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Daria's Party Addition – 14 – Bombshells and a Dance

By Dr T

By that next Thursday afternoon, October 1, Daria had everything lined up. However, she knew the odds of her parents being available on a Thursday or Friday night were small. Therefore, she arranged that Thursday evening before going to bed to have a serious discussion with them on Saturday morning. She caught her mother's attention by saying that if they were missing, she would presume she had their permission to carry out her projects. Jake had had a rough Thursday, convincing a client to take his suggestions, and he had been quickly on his second martini. Helen's attention had been interrupted by two phone calls – not as bad as things had been when she had been working under Eric, but still distracting. Neither parent could therefore dispute that Saturday morning was more likely to be conducive to a discussion, despite Helen's attempts to figure out what the topic(s) might be. Quinn had been told that she was invited, but was not really going to be involved, which came as a relief to all three of the other Morgendorffers. Quinn told them that she was trying to figure out how to run the upcoming first big school dance of the year, and so would likely not be there on Saturday.

None of the other three Morgendorffers really took notice of the fact that the 'dance committee' meeting that Thursday evening had not lasted very long.

The three sat down at the kitchen table that Saturday morning, and Daria gathered her nerves to start. "As you know, I had a successful summer at the dig." Both parents nodded. "Two of the leaders are major faculty members at Raft, not only in their paleontology and anthropology programs, but also in their Natural History Museum."

Again, the two could merely indicate their understanding. They knew Raft was the university Daria was most interested in. (They were glad it was not MIT, with Jack, even if it was the same city.)

"They spent several Sundays, first quizzing me and then coaching me. Because of how well I did working with them and their coaching, they have made me a powerful offer, if I could make the pre-conditions, which I have."

"And?" Helen asked, a touch nervously.

"Do you know what CLEP is?"

"Yes, Amy took a few of those placement exams; French and I think history," Helen answered. "Do you want to take those already?"

"No," Daria answered. "I have taken them." In August, at Lawndale State. She laid each result on the table in turn. "World and American history and Government – fifteen credits. Spanish – twelve credits. English Composition and American Lit – nine credits. Math – twelve credits. Biology – six credits and Chemistry – six credits, since lab credits can't be earned this way. Sixty credits, about the maximum I could have taken."

Daria then went on, pulling out some printed emails while ignoring her stunned and silent parents. "This was their offer, which would start in late May of next year – a two-year combination scholarship and internship. That's why I needed the CLEP exams – the program is a hundred and thirty-two credits, and I need Junior standing, at least sixty credits, to quality. This means instead of a hundred and two thousand dollars for four years of tuition plus fees, room-and-board, and books, I will only need the room-and-board, and books, for four semesters and two summers – while classified primarily as an internship, it's actually a combination internship and assistantship, and pays minimum wage, so I would also have some spending money. Next summer, I would take the bio and chem labs and work twenty hours a week in the museum's prep-lab."

"But…but…."

Ignoring her mother, Daria laid down a number of printouts from Raft's website as well as the emails. "These detail the program and the offer." She gestured at the exam results. "Obviously, as you see from the test results, I am not going to learn anything scholastically in high school. And I'm not going to be starting Raft in January, but late next May – that would make me just over five months younger than you were when you started college." Helen could not dispute that as she had just turned 18 shortly before starting.

"Note this email – the offer is open for this coming summer. It may or may not be available the year after. If I have to wait, I might also have a problem transferring in that many CLEP credits to Raft, never mind any other places – they have the power to get me in under these circumstances – they really think that highly of my work and potential."

"Would you be finishing your Junior year here?" Helen asked.

"Not entirely," Daria admitted. "I'd be missing the last three or four weeks. Still, I should attend until then, unless Ms Li disagrees. I mean, since I'm over sixteen, I could of course do the GED anytime and just drop LHS entirely," (Helen winced at that thought, but knew it would be doable if Daria was pushed too hard into a corner) "but attending could do me some good. I mean, I'd be transferring in just about the maximum amount to Raft – if I got my GED, what else would I do between now and late May? I suppose I could get a minimum wage job somewhere, but I doubt taking a class at Lawndale State or LCC would really do me much good, unless State offers the equivalent of Calc Three or Advanced Stats in the spring."

