Categories > Cartoons > Daria > 1960's Daria
1960s—Chapter 09
By Dr T
Through the Fall of 67
-60s-
A ‘Daria’ fanfic, so no claim to original characters, etc. claimed, just my plot twists. Based on an image from the last ‘Daria’ episode/movie, ‘Is It College Yet?’
-60s-
Daria sat primly in the chair in front of Marcus’ desk, his door half shut. He merely nodded his head as he fully understood Daria’s (and Jane’s) concerns. “We actually debated this question in the faculty senate at the last meeting.” His voice was lowered, but he was not whispering – while isolated, the sound of whispers attracted more attention than lowered voices. “The proposal was to modify the policy so that parents or guardians would only be automatically notified of any medical problem causing the student to miss three or more days of class. It narrowly passed, but the Chancellor hasn’t responded yet.”
“Oh.” Daria was a bit disappointed, but not really surprised.
“In the meantime, I know a physician who will prescribe it, if he can.” Seeing Daria’s look, Marcus shrugged. “I don’t know what if any medical reasons there might be not to, do you?”
“No,” Daria admitted.
Marcus pulled the area’s Yellow Pages from the bookshelf near his desk, and wrote down the phone number for her. “And let me know the cost of the visits and the prescriptions.”
Seeing Daria’s look at that offer, he told her, “I will of course reimburse you for yours, and I’ll pay for your friend’s. I want you to be comfortable, which means Miss Lane needs to be taken care of as well.” His voice, already low, became a bit softer. “I suggest that she continue to use protection, and we probably should as well if needed. Double safe might be best, and while we know we don’t have anything to transmit, but who can say for sure about your friend’s partner?”
Daria had to admit that was all true. While she was there, Daria offered to cook supper that Saturday, while Marcus could supply lunch from the local A&W. He agreed that she could stop by and survey his kitchen so she could plan. This was midterm week, and while she had finished studying, planning a meal gave her mind something to dwell on other than the midterms she had that week (Intro to Education, Ed Psych, Colonial US, and Renaissance/Reformation). Rather than giving 2 or 4 exams, Marcus gave his Western Civ classes three exams, so he did not have midterms to grade, just grade forms to turn in.
-60s-
Daria was up early that Saturday morning, well before Jane, as she wanted to get a little time in at the music building. So, after a light breakfast, she made her way there to practice for two hours. Then she was off to the student parking lot, so she could drive to the grocery store. It was just before 11:00 when she pulled into Marcus’ driveway, opened the further garage door, and parked. Marcus had told her that he would be in his office until he went to pick up lunch – he needed to get some time in working on his monograph. That gave her time to get organized in her own fashion.
Daria pulled out the large iron skillet and large stew pot she had seen on her inspection, as well as a smaller pot. The latter she partially filled with water and set it to boil. She had also requested that Marcus put out a bottle of red wine both for her to cook with and to go with the dinner. As she knew little about wine, he had thrown out some adjectives; she had chosen ‘rustic.’ Looking at the three bottles he had left on the counter to choose from, she picked a recent vintage of California Petite Sirah at random and after some thought, managed to open it without any problems.
By then, the water was getting hot, so she dumped a pound of washed small potatoes into the pot to soften – they would finish cooking in the stew but they would have to at least soften a bit first. She then quickly soaked and then peeled a small leek and then peeled an onion as well. After chopping them, she started them to soften in the skillet with some butter. As all that cooked, she diced a roast, and then a turnip, parsnip, carrots, and finally a somewhat sad single stalk of celery forgotten in Marcus’ refrigerator from the previous week’s salad. These she added to either the pot or skillet as needed, along with salt, pepper, and some herbs.
When the skillet veggies were mostly done, she put them into the stew pot, deglazed the skillet with a little wine, and started browning the beef with a little wine, pepper, and Worcester sauce for flavor. Just before the beef was done browning, she added sliced mushrooms. These and the potatoes and other root vegetables were also added to the stew pot, along with the deglazed material from the skillet, a can of beef stock, a cup of wine, and a small jar of beef gravy. The stew was assembled mostly cooked; it would simmer mostly to blend the flavors together. If it got a little too thick, Daria could add a little more wine, or some of the water the potatoes and some of the veggies had cooked in. When Marcus showed up a little after noon with his bag of A&W goodies, the kitchen smelled great and Daria had just finished drying the skillet.
After lunch, the pair spent the first and last parts of the afternoon getting to know each other better. They shared detailed information about their family background – parts of both sides of Marcus’ family had been almost as obsessed about genealogy as Daria’s material grandmother. Daria enjoyed many varieties of music, concentrating on the current folk/rock and San Francisco sounds but also classical. Marcus was even more enthusiastic about classical music than Daria, and had played the viola from junior high though his undergraduate years. He had started playing casually again once he had come to LSC, and agreed to see if he could join the campus orchestra the next semester. He had only a casual appreciation of current trends in popular music, but he was more than willing to listen to it. He hoped to hear Daria’s versions soon. In between their discussions, however, they retired to his bedroom for over an hour of exploration and intimacy.
