Part 6

Daria sat at the breakfast table working her way through the weekend edition of the newspaper when Quinn came down. It was nearly eleven o’clock and she was still clad in pajamas and had a serious case of bed-hair. Their mother was in the den, engrossed in her case files again and their father was out to do some shopping.

“Mornin’ sunshine!”

“Cut it out! You stole my Friday evening and my complete sleep rhythm is off. All thanks to the ‘nice’ nap you let me have! After I woke up again I couldn’t get back to sleep until 3am! And when I woke up yesterday evening, I was all nekkid! Why didn’t you dress me! And my muscles still hurt from Thursday if I move the wrong way! My life is ruined!”

Daria put the newspaper down.
“Well, you insisted on...”

“That’s not the point! What if someone walked into my room and saw me? It’s over, things can’t get any worse!”

“Someone could have seen you... and taken a picture.”

“Haha, Daria. And he could have infected me with ebola. You fail even as a misery chick.”

Daria raised an eyebrow. Quinn was more upset than she had expected. Quinn picked up a bowl, some cereal and milk and started her own breakfast in silence. She pointedly look anywhere but at her sister.

Daria was astonished by Quinn’s acerbic manners and could only guess why Quinn was so upset.
«OK, I had had her with the massage, but otherwise... she’s mad at the world and I’m just a convenient target. No dates, no friends, new school and home, and tons of school work. Let’s see if I can lighten her mood a little.»
“What do you think of the cafeteria food at school?”

“Sucks.”
Quinn continued to sulk, but was now glancing at her sister every now and then. Daria put her glasses down and massaged the bridge of her nose.

“I agree. I’m thinking of storing some cans of dog food in my locker as an alternative for the really bad days. I’d be healthier as well.”

“EWWWW Daria, I’m, like, eating here!”

«Let’s extend the olive branch.»
“I’ll give the cafeteria another chance next week. If things don’t improve, it’s brown-bagging for me from then on.”

Quinn was torn. Daria had played a bad trick on her last evening, but keeping the cold shoulder treatment up right now could mean school lunch for a long time. Bad, icky, fattening school lunch. But she would not swallow the bait Daria had put out that easily.
“One could have a healthy selection of fruits and some vegetable sticks.”

«Gotcha. You want to. You just don’t want to admit it.»
“I doubt mom or dad would prepare lunch for us every morning.”

Quinn focussed her attention on her cereal. Daria decided to dangle the bait a little longer.
“That’d mean getting up 10 minutes earlier. At least.”
«I could get up only 20 minutes after you. What a bummer.»

Quinn managed to resist the temptation. “Well, maybe the food will improve.”

Daria picked her glasses up again and returned to reading the paper after Quinn did not take the bait. She was sure that it was only a matter of time until she would; Quinn was too picky about her food to stay on that cafeteria lunch if she had the option to avoid it. That would come at a price, obviously. Daria would need some time to think of appropriate compensation.

After the breakfast and the paper Daria retreated into her room and started to work through her homework. Getting it out of the way would free the entire remaining weekend for leisure. Her diary was in need of an update, and there was still the issue with the phone lines. She heard Quinn enter their bathroom before her world reduced itself to math problems.

*****

After her breakfast Quinn stepped into the bathroom to take a shower. Her image in mirror looked simply bad.

«I look horrible. Thank god only Daria saw me - and she doesn’t give much for appearance.»

The shower was refreshing, but Quinn noted again that the room needed some remodelling. The showerhead was far too low for people of her size, as was the shower curtain once she lifted the nozzle to wash her hair. It would take a while to adjust the house.

Her prospects for the weekend were rather dull. Catching up with the missing two weeks of schoolwork did not provide that big a challenge. Combined with the effort she had put in during the week, she should have been able to arrive on par by late evening today. But thanks to the loss of large parts of Thursday and Friday evening, she’d be more or less busy until Sunday evening. Then there was the middle school reading list that differed a little from the one in Texas. That meant that she had some books to read in order to fill the gaps that could open during her English class. She wasn’t Daria who had likely read half of all existing books by now. That would be time consuming and totally boring. Plus she had to start to take notes of the books, Daria had had a point there. That was time consuming right now, but would prove efficient in the long run.

