Categories > Cartoons > Daria > Daria in college - 1980
80s Daria Chapter 1
By Dr T
‘Daria’ is owned by the creators, and probably MTV and others. I’m just playing, no infringements intended. Note: as you can see, I’ve been posting here a long time – I have no interest in collaborating, having art drawn, etc.
Conceit: This story starts in August, 1980. Daria and Quinn are fraternal twins; while they don’t fully get along (at least in public, where they sometimes ignore each other), they are very much closer than in canon, especially when alone. Daria and Quinn are respectively Freshman music and musical theater majors at a major (made-up in Delaware) university, but are not roommates. Instead, Jane (an art major) and Daria meet as roommates. Quinn’s best friend since seventh grade, Stacy, is her roommate and an elementary education major. This is a 10-chapter fic, covering the first year of the twins in college – 1980-81. At the time of posting, no sequel is planned.
Thursday, August 28
Daria Morgendorffer sat in a practice room on the third floor of the music building, wondering if she had done the right thing. Here she was, lost in a sea of students at what some people called ‘Ubiquitous University’ – Central Delaware University a huge state university of just over 30,000 undergraduate students and (if the law school, med school, and business school all counted) over 12,000 graduate students, located technically in a tiny town between multiple large towns and cities, but surrounded by satellite developments.
She and her (fraternal) twin sister Quinn were from very upper-middle-class/lower upper-class families. Their mother, who worked as a lobbyist at the state capital, came from prominent Delaware, Maryland, and FFV families – while not directed related to any signer of the Declaration of Independence, she was descended from a number of cousins to signers from four states (Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Georgia). Their father, although descended from one of the first Mennonite families in Pennsylvania on his father’s side, had several generations of prominent business and industrial relations in between. On his mother’s side, he was descended from early settlers in both Maryland and Delaware (including the early Swedish settlers there). He was a corporate vice president at a certain famous chemical company.
Daria had been unsure of where she wanted to go to for college, and what to major in. Neither she nor her fraternal twin Quinn had wanted to stay in state; Quinn especially wanted a college in New York City, while Daria had leaned towards New England. However, their maternal grandmother had offered to pay for all expenses at any college in Delaware, Maryland, or Virginia, while their paternal grandmother had offered to pay the equivalent of full tuition at a Delaware state school even if they attended a college in Pennsylvania or Maryland. To both Daria and Quinn’s surprise, they were both willing to pay, meaning they could use one grandmother’s money for tuition, fees, and room & board and the other’s (plus their decent allowance) on pretty much whatever they wanted. Quinn’s would likely go partly for clothes and the rest to help her get started in New York once she graduated, Daria’s on books and recordings and most into the bank for grad school.
Daria loved music and she loved to write. Daria knew she did not want to teach in the schools, and wasn’t sure if she was really talented enough to make it in the professional music world (how many professional flutists were really needed, never mind violinists?). On the other hand, writing wasn’t a much more likely profession to make a good living at. Still, it was easier to major in music and take creative writing courses at some point than try things the other way around. She had CLEPed out of 27 credits – the four gen ed history classes, American Government, and French – and had passed out of a few more (although she would have to make up some of those credits). She could have tested out of Latin, German, and Italian, but that would not have really helped her graduate early with the classes she wanted to take.
Quinn was convinced she could become a Broadway star, even if Daria was sure her voice was not strong enough. Still, she was good enough to get into the U’s competitive musical theater program. Daria (not to mention Quinn) was glad the two only shared four classes – Musicology I (Classic and Romantic periods), Voice Class I, Chorus, and the gen ed Speech class.
Daria glanced at her watch: 3:12. She had just gotten out of her first violin lesson – she had been accepted as both a flute and violin major, and was keeping her options open at the moment, but she slightly preferred the flute right now. The first orchestra rehearsal would meet at 4:00 – it met three times a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00-4:50 (strings only) and Wednesday evenings 6:45-8:00 (full ensemble), although they had not met the evening before, as there were auditions for string players from the University community.
As Daria automatically played piano scales to warm up, she thought back to her first class, the morning before – Musicology at 8:00. At precisely 8:00, a tall ugly-but-commanding barely middle-aged man strode into the class pushing an AV cart. The class instantly quieted, and he proclaimed. “Look around the classroom. There should be a hundred and five of you. Ninety-three music and music education majors, and twelve music theater majors.” He sneered a little. “If you follow the usual trend, less than half of you will graduate in these programs – not because you lack talent – none of you would have been accepted here if you didn’t have the talent – but because you lack the passion, the drive, needed to succeed in these majors.” He glanced around. “I actually count only ninety-nine of you.” The door had opened and three students scurried in. “You’re late. If you can’t be on time for music – class or performance – you might as well give up now.”
Daria sighed as she moved on to other piano finger exercises. The professor had ‘dropped the needle’ – playing a movement of a Mozart symphony and challenging the students to identifying it. ‘This,’ she thought yet again, ‘is not going to be an easy course, even for me.’ Even if she could identify the first piece, few others could. Quinn would likely be annoying about studying for the exams. Daria was not particularly looking forward to the first active marching band meeting on Friday – Wednesday had been devoted to passing out music and distribution of some instruments. Daria had not been thrilled to be assigned a piccolo. Marching band was one reason to go with the violin over the flute.
