Categories > Cartoons > Daria > Daria's Party Addition
Daria’s Party Addition – 05 – Holiday Happiness
By Dr T
dp
As far as Daria was concerned, one positive aspect of Quinn’s injuries was that her parents had to cancel a couples’ intimacy Saturday night get together. Granted, Quinn tried to get Daria to substitute for her at a babysitting job, but she was able to duck out of that as well. Jane was willing to take it over, as Fred had some family obligations that night and she could always use the cash. Also, unlike Daria, Jane didn’t mind the idea of small children.
Daria did have to cancel a date with Jack for that Friday evening, as Quinn put up a fuss that Daria could go out when she had just been freed up (early) to date and obviously she couldn’t. Daria was furious, and she and her mother had strong words. For Daria, since Quinn did not need aid in getting around or otherwise functioning, this was yet again merely giving into Quinn’s whims over Daria’s happiness. She felt she was being punished just so Quinn would feel good about that instead of wallowing so much in self-pity. Daria won the argument, in theory, but there was plenty of bad feeling on both sides. By then, even Quinn felt (a little) guilty.
In the end, Helen was angry at herself as well as with both Daria and Quinn over the entire incident, but it was too late for Daria to go out. Daria had reminded Helen of over a dozen times when something similar had happened. Helen had come up with three instances where she claimed the opposite had occurred, but each time Daria was able to remind her mother that it was in fact Quinn who had come out ahead each time and Daria who had suffered.
The short-term good news for Daria that came out of that argument (Daria doubted the mere fact that she had in the end won on all counts would deter her mother from acting in a similar manner in the future) was that Helen stopped trying to get Daria to be fitted for her Christmas Ball gown with her in attendance. The Ball was held the Saturday before Christmas; meaning the 20th this year. As it was already the 5th that Friday, Daria needed to start shopping for it soon.
Daria and Jane walked down to Degas Street the next morning, to a second-hand place that Jane recommended. To her surprise, Daria found three different gowns she could live with – she was unlikely to admit to actually liking a ball gown. A stop at another store yielded a pair of formal-looking boots with no more heel than her normal pair, a bit nicer than the dressier boots she had bought earlier that autumn. Even together, they were several hundred dollars less than what Helen had allocated. Still feeling a bit guilty from the previous evening’s argument, Helen had let Daria keep most of the surplus.
Helen did not realize that this series of events split her and her daughter further than before, and that now, unlike through her life before when she had essentially been on her own, Daria had Jane and Jack to go to emotionally. Daria, still by instinct something of a loner, was now bonding emotionally with them both, if in different ways – Platonic love for both, and romantically with Jack. Where Daria had been totally emotionally on her own before, she had actual emotional support.
dp
One reason Daria was happy with that surplus cash from shopping was it gave her a buffer. She therefore used that money and some of the cash she had squirreled away to open a checking/savings account at a different bank than one the family used – and she used Jane’s address as her home address. The next thing she did was get an internet account – Helen had the family set up on AOL and Daria never forgot her mother had their passwords, thus enabling her to monitor her and Quinn’s use. She would not use the new bank account for anything other than adding to her savings and paying for the internet account out of checking.
The first thing she did (after hiding the internet service icon) on her computer was email her Aunt Amy at her work address, which she had easily found on-line.
Amy responded the next day, adding in her personal email account. The pair would correspond several times a week. This not only brought Daria and Amy closer together, it gave Daria yet another person to go to emotionally when her mother ignored the needs of Daria the individual, even as she tried to treat her daughter as best she could as a generic teen.
dp
It was after lunch on Monday, awaiting the class bell, when Daria, Jane, and their boyfriends saw a large clump of girls in a corridor. Oddly, they saw two of the Freshman girls Daria didn’t really know signaling at least one of them to come over, while Quinn shook her head. Daria therefore felt obligated to see what was up.
It turned out that one of the other Freshman girls, Brooke, had had a nose job. Unlike the girls in the crowd, who either praised the new nose, or were at least pretending to, Fred was rather indifferent and the other three thought, if anything, the resulting nose was too small for Brooke’s face. Granted, Daria was the only one who commented on that idea, saying, “Don’t worry; it’ll grow out.” Brooke’s nose-job would start many of the fashion-forward, popular girls (and the many wanna-bes) twittering about cosmetic surgery.
Wednesday, Daria was shocked to be called out of class because Quinn was ‘ill.’ This turned out to be a false-flag – Quinn was off to visit Dr. Shar, the plastic surgeon. Daria wasn’t sure why Quinn wanted her to come along, other than the fact that Daria was less likely to turn Quinn in to their parents given her involvement. Daria found the whole trip a combination of annoying and unnerving. When Shar tried to shame Daria about her looks (and offered to turn her into a clone of Quinn), Daria had seized Quinn’s purse, turned away and spent well under two minutes using Quinn’s makeup, and then unzipped and slipped off her jacket, took off her glasses, and turned around, pulling the loose t-shirt she was wearing tight, surprising both, even Quinn, with how shapely she actually was.
And then, taking a breath, she managed to totally relax – and then smiled sweetly before saying “In just over the last year or so, I’ve gone from almost totally flat to a full b-cup, and I’m sure I’ll keep going at least a bit further, and while I am still on the short side, I’ve grown nearly three inches over the last sixteen months. I’m maybe a pound or two under-weight and a bit on the short-side, but I have nice legs and a boyfriend who thinks I look adorable as I am. In short, no thanks.”
Quinn was surprised Daria would admit this, and Shar said nothing more.
On the way home, after Daria had given Quinn a pep talk about her looks (and removed the minimal makeup she had applied in Shar’s office), Quinn asked, “Why don’t you look like that all the time?”
“Because unlike you, I’ve never wanted the attention. I don’t need make-up for Jack to find me desirable, any more than I would need make-up on him.”
“And that smile?” Quinn teased.
“He sees it,” was all Daria would say.
