Title: Love to Hate You
Author: Lannah
Summary: Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.
Pairing: R/T.
Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.
A couple of days later, Rory and Aleesha were having lunch in the hotel after one of their ski lessons. Fortunately for Rory, she had not seen nor heard Tristan since their last encounter. He and Brendan had also not shown up to any of their subsequent lessons since their first.
'I wonder why' she thought dryly, then forced herself to refocus on her current conversation with Aleesha.
"…we should go out somewhere," Aleesha was saying. "We've hardly done anything fun since we've been here."
"We've done lots of fun things!" Rory protested.
"Um…of course we have," Aleesha responded, slowly. "But, I mean fun as in fun fun. Like a party or…"
"And where do you plan on finding, said party?" Rory interrupted. "In case you haven't noticed, we're in a ski resort."
"I am sure there are some clubs or club-related things around here," Aleesha said.
"You wouldn't be able to get into a club." Rory said trying to plot a way to get out of whatever Aleesha was planning.
"That's where the 'club-related' things come in," Aleesha responded, then added, "Stop trying to shoot down all of my ideas!"
Rory shook her head. "I'm not! I'm just being realistic-"
"So you're the girl that's been giving Tristan a hard time," a new voce interrupted their conversation.
Rory and Aleesha glanced up to see a blonde girl who had just arrived at their table and was now pulling up an empty chair to sit beside them.
"I'm sorry, what?" Rory asked confused.
"Paris Gellar," the girl clarified. She waved dismissively at two girls beside her who had also proceeded to sit down. "Louise and Madeline," she introduced.
Rory nodded, although still quite confused. However, remembering her manners, she introduced herself and Aleesha.
"Yeah, I know who you are," Paris said briskly. "Well...only your names anyway."
Aleesha raised her eyebrows at Rory, who could tell she was trying not to smile.
"You know, I will say I'm surprised-" the one named Louise started.
"-because anyone who Tristan lays eyes on, let alone talks to him-" Madeline interrupted.
"-immediately goes crazy over him," Louise finished.
"And Louise you're no exception," Paris commented dryly. She turned to Rory and added, "which is why I have to say I have respect for you. Finally, one person who doesn't fall at that boy's feet. It will make Chilton that much easier. Although I have to admit that his taste has improved. I mean, you don't look like the type he normally goes for…" Paris rambled on, but upon seeing the look on Rory's face she added, "which is a good thing, believe me."
Rory blinked at the three of them trying to process all of the information coming towards her. She had a vague idea of what they were talking about but she could not fathom why they were talking to her about it. She barely knew them and they barely knew her.
When she had managed to gather her thoughts together, she asked, "Wait, how do you know I'm going to Chilton?" asked Rory.
Paris shrugged. "News travels quickly."
"Besides, we're all friends," Madeline said, "if you can call Tristan and Paris friends."
Paris rolled her eyes then asked Rory, "So...what's your G.P.A. like?"
Rory shot her another confused look as Aleesha started to laugh.
"She's a genius," Aleesha said, "but don't worry, I don't think she's ready to steal your job as school president anytime soon," which caused the rest of the girls to start laughing.
"Well, that's good then," Paris said good-naturedly, and then stood up. "We should get going. We have to attend our scheduled class activities."
"What are you guys going to do?" Rory asked.
"I think we're heading down to the 'town'," Madeline answered, making air quotes in the air with her fingers.
"It's fun. There's always lots of stuff to do there," Rory said.
"Like shopping," Aleesha added.
Louise and Madeline's heads perked up at once.
Paris rolled her eyes.
"It was nice meeting you," Rory said as they turned to leave.
"You too," Paris answered, leaving Rory to wonder about what had just happened.
"I say we throw our shindig tomorrow night or the night after," Brendan said, leaning back in his chair later that evening at dinner.
"Shindig?" asked Tristan. "Who says that anymore?"
Brendan shot him a dirty look as Austin spoke up.
