Daria and Stacy

In the back oftheir father's new dark blue Lexus, Daria did her best to tune out her father'sramblings, but it was proving for naught.

"...And I know that moving to anew town can be scary." Jake Morgendorffer said as he drove down the streets of the Morgendorffer's new hometown.

Lawndale, Maryland.

"Yeah, you mention that before," a voice cut in from the passenger side seat, "But we'll be ok."

Jake laughed and found his response cut off by his younger daughter when she turned on the car radio and turned the volume up.

Daria smirked, unseen by her sister in the front, until she leaned forward and told her to put it on classic rock.

"Why?" she asked while tucking her long dark brown braid to the other shoulder.

"So he stays distracted Stacy." Daria replied.

Stacy Morgendorffer snorted and quickly found a station playing the best of Black Sabbath, and even more quickly did the parental unit fall under it's spell.

Daria sighed in relief, hoping for a more pleasant road trip.

Stacy used the rear-view mirror to check on her big sister, in her combat boots, ratty jeans, black Nine Inch Nails shirt, glasses, but nicely combed auburn hair.

She unknowingly returned Daria's smirk from earlier and thought once again, "God my sister's cool."

Then she caught sight of their new school, a big red brick building, Lawndale High.

"I hope this place is better than Highland High," Stacy muttered to herself, "Then again, a sewage treatment plant is better than that place."

She heard a chuckle from behind the seat and realized that her sister had heard that.

"Correct once more Stacy." Daria said from the back as their dad pulled up to the curb, both Morgendorffer sisters ignored the last of his 'advice' and climbed out of the car.

In front of the entrance a few of the local kids were hanging out before the start of classes, Stacy gave them the
once over and thought to herself, "Populars, avoid at all costs."

As she and Daria walked by, ignoring the curious looks and the mutters of "fresh meat", the only sign of emotional reaction on either of their parts was Stacy tugging on her braid a bit.

Daria glanced at her little partner in crime, in her blue jeans, trainers, and pink top with a happy bunny with the words "Cute but Psycho: It Evens Out" and nudged her a bit.

Stacy realized what she was doing and let go, realizing that she had been giving her poor hair a death grip.

They went in without a word uttered.

It was with relief that Stacy found Ms. Defoe's room without too much trouble, even considering the unhelpful tour from Principal Li, and the even more pathetic 'psychiatric evaluation' from the fake Doctor.

But it was fun to sit back and let her big sister cut the bitch down to size.

The first thing that Stacy noticed was that the teacher was clearly an ex-hippie, but she gave her the note from Manson without a word and only half-paid attention to Defoe's
introduction.

Even at half-capacity it was obvious that at least one teacher at this school cared about their students and the subject they were teaching.

"I'll have you set up next to Kristen over there," Defoe said and it took Stacy a minute to realize that she had finished speaking.

"Oh sorry about that." Stacy told her with a shrug, ignoring the chuckles from her new classmates at her seemingly ditzy behavior.

Kristen as it turned out was a girl with styled black hair, black clothes and makeup, and severe black eyes to match.

Oddly enough she was chatting to a nerdy girl named Cindy, with short cut reddish hair, trapezoid glasses, and a mauve shirt.

They both gave her a nod of acknowledgement but otherwise left her alone for a minute, letting the new girl get her bearings.

She took in the subject, a couple musical instruments on a small table and began to work on it.

From the corner of her eye she saw the other girl's work and couldn't resist a comment, "Not bad."

Kristen replied without looking from her canvass,
"Thank you... Stacy right?"

"Yes." she replied simply.

"Need any help?" Kristen offered, since the project had started yesterday, leaving the new girl a bit behind.

"Nah, I'm good." Stacy replied but then added, "But could you tell me if Defoe is a sign of things to come at this school?"

Kristen and Cindy both chuckled, "We wish."

Stacy visibly winced and asked, "How bad is it?"

They told her about their other teachers, in graphic detail, and by the end they had the new girl snickering,
"You're just pulling my leg... right?"

Kristen and Cindy both looked at each other before giving Stacy matching evil grins.

"You'll see..."

In the Morgendorffer's new pad, long after school had let out, Daria and Stacy were watching Sick, Sad World together in the living room, the new big screen TV a vast improvement over the old set, which now had pride of place in Daria's new padded room.

Yes, a padded room, of which there was only one and had nearly caused the two normally congenial siblings to come to blows, before their mother, Helen threatened to redecorate unless they settled it with a coin toss.

Daria won.

Stacy believed she cheated somehow.

Alas broadcast commercialism cut into their show with their advertisements, but it did give them the chance to talk.

"Our new school sucks even worse than the last one." Daria stated to get the ball rolling.

"Normally I'd have you committed for saying that," Stacy replied without missing a beat, "But considering that we both go to Lawndale High, I'm forced to agree with you."

They both shuddered.

And compared battle-scars.

Then towards the end Stacy added, "I did meet two girls in my art class that were decent enough, it gives me hope that there actually is intelligent life in the universe."

Daria gave a tiny hint of a smile, "A miracle if there was no other."

The sounds of the phone ringing from the kitchen cut through the sounds of the TV, but it was answered by one of their parents who were eating dinner.

The Morgendorffer parents had long since given up trying to get their two daughters to eat at the same time that they did, then again regular mealtime was non-existent in this family.

Not that their mother was one to give up, unless her boss called, it was already as bad as it used to be in Highland.

Then they heard said mother call out from the kitchen, "Daria, could you come in here for a minute?"

Stacy couldn't resist asking, "Try any of those old Shakespearian insults on a new group of idiots?"

Her sister managed to put a smirk in her reply while getting off the couch, "Good idea, I'll do that tomorrow."

Stacy followed her in, her eyes taking in the brightly lit room and focused on her two parents, still in their office clothes, and showing the usual signs of wear and tear from the Corporate World.

From the background, Stacy listened in and learned that Daria's stunt with 'Dr.' Manson was coming back to bite, in the form of a 'Self-Esteem Class'.

"You do realize that Daria's esteem is fine, right?" Stacy offered in defense, already knowing that it was in vain.

Their mother was a pit-bull about getting them to 'mingle and bond' with their peers.

Even though all of the 'peers' they had encountered in life were either jerks, idiots, shallow, or jerky shallow idiots.

Once all was said and done, Stacy whispered to her sister as they left their parents to their meal, "I feel your pain."

Daria came back with, "No you don't, you're not taking the course."

Stacy just shrugged, unable to deny it.

"I'll find us a pizza place to decompress in afterward." She offered instead as they went back to Sick, Sad, World-land.

It was better than reality at any rate.