Elizabeth Eulberg - Prom and Prejudice

I dropped my hands into my lap from exhaustion. The audience erupted in applause. I looked at Mrs. Gardiner and she motioned for me to stand up. As I did, she enveloped me in a huge hug. "Thank you, Elizabeth," she whispered in my ear. "That was wonderful!"

I nodded and went to shake the hands of the two first-chair violinists, Mary and Kitty, which was customary when playing with an orchestra.

I finally faced the audience and noticed they were on their feet. I bowed and motioned toward the orchestra, who then stood up.

For the first time, I surveyed the audience. I did notice that not everybody was standing; several students from my classes sat looking completely bored, but their parents seemed impressed.

And then in the third row, I saw my parents, both with tears streaming down their faces. I nearly started to sob, but the sight of Darcy, Georgiana, and their mom standing next to my parents shocked the tears from my system.

THE RECEPTION WAS HELD IN FOUNDERS HALL, THE SAME place the mixer had been at the beginning of the semester. It was beautifully decorated with flowers and candles. I was having difficulty finding my parents; anytime I tried to locate them, someone would come up and congratulate me. Granted, the majority of people coming up to me were adults; even an inspiring performance of Rachmaninoff wasn't going to erase the scholarship stamp across my face.

After profusely thanking the headmistress for her kind words, I made a beeline for the food, as I knew that was where my dad would most likely be.

"There you are!" he exclaimed while holding a plate full of crudites.

Mom came rushing over and hugged me tightly. "Oh, Lizzie!" I felt my chin twitch as she held on to me. "You were wonderful. Your father and I are so proud of you."

Dad leaned over and planted a kiss on my forehead. "Amazing. I have no idea where you get any of your talent. It certainly isn't from either of us."

Mom hit him. "You promised you wouldn't embarrass her."

My parents were always overly sensitive about their behavior at Longbourn. They'd never monitored themselves when I had been at school back home, and they certainly didn't care about embarrassing me in front of my Hoboken friends, but I think the Longbourn parents made them even more uncomfortable than they made me.

"Lizzie!" Georgie ran up to me with a dozen red roses. "These are for you. From all of us."

"Thank you!" I smelled the flowers. "You shouldn't have."

"Nonsense." Claudia Reynolds came up to me and grabbed my hands. "It is customary for the soloist to be given roses. Especially after that performance. You were brilliant, my dear."

"Thank you. You have no idea how much that means coming from you." I still couldn't believe that Claudia Reynolds even knew who I was, but at that moment, there was only one person's review that I wanted to hear.

I turned hopefully to Darcy.

He came over and kissed me on the cheek. "Amazing."

"Thanks. I can't believe you guys came."

"Of course we would be here. We weren't going to miss it for anything." He smiled at me, and for a moment I sensed that Spring Break Darcy was back.

For the second time that evening, a sense of urgency overtook me. But this time it wasn't to perform, it was to come clean. I grabbed Darcy by the arm and started to lead him out of the room.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked.

"Uh, of course." He seemed surprised by my forwardness, but not nearly as shocked as I was.

We arrived outside Founders Hall, and he stood there with a puzzled look on his face.

"So ..." I tried to figure out what I wanted to say to him. For weeks I had wanted nothing more than to talk to him, but I figured that he would do the talking. I realized that for most of the time I knew him, he instigated our conversations. It had been my job to rudely reply back to him.

"I'm sorry, Darcy. I'm really sorry."

Darcy looked at me. "I keep telling you, there is nothing you have to apologize for."

"Yes I do. I'm sorry that I said all those horrible things about you to Wick, that I thought you were this stuck-up snob." His jaw clenched at hearing those words. "But the thing is, you weren't the snob. I was. You were right -- I did have a problem with people with money. I built this wall up around me -- I didn't want to get hurt. When I first met you, you seemed like every other person at Pemberley, and I refused, despite your efforts to get to know me better, to change my stubborn mind.

