Rating: K; However it may change as time progresses.
Summary: Completely AU. I'm positive this story has never been written before – so prepare yourself for something new. It is a Lit all the way, because honestly anything else is a waste of time.
Disclaimer: If I owned Gilmore Girls, the show would be called "Hey you watch this" and it would be an hour long episode of Milo Jess and I making out. Yes, every single episode. Luckily for you it's not, and unfortunately for me, that will never happen, so on with the story.
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It wasn't too bad of a flight in reality, but we all know how different it can be inside of one Rory Gilmore's mind. Inside she was secretly going insane. Every so often a flight attendant would check up on her – Lorelai insisted on her getting first class seats – to see if she was okay. Rory appeared to be fine on the outside, but on the inside she was a nervous wreck.
Her thoughts consisted of 'I cannot believe I am going to California,' 'I wonder how mom's doing,' and 'I wonder if they'll like me.'
The last one was bugging her the most. There was nothing she could do about the first, and she knew her mother would be just fine, but she couldn't get the third one out of her mind.
'I, Rory Gilmore, am going to California to live with complete strangers in a model apartment.
Model. Model. I am going to be modeling for Audrey Komen. Audrey Komen. The woman is an absolute genius, and I am her latest model.'
Rory couldn't quite grasp that her dream was becoming a reality. She'd modeled in the past, hundreds of times, and had even ended up in a few magazines here and there, but she'd never gotten a signed contract with one of the top Producers in all of America before.
Something about that excited her, when she knew not to become overly excited, people may mistake it for cockiness, but she was and couldn't help grinning at the thought.
But just as soon as the grin appeared on her face, it vanished.
'Models. Plural. More than one. I am going to be living in an apartment with three beautiful models. Four models that have been in business with Audrey Komen for months. How am I going to be able to compete with these models? What if I don't land any jobs? What if they hate me?'
XxXxX
Rory arrived at the Audrey Komen Co. around 2:00pm and looked around in awe.
"Excuse me, may I help you?" The receptionist at the desk startled Rory, and she turned around to see whom the voice belonged to.
"Uhm, yes, actually, I am Rory Gilmore, I'm a new– "
"Rory Gilmore?" The receptionist has long brown, wavy hair, which flowed all around. She has beautiful green eyes that mesmerized you, and looked to be in about her early thirties. She waited for an affirmative nod from Rory before continuing.
"Ah, we weren't expected you until a few more hours – no worries though, welcome to California. My name is Charlie and I am one of the many receptionists here at the Audrey Komen Co." Charlie extended her hand as she made her way out of her desk to in front of it where Rory was standing.
Rory was already in awe. She couldn't believe who beautiful receptionist was. 'I guess Audrey Komen knows how to choose them' Rory smiled lightly at this and eagerly shook the extended hand.
"How was your flight, Rory?" Charlie had begun walking through a spacious hallway which led to a glass staircase.
"It was nice. I got to catch up on a lot of sleep that I missed out on last night."
Charlie smirked. "Staying up late with family, I suppose?"
"Yeah, it's kind of hard leaving cross country." Rory said with a hint of trepidation.
After following Charlie up the glass staircase, Rory was led into a lobby outside of what seemed to be Audrey's office.
"Audrey is speaking with Adriana at the moment. She is one of the models that you'll be living with. They should be done fairly quickly and when she comes out you can just– "
The door opened and a beautiful Puerto Rican girl who seemed to be about 19 stepped out, along with Audrey behind her.
"It was great talking with you again, Adriana; I hope you'll get that job." Audrey leaned in and kissed Adriana's cheek as Adriana did the same with Audrey's other cheek.
For the second time in less than five minutes Rory was in awe. Adriana also had long, brown hair, except hers was straight and silky. She was tall, about 5'7 and very slender. She wore a long, vintage, cream colored skirt, with a white wifebeater, and an array of different beads loosly hanging from her neck.
As Adriana made her way downstairs, Audrey noticed Rory standing next to Charlie, and excitedly walked over to them.
"Rory! It's wonderful to see you! I'm glad you could make it here, I'm looking forward to having you as a model here." Audrey said warmly, engulfing Rory in a simple hug.
