THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter fifty: familiar faces)

Chapter Fifty

Familiar Faces

    Above the din of the crowd, Paige saw the top of a blonde head and heard a familiar voice.  

    “Yeah, I miss the sun too,” the boy said.

    It was unmistakably Darcy: taller, more handsome, sun drenched and certainly louder than he’d ever been. He’d been working on his grandfather’s cattle ranch during his vacation, which is how he got sun drenched. Yes, it was definitely Darcy Donovan.  Darcy had his back to Paige in the crowded room and she wasn’t sure what to do. If she ignored him, he’d likely not see her.

    Darcy got his drinks from the bar without looking over, then took his seat behind Paige with two friends, one of whom was Ryan Bingley.

    She waited for her change hugging her coat around her pensively when the familiar voice said.

   “Paige Bennet?” 

    There was no avoiding him. Paige swung around.

   “Darcy Donovan?”

    “Where’s…”

    “Shiloh is in LA.”

    “Oh,”

    Ryan, who smiled at Paige, looked completely deflated. Darcy knew Ryan had emailed Shiloh, but Shiloh never responded.  

     Darcy hesitatied, then attempted small talk.

     “My college is competing in the debate finals.”

     “Mine too.”

     “What a surprise.”

     “Not really.

      Darcy paused.

     “Can’t we just be friends? Forget high school. Start new? We were just kids then. Now we’re two foreigners in a strange country… legally adults.”

    “Mmm,” Paige said, “I guess we’ll be seeing each other.”

     Darcy toasted Paige’s cider, “Here’s to being friends then…”

    “And rivals,” Paige said under her breath.

     “That too,” Darcy said unexpectedly.  

    Everyone re-introduced themselves and behaved almost like adults. Even Darcy made a huge effort to introduce everyone and told people about his great-aunts ‘old’ house in in Oxfordshire situated in exquisite countryside not far from where they were.

   “Really?” Paige remembered.

   “We call it the Donovan mansion,” Ryan joked.

    Paige suddenly felt uncomfortable.

   Paige vaguely remembered people saying Darcy’s extended family lived in some great mansion in England.  Nevertheless, the group ordered lunch and Darcy insisted on including Paige and Coco and paying for everyone. By then, Darcy had joined the tables and seated himself next to Paige.

   “So, I had no idea you would be here for… the debate championships?”

    Paige shrugged, speechless for the first time.

   “Sunrise must have won the Nationals.”

   “Yes.” Paige said proudly.

   “My school did too, but then Australia has a far smaller population – just over twenty million as opposed to three hundred million where you’re from, so yours is the bigger win.” 

   “Right,” Paige said, she wasn’t used to this far humbler Darcy.

   “So, you’ll get into somewhere amazing like Harvard Law School.”

   “Maybe. I’m studying at UCLA, it’s pretty amazing.”

   “I know. After Oxford… I really want to go to film school there.”

    “Wow… I mean, you should do what you want but… this place takes my breath away. How could you ever leave?”

    “I know. It’s a pretty amazing university.” 

   Paige looked around her and the spiral architecture of the pub. Again, the entire place was like an enchanted medieval town.

     “Mmm… It is pretty remarkable.” Darcy leant in closer, “I gotta say though, I’m one of only six Aussies at the college we’re staying in. The other students, most from England, some of them are serious snobs about ‘colonials’ if you know what I mean. They rub it in any chance they get that they’re beating us in cricket, for example.”

    “Cricket?” Paige thought this was funny; Darcy getting a taste of his own medicine. She had no idea that cricket was a national sport played in England and Australia (and most other commonwealth countries), but she googled it under the table after they’d finished speaking.

    “Well, I think English people are very polite and the place is… out of this world.”

    “Before debate finals, we should go out… for a picnic. You should see the meadows around here. I’ll arrange it.”

    Paige hesitated. She couldn’t believe this new Darcy was real. He’d matured so much and was acting like less of a jerk and more of a man.

     “Okay,” Paige said. Perhaps she had been wrong about Darcy so long ago. It was certainly time to give him another chance.

