James The Lesser Presents His Version of the Daria Gender Flip Based off of Not So Different.

Not So Different Is a Story by The Other J-D. I read it and enjoyed it but had my own ideas for how the end of season four-Rest of Series could go. I asked permission and he granted it so I am going to do my own version of the show starting at S4 E12 Fire! His story is really good and I hope those who haven't given it a chance does! It will mostly be the same but a few variations thrown in for my ideas.I don't know exactly how to do an idea like this so this will be done by trial and error.

And now the biggest changes to be made... The whole reason I wanted to do this as the ideas came to me.

S4 E 13

Surprise!

Sonny felt uncomfortable as Jane came out of her closet with a top that screamed look at me with shorts that matched the bright red color of the top. "What do you think?"

Sonny shook his head. "Why does my opinion matter? I don't care about clothes. I don't care what you wear. Ask Tom."

She growls a little in frustration. "I already told you, this is for Tom. I want to wear some thing different. Some thing he hasn't seen before."

"Then wear any thing you have in your closet. I don't care and have no opinion."

She poses trying to look like a model on the cover of a magazine. "Really? Nothing I could wear that would get your attention?"

He glares at her smirk. "Not unless you came out in something like Quinn would wear."

Jane rolls her eyes. "I want to wear something Tom hasn't seen and still date me not run away screaming." Jane goes back in to her closet to change again.

Sonny gets home from Jane's and sees Stacy in the kitchen getting celery and carrot sticks. "The others upstairs?"

She nods. "How are you?"

"Ok, I guess. Jane is acting weird."

"Oh, how?"

"She's spent the past hour changing outfits trying to look different for her boyfriend. She kept asking me about what ever she wore but I just don't care."

"Um, ok. Some people are like that, I guess. I mean, no one really cares what you wear so why should you care, right?" He nods and she smiles. "But people care about what we wear so we have to look good."

"Why do people care what you or the other Fashion..." He was about to say fiends but stopped. "Club wear?"

"Because we're popular. I mean sure, Quinn and Sandi are way more than me, I am?" She looks at him for help.

"Me works in that case."

"Than me but still I'm a member so I represent the rest."

Sonny looks at the time and at the fridge. "Well, you enjoy your rabbit food. I'm eating some thing real." He walks past her to grab a bag of chips.

"Stacy! Where are you with the snacks!"

Stacy flinches at Sandi's yell. "Sorry!" She hurries for the stairs with the celery and carrot sticks.

With the music coming from Jane's room, Sonny wasn't sure whether Jane and Tom heard him when he called out to them. He knocked on the door: no response. He pushed it open.

They hadn't heard him.

He blushed as he realized they hadn't noticed him even after he came in to the room. Jane and Tom were like two boxers in a clinch and all he could do was wait for the referee to shout, 'Break!'

He must have made some sort of noise, and they must have heard it, because suddenly Tom moved backwards. He and Jane both looked at Sonny with different embarrassed faces and made different noises. Jane turned the music off. Nobody knew what to say.

Sonny supposed it would be polite for him to apologize. There wasn't really anything for Tom and Jane to be embarrassed about. Jane put his feelings into words, more or less.

'No biggie. You had to learn about kissing some time.'

Tom, putting a congratulatory hand on Jane's arm, explained that he'd been carried away by the genius of her latest work. Jane turned an easel around dramatically to display it. It was a stylized jungle scene, and through the foliage Jane's head could be seen, only her hair was tiger-striped, more or less, in blonde and her native black.

Sonny said he liked it, but he couldn't help wondering whether it was a cry for help. Tom suggested both reactions might fit. Jane conveyed the slightest hint of irritation that they didn't understand.

'The lady or the tiger—now you don't have to choose', she said.

'Does this mean you'll be ordering the pizza with entrails?' Sonny joked.

Jane responded with great seriousness, and already Sonny had a sick feeling.

'This is going to be my new look. And you're assisting me in the procedure.'

Sonny looked down uneasily at Jane's finger pointing at him, and then across at Tom, who was smiling. Whatever his girlfriend might have in mind for Sonny didn't seem to bother him.

It turned out that what Jane had in mind for Sonny was for him to help dye her hair to create blonde stripes like the ones in her painting. He'd been afraid of something like that. He tried several times to persuade her of his complete unsuitability for the task, but she refused to let him off.

"Look, give me a day or two to think about it."

"No way." She wanted to create an effect, and the procedure pretty much required her to have somebody else to assist. It would spoil the effect to ask Tom to do it (given that he was the intended prime beneficiary) and, as she said, who else was she going to ask? Trent? That rhetorical question shut Sonny up for a while. "You're coming with me to the store to find the right color, too." He trailed after Jane to the pharmacy, sadly but resignedly, to buy the hair dye.

He took some slight comfort from the fact that Jane was as appalled as he by the marketing nightmare that was the range of blonde hair dyes on offer. There was a definite rural or agricultural theme, with most of the colors being named to evoke images of fields full of beautifully golden grains or other plants. How were they supposed to choose? He took the opportunity of their shared floundering to suggest again that Jane get help from somebody more suitable, like the girl behind the counter. He figured twenty dollars and a bag of doughnuts would do the trick.

