Talk About Bad Timing
Disclaimer: No matter how hard I wish and pray, I still do not own the Gilmore Girls
Summary: This is a completely AU idea that popped into my head clear out of the blue. Rory starts her junior year at Chilton and falls in love with the unexpected. There is no Dean and no Jess; Rory is completely boy free at this point in her life. This probably isn't what you're expecting because I'm introducing a brand new character. Hope you enjoy this, please read and review!
A/N: Sorry this took awhile! I lost my muse for some time, but now I found it in my back pocket so it's back and better than ever (I hope). Well, to be completely honest I was inspired by reading some great stories on FanFic to update. I figured if the Red Sox can beat the Yankees 17-1, then I can update this story. I had to finish the chapter and it was a little rushed so sorry in advance for the few grammar errors that may occur throughout the story. Please review and inform me of these errors! Okay, so here you go... enjoy!
Chapter Three – The Muppets
"Rory!" she heard name called as she stepped off the bus. She turned her head to the left and coming towards her was her dark-haired Korean best friend literally sprinting towards her like she was trying to win the Olympic gold in the one hundred meter dash.
"Lane?" Rory replied, adjusting her backpack and feeling perplexed. "What's going on?" she inquired as Lane approached her, out of breath.
"I need to tell you something!" Lane exclaimed in between breaths.
"Um, okay. Let's sit down and you can explain to me your extremely dire news." The two friends sat on the nearest bench. "So? Are you going to tell me or are you going to pull a five year old act?"
"I met a guy!" Lane squealed, a huge smile spreading across her face. "He's cute and charming and charismatic and I am completely and totally in love with him!"
"Aw Lane, that's great! I'm so happy for you!" Rory exclaimed, extremely excited for her best friend. "What's his name? Where is he from?"
"His name is Will. Will Smith. And no, he is not the rapper slash actor from Bel Air, I promise. He doesn't even like his music. In fact, he likes all the same bands as me! We have so much in common, it is amazing. My God, Rory, I'm so excited! I haven't felt like this… ever!" Rory couldn't help but smile at her ecstatically chatty friend. "You know, I was thinking that, if you were cool with it of course, when we go into Hartford with your mom for her business class next week, we could meet up with him and I could sort of have my chance at an actual date. You could tag along if you want. It would be cool for you guys to meet and whatnot."
"Eh, I think I'll pass on the whole third wheel thing," Rory replied, "but I think that it's a great plan. You guys can have your date and I'll go off and lose myself somewhere in the bookstore." There was a pause for a moment until she thought of an inquiry. "But how is he getting to Hartford?"
"Well, he has an older brother that he spends a lot of time with that works and lives in Hartford. So he'll drop him off and whatnot." Rory couldn't help but laugh at the thoroughness of Lane's arrangement. Not that it was anything new; Lane was the queen of devising plans.
"I see that you guys have already planned every aspect of this date. Now, when did you meet him?"
"Yesterday," Lane commented with a small smile as Rory giggled at her unusual forwardness. "The thing is we really hit it off and I accidentally on purpose told him my entire life story and he still likes me. So I figure I've got a real chance here." Lane beamed and placed her hands in her lap, intertwining her fingers.
"Okay," Rory commented, "I don't want to be a downer or a pessimist, but…"
"What about my mom? I told Will about the situation and we decided that if we do this Hartford thing and think that we want to get into some type of relationship, then we'll deal with my mom." Rory nodded in agreement and leaned over to hug Lane.
"I'm so excited for you," she said, pulling away from her friend.
"Oh crap," exclaimed Lane, "it's almost time for tea with mama. I don't want to be late because I figure that sucking up is definitely to my benefit at this point in my life. I'll talk to you later. Bye Rory!" Lane stood up and took off down the street.
"Bye Lane," Rory called as she sat there and watched Lane walk away with a slight spring in her step as she examined the facts in front of her. Just as she stood up to go home, she had a revelation of sorts. "Oh my…" she muttered, her hand flying to her gaping mouth as she sat back down to analyze everything that had just been laid out in front of her. "Last name Smith," she thought, "older brother who works in Hartford. No it couldn't be, could it? There are a million Smiths in this world and Hartford is a big city. I must be overreacting. Or am I?" Rory leaned against the back of the bench, flabbergasted by what she had been smacked in the face with. "This is way too weird," Rory mumbled to the sky as she looked up and was enveloped by the puffy white clouds that suddenly surrounded her.
