'Time of Your Life'
by: Sailor Danielle

Daria must say goodbye to Lawndale High, Lawndale, her fellow students, her family, Trent, Tom and finally Jane. She's off to Western New England, with new students, new proffessors, and a new life. So how will Daria approach life at a new loacle? Let's find out in the first Episode of Season 1 of Daria: The College Years.



Daria Morgendorffer was a quiet cynic. She didn't want to be thrown into any new situations with people she would never seek out on her own. At least that's who she was three years ago, when she had first moved to Lawndale. Now, still quiet and cynical, she had grown quite bit as a person, with the help of her first, best and only friend in her high school career, Jane Lane. Her brother Trent Lane, who had been Daria's first crush, and then there was Tom Sloane, who had probably helped to coax Daria out of her shell the most. He had originally been Daria's foe, dating Jane and taking up a lot of her time, but Daria had started seeing him the summer of her Junior year. She had been with him close to a year and a month. But now, graduation was over just a few hours ago and Daria felt an overwhelming sense of doom, and dimsay. She had a decision to make about her first relationship and didn't know exactly what to do.



"Pizza?" Tom asked Daria when she opened the door to see him with a Daisy in hand. She smiled her famous Mona Lisa smile at his sappiness.

"Sure," Daria closed the door and the two proceeded to his car. It took a few tries and then it jumped, finally started.

"Where's Jane?" he asked taking a bite of his Mushroom and Tomato slice.

"She's working on her art portfolio for the New York Academy of Arts. She's been very preoccupied with it lately," Daria replied.

"She'll do great she's an amazing artist," Tom replied.



Jane had never expected to get into a school such as the New York Academy of Arts. She and Daria might not be going to the same college but they'd been in the same state at least. She ran the brush along the canvas with ease, creating a landscape of dead trees and greyish- black grass. Trent walked by her room and she turned watching. Then the hall feel silent again. She dabbed some black paint to create clouds of death around the land. It was nearly finished but she didn't know what it needed to sat on the floor in front of it.... staring. Suddenly the doorbell rang, she didn't know who it could be, most of the friends of her and Trent didn't need to knock, so she walked slowly down the stairs to find Daria.

"No need to knock, enter," Jane stepped back.

"Hey, just thought I'd come and visit," Daria replied.

"Hey Daria," Trent said descending the stairs.

"Hi Trent."

"So where is young Thomas?" Jane asked.

"He's at home. Actually I needed to talk to you about that," Daria said sheepishly.

"Well, step into my parlor said the spider to the fly," Jane said craftily.

The two sat at the kitchen table. "So what's up?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe I should break up with Tom," Daria muttered.

"Why?" Jane asked.

"Well, we're going to different schools and we won't be seeing each other and he'll probably meet someone else at Princeton. I don't want to go through the pain of him telling me he's found someone else," Daria stared at her hands.

"Just because you'll be a couple hudred miles away doesn't mean anything. I mean you and me are going to different schools and I hope we're not going to suddenly break up."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Of course it does, no more talk of it!" Jane said. "I want you to see my latest painting, come on!"



Summer passed pretty quickly in Lawndale that year. There was a final party for the students of Lawndale High. Daria and Jane attended just to say goodbye to a few people they didn't hesitate to call friends.

"Hi Daria, Jane," said a squeaky voice. At least Daria wouldn't be hearing that voice anymore.

"Hi Brittany, where's Kevin?" Jane asked.

"Mr. Thompson and I are not speaking," Brittany said growing serious.

"Where are you going to college?" Daria asked.

"UCLA" Brittany said, perking up.

"What's your major going to be?" Jane asked.

"Major?" Brittany said, confused.

"Hi guys," Jodie and Mack walked up. "I haven't had a chance to talk to any of you, where are you going?"

"Western New England," Daria replied.

"Hey, looks like I'll be seeing you around then, I'm headed there myself," Mack said.

"I'm off to the New York Acedemy of Art," Jane sipped her soda.

"So where are you headed?" Daria asked.

