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Daria's Party Addition – 07 – Things that make you think

By Dr T

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It had never occurred to Quinn that if Jack knew how to ballroom dance, Jeffy probably could as well. That only came up while at dinner at the club the evening of the school's Valentine's Dance, when Jeffy agreed with Daria about preferring formal dancing to what passed for (non-slow) dancing at school, even if he felt obliged to put in that ballroom dancing was still 'uncool.'

Quinn had endured just under two years fewer formal dance lessons compared to Daria, but that still left her with over two years of experience. She was therefore willing to just put in slightly more than a token appearance at the school dance. She made certain that all the people who counted A) knew she was there; B) knew that she had an acceptable (if too young to drive) date; and C) they were leaving the dance to go somewhere classier. Daria had called home and gotten permission for Quinn (and her) to stay out past 11:00, as the dance at the country club would end around then.

Where Jack was smooth if a bit stolid in his dancing, improved by his frequent practice with Daria, Jeffy was lighter on his feet but much more unpolished. Still Quinn, who abhorred the closeness required by school slow dancing, found she enjoyed dancing in Jeffy's arms. She and Daria even switched partners for one waltz, and Quinn did not mind at all. To her surprise, later that night as she fell asleep, Quinn realized that in many ways, this night was close to being a real date, instead of a date just about status, which is how she thought of all the others she had had to some greater degree.

Daria, although not she had not been happy beforehand to have to spend so much time with Quinn and Jeffy, decided that it actually had not been at all bad. Thus, she was in a decent mood as the next week started.

It was a pleasant week, warming up unseasonably as the days progressed. By early Thursday afternoon, it was actually pleasant enough to sit outside, as Daria and Jane were doing before lunch when Jodie approached them with a problem.

Daria was only slightly surprised to learn that the quarterback who had led Lawndale to the state championship three years before was considered a local hero. She was therefore even less surprised to learn that he was returning to be the guest at a fundraiser Ms Li was having. That the school would have to endure an assembly honoring him the next day was also not really surprising. However, that the jock was on campus that day as well seemed unnecessary. Somehow, Jodie had been stuck giving the student welcoming speech for the next day. Jane's explanation made sense—the current seniors (Freshman when Sherman had been a senior), however much they thought of him of a sports hero, disliked him as a person, and had likely influenced the current juniors. Jodie was the one who had the buck passed to who was too responsible to try and pass it forward.

Jodie was stuck on saying much about Tommy Sherman, unable to come up with anything beyond a basic greeting. Appealed to for help, Daria might have blown Jodie off considering her opinion of Lawndale High's obsession with football, but she was still in a good mood. "Look, except for maybe Kevin and a few others, how many students will really care about this guy being here? Does Mack?"

"Well, no," Jodie had to admit.

"Other than Ms Li, do you think many of the faculty will care?"

"Probably not," Jodie said in the same tone of voice.

"Then keep it short and general; something along the lines of 'we welcome back this graduate who made the school proud and who continues to elevate Lawndale and Lawndale High' – that kind of near-meaningless phrasing will please Li, and really, I doubt anyone else will care."

Jodie sighed. "You're probably right." She brightened a bit when she saw Mack and Jack coming over.

"You girls be careful," Jack told them when he came over to them. "That ass Sherman's here, and he's been propositioning girls right and left." He frowned. "He slapped Stacy's butt; she's in the girl's restroom, crying. You'll be proud to know Quinn slapped him for that and also for his propositioning her."

"He really put Kevin down, although Kevin was so wrapped up in meeting his hero he didn't realize it," Mack stated.

"Yeah, I'm really thrilled about making this intro tomorrow," Jodie said, whining just a bit.

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Just after lunch, Jack was talking with some of the senior football players – they were all upset to some degree over the antics of Tommy Sherman. They had all played on the Freshman football team, and they had all been bullied by Sherman. Several were dating cheerleaders, and all but Jack were dating girls who had already been harassed to some degree.

"Hey, Jack," a Junior player called coming up to the group. "Your girl and Sherman are, well, confronting each other."

Jack scowled and glared at the others. "You guys might not be willing to do anything about that jackass, but I will." He stalked off, and the others, now having a leader, followed Jack, willing to back him up, even if none of them had wanted to confront Sherman by themselves.

"You're just a loser; one of those misery chicks who thinks the world should revolve around them and whines when us winners come out ahead," Sherman pontificated. His peripheral vision caught movement coming towards him – six boys he recognized to a degree. When he had had his great year, he had enjoyed putting them down – now they were older, and larger, and three of them were larger and more muscular than he was. The angry redhead, he realized, was the younger brother of a girl he had tried to molest – he had slapped the kid around when he had tried to stand up for his sister. The boy now looked like he was ready, and willing and able, to slap Tommy himself around.