'You know, Sonny, not everybody in the world conducts themselves by the same ruthlessly mercenary principles as you and your family.'

'That's why I threw in the doughnuts. Give the deal a personal touch.'

Jane saw right through Sonny's evasion. She could tell that he was still trying to get out of the mission she had assigned him, and she made it clear that she was listening to no excuses about his lack of aptitude for activities like dyeing hair and painting toenails.

'Look, Sonny, this is the kind of thing that teens do together to cement their friendships. Don't you want to cement our friendship?'

'It's teen girls that do those things together, I think you'll find I'm not a teen girl.'

Jane looked steadily at him. 'And that's supposed to make a difference to us how?'

Sonny couldn't meet her gaze. Jane wanted to look good for Tom. He told himself that he understood that, he really did, he didn't need to be a girl for that. And he'd already decided that if Tom went away it wasn't going to be because of him. Should he be worried that if he did botch the hair dye job it would make Tom go away? That didn't make sense. Tom wasn't like that. So why was he still uncomfortable? It was because Jane was being odd about it. She had a rational case that he couldn't assail, but he felt there was something else going on in her mind behind it.

Sonny sighed as they looked at more colors. "I have, some thing, to do tonight. Can we do this tomorrow?"

Jane crosses her arms as she stares at him. "You're not getting out of this."

"I know. I'm just, busy, tonight. I promise tomorrow night I'll do my best not to mangle your hair." I hope. "I swear."

"You better, Morgendorffer." The two continue to shop for the right farming, er, color, for Jane's hair.

Sonny gets home and sits down on the couch thinking. "I could fake being sick. Or lick the toilet and make myself sick for real." He stares at his reflection in the television screen. "Except I'd get better, eventually."

Quinn storms in with an armful of magazines. "Can't talk, blushathon coming up, must prepare." She goes up the stairs balancing the magazines carefully.

Sonny wants to beat his head against the wall. "I can't ask Quinn." He sighs as he gets off the couch. "Only one person I can." He walks to the kitchen and grabs the phone. It takes a few seconds for him to think of the number.

"Hello? Quinn?"

"No, uh, Sonny. Stacy, I have a favor to ask."

"Yes?"

Sonny is a little put off by her tone. It sounded... He wasn't sure. "My friend Jane wants to dye her hair. She wants me to do it for her but I can't. I simply can't. I'll pay you, twenty plus a box of donuts, or a carton of carrots, whatever."

"Your friend is trying to look better! I mean, not that she looks bad. But she could do a lot better if she gave a little effort." Sonny drops his head on the counter with a loud thud. "Hello?"

"Hair, just help her dye her hair."

"Ok, sure! And I'll do it for free. Helping others look good is what the Fashion Club is all about!"

Sonny mumbles an insult under his breath before responding. "Thank you. Meet me at my house tomorrow after school."

"Ok!"

When Sonny showed up at Casa Lane with Stacy, Jane threw a fit.

After grabbing Sonny by the arm and dragging him through the doorway she slammed the door shut leaving Stacy outside. "Why did you bring a Fashion Fiend here?!"

"Because I, unlike you, am thinking rationally. I don't do hair. She does. She'll do it for free with out any of the bitching that you'll get from me. And she'll do it right."

Jane starts to tap her foot. "What makes you think you aren't capable of painting some stripes?"

"I'm not the artist. Jane, please, let Stacy do this. She'll do it right, make your hair look good, and I'll pay you to let her do it."

"Twenty and donuts?"

"Ten and a pizza."

Jane's scowl morphs in to a smile. "You really didn't want to do this."

Sonny relaxes as the tension passes. "Don't, can't, won't. Your pick." He turns and opens the door. "Thanks for waiting."

"No problem! Hair care is super important." She looks at Jane's hair. "What kind of conditioner do you use?"

"The kind that comes in the cheapest bottle."

Stacy makes a face. "Well, at least you use it even if it is cheap. Ok, we'll need..." Stacy takes over as Sonny steps back and let's the two teen girls go to the kitchen.

Wanting nothing to do with it, Sonny excused himself and went home.

Sonny sees Jane at school the next day surrounded by people. "This is different." Feeling uncomfortable with the situation, he left Jane alone and went to class.

When Jane sat down across from him at lunch, he looked at her hair. "Looks, different."

"Gee, thanks." Sonny is confused by her reaction.

"Did you expect me to fawn over it?"

"No, not you." Jane grumbles and the only word Sonny understood was Tom.

"Did he not like it?"

Jane sighs. "After a brief comment he went to being... Him." She pokes at the mash potatoes with her fork. "I even dressed up. I wanted to get a reaction out of him and got nothing but three words."

"What?"

"Oh, that's cool." Jane stabs the potatoes. "I swear I could walk in to his house, on fire, and he'd just ask me not to burn any thing too valuable."

Sonny feels just as uncomfortable as he did when she was surrounded by people. "Others seem to like it."

"The two closest guys to me and I got five words combined."

