“So, Austin, how’s the essay for Missus Robbins going?” Anne asked, starting to walk away.
I sent a mental thanks for her as she led Austin’s eyes from me trying to settle myself back in my clothes, since I was only making matters worse while he’d been looking. I vaguely listened to them chatter as I wandered along behind them.
As we walked into the dining hall, I saw Kate waving at me from what seemed to have become our usual table. I gave Anne a look as we stopped at a table where Jax was sitting.
Despite the fact he’d been the one to ask us, Austin sat next to his brother with a scowl, his arms folded across his very fine chest. Jax beamed up at Anne and indicated she sit down. I looked to Austin and felt that prickle of annoyance across my skin. I shifted slightly and Anne seemed to catch my mood.
“Sorry, Jax. But, I told Gemma I’d help her with some math over breakfast. Tomorrow, maybe?”
Jax, though by all accounts similar in nature to an energetic puppy, was obviously not an idiot. He looked between Austin and me with a calculated gaze. His next look to Anne seemed to communicate something. Anne gave him a small apologetic smile and a shrug.
“No worries. We’ll reschedule.” He smiled, though from what I’d seen of him, it seemed a bit off.
Anne took my arm and we walked over to our table. Marie was typically hidden behind a book, Charlie was on his laptop and my stepsisters were ogling us.
“Did you just walk in with Austin Cooper wearing last night’s clothes?” Gemma hissed excitedly.
I jumped and looked around, hoping no one else had heard her inference, as I poured myself a coffee.
Kate was nodding so furiously I thought her head was going to drop off. “Rumour is he spent the night with two girls.”
I half-spit coffee out on my plate and half-choked on it.
“I’m sorry?” I asked. “Two girls?”
Gemma joined in Kate’s nod-fest. “No idea who it was. Though, when you walked in, I thought it must have been you. He’s staring at you enough.”
I scoffed. “He’s not staring at me. Besides, he’s made it abundantly clear I am not his type.”
Kate sighed. “Shame. It seems nobody’s his type. Not that many girls are brave enough to go near him.”
Gemma giggled. “No, he’s all sorts of scary. He’s really got that alpha male fearsomeness to him.”
“Oh, yes. I could just imagine him picking me up and-”
“Whoa!” I rolled my eyes as I grabbed some toast. “Are you two reading those racy romance books again?”
“Racy romance books?” Anne asked.
I nodded. “Remind me to show you some time. These two got hooked on them. Bloody alpha male rubbish. You want a guy like…” I thought for a moment, “Jax.”
Kate snickered. “I think he’s taken. But, he is the perfect alpha male, only it’s like you’ve got to the end of the book with him already. He’s all big and handsome, but he hasn’t got any hang ups.”
“Jesus, Kate, Jax isn’t some beefed out romance novel love interest who’s been healed by the power of love. He’s a real person, who just happens to have won both the genetic and personality lottery.”
“You really think he’s a good guy?” Anne asked, smiling into her cereal.
“I have been here all of a week but I know he’s a good guy, Anne. And, I think you could very well fall in love with him if you let yourself.”
“That is the love cynic’s official diagnosis is it?” Kate asked.
“Shut up. Just because I have no inclination to throw myself around in the hopes I find the right guy, doesn’t mean I can’t want my sisters and my friends to find love for themselves.”
“Lily!” Gemma and Kate cried.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sorry. You know I love you and I didn’t mean it like that. But, you have to admit, you could flirt a little less.”
Kate and Gemma shared a smiled.
“Yes, but it’s fun.” Kate winked.
I saw Marie give us all a glower and turned to Anne as Gemma and Kate listed off all the guys they spoke to the night before and how jealous their year would be when they found out, blah blah blah.
“I still don’t know why Jax would want me,” Anne said.
“Oh, for God’s sake Anne!” I teased. “Because, even though he seems to hang out with a bunch of popular arsehats, he’s not a stuck up idiot.”
