Chapter 29

Two can Play

Had that phone call being even real? Did Diamond really threaten her?

After the dial tone died she let her phone fall to the ground. She stared at it with so much freight in her eyes. Could he really do something to hurt her? What was she thinking; if Emerald pulled off that little number with the red paint then she could be seriously hurt if Diamond was involved.

After her brain stopped the mini stroke she almost had out of fear, a single tear fell from her eyes. She wiped it before it reached her cheek.

What was going to happen to her?

She was so scared…

Birdie entered the room, she stared at her for a minute, she saw that Serena was doing absolutely nothing at all, she was just staring at the wall…looked as she was about to cry.

"What are you doing in my room?" Birdie asked. That put Serena out of her fear consumed bubble.

"Get out" Serena whispered

"What did you say to me?" Birdie asked astonished by Serena's ballsy attitude.

"I said get the hell out of my room you horrible, gold digging, strip dancer, sorry excuse of a cheerleader. Get out of my room and get your filthy things out of here before I throw them out myself" Serena yelled at her. Ok…not the best reaction to have…but she was kind of scared and Birdie was indeed a horrible, gold digger, strip dancer, sorry excuse of a cheerleader.

"You little bitch. I AM SO GOING TO KILL YOU" Birdie said before she launched at Serena and tackled her to the ground as she began to pull her hair.

Scratches, punches, pinches and not friendly bites were going around Serena's bedroom floor for a couple of minutes before Ikuko, Kenshin and Sammy stormed in the room. Sammy grabbed Serena and tried with all his strength to keep her off Birdie. Kenshin grabbed his eldest daughter by the waist and called everyone for attention.

"Enough" Kenshin yelled. The girls calmed as soon as they heard their father.

"I want her out of my room, I want her out of this house and I want her out of my life!" Serena exclaimed.

"Serena that's enough" Kenshin said with a strong voice that echoed in her room.

"I don't want to hear about any of this anymore. Birdie you are supposed to be the mature one here. If anything like this happens again in my house I'll drive you myself to your house. It's obvious you need a change of heart, but it's something I can't give you, not with you behaving like this." Then Kenshin looked at his younger daughter with sorrow. "I am disappointed in you. I thought I raised you better than this" That hurt even more than being yelled at. Serena let a breath out; that had really hurt.

Sammy took Serena to his room where she proceeded to sit on his bed.

"Do you want me to bring you dinner?" Sammy asked her looking worriedly at her.

"No, it's ok Sammy. I just want to sleep" Serena said putting her head on Sammy's pillow.

Sammy exited tentatively the room, leaving Serena alone. He was worried about his sister. What could have possessed her to break into a fight with Birdie, sure she was horrible, but that doesn't mean she is worth been grounded for.

Serena waited for Sammy to leave the room, and then she took Sammy's phone from the base on his night table and dialed a number.

"Hi, are you home? Good. Listen, could you pick me up here tomorrow… No, I am fine, but it's just that I feel safe around you and I am kind of scared of going to school tomorrow. Thanks, you are amazing". She let the phone die again and place it back to its resting spot.

Next morning, Serena didn't bother with breakfast; she received a text of her school's usher and went directly to receive this person.

She saw her brown hair in her typical fashion; she had ironed it down and put it in a high ponytail. She had always loved her rockfish style, heavy black eyeliner; black tights under her school skirt, a Ramones t-shirt under her school shirt, the suspenders of her outfit were left un-hanged, black ankle boots, a black letter mail bag on her shoulder and her ipod at the loudest volume that it would aloud, probably enjoying Muses's last album.

"Thanks for picking me up Lita" Serena said to her friend.

"No problemo" Lita said back lowering her ipod's volume. "So, are you going to tell me what's going on?" She said looking at Serena with a worried glance.

"I am not sure yet, but, please don't leave me by myself today, I may not be entirely safe in school today" Serena said sincerely.

"Yeah, but why? I don't get it. Did you get in some type of trouble?" Lita asked.

"I think so" Serena whispered, getting paler by each word that came out of her mouth. With each word she remembered Diamond's hands on her, trying so hard to make her his. She blinked and tried to forget the memory, but it was very hard, the trauma was tattooed in her mind.

"Lita, Diamond tried to take advantage of me yesterday" Serena said in a soft whisper.

