Thank you so much for all the review, you guys are amazing!
Thanks to my beta Lourenda!
Props to Britt, she was the only one who figured out about Kiah.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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Rory was sitting on the bench as one by one her campers left. Rory couldn't believe how much in one day she had already bonded with these fifteen girls.
Casey was sitting on the table next to Rory and Kiah was sitting on the bench next to her feet drawing in the dirt with her shoe.
"Hey, Rory?" Casey asked quietly.
"Yeah?"
"You know earlier when you said we could talk to you about anything…Did you mean it?"
Rory looked over at the small-framed girl. She had long, straight dirty blonde hair and big hazel eyes. She was a beautiful girl, but Rory could tell she had a lot of experiences that were far beyond her years. "Absolutely. If any of you ever need me, I'm here. You guys can tell me anything and it'll stay between me and you. I'm not here to judge."
Casey nodded and then hugged Rory. Rory was taken aback by the action but returned the gesture anyways.
"Thank you." She said quietly and turned her head to see her ride, "I'll see you tomorrow."
Rory watched as Casey got into a silver sports car with a woman that looked identical to her. It was either her mother or her sister but either way she looked annoyed to have to be there.
Turning her attention to the small little girl at her feet, Rory slid down onto the bench "It's just you and me kiddo."
"My uncle is picking me up!" Kiah said beaming proudly.
"Do you see your uncle a lot?"
"No, during the year I live in New York and he lives here, but he calls all the time and sends me presents." Kiah explained cheerfully.
"Oh, how nice of him." Rory said smiling.
"Is that my Kiah Bear?" Rory heard a painfully familiar accented voice call out.
"Uncle Finn!" Kiah said jumping off the bench and running into the tall Australians arms.
"Hello, Love. Where's your counselor? Your mom gave me strict orders to talk to her and make sure that you were a good girl."
"Over there! Her name is Rory!" Kiah said pointing to Rory who was sitting on the picnic table.
"Oh really?" Finn raised an eyebrow and walked over to her. "Reporter girl, we meet again."
Rory rolled her eyes "Finn, you know I couldn't stay away from you! I took this job somehow knowing that Kiah was your niece and that you would have to pick her up."
"I know I am just so damn irresistible."
Kiah gasped, "Uncle Finn, you swore! You owe me a dollar, mommy said!"
"Of course she did." Finn mumbled as he set the little girl down next to Rory and began to rummage through his pockets eventually pulling out a crumpled dollar bill.
Rory looked up to see Colin and Rosemary approaching as well, apparently this morning wasn't a hallucination. "Gang's all here." she said dryly.
"You see, my sister didn't trust me to remember to pick Kiah up so she called Rosemary to make sure I did." Finn explained.
"And Colin?"
"Well, Colin has no life." Finn laughed.
"Finn, are you hitting on the counselor already?" Colin said walking up to him then glancing at Rory. "Though, I don't think that would go over well with Logan."
"So, if you don't mind me asking, why are you working here?" Rosemary asked.
"Apparently stealing a yacht gets you 300 hours of community service."
"Harsh, you should have just let Logan's lawyers deal with it." Colin told her.
"I don't mind working here, the kids are a great and I've already made some good friends. Unlike Logan, I am willing to face the consequences of what I did."
"We miss you, Love!" Finn said dramatically.
"I know I miss you guys to." Rory said honestly, she had grown to love Logan's friends.
"Look, I've gotta get going, there's a staff meeting. It was nice to see you all again."
"Give Finny a hug!" Finn shouted and pulled Rory into a big bear hug.
Rory pulled away smiling and turned towards the office. "Bye guys! I'll see you tomorrow, Kiah!"
"Bye, Rory!" The little girl said brightly.
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Tristan watched from the office window as Rory embraced the tall brunette guy. It then dawned on him that earlier she never answered the question of if she was single.
"Somebody's jealous." Sammie said in a sing-song voice.
