I have no doubt that this story has probably been done before but I haven't seen any so I decided to take a chance.
All that you really need to know is that Rory and Dean never got back together after their three month anniversary.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Before I knew it, Grandma was telling me how important it is for a person to be properly presented to society." Rory explained to Lorelai.
"Ugh!" was Lorelai's only response.
"And how every young girl dreams of this day." Rory continued.
"Agh!" Lorelai groaned.
"And how there are flowers."
"Oh Lord." Lorelai said shaking her head. She couldn't believe Rory had fallen for this, her smart Chilton daughter fell for her mothers evil trick.
"And music." Rory listed trying to convince her mother it wasn't as bad as it sounded but was unsuccessful.
"Please."
"And cake!"
"Oh yeah, the cake's actually good." Lorelai reasoned.
"And before I knew it, Grandma was bringing out your old dress and I was trying it on and. . . what are you doing?" Rory asked as she saw her mother get up and reach for the phone.
"I'm getting you out of this."
"Mom, I promised Grandma. She looked so happy that I was doing this." Rory told her mother.
"Ror, Do you understand what you are getting yourself into? I mean this is like hell only with fluffy white dresses and Miss Manners watching over you."
"Look, I promised, but you don't have to be apart of it if you don't want to." Rory sighed hoping her mother wouldn't make her do this alone.
"No, no, if you wanna do it, I'll help. It's just weird. This is all the stuff I ran away from. I just assumed you'd be running with me."
"Well, I would, but I heard debutantes don't run. Something about the heels."
"All right then. If you're sure, where do we start? Uh, let's see. Well, you have a dress. You need a dowry, I guess. There you go. And uh, you'll need shoes, hose, gloves, some mice, a dog, a pumpkin. What's wrong?"
"It's just…That your father is supposed to be there with you." Rory said slightly above a whisper.
She had been fine without a dad in her life. Lorelai was a amazing Mom and Rory was glad she had her but there were those moments where she wished Chris was around more often.
"I'll call Chris." Lorelai said definitely.
"Mom, No. I am sure Grandpa can do it."
"I'm calling Chris." she repeated picking up the phone and dialing.
"Mom! Hang up the phone. Hey, I'll ask Taylor or Kirk. I am sure Kirk would love to do it for me!" Rory panicked.
"Christopher Hayden." Lorelai said talking to the operator.
"You do not listen, Brick walls listen better than you!" Rory said exasperated as she walked into her bedroom and slammed the door.
"BUT THEY DON'T LOOK AS GOOD IN HIGH HEELS AND A MINI SKIRT!" Lorelai shouted.
Rory flopped down on her bed. She really didn't know what had possessed her to agree to being a debutante but her grandma's face lit up at the suggestion and she didn't want to disappoint her.
Rory was groaning at all the stuff she was going to have to do when all of a sudden it dawned on her. She was going to need a escort. "OH NO!" She thought out loud.
She had broken up with Dean after their three month anniversary. She wasn't in love with him and she wasn't going to lie and say she was.
There was a knock on the door and Lorelai poked her head in. "Hey Little Debbie, your dad is definitely gonna be there."
"Really?" Rory asked brightly. "Yep." Lorelai smiled.
"Mom, I don't have an escort." Rory sighed.
"One Debutante dilemma per day." Lorelai reasoned. "How about Luke's. I am thinking if we hurry we can catch part two of Luke and Jess: What not to wear when working at a Diner."
"OH! Let's bring popcorn!"
The bell rang Tuesday afternoon and Rory was glad. The day had dragged on for what seemed like years. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night. She had been excessively worrying about who she'd end up having as and escort. She had to have one and she was praying to go her grandmother wouldn't find her one.
"Hello, Mary." Tristan said leaning against the row of lockers. "Bible boy." Rory greeted curtly.
"Why the long face, Mar? I noticed you weren't as chipper as you usually are in Biology. I mean, Mrs. Borland did assign a five page essay, single spaced. You should be ecstatic you have something to fill your weekend up with."
"I would much rather be home doing my essay this weekend then what I do have planned." Rory muttered out loud then winced when she heard Tristan respond to her comment.
"And would that be? Your not excited to go to the sock hop with Bag Boy?" He shot out bitterly.
"Actually, Dean and I aren't together. You knew that, Remember I told you at the party." Rory said before she remembered what happened after she told him. She kissed him and ran away crying.
"How could I forget. It was the first time a girl ever ran in the other direction after kissing me." He said trying to cover up how much it had actually hurt him.
"About that, I'm sorry. I hadn't wallowed and my Mom said I should but I didn't, I just ignored what had happened. Then, I went to the party knowing that I was still upset over Dean. Then I saw you and you broke up with Summer and we were talking and you were so different than your usually arrogant, pain in the ass self. Then I kissed you and it wasn't a bad kiss, really good actually but I wasn't ready for it and …I am sorry." Rory rambled.
