Hey Fans! It's been a long vacation for me; one year… that's a really long time. Well I know that you're wondering what happened…the biggest reason writers block, then I decided to rewrite the whole thing because the plot is not organized as well as I thought it would have been. What else: spelling, grammar, many words are missing, and the story needs to be a lot more descriptive. So here is the whole story all over again. Don't worry I've finished it up to the part that you have read up to so it's very different. But don't try and think that you could move on without reading everything again because you won't understand the story and you'll be missing out on a lot of good stuff. Okay so here are the rules: First, you have to read up to where the story last left off. Second there will be a new chapter every Friday (I like waiting for my favorite TV shows on specific time so I decided to use the idea.)I'll probably repeat this note in another chapter because people might have already moved on to a new chapter without reading the note. So all of you that have read this note don't worry about the second one and those who are beginning to read the story don't worry about this note or the other one at all. By the way I really won't have any other note unless it is very important so it is only for you convenience that I will leave a note k so be sure to read them. Well I've said enough and I'm tired of talking so after one year later of waiting for a new chapter here is the story all over again. Do review when you get to the bottom…I admit it takes time but it always has a positive outcome; like a new chapter (wink!) Disclaimer: I am merely a fan of Sailor moon so it's only natural that I do not own it.
You just don't know that I have always loved you…
prologue
The languid breezes passed through the trees, not daring to disturb the calmness of the day. Everything was covered in green; the mansion looked more marvelous with the accent of the green from the garden. The air was consistent in its harmony, blowing the aged petals away from the flowers. I took off my glasses and rubbed them on my shirt. They seemed to have a magnetic pull to all the dust of the outdoors. Summer will soon be over and autumn would begin spreading its colors within the leaves. School isn't that far from opening and I found myself neither excited nor disappointed. I sighed, thinking of all the teachers that would ask, 'So, what did you do this summer?'
I would make up lies about how I had such a good summer, visited so many places, and been with a busy schedule. But the truth was that I had done nothing other than studying or something educational. I didn't want everyone to think that I was a very boring person who had no life out of books. For a thirteen year old who would now enter their last year of Junior high school; I didn't concentrate on make up, attracting the opposite sex or popularity. Those were just some things I couldn't bring myself to do…someone I could never be.
Remembering what I was here for in the first place I headed down the narrow walkway that lead to the mailbox and emptied it. Taking the contents on my way back inside, I scanned through all of them until I found the big envelope that the school always mailed out before the new school year. 'To the Parents of Serena Tsukino' was labeled at the front; I frowned because I knew that they would never look through it. They might as well say 'To Serena Tsukino' instead and leave 'the parents of' part out. It sometimes bothered me that my parents had never been involved in my school's PTO. Or when they were never around when I needed some advice about being my age.
My mother, Irene, is a very well known and respected attorney. My father Ken is the proud owner of Tsukino Corporations. To me; they were workaholics! They never had time for themselves so it wasn't as if they could spare me some of it. But all they had given me were etiquette expectations that were always to be fulfilled; they had to be if you were of a higher social class. It was the same in their presence and absence, a long distance intervening between me and them. They had never tried to understand me and neither did I try to understand them. It was left at that. I shrugged those thoughts off of my head; I had told myself that I didn't care anymore.
Opening the package I found the same old same olds that would come in every year. I dropped all the papers on the table of my parent's home office when a postcard of the Eiffel Tower landed on top. I picked it up with excitement knowing that it was from none other than my best friend Darien. He was traveling all over Europe with his mom. Now and then he would send a post card from the city that he was recently staying in. This one of course was of Paris.
Bonjour Mademoiselle,
My dear Sere…how are you? I bet you're still too stuck on those books. I've asked you so many times to come with me and my mom but you wouldn't listen. School isn't that far away from opening, so you know that I'll be back pretty soon. Just wanted to send you a post card of the Eiffel tower. When I was at the top, it felt like if I took another step and jumped off, I would be able to fly. But then I remembered you're silly expressions and how you're so afraid of heights. I don't think that I would ever be able to stop laughing at your reactions if you were here.
You're best friend
Darien.
I smiled reading his letter; I always smiled when it came to him. He often teased me about my fears and said that he didn't understand what I was scared about. He said that if there is anything to fear it was loneliness; it breaks even the strongest person. Maybe if anyone heard about the relationship between me and my parents they would wonder how I ever got around it. It was only because of Darien! Our relationship is eight years old and we met back when I was in Kindergarten but he was a year older than me. At first it was just a gesture of hello…until we talked more…well he talked more. As it turned out we had nothing in common yet we understood each other more than anyone else would.
We became best friends. He was also the reason I knew my other friends and am so close to them. Our hangout is the town arcade where our friend Andrew works because his parents own the place. But Darien and I have our own place that we always came back to. Its miles away from home, the beach that my grandmother owned before she passed away two years ago. She was the only other adult that I was close to; the other is the maid Susanne who had brought me up.
