Title: Love to Hate You
Author: Lannah
Summary: Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.
Pairing: R/T. What
Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.
The next morning, Rory awoke, bright and early, for her upcoming ski lesson. When she was ready, Rory headed over to Aleesha's room, only to find that the girl was still not ready and was hopping about her room not completely dressed and attempting to find various items of clothing.
Rory groaned and flopped down on a chair. She had a feeling they would be there for a while.
"Hurry up! We're supposed to be on the hill at least a half an hour before the lesson," Rory said impatiently to Aleesha once she had managed to find her hat, gloves and the other half of her boots.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming. Jeez," Aleesha grumbled and followed Rory out of the hotel.
Rory thought she heard Aleesha add under her breath, "Someone didn't have her coffee yet…"
As they neared the ski lodge, they dumped her ski equipment on the snow and they headed inside.
"Morning Rosa," Rory called to the woman at the desk, following Aleesha inside. "Can you give us our schedules and the attendance list please?"
The woman at the front desk smiled. "Here you two go," Rosa answered, handing them a clipboard with some paperwork.
"Thanks," they answered in unison.
Rory examined the schedule as they hurried back towards the door. "We have a break at twelve thirty…"
"Good, I can eat," Aleesha interrupted.
"And we're teaching on hill five," Rory continued, her head bent as they exited the building, almost knocking over two incoming guys in the process.
"Whoa…where's the fire?" Brendan muttered, as two girls practically flew past them.
He stopped for a minute and turned around to look at the girls' retreating backs. One bent down to grab her ski equipment from the ground and almost tripped in the process.
He chuckled when a thought occurred to him.
"Hey, isn't that the elevator girl?" Brendan asked Tristan, who was currently with him. "…the one who wouldn't tell you her name?" he continued.
Tristan rolled his eyes at the comment but nodded. "Yeah, that's her," he said as he watched the two girls walk away.
"Her friend's cute..." Brendan said, thoughtfully.
Tristan shook his head in amusement and a slow grin spread across his face.
"What?" Brendan asked warily. His tone then changed as he realized that Tristan was up to something. "I know that look. What trouble are we going to involve ourselves in now?" he asked excitedly.
"It's not trouble…technically," Tristan replied. "But, did you happen to hear their conversation?"
"Yes," he answered confused. "But what does that have to do with anything…" Brendan's voice trailed off, as a knowing grin crossed his features.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Tristan asked conspiratorially.
"I think, we need some ski lessons," Brendan replied.
Having established their plan for the day, the two hurried over to the woman at the front desk, who had previously spoken with the two girls.
"Hello…Rosa," Tristan glanced at the woman's name tag and immediately slipped into charm mode. "We were wondering if we could sign up for the class on hill number five."
Rosa raised her eyebrows. "Hill five?"
Brendan and Tristan both nodded.
"That class starts in twenty minutes...I don't know..."
"Please?" Brendan pleaded. "This is our first time here and we really wanted to hit the slopes early."
The woman gave them another funny look. "Okay, but you're going to have to hurry."
She grabbed some forms and passed it to them. "You have to fill these out. We offer classes in packages, so pick which one you want-"
"Just sign us up for the most number of classes you offer," Tristan interrupted.
Rosa raised her eyebrows again. "If you say so," she muttered. "Fill in your personal information here and I will take care of the rest. And I need to know which method of payment you would prefer."
After impatiently finishing off the necessary paperwork (without actually reading anything of importance) and getting the proper equipment, the two boys left for their new ski lessons.
"We are geniuses," Tristan said as they headed out the door, ski equipment in hand.
"I know. We should win one of those smart people prizes," Brendan added. "You know, that Nobel thing…"
He was cut off as Paris walked through the doors.
"Where are you two going?" she asked suspiciously.
"Well Paris, where does it look like we're going?" Brendan asked, grinning at the scowl that overtook her face at his comment.
"Ski lessons," Tristan supplied. He knew that if he didn't try to diffuse the situation now, Paris would never leave them alone.
