Chapter Text
Genevieve Austina Clairmont hated change. She detested it even. When Paris Geller got a higher grade than her, back in freshman year biology, she worked her ass off, and maybe did some sabotaging to get back to the top. She was a powerful girl, having connections, charm, and the manipulation of a machiavellist.
She’d gone to school with the very same kids ever since she was a kid. From Paris, Louise, and Madeline, to her own friend group, made up of Alina, Delphine, and Hestia. Of course there were other kids in their grade too, but they were rarely important in her day-to-day life. The thing that everything and everyone had in common though, was that they were permanent, they remained the same old people they always were. Even Tristan Dugray, who’d been a first class nuisance to everyone with a pulse ever since kindergarten remained permanent.
Genevieve craved stability, and she went almost all sixteen years of her life with it in school, but it all crumbled the day Rory Gilmore arrived at Chilton, starry eyed and innocence seeping out of her overly large pores- Hestia’s words, not hers. She hated not knowing something just as much as she hated change, which is why she was currently sitting in the main courtyard of the school, with an undisturbed view of the entry doors of Chilton.
“This is your fault you know,” Paris approached her on the first day of the new semester, they sat and watched as Rory Gilmore and her mother wandered aimlessly, looking for the Ambroise building.
“Please,” She said in a light voice, “Nothing bad that has happened on this Earth has ever been my fault,”
“I’m not so sure about that one now little Clairmont,” Tristan said, the two girls turned around to find him leaning nonchalantly against a marble column. Genevieve felt Paris tense up next to her.
“Based on your grades, I find it hard for a person like you to be sure about something,” She pressed her lips into a thin line, “Why aren’t you in class?”
He completely ignored her and trained his focus on the new girl who was standing silently next to her mother as she chatted up one of the PTA dads, “Who’s that?”
“New girl,” Paris answered, “Rory Gilmore,”
“Grandparents are Emily and Richard Gilmore, the latter works for one of my father’s company branches,” Genevieve said, and turned to Paris, “Get her file will you?”
“What?”
Her face blanked, “You were already planning on getting it weren’t you? Oh Paris you naughty naughty girl,”
“Shut up!”
“Well, you get that done, and send me what you find,” She picked up her bag, “Try not to be late? Okay?”
“I’m never late,” Paris called after her.
Genevieve called back, “First time for everything,”
“So,” Tristan stuck his hands into his pockets, following her, “Where are we going?”
“I have AP lang,” She said, stopping at her locker to exchange her bag for a few books. Genevieve found herself growing irritated at the boy's presence next to her, “Are you a damn dog or something?”
“Just figured we could walk to class together,” He smirked
“We don’t have class for another thirteen minutes,” She said, “Maybe you have a girl who’s pants you wanna get into?”
. . .
It was very much Genevieve’s luck that Rory Gilmore was in her first class of the day, she sat with the tip of her pen in her mouth, watching as the timid girl sat herself down out of any attention. If the universe was in her favor, Rory wouldn’t be a threat whatsoever, and would just fall off of her radar like the rest of her plain classmates.
“New girl?” Delphine leaned over in her seat, she glanced at Rory who was flipping through the syllabus at an amusing pace.
“4.0, a boat load of teacher recs, and a small town girl,” Hestia said, reading off of a text that Paris sent.
Rory remained quiet for the entire class period, Genevive noticed how she shrunk into her seat while the teacher gave his lecture. She caught Tristan staring at Rory at one point, and laughed to herself at the desperateness of the boy.
“-Tolstoy’s favorite author, for instance, was-”
“Fitzgerald,” Paris answered.
Genevieve sat up in her seat with a satisfied glimmer in her eyes, “Actually it was Dickens,”
“Correct miss Clairmont, and last week we discovered Dostoevski’s main authorial influences-”
“George Sand and Balzac,” Genevieve answered effortlessly, Rory looked at her, and was shocked to see that her desk was entirely blank, not a single textbook or notebook to be found, “Furthermore, while Tolstoy wrote War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, Count Leo would turn to David Copperfield,”
“Correct again,” The teacher said, “Tomorrow we will focus on-” He was cut off by the ring of the bell, and knew that he would have approximately ten seconds before their attention was turned off of him, “- We’re going to focus on the writing styles of Tolstoy and Dickens. Class dismissed,”
“We’ve got ourselves a Mary,” Tristan said to Genevieve as they walked to their next class together.
