I sat outside the library and placed my heavy backpack on the cold metal table. So this was college, I thought to myself. It was the middle of October, fall, my favourite time of the year. I looked out towards the quad, the large trees that stood at the four corners where awash with red, orange and yellow leaves. I felt a sense of peace, although there where people all around me and I was sitting by herself, I didn't feel lonely as I might have felt at Chilton in the same circumstance. College was different, people didn't feel the need to constantly surround them selves with friends just to make themselves look apart of it. It was perfectly acceptable or even encouraged to reflect, think and even read, in public no less. All of this made me feel at home.

It was for that very reason I had chosen Yale; it's proximity to Stars Hollow. Yes it was a good school, maybe the best in the country, but I had made the decision to the surprise yet excitement of my mom, to not move into the dorm but commute to school. It really wasn't that much further then Chilton had been and seeing as I only had classes three days a week it was worth the trip in order to retain living in the one place I felt truly accepted. The journey was also made easier by the graduation present my grandma and grandpa had splurged on. It was my own jeep, smaller then the one my mom drove but a bright shiny blue. Loralai had grown accustomed to calling it mini jeep.

I was shaken from my thoughts by the sound of someone yelling my name across the quad. I looked up to see the tall, blonde figure of Kristin, who in the space of a few weeks had become my best friend on campus. Kristin was from the Boston area and lived in the dorms. A fact that came in handy on the occasions I didn't want to make the drive home after a late class. Kristin had lucked out in the roommate department, her roomie Vanessa was perhaps one of the sweetest girls you where ever likely to meet, and didn't mind in the slightest if I crashed at there place.

Kristin sat down across from me and placed her equally heavy bag on the table. The fact that her bag was always packed continued to surprise me as she could go back to her dorm and get other books anytime she liked, but I had the feeling that as she was on the fifth floor she couldn't be bothered with the flight of stairs once she was down for the day.

I had met Kristin in my first Microeconomic lecture on my first day, it then turned out that we where both taking the same English and Sociology classes and therefore decided it was fate and we where destined to be friends. Kristin shook out her newly blond hair and put it into a loose bun. She had revealed to me that in an effort to reinvent her self from high school she had gone blond yet I found it constantly amusing that she seemed to forget the fact she was blond and continue to mock other blondes. As she explains it at heart she's a brunette.

"You will never believe who I ran into" she informed me while still gasping for breath.

"I'm stumped, was it that guy from the Real Cancun" I mocked.

"Your hilarious you know that, anyway it was Nick, this gorgeous guy from my  high school, and he was all like do I know you from somewhere and I was like hello we went to school together, he totally didn't recognise me, Isn't that great?" she enquired. 

I had started to tune her out, as well as forgetting that she was blond Kristin had the habit of rambling on at times, a trait the reminded me of my best friend Lane.

"Yea great" I replied enthusiastically. It amazed me how Kris got such a kick out of people not knowing who she was. In her eyes it meant that her change of look was working. As Kristin rambled on about what Nick was like I started to think about my own'guys' from high school, although neither of my guys actually went to my school at least while I was there. They where a big part of me. Dean and I still talk to, he's seeing someone else, but there's no bitterness between us. Jess on the other hand, I have no idea what he's up to. I had moved past any lasting resentment over summer. And I told myself that I hoped he was happy, hoped he was in school and that he had worked things out with his Dad. But I couldn't deny that every time I listened to the Shaggs or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, I didn't feel something.

"Rory, are you awake" Kristin was looking at me concerned,

"Yea I was just thinking about, things" I answered.

"Would these things have to do with a certain person starting with the letter J?" she asked me looking like she already knew the answer.

"I plead the fifth" I replied.

Kristin was well informed as to my romantic past, we had heartily agreed over double Mocha's at Caffeine, the campus coffee house that boys in general sucked. Kristin had too recently broken up with her high school boyfriend Matt who was now at Berkley after it had became clear that the long distance thing was not working out.

I heard the bells from the clock tower ringing, "We have to go, econ's all the way over in south campus" I informed Kristin who seeming always forgot where we were week after week. We grabbed our bags and started making our way through the maze of buildings.

"Uh, Rory aren't you forgetting something" Kristin questioned me.

"What" I replied, I hated being late, especially to this class, Professor Shield always looked at you like you where responsible for cancelling Star Trek.

"Starts with Coff ends in ee, you know that brown liquid stuff that is essential in order to sit through one of Shields looong lectures on opportunity cost" she emphasized dramatically.

"Thank godness you're looking out for me" I answered realising that I must really have been out of my mind to forget coffee; my Mom would be so disappointed. We quickly ran up to a vendor and order the usual. It was sad that the guy who Kristin and I had named HCG (Hot Coffee Guy) seemed to already know what we wanted. We made it to the Lecture Theatre just in time and took our normal seats in row L. Another weird thing about college is that you see the same people all the time especially in large lectures like this but you may never know there names. I saw blue jumper guy, who never failed to were the same royal blue fleecy jumper and sit in row C as well as mouse girl who we tried to talk to one day and she squeaked like a mouse. Shield walked in and began his lecture; I took out my favourite blue pen and started hurriedly taking notes while intermediately stopping to sip my coffee. Kristin began twirling her now loose hair around her finger.

