A/N: So, previous chapter didn't get much in the way of reviews because I think most people missed it? seems to be having some issues with logging updates and sending out notifications, which kinda sucks, but hopefully it's been fixed or is getting fixed in due course. Guess we're about to find out! lol

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 21

"I'm definitely going. Prom is a rite of passage, and whilst I'm sure I could live without seeing Madeline and Louise vying for a plastic crown or idiots falling down after drinking too much spiked punch, I think I'd regret it if I didn't attend. I plan on living my life without regrets, thank you very much."

Paris gave her speech very succinctly. Rory was almost jealous. She would love to be that certain about Prom, or about anything right now. School was easy enough for the most part, show up, do the work, pass the classes. It was what came after that bothered Rory. To a certain degree, it was even the end of the school year that was tying her in knots. Partly graduation, mostly Prom for now.

"What's the problem? Is Jess refusing to go? Because I can talk to him-"

"No, it's fine," Rory insisted, when Paris started to go off on one gain. "He didn't say he wouldn't go, we just haven't talked about it yet, that's all. I keep on meaning to, but you know Jess. He's not really social guy or party guy. He's certainly not tux guy, even though I'm certain he'd look great in one."

"Speaking from a purely sisterly perspective, I don't think he'd look bad if he was dressed up. Might take a miracle to get him into an outfit like that, but if anyone can, you can. C'mon, Gilmore." Paris rolled her eyes when he friend looked uncertain. "Jess adores you, you know this."

"Maybe," she agreed, blushing at the suggestion, "but I know I could never enjoy Prom if I knew he was standing there hating it the whole entire time."

"I guess I can understand that," Paris considered. "At least you'll have a date," she said, sighing into her text book.

"Jamie can't come?"

"Can you imagine a Princeton Freshman attending the Chilton Senior Prom voluntarily? I know he cares about me, but... Well, I guess you and I are in the same boat on this one. We could use blackmail or our womanly charms to get the result that we really want, but would we want to do that to the men in our lives? Would it be worth it? Honestly, if I didn't think the rumour mill would have a field day, I'd say we should go together," she told Rory, slamming her text book shut very suddenly.

She muttered something about needing a different volume as she got up and disappeared into the stacks, leaving Rory alone at the library table in deep thought. This was ridiculous. Jess did love her, and he probably wouldn't mind too much about going to Prom. She was never going to know until she asked, Rory was sure on that. Of course, the guy was supposed to ask the girl when it came to things like school dances, but this was 2003, and Rory thought of herself as a modern woman. Maybe she could ask Jess. Maybe she could come up with a way to really sell it to him in such a way that not only could he never refuse but that he actually wouldn't want to. She could afford to buy the tickets, she could even rent Jess a tux so at least the money thing wouldn't be an issue. It wouldn't be too bad since Grandma was offering to put in plenty for any dress Rory bought or had made by her friend of a friend.

There was always hope. Most people would probably think that Lane would never be allowed to attend her high school Prom, but Mrs Kim had said she could. Okay, so right now the potential date for her was a Korean guy named Young Chou, but there was still a possibility of replacing him with Dave if his and Lane's plan came off. If they could get their perfect Prom date, Rory was darn sure that she could too.

Turning the page in her notebook, Rory started scribbling quickly, not on the homework assignment she was supposed to be working on, but on ideas for the perfect Prom date and the perfect way to pitch the idea of it to Jess.

Paris and Jamie had been emailing on a semi-regular basis since the day he showed up at Chilton and declared he could not stop thinking about her. They talked on the phone too, but that was tougher. Finding a time when they were both free and in his case without company within the dorm didn't always come so easy. Thankfully, tonight was one of the nights when the planets aligned. Paris sat lotus style on the bed, not even noticing that her legs had gone completely to sleep. She was so into her conversation with Jamie, and had been for more than an hour now. They never seemed to run out of things to say to each other, which was crazy and yet wonderful at the same time.

"Rory and Jess are as ridiculously sweet as ever, but I can't really hate them for it. It is nice to see them happy, I guess," she told him. "Although Rory is kind of freaking out over Prom."

She mentioned it on purpose. Paris really didn't want to be one of those girls, the kind that was all passive-aggressive about things, bringing up topics just to pretend that she didn't care about them, in the hopes that the guy would make a big deal. She was straight-talking and plain in all things, at least she tried to be. Still, when it came to Prom, she was going to play it this way. Just float the idea out there and see what Jamie said. No harm in that, she supposed. It was only a few days since her talk with Rory about the self-same topic, so it wasn't as if bringing it up was so strange.

"Why would she be freaking out?" asked Jamie curiously. "I've seen Rory, she has nothing to worry about with looking great in a dress, and she has Jess to escort her. From what you've said her mom isn't the kind to stop her going to a dance, so what's the problem?"

"Rory is Rory's problem, as usual," Paris explained. "She has it in her in head that Jess won't want to take her, which is the single stupidest thing I ever heard her say, and believe me, it's had some stiff comptetion over the years! The boy is so head over heels for her, he'd crawl across burning coals and broken glass if she asked him to."

"Thanks for the imagery," said Jamie, laughing in her ear. "But I know what you mean. When you care that much for somebody, there's nothing you wouldn't do to make them happy. I get that."

