Moon Prism Power -- Make Up!

It's finally eleven o'clock. Finally! The fourth grade class emptied out of the red brick school building, and all the kids ran to play on the playground. The last two to exit are two girls... with paper taped to their foreheads.1

"Chrissy, your tiara's falling off! Fix it!"2

"Don't call me Chrissy! I'm Raye, remember?"3

"Well you keep calling me Amanda, and right now I'm Serena!"4

"I still don't see why YOU get to be Serena. You're nothing like her."5

"Neither are you!"6

"At least I LOOK like Serena!"7

"But you're a brunette."8

"So are you."9

"... so?"10

"So you should be Lita!"11

"Fine. I'll be Lita tomorrow. But you have to be Amy.”12

“Then can I be Serena on Wednesday?”13

“No, I’m the only one that can be Serena.”14

“Why?!”15

“Because Terrence – I mean Darien – likes me more.”16

“Does not!”17

“Does too!”18

It went on like this until a cheerful boy approached the bickering duo. He chuckled, “Hiya, guys, I like your – uh, tiaras.”19

“Thanks, Darien! Let’s go walk in the park together!” Amanda cooed, “and ditch crow-girl.”20

Terrence, aka Darien, unlinked his arms from Amanda’s – sorry, Serena’s – and smiled at me. I was on the verge of tears because Serena was being so mean. “Let’s all go for a walk. Cause I like Raye, too, right?”21

I nodded happily, and walked between him and Serena, much to the Moon Princess’s displeasure. Raye liked Darien, too, maybe more than Serena did.22

The next day, recess went much the same. The former Moon Princess, now cooking expert, and Priestess-turned-Bookworm were the last out of the building. I pulled a compact out of my pocket, pressing invisible buttons on Mercury’s scanner.23

“What’s it say, Amy?”24

I looked at her meaningfully. “It’s reading lots of dark energy nearby. Let’s investigate.”25

We looked around, turning over every rock, looking behind every swing for the source. Then, suddenly, I was jerked behind the school wall, and Lita hissed, “I found it! Look over there!”26

Sure enough, on the slide of the jungle gym was a tall girl from our class. We always knew she was strange – the fact that she was playing with all boys made us even surer that there was something weird about her. I gasped. “She’s from the Negaverse!”27

“Is it Queen Beryl in disguise?”28

I punched in more things on the “scanner.” My eyes narrowed as I relayed the news. “Gosh, it has to be. She’s got too much negative energy to be anyone but Beryl!”29

Lita punched her hand in her opposite fist. “Fine, then, we take her down tomorrow.”30

All night we plotted how best to take down the Queen of the Negaverse. It was hard and long and taxing – and full of Sailor Moon episodes on VHS for inspiration. But finally, we grimly decided that we had to take out Queen Beryl as soon as possible, even if it cost us our lives.31

So at recess, we were prepared. I was transformed into Sailor Mercury, because my pocket computer would be helpful for this battle to determine where Beryl’s weak points were. Serena made herself a new tiara, attaching it to her forehead with glue today.32

Darien entered first, tossing a dandelion at the evil queen’s feet. She looked up and said, “Hi, Terrence!”33

“He’s not Terrence, he’s my hubby, Tuxedo Mask!”34

“And we’re the Sailor Scouts! We fight for love and justice!”35

“And in the name of the Moon, you are punished, Queen Beryl!”36

We did all the poses, looking as intimidating as possible, but the Queen grinned. “Awesome! You guys are playing Sailor Moon?!”37

Serena rolled her eyes. “We’re not playing, dummy. We’re here to kill Queen Beryl – you.”38

The Queen jumped off of the monkey bars and smiled. “Okay, sure, I’ll be Queen Beryl! I’ll sap all the power out of your crystal, Sailor Moon!”39

And so, Queen Beryl, aka Roxi, joined the Sailor Scouts after that day. Roxi became the permanent Sailor Moon, so Amanda and I finally settled on Raye and Lita. And every day until the end of fourth grade, we taped on our tiaras, battled the Negaverse, and talked about our crushes on the dandelion-throwing Tuxedo Mask. 40