𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗗𝗚𝗘 (JESS MARIANO)

08

teagan hitched her overflowing bag higher on her back as walked over to join luke, lorelai, rory and mia on their way to the town meeting.

"hi, honey!" lorelai greeted with a smile. "ah, you're wearing your own clothes again."

"yeah, i'm capable of dressing myself. who knew?" teagan joked as she followed the group into miss patty's.

"...steps have got to be taken-" taylor cut himself off when the group walked in.

"well, this is awkward." teagan broke the silence of the room and carelessly dropped the bag that was originally on her back, onto the floor.

"what's going on here?" luke asked the room, suspicious as to why everyone was gathered at exactly eight.

after finding out the meeting was gathered to discuss 'the jess matter', teagan tuned out the rest of argument out of guilt, until luke was standing right next to taylor at the front of the room arguing with bootsy.

"...i'm standing, arent i?"

"i was standing first which means i have the floor and i'm not giving it to you!"

"okay. as fun as it is to watch two grown men fight, i think it's only fair for me to say tha-" teagan was cut off by bootsy as the two continued to argue.

"this goes way beyond the jess matter, taylor. luke's been on my case since the first grade. when he wrongfully accused me of sabotaging a clay imprint that he made of his hand."

"think hard - was he dressed like sulu?" lorelai chimed in, a childish grin on her face.

"i'm trying to tell you all that it was my-" teagan tried to yell out again, still she was interrupted.

"no one cares about the stupid clay hand, bootsy!" luke shouted, flailing his arms around as he does when he gets angry.

"just sit down sweetie, there's no point trying to yell." lorelai grabbed teagans hand, a sympathetic smile on her lips and guided her to the seat beside her.

"but it's important." she mumbled, her mood slightly deflated since no one was listening.

teagan focused on her hands, tuning out the argument that had no end in sight for the second time.

when she began listening again, she was watching lorelai and luke defend jess. a small smile spread across her face and a new wave of courage washed over her.

"...and i was gonna stay open later in case anyone wanted to eat. forget that!"

before luke could storm out, teagan jumped up to defend jess to the town.

"and for the record, the murder prank outside Doose's? that was my idea." she yelled out, finally having her voice heard on the crowd.

the room went silent.

as per usual and as teagan expected, no one got angry.

well, except from her foster parents who were sitting fuming near the front.

'if they were a cartoon, steam would be flowing out their ears right now'. teagan thought and backed away from the room to follow luke out the door.

but he'd already stalked off.

~

"i am going to be in so much shit when i get home." teagan breathed out a nervous chuckle when the other three of their group piled out with the rest of the town.