Check6, JennaB, MorganisM-Lve, Gentileschi, xXx-dee-xXx, GerryPhan, and Dolphin Dreamer ( who tried extra hard to review- thanks!)

Thanks you guys! I love your feedback. I'm so glad you're all into this story because I'm having a ball writing it. Esp in these fun chapters coming up (hint, hint) :)

Dolphin Dreamer had some trouble leaving a review, so to anyone who tried but couldn't get trough- thanks anyway :)

Okay, you asked for it and I delivered (go me!) An extra long, quickly posted chapter with two new(ish) characters. Who could they be? Well, maybe you should read...

Chapter nine
Fun at the beach

The girls woke early the next morning, as was their habit. After a quick breakfast, they
packed up some towels, a sheet, sunblock, and a book for each of them. Lizzy spilt the load into
each of their bags so that each were carrying their own towel and book and while Lizzy
carried the sunblock, Jane took the sheet and was responsible for the money they
brought for lunch. When they had everything, the sisters grabbed their skates and headed out.

Stepping outside from the cool of the air-conditioning was like walking into a sauna.
Although it was still early in the morning, the sun was beating down on them unrelentingly.
Lizzy and Jane were quick in stretching out and putting their skates on and in no time were
on their way to the beach.

Although it would pick up around lunch, right now the traffic – including pedestrians,
bikers and other skaters as well as cars, was light and they made it to their favorite spot
on the beach in record time.

Jane laid down the sheet they used to lay out on and Lizzy used their shoes to keep it in
place. When they had everything set up, the girls took off their outer clothes so that they
were only in their suits. Jane immediately took out her book and worked on her tan while
Lizzy went straight to the water.

Even before they took this vacation together this was the norm from all their trips to the
beach growing up and neither needed to explain what they wanted to do. Lizzy didn't need
to know if Jane was planning on coming swimming later with her- she knew, in a half hour
or so, that Jane would soon want to cool off from the heat. After swimming for a while, both
sisters would then go to lie out until they were too hot again.

This went on until lunchtime, where the girls would pack up again and walk- it was to short
a trip to skate- to a nearby café.

All went exactly as it always had until, right before lunch, there was a hitch in the routine.

"Are you getting hungry?" Jane asked. She was faced toward the ocean so as not to get
knocked under by any waves. It wasn't that rough, and Lizzy, who had spent more time
in the water than her sister, could feel when a wave was coming with her back turned and
so faced the beach. Lizzy was distracted and didn't answer Jane.

It wasn't that crowded, especially down where Lizzy and Jane had set up camp far from the
pier where most people went; but a group of four came up and set their stuff down right next
to where Lizzy and Jane's were. She couldn't really make out their faces from this distance,
but it looked like two girls and two guys, probably around their age.

"Lizzy?" Jane asked again.

"Yeah, let's get out." Lizzy replied. There was just something off about the group and she'd
rather not have to deal with people messing with their stuff. Besides which- she was hungry.

As they swam to shore, Lizzy kept her eye on the group. They had just finished setting up
their stuff, including umbrellas, beach chairs, a radio and a cooler. As she got closer, she
found she was right about their guessed age. One of the girls looked young, but the two guys
and the other girls looked to be all around the same age as Lizzy and Jane.

Actually, Lizzy thought as they hit shore and stated walking towards their stuff, they weren't
half bad looking. Both shirtless, one blonde and the other dark haired, Lizzy could tell they were
well muscled, but not in a body builder kind of way. The blonde one looked cute, but the dark
haired guy really caught her attention. In fact, he kind of looked like…

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Lizzy sighed.

Jane gave her a quizzical look before following her gaze. When her eyes landed on the group
who'd set up right next to them, she gasped.

"This is just getting ridiculous." Lizzy told Jane as, almost the same time she saw him, Charles
spotted the girls waking towards them.

"Hey girls! Well, isn't this a nice surprise." He said cheerfully. But despite his words, Lizzy
could tell he wasn't at all surprised to see them there. Neither, she noticed with a quick glance
his way, was Will.

"Yeah, some coincidence, huh?" Lizzy replied darkly and Jane nudged her.

"Jane, Eliza, it's really been too long." One of the girls said with obviously fake enthusiasm.
Lizzy cringed unconsciously at the voice and wondered if it could get any worse.

"Hello Caroline." Jane said with her usual pleasantness.

Lizzy didn't see how Jane could be so nice to someone who did whatever she could to brake
her and Charles up… but then again Jane didn't know Caroline did anything like that. Only
Lizzy really knew what happen. Well her and- she glanced again at Will.

