AN: hello hello! i have NO idea why my link doesn't work. Please, you guys,
ask Andrea! =) I want my poor link to work. ;) well, school just started for
poor old me....and everyone else out there. 
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their
lives by altering their attitudes of mind."--William James
that thing up there ^ is totally true. take mamo-chan and usako for instance.
mamo-chan got a stupid whim in his mind to blow off usako to save her, and
he totally screwed their lives for a while. lol take care!
but thanx to......diana, lisa, julia <you're the best!> and everyone out there
that actually emailed me! thank you so much! <people...email me!!!>
disclaimer: no, unfortunately i do not own sailor moon.
Overcoming Obstacles- Part 5
by Sailor Em

  Darien and Serena made their way to the park. Darien kept his arm around
her shoulder, and Serena didn't protest. Then suddenly realization dawned
upon her.   "Oh my god! Darien!"
   "what is it Serena?! Tell me!" he exclaimed, worried.   "We left the cafe."
   "And so......"   "I was on a date with my friends and..." she prodded.
   It hit him. "ohmigod! Your friends saw us walk out. shoot! What are we
going to do? We just blew our mission." Darien groaned.
   "No! Not yet! We could just say you had met me at the bathroom and was
giving me a really long noogy on the head."
   "Yeah, that will REALLY work." Darien said sarcastically. He sighed. "Come 
on, let's just keep on going." 
   "But Darien..." she persisted. "This might be the downfall of our
matchmaking career! We might not be able to pull it off, and our best
friends will never fall in love. And that would be totally sad."   "Serena!"
   "What?!?"
   "Would ya please be a little more optimistic? You're sorta scaring me now."
   She laughed. "Dare is scared? This must be the end of the world!"
   "Well, I am a little worried too, if you must know."
   She patted his shoulder. "It's okay. It'll all work out fine."
   He pretended to sniffle. "Promise?" Serena rolled her eyes. 
   "Quit it, Dare."   "Waahh! Promise?"   "Fine."   Darien laughed. "Good."
   "Dare, one little bit of advice for you."   "And that is...?"
   "Drop the baby act. It's really nerve wracking, not to mention annoying."
   "You know you like it.." he shot her a smile and she almost collapsed from
happiness.    They got to the park and sat down on a bench. 
   "Dare, I really hope this works out. They deserve so much love." Serena 
said softly.
   "Yeah, I know. Andrew's been on the rebound since that freak Cyndi broke
up with him, and he's been hurting a lot." He patted her head. "But I think
everything's going to be okay, Rena. Just wait."
   Serena leaned her head on his shoulder. "I sure hope so."
   Darien kept quiet, thinking deep thoughts. "Hey," he said suddenly. "After
we get THEM together at the prom, what are we going to do? Stare at them?"
   Serena blushed. "I dunno...."
   "I guess we can just hang around together, huh? I think we look really 
cute together, although people will wonder what a cool senior like me is 
doing with a sophomore." 
   Serena always had thought Darien was perfect, except for one thing. He was
so self-centered. He was thinking about himself all the time, his status, what 
people thought about him. He had to learn how to look for what really counted,
not looks or whatever. She sighed. "Darien...that's not what counts. You 
shouldn't worry about what they think. If you're happy, then that's it. Those
people are really nothing. They don't control your life. What you like is
what really matters. You don't have to go with the flow."
   "You don't understand. So just forget it."
   "Yes, I would understand." she said softly.
   Darien turned his head. "No you wouldn't. No one knows what I go through.
I have to keep up some facade every day of my life to stay the way I am."
   Serena understood. "I understand, Dare. You have to be someone you're not,
just to stay in the position you are today. I know how that feels."
   "No you don't." whispered Darien. "It's just that--I'm popular because of 
my looks and my heartbreaking record. It's not like I want to hurt all those 
girls. They see me as a challenge, because I am handsome and single. So those
flakes all come rushing to me, like a race for the bacon. I hate it. So I 
blow them off. Hence my heartbreaking. And I guess I look handsome or 
something, because that is the only reason I got to be the way I am."
