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The Silent Cynic
By Dr. T

Chapter 11—Outings

“Aw, come on, Daria,” Jane pleaded.

‘No,’ Daria signed, and crossed her arms with a slight pout.

“Why not?” Jane demanded. “Troy will not only be out of town but out of state at that big tournament. I know you’re … not happy you weren’t allowed to go. This is a good way to get back at your mom.” Jane noted Daria’s stance softened just a bit. “I overheard Quinn, Stacy, Tori and that gang planning. Wait until Quinn gets permission, and then ask.”

There was a hint of softening in Daria’s stance, so Jane next reminded Daria of the facts. “Look, it’s only a two-hour drive, the concert goes from one until eleven. Trent agreed we could leave at nine thirty if you go and your mother makes you and Quinn get back before midnight. Five bucks towards gas, another five for the ticket, plus lunch on the way and whatever over-priced junk we get for supper at the concert.”

‘Can Trent’s car even make it that far?’

Jane shrugged. “We’d take Max’s van.”

Daria frowned. ‘Does that even have a back seat?’ Daria knew the band used ‘the tank’ to transport their equipment, but that one of the other members would drive themselves and a bandmate to a gig.

Jane made a face and was about to answer when she hesitated. “Actually,” she admitted after a moment’s thought, “I’m not sure.”

‘Arrange for anything I might think of as a reasonable form of transportation, and I’ll try,’ Daria compromised. Granted, left up to Trent, this would end the matter, and if this was just a whim on Jane’s part, it likely would end here as well. However, if Jane was determined to go to this open-air concert, there was a good chance….

“You know,” Jane said with a sudden smile that made Daria’s eyes widen in alarm, “Paul might be able to borrow his mom’s car – you won’t mind sitting squeezed between Jessie and Trent in the back seat, will you?”

Jane laughed, as there was no mistaking the hand gesture Daria made to Jane.


Helen was not happy; she did not want Daria off on her own at an all-day pop/rock concert some two hours away. She had hesitated to allow Quinn,* but she had listened to Tori’s plan and Helen had a fair amount of trust in Tori. Having allowed Quinn, it wasn’t possible to forbid Daria, although Helen had counted on Daria’s disinclination for social events to have prevented her from asking to go in the first place. She had not counted on Jane wanting to go, and of course Jane would want Daria along.

Helen knew Daria was capable and trustworthy, of course; it was her handicap that worried Helen; she would be at any number of disadvantages if there was any sort of trouble. At least Paul would be driving, and he was the steadiest of either daughters’ friends, even more so than Tori or Troy. As Helen had gotten to know Trent, she had also grown to like and even trust him, even if ‘reliable’ or ‘steady’ were not terms she would apply to him. As for Jane, Helen sometimes almost thought of her as a step-daughter. She had finally met Amanda Lane and had liked her. As different as the two women were, they had quickly become friendly, and in a rare moment of parental responsibility, Amanda had even signed over parental authority to Helen when neither she nor Vincent were around, which probably still left Jane with only Trent at least 20 weeks a year and fully alone at least a few more days as well.

After some conversations with the other girls’ and Paul’s parents, Helen arranged for two motel rooms for Daria’s group. She, Stacy’s parents, and Tori’s did the same for Quinn’s group, after the parents determined there would only four girls going (the fourth was a friend of Tori’s and was the driver) – one room, next to the two for Daria’s group. Helen knew this would keep shenanigans to a minimum. With Paul driving, even if Jessie and/or Trent smoked something at the concert they shouldn’t, the others should be okay – hopefully they would at least stay away from alcohol – or at least enough of it that it wouldn’t be a problem.

Helen sighed, as she heard Quinn trying to convince Daria to ‘dress alternatively’ before they all left. At least Quinn’s nose ring had only been a prop, not a piercing.


Overall, of the two groups totaling two 21-year-old wannabe rockers and seven 14–16-year-olds, Daria got the least from the experience. Tori cared for the music even less than Paul, but she loved observing the crowd dynamics while Paul enjoyed spending the time with Jane. Daria sort of enjoyed much of the music, which varied from current trends in pop rock to slightly grungier bands that appealed to Trent and Jessie, but she felt like a third wheel to Paul and Jane. Meanwhile, Trent and Jessie had stayed about as close to the speakers as they could get without climbing on them, and the other quartet spent most of the time near the vendor tents. In the end, Quinn made Daria stay at least within eyesight of either her or Jane (or both), and Daria reluctantly went along.