"What? No, I'm not." Tristan denied turning around away from the window.
"Then why are you practically murdering that guy with your eyes?"
"I'm not!" Tristan said defensively as began to fill out some paperwork.
"Fine, I believe you." Sammie said sarcastically before walking away just as Rory walked into the office.
She took one look at Tristan and began to laugh. Though Tristan had tried to wash off the face paint the outline of orange and black stripes could still be seen.
"You have no right to laugh, Gilmore. You're very persuasive; you could sell ice to a penguin!" Tristan glared at her.
"Oh c'mon, Tris. You know you're a hot tiger." Rory purred in his ear.
Tristan willed his body not to react to her actions. As embarrassing as it was and though he would never admit it on his death bed, Rory was the girl that helped him get through military school.
Rory noticed Tristan's silence and smiled "Cat got your tongue?"
"You've changed."
"Yes, I have." Rory said half heartedly.
Tristan noticed she was no longer joking. Her eyes weren't playful and there was no smile, just a look of defeat.
"I like this new side of you," Tristan told her. "I'll just have to work extra hard to make you blush, I always found that sort of endearing about you."
"Shut up, Tristan!"
"Are you two done flirting?" Wendy asked from the table across the room "I'd like to start the staff meeting so we can all get home before dinner."
Rory's cheeks glowed a bright pink and Tristan just smirked. As they walked over to the area where their fellow counselors were seated Tristan leaned down and whispered in Rory's ear "Yeah, Mare. Stop flirting with me."
Rory swatted his arm before taking a seat next to Sammie and Eric while Tristan took a seat behind them.
Through out the whole meeting Rory had flashbacks of Chilton as Tristan continued to kick the back of her chair. In some strange way it comforted her that though some things had changed, Tristan's tactic of getting under her skin hadn't.
"Check the board for your assignments tomorrow, the only one that got switched was Tristan and Rory." Wendy said glancing at the bored "You're now doing water activities instead of soccer."
The meeting ended and Rory was walking out to the parking lot as she hunted through her purse for her keys. She had found that the only downside to having a big purse was not being able to easily locate small objects quickly. "I know you're in there. Come out, come out wherever you are." Rory mumbled out loud.
"I guess your locker wasn't the only inanimate object that you like to sweet talk." Tristan said causing Rory to jump a little.
"Don't you have a cereal to advertise or something?"
"Hey, I can settle for being Tony the Tiger…Ever seen those commercials? He's pretty ripped."
"Only you would use that logic." Rory said as she triumphantly pulled her keys out of her purse and unlocking her car door.
"I've always been a glass half-full kind of guy."
Rory just laughed and threw her stuff into the backseat of her car before turning back to him "As cheesy as this is about to sound, I'm glad to see you again."
Tristan couldn't help but let a huge smile over take his features "Why's that?"
"I just am." Rory shrugged "I'll see you tomorrow."
Tristan watched as Rory got into her car and drove away. "It's gonna be a good summer."
He said to himself before getting into his own car and driving off.
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Rory walked into Luke's and fell onto the chair next to her mother.
"Rough day?" Lorelai asked slightly amused.
"Not really, I'm just tired. Those kids take a lot of energy out of you." Rory explained.
"How was your first day with the ankle biters?"
"Not bad at all. I learned that one of my camper's Kiah is Finn's niece and that Tristan
still looks hot even with his face painted as a tiger."
"You used your mad persuasive skills didn't you?" Lorelai smirked.
"Yes, yes I did."
"It's a trait I have taught you. You could get a guy to do anything with those skills, especially sexual things."
"Aw, Geez!" Luke mumbled. "Lore, I thought we talked about you talking about sex in the diner…with Rory."
"Luke, you've seen the commercials parents are supposed to talk to their children about sex."
"What's with everyone talking about commercials today? I mean seriously do you people have nothing better to do than watch TV?"
"I'll have you know TV is the mirror to our real lives!" Lorelai told her daughter seriously.
