PYA Spells Jail
Chapter One
Baseballs and Photographs
The day had finally come. The day Luke Danes left behind the dreary life at Stars Hollow and made his triumphant way to the Paladin Youth Academy: for talented youth. So, Luke wasn't exactly intellectually skilled; though he wasn't stupid. But they had just started a baseball team. And baseball just happened to be a thing he had a knack for--and thus he had been drafted, so to speak. Climbing into his father's rickety pickup truck, slinging his bags into the back seat. Tapping his knee in a habitual nervous gesture, Luke watched his father hop into the car, and turn the key. With a sputtering 'whhhrrrr' the car started up the lights behind the steering with flickered on. Giving his father a rare grin, and receiving a solacing knee squeeze in return, Luke turned forwards, and away they went.
Right before his very eyes the world he knew so well disappeared behind the truck, and Luke didn't look back. Of course he had friends, he was sixteen--every sixteen year old had friends. But he could see them over the summer. And the only one that he couldn't do without seeing, his girlfriend, was coming along with him. Rachel. A warm,easy smile enveloped his rough face as he drifted into thoughts of his most recent girl. Surprising to his friends, the infamous one-week Danes had stuck with this one. It would be a month in two weeks. Cocking his head to the side, he looked out the window, blaring sunshine meeting his gaze.
That was a sign, right? Adjusting his red Stars Hollow baseball cap absently, Luke turned his CD player on, trying to drown out his own thoughts. Rachel was attending because of smarts, and their new photography course. Tapping his fingers on his thigh to the beat, and bobbing his head slightly, Luke began to drift off to sleep, for it was barely 6:00. Earlier you got there, the better room you got. His dad had so graciously decided to drive his son up. Wary eyes shifted over his father's scruffy figure with concern as Luke watched his old man deftly finger the wheel.
Something was wrong.
Nothing obvious, for he couldn't put his finger on it. Just...something was off, awkward, different. His father had changed. He didn't know why. They had once been so close, more friend than father, his dad. Now they were still close, but not as. And he was always going off for weeks at a time to some unknown place. A year or so ago, Luke had wondered if perhaps he was having an affair. But the thought sickened him, and besides, he knew not a couple happier than his father and mother. Not one. Except...
Except he and Rachel.