KIDNAPPED
Chapter Seven
The Unfairness Of It All
-o0o-

The Morgendorffers were just finishing dinner when the phone rang. Quinn grabbed it and answered, then, looking slightly surprised and disappointed, said, "Yes, she's here," and handed the phone to Helen.

Helen's younger sister Amy was on the phone. She said, "Helen, what in the world did you do to Rita?"

"Amy? Why, nothing. I haven't even seen her since Erin's wedding. Why do you ask?"

"She called me last night and whined my ear off. Told me about all her troubles, and all of Erin's troubles, and said Mom was mean to her and told her to quit calling so often. I got the distinct impression that she was upset about something you said or did, and she couldn't get enough sympathy out of Mom, so she called me. But she wouldn't tell me what you said that set her off."

Helen smiled smugly. "Well, goodness. I did call her recently to see how she was doing, and catch her up on the news from Lawndale, but I can't imagine what she might have been upset about."

"Oh. O-o-ohh. I suppose part of the 'news from Lawndale' would have been about Daria catching that kidnapper and saving those two kids, and then being kidnapped herself, and escaping..."

"Well, sure..."

"And about her being on the news, and on all those talk shows, and selling two novels..."

"Well, yes, I did mention that."

"And about her being picked to star in the movie version of her own first novel?"

"Why, no, that hadn't happened yet. Do you think I should call her back and catch her up again?"

Amy laughed. "Oh, absolutely. That would be the sisterly thing to do. In fact, I think you should make it a conference call, so I can listen in and make appreciative little noises at the appropriate times."

"What a wonderful idea, Amy! Let's do that right now. Let me put you on hold while I dial her number... okay, it's ringing. You still there?"

"Yep. This'll be fun. Hey, remember that time she told all her friends that you'd just gotten your first training bra?"

Helen's expression turned angry. "Indeed I do. Remember the time she took you downtown shopping, and then met some boy and left you there?"

"O-o-oh, yeah. Remember when she..."

"Hello?"

"Hi, Rita! It's Helen!"

"And Amy!"

-o0o-

"It's so unfair," Sandi whined as she watched Jake carry some of Daria's luggage out to the car for the trip to the airport. "I should be the one going out to Hollywood. I know I'd make a much better movie star than Daria. I'm much better prepared, but she was in the right place at the right time."

"Oh, I'm sure you're right, Sandi," Daria's voice came suddenly from behind them. "It's just your bad luck that you weren't there that day, at the motel with the kidnapper. If you had been, I'm sure you would've disarmed him with a lightning-fast karate move, or something, and saved the day, and then you could have sold your novels." Daria continued past them with a carryon bag and a briefcase.

"Bu-ut," drawled Tiffany, "She was there. We all were."

"That's not what I meant, Tiffany dear," sneered Sandi.

"What did you mean, Sandi?" Stacy asked, giving Sandi a peculiar look. "How was it unfair?"

"STA-cy, isn't it obvious?" Sandi scowled, "Daria just happened to be much closer to the toilet than I was."

Quinn tried to suppress a burst of laughter, but only succeeded in prefacing it with a snort.

Sandi scowled. "I don't see you boarding the Hollywood Express, Kuh-winn."

"I'll be going out next week," Quinn replied, smiling sweetly. "Daria has a bunch of meetings and script conferences that I don't have to be there for."

"Huh? What?" Sandi said, shocked, "Uh, what are you going to do out there?"

"Well, I'll have to do a screen test, but Daria thinks I'm a shoo-in for the part, because the character was modeled on me, and then I'll be doing a lot of modeling for publicity stills and tie-in merchandise, and the action figure of course, and I have to get fitted for my wardrobe and then…"

"Whoa-whoa-whoa, what character? What part?"

"Why, Harmony Powers, of course. You know, Melody's sister?"

"No, I don't know. When were you planning on telling your friends about this, Quinn?"

"Oh, Sandi, I told you a long time ago, remember? Back when Daria and I were reading the story at the coffee house?"

Sandi looked at Stacy and Tiffany, who both nodded. "Hmph. So I guess you won't be seeing your friends for some time, while you're gallivanting around Hollywood playing movie star."

"You mean you're not coming out next month with Tiff and Stacy?" Quinn asked, sounding surprised.

"Wha-a-at?" Sandi gaped.

"I'm trying out for a part as an Academy student," Stacy said, doing an excited little squinch.

"Chinese commando waitress," said Tiffany.

"Yeah, maybe Tiffany will get to kill me before Daria kills Tiffany!" Stacy added.

Sandi looked poleaxed. "And was anyone planning to mention this to me at any time?"

"Eep!"

"We thought you knew…"

"You do kind of stomp off in a snit whenever we mention Daria or the movie," Quinn pointed out.

"But I never thought that we… that you… well, I guess it doesn't matter now. All the parts have probably been spoken for." Sandi crossed her arms and scowled down at the ground.

"The only part spoken for is Melody," Daria said, coming back out with some last-minute items to be squeezed in somewhere, "and that's not guaranteed. If I can't act it, they'll get someone who can. They'll be needing hundreds of actors for the Stadium scenes, even with tricky camera work. If you can act at all, you can be an Agency Academy student."

"Come on, Daria," Jake called from the open trunk of his Lexus. "Jane's here. Remember, you have to check in two hours before flight time." Daria hurried toward the car as Jane jogged up from the other direction.

-o0o-

The frantic last-minute repacking was accomplished, and the Lexus loaded with Morgendorffers had disappeared down the street. Sandi glanced at Tiffany, smiling vaguely off after it, and at Stacy, furtively wiping a tear from one eye, and then down at her fashionable open-toed sandals.

"Wow. Quinn's weird brainy unfashionable sister is really going to Hollywood. She's really gonna like be a star. Funny, I still think of her as Quinn's cousin. Dumb, huh?"

Stacy rolled her eyes but said, "I know what you mean."

"They're so not alike," said Tiffany.

And that weird art chick is going to be a star, too, and of course, Quinn," Sandi went on.

"Well, they'll both probably get good parts, but hey, we might get good parts too!" Stacy said encouragingly. "I'm going to get a copy of that book as soon as it goes on sale and mark all the parts I want to try out for."

"Good idea," said Tiffany.

Sandi looked up at her friends and smiled a little, but her smile faded. "But there are going to be thousands of people trying out for those parts. People who studied acting. Even people who went to Julliard and places like that. I'm going out there, sure, and I'm going to do my best, but it's not like I really have much of a chance."

"Sure you do, Sandi. We've got influential friends. You know Quinn will have the casting director wrapped around her finger by the time we get out there, and you know she'll put in a good word for us. That's what friends are for!"

"You really think so?"

"Sure! We all know they're gonna want to keep Quinn happy, and that place is ripe with necropism."

"Rife with nepotism," said Tiffany.

Sandi and Stacy looked at Tiffany wide-eyed for a second, and then both broke into laughter.

"What?" said Tiffany.

"Yeah, you guys are right. That's what friends are for. So, you want to go see if the Shade Shack has any cute new sunglasses, or do you want to practice getting killed?"

A passerby on Glen Oaks Lane that morning, had there been one, would probably have been amused and/or puzzled at the sight of three pretty teenage girls playing a spirited game of bang-bang-you're-dead on the front lawn of number 1111.

La la LA la la.