Rory sat in the plane, Tray beside her, next to the window, and Erin on her right. Devin was on the other side of Erin, and Garrett, Katie, Josh, Kaleb, and Natalie were in the aisle row beside them. She laced her fingers so that one was under the rest, and it looked normal until you counted them, and only nine were showing. She turned to Tray, "Count my fingers."

He laughed, "What?"

She grinned, "Count my fingers."

Tray looked at her hands, "Nine..." he flipped her hands over, "Ten."

Rory's eyes narrowed, "I don't know what you're talking about."

He grinned, "You're such a loser."

"No, just bored." Rory said, leaning back in her chair. He laughed, rolling his eyes. Rory grabbed his CD case, flipping through it. She skimmed the titles absentmindedly until she saw a black disk with green lines snaking over it, "Edgewater? Why does that sound so familiar?" she asked.

Tray shrugged, "Listen to it. You'll like it, trust me." She slipped it out and popped it into her player.

Yeah you're shaking now Falling out and you can't take it Just breathe in Breathe out Let it flow

She relaxed into her seat, closing her eyes.
-------

Rory felt someone poke her in the side, but she ignored them. Again, she felt it, but just scooted farther away. A few seconds passed and no one touched her, so she thought that Tray had decided to leave her to sleep, but realized that she was wrong when something wet entered her ear and was out just as quickly as it entered.

Rory screamed, sitting up in surprise to see her smirking friend, "TRAY!" she yelled, hitting him in the head.

He only laughed harder as she wiped her ear viciously, "What?" he faked innocence, wiping his finger on the seat, "You wouldn't get up."

"If you EVER do that again, I will KILL you!" she growled.

Tray grinned, "Noted. We landed almost five minutes ago."

She sighed, rolling her eyes, and grabbed her bag, following Erin into the aisle. She knew he was still smiling behind her, so she turned, throwing her bag to him. He caught it on instinct. He looked up at her, confused, "What's this?"

"My bag. Your punishment is to carry it." Rory turned back around and began walking.

"And if I don't?"

She turned, "Care to expand on that comment?"

"What if I just leave it here?" he asked, laying it on the seat.

Her eyes narrowed, "You wouldn't. All of my favorite CD's are in there, and you don't have a death wish."

Tray sighed, "I just don't know." he looked around, "I'm thinking that for this, I deserve a reward." his gaze fell back on her.

She smirked, "But Tray, you do get a reward."

"Do I?"

"Yes. I'm not going to kill you for waking me up, now come on bag boy, we're gonna get lost from everybody else." and she turned following the path that everyone else had gone, they were the last two on the plane. Tray just shook his head, following her.
----

"And there it is." Tray said as the limo, it was the only car that could hold all nine of them, pulled into a huge driveway.

"Two weeks with minimal supervision." Katie said, looking around at her friends.

Garrett grinned, "Huge pool."

"Private beach." Kaleb added.

"Jet skis." Devin smirked.

Natalie grinned, "With no rules."

"And anything we want five minutes away." Josh said, looking at the others.

"Hell yeah." Erin said, staring at the huge estate.

The driver came around and opened the door, all of them pilling out. Rory was the last out, and she grinned, jumping onto Garrett's back, surprising him so that he almost fell over, but caught himself. She laughed, and began singing, "Oo-ee-oo, I look just like Buddy Holly-"

Erin began jumping around and joined her, "Oh, oh, and you're Mary Tyler Moore!"

Natalie and Katie grinned at each other, coming in at the same time, and all four girls sang, "I don't care what they say about us anyway, I don't care 'bout that! I don't care 'bout that! Bang, Bang, knock on the door, Another big bang and you're down on the floor. Oh, no, what do we do? Don't look now but I lost my shoe. I can't run and I can't kick. What's the matter babe, are you feeling sick? What's a matter, what's a matter, what's a matter you? What's the matter babe are you feeling blue?!"

Rory busted out laughing, jumping down from Garrett's back. "Uh, Ror? What's so funny?" Devin asked.

She shook her head, "I have no idea."

