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chapter two: and the curtains fall

a/n:

I forgot how much i hate this movie LMAO

tw(s) — second hand embarrassment

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The auditorium is, just like the rest of the school, massive. Enough seats to fit every student in the roster fill the room on either side of an aisle that leads from the doors to the stage at the opposite end of the room. The red curtains of the stage are the same color as the cushions on the chairs (and the sheets on the beds, and the blood in the veins of the kids of Minnesota's elite.) Her eyes wander up the walls. Oil murals depicting famous scenes from war loom over them, the corners decorated with composite order detailing. Under them, the repeated phrase vincit que se vincit circles the room.

"Hey, Rory," The gentle tap of Kenny's hand on her shoulder draws her attention away from the glob of melted-then-solidified sealant on George Washington's nose, "what's that say?"

"He conquers who conquers himself."

"And what does that mean?"

Rory shrugs her shoulders as Julie decides on a row of seats toward the back of the room. "I think it's saying that, like, you're only going to really win if you can control yourself. Must be the school motto or something."

Kenny nods.

They sit where Julie tells them, Rory in between Luis and Kenny with her bag in between her feet, and leave room for the other six kids. Their new peers are talking about them again, their chatter blanketing the large room as kids of all ages turn around in their seats to point at them. One of the boys sitting behind them taps his foot and Rory contemplates telling him to stop but elects not to when they make eye contact and she sees just how cold his eyes are.

"They're late." Rory sighs, cracking her knuckles against her thighs.

Kenny, cringing at the sound, grabs her wrist to stop her. "They'll be here. It's fine."

"Why are you so anxious, anyway?" Luis asks, his eyebrows knit.

"I'm worried about Charlie." She says and tries to casually pull her wrist out of Kenny's hold. "And I miss my boyfriend."

Luis goes to respond, but he gets cut off by the boy behind her. He leans forward, the chair creaking with the redistribution of his weight.

"Hey, you know what? You ducks don't belong here at Eden Hall."

His breath, which fans across the back of her neck, smells of Marlboro Lights.

"What?" Ruff scoffs as they all turn to face him.

Her heart sits in her throat. These kids are built like the Iceland goons.

Dwayne, being the peacemaker he is, tries to intervene. "Hey, easy, Russ. They probably just think we're someone else—— I'm Dwayne, we're the new hockey team, and you are?"

No, Dwayne, she thinks as he sticks out his hand for shaking, they know exactly who we are.

One of the boys responds to the gesture by taking the gum out of his mouth and sticking it into the cowboy's palm. Rory grimaces.

"Varsity, the only hockey team. State champs."

Her gaze flits back to the boy behind her for a moment. Oh, she might know exactly who this kid is, too.

"I don't care who you are." Rory says, her mouth numb as she turns around to dig through her bag for a tissue for Dwayne. "You're disgusting."

Dwayne thanks her quietly.

"My little brother lost his JV slot when they brought you yo-yos up here."

"He probably wasn't good enough." Julie sneers at him over her shoulder.

"Yeah. We've got a gold medal." She piggybacks. "How many international competitions has your brother won?"

The dark-haired boy with cold eyes and a hard jaw holds her gaze. Ire writhes in her stomach, warm and alive, as he tries to intimidate her.

Who does this guy think he is?

He leans in toward her again.

"See, that's my dad. He's gonna get the board to revoke your scholarships. Just you wait."

The corner of her lips twitches up ( and a little voice in her head sings, mockingly, I know something you don't know! ) when he points past her. Russ says something insulting as she gives a courteous glance back to the front of the room. The man on stage that he's pointing to is around her father's age but smaller and frailer.

Briefly, Rory wonders how someone as enigmatic as Rachel could come from that.

"He can try," She hums, turning to him again, "but he'll lose. And then, once he's tied your family and this school up in so much litigation that they'll never fix their image, my dad will make sure that you and none of your mean friends will ever see the inside of an NHL locker room."

The 'my father is famous' card is dropped with a fake smile and a cheery voice. While she doesn't love to use it, it's the most valuable asset that she has, and she figures it's only fair that she gets to use him to her advantage after the way he's treated her all her life.

She gets various strange looks and Rachel's brother lifts a brow.

"My name is Lorelei Myrtle. I'd offer to shake your hand but I don't want you to touch me."

Kenny is snickering silently to himself beside her.

The boy behind her runs his tongue along his teeth. "It's nice to meet you, Lorelei."

"Wish I could say the same."

Breathing a laugh, he sits back in his chair. One of the old men on the stage steps up to the big, wooden podium in the center.

"Welcome. Since its inception in 1903, Eden Hall Academy has taken great pride in its illustrious tradition of excellence. Yet, as we approach the coming millennium, we dare not shrink from the specter of inevitable change."

Luis leans toward her, brows furrowed. "What did he say?"

"Something about accepting change, I think."

"Thus, myself, the board, Tom Riley of the alumni association, and Varsity Coach Wilson, who has led us to ten consecutive state championships——"

The crowd claps, the varsity kids particularly loud behind them.

