Kiki Dosvoyez- :Feeds: Thanks for the review, Si.
Oh my God, has everyone heard? Milo is supposedly guest-starring on an episode in season six. I'm going to die. if you want to know more. Now, for those of you who are very upset that I just spoiled a big surprise, we do know that spoilerfix has been known to lie. This is a fact many of us don't like, but live with. So you can sleep tonight knowing you still don't know anything. For those of you who are my new best friends after receiving this information, you're welcome, and the site sounded pretty definite. For those of you who don't care about Jess, I question why you're reading this story.
Rory walked arm-in-arm with Lane, who did so with her mother, who did so with Sookie St. James, a culinary mogul who had just, at her friend's urging, moved into a vacant apartment a few floors below Lorelai and Rory.
"I'm so happy that you're only an elevator ride away- lugging my ass all the way across town was torture. I'm surprised we're still friends, what with that old place of yours."
"Isn't she lazy?" Rory kidded, lightweight and carefree. This little shopping trip had come up spur-of-the-moment, when Lorelai realized she had gasp NO SHOES to match the purple mini-dress she was planning on wearing to the party celebrating the first Jersey Girls season being released on DVD. She'd roused Rory from hibernation and called Sookie, and the three had primped themselves for the elegant New York boutiques before Rory remembered she had plans with Lane that day. Not a problem, she invited Lane to go with them. Lane's only company for weeks had been the other members of her band, all male, so she'd jumped at the opportunity for a girls-only day.
They stepped into their second store, already weighed down with purchases from the first. Lorelai hadn't found the shoes to match her dress- but she had fallen in love with two other pairs.
"Oh my God, it's her!" Rory and Lane tensed, wondering whether the screech was describing the actress or the rock star. But instead, a woman in her thirties ran over and practically flung herself at Sookie.
"Oh my God, Sookie St. James! I'm your biggest fan."
"I like being anonymous at times like this," Lorelai quipped happily, looking for all possible Sookie-accessible escape routes.
"I LOVE your show; it's all I watch when I'm cooking. Oh, and your cookbooks! My husband and I ADORE your recipes!"
"Oh thank you, that's very sweet."
"I made your chicken cordon blue last night- to die for!"
"Really? Did you use thyme or parsley, because I remember writing both in the book, but since then I've been going over and over that in my head, and I have no idea why! I mean, you can substitute one for the other, but whichever you use definitely depends on the recipe! And I've concluded that my recipe works much better with thyme!" The woman hung on Sookie's every word, nodding eagerly. Recognizing that Sookie had just made a friend, and could talk about her chicken cordon blue for quite some time, the other three dispersed throughout the store.
"…Some might say, 'it's just garnish! Get over it!' But knowing what garnish to use not only can affect the appearance of a dish, the recognition of one or the other can affect the taste."
"Yes. Yes, I totally agree!" Lorelai cleared her throat.
"Uh, Sook? We didn't find anything we liked here, let's motor."
"Oh my God, Rory Gilmore!"
"Hope this girl is a Garth Brooks fan, or you're next," Lorelai whispered to Lane.
"Oh my God oh my God oh my God! You know her! And she knows you!" She pointed from Rory to Sookie and back, looking like they'd just told her she won the lottery.
"Uh, yea. I know Sookie. Small world, huh."
"The smallest! Oh my God, can you sign something! And you!" She frantically ripped a pen out of her purse, and pressed a receipt at Rory and Sookie. "Make it out to Bree," she instructed breathlessly. Eyeing each other and trying not to laugh, Rory and Sookie did as she requested, and bid her goodbye quickly. The star-struck fan wasn't going away that easily, though. She followed them outside, trying to strike up a conversation.
"So Rory, how's Jess?"
"Um, he's good. I haven't seen him in a few days."
"I just want to say that my sister and I think you two are so perfect for each other! You're meant to last."
"Thank you?" Rory hesitantly responded, more freaked out by this woman following them than her common misconception that Rory and Jess were anything other than forced friends.
"Okay, Bree, we have to go now, Rory and Sookie have big, shiny, important famous-people things to do."
"Oh, I'm sorry, was I bothering you?"
"No, not at all. Enjoy your day." They ducked into the café they were passing on a nod from Lorelai, and the giggles broke out as they sat down at a table.
"One word. Wow."
"I feel so sorry for people like that. It looks so pathetic when you're on the receiving end of it." A waitress came up to their table as Rory finished talking.
"Hey, do we want coffee and pastries?" Lane asked. Their original goal in coming inside had been to ditch their stalker, but they warmed to the idea in a heartbeat.
"I hate when people do that," Rory remarked as she bit into her blueberry muffin.
"Freak out when they see you?"
"No, well yea, but assume Jess and I are an item or something."
"Why can't you just tell a random reporter that you're not together? Then they'll tell all their reporter friends, and write it in all their magazines, and everyone will know."
"Thanks Sookie, but we tried that. It doesn't take much to start a rumor, but it's nearly impossible to kill it."
"Well then break up." Rory put down her muffin.
"Wait, you mean like-"
"Pretend to date for a little while, and then have a very public breakup."
