The Year After

Text ©2003 Roger E. Moore (roger70129@aol.com)
Daria and associated characters are ©2003 MTV Networks


Feedback (good, bad, indifferent, just want to bother me, whatever) is 
appreciated. Please write to: roger70129@aol.com

Synopsis: Jane does not forgive Daria for kissing Tom. The great friendship 
ends.



    Trent was on his way to pick up a few groceries at Speedo-Mart when he 
spotted Janey's thin figure by the road, walking for home. He slowed and 
called to her, pacing her. She looked bad. He finally talked her into getting 
into the Tank. She wouldn't talk for the longest time. He drove around 
Lawndale twice before she opened up.
    Jane told him everything--Tom, Daria, the kiss, the breakup, everything. 
He glanced at her once as he drove. Her hands lay open in her lap, her head 
thrown back against the seat, mouth open, eyes shut, rivers running down her 
cheeks into her hair.
    When she finished, she blew her nose for the fourth time on an oily rag 
Trent found for her under his seat. She fell into a long silence. Trent 
feared the silence more than he did Janey's wails of grief. He wanted more 
than anything to tell his little sister that everything would be all right. 
He tried two or three times to get it out, but it didn't come. His instincts 
were never wrong about Janey. He could not tell her what he knew was not true.
    "Where are we going, anyway?" he asked quietly.
    Jane looked out the window. They were about to pass the Morgendorffer 
home.
    "Home," said Jane in a dead voice.
    "Our home?" Trent hoped Janey meant Daria's home. Maybe things could be 
patched up.
    "Our home," said Jane.
    Trent swallowed. This was bad. What Daria had done was pretty stupid, but 
if it meant Janey didn't want to see Daria anymore, things were worse than he 
had suspected.
    "Want to see how Daria's do--" he began, slowing down.
    "No." The word was like a door closing.
    The Morgendorffer home went by. Maybe tomorrow, he thought. Maybe 
tomorrow Janey and Daria would work things out. Maybe tomorrow.
    Daria called. Jane wouldn't take the phone. Daria came over. Jane locked 
herself in her room and wouldn't come out. This went on for a long time.
    It was a relief, if an awful one, when Daria stopped coming over and 
calling.
    When school ended, Jane went off to an art colony without telling Daria. 
Daria tried again to get in touch with her, but it did not work. Trent toured 
with his band and wasn't home when Daria came by, and the phone rang in the 
empty Lane home when Daria called. Daria had to work at a summer camp for Mr. 
O'Neill. She did not enjoy her work and did not get to know any of the 
campers. She tried once more to contact Jane when she got out of the camp in 
August, when Trent returned from touring. It was then that Daria learned 
that, over the summer, Jane had worked out a transfer from Lawndale High 
School to the Ashfield Community for the Arts as a full-time student. When 
school opened that fall, Jane Lane wasn't there.
    But Daria was.


[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Only scattered notes existed for what followed. Thirteen 
segments were planned, one for each episode in the fifth season, showing the 
effects on Daria of Jane not being present. Everything works out for the 
worse. As a major depressive episode sinks in and deepens, Daria ends up back 
in the self-esteem class, unable to focus on her studies or personal life. 
She is angry with herself, angry with everyone else, and lonely. She dates 
Tom and sleeps with him only for the company, but she keeps breaking up with 
him until he finally dumps her. Individual issues raised in the various 
episodes work out badly--Ultra-Cola maintains its grip over the school 
because no one protested it, Quinn does not help Sandi get back into the 
Fashion Club (which dissolves), Quinn never admits Daria is her sister, Helen 
never makes up with her own sisters, and so on. The final drama was not quite 
worked out for episode #513, but the SUV car wreck figured in the story's 
end, as Daria attempted to get together with Tom one more time. Best just to 
drop the whole thing.]

FINIS