Deciding she’d done enough on the piano, Daria moved on to some technical exercises on her violin. She considered her roommate – Jane Lane was an art major from a small nearby town. She was as cranky as Daria herself, if not quite as cynical. From the couple of sketchbooks Jane had shared, she was certainly a very talented sketcher at the very least. While having little interest in classical music or the literature that Daria adored, they at least had similar tastes in movies, and they had, so far at least, gotten along very well. They even shared a class – Renaissance Art History, a required course for Jane.
Unlike Quinn (fortunately rooming on the top floor of the women’s side of the dorm she and Jane were in), Daria did not attract boys like hummingbirds to a feeder. It wasn’t that she wasn’t attractive – but Quinn was very cute and had a slim waif-like figure and charm, and she dressed to show those charms to maximum affect without looking cheap or slutty. She was almost always smiling at everyone, while not looking vacant, and she loved to banter with girls and flirt with boys and had done both with ease since well before she was twelve. Daria was not as obviously cute, was usually curt and stoic, and usually wore large glasses (although she actually had other pairs) and somewhat frumpy clothes (although the barely knee-length skirts she usually wore other than in the depths of winter showed she had great legs). Jane and the few girls on their floor who had caught glimpses of her in the showers reluctantly agreed that from the top of her long auburn mane to the tips of her perfectly-shaped toes, and everything in-between, including her dark green eyes, perfect nose, cupid-bow lips and her firmly high-riding perky C-cup breasts, she was one of the prettiest girls they had ever seen in person.
Except perhaps for those few who were somewhat uncertain about their sexual orientation, they were glad Daria preferred to hide her looks. Even Quinn knew that if her sister exerted herself (and had at least a slightly different personality), she could even be more popular than Quinn herself.
Fortunately for Quinn, Daria had never been interested. She had dated, but the number of boys she had dated between her first informal dance at the end of middle school through her senior prom was less than the number of boys Quinn had dated in any one semester of high school. While both entered the University technically as virgins, Daria had barely been kissed and had never gone beyond that with a boy and barely beyond that once with a girl, Quinn was nearing expert-level at handjobs and fellatio with boys and had some experience with girls – and a great deal of experience with one girl. Quinn was expecting to continue much as she had, while Daria admitted to hoping she could finally have a real relationship.
Seeing it was 3:45, Daria picked up her unopened flute case, packed away her violin, rosin, and bow, and went down to the ‘band room’ where the strings would practice – the full orchestra rehearsed on-stage, but did not bother setting up just for the strings.
There were enough violin majors sophomores and above and excellent faculty and staff players to fill out the first string violins. Two of the four violin instructors sat as the first folder second violin while the other two sat first folder viola, in order to lead those weaker sections and give them a hint of power. Daria was pleased to be the second seat/second folder of the second violins, ahead of the freshmen majors. This placed her next to the first chair/second folder of the violas. She assumed this was a senior, although she would soon find out differently. He was a bit over average height, casually dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans, and boots, with a shaggy mustache, with black hair and the same deep blue eyes as Jane. Daria noticed all this only because she caught the smile he gave her as they sat and began to listen to the conductor (one of the two cello instructors) start talking about the pieces they would likely be working on.
Despite trying, she could not quite get that smile out of her head. She had not noticed she had returned that smile with a small one of her own when their eyes had met.
-80s-
Tyler Green was not an undergraduate, but a first semester graduate student, working on an interdisciplinary PhD, skipping over the intermediate MA. He held a BA in Music and BFA in Art, and had minored in history. He would need at least 12 credits in three subjects: Musicology; Art History; and Literature (although technically he would need 18 or more graduate credits to teach the subject on the college level) and 24 credits in history, all from the Renaissance to the present, in European or American areas. His dissertation would need to combine all the subjects to some degree.
He noticed the pretty violinist – he was also taking the Renaissance Art course and had seen her in the front of the large classroom – he was not taken in by her clothes, glasses, or expression. He would have to sit in on the undergraduate art history class (which numbered over sixty undergrads and a dozen graduate students) plus a separate class meeting for the grad students. He would learn Friday afternoon what class he would be a TA for; that was still up in the air.
When the rehearsal ended, Daria again exchanged brief glances and smiles with the violist – she even gave him another microscopic shy smile back when he smiled at her – while not a flirt like her twin, Daria was well acquainted with the game, and it seemed like the man was at least a bit interested – she hadn’t detected him looking at anyone else with that smile. For some reason, she thought he was attractive, not something she usually noticed.
The art building was between the music building and the union with the main cafeteria, or at least the upper route (the campus was mostly built on a series of hills). Daria therefore stopped and picked up Jane, who had been sketching away on her own time. Although they had only known each other since Sunday, they had immediately clicked on most levels. When the two went through one of the dinner lines, Daria saw her sister give her a wave. “Quinn wants to see me, do you mind?”
Jane shrugged, and the pair went over to a table for six that currently held four, who looked to be a bit over halfway done with dinner – Quinn, Stacy, and two girls Daria recognized from the musicology class. Quinn had said that the music theater girls sat together in that class, and these two had been in that group.
“Sandi, Tori, this is my twin sister Daria and her roommate, Jane. You might remember Daria from chorus and that music history class.” Sandi wrinkled her nose, but Tori just nodded. “Jane is an art major, right?”
