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Anthony LaRusso had finally come to terms with the crush he had on Lj, who had only just began talking to him in a friend type of way. In all honesty he had liked her since she first started West Valley Middle School.
He wondered around his room, scratching the back of his neck. It had been about five hours since he had seen both Lj and Kai in the library, anger was still lingering through out him. Lj wasn't his girlfriend, he couldn't really say anything. Even if he did say something, Kai had his ways of changing his words.
He continued to pace around his room, his hand continued to run through his hair and Anthony didn't know what to do. Never in his 14 years of living would he have thought that he would be stressing over a girl he shouldn't like.
It should have hit him the day she came to his house and he placed her circular glasses on her face that seemed to fit like a piece to a puzzle.
It should of hit him the day she fell and he helped her get to the hospital and then later shared a burger with her.
It should of hit him the day he sat and watched Gilmore Girls with his older sister just to have something to talk about with her or when he decided to read a stack of books Lj loves to make her like him a little bit more.
But jealousy was what brought out his feelings and in all honesty that was the push he needed to get his head straight and feelings in line. Anthony thought for a while of what he could do, telling Lj wasn't a bright option because he thought she would probably beat him up, again. He thought about instead of telling Lj his feelings, he'll tell her about how shitty Kai is.
Perfect Plan.
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The next morning was when Anthony decided he would talk to Lj about it today. He tried his best to dress slightly better and style his hair in a neater fashion.
While Lj had rolled out of bed half an hour too late and was now rushing around her room in grey sweatpants with a large black hoodie over a small white shirt. She sprayed deodorant on herself and pulled her messy hair in a loose bun.
Sprinting down the stairs of her home, a different sock on each foot, she ran into the kitchen where Kumiko was cutting some fruits and chucking them into a blender. "Good morning Lorelai, what is the rush?"
"I'm gonna be late if i don't leave soon auntie." She explained quickly, searching through the fruit bowl that sat centre on the counter. Kumiko looked up at her and chuckled slightly before closing the blender, hitting the button that started a loud scratching noise.
Lj slightly jumped back from the sound while she just quickly grabbed an apple and ran it under the faucet before saying a quick goodbye to her aunt who was slightly hesitant on her starting to take the bus again but the girl had already left before Kumiko could say otherwise.
She sped down the street towards the bus stop that she had recently found out was much closer then the original one she went to on her first few weeks.
The bus should be there at around 8:10 and she had five minutes to get there before she would have to run again, practically reliving her first day at the middle school.
Lj did eventually get to the stop with two minutes to spare, she used that time to text Liz who was getting a ride from her mom and wouldn't actually be on the bus. Liz suggested she text Kenny because she knew he would be on the bus but Lj hadn't spoken to him for a while and thought it would be rude to only text him for a bus ride.
Before she could ask Anthony, the bus pulled up to the stop and the doors slowly opened in front of her. Lj pulled her self up the small staircase and looked down the aisles of seats to see majority full of people she never talked to.
Her eyes darted to Anthony who was already looking at her, his look seemed different then before but she shrugged it off. She looked over at Kai who was grinning at her and had a spare seat next to him unlike Anthony who beside Zack. Then finally she saw a lonely Kenny with his headphones on and a sad look on his face.
Her decision on a seat had to be quick because the bus driver was yelling for her to sit down. Kai was patting the seat beside him, suggesting she sit with him but as Lj walked towards him, she was pulled besides Kenny.
"Jesus Christ, you scared me." She held her hand to her chest in a joking way while he pulled his headphones to sit around his neck. "Sooo whats up?" The question caused tension between the both but it was just their ice breaker.
"I wanted to talk. We haven't really talked since the drive in." He started to say to her, his face held an look of regret. "I'm sorry, Its particularly my fault for letting it all happen, I was just too angry and annoyed to say anything to you." Lj shook her head at him, disagreeing with what he was saying.
"No, you don't have anything to apologise for. You didn't know anything about it and in all honesty you had a right to be mad. My dojo sprayed yours with water and yes they deserved it but you hadn't done anything and neither of us should be involved with their karate drama." She explained to him. "I was just mad about everything they had done and -"
"No Lj, you had all the right to be angry, they fucking pushed you to your death and still want to continue this stupid fighting." Kenny had cut her off, his hand rested on hers. "You're my best friend and I let karate come between us. If you want me to quit that dojo, I will because you're a lot more important to me then that."
