So, I'm going to give this fic a whirl. Gimme a review and tell me if you like the idea!

So basically, this is completely AU. Dean breaks up with Rory not long before her senior year at Chilton begins, but she never dates Jess (although he still likes her). Tristan never went to military school. Also, there's an annual dance where Andover and Chilton get together and, well… have a dance. Though it seems a bit Trory at times, this is a Rogan. And there will be very little Dean, if any. He doesn't have that big a part in the story besides the fact that he and Rory are broken up. Jess makes a few appearances, but I haven't really decided what I'll have him do.

And if you guys want something to happen, I'm open to suggestions!

Disclaimer: Maybe the plot's mine. Nothing else. The chapter title's a song by CCR… it seemed to fit it perfectly. The title of the fic is a song by Vertical Horizon (a very good song by the way, you should check it out).

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Chapter One
Proud Mary

"Mom!"

It was 6:45 in the morning on Wednesday, and Rory Gilmore was, once again, agitated at her childish mother. She was going to miss her bus if she didn't leave the house soon, and she ran around the living room, looking under furniture. All in all, the situation was very bizarre… well, not for the Gilmore household. What other families would consider insanity was a normal occurrence at the Crap Shack.

"Mom!" she shouted again, running to the bottom of the staircase. "Where are my shoes? I can't find them!" She groaned, looking at her watch, then back up the stairs.

"Why should I know where they are?" her mother Lorelai Gilmore asked innocently, giving her daughter her best 'who, me?' look as she came down the stairs. "What possible use would I make of your shoes?" She traipsed across the living room, looking into the mirror as she applied lipstick.

"Well, let's see. Yesterday, you hid my backpack. The day before, you hid my blazer. Oh, and who could forget the time you hid my clothes while I was in the shower?" Rory asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"How do you know you just didn't lose them?" Lorelai asked. "I think you have a problem, Rory. You don't want to take the blame for your mistakes. I understand. You do have my mother's genes in you, after all."

"You are unbelievably immature," Rory said. "Where are they? I'm going to miss my bus!"

Lorelai sighed in a long-suffering way. "One's in the fridge next to the milk. The other's under the couch cushion," she grumbled. "You suck the fun out of everything."

Rory dashed about to put on her shoes. "This one's freezing! And I think there's a Cheeto on this one," the youngest Gilmore said, picking something orange and dusty off of her right shoe. "Ew."

"All you do is complain!" Lorelai sighed, shaking her head. "I anticipated it'd be warm, hence the shoe in the fridge. And I thought maybe you'd get hungry on the way to the bus. Forgive me for being a caring mother." She finished it off with a dramatic fake sob.

"Oh, save the waterworks," Rory said, needing serious coffee. "I don't get my coffee now. I should be the one crying."

"How about we go to Luke's, get a to-go cup, and I'll drive you to school," Lorelai said, grabbing her favorite red purse.

"Sounds good to me," Rory said. "I may forgive you someday."

"My life has new meaning," Lorelai said mock-seriously, grabbing her daughter's hand and dragging her out the door.

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"Coffee!" Lorelai demanded upon entering Luke's Diner.

"Wait your turn," Luke snapped at her.

"No time. Rory has school. She has to go, get all A's, and make her mommy proud. Don't stand in the way of my child's excellence!" Lorelai wailed.

"Chill, I'll get you some coffee," Jess Mariano said, and Lorelai looked at him.

"There is a heart in there," she said, looking mock-amazed. Jess just scowled at her, pouring out four cups to-go.

"He knows us well," Rory observed, as Lorelai attempted to take all four. "Um, Mom? First pay, and then try to carry off all of the coffee."

"Right," Lorelai said, slapping down a ten. "The change counts as roll-over for our next cup."

"No it doesn't," Luke said, coming behind the counter. "I'll take it as a donation for all the free refills you've accepted."

Lorelai huffed, before grabbing two coffees and sweeping out of Luke's in a self-important way. Rory smiled apologetically, thanked Jess quietly for the coffee, and left after her. Jess stared at her back.

