Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet (9781476763248) (41 page)

I did like it. Bing's boss, Dottie, set me up with them. It's a national hotline, but it has local centers, so you're talking to people who are from your same area, and the one I report to is about a half hour away. I had to go through sixty hours of training (seriously, I don't think I've done anything for sixty hours total, unless you count sleep, school, or shopping), and I finally started taking call shifts about two weeks ago.

And it's felt really good. Really . . . right. Which makes me all the more nervous about NAU, because now I
know
this is the path for me. And of course I'm trying to not think about it, which makes my cousin and sister really, really annoying.

I love them, but . . . annoying.

“That's so awesome,” Lizzie said, and I could see the telltale sheen of moisture in her eyes that she was going to start sniffling. Oh God.

“Seriously, it's no big deal.” I rolled my eyes over to Mary . . . but she had a suspicious sheen in her eyes, too.

Thankfully, the guy behind Lizzie cleared his throat, hoping to move the line along.

“Right,” she said. “We'll just go . . . grab a table. Give Mom time to finish up her wrapping fest.”

I was happy to take the next guy's order, and the one after that, and the one after that. I find foaming milk to be very soothing. A mindless task, it let me push the nerves down in my stomach, until I almost forgot about them.

Almost.

Hey, heard anything yet? —Milo

My phone buzzed in my back pocket right as I was headed to the back to get more whipped cream for the canisters out of the fridge. So I was semiprivate as I answered his text (you have to be super on the lookout for Mrs. B. She doesn't like phones while on the job and her spies are
everywhere
).

Lydia: Oh God, not you too.

Milo: Hey, I just want to know when I should make reservations at your favorite pretzel stand in the park.

I couldn't help my smile. Since I came back home, Milo and I have been texting. Nothing serious, nothing even romantic. But just . . . friendly. And if I thought about him more than I thought about most of my friends (man, I still owe Denny like seventeen emails) well . . . it's a possibility.

And I like there being possibilities. I haven't had possibilities in a while.

Maybe I needed to plan a trip to visit Jane, regardless of any news I may or may not get in the near future.

But when I came out of the back, new whipped cream canisters in hand, I immediately forgot about the phone in my pocket, and the line of customers about to swallow my coworker Harrison whole, because standing in the doorway of Books Beans and Buds were my parents.

That's right. My mom was standing in the middle of Books Beans and Buds, wearing her favorite Christmas sweater and clutching her purse like she'd walked into a den of thieves and hippies, my dad guiding her by the elbow.

Her face broke into a relieved smile when she saw me, and rushed forward. I came out from behind the counter.

“Mom, Dad, what are you doing here?”

“So this is where you work, honey? Oh, I just had to see it. It's so . . . earthy.”

She gave a startled little laugh, and my Dad held her steady. “Sorry, peanut, but we couldn't wait.”

“Wait?” I asked, alarmed. “What's wrong? Did you have a doctor's appointment or something?”

“No, no, nothing like that. . . .”

“Mom? Dad?” Lizzie said, coming up behind them. “What are you doing here?”

“Lizzie! Oh my goodness, why are you here? I didn't expect you until Wednesday, and oh—your room isn't ready!” Mom said, hugging her.

Perfect, now we were four—no, wait, Mary came, too, so five—people standing in a group in the middle of the coffee shop. Harrison sent me a
What the hell is going on?
look.

I would like to know that, too, buddy.

“Okay, Mom.” I cleared my throat. “Why are you here?” I doubted she'd had a sudden urge for a book or a flower arrangement.

“Well, honey, we had to come as soon as the mail arrived,” my mom answered.

“The mail . . . ?”

And she reached into her bag, and produced an envelope. An envelope with the return address of New Amsterdam University.

For some reason I couldn't feel my feet anymore. This wasn't a huge issue, but just something worthy of note. I took the envelope from her, held it in my hands, felt its weight.

“Wow, real mail,” I said softly. “I thought they would have sent an email.”

Is that a good sign? Like, a real-mail envelope comes with paperwork you need to fill out and send back, right? But then again, an email would do that, too, wouldn't it? Plus, was this envelope big enough for a bunch of paperwork? Or was it a one-page rejection letter? It was impossible to tell.

“Well?” Lizzie said, leaning over my mom's shoulder, each with an identical eager expression. “Open it!”

I took a deep breath. Two. Here goes nothing, I thought as I slipped my finger under the flap.

It took me a minute to figure out what the words on the page said.

But it started with “Congratulations.”

“I . . . got in,” I said, finally bringing my eyes up from the page.

The cheers of my family around me deafened me. Probably deafened the entire room. But it was really hard to care. Because come the spring semester, I would be a student at New Amsterdam University. I was going to go start my new life. I was going to get that pretzel from Milo. And it all started now, in this coffee shop surrounded by my family going nuts—seriously, my mom was running from table to table showing people the letter—and a bunch of strangers wondering what the heck was going on, who slowly started clapping their epic congrats.

Which kind of made sense. Everything's been a total whirlwind in my life, why not have a crazy finale to it all?

But that's how it is when you're Lydia Bennet. For better or for worse, just about everything winds up being some kind of adventure. And when all is said and done, I don't think I'd have it any other way.

I like the person I'm becoming.

I like my family, my friends, my life. My future.

I'm ready now to see what lies ahead. Things haven't always gone according to plan—actually, they rarely have—and this may not, either. But I think I'm learning to deal with that better. Roll with the flow or whatever. What's important is putting one foot in front of the other and only looking back to learn from where you've been.

