Lizzie Bennet Diaries one-shots

A Daytrip

The Darcys go to the beach.

~~~

As the family of five - well, technically, it was a family of four and their friend, but it might as well be a family of five - arrived at the beach, the two boys immediately ran off.
"Whoever is in the sea first wins!"
"That's not fair, Darcy, you have a headstart!"
William Sr wanted to go after them, but Anne stopped him. "Let them." She handed him two bags: "You go find a good spot. I and Gigi will follow you soon."
He nodded and left, in the same direction as his son and pupil.
Anne got Gigi out of the car and held her hand as they walked towards the beach. Gigi gasped when she saw the ocean. She pointed at it with an excited grin and said: "Water!! Big water!!"
Anne laughed and lifted up her daughter. "Can you see the other side?"
"Yeah!"
"Can you? All the way to Asia?"
"No!"
Anne laughed. "I didn't think so. The water is so big you can't even see the other side. Not even when Dad puts you on his shoulders!"
Gigi stretched out her arms: "I go to the water!"
Anne put her down, laughing. "Ok ok, we'll go to the water. But let's find your dad first."
"Dada!!" Gigi had already found him and ran to him. She tripped over her own legs and fell straight into her father's outstretched arms. He lifted her up and twirled her around. "Careful there, little one! I can't catch you every time you fall."

A while later, the boys came storming back from whatever adventure they had been on. They were arguing loudly.
"What is the problem, boys?" William Sr asked.
"We were collecting shells, doing who could find the largest one, and I totally won, but now Darcy says his shell is larger!" George explained angrily.
"I measured them and mine was bigger!" William reiterated, "I can show you!"
"You measured them wrong!" George looked at his friend. "You cheated!"
"Can I have a look at these shells?" William Sr asked. The boys handed him their shells, and he looked at them carefully. "I think William's is indeed bigger, George."
George sat down in the sand. "You always pick his side!" he grumbled.
"So, who wants orange juice?" Anne tried to change the subject.
"Me!" Two hands immediately shot into the air. Anne filled two glasses with apple juice for the boys, and a bottle for Gigi.
"Thank you, Mrs Darcy," George said politely. Soon, the entire family was sitting in a circle enjoying their drinks. When Anne also gave everyone chocolate chip cookies, the fight about shells was quickly forgotten.

Gigi was playing around with her Hello Kitty-themed shovel and bucket. She waddled up to her brother and dropped an armful of sand in his lap. "Cake!"
William laughed and pretended to eat it. "Yumyum, what a delicious cake, Gigi!"
Gigi laughed and ran off. She quickly came back with more sand: "Pizza!"
But William stood up, tousled his sister's hair, and said: "I'm going to play with George now. Maybe dad will want to eat your pizza?"
Gigi looked after him and George running to the sea, dropping her sand. She then turned around to her mother: "Mama! I wanna go to the water!"
Anne looked up from the book she was reading: "You want to go to the water?"
"Yes!"

Anne took Gigi to a small body of water right in front of the sea. She figured it wasn't safe to take a three-year-old into the actual sea. But after splashing around for a while, she started getting bored and longing back to her book. She called out to her son: "William! Can't you let your sister play with you and George?"
William looked at George. "We're playing pirates! She is way too little for that!"
"Can't you play something else?"
"No, we're just having fun!"
"But Gigi-"
"Mum!"
"William not wanna play with me?" Gigi asked.
Anne lifted up her daughter. "They're doing big boy things. You wouldn't like it anyway. Do you want to go build a sandcastle?"
Gigi nodded excitedly, so Anne took her back to where her husband was sleeping. "Hey, sleepyhead!" she woke him, "Your turn to look after Gigi."
He woke up: "Huh?"
"Your daughter needs your help with her sandcastle."

After a while, Anne looked up from her book. "Where is Gigi?"
"She was just here." William Sr looked up but didn't see Gigi anywhere. "Good question, where is Gigi?"
"I swear, Darcy, you're going to be the death of me," Anne muttered under her breath. Louder, she added: "You look around here, I'll go ask the boys if they've seen her."

"Guys!" Anne called to William and George. "Is Gigi with you?"
"No!" William called out, "Hold on!" He swam to shore. "I thought she was with you?"
"She was. But she walked away when we weren't looking. I had hoped she maybe came to you."
"We'll help to look for her," William said, gesturing for George to join them. "If you go that way, we'll go that way. We'll find her in no time."
Anne nodded and walked in the direction her son had pointed.

"We found her!!" George came running towards the Darcys. Anne and William felt a great weight lift off their shoulders as they saw their son walking towards them, carrying his baby sister on his hip.
"Will you never do that again? You scared me, mum and dad half to death!"
Gigi looked like she was about to cry.
Anne took her over from her son. "It's not your job to raise her, William, leave that to us!" To Gigi, she said: "Why did you walk away, darling?"
"I wanna go to the water," Gigi said with a sad face.
"You wanted to go to the water? But, darling, you know that you can't go to the water alone, right? The water is dangerous. So next time you want to go to water, you ask mummy or daddy to go with you, ok?"
"Ok, mummy," Gigi said.
"And don't walk away again, alright? You gave all of us quite the scare."
"Yes, mama."
Anne put Gigi down. The little girl immediately walked over to William and tugged his shirt. "William help me make sandcastle?"
William looked down at her. "Sure! Show me where you left off."
Gigi dragged her brother to a big pile of sand, where they started to work on shaping it into something vaguely resembling a castle.
George hopped from one leg to another. "Darcy! Will you come play pirates? It was your turn to hijack my ship!"
"Not now, George," William answered. "I'm playing with Gigi."
George grumbled something and left.
Anne and William Sr looked at each other. William Sr sighed. "I'll go after him."

"George!" William Sr caught up with the boy. "What's the matter?"
"Darcy and I were playing pirates, but now he only wants to play with Gigi."
"Have you asked them if you can join them in building their sandcastle?"
"No, but I want to play pirates! We were just playing and now Gigi gets all the attention, only because she ran away."
"But with playing pirates, Gigi can't join you. Don't you think she'll get a little lonely with only grown-ups around her?"
George didn't answer.
"Hey, I've got an idea!" William Sr said, "What if you went to get all the shells you and William collected and used them to decorate the castle? I think your shell would look lovely above the front door!"
A smile broke through on George's face. "My shell above the front door?"

By the time the family went home, the sandcastle was beautiful, and lots of pictures of it and its three proud builders had been made. All fights of the past day had nearly been forgotten. There were three exhausted children and two equally exhausted parents in the car ride home.