Author's Notes: Hello! Thank you to everyone who read my story, and double thanks to those of you who wrote a review!! They really are inspiring (hint hint =P). So, here's the deal: I know how frustrating it can be when people don't update, so I will be updating at least once a week (and I mean it). I also know how frustrating it is when people don't finish their stories, but no worries, this story will definitely get finished. I already know where it's going and I wouldn't do that to you! Those are my promises to you. Enjoy the story and if you have time to write a review and tell me what you think, it would be muchly appreciated!

By the by, ****** in the middle of the chapter indicates some sort of lapse in time, maybe quite small. And also, one small mistake from the first chapter: Lita's hair is BROWN, not blonde, of course. Soooo sorry about that.

Disclaimer: As much as I would love to own Darien in any way, shape, or form, alas, I do not own him or any of the other main characters. But I do own the right to do whatever I want with him in this story . . . *grins evilly*

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"Amy and Ken, this is Serena, my new British locker partner. Serena, this is Amy, our future valedictorian and basically the genius of our generation, and this is Ken, soon-to-be-star of the basketball team and recent winner of the PainInTheAss of the Year Award." Lita shrieked and ducked as Ken took a swipe at her head.

"Pay no attention to her," he grinned at Serena. "She's just jealous that you'll probably end up liking me better than her. Most people do."

"Hah!!"

"You know it baby."

"Keep dreaming, mama's boy."

"Jesus, are you ever going to let that go?! I told you a million times she only serves me breakfast in bed when I'm SICK. S. I. C. K. But noooo, Little Miss Lita just can't let it go . . ."

As the two continued bickering Amy looked apologetically at Serena. "They're always like this. They're also attached at the hip so . . ."

Serena laughed. "I think I understand."

"Hey! Your accent's great! You're from the northern part of London?"

"How did you know?" Serena asked very surprised.

"Well, I did an extra credit research paper on the different accents of England and their relation to the different cultures. I'm very fascinated with Europe in general. Actually, with culture and history in general . . .well actually, with just about anything . . ."

Serena laughed again. "That's great!"

"When did you move here, Serena?"

"Just two weeks ago. I would have come to school sooner, but moving into our new house has taken so much time and Mum and Dad decided it would be better if I got used to the town a bit first."

"Eh, you've only missed about a month. We started August 24th. But hey! I'll totally help you catch up if you want. I'm already about three chapters ahead, so I could spare some time."

"Thanks! Wow, I'd really appreciate that."

"YOU FAT FACED FROG-FRECKLED LITTLE TURD!!" Lita's scream interrupted Amy and Serena's conversation. Suddenly Lita launched herself at Ken and they started a full-out tickle war. Amy and Serena looked at each other and hid smiles behind their hands.

"Isn't marriage just written all over them?" Amy whispered.

"Are you kidding?" Serena replied. "I could see it the moment we walked in and they looked at each other."

Amy sighed. "Yeah, maybe someday they'll see that, too . . ."

************

So far Serena's day was going much better than she had expected. Mr.Bronco, her English teacher, was a bit cooky and had this strange arm twitch, but she, Lita, Amy and Ken had a fun time passing notes and coming up with a disturbing story about how he got the twitch. Math had never been Serena's favorite subject, but Ken was in Algebra II with her and the teacher seemed nice enough. They were playing volleyball in Gym, which Serena was fairly good at. A couple of people in there had seemed nice, like a girl named Molly and another named Michiru. Now is was time for lunch, though, and Serena was praying that Lita would be at their locker because she had NO idea where to go.

When she got there, though, Lita was nowhere in sight. "Shit," Serena thought as she put down her books. She looked dubiously at the secure lock. "Well, I suppose I'm going to have to figure this out eventually . . ."

First try . . .no luck. Second try . . .nope! nada. Third try . . .and Serena started banging her head on the locker repeatedly. Then suddenly, two arms came around her from behind, quickly turned the combination and opened the lock. But those arms definitely didn't belong to Lita, Serena thought.

She turned around quickly and was met with a pair of beautiful dark blue eyes, messy black hair, and a mischievous grin. Her breath caught for a moment. Whoever he was, he was the most gorgeous guy she'd ever seen.

"Yooooouuuuu," he said, drawing it out but obviously teasing, "must be the infamous Serena I've been hearing all about."

"Um . . ." she was still really flustered, especially since he still basically had her pinned to her locker, "righto?"

His grin turned into a real smile and he laughed, which Serena realized she could learn to love much too easily. Then suddenly he was no longer looming over her. "I'm sorry if I freaked you out just then. Lita told me you'd probably be having trouble with the lock, so when I saw you banging your head. . . I just couldn't resist."

"I see."

"I'm Darien by the way, nice to meet you, and Lita is meeting with a teacher for a few minutes, so I'm here to show you the joys of the Bradly High School cafeteria experience - and yes, the sarcasm was intentional."

