It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However when said man is only in high school, every girl in the same school considers herself an eligible girlfriend and will do whatever it takes to impress him.
Heather ran through the halls of the school, despite the rule that bans such behaviour, right to her boyfriend, Alejandro's dorm. She gave herself a second to catch her breath before knocking impatiently on the door until it opened. She pushed passed Alejandro to get inside.
"You'll never believe what I just heard!" she said excitedly, completely ignoring Alejandro's roommate Owen, who was laying on his bed.
"I'm sure that I will believe it because I always believe you, you know that," Alejandro replied. Heather rolled her eyes.
"Ugh, whatever! Aren't you going to ask what I heard?"
"You didn't exactly storm in and say 'guess what' so I didn't now I had to," Alejandro pointed out. "Besides, I know you're going to tell me anyway." Heather ignored his first comment and, unable to hold in her excitement any more, began to tell Alejandro what she heard.
"Three new people are coming to this school! In our year level!" she exclaimed. "Do you know how long it's been since there have been new people our own age? There hasn't been anyone since we first started. I'm so sick of these people! It'll be nice to see some fresh faces."
"Because the reason for your excitement isn't because you have someone new to set your friends up with?"
"Well, I mean, that's part of the reason," Heather said. "And I know that both of the guys are single because I specifically asked Headmaster Chris and he said the were. So is the girl, but that's of less interest to me." Alejandro knew that by 'asked' she meant 'pestered until he finally told her'.
"Do you know the names of these people?" Alejandro asked, though it was clear he still wasn't really phased by the whole situation. Heather didn't care and continued anyway.
"I don't know their first names because I only caught a glance of Chris's computer before he caught me snooping, but the brother and sister's last name is Bingley. I don't know about the other one..." she stood for a moment trying to remember the other one's name before shaking her head and turning back to Alejandro. "Anyway, I'm going back up to Chris's office to see if I can figure out what dorm they're staying in. We have to be the first ones to introduce ourselves."
"Maybe when you find out which dorm he's in you should let your friends go by themselves. I don't know if I like the idea of two single boys seeing you without knowing you're unavailable," Alejandro told her, concern in his voice.
"Like I'd let them go alone! They'd probably screw everything up. Maybe you should come with me if you're so concerned?" Heather suggested.
"I don't think so." Alejandro said bluntly.
"Fine, but you know that Gwen's going to try and see them as well, and if she gets in first I'm going to blame you! As much as she denies wanting a boyfriend, I know she's had a crush on Trent since like forever."
"If she's so into Trent why would she want someone she doesn't even know?" Heather rolled her eyes and scoffed in frustration at her boyfriend's ignorance.
"That's exactly the point!" she explained. "They don't know her, so therefore they don't know how plain she is! She'll probably try and seduce one of them to make Trent jealous."
"You really don't like her, do you?" Alejandro asked, bemusedly.
"I just don't get why Courtney's so chummy with her!" Heather complained. "Their friendship probably wouldn't bother me so much if I had a project, like setting up my other friends but they aren't interested in anyone I suggest!"
"Maybe you should let them find their own relationships," Alejandro suggested. "I'm sure plenty more suitable young men will come through."
"As if!" Heather cried, as if her friends lives depended on them dating the two new boys. "In our entire schooling these are the first new people in our year. Weren't you listening? Hertfordshire isn't a big enough town for new people to just start falling from the sky and enrol in Netherfield Park!" She threw her arms in the air in frustration, giving up on trying to explain the importance of the matter to Alejandro, and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
That night at dinner, Heather ate her meal in silence, still annoyed at Alejandro for not siding with her in that her friends needed to meet Bingley and his friend, and more so at the fact that when she went back to the headmaster's office to find out which dorm they were in she found the office had been locked. The rest of their friends weren't talking either. Wanting to break the silence, Alejandro decided to bring up the subject of Bingley, thinking the news he had on the topic might interest Heather.
"Do you know why this Bingley fellow isn't dining with us tonight?" he asked.
"Have they even arrived yet?" asked Courtney.
"They've arrived but I don't know why they aren't here," Heather said forcefully.
"Miss O'Halloran was going to introduce us," Courtney told them. "You know, when she gets back from her trip with the younger students." Heather was outraged at this piece of information.
'What? There is no way I'm letting her introduce you! She'll ruin everything with her bad attempts at being a teenager," Heather said, and that was final. "Besides, she doesn't get back from her trip until tomorrow afternoon and I want to meet them before then."