"Thank you, Audrey, I'm looking forward to this too. The building is beautiful, more than I ever could have imagined." Rory smiled gratefully at the older woman.
Audrey looked around with a small smile on her face, "Yeah, it's my home."
Audrey started into her office and Rory followed closely behind. "Go ahead and take a seat, Rory. Now, as you know, you will be living with three other models, who you'll meet at the apartment. Their names are Adriana, Ryan, and Beth."
"Adriana was the one who was here before me?"
"Now they said you were smart, but you're learning quickly." Audrey smirked as Rory blushed. "if you need anything else, let me know, but besides that, welcome, and I can't wait to get started."
"Thank you again, Audrey." Rory smiled warmly before exiting the door.
XxXxX
Rory climbed up the stairs of the model apartment nervously to meet her awaiting roommates. Once she got to the second floor she walked down the spacious hallway until she came across room B4. As she knocked on the door, she noticed the names "Adriana, Beth, Ryan, and Rory" printed on a wipe off board in bright green marker. Next to their names were a smiley face and a pink heart.
After the first knock, a tall girl who looked to be about 19 opened the door. She was a brunette with short brown hair, with the ends of her hair going into in a messy mohawk. She had light brown eyes and one of the prettiest smiles Rory had ever saw.
"You must be Rory." The girl was with a hint of question in her voice. When she saw Rory give a nod, she opened the door completely and let her in. "Welcome to the apartment! My name is Ryan, and I've been living here for about 5 months."
Rory walked in and immediately admired the high fashion apartment. There was a kitchen in all stainless steel and black appliances, a capacious living room, and another staircase towards the left of the room.
In the living room there were two other girls, one of the girls Rory recognized as Adriana, but the other girl was new to her.
"Rory, this is Adriana and Beth, Beth and Adriana, this is our new roommate Rory." They sized her up, much in the same matter as Rory was looking at them. Beth had blonde hair that came up to her shoulders. She looked to be about 5'6 and fairly young. They all shook hands and Ryan led Rory up the stairs to her room.
"There are two rooms, one is Adriana and Beth's, and this one is ours."
"This is amazing!" Rory exclaimed, taking in the turquoise, lime, and maroon room.
"I know, when I first moved in I was in awe for about a week." Ryan smiled. "We are all going out to this club called Silver tonight. There are some boy models that live down the hall, and they want to meet you. You'll get used to them, we practically share apartments." Ryan gave a small laugh.
"Yeah, that sounds great. What time do you think we'll be leaving? I kind of wanted to go out, you know, check out the city and stuff."
"It's about four right now, and we're going to be leaving around eight, so you'll have plenty of time. Here's your key, this way you won't have to knock to get into your own apartment."
Rory smiled and gladly took the keys. She put them in her purse and went downstairs. She waved goodbye to Adriana and Beth and went on her way to explore the city.
XxXxX
'This place is amazing.' Rory couldn't help but gawk at the small bookstore she'd stumbled across. She was actually in hunt for a coffee shop, but came across Mariano Books, and suddenly the thought of coffee vanished from her mind.
A small bell jingled, a sound he was so used to hearing, letting him and the rest of the store know that someone was coming in. When he looked up, Jess saw a petite girl with medium brown hair, fairly lengthy, with compelling blue eyes. She began to wonder around the store aimlessly and Jess shook his head, then went back into the store room.
Rory was sure she'd die from shock as she looked around. There were endless amounts of classics lining the walls and shelves of the store, with novels such as The Great Gatsby, Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, and more.
'This place is perfect.' Rory thought while doing some more browsing. However, once the thought popped in her head, she wanted to take it back. She turned the corner of the store and ran head in to a Hemmingway section. 'I knew I spoke too soon.' Rory silently ridiculed herself, but found it hard to stay away from the store.
'Maybe I'll let it slide, just this once.' And she continued browsing.
XxXxX
Three hours later, the petite girl was still looking through the books. He'd never seen someone with so much passion to be browsing in a bookstore. His friends had made comment to his saying that this is what he looked like while he was looking, but he'd never actually seen someone else do it.
Jess saw her turn into his beloved Hemmingway section of the store, and smirked at her face at he watched her grimace.
