A/N: Welcome to chapter 9! I suggest re-reading chapter 5 where Serena is describing the event at her church she mentioned to Darien so you have an idea of where this chapter is headed. If you're ready please enjoy this next chapter. Thanks again for all the follows/favorites/reviews… they really motivate me!

On Friday, the final bell rang as Serena and Darien left their classroom together. "Good luck tonight," Darien said to Serena. "I wish I could be there."

"Me too, but I understand," Serena said sadly. "Work is important. At least we have more than enough stuff for that 'walking in each other's shoes' assignment. We got to go to each other's houses and we interacted with our friends… well at least I tried to interact with your friends."

"Yeah, I had a talk with them about that yesterday. Whether or not they listen is another story, but if they do or say anything else to you I'll deal with them, ok?"

"I appreciate that, Darien."

"Hey, you're my friend too and friends don't let friends treat other friends poorly."

"Ooh, that's deep," Serena said in mock awe. "I'll have to use that one someday."

Darien smirked. "You know what I mean. Do you wanna walk to the Crown with me?"

"I wish I could, but I can't. I have to babysit for a little while and then I have to get to the church to set up finishing touches for tonight." She gave him a quick hug. "I'll see you Monday."

"See you later." Darien waved as Serena left the school and headed to his locker. He got a text message from his boss and smiled when he read it. You can have Saturday off if you work double time on Sunday. Thank me later. Darien smiled as he texted his thanks. He had been dropping hints to his boss about changing his schedule all week so he could surprise Serena at her church event. He knew his boss would cave eventually, but he had been on edge waiting for an answer. Now he had nothing to worry about. As soon as he got all his books he closed his locker and started walking to the Crown to meet up with his friends. Since Serena wasn't joining him he hoped they didn't have anything too snarky to say, but he still had his doubts after his talk with the rest of the group yesterday.

*Yesterday afternoon*

After making sure Serena was ok before she left, Darien came back to the table irritated. "Happy now? She's gone."

"Good riddance," Beryl said. "We don't need her cramping our style."

"I don't know, Beryl," Chad added. "I'd keep her here for the LOLs. That Sailor Moon hair joke was epic."

"All she has to do is change it and half the jokes she gets would stop," Rae said.

"Or you could stop the jokes all together," Andrew suggested.

Everyone in the group except Darien gave him a confused look. "Since when are you on her side?" Mina asked.

"I'm on Darien's side and I'd rather not have him kill me, especially with the death glare he's shooting all of you."

"Darien," Beryl said exasperatedly. "You have to stop taking everything so seriously."

"Well it is serious because another friend of mine is involved. Did you know she wears her hair like that in memory of her late grandmother? Her grandmother did many variations of that hairstyle for her well before Sailor Moon was even thought of."

"So? What does that have to do with anything?" Mina asked.

"It'd be all the same thing if I said anything about that bow you wear in your hair all the time."

Mina rolled her eyes at him. "You know exactly why I wear this bow," she said defensively.

"My point exactly. There's a lot you don't know about Serena and I'm just asking as my friends that you would just cut her some slack and actually take the time to get to know her before you cast any kind of judgment. Please."

"But where's the fun in that?" Chad asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Rae replied. "He only wants us to butter her up because he's in love with her." Everyone except Andrew and Darien laughed.

"Aww, poor Darien is getting frustrated," Beryl commented. "Contrary to popular belief, we understand what you're saying."

Darien looked at her with questioning eyes. "Really?"

"You want us to play nice with her. I can't guarantee a change overnight, but if that's what'll make you happy then that's what we'll do. Right?"

No one else really answered Beryl's question and he wasn't even sure if he trusted Beryl of all people to be nice to Serena. She obviously still had a thing for him and he didn't trust her to back down that easily, but if there was anything Serena had taught him it was to give everyone a chance no matter what. If he didn't he'd be a hypocrite so for now he had to take Beryl at her word.

Darien entered the Crown and saw his friends sitting at their normal table, but he also saw Sammy nearby with a girl who often accompanied him. Sammy still didn't seem to trust Darien despite the numerous times he attempted to be friendly. "Hey Sammy," he said when he got to the counter. Sammy just gave him a look before returning his attention to his friend. Darien sighed before ordering a cup of coffee at the other end of the counter. When he got his coffee he noticed another boy with Sammy and his friend who wasn't there before. Sammy and his friend looked uncomfortable in his presence so Darien decided to see what was going on.

"Isn't this nice?" the boy was saying. "Sammy and Mika sitting in a tree…"

"Shut up, Gordon," Sammy hissed as he laughed at him. "Mika and I are just friends."

