AN: Once again, I borrowed some lines from the show for this chapter.

Chapter 13: "You guys are jerks and hope you die. Bye, Jerks! Die, Jerks!"

In the office of the Yale Daily News Rory is looking through the latest edition to find her most recent tryout article while next to her Riley and Paris were in a heated conversation about the tryout process.

"It just seems like a quaint archaism. I mean, if you're a good journalist, why make you jump through hoops and write all these tryout articles? Stale bagel." Paris said.

"It's a time-honored tradition. All our forebears had to do it." Riley told her.

"If our forebears had fought it, we wouldn't be dealing with it now. What are you looking for?" Paris asked Rory noticing that she has been rabidly looking through the pages of the newspaper.

"My article. I did a review of the chamber-music recital." Rory said.

"Must be in there somewhere. And that's the other thing - they print everything." Paris said continuing to look through every bagel in the box.

"Hm, that's weird." Rory said.

"They'd print my mattress tag if it was in the right margins." Paris said.

"You're exaggerating, Paris." Riley told her, "What's wrong, Ror?"

"It's not here." Rory answered.

"Impossible," Paris said.

"No, I've looked pretty thoroughly." Rory told them.

"Must be a mistake." Riley said.

"No, it's really not here." Rory said.

"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation." Riley told her.

"Just means parakeets will be crapping on something else in the morning. They're all stale." Paris said, giving up on having a bagel for the moment.

"Morning, everyone." Doyle, their editor said as he walked into the newsroom.

"Hi, Doyle." Rory said wanting to get to the bottom of why her article wasn't in the paper.

"Hi, Rory. What's up?" he asked.

"Well, I was wondering if there was a problem with my review." She told him.

"Oh, the review? Which was yours, the quartet?" Doyle asked.

"Yeah, chamber music at Sprague Hall." Rory said.

"Right, right."

"Did I get it in late?"

"No, you got it in right on time. You're good about that."

"But you didn't print it."

"No, we didn't."

"So, space issue?"

"No, we had the space. We always have the space, but it was a bit of a yawn."

"A yawn?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you know, chamber-music recitals are very low-key, kind of yawny affairs. Pretty music but no stage diving or anything."

"I meant the writing."

"The writing was kind of a yawn?"

"But don't sweat it. You'll do better next time."

"Right, sure." she said walking back to Riley and Paris.

"Your article didn't get in?" Paris asked.

"No, it didn't."

"Mine did." Paris said double checking the paper for her article, "good, good. I'm going to get a bagel."

"I don't believe this," Rory told Riley after Paris left, "my first article at Chilton was about the repaving of the faculty parking lot which is even more boring than that stupid chamber music recital and it got printed. Everyone loved it. Even Paris, who hated me at the time."

"Relax, Rory. It's one article. Like Doyle said you'll do better next time." Riley told her.

"Easy for you to say, your article got printed." Rory said.

"True, but look, it's going to be okay. You'll write something else for the art department. Doyle will love it and you'll move on."

"Okay, but what? Doyle said my writing was a yawn. What does that even mean?" Rory asked.

"Well, let's see it and find out." Riley told her.

Reading through Rory's article he began to understand Doyle's point about it being a yawn, but he also thought Doyle could have been a bit nicer about. Maybe even say something when she turned it in so she could fix it instead of just not printing it.

"Okay, don't hate me, but I kind of agree with Doyle." Riley told her.

"What!"

"It's not bad. You described the recital perfectly, but…"

"But, what?" Rory asked.

"That's it. You described the recital and basically wrote nothing else. You gave us all the facts. Told us what they were playing and background on the history of chamber music at Yale, but you didn't give your opinion." Riley said.

"My opinion?" Rory questioned.

"It's a review Rory, not a calendar of events happening at Yale. A review needs your opinion. Your thoughts. What you liked. What you didn't like. Understand?"

"Yeah. It sounds so simple when you put it like that."

"It can be. Okay, so I'm due to write something for the art department next. I have to go to this ballet tonight. You want to join me? I'll talk to Doyle and see if he'll let us review it together, share the byline. What do you say?" Riley asked.

"I say let's watch some ballet." Rory said.

"Wow, just wow." Rory said walking into the dorm with Riley.

"That was…"Riley started.

"Horrible." Rory finished.

"From the opening kerplunk." Riley said.

"And just kept getting worse." Rory said.

"I take it the ballet wasn't good?" Tristan asked them from his place on the sofa.

"It was awful," Rory told him taking a seat next him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"The lead ballerina has no friends." Riley said.

"How do you know she doesn't have any friends?" Tristan asked.

"Because no one gave her a head up about the roll of fat around her bra strap." Rory told him.

"Well, maybe she just doesn't have any friends in the ballet." Tristan said.

"I don't think so. All ballet people do is ballet. If she has no friends in the ballet. She has no friends." Riley said, "Man that was awful."

"I wonder how many times we can use the word "blows" in an article before it becomes redundant." Rory said.