A small smile crept to her face, she wrapped an arm around his shoulder as he smiled. "You're my best friend as well Payne, you don't have to quit anything for me just as long as you stay like the sweet Kenny who kicks ass and dances on the side." He chuckled at her and nodded.
"Let's promise karate will never come between us in anyway." They wrapped their pinkies together and nodded. "Now we're all good, I'm gonna need your help asking out Liz." Lj instantly started smiling and gasped, she knew about their secret love for one another.
The two friends continued to talk between one another, it seemed like the first day they had met on that bus, they laughed and talked more. Happy to have their friendship rekindled but as time continued to go on, their karate promises would slowly break.
They eventually went to war with one another but that time was yet to come.
The sun before the storm.
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After the bus ride, the two went into school with one another, not stopping their too interesting conversation. They both had English first period, so they walked their together but not before stopping at Lj's locker to grab her book.
Liz was also getting stuff from her locker and when she saw the two, she was extremely happy to see her two friends back together again. She joined in with their conversation.
When Lj swung open the locker, still talking to the two, something fell to the floor. It was a folded piece of paper with her name written on top. "What's that?" Liz asked.
"My name apparently." Lj peeled open the paper to see messy handwriting all over it. She struggled reading it but eventually realised what was written on it.
Meet me at the abandoned staircase at the side of the school. 12pm - Jess Mariano
She giggled at the name he signed it as, instantly knowing who it was. This made her two friends raise an eyebrow. Lj just shoved it back into the locker and shut it behind her.
"So what was it?" They questioned again, she just hummed with a smile and shrugged her shoulders, acting just as clueless as them.
They all walked side by side into the large class, sitting all around the classroom, they had separated into their seats. While Kenny sat by the teachers desk and Liz sat by the door on the far back desk, then Lj sat by the back windows.
She stared outside, watching the 7th graders running around the tracks while her teacher was talking about The Outsiders and how they would be studying it in High School but she had already seen the movie and read the book.
The class got more boring as time went on and Lj was becoming less and less interested, so she decided to use her paper to draw people. She thought for a minute on who to draw, the girl ended up deciding on some of her favourite people.
It began with her moms, the style of drawing was slightly more cartoony than the usual style, she drew the two together with a sweet smile on both their faces.
The next was of Victoria and Miguel in some karate gis'.
The one after was Liz and Kenny by the l food shack at the abandoned fairground.
Lastly, she got to something else to draw, Lj was slightly clueless on what to do. Her mind went to the note that was left in her locker, making her grin and place the pencil on the paper.
Lj kept smiling down at the paper as she sketched everything out and she decided to add herself next to him. As the drawing come closer together, the time of class came closer and closer.
She slightly jumped when the bell rung and shoved everything into her bag before running out towards the locker of person she received the note from. Lj teared the drawing from the paper and wrote a note beside it before sliding it through the gaps of the locker.
See you then :) - Rory Gilmore.
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Time slowly passed for both the girl and the boy who were eager to see one another, for different reasons of course. While she remained curious all day, he remained nervous on what he was to say to the girl.
Both sat in different classes in different sides of the building, him being much closer to the staircase they was meeting. He wanted to take the time to figure out everything he was going to say to her while she took the five minute stroll around the school.
As song as the bell rang for lunch, he was the first one up and out the class, down the hall to the longest staircase in the building then back down another hall towards an exit, finally leading him to his destination.
For the few minutes alone, he thought about everything he should say to her, whether or not he needed to admit what he felt or just get her away from Kai. It also gave him time to look at the paper that had been shoved into his locker. He grinned down at the paper and carefully looked at every part of the drawing.
"You like the drawing ?" Anthony spun around on his heels to be faced with a slightly blushed Lj with her glasses balancing on her nose. " I hope it met with your standards Jess." She teased, moving up the steps.
"Yeah you could say so Ms Gilmore." He teased back, taking a seat on the higher step while she sat a few below him. They looked at one another for a minute, Anthony was grinning from ear to ear then Lj just had a sweet, small smile on her face. "So you're probably wondering why I wrote the note."