"Spellman," Jodie sighed, "it wasn't my idea, my mother's. It was her alma mater and I mainly got accepted because she donates half her salary to them."

"Well that sucks," Daria said, sounding almost sympathetic.



It was a few days before Daria was off to school, everything was packed, and mostly set. All but one thing left undone. Quinn had already arranged to use Daria's closet now that she was away. This would be Quinn's last year in high school, soon she'd be applying to colleges, and at this point she actually cared where she went, no longer did she just want to break a thousand just to get into Pepperhill University <1>.

Tom rang the Morgendorffer's bell waiting impatiently for someone to answer, he was heading off to Princeton even earlier than Daria would be going so he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. No Aunt Mildred this summer <2>.

"Hello Tom," Quinn held a copy of Animal Farm in her hand.

"Hi Quinn, Daria around?" Tom asked coming in.

"Hang on let me check," Quinn ran up the stairs and two minutes later down walked Daria.

"Pizza?" she asked.

"Actually I was feeling more up to a movie, unless you want pizza instead?" Tom asked.

"A movie sounds good."

"Have fun," Quinn said, she then walked over to the couch and sat down.



The movie was decent, but the air conditioning in the theater was broken and the sound system was acting up. Daria and Tom walked to Pizza King afterward, it was a long walk from Playhouse 99 <3>. When they got there they ordered a Pizza.

"Tom, I've been meaning to talk to you," Daria looked down at the table and fiddled with a napkin.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you too, but go ahead," Tom said.

"Well, Tom, I think that since we're going to be in different schools in different states that-" Daria choked on her words. "I don't think we should go out anymore," Daria rushed out of the building quickly but Tom followed just as fast.

"Daria! Wait!" he yelled.

"What? Don't make this really hard for me Tom!" Daria said spinning around.

"Why did you suddenly reach this desicion? I mean we've been together for over a year and now you want to call it quits?! Daria, you said what you wanted to say, and I didn't get a chance to say what I was going to," Tom said.

"Fine, what is it?" Daria asked taking an involentary step back.

"Daria I wanted to tell you that I love you!" Tom choked out.

Daria couldn't handle all this sudden honesty. She ran off into the night, leaving Tom, hurt and confused.



"You're back early," Helen said looking up from a stack of papers.

"Yeah, well, I've had an interesting night," Daria walked upstairs.



"Hi," Daria mumbled as Trent opened the door to the Lane house. "Is Jane home?"

"Nope, you wanna come in anyway Daria?" Trent asked stepping back. I made some coffee this morning, you want a cup?" Seeing how it was six in the evening Daria declined. "Something wrong?"

"I broke up with Tom yesterday."

"Really, why?" Trent asked.

"Mostly because we're not even going to be in the same state after this week."

"So?" Trent asked.

"What do you mean?" Daria asked.

"I mean, distance doesn't matter, sometimes you can tell you really love someone if you're far away from them and the feelings are just as strong when you get back together," Trent explained. Then he remarked "hmmm, feels like a song in there...."

"I think I made a mistake," Daria said simply.



"Hello?" Mrs. Sloane asked picking up the phone.

"Hello, Mrs. Sloane is Tom around?" Daria asked.

"No, I'm sorry Daria he left this morning for Princeton early," she explained.

"Oh alright," Daria muttered.

"Would you like his number at the dorms?"

"No, nevermind, it's alright, thanks," Daria hung up.



It was time for Daria to leave, at least two days before it was time for her to leave. She went to Jane's one last time and the two sat in their usual silence, Jane painting, Daria reading. Around ten Daria was ready to leave. Jane would be off in the morning.

"Well, call me when you get to the dorms?" Daria said trying not to change her tone.

"I will, after my original plans for move-in day are complete <4>," Jane gave her a feindish smile.

The two hugged very breifly and Daria left, not looking back. The next day around eight Jane called to let Daria know she was still alive.

