Chapter Three

Painful Memories

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As Sunday came all too soon, the girls met up at Mina's, then walked to Darien's house. They rang the doorbell and waited patiently. They were dressed for a day of fun. Serena, Mina's practical twin, wore her hair in a weird design, up in two buns at the side of her head, with the extra hair draped from the buns. She wore a coral blue tank top that showed off her stomach ever so slightly and jean shorts. Amy, the bluenette, wore her hair down, not that she could wear it much differently, since it was so short. She wore a crimson red t-shirt and a matching skirt. Raye had curled her raven black hair which made it go just above her waist. She wore a pink t-shirt that had a heart with 'live, laugh, love' written on a banner running across the heart and a white skirt that went just above her knees. Lita, the brunette, wore her hair in a ponytail showing off her beautiful rose earrings. She wore a white shirt with a rose that matched her earrings and jean shorts that matched Serena's. Mina wore her hair in a ponytail like Lita's. She had on a light purple tank with a matching skirt.

When Darien answered the door, he was stopped in his tracks at the site of the girls. After a moment, he realized that he was staring and that all five of the girls were blushing. He found himself staring at one particular girl, which happened to be the stunningly beautiful Serena. Darien wasn't ready; he only had on his bottoms, showing off his masculine upper-body.

"Uh, come in and make yourselves comfortable, we'll be out in a few." Darien said as he opened the door wider.

The girls got comfortable on the couch and waited for Darien to be out of ear reach.

"He was staring at you Serena," Raye teased.

"No...He was...staring at all of us," She tried to cover up.

"Sure, what ever you say Ms. Denial." Lita joked.

Darien walked in with his friends and introduced them.

"These are my friends," Darien pointed.

"I'm Zac," said a brown haired boy.

"I'm Josh," said a dirty blonde.

"I'm Kevin," said a boy with brown hair, slightly longer then Zac's.

"And I'm Stephen," said the boy with short curly brown hair.

"Hi, I'm Serena," she introduced holding out her hand.

"Raye."

"Amy."

"Lita."

"And Mina." The girls followed her lead.

They all got acquainted and left for the fair. It wasn't that far, so they decided to walk, making conversation as they walked.

"You girls look very nice." Kevin offered.

"Thank you," they all said in unison, giggling.

"You don't look too bad yourselves," Serena replied.

"Thank you," all the men said.

"What brings you guys here?" asked Amy.

"Just wanted to get away from...everything." Stephen said hesitantly.

"Oh," Amy said hinting a kind of sadness in his voice.

A weird silence kinda fell on the group.

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Once they arrived at the fair they were in two lines, a girl next to a guy, walking down the street. When they got a map and realized how big the place was, Lita spoke up.

"Why don't we break up into groups, that way we can cover the whole park. We can go with the person we were walking next to on the way here." She suggested.

"Sounds good with me," Raye had said. The others shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"Good, we'll meet up in the center here in about an hour." Serena said pointing to a map.

They split off into their groups in a weird kinda silence, Raye going with Kevin, Mina with Josh, Amy with Stephen, Lita with Zac, and Serena with Darien.

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'Raye and Kevin'

"So where did you live?" Raye asked breaking the silence they left the group in.

"We lived here in Michigan, just up in the Upper Peninsula." Kevin said looking at the different rides. "What about you, Darien said the five of you moved here not long ago."

"We all lived in California. We've been friends since kindergarten and all of our parents decided to move here when Mina's dad was transferred here for work." Raye replied.

"Wow, you five must be close if you all moved here to keep your friendship with one another."

"Yah, we are. We're like sisters." Raye laughed.

"You seem like a nice girl, got a boyfriend?" He asked surprising himself with the question he just asked.

"What, no, we just moved here, remember? But I did have one my freshman year of high school, but it didn't work out. Haven't had one since," She shrugged, she added, "no time. What about you?"

"Nah, I had one too, but she ended up dating me to get to know Darien. Girls are falling for him but he hates it, he just wants to find the girl that likes him for him, not his looks." He said with a hit of sadness and compaction for his friend in his voice.

"Yah, that's how Serena feels. We do fight a lot, but we're best friends, she's never had a date, just a lot of stuck up jocks falling for her." Raye said with the same hint of sadness and compaction in her voice.

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'Mina and Josh'

"So how long have you known the other girls?" Josh asked after five minutes of painful silence.

"Since about kindergarten, how 'bout you and the guys?" She asked in reply.

"For about three years now, we're really close." Josh answered.

"Where'd you meet?"

"At an orphanage actually. None of us had our parents; they either died or left us." He replied with sadness.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She said kicking herself for asking.

"No, its ok, we've all grown to accept it. It's kinda funny actually. One night after being there a year together, we decided to run away from the orphanage. Darien, Zac, and Kevin's parents died, and left them a fortune, so we decided to go live on our own. We ran away and got a house. And then decided to move around and here we are." He told the tale.