Tristan smirked not only because she looked adorable when she was flustered and rambling but because he knew she didn't realize she had let it slip that she enjoyed the kiss.
"Apology accepted. So, if your not going out with Dean then what are your plans for this weekend?" He questioned.
Just then Madeline, Louise and Paris walked up. "I guess I'll see you Saturday!" Louise said brightly.
"Your going to be there?" Rory asked actually slightly relieved that she would know someone.
Louise nodded "Of course! My mom makes sure I am at every Deb Ball within the five surrounding counties."
"Mary…Your going to be a Deb?" Tristan asked wide-eyed. He couldn't imagine Rory Gilmore, His Mary prancing around in a fluffy white dress. She didn't strike him as the type of girl that would want to be presented to society.
"Yeah, It's more of a favor for my Grandma." Rory blushed from being under Tristan's scrutiny.
"Whose your escort?" Madeline asked.
Rory hesitated "I um…I don't….I don't have one, Yet." she admitted noticing the triumphant smirk that appeared on Paris's featured.
Paris was glad that Rory didn't have an escort. "Even I had a escort that wasn't family." Paris mocked. "It's about time little Miss Perfect was shut down."
"I'll catch up with you guys later. I've gotta go." Rory said shutting her locked and walking quickly towards the front doors.
She glanced down at her watch to realize she had already missed her bus. "Figures." She mumbled to herself. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. The bus didn't come for about two hours, her mom was on her way to her business class and there was no way in hell she was going to go to her grandparents house only to be bombarded with more hassle about the Debutante Ball.
Leaning against a car to compose herself enough to figure out what she was going to do. What she wanted to do was curl up into a ball at home and forget that she ever agreed to this ridiculous event. Forget that she didn't have a boyfriend. Forget Paris and her self righteous smirk. Forget everything.
"You know the line 'Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine' Well, in this case it's: Out of all the cars, in all the parking lots, in all the world she leans on mine." a voice behind her said.
Lifting her gaze from the ground up to Tristan's smiling face she laughed. Not a polite, thanks for the effort of telling a joke laugh but a real, whole hearted, sincere laugh.
"Sorry, I didn't realize it was your car." She said picking up her book bag that she had discarded on the ground next to her.
"Don't worry about it." He shrugged and leaned on the car next to her. "So, What's with being a Debutante? I may not know everything about you but I know enough to know that you are certainly not Deb material."
"Just how do you know I am not Debutante material?" Rory asked raising an eyebrow.
Tristan laughed "Because, I have been forced to escort a few Deb's in my day and you my dear, Mary are nothing like them. So fess up, Why?"
Rory sighed. She needed to talk to someone that wasn't completely against being a Deb like her mother and someone who wasn't completely for it like her grandmother. Lane was grounded for something or other and Rory decided Tristan was better than nothing.
"My mom never did the whole Debutante thing because she got pregnant with me and my grandmother being the society women that she is always had her heart set on presenting her daughter as a deb." Rory explained.
"So, you're her second chance." Tristan concluded.
Rory nodded her head "Yep."
"Bummer."
"Your telling me! I got a week heads up. Meaning I have very little time to get everything together which includes a escort."
"Hence the lack of enthusiasm in Bio." He joked trying to lighten the mood.
Rory smiled she liked talking to Tristan was he wasn't surrounded by his usual posse. "Pretty much. You know how reports make me giddy."
Tristan laughed and shook his head. Rory Gilmore was certainly something else. She made him feel like the rest of the world didn't matter, as long as he was happy. She didn't care how silly or odd she came across, Which was something he respected about her.
"So, I noticed you missed the bus while getting cornered by Paris and Louise. Need a ride home?" He asked.
"Only if you promise to keep the innuendos down to two per every ten sentences." Rory bargained.
"I make no promises but for you Mare, I'll try." He said sincerely and took her book bag so he could place it in the trunk.
Rory got into the passengers seat and buckled in. She watched Tristan get into the drivers seat, buckle his seatbelt and fiddle with the radio station.
They spent the ride talking about music, books and other random topics. Rory was surprised that she had so much in common with Tristan. After all, She didn't really assume she'd have much in common with Chilton's resident playboy.
It was four o'clock by the time they reached Stars Hollow and they pulled into her drive way.
Tristan got out and pulled out her bag from the trunk, Rory couldn't help but notice the slight pout on his face that he was going home. It wasn't a look that made her thing he was mad about not getting any action but a look that made him mad that he had to leave her.
Right as he was about to climb back into his sports car Rory decided a few more hours wouldn't hurt.
"Hey, Tris?"
"Yeah?" He asked looking up from the car door.
"Want to go get something to eat with me? I'd offer you something at the house but all we have are pop tarts and pizza which me and mom can't remember when we bought it."
