I'm just following my own time period here. It's fall in mine.
Elizabeth thought that the never ending flow giggling coming from her two youngest sisters would ebb with the dwindling novelty of the Bingley's arrival, but there was always new news to keep them excited. This time it was weekly visits to Boston to go to the Army conventions and visit their Aunt, Mrs. Phillips, who would take them every Saturday and drive them home every Sunday. These trips went on for a few weeks, and Elizabeth thought she might scream if she heard the words "Lieutenant", "Private" or "Officer" one more time. She was all for the army and their dedication to protecting the country, but it was getting ridiculous. She knew that any attentions that any of the officers might have made to her sisters were merely attempts to shut them up, though she could not bring herself to say so and Mrs. Bennet surely would have scolded her..
Though she found their babbling distracting and childish, she envied their ability to take weekends off. The IB turned much more vigorous during junior year, and between community service, homework and sleep, she had barely any time to spend for herself. The time she did have, though, would not be spent ogling officers several years older than she was. Elizabeth was practical in that sense, and liked to spend her free time either enhancing her mind or relaxing. Providing extra stress for herself, like maintaining a boyfriend for instance, was out of the question.
One Thursday night the family was eating dinner together, and Elizabeth thought that perhaps she'd be able to go downstairs after eating to do homework before Lydia or Kitty would be able to share every millisecond of their day with them, but alas she was greatly mistaken. Once the topic of soldiers came up, it was at least another hour before Elizabeth was allowed to be excused.
After only fifteen minutes of it however, it seemed that Mr. Bennet was in a generous mood and allowed Jane and Lizzie to be excused and finish their homework. Jane and Lizzie both put their napkins on the table and rushed up to leave before someone wanted to share something with them and bring them back to the table for another half hour.
"Oh, and before you go Jane," he cut off Kitty mid- sentence. She huffed indignantly as Mr. Bennet reached into his pocket and brought out a letter. "I'm surprised that anyone actually mails invitations anymore, but it seems that you've got one."
"Who's it from?" Lydia asked eagerly, the tales of Officer Bard easily forgotten at the chance that their sister may have been invited to a party. Lydia was insensible when it came to things like parties and boys, because she just turned downright silly.
"I'm not going to tell you before I know," Jane told her sister in a teasing manner. She hadn't even looked at the address, not wanting the table to go into a frenzy if it was from who she was hoping it was from. Instead she chose to share the opening of the letter with Lizzie in the confines of their bedroom, for Lizzie was much more even tempered than much of the family.
"So, who's it from?" Lizzie asked, excited but not nearly as enthusiastic as her younger siblings. She took her backpack off the floor and sat on her bed with her Latin homework.
"The Bingley's," Jane's voice quivered with excitement as she opened the letter sloppily. Usually she took her time with the letter opening process. Lizzie noticed this difference and grinned. She tore the letter from the envelope and read it quickly, her expression getting curiouser as she went on.
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked, slightly nervous.
"Caroline wants me to come over, but Charlie won't be there because he has a meeting in New York for a possible job," Jane said, somewhat disappointed. Then she caught herself. "What am I saying! Caroline's lovely, I'm sure I'll have a nice time."
"No," Elizabeth corrected her, confused. Caroline Bingley made it extremely obvious that the Bennets were not worthy in her eyes, so she found it strange that Jane would be invited from out of the blue to the Bingley home. "You were right the first time. Caroline's dreadful."
Jane shook her head. "She's really not that bad. And besides, if I get tired of her then I'll just talk to William. He'll be there too."
Elizabeth scrunched her nose while looking up a Latin word in her dictionary. "Darcy? Well, I'm sure even he'll be a relief from Caroline."
"Who is it from?" Mrs. Bennet charged into the room without even knocking and Elizabeth could have laughed at her mother's reaction to a letter.
"Caroline Bingley. She's invited me to her house after school tomorrow for dinner. She lives really close, do you think I can borrow the Saturn?"
Mrs. Bennet's lips were pressed very tightly together at the very idea. "No... no way. You'll have to ride your bike there."
The girls were naturally shocked to hear such a suggestion come from their own mother. "But mom! It's supposed to rain tomorrow night! If I take my bike then I'll definately get a cold."
Mrs. Bennet only smiled.
***
"How ironic that you decided to take us on a mini vacation to Boston with everyone else in our house once Jane leaves," Elizabeth commented sarcastically from the middle of the van as they drove to Boston. "That way if she doesn't get sick, she'll still have to sleep over because no one will be home."
