Will couldn't wait to see Elizabeth the next day and he was waiting for her at the entrance to the music room but Elizabeth was less than thrilled to see Will waiting for her.
"Isn't there somewhere else you need to be?" Elizabeth asked sarcastically.
"Calculus" Will admitted with a grin and a lift of his eyebrows, "But I'd rather be here with you."
"Darcy, be serious," Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "I know you don't like me any more than I like you so what do you want?"
Will tried to mask the hurt he felt at her words and lied, "I wanted to make sure you were coming by today after school to practice with Georgie."
Elizabeth opened her eyes wide in disbelief and tapped her foot on the floor as she glared at him, "Yes and you didn't have to track me down to find that out, you could have just asked Georgie."
She moved passed him and opened the classroom door and disappeared as the door closed behind her.
Will ran to class and made it just before the bell rang. He couldn't remember anything about his morning classes and when it was time for lunch he found Charlie sitting with Jane and Elizabeth again. He sat down next to Elizabeth and at least this time she didn't leave the table but she didn't talk to him either.
Will tried to engage her in a conversation but she just ignored him. He finally gave up trying and left the table. As he walked aimlessly through the corridors, he ran into Rick.
"What going on?" Rick asked as he saw the devastation on Will's face.
Will explained the situation, "I just don't know how to make this better."
"Wait," Rick said, "Didn't you tell me that Bingley set up a date with Elizabeth for you to double date with him and Jane Friday night?"
"Yes." Will said listlessly, "But I turned down the date."
"Hmmm," Rick said thoughtfully, "I have an idea for you but you're probably not going to like it."
Darcy sighed and asked sharply, "What is it?"
Will Darcy pulled up in front of the Bennet's house on Friday night and sighed. He didn't know if Rick's plan was going to work but he had to give it a try if he wanted to spend time with Elizabeth. He waited until he saw Charlie pull up and joined him on the walk to the front door with a bouquet of red roses in his hand.
Charlie looked startled, "Will, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here for my date with Elizabeth, of course." Will said quickly, "You must remember, you set us up."
"But you turned down the date." Charlie protested as he rang the doorbell.
"You must be mistaken because I would have never turned down a date with the lovely and charming Miss Bennet." Will said as confidently as he could.
Mrs. Bennet answered the door and Charlie introduced himself and Will before he spotted Jane as she walked down the stairs. Charlie couldn't take his eyes off her because she looked so lovely. Mrs. Bennet moved out of the way for him to move toward her and greet her.
"I don't know what is keeping Elizabeth." Mrs. Bennet said loudly, "Let me get her for you."
"Thank you, Mrs. Bennet." Will breathed deeply and stopped the impulse to hold his breath until Elizabeth came down.
"Such charming young men." Mrs. Bennet said as she disappeared upstairs.
Jane hissed at Charlie as she pointed at Will, "What is he doing here?"
"He's come for his date with Elizabeth." Charlie told her, "She did agree to go out with him after all."
"That was before he said the things he did about her." Jane argued vociferously when she looked up and saw Lydia skipping down the stairs.
Lydia stopped when she saw Will Darcy, "Wow, you are good looking." She fluttered her eyelashes at him and said, "Mama says that Lizzie will down in just a moment."
Will breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you."
Lydia turned to Jane and whispered loudly, "Elizabeth refused to go at first but Mama insisted that she could not turn down such a charming and wealthy young man."
Will blanched at her words as Jane said, "Shush, Lydia not in front of the gentlemen."
As it was a warm evening, when Elizabeth came down she was dressed in a light weight summer dress with spaghetti straps. Will couldn't take his eyes off of Elizabeth as she stepped towards her sister and Charlie.
Will stepped forward and handed her the roses, "These are for you."
"Thank you." Elizabeth said softly before she excused herself to put them in water. When she returned, Will wanted to wrap his arms around her and kiss her on the cheek but he knew that she would not think kindly to such an intimate gesture.
"You look lovely." Will said as he took a step toward Elizabeth.
The two couples decided to take Will's car and Elizabeth reluctantly climbed into the passenger's seat as Jane and Charlie got in the back.
They had been driving five minutes before Elizabeth addressed him, "So why are you doing this, Darcy?" She fought to restrain a snarl, "I guess you thought it would be funny to take the poor homely girl on a date." She spat out angrily, "Or are you here to make sure that I'm drinking my lemon and honey tea."
"I'm here because I wanted to take you out." Will said as he glanced over at her.
"I'm not stupid, Darcy." Elizabeth was emphatic, "I know what you think about me."
"You obviously don't know anything about me." Will felt his anger begin to build.
"What's there to know?" Elizabeth demanded, "You're just a snob who thinks you're better than everyone else in town."
It took every ounce of willpower that he had not to snap back at Elizabeth. He steadied his breathing as he tried to calm himself.
Jane and Charlie were oblivious to any argument in the front seat as they were so caught up in each other that a bomb could have gone off and they wouldn't have noticed.
We're here." Will barked as they got to the restaurant.
Elizabeth jumped out of the car before Will could help her with the door and as he walked beside her he felt the tension in her body. Why do I always seem to antagonize her? Georgie would be so disappointed that he couldn't keep his temper for even five minutes. Damn.
