Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own either Gilmore Girls or One Tree Hill. Gilmore Girls is owned by Amy Sherman Palladino and the W.B. while One Tree Hill is owned by Marc Schwan and the w.b.
Chapter fourteen
"Don't dream it's over"
Rory Gilmore was certain at that instant that both God and the Devil were howling with laughter at her. The oddity of the entire situation, no, the coincidence, of the entire situation was freaking her out. About a month ago, Rory had thought that THIS was the boy whose face she'd been looking at and it had turned out to be Lucas. Now, the boy, Tristin Dugrey, was standing right in front of her, wearing a red t-shirt, and jeans, looking so like Lucas with his lack of hair. The only way that you could tell them apart was the fact that he had a way of walking into a room like he owned the place.
Only now, he didn't very much look like he owned the place. Now, Tristin was standing there GAWKING, looking like a frog, with his mouth wide opened and his blue eyes bulging out. Of course, Rory considered the possibility of herself most likely looking like the female version of what Tristin looked like right now.
"Um," Tristin began to stammer, "er….I….uh…..are you the ones that Headmaster Charleston told us would be coming?"
Lorelai seeing that Rory was in shock, smiled, and said, "Yes, that would be us, I'm Lorelai Gilmore and I take it you already know my daughter?"
"Yes, I'm----" Tristin started to say something but stopped short as Lorelai interrupted him, saying, "Tristin Dugrey, The Spawn of Satan, I know. Rory's told me all about you, of course there were a lot of colorful words mixed in, but none the less, she's told me all about you."
"Oh," said Tristin and he started shifting from side to side, as though nervous, which undoubtedly, he most likely was; either that or he was feeling awkward. "So, come on in…."
Lorelai nudged Rory, who was still gapping at Tristin, and the two walked inside. The maid that had suddenly arrived took their coats for them and then walked off to put them somewhere. "So," said Lorelai, "nice place you got here. Very…..big."
"Yeah," said Tristin, "it's very big."
"Huge," Rory finally uttered a word.
"Huh," said Lorelai, "she speaks. Imagine that."
Rory narrowed her eyes at her Mother, sending her a glare. There was another pause in the room and Tristin, not being able to take the silence said, "I'll be right back. Dad's in the study, so I'll go get him for you."
He left, leaving Rory and Lorelai standing there. After a few moments, Rory, said, "How could you not remember the name DUGREY after all the times that I came home, ranting about how much I hated the twit?"
"I'm sorry," said Lorelai, "I was nervous, and I didn't hear half of what the headmaster said just that he'd call us back and give us directions and tell us that it was all set up."
"Mom," said Rory, "do you know how awkward this is going to be with him here?"
Lorelai sighed, and in a tired voice, she said, "Yes, I know how awkward it's going to be with him here." There was a moments silence. "Look, do you want to just bail? We could go find the maid, get our coats, and just get out of here right now, and then you wouldn't have to deal with him."
Rory bit her lip, thinking about it, and then relented and said, "No Mom, we're going to stay. We've both got questions, and we need answers. I don't care if Tristin's here or not. So what if it's a little awkward? I'm here to ask questions about Harvard, and that's it. Besides, it's not like I'm going to talk to Tristin or anything. I mean, we'll sit and have dinner, and find out a bit about Harvard and that'll be it."
"Okay," said Lorelai, "but the instant you feel the need that we've got to go, you just scratch your nose or something, and then we'll run for it, okay? I'll yell fire or something."
"I highly doubt they're going to believe that there's a fire without being able to smell smoke," said Rory.
"Oh darn," said Lorelai, "I should have asked Lucas if I could borrow his axe. That stuff smells like smoke."
Rory rolled her eyes. "Lucas doesn't wear axe," said Rory.
Lorelai raised an eyebrow. "And how do you know what the boy puts in underneath his armpits?"
"I don't," said Rory, "but if Lucas wore axe, you'd be able to smell it. Since Lucas doesn't smell like smoke, I know that he doesn't wear axe."
"Oh," said Lorelai, "good point."
Just then a man entered who looked like an older version of Tristin. "Hello," he said, "sorry to be keeping you. I'm Harrison Dugrey. Headmaster Charleston told me about you. You must be Rory?" He looked at Rory.
"Yep, that's me," said Rory, "nice to meet you. Um, I used to go to school with your son."
Harrison looked at Tristin who was standing behind him and mouthed something that Lorelai and Rory couldn't tell what it was. Whatever it was that Harrison had mouthed though had Tristin turning red and he muttered something incoercible.
"Well," said Harrison, "this puts an interesting twist on things. Tristin, you must be delighted to see an old school friend while on your----suspension form military school."
Tristin looked like he was about to nearly choke his father for saying that. "Dad," he said, "did you have to bring that up?"
