Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Woo, the most reviews I've had in a long time! Sorry that this chapter took a little longer to be updated, but I was on holiday, minus the internet connection. I've actually started another lighter H2o fanfic based on the trip - good fun!

Oh hey, this is probably the last update of Far From Perfection for 2012 - so yeah... ground-breaking stuff, hey? Kidding. I'm tired and have developed a significantly dry sense of humour tonight. Ask no questions, get no answers... Does that even make sense? Oh stuff this, I'll let you just read the chapter already!

Enjoy!

Chapter 15 – What's In A Name?

Will's POV

I was in a dreamy daze somewhere between the opposing states of consciousness and unconsciousness... Until the reality of waking up became harder to my sensitive ears that felt as though a bomb was detonating in melody next to them – also known as hearing a phone go off while asleep.

I picked up the white object and answered it, pressing it somewhere against my ear and face groggily. "Hello?" I asked as normally as I could manage considering I was more than half asleep and most certainly not prepared for the screech that followed it.

"WILL?!" was the first word spoken by the unknown, although familiar sounding, caller who blasted my name through the line from wherever they were.

I groaned from the sensation that I would've sworn was the pain of my eardrums bleeding, mumbling some form of response that I had planned to initially sound like "Yes" or "What?"

There was a sigh of relief along with multiple other excited reassurances as the caller started addressing someone else with the same name as my dad, while still on the phone to me. That's when everything fell into place, making sense.

"Oh, mum" I added less groggily as I sat up in bed and rubbed my face.

"Will! Oh thank goodness, you're not dead! Are you okay?! We were booking flights down to the Gold Coast!"

I chuckled to myself. "Good to hear from you too! Yeah, I'm fine. How are things with you and dad?" I asked as I was attempting to lead into a conversational catch up with my mother that was led astray as she blurted out a whole unbelievable story about a newspaper article that claimed I was dead. Seriously? At this stage, I was thinking that a bad dream or nightmare had been involved with mum or dad and this was just a protective checkup call to make sure that they had been wrong.

... But it turns out that I was wrong as Zane walked into my room after the call with my parents ended, holding a newspaper opened and folded to a specific article, letting out a pent up and anxious sigh as he clutched onto the doorframe, pointing to me. "Oh good!" he beamed before speechlessly gesturing between me and the article that was in his other hand. "Don't get me wrong mate, I'm stoked that you're alright, but what the hell is going on?!"

"Tell me and then we'll both know!" I replied throwing my hands up in frustration and confusion as I got out of bed and walked over to my friend, completely puzzled about my entire day so far… The bizarre phone call, Zane's check also and then whatever this newspaper article that was causing everyone to check whether I was dead or not over.

I snatched the daily newspaper out of Zane's hand and held it up to my face to read. The picture of me on the page was enough to weird me out alone, but the photo was nothing compared to the title: 'Illegal Art Claims Local Former Pro-Diver'.

What on earth was going on? Was this some kind of weird prank? I was expecting Fitzy or Kyle Sandilands to jump out at any point in time cueing Zane to double over in laughter at the joke or Gotcha! prank. But it was just the two of us standing there completely oblivious as we tried to piece everything together.

After reading the article, the first thing that I decided to do was look at the title of the newspaper and call directories to make a phone call that would give some sort of explanation as to why my face was plastered over a page announcing my unfortunate 'death'.

Had they received a false tipoff? An incorrect source? Surely there was some sort of explanation behind this stunt that had people, including myself, questioning what on earth was happening and why they had heard nothing about the fact that I was supposedly dead firsthand.

I waited for all of the appropriate cues on the mechanically voiced program that the newspaper had set up, until I reached an actual, human, live voice. From there, all I had to do was state my name and the fact that I was calling in regard to the article that featured in today's paper and I was directed straight through to the managerial editor.

Before I could even get a word in to ask my question, I was overwhelmed over the speaker with multiple desperate apologies that begged for forgiveness over the mistake in the confirmation of critical data and the mix up that I was still being left in the dark about. Before replying to any of the manager's apologies, I first and foremost asked for the explanation that was the crucial and missing piece of this puzzle.

