Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Sailor Moon, but I am friends with her and all the senshi. Especially Tuxedo Mask! :P

CHAPTER FOUR

From Bad To Worse

'Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! CRAP!!' Serena thought. In the corner of her eye she saw Ali turn slightly to look at her, and then turn back to Ms. Ito.

Ms. Himeko Ito, creator of the currently most popular series in Japan, "Shooting Stars", was visiting the United States to check on the Americans' progress. She truly valued her work and would entrust only those who passed the test and those she deemed worthy, to work with all her creations. The last company she entrusted with an earlier series had essentially taken over all creative rights. The television episodes and the manga version of the story failed in America and money was lost. The translations they supplied had changed the theme of the entire story. Because of that, Ms. Ito and the viewers who saw and read the original copies realized the American public were being cheated if they did not see what she had originally written. But because of the contracts she agreed to, there was nothing that she or her lawyers could do but wait until the contract expired or continue to look for a loophole.

Serena was too afraid to look away. Ms. Ito's eyes narrowed on her, and then she turned and walked to the station nearest to her.

"Ali! Help me straighten up before she comes over here!"

The girls hurriedly shuffled the papers until Serena's workstation was more presentable.

Ms. McKinley's voice was heard nearby.

"And who is this?" piped an accented voice.

Serena looked up and saw that Ms. McKinley stood right in front of her with Ms. Ito. Ms. Ito, not smiling, was looking directly into her eyes.

"This is our newest employee Serena Carroll. She's been here for a little over six months now and has been a huge help to us here at Digital Anime. Currently she's also been assigned to work with "Shooting Stars" team."

"I see," answered Ms. Ito as she folded her arms. "When I walked in here Ms. Carroll, I noticed that your area of work was in total disarray. Tell me--do you truly dislike this particular series, the job that you do, or is it just outright disrespect for me and all I'm allowing you to work with?"

Serena paled, blinked and then stood up straight. "None of the above Ms. Ito. I find it a deep honor to be able to work with you. If I appeared disrespectful to you, then I am truly sorry. I cannot excuse the condition you saw my desk in, but I also can't honestly promise you that it won't happen again. There is so much to do here, and I've got my own particular system. I know my desk may have looked messy; but I must say that how I do things works for me. If it seems that the way I do my job is all wrong to you, then I apologize. If you want me removed from the "Shooting Stars" team, then so be it. I'll stop working on it without complaint."

Ms. Ito looked at her a moment longer, still not smiling, then glanced at Ms. McKinley. "I've seen all I needed to see here, Ms. McKinley."

The entire graphics department watched the visitors leave. As if everyone were holding their breaths, the room filled with sighs as soon as the door had closed.

"Man, Rena! I'm so sorry! I was pretty sure you wouldn't get fired for a messy desk, but you could've promised Ms. Ito that it wouldn't happen again. You were very nice about the whole thing and everything, but who knows what Ms. McKinley will do now. Or what Ms. Ito will do! What if she cancels her contract? Or talks Ms. McKinley into getting you fired?"

"Do you think that might happen?" Serena asked. She was starting to get nervous. "I hope it doesn't come to that. But I couldn't promise anything, Ali. I'd be lying! Besides, I tried to answer her as politely as possible. I may seem stubborn on this, but it's a system I've got going and it works for me. I know where everything is. And besides, for me, it's faster to find the papers instead of having them neatly stacked or whatever."

"Whatever you say kiddo. I'll ask around to see what's going on, but let me know how everything goes if you hear things first, okay? I gotta get back to work."

"Alright. See ya!"

********

"Is this how you normally operate Ms. McKinley?" asked Ms. Ito. "Or is that Carroll character the only one of her kind? I don't know what to make of her."

"Ms. Ito," Ms. McKinley answered, "I assure you, Serena Carroll is doing a wonderful job with your creations. In the beginning, she was hired as an intern. But we realized in a short time that her creativity, quickness of work, not to mention her attention to detail, would be most useful as a full time graphic artist. As a matter of fact, her first assignment was "Shooting Stars", and you've seen the ratings for that particular strip has done very well. Sales have tripled since you've left Mangazine Productions. A large part of that is due to Serena."

"Hmm...but just what kind of girl is she really? I would like to see more of her work Ms. McKinley, and anything else the company has on file about her. That is possible, is it not?"

"Of course. I'll put it along with the papers regarding your reviews and "Shooting Stars"."

