Pride and Prejudice Goes College
"Are you completely sure, Rhea?" Clarisse spoke into the phone receiver hesitantly, in case she got her hopes up too early. "He's really a millionaire? Honestly, I just find it hard to believe that-" She was interrupted by the other side; her eyes widened and her jaw dropped a few centimeters, before she promptly squealed agreements and excitement to her neighbor, Rhea Lucas. A few seconds later, there was a clank as the phone was put down and the clip-clopping of high heels as Clarisse rushed to her husband's study.
"Paul! Paul!" she screeched, reaching the room and barging in unannounced. Paul Bennet sat in his usual chair, his fingers over the keys of his laptop, expression unaltered at his wife's turbulent entrance. "Paul, honey, you'll never believe who's just signed up at NYU!"
"Indeed, I probably won't," he replied casually, finishing the e-mail he was writing and clicking the 'send' button. Clarisse folded her arms over her chest and looked at him exasperatedly.
"Charlie Bingley." She announced triumphantly; then, seeing her husband's cluelessness, added, "Younger brother of Claire Hurst? You know…the millionaire that lives in the Upper East Side? Paul, how can you not know who I mean? It's the Claire Hurst!"
The flow of facts from Clarisse's mouth continued until Paul was informed of every single detail about Claire Hurst's life, which, by the way, he couldn't care less about. "Why is this relevant to us, my dear?" he finally asked, his voice irritated.
"He's going to NYU!"
"So?"
"So, if you may recall, Jane and Lizzie attend NYU."
"...so?"
"So, this is the best opportunity that could have ever presented itself at the best moment! Jane, because she's the prettiest, can go out with Charlie and then become his girlfriend and then marry him and become famous! Paul, what else could we have asked for our darling daughter?"
Paul's skeptic expression said it all. However, Clarisse never being very sharp, still needed a reply and following explanation, because the indifference radiating from her husband did not compute in her brain. "Who says Jane even wants to go out with Charlie?"
"Oh, Paul, sometimes you're really thick, aren't you? Charlie Bingley is a millionaire. Didn't you get that? He's famous. Why on earth wouldn't Jane want to go out with him?"
"Jane, honey, what are you doing this weekend?" asked her mother to her Wednesday night, as the family was having dinner. Looking up from her plate, Jane shrugged and swallowed the food in her mouth.
"Probably study or something. I have this exam-"
"Don't be ridiculous! I heard that Nicholas Oliver was having a party and you can't possibly miss that. As a matter of fact, neither can I," interrupted Lydia, and turning to her mother, asked, "Can I go?"
"It's 'may I go'" Mary, always the grammatically correct one, pointed out, her fork in hand. Lydia rolled her eyes and made a face.
"Nobody cares."
"Oh, of course, honey. And Katie can go, too, if she wants," replied Clarisse enthusiastically. Paul frowned at the idea of sixteen-year-olds attending a university party, but said nothing, as usual. "But Jane, you must go. Charlie Bingley's probably going to be there, and it's the perfect opportunity for you to meet him."
Jane nodded silently, and looked at her closest sister. "You'll come?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Lizzie agreed, making a mental note to herself to keep an eye on Lydia and Katie, who were bound to make a scene somehow, and to introduce her sister to this Charlie; it never hurt to be associated to a millionaire.
"Yo, Charles!" called out some random student from NYU, patting said man on the back. Charlie turned around and grinned at the guy he'd met a while earlier. What was his name? Something starting with a D…Daniel? "I'd like you to meet some of my girls," he said slyly, wriggling his eyebrows and steering him towards a trio of very pretty girls over by one of the walls of the place, talking amongst them, drinks in hand.
"Hey, what's up?" Charlie greeted them, smiling widely. Before they could answer, D-something stepped between two of them and laid his arms on their shoulders, as they turned towards him.
"Jane and Lizzie, here's the man I've been telling you about," Daniel announced, nodding towards Charlie. "And this is Charlotte," he motioned to the other girl; blonde but not very appealing. The other blonde, however, Jane, was really hot, and smiling at him.
