THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-six: The end of this part of the story...)

Chapter Forty-six

The end of this part of the story…

  

    Paige was both illuminated and annoyed when she finished reading the letter.

    “In another world, we could have been friends…” Paige sighed regretfully. She really did look sweet that afternoon with her hair done just so. She’d taken all the right advice from her older sister Shiloh by then, I’m sure. I hope I look as cool as her when I’m a junior.

    “Oh, Darcy’s so arrogant and conceited!” Paige added, “never date those kinds of men,” she warned me.

     “Don’t worry, I won’t,” I assured her.

     We were waiting for a ride that afternoon and Paige was giving me a lift, so we took the alternate exit – the one we hardly ever use.

     Little did Darcy know. He’d delayed his flight by a few hours and was waiting at the other entrance.

      Humbled, he waited for Paige. Paige had turned her cell off – she was so over socializing.

       Leaning on his car that afternoon, he waited some more.

       For the longest time.

       But Paige never appeared. Mackenzie and Ryan convinced him to go with them to LAX.  He took Paige’s absence as a sign.

        If Paige had raced back just a second earlier to get her purse, she might have seen him standing in the entrance to the car park, leaning on his car like the coolest boy in school.

       But she didn’t.

       Darcy and Paige took these absences as a sign that they would never meet again.

       Perhaps I should have been more humble, Darcy thought as he pulled on his seat belt.  

    Perhaps I should have shown more grace under fire, Paige Elizabeth Bennet wondered, after we’d walked across the field with me to meet Shiloh. Normally she took the car park but today, she’d changed her path to take a short cut normally reserved for seniors. Well, she was nearly there. Paige hated to admit it but senior year would never be the same without the hotness.   

     “Darcy and I are never going to see each other again,” she said, aloud, as if no one was listening, except me.

       Because how wrong was Paige? I wrote that afternoon. Honey and I were settled on the living room sofa, writing the notes that completed the first part of Darcy and Paige’s high school story…

    “I suppose it was just never meant to be,” she sighed, “Oh, you’re too young to understand , Wednesday,” Paige added, as she shared the details of the letter with Shiloh , and Honey read what was discarded.

     “After all,” Honey said, “Princesses have no secrets.”

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-five: A letter continued...)

Chapter Forty-five

A letter continued…

    As for my ‘snobbish behavior’ towards your family, it was wrong of me. For some reason you make me want to blurt out the truth as I see things and lay it all on the table, so to speak, but your sisters are the talk of the school and on that matter, I should warn you, since I know a lot more about Rys Wickam than you do.

   “Oh!” Paige almost ripped up the paper at this point, but once again, curiosity forced her to read on…

    I have known Rys since I was six years old. His father and my father were best friends and for a while, business partners. Rys even came and stayed with my family when his parents were having trouble with their business (a business my father partially financed) – a year ago. When the business collapsed, Rys’s father tried to place the blame with my father; then we found, after an investigation, that he’d been siphoning off the profits. Basically, he ripped my father off in the name of friendship. My father has had nothing to do with him since. Even though the Wickams got away with millions, my father thinks the money is nothing compared to the loss of a friendship – that is the type of person my father is – honorable. Wickam and his father, are not. I’m only writing this because you should know something else that I trust you to keep to yourself. (FYI:  I am sorry for what I said about you being ‘poor’. There is no shame in not being rich in money. You are rich in what matters. Most of the peeps at my father’s firm got their money by ‘fair means or foul’ as my grandfather says.

    But getting back to the topic of Rys Wickam…

   During the time Rys lived with us in Sydney, we treated him like one of the family and my sister, who is emotionally fragile at the best of times, became good friends with him. At least, that’s what I thought. When she had a relapse of her OCD / depression after Rys left, we found out there was a cause.  Blair was more than friends with Rys. After Rys left, Blair thought she was pregnant – to him. Thankfully, she wasn’t, but she has not been the same since her secret relationship with him ended.