"Thank you. Unfortunately, I have an interview to prepare for, but you have my number at the hotel. Please send the information there as soon as possible. I'll be in touch as soon as I've reviewed them all."

The women continued down the hall and into the elevator.

********

Two Weeks Later

"Serena," Todd, the graphics gopher peeked into the Viewing Room, "Ms. McKinley would like to see you."

"Alright. Where is she? Her office?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, thanks Todd."

Serena made her way to Ms. McKinley's office. She was nervous because of what had happened earlier in the month. Nothing had happened after Ms. Ito had left, but she was still jumpy. 'This must be it,' Serena thought. 'I'm about to get demoted, or fired! What then? I don't want to go back home! Maybe Luna and Art will hire me.'

Throughout her musings, she arrived at her destination and hesitantly walked into the office.

"Hi Rena, come on in and have a seat," Ms. Li greeted her, "Ms. McKinley stepped out a moment, but she'll be right back."

"I don't suppose you can tell me what's going on, can you?"

"Now you know better than that. Besides, I just came to drop off something; I need to get back to my office. I'll see you later." And she exited the door that Serena just came through. Minutes later, Ms. McKinley entered.

"Oh Serena, great timing. I have some important information to discuss with you. As you know, Ms. Himeko Ito visited our company to see how we were running things regarding "Shooting Stars". She was pleased that the ratings were going up and that the U.S. readers genuinely liked the storyline. You and the "Shooting Stars" team have done a great job. So great, that Ms. Ito has decided to use Digital Anime for her newest strip "Forever Love"."

"That's great!" Serena exclaimed.

"Yes, isn't it! But what employees didn't know was that Ms. Ito was considering bringing one of our exemplary artists to Japan to work with her for 18 months. However, as we made rounds in the graphics department, Ms. Ito expressed concern towards your performance. She wanted more information about you and your artwork, and after looking that over, a decision was made. She has requested that you be that employee."

"What?! Are you serious?"

"Yes, Serena, very serious," Ms. McKinley laughed. "As of August 1st, which is five months from now. What do you think? Are you available? It's totally up to you, but if I were you, I'd start with my Japanese lessons. It's the chance of a lifetime!"

********

So nearly five months later and nearly fluent in Japanese, Serena prepared for her trip to Japan. She had been so busy with her language classes, work, and other arrangements, that she didn't really have time to call her family. When she made the attempt, they were always out or she was out when they called. It was really upsetting, especially since her family and friends back in Louisiana had no idea of her upcoming adventure, which as only a couple of days away.

Thankfully, Ms. Ito hadn't totally forgotten her and had her assistant send a list of decent apartment buildings, complete with website addresses so that Serena could check them out. However, Luna had a friend in San Francisco who had a young cousin in Tokyo who was looking for a roommate. A friendly face to help her around a new place and someone to share expenses with was almost too good to be true. Numbers were passed, emails and phone conversations were exchanged, and soon the two girls would meet face to face.

Two farewell parties were given the day before her departure, one at Digital Anime and one with her closest friends. Diana was driving her to the airport and so she slept over so that they could go straight to the terminal.

After a final hug goodbye, she made her way down the hallway to board the plane. "Oh man is this flight gonna be long," Serena mentally whined. "Almost 12 hours long. I'm gonna be dead tired when I get there. I hope whoever is supposed to meet me won't think I'm too rude. I get cranky when I don't get enough sleep." She pulled out a paper from her purse that had her contact information written on it. A Ms. Natsumi Takase was Ms. Ito's assistant, and was supposed to meet her the following workday.

********

August 4

Serena was solidly holding her own at Himeko Ito-sensei's animation company. She still hadn't met everyone in the department, not even her immediate supervisor, but she loved her job. All that she was required to do was clean up characters, but she was looking forward to learning how to animate, although that was in a totally different department, which wouldn't come for a long while yet. Serena was just content with watching it all. Her roommate, Rei, was so cool. Rei was an aspiring fashion designer. Although busy, she made sure she took time to show Serena around the busy city, making sure she didn't get lost. The fact that she spoke English was helping a lot also. Life in Japan was great!

Three weeks later, after one particularly grueling clean-up job, Serena stopped a little bit to relax, if only for a few minutes. Taking out a piece of paper, she started doodling, as she often does. This particular sketch was of her beloved family back in Louisiana, whom she dearly missed. Because they were caricatures, they weren't exact likenesses, but the meaning of them was obvious and so were the doodle's characters.

