Ethan Yeager in Lawndale
Ch1 Ethan Yeager Rising
Two middle-age men were carrying a large cardboard box into a decent looking but small(ish) ranch home in the suburb of Lawndale.
"Ok just set it down here Jake, we'll get it later." Coyote wheezed before he and Jake Morgendorffer set down the very last of the Yeager's possessions onto the floor.
"You know for living the whole 'simplistic life' thing you guys sure have a lot of stuff." Jake wheezed right back to his old friend as he collapsed onto a sofa that had been left behind by the previous tenants.
"Well you know how things can accumulate over time…" Coyote replied weakly as he sat down next to him. "Besides most of it is stuff we picked up recently, and a lot of that is for our business. And thanks again for the idea of becoming an online order service, we've grown so fast since then it's still kinda…"
"Trippy?" Jake supplied as he pulled out a discreet hip flask.
"Yup," Coyote replied while eyeing Jake taking a swig of whatever booze was in that flask, "Trippy."
In the smallest of the three bedrooms that the house contained, three teenagers were also slacking from the whole 'moving' project that had been inflicted on then by their elders. Instead of unpacking things, they were sitting on the bare carpet, since the bedframe hadn't been put back together yet and the mattress was... Somewhere.
"Why didn't you get the bigger room Ethan?" the younger Morgendorffer sister, Quinn asked in her annoyingly cutesy voice.
"Office space, so the rents can work at home and in their new workshop in town." The boy in the black shirt, jeans, and sandals replied in his usual disinterested monotone.
"So they can sell out to 'the Man' even faster than they are now?" Daria Morgendorrfer replied with an ironic Mona Lisa half-smile.
"Yeah something like that." Ethan replied, once more in bored tones.
In order to keep the conversation going, Quinn then asked, "It was nice of the last owners to leave all this stuff behind for you guys, cus I saw some of what was packed and it didn't seem like you had a whole lot to work with to have a decent place to live."
"It was left behind because the last owners were evicted by the bank because they didn't keep up on the house payments." Daria answered, killing that line of thought before Quinn dug the hole any further.
"It's how my parents got this house so cheap." Ethan added, a hint of amusement in his tone.
But, Quinn being Quinn, decided that now was the time to drop more hints about a date to Ethan, even more blatant than the ones she had used before they had all been drafted to do actual work.
Daria took note of Ethan's face, for the first time since she had met him (granted that had only been a few weeks prior) his thinly veiled annoyance at Quinn's interest in him was pretty obvious to see.
"Well to be honest he does look good, but he isn't Trent… Eep!" Daria thought to herself, even her subconscious was embarrassed at the thought of Trent Lane, the older brother of her only friend in the world.
The red-haired son of hippy holdovers took in a deep breath while ignoring Quinn's mention of some French restaurant that he had never heard of and decided that it was better if he just killed this line of thought for her now before she went any further.
"No offence Quinn, you are cute and all but I prefer guys." Ethan stated, doing a good job of maintaining his normal voice, but Daria heard the slight crack at the last words, the hints of uncertainty of and fear at revealing this to them.
For a minute it seemed as if Quinn hadn't heard him, but then his words registered in her largely unused brain.
"Chez Pierre is soooo beautiful…. What?!"
"I prefer guys." Ethan repeated for her obvious benefit.
For a moment Ethan Yeager had done the impossible, he had stunned Quinn Morgendorffer, Popular Fashionista extraordinaire to flabbergasted silence.
But alas, at least in Daria's mind, her sister bounced right back with, "Oh…. Oh... Oh! Well this explains a lot, because usually guys are all over me in like five seconds… So this isn't a joke right, your gay?"
"Yup, I'm gay." Ethan said, borrowing from a famous headline that had shocked the segments of the nation that were still shocked that Gays and Lesbians existed.
"Thank Gawd, I was getting worried that I was losing my looks or something." Quinn thought to herself, but aloud she answered, "Oh that's cool, but this means that you'll need a new wardrobe, if you're going to be out at Lawndale and all. I mean everyone needs to be fashionable and all but now you especially will need a complete overhaul, let me make some calls."
Quinn rushed out of the room in a whirlwind as she said all this, not giving either misanthrope time to articulate an answer or an insult.
"What just happened?" Ethan asked, only partly to himself.
"I think you just became Quinn's latest dressing doll." Daria replied, secretly relived that now she had someone to deflect Quinn's attention on.
"Great… What happened to simple living?" Ethan snarked.
"It went the way of the mail-order hemp hammock dinosaur." Daria retorted with a second Mona Lisa smile.
Ethan returned it with a half-smile of his own and thought, "This chick is cool."
But then to keep shifting gear away from Quinn and her most likely ever growing fantasy of taking a gay guy shopping! Daria asked a question that had been burning in her gut for some time now.
"So your parents are named Coyote and Willow… Why did they name you Ethan?"
"Well they were going to name me 'Elrond Rainbow Yeager', but my Grandma gave them a thousand dollars to name me after Grandpa Yeager."
"New topic?" Daria asked in reply.
"Name it." Ethan replied.
"This is going to be soooo much fun Stacy! But you got to promise me that you won't tell a soul." Quinn said to her squealing friend on the other end of the phone.
"Of course Quinn," Stacy Rowe, "I mean we'll need to come up with a plan for next Saturday's shopping trip, I mean we can't very well leave his fashion sense in the hands of those… yuppies!"
"Hippies, Stacy, hippies." Quinn corrected Stacy once again, and tuned out her 'Sorry' by instinct, "Yuppies are the ones that drink coffee, which is even worse than the hippie's cus all that coffee has to be ruining their teeth… ugh!"
Both girls shuddered at the thought of coffee-stain teeth, or even worse, having coffee-stained teeth of their own.
"Once everyone sees what the Fashion Club has done for him, they will totally think we are, you know, forward-marching and stuff." Quinn added, trying to scrub her brain of those horrible images.
"Yeah!" Stacy replied in excitement.
"Quinn!" the loud voice of her mother called out from somewhere in the house, "Where are you, we have to unpack the kitchen stuff!"
"Uh… Stacy I have to go, bye."
The phone disconnected, Stacy then spent the next five minutes crying after trying to say that she was agreeing with Quinn.
Now Stacy fully intended to keep her word to Quinn and not breathe a word about that guy she had been talking about for last two weeks and she hadn't, not even to Sandi who had been very interested in why Quinn had been distracted.
However now with the info that the guy…. Ethan right? Yes Ethan, wasn't interested in her because he was gay, Stacy still intended to keep quiet.
However as Secretary of the Fashion Club, she had to call the other members in order to get the latest updates from both Vice President Quinn Morgendorffer and the President of the Club, Sandi Griffin.
It only took Sandi about two minutes and thirteen seconds figure out that Stacy was hiding something and one minute and four seconds to crack her and get the scoop of a lifetime before she hung up on her (again) crying friend and began making some calls.
