"Why should she marry him? He ruined her sister's relationship," Kayden said, his arms crossed as he stared at Elias, waiting for a response. 

"He said he thought she was just leading him on and didn't want Bingley to be hurt," Elias said, his hands folded over the back of his chair as he was turned, his attention on Kayden. 

Their debates in the class had become a common occurrence, and though other people might comment on things sometimes, they mostly stayed quiet just listening to Elias and Kayden working out the topic.

"It was still none of his business meddling in his friend's relationship." 

"Well no, but he apologized and they worked out in the end." Elias shrugged and Kayden rolled his eyes. 

"Yeah, it's a romance, it all had to work out in the end."

"What's your point?"

"Darcy's an a-" 

"Life words, Kayden." Mr. Adler interjected. 

"A conceited and rude person," Kayden said instead.

"Okay, give me examples to prove that argument," Elias said simply and Kayden huffed quietly. Why did it feel like he was on the losing side of another argument?

"He called her ugly to her face and refused to dance with anyone he didn't deem acceptable." 

"Okay, first off, that was forty chapters ago. Secondly, he wasn't picking and choosing people, he's awkward and anti-social, he didn't want to talk to strangers." Elias said back. 

"He's still a prick."

"You're making a straw man argument." 

"Can we talk about the fact that she only fell in love with him after seeing his house though?" Kayden asked and Elias cocked an eyebrow. 

"I'm pretty sure she was just in denial about hating him in the first place." 

"It didn't seem like it. I almost wonder if she just tricked herself into thinking she loved him because she loved his house so much." Kayden said, running his fingers through his hair to push it out of his face. 

"Okay, but can we agree on one thing?" Elias asked and Kayden gave him a skeptical look. 

"What?"

"Wickham's a creep." 

"Oh, a hundred percent, why is he only ever attracted to fifteen-year-olds? Even considering the time period, that's still uncomfortable. And Mr. Collins is weird, he just straight up didn't accept it when she said no the first five times to his proposal." 

"I flatter myself that your refusal is merely a natural delicacy. Besides, despite manifold attractions, it is by no means certain another offer of marriage will ever be made to you." Elias quoted in a posh British accent.

"He acts like she's not completely out of his league," Kayden snickered.

"Well, if money and status are more important than looks or personality, I could see it. She's on the lower end of wealthy and he'd just come into a large sum of money. Fortunately, Elizabeth married for love-"

"Debateable."

"We've already debated it, let me finish," Elias said and Kayden looked like he wanted to say something else, but didn't. "Charlotte made the economically motivated decision, Mr. Collins was safe, but Elizabeth didn't want to marry for safety or security, she refused to marry someone who could only provide for her." 

"What if Darcy was just the better economic decision?" 

"If that was the case, why would she reject him the first time?"

"She hadn't seen his house," Kayden said and Elias just smiled before laughing very quietly to himself. 

"Fine, you win." He said, and even though Kayden knew he hadn't, he smiled a little. 

"Alright, does anyone have any more thoughts on the discussion before we close out?" Mr. Adler asked and the class stayed quiet. "Wonderful. I want everyone to pick up a sheet of requirements for the essay on your way out." He said, holding up one of the sheets. "You'll only have two weeks to write it so I expect you all to make quick work of it. Minimum of three pages, maximum of five." He said as the class picked up their backpacks and grabbed a sheet as they walked past. "Have a good weekend!" He said happily. 

"Thanks, Mr. A," Kayden said as he picked up a paper and his teacher smiled. 

"Of course." Mr. Adler said back. Kayden felt someone bump his shoulder on the way out. 

"Suck up," Elias whispered into his ear and Kayden rolled his eyes, jerking his elbow back and just missing Elias' stomach. 

"You're one to talk, Dickwad."

"Life words, Kayden." He said with a smug grin.

"Shove it, Astor." He said with a little smile as he walked past him in the direction of his next class, math. 

---

Kayden walked into his history class, sitting down next to Theo with a small smile. 

"Hey, how's your day going?" He asked and Theo looked at him. 

"It's been okay." He said, gently tapping his finger against the desktop, a small smile on his face. "How's yours?"

"Above average," Kayden said with a smile of his own and a shrug. 

"Welcome back to class everyone, I have your tests from Monday graded, I'm pleased to see most of you studied." Mr. Roberts said as he went around passing out graded history tests, his eyes stopping on Kayden a moment before he handed him his test and Kayden could tell he hadn't gotten a good grade from the sour expression. He glanced down at the paper with a soft sigh. D- It sucked because he actually had studied for that one, he'd spend all of Sunday night in his dorm with his textbook, he just hated history and could hardly concentrate on it long enough to figure out what concepts it was even talking about. 

