"Game of Love"-part 3



"Serena! Serena!" Darien called softly into her ear,
shaking her shoulders gently. "C'mon.....I was just
playing! Snap out of it!" he said a little worriedly.
he thought bewildered.
Even after a few more of Darien's encouragements,
Serena didn't arise from her daydream-like state. He
sighed, leaning back against the edge of the brick-red
picnic table, and letting go of Serena completely.....
.which was a completely *bad* idea. She let out a
contented breath and fell backwards;her head now
resting in Darien's lap. His blue eyes widened in both
embarassment and surprise as she laid there for a
few seconds longer before coming out of it. Slowly,
her eyelashes fluttered open, exposing her eyes to
a clear blue sky. ground or something!?> she thought in sudden alarm
that she might've very well passed out somewhere,
although she didn't know how. One minute she was
with Darien and the next.........Serena sucked in a
short breath and then lifted her arm behind her and
started to feel around.......on Darien's chest.
"Hey!" he cried out in surprise. And that moment
she knew *exactly* who it was. Serena let out a
squeal of embarrasment and quickly shot up from
his lap and jumped off the bench, laughing nervously.
Darien gave her a queer look and then slowly got up
himself.
"Uh, are you okay, Meatball Head? You were kinda
out of it for a while there...." he asked while jutting
his hands in his pockets uncomfortably.
"Yeah...." she started softly, ceasing her nervous
giggles. "Yeah! "she assured him again, with a
bright smile, although a blush was still visble on
her cheeks. A moment of uncomfortable silence
passed between them, neither knowing what to say.
Serena bit her lip and searched the grass as if
she had lost something, trying to figure out what
to say. she thought. sorta my fault.....> Meanwhile, Darien was
concentrating on a small hole in the picnic table...
as if *that* would give him something to say. do I say? I guess it was kinda my fault we lost that
game and she ran off.....I could've *tried* to keep
my bearing....> he thought also. After another brief
pause, they both took in a breath and started to
speak.
"I'm sorry!" they both blurted out at the same time.
"No!" they said again in exact unison. "You first!"
Serena and Darien finished together, pointing at each
other. Serena became frustrated and sighed in
annoyance at their sychronized outbursts.
"Look, Darien....I'm sorry I got all mad and weird
on you okay?" she apologized while biting her
pinky fingernail. Darien smiled slightly and then
nodded his head.
"And I'm sorry too.....for being all.... well, you
know....." he finished motioning to her with his
hands. She looked up and grinned happily.
"I accept your apology Darien.....And hey, maybe
we should try to get along for the rest of the
afternoon, huh? I *really* want to win that prize
money!" she added jokingly. "Sure." he agreed
softly, gazing into her eyes. She smiled again
and then suddenly froze, like a deer caught in a
car's headlights, except Serena was caught by a
pair of gorgeous midnight blue eyes. For a long
while, they stood there, unmoving, and transfixed
by each other....until the loud voice of the announcer
once again thundered through the park.
"Okay all you "lovebirds"....-wink,wink-.....the next
game is about to commense! Line up at the picnic
tables people!Hurry!Hurry!Hurry!" he yelled into his
loudspeaker, causing it to emit high pitched squeals.
Darien shuddered a bit and then shook his head.
"Huh? Wha?" he said in confusion while looking
around and eyeing a crowd of contestants heading
towards the tables by which Serena and him were
standing. He cocked an eyebrow and then looked
down.
"Pies?" he asked himself.
"PIES!!!!" Serena screeched in delight and plopped
down on the bench in front of a fairly large cherry
pie. She licked her lips hungrily and then realized
what the next game *had* to be.....none other than
a pie eating contest. Darien, still recovering from
post-Serena shock, walked over behind her and
placed his large hands on her shoulders. "Were
sure to win this contest now, Meatball Head!" he
said enthusiastically. She twisted her head back
to look at him, nodding vigorously. Darien couldn't
help but smile at her.
