Are We or Aren't We?

Chapter 10 – Searching

Rory woke up to the sound of birds chirping.  Keeping her eyes closed she stretched, a smile on her face.  It was warm and cozy in her bed, and she didn't want to move.  So she drew her covers farther up and just let herself indulge in thinking, well, thinking about her night with Tristan.  At that, her smile widened.  Tristan...god it sounded weird to say that. 

But slowly Rory forced herself to open her eyes and then stared at the clock.  9:02 am.  Well, someone had actually let her sleep in.  She pushed herself up, swinging her legs over the side of her bed.  She looked once again at the clock, and then at her school day planner sitting as usual next to it.  She had a lot of work for tomorrow: Monday.  A Latin test, a math quiz, and a Lit essay.  Rory sighed, reaching for her planner, and then froze.  She bit her lip, then flipped madly through the pages to find the full page of homework she had written down.  Yep, everything was due on Monday, except, except that today was Monday! 

"Oh my god!" Rory screamed, jumping up so quickly that she saw stars.  Despite that she started running in the general direction of the bathroom and promptly tripped over the phone, falling down right next to it.  It started ringing.  "Oh my god," Rory repeated, reaching for the receiver.

"Hello," she said both grumpily and groggily.

"Hello sleepyhead."  It was Lorelai.  "How's my sweetheart doing?"

"Bad.  Mom, Why am I still at home?  I have a Latin test, a math quiz, an essay, and I don't know how much else I've forgotten about!" Rory said

"Ssh, Rory, calm down.  I called in sick for you."

"You called in sick for me?  You can't just call in sick at Chilton!  I miss one day and I'll be behind the rest of the year.  And do you know what that means?  I don't pass, I have to repeat grade 11 and I graduate a year later than everyone else, a total reject from society.  Somehow I don't think Harvard will be impressed."

"Relax Rory," Lorelai said. 

"No, I will not relax because I am going to school.  I've missed math and English, but I just might make it on time for Latin-"

"No," Lorelai said in a tone of voice that said 'no,' and that's final.  Rory's mouth dropped slightly open.

"What do you mean no?"

"Rory, I am your mother and today you are not going to school.  Stay home, relax, don't do homework and go and bother Luke."  Rory just groaned.  "And if I see any evidence of any work done I'll make you stay out of school the whole week, got it?"  She was met with a loaded silence.  "Good.  Have fun sweetheart," and she hung up.

Rory gave the phone the evil eye and then slowly pulled herself up off the floor.  Well, seeing as she wasn't going to school she might as well take a nice, long, hot shower.

* * *

Half an hour later, with wet hair but a much better attitude, Rory opened the door to the diner.  There were a few scattered people around, but other than that there was only Luke standing with his back towards her behind the counter.  He was on the phone.  Rory went up to the counter and sat down to wait.  But only seconds after, he slammed the phone down and turned around with a scowl on his face.  He did a double take when he saw her there staring up at him.

"Wow, cool down, Luke," Rory said.  "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, nothing," Luke said still with a scowl.  Then he seemed to remember himself.  "Why aren't you at school?"

"My mom phoned in sick."

"Oh.  You having the regular?"

"Yup, what else?"  Rory watched him carefully while he poured her customary cup of coffee and then quickly slapped pancakes and bacon on the stove.  "Seriously, Luke," Rory said.

"Seriously, Rory, nothing," Luke mimicked in an annoyed voice.

"Sarcasm?" Rory said in a fake shocked voice.  "You can do better than that.  Like who was on the phone?"  Luke turned around and avoided her eyes.  "Here, I'll guess and it'll be easier for you.  What is Miss Patty asking you out?  Or maybe just a former lover phoning for old time's sake?  Or-"

"All right, all right!" Luke said turning back to look at her.  "The fact is, I can't find Jess."

"Huh?" Rory said, with all traces of a smile gone.  "What do you mean you can't find him?"  Rory started to feel panicked, and then wondered why.

"I just can't.  When I came home early this morning the place was empty and despite all the mess on top of his bed I have come to the conclusion that he did not sleep in it."

"Well?"  

"Well what?"

"Well, what did you do about it?"

"Well, I've tried phoning his mother, who, incidentally is not home.  Not that she's ever home unless it's good for her."

"Oh no, this is awful," Rory said.

"Yeah," Luke said.  Their eyes met, and then they both looked away, guilt on both of their features.  Luke turned and started quickly shoving Rory's food on a plate.  She stared blankly then gave a small jump.

"Wait, can you make the pancakes to go?"

"Yeah, sure," Luke said, a puzzled expression on his face.

