The next day I was awakened by the sound of someone pounding on my front door. 'I'm way too tired for this,' I thought to myself as I kicked off my covers and marched downstairs.

"WHAT?" I yelled as I swung open my door to find Raye and Mina standing there.

"Friday. School. Suppose to be there. Does any of this ring a bell?" Raye questioned. I just shrugged my shoulders and let them inside.

"Let me take a shower, then we can go," I left the room and made my way upstairs to the bathroom. Ten minutes later when I got out of the shower, I figured that Raye was either still downstairs or that she had left me. It didn't really matter too much to me, I knew I would get to school one way or another. All of my teachers and I had an unspoken agreement that as long as I maintained a high B or A in their class that any tardiness on my part would be excused. The only person I had to worry about running into was the principal, who didn't share my teachers same views. Walking into my room I found that either Mina or Raye had picked out some clothes for me. A black mini shirt, white tank top and black high heels. "Yeah right. Like that was gonna happen. Where did they think we were going, a club?" I laughed to myself as I put their chosen clothes back in my closet. I on the other hand chose to wear dark blue jeans, a white wife-beater and matching dark blue flip flops. Walking downstairs into the kitchen I found Raye sitting at table reading an old US magazine while Mina ate the Cajun chicken that I made last night for dinner.

"Serena, this is good. Who made it?"

"I did," I took a seat beside Raye.

"You can cook?" She looked quite surprised. Not knowing whether I should be offended or not, I just let it go.

"Well, when your mother is pulling double shifts and your brother can't cook to save his life you learn to fend for yourself. I've been cooking since I was 7 years old." After Mina finished eating and put her plate in the sink, I grabbed my book-bag and we began to leave until Mina grabbed my arm and turned me around to face her. 'Why do people constantly grab my arms' I thought to myself.

"Raye, you weren't lying. Manny did a great job on her. You're beautiful Serena."

"Thanks," I tried to walk away until Mina once again turned me around to face her.

"Hey, where are the clothes that I picked out for you?" She questioned, looking at my attire.

So she was the one to pick out my clothes. I wasn't surprised. "I put them back. I would look like a hoe if I wore them."

"I'm wearing the same exact thing except for a different color."

"My point exactly," I immediately berated myself. "Sorry. I take that back. Habit, I swear. But honestly, I'm not comfortable wearing those types of clothes. I'm more of a jeans and T-shirt type of girl." She seemed to accept my answer and let the insult go. We made our way to the Escalade and got in, on our way to school Mina and Raye managed to make small talk while I just looked out the window. Once we pulled into the school parking lot and parked, we all got out and began to walk towards the building when Mina stopped us.

"Serena can I talk to you?" she asked as we neared the front doors.

"Sure."

"I kidda wanted to talk to her alone, Raye. Could you give us a minute?"

"Yeah, just don't take too long. We're already hella late," Raye walked ahead, leaving Mina and me there.

"Serena, I just wanted to tell you, thank you for helping me the other day at the beach with that guy. I don't even wanna think about what would have happened if you hadn't of come."

"Hey, no probl-," I began but was cut off.

"Hold on, I'm not done. I also wanted to say sorry for all the shit that I've done to you or had done to you in the past. I realize now that I was wrong and that nobody deserves that type of treatment and like I said before, I'm truly sorry. I was wondering or more like hoping that we could put all that behind us and be friends."

"Put what behind us," I questioned, smiling.

"Nothing. Friends?" she stuck her hand out to shake.

"Friends," and we shook hands and then went to catch up with Raye.

When we finally did get to our first class of the day, it immediately became quiet when we entered.

"Ahhh. Ms. Carter, Ms. Dumont, and Ms…Co-Conner nice of you three to finally join us. As I have already told the class, today is a free day, so find a seat and do whatever. Just don't be loud," Ms. Hunter explained.

We all just nodded our heads and began looking for some seats, which we found at the back of the classroom. As we walked towards the seats, with me in the back, I couldn't help but to laugh at the people in our class. Girls that gave me superior looks, played cruel and hateful jokes on me, and laughed in my face were now looking at me in awe, astonishment, and mostly jealousy. The guys, the ones that used to say I was repulsive, unattractive, and just plain ugly were now openly starring at me with lust and desire in their eyes. IT WAS FUCKING HILARIOUS. Just as we past Beryl and what was left of the BTEE, her foot snaked out and tripped me.

