Everything
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot and the characters that you don't recognize from the show.
Summary: When Rory Hayden comes back to Chilton, she still sees Tristan Dugrey as her brother's annoying friend that won't seem to leave her alone. But when opinions change, friendships can form, and maybe it could become something more.
Good to know: Rory went to school in England for a year, then comes back to Chilton for her senior year. She hangs out with her old friends. Lorelai and Christopher are married and they live in Hartford. Dean and Jess don't exist.She's not friends with Paris; I'm having fun with my own characters.
Rating: PG13
Chapter 4
"Noooooooo." Lorelai whined as Christopher dragged her to the front door.
"Lorelai, she's your mother. If you don't want to see her at least do it for Rory and Danny's sake, they barely get to see their grandparents anymore." Christopher tried to reason.
"Grandparents shmandparents," Lorelai mumbled, "I hate dressing up."
"Chris, ring the doorbell." Lorelai said.
"You never ring the doorbell, why can't you do it for once?"
"Fine." –Pause- "Danny, ring the doorbell."
"Mom, you can do it, just put your finger up to the button and lightly add some pressure to it." Danny said slowly as if talking to a five-year-old.
She reached up to the doorbell half-way, "Rory..." Lorelai pleaded and dropped her hand.
Before Rory could say anything the door swung open to reveal the maid, with Emily right behind her.
"Well hello!" Emily greeted.
"Hi grandma." Rory and Danny chorused giving her a sweet smile.
"Hello Emily." Christopher said with a smile.
"Mother." Lorelai stated.
"Come in, come in," she said ushering them inside, "I realized that I hadn't seen my grandchildren in a while, and what better time to see them than a social gathering that I was hosting?"
"Oh yay, now I get to nibble on finger food and make small talk with snobby socialites. It's like a dream come true." Lorelai muttered under her breath, but Christopher, Rory and Danny managed to hear her and shot her a warning look as they entered the living room which was already filled with people.
"Daniel, Rory. Why don't you two run along. We'll catch up later. Lorelai, Christopher, come with me, there's someone I'd like you to meet..." Emily said dragging the two adults away while Lorelai shot one last 'help me' look at her kids, who lovingly gave her a smirk, before disappearing into the crowd.
"Great, what are we suppose to do now? Mingle?" Rory said.
"Correction- what are you suppose to do now. Amber's suppose to be here and we're gunna have some alone time." Danny said.
"Hey! She was my best friend first!"
"Yea, well, tough. She's my girlfriend now."
"Hey guys!" Amber said walking up to them, "Omigosh, I was so bored. My parents decided to come early so I've been trailing behind them like a lost puppy."
"Well I'm here now, what'd ya say we go to the garden." Danny said dragging Amber away.
"Wait- what about Rory?" Amber said, stopping.
"Yea, what about me?" Rory said.
"You can... mingle." Danny said before pulling Amber away, who shot an apologetic look over her shoulder and saying, "I think Tristan's suppose to be here, why don't you go look for him?"
------
"You think she's gunna be ok?" Amber asked Danny when they reached the garden, "Tristan said he was going to be here tonight but you never know with him."
"He'll be here, and if not, too bad for her." Danny said pulling Amber close, "Besides, now it gives us some more time for this." And he playfully nibbled on her ear.
Amber giggled, "But seriously, she seemed pretty upset when we left her there. But then again, she's suppose to be so that Tristan can cheer her up... What do you think?"
"I really don't want to be thinking about my sister right now..." he said, tracing a line of kisses down her neck.
"Oh. Right."
'Great best friend and brother I have there.' Rory thought, 'But then again, they do deserve some alone time. What the heck am I talking about? They get plenty of that on their dates. They just abandoned me. Wait- did Amber say that Tristan would be here? Hmmm, maybe I'll go look for him... Speak of the devil, there he is.'
Tristan made his way through the crowd when he spotted Rory.
"Hey Mary."
Rory was about to respond but decided to ignore him.
"Mary?" Tristan repeated.
"Hello? Anybody home?" he said, waving his hand in front of her face, confused by her behavior.
"Mary!"
"Rory? Are you mad at me or something?"