*****

“Daria.”

Daria hadn’t noticed her mother entering her room. Her entering Daria’s own turf was rare, so something was up. The sounds of running water told Daria that her sister was taking a shower.

“Mom?”

Daria refocussed her attention on her mother. Helen wouldn’t interrupt her work if this wasn’t important. Her mother’s choice of an opportunity without Quinn and Jake around indicated that she expected resistance. She didn’t want any witnesses.

Helen did not beat around the bush. She wanted to get this issue over with.
“Daria, I think you should take up seeing a professional psychologist again.”
«And if I start this the right way, the bill will be covered entirely by the insurance.»

«Damn. But that was a sure bet since that bloodyshrink put me into the freak show on Monday. And her mind is set on it. Stay reasonable.»
“Mom, I’ve been seeing ...”

“...a psychologist for some time. You have and it did help you.”

“Then...?”

“Continuing will help you further.”

“Don’t you think that’d be a waste of time and money?”

«Not my time, not my money.» “If I did I wouldn’t send you. You’re going to profit from it.”

“I don’t think I need them anymore.”

“Daria, please face the facts. You being sent to some self-esteem class as the first thing at your new school shows that you still need some guidance.”

“That damn shrink’s a quack and wanted to pay me back!”

Helen backed a step away at Daria’s angry outburst, but not on the matter. One more reason to keep Daria under surveillance.

“You’re smart enough to avoid such situations to begin with and rejected my help after it happened. I’m not going to send you to some ‘quack’, Daria.”

«Calm down, that’s not going to do you any good.»
“Mom, I...”

“Daria, you will be going, end of discussion. And rest assured that I’ll have a close eye on Quinn.”

«‘Anything you say can and will be used against you.’ Anything you don’t say as well.»
“Yes mom.”

“I’ll tell you when and where.”

«Damage control.»
“If possible not Monday and Thursday evening, mom. My training’s then.”

«Hmm, that’s keeping her occupied...» “Allright, I think I’ll manage to avoid these days, Daria. But you know that I can’t make any promises about that. OK?”

«It’s not like ‘no’ is an option here.» “OK, mom.”

That said, Helen left Daria’s room again, likely to return to her files. Daria was not completely surprised by her mother’s announcement. She had that inkling ever since she could not get out of that friggin’ psych exam on Monday. One more day a week that went down the drain. She had to get out of that brain dead after-school class — ASAFP.

*****

Quinn looked back at her week while the shower’s warm water relaxed her. She had not made any friends by now, but was hopeful that this was going to change soon. Stacy seemed to be a nice girl, once she was away from Sandi. They seemed to share some interests as well and Stacy luckily did not immediately see her as a threat. When it came to making female friends her looks were really a handicap. She had already overheard some really nasty remarks from other girls concerning herself. Things at middle school had been much easier with Daria paving her way.

Sandi was the most high-strung bitch Quinn had ever encountered so far. That girl had some real issues. If it wasn’t for their common interest in fashion and the tolerable other girls around her, Quinn would not associate with her. Sandi was building a serious powerbase in the circle of the popular, but while this was a good reason for many girls to bow to Sandi’s regiment that was not a necessity for Quinn. Given her looks, the question was not if she was popular or not, but just how popular she was going to be. If Sandi would accept that fact and adopt a live-and-let-live policy, they should be able to get along. And Quinn doubted that she would ever develop any interest in Sandi beyond ‘get along with’.

Then there was the third girl of the fashion club,Tiffany. She was beautiful like a delicate china doll and as talkative. Quinn wondered what her problem was, and came up with several possible reasons. All of them were highly uncomfortable, so Quinn decided to deal with that issue later. Much later.