Within about two hours, the word had spread through the grapevine that there was a new kid coming to Lawndale High, a gay one and with weirdo hippy parents to boot.
In one fell swoop, Sandi Griffin had found a way to both humiliate Quinn Morgendorffer and undercut her growing popularity, thus maintaining equilibrium in the social hierarchy.
"Monday will suck for Evan or Ethan or whatever his name is though," a teeny tiny voice in Sandi's head whispered to her before being viciously smacked down in a manner that would make her mother very proud.
"So this is the infamous Casa Lane?" Ethan Yeager asked as he took in the sight of the slightly disheveled house while Daria rang the door.
"If you call it a dump you'd be telling the truth but I'll hurt you for the principle never the less." Daria replied while they waited for an answer.
"Meh… I've seen worse," Ethan replied, "In fact I've lived in worse."
Just as he finished the sentence, the sound of a lock being turned could be heard and then the door opened.
"Hey Daria." A tall and scrawny guy answered, "Who's this?"
"Trent, this is Ethan Yeager, Ethan this is Trent Lane, Jane's older brother."
Ethan was quiet, drinking in the sight of Trent Lane, with his dark hair and eyes, soul patch beard, the multiple piercings and tribal tattoos, and slightly ragged clothes.
"He's beautiful… Ethan start talking… NOW!" His inner voice roared at him, making his ears ring and his jittery stomach even jitterier.
"Um… Hey man." Ethan managed to murmur.
"Jayne's waiting for you upstairs, and Daria?" Trent asked while Daria and Ethan slipped in and had begun to head towards the stairs, "You sure he's cool right?"
"Yeah Trent, Ethan's cool." Daria replied.
"Cool," Trent answered while picking up a guitar that was propped up on the wall nearby, "I'll see you later, I'm heading to Max's to practice."
As the door closed behind him, Ethan began to ask the obvious question which Daria was ready to answer.
"Yeah, Trent's in a band, called Mystik Spiral, though they've been thinking of changing the name for, oh, forever."
"Oh that's cool." Ethan answered while he followed Daria through the strangely quiet house.
"Mystik Spiral? Sounds like a band that plays bad covers from the 60s." Ethan thought to himself as they reached another door and Daria knocked again.
"So let me get this straight," Jane Lane said as Daria walked beside her, and this new guy, Ethan walked on Daria's other side, "Your Dad actually made you sit through the film of Quinn's birth? That could scar you for life."
"The birth alone would be enough for that." Ethan quipped, earning a small laugh from both girls.
But as the three of them came within sight of the theater, an annoyingly loud and high pitched squeak of a voice stopped Daria and Jane in their tracks.
"But Kevey, this is the Food in Film Festival, are you sure you brought enough?"
"Sure babe." A guy's voice replied.
"This isn't going to be good." Jane said in warning to Ethan as he was about to get his first dose of his fellow classmates at Lawndale High.
As they got closer Ethan saw standing at the end of the line a tall blond bombshell of a girl wearing a cheerleading uniform, and next to her was a dopey looking jock boy in his full football gear.
"Oh hey Daria, Janey."the girl said as the noticed the three of them, she twirled her blond hair through a finger, then she peered at Ethan and then looked at both Daria and Jane and asked, "Is he one of your dates?"
"Nope." Daria replied.
"Oh not me either," Jane replied in turn, "I'm holding out for a rich boy to sweep me off my feet."
"Really?" Britney asked, "Cus I don't really think there's a lot of those available, no offence."
"None taken Britney." Jane answered, clearly amused at her obliviousness.
"What's your name bro?" Kevin asked, changing topics in a very rare moment of tact.
"Ethan." He answered.
"Ethan… Ethan…" Kevin murmured to himself, oblivious to standing right next to the Ethan in question in the line for the film.
The name clicked for Britney, she gasped and then said, "Oh you're the new guy everyone's been talking about, the gay…. I mean the gay new…. No wait I mean the new kid."
Kevin was still saying Ethan's name aloud in a murmur, still struggling to make the mental connection of what the school gossip had told him earlier.
"What?" Daria and Ethan both said in shock, both of them wondering how in the world she knew….
"Quinn." Daria said quietly in very dark tones within a few seconds of thinking.
"Um…" Britney nervously said while playing with her hair even more than usual…" We've gotta go, come on Kevey. Let's go someplace we can be alone."
"Alright!" Kevin exclaimed in excitement, "Just a sec Brit."
Kevin then handed Ethan the bag of groceries and then took off in the wake of his girlfriend who had already run off.
"What was that?" Jane asked, more to herself than anyone else.
Ethan sighed and then wearily began to explain things, with Daria's help when it came to figuring out where the leak came from.
"Oh." Jane said quietly once her friend and Ethan finished talking, "Oh I'm so sorry Ethan, I bet you were hoping to come out differently."
"Yeah." He replied in a masklike monotone that Jane found oddly similar to Daria's usual speaking voice.
"Well… Do you guys just want to skip the art film and watch TV back at my place?" Jane Lane offered quietly while waving her arm in the general direction of her home.
"Nah," Ethan said while stepping forward in line, now just one person away from the ticket booth, "We came to deconstruct a Russian Art Film, then deconstruct a Russian Art Film we shall. The rest… We'll deal with later."
Right behind him and unseen by anyone else, Daria smiled.
"Yum." Jane said after she swallowed the last bite of her apple and threw the apple core at a nearby trash can where by some twist of fate it managed to make contact.
"I have to admit it was nice of that guy to abandon all that food for us, but I wonder why he brought it in the first place." Ethan said while eyeballing the last of the produce in the bag.
"Knowing Kevin, it probably involved throwing it at the screen when Igor finished his asparagus." Daria said.
"Or maybe when they served Anna the cake." Jane added for effect.
As the three of them stepped out of the theater, the skies had darkened considerably, the first signs that a storm was coming.
"Good I was feeling too dry." Ethan said to himself.
"Why does that sound familiar." Jane asked herself in her thoughts.
Then a voice that Daria and Jane recognized in an instant emerged from behind them, "Oh hello Daria, Jane."
All three teens turned and saw the figure right behind them, a middle-aged man in brown slacks, a cheap pink shirt with a smiley face button.
"Oh hello Mr. O'Neill." Daria said, hiding her annoyance as best she could, which wasn't all that good to be honest.
"I'm just so invigorated by the sight of youngsters enjoying timeless cinema." O'Neill replied with sickeningly high levels of enthusiasm.
"They just don't make movies like that today though…" he continued while Jane whispered to Ethan, "He's our Language Arts teacher."
"Language Arts?" Ethan asked in reply, a touch too loud for a whisper.
"Oh, well, it's technically English class, but just calling it 'English' just seemed so… Sad." The teacher butted in with an answer.
"Oh, ok whatever." Ethan answered in reply.
"Say kids would you like a ride home, it looks like it's about to rain." Mr. O'Neill said, finally noticing the sky.
A peal of thunder rolled by and a few drops of rain slowly began to fall.
