This story is dedicated to Emily (Gabe's hers)
Disclaimers: Sailor Moon doesn't belong to me. My characters and
this
story belong to me, and Gabe belongs to Emily!
P.S. This part should be a little longer than the others. (^.^)
* denotes thought.
Warning: This part may contain many rapid scene changes.
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Little Sister
Part 4
By Marie-chan
Darien and Ashleigh are driving up Serena's
driveway on his motorcycle. It's pretty late in the evening now,
and the sun has already set. They both look worn out, but Ashleigh
more than Darien. Serena comes out to greet them. She starts
to ask how it went, but then sees the looks on their faces. Suddenly
Darien looks angry. “Can you believe they actually suggested that
Ashleigh had something to do with it? What nerve!” Ashleigh
puts a hand on his arm and says, “Darien, it happened right after I got
there, and I was right inside of the entrance and the first one out of
the building. It's only natural that they reach that conclusion,
and they're just doing their jobs.” “But you were asleep!” Darien
retorts. “They didn't know that, Dare.” she tells him. Darien
starts to argue again, but Serena gets between them and tells them to stop
arguing. She tells Ashleigh to hurry up so they can get inside, as
they've held dinner for her, and Serena is starving. Then she asks
Darien if he can stay for dinner; Mom's definitely made enough food, since
she decided that Ashleigh was too skinny, and needs some meat on her bones.
Darien says he needs to get back to his apartment and study. Then
Ashleigh reminds Serena that they've got an algebra test tomorrow that
they need to study for. Serena groans but Ashleigh says she'll help
her study. Just then Luna shows up and says that no amount of studying
will help Serena. Darien and Serena fall down, and all you can see
is their feet. Ashleigh looks confused and asks what's wrong.
Inside, after they've eaten, Serena and Ashleigh
are studying. Renie is on the floor in Serena's bedroom coloring,
and the other two are laying on their beds with their books out.
Luna
is giving herself a bath on Ashleigh's bed, then curls up to go to
sleep Serena complains that
she'll never understand. Ashleigh gets up and goes over to her
to show her how to solve a
problem that she's been working on for half an hour. Suddenly
Serena jumps up and exclaims
that she understands.
Serena's mom and dad are downstairs reading a newspaper
and drinking coffee. Suddenly
they hear Serena scream, “Mom, Dad! Look at this!” Thinking
something's wrong, (that's what
it sounded like) they race up the stairs and into the girls’ bedroom
to see Serena holding up a
piece of paper. They ask what's the matter. Serena says,
“Look,” pointing to the math problem,
“I did this all by myself, and Ashleigh says it's right!” Serena's
dad takes the paper and looks it
over. “I don't believe it, she's right, Dear, the answer's correct!”
he tells his wife. Serena's
mom hugs her daughter and says, “Honey, this is wonderful! Let's
celebrate, I've got some cake
and ice cream downstairs.” Serena jumps up and starts cheering,
then they all go downstairs, with
Serena's dad telling Ashleigh that she can stay forever after working
a miracle like that.
The next morning, Darien and Ashleigh are on their daily morning jog, when Ashleigh suddenly does a cartwheel. Darien laughs, so Ashleigh starts to do back flips, while keeping pace with him. They're on the sidewalk, and they come to a house that has a stone wall that's about 6 ft. tall, but starts out low, then inclines. Ashleigh flips onto the wall and up the slope until she's at about Darien's eye level. The wall is less than a foot wide, so this is a big feat. She continues to keep pace with Darien, then pass him, as she adds more complicated flips and turns into her act. Suddenly Darien stops dead. He hears a quiet, high-pitched whining noise. He looks at the wall a few yards in front of Ashleigh; a section of it seems to be glowing from a beam of energy coming from the sky. “Ashleigh, stop!” he screams frantically, because she hasn't noticed that he'd stopped, or the noise and glow. She's almost at the glowing section, and still hasn't stopped. Darien cries out as she enters the glowing section, but she continues, as she still hasn't heard him. She makes it through the glowing section just before it explodes, and fortunately she is rightside-up when the blast goes off. Unfortunately, the shock wave loosens the stone one of her feet is on, and she looses her balance and falls off the wall. She lands on the sidewalk and hits her head hard on the concrete. Darien runs over to her and kneels down. “Ashleigh, are you all right?” he asks, very concerned. She looks up to the sky and the beam turns off. Ashleigh groans; she looks dazed. Darien's memories of Ashleigh being hurt flash. In the hospital, at the orphanage. He feels horrible. Then he picks her up and starts running back in the direction they came from. Since they're closer to Serena's house than his apartment, he decides to take her there.