Suddenly, a shadow covered her workspace.

"I don't recognize this as one of Ito-san's," said a deep voice. "What is this? Are you thinking of starting your own series? You're wasting your time there, that would never become an anime series, not even manga strip. You need to develop the characters more if you want to make it on your own. But you have a long way to go before you come anywhere close to that."

At first, Serena didn't know the voice was addressing her. But as the arrogant man's speech went on, her temper just rose. Her face turned a bright red from her ire.

She jumped up from her seat and whirled around to face El Stupido. "Look Mr. Know-it-all, I didn't ask you for your opinion."

The man's eyes widened. Serena immediately recognized him as the man from the airport almost a year ago, but that didn't appease her at all.

"Who do you think you are just to come to my workstation and criticize what I'm doing? I'm not even working on Ito-sensei's strip right now. This is my time. I'm taking a break! And what I do during my break is my business. And not that it's any of your business, but this happens to be my family! Not a formal portrait, but a reminder of who I am and where I came from. So unless you have something to say that you think I'd be remotely interested in hearing, I suggest you leave and get back to whatever you were doing before approaching me." With that, Serena turned her back on him and continued with her family's caricatures, totally writing off the handsome stranger.

"I'll tell you who I am...," he stated.

Serena scoffed and rolled her eyes amazed that the idiot was still behind her. Polite manners dictated that she turn around and actually listen to what he said.

"I'm Darien, your supervisor. I assume that you're the little American from Digital Anime." He watched Serena's cheeks flame at his odd introduction. "I'll be back later on to check on the work that you actually did, presuming that you did get some kind of work done. I've often heard that Americans are slackers. Now while that theory appears to be true, I'll be generous and give you the benefit of the doubt. Oh, and welcome to Japan." Smirking, he left before she could retort.

Charming. Although amazed that arrogant, snobby, egotistical, albeit gorgeous, jerk was the guy from the airport, she was even more amazed that he was her boss. What were the chances? Although those factors didn't change the fact that she hated the sight of him. 'Why me?' she thought, 'things were going so well too.'

********

The door slammed shut rattling the pictures on the wall.

"Serena!" yelled Rei. She always used her full name when she was annoyed. "You'd better have a good reason for storming in here as if someone evil was after you!" A worried expression formed on her face. "What's wrong? Did someone attack you? What's happened?"

"Evil doesn't even come close to that jerkwad." Serena muttered. Two hours after her so-called supervisor, whatever his name was, left, he returned to look over what she had completed from the previous week up to now.

"Absolutely unacceptable," he had said. "The lining and centering of this character here is all wrong. And you've accentuated too much of the eyes here." He went through everything she had done just by mere glances. Serena swore he was looking without actually seeing. He only kept finding faults everywhere. "No. No, no, no." he stated as he reached the end, "I want you to redo everything here with the corrections I've told you about. Have it ready for me by tomorrow afternoon. I'll be by to correct anymore mistakes you'll make later."

Thankfully, he had been called into a meeting and hadn't returned by the end of the workday. 'I can't believe that...that...argh!! There's no word to describe him! It took me nearly two weeks to get all that done, how am I supposed to get so far by tomorrow afternoon?!'

"What was that?" Rei asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Nothing Rei. I just had a bad day. I totally want to forget it ever existed."

"Oh. Well next time have a little consideration, would ya." She held up a sheet a paper. "Just look at what your raving did to my design! My masterpiece!"

"You say that about all your designs."

"Because its true! They're all masterpieces. Now I have to start all over."

"I'm really sorry Rei. I promise I won't slam the door again or do anything that'll jeopardize your work. Believe me, I know what it's like to work when your concentration is disturbed." She frowned and threw her stuff on the table. Rei walked over and flipped through the papers that spilled out.

"Is this what you've been working on? It looks awesome!"

"Thanks, but my butthead boss doesn't share your opinion. I swear I could just kill that guy. He's just so...ARGHHHHHHHH!!!" Her scream was heard throughout the entire floor and the apartments above and below.

"Please Rena, tell me how you really feel. Let it all out." Rei said flatly.

