Chapter 1 - What A Day To Become 21

Poste on Friday, May 28, 2004

11:03 P.M.

June 3rd

It was a humid Thursday evening over at the Parkway Cinema 1 in downtown Savannah, Georgia. A rather large group of college students, parents with younger children, and teenagers were crowding around one of the reconstructed theaters that still only had one movie screen showings. It was a relic by itself as much as the city but its southern charms seemed to captivated everyone who came there.

Especially Elizabeth Bennet.

She had moved to Savannah four years ago when she got accepted to the most private art college in the country, Savannah College of Art and Design. It had nearly took her a year to save up the money for the first quarter before she was accepted for the state loans Georgia would give to students. Yet when she moved away from a small town in Middle Georgia, she was glad that to get out of the slowly overrun business/military town to somewhere she could really express herself.

Artistically and spiritually anyway.

"Come on, already!" She projected her voice as loud as possible so the ticket agents could hear. "It's almost midnight!"

"Lizzy!" Charlotte Lucas hissed and put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Calm down. I know you're excited but they'll open up when they get everything right. " She suddenly chuckled as Elizabeth turned her head and glared at her playfully. "I mean, at least the movies try to come back by a year or so apart. It's better than waiting three years for the third episode of Star Wars!"

Elizabeth's glare turned to a teasing manner. "I know, Charlotte. It's just..." She looked around at the large crowd of about forty or so spectators in line. Her lip puffed out in a pouty manner as she continued. "It's not every day that one of the Harry Potter movies comes out on your birthday."

"Even so." Charlotte chuckled. "You look as silly and as impatient as a teeny bopper waiting to see Justin Timberlake come down the red carpet."

Elizabeth's face turned into disgust. "How can you compare me with those things. Gah, don't make me start thinking about...Oooooh!” She shuddered at the thought as they moved up a few steps closer to the front. "I'm here to enjoy myself with my best friend, eat my expensive popcorn and soda, and see a beautifully-rendered CGI Buckbeak fly across the screen and save the day for Sirius Black."

"Hopeless." Charlotte said with a sigh.

The crowd became more animated as the doors finally opened up and were herded by ushers into yet another line. The extra forty-five minute wait was perfect for the girls as they saw Jane, Elizabeth's twin fraternal sister, who was getting her Masters in Historic Preservation and also working as assistant manager at the very theater, came over to them.

"What's the hold up, sis ?" Elizabeth asked with a bit of anxiety.

Jane held a small smile as she loved to see her sister get impatiently excited over anything she loved. "We're having technical difficulties, Lizzy." She folded her arms. "Ever since the Men In Black II film melt incident, we've been extra sensitive with how we run the projector. It's gets hot up there so we had to install three fans so we don't get another accident."

Elizabeth laughed happily. "I remember that, it was kind of funny seeing Michael Jackson's nose bubble up and melt away like that on the big screen. Well, the nose that he has left.“ The three burst out laughing.

“It’s kind of sad that you had to work tonight, Jane.” Charlotte said sadly as the laughing died off. “I mean, it’s as much as your birthday as Lizzy’s.”

Jane’s eyes narrowed playfully as she looked at her sister. “Well I asked for tomorrow-slash-fixing-to-be today-off because...” She smiled big.

Elizabeth frowned and folded her arms over her chest in a pouty way. “Because a certain somebody works at the theater and got to see the movie three days before me.”

The two other girls giggled at her comment. “Yes, it’s true.” Her fair-haired sister giggled more. “Twice actually.”

Elizabeth’s eyes flared slightly. “Twice! You told me once!”

Jane opened her mouth to reply but a man’s voice came from the walkie-talkie on Jane’s belt. She unclipped it and answered. “Yes?” A low muffled voice came out of the talkie. “All right, I’ll inform Mary King.” The talkie muffled again before dying when Jane reclipped it. “I got to go, guys.”

“Wait!” Elizabeth panicked seeing Jane walk away to the “Employees Only” door. “Is the movie good?!”

Jane turned back before she opened the door. “Much better than the first two! And your main ‘stud’ really shines in this one!” She playfully teased before disappearing behind the door.

Charlotte tilted her head at her friend with an arched eyebrow. “Main stud?”

