A/N: Hey here's something I've been forgetting...
Disclaimer: this is Jane Austen's and not mine. She's just so good I thought I borrow.
There. Now, on with the story...
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My future is Chase Everhart. Someday we will marry and with the amalgamation of my good DNA and his good DNA we will have an assortment of beautiful children who will help improve gene pool. Actually I've never met him—he's off in Europe getting cultured and I'm here—but I've seen a picture, and we're generally regarded as the ideal couple. He's Weston's cousin, one year younger, which makes him—hmm, twenty. How perfect. I find that he is one of the most interesting people at school, and he's not even here. I get to here all about it him from Weston, though, who's pretty much determined at this point to set us up should we ever meet. Christian calls it an unhealthy obsession. After all, I don't even know the guy. Oh come on, Christian. I've heard so much about him I feel like I know him already.
There is one more person I hear so much about that I, unfortunately in this case, feel like I know her, too, though I've never met her. Natalie Banks's nineteen-year-old cousin, Sophie Walker, who's not going to college or doing anything useful with her life because apparently she's a model or something similarly ridiculous. I guess she's been on the cover of YM or Seventeen or one of those magazines. I don't like her very much. Well, I don't like her at all really (it follows that Christian also finds this prejudice unhealthy as I have never met Sophie Walker). Natalie always insists on reading me all the emails she sends her, and they incredibly boring. And besides, come on, a model? Seriously, what is that?
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For the next couple weeks I end up hanging out with Jen a lot, sort of teaching her the ways of the world, so to speak. At breakfast one day she asks me why I don't have a boyfriend and I answer dryly, "Because I have an ex-boyfriend."
Jen looks questioningly at me and I shake my head, "Never mind." Then I end up talking about Chase Everhart for about twenty minutes who, yes I know, is not really my boyfriend. So as a postscript, I add, "Actually, I don't really want a boyfriend, you know, it's not like I need one. I mean, I can always get Christian to take me to the movies if I've got nothing to do on a Saturday night, and usually my schedule's pretty full anyway."
Jen nods her head and say vaguely, "Right," as if she's not really listening to anything I've been saying. This is the point at which I begin wondering why the whole boyfriend conversation was brought up in the first place, so I wisely question, "Hey, so how 'bout you?"
Jen snaps to attention, looks at me and asks, "What?" thus proving that she hadn't been listening to me.
"How are you doing in the boyfriend area?" I ask again.
"Oh," Jen says, looking off into Never-Never Land, and then returning to my world to answer, "Well there is this guy..." She trails off.
Aha. There is this guy. Now we're getting some where. "Yes..." I encourage.
"He's name is Luke Emerson. I'm friends with his sister and he's an engineering major I think. He's really nice," Jen supplies.
Luke Emerson, Luke Emerson, Luke Emerson. Why does that name ring a bell? Oh my gosh, no! My protégé is in love with my dorky lab partner. It's all I can do from to keep from screaming "You can do better than him!" I'm guessing that wouldn't be the most tactful thing to say in this situation.
"Right, Luke Emerson. I know him," I say nonchalantly.
"You do?" Jen asks eagerly, dying for my approval. Hun, believe me, I really wish I could give it.
"Yeah," I continue uninterestedly. "We're lab partners in Chemistry. He's a little disheveled, don't you think?"
Jen noticeably deflate. "Maybe," she agrees. "But he's really nice," she adds as an afterthought.
"Well I'm sure he is," I say quickly. "Come on, we're going to be late for class."
"Okay," she says wearily.
Don't worry, Jen. We are going to find you something much better than the likes of Luke Emerson.
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Creative Writing Class. Another one of these poetry labs where they're splitting us up into pairs. I'm sitting in between Jen and Elton and they're both looking expectantly at me. I look from one to the other, thinking this is ridiculous. Then I have one of my legendary Flashes of Brilliance. "Why don't you two work together?" I say, "I've got my eyes on something a little bit better." Quickly I survey the room for any remotely suitable partner. And there's Matt Rider. Right, well, that'll do. I sat by him last year in Survey of American Literature and he kept trying to hit on me. Oh well.
"Matt Rider? She's got her eyes on Matt Rider?!" I hear Elton ask in disbelief as I head to where Matt's seated. Ha ha ha. Well, at least I got one laugh out of this.
"Hey Matt, you're my partner," I say, taking the seat beside him.
"I'll be anything you want me to be," says Matt Rider, winking at me.
I roll my eyes. "Shut up and let's get this done."
"I'm right with ya."
I chance a glance at Elton and Jen, where they are working across the room. Elton has apparently lost interest in my attraction to Matt Rider and is paying attention to Jen. He's paying her a lot of attention, actually. Too much attention to be just trying to make me jealous. Wait a minute—
And suddenly I'm hit with another Flash of Brilliance. Elton and Jen. Yes.