Same as always. Haven't you worked out by now that I don't own Eustace and Jill, or anyone else? I only play with them so that I can get to see Eustace blush cutely and awkwardly! This disclaimer stands for all chapters, if I forget to add it.
"Ed! Ed, Peter, Lu, I want you to meet someone! And you, too, Su!" Eustace exclaimed all in a rush, leaping off the train almost before it had stopped moving. Jill was coming to stay at his house for the Christmas hols, but he was going to be staying a week or so with the Pevensies first, as Peter was home from uni for the hols, as Susan woefully put it, "we might never see each other again." He had invited Jill to stay at his cousins' as well, and when she made objections that she couldn't just turn up uninvited, he wrote a very vague letter to Edmund saying that he might be bringing a friend. "I don't want to spoil the surprise when they find out you've been to Narnia," he had explained. "Oh, and if they expect you to be a boy, don't be offended." Jill had raised her eyebrows at this particularly clunky statement, but had said nothing. Now she stepped off the train, swallowing her nervousness down firmly, and attempting to remember all the things that she had faced in Narnia that were infinitely worse than meeting someone's cousins. Come to think of it, the whole trip unnerved her slightly, almost the way she imagined she would feel were she travelling to meet her future in-laws. She turned red at the thought and wondered why she had even made such a comparison.
"You must be Eustace's friend," a cheerful voice commented at about her shoulder. She glanced down slightly to see a very pretty girl, who was even shorter than herself, with bouncing, untamed golden curls and big green eyes. They looked like eyes that had laughed a lot. Jill instantly found herself warming to this person, and suspected that this was Lucy rather than Susan. "I'm very pleased to meet you. My name is Lucy Pevensie. I'm Eustace's cousin, obviously." Jill had no idea how this tiny, slight golden girl could once have been known as the Valiant Queen.
"I...I suppose I am, yes," she replied, returning Lucy's smile almost involuntarily. She had a contagious smile. Eustace had said that Susan was prettier than Lucy, but that Lucy was far more beautiful. Seeing a tall, stately being out of the corner of her eye, someone who she presumed to be the elder Pevensie sister, she understood her friend's statement for the first time.
"Well, come and meet Edmund. Ed! Where are you?... oh, you're there. Ed! This is..." she paused mid-sentence and dimpled at Jill. "I'm terribly sorry; I have completely neglected to ask you your name!"
"I'm Jill Pole. Pleased to meet you." She held a hand out for Lucy to shake, then she turned to meet Edmund. He, unlike Lucy, was tall, with chestnut-coloured hair and green eyes that were very similar to his sister's.
"So, you're Eustace's friend?" Edmund asked, smirking. His meaning was unmistakable, much to Jill's embarrassment. Lucy frowned at him, but it bounced off him like rubber. "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure, albeit a little surprised." He shook her hand heartily, before turning round in the bustle. "By Jove, Eustace, you didn't tell us you were bringing a girl round."
"I didn't say I wasn't, though," Eustace pointed out reasonably. He was bent over some cases, but Lucy could see the tips of his ears glowing red. "I go to a mixed school, Ed. You must have realised that there was a fifty-fifty chance that the friend I would be bringing home would be a girl." He straightened up, then almost overbalanced from the weight of several packing cases piled up in his arms. Jill's conscience smote her-half of those cases were hers-and she rushed to help him. She took just over half of the cases, and gave her friend a hand to restore his balance. "Thanks, Pole," he said softly, smiling at her.
She smiled back. "You're welcome." Lucy raised an eyebrow, but didn't get any further, for Susan came rushing over, all enthusiasm and lipstick, followed by a long-suffering Peter. She did not shake Jill's hand, nor did she gie her a chance to introduce herself, but instead grabbed her by the shoulders and air-kissed her cheeks.
"I'm Susan Pevensie, honey, and I'm so pleased to meet you!" she exclaimed. Jill blinked, shocked at the stark contrast between the "Gentle" Queen and this effervescent presence of jangling earrings and expensive perfume. Through her confusion she managed to stammer out something like an introduction. Peter, appearing beside his sister, took Jill's hand and kissed it. She blushed despite herself. Eustace glared at Peter, though no-one saw. The introductions all finished, Eustace put a hand rather protectively on Jill's arm and led her to Peter's car. Perhaps, seeing that masterful act on the part of a boy who he remembered as anything but masterful, Edmund can be forgiven for leaping to conclusions.
First chapter over! It's a little short, but I'm really just setting the scene. I wanted this to be a oneshot, but Lucy wouldn't let me. She insisted on making it a multi-chapter, and I've positively no idea where to take it. However... my first multi-chapter Narnia fic... I'm so proud! cries in maternal way