Dark Secrets WIP

by Desanera

On Hold

Dark Secrets by Desanera

This story is set after Write Where it Hurts, because that's when it was conceived. I could have updated it, but it would have wrecked the story. This is not a canon fic, it's my little tangent based loosely on the Dariaverse. No point bugging me about it.

Warning - this is a slightly darker piece of Daria fiction. It was inspired, in part by that silly MTV promo "What is the dark secret of Daria's past? What is the dark secret of Daria's Future? What is the dark filling in the cupcakes in the school cafeteria?" Well, this fanfic will answer one of these, at least.

Daria, Jane, Lawndale and all the Darianites belong to MTV. There's no point in suing me, I have no money and am certainly not getting any for this fanfic.

Nina Perez and Violet Isis are the sole property of me and are copyrighted. Anyone who quotes so much as a line without my permission will be hunted down and skinned alive by the Queen of Blades. And then she'll start the torture.

Prologue.  Memory Calls. Scene 1:  [Lawndale High - Mr. O'Neill's English Literature class.]

Mr. O'Neill: ...And so we have Edgar Allen Poe's gripping story about one man's decent into madness. Now...

Jane: Why the assumption that The Tell Tale Heart's about a man's decent into madness? Poe never gives the killer a gender.

(Everyone looks surprised, as Jane usually doesn't speak up in class)

Mr. O'Neill: (pauses, confused) You know, I never thought about it that way before....

Kevin:(rolling his eyes) Oh, please. No woman could strangle a guy and chop him up and.....

Brittany: (shrieking) Kevvie! Stop it! That's disgusting!

Kevin: (looking vacant as usual) But baabe! No woman is strong enough to beat up a guy and hack through all that bone and... Ow!

Brittany: (having just smacked Kevin upside the head) I told you to cut it out!!!!!!

Kevin: Ok babe - just stop hitting me!

Jane: Gee Kevin, Brittany must be *awfully* strong if she can beat up a football player.

Mr. O'Neill: (getting frustrated) Does anyone ELSE have any observations?

(No one answers. He scans the room, finally settling on...) Daria?

Daria: (sighs) The killer could be either male or female. Poe doesn't give many indications either way. This renders the reader more likely to put him or herself in the killer's position. Poe wants the reader to understand the killer's point of view.

Mr. O'Neill: Wonderful observation Daria! But why would Poe want to do that?

Daria: (sighing) You have to look at the way Poe defines madness. The killer, whether male or female is not intrinsically evil. The killer just has a heightened awareness. Poe is saying that the madness is in the details, and essentially defining madness as paying attention. The sane people are the ones who don't notice half of what goes around them.

(She gives a sidelong look at Brittany and Kevin who are passing notes to each other.)

Mr. O'Neill: Umm, that's a fascinating, if somewhat morbid observation....

Daria: Its also an interesting observation on the nature of reality. I mean, if everyday life is so frightening that noticing it in any kind of detail makes you insane......

(The bell rings, and Mr. O'Neill sighs in relief)

Mr O'Neill: OK, that's it for today. Everyone remember tomorrow is the Cask of Amontillado. Let me know beforehand if any of you have claustrophobia…

(Everyone files out of class without paying attention to him.)

Scene 2: [In the hallway..]

Jane: Nice work in there. You could almost see his brain twisting into a knot.

Daria: Nice work yourself. Since when did you speak up in class?

Jane: Since Mr. O'Neill made such an obvious blunder. (she pauses) You know, its kind of weird. He's usually so PC."

Daria:(frowning) Yeah.... (she stares off for a moment, lost in thought)

Jane: Don't tell me you're worried about him?

(Daria glares at her)

Daria: No. If his head hasn't caved in yet, it probably won't for a while.

Jane: As long as I have my sketchbook with me when it does...

(Daria smirks. They reach her locker and Daria pulls out a little bottle of water and a couple of pills. She looks down the hallway, sees that no one is watching and downs the pills. Jane watches with amusement.)

Jane: That the medication they gave you for the rash?

Daria: No, they're my birth control pills. Can't serve the depraved needs of Lawndale's upper crust without them.

(They hear a strangled sound a few feet away. They look up to see Brittany and Kevin are looking at Daria with horror. They run off before anyone can say anything, and Jane starts laughing hysterically.)

Daria:(glaring) Thanks a lot Jane.

Jane: (trying to stifle her giggles) Sorry. Hey - the medicine must be working - no rash!

Daria: (examining her hand) That, and I'm not exactly worried.

Jane: Why not?

Daria: That's one rumor I doubt anyone will believe.

Scene 3: [Morgandorffer Residence]

(Daria has just arrived home and sees everyone waiting for her on the sofa.)

Daria:(rolling her eyes) Oh boy...

Jake: (fuming) Dammit Daria - we don't spend all this money putting you through school so you can become a ......

Helen: Jake - cut it out. Daria, there seem to be some interesting rumors floating around your school. (Daria glares at Quinn who is trying to look innocent and failing miserably.) Any ideas how those rumors got started?

Daria:(innocently) What rumors?

(Her parents go through about 10 minutes of stuttering until Quinn pipes up)

Quinn: Brittany told Kevin, who told ...Jeremy who told Allison, little tramp, who told me that Daria said she's working as a high class cold girl.

Daria: That's 'call' girl Quinn.

Jake:(exploding) YOU MEAN ITS TRUE?!?!?!?!

Helen: Shut up Jake. (turning to Daria) Daria, did you have anything to do with these rumors? An off-hand sarcastic remark perhaps?

Daria:(sarcastically) Gee Mom, I have no idea what you mean.

Helen:(exasperated) Daria - how many times do I have to tell you that not everyone appreciates your ...unique sense of humor, and that ...certain people are liable to take what you say literally?

Quinn: Not that anyone would believe THAT anyway.

(Everyone looks at Quinn surprised)

Quinn:(continuing) After all, Brittany said the pills were in a bottle, and everyone knows birth control pills come in one of those day to day thingies......

(She senses the parental glares) What?

Helen: Daria - why don't you go to your friend's house. Your father and I want to have a talk with Quinn.

Quinn:(Talking fast) Um, Mom, I'd really love to, but you know the Fashion Club is having an emergency meeting about doing community service at the animal shelter...

Helen:(warningly) Quinn...

(Daria smiles, and goes outside. She picks up the mail and ducks back inside for a minute to sort through it.)

Daria: Bill, bill, Subscription to Sick Sad World the magazine...Hmm, maybe. Bill, What's this?

(Its a plain white envelope with Daria's name and address done in computer script. She flips it to the back to see the return address. A faint odor wafts up from it and Daria sniffs lightly, and the color drains from her face.)

Helen: Daria, is that the mail? Daria? (looks at her daughter) Daria - are you all right?

Daria: (after a pause) Yeah.

Helen:(noticing the envelope in Daria's hand) Who's that from sweetie?

Daria: (After another pause) No one. (She drops it in the trash)

Helen:(puzzled) Well, aren't you going to read it?

Daria: (regaining some color, but sounding more deadpan than usual.)

Its just junk mail.

(She leaves for Jane's. Helen looks at the envelope with curiosity)

Helen:(to herself) Hmmm. I know I shouldn't pry, but it upset her so much....

(She looks at the envelope. The flap is lightly stuck on, and a quick flick of a finger has it open. She pulls out a blank card.)

Helen: (to herself) Hmmm. (she sniffs it, puzzled) Its perfumed - roses.

(A high pitched squeal from Quinn distracts Helen and she lets the envelope fall back into the garbage)

Scene 4: [Lane Residence, Jane's Room]

(Daria and Jane are on Jane's bed, watching TV, trying to ignore the occasional acoustic shock waves from the basement.)

TV: Are the ghosts of Presidents past trying to influence current affairs of state, by possessing high class call girls? Presidential playmates, next, on Sick Sad World!

Jane: Guess you're heading to D.C. Daria - that's where all the real call-girl action is!

(Daria doesn't answer)

Jane: Daria? (Daria is sitting motionless with no expression on her face)

Jane:(waving a hand in front of Daria's face) Earth to Daria? Daria? (puts her hand down) Uh-oh. Houston, I think we have a problem.

(A sound wave rumbles the room, waking Daria from her daze, and tossing several small objects around the room. Daria picks one up and notices that it, and most of the objects in Jane's room are wrapped in cotton.)

Daria:(giving Jane a look) Um, Jane...?

Jane: Today, we have the full contingent of Mystik Spiral in the basement. Thankfully I found out about it beforehand and was able to take the proper precautions.

Daria: I was wondering why the place looked like a bomb shelter.

Jane: Yeah - I'm thinking about installing padding, like in your room. Or, I could just send them over to practice in your basement....

(Daria gives Jane a mild glare, and starts sinking back into her daze.)

Jane: OK Daria - spill it - what's going on?

Daria: (shaken out of her daze) What do you mean?

Jane: Ever since you got over here you've been spacing out, and I know its not the good kind of spacing out because I haven't even mentioned Trent yet.

Daria: (glares at Jane) It's nothing.

Jane: Come on Daria - tell me, or ... I'll torture your sister for the information.

Daria: That's a threat?

Jane: No, but I'll take any excuse I can get.

Daria: (smiles, then sighs) Jane, do you ever think about ...stupid mistakes you've made?

Jane: (joking) OK - who's been talking?

Daria: (glaring) I'm serious. I mean... things from your past...?

Jane: No, a tortured background looks good on an artist's resume. Why? Scared that your wonder years at Lawndale High will get you banned from the Supreme Court?

Daria: Um...no. Never mind. It's probably nothing anyway.

Jane: (looking a little worried) You sure?

Daria: Yeah.

Jane: Good. Now - how about we go downstairs and complain about the noise?

Daria: Um, the noise isn't that bad, really...

Jane: OK, so how about we go downstairs and listen to them practice?

Daria: Jane - the racket is barely tolerable up here. If we go downstairs, we may lose our hearing for good.

Jane: All right! So lets go down and complain about the noise!

(She takes Daria by the arm and drags her down the stairs. Daria sighs and gives in, realizing that one way or another, she's going to end up downstairs)

Scene 5: [Lane Residence, Basement]

(Ridiculously loud music is blasting from the basement. Daria and Jane slip in quietly - not that they need to- and sit on the basement steps. The full contingent of Mystik Spiral is present, tripling the band's normal volume. )

Jesse and Trent:

I hope you're happy, watching my pain,

Burning crop circles in my soul's waves of grain.

We had no love scene, but you've cut to the chase

You're cutting off my nose, to SPITE MY FACE!

Oww!, my nose!

Oww!, my face!

Oww!, my nose!

Oww!, my face!

Owwwwww!

(The last chord that they strike causes a rickety shelf next to Daria and Jane to shake apart. Jane springs up and grabs Daria, pulling her to safety just as the shelf spills a lot of CD's where the girls were just sitting.)

Jane: Hey - watch out! (gives a disgusted glance at Trent) I don't think you guys can afford to start killing off fans.

(Trent starts to give a retort and breaks off, staring off to Jane's left. Jane follows his glance. Daria is standing with one of Trent's fallen CD's in her hands, almost cradling it. She's looking down on it and smiling, an expression devoid of its usual sarcasm. Trent goes over to her and looks at the CD.  It's a recordable CD, and the cover was obviously done on someone's PC. The graphic is, among other things, of an Egyptian horned sun disc with the horns in gold and the sun in purple. )

Trent: Hey Daria - I didn't know you were into Violet Isis.

Daria: (softly, almost to herself) I didn't know anyone else besides me had heard of them. (realizes Trent is staring at her and blushes slightly)

Daria: (handing the CD back to him) I only have their first album - on tape. They must have hit it big to have a CD.

Trent: Nah - singer's brother burned it for them. How'd you get the first album - almost no one has that.

Daria: Umm, I used to know somebody back in Highland.

(Jane, Jesse and Trent give her a surprised look. Nick and Max are having a small argument about a drum riff)

Jesse:(coming over) How about a deal?

Daria: A deal?

(The drum riff argument is growing louder. Trent steals a look back at them and frowns.)

Jesse: You let us make a copy of your tape and we'll make you a copy of the CD.

Daria: Um, sure.

Trent: Cool. You can borrow the CD until we make the copies.

Daria: (eyes widening) Thanks.

Trent: No problem. (in a loud voice that ends the argument) OK - lets take it from the top.

Jane: OK - (tugging Daria) we're going back to the safety of my padded room. Less danger of falling objects.

(as they leave)

Trent: OK - we should probably turn the amp *down* a bit.

(Jesse looks at him strangely)

(Trent looks at the shattered shelf and the stuff strewn on the floor)

Trent: Less to clean up.

Jesse: Oh.

(Back in Jane's room)

Jane:(smirking) Getting kind of cozy in there - weren't we?

Daria: What do you mean?

Jane: Trent NEVER lends anyone his CD's.

Daria: Jane - don't start on that again.

Jane: I'm serious, he ... Wait a minute! Who do you know in Highland that's into Violet Isis? They're actually cool, and they're from New York, and from what you told me of Highland, it's the last place you would pick up anything that even Trent can't get.

Daria: Just someone I met -  the summer before I moved to Lawndale.

Jane:(in her french accent) Ooh - lala! Do I senze a leetle summer romance here?

Daria:(smirking) I don't think she would have gone for it.

Jane: Oh. (Thinking about it for a minute) A good friend?

Daria: (pausing to think it over) Well, kind of.

Jane: (Intrigued) Kind of?

Daria: We were in hell at the time, so I wasn't really sure.

Jane: You mean more Hell than usual?

Daria: That summer makes ordinary life look upbeat and perky. Brittany perky.

Jane: Oooh - sounds like an interesting story.

Daria: Yes, and it's one you'll never get to hear.

Jane: (mock chiding) Daria - you can't keep hiding things from me.

Daria: As I recall, you wanted me to hide the Brittany/Kevin wedding story under the biggest rock I could find.

Jane: No, no, no. I said to tear it into pieces, soak them so the ink runs, dry them, *burn* them and hide the *ashes* under the biggest rock you could find.

Daria :(smirking) Oh, my mistake.

Scene 6: [Morgandorffer Residence, Daria's Bedroom.]

(Having successfully evaded more questions about Highland, and other remarks about Trent's CD, and having also evaded quality time with her parents, our heroine settles down to a well-earned rest. She looks at the CD again, than puts it in and starts to play it as she lays down to think. She ends up falling asleep just as it gets to Track 7 - Illusion Glass. The singing is soft but intense, and the electric guitar behind the words slide from soft to frenzied back to soft after each chorus.)

"Bow your head and follow.

Go where he has led.

Don't look up and don't look back at all.

Blind and deaf and stupid

Kill the voices in your head.

The banshee wails that scream at you to run.

Follow - to a blissful death.

Scamper - to a waking hell.

I won't go on, but I can't go back

And will I sell my soul for that

Illusionary dream that you're offering me.

(The song continues..)

(Daria wakens slowly at the end of this track, tears running down her face for the first time in  two years. She curls up into a little ball, holding her pillow against her face. Slowly, she softens her breathing, turning it from almost-sobs to slow, even breaths. With an almost painful amount of control, she fixes her face to her normal expressionless state. Uncurling herself from her bed, she takes the CD cover and goes to the mirror.)

Daria: Damn it. Why is it that everything I want to forget - you want to remember?

(She is answered by a voice from her memory)

Voice: We can't ever forget D. Those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them. (Softer) Goddess knows I couldn't live through that again.

(Daria does not answer the voice. Instead, she slips her diary out from underneath her pillow and writes in it furiously until dawn. She has time for a couple hours of sleep before she has to wake for school. And with all luck, they will be dreamless.)

-End Prologue-

Chapter 1. It Begins. Scene 1: [Lawndale High, Mr. DeMartino's History Class.

(Mr. DeMartino's about three seconds from postal. In other words, a normal history class)

Kevin: (with all idiotic confidence) I'm telling you man, Moby Dick got swallowed by the whale in the Bible!

Brittany: Um, Kevvie, I thought Moby Dick was the whale in the Bible.

Kevin: Don't be silly. What could swallow a whale. Think about it.

(Cut to Daria, Jane and Jodie, who has her head in her hands. I don't blame her, this degree of stupidity is painful. Even Upchuck looks pained.)

Jane: (amused grin) Kevin said think. Isn't that one of the seven signs?

Daria: Yes. The seven signs that prove there is no intelligent life on this planet…

Mr. DeMartino: (interrupting)  MOBY DICK WAS NOT IN THE BIBLE!

Jodie: (head in hands) How did we even get on this subject – this is History Class.

Jane: Do you really want to track the stupidity that got us here?

Daria: You couldn't even if you wanted to. The birdbrains ate all the breadcrumbs.

(Cut back to Kevin and Brittany)

Kevin: So if Moby Dick didn't get swallowed by the whale in the bible, um, who did?

(Cut to Jane)

Jane: Oh, this ought to be good.

Brittany: (squeaking) Ishmael?

(loud groan heard from Jodie, half-strangled scream heard from Mr. DeMartino)

Upchuck: (looking strained) Um, sweetness Ishmael was never in the Bible

Kevin: Yeah, duh. Everyone knows it was Ahab.

Upchuck: (who's had enough) Are you nuts? Ishmael and Ahab weren't in the Bible, and neither was Moby Dick!

(Cut to Jane, Jodie and Daria. All three are wearing very surprised looks on their faces.)

Jane: Intelligence? From Upchuck? Dare we dream?

Daria: Just wait for it.

Kevin: So if you're such a smarty pants, then who got swallowed by the whale in the Bible?

Jodie: Any moment now. (Surprised looks from Daria and Jane)

(pause)

Upchuck: (with an air of supreme superiority) Moses. Any simpleton knows that.

(DeMartino starts sputtering incoherently.)

Mack: (wincing) Well, Moses was in the Bible.

Jane: (amused) Are you still looking for sense in this conversation?

Kevin: (reasonable voice) Dude – I saw the Ten Commandments, and there weren't no whales in it. (pause) Or, were there?

Brittany: Well, there was water in it.

Daria: That's the closest thing to an intelligent comment I've heard all class.

Jodie: Sad, isn't it.

(The speaker chooses this moment to blare to life)

Ms. Li's voice: Jane Lane – come to my office immediately!

Daria: What did you do?

Jane: Don't know. (mock enthusiasm) But I can't wait to find out!

(Daria gives her a look)

Jane: Sorry, I think this conversation is dulling my brain. If I'm not back by sundown, avenge my death.

(She leaves)

Mr. DeMartino: I KNOW I'm asking too MUCH to hope for an intelligent answer. But BRITTANY – would you like to try another GUESS!

Brittany: (tentative) Maybe it was David?

(DeMartino opens a drawer on his desk, inside are a bunch of stress relieving toys. He chooses a small ball and begins squeezing it with one hand)

(Mack gets a thoughtful look on his face.)

Daria: What is it?

Mack: I'm trying to figure out which one is the bigger idiot.

Jodie: Don't hurt yourself.

Kevin: Yeah – it must have been David in the Ten Commandments, cause Moses was in the desert movie with all the salt, and the chicks with all the eyeliner. Um, no wait.

(DeMartino is strangling the stress ball at this point)

Jodie: Five bucks says Kevin throws Jesus in the whale.

Daria: Ten says DeMartino strangles Kevin when it happens.

Mack: Fifteen says Ms. Li has to call the security guards like last month.

Brittany: David was the lions. Or was that Daniel.

Kevin: (in a tone of patient explanation) Babe – we're the Lions. You know, Lawndale?

Upchuck: David fought the giant Goliath

Andrea: Guards and straitjacket.

Jodie: The straitjackets are in storage, she won't dig them out. Handcuffs maybe, but not the jacket.

Andrea: Twenty says she will.

Daria, Mack and Jodie: Deal.

Ms. Li's Voice: Daria Morgandorffer – come to my office NOW!

(At the last word, the stress ball explodes, showering ground walnut dust all over the classroom. Several students start sneezing, as DeMartino sits, grumbling with a pile of the dust on his head.)

Mack: OK, that was kind of cool.

Jodie: (speaking to Daria) What did you do?

Daria: (thoughtful air) Darn, she must have found the poisoned coffee in the teacher's lounge. Time to put her down for good. (turns to Jodie) I'll call you in ten minutes. Bring a mop.

(Right after she leaves the room, Kevin throws Jesus into the whale and it takes three of Ms. Li's security guards to keep Mr. DeMartino from strangling Kevin and force him into a straitjacket. An amused Jodie and Mack fork over twenty bucks each – the spectacle was worth the price. )

[Lawndale High, Outside, In the Parking Lot]

(Daria encounters a very sober-looking Jane sitting down on the curb.)

