AN: Hey guys, thanks for the great response to the first chapter, I was very excited that you all seemed to like it so much. Here's chapter 2, enjoy and please leave a review, I love 'em :)
Logan happily made his way back to his dorm room. What had started out as a day that could only be described at mundane had suddenly taken a very interesting turn. There was just something about that Gilmore girl that intrigued him. Perhaps it was her down to earth attitude despite her high-profile name. Maybe it was the mystery; after all, in the 20 years of his existence she was probably the only member of the Hartford elite he had never met, and he had to wonder why that was. Most likely, he thought, it was something about those big blue eyes of hers; so innocent appearing at first glance but once baited, they sparkled with an energy that showed a fleck of darkness within. Rory Gilmore was an enigma, a puzzle; and if there were two things Logan loved, they were a pretty girl and a puzzle.
"What's up with you today?" Colin looked up from his notebook as Logan entered their common room. "You're like a walking cliché."
"What are you talking about?" Logan asked, the big grin not disappearing from his face as he sat down next to his two roommates.
"You're whistling and I'm not really sure what a jaunty tune is, but if I was, I'm guessing that would qualify". Colin turned to face his friend dead on. "Also, there appears to be a skip in your step," he said accusingly.
"Did you get laid already?" Finn asked, taking a sip of coffee and looking up from the GQ magazine on this lap. "It's only..." he looked down at his watch. "3 o'clock. Someone remind me why I'm up at this ungodly hour."
"Beats me, I was pretty surprised myself to see you out here this early," Colin replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He turned back to Logan waiting for him to answer Finn's question.
"I'm just having a good day," Logan answered, leaning back on the sofa and putting his feet up on the coffee table.
"Didn't you just come from the Daily News office?" Colin asked skeptically. "I don't think I've ever seen that lead to a good day for you."
Logan scoffed, "No, that part sucked. I swear if my dear editor, Steinman and that stupid little protege of his, Doyle, spent any more time kissing my ass there would be no paper because it would never get to the printer on time."
"So then, why so bright-eyed and bushy tailed this fine day?" Finn asked.
"After I left the paper, I had a little run in with the Gilmores," Logan told them.
"As in Richard and Emily?" Colin asked with narrowed eyes. "When has running into friends of our parents ever been a good thing?"
"Ah, but I didn't tell you what they were doing here..." Logan baited them.
"OK, I'll bite...what were they doing here?"
"They were giving a little tour to their granddaughter," he answered with a smirk, an image of Rory flashed behind his eyes.
"Is she a feisty red head?" Finn asked, straightening up with renewed interest.
"Nope, not a red head...but she would definitely count as feisty," he grinned as a very dirty thought came to him.
"But you're in a good mood..." Colin said, something not quite adding up. He put his highlighter down on his notebook, ready to hear the story.
"Have you not been listening, Colin? Hot, high school girl." Logan rolled his eyes at his friend; what was so hard to understand?
"Yes, 'hot, high school girl' who for all intents and purposes should have turned you down flat."
"I'm overwhelmed by your faith in my ability to get a date," Logan replied dryly.
"Yeah, mate," Finn chimed in. "Huntz's ability to woo the fairer sex is second only to mine."
"When was the last time you got Rosemary to go home with you Finn? Oh that's right, never," Logan shot at him, half playfully.
"Hey Mate, I was on your side," Finn replied defensively.
"So Colin, tell me, why are you surprised the lovely Miss Gilmore agreed to go out with me?" Logan asked nonchalantly though the truth was, he was dying to know. He almost hadn't gotten the date and under most circumstance he would have been mortified that he had to be set up by a girl's grandparents, but he had gotten far too much pleasure from the hostile look in her eyes to let it upset him. Still, he hadn't actually won this girl over and he had to know what kind of work he had in store for him.
"Sorry man, it's just that my cousin Francie goes to Chilton and I've heard stories," he informed his blond companion.
"Ugh," Logan scoffed, "I hate your cousin Francie and all those stupid friends of hers. Oh god, please tell me Gilmore isn't one of those stupid Puff girls, she certainly didn't seem the type."
"Oh, no, I heard all about that story from my Aunt Maureen and Uncle Bob; they were mortified."
"Do tell," Logan prodded, taking his feet off the coffee table and sitting up attentively.
