Jennifer wrung her napkin nervously as she forced herself to stare forward. Daria had found the note and read it. However, she didn't give any facial indication of her opinion on it, nor did she say anything to Jennifer after lunch. Instead, Daria had lain back in her chair and fallen back to sleep. Jennifer wondered if she had said too much in the letter, or maybe just freaked Daria out by being too forward. Maybe she should have asked her later during the weekend. Closing her eyes she pictured how it should have gone.
Daria looked at the note on top of her lunch box curiously for a moment, before catching Jennifer trying to hide shyly out of the corner of her eye. Picking up the note she looked over the simple invite to meet outside the spa just before the pool closed. With a small smirk Daria reached down and squeezed Jennifer's hand lightly to get her attention. Without looking over Daria nodded, letting Jennifer know she was going to be there.
With a sigh Jennifer looked over at the sleeping Daria, enjoying that view for its own worth. When Daria was asleep she seemed to finally lower the walls against society that she raised, and show her true self. It wasn't much different than when she was awake, save for the slight softening of the corners of her lips and the serene look of her lidded eyes. But, it was enough to transform her from someone intimidating into someone cute and almost angelic. Snapping her head around again she scanned the seats toward the front of the chartered bus, trying to pick out where this feeling of being watched was coming from. Jake and Helen were playing a game of cards with her mom, and Quinn seemed to be checking her make-up again. Odd, how she could see Quinn's face in the compact. With a shrug Jennifer pulled a book from her coat pocket and began reading.
Quinn lowered her compact with a frown. Something had happened between Daria and Jennifer during lunch, and it involved the note currently shoved into Daria's jacket pocket. Was it Jennifer's confession? No, Daria wouldn't be sitting there if it was, or they would at least be talking. Maybe it was a note asking to become friends. That didn't work either, because Daria would have made a comment about that. What could the note have said that Daria wouldn't have reacted over? It had to be something that wasn't decisive, something ambiguous... something like an invite. Maybe it was an invitation to meet somewhere and talk.
With a sigh Quinn shook her head and pulled out her latest issue of Waif and began reading it, or at least appearing like she was. She hadn't told anyone but Stacy, but for the past few months she's been removing the insides of the magazines and taping in a literature magazine that published short stories. This one was probably going to be one of her favorites, as the story about a young girl, struggling with pressures of society trying to force her into the mold of a fashion plate spoke to her deeply. She always wondered what it would have been like to play the rough house games like the boys did, or to just get dirty without a care for how her clothes would have fared. Closing her eyes she pictured herself, the rugged tomboy.
Her jeans were tattered and stained with heaven knew what, but they hid the tops of her hiking boots, and were a great storage for her pocket slingshot. Over that she wore a faded red shirt with a star stamped in the front, covered only by her grey long sleeved button up shirt she wore open, like Daria's friend Jane did. To complete the look, her face caked in sweat, grease, dirt, and a small trickle of blood from a scrap on her lower jaw. And, it was all framed by her long red hair, pulled back into a pony tail to keep it out of her face. She idly twirled a football in her hands while standing on a stack of guys at her feet.
Quinn let out a sigh as she opened her eyes and looked down at her perfectly manicured hands. She had chosen a different path in life, one that drew her away from Daria. Closing her eyes, Quinn grit her teeth as shame hit her like a javelin to the heart. Daria, the one person she really wanted to be closer to, the one person that she wanted to always be there for her when she fell, that was the person she had driven away the most with this fashion plate persona. One moment of anger, one moment of rage had driven Quinn to become this... this mockery, and she was still paying the price for it. Those stupid girls had made Quinn so mad that she had to show them up, and then she got sucked into being pretty, popular, and perky. When the family had moved to Lawndale, she had thought of making a fresh start, but she hadn't even left the car when her old life hit her square in the face. She couldn't change now; her fate had been sealed with "Hi! You're cool. What's your name?"
Quinn popped open her compact and turned the mirror to see her sister in it. She knew that Daria didn't like this mask Quinn hid behind, and so she had tried to separate herself from Daria. The whole cousin lie hurt her deeply every time she used it, especially when she saw Daria's anger over it, but once again it was too late to change. She'd kept building on the lie until it became ridiculously outrageous, almost as though begging someone to call her on it. So far, only Stacy has asked. Stacy was always the one who worried about something being wrong with her friends, and so she had swallowed her fear to risk insulting Quinn by calling her a liar.
Stacy had awakened the tomboy Quinn had long ago suppressed and written off as the dream of a weak heart. But Stacy saw something in that dream Quinn hadn't, Stacy saw strength, courage, and will power. That had surprised her; Stacy's eyes had lit up with a passion when talking about Quinn's alter-ego, almost as if wishing that she had met and became friends with her instead. Somehow after that night, Stacy had become more forceful, in small ways. She wasn't always washing over to Sandi's side all the time.
Quinn smiled as she thought about her first true friend's sudden growth in courage. Oddly enough she felt a small amount of pride when looking at it; it felt almost as though she had inspired the change in her friend's demeanor. She had helped Stacy become stronger as a person, and in a way, gave her courage that she might do the same.