In addition, spending time in the cramped backseat between Trent and Jessie on the way to the concert, after the concert, and then on the ride back to Lawndale was certainly physically uncomfortable for Daria, and somewhat emotionally as well. Granted she was no longer crushing on Trent, but there was still a hint of attraction. The physical proximity therefore made Daria squirm internally more than a little, although she resisted showing it outwardly. More than once, Daria wished she had been able to go to the chess tournament with Troy, although she would remind herself that considering the looks her parents were exchanging before she and Quinn left, staying at home would likely have been far more uncomfortable than squished up against Trent for multiple hours over two days.

“Uh oh,” Daria heard Jane remark, about a third of the way home on the return trip.

Daria wriggled slightly to free herself from the Trent/Jessie sandwich and tapped Jane on the shoulder.

Jane didn’t turn around but just pointed up the highway. “I just saw the other car pull into that outlet center.”

Daria winced as she settled back between the dozing musicians, grateful they had showered off most of the scent of what they had been smoking the previous afternoon. She hoped that Quinn showed some restraint at the outlet stores; but just as she hoped that no lingering scent would hang on her for her mother to detect what Trent and Jessie had indulged in the evening before, she knew there was only a faint chance Quinn would be able to resist the lure of shopping when she had her mother’s credit card in her purse. Quinn had restrained her shopping impulses fairly well so far since the move; hopefully she wouldn’t go overboard.

*

“Five hundred and forty-three dollars and seventy-two cents!”

“I know, Jake,” Helen agreed. She turned on Quinn, “Five hundred and forty-three dollars! Quinn! How could you?! What were you thinking?! Were you even thinking?!”

“I know it kind of added up,” Quinn had to admit, “but they were each such good deals!” She was glad she had bought well under half of what she had thought about buying; this was bad enough.

Jake screamed in anguish, which made Helen wince. When she recovered, she again glared at her younger daughter. “I called the other girls’ mothers. The most the other three spent was just over sixty dollars. That was still irresponsible, but compared to you it was almost reasonable!” Quinn winced, knowing that the other girls had started replacing items they had picked up when they saw what Quinn was doing – even they had realized they were going overboard and had realized Quinn was going even further and influencing them. Tori had even warned Quinn several times, but Quinn had ignored it all, and now she was in trouble. The question was, how much trouble?

Meanwhile, Helen was continuing. “If you had just bought those tees or that jacket, maybe, just maybe you could have gotten away with it. But to spend…”

“Five hundred and forty-three dollars!”

“Yes, Jake, we know how much!”

Jake screamed yet again, but this time in pain as he grabbed his face, adding, “My eye!”

Daria, who had been trying to make herself as unnoticeable as possible during the confrontation, edged up to Quinn while their mother tried to look at their father’s eye. She nudged Quinn and signed, ‘Where’s the camera?’ Despite being worried about her fate, that managed to get a slight smile from the younger sister.

Helen then looked up, glaring at the pair. “I’m taking your father to the doctor. Daria, stay here. Quinn, I expect to see every receipt when I get back. If anything can be returned, it will be. The cost of gas will be deducted from your allowance for the trip there if we can return anything and the cost of every single thing that can’t be returned will be deducted as well.” She put her arm around the still sobbing and moaning Jake. “Come on, let’s see what the doctor says.”

“He’ll probably say five hundred dollars!” Jake cried out.

As the couple left the house, Daria turned on her sister. ‘I know you four couldn’t resist at least window shopping, but how could you spend five hundred and forty-three dollars? You did not even spend quite half of it on clothes and shoes! Perfume, creams, and cosmetics? Your dresser already looked like a sales counter! Your closet was already ready to burst! And two dozen scented candles? You do not even like all those scents! A pound of jerky! You do not even like jerky! And two pounds of sugarless chocolate? Quinn, I hate to tell you this, but sugarless chocolate probably has as many calories as the regular kind.’

Quinn sighed. “I know. I really just can’t help myself.”

Daria shook her head, glad that Quinn hadn’t gotten involved in what had seemed to be developing into the rather competitive fashion club before it died, and that the group she was hanging out with tended to spend more time watching the Fashion Vision channel and looking at magazines than actually shopping – most of their time spent at the two area malls was just hanging out and flirting. The rest of Quinn’s free time was spent on having a dinner date at least three times a week, as well as attending any school-related dance or party on weekend nights.

She could only hope any fallout of this debacle wouldn’t affect her. Seeing how miserable Quinn was, Daria sighed. She nudged her sister. When Quinn looked up, Daria told her, ‘Tell you what, I will buy the jerky from you. Do you want those two pounds of cashews?’

“Not really, and thank you.”