"Nice to meet you," shouted Lizzie over the blaring music of the party, leaning forward and shaking Charlie's hand vigorously. Charlie laughed, "Same goes to you." Jane hadn't said anything apart from a quiet 'hello', but was still looking at him, a smile having frozen on her face. Her eyes were a striking blue, he noticed, and she was wearing a light blue sundress and matching earrings; yeah, stunning.
"Hey, um, you wanna dance?" he asked Jane, tilting his head towards the throng of people in the middle of the dance floor, and flashing her a nervous grin, as her sister raised her eyebrows interestedly.
Jane blushed and nodded, "Sure," and left with Charlie, leaving Lizzie and Charlotte alone, because God knows where Daniel had disappeared to. Lizzie turned to Charlotte, grinning smugly.
"What do you think? Good catch, eh?" she inquired, eyeing Charlie Bingley, now standing in front of Jane as they danced to some song, still smiling, and kind of off-beat. Cute.
"Yeah, definitely."
"Haven't seen any of the other people that supposedly came with Charlie," Lizzie added, peering around the packed room unsuccessfully, "Have you?"
"I saw that Will guy, earlier. Dark brown hair, very tall, wearing a blue collar shirt, I think,"
"Was he hot?"
"Smoldering,"
"Let's go find him."
It was stuffy and hot, and Will was not having a good time. He leaned against a back wall, a beer in hand, and watched some random couple making out in the middle of the room. Where Charlie was, he had no clue, but last he'd seen him he was dancing with some blonde chick.
"Darcy, what the hell are you doing by yourself?"
Mystery solved. There was Charlie, moving towards him with two drinks in hand, one most probably for his girl. Will shrugged and took another gulp of the beer.
"Don't feel like dancing."
"You look socially retarded, man, and there're some really cute girls out there," Charlie informed him, nudging his arm with his elbow, and spilling some punch or whatever he was holding on the floor. "Oops."
"The girl you were dancing with seems to be the only one to me," Will replied, closing his eyes for a moment. He heard Charlie sigh dramatically. Always the showstopper, he was.
"Yes, I know! But her sister's pretty hot, too; Lizzie." At the mention of her name, Lizzie perked up from her place by the drinks and looked over at Charlie and Will, whom she and Charlotte had found earlier, but had decided, despite his hotness, that he was too dull for further interest.
"Which one's that?"
"She's over there by the drinks. Brown hair, flat chest, short green dress?"
Will looked over at Lizzie and caught her eyes; he promptly looked away. "Tolerable, but not hot enough to tempt me. Just go fool around with your girl, dude, you're wasting your time here."
"Someone's an ass tonight," Charlie muttered, shuffling away from Will to find Jane. The latter ignored this last comment and with one last glance at Lizzie, shrugged and stalked off. Lizzie, meanwhile, had heard every word of the conversation, and couldn't believe that somebody could be so arrogant. However, Lizzie was not the kind of girl to spend the rest of the night bawling over something somebody had said about her and ran off to find her friends.
"Guys, you'll never guess what that Will guy just said," she announced her presence to her group of friends, who were sitting down on some couches, and looked up eagerly at her arrival.
"What?" gasped Ashley, scooting over to the left to make room for her, patting the seat beside her eagerly. Lizzie obeyed and enjoyed the fact that they were hanging onto her every word. "He said, and I quote, that I wasn't 'hot enough to tempt him'," she mimicked quotation marks with her fingers, "Can you believe it?" she chuckled, sitting down between Charlotte and Kristen.
"Ouch," winced Ali, wrinkling her nose a little, while an appalled Kristen cried out, "What an asshole!" and Ashley tried to spot him to give him the evil eye. Charlotte just made a face and patted Lizzie sympathetically on the back.
"Too bad, right? 'Cause he's fine," replied Lizzie absentmindedly. Her friends spent the next half an hour trying to comfort a perfectly-composed Lizzie, who insisted that she was unaffected by this, much to her friends' disbelief.
