Disclaimer: I own Philadelphia and Poptarts. Mrs Fat is being lent to me and Michael Douglas came with her as a toy boy. I haven't even seen Strictly Ballroom and I don't intend too. I have the teddy in trade for NSYNC. Gilmore Girls was my child and I sold it for Jess. If you're really picky, I own nothing, except Daniel and this plot line and this disclaimer.
Pairing: This is stupid, every one knows Rory belongs with Jess. Ugh! Plus if you've read the rest of this story then you now that. For people that are starting the story here, You're stupid and read the 1st chapter then go on to the next one.
Rating: I realise that for Pg 13. This is lame but hell I don't care :)
A/N: Reviewers are cool!! Thanks again to everyone I really love the support. Special mention to Green Eve your advice was much appriceated. And Kate and someone cuz you keep reviewing. A stable environment is always welcome. Again you must forgive me for my geography. I figured out that I don't know where Hartford is. I assumed it was below NY so I looked on my map and Philadelphia was close to there so I used it. Ignore major details, they're not that important. In the 1st chapter, 'Collie' is supposed to be like that. The coffee that Lorelai ordered was supposed to be "Collie" but I screwed up. Sorry bought that. I thought I fixed it but I guess I uploaded the wrong thing. I have about 4 copies of the chapters that are all saved differently. To people that have no idea about what I'm talking about, relax, don't worry and buy yourself something nice, (go on you know you deserve it). Err…. out of general interest I have two questions:
Did people understand what Jess meant when he was talking to Luke when he was hung over? They are euphemisms that I used in a different way to what they originally meant. If you don't know what I meant, think about what Luke could have done the night before, if you still don't get it, don't ask your parents. Maybe only me and my sick mind understood them. Oh well.2- Does anyone reading this fic like Dean? Just curious.
When truths are told.
"A truth told in bad intent, beats and
lies the you can invent."
"Mom! Can you drive me to school?" Rory yelled, panickly running round the house.
"Why? And this better be good!"
"I missed the bus and the next one doesn't get there until 10:30, which means my darling teachers that give my performance report to Harvard won't be happy!"
"Good enough. Ugh! I shouldn't have danced so much, I can't walk properly."
"Your fault, I told you, Strictly Ballroom, wasn't for amateurs."
Rory and Lorelai sat in the car eating chocolate Poptarts and balancing cups of coffee.
"So mom, who was the guy you were with last night?"
"Oh Daniel, he's visiting from Philadelphia, his grandfather used to live here. Historical adventure he said he was on. It was great until he revealed that. Yuck, I don wanna go any further into my families past. Hell's gates would be safer. Where did you go last night? It seems you had a good time if you slept in.
"Me and Jess went to the bridge," Rory finished the rest of her coffee. "It was fun."
"Hmm, nothing else happened did it?" Lorelai joked, but secretly she was worried.
"Mom……we're not even dating."
"You think that stopped me? I know sweetie; you're an angel. You wouldn't date Jess."
"What's wrong with Jess?" Rory frowned.
"Well he's not really your type. I mean if you did date him, the whole town would totally flip. Unicorns would appear, dogs would dance and Taylor would stop wearing cardigans."
"That doesn't explain anything and so what the town thinks," Rory replied haughtily.
"Look honey, he doesn't deserve you, you're higher than him on the food chain. Jess is just hooligan that likes dead people and who is inconsiderate, self centred, childish, selfish and plain evil," Lorelai finished with a flick of her hand.
"Look who has the dictionary in her head today. That is so not true, I thought that you were going to give him a chance, any way here's my stop. Thanx," Rory jumped out the car thinking about what her mother said. She was starting to believe what the town made sense. "No, jeez, Jess has been nothing but good to you." Rory scolded herself and walked to class.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rory walked into the diner, slamming the door open and throwing her bag across the floor so it hit the barstools. Sitting on one, she folded her arms and hit her head on them. The aroma of coffee made her lift it up. Jess stood there with a half smirk on his face. "Something wrong?"
"Go away," Rory took the coffee.
Jess' expression softened. "Hey, it can't be that bad unless you have a terminal illness, tell me."
"Ugh! I hate PE!" answered Rory.
"Yep a fair people do," Jess said sarcastically.
"If I don't get at least a B+ on my prac exam tomorrow my average goes down," Rory spoke quietly into her coffee.
Jess hated seeing her look so sad. "Meet me here say five and I'll help you, I swear we'll get you that grade."
