Jump to new as of January 2, 2001
Jump to new as of February 4, 2001

Part I

Chapter 1

Posted on Sunday, 26 November 2000

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 had the time of your life.
"time of your life" - green day

Elizabeth Bennet sighed as she walked into her third period physics class. Glancing around the room, she found her friend, Rachel, and walked over to the four-person table she sat at.

"Long time no see, Rachel," Elizabeth greeted as she sat down next to her friend.

"Oh yeah. What was it? Just last period?" Rachel laughed.

"Yep. And then it was the period before that."

Despite it being the first day of school, the two girls laughed because not only was it the first day of school, it was the first day of their senior year. The Senior Year. A year to have fun, intimidate underclassmen, and develop an acute case of senioritis... All before they were dumped back at the bottom of the barrel again in college.

However, Elizabeth was not willing to come down with senioritis yet; the classes that she just came from with Rebecca would prevent that. They had just come from A.P. Government, and before that, A.P. European History. Taking out her schedule, Elizabeth sighed when she saw the other classes she had to survive through.

"Tell me, what was I thinking when I signed up for all these classes?"

"Hey! We warned you that you were insane! Now you have to live with it."

"Ha ha ha. I will. It won't be any trouble at all. Even if we have those three textbooks for European history alone."

"Oh well. It'll be fun with Mr. Young as the teacher."

Just then two girls sat down with Elizabeth and Rachel. Elizabeth knew the tall blonde from her brief indoor track phase, but didn't recognize the other blonde. She knew Karen was a junior, and assumed the other one was, too. But why in the world would you want to take this class as a junior?

"Are we the only girls in here?" Karen questioned as she looked around.

Just as Karen asked, Elizabeth heard a loud giggle and looked across the room to see another girl flirting with some guys. Pointing her out to the others, she replied, "Nope. But I don't think we can count her as one of us 'cuz she seems like a ditz to me."

"Argh. She is. I had the luck to be in classes with her last year."

"Poor Rachel."

"I hope we get to keep these seats," the unknown girl said. "I don't want to be stuck with one of those idiot guys."

"Oh, I know. I wish they didn't take away the honors classes. We would've had better luck being with smart people."

Just as the other three girls agreed with Karen, Ms. Long called the class to order. And she began with new seat assignments.

"Senior year in high school," Elizabeth mumbled, "and we can't even pick our own seats."

Elizabeth and Karen were both put in the second table, but Rebecca, the fourth girl, Rachel, and Julia, who was the fifth girl in the class, were all separated.

The two boys at Karen and Elizabeth's table were unknown to the latter. Well, unknown as in she never talked to them before. She recognized the face of Jeff, who sat across from her, and she heard of and knew by sight William Darcy, the guy who sat diagonally from her and was currently staring at her.

William Darcy was one of the most popular, if not, the most popular boy of the senior class. Captain of the soccer team, star of the baseball team, and class clown, William was never one to be without friends, nor a hoard of girls following him. It was not a mystery why; William was tall and dark with a funny personality to go with his incredible looks. He was born to be popular.

Through the first three years of high school, Elizabeth always knew who he was, but never actually talked to him. The closest she had ever gotten to be in a class with him was in sophomore year. The English and history classes were in a blocked period so when the two teachers could tie their subjects together into one lesson, they opened the folding wall to teach both classes at the same time. William and Elizabeth were in opposite classes.

The only other "interaction" Elizabeth ever had with him was a couple incidents after school. Occasionally, both Elizabeth and William would be at their lockers a couple of minutes after the last bell rang, and as Elizabeth walked past him after packing her bag, she would always find him staring at her. So, the little staring act he was performing now didn't bother her; she just turned her head and ignored it.

The next day in physics, Elizabeth was quietly taking notes when she heard a weird noise. Not a noise made by an object, but by a person. Taking her attention away from the teacher, she turned her head to see William Darcy not taking notes and making sound effects.

"Hello Liz!" William whispered from across the table.

Shaking her head, Elizabeth returned to her notes only to be interrupted again by more sound effects. This time, William only widely smiled at her. The third time, he finally got a smile out of Elizabeth.

"You're an idiot," she whispered across the table.