"What? Oh, hi! There you are, Tristan!" Rory said, smiling at him.
"Huh? I've been calling out your name trying to get your attention for while." he said, now completly confused.
"Really? 'Cause all I heard was someone calling out the name 'Mary'." She said innocently.
"Ha, ha, ha." He said sarcastically.
"Are you as bored as I am?"
"More."
"Wanna go to the garden for some fresh air? Hartford socialites aren't my favorite people to be around."
"Ahhhh, I don't know, Danny and Amber are out there right now."
"So?'"
Rory raised her eyebrows at him.
"Ooooh, right. But that garden is huge, I think we'll manage to avoid them." He said.
Rory was about to refuse because the thought of coming across her brother and best friend making out wasn't exactly on the top of her favorite things to witness list, when she saw someone making their way towards her, "Oh no, my grandma's coming this way, lets go." And she dragged him outside.
The two entered the beautifully lit garden and headed towards the fountain.
"Why didn't you want to see your grandma?" Tristan asked as they sat on the ledge of the fountain.
"Don't get me wrong, I love my grandparents and everything, but being introduced to countless Hartford socialites isn't really that enjoyable."
"Yea, I know what you mean. I've been to so many of these things its not even funny, all I gotta do is smile, exchange simple pleasantries, and move onto the next snobby couple. Repeat until your face hurts from smiling, and then leave."
"Sounds like fun, it's such a shame my parents don't like these social events. Oh how I would have enjoyed having a fake smile plastered on my face while listening to Hartford's latest scandals."
"Yea, well that's what you get for being a Dugrey."
"If it weren't for my mom, I'd probably have to be like you too."
"Be thankful."
"Oh believe me, I am."
"So I guess your brother and Amber deserted you."
"I don't have a brother and who's Amber?"
"Come on, you can't be that mad at them."
"Danny told me to 'mingle' and then left to go make-out!"
"And Amber just went along with him?"
"Well it does usually take two people to kiss, so, yes."
"Doesn't sound like them to do something like that..." Tristan said.
"What? Kiss?"
Tristan snorted, "No, I mean ditch you."
"Yea, I know. They usually stay with me, even though I end up being the third wheel anyway. I mean, it was different when Nick and I were toge-" Rory stopped at the thought of her ex-boyfriend. It happened over a year ago, she was over him, but it didn't mean that it still didn't hurt. It was their one year anniversary, they were going to go out for dinner that night but she wanted to give him a surprise, so she let herself in with the key under the doormat and went up to his room, only to find him in bed with another girl. And that was that. She cried for hours before she realized that jerk didn't deserve her tears, and she wasn't going to let him get to her, not then, not now, not ever.
Tristan was too busy pondering about Danny and Amber's behavior to notice Rory's pause, then realization hit him, 'They did that on purpose, they knew that I was going to be here so they left us alone, I am so going to kill them later for this- wait, this is a good thing, now this actually gives us some time to get to know each other. Note to self: Thank Danny and Amber. But I'm not suppose to know they did this intentionally. Whatever, I'm just going to pretend I didn't know. They might even be spying on us right now, you never know with Amber...'
Both were lost in thought before they realized the silence and resumed comfortable conversation.
------
"He is so on to us." Amber whispered to Danny as they hid behind a bush.
"Can we please stop spying," Danny whispered back, "before he catches us then?"
"We are not spying."
"Right, we aren't. You are."
"Oh shut up. They look so cute together." She said as she watched Rory and Tristan laugh at something.
"She does look pretty happy."
"I know..."
"Whatever, let's go." Danny said pulling her away.
"But I wanna see..." Amber whined.
"Stop snooping."
"I am not snooping."
Danny raised his eyebrows.
"Yes you are. Now let's go."
"Fine, fine, fine. No, wait, stop. My skirt's stuck, let me just..."
------
"Did you hear something?" Rory asked.
'So they are spying...' "Nope, didn't hear a thing." Tristan lied.
"Huh, I could've sworn I heard some voices..." she said looking around.
'Yea, so did I, Danny and Amber's voices.' "Well maybe it's just some people from the party."
"Yea, probably."
Then came Amber's voice, louder though, "I can't! It's stuck."