"I don't count. You're just a friend." He sees the look Jane gives him. "What?"

"Nothing, just, thinking." He ignores her looks and starts in on his food.

Sonny walked home from school thinking there was still some secret he wasn't being let into, and found Tom parked in front of his house. Sonny asked him crossly what he was doing there.

'I wanted to talk to you. Your sister said you weren't home so I figured I'd wait out here.'

Sonny figured it was only polite to invite Tom inside, but Tom had been frightened off by the girls rubbing stuff on each others cheeks and making animal noises. Sonny recognized the description of a Blushathon, and that it would only get worse. He didn't fancy going inside for it either. At Tom's suggestion, he got in the car. He decided it would be okay if they weren't actually going anywhere.

'Did you want to talk about Jane?' he said.

'Nope.'

'If you don't want to talk about Jane, then what game are you playing?' Sonny said, wishing he'd never got into the car. Close quarters were always dangerous. He turned his head to scan his escape route. 'Apart from Jane, I have nothing to talk about with you.'

'Why is everybody so mad at me?'

'Why? Why?' Sonny decided in that moment that, Jane or no Jane, the time had come when he was really going to open up to this character.'Because I moved to this town and I knew immediately I'd be a total outcast. And in the one moment of good luck I've had in my entire life, I met another outcast who I could really be friends with and not have to feel completely alone. And then you came along and screwed the whole thing up! You twisted me around to be nice to you on her account but everything's gone to hell anyway, and I don't even understand why!'

Tom was not antagonized by Sonny's unleashed hostility. He seemed happy now to talk more freely, and more vehemently too. 'It's not that hard to understand. I met a girl I thought was cool and I went out with her for a while. We started to get bored with each other. It happens all the time and it's nobody's fault.'

He sounded convincing, and Sonny wanted to believe, but—'Oh yeah? Would you still be bored with her if I weren't here to get in the way?'

'Probably', said Tom. 'And more to the point', he said, becoming more emphatic, 'she'd be bored with me. It's got nothing to do with you.' He shook his head decisively.

'Fine. But if you're breaking up with my best friend, Tom Sloane, then we've got nothing to talk about and no reason even to be in the same space.' Sonny started to get out of the car.

Tom reached out a hand, put it on Sonny's shoulder, and said, 'Wait.'

Physically, the touch of Tom's hand on Sonny's shoulder was light. It could never have functioned as any sort of physical restraint. But it still jerked Sonny out of one world and into another.

Since his first serious exchange with Tom, when Tom had just started seeing Jane and wanted to straighten things out with Sonny from the beginning, Sonny had been living in a world where, despite all his prior experience of life, he could, in a particular sense and within limits, trust Tom.

The physical contact snapped him out of that world, back into a world he was more familiar with, where people only approached him physically for one reason. In that familiar world, he knew what came next after somebody put a hand on him. He went limp with recognition. It wasn't something to resist, it wasn't something to argue about. It was just something to be confirmed.

He asked Tom to confirm what came next.

Tom reacted to his simple question with an exclamation of utter astonishment, as if Sonny were the one who had jerked him into a completely different world, one that was totally alien to him. Sonny couldn't take that seriously; he'd heard it all before.

'What did you say?'

'I said, are you going to hit me?' Sonny repeated. 'I've told you about this. Some guy gets mad at me for something that's not my fault, and he grabs me by the shoulder, and the next thing I know his fists are thudding into me. You told me you're not that type, but so what?' Sonny didn't even bother trying to shake off Tom's grip.

'I can't believe you'd think I'd hit you. Do you think so little of me?"

"I don't think of you at all except when Jane is involved."

"She is your friend. I still like her, I really do. We just got bored.

"That's great. I'm going inside now."

Tom keeps his hand on Sonny. "Wait, please, can we talk? She talks about you all the time and I know we aren't friends but you are her friend. I don't want to hurt her. She is cool, and smart, and her looks don't hurt either."

"Then break up with her, or don't. It doesn't matter to me."

"It should since she's your friend."

Sonny shrugs his hand off. "Then I'll talk with her, not you." Sonny heard himself say, 'I gotta go', and then he was getting out of the car and fleeing up the path to the house. But there was no sanctuary anywhere. The Blushathon was in full swing and he knew the house would be infested with Fashion Fiends for several more hours.

Tom looks up at the house and sighs before driving off.

As Sonny broods in his room some one knocks on the door. "What?" It is Stacy. "Come in."

She looks around his room. "Wow, your room is..." Sonny waits for the insult. "Cool."

This perks his interest, a little. "What do you want? The Blushathon is down the hall."

Stacy looks down at her shoes. "I know but, um, there is a movie thingy coming out on Saturday and... "

Sonny rolls his eyes. "Romantic Comedy 125? Action Blow em Up 93?"

"No, like, an artistic one. Black and white and stuff. The others would never go but you're smart you might go. Explain what the symbology is."

Sonny wants to correct her and say symbolism but the art film was actually on his list of things to see. Jane would never go. Tom might as he had talked about the art film from last week. But he was not going to invite Tom. "I'll see about it. You pay for yourself, I pay for myself."

