Title: Harvard Bound
Summary: Rory chose to go to Harvard instead of Yale. What will college life have in store for her?
Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls or anything to do with it, or Harvard.
A/N: Although I'm glad Rory did go to Yale in the show, I always feel a bit cheated watching the older seasons when Rory goes on and on about Harvard (especially when they visit there in season 2). So I decided to write about what it would be like if Rory had gone to Harvard, and see if things would have gone differently. In terms of timeline, everything that has happened in seasons 1-3 (apart from the college decision) is correct. Also, everything that happens in Season 4 happens in this fic too, unless the event is specifically linkde to Rory's being at Yale (i.e. Paris, Marty etc). Got the drift? Oh yeah, the italics represent a flashback/past event. Enjoy!!!
Chapter One: Getting There
"Five in the morning! What normal person is awake at that time?" Lorelai Gilmore ranted, one hand on the steering wheel, the other sipping a coffee.
"Luke?" Rory pointed out, squinting at a map.
"Yeah, but he doesn't count. He's a genre unto himself, you just need to look at all the flannel to prove that."
"You should probably be nicer to Luke seeing how he let us borrow his truck."
"Yeah yeah" Lorelai rolled her eyes.
"Anyway we had to leave at this time. To get there early and to avoid spending the night at that B&B we went to last time."
"Ooh, that's right! 'The Cheshire Cat', what sort of a name is that? Sounds like something Walt Disney puked out. And all those flowers! What sort of insane psychopathic person would decorate the room so you feel like a Laura Ashley dress? That's it, she's a psychopathic killer! This does not bode well for your fate at Harvard, maybe the gods are trying to tell us something. I shouldn't have let you be so smart, I should have made you go to Hartford Community College. That way Mommy would be able to protect you in case the crazy flower lady came after you. OK, we are turning the car around."
"Mom, stop! The crazy flower lady is not a killer. And I'm going to Harvard."
Lorelai looked over to her and smiled. "Yeah babe, you are. You're going to Harvard."
They sat in Luke's eating burgers, sheaves of paper covering the table.
"Harvard has the biggest academic library in the world." Lorelai murmured, flicking through the prospectus.
"That's a definite pro" Rory said brightly. "Maybe I should put that in big letters."
"Ok. And Princeton has seven coffee shops on campus."
"Seven? You looked it up?" Rory asked her mother in disbelief.
"Hey, you don't want to go to a school and then find it has only one coffee place which is waaaaay over the other side of the campus, so that when you get there you'll be so tired that you can barely even drink your coffee. And then you'll be late for class."
"I highly doubt that is ever going to happen. Good point though, I'll add it to the pro side."
An hour – and two coffees – later they gathered up the lists and surveyed them.
"Remember, these aren't the official pro – con lists." Lorelai reminded Rory. "Huh. Yale has way more pros than the other two. And hardly any cons." She looked over at Rory seriously. "Yale. It has to be –"
"- Harvard." Rory interrupted. "It has to be Harvard."
"No honey, it doesn't have to be. I know we've been talking about it forever but that doesn't mean anything. You can see the list, Yale is a great school. It's the school."
"No Mom. Harvard is the school. I've been wanting to go there since I was little and I know that Yale comes out top but those are just lists right? In the end they can't make my decision for me, only I can. Harvard, it has to be Harvard."
Lorelai paused, scrutinising her daughter's words and emotions. "Ok Hon, if you're sure…"
"I am. I've never been more sure of anything in my life."
"Ok then. Harvard it is."
"How will I…?" Rory bit her lip and looked down at her plate. "How will I tell Grandma and Grandpa?"
"Don't worry about them. They'll use the disappointment as a way of criticising me and my life even more, but by the time you're college graduation rolls around they will be really proud that you went to Harvard."
"I don't want to disappoint them. I know how much Yale means to them, especially to Grandpa, but –"
"Hey, you don't have to explain this to them. This is your future, no one can tell you where to go. Not my parents, not Jess or Lane, not even me. You have to decide this for yourself. And if Harvard is where you're choosing to go, then don't let anyone make you feel bad for that choice."
