Chapter 3

"I still can't believe he said that!" Jane exclaimed with as much disbelief as she had the past two days. It was early afternoon now, and she and Liz were in their room packing their bags with school supplies in preparation for their first class, which started in fifteen minutes. While Liz was a Lit major, not all her courses were directly related to that subject. In fact, she had opted to take a class with her sister, because it had sounded interesting at the time: Applied Discrete Math. As the time for the first session grew closer however, she wondered the heck she had been thinking. She did not quite have the love of math her sister had. But after a short inner struggle, she decided she would stick with her original decision and at least give it a try.

"Oh, but he did," Liz responded without a hint of caring in her voice as she stuffed a calculator in one of the pockets of her bag. It had not taken long for her to get over what Will had said about her. It really was no big deal, what did the opinion of one conceited nobody really matter to her? However, since the rest of her apartment mates had heard, there had been quite an uproar. Her sister was just as loud in vocalizing her opinion, yet hers was more of doubt than of anger.

Jane's lip twisted into its continued disbelief. "Are you sure? Maybe you misunderstood what he was saying. It is possible..." She trailed off as she tossed her bag over her shoulder and began to fiddle with a lock of her hair.

"What he said was quite clear, thank you very much," the brunette stated as she grabbed her own well-packed bag. She gave her twin a serious look before she began to walk out of their room. Jane followed shortly after as Liz continued with a slight laugh, "I don't see why you're so concerned anyway, I'm not. He said what he said, no changing it and if anything, I find it kind of funny. Now let's forget him and move on."

"Forget who? Oh, you mean that bastard, Will?" came a query from around the corner in the kitchen. The two walked past it, looking in to see that the voice had belonged to Missy. Kitty was in there as well and just past the counter in the living room was Lydia. The latter was lounging lazily on the couch, flipping through channels on the TV with boredom. As Missy handed Kitty some ketchup from the fridge, she turned to face the sisters. Her face began to turn the color of her hair as she scoffed, "What a rude thing for him to say! Why if I had known what he had said about you before I left that night, I would have socked him good for you. The nerve! How he and Charlie could ever be friends is beyond me."

Lydia did not look up from her channel surfing as she added distantly, "Yeah, what a creep. I'm surprised you're taking it so well, Liz." The past days she had been almost as loud as Missy on the subject, but that emotion had passed and she had more important things to worry about, like "looking for hot guys on the tube." She was mostly talking now just for the sake of talking. Liz was grateful that at least one other person was not fretting over the matter.

"Oh, Lydia!" Jane laughed nervously. "Will's not a creep. I'm sure he was just having a bad night or something. He couldn't have meant it."

A derisive snort escaped from Missy as she shook a bottle of Fuze that she had just removed from the fridge. "Just having a bad night, my ass. That was just downright horrible. Hmm, I think he and Charlie live off campus in the same building as Carol and Crystal. Maybe I should have Luc drive me down and I can give that twerp a piece of my mind. I can't believe I ever thought Lizzy should dance with that scum. I'm just going to have to make up for it by finding you a REAL man this time."

"No thanks!" came Liz's answer quickly. "Don't let the whole dancing thing bother you, Missy. I can promise you that I'll never dance with Will anyway. Really, people, I'm ignoring what he said, you should too." Her words indicated everyone, but were aimed for the most part at her cross R.A. "I mean, come on, who would take offence over what he said anyway? I rejoice at the fact that I'm only bearable in his... noble eyes, and that I won't be attracting him anytime soon, as much of a catch as he seems. Now I must take my halfwit lil self on over to my halfwit lil math class and shove my tongue down some guy's throat." She grinned jokingly as she spoke, opening the front door and holding it for her sister. Jane smiled too, though uncertainly, as she walked outside. Missy looked like she was going to say another cold word or two on the subject, but kept her mouth unhappily shut. The other two girls just waved good bye as the door came to a close.

The two were silent as they walked down the stairs and began their walk to the classroom. Elizabeth had a content look on her face, breaking out into a smile whenever she spotted someone she had met recently, giving them a wave. Jane was a little more withdrawn, her eyes focusing on nothing as she thought. Finally she said, "Liz, there has to be some mistake. I just can't believe that Will would be so cruel!"

