Daria Ravenclaw: The Legend of Sporting Joe
Chapter 21: Flight After Fight. Part One
DISCLAIMER: The world of Harry Potter was created by JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling, Wizarding World and Warner Brothers. Daria was created by Glen Eichler and the characters are the property of MTV Viacom. I do not own either franchise and only claim ownership of my original characters.
This story is written for my own amusement, not for profit.
Author's note: This chapter was long in coming. I apologize for the long delay. Not only was I distracted by my other stories, I have been extremely busy with off-screen matters, such as packing up thirty years of life in my house and preparing to move.
Daria Ravenclaw: The Legend of Sporting Joe*Daria Ravenclaw: The Legend of Sporting Joe*Daria Ravenclaw: The Legend of Sporting Joe
The ride back to the Settles was quiet but tense. The only conversation was between Mr. Weatley and Julia's mother. Mr. Weatley told her Mum that they needed to have a frank talk about Derrick and how his behavior was disrupting the shoot here in West Texas. "I prefer to stay out of my cast's person lives, but there comes a point where their behavior off-stage ceases to be a background distraction and becomes a problem," he said.
"Are you saying that you're having a problem with me?" said her Mum.
"I'm not having a problem with you," said Mr. Weatley. "Despite your entanglement with Mr. Box, I find your performance on-set to be highly professional. You've taken wonderfully to your role. I can almost believe that you're Bonnie Connally."
"Thank you," said her Mum.
"The problem I'm having is your companion," said Mr. Weatley. "Mr. Box's behavior is becoming a problem. He's insulted several members of the cast and the production crew, he'd propositioned several young women, and this evening his behavior with Miss Dagworth nearly scuppered any hope we had about salvaging this shoot. Fr the sake of this production, I'd like to ask you to get Mr. Box to either control himself or return to Britain and wait for us to finish filming."
"I'll talk to him," said Julia's Mum.
"Please do," said Mr. Weatley, an edge in his voice.
-(((O-O)))—
The ride up the elevator was as tense as the ride back from the restaurant. Julia said nothing. Her Mum unlocked the door, and they walked in. Derrick had arrived before them and Julia noticed that he'd opened a different bottle of whisky. Julia said good night, then went into her room and closed the door. She knew what was coming.
The shouting started almost immediately. Julia wished that her door was thicker or that she was allowed to use a Mufflato charm. Tears started forming at the edge of her eyes: she was doomed to overhear what came next.
"Derrick, how could you?" said Julia's Mum.
"How could I what?" Derrick said innocently.
"This evening at dinner!" said Julia's Mum. "I can't believe that you made a pass at that girl!"
"The Yank girl?" said Derrick. "The auburn-haired one? Not interested."
"No, not the red-headed one, the blonde one," said Aurora.
"Just a bit of harmless flirting," said Derrick.
"Harmless flirting? Harmless flirting?" shouted Aurora. "You bloody fool! Any flirting with that chit is dangerous. That girl's grandfather is the one we need or this production goes down the crapper!"
"She's old enough," said Derrick.
"No she's not!" shouted Aurora. "She's important! Besides, that girl's fourteen, fifteen at the most!"
"So?" said Derrick.
"Derrick, she's too young!" shouted Aurora. "The minimum age for consent here is eighteen, not fourteen, not sixteen!"
"How would you know?" said Derrick.
"Oswald's assistant Tricia," her mother said in a quieter voice. "She looked it up before we left."
"Set us up with someone, did he?" said Derrick.
"No, he wanted to make sure that the rest of the cast and crew stayed out of trouble," said Aurora.
"Tricia, Tricia," said Oswald. "Is she planning on stepping out while she's here?"
"She's got a boyfriend," said Aurora. "He decided to stay in Britain. Derrick, you've got to control yourself. We're supposed to be a couple. That means you and me, not you and me and some scantily-clad tart that catches your eye or some adolescent girl on the street."
"There's a lot of them hereabouts," said Derrick.
"They've got parents or boyfriends," said Julia's Mum. "And it's hot here. That's why they don't dress like girls at home."
"They dress like tarts," said Derrick.
"Morgana and Circe, Derrick!" shouted her Mum. "This is a foreign country. It only looks safe! Can't you get a grip on yourself? This place isn't safe!"
"Good as any to get a drink," replied Derrick.
"Derrick, some of these people have guns!" said Aurora.
"I've seen a couple of blokes with gun racks on their trucks," Derrick replied. "Don't see how they hit anything while they're driving."
"And some of them carry pistols on their persons!" said Julia's Mum. "And I've heard tell that it doesn't take much to set them off!" She wasn't sure that was true, but maybe that would get through to him.
"Sexless wankers," said Derrick. "No wonder they all carry guns."
