Dedication: To Nate on his very special day! Happy Birthday, buddy!

Chapter 9: Another Party at Madeline's

"The cavalry is here!" Louise announced as she walked into Paris' bedroom, shopping bags in hand. Madeline followed with a small kit, almost shaped like a briefcase that could only be a make-up kit. Paris eyed her friends warily as they dumped it on her bed. "Paris, what are you doing?"

"That was going to be my line," she replied in mock regret.

"We're here to help you dress. You have to look spectacular tonight," Madeline exclaimed. "We've seen your wardrobe and there is nothing in their that will Jess into a pile of hormonal mush."

Paris rolled her eyed. "I don't think Jess is going to stop dating me if don't wear- " she stopped mid-sentence, wondering about the truth behind her statement. Louise was apparently thinking the same thing as she merely quirked her perfect eyebrow challengingly. Paris sighed. "Okay, what do you want me to do?"

Louise clapped her hands together giddily. "You've showered?" When Paris nodded, she pulled something out from the bag and handed it over to her. "See? I'm learning from you. I even bought the essentials."

Paris looked at the tiny piece of satin in her hand, incredulous. "A thong? You want me to wear a thong?"

"Yes."

She closed her eyes, shook her head and handed the obscene suggestion back to the blonde. "I'm sorry. I believe that flossing is restricted to the mouth."

Madeline shook her head in disdain. "Paris, you have to wear a thong."

"Why?"

"Because," she replied as if she were in pain and pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans from a shopping bag. "These jeans are going to cling to you like second skin and you can't have a panty line!"

"Plus," Louise chimed in with a mischievous smile. "If you and Jess end the night by going all the way, wouldn't you want him to see something sexy lingerie and not your usual Hanes Her Way cotton underwear?"

Paris ignored Louise comment and grabbed the thong from her. "Fine, I'll wear it."

Madeline dangled a matching black bra in front of her. "Don't forget this."

Louise handed her the jeans and a form-hugging blue shirt. "Casual yet teasingly sexy."

"I'm going to have to keep reminding myself that the two of you are here to help," she stated wryly and made her way to her closet to change. Twenty minutes later, she had struggled into the lingerie, jeans and shirt and walked, out feeling like she was in fact wearing next to nothing. When she stepped out, she looked at her friends with circumspection. "Well?"

Madeline smiled brightly. "Paris, you look great!"

Louise smiled. "You could use some make-up but you do look rather nice."

That was a high compliment. Paris started to blush a bit and her first reaction was to deny their declaration. Maybe it was more out of habit than anything else. "I don't know…is the shirt supposed to...you know, stretch over my breasts like that?"

"Honey, if you've got it – you flaunt it," Louise replied with a grin. "Have I taught you nothing?"

An hour and a half later, the three friends reached Madeline's house just in time for the party that was about to start. A few people arrived ten minutes later and by the time it was 7:20, the party was in full swing. Paris fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, then when Madeline handed her a plastic cup of punch, she played with the rim after downing the liquid in one gulp.

"He's not coming," she whispered fiercely to Louise who was flirting with a boy from across the room, already on the prowl. "I knew it. He's not coming. He said he'd come but he was obviously lying. He was pretending that it was okay but of course it wasn't! Any girl would know that guys like him don't attend parties thrown by private schools and that - "

"Paris, take a deep breath and relax," the blonde interrupted. "He's coming. He said he would. And if he doesn't, you'll survive and move on to the next hot guy. Now that you're on a roll, why stop?"

"I want Jess to come," Paris replied.

Louise simply smirked. "He's here." She turned around quickly and looked over at the entrance to see Jess, Rory and Lane talking to Madeline. "Well, let's go. We don't want Madeline to keep him busy while Lane and Rory ditch him."

She nodded and they quickly weaved their way through the crowd and towards the main entrance.

"Hi Jess!" Madeline was saying with a bright smile.

"So you're Jess." Louise said as they stopped in front of him. She gave him a long once over and smiled saucily.

"Yes, I think we established that. You must be Louise."

After a few pleasantries, Madeline and Louise wandered off, saying that they wanted to dance. Lane spotted Henry and scampered off to greet him. To Paris, it seemed like everyone kept hanging around, not giving her time to be alone with Jess. He looks so god tonight. Rory must've told him not to wear his faded, old clothes. Dammit Rory, leave!

The brunette remained, smiling at Jess. "You know," she said teasingly. "They're actually going to go spread the word about you. I bet that in a couple of minutes, you'll be surrounded by hordes of my fellow classmates who are dying to know who you are and what you do and why exactly Paris is so fond of you."

Paris blushed a little before addressing him. "Sorry about Louise. She can - "

"Give Dominique Swain a run for her money," Jess finished for her, grinning.

Rory grinned. "So that's who she reminds me of. I knew it was someone like that. And to think after all these years..." When the two of them said nothing, she seemed to get the picture and after asking where Tristan was, she wandered off too.

"So…" she said, feeling as if he was going to disappear if she turned away from him for too long. "Are you thirsty? There's a lot of soda and punch and I'm sure some great snack. Madeline's mother isn't on any weird food fetishes right now so it's good old American junk food this time. Do you want some?"

"I'm okay," he replied and then looked towards the winding staircase. "How about a tour? Do you think Madeline would mind?"

She smiled, glad that they were getting away from the crowds of people she was sure were staring at them, assessing the new guy in Paris Gellar's life. Taking him on a tour would only send their curiosity in a tailspin but she figured if they came back soon enough, people wouldn't assume too much. "I know for a fact she won't. Let's go."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"DuGrey," Jess greeted the other boy coolly as he took the can of soda Tristan was offering. He and Paris had spent about thirty minutes touring the house, taking their time and, talking about what they had done all week. When they had come back the party was abuzz with the news of Rory and Tristan making out in the piano room. Jess simply grinned when he heard the news and then excused himself to get a soda. The look on the other boy's face told Jess that he and Rory had in fact made up and the truth behind the rumor was most likely true. "So this is your natural habitat."

