Title: More Than This
Part: 3/?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters they belong to the creators of Gilmore Girls/Amy Sherman-Palladino.
Rating: I don't know, I'll guess PG-13.
Category: R/T (friendship)
Author's Notes: Thank you so much to everybody that has read this story, especially everybody that reviewed. I'm so happy you're giving this story a chance. Always feel free to give me some pointers. I am very worried if I can keep everyone in character. Rory's a bit more like Lorelai here. But I figured, on the show in her scenes with Tristan that Rory always seemed a bit more daring. And Rory's friendship has made Tristan a bit more relaxed. In upcoming scenes of him interacting with Rory's posse, he'll also be a lot nicer than you're used to, but he's acting that way for the sake of Rory. I'm not that satisfied with this chapter, it's short and not very exciting. But I had to set up some things for upcoming chapters. I hope you can still enjoy it. Also, I mean no offense to Beavis and Butt-head and Married…with Children. I love both shows. And once again, I wish my computer also had punctuation check, grrr.
Chapter 3
It was Friday and finally time for lunch. Tristan quietly approached Rory, who was sitting alone at one of the tables. Her plate with food and her book were lying in front of her and she noticeably was paying more attention to the latter.
"Gilmore, your food is getting cold."
Rory held her hand up pointedly, for him to be quiet and continued reading.
"Okay, sheesh, but your coffee is getting cold too," Tristan remarked.
"-Where?!" Her head shot up, she grunted when she saw Tristan's usual annoying smirk plastered all over his face.
"Do you have the coffee? Or not?" Rory asked with a dangerous edge to her voice.
"Ouch, is it your time of the month?" He said and pulled the coffee from behind his back to give it to her.
She went to grab it. "Really Tristan, really? A 'time-of-the-month'- joke? Good Lord, where did you pick up that one? I know, your favorite show," she paused for effect, "-"Beavis and Butt-head", a.k.a. the lamest cartoon ever." She quipped matter-of-factly.
Tristan's eyes widened. "Oh, you're not getting it now," he warned and pulled the coffee back.
Disappointed, Rory stuck out her lower lip.
"Not for free, at least. Beg." He ordered.
Rory rolled her eyes. Like I have too much pride to beg? Who does he think I am? A guy? Him?
"Oh please, Tristan, king of hotness and Chilton. If you'll give me the coffee, I will worship your mighty fine ass forever!" She said dramatically.
"Promise?" He smirked and gave her the coffee.
After she had a big gulp and gave a sigh, Tristan felt secure enough to sit down.
"Was that really necessary, though? I thought we'd decided that we didn't want to turn into my mom and Luke, version 2.0?" Rory asked in a serious tone.
"Yeah, that would be kind of annoying." Tristan replied.
"And hopeless. Don't forget hopeless. We don't want that, right? We want or life's to go somewhere." Rory stated uncertainly.
"Right!" He agreed quickly.
Tristan seemed to think about that for a while.
"Okay, has the book been put away and is the coffee gone? Because, I wanted to talk to you about-"
"I got an A-," Rory cut him off.
"No, that's not what I wanted to tal-…What? An A-? For that trig quiz?" Tristan asked.
"Yeah," Rory nodded.
"Wow, that's amazing. Congratulations!" Tristan said with excitement.
"Thanks!" Rory lifted her chin and smiled. Tristan looked at her in awe.
"Yeah, I know I must have bugged you endlessly about it. So, I was thinking we could celebrate…" Rory rubbed her hands together.
Tristan's eyes twinkled. "Go on, " he urged.
"Well, I thought we…" Rory paused, "Oh, what did you want to talk to me about then?"
"Oh right. Well, I wanted to know about tomorrow, about the fair. We're still on, right?"
"Of course!" She answered enthusiastically.
"Okay, cool. I just wanted to know at what time do they hide the eggs? Because, if they're doing that tonight, then maybe I should come over. To, you know, do some…scamming?"
Rory shook her head no.
"Scheming?"
