Jess was sitting in first period, he was late to school so he skipped homeroom altogether, it was the only reason he was the first one in the class. He pulled out his book and read waiting for class to get started. It wasn't until he heard someone take the seat in front of him that he bothered to look up. To say he was surprised to see Lane with pompoms and in a cheerleading uniform would be an understatement. He didn't even bother to stop the huff of a laugh that wanted to come out but when he saw her face fall he smoothed his face out.

"What's all this?"

"What, I'm not allowed to try something new?"

"Sure, I just didn't take you as someone so… peppy."

"I'm not peppy."

Jess through his hands up in surrender, "My mistake, I don't know where I could have got such a crazy idea. You're not peppy, not peppy at all."

"If you're going to be like that then whatever, don't talk to me." She was about to turn around in her seat and ignore him for the rest of the class.

"Lane stop. Don't get all dramatic, I don't care if you're a cheerleader, it doesn't make me think less about you or your tastes in music, well not much anyway. I don't even want to know what kind of music you cheer with."

She smiled, "Actually I'm working on that, I've almost got the okay for a new cheer to Brain Stew, it's mainstream enough that even the people who like pop and boy bands know it."

"I'd have to see it to believe it."

"Glad to hear it, I'll see you at this Friday's pep rally then."

Whoa whoa whoa, no way, I agreed to no such thing."

"Come on, Jess. It's weird, I'm not friends with anyone on the team yet. Heck, one of my only real friends in the school ditched me last year to get to a fancy prep school cause she's so freaking talented and smart. There's Dean but I can only hang around him so much, we have nothing in common other than Rory. And no offense, but it's not like you're swimming in invitations for your Thursday night. So come on Jess, be my friend and support me, I promise we can make fun of the football players and other cheerleaders after I'm done with my cheers."

Jess chose not to bring up that it's called a pep rally, which only goes to prove his point that she is now being peppy. Which is one thing Jess Mariano definitely is not. He is not now and has never been peppy, and he had no intentions of changing that anytime soon.

"How about I just meet you after? I'll force someone to record it for me and we'll watch it together away from the unwashed masses."

"Jess, I promise I will owe you so much if you do me this one favor. This is my first pep rally and I'm ner… well it's something I've never done before. I'll give you a CD of your choosing if you do me this favor." She was looking at him with big eyes and her hands folded almost in prayer, he had a feeling if he stayed quiet one more second she'd start saying 'please' repeatedly until he agreed.

"Jesus Christ, you're offering to part with a CD from your collection, I know you must be desperate. Fine, I'll go but if at any point I feel the pep rubbing off on me I'm out of there."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squealed and Jess was surprised when she leaned over the desk and hugged him tightly. He stiffened, he wasn't used to such physical contact, well not unless clothes were coming off or there was violence involved. Which he acknowledged, if only to himself that fact was pretty fucked up. He patted her back awkwardly until she pulled back

"Seriously Jess, I owe you."

"Hell yeah, you do. I don't know what it is yet but you're definitely going to have to pay me back and one CD is not enough. Especially because I've just burned the ones you loaned me before, there's no need for me to take your copy."

"You burned my CDs without my permission?! What if you scratched them?"

"Oh jeez, cool your jets, Kim. I'm not going to damage your precious music, I don't have a death wish."

"Yeah well, you better not, my mom made me take self-defense that one time, I'm sure I can remember something to use on you if need be."

"Wow, from grateful to violence in 30 seconds, that must be some kind of a record."

She blushed embarrassed, "Whatever, get back to your reading, you need to catch up. Hey, that's not Romeo and Juliet, we have a test on it tomorrow, what are you doing? I know you got this whole bad boy 'I don't care about anything' vibe going on but you're going to fail if you don't even try."

Jess shrugged, as if he cared if he passed. "I know it by heart at this point, I'm not worried. They were idiots, the end."

"What? They were in love."

"He didn't even check her pulse before he decided to end it all."

"— Okay, point." She said after opening her mouth to rebut but couldn't come up with anything.

