Gilmore Girls: Burning Down
Chapter 1 of a Gilmore Girls idea I came up with, hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls or any of it's characters.
Chapter 1: Outburst
"You have ten minutes left."
Rory Gilmore almost jumped in her seat. She briefly glanced up at the examiner before looking back down at her exam paper. She felt a wave of panic but quickly pushed it back down; with relief she realized she was on the last question of her exam anyway. It was Rory's last exam in her finals. After this she would have to wait for the results None the less she felt strangely drained and for some reason, felt on the verge of some sort of mental breakdown. It had been hard for her to focus when studying and she had always crammed as much studying as possible into each day.
'I feel like I haven't slept in days.' She thought dully, it was true her sleeping patterns had suffered due to her decisions.
She carefully read through the answer she had put and, satisfied she put her pen down and straightened up, closing her eyes briefly. Her eating patterns had changed drastically too, although she still ate, she ate a considerably lesser amount of food than usual. Worse still she had gotten into arguments with both her best friend, Lane, and her Mother due to her almost obsessive studying, which had gotten so bad she had shut both of them out.
'It'll be worth it in the end, they'll see.' She thought, although she felt more like she was trying to convince herself.
She had heard people commenting on her sudden change, although some felt it had occurred gradually. She tried to ignore these people; in fact she had cut herself off from almost everyone, shunning socialization, to an even greater extreme than when she first started in Chilton. Suddenly she seemed to have lost focus on her dream of going to Harvard and began obsessing on the present and no longer seemed herself. Another change people noticed was her emotional bluntness and desire to avoid conflicts of any sort. Her life had become nothing more than a series of mechanical functions without direction. Her usual sarcasm had been noticeably used more often and yet when asked about it she had simply said she felt under pressure due to the amount of work she had to do in such a small amount of time.
It wasn't only that, from what she had overheard she had physically changed too. She had overheard Paris Geller talking to some of her friends, even now the words echoed in her head.
"Have you seen Rory, I think something's wrong with her, she's so pale; and those bags under her eyes, she's not sleeping for some reason."
Despite what appeared to be uncharacteristically good intentions on Paris' part Rory had found her words irksome, as if Paris pitied her, the last thing she wanted was anybody's pity, Paris' least of all. Rory sighed quietly and glanced at the clock, it was nearly over.
'I swear, the last thing I can put up with right now is people continuing to talk about this later.' She thought to herself, 'Once it's over it's over, that should be it, no more discussion about it.'
There was silence for a few more seconds and then the examiner spoke.
"Time's up, stop writing please." Everyone put their pens down, "I will now collect your exam papers and then you may leave."
The examiner did so and finally everyone was allowed to leave. They stood up and began to file out of the room.
'So far so good.' Rory thought despondently as the only comment about the exam she heard was from Paris' friend; Louise Grant, who had muttered something along the lines of 'That was hell.'
Rory could at least agree with that, throughout the whole exam she felt like her brain was going to explode. Unfortunately Paris and Madeline Lynn had joined up with Louise and it started; the very talk Rory was hoping to avoid.
Rory groaned and tried to unobtrusively block her ears. She couldn't get away from them due to the crowd hemming her in. This was making matters worse, adding a feeling of claustrophobia to her racing mind. It was almost too much to listen too, especially their doubts about their answers for a particular question. Paris worrying about whether or not she had written enough, Louis talking about a question she had to miss out, Madeline talking about how she wasn't able to finish the last question since she had run out of time. Their incessant chatter about the exam grated on Rory's already frayed nerves; worse still she began to have doubts on how well she had actually done herself.
She shook her head 'No, stop right now, I did fine, don't let what they say influence your thinking.'
Despite her best efforts however the girl's constant chatter still reached her and ate away at her mind, filling it with doubt. Finally she couldn't take it anymore, sighing angrily she turned to face Paris and the others.
"Do you guys honestly have to do that after every test?" She asked irritably.
The trio stopped and stared at her amazed, Paris looked the most surprised.
"Rory, relax, we were just…"
"Going on and on and on about the exam. It's over; we don't need to talk about it anymore."
Paris tried to say something but Rory shook her head and continued.
"Honestly, after every exam, all you guys do is talk about it, 'what did I do wrong' I missed a question out',' how badly will it affect my grade'. Can't you see how you might be affecting others?" Paris shook her head, "Rory…"
"I'm serious, you start talking negatively like that then you end making others negative, people you talk to, people who overhear you."
Finally Paris was able to get a word in.
"Rory, stop, you're causing a scene."
Rory froze and looked around; sure enough everyone in the hall had stopped and was staring at her. She felt the heat rise to her cheeks and quickly turned and hurried away. Pushing her way out of the crowd she took of running. She was just desperate to get away from what had happened; she couldn't face it, not only had she embarrassed herself in front of her peers but her mind was racing even more with implications. What if she had failed, what if she failed all of her exams, what then?
'How could I possibly keep my life on track if I can't do something as simple as this?'
She kept running, not paying any attention to where she was going.
'Gotta do something, anything.' The thoughts reeled desperately through her head. 'Just gotta do something that'll stop me having to deal with all this pressure.'
Her mind still reeling she continued to stumble blindly through Hartford, not caring what she found, so long as it meant she wouldn't have to deal with the pressure she was under.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.