"Just friends, huh? So you won't mind if I take her on a date?"

"I'm not going anywhere with you, Gordon," Mika said defiantly. "I'm happy right here with Sammy."

The boy now known as Gordon rolled his eyes. "And why would you want to stay with a loser like Sammy boy?" He grabbed Mika's wrist and pulled her to her feet. "Let's go have some real fun."

"No, you're hurting me," Mika cried. "Let me go!"

Sammy got up and tried to stop him, but Gordon pushed him to the ground. "Leave her alone!"

"Or what? You're gonna cry about it?" Before he had a chance to do anything else someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and came face to face with Darien towering over him.

"You have 10 seconds to let her go," Darien warned. "And believe me, you won't want to stick around." Gordon glared at him for a moment before he finally let go and left the arcade in a huff. Coward. He shook his head and turned his attention to Mika who was now helping Sammy up. "Are you guys ok?"

"Yes, thank you so much!" Mika replied. She started dusting Sammy off before he pushed her hand away.

"I'm fine," Sammy said irritably.

Mika rolled her eyes at him. "Well excuse me for caring. I'll be back." She went to the back of the Crown towards the restrooms.

Sammy sat on a stool at the counter and groaned. "You can laugh at me any time you're ready."

Darien took a seat beside him. "You like her, don't you?" Sammy ignored the question, but Darien could see through his body language. "She likes you too, you know."

Sammy perked up. "How do you know? She's probably in the bathroom planning her escape because she's mad I pushed her away like an idiot."

"Everyone makes mistakes, but I saw the whole thing. You always treat her like a gentleman and you stood up for her when that jerk was bothering you."

"But I couldn't even get him to leave her alone. He just laughed at me."

"She'll appreciate the effort. Why else would she want to stay with you?"

"Because we're friends," he said weakly.

Darien smirked. "There's more to it than that, trust me. When she comes back, apologize for being an idiot and keep treating her like a lady. She won't be going anywhere."

Sammy sighed. "If you say so." He finally smiled at him. "Thanks for everything. I guess you're not such a bad guy after all. No wonder Serena likes you."

Darien shot him a double take. "What?!"

Sammy laughed. "Not like that! Serena hates it when I joke about that, but it's just so fun to watch her get mad denying it."

"Well there's nothing to worry about," Darien said evenly. "Serena and I are just friends."

"Just like Mika and I are friends?" Sammy asked as he crossed his arms. "Don't worry, I won't say anything."

"B-but I… I… Hey, Mika's coming. Remember what I said." He got up escaping the uncomfortable conversation and headed to the table where his friends were sitting. He took a seat next to Andrew. "Hey," he said absently as he watched Sammy and Mika interact. Mika had a hand on her hip, but after Sammy said something she smiled and took a seat next to him. He smiled and turned to his friends who were just staring at him. "What?"

"Since when do you hang out with freshmen?" Chad asked.

"Since I was trying to get rid of some punk starting trouble."

"You sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Meatball Head…" Darien gave her a look. Mina rolled her eyes before correcting herself. "Excuse me, your girlfriend's brother was involved?"

"Mina, please," Beryl commented. "You know as well as I do that Darien doesn't have a girlfriend."

Darien gave her a look. "Yeah. Anyway, what are you guys up to?"

"Not much," Andrew reported. "We were talking about weekend plans and it sounds like we're all stuck working. What about you?"

"Well, I have to work too, but I just found out I have tomorrow night free."

"Lucky," Rae exclaimed. "Grandpa is making me clean out the temple. You could come over and help if you want."

"Sorry, Rae, but cleaning out the temple doesn't sound like my idea of fun."

"I can come over, babe," Chad said as he started rubbing her arms up and down. "Won't it be more fun if it's just you and me all alone?" Rae smiled. "No offense, Dar."

Darien put both hands up. "None taken. I already have other plans anyway."

"Maybe I could join you since I don't have to work Saturday night either," Beryl suggested.

"No," Darien said quickly. "I mean, it's for me and Serena's project. You won't want to come."

"All the more reason I should come. It's a perfect opportunity since you want us to be nicer to her and everything."

"It's at her church." He hoped saying that would make her back off. "It's not really your scene. It's not mine either, but I don't have a choice since it's for a grade."

"Then I'll come so you aren't bored."

Darien sighed. He was stuck and from her tone he could tell there was no way he was going to talk her out of it. If he said no, she'd keep bugging him or scheme some way to get what she wanted. "Fine," he finally said.

