A/N: Thanks to those of you who reviewed the last couple of chapters and again welcome to all the new followers. Many apologies for keeping you all waiting, but school has started again and I haven't been able to post regularly. However, it's fall break so I have a little bit of free time to write a couple of chapters. I have plenty of ideas running through my mind while I continue with school so don't worry about me abandoning this story because I love it too much to let it go.

Important FYI for this chapter: For those who don't know, SATs stands for Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Many colleges and universities in America require students to pass this test with a certain score before they consider accepting you to their school. It generally takes 3 hours and 45 minutes because it's a 10 section test focused on critical reading, mathematics, and writing. Keep this info in the back of your minds as you continue with this chapter!

A month later, things were slowly changing. Beryl had stopped talking to Darien and his other friends completely and was now hanging with another popular clique. Meanwhile, Serena and Darien were still spending a majority of their time together getting to know each other as they continued work on their project. The couple stopped at the Crown every so often to hang out with Andrew, Mina, Rae, and Chad even though the group was still a bit wary of accepting Serena and Darien especially since Christianity was now a major part of both their lives and they felt like they had to be guarded around them. However, they were all slowly but surely becoming comfortable around each other even though there was still a long way to go. On a Monday after school, Serena and Darien met up with Andrew, Mina, Rae, and Chad at the Crown. They immediately noticed that none of them had as much energy as they usually did. "Why the long faces?" Serena asked as she and Darien took a seat.

"The SATs are coming up," Chad replied. "My teacher gave me the spiel today and I know that when I go home my folks are gonna lecture me about it again. 'You have to take the SATs to get into a good college.' 'You can't possibly find success in the music industry.' 'You have to have something to fall back on.' Blah, blah, blah."

"Yeah, my parents are getting on my case too," Rae added. "They want me to take the test again so I can improve my score. What's the point if I already took it?"

"You could get scholarship money with higher scores," Darien said.

"And some scores provide guaranteed acceptance depending on what school you apply to," Serena added.

"But there's no way I'm going to be able to make a good enough score," Mina complained. "I took the test twice and I did worse the second time around."

"And it doesn't help that it's all our teachers ever talk about anymore," Andrew added. "I'm not sure how much longer I can take it."

"So I take it you all are gonna take the SATs in 2 weeks?" Serena asked.

"Looks like it," Andrew replied. "Are either of you taking it?"

"Please," Rae said dismissively. "Darien probably got a perfect score and doesn't even have to worry about it."

"This will actually be my third time taking it," Darien corrected. "I did worse the second time too and I really need to bring my original score up by about 100 points."

"I'm taking it too," Serena said. "Darien and I have been studying with my friend Amy for the last week or so and it's been very helpful."

"Amy 'Super Nerd' Anderson?" Chad asked. Darien nudged him. "I mean, it's a smart strategy. Studying with the smartest girl in the entire county. How could you not improve your score?"

"You're lucky she's helping you," Mina said.

"I'm sure Amy can help all of you too," Serena said. "She tutors classmates and does group tutoring all the time. I can ask her if you want me too."

The group looked at each other. "I need all the help I can get," Andrew finally said. "I'm in."

"Me too," Mina chimed in.

"I'm down for whatever," Chad added.

"I guess," Rae said.

"I'll call her now," Serena said cheerfully. "I'll be back." She got up and went outside with her phone.

When Serena was out of earshot, Mina groaned. "We've sunk to a new level of low."

"Tell me about it," Rae added. "It's probably gonna be boring as hell…" she stopped herself and looked at Darien who was glaring at her. "Sorry, Darien."

"You should be."

"Dude, she just said 'hell,'" Chad said. "It's not that deep."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Darien explained. "If Amy agrees to help you guys, you can't talk about her like that."

Rae sighed exasperatedly. "Darien, I love you, but ever since you've been hanging out with Serena and especially since you've been on this religious kick you've been sucking the fun out of everything."

"But he's right," Andrew said. "Amy would be doing us a huge favor if she decides to help us so the least we could do is respect her. It's only fair."

The girls rolled their eyes as Serena came back in. "She said she can help you guys," she reported. "We can meet at least once a week until the next SAT and if you need any extra help you can come to the SAT prep course on Friday."