She scoffed, “As clueless as she is? We’ve got ourselves a sheep,” Genevieve stopped herself mid-stride to look at Tristan, “What was so interesting that you were looking at the back of her head the entire lesson?”
“I wasn’t looking at her the entire lesson,” He flicked her head, “You were, I just wanted to see what was so interesting,”
“Mhm…” She said, unsure. Genevieve felt a tug on her uniform as Tristan yanked her into an empty classroom, “Hey what the hell?”
“Shh!” He said, pressing his ear up to the door across the room, motioning for her to follow.
“Are you going out for the Franklin?” She heard Paris’ voice on the other side of the door.
‘The what?” Was Rory’s confused reply.
“A sheep,” Genevieve mumbled, and Tristan nudged for her to shut up.
“I’m gonna be editor next year,” Paris said, she giggled at how confident she sounded, “I’m also top of the class, and I intend to be valedictorian when I graduate,”
“Now Paris,” Genevieve said, Tristan looked at the empty spot next to him and groaned at the fact that she managed to sneak off without him noticing.
“Where the hell did you come from?” She jumped back.
Rory laughed, “I said that!”
“Yeah cool,” Genevieve said, “Let’s not lie to the new girl now,”
“My name’s Rory-”
“Gilmore yeah, I’ll get to you in a second,” She waved her off, “We know that I’m head editor, and top of the class, let’s not spread false news,”
She stood and glared at Paris until she walked away, leaving her and Rory.
“I’m Genevieve Clairmont,” She stuck her hand out, “Nice to meet you,”
“Rory,” She said, taking her hand with a small smile, “I know this is a long shot, but could I use your notes for Remmy’s class?”
“Sure!” She said, reaching into her bag, Rory seemed to be surprised by her immediate answer, “...What?”
“Nothing, you’re just nicer than anyone I’ve met today,”
“Then you haven’t met enough people then,” A new voice said, Genevieve rolled her eyes playfully as her friend, Alina, walked by with a smile, “Two minutes till bell,”
“Alright,” She called after her, she turned back to Rory and handed her the notes, “You can keep these, I have two more copies at home, bye!”
Rory stood in absolute confusion as she watched Genevieve’s figure disappear around the corner, she looked at the notebook in her hands, and felt immensely grateful. She let out a yelp when she felt arms wrap around her, and as quickly as they appeared, they were gone, and so was the notebook.
“Hey Mary,” Tristan said, casually flipping through the notebook, staring at the handwriting that he spent his entire life familiarizing himself with.
“I’m Rory,”
“I’m Tristan,”
He gave her one of his classic smirks, “So, you’re new?”
Rory began walking and he followed suit, “Yeah, first day.”
“Well Remmy’s class is rough for those of us who don’t have superhuman memory,” He said, holding the notebook above Rory’s head, “I could help you out if you’d like,”
“Really? That’d be great!”
Tristan’s heart almost flipped at her eagerness, keyword almost, the look was foreign to him from the person who he really wanted it from, “Yeah? How great?”
“I don’t know, Remmy said that getting someone’s help would be…”
“I can help you study if you want,” He offered, he was horrible in the subject and was passing only because of Genevieve’s pressure, but he didn’t plan on getting much studying done.
“Um, I kind of view studying as a solitary activity,” Rory mumbled, “But thanks…”
“Bye Mary,” He winked, and walked into a classroom.
. . .
“She let you in her pants yet?” Hestia snickered when she saw Tristin walk into class with a frustrated face.
“You’ll have to be more specific,” Delphine added on, “He won’t know if you’re talking about the female student body or Genevieve,”
“Will you lower your voice you British bitch?” He snapped, falling into a seat.
“You’ve liked her for five years now,” Delphine shook her head, “And yet you’re still too scared to tell her that you’re absolutely head over heels for her?”
“If you’re her best friends why don’t you tell her yourselves?” He shot.
Hestia gave him a funny look, “And let you do no work? That’s cute,”
He never knew what she meant by ‘not letting him do no work’. It wasn’t as if Genevieve actually showed any interest in him, as far as he knew, his feelings were the epitome of unrequited. He couldn’t be any less in the friend zone.
“Del,” Genevieve said as soon as she walked in, “My dearest Delphine I’ve missed you so much,”
“What do you want?”
