Author's Note: I know where this story is going now! Won't say anything, though, must read to find out. Thank you to my reviewers. This chapter was hard to write, painful to write, and well, hopefully it's good. Please read/review! I'd really appreciate that! Thanks!

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She lay in her bed that same night. If she were to lose Jess, what would happen? That was something her dad taught her: to imagine the worse case scenario and plan for that...that way, anything better would be a pleasant surprise. She prayed that she would get a pleasant surprise regarding Jess.

She shook away thoughts about her dad, which only brought thoughts about her mom back, which brought thoughts of L.A. and her friends there. She had too much the think about regarding Jess, she didn't want to deal with anything else. She eventually fell asleep.

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"Coffee," Kris mumbled sitting down at a stool the next morning in the diner. She hadn't gotten much sleep, her mind was too preoccupied.

"Good morning to you too," Jess said, pouring Kris a cup.

Kris glared at him, but the effect was ruined by a yawn. Jess laughed.

"Finals are today," Jess said, coming around the counter to her side.

Kris' eyes lit up. "Really? That's today?" she asked sipping her coffee.

"Yeah."

"Feel ready?" Kris asked.

"Yeah, whatever," Jess said, shrugging.

Kris smirked, and leaned up to kiss him. "Good luck, though you won't need it," she said, her eyes sparkling.

"I could always use more luck, you know," he said, leaning in to get another kiss.

Kris pulled back though. "No, more later, if you do well. Consider it an incentive to pass your finals," she said.

"Oh, that is not fair," Jess said with mock outrage.

"Deal with it," Kris said, shooing him out the door.

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It was two o'clock already and Jess wasn't back yet. He usually got out of summer school by one and now he was an hour late. Luke was antsy, acting very rude with customers while he anxiously awaited for Jess to return. Kris worried that the principal was telling him that he would have to repeat the eleventh grade or something equally horrible.

"Hello? Kris? Earth to Kris?"

The voice pulled Kris back into reality. Lorelai and Rory were in front of her, Rory didn't look at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, um, did you want something?" Kris asked, shaking off her negative thoughts.

"Yeah, food, lots of it," Lorelai replied. "You okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm alright. It's just that Jess took his finals today and he should have been back an hour ago," Kris explained. Rory stiffened at the mention of Jess and looked up at Kris, smiling weakly.

"Ahhh, she's worried, isn't that sweet?" Lorelai said teasingly, nudging her daughter to agree. Rory had yet to tell her mom about the kiss that occurred six weeks ago, and Lorelai was very happy that Rory didn't seem to be talking much to Jess. Rory didn't answer her mom.

Just then Jess walked in, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Excuse me," Kris said to Lorelai and Rory. Lorelai's eye's followed Kris over to Jess who was about seven feet inside the door.

"Hey, where were you?" Kris asked Jess.

"School," Jess replied as if it were rather obvious.

Kris smirked. "You know what I mean, you're an hour late," Kris said.

"I waited around and got my grades," Jess said

"Oh, how are they?" Kris asked, trying to conceal her concern.

Jess shrugged dejectedly, pulling out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and handing it to her. She looked at the folded paper, sensing his disappointment. She slowly opened the paper up, looked at it.

"Oh my God!" Kris screamed, throwing herself into Jess' arms. "Oh my God! Jess! Oh my God! And you had me thinking..." Kris voice trailed off as she realized that Jess was smiling mischievously now, relishing in the fact that he tricked her. "You are such a brat!" she said, hitting hit arm playfully.

Jess smiled even bigger and Luke ran down from upstairs, "What happened? What was the screaming? Jess! You're back! How'd your finals go? Did you get your grades?"

Kris turned to Jess. "Tell him," Kris insisted.

"No, you tell him," he replied.

"They're your grades."

"I want you to tell him."

Kris turned to Luke and shouted proudly, "One A, three B's!"

Luke was in shock for a second, then a smile spread across his face. "Congratulations! You know what, take the day off. No, both of you guys take the rest of the day off! Go! Get out of here!" Luke said happily.

"How about that incentive?" Jess whispered, kissing her neck as they left the diner.

Rory could see Kris jumping up and down with happiness as they walked along the sidewalk until Jess calmed her down by wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her passionately. Pangs of jealousy flowed through Rory now, seeing Jess so happy. Why couldn't she have called him while in D.C.? Why couldn't she have done something, anything, to explain to him how she felt? She had wasted so much time denying her feelings for Jess that when she finally admitted them, it was too late. It was selfish and arrogant to think that Jess hadn't moved on and she castigated herself for being so foolish.

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Two days later, Rory walked into the diner to see Jess look up, right into her eyes. She willed herself to hold his gaze with her own eyes while walking over to the counter he was behind.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Jess replied, a hint of coldness in his voice. They hadn't talked since the first day she came back.

"So, congratulations on summer school. You should be really proud," Rory said encouragingly.

Jess wanted to say something really sarcastic to her just then, but simply replied, "Thanks."