"Really?" Rory stared suspiciously at him.
"Sure, now go get changes, not a skirt or anything that falling or throwing is going to be a problem," Rory smiled and ran home to get ready.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rory met up with Jess at 5 as promised. Her mother left a message on the machine saying she'd be home late and that money was some where for food. Rory left a note just in case her mum returned early.
"Hey," Jess smiled at Rory, "Luke I'm going."
"What? Where? Jess!" Luke yelled coming out of the kitchen.
"I told you, I'm helping Rory further her education," Jess replied annoyed.
"Huh? It better involve activities that keep all items of clothing on."
"Well it might get kinda hot so I might have to take my jacket off. That ok with you?" Jess said, sarcasm dripping off each word.
"Jess, I don't care what happens, it's your fault. Let Rory get hurt, you'll wish were locked in a room with Lorelai that hasn't had coffee in 2 years. Got me?" Luke threatened.
Jess just stared stonily back at him, "Finished, okay see ya." Taking Rory's hand he led her to the car.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After 10 minutes of driving, Rory felt obliged to ask where they were going.
"You trust me right," Jess grinned.
"Yeah but,…… This isn't a weird abduction is it? Cuz my lack of knowledge and love of sports isn't that bad to realise that to practice for athletics you kinda need, I dunno maybe a ball a grass area, something in that vicinity."
Jess just laughed and kept driving. They arrived at the Hartford arcade; lights outlined the store, which stretched all down the block.
"Jess, this is an arcade," Rory spluttered as she followed him in.
"No really, damn, I was aiming for a church," Jess answered her.
"Jess…." Rory whined.
"Ok ok, calm down. You're not really the sporting protegy, so I decided that instead of throwing a ball over and over and making you do 50 pushups, I'd come here and develop your skills. Plus the incentives are really cool, once I won a camera," Jess said proudly.
"Awe,…Ooo! Ooo! I want that!" Rory started jumping up and down pointing to a white teddy bear that had a red bowtie.
"That's 500 tickets, do you really think you can get that many?"
"You don't think that I can do it? Oh, thanks, kill my confidence why don't you," Rory said igniratly.
"I didn't mean that. Come on. Show those crocodiles what you got."
"Say anything that corny again and I'll hit you!" Rory groaned and walked over to the singing crocs. After 5 games of that Rory asked, "Jess what is this helping me with; it gets the pent up frustration out sure but really, hitting crocs?"
"It's for your reflexes, jeez where have you been?" he answered.
"Oh right. Huh. Hey well I'm getting better. What now?" Rory looked round the room. There were gangs of people everywhere. One group caught their attention. They were on 5 dancing machines where you had to co-ordinate your feet with what the screen put up. Rory hit Jess on the arm and giggled. "That has got to be the saddest thing I have ever seen. Look they're all in time. Ugh! You gotta have no life to get that good!"
Jess laughed and dragged her away from the NSYNC wanna be's and stopped at a row of machines that all looked fairly similar. One was called 'Mrs Fat' and a pillow was her stomach, covered in a gaudy red material. Two plaits hung at her sides and her mouth could fit 3 human heads in it.
Jess swiped the money card and heaps of different coloured balls filled a square box. 'Mrs Fat's mouth started opening and closing. Rory started laughing, "Ok what do I do now?"
With a perfectly straight face Jess answered, "You gotta get the balls in the mouth, which is implying something that your innocent mind should not be exposed to until you're older.
Rory pouted and aimlessly tried throw the balls into the mouth. They hit every where, when one rebounded off the nose and nearly hit Jess in the face, he caught her arms. Shivers ran up both of them. 'Just the cold' thought Rory, trying to convince herself it wasn't anything more.
Recomposing himself, Jess remembered what he was going to say. "Rory, don't take this the wrong away, but your hand eye co-ordination sux. You gotta look at what you're throwing at. Here I'll help. Just relax." 'Cuz I sure as hell can't' he added in his head.
They tried again; Rory got quite a few more in this time. At the start of the exercise, they realised that if they gently pulled the tickets out, they could get extra.
"I'm guessing that for the test you have to shoot basketballs?" Jess asked. Rory nodded.
"Well then this should be perfect then," Jess showed Rory the basketball hoops." The more baskets, the more tickets. The secret to this is to aim for the box around it. K?" He shot and it went in cleanly. Rory tied and it hit the backboard, spun around the rim and fell through the net.
