"What are you doing, hon?" Her mom asked and she jumped, feeling guilty though she wasn't really sure why. She was just reading Howl and enjoying Jess's thoughts and insights on it.
"What? Oh nothing, just reading."
"What's that, I've never seen you deface a book before, that's sacrilege for you smart types, right?"
"No, I like it actually. Jess borrowed it from me and wrote down some of his thoughts. Apparently, he'd read it before, a lot."
"Hmm, so he's a nerd like you?" She asked with a cheeky smile on her face.
"You wouldn't think so by looking at him but yeah, every time I've seen him he's had a new book in his hand. And that's not even bringing the magic into the conversation."
"Okay, I have so many questions, starting with what magic and ending with what, where, how?" She shook her head and focused her thoughts. "Never mind. Well, you know what they say about judging a book by its cover."
"That's true. I didn't think you liked him after the dinner."
"Eh, it might have been a lot to expect the kid to enjoy that. What do you say we try again? This time a smaller group, just me, you, and him, and a movie marathon."
Rory felt a blush come over her cheeks but again wasn't sure why. "Uh yeah, that would be cool. I know it's probably not easy to make friends in this town when everyone already knows each other and has had their friends and clicks picked out since kindergarden ."
"Good, then that's what we'll do. Now, get ready, your dad is supposed to be here soon."
Rory smiled, jumped up, and ran to her room to do what her mom suggested.
~~~~~~
Over the next few days, Jess tried to settle into life in the crazy town of Stars Hollow. He wasn't sure why but people stopped looking at him like he was the devil incarnate and like he killed kittens in his free time. He had to admit, he didn't hate it. Though that didn't mean he was comfortable in the town by any means. He was used to being ignored or overlooked. In a city of almost nine million people, it was easy to get passed over in a crowd. So going from that to being the newest person in a town that had less than ten thousand, it felt a little like being looked at under a microscope. If Jess had it his way he'd be ignored so he could just sit in a corner and read in piece for the next two years until he could get out of here and make his way on his own.
His home life with Luke was just as awkward as it had been since he moved in but now it was awkward for a different reason. Instead of being looked at like he was a problem child who was just looking for a way to mess things up, every once in a while, he'd catch Luke looking at him in a pitying way, looking at him like he was a broken little boy that just needed love and support to be fixed. Jess scoffed, as if. Jess had pretty much been on his own for his whole life with his mom popping in and out from time to time, sometimes sober and 'ready to be a family' and sometimes so fucked up he had to carry her to her bed, prop her on her side so she didn't choke on her own vomit, then go into the bathroom to clean up the puke she upchucked earlier that undoubtedly missed the toilet. Either way, even when she was with him, Jess was still on his own and that's how he liked it. Honestly, he just wanted to go back to New York and his friends who were more family to him than his uncle ever was.
He made a plan that would get him kicked out of his uncle's and shipped back to New York. It wasn't an in-depth plan filled with details and plan Bs, it was simple, his whole plan was to terrorize the town with pranks until they got sick of him and sent him back. When everyone started being nice to him though it gave him pause. He might like to act like he didn't care about anyone or need anyone to be nice to him but he was human, he didn't like to hurt people who didn't hurt him first so now he wasn't sure what to do. And then there was Luke, though Jess didn't trust that Luke meant what he said about always being there for him, he knew that as of now at least, Luke was going to do what he could to help Jess. He knew eventually his uncle would get bored, move onto a new project, or simply just decide Jess wasn't worth the trouble but for now, it wasn't terrible having someone to rely on, at least somewhat.
So as of now Jess scrapped the pranking idea and decided to use some of the money he had stashed away to take a day trip to New York to see his friends on the three-day weekend they had coming up in two weeks. It was something, at least. He had a brief moment of self-hatred when he realized he was prioritizing going to school, why? He could just leave right now and go to New York for a few days, it's not like he cared if he missed too many days, or graduated at all.