William's jaw dropped in feigned shock as Karen gasped and then laughed. "Liz! You're so mean!"

"I am not!" Elizabeth protested but laughed along with the table. "Besides, he's the one making the stupid noises!"

"I am not!"

"Oh yeah. Of course you're not," Elizabeth replied sarcastically.

"I just don't see why you're being mean to me."

"I'm not being mean!"

"Sure you aren't."

Before Elizabeth could respond with another useless retort, the teacher told their table to be quiet and pay attention. Looking at William, Elizabeth shook her head at him, but William only grinned.

The grin widened when Ms. Long announced that they were going to do a lab on Friday, and everybody was to do the lab with their groups. "Hey, Liz! You get to hang out with me all quarter!"

Somehow, Elizabeth managed to suppress a groan.

"He's an idiot!"

On the other end of the phone line, Jane laughed at her friend. "I could've told you that one. I was in English and history class with him sophomore year. You have to admit, though, that he is funny."

"Yeah, I'll give you that one. But he would've been funnier if I didn't have to be a lab partner with him. Friday is our first lab. I wonder how that is going to go."

"Hmm. By the way that you described your physics class, all groups are probably going to have problems."

"Hmph."

"And wait a minute. Not everybody in your physics class are idiots. If they were, they wouldn't be taking physics. And especially William, seeing that he's in your A.P. government class too. He can't be that stupid."

"Yeah, I guess so. It's just that he, and the rest of the class, act so... immature."

"They're guys. They're supposed to act like that."

"Hopefully they'll change in college."

"Hmm. Speaking of college, have you thought any more on where you're going to apply to?"

"Not really. The only ones I know for sure are Miami and O.S.U. and that's only because they're state schools."

"Same here."

Elizabeth sighed and included, "Most of the time, I can't wait for college, but then there are others where I know I don't want to leave the bubble of my family."

"I know! I can't think of what it'll be like without my parents there to do everything for me."

"Yeah, but you'll be happy if you end up going to the same college as a certain person we all know," Elizabeth teased.

"Shush up! There's a big chance that we won't go to the same college."

"Nah. I can see you and Charley-boy going to the same college, living in the same dorm, marrying during the summer after graduation, and then living happily ever after with lots of kids. You as a lawyer or a journalist and he as an actor on Broadway and then in Hollywood. You'll be living the high life."

"And you?"

"I'll have a hot and rich husband of course."

Jane laughed. "Yes, I can see you living in a huge house with ten kids."

"And our two families getting together on holidays; our husbands sitting in front of the TV watching football or baseball and us stuck in the kitchen cooking for them."

Jane laughed at the description Elizabeth made of their futures. "I can just see it. You're probably right."

Elizabeth checked the time. "Ahh! I have to go now. Mets are on, and I have to watch my future husband pitch."

"Hampton? Isn't he married?"

"Yeah. But that's no problem. He just doesn't know he loves me yet."

Her friend snickered. "Okay. See you tomorrow then."

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Hey Liz." Elizabeth looked up from organizing her papers in her binder to William.

"Yes?"

"Check out this picture I drew."

Elizabeth looked at the paper William was pulling out of his folder. At first it looked like something teenagers shouldn't be drawing during physics class but then a smiley face appeared on it and William flipped the paper the other the way.

"It's Larry the cucumber."

"Larry the cucumber?"

"From Veggie Tales," Karen answered for William.

"Veggie Tales?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrow.

"Yeah. Cartoons that we show little kids in Sunday school to teach about the Bible."

"Ahhh."

"Yeah. Larry sings the hairbrush song," William included.

"Does he really?" Elizabeth asked in a disinterested voice. "Why don't you sing it for us?"

"Okay!" William grinned and started singing.

Rolling her eyes, Elizabeth commented to Karen, "I really didn't mean for him to start singing."

Karen smiled at her comment and replied, "Don't mind him. He really loves his Veggie Tales."

"Do you two go to the same church?"

"Yeah. We teach Sunday school."

"Ahh" Elizabeth was surprised. She never pictured William as a Sunday school teacher, but she figured that she didn't know him well enough to know what he was and wasn't like.

"Hey Liz."