Both considered Daria’s dinner was a success – the stew was delicious, and she had toasted some Italian bread in the oven to accompany it. The Petite Sirah matched very well with both the stew and the small cheese platter Daria was able to piece together from the small selection at the grocery store. For dessert, they split a piece of carrot cake Daria had also found, paired with Turkish coffee that Marcus brewed. Afterwards, their intimacy was for the first time fully love-making rather than having more than a hint of passionate frenzy like the previous times, or semi-innocent hesitation like Daria’s first intimate encounter with Marcus.
For this second time together that day, the two had waited until after 9:00, and when they had cooled down, each had pulled on underwear and loose t-shirts. To the surprise of both, they fell asleep together easily, and slept through the night. Not wanting to play housewife the second day in a row, Daria was more than happy to let Marcus make them a simple ham omelet and toast breakfast. They did make love a third time before she left however.
-60s-
Daria was both a bit reluctant to leave before lunch and yet easily able to do so – she had goals, short and long term that could not be accomplished by playing house. At the same time, she had not had a very emotionally satisfying life before she had met Jane – not exactly lonely or unpopular, but in some ways she had drifted through the parts of life that for many others had been had been more emotionally (and for some physically) fulfilling.
From the condition of their room, Daria could tell that James had spent time there with Jane. However, when the two met at lunch Jane had merely said she had some ceramics that should be finished curing in one of the kilns, and she’d be in the basement of the art building (where the kilns were located) until dinner. Daria therefore happily spent the afternoon working on her novels. When she had shown the outline draft to Marcus the previous month, each undrafted chapter was fully outlined – Daria just needed to write out much of any actual dialogue (nearly all of it already completed in her head) and supply some addition detail. For a fast and accurate typist like Daria, typing out complete chapters actually took relatively little time. 60+ words a minute and just over four hours of concentrated typing therefore equaled over 14,000 words – just over 2 chapters, and she was actually finished the draft of the first novel. She had also made a decent start on the Haight novel, and had also submitted some poetry for the campus journal before the deadline a few weeks before. Daria was operating on a high and potentially stressful level – her music and her intimacy with Jane and Marcus, helped a bit by the basic yoga she and Jane spent a few minutes each day on, was just keeping her level.
Daria slipped the last page of the novel’s draft out of the typewriter with satisfaction. She would give it to Marcus the next afternoon to read through, although she would need to go to the campus copy center after her 9:00 class finished – there was no way she could make even one copy of this on one of the machines of the library!
Jane read though the draft Sunday evening through Wednesday, and Marcus had finished his copy by Wednesday afternoon as well. Neither had any corrections to make, other than a few missed commas and one typo Marcus had found. (Daria easily retyped those pages). Both had enjoyed the story – it told the story of the teen daughter of a well-off cloth merchant between 1346 and 1349 who found love with a slightly older journeyman (at the start of the novel) glover who had fought at the 1346 Battle of Crécy, where he had made his fortune when he had captured a French nobleman.
Anne was not quite Daria in appearance or manner, but was likely how Daria wished herself without overidealizing the almost self-insertion. Jane rolled her eyes a bit at Anne’s maid Jane, something of a teasing portrait of herself – her affectations were a bit exaggerated almost as much as her humor and libido. Jane, who had read the original short story the year before, realized that while the maid (with the Saxon name of Edith in the short-story) had greatly evolved in the novel, the heroine’s love-interest of Richard had kept the same name but had taken on many of the characteristics of Marcus (although the two characters were much closer in age than Daria and Marcus).
Marcus had also noticed that the two main characters somewhat resembled Daria and himself much more in the revised novel. However, he was even more amazed at the accurate details of the society and daily life that were woven in without bogging the story down in detail than he had been when reading the plot of the draft. He was especially impressed by the early chapter that retold the Battle of Crécy from Richard’s point of view – he even recognized some of the phrases he had used when he had lectured on the longbow battles of the 100 Years War in his English History class. Jane had teared up at the ending, Marcus nearly so – the pair finally married in the spring of 1349, with the Black Death just starting to hit their hometown of Coventry. (This left open the possibility of a sequel if the novel sold well.)
Daria packed off three copies of the novel to Aunt Amy that Friday – one for Amy herself and the other two because Amy had promised to get at least one of the two literary agents she was close friends with to read, and hopefully one would take up the novel. While it was possible to get a novel published without an agent, it was much more likely to happen if an established agent was pushing it. Amy had two in mind, and would decide on which one was the more suited once she had read through the completed novel and decided if it was as good as she hoped her niece would produce.
-60s-
That next weekend was Homecoming at the College, and there were a number of activities planned. Daria skipped the dance Friday night, although Jane and James did not. Daria spent Friday evening through Sunday morning at Marcus’, and they spent an inordinate amount of time either in bed or on the sofa in front of the fireplace – the first frost occurred that weekend and the pair enjoyed snugging in front of the fire. Daria learned a bit more about wine, more than just a bit about her own (and Marcus’) sexuality, and the joys of sharing life with someone of the opposite gender (as she had learned about sharing with her own gender with Jane over the previous year).