Daria: (sitting next to Jane) You ok?

Jane: (pause) She told you?

Daria: (slightly puzzled) Just to meet you in the front and that we'd better be back here tomorrow.

Jane: (quiet voice) It's Trent. He's in the hospital.

Daria: He's sleeping and he can't get up? (Jane glares at her) It's not serious, is it?

Jane: (shaken) Near as the police can tell, he was driving out by the Big Strawberry last night when his car smashed into a tree.  They didn't say it, but they think he fell asleep at the wheel.

Daria: How is he?

Jane: It's… it's bad Daria. He's got some broken ribs, a concussion, and a couple of long glass slivers they had to pull out of his stomach. Hand's busted too, though not broken. The band only found out about it this morning. Jesse called us out of school, he'll be by in a minute to pick us up. (gets uncertain all of a sudden) I mean… if you want…

Daria: (quiet) Sure. Beats watching Mr. O'Neill's head implode in English. That gets old after the first twenty times.

(The two manage a shaky smile that doesn't last long.)

Scene 2: [Cedars of Lawndale Hospital, Trent Lane's Hospital Room]

(Trent's hospital room. He's lying on the bed, bandaged on the head, around the stomach and around one arm. Daria and Jane come into the room. Trent's eyes are wide open.)

Trent: Hey guys.

Jane: (Trying not to appear worried) Hey Trent.

Daria: How are you feeling?

Trent: (morose) Awful.

Jane: That bad, huh?

Trent: Yeah – they won't let me sleep.

(Daria smirks and Jane snickers)

Trent: (matter of fact) It's serious Janey.

Jane: (exasperated) You big dummy. You just had surgery, the car's wrapped around a tree, and you're worried because they won't let you sleep?!?

Trent: (explanation voice) Janey - there's nothing on TV. I'm sucking food down a tube (waves to the IV in his arm). There are sixty-four ceiling tiles, and they're kinda green. There's no music, no guitar – Face it - sleep's where it's at.

(Daria takes off her backpack and starts digging in it, moving over towards the nightstand.)

Jane: Trent, isn't that what got you into the hospital bed in the first place?

Trent: No, some asshole in a black Chevy got me into the hospital.

Jane: (puzzled) Where does the black Chevy come into it?

Trent: Got run off the road. Dude just kept hammering into my car. Wouldn't let loose. Tried to get away when I hit the tree.

(Daria, who has managed to find Trent's lyric book in her backpack, drops it on the nightstand by accident.)

Daria: (blushing slightly) Oops, sorry.

Trent: Hey – my song book. (He slides it off the nightstand.) Thanks! I was getting bored in here. (Starts flipping pages) Tea Leaves? Musta been early morning when we wrote this one. Heatproof kitchen glove though, that's not bad.

(Daria rolls her eyes, and turns towards the nightstand. As she does, she notices a paper cup holding a small black rose.)

Daria: (quiet voice) Trent – where did you get this? (She pulls the rose out of the cup and examines the stem.)

Trent: What? (looks over) Oh, that. Must have been one of our fans.

Jane: Trent, please. All of Mystik Spiral's fans are in this room.

Trent: Hey – lots of people dig our sound!

Jane: (muttering) Except for people in black Chevy's. (winces, she already knows it was a bad thing to say)

Trent: Real funny.

Jane: (softer voice) Sorry Trent. It's, just, well – I got worried. And scared. And I have a big mouth. (sighs) Don't suppose you got the license plate?

(A slight splash is heard in the background, but both siblings are too into the argument to notice)

Trent: (only slightly annoyed) I was kinda busy keeping out of the gorge at the time. Next time I'll be sure to stop and ask.

Jane: (anxious) Trent – this is serious. We gotta get the cops on this one.

Trent: (mollifying) The cops were by earlier – I gave them a description..

Jane: (starting to get angry) Yeah? Well that's not enough! No one rams a Lane and gets away with it.

Trent: Chill Janey. I want him busted as much as you do.

Jane: Who's talking about jail? Twenty minutes in the alley with a bat, that's all I need. Daria will be lookout – won't you?

(silence)

Jane: (waving hand) Daria. Back me up. Any time now.

Trent: (turning around) Daria?

(silence)

Jane: (turning around) Daria?

Trent: DARIA!

(Daria snaps out of the daze she's been in.)

Daria: Yeah? (catches Jane and Trent's stares) What?

(They point to her hand. Bits of broken stem and petal poke out from her tightened fingers. Blood is dripping off of her fist to drip softly in a puddle of red and black on the floor.)

Daria: (looks at her fist with a vaguely puzzled air.) Oh. (looks down at the floor) Sorry. (she takes a paper napkin from the counter with her good hand and starts cleaning up the blood. Her fist is still clenched around the rose.)

Scene 3: [Cedars of Lawndale, Hallway outside of Trent's room]

(Jane and Jesse are propped against the wall of the hallway.)

Jesse: Didn't it hurt?

Jane: (starts demonstrating with gestures) The nurse had to pry her hand open (she brings her fist in front of her face and forces it open with her other hand), tie open her hand to a splint to keep her from closing it so she could take out the smushed rose, pluck out the thorns , and then go in with tweezers to get the little pieces out. Then she had to take a sterilized needle and dig…

Jesse: (cringing) I get the point.

Jane: No, the point is she didn't move one muscle through the entire thing, and Daria's a pain wimp. That and she took out three orderlies before they got her tied down.

Jesse: How come they had to force her fist open?

Jane: She wouldn't let go of the rose. And when I told her to let go, she smiled at me.

Jesse: (shaking head) Daria doesn't smile.

Jane: She does sometimes. But not like this. This was a smile with teeth.

Jesse: (tries to imagine it and fails, shudders) Whoa. 

Jane: I know, I just don't understand why… (breaks off as a nurse comes down the hallway, leading Daria to Jane. Daria is subdued, and allows the nurse to tug her by the hand.)

Nurse: (speaking as if to an idiot child) Now, here you are with your friend. Remember, you have to be more careful. You wouldn't want to worry your friends again, now would you?

Daria: (Quiet emotionless tone) No.

Nurse: Good. Bye bye!

(Jesse and Jane are staring at Daria)

Jane: I can't believe you just did that!

Daria: (momentarily at sea) What?

Jane: She was talking to you like a three year old, you should have let her have it.

Daria: (shrugs) Oh. (pause) Is Trent still awake?

Jesse: Yeah – he was worried. You should go in, let him know you're ok.

(Daria nods and enters the room.)

In Trent's Room

(The room has been cleaned, and Trent's sitting up. He looks relieved when Daria enters the room)

Trent: Hey Daria.

Daria: (not meeting Trent's eyes) Hey Trent.

Trent: You ok?

Daria: (puzzled look again) Not really. (examines her wounded hand) I'll live.

Trent: That's not what I meant.

Daria: (clenches her undamaged hand) Trent – I wanted to say… I'm sorry.

Trent: (lost) For what?

Daria: (quiet) The… accident. I didn't mean for you to get hurt. (Closes eyes) I didn't think…

Trent: You didn't put me here.

(Daria finally raises her head to meet his eyes and smiles. The eloquent pain in her eyes hits Trent like a physical blow and his fingers twitch in the direction of his lyric book. It will be the finest thing he ever writes, and will still come nowhere close.)

Daria: Yes. I did.

(She turns and quickly walks out the door, down the hall passing Jane without a word. Jane enters the room. Trent is scribbling madly in his lyric book. His eyes are wide, his face is flushed, and he's supporting the book on his damaged arm writing with the wrong hand, wincing from the pain every other sentence)

Jane: Trent – what the hell's going on? Daria just ran past me in the… (takes one look at her brother and her jaw drops)

Trent: (waves the pen wildly towards the door) Janey, go after her. She needs help.

Jane: (staring at a frenzied Trent) Trent?

Trent: (helpless gesturing from the book to the door, and back to the book) Dammit Janey - just go!

(Jane runs after Daria, grabbing her arm and forcing her to stop in the hallway.)

Jane: OK – spill. What's with you.

Daria: You don't want to know.

Jane: No, what I don't want is any more of this cloak and dagger crap. You've succeeded in freaking me, Trent and half the nursing staff at the hospital, now spill!

Daria: (monotone) It doesn't have anything to do with you. Just let it go.

Jane: (mock pensive) My brother is none of my business? That's a new one.

Daria: (takes a deep breath) You're right. Look… I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Jane: (not willing to wait) Daria…

Daria: (Stops and leans against the hallway, closing her eyes and knocking her head into the wall lightly) Please. Please Jane, just wait. Tomorrow.

Jane: (reluctant) Against my better judgment Daria. And it had better be good.

Daria: (grateful sigh) Yeah.

(Speaker on the wall blares to life announcing the end of visiting hours for the day)

Jane: Well, let's get you home before old Jake busts another pair of eyeballs looking for you. Don't know how you're going to explain the hand though. Snake-charming accident perhaps?

Daria: (turns so Jane misses the gentle chilling smile she gives) Don't worry about it. They'll never notice.

Scene 4: [Lawndale High, Inside Ms. Li's office.]

(An annoyed Ms. Li and a worried-looking Mr. O'Neill are staring down at a slightly haggard yet defiant Jane Lane. )

Ms. Li: And I suppose you have no idea concerning the whereabouts of Ms. Morgandorffer?

Jane: You're the one with the surveillance budget, you tell me.

Mr. O'Neill: Jane, this is serious. She could be in severe emotional distress!

Jane: (mumbling) Beats the severe mental distress in this school…

Ms. Li: (ignoring both) Am I supposed to believe it's a coincidence that she never returned to school after I graciously allowed the two of you to leave for the hospital?

Jane: Look, I already told you. We went to the hospital, she said she'd see me tomorrow, we dropped her off at her house, and that's the last anyone knows. (leans forward) What did her parents say?

Ms. Li: Um, hmmm, er..

Mr. O'Neill: (shocked) Angela?

Jane: That's what I thought. You figured if her parents are too self-absorbed to know when their daughter is missing, why should you bother them about it? Especially since you released her into the custody of irresponsible slacker musicians…

Mr. O'Neill: Jane, I'm sure you don't want to upset Daria's parents. After all, if she's lying to her parents about avoiding school, something's clearly wrong. She's sensitive, and parental criticism at this juncture could make the whole thing worse. (Jane and Li are giving him the "what planet are you from" look)

Jane: Here's the deal. Vacation's in two days. You let Daria and me off the hook for the week she's been out and the two days. Claim personal trauma, since my brother is in the hospital, and it is a matter of public record. I make sure that not only she returns to school, but that her parents don't hear a thing about you letting students off the grounds without parental authorization. You never have to hear about this again.

Ms. Li: You must be joking. That's not a deal, that's blackmail. Exactly what do I get out of this…arrangement?

Jane: I don't sic Big Bad Mama Morgandorffer on you.

Ms. Li: That doesn't compensate for the lost honor and glory of Laaaawndale High. Three extra-curricular activities next trimester.

Jane: Two. And neither of them include cheerleading.

Ms. Li: Three and one of them has to be yearbook.

Mr. O'Neill: Oh no, Anthony still has flashbacks from the last time. (brightens) How about theater? It's a great outlet for all this overwhelming teenage angst you two are going through, and it's a healthy way to do it in a supportive environment!

Jane: (mutters) Theater and one class party.

Ms. Li: Three.

Jane: Two.

Ms. Li: Two parties and a fund raiser.

Mr. O'Neill: (timid disapproval) I hardly think that bargaining is appropriate for such a serious situation…

Ms. Li: (strangled noise) Fine. Two.

Jane: Deal.

Mr. O'Neill: Wonderful! And I have two weeks to plan the perfect theatrical outlet for your talents!

(As Jane is being ushered out of the office)

Jane: Please, not the Wiz. Anything beats the Wiz. (Walks out of Ms. Li's office)

[Lawndale High, Hallways]

Jane: (talking to herself as she walks to her locker) If Daria were here, we'd have gotten off scott free.

Voice to the left: Nope. Best she could have done was nixed the theater bit.

Jane: Maybe, but I still should have…(whirls around looking for the voice) OK what the hell's going on?

(Andrea steps from the hallway)

Andrea: You want to know?

Jane: (sighs, annoyed) As fun as this round of 20 questions is, I really don't have time for games.

Andrea: You want to know where Daria is?

Jane: (raised eyebrow) And exactly how would you know?

Andrea: (raises eyebrow) You could try civility.

Jane: Try biting me, I'm not in a happy mood.

Andrea: (muttering to herself) Understatement of the decade.

Jane: (cracks knuckles) Let's try it this way. You tell me where Daria is, or I'll flay the skin off your body with burning brands and pour salt on the open wounds.

Andrea: (impressed) Cool (Jane makes a fist, Andrea smirks) Midnight. The Rotting Crow. By the python cage.

Jane: Are you out of your mind? That dive makes the Zen look like Romper Room.

Andrea: (disdain) The Zen is Romper Room.

Jane: (Can't really argue with that) Yeah, so how do I know you're on the level?

Andrea: You don't.

Jane: (incredulous) The Rotting Crow at Midnight? With that guarantee?

Andrea: (sighs) Talk to Princess Grace

Jane: Already tried that. Brat won't give me the time of day.

Andrea: Get her alone. You get better answers.

Jane: (suspicious) OK, I'll try it. (bell rings and Jane scans the waves of students for the Fashion Zombies) Why are you so helpful all of a sudden? (silence)

(Jane turns around to find Andrea gone)

Jane: Why am I suddenly talking to myself. Because I seem to be the only one around here capable of a straight answer? (shakes her head) Get a grip girl. (Sets off to find Quinn)

Scene 5: [The Rotting Crow, Inside the Bar Area]

(The Rotting Crow is located off the interstate, part of a run-down dairy farm turned into a rave club. Club-goers are very protective of their space and will harm anything looking remotely like a dumb frat kid suburbanite. If you don't look like you fit, you've got two choices. Initiation or bodily violence. Initiation consists of making ritual cuts in the inside of the thigh and rubbing them with a mixture of pigs blood and pepper. Imagine the bodily violence. Interior is divided into two zones, the Bar for drinking, the Dance Space for losing yourself – two extremes in one place. One place to be seen. One place to be hidden.)

(Jane, clad in raver gear sits on a rickety chair near a glass case containing a large python snake. She's trying to prop her feet so her boots don't come in contact with the grimy floor. Andrea, in leather jeans and a bodice comes over)

Jane: You're late.

Andrea: Half hour. Took time to get a ride.

Jane: You want to know how many scars I've seen tonight?

Andrea: Mating ritual. Means they like you.

Jane: You want to know where I've seen them?

Andrea: Not really. (sits at Jane's table) So, how'd the interrogation go?

Jane: According to Quinn, Daria went home the day she disappeared, packed stuff, threatened her into silence and left. Quinn's been covering for her ever since with the folks, who have been at too many meetings this week to see each other, much less Daria.

Andrea: Won't last. Never does. She mention why she hasn't said anything?

Jane: Just that if I tell Daria where I got the info, no one will ever find her body. (pensive) The little twit's really scared this time.

Andrea: Yep.

Jane: Also found out that Quinn doesn't know where Daria is. Which leads to the question of what are we doing here?

 (Andrea gets up and starts heading towards the thick metal door separating Bar space from Dance space. Jane follows till they get to the door)

Andrea: I've got better sources than Grace. (gestures towards the door) In you go.

Jane: (annoyed) Thanks soo much Lucifer, but I've had enough of Hell for one night.

Andrea: (casual) No time for this Lane. (Grabs Jane by the arm, shoves her in the rave space and slams the door behind them.)

[The Rotting Crow, Dance Space]

Music: "Believe", from the Run Lola Run soundtrack. Loud, with the base really high.

(Crowded. Clotted. Cloying. A massive wave of people with various parts glowing under blacklight, eyes half closed trying to dance so hard everything else just goes away. Jane takes one look around and rolls her eyes upwards before a hand shoots out of the crowd and begins dragging her through the crowd. Through the strobe lights and careening people, Jane gets a vague impression of Andrea grabbing one of the ravers, ignoring the flailing limbs in her direction and then shoving both back towards the bar space. The dividing door opens, and the three tumble onto the dingy sticky floor, gasping. The bar patrons give a brief look in their direction, and return to drinking. Jane recovers her breath just long enough to let Andrea have it. Andrea points behind her and Jane turns, getting her first good look at the raver who was dragged out.)

Jane: Daria? What the hell are you doing here?

Scene 6: [The Rotting Crow, Bar]

(Daria's in rumpled basic black gear, and she's wearing her contacts. Her hair is mussed, and her eyes are bloodshot. It looks like she hasn't seen sunlight for a week. She pushes herself up into a sitting position and glares at Andrea)

Daria: (not looking at Jane) Getting thrashed by a psychotic Goth apparantly. How about you?

Jane: (hiding her surprise) The same. Except I look less like hell. Did you plan on letting me in on your new life, or were you just going to wait till you joined up with Sid and shot someone?

Daria: (smirks, then forces it away) So, looking to moonlight as a cage-dancer?

Jane: (slowly stands up) Ask Dead Girl Walking over there… Damn, where'd she go?

(They look around and see that Andrea's at the bar with a mug of beer)

Daria: (gets up from the floor and dusts herself off) Well, it's been nice seeing you. (heads off towards the dividing door.)

Jane: Just how long are you going to keep running?

(Daria stops, and her fist clenches)

Daria: I'll let you know. (keeps going)

Jane: (slams her fist against a table, Daria stops) You know what? I've had enough. I've been patient, I've covered for you for Ms. Li. Hell, you've got Quinn covering for you. And you don't give a damn.  I don't know what your problem is, and normally I'd wait till you're ready to spill, but its Trent. You know – the only family I can come close to counting on? The one who drives us everywhere whenever we need it? He's hurt, and you seem to know why, and if you don't tell me I'm going to have to stab you in the neck with a spoon.

Daria: (back still to Jane) Just leave.

Jane: Is that what you want? Do you want me to leave Daria? Because if I walk out this door, I'm not coming back. Ever.  (Daria stays still) Daria. Don't make me do this.

Daria: (over her shoulder, still not looking at Jane) Go. Start walking. Get the HELL OUT OF MY LIFE. That goes for you AND your loser brother.

Jane: The loser brother who sent me here looking for you!

Daria: (stops, takes deep breath) Just. Go. Away.

Jane: (has had enough) Fine.

(As Daria gets to the metal door, something trips her and she winds up sprawled on the floor. Again. Jane hears Daria's quick yelp and starts heading back from the outside door.  She can see Daria glaring evilly at a woman about Trent's age, short magenta hair, unnaturally green eyes and pale goth makeup, clad in a black leather duster and sitting at one of the tables near the door holding a black walking stick.)

Daria: (hissing) Nina!

(Jane comes closer and stands near the two. Daria doesn't notice.)

Nina: (sadly shaking head) Can't let you walk away D. (gestures to Jane) I don't know who she is, or why you're trying so hard to protect her, but you know this isn't gonna work. I tried it before, remember? You have to… (Ducks quickly to avoid the beer bottle Daria just threw)

Daria: (grinding the words out through her teeth) I don't care what you tried! This is MY LIFE! Not yours! You don't have the right to interfere! You NEVER did!

Nina: (gets up, leaning heavily on the cane) It's not your life anymore. You know that. (Ducks an empty beer mug – Jane ducks under a table) D, try to calm down.

Daria: (livid) CALM? (Another beer mug, two shot glasses and an ashtray go whizzing through the air) YOU WANT TO SEE CALM!

(Takes a tray of Napalms and throws it at Nina, who does a badly improvised tuck and roll. She fumbles half way and sprawls near Jane's table, wincing as she rubs her leg, revealing an air cast. Daria looks on with horror as the tray hits a large man, knocks him out, and sprays two tables around him who frantically douse themselves with water. Did I mention that a Napalm is a flaming drink? The larger woman who was with him gets up, fine leathers smoking lightly, as do six other unpleasant looking individuals, and starts heading over towards Daria. Before they reach her, they bump into a quad of jocks who used Daria's earlier temper tantrum as a distraction to enter the Rotting Crow uninspected.)

Lead Jock: (indignant) Hey dude, what the hell's your damage!

(There are some people to whom you should never speak the word Dude. Large, ill-tempered, singed, drink spattered, jock-hating women dressed in leather and chains fit into that description. As that particular individual learned as he was flying through the air towards the bar and landing in a heap of broken glass and pissed off patrons. Jane ducks under the table, as Daria stands frozen. Nina crawls under another table.)