"Sookie…you're a genius!"
"Ooh, genius. I like the sound of that."
"Mom, Lane, why didn't we think of this earlier?"
"Because we were too preoccupied with you smacking Jess and all?"
"It's so brilliant, it will get people off our backs! Then this rumor can just go away, and people will stop asking me how Jess is, or where Jess is, or if Jess is good in bed."
"Sounds like Sookie's advice came just in time- soon they should start hounding you for wedding invitations."
"Oh my God, I have to talk to Jess about this!"
"But this means you'll have to pretend to date Jess first. Couldn't you just break up without every proving you were dating, which you weren't anyway, in the first place?"
"Sookie, oh Master of Plotting, what do you think?"
"I think you have to confirm the rumor before you shatter it into pieces…it'll make it look more realistic. Besides, you guys are actors, you already play a couple. It won't be hard."
"Yea…" She fell silent as she started to plan the 'breakup'.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
"Jess. Step into my office." Jess looked up to see Rory standing in her trailer doorway, smiling. 'Well this is new' he thought. They hadn't come directly into contact, so there was no need to say hello. He shrugged and walked up the short stairs to where she'd already gone inside. He noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that Lorelai wasn't around.
"So to what do I owe this little ambush?"
"Sit. I need to talk to you." Unsurely, he sat. There was nothing for him and Rory to talk about, so her reasoning for calling him in here was cloudy.
"As you well know, for the past few months, there have been some rumors romantically linking the two of us." He nodded at her precisely-rehearsed words. "Well, one of my friends came up with a surefire way to dispel the rumors and make people leave us alone."
"You let stuff like that bother you?" Truthfully, he was also fed up with people's assumption. But he saw no need to scheme it away, assuming it'd just fade off on its own. She was momentarily discouraged, but he asked her to finish. It wouldn't hurt to hear her out. He was there early, for once, so he had a few minutes to kill anyway.
"Well, we pretend to be a couple for, say, a few weeks. And then, we go somewhere extremely public and loudly 'break up'."
"Pretty simple plan. From the way you're looking so pleased with this idea, I figured it involved the assassination of at least one magazine editor."
"Can you at least think about it?" He said yes, he would think about it, and they exchanged goodbyes. A few days later, he hadn't thought about her words again. But when a rabid reporter chased him down in the subway asking him if Rory really was wearing a ring on her left hand, he decided to give her proposal a second thought.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
"Okay, let's go over the details again." After approaching her at the studio a few days ago, Rory and Jess had agreed to sit and drink bad coffee from the break room during a scene neither were part of. Currently, Louise, Paris, and Madeline were sitting in Haley's room, trying to find old pictures of themselves for a school project. Madison was in all of them, so they begin to reminisce…
Meanwhile, Rory and Jess were alone in the completely empty trailer, sitting on folding chairs. A table full of snacks sat on one side of them, and an older couch was behind them, facing a television. No one thought to improve the break room, because no one was every in it long enough to realize how much help it needed. Today was the break room's first every important meeting.
Lorelai had helpfully disappeared, so Rory was on her own. Jess stared at her, waiting for her to finish her coffee, as she made faces and gulped it down.
"You know, you don't have to drink it."
"Shows what you know." Jess rolled his eyes and sighed impatiently. Getting the message, Rory placed her cup on the floor next to her chair.
"Okay, here we are."
"Here we are."
"The first official meeting of the Rory and Jess club."
"We only have two members. Must be a sucky club."
"Well if we get more members, we have to make the name longer. And if we ever want official club t-shirts, we should probably try to keep the name as short as possible."
"Do you get the feeling we're getting a bit off-track?"
"Yea. I wanna be club president."
"Well then I'll be the treasurer."
"No way am I letting you handle the money."
"Then I'm the president."
"No, I already said I was."
"You can't be both."
"Yes I can. In fact, I'll be the secretary too. And the vice president."
"What does that leave me with?"
"You're right, it leaves you with nothing. I guess that's one less name on the t-shirt." He returned her grin. So far things were going…much better than expected, to tell the truth.
"Okay, down to business, Mrs. President. I think we should go ahead with your plan, because people are starting to piss me off."
"Okay, so it's agreed. We have a consensus. Full speed ahead with the plan." She picked her coffee up again, and proceeded to sip it calmly.
"Uh, Rory?"
"Yes?"
"Don't we need to go over details of 'the plan'?"
"Oh yea. Um, I was thinking that maybe we could go to that party tonight together. Well, we'd only have to show up together, but it'd be a start." Tonight was the long-awaited release party for the first season DVD's. Lorelai and Rory had gotten their dresses weeks ago for this event, and it had just occurred to Rory a few days ago that (assuming Jess went along with The Plan), they could benefit from the publicity that would come by walking in together.
"Okay. Good. Do you want me to pick you up or something?"
"Sure. That'd be great." She stood awkwardly, and he followed.
"So…I know where you live. Nine? Nine-thirty?"
"Eight-thirty works. I'll wait for you near the entrance."
"Cool, see you then…Mrs. President." She smiled at him as he left, wondering why she was suddenly nervous about tonight.