Hey people! I know it's been so very long but 
here I am all revved up! Okay so as y'all know 
I'm JLaLa and this is my fanfic! First of all 
I'd like to thank my buddy and lil'sis Meriellen5!
She's talented and not to mention a sweetie pie!
Also to my inspirations Twilight, Violet Ice and
Sailor Peace. Y'all got TALENT! To all the people
who wrote me, first of all, Gomen for my taking
so long. Also much love to you for waiting forthis chapter! THANK YOU EVERYONE!
I don't own Sailormoon. That's it.Please mail meeh people! I'm LONELY! :(
No juss playing, juss wanna hear fromyou!

LESSONS TO LEARN (Part Three)
BY: JLALA (jlynpinay@aol.com)
Chapter Three: If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try, Again...
~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~
Raye looked up from the sundae her and Chad were eating to see the
familiar forlorn face of Darien.
"Let me guess. She shot you down", Raye said to her friend as he
sat down and put his head down on the table.
"Not just shoot me down, if she could I think she would've rip my
heart from my chest", he answered and his dark eyes clouded with
confusion. "Is there something about me she doesn't like? My
clothes? My hair? What is it?" Right now he felt like yanking
his hair out. Serena's words stung him though she had said them
days ago, when he went to the dancing studio Miss Yoshio taught
them claiming that Serena was "sick".
"Oh yeah Darien, I'm pretty sure that Serena hates you because
of that ONE strand of hair that's out of place, she might hate
that ugly green jacket you wear but I doubt she hates you", she
told him and then patted his hand. Raye gave him a soft smile
and lifted his chin. "Chin up young one. You'll get her sooner
or later. Who wouldn't fall for you? There must something that's
keeper her from you"
"Yeah Darien, keep on trying and sooner or later she's bound to
fall for you. Just like Raye fell for me" He put his arm around
the dark haired girl who was grimacing and grinned. "Right Raye?"
"NO", she said simply and with that dumped the hot fudge sundae 
right smack dab on his head. Leaving him and Darien in the booth,
Raye walked out of the Arcade. Chad sat stunned for a moment
and then suddenly licked the ice cream around his mouth. Looking
at his friend, he gave Darien a love-struck smile.
"Yup, she LOVES me", he said and Darien couldn't help but laugh.
Sometimes his friends were TOO much.
****************************************************************
Darien never was the community service kind of guy but when one
of his professors approached him for help he couldn't say no. How
did he get himself into this mess though? Tutoring some kid he didn't
know, for all he knew this kid could be a MONSTER. The reason why 
people would wanna stop having kids. That's life. Looking up at 
the house, he thought that maybe perhaps he was wrong. It was nice, a
place a happy family would live in. Family...the word was almost
foreign to him. Sighing to himself he rung the doorbell and a
woman with dark blue hair answered, she smiled at him and somehow
it seemed that the smile was familiar.
"Hi! You must be here to tutor Sammy"; she said and ushered him in.
"I'm his mother, Ilene Tsukino" He stopped in his tracks. Did she
just say TSUKINO? As in Serena Tsukino? He slapped his forehead.
Of course! No wonder the woman's smile was familiar, it was Serena's
smile. As walked into the living room, he saw that on the fireplace
were pictures of Serena in various stages of her life. Some of them
had her in leotards. Even as a child she was beautiful, almost fairy 
like. Ilene walked up from behind him. "She gorgeous, isn't she? My
little girl. She just came back from a tour in England. Serena's a
gifted dancer and she's just fifteen. Actually almost sixteen in atwo weeks"
"I know. She teaches me and my friends at the dance studio", Darien 
replied. Eyeing him, she nodded in approval. He was as the teenagers
would call him "a hunk". 
"And why would a young man like yourself be interested in dancing?" He 
blushed and Ilene grinned knowing that it had something to do with herdaughter. 
"My friends thought that I needed a little more *activity* in my 
life", he said when he heard the door slam. A ten year old boy with 
dirty blond hair walked in and gave him an easy going smile. 
"Hi, I'm Sammy", the boy said and grinned. "I guess you know that I'm
having some trouble, huh?"
