Title: American Beauty
Chapter:
Two
Authors: Bent137 and ChristineCS
Disclaimer: Neither of us claims ownership on any of the Gilmore Girls' characters mentioned.
Summary: AU. Paris deals with the type of competition that comes tall, dark and handsome.
Author's Note: Yes, this is loosely based on the movie American Beauty.
*
Paris maneuvered her car up her driveway and pulled to a stop in front of her house. Another familiar looking car was parked there as well. Paris looked up towards the door and there sat Madeline, Tristan and the new kid. She looked over at Louise, "Louise, what are they doing here?"
Louise managed the look of feigned shock. "Well, I guess they were just as eager to study as you and I."
Paris rolled her eyes and looked at Louise, "Since when are you eager to study? Wait. Don't answer that." Paris shut the car off and opened her door. She stepped out pulling her bag along behind her. She looked over at the trio. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"
Jess smirked, "We're here to learn too. We're so eager to study, like Louise."
Paris glared at him,
"Were you invited? I didn't think so. Neither of you are welcome!"
She pointed at Jess and Tristan alternately. "Now leave."
Tristan smirked and looked up at Paris defiantly, "Now, now Paris. Is that
any way to treat guests?"
Paris glared at him, "Oh I'm sorry, would you like something to drink? Oh
I forgot we have nothing for you. Now leave Tristan!"
"Paris! You wound me!" Tristan faked a wince as he clutched at his
blazer. "Why do you not want me here? Is it that you can't resist my
charm?"
"What charm DuGrey? Did it ever occur to you I might actually want to
study which is pretty near impossible with you around? Because lord knows what
you'd do you're such a goof off!"
Paris turned on Jess, "You stay out of this! I don't even know you for god
sake. Don't come waltzing in here uninvited expecting star treatment. That may
have been what you got at that institution but you're far from welcome
here."
Jess raised an eyebrow, "Maybe you're the one that should be in the mental institute because I received my invitation for studying here. You have such nice friends, too, helping the new kid like that."
Paris turned to Louise suspiciously, "What invitation? I was there, with you, you called Madeline. I heard no such talk of Tristan and Mental Boy here!"
Louise shrugged and studied her nails. Hmmm, she had at least another week before she should schedule for a manicure.
Madeline remained blissfully oblivious, studying the lapels of Tristan's Chilton jacket.
Paris groaned, "Fine. But I swear if you step the tiniest bit out of line, you're gone! Both of you."
"Us?" Madeline and Louise squeaked, looking up sharply from their tasks.
Paris rolled her eyes, "No not you. Dumb and Dumber over here." Paris
pointed at Tristan and Jess and grabbed her backpack then began walking up her
steps.
Jess leaned towards Tristan, "Why are we Dumb and Dumber when they don't even understand her when she talks?"
Tristan leaned towards Jess, "It's because we have something they don't."
"We should sue her for that," Jess said, crossing his arms and nodding. "I bet we could wring a lot out of her for sexual discrimination."
She led the group into the dining room and set her things at the head of the table. She requested that the maid bring in five glasses of water.
"So do we like, have to study now?" Louise questioned, cringing at the sight of books.
"Well this is a study group," Jess commented. "I suppose we could always just watch the movie instead."
"Oh!" Madeline said, perking up. "That's a great idea. See there are Good Will Hunting and that pie movie for math. And that yummy Colin Firth movie for English...Pride and Prejudice, oh and Shakespeare in Love if we have to learn about his life."
"And Jurassic Park for science," Jess added dryly. "I think this girl is on something."
"On to," Madeline corrected him.
"Yeah, whatever."
Paris looked back and forth at Jess and Madeline for a moment before turning to Madeline. "Madeline, although those were some good reference suggestions, I believe we would be better of actually reading the books and doing the studying and work ourselves. Film makers don't always have everything correct, often times because of time restraints, but others simply because of poor research." Paris paused and glanced at Jess, "You should take note of that as well, and maybe it will come in handy in the future. You can't always believe everything you see in the movies. I'm not just talking about special effects, but often times scenes from books are condensed, or cut out all together. You never know what is going to be on a test or a quiz."
