❝𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚞𝚝, 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸'𝚖
𝚂𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝, 𝚋𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚎 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎.
𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚒𝚌, 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸'𝚖
𝙲𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚒𝚌, 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗.❞
𝚂𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚝 — 𝙱𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚝

Elosie never really considered going to Chilton. In fact, the school never crossed her mind. Her sister, Rory, was the one that wanted to go.

Whereas Rory was known as Rory, since their mom, Lorelai, named Rory after herself, Eloise was known as Elsie to the town of Stars Hollow.

Whereas Rory was named after their mother, Elsie was named after a book character that her father, Christopher, had seen. He saw the name 'Eloise' on a children's book and obsessed over the name. He had wanted to name his future daughter, Eloise. So, when Rory was born, Christopher was kind of sad over it, but when Elsie was born, he got his wish.

Every year on her birthday, no matter where, at midnight, he would read the Eloise books to Elsie after she opened a present he got her. Elsie ended up getting the books to follow along with when Christopher read to her.

When she went to her grandparents on Friday, for reasons that she didn't quit understand, Emily had made a toast, "A toast – to the girls entering Chilton and an exciting new phase in their lives." Elsie had been confused, because what did she mean by that? She wasn't going to Chilton.

After idle small talk, Lorelai had asked Emily what she meant by "Girls."

Then Emily explained it, "Well, Elsie, has been accepted into Chilton too. I talked to Hanlin's wife, and she agreed to pull some strings, and now Elsie is going to Chilton."

Lorelai had said, "I'm sorry, but what?"

Emily had said, "After we heard Rory had been into Chilton, I had asked Bitty to pull some strings, and she got Elsie to join Chilton. I won't allow my other granddaughter to go to some public school with Rory's goes to Chilton. It didn't seem fair."

Elsie would've been fine going to 'some public school' but maybe it couldn't hurt, "What's the harm? I mean, it's not going to kill me, right?"

The school might not have killed Elsie, but Elsie was about ready to kill Rory.

The way Rory was yelling at Lorelai over her oversleeping was going to be the death of Elsie.

She was just trying to eat some Pop Tarts and drink some coffee while Rory yelled at Lorelai, "Its 7:15!"

Elsie managed to tune them out, which is a feat in itself, considering how harried and loud Rory was being.

She took a travel mug into the living room with her, taking a drink while Rory leaned against the banister, "Its seven—"

"Don't you even think of finishing that sentence," Lorelai told her, as she ran down the stairs wearing the most god-awful outfit that Elsie had ever seen.

Lorelai wore jean shorts, cowboy boots, and a pink v-neck tie-dyed shirt. Why not wear day-old clothes? How in the hell was that outfit the only thing in her closet? If people asked, she wasn't related to Lorelai.

Lorelai asked, "What?"

Elsie had worn a few unfortunate outfits when she was younger, but it wasn't as awful as Lorelai's or Willow's from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"Nothing," Rory replied. "I just didn't know the rodeo was in town."

"All right, that's it," Lorelai took a picture frame. "I'm taking the baby pictures."

"No! I'm sorry! I love the rodeo." Rory chased after Lorelai, "The rodeo rules!"

"Don't punish me. I was judging you in my mind," Elsie called after her, closing the door.

While on the way to Chilton, Lorelai was ranting, but she took Elsie's travel mug of coffee to drink.

So, now they sat in the jeep, looking at the school, well Lorelai and Rory did, Elsie looked at the students. She spotted two brown-haired girls getting out of a car with two black girls.

"I remember it being smaller," Rory said.

"Yeah," Lorelai said, "And less—"

"Off with their heads," Rory finished.

"Yeah," Lorelai replied and tilted her head up.

Rory asked, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm just to trying to see if there's a hunchback up in that bell tower," Lorelai stated.

Rory asked, "So, how do we look?"

Lorelai smiled, "You both look great."

Rory asked, "Really?"

"Really," Lorelai said. "You're both amazing kids. You have earned this. You just go in there and show them what smart really is. I love you two. Just call me if you need me."

Rory said, "You're kidding, right?"

"No," Lorelai replied. "Call me if you need anything. I'm great at making up dirty cheers."

"You're supposed to go in the office with us," Elsie told her.

"Yeah," Rory agreed.

"Come on," Lorelai replied.

"You have to meet the headmaster," Rory replied.

