Quinn's Code - Invite of the Geek - Part 5

They approached the guard house.

“We're here for Brittany Taylor's party.” Daria asked.

“Names?” the guard asked.

“Daria Morgendorffer.”

The guard checked his clipboard and nodded “Okay, and you two? What are your names?”

“Tiffany,” Jane said to the guard. “There's gotta be one,” she said to Daria and Jennifer in a low voice.

“Tiffany Hodge, Tiffany Duke, Tiffany Fairchild or Tiffany Blum-Deckler?” the guard asked in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Uh? Tiffany Duke?” Jane asked.

“Strike! You're out. I made that one up!” The guard said, triumphantly.

“Oh... she's not on the guest list. She's been hired to draw our portraits. She's very talented,” Daria said.

“Very talented,” Jennifer said, as an emphasis.

“And your name is Tiffany Duke, huh?” the guard asked.

“What a coincidence!” Jane said.

“These are some of her sketches from art class. They're very lifelike,” Jennifer said, handing the sketchbook with the life drawings to the guard.

“Wow, these are pretty hot...” Soon the guard was distracted by the contents of the sketchbook. Daria, Jennifer and Jane then took the opportunity to enter Crewe Neck...

5 minutes after Trent had dropped off his sister and her friends, Keith pulled up near the gatehouse. “Here you go,” he said.

“Thanks!” Quinn said with enthusiasm.

“See you later, Keith,” Cindy said.

“See you tomorrow, bro,” Kristen said.

“See ya's,” Keith said as he drove off.

They walked up to the gate house.

They waited for the guard to come out, for about a minute before they were annoyed at the guard's tardiness.

“Hello? Hello? A group is waiting!” Quinn said, with impatience.

The guard looked up from the life drawing of the 'enhanced' model (the one that was 'quite bursty'). “Oh!” He said. He grabbed the clipboard as he put the notebook down. “Name?” he asked.

“Quinn Morgendorffer, plus two,” Quinn said.

“We're the plus two,” Cindy said, indicating herself and Kristen.

“There is no indication of a 'Plus two' here!” the guard said.

“It was a last minute change!” Quinn said, with an indignant tone.

“Ok, you can pass,” the guard said.

“Thanks!” Quinn said, as she and her friends passed by.

The guard went back inside the guard house and picked up the notebook.

As the two groups walked through the up-scale gated community towards the Taylor's mansion, the group of freshmen passed by the group of sophomores. As such, Quinn, Kristen and Cindy arrived at the mansion first.

As she entered the house, Quinn saw that Brittany was nowhere to be seen. Instead her fellow cheerleaders Angie Zammit and Nikki Dowling were greeting the guests at the door.

“Welcome to Brittany's first party of the school year,” Angie said, with a slightly bored-sounding tone.

“Where everyone has fun!” Nikki enthused.

“Right!” Kristen said. They then entered.

Less than 5 minutes later, Daria, Jennifer and Jane approached the mansion.

“And you say that Brittany's father made his money as a real estate agent?” Daria asked Jennifer.

“Yes, he started out that way, and then went into property. He apparently owns many rental properties. Most of them are in East Lawndale, but there are others scattered around the county,” Jennifer said.

“And you know this, how?” Jane asked.

“I pay attention to the newspapers,” Jennifer said, as they reached the end of the front driveway of the mansion.

Daria tuned out Angie and Nikki's greetings as they entered.

Tori Jericho was doing what she did best at parties, pointing out the popularity levels of other students. She had the rapt attention of Sandi Griffin and (the not so rapt attention of) Tiffany Blum-Deckler. “Now she's really popular, but not as popular as she is. He's medium popular, and he just bought a great car so soon he'll be getting more popular. That guy was just popular enough to be invited, but now he needs to hook up with a girl who's more popular than he is.”

Daria, Jane and Jennifer found Brittany with Kevin and Mack in the front loungeroom.