“Right,” Jane agreed.
“Daria, Jane; Sandi and Tori are music theater majors, too, just in different voice classes from Daria and me.”
“I really don’t see the point of that history class,” Sandi complained. “And it’s so early….”
Quinn ignored her. “Anyway, I found something I think you need to do.” She looked at Daria’s dinner. “Especially if you’re going to eat like that.”
Daria rolled her eyes. “Quinn, it’s one slice of pizza with a side of green beans, and a little salad.” Quinn and the other three each just had a large salad, just a little vinegar and oil, and hot tea. “I am hardly going to put on weight eating this, especially since I didn’t have much breakfast or lunch.”
“I’m told it just sneaks up on most people their Freshman year,” Quinn argued. “Anyway, every Monday through Thursday afternoons, there’s a no-credit set of classes going on, from ten after the hour for thirty minutes – they’re calling it ‘dancer-cise,’ sort of a combination of that new aerobics thing, jazzercise, and such. You do have to sign up for it, though – twenty places per time.”
Daria thought about it. “I don’t have my dance stuff here,” she pointed out. “And no, while we wear the size leotard bottoms, you don’t want me stretching out your tops and I wear a smaller shoe.” Sandi looked at Daria with a bit of doubt. While it was clear Quinn, while nicely rounded, was a full A-cup, she couldn’t tell Daria’s shape.
“I have to go home this weekend for my mother’s birthday,” Stacy piped up. “I could pick up your stuff if you want.”
Quinn smirked and Daria sighed. “You win; I’ll have to go to the One o’clock ones. Are you going?”
“Of course,” Quinn stated. “I just wasn’t sure which one. We don’t have dance classes until next year.”
“Just that stupid eurythmics class,” Sandi complained.
“It is pretty basic,” Tori agreed.
“True,” Quinn agreed. “I can see why a lot of the music majors need it – other than marching, most don’t have much experience moving to music, never mind anything formal or technical.”
“Well, that’s something for me to look forward to,” Daria grumbled. While freshmen music theater majors took the class both semesters of their freshman year, music majors took it their sophomore year. “Did you find out what productions are being done this semester?”
“Two plays and two musicals per semester. I never heard of either play, and the first musical was cast last spring other than some extras – it goes on in early October. The second one is a musical staging of ‘A Christmas Carol’ – they alternate a straight performance and this musical version each year.”
“Auditions for the first play is next Saturday, for the second and the ‘Christmas Carol’ the Friday and Saturday after that,” Tori supplied.
“Daria…?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you. How about…?”
“If we really study. Maybe we should do both in one of the study rooms on our floors, that way we won’t bother Stacy or Jane.”
“Thanks again! After you finish lunch, let’s go up to the gym and sign up, that way all the spots won’t be taken.”
Daria sighed. “Fine.”
“If you prefer, you can come running with me for an hour every day,” Jane put in.
“That explains why you can get away with a second slice,” Stacy said, a little enviously.
“Well, I already signed up for the exer-dance thingy,” Sandi stated, having finished her salad. “I will see some of you tomorrow at – yech – eight.” Sandi left.
“What a prima donna,” Tori said sadly. “I’m glad I have a quiet, nerdish chem major for a roommate.” She looked at Daria. “I noticed you seemed to know what was going on yesterday morning.”
“She loves that sort of music,” Quinn agreed.
“Any chance of getting some help there?”
Daria and Quinn exchanged looks. “Okay,” Daria told her. “Quinn will tell you when.”
Tori smiled and thanked the pair, and then she and Quinn left.
“So, are you two telepathic twins or something?”
“Huh?”
“That exchange of incomplete sentences and that look exchange – seemed like at least partial telepathy.”
Daria shrugged. “We know each other very well. We are very different, but really aren’t that competitive. We trust each other – I know secrets about her that she wouldn’t want anyone else to know, and no, I won’t even hint. I don’t know if there’s much I would feel the same about, but if there is, she would know. So, I will help her learn her audition pieces – if she needs a song, I’ll play the piano. We’re both decent technical dancers; I’ll do that dance class in part to stay in partial training to help her, and yes, to avoid the so-called ‘Freshman fifteen.’. The second thing was I’ll help her, and maybe Tori, with the music history stuff.”
“What do you get out of it?”
“I don’t mean to brag, but I’m a genius, and I’ve already tested out of thirty-five credits in some fashion. Quinn isn’t any kind of genius, but she is smart – a natural B-plus/A-minus student. When I tutor her, it makes certain I understand the material. If you want, if you’ll help me with any of the technical art material, I can tutor you in the history part if you need it, as well as that basic math class.”
“It can’t hurt,” Jane agreed. “Thanks. It still seems a bit lopsided. Your deal with Quinn, I mean.”
Daria flushed a bit. “You know I said I write. I can act, but Quinn is actually very good, maybe even excellent. I really think she would have gotten more out of the straight theater major. She helps me with some of my writing – she really brings it to life, even if it’s reading descriptive background material. She also helps me socially; I know I’d be a lot shyer, and quieter, if it wasn’t for her.”
Daria sighed again. “I’ve never had a close friend, like her buddy Stacy. Most of my social life outside of music was hanging out with Quinn and her friends, and she made certain they fully accepted me, even if I think Stacy was the only one who really liked my company for my sake.”