“Alan...” The flare from Elizabeth’s eyes changed from outraged to a bit of lusty. The moment only lasted as a girl dressed up in a cloak and ducted taped glasses shouted to the crowd. "Ladies, gentlemen, and bookworm geeks alike! We are in!" The whole crowd cheered as they entered. The room had been specially decorated in celebration of the third movie release with glittery theater curtains and the staircase lights were in the four different colors as of the Hogwart's houses.

Elizabeth and Charlotte managed to get their way up to the center of the theater where they were slightly illuminated by the red staircase light. As they gotten comfortable, Elizabeth looked down at her waist and pressed the sides where the face lightened up a bright green. “In five, four, three, two...”

“One.” Charlotte in and grabbed her friend’s spare hand before she sat up and turned herself in floor view of the crowd. “Everyone, it’s my friend Elizabeth’s twenty-first birthday today!” She addressed loudly before the crowd seemed to be as happy for Elizabeth with cheers as they were to see the movie.

The only thing Elizabeth could do was hide her face under her long brown bangs as the entire theater sang “Happy Birthday” before the lights dimmed for the trailers.

10:32 A.M.

June 4th

“Alan...” Elizabeth moaned as she felt her staying up for the midnight showing was catching up with her as she opened her eyes. Ever since she moved to Savannah back in 2000 she had been staying at her Aunt Phillip’s townhouse. It was a bit more dodgy side of town but since it was the closest place to her major building of classes, it was better than paying nearly two-thousand dollars a year for dorms. Her sister Jane also went by this plan and slept in the bedroom right above hers.

Elizabeth felt the mid-morning sun rays warm up her face through the open bay window. When she finally decided that it was time to get up and not replay the movie she saw only eight hours ago, she gotten up. She went to the her small bathroom to freshen up, meaning brushing out her tangled shoulder-length brown hair from being in a braid all night and brushing her teeth.

Wiping her face off with the supposedly forbidden display-only wash-cloth, she went downstairs to the kitchen where she could hear her aunt talking on the phone.

“Oh Fanny, dear!” Aunt Phillips gasped as she was serving scrambled eggs with both of her hands with her new, as in third one replaced, cell phone between her cheek and shoulder. “Don’t listen to ol’ Thomas! You know ever since Lydia wore a cheerleader outfit for Halloween that it was her dream to go to a cheerleadin’ camp for her sophmore year!” The eggs nearly missed Elizabeth’s plate as she darted back to the kitchen.

Jane had placed her sister’s favorite cafe latte from the coffee shop inside of their local Books-A-Million before sipping her own. “Mother is at it again.”

“Daddy won’t let her go to cheerleading camp?” Elizabeth looked amused as she took off the top of her latte, blowing across the top.

“No. Lydia’s economic class grade was lower than what she was telling our parents.” Jane explained. “I don’t get it though, when we had Mr. Andrews he made it sound so fun and exciting and when I hear Lydia talk, she makes it sound like he is trying to put the wrath of g*d in them if they don’t get it on the first try.”

Elizabeth chuckled as she sipped on her latte and grabbed the salt and pepper shakers from the center of the table for her eggs. “Well when we were in high school he let us watch The West Wing and The Wizard of Oz since it was class related and when he didn’t feel like teaching that day.”

“Remember the flyswatter?” Jane’s blue eyes twinkled.

Her sister’s brown eyes twinkled also in a silent reply. “Mr. Andrews and his hatred of flies.” She chuckled as she remembered something as she ate her eggs. “He could right in the middle of a conversation about the meaning of life and will stop dead when he sees or hears the buzzing of a fly!” She gotten up in her seat and pretended that she held a flyswatter in her left hand. “He would get the swatter from his desk and stalk it like a tiger...”

“And we all felt bad if the thing landed on a student’s desk or notebook!” Jane giggled at both the memory and her sister’s acting.

“He would stop us from taking our tests to kill the fly. It could land on your test paper but he didn’t care. Splat!” Elizabeth’s eyes widen in excitement with her made the gesture of hitting the Belgian dining table with the imaginary flyswatter. “Yet he gave you extra credit points if that happened for some reason.” She muttered to herself, trying to figure out her odd Economics/Civics teacher’s behavior.

“Splat what?” Aunt Phillips called out as she came back into the room.

“Nothing, Aunty.” The girls said in unison with Elizabeth quickly sitting back in her seat.

Aunt Phillips sighed and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. “I swear you two.” She turned the corner of the table and sat down. She ripped off a piece of a paper towel from its roll that sat near the head of the table and puts it in her lap. A bottle of hot sauce in her other hand.“ Anyway, I was talking to your mother girls and is a millisecond away from divorcing Thomas if he won’t let Lydia go to the cheerleading camp in Florida.”