I listened intently after the editor had confirmed the fact that I had actually read the article before he explained the confusion with the incident. Apparently 'Will Benjamin' was a common name that obviously didn't just belong to me in the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, there was another guy out there with the exact same name as me and who was the same age. Apart from the essential details of the fact that my identity had been mistaken for someone else with the same basic details as myself, the editor was quite sketchy about the rest of the misunderstanding before once again offering me his 'sincere' apologies and ending the call.

I put my phone down and Zane who had been watching me for the entire call looked up at me with the same question that his expression had been asking. "So?"

"Apparently there's a mix up. Someone else with my name died and they put the photo of the wrong one in the paper… It's really sad if you think about it, someone so similar to-" I said, starting to explain to Zane as we looked over the article again before hearing the ring of the doorbell.

The two of us made our way downstairs and Zane mumbled to me how he thought that it was probably "journos or whatever" since I was 'famous', according to Zane.

Opening the door and revealing the visitor proved quite the falsehood compared to what Zane had initially predicted. "Bella? Hey…" was my awkward reaction to answering the door with my unexpected ex-girlfriend who was visibly upset, holding her mythical or phantom baby that had previously been solely heard of, but never seen.

Bella didn't answer my awkward greeting as she took a step back and did a double take, looking from me to Zane and back at me, before looking around. She opened her mouth numerous times to speak, but only air came out as she never spoke a single word in shock.

"You saw the newspaper, didn't you?" I asked, getting a still incoherent nod in response, before Zane nudged me to whisper the fact that he was going to try and call his family's lawyer for any information as he left the two of us, well three, standing there.

I figured that I was best off to stay silent until the blonde had wrapped her confused mind around the event, like I had needed to, just minutes earlier.

The next emotion that spread across her face that you could almost pinpoint as she began piecing the situation without the nitty-gritty details together, was relief as she too exhaled like Zane and my mum had before she moved closer and gave me an extremely brief hug until she slapped my back, turning it into a somewhat bro-like-hug almost as soon as the embrace had began.

"Sorry, I overstepped the mark" she said, I suppose in an attempt to rationalize the hug, before asking her first question since she arrived. "Is this some sort of cruel and tedious joke? I knew that you and Zane hanging out was a mistake."

I shook my head. "Unfortunately not… Well it is somewhat, but not completely. A Will Benjamin died, but it obviously wasn't me… The newspaper got the wrong one."

"Oh gosh…" Bella sighed, covering her mouth with a saddened expression and sigh as she looked ahead with no focus while she digested the news that I had just fed her. "What a mess. The poor family of that guy… Well you too, but at least you and your family have the better half of this ordeal."

"Yeah, I know" I said with a solemn nod, in understanding of the point that she was making. "It's freaking me out a bit actually, how similar I was with someone without even knowing it and how that could've been me."

There was an uncomfortable silence as we both considered what to say next, sharing an awkward glance before I started tapping my foot silently on the ground and she rocked her baby, to create the image that we were busy, although we both knew that neither of us were.

"Why did you do it, Will?" Bella questioned eventually as someone had much-needed to speak and break the silence, although I wasn't exactly thrilled with the uncomfortable question. "You barely know Amy at all. I know that you're not the sort of guy who just jumps into a relationship like that."

She had a point. In fact it wasn't surprising that she knew me too well, not that I was going to go admitting that right now in sacrifice of my reputation and dignity. Stupid pride.

"We just clicked really well the other day…" I started to say but once again Bella proved how well she knew me as she cut my attempt of lying off.

"Stop it Will. I can tell you're lying – you squint or look away. Just tell me the truth" Bella added to her last plea for the truth, looking increasingly irritated by the runaround that I was admittedly attempting to prolong.

This led to another sigh of mine as her look of agitation increased in the meantime, which meant me swallowing my pride to at least unveil a slight amount of the truth. "I was really confused when I asked her out and I just wanted to meet up with her to try and see if there was anything else that I could nut out by meeting up with her…"

"So you're just using her? Wow, that's so much better. I can see that you've really matured over the last 19 months! Anyway … I'm really glad that you're okay, Will, but I should get going" Bella summarized with an evident discomfort as she pointed to the door before quickly and oddly rushing over to the door which was her target.