However, while the official campus activities between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening were very traditional and somewhat oriented towards alumni, on Sunday from 1:00-4:00, there was what was unofficially called the ‘alternative homecoming’ or to a few, the ‘homecoming be-in,’ mostly featuring music but also some poetry and even a few short sketches. Daria was part of this, and she would play a fifteen-minute set, and was on the committee vetting the acts and program.
A fair number of the faculty and a few administrators showed, but only a few alumni (mostly those with children involved with the show in some manner). The organizers were very careful to keep things calm, and if some of the numbers were provocative, they were not obscene or overly-hostile to either the administration or other parts of the establishment – the more ‘hip’ and anti-war portion of student sentiment was on display at times, but considering what was happening at many campuses, even the most conservative members of the audience decided there was little to actually complain about (grumble about, yes; issue complaints about, no), and that most of the acts were at least moderately well-performed. It helped that all the performers had agreed not to perform one of the most requested songs for the filmed performance – the protest song ‘I-feel-like-I’m-fixin’-to-die rag.’
While Daria’s family did not make it to any of the weekend festivities, her father made sure there was a film crew on campus the entire time. The Chancellor had reluctantly agreed to this (after all, there was no way to know that the ‘homecoming be-in’ would work out as well as it did) when the station had agreed to film some of the other activities, and the network had allowed them to broadcast the football game rather than the network game that was on offer (which didn’t concern teams that had many fans in their area in any event). The film crew, who knew who was who at their station, made certain they had videoed all of Daria’s performance.
Jake was able to borrow a tape machine from work. While Helen was not pleased with how Daria was dressed (she had gone all out: barefoot, ragged jeans, peasant blouse, and flowers in her hair and painted on her face, but no glasses and her hair in two long braids), she was slightly impressed by the overall performance, especially Daria’s relaxed demeaner – she still thought of Daria as she had been through junior and senior high – somewhat stiff and remote most of the time. All things considered, while Daria was performing in what Helen considered at best a déclassé manner, she was reaching out to her contemporaries, even if not to those Helen would have preferred. Still, compared to the often-stand-offish Daria of her high school years, this was a major positive step. Helen, while conflicted, on the whole came down on the approval-side of the performance, as she decided it was even more of an out-of-character performance (so as to ‘sell’ to the audience) than it now actually was.
Of course, Helen would NOT mention the performance to any in her social network, let alone let them view the performance.
Jake was pleased with his daughter’s performance, and pleased with the feedback about the weekend he received from his bosses. Even the network used a few clips nationally, and a number of affiliates used other clips all around the country. When Amy was able to see the tape, she was very happy with how at ease her niece acted, even if she was not as surprised by the transformation as Helen had been. Quinn, however, merely sneered at the whole thing. As far as Quinn was concerned, SHE was (or at least soon would be) a debutante, and Daria a mere stain to be kept hidden away.
As for Marcus, he fell even more in love with Daria than he had been when he saw her perform live.
-60s-
November continued like this, with Daria spending Saturday afternoons through Sunday mornings at Marcus’, and Jane and James spending time in one of their dorm rooms. On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, however, Marcus made a suggestion.
“Really?” was Daria’s response.
Marcus nodded. “We can work out the details if you’re interested and you think it will work.”
“How expensive is summer school? I mean, there’s tuition, the dorm….”
Marcus merely shook his head and shrugged at those details. “I was just offered a grant to spend just over two weeks at Oxford for research. I was thinking you could, well, officially stay in the apartment and be the house-sitter.” There was the mother-in-law apartment over the large double garage, after all.
Daria smirked. “Officially? Dare I ask about ‘unofficially’?”
“It would be up to you where you want to sleep.” Marcus decided to enhance the offer, although he didn’t know if it would make it more or less appealing. “If you would be more comfortable with the arrangement, Jane could stay there as well, although there would be one catch.”
“And that would be?”
“She really couldn’t have anyone over,” he pointed out. After all, that would almost certainly reveal that Daria was not sleeping in the apartment.
“Tempting.” Daria smiled, “With or without Jane.”
“I know you can afford the tuition, but I would of course pay for yours, and Jane’s if she’s here. You need to get phys ed classes out of the way, the summer has a lot of different classes for that. Considering what you said about your mother’s family, there’s a special history course the dean teaches – how to do genealogy – it’s actually spread over both summer sessions. Take a regular class in the first session and that, plus the gym classes.”
Daria smiled slyly. “I like how you think.” She paused, and looked at him shyly. “And if we’re still together?”
“Then I would hope we’ll want to continue the arrangement. If your parents send rent money, you can keep it.”
-60s-
Daria put a sanitized version of the arrangement to her parents that Wednesday at dinner. The idea surprised all three, but only Quinn had a quick response. “Great, the less you’re around here dressed like THAT the better.”
As Daria was dressed in a nice blouse, skirt, hose, and shoes, her hair held by barrettes, both she and her parents were confused. Helen spoke first. “Quinn! There is nothing wrong with how your sister is dressed!”
Quinn sniffed. “Sorry, I was thinking of the hobo look she was wearing on tv.”
“Daria got us permission to film that entire weekend, and her set was featured on a number of network stations, all getting a great deal of positive feedback, from both the viewers and more importantly our sponsors,” Jake stated. His tone turned scolding. “Since that weekend of shooting earned me a five percent raise, and that got you an equal percentage raise in your allowance, I guess I can cut that off since you disapprove.”