The scene changes to the UFO. Rubeus pounds
on one of the crystals in his anger. “She
escaped me again, that little brat! At least she got hurt in
the fall, but she won't be so lucky next
time!” he laughs.
The scene switches back to Darien running on the
sidewalk. As he is approaching
Serena's house, Ashleigh begins to stir. She groans, and Darien
looks down at her, and tells her
they're almost there. He runs up to the porch and pounds on the
door. Ashleigh starts to squirm.
Serena's mom opens the door. She's wearing and apron because
she was cooking breakfast.
When she sees Ashleigh, she gasps and asks him what happened in a worried
voice. Darien tells
her that Ashleigh fell, but doesn't say anything about the wall or
the explosion. She tells him to
bring Ashleigh inside. They go in and he puts her down on the
couch. Serena's mom goes to get
an ice pack for her head. She tries to move, but Darien tells
her to stay still. Serena's mom
comes back and puts an ice pack on her head and says that everything
will be O.K. Then Luna
comes downstairs and jumps about 10 ft when she sees what's happened.
After a while Serena's
mom tells Darien to sit with Ashleigh for a while, and she'll be back
in a little bit. As soon as
she's out of earshot, Luna asks what happened, and Darien tells her
that someone tried to kill
Ashleigh again. Then Ashleigh puts a hand on her head, then says,
“This just goes to show you
where showing off gets you!” Darien smiles, because he knows
she can't be hurt that bad if she's
making jokes. Luna goes to get Serena and Renie up. A few
seconds later, they hear Serena
scream, “What!?” then Renie and Luna come downstairs and Luna tells
Darien that Serena
refused to come down now, because she doesn't want him to see her in
her pajamas with her hair
all messed up [I guess Renie doesn't care if Darien sees her like that].
Serena's mom comes back
out and asks if Serena's coming. Renie makes a snide remark about
how it'll be a really long time
before Serena looks even presentable. Serena's mom says that
breakfast is ready and asks if they
want some. Just then Serena runs down the stairs, in uniform
and all ready for school. She says
“hi,” to Darien, trying to sound casual, (as if she hadn't just gotten
ready in record time and raced
downstairs to see him!) She slides to an abrupt stop in her socks
when she sees Ashleigh on the
couch. “Ooh, what happened?”, she asks, then she tiptoes over
and puts a hand on the side of her
mouth and whispers, “Was it the Negamoon?” Darien says he doesn't
know for sure, but that the
attack did seem to be directed at Ashleigh again. Serena's mom
calls again, and they all go in the
kitchen to eat. Serena's dad comes downstairs and walks past
Darien and says good morning to
him. Then he does a double take and cries, “Good morning!?
Wait just a second, what are you
doing here, young man?” he asks suspiciously. “Calm down,
dear. Darien just brought Ashleigh
home after she had an accident.” Serena's mom tells her husband.
She knows what he is thinking
has happened. “They just got here 15 minutes ago, honey.”, she
explains. “What happened to
you, Ashleigh?”, he asks. “I fell when I was running.”, she says,
her eyes down. She doesn't like
lying to them. “But I'm O.K. now, I was just a little dizzy at
first.” she assures them.
After breakfast Ashleigh goes up to change for school. When she
comes down, Mrs.
Smith asks her if she's sure she's up to going to school today.
She says she is. Darien says he'll
walk the girls to school today (Serena's dad looks suspicious again).
They all say good-bye and
Serena's parents wish the girls good luck on their test today.
Serena groans and says, “Oh, Mom!
Why'd you have to remind me!” Serena's mom says, “Don't worry,
dear, you'll do fine!” Serena
seems dubious, but says nothing more. They go out the door and
start walking to school,
chattering along the way.
When they reach the girls’ school Darien says good-bye
to them and wishes them good
luck. He holds Ashleigh back to ask her if she's sure she's O.K.
She smiles and says she's fine,
and tells him to stop worrying. She says good-bye and goes inside.
Later, inside school the girls are taking their test. Serena
has a pained look on her face
and is concentrating very hard. Kids are handing in their tests
but Serena is still working.