"You're a smart girl," Mrs. Bennet replied back to Lizzie from the passenger's seat. "Now be quiet."
It was no surprise to Elizabeth when she turned on her phone the next morning to find a text from her sister. She had indeed caught a cold and with no friends in the area, Charlie implored her to stay with them until she got better.
"Guess who's sick?" Lizzie announced sarcastically to her family during breakfast that morning.
"Well, if she dies then you should thank the Lord that it was at least done with the attempt to win Charles Bingley's affections. Good job Madam, you have successfully killed our daughter," Mr. Bennet congratulated his wife irritably as he sat down with his plate of food and moodily began poking at his eggs. "We'll have to pick her up on the way back tonight, I don't want to rely on the Bingley's more than we have to."
"No, no," Mrs. Bennet interrupted hastily. "If Charles is nice enough to extend his invitation to Jane, then who are we to deprive him of his hospitality?" She smiled to Mr. Bennet as if she was the one that was doing the good deed. "No, she will stay at the Bingley's until she is better."
Lizzie did her homework on the hour ride back from Boston, thinking the whole time how pointless it all was. All they did was go shopping, and if she wanted to do that she could have just taken the bus to the mall that was nearby the school. She'd had to cancel her plans for reading to the children at her public library for CAS hours, and would have to make it up again during the hectic week. The thought that crossed her mind most frequently, however, was the health of her sister.
'I'm going to see her when I get back,' thought Elizabeth stubbornly. 'Who cares about Math homework anyway?'
And so with some careful persuasion, Elizabeth set out on a walk for Rosings. Mr. Bennet was reluctant to let her go, for without her he would be stuck in a house without order. But eventually he realized that poor Jane needed her sister for strength and gave her his permission.
Cape Cod was a very scenic place, and the trees were only beginning to color. Elizabeth didn't mind riding along the sidewalks and admiring the beauty. The rain the previous day only added to the magic of it all, and the puddles reflected the impossibly blue sky. It was a decent ride, and by the time she reached the Bingley household, she hardly noticed the brown damp spots on her jeans from the puddles and her helmet hair.
The home was beautiful, of course, and though she knew it wasn't built long ago, it was styled in the way of Revolutionary era. It was very big, and Elizabeth didn't know exactly where she should put her bike, for anywhere would make it seem dreadfully out of place. She chose to plant it behind the shed.
Several garden workers eyed her warily, for over the course of the few weeks they'd been used to stray teenagers showing up uninvited. They left Elizabeth alone, however, and left her to ring the doorbell.
A maid opened the large door for her, and when Elizabeth walked in she was greeted with several copies of famous paintings and fabulous curtains. The place was obviously designed by someone with great taste in Colonial lifestyle. 'Can't have been Caroline' she thought with a grin.
"I'm here to see my sister, Jane?" she asked the maid awkwardly. It wasn't often that she went to someone's house that had hired help, and she wasn't quite sure how much the maid knew.
"I will show you Charlie, yes? Is good! Follow me!" The small Italian woman led Elizabeth through the corridor to a large sitting room. This was a bit more modernly furnished, with several leather chairs, a fireplace, a large television, and a popcorn machine. Elizabeth felt herself relax a little and felt less intimidated being surrounded by the warm colors of the room, as opposed to the harsh brown of the doorway.
"Charlie, there is a lady here to speak to her sister."
Charlie was casually sprawled on the couch flipping channels on the large flat screen, Caroline was busy on Facebook and Darcy was doing homework. The maid's announcement made Charlie look up from the screen at Elizabeth and his face brightened. None of the others even looked up when the door opened.
"Lizzie!" Charlie stood up to hug Lizzie and Darcy looked up from his science textbook in alarm, and stood up abruptly.
"Hello Charlie, hello William," she smiled. Though she found Darcy's attitude less than admirable, she still tolerated him more than Caroline, who still hadn't bothered to look up from her laptop. "How is my sister?"
Charlie released her and his face molded into one of deep affection. "She's doing awesome, would you like me to show her to you?"
"That would be great, thanks!" She nodded to Darcy, who silently returned to his homework. She found his constant observation of her strange, and often felt like an amoeba on the wrong side of the magnifying glass when around him. She felt as though he was digesting her character, taking apart her brain and personality with every piercing gaze. It proved that he was far more intelligent than she would have first thought, but still it unnerved her that he would provide so much attention to someone he barely knew.