"Serena and I have been meeting with Amy on Sunday and Thursday nights. Will that work for everyone?"

They all muttered their agreement. "But that's when The Vampire Diaries comes on," Mina whined. Andrew gave her a look and she sighed. "I guess I can DVR it."

"Great. Darien, it's almost 3."

"Oh, we better get going." Darien stood and gathered his and Serena's things. "See you guys later."

On Thursday evening, Darien drove Serena to Amy's house after having dinner with her family. Serena noticed how quiet Darien had been all afternoon and it was bothering her that he wasn't being himself. "Penny for your thoughts?" she asked as he continued driving.

"It's probably nothing," Darien replied. "I just hope this wasn't a mistake and everything turns out well."

"It'll be fine," Serena reassured him. "Amy's used to tutoring all kinds of people and even though she's quiet she can handle just about anything that's thrown at her. And I'd like to think your friends are mature enough to respect her."

"We'll see about that." They rode for a little bit longer before they finally arrived at Amy's house where Andrew, Mina, Rae, and Chad were already waiting in their respective cars. Darien parked and got out before opening the door for Serena as his other friends got out of their cars.

Serena led everyone up the driveway to the front door and rang the doorbell. They waited for a moment until Amy opened the door and greeted them. "Hello, everyone," she said warmly. "Come on in." She stepped aside to let the group walk inside. "If you all could please do me a favor and take off your shoes, my mother would greatly appreciate it." They took their shoes off and followed Amy into the den.

"Is your mom home today?" Serena asked.

Amy shook her head. "She's doing the overnight shift at the hospital tonight. We're just waiting for Lita. She's in the kitchen finishing off some treats for us."

"Ooh, is she making more tarts?" Darien asked. "The ones she made for lunch were amazing and I wouldn't mind having more."

"She told me not to ruin the surprise."

"Sounds about right," Serena said with a laugh.

"What's surprising to me is that Butch Lita can actually bake," Darien heard Mina whisper to Rae.

"What was that, Mina?" Darien asked.

Mina rolled her eyes at him. "Girl talk. No boys allowed."

"They're finished!" Lita exclaimed as she came out of the kitchen with a tray full of cupcakes. She was still wearing her green and pink apron that was littered with some flour and frosting. She set the cupcakes on the table in the middle of the room. "I just decided to bring them out so you didn't have to keep waiting. As soon as I take this thing off I'll be ready."

Chad snickered. "Nice apron, Betty Crocker."

Lita scowled and narrowed her eyes at Chad. "Sorry did you say something, Mullet Rock?"

"This is so not a mullet!"

"Well if you know what's good for you you'll stop calling me names, got it?"

He saluted her sarcastically. "So are these 'special' cupcakes or nah?"

Lita was about to come after him, but Amy held her back while Darien smacked Chad upside the head. "Please stop this nonsense," Amy scolded. "If you're just going to spend the entire evening bickering and arguing then you can leave. I won't put up with it. That goes for all of you, understood?"

Lita looked down and sighed. "I'm sorry, Ames. I'll be right back." She glared at Chad before going back into the kitchen. She returned less than a minute later and took a seat beside Amy.

"Now," Amy began. "I understand you all need help prepping for the SAT and meeting together as a group is a good strategy. We all have something we can bring to the table and my strategy for tutoring is going to focus heavily on all of us using our strengths to help each other. To begin, I would like for everyone to answer these practice SAT questions. Take one of these and pass it around." She handed Lita a small stack of papers to pass around. "The questions are different on every worksheet, but each of the questions represent different subjects likely to be on the real test itself. I'd like for all of you to answer the questions as best you can and then return the worksheet to me so I can check your answers."

"I feel like I'm back at school getting ready to take a pop quiz," Chad muttered.

"How is doing an individual test going to help everyone if all of our worksheets are different?" Andrew asked.

"This is practice," Amy explained. "Once I check everyone's answers it'll give me a chance to assess everyone's strengths and weaknesses. Based on that information I'll partner you all up and then you can help each other on the questions you get wrong."

"I guess that makes sense. Can we start?"

"Of course. I'm taking one too." They all worked quietly on their practice tests and sporadically turned them back in to Amy within the next 20 minutes. "Is that everyone?" She looked through the worksheets and saw everyone's papers. "Great. I should be done checking these and partnering everyone fairly quickly."

