To the person who corrected me on the terms of streets, thank you! Also, I discovered that Miss King's first name is Mary, so...I've had to change it. So sorry! That's what I get for forgetting. Blah! Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new chapter! I have a little something something coming up soon-ish, so... ;)
Disclaimer: I am, in no way, the amazing Jane Austen. I'm simply using her fantastically written characters because, well, I have to put my own twist on them before I burst.
2
As Jane and Elizabeth got ready for the party later that evening, Mrs. Bennett, who always encouraged her daughters going to parties ("Just don't get drunk, have sex, and end up pregnant. We won't have it here"), came into the room, dragging a rather reluctant looking Mary in behind her.
"Jane, please get Mary ready," she demanded. "I want her to get out of this house and meet someone."
"But Mum, I don't want to," Mary whined.
"But I do." Mrs. Bennett let go of Mary and left her with her two elder sisters who were both eyeing her speculatively.
"Mary, it won't be too bad," Jane said consolingly after a moment of awkward silence. She pulled her unwilling sister gently to her closet and helped her pick out clothes that weren't too much different from what Mary already wore.
"Something she can feel comfortable in," Elizabeth called to Jane while she tried to decide on what makeup to put on Mary. Something subtle, she thought, as she dug through the numerous piles of eye-shadow and eyeliner.
After Mary was dressed in a simple strapless black dress with black heels, Elizabeth began to apply the makeup. While she did so, she said, "You know Mary, Mum's right. you do need to get out more. You spend too much time on the computer. You need to meet real people."
Mary frowned, making the mascara Elizabeth had been carefully applying smudge on her lid.
"I'm perfectly happy not knowing anyone," Mary grumbled as Jane began attacking her lank brown hair.
Elizabeth scowled and tried to wipe the worst of it off. Once she had succeeded, she said, "Well, you should. You need to have real life friends, Mary. Friends you can actually talk to face to face," she added when she saw Mary about to object. "I don't think Internet friends can hug you."
Mary was silent the rest of the time that Jane and Elizabeth readied her for the party.
Finally, a few hours later, all five Bennett sisters were piled into their mothers car and heading to Mary King's house.
When they reached the house, they found the party in full swing. The car wasn't even completely stopped yet when Lydia and Kitty jumped out and raced inside. When the car was parked, Elizabeth glanced at Jane, who looked in the rearview mirror at Mary, who was looking a little nauseous.
"It'll be alright, Mary," Jane said quietly.
Without a word, Mary opened her door, climbed out, and then slammed the door forcefully before stalking towards the house without looking back once.
Elizabeth sighed and said, "Well, I suppose we ought to go in now."
"I do hope that Charles Bingley will be here tonight," Jane said excitedly.
"I've heard he's rather rich," Elizabeth said with a sly smile at her sister.
"And I've told you before, Lizzie, that I don't care how rich someone is," her sister said earnestly. "If I like them, then I like them."
"Yes, but you've like total jerks before, so if this Bingley is an arse, then you're not going to talk to him," Elizabeth warned, half joking, half serious. "At all."
"Doesn't he have an even richer friend?" Jane inquired as they climbed the steps, raising her voice so she could be heard over the thumping of the music.
Elizabeth shrugged as they walked into the house, pushing past grinding bodies.
"If he does, it won't matter to me," Elizabeth shouted to her sister. "The only way I'm ever actually going to marry anyone is if we are both deeply in love! I'll end up being a crazy old cat lady, so I have nothing to worry about!" She shot a grin at Jane but found her sister frowning with worry at her.
Jane was the motherly one out of all her sisters, so Elizabeth knew that Jane was taking what her sister had said seriously. Of course Elizabeth wasn't actually going to end up a crazy old cat lady, but given the choice of men in this day and age, it was much preferable than being married to an arse who cheated on you every other day with different, younger women each time.
They had made it to the refreshment table and grabbed a small cup of punch before putting their backs to the wall to observe the party before joining in.
"Is that Lydia?" Jane asked after a few minutes of watching. She was looking straight ahead. Elizabeth found where she was looking and felt her jaw drop.
Lydia had her entire body pressed up against a boy who must have been seven or so years older than she, smiling seductively at him before he lowered his mouth to hers.
"Look away, sister, it isn't something you want to look at," Mary advised as she came to stand beside them, a cup of punch in her hand. "Kitty isn't too far away, doing the exact same thing as Lydia."
