Eliza and Will

Chapter 2

It is evening and the whole family are together in the living room, making our small three bedroom house feel crowded but pleasant.

Dad is seated in his armchair in the corner of the room facing the television, hidden by his newspaper and minding his own business in a room full of females. Mum sits in the middle of the three seater sofa, with Kitty and Lydia at either side who are fighting over a magazine. She scolds them and returns to reading her book. Mary of course is playing a soft melody on the piano and Jane and I are sprawled out on the floor in the corner of the room, watching a YouTube video on her laptop.

I am too engrossed in the video which I am watching that I don't notice my sister Lydia go upstairs, until I hear her shrieking from her shared bedroom with Mary and Kitty.

"You all will never guess what!" she cries, running down the stairs.

We all look up in surprise and mum puts her book down on her knee with a disapproved look on her face.

"Lydia, have you no respect for my poor nerves? You startled us all!"

"Sorry," she giggles, sitting back down on the sofa. "But I have just found out from Olivia that there is a new boy moving in around the corner today, and he's VERY good looking!" Olivia is our neighbour and friend of Kitty and Lydia.

She and Kitty both erupt into giggles, while myself and Jane roll our eyes. Dad sighs and goes back to his paper, muttering to himself. He clearly doesn't find the immature ways of my younger sisters particularly amusing.

"Oh!" claims mum. "Which house is it?"

"The huge mansion one that's sold. Oh, and he's 22!" sings Kitty.

"Well, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get to know him girls, he's not a bad catch. He's a good age for you two," she says, indicating to myself and Jane. "And why not?" She continues. "You should all visit him, five bright young girls like yourselves."

"Mum please," I say, looking up from the computer. "As if we'd embarrass ourselves like that. Besides, he'd hardly be interested in us."

"Nonsense Elizabeth!" I am usually only called by my first name when people aren't pleased with me. Everyone calls me Eliza. My mum and dad are very traditional, hence the reason my mum insisted on giving us traditional names. It was also a way in which she primes and preps us all, in order to succeed in life and to ideally marry someone rich. Since we are a normal middle class family but with parents with low paying jobs, she is very determined to boost our wealth and social position. That is one of the reasons why we clash so much; due to me rebuking and refusing her general bizarre behaviour.

"I'll mention it to Sandra next door when I see her tomorrow and find out more about the new arrival." This next door neighbour she mentions, knows everything about everyone. We all cannot stand her for her nosiness, except for mum.

"Great," I say to Jane. "This is embarrassing." She roles her eyes again and we both share a knowing look and then laugh. But mum isn't listening, for she is too caught up in the girls excitement to notice.

"It wouldn't be such a bad idea if we were to run into him though," Jane points out quietly. "I mean, he could be decent."

"I suppose it wouldn't be so bad to have some eye candy for the first time in a while around here," I laugh, to which Jane pushes me on the shoulder.

"Stop!" I humorously exclaim, nudging her back before settling down to finish watching the video. Of course, my pride would never allow me to admit that I was the slightest bit excited about the idea of a new arrival around the corner.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

A/N: Hey everyone! Thank you all so much for tuning in to Chapter 1, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! I have so many plans for this story...there is lots of exciting things to come!