ESTRANGESTERS
Chapter Seven

Breakfast next morning was a tense affair. Helen quickly ate a scrambled egg, gulped her coffee and grabbed a granola bar. "You two come straight home after school. Remember, you're grounded," she said as she hurried out.

As soon as Helen was gone, Quinn turned with a malicious glint in her eye and said, "Ghod, Daria, are you gonna wear that outfit to school?" Daria said nothing, but Quinn was suddenly unable to hit her mouth with her spoon.

Daria smirked evilly. "Gee, Quinn, are you gonna wear that cereal to school?" she asked. Quinn glared at Daria as she wiped her face, then snarled in rage as she realized she was wiping it on her shirttail. Jake raised his paper higher. Quinn stomped off upstairs to change.

Daria finished her breakfast, put her plate in the dishwasher, and picked up her backpack. "Have a good day at work, Dad," she said as she opened the side door.

Jake lowered his paper and smiled. "You too, kiddo," he replied. "Don't fight with your sister at school."

Daria looked up in the direction of Quinn's bedroom, whence came muffled thumps and cursings. "I'll try not to."

"Daria..."

"I promise I won't start anything," she said as she left.

--o0o--

On the way to Jane's, Daria wondered whether Quinn's instinct for self-preservation would manage to overcome her irrational hostility. Nothing short of actual murder could secure for Quinn the coveted status of only child, and Daria was reasonably certain that Quinn didn't contemplate going to that extreme, but Quinn yearned for her fantasy world and resented Daria as a reminder of a hated and persistent reality. Daria shook her head. Unless I agree to support Quinn's fantasy, which I won't, or unless Quinn somehow comes to terms with reality, I don't see much hope of a lessening of hostility between us. Her expresion hardened. And if Quinn insists on acting on that hostility, she'll get it back in spades. I'm through turning the other cheek.

There was a splotch of something on the sidewalk ahead, and Daria moved to walk around it. As she neared it, she saw that there were wasps and hornets clustered around it, slurping it up. Daria stepped off the sidewalk to give it a wide berth, but for some reason a hornet flew up at her. Without thinking she directed a blast of mental energy at it. There was a sharp pop, and the hornet fell to the ground, its head blown away. Daria wiped a bit of something off her cheek onto a handy tree trunk, and continued on.

--o0o--

Arriving at Casa Lane, Daria rang the doorbell and waited, then rang the bell again. She heard the chimes sound inside. After a further wait, she knocked on the door. From within, she heard a muffled, cranky voice saying something that might have been, "All right, I'm coming!" Several seconds later, the door was unlatched and unlocked, and then creaked open to reveal a stooped, scowling Jane.

"You here already?" Jane croaked. "What time is it?"

"It's about seven forty, same time I usually get here. Are you all right? You don't look so good."

"Nothing that a good night's sleep won't fix. Too bad I didn't get one."

"What happened?"

"Damfino. I went to bed around eleven, and woke up when you knocked on the door. But I feel like I spent the night in a mosh pit. I ache all over, and I'm tireder than when I went to bed."

"That's odd. I'm a little achey from the huggermugger yesterday, but I didn't think you got caught up in that."

Jane brought a hand up to rub her neck, then said, "Ow! What the…"

Daria looked at the spot that Jane's fingers were tenderly probing. "It looks like a small mostly healed cut-- Son of a…"

"What?"

"Uh, nothing really, it's just that…"

"What?" Jane asked again, irritably.

"It looks just like the one on the side of Jodie's neck. You don't have one on your right side, just below waist level, do you?"

Jane put a hand to the indicated spot and winced. Hesitantly, she lifted the hem of her t-shirt and looked. There it was, just like the one Jodie'd had. She tried to force her tired mind to work. "Whaddya think it means?"

"I guess it means that whatever happened to you to cause those marks also happened to Jodie," Daria replied.

--o0o--

As they approached the school, Daria saw a small group of boys standing and talking near the front doors. Some were looking their way. An argument broke out among them. Daria caught the phrases "No, you go first," and "chicken!"

As she and Jane were about to pass by the group and enter the building, one of them stepped forward into their path. Daria recalled hearing him referred to as "Mott" yesterday. He puffed himself up, put on a truculent expression, and said, "We're not scared of you, Dorothy. We don't believe in your Dim Sum Death Touch bullshit, and we're gonna… akhh…"

Daria held her right hand up midway between her and Mott, and made a slight squeezing gesture. "I find your lack of faith… disturbing," she said, quoting Darth Vader.

