Chapter 7: Close calls
"Alright Serena move a little forward…" The cameraman said to the shy girl. Serena was feeling a little harassed today, it was her first proper shoot, she was in a group shot for evening gowns, but the first half of the day was spent getting her ready. She glanced at the mirror to her right. I still can't believe… She just didn't look like herself; she looked so elegant and graceful.
"Alright girls, that should do." The cameraman said, handing off rolls of film to his assistant. The manager came up to Serena.
"Thank you so much darling, you were wonderful today. You have the perfect body for evening gowns." He complimented her. "Normal we don't work on Sundays but this was an emergency, thank you so much." She smiled graciously. "Well you have tomorrow off now, I suggest you go to lunch with some of the other girls from this shoot, you will be working with them a lot from now on." He handed her some money before heading off to talk to some other model. Serena smiled proudly then looked down at her money filled hand. She counted. Oh my… This was too much. She was ushered out by some person and upon reaching the room she was using as her dressing room for today she realised it was Kiara.
"Oh hi," She said softly. "Am I, uhh, am I supposed to get this much?" She asked awkwardly. Holding out her hand for Kiara to see.
"Of course!" Kiara replied excitedly. "You were fantastic and now you're going out to lunch with the big shot's tomorrow!" Then she added "You'll have to look fantastic." Serena collapsed in a chair this day had been exhausting. Kiara looked so happy though.
"I've told Tai and Luna, they're coming over soon, so we can take you shopping!" She said as she brushed Serena's hair. Serena sighed, and I thought modelling would be easy.
She sat patiently waiting while Kiara undid her hair, slowly she got out of her gown and into a casual dress and Kiara put her hair up and threw on some new make-up.
"Not more make-up Kiara…" Serena whined at this. "My face feels like goo." Kiara smiled and giggled.
"It's just a little, I washed the other stuff off, and this is just to make sure your skin doesn't have a reaction." She explained lightly. There was a light tapping at the door. Kiara opened it. Serena listened to her jokingly say,
"Sorry Miss Serena isn't seeing underlings like you she is a professional now..." Serena laughed as she heard Luna and Tai's reactions; they came in and joked around for a bit.
"Well Serena," Tai said. "If your going out with the hot shot's tomorrow, we better get shopping!" Serena then showed them her pay, which she'd stowed in her bag. Which Tai claimed must be spent and now shopping was an emergency. Laughing Serena left with her friends.
A yawn echoed around the train carriage.
"Told you it was catching…" Lita said mid yawn. Their plan had worked well and their train would arrive later that day.
"When's lunch?" Asked Mina.
"Whenever we want." Lita replied. "I cooked before we left I didn't want everyone eating train food." She dragged down her bag and pulled out a large container of food. Everyone ate heartily. They were feeling much better, just the feeling they were getting closer to Serena made them feel ten times better.
"I wonder how she's surviving." Ami asked casually. The girls thought carefully.
"Maybe she had money saved up we didn't know about…" Lita suggested.
"Yeah, but it couldn't possibly be enough to last her this long." Mina added.
"Maybe she has family there." Rei said.
"Nah, they would have told her family where she was." Lita said.
"Maybe she's living on the streets…" Ami said with a shudder. Rei put her hand on Ami's back.
"Nah, she'll be fine. When we see her, she'll be so okay that when we try to kill her for running away she'll just bounce back." She said with an encouraging smile. They all sat for a while just hoping what Rei said was true.
"I can't wait to see her again." Ami mumbled.
"Yeah, me too." Rei added. Lita and Mina nodded. "I don't understand why she did this." Rei's face grew frustrated. "It's so stupid, we're the scouts! We're supposed to help her."
"If it's something like that Rei, she wouldn't've gone alone." Ami said.
"Well maybe she would." Lita suggested. They all looked at her. "I mean, her note hinted what she was doing was just for her, what else could that be maybe she feels only Sailor Moon or Princess Serenity can do whatever it is and we'd just get in her way." She spoke to a whisper, in case someone was outside listening.
"But we're sworn to protect her no matter what!" Rei said indignantly. "It's our duty and she can't make us neglect it!" The rest of the ride was in silence. By the time they'd met up with Darien and the others at the train station it was dark.
"So how'll we split up?" Rei asked. They looked at each other.
"Maybe, um, Darien should take Rini and Hotaru and Diana in the car." Mina said quietly, knowing this would be a touchy subject with Rini. She was right.
"No!" Rini said stubbornly. "I want to walk." She had a lot of pride, she wasn't going to be carted around like a baby.
"But, Rin," Mina said calmly. "You got to stay with Hotaru and she's goin' in the car with Darien, right Hotaru." Mina and the others looked meaningfully at the young girl. She nodded gently. Rini glared at Mina.
"Hotaru will be fine with Papa." She claimed. "I want to walk with you guys." She said. As if the answer to their problem Trista walked around the corner.
"Trista!" Rini cried happily.
"Small Lady, you called." The other looked at Rini.
"You called Trista?" Lita asked. Rini nodded.
"We need her to find mama." She said in a baby voice.
