𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 . . . 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘯𝘰𝘸
❝ It's magic! ❞

  JESS MARIANO WAS taking the project way too seriously, in Charlie Gilmore's humble opinion. Granted, it was basically a free pass to annoy Charlie to no end, she hadn't expected Jess to so quickly jump at this opportunity.

  "You know this counts as homework, right?"

  Jess followed the girl, hot on her heels, as she rounded the counter of Lukes, setting the coffee pot back in its respectful place.

  "Interesting— do you always reset the coffee once it's out?"

  "Yeah, because I'm a good employee," Charlie deadpanned, watching Jess scribble dramatically on a pad of paper, "Something you would know nothing about."

  "That hurts, Connecticut," Jess smiled, pointing his pencil at the girl.

  "Will you put down the stupid paper," She laughed, swatting as he began writing, "You aren't supposed to take notes about me, dude."

  "How else am I supposed to get to know you?" Jess asked, "An interview? An exclusive, with the Charlotte. . . what's your middle name?"

  "Emily."

  "An exclusive with the Charlotte Emily Gilmore?"

  "Mariano, would you shut up?"

  "Hey!"

  Charlie rolled her eyes, weaving around Jess to the phone hanging on the wall of the diner. She quickly scanned the diner, ignoring Jess's close eye— his pencil poised, before quickly dialing a number.

  "Little Lottie?"

  "Finnegan!"

  "There she is," Finn cheered, chuckling lightly, "How are you today, Lovely?"

  "I'm fine— at work right now," Charlie shrugged, twirling the phone cord, "Jess is writing down every little thing I do for our project— quite annoying."

  "I can hear you."

  "Jess sounds like he's trying to steal my girl— might have to make a trip over the Stars Hollow."

  "Not your girl, Finn," Charlie sighed, before registering what he said and lighting up, "Wait— do you mean it?"

  "Colin and I have been thinking about returning to the Colonies," He joked, "You think we'd stop by the East Coast and skip out on our Little Lottie?"

  "Oh, I'd hope not," She smiled, pulling herself onto the counter, "Yes, please, let me know when you guys are coming— we need to hang out with you two when you aren't hitting on me."

  "I hate to break this to you, but that's just impossible."

  Charlie couldn't help but laugh at that, and Finn smiled proudly because that was usually the goal of his calls.

  "Alright, but then you have to at least promise that we'll get in some sort of trouble."

  "Oh, I like you a little more every day," Finn admitted with a wide grin, "Goodbye, Lottie."

  "Bye," The girl smiled, hanging up the phone and lifting her eyes only to meet the angry ones of Luke Danes, and the worriedly focused ones of Jess Mariano.

  "Pea—"

  "Gotta go, great seeing you both— Lucas, worked two hours, add that to my check," Charlie rambled, pointing as she slipped off the counter, "Mariano, meet me outside Luke's tonight— bye, guys!"

  Luke let out a long breath as Charlie hurried out of the diner doors, turning on Jess who quickly raised his hands.

  "Hey, man, I'm just doing homework."

  Liam Montgomery just so happened to be kicking stones around Stars Hollow when Charlie Gilmore made her grand escape from Luke's Diner. He raised his head at the small commotion, unable to hold back a smile at her cheeks turning pink from the bitter cold.

  "Hey, Speed-Racer!"

  Charlie jumped, smiling when she saw Liam. The girl jogged across the street, taking a deep breath when she stopped at the boy.

  "Whatcha runnin' from this time?"

  "Luke, just the usual," Charlie shrugged, "Used the diner phone for another long-distance call— he threatens taking them out of my paycheck but never does."

  "So, same old, same old," Liam laughed, tilting his head, "Do you wanna hang out? Em and I are gonna work on our project— maybe drink some wine?"

  Charlie shrunk at the idea. At the idea of Liam and Emma being drunk and alone, once again, and what might happen, but was that worse than the three of them being drunk together? Things weren't normal, she'd hardly talked to Emma— it was too strange.

  "I can't," Charlie breathed out, "I— uh—"

  "Are you trying to stall and think of an excuse?"

  "No," Charlie quickly spoke before deflating, "Yes."

  "Charls."

  "Things are weird, Lee," Charlie sighed, "I just. . . I don't know."

  "Charlie, come on, things aren't just gonna be normal if we never talk about—"

  "I don't want to talk about it."

  "Charlie—"

  "I have to go," Charlie quickly excused, already walking backward, "Bye!"

  Liam began taking quick steps in pursuit of her, before stopping himself short. He took a deep breath, watching the girl until she turned a corner and disappeared into the bookstore. 

  It was his fault, after all. His fault he didn't turn Emma away, his fault he kissed her back, his fault he was drunk and alone and reciprocated her actions without thinking enough.

  And he couldn't blame Charlie Gilmore, whose heart was bigger than her body, for being hurt.

↬

  Charlie Gilmore was a lot like her mother. They had the same sense of humor, taste in movies, and both of them were whole-heartedly convinced that snow brought only good things. The small town of Stars Hollow was earning its winter coat tonight, not predicted by any weather-men, but the Gilmore girls knew.

  "It's cold."

  "It's magic!"

  Jess shook his head at Charlie, the girl was entranced with the puffy white snow, not paying any mind to the passersby. She looked as close to perfect as a person could get, Jess thought, finding far more beauty in frozen precipitation than most.

  "Is this what you needed me to meet you for?" Jess asked, shoving his hands in his pockets, "How'd you know it was gonna snow?"

