A/N: I don't own Pride and Prejudice but I do appreciate my reviewers. And I really hope you guys like the new chapter.

Chapter 3: So Far, So Bad

Lizzie's POV

Jane is so lucky she had an excuse to miss our family's Saturday night dinner. I was helping Mom in the kitchen when Mary started yelling at Lydia and Katie about dressing like "hoochie mamas." Lydia and Katie were planning to go to a party after dinner and they were scantily clad. I didn't care what my sisters wore; I wasn't their mother. But Mary seemed convinced that it was her purpose in life was to reform Lydia and Katie and prepare them for the life they would live in the convent with the twelve-foot-wall she would be sending them off to shortly.

Lydia walked into the kitchen and grabbed me just as I was dipping raspberries in chocolate. As she wrapped her arms around my neck, I dropped four raspberries into the dipping chocolate. As I yelped, she said, "Lizzie, bean, I'm so pleased you're here. It's an absolute privilege to have you here."

I looked at Mom and Lydia. "What the heck is going on here?"

"I'm in my British phase right now," Lydia announced in a horrible fake British accent. "I watched this lovely picture about life across the puddle and it inspired me to start getting in touch with my inner Brit."

Lydia is constantly reinventing herself. It's always to impress someone although exactly who she wants to impress really depends on the situation. Some days it's people at school, other days it's some boy, and other days, I think it's just the world in general. Lydia is very superficial and consumed with what other people think of her. Right now I was pretty sure she was trying to impress the new transfer student. She's listened to my mother rant and rave about how we Bennett girls need to marry rich successful men who can assure our place in the world.

I patted Lydia on the head and smiled. "I think you mean 'across the pond.''

"That's an Americanism," she replied haughtily. "In my country, we speak of the Atlantic as a puddle. After all, it's a mere drop in the bucket when you compare it with the mighty Artic Ocean."

"Lydia, dear, the Artic Ocean is considerably smaller than the Pacific Ocean," my mother said slowly.

"Then which ocean is bigger than the Atlantic Ocean?"

"That would be the Pacific Ocean, sweetie."

She looked really distressed as she looked at Mom and me. "But I thought that was the smallest ocean."

"No, the Pacific Ocean is between California and Japan," I told her.

"Isn't Japan in Africa?"

I sighed as I took six plates out of the cupboard. "I'm going to set the table. I'll leave you two to figure out geography."

"I think I'll just send her to your father's study and have her study the globe for a while," Mom said as I headed into the dining room.

My dad was sitting in the living room watching the evening news and reading the newspaper. He looked up when I stuck my head through the door. "Oh, hello, Lizzie-belle, where's Mary?"

"She's off chasing Katie around and calling her a whore," I replied.

He raised his bushy eyebrows. "Oh, now that's just wonderful. So where's my Janie Mae?"

"She has a date with that Charlie Bingley from last night," I told him as I started setting the table.

He nodded and smiled. "I met him when he first bought the Netherfield in September; he seemed like a good sort of young man. Did they meet at the party?"

I nodded. "They danced together most of the night."

"Janie deserves a good man," he said with a sigh. "She's had a few too many run-ins with the wrong sort of boys. I didn't like that last boy she was seeing; he just had no respect for anyone."

I nodded. "We'll see how this thing with this Charlie Bingley goes. He seems a decent fellow."

My father smiled. "Lizzie-belle, someday you're going to have to accept that there are good men out there and let one into your heart."

I scowled at him. "Dad, I'm not some sort of man-hating feminist. I've just had a couple bad experiences, but I've moved on with my life. I just don't love everyone immediately like Jane does."

"But you also rely very much on your first impressions of people, and that's not always the best idea. Some perfectly wonderful people make horrible first impressions."

Thinking of William Darcy's behavior the night before, I demanded, "Name one."

"William Lucas," he replied referring to Charlotte's father and his best friend. "The first time I met Bill he was twenty-seven and seemed like a fish out of water. He didn't talk very much and he acted like everyone who talked to him was a problem. But later I learned he was just really uncomfortable meeting new people. Not everyone is as outgoing as you are, Lizzie."

I sighed. My dad was always reminding me that not everyone was like me. I knew he was right, but I figured that other people needed to accept me the way I am. I don't plan on changing just to satisfy other people. I'm very outgoing and I don't get why other people have to be shy. I'm perfectly fine talking to anyone. Once when I was four I got lost in the supermarket and I just spent the whole time following a grandmotherly looking woman around the store babbling to her about my life with my big sister, Janie, and my new baby sister, Mary. She helped me find my mother who had been frantically searching for me the whole time I was missing. I just figured my mom wouldn't leave without me, so I'd be fine. My mother was heartbroken that her beloved daughter hadn't really missed her.