"Okay contestants, by now you've probably already
figured out what this little shin-dig is...right?" he
asked eagerly. When no one answered, the announcer
cleared his throat embarrassedly and then decided
to answer his own dumb question.
"A pie eating contest math majors!" he said, trying to
crack a joke. Everyone in the mass of people, including
Serena and Darien gave him blank stares. A small
cough emitted over the cricket chirping, and the
announcer fiddled with his tie nervously.
"Uh, well, uh anyways, you'll all have exactly 60
seconds to eat as much of the pie as humanly
possible. Whoever consumes the most pie, according
to our judges, wins! And remember folks, there's
only one more game after this...so you'd better make
it count! On your marks, get set......GO!!!!" he finished,
shooting off a small flare gun. Everyone started digging
into their pie, especially Serena, attacking hers like
a madwoman. Darien looked around at the other
competition. All stuck up prisses who were taking
small nibbles at their pies, and getting yelled at by
their male counterparts. He laughed slightly and then
glanced back at Serena.
"This is in the *bag*!" he said confident they would
win.
"And 5, 4, 3, 2,1....stop!" the announcer yelled holding
out his hand. The judges slowly scurtinized every pie,
comparing to see which was the winner. Lita, who had
been sitting next to Serena, had consumed quite a
bit, but not *nearly* as much as Serena.....the whole
pie was almost gone!
"We have a winner!" they said and scribbled something
down on a small clipboard. "Yippe!!!" Serena squeeked
triumphantely and picked up the last piece of the pie,
shoving it into her mouth. Darien groaned good-naturedly,
recieving a glare from Serena. He chuckled softly as
she turned to grab a towel to wipe her cherry-covered
face.
"You know Darien, " she started as she tossed her
towel asside. "You could at least congradulate me
instead of laughing! We won! And what about our
agreement, hmm?" she finshed, eyeballing him and
crossing her arms while rising from the table. Darien
smiled widely.
"Serena, you have a little bit of cherry juice right...."
he said as he cupped her face in his hand and rubbed
her cheek, trying to rid it of the smudge, but only
succeeding in caressing her smooth face. "...there."
he whispered almost inaudibly as they locked gazes
again. Serena swallowed the rising lump in her throat
as Darien continued to penitrate her with his deep
sapphire eyes. He brought his left hand up to touch
her other soft cheek almost immmediately. Darien's
mind clouded over....all other surroundings seemed
to fade to a greenish haze around him, and the only
thing left to look at was Serena. Her staring orbs grew
wide and excited....even a little frightened as Darien
seemed to be moving closer to her at an agonizingly
slow pace. A thought flashed through Serena's mind
to pull away;stop this before something starts....but
she was completely and udderly paralyzed as her
heart skipped a beat when his lips were not even a
half an inch away from her own. She could feel his
mouth barely grazing hers, but not yet kissing it.
Darien had no idea what was possesing him to do
this.....I mean, kissing Meatball Brain?! No way......
he had thought just before he had come to be this
close to her....but he was powerless to stop it. And
in a way, some way, some *thing* in the back of his
mind, or rather his heart, told him that this was right.
That if not taking a chance with this girl was right,
then let him be persecuted and proven wrong one
thousand times over. For once in his life, Darien
listened to his heart, and was acting on his feelings.
Until this moment, frozen in time, when ultimate,
beautiful and undying love would come forth.....that
is, if the announcer hadn't interupted them.
"Hey you two! I thought I said no hanky panky!" the
man with the scraggly gray beard, who had earned
the title "announcer" belted out obnoxiously as he
grabbed both Serena and Darien by the collar and
yanked them apart abruptly, just when even the
slightest movement would have found them kissing
sweetly. Darien and Serena looked around dazidly
before realizing where they were, and what they
were *about* to do. Surprisingly, neither of them
flushed in embarassment, or looked away. Instead
each avoided the other's eyes with a hint of
understanding emitting from both...that *something*
was going down, but neither knew exactly what it
was. Besides, it was only one instant of overwhemling
emotions that neither of them could even begin
to dream of holding back. They had entered the
inferno, and there was no turning back now. All
Serena and Darien could do was try to act like it
never happened; as if it took place in a totally
different time and place, between two totally different
people. With that thought swimming in both of
their minds, they focused their attention on the
announcer who was explaining the next game.