The teacher took that moment to start talking so Lane turned around and Jess focused back on his book. It was about halfway through the class that Jess decided he'd had enough of the forced imprisonment of school for one day and started planning his escape.

~~~~

It was later that day when Lane was walking home from school, she'd been walking with Jess lately but since she was avoiding Rory she took the long way home so she could try to miss her best friend. Unfortunately, it didn't work today because for some reason today Rory didn't follow her normal schedule and was right in front of her. She wasn't surprised when Rory stomped up to her looking all judgy because of the cheering uniform. Lane decided to take the bull by the horns and walk towards Rory too.

"We need to talk," Lane said.

"Okay, let's talk. Nice outfit."

"Thank you."

"So I guess this is why you've been AWOL for the past couple of weeks."

"Pretty much."

"So what, you just had the urge to stand on another girl's shoulders?"

"Don't be like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're being. It makes it impossible to tell you."

"You didn't tell me."

"I know."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Okay. Have you ever thought of becoming a prosecutor? Because I think you've got real potential."

"I didn't tell you because I knew you'd act like this."

"No, I'm acting like this because you didn't tell me."

"Oh, so if I'd come up to you and said 'Rory, I want to become a cheerleader' You would have said…?"

"Why?"

"Exactly," Lane said pointing at Rory as if she'd just made her point.

"Exactly what? Lane this is weird. I mean we always used to make fun of cheerleaders, you and I, we would rag on Janie Fertman and hide during pep rallies, and now, all of a sudden you're…peppy." She sounded disgusted when the word 'peppy' left her mouth.

"I'm not peppy."

"Well, you look peppy."

"God, this conversation sounds familiar."

'What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean Jess, we had almost the same conversation."

"See! He hasn't been here long and he knows this isn't you!" Again Rory got the strange feeling in her gut when thinking of Jess being close to another girl but she forcefully pushed that feeling away.

"No! He was surprised but he was supportive! Unlike you, whose supposed to be my best friend, he even said he'd come to my pep rally to be there for me."

"What? Jess does not seem like the type."

"Believe me, he's not, he made sure to make it clear that he was doing it for me." Her words made the feeling double in Rory.

"So what, you like him now? What about Henry?"

"What? I didn't say that, Jess is my friend. None of that matters anyway! He didn't judge me, unlike you. I'm supposed to be able to tell you anything, you're my best friend." Lane just sounded sad by the end.

"Lane, I love you, I do support you, I always will. You just, you know, have to give me a few minutes to freak out about all this." She gestured at Lane's uniform, "You have to admit this is different."

Lane sighed, "Yeah I know. It's just that you're not around as much anymore, which is totally fine, I'm proud of you for getting into that fancy school. You worked so hard, you earned it but with you there, I'm here alone. Plus, when you're here you're usually with Dean, which again is fine, it just left me with a lot of free time so I found something to fill it."

"Okay, I get that." Rory said softly, "So a pep rally, huh? And Jess is going?"

"Yeah, on Thursday. I'd like it if you could come. You could keep Jess company and make sure he doesn't bolt before I even get my pompoms on.

"Yeah Lane, of course I'll come." She could admit if only to herself that she was going 80% to support Lane and 20% to have an excuse to talk to Jess, she ignored how that thought made her feel bad and as if she was lying. She wasn't quite sure who she felt like she was lying to but the feeling was there all the same.

Rory happily accepted the hug that Lane gave her and when they pulled away from each other it was like the fight never happened, It'd take some time to get used to the new cheerleader Lane but she'd do it if that's what her friend wanted. They walked home with their arms linked with smiles on their faces.

~~~~

Jess felt like he was going against everything he believed in when he walked into the school gym after school on Thursday. In fact, he'd made it clear that he was morally opposed to anything that brought forth more school spirit than absolutely necessary. He was already thinking up his apology to Lane for having to ditch early, right now his best excuse was an emergency at the diner, the only problem was that he doubted Luke would corroborate his story. He took one step backward willing to take Lane's anger when he heard someone calling his name, he was pleasantly surprised to see it was Rory. He walked over to her with his signature smirk on his face.

"Hey."

"Hey, did you pick a seat yet?"

