One Word From You: A Pride and Prejudice Adaptation (7 page)

I shrugged, “Maybe. But it doesn't matter. We're never going to get along. But if it'll make your life easier, I'll try to be civil to him. And I mean actually try. I won't just be sarcastic. Well... I'll be
less
sarcastic than usual. Look, I'll just not push him down the stairs.”

“
That's a good place to start!” Jenny laughed.

I really didn't want to be the one to screw things up between Jenny and Charlie. She was so quiet, I didn't know what she was going to do when she got out of school. It wasn't as if she could avoid men for the rest of her life. Even if nothing happened between them romantically, they were good together as friends. I supposed that meant I couldn't scare his friends away. Boys always seemed to put their mates ahead of their potential girlfriends. If I really did something to terrify or hurt William, neither boy would ever talk to us again.

“
Well, I'm happy you're here,” I said, “At least I don't have to deal with them on my own. Just remember to share some of your time with me, okay? And the gossip. I need to know
everything.
”

“
You can't mean absolutely ever-”

“
Yes. I do.”

Chapter Seven

Do not talk of that odious man.

I kept my word for the most part.

The urge to trip William in the hall when he sauntered past with Chantelle was overwhelming, but I pushed it deep down into my stomach, and forced smiles in their company. I didn't think Chantelle was happy either, but so long as she got to hang off William's arm, she suffered through it. I didn't have much hope for her as a person, but it appeared as if she genuinely liked the idea of Jenny being with her brother. Money was likely the deciding factor, but I wasn't about to voice that opinion. Charlie didn't seem the kind of boy to care about that. In fact, if Jenny was the poorest person in the world, he'd probably still smile at her like she was an angel.

As was typical, the peace only lasted a few weeks.

“
Beth, your phone's flashing,” Chrissy informed me one evening.

I pushed my headphones off, the music so loud that it blared out a heavy beat when they hit the pillow. Carefully, I took my phone from the floor where I'd left it, like I might accidentally answer it if I just snatched it up. It was a blocked number, and usually I ignored them, but whoever this was had been calling me increasingly frequently.

Against my better judgment, I answered, “Hello?”

“
Elisabeth?”

“
Mum?” I sat up a little straighter. The noise in the room died down. Everyone knew that my mother and I weren't on the best terms, and that any communication from her usually meant there was some kind of an emergency. Like she was getting divorced again, or she wanted me to convince my Dad to do something for her.

“
Darling, you shouldn't ignore your phone!”

“
Yeah, well I'm on it now. What do you want?”

“
How's school? Do you need money for anything?”

“
Fine, and no. What do you want?” I asked again.

“
Can't I just call to see how you are?”

“
No.”

She sighed on the other end,
“Your brother is going to be joining you at school.”

“
Are you drunk?” I asked, “I'm an only child, Mum.”

“
Wyatt! You remember Wyatt, don't you?”

Unfortunately, yes.

“
Isn't he a little old to be coming here?”

“
It's a student teaching position. He's bringing a friend of his along, or something.”

“
Wait,” I said, “Why would he tell you that?”

“
I'm his mother!”

“
You
were
his step-mother. That's a different thing. I don't even talk to Wyatt.”

“
Well, he needed some money, and -”

“
Right. I get it. Anyway, it's none of my business if he comes here.”

“
Of course it is! He's looking forward to seeing you, and I want you to help him settle.”

“
So, I'm babysitting him? I would rather die.”

“
Elisabeth, I'm not asking you. I'm telling you to be attentive to your brother.”

“
You have no right to tell me anything. Oh, and one more thing,” I said, then made a point of hanging up. Just in case she tried to call back, I turned my phone off.

I could always count on Lisa to pick up on things when it concerned boys. In an adorable voice, she asked slyly, “Who's Wyatt?”

“
No one.”

“
He's
someone
,” she pressed, “Is he an ex-boyfriend?”

“
Ex-
brother.
Well, not even that. Mum married his father before she had me with my Dad. We're not even blood relatives, but he used to come to our house all the time when I was little. We don't talk at all. I didn't even know he and Mum did, to be honest.”

“
Is he cute?” Chrissy asked.

“
I have no idea. I haven't seen him in – God – I don't even know. I don't care if he's coming to school. It's nothing to do with me.”

At least, that's what I thought.

I mean, the guy was a total stranger. It just so happened that both our fathers had been deluded in marrying my mother. It was the only thing we had in common, and it wasn't something to boast about. I might have actually had more brothers and sisters that I'd never met, because my mother didn't have a tendency to keep decent track of her partners or offspring.

I fully intended to ignore Wyatt during his time at the school.

From what little I remembered of him, he was pretty full of himself. Not in the way that William or Chantelle were, because they were completely aware of how they felt above anyone else in their company. With Wyatt, it was more like he imagined he was able to blend in with the people around himself, while maintaining some kind of distinguished presence.

In short, the guy was a prat.

“
Why do you think we're being called to assembly?” Meg asked me quietly as we marched through the halls one Monday morning, our little group lost against the tide of students. It was too early for any kind of an announcement, and I had no patience for anything a teacher might have to tell me before ten in the morning.

