Daria in: The Lawndale Reunion
By: Claudette Helstrom

Part Four: A Look Back in Annoyance
Summary: On the eve of Daria's high school reunion, she runs into another former Lawndalian.

A/N: I don't usually write these, but I'm going to anyway. I actually have this whole story almost finished, yes I do. I do take reviews into consideration, and I do edit some little things, which is why I post it so slowly…but major events (shipper/not shipper), are already set! Just so you know.

Lawndale, Connecticut
On her way down to breakfast, Daria walked by the room that used to be hers. The door was cracked open, so she took a peak inside. There she saw Mercedes counting all the tips she had made the night before. Daria had to admit that Mercedes was pretty good at playing music she despised…but as Mercedes had told her mother, "you don't know what the people like, and you have to keep the audience happy." The school had brought in a lot of money, too.

Daria continued walking downstairs and into the living room, where she could smell breakfast cooking. Please, not a Jake Morgendorffer experiment, Daria thought.

She continued walking into the kitchen to see Helen making breakfast. Daria sat at the breakfast nook as she tried to calculate the odds of Helen Morgendorffer ever making breakfast.

Helen looked up from the eggs she was beating. "Oh, hi Daria!" she greeted in that tone that was usually reserved for her cell phone. "I've decided to take the day off, so I'm making you girls breakfast!"

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Helen Morgendorffer?" Daria asked, deadpan.

Helen shook off the reply and continued cooking. A few minutes later Jake and Mercedes came down.

"Hmm, smells good," Mercedes murmured as she sat down at the kitchen table, followed by Jake and Daria.

"I made pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs," Helen said.

"Wow! Thanks, Grandma!"

Helen nodded as she started serving breakfast.

"No problem, sweetie. By the way, you did a great job last night. But I promise to ask you first before I rope you into anything, I swear."

"It's okay, Grandma. I already know how you're going to make it up to me."


Daria couldn't believe that Mercedes had made Helen go with her to spend her tips, but she was kind of glad she did. That meant she could explore Lawndale on her own. It had been five years since she set foot in Lawndale, and only then because she had gotten invited to Tom Sloane's wedding, and only then because Mercedes wanted to be the flower girl. Daria couldn't get over how much things had changed, and yet they hadn't. Pizza King was still where it was, as was Degas Street, but it was a whole new generation. Things were different even if it was just the people themselves.

Tokyo Toby's was now a Fishy Joe's, and though Daria wasn't necessarily a big fan of seafood, she was hungry, and thanks to her and Mercedes both not knowing how to cook, she definitely didn't want burgers. And pizza was even starting to loose it's appeal. So Fishy Joe's looked like a winner to her.

Daria ordered her food and sat down at a table waiting for her order to be called. She had been sitting there a few moments when she heard a high pitched and squeaky voice calling out, "Daria!"

Daria turned to the direction the voice was coming from and saw…Brittany Taylor?

Brittany walked over to Daria's table. "Daria Morgendorffer, that is you!"

"Hello, Brittany."

Daria offered Brittany a seat, and she took it. "So, Daria, are you in town for the reunion?"

Daria sighed. "Yes, through no fault of my own." Daria cursed Mercedes mentally.

"That's great! I didn't know if I should go, but Charles said that I should! He said I would be the envy of any other girl there!"

"Charles?" Daria asked. It was a common enough name, but still…

"Upchuck! I married him after college! He had started his own Internet company and got rich! And he started working out! So of course I married him!" Brittany explained showing Daria her ring. "And we have two great kids! Allison and James!"

"That's great, Brittany," Daria said looking at the ring.

"What about you? What have you been up to?" Brittany wondered.

"I got back together with Tom Sloane in college, only to break up with him after college, but not before he left me with a little souvenir. I thought that a Mercedes would have been as great a gift, but since I had the baby, I named her Mercedes. I started writing the Melody Powers series and it was selling great, but I decided that I needed some extra money every now and then, so I decided to teach English to the brain dead. And since there's uranium in the water there, I decided that the best place to do that was in Highland. Though in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have exposed Mercedes to undrinkable water."

Brittany giggled. "Daria, you haven't changed a bit!"

They continued on a trip down memory road until their food came. After they ate and left, Daria knew one thing was definitely true.

She definitely didn't belong in Lawndale.