lovely | jess mariano

chapter one

victoria gilmore was smart. she knew that. she also knew that she worked hard to get where she was. she studied and studied. she did her homework. she spent most of her free time on school and school-adjacent activities. 

but that was what you had to do when your mom was paying the price of asking for financial help from her parents. while tori could acknowledge that one dinner a week seemed like a fair enough deal, she could also see the emotional toll emily and richard gilmore took on lorelai. they were relentless. and that was putting it nicely. 

that was the price she paid for going to chilton, a prestigious private school that gave her the foot up when applying to colleges. she was not going to take it for granted. 

but she was also not going to be as anal about it as her sister, rory. even if it was the first day back of the new school year. 

she was sat in luke's diner, purposely taking her time with her food, rory basically falling out of her chair waiting for her and their mom. 

"how are the eggs?" rory asked, staring at tori's plate. 

"pretty good, might have to savour the taste for a little longer," victoria quipped, moving slower. 

"tori!"

"listen freak, we're not gonna be late," victoria exclaimed, flicking her sister in the ear. 

"it's the first day of school. i wanna get there early."

"we will be there early, i promise," lorelai replied. 

"i have different classes this year, my routes aren't the same. i haven't found the quickest path around. and my locker, they moved it, so i don't even know if it'll work properly and then i'll have to get a new one and god knows how long that'll take or where it'll be and that could send the whole day into chaos... i'm just excited," rory rambled. 

tori almost groaned at her sister. she was such a nerd. sure, they had no clue where they were going and it was a pretty strict school but she was sure after being there for almost a year they could navigate the halls easily enough. 

that's where the twins diverted in attitudes. both were so keen to be the best they could be with rory organising everything she could to ensure she stayed on top of her grades and became the best version of herself. tori, on the other hand, was much more chaotic. she tried, she really did to organise herself and keep everything in line but she too often found herself realising she had focused too much on one deadline and had forgotten another due a few days later. she was surprised that she was still doing well. sure, she was determined to make the whole thing worth it but she was only human.

rory always had her assignments done early. tori was pretty convinced she was part robot, like paris, another girl at their school.

but maybe that was why people gravitated towards rory, she wasn't as much of a mess as tori was, at least not outwardly.