"So you and Lane are definitely meeting up in Hartford tomorrow during my business class?"
"Yup," Rory replied as her stomach did somersaults just at the thought of seeing Mr. Smith outside of school. She had somehow taken the last few days to work herself into a frenzy of sorts. She was convinced that Mr. Smith was the older brother in question and that if she had to go through the whole seeing-him-outside-of-class-and-feeling-like-a-complete-and-total-moron she would definitely be faced with a situation worse than death. The idea of throwing up all of his shoes due to nerves crossed her mind once or twice, and she definitely was not enjoying that idea; thinking about it just caused her to feel even worse.
"Hey, twitch girl. You okay in there? You kind of look as if the idea of staying in Hartford tomorrow makes you want to hurl, or better yet, become a street bum or something. What's up with that?" Lorelai questioned as she stuck a cluster of fries into her mouth.
"Oh, nothing; nothing at all. I just don't feel too great right now. My stomach is just acting up."
"Are you okay? Do you want to stay home tomorrow?"
"No!" Rory exclaimed without thinking, causing Lorelai to look slightly taken-a-back. "I mean, no that's okay. I'll be fine tomorrow. I just need some sleep is all."
"Okay…" Lorelai replied, giving her daughter a "what's going on that you're not telling me" look.
"What?" Rory asked as she realized that her mother was looking at her with her knowing stare. She wrung her hands in her lap because she knew that her mother would, before she knew it, bore a hole into her brain and find out exactly what was going on with her. "I should go," Rory said quickly, standing up from her half-finished plate.
"Already? You didn't even finish your burger yet!"
"I know, but I don't feel too hot. I'm going to go home and get some sleep." Lorelai stared into the crystal blue eyes of her daughter, unable to pinpoint where the mass hysteria was stemming from. "I'll see you later mom. You stay and finish your food. I'll be fine," Rory stated as she grabbed her coat and practically ran out the door, the bell above the off-white slab of wood ringing obnoxiously.
"What's with her?" Luke asked as he came over to Lorelai's table to refill her coffee.
"To be perfectly honest?" Lorelai replied, looking up at the flannel clad man, "I have absolutely no clue."
As Rory exited Luke's, the cool fall air blew softly against her face and she instantly felt relaxed. She took a deep breath and slowed her walk to a normal pace and her stomach began to relax. She made her way into her home and as soon as she reached her bed, she flopped down on top of it and closed her eyes with a light sigh.
"I really need to cool it. I'm sitting here, freaking out over the thought of possibly seeing my teacher outside of school. That can't be normal. Sure, I happen to have the world's biggest crush on him and whenever he smiles I lose my mind, but I can't let him sit around and ruin every aspect of my life. I need to be in control of my feelings and forbid him from being the cause of my insanity."
After giving herself a little pep talk, Rory stood up and slipped into her favorite pair of pajamas. The velour pants were too long and the bottom of them were torn and ripped to show that they were used incessantly. The top was soft and warm, worn to the state of perfection. Comforted by the familiarity they provided, Rory climbed in between her sheets and snuggled underneath them as her auburn hair crowded her face and she drifted off to sleep.
"Okay guys, I'll pick you up here around seven and then we'll go get some food. Don't get hit by any cars and be sure to woo the bikers and lowlifes before 6:45, just to ensure that you won't have to prematurely leave them on the account that you have to come meet the beautiful and vivacious me," Lorelai ordered sarcastically as Rory and Lane hopped out of the tan Jeep and stepped onto the concrete sidewalk as a mad woman dressed in a kick ass business suit flew past them, screaming multiple obscenities into the black mobile device that was glued to her ear.
"Wow. I guess she had the pleasure of watching Abandon this morning," Rory commented as Lane nodded with a slight giggle.
"I'll see you kids later. Have fun!" Lorelai called, pulling into Hartford traffic and making her way to her business class.
"Okay, how do I look? Do I look okay? Because if I don't look okay then you have to tell me because I don't want to look like a fool in front of him. I'm so nervous I might die and the whole looking like I just walked out of a tornado thing will not help me here," Lane rambled as she unremittingly smoothed down her perfect raven hair.
"Lane. Shush. You look perfect, this day will be perfect, and everything is perfect. Now, just take a deep breath," the sound of deep inhaling reached Rory's ears as Lane followed her order, "and lets go. Where did you tell him we'd meet him?"
