fardell24

Part 2
“Let me start by saying that, while I respect the effort that has gone into this... “

Jake interuppted exclaiming. “Oh, my God, I almost forgot!” He rushed forward and grabbed the coffee table. “Sorry, councilor, the court requires this accoutrement.” He dragged the coffee table over and lifted the chair onto it.

“Oh, for heaven's sake...” Helen murmured.

“There. Family court is now in session.”

“Careful. Don't fall off the accoutrement,” Daria said.

“All rise,” Jake paused whilst everyone rose. “Please be seated. The court calls the case of the family versus Daria and Quinn Morgendorffer.”

“Dad, what is this?” Daria asked.

'I was about to ask that, Daria,' Quinn thought.

“Dad? I don't see any Dad.”

“Your honor, may the family proceed with our opening statements?”

After a brief pause in the proceedings, (Jake asking Helen how he looked as the judge.), Helen proceeded with her opening statement. “You honor, let me make it clear at the outset that this is not a witch hunt. Daria and Quinn are two fine girls who have often made us proud.”

“But...” Daria began.

“But...” Quinn also began.

“But that doesn't make them exempt from the simple truth that rules are rules.”

The phone rang. With hardly a pause Quinn ran and picked it up. She glanced at the caller id. “Sorry, Jerry, this is a bad time.”

“It's Jamie!”

“Or boundaries,” Helen said.

“Yeah, really bad time, could you call back in like an hour or something?” Quinn asked.

“Sure!” Jamie said.

“Quinn...”

“Bye!”

“Bye!”

Quinn hung up, dashed back to her seat and made her decision.

“Now, then...” Helen continued.

“I plead guilty as charged,” Quinn said. “I place faith in your parental wisdom.”

Daria glanced at her sister. 'Of course she's going to sacrifice herself,' she thought.

“Daria?”

“No plea, your honor.”

“Daria, you have to make some kind of plea,” Jake said.

“Still no plea.”

“Daria...” Helen began.

Daria sighed. “Then I plea guilty as charged for coming home late on the first night.”

Quinn glared at Daria. 'I'm taking you down with me!' She decided what to say. “She planned that!” she said.
“What? I did not!” Daria retorted.

“Yes, you did!”

“Girls! Stop it,” Helen said, before one of their not-so-usual-anymore arguments started.

Quinn and Daria faced their parents, and waited for Jake to make his judgement.

They didn't have to wait for long. “Grounded for a month,” Jake pronounced.

“What? I wasn't even the one who stayed out late last night,” Daria exclaimed. 'This doesn't make sense.'

“We have to set boundaries, Daria. Nobody said the justice system would be fair,” Helen said.

'I'm pretty sure that someone did,' Quinn thought.

“Actually, I think somebody did say that. Jefferson or somebody...”

“What have I told you about backing me up?” Helen asked Jake.

“Sorry, the sentence stands. You both are grounded for a month,” Jake proclaimed.

“Very unfair,” Daria said as she got up.

“It was fair,” Helen said.

January 20, 2006
Quinn meet her friends halfway to the school.

“So, how did it go?” Kristen asked.

“Grounded! It starts tonight, at 7:00,” Quinn lamented.

“How long?” Cindy asked with curiosity.

“A month. That's overkill!” Quinn said with annoyance.

Cindy gave Quinn a light hug. “That is excessive. The most I've been so was a week and half in seventh grade.”

Kristen smirked. “That was one boring week,” she said.

“I know you got up to something,” Cindy said light heartedly.

Kristen shrugged. “You'll find out eventually.”

“I'm sure I will,” Cindy said playfully.

Quinn chuckled at her friends' playfullness and then added “Fortunately, she hasn't banned online activity, so we can still talk that way,” Quinn said.

“I guess It's time to buy Guild Wars,” Kristen said, knowing that the other two had been talking to her about it for a while.

“Yes, we'll do an instance at eight,” Quinn said.

“Though she has to get through the prologue first,” Cindy pointed out.

“Oh, yeah,” Quinn said. She thought for a moment. “Nine thirty,” she decided.

“That should be enough time,” Cindy said.

Kirsten wondered what she was getting into. 'They wouldn't have recommended it if it wasn't a good game.'

“What else are you going to do?” Cindy asked Quinn.

“Board games,” Quinn said.

“Doesn't sound so bad,” Kristen said.

“But my parents get bored with them easily.”

“I can see how that could be a problem.”

Quinn nodded.

Later on in the day at the school... “Man, this game's gonna be great! I say Mr. D. goes down halfway through the second period,” Kevin Thompson said.

“That's too late. He's gonna blow out early in the game, while the adrenaline's high,” Michael 'Mack' McKenzie retorted.

“You guys are so insensitive,” Jodie said.

“What do you have in the pool, Jodie?” Kevin asked.

“Third period, two minutes in. Prime cramping time,” Jodie said. She then saw Daria come along. “Hey, Daria. What do you have in the DeMartino pool?”

“I'm not going. I'm grounded.”

Jodie, Mack and Kevin laughed.

“What did you do to get grounded? No offense,” Jodie said.

“None taken, especially since I'm the victim of a fairly bizarre experiment in parental justice.”

“An experiment? On you?” Mack asked, with slight humor.

“Yeah, they deliberately exposed me to jurisprudence.”

“Whoa! That's a little twisted,” Kevin pointed out.

“Yeah. The sad part is that these are the people responsible for my genetic makeup.”

Jodie and Mack laughed. Kevin was confused. 'Why would they do that?' he thought.