"....So one person from our remianing two high
scoring groups, which will be announced in a
minute, will each choose a slip of paper from this
hat." he explained while holding up a neon yellow
cap with several slips of paper peeking over the
corner. "Then, the partners will have to act out whatever
is on the paper, which will be a scene from a movie,
play, or something like that.....So, without further ado,
here are our 2 remaining teams!"
The announcer set the cap down momentarily on the
table next to him before reaching for his clipboard
that contained the names of the top two. He cleared
his throat before breaking into a huge fake grin. "And
the first pair is......Raye Hino and Andrew Furuhata!"
he said. Immediatley after he had finshed saying
Andrew's last name, Raye had begun celebrating by
hugging the life out of her partner, whose face had
turned a nice shade of blue.
"And our other lucky pair is.........Serena Tsukino and
Darien Chiba! Congradulations to both of you!" he
finished. Darien smiled happily. He figured it was a
sure thing that he would have that money in his pocket
by the end of the hour, and he wouldn't end up living
a cardboard box across the street from the arcade.
Serena was equally contented. She was glad they
had made it this far and that they might be winning
all that prize money, even though she was doing this
just for a kick.
"Allright, now Raye and Andrew, ya'll are first."
announcer man said as he held the flourescent hat
above his head to make sure the picking would be
fair. Andrew stretched his hand into it, and pulled
out a piece of paper, unfolded it, and then paled
noticably, wavering and wobbling as if he would puke,
and THEN faint. Raye wrinkled her brow in confusion
and then promptly plucked the paper from Andrew's
fingers. She glanced over it quickly and then broke out
into a big smile.
"And what did you two get?" asked the announcer while
shoving his microphone into Raye's face. She sighed
dreamily and crushed the paper to her chest.
"Romeo and Juliet--the balcony scene...." she breathed,
fluttering her eyelashes.
At that moment, Andrew made a distinct gagging noise
and slapped his hand over his mouth shakily. Raye then
dropped her sugar-sweet demenor and smacked him in
the back of his head. He lurched forward a bit from
impact and flashed her a dirty look.
"O......k....." Serena mumbled to herself as she
watched them take the stage and begin to read
their parts.
Their skit went pretty much uneventfully. Andrew
reamined dry and sarcastic in everything he said
and Raye was acting all starry-eyed and happy.

"Goodnight, goodnight," Andrew muttered swiftly,
trying to get it over with as soon as possible.
"...parting is such sweet sorrow." he finished in a
grumble and then jumped off the stage mumbling
"This bites" and went over to stand next to Darien
who was difficultly trying not to burst out laughing.
Raye was still standing there, eyes shut, anticipating
a kiss. After a few minutes, one of her eyes snapped
open and saw she was standing there alone. Her
face changed into many different hues of red as she
exited the stage. A few scattered applause could
be heard as the judges scribbled down on their clipboards.
"Ok, next up....uh...Serena and Darien!" the announcer
yelled while pointing towards them. They both glanced
over at each other awkwardly and then made their way
on stage.
"Allright you two," he started. "let's see what you come
up with!"
Darien swallowed hard and then leaned over to choose
what scene they'd be doing from the cap. if it's another scene from Romeo and Juliet? It would be
so uncomfortable....and I don't know if I could handle it
either!> Darien thought as he shuffled his hand around a
bit to find a sheet of paper. He finally pulled one out
and slowly unfolded it, revealing what exactly they'd
be acting out. He choked on his breath when he saw
it--and promptly read it outloud.
"Snow White: the forest scene...."