Jump to new as of February 28, 2001
Jump to new as of March 20, 2001
Jump to new as of March 24, 2001
Author's Note: This story takes place at the illustrious American University, where I am a student.
Elizabeth Bennet, college sophomore extraordinaire wanted to throw her alarm clock out the window. It had been beeping at her for about five minutes and her roommate Charlotte had already launched a few pillows and a teddy bear at her.
It was the first day of classes for the spring semester and Liz had a 9:55 am class. As she slammed her fist down on the alarm clock, she wondered again why she had signed up for such an early class. Well, it was British Lit, her passion in life.
She took a quick peek at the clock; it said 9:15. Liz jumped up, threw on her robe, grabbed her stuff and ran down the hall to the showers. About half way there she collided with a very good looking young man, causing her to spill her shower supplies all over the hall. Her friend Jason Carrs laughed as he bent to help her pick up her things.
"In a hurry, Liz?" he asked, flashing her a quick smile.
Liz grabbed her shampoo and continued her brisk walk down the hall, calling back to Jason, "I'm late! I'm late!"
Jason laughed again and yelled after her, "What else is new?"
Liz jumped into the shower and started washing her long, reddish brown hair. Argh. This was much easier when my hair was short. As she started rinsing, her mind wandered to her upcoming class. I wonder if there will be any cute guys in class? she thought with a smile.
While Liz was in the shower a very cute boy was quietly getting into his brand new 2001, fully loaded Volkswagen Jetta, which was parked in the basement garage of his new apartment building.
He had wanted the apartment. If he was going to transfer in the second semester of his senior year, he was going to have his own apartment. He refused to live at his parents' new house. His father's new job had made the move from London to Washington, DC necessary. Of course, being 22, he could have stayed in England, but he had to come to America because of his sister. He was very protective of his sister.
He sighed and started the engine, wishing to God that the supreme jerk of the world, hadn't pulled some sleazy strings to get into Georgetown, thus preventing himself from attending that illustrious institution. So now, instead of receiving his degree from Cambridge he would be graduating from American University, a second tier school! (note the indignation?)
Georgie better appreciate how much I love her, thought Will Darcy, son of the British Ambassador, as he turned onto Massachusetts Avenue in the direction of school. It was only 9:25. He would make it in plenty of time for his first class at 9:55, British Lit.
Will sat in the bland classroom with the cheap desk-chair combinations that looked like they were about to fall apart. He took out his laptop and opened his word processor in preparation for class. He looked around him and noticed that no one else was pulling out expensive computers in order to take down accurate notes. He sighed, it was going to be a long and lonely semester.
Class began shortly. Professor Williamson, stood in the front of the room in an old, ratty tweed jacket that had definitely seen better days, at least 15 years ago. He passed out the syllabus and began to speak about his very high expectations of the class and how he was the first to admit that his was not an easy class. This served to frighten several of the students but it actually cheered Will up a bit. At least something here might challenge him, if only a little.
As Will was busy reading over the syllabus and counting how many of the books on the list he had already read, the door of the class room opened, and a somewhat breathless girl entered and, as quickly and quietly as she could, made her way over and plopped herself down in the seat next to Will's. He briefly glanced at her before returning his attention to the syllabus. He might never have looked at her again if it wasn't for Professor Williamson's extreme dislike of tardiness.
"Well, thank you for honoring us with your presence, Miss...?" He said as he stood over her desk, scowling down at her.
"Bennet, Elizabeth Bennet," the girl responded with a smile as the whole class turned their eyes to the late girl. The pair of dark eyes sitting next to her were no exception. She continued, "I'm very sorry to be late sir, especially on the first day." She smiled sweetly up at the professor.
"Yes, well, please try to make it on time from now on," he said as he handed her a syllabus.
Will continued to regard the girl. She was busy looking over the syllabus, so all he could see was her profile and her hair. Her hair was soaking wet, she had obviously just run from the shower. She was pretty enough, he guessed, but he quickly reasoned her out to be just another silly American girl.
She must have felt him staring at her because she turned her face in his direction and he found himself looking into the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen. Then, the unthinkable happened...she winked at him.
