Chapter 11

"Hey Liz!" Maria called, waving at her friend. Liz turned and waved back then waited for her friend to catch up.

"Hey Maria," Liz said as they started walking towards the school together, "How was your summer?"

"Not bad, a lot of swimming and laying on the beach but other than that, not much," Maria replied as they entered the building. Students milled about and everywhere there were cries of 'hello' and friends catching up after the long summer break.

"Sounds good," Liz said as they passed a group of scared looking freshman girls, "We didn't get much time to ourselves."

"So how was your au pair job? Did you get stuck doing all the work while Jess flitted about with some strange French guy?" Liz smiled at that, in fact it had often been the opposite way around during their stay in France, "Did you see much of the scandal that went on while you were over there?"

"You mean the Countess and her jewels?" Elizabeth asked, having a fairly good idea that her friend wasn't alluding to the Countess' hysterics.

"Nah, the Prince. He announced his engagement to some noble girl from Italy then broke it off and proposed to some other girl but no one knows who she is or what she said." Elizabeth paused for a moment, trying to think how best to answer her friend's question. Finally she said quietly,

"It's a bit hard not to see it when you're directly involved." Maria stopped and stared at her friend.

"What did you say?" she screeched. Other students turned to see what all the commotion was about.

"Calm down and come in here," Liz said, pulling Maria into an empty classroom, "Sit down and I'll explain everything. We have enough time."

"What did you mean by directly involved? The mystery girl wasn't Jessica was it?" Maria asked sceptically, "Because I doubt she'd have the maturity to even consider marrying someone." Liz laughed and sat down next to her friend.

"No, Laurent didn't propose to Jess, he proposed to me." Maria's eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped in shock.

"What? How on earth did that happen? You only broke up with Todd the night before you left." Elizabeth had expected such a reaction from her friends. After all, wasn't she normally the grounded, sane twin?

"I know Todd and I only broke up a couple of months ago," she began, "But the way I feel about Laurent and the way he feels about me… well it's totally different. I loved Todd, I wasn't 'in love' with him."

"But… how could he propose to you after only knowing you for like… a month?"

"I don't know, it just felt like the right thing to do. And somehow I know that we were made for each other and we're going to stay together for the rest of our lives. I just can't wait to finish high school so we can get married."

"What? You actually accepted him? Are you sure you're not Jessica trying to trick me?" Liz laughed again; this was getting too much like the end of Pride and Prejudice.

"Yes I accepted him, although he doesn't know that we can make it official now. I only told my parents last night."

"Woah this is happening so fast. How the hell did all this happen?" Liz smiled and told Maria the whole story of her summer in France. As she finished Maria's expression changed from disbelief to happiness.

"Well I'm glad you're not completely rushing into things. And you seem to be happy so I guess I should be happy for you."

"I am happy, I'm so glad everything worked out in the end. But promise me one thing, you won't tell anyone until I've told Todd? I think he has a right to know and I'd rather he heard it from me."

"I promise."

Jess skipped from her English class down to the cafeteria. It had been a great day, she had a pretty good timetable this year and everything so far was going right. And Elizabeth was going to marry Laurent, not boring-as-cold-toast Todd Wilkins. Jess smiled as she entered the bustling cafeteria and scouted around for her friends. Spotting Lila and some others on the far side of the room Jessica threaded her way though the crowd to join them.

"Hey everyone," she cried throwing her bag underneath the table and sitting down.

"Hey Jess," Lila said unenthusiastically, "Why are you so chirpy today of all days?"

"A lot of reasons, France for one thing."

"So what was so good about France? Meet any hot guys?"

"Well there was one guy, but that's not really what's made me so happy."

"What then?" Jess looked around the table.

"Can you guys keep a secret?" The rest of the group nodded and leant forwards to hear what Jessica had to say,

"Elizabeth is getting married to the Prince." Everyone looked suitably shocked and Jess smiled.

"Are you serious? Elizabeth… as in your twin sister Elizabeth… is getting married to Prince Laurent de Sainte Marie?" Lila squealed.

"Yep, that's right," Jess replied, enjoying the look of mingled horror and amusement on Lila's face. Just then however, Jess heard a clatter of cutlery and plastic behind her. She turned around to find Liz's ex-boyfriend, Todd Wilkins, standing behind her with the looked of a stunned mullet on his face.

"Liz… married?… I've got to talk to her," was all he could manage to choke out before he turned and ran out of the cafeteria in search of Liz. Jess turned back to her table of friends.

"Uh oh, I've really put my foot in it now."