Disclaimer. As thankful as I am of you thinking that I might own the show, the characters, and everything related to Gilmore Girls, I don't. . . thanks for thinking so highly of me, though.
Minus Dean 7
When he arrived at the locker rooms, Harris was talking to his friends. When he saw that Tristan was coming in, he changed the subject.
"So DuGrey, that Gilmore chick, she's something, isn't she?" Harris said, directing himself to Tristan. Harris's friend just laughed.
"Stay away from her, Harris"
"Wow, I've never seen you so defensive about someone, so she must be something"
"I am warning you Harris. You better stay away from Rory if you know what is good for you. There are some boundaries that are made to be respected."
"Yeah, just how you respected the boundaries surrounding Lauren last summer"
"This is different," Tristan said, "Lauren just had a lapse of good taste, there's no reason to blame her for that"
"I've seen what this girl means to you, and I've made it my mission to make sure that she realizes who you are. . . and have some fun while I'm at it" he said, smiling, bumping fists with one of his friends. "I am going to make you pay for what you did to Lauren and me," he said defiantly.
At this moment, Bryce, Josh, Nick, and Alex came to stand behind Tristan, having listened to the exchange between him and Tom.
"What the hell is your problem about that? It's not as if you cared about Lauren. What is it? The fact that she preferred me over you or that I was just faster to get what you had been working for so long." Tristan said, defiantly.
"You stupid son of a. . ." he said and lunged over Tristan. At this moment Tristan just made one swift move to his left, lifted his right knee and Tom banged himself against it, nose first, with a little help of Tristan's hands. Tristan removed his leg and Tom fell to the floor, his nose bleeding.
Tristan kneeled next to Tom. "Let that be a warning and the bruise that will show later on a reminder. Don't mess with me, and don't mess with Rory. Remember that" and he got up and walked towards his locker as if nothing had happened.
That was a declaration of war. A declaration that would be cut short by a girl.
~*~
The school day finished. Tristan was waiting for Rory by his car, just as they had agreed after lunch. As Rory was coming out of school, she spotted him and walked towards where he was standing.
"Sorry I'm late. Had some trouble with my locker, again" she said as she finally reached him.
"Don't worry about it. Did you see that?" he pointed to one of the posters that announced the Winter Formal.
"Yeah" she said as she walked around the truck, next to Tristan who got the door for her, and as she went into the car, Tristan closed the door behind her and proceeded to walk to his side.
"We should go together," he said getting into his car, as if it didn't mean anything for him to go to a dance with Rory.
"Oh, well. . . someone already asked me" she said avoiding his gaze as she put on her safety belt.
He paused in the middle of the same activity.
"Who?" He asked.
"Don't look so surprised, there are people interested in going with me," she stated as if it was the most natural thing for her to accept going out with someone.
"I know, that's why I'm asking you to go with me"
"No, you are suggesting we should go together. It's not the same thing."
Sometimes she could be so damn clueless. "Who are you going with?"
"Tom" she answered simply.
"Harris? That jerk?"
"The fact that you don't like him does not immediately mean that I won't either. I do have my own mind you know, which I can make up on my own"
"Rory, come on. Be serious. You cannot possibly consider going to the dance with Harris of all people"
"And why is that, Tristan?"
"He's. . . he's. . ."
"Like I said earlier, you are entitled to your opinion. However, I have the same entitlement to have my own. I've made up my mind and I'm going to the dance with Tom, whether you like it or not. And there's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind. So let's drop the subject right now and go over to your house and study, OK?"
"Whatever. Let's go."
They started on their way. She didn't like the fact that there was tension filling the air, so she tried to lighten up the mood.
"Besides, I am not your responsibility. You have your own life. And I should stop depending on your friendship to get me thru Chilton. Besides, there are probably ten girls waiting for you to ask them to the dance. It wouldn't be fair of me to deprive them of such displeasure. Let them find out on their own what an annoying person you truly are." She teased.
