╭ ╮
━━━ " 📂 " ..⃗. ༉
𝘿 𝘼 𝙉 𝘿 𝙀 𝙇 𝙄 𝙊 𝙉 𝙎
! chapter six ─── ʚĭɞ
╰ ╯
ALL WAS WELL IN STARS HOLLOW - or at least it was now that Christopher Hayden had left. He had hung over the town like a dark shadow, breaking the happy atmosphere that had created around Evie since her arrival.
It seemed to have gotten even worse on the night of Rory's Debutante Ball, when her Dad told her all about Sherry and Boston and how her running away was conveniently timed. Which was typical. Evie wanted to tell Lorelai and Rory all about it, but there was no way she could burst the bubble of a perfect-dad-that-came-to-visit-every-so-often idea that Rory seemed to have.
So instead she kept quiet about everything that she had talked with Christopher about at the event - didn't mention a single things. Even if her experience was bitter, she didn't want Rory to have her image of Christopher tainted any further.
Evie had no choice but to continue on with life as if that entire night had never happened. And she was more than happy to do so, not asking Lorelai about the photos that Emily Gilmore had and tucking the dress she had worn to the back of her cupboard-turned-closet. She went back to working her daily shifts, and even worked a couple hours up at the Independence Inn with Lorelai's new social event happening soon.
The social event was a product of Lorelai joining the Booster club at Chilton. Rory had been approached by the Chilton guidance counsellor and was told she was a loner, thus prompting her to socialise more outside of classes. This diagnosis extended to Lorelai, who needed to get more involved with the parents at the preparatory school, and so she joined the club and offered up the Inn as a location for a charity.
Evie could only count herself as lucky that the guidance counsellor at Stars Hollow High didn't seem to give a shit that her social life consisted of walking to school in silence with Jess after working the early morning shift at Luke's, talking to one or two people in lessons and disappearing somewhere in lunch before doing the same and then leaving to go to Luke's or the inn to finish setting up for the event. She had even attended one of the sacred Gilmore Friday night dinners.
Then, the weekend came and so did the charity fashion show, which Evie stuck by to help waitress before returning back to her usual schedule by Monday.
She would work for a few hours at Luke's, doing whatever she could to take her mind off of things that had happened with Christopher and coming home to Rory and Lorelai, eat dinner and ask her half-sister to borrow a book that she would then fall asleep reading.
And it was a book that she picked up and hurled at the door to her shed door when there was the knock in the middle of a night. A muffled, recognisable laugh could be heard and Evie's eyes blinked open in the darkness, clock showing early hours of the morning.
Brow furrowed, she pushed herself from her bed she traipsed the short distance over to the door and pushed it open, eyes closing instinctively when a light shined in her face.
"Wow, you look hot." The sarcasm dripped from the voice, the owner lowering the torch and grinning.
"Gee, thanks Jess." Evie pushed her door open further and leaned against the frame, eyes slowly adjusting to the light. Can't say the same for you. So, what's with the early morning wake-up call? I still have an hour or so left of sleep."
"I have police tape." Jess replied, lifting up his other hand. He wasn't lying, although he didn't really have any reason to; in his hand was a role of yellow plastic, with black letters printed across the centre.
"Mhm, I can see that." Evie nodded, shivering in the early Winter temperature.
"And I have chalk." A cardboard box is produced out of Jess' jacket, four sticks of chalk in white, blue, pink and orange.
" I do have eyes, you know?"
"Well the amount of times you bump into that table by the counter makes you think otherwise." Jess couldn't help but slide the comment in, easily dodging when Evie attempted to punch him. "Taylor Doose was pissing me off the other night."
"Hey, would you look at that," Evie paused in the middle of her sentence, covering her mouth as she yawned, "me too. Wasn't he asking for that vanilla syrup stuff to put in his coffee?" She recalled.
"Yep." The Mariano boy confirmed with a nod of his head. "And then you said how they had it all over California."
"Under my breath." Evie added. "Which was a massive mistake because then he ranted about how the diner was outdated for about half an hour after."
"So he pissed you off as well."
"Definitely."
Jess smiled, looking a little more confident in his next words as he held up the tape and the chalk. "Want to help fake a murder scene in front of his shop?"
"Well... how good are you at drawing?" It was a crucial question, really, and if Evie was going to do this with him then she needed an answer.
"Pretty good." Jess rolled his eyes when he saw the look she gave him. "Definitely respectable."
The Hayden girl wasn't convinced, arms wrapped around her middle. "Wanna bet I'm better?" She seemed a lot more awake now, eyes bright and shining in the light of the torch.