The rest of the way home, Quinn pondered long and hard about what she thought about her sister, and many other things.
dp
RE: again, Daria’s figure – compare the Freshman Daria in ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ to the one in the show – she was much shorter and somewhat flatter in the original design.
dp
That weekend, Jane and Daria (not to mention Fred and Jack) were a bit disappointed, as Jane’s mother was home, working out some recent ideas. Jack was wise enough not to even suggest going to Jerry’s make-out evening. Although Fred did hint at doing so to Jane, he dropped it quickly. The pairs settled for going to hear Trent’s band at the Zon Friday night after burgers – although Jane and Fred made out far more intensely in Fred’s car afterwards. On the other hand, Fred’s parents were visiting relatives on Saturday and took his younger siblings along. Jane and Fred spent the afternoon in his bedroom, and she would later confess to Daria to having given up her virginity.
While this was going on, Daria and Jack spent the afternoon parking on a road outside of Lawndale. This forested access road led to a state park closed for the season, so there was no traffic. Jack spent some time early and later giving Daria some basic driving lessons, but mostly he spent two sessions manually pleasuring Daria, while Daria spent the time in between going down on Jack. They had spent the morning at a rock & mineral show in Oakwood, and would return to it in the late afternoon and evening. Daria was pleased with the trilobite fossil Jack bought for her, which also served as hard evidence she had been where she had said she would be at least part of the day.
dp
Quinn had considered her options for the Snow Ball well before Thanksgiving, and had therefore made arrangements to go with a popular junior who was a starting guard on the basketball team and a second string end on for the football team – his father ran the largest insurance agency in the area and the firm had been in the family for two previous generations, so they were well-established in the local hierarchy. After her slight reconciliation with Daria, Quinn managed to wrangle her sister, their dates, and Fred and Jane into going to Winged Tree for the pre-dance dinner – her date’s father was a member, and between the two boys, they could get Fred and Jane in as well.
Quinn of course knew about the social status of this country club, but this was the first time she had managed to dine there. To her surprise, it outdid her expectations – the ambience was subtle but classier than Chez Pierre, and the food was better. She did determine, from her date’s and Jack’s reactions, that the prices were not quite as expensive as the French restaurant. She was uncertain how that might affect her future preference of date venue – class or expense. She was even more impressed at how at home Daria seemed in the club’s atmosphere, something from more than just having dined there several times before.
As the Snow Ball was a county-wide school dance – even the private schools in the county (the exclusive and expensive Fielding Prep and the partially-state sponsored Grove Hills) were part of it – there were a few more couples of high school age in attendance at the club (usually Jack and Daria were the only couple under 35 present). The other teens present, even Quinn and Jane, were surprised by how many of the older members stopped by to say hello to Jack and Daria and wish them either a ‘season’s greetings’ of some sort or a ‘have fun’ at the Snow Ball, if not both.
Quinn realized, in some ways for the first time, that she and Daria were playing two very different games (if Daria was playing in any sense). Quinn was playing the competitive serial dating/popularity game that was common amongst the attractive/popular (or wanna-be) girls of Lawndale and most of the better-off boys. As she suspected, Quinn was already the best Freshman at the game in town, even if a number of girls in the upper grades surpassed her. Daria was operating at a more mature level – not quite adult, or even at a collegiate level, but heading in those directions.
And, to Quinn’s startled understanding, Daria was doing quite well at it. The older couples at this very socially prestigious club (none of the wealthy and powerful partners at her mother’s law firm were members, nor would they even be considered for membership) made it clear that not only was Jack an acceptable future member (Quinn doubted Jeffy would be considered one unless he changed as he grew up), but that Daria was already considered acceptable as well.
Quinn and her date travelled apart from the other two couples, and sat with his friends at the dance while the other two couples sat with Jerry and Mary. As Daria had suspected, she was not really overly thrilled by the Snow Ball – she had much better times dancing at the country club. Except for the dance after the Snow Queen was crowned (a girl from one of the other schools, although Mary had been one of Lawndale’s three nominees), which was a waltz, there were no ballroom dances. Daria did happily consent to also dancing the slow dances with Jack, but that was all the dancing they did.
For the week leading up to Christmas, Jane’s parents were, as was so often the case, out of town. Her mother would be back Thursday night, and her father was scheduled to fly in Friday morning. Trent would be out all night and so would be sleeping until the late afternoon. School met on Monday and Tuesday, with the holiday break starting on Wednesday, leaving Jane and Daria with Wednesday to plan with their boyfriends.
Daria spent Tuesday night with Jane, so the two could get an early start (Well, early for Jane, in any event.) Fred and Jack showed up a little after 10:00, and were immediately led upstairs to Jane’s and Penny’s rooms respectively. The four happy teens met back downstairs around 11:15 and went off for lunch. The four spent the afternoon enjoying lots of foreplay and, for the boys, eventual release. Jane, and especially Daria, experienced far more pleasure from their respective lovers, even if Daria was still technically a virgin.
When the boys were gone, the girls had a short time to rest before going to Daria’s – Jane had been invited to dinner and to spend the night before her mother came back to town. “Can I ask you something?”
“You may,” Daria retorted. The two were sitting on the sofa in the Lane living room, having just seen their respective boyfriends off.
Jane rolled her eyes a bit at that, and asked, “You’re still a virgin, aren’t you?”
“Well, I guess I am technically,” Daria agreed. “Why? Does that bother you for some reason?”
“Bother me? No, not at all,” Jane replied. “I’m just curious as to why you haven’t taken that step.”
Daria lightly chewed on her lip for a moment in thought before replying. “I guess there are a couple of reasons. First, well, I know it’ll sound odd considering what I do with Jack, but that seems…invasive, or at least more invasive.”
“H’mm, I guess I can see that,” Jane mused. “If you’re using your mouth, there are other ways to please him besides, well, pistoning him.”
“True. And second, even if there are other positions, the traditional one, and another obvious one as well, seem too…dominating, especially since I’m just a shade over five foot two and Jack’s close to six feet tall.”
“I’m sure Jack would let you be on top,” Jane teased.