"Well apparently Francie made all the Puffs and their new initiates sneak into the headmaster's office. They all got suspended, except Gilmore. Apparently she didn't even want to be there, Headmaster Charleston had made her hang out with them."
"Well it sounds like the sheila has good taste," Finn commented, he too thought of Colin's cousin and her friends as petty, superficial, brats with absolutely no substance.
"Exactly," Colin intoned.
"Hey! What the hell is that supposed to mean," Logan asked defensively.
"Sorry Huntz, but I only speak of what I know. DuGrey has apparently been lusting after her for years and hasn't made an inch of headway. She hates our kind."
"Our kind? What kind would that be?" he asked skeptically.
"High society," Colin answered simply.
"What?" Logan scoffed. "That's ridiculous, she is high society, she's a Gilmore for god's sake."
"By name yes, but she hasn't been a part of our world since she was an infant."
"What? That doesn't make any sense," Logan stated, although he silently thought that, at least in part, it made a lot of sense. It would certainly explain the simple attire and the coins. She hadn't seemed high society at all.
Colin shook his head at his friend's cluelessness. "Don't you know the story?"
"No," Logan answered, eyes narrowing curiously.
"I know the story," Finn piped in. He had gone back to reading his magazine but he was still keeping an ear on the conversation
"See, even Finn knows the story," Colin replied, pointing at the Aussie sitting across the room. "It's pretty much the biggest scandal to hit our circle in a generation."
"Well sorry if I don't gossip like a girl," Logan spat.
"Oh well if you don't like gossip then I don't need to tell you." Logan glared at his friend and Colin only laughed. "Fine, I'll tell you, don't get your panties in a bunch." Colin stood up and began pacing the room. "It all began 18 years ago on a cold winter's night..."
"Colin," Logan said with great annoyance.
"Fine, I'll get to the point. Her mom got pregnant as a teenager, refused to get married, lived at home for about a year and then just disappeared with the kid. Apparently they moved to some small hick town just south of here and that's pretty much the end of it."
"I still don't get it; they were here with Richard and Emily today. Also, every time I see the Gilmores at those stupid parties we have to attend all they can do is rave about their granddaughter. That doesn't sound like a 'no contact' kind of relationship to me."
"The story is that Rory got into Chilton and the mom couldn't afford it, so she had to go crawling back to Richard and Emily. I guess their financial involvement came hand in hand with some emotional involvement as well."
Logan tried to process this information. "So what you're saying is that even though this girl is a Gilmore, she grew up dirt poor with a mother who was so disillusioned by a world of wealth and influence that she ran away to raise her child away from it all. She passed her scorn of money and power on to her offspring who now lingers on the edges of society out of necessity but hates it."
"That about sums it up."
The puzzle pieces were beginning to fall into place and Logan was only more intrigued. "So that's why she hates me, out of principle." Logan spoke without thinking.
"Hah! He admits it, she hates him," Finn said triumphantly.
"I thought you were on my side, Finn." Logan glared.
"What can I say, I'm a fair-weather friend," the Aussie shrugged.
"So if she hates you, why the hell is she going on a date with you?" Colin asked, with an I told you so air to his tone. He sat back down in his chair, waiting for the answer.
Logan sighed. He was going to have to tell them the whole truth. He sucked in a preparatory breath before mumbling, "Hergrandparentsmadeher."
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Colin asked, trying to hold back a fit of giggles.
Logan sighed again. "Her grandparents made her," he repeated.
Colin whooped with laughter. "Oh man, you've sunk so low you don't even have your parents setting you up with suitable girls anymore, you've got your parents friends doing it."
On the other side of the room Finn joined in the hysterics. "It's a pity date for the poor boy."
"I hate you both," Logan growled, dropping his head into his hands. For some unbeknownst reason he had been looking forward to this date more than most. In fact, it was probably her very resistance that made her so attractive. She wasn't going to be as easy as all the others, for once he would earn what he got. Still, these two buffoons he called friends were ruining it for him. "Remind me never to tell either of you anything, ever again."
"OK, OK, no more laughing," Colin said, trying to calm himself down. He waved his hand in the air in front of him, motioning to Finn to stop. He took a few deep breaths, laugh free, before another fit hit him. He and Finn were practically rolling on the floor by this point.
Logan stood up in a huff and marched off towards his room. "No, mate, stop," Finn tried to say between laughs. "We'll be good, we promise." The laughter slowly died down and Logan looked back and forth between his friends before walking back to the couch.