To Quinn’s chagrin the male population of LHS had not reacted to her arrival as she would have preferred. At middle school, the male students adored her, and she had revelled in it. During the last week she had seen guys drool far too often. But no one had made the effort to actually talk to her. It would take a while to settle in. High school was different from middle school. Some of the questions Ms. Manson had asked on Monday started to make a lot more sense now.

Her mind wandered back to her school work. She could bother less, but her mother made a point at tying her spending, time and money, to her scholastic performance. Anything worse than a C would be really frowned upon - including money-wise. Quinn was not keen to find out the result of a less than C average at midterms or even the finals would look like. Having a major brain like Daria around did not help either. With her parents, that was.

Secondary literature was likely the way to go. She wasn’t required to know the books, but about the books. And preprocessed information would be easier to absorb and thus more efficient. She’d had to ask Daria about that. That was a perk of having a major brain around the house.

*****

“Quinn?”

Helen looked into her younger daughter’s room and found her unmoving on her bed. Quinn looked up, and the opened book in her hand made clear that she had been taking a break from reading.

“Yes, mom?”

“I need a break, and still have some things I need to buy. I’m heading over to the mall, you want to join?”

That was an offer Quinn could not resist. She had hardly been out all week, and the reading was getting to her. A trip to the mall was a welcome interruption of her day. She immediately gave in to the temptation.
“Give me five minutes!”

“I’ll wait downstairs.”
Helen left Quinn’s room, closed the door, and looked down the hallway towards Daria’s door. Even if she already knew the outcome, she could not skip asking Daria to join in as well. Helen sighed. Appeasement did not go well with Daria.

*****

Five minutes later, a properly dressed Quinn and her mother mounted the SAV and set off. A block down the street it registered with Quinn that it was just the two of them.

“Didn’t Daria want to come?”

“Daria was ‘busy’. She isn’t in the mood to spend time with me right now.”

“Hu? What happened?”

“I’m having her see a psychologist again.”

“Oh.” Quinn did not like that. If her sister was sent there again, she was not too far off herself.

“I wasn’t sure until we got that message on Monday.”

“I think she’s doing better now.”

“If she is it doesn’t show. Otherwise she would not have been diagnosed with low self-esteem.”

“From that interview, mom?”

“The school psychologist meets the requirements of the county school board and is approved by the PTA. I seriously doubt this Ms. Li would tolerateany incompetence at her school.”

«I don’t think competence is her top requirement for employment - not by a loooong way.»
“I don’t think Daria’s happy about that.”

“Of course not. Only a total nutcase would be happy to have psychological problems. And don’t think I am happy about that. It’s my, our money and my time.”

“Maybe she’ll get better quick.”

“She better.”

The conversation did dampen Quinn’s mood a little, but with this being her first trip to the local mall Quinn was still excited. She was aware that this would give her some serious exposure and, with this being around lunchtime on a Saturday, she would likely be spotted by some students of LHS.

*****

Daria went into the kitchen to make herself a sandwich for lunch. It had taken a while to take her mind off her renewed visits to a shrink, but once she was focussed again she made quick progress with her homework. After lunch, there was just some report to write for that Ms. Barch in science, and she would be done.

With her sister and her mother gone, she realized that she was alone in the new house for the first time. Daria took the opportunity to listen to the house. With pleasant autumn weather outside without any wind, there were hardly any sounds from the roof truss or the walls. There weren’t many noises on the outside as well. A dog barked some houses down the street but no cars were heard passing.

*****

Quinn and Helen split up immediately after they entered the mall and arranged to meet up an hour later in the food court to have some lunch. Quinn had had breakfast late and was fine with that. The food court should have something to her liking.

Helen set off to work through the list she had prepared, but Quinn was set to just browse. She got her share of stares as she walked through the hallways. Being tall had its perks in such an environment. With her eyes well above the heads of the crowd she had no problem in spotting the interesting stores even on the opposite side of the building.

The mall was small, but catered to all needs. All major chain stores had a branch, yet Quinn was not optimistic to get a great shopping experience. For someone of her size, even the big-and-tall stores had only a spartan selection.
«Spartan in every sense.»