"Ok, I'll uh, call, or see you at school."

Sonny is surprised to hear her say that. "Where others might see you with me?"

"It is ok to talk with a friend." Stacy leaves.

Sonny realizes his parents weren't around, either. His mother had a huge case on, her biggest yet, and his father had been busy too with some more consultancy work for that hotel they'd stayed at recently, Le Grand. (Bobby the bellhop had been doing expensive favors for Quinn with a fake story about a non-existent uncle at the hotel giving permission, billing the Morgendorffers, then breaking into the hotel computer system to cancel the charges. When this came out, Jake had seized the opportunity to convince them that as well as improved security they needed a new marketing campaign to offset the bad news stories, and that with his inside knowledge of the incident there was nobody better to handle it.)

He wasn't sure what to think. If Tom and Jane broke up it would make his life easier. Wouldn't it? She wouldn't make him look at the different outfits she tried on or try and make him dye her hair. But she might be hurt, miserable, and looking to talk about it. Wouldn't a friend be the first person she turned to?

And speaking of friends... What was that with Stacy? When did they become friends? So he was nice to her the few times they talked. He had no reason to be mean or bully her like others did to him. It didn't make them friends.

Time must have kept on passing, but Sonny lost the sense of it. Maybe he slept in snatches that night or maybe he didn't. When he was conscious he stared at the ceiling, which seemed to be going round and round in rhythm with his circling thoughts.

He got hungry, after having skipped dinner, and stumbled down to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and couldn't decide on what to eat. He couldn't stay there. He found himself back in his bedroom, glancing at the clock. It was three in the morning. He lay flat on his back again, feeling as if it would always be three in the morning.

He never remembered noticing that morning's sunrise, or hearing his family stir. His parents were both too busy to notice his disappearance, and Quinn would surely never care. He staid in bed wondering what the hell had happened to his world.

When he came to Lawndale he figured it would be like Highland. He'd be alone, bullied, beat up, and miserable. Jane... Made him feel less miserable. He made himself a comfortable existence. Yes he still got beat up but not as often. Bullied but a lot less. Then Tom... And the fire. And Stacy. Why the hell did these other people have to mess up what he made? Why did Jane have to notice some one like Tom? Sure he and Tom were a lot a like and hell, if they had met first, he might have made friends with him. But he hadn't, he'd met Jane. Jane was his friend. He didn't want to lose her. But if she broke up with Tom she'd want to talk about it. He wasn't sure he was up for that.

He had heard about it, even seen it in movies and television. They'd break up, she'd need to cry about it, and she'd turn to her friend. He was the only one she had. He'd never dealt with any thing like that. What if he said or did the wrong thing? If Jane stopped being his friend he'd be alone, again. He couldn't lose her.

The next information from external reality that he registered consciously was the doorbell ringing.

He could tell from the rhythm that it was the person who would notice his disappearance. He glanced at the clock. She must have come here after school. Had she phoned during the day? He might have failed to hear, screening out the noise as intended for somebody else.

He was halfway down the stairs when the doorbell gave the same familiar ring again.

Then he was standing at the open door with the doorknob in his hand and Jane Lane was staring at him.

'Sonny? Are you all right?'

They were sitting together on the couch. Sonny looked round. One of them must have shut the door. Jane spoke again.

'When you weren't at school today, I didn't think … you look like you could use a whole week of mental health days. Sorry! Sorry! I don't know what to say here! Whatever it is, compadre, you can talk to me, can't you?'

Jane was reaching forward a tentative hand. Sonny had to speak before it connected with his arm. His voice echoed from the bottom of an empty haunted well.

'I talked with Tom. I didn't mean to. I still don't understand. He's going to break...'

Jane was up, back, away from him. 'I knew this would happen! I knew it!'

Sonny came to himself and stared at her. "I'm sorry? Do you need to, uh, talk? Jane didn't answer. 'You could talk with Trent."

'That's not what this is about, Sonny! He's going to break up with me and he told you first? What the hell?'

"I don't know. I can talk, if you want, I guess." And hope I don't screw up.

Jane half-turned towards the door. 'I can't talk about this now, Sonny. Why in the hell did he go to you first? The hell was he thinking? Why didn't you tell me? You could have called or told me at school. Why did I have to come over here to find out!'

Sonny was still staring at the door that had slammed behind Jane when it opened again and Quinn came through it.

'Sonny? Are you all right?'


Incredibly, all Tom said when he answered the door to Jane's ring was 'Oh' and then 'Hi!' Jane stared at him in outraged disbelief. 'Oh, hi', she echoed, and then shouted 'Go to hell!', before she leaped at him, hammering his chest with both fists. Over his cries of protest she shouted 'How could you?How could you?'

At least he didn't pretend not to know what that was about. 'I didn't plan it that way! But Sonny said …'

'Sonny said! I thought he didn't even know!' Jane took a step back.

'He didn't! It was my fault!'

Jane turned her head angrily away. 'Oh, don't give me that!'

'He was taken by surprise! But I was the one who screwed up!'

Jane realized she'd been waving her hands around wildly. She folded her arms. 'Now what?' She threw Tom a challenging look.

