Ch.5: Duty Calls
Serena opened her eyes as
she felt the warm sunlight on her face. She had fallen asleep and hadn't
bothered to change out of her white nightdress. Rising slowly and tiredly out
of her bed, she found tear streaks dried on her cheeks. Pressing her lips
together, she remembered her dreams from last night. Sighing, she went into the
bathroom to get ready for her morning classes.
In the shower, Serena
smiled content, surrounded by the warm spray of water, the smell of her citrus
basil body wash, and the soft melody playing on her radio.
" Know all about, about
your reputation and now its bound to be a heartbreak situation. But I can't
help it if I'm helpless every time that I'm where you are." The radio sang.
Serena's smile faded. "
Sounds like me and Darien." She sighed, getting out of the shower.
" Say my name, and I can't
fight it anymore…...Loving you, isn't really something I should do. Shouldn't
want to spend my time with you. But I should try to be strong. But baby, you're
the right kind of wrong." The radio continued its song, as Serena got dressed.
" That's it. He's the
right kind of wrong." Serena giggled at the oxymoron. " I hope I look okay. I
don't want to attract the too much attention and I need to be comfortable. It
is my second day here." Serena saddened at the thought of her second day at her
last academy. All the girls had short hair, gray flares, white blouse, and a
red tie. Serena had everything but the hair. After the first day of not fitting
in, she decided to take matters into her own hands. The night before her second
day, she had cut her hair so that it was the same length at the other girls.
Her handy work wasn't as good as she thought. There were some uneven parts,
etc. When she got in the school, her hopeful smile had faded when she saw all
the snickering and smirking looks the students were giving her. She remembered
crying to her father, who shook his head as he saw her hair. He decided the
school was giving Serena bad ideas and quickly switched her to Rye Christi's.
Serena snapped back to
reality. As she stared into the full-length mirror she ran her hair through her
long blonde hair. She was glad it finally grew out. " I'm not changing myself
for anyone or anything. I'm going to be myself. I don't care what anyone says."
She thought with confidence she didn't feel.
" Serena! I made
breakfast! Hurry, we only have an hour left before class!" Lita shouted through
Serena's door.
" Coming Lita!" she yelled
back. She turned to look in the mirror one last time. She saw a slim, pale girl
with a determined face and long blonde hair. Her hair had grown back to its
regular length; it fell just past her waist. Serena had dried and curled it, so
that it fell in golden waves. She gave her short gray skirt one last tug, her
crisp white shirt a few adjustments, and straightened her red tie. She sat down
on her bed, and zipped up the knee-length boots. It'll take her awhile to get
used to this outfit. Picking up her messenger bag filled with books, Serena
walked down her dark hallway and out the door to the living room. Dropping her
bag on the couch, she joined Lita at the breakfast table.
"Mmm. Smells good, Lita."
Serena complimented, as she looked over the eggs, lox, and bagels.
Lita smiled. " Thanks
Sere. I made fresh squeezed orange juice." She said pointing to the juice
filled pitcher. " And I made some frappacinos in a bottle for a snack between
classes. Also, too keep us awake!" Lita continued with a wink.
" What time-oh, no! Lita
we only have 45 mins left, and we have 30 mins to walk!" Serena cried crashing
back to reality as she looked at her watch. They both scarfed down their food,
grabbed their bags, and ran out the door.
As they neared the Algebra
II building, they slowed down. They strolled underneath the cherry blossoms and
enjoyed the breezy yet sunny day.
" Serena calm down!" Lita
said laughing. " We still have 15 minutes to go, and we're there already."
Serena slowed down a tad
bit. " I guess you're right." She admitted sheepishly. She just didn't want to
give the class a bad impression.
" Oh, yeah! Here's your
frapp." Lita piped up handing Serena over a cold silver blue bottle. It had a
white ice pack around it. " As long as the ice pack holds, it'll be fine for
about 4 hours." She added, as Serena put the bottle hesitantly into her bag.
Side by side, they walked
in silence to their classroom. Opening Mrs. Kane's door they were suddenly
engulfed in the loud noises.
" What's going on?" Lita
muttered, looking around the room.
" You mean it isn't
usually like this?" Serena wondered.
"No." Lita scowled as she
walked over to the fighting groups.
There were the 'pales' and
the 'darks', each on their own side, each with their leader arguing. Mina was
the leader of hers, and Raye seemed to be the leader of the 'darks', although
Darien and several other girls stood in front with her.
" As I said before, Beryl
didn't cheat. Your eyes just seemed to be wandering, Amy." Mina snapped back.
" Why would Amy cheat? She
gets tops in this class, besides Darien. You're just jealous cause every time
we beat you!" Raye yelled back.
" Oh, stuff it! You're
just envious because you lost to me in the singing competition! Your voice
wasn't good anyways!" Mina countered.
" What's going on, Greg?"
Lita asked a dark haired boy, taking a quick look at the bickering girls.
Greg scowled. " Beryl
accused Amy of cheating off of her, and Amy said Beryl was cheating off of
her." He whispered back furious. " Amy wouldn't cheat, she gets great grades,
but Beryl on the other hand." He trailed off.
Lita understood. Amy was a
genius, and usually got As. Beryl would gets by barely. In fact, she wouldn't
even be in the school, if her father weren't able to pay the thousands of
dollars each year for her to stay there. Her father had old money and rich as
anything. Beryl lets it get to her head though. By the way she carries on,
you'll believe she held honors.
