The DT Files

the DT Files

203: Quinn the Brain

by SSJ04 Mewtwo

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Reviewer Responses

Serenity Slytherin: Hey, feel free to review anytime. Here's what you asked for...hehehe.

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He walked the streets of Lawndale, aimlessly. He had been distracted with something ever since after the failed trip to Alternapalooza. The thing that was distracting Trent Lane...Daria Morgendorffer.

What she had said on the side of the road that day had been encouraging. He was doing something that he enjoyed and that most people didn't or couldn't follow a dream like he was. He couldn't remember the last time a girl had said something like that to him.

Then, up ahead, he saw the Morgendorffer place. As he got closer, he could see three boys making their way up the driveway. Curious, and having nothing else to do, he followed them. Mr. Morgendorffer answered the door, called for Quinn, then the boys said something that Trent couldn't fully get, then Mr. Morgendorffer called for Daria.

"Daria?" Trent said to himself and made his way over to a window. He saw her and immediately he felt as if he needed a shower, and a cold one at that. Oh sure, pink wasn't really her color, but the curves....he found himself licking his dry lips.

"Damn," he uttered. He hadn't seen the scene between Quinn and Daria where Quinn finally gave up her suto-brain persona. He quickly made his way back up the street.

'She hides it well...part of me says I shouldn't go for it, but there's another part of me that wants her and won't be denied. But she's too perfect...smart and beautiful...I don't deserve that,' he thought. He sighed. 'Or, maybe, maybe I need to start to make myself better so I am deserving of her.'

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He sang 'Your Decision'(1). Jane had told him that Daria was going off with her family to Daria's cousin's wedding. If what he had heard about Daria's parents was any indication, the rest of Daria's family was just as screwy, if not more so.

He knew the problem...it was the fights Max and Nick had with each other. He and Jessie didn't fight as much, but Second was the fact that he could barely hear Nick's guitar. He talked to Jessie about this to see if he had the same problem and Jessie had confirmed it. Checking the sound board during a practice, he saw that the bass guitar controls were turned down. Turning them back up, the band resumed practice, but he noted how Nick's bass threw Max off. He inwardly sighed. Max was more valuable, since he had the vehicle that could haul all their gear. Nick was expendable.

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The flee market wasn't much for activity. Sure, there were people wandering around, looking for gems within all the coal that was being sold, but it was mostly empty. Trent had needed a break from the booth and Jane's overtly yentaing he and Daria. He had noticed, that is to say that he had been oblivious to the whole thing. Now though, now that he had seen her in something that showed off her figure, he found himself paying attention around both her and his sister.

the sound of music caught his attention. It was a bass guitar and a keyboard being played. He found the source, a boy, not much older than Trent, was playing a five string bass. The girl, who looked as if she were shorter than Daria and had the palest skin Trent had ever seen, was playing a keyboard that looked expensive. They had seemed to have drawn a small crowd and were enjoying themselves.

'Bingo,' Trent thought. He had found Nick's replacement and had found a fight member that would add something to their sound.

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He was annoyed. Not at Jane's rambling on about a guy that Daria was interested in. No, it was the fact that another guy had caught Daria's interest. That he couldn't stand, but he didn't show it. He didn't want to give Jane anymore ammunition for her yentaing. The front door opened, and the old members of the Spiral, minus Nick, and the new members of the Spiral, came in.

"Yo," Trent greeted.

"interesting place," Daric commented looking around.

"Uh," Jane began, confused.

"Daric, Angel, this crazy painter is Jane, my sister," Trent introduced.

"A current product of LHS?" Daric cracked.

"Hmmmm, I don't think Li would want me on the market," Jane joked and Daric smirked.

"We practicing or what?" Max complained. Jessie was getting that look which meant that Jane's presence was distracting him.

"Yeah, c'mon," Trent said and the four boys and one goth chick went down into the basement.

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She couldn't believe that he had talked her into trying on the tie-dye outfit. However, it could have been worse, he could have tried to convince her to get a piercing. However, the hungry look she saw in his eyes made her blush.

"Told you," he said. "You look hot in that." 'And much better than the Quinn outfit I saw you in,' he thought.

"Ummmm, shouldn't we...keep looking for a present for Jane?" she asked. She liked his visual attention, but she was starting to feel like Quinn and that was making her uncomfortable.

"Yeah, but you ought to get that for yourself," he said and stroked her cheek. He smiled at the heat he felt under his fingers.

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She sighed. If she was going to get her license she was going to need to have someone teach her with out that person trying to change her look. She knocked on the door and the voice called, letting her know that she could come in.

"Trent?"

"Hey Daria," he greeted with a smile. She could see the small pile of notebooks that was laying on his bed.

"Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Nah, I finished gathering the good songs for Daric to look over."

"He's certainly helped you guys sound better."

"Yeah. With Daric's vocals, it allows Jessie to concentrate on his guitar playing."

"Uh, I need someone to continue my driving lessons. I and my mother had a falling out about me getting contacts."

"She pressuring you?"

"It feels like it. Sometimes I feel like she wants a daughter that is a combination of me and Quinn."

"The perfect daughter."