"Oops, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there," she gave me an innocent look.

"Obviously, the same way you didn't see a mirror this morning," I retorted and was rewarded with many laughs throughout the class, even some from the girls in her crew and the teacher. Beryl gave me one of her famous death stares, which I just shrugged off and continued to my seat where Mina and Raye were already waiting for me.

"Damn girl, by the way the guys are checking you out, your social calendar is gonna be full for the rest of the year," Mina announced.

"I don't think Darien would like that too much," Raye pointed out as she shook her head.

"Your fine ass brother, why would he care?" Mina questioned.

"Oh, yeah, you don't know. Darien has a thang for Serena," Raye replied.

"Uh, no he doesn't," I cut in.

"YES, he does. Serena's in denial," Raye exclaimed.

"Whatever," I mumbled, putting my head down as I started to blush. I ended up going to sleep and was awoken when the bell rang. Mina, Raye, and I were walking out the class when Ms. Hunter stopped us.

"Ms. Conner. Could you wait a moment, I would like to speak with you?" she asked.

"Sure."

"Serena, we'll catch ya lata," Raye announced as she and Mina left. Once everyone was gone and the door was closed, Ms. Hunter and I dropped our teacher-student relationship act.

"You look gorgeous, Serena. I'm guessing that it's courtesy of your new friends."

"Thanks and yes it is."

"Be careful. I've seen the way they've treated you these last few years and I don't wanna see you get hurt again," she was worried, I could see it on her face.

"Don't worry Chelle. I honestly don't think that I'm gonna be hurt this time."

"Like I said, just be careful, but anyways I was hoping that you could watch Hotaru for me?"

"Sure when?"

"Tonight, tomorrow, and the day after that."

"Damn Chelle!"

"Come on Serena. Amara and I rarely get a whole weekend to 'share' all by ourselves. PLEASE," she begged and of course I crumbled and gave in.

"Okay sure, you're just lucky I love you and her," I pointed out. I got a weird feeling.

"You okay? What's wrong," she noticed my distress.

"I don't know, I have the feeling that I'm forgetting something."

"Well can you think of anything?"

"Now, if I could think of it, it wouldn't be forgotten, now would it Chelle," I smiled. It always feels good to outsmart someone that's suppose to be smarter than you.

"Okay, then smartass," Chelle laughed. "I'm going to drop her off today at 5:00. Is that good?"

"Yeah, sure," I still couldn't shake that feeling so I just ignored it.

"Thanks so much, Serena. Here's your pass to class," she handed me the small piece of paper.

"No problem," I took it and left the room.

You see Michelle Hunter who is my English teacher also happens to be a close friend of mine. She grew up in a small country town where it was a sin to have a sexual interest in females when you were one. So, she hid it by marrying a friend of her's, Shawn Hayes, who happened to be gay. Four years into their fake marriage, he was found dead from a self-inflected gunshot to the head. Deciding she wasn't going to end up like him, she told her family about her sexual preference and they disowned her. One month later she found out that she had gotten pregnant from Shawn on their anniversary when they both happened to get drunk. That's when she moved to L.A. and became a teacher and also my friend. For the last 6 and a half months, she's been dating Amara Benson, a veterinarian by day and famous illegal street racer by night.

As I continued to walk to my class someone blocked my path, looking up I found Beryl glaring down at me.

"I hope you don't think that just because you got a make-over you're better than me," she hissed.

I shrugged "I've always been better than you, NOW I look better too." I pushed past her and continued to my class. When I finally got there and gave my teacher the pass, she explained our assignment to me and I got started. The rest of the day progressed much of the same way. Go to class and do work or either it's a free day and I just sit and talk to Mina and Raye. By the end of the day, I had two more confrontations with Beryl that left her looking like the fool rather than me, not that that's hard. When it was time to go, I met Raye and Mina back at the truck and they dropped me off at home. After 3 hours of cleaning the house, the doorbell rang.

