Mysteries of Lawndale - The First Party - Conclusion

 Mysteries of Lawndale 02 The First Party – Conclusion

They soon entered Steve Taylor’s home office. It was a well organised and efficient space. Two of the walls were occupied by bookshelves filled with books and folders. Opposite the door, in front of the window was a computer desk. The computer was a new model. Daria was certain that it had Windows 95. Indeed as she looked around, she saw the Microsoft sanctioned sticker alongside the ‘Intel Inside’ one.

 

“Ok, turn it on. But be sure to use the knuckle, rather than then the end of the finger,” Daria said.

 

“Sure,” Upchuck said. He turned the computer on.

 

Daria, had her cameras working, so she recorded the appearance of the office. The computer turned on. Then there was a snag. It had Windows NT 4.0 rather than Windows 95. ‘He must have installed it after buying the computer,’ she thought as she looked at the ‘use alt control delete to log in’ box. “Okay, turn it off again.”

 

“Would that be wise?” Upchuck asked.

 

“He won’t know it was us who turned it on,” Daria said.

 

“Sure,” Upchuck said. He switched the computer off.

 

“Let’s go back downstairs,” Daria said.

 

“Sure, we’ve been up here long enough,” Jane said.

 

 

When Daria, Jane and Upchuck re-entered the dining room, the party was going on. Daria noticed two people in particular were looking at Jane and herself.

 

“Those two guys are staring at us,” she said.

 

“Huh? Don’t they know that we’re from two different worlds?” Jane asked.”They’re popular. We’re regular!” Jane said.

 

“I suppose the one with the slightly large head is interesting,” Daria said.

 

“You’re just interested whether it’s a deformity or not,” Jane said.

 

“That’s part of it,” Daria said.

 

“I don’t know whether it is or not,” Upchuck said.

 

“Upchuck, thanks for the tour, but you can go now,” Daria said.

 

“Fiesty! I shall see you later,” Upchuck said. He leaned back and tried to whisper in Daria’s ear. “Confidentially, I may join the Mystery Club.” He then made a flirtaceous growl.

 

“And you would be welcome to, go!” Daria said.

 

As Upchuck left, the two boys approached. “Hey, Partying hard or hardly partying.”

 

“Hardly interested!” Jane said.

 

“So, where you girls been all our lives.”

 

“We’ve been waiting her for you,” Jane said. She smirked to Daria. “We were born here, in this room. We then grew up in this room. We thought we would die here alone! But now you’ve come, and so our lives can get started!”

 

“She likes you,” the other guy said to the big headed one.

 

Daria spotted Quinn near one of the ceramic tigers. “There’s Quinn,” she said.

 

“Where?” Jane asked, wondering what Quinn was up to.

 

Daria pointed her out.

 

Jane waved and shouted. “Hey! Quinn!”

 

 

‘What is Jane doing!’ Quinn wondered. It was embarrassing...

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the guardhouse, the guard had finished flipping through Jane’s life drawings. “I have to take this class!” He realized. “I have to find Tiffany.” He turned the book over. “I mean, Jane...”

 

He abandoned his post. Less than a minute later, some hoons found it abandoned and drove around the lowered boom gate. “Woo-hoo!”

 

“Party!”

 

 

Jane approached Quinn. “What do you want?” Quinn asked.

 

“Could be anything.”

 

“You can tell Daria, that I have been paying attention.”

 

“Sure,” Jane said.

 

“I’ll tell her either when we get home, or tomorrow morning,” Quinn said.

 

“Cool,” Jane said. “You don’t need to tell me, I’ll find out at the next meeting,” Jane said.

 

Quinn gave a smile in response.

 

 

Jane walked away from Quinn and found Tori dancing. “Beep beep,” she said.

 

“Huh?” Tori asked, wondering what Jane was doing.

 

“It’s the soul train. Get on board!”

 

“Not funny, Lane!” Tori said.

 

 

Daria emerged from the laundry room. She looked to see that no one saw her emerge and then went to find Jane.

