Previously: Lizzy returned home to L.A. and was told that the family was going out that night.

2

Elise was sitting in front of the mirror at her vanity, attempting to put on mascara with her mouth closed to defy the norm. She was dressed in a pale blue off-the-shoulders gown. The fabric criss-crossed over her chest and was embellished with glittering stones. The dress was gathered at the waist in small pleats and hung loosely over her lower body. She wore no necklace but she did have a sapphire bracelet around her left wrist, the blue of the substantial sized gem contrasting with her pale skin. Elise had wanted to put her hair up but Jen had seen how long it had grown and had demanded that her sister wear it down. Her soft chestnut ringlets cascaded down her back, and were kept off her shoulders by two braids on either side of her head. They were used to pull hair off her face and secured at the back of her head.

Elise had been exhausted from her long journey, and as promised to Marissa, after a quick shower she had climbed into bed for a long-ass nap. She must have been asleep for at least a couple of hours when she had felt another body clambering over her and engulfing her in a tight hug. She had jolted awake to find her sister Jenine's smiling face beside her cheek and had found her sister's eyes glistening with tears.

Jen had always been a softie. Elise and she, with only a 2 year age gap, had always been each other's main support. After their parents' divorce, Elise and Jenine had lived with their mother. She was a down to earth woman who was struggling to get her writing published, a dream that their father had infringed upon during their parents' 5 year marriage. During that time, the two girls had been playmates as two sisters so close in age would be expected to be. When at last their mother's writing had become popular enough for her to fully pursue her dream of being a travel writer and spending long periods of time abroad, the two girls, aged 13 and 15, had moved in with their father, an aloof workaholic.

In an attempt to give the girls the family he thought they needed, he had married Fran and brought in her three, much younger, daughters to the family. This had proved to be a rash decision, as David Bennet soon discovered that Fran was perhaps even less suited to him than his ex-wife. During this time, Elise and Jen had grown to become best friends and relied on each other as 3 unfamiliar girls and their boisterous mother barged into their lives while their own father retreated from them.

Jen had initially lived at home while she was in university, although once Elise graduated, the two had lived together while they girls finished their degrees. Jen then went on to train to become a teacher. After graduating, Elise had decided to pursue a research opportunity in London before going to medical school. With her sister gone, Jen no longer felt a pull keeping her grounded close to home and had decided to take a 6 month placement in China. The past year had been the longest time since Elise's birth that the two sisters had spent apart.

Jen had climbed into Elise's bed and the two talked for hours until their reunion was interrupted by shouts from their stepmother, Fran. She declared that it was time to get ready and that 'no one should be able to say that Fran makes stunning clothes but her girls never dress that nice'. Elise had laughed at her stepmother's latest career path. The woman had delved into fashion design, selling clothes, publishing her autobiography and numerous other endeavours. However, she seemed to be best suited to managing the lives of her youngest daughters and turning them into infamous socialites.

Normally El would have delayed getting ready until the very last moment, however, it had been a year since she'd seen her best friend, Carla Lucas, and she was for once looking forward to a function.

Elise, the other 4 girls and their mother climbed out of the limo as elegantly as they could and walked up the driveway into the massive foyer of the Lucas house. Apparently David Bennet would be meeting them there when he arrived from work.

The girls all looked stunning. Jen, like Elise, was wearing a long gown. It was a faint peach coloured toga-style dress, which contrasted nicely with Jen's now tanned skin and flaxen hair. Marissa's dress was black lace and ended just below her knees. Her make-up was dark and she was, of course, smirking. Cari had on a red dress with a sweet heart neckline and Aly had on a red bodycon dress that left little to the imagination. Elise rolled her eyes, unsurprised that her stepmother would allow her 16 year old daughter to leave the house so scantily clad.

"Wooaah!" Elise exclaimed as she felt a pair of fingers zap her sides. Turning around she found herself face-to-face with Carla Lucas. Although Carla was actually older than both Elise and Jen, she and Elise had always been extremely close, both sharing the same sarcastic humour.

Carla was the eldest daughter in the Lucas family. She had been adopted by Bud and Angelica Lucas at age 7 from an orphanage in Peru. Since then their family had grown to include 6 other children of varying ages. Elise had always been closest to Carla and Jun Wei. J.W. was around the same age as Elise and had been adopted from China. Elise was much more outgoing than him and so, although they had been classmates, they largely ran in different circles. They did have a significant amount in common, and although they didn't spend much time together in school, they often wound up doing science projects side by side. They also chatted at functions outside of school because of their mutual 'geekery' and the friendship between their families. The other Lucas child that had a close friendship with one of the Bennets was Mihika. Adopted from India, she was a close friend of Alyssa's. While Elise and 'Mickey', as she called herself, had never been close friends, they did know each other very well.

It was always startling to note the differences in the appearances of the Lucas children. Angelica Lucas, like Fran, was a busybody. She seemed to view her children as a variety of dolls for her to dress up and was constantly trying to enforce on them the personalities she wished for them to have. It was only the older two children who had largely managed to break away from their adopted mother's plans.

Carla had bronze skin and dark hair and, while generally considered plain with her crooked nose and teeth, frizzy hair and thick spectacles, she had a beautiful smile. Her grin was wide and she was fortunate to possess the deepest dimples ever encountered. Carla was fairly broad and buxom. Her affinity for pant suits in attempt to hide herself drove her mother insane.

