museboxingring | DARIA OPEN POST 2016

Daria knew it was wrong to stay quiet and considered maybe trying to piece it together would at least be doing something vocal. That was before Casey decided to switch lanes like a crazy person. Then she wasn't thinking about it anymore, she was focused on this. She could feel her stomach lurch and the urge to smack him for this kind of reckless driving.

Her insides were sensitive, and literally felt like they needed to escape her body by the time they got to the 7-11.

Great, he left. Good going, Daria. You should feel good for grilling the guy who invited you to come along. Even if you were second, and basically insinuated that there was nothing better you could do. Brains are homebodies, and you shouldn't have gone. You should've said "no".

At risk of everything else, at that point. She was frustrated all over again. She was frustrated at Casey, and she was frustrated at being frustrated. In her efforts to be right and self righteous, she was sure she totally offended the nerd who probably was stuck not knowing what to do. Just as much as she was.

She sat, and waited, feeling the sickness finally leave from the driving. Now there was just nerves.

And out the window of the car and through the window of the 7-11, she'll see Casey rooting through the shelves, rushing to the counter, and nearly colliding with a grouchy trucker on the way out the door. A little back-and-forth shouting and then Casey dashes back to the van, clutching something to his chest.

"OK!" He breathes as he jumps into the driver's seat, "I get it, yo. Hockey's not your thing. That's cool."

He thrusts a cheap spiral notebook and 7-11 branded pen at her. "Figured you could write, like...uh, whatever while the game was going on!" He'd press-ganged her into this, so he might as well give her the option of doing what she wanted too, right?

...Right?

"Ooooooor we could...just turn around?"

She stared at Casey rummaging through shelves. She stared when he barreled back. She stared at the notebook. She stared at the pen. She stared at Casey. Back to the stuff she was given.

Daria moved the pen between her fingers as she rooted through the pages with her other hand. That clean slate of a blank notebook was something a bit rewarding. She knew Jane felt the same about a new sketchbook.

Was he...trying to cheer me up? Make me feel validated?

It seemed confusing. She knew Casey long enough to know he sucked at being overly deep. But he...usually made it up with being sincere. In a way, this would a cheap tactic. But at the same time, this was a way of showing he understood her feelings. He understood her interests, he understood his own unpreparedness for the whole thing.

"If I didn't know any better," Daria then said, not in a judgmental way. "I'd say this was your way of bribing me."

Casey's face broke out into a genuine, if slightly subdued, grin.

"Heh...well, the donuts sure didn't work." He's not sure he's out of the woods on this one, but she's taken his offering! That's good start!

...Yeah, it turns out that swagger is over-rated when it comes to this stuff. He had the image of sweeping Daria off her feet and charming her into having a great time and that sure didn't work. It's not like he meant to drag her off if she didn't want to go but...she doesn't seem to do anything on the weekends and it makes no sense to Casey.

Doesn't she get bored? And even if she didn't...he still kind of wanted her to sit around with him. The hockey game had been just an excuse in a long line of reasons she might want to as well, last minute and impulsive as it had been.

He turns the Party Wagon on, but waits for some kind of signal as to where they'll be going. He knows what he hopes, and his crooked smile gets a little wider in an attempt to influence her, but it's not up to him.

Daria was bored by choice, as sad as it sounds. She kept to her comforts. She was happier that way. No excitement. That was always better. Sleep a long time and make herself rested before the next school week. Because the week always wore her out in many ways.

But she said yes.

She did.

It came out of her mouth.

She was sitting in this car.

"Well," she said with a small smirk. "The donuts worked a little." That was mostly a joke but she seemed to feel better. A little bit. This was this guy's version of trying. Cheap as it was, there was that really genuine thing here that he wanted her to have fun. She wasn't second rate and her presence mattered. That felt...very nice. She inhaled, exhaled, and buckled up again. "Luckily, I answer well to bribes. But I don't think you would to bumper to bumper traffic. We better hit the road."

