Chapter 3: Changes in Life

In the arcade there was a young man with ash-colored hair, blue eyes, wearing sneakers, blue jeans, an orange sweater, and he had a yellow headband around his head. He was in the middle of a videogame. "Alright! Yea!" he said grinning. He was getting the high score to the new Sailor V game and he couldn't be anymore excited. "Soon my name will be at the top!" he exclaimed.

Just as he was about to beat the game, the screen turned black. "Huh? What the heck!" he exclaimed. Looking to his right he saw a girl standing there with the black chord in her hand.

She had waist-length blond hair, blue eyes, she was wearing white tennis shoes, blue jean shorts, a pink tank top, and a white over shirt. "Hey, what'd you do that for?" he demanded.

"You think I'd let you beat my game?" she asked, raising her brow.

He reached up to grab the chord from her hand when she pulled it away from him. "Give it back," he told her.

"Make me," she answered, holding the chord behind her back.

He glared at her, becoming frustrated. "I'm not afraid to hit a girl," he stated confidently.

"I'm standing right here with my arms behind my back," she replied smirking at him.

She just smirked as he stared at her. "Stop grinning," he told her.

"You can't hurt me even if you tried," she answered.

Before she could react, he suddenly grabbed her around the waist and sung her over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes and grabbed for the chord in her hand. "Give it!" he told her.

"No! Put me down you big buffoon!" she snapped hitting his back.

The manager of the arcade rushed over to them. "Excuse me! EXCUSE ME!" he shouted, making the two teenagers stop, "Sir, put her down and miss put the chord back in the wall and then I'm going to ask you to leave!"

"HE/SHE started it!" they shouted in unison.

"I don't care! Out!" he snapped, pointing to the door.

The young man sighed as he kicked a pebble after they left the arcade. "Great, now what?" he muttered. He glared at the blond girl.

"Thanks a lot Blondie!" he snapped.

"Oh hush you big Gorilla!" she spat.

"I got a name you know!" he answered.

"Do you even know how to spell your name let alone say it?" she asked as she walked by him.

He glared at her. "Oh you got jokes, Blondie? Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" he demanded.

"Sure thing hot stuff what's the bet?" she demanded.

"Arcade tomorrow, you and me Sailor V game. Loser pays 20 bucks," he answered.

"And declares the winner as the greatest Sailor V player of all time," she put in.

He held out his hand. "You got a deal…" he said slowly wanting to learn her name.

"Mina, Hot Stuff," she answered, shaking his hand.

"It's Kento, Blondie," he told her.

She smirked before walking away when a white cat chased after her and jumped on her shoulder. He smirked as he turned on his heel and walked away.

The next day, the two of them were standing in front of the videogame. Kento glanced at her as he put the money in and the game started. They both started playing with all they had.

Kento glanced at her to see that Mina was really into the videogame. They were neck and neck when it came to the scores. They started attracting crowds.

The game went on for a long time, but then Kento just smirked he knew this game like the back of his hand he knew how to get to the high score. He glanced over at Mina and saw that she was growing frustrated. Letting out a deep breath, he just grinned as he purposely lost his game, declaring Mina the winner. "YES!" Mina shouted excitedly.

Kento just smirked as he reached into his wallet, handing her a 20. "Thank you!" she said triumphantly.

"I declare Mina the all-time winner to the Sailor V game!" he announced as he playfully bowed to the blond.

Mina just smiled as she patted his head. "I want a rematch," he told her with a smirk. She was shocked by what he said. "Hey, what are you doing now?" he asked.

"I was going to go home…" she said slowly.

"Why don't I buy you lunch?" he asked.

She looked at him surprised. "Really?" she asked.

"Hey, you're a Sailor V videogame champ, lemme buy you lunch," he replied as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leading her out of the arcade.

"Uh…sure," she said surprised as her cat followed them.

"Hey, cool cat," he commented as he picked him up, "I like the moon thing on his forehead."

The cat let out a loud meow, his big brown eyes going wide. "What's his name?" he asked.

"Artemis, his name is Artemis," she commented.