“Probably,” Daria agreed, starting to blush deeply as she answered, “but I don’t think I could do it that way the first time.”
“It didn’t really hurt,” Jane pointed out. “I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard some of the stories of first times.”
“I have, and those bother me,” Daria agreed. “Remember, you’re a lot more physically active than me; than supposedly can make a difference.” Daria’s blush deepened. “Jack has, well let’s say massaged me around and in that area, and I suspect I might hurt more than you.”
“I can respect that,” Jane acknowledged. She decided to tease a bit more. “If you’re worried about discomfort or even a twinge, I guess the backdoor is also off limits.”
Daria just looked Jane in the eye. “When you do it, let me know what you think about the idea then.”
Jane made a face. “Somehow, even if I don’t think Fred is above average in either measurement, I don’t think I’d want to try that soon.” Her expression changed and she looked at Daria inquiringly.
“I don’t know – the only other examples I’ve ever seen were in that video, and I would imagine those were all at least on the high end of average.”
“True,” Jane stated. “Go on.”
“Then Jack would be around the average of those guys on the video, excluding that one…huge guy,” Daria answered, her blush returning.
“Well, I guess I understand your reluctance to go all the way.”
Daria again looked Jane straight in the eye. “I really like Jack. I enjoy being with him, enjoy pleasuring him, and being pleasured by him – I had doubted I’d be lucky enough to experience the first, but I never thought I’d ever experience the latter other two. Still, I don’t know if I’m in love with him. I think I might be; but I’m still not certain. If I was sure, then I might want to make love with him fully. Until then, I am more than happy with what we are doing.”
“Happy?”
Daria managed to smirk. “Happy, satisfied, content; lots of adjectives would apply.”
Jane returned the look. “Me too, amiga, me too.”
dp
Christmas at the Morgendorffers started off, as usual, low-key. Jake had managed to set up the artificial tree and put up some outside lights without hurting himself (this year, at least) a few days beforehand. Helen and Quinn decorated the tree with tasteful minimalism, other than the craft ornaments the girls had made in elementary and middle school (all in non-obvious places towards the back of the tree).
Christmas morning, Helen chose to pick a fight with Daria – on the one hand, Amy had sent Quinn $50 and Daria $100, but on the other, Helen and Jake’s mothers had each sent Daria $50 and Quinn $200 and $100 respectively. Helen only complained about Amy’s favoritism and for once Daria called Helen on her continued favoritism towards Quinn and blatant unfairness towards herself. In the end, while angry and unwilling to concede defeat to Daria despite the huge preponderance of evidence Daria had presented, Helen felt too guilty to punish Daria for arguing the point. Jake had been so appalled that he, for once, did not duck out of the argument and insured that Helen did not take retribution out on Daria later on.
Quinn was conflicted – that Amy favored Daria did not bother her too much, since their grandmothers obviously favored her at least as much if not much more. However, Quinn was left wondering if her mother really liked her more than Daria (as Quinn had always believed), or just disliked Daria more – Helen’s wording had more than once leaned enough towards the latter that even Quinn had picked up on it. Worse, it was even hinted that one reason why Quinn was given more by her mother at least was just to shut her up.
The following two days – Saturday and Sunday – were therefore tense at the Morgendorffers. Not even Helen’s current bosses were obsessive enough to directly bother her over the ensuing post-Christmas weekend (unlike Eric). While Jake would spend the weekend in front of the TV watching various sports, especially football games and trying to ignore that tension, and Quinn and her friends haunted the malls for special sales (and returning items they didn’t want), Helen was left rather at loose ends. She could not bring herself to apologize to Daria, and was even less inclined to reach out to her sister Amy. Helen instead spent Saturday and Sunday mornings moping around the house, pretending to do some housework, and the afternoons in her office.
She didn’t notice various partners drifting through (escaping their own family dramas) and taking notice of her.
Daria spent the weekend mostly at Jane’s. Even with her parents present (they would both be gone by Tuesday), Jane’s was a refuge. Jane herself was appalled by the details of the arguments, as was Amy when Daria emailed her the details. Both were full of sympathy, but it was Jane who consoled Daria when she broke down briefly Saturday afternoon. Jane was surprised that Daria had done so, but was glad she had been able to, and Jane was glad she was able to comfort her first real friend.
Jack was occupied with family celebrations and visits until late Monday morning. After a burger lunch, Daria had him drive them to the mall. Instead of going inside the busy mall, she had him park in the furthest reaches of an upper parking deck – despite how crowded the mall was, this was still mostly empty. There, to her surprise, Daria again poured out her resentments of her family, especially her mother – who no doubt cared about Daria’s physical well-being and her future employability, but apparently cared little about Daria the individual.
Jack listened, sympathized, and then pulled Daria into the backseat of his sedan. There, he hugged and cuddled Daria for over an hour. After the first twenty minutes or so, Daria actually dozed on and off for the rest of the time, arousing herself occasionally to cuddle closer for warmth and affection and/or exchange light kisses.
When Daria woke up fully, feeling secure and cared for in Jack’s arms more than she had ever felt in her life, she looked him in the eye, kissed him deeply, and then said, “I think I’m in love with you.”
Jack kissed her back deeply before saying, “I love you, too.”
After that, the windows of the car quickly steamed over again.
dp
Daria thought about those admissions that evening and the next two days. She and Jack went to lunch the next two days and dinner all three days, and the couple plus Jane and Fred went to the movies both of those next afternoons. (‘Alien Resurrection’ and ‘Mousehunt’ – they all wanted to avoid ‘Titanic’ but Daria and Jack ended up going with Jeffy and Quinn to see that on Friday afternoon.)
Thursday afternoon, however, the Lane house was empty other than Jane. Trent and the band were playing a series of gigs near Baltimore through Saturday night and her parents were of course already out of town. So, after lunch, the two couples went to their usual bedrooms.
“Did you, well….” Daria started to ask in a small voice as the pair started to strip in Penny’s old room.
