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Chapter 19
"We're so going to lose." Katie complained.
"We're not." Lorelai said.
"We kind of are. Katie's right, that snowman is so going to win." Rory said gesturing to behind her mom.
"Nah it's so overdone." Lorelai said turning round to glance at it. "Come on, where's the positivity in our family?" She exclaimed.
"Ours is best!" LJ exclaimed thrusting his fist into the air.
"There we go. That's more like it." Lorelai grinned. "You girls should learn something from your brother."
Just then the head of their snowmen fell off and onto the ground. Rory and Katie stifled their smirks as they saw their mother's pout come out.
"Ok, food break?" Lorelai sighed.
"Yes please." Rory grinned.
"Me too!" Katie said.
"Alright, let's go. We can fix it later." Lorelai said and led them over to the diner, all of them glancing at the other snowmen which was bound to win on the way.
"How's it going?" Jess smirked as he saw them trailing in.
"Rubbish. We totally suck." Katie said.
"We're not that bad!" Lorelai protested.
"Mom, the head fell off." Rory smirked.
"That's easily fixed!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Come on, we all agreed to do this to our best ability! We agreed we wanted to win this as a family. How can we when two of you are so negative?" She said.
"I'll get your food." Jess smirked as he left them to their conversation.
"Sorry mom. You're right." Rory said. "After food, we'll all fix it together."
"We're still not going to win though." Katie said quietly.
"Not going to win what?" Luke asked coming over with them with drinks.
"The snowman competition." Rory said.
"Ours is best!" LJ grinned at his dad.
"Is it?" Luke smiled at his son.
"Yes! Even with the head off." LJ shrugged, causing everyone to laugh including Lorelai.
"I can't believe they cancelled!" Lorelai exclaimed the next day coming into the Crap Shack after a day at the inn.
"Who cancelled what?" Rory asked from the couch where she was sat with Tristan watching tv.
"The Bracebridge dinner! The group coming has got snowed in and can't make it!" Lorelai exclaimed collapsing on the couch next to them.
"Oh mom, I'm sorry." Rory said sympathetically knowing how much effort her mom and Sookie had put into that dinner.
"It sucks! And Sookie's going crazy because there's so much food going to waste." She sighed.
"Well...what if you just make up the dinner for us?" Rory suggested.
"There's too much even for us." Lorelai said.
"What about the whole town?" Tristan suggested.
"What?" Rory said.
"You always have festivals and stuff here and you all seem to like getting together. They might enjoy this." Tristan shrugged.
"Rory, your boyfriend's a genius!" Lorelai exclaimed, suddenly brightening up. "I need to go ring Sookie! Spread the word!"
Rory laughed as her mom bounded off with the phone. She turned to Tristan. "You know you'll have to come right?"
"I kind of guessed I wouldn't get a choice." Tristan smirked.
"Well you are part of the town now." Rory smiled. "Plus you'll get to spend the whole evening with me."
"To be fair, I do that anyway." Tristan pointed out.
"Tristan!" Rory exclaimed.
Tristan chuckled. "Relax, I'll come."
"Yay!" Rory grinned, leaning over to give him a kiss. "Trust me, it'll be great. Sookie and mom have done so much for it."
"I'm sure." He nodded.
Just then Lorelai came bounding back in. "Sookie's on board so now we just need to tell everyone." She said. "Where's Katie and LJ?" She asked looking around.
"Seriously? You've just noticed your own kids aren't here?" Rory teased.
"Well I was depressed before." Lorelai pouted.
Rory smirked. "They're outside with Jess. They've had him out there for like an hour already."
Lorelai laughed. "Poor Jess." She said going off to the kitchen porch door and going outside. She had to smile when she saw Katie and LJ happily running around in the snow while Jess pretended to chase them. "Alright you two! Time to come in and get dry now!" She called. "Your dad will be home soon and then it'll be dinner."
Katie and LJ happily ran inside while Jess followed.
"I hear you've been outside for an hour." Lorelai said to Jess.
"Yep." He nodded.
"Sorry." Lorelai smirked.
Jess smirked. "Nah it's cool. I kind of like playing with them. Beats doing homework."
"You softy. You're just like your uncle." Lorelai teased.
"Yeah yeah, I'm going to get dry too." Jess rolled his eyes and walked off towards the bathroom.
The following evening, everyone was gathered at the inn greeting guests as they came. Lorelai, Rory and Katie had just greeted Miss Patty and told her where to go to find her room. "I love how the girls are doing all the hard work while the boys are doing absolutely nothing." Lorelai said.
