Popular Girl Esteem II
"Oye," Tori muttered while walking down the halls of Lawndale High with her friends, "It's another beautiful day and here we are, about to face a pop quiz in History class."
"And how do you know that Ms. Jericho?" LaToya asked with a vague curiosity due to being a full grade ahead of Tori.
Tori just smirked, "I've got my sources."
Lyra shuddered, "My God! We're only a month into the school year, what does he think we are?! Robots or something?"
Emily grimaced, "I think I know why he's springing this on you guys..."
"Because Kevin and Brittany drove him up the wall this morning." Tori finished for her.
All three girls stared at her.
"What?" Tori asked with a perplexed look, "I told you, I've got my sources."
"We know that!" Lyra exclaimed, annoyed.
"What Lyra is trying to say," LaToya chimed in with a glare at her beehived haired friend, "This year your ability to get information has gone like, way, way up." LaToya deliberately paused before asking, "How?"
"Trade secret!" Tori sing-songed merrily before spotting her locker and peeling away, knowing that her odds of faking through the quiz were slim but she could at least cram some last-minute stuff now.
'Do you think it's that stupid esteem thing Manson's making her take?' Emily asked herself before dismissing it out of hand. 'Tori had always been good at getting the low-down,' the girl told herself, 'Maybe she just got even better over the summer or something.'
Much to Daria's surprise when she opened her locker there was a note on top of her books that hadn't been there before.
"What's this?" Daria muttered to herself while grabbing the offending paper and opened it up and read; 'Thanks for mentioning how wound up Mr. D got, I'm facing a pop quiz for sure. -Tori
"So who's your admirer?" Jane teased at her side.
Daria just handed her the note, Jane read it and whistled.
"Wow," Jane said, "I didn't realize you and Tori were on speaking terms."
Daria shrugged slightly, "I bumped into her in the bathroom, we exchanged hello's and Tori asked me what I was muttering about."
"You were muttering?" Jane replied, a bit surprised, even as Daria grabbed her books and shut the locker.
Daria nodded as they began heading to class, "Yes, Kevin's stupidity was even worse than yesterday since Brittany added her two cents, and I think I mentioned it getting to both my and Mr. DeMartino's nerves..."
"I'll stop you right there," Jane interrupted, "Did Mr. D begin pulling his hair along with the eye bulge?"
"Yeah, so?"
Jane chuckled, "That means that he was really frustrated, and when Mr. DeMartino gets like that he tends to hammer the next classes even harder with things like 'facts' and 'learning' to make himself feel better."
"Ahh..." Daria drawled as they walked past a cute girl with red hair and some boy chatting her up.
"So... like, what do you like to do after school?" They heard the guy ask her, leaning an arm against the locker, trying to show off his muscles.
"Oh, nothing special." The girl drawled before saying the complete opposite as her hints/demands quickly became quite expensive.
Jane snorted, "He doesn't have a prayer."
"Tell me about it." Daria complained quietly, "That's my spoiled little sister, Quinn."
The guy then asked the girl if she had any siblings.
"I'm an only child." Quinn answered casually, seemingly not aware of Daria's proximity.
As Daria suppressed a hurt reaction, none of the people involved spotted a head of blond hair off to the distance in hearing range.
Just after lunch Daria felt someone approaching her, she turned to see if it was Jane and saw Tori instead.
"What do you want?" Daria asked flatly.
Tori took a deep breath, clearly a bit intimidated by the especially flat reaction and then took the plunge.
"Do you want to get Quinn back?"
Daria did a double take, clearly whatever she had expected from the popular girl, it wasn't that.
"What?"
"Do you want to get Quinn back?" Tori repeated and then added, "I heard what she said, and I'm pretty sure she knew you were there."
Daria suppressed a grimace before just giving a nod.
"Ok then," Tori answered a bit more strongly, finding her stride, "Here's the plan."
It only took a couple minutes of explanation, but by the end Tori could have sworn that she saw Daria smile a little.
Note: LaToya is backgrounder 'Orange Girl. Lyra is 'Beehive Girl'. and Emily is 'Pigtails'.