There was a strange wave as she left and I took my time to reply to her until I replied with a: "Yeah, bye…"

After seeing her and the little girl out of the door, I shut it with an exhale before setting off to search through the house for my housemate, of the male variation.

"Zane?" I called out multiple times as I poked my head into rooms unsuccessfully before it was answered when the dark-haired guy walked out of his room while separating his phone from his ear.

However, upon meeting up in the foyer by the stairs downstairs of our shared house that was considered to be on the large-side in size, he didn't answer my call and instead started speaking about a totally different matter.

"So I called the lawyer. He said that he doesn't deal specifically with this sort of business relating to commercial and personal cases, but apparently someone else from his firm can meet up with you to talk today. He's going to call the newspaper again and dig up what he can from their side of the story, and then we'll go from there."

I nodded vaguely, understanding what my friend was saying, but without being on the same page as him. "Alright, thanks Zane, but what's the point of all of this? Why the lawyer? I thought we had sorted the problem out when I called the newspaper up…"

He looked at me in disbelief, a look that I recognized, given that it was the same look that I gave him on a more frequent basis in question of how thick he really was and whether whatever was the topic or point of the discussion had really gone over his head.

"Are you kidding, mate?! Cash! If they've involved you in this article wrongly due to their fault or due to negligence, then you could sue the pants off the company!"

"Why, Zane? What if I don't want to?"

Again, another 'are-you-stupid?' look in disbelief was granted to me from Zane. I guess you can't teach an old dog, new tricks. Despite the fact that Zane had changed from the person that he was in the way that he had become more human, money was still clearly always going to be the root and epitome of life for him.

"Seriously Will? I know that you're a frugal person, but are you joking? This is the opportunity of your lifetime, for you to pick up a whole wad of cash, effortlessly, placed right in your lap and you're even having a second thought about it?! I dream of this sort of thing happening to me!"

"Fine…" I sighed, already sensing my regret at the agreement as I started making my upstairs to get ready with Zane happily yelling the time of the appointment.

Less than 15 minutes later, I was back downstairs dressed in a rarely-used suit that I believe only made its last appearance at Lewis and Cleo's wedding. Walking into the kitchen to unhealthily grab an energy bar for breakfast, I was surprised by the presence of Zane looking supremely similar to myself in a formal suit that was a less startling look for him.

"Ready to go?" he asked as I pulled one of the last remaining packets out of the box.

"What do you mean? Are you coming too?" He only had the chance to nod in response before Rikki, half-asleep and still pajama-clad walked into the room too, smirking to herself in amusement as she looked at the two of us. "Wow! Look at you two looking like black and white penguins! Who died?"

I frowned at her comment which was intended to be humorous. "Rikki, don't joke about that today."

"Huh? What do you mean? What have I missed?"

Leaning against the bench comfortably appearing to get settled in to tell a story, Zane started to explain to our housemate who was evidently left in the dark regarding today's affairs already. "Well you've obviously missed today's paper, and it was apparently Will here who died."

"What? Okay, I've bit my tongue about the matter a few times in the past, but its official today. You two have lost the plot!" Rikki said hysterically until Zane passed her the newspaper with the article that he had been coveting and keeping awkwardly closely to himself today.

The blonde was silent for a few minutes as she mentally read the article, but the uncontrolled expressions on her face did all the talking for her.

"Oh, wow…" she managed to mutter before covering her mouth and handing the paper back to Zane as though it was a contagious infection or something. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"Zane's arranged a meeting for me today through his lawyer's firm, but I don't really know. I don't what there is to 'do' about it."

Rikki nodded in acknowledgment at my response to her, still appearing visibly shocked as Zane nudged my arm. "Come on mate, no time to waste. We better head off now."

"We? I can go myself, Zane."

"I know that, but I want to come. I'm curious about what they'll say."

"I can call you when I get out of the meeting…" I began to suggest to my insistent friend.

However, I only received a shake of his head. "Nup. Not good enough. I'm too curious – gotta come."