"Yeah, so, uh, can you..."

"No problem. I needed a break anyway."

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She didn't know whether to be thrilled or horrified. Not only was Jane staying, but Trent as well. The driving lessons he was giving her was a big help. He was more patient and didn't care how rough she was with his car. It also got her out of having to take lessons from her mother.

"You going to take more letters?" Jane asked.

Huh?" Daria asked having been dragged out of her thoughts.

"You only took three letters," Jane reminded her friend. "You sure you know how to play this game?"

"I know how to play," Daria retorted now getting the rest of the required letters.

"Hmmmm, you wouldn't be distracted now would you?"

"No."

"Hmmmm, that's interesting since Trent showed up..."

"I'll use my pillow to smother you if you finish that sentence, Lane."

Jane snickered. She was enjoying this too much. Before she could continue to mess with Daria, Quinn came into the room, wanting Jane's color opinion. Daria sighed and rubbed at her temples. Her friend was just a pain most of the time.

"Hey Daria, where's Janie? I need to borrow a toothbrush. We've got a gig tonight," Trent explained.

"Quinn's borrowing her talent with colors for a moment," Daria answered, feeling self-conscious in only a nightshirt. Trent caught on immediately to this though.

"You don't have to be self-conscious around me. I think that you know how hot I think you are."

Daria's cheeks flushed and her toes curled in her socks. This was beginning to be too much for her. Hearing footsteps, Trent turned to face the now returning Jane.

"Need something, or have you decided to join us in the blood sport known as Scrabble?"

"Nah, got a toothbrush? We've got a gig tonight..."

"Here, consider it a gift. Sorry we can't be there, but you and I both know that Helen will go nuts if all three of us are out late."

"No problem, there will be others," he said with a smirk and left.

"You ok? You look...a little flushed," Jane said with a smirk.

"Shut up, just shut up," Daria growled.

Jane smirked, "You'll have to tell him eventually y'know."

Daria sighed, "Do you really think my mother will really let me date him?"

Jane now sighed. That was an obstacle that she didn't account for. Although, a lot of her meddling was for her own amusement, but Daria had a good point. Trent's lifestyle wasn't one that Helen probably wanted Daria hanging around.

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"Why does he like you so much?"

"Huh?"

"Your weird friend's brother, why does he like you so much? Why does he refer to me as 'Daria's sister'?" Quinn asked, doing a bad impersonation of Trent.

Daria let her Mona Lisa smile out. "I guess he doesn't appreciate shallow girls unlike the guys at school."

"But you're such a brain!" Quinn shouted. Daria rolled her eyes. She really didn't want to have this conversation with Quinn while driving. In fact, she didn't want Quinn coming with her on this journey to free the Spiral and Jane from jail.

"Maybe he likes brains. Did you ever stop to consider that?"

"If that's the case then's he's weirder than his sister," Quinn shot back.

"Why are you so curious about a guy paying more attention to me than you?"

"Hey, no guy pays more attention to you than me."

"True, but why should that bother you? He doesn't have a bank account for you to drain dry, nor does he get blue balls from looking at you," Daria quipped and Quinn fell silent. Quinn didn't want to talk about guys' real reaction to her. She stayed quiet, even when they passed that supposed hitchhiking cowboy.

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Trent sighed to himself. She could have asked for anything else, but she had to ask him for thirty seconds of music. While he had burned through his creative juices when Daric and Angel joined, he now found that his muse was on strike for some reason.

"I'm sorry," he began and to punctuate this, he kissed her on the lips for three seconds. "I couldn't write five seconds of music."

"That's ok...at least you didn't agree to it and found out later you couldn't produce," she said in a quiet voice.

"Hey, let me make it up to you by taking you out."

Daria's eyes widened. Had she heard that right? Had he actually asked her out.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

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Quinn didn't understand it. She went out with guys so why would her mother have a problem with Daria going out with someone, even if that someone was Trent? Ok, sure he was older than Daria, but Daria was seventeen now and hopefully would be going away to college. Far away for Quinn's sake. She could hear her sister and her mother continuing to argue.

'She really likes him. I've never seen her like this. I've never seen her in such an outfit!' Quinn thought seeing the tie-dye outfit that Daria had worn to go out with Trent. 'And more shocking, Trent seems to like her...why does this bother me!?'

Silence fell upon the house. The warring child and parent had stopped their argument. Quinn knew that this wasn't going to be the end of it, especially if Daria was bound and determined to date Trent. Quinn envied her sister for once. She didn't know if she could stand up to her mother like that. Quinn would just relinquish to her mother's wishes, but then go behind Helen's back and do what she wanted anyway. Daria, on the other hand, was taking the direct approach and a direct assault from their mother, and actually winning!

'It's got to be her brain, she's wearing mom down to get what she wants,' Quinn concluded. And, Quinn would be proven right. Daria would be so stubborn, so inflexible, and so blatantly defiant that Helen had thrown in the white flag and let her eldest do what she wanted. Quinn would wonder for the rest of her life how her sister found the resolve to do what she had done in order to see Trent like Daria wanted.

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1. Alice in Chains, Black Gives Way to Blue