumped but not willing to let Luke know it, he adopted a look of indifference before shrugging.

"Great story, but I gotta go."

"Jess," Luke insisted, getting annoyed. "What's your deal? Isn't it a little early in the morning for your latest mood swing?"

Jess glared.

"Isn't it a little early for your latest nag session? Sorry, but I think I'll raincheck that for another time when I'm not late for school because you don't know how to communicate when you won't be around."

Luke narrowed his eyes, frowning. Some dots connect in his head, recognizing where the frustration under Jess's comments is coming from.

"What, Rory not stop by?"

Jess paused, clenching his fists. Determined not to let Luke get the better of him he turned on his heel and trudged on, leaving Luke in his proverbial dust.

Luke scowled, watching as Jess rushed off ahead of him and crossed the field to Stars Hollow High. Punk.

He turned around, heading back to the diner. Jess had worked hard to wipe his face clean, but Luke had caught the confusion in his brows. Luke wondered if Jess knew what he knew. He scratched his head, deciding to bring it up later once the raging hormones had faded away.

Rory had spent much of her day in a funk, doodling absent squiggles in her notebooks and fighting to pay attention in class. She hated to admit it, but Jess was a large part of her mood.

He hadn't shown up this morning like he always did. She'd thought about going to the diner to see him instead, once she'd grown tired of waiting, but then Lorelai had lost her fight with the round hair brush and Rory had spent the latter half of her morning helping her mom untangle herself from its grips. There was no time to visit, let alone perform a drive-by coffee run, and she was admittedly grumbly.

Grumbly? That's not even a real disposition, she scolded herself, rolling her eyes.

She couldn't help getting caught up in reasons why Jess hadn't come. He'd felt distant from her the last few days, and she couldn't come up with any real reasons as to why. It scared her, the way that he could be so communicative with her one day and aloof another. It reminded her of the way he'd been when they first met so many months ago.

Rory smiled for the first time all morning, thinking about anger management and The Beginning, as Lorelai so affectionately referred to it. Rory would never have guessed they would be where they are now; in fact, if you'd tried to bet her, she would have taken it and lost. She was certain she'd hated the guy.

Okay, that wasn't true. Somewhere deep down she knew she was falling for him. Oh, but she'd tried to hate him. It would have been easier than dealing with the chaos of her emotions and breaking Dean's heart. Somehow the absolutely infuriating nature of Jess was what had drawn her in, and nothing else had really mattered in the end; the chance of getting to be with him in a way that nobody else could, of hearing the margin notes before they were penned, of receiving the genuine smile that crept on his face in the rarest of moments — that desire and curiosity had won out over everything, including her own logic.

Rory smiled again to herself, recognizing thoroughly that she wouldn't change a thing, and would easily go through the confusion and heartbreak again if it got them to where they were now.

Rory turned her attention to the back of her notebook, where her private pro-con list of universities lived. She eyed her classmates suspiciously, confirming that all of them were actually engaged in the lesson (or something that wasn't her), and sighed in relief, thankful to be able to go over her thoughts without prying eyes and curious minds. Paris asked her every other day what she was leaning toward or against, and to say it was exhausting Rory was the understatement of the century.

Rory observed her list, noting that Yale was outnumbering Harvard by a landslide. The university of her dreams was quickly moving away from her. Rory knew Lorelai would dread it, as it was her grandfather's alma mater, but the more Rory researched, the more appealing it became. And she loved the campus, and what was more, she loved how close it was to home.

How close it is to Jess, she thinks. That was definitely an added bonus, though Rory was certain it didn't matter how far she went. Jess would make it work, they would make it work.

Jess. He was the only person leaving her alone in the decision-making process. In many ways she was thankful for the space, cherishing her time with him to talk about non-huge transitory events.

But in other ways, she wished he verbally expressed more interest. She wouldn't necessarily change her choice based on him, but he was certainly a huge component to the process, and it stung that he didn't seem to care. But Rory knew better, and told herself as much; Jess definitely cared.

The longing look he'd given her yesterday had spoken volumes to her about that, and for the first time she'd considered that maybe it hurt him to think about her leaving. It gave Rory some assurance in his feelings for her and helped to quell the upset that rose whenever she tried to include him in her process and he gave her a small smile, kissed her head, and bowed out of the conversation.