"Drop it, Jess," Luke said quietly, making Jess flush.

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Lorelai drove into Chilton Prep's parking lot. "Luke's after school?" she asked Rory as she clambered out of the Jeep.

"I'm there!" she said, slamming the door behind her and striding towards the direction of the school. She hadn't gone more than seven steps when she heard the voice that indicated the arrival of a certain Hitler-like blonde.

"Gilmore!"

And Hell begins… Rory sighed, turning around. "Hey, Paris."

"So are you going?" Paris asked, joining her side.

"Going… where?"

"The dance!" Paris replied.

Rory blinked. "What dance?"

"You know, the Andover-Chilton one?" A blank stare. "The annual one?" Another blank stare. "The one everyone's been talking about for weeks?" Nothing. "Oh, come on, Gilmore, use your brain! The one where Andover comes here?"

"Oh. That one," Rory said, sounding rather nonchalant. She hadn't gone to last year's; she'd been dating Dean then, and it wasn't really his scene. The last Chilton dance he went to, he got into a fight with Tristan DuGrey, that annoying rich kid that followed Rory around and called her Mary. "I don't know—"

"Oh, please, Rory!" Paris snapped. "You have to get over Farmer John! It's been, what, two months? I think it's time you go out and meet a guy. Besides, I need you to write a story about it for The Franklin!" Paris looked like she was having a coronary.

"Why can't somebody else write it?"

"Because you are easily one of the best writers on the paper. Besides, Madeline and Louise refused and you're my last hope!" Paris pleaded.

"I don't know…"

Paris stepped in front of her, blocking her path. Rory sighed. She knew she wasn't going to go anywhere until she agreed.

"Fine. I'll go," Rory sighed.

Paris grinned. "That's good. I'll see you in class." She darted away, and Rory sighed, rolling her eyes and walking into the school to her locker.

She started entering her combination. As she opened her locker, a shadow fell over her.

"Hey, Mary."

Rory rolled her eyes for what felt like the thousandth time that day. She could practically hear the smirk in the blonde boy's voice. "Tristan," she acknowledged.

"So, Mare, you going to the dance?" he asked, leaning against the locker next to hers. Rory laughed sarcastically.

"I'm being forced by Paris, but yes, I'm going," she said.

"Well, I already know the answer, but it's always proper to ask; you wanna go with me?" Tristan asked, flashing her his best smile.

"Not really," Rory said without missing a beat, turning and walking to her homeroom. "And if you really knew the answer already, you need to work on your self esteem."

The blonde boy gaped at her back before catching up with her, choosing to ignore her last comment.

"Why not?"

Rory stopped, pretending to think. "Hmm, where to begin…" she mused, making Tristan snort in spite of himself.

"At least save a dance for me?" he asked, smiling his most charming smile.

"Will it get you off my back?"

"Maybe."

"We'll see," Rory said with a smile, before continuing to her homeroom.

Trist stood there watching her walk away, some feeling in the bottom of his stomach that he'd never felt before. He smiled to himself.

Rory Gilmore was a special, special girl, and she'd be his someday.

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Andover in Boston was abuzz with activity. They were all looking forward to one of the only entertaining school-sanctioned events. It was the one time they didn't fight with their rivals from Chilton.

"I still can't believe they think Chilton and Andover will get along after these events" was the general sentiment among the students, but almost ninety percent of them went anyway. What happens with the other ten percent? They find a nice, secluded place and proceed to get wasted.

At this moment, Andover's three "most eligible bachelors" were chilling in the parking lot before their classes began.

"So Colin, you going to the dance?" Finn Morgan asked Colin McRae in his thick Australian accent as he leaned against someone's BMW.

"Depends. You and Huntz going?" he asked, turning to the blonde boy next to him, who was perched on someone's hood and staring into space. "Yo. Earth to Logan Huntzberger."

"Huh?" he said, snapping out of his reverie. Colin sighed.

"Mate, you gotta get over her. Are you coming to the dance or what?" Finn asked.

"I don't know—" Logan started, but Colin interrupted.

