Chapter 1
It was a dreary Tuesday at Meryton High and I was sitting with Char and Jane eating lunch. There were a few other people at our table, but I knew they were the only two I really cared to talk to. Jane was my sister, and just a year senior, and Char was a sophomore, like me. I'd always been close with Jane, unlike my other sisters. Char had been my best friend since kindergarten. For pretty much all my life, the three of us had shared everything with each other.
"So, what do you guys think of Charlie?" Jane asked, being nonchalant.
"Who, you mean Chuck? Chuck Bingley?" I knew it had to be, but I still wanted to ask.
"Yeah."
"What, do you like him?" Char wasn't much for romance herself, but what always interested in everyone else's love lives.
"Well, he asked me out."
"Really?" I tried to act surprised, but I knew he'd been eyeing her since he got placed in our Modern British Literature class.
"Yeah. And I mean, I think he's really cute. But I don't really know anything about him."
"He's friends with William," Char remarked.
William. Now that was one boy I couldn't stand. He was in several of my classes and he always did his work and everything with such pride and seriousness. I tried talking to him once since I figured he was just lonely or shy or something, but he totally blew me off. I decided then he was really a jerk. He has done nothing since to redeem himself. "William, eh? Not too promising." I saw Jane gave me a sort of sad look. "But Chuck seems much nicer. And he looks at you a lot in class and stuff. I mean, I think he really likes you."
"Really? I hope so. I do want to go out with him. He's so cute and he seems so sweet."
"Every girl loves a sweet guy," I said with a smile.
"And a rich one," Char added. "Chuck's well off."
Jane and I giggled. We then noticed two people coming up behind us. Char noticed them first, since she was sitting opposite Jane and I, and raised her eyebrows while looking up. Jane and I turned around. It was Chuck, and with him William. I held a smile for Chuck, but a slight look of disgust for William. How can someone be so absolutely horrible, hateful, arrogant, proud and yet so absolutely gorgeous at the same time? It's unfair.
"Charlie!" Jane exclaimed with a huge smile. "Sit down," she said, scooting over so he could sit in the space between Jane and I. Char motioned for William to join her on the other side, right across from me.
"We just wanted to see how you girls were doing," Chuck remarked with obvious pleasure. He seemed to really like being with Jane. She blushed, knowing he really only wanted to see her, and I shot her a grin.
"Well, we're all fine," I said warmly. "Just talking about the weather."
Chuck laughed. "I'm sure." Wow, he really did seem like a nice guy. Just by the way he acted, his general presence. It was warm and sincere.
"And you?" I asked, eyeing William. Although I didn't like him, he was fun to tease. He got extremely uncomfortable in social situations. His face got all hot when he was flustered, too. There's no harm in admiring his good looks from afar, right?
"I just go where Chuck goes," he shrugged. If you could even call it that. Everything that came out of his mouth was cold and sounded critical and proud, no matter what he was saying.
"What, are you like his bitch?" I asked with a laugh.
William colored a bit and looked nervous. He tried to change the subject. "So, how's your family?"
"What kind of question is that?" I laughed. But I didn't want to seem too rude, so I answered. "Mum is annoying and horrible, as always. Dad continues to put up with her. I dunno if you know of any of my sisters besides Jane. But, Jane's fine. And I also have Mary, Kat and Lydia."
"Big family," he commented coldly.
"Yeah. You got any siblings or anything?"
"A sister."
"Hmm. And your parents? Mine are... well, I guess tolerable. And yours are...?"
"Dead."
I stifled a laugh. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry. Just... your delivery. No, but I am sorry. That's really terrible." What a jerk I am. Even compared to him, that was awful.
"Yeah," he said soberly. I almost felt sympathetic for him.
"I'm such a jerk, I'm sorry." He straightened back up to his usual cold and hard self and I felt a little less bad about what I'd done.
"What are you two chatting about?" asked Chuck, who had been talking separately with Jane and Char.
"Not much. Families," I remarked, trying to be cheerful.
"You been talking about me?" asked Jane with a cheeky grin.
"Oh, of course not," I laughed.
The lot of us sat and chatted until the bell rang, some more than others. William hardly said a word the whole time and I found myself stupidly trying to figure him out. Who cares? He was a jerk and didn't deserve my attention. But my next class was American Lit, which I had with Will, so I felt it was only civil to walk with him.
"I really wanted to apologize for laughing," I said seriously. "I am such a jerk sometimes, that was so crude."
"It's fine." God, what was wrong with him? So absolutely cold all the time.
"Well, thank you. I promise I'm not like that all the time. I mean, I say things without thinking a lot, but... well." I laughed nervously. "So," I began, changing the subject, "you been reading Grapes of Wrath, yeah?"
"Yeah, I've read it before." I'm just trying to start a conversation! Why do you hate me so much? Can't you at least be civil?
"Oh. Well, I hate Steinbeck. Had to read Of Mice and Men in 7th grade, hated that."
"Hmm. I don't mind Steinbeck." I was hating him more by the minute. Proud, stupid William.
"Oh? Who's your favorite author?"
"I don't know. I always like the philosophers. Keynes and John Stuart Mill and the like."
"Oh, that's all economic. Not my favorite subject. I'm a sucker for poetry and romance."
"Yeah?" He almost seemed warm there. But I was probably imagining it. He was so handsome, he had to be at least semi-decent, right?
