Daria in: The Lawndale Reunion
By: Claudette Helstrom

Part One: The Invitation

Summary: Twenty years after graduating from Lawndale High, Daria gets invited to her high school reunion. She decides not to go…until an outside force decides to step in.
Highland, Texas
Daria groaned as she pulled into the driveway. She could hear the loud garage band from a block away, and after the day she had at the high school, she wasn't ready to hear this.

As Daria got out of her car, she remembered a conversation she had had with the band. They had promised to end practices before Daria got home. She was starting to wonder if any of them had a watch…or if they just had selective memories.

Daria opened her garage door and glared in at the band. The drummer Alicia, the keyboardist Meredith, and the bass player Ashley all stopped immediately. However, the guitarist was off in her own world. Daria cleared her throat and the red head stopped. She looked at Daria innocently.

"Is it five o'clock already?" she asked in an overly sweet tone. "Sorry, but we thought we had more time."

A corner of Daria's mouth went up and down so fast only the red head caught it.

"I'll even take you out to dinner. You like Burger World, right?"

"Mercedes, you know that I have to put up with brain-dead high school students all day," Daria reminded the fifteen year old.

"I'm offended. For that, I demand you take me to Burger World!"

Daria suppressed a chuckle. "Okay, I'll take you to Burger World! But don't come running to me when you get E. coli."

"Thanks, Mom. We'll finish up right now. Your mail's on the kitchen table."

Daria shook her head. Mercedes definitely had Morgendorffer genes…Quinn Morgendorffer genes. She told Mercedes to be ready in ten minutes, and then she went into the house. She walked into the kitchen and found the mail exactly where Mercedes said it would be, on the kitchen table. She found a particular letter of interest…or disinterest, depending on how one looked at it…from Lawndale High. She opened it up and read the letter.

Dear Graduating Class of 2002,
Lawndale High is having its 20 year reunion March 26, 2022. We would love to see you there! Please fill out and return the enclosed information card to RSVP by March 8. Thank you and see you at Lawndale High!

Sincerely,
Jodie Landon-Mackenzie
2002 Class President


A high school reunion? Why would Daria Morgendorffer, a writer/English teacher at Highland High, want to go to a high school reunion to see the people she tried best to avoid the first time around?

"Mom?" a voice asked from behind.

"Eep!" Daria exclaimed, a bit surprised. She turned around to see Mercedes standing behind her.

"I'm ready," Mercedes said.

"Oh. Okay, I'm almost ready." Daria put down the letter and then left to get changed out of her long purple skirt and matching sweater into something more…herself. When she came back down a few minutes later in her black skirt, orange shirt, and green jacket, she saw Mercedes looking at the letter.

"Are you going to this, Mom?"

"Have you hit your head recently?"

Mercedes put down the letter and looked at her mother. "It might be fun! I mean, yeah, I know how you hated high school. As if the stories from you weren't enough, but the stories from Grandma and Aunt Quinn…oh, yeah, anyway…you had to have liked some aspects of high school. Like…your friends?"

"My friends wouldn't go to my high school reunion," Daria reasoned.

"How do you know? Maybe they would! Anyway, you did write two best sellers, and you have another one in the works. All my friends love Melody Powers. So you're a high school teacher…ignore that and rub their noses in the fact that you're more well known than the so called 'popular' kids."

"Bad day at school?"

"Why else would I suggest we eat some place that serves exotic viruses warm on a tray?"


Later that night, Daria considered what Mercedes had said, about rubbing her popularity in the faces of the popular kids. But the fashion fiends were a year younger than her, and she didn't mind Kevin and Brittany. And Jodie and Mack were pretty decent. That was really no reason for Daria to go back to her reunion.

But Mercedes had also suggested she go to see her friends. Jane wouldn't go to a high school reunion…or would she? Daria just didn't know.

After considering it, she decided it was just best not to go. There was really no reason to.

Meanwhile, in Mercedes room, she was filling out the reply card that came with the letter. She knew that if she were as famous as her mother was, she wouldn't be living in Highland, and she would definitely go to her high school reunion. Her mom already screwed up one facet of being famous, and Mercedes wasn't going to let her throw the other away.

"And maybe I can get a whole weekend of band practice out of it," she told herself. "All I have to do is convince Mom to go."

Deciding that she should later thank her Aunt Quinn for suggesting Mercedes RSVP for her mother, Mercedes wondered if she could have a party that weekend, too…