"Don't even start this, Logan," Colin said. "You're going to get on with your life. Jessica dumped you almost two months ago."

Logan looked like he was going to argue, but Finn said rather firmly (a first for him, really), "No ifs, ands, or buts. You're coming even if we have to drag you there."

Logan sighed, but he couldn't help but smile slightly as his two friends looked at him hopefully. "Well, what choice do I have?" he finally said, and Finn cheered and Colin clapped him on the shoulder.

"That's my boy!" he said cheerfully.

"So you got Logan to agree?" said a blonde girl who'd chose to pop out from behind a nearby Mercedes at that moment.

"How long were you listening in, Steph?" Logan asked, looking amused.

She just smiled. "Huntz, this is good for you. Meet a girl at Chilton! Fall in love! Piss off the rest of the school!" Steph grinned.

The trademark Huntzberger smirk finally returned to Logan's face for the first time in a while, and the group laughed, not realizing what would actually transpire at the annual dance.

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"So there's this dance at Chilton that happens annually—" Rory said to her mother when they met at Luke's after school. Lorelai effectively cut her off.

"You wouldn't happen to be talking about the Andover-Chilton dance, would you?" she asked, as Luke poured them coffee.

"Andover? What the hell is that?" Luke asked, filling Rory's cup to the brim.

"It's a private school in Massachusetts—" Rory started, but her mom interrupted.

"—and all of their mommies and daddies are rich snobs," she finished.

"Well, isn't Chilton kind of the same way?" Luke replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up."

Luke rolled his eyes and took the pot back to the counter.

"You have something against Andover?" Rory asked, taking a sip of her coffee and looking at her mom with a puzzled look on her face.

"My parents constantly set me up with Andover boys. They were at all of our dumb parties," Lorelai said, taking a long gulp of her coffee, draining half of the cup. "I have to admit, though… Andover boys are cuter than Chilton boys." Rory giggled. A comfortable silence fell over them, before Lorelai decided to break it.

"So, gimme the dirt. How many boys have asked you? Fifteen? Twenty?" she asked in a conspiring tone, catching Luke's nephew's attention as he scrubbed the counter.

"Just one," Rory said casually, and the nephew, Jess, scowled, scrubbing harder. "Tristan. The one who calls me Mary."

"Oh yeah… blonde? Yay rich?" Lorelai said, holding her hand above her head.

"Mo-om!" Rory playfully whacked her.

"So, what'd you say?" Lorelai said, practically bouncing in her seat. Luke rolled his eyes, mumbling about how coffee addiction would kill her. None of them noticed Jess still watching them.

"Are you kidding? He's an arrogant, rich, annoying brat. I said no," Rory replied.

Neither Gilmore girl noticed the look of relief on Jess's face… but Luke did.

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Emily and Richard Gilmore sat across the table from each other at dinner, eating in silence.

Emily sighed, and looked to Richard. He didn't look up from the Wall Street Journal. Emily sighed louder. Still no response.

"Thick as ever…" she muttered, stabbing at her salad.

"What was that, Emily?" Richard asked, glancing up from an article about the ups and downs of the stocks of the Target company.

"It was nothing, Richard," Emily sighed, looking down at her meal. Another silence fell over the table, and suddenly, Emily looked up.

"Richard," she started, getting her husband's attention. "We need to have a party. It's been ages since we've gotten all of our old friends together."

Richard smiled, but inside, he was cringing. He hated parties that weren't with his business buddies. "Of course. Who shall we invite?"

"Well, obviously the McRaes, the Vanderbilts, the Jensens, the Huntzbergers… and of course Lorelai and Rory… oh, and the DuGreys, of course," Emily said, mentally making a list.

"Of course, Emily," Richard said absently, returning to his article as Emily continued to rant on about who they could invite.

"I think the party should be in late October… before Halloween, of course, that vulgar holiday," Emily said, making a face of disgust. "How about October 21st? I do believe that is a Friday."

"Of course, Emily… of course."

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Alright, guys, review please! Any questions on the plot, just leave it in the review.

--Ace