Summary: Tristin Dugray gets sent to military school in the small town of Wayne, Pennsylvania. During gym class, a friendly wave from a mystery girl ignites an initiative in Tristin to not repeat mistakes he made while trying to woo Rory Gilmore. Other series characters may put in an appearace, so you never know who will show up! Also, I haven't named the mystery girl, so please submit your suggestions.
Sweat poured off of Tristin Dugray's brow as he finished a set of military pushups. He'd known that military school would be difficult, but not this bad. The Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania was definitely hard. He collapsed to the ground as the instructor bellowed, "Okay, get up! One mile around the track, everyone!" Tristin lifted himself off the ground and took off as fast as his exhausted legs would take him. Halfway through, he noticed that a group of teens was sitting on the ground watching the military students.
They were dressed in sweatpants, sneakers, and tee shirts. He wondered who they were, but as he thought, he slowed, and a friendly wave from one of the girls reignited his competitive spirit. He'd show these military people how good a New England rich boy was.
He picked his speed up, but unbeknownst to him, his sneaker had come untied, and as he pounded around a bend, he tripped on his laces. He fell flat on his face onto the rock hard, hot asphalt. He groaned, but as tried to get up, his ankle gave out from under him. He tried again, but his left foot didn't respond. It was oddly numb, and as he put all of his weight onto his right side, he saw that his left foot was positioned at an unnatural ankle. He tried to limp over to the side of the track, but couldn't. He hopped over, and the teacher had an assistant take him to the hospital.
Several hours and a few x-rays later, Tristin Dugray was diagnosed with a broken ankle. Due to the angle at which he had fallen, and due to pressing his body harder than normal, he had simply snapped his ankle. They set it and put him in a cast, gave him crutches, and sent him back to school.
The next day, Tristin sat and watched the gym class as they did their regimine. Tristin wondered where the group of teens was. Had they come on a tour of the school, as possible students? Tristin wondered this right through until the following Wednesday, when he saw them again. He'd been too afraid to ask anyone, at the risk of looking even stupider than he already felt. Maybe they were a routine occurence here.
That day, he saw them sitting on the grass again. He noticed they came about five minutes before the end of the school's gym class. Maybe they used the track. He noticed as he lingered for a moment, pretending to be getting his bearing on crutches, that they were indeed using the track. He made as mental note to sit where they had been the following Wednesday. That girl's innocently friendly wave had made him see her as another Rory--but maybe this time he could be a better guy.