 

 

She soon found her.

 

“What happened to Bobby Bighead?” Jane asked.

 

“I wasn’t interested in a romantic manner,” Daria answered.

 

Jane picked a sock off Daria’s shoulder. “Is this yours?” she asked.

 

Daria looked at the sock. She sighed. “He thought my head was a lollipop. It’s really not a mystery why he was so desperate.”

 

“True,” Jane mused.

 

“Almost ready to go?” Daria asked.

 

“Of course,” Jane answered.

 

“One last go through the party,” Daria stated.

 

“If you want to,” Jane stated.

 

 

Meanwhile, Quinn was speaking to her three admirers.

“This isn’t working out,” she said.

 

“What?” Jamie asked.

 

“What do you mean?” Joey asked.

 

“What are you talking about?” Jeffy asked.

 

“You deserve three good girlfriends, but I think you’re pressuring me into something I’m not ready for,” Quinn said.

 

“Huh?” Jamie asked.

 

“I don’t understand,” Joey said.

 

“What do you mean?” Jeffy asked.

 

“I don’t want a boyfriend at present.”

 

“What?” Joey asked.

 

“Let’s just be friends,” Quinn said. “I don’t have time, what with school, extracurricular activities and helping my sister with her investigations, to have a boyfriend.”

 

“You came on too strong!” Jeffy said to Joey.

 

“You didn’t give her enough space!” Jamie said to Jeffy.

“You should have brushed your teeth!” Joey said to Jamie.

 

The three then started fighting each other. Quinn was aghast. “Oh dear! Please stop fighting! Didn’t you hear what I said?”

 

‘Probably not,’ Quinn thought after a few moments of the three boys continuing to pummel each other. She then saw the police, in the company of one of the neighbors out the window. “Guys?” the police are here, we have to go!”

 

The three continued to fight over Quinn.

 

“Guys!” Quinn shouted again.

 

That got their attention. “Did you say, Police?” Jeffy asked.

 

“Yes, they’re here! Brittany is about to get into trouble, let’s go,” Quinn said.

 

“Um, sure,” Joey said.

 

 

Quinn and her posse soon met, Daria and Jane at the estate entrance, where they were talking to various estate residents as they arrived back from various activities. “Gathering information?” she asked Daria.

 

“Of course,” Daria said.

 

“That’s good,” Quinn said.

 

“Where’s Stacy?” Daria asked.

 

“She should be along shortly,” Quinn said.

 

 

Indeed, Stacy did arrive, having left shortly after Quinn did.

 

“That was a cool night!” Stacy said as she got there.

 

“Good that you enjoyed it, Stacy,” Quinn said in encouragement.

 

“How are we getting home?” Stacy asked.

 

“We’ll wait for someone to drive us home,” Daria said.

 

“Sure,” Quinn said.

 

 

Some of the people leaving the party didn’t stop. However, soon enough someone did stop for them. However, it was Upchuck. “You ladies in need of a knight in shining armor?” he asked.

 

“Can’t we just take the armor and ditch the knight?” Daria asked.

 

“Hey, it’s a package deal toots!”

 

“Sure,” Daria said, sure that Upchuck could show them some interesting areas of Lawndale on the way home.

 

“Um, OK,” Stacy said, slightly panicked.

 

“Relax, Stacy, you can get off at our place,” Quinn said.

 

“Sure,” Stacy said, reassured.

 

 

Shortly after they left the checkpoint, Upchuck did point out an interesting fact of Lawndale. “To your left, the home of the director of public works, built on unstable landfill.” Of course he continued in his annoying way. “To your right, a flattened squirrel. Straight ahead, the future!”

 

“Upchuck, less annoyingly!” Daria chided. “How do you know it’s built on unstable landfill anyway.”

 

“I have my sources. I’ll let you know once I have joined the Mystery Club,” Upchuck said.

 

“Then, don’t take too long,” Daria said with impatience.

 

Upchuck uttered a flirtatious growl. “Feisty!”