"I wanted to go with you," he stated simply.
"But why Tristan? Come on let's face it. The probability of a girl dumping her date in the middle of the dance is high. Which will mean that she would need to feel better and being the kind person that you are you would take up the responsibility to calm her down, which will only lead to you making out with her in a dark corner somewhere, and me being left sitting at a table. So you see I'm doing all this for you."
"Come on, Ror, I'm not joking."
"Neither am I. Ask some girl, some random girl to the dance who will be more than glad to be your make-out partner for a couple of hours."
"You are definitely going with him then?"
"Yes, I am."
"Promise me you will be careful." He asked of her.
"There was this one time that there was nothing to rent at the video store in Stars-Hollow, but exercise tapes so, my mom and I, we decided to watch a Tae-Bo exercise video. I did not practice it, but I did pay close attention to it and I bet I can improvise one of those kicks if he gets out of line. But I don't think he will."
"A simple 'I promise, Tristan' would have sufficed. You are always the optimist with people."
"It worked out well for you and I, didn't it?"
"Well I've worked really hard to win your trust, and I still don't think I have it completely." He joked.
"Oh, you don't. You can be sure of that." She answered back.
"So do you promise?"
"I promise… so who are you planning to take?" she asked as they drove over to Tristan's house.
~*~
Thursday came and both, Tristan and Rory, where glad on the outcome of their English exam. They studied hard for the last couple of days and were confident that the result would be a positive one. When the school day was over, he pretended not to remember (and hoped she didn't either) of her work session with Tom.
However, he was mistaken. She did remember. And the fact that when they came across Tom during lunch and he confirmed the meeting in the library after practice didn't help either of them forget.
Rory was deep in concentration reading Madame Bovary when Tom spotted her and walked to where she was sitting.
"I apologize for being late. Practice ran. . . well, um, late," Tom said when he finally approached her.
"That would've been a nice verse to that song about ironies," she said looking up from her book.
He smiled. And so did her. And he thought how he was going to enjoy making Tristan suffer; and what made him smile even more was that there was no downside to his new 'mission' as he phrased it. He was going to make Tristan twist and turn while he had a good time with a pretty girl. Taking revenge on Tristan with Rory Gilmore was going to be fun.
When he didn't say anything and his smile grew wider and wider (and it was starting to freak her out), she decided to bring him back to her part of the world where there were projects to be made with deadlines to be met. "Tom?" and when he snapped back to reality, she continued, "Shall we start?"
"Yeah, we should." He said, with a glint in his eyes that she couldn't place. She didn't catch the double meaning in his answer, either.
They started walking around the Chilton Library, getting books and searching the Net for some more actualized facts and recent developments. Chemistry was a science that, with a small alteration you could get amazing new results. They just needed to find a way that would work to their advantage accommodating both time and facilities, and that would allow a faster flow of the activities.
Tom was trying to be flirty and nice, and he put his best face forward for Rory. Nevertheless, Rory didn't need a partner to flirt with, but to work with. So when she told him (in the nicest way possible) how they really needed to get that done and that there would be time for "other" things after the project was due, it came as a surprise. In addition, he heard a stifled laugh from behind that came from Alex, Tristan's friend who was sitting behind them, Tom decided that if he made Rory look bad while getting back at Tristan, the better.
Rory, on the other hand, started to see what Tristan meant when he said that Tom Harris was a jerk. He was starting to get on her nerves. He was a touchy-feely person, cockier than Tristan (if possible) but without a reason to be cocky about... and then he made one big mistake, that finally confirmed Tristan's opinion about him.
"Does Tristan ever get on your nerves?" he asked as he dropped his pen over his pad considering that it was time for a break, again.
"We don't have time for anymore breaks, Tom" she said without looking up and then added, "And no, he doesn't." she half-lied. . . but he didn't need to know that.
"Really?" he questioned.
"Really" she deadpanned finally looking up from the book and the notes she was writing.
"Because I've seen you banter. . ."