"Is this the s'mores cupcake you were talking about earlier?" Darien asked as he picked one of the cupcakes up.

"S'mores cupcakes?" Chad asked eyeing the cupcakes hungrily. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, sir," Lita replied. "Graham cracker bottom, chocolate cupcake, and marshmallow crème filling. It's really not that hard."

"What she isn't telling you is that she made all of these from scratch," Serena said proudly.

"There's also some strawberry shortcake and key lime flavored ones too. I didn't know what everyone liked so I just made all of them. Stop staring and dig in."

Everyone grabbed their preferred cupcake and started eating. "Oh my God," Chad exclaimed with his mouth full of chocolate. "This is amazing!"

"Wow!" Rae said as she ate her cupcake. "I love the strawberry pieces in the shortcake one."

"This tastes just like key lime pie!" Andrew commented. "Can I have the recipe?" They all stared at him. "Not that I bake or anything. We might be interested in selling them at our store."

"Would anyone like anything to drink?" Serena offered.

"Water."

"Milk."

"Any kind of soda."

"Anything is fine with me."

"Amy, do you want anything?" Serena asked.

"I'll have some tea, thank you."

"I'll get it for you."

"I'll come too," Darien offered as he stood up. "There's no way you're going to be able to carry all those drinks by yourself." He and Serena walked into the kitchen together and spied on their friends from the doorway for a moment. Amy was sitting at a desk grading the practice tests and half watched as Andrew took notes from Lita. Rae and Mina had moved closer to Lita without realizing it and Chad was sitting near the cupcakes working on his third one. "Looks like Lita's cupcakes were a hit."

"You know what she always says," Serena responded as she took out some glasses. "The way to warm anyone's heart is through their stomach."

"Yeah. Let's just hope this partnering thing Amy was talking about goes all right," Darien said as he took drinks out of the refrigerator. He set them on the counter next to the glasses Serena took out.

"You worry too much. Don't be anxious about anything…"

"… but pray about everything," he finished. "I have been, trust me." They both reached for the pitcher of water at the same time and accidentally touched each other's hand. Serena quickly pulled away and grabbed the milk while Darien smiled at her when she wasn't looking. While he poured the water he saw a tiny blush forming on her cheeks as she poured the milk into a couple of glasses. Unbeknownst to her, Darien had been trying to flirt with her little by little just to see what she would do in hopes of her getting the hint that he liked her and he was pleased to see that she seemed to like him too, but he still hadn't built the courage to come out and say it quite yet. More than anything he wanted that moment to be special to her and to show her that he actually put some thought into it so she'd appreciate it even more. Soon he thought to himself.

When they finished making the drinks, Serena put as many as she could fit on a tray while Darien carried the rest. They walked back into the den and was amused by the conversations they heard as they passed out the drinks. "Just give it up already," Andrew was saying to Chad. "You've already had 3."

"There's only one way to settle this," Chad replied. They both placed a fist onto the palm of their other hands. "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Andrew smiled victoriously as his scissors beat Chad's paper and took the last cupcake.

"I got them on sale from Claire's," Lita was saying to Mina and Rae. "I have them in all kinds of colors, but the pink ones are my favorite."

"I almost got that exact pair, but Rae convinced me to get these instead," Mina said showing off her golden feather earrings.

"I love that nail color too," Rae said. "Where did you get them done?"

Lita nodded towards Amy. "She did them for me at our last sleepover as a consolation prize for beating me on Just Dance… AGAIN."

"You play Just Dance?" Chad asked as Amy rejoined the group. "I won't believe it until I see it."

"Maybe we'll have time for a challenge later, but right now we have to get back to studying." Amy straightened the papers in her hands. "I finished checking everyone's answers and I have to say that all of you have significant strengths in different categories. I'm sure you noticed that like the real SAT these questions focused on three areas of learning including critical reading, mathematics, and writing. Like I said before, I did my best to partner everyone so we could complement each other based on where we each excelled and fell short. If this works correctly we can do wonders to help each other succeed. Amy started handing papers back. "Firstly, I would like for Lita and Chad to be partnered together."