While Caroline and Jane exchanged the usual pleasantries- how have you been, what have you
been up to, that sort of thing- Lizzy glanced at the last member of the party. The girl was young,
much younger than the rest. She looked to be Lydia's age- maybe Katy's. With long blonde hair
and fair skin, it was no wonder they brought an umbrella with them to protect her fair skin.

As if feeling Lizzy's eyes on her, the girl looked up to meet her gaze. Lizzy offered a friendly
smile and a little half wave. The girl blushed, smiled uncomfortably, and then looked down
again. Lizzy didn't know if she'd offended her or if the girl was just extremely shy.

She resisted the urge to meet Will's gaze and instead tuned back into Jane's conversation.

"Oh we've been here a couple hours at least. Actually, Lizzy and I were just about to go get
some lunch." Jane said in response to something Caroline had asked.

"That sounds like a great idea! Maybe we could join you." Charles said with enthusiasm. He
was oblivious to the glare Caroline and Lizzy sent him.

"Charles." Caroline said tensely. "We just got here."

"Oh, well..." Charles hesitated, and then looked excited. "I know- why don't Jane and I go get
some food and bring it back- we can have a little picnic."

There was no way Lizzy would leave Jane alone with Charles, not to mention the fact that she'd
rather not be left alone with Caroline and Will. And whoever that girl is, she doesn't seem to
friendly, either.

She looked to see Jane's reaction to Charles' ploy to be alone with her. She looked hesitant,
but Lizzy was going to have to ask Jane what she wanted to do.

"Janie, will you help me find my cell phone before you go?" Lizzy asked, pulling her over to
where they had their stuff laid out.

"I'll go with you if you want me to." Lizzy half whispered to Jane as they pretended to look
through one of the bags.

"No, we need to talk. He has to know that it's not okay to just show up and pretend like nothings
happened." Jane said determinedly.

Lizzy looked up at her sister in surprise. Jane was the sweetest person Lizzy knew, but she
often thought too well of people. This meant that she was also too apt to forgive and forget - to
give people second chances. This statement from her eased Lizzy considerably, and she wasn't
so nervous to leave Jane and Charles alone together.

"Where is your cell, anyway?" Jane asked as Lizzy gave up the pretense and stood.

"Oh. Duh- here it is." Lizzy said, picking up her discarded shorts and pulling it out of the pocket
with a wink. Jane shook her head with a smile as she pulled on her shorts and shirt over her now
dry bathing suit.

"Very subtle, Liz." Jane said with a laugh as the sisters rejoined Charles' group.

"Ready to go?" Charles asked with a smile.

"Sure. We'll be back soon." Jane said to Lizzy.

"Don't take to long, huh?" Lizzy said. Jane promised and the two set off up the beach.

Lizzy turned back to Caroline, Will and the mystery girl and stood, a little awkwardly, until Caroline
spook up.

"Eliza-" she started.

"Lizzy." Elizabeth corrected her for the thousandth time.

"Of course. I don't believe you've met William-" Caroline started again but Lizzy cut off her
once more.

"Actually, we've met. Hey again, Will." Lizzy greeted him, mostly just to see the look on
Caroline's face.

"Hey, Elizabeth." Will replied with a small smile.

She wasn't disappointed. Caroline looked shocked, not doubt wondering how the two had
met, and how Lizzy knew Will enough to get such a friendly response from the normally silent
and reserved William Darcy.

"I don't believe you've met my sister, however. Georgiana, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, Georgiana."
Will introduced them. Lizzy walked close enough to shake the shy girls hand.

"Nice to meet you. Will's told me a lot about you." Lizzy said kindly.

"He's told me a lot about you, too." She replied in a soft voice and a small smile.

"He has?" Lizzy asked, surprised. Then she smiled. "Will doesn't know a lot about me." She told
Georgiana, with a glance at Will.

"Oh well, not a lot…" Georgiana replied anxiously and also glanced at Will; afraid she unintentionally
let something she wasn't supposed to slip.

"Don't worry." Lizzy laughed trying to put the girl at ease. "I was just teasing."

Georgiana looked slightly relieved, and even gave a tentative smile.

"Well…" Lizzy started after a few moments of increasingly awkward silence. "I think I'm going to go
back in the water until Jane and Charles get back with the food."

She wanted to escape Caroline's not so subtle glares and Will's unnerving silence, but Georgiana
didn't seem so bad.

