Serena's POV Ugh, why is there never enough time to finish everything? Why do I feel so rushed? This is only the beginning of the year and I am now feeling so stressed, out of my mind stressed out and about to collapse. First, I was partnered with Darien, then I had to worry about my little brother and the fact that his teacher was worried about him and wanted him to be placed in an alterative school. She was sure to find out about my mother soon, at least I am sure she would."Serena!"

I smiled as my five year old sister Chibi-Chibi rushed over when I walked and hugged my leg, I picked her up and kissed her head and said," what are you still doing up?"

"Mama home."

"She's what?"

"You heard her. I'm home for the time being."

"Oh."

"You don't seem so happy to see me."

"Mother, you are never around."

"Don't talk to me like I am some stranger, I raised you and I will not tolerate this from you."

I set my sister down and took my stuff to my room ignoring her as she continued to yell at me, she was an absolute drunk of a mother. She was never there for us, she was usually passed out or to busy to take care of us. It was usually a relative, my mother was a screw up and she ruined it. She pushed her entire family away so now they didn't want anything to do with her or us. I was pissed, upset, and confused as to what my mother wanted know but wished she would leave, it made my life easier when she was gone. No one at school knew about my personal life, that would give them leverage to tease me more than they already did, I was already worried about this project with Darien knowing that it would awful. Working with the boy who bullied me relentlessly since elementary school."Serena?"

"Sammy, come on in here. I want to talk to you."

I heard him groan, I cleared off my bed as he plopped down on the bed and asked," Why is mom here?"

I shrugged. "I don't know Sammy, I am as baffled as you are."

"Why does she have to show up now?"

I shrugged once more not having an answer for my mother, since she had left us so much to fend for ourselves the two of us wanted nothing to do with her but my sister was too young to understand why our mother would do this to us, she would leave for weeks and then suddenly show up with a new boyfriend or wanting something from that she was here and not knowing how long she would be here frustrated and upset me, she always wanted something and I knew that if she showed up when Darien was here or if he had found out my life, he would make it even worse than it was before. He didn't have a caring bone in his body especially for me, we never talked other than when he teased me. Why oh why did I have to be partnered with Darien?Darien's POV "Darien, sweetheart will you quit cracking your knuckles? You know how I hate it when you do that."

"Sorry mom."

"What's bothering you?"

I was sitting in the living room with my mother while she was trying to watch a repeat of Law and Order, I was thinking about this project and how being seen with Serena Taylor would ruin my image and reputation which I kept in tact for the last three years."My partner for that English project is Serena Taylor."

"She's such a nice girl."

"Mom, she's boring."

"Don't talk about her that way. You don't even know her, she may not be as boring as you think she is. Darien, you are something else."

I sighed. "Mom, you don't understand. If I am seen outside of school with her, my reputation is ruined."

"You are going to have a reality check when you get out of high school, no one cares about how popular you are."

"Mom, can we talk about something else? You have told this to me many times before."

"You started it with cracking your knuckles."

I sighed. "I didn't start anything mom. It's a habit of one."

"Well get rid of it."I sighed. "I can't, it's stuck with me for life."

"You can get rid of some of habits, your going to have to if you want to survive in the real world."

"Will you quit lecturing me about that? I didn't' come in here for that."

She sighed and concentrated on her show, I had a love hate relationship with my mother and right not it was in the hate mode. She really knew how to get under my skin but it's the way she was, my dad was extremely wealthy and he met my mother when they were both in college and married soon after she graduated, she is one of the top prosecutors in our county but she's very different than my mother, she grew from nothing and made her life out of something unlike what most of the people she grew up with thought and that's one of the reasons we had a love hate relationship. In a way, my mother was from the wrong side of the tracks but she earned the love and respect that she wanted from my dad's folks who grew to love her, they first they she wasn't good enough for him but they pulled through it. I love my mom, most of the time but sometimes it's hard to have a conversation with her. It's the way life was.

Serena's POV "So today is the day."Maybe he's sick, maybe he won't show up and then I won't have to talk to him. Ugh, why am I acting like this? This is stupid, I just want to get this project over with. I knew he was feeling the same way but I knew this wasn't going to be easy. The author that we were going to do our project on was John Stienbeck, who was one of my favorite authors so that wouldn't be so hard for me.I walked into the room hoping that he wasn't there but I looked in the back and he was talking to Rini Usa, one of the popular girls sitting in the back; she always wore everything so short so if you looked you basically saw everything that you didn't want to see, she was snotty, rude, and a very crude person especially to me. Darien wasn't exactly looking at her but he was looking at her chest like he always did with half of the girls he hung out with, he was a womanizer."Alright, lets get going. We have many things to cover."