Mott wheezed and clutched his throat. His eyes bulged, his face reddened, and he slowly sank to his knees. "k…k...gk …"

"Daria, NO!" Quinn cried. "Turn him loose!"

Daria turned to look at Quinn, smiling slightly. "As you wish," she replied indifferently, reversing her squeezing gesture. Mott fell, gasping. "Still managed to find a few suckers, I see. Where were you hiding, in the bushes?" She turned and walked into the school, Jane with her. The crowd watched her go with big round eyes. Mott was on hands and knees, breathing in great gulps of air.

Mack MacKenzie caught up to Daria and Jane in the hall. "Jamie came and told me Mott might try to do something stupid, and I came to try to prevent it."

"If I'd known you were nearby, I would've let you handle it. I wish you'd spoken up."

"Didn't quite make it in time. Sorry."

"I'm not. That little incident was just about perfect for my purposes. Before the day is out, it'll be all over the school, and the stupid ones will assume that I can do anything a jedi can do, and steer clear of me. Anyone with half a brain won't believe the story, because it sounds made up."

"What in the world did you do, anyway?"

"Just an old jedi mind trick. He just closed off his windpipe for a few seconds."

"Closed off his... but why... how could you make him do that?"

"The same way Quinn was getting him to do anything she told him to, basically. Quinn isn't really the cutest girl in the world, you know. She has an ability. I have... similar abilities."

Mack looked like he didn't know what to say to that. Finally he asked, "How did you... acquire these abilities?"

"I don't really know. The point is that Quinn is manipulating people to make herself more attractive and popular, and now to try to intimidate me. I could stop it by making her act totally insane, but that might get her thrown out of school. It would certainly make her hate me for life. If you could say something to the guys that would make them think twice before they did something she asked them to, like trying to beat on me, it might keep a lot of them out of trouble. I'll be working on Quinn."

Mack stared at her for a couple of seconds while he digested her words. "Okay, I'll, uh, see what I can do. Listen, have either of you two seen Jodie?"

Daria shook her head. Jane said, "No, not since day before yesterday."

"Do you have any idea where she might have gone? Anything at all?"

Mack's anxiety was obvious. Daria and Jane glanced at each other, then back to him. Jane said, "Well, there is this one thing. It's probably not relevant, probably means nothing at all..."

"Anything. Please tell me."

"Well, Jodie was tired that day, and not feeling well. And there was this odd mark on the side of her neck. Maybe she showed it to you."

"What sort of mark?"

"Just like this one." Jane pointed to the cut on her neck. "She said it felt sore down deep, like a partly healed cut. Which is exactly what this one feels like."

"No, she didn't show it to me."

"She had another mark, very similar to that one but a little bigger," Jane continued. "On her right side, just above the hip bone."

"Where did she get these marks?" Mack asked her. "When?"

"She said she just had them when she woke up that morning. She was sure she didn't have them the day before."

"Huh? How's that possible, if they're partially healed cuts?"

"She didn't know, no more than I do. Mine feel like old stab wounds, and I'm positive I didn't have them last night when I went to bed," Jane replied. "I know that doesn't help, but it's all I can tell you."

"Well thanks, Jane. Maybe it'll be useful later. I'm going to go ask some other people."

Mack walked off down the hall. Daria looked around and saw Quinn standing with the fashion club and glaring at her. She concentrated, and Quinn stuck a finger in her nose. Realizing what she'd done, she jerked it out, but not before the other three girls had seen it. Daria saw the look of intense hate on Quinn's face and concentrated again. Quinn's hands went to the front of her jeans, as though to unzip them. Appalled, Quinn jerked them away, only to have them, seemingly of their own volition, grab the hem of her baby tee, as if to yank it up, but stop short of doing so. Before anything else happened, Quinn left her surprised companions and hurried over to Daria. "All right, all right, I get the message!" she seethed.

Daria regarded her levelly. "Good. Repeat it to me."

Quinn put on an exaggerated look of exasperation. "If I send any more guys after you, you'll embarrass me."

"Nope, not quite. I guess I'll have to continue sending it."