'I don't know', he said. 'Do you want to hear what happened?'

Jane didn't want to sit in Tom's house, so they walked silently out to his back yard and sat down on an old wooden swing set, looking away from each other.

'I know what happened. You told Sonny you were going to break up with me. He wasn't at school today, so I went round to his place to check on him. I didn't suspect anything, he just came right out and told me.'

"I'm sorry."

Jane looked across at Tom briefly. 'How did you ever get close enough in the first place?'

'I went round to his place to talk to him. He didn't even want to get in the car. I needed to talk to some one who knew you and he knows you best. Maybe I was upset with you because of you ringing me up with all those crazy accusations …'

"I wouldn't say it was crazy to think you were going to break up with me. I thought you would break up with me, you know, through me. Not Sonny."

"I didn't mean to tell him that. I just wanted to talk. There's nothing wrong with talking, is there?'

Jane tilted her head skeptically. 'And you only wanted to talk?'

Tom looked away again. 'I thought so. I guess I might have been kidding myself. I'm a real idiot. There's no question about that.'

'Who's arguing? You might as well go on.'

'We sat in my car and all he wanted to talk about was you, and how he'd tried to be nice to me on your account, and how things had still got screwed up and he didn't know why. He left as soon as he could and went inside. He didn't want to talk with me if you and I were breaking up …'

'What made him think we were breaking up? I told him things weren't great, I didn't say we were breaking up. What did you say to him?'

'I was telling him that whatever was happening it wasn't his fault! I could tell him that much, and he needed to hear it. I told him we were both getting bored with each other. You know it's true. We weren't going anywhere. We were about to break up anyway.'

They looked at each other, and then away again. Jane said, 'Yeah.' She sighed. 'Go on. Let's finish this.'

'He didn't want to talk with me and he started to get out of the car, so I put my hand on his shoulder, and he thought … he said he thought …'

'… that you were going to hit him? Don't look surprised, I know what he's like.'

'Well, that's what he said. I couldn't believe he'd think I would do that …'

'He asked you not to hit him?' Jane shook her head. 'No, wait, he wouldn't do that. He asked you whether you were going to hit him?'

'That's what he he said. I thought he knew me better than that. Or you would have told him what I was like.'

Jane said irritably. 'I may not be as smart as Sonny, but you never give me the credit I deserve. He wouldn't care what you were like. He tried his best to be nice to you and that's it.'

Tom shrugged and sighed. 'I should have broken up with you first, that's all.'

'You got that right. Look. All that time, you did like me, right?'

'Are you crazy?'

'I don't know. Am I?'

Tom winced and the corners of his mouth turned down. 'I know this situation right now is my fault and I brought it on myself, and I'm sorry. But I did, still do, like you. Some times it isn't enough, is it?'

'No.' Jane just nodded sadly. "Too bad."

'But it started because I really like you, Jane. You're smart and you're funny, you have a great attitude … you do everything on your own terms. You're, like, from a cooler world.'

Jane looked up. 'I am, aren't I?'

'You really are.'

A momentary smile flickered across Jane's face. 'Too bad you're such a dork.'

'Yeah, I should have kept the break clean and not dragged Sonny into it.' Tom looked straight at her. 'It's all true what I said.'

'Well, that's good.' She sighs. "He wasn't. He looked kind of like a zombie. And not the fun kind. Like he hadn't changed his clothes since yesterday. Or washed. Maybe not even moved.'

'What?'

'I don't know. He seems to be taking our breakup harder than we are." Tom stays silent. "I should probably talk to him. I doubt his family will help him."

"It sounds like he has more on his mind than you and I breaking up."

She had heard it before and always denied it. Now... "Maybe he does like me as more than a friend. Even more reason I should talk to him."


'Sonny? Are you all right?'

It had been Quinn coming through the door. Now she was looming over him. He still recognized her. She was asking him what had happened.

Right. Something had happened, all right. As she crouched down in front of him, peering into his face, he said, 'Quinn? If your best friend were going out with somebody and they broke up and she came to you talk, what would you do?'

'We don't have boys break up with us, we break up with them. Why?"

"Jane and Tom are breaking up. Tom told me before he told her. I know, as her friend, I should talk with her about it. I have no idea what to actually say though. She's my friend and if I say the wrong thing what the hell do I do? I'm not cut up for finding a new friend."

"Why do you care so much? Gah, it isn't like you two are dating. Or do you..."

"No, she's just a friend. My only friend. I don't have any one else. Lawndale has been far easier than I ever thought it would be because of her. With out her..."

"Are you sure you don't like her as more? You seemed pretty jealous of Tom."

"I wasn't jealous I was..." Sonny shakes a little. "I wasn't jealous. I don't know what it was. I just need to think some more."

Quinn stares at him when she gets an idea. "You keep thinking."

As she leaves Sonny wonders where she was going. She had just gotten home and hadn't gone upstairs to change or any thing else.

'Hey, Janey!' Trent called from the door. 'Sonny's sister's here to see you!'