Lita stopped walking. "That son of a bitch!"Lita cried. "I am going to kill him"

"Please don't…I can't tell anyone or he is going to know it was me, just please…don't say anything and for God sake's don't leave me alone today" Serena said and saw the sad look in Lita's eyes. Serena knew Lita hated feeling inhibited with a situation; she would have normally just crushed the guy's skull on the street and made it look like a horrible accident. "Please believe me, he didn't hurt me, just scared me to death"

"Have you told anyone? Your parents?"Lita asked.

"They are clueless like always, so that's good" Serena tried to smile but couldn't, the effort seemed enormous.

Lita tried to reason this in her mind. She had to help Serena, but felt so useless in a situation so serious.

"You should report him somehow" Lita suggested. "Maybe then you could expel him"

"The incident didn't occur in school grounds" Serena said.

"What about a restraining order?" Lita suggested again.

"Lita come on! I am just glad that he didn't actually hurt me." Serena said.

"So what happened?" Lita asked. Serena then told her about the photo shoot that took place in Sapphire's house. How she had agreed to help him with his art project and that she had on a beautiful white dress that Sapphire had gotten her. Then she told Lita about her daydream, the ballroom floor, her dance with imaginary Darien and finally how blinded she had felt with the camera flashes that she couldn't distinguish what was real and what was not, but that she had definitely felt that the guy touching her arms and kissing her neck wasn't Darien, so then she woke from the dream and somehow pushed Diamond away. Then she told Lita about the call, and figured out that the caller couldn't have been anyone else but Diamond.

"Report him" Lita said again.

"Lita…" Serena tried to reason with her friend and both of them came to the conclusion that if things got worse by the end of the day then Serena will have to tell her parents and the Headmaster.

They finally arrived to school and Lita walked Serena to her locker and finally left her on her first class. When she went to her desk, she found a white rose on her desk. She immediately knew that it couldn't possibly be from Darien. It wasn't his style, never had been; Darien likes red roses.

She saw Dominic Colton talk with a bunch of his friends a couple of seats away from her, so she gathered the courage she needed and walk to him. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry guys" Serena said as she approached the group and everyone silenced. "Dominic, did you see who left this on my desk?" As Serena asked this everyone laughed and giggled. She started feeling really embarrassed.

"I don't know , who you are dating this week Serena? Maybe he left it there. Or maybe one of the other thousand guys you have being hanging out with." He finished saying this and his friends proceeded with an "ooohhhh" and a couple more giggles as well. Serena scoffed and went to the waste basket in the front of the class and threw the flower away. Just as she did this she saw that just across the hallway from where she was standing Diamond was looking at her. He was filming her with his camera phone. She went pale.

Her professor had just arrived and shut the door, closing her view from Diamond. She closed her eyes and hoped that that had being a trick from her imagination.

"Good to see you on time Miss Tsukino, now take your seat" Mr. Oberg said, her Social Studies teacher. "By the way, I have your quiz back, I am proud of you, you are improving a lot your grades, here" He said as he handled her an A minus paper. She couldn't feel proud over her grade, she felt preoccupied enough over whatever Diamond had planned for her.

Her phoned rang the message tune so she took it out and saw that she had a multimedia message.

I am watching you lil' bunny, hurt you didn't like my rose.

And a video of her throwing the rose appeared.

"Serena take your seat and put your phone away" commanded Mr. Oberg. Slowly she walked all the way back to her seat. Dominic noticed how she went from sour cream pale to ghost pale in a couple of seconds.

"Are you ok?" he asked her as she passed him by. She slowly shook her head.

"Mr. Oberg, Serena is not feeling well" Dominic called his teacher.

"It's ok Dominic, she is just in shock" Mr. Oberg said laughing a little, so distracted he didn't noticed that she had closed her eyes and started shaking. She was in shock alright.

The two long hours of the lecture on the French-Indian war were suddenly over and thankfully the bell rang. She hadn't taken a single note; she hadn't drawn a single picture. She just stared at her blank notebook and did nothing.

"If you really felt that bad you could have just gone to the Infirmary, you know?" Dominic said to her, she turn to look at him, grabbed her bag and left the classroom without another word said. She knew she would accomplish nothing by been mad at Dominic, but it looked that the right thing to do at the moment.