Where Carla was broad and curvaceous, Mickey was spindly and angular. She had an extremely small frame and, at the age of 16, was easily able to pass off as 12. She had long, raven-coloured, wavy hair that she adamantly refused to ever braid claiming she would 'NOT be labelled as the Indian village girl'. She instead preferred to be labelled as the village chav with her Juicy Couture tracksuit get-up that matched those owned by Alyssa.

J.W. as a child had been lanky, he had rocked the glasses and bowl cut combo and was incredibly shy. As he matured he had filled out and become broad shouldered and more muscular. He also discovered that he preferred to wear contacts beneath his lab goggles and that a bowl cut hindered his vision in experiments. As a result he had began to receive more attention from the female persuasion. Having always been the person, both in his family and at school, who had retreated into the background, this newfound attention left him uncomfortable. As a result he often sought easy conversation with Elise at large functions.

An excited reunion occurred between Elise and Carla, the high-pitched squealing understandable to none other than Jen. Jun Wei caught a glimpse of the reunion and rushed over to lift Elise and twirl her around in greeting.

"Oh wow, it seems he hasn't been spending ALL his time in the lab after all," Elise thought, noticing the increased bulge of his biceps. "Hmm, I'll have to get the gossip from Carla tonight."

Angelica Lucas swept by the Bennet crowd on her rounds of the entrance and collected Fran in order to point out significant individuals, sources of scandal and rivals amongst the invited guests. The large crowd was mingling within the extravagant ballroom of the Lucas estate. Marissa disappeared towards the live band, her penchant for drumming and drummer boys causing her to do so. Aly and Cari discovered Mickey amongst a group of other loud teenage girls and they dispersed into the crowds reeking havoc and making inappropriate conversation. This left the two eldest of both the Bennet and Lucas families standing somewhat awkwardly by the door. Jen was quickly dragged away by an unknown handsome man in a tuxedo towards the dance floor. With that, Elise and Carla wandered off towards the chocolate fountain leaving, J.W. to guard the door and prowl for new guests to greet on arrival.

"Els, it has been SO long since we've had a proper gossip session. I have so much to fill you in on. The stupid time difference means you are way behind on the adventures on Carla Lucas," Carla announced to her best friend.

"Gosh, I know Carla. I can't even remember what was going on in your life the last time we spoke properly. Haysus." Carla laughed at Elise's expression of frustration.

"Ok so, first of all: news on the work front?" Elise demanded.

"Uhm, no real news there, still hate my job and all." Carla had been dissatisfied with her job as an Agony Aunt in one of the most popular magazines amongst teenage girls for quite some time. However, she did appreciate the financial stability the job gave her, enabling her to save up until she could live away from her parents, be self-sufficient and thus not tied to their obligations in 'high-society'.

"Next up, news on the Lucas household front."

"Nothing much has changed there either. Bud and Ange are still trying to force personalities the paparazzi will love on us. J.W. is largely engrossed in his work, although he has been spending more time in the gym lately…" She wiggled her eyebrows conspiratorially. Although none of the parties took it seriously, Carla was always teasing J.W. and Elise about a relationship between them. The two women laughed animatedly.

"Oh, and the parental unit are thinking of adopting another kid- they went to Bali over Christmas and decided they wanted another souvenir in the form of a child." Carla loved Bud and Ange. They had raised her from childhood and given her a home and all the material items she wished for, but while the power couple loved each of their six children, their role in the lives of children was largely limited to publicising them. Although they had good intentions, the couple had been somewhat overzealous in their adoptions, considering their own high-maintenance lives. "Actually, not sure if Fran told you, but this is a charity event for an Indonesian orphanage and said orphanage is where they intend to get kiddo numero 7 from."

"Actually I did not know that, but I look forward to meeting number 7 when he or she arrives. Ok, so where does that leave us… oh yes. News on the love life front!"

Carla laughed. "That's not even worth mentioning. Still single, still not looking, still going to be a hardcore cat lady with 24 cats."

"24? I thought we'd agreed 29 was the way to go!"

"Oops sorry, you are indeed correct, my lady. I shall be a spinster with 29 delightful cats. Although really, I think 26 would be best. I could name one for each letter of the alphabet"

"That would be nice. But you could go through the alphabet and have the last three as Ampersand, Asterisk and Underscore. I stick with my original views about there being 29."

"Are we really discussing the names of my 29 cats?" Both ladies giggled uncontrollably.

The two went on to discuss the various aspects of Elise's life, in which the most news was to be found on the work and academia front. They were chatting away whilst dipping marshmallows into the milky chocolate when Carla suddenly stiffened and grabbed her friend's arm.

"Don't look now, but your dad just walked in with two beautiful specimens of MAN!"

A/N:

A massive THANK YOU to my lovely beta again, as well as to those of you who followed/favourited/reviewed. The reviews were just incredibly motivational and my heart fluttered. A lot. Please leave me more? Also, if you'd like to see what I had in mind for the girls' dresses, have a look at my profile for linkage. My apologies for the lack of Darcy thus far, but he shall be making an appearance very, very soon. Again, please, please review! -N