Chapter Six
After the dinner had wound down and the guests were beginning to tuck themselves into their beds Lorelai found Rory sitting outside at the stables. She was surprised to see her sitting with Jess though. She noticed that Rory was actually smiling which pleased her but only added to the confusion she had over what was wrong with her daughter. She cleared her throat and watched as the two teens jumped both startled by her intrusion.
"Mom." Rory said loudly
"Luke is looking for you Jess." Lorelai told him looking at him strangely
Jess nodded. "Thanks. I'll talk to you later Rory?"
"Yeah. We'll talk later." Rory said watching Jess walk back towards the inn. Once again Rory's mood changed from the happy smiling girl she was earlier to the cold stoic person she had been. "Did you need something?"
Lorelai sighed. "I was wondering if you were planning on coming to bed anytime soon?"
"Yeah. I'll be up in a minute." Rory said distracted by Dean's shadow quickly approaching them
Lorelai looked up and saw Dean and then back at Rory. "Look kiddo… whatever the thing with Tristan is, it's over. He's not a student at Chilton anymore, you won't see him again. You should forget about whatever it is and focus on what you have with Dean. I'd hate to see you throw something like that away on a whim." She said sincerely before walking off.
No more than ten seconds after Lorelai was out of Rory's line of sight Dean was standing next to her. "Hey…" he said nervously
"Listen about the other day…"
"I've actually been wanting to talk about that with you…"
"It was stupid. I don't know what was going on in my mom's head. I've never been involved with Tristan, so I don't see why she assumes that's what's wrong. I haven't said a word about Tristan since the play."
"Why would Tristan even enter her mind Rory?" Dean asked accusingly
"I don't know it's my mom. She's insane."
"Rory…"
"I need for you to trust me Dean. I love you. I have never cheated on you. I will never cheat on you. I want to be with you." Rory lied trying to convince herself almost as much as she was trying to convince Dean.
Dean looked at Rory and she could tell that he honestly wanted to believe her. "Ok. I believe you." he said softly
xxxxxx
A week and half later everything had seemed to have gone back to normal. Rory and Lorelai hadn't fought in a week and Rory and Dean seemed to be back on track as well. Lorelai wasn't sure how much of it was just an act but she decided that she didn't mind, atleast her daughter wasn't a walking attitude problem anymore. She sighed as she got out of bed and walked downstairs to make coffee. She smiled as she Rory already doing it. "Hey... whatcha doing kiddo?"
"Making coffee." Rory answered
"Really how strong it is?" Lorelai asked curiously
"Monday morning strong..." Rory replied
"And being that it's Wednesday I'm assuming it's safe to say you had a long night last night. Big paper?"
Rory sighed and she knew that even Lorelai had noticed the change in her mood and tone of her voice when she softly replied. "Not really just a write up of the Romeo and Juliet perfomances. You know the choice making processes, things like how we decided who would play who and what kind of theme we'd go with. It's mostly just a paper ranting and raving about Paris and her psychotic ways." Rory rambled out
Lorelai noticed Rory's face change when she mentioned the play and decided it was time to change the subject. "You almost ready to go to school?"
Rory nodded. "Yea."
"Well gimme ten minutes and then we'll hit Luke's and then I'll drive you to school."
"Ok." Rory said walking back into her room. Ten minutes later she walked back out and saw Lorelai trying to tie her shoes. "Having problems there mom?" she asked laughingly
Lorelai shot Rory a look. "Haha funny. Just go get in the jeep and I'll meet you out there."
Rory laughed and walked out the front door. She had taken two steps onto the porch when she felt the wood give out beneath her foot. "MOM!" she screamed loudly
Lorelai frantically ran to the door and stopped suddenly seeing Rory still standing on the porch. "What? What is it? Is there a spider or something?"
Rory didn't say a word just pointed down at her foot that was stuck inside the porch. Lorelai looked down and started laughing. "Stop laughing and get my foot out of the porch! If Chilton didn't buy the whole 'a deer hit my car' thing they aren't going to believe that my foot went through out porch and that's why I'm late."
Lorelai helped Rory dig her foot out and then they both walked to the jeep. "I'll call someone after I drop you off."
xxxxxx
Rory and Lorelai walked into LUke's and sat down at their usual table. Luke came over and grumbled when Lorelai ordered coffee. Rory sighed and pulled an envelope out of her book bag. "So I almost forgot. These came in yesterday." she said handing it to Lorelai.