"Thanks Mom." Rory leaned over and hugged her. "Wow, I can't believe I've just made a life-altering decision in just over an hour."
"I know. This calls for doughnuts!"
"Oh my God, there it is!" Rory shrieked, nearly spilling the contents of her bag of M&M's. "It looks even better than last time. Doesn't it look better?"
"Yeah, it does." Lorelai smiled, pulling the truck over.
A pretty student advisor met them, and gave them the key and directions to Rory's room.
"I don't believe it" Rory exclaimed excitedly as they entered Hollis Hall.
"I know! I'm psychic, I can read the future! I shouldn't be opening my own inn, I should have my own psychic hotline." Lorelai gabbled as Rory pulled her inside the dorm. "I could call myself 'Madame Le Tourniquet' but say it in a French accent so it sounds better, and wear a turban and a kaftan."
"I am so going to call you twice a day to make sure you won't do that." Rory groaned.
Lorelai beamed. "I might just have to, so you call me more. If I buy the outfit I could even make you drop out of college. Oh, suite 24, I think this is yours."
The common room in Rory's suite was a clean, medium - sized room on the third floor already filled with packing boxes. The window looked out onto a green, tree – lined area situated between her dorm and another building further away. There were two doors which led to the shared bedrooms. Lorelai opened one and Rory the other, they were almost exactly the same inside except that one had the same view as the common room which they claimed as Rory's. There were two desks, two chest of drawers and a few shelves built along the walls above the desks. Lorelai dumped the box she was carrying onto the bed on the right – hand side of the room and collapsed onto it as well.
"Shouldn't I wait for my roommates to arrive before we allocate beds and rooms?" Rory asked, pulling out her campus map.
"No way, you got here first and that automatically entitles you to the first pick of the bed. You get this one. It's further away from the door but closer to a desk so you have minimum distraction while you're being a genius. Ok, you start unpacking while I'll grab the rest of the stuff."
She disappeared and Rory wandered back into the common room, marvelling at her suite, her hall, Harvard. She couldn't believe she was here. Everything she had dreamed about her entire life had finally come true. There was a slight knock and scuffling outside the door and a girl came into the room with two large bin bags. "Hi!" she smiled. "I guess you must be one of my roommates. I'm Star" She had long wavy blonde hair that with small plaits tied into it and wore a flowing skirt and tie-dye top with multi-coloured bangles up her arm. The ethereally hippy name suited her.
"I'm Rory," she replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear nervously.
"Are rooms already allocated?" Star inquired, peering into the room where Rory had just dumped her stuff.
"No, I just put my things in there to get them out of the way. I think we should probably decide our rooms once our other roommates have arrived."
"Have you seen this view?" Star squealed, skipping to the window. "I just love nature. I wanted to bring Tepee but I wasn't allowed. Tepee's my Llama." She explained, pulling out a photo. "And this is Kinara, my adopted Manatee. Don't you just love animals?"
"Umm…sure."
"Hey! If we're lucky I could try and sneak in a rescued bunny. We could call him Harvey -after Harvard!" Star opened the window. "Look how pretty it all is! And look at the beautiful trees. I bet there are squirrels running free amongst them."
"There are." Rory affirmed, looking slightly panicked. "I saw one when I visited Harvard last."
"Wow. I love Harvard. I love the East Coast! This is going to be so much fun, I know we are going to have the best time as roommates. I can feel it."
"I paid someone five bucks for the use of their wheelbarrow so we don't have to make another trip to the car" Lorelai announced triumphantly outside the door. She peered in. "But we do have to lift all the stuff from the wheelbarrow up two flights of stairs and you can't expect me to do it all by myself – oh, hi."
"Mom, this is my roommate Star" Rory said, giving her a 'don't say anything sarcastic' look.
"Hi Star, great name by the way. I'm Lorelai."
"Hi Lorelai, you have the best name too. It's beautiful, it sounds like a river flowing down the hills."
