Chapter 1

Usagi sat down at the bus stop and sighed in defeat. She pulled her science midterm out of her bag and counted the red marks on the paper. There was a gigantic 25 angrily circled in red at the top of the first page.

There's no way my parents will believe I studied for this, she thought miserably. I can hear Mom now-

"Usagi, what happened? I thought you studied for this!"

Exactly, Usagi thought with a flinch. Then with a startled jump, she turned around. Mamoru stood behind her, frowning at the test paper. Usagi blushed, feeling ashamed.

"I did study for this," she said defensively. "You helped me study, remember?" Mamoru sat down beside her and looked over the test. He nodded.

"Yeah, I remember," he confirmed. "You did so well. What happened?" Usagi scowled and shoved the paper in her bag.

"The Dark Kingdom happened," she snapped at him. "Some of us can't get three hours of sleep and still function well enough for a stupid test." Usagi glared almost accusingly at Mamoru. He shrank back a bit, feeling appropriately chastised.

"I'm sorry, Usagi," he said. "That was incredibly dumb of me." Usagi glared at him a moment longer, then sighed, sagging forward slightly.

"It's fine," she said, wearily. Mamoru noticed suddenly how tired she looked. There was a hint of shadows beneath her normally bright eyes, and she looked pale.

"Usa, are you alright?" he asked. Usagi looked up at him and shrugged.

"Fine, I guess," she said. "I'm just really tired. That fight last night kind of took it out of me. I could use a nap, but no way are my parents going to let me after they see this. It was thirty percent of my grade!"

Usagi's face scrunched up, and for a moment, Mamoru thought Usagi was going to go into her customary water works, which would have been a relief. If she was feeling well enough for her usual dramatics, Mamoru would have been sure she was really alright. But the moment passed. Usagi seemed to be too tired to act out. The battle the night before wasn't as difficult as the one they had fought the night before Usagi's test, but it was the latest in a series of battles that had been hard enough. Usagi, Mamoru had noticed, didn't seem to bounce back as quickly as the rest of them. Mamoru made a note to get Usagi to speak to Ami about running some tests. Maybe they could figure out exactly why fighting seemed to take so much more out of Usagi.

"I'm super not looking forward to this," Usagi continued, leaning against Mamoru's shoulder. "I'm going to be grounded until I graduate. Promise you'll wait for me?" Mamoru smiled and kissed the top of Usagi's head.

"Another thousand years, if I need to," he promised. Usagi laughed joylessly.

"You might need to."

"Well, as long as I'd be allowed to date in the meantime…" Usagi jabbed Mamoru in the side with her elbow.

"Don't even think about it, or you'll be grounded, too!" Mamoru laughed and held his hands up.

"Alright! Alright! How about we go for an ice cream before you go home?" Usagi looked at him longingly.

"I would love to!" she groaned "But I just want to get this over with." Mamoru draped his arm around Usagi's shoulders and let her lean against him.

"I'll sneak you some later," he promised. Mamoru walked Usagi the rest of the way to her neighborhood. She said good bye to him at the corner. Then she squared her shoulders and walked the rest of the way alone.

Kenji's car wasn't in the driveway, Usagi noticed with some relief. Her mother would be busy fixing dinner by now, and with her father away, Usagi had a chance of sneaking to her room and avoiding her mother until dinner time. With some creative maneuvering, Usagi might even make it until the next morning without telling her mother about her dismal grade. It would be a lot easier to tell her mother on her way out of the door and give her the rest of the day to cool down. With her plan set, Usagi took a deep breath and entered the house as quietly as she could. She could, as she expected, hear her mother working in the kitchen. The sound of cartoons in the living room told her where her brother was. She set her shoes down by the door and crept towards the stairs.

"Usagi! You're home!" Usagi leapt almost all the way to the stairs at the sound of her father's voice. She spun around and saw him with a can of soda in his hand. He was wearing his old university sweatshirt and what he called his "lounging pants", which were an old pair of jeans that his wife wouldn't allow him to wear anywhere else. He had clearly been home for a while.

"Er…hi, Dad," she stammered, her face flushing guiltily. "I didn't realize you were home. I…uh…didn't see your car." Kenji didn't seem to notice Usagi's fluster, or he mistook it for surprise.

