A/N: This is for the practically perfect in every way BlueViolets87, for her birthday (and I know I`m putting this up like ten minutes after your birthday has ended, but it`s daylight savings time, so let`s pretend it`s still November 1st...). She writes things that will bring tears to your eyes and hope to your soul.
Despite the long absence of inhabitants, Netherfeild looked the same.
Nobody had turned on the hot tub, flicked through the thousands of channels, or even had a sock-sliding competition since Christmas. What a waste! Lydia had half a mind to jump that fancy fence and mass text an invite all her old friends to go hot tubing…
But no, although Bing would probably be totes cool with her keeping his hot tub warm for him, Mom, Dad, and Lizzie would be expecting her at home to clean the place out. Family first, super awesome fantastic partying later. Ooh, maybe she and Mary could crash the mansion, because two rocks one hot tub, right?
By the time Lydia got to the house, there was already a heap of boxes overflowing from the garage. Deep within the mountain of Bennett family memories, something rustled.
"Mom, is that you?"
Somewhere in the garage, a pile toppled, and in the wake of the avalanche, Lizzie poked her head out of the mess.
"Lizzie!" Beaming, Lydia stumbled over boxes to hug her nerdiest sister. "Why are you hiding in here with all the darkness and the dust and the sadness?"
"It`s not sad, this is our childhood."
"No, it`s the left over bits from our childhood, boxed up in a bazillion sad boxes for us to spend hours dwelling on. Dwelling on old memories is totes depresso."
Lizzie smirked and heaved Lydia`s old pink tricycle from behind a stack of some of their dad`s train set stuff. "This isn`t sad."
"It`s supes sad because none of us can ride on it anymore, so it`s doomed to just sit and collect dust until you or Jane fulfill Mom`s deepest wishes and start popping out grandbabies…"
"Ughhh. Don`t you start on that too." Groaned Lizzie, closing her eyes and hitting her forehead against one of the box skyscrapers in exasperation. "The instant I walked in the door, all Mom would talk about was when William was going to propose, if Jane and Bing were planning on moving back here to Neatherfeild and raising kids, if I was going to give her grandkids anytime soon, blah blah blah…Dad finally took pity on me and distracted her with some old pictures he`d found in a drawer so I could slip away."
The box above the one Lizzie beaten with her head started to totter, and the girls sprang into action to keep the tower of terror from collapsing to the floor. They managed to steady it, but not before the uppermost box flipped, raining down long-neglected stuffed animals upon their heads.
Blinking through the pain of being clobbered in the eye by the plastic nose of one of Lizzie`s old bears, Lydia spotted a worn stuffed cat at her feet. "Aw, Kitty Senior, I totes thought I lost you! Hey, remember those plays you used to make us do, and that one where I was the evil mastermind with Kitty?"
As Lydia petted the toy cat maniacally, Lizzie picked up the bear and brushed it off. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Which one was that…The Lost Hiccup?"
"The LAST Hiccup, Ms. I-Forget-Nothing."
"I was testing you."
"Sure, sure." Lydia plopped down on a bag of pillows. "What are we going to do with all this crap, anyway? No way can Mom and Dad fit it all in their new place, and I doubt Darcinator would be too pleased with you bringing mounds of junk back to your place."
"I don`t know, maybe we should just torch it all to save ourselves the time and trouble."
"Hells yeah, ring in your birthday in style, am I right?!"
Laughing, Lizzie was about to reply when something she really didn`t want to see go up in flames caught her sight. A blue sun hat and a red bowtie poked out of one of the boxes in the far corner of the garage, where they had sat for the last year. Lizzie gravitated to them, as if magnetized by the memories. She fingered the soft material of the bowtie, slowly putting it on as if any sudden movements would scare it away.
"Do you think William would mind if I brought this box back with me?"
Lydia winked. "I think he`d be disappointed if you didn`t."
While Lizzie dug through the box, Lydia drifted back over to pick up the stuffed animals. The kids at her preschool would love them. In the six months she`d been working there, one thing she`d learned time and time again was that getting stuffed animals donated was like striking gold: they adapted easily into virtually any game, didn`t hurt as much when you got pelted by them, and are totes adorbs!
"If we aren`t roasting marshmallows on the embers of our childhood memories, what do you want to do for your Birthday-eve? Wanna go to Carter`s?"
"Carter`s? Are you sure?" Lizzie asked gently, knowing that her sister hadn`t been back to the bar for a year.
"Yeah, why not? It`s the only place in town where I can properly beat your butt at Just Dance."
"Just because you won that one time doesn`t mean you`re the empress of video games."
"Excuse me? I am the mega foxy hot QUEEN of video games."
"You know queens are lower than empresses, right?"
"You remember how you slipped and faceplanted the coffee table last time you tried to take me on, right?"
Lizzie ferociously dug through the boxes in search of the game. "You, me, rematch, now."
"If you really think you can beat me…"
"… Oh I KNOW I can…"
"Tell you what. When I win, you have to pry yourself away from all this totes boresville packing and take me out to get some fro-yo!"
"Only if when I win, you promise to distract Mom every time she gets on my case about William."
Lydia held out her hand. "Shake on it."
"I`ll treat you to fro-yo, and you`ll distract Mom. Deal."
"…And youhavetobemyslaveforawholedaystartingnow!" Lydia blurted out before Lizzie could let go. "Sucker! No backsies!"
"Reason number eleven why Lydia Bennett is a complete pain." Groaned Lizzie melodramatically.
"Talk about a truth universally acknowledged, am I right? Now quit it with the nerdy lists so I can crush you already!" Called Lydia as she sprinted off into the house.
Racing to the den with Just Dance under her arm, Lizzie was glad that even though she and her sisters had grown up and gone on to live successful, although geographically distant lives from each other, in some ways they were closer than when they`d all lived under the same roof.
Also, there was no way her baby sister going to crush her again at Just Dance.