DISCO NIGHTS !
CHAPTER FIVE
MIXTAPES AND MEDLEYS

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"THE CURE IS so much better than The Shaggs, are you kidding me?!" Maeve widened her eyes in disbelief at Jess' previous assertions. "They suck!"

The pair had been bickering over music for a good half hour, and the whole debacle had started when Maeve finally convinced Luke—after three long months of pleading—, to allow her to play one of her mixtapes on the diner's radio. Their deal was that the music could only play for one hour, maximum, and the minute the hour was up, Maeve had to turn it off.

She agreed with no complaints.

"The Cure is cool, but The Shaggs are so much better." Jess defensively scoffed in response, gesturing to the girl as he continued in a sharp tone. "You can't talk, you've got the worst music taste. Most of those stupid songs are ABBA or Fleetwood Mac, you've got, like, five mediocre ones in there, at best."

Maeve narrowed her eyes at the boy. "Okay, first of all, I made this mixtape specifically for the diner, which means that the music has to be for everybody-"

"I specifically said a minimum of five songs from those weird and immature rock bands you kids like listenin' to." Luke cut in as he called out from the opposite side of the diner in Maeve's defence. "For a reason I will never understand..."

"Thank you, Luke...sort of." Maeve slightly furrowed her eyebrows at the backhanded insult before regaining her composure to continue defending herself. "And secondly, they truly are great classics!"

"They are true classics sung by the greats." Kirk chimed in in agreement from his seat, rearranging Maeve's words unintentionally.

"That's funny, Kirk." Lorelai smiled at the man and let out a giggle in appreciation of the words from her position sitting beside Luke at another table.

Kirk furrowed his eyebrows at her in confusion, not understanding the meaning of her praise. "What's funny?"

"See! Kirk agrees with me!" Maeve exclaimed, pointing to Kirk as she kept her eyes, which were still filled with pure disbelief at Jess' opinions, on the boy.

"Do you really want that guy to agree with you?" Jess unenthusiastically raised his eyebrows, gesturing to Kirk as he did so.

Maeve rolled her eyes, ignoring Jess' words as she began to serve customers their food. "That's it, I'm making a proper mixtape to prove that I have taste."

"Fine. Elastica better be on there." Jess demanded from his position, refusing to work as he slid his bored eyes around the diner.

"Are you kidding me?" Maeve huffed out an incredulous breath as she momentarily paused during her task. "Just when I thought you couldn't get any worse."

"At least I'm consistent, you can't stick to one genre. You're that indecisive?" Jess crossed his arms over his chest defensively.

Maeve narrowed her eyes. "It's called having a refined musical palette. At least I can appreciate a bunch of different genres."

"Hey, Maeve? Can you put that Madonna medley back on? It was really boppy." Kirk chimed in, interrupting their bickering as he glanced up at Maeve hopefully from his seat.

Maeve slowly glared at Kirk, blowing out an exasperated breath as he wasn't helping her case, however, before she could answer, the sound of a familiar voice caught both her and Jess' attention. "Hey, Maeve."

At the sound, Maeve turned around, facing Flynn Abrams, who was now approaching the counter, resting his palms comfortably on it as he watched the girl stand in front of him, on the opposite side.

"Hi, Flynn." Maeve grinned, her face lighting up at the sight of the boy. "What brings you to the diner this early?"

"I was just on my way to school when I noticed one of Luke's employees serving some customers, and I thought I'd stop by to talk to her." Flynn answered, small smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as he watched her smile slightly grow at his words.

Jess scoffed at the boy's attempt at flirting, and he murmured out a disgruntled "oh, please" as he picked up a rag and reluctantly began to wipe a free table—Luke had made it very clear to him that he needed to do some work at the diner if he didn't want to be sent back home to live with his mother again.

He couldn't take any form of cheesiness or romance in movies, let alone real life. It didn't matter who was flirting with who, to Jess, it was all the same, and it was disgusting.

Maeve refused to look at Jess as she rolled her eyes and shook her head at his words before plastering on a smile and meeting Flynn's gaze again. "Ignore him. Just the conversation, or some coffee, too?"

"I'll take some coffee, sure." Flynn nodded in acceptance of the offer as he sat in the counter seat across from Maeve, Maeve flashing him another smile as she grabbed the coffee vat and a clean cup, and poured the boy a cup of coffee.

Once she was done, Maeve placed the cup in front of him, Flynn nodding again and answering with a polite "thanks" as he took a sip.

Swallowing the coffee, Flynn spoke up, deciding to continue their conversation from the previous day. "So, other than reading excessively, what other hobbies are you into?"

