Luna wandered lazily into Rei's later that afternoon; she waited patiently while Rei meditated. When Rei finished the cat asked her how thing's went with Serena that afternoon.
"She was so odd." Rei claimed. "She just acted like nothing was wrong, but she just dumped Darien." She paused, thinking. "He was a wreck too; I would have thought Serena would have at least been concerned about that." Rei sat down facing Luna. "She was just acting so normal it was odd. It was like she didn't even care Darien was upset." Luna thought over all this.
"It is very odd. I didn't think she'd be able to do it." Luna confessed. Rei and Luna pondered this, a lot, and threw ideas at each other as to why Serena would act like this. Finally they gave it up, Luna headed home and Rei settled into a restless sleep.
The weekend passed normally, except for the fact that Serena made herself scarce. Whenever Luna looked for her, she wasn't around. Later on as Luna grew worried she searched for Serena outside the house. She found her eventually at a park. Just sitting, thinking it appeared. Watching the sky.
"Serena, have you been here all day?" Luna asked. Serena nodded.
"Lita and Mina will be back soon. I think they might be having a scout meeting at Rei's. Are you coming?" Without speaking, Serena rose off the grass and slowly, (Very slowly) wandered over to Rei's. Luna trailed her the whole time, wondering about Serena's curious behavior. Serena managed to arrive at the scout meeting after Lita and Mina and Rei had already told them of Serena's activities. When she walked in the door she was bowled over by questions.
"Serena!" Lita cried, as she and Mina jumped up and ran at their friend. "What's wrong with you! C'mon! How could you dump Darien!" She was practically screaming in Serena's face.
"Serena, what'd he do? Is something wrong? Did your parent's find out and make you do this?" Mina asked concernedly. Serena smiled and waved off their questions.
"We're just taking a break." Was her only explanation. The only thing that stopped Mina and Lita from continuing their barrage of questions was the looks from Ami, Rei and Luna. Artemis just sat. Befuddled by everything. Girls… The meeting didn't last long, but the other girls were slightly relived when Serena left first. Luna stayed behind. Once they were sure she has left, a heated discussion began.
"What's going on!" Mina cried with confusion. Ignoring Mina's statement Rei turned to Luna.
"See. She was just so creepily happy, she was just smiling. It's so unusual." Luna nodded in agreement. This discussion lasted long into the night. Slowly the girls left, Luna in the end claiming she'd better check on Serena.
"Hey Ami!" Lita called, jogging up to the school grounds. Ami turned to face her friend.
"Oh hi Lita," She said as Lita approached her. "Have you seen Serena? I went to her house to get her for school and Luna said when she woke up Serena was gone." Lita just looked puzzledly at Ami.
"I guess we'll see her in class." She said casually. The girls chatted for a few minutes longer, then the bell went and they headed to class.
Upon arriving they both looked over at Serena's desk hoping even to see the top of her head as she slept. They were both disappointed. They sat next to each other exchanging worried looks. As Ami was about to give theories to Lita, their teacher arrived.
They figured they would see Serena sometime today, but she never turned up. On their way to Rei's for the study group, they stopped at Serena's Mrs. Tsukino claimed Serena had been missing all day. Though they hid it from Serena's mum, this worried both girl's immensely. Neither knowing what to say they made their way to Rei's in silence.
"Hey Lita, Ami!" Rei called as they walked in the door. They looked around the room for Serena, but neither she nor Mina was there. They mumbled their response.
"What's the matter guys?" Rei asked curiously.
"Have you seen Serena today?" Lita asked Rei. She shook her head.
"Why?"
"She wasn't at school today. Luna said she was gone when she woke up and Mrs. Tsukino said Serena wasn't home at all today." Lita explained. Rei sat and thought, they were soon joined by Mina. As she sat they explained the situation to her. Amazingly she just smiled.
"I bet she spent all day trying to find Darien and apologize." She said with a massive grin. Rei nodded smiling also. Ami still seemed unsure.
"Maybe we should call Darien and ask if he's seen Serena." Ami said quietly. Rei sighed, but got the phone and called him.
Darien got up lazily from the couch and answered his phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey Darien." The exasperated voice of Rei rang from the phone.
"Hello Rei, what's up?"
"Um, have you seen Serena today at all?" Something stung in him.
"Yeah, this morning. She ran past, in the direction of the train station." She didn't even notice me… He thought miserably to himself.
"WHAT!" Came the cry from the other end of the phone. Darien held it away from his ear in case Rei yelled again.
"Yeah, why what's wrong."
"Darien, why would Serena be going to the train station on a school day?" Rei actually said this as if Darien might have an answer.
"Uh. I don't know. Field trip?" He guessed. He heard Rei ask Ami and Lita if this were possible.
"Nah, no field trip today. Didn't you ask her where she was going?" The voice was getting shrilly.
"No, she ran right past me, I tried to talk to her, but she was gone." He explained. Rei told him to come over right away and hung up. He shrugged and headed off.
"Luna!" Rei said with relief. "Have you seen Serena!" Luna looked at Rei blankly.
"No, she got up early this morning and was gone before I woke." She said casually. "Why?"
"She wasn't at school this morning and Darien saw her running to the train station." Rei said urgently. Luna looked a little shocked.
"I think Luna, you should run back and see if anything, significant of Serena's is missing." Lita said calmly. Luna nodded and daintily hopped out of the window and ran off. The girls looked worriedly at each other.
"Mina where's Artemis?" Lita asked.
"Home, sleeping, I checked on my way over." She said. They all sat and thought.
"We need a plan of attack." Ami said. They all looked at her.
"It's not a spy mission Ami." Said Mina. "We're not trying to take Serena out." Ami blushed a little.
"I couldn't think of any other way to say it." She said. The sat for a bit.
"When Darien get's here, one of us should go with him to the train station and check it out." Rei said. "But I say we wait until Luna and Darien get here"
"They might have some good ideas." Ami added.
The train tracks bumped the train up and down underneath her. She let her body move with it until it felt natural again. The walk to the food cart had disturbed the comfort it had taken all day to get. Her small suitcase sat next to her. It obviously wasn't a busy day for the train as she had a compartment all to herself. She felt that was a sign, pushing towards what she needed to do. She felt more tears fall down her cheeks.
I thought they'd be all gone by now. She thought miserably as she bit into her sandwich. Serena dreamed of the days she could return to her family, friends and Darien as the train carried her further and further away from them.