Chapter 20: Fishing trip confessions
"Jess, get out! I need to be in school in half an hour and you've been in there for over 20 minutes." Rory yelled frustrated, banging on bathroom doors.
"Well, cry me a river! I was here first." Jess yelled back.
Luke was just walking down the stairs when he overheard their yellings.
"I think your mom is out of the bathroom, you can use the upstairs one." He told Rory.
"Thanks." She quickly ran upstairs. She hated being late.
Jess has been staying with them for over 3 months now. At first everything was okay. Rory liked having her cousin around. Luke and Lorelai tried their hardest to explain Liz's behavior to Jess in the nicest way possible. Although both of them were unbelievably mad at her, they decided that Jess shouldn't think badly of his mother. So they were lying constantly, whenever he was asking about her - she's having a hard time, she asked for help and they all agreed that Jess should be with them for a while, she was calling and asking about him. In reality they haven't heard from her since the day she dropped Jess off. And at first Jess was buying all the lies - he wanted to believe that his mother still cared. But week, after week he was getting more suspicious. And then, Jess' 10th birthday came and went and Liz didn't even bother to call. So he started acting out. He was mean to everybody - Luke, Lorelai, Rory, even Logan and Lane. And Luke and Lorelai tried to explain Rory, that she should just let it go and let him be - that he was going through a hard time and that it was gonna pass. So she tried to give him space. But he was being an unbelievable pain in the ass and she was getting sick of it. Any of her childhood desires to have a sibling seem to vanish with each day that she had to share her home with Jess.
"Jess, breakfast in 5 minutes. Hurry up." Luke said, while flipping the pancakes.
"I'm not hungry." Jess answered, still locked in the bathroom. Luke just sighed, packed some freshly made food to his lunchbox and put an extra 5 dollars inside, just in case he would refuse to eat the meal prepared by Luke. He knew they were all walking on eggshells around Jess, and they needed to do something soon, or they would all go crazy.
"Mr and Mrs Danes, come on in." Principal shook their hands and gestured for them to sit down. Luke and Lorelai looked at each other, nervous. In all the years that Rory spent in the Stars Hollow Elementary and Middle School, they were never asked to the principal's office.
"What is this about, Mr Ritter? Is something wrong with Rory?" Lorelai asked.
"Oh, no, Rory is perfect. Her grades are as always great. No complaints there. We did however have an unfortunate incident involving Jess today. As I understand, you are currently his legal guardians?"
"That's right. What happened with Jess?" Luke asked nervously.
"Well, he's been acting out lately. He is disrespectful to the teachers and mean to other students. His grades are average at best. And last week he brought a history essay, which looked suspiciously familiar to his teacher Mrs Dawson. So she looked through her old records - it was one of Rory's old papers. He was confronted today about it, but he denied it ever happened and then stormed out of school. He hasn't been back for any of his other classes. I know he has a difficult time so we were willing to overlook some of his behavior, but I'm afraid it has come too far. We need him to bring a new essay tomorrow and apologize to the teacher. If not, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take further disciplinary action."
As they were hearing it, Luke was getting angrier and angrier by the minute. He couldn't believe Jess - they were trying their hardest to make him feel welcome at their house and he couldn't care less.
"I'm so sorry Mr Ritter. It's true that he's been having a hard time lately but this is no excuse for his behavior. We really appreciate that you gave him this opportunity - I promise he'll be here tomorrow with a brand new esay, a whole new attitude and ready to apologize." When they left the principal office Luke was even angrier than before.
"Luke, what are you gonna do?" Lorelai asked, worried.
"I'm gonna straighten him out, that's what I'm gonna do. Don't worry, you can go back to the inn and when you come home in the evening it will all be back to normal." Lorelai didn't even try to argue with it. She decided to let Luke handle it.
"Jess, you better be home, you little punk!" Luke yelled as he walked through the door.
"What do you want?" Jess answered from his room.
"A little respect would be nice. Grab your jacket and I expect you at the front door in 2 minutes. We're going out. And before you try to deny in some clever way, don't test me today, I'm already pissed!"
"Fine, I'll be down in a minute." Jess answered. After his day at school, he strongly suspected what this is all about.
In the meantime Luke knocked on Rory's door and walked in her room. She was, of course, doing her homework like every child is supposed to.
"Hi, what's with all the yelling?" Rory asked.
"Sorry about that. I have to take Jess out for a while. We need to have a serious conversation." Luke explained.
"You're not gonna kick him out, right?" Rory asked, worried. She was still pissed at Jess, but after all he was just a 10-year-old boy who had already been abandoned by his mother.
"No, of course not. We just need to explain a few things. Rory, I'm gonna ask you a question and I need you to be honest with me. I won't be mad, I promise. Did you give Jess one of your old papers to copy?" He asked. He figured he needed to have all the information before he started to give him his punishment.
"No, I didn't." Rory answered, surprised. "Did he use one of my papers?"
"I'm afraid so." Luke sighed deeply. "I'm sorry about that. Okay, kid, I need to head out and try to sort all of this mess out. Will you be okay here by yourself till your mother comes home? There's some leftover chicken from yesterday in the fridge - you can heat it up for dinner."
"Sure, I'll be fine, dad. You can go."
"Okay, then. Bye, hon."
