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Thank you all so much for the reviews, favorites, and story alert adds! I'm so glad you guys liked the first chapter so much!
Well, here is Chapter Two, I hope you guys like it.
Please review!
"Luke! Jess! Service now please!" Lorelai yelled impatiently as her and her daughter sat down at an empty table, "Rory needs to get off to school, we're running late!"
Luke rolled his eyes and grabbed two mugs and a pot of coffee from behind the counter. He walked over to the two, Lorelai staring at the coffee pot with a longing gaze.
"Could it kill you to be a bit more patient? You just got in here," Luke stated, filling their mugs with hot coffee. Lorelai smiled as she took in the fumes from the caffeinated drink. She quickly changed her expression to one of sternness and looked towards the diner owner.
"Did I not mention that my daughter, who has never been tardy and would like to keep it that way, is running late?" Lorelai pointed towards the man, giving Luke a fake angry glare.
"Mom," Rory sighed, rolling her eyes. She took a sip of her coffee, "I won't be late."
"Speaking of late," Lorelai spoke up, looking towards Luke, "Shouldn't that nephew of yours be down here right now?" Her eyes glanced up towards the ceiling, wondering if the kid was up there, "He has school too."
Luke looked at the clock and cursed to himself. He ran over to the stairs and screamed, "Jess!"
The boy ran down the stairs quickly, appearing next to his uncle, almost tripping on his own feet. Luke took a better look at the kid and was startled by the boy's appearance. The kid looked tired and unkempt, his hair lacking its usual gel, the curls laying down against his forehead. His eyes had circles underneath them, giving the kid the face of a zombie.
"I know, I know," Jess quickly acknowledged, rushing over towards the coffee maker and grabbing a Styrofoam cup, "I overslept."
Luke followed the boy, "Jess, you were up practically all night after you went outside, I heard you stumbling around the apartment," he crossed his arms and watched as his nephew placed a lid on his cup, "How could you oversleep when you weren't even asleep to begin with?"
"I fell asleep while I was getting ready, alright?" he grabbed a donut from the tray, "I was tired. I'm fine now though." He wished his uncle would stop the interrogation, he was already late as it was.
The boy's protests of feeling fine weren't fooling Luke. Jess always told the man he was fine when in reality he wasn't. He followed Jess a few steps.
"Jess," he started, his concern for his nephew's state apparent in his voice, "you really don't look so good, if you want to stay--"
"No," Jess stated fiercely, turning to face the man, "I'm fine!" He sighed and regained his usual nonchalant attitude. "Besides," he added, "I wouldn't want to miss school, now would I? A boy my age needs to get his education." He walked over to the door, Luke following.
"Jess--"
"Do you want me to be on time or not, Luke?" he turned back, facing his uncle with his arms crossed. He just wanted to get out of there, he was in no mood for a fight with Luke.
"Uh, Jess," Lorelai cut in, causing the boy to turn his attention to the sassy Gilmore, "Your shirt is on backwards."
The boy looked down at his shirt, swearing to himself. The tag was sticking out in front of him; he was half asleep when he put it on and must have not noticed it, "Thanks," he mumbled, rushing towards the counter. "Oh," he stopped himself, turning around quickly as he grabbed a slip of paper out of his pocket. "Sign that," he handed the slip to Luke, "It's a late pass."
"Jess, if you want--" Luke attempted to offer his nephew the day off once more as the boy headed towards the stairs.
"Sign the damn sheet, Luke," Jess growled, turning around to look at his uncle, an annoyed expression gracing his face, "Or do you want to hold my hand and walk me to the school, cause that's the only other way they'll let me in late."
Luke let out a defeated sigh and Jess rushed up the stairs. He grabbed the pencil from behind his ear and placed the pass down on the two Gilmore's table.
"Wow, talk about a morning charmer," Lorelai commented, watching her friend scribble his sloppy signature on the slip.
"Is everything alright with him, Luke?" Rory asked, the man letting out another sigh as he grabbed the sheet off the table, glancing at it one more time before looking towards the two girls.
Luke shook his head. "To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure," he told the two Gilmores as Rory looked over towards the curtain, seeming to almost long the boy's return, "He barely slept last night, and he's been acting pretty odd almost all week." Luke rubbed his temples, "And trust me, this isn't the first time he's walked down here with something on wrong. He almost walked out the door with boxers on three days ago."
