"Switch with me."
Rory gives Paris an incredulous look before rolling her eyes, switching out her notebooks for their social engagement class at her locker.
"We can't switch, Paris," Rory reminds her, hints of annoyance in her tone.
"That's not true," Paris counters, folding her arms over her chest. "I can talk to Ms. Gialli, tell her it's a really triggering experience for both of us. She won't want to pay our therapy bills."
"Nobody could afford that," Rory jokes. Paris doesn't look impressed at the implications of Rory's statement and taps her foot impatiently.
"So?"
"So, what?"
"Will you?"
"Will I what?"
"Switch with me!"
"Paris!" Rory closes her locker with a heavy hand, all but slamming it.
"You're the one who made me take this class and now you're complaining about the assignment. Why do you want to go to anger management, anyway?" She asks, tiring of the conversation quickly. Rory moves to walk down the hallway, Paris following closely.
"I don't," Paris admits, pressing forward. "But at least I understand anger. It's fueled some of the greatest revolutions of our history."
Rory gives her a look but keeps walking.
"Getting drunk as a skunk and feeling bad about it later isn't revolutionary, it's poor judgment. I can't sit around listening to these people who pride themselves on going without a drink to numb their miserable lives for three days. Three days, Rory, that's not even a full menstrual cycle!" Paris finishes incredulously, waving her hand for good measure. "Nobody gives me around of applause or a button for making it through a monthly bleedfest and surviving, but here I am."
"Okay first of all, ew," Rory scoffs disapprovingly. "Keep your period details to yourself. Second of all, they have addictions Paris, not something that naturally happens. Every day they choose something positive over their vice is something to be proud about!"
"Whatever, I still think you should switch with me," Paris groans, filing into their classroom.
"I'm not switching with you," Rory tells her firmly, narrowing her eyes for good measure. "You'll just have to ask the wizard for a heart and deal, tinman." Rory finishes this off with a half smile and Paris huffs, all but throwing herself into her seat. Rory sits next to her and Louise and Madeline also file in, sitting around her and Paris. She opens her notebook as Ms. Gialli walks in.
Her teacher welcomes the class and begins lecturing, taking time to ask students about their assignments. By now, everyone was around three weeks in.
Rory steals a glance at Paris.
She doesn't look unlike a spoiled toddler, Rory thinks. But then, Paris was one of those people who typically hounded others until she got her way. Rory could hold her own; it would be good for her sometimes-friend, sometimes-enemy to learn some hard truths about the hand you were dealt. Besides, Rory hadn't gotten the group she'd wanted, either, but she was making it work.
Jess crosses Rory's mind. She smiles and frowns, all in the same beat. She realizes that she doesn't really get him. One minute he's friendly and talkative, and the next he's not contributing to the group or he's making a sarcastic comment. He hadn't exhibited any kind of growth like some of the other students, but he did seem to be nice to her. Rory wonders what his story is and resolves to speak to her teacher after class about how to approach it.
She doodles on her notebook, thinking about Jess and listening to her teacher lecture half-heartedly.
"Thinking about loverboy?" Louise checks with a mischievous grin, leaning forward in her seat next to Rory.
Rory startles, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. What face had she been making? Embarrassed, Rory smiles and looks down. Madeline giggles.
"God, you have the better group and a gorgeous boyfriend. You make me sick," Paris groans, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.
"Somebody's jealous," Louise jokes quietly to Madeline, who returns the sentiment with a nod.
"We have a class to pay attention to," Paris growls, nodding her head towards the front of the room.
"If my boyfriend looked like Rory's, I wouldn't pay attention to anything else," Louise says simply, winking at Rory.
Rory swallows, adjusting in her seat to pay better attention to Ms. Gialli. She'd been thinking about the attractiveness of somebody, but it hadn't been her boyfriend.
Guilt fills the pit of her stomach and she immediately starts writing a letter to Dean, telling him how wonderful and cute he is.
Jess scribbles in his book before closing it and shoving it in his pocket. He gets up, his stop being announced over the loudspeaker.
He files out of the train among other people he vaguely recognizes from some of his classes and all but runs up the subway stairs to get away from them. It was bad enough that he had to go to school with them, but did he really have to share his reading time with them?
Aside from the obnoxious rich kids, he didn't hate school. He was too smart for it, but he didn't hate it.
The only classes he could really stand to stomach were English and Recreation, which doubled as a gym class. English because he read a lot, even if the teacher didn't believe him. And Recreation because he could put on his headphones and go to town on a weight bag without getting shit for listening to music.