     What I’m trying to say is that Rys is a total player and when I said your sisters are now the talk of the town it sounded bad, but I meant it as a warning. I wouldn’t want your sisters to get involved with Rys Wickam.

     FYI: You are the best girl debater I’ve ever seen… and you deserved that scholarship… but I know you won’t need it to succeed, if you decide not to take it, as I think you might.

      “Misogynist!” Paige seethed as she stuffed the letter in the trash. I quickly pulled it out.

     “Just because he can’t take the fact that a girl could be better than a boy – he can’t just say ‘the best’.

      A group of my freshman classmates were also leaving school then and could be heard gossiping about Sia and Rebel and how the link to their trashy behavior was supposed to have been uploaded on the web, but now it had been taken down…

    “It probably had something to do with Rys leaving.”

    Another young Princess sighed.

    “I’m really going to miss him…”

    “I heard Darcy paid to have the whole thing deleted. So, he really is a good guy. It’s only because he was crushing on the older sister – you know, the nasty B who rejected him…” another one  added.

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-four: A letter from the hot one...)

Chapter Forty-four

A letter from the hot one…

    Semester ended badly for everyone, as semesters sometimes do.

    Prom was overrated.

    The girls went in a group because in the end, Princesses stick together.  Everything about the dance was muted. Darcy and Ryan danced with Mackenzie and a few other seniors, then spent the evening sulking and left early. There was no after-party. Mackenzie hung with the Praise and Worshipfuls (she’d finally quit the Princesses), but then left too. Paige and Shiloh left first, though. Rys didn’t show. What a disaster!

     “I’m so glad it wasn’t my junior prom,” Honey said.

     “Me too,” I replied.

     “Ours is going to be fab.” Honey assured me.

     “Uh huh,” I agreed.

     In the end, Paige refused to accept the scholarship she won. She decided to take a job with her sister instead that summer and re-apply for UCLA, rather than take, Darcy’s fake charity.

     Darcy’s grandfather refused to give him his cattle ranch (until he was ‘emotionally stable’ and had finished college – and maybe not even then.) His grandfather had read Mackenzie’s blog on the internet where she outed their whole scam. Mr Darcy  Senior was unimpressed by Darcy’s childish and deceptive behavior and realized Darcy had a lot of growing up to do before he ever had the responsibility of an entire cattle ranch.  

      Needless to say, by the end of junior year, Paige and Darcy and Shiloh and Ryan were not speaking.

      Then, on the last day of school, Paige found a note attached to her locker, a few days after prom.

   

    Darcy had written the letter just before he’d left to go to the airport. He’d sealed it in an old-fashioned envelope, like an historical document.

Who knew that maybe one day it would be? (Wednesday)

Dear Paige (he wrote – I know, because I was the one who found it. I gave it to Honey who gave it to Paige after it fell onto the floor and was nearly swept up by the janitor – you can thank me later…

I’m writing this down now because I’m going back to Australia then I’m heading over to England where my great-aunt and uncle live. My father wants me to sit the exams to attend Oxford and I don’t know if I’m ever going to see you again. I didn’t want to leave without saying a few things that you deserve to know.

First of all, you were right, and I apologize for what happened between Ryan and Shiloh.

Paige shook her head feeling suddenly vindicated. She wanted to tear up the note but was too curious to do that, and read on…

Although I wasn’t entirely responsible for separating your sister and my best friend, I could have used my influence to convince Ryan that he should have asked Shiloh to go to prom with him. I just didn’t think it was that important.

   I honestly thought she’d turn him down.

   Remember, I’d been around them both a fair bit and I just always thought Ryan was more interested in Shiloh than she was interested in him. Your sister is very reserved and although my own sister comes across in a similar way, it was an honest mistake on my part. I wanted to save Ryan the embarrassment of asking a girl who was indifferent to him. I am sorry, as I said. It was my mistake and I only wish I had been more hesitant to ask you – since I obviously have you and your sister mixed up as you are the indifferent one.