"Why don't you introduce them yourself?" Alejandro said. Heather scoffed.
"Yeah, right. 'Oh hey Bingley, I know we've never met and I don't even know your first name but here's my friends Bridgette and Courtney.' Because that isn't completely weird," Heather said sarcastically.
"Hey why wouldn't you introduce us?" Courtney's younger sister, Katie complained, referring to herself and her friend Sadie.
"The only reason we let you sit with us is because you have no other friends," Courtney told her. "So the real question is, why WOULD she introduce you?" Their other friend, Noah, merely sighed and shook his head, clearly bored by the chosen topic of conversation. He was reading at the table, another of the banned rules which no one seemed to follow and besides were never enforced. The headmaster, Chris McLean, made so many rules that it was impossible for even himself to remember them all.
"Whatever, I'm totally over the whole Bingley thing anyway," Heather told them unconvincingly.
"Well that's too bad," Alejandro said. "Because I already took it upon myself to figure out which dorm he's in and introduced myself. He said you can go and see him after dinner, if you wish." Heather looked at him with a mixture of shock and excitement.
"Well, I'm done!" Heather announced, pushing her plate away from her and standing up.
"Bridge, Court, care to join me?"
On their way out of the dining hall, the five ladies (since Katie and Sadie had insisted on coming with them) and Noah (who claimed to want to 'protect' them, though clearly just as curious to meet the new people) happened to run into Gwen and her long-time crush and friend, Trent.
"Oh hey Gwen, Trent," Courtney greeted them. "What are you guys doing?"
"We just went to meet the new guys," Gwen told them. Heather rolled her eyes.
"Bingley and his friend?" Bridgette asked, even though she knew there were no other new guys. "What are they like?"
"Totally hot, very rich and actually really down to earth," Gwen said dreamily. "Well, Bingley was. His friend wasn't there. We're actually on his way to meet his sister now if you'd like to come?" Noah seemed interested in the offer but before he could say anything Heather cut him off.
"No thanks, we'd like to meet Bingley first." Heather led the group down the hall to the room Alejandro had told her to go to. She too a deep breath in and knocked. They were greeted by a blonde boy who was wearing a big grin.
"Hey dudettes!" he said. "You must be Al's friends." Heather folded her arms.
"Alejandro doesn't like to be calleed Al," she informed him.
"My mistae," he said, still smiling. "My name's Geoff by the way."
"I'm Heather. This is Katei, Sadie and Noah," Heather said quickly, trying to get the unimportant introductions out of the way. "And these are my two best friends Courtney and Bridgette!" Geoff had a very friendly manner about him that Heather liked, particularly for Bridgette.
"So cool to meet you all!" he said.
"Well I'm done here," Noah said, his curiosity not being big enough to care about Geoff's friend. "See you guys later." He walked off. Not wanting Geoff to linger too long on Noah's departure, Heather quickly began talking again.
"Where's your friend?" she asked, just as she saw someone sneaking in the window holding one of the mugs from the dining hall.
"Oh, he uh... went out," was Geoff's response.
"Out the window?" Courtney asked, noticing the stranger. Geoff turned around to see his friend had returned from being 'out'. He laughed nervously.
"This is my friend Duncan," Geoff introduced. "Duncan this is Heather, Katie, Sadie, Courtney and Bridgette.
"Hey," Duncan said in response. Heather didn't like the look of him at all - his green mohawk was awful and he seemed completely rude, not to mention the fact that he had clearly just stolen a mug from the dining hall without even having the courtesy of showing up to dine with everyone else. Noticing that Heather was too distracted with her disgust at Geoff's friend, Bridgette decided to step up and lead the conversation.
"I expect you're coming to the party this weekend?" she asked him. "The entire school will be there."
"Oh awesome! I love a good party!" Geoff exclaimed. "I'll definitely be there."
"Great! And I hope your friend, uh, Duncan and your sister..."
"Oh, Dakota," Geoff supplied.
"Right, I hope they'll come too!" Bridgette smiled at him. "We should really be going now. It was great meeting you!" Katie and Sadie groaned. They didn't want to leave.
"Awesome to meet you too!" Geoff closed the door and Bridgette and Courtney walked ahead of the other three.
"He is totally into you!" Courtney whispered to Bridgette, and they both giggled.