Daria and Jane were waiting for Jennifer in a secluded
corner. “Uh oh,” Jane said as she noticed someone approaching.
“What?” Daria asked, noting her friend's tone of
near alarm.
“Upchuck. The sleaze-ball
of Lawndale High,” Jane said, pointing to the new arrival. 'That is
all she needs to know for now,' she thought.
Daria recognised him from several of her classes. She
recalled that all the girls tried to sit as far away from him as they
could.
Upchuck' moved in on the two loners. “Chuck Ruttheimer
here. And You are?” he asked, although he knew who Jane was.
“Jane.”
“Esmerelda,” Daria said, thinking that to tell this
creep her real name right away wouldn't be a good idea.
“A pleasure to meet you lovely ladies. I'll be
your social director for the evening,” Upchuck said. He gestured at
the surrounding opulance. “Would you like a tour of the house? It's
free.” Sleaze dripped from every word.
“We have to wait for a friend,” Daria said.
“A friend of the female persuasion, perhaps?”
Upchuck asked.
Neither Daria nor Jane answered his question.
“Feisty!”
Jennifer approached Daria and Jane with sodas and
various acoutrements of food. She noticed Upchuck near them and
nearly dropped the plate with shock.
She walked up to the situation slowly.
“Well, if it isn't the mysterious Ms Burns!”
Upchuck said, his ultra-suave sleaziness at maximum intensity.
“Hi!” Jennifer barely let out.
“He is offering us a tour of the house,” Daria said.
“Um, ok,” Jennifer said. Anything would be better
than staying in the main part of the party, even if it was in the
presence of that sleaze-ball.
Tori was continuing her popularity assessment of various
party-goers. She pointed Quinn out. “She was new and cute so she
became, like, popular overnight. Everyone seems to ignore the fact
that she is a self proclaimed geek, like seriously!” she was about
to say more about that topic, but was interuppted by Sandi.
“Tell me about it! I like, tried to tell people that
geeks should not be popular! But they didn't listen!” Sandi said.
'So that was true afterall,' Tori thought. “Yeah, I
heard about that. That took guts!” she said.
“Thank you. Anyway, everyone supported Quinn being
popular. I even, like, offered her a vice-presidency in the Fashion
Club. She turned it down!”
“Really?” Tori asked.
“Yes,” Sandi said, she then had a thought. “You
know, Tori, that Vice-President position is still open.”
“Really?” Tori asked, while in thought.
“Yes. You can, like, help me with my plan for the
destruction of that geek's popularity,” Sandi said.
Tori didn't hesitate. “I'm in.”
Sandi shook her hand. “Welcome to the Fashion Club,
Tori Jericho.”
Something about Sandi's demeanor unnerved Tori. 'What
have I just gotten myself into?' she wondered.
Whilst this discussion was going on Charles had began to
lead the antisocial trio through the house.
“This five-bedroom house is designed in a combination
of southern pseudo-plantation and late mock-Tudor styles. To your
right, the quasi-Victorian breakfast nook. Straight ahead, the family
den, which was inspired by the novels of Isak Dinesen.”
'Good thing that he knows about said Danish writer,”
Jennifer thought. They walked up to the lawndry room door.
“And
this... is the make-out room! Am I blushing? Confidentially, it's
really the laundry room,” Upchuck said, as he knocked on the door.
“Can
it, Upchuck, or I'll break your face,”
came the reply of a member of the football team from the other side
of the door.
This was followed by a fit of feminine giggling.
“As we've reached the end of our tour, I'd like to
thank you for your undivided attention. Any questions?” Upchuck
asked.
“How did you get invited?” Daria asked, assuming
that Upchuck didn't just crash the party like Jane, Jennifer, Kristen
and Cindy did.
“I dissected her frog,” Upchuck said.
“That would do it,” Jennifer mused.
Quinn, Kristen and Cindy walked up to Brittany, whom was
still looking for Kevin after the latter had run away from Jennifer.
“Hey, Brittany. Is there like, going to be any
dancing. One can't have a party without dancing!” Kristen said.
Brittany thought whilst twirling her hair and looking
vacant. “I didn't think of that,” she said.
“Is there going to be any?” Cindy asked.
“Not sure. I will have to get Ashley-Amber's dance CDs
out.”
“Ashley-Amber?” Quinn asked.
“My Stepmom,” Brittany said. “I'll be right back,”
she said.
“I guess we should have told you about that,”
Kristen said.
“Yeah, she could have been Brittany's older sister, or
her cousin or something like that,” Quinn said.
“True,” Cindy said.
Jennifer, Daria and Jane were still hanging around near
the Laundry room, after Upchuck had left them (chasing after either
Angie, Nikki or their friend Lisa).
Jane noticed some boys, one of them with his head
appearing to be larger than natural proportions would allow, looking
at them. She notified the other two of that fact.
“Don't they know we're from two different worlds?
Regular and Popular?” Daria asked.
'Good one, Daria,' Jennifer thought with a small smile.
“The one in the green shirt is cute... In a
head-too-big-for-his-body kind of way,” Jane said.
Daria looked at Jane in disbelief
“I don't think so,” Jennifer whispered.
“I hate you,” Jane said to Daria in a non-serious
way. She didn't hear what Jennifer said, but she assumed that she
sided with Daria.
“Hey. Partying hard or hardly partying?” one of them
asked.
'That's really bad,' Jennifer thought.
It seemed that Daria agreed with her. “Hardly
Interested,” she said.
“So, where have you girls been all our lives?” the
one with the large head asked.
“Waiting
here for you. We were born in this room, we grew up in this room, and
we thought that we would die here... alone. But now you've
arrived, and our lives can truly begin,” Daria said, each word
dripping with sarcasm.
“She likes you,” the one with the large head said,
as he nudged one of his friends.
'Wow. She sure can handle them,' Jennifer thought.
“Isn't that Quinn?” Jane asked, pointing.
Daria looked over. Indeed she saw Quinn, with her
friends Kristen and Cindy amongst a group of ceramic tigers. She
waved. “Yoo-hoo! Sis!” she shouted.