"Sure I'll take that." He looked like he was considering something for a moment, probably what he could get out of it. "Pack of cigs?" Jess added seconds later, confirming Evie's thoughts.
She shook her head. "Haven't got any left, Luke took my last pack the other night. I have..." Evie disappeared for just a moment, turning to the hooks on the back of the door, digging through the pockets of her coat. "Eight dollars, a stick of gum and a couple of those cough sweets with the lemon honey stuff in the middle."
"For the eight dollars, you're on." Jess grinned. "Now get ready to leave in ten."
And so Evie did that, closing the door behind her and rushing around to pull on a pair of jeans and a sweater, slipping her jacket over her shoulders and grabbing her bag for the day. The girl pulled on her sneakers, brushed her teeth in the small bathroom and retrieved the book she had thrown, cringing at the folded cover and smoothening it out before placing it into her bag.
It was approaching light as they hurried from the Gilmore house to the town centre, the sun was yet to rise so darkness still prevailed. However the combination gave them perfect cover to begin their drawing.
Jess knelt on the sidewalk sketching out the body outline, Evie having begrudgingly left him to do it. She had discovered that her talents didn't seem to lay as deep within drawing as she hoped, and instead she resigned herself to tying the end of the tape to a post.
Footsteps could be heard and she glanced up, easily manoeuvring herself in front of Jess. "Can I help you?" She asked. "Nothing to see here.. move along." She waved her hand in front of her, gesturing for the staring man to continue onwards.
Evie's eyes flickered to the brown paper bag screwed up in his hand. "Oh come on dude - Al's Diner, really? You know Cinnamon the cat died from eating something from there, have a little self respect."
"What are you trying to say-" The man began, only to be cut off by the sight of Jess standing up beside her. "Hey - you're that kid who works at the diner and-"
"We both work at the diner, dumbass." Jess rolled his eyes, leg slowly extended and pulling the tape behind him. "You heard her, move along."
Without a second glance to the pair, the man moved along, throwing out the paper bag in the next trash can he reached. "God I hate people in this town." Evie ducked down to pick up the tape, tying it to the brown newspaper box and pulling it around corners before attaching the other end to a lamp post. "You done?"
Jess nodded, standing back and looking down at his work. "Looks pretty realistic, huh?"
"Yeah, you did a good job." Evie reluctantly handed him the eight dollars, before taking the police tape and chalk, shoving it into her bag. "I'll hide these in my room, I'll see you in the diner in twenty."
"You got it." Jess nodded his agreement, watching as Evie crossed the road and passed the gazebo, jacket pulled tight around her.
He seemed to hate a lot of people in Stars Hollow as well. That didn't seem to include the two half-sisters of the Gilmore house.
But he was never going to admit it.
⩩≀𓈒
True to her word, Evie had stuffed the chalk and police tape far under her bed, covered up by a box of her old clothes that she kept there for her visits. In the short time she deemed she had afterwards, she crept into the house to shower and tidy herself up a bit more, swapping her bag for her school one and headed to the diner.
Luke had just been opening when she arrived, and looked rather suspicious when he saw her. After several questions to why she was up so early and wondering why Jess seemed to be up at the same time.
She had sat in a window seat with a cup of coffee, a couple slices of toast and her book until customers began to trickle inside, migrating to the behind the counter and making sure there was enough coffee to go around.
Rory and Lorelai had come in, and only the latter had stayed. As it was a school day, Rory had disappeared to catch her bus to Chilton with coffee in her hand and a muffin in a paper bag and Lorelai had sat herself down on one the tables where Jess then served her coffee.
And now, Evie was leaning against the counter, elbows propped up as she read her book and listened to Luke and Lorelai talk about business, looking up when she saw a woman raise her mug for Jess to serve her coffee, only for him to walk right past everyone to the curtain.
"Here's your pancakes." Evie was called over to take the plate from Caesar and placed it in front of the man sat at the counter, stepping into the middle of the space as Jess walked up. "Nuh-uh. You serve that woman coffee Mariano."
"Why, she gave me a funny look?" Came Jess's immediately defiant reply.
"She gave you a funny look because you didn't serve her coffee." Evie shook her head. "Go serve her some. And Lorelai as well, she looks like she needs a top-up."
Jess grumbled something under his breath that she didn't quite catch, folding the corner of her book and sliding it into her bag as she reached to get one of the donuts from under the case and place it on the plate, slipping out from behind the corner and approaching the table to where her boss and guardian were sat.
"How are you, Jess?" Lorelai was asking as Evie appeared on the other side of her. Jess poured some coffee into her cup, whilst she put down the plate.
"I'm not bleeding or anything." He replied. Gosh, sometimes Evie really did consider bashing him over the head with the stupid coffee pot.