As she walked through the hallway without Lita's company she realized that she wasn't going to give Diamond the satisfaction of terrorizing her. Yes, it was scary, but she was going to make sure it didn't show.

IT lab happened; she finished her PowerPoint project and presented it to her class. She did a wonderful and animated presentation full of color and beautiful pictures she took herself from her trip as an undercover model in New York. The minute she saw one of her pictures with Darien, her courage reappeared, she had something to fight for.

Lunch came, now almost all of her group of friends was complete. Only Mina was missing, how much Serena missed her silly comments and gossip!

She saw another message, another video of her, this one was taken from a distance, but it was clearly her sitting with her friends. A message came as well.

Are you scared yet?

She answered to the text. Not at all

She got another one

If not for you, how about for your friends?

Amy, her blue haired friend noticed Serena had gone blank staring at her phone. Sweet, innocent Amy, she who risked getting into trouble for Serena. Could Diamond hurt her? "Serena is everything alright?" Amy said putting down her sandwich. She had joined school that morning as Lita. She had successfully won the Academic competition, aced every single subject and answered right every single question. They went head to head down to the last stage of the competition with the French delegation and the Dutch one, but finally prevailed. Could Diamond hut her? Or maybe he was planning on hurting Rei? She was gorgeous, exotic and had a sultry way about her. Any guy would notice her. I mean, she had had already dozens of prospects for dates but she always turned them down. Even if she tried to deny her "off again, on again" relationship with her boyfriend Chad, he meant a great deal to her. But she was indeed very flirty in nature, could Diamond mistake her sultry nature and take advantage of her? What about Lita? She was happy with her relationship with Andrew, even though it was just starting and they hadn't had that many dates yet, they were taking it really slow. But Lita had always put on a strong face, hadn't had that many friends in her past, she was really innocent and romantic when it came to love. Would he hurt her? Guys always went crazy over the girl with the heavy eye liner, and a taste for metal bands. Molly? Elena? What if it weren't even her girlfriends? What if it was one of the guys? Sammy? Melvin?

What do you want? She texted.

You know what I want. Serena fringed.

"S, is everything alright?" Lita asked worriedly. Serena tried to hide her fears and put on a smile.

"Nothing is wrong, I am just having trouble reaching Darien in the hospital" she lied. Amy bought it, and Rei as well but Lita didn't.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, worried about little Abby, isn't it awful? Her family has all this money and she is so sick." Serena said, trying to get the conversation rolling on a whole different topic.

"All the money in the world can't buy you a cure, what will?" said Rei. And so the conversation drifted. From time to time Lita checked Serena's demeanor, just to make sure she wasn't playing her.

After lunch she was accompanied to the girl's lavatory, then her locker and then Rei and Lita accompany her to French.

"Asseyez-vous" commanded Mrs. Dory her French teacher.

They were studying some conjugations while she tried desperately to reach Darien on her cell.

The two hour period went briefly. Mrs. Dory delivered quizzes; hers had a "Très, très bien". And she hated Diamond even more, for once she was doing so well in school and she couldn't enjoy it. That miserable boy, Serena wondered if he found pleasure at making others feel misery. Since it loved company, maybe he liked making people feel even more miserable than himself.

Last period, Spanish. Mr. Gomez greeted her with an "Oye Serena, te fue mu ybien en tu examen final, estoy orgulloso" (Hey Serena, you did great on your final, I am really proud)

"Gracias señor Gomez, es todo gracias a Elena" (Thank you Mr. Martinez, it's all thanks to Elena's help) Serena said with a big smile and a bit of an accent.

Mr. Gomez was a tall, handsome man, really charismatic, he was blonde and had honey brown eyes, his smile usually was something to fantasize girls between the ages of 12 to 18 usually gossiped among themselves about how wonderful he was.

Spanish was usually Serena's favorite language subject. She was good because Elena was constantly talking in Spanish anyway, so she picked up a lot.

She sat down and turned to look at the window and there he was, Diamond.

She gasped, Lita who was sitting next to Serena notice this. She turned to look where Serena had looked but failed to see anything out of the ordinary.

"You ok S?" Lita asked.

"Yeah, I thought I saw a spider on the window" Serena lied again. She tried to look straight to the front of the classroom, but she couldn't stop thinking about Diamond.

Bell rang; rehearsal was up…great, more Diamond.

