School Days

A Sailor Moon Fan Fic by: Lioness Rampant

"Ok I know it has to be here somewhere!" Serena shuffled through her belongings looking for her cursed schedule. "Being the new girl was never meant to be fun," she sighed. The 5-minute bell rang and people were flying off to their respective classes. She stood in the middle of the hallway dazed and confused watching how the hall transformed from frenzy incorporated to empty in 2.2 seconds until the late bell rang and someone grabbed her shoulder.

"I'm new! Please don't send me to detention already! I promise it won't ever happen again!" she wailed. The person behind her started to laugh and Serena turned around to find a happy looking blonde clutching her sides with laughter.

"I'll do no such thing!" she told Serena when she managed to control her giggles. "My name is Mina Aino and I saw you looking a little lost so I figured you might need some help and I was right!" Serena smiled, something about this Mina seemed very genuine.

"Thanks Mina, my name is Serena Windsor and I'm completely lost. Today's my first day and I couldn't find this blasted schedule anywhere and then I couldn't find the map the school gave me and I'm already late and I don't know what to do." Serena looked around the halls and tried to familiarize herself with her new surroundings. She turned around and saw pictures covering an entire wall.

"Well let me see your schedule and I'll help you out… hey! Where did you go?" Mina walked to where Serena had turned to and saw her staring at something. "Oh those! I don't know if anyone told you but this school has a very strong drama department. Every production we've ever done is on that wall. We do 4 productions a year, including a musical, and several one-acts." Mina stared at the pictures fondly and Serena looked at her strangely.

"What? Do you not like drama? Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sound like an infomercial or something." Mina looked at Serena and saw something akin to respect when she looked at the pictures. "You're an actress aren't you? Or at least you were somehow involved with drama weren't you?" Mina exclaimed.

Serena smiled and regarded Mina for a second. Tall, blonde, blue-eyed, she suspected Mina had many suitors. "I was in drama at my old school. I loved it very much." Serena sighed and walked over to one of the pictures. "We did The Phantom of the Opera too. It was magnificent."

Mina smiled. "I'm sure you made the perfect Christine"

"How did…?"

"How did I know? I'm usually one of the directors; I have an eye for casting and stuff and I can picture you in the role."

"Thank you. It was hard I won't deny that, but it was worth it you know?"

"I do. Drama is not the easy hobby people think it is. Why don't you join our drama program? We're having auditions for our next musical this week. We're gonna do "Grease!" this year. Come on, say you will?" Mina pleaded.

"Well I just started here, actually I haven't even started here yet, and I'm sure I have to catch up on some things…" she trailed off at the expression on Mina's face. " Ok I'll check it out. There, are you happy?"

"Very! You know Serena, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!" Mina turned and hugged the startled blonde. "You know if I didn't know any better I would say you were my long lost sister!"

Serena laughed, "I was thinking the same thing earlier but someone went into this long and boring monologue about drama of all things!"

Mina laughed. She looked at her watch and shrieked. "Oh man now you're seriously late! Let me see your schedule woman!"

Serena laughed while handing her the schedule and Mina broke into a smile. "You will never believe this but we have almost the exact same schedule! The only class you're taking that I'm not is Physics Honors and good luck with that. The stories that come from that class aren't fun at all."

Serena sighed, "That's what I get for listening to my counselors. 'Oh its going to look great on your transcript!' My butt it is. Not if I fail the class!"

Mina looked at her sympathetically and agreed. "Don't worry, one of my best friends is a genius with all things school related and I'm sure she'll help you out if you need it."

"You think so? She doesn't even know me."

"I know so. Ames has this thing where she loves school and wants everyone to succeed. You'll actually meet most of the gang now."

"You mean if we actually make it to first period?" Serena remarked.

"As if you're complaining! Ok fine, well first off is AP English Language. We had such a good teacher last semester but she got this new job in Switzerland so she took it. The new guy just got here today so you won't have missed much."

"Great! I hope that he's a good teacher. I would hate to fail those dreadful exams"

"You won't fail. I can already tell you aren't the failing type. You'll fit right in with us don't you worry. We aren't your typical nerdy, goody two-shoed smart people. We have lives, we're super involved, and I guess you could say we're popular. Popularity at this school is good and bad. Good because people respect you and bad because there are many people outside our group who would like nothing more than to see any of us fail at anything. That's why we're so close. We're always there for each other, helping each other out. Don't worry Serena, you'll be in good hands."

"Wow, can we say vicious?" Serena laughed. "Thanks Mina. I really appreciate this!"

"Welcome to your first day at St. Jude's Serena Windsor."