Fall For You [The Jane Austen Academy Series #1] Read Online Free PDF

earlier. She and Ellie were still best friends, and it was going to be a perfect year. They’d been best friends not rooming together before and would be best friends again. Plus, she was managing editor of the Gazette and she was certain that by year’s end, she would have brought Bergie to her knees, garnering a few journalistic awards in the process.
    The crowd moved another few inches and she and Ellie squeezed into the hall, where they could finally breathe. This exit had to be a fire hazard. Lizzie made a mental note to add it to her long list of possible investigative features for the year ahead.
    They made their way back to the dorm wing and as they rounded the corner, Anne caught up with them, wringing her hands nervously as she fell into stride.
    “I should be mad,” Anne blurted, “that you interfered. But it was perfect. Thank you.”
    Lizzie shot her a smile. “I kind of knew you’d approve. You’re welcome.”
    “Thank you for what?” Ellie asked, confused.
    Anne blinked, as if seeing Ellie standing there for the first time. “For making the dance a Jane Austen dance. It was risky—the school might have hated it.”
    “The school likes anything that gives them something to do,” Lizzie said. “A regular old dance was boring—but this? Costumes? Makeup? Theme? That’s worth getting excited for.”
    “I’m sure you know it means a lot to me. Keeping the Jane Austen legacy strong.”
    “I didn’t do it for you,” Lizzie said—not sure why she felt the need to put Anne down in that moment, but she didn’t like the way Anne was looking at her—as if everything was okay between them now.
    They stopped in the hall in front of their rooms and Anne looked at her expectantly.
    Lizzie tightened her elbow where it looped in Ellie’s and gave Anne a pointed look. “I’ll see you later this afternoon in Journalism.”
    Anne’s pace faltered. “Oh…okay.” She opened the door to their room and stepped inside alone.
    Lizzie followed Ellie, trying not to feel bad. Roommates and allies were one thing. Friends were another. They couldn’t be friends—not after all those articles Lizzie had written about Anne’s family. No matter how sorry she felt for her, it didn’t change the fact that Anne had been perfectly happy benefiting from her status at the school.
    “So Ellie…should we go to our tree?”
    Ellie looked into the distance. “Maybe tomorrow.”
    “But we always do it the first day.”
    “One day won’t make a difference.”
    But somehow, to Lizzie, it did.

Chapter Four
     
    Lizzie threw open the door to the newsroom. Two great writers from last year had beat her there and were seated in the corner in front of one of the computers, scrolling through past editions.
    “Congrats, editor,” they said. One raised her hand in a mimed tip-of-her-hat.
    “Thanks, guys.” Lizzie took the seat at the computer station at the very front of the room—the only one with its back to the whiteboard. She couldn’t believe she was in this seat—the managing editor’s seat. There were so many things she loved about the paper, but so many ways it could be even better and finally, finally, she could make sure they were the best. “Email me your clips. I’m handing out assignments today—not at the end of the week like last year.”
    The girls sprang apart and took up separate stations, fingers flying.
    Lizzie nodded inwardly with approval—these girls were hungry for print space. These girls were the kind she could use to distract Bergie while she dug into the real story: the new administration’s evil plans to destroy her beloved Academy.
    Her email pinged. As new faces filtered into class—including a few boys—she asked for clips. She was relieved to find a few seniors had come. She’d been worried they’d boycott a junior appointment, but they didn’t seem interested in the post. By the time Anne arrived—could she seem any more unjournalistic, standing in the back corner?—Lizzie