The universe has a sadistic sense of humour as right across the street from that very party, a certain dark-haired artist was sitting bored in a living room. It was so dull here, the walls were plain, the pictures just had people; where is the fun in that? Let's have an exploding eyeball or some kind of Wendigo, people! Jane sighed and crossed her legs as she gazed at her navel, waiting for this borefest to be done. Why did she even show up to this? There was only so much of Wind's crying she could take in one night. A fourth time? That is what happens when you hook up with the waitress who served you your sub at the deli place on a whim. She had been here for hours already. She had just wanted to go out for a burger, or pizza, or maybe a burger-pizza when she ran into Wind bawling his eyes out. And now she was here. Just listening. Surely Trent would be wondering where she had gone. Or if she was getting food.

For the first time in about a hour, Wind took a breath.

"Okaaaaay this has been fun but I'd better get going I'll not call you tomorrow and we really shouldn't meet up more, I don't miss our little talks." Jane grumbled as she took that second to get up to the door.

"Ooooooh DIANE!" was all she got as a reply. The artist groaned and rolled her eyes.

"See ya space cowboy." And with a swift SLAM of the door, she was out of there. Jane shuddered and pulled her jacket around herself further from the cold. God how long had she been in there? At least two hours or something! Maybe more! No matter. Get food and go home, a noble objective. But just as she was about to cross the street to her rusted steed, Jane stopped as she noticed that hers was not the only beat up car on the street. The whole road was lined with them! And some bastards had blocked her in!

"Weeeell looks like some insurance brokers are getting Christmas early." She sneered. But the urge to cripple wallets melted as she noticed the one house on the street that had multicoloured lights obnoxiously lighting the roads. Those poor streetlights put out of a job. Inhaling through her teeth, she approached the front door, but upon a closer (i.e from the street) inspection, it was open ajar. Oh well, that made things a little easier.

"What would cause such a nice plant to become homicidal?" The money plant had no answer to that "Granted if I stood about having water thrown at me every few days and had dirt in my boots, I'd go a little psychotic too. Just… when that happens just remember this conversation, okay?" With that she gave the plant a friendly slap on the uh, branch causing a couple of its buds to drop off. Daria blinked slowly and looked the plant up and down. Well she just blew it. As she walked back down the hall, she felt herself bump against the wall. After mumbling an 'sorry ma'am' at the drywall, she turned back to the plant. Was that thing watching her? It was dark up here compared to the lights and noise below.

"I'll… take my leave now. Note to self; check for dirt at my windows before sleeping." Daria leaned against the wall with her arms behind her head, "At least the plant held a better conversation than the blender did." It was rude of one of the jocks to make it yell at her when she was just complimenting the lethality its blades must have. Daria sighed and shut her eyes. She must have been up too late last night, everything was beginning to feel heavy but floaty at the same time. As she put her arms behind her head, Daria could not help but notice something.

Wasn't it weird that arms could do this? She swung her arms back and forth to prove this point. By all accounts this should be physically impossible. But it's not. Why?

"Knees can't bend forward so why can arms go backwards?" Daria pondered out loud "…Weird."

A voice suddenly cut through the thumping music,

"Hey! There are two piece-of-shit cars blocking in my piece-of-shit car!"

Jane?! The hairs on the back of Daria's neck shot up as she looked over the banister to the front door. There she was! And looking very pissed off. What was she doing here?! She felt a twist in her stomach as Daria ducked behind the wall. She couldn't talk to Jane, not here! Not now! After how that ended, she would rather never see Jane again!

"Hey!" Jane yelled again, only for it to fall on deaf ears. Everybody was dancing, drinking, punching each other, the typical outing. Almost instinctively, she turned to her right as if expecting Daria to be there. She had a better way with words than she did, she'd help out with this.

