-Chapter 1-

"SERENA! SERENA!!! SERENA!!!"

Serena woke to Luna calling her name. "…Huh?..."

"You were having a nightmare, Serena." Luna replied.

She remembered the dream she'd just had. This was the fifth one this week. Every one was the same situation... She tucked her head in between her legs and started to cry. Again.

"Ugh... Serena, it'd be nice to know what you're so worked up over. Why won't you tell me?" Luna asked in her British accent.

"I... I really don't want to talk about it..." she answered quietly.

"You never want to talk about anything anymore. I'm worried..."

"Don't be..."

"I can't help it! When your friend is sitting in her bed crying and won't tell you what she's crying about, you can't help but be worried."

Serena, however, just kept crying.

'Agh! She's just going to end up crying herself to sleep again!' Luna thought. She hadn't told anyone about Serena's excessive crying. This was solely because she didn't know why she was crying in the first place.

The next morning, Serena woke up to a beautiful dawn. But, for the first time ever, the beauty hadn't phased her one little bit. She looked out the window and tears welled up in her eyes once more. Today was the day she'd do it.

DING-DONG!

Darien went to his door only to find Serena there, her bangs overshadowing her eyes. "Hey, Serena! Hey... Is something wrong? You look like something's on your mind."

"Yeah... I have something important to talk to you about..."

"Why are you so quiet? What's going on? Is something bothering you?"

Serena spent about twenty minutes in Darien's apartment. When she left, she was crying again.

BBBRRRIIINNNGGG!!!

Rei picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hello. It's Darien. Did you and Serena have another fight?"

"No, not recently. Why do you ask?"

"Well, Serena just broke up with me and I figured it was because you might have said something to her that involved me."

"Sorry, but the truth is, I haven't seen Serena in days... Last time I saw her, she was her usual, bubbly, cheerful self. And- Wait... You didn't call me first, did you?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"So you called me to blame Serena's breaking up with you on me?!" Rei screeched.

"Well, uh... That's-" Darien heard a click over the phone. "Hello?" No reply. "Hello?!" Still no reply. He sighed. It seems he'd just killed two birds with one stone... First Serena, now Rei... Who was next?

Serena walked slowly back to her place. Ever since the last time she saw Rei and the others, she knew she didn't deserve the right to be with Darien. She sighed a heavy, almost mournful sigh. Ever since that last time... Ever since then... She'd agonized over what happened. She hadn't even gone to school. 'Why?' she thought to herself. She'd felt slimy and filthy ever since then and still felt the exact same way. Would she feel this way for the rest of her life?!

Amy and Lita were at the arcade getting milkshakes. Amy was almost always studying for something, so it was nice to get the rare chance to hang out with her every once in a while. Soon Mina came in, too.

"Hey, Mina! Over here!" they shouted to her.

"Hey, guys! Cool to see you two here!" Mina responded.

"Ditto!" Lita said.

"Um, not to ruin the mood or anything, but have you by chance..." Mina hesitated.

"Hm?" Amy inquired.

"...Seen Serena? She usually always comes here with me. But... I haven't seen her lately..." Mina finished.

All three of the girls looked out the glass doors of the arcade. A single blonde, long-haired girl with what looked like meatballs on her head walked past.

"Serena?" Mina said.

All three dashed out the door, as they hadn't seen their trusted friend in quite some time.

"Hey, girl, we haven't seen ya in awhile!" Lita excaimed.

"Yeah! We didn't know what happened! You had us worried there for a bit!" Amy agreed.

"You wanna hang out with us at the arcade? Ya know, Andrew's working there today!" Mina cheered.

"No thanks... I've got alot of homework to do... Sorry..." Serena replied. Then she ran off.

"Serena doing her homework instead of going to the arcade? Something must be terribly wrong..." Artemis stated sarcasticly.

The little group dispersed. Although they weren't disheartened, they were a little sad because they knew something was wrong. At least one of them needed to find out what Serena was so depressed about. And if she didn't tell any of them; if they couldn't get her to spill the beans; then... then what? What could they do if she wouldn't tell anyone?