"Well, look at me," Lorelai replied. "I can't meet anybody who does anything in there."

Rory urged, "Mom!"

"No, I look like that chick from the Dukes of Hazzard," Lorelai replied.

"This is our first day," Rory told her. "You are not getting out of going in there with me. Period."

"Don't remind me," Elsie muttered, not happy at receiving hers two days prior.

They got out of the jeep, although Lorelai was trying to put on her coat.

"Good morning," Lorelai replied.

Elsie went around the jeep to Lorelai.

"Oh, well, we're gonna be best friends," Lorelai told them.

They headed towards a building and Elsie looked around. She spotted a dark-haired girl standing with one of the brown-haired girls from the car standing with another dark-haired pretty boy and a brown-haired boy, at a tree.

They turned to look at them, so Elsie looked away, embarrassed by getting caught staring, like a creepy weirdo.

Lorelai asked, "So, where do we go?"

Rory checked a piece of paper, "Uh, the Ambroise building."

Lorelai asked, "Which is?"

"The big, scary one," Rory replied.

"Good description, they're all big scary buildings," Elsie said. She pointed, "Except that one is large and intimidating."

A man came up to them, "Lost?"

Elsie thought that the man must've gotten lost considering his loud and obnoxious looking tie.

"Oh, yeah," Lorelai replied. "Uh, we're looking for the headmaster's office, the Ambroise building."

"Ah, okay," the man replied. "Well, this is it right here. You just go inside, down the stairs, make a left and the headmaster's office is at the end of the hall."

"Great, thank you," Lorelai replied.

Rory grabbed her arm to go but the man held out his hand, "Um, I'm Ian Jack. My daughter, Julia, goes to school here."

Lorelai shook his hand, "Hi, I'm Lorelai Gilmore. Um, these are my daughters, Rory and Elsie."

"Your daughters?" asked Ian, "Really?"

"Yup," Lorelai said, "Twins."

"Wow, that's great," Ian replied. "Uh, I mean, daughters are a great thing."

"We're big fans," Lorelai said. "That's why I had two." She chuckled.

"Yeah," Ian replied, "Uh, yeah. So is your husband here? I'd love to meet him."

That was a very strange thing to say, Elsie thought. She knew that he was trying to see if she was single, but still...

"I'm not married," Lorelai stated.

"Ah," Ian replied.

"I'd love to meet your wife, though," Lorelai said.

"I'm divorced," Ian told her.

"Shame," Lorelai replied.

"Yeah," Ian said.

Rory seemed to have enough, "Excuse us. We really gotta—"

"Right!" said Lorelai. "We gotta go meet the big guy, and I gotta, uh, get back to work."

The three started to walk away but Ian said, "Oh, where do you work?"

Lorelai went to tell him while Elsie looked at Rory and rolled her eyes at that.

"Good luck in school, Rory and Elsie," Ian told the two girls. "I'll tell Julia to look out for you."

"Great, thanks," Rory replied.

Ian waved bye to Lorelai and walked away, with Lorelai staring after him.

"What a nice, nice man," Lorelai said.

Rory asked, "You're feeling pretty good about yourself right now, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Lorelai said, with a smile on her face, still staring after Ian.

"Do you want either me or Elsie to get you a mirror?" asked Rory.

Lorelai stopped smiling, "I'm back. Let's go." They went to go inside the building. "Oh, good, more big stuff."

They walked down the staircase and passed three girls.

"Turn left," Rory muttered and they went down the hall towards the headmaster's office, reaching double doors.

They stood in front of them.

Lorelai asked, "You ready?"

"No," Rory replied.

Elsie started to feel nervous and anxious.

Lorelai repeated, "You ready?"

"Yes," Rory replied.

They pushed open the doors and walked into the office and to the desk where the secretary was working at.

Lorelai cleared her throat, "Um, excuse me." The secretary looked up, making Lorelai jump back slightly. "Oh! How...wow, hi. I'm Lorelai Gilmore. This is my daughter, Lorelai Gilmore... 'cause I named her after me. I was in the hospital all whacked out on Demerol. This one is named Eloise, her dad was obsessed with the name after he saw it on a children's book. He wanted to name his daughter that and he did. We call them Rory and Elsie, it's short of Lorelai and Eloise, but they'll answer to either one. This one—" She motioned to Rory, "Will answer to 'hey, you' and this one will respond to, 'hey, stupid' depending on the—" Rory nudged her, "Uh, is the headmaster here?"