"What now?"

"Wanna hear a story?"

"Not really."

"It's funny."

"Knowing you, it's probably gross."

"Not it's not! Do I look like somebody who tells gross stories?"

Elizabeth gave him a pointed look but agreed to hear the story.

"At lunch yesterday, I went to throw something at Amber. You know Amber, right?" Elizabeth nodded. "Well, she ducked and it hit Joan instead!" William seemed to think this was the funniest story ever and burst out laughing.

Elizabeth managed to keep a straight face for a few seconds, but William's apparent amusement in his story caused her to rest her head on her hand as she gave in and laughed. This is going to be a long year.

Chapter 2

Posted on Friday, 29 December 2000

"You're doing it wrong!"

"No, I'm not! Would you like to do it, Liz?" William replied sarcastically.

"Yes!"

"Too bad!"

"What is going on here?" Ms. Long interrupted the argument to check up on the lab group.

"Nothing," Karen answered. "They're just arguing about the lab."

"Well, I can solve the argument." Ms. Long watched what William was doing, quickly corrected him, and then moved on to the next group.

Elizabeth stood next to William, smirking. "I told you it was wrong."

"I told you it was wrong," William mimicked as he practiced bouncing the ball for the lab.

"Are you two done arguing now?" Karen asked.

"Yes, we are," William replied as he prepared to start. He was about to let go when he remembered that he had no way of recording the measurements and quickly ran back to the group's table, got his paper, and then placed it in front of Elizabeth.

"Thanks Lizothy."

"Lizothy?" Elizabeth's eyebrows raised.

"Yep. That's your name."

"You presume to know a lot about me, Willie."

William was about to retort when Karen interrupted them. "Enough! I want to get this lab done sometime this week."

Elizabeth looked at William with an expression that said, "Go on."

For most of the lab, the two sustained from arguing, but towards the end, William had to lie down on the floor to bounce the ball from a small height. Smiling wickedly, Elizabeth pointed out, "You know, you are awfully vulnerable down there."

"You wouldn't hurt me Lizothy."

"Would I?"

"You can't now!" William exclaimed as he jumped up.

"Hmph." Elizabeth handed William back his lab paper.

"Thanks!"

"You have to come, Lizzy! It's our first home game! And you have to see me perform!" Jane and Charlotte, Elizabeth's two best friends, were trying to get her to go the football game. Jane was in the flag corps, while Charlotte played the clarinet.

"I don't want to. I don't want to have school spirit."

"Does going to a football game mean you have school spirit?" Charlotte questioned.

"Yes!"

"Do you have to be so obstinate?" Jane asked.

"Yes!"

"Well what difference does it make about marching band anyway?" Jane pouted.

"Why? What happened?"

"Charles dropped out of it so he could focus on the play."

"Awww. I'm sorry." Elizabeth put a comforting arm around Jane's shoulders. "You'll always see him in the hallways and everything. I wouldn't give up hope."

"I guess it really doesn't matter anyway," Jane stated. "After all, we're all going to be separated after high school."

Charlotte sighed, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Hmph," Elizabeth put in.

The girls sat around sulking for a while, thinking of how sad it is going to be to leave everybody after graduation, until Charlotte chirped, "New subject!"

"Yeah!" Jane smiled wickedly. "How's William Darcy, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth groaned. "Great, just great. Obnoxious as usual. And he's calling me Lizothy!"

"Lizothy? Where'd he get that one from?" Charlotte asked.

"Don't ask me."

"Hmm," Jane thought.

"Hmph," Elizabeth pouted.

Charlotte just laughed.

Elizabeth sighed as she sat back in her chair. Today, they were to do another physics lab. Something she was not looking forward to.

Tuning the teacher out, she glanced over at William. What she saw made her laugh (silently as not to get in trouble by the teacher).

"William," she whispered to get his attention out of his daze. "Did you comb your hair this morning?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You may want to look in a mirror."

Karen looked up from her doodling to see what Elizabeth found so funny. At the sight of William's hair, she had to cover her mouth with her hand to stop laughing.

"What is it?" William questioned.

"Your hair is kind of sticking up in one spot of your head."