Caught completely by surprise, all Will could do was stare back for a few seconds and then, embarrassed, turn his attention back to his syllabus.
Well, thought Liz, so much for being friendly, as the incredibly gorgeous boy sitting next to her turned away from her. He had dark hair and eyes, both almost to the point of being black. He was sitting, so she couldn't be completely sure, but she had a feeling he was very tall and he looked like he was in excellent shape. Too bad he was a jerk, she thought. He could have at least acknowledged me, winked back, smiled....well, maybe he's just shy. But for some reason Liz preferred to think of him as a jerk. She quickly scanned the reading list, checking off the books that she had already read.
Class continued on for the next hour in the traditional manner of the first class of the semester, very slowly. There were a few times when Liz felt the cute boy's eyes on her, but she did not dignify him with a response. After all, he did look a bit ridiculous with his laptop out on the first day, when there weren't even any notes to take.
After class, Liz jumped up and practically ran out of the classroom. She wanted to have time to grab a cup of coffee before her next class. She was long gone by the time Will had put his computer back in the case, and he was left to wonder about her.
By the time she had gotten her coffee, Liz managed to be only four minutes late for her next class, Cross Cultural Communications. She lived through it, barely. After class, she went back to her room and crawled into bed for her afternoon nap. Ahh, the joys of college life, she thought and fell asleep, only to be awaked an hour later by the incredibly annoying sound of her alarm clock, telling her that if she did not hurry she would be late for her 3:35 class.
Will gave a small sigh of relief as his last class of the day finally came to an end. It was almost five o'clock and it had been a long day. His over all impression of the school had improved a bit, a very small bit, but he had to admit that maybe this second tier school wasn't too horrible. One factor that helped to raise his opinion was the young man he had just met in the last class.
The class had been instructed to work in pairs and do some silly introductory exercise and Will had found himself working with a friendly and intelligent young man who introduced himself as Charlie Bingley.
Charlie was a senior, and like Will he was a transfer. He had come from the University of Connecticut two years ago, because, as a poly sci major he wanted to be where the action was. The two men had a nice conversation together after they were finished with the assignment and discovered that they shared many similar interests, and Charlie's friendly personality made it possible for even the supremely uptight Will to relax and loosen up.
In truth Will really wasn't that uptight, he could be very friendly and outgoing when he felt comfortable with the people he was with. Charlie, being the perceptive aspiring politician that he was, recognized this aspect of Will's personality right away and decided that he would take him under his wing and help him adjust to American. Charlie snickered a bit to himself and decided that the first step was to get the boy to realize that college students rarely go class in a sports coat, at least he wasn't wearing a tie, Charlie thought with a smile as he looked as his serious new friend. He sighed, step number two would be to get him to leave the laptop at home and use a note book like a normal person.
At the end of class, Charlie turned to Will, who was busy packing up his precious computer, and asked, "Hey Will, I'm about to go meet my girlfriend and some friends for dinner now, would you like to join us. They're really nice people."
Will thought for a minute, he was a little nervous about meeting Charlie's friends. He was sure that they would be nice, if they were anything like Charlie, he also hoped that they would be intelligent too. He figured that no real harm could come from a simple dinner, besides he was sort of hungry.
As soon as he found himself in the crowded school dining hall Will began to regret his decision. He was surround by loud, distinctly American voices. He cringed slightly as he grabbed a tray and followed Charlie to rather full table in the far corner of the room.
As they approached a very pretty blond girl raised her hand and waived. As soon as they reached the table, Charlie leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hey everybody," he yelled and all the faces at the table turned to face him as he continued, "I have someone for you to meet." He pulled Will out from behind him, "This is Will Darcy, he just transferred here form Cambridge, in England." Will blushed a bit as everyone at the table said hello to him.
"It's nice to meet you, Will" said the pretty blond girl. "I'm Jane Bennet, Charlie's girlfriend. Please sit down and join us." Will smiled and thanked her, then went off with Charlie in search of something edible. When they returned to the table, Charlie went through the process of introducing everyone to Will.
