*Disclaimer: I don't own the series Gilmore Girls or the characters. All I own is my imagination and the plot.

*A/N: Hey!!! *waves* How's everyone doing ? I'm doing GREAT and I hope you guys are doing great too. First of all I wanna thank everyone again for the reviews. THANKS!!! I could write a whole story about how much I love you guys for reviewing, but I'll probably just bore you, so again I wanna thank you guys. I hope you will be so kind to review this chapter too. Sorry it's kinda short, but it would have turned out too long if I had uploaded the other part too. Just a couple of more chapters until the R/J conclusion! They're still a couple of surprises on their way...........;-)

*~*~*:-)*~*~*Bye, smile :-)

When Rory arrived at school the next morning, Dean was standing by her locker, hands behind his back. Rory shot him a friendly smile as she dropped her bag in front of her locker.

R: ''Morning.''

D: ''And a nice one it is.''

Rory nodded and hit her locker with her fist so it would open. A smile was still plastered on her face. Ever since her talk with Jess yesterday she couldn't stop thinking about him. Of course he had been on her mind a couple of times before, but she could be able to just concentrate on something else, like reading for example and after a while Jess was pushed into the back of her mind. But last night she hadn't been able to do that. In every book she read, she could identify Jess in one of the characters and she would be lost again. Lost in her own thoughts that never seemed to stop.

D: ''So, are we still on for the library ?''

Rory lifted herself out of the pool of thoughts and turned her head so she could look at Dean.

R: ''Library ?''

D: ''Yeah, remember our conversation yesterday ? I said books were boring, you said that they weren't and to prove me wrong you would take me to the library and we would pick out a book for me to read. Remember ?''

R: ''Oh, yeah, right. Of course I remember.''

Rory gave him a reassuring smile when he shot her a disbelieved look. The truth was that she did forget, she remembered absolutely nothing about the conversation with Dean. As soon as Jess came in it was basketball bla bla bla and every now and then she would nod and actually focus her attention back to Dean........for almost half a second.

R: ''And we're still on. What happened to books are boring anyway ? I mean if I let's say hypothetically forgot, then shouldn't you be happy about it ?''

Dean shrugged.

D: ''Anything to spend more time with you.''

R: ''Dean..........''

She had to tell him, she had to tell him that she only liked him as a friend. She was just about to, but stopped when Dean pulled out his hands from behind his back. She gasped when he saw the flower. He was holding the most beautiful sunflower she had ever seen in his hands. The color was warm and reminded her of one of those hot summer days when all you wanted to do was hang by the pool and drink cold lemonade.

D: ''For you.''

He held out the flower to her and Rory took it, smiling broadly.

R: ''It's my favorite flower, thank you, I love it.''

Dean smiled and ran one of his hand through his hair as she brought the flower to her nose and inhaled the smell of it.

D: ''A flower fitting to your personality.''

Rory looked up at Dean and saw his shining eyes and knew that she couldn't tell him that she just wanted to be friend. Not today anyway, she would tell him tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow sounded good to her.

R: ''Thank you.''

D: ''Welcome. Listen, I have to go, but I'll see you at lunch, okay ?''

R: ''Definitely.''

Dean flashed her one of his heartwarming smiles and left. Rory shook her head as she looked at the flower once more. He couldn't keep doing this to her. If he would keep complimenting her and giving her sweet gifts like the sunflower she would never be able to tell him that all she wanted from him was his friendship. Rory sighed as she gently placed the flower in her locker.

T: ''Well, well, look who has a secret admirer.''

Rory looked up to find Tristan leaning against his locker, that was conveniently next to hers. She smiled. She just noticed something. His eyes were different during the day. During the day they had the shade of light- blue, gray even, but when she went out on a date with him they were a couple of shades darker with a silver glow in them. As if someone had put one single star in each of his eyes.

R: ''Hey Tristan.''

T: ''Right back at ya Mary.''

R: ''It's Rory.''

T: ''I know, but Mary has a nice ring to it, don't you think ? Besides when I ask you to marry me it will sound as if I was going to repeat the question, but stopped half way.''

R: ''Hilarious. We should start our own comedy act.''

T: ''I could always use the other line though.''

R: ''Other line ?''

T: ''Yeah, will you be my wife ?''

R: ''I was thinking more of a phone line, that way I could just hang up on you.''

T: ''And here I thought we were getting along.''

R: ''Who said we weren't ?''

Tristan smiled a smug smile at her and Rory found it rather unbelievable that someone could be so sure of himself, but then again they probably weren't a DuGrey.

T: ''So, who's it from ?''

He reached for the flower and took it out of it's keeping place.

R: ''What makes you think that someone gave it to me ?''

Tristan raised and eyebrow as he gently ran his fingers over the peddles of the flower.

R: ''Maybe I have a secret garden in my locker.''

T: ''Maybe, but what if maybe someone gave it to you, who would it be from ?''

R: ''Dean, he gave it to me.''

T: ''Dean huh ? Sounds like you two are getting along.''

Rory shrugged as she took the flower from Tristan and put it back in her locker.

