NOTE: I really wish these Gilmore Girls people belong to me but, sadly, they don't. I will have the power one day, though.
A/N: Well, here it is. The sequel to Play Ball. Some of you might not know of that story so you'll just have to go read it and enjoy. Now on with this oh, so lovely sequel.
CHAPTER 8
Rosa peeked her head into the diner the next day, seeing that it was close to being crowded. Her usual shyness crept over her and for a moment she wanted to run back upstairs. Rosa suddenly felt a playful tap on top of her head and looked up to see Jess holding a rolled up newspaper.
"Are you still mad?" Rosa whispered, pretty ashamed at the way she had acted the previous night.
"No," Jess replied with a sigh yet seemed dismissive. "It's cool." He headed into the diner.
Rosa hung back for a moment before deciding to follow him. She climbed onto a seat at the counter, watching Luke serve coffee back and forth to the customers. Jess went around to the back of the counter where his uncle stood.
"Whoa," Jess looked out in awe at the many people. "You giving food away now?"
"You gonna help or are you just going to stand there, annoying me?" Luke asked as he busily refilled the coffee pot.
"Is there an option that could combine the both?" Jess smirked. Luke simply gave him a look that clearly showed he wasn't in the mood. "Fine," Jess agreed with an eye roll. "I'll be your right arm or whatever... again."
"Did you talk to Rory yet?" Luke asked as they went to work, getting Rosa's attention.
"Tried to," Jess replied. "I think she's kind of pissed. What with my six-year-old calling her the book thief of the new century."
Rosa's face fell. It really was true. Jess liked Rory and Rosa had made Rory go away. Now Jess would be sad and it was all Rosa's fault. It was just like it was with Shane. Jess would start to hate Rosa, too, and be mad all the time. Rosa decided that she could not let that happen. She slipped off the stool she sat on and was out the door, completely unnoticed through the crowd.
"Hey," Luke said to Jess. "Shouldn't you get your little clone down here so she can get something to eat?'
Jess went over to the stairs that led up to the apartment and called, "Rosa! Hey, Rosa. Come down here." Getting no answer, Jess headed upstairs, quickly seeing that the apartment was deserted. He went up to Luke. "She's gone."
"Gone?" Luke repeated. "What do you mean she's gone? Where is she?"
"If I knew she wouldn't be gone," Jess reasoned as if he were dying to say duh. "I gotta go find her." He quickly took hold of his jacket and headed for the door.
"Hang on. I'm right behind you," Luke called after him. As he left out the door after Jess, he bumped into Lorelai.
"Hey, what's with the whirlwind?" she asked.
"Kid, missing, now, finding her," Luke explained vaguely as he started to walk.
"What?" Lorelai followed him.
"Rosa. She took off."
"Took off? How did she take off? She's six," Lorelai said.
"Well, apparently, she's six and lighting fast," said Luke.
"Well, don't panic. I mean this is Stars Hollow. Jog for two minutes and you're back home."
Rosa, who seemed to move amazingly fast, walked around, glancing at the different autumn and Halloween displays. She found herself in front of Miss Patty's place and poked her head inside.
Young girls, all around her age or a bit older, were dancing in place, wearing pink ballet costumes. Miss Patty walked up and down, monitoring their progress.
"Wonderful, ladies," she said. "Wonderful. Reminds me of me at that age. So young, so full of promise."
A girl with blonde hair glanced over towards the door. "Miss Patty," she called. Rosa gasped. "Someone's here."
"Thank you, Sally," said Miss Patty, making her way over to the door, looking at Rosa. "And what might your name be?"
The brown haired girl whispered, "Rosa Brookes- Rosa Mariano."
"Mariano?" Miss Patty repeated incredulously. "That's funny."
"It is?" Rosa asked, confusion in her voice.
"Oh, not your name, sweetie. It's just that the last Mariano that lived in Stars Hollow was a big trouble maker. His name was Jess," Miss Patty explained.
"My dad?"
Miss Patty looked at her, unable to believe her ears. "You're Jess's daughter?" Rosa nodded. "How old are you?" The girl held up six fingers. "My, isn't this news? Well, where's your father now?"
"He's on planet Coffee with Uncle Baseball Cap," Rosa replied seriously.
"Oh..." Miss Patty uttered. "I see." She gestured towards the class. "Won't you join us?"
Rosa glanced into the studio then nodded, a little smile creeping across her face.
Half an hour later, Lorelai made her way towards the studio, as she, Jess, and Luke were all still on the search for the missing Rosa. Miss Patty stood in the doorway, watching her class, when she spotted Lorelai.
"Hello, dear," Miss Patty called.
Lorelai glanced up at her. "Oh, hey, Miss Patty. Listen, you didn't happen to see a little girl around here did you? Her name's Rosa and—"
"Brown hair, brown eyes, talks about as much as a mouse?" Miss Patty supplied. "She's inside."
"Oh, thanks," Lorelai said, heading towards the studio.
Rosa sat on a bench near a corner, watching a couple girls near her tie up their shoes, as they had just finished ballet practice.
"What's your name again?" the blonde girl, who had alerted Miss Patty to Rosa's presence, asked.
"Rosa Mariano," Rosa replied. "Um, who are you?"
"I'm Courtney," the blonde girl replied, taking a seat next to Rosa on the bench. She gestured towards the other girl, who had black hair and green eyes. "That's my friend, Tina."
"Hi," Tina waved, playing with her shoe laces.
"Do you like to dance?" Courtney asked Rosa.
"I never tried before," Rosa replied.
"Then what do you do for fun?" Tina chimed in.
"Um..." Rosa tried to think of something. "I hang out with my dad. We live in a diner with Uncle Luke."
"Luke's diner?" Courtney interrupted.
