Serena sat in her room thinking about what she had said to Darien. She didn't know why but, she felt bad about being so mean. She knew she was supposed to hate him but...

She sat on the small bench at the bus stop waiting for the bus to Sendai Hill. As soon as it pulled up she bounded onto to it claimed the back seat as her own.

She fell asleep on the short 10 minute ride there. As soon as she stepped off she ran across the street to the temple. She knocked on the door and hoped Raye was there. A short little man with white hair answered. "Serena!" he exclaimed with a smile, "I am so glad to see you!"

"Hi Grandpa!" she said giving him a hug. "Is Raye home?"

"Yes she's in her room. Do you think maybe you could cheer her up a bit? I haven't seen her this upset since she and her old boyfriend broke up."

"Her old boyfriend? Raye had a boyfriend?" Serena asked with an inquisitive look on her face.

"Now what was his name? Donald...No, Derek...No, Darwin...No..." he was still pondering when Serena asked, "Darien?"

"Yes! Exactly the one! How'd you know?"

"ESP!" Serena said through giggles.

Grandpa started to laugh also and pointed toward Raye's room. "I hope the laughs are contagious," he said with a worried look on his face. "Well. If anyone can cheer her up, it's you Serena! Now I have to get back to work!" he said walking off in a another direction.

Serena gently knocked on Raye's door. "Come in Serena!" she heard through the door.

"Hey!" Serena said with a smile as she walked in the door. "How'd you know it was me?"

"I have ESP you meatball head." Raye said frowning.

'Uh-oh!' Serena thought, 'It's a bad sign when Raye doesn't enjoy making fun of me.'

"Serena. You don't have to pretend you hate him for my sake."

"WHAT?!" Serena asked, covering up pretty well actually. She was wondering how Raye could possibly know.

"Serena. I know you don't hate him like the others. And that made me mad at first, but...

You don't have to hate him for my sake."

"Raye! I DO hate him!"

"No you don't. You may not like him. You may never like him, but you certainanly don't hate him."

Serena knew she was turning red. She tried to make up a feeble excuse to leave but she knew she wasn't very good at lying. Especially not to Raye.

She felt better once she was out of the temple and headed for the bus stop. She had just sat down, when the bus pulled up and Serena hopped on.

She sat down in the back next to some tall guy with dark hair. She couldn't see his face because he was indulging in a book. 'Something familiar about that guy.' she thought.

She closed her eyes to go sleep.

The guy lifted his head from the book to see who had taken the seat beside him. He looked at a girl with blonde pigtails and buns who had on some sort of school uniform. 'She looks like she's a sailor with that uniform on.' he thought to himself, almost laughing at the thought of this girl scrubbing decks on a ship and saying "Aye! Aye! Captain!"

The girl opened her eyes. She could tell someone was looking at her. She looked over in the seat next to her.

"DARIEN?!"

'Where do I know this gi-' he stopped his train of thought. 'Of course!' a light went on his head. 'I would know those buns and pigtails anywhere.'

"MEATBALL HEAD?!" he asked so seriously then started cracking up.

"Darien I need to ask you something. Why were you so mean to Raye the other day? I don't know why but for some reason, I don't think you're really that mean."

"Meatball-" he started untill Serena interupted.

"Serena. Serena Tsukino." she corrected him.

"Sorry. Serena, it's just that...well a year ago we broke up. And the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. I liked her. As a friend. I just wasn't in love with her anymore. But that dosen't mean that I wanted to hurt her. It's just that...when I did break up with her, she got really mad at me and wouldn't let me explain. She wouldn't give me a chance! I was just mad at her I guess for slapping me and being so mean then. It was just something that was building up for a year. I know it's inexcusable...but that was why."

"Serena, I feel really terrible about it. Could you tell her I'm sorry?"

"Yeah. You bet!" she said, feeling releived that he wasn't really that mean.

The bus jerked to a stop and before Serena got up to get off, her lips became dangerously close to Darien's.

As she got off of the bus she thought, 'CRAP! Couldn't I have tripped and fallen forward or SOMETHING?!'