A/N: Have you all read Pride and Prejudice yet?

Disclaimer: Most characters belong to Stephenie Meyer; some characters and major plot and story line belong to Jane Austen. I'm just bringing them to 21st century Forks.

She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. – (Mr. Darcy in regards to Elizabeth Bennett) – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen.

Arrogance & Animosity Chapter 3

No matter how hard Renee and her nieces tried, she couldn't draw one ounce of information on Jasper Whitlock from Charlie. They tried asking in several ways, through bold-faced questions, ingenious suppositions and sneaky surmises; but he refused to spill even one bean; and they finally gave up and settled for second-hand information from Sue Clearwater. She had all sorts of juicy information to give. He was young, about mid-twenties, extremely handsome with short blond hair and eyes bluer than the sky, very social and pleasant, and to top it all off, he was bringing a group of friends with him to the Founder's Day Ball. What more could they ask for?

"If I could see one of my daughters' or one of my nieces' get their hooks into him," Renee admitted to Charlie, "and all the others hook on to one of his friends, I'll have nothing else to wish for."

In a few days, Jasper Whitlock stopped by the Swan residence, to ask Charlie about those wolves he kept hearing howling around the mansion, but unfortunately, all the girls happened to be out at the time. It was a shame, because he'd sort of hoped to catch a glimpse of them, whose beauty he'd heard so much of since he'd been in Forks.

As Jasper was leaving, Charlie promised to have him over for dinner one night; Renee was already planning the main course (Three-cheese macaroni), when Charlie came home with bad news. Mr. Whitlock had had to leave town for a few days, back to Seattle, and was therefore unable to come for dinner. Renee was pissed off, to say the least. She couldn't imagine what kind of business he could have in Seattle so soon after his arrival in Forks; she began to worry that he might always be flitting around from one place to another, and never just chill out in Forks as he ought to. Sue Clearwater calmed her down a bit by giving her the idea that he'd probably gone to Seattle to gather a bunch of his friends to bring back to the Founder's Day Ball, and soon word spread around that Jasper Whitlock was to bring twelve women and seven men with him to the Ball. Jessica and Lauren weren't too happy at the prospect of so many more women to compete with at the ball, but were relieved as all hell the night before the ball to hear that instead of twelve, he'd only brought six women with him from London, his five sisters and a cousin. And when Jasper and his group arrived at the Ball, there were only five of them in all; Jasper, his two cousins, the husband of the oldest, and another young man.

Jasper was as good looking as the rumors implied, and very much a southern gentleman. He had a pleasant attitude, and easy manners. His brother-in-law, James Hurst, only looked like a gentleman; but his friend, Edward Cullen soon drew the attention of the entire ball. He was smokin' hot! Tall, with reddish-brown hair that stood up all over the place, a strong, square jaw-line, a nose and build like a greek god, and the gossip that soon spread around five minutes after his arrival that he was not merely rich, like Jasper, but filthy rich. The men at the ball couldn't help but admit how handsome he was, and the women soon agreed that he was even better looking than Jasper, and he was admired by all for about half the evening, until his rude manners soon disgusted everyone, and he was discovered to be arrogant, to think he was above everyone, to be unpleasant, and not even his huge estate in Seattle could then save him from having a horribly disagreeable demeanor, and completely unworthy to be compared to his friend.

Jasper soon introduced himself to all the main people at the ball; he was lively and unreserved; danced every dance, was angry that the ball was to end so early, and talked of having a party of his own at Netherfield Estate. His friendly qualities spoke for themselves. What a contrast between him and his friend! Edward Cullen danced only one dance with Mrs. Webber and one with Tanya Denali, Jasper's cousin, refused to be introduced to any other young lady, and spent the rest of the evening walking around the room, speaking occasionally only to members of his own party. His character was decided. He was an asshole. He was the most arrogant, stuck-up man in the world, and everyone hoped he'd never come down to Forks again. But among the most disgusted by him was Renee, whose hostility towards his general behavior was sharpened into indignation by his having totally dissed one of her daughters.

Bella had had no choice – due to how few men were in attendance – but to sit out a couple of dances, and during that time, Edward had been standing near enough for her to overhear a conversation between him and Jasper, who'd just stopped dancing long enough to try to convince Edward to join the dance floor.

