Emma made me do it

Chapter 1

7am: wake up

Kat sat up in bed, groggily feeling around in the dark for her phone on her bedside table and switching off her blaring alarm. She shuffled sleepily over the window and opened her blinds, filling her room with warm rays of sunlight before walking down the hall to eat her breakfast.

7:30am: Get dressed.

Kat used to put effort into her outfits, but that was when she was a naive 15 year old who actually cared about other people's opinions. Now she just pulled on her worn jeans, a plain t-shirt, heavy jacket and rugged old converses. She brushed and pulled her black hair into a ponytail, and then washed her face and brushed her teeth.

7:50am: Leave the house

Kat packed her bag with the essentials for the day and left her small house, calling out a goodbye to her mum before racing down to the bus stop. The bus soon came, and it took her through the busy streets of the outskirts of London to her boring school.

Nearly every day started like this, and Kat was completely fine with it. All she wanted to do was get her final year of high school over with and get into the university of her dreams; The Royal Academy of Fine arts. Most people would be driven insane if they had to live through Kat's mundane repetitive life, but she was perfectly fine with it.

She didn't like change at all, in fact, the thought of something so significant in her life changing in the slightest terrified her.The fact that she had to move out to be closer to her school and be in a completely unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people petrified her, which was why she was so motivated to finish school, so she could get the hard part out of the way. School was not a place where she could meet with her friends and muck around like the rest of her fellow pupils, no she was there for work only, and her grades showed it. The only friend she had was her childhood best friend, who went off to a private girls school and who she only met with every Friday at the local church youth group.

The school day went by pretty fast and soon Kat found herself in the last class of the day, English. It was not her favorite subject but she was fine with it. She had decent grades in it, and it would look impressive on her university application if she did well in it, so she did. The new term meant new assignments and a new book for the class to read. They had finished reading "Of Mice and Men" the term before, and it was alright. Nothing special.

Kat had always wondered why the government always made children read old classics instead of promoting new authors who wrote about important social issues of our time and were actually relevant, instead of books that didn't have any emotional or mental impact on the kids in her or her class, but she sucked it up, some of them were actually decent books. She rolled her eyes as the teacher handed out copies of the new book, "Emma" by Jane Austen.

"Now some might say this is no 'Pride and Prejudice"

Her teacher began. "But in my opinion, Emma is one of Jane Austen's most insightful books, and one of my personal favorites."

Kat wondered what the book could teach her, her mum made her watch the Gwyneth Paltrow movie with her when she was 13, and as far as she could remember it was filled with posh British people frolicking around the countryside, having picnics and falling in love."Emma is structured around a number of marriages and, in each case, the match solidifies the participant's social status. In Austen's time, social status was determined by a combination of family background, reputation, and wealth-marriage was one of the main ways in which people could raise their social status. This method of social advancement was especially crucial to women, who were denied the possibility of improving their status through hard work or personal achievement."

Kat found herself wondering also wondered if she could survive in Austen's time. She chuckled to herself, she didn't think she could would if people arranged marriages for her, especially to men 17 years her senior like the main love interest of the story. The rest of the lesson was just the teacher going on about how Austen's writing style was ahead of her time, and basically just praising the book overall.

"Fun fact: pride and prejudice was first written in 1797, and first published in 1813 under the pen name, 'A lady." Her teacher added with glee.

Kat just had to laugh to herself at the absurdity of it all, but when class was dismissed for the day, she fully intended to read the first three chapters as she was told. Kat, she was not going to be behind if she wanted a good grade.

She chucked all her things on the couch in the lounge room as soon as she got home, and began on her tons of other homework given to her by teachers, and by the time she had finished everything but English, her mum was calling her to the dinner table. They sat together eating their pasta mostly in silence until her mum smiled at her with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"So I saw a copy of Emma on the couch with your things today."

"Yeah, we have to read it in English." Kat replied nonchalantly.

"Did you know I read that book of my own free will when I was 14?" Her mum gloated in a mocking way, and Kat just had to roll her eyes.

"Yes mum I know, you were obsessed with everything Jane Austen, and secretly wish you were Elizabeth Bennet"

"I don't wish, I know. I know that I was definitely born in the wrong era." Her mum placed her chin in her hands and stared out the window. Kat scoffed.

"I definitely wasn't. Why would you want to live without wifi, running water and electricity? Not to mention you wouldn't be able to vote or work a proper job."

Her mum stuttered and smacked her playfully on the arm.

"Stop ruining my dreams kitty cat."

"Hey I just say it how it is."

Kat stood up and cleared the table, before turning to leave the room, but paused dramatically at the doorway.

"I must be going now mother, I have to get back to dear Emma."

She lay on her bed, reading the book. She didn't really have an opinion at this point other than it was sappy as most things Jane Austen were to her, the opening lines already sounded posh and cocky.

"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her"

Kat decided she didn't like Emma already, but she continued, and found herself becoming immersed in the book. She wondered as she read the last page of chapter three and continued on to chapter four, if perhaps her mum was right, and perhaps she would like to live in the regency era. Or maybe just a holiday for a week. She wondered as she read on to chapter 15 and saw the time telling her it was time to go to bed if she could meet a Mr Knightly, although the age difference was a slight challenge for her.

She wondered as she saw the clock chime 12, and as she finished chapter 24 if maybe it was time to go to bed but the book was just too good and her mum was right although she would never admit it to her. She wondered as her eyes began to flutter closed and she turned to chapter 28 if maybe she was born in the wrong era.

She tried to open her eyes really wide so she could continue reading, she had to continue reading, but her eyes slowly closed shut and she drifted off.