I do not own sailor moon, and after reading this story, you'll be 
thankful 
for that.

A Lesson Learned-1

The world blurred by as she spun as fast as she could.  Ice-skating 
seemed to 
be the only thing that could get her mind off of her troubles.  The 
spin 
slowed down slightly and she started to notice her surroundings.  There 
was a 
woman, sitting on a bench at the side of the lake.  She was beautiful, 
with 
deep blue eyes, a petite body, dark hair, and a rosy complexion in the 
cold 
weather.  Yet Serena noticed none of this, just the sad look on her 
face that 
seemed to beg for company, her natural curiosity kicked in and she 
glided 
over to her.

"Hello, my name is Serena, what's yours?"

The woman looked up at the hand extended to her, and could not help but 
smile 
at the woman's forwardness.  "My name is Amy," she said meekly.

Serena frowned slightly at the polite, but obviously forced happiness 
in the 
woman's voice.  Amy recoiled a little bit, not knowing what she said to 
cause 
such a reaction.

Serena laughed as she noticed this and flopped down at her side.  "What 
could 
possibly cause you to look so sad, on a gorgeous day like this." She 
giggled.

"It's nothing" sighed Amy, "just…." Amy decided that telling a 
complete 
stranger her life story would be a bit peculiar, so she settled for 
telling 
her one of the things that was wrong.  "I. I can't skate" she mumbled.  

It was quite evident to Serena that this was not all that was bothering 
her.  
'but' she thought, ' I could still help her with the skating.'  
Agreeing with 
herself wholeheartedly she jumped to her feet and stood in front of 
Amy, 
"Well" she grinned "if that's all that's wrong, I'll help you"

Amy's look of confusion quickly melted to disbelief as Serena dragged 
her 
onto the ice.  Amy's ranting fell on deaf ears as the bubbling blonde 
walked 
onto the ice with her new friend in tow.  Serena turned and almost 
laughed at 
the look of pure horror covering Amy's once sad face.  "Look," said 
Serena 
gently, "all you have to do is follow me, and you'll be fine"

"But…I'm scared"

"I know, but sometimes facing your fears is half the fun.  Plus," she 
added 
with a smile, "it's always better to have a friend to face them with"

Amy smiled and took the hand Serena had offered her, then, slowly, and 
cautiously she stepped onto the ice.  Then fell flat on her butt, 
taking her 
instructor with her.  "I thought you said facing your fears is fun" she 
fumed, but soon broke down into fits of giggles when she looked at the 
blonde 
who, at this point, was laughing so hard she had tears running down her 
face.

"What…. is so……funny" Amy stuttered through her laughter.

"It's just that…that's the exact same thing I did at my first skating 
lesson" 
she managed to blurt out before once again dissolving into a fit of 
giggles.

@)--}---  @)--}---  @)--}---  @)--}--- 2 hours later

"See" chided Serena "It's not as hard as you think"

"You're right, look, I'm skating" declared Amy happily, right before 
attempting to turn and falling to her knees.

A man's voice echoed across the lake, "Amy, are you all right"

"I'm fine," she called as she pulled herself up and smiled.

"Amy, who is that" she questioned, pointing at the man across the lake.

Amy grinned as she carefully glided over to her, "That" she said, " is 
someone I would like you to meet"

"Ok" she said, and helped Amy to skate over to him.  Darien, this is my 
friend Serena, Serena" she stated proudly "this is my brother, Darien"  

"Hi Serena" he said distractedly

"Hi, I'm glad to…"

"Amy," scolded Darien, interrupting Serena "you know how easily you get 
hurt, 
why would you do something like this?" 

"Oh calm down Darien" pouted Amy, indignantly, "I'm not going to die 
from 
excessive fun."

Serena snickered in the background and Darien turned to her.  "This is 
not 
funny, she could have been really hurt"

"That's not what I'm laughing at" she giggled.

"Then what are you laughing at"

"I'm laughing because Amy is pulling faces at me"

"Am not," said Amy innocently, putting on her best 'I have no idea what 
she's 
talking about' look.

Serena tried to hide her laughter as she faced Darien.  He turned just 
as 
Serena lost it and started chortling.  He rolled his eyes at the antics 
and 
once again rounded on Amy.  "You promised to meet me at crown, 
remember, we 
have a double date tonight." He nagged, as they sat down to take off 
their 
skates.

"Oh yeah" she whispered "I, uhhh, kinda forgot about that"

"Greg has been worried sick"

"Who's Greg?" asked Serena, butting into the conversation.