"Maybe we do have a lot more in common than I thought. You didn't want to trust any scholarship students. And I really don't blame you after what Wick did, and knowing how that affected you.... Even after that, you still could see past my circumstances and see me. I'm so horrified by my behavior. You tried to be nice to me and I just dismissed you. You didn't have to do any of those things -- giving me the coat and the tickets to see your mom, introducing me to your family, and helping with Lydia. In fact, I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to speak to me again. But, the thing is, I'm ready to take down the wall, and I really hope that we can be ..."

I suddenly didn't know what to say next. I couldn't say friends, as I knew deep down that wasn't what I wanted from Darcy.

Darcy folded his arms. "Lizzie, does this have anything to do with the fact that prom is next weekend?"

"Prom? No, not at all."

He nodded slowly. "Good, because there is something you should know. I have no intention of asking you to prom."

DARCY'S WORDS HUNG IN THE AIR FOR WHAT SEEMED LIKE an eternity. Truth be told, there were only a couple seconds between that statement and what followed, but to me those two seconds were painful.

A person can think a lot of things in two seconds: how foolish she's been, how awful a person she's been, that maybe she's no better than Caroline Bingley, that maybe Longbourn has changed her for the worse.

I tried desperately to hide any emotion from Darcy. He had every reason not to want to go to prom with me. And I didn't really care about prom anyway.

I cared about Darcy.

Although he already made it clear to me that he had no intention of making the same mistake twice. I was that mistake.

At least, in those two seconds, I thought I was.

"Lizzie," he said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear. "Prom is a stupid, inconsequential event. In the past few weeks, I've seen friends ask girls to prom who they don't even like. Why? So they can have a date. It's a silly tradition that I have no desire to take you to."

I nodded at him. Trying, for the second time this evening, to fight back tears. But these were a different kind of tears than earlier. My heart was starting to tear in two.

Darcy picked up my hand. "You are far too important and special to me to take to such an uninspiring event."

I looked up at him. He smiled at me and bent down on one knee. "Elizabeth Bennet, will you do me the great honor of not going to prom with me?"

I stared blankly at him for a few seconds. Then I took him in, kneeling before me, giving me the best proposal of all. I couldn't help but laugh at his wonderful gesture. "Yes, I will."

"Will you instead avoid prom with me and let me take you on a date?"

"Yes."

He stood up and put his arms around me. "You have no idea how much agony I have been in these last few weeks."

I pulled away. "Why?"

Darcy sighed. "You seem to forget who my mother is. I knew better than to even approach you with anything while you were getting ready for the concert. Especially knowing that you have a pretty ferocious right hook."

The realization that Darcy wasn't ignoring me because of any ill feelings was a huge relief.

"And your absence from the Junction?"

He bit his lower lip and curled his arm around my waist. "I'm sorry to inform you that I have your shifts on my calendar and I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Thanks for the warning." I placed my head against his chest.

"Oh, and one more thing I should warn you about." I was so comfortable; I nuzzled my head into his shoulder for him to continue. "I'm going to take you to a very casual, very non-Pemberley place for our date. There will be no crystal, no foie anything, and, more important, no crazy prom parties. Just you, me, and some delicious Italian food."

"Sounds perfect."

PROM NIGHT ARRIVED. JANE SPENT MOST OF THE DAY GETTING a spray tan, manicure, pedicure, and her hair done.

"Are you sure you don't want to borrow anything for tonight?" she offered.

I looked down at my generic jeans and V-necked top and shook my head. "No, I'm good."

I helped Jane with her dress, a beautiful, red strapless gown. We went into the common room and I volunteered to take pictures for everybody before the media arrived. Charlotte was equally gorgeous in her cream, beaded spaghetti-strap floor-length gown.

Everybody looked stunning (even Caroline, who was going with a guy from the city). Every hair was sprayed into place, every nail filed to perfection, everything done to the standard of a proper Longbourn lady.

I wished them all a good evening and headed down the long staircase. Below me were dozens of Pemberley guys decked out in tuxes, corsages in hand. I'm sure my common appearance was the last thing they were expecting to see, but they weren't who I was looking for.