A/N: Apparently, most of the people who read this want a Trory. I've been thinking and I've figured out how to make it a Trory or a Lit without altering the fantastic storyline I've got planned too much. Now all I have to do is figure out which way it should go. Review and let me know!

There's way less drama in this chapter than in the last. It's pretty much a build-up for the next chapter, so it's not that great.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls or its characters. In this chapter, I do own Diana, Daniel, Hannah, and Josh.

Rory stood helplessly for a moment, thinking.

'If Tristan never came back, this wouldn't have happened! Well, maybe the kiss contributed just a bit, but I wouldn't have kissed him if he hadn't come back! Now Jess is going to hate me. Jess is going to hate me and I didn't do anything. Okay, well I did, but he thinks I did something else that I didn't do, so he shouldn't be mad. Well, he should, but he wouldn't be if Tristan wasn't such a jerk! What about Mom? She was so upset with me. Also Tristan's fault. I hate that guy! I hate him!'

She cut herself short, and turned around, starting to follow Jess. She walked into the gym through that horrible glass door that had just possibly changed her life. Jess was nowhere in sight. Rory couldn't even find Diana or Daniel. Finally, Max's face appeared where Rory had sworn he'd been sitting before.

"Hey, Max."

"Rory!" Max exclaimed, more tense than excited. "I, uh…this is some game."

"Oh, yeah. Definitely. They never had this kind of thing when I went to Chilton."

"Yeah, this was the new headmaster's idea."

"Max--"

"This small talk thing was never really my specialty."

"I understand."

"It's not much easier when I'm not supposed to be talking to you."

"What?"

"Well, I don't know. Lorelai saw what happened, and she was pretty upset. I guess I'm supposed to be on her side."

"This is side thing? I just…okay, I'll deal with this later. Have you seen Jess?"

"Everyone saw Jess."

"Everyone?"

"Particularly the basketball players and the referees."

Rory looked at him blankly.

"He walked through the court while the game was going on. He's really upset, Rory. You have to talk to him."

"Okay. Um, thanks, Max."

Max smiled awkwardly as Rory walked toward the gym's back door that led to the parking lot.

A few bleachers up, Josh sat silently next to Hannah, who wasn't too pleased with him. Even so, Josh couldn't help turning toward Diana and Daniel every few minutes. It wasn't until Diana got up to go to the bathroom, out of Josh's line of vision, forcing him to stand up to stare at her, that Hannah noticed.

"What are you doing?" she yelled.

"I'm watching a stupid basketball game."

"No you're not."

"I'm sorry, I thought the sport with the round orange ball was basketball. I must be mixing it up with hockey."

"You standing with your back turned to the game."

"So?"

"So you're not watching the game, but you are watching something. What are you watching? Who are you watching?"

"Her."

"Who?"

"That girl."

"Oh my God!"

"Jealous, Hannah?"

"You're that freaking stupid? You'd sit there and actually admit to my face and tell me you're staring at another girl, who happens to be someone I despise?"

"No."

"Idiot."

"She's so much prettier than you. More normal, too."

"Fine, Josh. We're over!"

"I think that's the point I was trying to make."

"I'm leaving."

Josh didn't hear her, too busy making his way down from the bleachers into the school. He opened the glass door. "Hey!"

Diana turned around. "Who are you?"

"Josh Deets."

"You're Hannah's boyfriend, aren't you?"

"Nope."

"No, I swear I've seen you with Hannah before. Today, actually. A few minutes ago, even."

"Might want to get your vision checked out. So, where are you going?"

"Bathroom."

"Cool."

"It is?"

"Bathrooms are great places to make out, especially the unisex ones. That's down by the computer lab. Let's go."

"Get away from me!" Diana screamed.

"Calm down."

"Shut up!" She ran through the rest of the hallway, and out of the main entrance into the parking lot.

Suddenly a realization dawned on her. She'd been speaking to Josh in front of the glass door. The same glass door that had doomed Rory was striking again. Daniel was incredibly possessive. He'd surely seen her talking to Josh.

'Daniel gets jealous when I'm talking to Luke at the diner. This is Josh, the same guy he was asking about before. How the heck am I going to explain this?'

Frantically searching for Max's car, Diana ran faster than ever, sure to look behind her shoulder in case Josh was following her. Instead of Josh, she saw Rory.

