Sorry I haven't updated this since late January. I've been fresh out of ideas, but I think I'm over writer's block and will try to update my fanfics more often. All credit goes to Heather Vogel Frederick for the MDBC and the characters.

The Road Trip's Only Beginning

Darcy's POV

I wake up to Jess shaking me awake. She's wearing a faded and pink but still oversized Pies and Prejudice shirt and a pair of pajama pants with Mickey Mouse ears on them, and her thick, dirty blonde hair is in a disheveled braid, but she looks beautiful. I've missed seeing her face every day.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty." Jess says quietly, grinning as widely as I am.

"Excuse me, don't you mean Princess Ariel?" I joke back. As long as everybody's going to make fun of me for that, I might as well play along and laugh with them.

"Sure thing, Princess Ariel." She says, flicking a glance at me and probably at the mess of brown curls on my head commonly known as bedhead. "It's seven A.M., otherwise known as time to get up because we're going on a road trip to Concord and want to beat the snow."

She smiles and walks away from the couch, grabbing an outfit to change into, then locks herself in the bathroom. Meanwhile, I grab a clean button-down shirt and some blue jeans to wear when Jess gets out of the bathroom and look for my comb. If Jess had rejected me at Juilliard, I planned to meet up with Kyle, who attends a nearby college. Luckily, I remembered to pack a bag, because I'll need it for the road trip.

Jess opens the bathroom door and says, "Here, we should get ready together to save time. We have to leave quickly if we want to avoid bad traffic."

She leaves quickly as I change. Like clockwork, I open the door for her and we brush our teeth together.

"Hey, we should hurry. I woke up later than I thought I would. Shoot, it's already seven thirty. Do you think we should've gotten up earlier?" Jess asks, and I can see her cheeks are red and flustered. She always needs to be punctual. If she was a fictional character she'd be Hermoine Granger for her good-girl personality and general work ethic (minus the wizard part, of course). Would that make me her Ron?

"Yeah, this isn't the right time at all to get ready." I reply, completely serious.

"Really?! Oh, goodness, we're going to get bad weather traffic. Great. When should we be doing this?"

"Ten years in the future when we're married." I laugh softly, but I'm still serious. "I love you!"

Jess laughs and takes a deep, relaxing breath. "If you insist, sure, Darce. In ten years. As of now, I'm still a Delaney, and we need to get going. And, I love you too." She says this last sentence innocently and while looking down at her feet. I think she's still apologizing for the breakup in the first place, but I know that it's all water under the bridge now. We're back together now.

I look over Jess' apartment for any leftover belongings, and then we're off. We put our bags in the backseat of my silver Lexus and sit in the front and passenger seat.

"Ready?" I ask Jess, sitting next to me wide-awake.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Jess replies confidently.

Jess shows me where to stop for breakfast, this local convenience store called Stacy's. I park the car and open the door of Stacy's for Jess. After all, she's worth it, and it always pays to be chivalrous anyways. I order a cinnamon roll and orange juice, and she gets three danishes and orange juice as well.

If you take any one of the girls I've gone out with and offer her food, she'll politely refuse and choose to eat something far healthier, like a salad or a few apple slices. Honestly, you'd think they never eat. It's supposed to "impress" the guys, but all it does is repel me. One thing I love and have really missed about Jess is her honesty. She has integrity when no one else will, and is always her true self. As I think this, Jess smiles at me from across the patio table and holds her orange juice up to mine like a toast. I toast back.

After we eat, Jess and I rush to the car in the parking lot. We make sure to drive slowly because the roads are icy and seem like they won't thaw anytime soon. I find myself lost in conversation with Jess, and all we do is converse for two hours on the way to Concord. I've really missed her while at Dartmouth, and it's incredibly satisfying to be able to reconnect.

Jess smiles at me subtly from the seat to the right of me. I lift an arm from the steering wheel and tug the tip of her long, blond braid. It's longer than I remember it being, and lighter as well, but still as thick as it was when we met.

My phone rings from the black suitcase sitting in the backseat. Jess offers to get it for me, since I'm driving, and I graciously thank her.

"Hello?" I ask carefully; I didn't manage to see the caller ID.

My sister's soft voice radiates from the phone clenched between my ear and my shoulder. "Hey, Darcy! Um, Mom and Dad want to know what time you're getting to Concord so they know if they should make dinner for you. You are coming, right?"

"Hey, Emma! Yeah, I'm on the way, and I'll definitely be there by dinner."

"Great! Oh, and Mom and Dad want to say hi and safe driving." Says Emma happily.

I hear a pause and some rushed footsteps while nobody speaks.

"Darcy! Hi! How's school?" I hear a voice I can easily identify as my mom's.

"Hey, Mom! Um, school's good. A little stressful, but it's Thanksgiving Break now. Thank goodness. Oh, and I'll definitely be home by dinner time." I reply quickly. Since going to college, I've missed my parents and sister a lot. It's wonderful to be able to talk to them today.

My dad also wants to speak. "Hi, Darcy! How are you?"

"Pretty good." I laugh into the phone. "How are you? I heard from Emma that you published your fifth book a few weeks ago."

