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chapter one: arrival

a/n:

me and rory are both so full of secrets it's so great <3

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On a cool, rainy morning in late August, just a few weeks after coming home from Greece, Rory sits in the backseat of a town car that sits on the tarmac and waits for the airport staff to give her the okay to get on the family plane. Joe, her driver, leaves the engine running so the heat can stay on.

She picks at a thread on the sleeve of her USA sweatshirt, her wired nerves and her exhaustion evident in the creases of her worn face as they outweigh any excitement that she might have had about this venture. Her grandfather's condition is only getting worse with the metastasis spreading further than it should with the intense chemical cocktail he's on, and she hasn't been this far away from Krystal (and, by proxy, Ellie) since the Junior Goodwill Games. She's worried that no one will remember to call her in the event that something bad happens. Not with her father spending nearly a hundred and forty hours a week in his office, working on a business deal that he refuses to talk to them about, and leaving her stepmother to handle their six-month-old and his dying father, anyhow.

There's nothing she can do about it but worry, though. The scholarship, a legally binding document, has been signed. She's going to be in Minnesota in a few hours.

Everything else is up to fate.

Joe glances at her in the rearview mirror. "Your father is very sorry that he wasn't able to see you off."

Without meaning to, she snorts derisively. "Yeah. I'm sure."

"Your stepfather also left a message to wish you good luck on behalf of him and your mother. Do you want me to pass something along, or do you wish to respond yourself?"

"What did he say?"

"I believe he told you to 'knock 'em dead, kiddo.'" His monotonous tone would have, on a better day, made Rory laugh.

(Knox Lewis, Janice Carrington's husband for the better part of her daughter's life, is a warm blooded, midwestern guy through and through. Meaning that, contrary to Janice and her typical choice in men, he's kind, in his weird little way.)

(Sure, he's not Mr. Averman, wholesome ball of sunshine levels of nice, but he tries from his place as far away from her as her mother can possibly get.)

(She really, though she'll never admit it because she knows he's trying, prefers any of his attempts at long distance affection that aren't 'kiddo.')

"Oh. I'll shoot him an email or something."

He hums and nods.

An uneasy beat of silence follows. Rory does her best to avoid Joe's gaze because Joe watched her father grow from a teenager into an evil semblance of a man and then watched her go from toddling to running to walking on eggshells, so he knows her in such an uncomfortably familiar way that allows him to make her talk by just staring at her, and she'd rather not be given a long winded speech this early in the morning.

Briefly, as she squirms on the leather, she wonders what his job is, exactly.

Driver?

Bodyguard?

Head of Security?

Some other fourth thing? Head of developing new torture methods at the CIA, maybe, if torture was actually just making her talk about her feelings or picking her up at school while listening to his old Ramito CDs so loudly that the other kids can hear it.

All of the above, she decides as the words come pouring out of her.

"I'm worried."

"I know. You're always worried, my dear. It's going to give you grey hairs before you turn twenty."

Rory almost purses her lips. "I do always have something serious to worry about, though."

"I suppose you're right." He nods succinctly. "But, I think you should take your mind off it. This is adult business. Don't let your wandering mind ruin any fun you're going to have."

('Adult business.' Oh, how she's starting to loathe that phrase.)

"You'll see your friends, and that strange, bespectacled boy you're so fond of, and you'll forget all about your worries. It'll be good for you."

"Bespectacled?"

An amused expression crawls across Joe's face and his lips turn up at the ends.

"So, you don't deny that he's strange?"

"Oh, no, he's strange, bespectacled is just such an odd word to use——"

The not-really-an-argument turns into a conversation about etymology that consists mostly of hypotheticals before it can become anything else. It lasts until a man comes to knock on the driver side window, their signal that the plane is ready to take Rory away, and with the talk goes the fleeting moment of ease that she'd been feeling.

Joe opens the door for her. There's a person to grab her bags, and another to hold an umbrella for them, and several more to block them from any potential cameras. Like a little kid, she stays tucked into Joe's side, her arms crossed over her chest and her nose wrinkled as she goes through a list of 'do's and 'do not's in her head.

He stops her at the staircase.