"Then it's a date," Beryl said happily. She checked the time. "I gotta get ready for work. I'll see you guys later." She got up without waiting for anyone to respond. Darien covered his face with his hands and groaned as he leaned on the table.

Andrew patted his back. "It's just one night."

"One night of hell," Darien muttered.

"Just give her a chance, Darien," Rae said. "At least she's trying."

Yeah, trying to get back together with me. Darien regretted mentioning his weekend plans to Beryl, but no matter what he wasn't going to let her ruin his surprise for Serena. She had been acting nicer since his talk yesterday, but it had only been a day and he wasn't dumb enough to fall for the act that quickly. He hoped he wasn't making a mistake.

Darien arrived at the church around 5:45pm on Saturday evening and Beryl was supposed to meet him there at 6pm. He refused to pick her up and give her any indication that this was a date. He checked the time and decided to give her 10 minutes before he went inside without her. He was actually feeling a little nervous about coming to the church because it reminded him of bad memories from his childhood with one of his foster parents. He never enjoyed being forced to go to church and was eventually turned off to the whole idea because he watched his "parents" act like so called "Christians" while they were at church on Sundays then spend the rest of the week being uncaring and heartless. It left a bad taste in his mouth and Darien vowed that he would never be part of such hypocrisy, but for Serena he was willing to try. Aside from that he was genuinely curious about modern day human trafficking issues that still existed in the world today. He finally saw Beryl near the door and took a deep breath before getting out of his car. "Hey," he said shortly when he got to the door.

"Hey yourself," she replied. She smoothed out the purple blouse she was wearing. "You know we don't have to stay long if you don't want to. We could just make an appearance, say you were there, then skip out to do something more fun."

"If you didn't want to come you could've just stayed home."

"And miss hanging out with you?" She started to loop her arm through his, but he pulled his arm away.

Darien started following other people who were going inside while Beryl tagged along. He was glad he didn't over or underdress for the occasion as he noticed what everyone else was wearing. Serena had told him a while ago that most people dressed casually at her church, but he didn't want to be disrespectful so he opted for a polo shirt and khakis. Most people had the same semi-casual attire so he didn't feel out of place. He followed the crowd into a place called the fellowship hall where Serena's flyer said the benefit would be held. It was a spacious room set up like an art gallery full of various displays and exhibits and he also noticed a stage set up in the middle of the room with a guitar ready to play. "Wow," he said as someone handed him a program.

"They really went all out, didn't they?" Beryl commented as she briefly examined the program.

Darien followed the guide on the program and stopped at each display. Beryl tried to hurry him along, but he took his time reading all the information about instances of human trafficking happening in the United States and around the world. "Look at this," he said to Beryl as he stopped at a table. Various shades of colored paper and envelopes were on the table for people to write letters and notes to former trafficking victims. The notes and letters were to be sent to various restoration shelters where men, women, and children resided while they got the help they needed. It looked like there were already many boxes full of notes.

Beryl glanced at the table as she played with her hair. "That's nice."

Darien shook his head and decided to take the time to write a note. As soon as he was done he folded it up and placed it in one of the boxes. A girl standing nearby handed him a broken chain link with a note attached. "God bless you," she said with a smile.

Darien smiled politely as he took the chain link from her. He read the note to himself. A reminder that there is still hope for freedom today. "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things." 1 Corinthians 13:7

"Oh, did you just write a note, darling?" a female voice asked.

Darien turned around and found an elderly lady standing beside him with a smile on her face. "Yes, ma'am," he answered. Beryl found her way beside him eyeing the woman curiously.

"How wonderful! I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting you, honey. My name is Phyllis and you are…?"

"I'm Darien. It's nice to meet you, ma'am."

"And I'm Beryl, Darien's date for the evening," Beryl announced. Darien glared at her.

"And what brings you here tonight? I know everyone in this church and I certainly haven't seen you before, although it is wonderful to have so many guests joining us."

"My friend Serena is my partner for a sociology project at school and she invited me," Darien explained. "It sounded interesting and I decided to come check it out. Beryl just decided to tag along."

"Oh, Serena is such a sweetheart and I'm so glad you have the pleasure of sharing a friendship with her. How can I be praying for you, sugar?"

"Come on, Darien," Beryl said quickly. "Let's go see something else." She started pulling him along, but Darien stopped her.

"Thank you for the offer, ma'am, but we're all right," he said politely.

She shrugged. "Well I can't force something on you that you don't want, right? But I know God will reveal Himself to you in time." She gave him and Beryl individual hugs. "God bless you, dear ones." Darien watched her greet some other people and smiled. She seemed like a really sweet lady and it was nice to see that she wasn't the judgmental type.