Jane looked up. Quinn? What was Quinn doing here? This has to be the worst timing ever. There was only one way to deal with it, through. She levered herself upright and made her way towards the door.

Quinn met her halfway, and Jane told her at once that whatever Quinn wanted, she really wasn't up to talking about it at the moment.

Quinn said, 'I know it must be hard for you being totally hurt like that. My cousin, um, brother, is like, taking your breakup really hard.'

Jane took a step backward. 'So … you know about that.'

'It's not the kind of thing he keeps secret. He told you, didn't he? I wouldn't have, I think it's crazy, but then that's crazy Sonny for you, isn't it? It's all those books he reads. If Sandi's ex was going to break up with her and told me first, I wouldn't tell her. Why would I want to do that?'

Jane cut her off. 'You didn't come round here to give me Quinn Morgendorffer's introductory lesson on sneaking round behind your friends' backs, did you.'

Normally when Quinn was caught out getting carried away like that, she giggled. Jane noticed that she didn't.

'Sorry. No, I came round here because if it did happen to me, even though I don't have a steady boyfriend, I wouldn't be like, super mad at the other person..' When Jane said nothing, Quinn carried on. 'Of course, just because I said that wouldn't have to mean it was true, because there might be more important reasons to make up with my best friend than just some stupid boy. I mean, if you break up with a boy, that's it, you can't go back, because that just makes you look cheap, but if you have a fight with your best friend, you can always make up, because that's how it works when you're best friends, you fight and then you make up and then that makes you best friends. So if you've, like, broken up with Tom, well, that's over, but if you've had a fight with Sonny, well, that's not like breaking up with a boy, even though Sonny actually is a boy, but he's, well, you know, your friend. I mean, and so it's not like you were ever dating, not that you were anyway, but now if you make up with him it's not like making up with a boyfriend, it's like making up with a best friend, which you two are, so, maybe you should think about it? I know I would be mad if I had a steady boyfriend and he told Sandi he was going to break up with me and she didn't tell me but I'd make up with her. Sonny might not know that, because he's never had a friend before, and maybe you haven't either, so maybe you don't know that either.'

This time when Quinn paused for breath, Jane held up both hands to stem the flow for a moment while she gathered herself. Then she said, 'So the only reason you've come round here today is out of selfless concern for me. And your … distant cousin.'

Now it was Quinn who took a moment to answer. 'Today, Sonny's my brother and I don't care who knows it. But I'm only his sister. He still needs his best friend.'

Jane pulled a face. 'If it matters that much to you, I didn't tell him that I never wanted to see him again. In fact, I already went round to your place to talk to him, even though I didn't know what I wanted to say. But there was nobody home.'

'When I got home, he seemed like a zombie. Maybe he didn't know it was you.'

'Maybe." Jane squared her shoulders. 'Thanks. I already knew I kind of had to talk to him again. Tom told me too.'

'That's the other reason I came round. I need to know about this Tom. Can you give me his address?'

Jane couldn't help it. She felt like grinning again. 'You're going round to see Tom? I wish I could get to watch. You have to promise to tell me about it afterwards.'


Nobody told me how rich this Tim was, I mean Tom, Quinn thought to herself as she waited for somebody to answer the doorbell. The house and the grounds were amazing. No wonder Tom didn't go to Lawndale High.

The boy who answered the door, now that she took the time to size him up, didn't look too bad either, although he obviously paid as little attention to his clothes as Sonny did. She was still thinking about how his appearance could be improved with a little effort as she launched herself into speech with practiced technique before he could get a word in.

'Hi, I'm Sonny's sister Quinn. You must be Tom.'

'Um … I'm not sure what you think you've heard …'

'I heard you went to Sonny instead of Jane. Told him you were going to break up with her before you actually did. Being her best friend he didn't know how to handle this and didn't tell her until the next day. Of course finding out that way pissed her off.'

Tom stammered a little before responding. "I get it, it was bad on my part. She has every right to be mad at me."

'Not you, Sonny. Did you really think breaking up with her through her best friend would leave him out of it? It just sucked him in to the middle of it! Understand?'

Tom blinked and nodded.

"If you ever have to break up with any one again don't you dare do it through their friend. I can't believe guys are this stupid! But you hurt Jane and Sonny and those two, I don't know, have some thing. Even if Sonny doesn't realize it yet. If they stop being friends or what ever, just know, I know where you live."

He simply nods as she storms away.


Sonny heard Quinn calling up the stairs to him from the front door. 'It's your friend Jane! She's here to talk to you!' By the time he reached the living room Quinn already had Jane seated on the couch with a glass of water in front of her. As soon as he came in, Quinn left them.

Sonny sat down as Jane broke the silence.

'You're looking better.'

'You're looking … not as angry as before.'

'Yeah.' Jane nodded. 'That's about right. Not as angry as before.'

They looked away from each other, then glanced at each other again, then away again.

Jane said, 'I broke up with Tom, but not because of you. I think you need to know that. We would have broken up anyway.'

'That doesn't change what you said before. You were angry because he came to me and I didn't tell you. I should have called you as soon as I could but I didn't.'

