AN This story was conceptualized, written and edited by my sister and I. We both love the Covenant boys as well as the characters from Gilmore and we decided what the hell we're both writers Why not merge the two worlds together? So with her flair for the fluffy and my preference for darker romances… we have created a series that will hopefully gain a following in this genre.
Please be patient with regard to updates as we are working from two different cities.
We have a teaser video on YouTube for all of you who wish for a more visual presentation of our premise. Just search for: Aegis Veritas.
CHAPTER ONE
Rory sighed as she parked her blue coupe, a present from her grandparents, in front of an imposing stone building. She had seen it countless times while perusing the Student Manual that was sent to her a week ago. This was it.
She buttoned up her gloves and drew her coat tighter around her petite form. There was a slight rain falling and she didn't feel like getting sick during her first week. Finishing her routine, she stepped out into the cold and entered Spenser Academy's main building.
Rory walked around the building's grounds looking for someone who could give her directions to the Provost's office and she spotted a boy who looked around her age sitting on a stone bench and reading.
She slowly started to approach him while mentally going over her rehearsed 'I come in peace' conversation starter.
"Hi," she said.
The boy looked up at her and smiled. Rory's voice seemed to get caught in her throat as their gazes met. She didn't know she was going to be attending a school for the physically perfect.
"Hi." He said still smiling up at her and closing the book in his hand. He was reading Pride and Prejudice. Rory's heart skipped a beat.
"I'm looking for Provost Hagen's office." She said a little breathlessly as she tried not to stare at the volume in his hands.
"Oh, you must be Lorelai Gilmore!" the boy exclaimed as he read her name from a slip of paper he had pulled from between the pages of the book.
"Yeah, that's me." She replied. "But you can call me Rory. Do you read a lot?"
"Caleb Danvers." He said standing up and shaking her hand. "I was assigned to be your guide for your first week here. And no, not really. This," he said, while holding up the book in his hands, "is my mother's favorite book and I was planning to surprise her with it on her birthday."
A few minutes of silence passed before she shot him a nervous smile.
"It's a first edition." he supplied, helpfully.
Rory shot him a grin and nodded towards their hands, "You've been holding my hand for the past two minutes. Now, call me old-fashioned, but I usually don't hold hands before the first date."
"Oh, sorry." He said letting go of her hand.
"It's okay." She replied. "So, shall we?"
"Yeah, let's go." He said as he flashed another smile.
He started to walk and she quickly followed, trying to match his long strides. He took her through a stone archway and down a long corridor. It would have been creepy had tall picture windows not lined one side, illuminating the forbidding path.
"This is the Provost's office." He said stopping in front of a rather large wooden doorway. "We'll get your dorm assignment and class schedule here before moving your things to your new room."
She nodded and followed him inside the office, mentally filing away the route they took to get there. She was definitely not in Chilton anymore. An elderly woman sat behind an imposing walnut desk placed to the right of another doorway marked 'Provost Hagen'.
"Ah, Mr. Danvers, I was starting to think you had abducted our transfer." Quipped the old lady manning the secretary's desk.
"You know that's more of Reid's style don't you Mrs. Schmitze?" he said, flashing her a charming smile. She smirked and handed him a brown envelope.
"I wouldn't put it past you to take one look at a pretty girl and dash of with her to who-knows-where!" she said, shaking her head. "You keep your eyes open, Ms. Gilmore, with Mr. Danvers and his hooligan friends around you aren't going to have a moment of peace your entire stay here!"
"I will. Thanks for the warning!" Rory said as Caleb ushered her out of the office.
"She seems nice. So you're in there a lot huh?" Rory said as soon as they were out of the office.
"Yeah, she always gives us the easier jobs when we get into trouble." Caleb said, handing her the brown envelope.
"We?"
"Me and the three 'hooligans', you'll meet them later when we go to Nicky's." he said stopping in his tracks and shooting her a smirk.
"Nicky's?" she asked.
"It's a local hang-out, you'll like it."
"That's presumptuous, don't you think? Who says I even plan to go to said hang-out with you?" she said arching her brow.
"I do. Are you going to open that?" he said gesturing to the brown envelope.
"Oh, right." She sat down on a bench and started to remove the contents of the envelope.
"What's your dorm number?" he said sitting beside her.
"Why would I tell you my dorm number? You're awfully forward for a teacher's pet." she said smirking at him and raising her brows at him again.
"I am not. It's just easier so I can pick you up to go to Nicky's later." he replied, not missing a beat.
She laughed. "That's assuming I actually agree to go."
He just flashed another smile as a reply. Shaking her head, she perused her schedule and bit her lip. "You guys have a more advanced curriculum. I did some research before transferring, but I didn't know it would be this intense. It'll take all year to catch up!"
"Not if you have the right tutor. Here, let me see your schedule." She handed him the white card and continued her perusal of the envelope contents.
"We're in the same classes," He said looking down at it, "except for Fridays."
"Is that a good or bad thing?" She asked as she paused in her perusal.
"That would be entirely up to you." He replied, helping her fix up all the papers. A clink sounded through the hallway as her dorm key slipped from Rory's skirt. He bent to pick it up.
"Caleb!"
The both of them turned their heads and saw two boys walking towards them.
"Hey guys." Caleb said as he straightened up and handed Rory her key.
"Are you done yet? " The tall one with long blonde hair asked as he gave Rory an appreciative once-over.
"Does it look like I am?" he replied, bumping fists with the two new arrivals. "Guys, this is Rory Gilmore. Rory this is Pogue Parry and Reid Garwin."