On her expedition she passed several teens that seemed familiar to her, but she steered clear of the more popular hangouts like the record store. Right now, she wasn’t here for socializing but just to get to know the place. While looking at the display she noted a guy, a senior or college freshman, looking at her. She wouldn’t have spent any addition attention on him if she hadn’t seen the displeased girl approaching him from behind. Quinn threw her hair and shifted her hip to look at another item in order to set things in motion. The guy’s smile widened, the girl became infuriated once she arrived at the guy, and Quinn decided to make her exit before things turned really ugly.
«Thank heavens, it still works.»

*****

Quinn arrived a little early at the food court and spent the time waiting for her mother looking at the food options and watching the other patrons. There were a couple of students from her grade sitting in one booth. Geeks - not the crowd she would like to associate with.

Quinn spotted her mother, laden with several bags of loot, from far away and moved towards the entrance of the food court she would use. They secured a small table and Helen sat down immediately.

“Here’s money Quinn. Get me some chicken burrito combo with a cola and yourself whatever you like. I need some rest and will stay here with the bags.”

“Yes mom.”

Helen’s choice of a TexMex place was ok for Quinn. She could get herself some ensalada thingy with some something on the side. No cheese or cream, though. The order line advanced fast, and Quinn quickly returned to the table with a laden tray and handed back the change. Helen dug in immediately, she was obviously hungry.

“Mom, hasty eating will make you fat.”

“Quinn, I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and that was before eight. I’m starving here.”

Quinn took a sip from her diet soda. “Well, it’s still not healthy.”

“Lets make a deal: You don’t comment on my eating habits and I won’t comment on yours.”

Quinn just nodded. There hadn’t been a single visit to the doctor that didn’t included the phrase ‘You should gain a little weight’. Luckily they never said that her low weight was a problem, because otherwise her mother would have immediately force-fed her. Or more likely outsourced that task to Daria. Gaining weight was not something Quinn was looking forward to.

Mother and daughter continued their meal in silence and watched the crowd around them.

*****

Several eye pairs from the crowd watched back. Some LHS students had lunch at the food court as well and could not fail to notice Quinn’s presence.

“You see those two over there?”

Following his friend’s gaze, he immediately spotted the red hair high above the level of the other seated peoples’ heads.
“Which...ah, the tall hottie from school.”

“Yes. Who’s she with? I can’t really see the other person that well.”

“Dunno. She looks rather normal.”

“Friend from school?”

“What else? Her mother or what? They’re nothing alike. Look at the height difference, and the hair color doesn’t match a little.”

“So you know her? Her friend, I mean.”

“No clue who that could be. But what’s your interest with her, she’s rather plain.”

“That’s exactly why I get the girls first, Corey. You’re just not clever enough. She’s her friend. Get to know her, and get introduced to the hottie.”

“That’s pretty...”

“...smart. This is why I’ll watch closely who that girl is. And starting coming Monday, I’ll pay a little extra attention to her.”

The boys ate in silence and kept a constant surveillance on their targets. Once they had finished things got interesting. As the girls got up, the difference between the two of them became much more palpable. The difference in height - and age.

Corey started to snicker.
“Yo, Mr Smart, you gotta thing for older women? I’m really looking forward to you hitting on her mother or her aunt. That’ll really guarantee you a date.”

“Ah, man, what’s that supposed...”

“Or you’re more for a MILF anyway, hu?”
Corey could hardly contain his amusement at his friend’s error and was sure that this would be material to tease him with until graduation.

*****

On their way back to the car, Helen noticed how Quinn consciously forced herself to match her pace to Helen’s. Quinn knew that Helen did not really like to be reminded that she was the smallest member of the family, and that her ‘little girls’ were anything but that. They just grew up so tremendously, abnormally fast and tall. Quinn had turned into an amazing woman in an eyeblink, and what had happened to Daria was beyond strange. She had a hard time seeing that the quiet tiny girl that she once had been was still in there - somehow, somewhere.

