A/N: Sorry it's been so long everyone. Real life has kept me busy and I ran into a little bit of writer's block, but I'm finally back with a new chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think!

On Monday, Serena sighed as she left her study block classroom. She frowned when she saw yet another group of students giving her dirty looks as they passed her by. Something was definitely off today and she didn't understand why. She was used to people making fun of her on occasion, but it seemed like a lot of students in the school had taken the teasing to a whole new level and purposely went out of their way to ignore her, give her dirty looks, or call her names. It had even gotten to the point where she was receiving so many hateful text messages from blocked numbers that she finally had to turn her phone off. She stopped by her locker to switch out her books before heading to lunch and was startled by someone standing there when she closed the door. "Beryl, you scared me."

"Sorry about that. Do you mind if we have a talk?"

"I guess so, but I don't want to be late for lunch."

"This won't take long." Beryl sighed deeply. "I owe you a major apology. I was completely out of line on Saturday and I'm very sorry about everything I said. Darien and I just broke up and even though it was my idea to take a break in the first place I didn't think it'd be so hard to give him space and watch him spend so much time with other female friends. And I guess I miss hanging out with him like old times, especially since I was his first friend after he transferred here. And it doesn't help that I've been extra cranky since it's that time of the month. So I'm sorry and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

"I can understand that," Serena replied. "I accept your apology and I'm willing to put all this behind us if you are."

Beryl smiled and looked down at the brown bag she was holding. "Well if you're willing to put this behind us can we start over? Maybe we can start by having lunch together. I'd like to get to know you better, for real this time, since Darien seems to like you so much. If he can get past his differences with you then I'm sure I can too."

Serena wasn't sure about this. Darien never seemed to trust her and she knew Beryl could be quite manipulative when she wanted to be. "I would have lunch with you today, but I already promised to meet up with Darien and my other friends. You're welcome to join us if you want."

"I was kind of hoping this could be more of a private lunch, just us girls talking one on one getting to know each other better without any distractions. And I don't want Darien to know… at least not yet. He had a nice talk with me after you left the karate school on Saturday and inspired this idea in the first place."

Serena raised an eyebrow at her. "Then wouldn't you want him to know you're getting along with me? Are you ashamed to be seen with me or something?"

"No, no, no. I just don't want him to think that this is a trick to win him back or something. If he sees us together so suddenly he'll automatically jump to the wrong conclusions and do everything he can stop you from giving me a chance. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do and it wouldn't hurt to have another friend. So will you join me for lunch today? Please?"

Serena was still skeptical. She couldn't imagine Darien having a 'nice' talk with Beryl on Saturday, but maybe whatever he said to her finally gave her a wakeup call and she was ready to make a change. And from the way she talked about her drifting friendship with Darien it sounded like she was lonely more than anything. Having lunch with Beryl was a risk but she decided that this could be an opportunity to make a new friend and have positive influence on her life. "Ok," she finally said as the bell rang.

"Yay," Beryl exclaimed. "We can go to the courtyard for a little more privacy."

They walked to the courtyard together and took a seat at one of the benches. Serena started opening her lunch and looked to Beryl as she opened her bag. "What'd you bring for lunch today, Beryl?"

Beryl smirked and took out what looked like a large drink in a plastic cup. "Just a specially blended punch. It's for a special occasion." Beryl's mischievous tone of voice caused an uneasy feeling to settle in Serena's stomach. Her fears were confirmed when a few students came out of hiding to surround her. Beryl stood to join them as one of them handed her a paper. "Did you know today is a major holiday? It's called 'I Hate Serena Day' and we're all out here to celebrate." Serena stood and started to leave, but a couple of students blocked her path. A teacher walked by the door eyeing the suspicious gathering. Beryl smiled at her before placing an arm around Serena and walking her back to the bench. "Now, now, Serena, we can't have a proper celebration without the guest of honor, right?" She forced her to sit back down and then looked to the group. "Now why don't we start by telling our guest of honor how we really fell about her? Personally, I think you're pretty… pretty ugly."

"You're a loser."

"Freak."

"No one likes you."

"I wish you didn't exist."

"Idiot."

"You're close minded."

