Face Down

Disclaimer: Can't think of anything cute to put for this so I'll just be blunt: I don't own Pride and Prejudice or any of the characters mentioned here. I am, however, using them for this fan fiction.

Chapter One—The Alpha Male

Seventeen is just a test
Yeah and I would recommend
That you live with no regrets
Seventeen Ain't So Sweet—Red Jumpsuit Apparatus


Everyone has their obsession.

To some, it may be a sports team, a movie, a TV show, or maybe even an article of clothing. Maybe it's a book series that someone can't live without. To some, it could be Jensen Ackles of Supernatural or Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter. But that's just a little wrong, now isn't it? To the demented, their obsession could be a pre-pubescent girl whom they fantasize about daily. Maybe the obsession doesn't have to deal with a person—maybe someone could be obsessed with getting all A's on their report card.

But to the inhabitants of Longbourne High School, their obsession wasn't someone famous. It wasn't a sports team. It wasn't a movie, or a TV show, and it certainly wasn't about getting perfect grades.

Longbourne's obsession was snagging the irresistible William Darcy.

Will Darcy was everything a seventeen year old boy should be. He was tall, the star midfielder for LHS's soccer team, had perfect grades (four point two, thank you), a loving family, had the best friends a person could ever have, and was funny. He was also devilishly handsome and the head of the popularity scene at Longbourne High. To some people, he was too handsome—it was a "sin" to be as gorgeous as he was. Will always found that amusing when he heard that. If they wanted to use Bible terms, then Will Darcy was the forbidden fruit and the girls that flocked to him were Eve.

There was one more thing about Will: he was a player. Hell, he made Colin Farrell look decent! But, unlike Colin, he didn't date Britney Spears and impregnate a model…

Will liked the ladies. All guys his age did. However, not all guys could snag the women like Will could. He had the girls of Longbourne High School falling at his feet.

It was a general fact that Will Darcy had dated all the worthwhile girls (and this did not include freshmen and ugly sophomores) at Longbourne High School. When Homecoming 2006 had come, Will had been attacked by girls all over, begging him to be their date to the dance. Will had to enlist the help of his best friend just to manage to avoid the girls, who would be waiting outside of class and at his lunch table. They would have done anything to get Will Darcy as their date.

A normal boy would have been freaked out by the attention, but like Zac Efron at the Teen Choice Awards, Will basked in it. He loved the attention—he loved how everyone wanted to be his friend and that everyone wanted to date him. Will knew he was the fantasy of many girls' dreams. He liked knowing he was. It gave him a sense of power in a way, to know that he had this hold over the females.

However, there was one female that was more obsessed with Will than most girls were.

Caroline Bingley.

Even the name instilled fear in Will, because even though he loved the attention he got from the girls, he was slightly terrified of Charlie Bingley's junior sister. She had the strange (and disturbing) notion that Will loved only her and was trying to get her jealous by dating all the other girls at school. She was so sure of herself, she made it a point to scare off prospective girls that Will wanted to date. It was annoying because one, she was scaring off girls he wanted to date, and two, she didn't seem to get it through her thick head that Will dumped her when she was a freshman. Two years later and she still thought he belonged to her.

Yeah, right. The day Will Darcy dated Caroline Bingley willingly was the day that Cho Chang would marry Harry Potter.

It could happen—in an alternate universe, that is.


The lunch bell rang.

Señora Ramirez looked up from the board where she was busy writing down the rules for conjugating past tense AR-verbs and then looked at her students, who were busy packing up their things, anxious to get out of the dreaded Spanish 3 class.

But Señora Ramirez wasn't going to let her students get away that easily…

"Siéntese."She said primly, watching with slight satisfaction as her students groaned and unwillingly sat back down in their seats, some looking longingly at the door.

"Tarea." Was her only her word as the groans intensified and there was some chatter mixed in.

"Señora Ramirez! That's not fair!"

"We've had homework the past week!"

"Yo no hablo inglés." Was her calm reply, as she went over to her desk and picked up a stack of worksheets and walked to the door. Tome una hoja de trabajo."

The groans intensified as the teacher smiled and pointed at one of her pupils. "Teresa, repitalo en ingléspor favor"

The girl, Teresa, looked frightened for a moment as she looked at her classmates, knowing she was their ticket to freedom. Swallowing nervously she said in a tiny voice, "I do not speak English," she said, repeating her teacher's earlier phrase. "Grab a worksheet."

