Chapter 10

Taking Six Steps Back

Lizzy's eyes grew. "Mom... What are you doing here?" said Lizzy jumping from her seat, attempting to block Rick from view.

"Liza is that really anyway to greet your mother? I gave birth to you. I feed and clothe you. I put a roof over your head. And this is how you repay me."said Mrs. Bennet collapsing on a near-by chair in an incredibly melodramatic way.

"Mom, now really isn't a good time. I'm sort of working on a project." said Lizzy hoping, praying, wishing that she would accept this without noticing Rick. But Mrs. Bennet had excellent handsome, rich boy radar that Lydia had inherited. So, it really was hopeless for Lizzy to beg and plead in her mind, because there was no doubt that Mrs. Bennet was going to notice Rick Darcy. And sure enough Mrs. Bennet had spotted Rick peering from behind Lizzy. "Lizzy, why did you not tell me that you had a young man over?"

Lizzy muttered some inaudible excuse . But at that moment, Mrs. Bennet had no care for her daughter. How could she care about the nonsense that came out of her daughter's mouth, when there was a handsome young man over who might be a possible boyfriend for her daughter. Ignoring Lizzy's frantic hand gestures to go away, Mrs. Bennet walked rightover to where Rick was sitting and positioned herself on the couch in between Rick and the end of the couch."Hello dear. I'm Mrs. Bennet, Lizzy's mum. And who might you be?"

Rick's eyes were almost the size of Lizzy's. He had never met someone quite so appalling. It was obvious that her accent was fake. Rick would know. His family estate was in Britain. And someone making fun of his favorite place in the world was very offensive. Even if she wasn't poking fun, the fact that she was ignorant enough to believe that she could convince people to believe that she was from Britain with that God-awful accent was equally upsetting. Not to mention, she dressed 20 years under her age. It became quite clear to Rick, that this atrocious women before him was the reason why Lydia Bennetbelieved it was ok to behave the way she behaved.

"Erm, Rick Darcy."sputtered Rick.

It was obvious to Lizzy that Rick Darcy looked down on her mother. And this made Lizzy mad. It was one thing for Lizzy to be embarrassed and ashamed of her mother. After all Lizzy lived with Mrs. Bennet and had known her since she was born. But not only was he the one with class and breeding (which should prevent you from showing you despise someone at least thats what Lizzy thought), he was also proving to Lizzy that he judged people strictly by appearance. Not that he was wrong in Mrs. Bennet's case. But that didn't make it remotely right at all."What makes him so superior to the rest of us, that he might judge me and my family?" thought Liza bitterly.

Mrs. Bennet on the other hand was completely oblivious to Rick's apparent distaste for her. She turned to him immediately after planting herself and began chattering away. "Oh you're Rick Darcy! My Lydia has told me all about you. She said you're the most talented basketball player. I'm more partial to football. Or soccer as you Americans call it."

"Yes."stated Rick even more appalled by her insistence on being British.

"Have you been playing long?"

"Yes, I have."

Mrs. Bennet continued to ask questions, pulling reluctant, short one-word answers from Rick. After a while, both began to become frustrated. Mrs. Bennet decided that this young man was completely intolerable and that she disliked him immensely. Rude and arrogant was one thing, she could deal with a rude son in law. But she seemed to be glaring at her. And he seemed to be completely uncomfortable. This could have been something that Mrs. Bennet could have easily forgiven if he would date one of her girls. But he didn't try to pull Lizzy into the conversation at all. And everyone knows that being polite to the parents of the girl you fancy is the easy way to impress said girl.

The conversation was just about dead, when Lydia walked into the room. "Lizzy? I borrowed a pair of your underwear because..."Why Lydia decided to borrow Lizzy's undergarments was left unknown, because as Lydia spoke she noticed Rick Darcy staring at Lydia in utter horror. Lizzy was mortified. Especially as Lydia burst into tears and rushed out of the room. Mrs. Bennet followed her saying that it was alright.