Jane:  This would qualify as bad.

Nina: (raises a magenta eyebrow while watching indiscriminate tag team people-tossing)

This would define bad.

(Jane crawls out from under the table and drags Daria underneath)

Nina: (Looking Daria in the eyes) How about a truce?

Jane: (flips her table over, uses it as a shield to ward off flying chairs and crouches over to Daria and Nina's table) Gee, you think?

Daria: (still shaken) This is getting way out of hand.

Nina: Understatement of the decade chica.

(Daria winces and cradles her head in her hands.)

Jane: Hey. (trying not to show worry) Um, you ok?

(Nina uses the shield table to bounce a couple of drunk brawlers back into the fray)

Nina: (interrupting Daria's answer) No time. (receives a dirty look from Jane) OK, here's the plan. You two pick up that table. I'll pick up this one. When I say three, we're going to rush the door.

Jane: (cold) And what makes this a good plan?

Nina: (speaking to a simpleton tone of voice) I never said it was a good plan. It's just a plan. You have a better one?

Jane: (still cold) Don't look at me, I was dragged here by a psychotic Goth. (looking around) Who would seem to have disappeared on us.

Daria: (picks up the table, eyes narrow, voice bordering on demonic) Let's go.

(The two give Daria a surprised look. She still looks livid, she's breathing heavy and she's looking at the crowd between her and the door. She's spoiling for a fight. She'll get one.)

 [The Rotting Crow – Outside]

(An abandoned looking Dairy Farm sits serenely in the quiet countryside.

For about three seconds.

The barfight explodes out of the door and spills into the night. Kicking, screaming and screeching, roughly half of the brawling patrons are being pushed by the remnants of two tables, wielded by Jane and Nina. Daria takes a more physical route out, she's clawing her way through the crowd, occasionally punching and kicking with a skill that belies previous experience. Jane frees herself from the crowd first, diving pack in for a moment to shove Daria into a non-brawling zone, as Nina stumbles out of the fight, using the walking stick with pinpoint accuracy to get people out of her way. The three stand a ways apart from the fight, panting in the night. Sirens start to sound in the distance.)

Jane: Oh hell.

Nina: Don't worry, you and D are covered.

Jane: How the hell would you know that?

(At that point, Trent's car driven by Jesse careens into the clearing and screeches to a halt. Andrea and Max get out of the car. She heads into the woods while Max goes over to Jane.)

Nina: Oh, just a hunch.

Max: (to Daria and Jane) Yo Jane, we got to get out of here. Getting caught by the cops is like against the code of the Criminale.

(Jane rolls her eyes, and starts walking towards the car, taking Daria's shoulder and guiding her. Daria's calmed down from her fury and just looks really tired now.)

Daria: (quiet) Jane, I'm really sorry.

Jane: I know amiga. Get in the car, we'll talk about it later. (Turns to Nina, eyes narrow and voice harshens) And as for you…

Nina: (smiling slightly) Oh, I'm covered.

(Andrea shoots out of the woods on a motorcycle and pauses in front of Nina)

Andrea: Come on – the cops'll be here any minute.

(Nina levers herself onto the bike behind Andrea and fishes a second helmet from the back)

Jane: (tired, to Nina) I'm not done with you yet.

(The sirens get closer, and the brawling bar patrons are starting to notice)

Nina: You're done for tonight. (Andrea revs the bike and speeds away before Jane can say another word.)

Jane: (eyes narrowed, slight Scarlet O'Hara accent) Yes, but after all, tomorrow is another day.

(She helps Daria into the back of the car and then climbs in herself. Daria curls up into a tight ball, hiding her face in her knees. Jane lets her.)

Chapter 2. Hidden Pasts. Scene 1: [The Lane Residence, Hallway outside of Jane's bedroom]

(Jane comes out of Penny's room and softly shuts the door. Jesse's in the hallway, giving her an "I told you so" look)

Jesse: See?

Jane: (worried expression) You're right - she's not moving. I tried water, noise, food, ammonia, needles..

Jesse: Soy sauce…

Jane: (gives Jesse a strange look) And nothing is working. She won't even look at me.

Max: (coming up the stairs with Nick) Hey, at least she's not doing that buh buh buh thing anymore.

Jane: Wha… never mind. I just don't want to know. (sighs)

Nick: We could take her to the hospital again?

Jane: Yeah, back to the scene of her psychosis. The hospital's where this whole thing started, I don't think she should go back till we figure out what happened over there.

Max: Yeah! Um, how you gonna do that?

Jane: (narrow eyes, Mulder voice) By finding the one person who seems to know the truth. (snaps out of it) Jesse.

Jesse: What?

Jane: (speaking in a slow voice) You and the guys stay here, in the house. Watch Daria. Call me if she gets up. Do not, I repeat, do NOT try to wake her up. Do you understand?

Jesse: Do we have food in the house?

Jane: (annoyed) Jesse, what the hell does that have to do with anything?

Jesse: Because if we don't, then I got to send Max out for some so we can munch while we watch the chick.

(Death glare from Jane)

Jesse: Look Jane, me and the guys know it's important.

Max: Yeah! I mean Daria bailed us out of jail, not to mention that you two are the Spiral's best fans. No one's gonna hurt her with us here.  Cause we're criminales!

Nick: (rolling eyes) Yeah, and Trent already said if either of you get hurt, he'll kill us.

Jane: What exactly did you guys tell Trent?

Jesse: Just that we found Daria and she's crashing at our place.

Jane: Good. Don't tell him anything else. That goes for all of you. The fridge is stocked with enough food for all you guys plus me and Daria. If all the food is gone when I get back, you guys have to pay for the next batch.

Jesse: Where are you going?

Jane: (rolling eyes) Out.

Nick: Trent said not to let you leave the house.

Jane: (grabbing her backpack and heading down the stairs) I'm sure he wasn't serious.

Jesse: Um, he sounded serious at the time…

Jane: (still walking) The man hasn't slept in two days, it's getting to him.

Nick: (following Jane to the door) Trent said to keep our eyes on both of you – he'll kill us if he finds out you left.

Jane: (at the door) You probably shouldn't tell him then. Keep an eye on her.

(door slams)

Jesse: I think we're in trouble.

Scene 2: [Andrea's House, front door]

(Loud music is pouring out of the front door. If anyone cares, it's Spit, by Kittie. Jane goes up to the door and starts pounding)

Jane: Dammit – I know you're in there!! Let me in!

Andrea: (coming up from behind Jane with a bag of groceries) The hell are you doing?

Jane: Eep! (catches breath) Um, trying to get in…?

Andrea: Why?

Jane: I need to talk to your psycho friend.
Andrea: Nina.

Jane: You know where she is?

Andrea: (nonchalant) In back. I'll show you.

Jane: (suspicious) Ookayy…

(They enter the house. Looks like a normal suburban house. Jane's surprised, and Andrea catches her expression.)

Andrea: Expecting a dank pit of despair?

Jane: (defensive) Of course not! (thinks about it) Well, actually yeah.

Andrea: I live on Degas Street, this place is for sleeping. (shoves entire bag of food in the fridge and slams the door closed.) OK – to the backyard. The folks don't let Len…Nina in the house -I sneak her 'round the back.

Jane: Not housebroken?

Andrea: (shrugs) Stupid family reasons.

Jane: Family? So you know what this whole mess is about?

Andrea: Some. (sighs) Daria's gonna need help. (stops in front of door to backyard and turns to face Jane) Nina's offering. She's decent. (opens door). Don't break any… (shrugs) Break everything. None of my stuff is out there.

Scene 3: [Andrea's Backyard]

(Decent sized suburban backyard, standard configuration. Strip of concrete and then a grassy lawn with a couple lilac bushes, and boxed off areas lining the fence where the roses go. The requisite oak tree is near the back wall of the yard, and from it is suspended a swing on which Nina is sitting. And swinging.)

Nina: (singing to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy) … My coven is part Rosicrucian, mixed with some Theosophy. Add in some stuff from the Golden Dawn, cause Crowley's just alright with me.

(Jane walks closer with a puzzled look, as Nina keeps singing)

Nina: (pushing the swing higher with her good leg) …I've got twelve initiations, I've seen all there is to see. And watch out for those strange Co-Mason-Santeria-Druids, they'll cement your chickens to a tree… (notices Jane) Oops… (starts dragging her good foot in the grass to slow her swing)

Jane: Should I talk to you later off the LSD?

Nina: Hate to say it, but this is me normal and sober.

Jane: I was afraid of that. You are Nina, right?

(Jane comes a bit closer and takes a good look. Nina's clad in jeans and a black T-shirt showing a triple crescent moon, and docs. The jeans are split up her right leg, where you can see the cast, and as she's not wearing a jacket, you can see her left arm in a matching cast. The extreme makeup from the night before is gone, leaving a woman with reddish brown hair, light olive skin and brown eyes. Around her neck she wears a pendant, an Egyptian horned disc with the disc part set with a round amethyst stone.)

Nina: Yep, just not in technicolor. You're …Jane, right? I heard Mistress D call you that last night.

Jane: (distracted) Mistress D?

Nina: Well, it used to be Lady D, but she really hated that. Of course, she hates Mistress D even more, but she quit complaining about it when I threatened to go to Soverign.

Jane: And what was wrong with her own name?

Nina: (half-smirk) I was trying to get her annoyed with me. At the time, it was either annoyed or scared witless. I picked annoyed.

Jane: Ok, when the hell was all this?

Nina: (soft-eyed, far off look) About two years ago. D's parents went with her and Squealy to Niagara Falls. Hell alone knows why. They spent a month up there. That's where I met her anyway. Good thing too, I'd have never gotten to Texas in time.

Jane: In time for what?

(Nina gives her a curious look)

Jane: You said her life doesn't belong to her anymore. Who does it belong to – you?

(Nina keeps staring)

Jane: Damn you – tell me something!

Nina: (fixes Jane in a piercing gaze) She didn't tell you anything, did she?

Jane: Why the hell do you think I'm here?

Nina: (silence) I had thought she'd told you parts. Something. (Looks at Jane for a long moment, as if considering something.) This is different. I can't tell you anything.

Jane: WHAT?!?

Nina: It's not my story to tell. She was right last night, I've interfered too much in her life. If she didn't tell you her story, I have no right to.

Jane: (grabbing both chains of the swing) I don't think you get it. You're going to tell me what's going on, or I'm going to choke you with these chains. Got it?

(Nina tilts her head and gives Jane a familiar gentle, chilling smile.)

Nina: (soft voice) Do you really think Death's the worst thing that can happen?

Jane: (eyes widen, she remembers the smile) Do you want to find out?

Nina: (shrugging) I can't tell you Daria's story. I… can tell you mine.

Jane: (rolling eyes) I don't care about you! I don't give a flying shit about your story or what you're trying to do! All I know is Daria's out of commission. She can't tell anyone anything, she's just staring at the wall, and nothing I do is helping! So you're going to help me. Or else I'll pull out all your fingernails and use them to perform the death of a hundred cuts!

Nina: (grabs Jane's jacket with her good hand) I. Don't. Want. Her. Hurt. (each word is accompanied by a shake. Nina takes a deep breath and releases Jane.)

Nina: It's the whole reason I'm here.  To stop… her from being hurt again. (pause) And besides, it's death of a thousand cuts. Not a hundred.

(sees Jane glare at her and capitulates)

Nina: D's story is her's to tell. If she doesn't want you to know, I have to respect her wishes. (deep breath)  I can help with the catatonic thing she's in.

Jane: You know what that's about? The weird thing with the black roses?

(Nina pales and quickly looks away. In the next breath she's composed, but Jane caught it)

Jane: (realizing) You're just as freaked as Daria is.

Nina: (changing the subject) The fugue. The blank state, the staring at the wall thing. It's a defensive response to… certain things. Stimuli. I'm surprised she didn't go into it before. It should have kicked in the second she was in a safe place.

Jane: It did, it's why we didn't take her home.

Nina: (nods) Yeah, I know what that's like.

Jane: (Shakes the swing, tired of the talking) Fix it.

Nina: (sighs) There are a couple of ways, it depends on…

Andrea: (coming into the backyard) Nina – you gotta split.

Nina: Parents coming? I'll go in a sec.

Andrea: No. Now. Cops.

(Jane gives Nina a glare. Nina just looks surprised)

Nina: For me? What the hell would the cops want with me?

Andrea: You wanna stick around to find out?

Nina: Hell no. (gets off the swing and takes a couple of limps towards the tree) Dammit, where the hell is my cane?

Andrea: (insistent) No time.

Nina: Andrea, I'm in a damn cast, I can't go far without the cane!

Jane: Looking for this? (holds it up) How do I fix Daria?

(Nina looks towards the house, and the bangs that mean they're breaking down the door. She looks at Jane, but not the cane. Nina sits back on the swing.)

Nina: (calmly) Get a copy of Violet Isis – Ancient Prayer. Put it on a CD rom. There's a hidden track – called White Sanctuary. Play it.

Jane: (hiding the cane behind her) That's not gonna cut it.

Andrea: Get going!

Nina: (still on the swing) It's the fastest way I know. There are other ways, but they all mean hypnosis and it all depends on knowing what you're looking for. That song was written… by someone who got out of that catatonic state she's in.

(Jane looks at Nina, and hands her the cane. She hands it to Andrea)

Nina: (nearing panic) Hide this. Hide my stuff. Call the gang and get someone to post bail. The longer I'm in there, the sooner he… just get me out of there.

Andrea: Run. You can still make it.

Nina: (shaking head, fierce and scared) Been there, done that. They brand me a fugitive and they can shoot anyone they want. I know this is Lawndale and not New York, but rules are rules and I don't trust cops. (massages her temples) Get them to wire you the cash and get someone else to pay the bail. Don't show up at the jail – it's gonna be watched.

(A splintering sound is made and the shouting voices get louder. Nina takes a deep breath and closes her eyes)

Nina: (urgent) Tell them to be careful. I don't want any of them hurt. That includes you. Go.

(Andrea rushes into the house just as a detail of armed cops swarm into the yard. They don't even stop Andrea or Jane, they know exactly who they're looking for.)

Cop#1: (aiming gun) Lenina Aleje Perez, you're under arrest for the attempted murder of a Mr. Trent Lane.

Jane: WHAT?!?!

Nina: (to Jane) They're lying. Get to D and help her. Tell her to get ready, there isn't time.

Cop#1: (to Jane) Miss, please stand away from the suspect. (to Nina) Put your hands in the air.

Nina: (raises hands, still sitting on the swing. Speaks in a loud falsely calm voice) I don't know any Trent Lane. I don't know what you're talking about. But since you have guns, the hands are up. I'm in a leg and an arm cast; I'm not going anywhere. Please chill with the guns.

(one of the cops ushers Jane into the house)

Jane: What's going on?

Cop#2: Sorry miss, but you should go

Jane: Why are you arresting her?

Cop#2:  We found car rental papers in her name matching the description of the car that took out a Mr. Trent Lane. We also found letters in her handwriting providing motive.

Jane: Letters saying what?

Cop#2: Can't say miss – can only release those details to family. Suffice it to say, they weren't pretty.

(Jane looks at the backyard, where Nina's on the floor being handcuffed by six cops. Nina meets Jane's eyes and jerks her head to the door. Jane goes.)

Scene 4: [The Lane Residence, interior of the first floor]

Jane: (entering house, muttering to herself) Stupidest thing I ever heard. 'Play the hidden track and all will be well' my ass.

(A loud Zap is heard and the lights in the house flicker)

Voice from upstairs: Not so much man! We're trying to wake her, not fry her.

Jane: (yelling as she runs upstairs) What the hell are you guys doing?

From upstairs: Nothing!

[The Lane Residence, Hallway outside of Penny's room]

(Jane is leaning against the wall not looking at the sheepish members of Mystik Spiral)

Max: We just wanted to know what she wanted on her pizza.

Jane: Yeah, and the fact that she's catatonic didn't suggest something?

(Blank stare from the guys)

Jane: You know, not moving?

Nick: That's what the shock was for – to jump-start her.

Max: We were hungry. Can't order a pizza till you pick toppings, I mean that's just sense.

Jane: (almost amused) And how exactly did jumper cables become an option?

Jesse: It worked on my hamster.

Max: Dude, I thought you wrapped your hamster in aluminum foil and stuck it in the microwave, remember? I had to help you clean it.

Jesse: That was the third one. I meant the fourth.

Max: Oh.

Jane: That doesn't explain the wires you taped to her feet.

Nick: Well, every nerve ending in the human body ends in the feet.

Jesse: Since we didn't know which one was stuck, we figured we'd hit them all.

(blank stare from Jane)

Nick: It was on the Discovery Channel.

Jane: (at the end of her rope) Oookay, why don't you guys get some pizza?

Max: Because we don't know what Daria wants on her pizza duh.

Jane: (trying really hard not to strangle him) Just don't put anchovies on the pizza and she'll eat it.

Jesse: Cool.

Nick: Yeah – anchovies!

Jesse: She said no anchovies.

Max: You should've been here before Jane. We could've saved the trip for the jumper cables.

(The Band members leave as Jane clenches her fists, trying not to hit them. It's a tough battle. Once the hallway is cleared, she goes into what has become Daria's recovery room.)

[Penny's Room]

(Jane enters the room. Daria's still lying flat on her back, eyes wide open, staring listlessly at the ceiling. Jane gives a dubious look to the CD in her hand.)

Jane: I hope you appreciate what I'm going through for you. I had to pay your sister twenty bucks to sneak this out of your room. (Looks over to Daria. No reaction)

Jane: Look. I know I was upset at you. I mean, I still want to know what's going on. But this whole staring thing is freaking me out. So you've gotta quit that, ok? (pause)

Jane: (slight waver) Please?

(Jane goes over to the computer she has hooked up in Penny's room and opens the CD Rom cover.)

Jane: Your pal Nina said this would help. (looks for a reaction) She's strange that one.

(Sets up the CD to play)

Jane: (quiet) We're partners in crime y'know. (pause)

I mean, whatever happened, what made you think I was gonna let anyone mess with my friend?

(She puts the CD on, and the walls of the darkening room are awash in color as the video attached to the CD begins. Swirling tendrils of color weave onto the screen as the music starts. The song has a light whispering unintelligible chant in the background and is ambient in nature, the voices occasionally joined by flute or light guitar. The effect is oddly soothing. Jane sits on a chair by Daria's bed, head tilted to the music.)

Jane: I don't get it. I mean, it's nice, but… (she yawns and stretches) dunno. (She folds over on the bed, her head next to Daria's prone form and falls asleep. Three minutes of whispering chant later, Daria blinks, stretches and curls up on her side to sleep peacefully. As the chanting fades off onto long pure notes and the tendrils of color slow their swirl, one word appears briefly on the screen and then fade… "safe")

[Penny's Room, Morning]

(The sun rises on the sight of two peaceful girls sleeping on the bed. Not for long.)

From Below: TWAAAAANGGG!!!!

(The room rumbles as the shockwave of sound that can only be called Mystik Spiral music crashes, and Jane is jolted awake. She stomps her way to the door, yanks it open and bellows)

Jane: SHUT UP OR I'M GETTING THE JUMPER CABLES!!!!

(The noise stops immediately and she slams the door.)

Daria: (weary voice) That can only improve their music.

Jane: (rushes over to the bed) Daria – you're awake!

Daria: (props herself weakly on one arm) Yes, because there was a chance of me sleeping through that.

(Jane takes a pillow from behind the one Daria's on and hits her on the head with it.)

Daria: (weakly, she's still tired) Ow! What the hell's wrong with you?

Jane: Don't you ever freak me out like that again! Do you know how scary that was?

Daria: (wincing) Shh! (annoyed whisper) Ok, the next time I decide to have a psychotic episode, I'll leave a note.

Jane: You know that's not what I mean. (looks over at the computer) I guess it worked then.

Daria: (still whispering) What worked?

Jane: The Violet Isis CD – Nina had some screwy idea…

Daria: (raises an eyebrow.) She gave you Sanctuary?

Jane: Yeah. She says to get ready, cause there's not much time

Daria: (sighs) Give me a minute, will you?

Jane: How'd you know about the Sanctuary thingie?

Daria: (stretches her arms, trying to get a kink out of her shoulder) She was working on it right after we first met – she… (breaks off, realizing what she almost said.) Never mind.

Jane: (angry again) Daria, you're not holding out on me now!