   "Dare...I..don't know what to say..It's really hard."
   "You wouldn't know." He said bitterly. "you are so popular, guys are
always chasing YOU."
   "Yes, but that wasn't because I abused people. When I first got to Azabu
High, I was friendless. I made friends with a couple of outcasts, and helped
them show their true selves. Together, we made our way to the top, showing
that kindness and true friendship is better than any fake hairdo or makeup. 
For you, you were brought up in the social circle because of your looks. 
People didn't look on the inside of you, and you got so used to that and
you base all your luck on your looks. You shouldn't be so full of yourself.
Just because someone likes you now doesn't mean they'll like you later. 
Tastes change. You can't depend on your looks or your hot car to get you
everywhere. Someday, someone is going to bring you down. And you'll have to 
learn the hard way. Then it will be too late."   Silence.
   "Uh...Darien? Are you still there?"   More silence.
   "Darien..I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lecture. I just--" Darien engulfed
her in a big hug.
   "Oh, Serena, you are just so right to me. You seem so perfect and content
with your life. You have all the friends in the world. Everything you say is
right, and just so true. You have a wonderful life."
   "And you don't? Everytime I see you on campus, you're walking with ten
billion girls drooling on you."
   "But I hate that! Those girls are so artificial...they don't care about
ME. They care about having the hunkiest guy in Azabu, regardless of brain
power or personality. I bet if I were a dumb person, they still would do 
that to me."
   "Dare...I think you're wrong.  Your smartness and personality are just
icing on the cake. PLUS you're cute. That's not so bad, ya know." Serenagrinned.
   "You're just TOO nice, Rena." he laughed, blushing.
   "It's been....nice talking to you like this. Gets to show the real you:
weak, vulnerable and full of feelings and raging hormones." Serena grinned 
shyly.    "Wait till you know all of the real me!" He laughed.
    Serena groaned. "Not to mention flirtatious. I swear, Darien, you are
so flirtatious that it drives me crazy!"
   he grinned. "Comes naturally, I guess."
   She leaned even closer to Darien. "I'm glad I got to know you better."
   "Ditto." He kissed her forehead. "Uh...whoops? I didn't mean to dothat."
   "It's okay. That was....sweet." They grinned at each other, lost in
the depths of their eyes. 
   'Boy, this guy is so beautiful.' Serena thought, inwardly swooning.
   'Serena is so gorgeous..and real. Not some flake like Christina.'   "Darien?"
   "Hmmm?" He said softly, still staring into Serena's eyes.
   "How are you and Christina?" Darien was shocked. 'It's like she's reading
my mind!'
   His eyes darkened in sorrow. "Same old, I guess. It's been hell since I've
had to stay with her, when I could be out with the one I really want to be
with." He looked at Serena hopefully, trying to get her to understand his
hint. He wanted to get her to know the true Darien Chiba, not the fake
all popular, girl-killer everyone assumed him to be. 
   "Oh, it's too bad." Serena said lightly. "I know how that feels, when you
are stuck with some dork and you want to be with a beautiful prince." 'like
yourself.' she added quietly in her head.
   "Oh, so you have your heart set on someone else, huh? I thought you and
that Melvin dude looked unstable."
   "Humph. I am not going out with Melvin the Martian. He's my mom's best
friend's son, and I was forced to uh...how should I say...PROTECT him fromharm."
   "Because he is such a nerd?"
   "Yeah, and because he is such a skinny guy that he probably can't protect
himself from other guys that bully him."
   "But you're slimmer than he is!" Darien exclaimed, not using the wordskinny.
   "Yeah, but my mom and his mom thought that if I stuck with him, guys 
would just forget about him and concentrate on me."
   "So they use you as a diversion? Don't you hate that?"
   "Well, yes, but I sort of pity him. So I would appreciate it if you don't 
mention it ever again." She stuck her nose snootily up in the air.