"So Tommy Sherman is going to go inspect his goal post, knowing he's a winner." Sherman quickly moved down the corridor, away from the two girls and the oncoming males.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked Daria a few seconds later.

"Of course," Daria responded. "I do not care about the opinions of the semi-brain dead."

"Who knows, maybe his days are numbered," Jane almost growled, more obviously stung by Sherman's remarks than Daria seemed to be. "Hopefully a very small number," she added in a mutter.

Jack, not to mention some of the others, seemed tempted to track Sherman down and teach him some manners, but Daria interrupted them. She pulled out a small canister. "If he had actually made a move on either of us, we could have seen if this bear-spray also repels idiots."

"Is that legal?" one of the players asked, a bit shocked.

"Yes, and even though Ms Li doesn't like it, I have a state permit for it, and my mother got her to okay its being on campus." Even the dimmest of the players present winced at the idea of getting sprayed.

Suddenly, shouting was heard in the distance. After a moment, the information was passed on: the crate with the goal post had tipped over and cracked Tommy Sherman's skull. Although the news of his demise was a bit premature, he died on the way to the hospital.

Therefore, the $100 a plate dinner that night had to be cancelled, and the dedication ceremony the next afternoon was turned into a memorial service. Daria entered the auditorium in a bad mood. Several people had stopped her to ask her opinion of recent events, and to ask for help dealing with Sherman's death (well, Kevin had somewhat demanded, Mr. O'Neill pleaded) and dealing with their feelings about it. Daria hadn't minded helping Brittany; her plea had been heartfelt and Daria had been both willing and able to help her, but the others annoyed her. It didn't help that Jane seemed rather distant.

As far as she could see, of the people she had any sort of at least semi-regular contact with, only Jack seemed to be handling the situation well. Even Jane was being strangely silent and giving Daria strange looks when Daria muttered her opinions during the memorial service. Jane even insisted after the memorial service that she wanted to go for an immediate run, even if still in her school clothes, right down to her boots.

Jack drove Daria home, reassuring her (for the fourth time over two days) that he found her adorable, lovable, and even fun to be around, and not a misery chick in the least. As usual, they would be going to dinner, but to a sea food restaurant rather than the country club. There was a club in a nearby town, and instead of live music, that evening there were to be several comedians performing and the pair thought they'd try that out for a change. These reminders and prospects for the evening put Daria in a somewhat better frame of mind. Still, Jack suggested that Daria should try and see what was bugging Jane, knowing she wanted to, but that Daria was worried she might upset Jane further.

Daria laid out her clothes for the date that evening, but was waylaid by Quinn, who also wanted to talk about Sherman's death. Daria did so willingly, considering how genuinely sad Quinn had seemed and how grateful Quinn was for the help. It took a bit of time to give Quinn those reassurances, and so Daria was surprised when she got to Jane's that Trent at first thought she might still be out running. He still sent her up to Jane's to check, and she discovered that Jane was actually moping on her bed in her room.

After their initial back-and-forth, with Daria complaining about how many people wanted her to help them think things through, Jane complained, "Doesn't it bother you that's he's dead, especially after we hoped he would die? Or at least I did… Is the only thing about this whole deal that bothers you is the fact that people want you to help them deal with it?"

"No, it's not that. Look, I know I don't go around spreading happiness and sunshine," Daria retorted. "That doesn't mean I'm miserable, or depressed, or even, I don't know, the angel of darkness or something!"

"No, that would be Andrea," Jane managed to joke. "Listen, when you first came to school, some people got the impression that you're a downer. You weren't, but that was their initial impression and some of them haven't bothered noticing the positive changes in you since then. But anyone else who knows you at all knows that you think, I mean really think, about life and what goes on round us, at least compared to the rest of us, and personally I DON'T want to think about yesterday, about saying someone should die and then they do – I don't need that kind of responsibility."

"You're saying that didn't mean you were in any way responsible," Daria assured her friend, putting a hand on her shoulder – a rare gesture of friendship, but the sort of thing that Daria was just starting to initiate with Jack and Jane (when no one else was around, at least).

"Yeah, well, intellectually I know that," Jane agreed, "but I still feel that I am at least partially responsible."

"You're aren't, I promise."

Jane almost managed a smile, hearing the sincerity in Daria's voice. "Thanks for that; and even if you're hardly a ray of sunshine, you aren't in any way miserable."

"I'm sorry he died like that, that anyone dies that young," Daria stated, "but I can't, and I won't, pretend he was a good person – or at least if he was, he certainly wasn't yesterday."

"I know," Jane had to agree. "I'm glad Trent forgot that I didn't want to see anyone; thanks for coming over."

"I don't think he forgot," Daria responded. "He really does care for you." She placed a hand on Jane's shoulder a second time, somewhat surprising her by the repeat. "I care, too."