The students surrounding Serena continued saying more and more derogatory things to her one right after the other. She knew none of it was true, but hearing it over and over one after the other made her heart break as she tried to cover her ears to block out the noise. Unfortunately it didn't help because the students just came closer and talked even louder.

Darien was sitting at the table in the cafeteria with Amy and Lita tapping his finger anxiously waiting for Serena. The bell rang five minutes ago, but there was still no sign of her even though she told him this morning she'd have lunch with him. He started to get worried when he texted her and she didn't text back right away like she usually did. "You're worrying over nothing, Darien," Lita was saying as she served him a slice of her fruit pizza. "She's probably on her way."

"But it's not like Serena to be late," Amy commented. "She loves to eat after all. And besides that she promised she'd be here and she'd never back out without informing us."

"That's what's bothering me too," Darien said. "Has she texted any of you?" Both of them shook their heads no. Darien sighed and scanned the cafeteria to see if he could spot Serena. He briefly made eye contact with Rae across the cafeteria until she quickly diverted her eyes and started talking to his other friends minus Beryl. They were all chattering and kept looking in his direction from time to time and it made him suspicious. "Sorry to cut lunch short, girls, but I'm going to catch up with my other friends. I think they know something."

"I hope Serena's ok," Amy said. "Let us know when you know something."

"And tell her I have fruit pizza waiting for her," Lita added. "I spent hours and hours working on it last night because she said it was one of her favorites so she better come eat it."

Darien nodded as he grabbed his backpack and headed to the table where his friends were sitting. By the time he arrived silence fell over the group and it was obvious they had been talking about him. "Have you guys seen Serena?" He waited for an answer but no one spoke up and they all refused to make eye contact with him. It was completely out of character for them so he knew they knew something. "Hello? Did you hear me?"

"I'm not saying anything," he heard Mina mutter.

"Are you gonna tell him?" Rae whispered loudly to Chad.

"No way," Chad exclaimed. "You should tell him."

"If you know where she is then stop screwing around and just tell me," Darien said impatiently. He was not in the mood for games and judging from their behavior he knew he wasn't going to like whatever it was they were unsuccessfully trying to hide from him.

A few more moments of silence passed before Andrew finally spoke up. "She's with Beryl."

Darien's eyes widened. "What? Why?"

"Beryl put together some 'I Hate Serena Day' event on Facebook," Andrew explained. "There was a list of reasons why people should hate her and she invited people to come to the courtyard for a 'celebration' at 12:15pm. Other people invited us and we declined, but…" Darien was out the door before Andrew had a chance to finish.

After some more name calling and insults, Beryl finally held up her hand. "That's good enough for now," she said. "We can end on this lovely note." She pulled out the paper she was holding and looked it over before addressing Serena again. "Someone was gracious enough to create a portrait of you. We all pitched in to add some finishing touches. Have a look." She shoved the paper in Serena's face for her to see. Serena gasped. It was a picture of Serena's face photo shopped onto a scantily clad woman's body surrounded with by numerous handwritten derogatory comments. Seeing the picture brought tears to Serena's eyes. She did all she could not to give Beryl the satisfaction of seeing her break down right then and there, but once the laughter started after Beryl passed around the picture her resolve weakened considerably. She sat there too horrified to move and prayed this torture would end soon.

"What the hell is going on out here?" a new voice thundered. Everyone stopped laughing and turned to see Darien glowering at the group. He marched closer and snatched the paper they were looking at from someone's hands. Once he saw what was on it, he ripped it to shreds and glared menacingly at Beryl.

"It's just a senior prank," Beryl said innocently.

Darien rolled his eyes at her then the group. "You all better get lost before I show a teacher the Facebook page with all your names on it." The students grumbled and left the courtyard reluctantly. Beryl was last to leave but she lingered a little while longer in front of him. "I swear to God if you did anything else to hurt her…"

"I didn't, sheesh," Beryl interrupted. "It's not my fault she can't take a joke." She looked at the drink she was holding in her hands and slowly swirled it around a bit. "You never were one for fun, were you Darien? At least you made it out here for the last bit of the party." She looked up at him and smirked maliciously. "Have some punch!" Before he had a chance to react, she threw the drink she was holding in his face. Darien cried out and grabbed his face as the mixture of ice shards and soda hit him between the eyes. Beryl finished the job by pouring the rest of the liquid over his head while he was bent down before throwing the plastic cup at him. She laughed then finally left the courtyard.