Tristan, whom had remained silently observing until this point, tapped the side of his lips with the eraser on his pencil thoughtfully then pointed it at Paris, "She's right, after all, this is Chilton we're talking about."
Paris smiled at Tristan, "Thank you Tristan. So why don't we get started with our Calculus."
"I'm hungry," Louise spoke up. "I can't concentrate on an empty stomach."
"Neither can I," Madeline piped in. "And I just heard my tummy rumbling."
Paris groaned. Just then the maid returned with the five glasses of water. She placed them down in front of the five teens as Paris said, "Could you please bring us a bowl of pretzels and some fresh fruit?"
"Yes ma'am," the maid said and hurried towards the kitchen.
Paris turned back to the group, "There, she's bringing food. Are you happy now?"
"Hey I was happy in the first place," Tristan said.
"We're not caring," Louise told him. "Do the pretzels have salt? I'm not supposed to have salt."
Paris rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure Louise, but if they do then you can just have fruit. Now, Calculus, Page 157." Paris flipped her book open and then looked around at the group, waiting for them to do the same.
"If I eat fruit," Louise cut in. "Then I'll go over my set limit for each food group. Fruit won't do."
Paris stared at Louise. She gritted her teeth, "Then why don't you, and Madeline go to the kitchen and find something you will eat."
Tristan watched with amusement until now, "Hey, uh, don't cancel the pretzel and fruit order."
Louise fixed an offended expression on her face. "But that's where the servants go! I can't go down there."
"Or she may return with servant's disease," Jess pointed out, slouching in his chair.
"Oh no!" Maddie's eyes widened. "What's servant's disease?"
"Apparently when little private school girls get their brains sucked out and replaced with air," Paris gritted out. "Now I'm giving you five minutes to gather food, and if you're not back in exactly five minutes or less I will personally dismember you."
"Won't that cut into the studying time?" Jess asked, as Louise, Madeline and Tristan scurried for food.
Paris ignored his question, refused to glare, picked up her highlighter and started rummaging through her notes. She could still feel his gaze on her, so she slammed down her highlighter. "What? Don't you have an insatiable hunger in your stomach to feed?"
"Nope, I ate before I got here."
Like other people should have. "Fine." She returned to her highlighting.
"Fine," he mimicked. Bastard.
*
Louise followed Tristan into the food pantry as Madeline stood outside the door, saying she was looking out for the Servant's Disease, to warn them so that they'd have time to protect themselves. They had decided to leave at that, since neither of them (or Paris's time limit) had the patience for explaining to Maddie the meaning of sarcasm.
"Do you really have a limit for how much food you can eat for each group?" Tristan asked as he pulled down a box of graham crackers from the shelf. "Or did you make that up to piss Paris off?"
Louise tore her eyes off the food in front of her and looked at him, "A little of both. I have a preferred amount, but I'm not going to flip if I go one or two pieces of food over it. I'm flexible." She gave him a small, coy smile. "Very flexible."
"You're a dirty girl, Grant," Tristan made an tsk-ing sound with his tongue. "So why did you invite me and Mariano?"
"To unnerve Paris," Louise answered matter-of-factly. "He does that, you know?"
"Jess? I didn't notice," when one was in the room with three girls in skirts, one wasn't really thinking about the other guy in the room. "And you're not the least bit worried about your English grade suffering because of your matchmaking practices?"
She grabbed a box of saltless crackers and twirled around to face him. "Oh, don't worry about me, DuGrey. I have my own plan for improving my English grade." With that, she breezed past him and out of the pantry.
Tristan shook his head and grabbed a bottle of sparkling cider on his way out. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know what that was.
To Be Continued…