"Rin, Trista has other important things to be doing." Mina said kneeling down. "She has a very important post." Mina tried to explain. But Trista stopped her before she could say anymore.
"Finding our future queen is more important than guarding the gate." She said in her soothing voice. "Small lady, Hotaru and I shall ride in the car with Darien." Rini looked as though she was about to protest, but one look from Trista made her think otherwise.
"Okay then," Lita said. "How about Amara and Michelle take Amara's bike and I'll head off with Mina that way," She said pointing east. "And Rei and Ami can go that way," She said pointing west. "And every hour we call each other on the communicators. If you find Serena be gentle." She said. Lita beamed, she was never much of a leader, but she'd thought this through and it seemed right. "Artemis can come with me and Mina and Luna can go with Ami and Rei." She finished. The others looked a little impressed. Amara turned to Darien.
"We'll just go where we want; if we run into each other I'll turn and go a different direction." She said. He nodded and went to get in the car. Rini and Hotaru filed into the back with Diana. Trista hopped into the passenger seat and with calls of good luck and a wave they left. Amara hopped on her bike and Michelle gracefully got on behind her. They called words of goodbye and encouragement. The four girls and the two cats looked at each other.
"Wow, even though this should be happy, it's really scary." Rei muttered.
"Yeah, I think we're all nervous about how Serena will be when we find her." Lita said.
"Yeah." Ami said. "We'll I guess we should get going." They went off in their separate directions keeping their eyes out for Serena.
Serena woke up that morning to the beeping of her new alarm clock. She wandered out into the living room to find Kiara waiting patiently.
"C'mon girl! Lunch is only three hours away you have to get ready!" She said when she saw the sleepy princess. "Where's your outfit we got you yesterday?" Serena murmured curses under her breath as she stumbled into her room and took the dress from the hanger.
"You get dressed then come to the make-up room, I'll get it ready." Kiara yelled. Serena had a quick shower and put on the flattering dress. She slipped on the new shoes they'd bought to go with it and looked herself over. She put on a simple silver bracelet and necklace and wandered out to the make-up room. Kiara grabbed her and sat her down and began doing her hair. Serena relaxed while Kiara did some very complicated things to Serena's hair. After what seemed like forever to Serena, she was ready to go. She looked at herself and gasped.
"Is that me?" She whispered. Looking at the slightly familiar girl in the mirror.
"Sure is. I do good work, don't I?" Not really asking. Then one of the girls from the shoot poked her head in the door.
"Serena?" She said looking at Serena. Serena nodded. "The limo's here." She said and waited for Serena to follow. Serena nervously followed the girl outside. A limo was waiting for them and Serena filed in after the girl to see two other girls sitting there. They said their greetings and the Limo went off.
Serena sat down at the restaurant and immediately blushed.
"Why are all these people looking at us?" She asked quietly. The girl who had led her to the limo, whose name was Nami smiled gently.
"Cause we're models, they can tell." She said. "You want me to order for you?" She asked Serena kindly. Serena nodded nervously. She looked around. Luckily people weren't crowding, but people at other tables were looking at them and passers by gave them second glances. Serena was watching the people walking past the window. After the initial shock of it all, it had become kind of funny. She was smiling a cute young guy as he was passing, giving him what looked like the biggest thrill of his life his smile was so big, when she saw a familiar blue head walk past. She felt herself pale under the make-up as she recognised the raven haired girl walking with her. She looked closer to the ground and saw Luna. Oh my, how did they find me! She immediately turned away from the window. She turned to Nami and tried to add to the conversation as if all was normal. But inside she was panicking. How! She didn't know why she was so sure that they were here looking for her, she just knew. She went through lunch rather hastily.
"Well I guess we should go back now." One of the other girls said. They all agreed, but as they neared the door and the limo pulled up Serena saw something horrible. A familiar car was driving down the road towards them. Oh no… As much as she wanted to see her friends again she had something to do and she couldn't do it with them around. She walked as fast as she could towards the limo and slid in as Darien's car drove past the limo. She felt a spark as his car went past and prayed Darien didn't feel it too.
Darien drove around the city scanning the streets for his beloved Serena. Trista tried talking to him, but he payed little to no attention. As he turned a corner and drove down a particular street later in the day, he saw a crowd down near a restaurant.
"What's going on?" He asked Trista.
"I think it's just some models." She said casually. So they ignored it as they got closer though Rini made a startling comment.
"She's pretty, like mama." She said sleepily.
"What?" Said Darien and Trista looking at the models. But all they saw was a raven haired girl and two brunettes and the ankle of the fourth model as she got in the limo. Trista turned around to face Rini.
"Small Lady, are you sure you saw the Queen?" Trista asked gently. Before Rini could answer they all felt a shock and Darien lost control of the car for a second, but he got it back very quickly and pulled over.
"Did you all feel that?" He asked and got a positive response. All of the sudden Rini burst into tears.
"Mama!" She cried, Hotaru hugged her friend, but it didn't help and in all this Darien didn't see where the limo was going. He looked at Trista and felt utterly helpless. He slowly started up the car and went off searching the streets again.