“I did,” Jack assured her. “I bought a package and some contraceptive lube.” He took a step closer and turned Daria to fully face him. Daria only semi-raised her eyes towards his, as she was so nervous. “I understand that this is a big step for you as well as a major step for us. I…I do love and care for you, Daria. Please, don’t think this is something you have to do for me, or for us.”
“And if I want to, even if I’m also afraid?” Daria asked in barely a whisper.
Jack smiled and bent towards her, his hand pushing gently on her chin for her face raised enough for him to lightly kiss her. “I want to give you pleasure; I want to let you know I care for you, the complete Daria package – I choose you. We’ll do whatever pleases you.”
Daria hugged him tightly, kissed him fiercely, and then said, “And I choose you. Please…make love to me.”
Jack kissed her again, gently removed her bra and panties, and picked her up and carried Daria bridal-style to the bed, and after over twenty minutes of foreplay (and two orgasms), he penetrated Daria for her first time.
While it had hurt more than she had hoped, it was far less than Daria had feared, and because of the foreplay, Jack’s gentleness (and stamina), and after-play, Daria was (to her surprise) feeling very satiated and even loved, and not at all used, hurt, or having any other negative feelings by the time they were finished.
When Daria came back to the bed after visiting the bathroom wearing only panties, she slipped into Jack’s arms with a smile. As they cuddled, Daria admitted she felt different – not primarily physically (she was still a bit sore, after all), but emotionally fulfilled. Between her relationship with Jack and her close friendship with Jane, she would even claim an emotional calm and equilibrium she had never experienced before.
That evening, Jane spent the night at Daria’s. As she had started to a few weeks before, rather than sleeping on a pad on the floor, Jane slipped into Daira’s bed to cuddle. “Are you okay?” Jane whispered.
“Still a bit sore, but very much okay – thanks to Jack, and thanks to you.” Usually Jane lightly spooned against Daria, barely touching. This time, Daria wrapped herself around Jane tightly, even though the touch remained rather Platonic.
Jane patted Daria’s hands, and then relaxed into slumber. Gently smiling, Daria did the same.
dp
Helen Morgendorffer was concerned, and was trying to figure out exactly why. She knew it concerned her daughter, Daria. Their relationship had never been close; Helen was an exceptionally bright woman with, in some ways, an extraordinary memory, which she had used to become an excellent lawyer. She only vaguely recognized that she had put most of her ability to read and even sympathize with others into her work, while at the same time cutting off those feelings when it conflicted with getting the job done. As this had extended to her family, her husband was slowly withdrawing back into the childhood and adolescent traumas that her early empathy and love had partially erased and her younger daughter was becoming a manipulative asexual attention junkie, using that attention to replace the lack of real parenting.
As usual, Helen ignored all this to concentrate on her older daughter.
Daria had always been a mystery to both her parents, but as self-grounded as she had been throughout her childhood and early adolescence in Highland, she seemed more withdrawn from her family now than she had been before the move. What had changed?
Helen forced herself to think of Daria at the start of her Freshman year and now, less than 17 months later. Daria had never had close friends, but she had been friendly with a small group of girls in Middle School, but both leaders of that group had moved away, leaving Daria isolated when she had entered Ninth grade. She had been almost the shortest girl in her class, and as physically underdeveloped as she was mentally overdeveloped. Still, her voice had not been as unexpressive as it had become since, at least when Daria talked to her family – it was only when overhearing Daria talk with Jane or Jack that her voice regained what animation it had had just over a year before.
As Helen forced herself to remember, the first thing she realized was that she still often thought of Daria has she had been physically back then, looking more like a somewhat underdeveloped tween than the developed teen she now was – she was now a shade over five foot two and had gone from fairly flat well into a full B-cup. Boys had been something rather disgusting back in Highland, especially the two village idiots she sometimes had hung around and treated as science experiments. Now she was seriously dating, and, Helen suddenly realized, was likely to some degree physically intimate with Jack.
That generated a jumble of ideas in Helen’s head. She turned to memories of the rather violent poetry and short stories Daria had started writing (or at least leaving out for Helen to find) late that previous spring, to see if she remembered anything about sex in them.
There hadn’t been any, but suddenly connections were made in her brain.
Helen had told the girls about the move out of Highland in late March (exactly to where hadn’t been determined until late August). She had started planning to get the household ready for the move in late April. Quinn had instantly started complaining, and Jake had only been helpful in winding up his own affairs, planning for his new business, and, when given a lot of direction, some of the heavy moving. Helen had done the rest.
‘No,’ she had to admit to herself. She had had to do all the planning, from the start through the actual move in late September. She had probably done a third of the actual physical work in packing and all the work associated with it – Daria had probably been stuck doing half, with Jake only doing some of the heavy work before the actual movers came, and Quinn being more of a hinderance than any sort of help at every stage of the process.
And, try as she might, Helen could not think of one time she had thanked Daria, or for that matter done much more than giving Quinn a token criticism or punishment. And it was when all that picked up momentum after the school year ended in early June that Daria had started leaving that writing behind.
Had Daria deserved to have been put into that self-esteem class when they had arrived here? Perhaps, or perhaps not – she certainly had always had a stronger sense of self than most, and in that sense not, but she did have socialization issues. Anyone seeing the two sisters interact – Helen took a moment to be again upset with Quinn for denying her relationship to Daria, not even Amy had ever denied being sisters with herself or Rita – might presume Daria had self-esteem problems as well, while in reality, it was more likely that the out-going Quinn would have those issues.
No one seeing Daria now would think that of her, at least seeing her with Jane or Jack. Helen had been shocked just that day when she was talking with one of the firms more socially prominent clients – he had told her how impressed he and his wife were with the pose and maturity of her older daughter, having seen her and Jack several times at Winged Tree. He had been surprised Daria had just turned sixteen, figuring that she had to be a senior, like Jack.
Helen realized that she had long been trying to force Daria into boxes where she just wouldn’t – or perhaps actually couldn’t – fit.
She would have to try something different, but wasn’t sure what. Still, it was nearly the start of New Year.