"Oh, that," he chuckled. "You wouldn't believe what happened. I was halfway to work when my car just stopped running."

"Oh, that's terrible," Usagi said, backing up towards the stairs. "I really have to…"

"That's not the half of it, though," Kenji continued. "I had to wait almost an hour for a tow to the repair shop. Then I had to wait another two hours for them to figure out what was wrong with my car. I had finally had to call your mom for a ride home. Then about an hour ago they called to tell me they finally figured it out. You'll never guess what was wrong." Usagi glanced nervously towards the kitchen.

"What was wrong with it?" she asked her father, trying to sound more interested than she felt. Kenji laughed and shook his head.

"The darn thing had run out of gas!" he told her. "I had been so preoccupied with getting to work that I completely forgot to check." Usagi forced some laughter and started going up the stairs.

"That's hilarious, Dad," she said. "But I have to go…"

"Right, right," Kenji waved his daughter on. "Homework and such. I get it." Usagi breathed a sigh of relief. She was home free if she could just make it to her room. Her hopes were dashed just then when her mother poked her head out into the hallway and saw Usagi.

"There you are!" she said cheerfully. Ikuko wiped her hands on her apron and went over to where Kenji and Usagi were standing.

"Hi, Mom," Usagi said brightly. She made a quick attempt to keep the away from the topic of school. "Dad was just telling me about his car."

"I've been hearing about it all day," Ikuko snorted, poking her husband in his ribs. "You know how your father is when he gets hold of a good story. We'll be hearing about this one for years."

"Hey," Kenji protested. "I'm a journalist. Stories are what I do." Usagi laughed along with her parents and went up a couple more steps.

So close! Usagi thought wildly.

"I got a call from Umino's mother a few minutes ago." Usagi tried to hide her cringe. She could see her chances of escaping getting dimmer.

"Called for your chocolate cake recipe?" Usagi asked lightly. "Umino told her how good it is. He said he wants it for his birthday."

"She sure did," Ikuko said, nodding her head. Kenji missed the sharpening of her eyes, but Usagi didn't. She knew exactly what was coming. "She went on and on about how Umino was so upset about not getting a perfect score on his science midterm, and she wants to cheer him up."

"Well, that Umino is a dork and a half." Usagi laughed and made one last futile attempt to escape to her room.

"How did you do on that test?" Ikuko asked. Usagi froze. She looked at her mother with what she hoped was confusion and not guilt. Ikuko wasn't buying it, but she managed to keep an expectant smile on her face. Even Kenji had caught on to the line of questioning and was looking at his daughter questioningly.

"You did take that test, too, didn't you?" Ikuko prompted. Usagi considered lying and telling them that Umino was in an AP science class, but she decided not to. It would only make things worse later. With a defeated sigh, she dug her red splattered test out of her bag and handed it to her mother.

"Before you say anything, I really did study for this-"

"You studied?" Ikuko looked at the paper horrified. Kenji looked over her shoulder and his jaw fell.

"Usagi, a twenty-five percent?" he nearly screamed. "How can you expect us to believe you studied? You get five percent for just getting the date right!" Shingo peeked out of the living room to see what was going on. His parents didn't notice and he smirked at his sister. She shot him a quick scowl, and then went back to trying to explain.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before," she told them. "I was…nervous…about the test." The excuse sounded weak even to her own ears, but it was partly the truth. Usagi hoped that her parents would buy it.

"I know you don't expect us to believe that!" Ikuko crossed her arms and glared angrily up at her daughter.

"I know why she couldn't sleep," Shingo muttered smugly. His parents immediately turned to him and Shingo shrank back, regretting that he had said anything.

"What do you mean by that?" Kenji demanded. Shingo looked down at his socks and shrugged.

"Nothing," he mumbled. "Forget it."

"Shingo," Ikuko said in a tone that meant trouble for him if he lied. Shingo looked at Usagi apologetically.

"It's nothing," he insisted. "I…I thought I heard Usagi climb out of the window, but it was probably just Luna." Ikuko and Kenji turned back to Usagi.

"Have you been sneaking out!" Kenji yelled. His face was bright red at this point. "What on earth are you thinking, young lady? Why are you leaving this house in the middle of the night?" Usagi glared daggers at her brother. He mouthed an apology and slunk back to the couch.