---------------

Rory jumped onto one of the two queen sized beds in the room she was sharing with Erin. "Can you believe this house?" she asked.

Erin shook her head, "Can you believe this entire place?"

"No." Rory said, looking around the room. There was a knock on the door, but before either girl could get it, Devin and Kaleb entered. Their room was right next door.

"This place is awesome." Kaleb said, grinning.

"Hell yeah it is." Devin jumped onto Erin's bed, laying down. She sat beside him, and Kaleb sat beside Rory.

A few moments later, Natalie, Tray, and Katie came in. "So, what do you think?" Tray asked.

"Why didn't you ever tell us your grandparents had a place like this?!" Erin asked, grinning.

Tray laughed, "They just moved in a couple months ago."

"Oh, you're forgiven then."

"Thanks."

"No problem. So, what were we planning on doing today?" she asked.

"Sleeping." Garrett said from the door as he entered the room.

"Swimming." Josh said, following Garrett in.

Tray grinned, "And for those of us who are single-"

Rory cut him off, "Looking for hot guys."

"Well, I was gonna say girls, but sure, why not?"

Rory laughed, "Aww, I always knew you were that way."

-----------------------

ONE WEEK LATER

"So, this is what heaven is like?" Erin asked Rory, looking over at her best friend as she used her hand to shade her eyes from the blaring sun.

Rory smiled, not opening her eyes, "If only Kurt Cobain were here."

Erin laughed, "I still can't believe you think he's so hot."

Rory smiled, turning to face her and squinting, "Yeah, well Matt Davies?"

"Hey, Funeral For A Friend is a kick ass band. You love them too, and don't deny it. Besides, Matt Davies is extremely hot."

"I like the band, but the guy is ugly. But come on, Nirvana is one of the most amazing bands ever. They practically define the grunge era."

"So he is kind of hot, but I'm not a big fan of guys dying their hair pink."

Rory just laughed, "I think it was hilarious."

"Chris Carrabba?" Erin asked her.

"Hello! Dashboard Confessional. Hot emo guy singing about heart break with huge eyes, how can you not think he's hot?"

"He's a whimp!"

"Says the girl who loves Andrew McMahon."

"Hey!"

"Oh please, Something Corporate is so emo."

"They are not."

"Sure. You just can't admit an emo singer could be hot."

Erin shrugged, "I only speak the truth."

Someone blocked out the sun and the two girls looked up to see Devin and Garrett, "Come swimming."

Erin rolled over on her back, "Go away."

"You know, tanning causes skin cancer." Garrett told them.

Rory looked up at them, "That's great, but you know what will cause a much quicker death?"

"What?"

"If you two don't go away." Devin looked at the other boy, rolling his eyes as Rory spoke again, her eyes now closed, "Now get out of the way, you're blocking my sun."

"Do they really think we're going to leave them alone?" Devin asked Garrett, and he shrugged, "Well I think they know us too well to seriously think that."

"I HOPE they know us well enough to know we won't go away." Garrett added.

Devin smirked, looking over at Tray and Kaleb, Josh was busy with his girlfriend. He motioned for the other two boys to come over and they did, Tray and Garrett grabbing the head and foot of Rory's long pool chair while Kaleb and Devin got Erin's. They lifted them up and they two girls jumped, both letting out a small scream as the four boys threw them, along with the chairs, into the pool.

They came up gasping for air, coughing and sputtering. "Die!" Rory yelled, splashing them with water once she'd caught her breath. All four of them just laughed, but it stopped as they were all pushed forward, caught off guard, and sent tumbling into the pool. Katie and Natalie cackled gleefully as they jumped up and down doing a happy dance because they were able to push all four boys in the pool, but their laughter was cut short as Josh ran up behind them and grabbed both of them by the waist, jumping into the pool and taking them with him.

Rory watched, smirking. She turned to Erin, who had the same expression, "Well, I'd say we equal complete destruction wherever we go."

"Hell yeah."

---------------

FIVE DAYS LATER

Rory and Erin's door was sitting open as they finished the last touches of their makeup. There was a sound of knuckles rapping on the doorframe and they looked up to see Devin, "Ready?" he asked. They nodded, walking out of the room. They got down to the car port and Tray handed them the tickets that his grandparents had ordered a few weeks ago. "Don't loose those." he said, directing it mostly to Rory and Erin.