"Cool, hey, Arty," he told the cat, putting him on his shoulder.

Mina just smirked a little. She could see her cat glaring at her out of the corner of her eye and she had to swallow a giggle as they walked down the street. "Hey, why don't you come by my place sometime? I have to babysit normally at night so I think having some company that's older than 10 would be great," he commented as his arm went back around her shoulders.

"And do what?" she asked curiously.

"Play videogames, hang out, whatever," He replied.

"Are you asking me out?" she asked.

He stared at her with a shrug. "Call it what you want, babe," he said smiling as he took the cat handing him back to her. Mina held the cat in her arms as he went to walk away.

"Kento!" she called out, making him stop and turn around, "I would like that."

She walked over, taking a pen from her clutch she wrote her number on his arm. "Call me when you want to hang out," she said smiling before walking away. Kento watched her leave with a huge grin on his face.

Mina was flushing as she went towards her house. "Mina, you don't know that boy," Artemis told her.

"So? That's what dating is isn't it? Getting to know someone?" she asked.

"I have weird energy vibes off him don't you feel them?" he asked.

Mina stopped walking and looked at her cat. "I never noticed before…but he's so sweet. I know he let me win that game," she answered as she looked at Kento's retreating back. She frowned a little. "I don't think he'll hurt me, Artemis," she insisted as she kept walking back to her house.

On the other side of Tokyo, Rowen was sitting in the park with his head buried in a book when Sage walked over to his friend. "Hey, what's going on?" Sage asked straddling the bench, gripping his friend's shoulder. Rowen lowered his book and the blonde's eyes grew wide when he saw that the right part of Rowen's face was black and blue. "What the hell happened to you?!" he exclaimed, turning Rowen's head so he could get a better look.

"Got home after he did last night," was Rowen's only answer.

"What did he do beat you with a beer bottle?" Sage demanded.

"Just his fist," Rowen answered.

"That's it, I'm done," Sage told him, "Your dad's going to send your ass to the grave, Ro!"

Rowen hushed him. "Why don't you shout a little louder I don't think the mother with three kids on the other side of the park heard you!" he spat. Sage let out a frustrated breath as he grabbed his friend's arm, hauling off the bench and practically dragged him home.

Getting him inside, he made sure his mom couldn't see Rowen's face. "Rowen, I didn't know you were coming over today, dear," Mrs. Date commented.

"Hi, Mrs. Date, just going to help Sage study for Friday's test," He replied.

"That's good, are you staying for dinner today?" Mrs. Date asked.

"If I can?" he asked.

"You never have to ask, sweetheart," Mrs. Date assured him smiling before going back into the kitchen.

"We'll be upstairs, ma!" Sage called out before pulling Rowen up the stairs.

He made his way by his sister's room. "Sage?" Satsuki called out as she got off the bed.

"Not now, Satsuki," he answered.

Pulling Rowen into his room, he closed the door before Satsuki could come in. He had Rowen sit down and went into the bathroom to grab the first aid kit. Then remembering something, he rushed over to the door knowing Satsuki would still be there and opened it. "Hey, could you send Lita up here?" he asked.

"What?" she asked.

"Lita, go get Lita," he replied.

"Why…what's going on in there?" she asked trying to look inside.

"Nothing, just go downstairs and find Lita, please it's important," he answered.

Satsuki tried to look inside but her brother blocked the way. "Please," he insisted. She gave up trying to look and went to find Lita while Sage closed the door.

Walking back over to Rowen, he started examining his friend's injuries. "Does this hurt?" he asked, pressing into his side when he heard a loud hiss coming from his friend's mouth. Sage shook his head slowly.

"Sage, don't…" Rowen insisted when his friend pulled his shirt up to see the bruises covering his torso.

Sage felt nothing but anger begin to fill his being as he looked at Rowen's injuries. "Turn around," he ordered.

"No, I don't…" Rowen started to say when Sage forced him to turn around and looked at his back.

"These are kick marks," he muttered.

"He never…" Rowen started to say.