There was Jane, of course, who was a senior also, and then there was Charlie's little sister Caroline, a sophomore, who had unfortunately not inherited too many of Charlie's good qualities. Needless to say, she took an immediate liking to the very handsome British transfer. Then there was Mike Thomas, Joe Kinney, and Ryan Dellanger, all seniors and friends of Charlie's from the soccer team. Megan Southers and Jenn Martin were two friends of Jane's that completed the table.
After the introductions were completed, conversation resumed but everyone was careful to include Will, asking him many questions about England and his first impressions of school. He was not completely honest in his answers to these questions as he did not want to offend his new acquaintances with his true feelings about their school.
Dinner continued on uneventfully for a few more minutes, until Charlie suddenly said, "Hey, there's Liz and Jason, let's get them over here." He waived them over.
Will looked up to see the approaching couple. He was surprised to see the "late girl" from his British Lit class walking over to the table and with her was a very good looking boy.
"Liz, you have to meet Charlie's new friend." Jane said when they had reached the table. Liz laughed, she was always meeting Charlie's new friends and sometimes she thought that her sister's boyfriend might be just a little too friendly. Jane continued, "Liz, this is Will Darcy, Will this is my younger sister, Liz and her friend Jason Carrs."
Liz looked over at Will and was surprised to see the gorgeous jerk form her class frowning at her. She gave him a small, semi-sarcastic smile and said, "You're in my Brit Lit class."
Will nodded and answered that he was. Liz noticed that he had and British accent that wasn't too unpleasant to listen to and she commented on it, "You have and accent. Are you from England then?"
"Yes, I just transferred here from Cambridge." he said and try as he might he couldn't quite help himself from sounding somewhat snobbish.
Liz ignored this and responded with a simple, "That's cool." Then she and Jason went off to find some food. They returned and Liz ended up sitting across from Will.
He had noticed her eyes earlier in class, but now, as he got a better look at her, he had to admit that she was actually very attractive overall. Her long reddish brown hair was pulled back into some sort of mess at the back of her head, with a few strands falling around her face and she had a beautiful smile, and the of course, there were the eyes.
Will shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was not here to think about silly sophomore girls' eyes. He turned his attention back to his food and began to converse with Mike about football, or soccer, as these Americans insisted on calling it. He wished that Liz would stop laughing and smiling. He noticed that she had a very pleasant laugh.
For her part Liz, after again acknowledging to herself that Will Darcy was gorgeous, even though he could use a little fashion advice, almost forgot that he was sitting right across from her. She talked with Jason, Jane and Charlie for a while and then she and Jason headed off to meet some other friends of theirs. Liz turned to the rest of the table to say good bye to her sister's friends and her eyes met Will's. She nodded to him, "Bye Will, see you in class on Thursday."
"Yeah, I'll see you." Will said as he tried not to drown in her beautiful eyes.
He watched her walk away and sighed. He turned back to the rest of the table and dinner continued agreeably for another fifteen minutes or so, before everybody decided it was time to go their separate ways. Charlie asked for Will's phone number so that they could get together again outside of class. Will was glad to give it, he liked Charlie and his friends and he was happy to have met some smart, friendly people.
He walked over to his silver Jetta and started driving home, trying to convince himself that he was not intrigued by a certain Liz Bennet with the beautiful blue eyes.
One Saturday morning (really afternoon) about three weeks into the semester, Jane and Liz sat eating breakfast in the dining hall. It was their time to play catch up. The two sisters were very close yet they were also both very busy with their separate lives at school, so they would always meet for a very late breakfast on Saturdays.
Jane looked over at her little sister, although she knew Liz was quite capable of taking care of herself, she sometimes worried about her, especially when she showed up on Saturdays looking incredibly tired. "So what did you do last night, Liz" she asked, trying not to let her concern show.
"Oh, I just went to a party with Charlotte and Jason. It was nothing too exciting." Liz answered. Jane sighed, knowing what the parties that Liz went to could get like. Liz, reading her sister's mind reassured her, "Don't worry Jane, you know I won't do anything stupid, besides Jason was there."
Jane smiled, Jason often took care of Liz. "Well, if the two of you have no other exciting plans for tonight, Charlie's having a little dinner party and we'd love to have you come."