When she got to the theater she was amazed. The place looked totally different. Beautiful columns grazing the sides of the stage, lights, backdrops, everything was ready.

Lita told her that she was going backstage to finish preparing everyone for the dress rehearsal.

She put her belongings on a chair in the front row and then she saw Darien get in the theater. When he met eyes with Serena he smiled at her.

She immediately was able to breathe normally again. Her protector was there.

As she was going to greet him, both Mr. and Mrs. Lambert intercept him so she stopped walking towards him.

"Serena, do you want to read to last scene with me?" Scott asked reaching her with a bunch of papers on his hand.

"Hey Scott, have you heard from Mina?" Serena asked him.

"Last time we spoke on the phone she told me that they planned coming soon. They were rapping up back there" Scott said to Serena. "So? Final scene?"

"Sure" Serena said to Scott and took out her own script.

"So, what's your real name" Scott asked Serena as searched for the page they were in.

She hadn't reviewed the act yet…she kept pushing it behind and never really read the scene through.

"Serenity" a strong voice said behind her. It was Darien. She turned to look at him, then saw his beautiful blue eyes. "I knew I've met you before. Your mother used to work in palace, when we were first attacked twenty years ago, you and your mother were in the carriage that was supposed to transport my mother and me, but we were attacked. Your mother told them that my mother and I were dead, they took you captive. I never saw you again"

"Your highness, I assure you, I have never seen you in my life before this week. I can't be the person you talk off" Serena as Duchess Victorya said.

"You are lying" Darien as Prince Endymion said. "Kunzite, take her into custody" Darien commanded Scott.

"Wait!" cried Serena as Scott was approaching her and taking her hand. "Your highness, we may have never crossed paths before, but what I told General Kunzite is truth, you are in great peril. Prince Carlton will try to kill you! You must run!"

"And be a coward? Like you Victorya? Running? Lying? I will confront my enemies, and I will prevail. General! I gave you an order" Darien said.

Scott pretended that he handcuffed Serena and took her to another booth. Serena then looked at Scott in the eye. "Please, he'll kill me"

"Endymion could never, he fell in love with you, he knows you'll be safe here" Scott told her

"I mean Carlton. I was the one who was supposed to kill him…please warn him again…I don't care for my life, but his is danger" Serena finished saying.

"I think you did great Serena. And then you are taken out of the cell by one of your guards, then you see Carlton and Endymion fight and you get in the way and then you get injured and you tell Endymion that he was right about her, about everything and then you die"

"Good...now if only my life was scripted I'll know what to do next" Serena joked. "I don't want to do the scenes with Diamond, he creeps my creeps out"

"Don't worry, after Friday you don't have to see him again if you don't want to"

Serena smiled at the frail hope that what her friend Scott was saying was right. A life without Diamond would be a good life.

"People gather around please" called from stage Mr. and Mrs. Lambert. Serena searched around and saw that Darien was talking with some of his classmates and all of them were already in costume.

Lita had done a splendid job bringing everyone to both a nostalgic feel of the past from William Shakespeare and a futuristic world of a Hunger Games fashion.

"We will start rehearsal in a minute, everyone should be getting ready while Mr. Shields and Ms. Tsukino practice once more with Mr. Ambrossio."

Serena and Darien went to stage while the music began to play.

"How is Abby?" Serena asked Darien while they walk upstairs to the stage.

"She is in recovery now, they believe she can make it, but they have to start quimo once more" Darien said

"Poor thing" Serena let out. As she walked to the center of the stage she turned around. She saw Diamond looking at her.

"Darien, I'm scared" Serena said, still looking at Diamond.

"Don't worry, I do know the dance, just let me lead you" Darien said taking her hand. She blushed…but she wanted to say that she didn't mean the dance, she meant her stalker.

Darien offered his hand to Serena and she took it. They vowed to each other, then Darien approached Serena and touched gently her cheek. He then, with his other hand slide gently Serena's back, got it locked to her shoulder blade and started dancing. 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3.

They heard the clapping from Mr. Ambrossio that signaled each step.

"Lox step, right, left, right, left and turn"

1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3

"Beautiful! Now Serena, open your right arm big, big, big, bend and Darien pick her up, slowly back up, turn, turn, turn."

