"I'm gonna kill her one day."

--☆--☆--☆--

Rory and Cassidy Gilmore have always been the smartest girls in their class. They'd often compete against each other for the number one spot, whoever won bought their coffee for a month. It was fun for them, some competition that made their days interesting, but that was all at Stars Hollow High. Not at Chilton.

At Chilton the twins were still the new girls who were just barely hanging on. They were still so busy playing catch up that they were struggling to keep up with the new material. The Gilmore Girls were no longer the smartest girls in their class, they had real competition.

The girls were sitting in their English class, learning about Shakespeare from their teacher Max Medina. He was currently handing back their most recent essay, watching as smiles or frowns appeared on his students' faces when they saw their grades.

"Decent effort by most, great effort by some, exceptional effort by two," Mr. Medina said as he passed out the papers. "Miss Geller... Miss Grant," He handed the two girls their papers, smiles appearing on both their faces. "Miss Gilmore," both twins looked up but his eyes were on Rory, "Take these home. Learn from your mistakes."

Rory looked shocked when she saw the red markings on her paper. Cassie leaned to the side trying to see what it said but before she could Mr. Medina placed a paper on her desk. "Miss Gilmore... Look at the large red circles around various parts of your papers as friendly reminders that to error is human and that here at Chilton we try to beat that humanity right out of you."

Rory and Cassie were both too shocked by what was on their papers to listen to Mr. Medina. They were the stars of their class, they had never received a grade lower than an A minus. Now here they were, Rory with a D, and Cassie with a C minus.

"Okay. Next up, the test- the dreaded test. Shakespeare-" Mr. Medina pointed to the portrait they had hanging up on the class wall, "- the man we've been droning on about for the last three weeks- finally comes back to haunt us on Friday. This is a big one my friends- multiple choice with an essay section that will count for 20% of your grade this semester. Don't be fooled by my kind face and charming personality. This test will be hard, and there will be no makeup." The bell rang, ending that class period. "Refer to the study material I gave you at the start of the month and those extensive notes I know you've been taking."

The two Gilmores packed up slowly, they both had this pit in their stomach that they've never felt before. Every time they looked down at their paper, at their grade, they felt... they felt like failures. All Rory wanted to do was crawl into a hole and never come out but Cassie, she felt angry. She wanted to punch a wall and curse out Mr. Medina even though she knew he was one the best teachers she had at the moment.

"Hard paper," Paris said to Louise.

"Killer."

"How'd you do?"

"A." She showed off her paper, making Cassie angrier than she was two seconds ago.

"Me too!"

"Small world," Louise replied with a smile as they both grabbed their backpacks and stood up.

"Isn't it? Madeline, what'd you get?" Paris asked as she turned to look at the short haired brunette.

"You know I got a "B"."

"A B's not bad. Respectable even."

"I'd be proud," Lousie said.

"A D or even a C, however, would be cause for concern," Paris said as she turned to stand right behind Rory. She glanced over at Cassie too, knowing that both of the twins were listening.

"A cry for help."

"A job application at McDonald's," Paris added.

Cassie let out a breath, trying her best to not turn around and shove Paris to the floor. The youngest Gilmore wasn't known for being violent when she was upset, however Paris made her question that. She'd never wanted to hurt someone so badly, but she did her best to not say or do anything.

"Would you like fries with that?"

"Hey, you know not everybody can be smart," Paris told the twins as they walked towards the door to the classroom. "As my mother always says somebody has to answer the phones."

"Okay, I have no idea what you two are talking about," Madeline admitted.

"No, but the Gilmores do," Paris said as she went to walk in between the two twins.

"I'm gonna kill her one day," Cassie muttered.

"You can't kill her," Rory told her.

"Oh but I'd enjoy it."

"What'd you get?" Cassie showed her the paper while Rory showed her the grade she received. Rory felt terrible and she knew that Cassie did too.

Yet somehow she knew it was worse for Cassie. Rory knew her sister, and she knew that Cassie already felt out of place at Chilton. She could see the anger in Cassie's eyes, and part of Rory felt like it was her fault.

