A/N: I still don't own Pride and Prejudice. But I do appreciate all the reviews I've been getting. They're great and they really do encourage me to write more and to update more quickly. If I know that someone actually is waiting to read this, then I'm more motivated.
Also I'm currently developing possible modernizations of Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility. If you would be interested in reading them, please let me know.
This chapter is a little special in that this is the first time you will ever really see Lizzie in her classroom; I think that's kind of cool because all along you've known that she's a high school teacher but you've never seen her in that environment. And I will translate all of the Spanish at the end.
Chapter Thirteen: Times Like These
Lizzie's POV
It was the middle of May and we only had three weeks left in school. The seniors only had week left and they wouldn't stop reminding the underclassmen of that fact. My third hour Spanish IV class was the absolute worst. There was one sophomore in the class, ten juniors, and eight seniors. My seniors were awful to that poor sophomore. "You know what, Eduardo," Kevin Riggs said to him one Wednesday morning. "You're going to be stuck in high school for another two years and I never have to go to school again."
"And yet you're going to be in college for four more years," Eduardo replied.
"Yeah, but I chose that," Kevin retorted quickly.
I sighed. "Silencio, clase, si pudieron hablar en español, sería muy alegre. Sí, es el fin del semestre, pero necesito su atención para el resto del semestre. No tengo paciencia para una clase ridícula hoy." [Silence, class, if you spoke in Spanish, I would be very happy. Yes, it's the end of the semester, but I need your attention of the rest of the semester. I don't have patience for a ridiculous class today.
"Pero Señorita Bennett," another senior, Meghan Moore, protested. "It's the end of our senior year. Can't you go easy on us?"
"En español, por favor; necesitas hablar en español en mi clase. Están en su cuatro año de español y si no pueden hablar en español, no deben estar en mi cuarto. Ahora, Señorita Moore, ¿puedes repetirme en español?" [In Spanish, please; you need to speak in Spanish in my class. You are in your fourth year of Spanish and if you can't speak in Spanish, you shouldn't be in my room. Now, Miss Moore, can you repeat that for me in Spanish."
"Si es necesario. Es el fin de nuestro último año de la escuela secundaria. ¿Puede hacer la clase mas fácil?" [If it's necessary, it's the end of our last year of high school. Can't you make the class easier?
"Puedo, pero no creo que quieren tomar Español I otro tiempo." [I could, but I don't think you want to take Spanish I again.
I knew I was frustrating my students but I'd hit that amazing point where I just didn't care anymore. They were looking forward to summer but so was I. I was really excited about Char's wedding in August and Becca's wedding in September. Char was coming home for Memorial Day weekend and I was excited to look at dresses with her. She was going to show me her wedding dress while she was home. I couldn't believe she was finally going to marry Ethan; they'd been together for ages. Ethan's my cousin and I've known him since I was born, but I'm not very close to him. When he was five, his parents divorced and he moved to Chicago with his dad. But then when he was fourteen, he moved back to Meryton to live with his mom. He's a lot more like his dad than he is like his mom. And he's going to inherit the Longbourn from my dad when my dad retires or dies, which ever happens first.
"Senorita Bennett," Lucy August spoke up. "Queremos hacer algo interesente o divertido. No nos gustan tarea y ejercicios del libro. Queremos relajar y divertirnos." [Miss Bennett, we want to do something interesting or fun. We don't like homework and book exercises. We want to relax and have fun.
"Queremos tener una fiesta," came from Meghan Moore. [We want to have a party.
And I sighed. The only "fiesta" they could really have was if they did another food project for me. But it was so close to the end of the year and we'd really moved past food vocabulary and restaurant dialogue. "¿Pero por que tenemos una fiesta?" [But why would we have a party?
They looked at me and shrugged. "Porque es el fin del semestre," Elijah, a junior offered. "Podremos tener una fiesta para el fin del año. Podré ser el día final para Meghan, Teresa, Kaitlyn, Alex, Mike, y Chris." [Because it's the end of the semestre. We can have a party for the end of the year. It will be the last day for Meghan, Teresa, Kaitlyn, Alex, Mike, and Chris.
"¿Y yo?" Kevin asked. [And me?
"No es para tu," I told him. "A Elijah no le gustas." [No, it's not for you. Elijah doesn't like you.
As Kevin sighed, Elijah repeated his earlier question. "¿Puedes tener una fiesta? Por favor?" [Can we have a party? Please?
"Es posible," I consented. "Me dices mas, por favor." [It's possible. Tell me more, please.