“A ride to Stars Hollow,” She smiled innocently, “All four of us can go,”
“Why…”
“I’ve concluded, that the new girl is worth looking into,”
. . .
“Genevieve I wonder,” Delphine said, as she turned into the small town, “If you consider the new girl to be worth looking into because Tristan showed an interest in her?”
“I’m not Paris Geller,” She said, “I consider her to be that because she has a chance of being better than Paris, which doesn’t mean that she can beat me, but she’s going to be a nuisance,”
“Dude, did you see her face when Rory destroyed her project though?” Hestia said, “Looked like she was gonna rip her a new one,”
“Absolutely abhorrent,” Genevieve added.
“Look there she is,” Alina said, they all looked to where Rory was standing, Delphine smiled to herself when she saw a fairly attractive guy sitting on the bus bench and talking to her.
“Who is that?”
“Boyfriend?”
“Cousin?” Hestia said, and they sent her a look, “What? They sorta look the same,”
“Let’s find out,” Delphine said, and parked the car on the side of the street. The four girls, still clad in their uniforms, walked over to Rory.
“Am I in trouble?” She said, and immediately held her hands up, a smile of amusement fitted on their faces as the boy followed in suit.
“No we were just in town,”
“Paris?” The boy pointed to Alina.
“That’s offensive,” She narrowed her eyes at him, “First day so bad?”
“Well-”
“I saw a diner on the way here,” Delphine said, “Any good?”
“Oh yeah that’s Luke’s,” Rory said.
“Great! You can tell us all about your first day then,” Genevieve linked arms with Rory, “You’re welcome to join us if you’d like- what’s your name?”
“Dean,” He said, he was just about to deny, but he was afraid of what would happen if he did.
“Genevieve,” She pointed to herself, and then her friends, “The one with the British accent is Delphine, the tall one is Hestia, and her name is Alina, not Paris,”
“Genevieve, Delphine, Hestia, and Alina,” He said to himself, “Got it,”
“So… Lukes?” Rory asked, and they all nodded, following her to the restaurant.
“I heard you had a bit of a tumble with Paris today Rory,” Delphine said.
Rory blushed, “It wasn’t really much of a tumble, it was more of a stagger and crash…”
“Well whatever it was, Paris seemed pissed,” She said, “Most people would’ve been burned at the stake for what you did,”
Rory said nothing as she pulled the door to Luke’s diner open. They all found the biggest table that could sit their group of six, and sat down.
“Alright,” Genevieve said, “Tell us about your day,”
. . .
“That Rory Gilmore sure does ramble a whole lot,” Hestia said, twisting around the front seat of Delphine’s car.
“To be fair, we did ask about her day,” Alina said.
“Yeah her day,” Delphine said, “Not how her mom had her at sixteen, or how her dad was absent in her life, or her locker combination…”
“Jesus Christ,” Genevieve sat up in her seat when she saw a familiar black car in front of the gate of her house, “Why is he here?”
“Aren’t you two friends?” Hestia eyed the blond boy with a disdainful look.
“Yeah...” She sighed when Delphine put her car into a complete stop,
“Maybe today’s the day-”
“The day that I continue to hide my feelings,” Genevieve winked, and slammed the car door. She stood on the sidewalk and waited till Delphine’s car was entirely out of sight before approaching Tristan.
“Why are you here?”
He gave her a bashful smile, “I need help studying- oh come on!” Tristan pulled her back by her uniform jacket, “I gotta get at least a D on this next test,”
“Why would I waste my time helping you study just for you to get a D?” Genevieve unlocked the gate, leaving room for him to follow behind her, “Don’t you think my time would be better spent helping someone study to get an A?”
“An A?” He whistled, “I didn’t know a girl as smart as you believed in miracles,”
“There isn’t someone as smart as me, but an A is possible,” She said, waiting at the bottom of the stairs, “After you,”
“Why, I believe the saying is ‘Ladies first’,” He said, with a mock bow, “After you,”
She scoffed, “And risk you looking up my skirt? Cute,”
He hid his blush by turning towards the wall, on it, was a long line of Clairmont family portraits. Genevieve’s parents, her older brother, her two younger sisters, and her all lined the walls.. Her picture was in the center of it all. It had only been up for less than a year, and he’d already had the entire portrait engraved in his head. From the small dimple on her cheek to the glow in her dark eyes.
“Let’s go!” She shoved him up the stairs, “Shakespeare time!”