"Sure." He agreed. His face lit up like a little child's when she asked him if he wanted to go.
Rory threw he book bag in the house and they began to walk towards Luke's.
"So, What are you going to do about the Deb ball? It's only a few days away." He questioned.
"I don't know, I really don't want to get stuck with some guy my grandmother sets me up with. Last time she tried to set me up I ended up with a guy that had an unhealthy love of spiders."
"I am sure he wasn't that bad!"
"He had a picture of one in his wallet! Not to mention every the number eight would come up he'd get a dreamy look in his eyes like he was counting the seconds before he could go home and be with his eight legged lovers!" Rory exclaimed.
"That is slightly disturbing." Tristan conceded.
That night Rory was doing her homework when Lorelai got home. "Hey Hun!"
"Hey, mom!" Rory greeted looking up from her books.
"So, I stopped at Luke's to get food and Miss Patty was there." Lorelai began. "Oh really, That's something very out of the ordinary!" Rory replied sarcastically.
"Ha Ha. You should quit school and see if you can go on tour with Larry the Cable guy."
"Anyways, What interesting gossip did Miss Patty divulge to you today?" Rory questioned.
"Well it seems my one and only daughter was seen canoodling around town with a tall, blonde boy and according to Miss Patty he had a nice ass."
Rory couldn't help but laugh "Yeah, She would know. She did pinch it."
"Who was the blonde, Ror! Your withholding information from me! Your mother, the women who gave you life!"
"It was Tristan."
"DuGrey? Bible Boy? ET? Satan's spawn?" Lorelai listed.
"Yes, Mom. I missed the bus and he drove me home. We went to Luke's, got something to eat and he went home."
"Miss Patty also mentioned she witnessed a fuming Dean outside of the diner as you apparently fed Tristan a piece of apple pie." Lorelai smirked.
"Oh, That…I ordered pie and I said that it was the best ever and Tristan didn't believe me. So, I told him he had to try some. Well, He didn't want a whole piece so I said he could have some of mine."
"So, You fed it to him?"
"It was only logical. I mean, I was holding the fork." Rory blushed.
Lorelai could tell her daughter had feelings for Tristan. She knew that she had, had these feelings even when she was dating Dean. Dean was a good starter boyfriend, but Tristan was a boy that could keep Rory on her toes, a boy that she could see Rory with.
"Apparently Dean looked pissed." Lorelai stated.
"Dean has no right to be pissed!" Rory exclaimed. "He broke up with me! He ended it. He has no right to have any opinion on the matter"
"Alright, Calm down! We have bigger issues to rant about."
"Like?"
"Like how tomorrow my mother is meeting us at Miss Patty's dance studio so you and your escort can learn to waltz."
"Excuse me? Did I hear you correctly?" Rory questioned praying to god she heard wrong.
"Yes, Not only has my mother found you an escort, but you must learn to waltz with him tomorrow." Lorelai said chuckling at her daughters expense.
"This isn't funny!" Rory whined.
"Yes, It is. I mean look at the lengths I went though not to go through it!"
"You got pregnant so you didn't have to be a Deb?"
"Yep, I decided the morning sickness and pushing a human through my body was a lot better than wearing a fluffy white gown and doing the feather dance."
"Tristan, Darling!" Tristan's mother yelled as he walked through the front door.
"Yeah, Mom?"
"Come here, Please."
Tristan walked into the living room to see his mother sitting on the couch wearing pink pajamas, fuzzy slippers and papers scattered around her.
He was close to his mother, She was always there for him to talk to when he had a problem. She was constantly telling him to make a move on Rory. Though his mother understood something's about his life style she couldn't wrap her head around the way Tristan treated women.
There was only one thing about Rory his mother didn't know and that was her name. Alyse DuGrey was under the impression that the object of her son's affection's name was Mary.
"I have made plans for your weekend." She announced setting whatever graph she was looking at aside.
"I'm sorry, when did you become my activities coordinator?"
"Oh, Hush! My friend's granddaughter needs your help this weekend and I merely agreed for you." Alyse told him.
"And what pray tell am I spending my weekend doing?"
"Well, Tomorrow you are going to meet a young lady for a dance lesson and Saturday you will be her date."
"Date for what, Mom?" Tristan asked slightly annoyed that his mother had volunteered him to do this.
"Just to escort her to a debutant ball." Alyse said nonchalantly hoping her son wouldn't refuse to do it.
"Fine, Whatever." Tristan sighed failing to put two and two together and realize that he was escorting none other that Rory Gilmore to the Debutant ball.
There will only be three or four chapters in the this story and I already have most of the second and third done so it will be updated pretty quickly.
The quotes in italics are of course from 'Presenting Lorelai Gilmore' Which I do not own.
Please review!