Charlie led her up the stairs to one of the many guest bedrooms, and opened the door to reveal the pale face of her sister. At first Jane didn't see Lizzie, but once she did, her face broke into a tight lipped smile.
'How does she look so pretty, even when she's sick as a dog?' Lizzie mused for a moment, but then shook it off and devoted her attentions to comforting her sister. Jane did look pretty, even though she was white and congested. "Jane, I thought you said it wasn't that bad! You must have the flu!"
Elizabeth sat down on a corner of the bed and Charlie pulled up a seat to sit next to the bed. "Don't get too close," Jane warned feebly before Lizzie rolled her eyes and leaned over to press her lips against her forehead.
"Geez, Jane! You're burning up!" She grabbed a cool cloth that Charlie had left on the side table before and put it on Jane's forehead.
"Stop making such a fuss, Lizzie!" Jane was slightly embarrassed to be babied right in front of Charlie. "It's really alright. Remember when I had chicken pox? That was a lot worse."
Elizabeth retorted and spent much of the evening looking over Jane, even after Charlie left to watch a new episode of his favorite show. Before she knew it, it was almost sunset and would've been too dark before she got home on her bike.
It was Jane that noticed this first. "Lizzie, look how late it is! The sky's getting pink!" Elizabeth looked up from her book and went to the window to peer out into the sky.
"Oh yeah," she was startled. She then crossed over to Jane's bedside and kissed her on the forehead. "Have a nice night Jane, I'll be back tomorrow."
"You can't leave now," Jane shook her golden curls. "It'll be too dark before you get back!"
"I can't take advantage of the Bingley's hospitality. I'll say goodnight to Charlie then ride home."
She went downstairs and retraced her steps to the sitting room, where Charlie was sitting, this time doing homework. Caroline and Darcy were not there this time, and Lizzie suspected that they thought themselves too important to sit with Charlie. "Goodbye Charlie, thank you for allowing me to stay with Jane."
He stood up, looking shocked. "You haven't eaten dinner with us yet! We eat pretty late and assumed that you'd be eating with us. Besides," he gestured to the window. "it'll be dark before you get home. You can borrow some of Caroline's clothes and stay in the guest room next to Jane's."
'When I wear Caroline's clothes, I'll dance naked in the middle of an IB exam!' she thought to herself. Instead of sharing this thought with her host, she said instead; "I really couldn't impose. Besides, I think Caroline and I have different, er, styles, when it comes to bedwear."
Charlie shrugged. "I can't argue with you there. You can borrow one of my shirts. Lord knows I have too many to begin with." He smiled at her. Elizabeth realized just then that though Bingley was often around people, he didn't know what was appropriate in normal situations. Offering the sister of your almost- girlfriend a shirt to sleep in for the night wasn't quite appropriate. However, instead of wounding Bingley's pride, she decided to accept his offer.
"I'll just text my father to let him know that I'll be sleeping over,"she sighed, defeated.
Bingley smiled brighter. "Wonderful! We'll eat in ten minutes." He then left the room, leaving Elizabeth to text her father and wonder to herself what exactly she had gotten herself into.
Dinner was lax in the household, and since there wasn't much adult supervision from any parental figures, there was much reliance on the teenagers to get all their work done on by their own will. Because of this, the dinner table was mostly quiet. Caroline chose to do her homework at the time instead of socializing, Darcy was reading periodically, and Bingley chatted with Elizabeth. Elizabeth noticed after a while that Darcy spent at least ten minutes on a page and suspected that he was listening to their conversation, though made nothing of it.
It amused Elizabeth to think of her mother's reaction to the fantastic food served. At this point Mrs. Bennet would be on her knees in front of Charles and most likely begging him to take Jane away from her to his castle.
The workload was still fairly light, as it was the beginning of the year, and by the end of the meal all of the teenagers were done with their night's work. Charles suggested playing Apples to Apples, a fun card game involving verbs and matching nouns and adjectives. Caroline naturally had other things to do and excused herself, but Darcy and Elizabeth consented quietly and they spent the remainder of their Saturday evening playing card games and talking about school and other safe topics.
It was a little after nine when they all decided to part ways, and before Elizabeth fell asleep a curious thought passed through her mind, for why would Darcy insist upon her wearing his shirt instead of Charlie's?
