Part 10

The next night, found Daria and Jane in a corner booth at the Pizza Prince. Daria wasn't much company, being bogged down in studying the Book of Oa. Friday's game had ended a little while previously, and the place was filling up to celebrate an unexpected victory.

"-so I guess the coach's threat to chase the team with pit bulls worked," Jane was saying. "I guess he was inspired by Kevin's escapade with 'Tinkerbelle' last night - Earth to Daria: you in there?"

Daria looked up from her tome and yawned. "Sorry, Jane. I've been slogging through this thing all day between classes, trying to get ready for tomorrow." She looked down at her ring in its plain green disguise. "This thing is programmed with over 50,000 alien languages and most Earth ones, spoken and written, including Linear A, B, C, and Navajo. Don't ask me how."

"So you can code talk, too? That's may come in handy if you're hitch-hiking in the Southwest."

"Or ancient Crete. It may even be able to translate Fashionspeak."

"That reminds me. How is the Queen Bee doing?" Jane asked.

"The hospital released her this morning. They say that she's recovering well and should be ready to go back to school Monday. Dad's been nursing her at home."

"Cooking for her, too? I bet Quinn liked that."

"He was until the J's showed up. They each brought a bouquet of flowers and an order from Chez Pierre. When they started fighting over who's dinner she should get, I got out of there."

"I didn't know that Chez Pierre had takeout."

"They don't. They each ordered a regular meal and then put it in a doggie bag. That wasn't so bad, it was the extra they had to pay for the chinaware." Daria yawned again. "I changed my mind. Let's go back to my house. Maybe all of the fighting will keep me awake."

"We can pop some corn and watch."

"100 quatloos on the newcomer."

As the pair got up, they noticed the rest of the Fashion Club sitting in a booth near the register. They were raptly watching a redhead eat. Stacy and Sandi were sitting on one side, and Tiffany was on the other side with the young man. Dressed in jeans and a yellow and green Hawaiian shirt, he was finishing off a large pie while the remains of two others occupied the table in front of him.

"Thanks for the advice, girls," the man said between bites. "I'm glad you invited me over here to join you. I admit that cheeseless, meatless pizza usually isn't my style, but a friend recommended this place to me and I thought I'd run over and try it out. I see how you three manage to keep in such great shape all the time."

Stacy giggled. "Wally, you're just saying that."

"No, I mean it," he replied."I know about fitness, and you girls must work out all the time."

"Well, as leader of the Fashion Club," Sandi said, "I try to set an example of the proper role of diet and exercise as a foundation to fashionable beauty."

"Buut you haaate to exerrisi - Ow!" a kick to the shin cut Tiffany's remark short .

Daria and Jane passed the group and headed out the door. Daria motioned back with a snap of her head. "Does he look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, he reminds me of someone, except that his lines actually seem to work," Jane replied.

As they went out the door, Charles Ruttheimer could be heard sitting at the counter muttering morosely, "What does he have that I don't?"

Well, that's it. I've been a Daria fan since the show appeared on MTV, and Green Lantern has always been my favorite superhero, so I thought I'd combine the two, and this is what I came up with. What did'ja think?

I have another story in the works with Daria Lantern, in which she will encounter more characters in the JLU, and other DC animated characters, and I will attempt to show her life as a Lawndale High student intertwining with her life as a superhero. Hope you all come back soon!

echopapa