Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[1.01]

ꪻaryn Lewis walked quickly across the leaf covered sidewalk. She found herself late for school, again. Even though her shoes pinched at her toes uncomfortably - due to the fact they hadn't quite been broken in yet - she kept her hurried pace and weaved through the multiple people that she often saw on her hurried walks to school. Despite the fact she lived five minutes down the road from the building in the cutest cottage in Stars Hollow (it had won that specific award every year since her adoption) she always found herself arriving after the bell. Her Dads would both attempt to wake her up five minutes earlier every day to remove the risk of her being late but something always prevented her from leaving the house at the correct time. Whether it was burnt toast, a missing book or a shrunken jumper, there was always something.

On that particular morning, she had found herself unable to leave her bed at the time her Dad shook her awake after staying up far too late with a particularly stomach fluttering romance novel. She had taken a twenty minute nap before being shaken awake again, thus creating her current problem. It didn't take her too long to get ready, as her hair didn't require much pruning and her makeup had been the same for so long that she could complete the process within fifteen minutes. The thing that took such a chunk of her time in the mornings was her outfits. Taryn, ever since the seventh grade and her thirteenth birthday, had always had such an interest in the fashion world. She loved to make her own clothes, to create various outfits and the entire process of choosing garments that would be her armor for the day. Not that anyone would really see them, as she tended to drift into the crowds.

Apart from her best friend Tassilo Roth, whom she had lived next door to for her whole life and loved like a twin brother, Taryn didn't surround herself in the more social aspect of education. She preferred to keep to herself and the few people that she did choose to surround herself with. It created such peace, the dramaless life that she loved the most. Whilst Tas and Taryn loved to gossip, they were the least likely to ever be involved in the drama they so enthusiastically discussed. And for the parts of the school day where her best friend would be off with his current girlfriend or the few other friends he had, she would surround herself with music and various school work.

Taryn lived a quiet life. Not just because of her avoidance of people or the lack of teenage parties that others seemed to hold so dear. But because she had the ability to manipulate who she heard and when, something which others lacked.  Whilst she could make do with lip reading and the few people that knew ASL within her life, the hearing aids were really a life line. Even if they were faulty and felt rather clunky behind her ears, the technology was relatively new and she was just glad of the chance to not have to struggle as much through every lesson with the lack of support from the teaching staff.

As Taryn sank into her usual seat in her English class, quickly giving her usual apologies and excuses for her lateness, Tas tapped on her shoulder. She turned and smiled thankfully as he handed her a breakfast bar as he knew that she didn't usually have time to eat in the mornings. "What are we doing?" she whispered to her best friend as she opened the packet, trying her best not to get crumbs everywhere.

"Glasses is ranting about the book," Tas responded, signing along with his words as he usually did. Taryn needed to only roll her eyes to communicate her distaste for the situation before she turned back around and actually attempted to focus on the lesson. She took all the notes that she could and would fill in any gaps with Tas' notes, if they ever occurred. Mainstream education was rather difficult but she managed as best as she could, it wasn't as if she was failing.

After school, as her routine had been since the age of fourteen, Taryn walked towards Luke's instead of her home. Her Dad's didn't get home until later in the day and she didn't quite like being in the house alone. So for the two hours after school, she studied at Luke's and helped if he happened to get a rush and needed the help. He was a family friend, and had been for a long time, so she didn't mind helping whatsoever. Plus the free coffee and pastries made the deal even sweeter.

Luke tapped the side of her textbook with his pencil, placing it in the specific place that they had agreed upon years ago as it was always out of the corner of her eye. She, seeing the top of the pencil, looked up with a soft frown of confusion pulling on her brow. ^The usual?^

Taryn nodded her thanks in response and Luke quickly got to work, pouring her a cup of decaf coffee (as it was past five pm.) At home she would have added almond milk but Luke didn't yet stock milk alternatives, despite how many times she had attempted to persuade him to.

As he wordlessly placed the mug of coffee at the side of her books, she looked up and smiled briefly before returning to her work. One small perk of her situation meant near silence just by pulling something out of her ears. It made studying anywhere easy and there wasn't anything that could really distract her. However the alternative could only be used in a place where people were aware of her situation, just in case of fire alarms or emergencies, and in her small town it wasn't too difficult to find someone that she could trust to pull her away from the fire if necessary.

Tas appeared an hour and a half into her study time, interrupting her focus at the perfect time as the biological process she had been looking at leaned into becoming too confusing. He, as anyone did, tapped gently on her shoulder upon seeing the lack of machinery around her ears. She looked up, smiled and quickly slipped them into place even though Tas often sighed every word he spoke - only faltering if he didn't happen to know a specific word. "Guess what?" he grinned, tapping excitedly on the table with one of her discarded pencils.

She smiled in such a way that he knew her words would be jokingly mean, "Did you finally decide that the mullet is not the look you thought it was?"

"So you know our favorite couple?" he asked, choosing to ignore her comment as he knew it was only made to be a joke.

"Ah yes Rory and Dean." she laughed softly, pulling the sleeves of her jumper over her hands as a cold chill raised goosebumps on her arms.

"Big argument in town square."

She raised a brow, "Oh?"

"It got heated. He's mad at her for trying to get into college. Says it's taking time away from their relationship, like college is not the most important thing to Miss Gilmore."

"Ew men," she grimaced, tapping her pencil on the pages of her book absentmindedly. .

Tas rolled his eyes and sighed softly, "I knew you'd say that."

She shrugged, "Unsurprisingly men seem to be the underlying issue of many things."