He was sitting at lunch in school thinking all his options over when he was distracted by someone sitting across from him. He flicked his eyes up just quickly enough to notice it was Lane Kim before going back to his book. She seemed cold to him when he first got here but like the rest of the town, she calmed down after a few days, it was strange, she was, dare he say it, even friendly to him now. Their only conversations ever involved music and he learned that she was best friends with Rory so he was also trying to figure out a way to work her into the conversation so he could learn more about that girl that he barely knew but was taking up many of his thoughts. There was just something about her that drew him in, and he didn't see a reason to fight it.
"Hey." He said once he finished the page and looked up from his book.
"Hey," She said as she slid a cd over the table. He looked and saw that it was the newest Sonic Youth CD. Not his favorite band but she'd been trying to convince him of their appeal. "I just got this and after listening to it a few times I decided to be magnanimous and lend it to you so that you too may understand their greatness."
Jess meant to scoff but it came out more as a laugh, "You wish. Stop trying to push your music on me, Kim." He said while taking the CD and putting it in his bag anyway. Lane didn't comment further on that, she just gave him a small smile.
"What are you doing this weekend?"
"Same thing as normal. graffitiing the town, knocking over a liquor store or two, maybe graduating to holding someone up to steal their wallets, nothing special. Why do you ask?"
"I got away from Mama Kim on Saturday night by convincing her bible study was going to be extra long so that we could read the first few books of the Bible. She's not expecting me home until late. I was planning on going to Black, White, and Read to watch a movie with Rory but she agreed to 'come out' for her grandmother so she's busy.
Jess tried not to sputter, Rory was gay? Well that sucked for him, he thought she was interested too. "Come out… as in?"
Lane laughed, "No, come out into society. It's a thing rich people make their kids do when they're 16. It's basically a party that says 'I'm of age and open for business."
Both Lane and Jess cringed at her wording. "So Rory is rich?"
Lane looked at him speculatively but didn't question why he was so interested. "No, well yes. Her grandparents are but her mom ran away from them when she was 16 and pregnant with Rory, they only recently started talking again. So?"
"So what?"
"So, do you want to hang out on Saturday?"
"Oh," He shrugged, "Sure why not? I work the morning shift at Luke's but I'm free after."
"Okay cool. I'll meet you at Luke's around 3."
"Sure."
The bell chose that moment to ring so with a quick 'bye' Lane ran to her next class. Jess decided he had done his daily duty of being a student enough for one day, so instead of going to his next class he left the school grounds, grabbed a newspaper, and went to the bridge, it was a spot he was starting to consider his own. He looked in the classifieds. As much as Luke said he didn't have to worry about paying rent or for his own food, Jess couldn't dismiss the need he had to be able to pay for and take care of himself should the need arise. He learned to have enough money to pay rent should Liz not be able to since he was a kid. He was ten when he got his first job working in the back of a restaurant cleaning dishes because he was sick of his stomach growling. Not only did he get paid, but he got a free meal during his shift. It was also where he met Carmin, the lady who refused to be called anything other than tia and one of the only adults who has been reliable and a stable friend for him since then. The first time he came into work with a black eye because his new stepfather didn't like Jess's attitude, she let him stay at her place and sleep in her son's room. That's also when he met his best friend Javier, Carmin's son.
He didn't see anything of interest in the classified and figured he might be forced to go door to door looking for work. He thought about going over to Stars Hollow's Books and seeing if they needed help, he always wanted to work at a book store but he also figured it'd be better to get work a little further away, he didn't want to make it known that he was trying to get a second job, it'd raise too many questions about school and how he had time for everything.
He realized school must have been let out when he saw some kids he had classes with walking by. That meant it was time to get to Luke's for his shift. So reluctantly he got up and made his way to the diner. He knew before he even walked in that Luke was in a bad mood, he was slamming things and Taylor was in the diner, seeing Taylor in there alone was enough to let Jess know the type of mood his uncle would be in for the rest of the day. He was proven correct when the first thing Luke did when he saw Jess was to yell at him about his shirt and how it wasn't 'presentable for his position. Jess didn't know what his uncle's problem with Matalica was but he wasn't in the mood to fight so he started to go upstairs to change when Lorelai stopped him.