The young adult sighed. "You have trouble thinking anybody would be that cruel. Honestly, Sis, you see too much good in everybody and ignore all the bad. Not everyone is as perfect as your sister," she winked slyly. Jane rolled her eyes, but granted a smile. With a small hiss of disgust in her voice, she added, "I bet you think even Charlie's sister wasn't too bad."

Blinking in bewilderment, Jane asked, "Carol? What was wrong with her? I spoke to her, she seemed nice. I don't see what your problem with her is, she and Crystal were very friendly. Don't tell me you didn't like Crystal either."

"Don't tell me you do like either of them! Did you see the way they acted at the party? They hated the place and hated everyone there. By the looks on their faces, I'd bet someone blackmailed them into coming."

"Now you're exaggerating. You didn't talk to them, so you don't know a thing. I thought they were wonderful," Jane retorted with annoyance, crossing her arms underneath her chest.

"Wonderful?" Liz laughed. "Now who's exaggerating? Like I said before, you think too highly of everyone."

"You know I always speak my mind! You just think I'm too nice because you think the world is worse than it really is," the blonde replied, a little less defensively.

"Yes, you do speak your mind. Your mind is just too sweet and censured. Not everything is butterflies and daisies. But I guess you'll just have to find that out on your own." The pair and left the grounds of Porter and were part of the way to Kresge, the college where their Discrete Math course resided. As the buildings of Kresge began to peek through the redwoods that separated the two colleges, Liz continued hastily before her sister could interject. "Like I've said before, just quit worrying about the whole thing at the party. It really did not bother me. You shouldn't be thinking about this anyway, you should be thinking about your new lover boy." She grinned wickedly as she watched Jane's cheeks redden slightly. Whether her words affected her or just the thought of Charlie did that, Liz could only guess.

"He's not my lover boy and you know it. He and I just had a good time at the party. You know I think he's cute, but I only met him that once. I'll probably hardly see him the rest of the school year."

Liz made a tsking noise, shaking her head. "Don't be so negative, you know you already have him wrapped around your little finger. And not only do I know you think he's nice to look at, but you also think he's funny and intelligent. Both very nice things to have in a boyfriend. So just stop fighting and go for it!"

Jane blushed more almost with every word her sister spouted out. She attempted to hide it as they walked on, saying, "I'm not fighting anything! I just don't want to get my hopes up where... I mean, I just met him, and here you are calling him my boyfriend. He's just some guy, and I don't want you scaring him off by talking like that."

"Oh, its not like I'll say things like this in front of him... at least until its true," she smiled innocently.

The blond made to swat Liz's shoulder, but she dodged out of the way in time. Jane sighed, "Sidestepping that, I also meant talking so loudly about it. It'll start rumors and he'll hear them and think I'm some crazy, love-sick puppy."

Rolling her eyes, Liz responded in an offended tone, "Don't be silly! Trust me, the world does not revolve around you, no one cares what we're talking about. Besides, I haven't even said his name."

"Still... hush! If you have to tease me, don't do it here." They arrived at their classroom, the door wedged open, inviting students in and airing out the room on what was turning out to be a hot day. As they stepped over the threshold, Liz barely got to take in her new surroundings before Jane exclaimed, "Look! It's Carol!" Wrinkling her nose unhappily, the brunette turned to look where her sister was pointing. Sure enough, there she sat in all her dark, gothic glory. True, she was not as dressed up as she had been at the party, but the heavy air of dreariness still hung about in the air around her and in her outfit. She had a few more colors about her person this time, Liz noted, but mostly deep purples. Her matching backpack took up the seat next to her. She had not looked up at Jane's cry of recognition, so she hoped either the girl had not heard or just did not care.

"Yes, it is her. Let's sit over here... away from her." Elizabeth said as she selected some chairs several rows away from the object of their discussion. Jane shook her head at her twin's reaction, but followed. Liz began to look around after they had seated themselves while Jane went through her bag. It was still a few minutes before the lecture was going to start and the teacher had not arrived yet. The room itself was smaller than some of the classrooms she had seen during her campus tour in the summer, but was still much larger than say, the room she shared with her sister. It could comfortably seat 70 people at least, she estimated. The seats were red and built kind of like movie theatre chairs, only not as comfortable. A chalkboard stretched itself widely at the front, though the girl assumed that was not the only form this room offered of teaching supplies. She was sure the cabinet at the back at least held a projector for slides or notes or something.