As the cheap sedan moved at a sedate pace through the pouring rain, the teacher glanced at his rear-view mirror to see the three figures sitting in the back, Daria and Jane were sitting on either side of the back with a teen boy he didn't recognize sitting in the middle.
To break the ice, O'Neill said, "It seems as though film is a better mirror of our times than novels, perhaps it has something to do with the medium's greater verisimilitude.
"Uh… What's verisimilitude?" Jane asked.
"Meh… Movies are easier on the eyes than books for most people." Ethan replied.
"Well they are faster, read out the big words for you, and don't take up as much time as actual reading, so is it shocking that the unwashed masses prefer movies?" Daria asked, while trying to shut down the conversation.
Mr. O'Neill snapped his fingers in his unbridled excitement, "Daria that's a great idea for a class assignment, thanks."
"What?" Daria replied, getting a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach.
A little later after they were dropped off at Jane's, the rain still pouring from the sky, Ethan asked them both.
"Ok, I'm going to need as much info as possible for tomorrow, if that guy's any sign of what I'm going to be putting up with."
"Oh trust me," Daria said while wringing out her hair on Jane's living room floor, "This is just the beginning."
"So remind me again why it took two weeks before you introduced us?" Jane asked while she, Daria, and Ethan walked towards the red-brick prison to which the teens of Lawndale were imprisoned for eight hours a day.
"Because he and his parents were busy setting up their storefront and moving into their house at the same time." Daria replied.
"Ahhh…" Jane replied after an awkward silence fell upon the trio again, it had been happening a lot this Monday morning.
"At least they are trying to fill the void for me." Ethan thought to himself as Lawndale High loomed closer and closer.
He caught his reflection in a passing car window; he had taken more thought than he normally did in his appearance, in that he had stared at his bathroom mirror for a long moment before throwing on his usual attire of a black shirt, shredded and faded jeans, and cheap black sandals.
"I'm not going to change for these people; they will just have to take me as I am." Ethan thought to himself. It was the guiding philosophy that had been his standard in his last school too, but it hadn't led to anyone befriending him.
"And why, to those ignorant rednecks, I was the fruity son of the pot smoking commie hippies." Ethan thought to himself, his thoughts turning back to that hellhole.
"And here we are, hell." Daria's voice cut through his mental dialogue.
"Make sure to tip the ferry man on your way in." Jane added.
"Oh I'll make sure to feed Cerberus a bone as well." Ethan said, coming up with this on the fly, already noticing the curious stares of the other students who were also heading towards the main entrance.
The first hour was something of a blur; the brief tour given by the Principal had been useful in that it revealed that Daria's worse assessments were completely correct. Mrs. Li was a petty tyrant in search for that next scrap of power and control she hadn't already found.
The psychological exam was a joke, the 'psychologist' was an even bigger one, but his parents had spent time with Timothy Leary who had written most of those tests.
Through cultural osmosis alone, Ethan was able to give her the answers that wouldn't have him put into a psych ward, or that innate class that Daria and Jane had warned him about.
Then it was time to head to class, and see if this Mrs. Barch was the harridan that she had been made out to be.
"Yeager, Ethan" Janet Barch called out in a bark, already sickened by the thought of another… MAN! In one of her classes.
"Present." He answered in a dull, disinterested voice.
Everyone else in the room them made a slightly amusing business of trying to look at Ethan without actually looking at him.
He was seated next to a boy who was wearing a blue track suit jacket, baggy dark blue cargo pants, white trainers, and had had his ears and right eyebrow pierced.
The boy in question turned to look at Ethan and said, "Hey, I'm Josh."
"I know that," Ethan replied, "You said 'here' when the teacher called out 'Decker, Josh' during kiddie roll call.
"Smooth move Casanova," Josh thought to himself as they both sensed a disturbance in the force, Mrs. Barch was heading their way.
"So if you MEN would kindly give your attention to me, we can begin today's lesson." The tall, well-built woman said leering over the two of them.
"While it might, might, be unfair to ask a new student this question, I want to see what you know." Janet Barch said in a much lower, more dangerous tone.
"Today's lesson will continue to cover Charles Darwin and his work on the Theory of Evolution; can you tell us what first inspired Charles to begin studying the origins of life?"
Ethan kept his voice as emotionless as humanly possible and began, "Darwin was known to have been interested in Natural History since his early education in science. However it was during his time on the HMS Beagle visiting the Galapagos Islands that various species, like mockingbirds, had developed into different types of species on each separate island."
"Thus was born the Theory of Evolution, which has been an endless headache for the religious ever since." Ethan finished, not breaking his stride with a breath he had taken in the middle of his recitation.
Mrs. Barch was silent for a very long moment; the whole class had openly turned to look at the pair before she said carefully.
"That was very good… Almost, too good." Then she strode away back to the blackboard and began to pick up where Ethan had left off.
"At least she didn't go off on one of her rants." Josh said quietly to Ethan.
"Yeah I heard about those from Daria."
"Daria?" Josh asked before he remembered, "Oh the girl in the ugly coat, I'm surprised she told you anything other than a sarcastic putdown."
"Our parents are old friends, they helped us move in." was Ethan's answer.
"Oh." Josh replied, trying his best to get the new guy to open up a bit, "Well listen if you need a friendly face at the end of the day, you can come by my place for sodas or something."
Ethan couldn't help but smile inside at this kid's persistence, and chose to say, "Maybe."
His next two classes before lunch were Economics with Mrs. Bennett, which was easier when he ignored her chalkboard drawings and just listened to her voice, and Art, which he thankfully shared with Jane and Daria.
He had managed to make a good impression in that class by revealing a flare for drawing, but it wasn't anything compared to Daria's friend Jane.
"Wow." Ethan had thought when he had gotten a look at what Jane was working on. "Simply wow."
But in both of those classes and in the halls he had heard the whispers, seen the quick glances, but nothing overt had occurred, yet.
Then when Ethan was closing the door to his new locker before heading to lunch he was grabbed from behind and shoved up against it.
"Oww, Hey what the…" he managed to sputter while his face was ground into the metal by a big meaty hand.
"Welcome to Lawndale High fairy bitch!" An angry voice roared in his ear before Ethan heard the sound of someone being punched and whoever it was that had pushed him up against the locker was shoved away.
Ethan flipped around to look at his savior, and the douchebag that had attacked him, sprawled on the floor out cold was a jock boy with bleached blond hair, a black goatee, lots of muscle, and a face that screamed "IDIOT!"
Standing over the sprawled figure was a muscular guy in punk attire, with blue spiked hair, countless piercings, tattoos up and down his arms, and combat boots.
"You alright?" the Punk asked.
"Yeah." Ethan replied weakly.
"We'd better get out of here before the teachers come." The Punk replied and motioned Ethan to follow.
As they headed quickly to the cafeteria, the punk introduced himself as Bob and explained that he saw Rex (the jock involved) unhook the security camera that was angled to view the lockers near Ethan's and decided to see what transpired and help out if needed.