A look of fear flashed across Quinn's face. "No! Just tell me!"

"You will cease to use your power altogether. If I see guys fetching you sodas or fighting to carry your books, or clustering around you like bees around spilled honey, or showing any other evidence of your mind control, I'll start using mine. On you. With the result that you end up an object of ridicule, or of fear, or even expelled.

"Daria! You can't do that! Guys do things like that without me having to do anything! I can't help it if I'm popular!"

"Bullshit. I knew you before you drank the water. You are not 'just naturally' the most popular girl on the planet, no matter how much you want to believe you are. From now on, if I see you drawing a crowd of guys, I'll assume you're consolidating your power over them to use them against me later, and I will drop the hammer on you. No more 'nice big sister'. No more 'benefit of the doubt'. You have no idea what I can do, Quinn. You haven't seen a tenth of it. But if you don't leave me and all these other people alone, you will. I'll let you have both barrels."

"Daria, I'm a people person; it's just who I am! I can't stop being me!"

"Again, bullshit. You can stop using that power that no one else has, and that no one knows you have, to force others to like you."

"That's just it; I don't think I can! It's not something I can turn off!"

"Well, you better try real hard, or you'll be the most popular girl in some institution for dangerous lunatics. These people aren't your slaves, Quinn, and they aren't your toys. You got that?" Daria spun on her heel and walked off down the hall to her locker.

Jane was there already and had her locker open. "Ho hum, another dull, boring day at school," she remarked wryly.

"Huh. I wish," Daria replied. "I could use one of those about now."

They walked into Mr. O'Neill's classroom a few seconds after the bell rang. Daria noted Mack's unhappy expression and surmised that he hadn't found anyone who knew anything helpful about Jodie. They were just taking their seats when the intercom clicked and squawked into life.

"Attention, students. The following Lawndale High students have been declared officially missing: Charles Ruttheimer the third, Melissa Cavendish, Orville Needlesmith, and Jodie Landon. Will anyone who has information that might help authorities locate these students please come to the principal's office. Rewards are being offered for information leading to the recovery of Charles Ruttheimer and Jodie Landon. That is all. Resume learning!"

Mack lowered his head into his hands. Jane looked at him, then at the door, then at Daria. Daria said, "Come on. I'll go with you."

-o0o-

On their way home from school, Jane remarked, "Well, now the Lawndale PD and the FBI both think we're loony. Think they'll put us on their watch lists?"

Daria made a little snorting noise. "Makes no difference to me. I'm already being watched by a couple of government agencies. Maybe they'll start tripping over each other." She paused, then continued. "We did the right thing, Jane. Maybe it'll help, maybe not, but you were right to tell them."

After a minute, Jane said, "It's just so creepy. Jodie has a bad night and wakes up with those marks, and the next night she disappears. Now I have a bad night, I wake up tired and sore, and I have the marks." She paused, frowning. "I wish I knew if it was the same for Upchuck or the others before they disappeared."

"Yeah, me too. No one we asked knew. Maybe the FBI guys will ask everyone. They're very thorough that way." Daria looked at Jane's anxious face and added, "Hey, you want to spend the night at my house?"

A little smile broke through Jane's worry. "You think that might help?"

"Couldn't hurt."

"Sure it could. You could disappear along with me."

"Hmm. It's possible, I guess. On the other hand, Quinn could disappear along with you. That way it wouldn't be a total loss."

Jane feigned indignation. "It would from my point of view! I'd wind up in the same place as Quinn!"

Daria shrugged and deadpanned, "Yeah, but it's probably an awful place anyway, so being there with Quinn wouldn't make it that much worse."

Jane gave Daria a sideways look. "I'm pretty sure there's a flaw in that reasoning somewhere."

One corner of Daria's mouth turned up. "Well, Quinn's much more popular than you are. Maybe whoever or whatever it is will take her and leave you."

The two shared a smirk but then fell silent, in unspoken agreement not to pursue that line of thought any further.

-o0o-

Helen pushed open Daria's not-quite-closed door to find Jane seated at Daria's desk writing in a loose leaf notebook and Daria, holding a textbook and pencil, watching over her shoulder. "What are you doing?" Helen asked.

"Math homework," Daria replied. "Mom, is it okay if Jane spends the night? We need to study for a history test tomorrow."