Colin spoke up again. "In all seriousness man, you really think you're going to get on this girl's good side? No offense but I seriously think this one may even be out of your league."
"No girl is out of my league...OK maybe Angelina Jolie." Colin looked at him skeptically. Logan continued, "It'll be a challenge sure, but I'm always up for a challenge; unless it has to do with school or newspapers."
"Alright, man. Good luck with that."
"Colin, my friend," Logan said leaning forward conspiratorially, "luck has nothing to do with it. This girl is a just a puzzle waiting to be put together. First step, gathering all the pieces. Here's what we're gonna do..."
Rory leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the taxi's window. Her head was killing her. Gloria Estefan? She seriously couldn't come up with a better hero than Gloria Estefan? How had she let her grandfather trick her into this? Her Mom had told her what he was doing but she hadn't listened. It wasn't that she didn't know he was trying to manipulate her, but she just never thought he would go to such lengths. She had been humiliated. She really hoped she hadn't blown all her chances of getting into Yale; if for some reason she didn't get into Harvard, she really wanted the opportunity to be a bulldog.
"You know, those windows are filthy. You're probably contracting some weird disease as we speak, and since we're no longer speaking to your grandparents there will be no one to pick up the hospital tab if you get monkey herpes," Lorelai broke the silence.
"I highly doubt there have been any monkeys in this cab recently," Rory retorted, removing her head from the window and allowing it to lull back against the seat. "And if I do come down with monkey herpes and die, I will no longer have to live with the humiliation of this day forever ingrained in my memory."
"It's not that bad kiddo. It was only one meeting at Yale, you're still going to go to Harvard, this doesn't change anything," Lorelai soothed.
"It was humiliating. I made a fool of myself in there. I was dressed like a hobo," the younger girl ranted, pointing at her less than professional attire. "I hate Grandma and Grandpa."
"For once, kid—and I will chop you into tiny pieces and serve you to Apricot if you tell anyone this—I'm going to have to defend my mom. She really didn't know about this meeting. Although she does get a nice chunk of blame for selling your soul to the blond coffee cart devil."
In all the craziness over the interview Rory had almost forgotten that awful encounter at the coffee cart. How the hell had she been shanghaied into going on a date with that rich, arrogant, egotistical man whore? He had practically been undressing her with his eyes the whole time and yet somehow her grandparents had missed the lascivious glares and lewd smirks he had been bestowing upon her throughout the entire conversation. They were completely clueless to the fact that as they were speaking, he was thinking of how to deflower their granddaughter. "Ugh," she groaned, once again turning to the window and banging her head into it frustratedly. "Why did you have to remind me? Now I hate them and I hate you."
"Me?" Lorelai asked incredulously. "Why do you hate me? I didn't auction you off to the young Cassanova."
"You didn't stop it," Rory accused. "I swear I think that is the longest I have ever heard you go without speaking a word."
"Well you can't talk during the feature presentation," Lorelai mock defended with a gleam in her eye.
"I'm glad my misery is a source of entertainment to you. How the hell am I supposed to explain this to Jess? Am I just going to go up to him and say, 'Hey, I know we've only been together a week and Dean just got out of the picture but my grandparents set me up on a date, is that OK with you?'"
"Hmm, I'm not sure that would go over too well," Lorelai mused. "I would suggest you go with 'Jess, I think we should have an open relationship, especially since I've already agreed to go out with a handsome, charming college man.'"
Rory glowered at her mother, "Handsome and charming? Were we looking at the same guy because I'm going to have to stick with self-entitled and annoying."
"Hey, a guy can be handsome and charming and self-entitled and annoying." Rory continued to glare. "Fine, fine, here's a solution to your predicament; cancel. I don't think you really owe you grandparents any favors right now anyhow, so just back out."
"Oh yeah, great idea, because that went so well last month when you tried to back out of that Bowie concert with paddle number 17."
"Hmm, yeah, they can be rather unrelenting, can't they? Well just tell Jess he's a friend of the family whose family works in journalism and you're just going for some career advice. It's pretty much the truth. I mean, I doubt that boy actually has any attention of even mentioning the word newspaper, unless it's to ask you which section you plan on reading first the next morning while he makes you breakfast, but Jess doesn't have to know that."
"You're no help at all," Rory groaned. It looked like she was stuck going on this date whether she liked it or not.