A Growing Love

Chapter 1:

Our story starts at Juban High, a private school for teenagers. And two of the students, Serena who is 16 and Darien who is 17 going on 18, were sitting in the girls lounge studying for a test that they have on Friday.

"What is the name of our first president?" Serena said quizzing Darien.

"Do you want to take a break?" asked Darien.

"But we have two whole sections left to study."

"And we have four more days to study for it too."

"Fine, I guess."

"Cool!"

"You pain in my ass." muttered Serena.

"Did you say something?" asked Darien looking back at Serena.

"Oh . . . no! No I didn't."

"Okay. Do you want a pepsi?"

"Sure."

"Okay," Darien said walking back toward Serena w/two cans of pepsi, "Here you go."

"Thanks Darien."

"Your welcome."

Right then Raye came in looking really depressed.

"What's up w/you Raye?" asked Serena.

"Oh . . . my biology teacher wants me to get a tutor since I'm failing his class. But its hopeless I can never remember this stuff" said Raye sitting down taking a sip of her water.

"Well, last quarter Darien got an A in biology. He could be your tutor" said Serena.

"Would you really Darien!" said Raye w/ a big huge smile on her face.

" Well… umm…" said Darien while looking at Raye, who was giving him the puppy face.

" Fine" sigh " I'll tutor you."

" Yah! Thanks Darien. Meet me at the courtyard tomorrow after the end of 7th. Okay?"

"Sure, okay."

The next day… the court yard

"So… what is photosynthesis, Raye?" asked Darien

" Oh… umm.. I don't know" Said Raye feeling really stupid.

" Okay. You want to know something"

"What?" Raye asked, looking nervous

"I'm going to show you my secret in remembering this stuff"

"Okay"

"Remember key terms out of the definition"

" Huh?" she said, looking even more confused

"Okay. For example… remember converts light to energy. Just summarize it so it makes sense to you."

"Okay I get it now"

" Great. Meet here tomorrow?"

"Yes"

Back at Serena's dorm, which she shared with Amy and Raye. Serena was trying a picture frame on her wall when Raye walked in.

"Hello, Serena"

"Hey Raye"

" Your pictures crooked"

"So I've heard"

Then there was a real quick silence before Raye asked Serena an out of the blue question.

"What's you relationship like with Darien?"

"Why do you wan to know?"

"Just wondering."

" Oh… okay. Well… we're just friends"

"Okay so you wouldn't mind if I asked him out?"

"No"

"So your okay with it?"

"Yeah sounds great"

" Okay thanks" Raye responded walking out of the room

The next day at the courtyard Darien was now talking about the difference between mitosis and meiosis when Raye interrupted him.

"Darien will you go out with me?"

"Umm…. Oh… well… wow!"

"What? Don't you want to?"

"No I never said that"

But then Raye's cell phone rang and she had to leave early.

" Okay Darien just think about it and tell me later"

"Okay"

So Darien just sat there in surprise at what he was just asked. After finally coming to his senses, he packed up his stuff and walked to his dorm, still clueless on how that question came about. Back at his dorm his roomy Andrew was laying on his bed listening to his ipod and jamming.

"Hey Andrew," Darien said but got no response, " hey Andrew" he walked over and unplugged the headphones from the ipod.

"Why'd ya do that for?" asked Andrew

"Dude we need to talk" Darien said with a serious look on his face

"Hey if it's about the five dollars in your sock drawer… I can explain"

"No it's not about that….wait you know about that"

"Forget I said anything and tell me what you wanted to tell me"

"Fine, Raye asked me out"

"REALLY!"

"Yeah"

"Well… what did you say?"

"That I'll think about it"

"WHAT! Why man, she's like hott"

"Well… I know, but what about Serena?"

"What about her?"

"Well Raye said that she said we were just friends and that it sounded like a good idea"

"Well… I'm sorry to say it to you but then Serena just wants to be friends with you and nothing more"

"Well… then should I say yes?"