"No, Daria. You can't have friends sleep over when you're grounded."

"But I'm not going anywhere. You never said being grounded meant that I can't have a study partner."

"I never thought it was necessary. It goes without saying."

It pretty well does, but I can't just give up, Daria thought. "But Mom, Jane's folks aren't home. She'd be all alone."

"Not for the first time, I'm sure."

"Mom, I'm afraid for her. Three Lawndale High students have just been declared missing. One of them is Jodie Landon."

"What? Why haven't I heard anything about this?"

"They announced it in school this morning, and the police and the FBI were there investigating the disappearances. I'm sure it's on the news."

Helen's expression of concern hardened into one of determination. "Well, they'll probably show up sooner or later when they come to their senses or run out of money. If not, I'm sure the police will find them. You can have Jane stay over later, but for the next two weeks you're grounded."

Daria stood for a couple of seconds, gaging her mother's mood. Then she turned to Jane and said, "I'm sorry, Jane. There's nothing I can do."

"Hey, it's okay, amiga. Well, guess I'd better be getting home."

They made their way downstairs in silence. Daria opened the front door and paused, worry in her eyes. "Didn't you mention an old bomb shelter at your house?" she asked Jane.

"Yeah, my mom's got her kiln set up in there."

"Well, if you can lock the door from the inside, maybe you should sleep in there tonight."

"I dunno. It'd take a lot of rearranging..."

"I'd help you if I could. Hell, I'd do it for you. But..." Daria's eyes flicked in her mother's direction, then back. She saw worry in Jane's eyes echoing her own. Coming to a decision, Daria turned to face Helen. "Mom, there's something else..."

Helen cut her off. "Now, Daria, you might possibly get some time off those two weeks for good behavior, which includes not arguing with your parents. By the same token, you can certainly get time added for misbehavior, which you're in danger of right now. Now say goodbye to Jane and come and help me with dinner."

Struggling with unaccustomed emotions, Daria turned back to Jane, stared intently into her friend's eyes and said, "See you in the morning."

Jane smiled in understanding. Placing a hand on Daria's shoulder, she replied, "See you in the morning," turned, and walked out the door.

Daria stood watching her walk across their front yard, the driveway, and the neighbor's front yard, stepping or hopping over shrubbery as she went, and smiled a crooked little smile at her utter indifference to sidewalks. Then, sighing, she closed the door and turned back toward the kitchen.

Arms crossed, frowning slightly, Helen regarded her from the kitchen entryway. "Don't you think you're spending a lot of time with your friend, considering how short a time you've known her?"

Daria gave her a quizzical look and replied, "How would I know? I never had one before." Then, eyes on the floor, she walked past Helen and into the kitchen. Helen looked after her with a regretful expression for a second, but then put on her lawyer face and followed her in.

-o0o-

At the dinner table, Helen looked from Daria, who was unhappily contemplating her peas, to Jake's paper, to Quinn's pout. She sighed and said, "How was your day, Quinn?"

"It was awful,"Quinn whined. "The whole school's terrified of Daria 'cause she's some kind of wicked witch or something, and now they're starting to look at me funny, and you won't even let me deny we're related, and my popularity's going down the dumpster! I don't even have a date tonight, because of her!"

Helen frowned. "Quinn, you will not talk about your sister like that. You don't have a date tonight because you're grounded, and you have no one but yourself to blame for that. And you'd better not have a date tomorrow, or any other night for the next three weeks, for that same reason. Is that understood?"

Quinn stared down at her plate and said nothing. Helen looked from her to Jake's paper and then to Daria, who still seemed to be mourning the passing of her peas, and back to the paper.

"Jake."

Answer came there none.

"Jake," Helen said again, more insistently.

The paper quivered. There was a sigh from behind it, and it was slowly lowered to reveal Jake's face down to the eyes. "Yes, dear?"

"How was your day today?"

The eyes shifted left and right. There was another sigh, then, "Fine."

Helen gripped her knife and fork with unneccessary force, unnoticed by anyone but Daria. "Did you close any deals today?"

Jake's eyes darted from Quinn to Daria, as if begging one of them to blurt out something. "No."

Helen inhaled and exhaled audibly, then asked, "Did you meet any prospective clients?"

The paper had started to rise again, but stopped. "No."