"I didn't know how else to put it," said Harrison, "what did you want me to do, say that you were visiting in the middle of the school year?"
Tristin just shook his head. "Whatever," he said bitterly, "let's just go into the dining room. You know how Mom gets impatient with us if we're not on time."
Harrison and Tristin walked a few steps ahead of Rory and Lorelai and they were luckily enough out of ear shot so Rory and Lorelai could talk. "Okay," said Lorelai, "I'm beginning to suddenly have flashbacks of visits to Christopher's house."
Rory raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding," she said, "Dad's house was like this?"
"Not as big, but the bubbly feelings going on in here, yeah, it was pretty much like what we just witnessed," said Lorelai.
"Freaky," Rory commented.
"Very," said Lorelai.
Lorelai and Rory entered the room just after Tristin and his father Harrison. They were greeted by a petite blonde woman with a fake smile on her lips. "Hello, you must be Lorelai and Rory," she said, with phony cheer, "pleasant to meet you. I'm Joan."
"Like Joan of Arch?" Lorelai joked.
Joan Dugrey got a confused look on her face and just said, "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."
"Never mind," said Lorelai.
Rory rolled her eyes at her Mother and shook her head. Between Tristin and his parents, this was going to be a long night. She only hoped that she wouldn't start making the food talk. That would only make her dig a deeper hole then the one that she'd already started digging.
The food was then brought in by the maid, and Harrison said to Lorelai, "Terribly sorry, but I didn't get your name earlier. And you are?"
"Lorelai," Lorelai introduced herself, "Rory's Mother."
"Oh, a pleasure to meet you," said Harrison, and then he turned his attention to the youngest Gilmore, Rory, "now Rory, what questions do you have about Harvard?"
"Well," said Rory, "I was just wondering how you got through the application process. I mean, it's so stressful."
"The thing that helped me the most was just finding an hour in the day to relax. Do something you really enjoy to make yourself calm," said Harrison, "it calms the nerves and takes your mind off of things and when you're ready to start filling out applications again, then you are ready and your mind is clear."
"Duly noted," said Rory.
"So," said Lorelai, and added as a joke, "how are the dorm parties?"
"Mom!" Rory exclaimed, slightly mortified.
"Well…I….er…." Harrison stammered and Tristin snickered at his fathers loss for words. Harrison regained himself and shot Tristin a look. "Tristin, it's very impolite to snicker when one is at a loss for words."
"Yeah, sorry," said Tristin, deadpanned, "I forgot that everything is impolite in this house."
"Young man," said Harrison in a warning voice.
Tristin sighed and said, in a tone that made it evident that he didn't really mean it, "Sorry for snickering, Dad."
"Your attempt at an apology is accepted," said Harrison.
There was a pause and the only thing that was heard in the room was the cutting of knives and forks along with the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway outside the dinning room.
"So Lorelai," said Harrison, "you're Richard and Emily's girl, are you not?"
"That's me," said Lorelai, and she wanted badly to add 'the bane of their existence' but she didn't think that would help make the situation anymore better and Rory would shoot her another annoyed glare if she did.
"So," said Harrison, "you must be very proud of Rory. It's amazing to see a young girl without the proper background so eager to get into an ivy league school. Tristin has had every advantage in the world and he doesn't even want to go to college---he insists on joining the military. His fault, of course, for ruining his chances at a good education----if he hadn't have broken into that safe, he'd be bound for Harvard as well."
"Dad!" Tristin exclaimed looking mortified. "How can you say that? And in front of them, too!"
"I was only stating a fact, Tristin," said Harrison.
"A fact?" Tristin echoed. "A fact! Dad, I'm not talking about what you said about me. I've grown up in this house, so I'm used to hearing 'Tristin, you're a low life' but when you say something about someone you don't even know, that's just fucked up."
Joan let out a horrified gasp, and Harrison glared icily at his son. "Tristin Janlen Dugrey," he said angrily, "how dare you use such language at the dinner table. And in front of guests, too! We're your parents son, you have no right to back talk us. Go to your room, now."
"Gladly," said Tristin in an angry tone, and he stormed up the stairs to the room.
Lorelai and Rory had seemingly been forgotten in the midst of all this, and had watched the scene slack-jawed. They hadn't been able to believe that Harrison had said those things, much less the entire scene that had occurred.
While Joan and Harrison shouted at each other, Lorelai whispered to her daughter, "Okay, I think we should leave Sharon and Ozzy to continue this and go home."
Rory made no objections, she herself not wanting to stay a minute longer at the dinner, questions about Harvard or no. "C'mon, let's go get our coats and get out of there," said Rory, and the two girls got out of their seats and went to go grab their coats and then went outside.
"Okay," said Lorelai, "that definitely didn't go as planned."
"Nope," said Rory.
"So, where to?" said Lorelai.