“You’re thinking of Austin now,” she laughed.
“Austin is definitely a stuck up idiot,” I said.
“A very attractive stuck up idiot,” Anne pointed out.
I nodded my head. “Yes, but that hardly makes up for it.”
“And there, Lily, you have stumbled upon the feelings of the whole school.”
“And yet, girls go to bed with him?”
“Lily, be honest, if he suggested it, would you say no?”
An image of exactly what he could do played through my mind, making my heart rate and temperature spike. I shook my head.
“Yes, I would.”
“But, you’d think about it.” She smiled. I opened my mouth to argue but she shook her head. “You totally just did.”
“Doesn’t make him in any way decent. Just means my hormones are a little frisky,” I grumbled into my coffee cup.
“You keep telling yourself that,” Anne joked.
“I will. The day I have something nice to say about Austin Cooper, you can sign me into the psych ward, thank you!”
Anne giggled.
****
Anne and I sat in our room on Tuesday, trying to focus on our homework, when there was a knock on the door.
I exchanged a surprised glance with Anne and went to open it.
“Hi!” the tall blonde on the other side of the door said. Standing next to her was another girl, equally tall with strawberry-blonde hair. I recognised them both from Jax and Austin’s table on Saturday.
“Um…hi.” I smiled uncertainly.
Anne popped up behind me. “Oh, Cass, Bea, how are you?”
I looked between the girls. The blonde smiled. “Cass. This is Bea.”
“Oh, okay, hi.”
“It’s Lily, right?” Cass asked, and I nodded slowly. “Great. So, listen, we just thought it might be cool to hang out for a while. Are you girls doing anything?”
Anne and I just looked at each other.
True, I hadn’t been here long, and I wasn’t sure exactly who was who here. But, these two seemed very much a part of the in-crowd, and we were very much not. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it like that; we were us and I loved us, plus it didn’t draw too much attention.
“Um…we were-”
“Great, we thought you might like to get a coffee or something?” Cass grabbed Anne by the arm and started walking off down the hall with her.
I just sort of looked at Bea, whose smile was very large, and nodded.
“I’ll catch you up,” I said.
She flounced off down the corridor behind Cass and Anne. I clicked save on both our laptops and closed the lids. I grabbed my wallet, phone, and a library book I needed to return since I was heading that way, and headed out after them.
I detoured passed the library and ran into Austin outside the returns chute.
“Oh, hi.” He nodded.
“Yeah, hi,” I said, throwing my book in the chute.
“Um… How are you?” he stammered.
“Fine. You?”
“Fine also.”
“Good for you.”
“Um, are you and Anne studying?”
“We were. Then, Anne was hijacked by people called Cass and Bea and we’re going to have coffee apparently.”
“Ah, yes. Cass can be a little…exuberant. She wants to get to know Anne. Lord knows we’ve been hearing enough about her.” He all-but rolled his eyes.
“Well, yet another stellar example of how your brother decidedly won in the personality department. And, just what is wrong with Anne?” I asked, hands on hips.
He looked taken aback. “It is less of there being anything wrong with Anne and more of my brother having a tendency to follow his heart even if it leads him into a snake-infested pit.”
“Wow. Comparing Anne to a snake-infested pit. Is there no level to which you will not stoop? Do you enjoy being the unapproachable twat you’ve made yourself into? Or is this some kind of tag-team thing? You act like an arsehat as a distinguishing feature between your ever so identically attractive forms, then Jax gets the girls because he looks even better next to you?” If I was honest, they were in no way identically attractive; as nice as Jax was, the contradiction in personality and body that was Austin was just so much sexier.
Austin blinked and I was surprised to see a hint of a smile play at his lips. “May I walk you to the coffee shop?”
“I don’t see what could tempt you,” I replied, thinking of his words on Friday night.
His grey eyes flashed and the corner of his mouth rose slightly. “The one time I try to be nice and you would really throw it back in my face?”