      When she texted Shiloh about it after, Shiloh replied. ”I wish I’d stayed in touch with Ryan. I’ve never met any boy I liked even half as much.” 

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-nine: Oxford University)

Chapter Forty-nine

Oxford University

   The scenery was beautiful in the morning mist as they drove out of central London. The girls arrived at Oxford just as the sun started to shine. Paige felt very foreign, very American.

   Oxford University itself was like a town built from a fairy tale.

   The architecture was amazing and historic but Paige new this from having googled photographs before she arrived: (note to self: google Oxford aerial photographs)

    After meeting up with the other candidates from other countries of the world at a special reception, Paige made her way to the college she was staying in. Paige and Coco were so tired that night as they got into their beds (with dips in the middle – apparently the wrought iron was as old as the architecture). In the end, because Paige was jetlagged and couldn’t sleep, she pulled off the mattress and spread it onto the floor and finally fell into the deepest slumber she’d had in two days.

    In the morning, Coco went to her art seminar and Paige met the entire team: early to go over possible topics and opening arguments. Paige was delivering the closing argument. The usual topics were debated, but at university level.

    After they’d finished their morning seminars, Paige met with Coco for coffee, then they decided to go exploring. At first, they walked down the main street of Oxford University then veered off into some kind of medieval-type alley way. They found themselves in a beautiful meadow, shaded by oak trees.

   “Wow,” Paige said. “This is so beautiful.”

   “Like a painting,” Coco added. 

   “It is, it really is. I thought I’d miss America and I do already but this is a picture to take home with us.” Wednesday said, snapping the photo on her cell.  

   Paige and Coco took a lot of photographs that morning. It was like the word ‘picturesque’ was invented for this college campus.

   Coco had a map which she kept referring to that folded to the size of her palm and Paige had googled a list of all the noteworthy architecture.

   “Hey, it says here there’s a pub… near New College Lane and the Bridge of Sighs where a former Australian Prime Minister once a Rhodes Scholar held the Guinness record for ‘consuming a yard glass of ale’! It says here, the pub was originally called The Spotted Cow.”

   The friends laughed.

   It was quite funny. Paige never realized she’d have her first legal drink in England.  The Europeans were not like Americans. They didn’t have to legally wait until they were twenty-one.  

    The pub was quaint and small, the ceilings unexpectedly low.

    “Hey, I’m buying,” Coco said. “Maybe cider?”

    Paige nodded, then she sat down and went over her speech. By the time she got to deliver it, she’d throw away her notes. Paige was a perfectionist who wanted to know every word.

   She’d already caught the eye of just about every guy in the place – of which there were many. It wasn’t just because Paige had her dark hair brushed shiny and wore the most fashionable jeans (being a former Princess had taught her well!) she was excited and feeling happy after so much study and so many weekends working at the restaurant. It was fun to be abroad – she never imagined such a place, except in her dreams.  

    Paige loved the crowded, European atmosphere and ordered some food as she sipped her cider. She was talking to Coco who was fielding texts from Amadeus – telling her how much he missed her. Paige shook her head incredulously. She couldn’t believe Coco and Amadeus were a perfect match.

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-eight: Another country)

Chapter Forty-eight

Another country

When Paige arrived in London it was like another world. It was another world. The sky at Heathrow airport was overcast and crowded and the air from the minute she stepped outside with her group from customs, was cold. There were no open freeways in the main part of the city or the West End as it was known, where Paige and the rest of the debate team were to spend the night. The town seemed so ancient, it was ancient, a mix of very old (and some new) architecture. Coco came to the airport to surprise Paige.

    “Whoah, it’s so great to see you after the long trip.”

    “I’ve missed my friend so much,” the girls hugged and Coco had arranged to join in with the sightseeing. After taking their luggage to a small hotel, the group hopped on a bus, then did lots of walking around the West End.

