DISCO NIGHTS !
CHAPTER FOUR
FAIR AND SQUARE
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MAEVE TOOK A customer's empty plate to the kitchen with one hand, the girl holding her copy of 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker in her other hand, focus entirely on the page she was reading.
Throughout the whole morning, Maeve had managed to juggle reading and working simultaneously, almost over-pouring Kirk's coffee once before quickly saving it right before the liquid could reach the rim of the cup.
It wasn't as if 'Dracula' was the most riveting book ever—Maeve could think of at least fifty others that overtook its position—, but Flynn had mentioned in a fleeting conversation that it was one of the only books he's ever read and liked, so Maeve wanted—needed—to reread it to refresh her memory.
Flynn wasn't much of a reader anyway, so this was quite a big deal for Maeve if she wanted to talk to him about books at all.
Sure, talking about other things was incredibly easy and beyond fine, but Maeve enjoyed the debating and discussion aspect of novels, music, movies, and practically everything else. If there was nothing of substance to a conversation, what was the point? Plus, to Maeve, talking about books was fun.
"Look at that girl go." Lorelai's astounded voice caught Luke's attention, who was pouring her coffee, from the table she was sitting at with Rory, chin resting on her palm as both herself and her daughter watched Maeve in awe, as if she was putting on a show. "How is she doing that?"
"Even I can't multitask to that extent." Rory raised her eyebrows, praising Maeve's ability to both read and serve customers at the same time.
Kirk raised an eyebrow from the adjacent table. "I've tried to catch her attention several times, but she won't budge. It's like she's on autopilot."
Luke now twisted around to look at Maeve at the conversation topic, who was handing a customer their change, dropping the coins in the palm of their hand and closing the register without looking up from the page she was currently speed-reading.
Luke slightly narrowed his eyes, turning to Lorelai and Rory again as he blew out a breath. "She's been doin' this all morning."
"How'd she convince you to let her read and work at the same time, honey?" Marjorie furrowed her eyebrows from her seat on another table. "I know my granddaughter's quite clever, but to convince even you is a feat in itself."
Lorelai nodded in agreement, also seeking answers to her same, unspoken question, as she glanced up at Luke from her seat.
"We made a deal. If she spills coffee, drops any food, or messes up in any way, shape, or form, she has to put the book away." Luke briefly explained as he glanced between Marjorie and Lorelai, tone deadpanned and conveying that he was incredibly reluctant to let Maeve juggle both tasks.
"Can I get some more coffee please, Maevey?" Miss Patty questioned from her seat, glancing up at Maeve in question as the young girl had now slowly made her way over, still reading the book, which was in her other hand that wasn't occupied with the coffee vat.
"Come again soon, Babette." Maeve incoherently murmured, and as Miss Patty frowned in confusion and tried to reach up to grab the coffee vat, Maeve just turned around and walked back to the counter with the coffee vat remaining in her hand, still reading the book as she did so.
Luke shot the girl a warning glare as he called out, watching the entire interaction. "That's it. Maeve, get your nose out of the book!"
At the suddenness of Luke's loud voice, Maeve jumped, only a small bit of coffee spilling out from the spout of the coffee vat as a consequence.
Maeve sent Luke a pointed look as she placed both the book and the coffee vat on the counter and blew out a breath, grabbing a clean rag from the counter and wiping the floor where the coffee spilled.
"The effort was there, honey!" Lorelai's supportive voice called out.
"Yeah, you did okay...for the most part!" Rory added, the support from the Gilmore's—albeit, slightly strained from the youngest—making Maeve smile a little.
The smile was quickly wiped away when the girl stood up, however, as she was met with the sight of Jess standing at the end of the apartment's stairs, judgemental look plastered across his sour face. "Dracula? Really?"
"Oooo, here comes the entertainment." Lorelai whispered, leaning slightly closer to her daughter as she kept her eyes on the pair.
"What?" Rory furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at her mother, not understanding the meaning behind them.
"Oh, ever since Jess came into town, they have not stopped going at it, honey." Patty chimed in.