He'd done right by her, that much he was sure about now. He backed out of the parking lot and drove back up the ramp, flipping the radio back on, if a little quieter than it had been before.

"We'll hit it anyway. The playoffs get every carnage-loving psycho in the US!" It's a term he uses with clear fondness. Those are his people, after all. "They're gonna be spittin' teeth all over the ice!"

His enthusiasm, as well as his perma-grin, were restored, but there was one little bump he'd have to get over and...it wasn't one in the road.

"Hey, uh...sorry I wasn't totally upfront with you."

"I'll take the fact you technically called us carnage-loving psychos as a compliment," Daria said as she got herself comfortable, smiling a little bit. What an idiot, what a really sweet idiot though.

She placed the notebook on her lap and looked right at him as they started off again.

Daria took a listen to what Casey then said, and seemed to...take it in. This was weird for her now. At a time like now when she wouldn't be doing anything, she was willingly now going to watch a hockey game with some guy. Genuinely, with no hesitations.

What an odd feeling. What a truly odd feeling. To want to be doing something else on a Saturday with someone that WASN'T Jane.

Then he apologized. He apologized. To her.

Hm.

"That's...alright," she said, with some hesitation. This was so weird to her. She continued. "I was a jerk, too. You didn't deserve that."

"Good, cause it totally was." Not a hint of irony in his face or voice. It doesn't come to him like it does to her.

He's well aware that the fact that she came with him was a pretty big deal, but it's all alien to him, the way she thinks, the way she closes herself off to the world at large. That's not even because of her intellect, which he knows outstrips his own in a lot of ways. How do you...do that? Just sit around all the time choosing to let the world go by. Casey would hop a train on a whim if he thought it would take him somewhere interesting.

"Ahhh, it's no big," he says with an easy-going shrug, "I kinda sprung this on you."

He keeps looking at her in glances as he drives down the road, happy, but with a tinge of...curiosity? At least that's what his cocked head -more cocked then usual- indicates.

It was hard to explain to someone like Casey maybe right off that bat. If he couldn't come up with the conclusions as to why she was who she was, then he could perhaps ask. At least Daria felt like he respected it, even if he couldn't understand it. They really were opposites, weren't they? He was reckless and a go-getter, mostly positive but also has a temper no one should have to experience. He thought for himself though, and didn't push people around or follow the crowd.

Yet, here she was, feeling all kinds of satisfied, comfortable, and uncomfortable.

She fiddled more with her new pen as she continued to look outside for a moment. The traffic already started up, and soon enough, they were stuck in it.

Great.

So with the now trapped in a car feeling, Daria felt like...letting loose. In her own way.

She turned to Casey, inquisitive now. The more she thought about some things, the more it bothered her.

"So, why me then," Daria went up and asked. "Why invite me over here? Honestly."

Well, this was why he bought snacks. Actually, what he should have done was camp out the night before, but that's even harder to get people to do.

He might have asked what was on his mind, certainly nothing was stopping him, not least his own impulse control...but he didn't know how to phrase it when Daria asked her own question.

"...Whaddya mean? Why wouldn't I wanna go with you?" It's not even that he doesn't know that many people who would be willing to go with him...Mostly not that, anyway.

Ah, here it came. She could feel it inside her gut. It was Daria's desire to know things, as she usually was someone who liked details. She wasn't usually nosy, however. Not usually, but maybe sometimes.

"It's not just about the hockey game really. Let's face it, we're not really too much alike," she said to him straight. "You might've noticed that I'm not really a people person to begin with. I'm the "Brain". I like books, not people."

Maybe she still felt bad for snapping at him earlier, perhaps.

"I distrust people on a regular basis because it's better that way for me. Yet...here we are hanging out. Hanging out with The Brain doesn't do you any good publicity wise and you probably got flack for it."

"...Geeze, Dar, you sure I'm not ruining your rep?"

It's the kind of thing that comes out of a person who is genuinely surprised to hear that come out of someone. What did Daria care if Casey got flack for hanging out with her...no, who would even give him flack for that?