"Are you serious?" Elizabeth nodded. "Do you have a mirror?" She dug her mirror out of her purse and handed it across the table to William. Silently, she watched his expression change from horror to a smile. "All right! This is sweet!" Elizabeth laughed as she saw him take a piece of paper he tore up into a long strip and outline the unruly section of his short hair.

"You like your new hairstyle?"

"Oh yes. It gives me an excuse to sing Veggie tales!"

"Again?"

"Yes!" he smiled as he began to quietly sing the hairbrush song.

"Oh dear," Elizabeth laughed.

For the rest of the teacher's lecture, William would sing the hairbrush song whenever Elizabeth would look over at him to snicker. Finally, Mrs. Long stopped talking, and the groups were left to do their labs.

The students were to walk in front of a motion detector that was hooked up to their calculators and to analyze the graph that the calculator made of the movements.

"Who's going to walk in front of it?" Karen asked the group.

"I will!" William volunteered.

"This will be interesting," Elizabeth muttered under her breath.

"I heard that, Lizothy!"

"I don't care, Willie."

"You know, only my grandma calls me that."

"Well, you are the only one who calls me Lizothy."

"But it's your name."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is."

"No. It isn't."

"Yes it is. It's on your birth certificate."

"So you are from New Jersey, too?" Elizabeth teased.

"No, but your mom and I go way back together."

"Uh huh."

"Yep. We used to sit on the patio, drinking lemonades. She would talk of her little Lizothy..."

"And not my sister?"

"Of course she'd talk of your sister. What was her name again?"

"Janine."

"Yeah. Janine."

"Is she older or younger than me?"

"Younger," William said, assuredly.

"Older," Elizabeth corrected.

"Well, at the time she was younger."

"Really? Well, some people do think I am older."

"See! I told you she was younger!"

"Okay!" Karen interrupted. "Enough of this chitchat. Let's get some work done."

"Yes, let's, Lizothy."

"Hey! I wasn't stopping you!"

"Of course you weren't," he replied sarcastically before getting up to do the lab.

After the first try, William walked too fast, so the graph came out too narrow and scrunched, so he tried it again. It came out the same.

"William, why don't we just have Elizabeth do it?" Karen suggested.

"Fine, go ahead." Elizabeth smirked at him and then tried it.

It only came out a little better.

"Ha! See! Lizothy can't do it either!"

Elizabeth frowned at the calculator screen. "No, I think we both did it right. We just walked too quickly." She shrugged. "I say just use this one. We'll waste too much time."

She was about to do the next step on the instructions when William's paper caught her eye. "Umm. William? Why did you sign your name on your lab five times?"

"I'm practicing my autograph."

"For what?"

"For when I go pro."

"Baseball?"

"Yeah."

"You'll never make it."

"Yes I will."

"Small chance."

"Well, I will! And then when your kids ask for my autograph, I won't give it to them!"

"You wouldn't do that to my poor kids!"

"Yes I would!"

"You would be cruel like that?"

"Well, maybe I'll give them my autograph, but I'll be sure to tell them how mean their mother was to me."

Elizabeth laughed. "Sure, go ahead. I'm sure they would believe you, too."

"They will."

Elizabeth only shrugged and continued on with the lab.

Elizabeth was doing homework in her room when her father came home from work and called for her.

"Yes, Dad?"

"Did you get any grades today?"

Elizabeth sighed but answered, "No, Dad. Not today."

"Okay, honey."

Elizabeth hated when her father did that to her. She always got good grades, but she was always fearful that she would bring home a bad grade. To her parents, is she got anything under an "A," they would think she didn't try as hard, and then threaten to take away any privileges she may have.

It didn't make matters any better that her older sister, Janine, was in her senior year of college, majoring in Chemistry, and had a 4.0 in her area of study. It seemed as if Janine was the perfect child, and Elizabeth had to live up to her parents' standards of being perfect.

Oh well, Elizabeth thought as she flopped down on her bed to continue reading her history. Just part of growing up, I guess.

Chapter 3

Posted on Friday, 2 February 2001

"What are you doing?"