"Want to come?" she asked, directing it to the group but looking at Georgiana.

"I… I'm not a very good swimmer." She replied warily.

"It's shallow pretty far out, and the waves aren't rough." Lizzy said enticingly.

"Well…" she hesitated, looking to Will.

"Oh go on. It'll be fine." He said with an encouraging smile. This seemed to put her at ease, and she
agreed.

"Okay, let's go." She shed her sundress to reveal a blue one-piece that matched her eyes.

"Anyone else?" Lizzy asked before they took off.

Will said he had brought some files he had to look over and Caroline declared she 'wasn't a swimmer'
and that she'd be better disposed to keep 'Dear William' company. Will insisted he wouldn't be good
company. Lizzy suspected from the glare she got at daring to know him already that Caroline wasn't
about to miss an opportunity for some time alone with Will and so didn't press her to join them.

"So what kind of music do you like?" Lizzy asked Georgiana as they stepped into the water and began
walking out.

"Classical mostly. Oldies, too. I like some new stuff, but only actual band I like is Dave Matthews band."
Georgina replied.

"No way! I love Dave Matthews band!" Lizzy replied excitedly.

"You do?" Georgiana asked elatedly.

"Oh yeah. They're my favorite band. They are so good. Have you ever heard them live?" Lizzy asked.

"Once. Will took me. It was awesome – they played mostly their old stuff, which I like better. I like their
new stuff too, but my favorite songs are their old ones." Georgiana, when talking about something she
loved looked animated and Lizzy could hardly believe she was the shy girl from a few minutes ago.

To keep her going, Lizzy kept her talking about the band, their favorite songs, and in no time Will was
waving them up from the beach- Jane and Charles had returned with lunch.

"That was fast." Georgiana observed.

"Mmm. Good thing too, I'm starved." Lizzy chuckled.

They kept up their discussion, which had turned from bands to books, up until they reached the group.
As soon as Georgiana was in range, Will grabbed her and instructed her to put on more sun block while
Lizzy sought out Jane to see how it went with Charles.

The duo was passing out drinks and sandwiches. Charles was definitely more subdued, but he and Jane
were still talking to each other pleasantly so Lizzy guessed Jane didn't give it to him too harshly. She
wasn't all that surprised, however. But at least Jane had talked to him.

All of a sudden, Lizzy put two and two together. Jane had said Caroline told her Charles wanted to distance
himself from Jane when an old flame had come back to town. Lizzy knew that Will and Caroline had really
just wanted to protect Charles from what they saw and someone just after his money, but Lizzy just remembered
the name of the supposed 'old flame'. It was Georgina Darcy, Will's sister. The sixteen-year-old.

Lizzy quickly looked at Jane to see if she had already realized this, but she didn't seem to. Had she even been
introduced to Georgiana yet? Would she remember her name if she had? And what about Caroline? Did she
realize her mistake? Charles obviously hadn't had a relationship with a sixteen year old, but it wasn't really
up to Lizzy to open that particular can of worms in front of everybody. She resolved to wait until Jane and
she were alone to talk to her about it.

After lunch everyone sat around to talk and let their food digest. When enough time had passed, Lizzy
encouraged everyone to join her in the water. Will again said he had too much work to catch up on, and
Caroline reminded her that she just didn't swim. Georgiana, Charles and Jane, however, took her up on her
offer and the group headed off to the water.

The other three were content to relax in the cool water after sitting in the hot sun for so long, but Lizzy was
in a playful mood and soon got them into an impromptu game of water tag. Charles was often it and he often
went after Jane first. Lizzy was the best swimmer of the group, but Jane had also grown up going to the beach
regularly and could get away pretty easily, when she chose to.

Charles complained good-naturedly that he was outdone and Jane declared she was getting too tired anyway
and that they should bring the party back up to the beach. All around agreed and they returned to Will and
Caroline, the latter who'd given up in pulling Will into a conversation and who just decided to work on her tan.

The girls immediately joined her in laying out. Charles, who wasn't very good at sitting still for long, soon got
Will to abandon the work he'd brought with him and the pair started a makeshift game of football. One would
pass it to the other and then try to block him from making it past a certain point.

"Hey." Lizzy complained when a particularly enthusiastic tackle kicked up some sand on her.

"Sorry, Lizzy." Charles grinned from underneath Will.

"Can't you boys do something quietly?" Lizzy asked, but smiled to show she wasn't really annoyed.