By the end of the day, I was exhausted. I needed it to be Friday. Actually I needed it to be summer so I could be in Chicago with my aunt and uncle. I just needed to get away from my family. I had Lydia in my fifth hour class and Katie in my sixth hour class. And there really is such a thing as too much of my sisters. They're both still madly in love with Damien Wickham and now Lydia is going on vacation to Fiji with the Forrester family and Damien Wickham will also be there. Katie was ridiculously jealous, and Lydia was lording it over her at every possible moment. They'd passed each other for two seconds when Lydia was leaving my classroom while Katie was entering and Lydia had managed to upset her in those two seconds. I was sick of it. I'd told my parents not to let Lydia go, but my parents insisted that since it was a free vacation, it was fine with them. I knew my little sister was going to find some way to screw up something through this trip, but my parents weren't listening to me. My mother was thrilled that one of her daughters was going to Fiji. My father just wanted to get Lydia out of his hair for the summer.
At the end of the day I had both of my little sisters in my classroom bickering. It was at moments like this that I really wished my parents had stopped having kids after Mary was born. Not that Mary was much better than these two, but I could put up with her more than I could handle the two of them at this point. I was really ready to just get out a shotgun and start firing at them. I really didn't think it was appropriate to take two seventeen-year-old girls to Fiji, especially two irresponsible girls who didn't have a lick of sense between them. But Mr. Forrester was offering to take them and pay for everything, so my parents were letting Lydia go.
"Lizzie, you've got to understand that it's just not fair," Katie whined. "I've always wanted to go to Fiji. At least I know where Fiji is; I bet Lydia doesn't even know where Fiji is."
"I do too!" Lydia protested. "It's right next to Mongolia."
"And where is Mongolia?" I asked.
"It's in Africa!"
I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Katie, do you know where Fiji is?"
"It's an island in the South Pacific and it's sort of near Australia."
"That's close enough," I sighed. "Are you two ready to go home now? Or do you have another debate I need to arbitrate before we leave?"
"She stole my skirt," Lydia said quickly pointing at Katie.
"Which skirt?" I asked. I swear these two were going to kill me before my time and I was way too young to die.
"My black leather skirt," my youngest sister whined. "I was going to wear it to Kristi's party this weekend but now Katie has it so I can't wear it and I look so hot in it and Kristi said that Nick might come to the party."
I sighed as Katie said, "But I don't have her skirt. I have my own black leather skirt so there's no reason why I would bother stealing hers. She probably just lost it someplace and doesn't remember where so she's blaming me."
"No I didn't!" Lydia shot back immediately and I sighed. It was on days like this that I wished I had accepted Will Darcy when he asked me out. If I had started dating him, maybe I would have learned the truth about Damien and I could have learned to like and respect Will. Then I could have married him and escaped from my family. If there was anything Will was right about, it was that my family was ridiculous. Jane was wonderful and lovable, but the rest of them were so screwed up. Char was escaping Meryton and I was jealous. I didn't want to move to New York City and I definitely didn't want to marry Ethan Collins; even if he wasn't my cousin I wouldn't have wanted to marry him.
Saturday, I had a dress fitting for Becca Gilbert's wedding. Becca was going to have five bridesmaids, Hannah King, Jenny Putnam, her two sisters, and me. Steve's groomsmen were Becca's brother, his three younger brothers, and his best friend, Adam Caldwell. Then they were also having Becca's niece and nephew be the flower girl and ring bearer. All in all, it was going to be a good-sized wedding party. Thankfully, Becca's wedding colors looked good on everyone in the wedding party. She'd picked black and dark green as her wedding colors. We were all wearing black knee-length dresses with green sashes. Her dress was white with a green sash. The guys were wearing black suits with white shirts and green vests and ties except for Steve. Steve was going to wear a black suit with a black shirt and a green vest and tie; he was also wearing green suspenders. The suspenders were his idea and he was really excited about it. It was at moments like this that I knew he was insane and he was perfect for Becca.
The following weekend I had dress fittings for Char's wedding and I had a feeling that it wouldn't be as fun as Becca's dress fittings. For one thing, Char's sisters are not nearly as much fun as Becca, Hannah, Jenny, Ava, and Sarah. Becca has one older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother and all the Gilbert kids are insane. The guys were dealing with their tuxes while we were getting fitted for dresses and then after our fittings we all went out for lunch together and then we were talking about who was walking down the aisle with whom. The Logans are a tall family and the Gilberts have a fair bit of height themselves. Steve is the tallest Logan, but his three younger brothers aren't short. Steve is 6'5", Josh is 6'3", Nick is 6'4", and Jack is 6'2"; the height order is almost the age order, except that Nick is taller than Josh, but Josh is older. (Steve's 25, Josh is 21, Nick is 18, and Jack is 16.) Noah Gilbert is 6'2" and Adam Caldwell is 6'1"; there are no short guys in this wedding.