All the while Serena thanked the Lord in heaven she wasn't wearing her heels, with flats the dance hurt enough. She was extending as much as she could her legs to form beautiful lines and she was extending her neck all the while maintaining her shoulders away from her neck. It was really difficult, but she got a great partner that was leading her in every single step.

On one turn she had to lift her right leg and draw a semicircle on the air, then, Darien took both her arms and lifted her high in the air so both her legs where extended. Then he brought her gently to the floor bending her so much her back was almost touching the ground. They came back up and in a brief movement Darien took her right arm, turned her, kissed her neck, glided his right arm through her side while Serena lifted her right leg in the air, Darien took it with his right hand and spin her three times in the air. As the music slowed down, Darien finished the spin leaving her to glide in the floor and he then finished the dance touching again her cheek.

"Hooray for the happy couple" Diamond said from the front bench as he was clapping with an air of hostility and sarcasm.

"It certainly deserves celebration Mr. Blackmoon." Mr. Ambrossio said. "Ms. Tsukino, you were simply marvelous." If it wasn't for Diamond, Serena would have been pleased. Darien sensed that. "Ignore him" he said to her. But she couldn't.

She then proceeded to try on her costume that Lita had worked very hard to create. She had three outfits. The first, the one she used on her first scene was a deep green. This dress was very old fashioned; it was long sleeved and corseted. It had a beautiful pattern of gold beads around the torso and the skirt was really heavy because of the material it was made. Serena was glad she didn't have to wear this dress for a long time. It was difficult to move in it.

The second dress was the one she was supposed to wear during the ball. She loved this dress a lot. It was a chiffon baby blue dress. The heart shaped bodice was embellished by a multitude of silver sequins. The skirt was very simple, A line, but it let her flow, perfect for dancing. This floor length dress had halter like straps that hugged her neck and then very long dramatic open sleeves that attached again on her wrists. This dress belonged on a ballroom floor.

The third dress was made out of stretch cotton, really fitted, paprika red, it had a high neckline and a very exposed back. The dress was meant for her last scene. It started off with Darien proposing marriage to Serena, well, I mean Prince Endymion to Duchess Victorya, then jealous Prince Carlton, seeing that Victorya is falling for Endymion conjures up a plan to kill him at the wedding. Victorya tries to warn Edymion but he doesn't trust her anymore seeing as she worked for the enemy and she still deny ever having met him before.

The play ended with the fight between Endymion and Carlton and Victorya, getting in the way to save Endymion got herself injured and subsequently killed at the end of the play. Serena wondered if perhaps this play was a twisted form of her life at the moment. Was she going to end up like Victorya, I mean Serenity her true identity, killed because a boy got obsessed with her? She hoped everything was a cruel coincidence and that nothing in that script was going to predict her near future.

Rehearsal finished around six o'clock that evening and Darien accompany Serena home at her insistence. For him to do it, she didn't need to insist so much, she just needed to ask, he was at her every order.

"Drama students have the day off tomorrow" Darien said as they reached their front porch. "You should rest tomorrow; you seemed very on edge today"

"I just want to be done with this play as soon as possible, I can't stand Diamond one more second" Serena said out of frustration.

"I'll see what I can do about that" Darien said chuckling a bit.

"Are you planning to do something to him?" Serena asked.

"Is best for you not to know anything Meatball Head, I don't want to crush your school record" Darien said mockingly.

"Is that bad?" Serena asked.

"No…it's not bad…I mean…it is but it isn't…it's enough to get him kicked out" Darien tried to explain.

"But he is so not worth that, you have to think about college Darien, You don't want to destroy your whole future because of him" Serena said.

"I won't I promise. Don't freak out, I have it under control" Darien insisted.

"You don't have it under control. You don't even know if he is planning to do something… he is very dangerous Darien…be careful" Serena insisted even more.

Darien looked at her suspiciously. "Do you know something you are not telling me?" Darien asked.

"What? No…I know nothing" Serena said, acting as if offended by the accusation.

"Are you telling me the truth?" Darien asked again.

"Yes" (No) Serena answered.

"You are not lying to me, right?"

"No" (Yes)

"Good, then I guess…will see each other on Friday" Darien said fidgeting.

"You won't visit tomorrow?" Serena asked with a sad smile.

"You want me to visit?" Darien asked with a smirk on his face, his classic smirk that Serena loved, but she didn't answer, just stared him down.

