Up&Out - Jess Mariano

Dirt&LeavesInHotWater

"You know, I thought it was my mum that would make me late for the first day of school," said Rory passive aggressively. She sat with her back against the window, Kendall sitting next to her eating the donut Luke had given her. "But I was wrong. Should have known you would make me late."

Kendall scoffed. "I wasn't late," she said wiping some icing from the corner of her mouth.

"We had to run to the bus stop," said Rory. "That means we were late."

"I think getting to the stop as soon as the bus shows up is perfectly on time, thank you very much."

"You didn't get time to eat anything at Luke's because you didn't show up when your dad did."

"That's why Luke gave me this," said Kendall. "So I could eat on the bus. And you know how Miss Patty and Babette like to question me."

"If it wasn't for Luke, we would have missed the bus."

"But we didn't miss the bus, so that means we were perfectly on time. A little rushed, yes, but we weren't late."

Rory sat for a few moments in silence, fidgeting with a hair tie around her wrist and watching Kendall eat. "I'm sorry," she said eventually. "I'm just stressed is all."

"I know," said Kendall with a smile. Rory always got like this on the first day of school. Even when they were back at Stars Hollow Middle School, she would always be the first one outside of the class with her pencil case and books when the bell rang. However annoying it was sometimes, Kendall couldn't yell at her for it because she was the exact same way when she had a swimming competition.

"Do you know if you got Captain yet?"

Kendall shook her head and scrunched up the donut bag, shoving it in her pocket. "Nah. Trials are tonight, then we have a meeting next Monday morning where coach will tell us."

Rory nodded. The two girls had been friends since Kendall had moved to Stars Hollow in second grade, and in all of that time Rory had never been able to grasp why Kendall loved sport so much. Swimming was one of the few sports Rory actually enjoyed engaging in, but doing it to the level that Kendall did it did not seem appealing to her at all. You didn't get time to actually enjoy being in the water when you were busy trying to get from one end of the pool to the other and back again in as little time as possible.

"I still don't understand how you can drink that," she said. "It's just old leaves in hot water."

"I cannot believe this," said Kendall in mock outrage. "You'd be arrested for saying something like that in England. Tea is one of the greatest things to have happened to me in the past few years, I'd be stuck drinking coffee like the rest of you if I hadn't discovered my dear friend Mr Earl Grey."

"Coffee is amazing, what are you going on about?"

"Well if my tea is old leaves in water, then your coffee is dirt in water."

It was Rory's turn for the mock outrage. "I don't see how you can have such disregard for the greatest love of my life. My entire life revolves around that gorgeous beverage. Wherever it goes, I go."

Kendall smiled fondly at her friend as the bus pulled into the bay in front of the school. "Do you still have that meeting today, for the school paper or whatever it was? The one with Paris?"

The smile that Rory had had on her face fell. "I'm dreading it, honestly," she said. "The day she finally realises this rivalry we have going is pointless, will be the greatest day of my life."

"Just smile and be polite," said Kendall. Shockingly, she was the voice of reason whenever Paris came up. Despite Rory having a vicious rivalry with her, Kendall had never really minded her. Sure, Paris had a strong personality, and whenever they had a class project together they butted heads, but they had never held onto it. Kendall could have taken it as an insult that Paris didn't find her as much of a threat as she did with Rory, but for the sake of having a relatively peaceful school life she had let it slide. "If you don't give her a reason to yell at you, she won't."

"I can't believe you have such high hopes for her," said Rory wistfully as they picked up their bags and walked off the bus. "All I have to do is breathe in her general vicinity and she loses her mind."

Chilton was just as old and grey and ominous as it had always been. The gardens were perfectly kept and a deep shade of green despite the heat from the summer holidays. It looked exactly the same as it had last year, bright blue uniforms and pretentious, filthy rich students and all.

Kendall and Rory said their goodbyes and went their separate ways; Rory through the gates to track down her new locker and find her new routes before classes start, Kendall towards a group of boys.

"Does he know how much we're willing to pay him?" The shortest boy in the group said. He had let his hair grow out during the holidays so now it was a greasy, shaggy mess that hung down almost to his shoulders.

"I've told him," said another boy. He had a phone held to his ear, his hair in much the same texture as the other boy. "He's still not decided."

The last boy, taller and with blonde hair that was actually well kept, shoved his hands into the pockets of his blazer. "Tell him I'll pay him as much as he wants. Just make sure he gets here."

The boy with the phone nodded and walked a few feet away from the other two. "How much are you asking? What do you mean it doesn't matter as long as we pay your bail? For the last time, you are not going to get arrested."

Kendall gave him a wary look as she walked up to the blonde boy and wrapped her arms around his waist. "What are you planning?" She asked, looking up at him with big eyes.

"Hey Kenny," said the boy, his expression just as lovey-dovey and soppy as hers. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest.

"Hi, Barbie," Kendall said standing up on her toes and giving him a kiss. She wasn't a particularly short girl, standing just above average and slightly taller than Rory did, but her boyfriend was just immensely tall.

The boy without the phone and the gross hair pulled up his nose. "Don't do that in front of me, Tristan," he said. "It's disgusting."

Tristan hit him on the shoulder. "Shut up, Bowman. Just cause no one wants to kiss you."

"I just don't want her interfering with the heist."

Kendall furrowed her brow, still hanging onto Tristan. "What are you guys planning?"

"It's nothing, Ken," Tristan said. "Just some new prank. Bowman here is just an idiot who keeps calling it a heist cause it's the most interesting thing he's got going on for him right now."

The boy who was on the phone came running over to them, holding a hand over the phone. "He says he'll do it, but only if we take the blame for it all."

Bowman rolled his eyes. "That's what we were gonna do in the first place, Duncan. Why are you such an imbecile?"

Duncan shrugged. "Oh, and Tristan, he wants us to pay him triple."

"Are you being serious?" Said Tristan.

"You said I could tell him to pay him whatever he wanted."

The bell rung, echoing around the campus. All of the students who had been waiting outside of the gates slowly came trickling in for their classes.

Tristan rolled his eyes and turned away from Duncan and Bowman, Kendall still under his arm. "You know what," he said. "I don't care. But he better not mess up."

Duncan waved him off and put the phone back to his ear. Bowman stayed behind as well, hissing stuff at him to tell to whoever was on the phone.

"Okay, I've got to know, what are you boys doing?" Asked Kendall. She and Tristan made their way across the perfect lawn towards the main hall.

"Don't worry about it, babe," he said. "Now what number's your locker? Mine's 284. Yours had better be in the same hall or I don't think I'll be on time for a single class this year."