Title: Life

Author: Callista Wolfwood

Email: R

Part: 6

Hello-

Yep new chapter I'm trying to be good and update but you know how that goes especially with college life. There's only so much you can do when you as busy as I am… Grins Anyways, I might be introducing a new character, a rival for Rory within the next couple of chapters also the party will probably the next chapter. I kind of got an idea on how I want Tristan and Rory to meet… but I can make it into a romantic or really funny situation. There are so many choices and so little time.

I plan for this chapter to go back and forth from Rory and Rosalyn study time and girl talk about the party and Nick and Tristan's guy's night out type of thing. Then the plan is to skip over to Friday and the party. Anyways on with the show…

PS… Thank you my new beta for checking my grammar errors and spelling etc…

Callista

Chapter 6

Tristan walked out of his house keys in hand and walked to his red custom made corvette and started the car. He had three hours to kill and he didn't want to spend them stuck in his over priced stuffy home. He started driving around Hartford deciding just to see where the road took him.

When he ended up passing the sign saying entering Stars Hollow he sighed and pulled into an empty parking lot in front of the Independence Inn debating if he should in fact even be there. He was positive that his car would at least get noticed if he drove it around town especially since this is a really small town.

From previous conversations with his Mary, gossip travels around fast. Besides he remembered being here for rehearsals for the Romeo and Juliet play that he never got to appear in and he was practically followed around. Leaving it at the Independence Inn seemed to be the only option if he wished to stay since it was an inn and wouldn't look so out of place.

He was pretty sure that no one would recognize him and since school was still in session Bag Boy wouldn't be around to spill the beans. Granted he did hear from Nick that his Mary and Bag Boy were done, but you can never be too sure. He didn't want anyone to spill the beans to his Mary other then himself.

He got out of his car and started walking around the town sporting a baseball cap and dark sunglasses just in case someone actually recognized him or takes pictures or something. He was being prepared; military school kind of enforces that on the brain. Suddenly his stomach let out a very loud grumble stating that it wanted food ASAP.

He was currently settled in the middle of town so he looked around for the nearest place that sold food. He noticed Doose's Market in which he nearly got into a fight with Bag Boy. He smirked and thought to himself 'better not go in there.' He continued his search into his resolved that he would just ask someone for directions to the nearest dinner. He then proceeded to walk towards a Hardware Store thinking that they could direct me towards one.

Tristan walked in to discover that it was in fact a dinner the very place his stomach demanded. 'Wow this is a weird town' Tristan thought before pulling his baseball cap down over his eyes and took a seat at the counter. The bells jingled as a tall brunette entered after him and went straight to the other side of the counter. A very gruff looking man in flannel and a backwards baseball cap went to serve… no actually argue with the tall brunette…

"Ooh Luke."

"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"If it has something to do with coffee then, no."

"Please!

"No."

"I must have it… I'm going through Coffee withdrawal." Tristan looked at the brunette through his dark sunglasses.

'She reminds me of someone…' He thought as the argument continued.

"No."

"Look at me I'm shaking…" Lorelai responded as she showed him her shaking hands.

"Don't make me do something drastic, you know I can be VERY creative."

"Lorelai don't make me ban you from coffee."

"You WOULDN'T"

"Test me." Luke replied turning around. Lorelai looked at Luke with a hurt expression and suddenly her lip started quivering as if she's about to cry.

Lorelai let out a very small whimper, sounding very pitiful as Luke turned around to see her looking as if she was about to burst into tears. Tristan suddenly recognized her as Rory's mom. Tristan pulled his cap lower and looked at a menu trying not to stare.

"Damn it." Luke suddenly professed and poured Lorelai her coffee in which she suddenly grinned in triumph once Luke's back was turned again.

"What do you want?" A gruff voice asked, Tristan jumped slightly and looked up to see Luke staring down at him with a pad of paper and pencil in hand.

