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chapter seventeen: the calm before the storm

a/n:

tw(s) - bullying, mostly (we're finally making it back to canon right before I completely step away from it again LMAO)

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"How'd your Latin test go yesterday?"

"It was fine, but stop trying to change the subject. You can't just apply to one college, Rick."

"Why not?"

"Because the odds that you'll get into all that you apply to are insane enough when you apply to several." Rory says, exasperated as she gestures with the papers in her hands. "You have no safety net. This is your future, not something you can just leave to fate."

Rick looks at her with a mixture of amusement and frustration.

They've been at this for the better part of an hour, now. Him lying sideways on his bed, wearing nothing but a pair of sweats and this blasé attitude about the rest of his life, and her sitting on the edge of it, wearing his chain and his old U of MN sweatshirt that continuously slips off her shoulder as she sifts through the info his counselor gave to him. What was going to be a little breakfast date (which they have been doing every day in the four days since Saturday) quickly devolved into Rory coming to the conclusion that she might strangle Rick with her bare hands before he even gets the chance to matriculate into a life he's ill-prepared for.

"I mean, come on, Rick, you don't even have an intended major." She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and turns to look sideways at the big book of schools that's open on his bed. Or, rather, the short list his counselor tucked into it. "Look, the University of Michigan said they're interested in you for hockey as well. Why won't you just apply there, too?"

"What kind of prick has Michigan as a safety school?"

"No. A safety school would be... Augsburg or Saint John's. Schools with high acceptance rates."

Rick just stares at her. Stares, and stares, and stares. And she stares right back.

"You really have this all figured out, don't you?"

"I do, and I'm the only person other than Scott who actually likes you, so you should listen to me."

He laughs and then sniffs, rubbing his nose with his thumb. "Oh, really?"

"Yep."

"Well, then, what's your life going to be, Miss Lorelei Myrtle?"

Rory pauses.

"Well, I'd like to go to a school that's got a good history program. One far enough away from my dad that he won't want to come visit me but not so far that he can just get on a plane, y'know?" She chews on the inside of her cheek as she goes on, and Rick traces a continuous circle on the skin of her knee. "After that, I guess I would work in a museum..."

"But?"

"But my father would never let that happen. Good news, though, I might get to follow you..."

Sitting up on his elbow, Rick licks his thumb and flips through the book.

Rory watches with furrowed brows as he stops at Oxford, presenting it with a wave of his hand and a small 'ta-da!'

"Oxford?"

"Yeah. You could tell your dad you're going to go study business or something, but actually study whatever the hell you want because he's a loser who won't fact-check you and will be too busy to go to your graduation."

She finds herself staring at him again. Instead of being frustrated, though, she's actually quite enamored.

"See? I'm not as dumb as I look."

"You're not dumb." Rory mumbles, leaning down to kiss him sweetly.

He's smiling when she pulls away.

"How's your grandpa?

"Rick——"

"If I start filling out the UMich application, will you let me talk to you about literally anything else?"

Thinking for a moment, she nods succinctly, so he sits up more and reaches around her to take the papers he needs. She silently watches him fill out a few boxes.

"So?"

"Hm?"

"Your grandfather."

"Oh, uh, I'm not really sure." She fiddles with the chain around her neck anxiously. "I was going to call home during my free to check stuff out, if you want to come."

"Well, your free is during my Calculus class, and I'm a little afraid that you might shoot me for even offering to skip for you."

"You're right."

Even if she thinks that she might need someone there to hold her hand, she doesn't want to distract him from his studies, especially now that she's just getting him back on track.

"I'll ask Adam if he wants to come and then I'll let you know how it happened later, okay?"

Rick nods, somewhat absent as he tries to remember his social security number. "Okay."

Rory smiles and reaches over to push a loose tuft of hair from his face with her pointer and middle finger.

"You're coming to lunch, right?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?"

"You've skipped twice this week."

Rory pauses. Had she?

The days have been blurring together.

"I'll be there. I promise."

Rick seems happy about that. That makes a dent form between Rory's brows.

"Why?"

"The shipment of our jackets finally came in. I wanted to give them out because that's when everybody's free."

She nods slowly. "What else are you planning?"

Rick finally looks up at her. Instead of putting up a fight or denying it, he just appears confused.

"How'd you know?"

(She'll never tell him this, but, when he's scheming, he clenches one side of his jaw.)

"Call it a sixth sense, I guess."

Rick sighs and puts his pen down. "It's just going to be a little prank, okay? You and Banks don't have to be a big part of it at all."

She wants to tell him that she and Adam will get put in the middle, anyway, but she doesn't.

"Okay... Do I get to know what it is?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"...Yeah, never mind."

Rick smiles softly and brings her hand to his lips so he can kiss it before returning to his application.

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Ever since the strange interaction with Luis on Saturday, Rory has found herself unable to avoid the Ducks. They are always in the same hallways that she's in, and they're always in the same spot of the library that she frequents, and they are only a few people away from her on the line for lunch.

At first, she thinks it's an intentional thing——  that they are intentionally following her around to bother her, or something.

But then her second-period English class that day came, and she realized that, maybe, God just had it out for her.

One of the first people to enter the classroom, she takes a seat on the opposite side from Connie and a few other stragglers. Adam comes in right after her, sitting in the chair next to her and smiling warmly.

He looks happy.

He usually does, now that he's started to get closer to Bobby and is starting to find himself without their former friends, and she tries to reciprocate that joy.