Darien groaned and wiped his face with the bottom of his shirt so he could see, but it wasn't very effective since most of his shirt was soaked too. His vision was a little blurry, but he was able to open his backpack to find the spare sweatshirt he normally used to keep himself warm in his freezing study block classroom. He took off the wet shirt and tried drying his eyes and hair before putting on the sweatshirt. He eventually gave up on trying to clean himself deciding it was more important to check on Serena.

"Serena?" he said gently after taking a seat beside her. She didn't respond as she stared at the table. "Serena, are you ok?" That question combined with Darien placing a hand on her back set off a trigger as she covered her face with her hands and let the floodgates of tears open. Darien wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in his chest and cried even harder. He rubbed her back soothingly attempting to comfort her, but the longer she cried the more helpless he felt. Serena deserved none of this. He knew without a doubt this whole fiasco was Beryl's way of getting back at him for telling her off on Saturday and as angry as he felt about the situation he also felt very guilty. As he was thinking about these things Serena had finally quieted down and he had begun unconsciously stroking her back. "It should have been me," he said after a while. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," she replied with a sniffle still leaning on him for support. "If I hadn't been stupid enough to go with her…"

"Serena, don't," he interrupted instinctively pulling her closer to him. "You're not stupid and this isn't your fault neither."

More silence passed between them. "It just hurts so much…" she added. "Knowing that so many people hate me and think such horrible things about me."

"They're wrong." He looked down at her. "You're a wonderful person, Serena, and you can't let what they think or say about you get you down. You have to think about what's true." He sighed. "For what it's worth, I don't hate you. And if God is real then He has to think you're some kind of super saint or something. Hmm… Saint Serena. That actually has a nice ring to it."

Serena laughed weakly and looked up at him. "I'm not that holy, but I appreciate what you're trying to do." She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Darien." She let go of him after a while and pulled away. "Are you ok?" She placed a hand on his cheek and examined his face for any signs of harm. "I don't see any marks, but your face is a little sticky from whatever Beryl threw on you. I think I have some napkins." She sniffled and searched through her lunchbox before handing him whatever napkins she could find. "Did you get something to eat yet?"

Darien smiled at her as he tried to wipe his face off some more. He was always amazed at her ability to put others' needs ahead of her own no matter what else was going on. "No, but I'm all right." His stomach growled loudly and he laughed nervously. "Maybe I'm a little hungry."

"Then take some of my lunch." She opened her containers and offered her food to him. "I don't have much of an appetite so you can have whatever you want."

"Serena, I'm not going to take all your food."

"But you need to eat something."

"You do too… at least a little bit. I'm also treating you to a mandatory ice cream sundae after school. No exceptions." She smiled at him appreciatively. "Feeling better?"

Serena nodded. "A little bit. I think I can survive Mr. Peterson's class and looking forward to that ice cream sundae will motivate me too." She handed him half her sandwich. "Now eat this mandatory sandwich. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."

"Yes, ma'am," he said before taking the sandwich from her. He stared at her until she took a bite of her half of the sandwich then followed suit taking a bite from his half. "Lita made fruit pizza today. She was complaining because she spent hours and hours making it last night and she wanted you to know she had some specially waiting for you since it's one of your favorites."

Serena rolled her eyes playfully. "Fruit pizza doesn't take that long to make."

"Would you like me to get her to bring it out here for you so she and Amy can join us for the rest of the lunch period?"

Serena thought about it for a moment. "Maybe they can join us for ice cream after school instead." She paused and looked up at him. "I like it being just you and me right now."

Darien smiled. "I do too."

The bell rang signaling that school was over. Andrew waited for Mina to come out of her classroom so he could walk with her to Darien's locker. He smiled as she greeted him with a kiss. "I missed you," she said.

"I missed you too," Andrew said as they interlocked hands and walked down the hallway. "How was class?"