"Just give me tomorrow, I'm all yours after that" Darien said.

"Can I ask you something?" Serena said.

"Shoot" Darien answered moving closer to Serena.

"What exactly are we? I mean, I told you the truth, didn't I? That was the one thing you needed from me, right? To tell you the truth from where you knew me? You said that we could take it from there once I did that"

"And we are, we will take as slow" he said moving to her ear "as you want" he finished kissing lightly her neck.

"One day Meatball Head, that's all I am asking for" he said and then walked away from her doorstep.

Serena went straight to Sammy's bedroom where she began to change clothes. She put on her sweat pants and her mother's Brown sweater.

"I overheard you talking with Darien" Birdie said from the door.

"Oh Jesus, can't you stay in your side of the house for once?" Serena exclaimed.

"Listen, I didn't believe you for one second. You are more afraid of Diamond that you cared to share with Darien, aren't you?" Birdie asked.

"That's none of your business" Serena said.

"Hey, if you are in trouble maybe you should say something to dad"

"Don't try to act like the interested sister. For all I know, if anything happened to me you would be glad" Serena said.

"Come on, am I really that bad? What happened? Did he hurt you?" Birdie said, acting like the most innocent person in the world.

"He didn't do anything, ok? It's no big deal" Serena insisted.

"But something happened right?" Birdie guessed.

"It's no big deal Birdie" Serena said again.

"Did he force you to kiss him?" Birdie asked again.

Serena reminded quiet for a little while. "He _ tried to, but his brother came and I punched him in the nose. Now he is trying to scare me sending me text messages, leaving creepy voice mails. Please don't tell dad. I am afraid that if I say something, he might try to hurt me worse or even one of the girls. He threaded me"

"Serena that's really serious, you should talk to dad about this" Birdie said.

"It doesn't matter, I don't actually have proof that is him" Serena said.

"What do you mean?" Birdie asked.

"I don't know for a fact that it's his phone number, he could perfectly be using another phone and I have not a hint of proof is him sending the messages… what do they called it in Castle…circumstantial evidence" Serena said with an air of defeat in her voice.

"Show me the text messages" Birdie asked.

Serena showed Birdie her phone. "I'll try something I learn to do with this app you can download. I'll bring your phone in a minute." Birdie said taking Serena's phone. She was clueless as to what exactly Birdie was able to do, but perhaps she could help.

Serena went downstairs and helped her mom prepare dinner. They were making homemade pizza and Serena was helping making the salad.

"So…tomorrow you are going to be here all day, right?" her mom asked.

"Yeah, I'll try to memorize the rest of the lines for the play on Friday." Serena said

"Good, I miss having you here, it can get a little bit lonely here at times, you and Sammy are getting all grown up and I miss my babies" Ikuko said.

Serena smiled but didn't reply to her mother.

After dinner, when she stepped into her room, she found her phone on Sammy's night stand. Perhaps Birdie hadn't been able to do anything after all.

She felt asleep and woke up next morning at 9:00 a.m.

No Sammy or Birdie at all so she walked downstairs to see if her mother was around but saw that she wasn't in the kitchen or living room. A note in the fridge let Serena know that her mother had gone to the market to get ingredients for a nice lunch and dinner. There were two omelets on the stove and so she had breakfast. She served herself some apple juice and after her meal she cleaned the dishes in the sink.

The doorbell rang and she went to answer it. OMG! she thought.

"Mina?"

"Glad to see me I hope?" Mina asked with her arms wide open, waiting to receive a hug. Serena jumped to her arms and hugged her friend for what seemed forever.

"When did you come back?" Serena asked.

"Well… we weren't supposed to come for another two weeks, but I wanted so bad to see the play that we came back early" Mina said.

"Well, let's not waste any time here, let's go celebrate at the arcade!" Serena said taking Mina's hand with all intention to go straight to the arcade in her pajamas.

"Oh dear!" Mina exclaimed "I can't, Serena, I'm terribly sorry. My dad drove me here 'cause I insisted, but I am supposed to go an audition in an hour. Look, I promise that I'll ring you tomorrow and we'll make plans to meet on Saturday. How's that?" she said with an expectant smile.

"How can I say no?" Serena said, trying not to look too disappointed.

