A/N: This chapter is all my own doing. There is not a single line from an actual episode. Be proud of me! Anyway, I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls, but remember, I do own Milo! Yeah, I'm not lying :looks guiltily at my shoes: I don't own Rocky Horror Picture Show either, no matter how much I wish I did! I do own the soundtrack! Confused? Read the chapter and you won't be.
On with the story . . .
They meandered to the door at their own pace, chatting as usual and, fashionably so, according to Lorelai, ten minutes late. It was Friday night, and that could only mean one thing - dinner with the Grandparents. Knocking on the gigantic, wooden door, the mother and son duo waited for the maid to answer the door.
"Ah, you're here. Mr. Gilmore has been expecting you." the timid girl told them.
"Thank you, Bertha." Lorelai said politely, as they walked into the fourier.
The girl shook her head lightly. "My name is Greta, Ma'am."
Jess rolled his eyes. "Another maid?"
"What was wrong with Bertha, I wonder?" Lorelai queried, partially to Jess and partially to herself. "She probably forgot to put raisins in the salad or brought out the wrong wine or brought out dinner at 6:58 instead of seven sharp."
Greta looked at them, fear in her eyes.
"Oh, I was halfway kidding! I'm sure you'll do just fine." She encouraged, as the girl, nearly scared have to death, walked briskly back into the kitchen.
"That was insensitive." Jess told her, as they made their way into the living room. When they arrived, the two were greeted by a silver-haired man with a warm smile and a bow-tie.
"Lorelai!" Richard Gilmore exclaimed, wrapping his arms around his daughter and giving her a kiss on the chick. "And Jess, how's my favorite grandson?"
"I'm your only grandson. Where's Grandma?"
"Oh, she had some Garden Club event this evening. She apologizes for not being here, but said she would call you during the week to catch up. So, Jess, read any good books lately?"
"So, Dad, learned any new dance moves lately?" Lorelai couldn't resist.
While she chuckled at her own joke, her father gave her a pointed glare; one that said, 'We will no longer bring that tape up in public ever again.' Jess took that as an indication to just continue the conversation and answer his question.
"Actually, Grandpa, a friend of mine has me reading Ayn Rand. The Fountain Head. You'd think it would be wonderful, but she's more of a babbling political psycho. It's quite the interesting read though." Jess smiled to himself. He might be reading Rand, but Rory was so reading A Farewell to Arms.
"I'll have to agree with you on that. The part about Ayn Rand being the psycho, I mean." He liked it when he and his grandfather felt the same about a subject, especially when it came to books.
"Right. So, you said Tuesday on the phone that you had something to tell me, but you couldn't say it over the phone. We're in person now." Jess reminded, oddly curious.
"Oh, yes," Richard exclaimed, obviously excited, "A friend of mine from my days with the Whiffenpoofs called me the other day. However, he's no longer a Yale man. He's a Harvard man, to be precise. In fact, he's the head of the English Literature department, and I told him about my wonderful grandson who's Harvard bound. He wants to meet you! Isn't that fabulous?"
Lorelai immediately perked up at her father's cooperativeness about Jess going to Harvard instead of his alma mater. "Dad, that's great! Isn't that great, Honey?" She nudged his shoulder to get a response.
"Yeah." He was in complete euphoria . . .or denial. Whatever it was, he was glad. "That's awesome!"
"So, you want me to call him back and set up a meeting?" Richard asked.
He grinned. "Absolutely."
"Yellow?" Luke said, picking up the phone in the Diner while throwing a dish rag over his shoulder.
"Yes, may I speak with Luke Danes, please." The voice asked. From the way it sounded, he assumed it was a woman.
"This is he."
"Mr. Danes, this is Sonya Anderson. The guidance counselor at Stars Hollow High. I apologize for calling you at your place of business, but I didn't want to call you extremely late. Rumor has it, you're an early bird. Anyway, I wanted to talk with you about your niece. Rory? She's recently come to live with you, correct?"
Luke sighed, knowing fully well that he was about to hear bad news. With Rory, it always was. "Yeah, that's right. What about it?"
"Well, what has she been doing during the day?"
He raised his eyebrows, as if the woman could see his wry expression over the phone. "What do you mean? She goes to school and then works at the Diner in the afternoons."
"I beg to differ." She replied.
"Huh?" Luke mentally kicked himself for sounding like such a barbarian, or his niece, whichever worked.
"Rory has missed a total of twelve days in the past month. More in the previous month."
"You mean, she's been skipping school"
"Apparently so."