"I don't think anything bad will happen." Joe says, voice raspier than the patter of the rain. "But, if it does, call your stepmother and she'll have you sent home. I'll pick you up personally."

Rory nods absentmindedly. Very suddenly, when she blinks, she's going away to college, and men on their payroll are still making an effort to show up where her father can't.

He puts a finger under her chin and forces her to look at him.

"I mean it, Lorelei. Just say the word."

"Okay." She says it quietly, her voice small, even if she knows she won't follow through.

A lot has gone into this scholarship. She'd hate to be the one to ruin it.

Joe sends her off with a tight, tight hug.

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From the private airport in Minneapolis, Rory is carted to MSP by someone who works for Eden Hall to wait for her friends to arrive. She does so impatiently. She waits, and waits, and picks at the croissant the driver gets for her before she waits some more. And, just when the thoughts have swelled so much in her head that her skull aches with the threat to explode, someone finally shows up.

"Luis! Hey!"

The boy, considerably taller than he was a year ago and donning a brand-new wardrobe, drops one of his bags to accommodate her as she flings her arms around his neck and squeezes him. He lifts her to the point where her toes barely touch the ground.

"Hey yourself, Rory." He says, grinning crookedly as he places her back on her feet. He picks up his dropped suitcase. "If I'd known I was gonna get such a warm welcome, I'd have worn my good cologne."

She rolls her eyes but smiles, too, as he wraps his free arm around her shoulders.

"So, what's up?" He asks as the worker takes his bags away. His arm hasn't moved, and she makes no move to shrug it off, enjoying the warmth of his company.

"Nothing much." She lies through her teeth and lifts a shoulder casually. "Finally learned to drive that car my stepdad got me..."

Luis snorts a laugh and, even if she's sure he's seen all of the speculative headlines about her family's issues as of late, doesn't press the issue.

"You mean the punch buggy? Yeah, no offense, girly, but I don't ever want to be on the road with you in that thing."

Rory scoffs and elbows him in the side. "I can drive!"

"I'm sure you can... Why bother, though, if you can pay someone to do it for you?"

They come to a pause by where she was sitting and waiting before, and Rory swivels to look up at him with narrowed eyes. After all the time he's known her, he really has to ask that question?

She sucks her teeth as he casually takes a bite of her breakfast.

"Because knowing how to drive is an important thing, and I can't just pay someone to drive me around out here."

"Oh, please, like Conway wouldn't drive you and your little death car around for twenty-five cents an hour——"

"Do you have an earring?" She interrupts, her head cocked to the side and her hands on her hips.

"What? Oh, yeah—— I got my ears pierced."

Rory reaches a hand up to turn his head to the side and get a better look. He has a shiny, gold stud in each ear.

"Wow. Think you're Portman, now?"

He scoffs, pretending to be really offended.

Julie is the next person to arrive. She's armed with questions about Greece, and about what Rory knows about Eden Hall (which causes the brunette a lot more stress than it should), and then, she settles on telling them about some of the cool stuff her coach back home was teaching her. Rory smiles the entire time like the good girl she is, and like Bombay's rejection of them isn't still cloying and thick in the back of her throat, and answers any inquiries as best she can.

When they delve into the games the two of them played that past school year, Luis stands beside them with his arms crossed over his chest and nods his head like he has any clue what the hell they're talking about.

Dwayne comes after her. He has also gotten taller but, unlike Luis, he's filled out to fit his frame. He tips his hat to the girls to greet them, earning soft teasing and a kiss to the cheek from Rory, which makes his face beet red. He gives them all a hug, even Luis, and Rory finds herself wondering how she was apart from her friends for this long.

She can't wait to see Lester—— she gets to hug him all she wants, now.

Last but not least, Russ and Kenny, having taken a flight together, arrive in rapid succession.

"Holy crap."

While Russ certainly looks good, Kenny has done the most changing out of all of the boys.

Also taller, he's abandoned his cropped hair in favor of something that reeks of early seasons Eric Matthews; when she pulls away from their hug to look him up and down with furrowed brows, he smiles crookedly.

"Hi."