She went back to her house and went directly to her room. She opened her door and at the moment she was about to enter her room she knew something was off. Even though Birdie was staying there, she never left her closet door open, that and Serena felt a draft coming from her balcony, which only meant someone was there. She didn't go inside but went instead to her brother's room and took a baseball bat and her cell. She then, slowly climbed downstairs and into the kitchen to grab the phone. She put hers on the counter.

She dialed 9-1-

As she was about to finish the number someone grabbed the phone from her hand. She turned quickly and moved away.

It was Diamond.

He was smiling.

"You are not a very good host" he demanded.

"You are not a very good guest" Serena said taking the bat and positioning herself as she was about to hit a baseball.

"Don't worry, I am not here to hurt you" he said pulling his hands up.

"What do you want?" Serena asked.

"I want you lil' bunny"

"Stop calling me that. I am not afraid of you." She said

"Then why the bat? I just want to talk" Diamond said taking a step closer to her.

"Take one more step and I will beat the living crap out of you. I know what you do. You get girls in trouble. Just like you did to Annaleigh. You got her pregnant and when she told you, you gave her money to have an abortion. You are a horrible pig! You won't do that me! I know that's your plan so you can get back at Darien. " Serena said. After that she heard her mom's car on the driveway. "You here that?" she asked "That's my mom's car, so you better take a hike before she enters the house and I scream for her to call the police. Leave me the hell alone before I do it anyway. As far as I know this is trespassing." Serena said without an ounce of fear in her voice. "Get going Diamond, game is over"

In a sudden movement Diamond got a step apart from Serena taking the bat away from her.

"Yes I did that to Annaleigh, so what? It's over when I say it's over. You tell anybody about this conversation and I'll get your friend Amy expelled from school. I know it was her who got into my computer from the school's paper. Think about it" he said and left the house through the back door just as her mom entered the kitchen.

"Serena, honey what's wrong?" she said hurrying to attend to her daughter.

Serena looked to her mother with watery eyes. "Mom -" she said and cried in her mother's shoulders.


Friday afternoon, 3:30 pm.

The play had already began and she had just being called to stage. Serena was in her dressing room changing into her first gown.

"Serena?" called a first year with a package. "Someone left this for you" Serena, intrigued by the contents of the package, opened the box and found the dress she wore to her first pep rally completely drenched in red-blood paint.

As she saw the dress a horror expression struck her face. The first year was horrified. "Oh my God, is that blood?" she screamed.

"Don't be stupid it's only paint" Serena said. Then, her cell phone rang.

She answered the call and a voice said "Remember there are more ways I can get you than you can get me" then the call ended.

Out of rage she threw her phone at the mirror in front of her. She huffed for a few seconds before she regained her calm and then said to the girl, who had her hands hiding her face: "Sorry for the mess" signaling the million pieces of glass now on the floor.

She exited the dressing room and someone called her name. She jumped because of her alert state.

It was Darien.

Darien simply saw the expression on her face. She was absolutely frightened.

"Hey, what happened?" but she didn't answer, she just went and hug him.

"Serena, please tell me what happened" Darien demanded.

But she was out of words. What could she possibly say? That she had received a phone call and had no way of proving it was Diamond, that he was appearing every way she went? All of those things could only come to the conclusion that maybe she was paranoiac…crazy even. What could she say? That he came to her and said what? Nothing she could say could be taken in context…Diamond was that good… He was careful enough to do stuff that was creepy but not creepy enough to grant him an expulsion or even a warning. How could she prove any of it?

"Serena, come on, you are ghost pale, and you are freezing and chattering your teeth…come on. Tell me what's going on" Darien demanded again with her in his protective arms.

She was shaking out of control, she couldn't stop it.

She was scared to go to stage while Diamond was there; her first scene was coming in minutes. She couldn't take the anticipation, the lines that her classmates where reciting were coming really fast. The scene was almost over.

"It's nothing" she said to Darien finally.

"Don't be scared Buns, I am sure you are going to rock it tonight" Darien said sweetly kissing the top of her head.

"Aren't you a joy to watch" Diamond say loud enough for the two of them to turn around and listen. Serena clutch on to Darien even harder so he knew why she was so scared. She had to kiss him on the next scene.

