A/N – I didn't get any responses to the last author's note I posted…that may have been due to FF.net being weird, cuz I know it wasn't letting me access some stories and chapters.  But, I'm going to attempt to write Chapter Eight on my own…sniff, sniff, sob, sob.

Regarding my recaps, as the story gets longer, so do the recaps. (Fancy that.)  So, I've decided that I'm going to leave out the obvious, cuz anyone who makes it this far already knows that Tristan's back from military school, that he and Rory were somehow thrown together, blah, blah, blah.  Anyway, I'm only going to recap whatever events are important to each new chapter.  (I will indicate which chapters I'm leaving out of the recaps, for any new readers, and in case anyone wants to take the time to go read those again.)

RECAP:  Skipping Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7.  This chapter really only deals with the events of the party in Chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 – Tristan invites Rory, Jess, and Lane to a party.  Jess doesn't go, but the girls do.  Chapter 5 – Lane runs into Dave at the party, while Tristan and Rory have a heart-to-heart, which consists basically of Tristan telling her what it was like at military school, and then asking her if they can be friends.  Immediately thereafter, Tristan unintentionally pisses Rory off. 

This chapter takes place the following Monday, at Chilton.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SOME TEENAGE SOAP OPERA

When Rory got to school, she found Tristan waiting at her locker, with a cup of coffee. 

"Morning, Rory.  Peace offering."  Tristan held the coffee out to her.

She ignored him as she attempted to open her locker.

"Rory – what did I do to piss you off?"

Giving up on both the locker and the silent treatment, she turned to him.  "What makes you think I'm pissed off?" she asked icily.

"Well…the fact that you didn't return any of my calls this weekend was a big hint."

"Too bad it's not one you took."

"Look…whatever I did, I'm sorry.  I thought we decided on Friday that we were going to be friends?"

"How can you say you're sorry when you don't even know what you did?"

"I'm sorry for pissing you off."

"Whatever."  Rory turned back to her battle with the obstinate locker.

Tristan reached over her head, and pounded on the locker once.  It immediately sprang open.  "You got pissed whenever we started talking to Lane and Dave at the party.  Do they have something to do with it?"

Rory sighed, and turned back to Tristan.  "You only invited Lane so that I would go.  And, as if that weren't bad enough, you actually told her that!"

Tristan was taken aback. 

Seeing that he wasn't going to respond, Rory slammed her locker shut, and stormed off, leaving Tristan staring after her.

"I knew the whole Rory and Tristan getting along thing wouldn't last," a voice said from behind him.

"Hello to you, too, Paris."  Tristan turned, and faced her. 

"What did you do this time?  Call her Mary again?"

"No…I evidently insulted her best friend, and by extension, her." 

"Killing two birds with one stone…I'm impressed."

"Paris…" Tristan pled.

"Alright, how'd you insult Lane?"  Paris asked with a sigh.

"Told her that I only invited her to my party so that Rory would come."

"So you do still have a thing for Rory." Paris stated flatly.

"What? No…I just wanted to talk to Rory, outside of Chilton."

"And you couldn't pick up a phone?  It's not like you don't have her number."  She replied, disbelievingly.

Tristan shrugged to hide his discomfort.  "I had some stuff to say to her…wanted to do it face to face."

Paris sighed again.  "Whatever.  Do you want me to talk to her, or are you going to attempt to handle this yourself?"

Tristan was surprised by Paris's offer.  "Would you?"

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I weren't willing to give it a try.  Though I don't know a) what good it would do, or b) why I'm even bothering myself attempting to solve the problems the two of you have, considering you'll just make her mad again within fifteen minutes of me calming her down.  On second thought, it really does seem like wasted effort on my part."

"Paris, please.  Rory won't even talk to me right now, and I honestly don't know what to say about it, anyway.  I mean, yeah, I invited Lane so that Rory would go to the party, but it's not like I wouldn't have invited her anyway.  Okay, so maybe I wouldn't have invited her, but I also wouldn't have invited her if I didn't want her to go."

Paris looked at Tristan as though he had rocks in his head.  "That made no sense whatsoever.  But, strange as it may seem, I think I understand the point that you're getting at, and frankly, my understanding of you scares me." 

"So you'll talk to her for me?"

"Yes, I'll talk to her, but I'm not making any promises that it will change anything."

"Thanks."

"We need to get to class." 

It wasn't until after the daily meeting of the Franklin that afternoon that Paris got the chance to talk to Rory.

"We need to talk." 

"Paris, today has been a really long crappy day.  Whatever we need to talk about, can it please wait until tomorrow?"  Rory responded, sighing.

"Sorry, but I don't think it can.  I'll give you a ride home, and we can talk on the way."

"Okay, fine…What's up?" 

Paris tried to decide how exactly to broach the topic of Tristan as the two girls turned and walked towards her car.  "Rory…when Tristan first came back, you guys were getting along, and seemed like you were actually…friends.  Then, today in class, you completely gave him the cold shoulder.  What happened?"

"We were getting along because he appeared to have changed.  However, at his party on Friday, he displayed that that really wasn't the case."

"What did he do?"

Rory stopped, and turned to face Paris down.   "Why do you care so much?"

"Because Tristan is my friend, he knows you're mad at him, and he knows why, but he doesn't know how to fix it.  So he asked me to talk to you."

Rory sighed.  Geez…I think I preferred it when no one in this school talked to me…this is something straight out of some teenage soap opera.  "Look…it's not a big loss for Tristan and I to not be getting along.  I'll ignore him, he can ignore me, it'll work."

"Maybe it would work for you, but I think he really does want to be friends with you, Rory.  At least give him a chance to apologize."

"Fine.  If it's that important to you, I'll give him another chance.  But this is the last time."  Rory gave in, too tired to argue with Paris. 

"That's all I ask."  Paris replied with a smile.

The rest of the drive to Stars Hollow was spent in silence.

~End Chapter 8~

A/N – Okay, this was another crappy chapter, but I think it gives me some stuff to build off of.  I'm still looking for suggestions, though, so please review, and help a poor girl out…  I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.  Also, I know that Paris was kind of out of character, but I don't do the whole spastic totalitarian mode well, so just pretend that she has a heart.  (I think she really does, just doesn't show it.)

Also, I wanted to share a moment of outrage.  I just discovered that next week's episode of the Gilmore Girls, the first NEW episode in forever, is being pre-empted for a hockey game!!!!  Okay, yes, I do bleed Blue, major Blues fan (living in St. Louis, there's really no other way to avoid a lynching), but c'mon, I'm in total withdrawal here!  I need my Gilmore Girls!!!!!  Okay, I think it's out of my system…maybe.