‘I will buy the cashews and then split them with Dad; you know how he loves cashews. That will make him feel better – I will even say it is from both of us.’ Quinn quickly got up from the chair and hugged her sister in thanks. Daria rolled her eyes and separated the two so she could sign, ‘Do you think that purple top would suit me? Or that grey and red one would fit Jane?’

Quinn hugged sister again. Daria again rolled her eyes, but in the end she of course hugged her back.

*

Unfortunately for Daria, she did not avoid the immediate consequences. Not that Jane had any sympathy for her friend. “I’ll trade ya.”

‘What do you mean? You have no idea what a weekend in the woods with those three will be like, especially with the mood each will be in,’ Daria replied.

“Yeah, well Trent and I are stuck going to the Lane family reunion – all the arty-types and weirdos in the family are on Mom’s side. Dad’s family are all the most stereotypical small-minded, small-town yahoos you can imagine, if you add in mean-streaks a mile long and half a mile wide! And that’s before they start drinking! The men will all be swilling too much cheap beer, the women will all be wearing too much perfume, a quarter will be in huge ugly hats, half in polyester outfits that would give Quinn nightmares, and most of them will have too much spiked punch or too many wine coolers. There’ll be at least one or two huge fights over the competitive croquet match. The only thing those semi-sober enough to agree on before the match will be putting me and Trent down.”

‘Why are you going then?’

Jane sighed, “Trent owes Dad money, and this pays it off, and he bribed me with the same amount for art supplies if I go. Plus the tickets his uncle sent are non-refundable.” She sighed. “Will camping really be that bad?”

‘Quinn is upset because her allowance is docked by a third until her outlet debt is paid, Mom will be without her cellphone and suffering both withdrawal and worry she’ll be missing something important, and Dad will have flashbacks to military school and his father. We have never gone camping together before, but neither Quinn nor I liked the nights at summer camp when we camped in the woods – the cabins were bad enough.’

Jane sighed. “This weekend is going to suck.”

Daria thought a moment. ‘Will anyone be here the next weekend?’

Jane also had to think about it. “Trent and the band will be starting their three week ‘world tour’ of grunge bars – in Delaware and south Jersey this year – and Mom and Dad will certainly still be avoiding home in case there are any phone calls about the reunion. I doubt the other sibs will be anywhere near by, why?”

‘Troy does not have a tournament that weekend, if Paul’s around maybe we can have a cookout that Saturday or Sunday, with dates that Friday and Saturday night?’

Jane smiled. “You arrange it with yours, and I’ll do the same.” She paused. “Should we include Jodie and Mack?”

‘You and Paul can spend time in your room, Troy and I in Penny’s. If you think Jodie and Mack would enjoy the time in the living room, why not?’

“Not Summer or Wind’s room?”

‘No, I think you were right, and those rooms are cursed.’

“Then it’s a plan!”



Trent slouched into Cedars of Lawndale’s lobby Sunday afternoon and nonchalantly glanced around. Spying his sister’s amiga reading a brochure off in a corner, he made his way over. As he entered into Daria’s limited peripheral vision, she looked up and almost smiled.

“Hey, Daria.”

She dropped the brochure back onto the side table and stood. She reached for her backpack, but Trent surprised her by moving faster and shouldering it despite her gesture of protest. “You doing okay, all things considered?”

Daria made the universal ‘so-so’ gesture. Trent gestured towards the entrance with his head and started making his way. Daria shrugged and followed. As they exited, Trent said, “Janey said you’d probably want some real food, so we’ll stop and order pizza to be delivered.” He glanced back as he added, “or we can stop at the store for frozen lasagna.” Trent gave Daria his coughing laugh as she scowled and flipped him off.


Less than an hour later, Daria was enjoying her first real meal since the previous Friday. Trent had taken the small, loaded pizza to his room, leaving Jane and Daria to split the medium ‘carnivore’ between them in the kitchen.

“Well, as miserable a time as we had at the reunion, I guess you have us beat,” Jane had to admit. “What happened?”

‘Dad,’ Daria replied simply. Once she had finished her current slice, she explained before attacking her third. ‘He found a berry patch; I do not know what he thought they were, but there were psychotropic, very hallucinatory….’

“Whoa,” Jane cut off. “Don’t spell so fast.” She thought, then verified “Psychotropic and hallucinatory?”

Daria nodded. ‘Very, and fortunately only mildly poisonous – if they had been the other way around, well….’ Daria shuddered at the thought, and Jane thought her friend looked very vulnerable. She scooted around the table and gave Daria a one-arm hug. To Jane’s surprise, Daria not only allowed it, but returned it slightly for a moment.

Then Daria sniffled and sat up straight. ‘Fortunately, Mom had snuck her phone along, and I was able to text for help. If they had not gotten treatment by Saturday night, they could have really been hurt.’