Elizabeth looked with irritation at William. They were in physics again, and were preparing for another variation in the motion detector lab. William decided that it would be fun to turn it on and wave the detector in front of Elizabeth's face. When asked what he was doing, William only chuckled.

"William! Stop that!" Normally, Liz wouldn't have been too irritated by William's teasing, but she was sleep-deprived from the weekend and having a clicking motion detector centimeters from her face wasn't too comforting. To try to stop him, Elizabeth swatted her hand in the air as she as trying to push a fly away. She only managed to make William drop the instrument.

"Lizothy! Look what you did!" William exclaimed loudly, hoping to get Elizabeth in trouble before reaching to pick it up again.

Quick as a flash, Elizabeth reached out and slapped his hand.

"Ouch! Why'd ya do that for?"

"Cuz you're being annoying!" Although it sounded as if Elizabeth was yelling at him, she was actually smiling. Leave it to William Darcy to make me smile when I am having a bad day... even if he is a moron.

"Fine. I'll stop," he pouted.

"Thank you!"

The next day, Elizabeth was pretending to work while she thought something over. One of the things girls boasted of at their school was that the boys soccer team always changed out in the open, near the practice field. It was something the girls took for granted, never questioning it because they rather enjoyed it. However, the question of why they did it suddenly came to Elizabeth's mind.

"Hey, William."

"What?"

"Can I ask you something?"

At first William, just looked at Elizabeth with a questioning look and then he grinned, "No, Liz. I will not go to homecoming with you."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, commenting, "Whatever," before trying again. "Seriously, I want to ask you a question."

"What?"

"Why does the soccer team change out in the open?"

At the question, William chuckled. "I never thought about it really. It's not like we do anything indecent."

"It's not that I'm complaining! It's a pretty good sight to see."

"Well, I guess we do it because we're proud of our bodies." William looked at Elizabeth while she laughed. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, it does," Liz chuckled. "Thank you."

However, the peace was not meant to last for a long time. Two minutes later, William got Elizabeth's attention again.

"Hey Lizothy."

Elizabeth looked up from her lab. "What?"

"Catch!" Saying this, William threw a crumpled up piece of paper at her.

Since it caught her by surprise, it landed in her lap. Elizabeth looked around the room quickly, to make sure Ms. Long couldn't see her, and threw the paper ball at William, who was hit in the head.

"Hey! Lizothy's throwing paper at me!" he exclaimed, trying to catch the teacher's attention. Seeing that Ms. Long didn't care, he threw the ball back at Elizabeth. She calmly held the ball in her hand until Ms. Long passed their table to help somebody at a nearby one.

"Try to hit my hand," William offered, holding his hand so that if she missed it, the ball would hit the teacher; Elizabeth knew he was trying to trick her.

"I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because you're going to move your hand so it hits Ms. L."

"I will not!"

"Will to!"

The two quieted down when they saw the teacher to come help Karen with a problem she was having (since she was actually doing her work). When Liz saw Ms. Long concentrate on a problem, she quickly threw the ball at William.

"Aww! Come on, Ms. L! You had to see that! Liz threw paper at me!"

"Liz? Throw something? She would never do that!" Ms. Long smirked at William before walking away, leaving William with his mouth wide open.

"I can't believe you got away with that!"

Elizabeth only laughed.

"Homecoming, Shmocoming," Elizabeth muttered. "Stupid ritualistic thing."

"Waste of time," Elizabeth's friend, Kitty, commented.

"Hmph."

Elizabeth and most of her friends were seated on the bleachers, waiting for the annual Homecoming pep rally to begin. None of Elizabeth's friends had much school spirit, excluding the friends who were in marching band, and Lindsay, who was a cheerleader.

Soon, the gym quieted down as the pep rally started. As usual, the first thing they did was introduce the homecoming court. Impatient for the day to end, Elizabeth didn't listen much to what each person did - until a certain name caught her ears. William Darcy.

Intently, Elizabeth listened to the description of him. Sunday school teacher. Part of the youth group. Likes to read Bible. Wants a wife, four kids, a dog, and a cat in the future. Elizabeth read down the list in her mind. Hmm. Sounds sweet. Too bad he's a moron.

After they finished talking about him, Elizabeth leaned over to Jane and whispered, "There's more to him than I thought."

