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 Two—Not So Nice Girl
Well when you go
Don't ever think I'll make you try to stay
And maybe when you get back
I'll be off, to find another way
--I Don't Love You. My Chemical Romance
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Lizzy Bennet rolled her eyes as she blew a strand of light brown hair out of her face. She groaned softly and buried her head in her arms, under the careful scrutiny of Ms. Jones, the detention monitor. Sighing loudly, she blew a raspberry and leaned back in the seat so that the front tips of it were in the air. Adjusting her chair, she leaned back all the way and laid her head against the other desk, looking at Jordan Hepburn, who was looking into her clear green eyes. "I'm bored." Lizzy said simply as Jordan nodded, as if agreeing.
"Miss Bennet!" Ms. Jones said shrilly. "Sit up and no talking!"
Lizzy made a face, but obliged, her straight brown hair flying up and then settling around the back of her green V-neck sweater. Whistling under her breath, she adjusted her wispy bangs that fell into her eyes, and started to tap the tips of her fingers on the edge of her desk, while looking at the clock. Fifteen minutes had passed.
Damn!
Lunch was only thirty minutes, and usually, when Lizzy was at lunch, it passed by very fast, but now, it seemed like time was taking its dear old sweet time.
Rolling the aluminum foil from her sandwich into a ball, Lizzy kept a careful eye on the teacher, watching as the Muggle version of Professor Umbridge looked back at her magazine (Cosmopolitan, Lizzy snickered at that—there was no way that Ms. Jones was getting any action in the near future). Looking about the tiny room, Lizzy quickly stood up and whipped the ball at Ms. Jones, sitting back in her seat, looking at her desk, fighting the smirk on her face.
Thanks to playing varsity softball since freshman year, Lizzy's aim was precise. It hit the teacher right in the middle of her forehead.
The six kids in detention snickered as Jordan whispered, "Nice aim," to Lizzy, who couldn't fight the smirk that was steadily growing on her face.
Ms. Jones's neck snapped up as she felt the impact of the aluminum foil ball. Dropping her magazine and shutting it (Lizzy could only imagine what she had been reading) Ms. Jones stood up and put her hands on her wide waist, glaring at the class with small blue eyes. "Who threw that?" She snapped.
The class stayed silent. Even Lizzy managed to look up and keep her face neutral.
"Well?" Ms. Jones snapped, lifting her hands from her waist and smoothing her boy-cut mousy brown hair. "Who did it?"
The class continued to remain silent.
"Do you want me to keep you after?" Ms. Jones threatened.
Lizzy snorted quietly but it was not lost on the detention monitor. She fixed her attention on the sixteen year old with beady eyes.
"What was that Miss Bennet?"
"I said nothing." Lizzy said innocently.
"What did you snort about?" Ms. Jones snarled, walking away from her desk to stand in front of Lizzy.
"What you said about keeping us after." The brunette said casually, not caring that she was getting into deep trouble.
"And what was so amusing about that?" Mrs. Puff (as Lizzy had dubbed her at the moment) asked. "It's not funny at all—I am keeping you in this room longer than you want to be."
"Believe me, I feel your pain." Lizzy said, stretching her limbs, "But what I was snorting about was that you actually think that keeping us after is a punishment? That means we don't have to go back to class." She looked about the room and the murmurs of agreement from her peers made her continue. "So go ahead, keep us after. That just means I don't have to see Mrs. Simmons's hideous face." She made a face at the mention of her Debate teacher.
Mrs. Puff's face started to turn a dark red and Lizzy idly wondered if her head would explode because of the excess blood pumping to her face. Savannah Clemens, who sat in front of Lizzy, muttered loud enough for Lizzy to hear, "You're in so much trouble."
To be frank, Lizzy was enjoying this. Smiling sweetly, she tilted her chair back again, her long light brown hair falling over the edge of the chair, her light denim blue jeans, ripped at the knee cap (by herself, not by those stupid over-priced pre-ripped jeans) completely showing as her legs lounged over the top of her desk, showing off her green flip-flops and pretty red pedicure. She balanced there for a few moments as Mount Jones looked ready to explode. Suddenly, gravity became the best of her. She felt her chair slipping and one moment later, she crashed to the floor.
