When Jane woke up, earlier than she had to because she had gone to bed before eight pm, it took her a moment to remember everything. At first, she couldn't remember where she was or how had she ended up there, but in about five minutes the disturbing recent events came back to her mind. When she first remembered that she was sleeping at Charles' she was bewildered and almost angry at herself for doing such thing, but then she remembered how he had actually been nice to her and controlled his annoying self most of the time. Still a little confused by her own decision, Jane got up from the bed and rubbed her eyes. She went to the bathroom and entered the shower, wondering as a joke if Charles hadn't put any hidden cameras in the shower, but after thinking about it for five minutes the possibility began to sound more realistic which made her hurry up and getting out of the shower very quickly.
Jane went back to the bedroom covered only by a towel. Since her hair was short, it was easier to dry it. She took some clean clothes from her backpack and put them on, then put the dirty ones inside the backpack. She took ten minutes just to dry her hair a little and comb it. When she looked at the clock and noticed it probably was still at least half an hour too early to go check if Charles was awake, Jane decided to take her math notebook and try to finish her homework.
After half an hour, Jane's homework was almost done, but she heard someone knocking the door. It was Charles, she noticed when she opened it. He seemed to have just gotten out of bed.
"Hey, you're already dressed" Charles seemed impressed.
"Yeah, I woke up early and couldn't go back to bed. Guess you just woke up".
"You are right, my lovely Jane. Perhaps you'd rather wait for me in my room".
"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm busy with some math stuff. Just go get ready and when you're done come here".
Charles nodded and went back to his room to take a shower. He didn't take long, because he had woken up intrigued about going to school and finding out how much of what Jane had told him was true. Also, seeing Daria as a cheerleader sounded like something he had to see. The simple thought made him scream "feisty" in his mind while he smiled.
When he went back to the guest's room, he found Jane putting her notebook back in her backpack.
"Oh, hey, Chuck, I just finished my homework".
The tone in Jane's voice confirmed what he had been thinking: she was acting much more nicely towards him. She had called him Chuck, a nickname that only a few people used to refer to him.
"Great, great" he, for some reason, felt now a little nervous around Jane ". So, we should go downstairs and have breakfast before school".
Jane nodded and with a smile took her backpack from the floor. Despite of the pizza from the night before, she was hungry.
When they entered the kitchen, Charles asked her what did she want to eat.
"Cereal's cool with me, I really just want to get going to school as soon as possible to check if things are still as creepy".
The two teenagers ate breakfast in silence. Jane, concentrated on eating the large bowl of cereal in front of her and Charles, unable to say anything, not knowing what to say at all.
After Jane brushed her teeth, she was ready to start walking but for her surprise, Charles showed her some car keys and said " you didn't think I'd let such a gorgeous lady walk all the long way to school, did you? ". With that said, they went to the garage and left the house in Charles' car.
"You know, you're not quite as disgusting once I got to know you getter. Which is weird. But once I figure out how to make things go back to normal and I tell Daria I slept at your house she's going to freak out. Man, it's going to be so funny to see her face".
"Well, thanks" was the only thing he could manage to say, since he was stuck in Jane's first phrase. It wasn't like she had told him something too great but it was the nicest thing a girl had ever told him.
Jane kept talking all the way about how a normal Daria would react to the situation and she laughed often about it, until suddenly she seemed sad.
"Is there anything wrong?" Charles asked.
"It's no big deal, well, actually, it is but...".
"What? You can tell me if you want to".
"It's just that here I am, talking about Daria like I am sure things will go back to normal, but what if they don't? What am I going to do if people just stay the way they are now and I lose my friend forever? I certainly can't maintain a normal relationship with this Daria".
Charles was thinking carefully what to say.
"Don't worry, we'll figure this out. There's got to be a way to solve this".
"Thanks, Chuck" Jane said with a smile, and Charles smiled back.
At that moment, they arrived Lawndale High. Charles parked the car and noticed nothing looked out of the ordinary. But then, as soon as he entered the hallway, his face got the same expression Jane had the day before. Jane was now calmer, scared to death, but calm because she knew what to expect. She saw Charles hyperventilating and pulled him inside the empty gym.
"Look, I know this is some creepy shit. Did you see that chubby, black haired cheerleader? That is Andrea. Now try to calm down and not to faint, or scream, or die. Got it?".
Charles nodded, bewildered by what he had seen just a few moments before. He took a deep breath and got ready to leave the gym. As soon as he and Jane went back to the hallway, they found Daria running towards Jane. As soon as the brunette girl with round gasses reached her target - Jane - he covered the black haired one with her arms.
"Oh, Jane, I'm so glad to see you. I am so sorry about our fight yesterday".
"Hey, don't worry, we're good, amiga" Jane reassured Daria.
Charles, with a frozen expression of astonishment, stared at Daria. He could not even say "Grrr... feisty!" Because Daria's ponytail and clothing shocked him and took him by surprise. Her voice also sounded different, way more enthusiastic and joyful than he thought Daria could ever be.
"Oh, hello, Charles. I was so excited about Jane that I didn't see you there, I'm sorry. Nice to see you" Daria greeted with a wide smile.
All Charles could do was nod and nervously smile. Jane had not lied to him, not even exaggerated the situation. Her description of the Lawndale madness had been terrifyingly accurate. The ocean of smiling teenagers took him by surprise. He finally ended up running inside the boy's bathroom, screaming.
"Oh, dear, is Charles okay?" Daria asked.
"Yeah, he is, he's just... he's a little sick right now. If you excuse me, I'm going to check if he's okay".
"That's really nice of you, Jane. I'll see you later".
Jane nodded and waved as she and Daria took opposite directions. Jane sighed and frowned before she reached the boy's bathroom's door.
"Hey, weird redhead guy, get the hell out of the bathroom".
"There is no way I'm going anywhere out of here, Jane!" Charles replied.
"Goddammit, Ruttheimer, if I have to go in there and get you out of the bathroom myself I freaking will and you know it".
After a moment of silence, Charles walked out of the bathroom with an expression of shock on his face.
Jane sighed again, still with a frown and crossed her arms.
"C'mon" she said.
"Where are we going?" Charles asked.
"To the roof, until you calm down".
He nervously followed Jane in silence, maybe even closer to that nervous breakdown than Jane had been. She was handling the situation really well, or at least she knew how to pretend she did.
When they got to the roof and sat on the floor, Charles was still terrified.
"I guess you didn't take it too well. Do you feel any better now?" Jane asked.
"What the hell happened? Who the hell are these people?" He, visibly scared, yelled.
"I don't know, Chuck. I have no idea about what happened or how. At this point an alien invasion sounds realistic enough to me" she shrugged.
"Maybe they've been drugged or got intoxicated with something they ate".
"Whoa, that's quite surprisingly smart thing to suggest while being as shocked as you probably are. But how could they all eat the same thing, and I mean about all the people in Lawndale except for you and me, or how could someone drug virtually the entire town?".
"What about the water? Everyone drinks the same water".
"I guess that makes sense but then how come we didn't go insane?".
"Maybe it didn't get to some houses".
"But my family is acting weird and I drank the same water. Also, my brother Trent said he's been going to college for a whole year. He was the lead singer of a crappy band two days ago and now all of the sudden he's a doctor and my mom hangs out with my older sister who didn't even live in Lawndale in first place".
Jane had just wrecked Charles theory.
"Oh. That, right. I can't think of anything else. Also I can't think of a drug that could make them act this way, not even psychoactive ones. I go for the alien invasion" Charles finished.
The two of the sighed at the same time. They not only didn't know how to make things go back to normal, they also didn't even know against what were they fighting.