"Muffin Mania"

"No more school for two whole days!" Serena exclaimed, her blonde pigtails flying in the wind. The crisp leaves around them were falling slowly, in brilliant auburn, brown, and golden colors. It was the end of the school day. And it was Friday, which made Serena very happy.

"Woohoo!" Molly cheered in. Her short hair wasn't rustled a bit, which seemed like a feat of nature in the blowing wind. Molly was all excited for the event she and Serena would be participating in later that afternoon and had an extravagant smile on her face.

"I see you've gotten your energy back!" Serena pointed out cheerfully. She was trying to make her friend even happier, just to see what would happen. She just had to make sure that Melvin didn't show up and talk about Nephlite.

"Yeah. But the weird thing is that all the other times I've been drained, it hasn't been as much," Molly pondered, her expression changing from joy to bewilderment.

Suddenly, Serena lost her sense of priority and spilt the beans on Sailor Nega, "Well, I hear there's a sixth scout. The same one that attacked you. And she's named Sailor Nega. She's the scout of the Negaverse. Really, really bad person. She's a diseased fungus spore! And she goes to this school!"

"Really?!?" Molly's eyes lit up with a gossip's interest.

"Hi, Serena! Hey! Wait up!" Lita called out, waving frantically. She jogged up to Serena and Molly, with Amy behind her.

"Hi, Lita!! Hi, Amy!!" Serena yelled back, waving.

"We're meeting Raye and Mina at the temple!" Amy explained.

"I can't come! Sorry, but I promised Molly that I'd compete in the Sailor V video game tournament at the arcade with her! It's gonna be really cool! Whoever thought you could win a prize for playing video games?" Serena spazzed, rattling on.

"Let's go, Serena!" Molly urged, nudging Serena with her elbow.

"Bye, guys!" Serena called as she left, waving again.

A few minutes later, Serena and Molly reached the arcade. They opened the glass doors and stepped through. They pushed their way into the crowd.

"Good thing we signed up a month ahead of time!" Molly pointed out, in an optimistic way.

"Yeah... This place is packed!" Serena nodded in agreement. On the wall, there was a large banner with all the sixty-four contestants, set up in tournament branches.

There was a loud tapping noise. It was Andrew tapping the microphone on the podium. "Ladies, gentlemen, guys, and gals! This is our first annual video game tournament!" he announced. "This year, the game is Sailor V! We've hooked up every machine to the Sailor V game for this special event. The winner of the tournament receives the gaming key, which allows them to play any machine here at no cost! Let's get started! The first two are Jonathan and Kino!"

He rattled on name, after name, after name, after name. Finally, he read off Serena's name. "Serena and Tanya!"

Serena raced over to the video game console and sat down upon the red stool. Another employee of the arcade walked over to the two girls and quickly explained the rules and conditions of the competition. "You both have five minutes to get as many points as possible. You have infinite lives. But if you die, you lose 2000 points; there are negative points if you go below zero. On your mark... get set... go!"

Serena started fiddling with the joystick and pounding on the buttons as soon as the game flickered on. Serena twisted it right to make Sailor V dodge a giant purple snake. She shot Sailor V's beam at the monster. She got 3050 points. Out of nowhere, a giant egg appeared and crushed Sailor V. Serena cried out as 2000 points dissappeared from her score, leaving her with only 1050.

"Melvin and Gabby!" Andrew called out. Melvin ran over to a game console.

"Sammy and Aurora!" Andrew continued.

"Hey, you're the new girl at Serena's school!" Sammy exclaimed. He brushed his brown hair out of his eyes.

"So?" Aurora shrugged. She didn't want to have stupid conversations with little boys. Sammy continued to talk to Aurora while the 16-year-old employee was explaining the rules. Aurora just ignored the child.

"On your mark... get set... go!" The screen flickered on.

"Molly and Micha!" Andrew continued, reading off the names on the cards he was holding. He gave Molly a thumbs up sign. She didn't see him.

"Hey! Why'd I lose 2000 points?!?" Sammy screamed, infuriated at the machine. Sweat was dripping down his forehead. He yelled out some unintelligable exclamation when his Sailor V got fried by an energy beam.

"I've got 92-million!" someone from across the arcade screamed, excitement in his voice.

"I think I'm winning!" Serena exclaimed, while jumping up and down, which, in turn, caused her pigtails to jump up and down.

"I think I'm losing!" Tanya complained, glaring at Serena with her blue eyes.

"Time's up! I lost!" Jonathan yelled. He was smiling excitedly.

"I won!! I won!!" Kinomako cheered. She jumped out of her seat, but tripped over it.

"Oh! I lose 2000 points every time time I die!" Sammy realized, frustrated with himself for not figuring it out sooner.

"Time's almost up!" Serena yelled.

"I lost!" Tanya screamed in agonizing defeat.

"I won!!" Molly cheered.

"That's not fair that I lost! They didn't tell me I'd lose those points every time I die!" Sammy complained, sticking his tongue out at Aurora.

"Yes they did, Sammy! You weren't listening!" Serena scolded from across the room.

"Was too!" Sammy yelled back.

"Was not!" Serena continued. They kept shouting at each other until the next game.

I love having all this free time due to Rubius not sending me on any missions recently! I'm like a normal teenager! Aurora exclaimed silently, a grin on her face.