Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Gilmore Girls or it's characters.

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." - Albert Einstein

"Sorry what was the point of this conversation?"

I was in what is commonly known as a bad mood. It was two o'clock in the afternoon and I was sitting in science class, next to my lab partner Tristan DuGrey who was in my unbiased opinion an annoyance similar to that of an itch you couldn't scratch.

"Rory, you got to learn to lighten up, relax and all that." He was sincere in his comment.

Tristan and I went a while back when I started Chilton, there was this thing going on, not a love thing, more like he would tease me and I would hate him for it.

It ended after a little while, but only really after I found out he was caught doing something he wasn't supposed to and he was shipped off to military school.

Obviously the military liked him as much as I did when I first met him and swiftly kicked him out.

Thus he was back at Chilton, pestering me again.

"Tristan, I really don't know how I could be relaxed when you are going on about some girl you met at a party when I've got some chemicals in my hand that if mixed incorrectly could possibly cause the evacuation of the entire school."

This seemed to catch his attention.

"No kidding?"

"No kidding. Now are you going to help me or not?"

"Of course, just tell me what not to do and I'll be your man."

"Please don't say that aloud again."

"Rory what did I say about relaxing? Now tell me what chemicals cause the evacuation?"

I put the two beakers of chemicals down on the lab bench carefully, gave him the most hateful look I could muster and raised my hand in the air.

The teacher we had this year was a balding middle aged man who cared as much about science as Tristan did about trying to get out of class. Mr Fredrick noticed my hand waving in the air and asked what I wanted.

"I need to go to the toilet sir," I said and glanced at Tristan who was looking over his notes with an aroused interest, "urgently."

This was the way my life went lately. I would be trying to do my work and I would end up being partnered with someone whose mission in life was to try and lower my grades.

Apparently it is going well.

It is my final year in high school and already I was starting to check out tech colleges as Harvard doesn't look promising. Unless I was to ace every exam and bring my grades up to at least an A+ rather then the B+ average I have now, it didn't seem likely.

I got the pass and bolted out of the class room.

I was half expecting to hear the fire alarms as I made my way begrudgingly down the hallway of the expensive and ultra posh high school. It was so posh they made us wear kilts with tights in the winter. Good look, but not so good when one needed the ladies room urgently.

"Rory, what are you doing skipping class?"

I turned and saw Mr Medina walking up to me with an amused look on his face, his hands in his pockets.

I liked Mr Medina, he was in fact my favourite teacher and that wasn't just because he was good looking with dark hair, dark eyes and funny. It was mostly because he was in love with my mother, even after she turned down his marriage proposal.

He was a good guy.

"I got a slip." I pushed my hand in my pocket and dug around for the little yellow slip assigned to the slackers.

He held up his hands and waved off my efforts. "I believe you."

"Good, because I got so much paper in my pocket it would probably take a good five minutes to find it."

He looked at me closely.

"How are you doing lately? I saw you in detention yesterday."

Paris's fault entirely.

"Yeah I know. I had some problems with my good friend Paris in English yesterday, other then that, fine."

"Yes, I heard about the little incident," he said with a laugh and I shrugged. "Well good. Just thought I'd check. Don't be too long we want you in class."

I raised my eyebrows and gave a weak smile. "Sure."

Class is not where I want to be right now.

Today is my birthday and I'm trying not to be all sixteen candles about it, but I can't help but be a little shitty no one remembered.

When I made it back to class, I saw Tristan at the Bunsen burner looking very happy as he poured some strange coloured chemicals together.

He seemed to be doing well. There were no toxic fumes.

"What? You haven't blown up the school yet?" I said as I threw myself onto my stool and leaned forward watching the heated canister boiling softly.

"I was waiting for you." Tristan looked at me carefully, grinning.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

I don't know what possessed me to do it, it but I needed to ask. Asking Tristan of all people was not necessarily a smart thing, but I assumed that he might be able to help me.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"If it's to ask a derogatory question then no."

I smiled and tapped my workbook with a pen I picked up. "It's not."

"Then shoot."

I sighed and then just decided to spill it out. "Has anyone ever forgotten your birthday?"

"No." Tristan replied with no hesitation.

"Great."

"Why who's birthday was forgotten?"

He wasn't paying much attention to the conversation. He was too busy playing science nerd, which was OK because I needed to get an A+ on this and maybe with his new found interest, there might be a chance.

"No ones, it was just a question." I replied quickly, offhandedly.

"No one asks a question like that without it being specific." Maybe I said it a bit too offhandedly.

"Sure they do."

"Rory, they don't," my last comment made him turn to pay attention, which is not a good thing. He had eyes that could drill into my head and make me say things I don't really mean. "It's your birthday isn't it?"

