Alright you guys. I get the hint. My original Chapter 9 was
no where NEAR romantic enough. I guess I ran out of waff juice
half way through and was in a facetious type of mood. I apologize
profusely and thus offer this alternate ending, with guaranteed
lip-locks and all that nervous giggling and stuff. lol...I love
any excuse to get back into this story, really. Thanks again
and don't 4get to review and tell me what you think! I hope
I'm humoring SOMEbody by doing this. :D enjoy!
--Adrial--
An hour later, after all the news reporters had departed
and Frederick and his daughter had sulked off in what would be later
called the ultimate Walk of Shame, Serena, Darien, Karen, and
everyone up at camp piled themselves into the coach bus, this time
with the security of knowing that they'd be back.
Jason tossed a shiny black video tape between his hands
and smirked at Kyle's inquisitive gaze.
"What? I'm sellin' this baby to Dateline."
Kyle rolled his eyes at his friend's antics and heaved
what seemed to be the hundredth freakin' bird house underneath
the bus. One of them stubbornly rolled back out of the compartment,
but before he could reach to pick it up, a pair of small hands
had already retrieved it.
Kyle shot up like a bolt of lightening. Mina had to stifle
her grin and matching giggles. She bent over and slid the cage
into a more secure position between the mass of crafts and luggage
in order to avoid his deer-in-headlights gaze. When she'd risen
to her full height again, Kyle was still standing stiff as a
board and appeared to be competing for the world's closest
resemblance to a tomato.
"Uh...I...uh..." Kyle began, eliciting a snort from
Jason, who was promptly tugged off by a grumbling Raye. She
turned around to throw Mina a "Say something or I'll let Jason
out of his cage" glare and disappeared onto the bus.
Mina's heart was beating a million miles a minute
and she'd nearly nibbled a hole through her bottom lip before
Kyle said anything remotely coherent.
"I guess this is it," He began. Mina balanced her weight
on the heels of her shoes and rocked back and forth, a habit that
she was notorious for when she had no idea of what the heck to say.
"Yep." Oh come ON! Ask me out already! A movie, a milkshake,
SOMETHING!
Kyle grinned stupidly. He was slowly but surely gathering
a small pile of courage in the back of his mind. Mina's steadfast
gaze on him was doing little to help.
"Look, Mina--"
"I'd love to!" Mina burst out, blinding him with the force
of her grin.
Kyle stared at her dumbfounded for a few seconds, trying
to contemplate what had exactly happened, before breaking out in
a smile himself.
"Great, um, yeah. So..."
"We should!" She said exuberantly.
"Of course. We should definitely--"
"How about next week? Friday?" She supplied, her
eyes shining like twin blue fairies.
Kyle, by then, could barely grasp the edge of his
mind to figure out what in God's name she was talking about,
but if it was making her this happy, he sure as hell didn't
want to ruin it.
"Yeah. Friday's great. Maybe I'll--"
"Here's my phone number," She grabbed his arm and
the pen stuck behind her ear from when she'd been crossing
off the roll before and scribbled ten digits onto his palm.
When she'd finished, Kyle could only nod gratefully.
Mina was so sublimely happy at that moment that she could barely
see straight. She should have started going to camp years
before!
"Then it's a date!" She exclaimed, not waiting for
his response before bounding onto the bus, leaving him with a
priceless look of male obliviousness on his face.
"Date?" The idea took a while to marinate in his mind,
but when he put two and two together, he felt as if he might
be sick.
"I have a date? With--but...when did this happen?"
Zach was passing by at the moment, looking smug about
something, and heard Kyle's baffled rambling.
"Dude, you have a date? With who?" He was thrilled
that Kyle "The Rock" Warner had finally gotten some guts and
asked a girl out--hopefully Mina. He'd been sweating her since
the minute he'd laid eyes on her, and all the guys had been
rooting for him after that shameful apple juice incident.
Kyle shook his head at his friend wearily.
"I wish I knew."