Lorelai giglgled slightly. "I love mail." she said then she looked closer at the evelope. "Rory these are your PSAT scores. " she said excitedly
"Yeah I know." she said taking the envelope back when Lorelai handed it to her
Lorelai smiled at Luke as he came back over to refill her cup. "Just leave the pot Ethel."
Luke sighed. "I'm just an enabler."
Lorelai laughed. "Well hurry up, open it."
Rory groaned but tore into the envelope anyway.
Unable to read Rory's expression Lorelai quickly through in. "Ok just remember that these the PSAT's, okay so it's like the Baby Gap, they don't count as much. Plus you can take them over again. Plus you are very young and have years of learning ahead of you and the really important thing is that you tried very hard."
"I got a 740 verbal and a 760 math."
"Ugh, thank god you're not an idiot."
Rory nodded. "Yeah."
"Those are damn good scores little lady, really amazing, top notch. Those are PSAT-riffic. Sorry, it was just lying there I had to go for it. You're frowning..."
"My foot went through the porch mom. I'm not exactly in the best of moods right now."
"Right, so do you think the porch is falling apart or that you just weigh a ton?" Lorelai asked Rory smiling widely
"I think that the porch is falling apart." Rory said simply
"The porch is fine. It just has a little extra ventilation in it now, that's all."
"The wood is old and rotting."
"The wood is not old and rotting. It's young and sprightly and will be with us for a long long time to come."
"So you think I weigh a ton?"
xxxxxx
The classroom was completely silent and Mrs. Caldecott read over the papers that she had taken from her students while they read over their next assignment. she flipped to Rory's and skimmed it. She frowned when she noticed that Rory had left out a kep component and looked up at the girl. She ahd noticed an obvious change in her attitude during the last two weeks. She wasn't the only one either. All of her teachers had been talking about her lately, one of them even asking Max Medina if he thought he should talk to her. Max politely declined knowing that it was inapropriate but also asked to be informed of her behavior changes. She could see that he cared deeply for Rory but with the history with her mother knew he couldn't say anything unless Rory reached out to him. She sighed. "Rory can I ask you come questions about your paper?" she asked gaining everyone's attention
Rory looked up startled by the attention. "Um... yes ma'am."
"It all seems in order but I noticed that you didn't mention Mr. Dugrey once. He was a member of your group was he not?"
Rory blushed slightly and her frown deepened at the mention of Tristan. "Yes ma'am. He was a member of my group."
"Then why was he not mentioned?"
"He didn't participate very much. There was very little to write in regards to him."
"Ms. Geller, Ms. Lynn and Ms. Grant all found things to write. And I believe he was supposed to be cast as Romeo was he not?"
"Yes, he was..."
"And you were Juliet therefore the two of you had to have worked together at some point so why is he not mentioned."
"I told you he didn't participate. He was late for every rehersal, he left before we ever got anything done, he wasn't involved in the decision making process at all. I had nothing of any importance to write regarding him." Rory said aggitated that her teacher was calling her out in the middle of class with everyone staring at her.
Mrs. Caldecott sighed. She was about to tell her that it was fine when she was interrupted by Summer's voice. "You could have explained that in your paper. You could have written something regarding why he wasn't Romeo in the actual performance."
"You just want to know where he went. Why he isn't in school anymore." Rory snapped agrily
"I'm just trying to give you suggestions Rory..."
"No you're trying to weasel your way into finding out what I know about Tristan. Get over it Summer. If he wants you to know where he is I'm sure he'll call you. And hounding me for information will get you nowhere anyway. I don't know where he went. I don't know why he's gone all I know is that he's gone." Rory yelled
"I don't believe you." Summer snapped back
"That's irrelevent isn't it though." Rory snapped before looking back up at Mrs. Caldecott. "Can I have the bathroom pass please?"