"Greg is my boyfriend," said Amy meekly.

"And you didn't TELL me, I need some details Ames, come on spill it"

"I think I can help you there," said Darien, getting a look of mischief 
in 
his eyes.

"Don't you dare" said Amy, with a slight blush

Darien laughed as he once again turned to Serena "Greg is basically a 
boy 
genius, he is currently residing at Amy's house and they have been 
going out 
for 3 months and 6 days.  This I know because Amy numbers the days on 
her 
calendar to make sure she doesn't miss an anniversary."

His speech was stopped there by the shoe that his sweet little sister 
had 
thrown at his head.  "Darien, I'm warning you," she growled, "one more 
word 
and something mush more important to you that your head, is going to be 
hit 
by my other shoe."

Darien smiled, picked up the discarded shoe, looked at his sister, and 
ran 
for his life, with the hopping Amy trying desperately to catch up with 
him.

Serena laughed at the antics, she couldn't remember the last time she 
had 
this much fun.  Yes, she could. She winced at the painful memory. Her 
former 
happiness vanished as she sat down on the bench where she first met 
Amy.

Darien came barreling back down the sidewalk, without the shoe, but 
with a 
bump forming on his forehead and skidded to a halt in front of Serena.  
His 
happy face turned to that of worry as he cautiously sat beside her.  
Since he 
had met Serena he had come to the conclusion that she was almost 
terminally 
happy.  She was now sobbing into her hands and didn't seem to notice 
the man 
sitting next to her.  A breathless Amy came stumbling up and was about 
to 
reprimand her moronic brother, until she noticed his look of concern, 
and the 
crying Serena.

"Darien, What in the hell did you do" she whispered angrily

"I didn't do anything" he hissed indignantly, "she was crying when I 
got 
here."

"Well do something"

"Like what"

"I don't know, just…something"

He turned to Serena slowly and put a hand on her shoulder.  When, quite 
suddenly, she turned and started bawling into his chest, Darien was, to 
say 
the least, shocked, and was no less startled when his arms came around 
her 
body.  Amy was standing next to them, speechless at both of the events.

After about ten minutes of Serena crying and Darien comforting she had 
slowed 
her sobs to a sniffle.  Darien plucked up all his courage and asked the 
question that had been on both his and Amy's mind throughout this whole 
ordeal.

"Serena what's wrong"

"You remind me so much of my brother" she whispered, her voice still 
hoarse 
from her crying and muffled because of the shirt she was talking into.  
Darien sat there pondering why him reminding her of her brother would 
make 
her break down like that, when his ever-practical sister butted in.

"Why would that make you cry"

She paused a moment wondering whether to tell two people she had met 
just a 
few hours ago her entire life story, eventually she came to a decision.  
She 
sighed and proceeded to tell them what had happened.

"About a year and a half ago I was in my senior year of high school, I 
was on 
the honor roll, and I was going to make a speech at graduation.  My 
parents 
and little brother were in France; my father had a business meeting and 
had 
been offered to take his family.  I couldn't go due to my GPA and my 
speech.  
I begged them to come back for my graduation but they said they would 
never 
make it in time.  They called the day before the graduation to say that 
they 
had managed to juggle schedules enough that they promised to me on the 
next 
flight out.  I was so happy, I spent the rest of the day rehearsing my 
speech 
and dreaming of how proud they would be at graduation." Here she 
started to 
tear up again, but wiped her eyes and continued.  " I was half way 
through my 
speech when I noticed that the chairs I had reserved for them were 
empty, I 
stuttered through the rest of it and rushed out of the hall.  I thought 
they 
had broken their promise, that they had found something more important 
to do. 
 I went home to wait for them to call, but they never did.  The only 
person 
that did call was a representative from the airline. To… to offer 
condolences. They said that the plane had crashed.  There was no way 
that 
anyone could have lived through it." ::sniffle:: "it was all my fault," 
she 
sobbed.  "If I hadn't been such a spoiled brat, they wouldn't have been 
on 
that plane, they would be here now."  She broke down and started to sob 
into 
her hands again.  She did not notice the look of sympathy on Darien's 
face or 
the look of pure shock on Amy's

"Oh Serena," sighed Amy "I'm sorry, if I would have known I would never 
have 
pried."

"It's okay" sniffled Serena, who had managed to keep her crying under 
control.  "I needed to talk to someone about it, I'm just sorry I had 
to ruin 
your day with my stupid sob story."