But because two classes barely made up the day, it was hard to force himself to be there. He finished his tests and quizzes quicker than the wealthy students who had money for tutors. Because he liked to read, he grasped material quicker than most and didn't feel as though he needed to sit in on lectures listening to things he'd learned on his own time weeks ago.
So today, like every other day he actually chose to come, he pulled his own book back out of his pocket and flipped it open, ignoring the students and teachers around him.
In the midst of reading, he allows himself to think about Rory. She had definitely proved feistier than he initially thought. It made her more attractive to him; he loved a challenge. She hadn't spoken too much in the group, as was to be expected, but she had taken furious notes. On more than one occasion he had seen her watching him a moment before jotting something in her notebook. He didn't know why, but he sort've wanted to know what she thought of him.
He scoffs at himself, frowning. He knew this girl for four seconds and wanted to know what she thought of him? Okay, maybe it was more like a few weeks, but still. That wasn't the kind of guy he was.
The bell overhead rings, dismissing him from his class and his thoughts.
He pulls his jacket off the back of his chair and flings it over his shoulder, shoving his book back in his pocket with a swift movement.
"You're getting soft, Mariano," he chides himself, something inside of him cringing at the very idea of thinking about some random girl.
School was over for him for the day. He childishly decides that being surrounded by academia is what elicited the thoughts of a seemingly studious Rory. He'd go sit in the park and do his own thing, far away from thoughts of her blue eyes and plaid skirt.
"Jess, I notice that you're tapping your foot," Ms. Leon states, leaning forward in her chair.
Rory watches Jess's face go from surprise to annoyance at being called out.
"You have excellent observational skills," he deadpans.
Rory bites her cheek, scribbling something about non-compliance in her notebook.
"Can you share with us why you're tapping your foot?" Ms. Leon continues evenly, not batting an eyelash at his comment. Rory admires the older woman's poise. She supposed that took time and practice, but she couldn't be so sure she would handle Jess's many sarcastic quips with the same ease.
He offers her nothing but a bored look.
"He just wants attention," a boy named Ethan mumbles, crossing his arms.
Jess smirks and leans forward in his chair.
"You got me," he says, holding up his hands in a mock surrender.
"Ethan, let's not jump to conclusions. Perhaps Jess doesn't feel like talking about it," the older woman offers gently.
As Ethan tries to rebut her, Jess rolls his eyes and stands up. Rory watches with a mixture of curious itt and fear as he walks towards Ethan. She grips the seat of her chair tightly, ready to pounce at breaking up Jess vs. Group Member round two, but Ms. Leon steps up.
"Where are you going?"
Jess barely glances at her.
"Bathroom."
"You need somebody to walk with you," she says firmly.
If he had been drinking or chewing anything, he might have choked. At the very least, Rory considers, he might have given himself whiplash with how quickly he snapped his head back to gawk at Ms. Leon as if she had six heads.
"What?"
"You need somebody to walk with you when you exit the room before the group break," she repeats. She looks down at her clipboard, shuffles papers a minute, and then holds up a form to him. Rory recognizes it as the contract that all of the young men had had to sign a few weeks ago while they made their counseling appointments. "You signed in agreement," she adds.
Jess looks like Ms. Leon just cracked and turns to leave the room anyway. An annoying voice sounding oddly like his mother nags in his head, reminding him that Ms. Leon determines whether he makes it out of this interminable sentence alive and not post-graduation.
Rory watches his fists clench and unclench while she bites on her cuticles. She really wasn't looking forward to watching the group while Ms. Leon escorted Jess. She just wasn't comfortable in front of a group of strangers yet, and from what little she knew of Jess, she figured she would be sitting there managing the group for at least a few minutes while he stalled in the restroom.
Much to her relief and dismay, Ms. Leon turns to Rory.
"Rory," she begins, offering a pitiful look. "Typically we wouldn't ask a young lady to accompany a boy to the restroom - we tend to have male interns - but if you could just stand outside?"
Rory's eyes widen, and Jess is almost certain that they're about to pop out of the girl's skull. He smirks at the way her mouth opens and closes like a fish, clearly uncomfortable.
"But Ms. Leon, wouldn't it be better if another one of the guys accompanied Jess?" She asks calmly, trying to settle her discomfort.
"All of the young men are unfortunately under the same contract, so they can't guide one another," Ms. Leon points out. "It isn't a big deal," she adds softly.