Mina shrugged. "I'm mentally done. I don't know how much more busy work I can take before graduation." They turned a corner and saw Darien closing his locker with Serena beside him.

Andrew hurried to catch up with Darien. "Hey, man. You coming to the Crown?"

"Not today, Drew," Darien said shortly. "Serena and I have work to do."

Andrew looked at Serena. She smiled at him politely, but her eyes were sad and it seemed weird to him since he was used to her being so happy all the time. He figured she was probably still shaken up about Beryl's prank at lunch. He felt bad for her, but he knew he wasn't guilty because he didn't even participate. "Well can't you and Serena tag along for a little bit before you start working?"

"Andy," Mina whined. Andrew gave her a look before she sighed. "Sorry," she muttered.

"Not today," Darien repeated more sternly. He took Serena's books and walked with her to the exit where he held the door for her before following her outside.

"Rude much?" Mina said irritably.

"You know he's pissed about that stunt Beryl pulled today."

"So? I mean I get it, but that doesn't mean he should take his anger out on us. We didn't do anything."

"I know," he replied. Maybe that's the problem. He quickly dismissed the thought from his mind and sighed. "He'll get over it by tomorrow after he sulks. Let's go find Chad and Rae and then we can get going." He held Mina's hand again and hoped that he was right.

After dinner at Serena's house later that evening, Darien was in the kitchen helping Irene clean the dishes. She sent Serena and Sammy into the den and Darien offered to help her. "You've been awfully quiet tonight," Irene commented. "Is everything ok, honey?"

"Not really," Darien admitted as he dried the last plate. "There's a lot on my mind."

Irene frowned. "Do you want to talk about it?" She sat at the table and motioned for him to join her.

Darien hesitated for a moment before he took a seat beside her. He didn't want to worry Serena's parents, but he didn't want to lie either. "My ex-girlfriend is giving me problems," he finally said. "I've tried talking to her, but she won't listen. Today she went overboard and now I don't know how to get through to her."

"Hmm… when you last had a talk with her did you speak with her privately about it?"

Darien thought back to Saturday. "No."

"And when you last talked to her did you speak to her calmly?"

"I tried to. I didn't raise my voice, but the more I spoke the angrier I got and then she stormed off."

"Well there's part of the problem," Irene started to explain. "It sounds to me like she's jealous and in general jealous girls are really insecure girls. I'm not sure what you said to her and I'm not trying to accuse you of anything, but if you want her to listen then you have to calmly speak the truth with love."

"But I don't love her. After what she did today she deserves everything except love."

"Darien," Irene said touching his arm silently urging him to calm down. "I understand that you aren't too fond of her right now, but she always deserves love and respect no matter how hard it might be. Think about how you feel about her not giving you the love and respect you deserve. It might be best to ignore her for now because she might not be ready to listen to logic or reason, but when the opportunity presents itself you need to be ready. She'll respect you as long as you respect her."

Darien mulled over what she just told him and thought about every interaction he had with Beryl after their break up. He called himself being nice by allowing her to continue hanging out with him even before Serena entered the picture, but he was always short with her because he was still mad at her after everything she had put him through. What Irene said made sense and he was sure they were both going to need time before he made another attempt to talk to Beryl again. "Thanks for the advice, Irene."

"Anytime." She looked down for a moment before meeting his eyes again. "Can I ask another question?" Darien nodded. "Did whatever this girl do at school today have something to do with Serena?" His silence gave him the answer she needed. Irene sighed. "I'll talk to her about it later."

"You're probably better at cheering her up than I am."

"But she's blessed to have a friend like you who was there when she needed you." She patted his hand and smiled. "Do you want any leftovers?" she asked as she stood up.

"No thank you," Darien replied as he joined her. "I still have plenty of food from last week I'm trying to finish. You certainly keep me well fed."

"That's part of a mother's job." She smiled and gave him a prolonged hug. "Thank you for all your help, sweetheart."

Darien smiled at her and left the kitchen. He peeked into the den and saw Serena sitting on the sofa next to Sammy with her cat in her lap. The television was on, but she didn't seem to be paying attention to the program. "I'm heading out," he finally announced.

