Walking into Meriton Charter the Monday after the Valentine's Day dance, Darcy released a pent-up breath of relief as her eyes scanned the outfits of her peers and found that she looked like one of the crowd. That had not been the case on her first day, only a week before.

Meriton Charter's student handbook had a very short list of rules regarding dress codes. The first was a call for all students to represent Meriton's cherry red and black logo somewhere on their person, as they were representatives of the school. The word uniform was in there somewhere and that's all Darcy's brain could remember at five in the morning the day she was due to start at Meriton and so Darcy showed up in full formal Meriton uniform. And was the only person dressed as so.

Her brain had latched onto the comfort of a uniform, the luxury of not having to decide what to wear every day, the equalizing factor of the same blazer, button-up shirt, and black tie. Darcy had worn Netherfield navy blue and heather gray for three and half years. The idea of free dress was foreign to her.

Her first day of school and she stood out as not only the new girl but the new girl dressed head-to-toe in Meriton Charter merchandise. Since changing the next day into full free dress, with only her backpack repping Meriton's crest (as every other student did), would be considered defeat in Darcy's mind, every day, for her entire first week of school, Darcy made the transition slowly, piece by piece.

Walking into Meriton the Monday of her second week, she worn now only the blazer, Meriton crest displayed just behind the lapel, refusing to give up her old leather messenger bag for the basic black backpacks with the school logo that everyone else used.

It was Darcy's car that got them to Meriton and Darcy who drove it and so it was Darcy's schedule that Charlie had to follow. (Carson had his own car and followed his own schedule, determined to be beholden to no man, even the restrictions of his class schedule). Charlie and Darcy were two of the first people to arrive at their lockers and while they stood chatting, filing away books and binders, the hall around them slowly filled.

And with it, Darcy's chest tightened.

The only good thing to come out of transferring to Meriton partway through her senior year had been the assignment of neighboring lockers for her and Charlie, as they were the only two lockers free.

Darcy's side stayed pinned to the cool red metal as students bustled past, shrinking herself to keep out of the way from being jostled at any point.

'We should have come earlier, gone straight to class, avoided the lockers all together' Darcy thought. She couldn't stop her eyes from flitting back and forth, left to right, trying to find space, a path, anything to get her from her locker to her classroom down the hall.

Meriton's student population was doubled what Netherfield had been and its hallway half the width. Darcy could feel the lack of every single inch.

"Hey Charlotte, Darcy."

Darcy's wide gaze had missed the two brothers that had come to a stop right in front of her. Charlie stepped out into the stream of students to Darcy's left, unconsciously blocking her from the flow of traffic so Darcy could pull herself off the wall and face Jamie and Eli.

At least Jamie. Eli was looking down and concentrating on a twin-lens camera wrapped around his neck.

"Hi, Jamie."

Darcy looked to her friend and the closest thing she had to a sister. Charlie didn't say anything else, an occurrence Darcy had never experienced before. Charlie was simply holding her books tight to her chest, gazing up at Jamie.

Jamie, in response, was wearing a lop-sided smile and staring at the ground, blushing.

"I can't wait for lab this afternoon," Charlie said.

The silence had been enough to pull Eli's attention from his camera. He looked to Jamie first and then to Charlie. He sent a single-second glance in Darcy's direction before looking back down at his camera.

"Yeah. Should be fun," was all Jamie managed to reply.

"I thought you guys had math together," Darcy said.

"We also have chemistry," Charlie answered.

Darcy looked to Jamie to correct her but he was working on meeting Charlie's eyes without turning his forehead pink.

"You mean physics," Darcy corrected.

Neither Jamie nor Charlie recognized their mistake. Eli did and a short, muffled laugh shook his shoulders.

Darcy looked at him but his gaze remained on his camera. Since neither Jamie nor Charlie seemed capable of carrying on a conversation, Darcy tried. She had to swallow a lump of nerves first through a quickly tightening throat but squared her shoulders and spoke.

"Nice camera. Vintage twin lens, right?"

Eli's head slowly rose, just high enough to meet Darcy's stare.

"Yeah. It is."

And back down his head went. Darcy's mind was scrambling for something, anything else to say when a flash of dirty blonde hair caught her attention and it came from just beyond Eli's right shoulder.

Darcy's heart stopped. Her hand instinctively reached for Charlie's and grabbed hold, hard. When her brain caught up to what her eyes were seeing, Darcy's heart kick-started and went from zero to sixty in three seconds flat.

It couldn't be anyone else. Darcy hadn't seen her in months. She could have changed her hair, cut it so it didn't flow so perfectly down her back, dyed it so that its golden hue didn't match sunlight on a summer's day. But Darcy would have recognized that sly smile anywhere.

The grin of a cat about to pounce. A predator with its prey locked in its sights with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, victory just one bound away.

And she was moving towards them.

Darcy started to pull Charlie away.

"We have to go. Now."

"Eli! Hey Eli! Who's your new friend?"

"What? What's going on? Darcy-"

But Charlie's confusion ended when her gaze finally pulled away from Jamie and she looked over his shoulder. It was her time to freeze and Darcy couldn't move without her.

"No. It can't be. I thought she-"

"Yeah. Me too."

Darcy knew how she looked. She could feel the heat slowly climb up her face. Her eyebrows might as well have been touching. Her whole body radiated anger and it was focused right behind where Eli was standing.

He had noticed the shift, heard his name called from behind him, and turned to face his classmate as she easily wound her way through the crowd and approached.

"Jamie, Eli, it's been a pleasure. Charlie, it's time to go to class now."

Without another word, Darcy ignored the crowds, focusing only on her friend trailing behind her, trying to keep up and that sly smile that had grown when she saw the way Charlie looked at Jamie.

"Hey, Gina," Darcy could hear Eli greet the newcomer.

"Who are your new friends and why are they in such a hurry?"

There was a perfectly rehearsed laugh to her voice. Her questions even sounded half-convincing, as if she didn't know who Darcy and Charlie were. As if her name didn't beat itself against the side of Darcy's head with every footstep that took her farther and farther away from the last person Darcy wanted to see.

"Gina Wickham, Gina Wickham, Gina Wickham, Gina Wickham..."

Over and over and over again.

A/N:

Chapter two, how we feeling???

Hey look! The Antagonist!

Here's your meme.