"I just took a walk," Usagi told him. "It wasn't a big deal. I just couldn't sleep."

"How long has this been going on?" Kenji demanded. Usagi's face flushed red and she couldn't meet his eyes.

"Not long," she lied. Kenji blinked in shock.

"How long?" Usagi fiddled with her fingers and said nothing.

"Have you been sneaking out to see Mamoru?" Ikuko asked quietly. Kenji looked wildly between his wife and his daughter.

"Mamoru! That boy you've been seeing? Did you sneak out to see him?"

"No! Dad, Mamoru's not like that!" Usagi asserted. "He would never ask me to sneak out to see him. Especially not when I have midterms."

"So, what were you doing leaving the house?" Ikuko asked. Usagi threw her arms up helplessly.

"I just…needed some air," she said. "I didn't go far."

"How are we supposed to believe that?" Ikuko asked. "Was that the first time you'd snuck out?" Usagi hesitated a beat too long before saying it was.

"You are grounded!" Kenji declared. "Until further notice, you go to school and then you come straight home. Don't even think about the movies, or the mall, or the park, or the phone until those grades come up."

"But, Dad-"

"Keep it up and I will shut off all the electricity to your room!" Usagi looked at her mother pleadingly, but Ikuko's face was as immovable as stone.

"You heard your father," she said frostily. "Go to your room, now. I'll bring your dinner to you."

Usagi gaped at her parents. It was completely unfair, but she couldn't tell them that. The only way to make them understand was to tell them that she was Sailor Moon, which the team had decided was a bad idea. Instead, Usagi huffed and stomped to her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Usagi threw herself on her bed and considered throwing an all-out tantrum, but she didn't have the energy to throw into a really satisfying outburst. She settled for lying on her bed and staring morosely out of the window. Not for the first time, she imagined what her parents' reactions would be when they found out that she was actually Sailor Moon. They would, after all, have to find out eventually if everything she had seen when the Senshi travelled to the 31st century came true. Then Usagi considered the reasons for not telling them. There was the fact that they would probably try to stop her from putting herself in such dangerous situations, despite the fact that without her the world as they knew it would have ended several times over. Then there were the others to think of. Once her parents knew that she was Sailor Moon, it wouldn't be too hard to figure out who the rest of the Senshi were, and it wouldn't be fair to compromise them without their consent. But those reasons alone wouldn't have been enough to stop her if it hadn't been for her last reason. She didn't want to have to explain to her parents that she wasn't really theirs. That she was actually some quasi alien princess changeling that had been implanted in Ikuko to be reborn as the Defender of Love and Justice. That was a conversation she'd just as soon avoid. And it left her here; exhausted, grounded and flunking school.

Frowning, Usagi turned onto her back. The other girls weren't having nearly as much trouble as she was. Ami was a genius, of course. She could probably have passed that test on no sleep without hesitating on one question. The others all had their problem classes, too, but they managed to keep at least a C average. Rei had a B average, and she was in a prestigious private school. Part of Usagi wondered if she was just not as smart as her friends, but she knew she knew the answers to the test the day before. If it hadn't been for that youma attack, she knew she would have at least passed the test. She noticed, though, that the battles always seemed to tire her more than the other Senshi.

"Okay," she said to herself. "Maybe I'm not stupid. Maybe I'm just weak."

Beepbeepbeep!

Beepbeepbeep!

Beepbeepbeep!

Usagi sat up and looked around her room in a disoriented daze. She hadn't realized that she was falling asleep. The sun was only a bit lower in the sky and her mother hadn't brought her dinner, so Usagi didn't think she had been asleep long. The beeping continued and Usagi realized it was her communicator going off. Her heart thudded in her chest as she reached into her backpack for it. She was dreading making her escape with her parents so angry. She turned it on and Rei's annoyed face came up on the screen.

"What is it?" Usagi asked. Her other hand was already reaching for her transformation broach.

"Where are you, Meatball head?" she demanded. "I've tried your cell phone three times already! Why didn't you pick up?" Usagi looked at her in confusion.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Is it another attack?" Rei rolled her eyes.

