The Exonian
Chapter 1
Par La Fortuna
PG13
June 19, 2001

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, but the story is entirely
my own. Mess around with it, and you will die an excruciatingly
painful death.

NB: Trial and error, I suppose. I'm writing under an alias, so...
^^ Recognize me?

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She really hated going to school at 7 am in the morning. What
was the point of scheduling class so early? No one heard the
teacher anyway since everyone was asleep. Those who were
awake either skipped class the day before to finish the
assignment on time or they simply didn't care. Too bad, since
Serena didn't belong in either of the aforementioned categories.


The alarm clock had failed to ring, but her trustworthy dorm
mate was kind enough to throw the overstuffed pillow smack
into her face as a substitute. It was all Serena could do to
prevent an all-out pillow fight in her room. A cluster of
feathers coating the mess that already existed would not
please the dorm teacher. Not at all, Serena thought to herself,
already aware of the consequences from a previous
experience. What a stifling atmosphere.


"Argh," Serena moaned, eyes still shut tight in order to block
out some of the sun's rays. "Thanks, Lita!"

"Mmmmph," her friend mumbled while brushing her teeth.


Getting up was an arduous task. She hated getting up so early
in the morning. Her muscles still squeaked after fencing
practice the day before, when the coach hadn't bothered to tell
the fencers to stop until after twenty minutes of tedious
bouncing. Serena was experiencing a tinge of the same painful
agony she had yesterday as she stretched her figure on the bed.
Being champion fencers still didn't make up for the fact that
everyone needed to stretch after practice as much as they
needed to before.


"Do you think Dr. Finn will mind if I skip her class for today,
Lita? I don't feel so hot, and I still have to finish the paper
assigned. I'd rather get one grade lower than a zero for the
assignment."

"Rena... I -told- you to finish the paper ahead of schedule."
Lita had finished preparing herself for class in the bathroom
and was already chewing on a freshly-made blueberry muffin.
She glanced at the girl on the bed with amused eyes, an
expression that just screamed, 'I told you so!'


Serena rolled her eyes. Lita was the quintessential pocketbook.
You would have thought that Amy would have held that
esteemed role, but who knew that Lita was not only the
consummate cook but the perfect clock as well?


Oh, Lita hadn't stopped talking yet. Better listen to her.


"You knew that your fencing practice would take longer than
expected, that you'd have no energy left once you got back to
the dorm. I mean, I even gave you caramel, chocolate, and
COFFEE last night, and you still fell asleep with half an hour.
Of course, you still didn't finish your paper!"

Serena mumbled under her breathe, "I don't drink coffee,
remember? Whenever I do, it has the opposite effect on me.
I FALL ASLEEP. The caffeine does nothing for me!"

"Right right, wake up, and I'll tell Finn that you're feeling
feverish. I'll boil some water, and put the thermostat on it and
then I'll give it to the nurse."

Smiling her brightest smile, Serena turned her face towards Lita.
"You're wicked cool, Lita, you know that, don't you?"

"Only because I love you, Serena."

"Uh-huh." Closing her eyes, Serena dropped her head onto the
pillow and promptly started snoring softly.


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She was awake now, sitting in front of the computer, and the
paper was nearly done. Well, she thought she was awake, but
her physical appearance didn't do much to support that notion.
Serena couldn't help but notice the dark smudges beneath her
eyes. She paused a second in her typing to glance at the mirror
transfixed on the nearby wall.


Not the best reflection, not the most presentable Serena either.
She was weary, her clothes hardly transformed her into some
siren capable of bringing any ship down. Her normally bright
and lucid blue eyes were dazed and weary now; her blond,
tangled hair was simply a mess tied up into a temporary pony tail.


Pressing print on the computer, Serena sat back in the swivel
chair in mute satisfaction. She should be happy. She was in one
of the most prestigious schools in the entire nation, the entire
world even. Exonian Academy was certainly what it was cut
out to be, and much more. Much more of a challenge, Serena
added as a mental footnote. Normally, she would have
received a pink note or cut slip because of her absence from
Finn's Romanticism class, but since Serena had recently
battled a week-long illness, Finn and the other horde of
teachers were slightly more lenient on her at the present
moment.


Better take advantage of that, Serena thought to herself, smiling
slightly. It was rare for anyone to get a break at Exonian. Gods
knew how Serena would have loved an additional week off,
but getting behind in so many classes would have been more
deleterious. Luckily, as it was Saturday, it was only a half-day
of class, and Serena was exempt from going to the other
classes in the day. It allotted her more time to catch up on her
numerous assignments.


She took a glance around the room. Messy, sure, but it was
her room nevertheless, and it was her quiet sanctuary. Over
two full school years of being stuffed into a small, yet
comfortable, dorm room with a dorm buddy nearby,
connected by a narrow hallway. Pictures were scattered all
over the four walls, memories of friends and acquaintances
she had gathered through her school days at the local public
elementary and middle schools in her hometown. A window
with the shades pulled apart made the room feel a lot more
airy than it would have been otherwise. A computer with a
good-sized screen was stationed at the corner of the room,
with a scanner, a zip drive, and every other lovely accessory
that she could afford from the money she earned by of
working at the ice cream parlor back in Virginia.