"Thanks…I think."
A jangling was heard from Star's skirt pocket and she reached pulled out a cell phone. "It's my dad, I should probably go and help him unpack. I'll see you later, ok?" she fluttered out of the room, bangles tinkling.
The two Gilmore's looked at each other, momentarily speechless.
"So, she seems nice." Lorelai said optimistically.
Rory snorted. "Yeah, and completely crazy. She started talking about animals when you were gone. She has a llama, a manatee and wants a bunny to live in the suite!"
"Did you tell her we are not the best people with animals?" Lorelai asked.
"No, she was so excited by them. It would be like kicking Bambi." Rory sighed.
"She's kooky, but she does seem really nice, very…happy. Like she's constantly on Prozac or something." Lorelai commented mischievously.
Rory giggled. "I'll take it. She looks like she's going to be fun. It will be interesting to say the least."
An hour later, after they had unloaded and unpacked all of Rory's stuff, the rest of Rory's roommates had arrived, who seemed a bit more normal than Star. Maia had coffee - coloured skin, dark curly hair, a beautiful smile, and seemed to be obsessed with old movies, evident by the boxes of black and white DVD's she was unpacking. Jaime was petite with freckles, brown hair and chattered incessantly from the moment she stepped foot inside the door.
"I've got five coffees, a bag of cookies, and I took the liberty of driving out to get us some pizza." Lorelai called, barging into the room, hands full of pizza. The four girls were sitting around on the mismatch of chairs in the common room. Lorelai flopped to the floor, dumping the food on the ground as Rory hastily took the coffees.
"This is great, Lorelai." Maia smiled as she took a slice of pizza. "It's the perfect way to spend the first day at Harvard."
"Agreed." Jaime said, sipping her coffee. "My Mom would have never done anything so cool."
"Awww, you girls are gonna get me all flushin' and blushin'" Lorelai crowed in a Southern belle accent. She got to her feet reluctantly. "Actually, I've got to go. I want to get back home before midnight, hopefully. See you girls, it was great meeting you."
Rory followed her out and they lingered in the hall silently, watching all the college kids talking and unloading things. Everyone so excited about getting away from home and starting their new lives of independence.
"So," Lorelai smiled finally. "I guess this is goodbye."
"Yeah." Rory replied quietly. She flung herself into her mother's arms and buried her head in Lorelai's shoulder. "I'm going to miss you so much." She choked, voice muffled.
"Well don't get too used to college life without me, coz I will be visiting. A lot. In fact, why don't you just kick out one of your roommates and keep a bed spare for me." Lorelai joked, attempting to lighten the room. "Hey." She said gently, lifting Rory's head of her shoulder and noticing her damp eyes. "It's going to be fine. It will feel like no time until we see each other again, ok?"
"Ok." Rory sniffed. "I love you Mom."
"I love you too babe."
They hugged tightly one last time and Lorelai turned to go.
"Go back in there and try to enjoy yourself. Get into a discussion about Einstein's theory of Relativity or George Orwell's books or something. Remember hon, you're at Harvard now, so you've got to appear smart or the nerds will laugh at you. And no one wants to be laughed at by a nerd. So shoo." She scolded. She gave her a big smile and walked away down the hall.
Rory stood there for a moment, staring after Lorelai longingly. Then she wiped her eyes, straightened up and walked back inside her suite. The girls had moved on to the cookies now and were giggling and chattering like old friends.
"Hey Rory, do you know anything about Jane Eyre?" Jaime asked. "Because we were discussing Bertha Mason: crazy wife in the attic used solely as a way to foil Jane and Rochester's romance, or oppressed and forced to become mad, because she was a strong, independent woman and therefore a threat to the patriarchal society of the time?"
"A good question. Pass me a cookie and I'll answer." Rory said happily, settling down onto the sofa.
This was what it was all about, this is what she had worked so hard to get for all those years. She was here, she was at her perfect college intelligently discussing books with those who were equally as interested. This is where she belonged.