Señora Ramirez looked satisfied as she finally decided to speak in English, "You are dismissed." She said. "As Teresa said, grab a worksheet on your way out."

Will Darcy grabbed his binder and book and joined his classmates as they frantically tried to leave the classroom, clutching a worksheet that everyone wouldn't do until the next morning.

Sticking the worksheet on top of his binder, he studied it as he walked to his locker. It looked fairly simple—just change the present verb to past tense and then make the sentence match it. Definitely not hard at all. With that, he took the worksheet and shoved it into his binder.

"Hey Wills."

Looking up, Will saw his best friend Charlie Bingley walking next to him, the Spanish worksheet clutched in his hands.

"Hey."

"Do you have any idea how to do this? I wasn't paying attention in class."

"Fantasizing about Janie again?" Will shook his head, exasperated.

Charlie flashed a sheepish grin. "Can I deny it and say I was watching a bug circle Marianne King's head?"

"But then you'd be lying." Will pointed out as they reached his locker. "And you're the worst liar I've ever seen." Spinning the lock with expertise, he opened his locker and shoved his binder into his backpack and put his book on the top shelf. Slamming his locker shut, he and Charlie walked to the cafeteria, watching as his friend folded the worksheet into a tiny square and put it in his jeans pocket.

"I'm calling you tonight." Charlie promised, "For help on this damn worksheet. And if you don't answer, I'll break into your locker and steal your finished one."

"Try it." Will said dryly as they rounded the corner, pushing through the tiny freshmen and sophomores as they walked to the front of the line. As they walked, all the girls instantly started calling out to Will.

"Hi Will!"

"Will! Come sit at our table today!"

Charlie watched the girls yell at Will with disbelief on his face. "Really man, how do you manage to not freak out by this attention?"

"Because I actually like it." Will pointed out as they entered the inner cafeteria where they bought their food (pizza and Mountain Dew for Will and curly fries and Coca-Cola for Charlie).

"Doesn't it get annoying sometimes?" Charlie asked as they waited in line to pay. "I am getting quite sick of girls hitting on me and offering to do my homework so that I'll put in a good word for them."

"You're lucky that Janie thinks it's funny," Will contradicted as he paid the fat and bored lunch lady. "Because not all girls are as nice and patient as she is."

"And I'll always be thankful for that." Charlie grinned as he and Will walked towards their table near the windows, where Janie Bennet was sitting along with George Wickham. It was quite odd that someone as popular as Will didn't sit with the other star football and soccer players where the cheerleaders and other popular girls sat, choosing to sit with a misfit and his best friend's girlfriend.

"Hi," Janie said happily to Will and Charlie as they neared the table. As they neared, Will had the faintest feeling that people were turning in their seats to watch the great Will Darcy sit down. Sprawling into his seat, Charlie kissed the blonde-haired-girl on her forehead and watched as she broke apart her turkey sandwich and ate it, piece by piece. Sitting carefully down, Will looked at the other boy sitting at their table and saw that George was slumped over, seeming to be asleep.

Will nudged George and saw that he really was asleep. Amused, he turned to Janie, who was digging through her brown paper sack, "What's with George?"

"Late night." Janie replied, finding the Oreos that she wanted and bringing them out. "He didn't get home until one thirty."

Will chuckled and prodded George on the shoulder. He gave a loud snort and turned his head the other way, still asleep.

"Oh, leave him alone." Janie scolded, looking at George sympathetically as she passed Charlie an Oreo. "He's tired."

"How he managed to even walk to the cafeteria is a mystery to me." Charlie chuckled, munching on the chocolate cookie.

Will prodded George again, but it was like poking a rock. "Is there any way to get him up?" He wondered aloud.

Janie nodded. Fishing out a grape, she said loudly, "Hey George? Want a grape?"

A large hand extended from the arm near his head, palm out, open to the blonde girl. Placing the green grape in George's palm, Will watched with amusement as the hand closed over the grape and it shot back towards the head of mousy brown hair. It disappeared for a moment before it returned to its proper place of supporting George's head.

Charlie snorted as he popped another curly fry into his mouth. "You call that awake?"

