Jump to new as of June 26, 2001
"Miscommunication could be considered the bane of human existence," said Mrs. Jane Bingley to her sister, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, one day. "It has gotten many a hero or heroine into many a sticky situation."
Elizabeth smiled at her sister. "But you have to admit that miscommunication does make life more interesting. Maybe not your life but most certainly the lives of those around you and especially the lives of the characters in those novels you like to read."
Jane blushed at Elizabeth's reference to her collection of steamy romance novels. "Lizzy!" she exclaimed. "Please don't mention that here."
Jane was quite right. The location was not exactly the place to be having this discussion, but Elizabeth would not be persuaded. "Why shouldn't we discuss Ms. Lydia's traumatic love life here?" she asked. "It is much more interesting than discussing last week's episode of Dawson's Creek!"
They were sitting at the front counter of Maddie's Kids, the child care center where they both worked. Maddie was their aunt, and she owned the center along with her sister, Fanny Bennet, who happened to be Jane and Elizabeth's mother. Ms. Lydia was another employee of "the center". She had two boyfriends, George and Denny, and Elizabeth found her to be quite interesting.
Thinking that the topic was really inappropriate for the front desk, Jane decided to change the subject. "Are you going to the store to pick out your new computer?" she asked.
"Yes," Elizabeth grinned, "I do believe I will be paying Charles a visit this evening." Charles was Jane's husband, and he was also the manager of Netherfield Electronics. A few months before, Elizabeth mentioned her need for a new computer to him. She was sick of sharing one with her two younger sisters, but she couldn't really afford a new one herself. She was only able to work part time in the evenings because she attended classes at the local community college in the mornings. Charles had explained to her that he could give her a major discount on several models, so she began saving money. They had discussed the issue again recently and decided that she was finally able to afford it.
"Well," Jane said as she looked at her staffing sheet, "we really don't need you this afternoon, so if you want to go now......"
"Really?" Elizabeth asked. "Are you sure?"
Jane smiled and nodded, and Elizabeth was out of the door before anyone could change Jane's mind.
The past year had quite possibly been the worst of Will Darcy's life. So many horrible things had happened to him that it is no wonder that he and Elizabeth got off to the wrong start. The following is a brief description of Darcy's misfortune:
In April of the year before, Will and his best friend, George Wickham, were accepted to the university they had always planned to attend together. It was only thirty minutes away from their home town, so they decided to continue living with their parents for their freshmen year. George's family couldn't really afford the tuition, so Will's father offered to pay. This seemed like the perfect situation until the relationship between Will and George began to deteriorate.
George was attending a lot of parties at the time and began drinking heavily. Will knew that if he planned to go anywhere in life he couldn't begin those habits, so he began avoiding George. The partying continued even after the semester began, and consequently, George soon dropped out. When Will's father found out, he became very angry and forbid Will to see him anymore.
Sometime in December, Will's mother contracted a terrible strain of the flu. She was hospitalized for over two weeks which was terrifying to the Darcy family. Mrs. Darcy recovered fully, but her family was still very concerned over her health.
In February, George showed up on the doorstep of Will's garage apartment claiming that his parents had kicked him out and he had no other place to go. Will, being the sweetheart we all know he truly is, decided to give George a second chance and invited him to stay the night. When he woke up the next morning, he found that George had was missing as well as the two hundred dollars he had been saving to buy his sister, Georgiana, a birthday present.
On Georgiana's birthday, which was in March by the way, Will took the day off from work to help her celebrate. He arrived home to find Georgiana on the couch underneath a half dressed George Wickham. He pulled George out of the house by his ears, and they ended up in a fist fight. Mr. and Mrs. Darcy arrived home soon after, and Will and Georgiana never did get a chance to discuss what had happened. They lied to their parents about the bruises Will had received in the fight, and their relationship had been strained ever since.
To top it all off, Will absolutely hated his job. The only good thing about it was his friendship with his boss, Charles Bingley. That's right folks, Will worked at Netherfield Electronics, and it most certainly wasn't his dream job.
He wanted to be a child psychologist with all of his heart, so it only seemed logical for him to look for a job that entailed working with children. Will searched for such a job but was met with hostility and prejudice as a man trying to seek a job in a field made up primarily of women. He soon gave up his search and began looking for something else. He went to Netherfield Electronics to retrieve his father's computer which was in the shop for repairs. He walked out with a job.