"That's how we get along. It's that interaction that makes our friendship unique."
"Is it tiring?"
"No, it isn't."
"Rory you're a smart girl" he started, and she knew that she wasn't going to like that, because she never liked statements that started that way "I would have thought that you would have a better screening process for your friends."
"I don't ask for resumes to decide whether I would consider having you as a friend or not." She answered defensively.
"Yeah. . . but DuGrey?" he asked, incredulously.
"What about him?" she was now really getting annoyed at him.
"He's not the best guy to have as a friend. He wouldn't think twice before turning against you."
"And who do you think is better suited to be my friend?" she asked, but she knew what the answer was going to be.
"Me, for starters."
"At the moment, I highly doubt that."
"Listen Rory. . ."
But she interrupted him, "No. You listen Tom. I don't let anyone speak ill of my friends. I defended you from Tristan, but now I see that he was right. Yet I gave you a chance to prove him wrong; you just proved him right. He is my friend, and no one has the right to decide whom I should or shouldn't hang out with, but me. As for our date for the dance, it's off. I'm giving you enough notice for you to find some other date, although my sympathies go out to her. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go" She said as she gathered her stuff and placed it inside of her backpack "You need the grade so you can keep what we did, and I'll do something else. Bye Tom." And with this, she walked out of the library.
Tom was left fuming in the library. So much for best laid plans.
"Good Bye, Tom. Too bad about your date with Rory." Alex said, his tone sarcastic, and left the library.
~*~
As soon as Alex left the library, he made the call. It was his duty as a friend, and he needed to fulfill it. It rang four times before he answered the phone.
"Hello," Tristan said as he answered his cell.
"Hey, DuGrey," Alex answered back.
"Hey, Alex. . ." Tristan said surprised, Alex wasn't that much of a phone person.
"She dumped him," he said not giving Tristan anything else but that.
"Come again,"
"She dumped him"
"Who is she? And, whom did she dump? I really need so much more than that if you want me to follow your story, man"
"I was in the library," Alex started.
"Well you are quite the studious fellow, so that is not enough" but then realization hit him "go on. . . you've got my attention."
"Well Rory was there. . ."
"Yeah, I know with that Harris jerk. . ."
"Exactly. Well, they were working on the chemistry project and you would think that Rory, being Tom's date for the Winter Formal, was going to be a little more open to his flirting, right?"
Tristan grinned.
"But she wasn't, in fact she was as unreceptive to his flirting as she
is to yours. . ."
"She is one very fair person. . ." Tristan said smiling, "I resent that by the way. . ."
"Anyway. Here they are, working on the project, and you can see her growing exasperated with the guy, so then all of a sudden I don't know what it is that he asks her…"
"What kind of a reporter are you if you can only get half of the story. . ." Tristan joked.
Alex ignored him. "And that was the end of him. I just see her say something to him and then she starts to get up and gather her stuff and dumps him, right there."
"That's my girl!"
"She would've made you proud, actually."
"Did they mention me?"
Alex knew better than to feed his friends huge ego. "Not that I heard." And he knew that Rory wouldn't be able to live that thru.
"I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have anything to do with that fall out, but I'm as glad as if I had been."
"Anyway, I gotta go. I'm meeting Dana; we are going to go over some of the details for the dance."
"You're a good man, Alex. Too bad that you've got to go thru that."
"When the girl is worth it. . . see you around DuGrey, and don't mess it up."
"Thanks man, really." He added, just before he hung up.
~*~
Author's Note. First of all, thank you so much for your 'get well' wishes, although I found it really funny that many people said 'I'm sorry, but I'm glad it happened' I just couldn't stop laughing about that. I'm glad that the fact that I am hurt is making me write more, and that that makes you guys happy, that's why people say that 'nothing happens without a reason'. Secondly, I would like to thank you for the reviews, like I've said before, they mean so much to me, so if you can continue doing it then it would make me even more happy. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and wait for what is coming along.
Mary
