You're cynical and beautiful/You always make a scene/You're monochrome delirious/You're nothing that you seem/I'm drowning in your vanity/Your laugh is a disease/You're dirty and you're sweet/You know you're everything to me.

Fate. Did Lorelai Emily DuGrey doubt it existed? Indeed, she did not. There had to be a reason she had acquired the nickname Lola since the day she was born. Not that she found a purpose for the rare name until she was fourteen. Besides it could have only been fate’s doing that had landed her the resemblance to Dominique Swain, an actress from her parent’s time that had lasted into the now. And at seventeen, she knew how to use that resemblance to its full advantage.

Even in Stars Hollow, listening to the click-clock of her silver heels as she walked down the street, on her way back to her mother’s house, she walked with confidence. There was no need; of course, to display such confidence in Stars Hollow, considering all her wiles were wasted and would eventually be reported to her mother, but it had become such an old habit she doubted she’d ever break it.

“DuGrey, you better watch how much sass you put behind that…”

She turned around, lowered her silver rimmed sunglasses to glare at the owner of the voice. “Watch what you say Mariano, I may have to kick your ass one of these days.”

Dallas Mariano just grinned. “You’re so charming around everyone else. Why must I be the one sacrificed to listen to your bitchery?”

“Because I don’t care what you think, Dallie,” Lola pointed out. “Why work up the energy it takes for me to my normal charming self for you?”

Dallie rolled his eyes, “I thought you’d be with Father-dearest this week.”

“Daddy’s in London for another couple of days so I’m stuck in Hell’s Hollow. Speaking of which, don’t Jess and Paris still reside in Hartford?”

“That they do, Lolita darling,” He loved calling her that. Pissed her off beyond belief. “But they are in New York until the end of the week, I had the option of going but I declined so now I’m staying with Uncle Luke.”

“Lovely.”

Lola didn’t like to say she had a horrible childhood, because in all honestly she really didn’t. Sure her parents had divorced when she was young, but she couldn’t deny that they loved her. Each other was a much more complicated and confusing story…she blamed her mother for that.

A psychiatrist would say that’s why she acts the way she does. That her parents’ unresolved relationship and their inability, especially on her mother’s part, to decide what their relationship should be had caused bitterness. Since it was obvious that if they were going to sleep together, eat together, and so on than they should have just stayed married. Personally, Lola could care less if her parents stayed married or divorced or remarried. The fact of the matter was that she just had too many of her father’s traits in her.

Which was probably a result of genetics and the fact that she lived with him most of the year. Her choice, of course. Made not on personal feelings but on practicality considering her mom lived in Stars Hollow and her dad lived in Hartford. Lola’s school was in Hartford, so it made it easier to commune from her father’s house. Which left vacations to her mother, and when ever her father was out of town.

She whipped off her sunglasses as she stepped into the empty, unlocked house. That was Stars Hollow for you; she doubted if people in Hartford would dare to. Lola looked around the desolate settings, before retreating into her room.

There were moments when she wished that she had friends in Stars Hollow. When she was younger, Dallie amused her because when it came to academics he was nearly as intense as his mother, but with everything else he was as mellow as his father. It wasn't until he had put that intensity into lecturing her that the amusement had vanished.

Lola lay on her bed with a sigh. Three days left until her father came home. Three more days.

Lorelai Emily DuGrey. The bane of his existence. The fire in his treacherous loins. His curse, his soul.

It was all his parents’ faults, of course. If they weren’t such good friends with Tristan DuGrey and Rory Gilmore then he and Lola would have hardly known each other. Sure, they both went to Chilton but she was so high above him socially that all she would have been was a passing wet dream. Change the sheets and she was forgotten.

No they to have thirteen years of forced friendship first. Dallie didn’t even know why he bothered anymore. Lola DuGrey was self-centered, self-involved and beyond selfish. Not to mention vain and cold as ice.

But even he knew that wasn’t completely true. Especially if half the rumors circulating about her were true. And personal experience.

Now she was here, unexpectedly, for Lord knew how many days. As if it wasn’t bad enough at school. Maybe he could just avoid. Because he knew how well that had gone in the past.

He needed to get over her. It would just be so much easier if they didn’t live in the same state.