"Don't 'hi' me." She narrows her eyes. "Who are you and what have you done with Kenny?"

He laughs, rolling his eyes halfheartedly. "I ate him."

It catches her so off guard that she can't help but laugh, too.

With their bags dealt with and their spirits high, the six kids follow the Eden Hall Staff member out of the airport and into the crisp Minnesota air. The big car that took her here is still waiting for them and the man helps them into the car before driving them out of the city and into the green countryside.

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Eden Hall Academy is, just like every boarding school that Rory's attended, more like a college than a high school. It covers more than a few acres of land, consisting of a bunch of grey stone and brick buildings that are connected by paved walkways. They all seem to sit in a circle around the lake, all equidistant from one another and the big building that the tour guide tells them is the administration building.

The tour guide tells them a lot more things on top of that.

It's almost a constant barrage of information.

He tells them about the many available clubs and extracurriculars, everything from a chess club to a student government that's taken too seriously. Quips about the cafeteria food and the sketchy behavior of male teachers get slipped in between a brief rundown of the school's rich history, and Rory manages to smile as her friends trail after them, utterly dumbfounded by everything that's been thrown their way in just twenty minutes. A hint of guilt pulls at her navel, but she pushes it down and, instead, tries to keep them up to speed.

They're all in the same dorm building. Their tour guide gives them a summary of the building's past, too, even if they're hardly listening, now.

Or, at least, Rory's hardly listening.

She's far too busy staring at the kids they see in passing, who stare back in return, to care.

Their tour guide stops them to open the door to the third floor.

"These conjoining hallways are the ones that lead to your rooms."

Rory glances around. Kids are standing in their doorways and whispering to one another as they walk by. The familiar itch that comes from being noticed crawls up her spine as Julie loops an arm around her shoulder and mean mugs some kid to the left of them.

This is no different than the school she just came from. (Except, this time, she has friends.)

"Every room has an en-suite bathroom that you will share with your roommate and each floor has a laundry room. It should be equipped with every supply you'll need: detergent, bleach, fabric softener. You name it, we have it, and if you need more of it, try to be nice to the staff when you let them know."

All of the doors are wooden, and they have metal numbers and letters on their fronts. Kids are still staring at them while they should be unpacking, and she doesn't feel any better, even with Julie's attempts to comfort her.

This attention is so different from the attention she's used to getting.

She doesn't feel like a celebrity by association right now. She feels like an alien.

"You'll have some time to put your things away and get settled before we announce your arrival at the assembly." The boy goes into his pocket and pulls out some keys. "Each keyring has a key for the two of you and a spare, just in case."

"Mendoza and Wu, you'll be in E5."

Kenny and Luis grin at one another, taking the ring that gets extended to them and turning to their room without further question.

"Tyler and Robertson—— E7."

Russ snatches the keys and Dwayne looks slightly miserable to have to share a room with the loud mouthed, somewhat mean-spirited boy.

"And, finally, Gaffney you're in E9." He hands the confused blonde her ring before turning to Rory. "You're in F, down that hall to the left."

"Wait—— wait—— we're not together?"

She nods in agreement with Julie's indignant words, her brows pinched with worry. They've already shared a room. She liked sharing a room with Julie.

She doesn't want to be dorming with a stranger.

She'd sooner dorm with Dean 'I probably don't believe in basic hygiene' Portman before she had to sleep across the room from someone she doesn't know.

"No, sorry. There was a mix-up, apparently."

Rory's shoulders sag and she heaves a sigh, casting the blonde a glance. "See you later, I guess?"

"We'll talk to the administration about it."

The guide is already walking down the hall by the time Julie says that and the brunette has no other choice but to rush to catch up to him, a response dying in her throat.

If she were able to respond, though, she'd have told Julie that there was no way that this school's administration would help her.

She'd have told Julie that she's sure her father was responsible for this somehow.

"Here we are, Ms. Myrtle. F10."

Rory blindly accepts the keys, eyes trained on the grainy surface of the door. She's reminded of the opening scene of Dead Poet's Society, and tries to think about how, no matter how the movie ends, Ethan Hawke's character got a good roommate. If her friends could give her the benefit of the doubt and treat her decently despite their differences, then she couldn't go into this expecting to be met with the roommate from hell, right?