"Well.. then it's gonna be a good day, huh?" Lorelai could hold her own with ease, but that didn't seem to make Jess' attitude die down at all.
"It's 7:45." Jess barely even acknowledged what he said, gesturing at Evie across from him.
"So?" Luke asked, copying his actions and looking between the two teens. He didn't seem to have any concept on why either of them would be bothered about the time.
"Do you want us to go to school?" Jess continued. "Or do you want to openly defy child-labour laws?"
"Go." Luke didn't hesitate, pointing towards the door. "Stay out of trouble."
"Guess that means calling off the chickie run down at the salt flats." Jess called over his shoulder as he disappeared behind the counter to pick up his stuff, and the two adults turned to Evie, who was still stood by them.
"Well.. as much as I would like to help you defy any laws at all, I don't want to get another detention from that woman." Evie clapped her hands together, a cheerful smile on her face that didn't seem to match her words as she picked up her bag, swinging it over her shoulders. She began towards the door, standing and waiting for Jess to appear again. "And if I get another detention I might die, and as much as I joke about it, I'm not looking for that right now."
Jess strolled over as if he was about to take a walk around the lake rather than travel the short distance to school. "Those jokes are never funny." He commented as she pulled the door open, the chime on the overhead bell sounding as she rolled her eyes.
"I find them funny." She replied as Jess pushed past her and out of the door. "And that's all that matters."
"Well that's just sad." Jess replied, nose wrinkled as she followed him out, the girl waving at Lorelai and Luke as they passed. In the most sarcastic manner that one could wave - which was questionable, but she managed to do it.
"Well.. you're sad." Evie replied as they fell into step besides one another, eyes set on the steady flow of people entering the school.
"God, your comebacks are getting worse and worse."
"You just referenced Rebel Without A Cause right in front of me."
"Not a fan of James Dean?" Jess cocked an eyebrow as he examined her expression, turning back to the path they were walking.
"Just find privileged kids acting as if their lives are so shit when they're better off than most." Evie shrugged. "And I'm not a big fan of movies that hit a weird lack of realism. I mean a kid died and nobody cared!"
About to reply with something that revolved around the idea of him referencing it even more, Jess was cut off by her elbowing him and he looked up. Suddenly, the course of what he was planning to say changed very suddenly.
"Ah, Taylor, good morning!" Jess called out across the road, the owner of Doose's Market looking up across the street. "Sorry - looks like you're real busy."
"Did you-" Taylor began, but Evie cut him off.
"I tried to talk Luke into getting that syrup stuff you were on about, but it doesn't look like it'll be here any time soon." The Hayden girl called over. "And yeah.. sorry to interrupt your little crime scene, have a good day!"
The two only started to react when they turned away, no words exchanged but small smiles of victory formed as they climbed up the front steps of the school, nodding at each other before going their separate ways.
That's how it went every morning, each of them pretending not to know each other as they walked the halls, returning to the Diner to torment Luke and Taylor.
It was a shame that they seemed to keep this silence up in their classes, their lack of participation making it almost as if neither were there. Which was exactly how they liked it.
⩩≀𓈒
In fact, Evie's silence was broken during her fourth period that day, sat in the back of her AP Calculus class with her book hidden behind her textbook. Her previous grades seemed to have done her wonders at Stars Hollow High, but she just didn't care about it at all.
Yet another reason why Christopher would prefer Rory; she prioritised school over anything else, and managed to balance everything perfectly. Evie just seemed to settle into the fact she didn't like it and so she couldn't be bothered.
A sigh escaped her lips as two pages got stuck together, slumping in her seat as she tried to pry them apart and not noticing how the class had fallen quiet. But she did notice when people turned around to stare at her.
"Yes?" Her voice rang across the class.
"I asked you a question." The teacher, a rather evil woman named Mrs Clarke, replied, stepping into her view. "But it seems like you weren't focusing. Miss Hayden, can you come up and solve the question on the board please?"
Evie sighed again, folding the corner of her page but not bothering to shut the book. In fact, she didn't even bother to stand up to see the question, instead leaning to the side.
"No." She answered shortly, sitting upright once again and returning to her book.
"No?" Mrs Clarke questioned. "And why not?"
"Because I can't." Evie shrugged, eyes scanning over the lines to find her place.
Mrs Clarke scoffed. In all honesty, the teacher didn't like the bratty new kid from the West Coast - or the sarcastic who-gives-a-shit one from the East. "Looks like you don't know everything, huh California?" And Mrs Clarke would never hesitate to point out her dislike.