Mrs. Caldecott nodded numbly not knowing what to say. She hadn't meant for that to happen but as Rory accepted the pass she couldn't help but notice the tears that were flowing down Rory's face, and she began to understand just what had changed Rory's mood so suddenly in the last couple of weeks.
xxxxxx
Rory quickly made her way into the nearest girls bathroom and sunk to the floor. Moments later she was sobbing. Her sobbing could be heard all the way down the hall. Paris who had followed her out sighed, part of her knowing that she should just go in there and make sure Rory was ok but the other part said that Rory was lying to everyone. That she knew what had happened to one of her oldest childhood friends and wouldn't tell her. That Rory wouldn't tell her anything. So she turned around and headed back into class. She walked over to Summer before she sat down and whispered. "Stay the hell away from Rory."
Before Summer could say anything to Mrs. Caldecott Paris was already sitting down in her seat and had resumed working on their assignment.
xxxxxx
"You have termites." Kirk said definitively
"What?" Lorelai asked clearly upset
"Tens of thousands of them. Subterranean, dry wood, the whole gamut."
"Gross." Rory added
"Four of them crawled up my nose."
"Okay Kirk." Lorelai said agravated
"It happens all the time where you're upside down. To them the nostril looks just like another hollow passage in the wood. They're not too bright."
"Ok so we have termites. So what do we... uh.. um... don't you want to come inside Kirk?"
"Actually I would prefer to discuss this outside."
Lorelai saighed but followed Kirk out the door. "Kirk?"
"Let's get down to it. From what I've witnessed, your house is a bug infested smorgasbord."
"But what do we do?"
"Well.. uh... if you don't mind I'd prefer to discuss this on the lawn."
"Why?"
"Because this porch could give out on us at any minute."
"Kirk stop the porch is fine."
"My foot went through it this morning!" Rory added
"That was different, that wood was old."
"What happened to sprightly?"
"Kirk what are you doing?" Lorelai snapped irritated with Kirk
"Just making sure that if the roof come down, the debris can't ricochet over here and take me out."
"Honey in five minutes it won't need to."
xxxxxx
Rory groaned as she went back into the house. She had no interest in listening to Lorelai and Kirk argue over the price of fixing the house. She flopped onto her bed and pulled out Mrs. Caldecott's assignment so that she could read over it. But the attempt was futile. Her mind kept flitting back to Tristan. She'd been trying really hard this last week to put him out of her mind and while it was becoming esaier to do at home it was impossible to do at school. The whole place was full of memories of him. Places where she had been made uncomfortable when he looked at her. Places where she'd watch him press random numerous girls against the walls and kiss them. She sighed as her vision once again began to cloud as tears filled her eyes. Cursing she furiously wiped the tears off her face. It was all Mrs. Caldecott's fault. She was the one who had brought up Tristan. She was the one that had caused her to break down in the bathroom. She wasn't an idiot she knew her teachers knew something was going on and that they were all concerned for her. She had seen Max wathching her after lunch today knowing that he wanted to say something to her.
Lorelai walked back into the house and headed towards Rory's room. Once she opened the door she saw that Rory was crying. "Honey it's ok. It's just termites I'll fix it don't worry."
Rory looked up at Lorelai as if she were insane for a minute before nodded slowly. "I just really like our house. I don't want a bunch of bugs eating it." she lied swiftly
The second Rory's eyes connected with Lorelai's Lorelai knew the termites had nothign to do with Rory's tears. Sighing but ignoring it and letting Rory think she believed her she nodded. "I know hun. And I'm not going to let it happen. You wouldn't happen to have fifteen thousand dollars would you?" she then added jokingly
xxxxxx
"Rory wake up."
Rory rolled over groaning. She looked over at her clock and saw 11:00. "What's going on?"
"I can hear them chewing." Lorelai said crypticly
"Who?"
"The termites. I hear them. They're everywhere, nibbling and eating and swallowing."
"You're insane." Rory said pulling her pillow back over her head
Lorelai ripped the pillow off her head instantly. "I can't sleep here."
"What!"
"No, we have to go to Sookie's."
"You're kidding right?"
"Unh uh."
"It's eleven o clock at night."
"Yeah well here, but somewhere in the world it's still miller time."
"Mom you're wigging. Go put on some imaginary ear plugs to drown out the imaginary termite sounds and go back to sleep." Rory snapped angrily
"But..."
"Bed!"
"But..."
"Now!"
"But ugh.. you really don't hear them?"
"No and as soon as you're asleep you won't either." Rory snapped effectively ending the conversation.
AN: Chapter done.. and once again I used some dialogue form the episode... this time it was Secrets and Loans enjoy!