Daria: (wincing) Stop yelling. (Jane takes a deep breath and forces herself to calm down)

Daria: (almost a whisper) No, I'm not holding out anymore. I tried not to deal with this, but Trent's in the hospital, I can't avoid it. I have to start facing this, before anything else happens. (deep breath) I really wish this wasn't happening. (looks up) We need to get Nina.

Jane: That's going to be kinda difficult.

Daria: (shakes head) No it won't. She'll come – she won't back down now.

Jane: No, I mean she's been arrested for putting Trent in the hospital.

Daria: (sitting up) WHAT?!? (starts throwing back the covers) Oh hell. Hell. Damn. He'll find her in three seconds. We've got to get her out.

Jane: (hissing, trying not to yell) Daria, are you listening? They arrested her for putting Trent in the hospital!

Daria: (stops moving and gives Jane an 'as if' look) Jane –you don't even believe that. Besides, Trent was in a car accident. Nina can't drive anything but her motorcycle and he said it was a black Chevy.

Jane: Are you sure about that? It's been a while since you saw her.

Daria: Very.  (pensive) She tried to warn me that this was going to happen. (sigh)  I'm the one who ignored everything. And threw bottles.

Jane: (amused) You threw a hell of a lot more than that.

Daria: (wry) Don't remind me. We need to get to Nina and… oh shit. (Daria pales and her eyes widen)

Jane: What now?

Daria: (wide awake now) Trent – he's still in the hospital, right?

Jane: Yeah – he gets released tomorrow.

Daria: (sighs) Good. (starts looking around for the phone) We make sure Trent's safe first. Then we need to get Nina out tomorrow.

Jane: Why?

Daria: (avoids looking at Jane and clenches her wounded hand) Because the ass who tried to kill him is going to try again.

(End of Scene)

Scene 5: [Lawndale Precinct]

(Morning. Nina hangs upside-down from the top bunk of a bed in an empty cell. Her eyes are closed and her arms are crossed. A guard walks to the door of the cell and bangs her stick against the bars. Loudly.)

Guard: Get up you! You're mother's here to see you.

Nina: (not opening her eyes) She's in New York.

Guard: (bangs the bars of the cell) She's right here. Wondering where she went wrong that her daughter would try to kill some poor guy.

Nina: (unmoved) Not my mom then.

Guard: (Bangs the bars again) Get out here! If my kid talked to me like that I'd hit him upside the head with his ass.

Nina: Neat trick. (sees the guard moving to the bars again) Quit banging.

(Nina gets up as the guard unlocks the bars and jumps down from the bed landing on her good leg. She limps down the corridor well behind the guard)

Nina: (whispering to herself) My mom would never yell at me for murder. She'd be yelling at me for getting caught.

[Visitor's Room]

(Nina limps into the visitors room, glaring at the guard for making her walk without a cane. She slumps into the chair and turns to face the glass. Facing her is a girl in a blue dress with abundant cherry red curls and no makeup. It takes a couple of tries for Nina to figure out that it's Andrea. Nina smiles, then turns to the guard.)

Nina: My mom, hmm?

Guard: (turns to the woman at the receiving desk) Hey Angie – what happened to the nice lady in the gray?

Angie: She stepped out. This one's a visitor too.

Guard: Fine whatever. (to Nina) You have 20 minutes. (walks off to the corner)

Nina: (back to face the glass, picks up the phone) Um, hi?

Andrea: Hey Lenina, it's Viola.

Nina: (gives Andrea the once-over) Nice duds. Viola.

Andrea: (grimaces at her outfit) Only way they'd let me in.

Nina: They're going to know who you are.

Andrea: And I should make it easy for them?

Nina: Ah. So, that whole bail thing, how's that going?

Andrea: No dice.

Nina: Damn. Figures – they don't just let you off for vehicular assault.

(Andrea makes a vague upwards motion)

Nina: They upped the charges?

Andrea: Attempted murder. Your bail hearing's in a week.

Nina: Same difference. A longer prison sentence for something I wasn't even here to do.

Andrea: They've got letters. They've got you as an obsessed groupie who found out the lead singer has a girlfriend. If you can't have him…

(Andrea trails off as Nina starts laughing. Loudly. And a little hysterical. Both the guard and Andrea give Nina a strange look as she almost chokes, and then tries to calm herself down)

Nina: (wiping tears from her eyes) Whoo – gods. I'm ok. It's just, damn. A groupie. Of all things. And who is this Mystik Spiral anyway?

Andrea: Garage band. The marked guy's their lead singer.

Nina: And Jane's brother, right? (Andrea nods) Meaning she already hates my guts.

Andrea: (shaking her head) She'll listen.

Nina: (glum) One can only hope.

Andrea: (takes a deep breath) There's more. The gang's coming.

Nina: (alarmed) What? No!

Andrea: (making a calm down motion with her hands) Not all, and not here. They're close by. Kris and Sam.

Nina: (bitter) Figures. They know I've put you in danger.

Andrea: (indignant) Hey, I offered. No one pushed me into this.

Nina: I know. It doesn't mean any of us are thrilled at the idea. (lowers voice) Speaking of, did you go to the florist's?

Andrea: Yep, all taken care of. Delivered and stored where you said.

Nina: You kept one for yourself?

Andrea: I'm not wearing one of those things.

Nina: (incredulous) Do you have a death wish? That's the only protection there is!

Andrea: It marks me. If I don't wear it I'm not involved. Easier to hide. (sees Nina frowning) Don't worry. I'm good at hiding.

Nina: (sighs) That's not guaranteed. And if you get hurt, your cousin's gonna kill me.

Andrea: Kris already wants to kill you for going without telling her. Besides, (quoting) Violet Isis takes care of their own.

Nina: (small grin) That's why Cass is the leader. She's got the heroic sayings. (serious) Keep them away.

Angie: (coming over to stand by Andrea) OK, that's it. Time's up.

Andrea: It hasn't been twenty minutes.

Angie: (whispering) It'll be a lot longer than that if you don't split. Aiding and abetting you know. That fake ID was only going to last for so long…

Andrea: Shit. I'm out. (to Nina) You too. Soon. (She slips quietly out the door.)

(Nina stares at Angie and gestures – why? Angie picks up the phone.)

Angie: You're in an arm and leg cast. It doesn't take a genius to figure out you're innocent. Except in Lawndale.

(She puts down the phone and goes back over to her desk, to the intense gaze of the guard who is still behind her. Nina shakes her head and closes her eyes, leaning her head against the wall. When she opens her eyes again, there's a middle aged woman in gray sitting down, looking at her with a steady gaze. Nina looks at her curiously.)

Lady in Gray: (to Angie who's just escorted her in) Thanks dear.

(The Lady in Gray picks up the phone. Nina crosses her arms clumsily, avoiding the phone. The guard nudges Nina in the back with her stick)

Guard: Go talk to your mother.

(Nina raises one eyebrow. The woman takes a piece of folded paper out of her purse and begins to unfold it. When she's finished, a perfect black rosebud is resting in a circle of white paper. Nina pales and stands up, ready to leave. The guard pushes her back down to the seat, and slams down the phone in front of her. Nina gingerly picks up the phone and holds it to her ear.)

Nina: (trying to regain composure) Yes?

Grey: (gentle quiet voice) Nothing to say to your mother? I'm sorry Mom, I messed up Mom…?

Nina: (low voice) I don't know how you got the guards to buy this crap…

Grey: Your temper. I always said it would get you in trouble. You need to learn how to control that anger of yours.

Nina: (almost hissing) What do you want?

Grey: (still gentle) Oh sweetie, you don't belong in jail and we both know it. You're such a sweet girl, deep down, and can do so much better with your life. But you have to want to change.

Nina: Your point?

Grey: Come back home. You don't belong here, out on your own. You need to be at home, where (gestures at the rose) you can be taken care of. Where you're appreciated and loved.

Nina: (grimly knocks her air cast up against the window) Looks like child abuse to me mom.

Grey: Sweetheart, you know that was an accident.

Nina: Was Amy an accident too? Or did she throw herself through a plate glass window?

(The guard is looking very interested in this conversation, and so the Lady in Grey lowers her voice)

Grey: You're getting melodramatic, she was too close to the window and fell.

Nina: (getting louder) She's four, how…. (calms down) Is there a point to this little meeting? Cause if not, I'm headed back to my cell.

Grey: You'll be free soon. When you are, go back home. Forget about Lawndale.

Nina: First off, my bail hearing isn't till next week. And even then, they won't exactly let me leave town. Second, you know damned well I'm not going anywhere. Least of all to your 'home'.

Grey: Your friends here don't appreciate your help. They can't appreciate you at all. You can only get that at home.

Nina: (soft hiss) Broken bones and shattered souls. The price I pay for stunted dreams of glory I have not deserved and accolades I've never earned.

Grey: (gives Nina a tender, maternal look) I'm glad you're still writing your poetry. It was always the best of you. (gets up) Like your taste in friends was always the worst.

Nina: (cold) You tend to share my tastes. So here's how it goes. You leave Lawndale and go home. No one here's taking your offer.

Grey: (gentle sigh) You'd be surprised how many people want to be appreciated for who they are. And to be taken care of by someone who loves them. But that's an argument for another time. Since you're being stubborn, I'll leave you alone. But when they let you go – remember how much you've been loved. And that you can always come back home if you want to.

Nina: What are you going to do?

Grey: Whatever it takes to get my girls home where they belong. All of my girls.

(She gets up and walks out, leaving the perfect bud leaning against the glass)

Scene 6 [Cedars of Lawndale Hospital]

(Hallways. Jane and Daria are racing through the corridors of the hospital, while a bewildered looking Jesse tags along behind them. )

Jane: Daria, he's fine. We called the bomb threats into the wing, remember? They're only letting family in.

Daria: (gasping) You're… running faster … than I …am.

Jane: I know. I was trying to calm myself down.

Daria: Is…working?

Jane: Nope.

(The three gasping people pile up in front of Trent's room, where a nurse with pale red straight hair stands, reading a chart with her back braced against the door. The three almost careen into her, and she has to stop Daria to prevent a collision.)

Nurse: Whoa, what's the rush?

Jane: (gasping) I'm …Jane Lane…. His sister… we heard he was coming out today.

Nurse: Got any ID? Some nut's been calling bomb threats in, we have to make sure.

(Jane fumbles in her pocket to find her ID, as Daria continues to gasp for breath)

Nurse: (looks at ID) OK, you can go in. (opens the door) It looks like someone left him flowers. Make sure he takes it with him.

(Daria whirls around to look at the nurse, who merely smiles at her and walks down the hall. Still trying to catch her breath, she races into the door…)

(In Trent's Room)

(…to face an empty and well-made bed.)

Jane: What gives?

(Daria searches the nightstand)

Daria: He's still here – the lyric book is here.

(Next to the lyric book on the nightstand is a white rosebud floating serenely in a small glass fishbowl. Daria picks it up, her expression disbelieving. Jane starts to freak.)

Jane: Oh hell, not another one. Daria, come on, don't wig out on me…

Daria: (calmly) It's ok Jane. It's… (she's interrupted by the sound of a flush)

(The door opens and Trent Lane emerges from the bathroom. He stops short when he sees Daria eyeing the rose, and gives her a wary look much like the look Jane's giving her.)

Daria: It's ok. White roses are ok. It's good to… Umph!

(Trent envelops her in a quick hug, and releases her. She looks at him, flustered slightly.)

Trent: Daria, I'm glad you're ok. Janey told me you took off.

Daria: (pensive) I had to get out. Think about stuff. I didn't mean to make you guys worry. (Jane frowns, but Trent nods understandingly)

Trent: Yeah, but you're supposed to leave a note.

(It's too close to what Daria said before, and Jane starts laughing)

(Daria glares at her, and Trent starts to look worried)

Trent: Janey, you ok?

Daria: She's fine. (stops and thinks about it) We're all fine. Lets get out of here before that situation changes.

Jesse (poking his head in the door) Hey man, the wheelchair's here.

Trent: Good. Busted ribs suck. How you holdin' up man?

Jesse: (gestures at the two girls) Hangin in there.

(Daria shoots him a quick glare)

Jane: (regaining breath, indignant) Hey! I'm not the one who was gonna hook Daria up to the jumper cables.

Daria: (who has not heard this story) What!

Trent: I told you that don't work on people man. Discovery channel's dangerous.

Jesse: (defensive) It was only a nine-volt.

Jane: (indignant) It was a car battery.

Trent: (continuing his sentence) It didn't even work on the hamster.

Daria: OK, I just decided. I don't want to know.

Voice from outside: Um, excuse me?

(The three turn to see a blonde male nurse with a wry grin on his face holding a folded wheelchair)

Male Nurse: If the three of you are done discussing electrocution, I'd like to try and get the patient released.

Jane: (eyes widen slightly) And you are?

Male Nurse: (finishes unfolding the wheelchair) Please call me Adrian.

(Daria looks up startled as her ears are assaulted by whispers)

Memory Voice: Adrian, Adrianna, Adria, Adriatic. Same root.

(She shakes it off and gathers Trent's lyric book and the white rose. As soon as he's seated in the wheelchair, she hands both to him. He looks dubiously at the rose)

Daria: (whispers) Trust me.

(Adrian wheels him away and down the hall. The three start following the wheelchair down to the ramp.)

Jane: (sighing) I'd better go and make sure everything's ok with the paperwork and all.

Adrian: No need to do that miss, it's all been taken care of.

Trent: (indignant) Yeah Janey, I can sign myself out of a hospital.

Jane: (ignoring Trent) No need to call me miss, Jane's fine.

(Daria rolls her eyes behind Jane)

Adrian: (smiling up at Jane) Everything's already taken care of… Jane. The hospital's even providing transportation back to your house.

Jesse: How they know where you live?

Jane: It's on the medical insurance form dummy.

Daria: (to herself) It was a good question.

Adrian: (to Trent) I heard they found the person who hit you?

Trent: They did? First I heard of it. Who was it?

Adrian: An obsessed fan. I'll never get groupies. Liking music is fine, but killing for it just seems a bit extreme.

Jesse: (puzzled) We have guy groupies?

Trent: Groupies means guys and chicks.

Jane: They arrested a woman.

Daria: (pointedly) In a leg cast no less.

Jesse: That's dumb.

Jane: It's possible to drive in a leg cast.

Trent: (getting pissed) That's not what he means. Cops are so stupid. The dude who hit me was a dude.

(silence)

Jane: Trent, are you sure?

Trent: (pissed) Yeah, it was some dude in a suit. How the hell did they get a chick in a cast?

Daria: Good question.

Adrian: Maybe they screwed up your statement. Although, from what I've seen of the Lawndale cops at the hospital, they're not that stupid. Did they bring in a sketch artist?

Trent: There wasn't much to tell them, just a guy in a suit.

Jane: How are you sure it was a guy then?

Trent: I think I can tell the difference Janey.

Jane: Unless they have long hair.

Jesse: You do a tit check, and then if they don't have any, you check the throat. Chicks don't have Adam apples.

(Jane and Daria look at him, stunned.)

Daria: I know I'm going to regret asking this, but isn't it easier to check the throat first?

Jesse: Yeah, but you're checking them out anyway, so…

Trent: (glaring) I don't think they need to hear that Jesse.

(Adrian smothers a smile, and Jane grins at him)

Jane: But what if the chick is really tiny.

Daria: Jane.

Jane: Come on Daria, I want to hear how this highly scientific system works.

Daria: (glaring at Jesse) Why don't you tell me about the jumper cables.

(Jesse pales and looks nervous)

Jane: Relax amiga, they never touched you. (Daria looks relieved) But you better check for scorch marks all the same. Especially around your feet.

(Daria scowls, and Adrian wheels Trent through the front door and just up to the wheelchair ramp, which on the other side translates to three flights of stairs.)

Adrian: The hospital car's on the left.

(Trent looks to the right and freezes.)

Trent: (oddly strained voice) No thanks man, I'll take the Tank.

Jane: Trent, please I think one car accident is enough for this month.

Trent: No Jane, the Tank will be fine.

Adrian: (smiling at Trent) Are you sure? The Tank's a piece of rust, and this car can really take a beating. Don't you think?

(Daria looks off to the left and pales. We finally get to see the car. It's a slightly dented black Chevy.)

Daria: Jane, the Tank's big enough to take two wheelchairs. That (emphasizes the words) Black Chevy will just barely hold us, and we have one more person to pick up.

Adrian: (still smiling) I wouldn't worry about that. She won't be able to make it. (Daria wheels around to glare at him)

Trent: You piece of shit.

(Jane's looking really confused. Jesse's glaring at Adrian.)

Adrian: (still to Trent) The Tank really is a piece of rust. It could fall apart any moment. But the choice is yours. I'll be seeing you.

(He turns and releases the brake on Trent's wheelchair at the same time. Caught off guard, Trent grasps for the wheels as both lyric book and rose go flying and Jesse goes after Adrian while Jane and Daria race after the wheelchair. Trent skids for the length of one flight of stairs, bangs against the railing and almost goes flying. He is stopped short by a nurse with pale red straight hair who restrains him with a capable grip and carefully levers him back into the wheelchair. Daria and Jane catch up to the pair as Trent is swearing under his breath.)

Jane: What the hell was that? What the hell just happened?

Daria: Trent, you alright?

(Trent is staring at the nurse)

Trent: Nurse Morris?

Nurse: (smiling faintly) Sam.

Jane: (freaked) That's ok, we've had enough first name things for today.

Daria: It's ok this time. (looking puzzled) I think. (head in hands) Hell, I don't know anymore.

Sam: (gathers up the fallen lyric book and hands it to Trent) You've lost your rose. (pulls a paper wrapped package out of her pocket) How about a fresh one?

Jane: (acid) I think we've had enough of that too.

Sam: (unwraps it to reveal a white bud) No, no rotten ones. Only the best for our patients at Cedars of Lawndale. Except for the hospital cars, they tend to be a little shoddy. And your drummer friend had the Tank examined yesterday. It's fine.

Jane: Yeah, and why should we trust you?

Trent: Chill Jane, she's cool. She took care of me at the hospital, got the doctors to lay off the uppers and get me some sleep.

Sam: (smiling) That, and the zombie look was starting to freak everyone out.

Jane: (mumbles) Yeah, I know the feeling. (Daria shoots her a glare)

Daria: No offense, but Jane does have a point.

Sam: Oh, of course. (Fishes under the neck of her outfit till she pulls out her pendant. A horned disk of gold with an amethyst set in the middle, identical to Nina's.)

Trent: (distracted) Cool, those are impossible to find!

Jane: (slightly puzzled) I know what that is. I can't remember exactly…

Daria: You left the white rose, the first one. (still puzzled) But it's supposed to mean protection.

Sam: (lowering her voice) That (gesturing in Adrian's direction) was a diversion. If he'd wanted Trent dead, he'd be dead. (raising her voice) Now, you kids should get a move on. You have another pick-up to make. You had better make it fast. Here.

(Sam offers Daria another white rose, tied to a small package. Daria reaches for it with a shaking hand, then pulls away. Jane snatches the package and glares at Sam)

Jane: Look, I'm tired of…

Sam: (low, vicious voice) You look. You make your pick-up now. Or so help me, you'll wish those roses were black.

Daria: (unfazed by the threat) You can't help?

Sam: (softer hiss) Being watched. I can't help her. You'd better.

Sam: (louder voice) Well Trent, it was nice knowing you. Hope I never see you in there again. (thumbs at the hospital)

Trent: (serious) Not too sure how good my chances are.

Sam: (smiling again) Better the sooner you go. Bye. (walks back into the hospital as Jesse runs back to the three, out of breath.)

Jane: And where the hell were you?

Jesse: Tried to… get the guy. Trent…cops… someone's dead man. And they're looking for us.

Daria: (taking command) Jesse, get Trent into the Tank. (Jesse takes hold of the wheelchair and starts wheeling down the ramp at a quick pace. Daria tugs Jane to follow)

Daria: Jane, let's go now.

Jane: (following quickly) I want…

Daria: I know, an explanation. But right now this hospital isn't good for anyone's health.

Jane: But…

Trent: (harsh) The car Janey. The hospital car. It's the one that hit me. And that asshole knew it.

(Jesse levers Trent out of the wheelchair and into a sofa chained in the back of the Tank, then starts folding the wheelchair.)

Jane: You mean he's the one who did it?!?

Trent: Don't think so. Adrian's ripped. The guy who hit me was skinny.

Daria: (pensive) A skinny man or a small busted woman. (wry) I don't think he got close enough to check the Adam's apple. Let's get moving!