Dinner was one of those family dinners where no one really wants to be there but everyone is there because they think that someone else wants them to be there. Mom held biweekly family dinners to make sure that she saw all her children on regular basis, but no one else really derived much pleasure from these events. Lydia very vocally opposed the events because, being that they were mandatory, they cut into her social calendar. Katie hated the events because Lydia told her to hate them. Mary disliked them because she disliked spending time around Katie and Lydia. I enjoyed spending time with my dad, but I didn't really enjoy the dinner table conversation. That night the conversation included sixteen-year-old Lydia's announcement of her plans to pierce her nose, tongue, and lip on her eighteenth birthday.

"Lydia, might I remind you that your eighteenth birthday is still a year and a half away?" my mother said.

"Yeah, but that's okay. I can totally make plans now. I mean Mary started college when she was seventeen and I'm only a year under that."

"While that is true," my father began. "You will not be starting college until you are eighteen. Furthermore, you will not be acquiring any more piercings until you have graduated from high school."

"Oh, Daddy, you're so quaint," Lydia sighed. "Seriously, no one cares about that stuff anymore. Aunt Grace is letting Jenna get her Marilyn pierced and Jenna is a whole year and a half younger than me."

"Yes, and that's fine for Aunt Grace. But I am not Aunt Grace and I will not be having my sixteen-year-old daughter get all pierced up just to impress other people."

"Oh, but Chris," my mother protested. "If Grace let Jenna do it, maybe it's not so bad."

"No, Marybeth," Dad replied firmly. "Grace can do what she likes, but we will keep to our rules."

"Also," I inserted. "Jenna goes to Meryton High School, which allows their students to have whatever piercings they like, but that's not true at Lakeview. At Lakeview, students are only allowed two ear piercings and after that, no more piercings. If Lydia were to pierce her nose, tongue, or lip while at Lakeview, she would be suspended."

"Oh, Liz, you're so lame," Lydia moaned. "Do you think anyone actually follows those stupid rules?"

"Lydia, I happen to know that Mira Albertson was suspended for her piercings last spring, so don't go around saying that no one follows the rules anymore."

Lydia rolled her eyes at me. "Well, Headmaster Mueller would never dare suspend me. I'm Miss Bennett's little sister."

"Nepotism is not going to protect you here," my father cautioned her.

"I don't have nepotism!" my youngest sister yelped. "That's a dreadful disease to contract and I'd never put myself in a situation to contract it."

"Nepotism is, literally, the love of nephews," Mary said pompously.

"Well, I don't have any nephews, so I can't have nepotism."

"It can also refer to gaining things just by being related to someone. It doesn't necessarily have to involve nephews," Dad explained slowly.

"Well, they should give me special privileges for being Lizzie's sister. It totally sucks having your older sister work at your school; teachers actually expect you to do your homework."

"Your father also expects you to do your homework."

"Which is also stupid," Lydia snorted. "People think that just because Mary was a bookworm, and Lizzie and Jane are dorks, I'm smart and I might actually like school. That's just retarded. I'm just not cut out for school; I'm more of a social animal."

The rest of dinner went pretty much the same way as that one conversation. At one point, Mary tried to start a conversation about the differences between Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, but Lydia immediately cut her off to discuss the current trends in skirts. "The miniskirt seems to be making a real comeback," she said although I wasn't aware that the miniskirt had ever really gone out of fashion.

"It's coming in so many more fabrics this season," Katie added. "Yesterday I bought three miniskirts and none of them looked like the other one. One was plaid, one was denim, and the other one was red leather."

"And they're all the absolute latest rage," Lydia added. "Of course, I bought five because I needed to have red leather and black leather as well as something green. Jenna and I read in Cosmo that green is this season's pink."

"Well, if that's true then I really need to update my wardrobe," Mrs. Bennett announced.

"Yes, you should, Mother dearest. And Lizzie, dear, it wouldn't hurt you to update your wardrobe a bit. Buying a miniskirt or two wouldn't be the worst thing on earth, now would it?"

"And where would I wear a miniskirt?" I asked.

"You could wear it to work! I bet Mr. Jacobs would think you were so totally hot."