-(((O-O)))—
Julia tried to ignore the shouting on the other side of the door, wishing that she couldn't hear her Mum and Derrick going at it. It was times like these that she wished she was old enough to perform the Mufflato charm.
Tears started forming in her eyes. Her Mum had had fights like these with previous boyfriends. Most of the time she'd been able to walk out or ignore them. In Britain she had family or a couple of friends she could go to, weather out the storm and check in in the morning. Here in Highland, though, she was across an ocean and halfway across the American continent and she didn't know anyone or even where the public floos were.
She thought of the Morgendorffers, then dismissed it. She didn't know them that well and didn't want to dump her family's stuff on Daria and her parents. Maybe she could hold out until morning, she told herself.
The shouting continued. From the sound of it Julia knew that her mother and Derrick would continue to go at it for at least an hour. "I can't stand it, I can't stand it, I can't stand it," she muttered under her breath, wishing that they'd stop or that she was somewhere else..
They didn't stop. After listening to them continue to go at it, she decided that she'd had enough. Maybe she could go somewhere else. She opened the door to the hall and stepped out.
She had a plan or hoped that she did. She started making plans for these fights during the Christmas holidays. The ones she'd made back home wouldn't work here, though. She couldn't use the Floo and she doubted that the Knight Bus went through Highland.
Maybe she could stay with someone else from the cast or the crew. Tricia had a separate room on the sixth floor: maybe she could kip with her until morning. She pressed the elevator button and waited for the car to take her downstairs.
A short time later she found herself outside room 619. She took a breath and knocked on the door. At first she heard no response, then she heard Tricia say "Coming, coming." The door opened and Julia found herself looking at a sleepy Tricia.
"Oh, it's you," she said. "What do you want?"
Julia opened her mouth to say that her Mum and Derrick were having a fight when she heard a male voice say "Trish, who is this?". She was not expecting to find a guy in Tricia's room. Bloody Hell, she thought.
"Never mind," she said, and turned away.
She had a back-up, she always did. Lyndsey was one of Mr. Weatley's production staffers and was close to her age. Somewhat. Lyndsey was just out of Uni and wasn't so old that she'd tell her to go away. Lyndsey was on the seventh floor.
She walked back to the elevator and pressed the "up" button. The chime rang and the elevator opened. The car was occupied by a drunken Texas couple.
"Howdy," said the guy. He was wearing a jacket and tie. He was at least ten years older than she was.
"Hallo," Julia replied. The girl with the Texan giggled. She'd also been drinking: Julia could smell it on her breath. Julia glanced at the row of buttons for the elevator car and was relieved to see that the Texans were going to the 10th floor. She pressed the button for the 7th floor and hoped that things would go better.
She got off the elevator on the 7th floor and took a couple of breaths. She had a moment of fright when she found that she couldn't remember which room was Lyndsey's. It came back to her a moment later and she set off down the hall, reading the numbers on the doors as she went.
It took her very little time for her to find room 709. She knocked on the door. She heard the sound of someone unlocking the door and her spirits lifted. This could only get better, she thought.
The door opened and Julia found herself staring in shock at Lyndsey. "Wha' d'you want?" said the older girl. Her makeup needed touching up, her hair was a mess and just listening to her told spoke volumes. Julia had had experience with users in Cinema and the theater: it was no great feat for her to see that Lyndsey was high on something. She wondered how Lyndsey had gotten whatever she was using. That didn't matter: what did matter was that there was no way in hell that she was going to kip with the older girl. "Never mind," she said, and turned away.
She walked back to the elevators and thought of what to do next. Maybe she could find a nice, quiet corner in the hotel lobby, then go back to her room after Mum and Derrick were too tired to fight and went to bed. She pressed the L button and waited for the elevator to take her down to the ground floor.
The elevator arrived and Julia stepped out. Her hopes of finding some quiet space to wait out Mum's quarrel with Derrick were immediately dashed. There were revelers coming into the building and there was what had to be a wedding reception going on in the main part of the hotel. That didn't stop Julia from walking around the edge of the event, her eyes flickering from side to side looking for some place of refuge, some quiet corner where she could sit down and wait out the time until her Mum and Derrick finally went to sleep.
Despite the fact that she was not wearing day-wear, her presence was noticed, first by a couple of tipsy party-goers asking her about her relation to the bride and groom, then by a guy who had to be part of the wedding-goers' security. She was able to set his mind at ease by telling him that she was a hotel guest and was trying to find the back elevators. The security staffer, not being that familiar with the Settles' layout, bought her explanation. Julia was relieved to see him turn away but knew that her stratagem had a shelf-life of half an hour, perhaps an hour if she was very lucky, but no more.