The secretary stood up, "One moment." She removed her glasses and walked through the door behind them.

Lorelai whispered, "See? That's what happens when you go to bed with your makeup on."

Elsie thought that seemed a little rude.

The secretary opened the door, "Headmaster Charleston will see you now."

Lorelai fixed her hair, "Great, great, thanks."

They walked into the headmaster's office.

The Headmaster said, "Ms. Gilmore, I'm Headmaster Charleston."

Lorelai greeted, "Hi. Wow, it's really nice to meet..." She looked around and noticed Emily sitting on the sofa, "Mom. Um, excuse me. What are you doing here?"

Lorelai went to talk to Emily and Elsie looked at Rory, who looked awkward. She looked at the headmaster.

"I came to wish my granddaughters luck on their first day of school," Emily said.

Lorelai started, "But—"

"Elsie, Rory, you look wonderful in that uniform!" interrupted Emily, going over to look at the girls.

"Uh, you didn't have to come all the way out here, Mom," Lorelai said.

It was only a five minute drive, Elsie was sure, if her memory served her correctly.

"Well, this gave me a chance to make sure that Hanlin here takes good care of Elsie and Rory," Emily said. She kept a hand on Elsie.

Elsie always figured that she was closer to Emily, while Rory was closer to Richard. While Rory and Richard talked books and stuff, Emily and Elsie discussed other things.

Lorelai pointed out, "You're Hanlin."

"Hanlin's wife and I are on the symphony fundraising committee together," Emily explained.

"Wow, that's great," Lorelai replied.

"Your father and I are golf rivals," the Headmaster said. "We're still fighting it out to see which one is worse."

"Oh, yes," Emily said with a smile. "We're all old friends."

"Well, there's nothing like friends," Lorelai replied, "Especially if they're old...ones."

The headmaster said, "Well, would you like to take off your coat and have a seat?"

Elsie tuned out, looking around the office; leather chairs, a big fancy desk, some generic looking paintings, a fireplace...kind of cozy.

Emily asked, "Hanlin, did you know that Elsie has a 3.9 grade average and that Rory has 4.0 grade average?" Emily led the two girls to the leather seats at the desk.

"I'm sure he does, Mom," Lorelai said.

"They are very special girls," Emily said. "You take good care of them."

"We'll do our best, Emily," the headmaster said.

"Oh, god," Lorelai said. "Rory and Elsie aren't gonna be a problem. They're totally low maintenance, you know, like a Honda. You know, they're just easy, just...nice office." She noticed a picture frame of a girl and boy standing in front of the school, both in Chilton uniforms, on the desk, "Cute kids." It had to have been recent.

"That's my son, Cassian and my niece, Vivian," Headmaster Charleston said, proudly. "They're both attending here."

"Well, I don't think we should take up anymore of your precious time. Hanlin, it was lovely to see you. Give Bitty, Cassian, and Vivian our love," Emily said.

"Tell Richard I'll see him at the club Sunday," Headmaster Charleston said.

"Have a wonderful day, you two. I want to hear all about it," Emily said. To Lorelai, she said, "Do you need a ride or is your horse parked outside?"

Elsie tried not to laugh. Sometimes she felt like she didn't share her mother's humor, but she shared Emily's humor though.

Lorelai shook the headmaster's hand, "It's so nice to meet you." She kissed her daughters' foreheads, "Have a great day." She started to leave the office.

"Oh, you don't want to forget your coat," the headmaster called after her.

Lorelai laughed nervously, "Oh, no...'cause that would be embarrassing." She took her coat and walked out the office with Emily.

The headmaster had sent Elsie to wait outside while he interviewed Rory, so Elsie took a book out of her bag to read while Rory got interviewed. After some time, Rory left, sending Elsie in.

The headmaster looked through Elsie's transcript folder. "You're a very bright and interesting girl, Miss Gilmore."

"Thanks," Elsie replied, confused by that statement.

"Good grades, the teachers like you. Your social activities include working part-time at a bakery, and being part of the design club, graphic art club, and humanities club."

"I was told those clubs will help me with architecture," Elsie said with a shrug.

The headmaster looked at her, "Architecture?"