***
Elizabeth had always been a late sleeper, and so was Darcy. At least, he normally was. However, on this Sunday morning he found himself unable to fall back to sleep after awakening at five o'clock in the morning. He then decided to join his friends downstairs and perhaps even finish the letter he's been writing to his sister. Even though emails and text messages were much faster, he preferred to write personal letters in ink. He felt that it made his sentiments seem all the more real than a quick, 'love u' text message.
Caroline was, as usual, the first one to speak. "Why don't you think that Liz showing up with soaked pants weird? Because I do. How is that appropriate way to show up in someone's house?"
Darcy found Caroline's droning way of speaking and her constant condescending tones aggravating, especially at six o'clock in the morning. "You know she hates being called Liz," he corrected monotonically. "Besides, can't a girl exercise?"
"Liz, Lizzie, whatever," Caroline waved her hand. "That's not the point. The point is, would you want Georgiana to show up at someone's house covered in mud and expect to be treated with respect?"
Darcy hesitated for a moment, his pen poised over the paper. "No," he admitted. "I wouldn't want Georgiana showing up like that, but I wouldn't treat her any differently."
Caroline shook her head with a smile. "Oh please, we all know you. You'd judge them if a hair was out of place."
Darcy shrugged and continued with his letter.
"Yes she's very weird," Caroline continued, either stubbornly unaware of her listeners intolerance for gossip about their new guest, or was merely trying to persuade the others of Elizabeth's "true" nature. "In class she always raises her hand, even when she doesn't completely know the answer. I heard her talking to you the other day, Charlie, and she said that if she didn't love theatre so much she would have taken two languages! Two, can you believe that? And she likes the strangest things for a girl. She said to Rebecca, the one with the long hair, that she couldn't wait for the new Avengers movie to come out on DVD-"
"Sorry to break it to you, Caroline, but we really don't care," Charlie groaned and switched on the TV. "Will, do you want to play Mario Kart with me?"
"Not right now, I have to mail this."
He got up to leave, but Caroline put a hand on his arm. "Before you do, could you put it in there how much I miss Georgiana?"
For Darcy it was still too early to try to even make any attempts to be civil, so he answered as abruptly as he could without sounding too rude. "I'll see if I can fit it in."
Caroline was satisfied for the time being, and the morning went on normally until Elizabeth joined them for breakfast. She was still in Darcy's shirt from the previous night and wore some leggings underneath it. The shirt was long enough to go down to her knees, and Caroline turned positively crimson with anger at the sight of it. Darcy himself looked a little pink when he saw her, and looked away.
"Jane's looking better already," Elizabeth assured Charlie when she saw his questioning face. "She probably won't be able to go to school tomorrow though." Jane hated when she missed school, because she knew all it meant was extra work later on. Jane had protested her absence, but when she grasped Elizabeth's wrist and Lizzie realized how drastic her temperature had changed over the night, she insisted all the more intensely.
"That's fine," Charlie shrugged with a smile, barely able to keep the delight off his face that Jane would be staying with him for a few more days. "She can stay here as long as she wants." He was positively giddy with joy at the possibility.
"Your parents are back, aren't they?" Caroline asked through gritted teeth. "She can go home now." Caroline was seething, for it had been her goal for many years to be Darcy's girlfriend. She was of the old fashioned sort that believed money must remain in the family for any sort of a successful relationship and future. Darcy knew all this, and tried to stay away from her as much as possible. He felt that had her affections been genuine, then she would not have flirted and dated with so many other men. Besides, they were of two different breedings. They thought differently, and Darcy knew that a healthy relationship cannot be based upon wealth alone.
So, he ignored her, except at the rare occasions when there was no one else interesting or previously known acquaintance at a party and he forced himself to talk to her.
"No, Caroline. She's staying," Charlie shot a warning glance at his sister.
"Sure, so she can get the rest of us sick. Wonderful," muttered Caroline darkly as she plucked at her toast. Elizabeth pretended not to hear her and helped herself to some fruit.
"You like fruit?" Charlie looked down at her plate, amused. "So does Darcy. His favorite is cantaloupe."
"Oh really?" Elizabeth added politely. "I like cantaloupe too, but I think that my favorite is strawberry."
