AN: This is my first Gilmore Girls story. I have wanted to write one for a while now, but never got around to it. This chapter is a lot of background information needed for the story. The story will pick up in later chapters. Let me know what you think!

Chapter 1

Rory pulled up to her new parking space at Yale and took some much-needed deep breaths. When she first got the call asking if she would be interested in teaching, she had no idea what to think. She was both excited and terrified. She hadn't been on this campus in years. She thought of coming back often, but some of the memories were still too raw, even all of these years later. It had been almost a decade ago when she told Logan she couldn't marry him, and the memory of that day still haunts her. It's not that she regrets saying no, but more that she can't stand the thought of having broken his heart, even if saying no was the right thing for both of them. She knew they were both headed in different directions and needed to focus on their new careers, rather than a relationship. She wanted to be a world-renowned journalist, not a housewife. She knew that wouldn't have been a possibility with him, so they parted ways.

Now, here she sits, surrounded by familiar sights. She called this place home for four years, and to her, it will always feel like home. This campus and her mom and Luke's house would always be home to her, no matter where she went or what she did in life. These two places held so many memories for her, so much love, there was no replacing that.

Life hadn't gone exactly as Rory had envisioned it. She pursued a career as a journalist for a few years, before realizing it wasn't for her. After a failed career in journalism, she finally went backpacking with her mom, something they had been talking about doing for as long as she could remember. It had been an amazing experience, but they were both glad to be back home after two months abroad. After that, she had decided to start a blog. She posted about her failed career, her travels, her future dreams, short stories… You name it; she had probably posted about it. To her surprise, the blog was actually pretty popular. She even had advertisers vying for space on her blog to promote their business. She made enough money to get by, and she was happy with her life for the time being.

It was her blog that had piqued the interest of Yale. They contacted her asking if she would consider becoming an English professor and also asked her if she would like to work part-time at their newspaper. Apparently, it had been going downhill in recent years and they thought someone who had been so influential during her time there would be able to help get them back to where they once were. She had told them she would have to take some time to think about it, which really meant she was going to go to her mom's house and make a pro/con list with her. All these years later, and that's still how Rory makes important decisions. It's how she decided to go to Yale, to stop being a journalist, to backpack through Europe, and to begin a blog. Her method hadn't failed her yet.

By the end of the week, she had decided that she would be crazy to turn down an opportunity like this. Not only was it a great decision financially, but also it would get her back into the world she loved so dearly, and secretly missed. She wanted to feel like what she did with her life was making a difference on someone, and what better way to do that than to teach?

She pulled herself from her thoughts long enough to check the time. 8:56. She quickly gathered her things, opened her car door, and sprinted toward her building. She was going to be late on her first day! Not the impression she had hoped to make on her class. By the time she had finally made it, which happened to be one minute before class started, she was out of breath and sweaty. As she looked up, she saw fifty pairs of eyes looking back at her. She smiled a weak smile and apologized for her disheveled appearance before breaking the ice with a joke.

When the class laughed and stopped staring at her like she had a bird in her hair, she breathed a sigh of relief and took her laptop out of the bag. She told herself everything was going to be okay. English was her passion and she would be able to give a killer lecture, sweat stains or not. It wasn't until she had connected her laptop and pulled her lecture presentation up that she saw him. There, sitting in the back row, was Jess Mariano. Rory felt faint. She hadn't seen Jess since the incident. She hadn't forgotten their kiss. In fact, it was one of the many reasons why she had said no to Logan. As much as she told herself it was because of her career, deep down she knew it was because she would always be in love with Jess.

She had to take some more deep breaths to calm herself down enough to begin the lecture. A few breaths and a mental pep talk later, and she was ready to begin. She introduced herself, did some icebreaker activities, went through the syllabus, and told the class she would see them next Monday.

As she was packing up her stuff, she heard footsteps approaching her. She looked up to see Jess, smiling that trademark crooked smile of his.