Casey feels like something has been laid bare for him, but it's tangled up in Daria-isms and he can't get at it to really see what she's told him.

"Seriously, who cares about all that stuff, 'cause it ain't me. I'm hanging out with you 'cause I like you!"

Was that not enough, somehow? For Daria? He needs a line from her, 'cause all of a sudden he has the distinct feeling he's drowning in quicksand.

"Trust me, you couldn't wreck a rep that's been already tracking through waist deep mud."

It was weird for her maybe. Not many people actively hung out with her because they liked her. Jane being the obvious exception. But Jane was Jane...Casey was totally different. For someone who made herself so unapproachable, she sure seemed to feel emotionally stinted at times for people she actually cared about.

She didn't care about what people thought of her and who she hung out with, but it was hard for her to feel the same about someone like Casey. Casey, being far more outgoing and sport-y.

For that moment, that did send off a few insecurity alarms inside. She should feel like she should hold some responsibility for it. Stupid as that was when she replayed that reasoning in her mind.

Casey seemed to catch on that, and now it seemed like she was interrogating him again. Daria, you really suck at this. You really do.

"Right," she said with a hum in her voice. Then there was a deep pause from her, as she turned to hide a small flush that appeared in her cheeks. "That's...that's nice."

Edited 2016-03-05 21:31 (UTC)

"...Were you...not talking about me the first time?"

He shakes his head in slight exasperation. "I just don't get it. You know the only thing I care about people thinkin' that Casey Jones is the raddest guy on two blades! What's it matter to you what anyone thinks of me goin' out with you?"

Still lost, still confused. At least he can tell from the way she turns away that she's flattered. Staring out the window after a compliment, by contrast to earlier, is a great sign.

She wasn't, but he seemed to figure that out maybe. She didn't have to say it and she really hoped she didn't have to elaborate her point.

Because it sucked and her feelings sucked.

But she had these feelings anyway, and she had to air them. Because they sucked and they needed to be put somewhere or she'll go nuts. Daria could elaborate in her own way though.

"So no one has ever come to you asking why you hang out with 'that weird girl'," she stated by the fact. While curiously, it wasn't actually a question. She knew the question came up when Jane was on the track team, so...she couldn't help but wonder. Jane stood up for her, and chose her friendship with Daria as well as her own standards above playing by the corrupt school system. So Daria learned later, over greasy pizza.

"Uh...once or twice from the hockey team?" This time he's being totally honest, though it takes a little bit of thought. "But that's nothin', you know? It's hazing. Like I just gotta, like, tease Danny about showering with shorts on or somethin' and it gets dropped."

It's not a big deal to him, just another dart his teammates try to nail him with in the perpetual game of one-upsmanship that happens in team sports. He supposes he can't expect her to know that, considering she's made her feelings on sports pretty clear.

It didn't seem like a big deal to him, but it kinda meant a big deal to her. Her reputation with the hockey team didn't matter, and she was certain he got the flack.

Her feelings couldn't go down any further, because from what it seemed like, he came up with a witty enough retort in response to any humiliation.

Impressed? Maybe a little. Casey was trying, yet again to alleviate any tension she caused herself. Reel back, reel back.

"An attempt at shame, you shame right back. Nice," Daria retorted. "Because who doesn't love the smell of jock straps right in your shower."

"Sure. That's just how it works on a team!" He shrugged, "...'cept when it's Kevin. I once asked him if he wore his football gear everywhere because it was cheaper than a muscle suit and next thing I knew he somehow had me doing two hours of weight training." That just...seemed to be what happened whenever you talked to Kevin. (Or Brittany for that matter.)

This was good, making her laugh...On the inside? Probably? The tension seemed like it was diffusing, even if it did leave the question of why Daria cared about Casey's reputation, and why she thought so little of her own. And if she thought that, then why didn't she try to change...

You know what, no. He invited her out for fun. Let's keep that going.

"The jocks part is only funny when it's happening to someone else...so we do it to each other all the time."