Her eyes wondered from the furniture to the people in the room. She wanted to see if any familiar faces that she had met recently jumped out at her from the crowd. Unfortunately, besides Jane, the only person she recognized, and wish she did not, was Carol on the other side of the room. She seemed engrossed in firmly ignoring everyone else around her. Well, good for her! More power to her, Liz thought with a mocking smile. Then an unwanted thought came to mind, and Liz quickly searched the faces in the room again. The second perusal gave the same results. No Will. Good, it did not seem like Carol was taking the class with him. She was most likely here to sulk by herself. He still might come, he just might be late... a voice pointed out in the back of her mind.

An older man with thinning black hair stepped into the classroom. He walked up to the table in front of the chalkboard and put down a leather bag. He began to dig through it and pulled out printed sheets of paper every now and again. Liz sighed with relief inwardly. If the professor was here, she hoped that was some sort of sign that no one else was going to arrive. Liz bent down to go through her own pack for a scrapbook to take notes in. Jane had been prepared with hers for a while now.

As she straightened back up, the lecturer was walking over to the only open door and pulling it closed. Before it completely shut however, a hand grabbed it from the outside and pulled it back open. Liz cringed and slouched into her chair unconsciously as Will appeared in the doorway. He dressed much the same way as he had a few nights previously. The main difference now was a black backpack hanging off of one shoulder and his hair. It was much smoother now and pulled back into a low pony tail. If he had not insulted her, she would have allowed him to be mildly appealing right at this second. His cold, green eyes swept the room until he spotted Carol and he made his way over towards her. He glanced around the room a second time, and this time they fell on Liz. She immediately sat up straight and gave him an unconcerned, unmoving look. However, his eyes only acknowledged her for a second before they continued their secondary examination of the room. He then lowered himself casually into the chair that had freed up when Carol snatched up her bag.

It was as if they had never met. As if his best friend had no interest what so ever in her sister. Well, Liz could act like that very easily as well. And given the chance, would continue to use his arrogance as a point of amusement as well. But for the moment, she would just enjoy her seat far away from the pair and take notes. Jane seemed oblivious to anything but the professor, who had just begun introducing himself and handing out a syllabus. Liz settled back comfortably into her chair and put her attention to the lecture as well.

The two hour course went by rather uneventfully. Liz scribbled down notes on the subject that she somehow managed to understand, but if someone asked her to explain it all, she would have been at a loss for words. She never completely forgot Will was there, but could push him to the side in her mind as she put it to the more important task. When the lecturer, Mr. Tao as the girls knew him by the end, called the class to an end, everyone gathered their things together and began piling out of the room. Jane and Liz were among the last to leave, talking as they slowly filled their bags again, Liz watching Carol and Will leave out of the corner of her eye. The two girls left as well, heading towards the nearby cafe for a snack before their next class. They had separate classes this time, Jane's starting a little earlier than Liz's.

As they walked out into the open air, the brunette noticed that the pair that had her interest a moment ago had completely disappeared in the crowd. Not realizing it as she did so, Liz scanned the people looking for them. Finally, she returned her attention fully to her sister. She was talking about the lecture, and with more enthusiasm on the subject than Liz could ever muster on any thing math related. She could comprehend math and even find it interesting sometimes, but numbers were never as colorful and mysterious as a well written fiction to her. It took her a few seconds to catch up to speed with what exactly Jane was going on about, then she just nodded whenever she felt appropriate.

When Jane's talk of the class went through them ordering their food at the Kresge Cafe and well into their meal, Liz cut her off, absentmindedly saying, "What do you think he's doing taking a class like that?"

Jane, mouth still open from being in the middle of her sentence, quirked her head to one side. "I'm sorry, who taking what class?"

