AN: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, and those few who reviewed every chapter; Railway Station, merangelgal, BeeDiddy, Unknown For Some Reason, tikapatel, EvaC, crescent-starchild09, Serenity2012, Linata Risako Sadayo and anyone else I've forgotten (sorry XD)!
Disclaimer: I don't own squat. Kaitlyn Fall beta'd this story and I'm very, very grateful! So should you be.
Serena jolted awake, panting heavily. She shielded her eyes as a bright light attacked her vision. Oh god, was she dead? Was this the white light? She was dead, wasn't she? Well great. Just great. She didn't even get a chance to – hey, wait a minute... What's that? Serena sniffed, much like a blind rabbit would.
Pancakes? Blueberry pancakes? This was heaven!
A loud rapping noise made her jump. "Serena, it's time to get up, darling, you're going to be late!"
Serena's eyes pooled with tears. That sounded like her mum. Her dear old mum, whom she missed dearly. Or maybe it was a hallucination, her mind giving her something familiar to ease her into this strange place. She took a brave breath and opened her eyes. Wow. It looked exactly like her old room. Right down to the stuffed bunny collection she had clumped together in the corner. Maybe being dead wasn't so bad after all...
As she cheerily threw her blankets off, she realised something with dread. Darien. Was he here? Had he made it to heaven? She knew he hadn't exactly been a gentleman when they'd first met, but he'd risked his life for her, and so many others... That had to count for something... Right?
The door opened and her mother stuck her head in. "Serena, get out of – oh, you're up. Well hurry up dear, you're going to be late for school if you don't get a move on."
"School?" Serena wrinkled her nose. Her mother sighed and opened the door fully, carefully regarding her daughter.
"Are you all right, dear? You look a little pale."
Serena forced a smile. "Sure, I'm fine. I was just wishing for some pancakes, that's all." She looked around her room as if expecting pancakes to appear.
"Well if you want breakfast, get dressed first," her mother said sternly before turning to leave. The door slammed shut and Serena stared at it, confused.
"Well this heaven sucks," she murmured. "A girl can't even get her food delivered." She shrugged and searched for her uniform. It was draped over her desk, right where she usually left it.
"Dress me!" she commanded to the empty room, clapping her hands for added effect. When nothing happened, she grumbled and began dressing manually.
As the blonde descended to the kitchen table, dressed and packed for school, her family froze.
"S...Serena? Is that you?" her brother Sammy asked with wide eyes, feigning shock. He checked his watch. "Up before 8 a.m.? WOW! Hell must've frozen over."
Serena made a face at him and ruffled his hair, something she'd rarely done before. This time it really did shock Sammy. Serena grabbed two pieces of toast and decided she'd rather walk to 'school' – again, something she'd rarely done before. At least she could relax more here, in this strange heaven. Maybe heaven was just supposed to imitate life, keep her in familiar territory; keep her happy.
She kissed her mother goodbye, waved to her father, who was peeking over the top of his newspaper, and grabbed her schoolbag.
"Bye mum! Bye dad! Bye Sammy!"
Serena skipped out the door and whistled as she began the short trek to Juuban. Without noticing it, Serena managed to avoid every disaster she'd usually encounter. She hopped over the cracked pavement, made wide arcs around street corners and sidestepped harried-looking businessmen who weren't paying attention to where they were going.
"Hmm, how rude," Serena muttered to herself as she watched a man bump into a pregnant woman and not apologise. Why did she have the feeling something wasn't right here?
After she'd made it to her seat, with ten minutes to spare before class started, Miss Haruna walked in.
"Serena?" the teacher asked, startled. She glanced at the clock on the wall. "You're... You're early!"
Serena gave her a funny look. "Uh... Sorry?" she tried.
Miss Haruna shook her head and began muttering to herself, to which had Serena deep in thought. Wasn't she dead? Wasn't this heaven? Why was everyone acting like she was the strange one? The lesson began, but the blonde was so caught up in her thoughts she paid no attention. It wasn't until a familiar question caught her ears.
"Now who can tell me what Miss Delta meant when she said ..."
Serena's hand was up before her teacher had even finished her question.
"Uh, yes Serena?"