My Grandma was a lot different from my dad. She was his stepmother. My grandfather remarried after his first wife passed away giving birth to his second son. My father was at the time ten years old. The first time grandpa had gotten married, it was arranged but the second time; he swore it was love. My grandma wasn't at all like my father's mother who was a very social person: strict, harsh and myopic thinker. I guess that was where my father had acquired his traits of personality. Because if my grandfather could fall in love with someone as simple, caring and humble as grandma then it had to be that my father had nothing in common with him.
My father never liked it that I was around grandma. He never really accepted her as his family because he had this suspicion in his head that she married his father for his money. He wanted to prove it too and humiliate her, but that never happened because he gravely misunderstood her. He always tried to offer her to live with us instead of the small house she called home. She declined no matter how many times he had asked. He burned with anger at the thought that he wasn't triumphant with his plans. At every chance he could find he tried afflicting her. And even if she was slightly hurt; he found great joy in it.
"He really hates you doesn't he?" I asked her one day. She was startled by my question and gave me a subtle smile.
"Baby, what suddenly made you think that way?" She asked me in return.
"Grandma, he's always mean to you even though you haven't done anything. Isn't it enough that he takes out his anger on me?" I said irritated because I had not too long ago had gotten yelled at by him after he had recently found out that I spend every summer with her. She took notice of my anger and gestured for me to climb into the rocking chair with her. She was still a slim woman at her age. She hugged me to her side while she softened the rocking of the wide chair that held the two of us.
"Oh Sere," she sighed "You're father doesn't hate me! He is just angry that his mother had passed away and his father made space for me in the heart and even married me. It's hard to accept something like that honey. You know, sometimes we hate someone or something because we fear that we might actually like them. And you're father thinks that he might be betraying his mother if he tried to like me. Your Grandfather always said that I should give him space and that's why I let him say what ever he wants to."
"Is that why you don't want to live with us?" I asked raising my head to look at her.
"No honey that isn't why!" She said as she touched the tip of my chin "It's because this is who I am and where I belong. I love my life here and if I suddenly decided to change that, I wouldn't be living. Don't try to full fill someone else's expectations Serena, other than only those that you make for your self. Live your life with you dreams not with what someone else wants it to be." She said as she hugged me again. Sometimes, I wished that I could live with her because every time Darien visited with me, she took the both of us sailing. She always joined us in our activities and became a kid with us.
Her memories made me miss her more than anything because she was like a good friend. I remembered how devastated I was when I first heard of her death. I wanted to think that she never meant that much to me and that my father was right about her. I wanted to believe that I hated her as much as he hated her. I knew that it was all a lie but it solaced the pain. When you have friends like Darien who looked beyond all of that, it was hard to keep that lie going. He made me come back to her house and the property which in her will were both to be inherited by me.
When I first stepped into her house it seemed so lifeless as if no one had been here for ages. I shivered as I was filled with images of how it used to be and I needed to get out because I felt so suffocated. Stepping outside I was once again near the boat that the three of us used to go sailing in. I remember that day as if it was yesterday…
I stood staring at the boat while I felt Darien's hand on my shoulder. He waited for me to do or say something. "I can't…" I started to say in a whispered voice and Darien looked at me. "I don't think that I can ever go on that boat again…there are so many memories of her." I said as my eyes were teary again. Darien stared at me for a long time then looked forward.
"You're always so scared Serena…" He said in a small but audible voice "…always running away. But do you think that it'll ever change things?" He asked. But I hadn't answered, just stayed quiet. He continued "There will be many memories of her in many things but you can't just throw them away. You'll have to cherish them so that she lives on with them."
Tears dropped silently from my eyes to the ground where I had been staring. Darien took notice of this and pulled me into a hug. I wiped my tears before pulling away and gave him a small smile. "So do you think the engine still works as it used to?"
A smile crept up in his face until it became a huge one as he heard me say that. "There is just one way we'll know that for sure." He said then raced to the head of the boat. And we sailed off into the sunset. That day when we had come back, I was busy tying the boat. He suddenly ran off into the house and didn't take long coming back. He held a brush in one hand and a can of paint in the other.
I looked at him in wonder and asked him what he was doing. He hadn't answered but went to the side of the boat where it said 'THE GENTLE WAVE'. My grandmother named the boat as that. I watched as he painted Darien Serena under its name. He looked up at me with a smile on his face and said. "Promise me one thing Serena."
"What?" I asked.
"That every time we come back here, we'll always come back together even if it is twenty years from now. And we'll always sail off into the sunset, just the two of us." He said waiting patiently for my answer.
"Of course Darien…" I said to him. He told me that he had painted his name and mines so that all of these memories, this place, this moment, will always be ours to come back and hold on to forever in time.
That day Darien became something else to me that I couldn't describe. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we never met? What would become of me? He really did change me; because he makes me like being who I am. That's why he is my best friend today and the days that would come ahead.
Please don't forget to review! By the way feel free to give criticism because I would love suggestions. But nothing too harsh that would break my sensitive heart!
With tons of love,
INNERSYMPHONY
