Rory snuck up into her room, slowly tiptoeing in, shutting the door quietly behind her and headed towards the bathroom, ready to clear her face of all the makeup, she reached out to open the bathroom door,

"Oh, you are so busted," Louise said slyly, Rory jumped in surprise then quickly switched on the light and turned around to reveal, Madeline, Louise and Paris all sitting on her bed, arms crossed, Madeline and Louise were smirking but Paris just looked annoyed.

"Oh…umm…what are you guys doing back so early? I thought you were out partying," Rory said high pitched,

"Well it's after one so I decided I was out and dragged these two with me before they got too drunk then we all came in here to tell you about everything, imagine our surprise when the one that was supposed to be sleeping isn't even here, I was worried sick!...and what are you wearing?" Paris ranted,

"Gilmore! Where have you been? You look fucking hot by the way," Madeline said,

"Oh… well I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk,"

"Sure," Louise said sarcastically, "That's why you are dressed like a sexy biatch, makeup and all, if my girl powers aren't deceiving me I'd say that you're the one that's been partying besides you can smell the smoke and alcohol on you from here,"

"Okay, so maybe I went out, you have no right to interrogate me,"

"I do! You don't leave a note or any sign to tell me you were out and fine, you left me here to freak," Paris said,

"And my girl powers are once again tapping in saying that your party kicked our party's ass, why didn't you invite us?"

"Because…"

"Rory, this isn't like you, you're not one to lie, or so I thought, you don't sneak out to parties and you sure as hell don't dress like that, what's going on?" Paris asked, Rory sighed,

"If I tell you three, you are sworn to secrecy, which means you can't tell a soul,"

"You know you can tell us, we're your friends," Madeline said,

"Yeah, well for the first three months I was here you were the girls who made my life hell,"

"And now we're the ones who make your life heaven," Louise said,

"Think that highly of yourself now huh?"

"Shut up, stop stalling and spill,"

"Fine but tell no one,"

"All ready said that,"

"Just making sure, anyway ever heard of Lorelai Hayden?"

"Who hasn't? Notorious party girl, she was known to be nice and treat everyone as her equal, she ruled the biggest socialite school as queen, her best friends have the most prestigious names, then her very best friend died, she became a major slut then suddenly disappeared out of society's eyes," Paris said,

"What does she have to do with this? Is she back in the scene? Did you go to one of her parties? Is this major gossip?" Louise quickly hit her with questions,

"Well….uh…you see my full name is Lorelai Leigh Gilmore-Hayden," Lorelai said looking at the ground, Paris fell off the bed and onto the floor before struggling to get up,

"Holy shit fuck!"

"Whoa Paris, watch the language,"

"But you- no way is that possible,"

"Wanna see my birth certificate?" Rory said smartly,

"Well I suppose that could show that you aren't lying, but you probably don't have that with you, do you have any other legal forms of identification?"

"Paris, shut up, like she would lie, I still wanna know what she did tonight and then after that I have a million other questions," Louise scolded, Rory laughed and handed Paris her Black Card that said 'Lorelai Hayden'.

"Well since you've already agreed to be sworn to secrecy, I may or may not have taken Tristan out to a party tonight,"

"Why would you tell him and not us?"

"He was annoying me on the bus, plus he really does my head in, so now I'm messing with his, kind of," Rory then explained their 'lightening up' game.

The girls ended up making a slumber party out of the night, they bonded a lot, sharing secrets and stories, Madeline, Louise and Paris were a little upset that Rory kept something like that from them but after Rory's explanation understood her why she did. (A/N: don't worry pretty much everything gets said when she talks to Tristan,)

The next day Rory decided to avoid Tristan at all costs, dreading the conversation that she had promised him, one that she knew he wouldn't let go.

Tristan wasn't as clueless to the avoidance as she hoped he would be and picked up on her behaviour by noon.

Rory, Paris, Madeline and Louise were all sitting in deck chairs by the pool with their job application packs that had been handed out from the teachers for their work experience the next week.

"Why do we have to do work, last years seniors said this was supposed to be a bludge," Madeline complained,

"It practically is a bludge, they give us a whole week to fill these thing out, when they only take like and hour and the jobs don't really matter, you get a satisfactory for participating,"

"I suppose, but we're in Australia, we should be out there hooking up with hot, exotic Australian guys with their incredibly sexy accents," Rory laughed at Madeline's dreamy expression,

"Well I have a friend who fits your description maybe I could hook you two up," Rory laughed,

"Talking about hooking up, now that we know you're not as frigid as we thought you were and you're hanging out with Tristan, when are you guys hooking up?"

"We're not!"

Tristan strode over and sat in a chair opposite the girls,

"Who's not what?"