"HELL YEAH!"

"Okay man, thanks"

"No prob. Anytime"

Back at Serena's dorm, Amy and her were studying for the test that's on Friday, but Serena just couldn't stay on track.

"Why would she like him?" said Serena, all serious

"I don't know" said Amy

"She hardly knows him"

"I have one question Serena"

"What!"

"Why do you care?"

"Well… Darien's my closest guy friend and Raye's my roomy"

"So"

"So… I don't want one of them to get hurt"

"Are you sure that's the real reason?"

"Yeah"

Just then Raye came bursting through the door with a big, huge on her face and swung the door and just plopped on to her bed and looked at Serena and Amy and said, "he said yes, Darien said yes." All excited, "is that great or what?"

"Yeah… just great" Serena said in a low depressed voice

Then Raye just ran out of the room and skipped down the hallway

Both Amy and Serena were surprised as hell

"Wow! I really thought he would have said no" said Amy

" Me too" they were both still shocked

The next day after school, Darien was sitting in the schools park, doing some work, when Serena came up with a tennis ball and tennis racket looking really mad.

"Umm… hello" she said in a really irritated voice

"Oh… SHIT! I totally forgot about practice." He said

"Well… what have you been doing for the past hour?"

"Umm…. I was making a study guide for Raye

"And that's more important"

"Umm…. Your mad at me aren't you?"

"What was your first clue"

"I'm really sorry"

"Well…. You can make it up to me tomorrow by taking me for a danish and flappacinno"

"Well… I promised Raye I'd take her to see an on campus movie"

"Well… fine then! Call me back when your free, busy man!"

Serena, then, walked away all pissed off and all he could do was watch.

"Damn dude! Well… I really can't do anything about it now," he said looking at his watch, "shit I'm going to be late!" he jumped up from the ground and threw his books into his books bag. Then he ran off to the girls lounge. At the girls lounge, Darien was sitting on the couch while Raye got them some popcorn and soda.

"Thanks Raye" Darien said taking the soda and popcorn from her.

"No prob." She said while sitting down next him.

"Ready to watch the movie?"

"Sure" she responded sliding closer to him and resting her head on his shoulder. He didn't even move. She then lifted her head off of his shoulder and asked, "your not into this are you?"

"What do you mean?"
"You don't want to be my boyfriend do you"

"Well…umm.. I.."

"It's okay. I understand"

"Are you sure your okay?"

"Yeah of coarse"

"I'm really sorry"

"No prob. I'm going up to my dorm okay?"

"Okay"

"Bye Darien"

"Bye" he said feeling really bad. He just sat there for a few minutes before getting up to leave the girls lounge. While walking back to the boy's dorm rooms he saw Serena walking back to her dorm alone.

"Serena! Wait up!" he said running after her. She stopped and turned toward Darien who was just slowing down to talk to her.

"What do you want?" she asked with a little bit of attitude

"Well, I'm really sorry for standing you up at the tennis court" he said with a soft tone

'It's okay"

"Cool. So do you want to go get that Danish and flappacinno?"

"Sure"

So they both walked over to the coffee shop on campus. Darien bought 2 danishes and 2 flappacinnos and sat next to Serena by an artificial fire in the middle of the room. They listened to the jazz type music that was playing throughout the café.

"Why aren't you with Raye?"

" We broke up"

" Why?"

"It just felt really weird"

"Oh"

"Plus, I truly like a different girl."

" Who is it?" she asked really fast

"I'll never tell" he responded while putting his arm around her.

" Why did you put your arm around me?"

" Well…umm…. I wanted to get comfortable"

"Oh!"

"Is that okay with you?"
"Umm… I guess" she said while staring to blush. She looked up at Darien only to see that he was looking down at her. All they heard was the others heart beating. Darien's head moved slowly down toward hers. They slowly closed their eyes until they were completely closed. Darien was still moving his head closer to hers until his lips were lightly on hers.