“Well, if things keep going like they have this week, I think we both have our own bestie for the first time,” Jane told her.
Daria smiled slightly as Quinn came back from putting away her tray and dishes. “Come on, sis!”
“I’ll take your tray back,” Jane told her. “I’ll be out running when you get back.”
-80s-
“Ya know,” Jane said that evening, “that’s the most I’ve seen you interact with your twin. I had the idea you didn’t get along.”
“We never got along poorly, although we sometimes went our separate ways and had different interests,” Daria answered. “Quinn was always more popular than I was, but we sort of went together as a package deal, especially through elementary school. The differences came out in junior high – we both loved music, if in different ways, and different kinds. We both liked dance. In both cases, Quinn liked solo work – for instance she’s no better a pianist but she went for flashy pieces, I went for introspective. We both played the flute and violin in elementary and middle school, I’m the music major and she quit the flute to become a cheerleader, and I don’t think she’s picked up her violin since last May when we gave the last high school concert. I have it here as a spare, in part because she was afraid Mother would scold her if she just left it home. I’ve done bit parts on stage and worked stage crew and enjoyed both. Quinn always landed at least decent speaking parts and usually had some sort of lead, and sometimes helped with makeup. Quinn’s a bit boy crazy, while I’ve never found one I really was interested in.”
“How about girls?”
“Are you trying to tell me there were even more reasons why you asked if I would pose for you?” Daria asked, only semi-teasing.
“I said you could keep your clothes on,” Jane retorted. “I got the vibe that she and that Stacy might be more than friends, and that that Sandi is a piranha that would sleep with anything that would help a career and backstab them the next morning if she decided that would work better for her.”
“It might be unfair to Sandi, but I agree,” Daria answered. “As for Quinn, other than the above comment, I will keep her privacy private, just as she would mine.” They had shared a bed until just after their eleventh birthday, and had already caught the other in what they called in code ‘private time.’ After moving into a much larger house, they had adjoining bedrooms and a shared bathroom. They knew more about the other than most sisters, and Daria had been willing to listen to Quinn as she experimented, and comforted her the few times when her dates had gone wrong. They even shared a few of their fantasies with each other. They sometimes argued, they sometimes were very angry with the other, but they kept each other’s secrets and never betrayed the other.
After a pause, Daria asked, “Did you want to add anything?”
Jane shrugged. “I dated a few guys in high school. I fooled around with a couple of them, and yes, with a couple of girls, especially one at art camp. At this point, I think I prefer guys to gals, but that might change depending on who I meet. Does that weird you out?” Jane swallowed nervously. “Do you want a new roommate?” she asked in a small voice. To her surprise, she really liked her roommate and hoped they would become close friends.
“Even though you’re good looking and have gorgeous eyes, I still haven’t met a girl that appealed to me that way enough to switch, even if I did ‘practice kiss’ a few girls in middle school and Ninth grade,” Daria responded, leaving off a few details. “However, if you are bi, that in itself doesn’t weird me out. Just don’t draw me from memory, and only with my approval – which you have when I’m fully clothed.”
Jane smiled, which widened a bit when Daria returned it with what Jane was learning was a typical Daria-version of a Mona Lisa smile.
“Well, despite the fact I told you that I am bi, and you know I think you’re pretty and you think I’m gorgeous, feel like a movie tomorrow night or Friday?” Jane asked, cautiously but hopefully.
“I said your eyes are,” Daria retorted, thinking of the violist. “What’s playing and where?”
“There’s a movie on campus almost every weekend,” Jane told her. “About half second-run and half classics, plus a porn film every November. This weekend it’s that ‘Star Trek’ film – you know there must be a lot of Trekkies on campus.”
“Including me,” Daria admitted. “I’ve seen it three times.”
“I’m sure there are other theaters in easy driving distance, but the one in town is still showing ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ How many times have you seen that?”
“Three,” Daria admitted.
“Geek.”
“Nerd,” Daria corrected. “Which one have you seen the least?”
“One each, but I liked ‘Empire’ best.”
“Do you have their phone number?”
Jane picked up the copy of the local paper she had and read off the number. Each dorm room had a phone, although you couldn’t call long-distance without having signed up for it (which Daria had.)
Daria listened to the recording she got and then turned to Jane. “I’ll make you a deal.” She pulled a $10 from her wallet. “You go down and reserve two seats for any showing Saturday that you want to go to. We can split either lunch or dinner, depending on the showing.”
Jane pretended to pout. “So it’s not a date?”
“You’d need to do better than burgers and a movie to get even Quinn into a backseat, never mind me.”
That Sunday afternoon, Daria, Quinn, Tori, and another Freshman flute major, Jennifer Burns, met in one of the two study rooms on Daria’s (and Jennifer’s) floor to talk about music history. As the class hadn’t done a whole lot – the students would need to get cassettes recorded to listen to the selections on their own and/or spend a lot of time in the listening lab – this was mostly to decide that this would be a good time to get together and review. After Quinn and Tori had left, Daria went over what little the music theory they had had so far with Jennifer – she was a shy, cute blonde with waist-long hair, about Quinn or Jane’s height (5’6). Of the small group growing around Daria and Quinn, Daria, not quite 5’3, was the shortest.
As Daria fell asleep that evening, she reflected that her first week had been a good one. She could only hope it stayed that way.