And then there are the girls. Jenny is 5'9" and she's pretty much the tallest girl in the wedding. Hannah and Sarah are 5'3", Becca is 5'6', Ava is 5'4", and I'm 5'5". So we're all short and we're all wearing heels in this wedding. As maid of honor, my escort down the aisle is predetermined, but the rest of the wedding party needed to figure out who they were walking down the aisle with. We ended up deciding that Jenny and Nick would walk down the aisle together. That put Ava with Josh, Sarah with Jack, and Hannah with Josh.
Planning weddings is so much fun. Okay, I think the group of people I was with made it fun. The Logan brothers pick on each other so much; you wouldn't believe the things they say to each other and get away with it. Steve flat out said to his brother, "Nick, just listen to me. I'm completely serious with you; girls may think you're hot but they're just dumb high school girls. You're nothing special; you're just like the rest of the guys in this family."
Now that might sound mean, but you have to realize that all of the Logan boys are gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Pretty much every girl I know who has ever met a Logan boy has fallen in love with him on sight. They're tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and olive-skinned; they're half-Irish, half-Italian and they look it. My younger sisters both think that Nick Logan is the hottest guy on earth. He's seven years younger than me and one of my students. When I was in high school, I really wanted to date Steve but he wasn't really into girls at that point in time. On the positive side, Steve and I did go to our senior prom together. But that was mostly because no one wanted to ask me out and Steve was too scared to ask anyone out so one night while discussing this, we somehow decided to just make our lives easier and went together.
Nick looked at Steve and shook his head. "You know some people might actually think that you hate me."
His brother smiled at him. "Nah, who would ever think I hated you? Besides, how could I ever hate you? You're like the miniature version of me."
Spending time with the Logan brothers made me wish I had some brothers of my own. I was seriously lacking in good guys in my life. I had Steve, Mark Lucas, and that pretty much felt like that was it. I had plenty of boys who weren't extraordinary like Ethan and Damien, but I needed some more guys like Steve and his brothers in my life. Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to push Will out of my life.
Will's POV
May and June were peaceful months. I didn't do any traveling except for a week in South Carolina checking out the location for the newest branch of Pemberley Resorts and Spas. But other than that, I did plenty of lawyerly work and spent time with my two favorite women, Gianna and Emily. Emily was growing daily and she was the world's cutest baby. I loved my little niece. We had her baptized at the beginning of May and Evelyn and I were her godparents. At the beginning of June, Evelyn gave birth to her first daughter; she had brown hair and bright blue eyes and they named her Caitlin Maire. She was wonderfully cute and her older brothers adored her.
Evelyn is from a very Irish family and so she wanted to name all her children Irish names. Her maiden name was Connor and her oldest brother's name was Logan Seamus, so she named her son after her brother. Connor's middle name was Patrick, which is her second oldest brother's name. Caitlin Maire is her younger sister's name. Basically, Evelyn is really into family names.
The last Saturday in June I ended up babysitting Logan, Connor, Caitlin, and Emily for seven hours and it was the experience of a lifetime. It was pretty much amazing and horrifying at the same time. It was the first time Evelyn had ever left Caitlin alone and I was a little worried about Caitlin. Evelyn would be fine; this was her third child and she'd gradually gotten used to the idea of leaving her babies with me, but the first time away from the mother is always hard for an infant.
I was also not looking forward about the fact that there were two young babies in the house. I was afraid that they were both going to be hungry at the same time or need a diaper change or something. Basically, I was a little nervous about this. I knew Logan and Connor would be pretty good for me, but I was still concerned about the babies. I'd never taken care of two young babies at the same time before. This was going to be an adventure.
Two hours later, I had to admit that things were not nearly as bad as they could have been. Caitlin was sleeping and Emily was just lying in her playpen staring at a mobile. Logan and Connor were watching Thomas the Tank Engine again; those two really loved that train. They were so cute and it was so peaceful. I really loved Logan, Connor, and Caitlin; and, of course, Emily was the princess in my world. I realized that in comparison with most of my friends, I was leading a pretty lame life. Rick was out having dinner with his wife. Jon was probably spending the evening with his wife, Jessica, and their new baby, Jackson. Greg was in Columbus celebrating Melissa's younger sister's birthday. Jake was in Cairo on business. Charlie was in Meryton on business and while Meryton wasn't as exotic as Cairo, it also wasn't watching Thomas the Tank Engine with two boys under the age of five.