Lita, Amy and only a couple of other close friends at Exonian
knew Serena was a computer geek, but most of the world
did not. Of course they didn't, Serena grinned, they didn't
even know who she was, other than the fact that she was
one of the few to receive financial aid. She didn't nearly
have as many friends here as the number of pictures she
posted on her walls. She wasn't very popular either, Serena
thought with a grim smile. Well, popularity wasn't essential -
just the academics.


The bed covers should have been the ones issued by the
school, but instead, bunny rabbits and crescent moons
covered the linen. Rabbits and moons were a childhood
obsessions of Serena's, ones that she wasn't ashamed of.
Her dreams as a younger girl had been about living on the
moon as a princess, destined to meet her prince, and the
rabbits were a play on a name a Japanese friend had given
her. Tsukino Usagi, she had called Serena. Rabbit of the
Moon. Her dreams had faded into obscurity as she grew
older, but she always regretted not being able to recapture
them. A fantasy every now and then was always a
refreshing dose of fun she would love to indulge in.


The walk-in closet in the wall near the entrance was small,
but it was enough. This rabbit of the moon didn't have many
clothes up to par with the rest of the students. But it didn't
really matter much since the school uniform was required
attire of all Exonian students during class.


Serena stood up and stapled the papers she had just printed.
Deciding that it'd be a good idea to give a classmate who
would have Finn later in the day - just so that the professor
wouldn't get the impression that she really was cutting class,
Serena started changing into more suitable attire for a walk
through the campus.


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It was breezy and a bit snippy outside, but the weather was
considered relatively nice for New England. Serena wrapped
the scarf a little tighter and clenched her tote bag a little harder.
She really did need to recuperate from her illness, and another
spell of weakness would not do, especially since second
trimester finals were coming up soon. She had already given the
Romanticism paper over to the classmate. Hopefully Finn
would accept the assignment without becoming too irate about
the absence of one of her students. Oh well. Now, she had
time to spend wandering around campus before heading back
to the dorm to study and work on homework.


The campus was decidedly lovely, Serena confirmed. The
ancient buildings that had survived since the first few years after
the Revolutionary War, the ivy vines that snaked their way up
along the brick facades of many of the edifices; the towering
oaks and maples that provided shelter from the sun; the
presence of teens dressed in classy garments, chatting along
the way to class or back to the dorms; the blurred movement
of some bicycle tires as they raced to their destination - all so
preppy, so refined, so classically New England, so Exonian.


Serena sat down on one of the benches along the trail she had
been following back to her residence. Quietly, she looked
around at her surroundings. Had she really spent over two
years here? She had recently celebrated her sixteenth birthday
as an Upper here, as well as her fifteenth and her fourteenth.
Serena knew, without a doubt, that her seventeenth
anniversary would be celebrated within the confines of the
boarding school as well.


She thought back to her hometown in quiet rural Virginia. Her
parents were both middle-class citizens - a middle school
teacher and a secretary - who had struggled to pay the bills
and support the family. Serena had a younger brother, Sammy,
who was younger than her by only two years but a handful as
a toddler and reckless as a teenager who had just found his
freedom.


Heh, you're calling the kettle black, Serena thought to herself.
She knew that she had just been as troublesome too back
home. But she had come to Exonian, and learned right away
that there was no place for trouble in this prestigious
environment.


Why she received the financial aid, she never knew. Someone
must have a kind heart in the admissions office, especially after
seeing the drastically small chance of a student like Serena
ever gaining entrance. And then, perhaps this admissions officer
entertained the thought of actually letting this girl into the
impossibly hard-to-get-into school, and thought it would be an
act of generous philanthropy to throw in some financial aid as
well. It wasn't like Serena wasn't grateful that she was at Exonian.
Serena knew the four years at Exonian would give her
experiences and skills that would carry her through life, and as
her friends said back home, "Your college admissions are set
straight!" Yes, going to Exonian was something worthwhile to
put on the college resume.


Well, Serena got the acceptance and the aid all right. Whatever
the circumstances, Serena had decided that her acceptance into
Exonian Academy must have been a fluke. She was no
exceptional student when she entered as a boarding school
freshman, though she did do well among her fellow classmates
back in Virginia, nor was she a gifted star in some field like
music or the arts.


How did she get in? Why did she get in? How in the world did
she end up hundreds of miles from her place of birth, thrown
into the midst of this prep-school atmosphere?


But now, those questions needed to put to rest, and Serena
had to focus on her studies in the here and now. Her parents
had agreed readily into letting her go to Exonian, in hopes that
their only daughter would find some future better than their
own. And while the financial aid managed to pay a good deal
of her tuition for her, her parents still had to pay a hefty sum.


Serena knew how heavy the financial burden was for her parents.
She carried it on her own shoulders every day - it was an entity
that always resided in the recesses of her brain, and in moments
of despair, it came to the forefront. Every time she felt like
calling home and saying that she wanted to leave Exonian and
go back home because of the academic and social pressures -
when Lita couldn't help her out and shutting herself in her dorm
room didn't assuage her anxiety, Serena would cradle the
receiver and think of the sacrifices her parents were making -
for her. She would put down the receiver, resorting to writing
cheerful letters instead of wasting precious cents on the phone
bill, and then sit before the computer and start working on the
papers again.


A little more than one year to go, Serena, she told herself as
she sat on the bench in the beautiful campus, looking down
upon her thin, pale hands clutching her tote bag. Only one
year, and then college....

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