Maeve raised her eyebrows and inhaled a breath, resting her palms on the counter as she released the breath seconds later, suddenly feeling the heart-racing urge to blurt out her entire string of thoughts—purely out of utter giddiness at the whole experience of her crush taking an interest in her life. "Well, I like writing, movies, and music. Writing is more of a rare thing for me, I'm more of a reader, as you know, and I suppose I'm a...connoisseur of movies and music? I don't know, it sounds corny, and 'movies and music' aren't really hobbies, per-se, unless I was heavily involved in that stuff, I'm not, but-"

Flynn laughed in amusement, raising his eyebrows as he cut her off before she could embarrass herself any further. "Woah, I didn't mean to make you run out of breath..."

Maeve huffed out a breath that resembled a faint chuckle, and her eyes momentarily darted away before returning to Flynn once more. "I'm not usually this nervous, I swear. Too many coffees...what I meant to say, is that I'm pretty into photography. Sure, it'd be cool to be an editor for a magazine or something like that, but I'd like to be a photographer one day."

Jess unnoticeably glanced up from his position still wiping the same table, not expecting Maeve to have genuine career aspirations. He just assumed she'd follow the stereotypical 'white-picket-fence, housewife, and married by twenty-three with two kids' kind of life, seeing as though she was the town's star and all.

"Photography." Flynn nodded slowly, his eyebrows quirking upwards in interest. "That's cool. What kind of photos do you take?"

"Oh, anything." Maeve simply answered. "I like writing and all, don't get me wrong, but photography's just different. I don't know, if I find something that has that intimate feel or ethereal quality, I'll take a picture. Capture a single, fleeting moment and keep it forever, you know?"

"Wow, that sounds...cool." Flynn nodded slowly, taking in her words, before his eyebrows creased inwards and his head slowly tilted to the side. "I'm sorry, 'ethereal'?"

Jess huffed out another scoff, this time out of mockery, shaking his head as he approached another table, beginning to wipe it clean.

Maeve ignored Jess' contemptuous attitude as she just rolled her lips inwards at Flynn's words and raised her eyebrows, answering after she successfully prevented herself from releasing a sympathetic chuckle. "Synonym for beautiful or elegant."

"Oh, right." Flynn nodded in understanding as Jess picked up the coffee vat from the end of the counter and walked straight past a customer who held her cup up expectedly, the boy staring at her blankly as he walked towards the table Luke and Lorelai were sitting at.

"Coffee?" Jess questioned uninterestedly.

"Oh, yeah, thanks." Lorelai unenthusiastically murmured. "How are you, Jess?"

"I'm not bleeding or anything." Jess deadpanned.

"Well, then it's gonna be a good day, huh?" Lorelai's tone was hesitant, the woman watching Jess pour her coffee with disapproving eyes.

Jess hummed in response, sliding his eyes to his uncle once he finished pouring Lorelai's coffee. "It's 7:45."

"Yeah?" Luke cluelessly questioned, not seeing the relevance of his words.

"So, do you want me to go to school, or do you want to openly defy child-labour laws?" Jess sardonically inquired.

Luke gestured to the door. "Go. Maeve, you too. And stay out of trouble, Jess."

Jess placed the coffee vat on the table as he approached the counter again, speaking up as he did so. "Guess that means calling off the chickie run down at the salt flax."

"Out." Luke snapped, not finding his sarcasm amusing in the slightest.

Maeve shook her head in annoyance at Jess as she just shot Flynn another smile and grabbed her backpack from its position under the counter, the girl making her way around it as Flynn spoke up with raised eyebrows, standing up and joining Maeve as he did so. "Might as well come with."

Maeve grinned as she met Flynn's gaze, the pair beginning to approach the diner's door as they continued their conversation. "Yeah, it's not like you have to go to school too, or anything."

"I mean, we could skip." Flynn suggested, eyebrows raising as he awaited her answer.

"You will not skip school, Maeve!" Luke commanded with a warning glare from his seat, catching the teenagers' attention as he overheard their conversation.

Maeve just huffed a laugh as she opened the door and began to walk out of the diner, Flynn following with a smirk, Luke furrowing his eyebrows as he stood up. "Maeve, I'm serious!"

"Relax, Luke, I won't skip!" Maeve widened her eyes briefly as she called out in response, letting out another laugh as she watched Luke blow out a relieved breath and sit back down, her and Flynn soon falling into step and making their way to Stars Hollow High—which was just across the street—, Maeve slinging her backpack straps over her shoulders as they did so.

Suddenly, a force pushed against her shoulder—lightly, albeit, but still unexpected—, and Maeve furrowed her eyebrows at Jess, who was now walking past her and Flynn. "Okay, what is with you and pushing my shoulder?"