“So they’ll be out tomorrow?”

Daria nodded. ‘Quinn could have been released tonight, but Mom did not want her wandering around just supervised by your mother.’

“Especially since she’s nowhere near here,” Jane pointed out.

Daria shrugged, ‘I will not tell if you will not.’

“Fair enough; eat your pizza.”

‘After surviving mostly on beef jerky supplemented by a few cashews for a day, for once I think I will eat almost as much as you.’



That Friday afternoon, Helen was home from work by mid-afternoon, as she was still recovering from the previous weekend. Therefore, she subjected Daria to one more grilling before letting her go off for the weekend.

Daria internally sighed – this was the fifth time she was going through this, and over the week the weekend had evolved oddly. Still, there was no choice but to go through the parts of the schedule she wanted her mother to know about yet again. ‘I am going to Jane’s, where I will drop off the bag of charcoal.’ She pointed to the bag near the door. ‘Troy and Paul will pick us up in a few hours and drive us to the mall, where we will have dinner with Jodie and Mack at the food court, and then we will all go see ‘The Truman Show.’ We have to be at Jodie’s by Ten-thirty, where Jane and I will sleep over. I have clothes for tomorrow and Sunday.’ She gestured at her backpack before carrying on. ‘Jodie’s parents are hosting a brunch tomorrow starting at Ten, which you and Dad are attending. We get to duck out a little early. We are going to have lunch and supper at Jane’s, cooking out. Yes, I have sunscreen as well as a big floppy hat that Quinn would have a fit if she had to wear it. Jodie is bringing hot dogs for lunch, Troy’s mother is supplying lots of potato salad – there’s some sort of neighborhood get together, and the Mackenzie’s, Loomis’s, and Thomas’s are all attending – Paul is supplying the rolls, and we all chipped in for soda, chips, and the sausages we are having for supper, all of which Mack is picking up.’ She paused in thought for a moment. ‘We will all go see ‘Deep Impact’ Saturday night; I will stay over at Jane’s while Quinn will stay at Stacy’s so you and Dad can attend your overnight intimacy seminar. Jane and I will have leftovers Sunday morning, watch bad movies in the afternoon, and I will be home for dinner by Six. Jane may come over.’ She looked at her mother. ‘I think that covers everything.’

Helen was suspicious, knowing there was likely something hidden she would disapprove of; she just hoped it was nothing she would strongly disapprove of. “Alright, Sweetie; have a good time.” She was not overly thrilled by any of this, especially Jodie’s mother being involved (Helen and Michele Landon did not get along the few times they had met, although Jodie’s father and Jake did).


The first thing that Helen would have disapproved of was that Paul and Troy were already at Jane’s. The quartet broke into pairs in Jane and Penny’s bedrooms, and indulged in ninety minutes of necking, although Jane and Paul’s involved much more exposed skin, especially below the neck and above the waist. The rest of the evening went as Daria had described to her mother, with all six enjoying the movie, albeit to different degrees (Daria the most, Jodie the least).

The next morning, the three girls helped a bit to prepare for the big brunch the Landons were hosting for their political associates from both Washington and Annapolis as well as business associates from the area. Michele was starting to regrow her own network connections while Andrew was extending his. In reality, the Morgendorffers were at least one rung too low to be invited (although the senior partner of her firm was attending). Still, Andrew had no problem giving Jake a boost. That Helen might also get one didn’t bother Andrew, even if it did Michele. Still, both liked Daria, and so Michele had gone along. The girls hadn’t had to do much, it was mostly Jodie showing the caterers where to set everything up, with Daria helping her keep track and Jane acting as go-between.

The afternoon and evening went as planned, although none of the couples spent the afternoon in the sun. Instead, the couples found different rooms to be together in. Granted, this time Jodie and Mack were as active as Jane and Paul had been the day before, while the latter couple were much more so. Daria and Troy (still a bit hampered by his brace) were only slightly more active than the day before.

Still, all three couples were quite happy with the day, and evening.

That night, Jane and Daria lay snuggled in Jane’s bed. Jane was falling asleep in Daria’s embrace when she felt Daria tap her forearm.

“H’mm?”

‘J’ Daria sign-spelled against Jane’s hand.

“Yeah?”

Daria hugged Jane tightly, and on an impulse kissed her ear.

Jane wriggled around to face Daria. “I’m glad you’re my friend, too.” She hugged Daria in return, and the pair drifted off.



*Isn’t it a bit odd that in the series that Helen and Jake had no qualms about allowing their daughters to go to a huge concert which at least lasted all day, some distance away?