"FUCK!" Lizzy swore as her head hit the edge of Jordan's desk, her back colliding painfully with the back of the chair. She wasn't injured—except her ego.
However, that itty-bitty word she had uttered when she had fallen just landed her in a huge heap of trouble…
"LIZZY BENNET!" Mrs. Puff thundered, her face turning the same shade as Lizzy's toe-nail polish (a deep red). "PACK UP YOUR THINGS AND PROCEED TO THE OFFICE!"
Lizzy slowly got up from the floor and looked at the clock.
Eleven twenty-nine.
Well, la de da.
Sighing loudly, Lizzy threw out the remnants of her pitiful lunch, grabbed her purse, and left the classroom, but not before saying goodbye in her own personal way.
Walking out of the detention room, Lizzy whistled absent-mindedly as she made her way to the main office. She knew she was either going to get a two-hour detention (if she was lucky) or a three day in-house suspension. Lizzy knew it was the latter because her vice-principal didn't put up with being kicked out of lunch detention.
Walking as slow as possible (she couldn't ditch because the Fat Bitch would have already called the office, informing them of Lizzy's arrival) to prolong her arrival, she heard the lunch bell ring and saw the numerous amount of freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors barrel out of the lunchroom, talking to friends.
She decided to wait out a bit as she waited for her sister to pass. Leaning against the wall, she watched the numerous students pass by until she heard a shout of, "Lizzy?"
Bingo.
Lizzy waved, seeing her sister's worried face weave through the others until it was up close to hers. "Hi."
"You finally out of lunch detention?" Janie asked.
"Technically." Lizzy said, drawing out the moment for as long as she could.
Janie's eyebrows furrowed. "What does that mean?"
"I got kicked out of detention." The brunette said cheerfully, watching with pride as her sister's normally rosy face turned white.
"YOU GOT WHAT?" Janie shrieked, forgetting they were in a school full of witnesses, so she couldn't massacre her younger sister.
"Kicked out." Lizzy said, looking at her nails, not daring to look into her sister's angry face.
"Aw, Liz," Charlie groaned, coming up and slinging an arm over Janie's shoulder. "Don't tell me you got—"
"Kicked out of detention?" Lizzy asked. At Charlie's nod she nodded quickly, as if satisfied. "Hell yes!"
"Excellent!" Charlie laughed, reaching over to punch his girlfriend's sister on the shoulder. "What did you do?" He asked, almost eagerly.
"Pissed off Ms. Jones," Lizzy said, seemingly pleased with herself, "And then I said fuck in front of her. But before that, I threw a wad of aluminum foil at her."
"Wicked!" Charlie exclaimed, high-fiving the shorter girl. "Lizzy, you always seem to have a trick up your sleeve."
"Uhm, hello?" Janie demanded, not liking the way the conversation was going, "Why is she being praised?"
"Because whatever Lizzy does is amusing to Charlie." Said a new voice.
Lizzy turned her head to see the gorgeous Will Darcy stand next to Janie, Marissa Duncan standing next to him, wearing a look that could only be described as smug satisfaction. Lizzy rolled her eyes. Marissa Duncan was the biggest bitch that the Class of 2009 had ever seen. Why she was a bitch—well, let's just say that most of the juniors and seniors knew a lot about her. And she liked to steal people's boyfriends—and that was completely unacceptable. (Insert your eye roll)
"You love it Will." Lizzy sang, shifting her weight from one foot to the next. "Don't deny it—you know I'm a source of wild entertainment."
Marissa snickered.
Lizzy turned to face towards the brunette and her face contorted into a smirk. "Marissa, I'm not talking about the kind of wild entertainment that you perform—you know, showing the entire world your vagina? You're following in the footsteps of Paris Hilton. But, instead of it being called One Night in Paris, it will be called, One Night withthe Whore." Smiling sweetly at Marissa's shocked expression (and smirking as Charlie laughed) Lizzy turned back to her sister, who looked murderous.
"What I'm sure Mom and Dad will love is finding out you are suspended from school." Janie hissed, trying (and failing) to get her point past her thick-headed sister.
Lizzy flipped her hand. "Dad won't care and you know Mom. I'll be yelled at for like, five minutes, and then she'll see that Rock of Love is on and forget all about it."
Janie opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the P.A. system.
"Would Lizzy Bennet please come down to the main office?"