"Coffee and a BLT" Tristan responded in a deep voice. 'Since its lunch,' he thought while slightly wondering if he was going to get his coffee. He was mildly surprised when Luke put the coffee in front of him with no argument and Lorelai noticed too.

"Luke! Why do you give this boy the Ambrosia of the Gods and make me beg for it on a daily basis?"

"Because the kid looks like he needs it and you… I'm just trying to make sure you don't go early into your grave."

"Luke, refill me and I'll go happily into my early grave…"

"No."

"Luke I have to go back to the Inn and deal with Michel, the grumpy Frenchman and Sookie, the disaster prone cook. So as you can see I NEED the coffee to survive the day."

"How many cups have you had?" Luke asked as Lorelai looked down and looked like she was thinking really hard.

"Two."

Luke looked at her with a look that told her, he didn't believe her.

"Come on Luke I promise it wasn't any more then four."

"Lies."

Tristan continued to sit there and finish his BLT while watching them banter remembering the times between him and Rory at Chilton. Clearly this is where Rory gets her bantering gene from. He chuckled as the guy known as Luke gives in and refills Lorelai's coffee. Tristan watched her leave with a wave to everyone in the dinner… only to turn around and say…

"Bye Coffee Flannel Man!"

"Bye Boy who drink the Ambrosia of the Gods wearing a baseball hat." Lorelai then ran up to Tristan and ripped his baseball hat off his head and proceeded to do the happy dance and she stuck it on her own head backwards.

"Now I look like Luke the coffee giving flannel man."

"LORELAI!" Luke bellowed to which she pouted at as she reluctantly gave back the baseball hat to Tristan, only to seconds later steals it again.

"NEVER! IT WILL BE MINE TO NAMED BLONDE COFFEE BOY'S HAT!" Lorelai screamed running out of the door.

Tristan felt as everyone in the dinner turned to look at him as Lorelai walked to work with the satisfied feeling that her job was done. Tristan then looked into his coffee trying to down it before someone actually comes up to him and ask questions.

He might as well go off to meet with Nick before he gets caught besides school should be out for them soon and Nick, Rosalyn and Rory should be coming into here sometime soon. He walked back to his car wondering slightly if he would ever get his hat back.

"Mom? I'm home!" Rory yelled into the house as she walked to the kitchen with Rosalyn trailing behind her. Rory didn't both taking off her altered uniform, after showing up in Luke's in it people seemed to get use to her in it. They assumed that she "grew" into it or something.

Rory noticed a noted on the coffee machine. 'She knows me so well,' Rory thought. She turned on the coffee machine not noticing the hat on top of it and started to read the note out loud.

Minnie Me-

There was an emergency at the Inn. It had something to do with Sookie and fire and Michel running around screaming his head off. I took the camera. Meet you at Luke's for dinner and the elixir of life. Plus a funny story from lunch…

P.S

It has to do with the lovely baseball hat that I now have in my possession… Look up it's on top of Eric.

Me.

"Wow, so blackmail picture's I would imagine?" Rosalyn asked Rory as she grinned at the note.

"Yeah, of course. What else are pictures used for?" Rory responded.

"Too true."

"Who's Eric?"

"The Coffee Maker, Ryan died last month so we got Eric to replace him. We'll just see how long Eric lasts… "

"I'm surprised that you would name inanimate objects really human names. I would think something like Fluffy would be more accurate."

"Fluffy died about a year ago and we try not to use the same name twice. Once we named one... what."

"What?"

"Exactly, it caused too much confusion… now what's up with the baseball cap?" Both Rory and Rosalyn got up to look at the hat on top of Eric. Rosalyn picked it up only to notice the inside had initials in it.

"Look at this… initials can you read what it says?"

"T.J.D"

"Weird…" Rosalyn said because the only person with those initials was Tristan but he wouldn't come here to possibly have is cover blown, would he?

"So what's with your mom and Luke?"