"Oh, completely. I'm so lame, I carry around a little book of Shakespeare's sonnets like I'm Marianne Dashwood or something," I laughed, embarassed that I'd actually just admitted that. "Sorry, I don't know... why the hell I'm telling you this." I felt like an airy, stupid, idiotic jerk. Why? Something to do with William, I was willing to bet on that.
"I think it's sweet," he said with a teasing smile. At least, I think it was a smile. Did he just smile?
We were coming up the stairs now, but our class we still had a few halls to go.
"Oh, thank you," I remarked archly, trying not to show how he was affecting me. I mean, we were just talking, but he had a way of making me feel confused, angry and nervous all at once. I usually had a power over people and was able to hold my wit. With William, it became increasingly difficult. I struggled to make myself feel above him, thinking that was the only way I'd be able to stand him.
"So," he began, his presence becoming increasingly warmer, "what movies do you like?" Odd. He was initiating conversation.
"Oh, I'm such a movie buff. You don't even know. Um... favorite? Moulin Rouge."
"Never seen it." His coldness seemed almost teasing now. And we were walking quite closely. I felt a little angry at myself for the thought that I might be warming to him. Just a little.
"Never seen Moulin Rouge?! That's terrible! You should stop by sometime and watch it." Oh my God. Did I honestly just invite William Darcy over to my house to watch a romantic movie? How the hell did that happen?
"Maybe," he remarked coolly with that hint of grin. Was it really a grin? God, he was good at confusing me. We were now walking into the classroom, just a few seconds after the bell. I took a seat next to Mayla, who was a casual acquaintance and the only one I knew and liked in the class. William sat down on the other side of me, which seemed only natural since we had come in talking together.
"So, what about you?" I continued.
"You mean movies?"
"Yeah. What's your favorite?"
"Don't know, uhh..."
"Good morning, class," interupted the very cheerful and slightly annoying Mrs. K. William turned from me to the front of the class, and as he did I gave him an arch grin. Don't know why, but he was confusing me with his warmth and strange gestures, so it seemed only natural to return the favor.
After Mrs. K put up the overhead, Mayla leaned over and whispered to me. "Were you just flirting with William?" What?!
"No!"
"C'mon, Elle, you were. Do you like him?"
"No! He's arrogant and stupid and I hate him," I said in a rushed and harsh whisper.
"Then why'd you just smile at him like that?"
"Smile like what?"
"That I want to have sex with you smile you just gave him."
"I don't want to have sex with him!" I was getting angry and it was hard to keep my whisper quiet enough so William wouldn't hear. I noticed he looked over sometimes and I blushed every time I noticed. We looked stupid.
"You sure?"
"Yes!" She raised her eyebrow. "Maybe, but I still hate him and I never would."
She giggled and looked up at the overhead to copy down the agenda for the day. The next hour or so we took notes while Mrs. K went off on tangents about how she wanted to take the entire class to America and experience the American culture we were reading about. Eventually, though, she had us get into groups to discuss different themes in The Grapes of Wrath. Mayla was sitting right next to me, so we nodded at each other to signify we'd be in a group. She looked over at William and then to me, so I invited him to join our group. He was already with Seta, a shy little Russian girl who didn't look like she knew anyone in the class, and we formed our group. We were assigned to think of a theme and then make a poster to explain it.
"I say we go with something easy like poverty," suggested Mayla.
"That's too obvious, though. How about..."
"Struggle?" interjected Sveta with a very heavy accent.
I smiled warmly at her. "Yeah, that's easy and it's not quite as obvious as poverty. That good?" The group nodded. I raised my hand and claimed the theme.
"Okay, so what do you guys want to put on the poster?"
"Uh, some quotes would be good. You guys finished the book?" asked Mayla. Will nodded and I said almost. Sveta looked a little confused. "Okay, well, I haven't, I'm to where they're like at the peach place."
"Has Casy come back yet?"
"No. Does he?"
"Yeah, a little after that. Gets killed, it's quite sad."
"He represent Christ?" piped in Sveta.
"Yeah, I think so. Like sacrifice." She smiled.
"His initials are JC," said William with a tone that suggested warmth but remained emotionless. Hmm. Still couldn't figure him out.
"Oh, you're right. So yeah, Jesus... So, who wants to do what? Someone want to get quotes? Um... like one about how there's no food and how parents can't even feed their kids. And one about... well, I don't know, someone can be in charge of that. And then someone can write them down and someone can color. And... I guess someone else can help find quotes."
"I'll write them down," offered Mayla.
"Okay, and I'll help find them... Sveta can color? You're an artist right?"
"Artist?" She seemed a little confused.
"Yeah, can you like do the pictures for the quotes?"
"Yes."
"Good. And, then you can help me find quotes," I said, looking at William. He was sort of staring at me, so I nervously laughed and he blushed and looked down at his book.
We worked for a good half hour and were pretty much done coloring when Mrs. K announced it was time to present. Presentations were always awkward in school. Little posters with inside jokes and bad quotes trying to be adquately presented by kids who laughed as they tried to say their funny lines to the unamused class.
When we got up, I did most of the talking. Mayla said the quotes, but didn't do any of the interpretations. Sveta didn't really understand what was going on and just smiled. William kept cold the entire time and hardly said a word. 2 minutes later, though, it was over. We had to take notes on the rest of the presentations, which I did poorly, but William took rather seriously. It was actually kind of cute the way he was so serious about monotonous and pointless little school tasks. No, not cute. Stupid. Right? I hated him. Yes. Not cute at all. Okay, he was cute, but only in his looks. I hated him. ... Right?