"I'm sure Darien will fixed that right up", Ilene said and ruffled 
her son's hair. "I'll just go and get dinner started" She exited 
quickly and the two boys sat down.
"I heard you and my mom talking", Sammy said. "You take DANCING 
classes?!" The boy laughed at Darien's embarrassment. "It's okay.
My sister makes it look cool BUT don't tell her that" For an hour
the two worked on some basic fraction problems and to him Sammy
was smarter than he made himself out to be. "I guess it must be
the way my teachers explain it" The boy looked at him sheepishly.
The door slammed again and a tall man with glasses walked into theliving room.
"Who's this?" he asked curiously and eyed Darien. With approval...hewasn't sure.
"I'm Darien, Sammy's tutor", he said and shook the man's hand. He
saw that the man was relieved. Ken Tsukino had mistaken the young 
man as another guy going for his daughter. He would protect her. He
wouldn't see her cry. Not again...
"Ken Tsukino", he introduced himself gruffly and then left. Darien 
wasn't quite sure why the man didn't like him. Perhaps he suspected 
that he wasn't just there to tutor. Sammy and him went back to 
their work. Another hour passed and someone opened the door. Unlike
the two men the person closed the door softly and Darien could hear
the small footsteps. Ken and Ilene walked into the hall to greet their
daughter, once again Ilene couldn't help how sad her daughter's eyes
were. Once they filled with happiness, hope, but she was like a fadedflower now.
"Hey", she said softly and gave her usual soft smile. Serena hated to
see her parents look so sad. Some days were good, others were bad.
Some days it was so hard for her to get up or even lift her mouth
to smile. Footsteps sounded behind her and mouth dropped open to
see that DARIEN was right there. With her brother. She glared at
him. "What are YOU doing here?"
"Tutoring", he said and smiled at her which ANNOYED her to the top.
What was with him? 
"Do you have a TRACKER on me or something?!" she said loudly and 
threw her things to the side. "Like I would believe that crap about 
you tutoring my brother!"
"Actually honey. He IS tutoring your brother", Ilene said. Serena 
blushed. She was an even bigger idiot than she thought.
"Oh", she said. "In that case I'll be upstairs just call when 
dinner's ready" With one last glare Serena walked up the stairs. A 
silence fell over them for a moment that seemed like eternity. Finally
Ilene broke the silence.
"So Darien, would you like to stay for dinner?" she said with asmile.
**********************************************************************
"What are do you think you're doing?! ARE YOU NUTS?" Ken said sharply.
In the other room was Darien and Sammy working on math problems and 
Ilene prayed to God they didn't hear. "Serena HATES that guy and you 
invite him to DINNER!"
"She doesn't hate him Ken. Did you see her eyes? That fire in them?" 
she said to her husband and took his hand. "I saw something in her 
that I hadn't seen in a long time. It was hope. It was love.  I saw 
that light in her eyes that she used to have. Don't you see? She needs
him and he needs her. They belong together." She looked up at her 
husband with tears in her eyes. "Honey, I just want the old Serena 
back so much" Ken held his wife tightly and kissed her hair.
"Okay", he said in a hushed voice. "He can stay"
***********************************************************************
Maybe it was the fact that Serena was throwing daggers at Darien from
her eyes or that Sammy keep making kissy faces at them but the dinner
was not what you'd call an "success". Darien couldn't help but mess 
with her, she had been steamed when she saw that he was still there.
"Why is HE still here?" she had asked angrily as she sat down. He had
quickly taken the seat across from her much to her dismay. Serena 
didn't let him see the small smile on her face. Now here they were all 
quietly eating the beautifully prepared meal. Serena looked up at him
and saw that he was gazing at her. What was it about him thatenthralled
her and made her feel these butterflies in her stomach? Their eyes met
in an intense gaze and she felt a small shock go through her. Serena 
quickly glared at him. "Don't you have your OWN parents to bother?" A 
shadow crossed his eyes and she swore a glimmer of tears shone in his 
eyes. He put his fork down and wiped his mouth. Darien got up and met 
her eyes in a sad look.
"As I matter a fact I DON'T have any parents. I'm SO sorry I impose on
you" With that he left quickly shutting the front door behind him.
Ilene put a hand to her mouth and even Ken had a solemn look in his eyes.
