April 2nd

"So, he liked the idea?" Lorelai questioned from the bed where she sat reading a magazine.

"Well he didn't outright say no," Luke clarified, pulling the sheets back to join his wife, "Although I had just punished him so he could have just been burying the hatchet for now."

Lorelai shrugged, "I don't think I've ever seen Jess be outspoken. I'm sure if he didn't at least plan on considering the idea he would have let you know, no matter how much trouble he was in," she pointed out.

"You're probably right... I just think this could be a good opportunity for him, y'know? I know I wouldn't worry as much."

His wife smirked, "I don't know if I would ever put you and 'not worry' in the same sentence."

A smile danced at his lips, "Okay, well I wouldn't worry about the school stuff as much at least. That kid's always going to worry me."

"Giving my man all these grey hairs," Lorelai agreed, playing with his locks, "We may need to get you some old man dye pretty soon."

"There's not that much," he swatted at his wife's hand.

"Aw Babe, don't worry, I like a man with a little salt and pepper."

"Gee, thank God for that..."

Lorelai smiled, but after a moment she sat up straighter and gave her husband a serious look.

"Okay, back to the seriousness. Jess is accepted to Chilton, he hasn't said yes, but I think if we have our way he will be going one way or another."

Luke nodded, listening to his wife.

"And we're going to find out about Rory within the next week or so, right?"

He nodded once more, "The principal said she's as good as in, though."

The woman nodded, yet Luke detected an apprehensive smile playing on her face.

"That's great, our kids are super smart and that's great," She paused a moment to collect her thoughts and Luke looked over when she didn't continue, "Babe, how are we going to pay for tuition times two for three years on top of saving for their college?"

Luke sighed long and even. He wouldn't lie, the thought had crossed his mind more than once since he had spoken to the principal. Chilton wasn't a cheap school. In reality, they might as well be paying for an extra three years at Harvard, or Yale or wherever else the kids might decide to go. The diner did well, but Luke wasn't a millionaire because of it, and though Lorelai had recently gotten a raise at the Inn, it still didn't mean the pair was swimming in extra cash.

"We'll just have to figure it out" he admitted, "I was thinking about maybe dipping into the inheritance from my parents."

"You still have that?"

"Well a few years ago when I turned thirty the bank called me to let me know the money my parents left to me had finally been released. I guess they had a clause that I would get it upon the completion of college or once I turned thirty and well since... Anyway, I didn't think much of it. I was fine at the time, it was just me and Jess. So, I never touched it. I'm not sure exactly how much it is, my dad left me his business after all, but maybe I could set up a meeting with my bank tomorrow and see where that gets us."

"That's a good start," Lorelai agreed.

"Yeah. It probably won't be enough, but it'll hopefully help," Luke shrugged.

"If worst comes to worst there's always my parents," Lorelai nearly whispered, looking pained to even suggest it.

Luke looked at her with doubt, it wasn't even a possibility, "We didn't even invite them to our wedding."

"I know... I know. I'm just saying if it comes down to that. God knows I don't want to see them since the last time they had us over for dinner. If they can't accept all of us then I don't want them to get any. But if it's for Rory and Jess' education... I don't know, it's just an option."

"Worst-case scenario," Luke agreed.

"The very worst," Lorelai nodded.

"Just let me see how the meeting with the bank goes and we'll go from there."

"Let's just agree not to mention any of this to the kids," Lorelai suggested, "They're going to feel guilty and I don't want this issue to be a deciding factor on if they go or not. Especially if I have to ask my parents."

"Worst-case scenario," Luke repeated.

"Worst-case scenario," Lorelai sighed.

Jess rolled over in bed that night. He hadn't been tired. Spending the afternoon in his room with nothing to do had caused him to have an unnatural amount of pent up energy and now that he had finally convinced himself to turn off the lights, his mind was far from ready to go to sleep.

The day had been tough. From the moment he had walked into school that morning he had known he didn't feel like being there and even with the knowledge that a riveting documentary on the decaying of a frog was planned for fourth period, somehow the promise wasn't quite enough to keep Jess' mind from wandering to what he could be doing if he wasn't cooped up inside.

Against his better judgement, the boredom had won out and after a lunch spent with Rory, Lane and Peter, he found himself sneaking out the back entrance of the school like he had done many times before. Rory would be mad, but at the time he didn't care, she wasn't a snitch after all.