They both groaned at the same time. "Do I have to?" Chad asked.

"My thoughts exactly," Lita muttered.

Amy gave the two of them a look. "I want you two together because your strength in writing will complement Chad's strength in mathematics. Next, I would like Serena to partner with Andrew. Serena's strength in critical reading will complement Andrew's strength in mathematics. Darien, I'd like for you to work with Rae so your critical reading skills can complement her writing skills. And Mina, I feel that your math skills will best complement my critical reading skills. I'd like for all of us to focus on helping each other with the questions on the practice test that were answered incorrectly. You're welcome to work anywhere you'd like downstairs and we can come back together in an hour, understood?" They all partnered up and dispersed throughout the house.

"Looks like we're stuck," Lita commented as she sat at the kitchen table with Chad.

"I'm not thrilled about it either, Betty Crocker, but the sooner we get this over with the sooner we can be out of each other's hair."

Lita rolled her eyes at him. "All right, Mullet Rock." She pushed her paper towards him. "Help me with this math because I suck at it."

Chad looked at her paper and smiled to himself. "These questions can be fixed with FOIL."

"Foil?" Lita asked skeptically. "What the hell does aluminum foil have to do with this?"

"FOIL stands for First, Outer, Inner, and Last. You've never heard of this?" Lita shook her head. "Well you use it whenever you multiply two binomials. Watch." He showed her a problem on her paper that was marked wrong and started writing. "You start by multiplying the first numbers in each set of parentheses… then the outer numbers… the inner numbers… and then the last numbers. You add it all together and then boom there's the answer. Try it."

Lita took the paper from him. "FOIL…" she mumbled. "First… outer… inner… last… add. Hey, I did it! They never taught me this at my old school. I can definitely remember FOIL."

"Right? I remember to add FOIL because I always add foil to my extra food I so I can save it for later. If eating was an Olympic sport, I'd have all the gold medals."

Lita smirked. "So what other tricks do you have up your sleeve, Mullet Rock?"

Andrew was staring at the paper confusedly. "Lamentation, ephemeral, laconic, crepuscular… how in the world do you know what all these words mean? Did you memorize the dictionary or something?"

"Not quite," Serena replied. "It just so happens that I've seen a lot of these words before."

"But how? No one uses these words."

"Some of them are in the Bible or hymns we sing at church and I've had to use context clues to help me understand what it means. But Amy told me to practice most of these words by breaking down all these lists by using a word or two of the day in my regular conversation. The key is using context clues, ascribing it to something meaningful, and using the words often."

"Is ascribing your word for the day?"

"Ascribed was actually one of my words from last week. Today my word is ardor. I tend to speak with great ardor about my relationship with Christ."

"Hmm, context clues huh?" Andrew looked at her carefully as he thought. "Well you talk about Jesus a lot and because you're a Christian I'd assume you have a good relationship with Him so does ardor mean passion or devotion or something?"

"That's exactly what it means. Very good, Andrew. I'll show you another trick I use and then you can help me with some math, ok?"

"Deal."

"… and that's basically how I write essays," Rae was saying. "If it looks funny or doesn't seem to make sense when you read it out loud then it's probably not right."

"That makes a lot of sense," Darien replied. "Especially the part about reading out loud. I'll have to incorporate that habit into my studies." Rae chuckled to herself. "What?"

"It's nothing. This just reminds me of all the times we used to study together after you first moved here. Sometimes I miss those days because things seemed so simpler back then, you know?"

"Yeah… we made a good team, but you and Chad make an even better one."

"So do you and Serena." Darien was about to protest until Rae held a hand up. "Hear me out. I know we've given her crap and she's still a bit of an oddball, but she's really good for you. Why aren't you dating her yet? And don't try to give me some BS answer about you not liking her because I know you do."

Darien sighed. "Because we need to focus on studying right now. It looks like you're having some trouble with vocabulary."

Rae crossed her arms. "Definitely like old times… avoiding uncomfortable subjects by hiding behind academics." She looked at her paper. "What does bellicose mean?"

"I suck at this!" Mina complained.

"You don't suck," Amy assured her. "You just need to focus. I notice you tend to zone out while you read the passages."

"That's because they're all boring and by the time I get to the questions I'm completely spaced out."