But I was taking July off from business trips and going to the Virginia Pemberley with Gianna and Emily. We were going to be there for four weeks. Charlie and Caroline were going to be there for part of time, which would be interesting. I enjoyed spending time with Charlie and it would be nice to have two solid weeks of him with no distractions. But Caroline never fails to drive me nuts. She is convinced that we were meant for each other, that we must marry each other and have babies together. Never mind that I hate her like she was the plague and wish she would just go back to whatever rock she had crawled out from under. Basically, I wanted her to leave me alone. Unfortunately for me, Caroline could not take a hint.
The next day, I was having brunch with Charlie, Caroline, Gianna, and Emily when Caroline started telling me about the new bikini she bought especially for the upcoming trip. "And I had to have it sent from Italy but it's all right. It's worth paying a little bit more money to have the right name on you. I mean, which would you rather wear? I'm sure you'd be much happier wearing an Armani suit than you would be in some suit you picked up off the rack at Macy's. First you have to have something quality and then there's just something great about knowing that you're wearing Carolina Herrera or Giorgio Armani; there's something just so special about those names. Do you remember Lizzie Bennett? I bet she buys all her clothes off the rack at the mall. Being poor must suck!"
"Can we cut up your credit cards so you can try it?" Gianna snapped.
"Don't be ridiculous, Georgie. I couldn't live without my credit cards. That would be like removing life support from some poor vegetable person someplace. That's just cruel. You wouldn't stop feeding your little baby over there. So why would you want to take my credit cards away? They are how I survive."
Caroline was pretty much just a socialite dependent on a trust fund her grandfather had set up for her shortly before his death three years ago. She had a title and an office in the headquarters of Bingley Publishing in downtown Chicago, but I've spent more time in that office than she has in the past five years and I've only been in there two or three times. Basically, she gets paid because she reads the books that Bingley Publishing publishes, and I'm not actually sure she really does that. She probably has somebody else read them and then they tell her what they say.
"You live off your credit cards?" my sister said. "That is just plain pathetic. Why not work for your money? That's what my brother and your brother do. That's what I'm doing. Try it; a lot of people in this world have to work for a living. I'd bet money that this Lizzie Bennett has to work for a living and can't afford to have clothes shipped to her from Milan. And sometimes it's easier to just be able to run over to a nearby store and pick up whatever you need."
"I know I do that all the time," I said.
"Yes, and you really should look into hiring a personal shopper," the rich elitist in residence told me. "I know I don't know what I'd do without Cherie. She's such a gem. For example, the other day she found this amazing little black dress by Oscar de la Renta and she made sure I got it. And she's come through with things like that for me a million times. Also, Bloomie's in New York always has a personal shopper available for me whenever I'm in there. Really though, Willie, I think that you could really go places if you would just put a little more effort into your wardrobe."
"My name isn't Willie," I said firmly. "My name is 'Will' or 'William', but never 'Willie.' How would you like it if I started calling you 'Carrie' all the time?" She hated the name "Carrie" for some reason and you always had to call her "Caroline." Also, never sing the song "Sweet Caroline" to her; she hates it. So I plan on doing it at least once when she's visiting us in Virginia.
"Whatever, the thing is that you need a personal shopper. Where do you buy your clothes anyway?"
"What does it matter to you? They're my clothes and I'm the one who has to wear them."
"Because I'm going to have to live with your cheapskate wardrobe when we get married," she snapped. "God, Willie, you are so dense. We are going to get married someday; it's destiny. And when we get married, I'm going to get Vera Wang to design my wedding dress and you're going to wear an Armani suit."
We were sitting in the dining room at my house. I slammed my knife down on the table and sighed. "Look, Caroline; we are NOT going to get married-EVER! I do not love you and I have absolutely no desire to ever marry someone like you. You're a gold-digger and self-centered. You never think about anyone except yourself. And you're not important enough that Vera Wang would design you a dress for free. You'd have to pay through the nose. Do you really want to spend $10,000 on a wedding dress? That's just stupid. It's a dress, not a down payment on a house. People in third-world countries make less than that in a lifetime."
"You're so stupid, Will. We were meant to be together. I don't know how you can't see it. Come on, Charlie. We're leaving now."
Unfortunately, Charlie didn't want to leave so Caroline had to sit there and suffer while we quickly finished brunch and then she was allowed to flee my "stupid" presence.
A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long to update. Please review and I hope you guys enjoy it.