Darien snorted and sat down as our English teacher smiled and said," First, it's time to get with your partners and start setting up what you are going to do."

I looked at Darien who reluctantly walked over and plopped down in the desk next to mine and said," So."

"Look Darien, I don't want to do this anymore than you do so lets just get this over with."

"Glad we are on the same page."

I smiled and said," I will start looking up some things on John Stienbeck if you could look on the internet, I work at the regional library so that won't be to hard for me."

"You work there?"

I nodded. "Yes I do. I have two jobs and that's one of them."

"Oh, I didn't know that.""There's a lot that you don't know.""We are going to have to work together outside of school on this."

"Don't remind me."

I smiled. "We could do it after school or at the library or someplace."

"We might have to work at mine or yours. I'll let you know."

"Okay, that's fine with me. So are we covered for now?"

He nodded and got up from the desk and walked over to his seat, I on the other hand was happy that went smoothly, he must still be half asleep or had a rough night. He is usually crude to me and most of the time he barely says a word to me. That's how most of the people in this school treat me expect for a few.

Dariens POV

Now that wasn't so bad, I just had to make to the library so I could look some stuff up or I could ask someone to do it for me, pay someone so I wouldn't have to do the work. Naah, i'll do it. But it wasn't so bad, at least we were on the same page and I just had to find out if we were going to work together at her place or mine, I didn't have a clue where she lived and I honestly could care less.

"Hey."

I snapped out of my thoughts to see Amy standing by the next to me and asked," What do you want?"

She snorted. "I see your time with Serena wasn't so bad. The girl dosen't have a disease even though you treat her like she does."

"I can't believe you actually hang out with her. She's a loser."

"How would you know?"

She beat me. I didn't have an answer for her, for once. I never hung out with Serena and I never will, she was a loser and she would always be one.

"Well?"

"Fine, I don't know but she is a loser."

"You're a dick you know that. She's done nothing to you and you treat her like shit."

"Dyke."

Now we were both standing up and this was a first, I was about to get into a fight with a girl.

"What are you actually going to fight me? Everyone calls me a dyke, your not the first person to call me that. I'm not going to fight you but if you so dare hurt Serena, I will hurt you. She's a good person, you are just to stupid to see that."

I snorted as she walked off and thought," What in the hell is she talking about?"

Serena's POV

Well, it wasn't as bad as thought I would be. I mean, I knew that things could get worse but maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Oh who was I kidding? It was going to be hell. I couldn't even imagine him coming to my place, he would want to run for his life. I don't know if I could bare him seeing my place and seeing how I live, that would give him leverage to tease me even more than he already did.

"Serena?"

I snapped out of my thoughts to see Amy standing by the filing cabinet which was close to my desk and I asked," What's up?"

"Not much, you alright?"

"I'm fine, I was just thinking."

It was the middle of class and we were working our assignment which was due tomorrow, I was close to being done as usual.

"Don't worry about Darien, he won't be much of a bother to you."

"Thanks Amy. I think it will be okay."

"He needs to grow up, you haven't done anything to him. He's a stupid little rich boy that thinks he deserves everything on a silver platter. It's called Karma and he will get his someday."

"I know he will and I am waiting for that but I don't think will happen."

"It will. Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out this week?"

"Um, I don't know. I work all week."

"Well, if you have a free day we could do something. I could come over to your house or you could come over to mine."

"I will let you know when I'm free."

"Alright, see you later."

"Bye."

Shit, now she wanted to come over to my house. I couldn't let anyone come over, I didn't want them to see the way I lived. I knew Amy wouldn't say or do anything and the only person who had actually seen my house was . I had known her since middle school, I didn't consider her to be a best friend but she was a close one that I could count on. Maybe I could talk to her.

The bell rang and I hurried out of the classroom as I could hear Darien yell," You don't wanna be late for your next class Serena! A tardy is a no no!"