"Maybe."

I wondered how he did that.

"Happy birthday."

"Thank you." I squeaked, stupidly grinning.

I latched onto a bottle he handed me filled with green stuff that I was too distracted to remember and turned it over in my hands, watching it for no other reason then to just do something.

"Now you know if you told people, then you can get over it."

He raised the safety goggles to the top of his head and looked again.

"No. I can't do that. It's sad, it's like telling everyone I'm not memorable."

He winked and turned back to our project. "I remembered you, those nights in the slave camp."

"Military school? Don't gross me out. Not on my birthday."

"Couldn't help myself. Anyway, what are you doing tonight?"

"Probably crying myself to sleep."

"Oh pipe it." He said with a snort.

"It's true. I'll listen to some sappy music and I'll be gone."

"Right well don't do that."

"Why?"

"Stand at your window at eight o'clock."

"Eight?"

"Yeah I don't know, I like the sound of it."

"Okay then," I said with a frown then forced myself not to grimace, "why?"

"Because, just do it."

"Maybe I don't want to."

"Oh shit." He said suddenly.

I jumped up and realised that he wasn't following the same conversation, when I saw some strange mist forming around our table.

"Oh god."

"Is it supposed to be doing that?"

"No," I screamed and covered my mouth with the hand that wasn't waving around nervously. "Tristan what did you pour in?"

"I don't know. That stuff."

He pointed to the green stuff in my hand and I screamed.

Loud.

Right when we were all being evacuated and I was handed another detention, it was right then that I realised that it was turning out to be a great birthday.

No one actually remembered my birthday.

My lab partner almost managed to renderer the science class unconscious because I was being self involved.

We probably failed. In fact I'm pretty sure we did.

And I have to stand at my window at eight o'clock because I haven't caught Tristan yet to tell him that I don't think it is such a good idea.

Whatever that idea may be.

It's a Tristan idea. It had to be bad.

Sitting in lines on the oval behind the school is not the best place to be when it was cold. But on the bright side everyone did get out of class.

As Tristan seemed to savour the experience, being buddy slapped at least twenty times in the minute or two I was glaring at him.

He was the king of the school at the moment, the minions of freshman kids looking at him like some sort of god and the rest mostly appreciative.

I was not appreciative...I was fuming. I felt like that burner in the lab and I was ready to explode.

There was no way on earth I was getting into the school of my choice now and why? Because of that golden haired guy sitting in front of me grinning like a clown.

I slapped the back of his head.

He turned and held the spot of assult. "Cut the violence Mary."

Mary was a name he called me when he felt like being abrasive. Like now.

"So it should you little shit. We failed that assisgnment because of you. How will that look on my college transcript now? Oh look Miss Gilmore had the school evacuated because of some toxic fumes concocted in chemistry. Real nice."

He didn't seem to take her seriously. "Hey on the plus side, it's only Chemistry."

"Yeah and it's only my future."

The teachers had lined us in homeroom classes. I sat behind Tristan and Paris sat behind me and so forth in a long line until we touched the boundary of the Chilton gates.

There were quite a few rows and I was utterly ashamed of myself. Not to mention humiliated. Plus it is really hard to sit cross-legged in a kilt without the wind trying to show everyone what I was really wearing under it.

"Look don't look like homicide is on your mind. I can fix this."

"That's enough from you, academic destroyer, the teacher is taking the roll." I said.

Our teacher, Mrs Walters, took out the roll and started calling out names of all the pupils in our grade.

I felt a pull of my hair. I turned and grabbed my hair out of the hands of a girl who looked like she was ready to spew fire.

"Owe, Paris stop that."

"I was on a roll with my assignment. Now look where I am? Sitting in the middle of a dirty field having my name called out like a pre schooler. So what was the reason for trying to fumigate the school?"

Paris was a real bitch. She was my friend but she could also be mean soul. It was mostly because of Tristan that we became friends. She loved him, I hated him and somehow we just came to hang around each other.

Apart from the fact that we were both ambitious, she had the demanding, take no prisoners mentality and I had the don't hurt the kitty attitude.

"It wasn't me!" I said indignantly, "It was him." I pointed to the culprit who looked at Paris and winked.

"Oh figures." Paris said.

I scowled and said 'Present' when my name was called. Then I returned to scowl.

Tristan turned around fully and took my hands in his. "Rory seriously don't worry. I'll fix this, don't you worry your pretty little head."

Oh I worried.

"Oh and I'm still going to meet you at eight. We'll discuss it then okay."

I looked at him like he was crazy and I settled myself back down and recieved a tap on the shoulder from Paris who gave me the look of 'What the hell is going on?'

It was at that moment, when I realised I was really interested to know what he was planning at eight.