Luke grunted in the phone. "Dammit! I mean, darn it! I mean, what can I do? I'm her uncle not her babysitter."
"Well, you're going to have to do something soon. If you don't, she's going to fail. That includes Economics, Chemistry, and English Lit."
He was shocked. "English Lit? She gobbles up books, page by page, more than anyone I've ever seen! Now, she's reading some book called Crime and Punishment by some Russian dude! I can't even pronounce his name! Dost . . .Dosto . . .oh, hell!"
"Dostoevsky?" Mrs. Anderson suggested, trying desperately not to laugh at his inability to enunciate.
"That's it! Mrs. Anderson, why would she be failing Literature?"
"Call me Sonya. My guess is that she's bored. Her class is reading Steinbeck right now. The Grapes of Wrath, I assume she's read it?"
"I believe so. She has her own copy."
"Precisely. This is adolescent reading to true readers like Rory. Rory reads for pleasure not to pass a test. She's not feeling challenged; therein, doesn't feel like its worth her time. Frankly, she's too smart."
"What do I do?" Luke asked her, genuinely feeling like he was at a stalemate.
"My advice? Get her a tutor. Someone who is at her intellectual level. This will insult her, hopefully enough to give school work a second glance."
"Thanks, Sonya. I really appreciate this."
"No problem. And Luke? Call me if you need anything. She's a smart girl. You just have to know how to handle her."
"Thanks again. Buh-bye." With that, they hung up.
He shook his head and punched a gripped fist into his palm. She was going to get it when she got home.
He sighed loudly as she continued to ramble something about The Franklin. He knew that when Paris got on a tangent, chasing an entire family of rabbits back three generations, no one could stop her.
"So, the article is due next Wednesday. You got everything?" She asked sternly. "Jess?" Her tone knocked him out of his reverie.
"Oh, yeah, Got it. School play. Good-Bye Girl. Neil Simon. Gotcha."
It was Monday. He despised Monday, especially since this was the day that Paris was even more anal than any other day. Apparently a weekend spent playing Scrabble with her Portuguese nanny and reading The Iliad for the umpteenth time made her incredibly cranky and barely tolerable. Nevertheless, this was Paris who was a character flaw in herself. Then, just as Paris mentioned referencing Simon in the article, Tristan and his imbecilic sidekicks, Duncan and Bowman, entered into the conversation, smirking as per usual.
"Dude, Jess!" Tristan exclaimed "there's this hot chick outside, and she's asking for you."
The other two teenage boys chuckled. "And did he mention that she's totally hot!"
Jess smiled to himself- Dana. He then walked out to the Chilton student parking lot, with the other four teens in tow. When they reached the lot, he saw a familiar brunette rolling her eyes at Madeline and Louise who were drooling over the butterfly permanently needled onto her right forearm.
"That is so sexy!" Madeline replied, running her fingers over its wings.
"It hurt like hell though, but worth it." She informed them, tucking a strand a hair, which was in its natural state -messy waves, behind her ear.
"What are you doing here?" Jess asked, with wide smirk. She immediately turned at the sound of his voice.
"Oh, just visiting a friend to see if he wanted to ditch and see a movie. Wednesday Adams and Malibu Barbie here were just keeping me company while Moe, Larry, and Curly went inside to get you." She replied, nonchalantly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Before he could lecture her about ditching school, and how Luke would kill them both if he found out, especially after the haranguing she received Friday night, Tristan smiled at Rory and handed her a tiny index card.
"Tristan Dugrey. Call me!" He gave her his best one-hundred watt lightbulb smile. Rory,on the other hand, looked as if she was ready to puke.
"Rory Mariano. Touch me and die!" She mocked his faux enthusiasm, and Jess just laughed at Tristan's naivety.
"Ooh, a feisty one." He quipped, ignoring her threat.
She was growing annoyed. She then reached into the rolled-down window of Luke's truck, which she took without permission, and grabbed a cigarette from her pack of Marlboro Lights and her lighter. Lighting it, she sucked softly at its end before taking a much-needed drag.
"Gilmore, are we going or not?" She inquired with an odd sense of urgency.
"You mean, skip Calculus to go see Some Kind of Wonderful, which we've both seen an innumerable amount of times, and I saw before leaving the womb?"
She chuckled. "But you're gonna go, right?" She took another drag.
"Why miss a chance to throw peanut butter MM's at neurotic usher-boy Leonard and his magic flashlight!"
"True. Although, it should be Jordan Almonds this time. He might not be able to point us out if there's a candy change."
"You are very wise, my friend." Jess complemented, as he walked around to get in the passenger side of the truck.