" Why does it matter? You
both got the same grade. That's like a tie. Anyway, Amy and Beryl couldn't have
cheated off of each other. The work they showed isn't the same." Serena said,
leafing through the girls' tests.
Mina and Raye looked at
each other then grabbed the tests from Serena's hands. Leaning towards each
other, they compared the tests.
" True, she did the…" Mina
murmured.
" Yea. Amy did…" Raye
added.
They looked up at each
other and jumped away.
" Tie?" Mina asked,
holding out her hand.
"Tie." Raye said, shaking
her hand quickly.
Everyone returned to his
or her desks, talking quietly and looking at Serena. Lita looked at Serena admirably.
" Good thinking." She
praised.
" I would have won that,
if the blonde hadn't butted in." Raye said loudly to her fan club glaring at
Serena. " I don't know who she is, but if she constantly butts into my
arguments, we'll never have the upperhand here." She continued loudly, so that
Serena could hear here.
Serena blushed and looked
at her notes from yesterday. " I guess, I shouldn't have interrupted," She
thought quietly.
Darien turned slowly
around to face Serena. He heard Raye clearly and wondered how Serena was taking
it. Her head was bowed down, and she was staring at her notebook. Her hair
cascaded into waves of gold, all across her face and spilled over her hands. He
smiled at the picture that she made. " Good morning princess." He whispered,
taking a piece of her hair and wrapping it around his hand.
Serena thought she was
mistaking. " Did he just say…" Serena thought. Her head snapped up. " OW!" she
cried. Her sudden movement caused Darien's hand to yank at the piece of hair he
held in his hand.
" Sorry." He laughed as he
saw the comical look Serena had on her red face, as she rubbed her head.
" Oooohh. I knew it was
you. Good morning to you too!" she frowned.
Darien smiled innocently
and grabbed an envelope from his bag. " Here." He said, and then turned quickly
around.
" Wha-" Serena started.
" Okay, okay people. Let's
get started." Mrs. Kane said, coming into the room and clapping her hands.
Raye saw this whole
exchange and scowled. " He'll be mine soon." She thought.
In the middle of the
class, when Mrs. Kane was grading papers and the students were suppose to be
doing class work, Lita leaned over to Serena's desk. " What's that?" she
whispered, nodding her head to the pale blue envelope on corner of Serena's
desk.
" I don't know. Darien
gave it to me." Serena whispered back.
Lita saw the red engraved
on the flap of the envelope. Her eyes widened. " Its your first challenge. Open
it!" Lita whispered harshly.
" But-" Serena frowned.
" Ladies, is there a
problem?" Mrs. Kane looked up sharply from her papers.
" No. Sorry." Lita and
Serena chorused.
Mrs. Kane went back to her
work. When, the bell rang, Serena and Lita ran out of the classroom, so that
they could open the envelope.
" What's that?" Raye asked
snootily, as she looked at the envelope with distaste.
" Nothing. We have to go.
Bye Raye." Lita said quickly, steering Serena outside.
" We have one hour, before
History class. Lets go to the willow and read it." Lita suggested.
So to the weeping willow
they went. Sitting underneath it, Serena slid her finger underneath the
envelope flap. With an energetic movement, the envelope tore open. Serena took
out a piece of beige paper. There were snowy roses printed over it. When Serena
opened the paper, a red rose bud fell out of it. Lita picked it up, and stared
at it.
" The rose of challenge."
She whispered in awe.
" Yeah, yeah. You saw it
before." Serena waved it away, without a concern. She quickly scanned the
envelope.
" Well, what does it say?"
Lita said, taking her frappacino out and taking a sip.
" It says- oh no! I forgot
my bag in the room. Be right back. Read it yourself." Serena cried, running
back to Mrs. Kane's room.
Lita picked up the paper
and began to read…….
Dear Princess,
Duty calls. Time for the first seduction. Your first
challenge is Kennedy [Ken] Harwich. He's a junior. One year older then you,
sophomore. Find him and seduce him. When I see him at the Harvest Ball with
you, you win only under one condition: an hour later, you will leave him
brokenhearted. I will find out somehow, so don't try to deceive me. I await my
challenge.
Your
Prince.
PS- Thank you for the walk
last night. How about if I meet you under the willow tonight and we walk
again……
" Seems like she had fun
last night." Lita smiled slyly.
" Mrs. Kane?" Serena asked
quietly as she opened the creaking door. She stepped into the still classroom.
" Mrs. Kane?" Serena asked again. She looked around, but the teacher seemed to
be missing. She searched for her bag, and didn't find it against her desk. She
looked up and saw it perched on the bookshelf in the back. Walking quickly to
it, she reached up to grab it. With it safely in her hand, she fell into the
darkness. She heard the door slam. Someone had turned off the light and the
blinds were closed. She wrapped her arms tighter around her bag in terror. She
heard light footsteps towards her. She tried to turn towards the sound of the
movements. She felt a cold pair of hands slid around her throat.
To be
continued………………………………………………… ^_- maybe.
AN- lol. Sorry.
Cliffhanger again! Maybe if I get enough reviews, I'll
continue!!! How was it? Good? Bad? How about my other stories??