"Diana? What are you doing out here? Have you seen Jess?" Rory asked, talking even faster than her normal pace.

"No." Diana replied. She was crying now.

"Di? Why are you crying? What happened?" Rory was the only person who called Diana Di. The only person Diana would allow to call her Di.

"The glass door."

"What glass door? The one people were looking through when Tristan kissed me? Di, did you see Tristan kiss me? I swear I didn't kiss him back."

Diana shook her head.
"Then what?'
"Daniel's going to freak out. There was a guy, and he asked me to make out with him, and Daniel doesn't even know that part. Just me talking to another guy is going to freak him out. Wait, did you say Tristan kissed you?"

"No."

"Rory!"

"Yeah."

"Wow, that's way bigger than my thing. People saw it?"

"Mom saw it. Jess saw it. A referee probably saw it and stopped the game while it was happening so everyone could stare. Everyone knows and Jess hates me."

"Jess loves you, Rory. He could never hate you."

"That's the line you hear at the end of a romantic movie or something. I don't think it's going to happen this time."

"But he knows you, and he knows you'd never kiss another guy."

'This is one of those moments in a movie where there's a fiery ball of guilt inside, but the other person doesn't know it exists and it's about blow up, but you can't show it. I can't show it. Diana can't know. No one can know. It's over.'

"Yeah."

A loud noise that sounded like screeching tires filled the Chilton parking lot. Rory and Diana turned around.

"Isn't that your car?"

"Look who's driving."

"Why would he leave without you?"

"Why wouldn't he? He'd even angrier than I thought."

"You can come home with us."

"No. Mom's going to be in that car."

"So?"

"She's not thrilled with me right now."

"Ah."

"I'll figure something out. Now you go figure something out, Di."

"Huh?"

"Daniel."

"Right, right."
"And it'll be fine."

"Right back at you."

They suddenly embraced each other in a hug. It was one of those weird happy endings, except this wasn't over. Far from over. They smiled and walked in opposite directions. Diana headed back to the gym bracing herself for the worst, but Rory wasn't sure where she was headed. She had some thinking to do, but first, she needed a ride home.

Walking through the halls of Chilton, exploring her options, she heard an extremely familiar voice coming from Max's classroom.

"Excuse me?" Lorelai's voice echoed through the school.

"I love Rory" another voice said, also echoing.

"Yeah, I heard you. I just don't believe you! Tristan, you're in charge of this school! I'm not sure if you remember the gossip that went around when someone-Paris-saw Max--Mr. Medina and I kissing."

"Nope."

"Nope what?"

"I don't remember."

Rory rounded the corner and walked into the classroom.

Tristan looked up. "Rory."

"What are you doing in here?" Rory asked angrily.

"I don't know. I'm leaving." Tristan hopped off the desk he'd been sitting on and walked past Rory out of the room, leaving Lorelai and Rory standing opposite each other, with only horrible things to talk about.

Rory spoke first. "Yeah, I'm leaving too."

"Wait" Lorelai said. Rory stopped at the doorway and turned around. "I know you didn't kiss Tristan."

"He told you?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sorry I doubted you Rory."

"Thanks."

"Well, you did kiss him once! That's all it takes."

"All it takes for what?"

"For you to be cheating on Jess!"

"I'm not cheating on Jess!"

"Step back and look at this situation, Hon."

"Oh my God, I'm cheating on Jess!"

"Geez, calm down."

"But I cheated on Jess!"

"I heard. But it's not like cheat cheating. It's um, cheap cheating."

"Mom!"

"I thought that was pretty creative."

"I don't know why I kissed him, though. I really don't. I keep wondering, but I really don't have an answer for that. I don't like him. I never liked Tristan. There may have been about an hour that I could even stand Tristan."

"It's okay!"

"No! It's not! It's really, really not! Something's wrong with me. Something's not right!"

Rory sat down next to Lorelai on one of the students' desks, rested her head on her mother's shoulder, and cried softly.

A/N: I know, I know. It wasn't a very exciting chapter, but I swear, I had to get this out of the way before I could get to the good stuff next chapter. Next chapter I'll see what I can do to tie a connection between Diana's life and Rory's other than Tristan…there will be a LOT of drama, I promise!