Trouble ─ rory gilmore

one

Rory's class schedule is wildly different in literally every episode, so I've made some executive decisions, lol.

★★★

EVERY weekday morning, Marley woke up before her alarm and stared at the ceiling until it rang. She dreaded getting up, because getting up meant going to school, so she did whatever she could to put off getting ready. When she finally did roll out of bed each day, she put in very little effort. She rarely steamed wrinkled uniforms, didn't bother buttoning her blazer, and forwent the makeup she enjoyed wearing on weekends. She brushed her hair but didn't style it, letting it fall flat and boring each day. School proved it didn't care about her. Why should she care about anything more than getting good grades and getting out of there?

Well. School as a concept was not the issue. Marley had always loved learning, loved education so much so that she wanted to be a professor someday, and that was still true. Ever since last March, Chilton had become the issue. Her Chilton peers, who completely turned on her ostracized her on good days and bullied her on bad days, were the issue. The Chilton administration, which could not care less about any of that, was the issue.

Marley's parents paid no mind to her pleas to transfer to public high school. Her mother looked her dead in the eyes and said that Marley had brought shame to their family name at the party last March, and now she had to live with the consequences. At this point, Marley was starting to wonder if everyone else was right. Was something wrong with her classmates, or was something wrong with her?

"Fuck me." Gwen, Marley's older sister, slammed her fist against the steering wheel as someone else pulled into a spot in the Chilton parking lot. The horribly overpriced parking permits the school made students purchase unfortunately did not come with assigned spaces, so the lots were a war zone every morning. "At this point, walking would be quicker."

Gwen was the closest thing Marley had to a friend these days. She was the only person who made Marley feel like there wasn't something wrong with her, like it wasn't okay for other kids to treat Marley like shit because she liked girls.

"Over there." Marley pointed to an open spot fifteen away. Her sister sped up, slammed the brakes, and turned sharply into the parking space, coming dangerously close to hitting the car to their right. "Jesus, watch out."

"How am I on that side?" Gwen ignored her. Marley rolled her eyes and opened the passenger door to check.

"You're really crooked."

With a huff, Gwen pulled out of the space and readjusted. She then put the car in park and turned the engine off. "Close enough."

They both got out. Marley slung her blue backpack over her right shoulder, not bothering to slip her left arm through the second strap. When they came to the school entrance, she paused, staring at the big doors.

"I don't wanna go in," she said, her right hand squeezing her backpack strap like it was a stress ball. "I have a bad feeling that this isn't going to be a good day."

"Maybe something else will happen and people will forget all about you," Gwen attempted to reassure her. "Maybe Theodore Lauder's mom got caught having an affair with a Canadian businessman again and that's all anyone will want to talk about it."

Poor Theo. He was a year above Marley, heir to a family fortune built on oil. The only reason she knew who he was was scandal; twice, his mother had been caught cheating on her husband with business associates from some Canadian company. It was all over the papers both times, and for days after, it was the only gossip Chilton kids could talk about.