Discliamer: I do not own Daria or any of its characters. I also do not own They Might Be Gaints, Nine Inch Nails, or any other band or lyrics i use. I am making no money from this fiction so don't sue me. however i do own Amanda. She is me and she is mine at the same time.

Author's note: This is a Mary Sue at heart. Amanda does not exist in Daria's world so i am also calling this fiction an Alternate Universe fic. It takes place in the real world and the time line is off from that in the show. This fic takes place in the present but the characters are only about 1 year older then they are in the show. Don't kill me for this. Also it should be know that while this is a Mary Sue i am a Trent/Daria shipper. I just happen to love Trent myself.

Knowing Her

Ch. 1:Meeting Her

There she stood in the cold crisp weather. Her new apartment building loomed in front of her and suddenly she was losing her nerve. She thought to herself, "I can't believe I've gone this far, changed so much, and how much of it is because of her." She shook her chin length black hair out of her face and held her chin up. "Don't think like that, Jane. If anyone can handle this; you can." She walked into the building, which didn't seem any warmer then it was outside. She was also dismayed to find the elevator broken. "Off to a great start," she mumbled to herself as she began to mount the five flights of stairs. Things weren't looking up.

It had been a bad few months for Jane. BFAC and Boston has been great for the first six months and it had been really cool living with her best friend, Daria. However after their first summer at college things began to fall apart. Jane was surprised to find her art losing it's usual edge. She figured that the deadlines were hurting her creativity and when she couldn;t get it together after a few month she found herself becoming more and more bitchy. That when Daria and her first started to agrue. They had both changed in the year since high school and they were drifting. They tried to keep it together for about a month but Daria soon found the perfect person to replace Jane, him. Him was Daria's newest boyfriend, Mike. With Mike around Jane wasn't needed anymore. One day, feeling hurt because she had been forgotten yet again, Jane applied for transfer to NYU and began looking for an apartment. Now it was the start of a new term and in a few days she would be an NYU student. Currently she was adjusting to be a New Yorker. She knocked on the door of the apartment she was renting half of and finding no answer, she used the key she had been sent to unlock the door. "What kind of person sends a complete stranger their apartment key?" she thought to herself as she entered the unnaturally dark room. Jane instantly understood when she flicked the light switch. The room was devoid of well anything. It's windows were covered in dark green curtians andd the only furniture was a futon covered in a drop cloth. The walls were white. "Talk about bland and boring." Jane tossed her bag, which held a drawing pad and pencils, a change of clothes, some money, toothbrush, toothpaste, and hair brush. All her other possesions were still enroute via the moving van from Hell. God knows when it would arrive, knowing her luck several weeks from now.

Jane decided to wander the rest of the apartment hoping to find information on her new roommate, a girl she new little about. She discovered to her dismay that the door to her roommate's room was locked with a pad lock, however even the door itself offered Jane hope. It showed and apitude for paint and a glue gun. The door was black but had abstract shapes painted all over it in bright colors. Toward the top was her roommates name created out of what looked like many different items most would consider trash. Jane thought that things were finally starting to look up.; at least her new roommate was some what artistic.

Jane saw a note taped to the door with her name on it. She took it and began to read.

Hey Jane,

Sorry I'm not here to greet you; something very important came up at work and I had to go in for a bit. Now I'm very glad I sent you that key. There's food in the frig... help yourself if you're hungry. Hopefully I get back before the mover's get here so I can help you unpack if you need it.

Amanda

Jane was glad that her new roommate seem at least pleasant. She head to raid the frig. To her surprise the kitchen was very well decorated. It was painted a pale, but not sickly, green and had cherry cabinets. The table for four was also cherry and it's center-piece was welded sculpture made from old clock parts. The appliances were all stainless steel. Jane raided the frig which was covered in various magnets including one that read 'My imaginary friend thinks you have problems.' Jane chuckled and again thought things were looking up. She grabbed a coke and some cold pizza, went back to the bare living room, and plopped on the futon. She ate quickly and turned off the overhead light. She want the comfort of a dimly lit room. Before she knew it had dozed off.


When Jane awoke the room was much darker, the sun had already dipped below the skyline. Jane wondered what had awoken her, until she saw a figure, bathed in shadow, standing by the door. The figure stepped over to her as she sat up and a soft female voice spoke. "I'm sorry to have woken you. You must be Jane." The overhead light came on and Jane saw the figure for what she was. She was a girl of about 5'3"; she had sholder lenght brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and her eye color was hidden behind wire framed glasses. She wore dark blue jeans, a dark green Nine Inch Nails shirt, grey Vans with bright green laces, and a blue Swatch. She wore no jewelry or make-up. She held out her rigth hand to Jane; it was covered in ink and paint. "I'm Amanda. It's nice to finally meet you."