"What a creepy old lady," Beryl commented. "Seriously, Darien, you got to see all the displays so you should have enough information for your project. Let's leave."

Darien rolled his eyes at her. "If you're bored, you can leave. I haven't even seen Serena yet." Beryl sighed but she stayed with him while he started looking for her.

"Ladies and gentlemen," a man said from the stage area. "Thank you so much for joining us for our Night of Freedom benefit. For those of you who don't know, my name is Eric I am the senior pastor of this church and it is a great honor to host this event joining our partners in the End It movement. It's important to raise awareness and to speak up for those who can't speak for themselves. As James 1:27 says, 'Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.' I know we can't visit everyone in need, but doing something like this using the gifts God has given us is a blessing that brings pleasure to our Father's heart. So far it looks like we've raised a little over $2000 between the last two nights." Applause filled the room and Pastor Eric raised a hand to stop them. "That's good and all, but we can't stop there. Please continue to pray for those in need and consider how God may be leading you to take action. It could be giving money or it could be something else, God only knows, but consider that as we have a special time of musical ministry." Everyone applauded as Serena and another young guy with brown hair came to the stage. The guy took a seat as he picked up the guitar while Serena stepped up to the microphone.

"Found her," Beryl said sarcastically. "And what do you know? No Meatballs tonight."

Darien barely heard her because he was too busy studying Serena. She looked appealing in a simple pink dress and as Beryl pointed out she wasn't wearing the buns she usually wore on top of her head. Instead her hair was flowing freely reaching her shoulders decorated with two clips. She made eye contact with him and smiled brightly at him before she spoke into the microphone.

"Thank you so much, Pastor," she said. "This song is dedicated to the men, women, and children still enslaved today." She closed her eyes as her friend started playing a song on guitar to concentrate before she began to sing. Darien was surprised. He remembered that Serena said she loved to sing, but he certainly wasn't expecting to hear the voice that came out of her mouth. Of course it had been a while since he had been to church and this song didn't sound like any hymn he ever heard before, but it was one of the most beautiful things he ever heard in his entire life. He listened carefully to the words but it was the chorus that resounded in his mind. Great God, wrap your arms around this world tonight, around the world tonight. And when you hear our cries sing through the night and we will join in your song and sing along, yeah we'll sing along.

Everyone applauded when the song ended and went back to looking at all the displays or catching up with friends. "That was nice," Beryl commented. "Did you know she was going to sing?"

Darien shook his head. "She didn't mention it."

Beryl checked the time. "So you saw her. Can we go now?"

"I'm going to say hello." He headed toward the stage where he saw Serena talking to a bunch of people who beat him to it. He waited his turn and passed the time by admiring the guitar on stage. Even though it was a simple song he was impressed with the guitar player's skill level and liked that the guitar was black. The guitar player came back on stage and smiled at him when he saw him admiring his guitar. "Nice guitar."

"Thanks man," he replied as he put it in his case. "I just got it for my birthday last week. You play?"

"A little bit. I started teaching myself over the summer last year."

"Nice! I'm Alan by the way," he said extending his hand towards him.

"I'm Darien," he replied shaking his hand. "How long have you been playing?"

"Since I was 13 so about 5 years now. We should get together and jam sometime. If you're interested, some of us get together for spontaneous jam sessions after youth group on Wednesday nights. You're welcome to join us."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

"There you are, Darien," Beryl said seeming to appear out of nowhere. She noticed Alan and smiled. "Hello. I'm Beryl."

"Hey, I'm Alan." He checked the time. "I'd love to stay and chat, but my girlfriend is waiting for me and I promised her a late date. It was nice meeting you." He picked up his guitar and waved before leaving.

Darien waved back and turned to where he last saw Serena. She was hugging the elderly lady he and Beryl met earlier and it looked like she was telling her goodbye. She finally saw him and smiled as she hurried towards him.

"You made it," she exclaimed as she hugged him tightly. "I thought you had to work."

"I did, but I got my boss to rearrange my schedule so I could surprise you."

Serena smiled widely and hugged him again. "That's so sweet of you."

"Well I knew this was important to you. Plus, I thought it was fair since you're coming to my karate tournament next week."

She smiled and then noticed Beryl for the first time. "Oh, Beryl you made it too." She started to hug her, but Beryl backed away.

"I'm not really a hugger," Beryl stated. "You sounded nice."

"Very nice," Darien added. "Why didn't you tell me you had a big solo?"