Lita and Matt were seated on the bus, entirely in
their own happy little bubble, and bickering over which of
the Lawson's had looked more hilarious. Brianna, with her
pitiful buzz cut and hopelessly flabbergasted expression of
bewilderment, or her father, Frederick, who was nearly in
tears as he and his daughter were chased down the dirt road
by a histerical papparazzi with cameras rolling. They agreed
to disagree and settled on the stunned newscaster who had
taken a mouthful of Lawson's projectile imported toupèe.
Lita promptly curled up against Matt's side, feeling
more at home than she ever had been in her life. She opened
her eyes to look around at the tiny children laughing (or
plotting, in the Chai Monsters' case) and then at her
friends who were placing new pieces to the jumbled puzzle
that was their lives right before her very eyes. A grin
stretched across her face, and she burrowed her head deeper
into Matt's arm, knowing that for once, things were looking
up for them.
"EEWW! THERE'S A BUG IN MY HAAAAIIIRRRR!!!!"
Dutifully, the pair rose from their seats (although
Matt was a little less enthused than Lita about it) to
assess the situation. In other words, they would chain Tommy
to the back door and Timmy to the driver's seat and pray
that they hadn't recovered the spare key Karen had
stashed away in her office from the last time.
Serena slung her duffle bug over her shoulder and sighed
jubilantly. She couldn't have been more happy, and she'd gone on a
hugging rampage for a full twenty minutes before Raye had finally
threatened to chain her to a tree and leave her there until next
summer after her fifth tear-filled embrace.
Darien watched her silently from a distance; he was standing
by the mess hall, leaning against the aged wooden wall and committing
the entire place to memory for another year until he'd be back. As he
inhaled the scent of honey suckle and pine, he wondered if even after all
that had gone on, he and his Meatball Head would go back home and resort to petty name-calling and verbal wars again.
He didn't think that at all possible as he watched with a glazed over expression when she approached him almost timidly, and there was ne'er a word he could think of to say, much less an insult.
She gazed at him through blonde eyelashes and fiddled with the
lanyard labeled "COUNSELOR SERENA" around her neck. Darien looked at her
silently, unnerving her with his cold, calculative eyes. But she quickly
reminded herself that this was Darien, the Jerk, the Egotistical, the Beautiful, the person she'd been sucking face with less than 48 hours ago...
Oh, don't let me barf all over him--PLEASE.
"Thanks, Darien," She finally blurted, and at his obscure glance, she cleared her throat and scratched the back of her head absently, smiling like an idiot, "...you know, for not giving up or anything. I-I almost did for a minute, but you were so sure about everything, and I...believed you. So, thanks," She finished, and by this time was nervously digging a hole to China in the ground with the toe of her shoe.
Darien swallowed over the odd thing that was clogging his
throat. He had no clue what it was. Really. He didn't. (snort)
"Y-yeah, you too. I mean, you were great...and everything."
"Yeah..." She started to turn, offering him a bright smile
and one last chance to make his move.
"Um, Serena. One more thing," He ran hand through his
hair.
"Yes, Darien?" She smirked at his awkwardness. She kind of
liked watching him squirm like that. It was cute.
"I, uh, I was just wondering. You know, we did kiss and
cough everything--"
She'd been waiting for this. In a flash of brilliancy even Ami would have been proud of, Serena quickly silenced his next words with her fingers.
"Wait, before you finish that sentence, I need to make sure of one more thing," And she stood up on her tip-toes, pulled his head closer to hers and crashed her mouth against his. He was too shocked to respond initially, but when she forced his mouth open and some-what clumsily deepened their kiss, he gave into the heat of her mouth against his and guided her with his own, feeling the need to wrap her tiny frame into his embrace and shield her from the world's view.
Serena felt his hands on her back and forgot about every stupid thing she'd ever said to him, welcoming his gentle caresses like warm sunshine on her face. They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, tasting each other and kissing away the tension that had been steadily building up for the past two years of their lives.
