Another argument is over and Molly won it. But, can Amy block out Zoicite? Well you’ll just have to read won’t ya! LOL

Sailor Moon is copyright (c) 1992 Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha, TOEI Animation. English Language Adaptation (c) 1995 DiC Entertainment

By eight that night, the group was relaxing in front of the mansion fireplace. Amy tapped furiously on her computer, oblivious of the talk and chuckles around her. The others munched on goodies and roasted marshmallows. Molly was in a better mood, but Neflyte had yet to completely relax. He was too busy scanning for any sense of Zoicite showing up.

The sound of Luna clearing her throat as she chuckled silenced the group, even Amy paid partial attention towards the black cat as she worked on the problem. “I have an announcement to make. We must have these meetings more often. Serena came home and did her homework completely without being told to! Her father even gave her a raise on her allowance for it.”

Serena pouted as the group (including Amy, who put her mini-computer down) all applauded that. She thought they were teasing her. “Geesh, mom said that I couldn’t come tonight or shopping tomorrow if I didn’t get it done when I told her about it as I walked in the door. I wanted to come, so I got it done. Next time I won’t bother.”

“Serena, we’re not picking on you. If anything we’re proud of you. Can you name one other day that you have ever done that?” Lita smiled at the group’s leader.

“Big deal.” Serena snapped as she drew her knees close to her chest.

Neflyte could see that the Moon Scout was feeling hurt by their actions. “Don’t be upset with us, Serena. We’re proud of you, because you are trying to change.”

She looked up with hurt tears falling from her eyes. “Really?”

“Yeah meatball head! After all, you’ve even cut the whining out … most of the time.” Raye taunted, adding the last as almost an afterthought.

Serena shot a glare and a raspberry at Raye. “Whatever, Raye!”

“I meant that you are starting to act like a real leader most of the time. It’s when you act like you are now that you’re annoying” Raye shrugged her shoulders.

Molly smiled at the pair raspberrying one another and chuckled. “Well, at least we'll still love her anyway.”

That made Serena stop and think a moment. ‘They really do love me. After all, who else could put up with the way I usually flake out?’

That seemingly broke Serena out of her bad mood. But before she could say a word, Amy shouted out in surprise. “More good news! I’ve found a new locking schematic that should keep Zoicite at bay! It will reconfigure itself every time she tries to pick through it, and can only be undone by one of us.”

“So, do I get to come home like always?” Molly glanced up at Neflyte, whose chest she had been leaning against most of the evening.

Neflyte smiled as he gently kissed his love’s lips. He didn’t think he could survive without having her that close on the weekends, and he had reconsidered her idea of him staying with her during the week. “I think that’s worth a few pizzas. And maybe we could give out our little Scout surprises as well. Sound good, girls?”

“Scout surprises? Ooooh, what kind of Scout surprises?” Serena flaked out as the smile returned to her face.

“You’ll just have to wait a few minutes for us to bring them out.” Molly chuckled as she and Neflyte rushed into a small room nearby.

After a few minutes, they both came back with bags in their arms; one for each Scout - including Luna and a stunned Molly. “Neflyte, I told you that you didn’t have to get one for me!”

“And I told you that this is a Scout surprise. Now seeing as you are a Scout, it would be a crime to leave you out of it.” He grinned as the girls got into their bags.

On the outside of each bag was each girl’s planet symbol. Inside, under pretty metallic paper, were boxes with the Cassidy Logo on them. Opening the boxes, the girls were stunned to find dolls of them as Scouts!

Each was amazingly detailed to the last element. They moved and even posed as the girls did in real life. The dolls had a control on their backs that would open and close the eyes. Even Luna’s looked so lifelike she wasn’t sure that the cat wouldn’t blink and start talking.

The tiara on Serena’s doll came off and fit in its hand. She even found a disk in the box for her tiara attack. Mars had a glittery red ball for her fireball attack. Amy’s had a doll sized microcomputer and a small bottle of bubbles. Lita’s tiara had a small antenna that could be raised and lowered, as well a small pink rose earrings. Molly’s too had those sun earrings, which glittered in the firelight.

“Neflyte, how did you do this?” Molly sighed with tears in her eyes.

“Well, I simply asked Mika Cassidy and her mother to make them. I would have given them to all of you at my birthday, but the dolls weren’t ready and I wasn’t going to leave Sailor Jupiter out.”

Serena took a hard look at her doll’s face, at how precise it was to her own. “Yeah, but you don’t have any pictures of us. Even with as talented as Mika and her mother are I doubt they could get this true to us looks in the dolls.”

“I spent most of that first night thinking of how I could honor each of you. I came up with the idea of the dolls while Molly and I were shopping the next morning, and sketched out each of you while Molly slept that night. Molly was the easiest because she was right there with me. As for the rest, I hope that I at the least came close.” Neflyte looked at them with a nervous hope in his eyes.

Raye was near speechless - the gift was that priceless to her. “Close? They’re perfect! Thank you, Neflyte!”

Then Lita found something else in her box. A small black velvet jewelry box. She was floored when she opened it. “Oh, it’s a pendent like all of yours! What does it say on the back? ‘The Rolling Thunder of Protection’. Thank you, Neflyte!”

Lita didn’t have a problem hugging their friend. See, getting that necklace made her feel as if she was really one of the group.

Neflyte grinned; he had one more surprise up his sleeve for the girls - one that not even Molly had any idea about. “I heard that you were offered some intensive classes, Amy. But you refused them because you would graduate long before the other girls.”

