Six days went by
Trying to forget her face
It was you and I
We were too young for these games
And all the pictures that I kept
And all the things I should have said....
-Sugarcult
It was uncomfortable in Emily and Richard Gilmore's dinning room on Saturday night. Rory, Vicky, and Lorelai were on one side, across from Devin, and to Rory's dismay...Tristan. Her grandparents, mother, and sister were carrying on conversation as normal, oblivious to the other three who were strangely silent. Vicky just carried on talking, "-and school starts back on Monday. I know you wanted me to run for class office, but I think Paris Gellar will run for class president, and I can't run with her. I'd go insane."
"Victoria, you don't always like the people you're associated with, but you have to realize that liking someone does not drive you in life. Your ability to cope does." Richard told her.
She looked down, smiling gently, "Yes grandpa, I know." Lorelai looked at her father, her jaw dropped in disbelief as she shook her head at him.
Emily, sensing dangerous waters, changed the subject, "So, Rory, Devin, how are you liking Connecticut?"
"It's..." Devin trailed off, and Rory could tell he was thinking about one thing- Erin. "...it's fine." he said quietly.
"Is something wrong?" their grandmother asked.
He looked up at her, "No, Grandma."
She obviously didn't believe him, but she didn't push it, "What about you, Rory?"
She cleared her throat, not expecting the wrath of hell to turn on her, although Emily was being surprisingly laid back tonight, "It's-" she breathed in deeply, closing her eyes as Tristan looked up at her, "-great, grandma." she said dully.
"You don't sound like you really think that." her grandfather challenged.
She looked up, "It's just a big change, that's all."
"Yes. It's quite different from Boston." Emily moved her gaze to Vicky's boyfriend, "Tristan,
doesn't your aunt live in Boston?"
Rory bit her lip, not moving her head as her eyes darted towards him, and Tristan looked up at Emily, "Yes ma'am."
"Didn't you live with her before you moved here?" she asked, and Rory saw Devin's lip twitch,
trying to hold back laughter.
But her brother had to hold back a grunt of pain as Tristan kicked him in the shin, but she was the only one who noticed, "Yes, I did."
"Did you know Rory and Devin?" she asked.
Devin snorted into the glass he'd been drinking out of, almost spilling the water down the front of his shirt, and Tristan looked between them, not meeting Rory's eye, "They look familiar."
"Didn't you three go to the same school?" Vicky asked.
Rory answered her, "Whitland's huge. There are a lot of people there that we didn't know."
"Oh." Vicky smiled at Tristan, but he had trouble returning it.
"You two are surprisingly mellow." Lorelai said to Rory and Devin.
"Tired." the said in unison.
She nodded, not believing them for a second, "Ah."
Richard stood up, and seeing as no one had touched their food in five minutes, he announced,
"Vitoria, why don't you go show Rory and Devin your grandmother's rose gardens? They've never seen them."
She nodded standing up, "Sure." she jerked her head towards the back door, "They're out this way."
The other three stood slowly, Rory and Devin glancing at each other before following her out. Rory took a deep breath, steadying her voice, "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll catch up you guys."
Vicky shook her head, "We can wait."
"No, go on."
"Okay..." she said slowly, "The gardens are just out this door and to the right. Just follow the path"
Rory nodded, turning down the hall to go to the bathroom.
Tristan and Devin were a few feet behind Vicky when he whispered, "Stay behind. Talk to her or something. Smooth it out, I'll keep Vicky occupied for a few minutes."
"Devin-"
He cut him off, "No. Just...make it not weird, okay?"
Tristan shrugged before nodding, "I can try."
"Good." he looked up at his sister and muttered, "Start tying your shoe."
"But it's already tied."
"Then untie it and retie it, you idiot. Stop stalling. You two have to talk."
Tristan rolled his eyes, but bent down to his shoe, and Devin sped up, slinging his arm across his twin's shoulders, "So, Vicky....how's it goin'?"he asked, leading her far away from the spot where her boyfriend had stopped.
Tristan stood, leaning against the white wooden arch decorating the pathway through the rose garden. What the hell was he supposed to say to her? I'm sorry? Yeah right. She'd probably just walk by and ignore him. God knows that's what she'd been doing all week. He was surprised to see her coming around the corner, her black dress swishing around her knees as she moved slowly through the dark, looking at all the flowers. As if she felt him there, her gaze lifted until her deep blue eyes were on him. She stopped, looking as if she'd expected him to be there. Coming up even with him, she leaned on the beam across from him, her eyes clearly saying that she was waiting for him to say something.
