( 𝘨𝘪𝘧: 𝘫𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘶𝘬𝘦'𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴)

That morning was a busy one in Luke's Diner. 

Grabbing a stool, Cherry slowly made her way to the Gilmores, rubbing her tired eyes as she slumped over the counter. Luke rolled his eyes at the blonde but slid her a mug of coffee. Thanking him, she sipped it, as Lorelai and Rory watched her amused. "Did you even sleep last night?"

"How could I? Baywatch was one, and the temptation of hot men running on the beach was too big." Lorelai laughed, nodding her head in agreement. "Especially Eddie Kramer. Wowie." 

"I mean, I can't disagree."

"Now, what are you ladies having? Eggs, toast, bacon?" Luke interrupted, glancing at Cherry. "I know you're having chocolate chip pancakes, like every other morning."

Cherry grinned. "Thanks Luke."

The two Gilmores ordered french toast and a second cup of coffee when Jess climbed down the stairs, pushing the curtain open to step behind the counter. Luke turned, a frown on his face, glancing at his watch. "Jess, you were supposed to be down here since-" he paused, stopping to stare at his nephew's Metallica shirt. "What the hell is that?"

"It's a shirt." 

"Go change."

"But I like this shirt! It brings out my eyes." Jess replied deadpanned, throwing a glare at Cherry when she snorted in amusement, mischief glittering in her eyes at watching Jess squirm under his uncle's scolding.

"You work here. And when you work here, you wear proper work attire. So go change into something that won't scare my customers." Jess groaned, rolling his eyes as he pointed an accusing finger at Cherry.

"What about her? She's wearing the most ridiculous outfit ever. What even are those earrings? Won't that scare the children?" 

Cherry scoffed, a frown replacing the taunting smile as Jess dragged her into the conversation. "Watch it, cowboy. I don't even work here."

Jess crossed his arms over his chest. "Doesn't matter. Clothes that  ridiculous are a crime against fashion."

"Go change." Luke pushed Jess towards the stairs, and Cherry could hear the teenage boy groaning, muttering and sulking all the way to the top. The blonde smiled triumphantly before focusing on her coffee, as Rory watched her carefully.

"How did you do that?"

Cherry raised her head curiously. "Mhm?"

"You managed to get Jess to speak to you in full sentences." the brunette said softly, genuinely curious at how Cherry had managed it. Jess had made it clear that he wasn't very chatty unless he wanted to be. And while all he did was bicker with Cherry, at least there were long, honest sentences, instead of the evasive ones he spoke to the rest of the town. To some he didn't even bother speaking to. 

Cherry scoffed, tilting her head. "Hardly. All we do is insult each other." when she saw Rory's unsure look, she added "Trust me, you don't want that." the conversation was interrupted when Luke slid a plate of pancakes towards Cherry, making her forget the topic of conversation and focus. She closed her eyes, breathing in the sweet aroma of the chocolate syrope. "Smell that? Heaven."

"Calories." Jess said at the same time, having come down from getting changed. Cherry opened one eye to retort, but widened them as she saw what he was wearing. She smirked, trying really hard not to laugh. "Jess, I thought you were a city boy, not a farmer." 

Luke sent her an deadpanned look as Jess was dressed the same as him, in a red flannel with a cap on his head. "You think this is funny?"

"Hilarious." Cherry grinned.

"I thought this was the uniform." Jess said innocently, as Luke shook his head, raising his arms in defeat.

"You know what? Do whatever you want. This joke isn't funny. Do your job, and I'm going to pretend you don't exist." Luke stormed off towards the kitchen, leaving Jess to clean some tables. As he approached where Cherry sat enjoying her pancakes, he grabbed a fork and eat some of it before Cherry could protest. Smirking at her annoyed look, Jess turned around.

"Jessica Mariano, you eat some of my food again and I'll shove my fork so far up your ass you'll taste it!" a few elders who sat around glared at the blonde.

Jess laughed, shrugging his shoulders. "I had to. You were chewing as loud as a pig."

Cherry narrowed her eyes, glaring at the boy. "May I remind you who's dressed like a farmer?"

Lorelai and Rory shared an amused glance, staring between Cherry and Jess as they began arguing once again. "You know? Cherry and Jess remind me of Eddie and Shauni from Baywatch." Cherry and Jess overheard, and pulled a face of disgust as they avoided each other's face.

"Ew! As if!"

Cherry approached Doose's Market for her afternoon shift, frowning when she saw a police tape around the entrance and an amused Dean. She approached her best friend, tapping him on the shoulder. "Hey, what's going on?"

"I don't know, it was here this morning. It's obviously fake, but your grandfather doesn't believe me. But he wants it cleaning"

Cherry looked at the chalk outline in front of the store. She had an inkling of who might have done it. "You can leave, Dean. I'll clean up this chalk outline. It's my shift anyways." Dean grinned, muttering a thank you before walking away. Sighing, Cherry went inside to grab some cleaning products, and met Jess leaning on a lamp post when she went back outside.

"You might want to be careful, this is a dangerous corner." Jess taunted. "But I guess your looks would scare anyone off, so you should have no fear of getting robbed."

Cherry narrowed her eyes at the boy, setting down the bucket filled of water. "Funnily enough, this town was risk-free until you came along." 

"Are you accusing me of something?" he raised his eyebrows. "I'm familiar with the blue-book laws, you could be talking about a lot of things. Throwing a gum wrapper on the floor, walking with a member of the opposite sex on a Sunday."

"I forgot that you have a list of crimes." Cherry drawled sarcastically before pointing at the chalk outline on the floor. "Look familiar?"

Jess tilted his head. "Can't say I do. But an applause to however did it." Cherry rolled her eyes, and dipped her sponge into the soapy water before she started to scrub. "Did you at least find it funny?"

Cherry fought the smile off her face. "That's not the point."

"So you did find it funny."

"Funnier if i didn't have to clean your mess afterwards." Jess smirked, but started to walk away. Cherry rolled her eyes at the lack of help, but couldn't help but shout behind him.

"By the way, Lustra is much better than Metallica!"

Jess swivelled around, already shaking his head as he frowned. "No, they're not. But of course you would say that, you were named after Cher."

Cherry raised her eyebrows surprised. "How the hell do you know that?"

Jess shrugged nonchalant. "Luke might have said."

"I'm gonna kill him." Cherry muttered under her breath.

"It's pathetic."

"Says the one with a girl's name!" she retorted.

Jess rolled his eyes, backing away another few steps. "Your lack of taste is so palpable. But at least you lost your horrible sense of style."

Cherry frowned. "This is my uniform."

"My bad."

to anyone who didn't understand the reference, eddie and shaunie are a couple from the baywatch series who used to argue all the time before developing a relationship. so yeah that's a foreshadowing

there's going to be a few time skips through chapters because i don't want it to be too long so yeah