"Hey" I heard someone whisper in my ear "want a kiss"

I turned around to see David from my study group with a bag of Hershey's Kisses. I discreetly took one and nudged Kristin. "Ooh Chocolate" she whispered. David was a funny little creature. He lived in Kristin's dorm and was heavily into eighties music and kids TV shows. I had often though that had he been about 15 years older I would have set him up with Loralai. He was of course most impressed that I had seen the Bangles live. He again leaned over the back of our seats  and asked in hushed tones

"Are you two coming to Bar night tonight, this awesome band from Detroit are playing, think Ash meet Blondie with a smidge of Wham, you guys should come it's going to rock"

"We'll think about it" I replied urging him to turn around, the girl on our left was starting to give us the kind of looks Paris used to give me when I talked during the Franklin meetings. David settled back into his seat and began taping "Wake me up before you go- go" on his folder.

It was Thursday and that was pretty much the big party night on campus, a lot of people went home for the weekends and it seemed not many people had or attended classes on Friday mornings, so Thursday was when everyone went a little crazy. The Campus bar always put on some kind of event but I had managed to avoid the drunken masses so far. Although Kristin had gone with her dorm friends a few times I didn't really think it was my scene. Kristin however had different ideas.

After what seemed like four years the hour came to an end and we made our way through the throng of students towards the exit

"So are you coming" Kristin asked me expectantly.

"Coming where" I asked.

"Bar night, come on you have to, you can't just study all the time, and you can crash at my place tonight" Kristin pleaded.

I thought about it, I guessed it was about time I tasted a bit of the college life. Even Loralai had teased me that I wouldn't be able to graduate until I had been a part of a toga party or at least watch someone barf while wearing a toga or something like that.

"Ok I'm in, but if every person there looks like they belong in Animal House I'm leaving, this is not going to be Rory gone Wild ok!" I explained.

"I'll settle for Rory gone slightly awry" Kristin replied, looking unsettlingly excited.

"Hey David" she yelled across the room at Dave who was exiting from the other entrance "Rory's in".

We went back to Kristin's after classes had ended, and everyone on her floor had seemed to be slowly loosing there minds. While forcing our way to her dorm room we almost got hit by two water balloons and a guy caring a keg. "It's Thursday" Kristin explained as though that answered every question. When we got to her room we found Vanessa with the curling iron. She was extremely pumped when she found out I was coming and consequently tried to force me into one of her denim minis. I politely declared that I'd rather stick with jeans but agreed to her turquoise peasant top which was similar too one I had at home but slightly lower cut.

We finally got ready and made our way down stairs, we bumped into David on the way down and apparently his roommate had been the one with the keg as he seemed slightly more buzzed then usual, if that was possible. We got to the bar which was already packed. I felt slightly at ease when I began seeing familiar faces and we grabbed a table with Vanessa, David and his roommate who we found out was named Simon.

"Who's up for drinks" shouted David over the deafening music of The Pez, the band he had so enthusiastically entailed to me. "I'll come I offered" eager for an excuse to get away from the pounding. "Me too" Kristin chimed in. We slowly made our way across the extremely crowded room into the smaller room of to the side that housed the bar.

 "What will you ladies have" David asked. Coke I replied, Beer chimed in Kristin. It was a well known fact that i.d was not something that was generally enforced. David pushed his way to the front of the packed crown waving for the barman's attention. My mind began to wonder, I spotted our Sociology T.A balancing a beer on his head while trying to drink a jug and was about to point this to Kristin when she grabbed my arm and said;

 "That is the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen" she squealed

"What, Johnny Depps here" I joked.

"No, seriously look straight ahead, the barmen in the navy and white shirt" she insisted

"They all have those shirts on, it's the uniform you chuckle head" I told her.

"No look the blond one" she replied, moving my head with her hands. I saw the back of a blond guy he was reaching up for a bottle of Vodka. She was right he did have a nice body. He then turned around to deliver his drink.

"Tristan" I gasped and grabbed Kristin's hand and pulled her away.

"Oh my god" I cried.

"What, Rory what's wrong" Kristin asked starting to look worried.

"I need some air" I told her. I pulled her outside into the courtyard that was adjoined to the bar and we sat down on a bench. The courtyard was actually really beautiful had I been fully aware at that moment. There where fairy lights covering all the trees and lanterns strung out between them. Also the music was much more subtle.

"Ok, what is wrong with you, what's a Tristan, do you need some water" Kristin asked me in a flurry. It had all came flooding back to me junior year, I really never thought I'd see him again. He hadn't come back for graduation and the last I'd heard from Louise was that he had apparently straightened up in Military school and his parents had sent him to Europe for the summer. I had seriously not thought about him, well I must admit there was a few times where in the throws of insomnia I had looked through our sophomore year book and briefly remised on what was at the time a fairly big deal for me. But Jess had become my all. And Tristan merely a distant yet still confusing memory. It was just seeing him again, it was such a shock. I re-laid all this thoughts to Kristin as well as filling her in on the tentative friendship we had and the kiss that made me cry.

"Wow, You kind of kissed that boy, I'm impressed" Kristin stated "Maybe your not the square I though you where".

"Shut up" I replied half laughing. "That's not the point, god why am I so freaked out about this" I asked, seriously lost for an answer.

"I don't know, but you defiantly reacted that must mean something" Kristin summed up.

"I hope he didn't see me, I must have looked like an idiot" I pondered.

"Um well don't look now but he's coming this way" Kristin half whispered as Tristan entered the courtyard and spotted us.

"Hey Mary" he smirked.

To be continued…