DAR Changes and Changes of Seasons 1987
Daria is the creation of Glenn Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers, as are its characters and situations. I don't own them, and neither expect nor deserve financial compensation for this story. I am writing for my own amusement and for ego gratification.
Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years*Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years* Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years.
Highland, Texas Late September, 1987
Late in September, Daria, Jessie, and Linda decided to get together and go to the movies. The Princess Bride had recently opened at the Highland Glen Theater and they all went to catch the early evening showing. The Highland Glen was an older movie house that was trying to stay competitive in a changing market that included multi-channel cable networks and videotapes. It had been built with a downstairs and an upstairs balcony. It had been rebuilt with the upstairs balcony now serving as a separate theater.
The girls watched The Princess Bride through from beginning to end. Afterwards they practiced some of the more memorable lines on each other at the burger and soda place next door and on the drive home.
"I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!" shouted Jessie.
"I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!" shouted Linda.
"I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!" said Daria in a low voice that only carried a little menace.
"Aw, Daria, try it again," said Jessie. "It's more fun when you're being theatrical about it! Be Inigo, not Clint Eastwood!"
Daria dreamed about The Princess Bride that evening. Somehow, she'd been inserted into Inigo's role, but instead of facing the Count, she found herself facing a wild-haired older woman with dark, white-streaked hair pointing a wand at her instead of a rapier. Like Inigo but unlike the wild-haired woman, Daria t carried a rapier. Daria thought that would be sufficient, but the wild-haired woman pointed her wand at her, emitting a green beam of light. The light hit her and she went down.
She woke up and decided that rapiers weren't the right kind of weapon for the situation.
Seeing The Princess Bride was the girls' last joint movie date. They did get together to help Jessie and Dale get ready for the Markhams' move to Plano. That Sunday evening, they managed to get Mrs. Hurd to drive them to a strip mall and they enjoyed ice cream and milkshakes.
For some reason Daria's brain refused to let the self-inserted Inigo Montoya scene with the wild-haired woman go. This time, she was holding a wand. Again, she went down. She woke up and shuddered. Was this one of her weird dreams that came true, or was it just a regular dream about The Princess Bride? Daria went back to sleep and again found herself facing the wild-haired woman with a wand in her hand. Somehow, she sensed that she was with friends, and this time, the woman went down instead of her. Somehow, Daria knew that the wild-haired woman was dead.
The Markhams left two days afterwards. They said goodbye in the late afternoon after school. Jake, Helen, and all three Morgendorffer girls were there to see them off, as did Linda and a couple of Jessie's other friends. Russ, Audrey, Jessie and Dale got into their car and started it. Daria watched with a teary Quinn as the Markhams' car turned left and headed for the Interstate, where Russ would get on the eastbound Interstate 20 entry ramp and start driving towards Plano. Daria did not give herself to having a full-blown cry like either of her two sisters. That wasn't her way; instead she found herself blinking tears away as one of her best friends drove out of her life.
Two nights later, she again found herself facing the wild-haired woman in her dreams, only this time Daira found herself holding a Baretta. Daria started shooting before the woman had a chance to complete her wand work and down went her opponent. Daria was not a religious girl, but she prayed she never met that wild-haired older woman. She made a note to herself that should she ever hear that the evil woman really existed, she'd remember to check Highland's gun stores first and then, if she was able to drive by then, visit Mrs. Snavely's place in Tuna.
The Markhams' departure created a hole in Daria's life. She liked Gail and Farrah and the other girls she'd met at the ballet class, but she could talk about things with Jessie that she didn't feel comfortable talking about with other girls he age. Gail was outgoing and athletic, Farrah only somewhat less so, but neither girl was interested in what Daria had heard grown-ups describe as the life of the mind.
The same couldn't be said for Quinn. While Quinn was saddened by Dale's move to Plano, she had been making friends with her classmates..
A few days later, Daria was still wondering about how the holes in her life were going to be filled when her mother got a phone call from Mrs. Rowe. "Can my daughter Stacy carpool with your girls?" she asked.