Right?

"I'll be back to round you guys up later. Good luck."

"...thanks."

(Unlike her friends, though, she's not naive when it comes to these people. Filth teaches filth, and all rich kids are born from the same dirt. Even if they think they can be good. Even if they want to be.)

The first thing that Rory notes about her room upon entering is that her roommate must really like the Bangles. The second thing she notices is, as she shuts the door behind her, her roommate.

Or, rather, the back of her roommate's head.

The other girl wears a light-yellow tube dress and lets her thick, black hair fall down her back. She's standing up on her bed and carefully placing a poster on the wall.

"Uh, hi?" Rory says so she doesn't startle her, dropping her bags by the foot of the other bed.

The other girl is startled, anyway. She looks at Rory over her shoulder, a flash of brown eyes beneath full lashes, and smiles toothily in the face of her apologetic expression.

"Hey!" With the poster secured in place, she turns around fully. "Are you my roommate?"

"Yeah." Rory tries to smile.

The darker haired girl, with that wide grin still on her pretty face, hops down to pull her into a hug.

Rory stands still there for a moment, shocked by the overly familiar gesture from a girl that hasn't introduced herself yet and overwhelmed by the cloud of Love's Baby Soft that engulfs her, before she hugs back.

"It's so great to finally meet you!" The girl steps back from the hug to hold Rory at arm's length. "I'm Rachel. Rachel Riley. But you can call me Rach."

Rory waits with bated breath for this to be a joke, but the other shoe never drops.

(Is her collar getting tighter? It feels like it's getting tighter.)

"I'm Lorelei Myrtle, but I go by Rory."

"Myrtle?" Rachel's interest is piqued. "My twin brother, Rick, was asking around about you."

"Oh, uh, my family's pretty famous... that's probably why."

God, does she hope that's why.

"Oh. Yeah. Eli and Oliver Myrtle, right?"

Her throat still inhumanly tight, she opts to nod instead of speaking and embarrassing herself.

"Cool." Rachel hums. "He's the varsity hockey captain, so he'll probably seek you out later. He has a tendency to bother everyone, but that's just his personality, so try not to let it bother you. If he gets too annoying, though, just let me know and I'll kick his ass."

Rory nods, albeit slowly, as Rachel says that so casually.

"Anyway, welcome to our room! The bathroom is right through there, and everything on the left is free reign." Rachel makes a sweeping gesture. "I hope you don't mind all the posters."

"I don't mind at all." She smiles, dragging her bags over to her bed.

The room is just a little smaller than her room at home. There are two full-sized beds on either side and a desk for each of them; all of the sheets, and the curtains on the window, are the dark red color that seems to litter the school. When she bends down, she finds that there are pull-out drawers under the beds for clothing storage, and there are dressers at the footboard of each for extra storage.

Rory starts unpacking her suitcases, listening to Rachel as she moves around behind her.

"I know you play hockey, but I'm in a sport, too, so on volleyball nights you might have the room to yourself." Rachel says, and Rory wonders if she's on her bed, again. "I trust that you won't mess the place up. You look like a clean girl. Also, there are snacks in the mini fridge. You, as my roomie and my new best friend, are free to take from it as long as you let me know."

Rory nods, the corner of her lip twitching up at the bold admission, and tries to think of where Rachel could've hidden a fridge.

"Thanks."

When she finally turns around again, she finds that Rachel is on her back on her bed, her hair in a fan around her head as she extends her arms to look at her nails with squinted eyes.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"He's allowed to be here, just, like, not too much, you know?"

Rory nods, again, because she does know. "Oh, yeah, totally. Don't even worry about it. This is your space, too."

Rachel just grins.

"I knew I liked you."

"Do you?" Rory finds herself asking, rather suddenly. "Have a boyfriend, I mean."

"Not yet."

"Yet?"

Rory forgets that she's supposed to be unpacking and, instead, sits on her bed, her body relaxing as the conversation took such a casual turn.

"I've been working on my brother's best friend for three plus years, now." Rachel hums casually. "He's going to crack any day now. I can feel it."