Unfortunately, he hadn't planned on sealing his fate himself.

He had noticed the guys behind the building many times before, Jess wasn't the only student with the habit of skipping after all. Yet, today, Jess found himself in a somewhat social mood, and knowing that his bridge wasn't as safe as he used to think, he found himself engaging in a conversation with the guys as he passed.

The offer of a smoke hadn't been expected. However, the guy looked like he couldn't care less if Jess indulged or not. Jess had made nice with them, and it was just their way of offering a camaraderie between the teens.

He knew it was dumb, he knew it was stupid, he knew Luke would blow a gasket if he found out, yet for some reason, Jess' hand went for the stick and a second later passed it over for one of the other guys to light. Was it curiousness? Boredom? He wasn't really sure, but he wished now that he had taken a few extra seconds to think rationally before accepting.

Luke had shown up not ten seconds later and Jess could honestly say that he had never felt quite as embarrassed as he had at that moment. He should have known that his luck was running out the other day when he had almost been caught by Lorelai and he kicked himself for not playing it more careful after that, especially considering he was standing just around the corner from the diner this time.

He had deserved the lecture, but he was incredibly grateful when Luke had agreed to bring him home instead of continuing their public display in front of the boys who Jess didn't think he would ever be able to show his face to again, despite the unspoken respect they had appointed each other a moment before.

Really the lecture at home hadn't been that bad, far calmer than Luke was capable of. The two-week grounding had been a buzz kill, even if he should have seen it coming from the moment he started to skip classes.

It was the Chilton talk that had been unexpected. Jess would never have considered himself a brainiac. Of course he knew he was more educated than a lot of the students simply from the knowledge he gathered in his books, but to put a label on it made Jess feel odd.

His first reaction was a flat no. He couldn't picture himself in the uniform, much less doting down the halls and brown-nosing the teachers. He also knew from the pamphlets they had sent home for Rory that the workload was near double what Stars Hollow High enforced on them. Why would he willingly sign himself up to do more work when all these months he had been skillfully avoiding doing any at all?

Rory. That was another factor. She had come in to see him when she had gotten home from school, more to scold him than an actual visit and he just didn't have the heart to bring up the Chilton subject, even if he had been dying to bounce the idea off of someone who wasn't Luke. She hadn't even been accepted yet and Jess couldn't begin to think of how she would feel if he went to Chilton and she didn't. He wouldn't do it, it was as simple as that. He couldn't do it, not to Rory who wanted more than anything to attend the prestigious palace in hopes of it sending her off to her dream college in the end.

He tossed in his bed once more, breathing out in frustration and making the bangs that had fallen to his forehead dance from the breeze. The decision was impossible, and he feared he wouldn't get much sleep until he decided.

April 3rd

Jess exited the bathroom the next morning after finally managing to get his hair to behave. He didn't know why he had decided to put so much effort into his looks when he wouldn't be going out, yet he had only remembered he couldn't go anywhere about halfway through the styling session and he wasn't about to leave it half done.

Luke and Lorelai had both left for work early. Luke for the Saturday rush at the diner, and Lorelai who usually stayed home on weekends was putting in extra time for a wedding that was to be held at the Inn the following day.

He met Rory in the kitchen, both with the search for breakfast on their minds. Rory was already sat down munching on a pop-tart and Jess grabbed for his cereal before joining her at the table.

"So are you going to tell me why Mom and Luke were being so secretive this morning?" The girl questioned after she swallowed her mouthful.

"Excuse me?"

"Mom and Luke. They were leaving this morning and I could hear them in here whispering," she clarified.

"Maybe they were whispering because they didn't want to wake us," Jess pointed out obviously.

"It was more than that," she sighed, trying to explain, "I hear them every morning from my room, this time it sounded like something they didn't want me to hear."

"I don't know," Jess shrugged lazily, "I think you're reading too much into this."

Rory shook her head determinedly, "They've been acting strange ever since I got home yesterday and I have a feeling it has something to do with what went on with you yesterday."

"And why would you think that?"

"Because I made out your name more than once. Come on Jess, was there more to what you did yesterday than you all are telling me?"

"No," he deadpanned. Hey, it wasn't a lie, nothing he did yesterday had been kept from Rory.