Janie shrugged. "He did answer my question; he was coherent."'

Will snorted as he peeled off the pepperoni from his pizza and stuck it at the edge of his paper plate.

Charlie looked about the table, as if sensing someone wasn't here that should be. "Where's Lizzy?"

"Lunch detention." Janie said with a dejected sigh as she tore off another bit of her sandwich and stuck it in her mouth.

Will snorted again as Charlie looked shocked. "Now what did she do?" Will asked.

"Lizzy went a bit too far in Debate." Janie replied, sighing in exasperation, as she slapped Charlie's hands away from the rest of her Oreos.

"How far is too far?" Charlie asked, scowling slightly after being thwarted by Janie. To show his displeasure, he threw a curly fry at her, which hit her between the eyes and fell onto her lap. The blonde sighed again and picked up her napkin, wiping her face. Brushing the greasy fry off her dark denim blue jeans she answered her boyfriend's question. "She started to get vulgar with Mrs. Simmons and ended up insulting her intelligence."

"Typical Lizzy." Charlie muttered, chewing on another curly fry before his face turned to one of disgust and she spat it on the floor. "These fries are disgusting…"

"Want my pizza?" Will asked, taking a bite of the pizza and spitting it into his napkin. He disliked cafeteria food, but he continued to buy it everyday.

"Is it better than these cold curly fries?" Charlie asked looking at the pizza suspiciously, watching with distaste as some grease dripped off the pizza and onto the plate.

"Well, if clogged arteries are your walk in the park, then sure." Will said dryly, shoving the pizza away from him and wiping his greasy fingers with his napkin (and then using George's shirt. He would never know—he was deep asleep).

Janie sighed and rummaged through her brown paper sack again. Only this time, she didn't pull out Oreos. In her right hand was a Rice Krispie and in her left hand there lay a package of Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. She pushed them towards the boys. "Help yourself."

Will snatched the cookies before Charlie could and tore the wrapping quickly, looking at the delicious cookies that lay inside. "Janie, I swear to God, you are a saint."

Charlie wrapped his arm around Janie's thin shoulders and pulled her to him. "The absolute best."

Janie pinched Charlie's bare arm and he released her quickly as she straightened up and smoothed her white three-quarter sleeve shirt. Fiddling with her yellow beaded necklace, she looked at the boys who were devouring the packaged goods. "Really, if you don't like school cafeteria food, then why do you buy it every day?"

"Too busy." Will said, as he stood up to get rid of the crumbs that adorned his slightly ripped blue jeans and red T-shirt. "And Charlie here is just absent-minded."

"Shut it." The blonde-boy said good naturedly as he crumpled the Rice Krispie wrapper and shoved it into Janie's bag. "You try remembering to bag a lunch when you got your younger sister yelling at the top of her lungs because she can't find what to wear, while trying to remember if you did your homework last night."

"You're just disorganized." Janie blew a piece of her curled blonde hair out of her face, and re-adjusted the hair band that wasn't doing its proper job of holding her sleek golden-blonde hair back. Suddenly, her neck snapped up and she looked about curiously. Will watched Janie with evident confusion, Charlie's face matching his. Janie soon sighed and pushed away from the table, the chair skidding a few meters away before getting up and leaving the table.

"What the hell was that about?" Will asked, craning his upper torso around so he could watch Janie walk away towards another table where a group of giggly junior girls sat, all wearing various shades of Hollister's blue polo shirt with the collar popped and a short, ripped denim mini skirt and different flip-flops or ballet flats. The only thing that was different was their hair styles, which varied from obvious crimped hair to long straight hair.

Charlie shrugged, watching Janie converse with a brown-haired girl with a crimped side-ponytail that spilled down her shoulder, an aqua blue polo shirt with the collar popped, light denim ripped mini skirt, and black flats. The girl said something to Janie, who raised one blonde eyebrow and said something quickly back. The junior girl frowned and looked at her friends before nodding her head. Janie mimicked the head nod and the junior girl smiled widely, showing off rows of straight teeth. Touching Janie's arm quickly, the girl seemed to be thanking Janie and handed her a slip of folded paper. Janie smiled once and walked back to the table, the paper still clutched in her hand.

Charlie snickered, which wasn't lost on Will, who turned his blue eyes to him. "What?"

"You'll see."