    There was cobbled stone lane ways that went from one street to the next like a maze. There was also a pub on every corner and now that the girls were all eighteen (the legal drinking age in England) they could hang out at bars, even the hotel bar if they wanted to. But drinking was the last thing on Paige’s mind. Paige chose to go over her final debate topics the night before they reached Oxford, but when that was done all the girls got dressed and went to a little French restaurant in Covent Garden before going to see Once on the West End. It was such a beautiful musical all about an Irish musician and a girl he meets busking on the street. Coco and Paige were talking about how much fun they were having as they walked out into the night air afterwards.

    “London grows on you,” Coco announced.

    “I love it here,” Paige added, “it’s the exact opposite of Los Angeles but they still speak English.”

    “Barely,” Coco joked. . 

     At the hotel, in Covent Garden, the girls were treated to room service for breakfast with the rest of the group.

   Then, the bus that would take them to Oxford arrived.

THE HOTNESS: A Modern Teen Pride and Prejudice (chapter forty-seven: The beginning of another...)

(Second Part of our story – two years later)

Chapter Forty-seven

The beginning of another…

   Time passed, as it generally does.

   Paige and  Shiloh were now grown-ups (sort of). I was almost a junior, along with Honey – we  ruled the school and took extension classes in acting at UCLA (on weekends). But enough about us – you’ll hear about us in Popular (our next novel). Now, it’s all about them…

    This is where the Bennet family were at:

    The financial crisis had hit the family hard.

    Shiloh had elected not to go to college but instead took a job as a nanny during the week and worked as a waitress at a local diner on Saturdays. This kept Shiloh  very busy. She hadn’t met anyone to compare with Ryan for two years but she put him out of her mind, convinced he was not the man she thought he was.

    As for Paige – though she’d won a new scholarship to study at UCLA, money was tight and she worked hard and dated little. Paige hadn’t met anyone to compare with Darcy, unfortunately. She was convinced Darcy really was everything she thought he was. And more. She’d tried to forget him, really she had.

    But she hadn’t.

    In her second year studying International Relations, Paige had won a debate scholarship to go to the International University Debate Finals at Oxford University in England. This was held for a week over summer. Her college was paying for everything for herself and the team, but she was doing shifts at the restaurant with Shiloh, to pay for extras.

     Both girls were less happy than they seemed, but always hopeful. Their younger sisters had mellowed a little, but were still dangerously addicted to social networking. Senta, their middle sister, was counseling them. She hoped to become a psychologist one day.

    “I wish you could come with me,” Paige said to Shiloh after bussing her final table.

    “Knowing you are going on an amazing trip is enough. Besides, I like to stay close to home to help Mom and Dad. But, you have to tell me everything when you return… “

    “Of course,” Paige said.

     Her friend Coco was at summer school and hanging out with Amadeus in London. They were both on music scholarships, so at least Paige wouldn’t be totally friendless.

       The day Paige was due to leave, Mr and Mrs Bennet almost started crying until Paige hushed them and said she’d see them in a fortnight, along with Shiloh. Tthe competition only ran for a week, but Paige wanted some days to sight see with Coco who would be there too. It was all planned.

   Mrs Bennet shook her head, “Oh, I just know you’ll meet someone over there and fall in love and leave me.”

   “Mom, chillax. I’m only eighteen. I’m going to England for a debate, not a bad romance!”

   “That’s what you think. Oh, I don’t know Paige, when you were all younger I only wanted to see my girls happily  married, and I still want that, but there is so much out there in the world for you to see, so much to do. Do you know, you are the first girl in our family to go to college and the first one to have a passport – I’m so proud of you, Paige. You get to see the things I haven’t.”

   “Oh Mom, don’t cry, you could always come visit me.”

   “Oh, Paige, I have your sisters to consider. We didn’t all win the trip, it’s just too expensive.”

   Mrs Bennet hugged Paige at LAX. Shiloh gave her a locket with their photographs which Paige wore close.

   Mr Bennet hugged his daughter again, but was a man of few words.

   “Remember how much we love you,” she whispered into Paige’s ear. Besides, those were the best ones. 

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.