Stacy Rowe was able to fit into the Morgendorffer carpool with room to spare. Daria's final break with Linda came almost immediately after the Markhams' departure for Plano, accompanied by a major blowup. Linda not only listed all her old resentments with Daria, but also accused Daria of doing something to her mind after the field trip to the Petroleum Museum in Midland. She told Daria to not to call her anymore and to stay away from her. Linda's break with Daria baffled their parents: Linda's mother was just as baffled about her daughter's new antipathy towards Daria as were Helen and Jake. Mrs. Hurd tried, but she was unable to sway her daughter's decision.
Linda ending their friendship hurt. Daria wasn't sure if there was any one triggering event, or if their friendship had been doomed for months. Linda had been turning away from her for months, but it looked like they'd managed some sort of cease-fire, or what the newspapers called a détente, because they both cared for Jessie. But now Jessie was gone and so was Linda's friendship.
For a while Daria would occasionally look over in Linda's direction and hope that Linda would reconsider, but Linda didn't. After weeks, despite her memories and her hurt, Daria began to be able to see Linda as just one of the other girls at Ferguson Elementary. Just one of the other girls.
Still, even if Daria's friendship with Linda had broken up, she wasn't totally isolated. Gail had invited her to a Halloween party. Farrah had invited her out to her cousin's ranch to visit the goats, and Daria was coming to realize that she was coming to like Mr. Skein.
Daria decided to act on one of the last bits of advice she'd gotten from Jessie and do something about getting a Halloween costume. The mega-stores hadn't run all of the small stores out of Highland's main street; Mrs. Stitching's Highland Masquerade store was one of the survivors. Mrs. Stitchings warned Daria that she'd had trouble selling those Wonder Woman costumes; a lot of people had tried them on and had discovered that they didn't fit. But Daria decided that as silly as the idea of her being Wonder Woman might be, this once she'd take a chance. She put on the costume and it not only fit, it fitted well. She turned around to look in the dressing room mirror and if the costume wasn't as daring as Linda Carter's, for a brief moment she looked at her reflection and saw Wonder Woman looking back at her.
Quinn was less impressed than Daria about Daria's Wonder Woman costume. Quinn thought that Daria should have tried for a more daring costume like the ones Wonder Woman wore in the comics or on television.
Although Daria seldom let Quinn's fashion critiquing get to her, this time it did. Was her costume too frumpy? Should she have been more daring? Whatever Quinn might say, Daria decided that she wasn't going to let her younger sister's critiquing get to her. She did make one improvement; she found some gold twine that her parents had bought to wrap Christmas presents and borrowed twenty feet. Now she had a lasso just like Wonder Woman's.
Despite her public display of confidence, Daria secretly worried all the way to Gail's house that that Quinn might be right about her choice of Wonder Woman costume. Once she got inside, she was relieved to learn that people at the party didn't really care all that much. True, Daria's costume wasn't as daring as what some teenagers and grown-ups might wear, but she definitely stepped out of her normal persona. In fact, one of Gail's older friends did ask her if her glasses were part of her costume. The girl didn't make a big deal about it after Daria replied that they weren't, that she needed them to see.
Daria's squabble with Quinn about costumes disappeared shortly after Halloween. Quinn was content to stop talking about Halloween costumes after she had showed off pictures of her own costume and her friends had shown her theirs. Quinn still thought that Daria's Wonder Woman could have been a little more daring, but her older sister was of the opinion that it was good enough.
-(((O-O)))-
Daria started to have strange dreams in mid-November. They were mostly about a dark-haired English boy named Harry. Harry lived in a two-story house with his step-parents. Daria didn't know just where in England Harry lived, but guessed that it was a suburb of London: An English Plano, she thought sardonically. The houses weren't like the ones she was used to in Highland; instead they looked like they were all pressed together and looked even more alike. At first, Daria had thought that Harry would live either in the same room with the Dursleys' son Dudley or have a room of his own. She was shocked to learn that Harry lived in a closet under the stairs. She then learned that the adults in Harry's house weren't his real parents but his aunt and uncle. She guessed that Harry's Aunt Petunia must be the one related to Harry's real nephew; the fact that she could treat her own flesh and blood that badly made her angry.
This is wrong, she thought. How could anyone treat a kid that way?