Chapter One.
"Gilmore, your grandfather has appalling taste in scotch." Colin Du Pont-Astor said walking behind the couch flipping the bottle he was holding in his hand.
"I think you should go on inside and tell him." Rory Gilmore said turning to look at him, holding up her champagne glass.
"Oh, if he hasn't learned by now I certainly can't teach him." Colin walked to stand to the left of her, while she sat on the couch.
"Colin, make sure you refill that bottle with something, you don't want Ace over here to get busted." Logan Huntzberger warned, filling up his champagne glass.
Colin just answered with an "I know" walking over to talk to some other men standing by the pool houses doors.
Logan held the champagne bottle next to Rory's glass. "Refill?" He asked.
"Sure, why not." She answered with her newly found carefree attitude.
"Because drinking is bad, and we're very, very bad for doing it." Finn Rothschild, who sat to the right of Rory on the couch. "Spank me." He said, obviously drunk, but he probably wouldn't mind if she did and they were both sober.
"I think the hang over tomorrow will be punishment enough." Rory said taking another sip of the champagne. She was a little tipsy, but not even close to being drink.
"She hasn't had enough champagne, Logan." Finn stated while he got off the couch and walked toward Colin with the other males, leaving Rory and Logan alone on the couch.
"Hey, I forgot to tell you I read the article." Logan said still holding the champagne bottle and sat to the left of Rory.
Rory was taken aback. "You did?" She asked.
"Yep, not bad." He complimented. "You caught the spirit of the thing, I'll give you that."
"But…?" Rory asked, hearing the contrast of his voice from before.
"No, no buts, you gotta good style. There were a few too many symbols in it for my taste, but you definitely gotta good Josiah Mitchell thing going for ya, I like that."
"I'm surprised you even bothered to read it." She turned away from him, looking at the fire place that was perpendicular to the couch.
"Are you?" He didn't sound surprised with her response, probably from her very first response, when he said he read it.
The article that she wrote was about the Life and Death Brigade, a secret society for students that go to Yale. It's dated back to eighteen eighty-two, in the society it was elitist, passed down through generation. If any of your parents or grandparents were in it you are automatically accepted, but you had to figure it out on your own, no one was going to help you find it unless they wanted to be kicked out. Family members were allowed to drop hints, but never tell exactly what it is, and that they are in it. If none of your relatives were in it, but the group feels that you are worthy of joining the group you must go through initiation which includes a four fifths majority of the society, memorizing the societies rules, and learning to trust, which is by doing your worst fear, and choosing one person to help you with that. If it's drowning you are put in a tank of water, and stay in it for as long as you want, but once you started to push up, something will be holding you in place, so you trust in that one person you chose and they help you out.
Rory was able to attend one of these events, not knowing that she was actually in it, her grandfather and grandmother were both in it when they attended Yale. She was at it so that she could write about it as an article for the Yale Daily News, so she had several conditions to abide by. First was, that there were no names or locations, not that she knew where she was anyways, and there were police up and down the state of Connecticut that were out to get them for their past, bad things in their past; second, no pictures. The third and final condition, which was the most important, was the she was not allowed to interfere with the integrity of the event. When she agreed to the conditions she had no clue what the event was, or that she would take place in it.
At the event that Rory went to, as always, it was huge, had about a hundred people, maybe less, but it was fully catered, and there were private tents that hand tooth brushes, and a water bowl, and a cot to sleep on so that you didn't sleep on the ground. She spent most of the first night writing in her miniature note book, she had brought about ten of them, and by the end of the first night she had half of them filled.
On the second day she awoke to find Logan waiting for her. She had not planned for an overnight trip since she didn't know anything about it except to wait outside her dorm at four in the afternoon back in October. He had told her that if she wore the clothes she was wearing it would interfere with the event, which she promised not to do. He told her to go look in her tent, that there was something else in there besides what she originally saw. She came out ten minutes later in a light blue ball gown that had a little line of royal blue flowers down to the hem.
The initial event was a seven story scaffold in the middle of a large field next to where everyone was camping. The event was to jump off, wearing a tiny harness, and holding an umbrella. Rory was going to be an observer from the ground, but Logan had a different idea. After some convincing Rory joined him and the four other people that were already standing on the scaffold to jump off.
Logan pulled Rory away from thinking about that amazing experience.
