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.
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.
"They're leaving today."
Rory shrugged at Aleesha's comment.
A small smile crossed Aleesha's face. "You're not even going to say bye?"
"I already said goodbye to Paris and them," Rory answered shortly.
Aleesha smiled again. "You're not going say goodbye to him?"
Rory inhaled deeply and gave Aleesha a Look. "I don't know who you're talking about."
"You know," Aleesha mused, "...one would think that you are way more affected by what happened than you let on. One might even think that you like him."
Rory narrowed her eyes at her. "I do not like him. And that stupid...thing...meant nothing."
Aleesha let a small smile escape. "Ah, so you do know who I'm talking about."
Rory rolled her eyes.
"Ror, honestly, if what happened didn't mean anything then you shouldn't worry too much about it," Aleesha said. "Just let it go."
Rory didn't reply. Aleesha was right. She shouldn't be sitting around feeling depressed over something that did not mean anything to her in the first place. Because that would imply that she did feel something - even a miniscule something - for him. And that was just not acceptable.
She could not and would not fall for Tristan DuGrey.
A few hours later, Rory waited impatiently for Aleesha who was talking to Brendan before the Chilton group left. She was doing her best to avoid a certain someone, whom she had not yet seen but did not really want to see anytime in the near future…or ever, for that matter.
She groaned as Brenden beckoned her over to them just as Austin and Paris appeared.
"Gilmore!" He called cheerfully, as she approached. "What, you don't like us anymore? You're not even going to say goodbye? I'm hurt."
Rory managed a smile. "Bye," she mumbled and gave him a hug.
" I know you're sad to see me go but you'll see us soon," he grinned at her.
"I guess," Rory answered.
It was the 'everyone else' part she was dreading. Particularly, a 'someone else.'
Everyone soon started chatting about life at Chilton. Although she was curious about the school, Rory did not want to linger any longer than she absolutely had to. She wanted to avoid the moment when a certain someone was bound to show up.
In her haste to get away, she managed to crash into someone who had come up behind her. Her eyes flew up to meet those eyes that had become so familiar to her in the past week.
Perfect.
She fidgeted nervously under his intense gaze and upon noticing the silence that had overcome the group as she and Tristan had walked into each other, she managed an as blank and unreadable expression as possible.
"Mary," he said simply.
She narrowed her eyes. Why had she been obsessing so much over the incident? Obviously it meant nothing to him. It was just his stupid player ways. He wasn't really interested in her. And she knew that. She had known it from the very beginning.
So why was it bothering her so much?
In that split second, she made up her mind. She did not care. She cared more about the fact that she actually bothered to give him the time of day in the first place.
"DuGrey," she answered shortly and stalked off.
"I'm an idiot," Tristan muttered as paced around the airport terminal.
"I could have told you that," Brendan said, watching his friend in amusement.
"I really am an idiot."
Brendan shrugged. "Yeah well, Paris always has a stick shoved up her ass but what can you do? Ouch!"
Brendan rubbed his head where Paris had smacked him. "I was joking!"
Tristan ignored the two, continuing with his ranting. "I screwed everything up. I should have just taken it slow."
"Tristan DuGrey? Taking it slow?" Louise asked. "That'll be the day."
Tristan shot her an annoyed look. "I should have waited until I got her to like me-"
"In order for her to like you, you have to get her to stand you first," Brendan interrupted him.
Tristan gave him an exasperated look as well. "You're not helping," then added, "...I should go talk to her."
"How?" Paris asked. "We have to board soon. Are you planning on driving all the way back to the resort, talk to Rory, then drive back here in a span of two minutes?"
"Paris, my dear, you are much too sarcastic for your own good," Brendan commented.
Paris ignored him. "You'll see her at school."
Tristan's eyes lit up at that. "True..."
"...she'll probably ignore you but you'll still see her at school," Paris added.
Tristan sighed. "Paris, please promise me you'll never decide to become a therapist."
"Home sweet home," Lorelai sang out as she opened the front door of their house. "There are no hot skier or snowboarder boys here but I can promise you an unhealthy amount of junk food."
At the mention of "skier or snowboarder guys," Rory sighed. Forgetting was a hard thing to do.
"Can we not mention skier or snowboarder guys please?"
Lorelai's ears perked up. "Ooh…I sense drama. Is there something Mini-me has conveniently forgotten to tell me? Who's the boy?"
"It was nothing. I don't really feel like talking about it."
Lorelai regarded her closely for a moment but chose to drop the subject. "Want some coffee?"
Rory grinned. "Yes."
Lorelai laughed and headed towards the kitchen. "You know you missed a lot of entertainment."
"Like what?"
"Well, Luke and Taylor were at it again…something about Taylor's property and Luke couldn't walk there…and then Kirk decided to set up a lemonade stand right outside of Luke's...I really don't know why…"
"Do you have everything?"
Rory nodded, staring out the jeep window.
"Well, this is it..."
Rory nodded again.
"Nervous?"