She’d think of something…she hoped.
By Dr T
dp
As far as Daria was concerned, one positive aspect of Quinn’s injuries was that her parents had to cancel a couples’ intimacy Saturday night get together. Granted, Quinn tried to get Daria to substitute for her at a babysitting job, but she was able to duck out of that as well. Jane was willing to take it over, as Fred had some family obligations that night and she could always use the cash. Also, unlike Daria, Jane didn’t mind the idea of small children.
Daria did have to cancel a date with Jack for that Friday evening, as Quinn put up a fuss that Daria could go out when she had just been freed up (early) to date and obviously she couldn’t. Daria was furious, and she and her mother had strong words. For Daria, since Quinn did not need aid in getting around or otherwise functioning, this was yet again merely giving into Quinn’s whims over Daria’s happiness. She felt she was being punished just so Quinn would feel good about that instead of wallowing so much in self-pity. Daria won the argument, in theory, but there was plenty of bad feeling on both sides. By then, even Quinn felt (a little) guilty.
In the end, Helen was angry at herself as well as with both Daria and Quinn over the entire incident, but it was too late for Daria to go out. Daria had reminded Helen of over a dozen times when something similar had happened. Helen had come up with three instances where she claimed the opposite had occurred, but each time Daria was able to remind her mother that it was in fact Quinn who had come out ahead each time and Daria who had suffered.
The short-term good news for Daria that came out of that argument (Daria doubted the mere fact that she had in the end won on all counts would deter her mother from acting in a similar manner in the future) was that Helen stopped trying to get Daria to be fitted for her Christmas Ball gown with her in attendance. The Ball was held the Saturday before Christmas; meaning the 20th this year. As it was already the 5th that Friday, Daria needed to start shopping for it soon.
Daria and Jane walked down to Degas Street the next morning, to a second-hand place that Jane recommended. To her surprise, Daria found three different gowns she could live with – she was unlikely to admit to actually liking a ball gown. A stop at another store yielded a pair of formal-looking boots with no more heel than her normal pair, a bit nicer than the dressier boots she had bought earlier that autumn. Even together, they were several hundred dollars less than what Helen had allocated. Still feeling a bit guilty from the previous evening’s argument, Helen had let Daria keep most of the surplus.
Helen did not realize that this series of events split her and her daughter further than before, and that now, unlike through her life before when she had essentially been on her own, Daria had Jane and Jack to go to emotionally. Daria, still by instinct something of a loner, was now bonding emotionally with them both, if in different ways – Platonic love for both, and romantically with Jack. Where Daria had been totally emotionally on her own before, she had actual emotional support.
dp
One reason Daria was happy with that surplus cash from shopping was it gave her a buffer. She therefore used that money and some of the cash she had squirreled away to open a checking/savings account at a different bank than one the family used – and she used Jane’s address as her home address. The next thing she did was get an internet account – Helen had the family set up on AOL and Daria never forgot her mother had their passwords, thus enabling her to monitor her and Quinn’s use. She would not use the new bank account for anything other than adding to her savings and paying for the internet account out of checking.
The first thing she did (after hiding the internet service icon) on her computer was email her Aunt Amy at her work address, which she had easily found on-line.
Amy responded the next day, adding in her personal email account. The pair would correspond several times a week. This not only brought Daria and Amy closer together, it gave Daria yet another person to go to emotionally when her mother ignored the needs of Daria the individual, even as she tried to treat her daughter as best she could as a generic teen.
dp
It was after lunch on Monday, awaiting the class bell, when Daria, Jane, and their boyfriends saw a large clump of girls in a corridor. Oddly, they saw two of the Freshman girls Daria didn’t really know signaling at least one of them to come over, while Quinn shook her head. Daria therefore felt obligated to see what was up.
It turned out that one of the other Freshman girls, Brooke, had had a nose job. Unlike the girls in the crowd, who either praised the new nose, or were at least pretending to, Fred was rather indifferent and the other three thought, if anything, the resulting nose was too small for Brooke’s face. Granted, Daria was the only one who commented on that idea, saying, “Don’t worry; it’ll grow out.” Brooke’s nose-job would start many of the fashion-forward, popular girls (and the many wanna-bes) twittering about cosmetic surgery.
Wednesday, Daria was shocked to be called out of class because Quinn was ‘ill.’ This turned out to be a false-flag – Quinn was off to visit Dr. Shar, the plastic surgeon. Daria wasn’t sure why Quinn wanted her to come along, other than the fact that Daria was less likely to turn Quinn in to their parents given her involvement. Daria found the whole trip a combination of annoying and unnerving. When Shar tried to shame Daria about her looks (and offered to turn her into a clone of Quinn), Daria had seized Quinn’s purse, turned away and spent well under two minutes using Quinn’s makeup, and then unzipped and slipped off her jacket, took off her glasses, and turned around, pulling the loose t-shirt she was wearing tight, surprising both, even Quinn, with how shapely she actually was.
And then, taking a breath, she managed to totally relax – and then smiled sweetly before saying “In just over the last year or so, I’ve gone from almost totally flat to a full b-cup, and I’m sure I’ll keep going at least a bit further, and while I am still on the short side, I’ve grown nearly three inches over the last sixteen months. I’m maybe a pound or two under-weight and a bit on the short-side, but I have nice legs and a boyfriend who thinks I look adorable as I am. In short, no thanks.”
Quinn was surprised Daria would admit this, and Shar said nothing more.
On the way home, after Daria had given Quinn a pep talk about her looks (and removed the minimal makeup she had applied in Shar’s office), Quinn asked, “Why don’t you look like that all the time?”
“Because unlike you, I’ve never wanted the attention. I don’t need make-up for Jack to find me desirable, any more than I would need make-up on him.”
“And that smile?” Quinn teased.
“He sees it,” was all Daria would say.