Jane took the girl's hand and squeezed it. "It's nice to meet you too." She let go.

Amanda walked to the curtains and threw them open. "I like to be able to see outside. I guess it's my love for this city. So I see the movers didn't get here today, and considering it is after five they sure as hell aren't coming tonight anymore. What can you expect other then ineptitude?"

Jane poked up at the question and was glad to discover that her new roommate was not an optimist. Jane didn't know if she could stand living with one of those people. "Lucky for me I expected such irregraud of time on their part and brought everything that was nescessary for survival on my person."

"That's good to hear. Unfortunate;y though this means you'll be sleeping where your sitting now. I hope it's comfortable. Speaking of which, how was your nap?"

Jane sort of chuckled under her breath, "Yeah, sleeping at odd hours is in my blood. May brother, Trent, can sleep anywhere at anytime."

"That trait must come in handy sometimes. I myself hardly sleep at all." Amanda flopped onto the futon next to Jane. This kicked up a cloud of dust and both girls sneezed.

"Bless you!" Jane said leaving off the God word just in case, because she herself hated hearing 'God bless you' since she held no belief in God. She didn't want to piss off her new roommate already. "By the way, whay do you have the futon covered?"

"Bless you too! Have you seen any of the rest of the apartment?"

"Well... Yes"

"Then you can safely assume that white is not a permenant color for this room. I was waiting until I had a roommate to decide what to do in here. We'll paint it and then move in the furnature and other stuff and make this room awesome. I mean the room is huge and has great potential. I mean you should see the way this room lights up in the afternoon. I put the futon in here just in case you need to sleep on it for a night or two but wanted to make sure I didn't forget to cover it when we started painting. But we should really talk this kind of business after dinner. But I think it would be good to start on it before you fully get settled in. That way we know what we have to work with and we don't have to move things around as much."

Jane pondered all this and grew excited at the idea of such a large scale art project, "So I guess it is safe to guess that you haven't lived here long."

"I haven't been in this apartment long. Moved in maybe a month before you first contacted me so I guess that was about three months ago. I've live in the city for a while now though. Went to college at NYU for four years and it's been six months since I graudated so I've live in the city 4 and a half years now. Damn it's quiet in here. Mind if a put on some music?"

"Not at all." Amanda heads toward her room where she puts on a CD. Jane hears a familar song fill the apartment.

I'm your only friend

I'm not your only friend

But I'm a little glowing friend

But really I'm not actually your friend

But I am...

Jane had to shout a bit over the music, "I saw your door. It's really awesome looking. Are you an artist?"

Amanda reentered the room and sat on the futon more gently this time as to not kick up dust. "I'm a writer at heart and by profession but I have a few other artistic hobbies. I'm not particularly great at any of them though. Are you hungry?"

Jane noticed that this was a obvious subject change. "I had some pizza earlier but yeah I can eat. I guess that's in my blood too." Jane chuckled.

"What's funny?"

"Oh I was thinking of my brother again. It's strange how you don't realize how much you are like someone until you don't see them too much anymore. I mean I haven't seen Trent in at least six months."

"I know what you mean."

Jane noticed a far off look in Amanda's eyes and wondered if the girl was gonna have a break down. 'Great,' Jane thought, 'this girl has more problems then I do and she willing to show them to a complete stranger. How uncomfortable.'

However Amanda snapped out of it, "Geez, where was I just now? I'm sorry, Jane. You must think I'm crazy."

"No not at all," Jane said aloud even though she was still thinking exactly that.

I have a secret to tell

From my electrical well

It's a simple message...

Jane was despairate to change the subject again. "Hey Amanda, what band is this?"

"Oh. It's They Might be Giants. A friend of mine just got me into them. I really enjoy this song but I'm not sure how I feel about the rest of their stuff. So what do we want for dinner?"

"Is pizza ok?" Jane questioned.

"Please, pizza is always ok." Amanda smiled at Jane and suddenly they both started laughing for no reason and the tension between them began to break away. The laughter felt good. Jane couldn't rememeber ever having a friend who would laugh with her, at least not liek this. At that moment she looked at Amanda and was glad she was meeting her.