Julia's luck finally ran out about a quarter to one, just before the bride was about to throw her bouquet to a gaggle of unmarried wedding guests. Julia had found a spot in the rear of the party area near a table where an older guest with a mostly-empty wine glass had nodded off to sleep.
She was thinking that she was finally in the clear when she felt someone tap on her shoulder. It was the night clerk, accompanied by one of the hotel's own security people.
"Excuse me, little girl, you're not supposed to be here," said the night clerk.
"My mother is an actress and part of the film crew staying here," Julia replied.
"Then why aren't you upstairs?" the night clerk said self-importantly.
"Because I needed a break from the drama," Julia snapped.
Her comment went over the night-clerk's head. "This is a private event and if you aren't out of here in five minutes, I'm calling the cops."
Julia stared at him incredulously. He wouldn't would he? She stared at his expression and realized that he actually would.
She wasn't in a position to do anything about the git's before he could summon a local policeman but she studied his face for later.
"I'll go," she said. "But I'll be talking to Mr. Weatley tomorrow."
She walked out of the lobby and caught an elevator going up. Hopefully her Mum and Derrick would have finished fighting and the git did call the cops, he'd cause a scene and lose his job. She got out and walked to the door to her room and let herself in. She then put her ear to the door that led to the main part of the suite to see if Mum and Derrick had finally stopped fighting.
They hadn't. They were still at it and Julia started to panic. What now, she wondered. She couldn't stay here or she'd go mad. She couldn't stay with Tricia or with Lesley.
Maybe she could spend the night with someone else? She opened her purse and to her horror she didn't have the scrap of notebook paper with the Morgendorffers' phone number on it. She might have called one of the girls she'd met at the social, but she didn't have their phone numbers either. S
So what to do? She knew that Highland lacked those all-night coffee shops that London and other major cities possessed, so that was out. She didn't have her own credit card and she doubted that she could check into another hotel and spend the night there. She really needed someplace else to stay.
She had thought of calling the Morgendorffers earlier and had discarded it. Looking at how things had changed in the last hour or so, maybe spending the night with them wasn't such a bad idea after all. So how to get there? She knew where they lived and while she lacked money for a cab, she could walk there. She took off the pumps she'd worn to dinner and put on a pair of trainers she'd been wearing at Camp Craig. She then took the elevator downstairs. She glanced warily at the front desk but the night clerk wasn't to be seen. If she couldn't see him, he couldn't see her. She opened the front door and started walking.
A block later, Julia found herself in a half-familiar environment. While her way from the hotel to highway 87 wasn't difficult, she began to feel a little uneasy. For all that she'd been having a horrible time at the Settles, it had been familiar territory: unpleasant territory, but safe. But she'd left it and was now on the streets of downtown Highland after dark, and she'd heard that it wasn't so safe.
Highway 87 was only a couple of blocks west of the hotel and eventually crossed with River Run Road. So which way was south? She heard a not-so-distant train whistle and remembered that the railway line was north of the Settles and what passed as Highland's downtown. The other way, then, she decided.
She began walking south, hoping that she wouldn't be noticed and that passing drivers would leave her alone. A couple of drag-racing cars drove past her and kept going. Another drag-racer passed her and honked. He must have seen her.
She thought about turning around but decided to keep going. She crossed more streets and passed darkened shop windows and empty car parks. I hope this is a good thing, she thought.
Several blocks later, she saw two cars stopped at a traffic signal. Both had their radios blasting, but that didn't stop their occupants from having words with each other and then gunning their engines when the lights changed. Less than a minute later, she heard sounds like firecrackers. She thought that odd, then realized that she hadn't heard firecrackers, but gunshots. Gods above, she thought. This town is dangerous.
She thought again about turning around, then decided to keep going. She did have her wand and while she didn't know many defensive spells, she did know how to perform a tripping jinx. That should last long enough for her to run to safety.
She hoped.
Four blocks later, she felt winded and on edge. Then one of her fears came true. She saw her silhouette in front of her and realized that an automobile had come up behind her and she hadn't noticed. Worse, the car had extra lights mounted on top of the passenger compartment: blue and yellow. She'd already guessed that the Highland Coppers used red and yellow lights, so who were these people? She decided that she'd better run for it and hope for the best.
I'm in for it now, she thought. Then she heard a voice that had to come from a Muggle-made loudspeaker mounted on the car: "Miss Darling, is that you?"
-(((O-O)))-
Author's notes:
This chapter is long delayed for a number of reasons, principally by the amount of attention I'm devoting to an upcoming house move. Also, I thought it would be extremely difficult to write, and I was uncertain as to how to go about it. I finally figured out how I'd go about it and, with the help of a cold snap, set to work on writing it out.