Prologue

Posted on Sunday, 17 June 2001

Elizabeth Bennet could not stand William Darcy.

Plain and simple.

Somehow, she survived her senior year of high school with him in four of her classes, coming close to strangling him. It wasn't really her fault that she disliked him so much; at least that's what she told herself. They were total opposites; she was the class valedictorian, not a nerd, but conscientious about school. He was a jock. A lazy jock. A really lazy jock.

William Darcy was the most popular guy in their graduating class. A little over six foot, with dark, curly hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a good body to boot, girls flocked to William. He was a forward on the soccer team, forward on the basketball team, and first base on the baseball team. Most would agree that he had an excellent personality: friendly, open, and funny.

But Elizabeth didn't believe it. From the first moment she set eyes on William, she knew that he just acted that way to be popular. His ego thrived on being well liked, so he pretended to be easygoing. Elizabeth, however, saw him at times making faces at the "unpopular" kids, or heard as he made fun of others. It bothered her that he would act so sweet to everybody, and then turn around to be mean like that. She also hated the fact that he was lazy. Elizabeth knew that he could be smarter than herself if he actually tried; she had seen him rearrange algebra problems quicker than she could even think and argue politcis for a whole class period. But he never even tried to do well in school, and one of Liz's pet peeves was when intelligent people didn't take advantage of what they had.

Needless to say, when Elizabeth and William finally met that last year, they did not hit it off. Elizabeth never stopped telling him what she thought of him, and William couldn't understand why she disliked him so much. Elizabeth tried to avoid him as best as she could so she wouldn't lose her temper, while William try to keep out her way so he wouldn't be attacked by her mouth. Both of them could not wait until the end of the year.

Unfortunately, they were going to the same college.

Another turning point a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist directs you where to go
So make the best of this test and don't ask why
It's not a question but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable but in the end
It's right I hope you've had the time of your life

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos and memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable but in the end
It's right I hope you've had the time of your life

This was it. Graduation. And Elizabeth was at the podium giving her speech.

Friendship.

It was something the class of 2001 at Longbourn High was proud of themselves for: the friendship among the members of the class. Over the four years, the students learned to extend their attentions outside of their cliques, and even though it was impossible for everybody to know everybody, more and more friendships formed. Now that they were leaving each other, and they were sad that they weren't going to see each other again. Sad, but excited for college.

As Elizabeth gave her speech, she meant every word that she said. That is, until she caught eyes with William Darcy at the end of her speech.

Now there's somebody I hope to never see again, she thought. Hopefully I won't have to see him that much at college. That would just be a nightmare.

Meanwhile, in the audience, William was thinking something completely different. In the beginning of the year, he did think Elizabeth was rather annoying, always insulting him and not liking him. But towards the middle of the year, he began to find it intriguing.

Elizabeth Bennet, or Lizothy as he called her, was the only girl in the school who dared to tell exactly what she thought of him right to his face. And as much as he hated to admit it, he admired her for it, especially how her eyes lit up as she told him. He loved her eyes.

While he listened to her speech, he wondered what it would take to become friends with her. He had the inclination to, but every time he tried, she would just say something nasty, and he would go back into thinking she was annoying. And truthfully, he didn't know why she disliked him so much, especially when he was nice to her since the first day he met her. Women,he thought, Never will be able to understand them, especially Liz.

After the graduation ceremony, nobody wanted to leave. All 357 students were outside, mingling with all their friends and families. Well, trying to mingle. With 357 families gathered outside of a building, it was rather hard to find an individual person.

Elizabeth was trying to make it through the crowd, being stopped every so often to accept congratulations and compliments on her speech, when she spotted William. He was going around, hugging the graduates with a huge smile on his face.

Ha! He'd better be happy since he barely made it through. Hmph. Shouldn't say "barely" since he did get an honors diploma.

Elizabeth stood there watching, waiting for a gap to squeeze through to continue trying to find her friends when all of a sudden William was there hugging her. While she was in his embrace, she snapped while pushing him away, "Hey, Will, I am not one of your little followers. You can let go of me now."

Liz's voice snapped William into reality and he quickly let go of her. "Sorry, Lizothy, I guess I'm still confused after the nap that I had during your speech. Couldn't you make it more exciting?"

Elizabeth crossed her arms and glared at William. "Well excuse me, but I thought I heard people laughing and clapping. You probably just mistook it for one of your classes you sleep through."

"Well, Miss Hypocrite, at least I stayed up during chemistry class. You usually took naps during it."

"That is only because you had Joseph to entertain you. And there's a difference: even though I slept during that class, I ended up with an A. Doesn't it make you feel so smart that the valedictorian slept through classes and still gave that speech at graduation?"

"I could've gotten good grades if I wanted to." Now William crossed his arms.