"Jess," Rory stressed, raising her eyebrow like Luke liked to do.

"Seriously Rory! Nothing else happened! I skipped, I smoked, I got caught. End of story."

"And Luke just happened to be going past the school right in the middle of the busy lunch rush?"

Jess let out a loud groan, "You're not going to let this drop, are you?"

"Nope."

"Fine," he surrendered. He took a moment to search for the right words. The ones that wouldn't upset his sister. The ones that would let her know he was not going to do anything without her, that she was as good as in anyway, that she deserved it way more than him. This was not how he wanted to let her in on the news. Preferably it would happen once he had his mind made up, once he knew whether the girl had gotten in or not as well.

He sighed in frustration, "Luke was going past the school because the principal had called him in for a meeting."

"About the skipping?" Rory guessed, furrowing her brows.

He could have easily lied, went along with her guess and told her the truth when the time felt right, but this was Rory. For some reason it was a heck of a lot harder to lie to her, especially when she directly asked him for the truth, "It was about the testing we did, remember?"

"Yeah," Rory spoke slowly.

"I guess I did pretty well or something," the boy shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Pretty well? What exactly does that mean?" she pressed further, causing her brother to grow more frustrated.

"Ughh I don't know, I scored high, okay?... Like, highest in the school..."

A smile broke out on the girl's face, "You did!? That's awesome!"

"Yeah, well..." the boy shrugged once more, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden.

"Wait, this is good news, right? What's with all the secretiveness?"

"I..." He sighed, he was already in this deep, "They told Luke that I wasn't doing the best in school. Everything that you already know and have been harping me about."

"I told you with brains like yours that you should be doing way better!" she smiled.

"Yeah, well I guess they noticed that my grades and test scores didn't quite match up. They think I'm not being challenged enough."

"I believe that," Rory nodded, feeling proud of her brother, "So are they going to get you harder material or something?"

"Not exactly," Jess fidgeted, causing concern to grow on the girl's face.

"Jess? What's wrong? What do they want you to skip a grade or something?"

He looked at her with a frown and she looked back expectantly. He groaned loudly, shaking his head.

"They want me to go to Chilton, okay?"

If possible an even bigger smile grew on her face, "Jess that's amazing! If we both get in we'll be there together! I'd feel so much better knowing that you were there with me!"

"Yeah, actually Rory that's the thing... I sorta already did get in," he refused to meet her eyes, but her excited chirping quieted down and he feared the worst.

"You... oh. I didn't know they already sent out the acceptance letters."

He could hear the deflation in her voice. Her dreams were disappearing before her eyes and Jess needed to quickly reassure her, "No, no they didn't! Seriously Rory, nobody's been accepted, the principal says your chance is extremely high!"

Her eyes met his, "Really? Well then-?"

He shrugged in frustration, "I don't know! I guess the test was sort of big deal and they went ahead and gave me a spot. Seriously Rory I'm sorry! If anybody deserves to go to Chilton it's you not me!"

"That's not true," she replied softly, shaking her head.

"Yes. It is," Jess assured, "And if you don't get accepted, which you will, but if you don't I'm giving up my spot to you."

"No you're not Jess! This is important for you too!" she practically yelled.

"I don't even think I want to go!" Jess admitted, "I mean seriously Rory, can you picture me attending a place like that?"

"I told you weeks ago that I think you could," Rory reminded.

Jess shook his head hotly, "It just doesn't make sense."

Rory sighed, "It does. I'm not going to lie it does kind of hurt to know that you have a spot and I still have to wait and see, but Jess... maybe this could be a really good thing for you. Maybe it's just what you need to prove to you that you can do more."

"Oh here comes the pompoms," he rolled his eyes.

"No pompoms," she shook her head seriously, "I've been telling you for years that you can do more and finally someone besides me is realizing it too."

Jess sighed, eyes fixed on a spot on the floor, but not saying anything.

Rory stood up and grabbed the garbage from her breakfast, "I think you should think about doing it Jess, whether I get accepted or not."

She turned to leave and Jess waited until she was out the door to let out the breath he was holding. How was she always able to see reason in everything?

He looked around the now empty house, a whole day ahead of him and nobody to share his company with. He wished someone else was home to occupy his time so that he wasn't just stuck with his own thoughts all day. Suddenly his brain was too loud and he was growing tired of the back and forth up there.