"What?" Paris asked confused. "Why do you need lessons? You already know how to ski. You've been doing it for years."
Tristan shrugged. "People always say that you can never stop learning and I happen to agree with them."
With that, both boys continued on to hill five, leaving a very confused Paris behind.
"So, do we have everyone?" Aleesha asked, surveying the group of pre-teen kids stationed before her on the bunny hill.
After a series of uncertain nods and agreeable murmurs, she continued, "Let's get started then. We'll take attendance, just to make sure we have everyone-"
She was soon cut off by Rory's voice.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Rory muttered as her eyes focused on two guys walking towards them.
Rory noted the confused expression on Aleesha's face as she regarded the two teenage boys walking towards them. When they drew nearer, the blonde one, whom Aleesha recognized as the guy Rory was talking about the day before, handed her a sheet.
"New list," he answered at Aleesha's questioning look. "Rosa said to give it to you."
"You two are in this class?" she asked disbelievingly although it came out as more of a statement than a question.
They both smiled innocently back at her and nodded.
Rory rolled her eyes and turned to the rest of students and began to read off the names on the list, sighing when she reached Tristan's and Brendan's names.
"Alright, my name is Rory and this is Aleesha. Now, I'm assuming that everyone here has never skied before since this is the beginner class," she glanced briefly at the two guys, "so, we're going to start off with the basics, like learning how to put on your ski equipment properly."
"Everyone grab a partner and follow us," Aleesha continued.
"Nice one, DuGrey," Brendan said sarcastically as he bent down and pretended to "learn" how to put on his boots. "The bunny hill?"
"Well, how was I supposed to know they were teaching a beginner class?" Tristan protested.
"Maybe you should learn to be a better eavesdropper."
"If I remember correctly – which I do - you were eavesdropping as well!"
"I already know how to ski. This is boring," Brendan whined.
"Stop complaining and just pretend that you don't know how to do it," Tristan said slowly, as if speaking to a small child.
"And where is that going to get me?"
"You can ask them a whole lot of questions; pretend you don't know what you're doing, so they'll help you and make sure you fall down a lot, so they'll definitely help you out."
Brendan gave him a disbelieving look. "You're an idiot."
"This idiot found out her name," Tristan retorted.
Brendan groaned and shook his head. "This is such a waste of a day."
"You're the one who wanted to meet her friend. Why are you complaining?"
Brendan simply chose not to reply and groaned as the girls started the group on learning how to balance themselves properly when on skis.
Rory sighed as she felt Aleesha's eyes on her. Groaning, she looked away from Tristan and Brendan "skiing" down the hill - if one could call it skiing. Either the two guys really did not know how to ski and were, in fact, telling the truth or they were really, really good at faking it. Whichever one, even the ten year old kids were grasping the concept much faster than those two.
"What?" Rory asked impatiently, finally turning towards Aleesha.
Aleesha grinned and looked down at the two boys. "What's up with that?"
Rory sighed again and shrugged. "I have no idea."
"You know," Aleesha mused, "If I didn't know any better, I would say that blondie likes you, yet he's only known you for one day…"
"He does not like me."
Aleesha shrugged, her eyes twinkling. "Maybe you like him."
She was rewarded with a death glare from Rory.
Aleesha laughed and held her hands up in mock surrender. "I'm kidding. Besides, we all know you like studious guys who like to read books and all that other boring-"
She immediately stopped talking as she ducked quickly to avoid the snowball that was heading her way.
"Should we go talk to them?" Aleesha asked at the end of their ski lesson.
"No," Rory answered, abruptly.
"Why not?"
"Because."
"That's a pretty crappy reason. It's not even a real reason," Aleesha said, pointedly.
"Well, if you want to talk to them so badly, then go do it," Rory retorted, waving her clipboard around.
"I don't have to. They're coming over."
"What? Quick, look busy," Rory answered panicking and began looking around for something to do.
