1,2,3 Be With Me

Author's Notes

Hey guys just to let you know that the chapters after this will be getting longer if I can make them longer, I'm just posting the ones I've had ready up until now before focussing on the new stuff. The ball is well and truly rolling again but I'll stop talking now and just get on with it as I know you've been waiting ages lol. Enjoy ^_^

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN SAILOR MOON OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACTERS

Chapter 19

After convincing Molly's manager to let her go for an early lunch break, Serena and Mina took their friend to a small café and let her tell them about all of the details of what was bothering her. She told them about over hearing Zach talking with Anne and Emerald regarding the incident with Darien's car and blackmailing him with some kind of picture they'd taken of Anne and Zach together. Molly also told them about Melvin approaching Zach at the bowling alley and offering to be a witness on his behalf after telling them what he had seen.

Molly then went on to tell Serena and Mina about seeing Melvin talking to Beryl and Anne earlier that week. "I was on my way to meet him at his locker before walking home together, like I usually did, but when I approached Beryl and Anne were stood with him talking and laughing in that mean way they always do, those girls make me so uncomfortable, I could tell they were tormenting him again as they always do"

"Do you know what they might have been talking to him about Molly?" Mina asked

Shaking her head with a sad expression on her face, Molly sighed "Sadly I was too far away to hear what they were saying but…"

Flashback

The end of the school day had finally arrived and Molly had just finished putting her spare books in her locker,collected her book bag from it and was on her way to meet with her sweet Melvin to walk home for the evening. She was excited about their little date to the movie this evening as they were going to see a movie that she had been dying to see for a while now, the new Disney movie 'Frozen'. She was just round the corner in the hallway that led down towards Melvin's locker when she saw him standing in front of it. Waving to try and get his attention, Molly froze as she saw their ever familiar school tormentors, Beryl and Anne standing in front of Melvin.

Melvin was looking very nervous and almost scared as they kept smirking and sneering at him as they carried on talking. All too soon they shoved him back against his locker and walked off laughing cruelly. Rushing over to Melvin's side, Molly asked "Melvin, were those horrible girls bothering you again? Are you alright?"

"Oh…Hi Molly…uh…no everything's fine" Melvin said with something of a nervous laugh as he cleared his throat and carried on saying "Listen I'm going to have to cancel our date tonight, I' m not feeling all that good, must have been something I ate at lunch or something"

"Oh no, you're sick? Well that's ok we can just go straight home tonight, we can always go to the movies another night right?"

"Actually Molly I'm kind of busy over the weekend, I'll call you sometime ok? Bye"

And with that Melvin slammed his locker shut and ran off, leaving a confused and neglected Molly to watch after him as he left.

End of flashback

Looking at Molly in great concern Serena and Mina continued to listen as she went on to say "I just don't know why he would distance himself from me like this I mean I've tried everything I can think of, I've even tried calling him at home and visiting his house like I normally do after school but Melvin just won't talk to me" Molly wept "It's almost like he's scared to be seen with me, I just don't understand what they could have said to him to make him like this around me and with the dance being so close now, I'm starting to wonder whether we'll be going at all let alone together"

"Oh Molly I'm so sorry to hear this is affecting you like this, Beryl has no right to do this" Serena said

Mina nodded smiling kindly "Don't worry about this ok? All you need to worry about is your dress and how good you're going to look in it"

Molly gave them a sad smile as she said "Thanks for listening to me girls, so much has happened since we saw that whole thing with Zach and Anne, I've just had no one to talk to about this"

"Well I know I'm not always here but you can always call or email me Molly" Serena smiled "You still have my contact details right?"

"Oh of course I do" Molly giggled "I'd never lose something like that" checking the time on her watch, Molly gasped "Oh look at that, my break just flew by in a matter of seconds, thanks for talking with me girls I feel a little better now, see you soon ok?"

After saying a cheery goodbye to their friend, Serena and Mina looked to each other in concern as Serena asked "You know I was there when Darien's oil tank was trashed, we had to stay in the bowling alley parking lot watching it leak onto the floor before Darien's dad turned up and called a repair man, you don't think this is going to cause any trouble for us too do you?"

"I don't know" Mina said "But I'll be damned if we let that rotten, spoiled bitch ruin that homecoming dance for anyone! Come on we better catch up with the girls"

With that Serena and Mina contacted Raye and met with the girls in a dress shop not too far from the café they had been sitting in.

After waiting around all day at home with the guys playing Xbox games, drinking sodas and just plain doing very little all day, Darien and the guys, all turned to attention when they turned to see Serena and their girlfriends all coming through the door of Darien's house.

Darien was surprised to see that his Mom looked nicer than normal. She was wearing a lovely navy blue lace bodice dress with long sleeves, with black leather cross strap court shoes, her hair curled to perfection, falling to sit just under the jawline and delicate set of pearl earrings matching the single pearl pendant that sat gracefully around her neck.

Jed gave a whistle as he said "Whoa, looking good Mrs S"

"Dude that's my Mom" Darien said giving Jed a thump

Jed smirked with a shrug "Yeah and she looks hot!"

Just then they heard Mr Shields coming back from the kitchen calling in "Hey guys do you want pizza or burgers…." His eyes took in his wife's appearance and within seconds, Damien Shield's was reduced to a stammering idiot.