"Sorry. It's just that I met my supervisor for the first time today and we've already gotten off to a bad start. Can you believe an insult was the first thing out of his mouth?! And it was about a little caricature I was doing while I was taking a break! He assumed that I wanted to start my own series from it and told me that I'd have a long way to go before I'd even be considered worthy. Then he called me a slacker, and told me he'd check my work later. When he got back, he went through my work so fast and found faults in every little thing. I thought I did a pretty great job! You even liked them!! But does he have anything positive to say at all? Nooooo! He wants me to do the entire thing over and hand it back to him tomorrow. It took me almost two weeks to get this done! Oh, and the best part--he's so sure I'll mess up that he even said he'd "correct my mistakes" when he looks them over."

"I can't believe that guy! What a total baka! What'll you do if you don't finish in time?"

"I don't know and I don't really care. He won't be satisfied with anything I turn in anyway."

"Well don't worry about it too much, Rena-chan, I'll talk with my brother, he works for Ito-san too. He's one of the higher-ups. If you have any more problems with that guy, I'm sure my brother will take care of him. What's the name of your supervisor anyway?"

Serena was so involved in her hateful thoughts of her boss that she didn't even hear Rei. "Jerk!" Coincidentally, her thoughts fit in with Rei's question.

"What?"

"That's what I've dubbed him. Jerk. No, what's that word you called him? Baka? I like that--his name is Baka!" With that, she picked up the papers and huffed into the extra room that the girls used as a studio.

********

"Better, but not much Carroll-san. And I'm certainly not pleased that you did not even get halfway of where you were yesterday. Care to explain why?"

Serena gritted her teeth, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sure you know it takes a while for quality work--"

"Well this must have been a rush job," he interrupted.

"You said you wanted it handed in today! I worked all through the night and all this morning to hand in what I got done! If you had let me complete what I was working on in the beginning, you'd be satisfied."

"I wasn't satisfied before, now was I? I suppose we hold higher expectations here than over at Digital Anime, and you are not yet used to your working conditions. However, that is no excuse to slack off, so this is your first and final warning. I am also not looking for mere satisfaction. I expect quality and speed, Carroll-san, not one or the other. If you want to make it in this business, I suggest you take a few pointers from your co-workers here at the studio. It's possible that you can learn something from them. Now I want you to finish whatever else that needs to be done here and give to Furuhata-san or me when you're done. When you're through with that, this is what you'll be starting on next." He handed her a thick file. "Any questions?"

"No, sir--you little %^$##%." She grumbled the last part.

"What did you say? I didn't catch that."

"I said, 'No'." She threw him a strained smile.

"Hmm. I could've sworn there was more. Carry on Carroll-san."

Serena stuck her tongue out at his back, and blushed when her co-workers nearby saw and laughed at her.

********

"Why are you being so hard on her?" asked Motoki Furuhata, the co-supervisor. "You know it takes a while for all that work to get done. I'm surprised she got as far as she did the first time. And why'd you make her do it over? They were perfectly acceptable."

"Because I want her to recognize my authority. She undermined me in front of the entire department. I couldn't let her get away with that."

"I heard about that and there were only two people in there, not the whole department. Besides, I applaud her for what she said. You deserve to be taken down a notch every now and then. Why did you say anything at all anyway, it obviously wasn't a "Forever Love" strip."

"You know me. I just couldn't help it. The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them."

"Which you still haven't apologized for."

"And I won't either."

"Hey man, it's your life. I doubt if she'd accept it anyway. Look, do you have the copy for the 17th edition? I need Ryo to look over it."

After giving Motoki what he needed, he thought over what just happened with Serena Carroll.

Serena Carroll.

"What a beautiful name," he murmured. He still couldn't believe that she was in here! In Japan! Working for him! Life is so perfect. 'Wait a minute,' he thought. 'Nothing can happen between us now, I've messed it up. I'm a total baka. Stupid Darien!' He looked out of his window in her direction. He could just make out the top of her golden head. 'How could I have thrown away my chance to run my fingers through those flaxen locks?'

He reached into his wallet and pulled out a folded paper that was worn from use. As he smoothed out the creased edges, a face came into view. It was the girl from the airport. Serena Carroll. Now that he had seen her again, he could see that his sketch was really not worthy of the real live person. But he'd hold on to this precious piece of her and be able to think back to the day when he truly came alive.

********

The weeks went by and work at the studio didn't get any easier. Serena was on friendly terms with practically everyone in the entire studio, but was still given a hard time by the Baka Jerkface. She finally found out his name, Darien something, but preferred the one she'd given him. She worked real hard on whatever assignments she was given, but her patience was wearing thin when it came to the arrogant supervisor.

"Serena, we're going out for lunch, are you coming?" asked Yoshimi, fellow manga artist.