"Hey. I don't loose stuff."

He rolled his eyes, "Right."

They all piled into two cars. Rory, Devin, Erin, Garrett, and Tray were in one car, while Katie, Natalie, Josh, and Kaleb got in the other. Rory looked down at her ticket, it read VICTORY RECORDS / NOTHING LIKE HOME TOUR. And in smaller letters across the bottom it read 'Taking Back Sunday/Hawthorne Heights/Bayside'. She crossed her legs, looking around at the other four people in the car. She didn't really pay attention to what the guys were wearing, but Erin had on a short faded jean skirt and a black shirt with a silver shooting star across the right side over her stomach. And Rory herself was wearing light blue jeans and a dark green shirt that said 'Living well is the best revenge'.

After they showed their tickets, they made their way to the front as close as they could get. Rory was talking to Natalie and not paying attention to where she was going when she bumped into someone and almost fell over, but he caught her around the waist, steadying her. She turned, "Thanks."

He smiled slightly, "No problem." he was probably about sixteen and had shaggy dyed-black hair. He was wearing jeans and a simple black shirt. They just stood there for a moment and she could tell by the look on his face he was waiting for her to say something.

She shook her head, "Oh, I'm Rory."

He nodded, "Travis."

"Hi Travis."

"Hi Rory."

She felt stupid, but didn't really have anything to say, so just asked, "You live around here?"

"Yeah. You?"

"No, I live in Boston."

"No accent?"

She smiled, "I just moved there a few months ago, I used to live in Maine."

"Ah. You're a long way from home."

"Yeah. A bunch of my friends came down for a few weeks."

He nodded, "Cool."

"Yeah."

They stood in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments until he said out of nowhere, "Midtown?"

She looked up, "What?"

"Your shirt, 'Living Well Is The Best Revenge', it's the name of a Midtown CD."

She smiled, "Yeah."

The lights started to dim and she looked around, it seemed like her friends had left her, but Devin showed up out of no where, "Come on, Ror." he motioned toward the right where she could see all three of the girls watching her.

She turned to Travis, "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye."

She made her way after her brother and Erin smirked, "What was that?"

"I fell."

"Yeah, sure."

"I did."

"He was hot."

Rory nodded, "Yes he was. His name's Travis."

"Too bad we're leaving the day after tomorrow."

Rory looked back to see him talking to about four other people, "Yeah, too bad." she said quietly as Bayside took the stage.

-------

TWO DAYS LATER

Rory closed rested her head on the window as the plane slid higher into the air and Florida disappeared under the clouds. Devin saw the sad look in her eyes and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "You alright?" he asked.

She sighed heavily, "I'll tell you after I figure it out."

He smiled weakly, "I know, I don't want to move either."

Rory looked over at him, "You might have to stop me from ripping off Vicky's head a couple times."

"Same for you."

"Yeah right, like I'd stop you."

Rory woke up a few hours later, looking around as the plane landed. She nudged Devin, but he didn't move. "Devin." she said quietly, but he just moved slightly before becoming still again. She rolled her eyes, pushing him so that his head fell and hit the armrest.

He snapped awake, "Shit, Rory."

"You wouldn't wake up. What do you suggest I should've done?"

"Something other than give me a knot on the forehead."

She grimaced when she saw the bright red mark, "Sorry, I didn't know you would die." she stood up as the plane landed, and he followed suit.

THREE WEEKS LATER

Rory pulled her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. She looked up at Erin, Natalie, and Katie from her place on the closed toilet lid, a towel draped over her shoulders and back as she waited half an hour for the purple dye to set in her hair. Natalie leaned against the wall, "I still can't believe you're really leaving." she said, looking through the open door into Rory's room where all of her stuff was in boxes.

"I know. You just got here a couple months ago." Katie said sadly.

Erin didn't say anything, just looked away and Rory could see tears glistening in her eyes. She felt bad for Erin. She was loosing her best friend and boyfriend at the same time.