"I want to be an architect," Elsie told him. "I want to go to Yale, but Cornell and Columbia are good too. It's good to have many options open."

Headmaster Charleston asked, "You don't want to go to Harvard with your sister?"

"No," Elsie said. "I find architecture fascinating. I like those Victorian homes. I like the style of them. You know those Colonial homes? Queen Anne homes? It has so much more character than modern homes now. They're just so plain and boring."

The headmaster said, "I've known your grandparents for quite some time."

"I'm aware," Elsie replied.

"In fact, I was at a party at their house just last week, where I had the most delicious lobster puffs I've ever eaten. I've very fond of them," the man said.

"I like the crab cakes myself," Elsie responded.

"None of this, however, will be of any benefit to you. Chilton has one of the highest academic standards of any school in America. You may have been the smartest girl at Stars Hollow, but this is a different place. The pressures are greater, the rules are stricter, and the expectations are higher." The headmaster continued, "If you make it through, you will have received one of the finest educations one can get, and there should be no reason why you should not achieve all your goals. However, since you are starting late and are not used to this highly competitive atmosphere, there is a good chance you will fail. That is fine. Failure is a part of life, but not a part of Chilton. Understand?"

Elsie nodded, "I like challenges. If I fail, I fail. Dale Carnegie said, 'Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.' You know I was forced into coming here by my grandmother. So if I fail, at least I can say I tried."

The headmaster handed over a file and said, "Take this to Miss James in the administration office across the hall."

Elsie took the file, "Thank you. Have a nice day, Headmaster."

The headmaster said, "Thanks, you too."

Cassian was sort of interested when he saw one of the new girls come in. She had this innocent small town girl look about her; she was pretty, especially with those killer blue eyes. He did entertain the idea of slowly corrupting that innocent girl. But he looked at her again. She didn't seem like the type who would enjoy drinking or going to parties either. The worst cussing she probably ever used was 'hell' and he was sure that the furthest she ever gone with a guy was a kiss with the lights off.

He knew he really shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, considering how last year, new girl Janine Lancaster was branded as the biggest Mary in school. However it turned out that some guy at her previous school had gotten her pregnant with her third child.

However, it seemed kind of obvious that the new girl, Rory, she corrected Mr. Medina when he called her Lorelai, was a total goody-two-shoes, so she kind of wasn't worth his time.

He focused on Mr. Medina, because he couldn't get in trouble again for not paying attention in class.

Then the other new girl came in and she was gorgeous. Sure she looked similar to Rory, he can tell that they were twins, but something about this girl seemed different to her twin.

She handed Mr. Medina her schedule and he said, "Ah, yes, Eloise Gilmore. Take an empty desk."

Eloise gave him a weird look, "Well, damn, there goes my plan on sitting on that girl's lap."

He tried not to laugh at that, because Paris didn't look happy at the thought. Or maybe she wasn't happy that two girls interrupted the lesson.

Eloise went across the classroom to the desk that was next to his. He looked at her. She had pretty green eyes that were framed by black hair that went a little bit below her armpits. He had seen her that morning, but up close, she was even more gorgeous.

Eloise stared at him, probably thinking that he was a creepy weirdo for staring at her like he never saw a girl before. He felt his face warm up from being caught and having those eyes on him. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Eloise seemed to stare at him a little longer before she focused on the teacher.

He had to know who this girl was.

Mr. Medina said, "And while French culture was the dominant outside cultural influence, especially for Russia's monied class, English culture also had its impact. Tolstoy's favorite author, for instance, as..."

"Dickens," Paris said, with her hand raised.

"Yes," Mr. Medina replied. "And of course, last week, we discovered Dostoevski's main authorial influences..."

"George Sand and Balzac," Paris said with her hand raised again.

"Good," Mr. Medina said. "As Tolstoy commenced writing both War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Count Leo would turn to..."

"David Copperfield," Eloise said, with her hand raised.

"Correct," Mr. Medina said. "He would turn to David Copperfield for inspiration."

Tristan walked in and handed Mr. Medina a note. Eloise looked at him almost approvingly.

Cassian felt a little sick at that because there went whatever chance he had, because of course she would get a crush on the biggest tool in the school. Even Vivian considered dating him and she refused to go out with anyone who wasn't Jewish.

However, it looked like Tristan looked at Eloise and then proceeded to leer at Rory instead.