Jane cleared her throat. 'You could have. But, I get it. You didn't know how to handle it. Hell, if you were dating Brittany and she came to me saying she was going to break up with you and I didn't tell you until way later, you'd have every right to be mad at me."

"You'd never get through the hospital security where they had me after losing my mind and dating her."

"Dating isn't that bad. I mean, ok, not Brittany but some one. If you ever did decide to date I could help you."

'Why, have you got some friendly warnings to give me? Still angry enough to want to twist the knife? Not that I don't deserve it, but I can't think about that now. I'm confused enough as it is.'

'About what?"

"Why he came to me. Why not you? Why did he put me in the middle? Why didn't I tell you? Why don't I know what to say or do around you any more? You're my friend and I should be there or what ever but I don't know what to do. When I realized how mad you were I realized I might lose you."

"Oh. Um, Sonny, I know we're friends but have you ever thought about... Being more?" She sees his face go pale. "I'm not saying,"

He cuts her off. "Yes you are and this is what I've been scared of too. I like you, a lot, as a friend. When you started dating Tom it made me realize you were really looking to date some one. As long as you were together it was ok. If you broke up, which you did, and you looked around, I am right here."

"I know but,"

"Let me finish, please. I noticed a lot of things Tom and I had in common. I noticed not just one or two things but a lot of things. It got me wondering why you liked him so much. Except for the height and money difference, we were a lot alike. More than I like to think about."

"I know, I didn't even see it, at first. But I knew how you felt."

"Really?"

"Yes. We were just friends. We're not boyfriend-girlfriend. It's never been an issue because you aren't interested in dating."

"Yes, but the Tom thing weirded me out. It made me think that maybe..." Jane groans. "What?"

'Well, the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing genuinely wasn't an issue. It's like we told the Gupty kids later on when we babysat them—just because a boy and a girl are friends, it's not the same thing. I mean, the first thing I thought when I noticed you was that you could be an interesting person to be friends with, like outcasts together, and I would have thought the same if you'd been a girl, or if you were gay, or if I had been gay, or whatever. We hung out together, and that was cool, and I started sketching and painting you, and that was cool too, because you made an interesting subject from an artistic point of view. And then we went to Brittany's party together, but it wasn't a date, because you don't date. I got that, but it made me start thinking. I mean, it made sense as part of the whole anti-social "go to hell" aspect of the Sonny Morgendorffer persona, but did you ever really mean that you weren't going to date anybody ever, your whole life? Do you think?'

Sonny scratched behind his ear. 'I'd have to say that I didn't let myself think. And I suppose now we can both see another possible reason I compartmentalized like that.'

'Well, if we're taking the story in order, we haven't got to the revelation yet, right? You remember at Brittany's party I went off to the make-out room with that big-headed boy?'

Sonny nodded and Jane continued.

'Well, you made your attitude pretty clear, and it was also clear that you weren't jealous in any way and that whatever you thought you weren't going to disown me as a friend just because of my getting involved with a boy—if I did get involved. So I felt like it was clear how things could work, without actually discussing it. We would be friends, and if I got involved with a boyfriend I would, and we'd just go on being friends in a completely platonic non-romantic way. But I also figured that whatever you said at that stage of your life, things might change later on and you might get into dating or whatever. So I figured we could handle that if it came up later on, but the friendship was important to me either way. I never saw our friendship as something that got in the way of my taking an interest in boys, and anything else that might happen between the two of us was just that, something that might happen or that might not, and there was no reason having that possibility in the background should hurt our friendship, which was the most important thing.'

"It still is, to me. I don't think your brother would have been so relaxed with me being around you all the time if it wasn't. That first time he saw me I was worried."

'And I do believe what you said about that first time, that you were thinking about how he might be reacting to a boy being around his little sister, because of those other experiences you'd had, and maybe that's all it was to begin with. But later … well, let's keep this in order. You remember when we were going to go to Alternapalooza? You got dressed up for the event to be "alternative". The "alternative" Sonny Morgendorffer. What did you think about that?'

'I … guess I didn't think about it too much.'

Jane nodded knowingly. 'Well, the truth is I was thinking it might be … not exactly a date, as such, but maybe an "alternative" date? I mean, going to a music festival can be the kind of thing that people do for a date, but it can also be something where a bunch of friends just hang out together. I was thinking that maybe if we got to the festival we might see another side of Sonny Morgendorffer. Just a possibility to keep open, if you see what I mean. You know that didn't work out. I felt horrible after after all the hell you went through. But even without getting there I could see you were feeling uncomfortable with the whole situation, and I started to feel bad because I'd got you into it—and I did wonder whether you were feeling as if I'd tricked you into going on a not-exactly-a-date with me and resenting it. '

"I didn't think it was a date. Just took me out of my zone." Now that Jane had mentioned it... 'Have you told Trent?'

'You mean about what's happened the past couple of days? Not so far."

"You probably should. He does live with you."

Jane smiles for the first time since Sonny told her what Tom told him. "You know, my brother thought you might be gay."

"What?!"

