If you ask me, I think this chapter was a bit on the pointless side, but you'll understand the purpose by the next chapter, hopefully. Anyway, I have the plot pretty much taken care of, I just don't know how I'm going to go about wrapping up this story. I guess I'll worry about that later. Read and review!

A Different Perceptive

Weeks past by and Serena still held her resolve and worked herself harder than ever. She was determined to be better than the rest of the boys, especially Darien. They both fought regularly, over whatever that comes out of the other's mouth. Still, Darien had lost much of his nasty attitude. Instead, he seemed to be holding more of a resolution to their fighting. He no longer teased her about her looks, nor her lack of skills as a lady.

Kelvin, on the other hand, still kept up his unmerciful loathing toward the girl. The incident at the party had shaken him, and he had found himself and Serena at the center of attention. Fueled by his hatred, he was more than ready to terrorize the girl at every opportunity. But he was more careful in doing it. The consequences of his past pranks had taught him that Serena had to be carefully reckoned with. Her quick thinking and quicker tongue could always send him howling in rage. Her developing skills in fighting also had him wary. The girl had beaten him down countless times and his famous reputation was already down the line. He was pretty sure that his parents had heard of his doings at the palace and it wasn't long before he was going to be send back home and given a good beating for his trouble and disgrace to the family. Unless he does something soon to salvage what pride he has left, he could kiss his family title good bye.

********

As Serena trudged up the stairs to her dorm, she couldn't help but let out a deep groan. Her muscles ached and she felt her head spin. She hated wrestling above all else. The boys would play a game in which they would charge at each other at full speed and go bash heads, trying to bowl the other one over. She was horrible at it, since they nearly always send her flying as if she had wings. It was terribly embarrassing, and she thanked the heavens that she could keep up pretty well in her other classes. Her academic grades were going pretty well too. She had been taught to read when she was little, and though she found mathematics terribly boring, she found history class to be really interesting, especially when learning about the history of the moon kingdom. She had long ago dismissed the theory of her being the crown princess of the moon, since she had caught a glimpse of the real princess just a few weeks past. Frankly, she thought that she looked like an absolute slut. The princess had blood red hair and an absolutely freakish dress. She was nothing from Serena's dreams or storybooks. In fact, the real princess seemed to be the complete opposite. Still, her attraction to the moon was still not diminished.

She pushed open the door to her room and collapsed on the bed. The girls stood anxiously over her.

"Are you all right?" Lita asked, peering over at her and checking for any injury.

"I just need some sleep that's all."

"You have homework you need to do," Amy pointed out.

"I don't want to do it."

"Don't be such a whiny baby. Do you want to be kicked out because of your poor grades?" Rei scowled.

That got her up fast, and while still muttering curses under her breath, she dragged her bags over and started up on math problems. She hadn't even finished one problem when someone knocked on the door. Mina went over to open it.

She said something that Serena couldn't hear, and the 6 boys filed in.

"Wow. What a room! This is better than I thought. Not only is this room the biggest I've ever seen, it is filled with lovely girls," Jadeite joked.

Serena looked up, "What are you doing here?"

"Enjoying the view."

"Then, I've say you seen enough. Get out," Serena held out a restraining hand toward Rei, who looked as if she was literally going to kick them out.

The prince sidestepped his joking general, and took over the situation, "We're actually here to ask you to join our study group."

"The library?"

The boys nodded.

"Why not?" she jumped up.

"We'll go with you" Amy added, "That is, if you're okay with it. We need to get some work done as well."

She nodded her consent and the group headed toward the library.

They found seats in the corner, and began their work. Still, peace seemed short-lived when she spotted Kelvin saunter through the doors. She ignored him, thinking that he would do the same and she was right. He did ignore her, but his attention had been caught by the rest of the girls. Walking over, he seated himself down next to Amy, who regarded him with disgust. Still, she was too polite to tell him to go to hell, so she just went back to her work. Serena, however, kept an eye on them, incase he decided to try anything funny. None of the other girls knew who this wart-infested boy at their table was, so they paid no attention to him.

Kelvin's hand swung around to hook around Amy's shoulder. That was when Serena stood up, "Girls, I don't believe you have met my good friend Kelvin yet. He's that pervert over there that is trying to feel Amy up right now. Shouldn't we give him our warm welcome?"

Amy looked startled, "That's the Kelvin you talked about?" She faced him with absolute horror on her face, and slapped him. His face swung back with the impact and the imprint of a hand began to appear. Before he had time to recover, he found himself lifted off the ground by Lita and facing four very angry girls.

Without a word, she swung him across the length of the library and out the door. The boys gawked, and the girls clapped.

"That's takes care of the pest problem," Mina commented cheerfully.

Jadeite looked a bit crestfallen, "Why are all the beautiful girls that I meet all so violent?" he whispered to Darien, who shrugged.

"Did you see the way she just lifted him? Think of the strengths that needs. I mean, Kelvin's like so fat, I think he really just rolled out the door," Jadeite said.