Maybe if she hadn't convinced her to leave Stars Hollow High then she wouldn't be feeling like this. Then Cassie would be happy and not stressed. Rory knew that Cassie had spent the last week staying up all night trying to catch up with her late material. Rory could see how tired she was, and when Cassie was tired and angry, all hell could break loose.

"I need to go," Cassie muttered before storming off, leaving Rory alone in the hallway. Cassie knew herself, and she knew that at this moment she couldn't be around other people.

She walked right out the school doors, going into the courtyard. She dropped her backpack on the floor and sat down staring at her paper. Cassie's mind immediately began spinning. All she could think was that she should've stayed at Stars Hollow High. Things were easy there, she had friends there, she could be top of her class there.

But at Chilton, she was the girl who got C minuses on English papers and failed math tests. The math test she still hadn't told Rory about, she was too embarrassed. She didn't like it here. She felt like a failure at Chilton, and she hated it. Cassie was always at the top of her game, she didn't feel like herself here.

"Hey." Cassie looked up when Josh walked out to the courtyard. He saw her storm out of class and during the time she was alone he was debating if she should follow her or not.

"I'm not in the mood Dawson," Cassie told him, going back to looking down at her paper.

"Come on Gilmore, it's one paper. It can't be that bad," He said, sitting down beside her. He tried to look at her paper but she quickly moved it out of his view.

"It's not just the paper," She muttered, but she said more to herself than she did to him.

"What else then?"

She looked up at him seeing an almost genuine look of concern on his face. Cassie sighed, shaking her head. She didn't want to talk about this with him. She hardly knew him and the conversations they did have were... well for the lack of a better word... they were weird.

"Listen, Josh. You and me, we aren't friends, so you don't need to pretend to be interested in what's bothering me, okay?"

"Cassie I'm just trying to-"

"You don't need to try anything, okay?" Cassie stood up, grabbing her backpack off the floor.

She walked away, not giving Josh time to respond to what she said. He watched as she walked away, walking right past Tristan who was looking for his best friend.

"Dude, you're still trying," Tristan laughed, gesturing to the closed door that Cassie just walked through.

"So are you," Josh responded, knowing that Tristan was more focused on Rory than he was Cassie.

The boys didn't exactly have an agreement to get the twins, but they both found the girls rather... intriguing. But Josh and Tristan weren't the same guy anymore. They might have been at one point, but not anymore.

"And they both hate us."

"Why do you care?" Tristan asked him with genuine confusion. Josh shrugged, looking down for a moment. "Dude, don't tell me you're whipped already?"

"I'm not," Josh told him. "I barely know her."

"But you want to know her," Tristan realized. The boys had known each other since they were in diapers, they knew everything about each other. "I'm always right about these things."

"No. You're never right about these things," Josh stood up, grabbing his backpack as he left Tristan in the courtyard.

--☆--☆--☆--☆--☆--

By the time the Gilmore Twins made it to the Independence Inn neither of them were feeling like themselves. They felt like failures. Like they didn't deserve to be a Chilton.

"Oh!" Lorelai gasped seeing her daughters walk into the kitchen. Rory was carrying about three bags, and Cassie was carrying two. Rory dropped all bags, taking a step away from them. Cassie understood the urge to do that so she also dropped her bags. "Behold in theaters now, the thing that reads a lot."

"Chocolate?"

"Glass measuring cup," Sookie pointed and Rory went for the cup while Cassie sat down.

"Lorelai, look, look."

"I'm sorry," Lorelai apologized for getting distracted and opened up the magazine in her hands.

"Jeez, who's naked?" Rory asked them.

"Uh, Lucien Mills- food critic," Lorelai answered.

"Why do we care if he's naked?" Cassie asked.

"How's his butt," Rory asked at the same time.

"No, no. He's supposed to review the restaurant," Lorelai explained and the twins let out an 'ohh' in realization. "Oh, here it is."

