Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story idea. Oh, wait. I own Jessie.
A/N: See Chapter One for full premise. To sum up, this is an AU (Alternate Universe) in which Jess Mariano never existed. In his place, Jessie Danes, daughter of Liz, has come to live with her Uncle Luke for the summer. I am very pleased that so far people are enjoying this. Reviews are always welcome, no matter how short or long (just in case you're reading and not reviewing…you know who you are). Thank you to all of you have been reviewing. It does mean a lot. A special thanks goes out to Lindsay for letting me bounce all my crazy ideas off of her. This story would not be here without her. Literally. She had to talk me into posting it. And another big thanks goes out to my new friend Sarah for taking the time to read drafts of recent chapters.
July: Cowboys and Ballerinas
Chapter Fourteen
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Rory pulled in to the mammoth parking lot of the Hartford Mall and found a parking spot. Pulling the key from the ignition, she turned to Jessie and said, "New shoes, here we come."
Jessie smiled back but rolled her eyes a little when Rory wasn't looking. Grown ups could be so corny. They got out of the car and walked toward the main doors. An hour later Rory was staring dubiously at Jessie's feet. "Are you sure these are the ones you want?"
"Totally!" Jessie replied enthusiastically. "Aren't they cool?"
Rory laughed and took in the pink Converse sneakers. The white rubber across the toes was blindingly white. They wouldn't have been her first choice, but who was she to argue with an eight-year-old's self-esteem?
"Do you wanna wear them home?" she inquired.
Jessie's eyes lit up even more, if that were possible. "Can I?"
"Sure, let's go pay for 'em and then get some lunch." Jessie skipped happily behind Rory to the checkout and waited for Rory to pay. As they left the store, Jessie carried the bag with her old shoes safely tucked into the new shoebox. Feeling almost weightless in her brand new pink shoes, she danced around Rory as they headed for the food court.
"Are you hungry?" Rory asked once they'd arrived.
"Starving," Jessie replied dramatically, opening her arms wide to drive the point home.
"Good, me, too," Rory answered. They proceeded to stand in several lines and when they finally found a table big enough for all their trays they were grateful to sit down. Before them was a smorgasbord of Chinese food, tacos, nachos, burgers, regular fries, curly fries, gyros, and various drinks.
As they ate, amid moans and groans of culinary ecstasy, they pointed and laughed at each other whenever a stray spot of ketchup or hot sauce appeared on a face or article of clothing. "This is way better than eating with Uncle Luke," Jessie confessed.
"Yeah?" Rory smiled. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."
"Your bathtub should clog up every day!" Jessie giggled.
"What?" Rory asked in confusion.
"Your bathtub is clogged so Uncle Luke went over to fix it while you and I came shopping," Jessie explained as she reached for another fry.
"Our tub isn't clogged," Rory said, frowning.
"Yuh-huh," Jessie answered reasonably, not yet understanding the significance.
"No, I used it this morning."
"Why would your mom lie?" Jessie asked sensibly before realizing the possibilities.
They stared at each other. Suddenly Jessie felt shy and uncomfortable. "Do you think they're…you know…."
"Oh, God no!" Rory reassured her. "Please, they can barely admit they like each other to themselves let alone each other."
Jessie didn't answer. "You think your mom likes my uncle Luke?"
"Oh, yeah. But you can't tell him I told you. Does Luke like my mom for real?"
With a slight nod, Jessie said, "I think so. He looks at her a lot and his face gets soft when he talks about her."
"I think they've been ignoring the obvious for longer than I can remember," Rory admitted, thoughtfully sipping her lemonade.
Jessie gulped her soda and said, "You know what we should do?"
"What?"
"I saw it in a movie once. We should make them spend a lot of time together doing stuff and then they'll fall in love."
Rory regarded Jessie banefully. "They already spend a lot of time together and if it hasn't worked by now…."
"No, but time not like that. They need to spend time on dates."
"Dating has to be voluntary," Rory explained. "How can we possibly trick them into dating?"
Jessie sat back in her seat and took several more large swallows of her soda before looking up at Rory and saying, "I got it. We make them think that we're going to be there, too, and then we don't show up."
"And when they can't find us, freak out, and call the police? What then?"
Jessie sighed and said in a tone of voice reserved for the simple-minded, "We can call them and say that we're running late or something came up."
For the first time Rory didn't have an answer. She sat for a moment mulling this plan over as she continued to sip her lemonade. "Let me think about it," she finally said.
Later, after they'd pawed through nail polish colors in an effort to find a shade that matched Jessie's new shoes, and then spend the rest of Luke's money on hair stuff, a two-piece purple bathing suit that Jessie felt she couldn't live without, and other assorted summer clothes, Rory said, "After much deliberation I think we might be able to make this work. At the very least, we can say that we tried."
"Yay!" Jessie shouted.
"Calm down!" Rory said, laughing and thankful they were in the parking lot. "It'll take a lot of work and a lot of sneaking around, but it's very possible that you're right. They need to be taken away from their normal routines and put into more…romantic settings."
"Exactly," Jessie agreed, clapping her hands together. They spent the rest of the trip back to Stars Hollow plotting.