"She was referring to the irony of the situation, where everything was exactly the same, and yet not, because it had been repeated, even after all those déjà vu incidents that the characters hadn't realised yet."
To say that the class was surprised was putting it mildly. Miss Haruna stood frozen by the blackboard, a piece of chalk hovering in one hand, and the book in her other. "Y-Yes..." she stammered. "Yes, exactly. Well done Serena! You've done your homework. Now..."
Serena slid down further in her seat as a few classmates continued staring at her. By the time they'd looked away, she was almost nose to nose with her desk. She stayed like that for the remainder of the English lesson, until a piece of paper was slapped onto her desk.
"Surprise geometry test today, class!" Miss Haruna announced cheerfully. She checked the clock. "You have forty minutes, starting now."
Serena turned the paper over, and her suspicions were confirmed. This was the same test she'd done... the day she'd fallen into the time void. Suppressing a shudder, she quickly filled in her answers, knowing all the correct ones, and once she'd handed her paper back, the bell for recess went. She grabbed her lunch and went outside to sit under the big oak tree. She glanced up at the sky. A clear blue sky and a cheery sun greeted her – not a cloud in sight. Not yet, at least.
Serena passed through the rest of the day in pretty much a daze. She would switch between zoning out and answering questions; and this was getting Miss Haruna nervous. It was like the girl knew every answer to her lesson, without even trying!
Free of an afternoon detention, Serena decided to stop off at the arcade before heading home. She was down to two explanations for the strange day.
One, was that she'd simply had a nightmare and that none of that Moon Kingdom stuff had ever happened. But that didn't explain how the day was repeating itself.
Or two, she had survived the battle and somehow been brought back home. But that didn't explain how she'd gotten there in the first place.
Of course, there was always three, that she was crazy and belonged in an asylum, but she didn't want to consider that.
The chime that greeted her arrival at the arcade doors made her jump in fright, which she laughed nervously at. It felt like it had been so long since she'd seen carefree Andrew, or had a vanilla milkshake. The arcade just didn't feel the same.
"Hey Serena!" Andrew waved at her from the counter. Serena beamed at him, a warm rush of affection swelling up within her. Before she could stop it, a bubble of laughter exploded from her mouth. She ran up to the counter, dropped her bag by her feet and leaned over, hugging the employee for all he was worth.
"Um. Wow," he choked. "Serena, are you okay?"
"Andrew, it's so good to see you again!" she laughed into his shoulder. He patted her back and untangled himself, grinning.
"Are you just saying that to get a free milkshake?"
Serena flushed. Of course, to him, she'd probably only seen him yesterday. "Why, of course!" she beamed, clasping her hands together.
"Coming right up," he said as he turned his back to her. Serena sighed and sank down on one of the heavily padded stools, swinging her legs back and forth. Seeing Andrew suddenly made things a lot better.
"Hey, Meatball Head," a deep voice greeted her from behind. Serena froze. Her fingers clenched the counter tightly and her legs stopped swinging. Wide eyed, she gulped and slowly turned around. There, standing with his hands in his pockets, was Darien Shields. He regarded her silently over his sunglasses before taking them off and settling himself down on a stool, one down from her.
She sat there, staring at him, waiting. After a few seconds of silence, he cocked his head in her direction. "Fail another test today?"
All the hope that had been building up within Serena crumbled. Her stomach dropped to the floor and a cold, plunging sensation washed through her.
Conclusion one. She'd dreamed it all. She should have known. There was no way handsome, arrogant and sarcastic Darien Shields had been on the Moon with her. It all made sense now. She'd had some wild dream, some fairly vivid déjà vu moments and was now sitting here realising what an idiot she was.
"Jerk," she spat out automatically, her mind slipping into auto control.
"Is that really the best you can do?" he smiled, unfolding a newspaper and opening it up. "You're becoming kind of a let down, Meatball Head. You need some new material."
"Speaking of new material," Serena snapped, raising a fist. "Why don't you throw that ugly thing out and buy a decent blazer?"
"I like my clothes, Meatball Head. I don't have to change my wardrobe just to impress you."
"Yeah, like anything you own could impress me," Serena sniffed, returning to the counter where her milkshake had just been placed. In truth, she wasn't really angry at Darien. She was more angry with herself, for letting herself believe some stupid dream.