"But why?" Ethan asked.
"Because we can't let these meatheads have their way, besides when he unhooked the camera it was the perfect change to beat up a Jock and not have Mrs. Li up my ass about it." Bob replied just before they entered the cafeteria and Bob the Punk headed towards the lunch line.
Ethan however had the vegan lunch his mother had prepared earlier in a bag, now Ethan often ate meat on the sly, recently joined by his dad in fact, but he reasoned that the food made at home was safer than anything served in any High School.
It only took a minute to find Daria and Jane, having an entire table in an overcrowded cafeteria to themselves.
"Hey gals," Ethan said as he sat down next to Daria, "You don't' mind right?"
"Oh I'm sure our millions of friends will complain, but other than that your welcome right there." Daria quipped.
"Got room for two more?" A voice said from behind them.
Ethan turned and saw Josh from Science class and standing next to him was a guy that looked exactly like Shaggy from the old Scooby Doo cartoons.
"With the other Pariahs?" Ethan asked rhetorically before Jane and Daria could respond, "Sure why not?"
Thus for the first time in Lawndale history, there was a grand total of five people and Daria and Jane's table.
"So what brings you guys here?" Jane asked, quite curious at this turn of events.
"Josh wanted to talk to Ethan." Shaggy answered, even his voice sounding like the cartoon character.
"Then why are you here?" Daria asked in reply.
"I couldn't think of anything else to do since Kelly is out sick and I have no one else to talk too." Shaggy answered.
Ethan couldn't resist a smile at this exchange, it certainly made up for nearly having his face ground into powder on his locker.
"Well you wanted to talk, so talk." Ethan said to Josh in the meanwhile, the words coming out ruder than he intended.
"Well… uhmm…" Josh stammered at that, having a very hard time thinking while being so close to the beautiful lanky boy next to him.
"Articulation is clearly not your friend right now." Jane quipped.
"Well Ethan I just wanted to say that if you don't want to sit with them you don't have to, you can join me and Shaggy where we usually sit."
Ethan looked back at Josh, taking note of his flushed behavior, was he… interested?
"Well I've already gotten to know Daria and I'd like to talk to Jane for a bit, maybe later, like at your place?"
"Really?!" Josh answered breathlessly, stunned that Ethan was going to come over after all.
"Why not?" Ethan answered in reply, now slightly curious as to where this was all heading.
"Great!" Josh answered, now happy as a clam and beaming the biggest smile that anyone at Lawndale High had ever seen on him. "I'll wait for you outside after school and we can head that way."
He and Shaggy then departed for their table with their food and Daria said, "What polite young men."
Jane simply made a shushing sound and indicated towards Ethan, who thankfully hadn't heard what Daria had said, clearly lost in a daze.
After lunch, Ethan had Mr. O'Neill's class, but during the walk down the halls towards it he noticed even more pointed stares and whispers and he heard the name, "Rex." And "They found him out cold near the new kid's locker." And variations thereof.
Once he entered the class however, he found that he had it not only with Daria and Jane but with Josh and Bob as well.
The only open seat left was next to Bob, so Ethan took it and glanced over at the hero from earlier.
"Sorry for everyone giving me credit for your handy work." Ethan said quietly to the Punk who grunted and replied.
"No problem, besides if it keeps those idiots from trying anything like that again then it's worth it."
But at that moment Mr. O'Neill chose to enter and soon enough began the roll call and when he got to Ethan's name at the end he did a double take and said.
"Oh it's nice to have a name with a face."
The snickering at that faux pas was impressive, even by Lawndale standards.
In order to spare Ethan anymore humiliation, and inadvertently Mr. O'Neill, Daria answered in a voice that cut above the din.
"Mr. O'Neill was kind enough to give Jane, Ethan, and I a ride home from the movies after it started raining."
"At least he didn't start crying." Jane thought to herself, looking at the emotional timebomb that was their Language Arts teacher.
It took him a minute to pull himself together, but soon enough O'Neill was prattling on about the day's lesson.
"And so class, for this project you're going to be making movies, a short two or three minute exercise in living literature and we have Daria to thank for this project."
Daria muttered, "There he goes with that 'thank you' crap again."
"Before we begin creating our teams, who wants to direct?"
The class then erupted as most of the students began clamoring for a chance to do something interesting for once in Language Arts.
Josh quickly got up and headed towards Ethan and asked, "Do you want to do this film thing together?"
Ethan thought for a second before saying, "Sure why not, but I don't have a camera."
"Me neither." Josh admitted.
"I do." Bob answered from nowhere.
"Ok cool, this works," Ethan answered, "The three of us will create something… any ideas?"
"You remember what I told you earlier about the 'little talk' I had with Quinn?" Daria asked her friend in their private corner.
"Yup." Jane replied, still impressed at the tongue lashing that Daria had dished out to her sister after getting back home and had been reported upon to Jane in detail the morning before Ethan had arrived.
"I don't feel as though she was punished enough." Daria continued, "And I think I owe Mr. O'Neill thanks for the punishment I've just come up with."
Gym class passed largely without incident, which Ethan had found surprising at first until during a quiet moment of what had clearly become football practice that a tall, well-toned, African American student introduced himself.
"Hey, your Ethan right? I'm Mack."
"Yeah, I'm Ethan." He replied, wondering where this was going to go.
"Listen, I heard that something happened between you and Rex and I told the rest of the team to leave you alone."
"Rest of the team….?" Ethan began to ask before it clicked in his head, "You're the QB right?"
Mack laughed at that and replied, "No, no, no! That's Kevin's spot; I'm the team-captain."
"I've had the dubious pleasure of Kevin's company at the movies last night." Ethan answered before they were approached by the man in question.
"Hey Mack Daddy and… Whoever you are." Kevin said by way of greeting as he stepped into speaking range.
"I've told you not to call me that." Mack said by rote, but Kevin being Kevin would call him that again in the future.
"I'm the kid you gave all those groceries to last night." Ethan said, wondering if the big idiot even remembered him from the night before. "Groceries… groceries…" Kevin said to himself before exclaiming, "Oh I remember now! You were with Daria and Jane, your Ethan right?"
"Yeah."
"Cool, well you should know that there's another new kid in school called Ethan who everyone says is a gay Trekkie and beat up Rex before lunch."
Ethan was stunned to silence by the stupidity in that simple sentence while Mack just shook his head and quietly laughed while Kevin added, "Coach says we need to get back to it." And jogged off to join the others in tossing the old pigskin around.
The class that Ethan Yeager was looking forward to the most was Mr. DeMartino's class; the thought of being in the same room with a mentally unstable, bitter teacher with a popping eye simply had to be seen.
The only seat available was next to an overweight Goth chick he had already seen in a couple classes named Andrea Hebcua who was currently asleep.
On his other side was a one of the popular girls he had seen around, wearing the required uniform of skimpy top, fashionable jeans, and the latest shoes and accessories.