Rory was about to say 'home' when she heard something from the back of the house. "I'll be right back," said Rory and Lorelai gave her a weird look but just muttered 'Okay' and Rory went to the back of the house where she saw Tristin climbing down from the balcony of his room.
She waited until he landed on the ground, and then she spoke, "I'm sorry about what happened back there."
Tristin turned and looked at her, the surprise evident on his face. "It's not your fault," said Tristin, and then looking at her curiously, he added, "So what are you still doing here? I thought you and your Mom would have jetted out of here."
"We are," said Rory, "well, we're going to, anyway. I just heard you sneaking out and wanted to say that I was sorry for what happened back there. You're Dad shouldn't have said those things about you."
"Yeah well I'm used to it," said Tristin, "I'm just pissed because he said those things about you. I mean, aren't you?"
"No," said Rory, "I was actually just kind of in shock. I couldn't believe someone would even say something like that."
They stood there in awkward silence looking at each other and then Rory asked, "How's military school?"
"Better then this place," said Tristin, "how's Bag Boy?"
"Don't know and don't care," said Rory.
"What?" said Tristin, sounding shocked. "You two were the wonder couple when I left."
"Well he wanted me to choose between my friends and him and I wouldn't choose so he broke up with me," said Rory.
"He's an idiot," said Tristin.
"I know," said Rory, and she asked, "So, what happened there, towards the end of your stay at Chilton? I mean, before the P.J. Harvey incident, we were almost friends."
Tristin shook his head. "I don't know," said Tristin, "and I really don't want to talk about it."
"Well, I won't make you, if you don't," said Rory.
"Thank you," he said.
Just then, Lorelai called from the front of the house, "Rory, where are you? Come on, I want to get going. I think they're going to notice that were gone, and if that's the case, then they're going to make us stay for dessert and it'll most likely be some weird, fruit thing."
Tristin chuckled. "Looks like you'd better get going," he said.
"Yeah," said Rory, "bye Tristin."
"Bye," said Tristin, and he added, "Rory."
Rory let out a laugh. "And he learns my name AFTER he leaves," she joked.
"Yeah, well, I'm a bit slow, like my father says," Tristin said.
Rory smiled and turned to leave, but then Tristin called out, "Hey Mary!"
Rory sighed and turned around. "What?"
"Do you think, somewhere down the line, I'll get a chance with you?" he asked. "I don't know, maybe if we meet up again or something?"
Rory chuckled. "You never know," said Rory, "just….don't dream it's over, okay?"
Tristin looked at her oddly, smirked, and said, "Okay. So, do I get to give you a goodbye kiss this time?"
Rory shook her head, walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek too. He leaned down and gave her a hug, and said, "Bye."
"Bye," said Rory, and she let go and turned and went back to the front of the house, where her Mother stood waiting.
"So," said Lorelai, "what was that about?"
"Oh, nothing," said Rory.
"Nothing?" said Lorelai, raising her eyebrows.
"Yep," said Rory, "nothing."
"Okay," said Lorelai, "let's go home."
"Yeah," said Rory, "let's go."
The two got into the jeep and drove to back to Stars Hollow, Rory smiling and thinking about the changes that had occurred in Tristin. Military school had definitely done him good. And somehow she knew that would be the last she saw of Tristin Dugrey.
A/N: So there you go, chapter fourteen. Much shorter, and even better, my fingers aren't killing me. So that was my Tristin bit, after all I said about him not going to be in there, I put him in. That was for you, Cupid's Bride. And now for the reviews.
Thank you to:
Unforgettablefaith: Sorry about that. I know, cliff hangers are evil. But Can you blame me? My fingers were Dieing from pain.
Bumpyrider: I'm glad you liked the chapter. The last line was my favorite too.
Tristinsgurlmary: Tristin was just making a short appearance. He won't be in anymore of the story. It's definitely going to be Rory and Lucas.
Pearls24: Aw, thanks. My fingers are much better now. Your review was really sweet. I'm glad you liked that chapter.
Rogan fan: Thank you for saying that. Its a big compliment to me that you think the characters are portrayed like they are in the television shows. Tristin was just in there for fun. It's definitely going to be a Rory and Lucas story.
Shygirly4eva: Glad you liked the part with Michel and the phone. Yeah, I know, poor Nathan. Lol. There will be more Nathan in chapter fifteen. And Haley. I'm planning on making the dance marathon be in the next chapter, and then I'm going to have thanksgiving, Christmas, and then they'll be off to Tree Hill for Spring Break!
Emilie: Thank you. Yeah, Lorelai and Rory's faces had to have been pretty funny when Tristin opened the door.
LoVe23: Yes, I know, I'm insane for bringing Tristin in, but he'll only be in this chapter, and then no part of the story. I'm glad you like Trouble comes in twos. Cupids Bride and I are working very hard on it, although Cupids Bride does a lot more work then me. She's brilliant.
