NOSTALGIA

A "Daria" QuickFic by Erin Mills

Feb. 28th, 2003

Daria unlocked the door of the apartment she shared with Jane and
looked at her watch. She exhaled in relief. Traffic getting off
campus was hell, but she'd made it back with fifteen minutes to spare.

She went down the hall to her bedroom, dumped her backpack onto her
bed, and began digging in her closet. After a few moments, she
found the clothes she was looking for and quickly changed into
them: A green T-shirt and a pair of black shorts. She found a hair
elastic in the junk drawer of her desk and pulled her hair back
into a ponytail, before surveying the results in the mirror. Not
100%, but close enough.

She glanced at her watch again, seven minutes, then took it off and
tossed it on the desk, bvefore padding out in her socks to the kitchen.

She grabbed a plate out of the cabinet, along with a jar of peanut
butter. Then she went to the fridge, and grabbed a jar of grape
jelly and a half loaf of bread. She took out a butter knife from
the silverware drawer and a couple of slices of bread. She put one
slice on the plate, and started spreading peanut butter on it.

After a minute, she paused, thinking, then tossed the knife in the
sink. She got out a tablespoon and scooped a huge glob of peanut
butter onto the bread, smeared it out, not caring whether it stayed
on the bread or not, then repeated the process with the
jelly. After the condiments were set, she took the other slice of
bread and pressed it down firmly on the mass. Peanut butter and
jelly oozed out of the sides of the sandwich. Daria smirked,
satisfied, then went back to the fridge, and poured herself a glass
of milk, before going back to the living room.

She put the plate and glass on the coffee table, clicked the TV on and
scrolled through the channels until she found what she was looking
for. The previous program was just wrapping up. As the broadcast
went into station identification, Daria took the plate and glass
off the coffee table, set them on the floor, before streching out
on her stomach next to them. She gave herself a small
congratulatory smile. Just in time.

The show she had clawed her way home through traffic to see, started
up. The familiar theme music washed over her, and Daria's self
congratualtory grin turned to a smile of nostalgia as she
remembered the many afternoons she had spent just like this when
she was younger.

No sooner had the theme started up in earnest, and Daria had taken a
rather messy bite of her sandwich, however, than the door opened
and Jane walked in, burdened down with her portfolio and backpack.
Daria looked up in surprise. Jane looked down at her
friend, then at the sandwich, which was well on it's way to
blobhood, then up at the show on the TV, then back to Daria with an
expression of disbelief on her face.

Without saying a word, Jane stepped over Daria and wentdown the hall.
After a moment, Daria heard Jane's bedroom door slam. Daria
swallowed her mouthful of sandwich, and downed half the glass of
milk. She knew she was blushing. She hadn't told Jane her plans,
and now, she knew she was in for a ribbing. Nothing overly nasty,
true, but Jane would get all kinds of blackmail material out of
this, especially down at the bar. God why did she have to do this,
it was stupid. It was immature. It was--

*Slam!*

Jane came back into the room, dressed in a red T-shirt and tan shorts,
also in her socks. Her hair was clipped back in an odd sprout-like
way, similar to how she wore it when she did her track running at
the Y. She had several sheets of typing paper, and, Daria was
suprised to see, a large Tupperware container filled with broken
crayons. She sat down on the floor next to Daria, spread the paper
out in front of her and opened the container. She grabbed a
blue crayon and began scribbling on one of the sheets.

Daria stared at her for a minute, then Jane looked up from her work.

"What? You think I didn't grow up watching this too?" she gestured at
the TV with her head. Daria smiled, ripped her globulous sandwich
in half and put the plate between the two of them. Jane returned
the grin, and took a bite of her half. On the screen, the elderly
man in the red cardigan looked out at his audience and grinned
benevolently.

"Hi, neighbor. Hope you're having a wonderful day..."

Goodbye, Mr. Rogers...

1928-2002