"Thank you for the compliments, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want this to be all about me. Did you enjoy yourself? If I had known you were coming I would have been out here introducing you to everyone."

"It's ok. This wasn't exactly what I was expecting and I was able to learn a lot."

"Mrs. Phyllis was telling me you wrote a note for someone in one of the restoration shelters."

Darien shrugged. "I just wanted to do something tangible to help the cause aside from donating money."

Serena smiled. "Someone's going to be very encouraged by you and I know everyone is going to be blessed by all the letters we're sending them."

Darien smiled back. "I'm glad to be a part of it." He continued looking at her admiring how pretty she looked.

Beryl noticed what he was doing and cleared her throat to break him out of the trance. "It's getting late and we have to get going."

"We drove separately, remember?" Darien said to her.

"Well can't you walk me out to make sure I get to my car safely?"

Darien rolled his eyes. "I'll meet you at the door in a minute. I just need to finish talking to Serena."

"Fine. I'll just go to the restroom while I'm waiting. See you later, Serena." She reluctantly left the two of them to themselves.

Darien sighed and checked the time. "It is getting late. I guess I should get going."

"Yeah… Oh! Before you go I want to thank you. Sammy told me about what happened at the Crown and how you helped him and Mika yesterday. He really likes her and it seems that whatever you said to him gave him some extra confidence so thank you so much for taking time to do that."

"It's no problem. I'm just glad I'm finally on his good side." Serena rolled her eyes playfully and Darien smiled. "Anyway, I'll see you Monday."

"Thank you for coming, Darien." Serena gave him another hug. "I'm so glad you're here."

"I am too," he said honestly. "See you later." He headed out of the church where Beryl was waiting and walked her to her car. She was talking about doing something fun, but he turned her down and watched her drive away frustrated that she didn't get her way. He sighed deeply as he got in his car and started his silent drive home thinking thought about everything that happened tonight. Even though Beryl clearly didn't want to be there he appreciated that she put forth an effort to be nice to Serena. He still wasn't sure how much was an act, but at least it was a start. Most of his thoughts came back to Serena. The song she sang was still in his head and as scary as it was to admit to himself, he now knew without a doubt how he felt about her. "It'll never work," he mumbled to himself. He turned on his radio trying to drown out his thoughts to no avail.

Serena came home from the church tired but satisfied. The benefit was a great success and she was also thankful to see Darien. Seeing him had been such a pleasant surprise and she couldn't stop smiling as she peeked inside her parents' room. Her father was sleeping soundly while her mother was reading in bed. "Hi, Mom," she whispered as she came in.

"Hi, honey," she said before putting her book down to hug her. "How did it go?"

"It was amazing," Serena said happily. "There were definitely more people than last night and last I heard we raised close to $2500. We still have one more night to go and I'm expecting great things. Darien surprised me and came too."

"He did?" she asked excitedly. "That's great."

"Yeah, I'm really proud of him." She sighed as a new wave of thoughts came to her.

"What's wrong, Serena?"

"Sometimes I worry about him. He's changed a lot since the beginning of the school year and I'm really happy about that, but I'm still afraid his heart isn't completely open yet."

"I know, but you have to be patient. Your job is to simply point Darien in the right direction and God will take care of the rest whenever He's ready. Don't worry about anything…"

"…but pray for everything," she finished. "Yeah… well good night, Mom." She kissed her on the cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie. Good night."

Serena kissed her father on the cheek before going to her room to get ready for bed. She continued to think about Darien and found herself doing that a lot lately. She was so happy they were growing closer together especially since that little fight they had a couple of weeks ago. But her heart was still burdened for him. She never forgot the day after school when he had a breakdown and how much pain he was harboring inside. He seemed to be ok, but sometimes she still saw so much hopelessness in his eyes that told her he was still lost.

As soon as she finished brushing her hair, she knelt beside her bed for her nightly prayer. "Lord," she started. "Thank you for another successful night. Thank you for all the money we raised. Thank you for helping Alan and I perform well. And thank you for allowing Darien to come too." She sighed. "Please open his heart to you so he can know you the same way I do. Reveal yourself to him so he knows that you are real and that you do care about him. I don't wanna worry about him, but I can't help it because he means so much to me. Please watch over him and continue showering him with your perfect love and care. Thank you. Amen."

A/N: If you're interested, the song Serena sang is called "Sing Along" by Christy Nockels. Also, if you're interested in learning more about combating human trafficking/modern day slavery, I'd recommend visiting End It Movement dot com. If you're not interested, that's fine too. Keep enjoying the story and look forward to the next chapter!