   Paige shook her head, exasperated; he couldn’t even apologize without sounding arrogant!

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-three: Gym class)

Chapter Forty-three

Gym class

   But Darcy had run after Paige. He knew a short cut in the opposite direction that would meet Paige somewhere in the middle. He was athletic and after having been in school now for almost the entire semester, Darcy knew every hallway.

    A few Princesses and cheerleaders fanned him with “Heys,” and one even said, “Darcy, why so fast?”  But the bell had sounded for the final class of the day and Darcy wanted to catch Paige before she caught a life or reached gymnastics practice.

   Darcy finally found Paige chalking her hands at the bar.

   “Darcy? Are you stalking me?”

   “Is that all you have to say in response?”

   “I told you, I’m not going.”

   At this point a few cheerleaders, Princesses and even two teachers were listening in on their conversation. Enough people so the whole school would know in the morning that Darcy chased Paige all the way to the gym only to be turned down and humiliated by her. How could she? Some whispered. It was the prom. The high school prom. These moments were gold. They never came again.

   “So, you are rejecting me?”

   “If you have to put it that way.”

   “Which way should I put it?”

   “Any way you want, I suppose.’

   “I don’t understand. I thought we… liked each other.”

   “Well, I guess you thought wrong.”

    He stared at Paige for a moment, trying to work her out. Her slim but tough exterior belied a sweet interior, he was sure of it. But he was embarrassed, humiliated in front of a group of gaggling gymnasts. Once again, his pride got the better of his true feelings.

   “How dare you reject me! It was all a joke anyway. I chose to ask you above all the other girls in the school, some of whom had already bothered to ask me, not the other way round. But I was going to write about it on my blog and tell Mackenzie all about it the next day.”

   “Well, go for it Darcy. Mackenzie really is your perfect match!”

   “And who are you to judge me? I pulled strings for you and that stupid invented scholarship! My father sponsors the award. Do you want to know why they picked you? They made special consideration because you are poor… and a girl! And…FYI - your mother is a massive social climber…”

   “Oh, nothing like Mackenzie Bingley then…”

  “At least she has the finances to back it up.”

  “How dare you!” Paige was so exasperated, she threw her gym bag at him.

  “And your sisters… have behaved like total tramps. It’s all over the web… Rys Wickam has been talking up how easy they were when he got with both of them at that stupid beach party.”

   Paige looked surprised as Darcy darted behind a locker. He peeked his head out when he thought Paige had settled.

  “How could you not know? He’s told anyone who’d listen… he even filmed them…” Paige blocked her ears.

   “You need to stop talking now, Darcy. I really don’t need to hear any more from you. I have no inkling why you bothered to ask me to go to the dance with you since you think so little of my family and by extension – me. But apart from your insane snobbery, your rudeness, your conceited behavior and your arrogance… did you really think I would ever go anywhere with you when you schemed to destroy my sister’s relationship with Ryan?”

   Darcy looked shocked.

  “Who told you that?”

   “Rys Wickam. But he didn’t need to tell me. I suspected as much and the look on your face just confirmed it.”

    Darcy stopped talking.

    “Deny it! I dare you!”

    “I… can’t.”

    Paige also stopped.

    They stared at each other a moment. They looked into each other’s eyes. Both of their faces were red as beets. As the bell rang out for the end of the day and the beginning of the after-school activities it even looked as if they might move closer, make a truce and kiss. But instead, Darcy pulled back. He turned from Paige and left her standing in the gym with chalk on her hands.

   “Argh!” Paige exclaimed, as she went to the bar to warm up.

   “Are you quite ready to join us now Paige Bennet?” the gym teacher, who behaved in a troll-like manner, asked sarcastically.

   “Um… actually, no,” Paige said, uncharacteristically bursting into tears. She ran out of the room.

   It was only the second time Darcy had made Paige cry and she swore it would be the last.