Time passed quickly and it was time for Daria to begin packing up Jake's car. Before long the Morgendorffers had arrived at Western New England, and everything seemed so final. Helen brought up the last piece of furniture, a lamp and then it was time for them to leave.

Quinn was still up in the dorm, looking around.

"Sweetie, call us if you need anything," Helen hugged Daria.

"We'll see you at vacations kiddo," Jake closed the trunk.



"Quinn, mom and dad are waiting," Daria said.

"Right, well, have fun at college, hard to believe that what I'll be doing next year. Well, bye Daria," Quinn hugged her sister. She then rushed from the room and down the stairs to the family car.



Daria didn't spend much time in her room, she locked the door and went to the campus library. When she came back three hours later she found half the room painted black and a goth chick sitting on the floor, blairing Marilyin Manson music.

"Hi! I'm Piper," the girl stood up.

"Daria."

"Cool name, I didn't know if you'd want your side painted so I left it barf yellow."

Daria arched an eyebrow... it was going to be a *long* year.



In a few weeks Piper hung around the room less and less, leaving Daria more time to herself and privacy than she could have ever hoped to have at home. She mostly read, occasionally doing classwork and sometimes surfing the net. She had a buddy list, though Jane never came on, and Tom didn't either. Sometimes when he did Daria would sign off right away to avoid him. She would get mail from Quinn sometimes, or Helen. But one afternoon she recived a package, it was too large to be something from her mother, it looked like a videocassete. She tore open the paper and popped it into her VCR. Tom showed up on the screen.

"Daria, please don't stop the tape, I have a few things I need to say. I don't take back what I said to you the night before I left, and I do love you. I wanted to see how you were. I was kinda wondering, if maybe you would ever change your mind. Daria, look, just send me a tape back, and if you don't want to talk to me again, just send the tape back with me on it." Daria stopped the tape. She looked down at it and wondered what she could do.

"He sounded sincere," said a voice from the doorway, Piper had been listening.



Jane was enjoying her college life, beat the pants of Lawndale, that's for sure. She was in a suite, which suited her fine. She got along well with most of her suite-mates. There was Rika and Gale, girlfriends since sophmore year of high school. They weren't very public about their relationship but you could tell just by the way they looked at one another, they were together. Dorthy was the only girl Jane could deal with, she was a spoiled brat who only painted still-lifes and thought Jane was a freak. Phi was a great sculptor, and could be quite temperamental. Finally there was Jane's roommate, Reni. She was a tall, thin black girl who had true New York savvy down. She knew the best clubs, and hangouts, and was a pretty funkydresser.



Tom was having much less of a good time at Princeton, the food sucked and his roommate was the single most annoying, airheaded, selfish individual he could ever have hoped to meet in his life. He was mostly banished to the library by Terry because he was forever bringing girls back to the room and throwing Tom out for usually three hours. He hadn't made a single friend and was increadibly lonely and bored. He took to building a website in his spare time, which he was quite good with Javascript, CGI and HTML.



Daria sat in the library reading a book on human behavior.

"Hey," a familiar face finally.

"Hi Mack," she replied.

"So how's it going?" he asked.

"Not so bad, you?"

"Alright."

"This might seem kinda personal, but, did you and Jodie break up when you parted ways to go off to seperate colleges?"

"Did you and Tom call it quits?" he asked.

"Well, I did."

"We made an agreement, that we wouldn't say we were exclusive, but we'd see how things are when we see each other at Christmas," Mack said.

"I've gotta get going, I have something to think about," Daria gathered her books and rushed toward the exit. She turned. "Hey Mack."

"Yeah?" he turned looking at her.

"Thanks," she smiled.



Daria laid in bed that night with a lot going through her mind. She had no idea what she was going to do, but had a long time to think about it.



(What will happen to Daria!? Well, you'll just have to wait until episode two, mischief, mayhem, and nakedness, involving ducks!? Will Daria get rid of Tom for good, will Jane deal with Dorthy, and where did Andrea, Kevin and Upchuck go! Coming soon, episode two, "Tradition-schmadition".)