Thank you to everybody that reviewed, i am sooooo appreciative of every single review so ...THANKS! also, sorry it took me sooo long to update, I'm usually faster, I've just been swamped so yeah, i'll try to be better...

Disclaimer- i now own the Gilmore girls series box set, but, after watching the entire 3rd season, in like,two straight days, I have yet to see my name in the credits of the show listed under "owned by" so, 'nuff said.

Chapter 4

Newest Rebel

Jess hadn't been at school for the last three days and Lacey was starting to get worried. This kind of freaked her out, being worried about Jess seeing as she was supposed to hate him and he hardly ever cam to school anyway so the whole worrying thing was kind of pointless... She was still worried anyway though. Especially after that conversation they had had on the phone the other day.

Lacey nervously dialed the number, hoping that it wasn't disconnected or something. She had never had the necessity to call Jess before and she knew this phone call would just be awkward and uncomfortable for the both of them. The ringing on the other line almost made her jump in surprise and slam the phone down. What was her problem?

"What?" Lacey heard the annoyed voice of Jess fire into the phone. She was suddenly at a loss for words upon hearing his peeved voice. "Hello?" he asked again.

"Um, Jess?" Lacey asked, her voice small.

"Lacey?"

"Yeah. Um I was calling because you weren't in school today and I just wanted to make sure you were still coming over here to work on the project."

"I can't" Jess stated

"What? Why not?"

"I just have some...stuff going on and I don't have time to come over to your place." Lacey could hear someone talking in the background and then Jess mumbling a reply.

"Jess, I already told you I'm not doing all of the--"

"I just can't come over tonight. Alright?" The voice in the background was getting louder and Lacey could make out a couple words. "Listen, I've got to go. I'll call you when I can come over again." And with that, the line went dead.

Lacey would not allow herself to be put behind because Jess insisted on staying home and not getting any work done. She was going to get to the bottom of this. Later that night, if jess still hadn't called, Lacey would sneak out to his place and talk to him face to face Who cared what was happening at his house, she was sure she could handle it. It probably wasn't that big of deal anyway. In fact, it was probably something embarrassing. So embarrassing that if anyone found out, then it would probably ruin his whole "bad boy" image. That was probably why he was being so secretive, I mean nothing truly bad was happening to Jess Mariano. Right?

Taking out her English notes, Lacey started working on the project begrudgingly. Stupid Jess and his "construction" he needed to just be a man and get over it. Her mom called from downstairs telling her to come to dinner. Leaving the project she was sure was never to be finished on the floor, Lacey headed to the dining room promising herself that that night, she was going to Jess's house. She was getting to the bottom of this.

!#$&()+)(&$#!

After checking her bag for the fourth time to make sure everything was there, Lacey silently slid open her window. It was a weird kind of rush to be sneaking out of the house like this but also kind of scary. She had never done anything like this before. Sure, she'd covered for her brother the several times in the past, but she'd never been the one that needed covering. In other words, this was BIG. Slowly, Lacey made her way to the huge oak tree on the side of the house. In kindergarten, Lacey's teacher had told all of the students to come up with an escape route from their house if there was a fire. The four year old Lacey had decided that the large oak tree would be her's. She'd practiced several times trying to get successfully down the tree but was banned from trying again after she fell out of it and broke her leg. Hopefully, since ten years had passed, she would be able to be successful.

Hopefully.

Grabbing on to one of the bigger branches, Lacey stealthily swung herself on to the thick trunk if the tree. Then, realizing it was only about two and a half feet from the ground jumped landing in a heap on the wet grass of her front yard, not a scratch on her. Huh, it was a lot harder when she was four. Taking out her flash light, the page from the phone book with Jess's address she had ripped out, and some maps she had printed out, Lacey started her trek to Jess's place.

She had never been to the more dicey parts of New York where Jess's house was apparently located so she really had no idea what to expect. She was actually rather nervous about going to Jess's neighborhood since it was probably littered with sex offenders and gangsters and she was not very good at looking like she fit somewhere like that. She remembered her brother's advice to keep her head down, look nonchalant, not show her long girl hair, and make it seem like she wasn't to be messed with.

Easy. Right?

Stuffing her hands into her pocket she turned the street and looked up. Here it was. Jess's street. Jess's apartment somewhere inside. Jess's world.

Well, here goes nothing, Lacey thought as she turned up the street looking for his apartment. She had told herself that she was going to get to the bottom of this and now, here she was, at the bottom, and she wasn't particularly liking the view.

OK so there is the next chapter and i hope you liked it. So now its your turn to write something. Thats right, just click the button. You know you want to...please? I'll try to update soon, promise.