Finally it was time for prom. Jane completed all of her IB exams with as much difficulty as is normally expected for such exerting tests, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she passed every single test and would receive the full International Baccalaureate degree. She had been accepted to several colleges and had chosen to go to Boston College so she'd be close to her family. Secretly, Lizzie thought her a little foolish. Jane was bound to stay in the same place for her entire life unless her parents forced her out, and her mother was such a driving force it would take a miracle for her father to convince Jane to go out and be her own person. If only Charlie and Jane would just become boyfriend and girlfriend! They'd been playing in an emotional arena for an entire school year now, and Lizzie was tired of it.
After much prompting from almost everybody, Charlie had finally plucked up enough courage to ask Jane to prom. It'd happened pretty romantically and Lizzie was extremely proud that she'd had a part in it all. It was her job to tell her sister that Mr. O'Donnell had a vital question about her last english grade. That was all she needed to hear, and Jane sped off to see her teacher but was greeted when she opened the classroom door to Charlie holding a rose. He had his iTouch on speakers and had Crush by David Archuleta on. On the whiteboard he wrote 'Prom?' in block letters and Charlie told Lizzie later that Jane looked as if she would faint.
Dress shopping with Jane was always, hm, is fun the right word? With Jane everything was always 'if you like it' 'that color looks so adorable on you!' 'well, which one do you like better?' and Lizzie always felt frustrated. And Jane was always asking for advice and sometimes looked put out when Lizzie critiqued. That's the exact reason why Lizzie asked Charlotte to come along. They'd all decided on dresses that matched them perfectly after a few grueling hours, but when it was all over Lizzie found herself more excited than ever for prom.
Lizzie had a bit of a heart attack when Charlotte told her that she'd be going to prom with Collins, but Lizzie figured that it was better to go with a creepy and greasy not-quite clergyman than not go at all, which is what Charlotte threatened to do if no one asked her. The most pressing problem for Lizzie, however, was George. He seemed to have dropped off the face of the Earth and it was impossible to get ahold of him.
"He'll come through," Charlotte assured her the night before prom.
"Yeah," Lizzie answered affirmatively, more to assure her doubting self than actually believing it. "I sent him all the information in a Facebook chat. He was probably too busy to respond, but he definitely got it. I mean," she sounded desperate now, even to herself. "who just decided not to check Facebook?"
Strange things were going on in the school. Lydia and Kitty's bras seemed to climb up their chests the closer prom came, there was definitely much more giggling going on, relationships that were sinking were gasping for air just a few weeks longer until the dance was all over, and the strangest of couples were pairing up. Lizzie nearly burst out laughing when Charlie complained of his sister going to prom with Darcy. "But he doesn't even like her!" he protested, confused as to why her face was scrunching up and she was biting her lip.
The night of the prom the Bennet house was in a frenzy, Kitty and Lydia were crying incessantly, Jane was a blushing mess, and Lizzie still hadn't heard a word from George. After two hours of preparation, the girls were finally dressed.
The parents gathered in the front lawn to document their beautiful girls in pictures. Lizzie looked gorgeous in her baby blue floor length dress, while Charlotte went with a dress of a similar style only in a very pale pink. The cut wasn't too low, nor too high. The straps were decorated with some fake rhinestones, and they both wore black pumps. Jane simply blew everyone away in her yellow dress that went down to her knees and flared out. Her blonde hair was curled more than usual while the other two girls decided to keep their hair up. Lizzie's was half in a twist with half her hair coming down in a single curl, while Charlotte kept her hair up in just a twist.
Charlie couldn't stop smiling and frequently brushed off invisible specks of dust on his white jacket and kept fixing his yellow tie as a nervous habit. Collins did something to make his hair look even greasier, and it creeped Lizzie out how her best friend and the to- be priest kept looking at one another. Darcy and Caroline didn't speak at all, and even though they were dates, they acted as though they hardly knew each other. Caroline was donned in a red, short, almost cocktail dress, while Darcy didn't even make an attempt to match and just wore a classic plain black suit.
Lizzie tried to be happy for everyone, but Wickham still hadn't arrived.
"Hm, seems your date stood you up," Lydia sniffed, happy that at least someone else was having a night as miserable as she was.
"Don't say that Lydia! He probably just got lost and is waiting for you at the hall," Jane assured Lizzie and hugged her.
"Is there anything I can do?" Charlie asked anxiously as the parents reloaded their cameras.