Both parents had brought notepads to write any needed notes down, but Helen hadn't bothered, having seen Daria's documentation. Jake had only written down the figures. Daria knew he would be caught between not really wanting her to leave town for college at any point and wanting her to have that scholarship and work experience. It would be up to her mother, and Daria knew (although Helen didn't realize that Daria was aware) that Ms Li had suggested to Helen that Daria skip over 11th grade and move directly to her Senior year. Helen had turned it down.

Daria therefore addressed her mother. "I know you still think of me as isolated as I was in elementary school and needing socialization. Think of me in Middle School – did I have friends then? Go to sleepovers, birthday parties, pool parties?"

"Yes," Helen admitted. She had started to stop worrying about Daria so much, until….

"Okay, my two friends moved away before I started at Highland High, and I had a roughish time adjusting. Still, think of last year – I have a close friend with Jane, a steady relationship with Jack, and a number of other friends. I socialized, and I even did things like that Cotillion and all those other school dances. I am not the isolated, anti-social intellectual you sometimes think of me." 'Well, I still am to some degree, but I'm NOT going to let HER see that," Daria mentally added.

Jake cut Helen off before she could say anything, just in case she was about to make a snap-decision, which would have likely been negative. "This is a big step for you, Kiddo, and a big decision for the three of us. Think about if you're sure, and tell us tomorrow. We'll talk about it, and let you know what we think, and then the three of us will make the final decisions, okay?"
Tempted as she was to keep going, Daria agreed without a fuss. She left to bother Jane, if she was awake.

As soon as the door shut, Helen glared at her husband. "Ignoring for the moment how much money this would save us as well as her," Jake started, "you have to agree that Daria is not going to learn anything academically from that high school."

Helen sighed and looked over the CLEP scores. All were in the A range, two thirds into the A+, while the grade for the highest math class was just above an A-. "No," her honestly forced her admit, if reluctantly, "academically, she's right."

"Now, ignoring that she's our daughter – think purely as a lawyer. If we say 'no' and Daria went ahead and got her GED, which she can if she wants to without our permission, and sued for emancipation, what do you think her odds would be of winning when her plans and scores are considered?"

Helen grimaced, and thought it through honestly. "At least seventy percent," she admitted. She looked at the CLEP scores and the offer, and remembered the written offer from Ms Li for Daria to skip a grade. "Probably a bit higher."

"And, even forgetting fiascos like not giving Daria her allowance, how might she feel – no, how should she feel if we prevented her from doing this, when she's earned it?"

Helen grimaced, and finally asked softly, "So you're saying…?"

"I would prefer she stay here and go to Lawndale State," Jake admitted, knowing it likely didn't have a degree program she would really want to pursue, "however, I think we have to allow her to do this."

"Even with Jack in the picture?"

Jake made a face at that idea, but nevertheless said optimistically, "He went on digs the last three summers; let's hope it's four in a row. Daria would be in Boston and occupied with making up those labs plus twenty hours a week in the lab." The deal was for 20 hours over the first summer, 10 hours a week during the fall and spring terms over two years. The second summer would either be 20 hours a week or a field expedition.

Helen crossed her arms and almost pouted for a few minutes. Then she glared at Jake. "Fine. But if she comes back a year from Thanksgiving engaged and/or pregnant, I'm blaming you." Helen almost stormed out of the kitchen.

"I hope not the second, at least," Jake muttered. Fortunately, Helen was already out of earshot.

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"So, how did the presentation go?" Jane was drinking coffee, having just woken up. Daria had made her the coffee while waiting for Jane to come downstairs. She knew Jane wasn't expecting Tom until the late afternoon, and really needed to talk with her friend.

"It seemed to go as well as I could hope," Daria admitted. "Fortunately, Dad was in one of his supportive moments, and stopped Mom before she could shut me down without really listening to me."

"Would you really take the GED and drop out?"

"I don't know," Daria admitted. "I think Mom would be tempted to kick me out if I did."

Jane shrugged. "If she does, you can rent Penny's room for a nominal amount, to help pay for food and utilities."

"Good to know; thanks!"

Then the doorbell rang.

"Let me guess; Tom making an unusually early appearance?"

"Probably," Jane agreed, ignoring the slightly nasty tone in Daria's voice.