When he was in her presence, he suddenly became confused. This bothered him to no end, but he fought through it, trying to convince himself that this girl didn't have any hold on him. But in the end, he still had something for Rory, but hurting Kris was not an option.

"So, uh, read any good books this summer?" Rory asked lamely, trying desperately to hold a conversation with Jess, something she didn't used to have trouble doing.

"You know I suck at the small talk, Rory," Jess said.

"I'm sorry, it's just that, I want things back how they were. When we would actually hold intellectual conversations," Rory admitted.

Jess looked straight at her. "Rory, you can't expect us to have a functional relationship when you were gone for six weeks after kissing me and never calling. People change, things change, and it's ridiculous to expect everything to go back to the way it was," Jess replied calmly.

"I know," Rory said, dejectedly. "But since when did we have a functional relationship?"

Jess and Rory both laughed at this, just as Kris came from upstairs, looking sleepy. Through her sleepiness, she saw Jess and Rory laughing together for the first time, and there was an unmistakable flare in their eyes. It felt like a hand was squeezed around her heart, but she remained calm on the exterior.

"Hey," Jess said softly to Kris, kissing her forehead. Rory wished he had spoken to her like that.

Kris smiled weakly. "Hi," she replied. "Hi, Rory."

"Hey," Rory said, trying to sound happy. Jess and she had just shared a moment, only to be interrupted by Kris. "How are you?"

"Jess tired me out," Kris said sleepily, rubbing the sand from her eyes. Rory's eyes bulged out momentarily and Kris realized what that sounded like. "I mean he tickled me to sleep," she added quickly for clarification.

"I did not," Jess stated.

"I'm not going to argue with you," Kris said.

"So, uh, how do you like it here?" Rory asked. If Kris was Jess' girlfriend and Lane's cousin, she should at least get to know her. She didn't have to like her.

"In Stars Hollow? I think people here have way too much time on their hands, the way they meddle into other people's business. But, it's livable. I think I would have to spend sixteen years of my life here, though, like I did in L.A., to fully understand the people here," Kris said.

"Wait, you're sixteen and going to be a senior?" Rory asked. The math didn't work, yet she could remember Lane telling her this on the phone.

"Yeah, skipped first grade," Kris explained.

Rory looked at Jess who looked unfazed by this information.

"Wow," Rory said admirably.

"It's just first grade," Kris said modestly.

"That's still impressive," Rory admitted.

"Not as impressive as six AP's," Jess said nonchalantly.

Kris glared at Jess warningly.

"What?" Rory asked.

"It's nothing, Jess is just being a jerk, again," Kris said brushing the topic off.

"Was it three in sophomore year, three in junior year?" Rory asked.

"No, two in sophomore, four in junior," Kris said.

"Cool," Rory said. She had taken four AP's and that was terribly difficult for her, so she had no idea how Kris took six.

"Uh, okay," Kris replied. Talking about AP classes wasn't very fun. "I'm gonna go back to the house, get some more sleep."

"Want me to walk you home?" Jess said.

"No, it's fine, I'll fend off the Stars Hollow boogie-man solo," Kris said.

Rory smiled, this girl was pretty nice, like Lane had said.

"Okay," Jess said.

"Don't forget to close up for Luke," Kris added while hugging and kissing Jess good-night.

"Yes ma'am," Jess teased.

"Night Rory," Kris said, ignoring Jess' comment.

"Good night."

They both watched her leave the diner.

"She's nice," Rory said, turning back to Jess.

"Yeah," Jess said, unable to hide a smile.

Did Rory ever make him feel the way Kris did? His feelings for Rory were, well, full of angst and desire. With Kris, they were full of happiness. But angst somehow had a way with screwing up happiness.

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She had talked with Jess, that was good. But Jess kissed Kris, and that was bad. But at least after Kris left Jess and she clicked again. It seemed that Jess had forgiven her for kissing and running out on him.

"Rory," someone called out.

She turned around. Dean. Guilt poured into her by the bucketfuls. She had spent so much time thinking about Jess and Kris that Dean slipped her mind. She was still with him. How could she be that cruel?

"Hi, Dean," she said. She didn't feel anything but friendship for him anymore, which scared her. She needed to break up with him, it was the only right thing to do, but that scared her even more.

"Listen, Rory, we need to talk," Dean said. It sounded as though he rehearsed this.

"Yeah, we do," Rory agreed.

"Um, ever since you got back, it doesn't seem like it's been clicking between us," he said.

"Oh, it uh, hasn't?" Rory asked innocently.

"No, c'mon Rory, I see the way you look at Jess," Dean explained. Rory was about to protest when Dean added, "I'm not mad. We've just, grown apart."

"I see," she said quietly. Dean was actually breaking up with her, she couldn't believe it. After all that overprotectiveness and jealousy, what happened?

"I want to still be friends," Dean said. I don't think I could function if we weren't friends."

Rory smiled. "Yeah, friends," she said. It felt like part of her was leaving forever, but another part felt so liberated. And she didn't have to do a thing! Dean leaned down and hugged her.