After they were seated at their table, Will leaned over to Elizabeth and said quietly, "I'm just trying to look after your welfare." He tried to catch her eyes but she wouldn't look at him and he took her hand in his, "I worry about you."
Elizabeth finally looked Will in the eyes and her eyes were twinkling, "I appreciate the thought." She conceded with a smile, "But I don't really need you telling me what to do."
Will laughed with relief at the lightening of her mood, "I'll try to keep that to a minimum."
While they were waiting for dinner, they managed to talk amiably about their favorite music and soon the topic turned to one of her favorite groups, The Beatles.
Will grinned as his need to glimpse her passionate nature took over and he knew what question to ask to get her to dance to his tune, "So who do you think was the best Beatle, John or Paul?"
"Paul McCartney." Elizabeth answered as her eyes narrowed when she saw Will's lips twitch in humor.
"So you think 'Silly Love Songs' was better than 'Imagine." Will's eyes sparkled as he saw her eyes flare.
Elizabeth shook her head, "That is the oldest argument on the books." Elizabeth said with openness, "I admire and respect John Lennon and mourn his death as the world lost a great talent and man."
"Is this the concession of your argument?" Will asked as his lips twitched at the corners.
"I haven't even made my argument yet so can you stop being such as jackass for one minute." Elizabeth's eyes blazed as she gave him a look that was designed to take mere mortals down. Will grinned as Elizabeth sighed, "What I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted was that I've always wondered why people underestimate such a wonderful song writer as Paul McCartney." She shook her head while she made her point, "I don't understand why people dismiss Paul because he wrote love songs, isn't that the one thing in this world that everyone is supposed to want to find more than anything." She looked him in the eyes and fired the rest of her ammunition at him, "Besides that have you forgotten about the multitude of music written by him such as 'Yesterday', Eleanor Rigby' or how about the animal rights anthem 'Looking for Changes', the wonderfully diverse 'Band on the Run', the beautiful, 'Maybe I'm Amazed' or the deceptively simple, 'I Will'." She sighed and finished her argument, "Paul McCartney wrote and sang some of the most beautifully surprising music and if you'd ever bothered to listen to any of his lyrics beside 'Silly Love Songs' then maybe you wouldn't so woefully ignorant."
Will let out a hearty laugh and said, "Okay, for the moment, I will surrender to your superior knowledge." He looked in her eyes, saw the passion burning deep within and smiled with pleasure.
When he looked back at Elizabeth, he saw that her face was full of anger and her shoulders were stiff. Will closed his eyes and knew he had made a mistake by engaging her in that kind of debate, even though he thoroughly enjoyed every moment of her fire and passion. After that he tried to get Elizabeth to talk to him throughout dinner but she would only answer in monosyllables.
After dinner Will drove them home and couldn't help but see Jane and Charlie in the backseat making out. Leaving the other two in the car, Will walked Elizabeth to her door. He desperately wanted to kiss her but since she didn't seem to be talking to him, he didn't think she would look kindly upon that intimacy. In an impulsive moment, he took her hand in his, "I'll see you on Monday." Will said as she pulled her hand away.
"Whatever." Elizabeth said as she opened the door and with barely a glance back she closed the door and Will stared at the door for a minute before he turned back toward the car and saw Charlie helping Jane from the car.
After saying goodnight to Charlie and Jane, Will got into his car and sat for a few minutes trying in figure out how to get Elizabeth to see him as something other than an antagonist. Tonight he had knowingly gone against Georgie's advice and he saw that it was the wrong thing to do again.
Damn, how could I have been so stupid as to have started an argument with her? Will laid his head against the steering wheel in disgust. Everything I do with her seems to be wrong.
When he got home Georgie was waiting for him and asked excitedly, "How did it go?"
Will shut his eyes and swallowed loudly, "Not very well, I'm afraid I messed up again."
"Tell me what happened." Georgie said.
Will explained everything that happened on his date with Elizabeth to his chagrin.
"Will, you are such an idiot." Georgie looked at him with exasperation, "You didn't listen to me at all."
"I listened but," Will said as his neck colored slightly, "I just couldn't stop myself from baiting her."
"How are you going to fix this?" Georgie asked as she stared at her brother.
"I don't know." Will admitted, "I always say the wrong thing to her, I can't seem to help myself."
"Well, I guess there's only one thing to do." Georgie said with amusement, "It seems to be an impossible feat to get Elizabeth to stay in the same room with you for any period of time, let alone get her to see you as a friend or anything more than that."
Will glared at his sister and stalked out of the room as Richard entered, "What's wrong with him?"
"He has a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease." Georgie giggled.
Richard looked at her with a lift of his brows, "And you were just…"
"I was just giving him a push in the right direction." Georgie answered, "Will is like a dog with a bone and if I tell him how hopeless the situation is, he will do everything in his power to prove me wrong."
"When did you get so evil?" Richard asked.
"When Will turned his love life into a joke." Georgie shook her head, "I like Elizabeth and I think that she and Will would be great together if only he would stop being such an ass to her."
"Remind me never to get on your bad side." Richard laughed as he walked Georgie upstairs.