Rory frowned, thinking about the transition and what that meant for Jess. It wasn't just about her leaving; she wondered about him leaving, too. Whenever Rory tried to breach the conversation around college, Jess danced out of the conversation abruptly, with the grace of a pigeon hitting a window. He didn't care how obvious his skirting around the issue was, that was certain. When Jess didn't want to talk about something, he didn't want to talk about it. He was unmovable in that way, not unlike Lorelai, and like Lorelai, Rory had learned to drop it, looking for small ways to bring it back up in conversation.

It didn't matter to her whether he got a college degree or not. But Rory had the distinct inkling Jess wasn't proud of himself in tangible ways, and she wanted this for him. She wanted him to feel good about himself and like he was worth pursuing something more.

The bell rang overhead, dismissing Rory from her thoughts of Jess and her classroom. She snapped her notebook shut tightly and moved it to her backpack. Rory checked her phone once she was in the hallway, disappointed to see she didn't have a text from Jess.

Rory shouldered her backpack at her locker, closing it with a thud. She was decidedly still grumbly, real word or not. Seeing Paris walking toward her out of the corner of her eye, Rory turned quickly on her heel, speed walking to the doors. Once outside, Rory kept up her pace, beelining for the bus, when a grab at her shoulder spun her around.

The mildest panic that Paris had caught her subsided when she saw the smirk.

"Ghost chasing you?" Jess joked, breathing deeply. He would be more impressed if he wasn't mildly in shock at how fast she could walk when she applied herself. He filed this knowledge in the back of his head, certain it'd be necessary for some future screw-up of his.

"Something like that," Rory smiled. Jess turned his head as she frowned at something behind him, noticing Paris looking around.

"Let's talk on the bus," Rory offered with a rushed smile, tugging him along with her onto the bus back to Stars Hollow.

"So, wanna tell me what that's about?" He asked casually once they were seated and on the road.

"I didn't want to talk to Paris about college again," Rory sighed. She searched Jess's face for any emotion and found none there. He just looked indifferent, like always.

"Ah," Jess nodded knowingly, draping an arm across Rory's shoulders.

"So enough about Paris," Rory said dismissively, snuggling in closer to Jess. She fidgeted with her hands, debating whether to bring the morning up. The topic of college, as fresh as the former, also surfaces as an option.

"I'm happy you're here," she tried instead, testing that out. It earns her a kiss on the temple.

"Glad to hear it," he offered back, playing with a strand of her hair absently. He felt her fidget next to him, watching her pick at her cuticles.

"Something on your mind?" He ventured, raising his eyebrows down at her. Rory looked up at him, and he watched as a range of emotions crossed her face. Jess continued to stare, wondering what decision was being made beneath the surface.

"I was just wondering if you'd thought about college recently," Rory asked timidly, watching as a cloud came over Jess's eyes. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, suddenly becoming very interested in whatever was outside the window.

What was that, the eighth time Rory had brought up college in the last month? Jess tried to tame the surge of annoyance that rose in his chest. Rory held back a sigh of her own, exhausted by his avoidance.

There was a pregnant pause between them before Jess turned back to look at her, trying to adopt a look of indifference to hide his frustration.

"How many times are you going to bother me about that?" He asked flatly. A flash of anger shot across Rory's eyes.

"I didn't realize I was bothering you," she delivered coolly, moving away from the warmth of his side.

"I don't mean it like that, Rory," Jess warned, sighing.

"Then how did you mean it?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is it so bad that I take an interest in your life?"

Jess scoffed.

"Is something funny?" Rory snapped, narrowing her eyebrows.

"It's less of an interest in my life and more of a need to control it," he offered simply, raising an eyebrow at her. It only amplified her anger.

"I'm not trying to control your life," Rory defended, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. She watched as he tensed next to her, his mouth twitching into a frown.

Back off, her subconscious supplied forcefully. Noting his frown, she braced herself for his next comment.

"Could've fooled me," Jess remarked acidly, deepening his frown. "I get enough of it from Luke, Rory. Why can't you just drop it?"