I can tell that my dad's smiling right now. Some things you just know about people you've known for years.

"That's right! It's about different fictional people's views on the American revolution. Including the British." Of course, I already know this. Dad told me that he wanted to interview the Berkeleys and even the Fairfaxes for his book.

"Sounds great." I pause momentarily to trace a finger heart on Jess' slim shoulder. "Listen, I have to go. Traffic is alright for now but rush hour could start anytime now."

"Mmkay." My dad passes the phone over to my mom, who says she loves me, and then to Emma.

"Okay, have a safe drive, Darcy! I look forward to seeing you soon." Emma says.

"You too. Love you all!"

I hear all of my family's clamoring voices say they love me too and farewell, and then the phone clicks as they hang up.

Jess' bright but stony blue eyes flicker away from me as she turns toward the dashboard. Not a whisper slims from her tongue. I know she misses Emma and would've loved to say hello. Sighing with regret, I begin to explain.

"Sorry I didn't mention that you were with me." I admit, frowning. I had a reason, though.

"No, it's…it's not your fault. It's alright."

Jess is the type of girl who finds it simpler to say "I'm okay" than to explain all the reasons that she isn't. She tends to bottle emotions up. It's the passive approach to life. She easily submits, which is a good quality; however, the downside is that people like that are quickly taken advantage of.

"Listen, I just…I wanted to surprise everyone. Emma and my parents still think we're broken up. Does that make sense? Ugh, sorry if you think I left you out. I really didn't mean to exclude you or anything. I'm sorry, really."

Jess seems pleased by my explanation, and I sigh again, only this time it's in relief. Her eyes look more joyful than they were before and I look at her the way Dad says you should look at the person you want to grow old with.

After four and a half long but lovely hours, I pull into the driveway of my house. It feels amazing to be home. I smile and hold a "shush" sign up to my lips, signaling Jess to stay. The car stays parked with Jess in it while I get out and ring the doorbell. The plan I told her was that, five minutes after I got into the house, she would get out of the car and wait outside on the porch.

"Darcy!" I hear a shriek call my name, and an identical head of curly brown hair head for a hug.

"Emma!" Being taller, I wrap my arms around Emma's lavender sweater while she snuggles into my button-down shirt. I heard you can hear somebody's heartbeat if you have the right body proportions, and I think Emma can hear mine. "I've missed you so much."

She laughs. "So have I. So have Mom and Dad."

My little sister's grown a lot since the last time I came home, in July over the summer. Then again, so has Jess. I think you notice more people growing around you after you stop growing.

My parents run to hug me with eager grins and looks on their faces as if they'd just won the lottery. It's amazing to see them as well.

"Darcy! It's great to see you!" My Dad speaks up first.

"It's great to see you too." I can't hide the wide grin spreading onto my face.

"How was the trip home? Darce, I've missed you so much!" Mom bursts into the room and immediately begins to talk. I've missed her a lot too, and I tell her that.

After everyone's managed to calm down a bit, I ever-so-casually mention that I brought someone with me.

"Oh, by the way, I brought somebody with me."

One short sentence leaves my mouth and before you know it my whole family is practically interrogating me.

"Who is it?"

"Is it somebody we know?"

"Is it a girl?"

"Did you meet her/him at Dartmouth?"

I laugh out loud. "Okay, please calm down, everybody."

Slowly and dramatically walking to the front door that I passed through only fifteen minutes ago, I open it to reveal Jessica Delaney. She awkwardly and feebly waves but I know that she's overjoyed to see the other Hawthornes.

"Jess! Oh my goodness! It's great to see you!" Emma shrieks again. A look of confusion quickly replaces the joy in her face. "Wait a minute, didn't you two break up?"

Jess finally gets a chance to speak. "Yeah, we did, but it's a thing of the past. We're back together! You know, after Darcy drove all the way to Juilliard to see me, I just couldn't say no."

"You drove to Juilliard?!" My mom questions wildly.

"Yep." I reply shyly. I may be loud, but I'm also modest and hate to show off.

"That's a three to four hour drive!" My mom shrieks happily. "For Jess?"

"Well, she's worth it." I say quietly, tugging Jess' braid.

My dad sets another place at the table and we all sit and eat. Thankfully, he made tonight's meal, since my mom can't cook to save her life.

"Well, Jess, it's amazing to see you again." Emma says, still smiling. "How's Juilliard?"

"Wonderful." Jess replies. "But, it's also great to be home again. I can even go see Half Moon Farm!"

My mom grins yet again. "You can tell your parents that you two kids back together, too! I'm sure Shannon will be overjoyed too."

After everyone finishes dinner, Jess and I move our luggage out of my backseat. I'm going to sleep in my room and Jess is going to have a sleepover with Emma, just like how it used to be. As I drift off to sleep and hear Emma and Jess giggling and talking next door (I think it's about me because I hear phrases like "back together" and " ") I realize that life is back to normal, the way it was back before Jess and I broke up. Everything will be alright.

I take out an old notebook, which is filled with the name "Jess Hawthorne" from before we dated, and write "I love her" as many times as I can before I fall asleep.