No One in the World Ever Gets What They Want...

"Good bye," he heard her voice say on the other line before she hung up the phone. She had said she loved him.

"I think I may have loved you too," Jess whispered to himself as he hung up the phone and walked away.

She was in his past anyway. He was better off without her. Now he had room to move on. There was nothing keeping him in Stars Hollow. Jess was living with his father now. He wasn't much of a father. Jess didn't even know him until only about a month ago, 17 years into his life. But he was the only father he had, and the symbol of a new life. No longer bound down by his old reputation, he was free to be himself, to change. But there was something about her that he couldn't let go of. He had never loved before, until he had met her. She was so beautiful and amazing. He couldn't just let her go like he had his other girlfriends. It wasn't that easy.

Stray dogs barked as he opened the gate to his father and his father's girlfriend's house, his new home. He walked in and looked around. There were stray animals all around that his father's girlfriend took care of and random pieces of cloth were scattered around the room. It wasn't much to look at. "Was this worth losing Rory for?" he thought to himself, but he knew better than anyone that this was something he needed to do. If he was really supposed to be with Rory, then he would be.

He shook his head and walked back out of the door. Maybe he'd call Rory again...no, it was too late. He messed up. He saw a Wal-Mart down the street. Jess looked at it with a grin on his face. He remembered the good ol' days of skipping school to work at Wal-Mart. Public school was a waste of time anyway. "Maybe they have a job opening," he grinned to himself as he wandered inside.

"That's weird," Jess whispered under his breath as he looked around the store. It had a fantasy motif. Jess thought it was kind of stupid, but he knew well enough that stores had to do stupid things to get business sometimes. He made his way to the books. Wal-Mart doesn't have much in this department, but it was still the most interesting thing to look at. Jess loved to read. It was something he shared with Rory... but he's supposed to be forgetting about her, right? Why did

it have to be so hard?

"Now that's just overdoing it," Jess muttered. Every book on the shelf followed the fantasy theme. But these weren't fantasy books that one would expect they'd sell, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. These seemed more like text books. "What kind of sucker would buy these?" Jess thought. An employee came and began stacking more books, all with the same fantasy text book theme.

"Excuse me?" Jess walked over to the salesperson.

"Yes? How may I help you?" she responded.

"Do you have any normal books?" Jess said, a tad sarcastically.

"...Normal books? No, I'm sorry. We may have some in back if you want to wait a couple of weeks, but I suggest you go to 'Bob's Books' down the street. They'll have anything you'd want to read."

"Okay... what's up with all of these books anyway?"

"Hmm? Oh, well, we just got a shipment of textbooks, and we're just putting them out in case anyone wants to buy their books now and not wait for the rush at the end of the summer."

"Textbooks? How are these textbooks? They're just joke books."

"What do you mean?" the salesperson asked, confused.

"All you do is 'learn magic', not history or math, how are these text books?"

"Oh, we have history books. Right over there."

Jess walked to where the woman was pointed. "History of Magic?" Jess read, "History of Muggles? What the hell is a 'muggle'?"

"You know, non-magic folk," the woman said, completely serious.

Jess looked into her face. "You southerners are weird," Jess said. He turned to walk away, then looked back, "but I must say you are excellent actors." Jess continued walking away and then turned back again. He walked back to the girl, who had already restarted shelving books. She

looked up and Jess smiled. "Hey," he said, "do you know how I can apply for a job here?"

~ ~ ~ ~

Jess went the direction that woman told him. After a few times finding the bathroom rather than an office, finally he found a wooden door with a glass window that said "Manager" on it. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," yelled a voice from inside. When Jess opened the door, he couldn't help but chuckle at the man sitting behind the desk. He had big glasses and a long grey beard. But what Jess found most amusing was that he, the manager of the store, was no exception from the fantasy motif. On his head sat a tall, black, wizards cap.

"Can I help you?" said the man.

"Uh, yes," Jess stumbled, briefly forgetting why he had come in here. "I was wondering if you had any job openings."

"Why? Are you looking for a job?" the manager asked, and began playing with his long beard.

"Yes, I am."

The manager sat up. "Well, we do have an opening for a bagboy. I know it's not much, but one of our salesclerks has to go back to school at the end of the summer and then you can move up to that...unless you have to go to school at the end of the summer too?"

"No," Jess said after a little hesitation. "No, I'm finished with school."

"Okay, great. Then you just need to fill out these forms and you can start next week." The manager handed Jess a stack of papers.

"Okay, thanks." The manager nodded and went back to his work, and Jess walked out of his office. Jess couldn't believe he was going to work here. I mean, sure, everyone have weird co-workers, but this place had to have the oddest of them... That's okay, it'll make for better stories.

Jess walked out of the Wal-Mart and made his way back to his father's house. When he got there, his dad was waiting.

"Hi, Jess," he said as Jess walked in.

"Hi, Jimmy," Jess responded. Jimmy hadn't been his father for 17 years. It just didn't feel right calling him 'Dad'.

"Where have you been?" Jimmy asked.

"I got a job."

"A job? Where?"

"At Wal-Mart."

"Wal-Mart? What Wal-Mart?"

"The one down the street."

"There's a Wal-Mart down the street? I didn't know there were any Wal-Marts around here."

"Well there is." Jess said, slightly annoyed that Jimmy was being so inquisitive.

"Oh, well, whadda you know? I guess I just haven't been looking around at the new stores recently."

"Yeah."

"Yeah," Jimmy said, then looked around awkwardly, trying to find something to say. Unsuccessful, he said, "Dinner will be done in about half an hour."

"Okay" Jess said and Jimmy walked away. Jess took out a pen and began looking through his application. Most of it was pretty normal.

Name? Jess Mariano

Age? 17

Finally he got to the last question and laughed. "These people really ARE crazy," he chuckled.

Magical Experience? I can pull a quarter out of someone's ear.