Title: Love to Hate You
Author: Lannah
Summary: Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.
Pairing: R/T. What
Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.
The hotel revolving door swung around, bringing into the foyer a cold gust of December wind and snow amidst a large group of newly arriving high school students. The sound of excited chatter buzzed through the foyer as a young teacher attempted to gain their attention, especially from a particularly rowdy group of boys at the back of the group.
"Alright everyone, listen up," Mr. Medina's voice rang through the hotel foyer.
The chatter gradually died down as one by one students focused their attention on him.
Mr. Medina continued. "First of all, I have your room assignments, so come get them from me after I call out your names. Secondly, I expect everyone, and I mean everyone," he glanced pointedly at the previously rowdy group of boys in the back, "to be on their best behavior during the course of this trip."
He paused as a grumble went through the crowd of students, before he continued, "I know you've heard this many times before, but keep in mind that you are representing Chilton and any inappropriate behavior will not be taken lightly. In other words, no trouble. Am I clear, Mr. Dugrey and Mr. Jones?"
"As glass," a messy-haired, blonde boy, otherwise known as Tristan DuGrey, replied.
"Your concern touches us," a dark-haired boy, a.k.a. Brendan Jones, added. "But you don't have to worry Mr. M. We are the epitome of all that is good."
Mr. Medina rolled his eyes, while the other students laughed at the antics of the two boys. "Need I remind you of the various incidents that have occurred throughout the school year?"
Brendan shrugged, feigning innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I'm sure you don't," Mr. Medina answered, the hint of a smile twitching at the corner of his lips.
He cleared his throat before addressing all the students again. "I'm going to hand out your room assignments now. Everyone is in either groups of two or three. First group - Paris, Madeline and Louise..."
He continued to hand out the room assignments as the students began chattering again, excited about the next few days.
Soon, students slowly filtered out of the foyer and began heading up to their assigned rooms. Tristan, Brendan and another friend, Austin, finally decided to quit checking out random girls wandering in and out of the hotel and headed towards the elevators.
"I don't know about you gentlemen," Brenden started to say, "…but I intend to make complete use of my two weeks here and take in all of the, uh, sights," he finished, winking at a passing blonde.
Austin made a face as they neared the elevator. "Jones, that woman was at least thirty."
"Age is nothing but a number, my friend. Nothing but a number," Brendan answered, while continuing to flirt with each passing female.
"If you'd quit looking for ass for one minute," Tristan said, "you would realize that we have an entire room to ourselves and…" he paused, shooting a glance at Brenden, to cut off any unwanted comment that he suspected was about to come out of his friend's mouth, "…you all know what that means, right?."
All three boys looked at each other and just grinned.
"Parttaaayy," Tristan continued in a sing-song voice, proceeding to perform a very stupid dance.
Unfortunately (or maybe, not-so-unfortunately), his celebratory dance was soon interrupted by a rather irritated sounding voice from behind them.
"Are you three going to get on the elevator or what?"
The three guys turned around to find a very annoyed, blonde Paris behind them, her two friends, Madeline and Louise, in tow. Austin and Brendan immediately clammed up. They had learned a long time ago that one should not mess with Paris Gellar when she was annoyed, pissed off or looking like the way she did at that exact moment.
Tristan, on the other hand, did not seem to follow that specific do-not-mess-with-Paris-when-she-has-that-look rule and never took heed of it. He was either very brave or very stupid. His friends definitely thought it was quite possibly both.
He grinned and while doing so, proceeded to drape his arm across the girl's shoulder. "Paris, darling! How are you this fine day?"
Paris pursed her lips in annoyance. "Are you drunk?"
The grin widened, as Tristan put up his hands, in mock-surrender. "Now why you even suggest that?"
Paris raised an eyebrow. "Do I really need to answer that?"
She huffed and pushed past the three guys to get in front of the elevator. "I really don't know why they let you three on this trip," she grumbled.
"Because everyone loves us and we provide all of the entertainment necessary. Without us, you would be quite bored," Tristan answered, dramatically waving his hands around, proceeding to walk backwards into the now opening elevator doors.
He also gracefully managed to walk smack into someone in the process.
"Ouch!" a girl's voice exclaimed.
"Oh shit, sorry," Tristan answered, turning around, not looking sorry at all.
His eyes locked with a pair of startling blue eyes while the others stood snickering at him. He took in the girl's appearance. Straight brown hair. Gorgeous blue eyes. Around 5'6"ish.
'Definitely hot.' he thought to himself as he gathered his wits.
He plastered on his infamous, mega-watt smile. "Hello."
The girl raised her eyebrows at him. "Goodbye," she replied, as she made her way out of the elevator, towards the foyer.
"Ouch! Rejected!" Brenden exclaimed, laughing. "DuGrey, I think that was one of the first times ever!"
"Hmm. Someone actually saw through the DuGrey looks and charm. Maybe she's not a complete bimbo like half of the females that exist around this place," Paris commented, stepping into the open elevator.
Ignoring the comments of the two, Tristan's eyes followed the brunette as she walked away, a small grin playing on his lips.
"Hard to get. My specialty," he muttered quietly, then turned and followed the others into the elevator.
The brunette in question, Rory Gilmore, headed out of the hotel and walked down to the ski lodge situated not too far away from the hotel she was currently staying at.