"Nope, just got here." He was a little confused, it almost sounded like she thought they had plans to meet here. He wasn't going to say anything to change her mind though because he'd love to hangout with her, so he just went along with it.

She looked at him with a smirk of her own, "How many times have you thought about ditching since you got here?"

"Let's see, I've been here three minutes tops, so not too many, only about fifty."

"I know what you mean, I'm not quite as bad as you, only about twenty for me. Ahh the trials and tribulations of having friends."

"More trouble than they're worth I always say. It's the real reason I get labeled the loner."

She smiled. "Come on, we'll get a seat in the back so no one will catch us if we start to read."

"Oh you think you know me, do you Gilmore? What makes you think I've brought a book?"

"Uhm, I don't know, history, almost every conversation we've ever had." She took a second to lean back and Jess tried to angle away but it was no luck, "Or it might be the fact that I see your paperback rolled up in your back pocket."

Well, he couldn't deny that, could he? Instead, he just smirked and sat down. "So, I didn't think this was the type of place you'd normally spend your Thursday night."

She blushed and he wasn't sure why. "You mean she didn't tell you?"

"Who didn't tell me what?"

"Lane, I'm here for her, she said you were too, I thought we were kind of coming here together. I'm sorry, I thought you were expecting me, I'll go, I don't want to cramp your loner style or whatever. Forget I was here, I know I wish I could…" Jess could tell she was ramping up for a long babble so he cut her off.

"Rory, it's fine, I—I'm glad you're here. This isn't my scene either." He felt like an idiot for admitting that.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She smiled and sat down. It was awkwardly quiet for a few moments, neither really knowing what to say but both were happy to be together although Rory still wasn't sure why she was so happy and wanted to be so close to him, or at least she was denying the reason why. Jess had no such problem, he knew he wanted her and was pretty sure she felt the same. If it wasn't for that damn boyfriend he'd make a move right now. In fact, he purposefully leaned closer to her so their shoulders were touching, he was pleased when she leaned into him.

"So what are you doing this weekend?" She asked even though she had plans to meet up with Paris on Saturday to work on the school paper, even though she was sure it was already perfect, and Dean on Sunday.

"I was thinking about taking a trip to New York."

Without thinking she replied, "I thought you didn't know where your mom was."

She regretted the words when his whole body tensed. "Not going for her." He said shortly.

"Oh, why are you going then?"

"To see my best friend."

"That sounds fun, I've only been there a few times but I'd love to explore and see around with a local."

"I could take you some time." He ventured.

"Really?"

"Yeah, that'd be cool."

"Okay, I'd like that." That blush that he thought was adorable, though he'd never say that out loud, was back on her face.

Jess opened his mouth before he thought better of it and asked, "Where is the boyfriend tonight?"

She stiffened before moving further away from him and he regretted his words. "Oh, he is at home I think, I didn't ask."

"You didn't invite him?" That surprised Jess.

"No, this isn't really his idea of a good time, even though he would have come if I asked him. Plus he and Lane aren't really friends."

"He doesn't get along with your friends?"

"What? No, it's not that. They get along just fine, it's just that they don't have much in common so they don't really hang out unless I'm there."

Jess just nodded, he wasn't going to comment on that, he already tried to show her that she didn't have much in common with him either, he wasn't sure how it worked but he figured it wouldn't do any good if he pushed her more, in fact, it might do the opposite and have her running right into the oaf's arms.

They stayed quiet for a while, watching the goings on, even if they were both bored to death. He realized not long after the proceedings started that they were almost leaning against each other again, and this time he had nothing to do with it, not on purpose anyway. It just made him think even more so that the attraction went both ways, they were pulled to each other, not just emotionally or whatever but physically too apparently.

They talked a little more, though Jess for the life of him couldn't remember what they were talking about, he was just staring at her, lost in her even. She didn't seem to notice his distraction so at least he could get that meant he was responding to her correctly, at least he had that going for him.