"Thanks, Amiga." Jane finally smiled. "You go get ready for the comedy; Fred and I are going to get burgers and then be tortured by the Spiral at the Zon."

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Temperatures had cooled since the days before, but that Saturday evening was still pleasant – around 50 F, and clear and windless. After dinner but before the dance band started, Jack escorted Daria out onto a balcony overlooking the fairway.

"Beautiful night," Daria commented, looking upwards.

"It is," Jack agreed, "and you are."

Daria felt herself blush as Jack hugged her. "Daria…you know that in some ways I'm kind of old-fashioned, even corny, to use an old-fashioned term."

"At times, especially about some things, like romance," Daria managed to tease. Then she turned in his arms and went up on her toes to give him a light kiss. "That's one reason I love you – your corny, sweet, old-fashioned romantic side balances my snarky, cynical-yet-romantic side."

"I agree." He held out his hands, and she saw him take off his class ring. "Would you wear this? Calling it 'going steady' is a bit over the top even for me, but that's what I mean – I'd like to think of us as a permanent a couple, as permanent as two teens in high school can be."

Daria took the ring and kissed him long and deeply, for the first time totally uncaring if any in the dining room could see them.

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Daria knew she would have to find some way to allow her to wear Jack's class ring – there was no way a ring sized for his muscular hand would fit on her slim finger. So, that next morning she removed the pendant from the old necklace she had sometimes worn back in Highland and hung the ring on that as a temporary measure. She would get Jane to help her after lunch so that she could wear it that night, no matter if it was comfortable on her finger or not.

Helen and Jake were picking at their breakfasts, Jake reading the paper and Helen a brief. Daria joined them, Pop Tart and tea in hand, while Quinn finally shuffled in still wearing her pajamas as Daria was making her own breakfast. Despite being the least awake, it was Quinn who noticed what Daria was wearing as she was sitting down. She looked up from her bland bran breakfast cereal, barely moistened with 1% milk (as Helen refused to buy skim milk), and, her eyes widening, demanded, "Daria! WHAT is THAT!"

"What does it look like?" Daria retorted, bored monotone fully engaged, yet with the snark still evident.

Quinn took this at face value and leaned closer while their parents looked up from their reading, curious if a bit confused. "Is that a class ring? I didn't know many people still bothered with those."

"Yes, it is Jack's class ring. I'll figure out a way to wear it properly later today."

"Properly?"

Rolling her eyes, Daria raised her left hand and used her spoon to gesture at the ring finger. "It is a ring, Quinn. It goes here."

Jake was filled with a number of conflicting emotions, and was unable to articulate any of them. Helen was in a similar situation, although with fewer emotions and thoughts – no boy had offered her their class ring, while Rita could have made a collection from the offers she had received, if it had been acceptable to have more than one at a time. To Helen's generation, the gesture could mean anything from signaling a couple was exclusive to being a pre-engagement ring.

Meanwhile, Quinn had wrinkled her nose. "That is SO outdated."

Daria shrugged. "It means a lot to Jack, and to me. Just because it's not something you would do doesn't lessen its meaning to us."

"If you say so," Quinn stated with a shrug. She was not interested in having a real relationship; she cared about popularity, of being seen as one of the top girls. To her, boys were still just a means to that end and nothing more.

"Err, Kiddo…?" Jake wasn't sure how to end that question, but he was concerned.

"Yes, to use the old-fashioned term, Jack and I are 'going steady,' although that exclusivity was something we had already agreed upon well before Christmas," Daria told him. "It doesn't imply anything deeper than that. It's not like we're planning on running off and getting married soon."

"MARRIED!"

"Calm down, Jake," Helen told him. She glared at Quinn, "You as well."

"That's right, Dad, we have no plans on eloping or anything like that. Besides," Daria went on with just a slight smirk, "I would need your or Mom's permission to get married, in Maryland at least."

Jake, who had been taking a sip of coffee to calm his nerves, almost did a spit-take.

"Daria!" Helen reproved.

"What? Am I wrong? It's not like I've done research on it or anything, but I presume parental permission is needed for under-eighteens in most if not all states."

Helen was (fairly) sure that Daria was just teasing them at this point, but she answered anyways. "No, you're not wrong. Any early marriage done without parental approval would be annullable, if not illegal."

That would spark Daria's idle curiosity later that morning, leading to an internet search with some interesting results. Daria wondered if she could work them into a story…she realized that since dating Jack seriously, she was concentrating more on science and less on reading fiction, while her writing was threatening to veer towards adding romance. Still, there were possibilities here…or at least fantasies.

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As Jane carefully wrapped some thin coated wire around the lower third of Jack's class ring, she teased Daria. "Wow, neato, peachy-keen, Dar! Does this mean you'll be switching to Capri pants and saddle shoes? Or maybe a nice poodle skirt and matching sweater?"

