Title: Secret Smile

Author: SinisterDragula

Rating: Rated K+

Genre: General/Family

Words: 1,522

Disclaimer: Daria is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International, Inc. All the copyrights associated with Daria belong to them. Only the ideas contained within this story are the property of the author. No profit is being earned by the writer of this story.

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The front door slammed, followed by grunts of disgust.

"God! Why did Jamie have to be such a jerk?"

Daria put down the newspaper at the sound of the outburst. She turned to see Quinn, the source of the yelling, enter the living room. She placed herself in the sofa lengths away from Daria. An emotional exhale sounded from her lips as she bent over and placed her chin in her hands, her elbows resting on her thighs. Quinn peeked out the corner of her eye to see an apathetic Daria un-mute the TV. She gasped at Daria's presence in the living room. What she believed was fantasy had taken a fast switch to reality.

"Daria, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at Raft?" Her voice quivered. She was too distraught to notice some of her eyeliner was smudged under her eyes.

"Quinn, that's what I've been meaning to tell you," Daria started to read the newspaper again, the paper covering her face. "For your punishment, Mom and Dad decided to sentence you to spend the whole week with me."

"Ha, ha, ha," Quinn smiled, the 'You can't fool me with that one' look on her face.

"Well, then you'll fall for this reason. Try to contain your excitement. Jane is out of town so unfortunately, I must spend today and the rest of the week here."

"Oh. I'd be out too, you know, on a date or something but," She averted her eyes to the floor, then to her tan shoes. "Sandi, Stacy and Tiffany went out of town, so…" She traced her finger along the edge of the pillow by her side.

Daria folded up the newspaper and looked at Quinn. She waited patiently for Quinn to finish but realized she would not. "Either you turned into Charlotte York or something's wrong. It's not even 10 o'clock yet. But Quinn, eventually whatever problem you experienced, you'll get over it. Just like the Cajun shrimp gumbo surprise Dad fixed last night," Daria started to stand up but she felt a hand on her wrist push her back down.

"Wait," Quinn released her grip and scooted closer to her sister. "You went out with Tom. Did he ever try to, you know, pressure you into doing certain things?" She started to wring her hands.

"Quinn, I know where this is going," Daria closed her eyes for a moment. Images full of events she shared with Tom flashed before her. Her eyelids opened to see a despondent Quinn, who wiped a few tears under her eyes. "And to answer your question: yes and no."

"What? Why?"

"To be honest, I actually wanted it to happen, to try and make our relationship go to the next level. But after I made my decision to go through with it, I thought about it and realized I didn't want to do it after all. Looking back, I understand why he was frustrated about my change of heart, but back then my emotions negligently clouded my judgment. So to summarize this in simpler terms, yes. Tom did try, but in the end he didn't, and respected my reason for why I didn't want to do it. So, now that I feel like throwing up my pizza, time for you to fess up, Morgendorffer."

Quinn blinked after Daria got those words out of her system, silent from absorbing it all in. She stared into Daria's eyes, somewhat full of emotion but not to the untrained eye. Quinn nodded after a few moments of debating whether she should invest the time to share the event in question. Was Daria really bent on listening to give actual advice or further deepen the humiliation she received that night?

"To tell you the truth, Sandi, Stacy and Tiffany aren't out of town. A few hours ago we were at a school dance. They should've had me and Sandi design the motif because it was so awful! The forest green color scheme was soooooooooo tacky," Quinn paused to turn and see Daria take off her glasses and wipe her eyes, followed by a yawn. "Anyway, we met Jamie, Jeffy and Jackie, I think that's what his name is, there at the dance. There was some other boy from school too, he was pretty cute. We danced together the whole time we were there. I liked how the three J's wanted to offer me a drink and almost got into a huge fight over it. So after all that stuff happened, Jeffy drove us back in his truck to his place."

"And the plot thickens."

"He just got his license so that was nice. His parents were out of town so we were the only ones there. Everyone drank alcohol but I didn't because I wasn't sure if it would affect my appearance, you know? And everyone was acting so differently. After we finished eating some fat free snacks, that's when Jamie brought out a bowl full of wet wipes. That's what I thought they were, until I saw what they really were once they opened the packages and pulled them out."

"Well, they certainly weren't having a balloon fight using those things."

"I was like, 'what are you guys doing?' I was surprised to see Stacy wasn't against it. She's usually the most cautious and conservative out of the group. Sandi, Stacy and Tiffany went to another part of the house, but Jamie stayed with me in the living room. He acted all nice and stuff until he started hugging me and touching me, arms reaching out everywhere like he was an octopus. I told him three times I didn't want to do anything with him! He got upset, he tried to pin me down on the couch! I wrestled him off of me and got out of the house! I stopped after a few blocks, called Lindy and waited until she picked me up and dropped me off here. And that's why I'm here so early, okay?"

Quinn's sobs grew in intensity. Daria sat in amazement, surprised by how her sister opened up like that before her eyes. But Daria also looked at herself, especially at how a few adjustments were made in her life; ones that were completely unexpected. Daria wouldn't even bear to sit next to Quinn longer than this, but now she found herself here witnessing Quinn spill her guts out, much to her astonishment.

Daria's face showed a hint of somberness. "Quinn…nothing happened right?"

Her sobs died down. "Oh, of course not," She said after removing some tears from under her eyes. "I just couldn't believe those boys could act like that, not to mention my own friends."

Daria shrugged. "Unless you've got them on the take, or give them free round trip tickets to Ibiza or Bora Bora every year, don't count on them always having your back. Face it, Quinn. Out of the other girls at your school, you stand out the most, which may or may not cause jealousy among your peers whether they realize it or not. Don't ask why I know this. Just accept it and deal with it. Basically, don't make a big deal out of it. You'll be all right as the wonderful fashion diva you truly are."

Quinn smiled. "Thanks Daria, you know, for listening to me and stuff. Usually Sandi or Stacy would do that, but…I don't know how I can talk to them again after Christmas. Oh well, I'll figure something out," She jumped out of her seat and walked away.

"Now that that's over, what terrible news can brighten up my day?" Daria reached for the remote to turn the TV channel, but dropped it once she felt amiable arms wrap around her shoulders. She could feel the warm glow from its face by her ears. Daria turned to see Quinn, grinning.

"You owe me, Quinn," She waited until Quinn dashed up the stairs to turn back to the TV with a smirk on her face.

"And, you're welcome."

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The End!