Quinn was outraged by that, but seeing her mother was not objecting, she decided to keep further comments to herself. She merely sulked until she left to go shopping Friday morning.
“I think this shows how well you are regarded by the faculty,” Jake told Daria. “If you two do a good job, I presume it will earn you at least a good recommendation letter.”
“I would hope so,” Daria agreed.
“Not to mention having a recommendation from a faculty landlord should help you and Jane with getting your next apartments,” Jake mused.
Helen nodded, but noting a slight blush on Daria, had to wonder if perhaps there wasn’t something more than just living off campus that interested one of the two girls in the professor’s offer. From how Daria described Professor Church, Helen suspected it might be Daria – and that this might actually be a decent match. Therefore, Helen merely smiled, agreed to the idea, and said nothing more. This could of course be very unconventional (though far from unknown), and would have been even more potentially scandalous just a few years ago, but Helen thought, if that was what was going on, Daria (unlike Quinn) might be able to actually handle it – and keep any irregular relationship quiet and hidden. Helen still thought the most important ‘degree’ a young woman could have was an ‘Mrs’ and she hoped any short-term irregularities would be covered by a subsequent marriage.
As for Quinn, she might have to give up her volunteer hours with the DAR (which her mother had placed her in) and up her hours with the United Daughters of the Confederacy – her grandmother paid her for the ‘volunteer’ hours with that group.
-60s-
Returning after the short break, Daria and Jane still had three weeks of class plus finals to get through. Amy had read through Daria’s medieval novel, and had loved it on all levels. She had already passed it on to one of her literary agent friends, who had not yet gotten back to her. Daria had then sent Amy what she had for her Haight novel. Daria had not shown it to Marcus, although she had mentioned it. She had, however, shown it to Jane at various stages. Afterall, it was based on their summer in San Francisco. Although neither of the main characters were self-insertions this time, Jane had been part of the experience, and some of the situations being adapted had happened to Jane or to the pair of them. Jane, however, liked what she had seen, and had even volunteered to sign a waiver. In the end, characters based on both Jane and Daria would appear in the novel – mostly in the form of buskers, providing the roles of background commentators on the evolving crowd in the area.
Jane would also check each draft to make certain no one else would be identifiable – the few real people being mentioned were all in the background. Real concerts and similar events were being used, but there would be nothing to embarrass the people Daria and Jane had met, especially not those who they had befriended to some degree. All this would earn Jane 10% of what Daria made off the book.
60s
The final three weeks of the semester was a bit busier than usual – unsurprising since there were papers due and, for Daria and others, concerts to prepare for, and for Jane and other artists there was an end of the semester exhibition. The orchestra’s ‘tour’ went in a different direction than the previous year, and so nowhere near Daria’s hometown. Some of Jane’s drawings and one of her ceramic pieces won awards at the exhibition.
Daria and Marcus were still able to spend late Saturday afternoons through early Sunday mornings together, but they had to give up the early afternoons, and one Saturday altogether. Jane had agreed to the summer plan, and Daria and Jane were able to plan their spring and summer schedules as preregistration period occurred during those last few weeks.
That one Saturday was spent in Baltimore with Trent and the rest of Spiral. A record executive Amy knew had heard Daria’s set from the be-in, and she convinced him to arrange some demos for both Daria and the Spiral. The Spiral recorded a dozen songs, three written by Trent, three by Daria for the band, and six co-written by the two. Daria, much more reluctantly, recorded a dozen of her own songs as well. (All of Daria’s professionally published writing, including these songs, would be under the name DL Morgan – while not Jewish, she knew Morgendorffer sounded that way, and there of course still antisemitism around, and there was often an anti-feminine bias as well, and she also wanted to insure some separation from her writing persona.)
The executive did not think Daria had a good chance at a decent solo career (as the folk circuit was beginning to dry up a bit). He did like the sketch Jane had designed for both album covers. He also believed he could use the recordings to get some of the people on his label to do covers of at least some of the songs. There was also a slightly better chance of getting at least some good gigs for the Spiral with their having an album. Neither Daria’s songs (released as an album) nor the Spiral’s album cracked any top 100 charts, but they both came close. Several of Daria’s songs were professionally covered, and the Spiral gained a career as a moderately well-known east coast band. Combined with some summer work as a wedding band, they would finally start making a living on their music.
Best of all for Daria, Amy’s agent friend contacted her about her medieval novel. He was enthused by it, and after a short exchange he went to work to get her novel accepted by a publisher. He did tell her this might take some time. Daria had sent Amy a detailed, updated outline of her Haight novel, and the agent (when shown it) was sure this would help him successfully peddling the first. Many publishers were wary of first-time authors, who often turned into one-time writers.
-60s-
Daria was therefore very pleased as the semester came to a close. To her slight surprise, she even managed to earn a 4.0 GPA that semester. (Jane was nearly as happy with a 3.74). Daria knew she would miss Marcus. She blushed when she gave him his Christmas present – a pair of nude drawings of her Jane had made for her especially for this purpose. She was happy with her present – a set of books, none of which she had read but all of which wanted to.