"Bite me, Lane," Daria retorted. "You're much more likely to wear Capri pants than I am, and I may like wearing skirts, but I don't wear clothes with animals on them, especially not cute ones!"

"Aw, I thought we could wear matching sweaters, like Laverne and Shirley," Jane snarked.

"Well, then you'd be the one with the J on your sweater – except for the general lack of snark on her part, I'd definitely be the Shirley of the pair of us," Daria teased back. "Why are you, and Quinn for that matter, making such a big deal out of this?" She was genuinely curious.

"Because," Jane responded, as she made sure the end of the wire was safely embedded so that it could never irritate Daria's finger, "I'd guess that well under a fifth of the guys get class rings these days, and probably at most around a third of the girls do. On top of that, I never noticed any girl wearing a guy's class ring. I thought that the practice was an urban legend, like giving a gal a fraternity pin in college – long gone if not actually fictional." She handed Daria the ring.

Daria slipped it onto her left ring finger – Jane had adjusted it perfectly. Jane was startled by the expression on Daria's face as she looked at it on her finger – the terms that popped into her head were 'soft,' 'sweet,' and even 'loving' – not expressions Daria had had in Jane's experience, or at least not emotions she had let show when Jane had been around before. 'Damn,' Jane thought, 'I knew she was hiding how pretty she is, but right now, she is downright adorable, even gorgeous!' Jane could only hope she would be able to capture that look in a sketch. She doubted she would see that exact combination of emotions on her often-stoic friend again.

"Thank you, Jane," Daria said softly. She looked up. Her expression and voice veered back towards normal. "As you know, I am a private person. Yes, I'm often impassive, and yes, even sarcastic most of the rest of the time. I never thought I'd be, let alone admit to being, any kind of a romantic, but Jack's brought that side out in me." 'Never mind the sensuous side,' she mentally added.

"Well, I'm happy for you, soppy, old-fashioned romantic that you now are. You're still a stone-cold snarky bitch the rest of the time, and that's what counts with me."

The two friends smiled at each other.

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After Quinn and even Jane's rection, Daria should not have been surprised by the reaction many of the girls at school had the following week. About 10% of the Junior and Senior boys and a quarter of the girls sported class rings as a rule, but apparently none of the girls at school wore their boyfriend's class ring – except, now, Daria. The stares and whispers that followed her around Monday through Wednesday (both had died down by Thursday afternoon) annoyed her a bit, but on the whole she didn't care. While Daria usually refused to acknowledge it even to herself, throughout her life she had felt to some degree unappreciated. Granted, a few of her teachers had praised her for her abilities and accomplishments (as opposed to when they pointed her out as an example to the other students, which generally caused her problems), but her family, especially her mother, rarely praised or appreciated her.

It had been Daria who had done all her own packing for the move to Lawndale, and she had ended up doing at least three-quarters of Quinn's and a third of the household in general. All she had gotten for her trouble was grief from Quinn and more of the general work piled on by her mother. Quinn was praised for every rare grade higher than a B, Daria criticized for any grade, if an even rarer event, under an A-.

True, Daria had been friendly with a group of girls in middle school, but the two girls responsible for that had both moved before high school in Highland had started. In some ways, Jodie and even Brittany had similar positions in Daria's life these days. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Daria had never had a close friend, someone who really chose to care about her until she had met Jane. Jane understood her as a person, and vice versa. They had liked each other instantly, and to their individual surprise, quickly came to care about each other.

On one level, Daria and Jack were similar to Daria and Jane. They had instantly clicked, with the addition of mutual physical attraction. The year before, Daria could not have imagined having a friend like Jane. She had also wondered if she might not be asexual, ending up an elderly virgin, possibly with a large number of cats, even if she didn't really care for cats. Daria had not realized that she had buried a very sensuous and romantic set of responses because of those many years of being basically ignored and unappreciated. Jane had opened her up, allowing her to respond to another person. Jack had then brought out the various aspects of first her romantic and then her erotic natures, and they were now exploring exactly how responsive those aspects were.

In short, whereas a year before, Daria would have shied away from the sort of attention she was getting early in the week after she accepted Jack's ring, even if it had been created by her intellectual pursuits, she found that the unwanted and even unwelcomed attention the ring of her finger was creating was only a minor annoyance. Brittany had gasped, congratulated her, and then spent her time castigating Kevin. Most of the girls in the popular cliques who had romantic partners did pretty much the same, minus the congratulations. Several girls were wearing class rings by the end of February, and that number would more than double by the end of the academic year.

Daria had to endure a bit of teasing from Jane, and surprisingly Quinn, about being a trend-setter, and she bore that with her usual stoical indifference. Meanwhile, Jack had to bear any number of dirty looks from guys who were being pressured by their girlfriends for some sort of token, if not a class ring (as most of those few who bought them would not receive them until in their junior years at the earliest) then at least some other piece of jewelry they could show off.