Helen carefully laid her knife and fork down, and carefully smiled. Jake's paper trembled slightly. "Did anything interesting happen today at all?"

Jake swallowed. Helen was in 'catch up with the family's day' mode, and she wanted some input from everyone, and she wasn't going to be satisfied until she got it. Desperately, his mind scrabbled through the detritus of his totally boring and uneventful day. He had sat in his office all day, waiting, and no one had come, no one had called. His same-as-usual lunch had been the high point of the wasted day, that or... well, it was something...

"Uh, well, you know that guy on Talk Radio Lawndale? He says there have been UFO sightings in the area the last few nights. And people called in who'd actually seen them, right over town!"

"Yeah, some guys called Z ninety-three and told Bing and the Spatula Man the same thing!" Quinn piped up.

"I certainly hope you two don't believe that claptrap," Helen said. The people who claim to see flying saucers today are the same people who used to see ghosts and werewolves, and saw witches riding on broomsticks back in the sixteen hundreds, and elves and fairies before that."

"How do you suppose those people live so long?" Daria deadpanned.

Helen glared at Daria, then said, " There's a perfectly logical explanation for this cluster of sightings being reported just now. That stupid UFO convention is going on over in Oakwood, and there was something about UFOs on TV a few days ago, and now some silly weak-minded people who aren't getting enough attention have decided it would be fun to make up some stories and see if they can get on TV or radio. They ought to make people like that rake leaves and sweep sidewalks around municipal buildings until they get their bellyful of attention."

"Yeah. Make 'em wear fluorescent orange jumpsuits. Unfashionable ones." Daria added, still straight-faced.

"Eeeww!" Quinn squealed.

-o0o-

Daria awoke from troubled dreams to the strident buzzing of her alarm. Sitting on the bed, rubbing an aching shoulder, she tried unsuccessfully to remember what she had been dreaming about just seconds before. She was sure, however, that it had been unpleasant.

She found and donned her glasses, then gazed out her window at a low, leaden sky hanging over Lawndale. It was the kind of sky that intermittently spit rain, sleet, and snow all day, then turned bitterly cold at nightfall. A sky one seldom saw in May. She placed her palm on the windowpane. It felt like a little above seventy. No sleet and snow then, but still, a nasty sky. Daria put a hand on her stiff neck, then froze. Thoughts of Jodie and Jane and the small wounds on their necks surged to the forefront of her consciousness. Feeling no such wound on her neck, nor one on her side, her thoughts were immediately of Jane, who definitely did have them. Suddenly she wanted very much to see Jane. She rapidly began getting dressed.

Quinn was huddled over her Model Krunch cereal when Daria entered the kitchen. Jake was eating a waffle and Helen was filling her travel mug with coffee. Daria scanned the cereal shelf's contents for something with some flavor. Helen chose this moment to speak.

"No time, gotta rush. Early meeting. You two remember that you're grounded and come straight home from school. No fashion club and no dates, Quinn, and no friends, Daria. And no whining. You're being punished. You're not supposed to like it." With that, she was gone.

Daria looked back at the cereal box in her hand, and shoved it angrily back on the shelf. Screw breakfast. She grabbed an apple and a banana from the fruit bowl on the counter as she passed, shoved the apple in her jacket pocket, and exited by the side door.

Thinking seriously uncomplimentary thoughts about her mother, Daria angled away from the house toward the street. Suddenly she heard a string of invective that would make a New York dock walloper proud, in her mother's voice. Helen was standing by her red SUV, shaking her fist at an overhanging tree branch, calling down hair-raising curses on... Daria looked at the branch more closely... a squirrel. Dribbles of liquid on the SUV's roof and running down the windshield testified that the rodent had just done a number one on it. It chattered back at Helen in a tone that was obviously not complimentary. The scene, which would have seemed droll any other time, now added to her anger at her mother, the foreboding oppressiveness of the dark morning, and a feeling of impending misfortune. She felt a rising urge to lash out against it all.

"You get your hairy little ass out of here before I get a shotgun and blow you to hell!" Helen threatened. The squirrel chattered and chirred right back at her, and crouched aggressively, as if threatening to pounce on her. Anger rising, Daria wished they'd both shut up and go away.