"It worked! Yay! I like this one!" Rory squealed. Jess smiled, he loved seeing her happy. "Congratulations, but you've gotta keep going.
"They stayed there until 8:30, mixing all the games around and laughing at the dancing people. To be stupid they both decided to have a go at it. Neither could keep up so they made up their own routines. "You tell anyone I participated in this, will divulge to the world that you love Micheal Douglas," Jess threatened her, collapsing in some couches.
"What's wrong with him, ok so he could be my grandfather and his face might need to be nipped and tucked a little, but he is loaded…. Ugh we better get home soon. Mum's gunna freak if I don't get back."
"Yeah, I don't think Luke's to happy with me," Jess said regretfully. He took the bundles of tickets up to the counter. The guy weighted it. "480 tickets," he said in a bored tone.
"Ohh, that's not fair, and I don't have any more money," Rory said unhappily. Jess checked his pockets, "Damn, me either."
"Ahh well, I can get something else right," she didn't look at him and her voice trembled slightly. Jess knew it meant a lot to her to get the bear. "Just wait here a sec. Don't do anything," he walked back out to the machines and reappeared with a secret smile on his face. "Here," he flicked here a couple of dollars and a few nickels.
Rory's eyes shined, "where did you get this?" He just shrugged and said; "Okay which one do you wanna try?"
"Umm, well I need 20 tickets right and I only get one go, and the basketball one was my best so I guess that will do." Rory played, heaps went in and all the lights flashed. "That was cool!"
Jess grinned, "Jordan's got nothing on you."
Rory got down on her knees and counted the tickets; 15. "Damn, this games fun, but really scabby." Carefully, pulling the tickets out she tried for the extra ones. Usually she could only get 2-3 more. Gently, she got out 4, then as her hands shook, managed to get the 5 ticket. Rory ran over to the counter and slammed them on the glass. "There, now gimme that teddy!" she said to the scared attendant.
She leaped back to Jess who was leaning on the pinball machines. "I GOT IT! I GOT IT!" she screamed and hugged him. Swinging her round, people started staring but they didn't care. "See, we'll make a jock out of you yet," he said setting her down. "Come one you've gotta get some sleep and maybe some food cuz we haven't eaten since 5."
They drove home in silence. "Bye Jess," Rory smiled gratefully, "Thankyou for everything."
"It's okay, I like helping you," he said sincerely. She drove away, waving to him as she got smaller in the distance. Jess smiled and walked back into the diner.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next afternoon, Rory ran into the diner, Lorelai was already there, but Rory didn't seen to notice. She yelled for Jess who came from the kitchen. "Guess what I got! Guess what I got!" she said excitedly
"Umm…, for the look on your face I'm gunna say: D!"
"Hah, funny, I have never got a D in my life. Any way the teacher said that my stamina needed working on; ugh, who needs stamina when you've got coffee, the rope was a killer, jeez that thing should be illegal and I dunno but every reference I've read for a journalist, seem to include climbing a really high rope with no harness, I mean…."
"Rory, babbling," Jess said good-naturedly.
"Sorry, she said that my shooting and hand eye co-ordination was brilliant so she gave me extra marks and I got and A-!" by this time she was jumping up and down.
"See I told you. Here's the biggest cup I could find filled with coffee," Jess gave her the steaming mug.
"Thank you again Jess," Rory said softly and pecked him on the cheek. Luckily for Jess his skin colour made it hard for any one to tell if he was blushing, but if he didn't, fire engines would match him. Lorelai walked over and Jess returned to work, easily putting back up the mask of blankness. No one could tell what he was feeling, not even Rory, he didn't want her too, because if she did she might run and he couldn't bear that.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Is there something I don't know about and if there is what protection agency are you under because I know everything?" Lorelai sat next to her daughter, with a slight frown marring her happy features.
"Hi mom, umm, well you know last night how you weren't home; so I went out, well it was because my PE teacher said that if I didn't get a B+ my average would go down. So like most people I was really angry; think of your favourite TV show being cancelled right before the couple that have being flirting for ages were about to kiss; ugh I hate it when that happens. Off the subject but quite sad, you feel like you are losing a friend. Right, story, any way Jess offered to help so we went to the arcade," Rory took a gulp of coffee.
"Rory arcades and sports never really went together; there like a vegetarian owning a butchers shop," Lorelai was confused.
