"So, Janie Fertman's trying to be my friend again." Lane says as the three of us walk down the streets of Stars Hollow.

Beside me, Rory grimaces. "Yikes. What kind of vibe are you giving her?"

"My patented Keith Richards circa 1969 'don't mess with me' vibe," she starts with a thoughtful look on her face. "With a thousand yard Asian stare," she finalises with a proud grin.

I pat her shoulder in agreement. "That should do it."

As we round the corner, the sounds of police sirens become apparent to us. The three of us stop in our tracks as we took in the scene before us.

In front of Doose's Market was a police cruiser along with a fire truck. The siren and lights on both vehicles flashing red and blue. A crowd of people had gathered to inspect what was going on at our local market.

"What's going on up there?" Rory asks in shock.

I shrug. "Maybe Luke finally snapped and killed Taylor," I joke, trying to cover up my knowledge -and credit- for the prank. Both girls simply stare at me. "Geez, tough crowd." I mutter under my breath.

The sound of a police officers voice became louder to us as we pushed our way to the front of the forming crowd.

A lady wearing the sheriffs uniform was standing in front of Taylor with a frown on her face. "Just try to calm down, Taylor."

Taylor looked at the woman with panic in his eyes. "Calm down? Why should I calm down!" He shouts, his hands moving wildly as he speaks. He looked as red as anyone could get without being a tomato.

"Yeah, why should he?" Bootsie asked from behind Taylor in solidarity.

Taylor ignores him and continued to whine. "I want action, not words!" He points his finger at the sheriff accusingly. She just rolls her eyes at his dramatics and crosses her arms.

"Action, not words!" Bootsie repeats again.

Taylor -finally taking notice, turns around to face him. "Don't you have to get back to your news stand?" He hopes with a glare.

Bootsie pats Taylor's shoulder proudly. "No buddy, I'm all yours."

"We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise." The sheriff tries to reason with Taylor.

"A crime was committed right in front of my store!"

Ignoring their argument I turn my attention to Rory and Dean.

"Hey, what's going on?" Rory asks her boyfriend.

Dean shrugs at her question. "Don't know," he starts before saying a quick 'hi' to me and Lane. "I got here, this is what I found."

Well, we had hoped Taylor would find it and completely freak. But I guess Dean was still a good victim. I turned to him with fake interest as he continued to speak.

"I told him it looked fake, he didn't believe me."

"And you have such an honest face," Rory pouts at him.

"He must not love me as much as you do."

Lane and I both gag at them. "You two are officially sickening," Lane comments before leaving.

Deciding that I didn't want to be left alone with those two, I make my way out of the crowd. I didn't want to be here when they figured out it was all a prank.

I was leaning against the street light and watching everything unfold when I felt a presence next to me. I looked up to see Jess standing there with a book in his hand.

His dark hair looking light brown under the streaks of sunlight that casts upon us. He had on a blue vest that went over his red and grey shirt.

Jess tries to hide the smile forming on his face. "So, what'd you do last night?"

I let out a small chuckle with a shake of my head at him. "Oh nothing much. Just went shopping with a psychopath."

"I'm a psychopath?" He repeated as I nod. "You wound me, Cherry." Jess exaggerated as puts his hand over his heart.

"Hey, you're the guy who thinks that The Cure is better than Pixies." I defend.

"I'm not even gonna unpack how wrong you are right now." He begins as I roll my eyes at him. "Is Taylor freaking out?"

We both look in the direction of Taylor to see him fuming as the sheriff told him it was just an elaborate prank. If he gets anymore red I was afraid he was gonna blow up.

I turn my head to Jess who was already looking at me. "I think it's safe to say mission accomplished."

Feeling someone staring at me, I look around until I lock eyes with someone. Rory stood there next to Dean with a questioning look on her face.

Jess, having realised that Rory may have figured out what we did groans. "She's not gonna tell anyone is she?"

"Nah, Rory isn't like that."

Jess and I both wave our hands at her with small smiles on our face.

~~~

"Do you think if I slam my head on the table hard enough, I'll die?"

I sigh, looking up at Tristan from the chair next to him. "From personal experience, no." He groans and slides off his chair until he's practically on the floor.

The library was empty since not many people in Chilton wanted to spend their recess in there. The librarian shoots us a glare at Tristan's loud ruckus, to which I send her an apologetic smile.

"Get up," I tell him, pulling him up by the shirt. "Listen, I don't like chemistry any more than you do. But you're the one who asked me to help." I tell him sternly when he finally sits properly in his chair.

"Fine," he grumbled unhappily as he opens back his textbook. "Actually I have a better idea," he continues after only a few seconds of reading.

I close my book and look at the oak table in despair. "Cant believe I'm asking this," I muttered to myself. "What is your brilliant idea, Einstein?"

Tristan rolled his eyes at my grumpy expression. "Well, since you asked so nicely." He says sarcastically as I snap a quick 'get on with it' to him. "Why don't you test me?"

Letting out a dry laugh I respond to him. "You want me to test you?" I repeat making sure I heard him properly.

"Oh come on, don't you trust that I've learned something? We have waltzed together, I'm sure that earns some trust."

"You barely looked at your book! I wouldn't trust that you know anything about chemistry even if we were married!"

"Cant you just-" he was interrupted by Rory bursting into the Library. We both watched as she scanned the room for us.

When she finally got to our table she completely skipped the pleasantries and went straight to business. "We're friends, right?"

Before I could answer, Tristan butted in. "Well Mary, we could be more than friends if you'd like." He sends her what I suppose could be a charming smirk.

Rory simply stares at him, unimpressed. She then turns to me, waiting for my answer. "Of course, we're practically family."

"Take that, guidance counsellor." Rory murmured with pride.

"What?"

"The guidance counsellor thinks I have no friends," Rory explains whist taking a seat opposite me. "Even so, I told her about you. I thought that if she thought I was lonely, then you must be too."

"Hey!" I exclaim. "Just because you're going down doesn't mean you have to drag me with you."

"Sorry," she apologised with a sheepish smile. "It didn't work anyways. She says that since you occasionally talk to both Tristan and Paris they're technically your friends."

Tristan slings his arm over my shoulders. "You hear that? We're friends," he starts with a grin. "And friends trust each other."

"In your dreams," I retort before pushing his arm away.

"Anyway, she says I have to join a club or something so that I'm more social." Rory twists her face at the word 'social' as if it were poison. "And I really don't wanna do that."

I shrug, not knowing how I can help her. "I don't blame you. People suck."

"They do." Rory and Tristan say in sync.

"You can join my club," Tristan jokes.

Rory looks up at him hopefully. "Really? What is it?"

"It's the 'let's go out together club.'"

She told her eyes at his antics. "Hard pass."

"If you want you can always join the debate team with me," I suggest. "Well, with me and Paris."

Rory scrunched her face up at the mention of the girl who currently hates her guts. "Another hard pass."