"Do it the night after tomorrow because Medina's going to be making sure everyone's in their rooms on time for at least a couple of days. But we should let everyone know."
"Everyone chills in everyone else's room anyway," Tristan said. "What's the point of telling people? They'll find out eventually."
"True," Brenden said, looking around and spotted three girls walking in. "Yo! Gellar!" he called. "Over here!"
Tristan looked around to see Paris, Madeline and Louise. "Do those three ever go anywhere without each other?"
The other two boys chuckled at his question as the girls headed over to their table and sat down.
"I'm hungry," Paris announced, grabbing Austin's menu.
"Well, hello to you too," he said in response.
"Hey Paris, there's a party Friday night - our room," Brendan said. "I know these two will come," he said indicating Madeline and Louise, "what about you?"
Paris stared at him for a few seconds then went back to reading her menu. Tristan snickered.
"What are you guys doing tomorrow?" Louise asked, changing the subject.
The three guys looked at each other and shrugged. "Whatever everyone else is doing."
"Let's go tubing," Madeline squealed, excitedly. "I've never done it before."
At that suggestion, the three guys grinned mischievously.
"Not a bad idea, Mads," Tristan said.
"Please. I am not going anywhere on a snow-covered hill with you three," Paris snorted. "After that little incident yesterday – I don't think so."
"What incident?" Brendan asked.
Paris rolled her eyes. "Pretending you can't ski so you can pick up girls…"
Austin grinned. "That plan was genius!"
"Thank you," Tristan responded.
"But they got shut down," Louise added, laughing.
"We," Brenden said, indicating Tristan and himself, "…did not get shut down. He did," he continued pointing to Tristan, but then stopped speaking as his eyes focused on the doorway, "...speak of the devil."
Tristan followed his gaze to Rory and Aleesha who had just entered the restaurant.
Paris grinned as the two girls walked closer to their table. "Aleesha! Rory!" she called.
The two girls looked around and headed over to their table upon spotting Paris.
"Hey," Rory greeted happily until her eyes fell upon Tristan.
"Look, it's dumb and dumber," Aleesha said, looking at Tristan and Brendan, her eyes twinkling in amusement. "How's the skiing coming along?"
Everyone laughed in response.
Brendan mock-pouted. "You're mean."
"Yeah, well," Aleesha stated, absent-mindedly. "Sometimes, you have to be."
Tristan managed to catch Rory's eye and smiled at her. In response, she rolled her eyes and looked away which caused Paris to start snickering and Tristan to send a dirty look in her direction.
After a series of small talk and introductions, for Austin was now the only one out of the loop, Rory and Aleesha left the table to go back to their room.
"Paris, why did we not know that you knew them?" Tristan asked, once the two girls were out of earshot.
Paris shrugged. "Must have slipped my mind..." she said nonchalantly, looking over her menu.
"You expect us to believe that?" Brendan asked. Then realizing their stroke of luck he asked, "…can you get them to come to our party on Friday?"
Paris raised her eyebrows at him.
"Please?" he added.
"Yeah Paris, please!" Tristan joined in.
"You're still not going to give up?" Paris asked, in disbelief. "Even after they called you dumb and dumber?"
Tristan and Brendan looked at each other then back at her. "Do you really expect us to answer that?"
Paris could only shake her head. "Guys!" she muttered, under her breath.
"So are you going to ask them to come?" Tristan pressed again.
"No." she replied bluntly, her eyes not leaving the menu in her hands.
"Come on! It'll be fun. Well as much fun as a hotel room party filled with stupid teenagers who have nothing better to do than drink and make out, can be."
"Gee, you're really selling the idea to me," Rory said, sarcastically, heading towards the ski hill to teach her morning lesson with Paris beside her.
Paris had managed to find her earlier while she was drinking her morning cup of coffee and for the past ten minutes, had been trying to convince her to come to a party that 'a couple of kids in her class' were throwing.