"Hi Ethan," the popular girl said in greeting as soon as Ethan had sat down, "I'm Brooke Tanner."
Ethan nodded in acknowledgment but said nothing else, but Brooke didn't take the hint and instead continued with, "I've heard some stuff about you and unlike other people I think it's ok if you're… you know…"
"Gay." Ethan finished for her, a bit more loudly than he intended, startling Andrea out of her pre-class nap.
"Yeah that!" Brooke said in a rush, "I have a Gay uncle and I've seen all the crap he's had to put up with and I just wanted to say… uhm…"
A voice emerged from Ethan's left, "I see Dr. Cosimio did a stellar job in fixing your nose Brooke, much better than that quack doctor you went too first."
At that Brooke Tanner went completely silent, her face beet red with embarrassment at the memory of Dr. Shar and the mess that her nose had been as a result for months until the courts had squeezed enough money out of that Dr. Mengele so that her parents could afford the reconstructive surgery.
Ethan just had enough time to thank Andrea quietly when the last of the students arrived and Mr. DeMartino entered the room.
Within five minutes Ethan got his first dose of what his next few years with this teacher would be like once Kevin Thompson was called on to answer a question and then with Britney's commentary, the teacher wound up screaming in anger for two whole minutes while pulling at his hair and his eye seemingly about to burst out of the socket.
"This is sooo worth the price of admission." Ethan said to himself and he elicited a laugh from Andrea.
But eventually all good things must come to an end and when the bell rang, the students went through the process of gathering their stuff, but just as Ethan was about to head towards the door he heard a quiet voice nearby.
"Can I talk to you for a minute, sir?"
Ethan turned around to look at the speaker, it was another member of the football team, he was easily the most muscular and well-built person in Lawndale High, dark skinned, clearly of Native American decent, and was wearing a blue shirt, shorts, and the latest sneakers.
"Yeah?" Ethan asked, nervous about where this was going as the others were already pouring through the door and DeMartino had been among the first to slip out.
"I just wanted to say…" the big guy then paused and had to take a very deep breath, clearly apprehensive about what he wanted to say.
It only took Ethan two seconds to figure out what was coming next but he held his silence, waiting for the jockboy to speak.
"That I think you're a braver man that I." he finished with a flushed look on his face.
"Gay?" Ethan asked, no long able to resist.
"Bi." The jock answered, "I mean I haven't done anything with a guy or nothing but…"
"It's ok… dude I understand." Ethan replied, just realizing that he didn't even know the kid's name.
"I've… I've… I've got to go, so sorry." The jock said in a sudden seizure of panic before running out.
Ethan then sighed and then slipped out, only to notice that the teacher had been waiting for him.
"HelLOW Mister YEAger, it is a PLEASure to FINALLY speak to yOU." DeMartino said by way of greeting.
Ethan nodded and then asked, "Why'd you linger?"
"BEcause I was conCERNED about what ROBert intended to do."
Ethan gave the eye-popping teacher a small smile and said, "He just had to get something off his chest."
"So I GATHered, and while I don't NORMALLY spy on the STUdents, I've HEARED some IMPRESSIVE stuff about you and I DIDN'T want to SEE you get hurt."
"Thanks." Ethan replied, genuinely touched.
"Now feel free to run off, no reason to LINGER in this HELL hole more than NESSISARY!" DeMartino said with a flourish.
Ethan took the hint and headed towards his locker to get his stuff, eager to get out of Lawndale High as well.
A little later, Ethan Yeager was walking down the sidewalks, glancing at the street signs and checking the slip of paper that Bob had given him for the directions to his house when a speeding sports car suddenly slowed down and began keeping pace with Ethan.
Ethan stopped walking and waited for whatever was to come, which turned out to be Quinn Morgendorffer stepping out of the back and saying, "Hey Ethan I need to talk to you."
"I have nothing to say to you." Ethan said in cold tones and started walking again.
That didn't stop Quinn who ran up beside and began walking next to him, the sports car began to follow them slowly as well.
"Oh my God Ethan, I'm like, so sorry for everything that happened at school. I mean I know I shouldn't have told Stacy but we needed to plan the shopping trip and I got her to swear secrecy but then she told Sandi and then Sandi told Tori and then she told… everyone." Quinn finished weakly.
"And now, once again, I'm just 'the gay kid with the weirdo parents', before anyone got a chance to even know me." Ethan retorted, his voice at the level of below freezing.
"I didn't mean for any of this to happen Ethan," Quinn said, her high-pitch voice was nails on a chalk board for him now, "I wanted to say all this earlier but I've had to deal my parents, Daria, and then the others at school and it took all day to salvage my popularity…."
Ethan snorted loudly and stopped walking, cutting Quinn off, "You think I give a FUCK about your pathetic popularity games?!"
Ethan then took in a deep breath to calm down and then added, "I wanted to come out on my own terms, not others, and all you can think about is the opinions of idiots in expensive clothes."
"Quinn look at yourself, your better than them so why do you care about any of it?"
All Quinn Morgendorffer could do was stammer and stutter, unable to say anything at all.
Ethan snorted again and said, "Just what I thought." And then started walking again.
Quinn stood there, still stammering while Ethan quickly headed off towards the Sorenson's, the sports car parked on the street and the driver, a preppy guy with blond hair, stepped out and asked Quinn if she wanted him and his friends to beat him up.
"No Jeffy that would be the worst thing to do."
"It's Jamie."
"Whatever."
Bob Sorenson, as it turned out to be Bob the Punks last name, lived only two blocks away from the Yeager's new residence, so it made finding it less of a chore than it would have been, and thankfully Josh Decker had already arrived so they could get to business quickly.
Bob's room was painted black and covered in posters of punk bands ranging from the Sex Pistols to Rancid, the only thing in the room that wasn't Punk was a picture in a frame on the wall of Bob and his family, which included his mom, dad, and a nerdy looking guy next to Bob that was probably his older brother.
Bob was sitting on his bed, while Josh and Ethan were on the floor nearby, and Bob noticed that Josh found ways to inch as close to Ethan as possible without being obviously trying to get close to him.
The three of them then spent the next couple of minute's spitballing ideas and munching on some popcorn and soda that Bob had been kind enough to prep up.
"Well since you didn't like any of my ideas, what do you want to do?" Josh asked the two of them, a little off put that nothing he had suggested had been up to snuff.
Bob looked thoughtful for a moment and then his entire demeanor light up and he said, "The Zon."
"What?" Josh asked in confusion.
"What's the Zon?" Ethan asked, not having been in area that long.
"It's a grunge club on Dega St." Bob explained, "Picture crappy music, worse company, and lots of booze and drugs. We go in, record our experience there, then edit it a bit to look semi-legal, and have the assignment done."
"Sounds dangerous." Josh said nervously, having never dared go to the Zon before.
"Sounds better than my idea to record my parents at the annual Crystal Energy Conference in Oakwood." Ethan said, "Especially since this year they have the world's biggest rose quartz there and my parents won't stop talking about it."