By Dr T
‘Daria’ is owned by the creators, and probably MTV and others. I’m just playing, no infringements intended. Note: as you can see, I’ve been posting here a long time – I have no interest in collaborating, having art drawn, etc.
Conceit: This story starts in August, 1980. Daria and Quinn are fraternal twins; while they don’t fully get along (at least in public, where they sometimes ignore each other), they are very much closer than in canon, especially when alone. Daria and Quinn are respectively Freshman music and musical theater majors at a major (made-up in Delaware) university, but are not roommates. Instead, Jane (an art major) and Daria meet as roommates. Quinn’s best friend since seventh grade, Stacy, is her roommate and an elementary education major. This is a 10-chapter fic, covering the first year of the twins in college – 1980-81. At the time of posting, no sequel is planned.
Thursday, August 28
Daria Morgendorffer sat in a practice room on the third floor of the music building, wondering if she had done the right thing. Here she was, lost in a sea of students at what some people called ‘Ubiquitous University’ – Central Delaware University a huge state university of just over 30,000 undergraduate students and (if the law school, med school, and business school all counted) over 12,000 graduate students, located technically in a tiny town between multiple large towns and cities, but surrounded by satellite developments.
She and her (fraternal) twin sister Quinn were from very upper-middle-class/lower upper-class families. Their mother, who worked as a lobbyist at the state capital, came from prominent Delaware, Maryland, and FFV families – while not directed related to any signer of the Declaration of Independence, she was descended from a number of cousins to signers from four states (Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Georgia). Their father, although descended from one of the first Mennonite families in Pennsylvania on his father’s side, had several generations of prominent business and industrial relations in between. On his mother’s side, he was descended from early settlers in both Maryland and Delaware (including the early Swedish settlers there). He was a corporate vice president at a certain famous chemical company.
Daria had been unsure of where she wanted to go to for college, and what to major in. Neither she nor her fraternal twin Quinn had wanted to stay in state; Quinn especially wanted a college in New York City, while Daria had leaned towards New England. However, their maternal grandmother had offered to pay for all expenses at any college in Delaware, Maryland, or Virginia, while their paternal grandmother had offered to pay the equivalent of full tuition at a Delaware state school even if they attended a college in Pennsylvania or Maryland. To both Daria and Quinn’s surprise, they were both willing to pay, meaning they could use one grandmother’s money for tuition, fees, and room & board and the other’s (plus their decent allowance) on pretty much whatever they wanted. Quinn’s would likely go partly for clothes and the rest to help her get started in New York once she graduated, Daria’s on books and recordings and most into the bank for grad school.
Daria loved music and she loved to write. Daria knew she did not want to teach in the schools, and wasn’t sure if she was really talented enough to make it in the professional music world (how many professional flutists were really needed, never mind violinists?). On the other hand, writing wasn’t a much more likely profession to make a good living at. Still, it was easier to major in music and take creative writing courses at some point than try things the other way around. She had CLEPed out of 27 credits – the four gen ed history classes, American Government, and French – and had passed out of a few more (although she would have to make up some of those credits). She could have tested out of Latin, German, and Italian, but that would not have really helped her graduate early with the classes she wanted to take.
Quinn was convinced she could become a Broadway star, even if Daria was sure her voice was not strong enough. Still, she was good enough to get into the U’s competitive musical theater program. Daria (not to mention Quinn) was glad the two only shared four classes – Musicology I (Classic and Romantic periods), Voice Class I, Chorus, and the gen ed Speech class.
Daria glanced at her watch: 3:12. She had just gotten out of her first violin lesson – she had been accepted as both a flute and violin major, and was keeping her options open at the moment, but she slightly preferred the flute right now. The first orchestra rehearsal would meet at 4:00 – it met three times a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00-4:50 (strings only) and Wednesday evenings 6:45-8:00 (full ensemble), although they had not met the evening before, as there were auditions for string players from the University community.
As Daria automatically played piano scales to warm up, she thought back to her first class, the morning before – Musicology at 8:00. At precisely 8:00, a tall ugly-but-commanding barely middle-aged man strode into the class pushing an AV cart. The class instantly quieted, and he proclaimed. “Look around the classroom. There should be a hundred and five of you. Ninety-three music and music education majors, and twelve music theater majors.” He sneered a little. “If you follow the usual trend, less than half of you will graduate in these programs – not because you lack talent – none of you would have been accepted here if you didn’t have the talent – but because you lack the passion, the drive, needed to succeed in these majors.” He glanced around. “I actually count only ninety-nine of you.” The door had opened and three students scurried in. “You’re late. If you can’t be on time for music – class or performance – you might as well give up now.”
Daria sighed as she moved on to other piano finger exercises. The professor had ‘dropped the needle’ – playing a movement of a Mozart symphony and challenging the students to identifying it. ‘This,’ she thought yet again, ‘is not going to be an easy course, even for me.’ Even if she could identify the first piece, few others could. Quinn would likely be annoying about studying for the exams. Daria was not particularly looking forward to the first active marching band meeting on Friday – Wednesday had been devoted to passing out music and distribution of some instruments. Daria had not been thrilled to be assigned a piccolo. Marching band was one reason to go with the violin over the flute.