Jane and Elizabeth scanned the group and found that Mary was right.
"Oh, they will be the end of our family," Jane groaned, squeezing her eyes shut as if that would make what she had seen not be real.
An hour or so later found Elizabeth dancing an almost slow dance with one of the boys from her class that she had nursed a crush on for several years. He was smiling at her and she was smiling back at him when the whole crowd stopped completely mid dance.
Elizabeth pulled away from her partner and tried to find what everyone else was looking at.
At the entrance of the door stood five people dressed in designer clothes.
Two of them were women while to other three were men.
The women were quite good looking as were the men, though the man that one of the women had her arm around was a little stupid looking with his vacant expression. But the other two men, one of which was wearing a broad grin, and the other a severe expression, were walking forward already.
Mary King walked quickly to the group and said, in a breathless voice, "H-hello! I'm Mary King! Thanks for coming to my party!"
"It's a pleasure," the smiling man said, sounding genuine.
Mary King turned to face her party-goers, her face a little pink, and announced, "We have some rather special guests tonight. Charles Bingley's father was an old friend of my fathers and he wanted to come crash my party."
She turned back to the one named Charles just as the music was turned back up and the dancing resumed.
Before Elizabeth could begin dancing once more, Jane pulled her aside and said, "Is that the Charles Bingley? The one you had been teasing me about?"
Elizabeth craned her neck to get a better look and, grinning, turned back to her sister and said, "I believe so. I wonder who the woman is beside him. they look alike, so perhaps they're brother and sister."
"And the other two?" Jane asked.
Elizabeth frowned. "I think Charles must have another sister because she looked like the other two. I have no idea who the other two men are, though."
"Should we introduce ourselves?" Mary asked quietly. Elizabeth hadn't seen her sister sidle up to them until she spoke.
"I don't think we have to worry about that," Elizabeth replied as she saw Charles walking straight for them, the other four trailing behind him.
"Hello," Charles Bingley said happily. "I'm Charles Bingley."
"I'm Jane Bennett," Jane said immediately. She looked to her sisters and said, "This is my sister, Elizabeth, and my other sister, Mary. We've two other sisters, Lydia and Kitty, but they're somewhere lost in the crowd dancing."
"I'm pleased to meet you," Bingley said earnestly.
The woman on his immediate right nudged him and cleared her throat pointedly.
"Oh, right," Bingley said, blushing slightly. "This is my sister, Caroline, and my other sister, with her new husband, Louisa. This," he added, looking at the tall man beside him, "is my good friend, William Darcy."
The man named William Darcy merely glanced at the Bennett sisters though his eyes lingered a little longer on Elizabeth. She smiled at him, but he turned away, looking bored. The woman, Caroline, smirked and pulled him away from the rest into the middle of the dance floor.
"Would you…would you like to dance, Jane?" Bingley asked nervously.
Jane, without being able to utter a word, simply nodded and, together, the two moved to the dance floor, which happened to be playing another, much slower, slow song.
This left Mary and Elizabeth with the Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, who were currently talking in low tones to one another.
Mary looked at Elizabeth, smiling slightly, and said, "Well, at least Jane caught the eye of the incredibly rich Mr. Charles Bingley."
"Oh quiet, Mary," Elizabeth reprimanded lightly, smiling. She knew that something must come of it, but what, she didn't know quite yet. "We both know Jane doesn't go for men simply because they have money."
"No," Mary said in a bored tone. "She merely goes for them because she has a gentle heart and believes the best in everyone. Well, let's hope he doesn't prove to be a disappointment because, if I'm not much mistaken, she's already in love with him."
Mary moved away, leaving Elizabeth alone to watch Jane and Bingley dance. They seemed to be in their own little world, completely oblivious to everything around them.
Yes, they did seem to be in love already, but who would fall harder? Jane? Or Charles Bingley?
Elizabeth scanned the room once more and found the eyes of William Darcy watching her. he turned away again, making Elizabeth feel confused.
If a man likes a girl, she thought as she began to walk to the length of the room, he should say something to her, not watch her from a distance. It's infuriating.
I hope you liked it! Again, if I've got any British term wrong, let me know! And please review! I love them. Dearly! And again, look for my little surprise coming up in a few chapters. :) I came up with it today and I quite like it! But...you'll just have to wait and see. :)
Until next time, my dear readers!