My mind spluttered a bit at the very pleasing way his features aligned when he even half-smiled.
What are you doing?
“Fine, I can’t stop you walking somewhere,” I replied and turned on my heel.
His stupidly long legs fell into an easy step next to me. We walked in silence, but there was that stupid half-smile on his face the whole way. When we got to the coffee shop, Cass looked up and was obviously surprised to see Austin there.
“Oz, how are things?” she asked.
I sat next to Anne, who was giving me a ‘thank-God-you-got-here-where-have-you-been’ look. I shrugged and rolled my eyes towards Austin.
“Good, Cass. I see you’re making friends.” He looked at me again, his eyes glinting.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. You should try it sometime!” She poked her tongue out at him.
He full-on smiled now and I was blown away by the transformation. I expected him to look like Jax when he smiled his easy smiles. But, Austin looked more like a guy who only smiled when he was truly comfortable and truly happy.
“Perhaps I should, Cass. You play nice.” He pointed a figure at her and she winked. He bowed his head to Anne and me, and left.
Coffee found its way in front of me and I was eternally grateful.
The four of us made polite conversation on all manner of topics until Cass started asking us a lot of questions about our families and where we were from.
“Marie and I both won scholarships for Year 7,” Anne said. “My Granddad was Michael Macklin.”
“The big business man?” Cass asked, stunned.
Anne nodded as she sipped her coffee. “Yes. The one who lost all his money and power,” she said as though she’d heard it a million times, and none of them sympathetic.
“I’m sure that was very hard for your family,” I said, taking her hand.
Anne shrugged. “Marie and I only really saw the fallout. Mum took it hard.”
“And, you Lily?” Cass turned to me.
“Me? Um…well, my mum was Australian, Dad English. I was born, Dad found himself a new wife when I was about ten. Along with her came Gemma and Kate. I stayed in Australia until Mum died and Dad sent me here.”
“So, your dad is Daniel Brewer?”
I nodded, like that should mean something to me, other than that he was the instigator of my distrust of a man’s love and all-around terrible father.
Cass looked between us thoughtfully. “Well, fascinating.”
“We’re…uh…sorry about your mum,” Bea offered in the most insincere manner possible.
“Thanks.”
I looked at my cup and shot a look at Anne.
“We should really go. Big test tomorrow, you know,” Anne said standing up. I followed her cue.
“Yes, was great hanging out, girls.” I forced a smile.
“Pleasure was ours. We should do it again sometime,” Cass said. Her smile was bright enough, but her eyes were calculating.
I took Anne’s arm and hurried her away.
Chapter Six
“She insulted you, again?” Jax asked.
I nodded, sprawled on my bed. “Yep, right to my face.”
“And that is the cause of this ridiculous smirk you’re wearing?”
“My what, now?”
“Oh for God’s sake, Oz. I look at you and I could actually be looking in the mirror for once… Oh, shit. Speaking of, do you need to cut your hair before we go home?”
“Don’t bring my mood down.” I reached for my guitar and plucked some strings.
Jax barked a laugh. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I don’t remember the last time your mood was actually high enough to be in jeopardy of coming down.”
I laughed. “No, you’re right. It’s a singular feeling.”
“So, remind me again why Lily insulting you for what seems to be the fourth time this week alone has put you in a good mood?”
“Because, Jax,” I said, sitting up, “who was the last girl that insulted me? Huh? Other than Cassandra?”
Jax shook his head, thinking. “Other than Cass? I can’t think of anyone.”
“Exactly,” I replied, flopping back down again.
And, it was true; every person at Netherfield thought me a haughty arsehole with nothing but contempt for the lot of them. And, truthfully, I was fine with that. It made my life easier, not having to worry about who wanted to be my friend because we had money, or who actually like me for me – which, actually, would have meant them knowing the real me… But, whatever.