"That's not true and you know it" Amy gently lectured her, she had only 
known 
Serena for a few hours but they already seemed to share a deep bond.  
"You 
know that I am your friend and I will always listen to you"

"Thank you, Oh, you two had dates, I had better not keep you any 
longer."  
She started to get up but Darien's hand on her arm restrained her.

"Would you like to go with us," he asked shyly.

"I couldn't, you both have dates, I'd be butting in" she said sadly.

"I'm sure my 'date' wouldn't mind, she'd be happy to see me with a 
girl." He 
laughed at the dumfounded look on her face

"He's taking Mom" explained Amy, she hasn't met Greg yet and we thought 
dinner would be a nice way to introduce them.

Serena smiled shyly before agreeing and being dragged down the street 
toward 
the crown game center, where they were meant to meet Greg and Mrs. 
Mizuno.

@)--}--  @)--}--  @)--}-- Ten minutes later, at crown game center

The bell on the door jingled as they walked in and two worried faces 
turned 
toward them.  "Where have you been young lady." Said Mrs. Mizuno (as if 
you 
didn't know) "and you" she said, pointing at Darien, "I sent you out to 
look 
for her half an hour ago"

"Oh" Amy interrupted, "I see you've met Greg."

"Yes" said Mrs. Mizuno briskly; "Darien introduced us before he went 
out 
looking for you.  We've been having a nice chat."

Amy got a horrified expression on her face and ran over to Greg, "What 
did 
she say, it's all lies, well, except the good parts, there were good 
parts 
weren't there, oh God what happened" Greg stopped Amy's ramblings with 
a 
quick kiss.  She smiled.  "I take it there were good parts then," he 
laughed, 
and walked her over to where Mrs. Mizuno was now talking to Serena.

"It's so nice to see Darien finally has a girlfriend" They both blushed 
crimson at the comment.

"Mom, she's not my…"

"I was so worried that he would never find someone"

"Mom, she's…"

"I kept telling him to stop working so much and find…"

"MOTHER"

"Yes dear"

"Serena is not my girlfriend" He looked over at the blonde standing 
next to 
him in time to see a flash of disappointment in her eyes before 
returning to 
their former happiness. 'That was odd' he though, but shrugged it off 
as his 
mother started talking again.

"Why not" asked his mother.

"Mother" he hissed.

"Umm, why don't we go and sit down" interjected Amy; she wanted to hear 
how 
Darien would get out of THIS one, but decided a brawl in a public place 
was 
not the best of ideas.

"Good idea," said Greg and Serena as they dragged the fuming Darien to 
a 
booth.

"So" started Greg, "how did you guys meet?"

"Me and Amy met at the pond" responded Serena, thankful to be off the 
previous subject.  "I was teaching her how to skate"

"Really" asked Greg, raising as eyebrow at his girlfriend, who, in 
turn, 
blushed profusely.  Before nodding her head.

"She was doing really well, before Darien came and distracted her" she 
said, 
glaring at the man sitting next to her.

"Oh come on sere, she was down before I got there"

She quirked at the name before turning to him, "well if you," she said 
dramatically, shoving a finger in his face, "wouldn't have shown up, 
she 
might have gotten in more practice, so she wouldn't fall in the first 
place"

"Come off your cloud, Serena, it wasn't my fault and you know it"

"It was your fault, and it would be nice of you to apologize," yelled 
Serena 
stubbornly.

"Why should I apologize, if I wouldn't have come, she might have never 
gotten 
away."

"Ahem," they were brought out of it by a polite yet harsh cough from 
Mrs. 
Mizuno.  They both blushed and suddenly found the table exceedingly 
interesting.

"Hi guys" said a cheerful voice from behind them, "what would you like 
to eat"

"Hi Andrew," they all said in unison, (ever noticed how EVERYTHING is 
in 
unison in anime)

"Hi guys, Hi Serena," he said grinning, " what are you guys doing 
together?"

"It's kind of a long story, I'll tell you later, k," said Serena.

"Ok, now, before I forget again, what would U like?"  They all placed 
their 
orders and Andrew returned shortly with five full plates and a bill, 
which he 
conveniently set down in front of Darien.

"Thanks a lot Andy," he yelled after the retreating figure.

"Calm down, we wouldn't let you pay for it all by yourself," said Amy.

"Yeah, we'll pitch in with the tip" laughed Serena, as Darien scowled 
at her.

End-1

It gets better, I swear