Rory shook her head again.
"Scavenging?"
Tristan continued at her repeated denial.
"Sneaking?? What is it?" He yelled in frustration.
"Yes, you were right the first, second and fourth time. The scavenging part will start tomorrow. No, what I meant was that they don't hide them tonight." Rory explained.
"Do you know when they do hide them?"
"Aha, it varies, but usually they do it in about thirty minutes before take-off. While the rest of us waits in the high school gym. It's like this, every year Taylor hires a different non-participant to lead a team of neutrals that are capable of quickly and creatively hiding all the eggs. This year my mom has been egging on Luke to volunteer for the job."
"Oh great!" Tristan wiggled his eyebrows.
"Well, I was thinking…" Rory coughed, "I was hoping we could try this the corrupt, I mean correct, way. Otherwise it wouldn't be a real victory." She told him.
"And moral Rory returns. So, it seems I haven't corrected, ugh de-corrected?" Tristan sputtered and Rory laughed. "- Corrupted you enough, yet. I may just have to corrupt you a bit more." He said with a promising tone.
"Oh, but then I'd just have to de-corrupt, uh correct you some more," she said with faux sweetness.
"Na-ah, I still could easily corrupt you again then." He smiled arrogantly.
"But, I won't stop until I have you turned into a full-fledged nice guy."
Tristan's face crumpled at that.
" Yeah, but I will then. I will. Okay, this is dumb." Tristan rolled his eyes.
"Very," Rory agreed. "Too sappy, ahem, for us."
Rory smiled in a seemingly desperate manner. "I feel kind of stupid today, you too? I think it is either because the chef has put something in the food or because my mom made me watch 3 back-to-back episodes of "Married…with Children"?
"No, are you kidding? If Kelly Bundy had indeed rubbed off on you, it already would have been a lot worse at this point, you would not be getting an A minuses on trig. But what an experience that would be for you. Wow." Tristan continued his silly fantasy. "You would find yourself on dangerous, unknown territory, metamorphosing into Lori "straight C's" Gilmore. You know, you might actually start up "The Stars Hollow Official 'Beavis and Butt-head' Fan Club" to please your mechanic boyfriend. By the way, how is Dean enjoying his job at the garage? You must like him dirty like that, huh?"
Rory shot him daggers, but Tristan didn't budge. "You would also get highlights and start wearing these skanky, gold mini-skirts…Hey! This might not be such a bad thing. I approve." He said with a lazy smile on his face. "I hereby give you permission to watch as many reruns of "Married…with Children", as you like."
"First of all, you creep, it would be a Monster Truck fancl-," Rory started with full-force, but she was interrupted by Tristan's friends. Oh and coincidentally here are our two resident Al Bundy wannabe's now.
"Married…with Children? I love that show!" Duncan said.
"Yeah, with Christina Applegate," the other one, Bowman, said. "She's hot!"
"Hey Dugrey, Gilmore", they said in acknowledgement.
Rory watched as Tristan did that silly guy greeting with them and they sat down, throwing all their stuff on the table. They're such morons, but at least they're better than those awful, popular jock-types Tristan hung out with constantly last year.
Tristan gave her a kick under the table and threw her an urgent look. Oh! Oops.
"Hi…guys," Rory smiled a sweet smile, which they returned.
"Duncan, you're all better? I heard you were sick?" She asked with polite, but fake concern.
"Yeah, I was feeling a little under the weather, but I'm back now and ready to be rocking and rolling!"
"Oh yeah!" Bowman cheered and they high-fived.
Rory kept her smile tight. Aww, it's always the innocent ones that experience the most joy in life.
"So, what were you guys talking about?" Bowman asked them.
Rory started, but then pursed her lips as Tristan answered. "Oh, we were talking about this fair they're having in Rory's town tomorrow. I'm going to go." Tristan filled them in, in a concise way.
"Cool," Bowman responded.
"Didn't you have that date then?" Duncan inquired. "With Jessica whatshername…?"