"Well let's start from there. It might be silly, but a strategy I use to make it more interesting is replacing the names in the passages with characters from my favorite shows… like Sailor V."

Mina gasped. "You like Sailor V?"

"I have every episode on DVD."

"No way! Me too! She's totally my woman crush."

Amy smiled. "So replace every person in the passage with Sailor V characters and see how well you do with the questions that follow this time."

Mina read the passage to herself and followed Amy's advice. She seemed to pay more attention and then answered all the questions with ease. "V for victory… right?"

Amy checked her answers and smiled putting up two fingers in the form of a v. "V for victory, indeed."

The group progressed through each of the questions at a comfortable pace and found that their partnership system was really working. They continued meeting together in the same manner for the next two weeks and even went to the SAT preparation course together. The day of the SAT finally arrived and the group waited anxiously in the hallway.

"I have a feeling this is going to go well," Darien said.

"Yeah well I'm still nervous as hell," Mina replied. "What if I bomb it?"

Amy put up two fingers. "V for victory, remember? We have to think positively."

"I'm definitely thinking positively about the lunch Betty Crocker has planned for us later," Chad said.

"And I'm certain lunch will smell delicious and lend us and olfactory clue as to what will be on the menu," Andrew interjected.

"Excellent word usage," Serena said earning a smile from him.

Lita smirked at Chad. "Well, Mullet Rock, if that's your positive thought, then my positive thought is looking forward to watching Amy kick your butt at Just Dance… and of course adding FOIL." Chad simply gave her a thumbs up.

The door to the classroom opened and the students filed inside. "Here we go," Rae said. "Good luck you guys."

The test took nearly four hours before everyone was finally dismissed. "I feel like my hand is going to fall off," Andrew complained.

"I actually feel good about it this time around," Rae said. "How long is it until we get our scores?"

"It generally takes 3-5 weeks," Amy replied.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I can't stand talking about this test anymore," Chad said. "Can we go eat now?"

"I still have to make the food, but it won't take too long," Lita responded. "I'm making stromboli and garlic bread."

"Well what are we waiting for, Betty Crocker? Let's go!" Chad grabbed Rae's hand and practically dragged her to his car as she waved to the group.

Lita shook her head. "I guess I'd better get there before he breaks in. I'll see you guys over there."

"I have to run to the library," Amy said.

"No way, Amy," Mina exclaimed. "You can't miss lunch! I was looking forward to a Just Dance marathon with you."

Amy smiled. "I just have to return a library book. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Good! See you soon." Mina and Andrew went in the opposite direction while Amy and Lita walked down the sidewalk together.

Serena and Darien looked at each other and smiled. "Who would have thought that the SAT would bring our friends together?"

"Not me," Darien admitted as he opened his car door for Serena. "It was a crazy idea, but it actually worked." He got in on the other side and put his keys in the ignition but didn't start the car quite yet. "Do you have anything planned for this evening?"

"I'm doing childcare at church for moms' night out, remember?"

"Oh, right, I forgot. Never mind then" He started the car and started driving towards Lita's house.

"I'm free next Saturday night if that makes a difference."

"Don't worry about it." Darien felt Serena's eyes on him and glanced to find her staring at him. "Stop looking at me like that," he said with a nervous laugh.

"You know you can't hide anything from me. What are you up to?"

His heart started beating faster and his palms were starting to get sweaty. This is it he thought to himself. "I... was just gonna ask if you wanted to celebrate finishing the SATs tonight, but then I thought 'duh what are we doing right now going to Lita's?' It was stupid so forget I said anything."

Serena smiled. "Oh is that all? There's nothing silly about that. We had a long morning taking the test so I'm sure all of our brains are a little scrambled."

"Yeah," Darien said with a nervous laugh. "Should we stop by the store and get some drinks for Lita's?"

"She'd appreciate that."

Darien could have kicked himself. He had spent so much time hyping himself up to ask Serena on a date tonight and he completely chickened out. But the more he thought about it he realized it was probably a good thing because he needed more time to plan something special for her and he was never good at spontaneity. Soon he kept telling himself.

A/N: I know... finally Darien's planning his next move with Serena. Stay tuned to see what happens next!