I stared at my sister, trying to figure out if she had recently had a stroke or something. "Lydia, I do not wear miniskirts for one thing. Secondly, Headmaster Mueller would fire me if I wore a miniskirt to work. And thirdly, Mr. Jacobs and I are not going to start dating-ever. He's not my type."

"Headmaster Mueller needs to get that stick out of his ass," was Lydia's response.

After dinner, I helped Mom with the dishes and then I headed to the study to talk to my dad. Lydia and Katie had left for their party right after dinner and Mary was locked up in her old bedroom reading a book. That was Mary for you; she didn't even like sitting around talking with Mom and Dad or with Jane or I. Mary was a true loner. She was working for my dad these days, helping out at the front desk, but the other employees were starting to complain about her and Dad was starting to consider moving her to a position where she didn't have to deal with other people.

"Mary would make a great hermit," my dad said as I sat down on the sofa.

"Father!" I protested. "She is your daughter."

"She is, but I don't know what's wrong with her. She loves being alone. She ignores customers at the front desk for her silly books. Your books are silly and neither are Jane's, but her books are ridiculous. It's like she doesn't care a bit about the way your mother and I raised her. She runs around quoting Nietzsche who said, 'God is dead.' Well, Lizzie-belle, your mother and I raised our girls to believe in God. While I want you lasses to make your own decisions, I don't want you to forget the way you were raised."

I walked over to him and kissed his cheek. "Oh, Daddy, I'm not going to forget the way I was raised. Lydia and Katie might and maybe Mary has, but I promise you that I won't."

He squeezed my hand. "Have a lovely night, my girl. I know I'm an old-fashioned man, but I love my girls and I want you to be happy."

Darcy's POV

"I'm fit as a fiddle and ready for love," Charlie sang as he danced into my room the next morning.

"I take it your date went well," I said looking up from the Wall Street Journal.

He smiled at me. "Will, I'm as free as a schoolboy. Jane is wonderful. We talked and talked until the restaurant closed. And then we went to her condo and talked until three in the morning. The only reason we stopped then was because her sister came downstairs and told us to shut up so I left. Then I came back here and went to sleep."

I looked at the clock on my bedside table. "Charles Winston, you are aware that it is 8am in the morning. How much sleep have you gotten?"

He shrugged. "Probably about four or four and a half, I'm not sure."

I smiled at him. "So do you have another date coming up soon?"

"Yeah, we're going out again on Friday. Also, she invited me to bring you and my sisters over to her condo on Saturday for dinner and a movie."

"Are her sisters going to be there?"

He smiled. "She said Lizzie would probably be there, but she wasn't sure about Mary. Apparently, Mary isn't very good at socializing."

"I noticed that the other night."

"But don't worry, Will; she promised that Lizzie would be there, and I know you want to see her." He smiled at me. "I know you're not interested in my sister and I must admit that maybe Caroline isn't the girl for you."

"Charlie, it's not that she might not be the girl for me; it's that she is most definitely not the girl for me. We may have both grown up in Chicago's high society and we may both be members of extremely wealthy families. Yes we both went to the finest schools money could afford, but we're not the same sort of people. We have different personalities and it just wouldn't work."

"Suit yourself," he replied. "I'm off to have breakfast with my sisters. Would you like to join us? We're going to this little breakfast joint that Jane recommended. She said they have a really great brunch menu and it opens around 10am. You really should come with us."

"I'm not really sure," I replied.

"Jane said she and Lizzie would be stopping there after church this morning."

"Doesn't their father's hotel have a restaurant? Why wouldn't they just go there?" Then I looked at his smiling face. "Charlie, are we going to the restaurant at the Longbourn?"

He nodded and grinned. "I met Mr. Bennett once earlier in the fall and he told me that he would be willing to give me any advice I wanted about running a hotel up here."

"Why would he do that? Once you reopen Netherfield, you'll be the competition."

"Yes, but Mr. Bennett doesn't like all these chain hotels coming in with their rewards clubs and VIP groups. The locally owned resorts do better if their owners band together."

I nodded, but then something occurred to me. "Didn't the guy you bought this place from own a bunch of hotels?"

"Yeah, but he was based out of Meryton; the Netherfield was his biggest success. It was the last hotel that he sold; it was his darling. It was where he lived with his family. He named the ballrooms after his daughters and he planned for his son to inherit the hotel business after he died or when he was ready to retire."

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure. Jane said Lizzie knows the story and I should ask her."

A/N: I think this is a good place to end the chapter. Please keep giving me feedback. I really appreciate it.