At the thought of the brainy brunette, Jane sighed and rubbed her arm. She wished she had approached her in school after summer break. But Daria was avoiding her. Not that she could blame her; every class they shared would have them sitting at either side of the room and not even giving each other eye contact. Jane knew that she was not exactly radiating friendliness. The last conversation they had in Daria's living room ended with her saying she hated Daria.

Jane wanted nothing more than to just talk to her. But she was not here.

Jane sighed and rolled her eyes. There was no point in trying to get their attention. She would just have to give their cars a few extra dents by trying to get herself out of that space. As she left, she sighed and twirled her keys in her hand. Right, who is first?

Back inside, Daria emerged from her hiding place. Good, she was gone. Daria groaned and leaned against the banister. Was she coming down with something? She felt herself grab the banister but her hands seemed to lag behind. Was everything slowing down? She felt herself lift her head but her eyes did not drift up until almost a second later. Every motion was a smear. Daria shook her head, which only made things worse. What was going on?

"Daria?" A voice echoed long before she could turn to see Jodie standing there. Daria had to hold herself back from flinching. Jodie seemed to appear out of thin air and far too close! The woman blinked at this response, "Woah are you alright?"

"Fine, I'm okay." Daria blinked and took a step back, "You just kinda appeared out of nowhere!"

"What?" Jodie frowned worryingly, "I've been standing here saying your name for about five minutes, are you sure you are okay?"

"I just- wait you have?"

"Daria, I've been watching you since you started talking to the houseplant, then that you hid when… Oh." Her eyebrows furrowed anxiously, Daria looked away and rubbed her arm.

"Yeah um…"

"Look I don't know what is going on between you two but hiding from Jane is not going to help. You can't keep avoiding her if it is making you miserable."

"Sure, it will. That's why I drew myself as a pigeon with its head in a hole."

"What?"

"What?" Daria blinked, had she told Jodie about that before? That one time she was asked to draw herself as an animal? No? "…Pigeons have it good."

"Huh?" Daria blinked at Jodie's confused expression. She turned back to the door, almost hoping Jane had ventured back inside but no such luck. "Okay something's up with you. What is it?"

What did Jodie know? They weren't friends so how would she know how she was feeling or what she was thinking? Whenever they worked together, they just argued. Could she really talk to Jodie about this? She had wanted to earlier but now she was not so sure. Better be safe than sorry.

"No there isn't, I feel fine!"

"Really?" Jodie folded her arms with a raised brow.

"Yes!"

"…Daria I asked you that question about three minutes ago."

"I feel fine- wait really?"

"Yes! After I asked you just stared down at that cactus at the front window like you expected it to get up and walk or something!"

Daria did not have an answer for that. She blinked a few times and kept her eyes on the door. Though a walking cactus would be very interesting. Wait no, then the houseplants would get an advantage! Never mind, that was a bad thought.

"Daria?"

"…Huh?"

"Okay you're acting really odd, have you had much to drink?"

"Have you?" Daria narrowed her eyes. Could Jodie stop moving around for a moment, the girl was jumping about like a kangaroo on crack. The four Jodies folded their arms and seemed confused but she kept her tone friendly.

"…Say, I think Mack's getting some snacks, maybe we should go and-"

Daria let out an involuntary snort and felt her cheeks hurt suddenly, not realising that she had suddenly gained a smile. Jodie blinked.

"What?"

"Heh… Mack's getting snacks." Jodie was caught off guard as Daria then released a honk of a laugh, tilting her head back. Jodie furrowed her brows, completely lost.

"Um, Dar-?"

"Mack? Snack? You-?" Again, that honk, "You don't see it?" A lack of response from Jodie was what finally halted this giggle-attack as it hit her. What was she laughing at? A rhyme? …It was a funny one though. Supressing a snort, knowing opening her mouth again would just result in the same display, she walked past Jodie, still chuckling to herself. "Ah… You should go into comedy. Maybe Turner has a course, you should look into that."

"Wait Daria-!" Too late, downstairs she went, leaving a very confused Jodie at the top.

It seemed her isolation from Jane was starting to eat away at her sanity.