Jess was already waiting for Luke at the front porch.
"Get in the car. I'm sure you already know what this is all about so don't even bother looking for excuses."
They drove in silence. The drive wasn't long. After about 15 minutes, Luke parked his car near the little Stars Hollow Lake. Jess remembered this place. They used to hang out here when they were younger, before they started to make trips to the bigger lake near the cabin. Luke pulled out his fishing gear from the trunk and gestured to Jess to move to the little bridge at the lake.
"What are we going to do? Do you think a little fishing trip will make us bond? That we suddenly gonna hold hands and skip around?" Jess asked sarcastically.
"I thought I already told you to be quiet. It's my turn to talk."
"Gee, uncle Luke. That's not very nice. Maybe I should just call Child Protective Services?"
What came next was certainly not one of the proudest parental moments in Luke's life. Someone could even argue that it was the worst. And for a brief second he wondered if he should do it, but ultimately decided to go for it for 2 main reasons: 1) The lake wasn't too deep and it was almost summer so the water was warm 2) Jess needed a wake-up call like nobody else. So Luke pushed him to the lake. He went under for a second but quickly emerged from the water. The lake really wasn't deep, it barely reached his chest. For a minute Jess just stood there, shocked.
"You're more than welcome to call Child Protective Services now. You can also get out of the water, take a towel, fish with me quietly and listen to what I have to say."
Jess stood in the water for one more minute, as if he was weighing his options but ultimately decided to listen to Luke. He got out of the water, wrapped himself in the towel and took his fishing rod. It was not his first time fishing, Luke was teaching it to all of the kids since they were little, and while Rory and Lane quickly lost interest, Jess and Logan were always keeping Luke company at his fishing trips. So he knew what to do. They set up in silence, Jess didn't dare to mouth off again, he was just waiting for Luke to speak up.
"I was trying to protect you from the truth for the last 3 months now and it's clearly not working. So I'm just going to tell you the truth and I trust you can handle it. I am furious with you mother. And so is Lorelai. She's my sister and I love her but what she has done is unforgivable. She didn't ask for our opinions, she didn't ask for your opinion, she just dumped you at our door as if you were an orphan. And we tried to mask our feelings so you wouldn't be angry at your mom, but honestly you should be angry. If I were you, I would be pissed as hell. So you can be angry, you can talk about it to me, Lorelai or Rory. I can even hire someone to talk to you, if you feel it would be more comfortable for you. But here's what you're not gonna do with your anger - you won't take it out on us, because this is not our fault. You won't be angry at your teachers. You won't let this situation affect your grades, because you are smart as hell and you shouldn't waste it. And finally, you will not ever and under any circumstances use Rory's work as yours, ever again. If you need help at school, just ask her, I'm sure she will help. But what you did with her paper is not okay and should never happen again. Got it?"
Jess was silent for a while, but he finally answered quietly.
"Got it. I'm sorry about the paper thing. I don't even know why I did it. I know I could write this paper on my own, easily. But I just don't feel like any of this is worth it. What's the point of it if it's never enough? And why couldn't I be enough for my mom?" At the last sentence his voice broke and Luke could see tears in his eyes. At this moment, Luke noticed the kid that he knew all these years - his nephew was still there, buried underneath all this anger. He put his arm around him and let him cry for a minute.
"I don't know, kid. I really don't. But I just want you to know one thing. We are mad at your mom, yes, but it doesn't mean that we don't want you here. You're family and you're always welcomed. We're just angry that it wasn't handled right. But I need you to know and believe that this is your home, for as long as you need it to be. And you're always enough for us." That was exactly what Jess needed to hear. "You know that I still have to punish you, right? You're family and not a guest at our house so there has to be consequences for your actions." Jess nodded sadly. "Okay, then. You're grounded for 2 weeks. And no TV. You have to write a new essay for tomorrow and apologize to Mrs Dawson. We're gonna go to the flower shop on our way back and you're gonna pick some really nice bouquet for her, okay?"
"Okay. We better make it 3 bouquets, though. I owe it to Rory and Lorelai. I've been kind of a pain in the ass, haven't I?"
"Yes, you were. But the important thing is that you want to change it."
They sat there for a little while longer, till Jess dried up under the warm sun. They even manage to catch a few fish. And when Lorelai came home after a long hard day of work she was surprised by a clean house and delicious dinner, which were both done with Jess' help, as well as a beautiful bouquet from him. And she knew she was right to trust Luke with this. Whatever he said to him, it obviously worked. When she was headed to bed, she even noticed Jess, sitting at his desk in his room and working on his essay. She smiled at the sight.
"You know what?" She said to Luke when they were in bed. "I don't think we need to try for another baby anymore. At least not in the near future."
"Why is that?" Luke asked, surprised.
"Well, let's face it. We haven't heard from Liz in 3 months. It's safe to say that Jess is gonna stay with us for a long time. So it's like we already have a daughter and a son." She noticed with a smile.
"I guess that's true." Luke agreed. And with that the Danes family has expanded to 4 people. They didn't know for how long, but not knowing was enough for now.
Author's note: Don't hate on me, but as I was writing this chapter I came to conclusions that this is not the time for Lorelai and Luke to have another baby just yet. It will happen, I promise, but it will be later on, when they least expect it. Stay tuned 😉