I was embarrassed but used to it but I could still hear laughter erupting from everyone that I passed. I shrugged it off my shoulders until I heard someone call my name and turned to see the person I was looking for. Mia.

"Hey Serena, don't listen to him."

"I won't."

She walked over to me and threw her arm around me as I smiled and said," Hi Mina."

She smiled. "How are you? I hear you are partners with Darien."

"I am. I don't like it anymore than he does but there is nothing I can do about it. I just have to work with him and get it over with."

"You have such a positive attitude, more than I would. He's a pretty boy that thinks the world revolves around him."

"Have you talked to Amy?"

She nodded. "She talked about you and I know she wants to be friends with you."

"The first person."

She shrugged. "Don't talk like that."

"It's true."

"It is not Serena."

I shrugged and said," She wants to hang out but I don't know if I want her to come over. I'd be embarrassed."

"I think you should invite her over. It's not like she's going to tell anyone and I know you've been going through a lot with your mom but you need this. Have Amy come over and you two can talk. She wants you to open up more, that's what she told. She knows your holding back and I told her that your life wasn't exactly picture perfect and that's all I said."

As much I hated to admit it, she was right. I did need friends and I liked Amy, she was different and the fact that someone wanted to be my friend made me happy. Maybe it wouldn't hurt.

By the end of the day, I made plans with Amy to hang out tonight. She was coming over and we were going to finish this homework from english and hang out. I was excited and a little nervous but I knew maybe this would be a good start to fix my broken life.

Amy's POV

So I was finally going to hang out with Serena, I was happy about that. She was a nice girl and besides hanging out with Lita, the head captain of the cheerleading squad I could use a new friend. It would be a great beginning for me, I needed one and then maybe I could teach Darien a lesson that Serena wasn't a boring person at all. He needed a foot shoved up his ass and I wanted to be the one to do it.

"So this is where she lives?"

It was completely the oppisite from where I lived, she lived in a three bedroom run down house on the otherside of town. It looked like it hadn't been had a nice paint job in a few years and the yard looked unkept.

I made my way to the house and I could hear Serena's voice and she was yelling at someone and I figured she had siblings. I knew the feeling, I had a younger brother and he was a pain but that's the way it works.

I knocked on the door and seconds later Serena opened the door and I walked in seeing that her place was extremely small, I noticed a young girl around five years old sitting on the couch curling her red hair in her fingers eagerly waiting for the commerical to be over to she could watch whatever she was watching, probably cartoons.

"Hi Serena."

"Hi Amy."

"So this is your place?"

She blushed. "This is where I live. That is my younger sister Chibi, I would introduce you to her but she's gets mad if you interrupt her while she watching her cartoons."

I smiled. "I was like that when I was little."

"I have a younger brother but he's upstairs."

"What about your mother?"

She winced and I knew I hit a soft spot so I quickly changed the subject and asked," Did you finish your homework?"

"Almost done. Can we work in the dining room? She gets fussy when I leave for a longtime."

"Sure thing."

Once we got started on the homework I asked," Serena, I don't mean to pry but where is your mom? Shouldn't she be home?"

Serena set her stuff down and said," I don't know where she is, she never comes around. She's an alcholic and I'm raising my two siblings. She comes around once in awhile but it's usually because she wants something from me. My dad passed away when I was younger and my relatives raised us until it was too much for them to take. I know that seems harsh but my mother has caused a lot of grief for us, I work two jobs and try to raise them."

"Does Darien know? Is that why he teases you so much?"

"He dosen't know or no one expect Mina knows. I've known Mina since middle school and she's my only friend other than you."

"Serena, you can't raise your siblings on your own. That's way to much for one person to handle. Have you talked to child servies or whatever it's called?"

"Nope. I can do it."

"So, Darien doesn't know about this?"

"No but he's bound to find out soon. We have to work out whose house we are going to work at."

"Serena, I feel bad. I didn't want you to feel like you had to tell me this but I'm glad you did. If you ever need any help, call me please."

All Serena did was smile politely in return and then focused back on her work, I knew inside that she felt better about telling me this. Maybe I could talk to Mina and see what she thought.

I was pissed and upset, Serena was putting too much on her shoulders and I knew she was going to crack soon, you could see it in her eyes how tired she was. I couldn't let her go through this alone, she needed help and I was going to help her as much as I could. I was also going to give Darien a piece of my mind, whether he liked it or not.