Janie sat back down and pulled herself back to the table edge. Once situated, she reached across the table and handed Will the folded piece of paper, which had his name scrawled upon it in pink ink.

Will laughed as he looked at the little note. "Don't tell me this is what I think it is."

"Her name is Marissa." Janie said, "She's sixteen, a junior, and was voted Junior Princess for Homecoming."

Will smirked as he leaned back in his seat and started to open the note. Just for good measure, he turned in his seat slightly to see Marissa grinning up a storm and shushing her friends, who were giggling and watching Will. Laughing, Will turned back and opened the rest of the note to read:

Will,

Want to go to Sno-Ball with me?

--Marissa

His smirk becoming more pronounced Will looked up to see Janie and Charlie looking at him expectantly. "Any of you have a pen?" He asked, digging through his pockets and finding he left his in his locker.

Janie opened her purse and pulled out a fountain pen. Handing it to Will, she asked, "Well, are you going with her?"

"Watch her reaction." Will promised, scribbling a reply on the note (shoving Charlie out of the way as he attempted to read what his friend had put) and folding it back up again into the difficult looking square. Scratching off his name, he wrote Marissa's name on it instead.

"Want me to give it to her?" Janie inquired.

"Nope." Will said, looking quite smug as he stood up from the table and walked towards Marissa's table. As he neared, he heard shushing coming from it and he composed his face into a look of indifference.

Marissa's friends were silent as they all gazed at him. A normal boy should have cringed at seeing all those mascara and eyeliner clumped eyes staring at him, but Will loved attention, so he basked in it. Running one hand through his messy hair, he turned his gaze to Marissa, who was gazing at him expectantly. "Hey." She greeted.

"Hi." Will repeated, handing her the note, and turning away to go back to his table.

In his peripheral vision, he saw her eagerly tear open the note, her friends pushing back their chairs to look over Marissa's shoulder, trying to read the contents. Not even a second later, there were excited squeals and "Oh, my GODs!" coming from the table. Smiling with satisfaction, Will smoothly sat back down at his table and leaned back so that the front tips of his chair was not resting on the ground.

Charlie had a knowing look on his face. "You said yes?"

"I said yes." Will confirmed, nodding his head in Marissa's direction who was smiling hugely as her friends offered their congratulations.

"Have you dated her before?" Janie asked, crumpling up her lunch bag and tossing it into the large yellow trash can that a lunch lady was bringing around.

"Nope." Will said, popping the 'p'. "And frankly, I'm surprised I didn't. She's hot."

"Just don't break her heart." Janie said, "She seems like a very nice girl."

Charlie laughed, bringing his girlfriend closer to him. "You see too much good in people Jane. That's Marissa Duncan—she's quite stuck-up."

"Good then," Janie said, gazing at Will with aqua-blue eyes, "You two will make a perfect match."

"Touché." Will smirked.

Charlie soon let go of Janie and clasped his hands under the table. About three minutes later, Will's cell phone started to vibrate. After checking to make sure the coast was clear, Will drew out his cell phone like a sword and quickly put it under the table, slouching so that he could read it better.

It was from Charlie.

How long will M last?

Snorting, Will returned the reply with a few words:

Give or take 1 week.

Snapping his phone shut, Will put it away, just as Charlie's phone went off. Quickly reading it, Charlie shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Figures." He muttered.

Will knew that Charlie shouldn't act so surprised.

Because after all, what did you expect from the biggest player of Longbourne High School?


Yes, you may all be wondering, 'What the hell? Why is she starting another story? Well, to tell you the truth—this story is replacing Gone and Back Again, which has been deleted. Because frankly, the story was stupid—I was following the same format as Lies, Love, and Deceit, except I added a stupid yearbook in it. Yeah, it was gay. However, I like this story better, I actually have a damn plot—what do you think?

And oh yeah, George Wickham. Shockingly enough—he won't be portrayed as Will's nemesis in this story. He's just going to be a misfit in a band. I know, I'm so creative. But c'mon! How many stories actually have George as a regular person? Oh, and Sno-Ball, to the people who don't know what that is: it's a dance at my school that's equivalent to Winter Formal, or whatever that is.

Well, that's it for now. I got an AP Test I should be studying for. Yeesh

Reviews are loved and extremely encouraged!

--GC