(Jesse gets the wheelchair folded and stowed, and Daria gets into the back. Jesse takes the front and Jane takes shotgun.)

Daria: (to Jesse) Go to the police station. Now. (Jesse obeys without backtalk) (To Jane) We have to get to Nina first.

Trent: Um, who's Nina?

Jane: The one they arrested for trying to kill you. (to Daria) So what, we go and slip her a white rose through the bars of her jail cell?

Daria: That's not going to work for her.

Jane: (fed up) What is with this! Who in the hell came up with all these rules!!!!

(Daria fishes in her pockets and comes up with a paper wrapped parcel. The paper is creased and looks used. She unwraps it to reveal a dried and well-preserved black rosebud. She grabs Trent's half-wrapped rose and lays it beside the black one on top of his lyric book. She's being really careful to touch each one by the paper only. Trent shrinks from the roses and looks at Daria.)

Trent: (softly) Daria? Why do you have that?

Daria: (not looking at him) It was a gift. Like yours. (gestures to the black rose) He came up with half the rules. (gestures to the white one) She came up with the other half.

Jane: She?

Daria: That's why a white rose won't protect Nina. She is the white rose.

(End of Chapter 2)

Chapter 3. Shattered Calm. Scene 1: [Lawndale Precinct, back waiting room]

(Nina's sitting on a bench in what looks like the waiting room at the back of the building. Her hands are cuffed in front of her, and she's sitting Angie's sitting across from her, drinking a cup of coffee. )

Angie: (shaking her head) I still can't believe your mom let her boyfriend throw your cousin through a plate glass window.

Nina: (a little uncomfortable with the partial lie) Yeah Angie, neither could I.

Angie: My stepdad used to do stuff like that. Not the window thing, I mean my mom woulda killed him for that.

Nina: (getting away from the boyfriend lie) And then use a stupid excuse like 'she fell'. Last time I checked, gravity works up and down, not sideways.

Angie: Your cousin's lucky she was wearing that backpack.

Nina: She was lucky she was wearing one of those fold-out playsets as a backpack. You know, those little things…

Angie: With the fold out roads and the cars…

Nina: Those are for the guys. The chicks have the dolls and the slide that goes to the swimming pool. I hate that.

Angie: The pink toys.

Nina: Tell me about it.

(The guard comes up at this point with the keys to the handcuffs)

Guard: (sullen) Well, I suppose you're free to go.

Nina: (sarcastic) And you look so cheerful about it.

Angie: (placating) Come on Therese, you know she didn't do it. The bus ticket and hotel receipts proved she wasn't even in the area when it happened.

Therese: (gruff) That's my point. They get some anonymous letters, and go gung ho half cocked. No investigation, no thinking about where the letters came from, no checking anything out.

If you're going to arrest someone, make sure the charges stick.

Nina: Does the fact that I'm innocent make no impact on you?

Therese: Arresting innocent people is a waste of time.

Nina: (rattling her cuffed hands) Yes it is. Mine.

Therese: Fine, fine, here you go. (roughly unlocks the cuffs) I just hate stupidness.

Angie: (smiling at Therese) See, I told you – Therese's a good cop. Too good to be pulling guard duty.

Nina: (rubbing feeling back into her good wrist.) Not much to guard here, me and a couple drunks.

Therese: Tell me about it. So, (reluctantly) are you in need of transportation?

Nina: (shock and suspicion) Police escort?

Angie: Not in the budget of the Lawndale Police Force. A cab. It's her way of apologizing for the inconvenience.

Nina: Nope, I should have a ride in a few. I should probably go outside and wait for it.

Angie: It's brisk out there. Besides, you don't have a cane, and it's quite a walk to the front door. Sit, I'll call the front desk so your friends know where to find you. (She leaves)

Therese: She's not supposed to do that.

Nina: What? Offer to do something nice to make up for the false arrest and charges, not to mention a very uncomfortable night in jail and walking around without anything to support my bad leg with?

Therese: The charges are off your permanent record, and your belongings are being returned. It's more than most people get.

Nina: And that doesn't bother you at all?

Therese: Look, I don't know what peachy little suburb you come from, but this is Lawndale.

(she's interrupted by the sound of Nina laughing)

Therese: What the hell's so funny?

Scene 1a: [In the Tank, headed for the rescue]

(Daria, Trent, Jesse and Jane are in the Tank, speeding towards the precinct. Jane shakes her head)

Jane: I'm not asking.

Daria: (off guard) What?

Jane: There's no point in asking anymore, you're not telling me anything.

Daria: (sigh) The black rose represents a man. A Dangerous one…

Trent: Is he the one who tried to kill me?

Daria: Not personally. (thinks about it) Or it might have been. But probably not. (looks helplessly at Trent) I'm not sure.

Trent: What?

Jane: (confused) You made more sense when you weren't saying anything.

Daria: This isn't easy to explain. It took two days for Nina to explain it to me, and I didn't exactly believe her.

Jane: Then how about we start with who Nina is.

Trent: How about who rammed my car?

Daria: (trying to put this clearly) If he didn't ram your car, your car was rammed because he wanted it done. The black rose was his way of saying that it was his work, and that he'd come back to finish the job.

Trent: I thought you said he didn't… You mean he got someone to do it.

Daria: (nodding) Yes. If he didn't do it, than he got someone else to do it. Probably the same person who left the rose.

Jane: That's stupid – you're the only one…

Daria: Who would understand the message. The message was meant for me. (Trent and Jane look at Daria, stunned)

Daria: (quiet voice) I told you it was my fault.

Trent: (quiet) Did it happen cause you wanted it to?

Daria: (indignant) NO! (calming down) It happened ... (looking at the floor) He killed two…acquaintances I had.

To remove distractions. For the sake of my clarity.

He… (she trails off, clenching her wounded hand)

Jane: Daria, you're scaring me.

(Daria looks at the two roses balanced on the lyric book she holds on her knees. Her hand is fisted over the black rose, shaking. Jane picks up the white rose, and Daria relaxes)

Daria: Right. Nina. (sighs) The black is his promise, that if I don't …conform to his wishes that people will die. Starting with Trent. The white is a promise Nina made to me two years ago. That no one else was going to die because of me.

Jane: (muttering) I don't even know where to start asking. (to Daria) Sounds like a sick puppy. What does he want you do to?

Daria: I.. (gestures helplessly) I never really… was able to put it into words. Seven months and four notebooks, and I couldn't… (shuts her eyes) This is harder than I thought.

Trent: (eyes closed) Undercurrents dark and deep, twitching just beneath my skin. I welcome death within this sleep just as I scream for giving in.

Daria: (looks wide-eyed at Trent) Exactly.

Trent: It's on Isis Wings.

Jesse: The tape you lent us..

Daria: (smiling slightly) It would be.

(Jesse makes a wild turn at this point, causing Trent to bang his bad arm against the wall)

Trent: (pointedly) You know, Jesse, maybe I should drive.

Jesse: Dude, your arm's in a cast.

Trent: You don't need two arms to drive.

Jesse: You're on edge man.

Trent: (eyebrow raised) In case you haven't noticed, the conversation for the last five minutes has been me and death. I don't exactly feel like rushing it...

Jesse: (confidently) The Tank's indestructable.

Trent: (pause) No, really, I can drive.

(As Trent and Jesse argue, Jane whispers to Daria)

Jane: (whispering) The five members of Violet Isis are Cascadia White, Kristia Storm, Samara Pyre, Lenora Poe, Maia Vision.

Daria: Nobody has names like that in real life.

(Jane gives her a dirty look)

Daria: Lenora Poe. Lenina Perez. It was easy enough.

Jane: Excuse me for being too concerned about my catatonic friend to figure out the secret identity of ambient lyricist stalkers.

(louder voice)

Jane: (interrupting the argument) Trent, you know the doctor said you can't drive till those ribs heal.

Trent: (glad for a distraction) What are you two whispering about?

Jane: (quickly) Nothing. Just that Jesse should probably step on it. (glare from Trent)

Jesse: We're almost there anyway.

Daria: (to Jane) Why the secrecy.

Jane: Trent tries to keep it quiet, cause Max and Nick don't like chick bands…

Daria: What?

Jane: The boys are Isis freaks. Rabid ones.

Daria: (amused) Oh hell.

Scene 2: [Lawndale Precinct, still in the waiting room]

(Angie returns to the break room to find Nina and Therese in a light argument. OK, maybe not so light)

Therese: (indignant) There's not only crime in the city you know…

Nina: (still laughing) Drive by mallwalkers….(breaks into giggles)

Therese: There's a lot of corruption here!

Nina: Oh yes, eeevil donuts… (starts laughing again, and falls into Therese. Therese shoves her a little too hard, and Nina ends up wrenching her shoulders to protect her bad arm from smashing into the wall.)

Nina: Hey!

Angie: Don't worry Nina. Therese won't do anything.

(Nina glares at Therese who is looking at Angie strangely.)

Therese: What did you call her?

(Nina's giggles die instantly and her face pales. In the same moment, Angie pulls out a tazer gun and fires it into the other cop's neck. From behind. Never knowing what hit her, she drops as Nina stands watching the downed cop twitching on the floor)

Nina: (tilting head) I thought it would be her.

Angie: (still aiming) I told you she was a good cop.

(She takes a deep breath and sits in her chair folding her hands on her knee.)

Nina: (calmly) So you did. So, what now?

Angie: You just stay here.

Nina: That's it?

Angie: Until you get arrested again.

Nina: Why would they arrest me again – they got evidence that I didn't do it.

Angie: Which was intended. Come on, you didn't really think your little friends could influence that much, did you?

Nina: Catch me and let me go? What's the point?

Angie: (gives Nina an evil smile, then shrugs) Damned if I know.

Nina: You're a hire, not an agent.

Angie: All I know is I'm getting paid a ridiculous amount of money to make sure you don't get released into the custody of your friends. Whatever it takes.

Nina: So what, you're gonna shock me too?

Angie: That's kinda drastic, isn't it? All you have to do is sit here and be arrested for murder like a good little girl.

Nina: And whom am I supposed to have killed?

Angie: The same guy you hit with the car. (Nina's eyes widen in horror) Fake charge as far as I know. (Nina relaxes. Just a bit)

Nina: And how am I supposed to have killed him if he's at the hospital and I'm here?

Angie: I know, weak story. Thankfully, most of the regular cops are out, and the rookies are holding the fort. And this latest bunch aren't real big on thinking things through. Which is why they got stuck with desk duty. By the time everything gets sorted out, your Mom will be here to pick you up. (She looks a little uncomfortable at this last part)

Nina: (vehement) That's not my Mom. You know that.

Angie: (takes a breath and her resolve strengthens) That's not my problem.

Scene 2a: [Lawndale Precinct - Front Desk.]

(Daria and Jane the room and approach the front desk. The place seems calm, no real activity going on, typical suburban police station)

Jane: (to the young man at the front desk, name tag reads Lee) Hello – we'd like to post bail for (pauses) Lenina Perez?

Officer Lee: Look, I'll tell you what I told the last three people, Ms. Perez's bail hearing isn't for a week. But since I know you won't take no for an answer, let me pull up her file. (Calls up her name on the computer with one key, it's gotten a lot of use today )

Daria: Legally you can only hold her for three days.

Lee: Wait, hold up. (scans the screen again) Well, it turns out that your friend got exonerated of all charges. Turns out she wasn't even in town when the guy got hit. She was released about an hour ago.

Daria: Did she walk out, or was she picked up?

Lee: Ma'am, we either hold'em or let'em go. What they do after that is their business.

Jane: Thanks officer. (drags Daria out and over to the stairwell)

Daria: What the hell are you doing?
Jane: She got released Daria, she'll be fine.

Daria: I wish I could believe that.

Jane: Come on Daria, do you really think this guy, this black rose person could get to her in the middle of a police precinct?

(A voice comes from behind her)

Voice: You really are new to the game, aren't you?

Jane: (recognizes the voice) Dammit Andrea, don't you get tired of doing the damn voice out of nowhere thing? (turns around and freezes. Andrea is still in her 'Viola' getup. Light blue sundress and picture hat included.)

Daria: (not without some amusement) Andrea?

Andrea: Would you shut up. Just tell everyone I'm here.

Jane: (trying not to laugh) What the hell are you wearing?

Andrea: Shut it Lane.

Daria: (smirk) Nice hair.

Andrea: Leni's in trouble and you're ragging on my hair.

Jane: Trouble?

Andrea: She was supposed to be released by now.

Jane: How do you know? Not even the desk cop knew.

Andrea: Who do you think forwarded Nina's dated hotel receipts and bus tickets to the cops?

Jane: One of these days someone's going to tell me why Lawndale's suddenly the home of a crack team of super-spies.

Daria: Can we do this later? I'd feel much better once we're all out of here.

Jane: Don't feel safe in a precinct? I can understand that from a bohemian Lane, but what does a Morgandorffer have to fear?

(shouting coming from the front desk. The three peer out of the stairwell to make out the desk cop arguing with a newly arrived group of cops.)

Lee: You guys want to tone it down? This is a precinct, not a bar.

Jane: (under her breath) Wanna bet?

Cop#1: Lenina Perez – we still holding her?

Lee: (bored tone) No Martins, we released her an hour ago.

Cop#1: Did she get picked up?

Lee: That's the fourth time someone's asked me that in the past six hours – what's the big deal?

Martins: Call came over the police band – the guy she tried to kill died in the hospital. The charges are up to Murder One baby.

Lee: Um, Martins, I hate to break this to you, but she didn't do it. We've got evidence.

Martins: (dismissive) Look, just call and see if she left with a ride or something. We've got a perp to bust! (the other cops chime in with the equivalent of 'Yeah baby!'.)

Lee: I'm not calling anyone till you get off the caffeine. I told you about those Mountain Dew's.

Cop#2: (pipes up) And don't forget about the Twinkies.

(Martins hits him)

Lee: OK, you stooges aren't going anywhere till you're off the caffeine high. And the sugar high.

Martins: We got a legit call man, someone's gotta take care of it and we're here and ready.

Lee: I'm going to check this one out – you guys sit. (Picks up the phone)

(various shouts of 'No way' and the like, as Andrea yanks Daria and Jane away from the door)

Jane: Ow! What the hell was that for!

Andrea: (points to the door) We should be looking out for Leni. (looks at Jane) I'm assuming your brother isn't dead.

Jane: Not unless sleeping in the van counts. What just happened?

Andrea: Nina just got in a lot more trouble. Convenient, isn't it?

Daria: Yes, that and the coincidence that just when no one knows where she is, there's a big noisy distraction to look at.

Jane: Just in time for us to look at it.

(All three pause for a minute)

Andrea: Holding cells are downstairs.

Daria: Let's go.

Jane: Right.

(All three race down the stairs)

Scene 3: [Lawndale Precinct. Waiting room.]

(Nina and Angie are seated on the same bench in the back waiting room, facing each other. The tazer gun is still aimed at Nina, who seems very casual about the whole thing.)

Nina: You sure you don't want to play some cards or something?

Angie: I think I'll keep the gun pointed at you, thanks all the same.

Nina: (rolling eyes) It is possible to play one handed you know.

Angie: I don't get distracted that easily.

Nina: You're really paranoid. Considering that you're the one holding me hostage, I find that amusing. (sighs) Fine. How about twenty questions?

Angie: (looking over her shoulder, then back at Nina) Nope.

Nina: He's late, isn't he?

Angie: He who? I'm handing you over to your mom.

Nina: We both know that's not true.

Angie: I told you…

Nina: I know. You don't care. (pause) How about pick-up sticks?

(Angie gives her a dirty look)

Nina: Twister?

Angie: I've got half a mind to drop you right now.

Nina: You've got half a mind all right, scared of a poor girl with two limbs in a cast.

Angie: Who's wanted for murder.

Nina: That's right. I had forgotten. Now, just whose fault is that again?

(Angie is about to retort when the doorknob to the room gives a little jiggle.)

Outside the Waiting room:

(The three adventurers are crouched at the end of a narrow dusty hallway, just off the landing, glaring at the locked door to the waiting room. )

Jane: (wiggling the doorknob) Are you sure she's in here?

Andrea: Glory said this is where the cops took her.

Daria: (pushing the door) And you're not worried that your friend is in a holding cell?

Andrea: You kidding? Glory practically lives there. Ends up in holding every other time she gets blasted, they know her by name. (pushes on the door)

(Inside)

Angie: (jumps) What's that?

Nina: Shouldn't you know? Isn't this your precinct? Aren't you the one with the gun?

Angie: You're pushing it. The door's locked, so don't count on any cavalry coming at the last minute.

Nina: Never do. (Looks innocently towards the door.)

Nina: (suddenly and loudly) Avon calling.

Angie: (startled) Shut up!

(Nina stays quiet for the count of ten. Yes, she's counting)

Nina:  Here's the interesting question. Are you more scared that it's your people, or my people. Because if it's your people, they might not take the whole corruption thing too well.

Angie: You don't know Lawndale.

Nina: Yeah this place is strange alright. That much I've got. But New York still beats everything.

(Angie walks over to the door, which is pushing in faintly. The lock is holding though, and she turns around again to face Nina. Not soon enough, as the tazer gun is knocked out of her hand by a skillfully thrown book.)

Nina: (cheerfully) Oops.

Angie: (Glaring) I don't really need that to deal with you.

Nina: (gesturing at her cast encased arm) Nope. Not really.

Angie: Make it easier and just get over here.

Nina: To make it easy on myself, right?

Angie: That's right. (her hands are twitching, and she's staring at the desk that the gun skittered under)

Nina: Right.

(Outside the waiting room)

Jane: (smug, to Andrea) Is that why you're in that getup? They know you by name too?

Andrea: (nonchalant) Nope. They're trying to tag me for aiding and abetting, and accessory after the fact.

Daria: And this doesn't bother you?

Andrea: She didn't do it, there's proof. Nothin real to hold me on.

Daria: (looking at the door) So, does anybody have an idea of what to do now?

Jane: How about something simple for a change. (knocks on the door) Hey Nina, you in there?

(Inside the waiting room)

(Angie turns towards the door, shocked and Nina uses this time to dive for the gun. Angie dives for the gun a split second afterward. They both end up in front of the desk, reaching underneath it. Angie takes Nina's shoulder and digs her finger into the joint, using the pain to push her back. Nina levers the gun out, which slides out from under the desk and across the floor. Angie rolls neatly as Nina slides across the floor just in time to find the gun poised a half-inch from her throat. She backs off warily as she rises to her feet, prodded by Angie who keeps the gun the half-inch away from her throat. Nina looks intently at Angie, it's clear she's going to pull something.)

Angie: I gave you a chance. Now we have to do this the hard way.

Nina: (not playing anymore) The hard way then.

(Cut back to outside)

Daria: (amazed) Lane, you've finally given up any hope of sanity.

Jane: Sanity's for the unimaginative.

Andrea: You're gonna get us all killed.

Jane: Oh come on – not everything has to be difficult. White roses, black roses, mysterious strangers…

Daria: That's different.

Jane: Information which you'll all be sure to tell me at some point when life is less crazy… Well you know what, this is Lawndale. We're in a police precinct trying to break out an innocent prisoner who the cops don't have any right to keep, accused of murdering a guy who's still alive while homicidal maniacs go around waving flowers. And you know what – between mysterious rashes, corn growing cult members and communist riots, model/mercenary showdowns and glitter berries, this isn't all that crazy for this sleepy little burg. (pounds on the door) Hey Nina! Let us in! Daria wants to know what you want on your pizza!

(Inside)

The door shakes as a fist pounds on it and Nina grabs the gun, crossing her wrist right under Angie's. She struggles and a loud voice shouts  " Hey Nina! Let us in! Daria wants to know what you want on your pizza!". Nina stomps on Angie's foot, and forces the arm holding the gun to circle out, turns around and pulls down, resulting that Angie's gun arm is now crooked behind her back.

(Outside)

Daria: (can't help it) Quick, before we bring out the car battery.

Andrea: Both of you are nuts.

Jane: Go ahead, tell me you have a better idea.

(Inside)

Angie struggles, but she's lost her center of gravity and in another minute, Nina jabs the gun into Angie's lower back and pulls the trigger.

(Outside)

(All three hear a loud electrical noise from the inside)

Andrea: Not having a better idea doesn't make yours good.

(Inside)

(In the shock, Angie goes limp and after another minute, Nina lets her hit the floor.

(Outside)

(A loud THUMP is heard from the inside of the room)

Jane: Should we be worried?

Andrea: Leni can take care of herself.

