Lawndale and Sandi Griffin's Genie - Chapter 2 - Part 1

Chapter 2: Friday Adventures

Friday February 19, 1999

Lawndale

1111 Glen Oaks Lane 4:30

Quinn awoke from a strange dream. ‘I don’t know what to make of that,’ she thought. She tried to go back to sleep.

She soon found that she couldn’t so she decided to go down to the kitchen for a healthy snack.

However she found that she was not the only one who was up. Daria was sitting at the table reading a book and drinking from a cup when she walked in.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” Quinn asked.

“Something like that,” Daria said.

Quinn grabbed some carrot sticks and poured some milk. She then sat down across from Daria and sighed.

“Something on your mind?” Daria asked.

“Huh?”

“You look deep in thought. You don’t usually look like that.”

“Funny,” Quinn said, in her usual tone of voice. She then continued, more seriously. “It’s this situation you know? It is going to change everything! The Fashion Club, the social dynamic at school, the guys whom I date, possibly even all of Lawndale itself. It is frightening. It is as you said, Daria. The very idea of Sandi with a genie is frightening! The only reason why things weren’t worse yesterday is that Sandi hadn’t realised the full potential, and that Jean’s mischievousness is good natured,” Quinn said.

“You are right. It is going to change everything. Especially if either Ms Li or Sandi’s Mom find out,” Daria said.

Quinn thought, and didn’t like what she speculated (especially when she realised that Ms Li would use the genie to install more security measures for the school). “Dar-i-a! That is more frightening than with Sandi!”

“Exactly, that is one thing that you have to bring up with Stacy and Tiffany when they get here at breakfast. I will be talking to Jane around the same time. We could then meet at the school and discuss our decisions,” Daria said.

“Dar-ia! If I mention the possibility of the genie falling into the hands of either the principal or Mrs Griffin, Stacy would faint, and then she would be basically a wreck!” Quinn said.

“Quinn, they need to be informed of that possibility, or your discussions may be for naught,” Daria said.

Quinn was then in thought, for a moment and then spoke, “You are right, Daria, much as I hate to admit that. We may be late to school though.” She was sure that calming Stacy down would take up much of their time.

“If you are running late, you can continue your discussion on the way to school,” Daria suggested.

“I guess we had better and maybe Jeffy can give me a ride,” Quinn said. They talked for another minute about the situation.

“But now I don’t feel like going back to sleep!” Quinn said.

“Neither do I,” Daria said.

“But what are we going to do for the next few hours?”

“The same way we used to spend the wee small hours together when we were younger,” Daria said, as she stood up and went towards the living room.

“Video games? Sure, though I am mostly out of practice.”

“Which console do you want to use? The SNES or the N64?”

“SNES?” Quinn asked, confused. She knew what N64 meant but ‘SNES’ had her confused.

“You know, the Super Nintendo,” Daria said, as she pointed to where the system in question lay beneath the television and the VCR.

“Oh, it’s an acronym! Duh, Quinn!” she murmured to herself. “Maybe the N64, but I am not sure what game,” she continued.

“Ok,” Daria said, she unplugged the SNES and plugged in the N64. She and Quinn then played Mario Kart 64.

324 Eichler Street 5:00

Stacy awoke trembling as she remembered the events of the day before. “It was just a dream,” she said. She then realised, “or was it?” she grabbed her diary and read the most recent entry.

“So, it did happen!” She fainted back into her bed.

5 minutes later, Stacy came to. She remembered everything from the day before, from the incident at recess, to the conversation with Quinn’s mom. She re-read the diary entry.

She knew that she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, so she went down to the living room and took out the PlayStation. ‘I haven’t played this for a while. This will help me keep my mind off things until it’s time to go to Quinn’s,’ she thought. She found Final Fantasy VII and put the disk into the system.

111 Howard Drive 5:30

Jane was in the kitchen, looking for an early breakfast, when her brother Trent entered after a night of practice with his band, Mystik Spiral.

“You are up early, Janie,” he said.

“So are you,” Jane countered.

“Practice ran late, or early,” Trent said. He saw that his younger sister was in thought. “Something on your mind?” he asked.

“Oh, I told Tom about my 11^th birthday,” Jane said.

“Cool,” Trent said, as he remembered that day.

“He thought so too. Anyway the problem is with the reason why I told him,” Jane said. Trent waited. “You remember the family we bowled next to, right?”

“Yes, the daughter had anger issues,” Trent said, wondering where Jane was going with this line of conversation.

“Yes. She is also the leader of the clique that Daria’s sister is part of,” Jane said.

“What are you getting at Janie?”

“Sandi was bowling next to Tom and I and she was bowling well. However I also remembered rumours that were going around school yesterday.”

“Since when do you pay attention to rumours at school?”

“Not often, but hear this. An extra floor appeared on the top of the science block yesterday! And the teachers don’t know how,” Jane said.

Trent could see that that his younger sister was not pulling his leg.

“So you are saying that this girl is involved in some kind of magic?” Trent asked, he had seen much of Lawndale in his 22 years, and some of what he had seen couldn’t be explained rationally...

