TITLE: Seeing Past Rumors - Part 3 AUTHOR: Edeet RATING: PG E-MAIL: edeet@juno.com AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hi!! I'm back! And with a whole new chapter! I have to warn you, this chapter isn't very long, but I'm getting back on track now. Sorry it took so long! I know I have a whole bunch of people ready to strangle me, but I know they didn't mean it, right? RIGHT?! Ahem... I have to thank Alicia Blade, as always, for her wonderful support, ideas, and for being the coolest friend and writer ever!! AND I have to thank Millie for giving me ideas for those great snide remarks (which you'll be seeing more of in later chapters, but there's one on this one) and for being my little helper! Kinda like a little elf! You know, like Santa Claus? Okay then, never mind! I wanna thank everyone who wrote me!! You all brightened up my day so much!! THANK YOU!!!!! Just don't forget to come by again (and write again!)! Well now, on to the story! We now continue with the show already in progress... Serena walked home feeling a lot better. She'd known that she wouldn't be alone in her fight. Her friends would help her, but having Darien there too helped a lot. A whole lot. In fact, it'd made an immense difference. She actually felt happy now, like she was giggling inside. She walked with that wonderful feeling all the way home. Meanwhile, Lita was walking towards Darien's building. She knew his address by heart because when he'd first given it to Serena she'd been constantly mentioning it. Serena. "I wonder how she's doing" she said to herself. She reached the building, went into the elevator and pressed 12. She was going to tell Darien what Rita had said. They had to do something about Anne. She finally reached apartment 12-G. She pressed the doorbell. Then she heard footsteps. She waited while he looked through the little hole on the door to see who was there. Then he opened the door. "Lita! Hi" said Darien with a surprised look. I guess he finds it surprising that I know where he lives, thought Lita. "Hey. Listen I found out who's responsible for the rumors" she said. "You did? Who is it?! When I get my hands on them..." said Darien. "It was Anne Granger. She told Rita that she saw you guys making out the day you worked on your project" "What?! But, we didn't kiss! We..." said Darien, suddenly breaking off his sentence as he remembered the events of that day. They'd almost kissed, but were stopped by a noise coming from the front door. The door had been slightly open. "Anne" he said with a scowl. She had been the one who had made that noise. Probably spying on them. "Darien, would you mind telling me exactly what happened that day? I need to get this whole thing straight" said Lita. "Well, Serena got here at 5:30 that day. She was right on time. I let her in and we sat down on the couch. We started discussing ideas for the project and stuff and then she mentioned the play. We talked a about that for a little while and she suggested we practice a scene. So we chose to do the last scene where Proctor dies and..." he suddenly broke off again, realizing what happened next. He blushed a little remembering how close they'd been to kissing. "We were going to...rehearse the kissing scene," he continued, looking at Lita. He thought he saw a small smile on her lips as he mentioned the kissing scene. "...And just as we were going to...do that scene, we heard a noise come from the front door. It was open, so I went and closed it and we sat down again and worked on the project some more" "So you didn't go through with it" said Lita. Darien was still blushing a bit. "No, we didn't". "Ooh! I bet it was Anne! She must've been spying on you or something! I guess she left before she saw the whole thing and made up that lie! Ooh, when I get my hands on that girl!!" said Lita, her fists clenched. "You'll have to go after me. Who does that girl think she is? Meddling in our business!" said Darien angrily. Then he blushed at how that sounded. Their "business". Lita had a smirk on her face. "Well, we'll both have our chance at her tomorrow!" she said. "What about Serena? Have you told her yet?" asked Darien. "No, I came straight here when I found out. You'd told me to let you know as quickly as possible if I found anything out" "I appreciate it, Lita. Thanks" Lita looked at her watch. "I'm really glad to be of help, but I have to go now. It's late!" "Yeah. Thanks for all your help!" said Darien smiling. "No prob! Any battles of Serena are my battles too! Friends stick together, right?" "Right" "Well, bye!" said Lita as she went out the door. "See you tomorrow" said Darien as he closed the door. The next day at school... "Okay, everybody! This is the first rehearsal for 'The Crucible'! We'll start with the first scene! Characters in this scene are Rev. Parris, Mr. Putnam, Mrs. Putnam, Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis, Marry Warren, Betty Parris, Tituba, and John Proctor! So I need Melvin, Anne, Katt, Grace, Molly, Kerry, Cole, and Darien!" said Ms. Haruna. "Ms. Haruna, I don't understand where my character's anger comes from!" said Cole, who played Mr. Putnam. "Ms. Haruna, what's my motivation?" asked Melvin. "Ms. Haruna, how come I have to be the fat character? Are you trying to tell me something with this?" asked Grace, who played Merry Lewis, and was very paranoid. "Ms. Haruna!" "Ms. Haruna!" Finally Ms. Haruna threw her script up in the air. "STOP!!" she screamed. "Cole, your character is just a man who thinks he should own everything in town and he lies to get it, Melvin, your character is motivated by the fact that he thinks everyone's out to get him, Grace, you got the character because it's the one you said you wanted!" said Ms. Haruna almost out of breath, "PLACES!!" "Uhh...Ms. H?" said Molly, looking at Ms. Haruna as if she were crazy. "What is it, Molly?" "This is our first rehearsal. We don't know our places yet" "Oh!" said Ms. Haruna, giggling nervously. "Silly me! Heh! Umm, well! Why don't we read through it first, right? Yes, that's perfect! Kerry, you're Tituba! You begin!" Kerry cleared her throat and began reading. "My Betty be hearty soon?" she said in a fake Southern accent. "OUT OF HERE!!!" yelled Melvin at the top of his lungs. Everyone covered their ears and winced. "Melvin!" said