Free Pride's Prejudice by Misty Dawn Pulsipher

up his hand he
ticked off his fingers one by one.  "Game.  Set.  Match,
sweetheart."  Then he winked.
    Beth
stood.  "This has been fun, boys, but I'm going to check on the
invalid."
    ~:~
    William
watched Beth's progress to the tent with a smirk.
    "Dude."
Les said in an accusatory tone.  "You're shooting yourself in the
foot."
    "Nope,"
William said in a firm tone, swigging his water generously.  "I'm
coming in at an angle."
    "You
honestly think she's ever going to like you if you keep this up?"
    "I'm
not onto the 'liking' phase of my plan yet.  Right now I'm on 'getting her
attention even if it's negative.'"
    "She's
going to hate you," Les said candidly.
    "She
already does.  But love and hate have a common denominator: 
passion."
    Les
just shook his head.
    "Oh,
go back to your angelically passive girlfriend, and leave me alone,"
William said somewhat grumpily, shoving Les's head.
    "Better
not," he laughed, running his fingers through his hair.  "Beth
might come out here and kill you if I leave you alone."
    William's
head tilted in concurrence.  "There's no might about it."

 
    STARGAZING
     
    "Those
who do not complain are never pitied."
    ~Jane
Austen, Pride & Prejudice
     
    Beth
spent the remainder of the afternoon in the tent with Jenna, reading her book
after pulling its sodden pages apart.  Jenna's nap spanned several hours,
and Beth came to the last chapter when she woke.  As sorry as she was for
Jenna, she was somewhat glad to have an excuse to stay in the tent, rather than
mingle with the rest of the happy campers outside.  When she finally
ventured outside around dusk, she found everyone except Les in a bad mood.
    Kara
and Lucy were uncomfortable, and did not scruple to keep their complaints to
themselves.  Gone were the barely audible whispers and the secretive
huddling.  The high point in the evening came when Kara choked on a fish
bone and Les had to perform the Heimlich maneuver.  Maybe William had
purposely left a few bones in.  As soon as her airway was cleared, Kara
robustly expressed her displeasure that fish were not boneless, and continued
to abuse the poor vertebrate creatures all night.  ("What do they
need spines for?  They have fins!")
    At
that point William declared his intention of turning in, and Beth was certain
that, had he been the only other person besides Kara in the camp, she very
likely would have choked to death.
    Beth
waited over an hour after he left, then followed.  No one was awake when
she finally climbed in her knapsack, for which she was grateful.
    The
next day passed relatively uneventfully.  Les and William went fishing for
a couple of hours, and as Kara and Lucy found themselves quite bored during
this time, they visited Jenna at the sick tent, bringing a deck of cards and
some of Kara's homemade cookies.  Beth took one to be polite and had to
exert a great amount of self-control not to spew it all over the tent. 
She guessed that Kara had perhaps substituted flour for sugar.  They were
the texture of lumpy concrete and tasted about the same (not that she'd ever
actually eaten concrete).  Beth shrewdly saved Jenna (and her teeth) by
telling Kara that she was allergic to gluten.
    The
swelling in Jenna's ankle went down considerably, although her cold was as bad
as ever - but Beth could tell she was feeling better.  The four girls
played a couple games of spades, and when Les and William returned (bearing
more fish, much to Kara's dismay) everyone, Jenna included, grouped around the
campfire.  Les assisted Jenna into a camp chair and propped up her ankle,
then sat faithfully at her side.
    Beth,
lacking the patience to deal with Kara and William by herself, felt immensely
grateful to Jenna for joining them.  Jenna's being beside her, and looking
better than she had in days, made Beth feel light and free.  Even William,
lobbing imaginary tennis balls up in the air and then spiking them in her
direction, couldn't douse her mood.
    After
a dinner of roasted hot