"Because that would be the only explanation for you not falling for my irresistible charms". He glares at her. "He likes you. He trusts you. I don't think he would mind if we..." He clears his throat. Jane continued. 'Well, anyway, the next thing was that Tom came into the picture.' Jane stopped to take a drink of water.

'Like I said before, I had my ground rules clear in my own head. Like a situation where there would be a time when we'd be something else as well as friends. But, on the other hand, maybe nothing else would ever happen. So there wasn't a reason why I couldn't play the field if I wanted to, not from my end and not from yours, either. Like that time at the dance when you went out to leave me alone with two boys that neither of us knew then were Ruttheimers, or the time when you were almost maneuvering to set up Ted and me. Even when that business happened with the track team, it wasn't any possibilities between me and Evan that were an issue for you. So here's Tom, and why shouldn't I date him? Then unexpectedly you did start acting like a jerk about it, but then you realized what you were doing and we got past that. I don't know, there's no way I can know or maybe even that you can, but maybe another reason you acted that way was that you were already somehow picking up on something about it that made you feel awkward?'

'I guess, maybe.'

"Maybe? See, this is what confuses me. The way you acted I thought you might actually be jealous of Tom. Like, you realized you did like me as more than friends or some thing but couldn't tell me or were waiting for the right time. When I started seeing the similarities between you and Tom I took a new look at you and started feeling things I didn't get either. I wanted to tell my best friend but since that was you..."

'You were trapped', said Sonny, as more things started to make sense to him. "I don't know either Jane. I'm confused too. I feel the first connection with some one and Evan or big head boy weren't a threat to that connection. Tom meant more to you. He could threaten that connection, understand?"

Jane nodded.

'Where do we go from here?'

'I was hoping you knew. I mean, does the whole "Sonny Morgendorffer doesn't date" thing still apply now that you know? I don't know what to do.'

'That makes two of us. But … you may be right. I was so worried you would hate me after the way you left.'

Jane didn't answer for a while. Then she said, 'I think the two of us are going to have to spend some time apart getting used to whatever happens next. Tell me, why did you even get into his car?'

'The only thing on my mind was you!' Sonny said, but then he paused and shook his head. 'I now see how that looks. Or sounds.'

"It sounds promising." The two sit in silence as neither knows what to say or do next.


Friday, at school, Stacy passed him a note after accidentally bumping in to him in the hallway.

"Metzer Theater, Beadle Blue Swans and White Elephants, nine?" He wrote a reply and during the next break between classes bumped in to her again.

"Excuse me, Quinn's servant or whatever, do watch where you're going."

"Sandi, I bumped in to him!" Stacy palms the note and the two go their separate ways.

Jane had noticed both bumps and stared at him while he tried eating his lunch. "You know, lunch is better if you eat and don't test to see if you can make some one's head explode with psychic powers."

"What is with you and Stacy?"

"She wants to go see the Beadle movie tonight."

"Ha, funny."

"Seriously, there is an art film by Beadle I want to see. Stacy wants to see it too and have me explain the symbolism of it."

"Really? After what we just talked about the other day? You don't date unless it is with a Fashion Fiend?

"Not a date, first of all, and second, didn't you say we needed some space? Time to think?"

"We talked about being more..."

"I know."

"Sonny I,"

"Sorry, I didn't think it was a big deal if I saw this movie with some one else. You don't like these kinds of films. Hell, I'm not even sure Stacy does. Why she needs me there to tell her what the, symbology as she put it, is. Stacy,"

Jane explodes. "Oh my god Sonny, seriously?! I just broke up with my first serious boyfriend and after what we talked about you're blowing me off for a Fashion Fiend? I thought at first you were actually jealous of Tom and might finally make a move but then I realized I was just hoping the only friend I ever had might be part human after all!"

Sonny is confused. They had talked about this. She decided, they decided, they need time apart to think about it. "Make a move? Does that sound any thing remotely like me?

"No, it sounds human. And even if you didn't I thought you understood our friendship meant more to me than my relationship with Tom. Until I noticed he was like you. He has the same sense of humor, same sense in clothes, or lack thereof, and a bunch of other things I didn't see until later. I realized I was just dating a taller version of you which as you pointed out was weird. Tom probably sensed that and that's why I kept changing myself." Jane grabs at her hair which was still striped. "Trying to change my life but you and the taller version of you just made me realize that I can't change those around me no matter how much I change myself."

"So you're mad at me because we are just friends and then you dated some one like me only to break up after you saw they were like me. When we finally told each other our feelings you said we should spend time apart and think about it. I am taking that time. If some of it is spent explaining why the men are considered as poisoning themselves for eating fast food which is actually food but the women are hip and cool for smoking cigars which are filled with poison to some one why do you care?"

Jane pounds on the table "Dammit Morgendorffer!"

As she storms off Sonny notices every one was staring at him. "Go to hell." He gets up from the table and walks the opposite way to the nearest bathroom so he could have some alone time to do what he did best, think.

A/N Ok, this took a LOT of changes. I actually even changed things I had outlined a lot because I like what I came up with better. I hope those of you reading enjoy it as well. I reread and rerereread it to make sure I didn't leave any mistakes but I might have still missed one or two.