That...actually got a visible snort from Daria. "Don't take that from him next time. There's a reason why he doesn't wear a helmet everywhere. Nothing there he needs to protect while going to class."

It wasn't like Daria cared about her reputation, maybe she just was irritated at the social implication it gave her. But she didn't care about what people thought of her in that way. Being "The Brain" was obviously nothing she asked for, but it was hers and nothing she wanted to change because then she wouldn't feel comfortable in her skin.

Maybe she thought that would be hard for Casey to understand, which again, maybe wasn't fair to him.

If people were to like her, they should like her for her. Not for the person she could be if she changed. Maybe she was afraid of what kind of answer she could get if she did get deeper into it.

Because. Well.

She kinda liked him. And he seemed to like her for her, and nothing else. Not for the clothing or the make-up she COULD wear. But it was...hard. Casey seemed like the type that could have as many friends as he would want. Even if he liked her, she thought maybe he cared about it just a little what people thought.

"Hey, I thought it might improve my definition! You know, not that I need the help."

Something was still off though, some kind of wedge in the air between them. An...air wedge. Something like that. Whatever. And they aren't going anywhere in any hurry, not with this traffic.

"Did I ever tell you about my friend Donnie? He was my best friend's Rapheal's brother, and he was a Brain. Like...a Super-Brain. Like...the school made him promise not to make a nuclear bomb for the science fair kinda Brain. And I hated the guy!"

Casey only kind of knows why he launched into this story, but now he can't be stopped. "The dude picked apart everything I said, or did, or...ate, or whatever! Seemed like every time we were in the same room we were in each other's faces, all cause we-"

Liked the same girl. But even Casey wasn't tactless enough to admit that at this point. Besides, April was back in NYC.

With Donnie.

"-didn't see eye-to-eye. Anyway, we fought for months, until one day, this asshole rams into the party wagon with his giant muscle car and speeds off, a little chip-n-chase, you know? So I hop in and try to chase him down, but he gets away. This goes on for weeks, He keeps ramming it while I've got it on the street for repairs!

"Then Donnie comes up, luggin' a huge gym bag full of batteries and wires and tells me that Raph told him about what was goin' down. I tell him to get lost at first and go looking for the road creep myself. He challenged me, after all. Code of the road and all.

"...It takes me a half hour, I find the guy and he knocks me and the van into a hydrant. Next thing I know, Donnie's pulling up next to me on his moped, and I finally have to crack and admit I can't stop the guy without him. So we rig up all that stuff to the back bumper..." He's starting to laugh. "And the next time the guy bumps me, it spot-welds the fenders together! And we totally locked the transmission so it was completely impossible to move the van!"

"...Then he got out of the car and beat the crap out of us. Lost the fender and the fuel pump."

He was telling a story, making her turn to him. Daria watched him intently, actually trusting there was some point to this. Casey started talking about some brainy guy he knew. That he hated at first. Because they clashed probably in terms of personality.

It caused her to pause, and listen to the whole thing. She was great at listening.

What a story, you could write that and make it into a book. Probably. Or at least a very bro style teen movie. It was very odd to hear about some guy who sat with you in this car used to dislike someone similar he claimed to like being around.

His shining moment when he liked brains? Or when he realized there was more to brains than intellect and awkwardness? It was probably both.

She smiled again.

"You know, and I'm sure you noticed this too, but I judged you pretty quickly," she stated to the fact. "I was a bitch when you didn't deserve it."

Hey, they were...kind of having a moment here, weren't they? It's hard not to miss the way his face softens when she says that, a reflection of the warmth in his chest when she says that.

"Ah...It's cool. Proved you wrong in the end, right?" It was Casey did best: proving people wrong who underestimated him. And it was possible that he'd underestimated Daria himself, because he'd taken her more as a challenge than anything else and maybe that wasn't fair to her.

But then, maybe she wouldn't be sitting here next to him if he hadn't. The traffic was starting to move a bit more steadily, the cars filtering away from the main road. They were actually moving again.

DARIA OPEN POST 2016

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