"Right. If the rules of the male world didn't dictate that you have to be stupid. You could be intelligent if you wanted to. I know there's a brain in there somewhere. But the fact that you don't use it makes me lose respect for you more and more."

"Is that why you despise me so much?"

"Part of the reason."

"Why else?"

Elizabeth was getting tired of the argument, and she had just spotted her friends, so she quickly said, "Maybe if you find me on campus one day next year, I'll tell you. Until then, have a nice life." And she walked away.

When she got to her friends, they all noticed something was wrong and asked what it was.

"Oh nothing. Just that William Darcy really gets on my nerves."

"Elizabeth Bennet," Charlotte Lucas laughed, "You are the only girl I know who doesn't swoon at the thought of him."

Liz raised her eyebrows, "Well, I have my sights set on a better man."

"Who?"

"Alex Rodriguez."

At this, Elizabeth's friends burst out laughing and for the time being, all thoughts of William Darcy were driven out of Elizabeth's head. Both William and Elizabeth spent their graduation nights away from each other, remembering good old times with their friends, and wondering what was in store for them in college.

If they knew, they would have never believed it in a thousand years.

It's something unpredictable but in the end
It's right I hope you've had the time of your life*
* "Time of your Life" by Green Day

Chapter One ~ Freshman Year

Posted on Sunday, 17 June 2001

He played Fire on the Mountain
Run boys, run
The devil's in the House of the Rising Sun
Chicken in a bread pan picken' out dough
Granny does your dog bite
No child, no

~ "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Charlie Daniels Band

Elizabeth stretched and wiped the sweat off from her forehead. This humidity. Why didn't I just go north to school? Instead I just stayed in Ohio - down in Pemberley University.

"Well, I think that's all," Liz told her parents. "You probably should go so I can help my roommate get our room in order."

"All ready to get rid of your poor mother, I see," Mrs. Bennet cried, dabbing her eyes.

"Oh, Mom! You know that's not what I meant!" Elizabeth hugged her mother. She understood, really. Elizabeth was the first child to leave - then four years later, her sister, Mary would follow. For months, Liz had to listen to her mother complain about how old she was getting, and how she was going to miss her first born.

"But you're leaving me!" her mother cried out again.

"I'll see you in a couple of weeks, at parents' weekend. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Well, Baby Beep," her father gruffly said as he got his turn to hug his daughter, "don't get into too much trouble. No partying, and no talking to boys!"

Elizabeth laughed as she kissed her father's cheek. "Right. I just won't talk to anybody while I'm at it."

"That's the spirit!"

"Right, Dad. Now get in the car."

"Bye, honey. Try not to get into trouble," Mr. Bennet smiled at his first daughter.

"Don't worry, I will!"

Elizabeth stood outside the dorm, waving to her parents until they disappeared. With a huge smile, she turned to head back to her room on the third floor. This is great. Parents are gone, which means freedom!

Just as she turned the corner to go up one more flight of stairs, Elizabeth ran into a rather tall person. "Oh! I'm sor--" Elizabeth looked up to see the last face she wanted to see.

The two just stood there, for a moment, staring at each other in shock. Neither Elizabeth, nor William actually expected to see each other on the first day; after all, although considered a relatively small public school, Pemberley University was still rather big.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" William rudely asked. He had wanted to greet her in a friendly way, but the annoyed look on her face changed his mind. Even if William had wanted be nice, he still had his pride; he wasn't about to be friendly when he would just get shot down again.

"Why don't you get that stick out of your butt?" Elizabeth retorted.

Elizabeth's attention was distracted to the loud laughing from beside William. It wasn't until then that she noticed Joseph Fitzwilliam, one of William's best friends. Now, Joseph, Elizabeth could stand. He also used to be one of the "big guys on campus," but for some reason, Elizabeth could stand him. He was probably just as arrogant as William was, but Joseph, unlike William, didn't try to be nice to people just to be well-liked.

"Hey Joe," Elizabeth smiled.

"Hey babe," he returned. "You in this dorm?"

"The one and only," Liz laughed.

"Great. See you around, and maybe you'll finally agree to go out with me!"

"Yeah, right. Keep dreaming!" she chuckled as she watched Joseph try to catch up to William, who had stomped off when Joseph and Elizabeth started talking.

As Liz started walking to her room, she started pondering Joseph. He was definitely just as egotistical as William, and she had the same pet peeve with him: that he was smart but was just plain lazy. But for some reason, her relationship with him was different. It started in chemistry class, the only class she had with him and William. A teasing relationship developed between them where she would constantly call Joseph names, and he would constantly ask her out on dates but she would refuse.

Time and again, Elizabeth would try to persuade herself that it wasn't his smile that made her like Joseph Fitzwilliam. (Not like like, but like. In Elizabeth's language, that meant tolerate.) He was smaller built than William, but better looking. Even more of the girl student body at Longbourn High School was in love with Joseph than with William, but Elizabeth was persuaded that it was his eyes and smile that caused that.