"Umm," Lane replied nervously, "at the café on the corner. It's quaint, outdoorsy, and if I feel the need to puke, I can run to the bathroom. It's all very convenient. It's like Xtra Mart, only not." She sighed heavily and she and Rory made her way down the sidewalk towards the café. Rory stared down at her tan corduroy flip-flops and thought about Mr. Smith. What if he did show up with Will? What would she say? How should she react? This was all very surreal and she could hardly take it at this point. All this waiting, wishing, wondering was about to drive her mad and even her self-deprecating pep talk couldn't help her now. Pretty soon she might possibly come face to face with her biggest fear and greatest hope and her ability to accurately predict her reaction was shot and inapplicable in this situation.
"Rory? Are you okay?" Lane asked as the girls made the seemingly one hundred mile stride down the street of Hartford.
"What? Oh, yeah. I'm great. Couldn't be greater. Greater? Did I just say that out loud? I mean, I go to this fancy private school like Chilton and I can't even use English properly. Greater? What kind of word is greater? A grammatically incorrect word, that's what kind of word it is. Better is the word I was going for. Better, not greater. Greater shows my inability to learn or read or speak. What is that? Greater? Wow, do I suck at speaking or what?"
"Rory! Cool it. You would think you were the one that was meeting the love of their lives today. What it up with you? You've been acting like this ever since I mentioned this idea. What's up with that? Are you jealous or something?" Lane questioned, stopping dead still in the middle of the sidewalk as she ignored all the rude, obscene remarks thrown at them as many business people encircled them.
"Jealous? No, I'm not jealous. Lane, I'm not jealous, not in the least bit. I'm just stressed out about school is all. This year has already begun to stress me out and I guess I've just been concentrating too hard and freaking out too much. It has nothing to do with you or Will or anything. I promise you. If anything, I am more excited for you than I can even say. I can't even muster up the correct amount of words to describe, in detail, how happy I am for you. Okay? So jealous, I am not. Just stressed. That's all," Rory replied, feeling bad about the fact that she was lying to her best friend. She was stressed, and it was about school. But not in the way that Lane was thinking. But the lengthy, rambling explanation seemed to please Lane and the two continued their walk to the café.
They entered the establishment and after Lane took a hurried look around, her face fell.
"Do you see him?" Rory inquired.
"No, he's not here yet. There's a table over there, why don't we go grab it and wait for him to get here."
"You know Lane, why don't I just get out of here? I don't want to intrude on your date," Rory suggested, seemingly hesitant to sit down as they approached the table.
"Rory, no. I want you two to meet. Then you can take off and envelop yourself with books, I promise. Just stick around for awhile, please." Rory nodded, taking a seat with her back facing the door.
After a few minutes of talking and drinking coffee, Lane's face lit up dramatically, as if the members of The Clash had come through the door at that very moment. As Rory turned around to see who she assumed would be Will, she was greeted by the sight of a certain gorgeous, muscular Calculus teacher of hers. He smiled brightly as soon as he caught her eye and made her way over to the table with a cute boy who looked to be the same age as Rory.
"Hey Lane," the boy said nervously as he approached the table.
"Hey Will," Lane replied, sounding equally nervous. "Rory, this is Will. Will, this is Rory."
"Hi," she said faintly, her eyes still on Mr. Smith.
"And this is my brother, Ian," Will replied.
"Nice to meet you Lane," Ian said with a charismatic smile in Lane's direction. "Hi Rory. Fancy meeting you here." Rory continued to stare, unable to speak or move or function. This was her worst fear come true and to make matters worse, she only made one sound in response to Ian's acknowledgment.
She let out a barely audible and very muppet-like "meep."
"God, could this get any worse?" she thought, reprimanding herself for her ability to revert back to her childhood at this point in time.
"Do you two know each other?" Will asked as he and Lane looked at each other, confused.
"Yeah," Ian replied, "she's my student."
And to Rory's pleasant surprise, he said "student" like it was the most terrible truth in the world.
A/N2: So there it is, installment three of Talk About Bad Timing. Thanks for all the reviews I've gotten, they have been awesome. You guys rock!
And now that the chapter has come to an end, it's time for you to review. please. I will love it. You could write anything of any random nature such as "dsihsgdhjdg" and I would still greatly appreciate the time you took to write that. Reviews complete my life. I will be for indebted, I promise. just review. thankssss ((big smile))