"Hey, Jess."
"Uh, hi." He said a little uncomfortably, the last time they talked was when he was at her house stealing a beer and he accidentally told her his life story.
"He's just Grumpy McGrumperson. Metalica rocks."
He quirked his lips, surprised that she thought so. "Yeah, I guess taste doesn't run in the family."
"You're telling me, you don't even want to know what records my mom has in her library. Thankfully, Rory did inherit my amazing musical tastes. Hey, listen, last time you came over didn't work out well but I was wondering if we could have a do-over."
"Do over?"
"Yeah, Sunday night is movie night in the Gilmore house. I was wondering if you wanted to join Rory and me for a movie marathon. Oh, unless you have too much school work to catch up on, switching schools is a lot so you probably have a lot of work to do."
Jess was shocked, last weekend everyone was looking at him like he stunk and the smell would catch on them if they got within ten feet of him and now he has plans for Saturday and Sunday, if he wanted them. He looked over to Rory, he didn't want to go over there if she was uncomfortable but she had a big smile on her face and nodded her head encouragingly. "You should come! As long as you follow the rules?"
"The movie watching rules?"
"Yes, of which there are many," Rory said matter of factly. "But the most important are A) don't comment on our food intake, if you are anything like Luke, you're bound to have heart palpitations at our caffeine and sugar intake, B) no one but mom touches the Mallomar candy bars, I learned that the hard way when I was six and almost got my fingers bit off…."
"Hey, don't be dramatic, I barely got you, it only bled a little, I only put a band-aid on your finger because you insisted, it wasn't even necessary."
"And C)" She spoke over her mom, "making fun of any movie is not only allowed but encouraged, except the Princess Bride. That movie is 100% perfect gold and joking about it will not be tolerated."
"She's right, you want an easy way to get on our bad side and kicked out of the house, that's how you do it."
He looked back and forth between the two for a few moments before responding, "As you wish."
"Ay, look at him, by George, I think he's got it!" Lorelai said with a smile. "So we'll see you Sunday?"
"Uh sure, the only other plans I have for this weekend is on Saturday, so I'm free."
"Look at you, making friends already, I knew you'd fit in. What are you doing?" Lorelai had a feeling she was laying it on thick and pushing too hard but she couldn't help herself. She just wanted to help and be there for the kid. She saw a lot of her younger self in him and didn't want him to make the same mistakes she did, she loved her life and wouldn't change anything about it but she had a feeling her life would have been a lot easier if she had someone older to actually talk to.
"Oh, I'm hanging out with Lane, she said she got some time free from under her mother's eye and wanted to go to the movies." Jess didn't know why he was bothering to explain but there was something about Lorelai that made him feel like she actually cared about his answers. He just hoped it wasn't only because she felt bad for him. Plus, he liked talking to Rory, and even though she wasn't actively in the conversation, she was at least conversation-adjacent and that felt like a win to him. When he said he was hanging out with Lane he saw a flash of something come across Rory's face, he didn't think he was lucky enough for it to be jealousy but a guy could hope.
"Oh cool, Lane is awesome, she's like my second kid. She and Rory have been best friends since kindergarten.
Jess just nodded, he didn't feel like explaining that he already knew that and the only reason she even wanted to hang out with him was because Rory was busy. "Right, I'll see you guys then."
"Bye, Jess!" Lorelai bent lower to talk quietly to Rory. "How do you think that went?"
"What do you mean? It was fine. Why do you care so much?" She gasped mortified. "You don't like him like him, do you? He's like my age, mom."
"What? No!" Rory was relieved to hear the disgust in her mom's voice. "No, I just think he could use some friends, is all."
"What did he tell you?"
"What do you mean, hon?"
"I saw him a few days ago and he said something like 'She told you, didn't she?' I can only imagine he was talking about you."
Lorelai stayed quiet for a long while, ripping apart her napkin and thinking her words over. "Yeah, he was probably talking about me, but it's not my story to tell, kid. Just… just not everyone had as nice a childhood as you, and that's saying a lot for living in a tool shed for the first decade of your life."