The brunette laughed. "That's my cue!" She waved good-bye to the seniors (and Marissa, but she was a junior, so it didn't count) and made her way to the office, not even worried about her imminent doom.
There was a stunned silence until Will broke it, moving some pieces of his messy hair out of his eyes. "Janie, your sister is a lunatic."
"I know." Janie groaned, glaring at her sister's retreating back as she rounded the corner.
"But she's amusing. I always get a good-laugh out of her." Charlie pointed out. "And we all know that tonight, she's going to go on MySpace and insult Mr. Greene."
"And the worst part is," Janie complained, "Is that Mom and Dad won't really care. Lizzy is Dad's favorite daughter—he wouldn't dare punish her. Mom will only yell for a few moments until one of her favorite shows come on, or if she forgets about it. Then, it's dismissed." She shrugged and then sighed. "But, what can I do?"
Ring.
Charlie glanced at the clock and frantically tugged on Janie's hand. "I know what you can do to help me—not get my third tardy to Mrs. Hanson's class."
Lizzy strolled into the main office and was greeted with the smell of fresh papers, an egg salad sandwich and stale coffee. Wrinkling her nose delicately, she watched the three secretaries' bustle around the place. Shrugging, she collapsed into a chair and slouched so that her feet were sticking out. She looked down and wiggled her toes, the light catching off the red polish. Although it was early November, the temperatures managed to stay in the high sixties, which was incredibly odd for this time of the year.
"May I help you?"
Lizzy looked up to see Ms. DeForrester, the main secretary, look up at Lizzy, her headset perched awkwardly on her boy-cut, curly blonde-brown hair.
"I'm Lizzy Bennet," she stated, "You called me down?"
"Oh yes," Ms DeForrester said, looking down for a moment before turning to the left, where Mr. Greene, the vice-principal's office was. "Mr. Greene?" She called, "Lizzy Bennet is here."
"Send her in." The deep voice of her despised vice-principal wafted through. Making a face, she straightened up as Ms. DeForrester looked at her, her face composed. "Go on in." She said, as Lizzy stood up and swaggered into Mr. Greene's office.
Sitting in all his bald-headed glory, Longbourne High School's vice-principal sat at his desk, surrounded by pictures and numerous papers, scattered variously across his desk. Sighing, Lizzy knocked on the door and he looked up to see the junior standing in front of her.
"Miss Bennet," he said crisply, "Glad you could make it."
Lizzy walked over to the hard chair in front of his desk and sat in it, slouching in her seat, arms crossed over her chest. Unlike what other people had said, Lizzy never found Mr. Greene scary—he made her laugh in actuality. He had a shiny, bald head; small eyes set slightly far apart, a thick black moustache that looked like a gorilla had chopped off his finger and stuck it under the man's nose.
Noticing her posture, Mr. Greene took off his gold spectacles and raised one black eyebrow at Lizzy. "Proper posture Miss Bennet."
Groaning softly, Lizzy hoisted herself so that her back was pressed firmly against the chair and stared at Mr. Greene.
Silence ensured as the vice-principal tapped his fingers together, watching Lizzy, who, becoming uncomfortable with the gaze, turned her head to the windows and saw the bare trees blowing merrily in the wind, the sky deep blue.
"So," Mr. Greene said suddenly, causing Lizzy's neck to snap around, "Do you understand why you are here Lizzy?"
"Yes sir." Lizzy said, lightly mocking him.
"Really now?" He asked her, disapproval etched in his eyes. "Care to explain why you are in here?"
Lizzy nearly rolled her eyes. He knew exactly why she was in here—he just wanted her to say it so she would know that she was in deep trouble. "I wasn't silent when I was supposed to be, I mouthed off to Mrs. Puf—I mean—Ms. Jones—and then I said the F-word as I fell backwards." She ticked off the reasons on her right hand as she leaned back slightly in her chair (a bad habit she had), looking far off, as if in deep concentration.
"You are forgetting one thing." Mr. Greene said slowly, putting his glasses back on. "You are forgetting that you threw something at Ms. Jones."
Lizzy knew she did that—but it didn't mean she wanted to get in trouble for it. "I didn't do it."
"Oh yes you did. Ms. Jones specifically said that you threw it at her."