"Angela!" She called out to the dark-haired young woman behind the café counter upon entering the ski lodge. "I need my coffee and brownie desperately," Rory all but whined.
Angela smiled. "Coming right up. Aleesha's over there," she added, indicating a girl sitting at a table.
Rory glanced around and saw her curly-haired friend sitting at their usual table and staring absently into space. She headed over to the girl, groaning and dropping her head on the table once she had sat down.
At the sudden noise and newly occupied seat, Aleesha started from her reverie and looked quizzically at Rory. "What's up with you?"
Rory lifted her head up, off the table. "I have been having the worst day ever."
The girl grinned and patted her on the head. "Tell your buddy Leeshy all about it. I am after all, the budding psychiatrist."
"And your therapy sessions will probably just make all of your crazy patients even worse." Rory commented, dryly.
Aleesha stuck her tongue out at Rory. "Just for that, I'm not giving you any free advice."
Rory shrugged. "Fine."
They both sat in silence for a total of five seconds before Aleesha broke it. "Alright fine, tell me what's up."
Rory laughed. "Well for starters, I didn't have any coffee today. I'm talking none! Not even a drop. Not even a coffee-tasting chocolate bar. Not even a coffee bean or…"
Aleesha cut her off. "No coffee. I got you. That's bad," she paused and then began to nod her head as if just realizing something. "…especially for me since I have to deal with a coffee-crazed lunatic," she finished with a smug look on her face.
"If I had something to throw at you, I would," Rory deadpanned, glaring at her friend, before continuing on with her rant. "Okay, so no coffee. Second, I kept walking into stuff all day today. I have a huge bruise on my toe and it hurts. A lot. Oh and then some stupid guy decides to walk into me…"
"Was he hot?" Aleesha interrupted again.
Rory looked at her friend disbelievingly. "I'm in pain here and you're asking if the guy was hot?"
Aleesha shrugged. "Well, was he?"
Rory groaned. "I don't know. I didn't really pay much attention to him."
Now it was Aleesha's turn to look at her in disbelief.
"I didn't!" Rory protested. "Fine…I guess he was kind of hot. From what I did happen to see," she added. "But he seemed like a total asshole." she finished frowning.
"Why do you get all the luck?" Aleesha grumbled, placing her chin in her palm.
"You want an asshole?"
"Well, if he's a hot asshole, then I can deal with that," Aleesha grinned, wiggling her eyebrows.
Rory rolled her eyes but then smiled as Angela brought her a huge, steaming cup of coffee and an espresso brownie. "Thank you! You are a lifesaver," she gushed.
"Yes Ang, you are," Aleesha said. "Or else, I would have to deal with the symptoms of coffee withdrawal all day and it would not have been pretty, let me tell you."
Upon witnessing the look on Rory's face, Aleesha hastily changed the subject. "Did you get our schedule for tomorrow?"
"No. Jake said we should pick it up in the morning at the front desk. But we're teaching on bunny hill number five at ten. That's all I know for sure," Rory answered.
"Speaking of Jake," Aleesha stood up. "I'll be back in two minutes. I have to go drop this off for him," she indicated the papers in front of her.
"What's that…?" Rory barely finished the question before Aleesha was up and out the door.
Three cups of coffee, a finished brownie and ten minutes later, Rory was still waiting on Aleesha to get back from her so-called two minute impromptu trip.
Rory tapped her fingers impatiently on the table. "Where is that girl?"
"You know, I hear talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity," a smooth, male voice said behind her.
Rory turned around, only to be met with the sight of the same blonde guy who had crashed into her earlier that day.
"Well, you know, I hear that, that isn't the greatest pick up line ever invented," she quipped, returning her attention to her empty coffee cup.
"Who said it was a pick up line?" he asked, leaning against the table.
"Who said it wasn't?" she replied not looking up from her coffee.
The blonde guy grinned. "I'm Tristan."
Rory sighed. "Well Tristan, I'm very happy that you know your name. That will help you a lot in today's society."
"You know what would also help me a lot?" he asked, leaning slightly closer to her.
She turned to him, her only response being the raising of her eyebrow.
"If I knew your name," he continued, smirking.
"I have a question," Rory said, completely avoiding his comment. "Does this usually work for you?"
He continued to smirk. "I don't know. I've never tried it before."
Rory couldn't help but laugh. "Somehow, I find that very hard to believe."
Tristan sighed.
Rory had a feeling that he was not used to working so hard just to get a girl's name.
"Ok, maybe I have done it before. But, you're the only one that has really interested me," he answered.
"Yippee for me," Rory muttered, sarcastically then perked up as she spotted Aleesha walking back into the room.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Rory turned to Tristan. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Tristan. But I have somewhere to be right now."
Rory headed over to Aleesha and immediately dragged her back out of the room.
"What are you doing?" Aleesha yelped. "And who was that guy you were with? He was hot!" she finished as she turned around to try to get a look at Tristan one more time.
"That was the stupid guy who walked into me today," Rory answered frowning.
Aleesha stared at her. "That's what you call kind of hot?" she asked incredulously. "I wonder what incredibly hot would be for you," she mumbled.
Rory ignored her and tried to shake off the feeling that she was being watched. She turned her head slightly to the side as they exited the room and realized that Tristan's eyes were still on her.
So, what do you think of the newly revised chapter? Reviews are always welcome!