Nephrite smirked at him, "That should teach you not to mess with those girls, especially with those perverted comments of yours, unless you want to end up in the hospital wing, much worse off than out fat potato there."

Jadeite puffed himself up, "I can take care of it."

"Right."

The boys began to clear up the table.

"We'll meet tomorrow here as well?" Darien asked the girls.

They nodded.

The next day was Sunday, and therefor the day off for trainees. Serena and the girls decided to start the morning off with an early morning ride. Not wanting to catch any unwanted attention by wearing breeches, they resolved for skirts, much to Serena's disappointment. She hated her attire. Dressed in a light blue skirt that puffed out, she found herself trying unsuccessfully to weevil out it.

"Don't worry about it Serena. We are going to spend this day exploring the woods around here. I've heard there's a village just a bit from here. We can go take a look."

"I can't wear this. If I'm spotted in these ridiculous clothes, I'll be mocked forever," she wined.

Rei cast her a stern look, "What reputation? Besides, we are living in the palace. People will just think of us as ordinary ladies passing by."

Serena cast a hopeless look around, and finally gave in. She tied a matching bonnet to hide her hair and walked out the door with the rest of the girls. On their way to the stable, they chatted about where they could go. Anyone passing by would have seen 5 beautiful, mannered ladies out enjoying the sun.

Serena chose to ride bareback on Midnight and just allow Silver to accompany them, rider-less. The rest of the girls saddled their own horses and all stood ready to go. Unlike Serena, they had all decided to ride sidesaddle, the proper way for a lady to ride. Serena however, refused and insisted on riding bareback and astride. Not wanting to argue any further, the girls relented. Still muttering, they set off. Unfortunately for them, Darien, Andrew and Jadeite were also deciding to take a morning ride, but by the time they were all read to go, the girls were already out of sight.

"Serena, don't you think Silver is getting a little fat?" Amy asked, looking over and the cantering mare.

"I think I'm going to have to put her on a diet. She hasn't eaten all that much these days though."

"Hey, isn't that the village just ahead?" Lita called out.

"I think so. Hey, that's the cutest village I've ever seen."

"Let's see what they have in there," Mina suggested.

Serena hung back a bit, "Uh...guys, we're not really dressed for this. We are supposed to be well-born ladies right? What could we possibly doing in this poor village?"

"Don't be such a worry-wart Serena. They won't care," Rei spurred her horse to action.

"Fine. Fine," grumbling, Serena followed the girls down the path.

Unbeknown to them, Darien was also heading toward the village. They were visiting an old friend of theirs and had thought that this day would be perfect for their visit.

"You know Darien, you seemed a bit changed these past days," Jadeite commented.

"Of course I seemed changed. After I saw that slut that I'm supposed to marry, who wouldn't?" Darien asked bitterly.

"She definitely wasn't who she seemed to be, was she?"

"To hell no. That woman followed me around day and night, more during the night than the day, I might add. I can't believe Queen Serenity gave out such a nasty bitch. Those two are complete opposites."

Andrew looked up, "I heard she changed her name to Beryl, said something about Serenity not suiting her personality."

Darien snorted.

Jadeite cast him a sly look, "Bet you wish that Serena was the princess, don't you?"

His head shot up, "No way!"

"Don't deny it. Only Serena could miss the way you look at her. On the other hand, she is way too innocent to notice. It's a good thing that she is training to be a lady knight, otherwise every man in this whole kingdom is going to be after her. Did you see what happened at that last ball? She comes in, and bam! Utter silence. You could literally see the drool dripping off the chins."

"Shut up," Darien growled.

"Touchy. You're going to have to hold back on that jealous streak there Darien. First things first. You're gong to have to get rid of all those mistresses parading behind you."

"I said shut up! It's none of your business okay?!" Darien roared.

"You're going to have to plan your course of action carefully Darien," Andrew began, "As much as you hate this, you are still betrothed. Even if you can manage to win her heart, what can you achieve? You will only break hers."

"Do you really think it's love Andrew? Are you sure it is not lust?" Jadeite asked.

"That's not for me to say."

Darien turned in his saddle, "I don't know what it is, all right? I just know it is not love."

***********

I must say that I'm loosing my touch in cliff hangars. Anyway, I'm kind of stalling right now, you know, give myself some time to decide how I'm going to continue it. Maybe you can help me out here.

I'm not going to give away the ending or ruin the fun. These choices are just for what you prefer. You could give ending ideas too if you like.

skip all the knight training and have the couple get together as soon as possible

go into the knight training (not too detailed) and just have love blossom

anything you can come up with

Like I said, the ending is all planned out and I'm most likely not going to change it, so it's just about how I'm going to go about it. I don't want to overdo the details and bore the hell out of my readers, but I don't want to be so vague and have the story end so abruptly that it'll leave people bewildered. *Sigh* I have such a tough job, but I really do enjoy writing. Till next time!