"Of course!" Liz exclaimed, "You know how we love Charlie's dinner parties."
"Great, why don't you come over around eight then" Jane replied and then the two sisters left to go and try to do some work before the party that night. Jane managed to get quite a bit done, while Liz ended up taking her usual Saturday afternoon nap.
Later, she told Jason that they were invited to one of Charlie's dinner parties. Jason was thrilled, Charles's parties were always fun and not in the typical sense of the college party. They would sit down at a table and eat a real meal and then perhaps play a few rounds of poker or some other game. There was something sort of cool about acting like adults every once in a while. Especially after last night's party where he and Liz had definitely not acted like the almost twenty year olds that they were.
"What time are we going over to Charlie's apartment?" Jason asked.
"Well, we're supposed to be there at eight, so I guess we should leave here by 7:30." Liz smiled playfully, "Do you think you can get yourself gorgeous by then? You know I think, Megan's going to be there."
"Shut up Liz."
While Liz was busy teasing Jason about getting gorgeous for Megan, someone else was busy trying to make himself gorgeous for her. (Not that it required much work on his part.)
Will Darcy stood in his large walk in closet, looking through his clothes, trying to find something appropriate to wear to Charlie's party. In the past few weeks, he and Charlie had become great friends and Will was definitely looking forward to this party, even more so when he heard from Charlie that Jane had invited her sister and her friend. He wasn't too pleased about Jason coming along. He saw them together all the time and although he had heard that there was nothing between them, he couldn't help feeling a little jealous every time she smiled at Jason.
Especially since she never smiled at him. Will had to admit that he looked forward to Mondays and Thursdays at 9:55 am, well it was usually more like ten by the time Liz made it to class. He loved to here her talk in class, she was very intelligent and almost always had something interesting to say. He loved the way she got so excited about William Blake's poetry, he loved it when Professor Williamson would ask her to read a passage. He loved it when she sat close enough to him so he could smell her shampoo. This was pretty easy, since her hair was always soaking wet.
As he finally grabbed a pair of khakis and a dark green polo shirt, Will Darcy finally allowed admitting to himself that he had a rather large crush on Liz Bennet, and she would be there tonight! He would see her in a couple of hours! He hoped he would get a chance to talk to her, maybe try and improve her opinion of him a bit. She would usually give him a quick hey how's it going when she ran into him on campus but other than that she rarely gave him the time of day. He didn't really know what he had done to offend her, but he hoped that tonight he could set things right and start over with her.
He arrived at Charlie's apartment a little bit early to see if he could help at all, but when he got there he found that Jane, Charlie and Mike who was Charlie's roommate had gotten things pretty much in order. They all sat down with a glass of wine to wait for the rest of the guests to arrive.
Around 8:15 everyone had arrived, except for Liz and Jason. Several jokes were made about Liz and her inability to ever be on time for anything. After a few more minutes there was a knock on the door and Charlie went and let in Liz and Jason. Liz greeted Charlie with a hug and quickly spoke to explain why they were late.
"I'm sorry we're late Charlie, but we had to stop off and pick up this." Liz smiled and pulled a small cactus plant.
Charlie laughed and yelled over to Mike, "Hey, Mike, Liz brought us another friend!" It was a tradition between them -- Liz always brought them a cactus at every dinner party. She always joked that it was the only living thing she would trust to their care.
"Come on in Liz, Jason. Do you kids want anything to drink? Non-alcoholic of course."
Liz rolled her eyes and told Charlie to get them some wine. She headed into the living room and was surprised to see Will Darcy sitting on the couch talking to Charlie's friend Evan. Well, she thought, he is good friends with Charlie. Although she couldn't think why. She was sick of listening to his pompous comments in class and wasn't especially looking forward to spending the evening with him tonight. However, she figured that there were enough other people there that she probably wouldn't have to talk to him too much.
They hung around in the living room for a while longer, until dinner was ready. Will was busy talking to Evan but he managed to cast a few glances at Liz. She's beautiful, he thought. He was used to seeing her in ratty jeans and t-shirts, with her hair either wet, or pulled back, but tonight it was down and fell to the middle of her back. He wanted to run his fingers through it, he was sure it would feel like heaven. She was wearing a pair of nice grey pants and light blue sweater that made her eyes look even bluer, if that was even possible.