Rory shifted in her seat looking rather uncomfortable and Eloise rolled her eyes.

No, he needed to shove thoughts of Eloise out of his head. She made her choice and he had to be fine with it.

"Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Little Dorrit all major influences on Leo Tolstoy. Tomorrow we will focus on the writing styles of these two literary masters, Tolstoy and Dickens," Mr. Medina finished. The bell rang. "Class dismissed."

Very loudly, Tristan said, "Looks like we got ourselves a couple of Marys."

Eloise stayed in her seat looking confused and looked at Rory who looked confused.

"He basically said you two look like goody-two-shoes and innocent like the Virgin Mary," Cassian said.

Rory said, "What would he call us if he thought we looked like sluts?"

"Mary Magdalene," Cassian told her.

Mr. Medina said, "Uh, Rory and Eloise Gilmore, could you come up here please?"

Cassian went to his locker which was near the history hall. It was just his luck that Tristan decided to talk to Eloise.

"Hey, Mary," Tristan said, "Hey, Mary."

"My name is Eloise," the dark-haired girl said.

"I'm Tristan," the blond boy said.

"Okay," Eloise replied.

Tristan asked, "So, you and your sister are new?"

"Yeah, it's our first day," Eloise replied.

"Well, Medina's class is rough," Tristan replied.

"I suppose," Eloise said.

"You know, I could loan you my notes if that would help," Tristan told her.

"No," Eloise replied.

Cassian blinked at that, because that had to have been a first.

Tristan said, "I'm sorry?"

"I mean, hell no," Eloise replied. "I'm not interested in becoming Girl #20 to you. Find someone else. And get my name right. It's not Mary. If you want to insult me biblically, I prefer Lilith, because I refuse to be subservient to you."

Tristan looked like he would've preferred if Eloise actually slapped him, "Fine. Who's notes are you going to use?"

"Someone's who's not you," Eloise said.

Cassian was a little stunned, because where the hell did that actually come from? For a moment there, it seemed like Eloise was interested in him, but then she did that?

Tristan walked away.

Cassian went to Eloise. She looked at him. So, Cassian said, "Sorry about him. He's my friend's cousin. Sometimes he just doesn't seem to know how to take no for an answer."

"Oh," Eloise said.

"Don't worry," Cassian said. "She's a lot less crude than him."

Eloise nodded, "Okay."

She was looking at him, like 'what the hell do you want from me?' He was overstaying his welcome he guessed... "You want to borrow my English notes?" Why was he being such a fucking creep over this girl? After school, he was going to throw himself off a cliff or a bridge just for being a creepy weirdo. He needed to back the fuck up. She probably had a boyfriend, which is probably why she didn't jump at the catch of being 'study-buddies' with Tristan.

"Sure," Eloise said.

Cassian handed her his English binder, telling himself not to be a creep. He had to pull himself together. He noticed that she seemed to be slightly taller than him.

Eloise took the binder and went to her locker, which was by Mrs. Ness's classroom.

God, he was so fucked.

When he got to his locker, his best friend, Anthony, was leaning against it. He was smirking at Cassian, because of course he knew. He said, "You owe me one."

Cassian was confused, "Okay?"

Rory struggled with her locker before managing to get it open and stumbled backwards into Paris who dropped the castle model she was holding.

Rory said, "Oh no, I am so sorry. Paris, please, I'm so sorry. It was an accident. My locker, it just slipped. I pulled too hard. I didn't mean too...is there water in that moat?"

"Get away from me," Paris growled at her and walked in a classroom.

Rory looked stunned before putting her books in her locker, so Elsie said, "Maybe you should've quoted Beetlejuice at her. 'Nice fucking model'. Maybe she would've been amused when you broke her castle."

Rory rolled her eyes and asked a passing guy, "Excuse me. My sister and I need Mrs. Ness. History?"

"It's behind you," the guy said, pointing.

"Of course it is," Rory muttered.

Elsie and Rory walked in the classroom.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Paris said.

Elsie had the same thought when she saw Dugray. Something about that guy made her skin crawl. He was good-looking and he knew it. Too bad he was a jerk, branding her and Rory Mary, just based off of looks alone. He seemed like the type who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

Elsie didn't consider herself a 'goody-two-shoes' girl because three months ago she gave a guy a hand-job and let him give her one in return, but that was all. Devin, her crush from Stars Hollow High, was good-looking and he knew it. He was nice and sweet and definitely took 'no' for an answer. Elsie was still hoping to become one of 'Devin's Flowers' which started in middle school. He gave a girl a flower (a different flower for each girl) which means that she became his girlfriend. Never longer than a year, though. The longest was five months and the shortest was two weeks.

