"The only thing worse than a boring rainy day is having nothing to do on a boring rainy day," Quinn sighed. "It's not fair! I was all set to go to the mall and then Sandi called that emergency meeting and we realized no respectable member of the Fashion Club would go out in the rain, especially with some dorky plastic rain hat on-"
Daria pulled the pillow over her face to stifle a groan. She would have been perfectly happy sitting in her room and reading, but Helen had offered each of the girls twenty bucks to "do some sisterly bonding", and she would have been stupid to turn down a cash bribe. Then she remembered sisterly bonding meant actually being around her sister, and wished she'd held out for fifty.
"-this really cute skort set Sandi said she was thinking about buying, so if I want it I've gotta get it before she does, or-"
"Or the universe will collapse in on itself," Daria grumbled. "Because never mind world hunger, war and the ozone layer, two teenagers buying the same garment is the worst possible thing that could happen."
"Yes! You see-" Quinn began, then somehow, as if by a miracle, caught on. "Ha, ha, Daria."
"Look. Mom paid us to do something together, so we might as well try to earn it. And somehow, me listening to you whine about clothes doesn't seem very sisterly," Daria sighed. Quinn made a long, disgusted, exaggerated groan suited more for a soap opera queen than a teenage girl. Even Quinn.
"Fine, let's watch TV."
"Nothing's on. Nothing we'd agree on, anyway," Daria said. "And you'd probably rather go out and get your hair all gross than sit and read together."
"Then what else is there?!" Quinn whined. Daria glanced towards the closet. She was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
"We could play a board game." Quinn looked about to protest, then sighed and threw her hands up in defeat.
"Fine. But you better not tell my friends about this!"
"As I've said many times before, why would I? That would involve talking to them." Daria opened the closet and pulled down a stack of boxes, all covered in dust. This family's never been much for game time. Not that Daria minded. "Okay, we've got Scrabble, Monopoly, Operation, Boggle, Life, and for some reason Candyland even though you haven't played it since you were nine and I haven't played it ever."
"Monopoly. At least you get to pretend to buy things in that one," Quinn said. "I get to be the cute little puppy, okay?"
"Whatever." Daria picked the iron, laid out their money and the game began. The last time she'd played Monopoly had been during that stupid Family Court experiment, and she had it as well as the other games to thank for her parents realizing how pointless it was to ground her. Her skills had gone downhill since, and Quinn's were even worse.
"Go straight to jail. Do not collect two-hundred dollars," she said as Quinn made yet another stupid mistake.
"Ewww! Again?! But those striped jumpsuits are so ugly!" But she did anyway, and it took about fifteen turns before Daria managed to bail her out. It was a pretty boring game, and so were the games of Scrabble and Operation that followed when Quinn got bored of counting fake money. And then counting letters and tiles. And then that stupid buzzing noise.
Luckily, the rain let up after two hours. But the oddest thing happened: Before Quinn rushed off to the mall, she turned to Daria and smiled.
"Thanks for keeping me from going insane," she said, and dashed off. Daria actually felt...good about being thanked. Even by Quinn. And she wanted to spread that good feeling around. So she picked up the phone.
"Hello, Jane? Let's go for pizza. I'm buying."