Disclaimer: Ngozi Ukazu owns Eric Bittle and the rest of the Samwell crew, and Hank Green and Bernie Su own this iteration of Lizzie Bennet and company.

A/N: Remember, this is going to mostly follow canon, except that I'm imagining that the Lizzie Bennet Diaries took place in 2014-2015 to line up with Year 2 of Check Please.

Lizzie sees Eric's latest vlog—the first one in a while—and her heart breaks for him. "Never fall for a straight boy," he says, covering his face and crying on-camera.

She texts him as soon as she's done watching the video: Are you okay?

oh, you saw the vlog, Eric replies. i'm fine. i've been here before.

Do you want to talk about it?

Lizzie's phone rings. When she picks up, Eric says, "It's really nice being friends with you. Like, you're one of my followers, but also we've met and we're actually friends and I follow your vlog too, so we're kind of on equal footing. I think you're the only person I actually consider a friend who isn't affiliated with the Samwell Men's Hockey team, actually. Which might mean that you're the only person I can talk to about this."

"Oh, is your crush on a teammate?" Lizzie asks, a little surprised.

"It's Jack," Eric replies. "I was teaching him how to bake yesterday, and he's just so charming and kind and impressive and—ugh, just, everything I want in a boyfriend, you know?"

"Yeah, that makes sense. That's kind of how I felt when I met George, but you actually know Jack, so he's unlikely to turn out to be a slimeball."

"George turned out to be a slimeball?" Eric asks. "When did that happen? Did I miss a video?"

"Oh, oops," says Lizzie, a little embarrassed. "That was in the part of Darcy's letter that I didn't talk about on-screen. I need you to keep it a secret, okay?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Eric agrees. "Can you tell me what he did?"

"Not really." Lizzie sighs. "But if Darcy's telling the truth, and I think he is, George is definitely not a good person."

"Noted," says Eric.

"Anyway, sorry to derail the conversation," says Lizzie. "Do you want to say more about Jack?"

"Can I, actually? I literally can't talk to anyone else about this. I mean, I guess I could, but that would be a good way to make things really awkward really quickly."

"Yeah, for sure, go ahead," says Lizzie.

"I think my favorite thing about Jack—actually, no, I can't pick one favorite thing about Jack. But something I really love is the way he's willing to do just about anything to help a teammate or a friend. He's gotten up at four a.m. with me twice a week most of this semester to help me with checking. And we have this class together and he's such a good student, oh my Lord. I could never focus the way he does. And somehow he always gets all the readings done, even though he's trying to figure out an NHL team to play for and captain the team and pass his other classes and everything. And he's such a good captain. He's so good at motivating all of us, and he plays amazing hockey, obviously, and he always spots exactly what each of us needs to work on in order to improve. And I know it's shallow, but he's also so handsome. I mean, obviously there's his ass, but I also love his eyes and his cheekbones and his arms and just—everything."

"You sound pretty far gone," Lizzie comments.

"Ugh, don't remind me," groans Eric. "He's straight and I don't have a chance but he's just so great and I can't help wanting, you know?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," says Lizzie. Then Jane walks into the room, and Lizzie says, "Sorry, Jane's here, so I should probably go. It was nice to talk to you!"

"Nice to talk to you, too!" Eric replies, and the line goes dead.

OoOoO

It's not even Christmas, let alone New Year's Eve, but Eric is already prepared to declare the holidays a letdown. He's been texting the SMH group chat, of course, but there's only so much solace to be had there. Most people seem to be having an amazing time with their families, and, while Shitty hates his father, he doesn't seem to have any shame or confusion mixed up with that hatred. Eric, on the other hand, doesn't hate his parents. He still thinks his mother might be his best friend, though it's getting harder to convince himself to apply that label to someone he doesn't think he can come out to. He just doesn't know how to be the person his parents expect him to be, or even the person they think he currently is.