He'd never been lucky in life, let alone love. Not that he loved her or anything but just in general, he'd never been lucky with that type of stuff. That's why he didn't think there was a chance that Rory would wake up one day and realize that Jess was the man for her, break up with her tree of a boyfriend, and come running to Jess. Nothing good like that ever happened to him so he'd take what he could get. As of right now she seemed to like hanging out with him, and her mom seemed to like him well enough, which was really a mind fuck, he never had a mom like him before, other than Tia but that was a unique situation, and he was almost positive that the attraction went both ways. So, he could live with imagining the wildly unlikely dream that he had a chance with her.

Honestly, he liked it better that way, or at least he thought he did because he knew if he actually had a shot with her he'd end up fucking it all up just like he ruined everything else that was even semi good in his life.

He was brought out of his spiraling thoughts when Lane and the rest of the cheerleaders ran out of their locker room with big smiles on. He couldn't stop the quirk of his lips at seeing her, yeah, he didn't think she'd be the type to be a cheerleader but she actually looked happy and like she was enjoying it. He looked at Rory and saw that she had the same face he assumed he had on. They were happy that she was happy. He placed his hand next to hers on the bench, again just to get a little closer. He felt like a fucking loser, caring so much about just being close to touching her, he felt like he was back in grade school the first time he had a crush and got up the balls to reach over and hold her hand. Whatever, it was what it was, at least she wasn't pushing him away so he considered it a win.

As soon as the cheerleaders were done Rory and Jess mutually without words decided it was time to go. Lane was still on the court but off to the side with the rest of the cheerleaders so they were able to walk over to her without disrupting the rest of the pep rally. He smiled when Rory ran over to Lane and wrapped her in her arms.

"You did so good Lane, I couldn't imagine it but now that I've seen it, I get it."

"Really? You do?"

"Yeah, get me some pompoms and I might just join you." They both laughed. "Really though, it's not my thing but I can see that it makes you happy and that's all that matters to me."

"Thanks, Rory," Lane said and pulled her into another hug. When they let go of each other Jess took that as his signal to speak.

"I mean I don't think you can deny it anymore, you were definitely peppy out there but you pulled it off."

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, I admit it, I was feeling a little extra pep in my step while I was out there."

"The peppiest." Rory concurred.

"And you better believe you owe me for this big time, Kim. I'm not going to forget it."

"Oh, come on it's not that bad. Plus it's not like you even needed to show any school spirit, you just got to hang out in the back with Rory the whole time." The way Lane said it and looked at Jess made him feel like a bug under a microscope, like she already sussed out that he was into her best friend. Though if that's the truth he supposed it meant she approved, at least a little or she wouldn't have been so gung ho about them hanging out together.

"Yeah, that part wasn't half bad. It's just the principle of it all, I vowed to spend as little time in these hollowed halls as possible and you got me to voluntarily come here when it wasn't mandatory."

"Oh whatever, stop acting like I made you drink rotten milk or something."

"Might as well have."

"Oh stop being dramatic."

"Please, I'm not being dramatic, I'm being honest."

"Dramatic." Lane said in a sing-song voice."

Rory was tired of being sidelined in their conversation so she spoke up. "Alright, we came, we saw, we pepped, can we leave now? It's a little strange being back here."

She didn't say so but she'd been getting a lot of strange looks since she and Jess sat down. She wasn't sure if something happened, like maybe people were mad that she left the school so now she wasn't welcome or if they were looking at her strangely because she had come with Jess and everyone knew that she was with Dean. Either way, she didn't feel exactly comfortable, so she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Yeah, I'm ready too. You coming Lane?" Jess asked.

Lane looked around, "No, I have to stay here for a while longer, talk to the team, clean up, and stuff. You guys go ahead, my part is done. Thanks so much for coming."

She surprised Jess with another hug but he handled it a little better this time, he wasn't stiff for as long and he put one arm around her instead of awkwardly patting her He considered that a win. Rory and he left not long after, he wasn't sure what the plan was, if she was planning on going home or if they were going to hang out. That's why he was pleasantly surprised when she stayed walking with him instead of turning to her home.