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"Hey, Kris, do you wanna play some ball?" Dean asked, strolling over to her while she was on her break, surprisingly, alone.

"Oh, sorry Dean, I'm heading back to the diner right now, breaks over." Kris was worried that Dean was starting to like her while he was still with Rory. "Where's Rory?"

"I dunno," Dean shrugged, walking with Kris back to the diner. Kris gave him a quizzical look regarding his casual manner towards Rory. "We broke up," Dean explained.

It felt like Kris was socked in the stomach. They broke up. Now Rory was single, nothing holding her back from Jess. And Kris was holding Jess back. What if Jess wanted to be with Rory? Kris didn't want to hold Jess back from anything, even, even from a girl he wanted to be with more than herself.

"When?" Kris managed to spit out.

"Two nights ago," Dean replied.

"I'm sorry," Kris said.

"Don't be. It'll be alright. We just didn't have those types of feelings for each other anymore, it happens. I didn't think it was going to happen, but it did and it's okay," Dean said, smiling at her. Kris hoped she had nothing to do with this change of heart on Dean's part.

"Well, I'll talk to you later, Dean." They had arrived at the diner.

"Alright, bye Kris," Dean said.

Kris exhaled as she entered the diner, trying to remain calm. Luckily Jess wasn't there at the moment, probably still sleeping. She was grateful, there was a lot she needed to think over.

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"Luke, where's Jess?" Kris asked the next morning. She had spent all night thinking about what she would do. Jess had heard that Rory and Dean weren't together anymore, and tried not to show any emotion over it. Kris could tell though that he was pleased.

"Upstairs," Luke replied.

"Thanks," Kris said.

Walking into Jess' room, she could see him lying on the bed, wrapped up in a book. She laughed.

"Ms. Rowling is meeting your approval, eh?" she teased.

Jess lifted to book to see her face and smiled. "I guess you could say that," Jess replied. He was already on the fourth Harry Potter book.

"Please don't tell me you spent thirty dollars for number 4," Kris said, looking at the hardback book in his hands.

"No, I borrowed it from the bookstore," Jess replied, marking his page and closing the book.

"The bookstore? Not the library?" Kris asked.

"Yeah," Jess replied.

Kris laughed. How could she do what she was about to do? She had to. She had been trying vainly to ignore what she saw, but she still saw it. Jess still had feelings for Rory. Her expression turned serious as she sat down on the bed in front of him.

"Jess? I need to talk to you," she said.

"That is what you are doing," Jess replied teasingly, trying to kiss her.

It took all her strength to pull away. "I'm serious," she stated.

Jess frowned. "Okay."

"Remember when I said that I wanted you to tell me if you started having feelings for Rory?"

Jess froze. She realized, she knew. He was so stupid. "Yeah."

Kris looked at him expectantly.

"There's nothing between me and Rory, Kris," Jess said.

"I know, but do you want there to be?" she asked simply.

His eyes shot up to hers, "What?" he asked, shocked.

"Can you tell me that ever since she got back, you haven't thought about what it would be like if you were with her instead of me?" Kris asked calmly.

His eyes fell, he couldn't bring himself to look at her.

Kris understood. "She doesn't have a boyfriend now," she said.

"But I have a girlfriend," Jess insisted, grabbing her hand.

She didn't pull away, but squeezed it. "I'm not going to hold you back," Kris said.

"So our relationship isn't worth fighting for?" Jess asked. He was reverting back to his old self, attacking the person who was hurting him.

Kris didn't take the bait though. "It's worth too much to fight over. I have to let you go. I can't be your girlfriend if you have 'what ifs' with Rory. I don't want you to view our relationship as a regret if you want to be with her. I couldn't be happy living like that, living in denial. I wouldn't be able to deal with that. Do you want to be with her?"

"Kris, I..." He, deep down inside, wanted to see what it would be like with Rory, sure, but Dean always held him back. Dean wasn't part of the equation now, but Kris was. He couldn't hurt her, he didn't care about her any less.

She touched his face and he kissed her palm. "This doesn't mean that I don't care about you anymore, Jess. But you need to figure out what you want. If it's Rory, be with Rory. If it's me, come back to me. But you won't know until you try and see what happens."

"How can you be so calm about this?" Jess asked, truly scared of losing the only person he wasn't scared of being scared in front of.

"I'm not, I'm scared. Really scared. But, I owe you this much," she said.

"You owe me nothing," Jess said, completely disgusted with himself for having feelings for Rory and losing Kris because of it.

Kris' eyes were about to shed tears, without her consent. She wrapped her hands around his neck tightly. "Thank you for all you have done for me." Jess held her even closer, unable to say anything to her. When they pulled apart, Kris smiled courageously and kissed his forehead. "See you later."

She got up, and walked out of the room, not looking at him again.

When she got halfway down the stairs, she heard a hardback book slam ferociously against the wall. She paused, thought about going back up there, but instead ran down the remaining steps and out of Luke's, tears trailing behind her.

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