"What, like lay out?" Will asked teasingly, letting Charles up.

"What's wrong with laying out?" Lizzy asked in reply, raising her eyebrow in a challenge.

"Oh, nothing." Will replied pleasantly but shot a grin to Charles and Lizzy waited, knowing there was more.
"It's just a little, you know… girly."

"Uh oh." Jane said ominously without opening her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips.

Lizzy made a sound of offense and sat up saying, "And I suppose you think only guys can play football?"

"Well, yeah." Charles and Will nodded, mock serious.

Lizzy harrumphed before pulling Jane up with her. "Okay Bingley, you asked for it."

The boys looked surprised, but willing to let the girls into their game. They even gave them the ball first, a move
that Lizzy promised they would regret.

"Why did I get dragged into this?" Jane asked as the groups spilt to their own 'goal posts', which were just a
few pieces of driftwood.

"Because all you have to do is smile at Charles and he's out of the game." Lizzy replied cheekily.

"Lizzy." Jane said warningly, but was smiling. "So what's the plan?"

"Well, I'm guessing, unless you told Charles, that they have no idea that you can actually throw a football, so
we should get the first point easily by surprise alone. After that we'll just do the best we can." Lizzy instructed,
grinning.

"Okay, let's do it." Jane replied, getting into the game.

"You girls ready?" Will asked when they broke apart.

"Ready." Lizzy answered for them, a confidant smile on her face. Will had some idea that Lizzy was good at sports,
their basketball game a prime example, but didn't even consider Jane could be. This was his and Charles' first mistake.

Lizzy hiked the ball to Jane and ran for the boys end of their 'football field.' Right off the bat the boys
hesitated. They had figured on Lizzy taking the ball right away, maybe passing it to Jane if she got the
chance, but assumed she'd be the one they focused on. Charles eventually ran towards Jane though and
Will tried to stay with Lizzy incase Jane actually managed to make it to her.

When Charles was almost to her, Jane let the ball fly. Both boys, as the girls rightly guessed, stopped and
stared at how far Jane had thrown it, giving Lizzy time to catch it and jog the remaining distance to make
a touchdown for them.

"So let's see." Lizzy said, grinning at Will and Charles' faces. "That makes it one-nothing, huh?"

Charles and Will exchanged a look, and then smiled a both girls. "Oh, it's on."

They had a small crowd cheering them on by the end of their game. They'd agreed before the game
started that they would play to ten points and the score was now 9-8 with the girls trailing by one point.

Not wanting to exclude Georgiana, Lizzy suggested she switch with Jane or her- whoever was more tired
at the time- throughout the game. Georgiana was hesitant but with coaxing from Will, agreed. She had
just taken Jane's spot and she and Lizzy finally made the point that brought them only one point behind
the boys.

It had taken a while and Georgiana said she was too tried to try for another, so Jane returned to the game.

"So what's the plan?" Jane asked.

"I don't know. Short of you flashing Charles, I think they've caught on to all our tricks." Lizzy joked.

"Don't even think about it. If you want to win that badly, you can flash Will – that should keep him still
for a minute." Jane informed her.

One of their main problems was Will's speed. Lizzy was small and quick, but whether from his longer legs
or just the fact that he was faster than she, Lizzy had trouble keeping up with him.

"Hey, that's it." Lizzy said, excitedly.

"I was just kidding Lizzy." Jane replied, worried.

"No, I'm not going to flash him." Lizzy laughed, and then told Jane her idea.

"Will it work?" Jane wondered.

"One way to find out." Lizzy said, then returned to the game.

Once again Lizzy hiked the ball to Jane then took off. Will was at her almost immediately, but instead of
dodging him, Lizzy ran straight for him. Will was confused at her actions, and then even more surprised
when Jane through the ball right into his hands. Without hesitation, Lizzy tackled him, stole the ball, and
took off for the goal post before he realized what happened.

Throughout the game they had mostly been playing touch football, but they never really agreed on a no
tackling rule and once, earlier in the game, Charles had scooped Jane up, causing her to drop the ball and
allowing Will to make the point that had got them in the lead.

Lizzy made the touchdown easily and half the crowd, mostly the female portion, cheered. She turned around to
see Will still on the ground and almost panicked, thinking she had hurt him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, wary it was a trick but still worried.

"I think you knocked the wind out of me." Will said in a painful voice.

"You wouldn't be able to talk if I had." Lizzy said, but felt awful as she leaned down to check up on him.

