Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Gilmore Girls
Surprises
When school finished on that surprising day, Tristan found Rory at her locker.
"You ready?" Tristan asks, somewhat softly.
"Yeah," She replies in an even softer voice. They are both embarrassed about what happened in class that morning. They walk silently to the car. Rory walks slowly, because Tristan is again being stopped by every single girl, and some not so single girls, in the school. Rory waits patiently by the car as she watches Tristan make his way through the maze of primped, excited girls. She hears the car doors unlock as she see Tristan nod toward her, and she climbs into the empty seat.
When he finally makes it to the car, Tristan mumbles an apology and quickly starts the car. Before he is able to pull out of his parking spot, there is a knock at the window. Rory rolls her eyes in frustration and looks out her own window as Tristan rolls his down. "What can I do for you, Babe?"
"Wouldn't you rather be with me tonight?"
"Now that's not fair, Babe. I already explained to you that I promised to help Rory."
"That's never stopped you before. Besides, isn't Mary all smart or something?" She looks at Rory, "You're just trying to seduce him. I know it. You pretend not to be interested and you think he's going to just fall all over you."
"Are you worried, Babe?"
"About you?" she scoffs, "No."
"Well, then. I guess you'll see Tristan in the morning. Try to pick a locker other than mine, alright? Otherwise I might have reason to think you might have just lied."
"Ugh, Tristan, are you going to let her talk to me like that?"
"We really have to go, Baby. I'll see you later."
"When?"
"I don't know, later," Tristan says as he rolls up his window, cutting off Babe's next question, and finally backs out of his parking space. To Rory, he says, "You sure are on a roll today."
"Yeah. I'm sorry. It's not exactly normal." Tristan opens his mouth, but Rory cuts him off before he can speak. "Don't."
"Right. I wouldn't want to set you off again. Especially when you definitely don't have any feelings for me whatsoever." Rory holds her tongue and simply glares at Tristan. Tristan glances at her to see her death stare. "Sorry. It's a habit."
"I'd say you should work on that, but it seems most of your girlfriends probably like it."
"I'm only like this with you."
"I feel so special."
"You are," Tristan accidentally lets slip, but covers it by smirking at Rory and blowing her a kiss. Rory then turns her attention back to the grass passing by outside the passenger window, and Tristan mentally smacks himself on the head.
Alexa is waiting for Tristan when he and Rory walk through the door. "Rory, you're back!" She yells.
"Hi Alexa. How are you?"
"I'm hungry."
"We were just going to get a snack," says Teresa. "but when she saw her big brother pull in, she just had to wait." The tone in her voice made it apparent to Rory that her feelings for Tristan were not good.
Alexa looks at Tristan then Rory, "Are you hungry?"
Rory answers first. "You know. I am starving. What are you having."
"Peanut butter and crackers."
"Mmm. Could we have some Tristan."
"Absolutely," he says as he runs towards his sister, picks her up, and begins running. "Follow us," he calls as Alexa screams gleefully.
Rory laughs and looks at Teresa to find nothing but a frown. "He may be a complete jerk, but he does care about her you know."
"He cares about her when it suits him," is her curt response.
Teresa leads Rory to the kitchen, then gets the peanut butter and crackers out of the pantry. She gives Rory and Tristan each knives and she begins fixing Alexa's herself.
"I want Rory to do that," Alexa says.
Teresa is taken aback, but relinquishes her role.
"You know, Teresa, you can actually take a thirty minute break if you want. We can take care of things here."
"Is that okay with you, Alexa?"
"Yeah," she says with a mouthful of peanut butter.
Teresa again looks stricken, but leaves the group alone in the kitchen. "I'll be back soon."
"Bye," Alexa says happily.
Rory feels slightly bad for Teresa but realizes Alexa's happiness at spending a half an hour with her brother is more important than Teresa's disdain at getting a free half an hour because the "estranged" brother suddenly has a little more time.
The three of them play happily as they chomp on their peanut butter crackers. By the end of the snack time Alexa is thoroughly covered in peanut butter. Rory laughs and helps Alexa wash her hands and face. Tristan takes this opportunity to study his sister and Rory, then decides to have some fun. He slowly sneaks up behind the laughing girls and then quickly grabs the hose extension from the sink and sprays them both with water. They scream and flee the scene and promptly run into Teresa.
"What do you think you're doing?" she screams.
All three of them look at Teresa guiltily. "Come on Alexa, let's get you cleaned up. You two should start studying." She says pointedly to Tristan and Rory.
Rory sees Tristan's jaw tense then start to open. She walked over to him quickly, grabbed his arm, and said loudly, "She's right. We should study." She then mutters, "It will only upset Alexa if you confront Teresa now."
When they get into the comfortable red den, Tristan begins to rant about Teresa. "Where does she get off? We were just having fun. A little water never hurt anyone."
"That's not true. It melted the Wicked Witch."
"Anyone real."
"Umm… what about people who drown?"
"I said a little water."
"You can drown in a little water."
"Has anyone ever told you you're infuriating?"
"I seem to be using that word myself more than I'm hearing it from other people lately."
Tristan nods and returns to the original subject. "She doesn't think I love my sister. She thinks I'm just trying to win you over."
"Can you think of any reason she might believe that?"
"What does that mean?"
"I'm just saying, she has seen you and how you act with your sister and with girls. She has probably seen your attitude change depending on the girl you're with. You've even admitted that you sometimes neglect Alexa in order to spend time with 'the ladies'".
"That doesn't mean I don't love her."
"I think Teresa is just trying to protect her. Plus, she has probably gotten a little territorial with her. It seems like she spends the most time with her, right?"
"What exactly are you getting at?"
"Nothing. I'm just trying to give you Teresa's point of view. I don't think she's trying to be mean. She loves that little girl too. All you have to do to win her over is prove that Alexa is more important than your girlfriends."
"Of course she's more important."
"Then let your actions say so."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"You're right. Let's just study." Rory says, giving up.
By seven o'clock, Rory is thoroughly frustrated.
"Okay, why don't we take a break now? You've been doing great."
"You call that great?"
"Well, no, not really. But I'm afraid if I don't give you a break, you're head might pop off. Plus, I'm a little worn out."
"Oh, well we can stop. You're the one doing me a favor here. We can stop anytime."
"No, let's just take a quick break. How about a walk? Then we can say good night to Alexa and get another hour in studying before I take you home."
"Are you sure? It seems like a lost cause."
"Nah, you're definitely not a lost cause. And yeah, I'm sure. Come on." He leads her to the back of his house where there is a beautiful sprawling garden.
"This is breathtaking."
"It's my mom's pride and joy."
"She did this?"
Tristan lets out a small laugh, "She approved this."
"Oh."
"Yeah, she's not much of a dirt and grit kind of girl."
"It's still gorgeous. I would be out here all the time if this was my house. I think I would just sit out here and read for hours."
"You can do that any time you want. You're welcome here."
Rory becomes flustered and struggles to find a response.
"Embarrassed?"
"No. Of course not. I'm just confused as to why you would want me here 'anytime' when you will either have another girl here or you'll be out with someone."
It is Tristan's turn to be silenced. "Embarrassed?"
"Nope."