Daria sighed as Jane went to greet her boyfriend. She missed spending time alone with Jane, just as she was missing Jack. She was therefore surprised when Jane returned with Quinn of all people.

Quinn explained that her 'best' friends had abandoned her in the planning of a school dance earlier that week, and was appealing for help as the others she had asked that morning had now also bailed on her, even all three J's. To Daria's surprise, Jane leapt at the opportunity, at least once Quinn offered to surrender the budget. Daria was far less surprised when, once Jane had accepted, that Quinn ran off, leaving everything to Jane (or Jane and Daria).

"Jane, do you really think you can pull this together over just this week?" Daria demanded.

"Easily," Jane asserted, but then admitted, "At least I think so." She peeled off $100. "If you will get enough generic punch supplies – different flavors of fake juices that we can slop together and call it 'punch' and at least four hundred cups, I can do the rest. I know the school has punch bowls and the like for these things."

Daria considered that, and nodded, saying, "Okay, I'll see what I can find at that new box store. But what are you going to do for music? I can see you have at least one rough idea for some big artistic statement, which means you're going to try and short-change the music just like you are the drinks since you're omitting any snacks. I mean, even the Spiral would take at least a fifth of the original budget."

"True," Jane agreed. "However, I happen to know that Upchuck wants to start DJing and has the equipment. If I get him for free, it will also get him out of direct circulation while giving him the chance to have the best spot to leer at the crowd. We'll just have to stay on the other side of that crowd as much as possible, outside of his line of sight."

"Okay," Daria answered, a bit doubtfully. "Will you be able to pull of your big artistic statement in five evenings and maybe Saturday morning?"

"I bet I can," Jane answered. "To bring glory to 'Laaaaawndale High,' especially if it doesn't cost her money, I bet I can get Ms Li to let me out of most classes, help me get some things quickly, and give me space to work in while letting me stay until, say, Eight at night or so." She frowned. "I'll have to ask you or Tom to bring me something to eat, and maybe give me a hand."

"How about I see if I can stick around to around Five or so to help, and then Tom can bring you something to eat and help out after – assuming he's capable of doing some physical labor?"

"That sounds like a great idea!"

Daria stuck around until nearly 2:00, although the pair had to walk to a gas station – the location with the nearest food – to get a hot dog and soda each for lunch. When Tom showed up just before 2:00. Daria headed back home.

"Daria really doesn't like me, does she?" Tom asked, rather pouting. A rather good-looking son of great privilege, he wasn't used to people not liking him to some degree, or at least not pretending to.

Meanwhile, once home Daria was called into the kitchen by her mother. "Alright, Daria. Your Father and I will look into your graduating early. I'll ask Marianne to call Ms Li Monday morning and arrange a meeting sometime during the week."

That was the best Daria had hoped for, and so was satisfied.

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Daria would learn from her mother Monday evening that the meeting with Ms Li would be Wednesday, right before classes started. During school that afternoon, however, came the announcement that a week from Wednesday, Sophomores through Seniors would be participating in a field trip to a paintball range. This made little sense to Daria, even after Jane assured her that this was done every four years, or at least had been since at least the time her sister Summer had been a student.

Daria was not surprised to learn that Quinn had blurted the news of this field trip to their parents before Daria had even arrived home. Both teens had assured the Morgendorffers that chaperones were not needed.

Daria had been impressed by Jane's plans for the dance the upcoming Saturday evening. Ms Li had agreed to order the supplies Jane wanted, but they would only be delivered the next day. Space was also being provided, and as Jane had predicted, Ms Li would allow Jane to miss some classes to work on the project. However, Ms Li was not totally unaware of Jane's strengths and weaknesses as a student – or the strengths and weaknesses of her own faculty. Jane was not allowed to skip Math, History, or Gym. Still, that got her out of Science, Spanish, English, and Economics.

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Daria's mother accompanied her to the meeting with Ms Li that Wednesday morning, which did not please Jake, or Daria for that matter, who would have preferred her father be there to act as a brake on her mother if necessary. Ms Li listened to Daria's presentation – Helen had left it totally up to her to get the ball rolling – and then the principal looked over Daria's CLEP scores and the printed out offers from Raft.