Daria: Despite the arm and leg cast…

Jane: And the fact she can't walk without a cane. (thinks about it) She did pretty well against you though.

Daria: Are you ever going to let me forget that?

Andrea: (incredulous) You hit Leni?

(A series of scraping noises is heard from inside, then footsteps towards the door)

Andrea: Get ready. (slips a finger under her wig at each side of her temple and pulls out a small flip knife for each hand.)

Jane: What the hell?

(The doorknob jiggles and clicks. All three clear the doorway and scrunch in the narrow hallway, ready to rumble. The door opens…)

(And Nina stands looking at the three girls looking something like Charlie's angels wannabes. She takes one look at Andrea, and the wig strands still attached to the knives she's pointing at Nina and smirks.)

Nina: You ain't Foxy Brown.

(She's met with three blank looks)

Nina: (shaking head) That's right, I'm in the suburbs.

Jane: Nice to see you too.

(A moan sounds behind them as Therese begins to awaken. Nina looks at the tazer gun in her hand and raises an eyebrow.)

Nina: We should go.

Jane: Already there. (starts jogging up the stairs)

Nina: No – through here – back door goes to the parking lot.

(The four ladies skitter through the room and sprint out of the back door.)

Scene 4: [Inside the Tank]

(Jesse is asleep as the wheel. Good thing he's parked. Trent's asleep in the back too. They're snoring really loud, but they look kinda peaceful. Pity.

Four loud THUNKS hit the Tank. Which of course doesn't wake anyone.)

Jane: JESSE WAKE UP!!!!! (He wakes and sputters, looking around at the four girls who just barreled into the Tank.)

Jesse: (sleepily) Hey, where'd you…

Jane: Put the key into the ignition, hit the gas and get the hell out of here, or I will.

(That woke Trent up)

Trent: What? Janey – you're not driving.

Jane: Please Trent, I drive better than you.

Trent: (is about to answer when he notices Nina, Andrea and Daria scrunched next to him the back) What's going on…whoa!

(The tank lurches as Jesse, well aware that Jane's about to hit him, starts up the Tank and runs over a couple of parking dividers on his way to the street.

Trent: Hey – injured in the back!

Nina: Yeah! (turns to Trent) Oh, speaking of, could you squish a little?

Trent: (moves over a bit) Ok, who are you?

Nina: Oh, I'm Nina. (looks at the white rose that has ended up in Trent's hair during his sleep) You're Jane's brother? The one I'm supposed to have killed?

Trent: (sighs) Can we get off me being dead!

Nina: I'd love to, but the cops have me pegged for your murder.

Jesse: But he's not dead.

Andrea: Looked dead when we got in.

Jane: (glaring at Jesse) Of course he's not dead. Someone told the cops that. (blinks) Oh hell. Adrian.

Nina: Oh hell, not one of those.

(Nina has the rare distinction of having everyone give her WTF looks at the same time)

Nina: Hey – watch the road!

Jesse: (who was staring with the others) Oops. Sorry.

Daria: One of those?

Nina: Adrian, Adrianna, Adria, Adriatic. Same root. It all means Darkness.

Jane: He checked Trent out of the hospital.

Trent: I checked myself out of the hospital. Remember? He must have screwed with the papers.

Daria: Damn, I should have remembered.

Nina: No one should have to keep this crap in their head.

Daria: You do.

Nina: I don't have a choice. You do.

Daria: He must have phoned in a phony claim…

Jane: Or just told the rookies a good story 

(The six ride in silence for a bit)

Nina: (Looking over at Trent) I'm glad Drea got the rose to you in time.

Trent: You sent them?

Andrea: Um, that wasn't exactly me.

Nina: (To Trent) Of course I sent the rose, one of D's friends marked for death… (To Andrea) What do you mean it wasn't exactly you?

Jane: (To Nina) And how did you know Trent was marked for death if you weren't there when it happened?

Andrea: (to Nina) I got the roses, but I couldn't get into the hospital.

Nina: (To Jane) I had people keeping tabs… (To Andrea) You can break into a police precinct but not a hospital?

Andrea: I'm people now? And Mom doesn't work in the precinct. Thank gods.

Nina: You volunteered, and your mom doesn't work in a hospital.

Andrea: Kris asked, and she does volunteer work. My mom, not Kris.

Daria: Stop stop stop. (looks at Jane) I'm tired. We have two sick people in the back, and Nina's story takes at least two hours to tell. Mine's another three.

Nina: (mock indignant) Your story is not longer than mine.

Andrea: Lucky – I had the six-hour version.

Nina: That's because Kris couldn't tell a short story if her life depended on it. (stunned) You actually sat and listened to that for six hours?

(Daria looks like she's about to have a migraine, and Jane relents)

Jane: (sigh) OK Daria, I'll wait till tomorrow. But that's it. Seriously, this is the last time. Tomorrow I hear everything, and I don't care how long it takes to tell the damned story.

Daria: Deal.

(The occupants sit in silence for a while)

Trent: So who's Kris? And the nurse at the hospital – Sam Morris?

Jane: Daria just asked to wait till…

Daria: Um, actually that's not part of my story.

Nina: Sam? Sam's here?

Jesse: You know Sam?

Jane: (malicious) Of course she knows Samara Pyre.

(The tank screeches to a halt)

Jesse: You know Sam Pyre? You actually know one of the Violet Isis chicks?

Trent:  Sam Pyre? I actually talked to Samara Pyre?

Nina: (completely stunned) You guys have even heard of Violet Isis?

Jane: Um, Jesse – we'd like to go home at some point?

Daria: You know, before the cops arrest us.

Nina: Hey! I'm innocent!

Jane: Yeah, but do the cops know that.

Nina: What's that supposed to mean?

Jesse: How do you know Samara Pyre?

Andrea: (to Jesse) Could you drive already!

(Jesse starts the Tank moving again)

Nina: Sam's my best friend.

Trent: (eyes the pendant Nina's wearing) You're Lenora Poe!

(The Tank stops short again, throwing everyone forward.)

Jane: OK, that's the last time you're driving. (climbs into Jesse's lap to Daria's extreme amusement)

Trent: Janey – get out of the driver's seat.

Nina: (to Andrea) What do you mean Sam's here?

Trent: How many stories are there anyway?

Jane: No one's telling any stories till we get home! Jesse, if you don't start this car so help me I'll tell your last ex where you live.

(The Tank immediately starts moving, throwing everyone against their seats. Nina looks about ready to say something.)
Jane: (to Nina) I mean it.

Andrea: (pulls out a cell and passes it to Daria) Here.

Daria: Um, what's this for?

Andrea: Got to call your parents sometime. Before they call the cops.

Trent: (still breathless voice) Lenora Poe. In the Tank.

Daria and Nina: Oh hell.

Note: I just had the BEST conversation with my Mom. I had sent her a copy of this story trying to figure out a way for Nina to get out of jail. Her first answer was to slide her out of the back door, and no I don't get that one either. So I pumped my mom for more info, and she finally replied – Just have her pull out the hidden knife. My response – "What makes you think she has a hidden knife?" My mom's reply "Because you're the author". That, and the author currently has a dagger in the bodice and another knife stashed in her coat pocket. Granted, I did not use the hidden knife thing because knowing me I'll need it for something else later down the line. But it got me out of the rut, and when facing writer's block you take what you can get. So this part is courtesy of my mom, who would really never yell at me for trying to kill a man, only for getting caught.

Scene 5: [Lane Residence: Living Room, Late Evening]

(Having saved the day, for the moment anyway, Andrea has left for home, as have Nick and Max. Daria, Jane, Nina, Trent and Jesse are sprawled in front of the TV with a large quantity of pizza. Jesse's sorting through a large pile of videos. Trent's in the corner with his lyricbook, concentrating as he writes awkwardly with his undamaged hand.)

Jane: Who's idea was it to let the guys pick the videos?

Nina: The same person who demanded the bribe.

Jane: Hey, you guys said you didn't want to explain anything till the morning. I've got to keep my mind occupied until then.

Daria: Pizza and videos is a cheap bribe – be glad you got off that light.

Jane: Speaking of getting off light, how was the chat with the parental units?

Daria: Oddly enough they're not home. (mutters) Nice to see they're concerned…

Jane: Um, they don't exactly know you were missing…

Daria: Meaning?

Jane: Meaning you got a killer project for Spring Break, and you've been between the library and my house all week.

Daria: And they bought that?

Jane: Well, apparently Princess Grace has been helping them out.

Daria: Quinn? What did you pay her?

Jane: Not me chica.

Nina: (not looking at Daria) She did it out of the kindness of her heart.

(Daria glares at her)

Nina: She did.

Daria: Look, no one can threaten Quinn but me, it's…

Nina: Sibling privilege. I know that, I do have a brother. Honestly, I didn't say a thing. I didn't have to – your parents have her so scared of me she almost wet herself when she saw me. Someone seems to have fed them an interesting version of what happened at Niagara Falls.

(Daria looks down).

Jane: You just don't get along with anyone's parents, do you? Daria's, Andrea's…

Nina: Oh no, Andrea's parents don't even know me. All they know is I'm part of the band.

Jane: How exactly does Andrea fit into this?

Nina: She's Kris' cousin.

Jane: As in Kristia Storm.

Nina: (slightly uncomfortable) You know, we came up with those names as a joke, no one thought they'd be taken seriously. Anyway, I've met her a couple times, and she always keeps track of Kris, no matter what her parents say. So when she mentioned she knew a girl named Daria, I asked her to keep an ear out.

Daria: Why would Andrea mention me at all?

Nina: As I understand it, intelligence is a rare thing in Lawndale. And even if you don't make friends with the other people who can actually hold a thought in their heads…

Daria: You keep track of them.

Jane: So what do Andrea's folks have against the band?

Nina: Simple prejudice. Go off to the city to be in a band, sleep all day and drink all night…

Jesse: Yeah man!

Nina: (looking strangely at Jesse) Not that we do that. I mean we're all in college – every moment that's not studying is working on music, or getting gigs, or practice practice practice. They don't see that. All they see is a no good girl who ran away from home to be in some band. (getting heated) Don't even ask about the reasons she left home, or the bruises she had to keep covering up – oh no. Just pass judgement and always believe the so called adults, no matter if they're wrong or right. (Breaks off and notices everyone in the room staring at her) Um, sorry – pet peeve.

Jane: (getting off the subject of the band) Hey, next time Quinn almost wets her pants, can you take a picture? I need to get that on film!

(Daria smiles and looks at Jane.)

Jane: (shrugging) It'll be a great addition to my series. Not to mention revenge for the botched movie.

Nina: I get the feeling I'm missing something…

Jane: Good. About damned time. (Jane smiles smugly at Nina, and Nina laughs) Now, back to the movies – who picked Barb Wire?

Jesse: You said we could pick anything we wanted. And there wasn't a lot there.

Jane: Yeah, but Barb Wire? Even as a bad movie…

Nina: It's not that bad. It's an interesting re-interpretation of Casablanca.

Daria: Otherwise known as a knock-off.

Nina: Yeah, but instead of having a bad plot, or no plot, they stole a plot that actually works. It's an interesting approach.

Daria: (amused) You have to be the only person I've ever heard of who watches Barb Wire for the plot.

Jane: Yeah, I'm sure that's why the boys picked it – isn't it Jesse?

(Jesse looks for a moment looks like a deer in headlights, then discreetly puts the tape aside as Jane smirks)

Jesse: OK, we've got Krull…

Jane: Gack!

Daria: (amused) Gack?

Jane: You want to see it?

Daria: That would depend on what 'Gack' is supposed to signify.

Nina: I kinda have to support Gack on the feminist vote. The only cool woman there was the widow of the web, and they killed her off. But the flouncy chick in the wedding dress gets to make it.

Jane: (waving off the feminist vote) The wedding ceremony was cool though.

Daria: That would raise the marriage rate in the country – get hitched and you too can shoot fireballs.

Jane: Hell, I'd get married for that.

Daria: Even to Kevin?
Jane: Enthusiasm dying…

Daria: Or how about Upchuck?

Jane: Ewwww…

(Nina shrugs and decides not to figure it out, looking over to Jesse for the next movie.)

Jesse: Earth Girls are Easy…

Daria and Jane: No!

(Trent startles up from his writing, stretches his hand and goes back to writing)

Nina: (smirking) Picked that one by title, didn't you?

Jesse: We're never going to pick one if you guys keep rejecting these.

Jane: (offhand) Fine – play the next one you see.

(Daria looks at her)

Jane: I'm feeling adventurous.

Nina: Yes, because breaking someone out of a police precinct wasn't enough action for you.

Jane: (looking smugly at Nina) Nope. (to Jesse) Next movie!

Jesse: Joe Vs. the Volcano.

Nina: (amused) Let me guess, you picked that one by title too.

Jesse: Dude fighting a volcano – sounded cool.

Nina: No – the movie's fine.

Jane: Yeah –put it on.

Daria: You have to be kidding. A Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie??

Jane: (whispering) Don't worry, the movie won't be on for longer than ten minutes.

Nina: (trying to puzzle this out) First ten minutes…

Jane: Oh yea – this'll be fun to watch.

(Jesse cues up the movie and fastfowards past everything till the intro.)

Nina: (figuring it out) Oh!

Jane: Shhh!

(For anyone who hasn't seen the intro, it's a very grey and depressing scene with a whole lot of people trudging through a muddy unpaved parking lot to get to work at a medical supply factory specializing in petroleum jelly and artificial testicles. No, I didn't make that last one up.)

Song from the TV: Sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me cause I can't go – I owe my soul to the company store…

(Jesse looks up in horror, and even Trent pulls himself away from his lyric book to stare dumbfounded at the screen. Daria's trying not to smile at the sight of two near grown men facing their personal version of hell. The movie goes from the intro to the first scene, which is an extremely grey office with flickering and buzzing fluorescent lights, coffee with spoiled milk and an extremely loud voiced boss who's having a very inane conversation on the phone.)

From the TV: "But can he do the job? I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?

(pause)

"I'm not arguing that with you!" (pause) "I'm not arguing that with you." (pause) I'm not arguing that with you!"

"Who said that? I didn't say that. If I had said that, I would have been wrong."

Trent: (twitching) Um, could you guys change that?

Jane: (Enjoying this) You guys picked it.

(Jesse is crouched in a corner, twitching, huddled against his knees)

Trent: Just… It's making me uncomfortable.

Jane: What do you say Daria?

Daria: (looking a little twitchy herself) Um, Jane…

Jane: Oh come on!

Nina: Jane – try actually looking at the movie for a minute.

(Jane looks at the movie. The same argument is continuing over the phone, an argument consisting of the aforementioned three phrases and nothing else. Her eyes begin to droop, as does her smirk and she too starts to twitch. The guys don't notice.)

Trent: Look Jane, put on anything that you want, just take this off. Before Jesse goes catatonic.

Daria: Yeah, and we have to bring out the car battery…

Nina: From the hunk of junk we rode here in? Oh please. Just plug him into the wall.

Jane: OK, I'll have mercy on the poor boy. We'll watch Clue. That is, if Daria doesn't have anymore six hour long theories on the real killer.

(Nina looks intrigued, and Daria gives Jane a dignified look)

Daria: I think I made my point the last time.

Nina: So who…

Jane: No you don't. I will smother you with my pillow. And bury you. In Andrea's sundress, the wig and the picture hat.

Nina: Ookay, shutting up. (looking at the twitching bassist in the corner) But someone should do something about Jesse – looks like he's about to faint.

Trent: No sweat. (In a louder voice) Hey Jesse – want this last slice of pizza?

(A breeze blows through the room and suddenly Jesse's on the other side of the room, mouth full of pizza.)

Jesse: (mumbling) tnks mn.

(Jane goes to put on Clue and manages to snatch one of the remaining pizza boxes from Jesse's sharklike feeding frenzy and tosses it to Daria. Scene fades.)

Scene 6: [Lane Residence: Kitchen, Morning]

(Daria stumbles into the kitchen to find Jane and Trent in a state of semi-wakefulness.)

Daria: Please tell me there's coffee. (slumps into a seat)

Trent: (waves a hand) Mmph..

Jane: (vague shooing gesture) Sent Jesse and Morning Glory out for some.

Daria: Jesse's up?

Jane: For little miss Violet Isis? Couldn't move fast enough.

Trent: Yeah – she's cool.

Jane: (annoyed) Trent – she almost got you killed.

Trent: Oh. (sleepy puzzlement) Why'd you bust her outta jail then?

Daria: (light laugh) No arguing with Trent logic.

Jane: Yes there is. Just not before coffee.

(Kitchen door bursts open with a surprisingly awake Jesse and a disturbingly chipper Nina, laden with shopping bags.)

Nina: (brightly) Morning!

Jane: Ugh…

Nina: (plunks the bags down and starts unloading them.) Yes, I got coffee. Um, instant and ground, I wasn't sure if you had a coffeemaker or anything.

(Trent chooses this moment to drop off the table and onto the floor, snoring)

Nina: (amused) That would be one order for instant … (puts a pot of hot water on to boil, and loads the coffee-maker at the same time. Turns and looks at the fridge.) Ick, there is no food in here. There's isn't even fungus in here…

Jane: (partially awake) Yeah, on a good day you can hear the ocean.

Nina: Or Zeul. (is met with blank looks) Ookay, old joke.

Daria: (peering sleepily at her) How the hell are you awake?

Nina: (pulls a packet out of her pocket) Ginseng, Guarana, Chi powder and straight caffeine. Between college and the band I live on three hours sleep. Besides, it's the only way I could keep Tank-boy awake enough to drive.

Jesse: (picking Trent back up and placing a box of cereal on one side and a handmade bowl on the other side of his head) It's ok, I think I got him balanced.

(Trent's head skitters off the table again, sending the box to the floor and the bowl into the arms of a shocked Nina)

Nina: Good – I was looking for that. Now, where are the frying pans…

Daria: You cook?

Nina: I'm hungry, and raw supplies are cheaper than takeout any day of the week. (delivers a steaming mug of coffee into Jane's hands) 

Jane: (takes a sip and her head jerks, it's strong coffee) I may have to reconsider my opinion of you.

Nina: I'm sure you'll still hate me once the caffeine kicks in. (gives another cup of caffeine to Daria then stands back considering Trent.)

Jane: Bringer of food – go cook. I'll handle Trent.

Daria: You could have just gotten take-out.

Nina: Once again – after a day of prison food?

Jesse: Yeah – that and we ate all the take-out food we bought this morning.

Nina: (mock-scowl) Big mouth.

Daria: But you didn't have to cook.

Jane: (whispering) Shut up!

Nina: Daria, it's breakfast. I'm not making eggs benedict, we're talking simplicity. Pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs.

(Trent is really awake now. So's Jane for that matter.)

Trent: What? Food?

Jesse: (dreamy voice) She got toast and juice too…

Trent: (echoing dreamy voice) Wow… (bolts his coffee in one shot)

Nina: (confused) They're instant pancakes – the kind you pour. Chill guys. Besides, cooking's a survival skill.

Jesse: For when you're out in the woods?

Nina: (looking at Jesse like he's crazy) Boy, I'm from New York. (muttering) Out in the woods, please. You've got to be kidding. (normal voice) Survival is not depending on someone else's cooking skills. Or lack thereof.

Daria: You didn't cook before…

Nina: D, the first time I met you, you were in a hotel. Not to mention your mom tried to get a restraining order put against me.

Jane: I told you –tell the story from the beginning and not till after breakfast. Then Trent and I..

Trent: (on his third shot of coffee) Not coming.

Jane: Trent – you almost died because of this! Don't you want to know what's going on?

Trent: I know. (He gives a deep look at Nina, who smiles at him.)

Nina: Thank you.

Jane: OK, I'm lost.

Jesse: Everything's right there in the CD. Ancient Prayer, and then when we listened to Isis Wings, it's the whole story.

Jane: It's not Daria's story.

(Trent turns to Daria and looks at her. She smiles.)

Daria: Thanks.

Jane: I'm missing something again.

Trent: Daria doesn't want me to be there.

(Jane turns and looks incredulously at Daria. Daria's not looking back at her.)

Trent: (filling up the mug of coffee) It's her story, and her choice.

Jane: You deserve to know!

Trent: I know enough. (turns to Daria) If you ever tell me, it's cool. If you never tell me, it's cool. You didn't get me hurt – no matter what you say.  And you came to back me up without asking. That's what I know. (Turns with the coffeepot and leaves the room.)

Nina: (looking after him) Damn. You have good taste D. Class act.