"I know they're made for each other and their fights are nothing but flirting and yet they are oblivious."

'Kind of like when you and Tristan use to "fight" but in reality it was just flirting' Rosalyn thought to herself knowing that Rory would just deny it if she said it.

"You would think that they wouldn't be so blind."

"Yeah I know but it would seem she's oblivious to what's in front of her. "

"Must run in the family." Rosalyn commented only to have Rory glare at her for a few seconds before laughing at the irony.

"So we can head to Luke's to meet my mom or we can start studying then meet my mom at Luke's. Hmm maybe we are better off doing the latter; mom will just try and make us play with her." Rory stated thoughtfully.

"Your mom will make us play with her?" Rosalyn responded laughing slightly. "I wish I had you mom."

"Many do but it's sad when you have to ground your own mother," Rory responded grinning. She then led Rosalyn to the living room started to pick up stuff to clear a place for their books. Rory noticed that there were years old magazines and clothes that she hasn't seen in years.

"You have a nice house, cozy unlike the houses in Hartford for the elite also know as rich boring snobs."

"Yeah but it makes finding things a pain"

"A bitch. You mean a bitch not a pain, it makes finding things a bitch."

"Exactly, still trying to get use to the new Rory."

"No problem I understand."

"Thanks, I know what you mean my grandparents house is larger but it doesn't feel lived in. Hmm not really sure how to explain it to you."

"No problem I completely understand, the only thing that seems lived in at my house is my room. scoffs Not even my parents room looks like it's been lived in; they have the maids come in and clean it. I wont let the maids come anywhere near my room."

"So let's get some studying done before we meet up with my mom… what subject should we start first…"

"How about girl talks…? I don't really understand why we even have such an amazing need to study especially when we are already the top of our class." Rosalyn states while Rory looked at here with an amused face.

"Study first then Girl talk besides I'm sure my mom would love to hear all the Chilton gossip. Not to sure she would want to hear about you and Nick's private "study sessions." So I would keep that out of it."

"I see your point, ooh we should go shopping and hit Fredrick's of Hollywood."

"What?"

"It's a store that sells…well its like Victoria's secret…"

"A lingerie store?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you mom might want to come along"

"No, I will not go lingerie shopping with my mother but sure why not I assume they sell clothes too?"

"Yeah they do, so English Lit then?" and at Rory's nod the girls brought out their books and started to study.

Tristan parked in front of Nick's driveway waiting for him to finally make his appearance. He got out of his Corvette and leant up against the car as he watched Nick's black Mustang pull up next him. Nick got out of the car and handed his keys to the waiting servant to take his car to the garage and walked up to Tristan.

"So what did you do to kill some time, the old Tristan would have gone to find some female companionship?" Nick asked as Tristan laughed.

"Actually I got in my car and drove around; I kind of ended up in Stars Hallow."

"TRISTAN!"

"I know but I let the road take me where ever it wanted and the next thing I knew I saw the town's sign."

"I hope you weren't recognized," Nick replied.

"I don't think so but the incident ended up with me leaving with one less baseball hat."

"What?"

"Lorelai was there arguing with Luke."

"Say no more." Nick replied shaking his head in understanding he knew better then to wear hats or sunglasses in front of Lorelai. "For some reason she had some sort of fetish for the hats in particular."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I suspect it has something to do with Luke's love for baseball hats."

"It was funny Lorelai and Luke's fighting reminded me of the old days between Mary and me at Chilton."

"I'm sure it would have, apparently everyone but Lorelai can see that Luke loves her. Their fighting is in fact flirting, I believe that either she's in denial or she's just oblivious."

"Wow, it must run in the family don't you think."

"Exactly what I was thinking when she mentioned it. So what do you want to go and do today?"

"How about….

Yeah I ended it there because I really didn't want to go on with the guys day and what not I just decided to cut to the chase and the party will most likely be in the next chapter.

Callista