-60s-
By Dr T
Through the Fall of 67
-60s-
A ‘Daria’ fanfic, so no claim to original characters, etc. claimed, just my plot twists. Based on an image from the last ‘Daria’ episode/movie, ‘Is It College Yet?’
-60s-
Daria sat primly in the chair in front of Marcus’ desk, his door half shut. He merely nodded his head as he fully understood Daria’s (and Jane’s) concerns. “We actually debated this question in the faculty senate at the last meeting.” His voice was lowered, but he was not whispering – while isolated, the sound of whispers attracted more attention than lowered voices. “The proposal was to modify the policy so that parents or guardians would only be automatically notified of any medical problem causing the student to miss three or more days of class. It narrowly passed, but the Chancellor hasn’t responded yet.”
“Oh.” Daria was a bit disappointed, but not really surprised.
“In the meantime, I know a physician who will prescribe it, if he can.” Seeing Daria’s look, Marcus shrugged. “I don’t know what if any medical reasons there might be not to, do you?”
“No,” Daria admitted.
Marcus pulled the area’s Yellow Pages from the bookshelf near his desk, and wrote down the phone number for her. “And let me know the cost of the visits and the prescriptions.”
Seeing Daria’s look at that offer, he told her, “I will of course reimburse you for yours, and I’ll pay for your friend’s. I want you to be comfortable, which means Miss Lane needs to be taken care of as well.” His voice, already low, became a bit softer. “I suggest that she continue to use protection, and we probably should as well if needed. Double safe might be best, and while we know we don’t have anything to transmit, but who can say for sure about your friend’s partner?”
Daria had to admit that was all true. While she was there, Daria offered to cook supper that Saturday, while Marcus could supply lunch from the local A&W. He agreed that she could stop by and survey his kitchen so she could plan. This was midterm week, and while she had finished studying, planning a meal gave her mind something to dwell on other than the midterms she had that week (Intro to Education, Ed Psych, Colonial US, and Renaissance/Reformation). Rather than giving 2 or 4 exams, Marcus gave his Western Civ classes three exams, so he did not have midterms to grade, just grade forms to turn in.
-60s-
Daria was up early that Saturday morning, well before Jane, as she wanted to get a little time in at the music building. So, after a light breakfast, she made her way there to practice for two hours. Then she was off to the student parking lot, so she could drive to the grocery store. It was just before 11:00 when she pulled into Marcus’ driveway, opened the further garage door, and parked. Marcus had told her that he would be in his office until he went to pick up lunch – he needed to get some time in working on his monograph. That gave her time to get organized in her own fashion.
Daria pulled out the large iron skillet and large stew pot she had seen on her inspection, as well as a smaller pot. The latter she partially filled with water and set it to boil. She had also requested that Marcus put out a bottle of red wine both for her to cook with and to go with the dinner. As she knew little about wine, he had thrown out some adjectives; she had chosen ‘rustic.’ Looking at the three bottles he had left on the counter to choose from, she picked a recent vintage of California Petite Sirah at random and after some thought, managed to open it without any problems.
By then, the water was getting hot, so she dumped a pound of washed small potatoes into the pot to soften – they would finish cooking in the stew but they would have to at least soften a bit first. She then quickly soaked and then peeled a small leek and then peeled an onion as well. After chopping them, she started them to soften in the skillet with some butter. As all that cooked, she diced a roast, and then a turnip, parsnip, carrots, and finally a somewhat sad single stalk of celery forgotten in Marcus’ refrigerator from the previous week’s salad. These she added to either the pot or skillet as needed, along with salt, pepper, and some herbs.
When the skillet veggies were mostly done, she put them into the stew pot, deglazed the skillet with a little wine, and started browning the beef with a little wine, pepper, and Worcester sauce for flavor. Just before the beef was done browning, she added sliced mushrooms. These and the potatoes and other root vegetables were also added to the stew pot, along with the deglazed material from the skillet, a can of beef stock, a cup of wine, and a small jar of beef gravy. The stew was assembled mostly cooked; it would simmer mostly to blend the flavors together. If it got a little too thick, Daria could add a little more wine, or some of the water the potatoes and some of the veggies had cooked in. When Marcus showed up a little after noon with his bag of A&W goodies, the kitchen smelled great and Daria had just finished drying the skillet.
After lunch, the pair spent the first and last parts of the afternoon getting to know each other better. They shared detailed information about their family background – parts of both sides of Marcus’ family had been almost as obsessed about genealogy as Daria’s material grandmother. Daria enjoyed many varieties of music, concentrating on the current folk/rock and San Francisco sounds but also classical. Marcus was even more enthusiastic about classical music than Daria, and had played the viola from junior high though his undergraduate years. He had started playing casually again once he had come to LSC, and agreed to see if he could join the campus orchestra the next semester. He had only a casual appreciation of current trends in popular music, but he was more than willing to listen to it. He hoped to hear Daria’s versions soon. In between their discussions, however, they retired to his bedroom for over an hour of exploration and intimacy.
