Jane was never hard to live with, but the last couple days living with her had bordered on challenging. She'd wanted to talk a lot, and needed rides to the hospital pretty often. It was a little weird, Jane acting like a normal-needs child instead of a no-needs child.

"I still don't get why you won't let me come in with you," Trent had argued with her one day as he pulled up to the hospital visitor entrance.

"Because she's under enough stress!" Jane was firm. Trent didn't get how his presence could be stressful – yeah, Daria had a little thing for him, but she was cool. She could handle it.

Still, he was relieved when Jane thundered into his room on Friday. "Daria's out of the hospital!" It meant that his sister's heretofore non-existent social needs could again be filled by a person with different antisocial needs.

Trent stuffed his lyrics notebook back under his bed. Despite feeling more or less moved on from Monique, his head was still revolving around "woman in black" imagery. Apparently she was still in his system and it was getting stupid. He'd also had an ignominious moment with some enchiladas that were not wrapped properly before being placed in the back of the freezer and he was bitter about it. "Yeah? Are you going to go see her?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you'd give us a ride to Playhouse 99? (1) There's some obscure Fellini crap on, and I'd like to take Daria to see it and then for pizza. She'll want to get the hell away from her parents after all this."

Trent found his pants somewhere in the flotsam. "Yeah, sure. Did they ever find out what was wrong with her?"

Jane shrugged. "Just stress. The doctor gave her some pamphlet on anxiety and apologized for all the needles."

"Huh. I think I'll go up and say hello with you. She seemed so upset last week at the Zen."

Jane smirked. "And why are we such a concerned citizen?"

"Because Daria's your friend and you've been freaked out all week."

Jane didn't bother with denial. She hugged him. "Thanks for being a big brother without being, y'know, big brother."

"Anytime l'il sis." In his heart of hearts, Trent knew that while Mystik Spiral might go nowhere, his time with his sister was finite because she was going to some most definite somewhere. He also knew that Daria was a big part of her new ideas about going somewhere; if something happened to Daria that made Jane unhappy, it also made him unhappy.

"I'm coming up with you," he insisted as he pulled in front of the Morgendorffer household. "She's been in the hospital and it's the least I can do."

"Suit yourself," Jane said and bounded up the stairs ahead of him. The door was half open when he heard Jane say "Trent's giving us a ride."

He poked his head in. "Hi Daria." He was horrified to see the poor girl's face break out before his eyes. It was like she was a punchline in a cartoon universe.

Daria slammed the door in their faces, and he could hear her running away. Jane looked miffed. "Well isn't that nice!"

Trent opened the door and shoved his sister in. "Go after her. She needs her friend."

Jane opened her mouth to protest, and this time, Trent was firm. "I'm leaving you here. Call me if you need a ride home."

It's not like he didn't know what it was like to be humiliated in front of a person he liked. Trent checked his wallet, and found five bucks. Maybe he'd go for a cup of coffee. He chuckled, thinking of Daria's rash and the still-sore tissue on the inside of his nose. Maybe not.

(1) Lawndale's independent theater playhouse, referred to in the Daria Database.