Luke had left him a list of chores for the day, tasks that Jess hated and he didn't have the slightest urge to get done, yet in an attempt to silence his thoughts for a while he begrudgingly got up from his seat and grabbed the handwritten note tacked to the fridge door, reluctantly getting to work before he returned to his senses.

Luke walked into the house, catching the tail end of Jess hastily turning off the TV. He shook his head as the boy quickly settled back into the couch with a textbook of some sort turned to a random page and reading far too intensely.

He approached the back of the boy's head which was peeking over the back of the couch and tapped his hair gently.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just walk in on my nephew playing video games while grounded and you're going to follow me into the kitchen, I want to talk to you," Luke spoke, raising an eyebrow.

"I wasn't-" Jess went to defend himself, but one look from his uncle told him it was a lost cause, "Fine," he sighed, dragging his feet in the direction of the kitchen. "For the record that game was helping me with a school project," he went on as he rummaged through the cupboard, grabbing a handful of dry cereal before sitting himself down at the table, "What better way to write a report on the war than to live it firsthand, am I right?"

"Oh I'm sure that game is a perfect depiction of World War I," Luke agreed sarcastically, "Besides, according to your History teacher you don't seem to need any help in that subject. I'll lock up those games if you don't plan to follow the rules when no one's home."

"Okay, okay, jeez," So much for pretending he didn't see it, the boy thought of his uncle's lie, "Do you actually have anything to talk to me about or can I go back to sitting in the living room staring at the walls like a good boy?"

"Rory stopped by the diner earlier," Luke informed and Jess nodded, "She said you guys talked."

"Yeah," the teen shrugged, "She practically beat it out of me, I didn't really have a choice."

Luke smiled, "I'm glad you told her. She really is excited for you. She was worried she hadn't shown it enough, but she was really happy about it."

"She alluded to such," Jess replied easily.

"So, does this mean you've given it some more thought today? Are you any closer to making a decision?"

Jess sighed, he really was tired of talking about it, of thinking about it, "I don't know Uncle Luke, I still don't see it working out for me."

"I know you have doubts Jess, but you have to understand at least a bit of why we think it might be a good idea?" Luke could tell the boy was losing patience and it was true the topic seemed to be on everyone's mind, but he knew that sooner or later they would have to make a decision.

"I just don't know if it's something I want to do," Jess reiterated, "Can we just stop talking about it for a bit?"

"Okay... yeah. I just wanted to ask you, Principal Merton called again last night, I was going to tell you, but I figured I'd give you the night to sleep on the idea before bringing it up."

"What did he want this time?" Jess snarked.

"He just wanted to remind me that he had scheduled an open house for Rory in two weeks and he wanted me to give you the option to go with her, you know, just see the school, see what you'd be getting into. I told him I'd ask you before I agreed. Do you want to go?"

Jess shrugged, "Sure," he replied, if not only to get the man off his back for a few days.

"Yeah?" Luke couldn't help but smile.

Seeing his uncle's expression Jess was quick to follow up, "That doesn't mean I'm going or anything, it just means I'll... you know, look."

"Of course, we'll just take a look," the uncle was quick to agree, but the smile that was now plastered on his face nearly caused Jess to roll his eyes once more.

"So..." Jess went on, "That wall isn't going to watch itself."

This time Luke was the one to roll his eyes, "Go, be bored, maybe I'll give the wall a paint job later so you can watch the paint dry for a bit," he joked dryly.

"Gee that would be terrific," Jess bit back but smiled as he exited the room.

A/N- Thanks for your reviews as always. It was a tough week for me, my guinea pig died suddenly and it was the most horrific thing to watch happen, hence even though I had this chapter ready I had no motivation to post it. It may take me a little while to post again since I'm still not feeling 100% about everything and have been finding it hard to concentrate on things but it will be up eventually!

My brother and I are actually taking a road trip tomorrow to see one of Scott Patterson's coffee shop shows. We debated for a while if we even felt up to still going but we both have decided that it might be good to get away for a day so we're going to go. Hopefully finally meeting Luke after all the complications of trying to meet him before will lift my spirits a bit...

Thanks again for all your support with this story and any thoughts on the chapter are greatly appreciated!