Kayden gently ran his fingers through his hair and folded it up, putting it in his backpack. He didn't want to look at it anymore, he figured he'd just study harder for the next one in two weeks and show Mr. Roberts that he wasn't a complete failure. It was only history, nobody was bad at history. It wasn't like math with confusing equations and difficult to remember formulas, it was just remembering a few facts about dead guys and important events. 

"Hey, what'd you get?" Theo asked and Kayden looked up, scratching the back of his neck. 

"Like a D, what about you?" He asked. 

"B+, I could help you study for the next one if you want."

"Oh no, I'll be fine, I think I just didn't get enough sleep Sunday night or something." He said, brushing it off and Theo nodded. 

"Mr. Roberts just gives hard tests, you'll get used to it," Theo said and Kayden nodded, forcing a smile.

"Yeah, totally." He glanced over at Elias on the other side of the room putting his paper away in his notebook. He probably aced it. Kayden thought before looking away from him, not wanting to be caught staring.

---

"Hey, Connor?" 

"Hey." He smiled when he heard his friend's voice on the other line, sitting down on his bed as he held the phone to his ear. 

"What's up?" He asked.

"Just the usual, ya know, schools started, parties on the weekends. Oh, Macey and I broke up."

"Really? Why?" 

"We just decided it was for the better, there's no hard feelings or anything, we're still friends and all. We just weren't working romantically." 

"Oh, that makes sense."

"How's your boarding school?" Connor asked and Kayden could hear the smile in his voice. 

"It hasn't all been shit, I've got some friends, but we gotta wear uniforms and study Latin and all that. I expected it to be full of self-righteous assholes, but there's really only one outstanding shithead besides the teachers." He said and Connor laughed. 

"How's it feel to be a uniform-wearing prep, Kay?" He asked teasingly and Kayden laughed. "You're a dapper young lad, ain't ya," Connor said in a fake British accent. 

"Yeah yeah, fuck you too," Kayden said with a grin. He looked up when Theo peeked his head in the door. 

"Kayden, we've gotta go to dinner." He said and Kayden nodded. 

"Hey, I've gotta go." He said into the phone. 

"Off to go study greek mythology and discuss the pitiful nature of the lower class with your trust fund buddies?" He asked and Kayden rolled his eyes with a smile. 

"Off to go eat food better than your mom could make," he said back and Connor chuckled. 

"Have fun with that."

"I will." He put his phone away with a small smile and headed toward the direction of the cafeteria with Theo. 

"Who was that?"

"Just a friend from back home." He said and Theo nodded. 

"You went to public school before this, right?" Theo asked. 

"Yeah."

"What was it like?" He asked and Kayden looked at him, realizing that Theo probably hadn't ever gone anywhere besides Antisto. He wondered what it must be like to grow up hardly seeing your parents besides holidays and summers. He shrugged to the question. 

"It's not entirely different. There's a lot less work and there's no uniforms, also obviously you go home every night instead of sleeping in a dorm. The food isn't as good as at Antisto, and we didn't ever learn Latin or philosophy or any of that." He said.

"Does anyone actually come to school drunk or high? And do people really sleep in class, and play on their phones?"

"Yeah, not everyone comes to school high, only a few, but most people don't listen to the 'no phones' rule." 

"Won't they get detention?"

"Sometimes, but detention isn't really that scary, you just sit around in an empty classroom and leave on the late bus."

"Oh...cool," Theo said and Kayden smiled. 

"Have you always lived in the same place?" Kayden asked and Theo nodded. "That must be nice."

"Do you move around a lot?" Theo asked and Kayden nodded. 

"Yeah, my mom's remarried a few times." He said, opening the cafeteria door. "But it's alright, you get used to it, and I'll probably graduate before we move again so I'll be able to go off to college and then choose where I want to live next." He said. 

It was hard knowing that whatever friends he made he probably wouldn't know long. They all fell away when he moved schools and he was left starting over again at a new place. He hated it, but he couldn't do anything about it. Settling down in a small town, maybe even Rosewater, sounded so nice to him. He was sure that in a few years, he'd have that, and it would be perfect, but for now, he was stuck in his stuffy boarding school and he was about to go eat a pretty decent dinner with a group of friends that he hoped he fit into.