"Why you... Try it, fuzznuts, and you'll die screaming!" Helen shouted, looking around for a rock. The squirrel made a noise halfway between a snarl and a razzberry and bared his orange incisors.

Daria was overcome by the thought of how much she hated having this person as a mother. She felt a rising ball of blazing anger... Almost too late, she realized what was happening, focused her attention on the squirrel, and let go. It gave a squawk that was almost a scream and a jerk that threw it off the branch. It landed on the hood of Helen's SUV, eyeballs hanging completely out of its head, steam and pinkish gray brains coming out its ears. Startled, Helen jumped back.

Daria stared wide-eyed at the former squirrel for a moment, then said, "Damn. Good one, Mom. You gotta teach me how to do that curse!"

Helen whirled at the sound of her voice. "Daria! How long have you... uhh, I didn't..." then, catching the beginning of a smirk forming on her daughter's face, she said, "What do you know about that? Did you do it?"

"Who, me? How would I do it? You're the one who put the die screaming fuzznuts curse on him."

"Daria Marie Morgendorffer! Tell me the truth!"

"Oh, sure. I told you the truth a couple of days ago, remember? Just before you grounded me for lying and insulting your intelligence. Well, you can't say I don't learn from my mistakes. Have a nice day."

"Daria ! You stop right there, and you answer me right now!"

Daria turned back and faced her mother squarely. "All right. You've got squirrel brains on your lapel. And that's the truth."

Helen stared in dismay at the gruesome grayish gobbet on the lapel of her crimson power suit. As she hurried back inside, Daria turned on her heel and stalked off schoolward.

-o0o-

A cold knot of fear was growing alongside Daria's cooling but still present anger; they chilled and seared the clammy hand of foreboding that gripped her heart as she strode rapidly along. note to self: save for next Bulwer-Lytton contest Damn Mom for provoking me like that, she thought. If she knew how close she just came to getting her brain fried... And damn me for losing control like that! I've always been in control to the point of being repressed. What the hell happened?

Finally her brain realized what her feet already knew. Jane. She had to see Jane; to know that she was all right. She half-ran the last half block up to Jane's front door and rang the bell. She managed to wait almost two seconds before she started to knock. By a major effort of will she stopped herself. Idiot! You're ten minutes early! You've got no right to go beating down the door like a bill collector, even if you are about to wet your pants if you don't see Jane right this minute! She pounded on the door again.

She was about to run around the house and try the back door when Trent's oldmobile pulled into the Lane driveway. She ran up to him as he was getting out of the car, then hesitated. She'd never spoken to him before, never even been introduced. He looked tired as he pulled himself up out of the car, muscles twitching in his wiry arms. He smelled like a tavern at closing time, and his dark eyes looked as though they'd seen more of the scuzzy bottom of life than anyone should have at his age. The realization that she was staring at him like a brain-damaged thirteen-year-old fangirl snapped her out of it, and her fear for Jane took over.

"Trent! Would you please wake Jane up she's not answering the door and she's going to be late for school and I'm worried about her!"

Trent leaned back against the car, surprised by Daria's intensity. "Whoa! Uh, Daria, right?"

"Yes. Please, Trent!"

"Uh, okay, I guess I can get my guitar and stuff later," he muttered, closing the car door and starting toward the house. "Funny, I didn't think it was quite time for school yet."

Daria blushed, knowing that it was somewhat early, but said nothing.

Trent opened the door and gestured for Daria to enter. "Janie!" he called out in a gravelly, overworked-sounding voice. "You up? Your friend is here!" He checked the dining room and the kitchen. "She's not downstairs," he said, turning to Daria. "Why don't you go on upstairs, in case she's not dressed yet?"

Daria nodded and hurried up the stairs. She knocked on Jane's door and called her name, then listened. No sound of breathing or movement from Jane's room, no sound from the bathroom down the hall, nothing. She opened the door.

Trent heard the alarm in Daria's cry of "JANE!" and ran up the stairs. He stopped just inside Jane's room. Daria stood there, alone. "Jeez, Daria. You scared the crap out of me."

Daria jerked her head around to face him, hair whipping out behind. "Trent, she's gone!"

"Aw, Daria, she's probably just out running or something. Don't freak."

"Trent, look at the window!"

"So what? She sleeps with it open sometimes in the spring and fall."