One the one hand, Ms Li knew perfectly well that Daria had not completed a full year at Lawndale High when she had taken these exams – these scores did not in any way really reflect the education Daria had received while enrolled at her school. Of course, Li also knew that they were not the result of the Highland system – she had looked into that school when the Morgendorffer sisters had transferred. Daria had earned those scores because of her intelligence, eidetic memory, and a great deal of outside reading and studying, especially the tutoring on some of the science and higher math over the previous summer. On the other hand, graduating a student early, especially under these circumstances, was always worth bragging about to her fellow educators, School Board, and the Superintendent's office – minus some details, of course. In addition, while nowhere near as difficult a student to deal with as any number of others were, Daria was something of problem at times.

Ms Li therefore just looked at Helen Morgendorffer. After a moment, Helen reluctantly nodded an affirmative.

Li looked over Daria's file again – she had reviewed it the evening before. Looking up, she began. "I see no major problems in agreeing to your request. A diploma is better to have than a GED. I am sure your Language Arts, Spanish, Science, Math, and Social Science instructors would be willing to sign off, even for the rest of the year, basing your official grades off of these scores." Li would make certain of that.

That raised the eyebrows of both Morgendorffers.

"Seeing your CLEP score in Spanish, I can see why you've been taking French. However, the French instructors both believe you should be in French Four rather than Three. French Four and your Economics and Art classes meet in the afternoons. Now, since you would be leaving this year early, instead of taking Gym every other day before lunch, you would have to take it every day at that time during the second trimester only. In addition, looking at the requirements of your proposed program, I think you should take a morning Advanced Calculus or Advanced Statistics class at Lawndale State in the spring semester if available. You would stay in your morning classes for the rest of this trimester, but need not attend those after New Year's if you are enrolled for an early morning college class." She split a look between mother and daughter. "Comments?"

Daria didn't think much about the idea of taking an extra gym class for a trimester, but all-in-all it wasn't a bad deal. Therefore, she turned to look at her mother.

Helen obviously wasn't happy, but she also didn't look all that surprised. She sighed, took the look Daria was giving her into account, and agreed to the deal on offer. She just hoped she was doing the right thing for her daughter's social development.

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"Damn, I'm impressed," Jane admitted that afternoon as Daria helped her move two of the large sheets of canvas into position.

"You know, there's a very good art school in Boston?" Daria commented.

"BFAC? I know," Jane acknowledged. "What about it?"

Daria turned to the pile she had brought with her and pulled out about twenty sheets of printouts, stapled together. "This has all their program requirements, including everything for the portfolio submission. If we can get your SAT score over an eleven-hundred, you should be able to get in."

"Maybe," Jane agreed.

"The next time your parents are around, you need to ask if there's any sort of college fund for you."

"There is, but I have no idea how much is in it," Jane admitted.

"Really?" Daria was a bit surprised.

"They put at least a little money away for college for each of us," Jane explained. "Summer, Penny, and Trent never went, and Wind only went for one year. When each decided not to go, or stop, they split the money in that kid's account. Each one got half, and the other half was split between the remaining accounts. Now, I don't know if there were a few thousand in each account, or under a hundred – that I will have to find out."

Daria didn't comment on that last point – knowing Amanda and Vincent, it could be any amount but more likely on the lower end, although as things turned out, there was a fair amount that Jane could draw upon. "Well, any amount will help. Also, how about that summer art program you talked about? Aren't you eligible to go next summer?" Jane had been too young to apply to Ashfield the previous summer.

"True, but other than the fact you won't be around, why would I want to go instead of doing the summer class route?"

"Because at least on paper, that program would be a step up," Daria pointed out. "Plus, you'll have the past two summers of art classes in the bag and you'd need to show yourself doing something different. Now, you said your mother could get you in, but in theory this place…."

"Ashfield," Jane put in.

Daria acknowledged that. "Ashfield has, to some degree, a competitive admittance program. Even if it turns out the place sucks, it would look good on your applications."

"That's true," Jane had to admit. She hated dealing with the real world, but knew that she would have to.

"Next week, if you can ditch Tom for one evening, we can sit down and go over what you've done so far and see what we can put together." Daria jerked a thumb at the large empty canvases. "Even this can probably be worked in."

"True," Jane acknowledged, "but it's time to get some more paint down. Help me with these cans and tubes."

