CHUCK AND JILL: THE STANFORD YEARS

Hi everyone! I'm new to writing on . When I went on the Chuck archives I noticed there were a lot of "Charah" stories—which is totally understandable. However, I'm not going to be doing the cliché. The story I'm doing is one that I believe is relatively unique to the Chuck fan fiction archives. This is because the premise of the story is a prelude to canon "Chuck." It is going to be focusing on the relationships between Chuck, Bryce, Jill, and some OCs. Also just in case you are wondering, I don't know if I'm going to write in the fulcrum stuff with Jill or not. Personally, I want the fanfic to be lighthearted with only some minimal angst.

Anyways this is getting way to long! Thank you for reading!

—LIVO

March 1997 (Past 3rd Pov)

Chuck Bartowski is a lanky kid, he's shy, nerdy, and overly protective of his friends and family. His qualities don't make him the most popular guy at school—in fact no one would call him that. However, no one could argue with the fact that he is the most brilliant—anything with computers or electronics is his forte. His intelligence is his only way out from a lousy situation. This lousy situation includes, no father or mother in the picture and being raised by his older sister: Eleanor or Ellie for short. And he loves Ellie to much to let himself bog down her life for the sake of his.

That is why today is so important to him. It is the day in which all of his hard work is validated. Most of his classmates are content with going to a Cal State or to a UC; but, Chuck wanted better—he deserved better. This is because Chuck wanted to go to Stanford, the Bastion of knowledge on the west coast. The place where his career aspirations will be meet and his thirst for knowledge will be quenched. And now on the table when he got home from another long day at school, he saw it. An envelope with a crimson red seal that read "Stanford." Sighing heavily, Charles Bartowski opened the letter, his heart beating a million times per second and his eyes scanning the letter for a single word: "Accepted." After what seemed like an eternity his eyes stopped and his hard work was validated.

September 1997 (Chuck's POV)

405 hours. I had to work 405 hours just so I can buy a rental car which may or may not be able to take me to school. I went through hell at the buymore—thank god I won't be working there again! And on top of that, I hate not being able to buy what my sister and I need. Our parents left us high and dry and now we have to pick up the pieces. Can you imagine it; leaving two children to fend for themselves? I bet I can read your mind. You can't. And I don't blame you, it takes heartless people to be able to do that to their children.

"What did I do to deserve a life like this" I think to myself.

Then, Ellie as if reading my mind had a huge scowl over her face. It just seemed to scream "Chuck stop self-loathing about your life and live with it."

I have to say though, Ellie is my rock, and I wouldn't have been able to get through life without her. Thats another reason why I'm scared—I don't know how to live without Ellie supporting me. Not to mention Morgan, my little gremlin best friend who has been there for me my whole life. He adds a certain level of confidence to my demeanor, which can't be understated.

Anyways today is finally the day that I'll be moving to Stanford. I've done a lot of packing and I've loaded of all of my stuff. The truck's load must be at least 400 pounds with all of my stuff in it. Morgan came to my house around an hour ago—he was reduced to a sobering slob. He was trying to make me stay and trying to make go to the community college around here. I was actually considering it until reality hit me and I realized that its almost time to go.

Then the thought of just not going was pushed to the back to myself I say, "Shit, its four O' Clock. We should have already left." And just a side note: this always tends happens to me, I get sidetracked and end up getting off schedule.

Screaming I say, "Eleanor Bartowski, we have to leave now!"

"Gosh Chuck, hold your horses," Ellie basically yells back at me.

She doesn't understand how nervous I am, nor does she really care. My nerves have really caused my appearance to hit a snag after I was accepted into Stanford. My normally curly hair has gotten shaggy and dirty; my eyes now have constant bags under them which makes me look 50 years older; and my demeanor has been horrible—to my sister, my friends, and my teachers. Can you blame me though? I have so much stress and they just can't stop annoying me.

When we finally got onto the open road. I start looking at the window and my life starts flashing through my eyes. All of the trauma that I've had to endure, like that of my parents leaving suddenly starts to come back to me. I can still remember the day that my mom left, under the veil of the night. I was so scared back then—I kept wondering to myself why she left Ellie and me. At first I thought it was because I was acting bad. But as I grew older, my reasoning became a little more pessimistic: She just didn't care about us. After being locked in to my thoughts for what seems to be hours, I am pulled out by Ellie.

She says, "Chuck, come on we need to get some gas!" I silently sigh and get out of the car to get gas.

Ellie and I stopped at a gas station that was in the middle of nowhere. Ellie was going on and on about how she was driving, so the least I could do was get the gas. Not wanting to get into an argument I get out and start heading out to the gas station walking I noticed that there was only one other family and they had a car packed to the brim filled with luggage. My only thought was that they must be going off to school too. And then as I went into the gas station I noticed a girl, she had light brown hair, glasses that covered her skinny nose, and small diamond earrings that scream of modesty The thing I honed in on was her sweater. It was a crimson sweater with the letters: Stanford. Jackpot.

Okay, so let me tell you about myself. I can't talk to girls. No matter the girl, my mouth dries up, my brows start to sweat, and I start to stutter. However, I still try to go to them and talk. I can't say that it works for me, but at least I try—right? So when I slowly approach this mystery girl, I try to gain her attention by coughing. As usual I fail miserably.

She looks at me with an awkward face and says, "Um, who are you?"

Per usual, I start to fidget around and I say, "Hi…my name is Chuck Bartowski. I saw your Stanford sweater and was wondering what year you are?"

Her expression totally changed, she smiled when she said, "I'm a first year and what year are you?"

Thats when our conversation started, I went over my major—telling her it was computer science—and then she told me her's was biomedical engineering (which is super cool). I couldn't help but think to myself that she was equally smart and beautiful. And then I realized that my mind was on cloud nine and that never before have I seen a smile that was so captivating—that it nearly made my heart stop.

We talked for what seemed like hours—about Star wars, Star Trek, Pokemon, and everything else in between. And I felt a real connection with this mystery girl and secretly I hoped she felt with a connection with me. Then a sudden realization hit me and I remembered that I don't even know the girl's name.

So I cough and I very awkwardly ask, "Ummmmm, sorry but I didn't even catch your name."

Just as she gets ready to respond, I interject and ask, "And if it wouldn't be to forward, can I also have your number?"

She thinks about it for what seems to me like an eternity. Finally she responds, "First my name is Jill Roberts and secondly no you may not have my number."

My face grew numb and my brows started to furrow. I didn't even know what I did wrong. I'm pretty sure I hit all of the social cues that a person is supposed to hit when getting ready to ask a girl for her number. She must have noticed the crestfallen look on my face. Not wanting to get even more embarrassed, I start to walk away. Suddenly

Jills puts a hand on my shoulder and says, "Okay, Okay I give in. I'll tell you what, here's my address and maybe if you meet me at my room I'll give you my phone number."

After that moment I only knew one thing and that was: I was going to visit Jill Roberts.

Author's Notes:

Hi everyone! So I just finished the first chapter of my story. What do you think? This chapter went by really fast and seems to cover a lot of ground in terms of chuck getting into Stanford and going into Stanford. In my next chapters I will try to make the subject matter a little more nuanced in the subject matter. School is starting for me soon so I don't know when this will be updated. If anyone knows a good Beta, can you please PM me? And thank you for your support!

-Livo