Both considered Daria’s dinner was a success – the stew was delicious, and she had toasted some Italian bread in the oven to accompany it. The Petite Sirah matched very well with both the stew and the small cheese platter Daria was able to piece together from the small selection at the grocery store. For dessert, they split a piece of carrot cake Daria had also found, paired with Turkish coffee that Marcus brewed. Afterwards, their intimacy was for the first time fully love-making rather than having more than a hint of passionate frenzy like the previous times, or semi-innocent hesitation like Daria’s first intimate encounter with Marcus.
For this second time together that day, the two had waited until after 9:00, and when they had cooled down, each had pulled on underwear and loose t-shirts. To the surprise of both, they fell asleep together easily, and slept through the night. Not wanting to play housewife the second day in a row, Daria was more than happy to let Marcus make them a simple ham omelet and toast breakfast. They did make love a third time before she left however.
-60s-
Daria was both a bit reluctant to leave before lunch and yet easily able to do so – she had goals, short and long term that could not be accomplished by playing house. At the same time, she had not had a very emotionally satisfying life before she had met Jane – not exactly lonely or unpopular, but in some ways she had drifted through the parts of life that for many others had been had been more emotionally (and for some physically) fulfilling.
From the condition of their room, Daria could tell that James had spent time there with Jane. However, when the two met at lunch Jane had merely said she had some ceramics that should be finished curing in one of the kilns, and she’d be in the basement of the art building (where the kilns were located) until dinner. Daria therefore happily spent the afternoon working on her novels. When she had shown the outline draft to Marcus the previous month, each undrafted chapter was fully outlined – Daria just needed to write out much of any actual dialogue (nearly all of it already completed in her head) and supply some addition detail. For a fast and accurate typist like Daria, typing out complete chapters actually took relatively little time. 60+ words a minute and just over four hours of concentrated typing therefore equaled over 14,000 words – just over 2 chapters, and she was actually finished the draft of the first novel. She had also made a decent start on the Haight novel, and had also submitted some poetry for the campus journal before the deadline a few weeks before. Daria was operating on a high and potentially stressful level – her music and her intimacy with Jane and Marcus, helped a bit by the basic yoga she and Jane spent a few minutes each day on, was just keeping her level.
Daria slipped the last page of the novel’s draft out of the typewriter with satisfaction. She would give it to Marcus the next afternoon to read through, although she would need to go to the campus copy center after her 9:00 class finished – there was no way she could make even one copy of this on one of the machines of the library!
Jane read though the draft Sunday evening through Wednesday, and Marcus had finished his copy by Wednesday afternoon as well. Neither had any corrections to make, other than a few missed commas and one typo Marcus had found. (Daria easily retyped those pages). Both had enjoyed the story – it told the story of the teen daughter of a well-off cloth merchant between 1346 and 1349 who found love with a slightly older journeyman (at the start of the novel) glover who had fought at the 1346 Battle of Crécy, where he had made his fortune when he had captured a French nobleman.
Anne was not quite Daria in appearance or manner, but was likely how Daria wished herself without overidealizing the almost self-insertion. Jane rolled her eyes a bit at Anne’s maid Jane, something of a teasing portrait of herself – her affectations were a bit exaggerated almost as much as her humor and libido. Jane, who had read the original short story the year before, realized that while the maid (with the Saxon name of Edith in the short-story) had greatly evolved in the novel, the heroine’s love-interest of Richard had kept the same name but had taken on many of the characteristics of Marcus (although the two characters were much closer in age than Daria and Marcus).
Marcus had also noticed that the two main characters somewhat resembled Daria and himself much more in the revised novel. However, he was even more amazed at the accurate details of the society and daily life that were woven in without bogging the story down in detail than he had been when reading the plot of the draft. He was especially impressed by the early chapter that retold the Battle of Crécy from Richard’s point of view – he even recognized some of the phrases he had used when he had lectured on the longbow battles of the 100 Years War in his English History class. Jane had teared up at the ending, Marcus nearly so – the pair finally married in the spring of 1349, with the Black Death just starting to hit their hometown of Coventry. (This left open the possibility of a sequel if the novel sold well.)
Daria packed off three copies of the novel to Aunt Amy that Friday – one for Amy herself and the other two because Amy had promised to get at least one of the two literary agents she was close friends with to read, and hopefully one would take up the novel. While it was possible to get a novel published without an agent, it was much more likely to happen if an established agent was pushing it. Amy had two in mind, and would decide on which one was the more suited once she had read through the completed novel and decided if it was as good as she hoped her niece would produce.
-60s-
That next weekend was Homecoming at the College, and there were a number of activities planned. Daria skipped the dance Friday night, although Jane and James did not. Daria spent Friday evening through Sunday morning at Marcus’, and they spent an inordinate amount of time either in bed or on the sofa in front of the fireplace – the first frost occurred that weekend and the pair enjoyed snugging in front of the fire. Daria learned a bit more about wine, more than just a bit about her own (and Marcus’) sexuality, and the joys of sharing life with someone of the opposite gender (as she had learned about sharing with her own gender with Jane over the previous year).
However, while the official campus activities between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening were very traditional and somewhat oriented towards alumni, on Sunday from 1:00-4:00, there was what was unofficially called the ‘alternative homecoming’ or to a few, the ‘homecoming be-in,’ mostly featuring music but also some poetry and even a few short sketches. Daria was part of this, and she would play a fifteen-minute set, and was on the committee vetting the acts and program.
