He then shifted his glance to Quinn, and a tinge of pain tugged at him. Quinn's face was vacant of all expression, as usual. At least she was looking out the window, Jake thought; for years, when not distracted by something else, she just stared at her lap. She was getting better.
He decided to take the risk and began to speak. "Girls, I just want you to know your mother and I realize it's not easy moving to a whole new town - especially for you, Daria, right?"
"Did we move?" Daria asked ironically.
Jake forced a laugh, trying to make it sound non-forced. "I'm just saying you don't make friends as easily as...uh, some people."
"Quinn, for instance?"
Jake and Daria's eyes locked briefly for a second via the rearview mirror, then Jake broke contact. A memory rose unbidden in his mind:
"Bring her back, Daria! For God's sake, BRING HER BACK!"
Jake shook his head, casting away the terrible recollection. He noticed that they had arrived at the school.
Daria exited the car first. "I'll try to help her through this difficult period of adjustment," she said, going around to Quinn's side of the car, opening the door, and gently tugging on her sleeve.
Quinn looked up at Daria, then at Jake. "Bye, dad," she said, barely above a whisper.
Jake swallowed a tear. "Bye, girls," he said.
XXXX
"Now, Quinn, what do you see here?" The school psychologist, Dr. Manson, held up a picture of two people talking in silhouette.
"A picture."
Dr. Manson hesitated for a moment. "A picture of what?" she prompted.
"Two people talking."
"That's right," Dr. Manson encouraged. "Can you make up a little story about what it is they're discussing?"
Quinn shrugged - or her shoulders twitched, the motion was so minute and abrupt it was hard to distinguish.
Dr. Manson frowned and wrote a few lines onto a notepad. "Very well, then, Quinn...Dora, can you make up a story about what these two people might be saying?"
"It's Daria."
"I'm sorry...Daria. What do you see in the picture, Dara?"
Daria frowned at her, and suddenly a sharp headache shot through Dr. Manson's head. As she massaged her temple, she missed Daria's answer. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
"I said, 'A herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains.'"
"Uh, there aren't any ponies," Dr. Manson said, losing focus - the headache was quite intense.
"Last time I took one of these tests, they told me they were clouds. They said they could be whatever I wanted."
"That's a different test, dear..." Dr. Manson paused for a second. "Excuse me, I have a splitting headache all of a sudden."
"What?" Daria's tone of voice, despite merely sounding mildly interested, masked the fear suddenly racing through her body. "Since when?"
"Oh, it started up just a minute ago...nothing to worry about, I'll just take some aspirin later...Dora? Er, Daria? Hey, come back!"
Before Dr. Manson had finished her first sentence, Daria had left her chair and walked out the door as fast as her legs could carry her. Too surprised to notice that her headache was already subsiding, she turned to Quinn. "Does your sister always storm out like that?" she asked. Quinn didn't reply, merely repeating the almost-a-shrug. "Quinn..." Dr. Manson looked worried. "Is everything...alright?" Almost-a-shrug. "Did something happen that you would like to talk about?"
Quinn looked Dr. Manson in the eye for the first time during the interview. And, instead of talking, she began reciting an old nursery rhyme.
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses,
and all the king's men,
couldn't put Humpty back together again."
As Quinn got up and followed her sister out, Dr. Manson began writing furiously into her notepad.
XXXXXXXXXX
Well, I'm back! Again! Last time I published a Daria fic was over three months ago. Truthfully, I had several Daria projects brewing since then...but then my computer died and ate them all. :'( Let's see...among the stuff I lost was chapter two of The Best and Brightest, chapter eight of Omega Omega, and...well, I guess I didn't lose THAT much Daria stuff. But dangit, any loss is a bad loss!
Anyway, with my updating schedule usually sporadic, I doubt anybody noticed I was gone to begin with (haha). I suppose I'll update what fics I intend to work on in the near future in my profile, so feel free to go take a gander at that.
Oh, and the title of this fic, 'The Cornfield' is a reference to an episode of The Twilight Zone, which this fic will be loosely based off of.