"Oh, Patty, 'going at it'?" Marjorie repeated the woman's words, who now shrugged, cringing a little at the wordplay.
Maeve shot Jess an exasperated glare as she ignored the gossip, looping around the counter and throwing the rag to Caesar in the kitchen to clean, wordlessly signifying that she needed a fresh one. "Caesar, we're out of fresh rags out here! And 'Dracula' isn't my ideal choice, Mariano, but if you must know, all of this effort is for someone."
Jess provokingly raised his eyebrows as he watched the girl catch a fresh rag from Caesar and place it under the counter. "Let me guess...some dude?"
"He 'some dude'd her." Lorelai gasped with briefly widened eyes.
"What does that mean?" Rory's eyebrows furrowed deeper as she whispered.
Maeve scoffed at Jess, signifying that his guess was correct. "I'll have you know, not everything I ever do—or read, for that matter—is for 'dudes'."
"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Jess challenged, unconvinced at her answer.
"You know what?" Maeve simply raised her eyebrows at him as her tone fell sarcastic, the girl grabbing the coffee vat and approaching Miss Patty's table to refill her coffee. "The minute I get home, I'll take a picture of my bookshelf, print it out, and mail it right up to Luke's apartment for you."
Jess picked up Maeve's copy of 'Dracula', briefly holding it up and raising his eyebrows as he quipped sardonically in response. "Don't bother, I already know everything I need to."
Once Maeve frowned, straightened up, and opened her mouth to correct him, Jess just smirked in accomplishment, dropping the book on the counter and making his way back upstairs.
Maeve rolled her eyes, the girl shaking her head as she approached Lorelai and Rory's table, refilling their coffee cups.
"Note to self, Rory, we don't need to rent 'Diner' tonight." Lorelai quipped, glancing up at Maeve as she did so.
"Or '10 Things I Hate About You'." Rory added with a small smirk.
"Lorelai's joke would've been funnier if there were any similarities between that interaction and the movie at all. And Rory, I could list about a million things, minimum, that I hate about him." Maeve huffed out a breath that resembled a faint chuckle, the girl moving on to her grandmother's table and refilling her cup.
"Lorelai's right, hon, that was quite entertaining." Marjorie stated. "And there are similarities between you two and those characters from that movie that Rory referred to."
Maeve furrowed her eyebrows at her grandmother, placing the coffee vat on the table as she did so. "Margie, not you too."
As if on cue, Delaney strolled into the diner, grinning in amusement as she observed Maeve's sour expression, the girl sitting beside Marjorie once she grabbed a clean cup from a free table. "Oh, you look happy."
"Can it, Jones." Maeve shot her best friend a brief look as she poured the girl some coffee.
"Woah, don't get all 'Kill Bill' on me, I was just teasing." Delaney held her hands up in a mock-surrender motion as she momentarily widened her eyes and looked away before glancing at Maeve again. "Hey, let's head off to school."
"Right, yeah, let's go." Maeve nodded, making her way around the counter to place the coffee vat in its place, grab her book from the counter, and disappear for a few seconds to retrieve her backpack from the store room before returning to Delaney, who was now waiting by the diner's door.
As Delaney opened the door and began to leave Luke's, Maeve followed after her, stopping to turn to face the establishment again to wave at Luke and the familiar faces in the diner. "See you after school, Luke. Bye guys!"
"See ya." Luke nodded.
"See you at home, my darling." Marjorie waved.
"Thanks for the entertainment, Maeve!" Lorelai grinned, Rory huffing a chuckle at the words as she sipped her coffee.
•
Maeve and Delaney closed their locker doors once they took out their notebooks for their following classes, the pair beginning to walk down the hallway as they did so, with Delaney finishing her statement. "So, that is why we should pull a Ferris Bueller right now. Y'know, get enough practice for graduation."
"Oh, sure, we can live vicariously through him and 'borrow' a Ferrari just because you're bored." Maeve sent her best friend a tight-lipped grin as they continued to walk towards their next class.