"McDowell," Bowman provided "She is hottt."
Rory refrained from rolling her eyes and she shot Tristan an alarmed look. He was sitting with his hands covering his face.
"F--," he silently cursed. "I thought that was next week!" Tristan said looking at Rory.
"It's okay." Rory said softly.
"No, I really wanted to go with you." Tristan told her honestly. "Damnit!"
"Hey man, you asked her, right?"
"Well, yeah. Does that mean I can still cancel?" Tristan asked Duncan hopefully.
"I think the rule is no, but you can try. She's nice." Duncan said lightly.
"Yeah she is, but I practically begged her to come with me." Tristan said, feeling defeated
Rory had a sudden desire to not be sitting at that table. I had already looked forward to this so much.
"Listen," Tristan touched Rory's arm, "I made a deal with her. More like a mutual favor, actually." Tristan continued to explain. "My uncle is having this formal party next week, which I needed a date for. And Jessica's father, Malcolm McDowell, is a respected business partner of my father's. So, I reckoned, if I take Jessica, then there'd be no way my father would be able to give me grief about that. And Jessica agreed, but in return I had to go with her this shindig her family is throwing tomorrow night. Damn, I purposely secured this weeks ahead of time, and now I'm still screwed." Tristan said dejectedly.
Rory looked at him, but didn't say anything. Duncan and Bowman shared a knowing look.
"But, dude, that doesn't sound like she would mind that much if you would blow her off." Duncan said and Bowman gave Rory an encouraging smile.
"No, and her father doesn't care who she brings." Tristan continued wearily, "And Jessica is a very nice girl, but there's no way that if I'll cancel, she'll still go with me next week."
Rory was a bit hesitant to say what she was going to say, but her determination to have him there tomorrow won out.
"Uhm, " Rory swallowed, "I'm no McDowell, but is a Gilmore passable enough to please your father?"
Duncan and Bowman started smiling and wildly nodded their heads up and down.
"I-I…don't know." Tristan stammered.
"What? Your dad, he kind of likes me, right?" Rory muttered.
"Yeah, he does like you."
"So, what's the problem?"
"The problem, Ror, is that I don't think that it will go over that well with your boyfriend."
"Oh," she bit her lip.
"Yeah, " Tristan said bitingly.
"I hadn't thought about that…" Rory said, her eyes downcast and her shoulders slumped.
Tristan rolled his eyes.
"But, but!" Rory brightened, "He connived and ended up stealing my mother for tomorrow's hunt! I think that claiming a parent for the night ranks even higher than borrowing a significant other for a couple of hours. Dean owes me, everybody know my mom and I are a winning combination!" Rory stated proudly, although she knew she was reaching.
"Okay…so?" Tristan said, very reluctant.
"Yes, I'm sure Dean will be fine with it. And if not, I'll think of something. I promise." Rory crossed her fingers for him, reaffirming.
"Okay, I guess I should go find Jessica, to tell her the news." Tristan got up.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" Rory asked his good friends once Tristan had left.
"Sure, he'll be fine. He's more worried about you." Bowman told her kindly.
Rory's cheeks warmed at the thought and she smiled to herself.
"Oh, look at the time! I have to go. To the library. I need books," Rory said nervously, she was feeling a bit shy, being alone with Tristan's (other) friends. She rambled on rapidly, "I can't go after class. On Friday I have these weekly dinners with my grandparents, that I have to attend with my mother. This week we're having a barbecue, so that means I have to leave early. So, that's why I can't go after class." She sighed, "If you see him, please tell him to call me ASAP. Okay? Bye guys!" Rory rushed out of the cafeteria.
The guys watched her until she disappeared.
"Wow, must be hard."
"Yeah…what?" Duncan asked.
"Being friends with a girl." Bowman replied
"Yeah", especially with a not-ugly girl like that."
"Yeah, definitely," Bowman agreed. "Rory is hot!"
AN2: Okay, so the next chapter (R+T at the fair) will either be up later today, or tomorrow : -)