"——we have all made a change for the future. So today, after much debate on both sides, we proudly open our doors via full scholarships to a truly gifted group of student-athletes."

She fights to not avert her gaze as eyes drift over to them again.

"So, will you please join me in giving a big, rousing Warrior welcome to the gold medal winners of the Junior——"

He's cut off by a howl that sounds a lot like Greg Goldberg and that red curtain falls down behind him. Rory cringes, pressing her palms to her eyes with a groan as her friends appear from under the fabric in a big heap and the crowd begins to laugh.

"Oh. My. God."

"Hi... we're the Ducks." Charlie's awkward voice comes through the microphone.

"We're going to die." Rory says, voice warbling. "They're going to eat us alive."

Her friends are all too busy laughing or also hiding their faces in shame to respond to her comment.

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Lester Averman catches his girlfriend as she throws herself into his arms, sliding back slightly in his skates from the force of it.

"Someone's excited." He jokes, breathless. "Hey, Charlie, do you think she's excited to see me?"

As Charlie gives some sort of mild response, she pulls back from the hug and kisses him sweetly. He stops joking, then—— his face too red and mind too muddled to really come up with anything clever.

"Hi." She says softly, smiling at him.

Her arms are still around his neck and they're so close that his nose bumps hers.

"Hi."

"I missed you."

"I missed you, too."

And as soon as he's said those words, as soon as that goofy little smile has come to his lips, Rory fully steps back and punches him in the chest.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?"

"How could you do that? Did you take nothing away from my speech about first impressions?"

"Don't take it out on me, princess." He rubs the spot where she hit him. "Take it out on Banks. He took forever to get dressed."

All vigor leaves her body when she sees Adam's sheepish smile.

"...what the hell are you wearing?"

Adam looks down at himself with furrowed brows as Guy pats his back sympathetically. "What?"

Rory walks through the crowd of ducks and she greets them as she goes.

There is plenty of hugging, but Charlie hugs her the tightest. It's one of those embraces that hurts, aching in her ribs and making it a little harder to breathe, but she doesn't mind that much. Maybe not at all.

When she manages to pull away from him, he clears his throat and blinks a few times.

"Are you okay?" She asks him quietly, like it's a secret just between the two of them.

He shrugs his shoulders dismissively. "Yeah."

"You have to go to the dean's office." Someone they don't know says in passing, pointing them in the right direction.

The Ducks start shuffling that way and Averman finds her hand in the midst of it all, pulling her toward him.

"Are you ready?"

He nods, confident. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because this school isn't like your old school." She hums, swinging their hands between them. "Welcome to my world."

He pushes the glasses up his face. "Do I get all the money and the good looks now? As like a right of passage into the world of Lorelei Myrtle."

Rory rolls her eyes fondly.

The dean's office is easy enough to find. As some of them change out of their skates, the rest of them wander about the room; she skirts around the giant ant farm that draws everyone in, her nose wrinkled.

Ants make her skin crawl.

"Charlie, man, this isn't a good start to our year."

Rory nods in agreement with Kenny.

Charlie disagrees as he slings an arm over her shoulders. "Don't worry. These prepsters aren't going to do anything to us."

"You don't know who you're dealing with." She cuts in. "Kids like this are vicious. They've been raised by the apex, man, and they're out for blood. Trust me, I know them—— I sorta am them."

(Or at least, in a sense, she is.)

"No, you aren't."

She cocks a brow at Charlie after he says it, and he drags her over to the anthill.

"Look."

"...they're nice, I guess."

"You can learn a lot from ants..."

Everybody jumps up, standing straight as they watch their dean enter.

"These Brazilian fire ants can teach you a lot about successful societal structure." Buckley continues, watching the ducks all gather around the ant farm. "You see there's one queen in there. The rest are dedicated worker ants. Everybody pulls their weight. Nobody complains. There's harmony and growth. Same here at Eden Hall."

She exchanges an amused look with her boyfriend across Charlie.

"Only you are the workers, the backbone."

"And you're the queen?" Russ asks.

Les snorts and Rory ducks her head down to hide her face as Charlie shoots him a sharp look. The man silently stands up straight after giving Russ a similar look, walking across the room to his desk and returning to them with papers in his hand.

"Here are your schedules and locker numbers and combinations." He hands out papers to everyone. "On them are room numbers and how long each period is."

Immediately, people start to compare schedules and talk about where their lockers are. Rory sighs out loud because her locker is all the way on the third floor of the building it's in.

"Oh, and, before you all go, your tryouts will be in a few days. Good luck."

His eyes linger on her for a moment, and that makes her suspicious. What exactly did he mean by that?

Averman, taking her hand, walks her out of the office with the rest of them. If he hadn't, she probably would've stayed there, staring at their administrator until he explained himself.

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a/n:

word count — 2008

rory and rick's relationship is going to be the weirdest thing i have ever written. do they want to kill each other? do they want to kiss? a happy medium?

charlie's comment about how rory isn't like them is soooooo ironic given later events.

if y'all could see the story plan for this chapter you'd be so amused. might release it as a book on its own like tv show runners let you buy scripts /j

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