   Darien grinned. 'So like her...a caring heart.' He gently took hold of her
nose and wiggled it back down to his level. "Don't act like that in front of
ME, little girl."
   "Shut up, BIG boy." She wrenched her little nose out of his hands and
stuck it back in the air. Darien was mesmerized by her beautiful pink lips.
He watched them as her mouth frowned at him.
   "Darien...what's with you? You're dozing off."
   Suddenly Darien couldn't hold it any longer. He bent his head down and 
gave her a long, deep kiss. She gasped, stunned. Then returned the kiss just 
as deeply. Then suddenly, catcalls were heard.   "Whoohoo!" Screamed Lita.
   "Go for him, girl!" Yelled Raye.   "You guys, leave them alone!" hissed Amy.
The couple broke apart, blushing. "Uh...hi you guys....what are you doing 
here?" squeaked Serena. She looked around. "Where's Mina?"
   "Oh...she went to the arcade to visit Andrew. I seriously think she has
a crush on your date, Serena." Lita exclaimed, raising an eyebrow at Serena.
   "Oh, Serena, you should be more faithful to Andrew. After all, he's not
even your boyfriend yet, and you're already caught kissing another guy." 
Raye said insinuatingly.
   "Raye, DON'T START!" Serena screamed. " I don't like Andrew in that way!"
   "Bet you could like Darien like that..."started Lita.
   "Can it!" She yelled angrily. "He was just....giving me CPR. I had 
choked on my gum and stopped breathing. I'm glad you guys came to jerk me
into consciousness!"   "So, Darien, how do you plead?"
   "No comment. I was giving her CPR." Darien slowly lied.
   Amy laughed. "You guys, for once I believe them. You know Serena's sticky
caramel gum? That stuff is like glue. When it is swallowed, it can be deadly."
   "Oh." Raye was disappointed. 
   "So.." Lita said, not to be so easily dissuaded, "why did you leave us?"
   Serena was speechless, so Darien quickly answered for her. "Oh! Because...
since I tutor Serena, I was very disappointed that she got a 45 on her 
test today and wanted to have a talk with her. I was with a friend at the
cafe, and since I saw her there, I just took her for a walk so I could
scold her."
   Serena's eyes blazed, and Darien grabbed her hand, squeezing it hard, as
a signal for her to keep quiet.
   Raye almost fainted. "Did you say..Darien CHIBA is your tutor? When was
this? How come you never let your best friends know?"
   "Uh...because I was really ashamed of having a tutor. Anyway, I just got
him over the weekend. It's not like I had him for a long time."
   Lita snickered. "But now that you have him, you're going to stay together
forever."
   Amy nudged her nosy friends. "Leave them alone. I, for one, believe that
Darien is doing a good deed and they have no relationship at all. So quit
the dramatics and let's get going! I really need to study for my calculus test!"
   "But AMY!" Raye whined. "The test isn't for 3 weeks!"
   "Already!? I'm late!" She grabbed her friends. "Bye Rena. Bye Darien. Have
fun!" she winked at them and hauled her friends away.
    Darien laughed. "That was a close one!"
    "A close one?! You call that a close one? I don't know why we did that.
I just lied to my friends, and they just saw through it." 'Okay, I really
need to remain sensible here. Pretend nothing ever happened.' However, 
Serena was worried that it wasn't sensible that she still felt the pressure
of Darien's soft lips still against hers. She shook her head, trying to get
rid of the thought.
   "Aw, come on Serena. It's okay. We just gotta be more careful. Come on. 
I'll walk you home." He decided not to mention the kissing incident. She
evidently thought it was a mistake, and so he decided not to get hurt and
didn't mention it. 
    They slowly got off the bench, and Darien held out his arm to Serena.
   "Shall we?"
   Serena laughed. "We shall." She took hold of his arm and they left thepark.
   The next day, Darien called Serena.   "Hey Serena!"