"A little."
"Think you'll see him?"
"It doesn't matter. I told you. I don't like him."
Lorelai nodded. "Your headmaster's kind of a psycho."
Rory laughed. "Maybe you should not have worn shorts to the interview."
"I had no clean clothes."
Rory smiled. "I should go. I'd make a great impression by being late on my first day."
She grabbed her backpack and got out of the car. "I'll see you at home," she said, looking back at Lorelai.
"Good luck!" Lorelai called after her.
Rory nervously took in her surroundings as she walked through the parking lot towards Chilton's entrance. Her eyes focused on a particularly large group of students milling around a group of fancy cars. But then again, the entire Chilton parking lot looked like a showcase for Lexus, BMW and Mercedes.
Rory rolled her eyes. How rich could these kids get?
She stopped for a moment, her gaze focusing on a sleek, black Mercedes Benz that had just pulled into the parking lot. She watched as the car came to stop and a rather familiar, messy head of blonde hair appeared. Immediately, he was enveloped by the crowd she was previously looking at.
Rory promptly turned away, scowling, as she made her way into the building and towards her assigned locker. She dropped her backpack onto the floor, spun the combination and tried to open the locker.
The door wouldn't budge.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Rory groaned. "This is not happening..."
"Gilmore! You look like you're ready to kill someone."
Rory spun around to see Brendan grinning at her, a very pretty girl and a guy standing with him.
Rory's face broke into a smile. "Brendan, hey!" she exclaimed as he gave her a hug.
"Some of the lockers have to be opened like this - here," he demonstrated.
"Thanks," she said, gratefully.
"So how have you been?" he asked.
"Pretty good," Rory answered, beginning to put her things away. "This week was kind of crazy though. You know, what with getting all of my stuff together."
"Yeah-" Brendan was interrupted by the guy clearing his throat.
"Oh right..." Brendan mumbled. "Rory, this is Justin, Justin, Rory."
Rory smiled. "Hi."
Justin grinned at her. "Brendan's very rude, in case you hadn't noticed."
Brendan rolled his eyes then pointed out the girl. "This is Summer."
The girl gave Rory an appraising look. "Hey," she answered, boredom clearly evident in her voice.
Rory raised her eyebrows but didn't reply.
Summer flipped her hair over her shoulders. "I'm going to find Tristan. He should be here by now. You coming Justin?"
At the mention of Tristan's name, a frown took its place on Rory's face.
"So, what do you have first period?" Brendan asked, turning back to Rory.
"Umm...Calculus," she said, showing him her schedule.
"Ah, the party subject," he answered, grinning.
"Oh yeah. Big party."
"I have English Lit and Bio with you," Brendan said.
"That's good. At least I'll know someone…" Rory answered.
The rest of her sentence was cut short by the sound of another voice.
"Will you two hurry up? I don't want to be late," a voice snapped.
Rory couldn't help but smile as she turned and saw Paris, Madeline and Louise a few lockers down from hers.
"Paris!" Brendan called out, earning a few odd looks from passing students.
She turned around and glared at him. "Go away."
Rory laughed as Brendan faked a pout.
"Rory!" Madeline squealed and gave her a hug.
After a series of small talk, Paris looked at her watch and then at Rory. "What do you have first?"
"Calculus," Rory answered.
"Well, you're with us then. Let's go," Paris said and walked away.
Rory shrugged an amused smile forming across her face. Waving goodbye to Brendan, she followed Paris down the hallway and into the classroom, Madeline and Louise in tow.
Just as Rory took a seat beside Paris, the bell rang and the teacher called the class to order.
"Alright everyone, you are in Grade 12 Calculus…just to make sure everyone's in the right room."
He glanced around. "Good, no one left."
A few people laughed in response.
The teacher continued. "For those of you who don't know, my name is Mr. Roberts-" he was interrupted as the door swung open and the last person in the world that Rory wanted to see, sauntered in.
"Mr. DuGrey, how nice of you to join us," Mr. Roberts commented dryly.
Tristan flashed that trademark grin of his. Rory could practically feel the girls swooning in the room.
She rolled her eyes as he answered, "Nice to see you too Mr. Rob. I hope you had a lovely break."
Mr. Roberts rolled his eyes and pointed to an empty seat. "Sit."
Unfortunately for Rory, that empty seat just happened to be directly beside her.
A tell-tale smirk crossed his features as Tristan caught her eyes, sliding into the seat beside her.
"Mary, Mary, Mary. What a coincidence."
Rory stifled the urge to throw her Calculus textbook at his head and instead settled for groaning.
This was going to be one very long school term.
AN: Sorry for the lack of updates. On top of regular schoolwork, I'm taking a prep course to write the medical school entrance exam…not fun I tell you. And the fact that I'm the worst procrastinator in the world does not help matters when everything begins to pile up.
Anyway, I haven't really changed much…just fixed spelling mistakes and such. If I missed anything, I apologize. Hope everyone still likes it J