Ready for Disaster

Elizabeth Bellia Bennet was not well liked by her mother. Or her older sister. Or her younger sister. Or her father. But then again, her father preferred solitude to people and didn't like anyone in the family. The only two people who liked her, before she was sent away that is, were her twin siblings just below her, who were just as disliked by the family as she was. So, when Mr. Bingley moved in next door, all their mother would do was fret about Jane and Lydia. And the ball that was to be held. And that Mr. Bingley was actually a Lord! And the money they shall receive when they made a good match. Because they were the only two that mattered. And so it was when Lizzie, Mary, and Carter returned from their morning ride to escape from the mundane existence of their home that their mother and Jane unleashed their fury.

"And where exactly have you three been?" Jane stopped them right in front of their mother's room. "You three were supposed to help me dress for the ball tonight so that I may have Mr. Bingley."

"YOU THREE ARE TO REMAIN IN MY SIGHT THE REST OF THE DAY!" Mrs. Bennet threw open the door.

"But Mama…" Jane whined. "Who is to help me get ready?"

"Very well." Their mother conceded instantly, as she always did with Jane. "Lizzie, you are to help my beautiful Jane. Mary, you are to help my dear Lydia. Carter... Oh go read a book or something. Now girls, Lydia and Jane must look perfect. Either Jane's beauty will make her rich, or Lydia's personality will gain her the most beautiful dresses imaginable. Either way, OH the pin money the three of us shall have."

And thus it began the Bennet 'us'. For when Jane and Lydia got married, it would be not only their money, but the other two's as well. The dresses for us, the houses for us, the carriages, the jewelry, the parties all for us. Lizzie, Mary, and Carter were of the firm belief that love and friendship in combination was the only reason for any of them to marry, a trait that had been passed down from their Grandma Bellia, whom Mrs. Bennet drove from the house.

Mr. Bennet was proud to be of Italian decent. Mrs. Bennet, on the other hand was of the opinion that if it wasn't English, it wasn't worth her time, and therefore, worth no one else's. Bellia came to England after she fell in love with an English land owner, Mr. Winthrop Bennet. The two of them, much to Elizabeth, Mary, and Carter's dismay, never had any other children as their father rendered their grandmother incapable to have other children. Their mother, on the other hand, was the youngest of three girls. First there was their aunt Maddie Gardiner. She was kind and gentle and everything Lizzie wanted to have in a mother. Maddie and her husband Edward had been married for twenty years, and did not have any children. This fact left a cloud of gloom and sadness that the two of them did their best to hide, but that Lizzie, Mary, and Carter all sensed. As such, the two of them gave them anything they could. Lizzie had overheard Edward and her father saying they wanted to leave everything they had to Lizzie and Mary, and would have included Carter if he wasn't to inherit Longbourn when her father died. Lizzie didn't hear the outcome of that conversation as she was discovered by her mother and dragged to her room for being a busy-body. Their other aunt was their Aunt Josephine. Their eldest aunt, Josephine was a cruel woman. She spoiled Jane and Lydia, and gave nothing to the other three. She had married a wealthy lawyer in the city and had one daughter, Catherine, who was just as shallow as and even meaner than Lydia. When the two came to visit, she would whine and moan about being in the country, she would flaunt her jewels and dresses, and although the three of them were older, she would demean, degrade, and abuse them. One day, Lizzie walked in on Catherine and Lydia burning some of Mary's piano music while she was tied to a chair. The mother's didn't believe the two of them, her father did, and thus their visits were limited.

And so, when Lydia and Jane were dressed as they wanted, with bosoms almost falling out of their dresses and weighted down with jewels, Mary and Lizzie helped each other. When Lizzie's green dress was on properly, and a green velvet sash tied under her chest to keep it in place and Mary was in a peach gown with a lighter peach satin sash, the two left their room. Jane was in blood red with pearls, Lydia in bright yellow with gold in her hair, there mother in blue and white with silver jewelry and the largest and ugliest feather she could find stuck in her hair.

So when the seven of them got to the Meryton public ball, Lizzie, Mary, and Carter prepared for apologizing, distracting, and bribing to make the entire town forget the three other female companions in their group. Mrs. Bennet would no doubt become very drunk and yell about Mr. Bingley. Jane would, no doubt offend everyone with her haughty attitude, and Lydia would be drunk and one wrong step away from becoming a fallen woman and the town harlot.