I let out a sigh of defeat for the second time today, picking up my keys and gesturing for him to follow me. "Bye Rikki."

It was a horrendous 25 minutes later that the two of us had finally arrived at and parked what felt like 100 kilometers away from the building after what should have been a 10 minute trip, but was only increased and over doubled in time due to the crazy city traffic.

As we entered the building I was overwhelmed by the up-marketed, furnished interior of the law firm. Passing the judgmental stares of nosy receptionists as Zane confidently led us through to the offices that he was more familiar with, I wondered what our case would've looked like from appearances. Two accused criminals meeting with lawyers desperately hoping to hear the hope of a positive outcome? Two entrepreneur business partners, turned rivals, fighting over pointless and solution-less money? Regardless, I greatly doubt that any of those judging faces would have been able to pinpoint the fact that I was about to learn that I could sue the pants off the newspaper, writers and editors that had entangled me within their accidentally dodgy story less than 24 hours earlier…

That was the only option that the lawyer had presented as a feasible case.

Prior to the meeting, the… my lawyer had also made a revelational phone-call to the newspaper company and managed to surface the lies that I had excused and left uncovered… The entire article had been written with the only confirmation being that the accident had happened and that a 22 year old, identified as Will Benjamin at the scene had died.

That was the only official pieces of information that the Police had released to the media and namely, to the newspaper reporter that had been at the scene of the accident.

From that point on, in a hurry for their newspaper to provide news of the accident first, the writers and editors had been left to their own vices and took a chance with the remaining information... This was namely a Facebook search to excerpt the photograph on my profile which was used as the photograph in conjunction to the article that had created this mess…

Unfortunately, I had been the first Gold Coast-residing 'Will Benjamin' that fit the 22 year old criteria on the search and realizing the factor of my previous brush with fame from my diving days, the writers either forgot about, or ignored the fact that it hadn't been confirmed, just for the sake of producing the news of the accident and more importantly, first.

They hadn't taken into account the fact that 'Will Benjamin' is a common name… Both my first and last name is. And that is where my meeting with the lawyer was brought to - the revelation that I am now applicable to sue the newspaper under 'knowledge of misinformation' or 'the liability of negligent slander'.

The question was whether I was going to or not. Sure, easy money because someone didn't do their job right, but at the end of the day, I would still be making money because someone died.

It just didn't feel right.

As I walked inside the house, with Zane hot on my heels as he still kept trying to convince me that I was complete idiot to ignore this opportunity, Rikki came out to meet us appearing to be interested in what I had to say from the meeting.

"So, how did you go?" Rikki asked eagerly and curiously.

"Well in case you hadn't noticed Mr. Bill Gates behind me, I'm up for being able to sue the newspaper company for a hell of a lot of money."

Rikki looked up at me for confirmation in my expression to make sure that I wasn't just joking around with her. "No way, you are kidding me, aren't you?"

I shook my head to answer her question. "No, Rikki. Why would I joke about something like that?! Someone still died!"

"Calm down, Will" Rikki replied with a common soothing gesture of her hands that she used in conjunction with her statement.

I was about to bite back about the fact that I am calm (if I didn't think about the finer implicating details of this mess), until we were all disrupted by two audible 'knock, knock's' as the wood of the front door frame was knocked on, along with the unexpected visitor saying the 'knock knock' too as they peeped their head inside the house a little from their spot standing on the door mat.

The unexpected and probably unwelcome visitor immediately struck me as a complete, just marginally younger carbon copy of one of my housemates who too gawked in shock at the person standing at the door...

So, I know you're going to be thinking what a ridiculous scenario and that I've more than jumped the shark, right? Well the base of Will's wrongly accused death was actually inspired by a true event. Late last year, there was a very similar scenario to this one and was plastered on the front page of the newspaper after apparently dying. He too had a very common name, and whoops, wrong guy and it had all been due to an incorrect search on Facebook! My teacher knew him and got the whole story about how he could sue the paper and such like, so yeah, not as unlikely as it seems.

Anyway, about the rest of the chapter... Let me know what you thought! You have no idea how helpful your own opinions are!

Next time: We learn who is at the door, their connection to Rikki or Zane, along with their reaction.