Paris felt her breath hitch in her throat. There was no way he was talking about her, about their fledgling relationship, but it felt like maybe that was exactly what he meant.

"I'm going to go either way," she said then. "To Prom, I mean. I can't miss it, it would just feel wrong."

"I agree," Jamie told her. "I would have regretted missing my Senior Prom. I'm assuming yours will be a Friday night?"

"Friday May 9th," Paris confirmed. "Still several weeks away, I know, but plans have to be made, y'know?"

"I do know," said Jamie, with a smile she could just about hear. "So, assuming I can make it, and believe me, I'll be making all possible efforts, you want me to pick you up or meet you there?"

"I, er..." Paris faltered terribly, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. "Well, it'd hardly be an acceptable Prom date if we didn't arrive in style. We could meet at my house and the car could pick us up from here, I guess."

"Sounds great, Paris. I'm already looking forward to it."

"Me too."

Paris couldn't have said more than that even if she wanted to. She really hadn't expected Jamie to be so amenable to attending her Senior Prom, but she was elated to know that he was. She had a Prom date. Paris Gellar sure hadn't seen that one coming, but she liked it a whole lot.

It occurred to her somewhere between then and her talk with Jamie ending that she should really call Rory and give her the good news, as well as ask her advice on everything from a dress to makeup and hair. She reconsidered mid-dial, shaking her head and laying the phone down on her nightstand again. She really couldn't approach Rory for advice until she knew for sure if her friend was even attending the event. Jess was almost definitely going to agree to take her, but until Rory had a definite answer, Paris would leave them be.

Jess frowned when he got a text from Rory asking him to meet her at Miss Patty's. Of all the gin joints in all the crack-pot town of Stars Hollow, that was maybe the last place he expected to be summoned to for a date. They would usually meet at the diner or at her house, maybe someplace in between like Weston's or the book store, but never the dance studio.

It made him wonder if something was going on. The last time something similar happened, it turned out to be the surprise party for his eighteenth birthday, but Jess couldn't imagine anything like that was going on tonight. It was the first week in March, no special occasions to be aware of as far as he knew. Christmas, New Year's which included his and Rory's anniversary, all of that had passed by and he couldn't think what would be so significant about today. Jess supposed he would find out when he got where he was going.

A deep breath before he opened the sliding door seemed like a good idea, and yet Jess still wasn't quite ready for the sights and sounds that met his eyes and ears a second later. The music he recognised immediately. Joey Ramone was singing about his 21st Century Girl, though Jess wasn't sure yet how significant that was. Swathes of material got in his way as he tried to walk forward, a glitter ball casting a million flecks of light over him and everything around him.

"Rory?" he called into the seemingly empty room.

He got no reply and so turned around to try and find her. Instead, Jess came face to face with a series of pictures pasted on a board. One was of a tuxedo, the next of a dress, and the last of a pair of tickets that each stated 'admit one'. Every picture had a large check mark next to it, as if they were marked off a list as completed. Now it seemed clear that this all had something to do with Prom, and yet Jess was a little fuzzy on why Rory had done all this right now.

"Hey," she said behind him, and Jess turned around to find her stood in the centre of the room, in the dress she had worn to the New Year's Party at the Geller house, the night they decided to be together.

"Hi," he said, staring at her. "What is this?" he asked, gesturing vaguely to the whole set-up.

"This is me being..." she said, gesturing to the stereo as Joey once again repeated the hook to his song '21st Century Girl'. "I, er, I was thinking about Prom, and about how you might not really want to go and the reasons why," she said, fingers lacing and unlacing in front of her in a nervous gesture that Jess knew so well. "I thought I could just wait and see if you asked, and then I thought, hey, this isn't the olden days where a woman has to wait around for the guy to do everything. And I know that these things are expensive, so I thought if I asked you, I could pay too, and it'd be this whole cool role reversal thing, except not exactly because I still plan on wearing the dress," she said, laughing nervously. "So, anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is, Jess, will you be my Prom date?" she asked him at last.

Rory had been so busy rambling and trying to get all the details out before asking her question, she hadn't noticed that Jess didn't look particularly happy. Perhaps if she had been paying attention, she would have seen the signs. He was standing too straight, he certainly wasn't smiling, in fact, his fists were clenching and his lip was twitching. By the time she noticed, it was too late.

"Wow," he said, over the fading chords of Joey Ramone. "I'm getting visions of Gaia with the sickle right now, and she's not needing anybody's help."

Rory's eyes went wide at the reference. She looked left and right, almost as if she were searching for help, but none was coming. She realised all in a rush what was wrong. Jess wasn't taking this in the way she intended, as a nice gesture, a help, a special gift of a kind. He felt like she was emasculating him, making him less than a man. That was never her intention.

"Jess, I didn't mean-"

"Oh, you didn't?" he cut in before she could even start. "You thought, what? That I can't be trusted to make plans? That I can't afford to take you to Prom? That you have to pick me out an outfit and dress me up like a frickin' Ken doll because I can't be relied on to look decent for a dance? What the hell, Rory?!" he yelled, tearing the pictures off the board behind him in his frustration.

"I didn't..." she began, shaking her head, tears welling up in her eyes, but Jess wasn't listening.

"I'm out of here," he said, leaving quickly, not even glancing back when Rory called to him.

The door slid shut and slammed into place behind him, and Rory cried.

To Be Continued...