“Exactly, Daria’s sister and her not so tame pack of football players also mentioned a classroom full of water, when we passed them in the hall,” Jane said.

“Something is definitely happening.”

“Daria called late last night, she said that Quinn spilled the beans to her family. She mentioned a genie. She is coming over at 7:00 and then we are going to talk about the situation. It seemed like she was unwilling to trust the phone for some reason,” Jane said.

“Is that it?”

“Yeah,” Jane said, in thought about what Daria might be telling her when she came over.

Trent was concerned for his sister. “Maybe I can get the old Atari out of the Attic and we can play something? Something to do, if you can’t get to sleep,” he said. Sleep was never a difficulty for Trent, narcoleptic as he was (Indeed the difficulty was staying awake for long periods).

Jane briefly considered the idea. “That is a very good idea,” she said. Trent went out to the stairs. ‘Although I may be spoiled by the arcades and the Morgendorffers’ Nintendo’s,’ she thought. She then went upstairs herself and waited for Trent near the bottom of the attic stairs.

Trent came down from the attic with a box with the 2600 system on the top of it. “Which game do you want to play first?” he asked.

Jane finished connecting the Atari to the television in her bedroom. “Let’s see, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Trent! That is the worst game of all time! Why do we have it?”

“Hmm, I guess that is why Wind said that the store was almost full of them when he bought it,” Trent said, referring to his and Jane’s older brother.

“At least the first 2 are amongst the best games of all time,” Jane said, putting the Pac-Man cartridge into the console. ‘Of course Wind would get it,’ she mused.

She and Trent took turns playing Pac-Man until Trent fell asleep and then Jane continued playing until Daria arrived.

631 Bernstein Avenue 6:00

Tiffany awoke and looked at her bedside clock. ‘I may as well get up,’ she thought. She remembered the events of the previous day, from Sandi’s floating until her discussion with Quinn’s mother. ‘I hope Quinn and Stacy will know what to do,’ she thought. She thought about the ways that Lawndale could change as a result of Sandi’s finding a genie. All of the conclusions she reached frightened her.

‘I still have an hour until I have to go to Quinn’s,’ she thought. She thought of a way to occupy her time. She then recalled the old Sega, that was down in the den. ‘I haven’t played anything since I started high school,’ she thought.

Tiffany found the Sega Genesis where she remembered it to be and carefully plugged it in to the den’s television. Certain that she had gotten the connections right she selected a game and plugged the cartridge in.

She was soon playing the game, sending the character all over the screen. “Sonic is fa-ast!” she said with her eyes on the blue hedgehog...

Varmittan Imperial Palace-Tree 6:30

“So it is a Genie!” the Varmittan Emperor exclaimed.

“Yes. The younger of the two human children was quite adamant about that!” Captain Jaywi said, as he tried to contain his excitement.

“I have read the archives, the previous mention of a genie in the ‘Pennsylvania’ region was in Oakwood, 30 years ago, 5 moon cycles before the humans made their first landing upon the moon,” the Emperor said.

“What occurred?” Captain Jaywi asked, curious.

“There was some chaos prior to the genie disappearing in the third day of the incident. Prior to that there was a sighting 60 years ago in Middlebury, but the information from then is fragmentary,” the Emperor said. Captain Jaywi knew why the information would be fragmentary, something to do with a War involving Europe...

The Emperor and the captain continued their discussion before the Emperor sent the Captain back to Glen Oaks Lane.

Tiffany looked at the clock as she switched off the Sega. ‘Yikes! I have to be at Quinn’s in 10 minutes!’ she thought. Just as well her house was only 2 blocks from the Morgendorffers. She went up to her room, grabbed her handbag and came back downstairs. “Bye, Mommy,” she said as she ran out the back door... She then went into the laneway.

324 Eichler Street 7:06

Stacy looked at the time. “Oh no! I have lost track of time!” she said. She then saved the game and then rushed upstairs to get changed.

5 minutes later she came down the stairs, turned off the PlayStation (and put it away) and then ran out the front door.

Daria met Tiffany at the door as she was going out. “See you at school, Quinni,” Daria said.

“Quinni?” Tiffany asked.

“It is a nickname, like when Kevin calls his friend ‘Mack-Daddy’,” Daria said.

“Only not so annoying,” Quinn said as she turned off the N64 and started walking over.

“Oh yeah, like when my name is short-tened to Tiff.”

“’Ari’, do you see Stacy?”

Daria glared at Quinn for a fraction of a second before stepping out of the door, past Tiffany and looking up and down the street for Stacy. “She is nowhere to be seen. Does she always lack punctuality?”

“In Middle School, she was all-ways, Tard-dy.”

“She is usually the last to arrive at Fashion Club meetings,” Quinn said.

“If I see her, I’ll tell her that you are waiting,” Daria said, as she set out for Jane’s. Quinn watched her sister walk out to the sidewalk before turning back to Tiffany.

“Let’s go wait in the kitchen, we will wait for five minutes and then start our discussion without her.”

“I hope she gets here soo-on,” Tiffany said as she closed the door.