  "Sixth sense," She grinned, tapping her forehead.

  "You can see dead people?"

  "Oh, shut up!"

  "Can we go inside yet?" Jess sighed, his glare melting as easily as the snow when Charlie lightly shoved him. Truthfully, he wasn't angry, he wasn't even annoyed in the slightest bit. Jess Mariano was beginning to think it was impossible to be annoyed around Charlie Gilmore.

  "I guess," She sighed dramatically, bending down to scoop up snow and lazily chuck it at Jess's back. He turned with his jaw dropped, only to find Charlie was giggling uncontrollably, "You thought I'd give up snow that easily?"

  Jess shook his head, forming his own snowball and firing at her, missing by mere inches.

  Within five minutes, there was a full-on snowball war going on in the town square, neither teen was willing to succumb to losing so Jess ignored the way he began to sniffle and Charlie ignored the fact her toes were slowly numbing. Because both were having far too much fun to allow the creeping cold to get them to stop.

↬

  "It'll be fine," Lorelai reassured, fixing Charlie's dress for the seventh time. "We'll go, we'll eat, we'll come home, we'll go to Luke's, we'll eat some more."

  "I don't know if I'll even be able to eat," Charlie tucked her hair behind her ear, "Why am I so nervous?"

  "The power of Emily Gilmore."

  Charlie blamed her sister. Totally, entirely, wholly. Rory was attempting to calm her sister the entire ride to their grandparents' house, but it didn't seem to be working. Charlie's nerves were palpable, not prepared to face her grandmother quite yet, but she'd given into her sister's pleads and agreed to re-join the dinners.

  She just wasn't sure if that was a good idea.

  Dinner was dead silent. The twins were sitting across from their mother, their grandparents at either end of the table and everyone was awkwardly eating their food. Aside from Charlie, who was pushing it around her plate.

  Rory silently gestured for Lorelai to strike up a conversation, to which she refused until seeing Charlie's fallen expression.

  "So what are your travel plans, Dad?" Richard let out a hum of confusion, looking up to Lorelai who was the first to speak, "You and Mom always go out of town this time of year."

  "Last year it was the Bahamas," Rory supplied.

  "Yes, that's right, it was," He nodded.

  "I remember you had fun too," Lorelai smiled, "You said the Bahamamians were real nice." She looked to her daughters with a scrunched face, "The Bahamites? The Bahamamamanias?"

  "The Bahamians," Rory nodded.

  "Yes, they were nice."

  "They were nice," Emily spoke, looking down at her food.

  "So. . . what are your plans?"

  Then, as usual, things went wrong. Emily informed that they weren't going anywhere, and when asked why she simply gestured to her husband. Rory then tried to reassure them that staying at home could be just as fun, but it all ended with Richard leaving the table.

  After a brief explanation of how sensitive Richard was, Emily turned to Charlie who was still pushing her food around.

  "So, Yale?" It took her a moment to grasp the fact her grandmother was talking to her, but when Charlie got it she nodded, "That's nice, do you know what'd you'd want to study?"

  "English, maybe," Charlie cleared her throat, "I'd like to be an author, it's not really a career thing but. . ."

  "Well of course n—" Emily cut herself off, seeing the shame reappear on Charlie's face. Despite the fact that Rory was the spitting image of Lorelai, Charlie was the one who acted exactly like her. So, she straightened her back, and nodded her head. "I think you could do it."

  "Really?"

  "What?"

  Lorelai choked on her drink as the twins sputtered for words. But Emily Gilmore spoke so casually, over her crystal glass and sophisticated dinner.

  "Why not? You're a Gilmore."

  And for the rest of dinner, Charlie Gilmore had a small, everpresent smile, that matched an unfamiliar one resting on Emily's lips.

↬

  "He eats, and Jess eats. Doesn't Jess eat?"

  "Of course he does, he's a 17-year-old boy." Charlie grinned, popping up behind Luke and ignoring his grumbling.

  "What's she doing?" Luke looked to Lorelai who smiled faintly at her daughter, as the teen was much happier after the dinner than before.

  "I think she's inviting you for dinner."

  "Yeah, come on, join us. It'll be fun. You like peacock pie?"

  "I'm a hundred percent sure I don't," Luke responded blandly.

  Then, the girls spiraled into their own conversation, deciding to invite everyone they like to stay at the inn for the failed Brace-Bridge dinner. Lorelai called it an over the top slumber party before telling Luke to spread the word.

  "I haven't even said I'll come yet so I'm certainly not gonna become your messenger boy."

  "Yes, he is," Charlie grinned, standing on her toes to throw an arm over Luke's shoulders, "And I'm gonna help!"

  "Oh joy." He sighed out, looking to Lorelai who almost looked hurt. "8:00?"

  "7:00."

  "You like my mom," Charlie sung as they walked back over to the counter, "You have a big, fat crush on my hot mom."

  "Don't you think it's weird to call your own mom hot?" Luke questioned, placing the coffee pot back under the machine, "It feels like you're trying to pimp her out."

  "First of all, my mom is hot so it's not weird." Charlie jumped on the counter, only to slide right back off. "And second, if I was trying to pimp my mom out I'd do a much better job than this."

  "You are the strangest kid I know."

  "That's not true, you know my sister."

( AUTHOR'S NOTE. )
WE'RE BACK! I love
Emily and Charlie's relationship
and I'll definitely be putting
more thought into that this time
around.