"So whose it gonna be?" Logan asked standing up, drawing the seven other guys around the couch, Finn holding a bottle of champagne and some flowers he pulled out of a vase on the counter.
"What?" She asked, once again surprised.
"Well this shindig is an obvious meat market; I've got the feeling that your grandparents are going to want you to chose someone tonight, so?" He was looking around at the seven guys, laughing to himself about how terrible they all were for Rory.
They all started to yell pick me at her, and she didn't know what to do except laugh.
"No pick me." Colin said, even though Stephanie Marks and him were close, well they were friends with benefits.
"But I'm exotic." Finn said still offering the champagne and flowers.
"So it the Asian bird flu." Colin retorted.
"Wow." Logan said holding out the o father than needed. "A room full of guys and still extremely slim pickings." Logan looked around at the sad men begging for her, even though he knew in the back of his head that he hoped it would be him, but he ignored that thought and pushed it to the back of his brain.
"Well I don't know, it would be a pretty tough choice, maybe I should let my boyfriend help me chose."
Rory squirmed on the couch, fixing her tiara that her grandmother had forced her to wear.
The party, which was in the house, not the pool house, was meant for her so that she could pick someone better than Dean, who her grandparents hated since he didn't come from money. Her grandmother Emily had her come to the party instead of the normal Friday night dinner that they had in the dining room at her grandparents with her mother and them. Rory had to be at their house an hour earlier than normal, not knowing that the party was to find her a guy other than Dean. Emily had her hair stylist do Rory's hair and make-up. Emily thought that Rory should wear a diamond necklace, and earrings to match because they went with the dress. And just for fun she took out a diamond tiara. Rory thought to herself, because who doesn't have one just lying around.
"You have a boyfriend?" Logan asked sitting back down next to her.
"I'm crushed." Finn said standing up, and another boy, Colin, she though said "Ain't that always the way."
"Do Richard and Emily know about this?" Logan asked.
"Yeah, they do." Rory sighed wishing that she hadn't said anything; at the same time wishing that her grandparents wouldn't have done this.
"Are they just trying to make sure you got a back up?"
"No, just uh, oh no what times is it?" She panicked hoping it wasn't past eight thirty yet remember that Dean was picking her up at that time.
"It's crying time." Finn said still sad that Rory was not going to be his.
"Its, uh eight forty-five." Colin answered after looking at his brand new Rolex.
"Oh no, Dean is meeting me here at eight-thirty." Rory jumped up and started to put on the black pumps that she wore here, but took off right after entering the pool house.
"Where?" Logan asked standing up having an idea.
"Here, I gotta..." Rory answered putting on her other heel.
"Dean, is this the boyfriend?"
"Yes, this is the boyfriend." Rory said having trouble with her shoe.
"Then come on we gotta see this guy,"
"What?" Rory asked, hoping they were kidding.
"See who the man is that won your heart; see if he's good enough."
"But…" Rory didn't know what to say.
"Let's go boys, to the front." The boys started walking to the front doors cheering they would meet Dean.
"Come on, Ace, you coming?" Rory stood up and followed the other boys.
In front it the main house Dean was waiting for Rory, leaning against his blue Ford pick-up truck. Rory walked out to the front porch and the eight men followed doing cat calls and cheering, most of them drunk. As they waited on the porch Rory walked over to Dean.
"Dean, hi, sorry; have you been waiting long? I didn't have a watch and we were in the pool house. These are some friends." She said pointing at the group on the porch. "They go to Yale with me and they know my grandparents. The party was so boring so we…" She didn't want to finish that sentence so she changed the subject. "Is that a new shirt 'cause I like it." She fidgeted waiting for his answer. She knew he had a temper, hoping it wouldn't flare up like it always did around other guys.
"What the fuck are you doing with other guys?" He looked over to them, glaring. "Eight other guys. Do you not love me; do you not want to be with me?" Rory pushed Dean to the side of the shed that was right next to the drive way.
"Dean what are you talking about? This wasn't my idea. My grandparents invited all guys."
He grabbed one of her arms that was down by her side. "You better not leave me. I got a divorce from my wife just so that we could be together. I threw away everything just for you." He was holding it really tight.
"Ow, Dean let go." Rory yelled struggling to free her arm from his strong hand.
Logan heard Rory yell and walked over there to see what was going on. He saw Dean holding Rory's left arm very tight and Rory trying to pull away. "Hey, hey! Let go of her." Logan said pulled Dean away.