On the ride back home Helen mainly thought about her oldest daughter, how she had changed, and how far they had drifted apart. She couldn’t do much more for her than send her to see an expert to get herself sorted out. Daria was an adult in her eyes, and would have to fend for herself since she refused any help - as she had always done, unless she couldn’t avoid it.

They arrived back at home, and split up again; Helen stored her purchases in the appropriate places and Quinn returned to her room to continue reading – and now taking notes on – her latest text. Beside some clean dishes in the dish rack no hint of Daria’s presence could be found.

*****

As Daria had already suspected, her father didn’t return while she finished her homework. She equipped her flashlight and a screwdriver from the toolbox in the garage and started the investigation. The first stops were the various manholes to the cable ducts. Investigating the attic, which was little more than a crawlspace, had not the slightest appeal to her.

Daria wondered if any Morgendorffer had visited the attic at all since they had moved in. All unopened boxes were still stored in the garage - and Daria was sure that they would never leave it.
«Maybe there’s a door up there leading to parallel universes with an other me. Hmm, maybe there’s a story in that thought.»

While inspecting the garage, Daria heard her mother’s car arrive and two people, likely her mother and her sister, exit and enter the house. When she returned to the house herself, her mother was again in the den, but this time talking to someone over her cell phone. Likely to her boss or a coworker about the case she was working on.

Quinn was nowhere to be seen, so she was likely in her room doing her own homework. Her father was still out, even if he was not back once she was finished, she would start looking at the phone lines on her own. The phone had been unusually quiet since they arrived at Lawndale, but Daria was very sure that this was going to change rather soon - she decided to enjoy the silence as long as possible.

*****

The inspection of the cable ducts had led to no new insight into the phone line problem, but into the size of the local dust bunny population, which was impressive.
«Quinn loves bunnies, I should save her some. But if the heating’s air ducts look the same, we really need have them cleaned out for better air quality. I don’t want to know what stuff could be growing there gracing us with the means of its reproduction.»

The thorough investigation of the new Morgendorffer home gave Daria an edge over her parents and Quinn when it came to hiding spots, and there were a few rather obscure cavities that could hide some private things from prying eyes. In one place Daria found a bottle of meds that, given the yellowed label, had been stored there for at least a decade or two. Given the amount of cobwebs around it, Daria decided not to pick it up. No use in getting dirty if she didn’t need to.

Pointing her flashlight at it and squinting, she spotted the name ‘Nembutal’, but that gave her no idea what that was. After adjusting her glasses and squinting some more, Daria identified the word ‘barbital’ and connected the dots. That was likely some high powered sedative the family of the mad woman that had inhabited Daria’s room had kept for the more severe attacks. Mostly only available on prescription at that time, and most likely entirely illegal today. Daria contemplated what to do and decided to let sleeping dogs lie. It being there did not harm anybody and maybe there would be some use for it in the future.

Looking through the cable ducts taught her what kind of cables were used for the phone, but there was no hint at any interruption or defective junction. Daria would have to look through the attic next, but wasn’t in the mood for it and postponed it to Sunday.

*****

The afternoon passed quickly. Quinn was busy with her reading list, and was hardly seen outside her room. Helen was busy in the den, and didn’t bother any of the girls, so Daria decided to bring both of her diaries up to date. After she had elevated her room’s security level from ‘high’ to ‘paranoid’, she started by writing in her electronic journal. Reviewing the truth made it easier to come up with credible lies.

The scene with Scarlett that really got to her - like the other times before. How she got even with Quinn, including the picture in her strategic reserve. How she missed an operational internet connection; she knew the school’s library and computing lab computers were filtered, and most likely rigged to record every interaction you made. But she had not found the cause for the defective lines in the garage or the air ducts, her hope was that the attic would hold the solution.

Her other classmates didn’t give her so much trouble. The Lane girl acted weird around her and that red haired kid as well, but Daria wasn’t sure if that was just around her or in general. He was kind of the type for the latter. The survey she had gotten on Thursday was notable as well. Daria hoped Quinn would start to realize the this wasn’t middle school anymore and be a little bit more careful than she used to be.