A fair number of the faculty and a few administrators showed, but only a few alumni (mostly those with children involved with the show in some manner). The organizers were very careful to keep things calm, and if some of the numbers were provocative, they were not obscene or overly-hostile to either the administration or other parts of the establishment – the more ‘hip’ and anti-war portion of student sentiment was on display at times, but considering what was happening at many campuses, even the most conservative members of the audience decided there was little to actually complain about (grumble about, yes; issue complaints about, no), and that most of the acts were at least moderately well-performed. It helped that all the performers had agreed not to perform one of the most requested songs for the filmed performance – the protest song ‘I-feel-like-I’m-fixin’-to-die rag.’
While Daria’s family did not make it to any of the weekend festivities, her father made sure there was a film crew on campus the entire time. The Chancellor had reluctantly agreed to this (after all, there was no way to know that the ‘homecoming be-in’ would work out as well as it did) when the station had agreed to film some of the other activities, and the network had allowed them to broadcast the football game rather than the network game that was on offer (which didn’t concern teams that had many fans in their area in any event). The film crew, who knew who was who at their station, made certain they had videoed all of Daria’s performance.
Jake was able to borrow a tape machine from work. While Helen was not pleased with how Daria was dressed (she had gone all out: barefoot, ragged jeans, peasant blouse, and flowers in her hair and painted on her face, but no glasses and her hair in two long braids), she was slightly impressed by the overall performance, especially Daria’s relaxed demeaner – she still thought of Daria as she had been through junior and senior high – somewhat stiff and remote most of the time. All things considered, while Daria was performing in what Helen considered at best a déclassé manner, she was reaching out to her contemporaries, even if not to those Helen would have preferred. Still, compared to the often-stand-offish Daria of her high school years, this was a major positive step. Helen, while conflicted, on the whole came down on the approval-side of the performance, as she decided it was even more of an out-of-character performance (so as to ‘sell’ to the audience) than it now actually was.
Of course, Helen would NOT mention the performance to any in her social network, let alone let them view the performance.
Jake was pleased with his daughter’s performance, and pleased with the feedback about the weekend he received from his bosses. Even the network used a few clips nationally, and a number of affiliates used other clips all around the country. When Amy was able to see the tape, she was very happy with how at ease her niece acted, even if she was not as surprised by the transformation as Helen had been. Quinn, however, merely sneered at the whole thing. As far as Quinn was concerned, SHE was (or at least soon would be) a debutante, and Daria a mere stain to be kept hidden away.
As for Marcus, he fell even more in love with Daria than he had been when he saw her perform live.
-60s-
November continued like this, with Daria spending Saturday afternoons through Sunday mornings at Marcus’, and Jane and James spending time in one of their dorm rooms. On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, however, Marcus made a suggestion.
“Really?” was Daria’s response.
Marcus nodded. “We can work out the details if you’re interested and you think it will work.”
“How expensive is summer school? I mean, there’s tuition, the dorm….”
Marcus merely shook his head and shrugged at those details. “I was just offered a grant to spend just over two weeks at Oxford for research. I was thinking you could, well, officially stay in the apartment and be the house-sitter.” There was the mother-in-law apartment over the large double garage, after all.
Daria smirked. “Officially? Dare I ask about ‘unofficially’?”
“It would be up to you where you want to sleep.” Marcus decided to enhance the offer, although he didn’t know if it would make it more or less appealing. “If you would be more comfortable with the arrangement, Jane could stay there as well, although there would be one catch.”
“And that would be?”
“She really couldn’t have anyone over,” he pointed out. After all, that would almost certainly reveal that Daria was not sleeping in the apartment.
“Tempting.” Daria smiled, “With or without Jane.”
“I know you can afford the tuition, but I would of course pay for yours, and Jane’s if she’s here. You need to get phys ed classes out of the way, the summer has a lot of different classes for that. Considering what you said about your mother’s family, there’s a special history course the dean teaches – how to do genealogy – it’s actually spread over both summer sessions. Take a regular class in the first session and that, plus the gym classes.”
Daria smiled slyly. “I like how you think.” She paused, and looked at him shyly. “And if we’re still together?”
“Then I would hope we’ll want to continue the arrangement. If your parents send rent money, you can keep it.”
-60s-
Daria put a sanitized version of the arrangement to her parents that Wednesday at dinner. The idea surprised all three, but only Quinn had a quick response. “Great, the less you’re around here dressed like THAT the better.”
As Daria was dressed in a nice blouse, skirt, hose, and shoes, her hair held by barrettes, both she and her parents were confused. Helen spoke first. “Quinn! There is nothing wrong with how your sister is dressed!”
Quinn sniffed. “Sorry, I was thinking of the hobo look she was wearing on tv.”
“Daria got us permission to film that entire weekend, and her set was featured on a number of network stations, all getting a great deal of positive feedback, from both the viewers and more importantly our sponsors,” Jake stated. His tone turned scolding. “Since that weekend of shooting earned me a five percent raise, and that got you an equal percentage raise in your allowance, I guess I can cut that off since you disapprove.”