"Will," Liz said, twisting her mouth slightly at the name. "Taking an Applied Discrete Math class. His ego may be huge, but you would think even he could not fool himself into thinking he could ever understand stuff way over his head."

Raising an eyebrow, Jane said, "Oh, you don't think he's an idiot do you?" Liz gave her a look and a grin that asked 'how can he be anything but?' She shook her head, laughing slightly, "Oh, Liz! You can't base his intelligence on what he said about you! And I'm still questioning the fact that he said such things, but that is beside the point. I thought you didn't want to talk about him, that's why I didn't bring it up earlier."

"I didn't want to talk about what happened at the party. Ridiculing him is a completely different matter. I can make fun of him all I want, and I'll give you the privilege doing the same. Come on, you know you want to poke fun at him. Doesn't have to be anything huge, say something like... his nails are uneven. You know you can't resist." She began to giggle as she tried to coax an insult out of her sister.

"I can resist easily!" Jane responded with a confident smile. At Liz's continued assault however, the blonde said, "Stop it, Liz, you're not going to get anything out of me. I mean, even if Will had meant what he said, this isn't going to help anything. You're no better than him if you continue to talk badly of him."

Placing a hand lightly on her own chest, Liz pretended to be offended. "How could you ever compare me to him? Of course, I am always better than him in every way, especially when I 'talk badly of him,'" she protested, making the quoting gesture with her fingers when she used Jane's words. "Don't you see, my insults are WAY better than his! And you haven't even heard half of them."

"And I'll be perfectly happy if I never do," her twin laughed. The next few minutes were spent with Liz attempting to make her gentle, innocent sibling say something bad about the male in question, but to no avail. Liz was unconcerned at her failure, it was all for entertainment purposes anyway, she had never expected to succeed. The rest of the meal was spent in a lighter mood, talking about their roommates and their upcoming classes. Eventually, Jane departed in a rush not to be late for her next course. While Liz still had half an hour before hers, she began to walk towards it anyway in a leisurely pace. It was across campus near the bookstore, but where exactly she did not know yet. So she would need the time anyway to get there and look for where it was located.

She arrived at the Baytree Bookstore in a good mood. The freshman had loved walking whenever she could, something about it always pleasured her. And the surroundings she had walked through had helped greatly, what with the dirt paths and wooden bridges winding almost carelessly between the thick forests that inhabited the campus. She was now ready to settle down into another stuffy classroom and pay at least half attention to her next professor. At least it was a literature class; Liz was happy to be involved in a more familiar subject again. The only matter at hand was finding the correct building. She dug into her bag and pulled out her printed schedule. After she had read the room number she needed to find, she looked up and scanned the buildings. She still saw the same stuff as the first day she had arrived: a bookstore, a pizza shop, the student union, and career center. Nothing indicated where the classrooms were hiding. Luckily, there was not a lack of people to ask for directions.

"Excuse me," she said, trotting up to the closest girl she saw. The tall college student turned to face her. Her darkly black hair was heavily and messily curled, only barely being held in check by a red band that pulled it all together at the back of her head. She was dressed in a long, flowing skirt that was a mixture of many lively colors and a black tube top clinging tightly to her chest. While the outfit worked well, it seemed to suggest she could not decide between being presented as a party girl or as a slightly more respectable girl. She flashed a friendly smile down at her as Liz asked, "Do you know where Classroom 002 is? I was told it was around here..."

"You're a freshmen, aren't you?" The woman asked knowingly. At Liz's nod, she continued, "Yeah, they like to hide things on this campus. I wouldn't be surprised if they did it on purpose to confuse the freshmen and transfers. I know its what I would do! Don't worry, you'll learn your way around here fast. Yeah, I can tell you where Classroom 002 is, in fact I'm on my way there now. I'm guessing you have Literature Interpretation as well?"

Liz grinned and nodded again. She had a feeling she was going to like this person. "Yeah, I am a Lit major, so this class kind of required of me."

The pair began to walk, the taller of them leading the way to a set of stairs that trailed up a hill and behind the student union. She laughed at the response and said, "Yeah, all these rules for majors are kind of silly, but what can you do? If you want a degree, you have to make the school happy, go figure. I'm starting a Lit major too. Switching from History, I don't know what I was thinking there. I'm Charlotte, by the way," She added happily.