“She’s always a millisecond away from divorcing Father, Aunt J.” Elizabeth replied. “But Lydia lied about her grades so I think she deserves it.”

Aunt J. Phillips was held aback at that. “How can you say that about your sister, Lizzy?! Do you know how much many is in cheerleading scholarships? She could get hundreds if not thousands of dollars if she gets on the squad and competes!” She rattled on as she was caking the scrambled eggs with hot sauce. “But you wouldn’t know about that since you’re so anti-cheerleaders and jocks.” Her gray eyes darted at the brown-haired twin before averting to the other. “But Jane understands the potential of scholarships and is doing well for herself. At least she doesn’t have to pay back as much as you do! What is it, Eighty thousand dollars?”

Elizabeth looked down at her plate with a sudden lost of appetite.

“But I didn’t go into cheerleading, Aunty.” Jane said, looking at her sister with concern. “I was in the high school band playing the flute.”

“Marching band, jazz band, and got a thespian scholarship!” Their aunt counted off. She could see that her more quick-witted niece was being unusually quiet. “I’m not degrading you but you slacked off and missed your chances of not being in so much debt.” Her face softened slightly.

“ As long as I got here I don’t mind being so much in debt.” Elizabeth sighed deeply, her bangs falling over her teary eyes. This has always been a sensitive subject for her since her parents didn’t have much money to help out. Her mother had suggested of her going to the state college in their town but Elizabeth felt like it wasn’t enough for her.

Aunt J. Phillips sighed deeply as always when a normal conversation transformed into a financial argument. “Whatever your case is, I don’t think a bachelor’s degree in “visual effects” will help you out of debt.” Her hands rose in the air slowly. “But, what do I know?”

Elizabeth quickly ate the rest of her breakfast so she could get away from her aunt’s rants. When she got back to her room, she pulled her laptop from its usual resting place on the dresser and rubbed the touch-pad to wake it up. The black screen flickered away to show the last website she had visited, the main Yahoo! web page. She clicked refresh on the toolbar and waited for a moment for the Yahoo! News and advertisements to change, but so did the little letter icon on the top right to say “You know 3 new e-mails!”. After getting to the inbox she went to the first one.

From: “SCAD” < MsEhles@scad.edu >
To: “Elizabeth L.R. Bennet” <7luckycats@yahoo.com>

Subject: Post-Graduation Ball reminder

Dear Elizabeth Bennet,

We are happy to remind you that in two days is the Post-Graduation Ball held for the graduation class of 2004. The ball will be sponsored by local and out-of-state sponsors to the college and will be an opportune time to help you on your way to your ideal job in your field. The event will be at the Hyatt Regency Savannah Hotel on June 6th, 8:00 P.M. Be sure to bring your cards to give out to the representatives of the sponsors.

Elizabeth groaned. THOSE cards! At the beginning of her senior year she had to take a year-long course that would prepare them for balls and functions like this one. You had to learn how to make your own business cards and resumes so if a company is interested in your work, they would have everything they would know about your work while you were in college.

She went back to read the rest of the e-mail but only could see that it was the proper dress code and map to the hotel. After saving and moving it to her “Keepy” folder on the Yahoo! mailbox she checked the other e-mails. One was from her father with an attachment of a comic strip. It was about how someone was getting sick of trying to match socks to the microscopic level and then turns around and buys one-hundred and thirty-two new pairs of identical white socks.
For a small moment that had brighten her morning, it seemed every time she was down that her father would e-mail her something funny.

But the other was more interesting to her. It was subjected: “Your SCAD Online Resume”. She had clicked the box to see a very detailed HTML e-mail from a company called “D&F Studios, Inc.” The e-mailed seemed too flashy to be something of great importance.

“Spam.” She snorted and chunked it in the Trash folder.

After replying to a few e-mails from her sisters and her Aunt Gardiner about how their trip to California was, she just closed the top of her computer. Laying back on her big fuzzy black blanket that one of her ex-boyfriends gave her for a Christmas present, she started to get sleepy. “What a day...” She yawned and looked at the clock. It was only twelve-thirty.

Only, twelve-thirty. She thought and rolled herself into the blanket and grabbed the nearest pillow in reach. It’s my birthday... I can sleep in all I want. I can worry... about... balls... later... Jane won't min...d...