FOOL'S GOLD
CHAPTER ONE
CHESS WAS A CALCULATED GAME. The whole goal was to use statistics and strategy to determine your and your opponents next moves. The chess club in it's early days, was not a popular extra curricular along with robotics and Quiz Heads, the school's own competitive quizzers that took part in national championships. None of these things were even considered by most of the student body until Annie took part in them. Annie never intended to be a trend setter. All she did was show up and once the school caught wind she was somewhere, they followed. Some was because they wanted to be around her infectious personality and others was because they wanted to become her. She was in fact perfect to everyone. But in this moment, she was losing and it was pissing her off.
Every Friday, people crowd around the math classroom that's used for the school weekly chess competition. Usually people are there for no longer ten minutes after Annie effortlessly defeats anyone who wagers a game. But today, she was losing and against Robert McConnell of all people. You could tell he had been practicing by the wicked grin on his face. You could tell he had been up every night for weeks practicing every opening and defence that could trap Annie into failing in front of so many people. Annie could sense his smugness and it irked her. God, she needed a cigarette. Annie scratched her forefinger nail against her thumb so hard she thought it would bleed. She chewed her lip as she concentrated. There had to be a way out of this. The clock was ticking. Her eyes flickered to the clock, to the crowd, to Robert's smug face. She was running out of time. Annie reached forward towards her rook. She saw Robert raise his eyebrows as if to ask if she was sure. Doubt flooded her body. Her fingernail pressed further into her skin. She took a gamble. She moved her rook.
Robert tried to maintain his poker face, but he wasn't nearly at skilled at deception as Annie was. His throat bobbed. He moved another piece. Annie's chewed lips upturned as she tried not to laugh. It was too easy. Robert should've known better. In three moves she had him. The crowd clapped Annie's victory as the two competitors shook hands. Annie didn't wait around to exchange pleasantries. Annie weaved through the crowd and moved hastily towards the fire exit.
Annie pushed up the doors and finally felt herself breath when the fresh air graced her lungs. She pressed her back against the wall From the pockets of her skirt, Annie removed a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. As she took her first drag released a loud sigh of relief.
Her father would be so disappointed to know that she smoked but Graham didn't understand how much stress his daughter was under. It would never find out anyway. If he was to place money on one of his kids to take to smoking, he would've guessed his rebellious fourteen years old over his picture perfect seventeen year old. What he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.
The fire exit doors creaked open and Annie prayed to God that it wasn't a nosy teacher about to catch her in the act. A head popped around the frame and Annie relaxed. "You got another?"
Annie opened the packet and held them out. Trin took a single cigarette from the packet and used her own lighter to set it aflame. "You were great in there. I think. I don't really understand Chess but everyone seemed to love it."
"Thanks." Annie murmured. Her eyes were trained on the horizon. The clouds, the grass, the hills. It was all so peaceful. It made her feel more at ease.
"Did you hear about Lorelei Gilmore?" Trin asked. Annie shook her head. "The wedding is off."
"No!" Annie gasped. Everybody knew about Lorelei's wedding. Naturally everybody knew about everything in Stars Hollow. And everyone was invited. Even Graham and his daughters who had known Rory and Lorelei all there lives. Annie took another drag. "How much do you suppose a wedding dress costs?"
Trin looked at her best friend quizzical. "I don't know. A couple thousand, I would guess. Why?"
Annie shrugged. "I don't know. I just always thought that trying on dresses was the only good part about a wedding. What do you do with a couple thousand dollar dress?"
"I don't know. Sell it? Burn it? Re-enact Rachel's entrance in friends?" Annie chuckled along with her friend. Trin couldn't help but stare at Annie. Something was off. "What's going on in that head of yours?"
Annie pulled herself back down to earth with the strong force of wanting to evade all personal questions. "Just how I loathe my dreadful little life. I have to show the new kid around school."
"Ah new kid duty. It's either all eye rolls and bored looks or fake smiles and disinterest." Trin sympathised with Annie's responsibilities but she did sign herself up for the task. She was after all student body president but also had the inability to say no to anybody that asked for a favour. It was as if the gods themselves cursed her for ever using the word. Trin never understood why Annie put herself in these positions she hated being in but Annie never elaborated.
The bell rung signalling the end of the first period. Annie took a last long drag from her cigarette and extinguished it against the wall before disposing of it. "I need to go."
"Luke's later?"
"Maybe. I've got tutoring after school." Annie told Trin as she reached for the door handle. She bid her friend goodbye and quickly stuffed a handful of breath mints down her throat as she walked swiftly through the halls. Trin was in no rush to go anywhere. She would gladly finish her cigarette before attending art history on time.
Annie yanked open the door to the office where she replaced her stressed expression for a cheesy grin. The office staff beamed at her presence. "Sharon, how are you today?"
"I'm fine, Annie. Thank you for asking." Sharon grinned back. Sharon, or Mrs Schumacher, to everybody else was usually a rigid, stone faced woman who never let you leave even if you were doubled over in pain with a limb hanging off. But to Annie, she was a ray of sunshine who loved talking about her kids and bird watching. Annie was the only person who ever took an interest. It all started with Annie asking about the picture on her desk which turned out to be a family picture to Disneyland with her husband Greg, her two daughters Jane and Missy and her son Curtis.
"How's Jane coping?"