Lizzie shook her head. "Nothing more than I've been doing all day. No one can get in touch with him. Thank you Charlie." He nodded, upset at her disappointment. 'I look foolish, having a date but standing by myself in all these pictures,' Lizzie thought glumly as she tried to smile for the camera. 'This is worse than writing an internal assessment in a day!'
What Lizzie didn't notice was the sympathetic, yet knowing looks thrown her way on the sly by Darcy. He had his hand awkwardly on Caroline's hip and his smile seemed more like a grimace. Caroline was fuming internally at the fact she had to take pictures with the people she hated most in the world. It seemed that almost half the group just couldn't wait for the night to just end.
It ended up that Lizzie's worst fears were confirmed as she went to the The Cape Codder, a nice and well known restaurant, where the dance was taking place and the soldier was nowhere to be found.
"Lizzie, I insist. To make you feel better I simply order you to dance with me for at least two dances," Mr. Collins announced heroically, much to Lizzie's displeasure.
"Really, that's okay. Have fun with Charlotte," she almost begged.
"No," Mr. Collins raised his hands in protest. "I promised your mother I would take care of you. Now, I won't leave you all by yourself."
"But I like being by my-"
"Lizzie, it's okay," Charlotte interrupted her. "I don't mind, you look so sad." Lizzie's heart sunk as her only alliance surrendered.
She tightened her lips. "Fine. But there had better be a six inch radius between us!" She stormed into the dancing hoard with an ecstatic Collins on her heels.
"You know Lizzie," Collins began as they started to dance. Well, he was sort of moving every muscle in his body randomly while Lizzie shifted from one foot to the other, hearing the snickers of her classmates echoing in her head. "You've turned into quite a beautiful young girl. You know, I think my favorite memory of you would have to be when you accidentally flung that spoonful of soup at me. You gave me the napkins next to you as if you knew it was going to happen. You know, that is the kind of er, kindness, that Ms. Bourgh adores..."
At this point Lizzie was just ignoring him and counted down the seconds until two songs would be up. When they finally were she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh is that two already? Dearie me, that went fast!"
"Time flies," Lizzie grimaced and nearly ran back to where Charlotte was sitting. "Have fun with him, feel free to dance the night away." And with that she ran to the bathroom. Sitting down on a closed toilet seat, she put her hands on her head to try and calm her headache. "This is the worst night ever..." she moaned to herself. 'Damn Wickham!' she thought venomously. She then corrected herself. "He's probably training somewhere, that's it. He's not avoiding me," she muttered out loud and felt instantly better. "He wouldn't just ignore me! This is prom, for God's sake!" She got up from the toilet seat and left the bathroom feeling better.
Her mood quickly disappeared when she bumped into the broad chest of William Darcy. "Dance with me?" he asked quickly and quietly.
"What?" she asked, surprised. Lizzie didn't think she heard right, how could Darcy ask her to dance? And in such a rude way too!
"Will you dance with me?" He asked slower, his poker face unrelenting.
"Uh, sure," she replied shocked. It was only afterwards when she found herself in the middle of the dance floor when she wondered what had actually happened.
"Ugh, this music is atrocious," he scoffed, hardly dancing at all. Lizzie in effect felt like a fool and stopped moving.
"Yeah, it really is," she admitted, then realized she agreed with Darcy on something and quickly corrected herself. "I mean, I've definitely heard better." He gave a little sarcastic laugh and it was quiet. Lizzie felt more foolish correcting herself than she did agreeing with him, because the laugh he made, in effect, made her feel vulnerable.
After a while, he gave a brief smile. "What?" she asked suspiciously.
"I was just wondering where your partner was," he said monotonously but his eyes mocked her.
"I'm sure he's got a good excuse, probably doing something with himself unlike you, hiding yourself away in a school a million miles away from civilization!" she defended Wickham, though she wasn't quite sure why. All she knew was that she had to fight this man on every word he said out of pure instinct.
"Oh yes, excuses, has anything he's ever said to you been the truth?" he threw back heatedly.
"He's said a lot more truth to me than I bet you have! Now, why is that you don't like him so much?" her voice rose and her fists balled. Any movement they made to the song was now nonexistent as they stared each other down.
"And what exactly has he told you? Probably that I am a cheat! Is that it? Why do you insist upon riling me up?"
"Maybe I'm trying to figure out if you've got any feeling in you at all!" Lizzie intentionally avoided his first questions and skipped to the last.
"And what is the diagnoses?"
Lizzie bit her lip and glared hard at him. "You like using big words and insulting me! Besides that, not much."
