A/N: This is my first attempt at Pride and Prejudice fiction and I hope you guys like it. I obviously do not own Pride and Prejudice.

Title: The Whole World and You

Rating: T

Summary: High school teacher, Lizzie Bennett, meets Will Darcy, partner in a large law firm and owner of Pemberley Resort and Spa. Will immediately makes a bad impression and Lizzie continues to judge him based on that one incident.

Chapter One: You Probably Shouldn't Move Here

Lizzie's POV

It is a truth universally acknowledged that root canals are one of the most evil procedures ever invented. Unfortunately for me, I happened to have my third root canal the same day as my best friend's birthday party. My sister, Jane, drove me to the dentist and then once we were done there, we went home and changed before heading over to Charlotte's party.

Charlotte Lucas's father was the wealthiest man in Meryton, Michigan. Meryton is a small resort town on Lake Michigan. There are three main hotels in Meryton. Lucas Lodge is owned by Charlotte's father, William Lucas, my father, Christopher Bennett, owns Longbourn Estates, and Netherfield Suites was just purchased by Charles Bingley, the CEO of Bingley Publishing International. Longbourn Estates isn't just a hotel, although there is a large hotel there. In addition to the hotel, we also have about one hundred condominiums that are occupied either by year-round residents of Meryton or by seasonal residents. My family has lived in the penthouse on the top floor of Longbourn Estates for as long as I can remember.

I'm just a lowly Spanish teacher at Lakeview Private Academy for the Gifted and Talented, home of the Flying Loons. I currently live in a condo that I share with my sisters, Jane and Mary, at Longbourn Estates. Jane works at the reference desk at the Meryton Public Library; all Jane has ever wanted to do is work at a library. She loves libraries and books more than almost anything else on earth. Mary is working for our parents and trying to figure her life out. She has a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan, but now she doesn't know what to do with it. Charlotte once said, "And what does a philosophy major say? 'Welcome to McDonald's; would you like fries with that?"

So it's the day after Thanksgiving and instead of spending it at the Meryton Mall with my youngest sister, Lydia and Katie, I spent it having a root canal. But after my root canal, Jane and I headed over to the Grand Ballroom at Lucas Lodge where Charlotte was having her twenty-fifth birthday party. She'd invited all of her friends and dozens of other people. Among the guests would be Charles Bingley, the new owner of Netherfield, and a few of his friends. Bingley was the talk of the town ever since word had reached us that Bingley was buying Netherfield from its previous owner, Ethan Jacobs. Ethan had once owned Netherfield as well as several hotels in other towns in northern Michigan, but ever since the death of his wife, Fran, five years earlier, his hotels had fallen into decline. Now, Charles H. Bingley, president and CEO of Chicago based Bingley Publishing International, was buying Netherfield and moving into the Penthouse suite.

We arrived at Lucas Lodge around 7:30 and found Charlotte in a regular tizzy. "Where have you two been?" were the first words out of her mouth when we walked into the ballroom.

"I'm sorry, Char," Jane said. "It's just that Lizzie had her root canal today and that took longer than expected because Dr. Ash wanted to do pulp test and other crap like that to figure out what teeth he'll do root canals on over Christmas break."

Charlotte hugged me. "Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry. You really need to stop having root canals like this."

I laughed. "It's all right. It's not like they're killing me or anything."

"Do they know why you keep needing root canals?"

I nodded. "Yep, do you remember in middle school when Trevor Stevenson hit me in the face with a dodge ball? I was wearing braces and because my teeth were anchored to each other and so instead of one of them taking the impact of the blow, all of them did."

"So how long is this going to go on?"

I shrugged. "They know they need to do two more root canals over Christmas and there's probably going to be one more after that, but that might be the end of it."

"Oh thank goodness," she said. "Now come in and mix and mingle. Your younger sisters are already here and flirting with every man in sight."

"Goodness gracious," Jane sighed. "What's Mary doing?"

"She's off in the corner reading Kierkegaard or something like that. Nate Caldwell has tried to talk to her at least three times and she keeps telling him to leave her alone so she can get back to her reading."

"I'll go take care of her," I told her.

"Just make sure that she doesn't start playing the piano," Jane called after me. Jane is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, but she does know that Mary shouldn't play piano in public. Mary likes to play the piano and she's been playing for years, but she isn't very good. I guess she just doesn't have much natural talent or something.

"Hey, Mary," I said sitting down next to her at a corner table. "How's Kierkegaard?"

"Oh, he's fine."

"And how's Nate?"

"I don't know. He keeps coming and bothering me. He wants to dance with me or something, which is stupid. Dancing is so dumb; I don't know why you and Jane enjoy it so much. Books are so much more interesting than boys and dancing."

"Speak for yourself," I told her. "Personally, I'd spend the whole night on the dance floor if it weren't for the stupid root canal I just had."