He looked up at the stars, "Devin made me stay back to make peace."
She rolled her eyes, "Oh, thanks. It's so nice to know that Devin made you talk to me."
He looked at her, "You know that's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean, Tristan?"
He shrugged, "Just that, I know you hate me now-"
She cut him off, "I don't hate you."
He stopped, surprised, "You don't?"
"No." she looked over at him, "I'm pissed off at you, but I don't hate you." she looked away.
Tristan released a long breath he hadn't been aware that he was holding, "Okay..."
"What?"
He shook his head, "Nothing. It's just a relief." she nodded silently, looking around at the roses, the stars, the ground, the moon, her hands, anything but him. He bit his lip, looking down, "Look Rory,
about what I said-"
Her head snapped up, "Don't worry about it."
"-but you know I didn't mean it."
She sighed, "It doesn't matter, I mean, I'm only fourteen, it's not a big deal. We weren't going to get married or anything."
He nodded, "Yeah, I know. I just didn't want you to think that I meant it."
She looked over at him, "Okay."
He waited for a moment, "That's it?"
"What?" she asked, unsure what he meant.
"That's it? No yelling? No screaming? No, 'I hate you Tristan, go to hell'? Just 'Okay'?"
She nodded, "That's it. I'm okay. You're with Vicky now. It's not a big deal."
"So then we're okay?" he asked.
She nodded, smiling gently, "We're okay."
Tristan nodded, not sure if she was lying or not, "Okay."
Rory sighed, pushing herself off of the arch, "Where are Vicky and Devin?"
"Up there somewhere."
"Shouldn't we go find them?"
"Yeah, we might need to intercept them before Devin goes completely insane." he pushed himself off of the arch as well, "Let's go." he held his arm out, elbow bent.
Rory smiled lightly, locking her arm through his, "Alright." And they made their way through the rose garden, talking like they were friends. And you know you're a good actor when you can almost make yourself believe a lie.
TUESDAY
Rory sighed, frustrated as she rubbed her forehead. She was sitting in a sweltering room, staring down at her test. It wasn't hard, she was just having trouble concentrating. She glanced over at her brother across the room and saw that he was in the same predicament, except that the heat was obviously making him sleepy, and his eyelids kept drooping. He looked up and their eyes met. His eyebrows went up and he sighed, looking back down at his test.
She looked around, studying the rest of the people. There were thirteen other people in the room. She didn't bother remembering what they looked like, because she knew that she'd probably never talk to them. The teacher at the front of the room had told them that about three of them would most likely fail. She guessed that it would be one boy at the front who looked like he wanted to rip out his hair, a girl at the back who looked as if she was about to cry, and another guy beside her who kept narrowing his eyes and skipping questions, shaking his head. Not even everyone that had wanted to take the test had gotten to. You had to be in the top ten percentile of your old school for them to even consider you. Luck for her, she'd been in the top five percentile, despite rarely studying.
She looked back down, darkening the circle marked 'C' and tuned the page, it was the last one, and she was glad about it. She'd been in this damn room for two hours; sweat was dripping down her back and collecting on her hairline, making the wisps of hair that had come out of her ponytail stick to her forehead. She finished the test, actually taking her time because she didn't want to fail this one. Her head snapped up as Devin stood, taking his paper to the front. He muttered something to the teacher and she nodded. He turned and started making his way to the door, holding his balled fist out, and Rory hit it with her own. That meant he'd done well. She answered her last question and took her own paper to the front, laying it on the woman's desk.
"Can I get some water?" the teacher nodded and she had to stop herself from running to the door. She was suffocating in that freaking heat, but the blast of wind that hit her as she opened the door was unwelcome. It felt icy compared to the sweltering heat of the classroom. She saw Devin leaning against the wall and immediately went over to him.
He looked up, "Well?"
She shrugged, "I'm a genius, I didn't skip a grade for nothing." He rolled his eyes, putting a hand in front of the elastic band in her hair and dragged his fingers through it to the front, messing up the ponytail and getting her hair in a terrible mess. She punched him in the chest, and he laughed, watching her take her hair down and run her fingers through the brown locks, a flash of purple coming out as she flipped it. Devin laughed at her as a huge knot appeared and she hit him again, "I hate you. Die." she dead panned, throwing him a nasty glare.