"Mhm, I thought Steve Harrington or Jess Mariano was going to be here, slight disappointment Anthony." She told him, he had a slightly confused look on his face.
"Steve?"
"Don't you dare tell me you've never watched Stranger Things!" He shook his head as a no, only reason he hadn't watched it was because he thought it looked shit. "Well there's this guy Steve, complete asshole in season one but very attractive. He wrote a note for his girlfriend Nancy and shoved it in her locker."
"Oh, well I just wanted to talk to you about two things." Lj nodded at his words to let him continue. "The first thing is about Kai, since you guys have been getting closer I thought to tell you something about him." She looked confused because she had not told Anthony about becoming friends with Kai nor had she thought he knew something about him.
"So? You can't just say that and stop." Lj was waiting for him to continue but he was just moving closer to her first.
"Yeah sorry, let me start." Anthony was much closer to Lj then a moment ago and with his new found feelings it was hard to focus on everything he wanted to originally say. "So basically, Kai is using you."
When he said that, he didn't mean it to be so blunt which kind of caused a slight shock from Lj who was taken aback. "Pardon?"
"Kai is using you to get to me, make me jealous and I thought you should know bec- becau-" Before he could admit his feelings, Lj cut him off with a quick 3 words.
"Are you jealous?" Anthony was quick to shake his head no when in reality he wanted to nod. "So how could he be using me then? If you're not jealous how could he be using me? Tell me that."
"Well I know hes gonna ask you out on a date, he's a complete asshole." She laughed in his face.
"Thats not an explanation! You're just trying to he controlling, what because you don't like Kai? And if I'm being honest you can't say anything about being an asshole." Lj was now standing up and moving away from the boy who was completely regretting saying anything. "And so what if he asks me out? You said you're not jealous so it's whatever."
"No you have to believe me! He's been putting on an act, you're acting naive!"
"ME? God I thought we were friends, now you want to control everything I do with my friends. You gonna say next I can't be friends with Kenny maybe even Liz!?" She was now walking towards the door, her mood was absolutely ruined. "And if Kai was to ask me out, I probably would have said yes but now you've told me I am definitely saying yes."
Lj walked away from him, back towards the cafeteria to meet her friends while Anthony sat alone by the stairs regretting the whole situation with her.
If this was something Liz or Kenny would have said, she would have reacted differently but hearing it from him was different.
The feelings weren't reciprocated, not just yet.
꧁꧂
As the day came to an end, Lj was waiting for Victoria to come and get her to take her to the fight between both of her sensis which had her amused. She sat alone on the wall at the side of the school which remained close to the baseball diamond.
Around ten minutes later she was still waiting for the blonde who had been caught in the traffic that was caused by California heat. Lj was just scrolling on tiktok when someone came beside her and made her jump slightly. "Hey Kai."
"Hey Lj, why you still here?" Kai slid down beside her and looked at her phone. "Oh i've got addicted to tiktok recently." She looked up at him and smiled, nodding in agreement and showing him more of her phone.
"Me too! I love those things these girls make on, these seashell bracelets and necklaces." He told her he was more interested in some other types of videos that she hadn't seen before so he decided to show her and Lj was actually slightly interested in them. "Ok ok, I guess they're cool."
"Just cool? They're awesome!" She laughed at his reaction, it caused another longer conversation between the two until there was a loud honk of Victoria's car. Lj looked over and saw the blonde smiling with Miguel beside her giving a small wave. "Is that your ride?" She nodded and a disappointed look went across his face. "Well I wanted to ask you something before you go. If it's alright?"
"Yeah go for it."
"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the arcade with me tomorrow, on a date." Kai seemed to be hesitant when he said that and while Lj's mind went to everything Anthony had said, the look on his face said otherwise.
"Yeah, I'd like that." Lj replied, causing a matching smile between the both. "I'd like that a lot."
Authors Note:
ANTHONY SIGNING THE NOTE JESS 😭😭 AND LJ SIGNING IT RORY.
they are my loves
but currently lj ain't projecting any love to him
but we're getting there
That chapter is set at the start of episode 6 and it wont go to when anthony is learning karate, thats the chapter after.
Also I know y'all wanted kai to be good but remember Anthony is an asshole but he wouldn't lie to Lj about other assholes