Ashleigh and Amy have already finished and are sitting at their desks.
At last Serena exclaims
that she has finished, and jumps out of her seat. Miss Haruna
sarcastically tells her that's nice, but
to be quiet because not everyone else has finished. Serena hands
in her test and Miss Haruna tells
her to sit down again. In a minute, the bell rings and Miss Haruna
excuses them for lunch.
Amy, Ashleigh, and Serena go outside and meet Lita for lunch under
a tree. Amy asks
them how they think they did on the test. Serena says she's not
sure, but she thinks she
understood some of the questions. Ashleigh says she's pretty
sure she got almost all of them
right. Nobody even bothers to ask Amy. Serena and Ashleigh
open the lunches that Mrs. Smith
packed for them. Serena gets very excited because there's a piece
of cake in it with a note
wishing her good luck. There's an even bigger piece of cake in
Ashleigh's lunch along with a
note thanking her for helping Serena and wishing her luck as well.
Ashleigh sees Serena eyeing her piece of cake and
asks if she wants to trade pieces.
Serena snatches the opportunity, then eats her cake first. Ashleigh
starts eating her meal (the
normal way; dessert at the end.) Lita starts telling them about
a cute guy she saw the other day,
and how he looked just like her old boyfriend Freddie.
At Grass Valley Junior High, Mina is walking to lunch.
She turns a corner and runs
straight into a guy coming from the other direction. They both
fall down and drop all their books.
He gets up off the floor and helps Mina up, then picks all her books
up for her, apologizing and
claiming it was all his fault. Mina says, “No, it was my fault.
I wasn't watching where I was
going.” Then she sticks out her hand and says, “Hi, I'm Mina.”
with a smile. He shakes her hand
and says, “Very pleased to meet you, Mina. My name is Gabriel,
but you can call me Gabe.”
Mina is staring deeply into his eyes dreamily. *Wow! What
a hunk!* she thinks as she stares at
him. He has brown hair and green eyes, and a great smile.
He's the perfect height for Mina; taller
than her, but not too tall. He looks fairly muscular, but not
bulky. Mina's totally gone on him,
and there's hearts in her eyes. She gets control of herself,
and asks him if he's new at school. He
says he just transferred here today. Mina is still in awe of
him and doesn't even wonder why he's
not wearing his old school's uniform. She asks him what class
he is in, and Gabe says, after
pulling out a piece of paper, “Uh...2-2, I guess.” (this means he's
in grade 8 like all the girls).
“No way! I'm in class 2!” Mina exclaims. Gabe explains
that
he had been in the office getting his
file arranged during morning classes. Mina says, “I'll take you
there after lunch. C’mon Gabe,
I'm starving!” she hurries down the hall, pulling her impromptu lunch
date behind her.
At Raye's school, she is studying when she suddenly
gets a strange feeling, like something
bad is going to happen. She considers calling one of the others
on the communicator, but decides
against it, opting to wait until she has some definitive information.
She decides to be on the
lookout for danger though. A nun tells her to get back to work.
Back at Crossroads Junior High, the girls are chatting
amiably, except for Ashleigh, who is
sitting quietly, kind of picking at her lunch but not really eating
anything. The bell rings and
Serena notices that Ashleigh has eaten hardly any of her food.
She asks her what's wrong.
Ashleigh looks up and says, “What?” Serena says, “Lunch is ending
and you barely ate anything.”
Ashleigh says she's full. Serena cries, “What!? You didn't even
eat half of your sandwich, not to
mention the cake!” Ashleigh asks her if she wants the cake.
Amy says that it's not healthy to eat
so little food. Lita says, “Yeah, are you sure you don't want
the rest of your lunch, Ashleigh?”
Ashleigh answers, “No, I'm not hungry; you can have it, Serena.”
The girls stare after her as she
gets up and starts walking back to class. “C’mon, Serena and
Amy, we're gonna be late! You,
too, Lita, if you don't hurry!” she calls back at them. The girls
unfreeze and Serena gobbles down
the cake then hurries after them, calling for them to wait up.
To Be Continued.....
You wanna know what Serena got on the algebra test? Tune in next
week,
same time, same channel. (Actually, since next week's spring
break and all, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it out on time!)
See ya!
Marie-chan (^.~)/