The corners of Jess' lips slightly tugged upwards in enjoyment at her displeased reaction, although he didn't answer, as he just kept walking towards the school.

"That guy's a dick." Flynn scoffed as he slightly shook his head.

"Try working with him every day." Maeve blew out an irritated breath as she watched Jess' retreating figure walk into school ahead of her and Flynn. "If he wasn't Luke's nephew, I swear I would be way less patient."

"So, that friendly display I witnessed right before walking into the diner was you being patient?" Flynn's eyebrows playfully quirked upwards as he casted his attention to the girl.

Maeve's eyes slightly widened in embarrassment, and her head snapped to look at Flynn. "You saw that?"

Flynn let out an involuntary chuckle as the pair walked into the school. "It was pretty obvious that you were heated over something. And I didn't even need to hear it to know that it was an argument."

"He's just infuriating." Maeve shook her head as her and Flynn approached her locker, the girl unlocking it and shoving her backpack inside before taking her books for her first class of the day out. "Anyway, we've got class now, so we should focus our energies on way more important things."

•

"Are you kidding me?!" Delaney squealed in excitement at Maeve's words, her best friend finishing her recounting of the events that occurred that morning at the diner. "I missed all of that?!"

Maeve grinned in amusement, the pair walking down the main strip. "It was...something..."

"Okay, if you and Flynn aren't dating by the end of the year, I will be devastated." Delaney's tone suddenly fell serious as she caught her best friend's attention. "Devastated, Maeve!"

"Okay, okay." Maeve huffed out a laugh at the words. "Relax, Del, it'll hopefully happen by then."

"Better be more than a 'hopefully'." Delaney glanced away as she nodded, furrowing her eyebrows as she noticed the large crowd of her neighbours formed around Doose's market, police tape around the site, a few officers, and a firetruck parked outside. "Woah, what's all that?"

"What?" Maeve questioned, following Delaney's gaze and raising her eyebrows at the scene. "Wow. I'm...not really sure..."

"Just try to calm down, Taylor." Officer Scanlon pleaded with the man, who was in a blind frenzy.

"Calm down?! Why should I calm down?!" Taylor exclaimed, wide eyes practically bulging out of his head in pure panic at the thought of a crime being committed right in front of his store.

Maeve and Delaney approached the scene, joining Dean, Rory, and Lane amongst the crowd.

"Hey, what's all this about?" Maeve questioned with furrowed eyebrows, crossing her arms over her chest as she stood beside Lane, Delaney beside Rory.

"Someone thought it'd be funny to draw that in front of Doose's, and now Taylor's freaking out." Dean informed the pair and gestured to the front of the market, Delaney and Maeve following his eye line and raising their eyebrows in a mixture of surprise and intrigue.

"And scolding Officer Scanlon." Rory simply chimed in.

"Taylor thinks it's real." Lane added with a tight-lipped smile, glancing between Maeve and Delaney as she spoke.

Delaney snorted. "Obviously it's not."

"Exactly, but it's Taylor." Dean shrugged, the four words essentially providing a clear explanation for Taylor's overreaction to the situation.

"It's Stars Hollow. I'm pretty sure nobody's been murdered here, ever. Like, from the minute it was discovered." Maeve stated in an obvious scoff.

"This is the most wholesome town ever." Delaney agreed, entertained smile adorning her features and accompanying her words.

"A crime was committed in front of my store!" Taylor loudly shouted at Scanlon, catching each of the teenager's attentions.

"We can't say that for sure yet."

"How come you can't say that for sure, this is a police tape, you're the police, you own the tape!"

"Taylor, we've contacted everyone in the precinct, no one knows anything about this!"

"What am I supposed to do?! I've got a dead body right in front of my store!"

"No, you have a chalk outline in front of your store."

As Taylor and Officer Scanlon continued to pointlessly bicker, Maeve's gaze wandered, the girl releasing a long breath as she glanced around.

When her eyes slid over to a particular spot in the town's centre, the girl stopped, noticing a familiar figure leaning against a pole and holding onto a book, finger between the otherwise half-closed pages to mark the one he was currently reading, and a smug expression painted all over his cocky face.

Maeve's curious expression fell into one of disapproval, the girl internally connecting the dots and realising that Jess was definitely the culprit; she should've guessed it was him immediately.

As soon as he pushed his shoulder off the pole and began to walk away, satisfied in his own actions, Maeve's eyes flickered away from him, the girl slightly shaking her head as she pushed away fleeting thoughts about the joke being funny—it was quite entertaining watching Taylor freak out over a harmless prank—, although she'd never admit it to him.

•

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