"No, it's not an attack," she snapped. "If you had answered your phone, you'd know that Luna called an emergency meeting to discuss all the youma attacks lately. Get your butt over here. Like five minutes ago!" Usagi fought back a wave of annoyance as checked her phone- thankfully, her parents hadn't thought to take it yet. Sure enough she had three missed calls from Rei and one from Minako.

"I can't come," she told Rei. "I'm grounded."

"You have to come," Rei insisted. "For some reason you're the leader of our team. We can't meet without you."

"Okay, great," Usagi retorted sarcastically. "How about you explain that to my parents. Good luck with that."

"Can't you just sneak out?" Rei asked.

"No," Usagi said. "They're on to the window trick, and I can't just walk out of the front door." Now Rei got angry.

"Can't you at least pretend you're interested in getting here?" she snapped. "The rest of us have lives, too, you know!" Usagi could feel the blood rush to her face. Of course she remembered that her friends had lives, too, and that they had obligations and responsibilities outside of being Senshi, but they didn't have her parents. She had thought that they understood her position, but apparently not. Usagi tried for several moments to figure out to explain to Rei why she couldn't just walk out right then, but before she could say anything, Rei let out a disgusted huff and said,

"Forget it. You're just going to flake out on us. Again! Some leader." Then Rei hung up. Usagi stared at the blank screen in shock, before she threw the indestructible communicator across the room. It hit her open closet door and landed on a pile of clothes. Usagi flung herself back onto her bed and finally gave into the tantrum she couldn't have earlier. She screamed into her pillows until her throat was too sore and then cried until her head ached. When she heard her mother coming up the stairs, Usagi hurriedly pulled a book out from her backpack and sat at her desk pretending to read. Ikuko entered without knocking, which was unusual for her, and set the plate on the desk without a word. On her way out, Ikuko paused and Usagi turned to see her mother pick up her cell phone. She looked at Usagi significantly and tucked it into her apron pocket.

"When you're finished, leave your plate outside the door," was all Ikuko said before she closed the door behind her. Usagi glared at the plate. She considered not eating at all to spite her parents, but she was actually ravenous, the way she normally was after a fight. Her mother had made tonkatsu, her favorite, which made it all the harder to resist.

Luna arrived as Usagi was setting her plate quietly outside of her door. The black cat sat primly on the window sill with her tail wrapped around her legs. She looked at her young charge as reproachfully as a cat could. Usagi far from being cowed crossed her arms and glared at Luna defiantly.

"You missed a meeting," Luna observed disapprovingly.

"I did," Usagi said. "I told Rei why." Luna looked at Usagi expectantly and she realized that Rei hadn't told Luna what had happen. "Seriously? Rei didn't say anything at all?"

"Usagi, if you are blowing off Senshi meetings to spend time with Mamoru…"

"For crying out loud!" Usagi growled in disgust. "What is everyone's deal with Mamoru today? No, I was not blowing off a Senshi meeting to see Mamrou. I'm grounded. I can't leave the house except to go to school." Luna blinked in surprise at that.

"Grounded? Why? For how long?" Usagi stretched out on her bed and threw her arm across her eyes.

"I don't know for how long," she said. "Until my parents can see straight again. Maybe until I graduate. If I graduate." Luna jumped onto the bed beside Usagi and curled up comfortingly beside her. Usagi fought back tears and curled up around Luna.

"Why are you grounded?" Luna asked again softly.

"I bombed my science test," Usagi told her. "And my parents found out that I had snuck out the night before. That didn't help my case."

"Oh, Usagi," Luna sighed. "I'm sorry." Usagi sighed. It was nice to have some sympathy. Usagi almost wanted to cry, but she didn't. She had had enough crying for one day. She sat scratching Luna's ears for a few minutes. Luna nuzzled Usagi's cheek.

"Are you sure you were as prepared as you could have been for that test?" she asked. Usagi stopped scratching her head abruptly.

"What?" Usagi's voice was deadly calm.

"All I mean is that perhaps if you spent a little more time preparing for that test, you would have done a bit better."

"I studied for two weeks for that test!" Usagi face flushed in outrage. It took all of her effort not to raise her voice. She wouldn't be able to explain to her parents why she was yelling at her cat. Luna mewed and rubbed her head against Usagi's cheek in her most placating way.

"I'm sure you did," Luna assured her. "I just think that maybe you should consider the fact that your studying methods may need to be reworked."