Delaney's eyebrows quirked upwards as she noticed Flynn Abrams standing by their next classroom and leaning his shoulder against the wall, speaking to his friends.
"Hey, look, it's your boyfriend." Delaney teasingly smirked as she lightly nudged Maeve's waist, gesturing to the boy with a nod of her head and, consequently, redirecting Maeve's gaze to the boy.
"He's not my boyfriend." Maeve answered as her gaze softened once her eyes landed on him, the girl moving her books so she was holding them up to her chest comfortably. "Yet."
Delaney raised her eyebrows, huffing out an impressed chuckle at the words. "Love the confidence."
"Yeah, well, it's great to be ambitious." Maeve quickly answered before plastering on a sweet smile as the pair approached Flynn and his friends. "Hey, Flynn. Guys."
"Hey, Maeve, Delaney." Flynn redirected his attention to the girls, nodding at both of them as his friends mirrored his actions, muttering scattered "hey's" and "hi's".
Flynn's gaze lowered to Maeve's hands once his friends soon returned their attentions back to their own conversations, and his eyebrows raised as he gestured to one of the books in Maeve's hands. "Hey, 'Dracula'. I read that a few weeks ago. Good book."
Maeve's gaze shifted between the book in her hands, along with her notebooks, and Flynn, nodding as she answered. "Oh, you did? Yeah, it's a great book. I just started re-reading it."
Flynn placed his notebook on the ground before curiously grabbing the book out of her hands, flipping to the dog-eared page—which was more than halfway through the book—, and huffing out an impressed chuckle, eyes reverting back to Maeve as he slightly held the book up. "You're more than halfway through. You said you just started re-reading it?"
"She's a freakishly fast reader." Delaney chimed in from her position beside Maeve, catching the other two's attentions. "Even when she's reading a book for the first time."
Maeve shifted her weight between her feet, scoffing nonchalantly as she dismissed the words and glanced away. "Years of practice..."
"Well, that's...an interesting talent." Flynn slowly answered. "Sorry, I don't read that much, I'm not sure how to answer that..."
Maeve chuckled, grinning at the boy in response. "You're answering just fine."
A small smile overtook Flynn's features as he nodded. "Okay, cool."
As if on cue, the teacher for the group's next class appeared at the door, swinging it open and smiling at the teens as she did so. "Come in, guys, class has started."
•
Maeve entered the diner right after she finished school, Delaney right behind her.
As Maeve went around the counter, Delaney sat on one of the counter seats, placing both hers and Maeve's backpacks on the seat beside her.
Jess emerged from the curtain, noticing Maeve and crossing his arms over his chest as he spoke up. "How was your 'Dracula' analysis?"
Maeve just shook her head, refusing to look at him as she deadpanned. "Shut up."
"Relax, Mina Harker, I was just asking." Jess held his hands up in a faux-surrender motion as he walked past her, grabbing his jacket from the hook on the wall near the kitchen and making his way to the diner's door. "Say hi to Jonathan for me."
"Really profound reference, Mariano, I bet that one took a few hours to come up with." Maeve slightly narrowed her eyes at him.
"Jeez, I'm not that slow. And only six." Jess' eyebrows quirked upwards as he went along with her words, not taking the insult seriously as he added in the last quip before swinging the door open and leaving the diner, letting the door slam shut behind him.
"Could've fooled me." Maeve scoffed in a murmur, grabbing a notepad and a pen from under the counter as she did so.
"I bet he was super proud of that." Delaney huffed out an amused chuckle.
"I would not be surprised." Maeve agreed, and the girl gave a little wave to Luke once the man appeared from the store room, signifying that she was back and on the clock, Luke nodding in acknowledgment.
•
AUTHOR'S NOTE
as of right now, my plan is to keep rory and dean together (ew, i know. jess, tristan, and logan over dean ANY day), primarily for the plot of this story to make sense!
also, these first few chapters are quite slow because i'm still introducing everything, but trust me, once i publish more, the plot and my characters' storylines will start to make sense.
© voidvaleska