The rest of the way home, Quinn pondered long and hard about what she thought about her sister, and many other things.
dp
RE: again, Daria’s figure – compare the Freshman Daria in ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ to the one in the show – she was much shorter and somewhat flatter in the original design.
dp
That weekend, Jane and Daria (not to mention Fred and Jack) were a bit disappointed, as Jane’s mother was home, working out some recent ideas. Jack was wise enough not to even suggest going to Jerry’s make-out evening. Although Fred did hint at doing so to Jane, he dropped it quickly. The pairs settled for going to hear Trent’s band at the Zon Friday night after burgers – although Jane and Fred made out far more intensely in Fred’s car afterwards. On the other hand, Fred’s parents were visiting relatives on Saturday and took his younger siblings along. Jane and Fred spent the afternoon in his bedroom, and she would later confess to Daria to having given up her virginity.
While this was going on, Daria and Jack spent the afternoon parking on a road outside of Lawndale. This forested access road led to a state park closed for the season, so there was no traffic. Jack spent some time early and later giving Daria some basic driving lessons, but mostly he spent two sessions manually pleasuring Daria, while Daria spent the time in between going down on Jack. They had spent the morning at a rock & mineral show in Oakwood, and would return to it in the late afternoon and evening. Daria was pleased with the trilobite fossil Jack bought for her, which also served as hard evidence she had been where she had said she would be at least part of the day.
dp
Quinn had considered her options for the Snow Ball well before Thanksgiving, and had therefore made arrangements to go with a popular junior who was a starting guard on the basketball team and a second string end on for the football team – his father ran the largest insurance agency in the area and the firm had been in the family for two previous generations, so they were well-established in the local hierarchy. After her slight reconciliation with Daria, Quinn managed to wrangle her sister, their dates, and Fred and Jane into going to Winged Tree for the pre-dance dinner – her date’s father was a member, and between the two boys, they could get Fred and Jane in as well.
Quinn of course knew about the social status of this country club, but this was the first time she had managed to dine there. To her surprise, it outdid her expectations – the ambience was subtle but classier than Chez Pierre, and the food was better. She did determine, from her date’s and Jack’s reactions, that the prices were not quite as expensive as the French restaurant. She was uncertain how that might affect her future preference of date venue – class or expense. She was even more impressed at how at home Daria seemed in the club’s atmosphere, something from more than just having dined there several times before.
As the Snow Ball was a county-wide school dance – even the private schools in the county (the exclusive and expensive Fielding Prep and the partially-state sponsored Grove Hills) were part of it – there were a few more couples of high school age in attendance at the club (usually Jack and Daria were the only couple under 35 present). The other teens present, even Quinn and Jane, were surprised by how many of the older members stopped by to say hello to Jack and Daria and wish them either a ‘season’s greetings’ of some sort or a ‘have fun’ at the Snow Ball, if not both.
Quinn realized, in some ways for the first time, that she and Daria were playing two very different games (if Daria was playing in any sense). Quinn was playing the competitive serial dating/popularity game that was common amongst the attractive/popular (or wanna-be) girls of Lawndale and most of the better-off boys. As she suspected, Quinn was already the best Freshman at the game in town, even if a number of girls in the upper grades surpassed her. Daria was operating at a more mature level – not quite adult, or even at a collegiate level, but heading in those directions.
And, to Quinn’s startled understanding, Daria was doing quite well at it. The older couples at this very socially prestigious club (none of the wealthy and powerful partners at her mother’s law firm were members, nor would they even be considered for membership) made it clear that not only was Jack an acceptable future member (Quinn doubted Jeffy would be considered one unless he changed as he grew up), but that Daria was already considered acceptable as well.
Quinn and her date travelled apart from the other two couples, and sat with his friends at the dance while the other two couples sat with Jerry and Mary. As Daria had suspected, she was not really overly thrilled by the Snow Ball – she had much better times dancing at the country club. Except for the dance after the Snow Queen was crowned (a girl from one of the other schools, although Mary had been one of Lawndale’s three nominees), which was a waltz, there were no ballroom dances. Daria did happily consent to also dancing the slow dances with Jack, but that was all the dancing they did.
For the week leading up to Christmas, Jane’s parents were, as was so often the case, out of town. Her mother would be back Thursday night, and her father was scheduled to fly in Friday morning. Trent would be out all night and so would be sleeping until the late afternoon. School met on Monday and Tuesday, with the holiday break starting on Wednesday, leaving Jane and Daria with Wednesday to plan with their boyfriends.
Daria spent Tuesday night with Jane, so the two could get an early start (Well, early for Jane, in any event.) Fred and Jack showed up a little after 10:00, and were immediately led upstairs to Jane’s and Penny’s rooms respectively. The four happy teens met back downstairs around 11:15 and went off for lunch. The four spent the afternoon enjoying lots of foreplay and, for the boys, eventual release. Jane, and especially Daria, experienced far more pleasure from their respective lovers, even if Daria was still technically a virgin.
When the boys were gone, the girls had a short time to rest before going to Daria’s – Jane had been invited to dinner and to spend the night before her mother came back to town. “Can I ask you something?”
“You may,” Daria retorted. The two were sitting on the sofa in the Lane living room, having just seen their respective boyfriends off.
Jane rolled her eyes a bit at that, and asked, “You’re still a virgin, aren’t you?”
“Well, I guess I am technically,” Daria agreed. “Why? Does that bother you for some reason?”
“Bother me? No, not at all,” Jane replied. “I’m just curious as to why you haven’t taken that step.”
Daria lightly chewed on her lip for a moment in thought before replying. “I guess there are a couple of reasons. First, well, I know it’ll sound odd considering what I do with Jack, but that seems…invasive, or at least more invasive.”
“H’mm, I guess I can see that,” Jane mused. “If you’re using your mouth, there are other ways to please him besides, well, pistoning him.”
“True. And second, even if there are other positions, the traditional one, and another obvious one as well, seem too…dominating, especially since I’m just a shade over five foot two and Jack’s close to six feet tall.”
“I’m sure Jack would let you be on top,” Jane teased.
“Probably,” Daria agreed, starting to blush deeply as she answered, “but I don’t think I could do it that way the first time.”
