Set after SC. Just a little one shot featuring a slightly insecure Jill Pole and a rather bold Eustace Scrubb at a Christmas party. Enjoy!
If there was one thing that Jill absolutely loathed about the Christmas holidays, it was the parties that she had to attend with her family.
Mum always looked so beautiful, in a long dress and her hair done up with only a hint of makeup on her face; and Dad always looked terribly handsome in a dark suit and a silk tie. Elaine always looked so grown-up in her silk dresses with the full skirts and sweeping necklines. And then there was Jill, awkward and plain in childish dresses and hair ribbons.
Mum and Dad always looked so elegant dancing together - Mum laughing, Dad kissing her cheek, Mum's skirt swishing when Dad twirled her about. Elaine always was surrounded by dashing young men all trying to persuade her to dance with them or catch her underneath the mistletoe. And then there was Jill, standing in a darkened corner, watching as she always did.
Mum and Dad always had so much to talk about on the way home after talking to old and dear friends and acquaintances. Elaine always had a mysterious smile on her face, the source of it Jill suspected to have been from the kiss her latest beau gave her under the mistletoe. And Jill had nothing to talk of or smile about, for what was there to talk of or smile about from standing in a lonely corner of the room?
And so Jill found herself, one Christmas when she was sixteen, standing in a darkened corner. Mum had let her wear a pretty, grownup dress like Elaine for once, but Jill found herself frightened of any attention she might garner from wearing it, and so she had hid in a corner, watching as always. That is, she was alone in the corner until someone else came seeking refuge there too, who happened to bump right into her.
"Oh! I'm sorry," the person, a boy around her age, said as he turned towards Jill, but stopped suddenly. "Pole?"
Jill took a closer look at the boy. "Scrubb?" she asked in astonishment. "What on earth are you doing here?"
"My cousins Peter and Edmund are here and since I'm staying with the two of them, I've been dragged along to this stupid party," Scrubb said. "What are you doing here?"
"Wait a minute. Peter and Edmund? As in - the Peter and Edmund?" Jill said, hardly able to comprehend what was going on.
"Yes, but never mind them," Scrubb said, and then stopped. "Oh. You've never met them before, have you?"
"I haven't yet!" Jill exclaimed.
"Well, we'll have to fix that!" Scrubb said. "They live right here in Leicester, you know. They've both got jobs here. We'll have you over for tea and we can have a jolly good time catching up about Narnia."
"I'd like that very much," Jill said eagerly.
"Good," Scrubb said, satisfied. "Now, then. I've explained why I'm here, hiding in this rather convenient little corner. Why are you? Shouldn't you be out there dancing?"
"I don't dance," Jill said. "And anyway, there isn't anybody out there who would ask me."
"I really doubt that, Jill," Scrubb said. Jill looked at him in surprise, for he rarely ever called her "Jill" instead of "Pole". Scrubb seemed to take the look on Jill's face a different way, however, and continued by saying, "I mean, after all, you clean up rather well. I'm surprised there isn't some bloke out there who isn't wanting you to dance with him."
"You're daft, you know that?" Jill said incredulously.
"No, I'm not," Scrubb said. "I'm actually being quite serious. I've always wondered, you know, why you don't have a boyfriend."
"You know perfectly well the reason why I don't," Jill retorted. "Nobody's interested."
"Well I think they're all idiots then," Scrubb said.
"Idiots?" Jill said, gaping.
"Yes, idiots," Scrubb said. It was hard to tell in the darkened corner, but Jill thought she could see his ears turning bright red. "I mean - that is - well, ah, well they're idiots. You're a brick, Jill, a real brick, and a rather fetching one at that."
Jill could hardly believe what Scrubb was saying. Was he saying that he found her pretty? And he'd called her by her Christian name twice now. "Are you feeling quite all right?"
"I've never been better," Scrubb declared, and becoming bolder, added, "Care to dance?"
"Y-yes," Jill stammered, letting Scrubb take her by the hand and lead her from the corner onto the dance floor. Irvin Berlin's White Christmas was playing, Jill's favorite song. Scrubb put one hand around her waist and Jill put her hand on his shoulder; and Jill couldn't help but notice as they swayed to the music the looks people were giving them. "People are staring at us, Scrubb."
"And no wonder," Scrubb muttered under his breath.
"What does that mean?" Jill asked, confused.
Scrubb looked straight at Jill and said, growing red as he spoke, "You're the prettiest girl in the room, Jill. Of course they're looking at you."
Jill blushed, but instead of properly thanking Scrubb for the compliment as she should have, she instead asked impetuously, "What have you had to drink tonight?"
Scrubb laughed. "Nothing but a bit of punch, I swear."
"Really?" Jill said skeptically.
"On my honor, Pole, I'm completely sober," Scrubb promised.
"All right," Jill said, still a little doubtful.
"Really, Pole," Scrubb said. "I do know what I'm saying and doing."
"You've never been like this before," Jill pointed out.