Rory wasn't sure what she was doing, she was supposed to head home, she still had lots of homework to do. Plus she promised herself almost a week ago that she was going to talk to her mom about all her thoughts and conflicting feelings about Dean, about Jess, about how she didn't know if she loved Dean anymore, or if she ever really did. Part of her thought she did, but another part of her felt like love was the kind of thing she knew for sure. She was worried that she only actually told Dean that she loved him so that they'd get back together and she might be pretty new to relationships but she didn't think that was a good thing. Plus, feeling this connection with another person probably is another thing that wouldn't happen if she was really in love with Dean. She had to stop procrastinating and talk to her mom, Lorelai always had a way of simplifying Rory's thoughts for her.

She focused back on the present when Jess sat on the bridge with his feet hanging off the edge. She was so lost in thought she didn't even realize that they walked all the way over here. She sat down next to him and decided she had to talk to get her mind off her spiraling thoughts. Plus, she really enjoyed talking to Jess, especially about both their favorite subjects.

"So, you never actually told me what you're reading today." Jess took the book out of his back pocket and showed it to her. "Sense and Sensibility. I love this one."

"Me too."

"Read it to me." She said in the spur of the moment.

Jess quirked his eyebrow and looked at her for a second, she almost regretted asking and she felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment until Jess sat back, opened the book, and read off the page he had earmarked from when he was reading earlier. "They saw nothing of Marianne till dinner time when she entered the room and took her place at the table without saying a word. Her eyes were red and swollen, and it seemed as if her tears were even then restrained with difficulty. She avoided the looks of them all, could neither eat nor speak and after some

time, on her mother's silently pressing her hand with tender compassion, her small degree of fortitude was quite overcome, she burst into tears and left the room…"

It wasn't a happy part of the story, Marianne was heartbroken and you could feel the emotions in Austen's words but the way Jess spoke as he was reading made her feel peaceful. It wasn't long before she leaned back too and she felt her eyes getting heavy. She told herself it was time to get up, that she had to get home to sleep in her bed, if she fell asleep here nothing good would come of it. But still, she rested there, comfortable and content listening to him read one of her favorite stories.

She realized she must have fallen asleep when she was slowly shaken awake. She opened her eyes to see Jess looking down at her with a smirk that was soft enough to almost be considered a smile. "Did I bore you to sleep, Gilmore?"

"What? No, the opposite really, I was comfortable enough with you to be able to fall asleep. How long was I out?" The only reason she wasn't freaking out was because Jess seemed calm and the moon hadn't moved too much since the last time remembered looking at it.

"Not long, Marianne is still missing Willoughby, probably about a half hour."

"Okay, Good." She said sitting up and stretching her arms. "I'm going to take that as a sign that I'm over tired and go home for the night."

"Okay," Jess said while standing up, he held his hand out to Rory to help her up and she took it but pulled her hand back like it was burned as soon as she was standing. She still felt wrong touching him because of the jolt she always got when any part of her touched him "I'll walk you home."

She felt like she should say no, that it was better to separate now but as she opened her mouth to turn him down all that came out was "Okay."

It was a quick walk home made even quicker by talking about the book Jess was reading to her. He thought it was crazy to have such a good time doing something so simple and boring, he'd be surprised to know that Rory had thought the exact same thing. When they made it to her porch there was an awkward moment where neither wanted to say goodbye but they also didn't know what to do. Eventually, Rory made the first move and moved forward to hug him and was pleasantly surprised to feel how safe and comfortable she felt when he pulled her even closer to hug her back. She couldn't get the thought of giving him a good night kiss out of her head but she knew that was crazy and would make her the world's worst girlfriend so she settled on giving him a kiss on the cheek as she pulled away and smiled brightly when she swore she could see a light blush dust his cheeks in response.

"Goodnight Jess, I had fun even if the night helped way too much peppyness for me."

"Seconded, the next time we do this we'll have to nix the pep completely."

She liked that he was already talking about doing this again so she nodded at him. "Agreed."

"Night Ror, I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Of course, for my morning fix of caffeine."

There was another awkward moment where neither knew what to say or end the night before Jess eventually offered one last goodbye before waving and walking into the night. Rory stood there way longer than was normal before turning to enter the house, her eyes opened wide when she realized her mom was standing at the door watching her through the window. Rory had a feeling there was no more putting off this talk she had to have with her mom and she wondered how she could feel profound relief and panic at the same time.