At the dinner table Will found himself, much to his delight sitting across from Liz. However, she barely looked at him and rejected all his attempts at conversation with her. She wasn't outright rude or anything, but she made it clear that she didn't have much interest in talking to him. Will had to content himself with just watching her laugh and joke with Jason and Jane.
Charlie, who was sitting next to Will couldn't help but notice his friend's constant stares at Liz. He smiled to himself. He felt that Liz and Will would be great together. He could tell that Will was definitely interested, but Liz was a different story, she seemed to have formed some sort of dislike towards Will. Charlie decided he would try and fix this, maybe he could get Jane to help.
After dinner, the party returned to the living room. Charlie asked Will to come to his room for a minute on the pretense of showing him some soccer pictures he had on the walls. His real reason was, of course, to tease Will about Liz a bit.
"So Will," Charlie whispered when they reached the doorway of his room, "what do you think about Liz?"
Will stopped. Was he that obvious? He grew concerned and somewhat annoyed. Things hadn't gone well with Liz earlier and he didn't want anyone to know that he had a crush on a girl who obviously wasn't interested in him. These thoughts caused him to say some not too nice things about her.
"Liz? She's all right, pretty enough, I guess. But really Charlie, I'm hardly going to become interested in some silly sophomore girl." No matter how beautiful her eyes are he added to himself.
During this speech, Charlie's smile turned into a frown, which soon became an expression of horror as he noticed who was standing behind them.
"Well, Will Darcy," said the familiar voice and Will with an expression of horror that made Charlie's expression look like one of relief, turned around to see Liz glaring at him. "I'm terribly sorry that I don't measure up to your high standards. I should probably go, you guys probably don't want us 'silly sophomores' to hang around any longer. Charlie, it was kind of you to take pity on us and invite us here." With that she turned around and stalked back to the living room, completely forgetting that she had gone back there in the first place to go to the bathroom.
"Oh come on Liz," Charlie called after her, but he had known Liz long enough that talking to her when she was in this state would accomplish nothing. Instead, he turned his attention back to Will, whose face had turned a very bright red. "You are in for it now, Will." he sighed as his friend, who continued to stare blankly at the spot Liz had just vacated. "The wrath of Liz Bennet is not a pleasant thing to experience." Charlie stopped as he heard the front door of the apartment close, signaling that Liz and Jason had left.
Charlie took pity on Will, who still looked quite shocked, "Will, go and sit in my room for a few minutes, while I try and explain to Jane why her sister just stormed out of here."
Will suddenly looked even more horrified, "Please don't tell Jane what I said. I can't believe I said that!" Will said angrily, more to himself than to Charlie.
He took Charlie's advice and went into the bedroom and sat on the bed. He put his head down in his hands and began to silently curse himself for being so proud and stupid. He knew he had just completely ruined any slim chance he might have had with Liz.
Liz sat fuming on the Metro as she and Jason headed back to campus. Although Jason could understand why Liz was upset, he did feel that she might have overreacted, just a little bit. She really stormed out of there without a thought as to how it would affect Jane and Charlie, not to mention any of the other guests.
Jason thought about mentioning this to Liz but a quick glance at her face showed that it was still flushed, her jaw was still clenched and her eyes still glazed with anger. Being a former victim of the wrath of Elizabeth Bennet himself, Jason knew that now was not the time to discuss this evening's events. He would just have to wait until she had calmed down a little, and knowing Liz, that could take a while.
He almost laughed at the whole ridiculous incident and he accidentally let a snicker escape. This earned him a very withering glare from Liz. He sighed and leaned back into the seat and started feeling sorry for Will Darcy. In all honesty Jason didn't think that he had said anything too terrible. Well, except for the part about Liz being "pretty enough." I mean come on, he thought, anyone with eyes can see that the girl is gorgeous. As for the silly sophomore part, well, she may be his best friend, but he had to admit that was what she was acting like right now.