"Oh, I wish I had an excuse like that to avoid the dance floor. I don't know what I'm going to do if Nate doesn't stop asking me to dance."

Just then, Jane and Charlotte came over with three men and two women following them. "Lizzie, Mary, we have some people we'd like you to meet," Charlotte said.

I stood up and looked at the new arrivals. Two of the gentlemen were taller and had dark brown hair; the other was heavyset and looked like he'd already had a few drinks. The two ladies were both blondes and heavily made-up; they both looked like they thought they were far too good for Lucas Lodge and Meryton in general.

The shorter of the two dark haired gentlemen extended his hand with a friendly smile. "I'm Charles Bingley, good to meet you."

I shook his hand and smiled back. "I'm Elizabeth Bennett, but you can call me Lizzie."

"Well, then in that case, you can call me Charlie; all my friends do."

"Charlie it is then," I told him.

"And I'd like you to meet my good friend, William Darcy," Charlie told me.

I smiled at William and we shook hands. "Nice to meet you," I said.

"The same to you," he said, seeming a bit distracted.

"These are my sisters, Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst," Charlie continued. "And this is my brother-in-law, Jeff Hurst."

Jeff was clutching an open bottle of beer so tightly I couldn't even see the label; all I know was that it wasn't Heineken because the bottle wasn't green. Caroline and Louisa both nodded at me and then resumed ignoring me. I could easily see that we were not going to be fast friends…or friends at all for that matter.

"So what do you do for a living?" Charlie asked me as his sisters and his brother-in-law drifted away leaving me standing there with Mary, Jane, Charlie, and William Darcy.

"I teach Spanish at the local private school for gifted and talented children," I replied.

"What's that like?" Charlie asked.

"Oh, it's fine. The students are all brilliant and most of them are pretty nice, decent kids."

"I studied philosophy in college but right now I'm working for my dad while I try to figure out my life," Mary interjected awkwardly. Most of us had sort of forgotten that she was even there anymore and she seemed to have noticed.

We all nodded at her and Charlie said, "Oh, that's nice."

William Darcy was looking at Mary like she was some kind of mutant. And while my sister is a little weird, I don't like it when other people treat her like she's mentally retarded or something. She is socially awkward and she doesn't realize it, but people should be nice to her. Mary is the middle child and she doesn't quite fit in very well. Jane and I are eighteen months apart in age and then Mary is four years younger than me. Katie is another three years younger than Mary, but Lydia is only fifteen months younger than Katie. Mary was always the most studious member of our family and she graduated from college in only three years, after finishing high school in three years. She's only twenty now and it's hard for her to make friends since most of her life has been devoted to books and her piano.

After dinner, Charlotte's favorite part of the evening began. Charlotte's younger brother, Mark, had set up his laptop with some speakers to play the music of his sister's choice all evening. Charlotte danced the first dance with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Ethan Collins. Ethan is my cousin and the son of my father's dead business partner and brother-in-law. Ethan is one of those people who find themselves excessively entertaining and good-looking. He also believes himself to be very popular. He's actually quite boring to talk to because he mostly blathers about himself. He isn't ugly but he's no Orlando Bloom; he's not even as good looking as Charlie Bingley or William Darcy. Darcy might be a bit snooty but I will admit that he is one good looking man. Oh, and Ethan isn't very popular either. He has a few close friends, but he isn't exceptionally popular or anything.

Jane was out on the dance floor with Charlie Bingley. Nate Caldwell had given up on Mary and was now dancing with Charlotte's younger sister, Maria. Maria was better suited for Nate anyway; she lived in a world of people and colors, not dead philosophers and black and white pages. On the other hand, Mary far preferred the company of dead philosophers to living men.

I found myself sitting by the wall watching the dancing with Charlotte's younger siblings. Charlotte was the oldest of eight children and she had three younger sisters and four younger brothers. Aside from Mark and Maria, all of Char's younger siblings were standing near the wall watching the dancing.

William's POV

I wasn't quite sure why Charles wanted me to come up to Meryton with him in the first place. It was the day after Thanksgiving and he had just purchased a hotel that desperately needed remodeling. From what I understood, the hotel had once been the fanciest, most exclusive hotel in Meryton, Michigan, but in recent year Netherfield Suites had fallen into disrepair and the owner had been forced to sell the place. Charlie was planning to remodel the hotel and have a grand reopening in January. He'd bought the place in September and had been working on it since then, but this was the first time he'd brought any of his friends or family to see it. My question was simply why we had to visit Thanksgiving weekend.

Then I went to Charlotte Lucas's birthday party and saw Jane Bennett; things became much clearer then. Charlie had seen the pretty reference librarian during his first visit to Meryton. Now we were at Jane's friend's birthday party and Charlie was dancing with Jane. I was still sitting at our table listening to Caroline and Louisa prattle while Jeff drank copious amounts of booze.