"You have to come back and visit."

Rory looked up at Katie, "We will."

Natalie bit her lip, "This sucks."

"Yeah." Rory closed her eyes, resting her forehead on her knees. "Tristan lives there." she said quietly.

All three girls' eyes widened and Erin spoke for the first time, "What?"

She looked up at them, "Tristan lives in Hartford. He goes to Vicky's school. He goes to my school.

Katie shook her head, "Holy shit." she whispered.

Rory nodded, "Yeah. Holy shit."

----------

NEXT MORNING

Rory carried her last box to the car, most of their stuff had gotten to Lorelai's the previous night. She climbed into the back seat of her dad's car, Devin climbed into the front seat. He looked back at her and tried to smile, but failed. Chris opened the front door and started walking towards the car. Rory leaned forward, "What happened with you and Erin last night?" she asked.

Devin shrugged, "I'm moving away."

Rory bit her lip, "I'm sorry."

He shook his head, trying to sound like it didn't matter, but Rory knew it did. Erin had been his first love. "Whatever, it doesn't matter."

Rory nodded, leaving it alone, "Okay."

Devin nodded, his voice cracking, "I think I really loved her, you know?"

Rory nodded, "Yeah, I know."

Chris opened his door, "You guys ready?" he asked.

"Yeah." Rory said quietly, sliding back into her seat and snapping headphones onto her ears, "We're ready."

--------

THAT NIGHT

Rory walked across the hall in the Hartford mansion to Devin's room. She rapped on his door and opened it, grinning to herself to see Vicky sitting on his bed and talking while he played his acoustic guitar, obviously trying to block her out. He looked up and smiled at her gratefully. Vicky looked up as well, "Hey Rory." she said happily, standing up and scooting over so her sister could sit on the bed as well. Rory forced herself to smile and sat beside her. She wasn't as high pitched and annoying as she used to be, but Rory still wanted to shove a metal beam through her perfect while toothed smile sometimes. "I like your hair." she said, referring to Rory's purple streaks. "Your too, Devin." she said about his blue tips.

Devin obviously was ignoring his twin, so Rory replied, "Thanks." and then smiled sweetly, "We could do yours too."

Vicky's eyes widened, "No thanks."

Rory nodded, "Yeah."

"So, last time I saw you I asked you about a boyfriend, anything changed with that?" she asked.

Rory shook her head, "No. You?"

"Yeah, actually, but my boyfriend is visiting family and won't be back until the week before school starts."

Rory nodded, "Oh. Too bad."

"Yeah. I know, right? Anyway, my friend Summer and I are going to a movie tonight, want to come?"

"No. I'm good."

Vicky nodded and looked at Devin, who shook his head, "No."

His twin sister looked taken aback at how cold he sounded and Rory shook her head, he was going to be in a bad mood for a while after what had happened with Erin. "Okay, well I'm gonna go get ready, so I'll see you two later." she slipped off the bed and walked out of the room.

Rory looked at Devin who sighed and started playing again. "This sucks." she said quietly.

Devin shook his head, "She doesn't even know us. I can't be her best friend."

"You don't have to. I'm not. But we have to at least try."

He looked away, and Rory glanced around his room to see a picture sitting on the floor beside him. He'd obviously been looking at it before Vicky had come in. Rory looked closer and saw that it was a picture of Erin. Her long, dark brown hair with thick blonde highlights was down and she wasn't looking at the camera, instead, her bright green eyes were looking to the right of the person holding the camera and her head was tilted, not smiling or frowning, but just having that amazing, natural beauty that had captivated her brother.

Rory looked up at him and saw that he was looking into space, not paying attention to her, and she closed her eyes moving to sit beside him, and she leaned her head on his shoulder as he played his guitar slowly. That was when Rory realized that she had something special in her brother. They were closer than he was to his own twin. It was a picture perfect moment, too bad their life had more drama as a daytime soap opera.

A/N: Thanks for your reviews, and I won't take you through the entire summer. Next chapter Tristan will come in and they'll start Chilton. Review, and it'll motivate me. Later, darlings.