The rain fell heavily on the road as headlights flashed by the overly ornate "Welcome to Lawndale" sign on a Saturday night, in May of 2003, the specks of gold in the sign reflecting brightly as each car entered the small suburban town. This day had been long in the making, Daria had not seen her family since thanksgiving, (they had taken a ski trip for Christmas to which she readily backed out of spending her time in her old room reading.) though she knew nothing ever did in "no-wheresville" she wondered had anything changed, not needing to answer herself, she stopped outside of the high school, but she was not giving in to nostalgia, not hardly a new addition had been put on to the old place "most likely a new gym" she thought to herself images of Miss Lee appearing in her mind before starting off again, only to stop a few miles down the road. She raised both eyebrows in surprise, the Pizza parlor was gone replaced by a "you guessed it a Starbucks" the words resonating in her mind as she sighed, she knew home would offer her some familiarity, which of course it did, never before had she actually felt a relief pulling into that driveway.
She exited the car and opening her umbrella, with her laptop slung over one shoulder she made her way towards the door, the things from her dorm could wait until the weather wasn't so abysmal. She made a small note in her mind; neither of her parent's cars were in the driveway, though for some strange reason Quinn's was. Daria didn't know which idea put her more ill at ease A: that Quinn and her parents were out sharing "quality time" or B: Quinn decided neither to go out on a date, or throw a party at their parent's absences on a Saturday night. "I'll soon have my answer" she supposed as her hand reached for the knob and entered her family home. The lights were mostly dimmed save for what looked like flickering candle light coming from Quinn's room.
Daria took the time to shake off her umbrella and set her laptop case beside the door before venturing up the stairs to investigate and peered into the door which was already ajar. "eep" was all that came from Daria's mouth as she looked in on the strangest thing she's seen in her 19 years of life there was her sister Quinn in a dim room surrounded by candles wearing a long black T-shirt that did nothing to reveal her mid drift a pair of jeans, that did not cling as if for dear life to her lower body, hair now black with tips of pink at the ends only shoulder length, and looking rather unkempt, but besides the attire besides the hair the thing which called forth that exclamation of shock was that as she lay on her bed face in her hands which rested on her elbows she was reading, and not a magazine the book was at least two hundred pages long and she'd taken a fairly decent chunk out of it.
Quinn would look up her eyes wide as she sprung from her bed, she'd thought she'd heard someone come in, and now there was someone at her door, she lunged forward knocking the would be intruder flat onto her back "Alright who are you and…DARIA!" She exclaimed. It was an easily enough mistake to make, with the conditions as they were Daria had been wearing her contacts to drive and had yet to revert to her glasses, and her hair now pulled back into a ponytail, might not be enough of a change to confuse most people's sister, but this was a drastic change from the Daria that Quinn had seen on thanksgiving.
"Nice to see you too" Daria would quip as Quinn stood and extended a hand to aid her sister's ascent. She turned flicking on a light switch, now both sisters could see each other perfectly, and both were quite confused, we now know what Quinn looked like but allow me to explain things from her point of view. There stood Daria her eyes unaccessorized, her hair no longer framing her face it was held back by a simple scrunchy, her mouth…it couldn't be not much but there was a slight shimmer to Daria's lips, and it wasn't from the rain, her old green jacket had been replaced now a blood red long sleeve shirt hugged her upper body, her black skirt had also had been forgone to make room for the pair of jeans which unbelievably seemed a little tighter then Quinn's A pair of simple sneakers finishing off her new look. The siblings pointed at one another stunned "what the hell happened to you?" They said in unison as Quinn took point shrugging her shoulders lightly "I just got so tired of having to answer to people about every little aspect of my life, my clothes, my hair, my friends, ughh" Quinn said with a slight shiver "so after the fashion club split up last summer I took a long look in the mirror, but I wasn't doing it to check my appearance, I was deciding who I wanted to be, the next day I repainted my room and started making the changes I wanted."
Daria listened intently as her sister spoke, finding to her incredible surprise she actually had something to say, Daria had no quip or sarcasm for her. "So then why didn't I notice this different you at Thanksgiving." Quinn smiled and rolled her eyes and smiled knowingly at her older sister, "probably because you did the same thing you do every Thanksgiving, you eat half a turkey leg and lock yourself up in your room, and besides I hadn't made that much headway with my transition yet" It was true Daria had paid very little attention on thanksgiving, she'd been working on a story time that seemed to sap up all of her free time.
"Well then…" Daria stumbled with her next few words not really sure she was saying what she thought she was, "I'm happy for you Quinn" Sincere words if not somewhat forced Quinn smiled and put her arms around her. "Okay who are you and what have you done with Quinn" Daria had seemed to have found her wit again Quinn opens the door to her room a bit wider and flipped on the lights. Walls where pink and unicorns used to rule, now were home to splotches of red and black, her bed sharing those same dark colors, her long dress mirror was gone; stacks of books littered the room writing supplies all over the floor. "I decided I wanted to be a little deeper, to not have to pretend I understand some piece of information you give out offhandedly, or only being able to add in only the most asinine thing into a conversation." Daria's eyes went a little wide, at first it was only the drastic change of her room, but then as the words her sister had spoken played in her mind she came to quite a shocking realization. "you…you're trying to be more like me aren't you." Quinn couldn't help but blush slightly as she shrug her shoulders "what's so bad about that, you're witty, intelligent, creative" "don't forget anti-social, self sabotaging, and a crippling fear of intimacy." Quinn sighed at her sister's interjection before shaking her head "so you've got some problems, we all do and it's not like I'm your doppelganger or anything I just find some of you're qualities to be worthy of emulation." Daria was stunned her sister, Quinn had used words like doppelganger, and emulation correctly in a sentence, she really had been striving to improve on herself, which led her inevitably inward, looking at the progress if any she'd made in her time at college "thanks Quinn I just need to uhm…go lay down now." Daria made her way back to her room after receiving a simple nod from Quinn who herself returned to her bed and took her place back up at her book. Daria's head was swimming as she laid in the one thing that seemed familiar in Lawndale anymore, the pale grey padded walls of her old room. "What the hell is going on around here?"