Just as he was about to approach her, her phone rang and a panicked looked crossed her features.
"Oh my god! I completely lost track of time. I'll meet you at the apartment. You're on your way there? Okay, thank you. Yeah, I'll be at the apartment in about five minutes. Okay. Yeah. Thanks again, I am so sorry. I've been at a bookstore. Yes it is possible for someone to spend three hours looking at books. Are you kidding? Haha, I will see you soon. Bye."
Jess smiled as he heard her side of the conversation, she seems quirky – but in a good way. She was naturally beautiful and – 'Wait, I can't be thinkinglike this. I don't even know the girl's name.'
Jess sighed and went back into the storeroom to get ready for close. He was going out with a few of his friends tonight at a new club he'd never heard of before: Silver.
XxXxX
When Rory reached the apartment, she ran hurriedly up the stairs and into her room. She changed in to comfortable dark blue jeans and a black V-neck blouse. She applied a bit of lip gloss, but on black heels and was ready to go.
When she was walking down the hallway, she noticed all of the other girls were in Adriana and Beth's room still primping.
'Huh, I'm glad I'm used to getting ready quickly. I'm going to have to call my mother, she'd be proud.'
Rory knocked on the door and they looked at her shocked.
"I thought you said you were at a bookstore?" Adriana asked.
"I was?" Rory replied.
"That's what you wore to the bookstore? I thought you were wearing something else earlier." Beth chimed in.
When hearing this, Rory smiled. "I was wearing something different, but I came here and changed about five minutes ago."
The three girls's mouths formed an "O" shape as they looked at her in disbelief. "Five minutes? I think that's a new record!" Ryan said laughing. Soon Rory, Adriana, and Beth joined the laughter as Rory helped them finish getting ready.
XxXxX
Jess went upstairs to his apartment above the bookstore and changed into a white, button down, long sleeved, tee-shirt with a pair of well worn blue jeans and started on his hair. He has been letting it grow out a bit and parted it to the side and combed it back. (A/N: Have any of you seen Bedford Diaries? That is how his hair is in this fanfic.)
After about fifteen minutes of grooming his hair, he headed over to his friends Cameron, Damon, and Cole's apartment.
When he arrived, Cole's voice filled the doorway.
"Mariano! What's up man?"
"After, what has it been, eight years? Of being friends, you have yet to stop calling me man. Seriously, you need a new name." Jess smirked as he made his way through the apartment.
"As you said, it's been eight years; I think I'll let that one slide." Cole winked as he went to finish getting ready.
Jess made himself comfortable on the couch as he and Damon watched ESPN, while Cole and Cameron finished getting ready.
"So where are we going again?" Jess asked Damon during the highlights of the Laker game.
"This new club just opened, it's called Silver. In about fifteen minutes we're going to head down to the girls's apartment and pick them up. There is a new girl model working for Audrey, and today is her first day here. We figured what better way to know an up and coming model than to party on the first night?" Damon grinned.
"Let's just hope she's hot." Cameron said as he made his way out of the bathroom and into the living room.
"Obviously she's going to be hot if she's modeling for Audrey, why do you think we're models?" Damon said through a lopsided grin.
He stopped smiling when he heard Jess gagging. "Whoa, dude, are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I just couldn't breathe, your ego was taking up the whole room." Now it was Jess's turn to grin while a stifled "BURN" was heard coming from Cole's room.
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AN: I hope that cleared up some confusion! For a recap – Rory is a new up and coming model working for Audrey Komen.
Jess owns a bookstore and lives in an apartment above it Yes, he's a little version of Luke, lol.
Jess's friends are models who are also working for Audrey Komen, and who live in the same apartment complex as Rory and her friends.
The reason Jess isn't a model you ask? I guess you'll have to find out next chapter.
Speaking of next chapter, I promise there will be REAL Literati interaction in the next chapter – stay with me please, I have an idea of where to go with this.
Thanks for the reviews guys! This is my first fanfic so hopefully it's going well. And to answer dodgerxreturns question, it is taking place after Rory's senior year. She is still the same smart Rory, just instead of going to Yale, she's always dreamed of being a model. Hope that helps!