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-two: Hot pursuit)

Chapter Forty-two

Hot pursuit     

   Paige checked her messages before gym class. She’d just received some awesome and unexpected news that she’d been hoping for. She’d applied for a newly devised scholarship to UCLA and was in the final selected group. If all went well during her senior year, the scholarship was hers.

   In light of this good news, Paige had resigned herself to dealing with Darcy later. She had a smile on her face as she got ready for gym class, pulling on her dad’s old sweater. As she walked outside, she collided with Darcy.

   “Hi,” he said, he wasn’t dressed for sports.

   “Hi,” Paige said, confused.

   “You were great in our final debate.”

   “Thanks, but Mackenzie nailed it.”

   “Well, she had a better topic…”

   Paige wondered if Darcy had slept. She would have brushed past him by now but he’d cornered her in a confined space and there was nowhere else to go – except class. Paige just couldn’t work Darcy out. He was so prideful and changeable and then he’d go and do something nice, like compliment her out of the blue. This didn’t hide the fact that he’d done something so not nice she never wanted to speak to him again. He’d talked Ryan out of dating her sister.

  Of course, this was the moment Darcy unwisely chose to speak to her.

  They had their seconds alone and it was now or never.

   Darcy cleared his throat.

  “Paige, I was wondering…”

  “Yes?” Paige said as she pulled back her hair. Paige had no idea why Darcy was even talking to her now.

   “Um… Well… I was wondering…”

   “Uh huh,” Paige was already half way out of the room and on her way to gym  practice before Darcy caught up with her.

   “Hey, wait up.”

   “What do you want Darcy?”

   “Well, a moment… with you. Alone, if you’re not too busy.”

   Paige looked at the half empty gym. The crowd gathered on the other side of the room. Once again, there was no getting out of this. 

   “What do you want, Darcy?”

   Darcy ushered Paige to the side, where the walls were covered with various freshman projects. Paige noticed Rebel’s name all over one of them, it was her kind of art work too – modern, random.

  “I’m wondering, I’ve thought about it a lot and I’d like to know if you would come to the prom with me.”

   Paige stalled.

   “Uh… What did you say?”

   “I’m asking you to go to the prom with me. That’s the way it’s done here in America right? You have to ask someone? It’s my last chance to go to a high school prom. My family are heading back to Australia, so…”

   “Oh...”

   “So, are you going with anyone?”

   “No.”

   “Me either. I want to go with you.”

   “Is that the way you ask girls out Down Under?”

   “What do you mean? I’m new to this. In Australia we just hang out in groups. Besides, girls mostly approach me. They think I'm the hot one. I don’t have to ask them out. It's the other way around. It took a lot of courage to even attempt this... connection. You didn’t exactly give me any encouragement.” 

   “It’s always about you, isn’t it Darcy?”

   “What do you mean? I’m trying to be nice. I want to be friends. I thought we were becoming friends. Besides, you haven’t given me an answer.”

   Paige paused for a moment, suddenly believing in the sincerity of his question. She was conflicted about the boy, but not about her answer.

  “No Darcy, I don’t want to go with you.”

   “Why not? C’mon it’ll be fun.” Darcy's face was red. He couldn’t believe he was being refused.

   “I… I’m thinking of going by myself. Maybe I don’t need a man to make me feel whole.” 

   “Huh?”

   Paige turned and ran off down the hallway. On the way out, she ran straight into Mackenzie and Ryan, who looked quite sheepish.

  “Hey Paige. Why are you crying?” Mackenzie asked.

  “Oh, just motor!” Paige said brushing Mackenzie aside.

  “I told you what she’s really like,” Mackenzie sniped to her brother as they walked down the hall to find Darcy.

   

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-one: The trouble with Darcy)

Chapter Forty-one

The trouble with Darcy

   That morning, in home room, Darcy arrived early. Dressed in his coolest clothes, he had all of the debate notes sorted for their team and had even highlighted Paige’s suggestions.

    “Hi,” he said to Paige, trying to act cool.