"I'm trying here! I'm not much of a party person myself, but I figure I should go since I do have to mix with these kids for the next year and a half of my life. And since you're going to start at Chilton, you should go and meet some people," Paris rambled on. "Besides, I don't want to be there all by myself."
Rory sighed. "You're not going to be alone. You know all those people. And don't you have Madeline and Louise?"
Paris laughed bitterly. "Please. Those two will be off with some guy in the two seconds it takes to walk through the door."
"Why are you so intent on me coming? Why not ask Aleesha?" Rory asked wondering why Paris was pressing the issue. The girl barely knew her and now she was insisting that they hang out.
"I don't even need to attempt to convince her. I figure she'll faster agree to a party than you will," Paris answered. "And I want you to come as well because I figure you're not the type of person to get plastered just because you feel like it."
Rory raised her eyebrows at her. "What makes you so sure about that?"
Paris snorted. "Would you like me to list all the reasons for you?"
Rory rolled her eyes, stopping as they neared the ski lift. "Right. The 'Mary' thing."
"And keep in mind that if you don't come to this party, I will personally make your life a living hell at school," Paris said, smugly.
Rory's mouth dropped open in protest. "What?"
Paris shrugged. "So are you going to come or what?"
"I don't know...I'll think about it." Rory said sounding defeated.
"Good. I knew you'd see it my way," Paris said triumphantly.
She took leave of Rory and headed back in the direction from which they had come.
"I said I would think about it," Rory called after her then looked around, wondering where Aleesha had disappeared to.
Rory glanced around at the departing kids after their lesson that day as she packed up her ski equipment. When she was finished, she and Aleesha headed back down to the lodge.
"Hey, I'm surprised our two new students haven't shown up for three days now," Aleesha said, grinning in amusement.
Rory rolled her eyes and shook her head. Those two could disappear from the earth for as long as she lived, for all she cared. Then turning to Aleesha, she asked, "So what do you think about the party Paris was telling me about?"
Aleesha shrugged. "I'm up for it if you are."
Rory stared at her.
"What?" Aleesha asked, indignantly.
"See, this is where you're supposed to say 'No, I don't want to go,' thereby getting me out of going," Rory said.
"But I do want to go," Aleesha laughed. "It's an opportunity to have some fun which you really need to take advantage of."
Rory groaned. "What are the chances of blondie showing up?" she asked after a moment.
Aleesha laughed again. "So, this is what it's about? I knew you had a thing for him!" she said narrowing her eyes playfully.
Rory glared at her. "More like, what are the chances of me not running into him if I go to that stupid party?"
"Since it's a Chilton thing, you'll most likely see them. From the impression I got of him and his friend, they're probably the ones throwing it" Aleesha replied. "And they'll probably show up 'fashionably late' to their own party."
"Or obnoxiously late," Rory grumbled. "That kid is so incredibly annoying."
"Do you want to know what I think?" Aleesha asked. "I think that we should go to this thing. You should forget about Tristan and just ignore him because you spend way too much time obsessing about how much you cannot stand him. And you should just enjoy yourself and meet some new people."
Rory sighed. Aleesha did have a point. She did spend way too much time thinking about Tristan DuGrey. Anyone who did not know any better would think that she liked him. It was unhealthy. Paris also had a point. She should make an effort to socialize with these Chilton kids unless she wanted to spend the remainder of her high school career in severe loser-loner-ville.
"Fine, I'll go," she finally said grudgingly, hoping against hope she would not regret her decision.
"I cannot believe I agreed to this," Rory muttered, staring at her reflection in the mirror as she heard a knock on Aleesha's room door.
"What can I say? You're a regular party girl deep down," Aleesha said, heading over to answer the door.
She opened it revealing Paris, Madeline and Louise standing there, the latter two being dressed to the nines. Paris simply looked annoyed.
"I see you talked some sense into her," Paris said, as she pushed into the room.
"Damn Gilmore, you are working it," Louise whistled as she followed Paris inside.