She exchanges a look with Rory which tells Rory that Ms. Leon doesn't really want to subject her to the entire room alone. Rory should find this comforting but mostly just wants to die.
"Yeah, Gilmore, I won't attack you like some people," Jess quips, offering a pointed look at Phillip. Phillip narrows his eyes at Jess and crosses his arms over his chest.
Rory huffs and immediately gets up, stalking past Jess to the door. She wasn't going to entertain this weird silent feud that he and Phillip had been maintaining. Jess salutes Ms. Leon before filing after Rory.
Out in the hallway, Rory can hear Ms. Leon continuing the group discussion on why emotions matter. She sidesteps, crossing her arms over her chest tightly to let Jess go ahead of her. She knew the reason for the guys being accompanied was to avoid allowing them to ditch group, but she felt like a creepy chaperone.
"What are you so freaked about?" Jess asks, sidestepping as the door closes behind them.
"I'm not," she sputters defensively.
"You don't have to watch," Jess jokes, passing her lazily as he strolls down the hallway.
Rory squints at him, annoyed. Her expression quickly becomes concerned once she notes that there is a sign for the men's restroom and it's in the exact opposite way from where Jess is headed.
She scurries after him, grabbing a hold of the back of his hoodie.
Time seems to stop in the moment her fingers connect with the warmth of his back, her hand gripping the back of his hoodie to turn him around.
To Rory, it's like an eternity waiting for Jess to look at her. It feels like the air has been sucked out of the room, and her hand feels shocked, like when you've built up friction in your palm and then touch metal. Except that it shoots up her arm in waves and her eyes widen, something deep inside awakening. She can't explain why she feels this way, but she knows it can't be normal.
For Jess, it's not so much of a shock. If he was willing to admit it, Rory's touch felt something like the warmth of sun at the beach first blanketing your skin. It felt comforting and overwhelming. And it felt like there was too much air in the room and his lungs weren't big enough to take it all in. He looks at her and they exchange an intense look before she backs away quickly.
"Uh, er, the bathroom is that way," Rory explains, diverting her eyes but keeping her tone even. She wasn't about to show him she'd nearly gotten a panic attack by touching him.
He blinks and recovers, determined not to let her know that she just threw him off. He settles on replacing his own dumbfounded look with a half smile, turning back away from her.
"I'm not going to the bathroom," Jess says simply, shoving his hands in his pocket.
Rory is immediately on his heels and falls in stride next to him, careful to keep a foot between them.
"You can't leave, Jess," she insists.
"I'm not leaving, Rory," he counters.
She narrows her eyes at him, gesturing her hand towards the staff desk.
"Really? Because that's what it looks like."
"Believing is seeing, kid," he says playfully with a shrug, turning the corner with his face turned towards the wall incase the staff worker on duty noticed.
Rory rolls her eyes and follows Jess to the door, which he holds open for her. She doesn't walk through as an act of defiance, her nonverbal sign to speak volumes that she isn't okay with him making both of them break his contract. Clients were only allowed to go outside during the brief group break.
Jess shrugs and walks outside anyway. He doesn't really care if she comes out with him, though he wouldn't mind, he considers. He really just needed to get out of that room and clear his head, smoke a cigarette.
He cups his hand over his cigarette poised in his lips, flicks his lighter, and takes a drag in one swift motion, He raises his eyes at Rory, who is glaring at him from inside the building. He sees what looks like her huffing a deep sigh before she pushes the door open, not stepping fully outside, just enough to talk to him.
"Let's get a move on it, Tom Hanks," she insists, waving the wrist with a watch at him. "A few puffs is enough."
"Really? Tom Hanks?"
"Did you or did you not quote the Polar Express at me?"
Jess smirks and tosses his cigarette on the floor. Maybe she did read a little.
He walks past Rory and goes back inside but she hesitates, not following him right away. He turns his head long enough to see her run outside, grind out the cigarette, and fly back in. He smiles and shakes his head as she picks up her pace to walk along beside him.
"Why do you make things difficult?" Rory asks softly, biting her lip.
"Do I?"
"I think so. This is only the third week and you're already breaking your contract."
"I'm not sure that I did. You were my chaperone the whole time," he points out nonchalantly.
"To the bathroom, not outside for a cigarette break."
"Either I prop open the window and smoke in there or I go outside and do it, makes no difference."
"You're impossible," Rory declares, rolling her eyes.
"And you're a goody two shoes."
Rory stops walking and rounds on him, flaring. They're just outside of 213 now.
"Just because I believe in following the rules doesn't make me a goody two shoes, it makes me a person with a conscience!"