How the smart black guy managed to be on the football team with that incredibly stupid ‘QB’ was beyond Daria. She would have called the gene pool boy a long time ago. Their girlfriends, Ms. Perfect and Ms. Unsinkable, were both a handful. But Ms. Unsinkable did at least not try to occupy Daria’s time.

Then there was the incredibly snotty Convertible Girl; that girl had a lesson in humbleness coming for her and Daria felt that fate was already working overtime to arrange this in one way or another. Daria really pitied the girl, since this was a lesson she’d be going to learn the hard way. ‘Hard’ as: Carpet bombing her own little world.

The teachers were an odd bunch. The history teacher seemed quite amicable later that week, so likely he had been just testing her. The female science teacher seemed in desperate need of of some hormonal release or a straightjacket. Mr O’Neill lacked exactly the aggression she had toomuch of.
«They should marry. But then, there’s no men’s shelter...»

Daria had met the local chapter, and surprisingly managed to get a ride immediately. This DeeDee girl seemed nice; too nice. Daria was a little wary of her, for some reason she could not comprehend her.
«Nothing is as simple as it seems.»

Catching her father with his poker round was really amusing, yet Daria was happy that he had already started to make connections to the local business world.

Being sent to see a psychologist did not exactly surprise Daria after Monday’s episode with the school shrink. Yet, her mother’s constant immersion in her work had her worried a little. That had not been the case in Highland. Well, not to that extent.

After adding her expectations for attending the free for all gym starting next week, she secured and obscured her electronic journal again, and retrieved its physical counterpart after thoroughly checking for hints of anyone accessing it beside her.

The written diary was much easier afterwards. She spun a tale of extorting protection money from that weirdo red head she shared several classes with. She was not sure whether having him operate the drug distribution at LHS was a bit too much, but added a nice twist to things. That had potential in the long run.

After she brought the security down to a normal - for her, that is - level, she made a quick decision, returned to her computer, and fired up the word processor. Melody Powers had some infiltration to do.

*****

Jane was very content. During the second set of Mystik Spiral and well into her third beer (complimentarily provided by Jesse, Nick and Max - in that order; she would collect the ‘Only one beer, Janey!’ later from Trent) she sat across the lap of some boy that had chatted her up after the Spiral left for their set. He had sat down across from her in the booth the boys had just left, and they had made fun of the other patrons. Once Jane cracked some jokes about the band’s first song, he did not hold back commenting on their performance.

He was sufficiently cute, about her own age and rather clean and nicely dressed by the Zon’s standards. He asked her to join him for a burger, and she had excused herself to the restroom before leaving. Beside performing levitation she came to the conclusion that he would do for the evening. The slight buzz from the beer supported her decision. On her return he sat rather nervously in the booth. He obviously expected to be stood up. He was in for a pleasant surprise.

Jane approached the booth with a smile and entered the bench he was sitting on. Once she sat beside him, she said “I know something better than a burger”, sat on his lap, and muffled his protests with a deep kiss. That settled things rather fast. After Jane had shown him what to do (and what not to do) they commenced with a very pleasant making-out-session. Elsewhere that would have been risque, but in the darkness of a booth at the Zon their activities were on the chaste side. Jane enjoyed that very much, and knew for sure that her partner did as well.

They had not spoken a single word since the first kiss, and Jane would not have been the one to stop the activities, but at some point the guy made very clear that something else required her attention.

*****

After the initial shock of some strange chick latching onto his lips wore off, Tom decided to play along. No higher brain functions were involved in that process. She guided his hands and showed him what to do. He was familiar with going to second base, but not after 5 minutes of knowing each other. He knew that this was something just for the now, and he felt used. But the good kind of used, he was not complaining. Hormones at heady levels and her black hair blocked out sights and sound from the club.

A sudden surge of adrenalin brought him back to reality. It took him a second to understand why he was suddenly scared shitless, but once his brain processed the image of the four guys standing in front of the booth and looking at him and the girl, he immediately tried to get her off him.

