Chapter 11

The Morgendorffer house,two months after the crash

The kitchen table was covered in paper,pens,and magic markers as Daria,Jane,and Quinn put the finishing touches on their respective contributions to the upcoming S.A.D.D. Week at Lawndale High.Jane,with a helping hand from her mother,had transformed part of Daria's cast into an abstract sculpture representing the physical damage that drunk driving could cause;Quinn,inspired by a public service ad she'd seen in the latest issue of Waif,had drawn a poster captioned 'Drunk Driving Is Never In Fashion';and Daria,using her writing as she often did to help her deal with adversity,had prepared an essay recounting her thoughts and feelings during and after the crash.

"I don't mean to be nosy or anything,Daria,"Quinn said,"but you were awfully quiet at dinner last night...well,quieter than usual,anyway."

"I was thinking of Joey,Jeffy,and Jamie."Daria replied,prompting surprised looks from both Quinn and Jane."Not to rationalize what they did,but it seems to me that it isn't fair to make them suffer for the rest of their lives because of something they did in a moment of panic or stupidity.Sure,they needed to be held accountable for their actions,but if they've learned their lesson who are we to say that they don't deserve a second chance?"

Jane put down the orange marker she'd been using and asked,"Are you serious?"

"I talked with Ms.Kazrova about it after last week's meeting.I told her I was still carrying around some residual anger from finding out that it was Jamie and his friends who put me in the hospital,and she said that I basically had two choices:either I could cling to it and let it keep building until one day I exploded like a hydrogen bomb,or I could let it go and try to find some empathy for the turmoil Jamie and his friends have been going through since the crash."She paused briefly to look at Jane's sculpture."Frankly,I like option two better--it's a lot less stressful."

Quinn wasn't sure how to respond,but she had to admit Daria had a point.A few nights earlier,she'd been re-reading some of her old diary entries from the first four weeks after the crash,and she'd been frightened by the bitterness and hostility expressed in those entries.The person who harbored such feelings wasn't her real self--or at least she didn't want it to be.

Lawndale High School,main entrance

Only Stan Winston could have put together a mock accident scene more realistic than the one Daria and her classmates had set up on the quad to start S.A.D.D. Week at Lawndale High.Jake's ruined Lexus and the sports car that had once belonged to Jamie's father were positioned in a T configuration to simulate a side-impact collision like the one that had originially landed Daria in the hospital;Brittany,playing a distraught,bleeding survivor,was quite convincing as she knelt beside the Lexus wailing over Kevin's "corpse"--a little too convincing,some felt,wincing from her typically high-pitch squeals.

Elsewhere on the quad,posters and information booths had been set up in keeping with the themes of S.A.D.D. Week.Mack was holding court near the flagpole,explaining the school athletic department's "zero tolerance" policy on alcohol and drug use;Jodie and Andrea stood by the front door passing out information sheets to their fellow students outlining how they could help combat alcohol abuse in and out of school;Upchuck proudly showed off a portrait of himself in a Hugh Hefner-style smoking jacket captioned "Real Gentlemen Don't Drink And Drive";Quinn's Fashion Club comrades,in their own inimitable style,were warning kids about the horrors of being in jail for DUI;and even Artie,the school's resident UFO buff,had put aside his flying saucer fixation long enough to produce a simple but highly effective chart outlining the toll excesive drinking could take on the human body.

"Don't look now,amiga,but I'd say you've become quite a motivator."Jane said as Daria helped her put her sculpture on a display table set up by Ms.DeFoe.

"Yeah,that's me all right,"Daria deadpanned,"a regular Anthony Robbins."She paused to survey the buzz of activity on the quad,then added:"All kidding aside,Jane,I have to admit I'm impressed with how well Quinn's taken to her work as part of Students Against Drunk Drivers.I saw her at Rosa Parks Middle School two weeks ago talking to some of the kids there about safe driving...with a little nudge in the right direction,she could make a good teacher or guidance counselor someday."

Jane watched Ms.Barch chase a hapless male student across the quad."She'd certainly be an improvement on some of the other teachers we've got..."

"Am I too late for the chalk outlines and yellow tape?"Jane and Daria both turned to see Tom Sloane,a VISITOR badge pinned to his blazer,walking up to the display table.

"Nope,"Jane replied with a grin,"Brittany's still got at least five or ten minutes' screaming time left before that happens." Adjusting her glasses,Daria asked him,"What brings you here?"

"The Fielding Academy chapter's having their S.A.D.D. Week right before midterms,"Tom explained,"so they sent me here to watch your group in action and take notes on the ways it uses to get S.A.D.D.'s message across....basically I'm here to swipe all your best ideas."

Daria raised an amused eyebrow at Upchuck's poster."In some cases,Tom,that would only be petty theft."

Main auditorium

It was with some trepidation that Joey,Jeffy,and Jamie took their seats for the school's special S.A.D.D. assembly that afternoon.Although the general mood toward them was much more sympathetic than it had been right after the crash,Quinn's "I never want to see any of you again" still rang in their ears;for all they knew she might tear them apart the minute she laid eyes on them... Quinn's attention,however,was focused on her sister,who stood next to Ms.Kazrova at the rear of the stage.After a short announcement from Ms.Li about upcoming events for the rest of S.A.D.D. Week,Daria was introduced and Quinn rose to join her classmates in a round of applause as Daria walked to the podium.

