Rory gathers her books when the bell rings and puts her pen in her backpack, stands up, and heads over to find Jess. He is standing outside his classroom. Rory reaches him and gives him a hug. She takes his schedule out of his hand and glances over it.

"We have English together!" Rory exclaims. If there is any class she wants with him, it's definitely English. This is where he shines.

"Alright, well, lead the way," Jess tells Rory and she does just that.

They walk in the classroom and Jess begins walking to the teacher to give her whatever he was supposed to give her. Rory begins, "do you want me to…"

"No, go ahead and sit down," Jess answers.

Rory takes her seat, but watches Jess's interaction with the teacher.

It's pretty mechanical, he hands her a slip of paper, she signs it, checks her role sheet, and tells him to take a seat in one of the empty seats in the classroom which happen to be on the other side of the room from Rory.

When the tardy bell rings, everybody scurries to their seats and the teacher stands up and begins talking.

"Alright, we have a new student today," she points to Jess. "Would you like to stand up and tell us your name and a little bit about yourself."

"Nope," Jess responds from his seat.

"Well, I would like you to, so just go ahead and stand up right there and introduce yourself."

He reluctantly stands up and Rory sees some of the girls in her class glance at one another and giggle. They like him. They find him attractive. Get away from him.

"I'm Jess," he sits down.

The teacher forces a smile to him and then to the whole class. "Okay, good. This should be fun," the teacher mutters.

"Everybody please get out your study questions for A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Jess, here is a copy of the book. Please read this and be ready for a discussion during our next class. Here is a copy of the questions everyone has answered. Do them if you get a chance."

Jess eyes the book on his desk like he has never seen a book before. He flips through it; everybody is still watching him seeing what he is going to do next. He skims over the study questions and pulls out a pen and begins answering them.

"You've already read this?" She inquires.

"Yeah, I've already read it," Jess explains without looking up from his paper.

"Great, then you're ready to discuss with us today. Do the questions on your own time."

"Great."

"Ok, class, get back into your discussion groups, and finish discussing these questions from where you left off."

Everybody stands up and begins waving people over to their side of the room so they don't have to move. Eventually, everything is settled, and everyone is seated. Jess just stays in his seat. The teacher walks over to Rory's group, which consists of Paris, Madeline and Louise.

"Listen girls, I'm going to ask you to allow Jess to join your group because you don't have a boy in your group and I like the opinions of different genders."

"Ok, that's fine," Rory tells her.

"He might be a bit of a problem. I want a report on how he is doing in discussion at the end of class. Rory? Can I get that from you?"

"Umm, sure."

"Ok, great thanks. Hopefully he will open up talking about this book. I wish you girls the best of luck. Jess! You're over here!" she yells across the room.

Towards the end of class, their teacher stands in front of the room, and each group seems to get quiet, except for the debate between Jess and Paris.

Jess has waited long enough listening to Paris express her closed mind about people changing. "It is possible for a person to live a life of sin, and then leave it behind. You know, grow up and realize that if they want to get anywhere in their life they're really going to have to work and help themselves better their life!" Jess realizes when he is finished talking that the entire class is listening to him. He looks around, shrugs, and looks up at the teacher who was waiting for him to finish.

Paris is fuming and even more so because she cannot respond to Jess. She begins furiously scribbling points to bring up in the next class.

She wraps up the class and the bell rings.

"Rory, could you come here for a second," the teacher requests.

"Yes?"

"I see that Jess really opened up in your group? Did he contribute decent insight?"

"Wonderful insight. He sparked quite a debate."

"Yeah, I witnessed the end of that. I think he may be just what we need in this class."

"I definitely agree." Rory smiles at her teacher and walks out of the classroom to find Jess standing waiting patiently for her to exit.

----------

Next Period-

Rory is sitting in history while Jess is in his first day of his math class. He really cannot catch on to what is going on right now, so he takes his cell phone out of his pocket.

He clicks over to Messages, and Creates New Message, and sends one to Rory.

J: Hey. What are you doing? Lots of important stuff I'd guess.

She notices the text and once again discreetly pulls her phone out to respond while her teacher is lecturing about 17th century Europe.

R: Of course I am. What's up?

J: Tomorrow is my birthday.

Rory reads this. She's fairly upset that she doesn't already know when his birthday is, but she guesses it's better for him to tell her now, before his birthday. Now she needs to buy him a present. The teacher splits them up in small groups to work on sample essay questions before she can respond, and she doesn't know what she would say if she did. She guesses she will just talk to Jess after class at lunch.

Jess and Rory see one another in the cafeteria. Jess is already in line, Rory is a few people behind him, she grabs an extra pudding and when they both take a seat across from each another, she hands him one of the puddings and says, "Happy birthday," with a grin on her face.

"You see, it's gestures like this that keep me from telling people when it's my birthday."

"But you wouldn't keep it from me! Then you won't get your birthday balloons!"

"I don't need balloons."

"Oh yeah you do. Everyone needs balloons on their birthday."

"I don't."

"You just think you don't."

"I know."

"Hmph."

"Actually, I did have a reason for telling you."

"You were going to request balloons?" Rory brightens.

"No."

"Flowers?"

Jess just looks at Rory waiting for her to finish so he can talk.

"Cake? Do you want a birthday cake?!"

"Rory…"

"… do you like chocolate? Or vanilla? I should really know that! I mean I've seen you buy chocolate ice cream and I've seen you enjoy vanilla as well. Which do you prefer?"

"Chocolate. I only eat vanilla because that's all we have in the diner." Jess humors Rory.

"Good to know."

"Ok. May I talk?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Ok, tomorrow is Friday."

"Yes it is."

"And it's my birthday."

"So I heard."

"I have a proposition for you, for us."

"Go for it."

"How would you feel about ditching school tomorrow, I have something I really want to show you, and some people I really want you to meet."

"Oh, well, I don't really want a truancy on my record."

Jess smiles because he doesn't think twice about calling himself out or writing himself a note, but he realizes that Rory may not be the experienced ditcher, "Rory, it's ok, we'll call you out. No truancy, just an absence. What do you say?"

Rory is suddenly very excited, and happy with this bad boy boyfriend she has found. Just this once, it might be fun. Jess is exactly what she needs in her life right now.

"Well, only because it's your birthday," she agrees.

"Great, I can't wait. I'll drive to school tomorrow. Wear your uniform, and pack clothes in your backpack, you can leave some books home, and I'll store some clothes in the car tonight. Then we'll change on our way."

"Where exactly are we going?"

"Trust me?"

"You're seriously not going to tell me?"

"You see Rory, I'm doing this for your own good."

"How do you figure?"

"Sometimes, on other people's birthday's, a close friend can feel left out because they don't have any surprises. The other person gets them all. This way, you can share in the excitement, and have a surprise on my birthday." Jess smiles at Rory.

"Well, who can argue with that logic?" Rory rolls her eyes, but quickly smiles back at Jess. She really should go on more adventures in her life. She's letting high school drift by with very few spontaneous stories to tell. Besides, time with Jess in something other than her Chilton uniform does sound good to Rory.

A/N: I'm getting excited about this story, so hopefully the next chapter will be up soon, I have some ideas and I want to see how they play out. Plus I just finished all my AP tests. :- ) Yay! Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for reading my story, and keep in mind that reviews make my day! Let me know anything that you're thinking.