"Come on, Edward," said Jasper. "You've got to dance. I hate to see you standing by yourself like an idiot. Come join us."

"No friggin' way," Edward responded. "You know I hate dancing unless I know the person I'm dancing with. And at a hoe-down like this," he added disdainfully, "it would be a punishment. Your cousins are both dancing with others, and there isn't another woman in the room who it wouldn't be torture for me to dance with."

"You're being a critical ass," said Jasper. "I swear to God, I've never seen so many fine looking girls in my life as I have tonight, and there are plenty of them that are downright beautiful."

"You are dancing with the only beautiful girl in the room," said Edward, looking at Alice Swan.

"Oh, she definitely is one sweet-looking pixie," Jasper agreed readily, "but there's her sister sitting down just behind you, who's also really pretty, and really sweet too. Do you want me to ask Alice to introduce you?"

"Who do you mean?" asked Edward, turning around. He looked for a moment at Bella, and when he caught her eye, he turned away coldly and said, "She's passable I guess, but not pretty enough for me to give a second thought, and I'm in no mood to entertain girls who can't get any other man. You'd better return to your own partner and enjoy her smiles, because you're just wasting your time with me."

Jasper followed his advice. Edward walked away, and Bella was totally turned off by his words and attitude. She told the story playfully, however, to all her friends, because she had a lively, playful character, and she found Edward and the whole situation to be utterly ridiculous.

All in all, the Swan family had a pleasant evening. Renee was happy to see that Jasper and his friends seemed to have taken a liking to Alice. Jasper had danced with her twice, and his cousins had been really friendly to her. Alice was as excited about this as her mother, though she wasn't as obvious about it. And Bella was happy for Alice. Jessica and Lauren had been fortunate enough to have someone to dance with all night, which was all they cared about. They all returned happily to their home, and found Charlie still up. With ESPN, he couldn't have cared less what time it was, and besides, he was pretty curious about how the much longed for evening had gone. He'd sort of hoped that all of Renee's hopes and views on Jasper Whitlock had been disappointed, but he soon found that it had been quite the opposite.

"Charlie hon, you missed one great ball!" Renee exclaimed as she walked in front of Charlie's TV. "Alice was a hit! Everyone kept talking about how great she looked, and Jasper Whitlock couldn't take his eyes off of her. He asked her to dance twice. Can you believe it? Twice! He asked Leah Clearwater to dance first, and believe me, it pissed me off as all hell, but you know how um…abrasive Leah can be. He didn't seem interested at all. But then he saw Alice, and he started asking around about her and then he asked her to dance. Twice! Then he danced with Angela Webber, and then with Maria Lucas, and then he danced with Alice again, and then with Bella, and then-"

"If he had any compassion for me," Charlie groaned, stretching his neck to see past his wife, who was still in front of his TV, "he wouldn't have danced half as much as he did! For God's sakes woman, get out of the way and stop talking about the dance! Damn! He should've sprained his ankle on the first song!"

Renee ignored Charlie and continued talking a mile a minute. "Oh Charlie, he's such a great kid! So cute! And his cousins look like nice girls. You should've seen the clothes they were wearing! I'm sure it was all designer stuff! Just the lace on Kate Denali's miniskirt looked like it was-"

Charlie had to interrupt her here. That's where he drew the line. He wasn't about to sit there and listen to Renee go on and on about fashion and lace. "Enough Renee," he said in an even tone, but the look on his face was enough to get Renee to shut up and move out of his way.

Nevertheless, she continued talking as she bounced from the living room to the kitchen, and back. She moved on to the subject of how unbelievably rude Edward Cullen had been.

"But believe you me," she went on, "that Bella doesn't lose one damn thing by not catching his eye. He is one nasty, stuck-up asshole, and not worth a damn. So high and mighty and conceited," she said, sticking her chin up in the air and walking stiffly, mocking Edward. "He just walked back and forth, thinking he was big shit. He wasn't that good looking really. I wish you would've been there Charlie, to tell him off and put him in his place. I can't stand Edward Cullen!" she finished.

A/N: So who still loves our darling "Darcyward," even after that nasty put-down?

Reviews are better than being slighted by Darcyward at the Founder's Day Ball!