"Hey," I exclaimed, opening the door to find Michelle and a 3-year-old Hotaru in her arms.

"RENA, RENA, RENA," Hotaru sang as she all but jumped into my arms.

"Hey munchkin, how ya doing?"

"Good. Mommy said I'm going to be staying with you for the WHOLE weekend. Is it true?"

"Sure is. We're gonna stay up late and do girlie stuff and eat tons of junk food."

"I don't think so. I want her in bed by 8 and no junk food AT ALL, Serena. I'm serious," Michelle cut in, just as someone honked the horn. That's when I realized that there were two different cars in my driveway.

"What the..," I began before Michelle cut me off.

"I know you don't have a car so I'm letting you borrow mine this weekend especially since you might need to go out and get something for Hotaru. Look I gotta run. Amara and I are going to see a movie and she's so damn impatient," Michelle handed me the keys to her car.

"Bye, Bye Mommy. Love you."

"I love you too. Bye sweetheart. Be good for Serena," she kissed Hotaru on the cheek, then looked at me "thanks so much for looking after her, Serena. Remember in bed by 8 and no junk food," she reprimanded.

"Just go, Chelle. Just have fun this weekend. I'll take care of this little munchkin," I kissed her cheek and pushed her in the direction of the car. Hotaru and I watched as Michelle got into the car with Amara, gave us one last goodbye wave and took off down the street.

"Now, that your mom is gone, I think we need to go to the grocery store and stock up on some junk food and go rent some videos. What do you say?"

"YAY," Hotaru sang.

"Well that's definitely a yes. Come on," I went back into the house, put some shoes on, grabbed the house keys and we made our way to Michelle's blue Honda Accord.

An hour and a half later we pulled back into my driveway. I carried in our bags filled with junk food while Hotaru brought in the movies I bought. We changed into our pajamas, I popped some popcorn, grabbed some drinks and candy and met her back in the living room. Hotaru decided that she was in the mood for a scary movie. So we put in the one scary movie I rented. I turned off all the lights in the house and grabbed a big blanket from my bed and sat on the couch and cuddled with Hotaru as we watched the movie. Getting into the movie, I actually found myself scared shitless.

DING DONG

"AHHHHHHHHHHH" Hotaru and I screamed, jumping as we heard the doorbell. After being scared out of my mind by that movie there was no way in hell that I was walking around this dark house unprotected. With Hotaru right behind me, I went to the closet and grabbed my brother's baseball bat and proceed to the front door. As I slowly opened the door, I found Darien standing there.

"Um Darien, what are you doing here?"

"I thought we had a date."

"DAMN, THAT'S WHAT I FORGOT!"

"You forgot. Maybe it's not me that doesn't have a interest, it's you. You know what, never mind. I'll see you around," Darien turned around and began walking away, but not before I could see the hurt look cross over his face. 'Damn, now I feel all guilty'

"Hotaru wait right here. I'll be right back," I told her as I handed her the bat and dashed out the house after Darien.

"DARIEN, WAIT," to my surprise he actually stopped.

"WHAT?"

"Look, I'm sorry I forgot about our date. I didn't think you were serious in the first place."

"Well, now you know I was. I like the new look, you look beautiful," he whispered as he continued to walk away.

"Darien, wait. I'm just babysitting a friend's daughter and we're watching this scary movie. I think we would both appreciate it, if you would stay a little while. Do you think you could?" I grabbed his hand and stopped him from walking away again. He seemed to think it over, before he answered.

"Why not," he turned around and we walked back to the house, hand in hand.

"Hotaru this is Darien, Darien this is Hotaru," I announced, taking the bat away from her and placing it by the door.

"Hey nice to meet you," Darien crouched down to her height

"Are you Rena's boyfriend?" she questioned, I turned red in embarrassment.

"No...not yet anyways," he smiled at me.

"Are you going to make her cry like her last boyfriend?"

"Hotaru," I cut in only to be ignored.

"No, I won't make her cry," he answered now giving me a confused look.

"Okay, then let's go watch the movie," she grabbed both of our hands and actually pulled us into the living room.