"Ha, I told you!" Aleesha exclaimed, excitedly.
Rory rolled her eyes. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Can we go please?"
"Touchy, touchy," Aleesha mumbled, as they grabbed their bags and headed out.
A short elevator ride later, they entered the 'luxury suite' hallway of the hotel and music could be heard blasting down the hall. A few people were milling around outside.
"They certainly move fast," Rory said, wrinkling her nose at a few couples who were all over each other.
"Considering it started an hour ago, this is nothing," Paris said. "Half of them are probably beyond drunk by now."
"Aren't people going to complain about the music?" Rory asked.
Paris shrugged. "Our class is on the majority of this floor, so it doesn't matter."
"…so exactly how hot are these guys that go to your school?" Aleesha was asking Louise and Madeline.
Behind them, Paris and Rory shook their heads.
"Are we going to have to deal with this all night?"
Paris shrugged. "I suppose we could always ditch them. Granted, Madeline and Louise will probably drag her off as soon as they get in there so they'll do the ditching for us."
She stopped when the reached the entrance to the room. True to her word, Madeline and Louise grabbed Aleesha before she could say a word and hauled her into the room, proceeding to introduce her to everyone they came in contact with.
She turned to Rory. "Okay, some words of advice before you go in, although you probably know this already. Don't drink anything anyone gives you, drink stuff that's only in cans or bottles that can't be sealed again and don't put your drink down and then go back for it unless you want to end up puking your brains out tomorrow morning."
Rory looked at her, an amused smile on her face. "Geez, anyone would think these Chilton kids are out to get us."
Paris gave her a rather snippy look as she stomped inside.
"Paris! Didn't think you'd show," a guy called out to her.
"Shut up Walker," she snapped, as Rory followed her in amusement, bracing herself for her first ever Chilton party.
This was a mistake. A big mistake.
Rory sat herself down on an empty couch playing with the hem of her shirt - all alone. Aleesha was off with Madeline and Louise - who knew where - and someone had dragged a protesting Paris off somewhere else. She had promised she would be back in ten minutes - that was over half an hour ago.
During that time, Rory had wandered around aimlessly and upon recognizing that Austin guy (and hoping that she wouldn't come into the vicinity of a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy), talked to him and a few other people he introduced her too.
Now she was alone and bored out of her mind. She had half a mind to get up and leave when she felt the presence of someone beside her.
Turning her head, she tried her hardest to resist the urge to roll her eyes and groan.
Maybe this was her cue to get up and leave.
"Mary," Tristan said simply, in greeting.
Urge, shmurge. Rory groaned.
"It's Rory." she grumbled.
Tristan shrugged and flashed a grin. "So what's a pretty girl like you doing here sitting all by yourself?"
Rory rolled her eyes. "Staying away from evil guys like you."
Tristan clutched a hand to his chest in mock astonishment. "Evil? Me?" he questioned. "I'm shocked you would say such a thing."
Rory huffed. "I am so not in the mood to deal with this right now."
She stood up but before she could move any further, she felt him grab her hand and pull her back down. Completely caught off guard and much unprepared for what happened, she lost her balance and found herself falling directly on top of him.
For a split second their eyes locked but before Rory could completely register exactly what that meant and what happened, she noticed that that stupid smirk of his was back in place.
"Didn't know you wanted me that bad, Gilmore" he teased.
Rory scrambled off of him as quickly as she could, managing to turn bright red in the process. She wasn't in control. She had to regain the control and she only knew one way how.
"What are you doing?" she hissed, angrily.
How did he know her last name, by the way?
Tristan merely shrugged. "Trying to get you to stay."
"Well don't! And it's not working," Rory snapped, abruptly getting up. "And if you even think of grabbing my hand one more time to pull me back down, I swear I will hurt you."
She turned and stomped off intent on leaving the party without a backwards glance.
If she had looked back though, she would have seen Tristan gazing after her with an amused, yet contemplative smile on his face.
