lovely | jess mariano

chapter four

it was a very loud no that exited victoria's lips when her mother asked if she wanted her grandmother's hairstylist. no offence to emily but she was a lot younger than her and her hairstylist was not one she would trust.

after that, she went back to her homework while rory showed dean neil young videos to try and get him to feel better about wearing tails and gloves. it shocked victoria that he was putting up so much of a fight over it. when she told jess he didn't argue (she hadn't really given him time but he was still okay with it). and he wasn't even her boyfriend. 

still, she didn't say anything, too engrossed in the paper in front of her. 

her head shot up when she heard a horn honking. rory shot up and ran outside to their dad but victoria was slower. she reached him as he told rory that 'a lady never runs out to meet a caller who hasn't been announced'.

"follow your sister's example. she's shaping up to be quite a lady."

"my wild ways have been tamed, rory's not so much," she quipped. 

christopher smiled, "well, thank god i'm here now. i missed you both."

rory pulled him into a hug, "me too." she pulled away.

"still not a hugger, tori?" christopher spoke. 

she shook her head, "not really."

lorelai took the attention off of victoria by asking about his car. she knew it wasn't that the girl didn't like hugs, it was that she wasn't a fan of her father. to her, he was the man that left, that didn't try and it was going to take a lot more than this for her to forgive him. 

"well, i needed more space. i had something big to haul," christopher answered, opening the trunk. "i believe this belongs to you." he pulled out a copy of the compact oxford english dictionary for rory. she freaked out, taking it from him, and the magnifying glass before running back inside. "and this you." he pulled out a faux leather bound notebook and pens. 

vee smiled, taking the gifts from his outstretched hands, "thank you."

---

luckily for victoria, she had training in dancing. sure, it was the training chilton had given her but it was good enough to get her through the training miss patty was forcing them into. 

rory and dean, however, were terrible. and because they were terrible, dean's focus wasn't on the fact jess, who he didn't really like all that much, was there. 

"god, if we have to stop one more time, i'm gouging my eyes out," tori seethed. 

"i'm sorry," rory exclaimed. "you can quit."

"and have to witness you dance poorly from the sidelines instead of being up there with you? no way."

rory smiled, knowing that even if she was insulting her in that sentence, what she really meant was that she was with her sister. no matter what. and rory had known that despite her offer, tori would never back down from something she'd talked her into. tori would face humiliation and worse for her sister. it was just a question of if rory would do the same for her. a question that tori tried to avoid dwelling on whenever it popped into her head. she would love to think that rory would. so, she does.

"we're taking a break though," vee told, pulling jess to the side so they could sit down. 

"how does it feel to be a natural born dancer, huh, jess?" vee teased. "seems like you were destined for broadway."

he rolled his eyes, "lucky for you, otherwise you'd be stuck up there dancing like them."

"true."

she quietened down, taking a sip of her now cold coffee. 

"where'd you learn to dance?" he asked.

she froze before shrugging, "nowhere." 

he noticed her lie almost instantly but didn't press it. and he couldn't as chris and lorelai arrived back at the dance studio. 

"hey, you guys are really improving, now you're actually facing each other," lorelai announced, placing down a bag of food. 

"anyone need a break?" chris offered. "or want to extend their break." his eyes fell on jess and vee. 

"okay, take five, but don't sit down. tori, that means you-" miss patty began. 

tori sighed, "but we've already learnt it all."

"your muscles will get cold, you don't want cold muscles do you?" 

"ugh, i guess not," she groaned, standing up. "c'mon jess."

"i don't mind cold muscles," he retorted. 

she rolled her eyes but didn't force him out of his seat, "do you have coffee?"

"what kind of mother would i be if i didn't?" lorelai gasped. 

"a responsible one," tori joked. 

she held out a coffee for tori to take, "ah but lucky for you i am not." she waited for tori to take a sip. "so, how's it going?"

rory walked over to her, "actually, i'm not very good. tori's got it down though."

"yeah, which is really holding me back, because i'm a natural," dean quipped. 

lorelai wrapped an arm around vee, "maybe you need a glittery glove and a really freaky face."

rory recalled only a few minutes before their parents had saved them when miss patty made rory sit in the corner and watch her dance with dean, something jess and victoria had laughed quietly about. they didn't want to draw too much attention to themselves and be subjected to the same thing. it really was lucky that they both could dance. 

"hey, nobody puts baby in the corner," lorelai exclaimed. 

"it's not your fault. ballroom dancing is a wonderfully sexist thing, any woman can do it. all she needs is a strong male lead, no offence dean," chris explained. 

tori looked behind her at jess, who was still lounging on one of the chairs, "hear that jess, you're a strong male lead."

"i'm flattered." 

victoria snorted quietly and then louder when chris pulled lorelai in, only for her to stumble and disprove his point. she whined loudly that she wasn't ready and that they had to do it over.

apparently they always had to make sure the guy they were dancing with had a trust fund. then lorelai and chris began dancing and proved that rory had no picked up the genetics that meant she could dance. 

"rory's so adopted," vee sing-songed. 

---

after miss patty had put them through a day of torture, victoria began her payback for jess agreeing to be her date. that included her following jess around the bookstore, holding the books he had decided to buy. 

"oh you should definitely get atonement," victoria announced, holding out the book she had read only a week prior. 

"you know the whole point is you buy what i want to read?"

"right, sorry," she apologised, moving to place the book back on the shelf. 

he watched her closely, taking the book from her hands and surveying the back. a few seconds later he placed it on the pile. 

she bit back a smile.

---

after the book shopping with jess she was eating chinese food while lorelai gave them rule after rule about being a lady and how they had to become 'completely helpless'.

then victoria announced she was going to bed. which apparently she was meant to have help with. 

"god, being a lady is hard," she laughed as she made her way upstairs. "this is so not the life for me."