Their English teacher enters the classroom with the very same dramatic flourish that she always does and barely gives them time to pull out their notebooks before she starts teaching. Rory does her best to pay attention to the monotonous lesson about parts of poetry (they had been fixated on this topic for what felt like years), but her mind keeps wandering to quite literally anything else, only coming back to the task at hand when the teacher starts handing out stapled papers.

The title of the poem itself—— Because I Could Not Stop For Death—— made her uncomfortable, but she didn't feel any real dread until she saw the attached worksheet.

"For this, you're going to break off into pairs and analyze this poem by Miss Dickinson——"

Rory glances at Adam only to find that he's already looking at her with a soft smile.

"——Don't get too excited, now. I have already chosen the pairs."

The entire class groans. Resisting the urge to join in on this expression of disappointment, Rory plays with her pen and waits for the verdict as their teacher goes down the class roster alphabetically.

"Germaine, you'll be working with Myrtle."

"Shoot me." She stage whispers to Adam, who snorts as he rests his chin on his fist.

Rory hesitantly takes the seat in front of Guy as Connie leaves it and the two of them sit, awkward and silent, as the adult finishes making the pairs and needlessly reads off the instructions. When everybody turns to their partner and starts talking, blanketing the room in a buzz of chatter, she eventually tears her eyes off the front of the room to turn around to face him.

He wears a gentle expression.

"So..."

"We don't have to talk if you don't want to." Guy says simply.

"It's fine." She pulls stray hairs away from her face and takes a deep breath. "Let's just get this over with, okay?"

"Okay."

Guy has always been nice.

Too goddamn nice.

(Which is why, all those weeks ago, when he was saying all of those things about rich kids, she had been so upset.)

"I'm sorry." He continues, keeping his voice low so the teacher won't hear them.

"For what?"

"For all of it."

Okay. Now, that's two apologies in five days.

"You and Banks... You're still Ducks as far as I'm concerned."

"Thanks." Rory says a little sharply, because she's unsure of anything else to say.

Immediately after that, to her simultaneous relief and dismay, they get into their work and start to analyze their poem. When Adam makes eye contact with her from across the room to make sure she's okay, she actually smiles at him.

The forty minutes breeze by, and the forty minutes after that do too.

And then, suddenly, after wasting her entire free period on having several unproductive conversations with the answering machines of her family members, it was the period before lunch and the varsity team was called to the administrative building.

Wilson handed out their brand-new jackets (their gear was already safely secured in their locker room, which now had a lock) and then immediately stepped away to have a talk with Buckley, his gaze lingering on Rory as he explained himself before he left them to their own devices.

She forced herself to not think about just why he was looking at her and, instead, breaks the silence.

"How do they even make these so fast?" Rory wonders aloud as she shrugs her brand-new varsity jacket on.

Rick looks down at her and grins slyly. "Child labor, surely."

The resulting slap to his chest and scoff of his name does nothing but make him snicker.

Quickly, one of the women in the office shuns them from the area, and they move in the direction of the cafeteria, one big collection of people that took up walkways and parted through crowds like a hot knife through butter.

"So, now that everything's back to normal," Rick says as they mosey along, Rory tucked under his arm, "I think it's about time we get revenge..."

(That's some more stuff for the list of things Rory is just trying not to think about: how intimidating her team is, and just how much power Rick actually has.)

"Is everybody free Friday night?"

Rick gets another chorus of varying affirmatives and Rory's stomach lurches nervously.

Her stomach continues to tie itself in knots as they get into the cafeteria and Rick releases her, letting her fall toward the back of the group with Adam, to make his way toward the thing he's set his eyes on.

The JV kids.

"Oh, god."

"It's cool, don't worry." Adam smiles.

Russ can be heard as they approach. "Check out the new jackets, guys."

"Hey, congrats on the Blake game." Rick hums.

Charlie doesn't buy it—— though, to be fair, neither would Rory.

"Yeah, right. We tied."

Rick shrugs. "Hey, a point's a point. We're all warriors now, you guys proved your guts. You all set for dinner on Friday?"

"Dinner?" She whispers to Adam at the same time one of the JV kids asks Rick the same thing.

Adam nods curtly as Rick explains.

"Well, it's an Eden Hall tradition. Varsity gotta treat the JV to dinner. So, round up your posse and meet us at... six at the Minnesota Club, downtown. Anybody need a ride? We can take you."

Rory looks at the back of Rick's head just so she doesn't have to make eye contact with the few kids she can feel staring at her.

"I mean, you guys do like steak and seafood, right?"

"Yeah, we do."

Rick starts to walk away after giving them an affirming smile, the rest of the boys following him, and Rory happily slinks into his side again as he walks by.

(God, she really really really finds this version of him off-putting sometimes.)

"Look, I don't like you pukes, all right?." Cole says behind her. "But this is a tradition. At Eden Hall, I learned to care about tradition."

Adam is the last one standing as the rest of them leave and he looks down at the JV team with a smile.

"It's cool!"

Being dragged along by her captain, she wonders what the hell is going on. What the hell she's been dragged into.

"It's not going to be too bad, right?" She asks in a quiet voice as they go to their table across the room.

"No." Rick shakes his head. "Nobody's going to get hurt. I promise."

As they sit down, Rory finds that she isn't so sure that she believes that...

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a/n:

word count — 2273

you are NOT ready for the next few chapters :)

in regards to the author's note of the last update: if I told you that there were four planned endings (two au books, an epilogue, and another alternate neutral ending just for me and riles, essentially) for this fic and that in at least one of them (wink wink) she ends up with a certain varsity captain, would you be less mad about this book becoming a lester fic again?

comments and votes are super appreciated! they let me know that you guys like my writing and they motivate me to continue! thank you