Deciding she’d done enough on the piano, Daria moved on to some technical exercises on her violin. She considered her roommate – Jane Lane was an art major from a small nearby town. She was as cranky as Daria herself, if not quite as cynical. From the couple of sketchbooks Jane had shared, she was certainly a very talented sketcher at the very least. While having little interest in classical music or the literature that Daria adored, they at least had similar tastes in movies, and they had, so far at least, gotten along very well. They even shared a class – Renaissance Art History, a required course for Jane.
Unlike Quinn (fortunately rooming on the top floor of the women’s side of the dorm she and Jane were in), Daria did not attract boys like hummingbirds to a feeder. It wasn’t that she wasn’t attractive – but Quinn was very cute and had a slim waif-like figure and charm, and she dressed to show those charms to maximum affect without looking cheap or slutty. She was almost always smiling at everyone, while not looking vacant, and she loved to banter with girls and flirt with boys and had done both with ease since well before she was twelve. Daria was not as obviously cute, was usually curt and stoic, and usually wore large glasses (although she actually had other pairs) and somewhat frumpy clothes (although the barely knee-length skirts she usually wore other than in the depths of winter showed she had great legs). Jane and the few girls on their floor who had caught glimpses of her in the showers reluctantly agreed that from the top of her long auburn mane to the tips of her perfectly-shaped toes, and everything in-between, including her dark green eyes, perfect nose, cupid-bow lips and her firmly high-riding perky C-cup breasts, she was one of the prettiest girls they had ever seen in person.
Except perhaps for those few who were somewhat uncertain about their sexual orientation, they were glad Daria preferred to hide her looks. Even Quinn knew that if her sister exerted herself (and had at least a slightly different personality), she could even be more popular than Quinn herself.
Fortunately for Quinn, Daria had never been interested. She had dated, but the number of boys she had dated between her first informal dance at the end of middle school through her senior prom was less than the number of boys Quinn had dated in any one semester of high school. While both entered the University technically as virgins, Daria had barely been kissed and had never gone beyond that with a boy and barely beyond that once with a girl, Quinn was nearing expert-level at handjobs and fellatio with boys and had some experience with girls – and a great deal of experience with one girl. Quinn was expecting to continue much as she had, while Daria admitted to hoping she could finally have a real relationship.
Seeing it was 3:45, Daria picked up her unopened flute case, packed away her violin, rosin, and bow, and went down to the ‘band room’ where the strings would practice – the full orchestra rehearsed on-stage, but did not bother setting up just for the strings.
There were enough violin majors sophomores and above and excellent faculty and staff players to fill out the first string violins. Two of the four violin instructors sat as the first folder second violin while the other two sat first folder viola, in order to lead those weaker sections and give them a hint of power. Daria was pleased to be the second seat/second folder of the second violins, ahead of the freshmen majors. This placed her next to the first chair/second folder of the violas. She assumed this was a senior, although she would soon find out differently. He was a bit over average height, casually dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans, and boots, with a shaggy mustache, with black hair and the same deep blue eyes as Jane. Daria noticed all this only because she caught the smile he gave her as they sat and began to listen to the conductor (one of the two cello instructors) start talking about the pieces they would likely be working on.
Despite trying, she could not quite get that smile out of her head. She had not noticed she had returned that smile with a small one of her own when their eyes had met.
-80s-
Tyler Green was not an undergraduate, but a first semester graduate student, working on an interdisciplinary PhD, skipping over the intermediate MA. He held a BA in Music and BFA in Art, and had minored in history. He would need at least 12 credits in three subjects: Musicology; Art History; and Literature (although technically he would need 18 or more graduate credits to teach the subject on the college level) and 24 credits in history, all from the Renaissance to the present, in European or American areas. His dissertation would need to combine all the subjects to some degree.
He noticed the pretty violinist – he was also taking the Renaissance Art course and had seen her in the front of the large classroom – he was not taken in by her clothes, glasses, or expression. He would have to sit in on the undergraduate art history class (which numbered over sixty undergrads and a dozen graduate students) plus a separate class meeting for the grad students. He would learn Friday afternoon what class he would be a TA for; that was still up in the air.
When the rehearsal ended, Daria again exchanged brief glances and smiles with the violist – she even gave him another microscopic shy smile back when he smiled at her – while not a flirt like her twin, Daria was well acquainted with the game, and it seemed like the man was at least a bit interested – she hadn’t detected him looking at anyone else with that smile. For some reason, she thought he was attractive, not something she usually noticed.
The art building was between the music building and the union with the main cafeteria, or at least the upper route (the campus was mostly built on a series of hills). Daria therefore stopped and picked up Jane, who had been sketching away on her own time. Although they had only known each other since Sunday, they had immediately clicked on most levels. When the two went through one of the dinner lines, Daria saw her sister give her a wave. “Quinn wants to see me, do you mind?”
Jane shrugged, and the pair went over to a table for six that currently held four, who looked to be a bit over halfway done with dinner – Quinn, Stacy, and two girls Daria recognized from the musicology class. Quinn had said that the music theater girls sat together in that class, and these two had been in that group.
“Sandi, Tori, this is my twin sister Daria and her roommate, Jane. You might remember Daria from chorus and that music history class.” Sandi wrinkled her nose, but Tori just nodded. “Jane is an art major, right?”
“Right,” Jane agreed.
