Chapter 2

The holiday break went by too fast, as it usually does. The scholars spent some time working on their essays between holiday parties, caroling and catching up on sleep. William was glad to get to spend a lot of time with his sister Georgie. It seemed like they never got to spend enough time together during the school year. It would be even worse when he went off to Cambridge next year. He really didn't want to go that far away, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

The first day after holiday break was always full of mixed emotions. Sad to go back to school; happy to see their friends again. How does that song go? "And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again".

William had gone to Banff, Alberta, Canada skiing with his sister and their father during the holiday break. They were sad to not have their mom with them this year, but they tried to make it a fun time for his sister. Bingley had stayed in Connecticut with his family but had gotten together with William to compare notes on the assignment for British Literature. Bingley had decided he had to write his paper on "Pride and Prejudice", styling himself as Charles Bingley. Due to their vacation, William had waited until two days before the break was over to start his paper so he decided to just run with Bingley's suggestion that he style himself as Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.

Third period was Lizzy and William's British Literature class. The new seating chart was posted on the door when they entered. William frowned when he found out that he ended up being paired with Lizzy Bender. He hated talking to new people and if he had known that this teacher forced students to work with a different student every week, he probably would have not signed up for this class, despite considering it a chance for an easy A grade, him growing up in England and being force fed British Literature since he was literally in short pants. He wondered if they had both written their essays as the two main protagonists from "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. That could be awkward. The thought of asking her what her sister's names were made him chuckle though.

Lizzy gave a laugh as it came to light that each set of the paired up "proofreading buddies" had written about the same story and in some cases, the same character. "This should be interesting she thought. It seems Mr. Cheister had a sense of humor after all." Then she realized that she was going to be 'Elizabeth Bennet' to William Darcet's version of 'Mr. Darcy'. "Oh no," she thought. "I had forgotten about Mr. Cheister's paired up proofreading. Now I wish I had not written such a steamy story."

Mr. Cheister called the class to order and told them that the entire class period would be taken up with them proofreading their partner's essays. "I have paired you up with someone who has written a version of the same story. I expect you to discuss how you arrived at your variation, compare your stories to see where they diverge and discuss how you included yourself in your character's persona. A five hundred word essay is due by Friday with your findings."

Lizzy blushed as she handed William a copy of her story. "I apologize in advance for boring you to tears. I should patent that as a cure for insomnia," she quipped nervously.

"I am sure it will be interesting," he stated dryly as he handed her a copy of his story.

They both settled down into their seats and began reading. Lizzy was paying particular attention to spelling and punctuation and to her amazement, discerned nothing amiss in the entire paper. "So he's rich, handsome and smart. Great, three strikes. I'm out." she thought.

Lizzy quickly got drawn into William's story of a man who couldn't bring himself to talk to the woman he loved due to his intense shyness. The proposal from the original story didn't happen in this version. The character, Mr. Darcy, did go to visit her as in the original story, but he was too shy to actually propose to the character Elizabeth Bennet. Lizzy found it curious that the emotions written were presented very clearly and powerfully. She felt sorry for the character and wished she could hug this fictitious Mr. Darcy. She was almost crying by the end of the story when the protagonists parted, never to see each other again. She looked down at her lap, unable to look at her proofreading buddy until she got her emotions under control.

Meanwhile, William was reading her rendition of the proposal from the original story. Instead of Miss Elizabeth Bennet lambasting the character of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, she calmly and succinctly asked him questions about the issues that stood between them. His answers formed a basis for further discussion between the characters and near the end of the story they had put aside their differences and decided to pursue a secret courtship without the knowledge of his haughty aunt or her matrimonially obsessed mother.

The only mistake he found was when in the story Lizzy referred to "sending clandestine messages" as "sending blind emails". He burst out laughing when he read that.

Her head shot up at his laugh, bringing her out of her melancholy. The rest of the room looked at them. "What's so funny?" she demanded.

"I thought emails were invented in 1971 not 1791!"

"Oh, stuff it William."she retorted.

When he read the final proposal that was quite steamy for a Regency era novel, he raised his eyebrows and peeked at Lizzy. She had written the kiss at the end like an "R rated" version of a Regency "bodice ripper".

They were quiet for a while as they re-read each story and they hadn't marked any mistakes with their red pens. They caught each other glancing at the other now and then. As they neared the end of the class period, they still had not discussed the topics their teacher had put forth.

William turned to Lizzy and said "We haven't discussed the questions that Mr. Cheister told us we had to write about. Would you like to meet after school, maybe go to The Longbourn Coffee Clutch, to complete the assignment?"

Lizzy just stared at him. "Well?" he asked.

"Um, are you asking me out on a, um, a, um, date?" Lizzy squeaked.

"If you want to call it that, sure. I would be delighted to go on a date with you, Miss Bennet, er, Miss Bender." He thought about bowing and kissing her knuckles, but he thought that might be a bit too cliché.

She could only nod.

"Great, why don't you meet me at the main doors after school and I can drive us over."

"Um, okay," was all she could say. She was very happy to be saved by the bell that signaled the end of the class.

She was amused by the fact that even though he had written a character who was too shy to talk to his love interest, he himself wasn't too shy to ask to get together with her outside of class.