He wriggled his fingers in her face, annoying her, "Now, now, none of that. Hostility is not for the halls of Chilton."
Rory rolled her eyes, "Bite me." he grabbed her hand and lowered his head, but she snatched it away, hitting him in the head, "No. Biting is wrong. Didn't you ever learn that?"
He shook his head, "Nope."
Rory rolled her eyes, "Well, it's not okay where I'm concerned, maybe with Erin..." she trailed off, biting her lip as her brother's face fell. "Damnit." she cursed herself, "Sorry Devin-"
He shook his head, "No. Don't worry about it. That's in the past. It's over with Erin."
Rory smiled sympathetically, "I'm sorry." He shrugged, not wanting to talk about it, so she changed the subject. "Isn't this weird?" she asked.
He looked over at her, "What?"
"This. Changing schools. I mean, I did it last year, but it's different to have someone change with you."
Devin smirked, "Rory, Rory, Rory. Look at us. We're Chilton kids now."
She rolled her eyes, "Goodie."
MONDAY
Rory sighed, looking up at Devin from her place on the couch, "I'm bored."
"Join the club. Our letter of acceptance are supposed to come today."
"Unless of course we fail the test."
He snorted, "Yeah right."
She rolled her eyes, ignoring him as she flipped through the channels. Their mom was at work, Vicky was at school, and they couldn't drive yet, so they were stuck in the house. The doorbell suddenly rang, surprising both of them, but they got over their shock quickly and sprang up, racing to the door. Devin, who had longer legs that Rory, reached the door with his sister on his heels. A man in a brown uniform stood in front of them, pushing two large brown boxes on a wheeled carrier. He asked where it should go, and they directed him to the living room. He wheeled them in, sliding the carrier out from under the boxes and he showed them where he needed one of them to sign. Rory took the man's pin and signed Lorelai Leigh Hayden as he handed her two enveloped with the Chilton seal on them. Rory closed the door and followed Devin into the living room, tossing him the letter addressed to him.
They opened the letters and it only took a second for each to confirm that they'd gotten in. After that was through with, Rory turned to the brown box with her name on it, and took the key from the front door, slicing the tape, then did the same for the second. She lifted the flaps to her box and pulled out a blue, navy, and white plaid skirt. She grimaced at her brother as he revealed a pair of khakis. Slowly, they retracted several school uniforms each, and at the bottom lay their text books. So that was why the boxes were so heavy. There was a receipt for everything. The uniforms, of course, were insanely expensive, not to mention the five books that were $80 to $90 each.
"Damn." Devin said, looking over the list. He whistled under his breath, looking at the uniforms. Their mother must have given their sizes. He picked up Rory's letter and another piece of paper fell out. He read it, "Hey Rory."
She was still staring at her uniform, "Hmm?"
"This says you have to take the purple out of your hair before you come to school, or they'll call mom and have her take you home until it's a natural color." she just grunted distractedly, and he glanced over at her to see that she wasn't listening to him, but was looking at her uniform with her head tilted and her hand on her chin.
"These need a little alteration. Good thing mom's a seamstress." Devin just smiled, rolling his eyes.
THAT NIGHT
Rory sighed, leaning against the side of the cart she was sitting in as Devin and Vicky dropped thing in it. They'd had their driver take them to a Target ten minutes away from home while Lorelai was still at work, and they were just bored with three credit cards. The twins were throwing random things into the cart. Devin dropped in CDs, a pack of Sharpies, drinks, pens, and anything else that Rory was sure he would never use, while Vicky threw in makeup, gum, jewelry, whiteout, and a magazine. Every few minutes Rory would point to something and one of the other two would grab it, dropping it into the cart. By the time they were halfway through the store, she was crowded by all the junk they'd accumulated. She was currently looking at a baby names book that Vicky had thrown in a few minutes earlier, and had figured out that Lorelai meant 'siren', Victoria meant 'winner', and Devin meant 'poetic'. Although she didn't know what she'd ever do with that information.
Vicky turned down the hair care isle and Devin pushed Rory in after her. Her sister was looking at scrunching spray when she saw that Devin had left her right in front of the hair dye. She grabbed two boxes of a shade of dark brown and dropped one in the cart. "Hey Vicky." she called, tossing the second box of color to her sister, who caught it instinctively. The blonde looked up at her uncertainly, and Rory smiled, "Ever dye somebody's hair before?"