BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! (sort of)

Previously in "I am the Tower Around Which You Orbited"

Jess graduates from high school and his mother stops by as a surprise to congratulate him before he goes off to Chilton graduation.

Chapter Twenty-seven: How to be a happy statue

I felt my car shudder and die beneath me. I jingled the keys in the ignition, but nothing worked. The car didn't even rev, let alone start up again. "Shit," I said under my breath. I got out and kicked the car, and then looked at my watch. I was already late, and now I had no clue about whether or not I'd even make it to Chilton at all. I bit my lip and looked at the gas station across the street from where I was. I was somewhere in Hartford, not too far from Chilton. I could've walked if I knew the way, so instead, I walked over to the gas station.

The bell rang when the door opened, like in the diner. I walked up to the counter, and the zitty creep at the register blew a bubble of gum. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah my car broke down, and I need to be somewhere, well, kind of now."

"Well, I can call a tow company for you, but you'd have to stay by your car the entire time."

"Dammit. Is there any way I can go to where I need to go, come back, call a tow company, and then wait?" The kid shrugged.

"Sorry, I don't really know. I guess you could as long as your car is locked."

"Right."

"But you're car's in a no parking zone." I looked back at my car. It was, in fact, in a no parking zone.

"Perfect place for that piece of crap to break down."

"I can get Jeff to help you push it out of the no parking zone."

"That's okay. I'm just… I'll be back," I said, walking out of the building. I went to my car and kicked it again, only to have a sharp pain running up my leg. I got in and tried the key again. It revved, but died as quickly as it started. I let out a sigh and leaned back. There was no way I was going to make it to Chilton on time. I closed my eyes and thought of Rory, how she would be giving her Valedictorian speech, how beautiful she was. I opened my eyes and tried the keys one more time. The car started up and stayed up. I shouted in joy and began to drive off. The car shuddered again, but didn't stall.

I continued down the road to Chilton cautiously, with minimal stalling. "Note to self: get car looked at." As it turned out, I was much further away than I thought I was. It took about twenty minutes on top of the already hour lateness, and by the time I actually arrived at Chilton, I had no clue where to go.

I ran around the giant stonewalls of the school until I heard the chatter of people. As far as I could tell, the ceremony was over. I rushed in through a gateway to a little quad, and, as I thought, there were a few hundred people milling about, congratulating graduates. I saw no one that I knew, and was completely unsure of what to do.

I began a march through the thinning crowd of happy families, until I heard a familiar voice. "I knew that boy was trouble from the start. You should have cut him off some time ago, Rory."

"Mother!"

"Well, I'm sorry Lorelai, but when her boyfriend doesn't show up at her graduation after promising to, it's the right thing to say."

"His mother probably just talked to him a lot longer than she meant to and they lost track of time, Emily," Luke said.

"Or maybe his car broke down?" I said as I rushed over. Emily looked at me with astonishment. So did Lorelai and Sookie. Luke just smiled and patted me on the shoulder. Jackson was off with the food, but Rory was nowhere to be found.

"Well, it's nice to see you again, Jess."

"Nice to see you too, Mrs. Gilmore," I said, and nodded to Richard, "nice to finally meet you, too, Richard."

"Hello; Jess, I presume. Emily here has had quite some things to say about you. I hope that most of them aren't true."

"Well, I'm not sure what's been said, so I can't verify anything," I looked around as I spoke. Lorelai poked me and nodded in the direction of the building. I thanked her silently and went inside, to find Rory sitting down, cell phone attached to her ear. I smiled at her, and she hadn't seen me yet. "I hope whoever you're calling isn't more important than me," I said playfully. She looked up and hopped to her feet, throwing her arms around me. I squeezed her tightly. "I'm so sorry." She kissed me firmly, and then placed her head on my shoulder.

"Don't be."

"I am."

"Jess," she pulled away, "what happened? Where were you?"

"My mother arrived for a surprise visit, which got me off to a bad start, then my car broke down on my way here. Plus, I got lost."

"Oh. So I guess I can't hate you then," she said, sniffling.

"You can hate Liz, my car, and my bad directions, but I think I might die if you hated me." She smiled slowly and put her forehead against mine. I rocked her slightly and kissed her gently. "I wish I could've seen you."

"The speech wasn't that good."

"I still wish I could've seen you."

"Yeah, well…" I gave her a look. "Okay," she whispered, and hugged me close again. "Just never be late ever again."

"I promise." She pulled away, although she still grasped my hand, and dragged me out to the party. Jackson had joined, and bore food.

"The gang's all here," he said joyfully, and handed Rory a finger sandwich.

"So, are you excited about going to Europe in two days?" Richard asked Rory and Lorelai. Lorelai began to speak, and Rory pulled herself into my arm, hugging it tightly and resting her head on my shoulder again. Emily noticed and glared, but went back to the conversation.

"Well, we'd better be going," Sookie said, and waved good-bye to everyone. Jackson did the same, and the two walked off to the parking lot.

"Oh, Rory, we have a gift for you," exclaimed Emily suddenly, causing Lorelai to jump.

"I like gifts," she said. When the grandparents, Lorelai, Luke, and Rory began to walk to the parking lot, I quickly pulled Rory into a kiss. "I really do like gifts," she whispered before pulling me off to follow the grown-ups.

"So, where's the gift?"

"It's the one with the bow." We all looked at the parking lot. There were a few hundred shiny, new cars, all with bows on them.

"Specify, please?" Lorelai said.

"Its blue."

"The bow or the car?"

"The bow." That didn't much narrow it down.

"What colour is the car?" Lorelai asked.

"Silver, Lorelai." Again, that didn't narrow it down much. "Well, let's go find it." Rory was grinning ear to ear and I kissed her on the cheek.

"Hey, if you don't like it, can I have it?"

"Only when my grandparents aren't looking," Rory replied.

"Or we could hock it and each get a halfway decent car," I said when I saw the clearly expensive car that Richard and Emily had bought for Rory.

"Sounds good," Rory laughed. Rory parted from my side and went with Richard to look at the car, giving Emily the perfect chance to ambush me.

"You really should've just not shown up. Rory may be a forgiving young lady, but I know it – you two will never last. She does not deserve to be with a hoodlum like you and although I should respect my granddaughter's wishes, I disagree completely with her opinion of you."

"Look, Mrs. Gilmore, I understand where this hostility is coming from and, to be quite honest, it's not appreciated. I've been good to Rory and I've been working on a lot for her. I'm going to college for her. So I suggest you back the hell off before you make any more assumptions of me."

"She deserves better than you. What could you possibly offer her?" Lorelai chose this moment to notice that I was about to punch my girlfriend's grandmother in the face.

"Hey, what's going on over here? Is there an orgy?"

"Honestly Lorelai, sometimes I question your sanity."

"Mom, I hope you weren't talking dirty to Jess, 'cause that would just be awkward for him and Rory."

"The previous statement stands," Emily said before she went over to the car. Lorelai looked at me and smiled as if to say 'you're welcome'. I nodded in thanks.

"Jess, no matter what that woman says, Rory's happy with you, and even if your match doesn't make anyone else do an Irish jig, as long as she's happy, I won't question it."

"Good to know." Lorelai turned back to her daughter, who was coming out of the car.

"This is amazing! Thank you so much." She hugged each of her grandparents in turn. I looked on from beyond the family, and I came to a realization.

THE END of chapter twenty-seven

Wow, it's been a while. I hope you like this new chapter. It took me a while to get into the swing of things here, I started out in third person! Then I was like, "Oh no!" Well, I just wrote it today.