Neither of the twins were really listening while Lorelai read the review written by the food critic. Rory moved, sitting down beside her sister. She held out the cup of chocolate to Cassie who happily took a couple pieces.

"Juice."

"Apple?" Cassie asked.

"Orange," Rory answered.

Cassie nodded, standing up to get the orange juice from the fridge. She poured the juice into two cups sitting back down right as Sookie took the magazine from Lorelai.

"So, we should celebrate tonight, huh," Lorelai suggested as she walked over to the twins. "Girls on the town?"

"Can't," Cassie said, reaching for another piece of chocolate.

"We have to study," Rory added, finishing Cassie's thought.

"I should really get started on this shopping list," Sookie said, giving her excuse to not go out.

"What is going on here? We are young and fiery women," Lorelai reminded them. "Studying? Shopping lists? Where's 'to hell with it all'? Where's 'throwing caution to the wind'?" Where's - oh shoot-" Lorelai snapped her fingers, "the linen delivery."

"You go girl," the twins laughed as Lorelai turned around walking out of the kitchen.

When the twins got home that night they both started studying. Rory was sitting at the table while Cassie was sitting on the floor. Her back was against the cupboards and all her study material was laid out in front of her.

Neither of the twins had told Lorelai about their poor grades, and Cassie still hadn't told either of them about the math test she flunked.

"News is on!" Lorelai called out from the living room.

"One sec," Rory yelled back.

Cassie didn't even look up from her books, she was too focused. Or at least she was trying to stay focused. In reality her eyes were tired and her brain was fried.

"Hey! Let's get ice cream," Lorelai said as she stood up from the couch to join the twins in the kitchen. "I'm bored. Hello?" She knocked on the table, getting Rory's attention.

"Mom, I'm studying."

"I'm talking ice cream," Lorelai said, using that as her good reason for interrupting their work. "Can't you take a break?"

"I can't right now."

"What about you Cass, feeling like a break?" Lorelai asked as she walked around to the other side of the table to see her daughter on the floor.

"Can't," was all Cassie said, trying to get through the same chapter she's been trying to read for far too long.

Since the twins still hadn't told Lorelai about the poor grades they received she thought the studying they were doing that night was just carefree studying. She didn't realize that the girls were in life or death mode with their classes. She didn't realize that by distracting them she was actually annoying them, she just thought she was being the fun mom she normally was.

"Okay. When?" Lorelai asked, turning back to Rory.

"Are you 4?"

"No! I'm hungry!"

"Have some more pizza," Rory suggested.

"It's cold."

"Then heat it up," Cassie told her, still not lifting her eyes from the book in her hand.

"It's not the same," Lorelai whined.

"Lorelai, go to your room."

"Wow, smart girls are mean," Lorelai leaned on the table, looking at her oldest daughter.

"If you let me study now, I'll play with you this weekend," Rory promised her.

"Promise?"

"Yes."

"Cass, promise?" Lorelai looked down at her youngest daughter, who was now falling asleep as she tried to read her book. "Cassie!"

"Yes!" Her head shot up as she tried to shake away the sleep. "I promise."

"We can do anything you want," Rory added.

"Will you go to the shoe sale with me?"

"Yes."

"Will you let me try on anything I want?" Lorelai asked and once again Rory agreed. "Will you help me push people out of the way if they're going for my size?"

"I'll even run interference for you," Rory promised.

"All right. You've got a deal," Lorelai stood up from the table going to leave the kitchen. She had just made it past the door before turning around and slowly walking back in. "So- I'm sorry- where did we land on the whole ice cream issue?"

Rory, who was now annoyed with her mother, grabbed all her books and stood up from the table. She kicked Cassie's foot, waking up her sister before storming into her room. Cassie immediately started gathering her materials, knowing she needed to go upstairs otherwise Lorelai would start bothering her too.

"What?" Lorelai asked, looking at her youngest daughter.

Cassie shrugged, walking past her mom. Lorelai looked at her in confusion, not knowing that her daughters were keeping secrets from her.