More P2

The day after the concert at the student cafe had been a surreal experience for Daria Morgendorffer, Teenager, High School Student, Stoic, Philosopher, Cynic... and oh yeah... Musician. One thing she had never been in all her young life was popular, sure she wasn't an absolute untouchable, no matter what her late sister had said on numerous occasions but she'd been pretty comfortable being an anonymous bystander in everyone else's life. Overnight the world had changed and it was a strange and curiously exciting place.

She had accepted a lift home from Trent and Jane the night before, still riding high on the adrenalin rush the crowd had given her. The crowd, the audience, the paying public, the punters, the bums on the seats as the Brits would say. They'd all, or at least most of them, had paid a dollar to get in to see her play and there'd been HUNDREDS, there was apparently a queue outside that never got in but the music was plenty loud so they had been boppin around on the pavement causing such a ruckus the cops had been called, though there was no actual trouble or arrests. HUNDREDS!

So she'd gone home to bed and put it behind her, it was over. The next morning Jane had come by to walk her to school as usual, just a regular Thursday morning, HA!

Sandi Griffin and the Fashion Club caught up to them in her white convertible before they'd gotten half way. She said 'Daria! You'd better, like, come with us, there's reporters outside the school, you need to look good on camera when they, like, ask you questions and stuff.'

Daria just froze. Eventually she managed 'What? Why? I didn't do anything wrong, is Mr. O'Neill charging me with...'

'No silly, you're a hit! You're like a rock star now or something.'

'How could that possibly be? It was only last night! There was just students...' She was trembling now. Jane grabbed her and said 'Easy now, don't panic, it'll be OK, it's probably just a slow news day or something.'

Daria sat on the kerb and tried to get her breathing under control. Stacy Rowe hopped out of the car and proceeded to make-up Daria's face. Weirdly this seemed to calm her. She could play this part once the mask was on, the real her could hide and be safe.

Sandi was explaining 'Charles... I... er... I mean Upchuck edited the video and put it up on Youtube, it's a phenomenon, over a million hits like, so far, you're really popular in Japan for some reason. Apparently Mr. O'Neill had arranged for a friend of his, a reporter from the Lawndale Sun Herald, to be there last night to promote the new student cafe, he really liked you, your picture's in the paper on the local news page.'

'Oh God! No! My Mom is gonna go nuclear, this place will make Chernobyl look like a holiday resort when she's finished with it. Why did I agree to go on a goddam stage again!'

'Easy Dee, it's OK! You've done nothing wrong, you said so yourself, the kids liked your music, now you can't blame them for that, can you? Just wave to the cameras and say "Thankyouverramuccchhh" Daria has entered the building, ah haw haw.'

'Yes thank you Mizz Lane, when we need Elvis impersonators we won't call you.' Daria said sourly, then she said 'OK, let's get this over with... and Sandi... Thanks!'

'Whateverrr, don't, like, mention it.' But she grinned while she said it. It didn't escape Daria's notice that the three fashionistas were wearing variations on her usual outfit of jeans and leather jacket. She raised a quizzical eyebrow at Sandi who shrugged and said 'Forget what Waif or Val have to say, the wind today is blowing due Daria... chill... it won't last. Try to enjoy it, nice work on the make-up Stacy, now Daria, please try to smile at the cameras, your face will not break!'

So real Daria had cowered behind the bushes while stage Daria had grinned at the reporter, thanked everyone, no, she had no plans to perform again, well yes she would of course but there was no gig booked, Mystic Sprial were the professional musicians, you should talk to them, Trent Lane, yes he wrote the original songs, M_Y_S_T_I_C, S_P_I_R_A_L, no, I don't write songs myself, that's silly – I don't see myself as a role model for anyone, I'm just a regular Highschooler, thanks, bye (blown kiss) BYE.

It got worse once she entered the school. Ms. Li was waiting with Mr.O'Neill who was sporting an impressive black eye and an expression of what he probably thought was righteous indignation but looked more like constipation. Li greeted her 'Miss Morgendorffer! My office, now.'

Daria's deep seated agnosticism was shaken to the core by the sudden appearance of two angels. The first took the form of Jodie Landon who came up to the principal and said 'Hi Ms. Li, here's the receipts and cash we took in at the cafe opening last night, we need to re-stock immediately coz we sold out all the coffee, sodas and snacks in the place last night, gotta run, byeee.'

was staring stupefied at the wad of cash in her hand when the second wingless angel, this time even more improbably avatar'd as one Charles Ruttheimer the Third handed over a printout showing what the advertising revenue from all the Youtube hits was going to amount to so far and the projections for the rest of the month. Daria could have sworn the woman had a momentary orgasm when she looked at the bottom line. Her demeanor changed completely as she led the way to her office, smirking in a way that reminded Daria of Jabba the Hut.

Charles gave her a rueful grin and a shrug as she followed. Later he'd explained that he'd hoped to be able to keep the revenue for himself but found he'd shot himself in the foot when he'd posted it under the cafe's name. If anything some of it should go to Daria and the band but they both knew that ship had sailed, and besides, Charles gesture had turned the Dragon Principal into their new best friend and he was getting offers from all over to do lighting set ups. Before the lunch bell rang Trent Lane had surfaced in daylight and answered the summons to her office (old habits are hard to break even after three years) and Tim O'Neill had been threatened with expulsion. He'd scowled at the heavily built gentleman waiting in reception to be interviewed for the job as head of security but couldn't remember where he'd seen him before.

By the end of the day Daria and the Spiral had been booked (Shanghai'd) to play every Wednesday until the holidays in December. Daria had wondered why Trent was so compliant until he told her that the Spiral had been offered their dream gig of every Friday night in the Zon AND every Saturday night in McGrundy's... but only if Daria was with them. She was snookered, Li had coerced her into playing the cafe so she couldn't exactly refuse to help the boys out at their real gigs. She figured the hype would blow away in a week, two at the most and she could fade back into sweet obscurity... 'It's a pity it's anatomically impossible to properly kick yourself in the ass' she thought to herself four weeks later as she trudged down the stairs to face her mother.