"Elizabeth, though the smart know to call me Liz. Nice to meet you. I think we'll have a fun quarter together."

Charlotte made a sound of agreement. "Yeah, you don't seem half as bad as any of the newbies. 'Course, I just met you, so we'll see how you fair. If nothing else, it'll be nice to have someone to copy notes off of in class," she said with a small wink.

"Hey, if anyone going to be copying notes, its me!" She said with a chortle. "Hey, were you at the party here a few nights ago? I don't remember seeing you."

Shaking her head sadly, the obsidian haired girl said, "No, unfortunately. I wanted to enjoy at least one night of drunken dancing bliss without having to worry about when the next essay was due or how I did on the last final, but I could not make it. Family junk, you know. Oh well, there will be other parties."

"And from what I can tell, you won't be missing them. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't let a little thing of say, a 20 page essay get in your way. The party is more important!" Liz exclaimed, and Charlotte nodded her head enthusiastically, followed by the pair laughing. After a pause, Liz asked cautiously, "I don't suppose you know two boys by the name of Charlie and Will?"

"Do I ever! There in the same year as me. Shared a few general ed classes with them last year. Charlie's cool, but he's been unfortunately cursed by his witch of a sister and her friend. I've seen Will around, but haven't talked to him much. Why, what about them?"

With a shrug, the hazel-eyed girl answered, "Oh, nothing big. I have a sister, Jane, who I'm sure you'll meet sooner or later. She spent a lot of time with Charlie at the party, and they certainly made a cute couple. I agree the girls that are in his group seem a little questionable, but harmless. But that Will, ugh!"

"Oh? You actually spoke to him? Doesn't seem exactly like a golden boy, from the sound of it," her new friend commented with curiosity.

"Trust me, he's not. He's an arrogant and idiotic ass." At Charlotte's questioning look, she added, "Let's just say he did not have the... kindest things to say about me. And after only speaking to me for 30 seconds, no less. I'll tell you more about it later, if you really want to know," Liz stated. She really would not have minded recounting the exact event, especially to have the opportunity to impersonate Will in a less then flattering fashion. However, they were stepping through the door to a large building that sat on top of the hill they had been climbing. They were in a small hallway that led to two rooms, simply labeled 001 and 002. Not wanting to share the event with the whole student body in the upcoming classroom, she would just save it for later.

As Charlotte took hold of the door handle and pulled it open for Liz, she stopped in the doorway, something seeming to have grabbed her interest. She turned to face Elizabeth, grinning apologetically. "You're probably not going to be too happy in a minute."

"What do you mean?" she asked warily, attempting to look over the taller girl's shoulder, but failing miserably.

"See for yourself," Charlotte said, stepping to the side to let her pass. Liz stepped into the room, never taking her eyes off the other girl, quirking her eyebrow. In doing so, she did not look where she was going and quickly walked right into another person.

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't..." she started, then stopped, gaping. She had walked right into the jerk himself, Will. He stared down at her, almost looking as surprised to see her here as she felt about seeing him. He composed himself quickly, smoothing his ruffled shirt, and gave her a quick nod. He then swiftly moved away into the large classroom.

She turned angrily at Charlotte, saying, "A warning would have been nice!"

"Where would the fun in that be then?" She replied, giggling innocently. She then started up the stairs towards a pair of empty seats. Liz followed huffily, but was not really mad at Charlotte, just the situation. Two classes? I have TWO classes with that... that..., she could not think of a word insulting enough for the likes of him. She sat down roughly in a chair next to Charlotte and started rifling through her bag. This was going to be a long quarter.


A/N: another chapter come and gone! And thus Will slowly makes his way more and more into the picture :D Glad you all seemed to like Mary. Yeah, she's a sweetie, and has a slightly bigger part in my story than she does in the original... but you'll just have to wait and see that, won't you? Mara look-a-like, sorry, he's not blue eyed, he's green eyed. I always had a thing for sexi green eyes And no J.N., its not just you, everyone else pictures him black haired too. I just wanted to be different, teehee.

Until next week, 3