"Ok, the Zon it is." Josh said, doing his best to stomp on the feeling apprehension that was growing in his gut.
In order to prepare for a night out at a place like the Zon, the three of them would have to make some arrangements at home prior to going.
In Bob's case, it was a simple matter of telling his parents that his homework was finished and that he was going out that night. The Sorenson's were long used to their younger son's hard partying ways and his grades hadn't been affected by it before, so they let him go.
In Josh's case, first he had to get back home to his mom's, who would arrive at home at precisely the same time every single time. Which was part and parcel to working as a time management consultant.
Then all he had to do was wait until 10'oclock for her to go to bed then just sneak out of the window and make sure that this adventure would let him get back in just before 6'oclock when his alarm clock would go off to signal the start of a new day.
In Ethan's case, normally he wouldn't have to do either one of those things; a fringe benefit of having hippie parents was that they weren't too particular about what or where he was so long as he found a way to let them know he was ok at some point in time.
But after reading between the lines of what Quinn had said, Ethan was willing bet his last dollar that his parents had heard what had happened through the Morgendorffer grapevine and it would probably require some damage control.
"Oh thank the Goddess you're alright." Willow Yeager said as soon as her son stepped through the front door and rushed forward to give him a hug.
"Where's dad?" Ethan managed to say, being crushed by an unusually strong gripped hug.
"He had to work late and he called to say he was very sorry about that but he'll make it up to you tomorrow once we pull you out of that school." Willow answered.
"You don't have to pull me." Ethan said as a matter of fact once his mother let him go.
"What?!" Willow breathed, "I heard that you got attacked by some meat-eater monster and…"
"And another student knocked him out for it and let me take credit." Ethan finished for her, stunning his mother into a momentary silence.
Ethan took full advantage and plowed on, "While there have been a lot of nasty whispers, there have also been kids there who… stood up for me." He said the last with some of the amazement that he still felt from the way the day played out.
Willow's demeanor shifted for worry and concern to beaming delight, though she couldn't resist an admonition against taking credit for violence, but it was so lighthearted that Ethan could tell that she was just saying it out of habit.
"And I've made some… friends." Ethan added with even more amazement, "And I'm going to meet some of them tonight, I'll be back whenever."
"Ok," Willow said, feeling even more delight than before, "Just make sure to take care of yourself Ethan."
"I always do."
By the time ten thirty rolled around, the trio had just arrived at the Zon at the start of what Bob called 'the early hour crowd'.
"They tend to be the quieter types, in that they mostly just drink and fight and listen to the tunes."
"What's the rougher crowd like?" Josh asked.
"They get high as kites and then drink and fight and listen to the tunes." Bob answered simply.
Josh laughed for a minute before realizing that his punk friend wasn't kidding one bit.
The Zon was easily the dirtiest place that Ethan had ever been too, and he was regretting wearing sandals rather than actual shoes.
The camera that was going to document their journey into the heartland of madness was in a discreet position in a small backpack that Bob had slung over his shoulder, his expert handling of the camera in this manner had made both Ethan and Josh suspect that he had done this sort of thing before but neither had the nerve to ask him about it.
Thankfully for their eardrums, the current band playing, the NailClippers, finished their set to a mix of boos and a few cheers from the members of the crowd already three sheets to the wind.
"Are all the bands this bad?" Josh asked during the brief moment of quiet while the NailClippers left the stage so the next band could come on next.
"No," Bob said in mock seriousness, "Most are worse."
"I wonder who is going to try to destroy all that is music next." Josh muttered to himself before hearing Ethan breath the word, "Trent."
"Hello, we're Mystik Spiral." Trent Lane said into the microphone in his lazy voice, "But we might change our name."
Then without further ado, the band broke out into the song, "Ow! My Face", the best that could be said of it was that Trent did have a nice voice and that was about it.
The awfulness of the song was enough to shake Ethan out of his stupor and bring him back to the smoke filled reality he was in.
"Oh… That's Trent Lane; I met his sister, Jane. But I guess you both knew that already." Ethan said in a rush, his face flush.
"Speaking of Jane," Bob said, trying to keep Josh's attention deflected away from this near-disaster and pointed out two familiar figures in the crowd. Jane Lane and Daria Morgendorffer standing close together and clearly snarking about… Everything going on around them.
As the three of them walked up behind the girls, the band finished their song and everyone in the club got to hear Jane yell, "GET, GET BURGER!" Which was followed by an awkward silence, but thankfully the band started playing again.
"Hey Daria, Janey." Ethan said in greeting from behind the two girls and after some polite hellos and idle chit-chat, Jane mentioned that the band was going out for burgers and she was going to invite Daria along.
"What?!" Daria said in shocked at that statement.
"Yeah, it's a band tradition, now please don't act like a complete idiot in front of my brother."
"Define complete."
Then the five of them noticed that the band had finished their set and that Trent was headed their way.
Daria turned beet red right in front of them and looked like she was about to hyperventilate, then muttered something about 'bathroom' before running off.
"What was that…?" Josh began to say before noticing the way Ethan was following Trent's every move and he started to turn red himself.
"Come on Ethan." He managed to spit out without giving away any emotion and reached for Ethan's arm, "We need to talk, outside."
"What was that about?" Ethan asked, clearly annoyed at being dragged off.
"You that's what it's about," Josh snapped back, "Did you see yourself in there, practically drooling over Tim or whatever his name."
"So, he's cute and nice to look at." Ethan answered, "But that doesn't mean I expect him to take me to Vermont, marry me, and then move in together."
Josh fell into a sullen silence at that that lasted for a long time before Ethan managed to gather himself up enough to ask.
"What is this really about Josh?" "I… I like you Ethan." He managed to stammer, "And… Oh god I don't know how to ask this, I've never done this before."
"Then start by just saying it."
"I… I want to go out with you." Josh said with his face an even redder shade than Daria's.
"I do too Josh," Ethan answered, "And I've never gone out with a guy either, but I'm willing if you are."
"Yes, yes I am."
Ethan offered Josh his hand and after a moment's hesitation, Josh took Ethan's hand into his own.
"So seeing as we are already here and willing I suggest that we use the rest of this night as our first date." Ethan said quietly but with his face slowly forming a warm smile that was quickly matched with one from Josh.
"I want to go slow for now." Josh said in much calmer, happier tones than before, "And see where this goes."
Ethan simply answered this with an even bigger smile and lead Josh back into the Zon, but neither of them noticed that Bob had slipped out and had been waiting at the entrance to make sure they'd be ok, not even he realized that the camera had been rolling the entire time, capturing all of it.
The next day at school was a marked improvement over the first, since now Ethan had a sense of how things would work. The best thing about first period was that he got to sit next to Josh, who still seemed in a daze of the night of grooving that they had shared at the Zon to the worst music ever created by man.
Even Ms. Barch's random man-hating rants were bearable now, especially since they weren't directed at either one of them that day.
