"Oh, my brain hurts!" Finn whined. Rory tried again.

"It's really not that hard, Finn. Here. See, differentiability implies continuity, but not the other way around, such as with a hole. In a hole graph, also called a removable discontinuity, it's continuous but not differentiable. Get it?"

"The only thing I get is that I am going to flunk out of Chilton. Why is conneticut so smart?" He buried his head in his arms.

"This isn't conneticut. It's calculus; you must have had that in Australia. Calculus is everywhere. It's like boybands." he gave her a pained look.

"If you're trying to make me feel better, you're doing a bloody bodgy job of it."

"That's it, I need Luke's." Rory closed her book in a small explosion of dust and eraser shavings.

"You need some whats?"

"Luke's is a diner, trust me, you have never had better coffee."

"Ah, ace then! I haven't have a decent smoko since I arrived here. You are my new God!" he went to throw his arms in the air and then stopped.

"Waste of effort, you get the point. Shall we go?"

-

"Hey Rory, how are...things?" Luke asked carefully, not wanting to upset the girl who was like a daughter to him. He was obviously not comfortable playing this role, but the fact that he did anyway spoke volumes to Rory, and she was touched.

"I miss him." she replied simply.

The whole town had recently been even nicer to her than usual. Thanks to Miss Patty and co., news of Tristan had spread like wildfire, and news of his quaranteen even fater than that. Without saying anything, suddenly coffee was free, movies were free, ice cream was free. Kirk kept offering her one of his stress relieving foot massages, though she turned him down. Luke, however, had not only become less gruff around her, he had become more protective. Suddenly no boys were good enough to talk to her.

Dean had also approached her the other day. He had stated in simple terms that although he couldn't be friends with her, he recodnized that Tristan had been important. It had been four months, after all. He told her that he was sorry for her situation, despite his bitterness. Rory had though that was about the sweetest thing she had ever heard.

Luke, however, had gone into a rage, and had practically bodily thrown him off the curb.

Finn stood awkwardly a moment before taking control of the situation.
"Allo there good sir, two fantastically large cups of your coffiest coffee. Oh and, mate's rate if you don't mind." Luke stood a moment, trying to work through the quickly spoken dialect.

"He's asking for a discount, becuase he's a friend." Rory supplemented.

"I--I, I don't know you!" Luke said forcefully, and slammed the coffee pot back on the tray. "Rory, who is this guy?"

"Easy does it then, I'm not a bloody wacker." Finn threw a twenty on the counter. "Coming, love?"

Luke glared at him as they left.

-

Their final destination of choice was the gazeebo. Empty, quiet, good.

"So Lorelailelailelai, tell me what has happened to you to make you spit the dummy?"

She glanced at him in in confusion.

"Why are you so upset?" he clarified. "The whole world is acting as if someone died."

Rory took a deep breath, searching fo rthe right collection of words to convey her thoughts.

"Good God, someone died." Finn looked for a way out of the conversation--tragedy wasn't one of his strong points.

"No, nothing like that. My boyfriend was sent away to military school, in North Carolina. we were pretty serious, you know, said the L word and everything."

Finn made a low whistle. "That bytes, but think of it this way. My God, you are the most well known girl I have ever met. Every student in Chilton was throwing you looks of sympathy."

"No," Rory laughed sadly, "That was him. He was like a King to them, so they knew me by assosiation."

"Sounds like a fine bloke. Have you kept in touch?"

"We write every night. I guess I should get home and start writing soon."

"Then I think I'll get home, I have a great many important things to do."

"Calc?"

"Sparknotes. Amazing invention! I swear to never read another word of Dickens again!" He walked her home, stepped into his eye catching car, and sped off miles above the limit. Taylor would have an apoplectic attack if he saw. Rory opened her ever unlocked door, and stepped into the warm comfort of her

I can't believe how much I told him. He's been here what, ten minutes? Rory shook her head and smiled to herself, glad to have this new, albeit eccentric friend.

Tristan,

How's life on the other side? Any new boyfriends I should be worried about?

Wow, the prison joke is getting pretty old.

Made a new friend, his name is Finn. He's from Australia, but I think that's just a cover. There's no way hes from this planet. Chilton is going crazy. It's like a snake with no head. Every student here bombards me with questions daily, and I am running out of ammunition.

Life isn't the same without you here. Do you get visitors?

I love you

Rory

I think next chapter will be a Tristan chapter.

Hey, I know why people who write these things beg for reviews now.

If you've never written, you have no idea. I'll fill you in:

-

We fic writers are actually just attention starved shells who enjoy using a pen. We crave your approval, and respect your critisism. Honestly, if we were writing only for our own amusement, why would we post it on the internet?

A review is like a drug to us. We find ourself checking the stat page religiously, wondering, has my review count gone up at all? Even by one? How about now?

It is sick, it is twisted, and it cannot be healthy. However, just by leaving a 'yay' or 'nay' in the comment box, you actually improve our day. Not just by a little, either. You fill us with an overpowering sense of euphoria, and we start grinning like a bunch of idiots and rush off to write another chapter.

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I'm not just begging for comments, I'm leaving a freaking "please feed the animal" sign.

:-)