"I think I should go check out Stars Hollow High.  Jess might be at school." 

"Oh, and pigs might fly."

"You never know," Rory said seriously.  Luke was now stuffing her food into a large brown bag.

"You going to surprise Dean at the same time?" Luke asked.

"Not exactly."  Luke stopped what he was doing and looked up at her.

"I was wondering about that," he said slowly.  "Just be careful with everything, okay?" He handed her food to her.

"Okay.  Thanks Luke."

* * *

Rory walked almost timidly into the ugly beige cafeteria of her old school.  It stood in huge contrast to Chilton.  Big fluorescent lights, half of which were not working, littered the ceiling.  There were no real tables here, simply folding picnic tables.  And the food, well, here the food actually was inedible.

She looked around.  It was still early, and most of the tables were unoccupied.  But no Jess.  Rory turned around at the door and bumped straight into someone. 

"I'm so sorry," she got out, before looking up, very far, far up, and seeing that it was Dean.  "Oh."

"Rory, what are you doing here?" he asked brusquely.  She bit her lip.  Seeing her do that, a concerned look came over his face.  "What's wrong?" he asked, in a more gentle voice. 

"Jess." Rory said softly.  At that name, Dean stiffened.

"Oh."

"Have you seen him today?" Rory pleaded.

"No.  Not that I make it a habit to look for him," Dean said bitterly.

"He's missing, Dean.  Are you sure you haven't seen him?"

"Well, seeing as he's never in class, I'm pretty sure I'd notice if he was there." Dean was speaking to the air, refusing to look at her.

"Dean!"

"All right, all right, I'll ask someone else."  Dean pulled a guy walking past them to a stop.  

"What's up, Dean?" the guy asked.

"You seen Jess today, Cliff?"  Cliff gave a short laugh.

"The Moriano dude?  Nah, not that he's ever here."

"Thanks man," Dean said.  Cliff walked past them.  "Are you satisfied now, Rory?"

"Yeah, thanks," Rory said softly.

"Then, I'll see you la-" Dean stopped.  "Then goodbye."  He walked past her into the cafeteria.

Rory sighed, and watched him head towards a half full table.  Then, once again, she started to go back up the stairs out of the cafeteria.  And once again, she bumped into someone.

"Mary, Mary, don't you ever watch where you're going?"  It was Tristan, at her as usual. 

"Hi, Tristan," Rory said tiredly, making as if to go past him.  He barred her way.

"No you will not, my fair Juliet," he said and then grabbed her arm.  He took her back into the cafeteria and to an empty table.  The table next to Dean's.

"What are you doing, Tristan?" she asked as he sat her down next to him.

"You don't actually think I'm going to spend my first day in school eating alone, do you?" he asked. 

"You don't have any food." 

"Yes, that's true.  But then I've heard that it's lethal to touch the cafeteria food."

"That's true."  Rory unwrapped her food, and then cut it in half.  "You can share mine."

"Really?" Tristan had lost his teasing tone.

"Yeah," Rory said.  They ate in silence.  Finally, Tristan spoke.

"All right, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean, what's wrong?"

"Well, the Mary I know would definitely be at this point blabbering on about something."

"Thanks Tris," Rory said sarcastically.

"I mean it."

"Look, let's not talk about it."

"Fine."  There was silence again.  Again, Tristan broke it.

"Are we going to talk at all?"  Rory sighed.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Let's talk about bagboy."

"His name's Dean, and what do you want to say?"

"Well, he's sitting at the table next to us and you're sitting with me.  That about says it all, doesn't it?"  Rory was shooting daggers at Tristan.

"No, actually it says nothing about him.  He's a great guy, he's sensitive, caring, funny, smart, good with his hands, has a great smile-"

Tristan suddenly leaned in and grabbed a kiss while her lips were still moving.  It was over before it had started, but Rory was frozen to her seat.  Now what?  Instantly, her eyes rose and met Dean's, and she was met with an incredulous look, mixed in with a deep disappointment.  She swallowed.  Vaguely she heard Tristan speak.

"Were you going to add a great kisser to that list?"  Rory watched in slow motion as Dean slammed his hands down on the table and left the cafeteria.  Only then did Rory answer Tristan's question. 

"Yes, actually I was!"  It came out in a high-pitched squeak, but she quickly calmed herself down.  "But that's over now.  And Tristan, I'm not ready to start anything else, yet.  Don't you understand?"  She was pleading with him.

"Yeah," he said softly.  They were staring deep into each other's eyes, and neither of them felt like moving.

A/N: Thank you for reading!  Please review.  Sorry for not updating for months on end, but I hope to be finally finishing off this story.  Any suggestions?