"That's kinda evil of you." She snickered.

Josh just shrugged his shoulders and laughed with her. "The five of you seem really close."

"Yah," Mina replied. "If it weren't for Serena, I don't know what we'd do, maybe something like kill each other." Mina laughed as she remembered the day they met. "Amy and Raye were fighting about who spilt the milk, and Lita and I were debating who had the best lunch. There were five of us at a table, and Serena broke into our fights. 'I spilt the milk, and I have the best lunch' she butted in and sat down. We all just kinda looked at her and laughed. We became quick friends after that." Mina told her story.

They all seem to be really close to Serena, just like the guys and I are close to Darien. Josh thought to himself. "Value your friendship." He said almost in a whisper.

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'Amy and Stephen'

"I really like your hair," Stephen said admiring it.

"Thank you, I love yours too, I love curly." She smiled back.

"And I love blue." He said back to her.

"So do any of you have a girlfriend?" She asked kinda shyly.

"Nah, Darien's kinda a girl magnet, but he hasn't found the girl of his dreams yet, and as for the rest of us, well we're just trying to make sure no one hurts our friend." He said tensing up.

"Yah, that's how the girls fell about Serena. We notice guys staring at her all the time, she doesn't seem to realize, but we do. She's just so clueless sometimes. She once rejected a guy for a date freshman year, and he punched her and almost gave her a concussion." Amy said getting sad and angry at the same time at the thought of that guy.

"You all seem to value your friendship with her." He said trying to relax her.

"We are, we value our friendship very much." She said, looking happy again.

"Good."

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'Lita and Zac'

"How'd you guys meet?" asked Zac.

"Well the short story is that I was in a fight with Mina and Raye was in a fight with Amy. We were fighting at the same time, when Serena walked up, said something about Amy and Raye's fight then about our fight, sat down and started eating. The four of us looked at each other, then started cracking up laughing." Lita reminisced.

"That's nice. You all seem really nice, and close." Zac replied.

"We are, very very close. Especially since an incident we had Freshman year." Lita said.

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?" Zac asked curiously.

"Well Serena always has guys ogling her, and she doesn't realize it. When one asked her out, she simply and nicely replied no. When she said this he threw her into lockers, punching and kicking her. We've all been really protective of her since then. Especially since we don't' know who it was. She didn't know either. She was opening her locker when he asked, she glanced at him, not paying attention to his features, and said that she didn't know him well enough, maybe they could get to know each other and try, next thing she knew, we were all kneeling around her." Lita tensed up at the thought of that bastard. "He's lucky she didn't know who he was, or he'd be sorry." Lita was making a fist now.

"I'm sorry. I hate it when people think that a person will say yes to a date based on looks." Zac said.

"Yah jerks." Lita said with intense passion.

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'Serena and Darien'

"So tell me about yourself." Serena told him.

"Well I turned 16 about six months ago. I'm a junior in high school. I like to hang out with my friends. My parents died about four years ago, and I was sent to an orphanage where I met the guys." Darien said sadly. Wait, did I really just tell her that, I haven't told that to anyone but the guys. He thought. I guess I trust her more than anyone else I've talked too. "How bout you?"

"Well first I'm sorry about your parents. I'm 16 as well, I'm a junior as well, and I like to hang out with my friends as well. I don't like my parents, they're too over protective. The girls and I plan on getting a house of our own soon. And I hate guys." She said. Darien stopped in his tracks as he heard what she said.

"What do you mean you hate guys?" He asked, now walking again.

"Well guys just want to get in girls pants. They don't care about a girl's personality, just their looks. I was cursed with good looks so guys are always ogling me. My friends don't think I notice, but that's just cuz I ignore them, but I really do I get a weird feeling every time a guy is ogling me, ever since I had a...never mind." She said tensing up.

"Well correction. Most guys want to, not all do. And what did you have?" he noticed her tensing, so he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Well this guy liked my appearance and asked me out. I looked...well more glanced at him, realizing I didn't even know his name, I simply said 'I'm sorry, but I don't even know your name. Maybe if we get to know more about each other, we can go out.' Well he didn't like rejection so I guess he started to beat me. Kicking and punching me. Next thing I knew, my friends were all around me screaming 'call 911' and 'are you okay, Serena' and whatnot." She said, they had now stopped and sat on a bench near their meeting place.

"I'm so sorry Serena." Darien said, noticing she hadn't looked at him since she started. He looked into her eyes, they were full of tears, "Oh Serena, you didn't need to tell me, I'm sorry I pushed."
"No, it's ok, I just haven't told anyone before, so it's just kinda hard."
"I understand." He was about to hug her when he thought about it, "Do you want a hug?" He offered, better safe then sorry.

She leaned into his open arms now fully crying.

He stroked her back softly whispering "Everything'll be okay."

"Thanks, Darien. It's just a memory, but a painful one." She said calming down.