Trouble ─ rory gilmore

four

IN THE week that followed, Rory and Marley's friendship began feeling almost like it had always been there. The more time they spent together, the less worried Rory felt about how coming from different backgrounds might affect their relationship. They clicked like puzzle pieces.

Now Marley's toes were pressed against the back legs of Rory's chair as they sat through the painful last minutes of first period. She tapped her pen against her notebook and slumped forward.

"A couple final announcements before I let you go. First, your papers." Mr. Medina took a stack of papers off his desk and began handing them back. "Decent effort by most, good effort by some, exceptional effort by three."

Generally, Marley liked Mr. Medina, but it pissed her off when he said things like that. The class really didn't need to know exactly how many—or, rather, how few—people got A's. It made the people who tried and still did poorly feel bad, and it only encouraged the cutthroat competition between Chilton students. But of course that was exactly why he said things like that. That was exactly why every Chilton teacher said things like that.

"Miss Remington." With a smile, Mr. Medina placed Marley's paper on her desk. He'd made a couple notations in red ink, but the first page had a big 'A' written in the top right corner. A 95. Having no social life was good for her grades, at least.

"Miss Geller. Miss Grant. Mr. Graham. Miss Gilmore." He handed Rory her paper. Marley only caught a glimpse, but she was pretty sure it said 'D.' "Take these home. Learn from your mistakes. Look at the large, red circles around various parts of your paper as a friendly reminder that to err is human, and that here at Chilton, we try to beat that humanity right out of you." Once again standing at the front of the classroom, Mr. Medina clapped his hands. "Okay. Next up, the test."

Marley's stomach sank, heavy like she'd eaten cement for breakfast. She had only known Rory for two weeks now, but she was fairly certain that Rory wouldn't take this well. Marley wouldn't take anything below a B+ well, and she was not nearly as academically neurotic as Rory was. She needed to do something to help. What, though, she had no idea.

Their big Shakespeare test was on Friday morning. Marley started studying last week, compiling a study guide with the most important notes. Maybe they could study together. Rory missed the first week of Shakespeare. She borrowed Marley's notes, but there was only so much you could pick up on just by reading notes from a class you missed. It could be helpful for Rory to study with her.

When class dismissed, Rory quietly packed up her things. A D. A goddamn D.

"Hard paper," Paris said to Louise, and Marley knew this wasn't going anywhere good. Marley shoved her things into her bag, listening in on Paris, Madeline, and Louise as they very loudly discussed their grades.

"A D, however, would be cause for concern." Paris got far too close to Rory.

"A cry for help," Louise agreed.

"A job application at McDonald's."

Marley stood up and crossed her arms. "Leave her alone."

Paris narrowed her eyes. "Stay out of this."

"No." Marley took a step closer. "Leave her alone."

It really didn't make sense to her why Paris rolled over any time Marley intervened. They certainly had a history, but their friendship ended well over two years ago when Paris dropped her out of nowhere with no explanation. Paris stopped acknowledging Marley entirely and Marley gave up on trying to figure out why. Even more perplexing was that Paris didn't seem to hate Marley, she just had no interest in interacting with her anymore. Marley didn't understand it at all.