Also, he'd started considering himself pretty close with Jack, and in a different world maybe he'd be calling Jack about how hard it is to be in Georgia, but now he has no idea how to talk to Jack post-Epikegster. He can't be sure he remembers everything correctly, given the amount of tub juice he drank that night, but he thinks he heard Jack and Kent having an argument and Kent saying he missed Jack. And, combined with what Ransom and Holster said about fanfiction and rumors, he has to wonder if there were . . . undercurrents to what Kent said. If indeed Eric remembers what he heard correctly at all. And if there were undercurrents . . . if Jack isn't straight . . .

And then there's the fact that Shitty said Jack treated Kent the way he used to treat Eric, along with that use of the word jealous. (Again, this is assuming Eric's drunk memories are correct.) Eric's pretty sure that Shitty just meant Jack wanted to achieve the hockey accomplishments that Kent had already achieved before the first time he visited Samwell, but if Jack used to treat Eric the way he also treated his ex, does that mean something? Surely it can't. Can it?

When Eric sees Lizzie's latest video, and then Lydia's related "Dear Lizzie" post, he decides to shoot Lizzie a text: saw your video. it looks like things suck. :( why do we even have holidays in the first place?

They give us something to look forward to.

yeah, and then they don't live up to our expectations, and it's worse than if we'd never had anything to look forward to at all.

Honestly, you're right. We should do away with holidays. Also families, while we're at it.

oh my lord, yes. (don't tell my mother i said that.)

Eric is a little surprised when his phone rings a few seconds after sending the text. "Hey," he says when he picks up.

"Hi," says Lizzie. "What's up with your family?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," says Eric. "Lamenting that I don't have a girlfriend, homophobic jokes about people on the news, that sort of thing. And that's just my parents. I'm dreading seeing my Moomaw now that I've realized how racist she is. I didn't even notice a lot of this stuff before I went to college, and I didn't think most of the rest of it was bad, even the stuff that hurt me. I just thought everyone else was right and, if I disagreed, then I was wrong. I wouldn't trade my college experience for the world, of course, and I'm grateful to the guys for showing me how unconditional love is supposed to work, but that just makes me realize how much I don't have that here, with my family. And the hardest part is that I do still love them, and I want them to love me and even love my friends, you know? I want the people I love to be people I'm proud of, and I want them to be people who would treat my friends well, and I don't think that's how things are right now."

"Yeah, that's hard," Lizzie says. "Families are hard to love sometimes."

"Yeah, that video Lydia made was pretty harsh," Eric agrees.

"Right?!" says Lizzie. "I can't believe Jane thinks I need to apologize to Lydia."

"Can't you?" Eric asks, wondering how thin the ice is under him and whether it'll crack. "You did give her unsolicited advice as a birthday present on camera."

"Given the birthweek she put me through, I think the advice was well warranted," Lizzie retorts.

"I'm not saying she didn't need to hear it," Eric contends. "But I'm wondering if that was the best way for her to hear it. On camera. As a present."

"If I'd wanted the hard questions, I would have called Charlotte," Lizzie grumbles. "Can you just distract me? Talk about Jack or something? Or—didn't you say in your latest vlog that you overheard something that you weren't supposed to overhear?"

"I did," Eric says, "and it has to do with Jack. But I can't tell you any more than that."

Lizzie's quiet for a moment. "I want to ask for details," she says eventually, "but I didn't give you any about George Wickham and you didn't press me on that, so I won't."

"Thanks," says Eric.

A voice calls up the stairs, "Eric!" It's his mother. She probably wants his help with some baking for the holidays.

Eric covers the bottom half of his phone with his hand and calls back, "One minute, Mama!" Then he uncovers that half of the phone and says, "Sorry, my mother's calling me. Mind if I go?"

"Sure," says Lizzie. "Thanks for talking. I always feel better when I talk to you."

"The feeling is mutual," says Eric, and then he hangs up.