Locked in

A Daria fanfiction story by Wouter Jaegers

BLAM!

With one big bang the door slammed shut.

There they were, trapped inside the auditorium of Lawndale high, five minutes

after school would close and Ms. Li was very strict on closing the facility

on time regardless of people still being inside.

"I guess now would have been the perfect time to yell some obscenities but

doing that is sooo geeky." Sandi sighed in silent anger, the fashion club was

asked to help with coordinating the costumes for the upcoming litteral fest and

there were some plays in the planning, mostly of Shakespeare. Knowing about how

the men in Shakespeare's stories used to dress in... UGH...Tights, it was

her duty to divert the costume department away from unacceptable fashion mistakes.

"We do not share opinions often Ms. Griffin but we are in agreement over this."

Jane growled. Ms. Defoe, bless the woman's heart, had asked her to help with

painting the stage decorations. What a shame that the clearing of the work space

took a little longer than anticipated and here she was: locked up with the high

priest of fashion in LHS and the last person on earth she wanted to be locked in with.

"Yes, total bummer." Charles sighed. He was recruited to do the sound, he had the

equipment and he knew how to do voices very well. But hey being locked in with two

feisty girls couldn't be that bad, could it? But knowing how his reputation was

and how often he got beat up for it, he saw no reason to act out ultrasuave, it

simply wasn't the time nor the place.

The three of them took in the situation, they had to stay the night, no big deal.

But if they would stand it was something entirely different.

"Can't we, like, break a window and escape?" Sandi asked aloud while looking around,

the windows weren't THAT high off the ground so climbing through one and escaping

would be real option.

"Don't waste your efforts." Charles grumbled. "Bullet proof glass, you couldn't even

break with a nuclear blast."

"Yup, and escaping through the air filters is also no option: there are cross wires

inside them, you'd come out sliced into french fries." Jane added while slumping

into a chair of the spectators rows. "Well, come to think of it: maybe you should

have Tiffany crawl through them, just tell her that that's the one way for her to

effectively lose fat."

"Heh, that's actually a good idea." Sandi laughed wryly. "I should recommend this to

Quinn too."

"Well nevermind my personal opinion ladies, but I like my women a little more filled

up than that." Charles couldn't help it, it was just stronger than himself, he quickly

turned away ready for an assault of snide remarks. But there were none, instead there

were some snickers coming from the two girls.

"No objections on that coming from me." Sandi laughed "I want my man to be strong

and broad shouldered, no PeeWee Hermans for me."

"Well, seing how every one in my family has a slender built, I guess I should be

biased about the build of my type of guy, but I'm more of a face girl: he has to

have nice eyes." Jane smiled while taking in the surroundings and the two she had

to share them with for the next couple of hours. "Regardless of that. Shouldn't we

looking around for something to sleep in, these chairs aren't exactly comfortable

enough to spend the night in."

"Yes, everybody knows that a comfortable night is escential for retaining good

looks." Sandi agreed.

"Well, if I recall right, the recitial of Little Red ridinghood by the football team

a few weeks back requiered a bed." Charles spoke up in response making the girls look

up to him with "You've-got-to-be-kidding-me" looks on their faces. "Don't worry, we

don't need to share it. You know the nature of the team, they started jumping on the

bed as if it were a trampoline, breaking it, so three other beds were brought in and

they were also broken by the football team. I'm sure that we could at least use the

matrasses."

"Well then, let's see if that truly is the case here." Sandi nodded. Releived that

they at least didn't have to share a bed. Curiously enough, Thinking about having to

share the bed with those two brought to her the image of Charles being Little Red

Ridinghood lying in the middle and she herself and Jane being two wolves lying at

either side of him. A rather uncomfortable night that would be for the guy. She

couldn't help but to stiffle a laugh at the image.

"I guess that sleeping in our casual wear is a real fashion don't." Jane snickered.

Making Sandi cock an eye. "Tell you what Sandi since you're the one who's up-to-date

with anything remotely related to clothing, why don't you go into the costume closet

to see if there are any fashionable night gowns for us."

"No I have a better idea." Sandi retorted. "Why don't YOU do that, you seem to have

a good knowledge of people and a good knowledge of color, you pick us some clothing

for the night." Sandi flashed an evil smile, putting such a responcibilty into

unfashionable hands posed a serious risk but then again she was really intrigued about

Jane's sense of fashion, since it seemed to differ so much from her own.

"If you really want me to do so then allright." Jane replied while Charles walked off

into the back of the stage searching for the beds. "I was gonna keep this a secret but

I actually do read a lot of fashion magazines."

"You do? Well that is kinda surprising, you certainly don't dress the part." Sandi was

intrigued even more after that remark, Jane Lane, the arty geek chick, reading fashion

magazines?

"Well, to clarify my point, I read them because of the artistic POV I have with how

fashion comes together. Fashion designers like Gucci are in my opinion artists in much

the same field as to what I'm doing, there is a lot of drawing and scetching in progress.