The roaring buses droned away inside of their heads, but when the driver honked the horn forcefully, they were forced to break apart, lips swollen and eyes glazed with amazement.
Serena breathed heavily against his chest; her arms had snaked themselves around his neck and his around her waist. She felt the corners of her lips twitching and itching to grin, but she held them back for a change.
"You were saying?"
Darien's mind was spinning out of control; he knew that what they had just done had sealed it. They would never, in fact, be the same old Serena and Darien ever again. It scared the hell out him, actually, but the way her blue eyes were dancing at him and not laced with their usual fire led him to believe that a change was exactly what his life's course could use.
"Are you sure?" He gave her a questioning stare, wondering if his thoughts were the same as hers. She answered him with a soft brush of her lips across his.
"No," She stated bluntly, and he gave an adorable frown, "But there's plenty of summer left for you to convince me." Smiling giddily, she accepted his lips once again and when they could no longer hear themselves mentally squeal with happiness over the redundant honks of the bus driver, they practically floated back to the bus, hand in hand.
"Do I still get to call you Meatball Head?"
"Only if I get to call you Darien DARling."
"Point taken."
-------------THE END!!!------------------------
lol..there you go! geez, now people PLEASE quit e-mailing me and asking for more smoochin' at the end! hahaha, i'm just kidding! you know, I told myself when I put in the previous ending, I would be receiving all KINDS of hate mail, but in all actuality, i'm a softy at heart and love writing it; I just can't stand it when people write fics over a short period of time and have everyone making out and declaring their love for each other at the very end. I kinda like the previous ending better, but hopefully this will quench everyone's thirst for some juicy mush 'n gush. hehehe...drop me a review and tell me whatcha think! no sequel so far planned; sorry!
PS: if you're into HP: check out my fics "To be or not to be a Weasley" and "Home". I'm trying something new! And I'm uploading To Go, Please REVISED which is a new version with brand new chapters and much much MUCH better writing on my part. :) Thanks for all the support! muah!
Adrial
Adrial06yahoo.com
REVIEW!
no where NEAR romantic enough. I guess I ran out of waff juice
half way through and was in a facetious type of mood. I apologize
profusely and thus offer this alternate ending, with guaranteed
lip-locks and all that nervous giggling and stuff. lol...I love
any excuse to get back into this story, really. Thanks again
and don't 4get to review and tell me what you think! I hope
I'm humoring SOMEbody by doing this. :D enjoy!
--Adrial--
An hour later, after all the news reporters had departed
and Frederick and his daughter had sulked off in what would be later
called the ultimate Walk of Shame, Serena, Darien, Karen, and
everyone up at camp piled themselves into the coach bus, this time
with the security of knowing that they'd be back.
Jason tossed a shiny black video tape between his hands
and smirked at Kyle's inquisitive gaze.
"What? I'm sellin' this baby to Dateline."
Kyle rolled his eyes at his friend's antics and heaved
what seemed to be the hundredth freakin' bird house underneath
the bus. One of them stubbornly rolled back out of the compartment,
but before he could reach to pick it up, a pair of small hands
had already retrieved it.
Kyle shot up like a bolt of lightening. Mina had to stifle
her grin and matching giggles. She bent over and slid the cage
into a more secure position between the mass of crafts and luggage
in order to avoid his deer-in-headlights gaze. When she'd risen
to her full height again, Kyle was still standing stiff as a
board and appeared to be competing for the world's closest
resemblance to a tomato.
"Uh...I...uh..." Kyle began, eliciting a snort from
Jason, who was promptly tugged off by a grumbling Raye. She
turned around to throw Mina a "Say something or I'll let Jason
out of his cage" glare and disappeared onto the bus.
Mina's heart was beating a million miles a minute
and she'd nearly nibbled a hole through her bottom lip before
Kyle said anything remotely coherent.
"I guess this is it," He began. Mina balanced her weight
on the heels of her shoes and rocked back and forth, a habit that
she was notorious for when she had no idea of what the heck to say.