The rest of the day passed by in the blur for Ethan, until they came to Mr. O'Neill's class which that day would be in the AV Room so the students could edit their videos.
For once, his extreme touchy feely attitude was helpful since he had found enough TV's and equipment for each of the groups to work with; one benefit of Mrs. Li's obsession with surveillance was that she had a ton of unused sophisticated toys to play with.
Mr. O'Neill had even set up booths so that each group could work in peace, "Though you should work on a low volume so you don't disturb the creative processes of the other groups." He had prattled.
"So before I show you guys the video you should know something." Bob said quietly.
"What?" Josh asked.
"When you guys were outside, I followed you to keep an eye out, since it's not a good place to be when you're distracted." He added in a rush when both boys began to give him dark looks.
"Well I checked the footage this morning before school and the camera apparently was still on and it recorded… everything."
There was a long moment of silence before Josh broke it by saying, "Then we use it."
"What?!" Ethan and Bob said in shock.
"We use the footage." Josh said as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Are you sure?" Ethan asked, deeply concerned about what Josh was proposing.
"Yes." Josh said with conviction, "My mom knows I'm gay, my best friends do as well, and you do too. So why hide it anymore?"
"Well with courage like that who am I to say no?" Ethan asked rhetorically, and Bob simply smiled and said, "Ok then, we use it."
Then there was a commotion as Daria suddenly rushed out of the room, her face and hands blooming red splotches.
After Mr. O'Neill's class, the rest of the day passed without incident, though Ethan did have some nagging worries about Daria and the way she just upped and bolted out of class, and why was she so red?
However when he asked Jane about it all she said was, "Daria went to the Nurses' office, it looked like she had a reaction to something. I don't know if she's allergic to anything but other than that she seemed ok, I guess they must have sent her home but I'll call just in case."
But after the end of his last class and the last of DeMartino's screams, Ethan went into full bolt mode in order to get out of Lawndale High, and waiting outside the entrance near a small tree labeled the 'Tommy Sherman Memorial Tree' was Josh.
"So we hit the Zon for a while and then… my place?
"Yeah." Josh said in husky tones, "My Mom is off at some conference and won't be back until Friday."
"I told her that I'm staying at a friend's house… I didn't say what kind of friend it was." Josh finished with an ironic laugh that was answered with a happy leer from Ethan.
Without the hindering effect of being on candid camera, the Zon was a lot of fun once you were drinking and taking in the effects of various semi-legal and illegal substances.
And since Josh hadn't had much experience with either one, Ethan was more than willing to make up the lack.
"Are you sure this is ok?" Josh asked, eyeing the joint in his fingers.
"Yeah it's cool; I grow my own for personal use." Ethan answered quietly in the skanky bathroom stall they were sharing. "I don't ever deal, but I'm willing to share with people I truly like and trust."
At that confession, Josh felt almost obliged to take his first toke, which he did and then coughed back up but the second, third, and the others after went down much better.
Everything started to blur and spin together, memory became hazy flashes for the two of them, Ethan could remember Josh flagging a cab, unlocking the door to his house, then falling into his bed with Josh right on top of him, and then the taste of his tongue in his mouth, and then things became clearer and Ethan asked a single question.
"Are you sure?"
"Yessss…"
In the master bedroom of the Yeager residence, Willow woke to strange sounds, at first frightened she started to rise out of bed until she recognized one of the moans as belonging to Ethan.
At that she simply smiled and turned on a large fan, she didn't need it for the cool air though but the white noise.
The walls were paper thin and Coyote could sleep through an earthquake, but Willow Yeager, already in her early 40s had discovered that sleep was more difficult for her now and she really needed sleep.
Ethan felt something shaking his shoulder, in the middle of the best dream that he had ever had, but alas despite his best efforts he was forced to consciousness.
"Uhhh… Wha?" Ethan muttered until his vision came back and focused on the figure of a shirtless Josh standing over him.
"Mornin," Josh said, as radiant as only a morning person could be, "As cute as you looked asleep it's time for you to shower and get dressed, we have school… dammit!"
Mornings were not Ethan's best time, but that dammit managed to bring a smile to his face, which then faded as some of what they had done last night came back to him.
"Josh…" he said weakly, "Did we…?"
"Yeah Ethan, we did." Josh answered, a small and warm smile forming on his face.
"So much for slow, huh?" Ethan said as he got out of bed.
"You could say that…" Josh said with his grin growing even bigger before Ethan figured out that he had been naked under the sheets.
For a jarring panicked moment Ethan tried to grab the bedding before realizing that they had both seen everything anyway so the point of covering was long dead.
"I suggest you hurry E, your mom is making tofu bacon for breakfast and I'm sure you don't want to miss out."
After breakfast, and enjoying Josh's mixed reaction to the tofu flavored bacon that his mother had served. "Don't worry, we'll have some real meat at Cluster Burger later." Ethan promised. The pair headed off to another day at Lawndale High.
But as soon as they got within a few yards distance, they were flagged down by Jane Lane, who ran up to them and said, "Ok Ethan you are going to have to meet me in the AV room before first period."
"Why?" both Ethan and Josh asked.
"Trust me, this is worth it."
"What about Daria?" Ethan asked, not having been updated on anything due to the events of the night before and his parents admitting that they hadn't been called.
"Oh, she had to go to the hospital for some tests, I went and saw her and they released her this morning. Apparently it was some sort of reaction caused by high levels of stress and anxiety. "
"Ok, cool, so she'll be back in one piece right?" Ethan said.
"As long as those pieces stay away from Zon for a while then yeah, she should be fine." Jane answered cryptically.
"Holy shit!" Josh exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock, "Did Quinn Morgendorffer really say all that?!"
"Yeah," Jane answered in reply, still stunned herself, "This was the subject me and Daria chose for the movie, a day in the life of a popular teen, we were going to expose the real Quinn Morgendorffer for the whole school to see."
"And except for the last bit, the rest of it looked like the Quinn I know and view with contempt." Ethan snorted.
"True," Jane stated, "However she hinted off camera that you said some stuff to her, plus seeing Daria in the hospital seems to have caused her two brain cells to finally rub together."
"And then when she left to 'clear her head', those are her words by the way, I followed her and I realized I still had the camera from the film project with me so I had it out and decided to record what I thought would be a meltdown."
"And it was," Ethan answered, "Just not the one I expected."
"I'm going to skip science and add this last bit to the film me and Daria put together, it won't be the punishment Quinn's deserves, but Sandi is sure in for a surprise."
The time it took to reach Mr. O'Neill's class seemed to drag on forever, the school in the meanwhile was rocked by the news that Quinn Morgendorffer had gotten into a colossal argument with Sandi Griffin and had then left the Fashion Club.
The school's popular and semi-popular girls were taking sides, catty remarks were already being made, rumors were spreading like the plague, and so far no actual fights had broken out.
Note the key phrase, so far.
"But give it another couple of hours and it will happen." Brooke Tanner warned Ethan during the free period before gym.