Completely ignoring Rory's protests, Aleesha smiled widely at Tristan and Brendan, who were the only two remaining students after their rather disastrous skiing lesson and who were now heading over towards the two girls.
"Ladies," Brendan greeted.
Rory rolled her eyes. "Aleesha, we have to go. We have another lesson."
"We've got ten minutes. It's all good."
"Great," Rory mumbled quietly, trying to shoot Aleesha the most evil glare she could muster but, to no avail, for Aleesha's attention was now focused on the guys.
Apparently though, Tristan heard her, for he grinned and said, "Aren't you a happy one, Mary?"
Rory looked at him confused and was even more confused when Brendan and Aleesha started laughing. Though, after the glare Rory shot her, Aleesha tried her best to cover up her laughter with unconvincing coughing.
"My name is Rory."
Tristan merely smiled. "Whatever you say, Mary."
In order to prevent an unnecessary murder or anything close to it, Aleesha hastily began speaking before Rory could find ways of killing Tristan.
"So, are you here on a school trip or something?" Aleesha asked.
"Great," Rory thought. "Now, I have to listen to small talk."
Brenden nodded his head and Rory decided to tune them out. She decided she would have a better and more interesting time by staring up at the sky, the snow, the trees….anywhere, really. Anything had to be better than listening to the conversation taking place. The mention of a specific school's name however, drew her attention back to the current conversation.
"…Chilton."
Rory glanced up when she heard the name. "You go to Chilton?" she asked.
"Why? Are you impressed?" Tristan asked, eyes twinkling mischievously.
"Impressed that someone of your seemingly small intellectual capacity could actually manage to get into that school," she retorted.
Brendan snickered while a slow smile spread across Tristan's face, completely unfazed.
"That's so weird!" Aleesha exclaimed, excitedly. "Rory just got accepted there."
"Really?" both boys asked, returning their attention to Rory.
"Um…yes," Rory answered slowly, a slight blush creeping up her face. She silently vowed to kill Aleesha later on for opening her big mouth and for even beginning a conversation with the two of them. More specifically, for beginning an unnecessary conversation with a certain tall, blonde boy. "I start after the break."
Tristan grinned again. "It looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of you than we thought!"
"Unfortunately," she muttered then glanced at her watch. "Leesh, we have to go, now!" she looked at Aleesha, pleadingly.
"Thanks for the lesion. Bye ladies," Brendan called after them as Rory grabbed Aleesha's hand and proceeded to pull her away from the boys and leave for their next lesson.
"They seem nice," Aleesha commented once they were out of earshot.
"You're only saying that because you think they're hot."
"Well, that too."
Rory paused for a second then voiced a thought she previously had, "Why'd you laugh when he called me Mary?"
Aleesha looked at her closely. "You mean you don't know?"
"Know what?" Rory asked, looking quite confused.
Aleesha laughed, albeit, nervously. "It's just this thing those stupid prep school kids call girls that they think are very…innocent…and, I hate to use the term 'goody-goody' but–"
"I am not a goody-goody," Rory protested. "And how can he declare from two minutes of talking to me that I'm 'innocent' and 'goody-goody'?"
Aleesha shoved her hands in her jacket pockets. "Well, you do kind of have that innocent, little girl thing going on…" she said sheepishly.
Rory didn't answer for a few moments and they walked on in silence.
"That's a stupid insult," she said finally breaking the silence.
"I don't think it's meant to be an insult exactly." Aleesha smiled, in an attempt to reassure her friend.
"You do realize that in a few weeks, I am going to be attending the same school as him, right? And apparently, we're in the same grade. So my chances of not seeing him are going to be very limited."
Aleesha sighed. "Relax. It won't be so bad. And chances are, you may not even have any classes with him at all. If not, then maybe just one."
"That's reassuring," Rory grumbled sarcastically as they arrived at their next lesson's location. "This is going to be one very long break and an even longer school year," she muttered dejectedly.