"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately," Scrubb said. "That's probably why."
"If you say so," Jill said, completely mystified.
They spent the rest of the dance in silence. Jill wondered what on earth had gotten into Scrubb, for this was not at all like his usual behavior. Scrubb would never ask her to dance, let alone tell her she was pretty! It was unfathomable. And yet... Jill rather liked it. Nor did she mind at all that he found her to be pretty. Nobody had ever told her that before, with the exception of her parents and Elaine. But they were family, and that didn't count so much.
All too soon the song ended, much to Jill's disappointment. Scrubb led her off the dance floor and over to the spread of food on a long table. "You hungry?" he asked.
"Not really, but I'll take some punch, thank you," Jill said.
As Scrubb poured a glass of punch for Jill, another fellow came up to her who obviously had had a little too much to drink. "Darling, where've you been all night? You look like you need a bit of entertainment."
"Erm, excuse me?" Jill stammered.
"Dance with me," the young man said, taking hold of her hand.
"Excuse me," Scrubb said, coming to Jill's defense. "She already promised me the next dance."
"And why on earth would such a pretty face want to dance with you?" the young man said.
"He's my friend," Jill spoke up. "And you're not."
"We could become friends," the young man slurred.
"I'd rather not, thank you," Jill said.
"You heard her," Scrubb said, glaring at the tipsy fellow. "Come on, Pole."
He whisked her away to the darkened corner where they'd run into each other. "Thanks, Scrubb," Jill said gratefully.
"Anytime," Scrubb said. "That bloke's no good even when he's sober. Not the sort of fellow you'd want to hang around."
"Well, thank you," Jill said. "I'm very grateful."
"That's what friends are for," Scrubb said simply, grabbing Jill's hand for a moment and then letting it go. "I say, this corner's getting rather warm."
"It really is," Jill agreed. "Want to step outside for a moment?"
"That'd be swell," Scrubb said. He began to lead her towards the door, but was stopped by a couple of giggling girls. "Heavens, what's the matter?"
"You're underneath the mistletoe!" one girl said, laughing.
"You've got to kiss her," the other girl added gleefully.
Jill felt her face turning red. "Oh, no," she began, but other people had noticed now and were prodding Scrubb to kiss her. "Eustace," Jill pleaded, looking up at him.
Scrubb looked down at Jill rather intensely, and Jill knew she was blushing deeply. Then - very quickly - Scrubb put one hand on her waist and, at the same time, bent over and kissed her on the mouth. Jill felt a sudden wave of something both blissful and sensual wash over her; and when he drew back she would have fallen over from dizziness had his hand not still been on her waist. "I'm sorry, Jill," was the first thing he said, his ears and neck a very bright red.
"Sorry?" Jill asked, still a bit dazed from his kiss.
"I shouldn't have kissed you," Scrubb said. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Jill said, then added hastily, "It's a mistletoe kiss, after all."
"True," Scrubb said thoughtfully. "Only mistletoe."
"Only mistletoe," Jill echoed rather distantly. Yet somehow it wasn't only mistletoe to her. And somehow she had a feeling that it wasn't only mistletoe to Scrubb, either.
On the way home that night, Elaine brought up the mistletoe kiss. "Jill, dear, who was that boy who caught you underneath the mistletoe?"
"Mistletoe?" Dad asked.
"A boy caught Jill underneath the mistletoe?" Mum said in surprise.
"Oh, that's only Scrubb," Jill said. "He and I go to school together, and he was visiting his cousins."
"I see," Mum said contemplatively. "You ought to invite him for tea while he's in town."
"I'm sure he's most likely too busy visiting his cousins. They're awfully close," Jill said.
"Is he your boyfriend?" Elaine asked outrightly.
"No!" Jill said, perhaps a bit too hastily. "We're just friends."
"Indeed," Dad said, hiding a smile.
"Just friends," Mum echoed.
"Of course," Elaine added.
"Yes; just friends," Jill repeated. They were just friends, at least for now. They couldn't be anything but just friends. It was absurd. Jill and Scrubb? That was quite possibly the oddest couple that there could be. But after tonight - Jill wondered. Perhaps there was something more to her and Scrubb than friendship. Perhaps.
Perhaps she would invite Scrubb to tea. After all, there was the possibility that she might be invited to his cousins' for tea to talk about Narnia, and it would be only right to return the favor. Quite friendly-like and very prosaic, and thoroughly different from the evening she had just spent with Scrubb. Surely the evening she had spent with Scrubb and the odd behavior on both sides had only been for the night. Things would go back to normal when they saw each other again.
After all, Jill told herself, it had only been a mistletoe kiss.
I hope Eustace isn't too out of character. He's very difficult to write completely in character. Jill, however, is much easier for me to write in character, perhaps because she's a lot like me. In any case, as this is my Christmas present to all of you, Merry Christmas! Or Happy (insert whatever holiday you celebrate here)!
~ The Authoress