"I know, that's what I thought, but it really works, coz there was no use in trying to do pushups or anything that involved major physical activity because well I inherited your genes and I hate exercise, so we refined my throwing skill at the arcade. It was fun, I won a bear, I mean Jess helped me but I did most of it myself and then today I went really well in the test and it's thanks to Jess," Rory finished with a flourish. "Although I nearly didn't get it because we ran out of money, he got more some how I don't know where though," she added.
Lorelai went cold at that moment she was happy for Rory, but hearing the last sentence, it resurfaced the old hate for Jess.
"Kid, you don't know where he got it?" Lorelai asked slowly. Rory shook her head. "Umm sweets, there's a fair chance he probably nicked it off some little kid." Rory went white, "He wouldn't do that for me, it was just a bear."
"Rory," Lorelai said gently, "You've gotta face it, Jess isn't a good person, he never will be. Kleptomania seems to be a recurring thing for him. Who knows what he got up to in New York? He wouldn't have been sent here for no reason."
Rory stared at the ground; "I wanna go home."
Lorelai nodded, they didn't speak for the whole way home.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
They walked in the house and Lorelai threw her keys on the table. "Oh! You remember Daniel; well he invited us too go to Philadelphia where he owns a huge hotel. Oh crap! Damn! Damn! Damn! Stupid Lorelai! Why do you always say stuff before reviewing the everything?" Lorelai started slapping her forehead.
"Mom, do you want me to call 911?" Rory asked.
"I got 4 tickets and I dumbly asked Luke if he and Jess wanted to go. It's this weekend so Sookie and Jackson couldn't come. Now I realise what I've done. Stupid Lorelai!" she began banging her head on the wall.
"Okay now mom, you can't afford to lose any more brain cells. Calm down. Jess isn't that bad and you'll be off with Luke any how so you won't be near him, and any way you can't revoke the invite now, that's rude," Rory tried to sooth her mother. This just made her more stressed.
"That's the whole point, you'll be with him, he's gunna be the 'Sirens' of your life. He is Satan's spawn and you're the innocent child waiting to be corrupted." Lorelai stopped for air. "Look I known you seem to like him, but I said I trusted your judgement and now I'm just asking for you to respect mine. I don't want you to get hurt that's all. Please just think about what I said."
"Fine, I'll consider it," Rory said in a low voice and walked into her room
Rory layed on her bed; over the past few days she had depended on him, more than her mom. Her mother. Didn't her judgement count for anything? She had lived in this world for longer than her. Rory sighed. She weighed the bad against the good and it was fairly one sided. For every good thing that Jess had done, there were 3 things bad. Logically she knew that she should stay away from him, but there was a feeling that she had never felt before and it scared her. Rory decided to ask Jess where he got the money from.
Walking out the door she called to her mother, "Mom I'm going for a walk." She knew where Jess would be; at the bridge. He was sitting down reading. He looked up and smiled to see her come but frowned when he saw her cold expression.
"Where did you get the money from?" she asked.
"What money?" he joked, trying to lighten the situation.
"Jess just answer me," Rory wasn't in the mood for this. "Did you steal it."
Jess' face went unreadable, "So what if I did?"
Rory stepped back as he stood up. "Why didn't I listen to my mother, she said you were no good?"
"What, just no good or not good enough for the town princess? That's what you think right," he said scathingly.
"I didn't say that, you don't know what I think," Rory said defensively.
"No really? Yeah well you're not hard to read Lorelai. You do and think what your mother and this town wants. Even if it's not right. You're like a sheep; believing in everything they tell you and trying to live up to their wants and forgetting about your own," he said mockingly.
Shocked at how the conversation had turned Rory just shook her head and spluttered, "Don't lie, I'm not like that, you're just jealous."
"Of what? Being tied down with other peoples lost chances. I doubt it. Any way Philadelphia should be fun now won't it. Ahh well, you'll be in bed by 9:30 like a good little girl and I'll go knock off a bar. That's what you reckon I'll do right so I don wanna disappoint," Jess finished preparing to go turning on his heel.
"Jess I'm…." Rory pleaded but he turned round and said, "just in case you really wanted to know where the money come from, I saw a guy who owed me a couple of bucks so I decided to collect what was mine." With that he walked home, leaving Rory to collapse on the bridge crying; because she hurt him and because she knew what he said was true and the denied truth always burned more than a lie ever could.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Please Please Please Review, a one word submission is all I ask, just to know people are reading. If you want to write more I will be eternally grateful. Another thought for the road- I make all these conversations up in my head. Does this mean I'm crazy? Keep Reading and Reviewing!!!!!~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~