Sammy looked up at him and waved. "See you later, Darien."

Serena quietly moved her cat and stood to meet Darien. "Let me walk you out." She walked with him in the hallway and stopped in front of the door. "Good night, Darien."

Darien hugged her and rubbed her shoulders. "It's gonna be ok."

"I know," she said quietly. "I just need some time."

"Get some rest. You can call or text me if you need to talk, ok? I don't care what time it is." She nodded.

"Serena, your mother's looking for you," Ken said when he appeared in the hallway. Serena looked at Darien and smiled weakly before heading for the kitchen. "Darien, may I have a word with you outside?"

"Yes, sir." He opened the door and followed him to the porch swing where they both took a seat. "Is there a problem, sir?"

Ken smiled. "How many times do I have to tell you to skip the formalities, Darien? You're part of the family."

Darien had to smile at that. Ever since the first dinner he had at Serena's house, Ken and Irene had unofficially become Darien's new set of parents. Ken later shared with him how he believed strongly in male mentorship since he didn't have a father growing up and Irene was naturally intuitive and nurturing. It was still an adjustment for Darien to have parental figures in his life who actually cared about him when he had been used to being on his own for so long. "It's a force of habit, sir… er Ken."

"I wish that was the extent of our problems." Ken sighed. "I was hoping you could provide some clarity for me. What exactly happened at school today? Serena hasn't been herself all evening, you've been much quieter than usual, Irene is about to have a talk with her, and then I saw the way you were hugging her. What's going on?"

It was Darien's turn to sigh. He got away without explaining what happened to Irene, but there was no way he was going to be able to get around it with Ken. All in all they had a right to worry since it was their daughter who got hurt in the process. "A group of students pulled a horrible prank on Serena at lunch today," he finally said. "They called her names worse than usual, humiliated her, laughed at her…" Darien closed his eyes and shook his head of the memory. "Even though no physical damage was done they completely broke her down. I put a stop to it and reported them to the principal, but Serena's still shaken up about it."

"What did the principal say?"

"Ms. H. plans to have a talk with them and then make them do some kind of public community service for the school to make an example for other students to show them that bullying is a serious issue. That's good and all, but even though Serena will tell you differently I feel like all of this is my fault."

"How do you figure?"

"My ex-girlfriend organized the whole thing. We broke up before the school year started and I tried to stay friends with her, but her jealousy has clouded her judgment and it got worse since I've spent so much time with Serena working on our project. She's never been a good friend in the first place and I finally called her out on it after my black belt tournament on Saturday. She got mad and I guess embarrassing Serena and throwing soda in my face was her form of revenge." He sighed. "If I had gone about this differently none of this would have ever happened."

"You don't know that," Ken said thoughtfully. "You could have done everything perfectly, but her being jealous is not your fault. You're only responsible for your actions. And it sounds to me like you've done so much good for Serena today."

"But it pales in comparison to the years of torture I put her through. And helping her just seems to hurt her more. No matter what I do it seems that everyone I get close to ends up getting hurt or worse."

Ken placed a hand on his shoulder. "Darien, I know what you're getting at and I don't like it. I don't know everything that happened to you in your past, but you are not the problem. Some things may have involved you, but you're not to blame for every time something goes wrong. Granted some of your actions have negative consequences but you aren't defined by your mistakes neither. You're fearfully and wonderfully made for such a time as this and your life has purpose. No matter how bad it gets I don't ever want you to think your life is meaningless or worthless, do you understand?"

Darien nodded somewhat surprised that Ken was able to voice the concerns lingering in the back of his mind. "Yes, sir."

"And as for Serena? She's a very resilient person and she'll be just fine. Worrying about her so much is just going to drive you crazy so make sure you relax tonight too." They stood together and Darien prepared to leave. He reached for a handshake, but was taken aback when Ken pulled him into a hug instead. "Thank you for caring so much for my daughter. Good night, son."

"Goodnight, Ken." He waved at him and headed home for the evening thankful for the gift that was Serena's family and hoped that Ken was right about Serena's resiliency.

To be continued… special thanks to everyone who has been following, favoriting, and reviewing this story!