"Whatever you say, Princess."
Serena choked on her milkshake and looked up. "What did you call me?" she half-demanded, half-whispered.
"A princess," Darien's voice floated out from behind the black and white pages. "You know, because you think you deserve everything?"
Serena deflated. She had no comeback for that; she'd thought for a moment there he was referring to...
"Well if I'm a princess, then I deserve only the best. Princes in tuxedoes do me well."
As she sipped at her milkshake, chewing the straw thoughtfully, she failed to see one cobalt blue eye slide out from the newspaper.
"What, no knights in shining armour?" he joked, watching with narrowed eyes for a reaction.
"Only those who are good at fighting," the blonde answered back quickly, before realising what they'd both said. They sat staring at each other for several moments, waiting for the other to either back down or admit their secret.
Serena licked her lips nervously, wondering if her suspicions were right. "Darien," she began sweetly, feigning an innocent expression. "Do you... happen to have a birthmark? By any chance?"
The newspaper was lowered and the upperclassman turned to face the girl fully. "Serena..."
"And a coffee for you, my friend!"
Darien groaned at Andrew's timing, but turned to offer his friend a weak smile. "Thanks, Drew."
Andrew's head snapped between the two customers. "Hey, you two weren't fighting again while I was gone, were you?"
Serena laughed nervously and batted a hand at him. "No silly! I was just telling Darien he looks ugly when he thinks. He makes his face go all like this – " And she smushed her hands all over her face. Darien's face drained of all colour. He grabbed Serena by the wrist.
"Come here." He dragged her to a booth and flung her in, quite ungraciously. "What do you know, Serena? Spit it out."
"What is wrong with you?" she snapped. "You can't just go dragging girls around and..." She trailed off at his murderous glare and sank back into the booth tiredly.
"Has... Has today been a little strange for you? Like, everything is really familiar?"
Serena picked up a sugar packet and began fiddling with it. "If by familiar you mean everything has repeated itself from.... a long time ago, then yes. Today has been strange."
Darien watched, transfixed as her dainty fingers toyed with the packet. "So... it wasn't some dream?" he whispered to the table. In the reflection of the shiny red tabletop, he saw her fidgeting stop.
"Darien," Serena said softly, inhaling deeply and reaching for one of his hands. "Was it... real?"
He met her eyes, sad and yet hopeful. "I think it was... It must have been."
"Wow," Serena exhaled, smiling slightly and throwing herself back into her seat. "And I thought I was going crazy today! When I woke up, I thought I was in heaven or something."
"No kidding," Darien smirked. "I thought I'd been asleep for a week, and had some psychologically-damaging nightmare. I avoided everything at all costs, and most of all, you."
"Me?" Serena repeated, offended.
Darien drummed his fingers on the table. "Well, I thought if it had been a dream, and I was acting all... Well I didn't know how to act around you. If I saw you. And when I came in here, thinking you'd be in detention for," he checked his watch, "another hour, I saw you and... just reverted to the old verbal sparring... Keep things normal, you know?"
Serena nodded, tears springing to her eyes. "So, did we die, or…? I mean, how can I live like normal if I have all these memories, all these images in my head? I don't even know what to do about it – it's not like we can tell anyone... Wait, what did you mean you didn't know how to act around me?"
A grin spread over the handsome teenager's face. "My, and here I thought you were catching on. Serena," He reached for her hand, holding in both of his own. "I meant what I said, you know. I love you. I just didn't know if it had been real, that's all."
"You... You still love me?" Serena whispered hopefully. Darien lifted her hand and lightly kissed her knuckles, in the same way he'd done right before...
"Of course I do, silly. Nothing can keep us apart now." His eyebrows drew together as he realised something. "But the question still remains, how was all that possible?"
They both turned to look out the window, where dark, black clouds were quickly gathering.
In the first draft, the first chapter was a lot longer. But unfortunately, most of it didn't make the final cut, which actually works better this chapter since you won't feel cheated that you're reading the same thing over again. But basically, this chapter is a repeat (in a different light) of chapter one. One more chapter to go, please don't forget to review!
xo
Carmen