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Perhaps surprisingly, Jane (with a little help from Daria and even less help from Tom other than his picking up cheap fast food) managed to put on a fair enough dance. Few students had the slightest idea of who Jackson Pollock had been, or understood the detailed murals Jane had produced. However, they were large and colorful, drawing the students' attention without making them think too hard. In addition, there were five large canvases in total, and Daria had convinced Jane to only devote four of them directly to Pollock. The fifth, while the backgrounds were Pollockesque, was devoted to Lawndale and Lawndale High, with lions, the Giant Strawberry, and so on. Daria also made certain that Jane had plenty of photographic evidence for her future portfolio.

Daria was not thrilled that she ended up on punch detail, both making it and guarding the punch bowl to prevent any of the football players from spiking the punch. Fortunately, Daria was able to enlist Mack to help prevent that spiking. The one benefit of Daria's being on punch duty was that it ensured she wasn't hit on.

To both Jane and Daria's surprise, Upchuck did a good job as DJ. As far as his actual musical choices and technical work, he actually did an outstanding job, and he collected enough accolades that (when sufficiently edited) to get him an early Saturday evening DJ gig at the Zon. His between-song patter, however, had varied from between decent to his usual Upchuck cringy/sexist commentary.

Daria had also made Jane sign each canvas. In addition to serving as proof of it being all her work, in the short term it had prevented Quinn from taking full credit for them when (to Quinn's surprise – she had initially been horrified by them) students had made positive comments about the decorations.

Jane was not pleased that Tom hadn't shown up.

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Overall, Jane came to school that next Monday in a good mood. Her canvases had gotten some decent compliments, she had managed to find time to be with Daria the previous week, and her amiga had helped her focus in on a possible future that included art school. In addition, she and Tom had spent Saturday and Sunday afternoon having very passionate sex (which allowed Jane to mostly forgive him skipping the dance), as no one had been at the Lanes that weekend other than Jane. In addition to the excellent weekend, in a few days, she and most of the rest of the Sophomores through Seniors would spend the day paintballing. That this would entail her missing both Math and Gym was an added bonus.

Tom, on the other hand, arrived at Fielding Prep tired and very, very sore, if also satiated. He wondered if he could continue to keep up with Jane's athletic libido.

Daria arrived, wondering what problems Lawndale High would present that week in addition to the paintballing. That she discovered that evening.

Tom was busy that evening with what he merely told Jane were 'silly family commitments,' refusing to explain more. So, Jane convinced Daria to join her watching a film at a foreign film festival at an art cinema near the Lawndale State campus. The pair had thought their run-in before the film started with Kevin and Brittany had been more surreal than any film on offer – the two thought the Soviet-era art film would be similar to 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' The evening had ended with Mr. O'Neill giving them a ride during a rainstorm.

On the Tuesday, to Daria's horror, O'Neill had misinterpreted some of her comments, and the class had a new assignment – a short film project, taking the place of a creative writing assignment that Daria had already outlined in the expectation that O'Neill would actually follow his syllabus.

As the two friends walked home that afternoon, Jane remarked, "You're looking unusually pensive, even for a deep thinker like you. What's bugging you?"

"Well, there's the stupid paintballing tomorrow…."

"It gets us out of Gym for a day," Jane pointed out, "plus a Lawndale High lunch."

"True," Daria agreed. "However, I imagine we'll get an MRE to eat instead; hardly an improvement. Plus traipsing around the woods for almost four hours is only marginally better than forty minutes of gym class with Morris."

"And?"

"We have to figure out this stupid assignment for O'Neill."

"True, but we can do that this afternoon, right?"

"Wrong."

"Why?" Jane asked, puzzled.

"That's why," Daria replied drily, as Tom pulled up next to them. "Have fun; we'll talk about the stupid assignment on the bus tomorrow." Daria kept going, leaving Jane to deal with Tom.

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Meanwhile, in Boston

"Are you two sure?" the head of the geology and paleontology department asked Daria's two sponsors. "After that last idiot…."

"That's why the responsibility was delegated to us," one pointed out. "Either you trust us about her potential to do the prep work in the lab or not."

"Not to mention the others who supervised her last summer," the other pointed out. "You can't doubt her academically," she added, pointing to the CLEP results.

He sighed. "True, on all counts. I'll take care of the rest of the details."