And right now, one foot is leading me to New York. And all its possibilities.

What an adventure that'll be.

The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet
is the direct result of people caring about a secondary character so much, she needed the chance to tell her own story. Thus, everyone who tweeted, tumblr-posted, or said anything about how much Lydia's story meant to them is the reason this book exists.

Special thanks go to our editor, Lauren Spiegel, for having faith that Lydia's story could be a book, and Annelise Robey, for being our representative and cheerleader the whole way. As well as Kate's husband, Harrison, and new baby—the latter without whom this book would have been done a lot sooner. And Rachel's friend Lars, because
du jour
means sanity maintenance against all odds.

We also must acknowledge the amazing team behind the web series
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
, and specifically the actors whose characters appear in this book: Ashley Clements, Laura Spencer, Briana Cuoco, Christopher Sean, and Wes Aderhold all created people we cared for and cared to know more about.

Finally, Lydia would not exist without the talent of Mary Kate Wiles. She took a character that most people dislike in
Pride and Prejudice
and made her alive and adorbs. Her voice played in our heads as we wrote, and we hope we did her Lydia justice.

  TOUCHSTONE READING GROUP GUIDE

Inspired by Jane Austen's timeless novel, Bernie Su and Kate Rorick created a modern-day
Pride and Prejudice
with
The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet
. Now, Rorick and Rachel Kiley tell the story of Lydia Bennet, never before explored in the Emmy Award–winning YouTube series.

Before her older sister, Lizzie, started her wildly popular vlog, Lydia was just a normal twenty-year-old obsessed with partying, shopping, and getting away with doing as little work as possible while still having maximum fun. But once Lizzie's vlog turned the lives of the Bennet sisters into an Internet sensation, Lydia quickly realized that all the attention coming her way as people watched, debated, tweeted, and blogged about her life was not always good. . . .

After her ex-boyfriend George Wickham exploited her newfound web-fame, betrayed her trust, and destroyed her online reputation, naïve, carefree Lydia was no more. Now she must work to win back her family's respect and find her place in a far more judgmental world.

1. This novel expands on storylines documented in
The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet
and the YouTube series while retaining the plotlines and character archetypes from Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice
. Discuss how the authors make Lydia's circumstances contemporary while still drawing on source material from the nineteenth century.

2. Think about Lydia's attraction to psychology, taking into account her eagerness to be respected by her professor in class, as well as her relationship with her therapist, Ms. W. What do you think draws her to this field? How does she apply the concepts she learns (for instance, Pavlov's dogs and the Milgram experiment) to her own life?

3. Why do you think Lydia does not try to take down the incriminating videos of her past? Do you think it's possible to “rewrite your history” in this day and age? How does the permanence of the Internet affect our society? How has it affected your life?

4. Discuss Lydia's relationship with her parents. How do you think their support helps or hinders Lydia's journey? How is Lizzie's relationship with her parents (from the previous book) like and unlike Lydia's?

5. How do Mary and Lydia act as foils to each other, particularly in social settings? How do they complement and push each other to grow as people? Give a few examples from the text.

6. Lydia is grappling with her identity after hitting rock bottom and is newly motivated to be a hardworking student. However, this role is still very new to her, and she is alternately disappointed and heartened by her performance in different classes. Talk about a time when you decided to change your life—how easy was it to enact new goals and ambitions, and how did you overcome hurdles along the way?

7. At a party Lydia attends in New York, guests adopt the personalities of different characters for the entire evening and, at the end of the night, share their characters' secrets and then burn them. How is this both therapeutic and cathartic to Lydia? How does it parallel the new “character” she is trying to be in her own life?

8. Lydia says, “
There's this weird thing that happens when everything falls apart. [ . . .] Your body, the normal one you live in every day, sort of starts to exist apart from you. You're still there, of course. [ . . .] But it all goes on autopilot, getting you through the days while you . . . contract.
” Discuss how detachment and self-sabotage come into play while Lydia tries to reacclimate herself to the real world after this traumatic event. Can you relate to Lydia's feeling of sometimes being on “autopilot”? How so?

9. In
The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet,
which takes place before this novel, older sister Lizzie feels that she has failed Lydia, realizing after she learns of her sister's sex tape “that Lydia has never been told that she is loved exactly as she is.” Now seeing
the story from Lydia's perspective, how much of this still rings true? How does Lydia crave love, and how does she receive it from her parents, Lizzie, and Jane?

10. Discuss how Lydia is manipulated by the men in her life, Cody as well as George. Lydia declares: “
Here's the thing about good guys. They don't tell you they're good guys.
” How is this true or untrue in your experience? How are Cody and George harmful to Lydia in their own distinct ways?

11. Lydia realizes that there are so many people in the world who know her from her sister's vlog and her tape scandal, and yet these commenters are faceless to her. What do you believe is the function of anonymity on the Internet, especially in commenting communities? What are the positive and negative possibilities for anonymous communication online?

12. Think about Lydia's relationship with Lizzie and with Jane. Lizzie is absent for much of this novel, yet Lydia often compares herself to her. Alternatively, Lydia seems to blossom in a new way when she visits Jane in New York. Discuss the ways Lydia compares herself to her sisters—is it internally or externally motivated? If you have siblings, do you relate to Lydia's relationships with her sisters?