“Amy? Why would you do that? You deserve to go on!” Serena said.

Seeing that the others agreed, Amy made her case. “I want to stay with all of you. What happens if I go on to high school and you guys need me, but I get stuck in a class I can’t leave?”

That hit them all. The fact was they were all under that possibility.

Neflyte too had thought about that, and came up with a solution. “Well, it took some doing, but I have a way around that. All of you in the same classroom, with a youma teaching, and a few youma to fill out the class - however it means triple school and homework for everyone. This way all of you graduate early and if you need to leave for a fight, the youma can cover all of you.”

“But, I barely make it as is. I’ve pulled up from ‘F’s to ‘C’s, but I don’t see myself getting much better than that. And adding on extra work - I’ll probably drop back down to ‘F’s.” Serena sighed.

Molly smiled over at her leader and friend. “Well, back before Neflyte and I became part of the group, would you have ever seen yourself making ‘C’s?”

“No. But …”

“But nothing. We all see that you are changing, Serena. And I know that you can keep it up.” Neflyte said.

Serena finally understood her interaction with the principal that day as she was rushing off to meet up with Molly to walk home.

* * * * * *

That Afternoon

“Ms. Tsukino.”

Serena turned around, surprised that the principal pulled her back. “Yes, Mr. Yamada.”

“I hope that you will not embarrass our school in this new endeavor you will be starting tomorrow. After all, Ms. Anderson I can see on this list. You on the other hand have never given any attempt to honor you family with your grades. Give me one good reason to return you where I feel you still belong despite your improvements, and you will be right where you need to be. Am I understood?” Serena gave him a strange look. “I guess.”

“Go on then.” Mr. Yamada snapped.

* * * * * *

Serena looked at the others, all were angry at the harassment. “Now I understand what he meant. You put me on the list, but Mr. Yamada doesn’t like it.”

“I can’t believe that he is bullying you like that!” Amy reacted with shock.

Lita growled. “He wants to hold you back so he can have control over our class!”

“How dare he! I mean, you’re really trying - he should be supporting you, not driving you down through the cracks!” Raye yelled.

Neflyte too shook his head. “We will be there to support you Serena, and I know that you will make him eat his words.”

“Right, after all, you have all of us to help you,” Molly added.

“You all really think I can do this - get through the class with the extra work load, and pass with decent grades?” Serena whimpered.

Luna looked up at Serena with a determined look on her face. “We know that you can, Serena. You have changed quite a bit in the past few weeks, and I believe that you are not through yet.”

Serena stood up with a new determined look on her face. “Then I will. Just wait until I put Mr. Yamada in his place!”

The girls and youma all cheered. Serena felt like flaking for all of the friends she had and how much they believed in her.

“Now how about those pizzas? I think we now have more than enough reason to celebrate,” Neflyte chuckled out as the girls slowly calmed down.

Raye snapped her fingers at that. “We forgot to tell ya guys! Do you remember that guy that beat out Amy on that last test for top position? Well, that night the two of you were meeting with that supplier from Egypt, we found out that he was a crystal carrier!”

“Yeah, you should have seen it! Amy talked to him and it seemed to help. He knocked the crystal out of Zoicite’s hands and Amy grabbed it!” Serena continued excitedly.

Amy herself sat shyly looking at the floor. “Greg knew that it was going to happen because he can see things before they happen. Precognition. That’s how he saved me from being crushed by that steel beam earlier that afternoon. He was able to prepare himself before he was turned and in a small way kept his humanity intact. He even knows who all of us are, but has promised to keep our secret.”

“You’re also forgetting that he totally likes you. I’ll bet that helped him too, Amy. After all, he was going bonkers until he focused on you, and then he started attacking Zoicite.” Lita winked as the other girls nodded in agreement.

Amy blushed hotly from that. “You guys! What’s important is that we got the crystal. Besides, he’s moved to another town.”

“Then we’ll leave it as a ‘you never know’. And forget about ordering in, we’re heading out to celebrate! How does a movie to go with the pizza sound? Youmas as well,” Neflyte announced to give Amy a break from the knowing smiles of the others (including Phon).

That was all it took for their attentions to be shifted. In a matter of minutes all of the girls had carefully put away their precious dolls, Amy had helped Neflyte reconfigure the guard spells around the manor, and they were off.

The other girls and their youmas (along with Molly’s) enjoyed the movie. But Molly and Neflyte couldn’t remember much about it, because they had been too involved with one another to notice the images on the screen. Just that in America during WWII there was an all-women professional baseball league.

All through dinner the girls went on about how cool the movie was. They were so excited that Neflyte wondered to himself if a trip to that Hall of Fame would be an easy idea to sell to the parents as a special class school trip. That is, once Beryl was put out of their misery. He decided to hold off telling the girls until after all was safe.

That night he and Molly were lost in one another for hours before sleep finally ambushed them. In fact, none of the group got up before noon the next day.

Before they left their rooms to greet the others, Neflyte gave Molly a special gift. “Molly, I think this is something you will be able to use today. Plus, I think you are mature enough to handle it. But, please use it wisely.”

Opening the envelope he laid in her hand, she gasped to find a credit card with her name on it! Neflyte had gotten her a credit card! “Oh, Neflyte! You didn’t have to do this!”

“I know, but I wanted to. You have the same limit as I do. Now go have some fun. After all, some of the money the business has made in the past month and a half has been because of you. So go have fun with the money that you earned us.”