The Rebel's Princess
Chapter 1: So You Wanna Live in Stars Hollow
June 30, 2006
She was loved by her little town. It was a truth that was universally acknowledged that she was their princess, the cream of their tiny crop. No one objected to her demands and she was generally sheltered from the harshness of the real world. Occasionally, she did have to deal with it, and when those rare times came upon her, she had the support of her little town no matter what the situation was.
That little town, Stars Hollow, was small enough so that everyone knew each other and big enough so that it had an everlasting charm about it that only some people understood. Outsiders generally blew it off as a gathering for the estranged when they met some of Stars Hollow's quirky residents. But for the people who had lived there for their entire lives, — or nearly that much — it was home and then some.
"Rory!"
Rory stopped on her way to the bus stop and turned around, only to be nearly pummeled by Lane, her best friend. Lane huffed and puffed, pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, and then panted some more.
"G'morning. What's got you huffing and puffing and trying to blow my house down?" Rory inquired as she patted Lane on the back to help her catch her breath.
Lane took one last deep breath and then grinned.
"Good morning!" she said cheerfully. "Mama was trying to get me to read the first half of the bible before school, when I saw you walking by. So, I ran out to catch up with you before she could offer to have me bring it along."
"Glad to be of service," Rory answered.
She offered Lane a chocolate chip cookie from the bag Sookie had stashed in her backpack that morning at the inn.
"Thanks," Lane said, grabbing a cookie. She sighed heavily. "I hate the first day of school. It comes with the promise of lots of studying."
Rory grinned.
"Yes... Generally, school does come with that mandatory study rule. It's not all that bad, though."
"Yeah, but you get to go to that awesome private school that's far, far away from your mother, and you like learning," Lane complained.
"Well yes, but us Gilmores have been, are, and always will be the strangest people on the planet. That's just a fact of life. And you know that I don't like Chilton so much. With its Tristans and Parises," Rory offered, shuddering.
Lane sighed again. It was undeniably true that the residential Gilmore Girls were the quirkiest people she knew, but she loved them all the same, and Rory had definitely mentioned how bad her first year at the Chilton School had gone.
"Hopefully, this year will be better for you, and you know I'll always be around afterwards for moral support and an endless supply of music to match your emotional needs."
Rory nodded.
"Yeah, and maybe Paris won't be so bad this year," she said. But even as she voiced it out loud, she knew she was lying to herself.
"Well, I should get going... Good luck!"
Lane parted with her when Stars Hollow High School came into view. Rory continued to the bus stop hoping Dean would be waiting for her.
A smile came to her face when she saw that he was, indeed, waiting on the bench for her. He was skimming through a book that looked fairly new until he saw her walking up.
"Good morning," Rory greeted him, bending forward to kiss him.
"'Morning," Dean replied.
She took the seat beside him and asked, "What are you reading?"
Dean held up the book as if to ask her 'this?'. Rory nodded.
"Oh, this isn't mine. It's actually for you," he said.
Rory raised an eyebrow. He'd gotten her a book? Somehow, she knew he was too perfect. He held it out to her and she took it, staring at the cover.
"The Fortress of Solitude?" she read out loud to herself.
"I knew you wanted it so I thought I'd get it for you," Dean said, running a nervous hand through his brown hair.
Rory grinned and gave him a hug. As she pulled away, she offered a kiss.
"Thank you... so much! I've wanted this forever!"
Eventually, the bus heading to Hartford arrived and, giving Dean another hug and the promise of meeting up with him at Luke's Diner after school, Rory boarded and girded herself for her first day of the school year at Chilton.
The school looked the same, the people looked the same, and even the teachers hadn't changed, but there was something about the atmosphere that gave Rory the chills. As she approached her locker, she realized what had caused the bad feeling. It was making out with some slut on top of her locker.
"I don't understand how they can suck face like that. It's like their lips are octopus suckers and they can't seem to get themselves to let go of each other," Paris's voiced floated out from the other side of Tristan and his whore.
"Not again!" Rory grumbled.
She walked around the couple making out and found Paris with a furious look on her face standing in front of Mr. Medina's class.
Paris noticed Rory for the first time and Louise and Madeline walked away. Rory tried giving her a smile but it seemed like Paris wasn't in the mood for pleasantries.
"What, you're back... again?" she snarled.
"Unbelievably enough, yes," Rory replied.
"There isn't room for the both of us at this school, you know?" Paris said.
"I agree, but right now it seems as if there isn't room for either of us at this school," Rory said, gesturing toward Tristan.
"I've tried everything. It's like there's a force field around them or something. They're immune to sound, sight, and touch... but they've got the taste factor down pretty well."
Rory sighed heavily and tapped Tristan on the shoulder. There was no reaction but a loud moan from the girl he was kissing.
Rory shuddered and stormed away into Mr. Medina's class. If he couldn't help her, there was no point trying to get to her locker at all that morning.
Max was sitting at his desk with his nose stuck in a copy of The Art of War when she walked in. He snapped the book shut when he noticed her standing in front of him.
"Good morning, Rory," he said. And upon seeing her distressed face, he asked, "Is something wrong?"
Rory explained her dilemma and Max stood up with a sigh.
Getting to her locker that morning was the least of Rory's problems as Paris accidently spilled her chocolate pudding on Rory's uniform at lunch and Tristan unknowingly took the last available seat in her Economics class.
By the end of the day, Rory was in dire need of coffee and a long nap.
As she walked down the main hallway toward the school's entrance, Max caught abruptly up to her. He seemed to be on his way out himself.
"Do you need a ride home, Rory?" he asked her.
"Are you coming to Stars Hollow?" she asked him.
"Yeah, your mother and I have a date planned for tonight," he explained.
"Well, if you're coming anyway..."