The Hayden girl let out a third sigh, sitting up in her chair and moving her gaze from her book up to her teacher. "Maybe if you pulled that stick out of your ass then you would know not to have expectations of someone just because of where they're from." Evie tilted her head. "See I didn't judge you to be a massive bitch just because you're from Stars Hollow, I had the pleasure of learning that sat right here."
She didn't even know what had brought it on, perhaps just one too many jabs from people about her coming from California, or the automatic hatred that seemed to be displayed to her and Jess at every chance.
The sentencing of a detention wasn't a surprise to her, a almost happy smile spreading over her lips minutes later as the fire alarm rang, Mrs Clarke looking rattled that her class had been disrupted.
And as she trailed down the corridors from her last period to the room in which after school detention was held, Jess appeared beside her, breaking the unspoken rule of them not speaking at school.
"Tell Luke I got a detention for me?" Evie didn't even bother to greet him, diving straight into asking him to do something for her.
"No can do. I've got one as well." Jess replied. "And don't bother telling me why you got one, I heard someone from your class whining about how you called Mrs Clarke a bitch."
"And I told her that she had a stick up her ass." Evie turned towards him, the pair of them maneuvering their way down the corridor, now on the same path. "So, what did you do?"
"Skipped one too many times.. smoked in the toilets, set off the fire alarm."
The Hayden girl let a smile appear on her lips. "That was you Mariano? As much as I hate to admit it, I'm glad you did that. Thought Clarke was going to burn a hole into my head." Evie shivered thinking about it. "Got anymore of those cigarettes left?" She asked as they moved into single-file as they approached the stairwell.
"None." Jess replied, waiting for the noise and hubbub to die down as they reached the bottom and made their way down a much emptier corridor to continue. "They took them all off me."
They came to a stop outside of the classroom, a sight they were now very much accustomed to, despite not being there for too long. It was a drab room, with one of the older teachers sitting at the front desk with other people dotted around, doing their own thing.
"You sound like a little kid Mariano, suck it up." Evie replied, noting the hints of sulkiness to his tone. "Just got your favourite toy taken off of you?"
"Shut up." Jess grumbled. "You know, you might want to tone it down on the snarky comments, I heard they can get you in trouble here."
"Yeah - no shit." Evie shook her head and laughed. "And maybe you could take your own advice there as well, start to get on with Luke."
"And this is why I don't talk to you at school." Jess grumbled as he stepped inside the classroom, the two of them taking seperate sides to it and sliding down into seats, Evie taking one beside a rather pretty, dark haired girl who was more focused on drawing on a scrap of paper than anything else.
The girl barely even glanced up when she sat down, her only acknowledgment being a slight nod.
Evie didn't really mind this; she had only chosen to sit beside her so that Chuck Presby couldn't leer at her - he had been trying to ask her out since she arrived and it was getting borderline creepy at this point and so she did her best to ignore him.
Silence rang in her eyes, only interrupted by the odd cough, scratch of the pencil on the paper and Evie turning the page of her book. But then, out of the corner of her eye she saw the girl besides her glancing over every now and again.
Great, another creep.
Evie cleared her throat, about to turn and ask the girl what her problem was when the girl stopped drawing and reached over to place the scrap of paper under the Hayden girl's nose.
It was a picture of her reading, a rough sketch of an oddly pretty girl who looked far happier in the drawing that in real life. "Oh." Evie mumbled, quiet enough for no one else to hear it.
She was not expecting that, clearly.
The girl smiled at her reaction, scoffing and shaking her head as she took the paper back, picking up her pencil once more and writing something before passing it back.
Evie stared down at the sentence which sounded more like was in prison than anything, eyes flickering back up to the girl, who gestured for her to reply. After several more moments of contemplation, she reached for her bag and pulled out a pencil that had been broken down the middle, wood splintering.
Evie waited patiently, glancing back to the typed words upon the page of her book. Her pencil was pressed into the curve, the lead making just a slight mark that could easily be erased.
Besides her, Arden was curled over a new piece of paper, working quickly to recreate the very drawing that had landed her in detention that afternoon. In a short amount of time, she had finished and was leaning over the gap between their desks, sliding over the piece of paper.
Evie unfolded it, gaze darting over it and mischief sparking. A laugh escaped her before she could stop it, and in an instance she had covered her mouth, looking up to the teacher at the desk.
"Is something funny?" The old woman asked, eyebrows raised over her spectacles. "Miss Flores, back to your desk please." Arden pushed herself back upright, and as soon as the teacher had returned to the pile of paper that was stacked in front of her, she took her drawing back, folding it up even smaller.
To Evie's surprise, she turned back to her and reached forward, a smile on her face as she tucked the folded drawing into the chest pocket of her shirt.
"Keep it." Arden grinned.
Suddenly, Evie didn't seem so lonely in the school anymore.