Looking out at her teachers and classmates,Daria cleared her throat and began reading:"Two months ago,I endured incredible physical and emotional pain when I was hit by a drunk driver in a side-on impact collision..."

Kevin,who as usual was ten steps behind the rest of the world,let out an amazed gasp."Wow!I didn't know Daria was into Clint Eastwood movies!Wonder if she'd like to borrow Dad's copy of Dirty Harry."

Brittany rolled her eyes at him."Not 'Sudden Impact',Kevin,side-on impact.Honestly,you can just be so out of it sometimes."

Jodie and Mack,sitting three rows behind Kevin and Brittany,turned to each other with looks of wry amusement."This,"Jodie said,"from someone who thinks that a breathalyzer is what Dr.McCoy uses to administer CPR on Star Trek.Talk about the blind leading the blind."

"No kidding."Mack agreed,and turned his attention back to Daria.

Hallway outside the school cafeteria,later that afternoon

Joey sighed as he dropped his empty paper cup in one of the recycler bins.He just wanted to get this day over with as quickly as possible;the last thing he needed were yet more reminders of what had happened two months ago.Even with the counseling he'd been undergoing as part of his court-ordered probation,he still struggled with feelings of depression,and those feelings had gotten particularly acute when he saw the wreckage of Jamie's father's car on the quad.He almost wished he'd get sick just so he could go home early and not have to slog through the last two periods....

Just then he saw Daria turning the corner at the other end of the hall;in a moment of panic he spun around and started to duck back inside the cafeteria.But as he was reaching for the doorknob,he found himself thinking about what his counselor had said at their appointment the day before:"Sooner or later,you need to face her and make amends.No matter who was driving the car that day,only you can make the choice to accept responsibility for your part in what happened." Taking several deep breaths to gather his courage,he let go of the doorknob and started to approach her.

"Got a minute?"

Daria paused in mid-stride when she saw Joey walking up the hallway;by the look on his face,it wasn't hard to guess what he wanted to see her about.At least twice during the assembly,and a dozen times before it,she'd noticed him following her at a discreet distance,as if he needed to tell her something but was having trouble mustering the courage to get the words out.She wasn't sure if this was just another moment of groveling or if he felt genuinely regretful about his role in the crash,but she did know there was only one way to find out for sure....

Nodding in the direction of an empty study hall,Daria said,"Okay."

It took a great deal of self-control on Joey's part,but when they sat down at a table near the blackboard at the front of the room,he looked her squarely in the face.She might tell him to go straight to hell when he was finished,but he couldn't afford to turn back now. "Daria,"he said,"I don't know if this really means anything to you after what happened,but I wanted to tell you that--well,that you were right.I should have stopped Jamie before he got in his dad's car.Heck,I should have stopped him before he got that beer out of his dad's liquor cabinet.If I wasn't such a wuss,you wouldn't have gotten hurt and Jamie wouldn't have gotten in so much trouble...I am so sorry for what I did,and even sorrier for what I didn't do."His throat caught twice,but somehow he managed to ask her:"Can you ever forgive me?"

"Yes,but I'm not doing it for your sake."Daria replied,causing Joey to blink in confusion.As he tried to figure out what she meant,she explained:"I've let the crash take up too much of my time since it happened...I can't afford to spend the rest of my life being angry at you and Jamie.It's not fair to my family,my friends,or me."

She slowly started to get up from her chair."Whether or not you and Jeffy want to have anything more to do with Jamie after today is your own business. But whoever you choose as your friends, it's time you stopped playing 'follow the leader' and got back in the habit of thinking for yourself."God help me, I'm starting to sound like an Afterschool Special,she thought. "I hate to get preachy here, but you can't just blindly go along with every cockamamie idea that pops into your best buddy's head, because if you do, one of these days you might find yourself getting into a jam you can't get out of."

"Can't argue with that." Joey admitted as Daria turned and began walking out of the study hall. She had almost reached the door when something made her abruptly stop in her tracks and turn around. She reached into her pocket and handed Joey a small plastic card. "I got this from one of the candy-stripers right before my discharge from Lawndale General. She said she thought it might help me, but under the circumstances you probably need it more than I do."

As she quietly shut the study hall door, Joey read the card and recognized the text on it—it was St. Francis' famous prayer of serenity. He'd heard one of the inmates in the holding cells at Lawndale Police Headquarters reciting it while his parents were posting his bail. The prayer's second line seemed particularly appropriate to his situation: Grant me the courage to change the things I can...

Joey's house,early evening

He dialed the phone number from the Yellow Pages as if his life depended on it...which, in a sense, it did. After three rings a voice on the other end of the line said: "Lawndale County Substance Abuse Treatment Hotline. Can I have your name, please?"

"Uh, hi, my name's Joey Patrick, and I think I might have an alcohol problem..."

THE END