“Daria, Jane; Sandi and Tori are music theater majors, too, just in different voice classes from Daria and me.”
“I really don’t see the point of that history class,” Sandi complained. “And it’s so early….”
Quinn ignored her. “Anyway, I found something I think you need to do.” She looked at Daria’s dinner. “Especially if you’re going to eat like that.”
Daria rolled her eyes. “Quinn, it’s one slice of pizza with a side of green beans, and a little salad.” Quinn and the other three each just had a large salad, just a little vinegar and oil, and hot tea. “I am hardly going to put on weight eating this, especially since I didn’t have much breakfast or lunch.”
“I’m told it just sneaks up on most people their Freshman year,” Quinn argued. “Anyway, every Monday through Thursday afternoons, there’s a no-credit set of classes going on, from ten after the hour for thirty minutes – they’re calling it ‘dancer-cise,’ sort of a combination of that new aerobics thing, jazzercise, and such. You do have to sign up for it, though – twenty places per time.”
Daria thought about it. “I don’t have my dance stuff here,” she pointed out. “And no, while we wear the size leotard bottoms, you don’t want me stretching out your tops and I wear a smaller shoe.” Sandi looked at Daria with a bit of doubt. While it was clear Quinn, while nicely rounded, was a full A-cup, she couldn’t tell Daria’s shape.
“I have to go home this weekend for my mother’s birthday,” Stacy piped up. “I could pick up your stuff if you want.”
Quinn smirked and Daria sighed. “You win; I’ll have to go to the One o’clock ones. Are you going?”
“Of course,” Quinn stated. “I just wasn’t sure which one. We don’t have dance classes until next year.”
“Just that stupid eurythmics class,” Sandi complained.
“It is pretty basic,” Tori agreed.
“True,” Quinn agreed. “I can see why a lot of the music majors need it – other than marching, most don’t have much experience moving to music, never mind anything formal or technical.”
“Well, that’s something for me to look forward to,” Daria grumbled. While freshmen music theater majors took the class both semesters of their freshman year, music majors took it their sophomore year. “Did you find out what productions are being done this semester?”
“Two plays and two musicals per semester. I never heard of either play, and the first musical was cast last spring other than some extras – it goes on in early October. The second one is a musical staging of ‘A Christmas Carol’ – they alternate a straight performance and this musical version each year.”
“Auditions for the first play is next Saturday, for the second and the ‘Christmas Carol’ the Friday and Saturday after that,” Tori supplied.
“Daria…?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you. How about…?”
“If we really study. Maybe we should do both in one of the study rooms on our floors, that way we won’t bother Stacy or Jane.”
“Thanks again! After you finish lunch, let’s go up to the gym and sign up, that way all the spots won’t be taken.”
Daria sighed. “Fine.”
“If you prefer, you can come running with me for an hour every day,” Jane put in.
“That explains why you can get away with a second slice,” Stacy said, a little enviously.
“Well, I already signed up for the exer-dance thingy,” Sandi stated, having finished her salad. “I will see some of you tomorrow at – yech – eight.” Sandi left.
“What a prima donna,” Tori said sadly. “I’m glad I have a quiet, nerdish chem major for a roommate.” She looked at Daria. “I noticed you seemed to know what was going on yesterday morning.”
“She loves that sort of music,” Quinn agreed.
“Any chance of getting some help there?”
Daria and Quinn exchanged looks. “Okay,” Daria told her. “Quinn will tell you when.”
Tori smiled and thanked the pair, and then she and Quinn left.
“So, are you two telepathic twins or something?”
“Huh?”
“That exchange of incomplete sentences and that look exchange – seemed like at least partial telepathy.”
Daria shrugged. “We know each other very well. We are very different, but really aren’t that competitive. We trust each other – I know secrets about her that she wouldn’t want anyone else to know, and no, I won’t even hint. I don’t know if there’s much I would feel the same about, but if there is, she would know. So, I will help her learn her audition pieces – if she needs a song, I’ll play the piano. We’re both decent technical dancers; I’ll do that dance class in part to stay in partial training to help her, and yes, to avoid the so-called ‘Freshman fifteen.’. The second thing was I’ll help her, and maybe Tori, with the music history stuff.”
“What do you get out of it?”
“I don’t mean to brag, but I’m a genius, and I’ve already tested out of thirty-five credits in some fashion. Quinn isn’t any kind of genius, but she is smart – a natural B-plus/A-minus student. When I tutor her, it makes certain I understand the material. If you want, if you’ll help me with any of the technical art material, I can tutor you in the history part if you need it, as well as that basic math class.”
“It can’t hurt,” Jane agreed. “Thanks. It still seems a bit lopsided. Your deal with Quinn, I mean.”
Daria flushed a bit. “You know I said I write. I can act, but Quinn is actually very good, maybe even excellent. I really think she would have gotten more out of the straight theater major. She helps me with some of my writing – she really brings it to life, even if it’s reading descriptive background material. She also helps me socially; I know I’d be a lot shyer, and quieter, if it wasn’t for her.”
Daria sighed again. “I’ve never had a close friend, like her buddy Stacy. Most of my social life outside of music was hanging out with Quinn and her friends, and she made certain they fully accepted me, even if I think Stacy was the only one who really liked my company for my sake.”