    “Hi,” Paige said, wishing she wasn’t required to acknowledge him.

    Darcy never understood why she blew so hot and cold. He was trying to warm her up today because he had something he wanted to ask her. Even though he knew it was wrong, so wrong.

    Paige was different to him in every way. They were polar opposite. Darcy struggled against his feelings for her. He told no one, not even Ryan, but he couldn’t help himself. He liked Paige Bennet more than any girl he’d ever met. She was so different, so remarkable, so amazing.

    As he flicked on his iPOD he quickly switched off his home page. The younger Bennet girls were splashed all over the social pages with a website directing him to even more compromising photographs. They were famous now, for all the wrong reasons. He hoped Paige wouldn’t see this.

    They’d supposedly participated in a girls gone wild type film made by Rys Wickam’s production company. The outakes of his music video shoot were on his smart phone and about to go viral, according to Mackenzie who swiftly texted Darcy. Darcy had heard all about it in the locker room prior to class but he’d tried to ignore the gossip. Paige seemed oblivious. She never ever switched on her phone before home room (when she studied) or debate class. Darcy wondered what to do, but first he had to get something else off his chest.

    Today, Paige seemed extra scary, walking around in her hot girl that didn’t know it way, with her awesome intelligence and turn of phrase. That scared Darcy a lot. Now she was hunched over her notes chewing the end of her pencil, lost in intellectual thought.  

    “Hey,” Rys said, he was seated on the other side of Paige, making Darcy increasingly jealous.

    “Hi,” Paige replied, “Hey, I heard some stupid rumor…”

    “Don’t believe any of it,” Rys replied, “I’m deleting all the photos,” he added, checking his text messages.

    What photos? Paige thought.       

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty: Rumors)

Chapter Forty

Rumors

    Rys cornered Paige as she was looking for her folder in her locker the next morning at school.

    “Hey, are the rumors true?”

    “What rumors?”

    “The rumors that you and Shiloh are going with Darcy and Ryan to the junior prom? Because I couldn’t believe you’d go with Darcy, even if I’m not available.”

    “I… I’m not planning on going with anyone. I mean, no one’s even asked me.”

    “So, if he did ask you, you’d go?”

    “That’s a hypothetical question.”

    “Whatever. Anyway, you won’t mind hearing what someone told Wednesday.”

    “Who?”

    “Mackenzie Bingley.”

    “What does she know about this?” Paige had long suspected Mackenzie had a hand in this whole dating disaster.

    “Well, I got talking to Wednesday on the weekend, at some charity event she was helping out at and she mentioned the whole story. Apparently Mackenzie had been laughing about what a dope your sister was to actually think Ryan would be interested in her...”

    “Uh huh…” Paige wasn’t shocked and realized Rys looked disappointed when she didn’t show her anger.

     “Anyway, she said her brother had been just as deluded about Shiloh and was fully intending to ask your sister to prom. To her credit, Mackenzie admitted Shiloh was both pretty and one of the nicest girls she’d ever met, but then Ryan changed his mind.”

   “Why would he do that?”

   “Well, apparently, his father questioned his taste in girls.”

   “What do you mean?”

   “He wanted to know why Ryan would take some unknown girl  when he could take the girl of a partner his dad was doing some bank deal with.”

   “Are you serious? Ryan doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would be so into  money.”

   “Well, I don’t think he is. In fact, he started arguing with his dad about it until…”

   “Until what?”

   “Until Darcy agreed… with Ryan’s dad.”

   “What do you mean?”

   “He told Ryan that he didn’t think Shiloh was into him anyway and it might be easier just to go along with his father’s request to take the daughter of his work colleague. Apparently she’s friends with Mackenzie too…”

   “Really?”

   “I only told you because I thought you’d think it was funny.”

   “Hilarious,” Paige said without smiling. “Thanks for sharing.”

   “Hey, I wouldn’t be too bothered, I’m so over school proms… and debate club. You and Darcy are welcome to an Easy A. I’m so over study. Oh and FYI? I’d love to take you to prom, girl, but I’m over them too.”

