Chapter 3: The World Turned on its Head

Periods five and six, the whole of the afternoon session, consisted of double English Literature. Hannah Pattison was a great teacher, one of my favourites and probably one of everyone else’s favourites too, and I always looked forward to her lessons. She had this way of prodding your thinking in the right direction so you could see stuff in a story that you would never have seen on your own, or rather you’d have seen it but not realised you’d seen it if that makes any sense.

English Lit was probably the most subscribed of all the A-level courses so while in some of my lessons, like French, I could get a desk designed for two all to myself, there was no such luck in English.

Miss Pattison liked us to sit with one boy and one girl at each double desk for some reason. I asked her about it once after class last year expecting her to say it was something to do with controlling the behaviour in a class or something but instead, she told me that because the different sexes looked at literature from different angles and putting them together gave a more balanced picture. Then she laughed and said that if she could play matchmaker too it was a bonus.

I was one of the first to class that first day and sat at the desk I’d sat at the previous year, expecting Kelly to sit next to me like she had last year. Like I said, she might have dumped me but we were still good friends. And even if I didn’t get to talk to her about what did or didn’t happen at the weekend, I wanted her to know we were still friends no matter what.

But if Clarissa had made my day weird up to that point, she was about to flip it completely on its head.

She, Emily and Grace strode into the room with their usual air of confidence—although some would call it arrogance. There were more girls than boys in this class, so Miss Pattison’s ideal seating arrangements took a hit and last year, Clarissa had sat with Emily. But this year...

“This seat taken?” she asked, gesturing to the seat next to mine with her books.

I looked at her wide-eyed. “N ... No. Not really. I mean, I thought that—”

“Do you mind?”

I shut up and shook my head. This wasn’t happening. Or if it was, she was setting me up for something. And if she was, there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. I mean, you didn’t tell Clarissa Liddington she couldn’t sit next to you. You didn’t tell Clarissa Liddington she couldn’t do anything.

“Great,” she said with a solar-bright smile as she sat down. Grace and Emily sat at the table in front of us. Clarissa flashed me another of those knockout smiles and said, “Thanks.”

In front of us, Grace and Emily giggled.

What the hell had just happened? Before I could work anything out, Kelly and most of the rest of the class came in. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. Confusion spread across her face, then a hint of anger, and finally resignation. She raised her eyebrow in question and she quickly picked up on my own confusion from the look on my face, shrugged and found another seat.

Miss Pattison walked in carrying a pile of novels, which she immediately started passing out. She hesitated when she got to my desk, looked at me, at Clarissa and then at me again. Seems like I wasn’t the only one who thought there was something wrong with this picture. Still, Miss Pattison smiled and handed Clarissa two copies of the book. She passed one to me with another of her knockout smiles.

“I love Austen,” she said, enthusiastically. I looked at the cover. Pride & Prejudice, why was I not surprised? It seemed like a very Miss Pattison choice of book.

After Miss Pattison had finished handing out the books to the rest of the class and deposited the spare copies on her desk, she turned to face us, holding up her copy. “So, who’s read it?”

A whole bunch of hands went up, I didn’t count how many, but did notice they were all girls—including Clarissa.

“Anyone care to summarise the plot? Clarissa?”

Clarissa put her hand down and straightened her back. “It’s a love story. Basically, Elizabeth and Mr Darcy are destined to be together but neither of them can see it or will admit it because they don’t believe society would allow them to be a couple. She thinks he’s too good for her and he thinks she’s beneath him. Except that they don’t, not really, they just think like that because everybody thinks they should. It’s sort of complicated.”

“I hear that Chloe Goodman’s going to play Elizabeth in an American remake of the mini-series,” said Emily.

“Oh, she’d be perfect,” said someone from the other side of the room.

“Nah,” said another voice, “She’d be too old by now, wouldn’t she?”

“She still looks young though,” said someone else.

“Yes, yes,” said Miss Pattison, nodding. “Well, we shall see. I hear the project has been put on hold, but we’re not here to talk about any television adaptations, we’re here to talk about the novel and it’s those complexities that Clarissa mentioned that we will explore. So, any volunteers to start reading first? Paul?”

Resigned, I nodded and opened the book. I’d have to read at some point because she always made everyone in the class read aloud at least once a week. She said it was good practice. Practice for what, I’m not entirely sure. I took a deep breath and began.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known...”

After the lesson, Clarissa smiled at me as she rose from her chair then hurried away with Emily and Grace. Kelly stood with her arms crossed across her chest, her eyebrow arched, as she waited for me to gather my stuff and cram it into my bag.

“Sitting with Clarissa Liddington?” she asked when I looked up. “I’m not good enough for you anymore, huh?”