Mariano Girl

Dead Bodies and Lettuce Losses pt1

One thing about Jess Mariano, is that he could always make Daphne laugh. Whether it be a dumb magic trick, a witty response ready at the start, or even pulling a practical joke. Not only was he good at it, but Jess enjoyed making his sister laugh. When they were younger, there was only so much Jess could do to shield his sister from the reality of their home life; the fighting, the yelling, the revolving door of men coming in and out of their lives.

And with all that, when Jess asked Daphne if she wanted to pull a (relatively) harmless prank on Taylor, she didn't hesitate in agreeing. She was definitely going to be holding a grudge against him for the incident at the store. She hadn't told Luke, because all he'd do was yell at Taylor, which wasn't going to really solve anything, though the ban on her seemed to be lifted when Jess returned the stolen money.

The prank was simple; fake a murder scene in front of his store. For an old man, it was definitely going to shock him into oblivion. Chalk was readily available to Daphne, as she only had to take a bit from her art class (which wasn't hard to do) and Jess only had to go to a joke shop to buy fake police tape.

It was also very easy to sneak out at night. Luke was by far the heaviest sleeper known to man. When Daphne accidentally knocked over a lampshade while maneuvering through the dark apartment, absolutely nothing happened. Perhaps Luke's own snores covered up the noise, as he didn't even flinch at the rattling, Jess suggested, earning a quiet giggle from Daphne.

Currently, the siblings were outside the market around midnight - meaning absolutely no one was out and about the town. It was a little eerie.

"I don't understand why I have to be the dead body," Daphne complained as she lay on the concrete.

Jess rolled his eyes. If he had known she'd complain this much he wouldn't have asked her to come. "Because I'm more artistically talented than you. Stop moving."

Daphne let out a squeak, trying to scooch away from the piece of gum that was dangerously close to sticking to her hair. She tried to contain her laugh as Jess dragged the chalk to her armpits. "Hurry up!" She ushered, wanted to dust herself off.

"Don't rush me," he snapped. "Beauty is pain, as they say."

"You're a pain," Daphne grumbled.

"There. Done," Jess said, sticking his hand out for her to grab and pulled Daphne to her feet. They then began wrapping the police tape around the faux crime scene, finishing in about two minutes.

The duo looked back at their finished product, and to be honest, Daphne wasn't very impressed. "It doesn't even look real," Daphne frowned.

"Probably cause there's not an actual dead body," Jess deadpanned and Daphne stuck out her tongue.

"So why did you decide to do this?" Daphne asked as they began walking home.

"I thought it'd be funny," Jess said a little too quickly and with a little too much aloofness, almost like his answer was prepared prior to Daphne's question. The corner of his lip quirked upwards, and Daphne knew instantly he was lying.

She hummed. "And no other reason in particular?"

"No," he dismissed. "Why?"

"I don't know," Daphne said slyly, looking away like she was thinking out loud. "It wasn't to impress a certain someone, was it?"

"What are you talking about?"

Daphne pursed her lips, restraining a smile. "I've never seen anyone but her read as much as you do. Don't tell me that there's not even a teeny tiny part of you that likes her."

"Who are you talking about?" He played dumb.

"Who do you think I'm talking about?" Daphne asked smugly. "She's got long brown hair, always carries a book, she practically lives in the diner. Oh, and don't forget about those big blue doe eyes."

Jess rolled his eyes. "Okay you are officially delusional. I don't like anyone in this town."

"Okay fine," Daphne held her hands up in surrender, not believing a word Jess was saying. "You don't like anyone. You're a bachelor. A lone wolf. I get it."

"Whatever," Jess scoffed. Daphne smirked, not believing a word he said, but decided to drop it. For now. "So how's school been for you? I didn't think track was your kind of thing."

"It's not, but Jane's on the team, and I figured I might as well accept life in suburbia," Daphne shrugged. She shivered a bit and Jess put his arm around her, pulling Daphne closer to him for warmth. "Though there was this one jerk messing with me on the football field during practice."

"How so?" he asked curiously.

"Well, apparently since I'm a 'city girl' I pretty much give it up to anybody who asks," Daphne muttered angrily. "At least that's what people've been saying about me."

"What? Who said that?" Jess stopped walking, bringing Daphne to a halt as well.

"Just people," Daphne sighed, embarrassed at her circumstances. "I don't know."

"Well who was bothering you during practice?" Jess asked.

Daphne sighed, knowing Jess wasn't going to let it go until she told him. "Chuck Presby," she confessed. "He's such a jerk."

Jess didn't say anything, but instead pulled Daphne closer to him and continued walking to Luke's.

~

The next morning Daphne was miraculously able to wake up early in time to see the whole town surrounding Dosey's front store. Approaching the scene, Daphne was glad to see Jane also watching curiously as Taylor was yelling at a policewoman.

"Just try to calm down, Taylor," she said to the hysterical shop owner.

"Calm down?! Why should I calm down?" He shouted.

"Yeah! Why should he calm down?" Bootsy the owner of the newspaper stand said supportively behind Taylor. Yet Taylor looked back unappreciatively to his fellow townsman.

"I want action not words," Taylor demanded.

"Action, not words," Bootsy repeated.

"Don't you have to get back to your newsstand, Bootsy?" Taylor asked annoyed.

Bootsy ignored Taylor's tone. "No, buddy. I'm all yours."

Daphne snickered, approaching Jane and pulling her arm back to get away from the scene.

"Hey!" Jane cried unexpectedly. "Oh, it's you. Pretty crazy, nothing like this ever happens in Stars Hollow."

Daphne chortled again, wearing a shit eating grin on her face. "Yeah. Pretty cool right?"

"I wonder who did it," Jane hummed. Daphne continued to stare at Jane with a smile. "You didn't," she said with wide eyes.

"Yeah! Me and Jess last night," Daphne giggled, causing Jane to laugh with her.

Taylor continued shouting, bringing the girls' attention back to him. "I've got a dead body in front of my store!"

"No, you have a chalk outline of a dead body in front of your store," the policewoman tries reasoning with him.

"This is getting pretty heated," Jane ooed. She turned to look at Daphne. "You do these things often?"

"They're more of Jess' thing. I just tagged along," Daphne shrugged.

"Next time, please bring me with you," she begged.

"Next time it'll just be me and you, Bonnie," Daphne smiled. Jane returned one.

"Where's Jess?" Jane looked behind Daphne, only seeing other curious townsfolk walking up to the scene.

"He's probably around here somewhere watching everything go down."

"Who would be depraved enough to do this?" Taylor asked in a panic.

At the front of the store Daphne noticed Rory Gilmore with Rory's boyfriend. Daphne followed her gaze, eventually landing on her brother from across the street, smirking at Rory before walking away.

'I don't like anyone in this town,' Jess' voice echoed in Daphne's head from the previous night.

Ya right.