"So what are you guys going to write?" Tristan asked.

"Our thoughts I guess," Rory told him, "I mean that's what was missing from my chamber music review. My opinions."

The next day in the newsroom Doyle is looking over the article Rory and Riley had just handed him. He loved it. It was informative, descriptive, and full of what they really thought of the ballet. It had everything a great review needed.

"You two write well together. I'll have to remember to have you do it again." Doyle told them.

"Thanks," they told him.

Rory was ecstatic. She was feeling really down about not getting her chamber music review in and was beginning to think she wasn't as good a write as she thought, but working with Riley really helped she her up. And Doyle was right, they write well together. She'd never shared a byline before, but with Riley, she was happy, too.

"Oh my God," Rory said as she and Riley walked back to his dorm after class a couple of days after turning in their article.

"Why would somebody write "Die Jerk" on our door?" Riley asked.

"I have no idea. Did you or Tristan make someone angry lately?"

"I don't think so. Or at least, I don't think I did. Let's go inside and see if Tristan has any idea."

"Hey!" Tristan said greeting them as they walked in.

"Hey! Did you see what's written on our door?" Riley asked.

"No, I haven't been out since I got back from my first class and it was empty then. What's on the door?"

"Someone wrote "Die Jerk" in permanent marker on your whiteboard." Rory told him.

"Seriously? Who would do that?" Tristan asked.

"That's what we were wondering." Rory told him.

"Yeah, you piss anyone off lately?" Riley asked.

"No, not that I know of. And who's to say it's not about you?" Tristan asked.

Ring Ring "Paris, what's up?" Rory asked answering her phone.

"Where are you?"

"I'm with Tristan and Riley. We're in their dorm. What's going on?"

"We need you here. We have a situation." Paris told her.

"What kind of situation?" Rory asked.

"Some lunatic wrote "Die Jerk" in permanent marker on our whiteboard and we are going over potential suspects." Paris said.

"Oh know." Rory said.

"What?"

"It's not just our door, Paris. It's on the guys door, too." Rory told her.

"Uh oh," Riley said, interrupting Rory's conversation with Paris, "I think I know what this is about."

"Paris, I've got to go. I'll be over in a little while." Rory told her hanging up before Paris had a chance to respond, "What is it, Ry?"

"If "Die Jerk" is written on both our doors that it's easy to assume it has to do with you and me and the review we wrote for the ballet recital." Riley told her.

"You think?" Rory asked.

"There's nothing else it could be. If it was just one of our dorms it could be almost anything, but since it's both of us I'm pretty sure someone from that ballet read our review and wasn't happy with they read."

"Oh, no. You really think one of them did this?" Rory asked.

"I do."

"Well this sucks."

"It's not that big a deal, Rory." Tristan told her.

"Not that big a deal. Someone's going around vandalizing our rooms because of something we wrote. We have to fix this. Maybe write a new article or a retraction or something." Rory said.

"We're not writing another article, Ror. We reviewed a ballet. We watched it and gave our opinion. We can't help it if they can't handle criticism." Riley said.

"He's right, Mar. Do you think Roger Ebert cares if someone disagrees a review he writes for a movie? Or if he gives a film a bad review, you think the actors storm his house with pitchforks and picket signs? No, they take it and learn from it. Just like you did with Doyle's review of your article. It's not your fault someone didn't like your opinion."

That afternoon in the dining hall a girl came up to Rory and Riley with a stern look on her face and fire in her eyes.

"Rory Gilmore! Riley Hayden!" she said.

"Yeah," Rory replied.

"Remember me?" she asked them.

"I don't think so," Riley said.

"That's flattering," she said.

"Can we help you with something?" Rory asked.

"Let's see if this jogs your memory. I have the grace of a drunken dock worker?" she told them.

"Oh," they both responded.

"Remember me now?" she asked them.

"The ballerina from the ballet." Rory said.

"That's right. You guys are jerks." she told them.

"Right, you wrote that on our doors," Riley said.

"You lucky that's all I did."

"Look, maybe we should take this somewhere else," Rory said.

"Your review was mean and petty and despicable." she said.

"Listen, Sandra. That's your name, right, Sandra. We were given a job. We were told to watch the ballet and give our opinion of it. We're sorry if our opinions upset you, but we're not sorry we gave them." Riley said.

"Right, it wasn't anything personal, it's just what we thought. We were just trying to..." Rory said.

"Destroy me and my company!" Sandra said.

"No, look we…" Riley said.

"You two are jerks and I just wanted to come and tell that to your face. You guys are jerks and hope you die. Bye, Jerks! Die, Jerks!" Sandra yelled before walking away from the table.

"Wow, I feel bad." Rory said.

"Don't. Remember what Tristan said before. It's not our fault she didn't agree with our opinion. I'm sure you feel the same whenever Doyle corrects one of your article or when a professor harshly grades a paper. All you can do is your best and than learn from it after someone tells you what you did wrong." Riley told her.

"I guess you're right." Rory said.

"I know I am."