"Ohhh!" Serena was relieved now that everything made sense. "Oh, thanks then! It's nice to meet you, too. I can't believe how wonderful Lita's been about making me feel accepted here. You didn't have to do this either. Thank you."

"Of course! No problem. And yeah, Lita is pretty great. But she also already thinks you're pretty great as well. And any friend of Lita's is definitely a friend of mine."

Serena had started putting her books away, but she smiled at him. "Say, are you a . . .what do they call it here again? A second year, third year . . .?"

Darien laughed. "I'm a third year, or a Junior as they say. And you're a Sophomore with Lita."

"That's right!" Serena slammed her locker and gave it a kick for good measure.

"Yeah, these lockers can suck pretty badly sometimes."

Serena growled a bit as they started walking down the hallway. "So how did you and Lita meet?"

"THAT'S a story. Now she would probably tell you different, but I promise you once you get to know Lita better you'll totally understand and believe me. That girl came right up to me and punched me in the face one day. Completely random! I'd never seen her before in my life, and it was the first week of school last year."

"No! Why would she ever do that?"

"Well NOW she'd tell you that it was because she could smell my ego from a mile away and I deserved a good punch in the face," Darien chuckled, "but at the time, after she looked at me laying on the floor -"

"Wait a second. Lita floored you?!"

"You have no idea. I'm not even ashamed to admit it. That girl can pack a punch like no other, and everyone in this school knows it. So she looked at me on the floor and must have realized that I wasn't who she originally thought, and started apologizing like crazy, saying something about an x- boyfriend that looked just like me . . ."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Serena couldn't stop laughing now.

"I swear to you! Just wait until you get to know Lita better."

"So it was friends at first . . . fist fight?"

"Haha, you have NO idea."

They were at the cafeteria now, and Serena looked around without a clue at the many long lines and scrunched up tables. "Ok," Darien said, "the Bradly caf. The line way at the back there is for hamburgers, fries, nachos and cheeses, stuff like that. I'll be honest with you, it's pretty gross. To the right is the line for whatever the special of the day is, which is also normally not so appetizing. To the left is a salad bar, and if you think you can't do anything wrong to a salad, think again, although they have some bagels there that aren't so bad. And finally, right in front of us is the pizza and sandwiches line, which I tend to think is the lesser of the evils. So what'll it be?"

Serena wasn't quite so hungry anymore, she had to admit, but, "I'll take your word for it. Pizza it is."

"Good choice!"

****************

When they left the cafeteria with their trays to the nice grassy area outside, Serena was relieved they wouldn't have to eat in that crowded room. Since it was September the weather was still really nice, too. Darien was walking them towards a tree and underneath Serena recognized Ken and Amy, who were there along with a couple of other people.

"Hey Serena!" Amy waved. "Lita should be here any minute. I see you met Darien."

"Yeah, he *ahem* 'helped' me open my locker *cough cough* ."

Darien stood there trying to look innocent and Serena gave him a slight shove on his shoulder. "Hey! Look at this face," he implored Amy, who was giggling. "Would I ever do anything like Serena, for whatever reason, seems to be implying?"

Amy laughed even harder. "Don't look at me Darien! I KNOW you, remember?"

Darien sighed in defeat and muttered beneath his breath. "Ungrateful women."

Amy and Serena just laughed even harder. "C'mon Serena," Amy said as they sat down, "I want you to meet a couple more people. Everyone, this is Serena and she just moved here. Serena, this is Andrew -" Serena shook the hand of a cute guy with sandy blonde hair and green eyes, "this is Mina -" Mina had medium length blonde hair and brown eyes, "Seiya -" who was a lighter blonde than Andrew, but with light blue eyes, "and finally Raye." Raye, Serena thought, was absolutely stunning. She had long black hair and eyes that almost seemed purple. She also noticed that Darien had sat down by Raye and had his arm around her.

'Oh,' she thought, immediately disappointed. 'Well of course, they look amazing together. Of course someone like Darien would already be taken. And besides, it was just a little too good to be true. We got along ridiculously well back there - like we'd known each other for years or something! But hey, that's ok . . .remember your rule Serena? No liking guys with girlfriends. It's fine. We can still be friends. And Raye looks nice anyway.'

Serena smiled at everyone. "It's really great to meet all of you. And I just want to say thanks for letting me eat with you and for being so nice when you don't even know me. I can't tell you how much it means to me."

"Well of course!"

"Anytime! It's nice to meet you, too."

"Hey, your accent is wicked cool, girl!"

"How do you like it here so far?"

As settled down to eat and to get to know Serena, a shriek was heard from across the courtyard.

"Heyyyyy guys!!! Wait! What'd I miss? What'd I miss? TELLLLLLL me!!!"

As Lita bounded into the middle of the group Serena smiled. She couldn't believe her luck.