Fairieangel: Sorry to disappoint you, but there's not going to be any Lucas and Tristin interaction. I just hated how Tristin popped up in season one, and one episode of season two, and then that was it. I wanted him and Rory to get some closure.
Lolitaro fan j.r.a: Thank you! I'm glad you like my writing style.
Sara: Thanks. Funny little feeling rocks.:)
Tickle582: I am glad you like it. Yeah, I like trory stories too, but I've become attached to Lucas and Rory, and like the idea of them getting together, so Rory and Lucas will definitely be together in this story.
Kirs: Aw, thanks. I'm glad you like the story. I hope that I updated soon enough for you.
Cupid's Bride: Thank you. I'm glad you like the ending. Yep, I'm busy, but you're not driving me too hard. I myself was the one doing the driving. I wanted Ch.13 to be a long chapter, and in the end, I got sore fingers because of myself. Thank you for the corrections. Yep, the blonde boy was in town. No damage done, amazingly enough.
Princetongirl: Thanks.
Beautifulgoodbye15: Your very welcome. I try to thank everybody because I know that if you guys didn't review, then this story would have a big fat 0 in reviews and I'd question my writing ability. It means a lot to me when you guys review, so I thank all of you because of it.
Leigh: Thanks.
Potostfbeyeluvr: Sorry, he wasn't a jerk. But just so you know, that's the only chapter Tristin will be in. No worries for our pal, Lucas. Lucas will get the girl.
Angelgirl0910: Thank you. I know, I'm twisted like that, putting characters in when people least expect it. ;) I'm glad you liked it.
Othlover04: Thank you. It was nice talking to you on aim.
Sea4shoes: Thank you. Sorry I took so long on the update. But I wanted to make it a good chapter.
Forever cynical: Ah, yes, I'm evil. Sorry about the cliff hanger. I know how you feel. Cliff hangers suck, and I debated on making it a cliff hanger, but the fingers were about out of steam, so I let them have a break, and made it a cliff hanger.
Streetracinchiki: Thanks, I'm glad you like it.
Madammarauder: Thank you. That's a really huge compliment that you think it's like the show. Yes, I freaking love Harry Potter and I will definitely read your fics. Only two more days until HPB6! Thank god! I was going to go insane if I had to wait any longer. My friends and I have been counting down since June for it.
Smileylove567: That's sweet. Thanks I'm glad its one of your favorites.
Lkwreader: lol. And here I thought no one would notice. Nah, I wasn't in the mood for big long descriptions.
Toniboo: Thanks. My fingers are much better. I am glad that you liked the chapter and I hope you like this one just as much.
Lorelailovescoffee: Thanks. I'm glad you liked the Michel thing.
Fallen Heart: Sorry to hear about you leaving before the chapter is up. I don't know about the college thing yet. I'm considering Harvard for Rory, but she might go to Yale like she does on the show. I don't know. And to your review for ch.13, yep, I've got siblings. All sisters. Five. Although three of them are my half siblings. We share the same Dad, but not the same Mom. My sister Sierra is my only full sister.
KarahBella: Glad you liked it. No, Tristin and Lucas aren't going to meet. That's the only chapter Tristin will be in. Thank for the review.
Sum41rocks: Funny, funny, person. Note the sarcasm. Lol. Jk. I thought Tristin would be better then that freaky old dude in 'Application Anxiety'. That and the brother and sister in that episode freaked me out. Of course, I was planning on bringing Tristin in anyway.
Newyoricannc: I updated, but sadly its not going to be a trory. Sorry about that, but thanks for reviewing.
Praisedto-meetyou: Aw, I'm sorry about the cliffhanger. But I updated so that's something.
Katydid7186: Coldplay on Snl! Oh my god, you lucky duck. I would have liked to see that but this is what I get for being dragged to MONTANA-----no television. Glad you liked the chapter and hope you didn't have to wait too long for Coldplay.
Kit Jordan: Thanks!
Kylie 1403: Yes, I'm evil. But I updated, so there you go.
SnowyOwl-17: I'm glad you liked that chapter. I hope this one was as good as that one.
Beautifulbutterfly: Glad you liked the 'whose last name was limegreen' thing. I was being random when I wrote that part.
Lackinglime123: It's okay. Someone is as rambly as Rory Gilmore when she's nervous. I will read your story and hopefully you can pester your sister more.
Coffeejunkie123: lol. Thank you. I hope you like this chapter too. Sadly, Lucas and Tristin do not meet.
Gilmoregirl: I'm glad you liked it, and thank you for your review.
Thank you, you guys. You're all really amazing and nice reviewers and I'm SOOOOOO sorry I couldn't answer your reviews for chapter twelve. I hope this made up for it.
Love n' stars,
Cambria