To that, Rory breathes a laugh.

She's sure that Rachel Riley, with her supermodel hair and smile and eyes, can get any boy that she wants. So, she tells her that, in fewer words, and Rachel laughs, too.

"You're cute. It's a shame that your boyfriend got to you first."

The wink makes Rory's traitorous face burn.

Best friends is a little generous, especially for a first meeting, but she had the feeling that Rachel is definitely a good girl to be acquainted with.

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"You don't get it. She's so weird."

The six of them, dressed for the day and carrying their book bags on their backs, follow the signs to the theater building where the assembly is being held. Julie has spent the past few minutes trying to explain why she dislikes her roommate, who was in nothing but a towel when she entered the room and casually talked to her as if she weren't naked, but the boys don't appear to be sold on how this is a bad thing.

"Of course, they don't get it." Rory butts in, her voice thick with mirth as she comes to her friend's defense. "They didn't hear a word after 'cheerleader in a towel.' Selective male hearing."

Dwayne starts to stutter through a defense of his character, his face getting red, but the other boys make no move to dispute her claims.

"I miss Connie. There are too many damn boys on this team."

As Rory nods in agreement, Kenny half-heartedly punches Rory on the arm, earning a huff from her.

Russ, after doing a sweep of the surrounding area with his eyes, changes the subject with a scowl.

"You know, I think this place is running very low on the brothers quotient."

"All of these schools are, man."

He turns to look at Rory. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." The blonde nods, answering his question, and looks at their peers before she also changes the subject. "Hey, I want to know who this new Coach Orion is. My dad said if I didn't like him, I could come right home."

Rory gives the back of Julie's head a strange look.

Imagine that?

"That's nice. My dad said I better stay in on scholarship or he'll whip my ass."

"I haven't seen my father in two weeks, but he definitely shares in that sentiment."

(Oh, if only they knew...)

"You know, I heard in the dorm that the guy played for the Minnesota North Stars and got suspended for punching out his own coach." Luis shoved his fists into his pockets as he walks.

Her nose scrunches up and her brows pinch as she turns to look at him.

What's with coaches they're around and allegedly punching people out?

"You mean the Dallas Stars." Dwayne corrects the other boy. "I heard he punched out a fan."

"You know, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he didn't punch anybody—— but then again, I gave Bombay the benefit of the doubt and he ditched us anyway, so maybe don't listen to me."

They all stop to turn and give her these sad looks that make her stomach crawl.

It's no secret to anyone that she and Charlie did not taking the news that their coach was leaving them for a better job very well. She, quite frankly, feels betrayed by the man who promised that he would always be there for her, and she isn't afraid to let everyone know that she hates him and that she isn't forgiving him anytime soon.

(Not that she should have forgiven him the first time, anyway.)

"What? It's fine. I'm over it."

She's definitely not over it.

"I heard he was a Buddhist. You know, like Kung Fu or Richard Gere."

Rory tilts her head. When she thinks of Richard Gere, the last thing she thinks of is Buddhism.

"Kung Fu wasn't a Buddhist." Kenny says. "He was a Trappist monk."

"Are you talking about the old Kung Fu or the Further Adventures of the New Kung Fu?"

"Y'all watch too much TV."

"Shoot, that's the safest thing to do in my hood."

Rory turns to Dwayne, somewhat amused. "What do you do instead of watching television, cowpoke?"

"Help my daddy around the ranch, why?"

She makes eye contact with Russ before turning back to him again.

"We gotta fix that." Russ decides. "We gotta make you watch television more."

"I agree."

Dwayne huffs softly at them both.

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a/n:

word count -- 4240

joe and knox did more for rory in this chapter than her father or bombay ever did and I cannot wait for her to realize that people love her.

also ik a lot of you are gonna be mad at me for like putting rory in another dorm, but I genuinely think that, with what happens, she needs to be roommates with someone else for her own psyche—

rachel, my beloved, is going to be everything that mindy was supposed to be in the original!

comments and votes are super appreciated! they let me know that you guys like my writing and I cannot stress how much they motivate me to continue! thank you