After searching in vain for either Paris or Aleesha (and have half-drunk Chilton guys hit on her), Rory finally gave up and decided to leave the party. She was surprised the teachers had not turned up to break up the "festivities", considering the racket they were making.
Not in the mood to stay in her room, she opted for going for a walk after she grabbed her jacket and headed out into the chilly night air.
Another round of snow had begun to fall and Rory crunched through it, heading down a familiar path, her breath coming out in puffs of smoke.
All too soon she was wishing that she had changed her shoes upon getting her jacket, since her heeled boots were not exactly made for nighttime strolls in three-foot deep snow, but rather for looking exceptionally stylish when paired with her outfit.
Not really paying attention to where she was going, her feet led her in the direction of the frozen pond, which was sometimes used as a skating rink although, few people knew about it.
Rory especially liked it at night when it was lit up by a few lights and the sprinkling of stars in the night sky.
Upon reaching the seemingly deserted pond, her ears picked up the sound of someone whistling. Turning in the direction of the whistling, a sinking feeling fell in the pit of her stomach as her eyes came to rest on a pair of annoyingly familiar blue ones.
Rory sighed. Was he stalking her?
"Lovely night isn't it?" Tristan commented, smirk in place and staring up at the night sky.
Rory narrowed her eyes although, try as she might, she couldn't help but not ignore him.
"Are you following me?" she accused, glaring at him.
The smirk grew even bigger. Rory felt like slapping him.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was here first. So technically, I'm not following you," he replied, almost lazily. Then his eyes twinkled mischievously. "If anything, I would say you were following me."
Rory glared at him. "As if!" she scoffed.
Tristan grinned. "You don't have to deny it any longer, Mary. You know you think I'm irresistible."
"In whatever world you're living in," she muttered, rolling her eyes.
"No girl can resist me," he continued, completely unfazed.
"So what am I? A guy?" she deadpanned.
He grinned again. "That would be scary, seeing as how I hit on you," then turning to her he added, "…are you going to stand there, or sit down?"
Rory snorted. "I'd rather stand and be as far away from you as possible."
The smirk returned. "So why are you still here? Talking to me no less?"
Rory opened her mouth to retaliate but stopped. He had a point. Stupid boy.
She rolled her eyes. "You know, I really don't know why."
"I do. You find me incredibly fascinating," he answered, "...and irresistible," he added as an afterthought.
"I really don't." she said crossing her arms across her chest indignantly.
"Denial is not just a river in Egypt my dear." he said in a singsong voice.
Rory groaned. Did this kid ever stop? "That phrase is so old. And so overused," she grumbled.
He didn't answer, but continued his whistling.
After a moment, Rory realized that she was beginning to get cold by simply standing there. Against her better judgment, she found herself wandering over to the bench and sitting down beside him but as far away as she could possibly get from him.
"Don't even open your mouth," she warned him when he began to grin at her.
He shrugged. "I wasn't going to say anything," he said, innocently.
Like there was anything innocent about him, Rory reminded herself.
A gust of wind blew and Rory shivered.
"You cold?" Tristan asked sincerely.
"No!" Rory snapped. She had a feeling he would make some stupid comment about warming her up.
He smirked at her reaction but wisely kept his mouth shut.
"So why aren't you partying it up, upstairs?" Rory asked, finally breaking the silence that had settled over them.
Tristan shrugged. "I got kind of bored since the only reason I was there in the first place, ended up leaving the party and blew me off." he said giving her a pointed look.
"I wonder why," Rory said, dryly.
"It's okay though, because she's talking to me right now." he said smiling widely.
"Only because she has nothing better to do," Rory muttered.
Tristan shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. "You really know how to make a guy feel good don't you?"
Rory shrugged. "I try," she answered, as they lapsed into silence.
AN: Hey everyone, thank you so much for the reviews for the previous chapters! I'm glad people are enjoying it so far.