"So," Lizzie started, flopping on top of her bed and glancing up at Jane, smirking. "Dish."
"Dish what?" Jane replied, looking perfectly confused. Her sister rolled her eyes.
"Oh, come on, Jane. Charlie!"
"I'm not getting it...what about him?"
"Honestly..." sighed Lizzie, sitting up and crossing her legs. Jane, whilst on the other side of the room, folded her dress and laid it on a couch, then started combing her hair. "What was he like? I saw you guys dancing and let me tell you, sis, he's got his eyes on you."
"I don't know, I mean, we were just dancing..." Jane said quietly, looking at her sister's reflection in the mirror and smiling. "But he was totally charming,"
"Sweet. What did he say?"
"Did you meet his sister? Carrie?"
"No."
"She was very nice, too, and very pretty,"
"Wonderful. Back to Charlie. So did you guys make plans or something?"
"He asked me to dinner tomorrow, but I said no,"
Lizzie nearly fell off the bed. "You did what? Why? Are you crazy?" she yelped. What on earth? Why would she turn him down? Jane turned and frowned at her younger sister.
"I barely know the guy! Why would I go out with him?"
"Good God, Jane,"
"What?"
"How do you expect to get to know him if you don't go out with him?"
"Well...I...I don't know!"
"Exactly my point."
"Shut up."
"I will. Good night."
Carrie looked up from her book as the sound of footsteps approached the living room, and was rewarded with the sight of Will strolling into the room, sweater in hand. He scanned it, probably for her brother, and was about to turn away and leave when Carrie called out,
"So what'd you think of the party, Will?" she asked skeptically, crossing one slender leg over the other and eyeing him. "A disgrace to refined society everywhere, huh?"
Will nodded curtly and turned towards her, "Yeah, bunch of wasted teenagers."
"Seriously," breathed Carrie, rolling her eyes for emphasis, "Nobody was even remotely interesting, either, right?"
"I vote 'nay'!" announced the cheerful voice of her brother as he stepped into the room and headed towards one of the many couches in the lavishly furnished living room. "I've never seen prettier girls in my life, and I thought everyone was pretty cool,"
"You would, Charles, seeing as you've been obsessing about that girl since you left the freaking party."
"She's gorgeous! Right, man?" Charlie sought for agreement from his friend, who raised his eyebrows in return. "Oh, come on, you agreed yesterday!"
"I agreed that she was cute, but nothing extraordinary. And besides, they were all so into their little cliques that it was just boring." Carrie proceeded to agree wholeheartedly. Looking very disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm shown by his best friend, Charlie slumped down on a single couch with a frown on his face.
"Whatever. I asked her out tonight," he muttered, frowning at a spot on the rug-covered floor not too far away from him. Will made a point of looking around the room and sat down in front of him.
"Where is she?" he asked, eyeing his friend.
"She said no. That she had other plans..." Charlie mused pathetically, fiddling with the sleeve of his shirt. Carrie shrugged.
"She was okay, I think. I mean she was kinda sweet, you know? I wouldn't mind getting to know her. Maybe we can make plans for tomorrow?" she suggested, searching for the approval of her audience, especially Will's. Charlie's eyes lit up.
"Awesome!"
"Plans with whom?" came a voice from the entrance, followed by the closing of the front door and the sound of heels moving across linoleum. Claire was home. Carrie looked over her shoulder at her older sister.
"This girl we met at the party, Jane Bennet,"
Claire looked momentarily confused. "I don't think I've heard of her. How long since her debutante ball?" she inquired, shrugging off her fur coat and hanging it on the coat rack beside her. Carrie snorted.
"Not high society, Claire," she responded, smirking. It was pretty unbelievable that they were willing to hang out with the lower class; Brooklyn, she believed Jane had said she lived in.
"Oh," was the very pointed reply that she got from her sister.
"So, what about the plans? Should I call her?" Charlie was still fully excited about them; he glanced at Will but his friend's face was devoid of emotion. Carrie sighed and held out her hand.
