Disclaimer: Not mine. Sad, but true.

A/N: I know, it's been a while, but here's the next installment.

Background: Tristan came back for senior year, he and Rory have a friendly acquaintanceship, but she leans towards hating him. Dean saw Rory kiss Jess at Sookie's wedding and broke up with her, but Rory and Jess realized that their feelingsare strictly platonic.

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Puppy Fries

Rory, with an armful of books, is attempting to open her locker, with no success, as Tristan saunters up behind her, smirk in place. "Having trouble there Mare?"

Rory sighs and moves away from the locker, looking up towards him. "My stupid locker won't open."

"Let me help you." Tristan says with a simple pound of his fist, resulting in the locker popping open. "See nothing to it."

Rory looks at him disbelievingly, seeing as she'd been struggling with it for a good ten minutes. She glares at her locker and mumbles, "Sexist locker," before looking back at Tristan with a thankful smile on her face. "Thanks Tristan."

Tristan smiles and lifts his hand, as if he just made a mental breakthrough. "I know the perfect way you can repay me for my troubles." Normally he would have paused for dramatic effect at this point, but he knew that if he didn't finish quickly he would lose his audience "Go to prom with me?" He asked in one quick breath.

"What no other bimbos around who can stand your ego?" Rory replies sarcastically with a slight smirk.

"Now that hurts Mare, I just thought we would be good company, you know entertain each other." He says, lowering his voice for the last part, while placing an arm around Rory's shoulders and helping her carry he books out to the parking lot.

Rory rolls her eyes and picks his arm off of her as if discarding hazardous material, "God, Tristan, can't you say anything decent? And here I thought you would be normal."

He stares at her intently, "Is that a yes?"

"No, how could you consider that a yes?" Rory says, looking at him as if he is a fool.

A smile spread across his face as he places her books into Lorelai's jeep, "Oh, I heard a 'yes', I'll go get the tickets, pick you up at six, we'll eat before we get there." And with that he turns on his heel and walks back into the building with a satisfied visage, leaving an irritated Rory in his wake.

"Tristan! Ugh." She exclaims with a flailing of her arms.

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A half-hour later Rory bursts into Luke's and heads directly to Lorelai who is sitting in corner, meticulously doodling on a menu. "What am I going to do?" She says before hastily grabbing Lorelai's coffee and downing it in one gulp.

Lorelai looks up slowly and gives Rory a curious look. "About what Hun?"

"Saturday!" Rory exclaims, as if it was the most obvious thing,

Now Lorelai is really confused, "Uh, what's Saturday? Fill Mommy in."

Rory looks around for someone to give her a refill and emotionlessly recites, "Locker. Stupid. Tristan. Prom. No. Tickets. Yes. Six. Ugh."

Shaking her head Lorelai states, "You've been hanging out with Jess for too long. Full sentences please." She raises her mug as the person in question comes out from behind the curtain and heads towards their table.

"Her locker got stuck again, she had to rely on Tristan to open it, he asked her to prom and will be picking her up at six on Saturday despite her fervent 'no's." He easily states as he pours.

"Okay, there, that, freaky." Lorelai says while staring and pointing her finger at the pair.

Rory, ignoring Lorelai, looks up to Jess, "Burger please, nothing green."

"That's too bad, Luke just bought this fancy purpley-red lettuce and I picked up some of the green ketchup." He responds as disappearing into the kitchen.

"Jess!" Rory calls.

Lorelai laughs at his tactics. "Serves you right. Anyway, you never mentioned that prom was so soon. Are you going?"

"No."

"Why not? I think you should."

"Why?"

"Because it will be good for you to see elitist snobs act like fools."

"More so than I do every other day?"

"This time they'll be tipsy, not hungover. Very different."

"Uh huh. I have not date."

Lorelai gets a glint in her eye. "From what I hear Bible Boy has already arranged to pick you up at six."

"I'm not going with Tristan." Rory sighs adamantly.

"Oh why not?" Lorelai says playfully, receiving a glare from her daughter. "Fine. How about Jess?"

"No." Jess states as he sets down their food, only hearing his name in the question.

"You don't even know what we're talking about." Lorelai accuses.

"Doesn't matter."

"Aww, but you'd look so adorable dressed up. What do you think, Rory?"

Rory plays along with her mother, with a smile. "Completely adorable."

"Like a puppy. Hey, I want a puppy."

By this time Luke comes in and all three look at Lorelai seriously. "No."

"No need to jump on me here. Why?"

"Because you'll kill it." Luke says while taking her coffee away.

"I would do no such thing, I am wonderful with pets." As she swiftly takes Rory's coffee to replace her own.

"What about the hamster?" Rory starts.

"Rabbit." Jess provides.

"Turtle." Luke follows suit before they start over again.

"Goldfish."

"Gerbil."

"Chick."

"Pig."

"Finch."

Lorelai raises her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. But none of those count, I still haven't killed Rory."

"Only because I feed her." Luke says, bringing a plate of fries to prove his point.

Rory accepts the plate and swats Lorelai's hand as she reaches for some. "And I'm grown."

"Yes, but how did you get grown? Plus, gerbil hamster, what's the difference? And we never had a finch."

"Right, that was Liz, sorry." Jess concedes.

"So, Jess, will you be our puppy?" Lorelai says as she finally gets her fry.

"Huh?"

Rory turns to Jess and slowly fills him in. "Will you please accompany me to prom so that I don't have to suffer being with Tristan alone the entire night?"

Jess retains his answer. "No."

Luke has the final word and nods to Rory. "He'll be there."

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A/N: Now, here's the poll. Do you want a full chapter of the prom and be stuck waiting about another month for an update? -OR- Do you want a summary of the prom and move on to the next guy within the month?

Feedback greatly appreciated and begged for. Please vote. If there's anything you want to see, leave it in the review, I'll see what I can do.

Shout-outs:

Emmy- Here he is, I hope you enjoy his intro.

LoVe23- It's not so much that I hate Dean than I wanted to have Jess in it. I tried my best not to make him out too much like the bad guy. I know you wanted to wait for Tristan, but I had this one ready to go and felt like updating. If I think of another scenario though, there may be another trory at the end.

…- What, ashamed to show your name? Anyway, thanks for reviewing,

fox24- There is Jess, but it's not a Jess interruption, I promise.