"Not all the way open like that, I'll bet. Certainly not with her top sheet hanging halfway out of it. And where's the windowscreen? It's gone!"

Trent stepped to the window and looked out. "Hmm, you're ... oh, there it is, on the..." He paused. "...on top of the gazebo. That's not right."

"Trent, four students have disappeared from Lawndale High in the last few days. Now Jane makes five. You've got to call the police and report her missing."

He turned and started for the door, a determined look on his face, but stopped and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, there's a problem with that, Daria. See, our parents aren't here right now, and Janie's still a minor, and I'm not her legal guardian. If I call the cops that's bound to come up, and our folks'll be in big trouble for abandonment or neglect or something. What I need to do is call them first and get at least one of them to come home."

-o0o-

Trent had a point, Daria conceded as she continued her unhappy way to school, oblivious to the howling of neighborhood dogs. An investigation is already underway, and if the other missing students are found, Jane will be, too. No reason to get her parents in hot water with the law. And there's a small chance that Jane went to school really early this morning, or is out running or sketching, or something. Daria tried very hard to believe this. Ahead of her, a squirrel fled down a limb, paused for a second at the swaying tip, and leapt off. It landed on a lawn with a loud whop! sound and scampered frantically away.

Dammit, I should have thought of some way to get Mom to let Jane stay last night. I should have told her... what? Hell, I still can't think of anything. What damn good is all this intelligence if it can't solve a simple problem like that? I bet if I had Quinn's ability, I could have done something. I'd set it on Deep Snowjob or Extra Butter or whatever, and I'd make big sad puppy eyes at her, and... ewww. On second thought, I'm probably not cut out to have Quinn's ability.

I need to learn to use my abilities, and to control them. I never expected them to increase so fast. One day it's cockroaches, next day I almost make my mom's head explode. Well, judging by that squirrel, Mom's head wouldn't have actually exploded, but I doubt she'd have survived it. And I almost did it without even intending to! Definitely got to get that under control.

Daria was within sight of school now, and as she watched, a blue Lexus pulled up at the main entrance, and a girl with flaming orange hair got out. Well lookie here, she thought. Quinn scammed a ride off Dad. The girl dropped her bookbag and put her hands to her head. Whoa, there, Daria thought in alarm. That's all right. I didn't ask for a ride. Didn't want a ride. If Quinn got a ride, it's fine with me.

Quinn, if that's who the girl was, took her hands off her head, bent down as if saying something to the driver of the Lexus, and picked up her bookbag. The car pulled away. Daria breathed a sigh of relief.

Hesitantly, Daria approached Lawndale High. I don't know what's going on with me this morning, she thought, But I sure wish I didn't have to go to school today. I need to go off somewhere and work on my control, but no telling how Mom would react if I did, especially on top of that incident this morning. I guess I'll be all right if I just don't get hacked off at anyone. She trudged on, wondering how one practiced making only selected peoples' heads explode.

Daria looked up as she turned onto the walk that led up to Lawndale High's doors. Usually students would be loitering near the doors in small groups, but this morning they were all further off in either direction. She shrugged and went in, hoping against hope to see Jane.

At her locker, Daria looked at the second locker to her left. Jane's locker. Closed. No Jane.

There was a change in the background noise. "What's that? What's happening? What's wrong?" Daria looked around. The anxiety and agitation levels were rising in this hallway, mostly in her vicinity. She must be causing it somehow. "Anxiety!" a girl wailed. "Agitation!" a boy near her cried, searching agitatedly for the source of his agitation.

Got to get control of my mind! Cool breezes! Cool breezes!

"Ooh, cool!" "I'm cold!" Me, too!" "My mind! My mind!" "Where'd that breeze come from?" "I'm cold, Kevvie!"

Oh, no! I've got to stop broadcasting! Think of something neutral, something dull. The floor! Daria stared down at the floor, concentrated on the streaky, swirly patterns in the vinyl or whatever it was, tried to get her whole mind on the patterns, the fascinating patterns.

A chorus of soft oohs and aahs broke out around her and, as she followed a somewhat interesting swirl in the floor, she was surprised to find it blocked from view by a girl on her knees, studying the floor close up. She looked up to find that everyone within twenty feet of her, and many students farther off than that, were also studying the floor, many on hands and knees.