"Yeah but did you actually expect them too?" Rory laughed, looking over to where her dad, Jess, Tristan and LJ were sitting.
"I don't mind helping." Katie chimed in. "Oh look, Grandma and Grandpa came!" She said excitedly.
Lorelai had to smile when she saw Katie run over to greet her grandparents. It was Rory and Katie who suggested inviting them and seeing Katie's face now, she was glad she did. She then spotted someone coming in behind them. "What is Paris doing here?" She asked Rory confused.
"She wanted to drop off some paper stuff." Rory said. "She said it couldn't wait."
"Does that girl ever sleep?" Lorelai said. "Hi." She smiled at Paris when she approached them. She then left the girls together as she went over to greet her parents.
"So this is everything you need." Paris said handing it to Rory.
"Great thanks. I'll get to it tomorrow." Rory promised.
"Tomorrow? What about today?" Paris asked.
"Well I'm sort of busy tonight." Rory said.
"Oh. Doing what?" She asked.
"Well..uh..this..." Rory said gesturing around her.
"Oh." Paris said. "What is this?"
"We're kind of having a fancy dinner party for everyone in the town." Rory explained.
"Oh. Ok." Paris said. "Well I'll leave you to it then. See you at school." She said turning to leave.
"Wait!" Rory said. "Uh..do you want to stay?" She asked.
"Really?" Paris asked surprised.
"Sure! There will be costumes and there's loads of food. It'll be fun." Rory smiled. "Plus Jess wasn't exactly looking forward to it as you can imagine so I'm sure he'd like some company." She said knowing that would persuade her.
"Well I'd have to make a call. Tell nanny not to expect me back tonight." Paris said.
"Make it." Rory smiled. "You'd have to bunk with me, Katie and LJ though. Jess and Tristan are in a twin room and every other room is taken."
"That's fine." Paris said.
"Cool! Make the call and then I think we'll probably start things up." Rory said.
A few minutes later, Lorelai got everyone gathered in reception. "Ok hi! First of all, thank you for coming to our impromptu dinner party. The food should be ready soon but while we wait, we've arranged a ride in a horse and carriage for you all. So pair up and line up outside if you fancy that! Ok thank you!" She smiled and everyone started piling outside.
Jess looked across and saw Rory and Tristan heading outside and Katie and LJ were heading outside with Emily and Richard. He turned to Luke beside him. "You going?" Jess asked.
"Don't think I'm going to have a choice." Luke said dryly.
Jess chuckled as he followed his uncle's daze to Lorelai who was already walking towards them.
"How about you?" Luke asked.
"Think I'll wait for the clog dancing." Jess said dryly, causing Luke to smirk.
"Come on hot stuff, let's go bagsy a carriage!" Lorelai grinned, approaching them.
"Ah geez!" Luke said, but let Lorelai drag him up and towards the front door.
Jess smirked as he watched them go. He then suddenly spotted Paris standing awkwardly across the room. He could tell she was glancing round to see if she could go with anyone, but knowing her like he did, Jess guessed she wouldn't have the courage to go up to anyone. He sighed and got up. He walked over to her. "So I'm guessing you don't have a partner either?" He said.
"Oh hi..I thought you'd already gone out." Paris said.
"Nah, it's not really my thing." Jess said.
"Oh. Yeah mine either." Paris said nonchalantly.
"Guess we could just stay here then." Jess said.
"Sure." Paris said acting like she didn't care.
Jess had to hide a smirk at her rubbish acting. He glanced round and saw that everyone had gone out. "Guess we shouldn't be the odd ones out. Rory and Tristan would never let us live it down. Even my uncle's gone and this is so not his thing." He said.
"Yeah I guess..." Paris said.
"You're not actually going to admit that you really want to go, are you?" He smirked.
Paris had to smile. "Was it that obvious?"
"Uh..just a bit." Jess smirked. "Come on, I'll show you the sights of Stars Hollow on the way round."
"Ok." Paris smiled and followed him out.
Meanwhile, Lorelai and Luke's carriage had already reached Doose's and the diner.
"You can tell Jess was there earlier. He never turns the lights off." Luke said. "Tristan always does."
"Because Tristan is trying to impress you." Lorelai teased.
"That's got nothing to do with it. Jess uses up energy like it doesn't cost money. You can always tell when he's staying there with Tristan because all the lights are always on." Luke ranted.
Lorelai smirked. "Well I think it's sweet that those two are getting on. It's nice that Jess has a good, solid friend. Tristan's helped him along in the past couple of months." She said.
"Yeah I guess." Luke said.
"It's nice that Tristan gets company at the weekend there as well. Must be lonely for him." Lorelai said.