"And I'm sure the Nazis felt the same way."
"I am hardly like a Nazi!"
"Maybe, but the Nazis followed the rules and they sure as hell didn't have a conscience."
Suddenly the door opens and Ms. Leon is standing there, eyebrows raised at the two teenagers who are standing toe-to-toe, squared off with narrowed eyes.
"Everything okay?" She asks curiously, looking from teen to teen.
"Yeah," they mumble together. Ms. Leon backs away from the door and Jess goes through first. She exchanges a look with Rory, who shakes her head and smiles brightly to hide her annoyance, and walks into the room.
"He's so impossible!" Rory declares in frustration, continuing her rant to Dean and her mom as she shoves a huge handful of popcorn in her mouth.
Dean looks at Rory warily, wondering if he's equipped to perform CPR if she chokes.
"Well, no offense kids, but he's only what? Seventeen?" Lorelai offers, shrugging.
"He can't just follow the rules, he has to try to break them. He tries so hard to act tough but I'm sorry, quoting the Polar Express? Not exactly Greaser material," she continues, plopping herself onto the couch dramatically.
"You're too worked up about this," Dean insists, wrapping his arm around Rory's shoulders.
This was maybe the third or fourth time in the last month that Rory had complained about the same kid. And now, she had been talking about him for the last ten minutes on a rampage. Even if the things were negative, it felt weird that she always talked about him. Dean would be lying if he didn't feel a little jealous at how much time she spent talking about him in general. And she wasn't allowed to say his name or anything identifying about the guy, so he couldn't even pick him out when he went to pick her up on Tuesday. It felt too similar to a situation the year before, but at least he had seen Tristan.
"That's easy for you to say, you don't have to spend time with him," she mumbles as he kisses her head.
Lorelai watches Dean's face shift and decides it's time to change the subject. It didn't take a genius to recognize that he didn't want to spend one of his only nights with Rory that week listening to her go on and on about another person.
"Well, you get to escape from him 5 days of the week, let's focus on that! So, movie time?" She suggests with a smile, grabbing the remote.
"Why can't we talk about it?"
"There's nothing to talk about, Liz."
"Jess," Liz warns. He'd gotten into the habit the last year or so calling her Liz instead of Mom. She didn't like it and she made sure Jess knew.
"Mother," he deadpans, moving past her to go to his room.
"Jess, we aren't done here!" Liz insists, stalking after him. "You don't have to be such a jerk about this."
"Jeez, Liz, what do you want?" Jess barks, rounding on her. "You want to talk like girlfriends about our feelings?"
Liz's face changes and her eyes get sad. Jess notices but he's fired up now. His mom had been pestering him for a solid ten minutes.
"Well newsflash - that's not going to happen. I could have just picked up another job but you decided to torture me with this crap. You wanted me to go to this stupid class and I'm going. There weren't any conditions where I had to spill my guts to you or be a saint about it, so get off my back."
"I don't know why you have to talk to me like that. Why can't we just talk to each other like when you were younger?"
"Maybe if you give me a bottle of Absolut, I'll be as chatty as you."
It all happens so quickly. No sooner are the words out does Liz send her hand flying across his cheek. There isn't any time to regret his words, which he might have, had she given him any time to hear what he had said. But the damage is done and Jess's look of shock quickly turns dark and he turns on his heel, grabbing keys off of the table before slamming the door closed behind him.
Liz's hand throbs and she looks down at it. She had never hit Jess before. Even as a kid when he'd done something wrong, she didn't believe in hitting him.
She sinks onto the nearest chair, sighing deeply. This wasn't working anymore. She thought that the anger management would help Jess. She had noticed that overall his mood had been better while he was actually home, but then things like this happened and she wondered if it was doing any good at all.
Sadly, she considers that she might have something to do with the stalled process. But before she gets too down on herself, the harshness of what her son had said a minute ago flashes in front of her and her stomach clenches, desperation and anger clawing at her.
Something needed to change.
She picks up the phone and dials the only person she knows she can rely on in this.
AN: Longre chapter! I had a lot of fun writing the different dialogues so I hope you liked reading :) I know not a ton has happened yet, but it's all leading up to some grand shifting to line up with canon events. Thanks to all of the new followers! I'd love to hear from you about what you're liking so far. Thanks for reading! (P.S. For anyone unfamiliar with alcohol, Absolut is vodka) Aaaaand I forgot on the first upload! Special thank you to Hannah and anonLove for their consistent feedback! xo
