Just Jess

Dance Marathon

"What about that one?" Luke asked Lorelai

"Hm, no."

"Why not?"

"Too pale."

"So what?"

"Pale means sickly."

"Or sunscreen."

"Or Mad Cow Disease."

"Pale does not mean Mad Cow Disease."

"Have you ever had Mad Cow Disease?

"Twice last week and my coloring was wonderful."

"I need a great dance partner this year. Someone strong, non-clutzy, with lots of stamina. Ooh, how tall is that guy?" Lorelai says pointing to a person walking by the diner window

"Mrs. Coulter's about 6'2"

"Oh." Lorelai turned away from the window "Four years in a row, I have come this close to winning. Last year, I swear to God, I had it!"

Lorelai was scouting out a dance partner for the Town's annual 24 hour dance marathon. Since Sabrina was 13 she had been partnering up with Kirk, and the past 4 years they have taken the trophy home every time. Of course that meant Kirk had taken the trophy to his mother's house, but Sabrina still got to relish in the victory. Lorelai has always come so close to winning against Sabrina and Kirk, and this year she was extra determined.

"Breathe in deep, folks. Smells like fall." Taylor says walking into the diner.

"Get out, Taylor." Luke points towards the door

"Why?"

"Just a code I live by."

"Oh. . .pffft. . .you. Listen, I'd like to run a little something by you."

"I'm busy, Taylor."

"I was just thinking how nice it would be if you could set up a little coffee stand at the marathon."

"Coffee stand?"

"Yes. I mean, these people have to try and stay up for twenty-four hours. What better to help you stay up than a cup of nice strong cup of coffee, huh? What do you say?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

"For a buck a cup."

"Luke, this marathon is a charitable event."

"Taylor, we have been raising money to restore that stupid bridge for eight years."

"We're not raising money to restore the bridge."

"We're not?"

"No, we have that money. The Tennessee Williams lookalike contest last month put us right over the top."

"Then what the hell is this dumb thing for?"

"A tarp."

"A what?" Luke looks at Taylor in disbelief

"To cover the bridge."

"This is a first, Taylor. I actually need to sit down."

"Well, Luke, you know as well as I do that if we start renovations now, heading right into the snow and rainy part of the season, then everything we do is gonna get ruined, and there we are back at square one. If we are gonna do this right, then we are going to need a tarp."

"Taylor, you are asking me to donate free coffee to hundreds of people so you can raise money to buy a tarp."

"How bout fifty cents a cup?"

"How bout I charge for cream?"

"You would kick Tiny Tim's crutch out from under him, wouldn't you?"

"If he asks for a free cup of coffee, gimpy's going down."
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"I think I figured out who can be my dance partner for the marathon." Lorelai walked into the kitchen, and sat next to Rory, who was working on things for her school's paper

"Great! Who?" Rory asks

Lorelai just stared at Rory

"Bye." Rory tried to get up realizing who her mother meant

"Come on!"

"Forget it."

"Just hear me out. First of all, you love me."

"Not right at this moment, I don't."

"You know how much this contest means to me. You'd never fall asleep, and we so have to beat out Sabrina and Kirk"

"I do not dance."

"It'll be fun. We'll get all dressed up, and you're light easy to hold up when you get tired. Plus, we got the whole mother/daughter gimmick going for us. The crowd'll eat that up."

"I cannot dance with you."

"Rory, please"

Rory eventually agreed to dance with her, only if Paris could reschedule their time to work on the school's paper.
———————————————————————————
Kirk and Sabrina stood side by side in Miss Patty's dance studio, wearing matching track suits. Jess sat in the corner watching, confused as to what was about to happen.

"Okay you ready?" Sabrina asks

Kirk furrows his eyebrows and nods, they do a quick secret handshake, and Sabrina walks over to the stereo and presses play.

The music starts up, and they burst out into a full blown dance routine. Kirk swings her around, Sabrina dips Kirk, she gets thrown in the air, Kirk perfectly catches her, they do jazz squares, a bit of ballet, some tango, any type of dance you can think of, they had mastered.

Jess watches with his jaw dropped, he didn't know weather to be impressed, concerned, confused, shocked or what. When the music ended he just clapped.

Kirk and Sabrina broke away from the pose their dance ended in, panting heavily. They smiled and gave each other a double high five.

"Great work, Kirk!"

"You too, Sabrina, although your grapevine could use a bit of work"

Sabrina scoffed in offense "Yeah well, why don't we talk about your bunny hop?"

Kirk just hung his head down, turned around and grabbed his water bottle. Jess got up and walked over to Sabrina, who was wiping her sweat with a towel.

"You know I didn't know what to expect when you asked me to come watch you rehearse, but that certainly wasn't it" Jess waves his hands around

"Impressive right" Sabrina nods and beams proudly

"I think we need a bigger word to describe what just happened" Jess laughs

"Hey Sabrina, do you think we should practice our victory lap" Kirk speaks up from across the room

"Nah, we've been doing that lap for 4 years, I think we've got it down by now" Sabrina nonchalantly waves her hand

"So are you coming to watch?" Sabrina asks

"Hmm 24 hours of watching you do all of that, I wouldn't miss it for the world" Jess smiled and brought Sabrina into a kiss