The bell rang and Elsie took her seat in front of Rory.

"Seats now, please," Mrs. Ness said.

Tristan whispered, "Hey, Mary and Lilith."

Elsie was annoyed, God seriously? Did girls really fall for that shit?

"Okay, we left our projects off on Friday with Mr. Gaynor, so today we will pick up with Miss Gellar," Mrs. Ness said.

Paris stood up, "I don't have my project."

Mrs. Ness said, "Miss Gellar, did you have sufficient time to complete your project?"

"Yes," Paris replied.

Mrs. Ness asked, "And yet you don't have it done?"

"No," replied Paris.

"All right," Mrs. Ness said. "You will receive an incomplete for this project."

Rory stood up, "It's my fault."

Mrs. Ness looked at her, "Who are you?"

"Rory Gilmore," Rory stated. "I wrecked her project."

"Shut up," Paris ordered her.

Mrs. Ness looked through the class roster, "I don't have a Rory Gilmore. I have a Lorelai and Eloise Gilmore."

"That's me," Rory said.

Mrs. Ness asked, "You are Rory, Lorelai, and Eloise Gilmore?"

Elsie almost rolled her eyes at that, "I'm Eloise Gilmore. She's Lorelai but she goes by Rory."

Rory nodded, "Yes, and I wrecked her project. My locker got stuck."

"Just stay out of this," Paris told her.

Mrs. Ness said, "Miss Gilmore, you wrecked Paris's project when?"

"Just before class," Rory said.

"Very convenient," Mrs. Ness said, as if it was some scheme Paris and Rory cooked up together.

"No, I did." Rory explained, "My locker got stuck and when I opened it—"

"Stop it!" Paris snapped.

Mrs. Ness said, "Miss Gilmore, since you say you wrecked Miss Gellar's project, then you may help her fix it. You have until tomorrow."

"Fine," Rory replied.

"No," Paris said.

Rory asked, "Why not?"

"I don't want your help," Paris told her.

"But I don't mind doing it," Rory countered.

Paris said, "Just stay out of this."

"What is wrong with you? I'm trying to help you," Rory replied.

Paris snapped, "Well, don't!"

"Ladies, enough," Mrs. Ness interrupted, "Miss Gellar, if you don't want Miss Gilmore's help then you may have until tomorrow. If it's not done, you will receive an incomplete. Is that understood?"

"Yes," Paris said.

"As long as you're standing...class, we have two new students. Say hello to Eloise and Rory Gilmore," Mrs. Ness said.

"Hi, Eloise and Rory," the class muttered.

"Hello, Mary and Lilith," Tristan said, saying 'hello' the way that Animaniacs said 'hello, nurse'.

Rory sat down.

Mrs. Ness went through the rest of the projects before switching on to reading passages from a book and quizzing them on who said it and what year.

Elsie noticed Rory pass Paris a folded piece of paper, but Paris crumpled it up and tossed it onto the ground without even looking at it. Knowing Rory, it probably had her begging Paris to let her help out of guilt.

Mrs. Ness said, "Let's try another passage, 'The Romanists have, with great adroitness, drawn thee walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them, whereby Christendom has fallen terribly.' Who said this?"

"Martin Luther," Rory said quickly.

"Very good, Miss Gilmore," Mrs. Ness said. "And what year did Martin Luther address the Christian nobility?"

"1520," Rory answered quickly once again.

"Very good, Miss Gilmore," Mrs. Ness replied. The bell rang, "until next time, class."

Elsie gathered her things and watched as Paris went to Rory's desk.

"Stay out of my way," Paris warned her. "I will make this school a living hell for you." She looked at Elsie, "And that goes for you too." She left.

Tristan walked by, "See you tomorrow, Mary and Lilith."

Rory muttered, "Did you really tell him to call you that?"

"I didn't think he'll run it into the ground," Elsie replied.

Paris didn't need to make the school a living hell for Elsie, because it seemed like Dugray was way ahead of Paris on that front.

