7.

When she came to, everything was a blur – her glasses must have come off. She could hear something violent going on, but that was a blur itself. She could feel a throbbing pain on the left side of her head, and that was damn well in focus.

How did I get here again? Earl decided to help Quinn, or… no, that wasn't it, or maybe it was, well sort of, hmm…

Do I have concof… concut… head injury? I shouldn't have my head lying flat if I do, I remember that, I should be supporting it with something. Should I try getting up? Why not.

Daria managed to sit up, but the burst of dizziness and nausea made her wish she hadn't. Still, she was up and she wasn't going to flop over again. Good. Now, if she could just work out where the wall was, she could support her own head.

"Daria!"

"Aunt Amy? No, that's not it – Amelia. Yeah, that's it. Excuse the brain damage."

Large blobs of colours appeared before her. "Daria, do you know what state you're in?" asked the blobs.

"Terrible," she replied.

"I kinda need serious answers."

"Virginia, and I'm currently in the Windsor Hills Resort, and I live in Lawndale, and Peter Parker is Spider-Man. I don't know where my glasses are."

The blobs moved away and came back with… well, two small black blobs. "The… er, they kinda broke in two. Can you hold the pieces…?"

Sighing, Daria put the two halves on her head and used her left hand to pinch them together. The blobs turned into a very worried Amelia.

"Why did you follow me?"

"You said you had something to do and the way it sounded, well, I thought you might need some help."

"Thank you." A memory came back. "Quinn?"

"Oh, was that who she was? She's gone, that guy's with her – the minister's gone too, he looked pretty beat up."

"I love a happy ending. Can you help me up?"

Amelia took her right hand and hauled her up; most of her dizziness had gone, and she found she could stand on her own. She could also hear further commotion.

"If the fight's over…"

"When I started after you, a bunch of women and guys started tearing into each other and the bride had run off crying and…"

"And they've probably seen the minister and Quinn… I've got a bruise, don't I?"

"Yeahhh."

Once she reached the reception, after what had happened, when the minister would clearly be claiming she was psychotic (she wasn't was she?) and Amy would link what she'd yelled to earlier, once she reached there and she would have to…

Daria looked at her friend with despair. "Please stay with me."

"Okay," said Amelia quietly.


The reception was a mess. Everyone was either yelling or sitting as far away as possible. Garrett was battered and bleeding and standing close to Quinn (and she clung to his arm like a port in a storm), the minister looked like he'd been hit by a truck; Aunt Rita and Helen had damaged dresses, Erin was crying silently with Brian nowhere to be seen; there seemed to be four arguments going on at once, all intermingling, with Helen either screaming at Rita & Amy about something or screaming at Jake and then turning to scream at the minister.

Jake saw her first and screamed. The minister turned round, catching sight.

"Your daughter attacked me! No cause, she tried to claw my eyes-"

"YOU HIT MY DAUGHTER?" roared Jake, his usual sound and fury having a vicious edge to it now.

"She attacked me, sir! Screaming about some Mr Driessen and shooting, she's mad-"

"Oh god!" Amy covered her mouth, staring in horror. "Sh-Sh-She started talking about that earlier-"

"A GROWN MAN HAS TO PUNCH A LITTLE GIRL?"

"You're threatening her sister and you think she had no dang cause?" snapped Garrett, spitting his words out.

"-she started gibbering about that and someone called Earl and laughing about people being shot at, she said she'd helped with that shooting in Highland Helen what is wrong with your goddamn daughter?"

"See? SEE? The bitch is mad-"

"SPEAK LIKE THAT AGAIN AND"

"How dare you suggest something's wrong with Daria said what?" Her mother looked at Daria with horror, horror mixed with anger. "NOW, Daria? You pretend that your pissing around with rock music is sorting it and NOW is the time you have to sn-"

"Your daughter's violently insane and you knew it and brought her here as a goddamn bridesmaid?" shrieked Rita, fury in eyes. "How dare you put Erin in-"

"NOTHING'S GAHDAMN WRONG WITH MY LITTLE GIRL"

"Hey, hey, this damn paedo was targeting Quinn and you people are-"

"She's a demon"

"Oh like you cared about Erin, letting her marry that ignorant-"

"What are you doing about Daria? She's insane and trying to kill people-"

"Hur hur, dude, those people are pissed!" cackled Daria, tears running down her face and her voice a loud, ugly thing. "Heh, yeah, I bet, that buffet sucks! Yeah, we need some nachos! That'd be cool! Hehheheheh!"

"DARIA NOT HERE NOT NOW"

"GAHDAMN LAY OFF HER HELEN"

"She's like that and you brought her here you bitch"

"Fight fight fight! Hur hur hur hur! Yeah, that'd totally rock, I bet that chick there could totally whoop that other chick – and they could rip their dresses off, hur hur hur heh heh heh heh"

Amelia's arm was around her, pulling her in tight. Inside the meat robot, she could hear the girl's frantic breathing and see her starting to sweat. It felt warm, and she wished it could have felt safe, but too much was happening too fast.

"Come on Daria," Amelia's voiced a quick and panicked whisper, "let's go get those nachos, eh? You can tell me about that guy Kevin you know and how stupid he is, that'll be fun."

"Hheheheheh yeah he's a dumbass! Bet he wishes he could be as cool as us! Hur hur hur!"

"DARIA!" Her mother's shriek cut through the noise like a knife. "You are NOT leaving this room, young lady! Stay where you are!"

"M-M-Mrs M-Morgend-d-dorffer, I r-really think Daria would be better off outside," said Amelia, sending on the verge of crying.

"So you can encourage her to be a damn mess like you've done so far, oh I think not"

"LET HER GO!"

Jake's roar silenced everyone.

"She's going! She's leaving! She's not staying her and being- being called- SHE CAN GO!"

In the brief pause, Amelia almost ran, dragging Daria towards the door as the girl giggled – "that angry dude is cool!" – before anyone could say anything. As they went, the last thing they saw was the minister beginning to talk and then Jake striking him like the wrath of God.

"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN MY GIRLS?"

The door slammed shut and left the chaos behind, and Daria found herself crying into Amelia's chest.