"Yep." Oh come ON! Ask me out already! A movie, a milkshake,
SOMETHING!
Kyle grinned stupidly. He was slowly but surely gathering
a small pile of courage in the back of his mind. Mina's steadfast
gaze on him was doing little to help.
"Look, Mina--"
"I'd love to!" Mina burst out, blinding him with the force
of her grin.
Kyle stared at her dumbfounded for a few seconds, trying
to contemplate what had exactly happened, before breaking out in
a smile himself.
"Great, um, yeah. So..."
"We should!" She said exuberantly.
"Of course. We should definitely--"
"How about next week? Friday?" She supplied, her
eyes shining like twin blue fairies.
Kyle, by then, could barely grasp the edge of his
mind to figure out what in God's name she was talking about,
but if it was making her this happy, he sure as hell didn't
want to ruin it.
"Yeah. Friday's great. Maybe I'll--"
"Here's my phone number," She grabbed his arm and
the pen stuck behind her ear from when she'd been crossing
off the roll before and scribbled ten digits onto his palm.
When she'd finished, Kyle could only nod gratefully.
Mina was so sublimely happy at that moment that she could barely
see straight. She should have started going to camp years
before!
"Then it's a date!" She exclaimed, not waiting for
his response before bounding onto the bus, leaving him with a
priceless look of male obliviousness on his face.
"Date?" The idea took a while to marinate in his mind,
but when he put two and two together, he felt as if he might
be sick.
"I have a date? With--but...when did this happen?"
Zach was passing by at the moment, looking smug about
something, and heard Kyle's baffled rambling.
"Dude, you have a date? With who?" He was thrilled
that Kyle "The Rock" Warner had finally gotten some guts and
asked a girl out--hopefully Mina. He'd been sweating her since
the minute he'd laid eyes on her, and all the guys had been
rooting for him after that shameful apple juice incident.
Kyle shook his head at his friend wearily.
"I wish I knew."
Lita and Matt were seated on the bus, entirely in
their own happy little bubble, and bickering over which of
the Lawson's had looked more hilarious. Brianna, with her
pitiful buzz cut and hopelessly flabbergasted expression of
bewilderment, or her father, Frederick, who was nearly in
tears as he and his daughter were chased down the dirt road
by a histerical papparazzi with cameras rolling. They agreed
to disagree and settled on the stunned newscaster who had
taken a mouthful of Lawson's projectile imported toupèe.
Lita promptly curled up against Matt's side, feeling
more at home than she ever had been in her life. She opened
her eyes to look around at the tiny children laughing (or
plotting, in the Chai Monsters' case) and then at her
friends who were placing new pieces to the jumbled puzzle
that was their lives right before her very eyes. A grin
stretched across her face, and she burrowed her head deeper
into Matt's arm, knowing that for once, things were looking
up for them.
"EEWW! THERE'S A BUG IN MY HAAAAIIIRRRR!!!!"
Dutifully, the pair rose from their seats (although
Matt was a little less enthused than Lita about it) to
assess the situation. In other words, they would chain Tommy
to the back door and Timmy to the driver's seat and pray
that they hadn't recovered the spare key Karen had
stashed away in her office from the last time.
Serena slung her duffle bug over her shoulder and sighed
jubilantly. She couldn't have been more happy, and she'd gone on a
hugging rampage for a full twenty minutes before Raye had finally
threatened to chain her to a tree and leave her there until next
summer after her fifth tear-filled embrace.
Darien watched her silently from a distance; he was standing
by the mess hall, leaning against the aged wooden wall and committing
the entire place to memory for another year until he'd be back. As he
inhaled the scent of honey suckle and pine, he wondered if even after all
that had gone on, he and his Meatball Head would go back home and resort to petty name-calling and verbal wars again.
He didn't think that at all possible as he watched with a glazed over expression when she approached him almost timidly, and there was ne'er a word he could think of to say, much less an insult.