Lorelai and Rory stifled back laughs, Rory trying to take a sip of her coffee, almost spitting it right back into the mug.
"I always imagined Jess as more of a brief's boy," Lorelai teased as she continued to choke back her giggles. Luke rolled his eyes at the comment. Before the Gilmore could slip another joke, Jess appeared from behind the curtain, his shirt on correctly. He pulled his arm through the left sleeve of his jacket as he walked towards them and quickly snatched the pass from Luke's hand. He grabbed the handle to the door and slammed it open, Luke, Lorelai, and Rory watching him carefully.
"Bye Jess," Luke called to the boy, the girls looking over towards the older man. Jess turned his head quickly to look at the man.
"Yeah, bye," he mumbled, quickly walking out the door and into the cold morning.
"That boy and his monosyllable." Lorelai sighed, shaking her head mockingly.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jess sat in English class, fighting to stay awake. He had decided to actually attend school that day, hoping that he could perhaps get some sleep during one of his many useless classes. He ended up scratching the idea of sleep though; it wouldn't be good if he had a nightmare during could stand being awake for his English class though, it was a subject he could enjoy--well, to some degree. His love for literature did tend to keep his attention during the class, though the teacher, Mrs. Anderson, really irked him. Hell, all teacher's irritated the hell out of him.
Jess couldn't fight the urge to shut his eyes any longer, his body begging him to sleep. He'd only shut them for just a minute, he wouldn't let himself fall asleep. His head began to droop down, his body relaxing itself--No! He thought to himself, snapping his head back up. He had to stay awake, he couldn't risk it. He forced his eyes wide open and ran a hand through his hair. This was torturous. He only came to school because it was too cold to sleep outside. He was starting to rethink that decision however. He was beginning to think he'd take the bitter weather now over this battle with his conciseness.
He sighed and slowly gazed back down at his textbook. They were supposed to be reading a poem written by Sylvia Plath, but Jess could not get himself to actually read what was typed on the page. He was too tired to make the words out, his eyes fighting to stay open, barely able to focus on the words that made up the poem Daddy.
His head began drooping down again, the boy just too tired to fight it.
"Jess!" his teacher scolded, the boy's head snapping up towards the woman, an angry face meeting him, "Is Sylvia Plath boring you?"
"She's fascinating." Jess reassured his teacher. It's not that he didn't like Sylvia Plath, he thought she was a great author, as well as poet. He had read her book The Bell Jar almost seventeen times.
"Then why are you falling asleep?" his teacher asked as she crossed her arms and glared at the boy.
Jeez, couldn't he catch a break? He comes to school and gets bombarded by accusations from his teacher, he should have just taken Luke up on his offer, then he wouldn't be in the mess. Even if he would have confirmed Luke's suspicions that something was indeed wrong, he'd rather deal with an overprotective uncle than Mrs. Anderson.
"Guess silence just makes me sleepy," Jess shrugged, looking down towards the textbook, expecting--more like hoping--the conversation was over.
"Well, if noise is what you need to keep yourself awake, why don't you just read the poem aloud to the class?" his teacher suggested, a smirk plastered on her face. Didn't she think she was so smart?
The boy sighed, annoyed, and began to read the first stanza aloud from the textbook:
"You do not do, you do not do/ Anymore, black shoe/ In which--"
"In front of the class Jess," the teacher scolded, pointing towards him, "standing up may help you stay awake longer."
The class laughed as Jess rolled his eyes. He let out a sigh and stood up slowly, carrying his textbook with him to the front of the class.
"Continue," the teacher nodded, motioning for him to go on.
The boy began to read the rest of the poem aloud, speaking the words with a dull and bored tone. He felt like his knees would give out on him at any moment, causing the teenager to topple over. He couldn't believe this woman, she couldn't just let him just sit there? He looked over at Mrs. Anderson between each stanza, watching her nod in approval as he continued to read the poem. Jess finally read the last line, letting out a long yawn as he finished.
"Thank you, Jess." his teacher smiled, walking over to the chalkboard behind him, "Class, take a lesson from Mr. Mariano and his enthusiasm. You can sit back down now."
Jess made his way back to his desk and let out yet another yawn, much longer than the first. He glanced up at the clock, noticing the time, and moaned.
Only four more hours to go.
Thank you all for reading! I hope you all liked it.
I'll try and update sometime over the weekend, I've got a lot going on though.
Please review, I'd really appreciate it!
:)