Quinn's Code - The Esteemsters Code - Conclusion

“Ok,” Corey said, leaning slightly away from Sandi.

Daria was still talking “...realize my actuality. Winning the fight against low self-esteem takes support... from teachers, from friends, and most of all, from family,”

“Is that loser still talking?” Corey asked. He was about to high-five his friend again, when Sandi glared at him. “Eep!” He leaned further away from Sandi, brushing against Stacy.

“And so, the one person I'd like to thank more than any other is my very own overachiever sister, Quinn Morgendorffer...”

Quinn was aghast. “Overachiever!” she exclamed. At Kristen's look she added. “Overachiever! She's the one with the Straight A's! I have at best a B+ average,” she said, with a hint of jealousy.

“Maybe it's the extracurriculars?” Cindy asked.

“That would look like overachieving if she doesn't have any,” Kristen said.

“I'm not sure,” Quinn said.

“Quinn has forgotten more about self-esteem than I'll ever know. Are you out there, sis? Stand up and let me thank you,” Daria said, smirking.

“She just wants to embarrass me,” Quinn said.

“I guess,” Cindy said.

“Obviously,” Kristen said.

“That moussy brain is Quinn's sister?” Corey asked, mostly to himself. 'How is it that they're nothing alike in personality?' he wondered.

With a calculating look in her eyes, Sandi said, “Yes, there is like, too much of a resemblance for it to be otherwise.”

“Yeah,” Corey said.

“Not only is Quinn a geek, she is also a brain!” Sandi said. 'And so the seed is, like planted,' she thought.

Stacy observed the conversation between Sandi and Corey with trepidation. 'She can be so manipulative!, she thought.

Daria soon finished.

Ms. Li took the podium “Thank you, Ms. Morgendorffer for that inspirational speech. Now remember single file when exiting the auditorium.”

Quinn walked to Andrea's thinking about Daria embarrassing her during the assembly. She and Daria were always at each other's throats, sometimes literally. 'She is a misanthropic jerk! And I am sure that she think's of me in similar terms. At least we aren't like Mom and Aunt Rita,' she thought.

As she approached the creepy house she saw that Andrea was waiting for her. She looked at her watch. It read 4:04 pm. 'Punctuality not found,' she thought as she came up to the front of the Hecuba's property.

“You're late,” Andrea said pointedly.

“I thought I would walk. I needed time to think what happened during assembly,” Quinn said.

“If I had a sibling and they embarrassed me like that, I wouldn't talk to them for quite a while,” Andrea said, as she lead the way inside.

'You don't know Daria.'

Helen stopped the SUV in front of the Hecuba's house. “That's the house where she has been spending her afternoons?” Jake asked.

“Yes Jake, wait here, then we're going to the UFO convention,” Helen said as she got out.

'Oh my, no wonder Quinn said that this place is creepy,' she thought as she walked up the path. She hoped that creepiness did not extend to the people who lived there.

“You get a B+ for Perl,” Andrea said to Quinn.

“Cool!” Quinn said.

There was a few knocks on the bedroom door and Andrea's mother could be heard saying “Andrea, Quinn's mother is here to pick her up.”

“Let her in,” Andrea said tersely.

A few moments later Helen opened the door. “Oh my, this is worse than Daria's room,” she said, taking in the dark décor.

Andrea raised an eyebrow 'I guess Daria may be a closet Goth,' she thought.

“Mo-om, why are you picking me up?” Quinn asked.

“We are going to visit the UFO convention tonight,” Helen said.

Quinn sighed, as she shut her laptop. “It was Daria's idea, wasn't it,”

“Yes, to celebrate her getting out of the self-esteem class early,” Helen said.

“Mom, she used her speech to embarrass me,” Quinn said.

“That's nothing new.”

“She called me an overachiever!”

Andrea backed off, not wishing to get caught up in the Morgendorffer family's drama. 'I have enough of that with my own family,' she thought.

“Quinn, she may have straight A's but she doesn't have any extracurricular activities,” Helen said.

“I suppose,” Quinn said, thinking.

Andrea cleared her throat.

“Oh! Sorry for this family discussion in your room...” Helen said, pausing, not sure of Andrea's name.

“Andrea.”

“Would you like to come over to our place to test Quinn next week?” Helen asked.

“I will think about it,” Andrea said.

“Right,” Helen said.

“Bye, Andrea,” Quinn said.

10 minutes later the Morgendorffers had arrived at the UFO convention.

'This is so weird!” Quinn thought after they checked in. A lot of the exhibits exuded a creepiness at a similar level to that of Andrea's house. Of course some of them were even creepier.

“Let's go get our picture taken with the cardboard alien,” Daria suggested. She lead Helen and Jake towards the cardboard alien in question.

“Uh... sure, honey. Whatever you want,” Jake said.

'I don't particularly want to have my picture taken with a creepy looking cardboard alien,' Quinn thought as she stayed where she was.

“Quinn?” Helen asked.

“I'll wait here,” Quinn said.

“OK, We'll be right back,” Jake said.

Quinn looked around, for a few seconds before someone walked up to her.

“Hi! I'm Artie. You're cool,” he said.

That was the last straw... “Mom! Dad! You guys, wait up!” Quinn said. She then went after her 3 immediate family members. 'So this is how my first week in Lawndale ends?' she thought.