Elizabeth was still smiling when she stepped into her room and took her first look at her roommate, who's things, but not herself, was there when Elizabeth came with her parents. The girl was petite and fair, and had an aura of natural beauty surrounding her. Elizabeth was glad to see that she wasn't all made-up like the typical female student at Pemberley.

"Hi!" Elizabeth greeted while extending her hand, "I'm Elizabeth, and I'm guessing you're Jane."

"Yep," Jane smiled while shaking Elizabeth's hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Same here. How long have you been here?"

"Since ten o'clock. I'm really sorry that I wasn't here to greet you. After my parents finished helping me move in, we went to lunch and to buy my textbooks."

"That's okay," Elizabeth smiled. "It's not your fault that my family can never make it to a place on time. We live only two hours away, but we can't seem to make it out of the house until at least after noon."

Jane laughed, "Well, I live only about a half hour away, so it wasn't a big deal to come here."

"Really? Have you always wanted to come here?" Elizabeth flopped herself on the bed to rest before unpacking.

"Not really," Jane replied after thinking for a moment. "I mean, I guess I always knew I would end up coming here, but it wasn't until I realized I wanted to be a schoolteacher and that this is a good college for education majors that I decided to come here. How about yourself?"

"Nope, I never really wanted to come here. I wanted to go out of state, but all the schools were so expensive, and after I visited the Chemistry Department here, I decided it was a good school to attend."

"Chemistry?" Jane asked with surprise.

Elizabeth chuckled, "Yes, I know I'm only tormenting myself, but science has always interested me."

"Knock knock" Elizabeth turned around to see who was at the open door.

"Charlotte! You found me!" Elizabeth hopped off her bed and hugged her friend. Although they had been best friends, they decided not to room together. They had heard too many stories of friendships breaking up due to disagreements when two friends roomed together.

"Of course I did! After all, we're in the same quad."

"Charlotte, I would like you to meet my roommate, Jane. Jane, this is my friend, Charlotte."

Elizabeth stepped back as she observed her friend and roommate greet each other and start talking. She liked Jane already, and she had a feeling they would become fast friends. Nothing would please her as much to see Jane and Charlotte become friends, too.

"... Okay Lizzy?"

Elizabeth was snapped out of her reverie by Charlotte's voice. "What? I wasn't listening."

"Obviously," Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we were thinking that we three should go to dinner now and then we can all go back to our rooms to unpack."

"Sounds good to me. Let's go!"

"Well, where should we sit?" Elizabeth asked when they walked into the eating area with their trays.

"How about over there, in the corner?" Charlotte recommended.

"All right," Liz started walking towards the table, but then stopped. "Wait a minute. Where's Jane?"

The two friends looked around until they found Jane talking to a guy. "Geez. First day here and the guys are already falling over her," Elizabeth laughed. "If only I had that luck."

"I wonder who he is. He's pretty cute."

"Hmm. Cute, but not hot. I like them dark."

"And you like arms."

"Yes, I love arms."

"Liz, you still crack me up."

Elizabeth pretended to be offended, "Fine. I try to be perfectly serious and you just blow me off! Oh look! Jane's waving us over."

"Hey, you guys. This is Charles Bingley. Charles, this is Elizabeth and Charlotte. Charles invited us to sit with him and his friends."

"Okay," Liz smiled, following Charles to a table. When he stopped, Elizabeth couldn't see who they were sitting with, but quickly, Charles got out of the way.

"You again?" Elizabeth snapped when she saw William. "I can't believe this. On this huge campus, we keep running into each other."

Charles shifted his feet nervously, "I guess you two know each other then."

"Unfortunately," Elizabeth mumbled.

"We went to the same high school," Joseph interrupted while getting up to greet Elizabeth with a kiss on the cheek and a hug.

Liz laughed, "You never give up, do you, Joe?"

"Not in a million years, Lizzy-bean."

"Lizzy-bean? Where did that come from?"

"Well, I though since William gets to have a nickname for you, so do I."

"Hey you two," William called, "if you ever finish flirting, Bing would like to make some introductions."

Elizabeth glared at William but stopped talking to Joseph to allow Charles to introduce his friends to Jane (Charlotte, of course, knew William and Joseph).

Dinner was rather pleasant, except for the icy wall between William and Elizabeth. Liz, for the most part, was able to forget he was there and have a friendly conversation with Charles, who she instantly adored for his character. It was too early to draw complete conclusions on the characters of Jane and Charles, but she was convinced their complimentary sweetness made them perfect for each other. So while Jane and Charlotte chatted about their homes while walking across the quad. Liz was uncharacteristically silent. She was involved in a matchmaking plan.

This will be fun.