He raised an eyebrow and his eyes blazed. "Well, you can know that I hardly enjoy these stimulating talks with you. I probably enjoy them as much as I enjoy Wickham!"
"Now why do you keep bringing him up if you don't like him?" Lizzie asked exasperatedly.
"What has he told you?" he threw back almost the moment the words left her mouth.
"That was not my question!"
"Guys, can you be a little quieter?" Charlie interrupted, seemingly coming out of nowhere with Jane on his arm. "For people that are supposed to be dancing, you're not doing very much of it."
"I'm sorry, we were just finished," Darcy mumbled to his friend, closing his eyes and clenching his jaw.
"Yes, we were." Lizzie turned on her heel and left the dance floor, but not before hearing Charlie say something to Darcy.
"Hey, can you be a little nicer, eh buddy?"
She paused for a second, then kept going. She was stopped on the way to the door by Caroline.
"Hey sugarlips, you'd better listen to Darcy," she picked at her fingernails while leaning on the doorframe, not even looking at Lizzie.
"Why should you care?" Lizzie closed her eyes, her hand on the doorknob.
Caroline shrugged. "I don't, but all I'm saying don't trust the bastard, okay?"
Lizzie pushed the door open. "Yeah, thanks Caroline." And with that she stepped into the cool summer night and leaned against the wall. 'They're all just spiteful, all of them!' she sunk to the ground and buried her head in her hands.
It must have been a good ten minutes before Jane came out. "Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah, sure. Best night ever," Lizzie moaned.
"You know I don't understand you when you get sarcastic," Jane smiled and rested her head on her sister's shoulder. "You know, I asked Charlie about George."
"What did he say?" Elizabeth braced herself for bad news since so far the reviews for Wickham haven't been all that fantastic.
"Pretty much the same thing as Darcy," Jane sighed. "Oh Lizzie, I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do!"
"Get Darcy out of this island," Lizzie groaned, resting her head against the brick wall behind her.
"Well, I can't do that, but I can take you out for ice cream tomorrow."
Lizzie was about to say something else, but she paused. "I like ice cream."
Jane laughed. "Now we're going to figure out what happened to your runaway soldier tomorrow okay, but tonight let's have a fun time with Charlie and Charlotte and worry about everything later."
Lizzie closed her eyes for a moment, then stood up and stretched. "Sometimes I really wish I was you," Elizabeth sighed and hugged her sister.
"C'mon, let's get some food."
"I like food," Lizzie pushed open the door to face the rest of the school.
The first half of dinner went fairly well until Charlie made the mistake of saying that Darcy was Ms. Bourgh's nephew. From that point on Collins insisted upon annoying Darcy with questions of his beloved patroness, and for a fleeting second Lizzie hoped that the scowl that now adorned Darcy's face wasn't permanent. 'You don't care about his face,' Lizzie told herself firmly and continued to eat her food, perhaps a bit more vigorously than normal.
Lizzie already felt like cowering under the table, but she nearly acted upon this desire when Collins volunteered to reach one of his second best practice sermons to the group and wouldn't take no for an answer.
The rest of the night went extremely slowly, but Lizzie managed to find other single friends in the hall to talk to and that made the time go along a little faster. The ride back in the limo was quiet, save for the awkward conversations between Charlotte and Collins, and Jane with Charlie.
"Oh Jane dear, did you have a nice time?" Their mother answered the door and Lizzie realized with a bit of panic that her mother had a glass too many of wine for dinner. "Are you dating Charlie yet?" the couple blushed at the question and Darcy's lips tightened at Mrs. Bennet's audacity. "You know I've always said you'd make a lovely couple. You really should you know, it would be the best thing that came to the Cape. Oh Lizzie, so George didn't show up? Well, I'm sure that he had better things to do." She opened the door wider as Lizzie frowned. "Goodnight everybody."
"Goodnight Mrs. Bennet," Charlie murmured, looking at Jane the entire time, who just looked at her shoes bashfully. Darcy had an expression on his face that looked as if he had stuck his nose in moldy cheese.
"Make sure to call Janie," Mrs. Bennet pinched Charlie's cheeks and closed the door. She turned to her girls. "Did you all have a nice time?"
"No," Lizzie said, taking off her shoes.
"That's nice, have a nice night!" their mother sang, climbing the steps to her bedroom.
"She's managed to out embarrass herself and the rest of us," Lizzie said to Jane disbelievingly. "I didn't think it was possible. Huh, funny that. I didn't think this night could get much worse five minutes ago, and look, it did."