"Yeah." Luke said. He looked across at her. "Thanks for dragging me into one of these." He said. "It feels like ages since we've spent time together just the two of us."
Lorelai smiled at her husband. "Yeah I know. Thanks for coming." She said softly.
In the horse and carriage behind them, Rory and Tristan sat cuddled under the blanket, Rory leaning her head on her boyfriend's shoulder.
"This is so nice." Rory smiled.
"Oh definitely." Tristan smiled, giving her a kiss on the top of her head.
"Thanks for coming." Rory said softly.
"Well like you said, I'm officially a townie now so I'd probably be lynched if I didn't come." He joked.
Rory laughed and sat up a bit straighter turning to look at him. "The apartment's going ok, isn't it?" She asked.
Tristan smiled at her concern. "It's perfect." He assured her. "Plus it definitely has his advantages."
"What's that?" Rory asked.
"Well to start with, an unlimited supply of food and drink." Tristan grinned.
"Of course." Rory grinned. "I always loved that when I use to live there when I was younger."
"But I'd say its biggest advantage is that I get to see you every day." He said with his trademark cheeky smirk.
"Oooh forever the smooth talker." Rory laughed.
"I try." Tristan grinned.
Rory laughed and snuggled back into him. "I love that too." She said quietly after a moment.
A bit behind them, Paris and Jess had finally gotten into a sleigh and were starting their journey into the square.
"So the paper stuff you brought Rory, was it urgent?" Jess asked.
"It's for the 75th edition of the paper that needs to go out on Friday so yes." Paris retorted.
"Someone's defensive." Jess smirked.
Paris scowled at him. "You're so annoying. I swear you do that just to bait me." She grumbled.
"Perhaps. But it's fun." Jess smirked.
"I'm wishing I went home now." Paris grumbled crossing her arms across her chest.
"Nah you don't! Admit it, you always have much more fun with me." He joked.
Paris glanced at him with raised eyebrows. "Think much of yourself, do you?"
"It's true though." He shrugged. He glanced across at her and smirked when he saw her lips twitch. He looked outside the sleigh and saw that they were going past the snowmen.
Paris saw him looking. "Make one?" She asked with a slight smirk.
"Oh yeah, you know me, I love getting stuck in with the town's crazy activities." He said dryly.
Paris smirked.
"Rory, Katie, LJ and Lorelai made that one though." He said pointing to one.
"Pretty good." Paris said.
"You didn't see it this morning. It still didn't have a head." Jess smirked, causing Paris to smile. "Everyone thinks that one's going to win though." He said pointing to another one.
The dinner went well and was very successful. Jackson was a great Squire Bracebridge, although he did drink a bit too much and started singing Hotel California with Bootsy on the bongos.
Jess headed down the stairs, glancing at the clock in reception and saw it was about midnight. He was about to leave when a voice startled him.
"Fancied a walk in the snow?" Paris asked with a slight smirk.
"Maybe." Jess smirked. "What are you doing down here? I thought everyone was already asleep."
"Obviously." Paris said amused. "Katie and LJ are still up and Rory's trying to get them down so I said I'd come down and read for a bit while she did. I think they're still a bit overexcited."
Jess chuckled. "Yeah they get like that."
"So what are you really going to do?" Paris asked.
"Walk in the snow." Jess said.
"Oh please, you didn't even want to go in a sleigh and now you expect me to believe you want a midnight stroll in the snow?" She asked with her eyebrows raised.
Jess smirked. "Ok fine. I'm sort of on a mission."
"A mission?" Paris asked intrigued.
"Yeah." He said. "Fancy joining me?" He asked with a smirk.
Paris narrowed her eyes. "I'm guessing you're going out to cause trouble so I think I'll swerve it."
"Come on, Geller! Live a little!" Jess joked. "It's for a good cause."
"What good cause?"
"Katie and LJ." Jess grinned.
Paris narrowed her eyes again and then suddenly a light bulb went off in her head. "You're going to cheat at the snowman competition, aren't you?"
"Ding, ding, ding! And she's got it!" Jess smirked.
"Cheating? You expect me to help you cheat?" Paris asked.
"Well not cheating. Just having a certain snowman having a little accident meaning Katie and LJ's snowman wins." Jess said. "Come on, how can you defy them of the win?"
Paris was quiet for a moment but then with a huff put his book down and started towards him to the front door. "I swear you're a bad influence on me, Mariano." She grumbled.
"Stick with me, Geller. And I will teach you so much." Jess smirked following her out.
Hope you liked it! Please keep the reviews coming. Let me know what you think! :)