“Well, if things keep going like they have this week, I think we both have our own bestie for the first time,” Jane told her.
Daria smiled slightly as Quinn came back from putting away her tray and dishes. “Come on, sis!”
“I’ll take your tray back,” Jane told her. “I’ll be out running when you get back.”
-80s-
“Ya know,” Jane said that evening, “that’s the most I’ve seen you interact with your twin. I had the idea you didn’t get along.”
“We never got along poorly, although we sometimes went our separate ways and had different interests,” Daria answered. “Quinn was always more popular than I was, but we sort of went together as a package deal, especially through elementary school. The differences came out in junior high – we both loved music, if in different ways, and different kinds. We both liked dance. In both cases, Quinn liked solo work – for instance she’s no better a pianist but she went for flashy pieces, I went for introspective. We both played the flute and violin in elementary and middle school, I’m the music major and she quit the flute to become a cheerleader, and I don’t think she’s picked up her violin since last May when we gave the last high school concert. I have it here as a spare, in part because she was afraid Mother would scold her if she just left it home. I’ve done bit parts on stage and worked stage crew and enjoyed both. Quinn always landed at least decent speaking parts and usually had some sort of lead, and sometimes helped with makeup. Quinn’s a bit boy crazy, while I’ve never found one I really was interested in.”
“How about girls?”
“Are you trying to tell me there were even more reasons why you asked if I would pose for you?” Daria asked, only semi-teasing.
“I said you could keep your clothes on,” Jane retorted. “I got the vibe that she and that Stacy might be more than friends, and that that Sandi is a piranha that would sleep with anything that would help a career and backstab them the next morning if she decided that would work better for her.”
“It might be unfair to Sandi, but I agree,” Daria answered. “As for Quinn, other than the above comment, I will keep her privacy private, just as she would mine.” They had shared a bed until just after their eleventh birthday, and had already caught the other in what they called in code ‘private time.’ After moving into a much larger house, they had adjoining bedrooms and a shared bathroom. They knew more about the other than most sisters, and Daria had been willing to listen to Quinn as she experimented, and comforted her the few times when her dates had gone wrong. They even shared a few of their fantasies with each other. They sometimes argued, they sometimes were very angry with the other, but they kept each other’s secrets and never betrayed the other.
After a pause, Daria asked, “Did you want to add anything?”
Jane shrugged. “I dated a few guys in high school. I fooled around with a couple of them, and yes, with a couple of girls, especially one at art camp. At this point, I think I prefer guys to gals, but that might change depending on who I meet. Does that weird you out?” Jane swallowed nervously. “Do you want a new roommate?” she asked in a small voice. To her surprise, she really liked her roommate and hoped they would become close friends.
“Even though you’re good looking and have gorgeous eyes, I still haven’t met a girl that appealed to me that way enough to switch, even if I did ‘practice kiss’ a few girls in middle school and Ninth grade,” Daria responded, leaving off a few details. “However, if you are bi, that in itself doesn’t weird me out. Just don’t draw me from memory, and only with my approval – which you have when I’m fully clothed.”
Jane smiled, which widened a bit when Daria returned it with what Jane was learning was a typical Daria-version of a Mona Lisa smile.
“Well, despite the fact I told you that I am bi, and you know I think you’re pretty and you think I’m gorgeous, feel like a movie tomorrow night or Friday?” Jane asked, cautiously but hopefully.
“I said your eyes are,” Daria retorted, thinking of the violist. “What’s playing and where?”
“There’s a movie on campus almost every weekend,” Jane told her. “About half second-run and half classics, plus a porn film every November. This weekend it’s that ‘Star Trek’ film – you know there must be a lot of Trekkies on campus.”
“Including me,” Daria admitted. “I’ve seen it three times.”
“I’m sure there are other theaters in easy driving distance, but the one in town is still showing ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ How many times have you seen that?”
“Three,” Daria admitted.
“Geek.”
“Nerd,” Daria corrected. “Which one have you seen the least?”
“One each, but I liked ‘Empire’ best.”
“Do you have their phone number?”
Jane picked up the copy of the local paper she had and read off the number. Each dorm room had a phone, although you couldn’t call long-distance without having signed up for it (which Daria had.)
Daria listened to the recording she got and then turned to Jane. “I’ll make you a deal.” She pulled a $10 from her wallet. “You go down and reserve two seats for any showing Saturday that you want to go to. We can split either lunch or dinner, depending on the showing.”
Jane pretended to pout. “So it’s not a date?”
“You’d need to do better than burgers and a movie to get even Quinn into a backseat, never mind me.”
That Sunday afternoon, Daria, Quinn, Tori, and another Freshman flute major, Jennifer Burns, met in one of the two study rooms on Daria’s (and Jennifer’s) floor to talk about music history. As the class hadn’t done a whole lot – the students would need to get cassettes recorded to listen to the selections on their own and/or spend a lot of time in the listening lab – this was mostly to decide that this would be a good time to get together and review. After Quinn and Tori had left, Daria went over what little the music theory they had had so far with Jennifer – she was a shy, cute blonde with waist-long hair, about Quinn or Jane’s height (5’6). Of the small group growing around Daria and Quinn, Daria, not quite 5’3, was the shortest.
As Daria fell asleep that evening, she reflected that her first week had been a good one. She could only hope it stayed that way.
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