Chapter 5

It has been a week since Serena moved and she was liking her new school immensely, minus a few exceptions. Of course those exceptions included Darien and his groupies. Darien still flirted with her shamelessly and she still was annoyed with him. Nothing changed except for the fact that now she didn't have so much make-up work to do anymore. Even though she came to her school a couple of weeks after it started, she had to do an unbelievably huge amount of make-up work. Serena couldn't believe it, but she actually couldn't wait until Monday. Usually she would despise Mondays through Fridays but now that she had three best friends, days that ended in "day" became her favorite days. Over the past week, the four girls became the best of friends and did practically everything together. They were inseparable.

Monday morning came around and Serena almost skipped to the bathroom to get ready. She opened the door and was about to get ready to walk toward the bus stop when she heard her father telling her to wait.

"Yeah, dad?"

"Serena, why don't you take your new car to school today? I bet it'll be a million times better than that public bus that you ride to school everyday."

Serena rolled her eyes and said, "No thanks, dad, it could get hi-jacked or something while I'm in class." Her new car that her father got for her was a silver Porsche, 2003 model. She wasn't stupid and she definitely wasn't about to drive it to school only to have it stolen by some punk. That and also, she didn't want the whole school to think she was a rich brat who got everything she wanted from her "daddy".

"Yes, that might be a good idea. I heard that the kids in public schools do all kinds of drugs. They should all be sent to military school where they will be reformed in to better men and women," her father said in a serious voice.

"I have to go now or I'll miss the bus, bye dad." Serena wondered why her father had a thing against public school students. Not all kids in private schools do drugs. And it's not like the kids in private schools don't do drugs. If he hated public schools so much, then why did he put her in one? Then she remembered that there weren't private schools where he was transferred to so he had no choice.

Serena sat in her seat and stared out the window. She was in her English class, listening to the monotonous voice of her teacher, Mrs. Jones. She was talking about some project on Romeo and Juliet. Serena thought this was kind of pointless since they all read the book in their freshmen year. Not that she didn't like the book or anything. Serena loved that book even if it ended in tragedy. She thought that the love between Romeo and Juliet was romantic. Why couldn't there be love like that in real life? Except for the part where they kill themselves.

"Now," Mrs. Jones said, "I'll put you all into groups of three. You'll work on the project everyday in this class for the next 3 days and present it on Friday. Now, on to the project, in your groups, you'll have to pick a scene, act it out and analyze it. You'll have to be able to analyze the figurative language, irony, and theme. If you pick a scene where there are many roles to play, you'll obviously have to act out several roles. Any questions? No? Okay then, I'll read off the groups.

"Group one, Matt, Laura and Jennifer. Group two, David, Megan and Amy. Group three, Andrew, Serena and Darien. Group four,"

Serena couldn't even listen to the rest anymore. All she heard was "Serena and Darien" and she froze. No, no, no, no, no. She couldn't be in the same group as Darien, this was wrong. She was okay with being around him for five minutes, but the whole week? No way in the hell was she going to survive. She looked over to Darien, only to see him wave at her with a pleased smile on his face. Then she thought about the other person in her group. Andrew. She was okay with that. She was more than okay with that. At least he didn't make her feel nervous or fidgety. In fact, anyone else but Darien she was okay with. A plan formed in her head. The whole time she would stick to only talking to Andrew. She would avoid Darien and only talk to him when necessary to the project.

Darien thought about the group arrangement. He couldn't believe his luck. All he could hear was "Serena and Darien" and unlike Serena, to his ears it sounded perfect. He wanted it to be like that. Serena and Darien. Just perfect.

"Now groups, get together and discuss which scene you'd like to do."

Serena felt like she was walking to a platform to get beheaded as she walked toward where Darien and Andrew were sitting. She sighed. She could do this. Damn him for making her feel this way. She wasn't scared of Darien. She could do this.

"Hey, Serena," Andrew cheerfully said. Andrew was looked like the typical boy next door, but the whole school new that he was as much of a player as Darien was. Definitely nicer, Serena thought.

"Hey, babe," Darien winked. Yes, Andrew was definitely nicer.

"Hey guys. I think we should do the fight scene where Romeo kills Tybalt. Darien, do you want to be Tybalt?" She said with a murderous look in her eye.

Andrew laughed, "Whoa, Serena, try not to kill Darien."

Darien said with a mischievous look, "I think we should do the scene where Romeo and Juliet spend the night together. I'll be Romeo."

"You just wanna get cozy with Andrew, Darien. I didn't know you were that kind of guy…" Serena feigned a shocked look.

Darien scowled as Andrew put on a face of horror, "You know what I meant. Andrew's not going to be playing Juliet, you are, princess. After all, it would make sense since you're a girl."

Serena rolled her eyes, "Just because I'm a girl, it doesn't mean I have to play one. When Shakespeare wrote this play, girls weren't allowed to act. Men acted out the all the parts of the women in the play."

"Well," Andrew said, "I don't really have the intention of being Juliet and getting cozy with Romeo over there, so you'll have to play the part, Sere." Andrew looked especially apologetic. "Please, Sere? We don't have to do the bedroom scene. I promise. We'll do the last scene. Please? It's the best scene of the book and you won't have to be in the same bed as Darien."

Unable to look at Andrew's horror-filled face, Serena had no choice to accept, "Fine…but only because of Andrew."

Serena ran out of the classroom as soon as she heard the bell. Saved by the bell, she thought. Then she suddenly realized that doing the last scene rather than the bed scene was much worse. Instead of just lying beside Darien, she would actually have to be kissed by him! Even the thought of kissing him made her blush bright red. What had she gotten herself into? Playing Darien's Juliet? She thought that this was the worst thing that happened to her so far this year. But deep down inside, she wasn't sad at all that she would have to be kissed by Darien. Do I actually want him to kiss me? Serena became confused. She wasn't supposed to have a crush on him. She was supposed to hate him for being an egocentric jerk. She was supposed to hate him for being a popular pig who made fun of people not as popular as he is, like her. At the thought of Darien finding out about her crush on him, she suddenly became embarrassed. I know he'll spread it around the whole school and humiliate me. I won't let him do that. Never.

Darien felt a pang in his heart when he saw her run out of the classroom as if it was on fire. She was repulsed by his presence. Darien sighed at this.

Andrew saw this and frowned, "What's wrong, Dare?"

Darien sighed again, "It's nothing."

"Okay, 'cause from my point of view, it looked like you just won a million bucks," said Andrew, his words dripping with sarcasm.

Darien decided to ignore the comment and put a smirk on his face, "Really, it's nothing. I'm just thinking of who to go to the party with this Friday. Who do you think, Brittany or Allison? It's a tough choice."

Andrew smiled, "Good old Darien, huh?"

Yeah, Good old Darien.