Oh, shit! I can't control my thoughts, can't hold it in! Got to get away before something bad happens! Shit! Shit! Shit! Gotta go! Daria headed for the nearest girls' restroom at a fast walk, but found herself shoved aside and nearly trampled by a herd of girls and more than one boy, who all stampeded into the restroom chanting "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Dumbfounded, Daria looked around. The hall was nearly empty for fifty feet either way. The few students left were fast receding, scurrying off in search of more distant restrooms. Ignoring as best she could the sounds coming from the restroom she'd been heading for, and refusing to think about what might be taking place in there, she tried to think what to do. Mr. O'Neill's was the closest classroom, and that was where she was supposed to be, so she angled across the hall toward his door. Halfway there, she thought of a thought-masking tactic that might work. She began to go through the multiplication table in her mind. One times one is one, one times two...aaah. Two times two is four, two times three is six, two times four...

She reached her desk and sat down, locked her gaze on the empty desktop in front of her, and did her best to think of nothing but the multiplication table. She was vaguely aware that there were a few other students in the room, and she began to hear a low murmuring as some of them began chanting the multiplication table along with her.

Oh, ... darn, she thought. Doing her best not to repeat the incident in the hallway, she got out her English book. Opening it at random, she read:

Gerunds

A gerund is a verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a noun. The term verbal indicates that a gerund, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, since a gerund functions as a noun, it occupies some positions in a sentence that a noun ordinarily would, for example: subject, direct object, subject complement, and object of preposition.

Daria heard the mumbling pick up again, but at least it pertained to English. A movement caught her eye and she looked up. Mr' O'Neill was waving a small pink slip of paper at her.

"Uhh... you," he said, smiling unhappily, "I think it would be best if you'd, ah, study independently today. Uh... here," he slid the slip to the corner of his desk nearest Daria, then stood up and backed away.

"Me?" she asked.

"Uh, yes. You," he replied, still smiling anxiously and backing away farther while trying to look like he wasn't backing away. He made a tiny shooing motion with his hands.

Sighing, Daria returned her English book to her book bag, got up, took the slip from the corner of O'Neill's desk, and left. In the hallway several students, apparently waiting to enter the classroom, all backed away from her. She wished she knew what they were picking up from her, and how she could stop putting it out. When this got around, she'd be the most shunned girl in the history of Lawndale High. She turned and headed the other way so they could get to the door, wondering where she could 'study independently.'

Ahead, Principal Angela Li emerged from her office. She stopped and frowned. "Miss Morgendorffer, why are you not in class?" she asked.

Daria held out the pink slip. "Mr. O'Neill told me to study independently."

Ms. Li stepped forward to take the slip. As she approached she frowned, then grimaced as if in discomfort, but, after hesitating, came on. She took the paper from Daria's outstretched hand as if she feared it might explode. She fell back a step, but forced herself to stop there and examine it, then looked up at Daria.

"You seem... very unhappy today, Miss Morgendorffer. What is your problem?"

Daria hesitated, then chose her words very carefully. "Some of the missing students are my friends."

"I see." Li pinched the bridge of her nose as if thinking, or in pain, or both. "Wait for me out front."

Ms. Li returned to her office, and Daria turned right and went out the entrance. She paused by the doors, then continued ontoward the street about thirty feet. That ought to be far enough, she thought.

Daria looked around. The morning sunshine warmed the air and sparkled off the buildings, automobiles, and infrastructure of Lawndale just as if all was right with the world, as if all her troubles would vanish like morning mist any minute now, as if no malevolent force were snatching away the town's young people in the dark of night. As if she weren't being thrown out of school for suddenly developing mutant superpowers that she couldn't control.

Ms. Li emerged holding a folded piece of paper, and marched resolutely up to Daria, although it was plain that the last few feet cost her something. She handed the paper to Daria, then stepped back. "You are not being charged with an absence or any sort of misbehavior, but I want you to go home and not return to school until your presence is less... disruptive."

"Ms. Li, what is it that I'm doing that's so disruptive? No one has actually told me."

"Not 'doing', per se. It's... It's as if there's an aura of anxiety and unhappiness around you." Ms. Li looked as if she would say more, but turned and went back inside.

Daria turned her back on the school. Lawndale lay before her, uncaring, unsuspecting and unprepared. Now what? she asked herself.

-o0o-