"Oooooooh! So you do like him!"

"I do not!"

"Yes you do!"

"I don't!"

"Maybe if you tell that to yourself long enough, you'll actually believe it."

Instead of responding, Elizabeth just turned her head.

It was the next week when Elizabeth, Jane, Charlotte, and Kitty found themselves at a soccer game. Lindsay was a varsity soccer cheerleader, and that night was "senior night," where all senior players are introduced and walked down the field with their parents. The four friends decided to go to support Lindsay, but as Kitty put it, they didn't mind watching the soccer players either.

Senior night was something that all athletes would like to remember, so Lindsay's parents distributed the video camera and two picture cameras to the friends to take the pictures as the Smiths walked their daughter down the field.

Lindsay was about to leave to go with her parents when she turned back to instruct Elizabeth. "Liz, remember to zoom in on William Darcy."

"Umm. Why?"

"Because I like him. I thought you knew that."

"...Just like you, Liz," Jane muttered.

"Hey now," Elizabeth glared at Jane before turning back to Lindsay. "How can you like that guy?"

"Umm. Because he's hot? And sweet?"

"Are you insane?"

"Don't mind her," Charlotte cut in. "She's in denial. She really likes him too, but claims she doesn't."

"That's because I don't!"

Lindsay was about to respond before her parents called for her to hurry. Quickly, she left, and the four friends were left to take pictures of the soccer team and its cheerleaders.

Forty-five minutes later, the girls were watching the game, huddled up within their coats.

"It's cold out here," Kitty shivered. "They should have these games in the daytime."

"Hmmm." Elizabeth wasn't exactly listening. Although she wasn't athletically inclined, years of watching sports on television with her father taught her to love to watch any sport, and that night, she found out soccer wasn't any different.

However, the game was starting to get rather boring. It was in the second half, and their team was winning six to zero. The starters were out of the game, yet, the away team still was not scoring. From time to time, Elizabeth's eyes would get drawn to the sidelines where all the starters were conjugated.

"Hmph. Why does William keep looking back at me."

Jane grinned, "He likes you."

"Ha ha ha. No, I think he's just a freak."

"Yep. You've got it bad," Charlotte teased.

"Whatever," Elizabeth mumbled before turning her eyes back to the game.

It was a few moments later when she heard Kitty exclaim, "Now that's what I call a good reason for going to these games."

"What?" Liz questioned, turning to her friend.

"Over there," Kitty pointed to the sidelines.

What Elizabeth saw almost made her want to take back all the bad things she said about William Darcy.

He was facing the crowd on the sidelines, shirtless, and doing a little dance, as if he was trying to keep warm, while turning a long sleeved shirt right-side-out.

"He doesn't have a six-pack..." Jane began.

"...He has a twelve pack," Elizabeth finished as she continued to look. "Look at those arms."

Charlotte laughed and lightly hit the back of her friend's head. "You can stop drooling now. Remember, you hate him? You wouldn't want your hormones to get the best of you, would you?"

Liz's friend's words snapped her back to reality. "Right. He's an idiot. Not worth looking at."

Her friends only shook their heads and chuckled.

The following Monday, there was a substitute in physics class, so the class decided to rearrange their seating. William went to sit with his best friend, Joseph Fitzwilliam, along with other friends, and Jeff went to sit with his. Rachel and Rebecca came over to join Karen and Elizabeth.

The day after that, Ms. Long was back, but the students refused to go back to their regular seats. She didn't care, however, as the class was going to do another lab, and she remade the groups for that, putting the fifth girl in the class, Julie, with the rest of the girls.

It wasn't ten minutes into the lab when William left his group to approach Elizabeth.

"Lizothy," he greeted while standing close to her. "I bet you can't do this."

"Do what?"

"This," he answered, showing his stop watch that showed a perfect 5.00 seconds.

"I bet I can."

"I bet you can't."

"I can," Elizabeth replied defiantly, trying it. Time after time, she couldn't get it.

"I told you!"

"Whatever," Elizabeth mumbled, rolling her eyes.

But as she saw William's retreating back, she couldn't squash the feeling that she didn't hate William Darcy as much as she claimed.