"No, I can't. I have to work on a section of 19th edition again. No time to eat."

"What? I thought you turned that in last week."

"Well it was given back. I hope I won't have to redo everything. I was already given a new assignment to work on when this came up. Its all that jerk's fault! There's no pleasing him. I hate that guy!"

"Darien-san's not so bad."

"To you and everyone else that works here, he's not that bad. But then again, he doesn't give you all such a horrible time." She sighed and turned back to her drawings.

"Do you want us to bring you back anything?"

"No, thanks. I'll just eat a big dinner when I get home." She looked at the pile of work left to do as Yoshimi and the girls left. "If I get home tonight," she muttered sourly.

Fifteen minutes later, a familiar shadow filled her workstation. To Serena's irritation, her pencil made a stray mark on her work and the point broke. Without looking up, she addressed him. "Yes, bossman? What is it now? What have I done? Or more specifically, what haven't I done?"

"Why aren't you at lunch?" he asked.

"Well, thanks to a certain someone, I needed to redo the copy for this particular edition before it was sent over to print. I don't get to have the luxury of lunch."

"I'm happy to see that your loyalties lie with the studio, Carroll-san. I've been watching your progress and I've often noticed you here working while everyone is out. Skipping your allotted time for lunch will not impress me. Don't stay here working overtime thinking you can."

"I'm not trying to impress you!" Serena turned away from him in order to restrain herself from hitting him. Speaking English now, she mumbled, "You unbelievable bonehead. This is your doing."

"Just what is my doing?" he asked in perfect English.

Serena turned, wide-eyed with shock. "You speak English?"

"Of course. Probably better than you do." Serena scowled. "It's necessary in a business such as this. But back to the point, what is my doing?"

"Me having to skip lunch, for one!"

"How can that possibly be a fault of mine? You're the one who chooses to stay and work."

"Yes, and you're the one who looks for the impossible! You want everything in by a certain time!"

"We are on a deadline, Carroll-san," he commented wryly.

"That's not what I meant. You just want things turned in faster than what I think is necessary. And I'm the only one you pick on too!"

"Hmm. Now let me ask you something. Who is the supervisor here?"

"You are."

"Correct. And as supervisor, isn't it my job to set the time schedule for when I want things completed? And I'm not 'picking' on you as you put it. It's also my job to bring copy back to be corrected before it's sent to print. Yours just happens to be the most inferior of the department."

"Inferior?! That's it. That is it!" She shot up from her stool, knocking it over. Darien stumbled back a step in his surprise. "What is your problem? Huh?!" She advanced a few steps in his direction. "You've been on my case ever since you've set eyes on me. Your barbaric behavior makes me think you're out to revenge yourself on me, but I don't even know you so I couldn't have done anything to you. Why are treating me so like...like I'm a lowly peasant or scum? That's what I want to know!" Stabbing her index finger in his chest, she went on. "I understand that you need to correct my work, and I understand that we have a deadline. Fine. But I'm the only one you put down and treat with such utter disrespect. And I can tell you now that that's not a healthy work environment for you because if you don't back off I'll--"

"Am I interrupting something?" Ito-san had just entered the department and was regarding them with interest.

Serena backed off from giving her boss a severe beat down. "Uh, no Ito-sensei. Excuse me, I'm...uh...late for lunch." She picked up the fallen stool and grabbed her purse, hightailing out of there as fast as she could.

Darien watched her exit while Ito-san watched Darien. "So, Chiba-san, Darien, are you having any problems with Carroll-san?"

"No, Ito-san. We were just having a disagreement."

"Oh? What about?"

"She doesn't exactly appreciate my supervising skills. I count her attitude as her quirky American ways. It's nothing that can't be resolved."

"I should hope not. I like you, and I like Carroll-san too. You both do good work on my manga creations. I don't like such civil unrests among my employees. I'm counting on you. The promotion you put in for is on the line. Resolve the issue quickly, or I'll deal with you both personally."

"Yes, Ito-san.

********

"Serena-chan! I thought you were skipping lunch! Come join us," shouted Yoshimi.

"Hey guys. Yeah, I bumped into the boss-man and was allowed an escape for lunch."

"See? I told you he wasn't that bad."

'No,' thought Serena, 'he's not that bad. He's not even worse. He's something entirely different.'

So they finally meet!  Officially this time.  Talk about bad first impressions.  So what do you think will happen next?  Please R/R!!!  Thank you!