The main difference is that they display the results of their artistic views by having

models wear them rater than to frame it and hang it on a museum wall." Now that was

something that the fashion empress didn't expect, Jane doubted that Sandi ever looked at

fashion that way.

"Gosh, I never thought of fashion that way. But you do make an interesting point." Sandi

eyed the older girl sitting in the chair a few rows behind from where she was standing.

There was more going on behind those pale blue eyes and that hideously wrong hairstyle

than she thought.

"Okay, I found the beds, the frames are all bent out of shape but as I suspected,

the Matrasses are still useable, I even found blankets." Charles stopped when he noticed

the looks on the girls' faces. There was something going on here and he'd better stay

out of it.

"Take Charles for example, what would you say would be the perfect color for him?" Sandi

inquired while turning to the object of attention.

"Upchuck, may I ask if you're from Irish heritage?" Jane asked after taking some thought

after Sandi's question.

"Yes, the Ruttheimers are of Irish heritage." Charles replied sounding a little prouder

than he intended. He had been there, on several vacations, the Ruttheimers still owned

a large portion of property in Ireland, heck it even included a real Irish Inn, Charles

always felt like a prince when being there with his family, proud of his red curly hair,

which stated without a doubt where his roots lay, eventhough he was born in the USA he

felt just as much an Irishman as he felt himself to be American.

"I guess that this proves my suspicion. I always figured you'd be from Irish heritage

because of you being ginger." Jane mused before returning her attention back to Sandi

"I guess then I would have dressed him in the colors of traditional Irish clothing,

navy blue or forrest green, maybe flanel to add authenticity."

"H'mm yes. I guess that that would fit him." Sandi looked critically at the Red Haired

boy who was grinning a proud smile which looke very differently from his ultrsuave

smile he normally sported. "Maybe you should grow a beard too. You know, to add some

authenticity." Sandi and Jane laughed.

"Well I can always pull out my mandolin and join the Dubliners." Charles joined in the

laughter. It was fun to see another side of these two young women and their remarks

weren't hurtfull for a change. "Seriously girls, you should see how the traditional

Irish women's clothes are, they combine sturdiness with grace."

"Have you been in Ireland?" Sandi asked Charles suddenly curious about his heritage.

To which Charles nodded with a proud smile. "Could you tell us about what it's like

there?"

"Why of course, we still have a lot of time to kill before we can go to sleep and my

Grandfather Charles Ruttheimer the first always used to tell me stories about his great

grandfather Shane Toxeth Ruttheimer and how he fought in the war against the British."

Charles was on a roll here, being locked up with two girls who'd kill him in split

second if he'd try anything funny wasn't turning out badly at all.

"You do that Upchuck, I'm going to search through the costumes looking for some night

attire." Jane smiled while walking off. This was going to be an interesting night.

"If you want me to, I can teach you an Irish song about Irish immigrants coming to

America." Charles was heard saying while Jane walked onto the stage, Hold on, that

sounded familiar, didn't Trent have a record of that?

"Might you be referring to The Irish Rover by The Pogues?" Jane asked while turning

around.

"Well err. Yes, that's the song I was referring to." Charles looked not a bit surprised

at this, who would've thought. "You know your classics."

"Well actually, my brother knows his classics, after seeing the Dropkick Murphies live

he wanted to steer his band into the folk direction and bought all the folk records he

could find, they included a single of The Irish rover which he played over and over

until he learned it by heart." Yes Trent had a period of listening to Irish folk music

and it rubbed off on her. "And because of the walls in my house being so thin I

learned it by heart as well."

"That does sound interesting, can you parade on a fashion show to that kind of music?"

Sandi inquiered?

"I don't know, I do know that parties in Ireland always have a good vibe going on the

music is really cheerful." Charles mused while thinking back to the parties at the Inn

of his grandfather. "There IS a lot of dancing going on that's true but I honestly

don't know if you can parade on it."

"Only one way to find out, here catch!" Jane spoke while tossing a Mandolin at Charles

who caught it. "I saw it lying with the musical instruments here, there was also a piano

there but that one was too heavy to toss at you."

"A piano? Cool where is it, it's been a while since I last played one but if we're

gonna make music then I wouldn't want to be left out." Sandi chimed in, suddenly

greatful for the piano lessions her mother had her take.

"Well we are at an auditorium and there is a stage so why not perform?" Jane smiled.

"Can you tell me which chords I have to play?" Sandi asked Charles while hopping onto

the stage.

"Certainly, this song isn't too hard though." Came the reply.

"On the fourth of july, 1806

We set sail from the sweet cove of cork

We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks

For the grand city hall in new york

'twas a wonderful craft

She was rigged fore and aft

And oh, how the wild wind drove her

She stood several blasts

She had twenty seven masts

And they called her the Irish Rover"

Jane sang along with Charles as he played the mandolin and Sandi played the piano,

it wasn't fun to be locked up but this interessting night sure made a bit more bearable.

The end.