"She's tired but oh what a wonderful baby she has. Hugo is just the sweetest boy on the planet." Annie tried not to wince at the same Hugo and maintained her interested grin. From what Annie knew Jane, Sharon's middle child, had recently had her baby last month and was currently in the process of not sleeping or showering and crying when the baby did. Missy, her oldest was still single and running a law firm in New York and Curtis was a mechanic with a pregnant fiancé.
"Oh you'll have to show me more pictures. I can always babysit if it gets too hard for her." A request Annie hoped Jane wouldn't actually take her up on. Before Sharon could agree or disagree, Annie segued the conversation. "By chance, do you know if the new boy has arrived. I'm supposed to show him around today."
"Oh yes. He's still in the principal's office." Sharon leaned in closer. "I'll say, I think you have your work cut out for you, he's quite a fickle one. Very rude. Doesn't seem to like anything."
"Oh Sharon, you know that's never stopped me." Annie assured her. Many people in Stars Hollow thought they would hate Annie. They thought she was a show-off, an overachiever, fake. But after one conversation they quickly learned of her genuineness and fell under her spell like everybody else. Some brooding teenager from New York wasn't going to be the exception.
Annie walked over to Principal Bowen's office and tapped on the glass. "Come in."
"Good morning, Principal Bowen. How's your son? Feeling any better?"
"Yes. He should be in good shape by next week. Thank you again for those cookies, they were delightful." He thanked. His eyes drifted over to the brooding boy in front of him. "Jess, this is Annie Hartley, she'll be showing you around today. Annie, please take good care of Mr Mariano."
"Of course." Annie said. "Shall we get started?"
Jess didn't answer the blonde. He didn't even look at her. He picked up his bag from the adjacent chair and breezed past her. Principal Bowen put his head in his hands. Apparently everyone had their work cut out for them. "Okay."
Jess mindlessly let Annie walk him about the school. He didn't care about a single thing she said but it got him out of class so he let her ramble. Annie walked ahead of him, her finger trailing the walls as they walked in a direct straight line from the principal's office. "So the school was founded in 1779. There's a memorial day for it on November 15th. You'll find there's a lot of days for a lot of things in Stars Hollow. Parades, pageants, dances, soirees. We like an event in this town. Our mascot is the minutemen, which applies to football, basketball, baseball and hockey. Other teams don't really care about that type of thing. Do you like sports?"
"No."
"Okay. That's fine. We have a number of different clubs in which I am a member on nearly all except the free hug club. Those guys are just weird. But there's band, chess, art, robotics, quiz heads, mathletes, drama, creative writing-"
"Can you just stop talking?" Jess groaned. Annie's eyes widened in amazement at his brazenness. She zipped her lips and kept walking. "You actually stopped talking."
Annie removed her hand from the wall and turned around to face him. Jess was around her height but in her heels she was taller than him. She looked slightly down at him. "You told me to."
"Yeah but I didn't expect you to actually do it."
Annie opened and closed her mouth. What was he getting at? Annie didn't mind talking or shutting up or doing anything that made a person more comfortable or content but it really helped when they could just tell her what they actually wanted. "I'm confused. Do you or don't you want me to talk?"
Jess huffed through his nostrils. "What I want is to be left alone."
Annie laughed. That wasn't possible. "See we don't do that here. We're a very much all for one, one for all kind of town."
"Yeah well I'm from New York. In New York we leave each other alone."
"And is everyone as tightly wound as you in New York?" Annie asked with crossed arms. If this was how people in New York acted she was becoming more repelled by the place. She enjoyed her small town. She loved taking part in county fairs and knowing her neighbour and buying gifts for everyone in town. She couldn't imagine being in a city that felt so lonely.
"My business doesn't concern you."
"You see actually it does because I'm student body president, therefore the student body concerns me and also I am just a nice human being who is trying to help you establish a place in this school."
"I don't need your help."
Annie placed a hand on her heart. Sometimes people refused help because they didn't want to burden others. But this wasn't a burden for her. She tried to portray her sincerity. "I'm offering you my help."
Jess shook his head. "I don't want it."
Annie laughed. He wasn't serious. "You have to want it."
"I don't."
Annie spluttered. What did he mean? This had never happened before. "But if I don't help you then what do I do?"
"I really don't care." Jess declared as he back away and left the school building not even an hour after he arrived. Annie was left alone in the hallway with her mouth hung open in shock as she questioned everything. What did he mean he didn't need her help? Everyone wanted help. Whether they said it or not, everyone wanted a friend. At the very least, just someone nice they could rely on. Being that person was Annie's whole purpose in life, he couldn't just say no. God, she needed another cigarette.
It's fine everything would be fine. He was just a bit pertinacious. Some people were, it wasn't a big deal. It was a new challenge. Annie could fix this. This was just a minor lapse of judgement. She could sort this out. Everything always worked out in the end. It had to.
☆☆☆
making annie a smoker feels illegal
BUT my girl is under a lot of stress, she needs some relief/bad habits to cope.
i know that this annie feels like a big change but hopefully you can see that she is just an expansion of the girl we already knew. she's more perfectionist, she's more confident, she's less timid and so obvious with her need of validation. but hopefully you can see the at her core, she is still the same annie. i have more tried to craft the idea that the old annie is the part of herself that she hides and this annie is the facade that she holds up against people but still manages to be kind and warm hearted to everyone.