   "You wanna go to the beach with me and Andrew?"
   "sure! this will be a great chance for Mina and Andrew to bond!"
   "yeah. I'll pick you up at......11 o'clock?"   "sure. see you!"
   Serena hung up the phone and ran down the street to Mina's house.
   "Mina! Mina!" Serena screamed!"
   Mina opened the door. "Geez Serena! Control the vocal cords a bit more."
   She ignored the statement. "You want to go to the beach with me today?"
   "Yeah!"   "I thought so. Well, can you come to my house at 10:45? I'll be 
waiting for you, okay?"   "See you there!"   
   Serena ran home and packed a beach bag. By the time she finished, she
was exhausted. She looked at the clock. 'Hmmm....10:40. Mina should
be here any minute.'   Sure enough, Mina knocked on the door. 
   Serena opened the door, and revealed a flushed Mina. 
   "Boy, Mina, what happened with you? You look like you just ran a marathon."
   "Well, I ran over here. I'm so excited! This is a great chance for me to
wear my new bikini I bought the other day!"
   "Good for you. I have my old one." Serena pouted. 
   "it's fine! That one is so gorgeous. I love yours!"
   "Thanks Mina. So...we have about 10 minutes to kill before our ride gets 
here."   "We're going to have a ride?"   "Uh....yeah. Didn't I tell you?"
   "No!"   "Oh. Well, DarienandAndrewaregoingtotakeustothebeach."
   "Darien and WHO?"   "--Andrew."
   "What!!!!!!!!!1" Mina screamed. "I can't go to the beach with Andrew
Crown! He will laugh at me!"
   "No he won't." Serena assured her. "I bet you're going to be the center
of attention while we're there. Don't worry. We're going to have the time of
our lives out there! Just you, me and Andrew!"   "Don't forget about Darien."
   "Yeah. and him." Serena groaned in fake displeasure.
   "How come these older guys are taking us to the beach?" Mina asked
suspiciously.
   "Weell, you know how close Andrew and I are, right?" Mina inwardly flinched
as she thought about how close they really were. Serena grinned. Her plan was
WORKING!   "Anyway, he offered to take me to the beach, since he was going with
Darien. I wanted someone to come with me, and they said I could bring you."
   "Okaaayy....but why did he want to take you to the beach?"
   "MINA! Because he is a really sweet guy, okay? Just forget about it and
come to the beach. Does it matter who's driving? As long as you get there,
that's it!" Serena exploded.   "Okay. Fine. Calm down, Rena!"
   The doorbell rang and Serena sighed in relief. She ran to her escape from
Mina and opened it.   "Hey Serena! Ready for OMAT?" Darien grinned.
   "Yup! Listen..." Serena grabbed Darien and pulled him into the closet. 
   "I had a really tough time getting Mina to come after I told her that 
Andrew was going to be there. I think she has this idea that he's going to 
insult her or laugh at her, so tell Andy to be extra nice today, okay?"
   "Sure. Anything you say, Rena."
   "Good." Serena pulled Darien out of the closet, and there stood Mina.
   "Uh...you guys...what were you doing in the closet?"
   "Nothing! Darien was just helping me find my jacket while I looked for my
sandals." Serena blurted out.
   Luckily, Mina was very gullible that day and accepted it.   "Okay."
   "Hey Mina! Dare and I will wait for you in the car, okay?" 
   Mina raised her eyebrow suspiciously. "Dare? When have you been calling
Darien, Dare?"
   Serena blushed. "Since...now. Just meet us outside, okay?" Darien grabbed
Serena's beach bag and went out the door. Serena followed him.
   "Boy, we gotta be careful when we talk. There are peeping vultures all 
around us!" laughed Darien.   
   Andrew was standing outside the car, looking strangely at Serena and 
Darien. As Serena helped Darien put her stuff in the trunk, she felt a pair 
of eyes boring into the back of her head. It was Andrew.   "Andy? Are you okay?"