Ms. Haruna, "We know Rev. Parris is mad at Tituba, but not THAT mad! Do it again!" They continued rehearsing through act 1 until they got to the scene Anne had been waiting for. The scene in which Abigail and John Proctor talk. "Gah! I'd forgotten how strong you are, John Proctor!" said Anne seductively. "What is this mischief here?" read Darien, his voice very cold. "No, no, Darien! You're kinda flirting with each other! You're sorry you cheated on Elizabeth, but you're still a bit attracted to Abigail! Do it again!" said Ms. Haruna. Darien repeated his line, trying to say it more naturally. His voice came across just a little less cold as before. "Oh, never mind! Continue" said a frustrated Ms. Haruna. Anne cleared her throat and continued. "Oh, she's only gone silly somehow..." They continued reading a couple of lines below, Anne seductively and Darien kind of indiferently. Serena wondered if it was because he didn't like reading aloud, or if it was something else. "Give me a word, John. A soft word." continued Anne, giving Darien seductive glances as she spoke. But all she received from him were icy glares that made her spine shiver. "No, no, Abby. That's done with" he said firmly. As they kept reading, Darien, as John Proctor, spoke each word with firmness, while Anne, as Abigail, kept trying to convince him to come back to her. "Oh, I marvel at how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-" said Anne, before being abruptly cut off by Darien. "You'll speak nothing of Elizabeth!!" he thundered at her. Everyone was awed by the way he said this last line, as if he really felt it. Serena wondered if he was thinking of her as Elizabeth when he spoke this line. A few minutes later, the bell rang. It was time to go home. Serena grabbed her things and left the auditorium with Lita and Amy. "Hey, guys, I have to go talk to my science teacher for a minute. I'll catch up with you later okay?" said Amy. "Yeah, sure, Amy" said Lita. "Bye, Ames!" said Serena. "Bye!" said Amy waving as she ran in the opposite direction. "Hey, that reminds me! I left something in the Home Ec. Room! I'll catch up with you too, okay?" said Lita. "Yeah, okay. Later then!" said Serena. "Later!" As Serena kept walking towards the school's entrance, she heard some girls snickering. "Hey, Serena!" said a tall redhead. Serena stopped and looked at her. "Gonna work your corner tonight?" the redhead finished. Her friends started laughing loudly as if it was the funniest thing they'd ever heard. Serena fought back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. She kept walking towards the school's entrance, this time a little faster. She couldn't wait to get out of there. As she walked down the street, Serena wiped the tears from her eyes. She'd never known what people thought could matter so much...could hurt so much... She was turning around the corner when she heard a deep voice. "Hey, Serena, wait!" She turned around to see Darien running towards her. "Hi, Darien!" she said, smiling. "Hey. Where're you going?" he said, catching his breath a little. "To the arcade. See if the new Sailor V videogame cheers me up." She said with a half-smile. "Well, um, I need to talk to you" he said, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "What about?" "The rumors" Serena sighed. "I wish I could forget about those for more than 5 minutes" she said sadly. "We found out who started them" he said. Serena's eyes got wide. "You did? Well, who? I mean, who would want to do this?" she asked. "Let's go to the park. We can talk there" he said. "Okay" At the park, Serena and Darien sat down on one of the benches. The park was quiet and peaceful. Not many people were there today. Serena put her bookbag on the floor next to her and turned to face Darien. "Well?" she said. "It was Anne Granger" said Darien. "What? Anne? But, why-" she asked, before stoping abbruptly. She got a different look in her eyes, as if she understood or remembered something. "Of course. It figures," she said, "For some reason, ever since Anne moved here, she's never liked me much. She was always...kind of hostile against me. She made fun of my hair, and whenever I got an answer wrong in class or I got a bad grade she always rubbed it in my face. She was always trying to make me feel...I don't know...worthless. Lita said she was jealous because some guy she liked had a crush on me, but I know that couldn't be it! I mean, I've never had a single date! The school 'babe' is Niki Schwartz. So I always shrugged it off. I just thought she was one of those people who feel better about themselves by making fun of others...I never realized she hated me THIS much!" "But you're probably the prettiest girl in school!" said Darien. Then he blushed and looked away. Serena blushed too and looked at her hands. "Thanks" she said in a small voice. "Anyway, sounds like Anne has a lot of attitude problems" said Darien raising his eyebrows. "You're telling me! Hey, how'd you find out it was her?" asked Serena. "Lita found out. It seems Anne told Andrew's girlfriend, Rita, and a couple of other people. I guess it just spread from there" he said. "Hmm. So how can we stop it? I mean, we should talk to Anne or something. You know, make her come clean with everyone" she said. Darien had to smile at her innocence. "It's not that easy, Serena. Not only will Anne not take back what she said, but even if she did, it's too late. In my experience, rumors never die out. There's always some idiot out there who believed it and passed it on to another idiot. This one's gonna be very hard to squash. What you need to do is, don't let them get to you. You KNOW nothing happened, so you don't have to worry about it. Hopefully, everyone will find something new to talk about soon" he said. "I hope so..." said Serena with a sigh. "You know, come to think of it, the role of Abigail Williams suits Anne, Abigail being a lying viper..." said Darien with a small smile. "Darien!" said Serena giggling. "What?" he said innocently. Okay, I know you're all ready to kill me for it being so short, but I kinda thought it was a good place to leave it at and I have to think about how I want to write the next part. I know what's gonna happen, but it's kinda hard to put into words, you know? I'm sure it should be out soon. Till then!