"She didn't see anything," Lizzy protested, "She was busy reading Cosmopolitan on different ways to have sex lying down." And Lizzy knew that nobody in the detention room would have squealed on her—nobody squealed on Lizzy Bennet, she was too-well liked (and feared) within the school.
Mr. Greene looked scandalized at the magazine that Lizzy had mentioned but shook it off quickly saying, "Regardless if you did throw something at her, you still said the F-word in front of her. What does the student handbook say about swearing in front of a teacher?"
Lizzy shrugged. "I don't know sir; I don't read the student handbook." Nobody did—unless you wanted to be classified as the biggest fool on this planet. You'd be on the D-list, just like Kathy Griffin.
"The handbook says that any student caught swearing will automatically receive a one day suspension, but it just depends on what the word is. For saying the F-word, you will receive three days suspension."
Lizzy rolled her eyes but to make it seem like she was upset so that Greene wouldn't punish her even further. Chewing on her bottom lip, she widened her light green eyes to make it look like she was scared and upset. "Oh please Mr. Greene," she said frantically, milking the moment for what it was worth, "Do I have to be suspended?"
"You should have thought of that before you swore at the teacher Miss Bennet." Mr. Greene said, satisfied that Lizzy had an actual response coming out of her. Rifling through a drawer, he pulled out a paper and started scribbling on top of it. Lizzy looked over and saw that 'SUSPENSION NOTICE' was stamped across the top in bold, black letters.
"Three days in In-House suspension," Mr. Greene muttered to himself, not bothering to look at Lizzy who almost groaned with disbelief. She had been counting on Out-House for an extra three days of sleeping in. Damn.
"Starting immediately November 12 through November 15." He muttered to himself as his pen swept across the paper, filling in every blank. Lizzy huffed and looked out the window, watching a small cloud move lazily through the sky until Mr. Greene said her name.
Turning back around, she saw him holding out the pen, the suspension notice in front of her. "Sign," he commanded, pointing at 'student signature' with a thick finger. "And if you may, please write down your home phone number so we can tell your parents you will be in In-House for three days."
Like they will care, Lizzy thought to herself as she scribbled her signature onto the paper and put her home phone number on it. Sighing, she shoved it away and, defying Mr. Greene's command, she slouched in her chair again, watching as her vice-principal looked over the document, ripping off the white copy (there were three copies all together; white, yellow, and pink).
"You are to leave the campus immediately." Mr. Greene said, standing up from his desk so that Lizzy was looking at his beer-belly. "I will call your house to tell them you have to be picked up. Your teachers will be informed of your suspension."
"Okay." Lizzy said, getting up from her chair. "So, I'll go to my locker and get my stuff."
"That would be necessary." Mr. Greene walked to the door and waited for Lizzy to walk out first. "Oh, and Miss Bennet—next time, watch what you say to a teacher."
Lizzy nodded her head before rolling her eyes again and sped-walked out of Mr. Greene's office. As she walked out of the office, she saw Savannah Clemens, the girl who sat in front of her in lunch detention pass by.
"You got suspended?" Savannah asked.
"Yup." Lizzy said cheerfully, but then her face fell. "It's in-house." She made a face.
"Bummer." Savannah replied, running a hand through her strawberry-blonde hair. "But what you did to Ms. Jones today—Jordan was telling all his friends about it. You're going to be a legend within a few days. When are you starting in-house?"
"The twelfth through the fifteenth." Lizzy responded.
Savannah shrugged. "Could have been a week to ten days. You got lucky."
"I know." Lizzy said, running her slim fingers through the ends of her hair. "Well, I better leave. Greene has kicked me out of the school until the twelfth which is on Monday, so big deal."
"True." Savannah replied, "But, I'll see you on—Wednesday, I guess. Have fun being the new celebrity of Longbourne."
Lizzy rolled her eyes but managed to crack a grin as she waved good-bye to Savannah.
Walking down the deserted hallway, Lizzy pulled out her cell phone, looked both ways and started to text Janie.
I'm suspended for 3 days. :)
She hit 'Send' and put her phone on vibrate so that her ringtone wouldn't echo throughout the cavernous halls. Starting to jog at a light pace, her phone vibrated as she reached her locker. Spinning the dial, she opened it before looking around and taking her cell phone out of her pocket.
