First Impressions: A Modern Pride and Prejudice Adaptation

Chapter 2

"Oh, Mary," Lydia sighed, "you're so lucky you have freckles. I wish I had freckles. They would be so cute with my dress!" She leaned forward over the top of the vanity, which was covered in a mess of clutter and spilled makeup. She pulled her lips up in a wide smile, turning her head to catch the light, as she applied blush to her cheekbones.

"You said my freckles were ugly."

"Okay, yeah, when they weren't in style—like two years ago. Now they're hella cute. I saw a girl on Instagram with a tutorial for henna freckles. Do you think I should try it?"

"No." Mary stood up.

"Wait, wait, I still need you to zip my dress!" Lydia jumped to her feet and shuffled backward towards her sister. Mary jiggled the zipper to free it from a catch in the fabric and pushed it up to the top of the fabric, which barely covered half of Lydia's back. "Thanks, sis." She fluffed up her hair in the mirror and then tugged at the hem of her dress. It was green and slinky, made of some satiny material, with thin string straps. She pursed her lips and began applying lipstick.

Mary was the most introverted of the Bennet siblings. She was happier staying home with a science journal or watching tiny cooking videos than going to a party. But as it was hosted at their own hotel, Mrs. Bennet insisted all of her family—daughters and husband—attend. "Besides," she had added that morning at breakfast, "this isn't just to meet the new summer crowd, we're also celebrating Lydia's graduation!"

And when Mary muttered into her toast, "She hasn't graduated yet," no one but Liz took any notice.

"I'm sure she will," Liz tried to assure her. "She made it through the last three years."

She hadn't responded to that, returning to her toast in silence.

In all her life, Mary had never met a set of twins more opposite than herself and Cat. Cat was not particularly academic, always outgoing—something of a determined people-pleaser. She loved media, television and films and even books, mostly popular romances or gory thrillers. Mary preferred to stick strictly to nonfiction or sci-fi and, while she did have a particular soft spot for cooking on YouTube, especially tiny cooking videos, she almost never watched television other than Discovery channel.

Maybe the worst part of it all, she often thought bitterly, was that she actually enjoyed fashion. She liked the process of putting together an outfit, planning her appearance for the week to come. But because her idea of a good look was so different from Cat and Lydia's, rather than using clothing to bond with her sisters, they wrote her off as weird and uncaring about her appearance.

Mary slammed the door to her bedroom, leaning against it with a sigh. Her bed, with its blue and gray checked bedspread, was neatly made, a plush throw pillow shaped like an atom sitting at the head. A tidy stack of scientific journals sat on the nightstand, next to her spare set of glasses and a small army of tiny porcelain rabbits that her father had given her for her dollhouse when she was young.

Stepping around the bed, she stepped up to the closet. The front was pinned with NASA posters and postcards with images of all the places in the world she wanted to go to. She reached in and pulled her dress for the evening off the hook on the back of one of the doors. It was perhaps too much for the party, but if Lydia was wearing green satin, then surely Mary could pull off a bit of velvet. It was black velvet, quite short for Mary's usual standard, and embroidered with tiny silver sequins like stars. The straps came down low on her shoulders, the neckline creating a small swooping V from the center of her chest outward.

She turned to look in the mirror and smudge on a layer of lip gloss before regretfully tugging on a strand of hair. She kept her dark hair cropped to around her shoulders, but no matter how hard she practiced, it never looked better than when Cat styled it for her. Picking up her shoes, she glanced at Cat and Lydia's bedroom, but Lydia was by herself in it, so she kept walking and stepped through the open door to the other sisters' bedroom.