Their eyes clashed in silent battle, a whole conversation going unspoken between them. Their mouths portrayed their tone of voice, etched in frowns, while their eyes communicated the questions, the comebacks.

Knowing this side step better than him, Rory swallowed her next remark. She hadn't expected him to lash out at her; she was used to his avoidance and tone of annoyance, but he usually just directed their conversations elsewhere. Rory knew she'd stuck some sort of nerve today, and she wasn't going to get anywhere with him. Maybe he didn't mean it how it'd come off. She sighed and tried to soften her tone, attempting to avoid the minefield lay before them.

"I just care," she offered quietly, looking down. "You never want to talk about it."

It registers somewhere in Jess's mind that she's trying to diffuse the situation, and he begins the practiced task of calming himself down. He felt the blood rushing, his heartbeat a drum in his ear. Something that Ms. Leon said the other day surfaced in the back of his mind.

"Jess, I'm not going to sugar coat things for you," she said, pushing her reading glasses off the bridge of her nose and placing them on the top of her head.

"You asked my opinion, so I'm giving it to you. You're going about this the wrong way."

"How do you figure?" He bit back, exasperated. "Shouldn't she just get the picture that I don't want to talk about it?"

"Have you explicitly told her that?" Raised eyebrows. "Have you told her why you don't want to talk about it?"

I don't even know why I don't want to talk about it, Jess thought bitterly.

"I shouldn't have to. Isn't that all a part of this nonverbal group work crap?" Jess asked, waving his hand dismissively. "It's evident. She knows."

"You have two choices, Jess. You can either get pissed off and shut down whenever somebody says something you don't like, and expect them to read your mind - which, correct me if I'm wrong, but this method of communication is what got Rory removed from our group, is it not? Or, you can communicate clearly and calmly, and have the outcome you desire. Tell her what you need."

Jess crossed his arms, tapping his foot restlessly.

Jess let out a slow breath, rubbing his eyes with his palms. He counted to three in his head.

"I need you to let me handle this."

Rory jumped, startled by his voice. They'd been sitting in silence for a few minutes now while he'd disappeared somewhere in his mind. Rory turned her attention to Jess and found a softer look outlining his face. It didn't quite reach his eyes, but at least the cloud had dissipated from them.

He reached out, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Rory bit her lip, wanting to protest but knowing it was a mute point. He rarely communicated direct needs with her, and she knew that deep down, this was a final decision.

Still, she couldn't go down without a fight.

"Forever?" She asked, leaning into his touch.

Jess searched Rory's eyes, finding them sad.

He hated that look, and he hated knowing that he put it there. But God, she was infuriating sometimes. Didn't she know how hard it was for him to think about it all?

No, because dreams come true in her fairy tale life, a voice nudged. He sighed internally, knowing that no matter what he said, she wouldn't really let this go. She'd never lived in a world where she didn't get what she wanted; acceptance to five major Ivy League colleges was a testament to that.

"I'll let you know if that changes," he offered, choosing his words carefully. Not a promise - he didn't make promises - but a glimmer of a possibility, something he knew he could afford to say. A small feeling of guilt sits in his gut as he watched her spirits brighten, her posture becoming more confident. There was no real shot in hell that he would, but what was a little white lie to keep the peace?

And you know, never say never, his subconscious corrected him. You never thought you'd care so much about somebody.

Rory moved back over.

"So did you have as crappy a morning as I did?" Rory tried again, testing safer waters. "I hadn't realized how used to seeing you in the morning I was."

Jess felt something in his chest - joy? - at Rory's comment and he smiled.

Me either.

But he didn't communicate this, because he never does when it comes to admitting his feelings, and he thought that he should get some points for opening up a crack just a few moments ago anyway. He opted to kiss her on the head instead, which she seemed to accept as an acknowledgement. And she did, for all the reasons he was thinking of, too.

"Kirk was counting pepper," Jess offered instead, smirking as Rory's face showed a deep confusion and intrigue.

"Tell me more."

Long time no update. I hope you like it moving along. We find out about the meeting next chapter. Please read & review, it makes me feel like I'm writing for a reason and gives me warm fuzzies.

If you follow You Can't Protest Everything, another chapter went up. Would also love feedback there :)

Thanks all. Appreciate you.