"I'm not hooking up," Rory replied matter-of-factly,

"With who?"

"The pool boy?" Rory replied unsurely,

"I should hope not because I called dibs," he said as he sat on the edge of her chair, resting his hands on her legs, the other girls shared looks smiling at the scene, "Anyway, we need to talk," Tristan sighed, Rory groaned and the girls oooed.

Tristan and Rory moved away from the Chilton crowd and found a spot on the edge of the pool, they sat down side by side, their feet dangling in the pool as a silence fell over them,

"So…" Tristan said,

"Yeah… so…"

"Ummm…"

"Okay, well last night you said you had a lot of questions,"

"And you implied you had a lot of answers,"

"I do, so ask away,"

"Are you a small town girl?"

"I am now, as of half way into last year, before that I lived in California,"

"But they said you transferred from Stars Hollow High,"

"I attended there for a week, before that I went to Waterview,"

"So I'm guessing that's why your friends with Logan and all them, that schools way snobbier than Chilton, how'd you end up hanging with their royalty? No offence but you don't seem the type to deal with high society,"

"None taken, I've been friends with them pretty much since I was born, we all grew up together,"

"That explains a bit but how come I've never heard of you before Chilton?"

"Ever heard of Lorelai Hayden?"

"Notorious party girl, she was known to be nice and treat everyone as her equal, she ruled the biggest socialite school as queen, her best friends have the most prestigious names, then her very best friend died, she became a major slut then suddenly disappeared out of society's eyes," Tristan recited Paris' exact words from the previous night,

"Why does everyone say that?" Tristan just shrugged in response,

"Anyway, what about her? She was queen; did she cast you out of the group or something?"

"Actually, you're looking right at her," Tristan froze for a moment, then burst out laughing,

"You almost had me there, I mean you guys don't have the same name, you're Rory Gilmore. Plus you don't really fit the slut characteristics, despite yesterday you're still a Mary," he stopped when he notice her seriousness,

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore-Hayden at your service, though I go by Rory,"

"Shit, you're serious?"

"Your not going to ask for proof of identification like Paris are you?"

"No, your face says you're not making this up, how do you go from top of the socialite ladder, to well- known slut, to innocent bystander," Rory's eyes widened in panic at his question,

"Oh my gosh! You hate me! You think I'm just some stupid socialite and a slutty whore and a liar who's living her life pretending to be innocent and anti social, you think I'm a horrible person and now a complete psychopath…"

"Rory! Calm down," he grabbed her hands and squeezed the reassuringly, "Trust me I don't hate you, that's quite impossible, sure you're not exactly who I presumed you to be, but that makes you an even bigger mystery, which I like because otherwise it tends to get boring, knowing you the way I do I'd guess you'd have a reason for your actions, the only truth that came out of that speech was the psychopath bit," she took a deep breath,

"Hey! I'm not crazy!" she hit his arm playfully and smiled.

"So… okay not doing the 'so' again, but I wanna know more,"

"Like what?"

"Everything,"

"That's a lot, I wouldn't know where to start,"

"Well what about your friends?"

"Well there's me, Logan, Collin, Finn and Steph who have been friends since the beginning of time, our moms were friends from high school and we were all born the same year so we automatically grew up together. Jay came along during the freshmen year, he moved to Cali and I met him in an out of school class, we instantly clicked so when he came to Waterview he immediately joined the group. Of course we all had other friends but us six were as close as you could be, we're all so different and alike at the same time and I love how I have a unique relationship with them all,"

"How does that work?"

"Well with Steph being the only other girl we share the bond of girl power, we rule the boys together, shop, makeup, all the girly tidbits, I'd call her my sister, next you have Collin, he's the stick up his ass man, we debate over a lot of things and hardly ever share the same point of view, we compete for the knowledge which can sometimes strain our relationship but I love him to pieces and he's quite protective when I need him. Then you get Finn, the clown, he can make you smile no matter how bad you're feeling, he's a quirky one with his trademark black nail polish, he's usually drunk off his face but he's a loyal friend and surprisingly wise, I tend to go to him for advice."

"Okay, so that leaves two more,"

"The two most difficult," she sighed, "Although the other three had a tendency to call me reporter girl for obvious reasons these two had their own personal names for me, Logan calls me Ace and Jay called me Twinkles. To begin with me and Logan used to be super close, I was his Ace reporter and he was my MAC, Master and Commander, he started drifting away the summer before our freshman year at high school, when he picked up his playboy ways.'

'He started blowing me off to go on dates or just to flat out get laid, I got fed up with it and we started fighting. I was that desperate to keep our close friendship that I added my name to his list of call girls, it started getting awkward after a while, he said he couldn't do casual with me because I was too important but couldn't commit because he wasn't ready, I didn't want him to anyway. So we once again started drifting apart, then Jay came.'