"Here-" came Danny's voice.
"No! You're gunna rip it!"
"Well how else are you-"
"Stop it! It's one of my favori- OW!"
"Shhhhhh! Keep your voice down. I just gotta pull thi-"
"Don't rip it! This cost me a fortu- Stop that!"
"Well if you would just keep sti-"
"Ahhh!"
And through the bush, Danny and Amber came tumbling out with a deer caught in the headlights look.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Rory asked them.
"Spying." Tristan said giving them a pointed look.
"Spying? What- why?"
"We weren't spying." Amber said with an obvious guilty expression.
"Then what exactly were you doing?"
"Aaahh, well, we, ummmmm..." Amber stammered.
"We, we, aaahhh, we were just, making out behind the bush?" Danny offered.
Amber smacked him on the arm.
Rory gave them a questioning frown while Tristan tried to hide his smirk from their failed attempts at getting him and Rory alone. Well it wasn't a complete failure, they just forgot the part where they were actually suppose to be alone, but curiosity usually got the best of people.
"Anyways, we have to go do that... thing." Danny said getting up off the ground and holding out his hand for Amber.
"What thing?" Amber asked him, sometimes she could be so stupid.
"Yea Danny, what thing?" Tristan echoed.
"You know that thing I was telling you about?" Danny said as he pulled Amber to her feet.
"No."
Tristan was trying so hard to stifle his chuckle and Rory was just confused.
"The thing that we have to do inside."
Amber thought about it for a moment before she caught on, "Ooooooooh, that thing. Yea, we really gotta go. See ya in a little bit guys." and with that they walked back to the house.
Rory stared after their retreating figures before saying, "Huh. Is it just me or were they acting really weird?"
"Yea, a bit."
"But then again, they're always weird."
"Nuh uh Mary, I think you're confusing yourself with them."
"Are you inquirering that I'm odd?"
"You betcha."
"Why thank you."
"Ummm... you're welcome?"
"Well I take it as a compliment because I'm glad that I'm different."
"You are one of a kind."
When she smiled at him, he couldn't help but hope.
The four teenagers at their table and picked at their food.
"What is it?" Rory asked when she poked at a jiggly piece of… whatever it was.
"I have no clue." Tristan replied.
"It's all… icky." Amber said.
"Something tells me we're going to be ordering take-out later." Danny said.
"Remind me how we ended up here?" Rory asked.
"When grandma asked if we could come, Mom's excuse was that we were going to be busy entertaining blue sheep." Danny replied.
"Right. She was never very good at making up lies."
"Yea, remember the time when we were four and she told dad that we had decided to run away and join the circus after she lost us at the mall?"
Rory laughed, "Yea, the security guard gave me a lollypop… mmmmm… I could really go for a lollypop right now, this food is really making me nauseous."
"Tell me about it." Tristan said.
Then Lorelai came running over to their table and said, "Ohmygoodness Rory! Are you ok? You look terrible! Is it the food?!" she asked frantically giving the teenagers a very obvious wink.
Catching on, the four teenagers leaned over in their chairs, clutched their stomachs and started groaning.
"Ooooooh, I don't feel so good mom." Danny said.
"Neither do I." Rory said.
"Oh dear, I think we should take you two home." Lorelai said loud enough for her mother and some onlookers to hear, then seeing the desperate looks on the other two teenagers, she added, "Amber and Tristan! You two don't look very good either! It must be the food! I knew teenagers were allergic to adult food! We can take you two home if it's ok with your parents!"
"Oh Lorelai, would you be so kind?" Mrs. Dugrey said coming up to them, followed closely by Amber's mother, Mrs. Cole.
"Yes, that would be so nice of you." Mrs. Cole said.
"Oh, it's no trouble." Lorelai said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "Well I guess we should be going now, come on kids."
Christopher followed them out, rolling his eyes at his wife's tactics to getting out of dinner, while others looked on with concern, oblivious to the fact that it was all an act.
"Teenagers allergic to adult food?" Rory whispered to her mother.
"Shut up." Lorelai hissed back.
When the four teenagers and two adults arrived at the Hayden mansion, they ordered take-out and ate like there was no tomorrow.