She accepted the offer and an awkward thirty-minute ride to Stars Hollow ensued. Lorelai's fiancee had never been too sure as to how he was supposed to treat Rory and she hadn't ever been too sure about how she was supposed to act around him. Eventually, they'd gotten used to being around each other, but it was still nonetheless an anxious atmosphere.
Rory had Mr. Medina drop her off at Lane's house, or at least, the fence in front of Lane's house.
"I'll be fine, Mama... we're just going to Luke's!"
Lane came running across the front lawn of Kim's Antiques a moment after Max had left with her mother glaring angrily at Rory as she did.
"Hello," Rory said pleasantly. "I see your mother's hatred of me hasn't decreased any."
"Hurry!" Lane hissed. "My mom thinks we're meeting Dean and I don't want her to change her mind."
"Lane," Rory began, "we are meeting Dean."
"I know! But she doesn't have to know that!"
The conversation was much calmer as they got out of eyesight of Mrs. Kim. Lane explained her first day of school and how life after band was coming for her.
"And, how was your day?" she inquired.
Rory rolled her blue eyes involuntarily. She gestured to her stained gray Chilton vest. Maybe Sookie would know how to get the stain out.
"The Paris hurricane hit hard, huh?" Lane said, sympathetically.
Rory nodded and began explaining the day's events. By the end of it, Lane was fuming and had offered twice to blow Paris out of the ball park.
"Ugh!" Rory sighed. "She makes me so mad!"
Lane's eyes widened suddenly at this and she squealed. Rory almost jumped at the abrupt outburst and waited for Lane to explain.
"This is the part where you explain your strange and unexpected exclamation," Rory prompted.
Lane, who had gone into some sort of stupor, nodded vehemently.
"Right." She paused. "There was a new student in school today."
Rory nodded.
"Did Lane make a new friend?" she asked.
"Oh, God no. He was horrible," Lane said. "Cuter than Dean, in a 'rebel without a cause' sort of way."
Rory's blue eyes widened. A boy cuter than Dean in Stars Hollow? It was unthinkable, unbelievable.
"Is the town going crazy?"
"Naturally," Lane said, nodding. "Oh, you haven't even heard the best part yet!"
Rory waited for her to continue.
"He's Luke's nephew! His sister in New York sent him down to stay with Luke... something about reformation. She said that Stars Hollow would do a world of good for him," Lane explained.
"I didn't know Luke was allowed to have nephews," Rory said, taking in the information.
There was a pregnant pause as they reached the street in front of the diner. Rory could see Dean waiting outside for her and she wondered how cute the other boy had to be for him to be better-looking than Dean.
"Luke's nephew, huh?" she mumbled.
Lane nodded.
"Yeah I know! It's weird."
They made their way across the street toward Luke's.
"So, uh... what's his name?" Rory asked.
Lane thought about it for a moment.
"Come to think of it, I don't know his name. I just know that he's already got detention for smoking in front of the school during class and that he's seventeen," Lane said.
"Talk about an enigma," Rory muttered.
"Yeah, tell me about it. He's got that whole 'whatever' attitude going on. It's kind of like a James Dean thing, I'd say," Lane explained.
Dean turned around when he heard them approaching and gave Rory a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey," he said to Lane.
"Hi," Lane replied.
She told them she'd meet them in the diner and walked in ahead of the pair. Dean grinned and told Rory she couldn't have found a better friend.
"How was school?" he asked.
"Don't even get me started. I'll go on for hours in that Kurt Cobain way and I'll end up sounding like I'm some misunderstood, stoned juvenile delinquent," Rory said.
"Alright, alright," Dean laughed.
"Come on, let's go in. I need coffee," Rory replied.
She grabbed Dean's hand and pulled him into the diner. It was as busy as ever and Rory found Lorelai and Max sitting at a table near the corner of the room. She noticed Miss Patty arguing with Taylor about some sort of permit she didn't have for her dance studio and Kirk was wearing a hairnet and apron with a coffee pot in his hands pouring coffee for some of the costumers.
"So you're saying that drinking too much coffee will turn my teeth yellow?" Lorelai was saying as Dean and Rory approached.
"Yeah, as amazing as it is," Max answered, grinning.
"No, see... I don't think I understand what you're saying. Can you explain it one more time?" Lorelai said, that so very 'Lorelai' grin on her face.
She took a french fry from her plate and stuck it in her mouth, taking a gulp of her coffee with it.
"It's no use, Max," Rory said. "She's deaf to any cons about coffee. Last time we made a pro-con list, she tore it in half and burned the con half."
"Well hello, offspring of mine... and her boyfriend," Lorelai greeted.
Rory leaned down and kissed her mother on the cheek. She took an available seat and Dean sat down across from her.
Rory waited for Luke to come by their table to order as her mother and Max kept their ongoing banter steady. Lane, who was sitting at the counter talking to a schoolmate of hers, noticed Rory and Dean and walked up to their table.
"Samantha Maverick just told me his name's Jess," she said quietly to Rory.
Rory didn't let on that they were talking about the new Stars Hollow resident and invited Lane to sit with them.
"So what are you crazy kids up to tonight?" Rory asked Max and Lorelai.
"Dinner, movie... wedding plans," Max explained.
"Yeah, what he said without the wedding plans part," Lorelai inserted, throwing a narrow-eyed glare at her fiancee. "You sound like J-Lo, you think like J-Lo, but I'm dearly hoping you're not J-Lo."
Max laughed.
"No more Wedding Planner for you," he said, and then he paused. "I sound like J-Lo?"
"And here he comes," Lane whispered.
Rory's concentration on the current conversation was interrupted as a new figure made his way toward their table with a notepad in hand.
A/N: I hope I got the characters right. Please review! Thanks!