«OMFG! The guys from before, the band. I didn’t notice that they left the stage. If one of them is her boyfriend and she’s using me to stage a breakup, I’m gonna leave the club feet first!»

*****

Jane was not happy when the guy started to push her away, but she relented. She turned to take a look around the club and was a little surprised to see the Spiral blocking the booth. They luckily did not look angry, but not happy either. Jane now understood why the boy’s interest flagged that quickly.

“Hi, Trent. Didn’t see you.”

“We’re packed up and leaving. Want a lift or got another ride?”

“I’m coming, Trent.”

Still glowing, Jane got of the guy’s lap and left the booth. He was obviously too scared to think straight. Jane turned around before she crossed the rank of Mystik Spiral and bode her toy farewell.

“See you!”

*****

Still too scared to speak, Tom watched the girl walk towards the club’s exit. The guys followed her, the one with the goatee lingering behind and shooting him an evil glare. Once the group had left the club, he started breathing again. He left the booth and visited the restroom. The metal mirror revealed numerous smears of the bright red lipstick she had worn. He cleared his face with his handkerchief, rearranged his hair and his clothes. The result was far from perfect but had hidden the most obvious signs of their debauchery. Back at the bar he ordered himself a soda, drank it rather fast as he tried to sort out his thoughts. They didn’t even know each other’s name. His conclusion was to file that encounter under ‘once in a lifetime’ and head home. The day would hardly get any better.

He cruised through the empty streets of Lawndale in his rust bucket of a car and hoped that nobody at home would witness his return and the state he was in. ‘Some chick about jumped me and we had a corybantic make-out-session until some guys showed up to take her home.’ Yeah, right. None would believe his story, and assume that he had a run-in with just the other guys. His curfew would be so tight that he would have to hurry to get back from school in time – even if it was just to protect him.

*****

Jane and Trent rode home in his car. After several minutes of silence, Trent looked over at his sister who still had a very happy smile on her face. She had no idea how happy Trent had been when shejoined him to go home on her own accord. Trent tried not to interfere with her private life - or love life - but, damn, she was his little sister.

“Janey, what was that about?”

Jane came out of her daydream and noted the peeved tone in Trent’s voice.

“Geez, Trent, let me have some fun of my own.”

“Janey, you acted like a bitch in heat.”

Jane got seriously defensive.

“Hey, I’ve got needs too! A girl takes the initiative once and all you guys say ‘look at that slut!’. This is not the 50s, Trent! God, I thought you were more open minded!”

“You weren’t in control.”

“For sure I was in control, Trent! He would’ve done my every bidding. You were there!”

“Were you in control of yourself?”

From the ensuing silence Trent infered that he was spot-on.

“Again: Janey, what was that about?”

Jane didn’t answer right away. Trent saw that she needed some time to think.

“It was fun. I really really liked it.”
Jane’s meek voice told Trent that his comment had hit home. He did not press on, and they arrived at the Lane’s home before another word was spoken. In the kitchen, grabbing another soda, he approached his sister again to placate her a little.

“Jane, it was fun, and it was safe. So everything is fine.”

He had to admit that his big-brother-instinct told him to lock Jane in her room until further notice and go back and clobber the guy painstakingly. But his reason told him that this would be completely pointless. And would require additional effort. Jane’s state bothered Trent more than her escapades. She was not all right, and obviously prone to erratic behaviour. And unless she got her peace of mind back, that was unlikely to change.

“Want your beer, Janey?”

“Thanks Trent, but I think I’ll hit the hay right away. ‘Sleep on it’, sounds familiar?”

Trent chuckled.
“Smart advice.”

“If your amp emits any noise audible in my room before 9am tomorrow my next art project will be entitled ‘12AX7 meets hammer’. Or ‘Bulldog with screwdriver’. Night Trent.”

Trent watched his sister leave the kitchen. He grabbed himself a six pack beer and headed down to the basement to ‘practice’.
“At least her humor’s back.”