A third year named Sophia approached them both. "Serena you are up next" said Sophia with a headset on her head. She then said some other stuff to the receiver of the headset. "Curtain one in two" Sophia practically pushed Serena onto stage as she simply went mute. She could see that Diamond was ready on the other side of the stage and he was waiting for her. She turned around to see Darien waiting for her backstage, but she couldn't find him.

The curtain aroused.

The bright lights were blinding her; she couldn't think…she forgot everything she was supposed to say.

"My dear" Diamond called.

Serena turned to look at him but said nothing.

The theater was absolutely silent. She turned to see for herself. Mr. and Mrs. Lambert where in the front row signaling Serena to continue with her line but she had forgotten.

Couple of seconds later as her silence continued a few kids in the back of the theater were laughing. One even yelled some nasty comment at her.

She was panicking at the moment so she decided to walk a couple of steps back and apologize; she couldn't possibly do the play.

She wasn't aware when Diamond caught her arm and turned her to him.

"You are not having second thoughts my dear, now are you?" Diamond asked in a menacing manner. "Victorya?" he asked her again.

"Get your hands off of me" she warned, finally talking. BTW none of that was scripted.

"You will do as I say Victorya. You will seduce Prince Endymion and our kingdom will finally take over this planet."

"I am not your slave Diam…" she thought for a moment she was going to call Diamond by his name on stage, which would have been a great mistake. "Carlton, you don't owe me and I owe you or your family nothing"

"Only that we saved you, remember? You came to us almost dead and we nursed you back to health" Diamond as Prince Carlton said.

"Your mother did!" Serena as Victorya exclaimed. "But your mother is dead; my duty to your family is over"

"It's over until I say it's over" Diamond said and with that he brought Serena for a much obligated kiss. She struggled under him. She punched repeatedly his chest but he was not backing out.

"Get off of me" Serena screamed…very genuinely. Darien's heart skipped a bit. He had a fire inside of him that he couldn't suffice. She was being assaulted and he couldn't do anything to stop it. But he did try. He tried to push Sophia aside who was guarding like a hawk who entered or exited the stage.

"Please let me pass, she is clearly uncomfortable" he tried to persuade

"Darien, no. Stay here!" she hissed over and over again.

Back on stage the struggle between Diamond and Serena continued until he finally let her go from that much extended and unwanted kiss.

Her knees failed her so she fell to the ground and started to cry, loudly.

Diamond walked in circles around her, like calculating every movement her pray made. Finally he stepped near the side of the stage and said: "Prepare for departure tomorrow. You will meet the prince at a masquerade ball. Victorya, I trust you to be a smart girl here. Your duty to my family may be over in the eyes of our people, but you still need a life to sustain yourself. Think about it. You can always be my queen once I take over Endymion's place" And with that Diamond left the stage leaving her alone crying in front of at the very least four hundred people.

She cried for a full minute on a full lung. Then she stood up from the ground. That was the queue for Leo Bennett and Sandra Cascade to enter the stage. Sandra was dressed as a maid. She came to her and asked her if she was okay.

"Please help me pack my things. I'll be going for a long trip" She said finally and left the stage in a hurry.

When she got there, the curtain moved down. Next scene was supposedly to be the beginning of the ball, when Endymion met Victorya. But as soon as she got backstage Mr. and Mrs Lambert were waiting for her. They were already yelling at Diamond.

"Don't get smart with me kid. I am not beyond of cancelling the play all together just to enjoy taking you to the Headmaster's office. Sass me one more time Blackmoon and I swear you'll be out of here before you can say Hairspray" Mr. Lambert said.

"That won't be necessary Carson, Ms. Tsukino, Mr. Shields and Mr. Blackmoon will accompany me there right now" the voice of Headmaster Carter said. Serena turned herself and look with her own eyes that the school's principal was actually requesting her presence. And by the way things looked; it couldn't be a good thing.


Leave a review guys, to show me your love.

Last chapter is coming next.

After that, a remasterized version of the whole story is going to take place before the sequel, so it's basically the same story but some details may change along the way so I advise you to stick out if you are interested at all in the sequel which will take place like twenty years after these events occur.

Why? Well, I think there's always a story after a "happy ending" not that this story will have an obvious one. And just so you know, I cracked. Something that many of you have wanted for a long time is happening, can you guess what it is? It has to do with Darien if anyone cares to make a bet.