Summary: I'm sick of Dean and Jess. I love them dearly, but I am moving on. Rory gets a new man in my story.
Disclaimer: I only own myself.
Rating: I really have no idea, but I guess I'll go with PG for now.
Warning: I have a tendency to get distracted and not finish stories, but I will try with this one if you like it.
Chapter One: StrangersHe had arrived at Yale. The prestigious school that had been around for hundreds of years and bred some of the greatest and worst minds in history. It was highly overrated. Oh well.
She sat under her favorite tree reading William Carlos Williams' The Mule. She took a moment while turning the page to glance around at her surroundings. Yale. She had worked so hard to get here and loved it dearly, but couldn't help feeling that it was slightly overrated. College students were college students no matter how old the school was, no matter how high the tuition was. In the end it probably wouldn't matter where she had gone to college. Oh well. She liked it just fine anyway.
He decided to take a walk around the campus to get to know this strange place a little more. He grabbed his iPod, a pair of sunglasses to fend off the bright clouds of the New England September, his wallet, and a pen (just in case). He glided out of his single room without any fear of the thousands of other people wandering around the campus. He had nothing to fear and he knew it. He was an attractive, young man at one of the greatest schools in the world. Everything was going to be OK.
She finished the chapter, stuck a blade of grass on the page, and closed the book. She looked up at the sky and then smelled the air. It was going to rain soon. She loved the rain. Almost as good as snow, but not quite. Slowly, she stood up, stretching her soar legs, and wiping stray pieces of grass from her pants. She tried to check to see if she had gotten any grass stains on the back of her pants, but suddenly felt rather stupid trying to check out her own ass, so she stopped, giving a slight glance at the people around her to see if they noticed her. She was always afraid of all the strangers that were constantly around her at Yale. In Stars Hollow there were no strangers. There was no fear. Well, no real fear anyway. Now she was constantly paranoid about all the strangers and what they would think of her, a pretty girl at Yale. Everything was too much for her to grasp at once.
He looked up at the sky and saw that rain was coming. He loved the rain. He didn't get much of it at his father's house, but it reminded him of London, where his mother sometimes lived. He began to walk more slowly as he saw the other people around him begin to speed up to get away from the impending storm. He watched them move. The frantic grabbing of books, the raising of hoods, some had umbrellas (damn Ivy League kids), why couldn't they just slow down and appreciate the miracle of nature?
She wasn't standing so that she could get out of the rain. No she would stay outside. She just didn't want her books to get wet. She watched as others ran for cover. They didn't seem so scary when she looked at them like that. They looked ridiculous. Running like the sky was about to open up and let drop big balls of fire instead of little drops of water. As she looked around she caught sight of a person who wasn't running. He was tall with dark skin and a wide grin. He had on a pair of sunglasses that on most would look absurd, but on him, they were merely intriguing. He had his hands clasped behind his head as he looked up at the sky and she noticed that he began to laugh when there was a clap of thunder. He let out a whoop for joy, completely unfazed by the stares this earned from the surrounding students. Fascinating. Very fascinating.
He brought his arms down from around his neck and stretched them out by his sides as though her were an airplane. He didn't mind that people were watching him. In fact, he quite enjoyed it. He let out another cry of delight, this time for their benefit. He was about to give up on the people at this school when he noticed someone else outside about thirty feet away. She was a fair, waifish girl with dark brown hair and ivory skin. She was looking in his direction with a smile.
As their eyes met, the sky flashed blue with lightning and the rain began to fall in huge, coin sized drops. He began to spin around in the rain, dancing through newly formed puddles in the direction of this fascinating creature. She too began to jump through puddles in a path that led her too the dancing man. When they were within a foot of one another the universe recorded their encounter with a strike of thunder. They grinned at each other and he reached out his hand to brush a soaked strand of her hair out of her eyes. He was struck still by the beauty of her eyes. He had never seen eyes like that. He was almost afraid that he would drown in them. He brought his hand away from her face and removed his sunglasses to get a better look at her. She stared into his deep brown eyes. They were almost black and she felt like she could fall right into them. They both stared at each other in silence for a moment, the dancing had stopped, their smiles had faded into intense concentration, but the rain continued to drip down their cheeks, and the rapid pitter of the drops was the same speed as the beating of their hearts. When another strike of thunder stirred them from their reverie, his big, full lips spread into another wide grin, his dazzling white teeth making the grin contagious.
"I'm Tade." He shouted through the strident storm. (A/N Tade is pronounced tod-e, with two syllables.)
"I'm Rory." She returned with a small laugh. She didn't know what she was laughing about. All she knew was that this thrilling stranger did not scare her.
He laughed as well. He didn't need a reason to laugh other than pure happiness.
It seemed that Yale wouldn't be so bad after all.