Chapter 5: New beginnings, crushing pasts.
The new town was unusually noisy for night time, but this suited Serena fine. She bought a paper and browsed the jobs section. Better be prepared for a long wait… She thought lazily. She came across modelling ads, and her interest sparked. I'm not very graceful, but… she noted the ad for a hand model, folded up the paper and explored the town more.
As the sun rose, Serena sat watching it in all its brilliance. More tears fell. I wish Darien was here… She gave herself a little more time before gathering herself.
She grabbed a coffee from a café on her way to the modelling agency. The coffee made her nerves even worse, but she had to be awake. She also made a quick stop at a hair dresser, who taught her how to put her hair up in a bun and pin her fringe back. It looked more professional and changed her whole appearance. She hurried along to the agency, praying with all her might she'd get the job.
Upon arriving she was ushered into a small room where she waited for the supervisor, he took one look at her and asked why she only wanted to be a hand model. She politely said something about wanting to start small. He took her to an office where he studied her hands.
"Well, you certainly have a very unique look about you; I think we can work with you." He seemed to be thinking aloud. "How would you like to be paid, generally, its two hundred a day, but sometimes there can be compromises." He studied her face. It lit up a little.
"Well, I need a place to stay…" She said a little nervously. He smiled softly.
"We actually have a small room out the back, one of our other employees used to live there, we'll pay you a hundred a day and you can use that. No worries about bills or anything." He said politely.
"Great! When can I move in, and when do I start?" She asked excitedly. He showed her around then showed her, her room. He explained she would start the next day and would need to be up and ready by eight. She was given a key, the room had door leading outside, as well as a bathroom, and bedroom and small kitchen. She went out to buy an alarm clock and some groceries with the small amount of money she now had. If only the girls could see me now. It was supposed to be a proud thought, but it only ruined what had turned out to be a good day. She got her errands done quickly but spent the rest of the day moping.
The day the girls had wasn't much better, the police had interviewed Ami and Lita at school and the class had looked very suspicious until the teacher explained why. After a harassing day of school, the girls found Rei's place wasn't much quieter. Mina and Rei had both had the police come to their school and Luna reported that they'd turned Serena's room upside down searching for stuff. All this severely depressed the girls.
"Do you think they'll find Serena?" Mina asked after a long silence.
"Not if she doesn't want to be found…" Lita replied dully. "I think she's really trying hard to stay hidden, otherwise she would've left us a clue." A murmur of accent came from the other three.
"So what's the plan?" Mina seemed to be having to spurt all conversation today.
"We need to do something." Lita commented. "We need to think of ways to lure her back."
"We need to go looking for her." Rei said. "We should call Darien, go out looking."
"I think we just need to sit back and review the situation." Ami said cautiously.
"Maybe there's a sailor thing we can, connect with her somehow." Lita murmured. The three girls sat around commenting on their own ideas, not really paying much attention to each other.
"Guy's…" Mina said. "Guy's!" They looked at her. "Not working." She said. "Maybe someone should call Darien and see how he's holding up." She said quietly. Rei got up and called him.
"Hey, uh, if the police haven't talked to him yet, ask him to forget he saw Serena going to the train station." Ami said.
"Why?"
"Because this might be something only the Scouts can handle, what if this IS really important." Ami said logically. Rei just nodded and dialled the number. While she had her phone call, the girls threw around ideas of how to contact Serena.
"Luna, what'd you do with her communicator watch?"
"I took it with me to Ami's it's there now."
"So do you know of any Sailor way to contact our leader?" Lita asked. Luna shook her head. They thought some more.
"Maybe we should talk to the Outers?" Ami suggested. It seemed like a good idea. Mina pulled out her watch and called Michelle. The answer came pretty quick.
"Hey Michelle, where are you?" Mina asked.
"Actually we're coming back to the Jubaan district, tomorrow." She said politely. "Thought we'd drop in on you guys." The girl's, including Rei who'd returned, all looked at each other.
"Great!" Mina replied. "Because we're having a bit of a problem here." She paused for a minute. "Serena's, ahh, Serena's run away." She finished lamely. Michelle's eyes widened and she looked at Amara who was beside her.
"What do you mean? What happened?" She asked worriedly.
"She just left. One day she was here, the next Darien said she ran past him towards the train station and we haven't seen her since. She left a note, saying she was leaving." Mina added.
"Well, no time for information now, we'll keep a look out for her on our way, until then good luck." She said and shut down the watch. Mina looked up.
"He said he's already talked to the police and told them nothing about the train." Rei replied to the enquiring looks. They all sat for a moment.
"Luna, how's Rini?" Ami asked, looking at the floor.
"Depressed, she can't even joke that she's glad Serena's gone." Luna replied.
"Can't we use her to find Serena?" Lita asked.
"Maybe, we'll have to ask Diana." Luna responded. "Artemis is keeping them away from our meetings, in case we have to talk about unpleasant things." Luna explained unnecessarily.
"Wow, that'd be a job I wouldn't envy." Lita commented.
"He says they don't try to hard, they're too scared. I'll talk to Diana tonight." Soon the girls were back to putting out their own ideas of what to do, but arguments ensued. Ami wound up with tears in her eyes after she was accused of being afraid to take action. Lita refused to talk to Rei after she said Lita was stupid to continue suggesting sailor methods of finding Serena. And Rei was horribly offended when she was told she scared to Serena off. Mina sat quietly and was yelled at for being useless. Luna kept jumping and explaining why some ideas weren't possible and got told off by Lita for being a pessimist. Eventually the fighting broke up and Luna, who gained some control, made them apologise to each other.
"Look at us," Mina said. "We're hopeless without Serena." Her face crumpled.
"No we're not." Rei claimed. "We're just tired and feeling helpless."
"Right, we've had a major emotional overload." Ami added.
"We were bickering like children." Luna agreed. Suddenly Mina burst into tears and fell on Ami's shoulder. Lita and Ami both began leaking tears. Ami looked sadly down at Mina; Rei understood and got Lita to take Mina. Rei hugged Ami and Ami hugged back. All girls had tears falling, some slow and light, other's heavy streams of tears. Luna sniffled and a few tears dropped from her eyes. Ami and Rei both pulled her to them and hugged her. They sat crying for a while.
"I just have such a bad feeling about all this." Luna said quietly.
"Me too." Rei and Ami said together. Lita and Mina didn't both to add anything.
"Okay," Luna said hopping up and sitting on the desk. "We need to do something or this'll just become too much." The other's nodded, all of them now sitting up. "As soon as we can we'll have a big meeting, with everyone, including Darien, Rini, Diana and the Outers." Luna ordered. "We'll meet here tomorrow afternoon to organise it. Until then I'll be with Lita or Ami, Artemis will be with Rei or Mina and Diana will be with Darien or Rini." They agreed and went in their separate directions. Hoping tomorrow would prove to be a better day.
Serena had, had a very miserable day and wanted more than anything to be back with her friends. After a very small meal, she set her alarm and went to bed very early.