"No one's sure what caused it, but Sandi and Quinn are no long even pretending to be friends, they are almost within an inch of killing each other and five people have told me, like, nine different stories and I don't know what's going on!"
"Don't worry Brooke," Ethan had said very quietly, "Things will come to the surface soon enough."
The bizarre film that Jodie, Mack, Kevin, and Britney had made about the supermarket strike had ended with Kevin being attacked by an angry mob with Britney and her newly dyed greyish-black hair hot on their trail ended with a 'The End (But the Struggle Goes On!)'
"Wow Jodie! Where did you learn to juggle symbolism like that?" Mr. O'Neill gushed once the lights came back on.
"Um… I worked with storyboards, I think it helped." Jodie answered, clearing making up a line of BS on the spot.
Luckily for her it worked since Mr. O'Neill moved on with.
"And now a piece by, Josh Decker, Bob Sorenson, and Ethan Yeager, called 'A Night of Zon'.
The lights were turned out and the film began, first with an establishing shot of the Zon, then some shots of the early crowd, some bobbing to the music, others drinking, then the NailClippers left stage and were replaced with Mystik Spiral.
Ethan's breathed word of 'Trent' echoed in the film, then the band began playing, Ethan shook himself out of a stupor, then Jane was yelling 'GET, GET BURGER!' and then explaining about the burgers.
Then Josh dragged Ethan off.
Then the entire conversation outside the doors of Zon played in Mr. O'Neill's classroom without any editing.
The room was completely silent except for the film.
Then the last shot was of Josh and Ethan heading back to the Zon holding hands. The screen went back except for a 'Fin'.
The lights came back on and for a long moment no one said a word, then Britney said in a breathy voice, "That is sooo romantic…"
Then Josh realized that during the film he had reached across the aisle and was hold Ethan's hand in a firm grip, which was being returned back to him.
It took Mr. O'Neill five whole minutes to stop crying, even after everyone had stopped applauding. "So class," the teacher finally managed to wheeze, "The last film is a piece by Jane Lane and Daria Morgendorffer, the subject… is a day in the life of Quinn Morgendorffer."
The lights dimmed, and half the students there expected to be bored, especially after what they had just seen…
At first the film just seemed to be an expose on the vapid, a lot of images of Quinn primping, posing, and talking at great length… about herself.
Some of the students began to node off.
Then they reached the guerilla footage that Jane had added in at the last minute.
The four members of the Fashion Club were at the mall and Sandi was saying, "…Gee Quinn it's sooo nice of you to take tiiiime out of your busssy schedule to meet with us."
"Oh Sandi you know I had that prior arraignment at the hospital to meet with my sis…. Cousin, distant cousin!"
The conversation then continued as such for a minute before Sandi said this catty remark.
"And sooo I told Torieeee that if cerrrtain people can't tell the difffference between gays and straights, then they clearrrly need help."
Quinn seemed off-put by this, as did Stacy oddly enough; Tiffany was staring at her reflection in a piece of brushed metal that was wrapped around a pillar.
"Sandi…" Quinn began apprehensively, "You know that not everyone acts in a certain manner that makes it obvious that they are one way or the other. I mean there are like, all kinds of personality types and stuff for all types of people so…"
"Gee Quinn." Sandi interrupted, "I didn't realize that you were soooo sensitive to these sorts of thiiings, it's almost like you made some horrible mistake or something…"
"Sandi." Quinn said, her tone snappish, catching Sandi off guard, "If you're referring to what I think you're referring to…"
"And what am I referring to Quinn?"
"The…" Quinn began before trailing off, her nerve failing her, a silence fell that Quinn then managed to break with. "The thing where I told Stacy about Ethan and then she told you and then you just had to tell Tori Jericho who you of all people should know would tell everyone."
"But that's what you wanted wasn't it? To try and embarrass me and embarrass someone whom you never met before, for your own gain."
Then Sandi seemingly tried to backpedal and be aggressive at the same time before the two girls were in each other's faces, both yelling at each other, the words quickly incoherent.
Stacy was in the background hyperventilating, Tiffany was still starring at her reflection, oblivious to the world around her.
"FINE YOU SELF-CENTERED EGO MONSTER!" Quinn finally roared, "I'M LEAVING THE FASHION CLUB AND I'M GOING TO MAKE MY OWN GROUP AND SO HELP ME I WILL BRING YOU DOWN!"
And with that Quinn stormed off, Stacy fell into a dead faint, and Tiffany finally noticed that something had changed and went, "Diiiid sommmmethiiiing haaaaapennnn?"
The film went to black.
The Lights came on.
Then Quinn Morgendorffer fell through the slightly open door where she had been spying and fell flat on her face, she got up and stared at the room full of silent faces.
Then with the exception of Ethan, Josh, and Bob the room erupted into applause.
Once Mr. O'Neill's class had dispersed, it didn't take long for word to spread of the two films that now lived in infamy.
"That new guy is dating Josh Decker!"
"Sandi was always such a b-i-t-c-h!"
"Good for Quinn!"
"I mean it's so cool that Lawndale is so, diverse now and stuff!"
"Quinn rules!"
Admist all these whispers, Ethan and Josh walked, hand in hand through the halls of Lawndale, while there were some dirty looks, they were hidden and few compared to the ones of admiration and curiosity from so many others.
And flanking them was Jane Lane, Bob Sorenson, Andrea Hubeca, Brooke Tanner, and a couple of other supporters that Ethan didn't recognize.
But despite his newfound status as a social butterfly, the normally misanthrope Ethan Yeager couldn't come close to Quinn's new crowd.
Every single popular and semi-popular girl that wasn't Sandi Griffin, or following Ethan and Josh at the moment, was around her, vying for attention, asking a million questions, yet the big one was, 'What new group?"
"I don't have a name for it yet." Quinn said airily, "But it will be a club for girls that have style or want to be stylish, since fashion is nice and all, but it only lasts so long. Style now, that lasts, like, forever, and I want to create something that can truly be eternal."
Jane Lane heard this and said, "I wish Daria was here for a snarky comment about all this."
Ethan added quietly, "You tried to bring Quinn down, instead she's now more popular than ever."
Josh then said, taking his snark out for a test-drive, "Yeah but look the bright side." And pointed at the figure of Sandi Griffin, literally running down the halls towards the exit.
"Meh you win some you lose some." Jane said, with only a small amount of disappointment.
"Yeah…" Ethan said quietly, "Besides, Daria will be back soon and besides, I found what was really important already." Then he gave Josh's hand a tight squeeze.
"Yeah," Josh said in reply, "I think we've both got something better out of this than Quinn ever will."
And hearing that, Jane Lane, Andrea Hebuca, and Brooke Tanner smiled, and then the three of them realized that the other two were grinning also.
Then the trio kept doing it anyway.
THE END
Notes: Some lines taken from 'Monster' and 'Ill', Rex Attor is based off the backgrounder 'Red Lion' at the suggestion of ST91.