Giggling like crazy, Serena put her bags on the floor and gave Maria a hug as she said "I hope you don't mind Damien but we thought Maria could use a little me time today and gave her a makeover, do you like it?"

Damien just stared then stammered some more, then nodded slowly. Maria could only chuckle as Serena said "Then our work here is done, girls shall we get our movie slumber party on?"

A cheer of yeah filled the air before Serena and the other girls disappeared down stairs. Damien approached Maria casually as he said "Honey you look…"

"Different? Better?" Maria asked

Damien smiled as he said "Gorgeous! Just incredibly gorgeous!"

Maria smiled with a blush "Why thank you, I think so too"

Damien turned to the boys and said "Hey boys I'm going to leave a $20 in the kitchen why not order a pizza or whatever you want in?"

"You're not going to hang with us tonight dad?" Darien asked smirking to his friends

Damien turned and gave his wife an appreciative smile "Are you kidding? I'm going on a date with my wife"

With that Damien took off upstairs threw on his best casual suit, cologne and shoes, ran a comb through his hair and was back down the stairs in seconds. A warm smile spread across Darien's face as his parents turn to them and said "Don't wait up" and headed out for a date they hadn't had in the last year.

So that evening whilst the girls held their little slumber party in the basement, Darien had the guys stay over for some guy fun of their own. They were just laughing and talking casually when Mina came upstairs whilst the other girls looked over their dresses for homecoming.

Approaching Malcolm and sitting beside him, Mina said "I need to ask you boys about something and I want nothing but honesty from you got it?"

Nodding to Mina's request and turning to listen to her intently, Mina started to explain about how she and Serena had run into Molly at the shopping mall and how they had been told about Zach being blackmailed by Anne and Emerald. She then went on to tell them about how Melvin had now been approached by Beryl and Anne and was now avoiding Molly like the plague.

"Now I don't know why Melvin would choose to avoid Molly like this, from what I gathered through my time staying here with Serena when we were kids, Melvin couldn't spend any time away from Molly if he tried too and Molly knows that too" Mina said "Which is why I'm going to ask, have we got something to worry about with Beryl and her cronies? Because from the way things are going and from what I know of her cheerleading history Beryl does anything to get what she wants!"

Zach sighed heavily "These girls are too clever sometimes you know that?"

Nathan could see Zach was starting to get nervous "Hey man, don't freak out ok, we're going to make sure she pays for this, she can try and blackmail us all she wants, she will not get her hands on that tape!"

"Damn right she won't! Not when it's in my hands anyway" Malcolm said

Mina turned to Malcolm with great concern "Malcolm please! Serena was there the night Darien's car was trashed she told me herself and if this girl is going to be approaching her the way she's approached Zach and Melvin I need to know what's going on! I don't want my cousin or my friends hurt in this stupid thing so someone better start explaining what's going on!"

So the boys started explaining about how Zach had managed to catch Beryl trashing Darien's car that night at the bowling alley on tape and showed her the tape on Malcolm's laptop. Zach then explained that Anne had conveniently taken a picture with him and kissed him before Emerald hit the shutter on the camera. They were blackmailing him with Amy in order to keep him quiet. He then explained again how Melvin had overheard their conversation at the bowling alley and offered to stand as a witness.

"I'm guessing those harpies must have found out about his offer somehow and are now threatening him with something, I'm guessing something to do with Molly otherwise he wouldn't be keeping his distance from her like that"

"Have you handed the tape to the police?" Mina asked

Darien winced "Not just yet, I mean we all gave a statement apart from Serena because she'd already gone home but most of us that were there have given a statement to the police, they just need this evidence in order to press charges"

"Then why haven't you given it to the police yet?" Mina asked

Malcolm said "Because we have been harassed by these girls since the beginning of junior high and it is getting really annoying, so we are trying to beat them at their own game! For once we have something on them that they do not want anyone to know about and it's making them nervous so they are going to threaten and try to lie their way out of it in any way they know how"

"And instead of getting them arrested you're going to play around with their heads, even at the risk of hurting other people?" Mina asked "That's cruel even for you guys"

"Mina we are not out to hurt anyone else other than these three girls" Malcolm said trying to keep her calm

Mina turned to him in anger "No! That may be your intention Malcolm but you are unintentionally ringing in other people who have nothing to do with this situation! Think of Molly, she's now going out of her mind thinking her boyfriend doesn't love her anymore! What about Amy? Have you thought about what this might do to her self-esteem if she ends up seeing that picture? Zach definitely wouldn't stand a chance again after seeing that, she'd think he was playing another cruel joke on her! And what about Serena? Have you thought about what this might do if Beryl were to find out she was there that night? You know how much that girl hates Serena! In fact if memory serves you were all there enough times to witness how much Beryl hates Serena"

"We know but Mina" Malcolm pleaded

"No Malcolm!" Mina shot at him keeping her voice low "Either you deal with this properly by handing that evidence to the police like originally intended or I will do it for you! You will not hurt my cousin or my friends again, no matter how unintentional it might be I will not forgive you!"

With that Mina disappeared downstairs leaving the boys to think more carefully about the plans they had put in place or Beryl and their tape.