Chapter 6: Glimpses of Light
A week later Serena found her job at the Modelling agency very rewarding, her gloomy demeanour meant she fit right in with the other models though she made friends with a few of them and her hair dresser. Her boss loved her look and was having her taught how to walk gracefully so he could turn her into a proper model. She was fitting in well and it never seemed to rouse suspicion that she was only sixteen.
On this particular Saturday she was out to lunch with her new friends. A newspaper lay open near them and a small article caught Serena's attention. She moved it so she could read it properly.
Recently a young girl has run away from home leaving only a farewell note. She is sixteen; she has fair skin and long blonde hair. A recent photograph has yet to be acquired. One will be posted as soon as possible. If you have any information please call the police, her family and friends miss her. For more on this story, turn to page 43.
Serena paled slightly. Oh no…She wondered why they didn't have a photo. Maybe her friends understood.
"Serena?" The tall blonde next to her asked concerned. "What's the matter?" Serena looked at her.
"Oh, um, it's nothing, really." She stammered. "Just an article." Without noticing, the brunette next to her snuck the paper away from her. She gasped.
"Serena, is this you?" She said pointing to the runaway article. "Why didn't you tell us?" Serena shrugged.
"I can't go back…" She said quietly. Looks of comprehension spread over their faces. The brunette whose name was Tai spoke calmingly.
"Serena, I'm a runaway too." She said. "I left when I was sixteen as well."
"You did?"
"Yes, I hated my place and my mother refused to let me be a model. So I left." Tai smiled gently. "In this agency we don't report runaways if we don't have to. Most of us understand."
"We would never report you Serena," The hairdresser named Kiara spoke now. "It's tough being a kid, sometimes you need to go live your own life." Serena smiled at all this feeling safer.
"We all watch out for each other, except the snobs, so it's nice to know, so you can keep and eye on it." The blonde explained. A pain was growing in Serena's chest. These people are so nice, but I can't let them get to close or…She just continued to smile and their meal continued on as normal. Afterwards they went shopping and they taught Serena how to buy stuff that's cheap and make it look expensive.
"Soon it won't matter anyway." Tai said.
"Why?" Asked Serena.
"You're moving up fast, soon you'll have enough money to buy designer stuff without worry." She commented smiling. "I heard Kieran talking, he's already planning which model group to put you in, you'll probably be in with Luna." She said gesturing to the blonde. Every time someone said that name it stung Serena's heart. Where are you without me…
"Okay." She said softly. The day should have been a great one, but without the scouts or Luna or Darien it was as if all the joy had been drained out of Serena.
"It's been almost a week!" Rei cried angrily. As she stormed around her room.
"I know Rei but that doesn't mean Serena will suddenly appear out of thin air!" Lita responded.
"We just have to keep trying." Ami commented. Just then Amara came rushing into the room, Michelle hot on her heels.
"We think we have a lead!" She exclaimed. "We managed to find out where her train was going!" She said triumphantly.
"How…?" Ami asked curiously.
"Oh, the guy who'd seen Serena, we showed him a picture of her and he confirmed it was her. He kept going on about how it was against regulations to tell us where she was headed, but I, uh, convinced him, it was better to tell us." Amara looked happy.
"So where's she gone?" Luna asked from the corner. Amara looked at the back of her hand.
"She got on the train to Ceiriatoe Station, that'd be in…" She looked at Michelle.
"Ceiriatoe City." She said quietly, smiling. Amara looked stunned.
"Oh, okay then."
"It's a big city," Michelle said worriedly. "Amara and I couldn't look by ourselves, even with Darien it'd be hopeless." She finished.
"Well we could all go…" Mina said uncertainly, looking up at Michelle.
"It takes almost a day to get there and Serena might've left the city anyway." She said.
"No." Rei butted in. "Serena will be there. I just know it." She said. Ami, Lita and Mina nodded in agreement.
"But we can't go, Rei." Ami said. "We can't take that much time off school."
"Yeah and what would we tell our parents?" Mina pointed out.
"We could use Rini's umbrella to hypnotise them." Rei suggested.
"But then she would want to come." Ami pointed out.
"So we'll let her, she'd be good, she wants Serena back just as much as we do." Lita added.
"But, we only have one car." Amara said. She was keen for the plan to go ahead; she just wanted to make sure all angles were looked at.
"Easy, Darien can take Rini, Michelle, Hotaru and the cats in his car (Luna looked offended at being referred to as 'the cats'), you can go on your bike and we'll take the train, then Darien, Rini and Diana can continue in the car, you can go on your bike and the rest of us will split up and walk around looking for her." Rei said, she looked as if her plan was perfect.
"But Rei it's an all day drive." Amara said. "I'll die if I try to ride my bike for that long." Rei thought fro a bit.
"Well what if we took the bike on the train?" She asked. "Then you could still ride it around the city." They thought this over. Mina and Ami who had been the least willing towards this plan were giving in.
"So what will our parents think?" Ami asked. They all thought for a second.
"How about, we are going away to try and relax, because we're all so stressed about Serena?" Lita said. A few murmurs of accent ran through the group.
"Same for Hotaru and Rini?" Ami asked.
"Yeah, actually the Tomoe's were getting pretty close to Serena's family so Hotaru is almost as upset as Rini." Rei said.
"Hey! I have an even better idea." Mina spurted out. "We'll say that we going away to get out of everyone's hair, and to get Rini and Hotaru out of the way while everything's so hectic." She looked proud of herself. "We might not even need Luna ball!" She said.
They all got pretty excited. They were all hopeful that this would mean they'd find Serena. It took a while but they managed to get the plan into action, especially when Darien turned up with Rini, Hotaru, Diana and Artemis. Every kink was worked out and they promised to put it into action the next day. They went home very contented.