"Oh, okay." Rory wasn't sure what to think of her mom's answer but she knew that meant Jess probably had it rough. She also knew she wanted to be there for him and help him however she could.
She was lost in her thoughts for the rest of their meal. She was wondering if Jess and Lane like liked each other and she was wondering why she wasn't more happy for Lane if they did. She shook her head, as far as she knew, Lane liked Henry and was dating him even though they rarely saw each other. Lane and Jess were probably just friends. And even if they did have feelings for each other, it was none of her business, she should be happy for her best friend, maybe Lane would have a chance to be as happy as Rory because Rory had a great, kind, loyal boyfriend who loved her. A boyfriend that was going through all this trouble, doing things he hated like dancing and dressing up all so that she could 'come out' for her grandmother. Yeah, Dean. Dean was the best, she decided to spend her time focusing on him and not Jess, the boy she barely knew anything about except that he read as much as she did and liked similar music.
~~~~
"Who's that?" Jess asked Luke during a lull in customers. He was looking across the street at Patty's Dance Studio. There was an older man with Lorelai and Rory was dancing with someone.
"Uh, that's Christopher, Rory's dad."
"Huh. But I was talking about the boy Rory is dancing with, I've seen him around school."
"That's Dean, her boyfriend," Luke grumbled. Jess could tell that Luke didn't really like or approve of the guy and at least on that, they could agree. Jess didn't know she was dating anyone. He wanted to see them interact together. "Since it's slow I was thinking it'd be cool to bring them over some coffee, they look tired." Luke looked at him for a long time speculatively. "What? Lorelai and Rory have been cool to me."
He stared at Jess for a while longer before finally saying, "They've been together for a long time, for kids anyway, and I don't see it ending anytime soon."
"Good for them," Jess said defensively before walking over to the coffee pot and pouring four large to-go cups worth of coffee before walking out of the diner without another word.
He walked up to the studio slowly, watching the goings on. He knew they were practicing the waltz and could see how out of sync the two were, he took that as conformation that the two weren't meant to be together. Jess would never admit it to anyone but he knew how to waltz and do a few other formal dances. During his mom's sober periods she always found a new habit to become obsessed with and one time, when he was 11, it was dancing. She made him come with her to the classes and practices and he learned a lot. He was one of the tops in his class though it was nothing he was proud of or would ever talk about to anyone. He cleared his throat when he entered the building and all four of them looked over to Jess. It made him a little uncomfortable, he didn't like all eyes on him unless he chose it. Lorelai looked confused until her eyes traveled down to what he was holding at the same time Rory saw the coffee. They both left their partners and ran over to him.
"Oh, my hero! How did you know? It's been two hours since my last fix." Lorelai gushed.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Rory said. Though he had a feeling it had less to do with the coffee and more to do with giving her an excuse to take a break from trying to dance with the big oaf.
"I may not have been here long but one thing I've learned very clearly is that you two can't survive more than a few hours without your coffee fix."
"Thanks, Jess, you're the best, my new best friend, my hero, I will build a statue in your honor to immortalize the day that you saved the Gilmore Girls from their first possible caffeine headache in a decade."
"So Rory was six when she dealt with caffeine withdrawal?" He asked with his brow quirked.
"No, that was me. Fortunately, Rory has not had to deal with such terrible things. It's what I'm most proud of as a mother."
"A feat most cannot manage, to be sure."
Chris took his coffee with a thanks and dragged Lorelai back to do another dance.
"You're looking good out there."
"Don't lie, we look terrible! I don't know what we're going to do, I'm going to embarrass myself in front of all my grandma's friends and I'm going to embarrass her too!" Rory was starting to panic.
Jess put his hand on her arm to get her to slow and calm down. "Hey' it'll be fine, you just need to practice. I can help if you want." Jess wasn't sure what he was thinking, offering to help, didn't he just think that he'd never admit he knew how to dance to anyone?
"Yeah, right. No offense but how could you help?"
"During one of my mom's more present times in my life, she forced me to take lessons with her." Jess felt like an idiot for admitting that.
"Really?"