'My parent were forcing me to take a dance class, I'm a natural klutz so I kinda sucked, Jay was a new student and became my partner, he taught me to dance more than my teachers could, I trusted him. We instantly clicked, we became best friends and he joined the group, I suspected Logan was a little jealous but ignored it. I had the weirdest relationship with Jay, we could talk about anything and everything, we knew each others secrets and had a way of communicating without the need for words, I'd say he was like a brother but that would be wrong, we also had a tendency to hook up, it wasn't really so much a sexual attraction thing, we just comforted each other that way.'

'We were hardly ever seen apart, I thought I knew everything about him then one day I got a call saying he was in hospital. It turns out her had an incurable cancer, known about it his entire life. He was my rock, and all of a sudden he was gone." Tristan wrapped one of his arms around her while the other held her hand as the tears slid down her face,

"I was there with him, I held his hand as he was taken away," Rory whispered after she calmed down a bit,

"Sounds like you two were soul mates," she smiled lightly,

"I don't really get into the whole soul mates thing, but I don't think there was ever two people who had our relationship,"

"Were you in love with him?"

"I loved him to pieces and even though we had done things that went over the friendship line, it was never that kind of love,"

"Still, sounds amazing,"

"Yeah," she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder,

"And then you became know to be quite promiscuous?" she laughed at him,

"I'm guessing that's your subtle approach to the slut story," he chuckled lightly and gave a slight nod,

"I lost my virginity not too long before Jay died and it didn't happen in a good way, after it happened I basically felt like trash, Jay kept me together and with him gone I just let go. Fought off everything I was feeling by screwing pretty much every guy possible, some one already broke me, what was the point of trying to protect something that had already been taken away. My mom had been away on business during this, Logan tried to help me like he used to but I was doing what he was doing so I didn't listen,"

"You didn't party before that,"

"No, I did, just I started taking partying to a whole new level, drinking and drugs got multiplied, if you know what I mean,"

"So you got sent away to a small town?"

"No, when mom came home and found me in my state, combine that with a lot of problems at home, we decided to move away and start again, for me to get back on track with following my dreams of getting into an ivy league college, for her it was escaping the life she despised yet couldn't leave before,"

"And then you came to Chilton, what about your other friends?"

"With Logan looking out for me, we got closer even though he couldn't fix me, the others were always looking out for me too, when I moved I kind of pushed them away. I promised them nothing in our relationships would change, but I let it change, I didn't call or visit nearly as often as I promised, they tried to keep it together but I just couldn't let them. I really started missing them, and slowly I've been trying to make it right again,"

"They still really care about you, that much is obvious,"

"I know," she smiled,

"What about Rose?"

"She isn't really in our group esactly, she hangs out more with Juliet, Robert and Seth, but she hangs out with us when they get annoying, plus her and Finn have a little something, something happening, if you catch my drift,"

"Oh I think I do," he smirked.

Rory sat up straight and took a deep breath,

"Okay all this serious talk is messing around with my 'lightness', gotta fix that,"

"Oh yeah? How?" Tristan leered, she smiled evilly and straddled his lap, it was a little difficult balancing with being so close to the pool but she managed, his arms immediately wrapped around her waist, preventing her from falling in, hers went around his neck, holding herself up, their foreheads touching,

"You know what I really want to do now?" she whispered,

"What?" he asked, his voice hoarse,

"Well," she whispered moving her head around to his neck the tracing it with her tongue, their close proximity was getting to her, making it hard to breath, but she didn't dare let how affected she was show, "I really wanna go swimming," she forcefully pulled back causing them both to fall into the pool. They came up sputtering water, laughing in between and started mucking around, splashing and dunking each other.

The heavy mood had been successfully lightened, but they both forgot how they were surrounded by Chilton students, surprised to see the conservative Rory Gilmore actually having fun. Summer was watching them the whole time, her eyes full of rage, 'who the hell does Gilmore think she is? He might not be mine exactly, but that's just a slight technicality of me fucking his best friend, easily fixed. There's no way she can take what's rightfully mine,'


A/N: okay well she didn't tell Tristan everything... yet. Hope this chapter explains something, and now that i got some of the serious stuff out the way i can start having more fun again yay! I also have a feeling that this story is going to go on for like a hundred chapters (slight exaggeration) because i still want the whole performing arts thing when they go back and yeah...hope you don't mind. Oh and thought i'd say a BIG THANKYOU to those who review...ooooo and please review...again...or for the first time, whatever tickles your fancy.

Til next time...toodles