Tristan observed Rory as she did this, noticing how gentle she was with the flower. The flower Dean gave her. Tristan knew that he had to make his move soon if he wanted to win the bet, if he wanted to win her. He crossed his arms and looked at her with an unreadable look on his face.

T: ''So, you wanna sit with me at lunch ?''

R: ''I can't.''

She closed her locker and turned around to face Tristan.

R: ''I'm going to the library with Dean, sorry.''

T: ''Are you telling me that he can actually read ?''

Rory rolled her eyes and quickly lifted her bag from the floor when the bell rang.

R: ''I gotta get to class.''

T: ''Of course, wouldn't want you to be later, now would we ?''

He looked at her, his unreadable look tainted by the amusement in his eyes.

R: ''See you later.''

T: ''You mean soon.''

When Rory walked past him, he sighed and headed to class himself, trying to figure out how he could wind this bet.

*~*~*

At lunch time both Rory and Dean kept their promise and met in the library. Rory greeted him and immediately started to go through the rows of books, looking for an appropriate book for Dean to read. Dean just watched her, as she got down on her knees in front of almost every bookcase. He loved the way her hair fell in front of her face and the way her shirt rose up a little when she reached to pick up a book. He would look at the book and smile, but at the same time he was thinking of how much he wanted to reach for her instead of some stupid book that he wasn't going to read anyway. He was only here, because Rory was here. And if picking out a book for him, meant spending more time with her, then he would follow her throughout the entire library until they finally found one.

Rory was too caught up in all the books to notice Dean's constant gaze on her. As they headed for the back, where all the good books were, the books that Rory had already read about a million times, she noticed Jess. He was sitting at 'their' spot, reading. When she walked past him, he quickly looked up. She mouthed a hi before she turned around and went back to searching for a book.

Jess nodded at her, not saying a thing. You weren't allowed to talk in the library after all. He went back to his book, but couldn't concentrate on the characters anymore. The words were one big blur to him and all he could think about was Rory. Rory who was spending her lunch with Dean instead of with him. Jess hated himself for feeling jealous like this when he and Rory didn't even have nothing. He knew it wasn't true and that he was feeling jealous, because quite the opposite was true. They did have something, but he was still trying to find out what that something was.

Rory knew that Jess was watching her, she could feel his gaze on her. Heat was running down her back and slowly spreading over her entire body. If he could do this to her by just watching, what would it be like when he actually touched her ? She started to have trouble breathing and grabbed the book-case with her two hands to keep herself from turning around and looking into those two brown pools of mystery. Suddenly a book caught her eyes, it wasn't because of the title, but it was because it lay all alone on the top of the book-case. An odd place for a book. She tried to reach for it, but it was too high. Even when she stood on her toes she couldn't reach it.

D: ''I got it.''

Dean walked over to her and stopped right behind her. Now he had an excuse to be so close to her. As he reached for the book, his arm grazed lightly against her hair and he couldn't believe how soft it was and how sweet it smelled. An entire garden full of roses didn't even come close.

Rory quickly turned around and took a step back when she saw how close Dean was standing. She would take another step back, but she couldn't. She was trapped between the book-case and Dean. Dean handed her the book and Rory took it, hoping that he would back off now. But he didn't. Instead he moved even closer and started to bring his head closer to hers. Rory's heart started to beat faster when she realized what he was doing. He was trying to kiss her and going to if she didn't do something fast. She didn't wanna kiss Dean, so when their lips almost touched, she turned her head and pretended to be fascinated by a book.

R: ''Look, I've found the perfect book.''

Dean stopped with what he was doing, a little frustrated by the interruption. Couldn't she stop thinking about books for a minute ? Didn't she see what he was trying to do ? Was she really that clueless ? He was only inches away from her lips, one more second and he would be able to feel her lips under his. Before he had the time to think about what he was going to do now, Rory planted her hands on his chest and gently pushed him away from her. Dean sighed and let himself be pushed away by her.

Rory who was relieved that he got the idea, quickly walked over to a book- case. She picked up a book, her hands shaking. She put the book down so that Dean wouldn't see how nervous she had been and still was. Now she definitely knew that he wanted more from her than just friendship. The question was, how was she going to deal with it ?

Jess couldn't help but smile a satisfying smile when he saw how Rory handled the situation. Now he knew for sure that she didn't like Dean as anything more than a friend. And after what Dean just pulled, he wasn't even sure if she thought of him as a friend anymore. Jess' smile grew wider when he saw the obvious frustration and confusion that was written all over Dean's face. He had it coming, you couldn't just pin a girl to a book-case and force her to kiss you. That wasn't the way it worked. Well, not for him anyway and apparently not for Dean either. When the bell rang, he met Rory's eyes. He shot her a comforting and hoped that she would get the message. He wasn't good at the non-verbal-communication-thing. And he was pretty sure his mom had something to do with that. Rory gave him an unstable and nervous smile before she left the library. Jess shook his head as he got up from his comfortable seating position. At least Rory proved him wrong. She was her own person, not caring about what anyone thought of her and the kind of girl who could hold her ground when needed.