"No, I will. Did you get her phone?"
Charlie replied that he had and handed her his iPhone, sitting excitedly on the edge of his seat, staring intently at Carrie as she searched for Jane's number. "It's under the letter 'J'," Charlie pointed out anxiously. Carrie rolled her eyes in his general direction, scrolling through the names with a perfectly manicured right thumb.
"Yes, I figured..." she said slowly, finally reaching the contact and pressing the 'Call' button, then she held the phone to her ear.
"Whoa, hold on, hold on!" trilled Claire, turning to face Carrie, "We're going to the beach this week, remember I told you?"
Carrie was about to hang up when Charlie piped in, "We'll just tell her to come along!"
The rest of the people in the room stared at him, not sure if he was joking or not. He wasn't. Will was the one to make a comment. "That's too weird. Think about it, you just met her yesterday and you're inviting her, and only her, to spend a week with us at the beach?"
"Well, why not? How else do you get to know a person?"
"Like normal people?" offered Carrie. Claire looked unsure about the entire exchange.
"Oh, come on, Claire," whined Charlie, glancing between his two sisters. Shrugging, Claire made her way across the room and towards the staircase.
"I don't really care, invite whomever you want, but we're still going," she called back, and went upstairs. Charlie promptly turned to Carrie, who had already hung up. "Okay, ask her and her sister. Lizzie; she's was cool."
"An entire week, Charlie. Seriously?"
"Yes."
"You haven't thought this through,"
"Yes I have. Give me my phone, I'll call her,"
"No that's just creepy. I'll do it," Carrie surrendered and put the phone to her ear once more. Charlie pumped his fist at his side and grinned at Will, who couldn't care less.
"Jane!" called Clarisse, holding Jane's cell phone in her hand as the ringtone played on. "Jane! You're phone is ringing!"
Jane ran downstairs from her room and took the phone from her mother. "Thanks. Hello?"
"Hey, Jane?""
"Yeah, who is this?" she replied cautiously, leaning back on the kitchen counter behind her, while her mother looked on, mouthing the words 'Who is it? Who is it?'
"Carrie, Carrie Bingley."
"Oh. Hey, Carrie, what's up?"
Clarisse nearly had a heart attack. "Carrie Bingley? You're friends with Caroline Bingley? Oh my God! Put her on speaker! Put her on speaker now!"
Jane did so, while struggling to hear what Carrie was saying.
"-my family and I are going to the beach this week so like, do you wanna come? With your sister, what's her name, Lizzie?"
"OH! This is perfect! Absolutely wonderful! Of course you're going! Oh, I'll go buy you some new bikinis. Paul! Paul!" screamed her mother, running out of the room while Jane desperately tried to cover the mouthpiece from her mother's embarrassing raptures.
"Oh, um," she responded. What was she supposed to say? She barely knew the Bingleys, but they did seem like nice people, and her mother would be really disappointed if they didn't. "Yeah, sure, we'd love to. Thank you for inviting us, really, that's very kind,"
"What's very kind?" asked Lizzie, who'd heard her mother's screams from the living room and had come out to investigate what was going on.
"Great. We'll pick you guys up at ten tomorrow. Be ready! Bye!"
"Bye," There was a click as Carrie hung up from the other side. Lizzie, curious and suspicious, asked Jane who that was and where she was going.
"Where we're going, you mean. Carrie Bingley just invited us to spend the week with them at some beach house, and mom's already going nuts about us going and I couldn't really say no..." she replied, biting her lip, worried about forcing her sister into something she didn't want to do. "You don't have to go if you don't want to, I mean-"
"No, that's perfect. Sounds great."
No, it didn't; not at all. But she could see that Jane didn't really want to go, either, and she couldn't leave her sister alone in a household full of fancy, rich peacocks an entire week. Besides, what was she going to do without her? Jane hadn't even wanted to go out to dinner with Charlie, and here was his sister, inviting her over for the week as if they'd been best friends for years. Weird things go on in weird people's heads, she concluded.
First section of this!
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( Moony )