"Yes this is great and all," Caroline cut in obnoxiously, standing up. She'd barely eaten anything, and though this was something less than unusual, Darcy noticed that she ate less than her typical bird servings. This suggested that something was bothering her and Darcy, being the smart man he is, caught on immediately. His grin only infuriated her more and she rushed to the trash to dump the rest of her food out. "But I have things to do. Tell your sister that if she does want to get the rest of us sick, the rest of us won't include me. So if anyone wants me, I'll be at the mall."
And with that, the redhead stormed out of the room, leaving only the intense perfumed smell of lavenders behind. "Thank God she's gone," Bingley grinned, speaking what was on the mind of all the others. "Well, I'm done," he announced standing up. "It was nice while it lasted. I'm just going to be upstairs Skyping with my agent. Call me if you need anything, okay?" he asked of Lizzie, who smiled and nodded in reply. "Make yourself feel at home," he said as he put his dish near the ornate silver sink.
Soon, it was only Darcy and Lizzie in the kitchen. They both finished their breakfast in silence, Darcy eating significantly slower than usual. When Lizzie finished she stood up. "Do you mind if I go and check up on Jane?"
Darcy shrugged. "Sure." When Lizzie left the room, he merely sighed and put his elbows on the table.
***
It only took Caroline three hours to return back from her shopping expedition, though she still hadn't calmed down from the morning. "Can you believe her? She's still up there. Jane won't get any better no matter how much she stares at her."
"Jesus, Caroline! Will you just leave the poor girl alone," Darcy groaned after twenty minutes of this.
"Oh yeah? Why should you care?" Caroline bit back, hurt and extremely jealous.
Darcy rubbed his eyes. No matter how much coffee he drank in the morning, Caroline always managed to get him as tired as he was before the caffeine. "She's obviously a good friend of Charlie's, so you should be quiet."
"Is she your friend?" Caroline turned sharply in the direction of her brother, who was studying for a math test.
"Yeah," he answered tiredly and Caroline pouted silently while plucking on her fingernails. Just then the door swung open and Lizzie walked in, clutching a book.
"Charlie, I borrowed a book from your library. I hope you don't mind." She sat as far away from Caroline as she could and tried to ignore the intense eyes of William at the back of her head.
"Eh, I don't read. What is it?"
"The Hobbit," Lizzie answered without missing a beat and choosing to ignore Caroline's snicker. Charlie distractedly nodded his head and went back to his binder.
"You want to know what a really good book is? The Twilight Saga," Caroline piped up.
"Caroline, you know a saga means more than one book, right?" William sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Yes of course," she waved him off. "Bella's my favorite girl character."
Lizzie had the overwhelming desire to scowl, but suppressed it. "Why's that? Because she has no drive or ambition for anything in particular other than being a bloodsucking housewife?" She didn't mean for it to come out so sarcastic, but what was done was done, and it was worth it just to see Caroline's face turn bright red.
"She does a lot more than that," Caroline waved her hand to brush Lizzie off. Lizzie opened her mouth to disagree, but Charlie was faster.
"You know, I've never met any girl that isn't good at everything, everyone's always better than someone else. It's very annoying. Why won't anyone admit they're bad at something without looking for sympathy?"
"Because everyone has to be good at something, Charlie," Caroline rolled her eyes. Then she smirked. "But Will doesn't think so. He feels that everyone is the same, with only a few people better than the others." This piqued Lizzie's interest.
"No one's awful at everything," Darcy protested. "But yes, I think that there's only a few people that deserve my utmost respect. No one in California, I can tell you that."
"What does a girl have to do to earn your respect, great sir?" Caroline asked sarcastically.
"They've got to have both breasts covered, first of all," he said pointedly to Caroline, who's bra was showing over the top of her loose, deep, v-neck. She blushed and Lizzie grinned. "She's got to be both school smart and street smart, respectful, cultured and read a lot." Suddenly Lizzie became very aware of the book that seemed to burn into her palm so hot she felt it could have made an indent, so she put it quickly on the table next to her.
"Is that all?" she asked quickly. "I'm surprised you've met any at all. I haven't met a single person that meet any of your qualifications."
He arched an eyebrow and seemed to want to respond, but shut his mouth.
"Yes, he's very negative," she pulled up her shirt and reached for her iPhone to update her Facebook profile.
"Not negative, just the truth," Darcy protested stiffly, wanting nothing more than for this conversation to end.
"Yes, we all know that you're very demanding," Charlie commented with a slight smirk. "But can we all please stop throwing knives at each other?"
Caroline's lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed, but she made no other comments.
The rest of the afternoon was spent mostly in peace.