Chapter 7

It was Wednesday and for Rory, it was going too quickly. School was nearly finished and Jess had been asked to go the grandparent's house before he went home.

Rory thought it were a bit strange that they didn't ask for her to go. She offered to go with Jess but he told her that he would be ok on his own, he asked her to go home and to have a big cup of coffee ready for him as he knew he would need it after seeing the Gilmore's.

Rory left Jess at the school gate and headed to the bus stop to go home. Jess walked to the bus stop on the other side of the road and waited for the one heading to Hartford.

He arrived outside the Gilmore mansion and stood there looking at it in all its yucky glory. He took a deep breath and walked to the door.

He weighed his options for a second:

- Don't go in and just go home: Lorelai will get yelled at and will be upset

- Don't go in and tell them he 'forgot': Lorelai will get yelled at and he will be called stupid

- Go in and see them: Get yelled at by Lorelai

God, he sounded like Rory, making pro and con lists. He shook his head and rang the door bell. A timid maid answered the door; she just stood there looking at Jess saying nothing. "I'm here to see Emily and Richard" he stated. "Oh, right, sorry come in" she moved aside to let him in.

"Can I take your coat?" she asked. Jess just shook his head and said "no thanks, why don't you go hide in the kitchen". The maid smiled slightly and said "really, thank you" and she hurried off.

Jess smiled to himself. "Jess" Richard said once he had seen him. He and Emily walked over to the young man. "Mr and Mrs Gilmore" he said with a nod of his head.

"Oh please, were family, call us grandma and grandpa" Emily stated. Jess was a little shocked by her words but he just found himself nodding along to what she was saying.

"Come in, would you like a drink?" Richard asked, escorting the boy into the living room. "No thanks" Jess replied.

He sat down as did the elder Gilmores. "Well I suppose you're wondering why we asked you to come here today" Richard started. Jess again nodded. "Well, me and Emily were talking the other day and we were wondering what your plans are after you leave school?"

Jess felt like he had been put on the spot, he didn't know what he wanted to do when he left school, he didn't even like school, they were lucky he was attending at all.

"I haven't thought about it yet" he answered honestly. Richard nodded then continued. "Have you thought about what college you want to go to?" Jess didn't like where this conversation were going. "No not really" again he replied honestly, "I haven't really thought about going to college". With this last statement Emily and Richard both looked up at him shocked.

"Young man, you are attending Chilton and at the end of your schooling you are expected to go onto a prestigious college, you have the Gilmore name to uphold, Gilmores have been attending the best colleges throughout America for years and..."

Jess stopped him there by replying "but I'm not a Gilmore".

Emily sat up tall and decided it was her time to talk as Richard wasn't getting anywhere. "That's one of the reasons we asked you to come here today, we were thinking about contacting our attorney to get your last name legally changed to Gilmore. I mean, Lorelai has accepted you as her son, Rory as her brother and us as your grandparents, it only seems sensible to change your last name, to the family name".

Jess couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was so shocked he just replied "ooo...k" and he then began to repeat what Emily had said back to himself in his head.

"Brilliant, ill call Leland once were done here" Richard said smiling. Jess was confused, when did he answer? Oh god, they think that when I said ok that i meant 'ok!'

He was to shocked to say anything else, he was just about to tell Richard that he had misunderstood his answer when Emily said "so Jess, your grandfather and I were out the other day and we just happened to stop by some of the colleges around the area, we got you some brochures to look at" she then handed him a pile of college leaflets and books. He flicked through them quickly...Princeton, Harvard and Yale among others.

'What the hell is happening here, they want me to change my name and go to college?'

He was broken out of thought when Richard said "well, I have some calls to make and your grandmother has a D.A.R meeting she needs to attend so..."

Jess found himself standing and walking to the front door with Richard. It's like his body was moving on its own.

Richard patted him on the shoulder and said "we'll see you, Rory and your mother on Friday". Again Jess just nodded.

He walked outside and heard the door close behind him. What just happened in there?

He began slowly walking to the bus stop to go home.

While on the bus he processed all that had just happened; Ok, the changing of the name thing, he could kind of understand and to be honest he didn't really mind, he didn't like associating himself with his father and having his last name just made it a big reminder and he did see Lorelai as his mother so it would only be right that he have her last name.

As for the going to college thing, that was completely different, he hated school, he didn't want to be there now let alone do more schooling once school was done. His head felt like it was going to explode.

At the crap shack

"I'm going to call them" Lorelai stated. Rory looked at her mother and replied "mom, just wait until he gets home, he will tell us about it when he gets here".

Lorelai was uncomfortable with the fact that her parents had asked Jess to go and see them alone. It was there clever way of ganging up on him without anyone there to help him and she knew that he didn't want to ruin things seeing as they were so good, so he wouldn't yell, answer back or stick up for himself as he usually would.

Just as she was about to pick up the phone to call her parents Jess walked through the door.

Lorelai rushed over to him "so, what did they want, I'm dying here" she told him. He stood shaking his head slightly and began mumbling walking into the kitchen.

"Oh my God...they broke him" Rory said to her mother. Jess sat down and said "coffee". Rory handed him her cup that she was holding and watched as he took a huge gulp of the elixir of life.

"They want me to change my name, and then there were brochures; I don't want brochures, there boring reading materials and don't get me wrong I like reading but not brochures" he said looking upset.

"Hold on kid, you've got me confused, what about name changing and brochures?" Lorelai asked.

Jess then raised his voice slightly "my name, they want me to change my last name, to Gilmore and your dad was calling their lawyer when ide gone, that part I understand, that part I get and I don't really care about changing my name, but college, me at college, I don't even want to be at Chilton and they've already started planning my future without any of my say and I don't want to go to a peppy school, I'm not peppy, but now because of them I'm gonna be...peppy" he lay his head on his arms on the kitchen table.

Lorelai shook her head, how dare they do this to him. She couldn't believe how low they had sunk, making him got there on his own so they could team up on him.

"Rory, get me the phone" Lorelai said to her daughter. Jess's head shot up "don't call them" he said to his mother. "What, why?" she asked.

Jess then explained "you see, I was so shocked that when they said about changing my name I answered them with 'ooo...k' but I think they took it as 'Ok!' and now they are apparently changing my name".

Lorelai still shook her head, was he ok with changing his name? "Are you with changing your name?"

Jess shrugged "I don't really mind, I mean my last name is my dad's name and I don't know or like my dad so I guess I don't really care. I guess I'll feel like this is more legit, ya know, having the same last name as you and Rory".

Lorelai smiled at him. "And college" she added. "College is a year away" he replied. "I might change my mind, I doubt I will but you never know". Lorelai knew that he was just saying that so that she wouldn't yell at her parents.

"Jess they are manipulating you" she said getting slightly angry.

"I know I'm being manipulated. This is part of their evil plan to take over my life, abolish my free will and pull me into the Gilmore world, dress me in suits, show me off and ruin my life. Did I leave anything out?" Jess asked.

Lorelai squinted slightly and said "hmm, let me see. Manipulate, evil plan, no free will, suits, show you off. Nope, I think you've about covered it. Oh wait, did you call my parents the 'puppet masters'? Always call them the puppet masters".

Jess just shook his head.

"Look, you don't have to anything you don't want to do ok, if you want to keep your own last name then keep it, don't let them pressure you into changing it and if you really really don't want to go to college then you don't have to, I never went to college and I turned out ok"

Jess reassured her that the name changing was fine and that he would think about college.

After finishing up the conversation, they all began to clean the house as tomorrow, Chris and Sherry would be coming for their visit...oh the joy!

To be continued...