"He's kicking you now," Sage said angrily pulling the shirt back down.

Rowen sat down when there was a knock on the door. Opening the door, Sage was relieved to see that it was Lita. "Sage, what's going on Satsuki…" she started to say when he grabbed her arm pulling her into the room.

"What you're going to see you can't tell anyone alright?" he asked her.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Sage sighed as he moved out of her line of sight and she saw Rowen's beaten face. "Rowen!" she gasped, "What happened to you?!" Rowen glared at Sage who just stared back.

"Traitor," he muttered as Lita examined his bruised face.

"Who did this to you?" she demanded.

"No one, I fell off the ladder cleaning the gutter," he replied.

"Yeah you should see what the ladder did to his torso," Sage muttered.

Lita gripped the bottom of Rowen's shirt, pulling it up her eyes went wide to see the marks on his body. "Rowen…" she trailed off.

"It's nothing, Lita, alright?" he answered, pulling his shirt back down, "Can we not talk about it anymore?"

"So what are you going to do? Disappear for a week like last time? Come back with your face bashed in so bad that it'll take you talking for me to recognize who you are?" Sage demanded.

"You know what?" Rowen snapped.

He stood up and glared at Sage. "Screw you, Sage Date! I never asked for your help!" he spat.

"You ask for my help every time you call me!" Sage answered.

"Then I won't call for your help anymore!" Rowen snapped.

"Fine!" Sage answered.

"Fine!" Rowen snapped back before storming out the door.

"FINE!" Sage shouted at him.

Realizing what had just happened, Sage chased after his friend, not wanting him to get even more hurt. Rowen rushed down the stairs and out the door while Sage raced after him. Lita ran by him and out the door. "ROWEN!" she shouted.

Rowen ran down the street ignoring both Sage and Lita's shouts for him to come back. He ran until his lungs literally felt like they were on fire. He finally stopped running, collapsing onto a bus bench as he was trying to keep himself from having a nervous breakdown on the side of the road. "Rowen? Is that you?" a familiar voice called out. Looking up, he was surprised to see that it was Serena, the girl from the library.

"Serena! Uh…hi…" he stuttered, hiding his bruised face from her.

Serena sat next to him, smiling a little as her blond hair fell around her. "What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"I…I went for a walk," he replied, keeping his eyes to the ground.

Serena frowned, getting him to look at her and she gasped to see the bruises. "Rowen, what happened?" she asked. He looked at her, ashamed of the truth. He didn't want this girl seeing him as weak like his friends did.

"I fell, clumsy me I was cleaning the gutters on the roof and I fell off the ladder, hit my face on a rock," he replied, "IQ of 250 and I can't stay on a simple ladder."

Serena smiled softly as she reached over and held his hand. "Why don't we go back to my place and I can get that cleaned up?" she asked, "That looks pretty bad it could get infected."

"Sure," he answered, wincing as he stood up.

Serena frowned, seeing that he was in pain. She held onto his hand as she led him back home.

She unlocked the door once they reached her house. "My family's out to the movies, my little brother wanted to see some space movie, yuck," she told him. Rowen couldn't help but grin as she had him sit down on the couch. She rushed to the bathroom, grabbing the first aid kit and came back. She opened it and looked at him. "Okay, I'm not really good at this. I got a C in first aid class," she told him.

"Well as long as you don't try to stitch me up I think we'll be okay," he answered, making her blush.

She started cleaning the cuts on his cheek making him wince. "That rock really got you," she murmured.

"Yeah, wasn't pretty," he answered.

"I'm sure it wasn't," she said softly.

She cleaned the cuts on his face when she accidentally bumped his side making him groan. She stared at him in disbelief when she touched his side again. "Please, don't," he murmured. Feeling concern rush through her, she gripped his shirt and pulled it up to see the bruises. His cheeks turned red as he stared at the floor again. She reached out, moving her fingers through his hair. "I don't want to talk about it, you'll think me weak," he murmured. She shook her head slowly before she hugged him.

"You're not," she answered, resting her head on his as he hugged her tightly.