“Hi, Daria, glad that you could make it,” Brittany said.

“Um, yeah,” Daria said.

“Interesting decorations,” Jane said.

“Yeah, my father gets his paintings from a gallery downtown,” Brittany said.

“That would be Gary's wouldn't it?” Jennifer asked.

“I'm not sure,” Brittany said, as she twirled her hair.

“Hey, Burnout Girl, how did you, like, get in. I know that Britt didn't invite you,” Kevin was about to say more, but was interupted by Jennifer.

“Kevin. How many times have I told you that I hate that name!” She exclaimed!

“Aahh!” Kevin ran off, Jennifer being angry wasn't pretty.

“Kevvy? Come back!” Brittany said as she ran off.

“Unfortunately, you're stuck with it. Just that I am stuck with Mack-Daddy,” Mack said.

“I don't have to like it,” Jennifer siad.

“True,” Mack said.

“Now that you've scared off the hostess, will you find Quinn and ensure that she doesn't get into trouble?” Daria asked.

“What sort of trouble?” Jennifer said.

“Oh you know, boys chasing her. Ensure that she doesn't encourage them either,” Daria said.

“No, Amiga. From what you have told me, I am sure that she can take care of herself. Let's go to a secluded spot and observe the party from there,” Jane said.

“Wait, Jennifer,” Mack said as Daria and Jane went off.

Jennifer told Daria and Jane that she would catch up. “Yes, Mack?” she asked.

“I am sure that you have noticed, something, about the Morgendorffer sisters, given that you are hanging around the two of them?” Mack asked, barely above the background noise.

“Um, sure,” Jennifer said, not sure where the conversation was going to head.

“Most of the time when I have heard Daria talk about her sister, and that isn't often, I have heard an undertone of hostility. Do you have any idea what that is about?” Mack asked.

Jennifer thought for a bit. “No idea. Neither of them volunteers anything. I guess that it will remain buried,” she said.

“I hope so. I can't imagine feeling the same for my brothers.”

“I wouldn't know, given that I am an only child. I am close to my cousins, but that is not the same thing.”

“That's True,” Mack said.

“I guess that we will have to wait and see,” Jennifer said, by way of saying that the conversation was over.

“Yeah,” Mack said.

“Hey, Quinn,” Joey said.

“Hey, Quinn,” Jeffy said.

“Hey, Quinn,” Jamie said.

“Um, guys? Could you get me and my friends a soda each?” Quinn asked.

“Sure,” Jamie said.

“I'll get Quinn, and her friends a soda each!” Joey said.

“No, I'll get Quinn, Kristen and Cindy a soda each!” Jeffy said. The three boistrous jocks then left the vicinity, each trying to out-do the other.

“Did you really have to do that?” Cindy asked.

“Not really, but their competitive-ness is cute,” Quinn said.

“I admit, it is intriguing,” Kristen said.

Then Joey returned with three sodas, with ice in a plate. “I got you three each a drink,” he said.

“The ice isn't crushed,” Kristen said, guessing that Quinn was about to say that.

“That doesn't matter. You know, Jeffy still sleeps with a teddy bear.”

“Crushed ice would be nice,” Quinn said.

“I'll go crush some,” Joey said. He left, passing Jeffy whom also had three sodas. He offered the three friends some pretzels.

“These aren't twisty,” Cindy said as she looked at the pretzels.

“Maybe,” Jeffy said, as he thought. “You know, Jamie's a really sloppy kisser.”

“What?” Kristen asked while Cindy and Quinn gave him strange looks.

“I heard it from a girl!” Jeffy retorted.

“I would like some twisty pretzels too,” Quinn said, as she saw Jamie in the distance.

“I'll go twist some,” Jeffy said as he hurried off.

Jamie then approached and gave them a soda each and some round crackers.

“I like square crackers,” Quinn said.

Jamie proceed to chew the crackers so tha they were square.

“EEEEWWWWW!” All three friends exclaimed.