Lawndale in the Air - Part 1

 Lawndale in the Air

The blue plane flew along the skyway. “Girls, I just want you to know your mother and I realize it's not easy moving to a whole new town -- especially for you, Daria, right?” Jake Morgendorffer said.

 

“Did we move?” His daughter, Daria said, as she looked out at the floating buildings that the plane was passing.

 

“I'm just saying you don't make friends as easily as... uh, some people,” Jake said.

 

Daria’s younger sister, Quinn, turned the radio up.

 

“Quinn, for instance.”

 

“That's not what I meant... necessarily,” Jake said as he turned the radio off. “The point is, the first day at a new school is bound to be difficult...”

 

Daria leaned forward and turned the radio back on and cranked it up. “Speak up Dad! Can’t hear you!”

 

“Uh, where was I?” Jake turned the radio off. He saw the school ahead. “Ready girls?” he asked.

 

“Certainly, Daddy,” Quinn said.

 

“Here, we go!” Jake said, as the plane approached the school, Jake leaned the controls backwards, making the plane fly upwards, above the school’s landing deck.

 

“Bye, Daddy,” Quinn said, as she opened the starboard door and jumped out.

 

“I'll try to help her through this difficult period of adjustment,” Daria said, as she got ready to follow her sister.

 

“That's my girl! Wait a minute..”

 

“See you, Dad,” Daria said as she jumped out.

 

 

As soon as she cleared the plane, Daria pulled her chute cord, slowing her rate of descent. She looked and saw her father bringing the plane level and heading in the direction of his new workplace. She looked down towards the school that she would be going to for the next few years and saw Quinn deploy her pink chute, rather close to the landing deck. ‘She always was a daredevil,’ she thought.

 

She saw her sister land (roughly) in the midst of a group of teens. ‘Looks like she has made an impression already,’ she thought.

 

As she descended, Daria ensured that she would land as close to the School’s entrance as possible, thereby not encountering as many of her fellow students that she would have encountered further away.

As soon as she had landed and retracted the chute, she dashed into the school’s internal corridors.

 

 

Quinn landed in the midst of a group of fellow students. She immediately pulled the chute retraction cord and pushed her goggles up above her hairline. “Who are you?” asked an impressed sounding brunette with her hair in two pigtails.

 

“Quinn Morgendorffer.”

 

“Cool name,” added another brunette with wavy hair.

 

“Will you go out with me?” a boy up.

 

Quinn chuckled. “Maybe,” she said, playfully.

 

“Sandi Griffin,” the wavy haired brunette said, indicating herself. “Your aviatrix outfit is very fashionable.”

 

“Thanks,” Quinn said.

 

“It’s not a complement,” Sandi said.

 

“Oh?” Quinn glared at Sandi, her eyes burning with annoyance.

 

Sandi quickly recovered “It’s an invitation. Would you like to join the Fashion Club?”

 

“There is a Vice-Presidential position available,” the pigtailed brunette said.

 

“Stacy is the Secretary,” Sandi said, indicating the pigtailed brunette.

 

Quinn thought for a moment. ‘What’s that old saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, or something.’ She was interested in Fashion, it just wasn’t her only interest. ‘This Sandi seems like someone who I would like to keep an eye on.’ “Sure,” she finally said, as the school bell rang.

 

 

The next day, Daria and the girl whom she met in the Self Esteem Class, Jane Lane, were flying to Jane’s house on their skyboards.

 

“Come on Daria, we’re going too slow, we’re dropping into the lower levels. My house is at a middle level,” Jane said.

 

Daria looked downwards. She could see few airship-houses blocking the view of Old Lawndale and its surrounding farmland and forests below. “Sorry, Highland was much closer together. Lawndale is more spread out.” She indicated a nearby landing platform, attached to one of the mooring poles, to which some of the airbuildings were attached.

 

Jane nodded and so they made to land on it.

 

Daria breathed deeply for a few seconds then said. “So you were saying?”

 

“So, then, after the role-playing, next class they put the girls and the guys in separate rooms and a female counselor talks to us about body image,”

 

“What do they talk to the boy’s about?”

 

Jane and Daria looked at each other. “Nocturnal emissions.”

 

“I don't get it, Jane. You've got the entire course memorized. How come you can't pass the test to get out?”

 

“I could pass the test, but I like having low self-esteem. It makes me feel special,” Jane said. She stepped off her skyboard and pressed the button to collapse it.  She indicated a ladder leading up the mooring pole. “Up about sixty to seventy meters and then another block, we’ll be at my house,” she said.

 

Daria collapsed her skyboard and looked up. “It’s going to be a long climb,” she said.

 

 

As they approached Casa Lane (as Jane called her house) they noticed a small helicopter parked on the front landing platform. “Uh, oh!” Jane said.

 

“What?” Daria asked.

 

“The Bank, they’re trying to foreclose! We have to hurry!” Jane said. She clipped a towrope to her skyboard and threw the other end to Daria.

 

“What are we doing?” Daria asked.

 

A couple of (aftermarket) rockets ignited beneath Jane’s skyboard, causing the new pair of friends to accelerate towards the possibly soon-to-be-foreclosed airship-house...