Dean realized what he was doing and started apologizing. "Oh my god, Rory, I'm so sorry. I didn't know what I was doing. I've just been so stressed this week. Tom had me working extra shifts along with Doose's; I just haven't slept much this week. And I'm so sorry." He just stood there, Logan watching him, while Rory just stared at the ground.
"I think you should go. We'll take care of Rory, she'll be fine, but you should leave." Logan said stepping closer to Rory; he noticed the already black and purple bruise that had formed from not even five minutes ago.
"Yeah, Rory call me later, I'm really sorry." He turned to his truck and walked away.
As soon as he had pulled out of the drive way Logan put his hand on the small of her back; he could feel the small sobs she took every few seconds. He walked her to the drive way so they were out of the dark.
"You okay?"
"I don't know." Rory said, scared about looking at her arm, but noticed that she had a huge hand print shaped bruise on her left upper arm. She didn't know what to do except stand there.
Logan turned toward the men that were now standing in the driveway "Okay, that's it, back to the pool house men we've got some serious bucking up to do."
"I swiped some scotch." Colin said pulling out a glass bottle from his jacket.
"I'll reenact the Passion of the Christ!" Finn said turning with the other men to go back to the pool house.
"Come on, Ace, nothing seems quite as bad after Finn's Passion of the Christ, except Finn's Passion of the Christ." She giggled, and let Logan lead her back through the main house to the pool house. Logan put his arm protectively around her. He didn't want to see her hurt every again, especially by Dean.
While Rory took off her shoes and sat on the couch between Colin and Logan, Logan thought about what had happened. 'If Dean was such a great boyfriend then why is he beating her up? Who would ever want to lay a hand on Rory intending on hurting her?' He thought to himself. 'And had this happened before?' Rory and Logan were very close since October, just friends, but close. They talked about a lot except relationships. That's where both of them didn't want to cross just yet. To him it seemed like it already had for her. Her boyfriend was in few words a jack ass. He hurt Rory, who didn't deserve it, Emily or Richard yes, but never Rory. And he hated how Dean just made up excuses to why he would do such a thing. Does he really think that it's going to make a difference? Logan laughed at Finn when everyone else laughed, but wasn't paying any attention to him.
After Finn's amazing rendition of The Passion of the Christ, then decided to play a drinking game. Since Finn was completely drunk, every time Finn would try to hit on Rory or anyone else they took a drink. By the time it was ten all of them were completely drunk. Rory had been drinking vodka straight, they didn't have a chaser so it wouldn't have mattered, but it also made her stop thinking about anything that had happened that night, and just focus on Finn being, well Finn.
At one in the morning Logan and everyone were in his limo pulling up to Rory's house in Stars Hollow.
"Goodnight boys." Rory said grabbing her heel's from the floor and climbing out. There were several cat calls.
"Do you need some help there, Ace?" Logan asked as Rory almost fell on the ground losing her balance, but caught herself.
Rory and the guys didn't realize that Lorelai was inside waiting for Rory. She was sitting on the couch, furious at what her mother, Emily had done. Rory had a great boyfriend, Dean and he did nothing to them to deserve what they were pulling. Or at least that's what she thought.
Once Rory unlocked the front door, she tiptoed in, hoping not to wake anyone, but hit the small table that was right before she turned right to go to her room. Rory yelped, but continued to her room, where she passed out as her head hit the pillow. She was half way off the bed, her shoes still in her hand and her dress was still on, but she was just too tired to do anything.
Lorelai walked into her daughter's room holding her second cup of coffee that night, she put it down and walked to her daughter's bed.
"I'm sorry that my mother did that, sweets, I'm sure Dean wasn't too happy." Lorelai noted that instead of Dean bringing her home, like she planned it was a limo full of collage boys.
She took the heels from Rory's limp hands and put them in the closet, then fixed her so she was fully on the bed and lying on her side in case she threw up. Lorelai pulled the blanket from the rocking chair in the corner of Rory's room and covered her up. She went to look in the hall closet for the red bucket, also known as the Hangover Helper. She did one last thing before going upstairs to where Luke, her fiancé, would be waiting for her, she went to the cabinet grabbed the bottle of IB Profen, and a bottle of water for Rory to wake up to. She shut off all the lights and went to her room to sleep.