    But Shiloh wasn’t, Paige thought.

   “… Hey, cheer up, Paige. I’d totally have asked you if I were even going to be here…” he droned on. Suddenly Paige realized what a fair weather friend Rys had become since the rush of popularity he’d experienced online dating. Or maybe that’s who he had always been: the egotistical bearer of bad news.  

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter thirty-nine: guess what?)

Chapter Thirty-nine

Guess what? 

    The next morning Paige woke early. She’d made up her mind to buy a prom dress with or without a partner. There was no shame in going with friends and she wasn’t going to miss her junior prom. Her younger sisters also wanted a lift to Third Street Promenade. Rebel and Sia wanted to come too. Senta had elected to stay home and practice piano, she didn’t enjoy frivolity. Rebel rolled her eyes and wondered what planet Senta was living on.

   The younger girls kept whispering and giggling in the back seat and Paige arranged to meet them at a café for lunch after their commercial casting, since she didn’t trust them to spend the day all alone. 

   Paige was extremely proud of the second hand car she’d bought – she’d saved all her money since she’d started working on Saturdays to buy it.

    Shiloh was dropped off first and Coco was meeting her as well as Mackenzie. Paige had arranged to go to the library to do some research after she’d picked up her dress.

    Shiloh was the first to arrive back at the café.

    Mackenzie gave fake air kisses and acted all sorry before she’d even spoken.

    “Guess what? My brother can’t come. The boys are… they have another appointment they couldn’t change.”

    “Oh.”

    “What are they doing?” Coco asked, quite rudely, Mackenzie thought.

    “Well, Darcy’s father is in town and the boys are going to lunch at the golf club with him. But never mind,”  Mackenzie took Shiloh’s arm, “I know all the best brands, I’ve been doing my research and one of my fave designers from Sydney has just opened a store here and we get to pick out anything we like. I love shopping, don’t you? We need to move on. Perhaps Jesus has a different plan for us. Maybe we’re not meant to go to the prom with Darcy and Ryan…” she looked at Coco disparagingly, adding, “and whoever you’re going with.”

     Coco shrugged and tried to pretend she didn’t care.

     Shiloh pretended she didn’t care either. But she did. In the middle of her mani-pedi, Shiloh burst into tears. She excused herself and decided to go home early. If Ryan was going to ask her to the dance, he had hardly any days left to do it. Shiloh knew Mackenzie was right.  Ryan was never going to ask her to prom.

     Proof stood right in front of her.

     As she waited for the bus, she saw Ryan and Darcy crossing the road, and they were not alone. They were with two other girls – girls who wore designer heels. Ryan’s father was nowhere in sight.

    When Paige arrived home later that afternoon, after going to the library, she found Shiloh lying on her bed in tears.

    “What’s the matter?” Paige asked. “Did Mackenzie say something? We never should have let that girl into our group. Coco and Wednesday warned us, remember?”

   “It’s not Mackenzie’s fault.”

   “It’s always Mackenzie’s fault…”

   “No… it’s just that Ryan was supposed to turn up today and he kept us waiting for an hour then he texted to say he wasn’t coming. He had some meeting to do with his father. Then, after Mackenzie and I already bought our dresses, I saw Ryan and Darcy walking down the street, laughing and talking with two girls. Two girls who don’t even go to our school! They were rushing across the street and holding hands with Darcy and Ryan. How could I have been so stupid? They’re never going to ask us to prom now.”

    “Oh, Shiloh, it’s their loss. It makes no sense, he’s been so… into you. You are the prettiest, kindest, most wonderful girl I know. Darcy on the other hand, was never a sure thing. I have to be realistic about that. He always thought he was too good for me.”

   “That couldn’t be true.”  

   “It is.”

   “You are the best, most wonderful sister…”

    Shiloh was just as upset for Paige as she hugged her sister. When Shiloh cried some more, Paige hugged her in return.