You're dead. Maybe not by Mom & Dad, but by me.
Lizzy snickered as she grabbed her jean-jacket, history book, and Pre-Calculus book and shoved it into her backpack. Propping her cell phone on the shelf, she texted back:
Like I'm afraid of you.
Snapping it shut, she put her phone in her pocket and slammed her locker shut, walking away from it.
Hello three days of vacation.
Lizzy sat in the counseling office, her backpack slung across the ground as she heard the secretary tapping against the keyboard, getting all the attendance from fifth hour. Digging through her backpack, she found her iPod and put the earphones in her ears.
"No iPods in school." Mrs. Kennedy snapped, looking up from her typing to glare at Lizzy. "Take them out—now."
Scowling, Lizzy took the earphones out of her ears and crossed her arms over her chest, the earphones dangling near the door. Miserable old bat.
Not even five minutes later, the door opened and Lizzy's mother, Francesca Bennet came in, looking harassed and angry.
"You!" She hissed, looking at her second daughter angrily, "Let's go! Your father wants to speak to you at home."
Lizzy shrugged, not feeling the least bit intimidated. Getting up, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and waited for her mother to sign her out. Mrs. Kennedy handed Mrs. Bennet the sign out sheet almost eagerly. "See you on Monday." She said in a faux-cheerful voice, glad that the little miscreant was leaving.
Lizzy gave her fakest grin as Francesca angrily scribbled on the line and slammed the pen down. Stalking out, she grabbed Lizzy by the arm and dragged her out of the counseling office. Her mother not being very strong, Lizzy wrenched her arm away from her mother and walked a few paces in front of her, showing that she wasn't going to be intimidated.
They walked out into the parking lot in silence, but Lizzy could sense the hostility rising off her mother in sheets. She wasn't scared—this had happened the last time Lizzy had gotten six hours of detention (slapping George Wickham across the face for making a comment about her ass. How was she supposed to know that he had been paid by Will Darcy to say that? She apologized afterwards).
Walking to Francesca's Cadillac SRX, Lizzy sat in the passenger seat and shut the door, waiting for her mother to start the rampage.
It came not even five seconds later.
"YOU GOT SUSPENDED?"
Lizzy winced at the volume of her mother's voice. "Yeah Mom."
"HOW DID YOU GET SUSPENDED?"
"Mr. Greene already told you." Lizzy sighed, looking out the window as her mother revved the engine.
"YOU SWORE IN FRONT OF YOUR TEACHER? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU LIZZY? WE DID NOT RAISE YOU TO ACT LIKE THIS!"
"I fell backwards off my chair!" Lizzy exclaimed, defending herself. "And that's when I swore! A slip of the mouth! Accidental! You know—accidents happen?"
"YOU SHOULD NOT KNOW THOSE TYPES OF WORDS YOUNG LADY! DO YOU WANT THE ENTIRE SCHOOL TO THINK THAT WE RAISED DIRTY-MOUTHED CHILDREN?"
Lizzy rolled her eyes. "I'm sixteen Mom. I think sixteen year olds know what the F-bomb means."
Really, her mother was turning into the brunette version of Mrs. Weasley. And Lizzy was the Weasley twins.
"YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER GETS A HOLD OF YOU." Mrs. Bennet raged, speeding along the street, reaching over to punch one of the radio dials. Timberland came on and Mrs. Bennet smiled, her bad mood seeming to be gone. "This is such a good song!" She said happily, singing along to the words.
Lizzy smirked as they turned the corner.
That was too easy.
Leaning back in her seat, she settled herself for the car ride home.
Cheers for getting out of school.
You guys are amazing. Twenty-one reviews? I was so excited when I saw that. You guys deserve a treat—here's a chapter!
Well, there's Lizzy for you! Our little trouble-maker. Oh, and Ms. Jones (aka Mrs. Puff) is based on my old driving instructor, who is also named Mrs. Puff—I mean Ms. Jones. Heh. And I hated her. Action will start heading to you by next chapter! But it might take me a while because Homecoming is this Friday and I'm going to be at the game and marching in our parade (I know, I'm so cool) so it might be up by Sunday. Who knows.
Oh yeah, and review! It makes my life and it makes me want to add more chapters! (Hint, hint, nudge, nudge)
--GC