"Yeah, so if you need help, well, what I'm trying to say is I'm stuck here anyway, and I already know the steps. You're smart and seem like a fast learner, it would take a few hours of my time, no biggy." He said with a shrug.
Dean walked up behind Rory and put his hand on her lower back, that's when Jess realized he was still holding onto Rory's arm, he let go like she was burning him. "Uh, hey." He said looking between Rory and Jess feeling like he'd just interrupted something and he didn't like that, not one bit. It made him automatically not like Jess.
"Oh Dean, I don't think you two have met, this is Jess, this is Dean," She said a little awkwardly pointing between the two.
"Boyfriend?" Jess asked.
"Of course," Rory said, almost too quickly.
"Sorry, you never mentioned a boyfriend before." He looked at Dean, "How you doing?"
"Good. Good."
"Okay, well, thanks for the coffee, we'll see you around." Rory piped up.
"Seems to turn out that way, doesn't it?" He said with a smirk, then spoke louder so Lorelai could hear, "See you Sunday."
"Bye, Jess! Thanks again for the coffee. Rory's usually done her school work around 1 so we'll start after that."
"Wouldn't miss it." He said he and Rory made eye contact while he spoke and she had to fight off another blush. Thankfully she was able to. She stared after him as he left but turned her attention back to her boyfriend and dancing as soon as Jess walked back into the diner.
Dean wasn't sure what just happened but he knew with certainty that he didn't like it and it was nothing good. They got back to dancing but the rest of the night he tried to get information out of the Gilmore Girls about Jess and what was happening Sunday. When he tried to invite himself to the movie marathon he was surprised and a little hurt when Lorelai, as nicely as she could, basically told him no and that he wasn't invited. She told him this in many more words and very kindly without actually giving a reason. He didn't know much but he knew one thing, he didn't like this Jess guy and he was going to figure out why he was allowed to take Dean's normal spot on movie night.
~~~~
Rory and Lorelai came into the diner on the way home from the catillion, Dean went straight home after, and even though they had lots of rich people's food at the event, it was nowhere near enough to fill up the stomachs of the Gilmore Girls. They had just ordered their food from Luke and were in the process of telling him about their night when Jess came down the stairs, looking at no one, and walked over to start cleaning up the bar to close for the night. Both Rory and Lorelai snarfed at him because he was wearing a flannel button-down with a baseball cap backward on his head. It was clear that he was trying to pull off looking like Luke and that reminded the girls of the conversation they witnessed between the two earlier about his choice of shirts. Luke did a double-take when he saw Jess and walked over to him.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Jess looked up at Luke as if he was confused by the question. "Working."
"So you think this is funny, huh?"
"I'm sorry, I thought this was the uniform."
"Okay, you know what, that's fine. Have your fun, enjoy your joke, you know. Doesn't bother me at all. You just go over there and clean off the table. I'm ignoring you, okay? You do not exist." All three in the diner other than Luke could tell by the twitch he was developing that it certainly did bother him. Jess had to work hard to ignore Lorelai and Rory because they were giggling in the background, and they were making it hard for him to pretend to be serious.
"Okay," Jess said and was proud of the straight face he was able to keep. He walked over to a table closer to the girls and went back to cleaning. It lasted all of ten seconds before Luke couldn't take it anymore.
"That's it, get upstairs and change."
"Whatever you say, Uncle Luke," Jess said and started walking upstairs.
The girl's giggles turned into full on laughs when Luke followed him to the stairs. "It's Luke, just Luke. No, Mr. Luke. In fact, don't address me at all, no, better yet, sir, I'm sir to you!"
Luke looked at the laughing girls and after a second he couldn't stop a small grin. He could admit, if only to himself, that Jess came up with a creative way to prove his point. Still, he had a grumpy reputation to uphold. "Aw, be quiet, would ya? You're almost as bad as him!"
It just made the girls laugh louder. Jess, upstairs, getting back into his usual clothes, let a smile come over his face since no one else could see. He was starting to realize that maybe this town wasn't as bad as he originally thought, at least, there were a few cool people in it.