"He must have lost his parents. How sad."She said with sympathetic
tears in her eyes.
"Serena, how could you do that to him?" Sammy asked but Serena was
already throwing a coat on and running out the door. The evening air
was crisp and cool as she ran to him.
"DARIEN! COME BACK!" she yelled as she caught up with him. Serena
put a hand on his shoulder. She saw that he was slumping sadly and
gave him a soft smile. "I'm sorry I said that. I'm such a jerk"
"Hey you didn't know", he said quietly. "I'm not trying to use you
for your family, it was pure coincidence that I tutored your brother.
I liked getting to know you though and your family. It's been a long
time since I felt like that." Her smile brightened and she didsomething
she thought she'd never do. Serena took his hand and held it.
"Did you learn your dancing steps yet?" she asked and he nodded no. 
Quickly she led him into her backyard. "I'll teach you now then"
From the back window Ilene watched while Ken put on an old record.
When I dream about you, that's when everything goes right
You're in my arms, here next to me, forever
When I dream about you, girl you never go away
Just close my eyes, wait for my dreamCause I still love long ago....
"You must get your flirting tricks from Andrew", Serena said as they 
danced. What was this feeling in her that she was getting?
"Why did you say that?", he asked with a smile. All he was aware of was
her beautiful face. Those eyes that glowed and her smile...God he was
falling even more in love with her. Was that even possible?
"Your hand is on my butt AGAIN", she said and laughed when his hand 
quickly when on her waist. She stopped suddenly when she realized that
she had actually laughed. Darien noticed too and to him it was MAGIC.
***********************************************************************
"Come back soon Darien! We loved having you here", Ilene said and gave
him a motherly hug. He blushed and she laughed. "Take care of yourself
, okay?" He nodded and then turned to leave.
"Thanks for the help Darien!", Sammy called out and waved. He waved 
back and held tight to the leftovers that Ilene had given him when he 
heard a familiar high pitch yell. Serena caught up with him and in her
hands was a black sweater.
"I-It's getting kinda cold out here so I thought you'd need this", 
she said with a gentle smile. "It's not much but it'll keep you warm"
"No, it's *great*", he assured her and put it on. Before she could
leave he quickly caressed her cheek and Serena closed her eyes. 
"Serena..." He whispered her name in dark night under the pale moon
and even it's beauty couldn't compare to her. "Beautiful, perfect 
Serena" Her lovely smile wilted and she pulled back. Looking in his
eyes he saw the darkness in them.
"No Darien. I'm NOT perfect", she replied before disappearing into herhouse.
***********************************************************************
As Serena sat in the dance studio's front desk, Mina walked up to see 
that she was just staring into space. Perhaps she was dreaming of a
certain dark-haired man that both knew whose name started with a D?
Or not. Darien had told her of her behavior when he had been in her
house just last week. Mina couldn't help but see that they had a few
similarities...they could be sisters. They both had that certain way
of getting men. Or sometimes in her case chasing them away. She liked
Serena, she was sweet and maybe there was a way they could loosened
her up. Get that shyness out of her system. With her and her friends
they could reek havoc on the city. The Fab Five.
"Hey Serena", she greeted her and Serena blinked her eyes out of her
dream. Giving Mina a stunning smile she looked at her with her deepblue eyes.
"Hi", Serena said simply.
"Darien tells me that YOUR birthday is coming up", Mina said with a 
sly grin. "What are you planning on doing?"
"I-I really don't know", she said with a sad look in her eyes. It 
almost broke Mina's heart. What was that ache that she got when she 
saw Serena's eyes like that. "I don't have any friends or anything like that"
"What are you talking about? You have me, Raye, Lita and Amy. We're
gonna throw YOU a birthday celebration", Mina said and put an arm 
around Serena's shoulders.
"I-I-I don't think so", Serena said shakily. Was she supposed to beSCARED?
"Serena honey, next week YOU are gonna learn the meaning of FUN", Mina
said and grinned. This was gonna be one SWEET sixteen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hope you like it though it was on the crappy side! Please e-mail
to complain or comment! Ja ne! Stay tune for Chapter Four: The 
Unforgettable Present or Mina's meaning of FUN