"Everyone keeps saying that Lizzie Bennett is the prettiest girl here," Caroline moaned. "But I can't see why. She's so plain. I mean look at her; she could try so much harder and look so much better."

I looked over at Lizzie Bennett who was currently dancing with Charlotte Lucas's younger brother, Mark, to Glen Miller's "In the Mood." It's an old swing favorite and the pair seemed to be enjoying themselves to no end; they also made a very good looking pair. Mark Lucas was a tall, handsome young man; he was currently working at the Meryton Daily News as a sportswriter, which he had assured me earlier in the evening was not a very hard job. Lizzie, though, almost seemed to be using Mark more as a prop or an accessory than as a dance partner. She was small and slender and wearing a black dress that fell a little below her knees. Her dark brown hair was in some sort of fancy style a woman could describe far better than I, but I will tell you this. Lizzie was not looking plain at all. She was positively stunning.

A few minutes later, Charlie and Jane came over to our table dragging Lizzie along with them. Mark had returned to running the music on a laptop in the corner. This was another of Caroline's complaints. "And they can't even afford to hire a real DJ," she'd sniped earlier in the evening. "They just bring in the owner's son to fiddle around with his laptop. This would never happen in Chicago."

I wasn't sure how I felt although the party was for the owner's daughter, so maybe she had asked her brother to be the DJ for the evening. After all, I have been to weddings where the DJ was paid a thousand dollars or more, but couldn't remember to bring the salsa music that the bride had specially requested with him. Part of me thought that Caroline needed to get over herself and stop flirting me all the time. A few years ago, she went so far as to tell my younger sister, Georgiana, that she would "be acquiring a new sister-in-law shortly and then I will give this house a real remodel." Well, she's not marrying me and she's definitely not remodeling my house. My house in Chicago is one hundred years old and my parents remodeled to the styles of the era in which it was built. I won't have her come into my house and "bring this place into the twenty-first century." I happen to enjoy Victorian architecture, thank you very much.

But anyway, Charlie, Jane, and Lizzie came over to our table to see how we were doing. Lizzie looked bored as Caroline complained about the food and "there just wasn't a large enough selection of deserts. They should have had at least two more items."

"Would you rather that we had added petit fours or crème puffs?" Lizzie asked.

Caroline sniffed. "Preferably both, although there should have also been a fruit bowl or something similar for those of us who are watching our figures; we can't all eat whatever we please."

"I'll try to remember that," Lizzie replied. "I would have supplied a few more deserts for the evening, but unfortunately I had a root canal already scheduled for this afternoon and I just can't do anything."

"You made the deserts?" Charlie asked, stunned.

She shook her head. "No, that was the job of the pastry chefs here at Lucas Lodge; however I have my associate's degree in culinary arts with a specialty in pastries. Char wanted me to cook for the party, but Dr. Ash said I need to have the root canal more than I needed to cook for the party."

"But she does cook for weddings at Longbourn Estates sometimes," Jane said. "She makes the most amazing wedding cakes."

"How nice," Caroline sneered. "You have something to fall back on if teaching doesn't work for you."

"Yes, I suppose I do," Lizzie replied, looking away like she would rather be anywhere else.

"Will," Charlie said suddenly. "You should ask Lizzie to dance with you. She's quite the dancer"

"Oh, that's all right," I said quickly. "I'm not much of a dancer."

"That's not true," he protested but stopped when I shot him a look telling him to just stop.

"It's all right," Lizzie said. "I'll go find Nicholas and play with him for a while." She shot me a withering glare. "I'll be fine."

The next time I saw Lizzie she was dancing with a little boy who looked to be about five or six. "That's Nick Lucas," Jane said as she walked by me. "He's Lizzie's date to every formal occasion when she's dateless."

"There must be a lot of those events," Caroline muttered before I walked over to Charlie, who was standing at the bar talking to Mr. Lucas.

When I arrived, Mr. Lucas shook my hand told me to enjoy myself before going to talk to his younger daughters. "How are you enjoying yourself?" Charlie asked me.

I shrugged. "It's all right. There aren't very many pretty girls here though."

"Oh I disagree. Did you see the Bennett girls?"

"Charlie, you were dancing with the only pretty girl in the room. The rest of them were quite plain and dull."

"What about Lizzie Bennett? I thought she looked quite lovely this evening."

"She was fine, barely tolerable. She wasn't someone you could look at every day."

"Well neither are you," a voice behind me said. I turned around to see Lizzie Bennett standing behind me with a glass of red wine in her hand. "I could throw this all over you but I'd rather not. That shirt probably has to be dry-cleaned and I wouldn't want to force you to associate with anymore of these plain, dull people than necessary."

As she walked away, Charlie shook his head. "I don't think you just made a new friend."

I didn't either, but I'd been lying when I'd described Lizzie to Charlie. I actually found her unbelievably beautiful.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think.