Rosa nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, Luke is really big and has a hairy face. And he wears this old looking baseball cap."
"That diner guy is grumpy," Tina said, making a face.
"That's 'cause he's a dragon," Rosa explained.
"A real dragon?" Another of the girl asked, coming up to the conversation.
"Uh huh," Rosa replied, continuing her story. "He gets mad and smoky like a dragon. But he makes the best burgers in the whole world." By now, Lorelai had crept in but stayed back, listening to Rosa's tale.
"What else?" Courtney questioned, very interested.
"Queen Lorelai is trying to keep Uncle Luke from being such a meanie head," Rosa pressed on.
"You know a queen?" another girl asked excited.
"Yep," Rosa nodded proudly. "She's a coffee lady who loves secret sweet coffee stuff."
Lorelai hid a giggle behind her hand but wasn't able to stifle it in time.
Rosa glanced up at her at that moment.
"Come on, Rosa," Tina nudged. "What happened next?"
"Um, I hate to interrupt this gathering but..." Lorelai pointed at Rosa. "Homer and her Odyssey have to leave now."
"Rosa, are you going to be around on Halloween?" Courtney asked.
"I don't know," Rosa shrugged.
"You should go trick-or-treating with us," Tina suggested.
"That sounds like fun," Rosa beamed.
"OK. Can we get a move on here?" Lorelai asked casually.
Rosa said goodbye to the girls, which had surrounded her and made her way over to Lorelai. "Hi, Lorelai," the brown haired child greeted happily.
"Hi, sweetie," Lorelai returned the greeting, kneeling down to the child's level. "So what's up?"
"Nothing."
"Shouldn't you be at Luke's, listening to him go grumps on everyone?"
Rosa shook her head. "No. I can't go back. I did something... really wrong."
"Oh." Lorelai gestured towards another nearby bench and they took a seat on it. "You wanna tell me about it?"
Rosa sighed. "I made Rory sad and now she doesn't like my dad anymore. My dad likes Rory, though. I ruined everything for him. I'm always doing that... to everybody."
Lorelai's heart went out for the girl. She just seemed so sincere about it. "Oh, no, honey, really. Last night with Rory, that was an accident, a mistake. She knows you didn't mean it."
"But I did mean it," Rosa whispered, looking straight ahead, seriousness in her voice. "I got mad because Rory was making the goo-goo eyes at my dad." She glanced up at Lorelai, her brown eyes flashing. "But he's my dad and I didn't want Rory to have him."
Lorelai began to play with Rosa's hair as she kept listening to her. "Well, what about Luke? You have to share Jess with him, right?"
"Luke's mine, too," Rosa insisted then softened. "But, if you want, we could share him."
"What do you mean?" Lorelai asked, sudden confusion in her voice.
"Don't you want Uncle Luke, too? You gave him the big goo-goo eyes."
"No, I didn't," Lorelai defended herself lamely.
"Yes, you did," Rosa said in a singsong voice.
"Let's go back to your dad," Lorelai said, changing the subject.
"I can't," Rosa replied quickly. "I'm just a big pain."
"Well, honey, the only pain Jess is feeling right now is because you aren't with him, where you belong. You don't want him to feel worse do you?"
Rosa glanced down at her jeans, thinking that over. "OK. I'll go back. But, Lorelai?"
"What is it?"
"I think the dragon wants you, too," Rosa said in a whisper, going back to her story.
Lorelai considered that for a moment but pushed it to the back of her mind. After all, she was getting advice on "goo-goo eyes" from a six-year-old girl.
They stood up then, Lorelai leading the way out of the studio. The female duo spotted both Jess and Luke, looking around for Rosa, outside of Taylor's market. Lorelai gently took hold of the nervous Rosa's hand and led her towards the two men.
"Hey, look what I found," Lorelai smiled, getting their attention.
"Rosa," Jess sighed with relief, immediately kneeling down and pulling the girl towards him. "Oh, thank God."
Rosa hugged him around the neck. "I'm sorry," she whispered into his ear.
"Well, you should be," Luke snapped, who obviously heard Rosa's apology. "I have a diner to run. I can't drop everything to go play hide and seek with a kid."
"Luke," Lorelai attempted to keep the peace. "You're pushing."
"Look, Rosa, it's OK," Jess said, pulling away from the hug and meeting her eyes. "Just don't go running—"
"I'm sorry I made Rory mad at you," Rosa cut him off, going into a rant. "I was bad. I didn't mean it, though."
"What? Rosa, I was worried about you. You took off," Jess explained.
Before anyone could say anything, Rory jogged up to the scene, her brown ponytail flying up and down with her, immediately going towards her mother.
"Mom, what happened?" Rory asked, out of breath. "I thought you were going to meet me at Luke's. Then I go to Luke's and there's no you and well... no, Luke."
"Hi, Rory," Luke waved dryly.
"Oh, hi," Rory smiled, noticing the man.
"It's OK, sweetie," Lorelai said to her daughter. "We just all got a little..." she nodded her head towards Rosa. "Preoccupied."
"Oh. What happened?" Rory questioned.
"I made you sad," Rosa said lowly.
"You mean about last night?" Rory asked. Rosa nodded her reply. "Oh, it's OK. It's fine. It's just... really fine."
"Hey." Luke caught everyone's attention. "Can we not stand here all day? Let's go back to the diner."
Lorelai went up to Luke and walked with him, her mind on secret sweet coffee stuff. Rosa walked in between everyone while Rory and Jess held back, going side by side.
"I'm sorry," Jess whispered to Rory, offering her his arm as a display of affection.
"It's OK," Rory whispered back as he put his entire arm around her. "It's just... really fine."
A/N: More to come, I promise. I have this story pretty much planned out but if you have guys out there have any requests or suggestions then I'm all ears. Please review!