"Luna, I knew all of that information!" Usagi insisted. "I failed because I was too tired to read the questions right, and I kept falling asleep. My studying methods are just fine!"

"I know you think so," Luna said. "But the other girls had to fight the same battle you did, and they passed the test." Usagi went pale when Luna said that. She didn't respond. She grabbed Luna by the scruff of her neck and dumped her unceremoniously outside of her door. Luna yowled indignantly as the door shut firmly behind her.

Usagi stood fuming in the middle of her room for a long time. Her chest felt like it was on fire, and her entire body shook in rage. When she finally calmed herself down, the sun nearly completely set and Usagi was standing in the dark. She turned on her desk lamp and made herself work on her homework. Her rage had the unexpected benefit of making her focus sharper. She flew through her math, science, and literature homework in record time, and she was somewhat confident that her answers were correct for the most part. She was still angry when she tucked the last of her homework into her school bag, but she could feel the exhaustion creeping back up on her. Usagi decided to skip her nightly shower. Instead she used her last bit of energy to put on her pajamas and she fell onto her bed, not bothering to get under the covers, and she was about to fall asleep when her door opened. Her parents stood at her door, their expressions grim. Her father carried a piece of wood and a hammer.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"They literally nailed my window shut," Usagi told Ami, Makoto and Minako before class the next morning. Her friends murmured in sympathy, but Usagi wasn't sure that they understood exactly how much trouble she was in. Her parents had spent the evening discussing what to do about her going AWOL, and they decided to act before she had a chance to do it again. Her father nailed the wood plank making sure that the window would just barely open wide enough for Luna to slip through. She had managed to lose all semblance of her parents' trust. That was worse than the additional difficulty she would have carrying out her Senshi duties.

"Sometimes I wish I could just tell them," Usagi confided. She saw the uncomfortable looks on her friends' faces and sighed. "I know, I know. 'If wishes were motorcycles, blahblahblah."

"I believe the expression is 'horses'," Ami corrected mildly. Usagi shrugged her off.

"Horses smell awful," she said. Then she sighed. "I seriously hope we're done with all this for a while. At this rate, even if I raise my grades, I won't be able to leave the house until I'm forty."

"I can help you with your studies," Ami offered. "You get the subjects, it's just a matter of retaining the information even if you don't have enough sleep. I've been working on a new way to memorize with girls."

"It works so well!" Minako chirruped. "I can remember the elements through arsenic."

"I've never had such an easy time with exponents," Makoto said proudly. Usagi smiled wanly.

"Thanks, but it would have to be during lunch," she said. "I'm supposed to go straight home after school."

"No problem," Ami told her kindly. "We'll make it work." Usagi smiled gratefully and stooped to gather her things. She avoided looking directly at Ami.

"How's Luna?" she asked.

"She's fine," Ami assured her friend. "She's made it very clear that this isn't going to be a permanent arrangement."

"Well, as long as you and your mom don't mind," Usagi said breezily, "she can stay as long as she wants. I have enough going on with my parents. I really don't need her nagging me, too." Ami didn't say anything. She just smiled sympathetically at Usagi as the girls walked to class together. It was clear that Usagi felt as bad about the fight as Luna did.

Over the next few weeks, Usagi got her wish. There were no more youma attacks and she managed to pull her grades up significantly. Her parents were satisfied enough to lift some of Usagi's restrictions slightly. She was allowed to study with her friends once a week for two hours in her room.

"I just wish they'd give me back my phone," Usagi lamented.

"Baby steps," Minako comforted her. "At least you can use the house phone now."

"Yeah. For ten minutes every other day, like a prisoner." Usagi rolled her eyes. She hadn't seen or spoken to Mamoru except for the couple of days he could get time to walk with her to school since the day she had gotten her dismal test score back. Since her parents suspected that he was the main reason for her sneaking out, Usagi still wasn't allowed to talk to him on the phone. She had to be content with messages passed through her friends. She missed him terribly, but she didn't want to take the risk to actually sneak out to see him with her parents still fuming. Sometimes, though, she'd find steel tipped roses randomly on her way to or from school. That made her smile. If everything kept going as well as they had been, Usagi was certain that her parents would relent at least on letting her use her ten minutes on the phone to talk to Mamoru. Things were tough, but Usagi knew it would get better.