Tristan grinned a little and nodded. "Some thing like that. Glad you could make it. You don't seem like the big-party-in-a-mansion-with-prep-school-kids kinda guy."

"How'd you figure?" Jess replied, rolling his eyes and then shrugged. "I came for Paris."

He nodded in understanding, no teasing gleam in his eyes. Jess wondered what that was all about but shrugged it away. Tristan and Paris were obviously friends. He just didn't know they were that close. "She's overly excited about it. Just don't tell her I said that."

Before either of them could say anything else, a pack of three boys sauntered over, one dark-haired guy slapping Tristan on the back. "Hey T-man! It's good to see you in the partying mood. You haven't been in a scene like this since…you left."

"It would've been kinda hard, Foster," he answered mockingly. "What with me being half way across the country and all."

"Hey," a blond boy addressed Jess and then extended his hand for a shake. "I'm Aaron Sheffield. You're Jess, aren't you? Rory Gilmore's friend."

"That's me."

"So I hear you're dating, Paris Gellar," the third, carrot-haired boy said a small grin on his face. He looked a little like a kid Jess knew in Brooklyn that wasn't very popular with his circle of friends. He got beat up a lot.

"Hey, Charlie, look up the word subtlety in the dictionary," Tristan retorted with an eye roll, allowing the smirk that Jess was keeping at bay to appear. "You might learn something."

"So how's that going for you, Jess?" James asked, looking as amused but genuinely curious. "I mean you must have the fortitude of a giant to be taking on a girl like Paris."

He reminded himself that he couldn't start a fistfight here; that he was a guest at someone rich person's house. Damn, he almost didn't care. He curled his fingers around the can reflexively but managed to appear calm. This James character reminded him an awful lot of Chuck Presby from Stars Hollow High. Before he could answer, however, Tristan jumped in again with a knowing grin. "Yeah well at least Jess has a date for this shindig, Jimbo. What happened? Couldn't find a girl desperate enough?"

Jess held back a chuckle as he watched James grow red with embarrassment and anger. Aaron stepped in front of Tristan and smiled charmingly. "Hey, hey! We're all friends, here. This is a party. Let's go have fun."

The two other boys grumbled, glared at both Tristan and Jess and then followed Aaron to the opposite corner of the room. Jess turned to the blond with a small smile. "Well, looks like you're quite the big man on campus. Those guys actually seemed afraid to mess with you."

"It's all about popularity," Tristan explained with a shrug and looked down at the can of soda in his hands. "Most of these people here are assholes. Most of the time you get so caught up in it, you forget that you don't want to be one. But it's an image – losing it is worse than keeping it."

"I understand that," Jess answered contemplatively. "Actually I understand it better than you would guess."

"Well enough about that," Tristan smiled, raised his soda can in the air and then looked over Jess's shoulder and lifted the can higher in salute. Jess turned to see that he was looking at Paris and Louise who were standing near the door, talking. "Here's to Madeline Lynn for this wonderful party and to Paris Gellar who, might I say, is wearing the hell out of those jeans and that shirt."

Jess grinned and clinked his own can against Tristan's. "I'll drink to that."

"Paris Gellar's stacked. Who knew?"

"Let's keep the lewd comments to a minimum, DuGrey," Jess replied with a small chuckle. "After all, I don't want to have to beat you up in front of your groupies."

The two boys talked for a couple of minutes before Jess excused himself, grabbed Paris a soda and made his way back to her. Louise and Madeline were still at her side, whispering, talking excitedly. They brought their conversation to halt as soon as he approached, Louise giving him a saucy smile. "Did you mingle, Jess?"

The blonde was obviously going to give him a hard time. He decided that he liked that about her. She was…feisty. He merely smiled and handed Paris her can of soda. The black-haired girl was looking a little bored so he decided to direct his questions to her. "Nice house, Madeline. Very…impressive."

She shrugged. "Ah, it's okay. My mother goes on a decorating spree every year and I never get enough time to get used to something being a particular way at all. So really, when you think about it my house is never really - "

"Madeline," Paris cut her off sharply. "You're babbling. We talked about this."

The girl frowned. "Sorry. God, what is this lame music? Louise! I thought you convinced Harold to play good music."

"Your first problem is that you're letting a guy named Harold control the CD player," Jess quipped, taking a swig of his soda.

"I told you to hire a band," Louise chided Madeline as the two of them went off to boycott Harold.

Paris turned to him as soon as they left. "That was a long time to go get a soda."

"I ran into DuGrey," he replied casually and then started laughing a little. "Then these three guys started harassing me about being your date. James, Aaron and Charlie…I think. Tough guys in suits."

Paris scowled. "They're pathetic losers. What did they say? What did you say?"

"I didn't have to say much," he answered with a shrug. "DuGrey kinda pulled the rug from under them. I was too busy trying to keep my fist away from their faces."

Her eyes widened and a smile dawned on her lips. "Really? I would have loved to see that. James Foster has it a long time coming. The last time I decked him was in the fifth grade. He stole my last tube of glue."

"You hit him?" he asked amused and little astonished.

She smiled proudly. "He walked around with a shiner for a week."

Jess chuckled and held out his hand. "I'm not really a big fan of dancing but I thought I'd ask anyway. Do you want to?"

She smiled and took his hand. When they joined the rest of the dancers, she faced him and pointed a finger at him, her expression stern with a hint of a gleam in her eye. "Stay off my toes."