Liz was absolutely furious. She hadn't been this mad in at least a few weeks. How dare he! she thought. Just who does Mr. Will Darcy think he is? Stupid British snob. Silly sophomore, am I? Well, if it's sophomoric behavior he wants, that's what he's going to get!
If she had been capable of rational thought at that moment, Liz would have had to admit that she was being slightly ridiculous. She knew she had a terrible temper and it had gotten her into trouble in the past. She sighed, a very small part of her anger fading. She turned to Jason who was staring intently at the Metro map.
"I'm sorry I ruined the party for you."
Jason smiled at her, surprised that she was coming around so fast, "Hey, it's ok, you got upset." They were silent again for a while until Jason continued, "but you might want to give Charlie a call tomorrow and apologize to him."
Liz sighed again, "Yeah, I guess I overreacted a bit, but he just makes me so mad!"
Jason ventured a small laugh, "I noticed." he said, and then asked, "Why, though?"
"I don't know, he's just so condescending and full of himself, he gets me the wrong way."
Jason nodded and said, "Don't worry, it'll all blow over."
"I guess so," Liz answered, "just keep me away from Will--arrogant--snob--Darcy."
Back at Charlie's apartment everyone had left except for Will and Jane. The three of them were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Jane, who was somewhat embarrassed by her sister's behavior had tried to apologize for her several times, but these had all been dismissed by Will.
"She has every right to be angry with me," he said, staring into his coffee cup. "It was stupid of me to say those things."
"Why did you?" asked Charlie, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.
Will shrugged a bit, "I don't know, she was just so stand offish with me all night, actually since we first met. I don't know why, but she seems to have something against me. It made me mad, and I just lashed out."
"Listen, Will," Jane said, "Liz is a wonderful person, but she has her faults, a quick temper being one of them. I'm sure she'll calm down after a while." She gave Will a sympathetic smile.
"I hope so," Will replied. "I think your sister is a great girl, Jane and I'd, I'd really like to be friends with her." Will looked down into his coffee again and Jane and Charlie glanced at each other, acknowledging that they both knew that Will wanted a bit more than friendship from Liz.
During class on the Monday following the incident at Charlie's apartment, Will tried to talk to Liz. He jumped up as soon as class was over, even before he had put his precious computer away and practically ran over to where Liz was getting ready to leave.
"Hey Liz!" he called, "Could you hang on for a second, I need to talk to you."
She paused for a moment and turned slowly to look at Will's hopeful expression. He quickly grabbed his opportunity, "Listen Liz, I'm really sorry--"
But that was all he managed to get out. With an icy stare, Liz simply held out her hands, which were filled with the trash from her bagel breakfast and preceded to empty them into Will's open backpack that rested by his feet. She then turned around and calmly walked away.
Will was absolutely stunned. Did she just throw her garbage into my backpack? he thought. He didn't know what to do with himself. A few other students in the class, who had witnessed the scene laughed a little at the red-faced Will Darcy who stood dumb-founded over his trash filled backpack.
After a few moments, Will recovered himself sufficiently to remove Liz's trash from his bag and throw it away in the proper receptacle. He then packed up his precious computer and hurried in a daze to his next class. He still couldn't believe what had happened. So much for a peaceful apology and becoming friends.
Liz on the other hand was feeling very pleased with herself. The look on Will Darcy's face had been absolutely priceless. Liz almost laughed out loud as she remembered the way Will's eyes had bugged out of his head and his mouth had dropped open. Of course if she had seen the rather sad expression on his face as he had picked the trash out of his bag, she might not have been so proud of her actions. In fact, if she could see the unhappy look that was still on Will Darcy's face at the moment, she might even be a little ashamed at what she had done.
But Liz could not see Will's face and so she skipped merrily along to her German class with hardly a care in the world.
Unfortunately that happy feeling did not last too long once she reached class. The professor handed back last week's tests and Liz sighed as she looked down at a C-. She knew she was way out of her league in this class but there really wasn't anything she could do about it now. It was too late to drop a class without any academic penalties. At this rate she would be lucky if she could pull the C she needed to receive credit for the course.