"Oh yeah, I guess I wouldn't." He said, then quickly grabbed her arm and pulled so she fell half on top of him.

"Will!" she squealed. "You little faker."

"Serves you right with that stunt." He laughed, standing and offering her a hand up.

Lizzy stuck her tongue out and refused his help so Will leaned down and picked her up and carried her over
to where Jane and Charles were laughing at them.

"Put me down you big oaf." Lizzy demanded, half laughing.

"What do you say to calling it a tie and going to get some dinner?" Will suggested.

"Afraid you're about to lose?" Lizzy asked, with a confident smile.

"Most definitely." Charles agreed with a laugh.

"That sounds good to me." Jane approved.

"Yeah, me too." Lizzy seconded.

There was some good natured grumbling from the crowd when they heard the friends decided on a tie, but
most told them it had been a good game and wondered back to their previous activities.

"Oh man. I am going to be so sore tomorrow." Lizzy groaned, but had a smile on her face.

Charles and Jane murmured their agreements, but Will said, "You're going to be sore? How do you think
I'm going to feel after that flying tackle?" and rubbed his chest with a fake pout, but his eyes were dancing
impishly.

"Still think only guys can play football?" Lizzy asked, grinning self-assuredly. Will groaned.

"The words will never again leave my mouth." He promised.

"Then I think it was well worth it." She replied.

Will opened his mouth to reply, but Caroline cut him off.

"Don't you think it's time we get going?" she asked, clearly unhappy about the situation.

"Er, I guess it is getting late." Charles said reluctantly.

"Why don't you girls join us for dinner?" Will suggested, surprising Lizzy.

It was true that she, again, had a blast with Will but she was under the impression that however wrong
he'd been about Jane's feelings for Charles, he still didn't seem to happy when they'd met up yesterday.

Jane and Lizzy exchanged a look, silently asking each other how they felt about this arrangement. Lizzy
raised her eyes to Jane who gave the slightest shrug in reply.

"That sounds like fun." Lizzy finally answered, smiling at Will's pleased look.

"How about we give you girls a ride home this time?" Charles offered.

Jane didn't even have to collaborate with Lizzy on this one, she immediately accepted.

After packing all their stuff up, the group made their way to where Will had parked. Luckily he's brought
the SUV, so there was plenty of room for the six of them and their stuff.

Charles offered to drive and held the passenger door open for Jane, so Lizzy lost her seat partner. Will
let Georgiana, Caroline and Lizzy precede him, the former of whom took different seats, forcing Lizzy to
chose between sitting next to Caroline or sitting in the back, with Georgiana. Without hesitation, Lizzy
went to sit in the back leaving Will no choice but to sit with Caroline, an arrangement Lizzy had no doubt
she planned.

She wasn't upset though; she and Georgiana had never really got to resume their conversation, so they
continued about books and onto the few movies they'd seen recently.

Charles reached their hotel in almost no time.

The boys got out to help them with their stuff even though it was only two bags.

"Thanks." Lizzy said, taking hers from Will. "So when and where do you guys want to meet?"

"I was thinking Cardello's- say around seven?" Will suggested, including Charles and Jane in their
conversation.

It was just five now, so that gave them all plenty of time to go home, get showered and changed, relax
awhile and meet at the restaurant.

"Sounds good." Lizzy nodded.

"Should we pick you up?" Charles asked.

"Um…" Lizzy hesitated, looking at Jane. They definitely didn't want to skate to dinner, but they had
called a cab before and could do it again.

"That would be nice." Jane answered for them. Lizzy silently agreed.

"Okay. See you soon." Will smiled at Lizzy, Charles said goodbye to Jane, and the boys went back
into the car and took off.

Well there you go! A super long chapter. I tried to read through it all as many times as I could to catch mistakes (those tricksy little things) but I'm just so excited to be posting this and to see how you all like it that I hope you forgive anything I might have missed.

BTW- The little ruler thing isn't working, so I can't seperate my Authers notes from therest of the story. The only thing I could do was put this in bold and centered, to make it look different.

Did you not get enough of Caroline attitude? Don't worry, she's coming to dinner ;)

Let me know what you think, huh:)

Oh! One more thing- that Dave Matthews Band stuff - My brother and sisters bought me and my other sister tickets to his concert on the 11th for our birthdays (hers is the 13th and mine is the 19th) and i had a BLAST! it was so awesome I had to put a little piece of him in my story. So there you go. Plus DMB was already Lizzy's favorite band, so I just brought him in early than I planned. But I've said to much already... ;)