Quinn was outraged by that, but seeing her mother was not objecting, she decided to keep further comments to herself. She merely sulked until she left to go shopping Friday morning.
“I think this shows how well you are regarded by the faculty,” Jake told Daria. “If you two do a good job, I presume it will earn you at least a good recommendation letter.”
“I would hope so,” Daria agreed.
“Not to mention having a recommendation from a faculty landlord should help you and Jane with getting your next apartments,” Jake mused.
Helen nodded, but noting a slight blush on Daria, had to wonder if perhaps there wasn’t something more than just living off campus that interested one of the two girls in the professor’s offer. From how Daria described Professor Church, Helen suspected it might be Daria – and that this might actually be a decent match. Therefore, Helen merely smiled, agreed to the idea, and said nothing more. This could of course be very unconventional (though far from unknown), and would have been even more potentially scandalous just a few years ago, but Helen thought, if that was what was going on, Daria (unlike Quinn) might be able to actually handle it – and keep any irregular relationship quiet and hidden. Helen still thought the most important ‘degree’ a young woman could have was an ‘Mrs’ and she hoped any short-term irregularities would be covered by a subsequent marriage.
As for Quinn, she might have to give up her volunteer hours with the DAR (which her mother had placed her in) and up her hours with the United Daughters of the Confederacy – her grandmother paid her for the ‘volunteer’ hours with that group.
-60s-
Returning after the short break, Daria and Jane still had three weeks of class plus finals to get through. Amy had read through Daria’s medieval novel, and had loved it on all levels. She had already passed it on to one of her literary agent friends, who had not yet gotten back to her. Daria had then sent Amy what she had for her Haight novel. Daria had not shown it to Marcus, although she had mentioned it. She had, however, shown it to Jane at various stages. Afterall, it was based on their summer in San Francisco. Although neither of the main characters were self-insertions this time, Jane had been part of the experience, and some of the situations being adapted had happened to Jane or to the pair of them. Jane, however, liked what she had seen, and had even volunteered to sign a waiver. In the end, characters based on both Jane and Daria would appear in the novel – mostly in the form of buskers, providing the roles of background commentators on the evolving crowd in the area.
Jane would also check each draft to make certain no one else would be identifiable – the few real people being mentioned were all in the background. Real concerts and similar events were being used, but there would be nothing to embarrass the people Daria and Jane had met, especially not those who they had befriended to some degree. All this would earn Jane 10% of what Daria made off the book.
60s
The final three weeks of the semester was a bit busier than usual – unsurprising since there were papers due and, for Daria and others, concerts to prepare for, and for Jane and other artists there was an end of the semester exhibition. The orchestra’s ‘tour’ went in a different direction than the previous year, and so nowhere near Daria’s hometown. Some of Jane’s drawings and one of her ceramic pieces won awards at the exhibition.
Daria and Marcus were still able to spend late Saturday afternoons through early Sunday mornings together, but they had to give up the early afternoons, and one Saturday altogether. Jane had agreed to the summer plan, and Daria and Jane were able to plan their spring and summer schedules as preregistration period occurred during those last few weeks.
That one Saturday was spent in Baltimore with Trent and the rest of Spiral. A record executive Amy knew had heard Daria’s set from the be-in, and she convinced him to arrange some demos for both Daria and the Spiral. The Spiral recorded a dozen songs, three written by Trent, three by Daria for the band, and six co-written by the two. Daria, much more reluctantly, recorded a dozen of her own songs as well. (All of Daria’s professionally published writing, including these songs, would be under the name DL Morgan – while not Jewish, she knew Morgendorffer sounded that way, and there of course still antisemitism around, and there was often an anti-feminine bias as well, and she also wanted to insure some separation from her writing persona.)
The executive did not think Daria had a good chance at a decent solo career (as the folk circuit was beginning to dry up a bit). He did like the sketch Jane had designed for both album covers. He also believed he could use the recordings to get some of the people on his label to do covers of at least some of the songs. There was also a slightly better chance of getting at least some good gigs for the Spiral with their having an album. Neither Daria’s songs (released as an album) nor the Spiral’s album cracked any top 100 charts, but they both came close. Several of Daria’s songs were professionally covered, and the Spiral gained a career as a moderately well-known east coast band. Combined with some summer work as a wedding band, they would finally start making a living on their music.
Best of all for Daria, Amy’s agent friend contacted her about her medieval novel. He was enthused by it, and after a short exchange he went to work to get her novel accepted by a publisher. He did tell her this might take some time. Daria had sent Amy a detailed, updated outline of her Haight novel, and the agent (when shown it) was sure this would help him successfully peddling the first. Many publishers were wary of first-time authors, who often turned into one-time writers.
-60s-
Daria was therefore very pleased as the semester came to a close. To her slight surprise, she even managed to earn a 4.0 GPA that semester. (Jane was nearly as happy with a 3.74). Daria knew she would miss Marcus. She blushed when she gave him his Christmas present – a pair of nude drawings of her Jane had made for her especially for this purpose. She was happy with her present – a set of books, none of which she had read but all of which wanted to.
-60s-
Sign up to rate and review this story