Elsie headed to her math class that she didn't share with Rory, when a brown-haired boy came up to her.

The boy asked, "You're new?"

"Yeah," Elsie said. "I'm Elsie."

"I'm Anthony," the boy said. "So, where you're from?"

"Stars Hollow," Elsie replied, confused.

Anthony asked, "Where's that?"

"It's thirty minutes away from Hartford," Elsie replied.

Anthony asked, "You into music? What is your favorite band?"

"What is this?" Elsie asked, "An interrogation?"

"Nope, just getting to know the new girl," Anthony responded.

Elsie asked, "What's your favorite band?"

"I like The Beach Boys and Everclear," Anthony said. "I prefer polka and folk music."

"I like rock music," Elsie replied.

"Come on, give me a band name," Anthony said.

"Nirvana," Elsie replied. "Uh, Guns N' Roses, Korn..."

Anthony nodded, "You like reading? What are you currently reading? What's your favorite book?"

Elsie stared at him, "Anthony, I think you have problems."

"I know I do," Anthony replied with a shrug. "I'm currently reading The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. My favorite book is The Secret History by Donna Tartt."

"I like the Wizard of Oz series," Elsie replied. "I don't count the books that have been written by L. Frank Baum as the real series. Anything after those books doesn't count to me. I'm currently reading A Game of Thrones."

Anthony seemed genuinely curious, "Why do you like the Wizard of Oz books?"

Elsie shrugged, "I just do."

A girl came up to them. "What's going on?" She didn't look happy.

"I was just showing Elsie where Mr. Jones's math class is, Viv," Anthony told Vivian.

Elsie went in the math class, to avoid whatever that was. This school seemed weirder than Stars Hollow High, which was saying something.

After school let out, Rory and Elsie went to Lorela, "Mm. Hey, you two."

Rory dropped her backpack and hugged Lorelai, who exclaimed, "Oh."

Elsie looked at the passing students. She spotted Cassian, Anthony, Vivian, and that brown-haired girl, walking with each other. She looked at Cassian. She kind of liked the way he moved, she wasn't sure why. They stopped at a car and talked but the brown-haired girl took off to go to another car.

Vivian and Anthony talked but Cassian turned, looking right at her. Elsie looked away, feeling her face warm up at being caught staring.

"So, I brought us some coffee," Lorelai said.

"That's a shock," Elsie said.

"Triple caps, easy foam," Lorelai said.

"Wow," Rory said.

"Nice," Elsie added.

"And if that doesn't work, we'll stick our fingers in a light socket. Come here," Lorelai said. She picked up Rory's backpack and staggered under the weight, "What? Do they expect you both to get smart all in one day?"

"They expect a lot of things out of us," Elsie muttered.

"Well, tell me," Lorelai said.

While Rory talked to Lorelai about their day, Elsie wondered what her best friend of almost six years, Raegan Ramírez, was doing. She tried picturing Devin, with his dark brown eyes and hair, but for some reason, Cassian came to mind. 

"I'm sorry."

That was Rae.

Elsie was sitting on her bed, looking over Cassian's English notes when Rae came into Elsie's room.

Lorelai and Rory had gone out to eat pizza, but Elsie refused to go, deciding to get a head start on copying down the notes.

Elsie asked, "Sorry for what?"

"Devin handed me a dahlia, but I said no," Rae said, sounding upset.

Elsie waited for the licks of jealousy and anger to spring up. However, she didn't feel anything of the sort. She tried to imagine Devin's face, dark brown eyes and dark hair once again, but instead Cassian's face came to mind. Cassian looked at her in the way that Elsie used to want Devin to look at her, but Devin never looked twice at her.

Elsie shrugged, "That's fine. I needed to move on anyway."

Rae looked baffled, "Really? You liked him for three months."

"And he never looked at me twice," Elsie said. "Besides, I think it's time I find someone else."

"That's what I've been saying," Rae replied. "I never liked him anyway."

Elsie giggled because it was true. She threw a pillow at her, "Oh, you shut up. Besides, I never liked Lulu anyway."

Rae was bisexual, but she leaned more towards girls. Rae gasped, "What was wrong with Lulu?"

"She brought a knife to school," Elsie said. "Who does that?"

Rae threw the pillow back at Elsie, "Come on, you gotta admit that she was hot."

Elsie couldn't confirm nor deny that.