   "Huh? Oh yeah! I was just wondering....why were you and Darien in the 
closet just now?"   Darien groaned. "How did you see that, dude?"
   "Uh, well, the whole street could see it. The door was wide open, for 
god's sake!"   "Oh. Well, I was just helping Rena find her jacket."
   "Yeah. Sure." 'These guys really need to get in touch with their feelings!
They keep denying the fact, and it's getting annoying! Maybe I should play
matchmaker, although the last time I played matchmaker, it wasn't really good,
but, they are my best friends. What the heck! I'll give it a shot.'
   Mina came out of the house, locking the door. "Hey Andrew! Sup?" She 
lugged her bag to the trunk. 
   "Hey Mina! Okay everyone, pile in the car! Dare and Rena, you guys sit
in the back, okay?"
   Serena grinned. "Okay!" exclaimed Darien eagerly. 'This is gonna give
Andy and Mina a good chance to bond!' he thought.
   Serena and Darien sat in the back of the tiny sports car.
   "Boy, what a tight fit." Serena noticed. 
   "Really? I think this is quite spacious." Darien said sarcastically. Their
knees were touching and their feet were squished together. Up front, they 
were having much better luck. Mina was at least 7 inches away from Andrew.   
   "So, Andrew, how's Mr. Wegener? I think he is so tough on the Sophs." 
asked Mina.
   "You should see him with us! He acts like some big king that can treat
everyone like dirt! Once he made me kiss his feet in apology when I coughed
in the middle of one his orations on Caesar!"
   They began to chat happily about the terrible traits of Mr. Wegener.
Meanwhile, in the back.............
   "So, what do you think the lovebirds are doing in the front?" asked Darien.
   "I don't know. Knowing Mina, she's probably talking about a teacher. 
Probably Mr. Wegener."
   "hah! And knowing Andrew, I bet he's gonna tell about the time Mr. Wegener
made him kiss his feet in the middle of his lecture!"
   Serena grinned. "We really know too much about our friends."
   "Yeah. Too bad, huh?"   "What are we planning to do to get them together?"
   "Well, I think we should do a game of hide and seek."
   "Dare! Be more creative!"
   "Hold on. Listen. Andrew can be it, and he has to find us. We can stick
together, and let Mina stay by herself. Then we can quit the scene, and they
can find each other."
   "How interesting! And when they try to find us, they can talk and realize
their affection! Oh, Dare, you are so romantic..." Serena sighed happily.
   Suddenly the car made a sharp turn and sent Serena flying all over 
Darien. He grinned and held her closer.   "I know." He whispered. 
   Serena blushed and smiled up at him. Suddenly she notice something a little
strange... "Dare..you got a tiny pimple!" she laughed.
    He frowned. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice it!"
    She laughed again. "It's okay. It makes you more human. Anyway, you still
are cute, with or without a pimple."   "Thanks." he laughed. 
   Andrew looked at the back, wondering why they were laughing so loud. To
his surprise, he saw them snuggled up, smiling at each other. 'How cute!'
   He turned to Mina. "We gotta get those two lover-people together. Look
at them!" Mina turned around, and she saw them embracing closely.
   "Oh boy! It's worse than I thought. Did you see Rena pull Darien in the
closet?"   "Yeah! And did you hear Darien call her Rena?"
   "And did you hear Rena call him Dare? They already have terms of 
endearment for each other!"   "We gotta set them up fast."
   "Yeah, but I'm going to the prom with Darien."
   "That's okay. I'm going with Serena. But we still have to make them
realize their feelings for each other."
   "Yeah!" They began whispering and forming the beginnings of a plan in
their mind.
   Half an hour later, they finally got to the beach. (far away, huh?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
so............what do you think? tell me tell me tell me! i'm sorry that
ending of the chapter kinda sucked...but i had to turn it in and didn't have
enough time. sorry! =)tell me anything at all! cya!~sailor em
(sailorgalaxia1@yahoo.com)