After sitting for an hour in a class she didn't understand a word of, Liz headed back to her room and was pleased to see that Charlotte was still in class. Liz loved her roommate and they got along very well, despite the fact that Charlotte was a senior and Liz was only a silly sophomore. Liz was still glad to have the room to herself for a while. She picked up the phone and dialed Jane's cell. She picked up after two rings.
"Hey Liz, what's up?"
"I got a C- on my German test." Liz answered sadly.
"I'm sorry, I know how hard you studied for that test." Jane said sympathetically and then she remembered something that Charlie had told her the other day. "You know Liz," she ventured, not sure how Liz would react, "Will Darcy studied in Germany for two years. I think he fluent, maybe he could help you."
"Thanks Jane but I'd rather fail."
Jane sighed, "Liz he didn't mean what he said. He was just in a bad mood and caught off guard. You of all people should be sympathetic to that."
Liz was silent. As always her big sister had put her in her place. Jane was right, Liz was known for putting her foot in her mouth on several occasions. Suddenly Liz wasn't so thrilled to recall this morning's encounter with Will, maybe she had been a little bit immature. She changed the subject and Jane wisely let it go for the moment. After talking about random things for a few minutes, Jane got a beep. She clicked over and left Liz on hold for a little while.
Then Jane was back, asking her sister in a disbelieving tone, "Liz, did you throw your trash into Will Darcy's backpack?"
Liz didn't say anything.
"You did, didn't you?" Jane just could not believe her sister sometimes.
"I might have." Liz spoke slowly; she was slightly embarrassed by what she had done. "Was that Charlie on the other line?"
"Yes, he just talked to Will, who is very upset. Apparently he was trying to apologize when you decided to use his backpack as a trash can." Jane was quite annoyed with her sister's behavior. "I really think you went to far this time, Liz."
"Well, I'd hardly go that far." Liz said, her infamous temper starting to rise. "It's not as if there was a lot of trash or anything, I just wanted to cut him down a bit. He's so arrogant. I don't really see what the big deal is."
"When are you going to grow up? Liz, you're almost twenty years old. Do you realize that he was trying to apologize for calling you a 'silly sophomore' but you just went and acted like one. Except your behavior was more like a sophomore in high school's."
Liz knew that Jane was right, but she was in no mood to admit that now. Fortunately, Charlotte came in and Liz told Jane that she had to go but that she would call her later. Jane sighed into the phone again.
"Think about what I said, you should apologize to Will."
When she had hung up the phone, Liz turned to Charlotte and related the events of the day.
"Liz you silly fool, why didn't you let him apologize?" Charlotte was astounded by her friend. "I didn't even know you knew Will Darcy and I can't believe you threw trash in to the backpack of the British Ambassador's son."
"Will Darcy is the son of the British Ambassador?" This was news to Liz, not that it mattered who he was.
"You didn't know that?"
"No." I guess that explains some of his stuck up behavior, Liz thought, explains, not excuses.
Charlotte shook her head at her sometimes clueless friend, "By the way, I ran into Billy Collins today. He was asking about you. He asked me if you had a boyfriend."
"Great." Liz said sarcastically as she lay down in her bed for her afternoon nap. "And I suppose you told him I was 100% available."
Charlotte just laughed, knowing her friend's immense dislike for Bill Collins.
While Liz was busy napping, Will sat with Charlie in the cafeteria. Charlie was doing his best to keep Will's mind of the little run-in with Liz but he wasn't having much luck.
"She must really hate me." Will said, wishing that he didn't care. Why should he care? Who was the Liz Bennet and why did she get to him so much? Sure she's beautiful, but lots of girls are beautiful. Sure she's intelligent, but lots of girls are intelligent too. Why is she so special? Of course he already knew the answer to that question. I t was her eyes. That first day in class when she turned to him, flashing that cheeky grin, he had become lost in her sparkling blue eyes. There was something in them that pulled him in, captivated him and held him as if in thrall. He hated it. He hated that he was so affected by her. But what he hated even more was that she seemed to hate him.
"She doesn't hate you, Will." Charlie said, wondering whether that was true or not. "Liz can be a real pain when her temper's up. Just give her a few days and she'll cool off." Charlie hoped he was right.
Will really hoped Charlie was right.