But, even with my poor reputation, no girl had ever openly insulted me, and certainly not more than once. If I talked to anyone but Cass, they either avoided me or tried flirting with me as though they’d suddenly forgotten I wasn’t Jax.
Lily, though, did neither of those things. She spoke to me like an actual person. A person she didn’t like, true. But, that only caused her green eyes to flare beautifully every time she told me exactly what she thought of me.
“You know you’re humming?” Jax laughed.
I blinked and realised I was indeed humming while strumming. Poetry now? I didn’t want to dwell on that with Jax though. He was already reading too much into my brighter mood.
“You know, Cassandra and Beatrice are spending time with Anne and Lily?” I replied.
“What?”
“Yep, they went for coffee again this morning.”
“Cass, Bea… Anne and Lily? Without us?” Jax asked as though he couldn’t wrap his head around it.
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know. Cass said she was making friends.”
“I hope she’s playing nice.”
“I warned her.”
Jax laughed and I joined him; we knew exactly what our cousin could be like.
“How many times have they hung out?”
“Don’t know exactly. I saw them on Tuesday. So, at least twice,” I replied.
“But, it could be more than twice?”
“It could be six times a day for all I know.”
“Is there anything happening tonight?” Jax asked suddenly.
“Sorry?” I sat up again.
“Is there anything on tonight?”
I blinked, thinking through what could possibly be on. The term had finished the day before, so a bunch of kids would have left, leaving behind those of us who were putting off going home until the last minute – Jax and I would be at Netherfield for another day or two at least.
“I don’t think so, no. Why?”
“Shall we ask Anne and Lily to hang out?”
I wanted to tell him he could sod off. We’d been spending hours each day with Anne and Lily and, as much as I seemed to acquire some stupid smile afterwards, I wasn’t sure I could handle many more of Lily’s glares or slights. It was all very well for Jax, who seemed to be getting along with Anne just fine, and Cass and Bea who had befriended the girls. Me, on the other ha
nd, I was suddenly finding myself the butt of jokes and trying not to lose my cool lest I find myself further teased.
“Do we have to?” I asked slowly.
“You’ve been grinning like an idiot since she first insulted you and now you don’t want to hang out with her?” Jax asked.
“It’s complicated,” I mumbled, getting up and pulling off my shirt.
“It’s not complicated, you’re being a snob.”
I sighed. I did not want to have this conversation with my twin, especially not if he wanted to go and hang out with them now. I stretched my neck and pretended I hadn’t heard him while I looked for another shirt to change into.
“Oz, don’t do that. I know you heard me.”
“Just give it a rest, mate,” I replied softly, slipping on a jumper and pulling up my sleeves. “Let’s go and see if they want to do something tonight, yeah?”
The things I do for my brother…
Jax didn’t say anything for a while, so I finally turned around to look at him. He had his arms crossed and he watched me with narrowed eyes.
“Dude. What now?” I asked, mirroring his stance. “Do you want to go and see if your lady love wants to hang out? Or, do you want to fight with your snob of a brother?”
Slowly, Jax smiled. “All right, we’ll discuss it later. Let’s go and see if Anne wants to do anything.”
We left our room and headed for the Longbourn wing.
“Fine, as long as the Brewers aren’t there.” I shoved my hands in my pockets.
“Lily will be there, I assume.” He grinned.
I sighed. “You know who I mean, Jax. If I have to sit through Gemma’s and Kate’s hyena guffaws for one more afternoon, I might kill myself.”
“Just get another tattoo, Aunt Celia will do the job for you.”
I laughed. “Yeah, true. But, I’m out of ideas for now.”
A while later, he snickered. “How about a nice flower? I can think of- Oof!” Jax breathed out heavily as I thumped him, then he laughed. “You have no idea what I was going to say!”
“I know exactly what you were going to say and you can shut it.”
“The bare patch above your heart reserved for Petal?” he asked, making kissy noises.
Netherfield Prep: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice' Page 4