Jane: Except for the part where he took all the coffee.

Nina: We've got the grounds. All we need is a pot and a clean sock.

(Jane starts laughing)

Nina: (indignant) You can make coffee that way.

Daria: No, she's laughing at the idea of finding a clean sock in this house.

Nina: Oh. Ewww. Jesse – please get the rest of the bags out of the Tank and bring them into the kitchen. (Jesse looks hesitant) I promise I'll call you the second I'm done.

Jane: Come on Jesse, I'll go with. Food entering this house is something I've gotta see. Maybe record for posterity.

(He leaves. Nina grabs a stack of plates from the cupboard, plunks them on the counter and wipes the dust off them with her good hand.)

Nina: Do you guys ever eat?

Daria: Not real food or anything.

Nina: I'd choke something down if I were you – you know how much this is gonna take out of us.

Daria: That's something I wanted to talk to you about.

Nina: What?

Daria: Um, Jane's going to hear a lot. And she's a good friend, and…

Nina: Yeah, that's why we're going to tell her.

Daria: Um, yeah. That's the problem.

Nina: (starts loading food onto the plates) Not seeing a problem here.

Trent: (materializing behind Nina in time to take the laden plate off her hands) She doesn't want you to be there either. Wants this to be her and Jane. (takes all the toast out of the toaster and sweeps out of the room)

Nina: How does he do that?
Daria: I think it comes from being oblivious to all external conversations.

Nina: Actually, I mean how does he stop people from killing him when he swipes their food. (what he said registers) You don't want me to be there?

Daria: Just for my story. You wouldn't tell mine when she asked, you respected that. So I won't tell yours – I don't really think I could anyway. But this has to be between me and Jane. You've never heard my side, and…

Nina: And Trent?

Daria: (whispering) And how would you suggest I tell him that he almost died because I have a crush on him? He doesn't even know about the stupid crush. It's a stupid reason to get killed!

Nina: All I know is he seems like a good friend. And those are worth a lot. Too much to lose.

Daria: He said it was okay.

Nina: (loads several more plates with food) Yes. And I have to agree with Jane. He's marked – and his life is still in danger. The white roses only work so far, and you know damned well that you-know-who's been known to break his own rules. He deserves to know the truth.

Daria: I can't tell him. Not now, not like this.

Nina: (sighs and bangs the plate on the counter.) Fine. Don't expect me to like it.

Daria: Fine. Jane and I will be upstairs.

(The noises of Jesse and Jane arguing are heard from outside)

Nina: And if he asks?

Daria: (after a pause) Only if he asks. And only what he asks.

(Jane and Jesse bust in the door along with Trent, all laden with groceries.)
Jane: (Mid argument) We'll get off the last stupid thing when you do something so stupid it drives the previous stupid thing from our minds.

Trent: Janey – chill. He wouldn't have done it.

Jane: Trent, I found him, dumb and dumber in the room hooking Daria up to the wires. With duct tape.

Jesse: I still say it would have worked.

Trent: (pause) Ok man, we've gotta talk.

Jane: Yeah, what was next, sticking her in the microwave with aluminum foil?

Jesse: She wouldn't fit.

Jane: Please don't tell me you tried it

Jesse: It's not like I fried her or anything…

Nina: Take the food and go already – I can't cook in the middle of an argument!

Daria: Jesse – I don't want to hear any more of this story. Just don't ever do it again.

Jane: That's right, no baking, boiling, frying or steaming your friends young man.

Daria: Jane, can we take this food and go upstairs, it's going to be a long day and I'd like to get started.

Jane: (a little surprised) Sure. (to Nina) Coming?

Nina: Nope, I'm gonna put the groceries away. Half this stuff is spoil-able.

Jesse: It won't last that long.

Nina: I don't doubt it. (to Daria and Jane) It's ok, go. Besides, someone's got to keep these guys out of the supplies.

Jesse: Hey!

Daria: (to Nina) Thanks.

Scene 6a: Penny's room.

(Daria and Jane have finished up their food and are sitting cross-legged on Penny's bed with large glasses of orange juice)

Jane: So….

Daria: So…

Jane: Okay…

Daria: Wow, this is harder than I thought it would be.

Jane: Start from the beginning and just go till you get to the end.

Daria: Not this time. The whole story starts with Nina. But I thought you would want to hear my part first. We can call Nina up to tell her part later.

Jane: (looking at Daria) Is it that bad?

Daria: Yes…No… I don't know how to answer that.

Jane: OK, Nina has this whole big past, yadda yadda, and then you come into it. Start from there.

Daria: I just… I'm not proud of it.

Jane: Hey, chica from what I'm hearing, you're the victim of some psycho.

Daria: Not in the beginning. In the beginning, I was a willing participant. That's the worst part of the whole thing.

Jane: Nina said in that club that you pushed me away to protect me. Was that true?
Daria: (long pause) I didn't want you in this mess.

Jane: Then you're still the Daria I know and mildly tolerate. Now start. Before I plug you into the wall.

Daria: (smiles) It started like all great disasters start. With a tiny small thing harmless looking thing. And in the end, it almost destroyed everything. Including me. But then again, that's what it was meant to do.

(End of Scene)

Chapter 4. Daria's Story. Scene 1: Highland, 2 ½ years ago.

(It's a gorgeous spring day, and the sunlight streams through the windows of a dusty classroom. A fourteen year old Daria in her previous yellow outfit is sitting down, staring out of the window. She's got two notebooks open – one with class notes and one with what appears to be a story in it. It is to be noted that the class notebook is filled with corrections on the teacher's lecture. Beavis and Butthead are sitting towards the front of the class, snickering as usual, to the dismay of Mr. VanDriessen who is trying to teach English romantic poetry. He really should know better.)

VanD: Let not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.

Butthead: Brains in love. Ick. He he he. 

VanD: Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove…

Beavis: Cool – double jointed chicks. He he he he

Daria's Voice Over: Before I came to Lawndale, I was in this little town called Highland. Highland was stupid.

Jane VO: So is Lawndale.

Daria VO: Worse than here even. Here we have a few non-stupid people, but Highland was hell. Even more so than Lawndale High.

VanD: Oh no, it is an ever fixed mark. That looks on tempests and is not shaken…

Beavis: He he, I saw that one. Love on the Rinse Cycle.

Butthead: Yeah –with the hot housewife on the dryer.

Beavis: Yeah – Buzzzzzzz

Butthead: (In tandem) Oh baby, hehe, oh baby…

(Daria smirks in the corner, then writes "Shakespearean porn" in her notebook and rolls her eyes. VanDriessen heaves an exasperated sigh, and then valiantly tries to go on with his lesson.)

Daria VO: There were these two idiots who I hung around because I found their stupidity amusing.

VanD: It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
within his bending sickle's compass come;

Beavis: Kinky – he's using tools. Hehe.

Butthead: You said tools.

Beavis: Yeah, he's bending over too.

VanD: (rushing through the rest of the poem) love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom
if this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd

(Beavis and Butthead are still snickering at the bending and sickle comment)

VanD: OK, so what's the significance of this sonnet?

Beavis: Uh, brains get off on washing machines?

Butthead: hehe, yeah and they bark and stuff.  Hey, diarrhea's a brain, let's ask her.

Daria: (the smirk disappears) Oh no.

Jane VO: Wait. You actually knew a guy named Butthead?

Daria VO: For someone who wanted to hear this story, you're doing an awful lot of interrupting.

Jane VO: I thought you were just calling him a butthead. He did just call you diarrhea.

Daria VO: They always called me that. And his name really is Butthead. I'm continuing in the hope of less interruptions…

Jane VO: OK, fine, I'm shutting it.

(Daria is rolling her eyes as the familiar Diarrhea cha cha cha chant is begun in earnest, and VanDriessen tries his best to calm the boys down.)

Daria VO: They made Kevin look intelligent, but it was a relief to be with them. They never tried to pretend they were normal.

(VanDriessen has gotten the class calmed down, and turns with hopeful eyes to Daria)

VanD: Perhaps you could tell us the significance of the sonnet?

Daria: (bored voice) This sonnet has two messages. The first is that anyone who tries to change what they love is not really in love. The second is that once you are in true love, nothing can change or stop that, it's eternal and invulnerable.

VanD: (sighs) Yes, absolutely. I've always felt this was one of Shakespeare's more uplifting sonnets.

Daria: Yes, I'm sure all the battered spouses across the nation will rejoice in the knowledge that not only should they not stop their significant others from being abusive, but that they'll never be able to move on to someone else. Love being eternal and all.

VanD: Daria, must you always come up with something horrific in the face of romance?

Daria: No. I must always come up with something realistic in the face of overblown sentiment.

VanD: (singsong voice) The glass is not always half empty…

Daria:  (monotone singsong) It is if you drink the rest of the water…

Daria VO: It was the ones who thought they were normal that made things hell. They tried to convince everyone else that their way of life was normal. If tedium and stupidity was the norm for adult behavior, I couldn't see the point in aspiring to it.

(Mr. VanDriesson continues to chirp at Daria as she once again looks out the window.)

Daria VO: There really wasn't any point in suffering the hell of school if I was going to end up like them – small people with small minds locked in a narrow little point of view that they would rather die than see the outside of. There's a British children's rhyme that goes: "Take the fox and put it in a box and never ever let it go". That's worse than the ankle trap, because at least you can chew your leg off. But once the box gets you, there's nothing else you can ever do. It's like what I was saying in class last week – Poe had it right.

(VanDriesson keeps chirping at Daria, but now the colors in the room have started to fade. The sound in the room is low, and the picture is fuzzing slightly, in and out of focus. Daria rubs her forehead as if she's got a headache and Beavis and Butthead start snickering about something else, and the edges of the room start to waver.

DariaVO:  It's not the things that go bump in the night that are frightening or drive you to despair. It's the little normal everyday things. One day after another never meaning anything, never amounting to anything. Staring at the same thing day after day, knowing nothing will ever change.

(The bell rings and Daria dashes out into the hall, once again rubbing her forehead. The colors in the hallway dull further, and the wavering stops and starts. It's a very crowded hallway, and everyone seems to have a need to careen into someone else. There's a traffic jam in one section in the hall, caused by a 'Fashion Club' type and a jock making out in the middle of the hallway, forcing everyone to squeeze around them to get to their lockers.)

Daria VO: And one day, a day when you feel like sticking your head in the locker and slamming it till you don't hear anything anymore, even their footsteps and breathing noises have became so annoying that killing them seemed like a sane measure. You can feel the place where the buzzing lights hit you on the head, and you can just smell everyone, and you wonder why anyone but you was put on the earth, since you're the only one who can seem to be quiet and not bump into fifteen people in the hallways…

(Scene Change. Daria and Jane on Penny's bed. Jane is looking wide-eyed at Daria)

Jane: Wow. Are you always that crabby?

Daria: No, not all the time. And here – it's not so bad. It was usually on Fridays, when the whole week was over, and I could have easily spent the time in bed and gotten more done. I think what made it worse is that I was a part of things. Photography club. The newspaper. Quit laughing Lane.

Jane: (laughing hysterically) Ok, I'm fine now. Really. (holds a serious face for ten seconds) All the sarcasm that's fit to print…(starts snickering again.)

Daria: I'm going to leave now…

Jane: No, don't please. Sorry. (makes a visible effort to calm down) OK, so Highland was hell. Go on.

Daria: It wasn't just that Highland was hell. When school is hell and home is hell, what do you have?

Jane: Is this rhetorical or multiple choice? (Dirty look from Daria) You end up stuck in some boring after school thing.

Daria: And when that doesn't help? (Jane still looks puzzled) It's a dangerous place to be in.

Jane: Dangerous? Depressing maybe, but…

Daria: Dangerous. Because you'd do anything for a change.

Scene 2: Highland, 2 years ago, Morgandorffer Residence.

Daria VO: I went home that day fed up. No particular reason, it had been just like any other day. Which was exactly what was wrong with it.

(We see the younger Daria coming into her room, dropping her backpack to the floor and sinking against the wall. No expression, but her pose conveys infinite weariness. We get a close view of her desk and see a large black envelope on her desk.)

Daria VO: So I should have been more worried when I came to my room and found a black envelope on my desk.

(The younger Daria raises her head and catches sight of the envelope, and raises one eyebrow. She moves towards it…)

Quinn: (From Downstairs) Daria! DINNER!

(And is stopped short by the involuntary cringe at her sister's screech. She looks at the letter and moves towards it again.)

Quinn: (from downstairs) Daria – if you don't come down and pay for this, we're not gonna eat!

Daria: COMING!

(Gives one last lingering glance to the envelope and leaves.)

Jane VO: Takeout? No lasagna or Jake's special stew?

(The younger Daria heads down the stairs. The house is empty and very neat.) 

Daria VO: Things were a bit different then. Jake and Helen weren't home so much.

(The younger Daria digs into a jar in the kitchen cupboard and fishes out a twenty, then walks through the pristine kitchen to pay the bored looking pizza delivery guy who is studiously ignoring being hit on by a twelve year old Quinn, dressed in a pink top, black Capri jeans and sneakers.)

Daria VO: Quinn and I were on our own most of the time.

(The younger Quinn takes the pizza into the kitchen and opens it up. Half is loaded with toppings and half is bread and sauce with mushrooms on top. Daria and Quinn sit down to eat, Quinn reading a fashion magazine, Daria reading a book, both ignoring each other.)

Daria: (puts down the book and looks at Quinn) Hey Quinn.

(Quinn ignores Daria)

Daria: Quit chewing on the fungus growing on your pizza and answer me.

Quinn: (Gives a shriek and looks at her pizza.) There's no fungus on this pizza! Quit making stuff up!

Daria: I'm not. Just what do you think those mushrooms are?

Quinn: Low-fat.

Daria: Fungus among us, you might just beat Beavis and Butthead for a guest shot on Sick Sad World.

Quinn: Ewwww. Wait a minute. What did you want?
Daria: When?
Quinn: Just now. Usually you never put down the book at dinner.

Daria: Eso si que es.

Quinn: That's on that radio commercial – you spell socks and it's spanish. But what does it mean?

Daria: This is what it is.

Quinn: Can't  you give a straight answer to anything…

Daria: No Quinn, that's literally what… oh never mind.

(They munch in silence)

Daria: Oh, yeah. Quinn?

Quinn: Not falling for it!

Daria: Did you pick up the mail?

Quinn: (trying out the sentence in a spanish accent) Didju peek up… doesn't sound like something in Spanish…

Daria: (exasperated) It's not. (using the speaking to mentally damaged voice) Did. You. Pick. Up. The. Mail. Today.

Quinn: (same voice) Yes. I. Did. So. What.

Daria: (deep sigh, clenches fists) Did you see a black envelope?

Quinn: (at it again) Didju see a block…

Daria: (fed up) Quinn – it's a simple question! Did you or did you not see a black envelope in the mail!

Quinn: God Daria, don't blow a gasket. Yes, there was a creepy black envelope in the mail, I put it on your desk and the rose in the kitchen. (points to the counter, where a black rosebud sits in a drinking glass.) I mean eww, black rose. Morticia Addams much?

Daria: Rose? (sees the black bud and walks over to it, picking up the glass.)

Quinn: Watch out – it's got thorns. Almost pricked myself on it.

Daria: (sotto voce, to the rose) You'll get her next time my pretty.

Quinn: What?

Daria: Never mind. Where was it?

Quinn: (holding out her finger) Right next to my fingernail…

Daria: The rose stupid, where was the rose?

Quinn: Stuck through the envelope (sees that Daria has brought the rose to the table) Ewww! Daria! I can't eat with that… that thing at the table! It's disgusting! Roses shouldn't come in black! Roses should be pink, with just the lightest hint of yellow, or red. Maybe white, but that gets into the whole bridal thing…

Daria: Quinn, you're twelve.

Quinn: Daria, every girl plans her wedding from the age of six at least. Oh my god – don't tell me you don't have anything planned! I mean, it'll be a while for you until you finally decide to get contacts and dress in something reasonable…

(Daria gets up from the table, loading another slice on her plate and standing up with that and the rose)

Daria: (to the rosebud) Come on – let's leave the bride to chew her fungus in peace. (heads back to the stairs)

Quinn: Daria – we're not supposed to eat in our rooms! I could tell…

Daria: (still walking) Just like I could tell about someone's trip to the mall last week when they were supposed to be in study hall…

Quinn: You don't have proof!

Daria: (starting up the stairs) But Mom will if she asks the study hall teacher and hears about your CAT scan… (vanishes up the stairs)

Quinn: Damn movie of the week.

(Back in Daria's room)

(Daria enters, puts the plate on her nightstand, and sets the rosebud carefully on her desk next to the letter. Than she takes the letter and a small paper knife on her desk, carefully slits the envelope and pulls out another envelope, this one of folded paper and sealed with silver wax. Imprinted in the silver wax is a blank-inked rose and she looks from it to the rose bobbing softly in the water glass. She narrows her eyes and waves the seal in front of her face.)

Daria VO: It smelled like roses. And not the cheap rose perfume that Quinn used to bathe in. This was the real thing.

Jane VO: Wow – seems kinda cheesy.

Daria VO: (almost laughing) Exactly what I thought. But at least someone had put some kind of effort into it. Also, it was good quality material – the paper and the ink and everything. So that kind of took some of the cheese out of it.

Jane VO: No dark romance, no vampire…

Daria VO: Oh knock it off. I was bored, and it was definitely something new. I was sure it was going to be something cheesy and disappointing like a magazine subscription.

Jane VO: But you opened it

(The younger Daria takes her paper knife and wiggles it gently under the seal until she cuts through the wax and opens up the envelope. She unfolds a thick letter and opens it carefully.)

Daria VO: Yes. I did.

Jane VO: So what was in the letter already.

Daria VO: (innocent) Writing…

Jane VO: Argh!

Daria VO: (amused) It was a long long letter.  But since you're about to blow a gasket, I'll condense…

(The younger Daria's face softens and her eyes widen in surprise, then gives a ironic smirk and lies down on her bed to read the letter in the afternoon light streaming through her window.).)

Daria VO: He told me that Highland was a hick one horse town where the greatest aspiration was to achieve all the glory you could in high school and spend the rest of your life living from that memory. He said that the combined brainpower of the greatest minds in the town could barely power a digital watch and that I could carve better adult role models out of potatoes. And that it was perfectly understandable that living in a town of monkeys who called themselves people would hurt anyone with more than three active brain cells.

Jane VO: Wow. Still sounds like Lawndale. I don't get it though, you knew all that.

Daria VO: Yes, I did. But there's a difference between thinking something and having someone else agree with it. For the first time in a long time, someone understood what I was going through. And I didn't have to explain any of it to him.

Jane VO: Sounds creepy.

Daria VO: A little. But that's not what got to me.

(The younger Daria reaches the third page in the letter and she smiles, not the rare Daria smile free of sarcasm or of the rarer hysteria displayed in the hospital. This is a smile of pure pleasure and joy on a person who has seen little of either.)

Daria VO: He gave me something to do. I had to watch these people, these so-called normal people and the worlds that they made for themselves. To see how their delusions were constructed and find just the right place to touch to make them all fall and crumble down. So that I could show them just how artificial it was. I don't know if you can understand the appeal of that…

Jane VO: It's what goes into my art, to show the so-called 'normal' people just how twisted their innocent seeming world is. But art is participatory – they can choose to look at it and feel something or they can choose to walk away. What you're talking about is forcing it on them. It's appealing; don't get me wrong, but… not really kosher.

Daria VO: I knew it wasn't kosher, but I didn't know why. I told myself it was a fraud, some elaborate college recruitment thing. Or trying to get me to join the Scientologists. And though I didn't believe it, it bothered me. The idea that I could actually do something about the situation I was in, a way of actually fighting back against the cloying stupidity that was just everywhere.

(The younger Daria looks at the letter one last time, then the expression leeches out of her face and she returns to her normal expressionless façade. She takes the letter over to the wastepaper basket, and fumbles in a nearby drawer.)

Daria VO: The fact that the letter was intelligent, and sound, and reasonable, and it was the equivalent of the knight in shining armor. 

(The younger Daria pulls out a pack of matches and lights the letter on fire. She drops it into her wastepaper basket, picks up the discarded slice of pizza and starts to eat it… on the other side of the room)

Jane VO: You burned it?!?

Daria VO: For a minute I believed in the rescue. Even then I knew what accepting that kind of offer would mean.

Jane VO: Well clue me in, cause I don't. All I see is some creepy dude sending you letters.