“It didn’t really hurt,” Jane pointed out. “I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard some of the stories of first times.”
“I have, and those bother me,” Daria agreed. “Remember, you’re a lot more physically active than me; than supposedly can make a difference.” Daria’s blush deepened. “Jack has, well let’s say massaged me around and in that area, and I suspect I might hurt more than you.”
“I can respect that,” Jane acknowledged. She decided to tease a bit more. “If you’re worried about discomfort or even a twinge, I guess the backdoor is also off limits.”
Daria just looked Jane in the eye. “When you do it, let me know what you think about the idea then.”
Jane made a face. “Somehow, even if I don’t think Fred is above average in either measurement, I don’t think I’d want to try that soon.” Her expression changed and she looked at Daria inquiringly.
“I don’t know – the only other examples I’ve ever seen were in that video, and I would imagine those were all at least on the high end of average.”
“True,” Jane stated. “Go on.”
“Then Jack would be around the average of those guys on the video, excluding that one…huge guy,” Daria answered, her blush returning.
“Well, I guess I understand your reluctance to go all the way.”
Daria again looked Jane straight in the eye. “I really like Jack. I enjoy being with him, enjoy pleasuring him, and being pleasured by him – I had doubted I’d be lucky enough to experience the first, but I never thought I’d ever experience the latter other two. Still, I don’t know if I’m in love with him. I think I might be; but I’m still not certain. If I was sure, then I might want to make love with him fully. Until then, I am more than happy with what we are doing.”
“Happy?”
Daria managed to smirk. “Happy, satisfied, content; lots of adjectives would apply.”
Jane returned the look. “Me too, amiga, me too.”
dp
Christmas at the Morgendorffers started off, as usual, low-key. Jake had managed to set up the artificial tree and put up some outside lights without hurting himself (this year, at least) a few days beforehand. Helen and Quinn decorated the tree with tasteful minimalism, other than the craft ornaments the girls had made in elementary and middle school (all in non-obvious places towards the back of the tree).
Christmas morning, Helen chose to pick a fight with Daria – on the one hand, Amy had sent Quinn $50 and Daria $100, but on the other, Helen and Jake’s mothers had each sent Daria $50 and Quinn $200 and $100 respectively. Helen only complained about Amy’s favoritism and for once Daria called Helen on her continued favoritism towards Quinn and blatant unfairness towards herself. In the end, while angry and unwilling to concede defeat to Daria despite the huge preponderance of evidence Daria had presented, Helen felt too guilty to punish Daria for arguing the point. Jake had been so appalled that he, for once, did not duck out of the argument and insured that Helen did not take retribution out on Daria later on.
Quinn was conflicted – that Amy favored Daria did not bother her too much, since their grandmothers obviously favored her at least as much if not much more. However, Quinn was left wondering if her mother really liked her more than Daria (as Quinn had always believed), or just disliked Daria more – Helen’s wording had more than once leaned enough towards the latter that even Quinn had picked up on it. Worse, it was even hinted that one reason why Quinn was given more by her mother at least was just to shut her up.
The following two days – Saturday and Sunday – were therefore tense at the Morgendorffers. Not even Helen’s current bosses were obsessive enough to directly bother her over the ensuing post-Christmas weekend (unlike Eric). While Jake would spend the weekend in front of the TV watching various sports, especially football games and trying to ignore that tension, and Quinn and her friends haunted the malls for special sales (and returning items they didn’t want), Helen was left rather at loose ends. She could not bring herself to apologize to Daria, and was even less inclined to reach out to her sister Amy. Helen instead spent Saturday and Sunday mornings moping around the house, pretending to do some housework, and the afternoons in her office.
She didn’t notice various partners drifting through (escaping their own family dramas) and taking notice of her.
Daria spent the weekend mostly at Jane’s. Even with her parents present (they would both be gone by Tuesday), Jane’s was a refuge. Jane herself was appalled by the details of the arguments, as was Amy when Daria emailed her the details. Both were full of sympathy, but it was Jane who consoled Daria when she broke down briefly Saturday afternoon. Jane was surprised that Daria had done so, but was glad she had been able to, and Jane was glad she was able to comfort her first real friend.
Jack was occupied with family celebrations and visits until late Monday morning. After a burger lunch, Daria had him drive them to the mall. Instead of going inside the busy mall, she had him park in the furthest reaches of an upper parking deck – despite how crowded the mall was, this was still mostly empty. There, to her surprise, Daria again poured out her resentments of her family, especially her mother – who no doubt cared about Daria’s physical well-being and her future employability, but apparently cared little about Daria the individual.
Jack listened, sympathized, and then pulled Daria into the backseat of his sedan. There, he hugged and cuddled Daria for over an hour. After the first twenty minutes or so, Daria actually dozed on and off for the rest of the time, arousing herself occasionally to cuddle closer for warmth and affection and/or exchange light kisses.
When Daria woke up fully, feeling secure and cared for in Jack’s arms more than she had ever felt in her life, she looked him in the eye, kissed him deeply, and then said, “I think I’m in love with you.”
Jack kissed her back deeply before saying, “I love you, too.”
After that, the windows of the car quickly steamed over again.
dp
Daria thought about those admissions that evening and the next two days. She and Jack went to lunch the next two days and dinner all three days, and the couple plus Jane and Fred went to the movies both of those next afternoons. (‘Alien Resurrection’ and ‘Mousehunt’ – they all wanted to avoid ‘Titanic’ but Daria and Jack ended up going with Jeffy and Quinn to see that on Friday afternoon.)
Thursday afternoon, however, the Lane house was empty other than Jane. Trent and the band were playing a series of gigs near Baltimore through Saturday night and her parents were of course already out of town. So, after lunch, the two couples went to their usual bedrooms.
“Did you, well….” Daria started to ask in a small voice as the pair started to strip in Penny’s old room.