"Hi." She said.
"Where's Tyler?" Caleb asked suddenly.
"Now, Caleb, don't get mad. We were just kidding around and…"
"What did you do?!" he said standing up and grabbing Reid by the front of his shirt.
"Geez, I was just kidding! He's at the office signing out." Reid said taking two steps back when Caleb released him. "Take it easy, man!"
"Not funny, Reid. You guys get into any more trouble, I'll have to start taking prescription pills to numb the headaches. We'll meet you guys later at Nicky's okay? Stay out of trouble." Caleb shook his head in annoyance at his two friends.
Rory waved to them and started to walk beside Caleb again.
"Sorry about that." Caleb said after a minute of silence.
"It's okay." Rory said smiling up at him. "You guys seem close."
"Yeah, we kind of grew up together. Our families are pretty close, you know?" he said returning her smile.
Rory nodded her head in understanding.
"So, where's your library ----"
"Do you mind going to the library---"
They both exchanged smiles and Caleb led her to the library.
"Damn, it's closed." He said as they approached frosted glass doors.
"It's okay, maybe next time." She said in reply to his apologetic glance.
They continued walking for some time and then Rory broke the silence once more.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"To the dorms." He replied.
"But my stuff is in the car."
"Right, your stuff." He shot her another apologetic glance.
They walked to her car and she let Caleb drive them over to the dormitory, desperately trying to memorize all the places he pointed out to her.
Once they got to the dormitory, he helped her unload all of her things.
"Well, looks like you have a little problem, Ms. Gilmore." Caleb said coyly.
"What's that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
"Well, either you tell me what room you're in or you carry all your stuff up on your own." He said pointing towards the large pile of boxes at her feet.
She eyed the boxes warily for a minute before finally throwing her hands up in defeat.
"Fine, I'm in room 246."
Caleb flashed a quick smirk before picking up three boxes all at once, leaving only two small ones for her to carry. She locked her car and followed him up the stairs.
"Jesus, what did you put in these boxes?!" He asked as he finally set them down in her dorm room.
"Just a couple of books." She replied innocently.
He opened one of them curiously and once he tore apart the packaging tape, the box practically opened itself. The other boxes followed suit.
"A few?" he said cocking his brow at her.
"So I like to read." She said in a huff.
He smiled and asked for her keys. "Let me go and get your bags while you set-up your mini-library." He said laughing at the look she gave him before throwing him her car keys.
Caleb returned with her bags twenty minutes later, breathing a little heavily as he dropped her three bags onto the floor and launched himself on the nearest surface he could see, the floor.
"Did you stuff a bookstore in there, too?" he asked eyeing the bags suspiciously.
"I might have." Was the only reply he got from the girl now surrounded by at least ten stacks of books.
Caleb checked his watch before getting off the floor.
"I'd better go; my mom is probably waiting for me." He said drawing closer, nearly knocking down one of her towers, erm, books.
"Okay. Thanks for everything, Caleb." She said shooting him a smile.
"You're welcome, my number's on the pad paper, in case you need any thing." he said walking out the door. "And I'll see you again tonight around eight."
"Okay, than--- what?! Wait, I thought you were kidding!" she exclaimed.
"I don't kid." he said smiling at her and closing the door before she could reply.
Rory finally got her stuff organized. After about an hour of trying to assemble the mini-bookshelf her grandparents had given her, she finally decided to suck it up and call Caleb for help. He arrived half an hour later to find her whacking a nail into a wooden plank with one of her beloved books.
He almost gave her a heart-attack when he started speaking, "That's an interesting new development. I never thought of books as a substitute for power tools." He said, grinning.
"Jesus, knock much?!" she said her blue eyes flashing and placing her hand on her chest. Caleb merely smiled and proceeded to assemble the bookcase as if it consisted of a few Lego blocks.
"How did you do that?" she said when she looked up from the books she was arranging to see him wiping down the newly assembled bookcase.
"Well, first you look at the guide that you were using as doodling paper to figure out which pieces go together..." he said smirking.
Her eyes widened as she saw that the piece of paper she had used to doodle his name on earlier had instructions printed on the other side.
"I was about to praise your manly intuition." She said, not allowing him a second to enjoy his little victory, trying to hide her embarassment at being caught.
"I was about to praise your dress sense." He said as he looked at her dressed in old jeans and an over-sized t-shirt.
"Hey, no fair! I can't assemble a bookcase dressed my best now can I?" she said slapping his arm playfully.
"Don't you mean attempt to assemble a bookcase?" he quipped.
She narrowed her eyes and said, "I have half a mind not to go with you to Nicky's."
"So you were planning to go, huh?" he said, his smile growing wider by the second. She threw her arms up in defeat and proceeded to grab clothes she could change into.
"Give me ten minutes to get dressed." She said while marching into the bathroom.
Caleb sat down on her bed and waited for her to finish up. He saw three pictures on her nightstand and picked them up for closer inspection.
The first was her and a pretty slightly older woman, probably her older sister. The second was her and a good-looking guy by a motorcycle. And the third was of her and a Chinese girl making silly faces.
"I'm ready." She announced as she walked out of the bathroom half an hour later.
"Ten minutes huh?" he said with a smirk.
"Hey, natural beauty takes two hours in front of the mirror, you're lucky I only took a fourth of that time." She replied grabbing a coat from her closet.
He shook her head as he led her to his car.
His smile was still there after he closed her door and walked over to the driver's seat. Third year was going to be an adventure with this new girl around. He could feel it.