"How so?"
"Dawson's creek for instance, in the beginning Joey was sweet and virginal and then at the end of the series she had slept with almost every male character on the show."
"Not true, she did not sleep with Charlie or Jack."
"Jack was gay and she so would have slept with Charlie if he had stuck around a little longer. He was hot."
"I still don't see how that relates to real life."
"Well I was relating it to your life. You were all sweet and innocent then you hit college and you were at spring break kissing Paris."
"Paris kissed me!" Rory countered.
"It doesn't matter you were kissing girls and then do not get me started on the whole playing friend against friend…Logan against Robert…Joey did the same thing, Dawson against Pacey."
"Stop comparing me to Joey Potter! My dad was not a drug dealer and is not in jail!"
"That you know of." Lorelai pointed out.
"End of conversation! And I would like to comment that I will never have to use my persuasive skills to get Tristan to do anything sexual." Rory informed her mother.
"Why, will he do them with out any persuasion at all?" Lorelai asked "Those are the best men…Luke's not like that - he's shy."
"MOM!" Rory whined "I do not want to know about your sex life with Luke!"
"AH HA! But you did not deny that Tristan would do sexual things without asking!" Lorelai grinned triumphantly.
"I don't even know why I bother with you." Rory shook her head.
Luke walked up and refilled her coffee "That makes two of us."
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Tristan walked into his apartment and threw his keys on the counter. Walking over to the refrigerator he pulled out a bottle of water and began to drink it.
"You know you're not very observant, I could have robbed you blind." A voice said from behind him causing him to spit out his water and turn around.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"That's the greeting you give to your sister?"
"That's the greeting you give to an unannounced sister." Tristan told her wiping up the water he had spit out.
"Mom was driving me crazy! I had to get out of there."
"You're off to college the last week of August; you'll survive a couple more months."
Tristan's sister, Breelynn was eighteen years old and had been trying to get sent away to boarding school for as long as he could remember.
"So, how was your first day at camp?"
"Fine."
"Fine? That's all you're going to give me?" Breelynn said dramatically "I want the dirty details, damn it!"
"Bre, there is nothing to tell."
"Then why does your face look like you pretending to be Tigger?"
"Rory Gilmore."
"Ah, the notorious Mary!" Breelynn exclaimed brightly. "She's got you wrapped around her finger."
"She does not!" Tristan protested.
"The fact that your face was painted like a rainforest animal says otherwise."
"Breelynn, just drop it!" Tristan yelled frustrated.
The brother and sister sat in silence for a while until Breelynn decided she wasn't done getting under her brothers skin "So, how's Eric?"
Tristan groaned "Eric is too old for you."
"Eric is two years older, big deal." She retorted dryly.
"It is a big deal and I refuse to let you date him."
"You cannot tell me or him who we can and cannot date."
"I can sure as hell try."
Breelynn and Eric had been dancing around each other since they had met the first summer Tristan had come home. Which would have been all fine and good if Tristan wasn't Eric's best friend and knew how Eric thought. There was no way in hell he was going to let his baby sister date Eric.
"I hate you!" Breelynn shouted as she walked towards the guest room his Tristan's apartment that she had dubbed her own.
"Then you can get the hell out of my apartment!" He shouted back and was rewarded with an angry screech and a slammed door.
Tristan threw himself onto the couch and closed his eyes. 'She's right; I am completely under Rory's spell once again. It's a little pathetic I am whipped by a girl who will never give me the time of day.'
"Rory Gilmore is going to be the death of me." He said out loud and was almost positive that he was not the first guy to mutter those words either.
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I know what your thinking, another character to add to the mix but I have a reason! I didn't really think that Tristan's mother would be as nice as she was in my other story. So, I added his sister as sort of a confidant then to add more drama to Tristan's life and I added his sister liking his best friend.
I'm pretty much done setting up the story so no worries there will be much more Trory action to come.
Reviews are always appreciated!