“I did,” Jack assured her. “I bought a package and some contraceptive lube.” He took a step closer and turned Daria to fully face him. Daria only semi-raised her eyes towards his, as she was so nervous. “I understand that this is a big step for you as well as a major step for us. I…I do love and care for you, Daria. Please, don’t think this is something you have to do for me, or for us.”
“And if I want to, even if I’m also afraid?” Daria asked in barely a whisper.
Jack smiled and bent towards her, his hand pushing gently on her chin for her face raised enough for him to lightly kiss her. “I want to give you pleasure; I want to let you know I care for you, the complete Daria package – I choose you. We’ll do whatever pleases you.”
Daria hugged him tightly, kissed him fiercely, and then said, “And I choose you. Please…make love to me.”
Jack kissed her again, gently removed her bra and panties, and picked her up and carried Daria bridal-style to the bed, and after over twenty minutes of foreplay (and two orgasms), he penetrated Daria for her first time.
While it had hurt more than she had hoped, it was far less than Daria had feared, and because of the foreplay, Jack’s gentleness (and stamina), and after-play, Daria was (to her surprise) feeling very satiated and even loved, and not at all used, hurt, or having any other negative feelings by the time they were finished.
When Daria came back to the bed after visiting the bathroom wearing only panties, she slipped into Jack’s arms with a smile. As they cuddled, Daria admitted she felt different – not primarily physically (she was still a bit sore, after all), but emotionally fulfilled. Between her relationship with Jack and her close friendship with Jane, she would even claim an emotional calm and equilibrium she had never experienced before.
That evening, Jane spent the night at Daria’s. As she had started to a few weeks before, rather than sleeping on a pad on the floor, Jane slipped into Daira’s bed to cuddle. “Are you okay?” Jane whispered.
“Still a bit sore, but very much okay – thanks to Jack, and thanks to you.” Usually Jane lightly spooned against Daria, barely touching. This time, Daria wrapped herself around Jane tightly, even though the touch remained rather Platonic.
Jane patted Daria’s hands, and then relaxed into slumber. Gently smiling, Daria did the same.
dp
Helen Morgendorffer was concerned, and was trying to figure out exactly why. She knew it concerned her daughter, Daria. Their relationship had never been close; Helen was an exceptionally bright woman with, in some ways, an extraordinary memory, which she had used to become an excellent lawyer. She only vaguely recognized that she had put most of her ability to read and even sympathize with others into her work, while at the same time cutting off those feelings when it conflicted with getting the job done. As this had extended to her family, her husband was slowly withdrawing back into the childhood and adolescent traumas that her early empathy and love had partially erased and her younger daughter was becoming a manipulative asexual attention junkie, using that attention to replace the lack of real parenting.
As usual, Helen ignored all this to concentrate on her older daughter.
Daria had always been a mystery to both her parents, but as self-grounded as she had been throughout her childhood and early adolescence in Highland, she seemed more withdrawn from her family now than she had been before the move. What had changed?
Helen forced herself to think of Daria at the start of her Freshman year and now, less than 17 months later. Daria had never had close friends, but she had been friendly with a small group of girls in Middle School, but both leaders of that group had moved away, leaving Daria isolated when she had entered Ninth grade. She had been almost the shortest girl in her class, and as physically underdeveloped as she was mentally overdeveloped. Still, her voice had not been as unexpressive as it had become since, at least when Daria talked to her family – it was only when overhearing Daria talk with Jane or Jack that her voice regained what animation it had had just over a year before.
As Helen forced herself to remember, the first thing she realized was that she still often thought of Daria has she had been physically back then, looking more like a somewhat underdeveloped tween than the developed teen she now was – she was now a shade over five foot two and had gone from fairly flat well into a full B-cup. Boys had been something rather disgusting back in Highland, especially the two village idiots she sometimes had hung around and treated as science experiments. Now she was seriously dating, and, Helen suddenly realized, was likely to some degree physically intimate with Jack.
That generated a jumble of ideas in Helen’s head. She turned to memories of the rather violent poetry and short stories Daria had started writing (or at least leaving out for Helen to find) late that previous spring, to see if she remembered anything about sex in them.
There hadn’t been any, but suddenly connections were made in her brain.
Helen had told the girls about the move out of Highland in late March (exactly to where hadn’t been determined until late August). She had started planning to get the household ready for the move in late April. Quinn had instantly started complaining, and Jake had only been helpful in winding up his own affairs, planning for his new business, and, when given a lot of direction, some of the heavy moving. Helen had done the rest.
‘No,’ she had to admit to herself. She had had to do all the planning, from the start through the actual move in late September. She had probably done a third of the actual physical work in packing and all the work associated with it – Daria had probably been stuck doing half, with Jake only doing some of the heavy work before the actual movers came, and Quinn being more of a hinderance than any sort of help at every stage of the process.
And, try as she might, Helen could not think of one time she had thanked Daria, or for that matter done much more than giving Quinn a token criticism or punishment. And it was when all that picked up momentum after the school year ended in early June that Daria had started leaving that writing behind.
Had Daria deserved to have been put into that self-esteem class when they had arrived here? Perhaps, or perhaps not – she certainly had always had a stronger sense of self than most, and in that sense not, but she did have socialization issues. Anyone seeing the two sisters interact – Helen took a moment to be again upset with Quinn for denying her relationship to Daria, not even Amy had ever denied being sisters with herself or Rita – might presume Daria had self-esteem problems as well, while in reality, it was more likely that the out-going Quinn would have those issues.
No one seeing Daria now would think that of her, at least seeing her with Jane or Jack. Helen had been shocked just that day when she was talking with one of the firms more socially prominent clients – he had told her how impressed he and his wife were with the pose and maturity of her older daughter, having seen her and Jack several times at Winged Tree. He had been surprised Daria had just turned sixteen, figuring that she had to be a senior, like Jack.
Helen realized that she had long been trying to force Daria into boxes where she just wouldn’t – or perhaps actually couldn’t – fit.
She would have to try something different, but wasn’t sure what. Still, it was nearly the start of New Year.
She’d think of something…she hoped.
Sign up to rate and review this story