He loosened his tie and shed his navy blazer while she hopped into the driver's seat. As she cranked up the engine, turned up the Ramone's who were blasting on the radio, and flicked the ashes out her window, Jess leaned out his own window and yelled to Paris.
"Take good notes."
Paris frowned as they pulled out of the parking lot. She stood there until I Wanna Be Sedated was no longer audible. She felt like just his academic fall-back. If he needed notes, she always had them. She had thought they were friends, but here he was, ditching school for some girl with a tattoo. Nevertheless, she was going to take good notes, and she would give them to him no matter what her gut told her. Maybe, she thought, I should get a tattoo and pick up smoking.
The moon shown brightly on the streets of Stars Hollow when they returned from Hartford. They had an incredible day. They did, in fact, go to see Some Kind of Wonderful and Rocky Horror Picture Show after that. He had tried to keep her from listening to the movie's soundtrack all the way to the theater and back, but she had insisted. And he couldn8217;t believe she knew every word to Dammit Janet and I Can Make You A Man. They had also explored many of the finest book stores Hartford had to offer. She had bought a hard-back of The Bell Jar, and He a copy of The Return of the King, finishing his Tolkein collection. When they returned from their spontaneous adventure, they pulled Luke's truck in its usual spot. As they got out, Jess was thinking the entire time that Luke was definitely going to kick her ass or throw her in the lake, whichever came first.
"I had the best time today." She blurted, then covered her mouth self-consciously.
He grinned. "It's okay. I promise I won't tell. I know you have a reputation to uphold. One that definitely doesn't entitle you to sing Rose Tint My World a lá Whitney Houston."
She blushed. "That was only for you. You tell, and I'll think of some creative way to mention to Miss Patty that you secretly want to take ballet lessons."
"You wouldn't?"
She gave him a devious grin. "Oh, wouldn't I?"
"Bye Rory!" He started walking away from her.
"I mean it, Jess! One word and you're in tights."
"Robin Hood wore tights."
"Yeah, so do male ice skaters!" She yelled back.
She held a lingering smile, watching him walk home, and then went inside.
"So, that's where you've been all afternoon." A voice replied, as he walked up the stairs.
He turned around to see Dana standing in his yard.
"Hey!" He walked down to meet her. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I could have been waiting for you to come off the bus all afternoon, but I didn't. Funny thing is you never would have come off the bus considering you were with Rory."
He looked down at his shoes. She had seen them in front of Luke's. " She's my friend, Dana. She came after school, asked if I wanted to go see a movie, we did, went to Starbucks on the way home, and that was it." He lied right through his teeth.
"What movie did you go see?" She inquired, holding her arms akimbo.
"Rocky Horror." He sighed, knowing it felt good to tell the truth.
She was becoming frustrated and rolled her eyes disgust.
"Jealousy doesn't exactly become you, Sweets." He told her.
"I'm sorry, Jess! I can't help but think that there is something going on there! I've seen the way she looks at you. At the Diner, At the bookstore, basically everywhere in Stars Hollow. I can't believe you can't see it!"
"See what?" He asked genuinely.
"Her looking at you like a cheap porn flick."
"Oh, that's utterly ridiculous. I've told you a million times that we're just friends. Plus, if she wanted to see porn, she could just go pick up a bootleg of Deep Throat!" He added the last part to ease the obvious tension in the air.
"You know what I mean. She likes you! I know when a girl has feelings. Woman's intuition."
"I think you're wrong."
"I don't think I am. In the meantime, I don't think I like you hanging out with her."
"What!" He snapped.
"I just . . .I wish you wouldn't see her all the time. It gives me thoughts I don't like. Paranoid thoughts. So, please, stay away from her for the time being. For me?"
"You can't tell me whom I can and cannot be friends with!" He was growing angry.
"I'm just trying to save our relationship! You know, the one we've had for over a year!"
"Well, maybe, if you're paranoid about everything in a skirt, then maybe it isn't worth saving!" He stormed on the porch, let himself inside the house, and slammed the door behind him.
So? That's it for chapter 6. I hoped you liked it. I know I left a lot of things open for discussion, but, that was the point. They will all be taken care of in chapter 7. The chapter in which I will handle that little episode called Teach Me Tonight. Remember that episode? Yeah, thought you did. Soon I will also be tackling a little episode called They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They? I will tell you that in my version, Lorelai wins! Poor Kirk. Anyway, please review. I love them all! I need them all! You're all my bitches! In other words, R/R. Peace and Love- moi.