She gazed at him through blonde eyelashes and fiddled with the
lanyard labeled "COUNSELOR SERENA" around her neck. Darien looked at her
silently, unnerving her with his cold, calculative eyes. But she quickly
reminded herself that this was Darien, the Jerk, the Egotistical, the Beautiful, the person she'd been sucking face with less than 48 hours ago...
Oh, don't let me barf all over him--PLEASE.
"Thanks, Darien," She finally blurted, and at his obscure glance, she cleared her throat and scratched the back of her head absently, smiling like an idiot, "...you know, for not giving up or anything. I-I almost did for a minute, but you were so sure about everything, and I...believed you. So, thanks," She finished, and by this time was nervously digging a hole to China in the ground with the toe of her shoe.
Darien swallowed over the odd thing that was clogging his
throat. He had no clue what it was. Really. He didn't. (snort)
"Y-yeah, you too. I mean, you were great...and everything."
"Yeah..." She started to turn, offering him a bright smile
and one last chance to make his move.
"Um, Serena. One more thing," He ran hand through his
hair.
"Yes, Darien?" She smirked at his awkwardness. She kind of
liked watching him squirm like that. It was cute.
"I, uh, I was just wondering. You know, we did kiss and
cough everything--"
She'd been waiting for this. In a flash of brilliancy even Ami would have been proud of, Serena quickly silenced his next words with her fingers.
"Wait, before you finish that sentence, I need to make sure of one more thing," And she stood up on her tip-toes, pulled his head closer to hers and crashed her mouth against his. He was too shocked to respond initially, but when she forced his mouth open and some-what clumsily deepened their kiss, he gave into the heat of her mouth against his and guided her with his own, feeling the need to wrap her tiny frame into his embrace and shield her from the world's view.
Serena felt his hands on her back and forgot about every stupid thing she'd ever said to him, welcoming his gentle caresses like warm sunshine on her face. They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, tasting each other and kissing away the tension that had been steadily building up for the past two years of their lives.
The roaring buses droned away inside of their heads, but when the driver honked the horn forcefully, they were forced to break apart, lips swollen and eyes glazed with amazement.
Serena breathed heavily against his chest; her arms had snaked themselves around his neck and his around her waist. She felt the corners of her lips twitching and itching to grin, but she held them back for a change.
"You were saying?"
Darien's mind was spinning out of control; he knew that what they had just done had sealed it. They would never, in fact, be the same old Serena and Darien ever again. It scared the hell out him, actually, but the way her blue eyes were dancing at him and not laced with their usual fire led him to believe that a change was exactly what his life's course could use.
"Are you sure?" He gave her a questioning stare, wondering if his thoughts were the same as hers. She answered him with a soft brush of her lips across his.
"No," She stated bluntly, and he gave an adorable frown, "But there's plenty of summer left for you to convince me." Smiling giddily, she accepted his lips once again and when they could no longer hear themselves mentally squeal with happiness over the redundant honks of the bus driver, they practically floated back to the bus, hand in hand.
"Do I still get to call you Meatball Head?"
"Only if I get to call you Darien DARling."
"Point taken."
-------------THE END!!!------------------------
lol..there you go! geez, now people PLEASE quit e-mailing me and asking for more smoochin' at the end! hahaha, i'm just kidding! you know, I told myself when I put in the previous ending, I would be receiving all KINDS of hate mail, but in all actuality, i'm a softy at heart and love writing it; I just can't stand it when people write fics over a short period of time and have everyone making out and declaring their love for each other at the very end. I kinda like the previous ending better, but hopefully this will quench everyone's thirst for some juicy mush 'n gush. hehehe...drop me a review and tell me whatcha think! no sequel so far planned; sorry!
PS: if you're into HP: check out my fics "To be or not to be a Weasley" and "Home". I'm trying something new! And I'm uploading To Go, Please REVISED which is a new version with brand new chapters and much much MUCH better writing on my part. :) Thanks for all the support! muah!
Adrial
Adrial06yahoo.com
REVIEW!