“
Maybe someone died,” Lisa said.

“
Or some of the teachers are having affairs,” Chrissy suggested.

“
I don't think that's the sort of thing they announce,” I quietened them with my logic, “It's going to be something stupid. You're setting yourselves up to be disappointed if you think it's anything else.”

Jenny linked her arm through mine, “Do you think perhaps it's to do with the student teacher?”

“
Why would they announce just one teacher for the whole school?”

Well, they wouldn't.

But if there were
two,
then they'd make a point of presenting them properly.

Wyatt was easy for me to pick out. He was sat rigidly in his seat, his back so straight that I suspected someone had shoved a rod up his arse. His eyes were on the back of the room, like there was a really interesting focus point on the wall. The guy beside him was a lot more relaxed. He'd opened the top couple of buttons on his shirt in a casual manner, and was winking openly at the girls who had fought over seats in the front row.

It wasn't exactly a promising start for a would-be teacher.

“
Girls,” the headteacher said once we were all seated. When she remembered there were boys in the audience, she added hastily, “And boys! I would like you to join me in welcoming our two new student teachers. First, we have Mr. Wyatt Collins, who will be present in your Mathematics lessons.”

This announcement was followed by an unenthusiastic round of applause. Wyatt got out of his seat, and bowed his head in greeting to the room. What a moron. No one liked Maths teachers, and if he was just a temporary placement, then he was going to be given absolute hell. Well, as much hell as the girls in our school were capable of.

The headteacher held her hands up for silence. It didn't take much for people to settle, “It's customary for us to take on just one student teacher per year. However, this year we were presented with two such exceptional and promising young men, that we decided to bend the rules. Therefore, I hope that you will all welcome Mr. Gideon Wilson. He will assist in Music classes.”

There was decidedly more noise in celebration of the handsome Gideon, than there had been in the welcome of poor Wyatt. Not that I pitied him. It would be far easier for Wyatt to cope with the school environment if he wasn't being hounded by lovelorn teenage girls. They were going to be much too interested in Gideon to disturb the Maths teacher all that much.

Now, I had always found older men to be attractive. Not the kind who could be my father, because that was sort of weird for someone my age. But guys in their early twenties had much more appeal than someone my own age. I supposed it was to do with the air of maturity around them. They had jobs, cars, and sometimes their own homes. That, and they were usually a lot more toned and handsome. So, while I understood that having boys in our school was a big deal for most of the girls, I was a lot more excited at the prospect of my next Music class.

“
So,” Georgia whispered in my ear. I hadn't noticed her sat behind me, and jumped when she rested her chin on my shoulder. She smirked, “Did I just see you blush?”

“
No,” I said, “I was just thinking about how everyone is going to go crazy over that guy.”

“
Gideon?”

“
Yeah, if that was his name,” I said as if I hadn't been paying much attention.

“
Beth,” Jenny elbowed me gently, “He's a teacher, remember?”

“
And if he's the same age as Wyatt, then he's only four years older than us. And we’re almost eighteen, so we’re practically adults. Besides, they're
student
teachers, and we're barely students. That's practically the same thing.”

“
You're giving this a lot of thought,” Georgia teased.

“
I'm not!” I ignored the fact the headteacher had started to speak at a higher volume. I wasn't the only person discussing the new additions to the faculty. I whispered, “I'm just saying that it's not impossible they might end up dating a student or something. Not me, obviously, because I'm not interested.”

“
Not interested in who?” Lisa asked on my other side, “What are we talking about?”

“
Beth's crushing on Gideon already,” Georgia said.

“
No way! I didn't think you even had normal hormones! Chrissy, you'll never guess -”

I hid my face in my hands. The first Music class wasn't going to be the romantic haven of harmless, casual flirtations that I'd been hoping for. It was going to be an hour of me trying to look at anything but our teacher, all while Lisa, Chrissy, Georgia, and Jenny smirked and made suggestive comments about my feelings.

Not that I had any feelings on the matter.

I just wanted to be able to look without getting the third degree about it from my friends.

Which, admittedly, was never going to happen.

It was like a rule of friendship, that you had to make some fun of the person your friend was slightly interested in. It didn't matter if it was just that they thought they were physically attractive, or if they were completely head over heels in love. Jokes had to be made, questions had to be asked, and suggestive comments had to be audibly whispered in that person's presence. It was just the way things were.

As it happened, I didn't have to worry about Gideon at first. Mostly because it was Wyatt who tracked me down. I did try to avoid him, but the boy was determined, and he caught me while I was on the way to lunch.

“
Look at you!” he said, grinning like a total idiot at me, “You've really grown up!”

“
Yeah, ten years will do that to a person,” I said, very conscious of the way people were looking at us. If they thought we were anything other than family, it was going to really dent my reputation. I mean, I didn't have much of a reputation, but that didn't mean I hadn't been working hard to be perceived as being cool and kind of rebellious. Being on good terms with a Maths teacher was going to completely shatter that image.