"A Time For Everything"

Daria stood at the bathroom counter, brushing her teeth. This was a chore she attended to daily and, as such things went, was not that bad. Or rather, it wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for one environmental concern.

"Gawd Daria, why do you insist on doing that in the bathroom? It's not like you even use the mirror. There is a perfectly good sink in the kitchen."

Daria's sister Quinn stood in the bathroom door, hands on her hips and a put upon look on her face.

Daria took a moment longer to finish brushing before leaning forward to spit ("Eeeeew," from Quinn). She returned the brush to its holder while turning to face her sister.

"Quinn, if you really want to maximize your mirror time, why don't you put together a schedule?"

"A schedule? What, like work?" Quinn was noticeably apprehensive at the idea.

Daria took a breath. 'If I make the right move here, my mornings and evenings might just become more bearable. Also it's fun to watch her sweat.'

"Look at it this way Quinn. You go out with three or more boys a week. You have fashion club meetings. You have before and after school accessorizing checks. You spend all of your time running around, always a second late and doing your best not to look like it. If you took 10 minutes every Sunday to plan out your week, and a few minutes each morning to update for changes, you would free up a considerable amount of time in your day."

Noting that Quinn looked about ready to drift off, Daria decided to drive the point home.

"More time in your day means more time for fashion magazines, make up organizing, shopping, and anything else your fashionable heart wants to do."

Quinn's eyes widened a bit as she considered the possibilities.

Daria took the opportunity to slip past her, heading back to her room so she could grab her bag and go meet Jane. 'Once more into the breech.'

********************

Reaching Jane's house, Daria's eyes widened at the sight before her. Standing in the doorway was a fully dressed, fully awake artist' extraordinaire, holding two cups of coffee.

"Hola Amiga, how does the morning find you?"

"It's 7:00am and you are speaking in complete sentences. Who are you and what have you done with Jane Lane?

Her face going blank, Jane spoke in a monotone, "The Jane you know no longer exists. She has become one of us. We have added her artistic skills to our own. She will be adapted to better serve us."

The ghost of a grin appeared on Daria as understanding hit home. "I take it this means you made the cut for the county collaborative artists expo? And here I was thinking that personal integrity meant you would say no."

Jane handed Daria one of the cups in her hands, then walked out the house, closing the door behind her.

In her normal voice, Jane said, "Personal integrity said hell no. A two semester scholarship to the art school of my choice said, 'Thank you sir, may I have another."

"So, speaking of all things Bizzoro, I know I was ready to go waaaaay to early, but why were you late this morning Morgendorffer? Drug habit I need to know about? A torrid affair?"

Daria noted the playful leer on her friends face. 'Better head this off sooner rather than later.'

"No, no drug habit or torrid affair, you'll have to get your vicarious kicks somewhere else. I got into it with Quinn this morning, It thru me off of my routine."

"Oh, and what was the Empress of Cuteness's problem today?"

"The usual. My need for personal hygiene was interfering with her primp time."

"Well there is only one answer to this grave impasse," Jane took on her 'serious' face, "you shall have to move into a trash can and take a vow of poverty. Or maybe just a job on Sesame Street."

Daria's brow furrowed.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. For your information I turned the normal annoyance into an opportunity."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yep. I put the idea in her head that a schedule would not only prevent those annoying instances of family overlap at home, but would give her more time to indulge in her hobbies."

"That's your plan?" Jane had a slight look of incredulity on her face. "You're going to organize her to death?"

"Wait and see Lane, wait and see."

********************

Daria headed up the stairs after school, mentally going over the essay she had to write. Dropping her backpack off in her room, she headed towards the hall bathroom.

She never made it.

Quinn was walking, no marching down the hallway on a direct intercept course with Daria, a notebook clutched in her hands. "Oh Daria, there you are. I've been waiting for you to get home for hours."

Daria stopped and rubbed her chin. "No goatee, so I'm not in some mirror universe. You've been waiting for me?"

Quinn took on a incredulous look. "As if. No I finished the schedule and I need to go over it with you so we can avoid anymore bathroom collisions."

Daria raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Finished the schedule huh? Well if you did the work, who am I to stand in the way. Lets see this master piece of socil engineering."

Daria began to walk in the direction of Quinn's room when her sister let out an eep of alarm.

"You don't think I'm inviting you into my room for this do you? The Fashion Club will be over in an hour for our quarterly mascara analysis, I can't have them picking up on any lingering brain vibes you might leave there. This will be done in your room."

"Fine by me." Daria executed an about face and began walking towards her room, the pink wonder in her wake.

Entering her room, Daria started to flop down on her bed when Quinn stopped her.

"Daria, I need to use your bed for this."

Her curiosity piqued, Daria stepped back, surrendering the floor to Quinn.

For her part Quinn opened the notebook she had been carrying and took out a stack of papers, which she then began to arrange on top of Daria's bed.

"This is the schedule?" Daria was taken aback by the complexity of what she was looking at. She had expected Quinn to come up with something resembling a calander or a datebook planner. This was…… well it was complex. "Mind telling me exactly what it is I'm looking at?"

"Can't you tell?" There was just a trace of pride in Quinn's voice as she realized that she would have to explain the system she came up with. "Events are color coded depending on what priority their given. School assignments are black, responsibilities at home are yellow, dates are red and Fashion Club responsibilities are pink. Green is used for commitments which are not essential, but which can help me out in the future."

Daria noted that the first entry in green read 'Explain Organizer to Daria.'

"Ok, I see that, but why does this look like a flowchart?"

"Well God Daria, you don't think that my schedule is set in stone do you? As an important person, I have to be able to constantly adapt to new situations. You never know when an article in Waif may throw the entire hierarchy of fashion on its ear and require an emergency meeting or intervention. So, I've set up a system where new appointments are weighed against the old, and where last minute changes can be accounted for."

Almost against her wishes, Daria couldn't help to be impressed. Still, this was Quinn she was dealing with, so some jab was in order. "I have to say it sis, you did a great job on this. Just one question?"

"Yes?"

"This is all written in pink pen, except of course for the color coded entries and key."

"So."

"So how are you going to make those changes? You can't erase any of it."

Quinn opened her mouth to reply, then closed it. She realized that she had spent hours that day, admittedly hours of class time, putting together a foolproof system….. that she couldn't use. Her face scrunched up in what Daria knew was the precursor to a fit of tears or a fit of rage. Taking pity on her, Daria said, "You know what Quinn, I really do think that this is a good system. While a bit complex, it looks like it would be a lot of help to you."

"Ha ha ha. Make fun of me, tell me how great it is when you know I can't use it."

"No Quinn, I think you can use it. Just not in this format."

"What do you mean?" Quinn took on a look of cautious optimism.

"Well, we just need to use a little technology."

"What?"

"The computer Quinn. You know, that thing in your room that you use to listen to music. That other thing in your room you use to listen to music."

"But Daria, I can't carry my computer around with me all day, I would look like a mega-brain."

Daria raised an eyebrow, "Not to mention that the power cord isn't long enough for you to do that either. No, what I meant was that we can put the schedule and the ranking system on the computer. You can save and manage it there. Then just print out a daily or weekly schedule that you can take with you."

Quinn's eyes lit back up. "I can do that? Huh, the things they don't teach you in school."

Daria rolled her eyes. Then she walked over to her computer, sat down and gestured for Quinn to come over. "Shall we get this over with?"

Quinn hesitated for a moment, then walked over and stood behind her sister. "Sure."

"Oh and Daria?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for helping me with this."

Daria looked up at her younger sister and was startled to realize that she was being sincere.

"Your welcome."

-fin-

The Coffee Guru (26Jun2009)