Chapter 2 – "Mr. Bingley was good looking and gentlemanlike"

Excitement came earlier to the Greene farm than expected, as one blistering hot day (only a day or so before the party), Beth, Rosita and Maggie were tending to the chickens, and they noticed a sleek car driving quickly up their road. The car ("Oh wow, a Ferrari!" Rosita had screeched) pulled to a clean stop near the front of their home – and the girls could barely make out the figure of a man stepping out of the car and into the shade of their front porch.

No more than two minutes had passed before Beth noticed the front doors of their house slamming open again – Tara was running as quickly as she could towards the chicken coops, yelling inaudible nonsense and waving around a filthy rag like a maniac:

"—Maggie, Beth, Rosie come on! It's that rich guy! He's talking to dad in the house!"

Rosita yelped excitedly and dropped her basket of eggs in her flurry to get to the house, causing quite a few of them to break.

Maggie and Beth walked calmly behind their sisters.

"What a waste," Maggie said, shaking her head as she bent down to pick up the forgotten basket. "It's like she never learns…"

Beth grinned at her older sister – forever the cool, calm and collected one of the group. It was endearing. Amused, she shook her head and continued forward – she too was curious to see this new stranger.

When they reached the landing of the house, it seemed as though everything had gone quiet – too quiet. Beth and Maggie raised their eyebrows at each other and walked down the hall quickly towards Hershel's study, coming to an abrupt halt when they turned the corner and took in the scene in front of them:

Rosita, Tara, and even Auntie Andrea were all crouched by the closed study doors, pressing their ears against the wood as if trying to hear what was going on inside. Beth chuckled quietly. She was clearly part of a family of lunatics. She and Maggie stepped forward to join their sisters.

"I saw a glimpse of the back of him as he got here," Auntie Andrea whispered next to them, "all I can tell you is that he's got dark hair and walks with confidence…"

Tara snorted loudly at this.

Beth pressed her ear to the door – she could barely make out what her father and Mr. Rhee were saying – she thought she heard something said about Korea.

Suddenly, before she could hear anything else, the loud sound of a piano being played exceptionally badly came from the next room – Shawn must have just gotten home.

Rosita groaned audibly.

"SHAWN, SHUT THE HELL UP," she said yelled loudly, before slapping a hand over her mouth, realizing that she had just given them all away.

Laughter filled the hallway as the girls scattered to different parts of the house, hoping to be hidden by the time Hershel had opened the door to see what the fuss was all about. Beth herself had escaped back out onto the front porch, and picked up a book that was resting on a wicker chair. Pretending to read wouldn't be too suspicious, right? She could hear Auntie Andrea loudly telling Rosita the best way to scrub the coffee pot to clean it properly, and almost snorted with laughter. As if Rosita had ever bothered to wash a dish in her life. Reading a book was way less suspicious.

But as soon as she began to giggle, Beth was cut short when the front door banged open, and Hershel Greene walked out, followed by the handsome visitor. Beth only saw his face for a second, but it was enough to know that he was attractive – very attractive. Well dressed, too, even though he was only in jeans and a dark t-shirt. She watched her father walk his guest back to the fancy car (which, upon closer inspection, wasn't a Ferrari) and shake his hand. She watched as Mr. Rhee climbed back into his car and revved the engine, backing up slowly and carefully out of their driveway.

By the time he had left, Hershel had returned to the porch, and stood looking down at Beth with an amused look in his eye.

"That's a good book," he said plainly to her.

She nodded at him, trying to look nonchalant.

"It'd probably be a better book if you were reading it the right side up."

And with that, he turned to go back inside.

Beth turned a deep crimson and looked down at her book. She had been holding it upside down the whole time. Of course. She let out a hearty laugh.

"Did you see him?"

Beth looked up to find Maggie's head poking out the front doors, as if she wasn't sure it was safe to come outside yet.

"Yeah, Mags, I did. You can come out now."

Maggie stalked over to her sister and sat beside her. "I saw him too, just for a second as he walked past the kitchen. He's handsome."

"Sure is," Beth said with a knowing smile. "Looks like he's just your type, too."

"Oh hush Bethie."

…..

When the big day finally arrived, the Greene farm found itself facing utter chaos. No one could sit still, everything seemed to be going wrong, and none of the girls could focus. Shawn wasn't helping either – he kept trying to gather everyone in the music room upstairs to show them the new song he'd learned that he wanted to play at the party.

"No one cares about your stupid song, Shawn," Tara had yelled at him from her bedroom down the hallway, after he had tried to pull her out of the room for the third time that morning. "We have other shit to worry about."

"Like looking hot!" Rosita added. She and Tara had shared a bedroom since birth, and the two of them did a great job of turning the space inside out with clutter and heaps of unfolded laundry.

Beth and Maggie shared the room across from theirs – and the difference was tangible. Their room faced the front of the farm, and the giant open window that they shared often bathed the room in a beautiful golden light. It was a spacious room, and always kept very tidy and neat. Maggie and Beth each had a thing for candles, and on any given day, you could walk into their room and be greeted with the scent of lavender.

On this particular Saturday afternoon, Beth was trying in vain to follow a confusing YouTube video tutorial so that she could create the perfect waterfall braid in her sister's hair. She wanted Maggie to look beautiful tonight – not that this was hard, her sister was clearly the most gorgeous girl in all of Georgia – but Beth wanted to try something new.

"Ouch, Bethie, don't pull so hard!"

"Oh, sorry Mags! This video is all over the place, I don't think I know what I'm doing..."

"You seem distracted Beth, what's up?"

Beth looked in the mirror at her sister, who was sitting at their vanity, allowing Beth to tug and pull her short hair every which way. Maggie was talented in the art of reading her sister – she always knew when something was on Beth's mind.

"Okay, this is gonna sound really lame, but I'm kind of excited to meet Daryl Dixon tonight."

Maggie grinned at her. "That's because you're a huge nerd, Bethie. It's not lame though, I promise!" she added with a grin, when Beth smacked at her shoulder playfully.

"It's just that his family is so interesting! I learned all about them in that lecture I took a few years ago at school – remember when I was all excited about that class? It was all about Southern activists during the Antebellum period, and people who were helping to fight slavery and all that. I have so many questions for him…"

Beth trailed off for a moment, a happy, glazed look coming over her face as she remembered. She really was a huge history buff – she had gotten a Bachelor's degree in American history – the past fascinated her much more than the present ever had.

"Ooookay silly, let's find you something to wear before you get too caught up in your daydreams and forget that we have a party to get to."

Beth came back down to reality, remembering that she still hadn't found an outfit. Damn it.

Suddenly, shouting came from the other room:

"ROSITA YOU STEPPED ON MY DRESS, YOU BITCH!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU LEFT IT ON THE GROUND, STUPID, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT WAS YOUR DRESS?"

"YOU ALWAYS RUIN EVERYTHING, I SWEAR TO G—"

"GIRLS," Auntie Andrea shouted from downstairs, "IF YOU BOTH DON'T SHUT UP AND STOP FIGHTING THIS INSTANT, I'M NOT LETTING YOU GO TO THE PARTY TONIGHT!"

Maggie and Beth looked at each other and grinned. This was practically normal in the Greene household. Their sisters quieted down, but she could still hear them whispering furiously at each other across the way.

"Oh, I hope they behave," Maggie said with a sign, giving a voice to the very same thought that Beth had just had.

"They won't," Beth said with a sigh. Maggie snorted and stood up.

"C'mon Bethie, I know exactly what you should wear tonight…"