Daria VO: It was too easy – no one gets to have all their problems just taken care of. It doesn't happen. And that's what he was offering, to take all my problems and make them better. He offered it in a way so that I actually considered it.

(Daria looks over her shoulder at the fire, and slowly, resolutely turns her head back.)

Jane VO: What happened to the rose?

(Daria's gaze turns towards the small rosebud resting at her desk)

Daria VO: Oh that. That I kept.

Jane VO: Why?

Daria VO: Because no one ever offered to make my life easier before without demanding I cut out my brain before. I wanted to remember that.

(The younger Daria takes the rose, and carries it over to her window, gently setting it on the sill.)

Jane VO: But you turned him down.

Daria VO: The first time. Not the second. (sigh)  Had I known better, I would have burned the rose, not the letters. That was the dangerous thing.

End of Scene 2

Scene 3: Lane Residence, Penny's Bedroom

Daria: (looks down at clenched fists) Burning the letter didn't do any good. I'd read it, and the words were imprinted on my brain. It was as if I'd been walking around in a NyQuil drug haze, and just started to wake up. Instead of despairing at being so close to people's stupidity, I used that opportunity to watch them without bias.

(Daria's head tilts to the side, and her eyes start getting a faraway look in them Her voice gets softer, and remote.)

Daria: The whole stupidity thing, it goes further than accepting the status quo because you can't think for yourself. It's living in a world where anything that you don't get simply doesn't exist. And by watching them, I learned how people build their worlds. The process, the method, impressive complexity from even the simplest of minds. I saw the defenses they'd build to keep their little worlds afloat. (She tilts her head a little further, and her voice gets a little singsong)

Daria: And I saw that even I was part of the process – every comment I made was used to strengthen their arguments, to come up with new and different ways to defend their point of view from common sense and intellect.  It was the first interesting idea I'd heard in some time, and before long it… consumed me.

(Jane flinches at this. Daria doesn't notice and her voice becomes quieter)

I could see ways to batter their perceptions, throw monkey wrenches into the order of their worlds. And the walls would shake, but not crumble. I could break their ideas, but not the source of them. I couldn't find what he called the one point – the one place you could apply the least pressure to and have the whole thing collapse around me…

Jane: (quiet) Stop it.

Daria: (snaps out of it and returns to her normal monotone and position) What?

Jane: (looks at Daria for a minute, then shakes her head) Just…(sigh) How'd he get back into the picture. The rose guy.

Daria: (looks strangely at Jane for a minute, then continues)

Scene 3a: Highland, 2 years ago, High School

(The younger Daria is sitting in Spanish Class, looking out the window and scowling at the sunshine.)

Daria VO: It was about a month later, and I'd reached my limit of patience. The idiots around me were more secure in their lies than I was in the truth. They just soiled everything they touched with their viewpoint until everything was the color of fluffy bunnies and shiny daisies and pretending it all wasn't bullshit.

(A crack of thunder splits the air, and the younger Daria smirks)

Daria VO: And in the midst of this irrational, hostile mood my teacher made his fatal mistake.

Spanish teacher: (sounding exasperated, and with a really bad Spanish accent) Dara, por favor tratas a participar in este clase.

Daria: (With a passable Spanish accent) Me llamo es Daria, Sr. Johnson. Not Dara. And you're losing the rest of the class.

Sr. Johnson: Srta. Daria, you're one of the brightest students in this class…

Daria: (mumbling) Teachers always start with that when they're about to tell me something I don't want to hear.

Sr. Johnson: Dammit Daria – you could try to participate more in the class.

Daria VO: For the life of me I couldn't see why I should oblige him. There I was in the town of the living death, where everything is designed to suck the life out of you, and he wants me to contribute. I didn't see that it was my place to cover for his inadequacies. I had certainly not gained anything fruitful from his class; I didn't see why knowledge I had earned on my own should benefit him.

Sr. Johnson: I mean even Beavis and Butthead are participating!

(Silence)

Jane VO: Did he know what participate means?

Daria VO: It didn't matter what the word meant, I wasn't doing what he wanted, and Beavis and Butthead were exceeding his low expectations that day.

(The younger Daria appears thunderstruck as rain strikes the outside windows. Several of the students are wincing slightly, knowing they wouldn't care to be compared to the deadly duo. A couple of the wiser students are shrinking into the seat, expecting a homicidal backlash.)

Daria: (stunned) They said your mother was a pig and your father was a dog.

Sr. Johnson: Yes, but it's participating! And they got the words right without using a Taco Bell Menu.

Daria: (trying to wrap her mind around this concept) So, let me get this straight. If I insult you, in perfect Spanish, it counts as participating?

Sr. Johnson: That's not what I meant…

Daria: (stern) That's what you just said. In English no less.

Sr. Johnson: (sputtering) You're taking my words out of context!

Daria: Perhaps I should try it in Spanish. Oh wait, if your grasp of the language was that great, you would have picked up what those two (gesturing at the idiotic duo) managed to say about your conception, not to mention your sexual partners…

Butthead: Heh heh - Diarrhea said sex!

Beavis: Wow man, with pigs and stuff.

Sr. Johnson: (fuming, with a really bad Spanish accent) Detencion! Detencion! Una hora!

(silence throughout the classroom)

Beavis: Heh, hey man, Diarrhea never gets detention.

Butthead: Yeah man, it's like a teacher rule or something.

Daria: (unbelieving) And what am I getting detention for?

Sr. Johnson: You're deliberately disrupting the class…

Daria: You're the one who interrupted class…

Sr. Johnson: You brought up unmentionable topics in a classroom…

Daria: An accurate translation of what was said I might add…

Sr. Johnson:  Dos horas de detencion!

(The younger Daria stands up calmly, and walks out of the room. And keeps walking.)

Daria VO: I wanted to scream. In the end, I walked right out of the school.

(She walks out into the rain, without gathering her coat, and heads down the street. She doesn't blink once as the rain pours over her face, plastering her hair to her head. She doesn't flinch at the thunder that shakes the skies, or the lightning that lights the skies brighter than daytime.)

Daria VO: Never showed up for detention, just walked around, staring into space. I couldn't deal with the fact that no matter what I did, that kind of raging stupidity was going to win out.

(Different scenes of Daria walking across the town, by the side of the highway, through neighborhoods, and to her front door.)

Daria VO: And when I got home, tired and ready to collapse,

(The younger Daria goes into her house, ignores a squealing Quinn, and goes up the stairs to her room. She opens the door to her room to find…)

Daria VO: …there was another letter, and another black rose.

Jane VO: Wait a minute – you're saying he knew what happened?

Daria VO: I didn't say that.

Jane VO: But he did.

Daria VO: Yep.

Jane VO: And it would have killed you to say that?

Daria VO: (slight sarcasm) Storytelling's a precious art Jane. Never forget that.

Jane VO: (whatever) Get on with it Scherezade. So what did this one say?

(A soaking wet younger Daria looks quietly at the letter, and then backs slowly out of the room.)

Daria: Quinn!

Quinn: (Talking on a cordless phone while going up the stairs to see what Daria wants) Oh, I know! It's too awful! I mean someone should tell her about that. And what's with the lace? I mean that's so eighties! Oh hey Daria – Mom and Dad called again. Mom's still in Denver at the convention, and Dad had to take off on a sales trip to South Dakota. Ew, I mean what's there! Anyway, he'll be back tomorrow. (returning to conversation) I know – what's with the bangles anyway!

Daria: Quinn – was there any mail for me?

Quinn: Yeah right – like anyone would send you anything!

Daria: Dammit – Quinn!

Quinn: I know, those jellys are soo out – Daria chill. Nothing came in the mail. For either of us. (returns to conversation) Oh, that's just my cousin going spastic. Yeah – well she has these attacks – she foams at the mouth and we have to keep her from swallowing her own tongue. Yeah – well that's why we keep her room locked!

(The younger Daria ignores this last remark from Quinn and goes back into her room, shedding her yellow jacket and staring at the letter. Circling the desk slightly, she finds a black votive candle lit right next to the envelope and the rose, casting a warm glow in a room lit only by cold lightning and the greys of a storm-ridden sky.)

Daria VO: The candle wasn't even half melted. It had been lit recently. I didn't know what bothered me more – the fact that there was another letter, or the fact that I was glad to see it.

Jane VO: Wait wait wait. If the letter didn't come in the mail – how'd it get there. And how the hell did the candle get …

Daria VO: Which is why I opened the letter. To find out how, and why and when and the rest of the usual questions.

Jane VO: Did you find out?
Daria VO: Not at that point.

Jane VO: Then what was in the letter!!!

Daria VO: I'm getting to that!!!

(The younger Daria sits down at her desk and brings out her paper knife again. This envelope is different – there's no plain outer envelope with postage – it's only the black envelope, no designation other than the silver blob of wax with the black rose seal. She cuts the seal and pulls out the folded letter, written in smooth black paper and silver ink once again. She starts reading.)

Daria VO: He showed knowledge of what had happened in class that day. He knew I'd burned the letter, and he praised me for it, saying that only an idiot would have taken it. Repeating his offer of help, he told me that he'd once been where I was, an intellect dying in the wasteland of the stupid. But this time he didn't promise to save me. He promised to give me the ability to save myself. He would teach me what he knew, guide me through… we ended up calling them experiments.

(The younger Daria looks extremely interested at this point in time, a pensive, calculating look on her face.)

Jane VO: (disturbed) We?

Daria VO: Later on. He would guide me through experiments and I would make my own findings. He offered himself as a mentor, not a teacher. An ally.

Jane VO: And exactly how did he get you to buy that load of crap?

Daria VO: It was interesting at a time when I was really bored. It was something useful in a time where school taught me nothing I wanted to know.

(The younger Daria begins to smile a little.)

Daria VO: And the most important thing of all. As a sign of good faith, he gave me what I wanted most of all at that moment. Sr. Johnson's one-point.

(The smile widens, and the younger Daria's eyes blaze hard and cold. Her hand shakes, and her smile fades. She holds the letter over the candle for a second, and then realizes why it's there. He's welcoming the option of destroying the letter. Sanctioning her choice to turn around and do what she wants. She pulls back her hand and frowns. She's been down that road before. She knows what happens on her own, and the hell she'd face tomorrow for skipping detention. She folds the letter up gently, puts it back in the envelope, and puts the envelope in her backpack. Then takes her notebook and writes in it furiously till dawn.)

(Screen turns to black)

Jane VO: So what was it???

Daria VO: (at sea) What?
Jane VO: His one-point!

Daria VO: (serious) No.

Jane VO: Come on!

Daria VO: Jane, this isn't a joke. I destroyed that man.

Jane VO: (trying to lighten it up) So, you cracked him up a little. I mean, we've made Mr. O'Neill cry…

Daria VO: That's different. Completely different. We only scramble his mind, and it's nothing that we couldn't do if his mind weren't scrambled already. And we target him because he's doing something to us.

Jane VO: Yeah – he's boring us.

Daria VO: Jane, I didn't …do what I did to Sr. Johnson because he deserved it, or because I was angry. All that was over the second I read the letter – that's what he did. He took away the anger, the pain, the frustration, everything.

(Sr. Johnson's classroom, the next day. Two security officers are strapping a jibbering, drooling Sr. Johnson into a strait-jacket. This isn't the fun scene like O'Neill crying, or DeMartino fuming. That, they do to themselves. This is forced. Daria's classmates look scared, with the exception of Beavis and Butthead who are ignoring the entire scene. And Daria…)

Daria VO: I did it to see if I could. To prove the theory.

(The younger Daria looks at him with an air of pure scientific glee. Studying an insect under a glass, a moth who's wings are pinned to the board so she can get a better look at it.)

Scene 3b Penny's Room, Lane Residence.

(Daria's looking at a somber Jane, fists clenched.)

Daria: It was no longer everyone else against me, it was no longer me trying to ignore everything in the day just so I wouldn't snap. It was just me, and this person who offered to be my mentor. The rest of the town were just subjects for our experiments. I didn't hate them, I didn't need to waste time on hatred anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. I had one person in the world who understood me for the first time in my life, and that was enough. It was all I needed.

Jane: (remains silent for a moment) What happened to him. The teacher.

Daria: (taps the side of her head) Locked up. He won't come out.

Jane: They couldn't… do anything?
Daria: You can't un-crack an egg.

Jane: (trying to be nonchalant) So, how many would you say….?

Daria: (looks Jane in the eye) You don't want to know.

(Jane looks as if she's going to argue, then lets it go.)

Jane: I could see it. I mean, the temptation. Wreak havoc on everyone. I mean, if I weren't so…

Daria: …able to take it easy, to believe in your outlet, and your art, to take that need and turn it into something else.

Jane: Actually, I was going to say, if I weren't so lazy.

(Daria looks at Jane in surprise, then cracks a real smile. A tiny one, but genuine. Jane answers with a smirk of her own.)

Jane:  How much more of this do I have to listen to? My ass is getting numb.

Daria: (figuring)  I spent two years learning from him, so I'll condense. (pause) I'm not going to go into what exactly he taught me. Or why I enjoyed it. Why I lo…looked up to him so much.

(She looks at Jane. Jane caught the Freudian slip, and chooses to ignore it for now.)

Daria: I'm going to cut to the chase. Which is to show you what he wanted from me. And exactly why Trent is in danger.

Scene 4 – Highland – 1 and a half years ago.

Daria VO: The next eighteen months of my life were the letters.

(The younger Daria sails into her room with a small package that is wrapped in brown paper. She sits down to it and peels off the wrapping. A slight smile is on her face, and beneath the wrapping is a smooth black box tied with silver ribbon and sealed with the familiar silver wax and black rose seal.)

Daria VO: He would write me with some interesting idea or some experiment to try. I would write him back the results, and get either encouragement or suggestions, showing me where I could have pressed harder, dug deeper. 

(She opens the box and the first notable thing is the black rose and black envelope attached to the lid. She removes the rose first, laying it next to the crystal vase on her desk. She takes the rose already in there – full blown and just beginning to wilt, and removes it, placing the new bud in the vase. Then she takes the old rose and goes over to her closet. She opens the closet, and there's a veritable bouquet of dried roses in there. She takes a rubber band, wraps it around the new rose and hangs it just behind the door. Her dexterity shows this is a routine she's familiar with. She goes back to the letter and opens it.)

Daria VO: Somewhere along the line he started sending me gifts – information, books I couldn't afford, little things I was afraid to admit liking because I thought he'd make fun of me for them. He used to say that if I liked them, there couldn't be anything wrong with them.

(Close up on the younger Daria reading the letter. There are a couple notable changes in her appearance – a black ribbon that rests around her neck and is tucked under her shirt, a quiet silver bracelet half hidden by her sleeve, a simple band of hematite around her left index finger. She reaches inside the package and pulls out three leather bound books and a small silver box. Two copies of the Art of War, one by Machiavelli and one by Sun Tzu. One copy of The City of Ladies by Christine De Pisan. And in the silver box, a chain for her eyeglasses with tiny rose finials. This last surprises her, and she slips them into her glasses almost reverently. Slipping her hand into her desk drawer she pulls paper from it. Pulling at the ribbon on her neck, she draws up a tiny silver bullet pen engraved with a copperplate 'D' and writes him back. The present day Daria and Jane talk over the image of Daria writing.)

Jane VO: I've never seen you wear jewelry. And I'm sure I would have noticed the pen.

Daria VO: I didn't keep anything he gave me. The books got donated along with the stationary sets. The jewelry got tossed into the falls. (sigh) I kind of miss the pen though. That was my favorite.

Jane VO: But you kept the roses.

Daria VO: That was Nina's idea. To keep one rose for each… you'll see. I only kept two. Nina's got more. The point of that is not to forget the sheer amazement the roses used to bring, and the sheer horror they came to represent. (sigh) Of course, that was after… (trails off) I was so elated at the idea of an ally, a partner in crime that I didn't even realize what was going on.

Jane VO: And just what was going on?

Daria VO: A trap. A good one.

Scene 4a – Still in Highland.

(The scene of the younger Daria fades to black. Daria's voice rings over the darkness.)

Daria VO: That package was the last I heard from him for two months. Until that point, I'd been hearing from him every single week, and sometimes every day, for a year and a half. Depression was a gift compared to the thought that I had somehow lost his interest, and that's when I realized how dependent on it I had been.

(Highland High School – the Hallway. The younger Daria wanders the halls of her high school like a tormented wraith. She's thin, unkempt, and can barely see in front of her. She knocks into a jock, who starts to reprimand her, and then blanches before the lost look in her eyes. Her movements are mechanical, she is just barely going through the motions. She moves around the jock as he shakes off his fear and tells his friends that she isn't worth it. The thought strikes her, and she stares at her hands, clenching and unclenching them. The bell rings and the hallways clear, leaving her to ponder the question that's been eating at her for about a week and a half now – was she worth it?)

Daria VO: I walked around town, the thing that I had once considered a sentient enemy and it meant nothing. The only thing that meant anything was checking the mail sixteen times a day, and writing letters that I would force myself to hide and not to send to him. Nothing existed but ice, a burning cold that flooded my senses and choked my breath and cut off the rest of the world.

(The wraith strikes out for home, reaching home by instinct rather than intent. She reaches her door and stares at it, having not much of an idea what it is or what to do with it. As she stares, Quinn and the younger version of the three J's comes up. She sees her sister, and dismisses the trio, opening the door slowly, and watching her sister as she slowly climbs the steps and enters the house.)

Daria VO: That's when other people started to get worried. My mother got worried because I wouldn't eat, my Dad worried when I couldn't sleep and my sister worried when I wouldn't argue with her. My teachers were worried, even the class morons were worried about me. And two people I never thought I'd see again – Dorothea and Margaret Watkins.

(Flash to two girls, both about a year older than Daria, sitting on their porch about three houses down from the Morgandorffer residence. Styled to the hilt and dressed to the nines – about as much as one can be in Highland - they chat to their own entourage of admirers. They've obviously fallen into the Gap and are not attempting to get up. Dora is a highlighted brunette with hazel eyes, and Margie is a rinsed redhead with green eyes. )

Daria VO: I used to get invited to slumber parties because I had an adult library card, and had the vocabulary to understand the hard words in smut novels. Dora and Margie were at every one. They weren't friends. I was the entertainment for the evening, and I knew it. But they treated me like entertainment, not like Brittany or the Fashion club would. They made sure I had food and drink and a corner to curl up and read in during the rest of party, which was all I really wanted.

(As Quinn lets Daria into their house, both girls on the porch look towards the house and frown. One looks towards the other, and they both shrug and turn back to their admirers. A little worried, still.)

Highland High – Lunch Time.

(The cafeteria is crowded, even at the table where Daria sits, staring off into space. Dora walks over to the table, and picks up Daria's hand.  She tugs Daria, unresisting, over to her own table, and places a banana and a carton of milk in front of her. The others at her table, her sister, and two couples start to protest, but she cuts them off till Daria's seated.)

Jock #1: Dude – what's wrong with the brain?

Dora: I don't know. Hey – you – try to eat something, will ya?

Dude #2: Hey – isn't she the one that like cracked up Sr. Johnson?

Jock#1: No way! They say he's psycho for life! Didn't she like make the science teacher catch on fire?

(A chant of Fire Fire cha cha cha arises from the next table, abruptly silenced by a well flung milk carton.)

Margie: I'm telling you, she hasn't eaten anything in days.

Cheerleader #1: Maybe she eats at home – who cares?

Dude #2: I heard she made the science teacher set herself on fire – without even being in the room!

Dora: Come on guys, cut it out. (To Daria) Look – just take a couple of bites or something. I understand not wanting to eat the muck, but you're going to pass out.

Jock#1: And why do you care?

Margie: Well, unlike some people, she doesn't bother anyone.

(A series of hyperactive gibbering noises arises from the next table, to be silenced by two well flung bananas.)

Cheerleader#1: So?

Margie: And ever since she stopped eating, she hasn't wigged out any of the teachers.

(confused looks)

Margie: We *want* her to wig out the teachers...

(Collective 'Ewwww' sounds from the next table apparantly the mentally challenged duo have found a creative use for the aforementioned bananas.)

Cheerleader#1: Hey - you think she can do something about the Disgusting Duo?

Margie: (waves hand in front of Daria's face. No response.) Not like this.

Daria VO: I never noticed they were there, but they're the only reason I ate at all during that time. Mainly to shut them up. They were sellouts, and they were snobby and shallow but for some reason they were nice to me. Not that I knew that, not that I knew anything but my own pain.

Daria VO: And in the middle of that, two innocent people died.