Title:  Welcome To Reality

Chapter Title:  The story is told…again

Summary: Serena Warren, now fifteen, graduates the tenth grade with honours and is offered a chance to go to Japan on a student exchange program. Here, she realizes that the reason her dreams seemed so real is that they were.

Author: Silver Sparklze

Reason For Writing: This story was written as a challenge set by Sage: The Dark Dryad.

Author's Notes: I have tried to translate the Japanese next to the words, but even so, anything written in bold will be translated at the end of the chapter if not already translated.

~The Living Room, Apartment 20A,Ryoori Gakkou Apartoo, Tokyo~

Serena woke up the next morning feeling a bit strange. Her body knew it wasn't on the futon…or in its bed in Galaxy Dorm…so where was it? Her eyebrows drew together while she tried to figure it out.

Suddenly, all her memories of the day before came back to her. The showdown between her and Mina, the fight with Invisible-Man, the sabotaged transformation, the Dastardly Duo, the Scout betrayal, Darien's betrayal, Lita's apology, and their late-night conversation about the perks of hotcakes.

"Sere-chan?" Lita's voice said hesitantly, "Are you awake?"

"Hai…ohayo, Lita-chan. Nemuri nan desuka?" {Yeah…'morning, Lita-chan. Sleep well?}

"Yes. Are you hungry?" Lita walked fully into the room, already dressed. "Gomen! I thought you were up."

"Doesn't matter. And I am hungry. Lita-chan…" Lita turned around; she'd been hurrying out to give Serena some privacy.

"Hai?"

"Do you know where I might be able to get a part-time job?"

"You could try the Soba-Yas. They usually have jobs for students. And I think the one down the street just got an opening." Lita frowned, as though trying to remember something.

"Do you work there?" Serena asked.

"Iie. I don't need to work. My parents left me an ooki fortune when they…left…and I can live on it for my whole life quite frivolously."

"Oh…is it within walking distance?"

"Hai. Quite close, in fact. I will take you there after school. And I think you would work good there. You can cook well."

"Oh, no, Lita-chan." Serena said, pleased. "I can't cook as well as you can." Lita blushed.

"What would you like for breakfast?" She asked, changing the topic. Serena was glad, she didn't feel like getting into a social tête-à-tête.

"It's ok, I'll get it." Serena said, getting up and crossing over to where her suitcase sat.

"No, I'll do it. I have to get my breakfast anyway." Lita said firmly.

"Well, just some toast. Whatever you're having."

"Hai. I will see you in a moment?"

"Sure." Serena dressed in her uniform as quickly as possible, then grabbed her laptop, remembering that she hadn't yet written Marnie a letter.

Marnie Watson was a waitress at The Magickal Bean Coffee/Shop and Internet Café, a new-age establishment on West Street in New York. She and Serena had met while Serena was talking to a Japanese girl on the net. This was back when Serena was a wreck from the prophetic Dreams she'd been having, which left her feeling exhausted and ill. She'd been stick-thin, and never eating. Marnie had offered to let Serena have her coffee and chocolate-chip cookie in the back room, away from prying eyes. They'd been fast friends from then on.

Marnie was a sort of mother figure for Serena, always there when she needed advice, and to give her a shoulder to cry on. Serena knew that if she'd had a mom, she'd want them to be exactly like Marnie. Marnie had been the one who'd nicknamed her Rini, a name that stuck even now. After all, wasn't her daughter, Rini Tsukino's full name Serenity? And she was called Princess Rini for short.

'Dear Marnie,' She wrote,

'How are you? I'm fine, and the weather here's great.

'Sheesh, what a terrible, impersonal way to start a letter! I'm sorry that I haven't written, Marnie. It's just been so…strange here! You've never seen anything like it, that I can promise you.

'I don't just feel like I'm in a different culture, I feel like I'm in a different world! Everything is different. The schools, the language, the people, the reactions to different situations, even the food! I haven't had a decent cup of coffee since I got here! Nothing like one of your cups.

'You spoiled me for the rest of the world, Marnie, you evil woman. Oh, Marnie, I miss you so much! I mean, I've finally made some friends (I have two, Marnie, two! I've been here for two months and I have two friends to show for it!) And a boyfriend. But Marnie, I feel so strongly about him! I shouldn't feel so much in so short a time. Surely it's a sin against God to put so much hope in one human soul!

'Oh, Marnie, I feel like if he left me I'd never be able to go on! And his friends hate me! How long 'til he hates me too? I don't think I could live with myself if he didn't like me!

'But enough about me, how have you been? Please write back soon, I'm so lonely.

'Love, Serena.'

Serena put the letter in an envelope, and addressed it in both Japanese and English, so there was no chance of it getting lost. Then she hurried into the kitchen for breakfast…

"So," Lita took a bite of her toast, "who were you writing to?"

"Wh-what?" Serena stammered.

"I saw you writing a letter when I went in to get you for breakfast. Please don't be angry, Sere-chan. I didn't mean to pry." Lita looked alarmed.

"Matte, matte, Lita-chan! There's no need to apologise," {Wait, wait Lita!} Serena said quickly, "I don't mind you being curious. You're my friend. You have that right."

"Friends?" Lita asked in delight.

"Hai. Anata, Lita-chan wa, atashi no tomodachi desu." {Yes. You, Lita, are my friend.} Serena said honestly. "I was writing to…my friend. She's kinda like my mom. Except…I'm an orphan. But ever since I met her she's been there for me, like a mom would be. She calls me Rini."

Serena smiled softly. "She has a daughter named Celina, who she says looks like me but younger. Her nickname's Rini as well. That's why Marnie first started calling me Rini. Because I reminded her of her daughter. I met Celina a couple of times; baby-sat her when Marnie had to work. She's adorable, only a little kid, but as sweet as honey."

"Aw…" Lita smiled, "you know, for someone who's had such a hard life, you're surprisingly innocent. Like Sere-ko. But even more so. I don't get it."

"I don't either. It makes no sense to me at all. I didn't know Sere-ko like you did. I dreamt of life through her eyes, I thought her thoughts. Everything she did, said, thought, saw, heard, touched, ate, smelt, felt, I experienced as if it were me. So I knew her as a kind of alter-me. Sometimes it was so hard to distinguish between my dreams, and reality. Many times I called Rochelle-chan Rei-san, and Amelia-chan Ami-san. My dreams consumed my life. I slept all the time, yet I was exhausted because of the dreams. I barely ate because of how much Sere-ko consumed. I couldn't concentrate, I felt ill, I was dizzy, confused, an automaton."

"Poor thing." Lita said sympathetically. "Care to tell me everything else?"

"What about school?"

"Who cares? We'll catch up later." Lita said carelessly, a rather surprising attitude. However, Serena desperately needed to tell someone the whole story, and even Darien didn't know every little detail.

"Ok, well here's goes." Serena took a deep breath, and began her story…