The next two hours were absolutely dreadful. Lizzy was mortified that both her mother and Lydia had behaved in such a manner. She hated that she was mortified. She shouldn't be. What about Rick Darcy made her so self conscious? And because of this, Lizzy's hate for Rick Darcy was reinforced. Rick as just as equalling appalled, but in quite a different manner. He knew that he had been right. Lizzy's family was far too embarrassing for him to even considered spending time with her in anyway. He couldn't believe that he had let his guard down. Now it was quite apparent that Mrs. Bennet was only interested in her daughters' social standings. Which meant that he was unable to trust any of the Bennets.

Even though both had decided that they would have no part with the other, neither one of them let it show in their work. Both worked incredibly hard to make sure that their work would not be effected by their feelings. Just as Lizzy thought it was perfect, Rick began to correct and adapt the essay because he didn't think it was right at all. "How many times do you rewrite your essays?"asked an annoyed Lizzy.

"At least four times, but I like to try and rewrite it six times. I don't like giving teachers an excuse to give me a poor grade."

"I suppose you consider an A- a poor grade?"

"Well, yes I do. I need at least an A before I'm pleased."

"Hmmm. That's intriguing. I find any A to be good."

"Yes, well I need to get good grades if I'm going to get into Yale."

If Lizzy wasn't mad before, then she sure as hell was mad now."Yale? That's my school, DAMN! He would steal MY school!"But Lizzy didn't let this show. She kept it hidden from him. She did not need to get into another argument, especially one like this. But Rick noticed that something was up. Instead of pointing it out though, he let it go. He didn't want any impression that he was trying to be nice to Lizzy.

Somehow he couldn't stop himself from looking at Liza's eyes. But he allowed himself to look at them, because he couldn't deny their beauty. They had a personality of their own. They flashed and danced. They laughed and twinkled. But what made them truly extraordinary was that, even though he found he couldn't trust Liza, he could trust her eyes. They always spoke the truth. He had ever met someone with eyes that communicated on their own.

But Rick snapped to reality as he saw that it was nearing 5:30. He knew that if he didn't leave soon, he would be forced to dine with the Bennets. Which isn't something he wanted to do. So even though he wasn't completely satisfied with the paper, he made an excuse to leave. Lizzy was overjoyed that this awful afternoon was ending.

As Rick got into his car, he looked back and saw Jason giving him the you-better-not-have-tried-anything look. Rick solemnly looked back and gave Jason a smile. But Jason took that the wrong way and assumed that Rick had down something. So he rushed over to Rick and began hollering at him. "What did you do? I thought I warned you not to try anything!"

"Jason! Jason! I didn't do anything! You don't have to worry about me. Lizzy and I aren't even friends."

Jason blinked his big brown eyes. "You're not?"

"Nope. I promise"

"Oh. Well that's good." Jason then mentally decided that Rick Darcy was the coolest guy in the world. "Hey ah what kinda car is this, huh Rick?"

Rick laughed and began talking to Jason. Jason decided right then and there that he had a new idol. And that idol was Rick Darcy. He wanted to be everything that Rick was.

Lizzy quickly looked at the window to see if Jane was back. But all she saw was Rick Darcy standing by his car laughing with Jason. "He takes my college AND my little friend too? Doesn't this guy own an island? Why does he need to take everything from me?" And with that Lizzy stormed up to her room and furiously began typing a new story about an arrogant man and a charming heroine whose life is ruined by the evil arrogant man.

Dear Readers,

Unfortunately I will be unable to continue writing this story until the end of the school year. So this story is officially on Hiatus. april fools's! haha I got ya! Ok so this is random but look what i made! :.D it's a smiley with a beauty mark! how fun is that? I want to apologize for this chapter! It took a really long time to write because I have this awful writer's block! And I don't particularly like it as much as my others. But it's down and over with so I will be moving on to much better chapters HURRAH! This is a huge side note, but who has seen tangled? If you haven't, watch it! Sooooo good. The reason why I bring it up, is because I'm considering doing a short fanfic of it and I wanted to know your interest in it. SO let me know in the comments.:)

until next chapter!

Mary