After talking to Jodie, Mack and Kevin, Daria met her two close friends. “How did it go?” Jane asked.

“Grounded. For a month.”

“Whoa, that's excessive,” Jane said.

“My feelings exactly,” Daria said.

“You must be rather annoyed,” Jennifer murmured.

“Oh yeah. They're going to be annoyed in turn.”

“You're going to play music really loud?” Jennifer asked.

“You haven't heard it at full volume yet.”

“Would I hear it at my place?” Jane asked.

“Not over Mystik Spiral.”

“True.”

Schloss Morgendorffer
6:59 PM
“Great dinner, honey. Right, girls?” Helen asked.

“Now, off to the exercise yard before lockup,” Daria said.

“Hey, that's right!” Jake remembered “Any final words before grounding officially begins?”

“This sucks!” Quinn said.

“What have I said about using that word?” Helen asked.

“That you'll ground me or something?” Quinn responded.

“Hey, I wouldn't want to go back to Family Court if I were you,” Jake said. He chuckled. “I hear the judge is pretty tough.”
The clock chimed.

“See? This will fly by in no time,” Helen said.

“I doubt that,” Daria said as she got up.

Helen sighed.

Ruins of Ascalon City, Ascalon, Tyria
3 years after the Searing
(Main Guild Wars game world)
In the midst of Ascalon City three adventurers met. They were all human females. They were an experienced Ranger, a moderately experienced Warrior and an inexperienced Necromancer.
“So are you ready?” the Ranger asked.

“I am,” the Warrior said.

“I think so,” the Necromancer said.

“Well, you've got this far,” the Ranger said.

“Certainly,” the Necromancer said.

“Let's do it then,” the Ranger said.

Lawndale
Leung-Bell residence 10:30 PM
Kristen closed the Guild Wars client. 'That was great! The month is going to fly by,' she thought. Of course, she knew that it wouldn't be the same. 'I hope they relent before the month is up.'

January 21, 2006
After breakfast, Quinn didn't go out 'window shopping' with her friends as she was acustomed to do on most Saturdays since she had arrived in Lawndale. 'I guess I'll have to look at games on Amazon,' she thought.

However, after an hour and a half of Amazon searching she was bored. 'Time for gaming then.' she thought. However as she turned on the X-Box, there was sudden burst of music and the house vibrated. She knew what it was; Daria playing her music with the amplifiers turned up to the highest settings. Very annoying. That was annoying. 'I guess that's one way of trying to get the grounding lifted. Of course it might have the opposite effect...' she thought. She turned the TV up to maximum herself as she...

Outside, a passerby would have heard metal music, with a sudden burst of the X-Box startup sound mixed in...

Quinn played Halo until lunch time.
“Quinn, you cannot spend the entire month in your room.” Helen said as she entered the room.

“I can if Daria is playing her music rather loud all day,” Quinn retorted.

Her mother glared at her “Yes, she'll turn it down, but still, come and interact with us. Most of the afternoon at least.”

“You mean, boardgames?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Monopoly?”

“Yes.”

“Scrabble?”

“Yes, Quinn.”

“Chess?”

“We have that too. We have lots of games.”

“Operation?”

“Definitely that,” Helen said boredly.

“I'll come out,” Quinn said.

“Now,” Helen said, when she saw the Quinn wasn't saving the game.

Quinn made the menu come up. “I'm coming!”

Quinn spent the afternoon playing board games with her parents, and occasionally, Daria. After dinner she once again played Guild Wars with Cindy and Kristen.

January 22, 2006
Once again, Quinn was annoyed at the grounding.
“This is ridiculous,” she said as she came down stairs to play board games again. She had betten, both her parents, but not Daria at chess the previous day. 'Daria will probably win scrabble too,' she thought.

Indeed, Daria did win the scrabble game, mainly using words like 'incarcerate' and 'harden'. The significance of that didn't escape Quinn, or their parents.
Later in the afternoon. Quinn decided to 'play' with her parents, by calling a psychic hotline. “...Really? You think that's going to happen in the next six months? That would be so great,” she said.

“Quinn, I really have to use the phone,” Helen said.

“Muh-om! I'm sorry, but I think that learning about my future husband is a little more important right now.”

“What? Are you talking to that Clint person again?”

“Not Clint, It's my psychic buddy.”

“Hang up that phone this instant! Those calls cost a fortune!” Quinn gave her the phone. “I'm sorry, but I need the phone and my daughter isn't allowed... what? Why, yes, I was about to call a client. Really? I believe he was born in August... ooooh!”

Her job done, Quinn made herself scarce.

Jake had had enough! Daria. Playing. Her. Metal. Music. At. Full. Volume! He pounded on her door as he cringed at the volume of the music that managed to escape the soundproofing of the padded walls of her room.

He knocked on her door. No answer. 'Of course, she can't hear me knocking! I'll have to go in!' he decided.

Jake entered the room. “Yes, Dad?” Daria asked.

“Yeah, hi, Daria. I was kind of wondering if maybe you could stop now.”

“Dad, these tired bones may be locked behind prison walls, but when I play, my soul flies free as a bird.”

“I'm sorry, honey. You go on and play. But please turn the volume down!”

“That's all I ask.”

As her father went out. Daria moved the knob on her amplifier from '9' to '10'. 'He hasn't heard anything yet!' She grabbed the guitar and launched into her loudest song... The house vibrated and reverberated.

Jake put his hands to his ears. “Aaaaahhhhhh!” He ran down the hallway. “See what you did, Old Man! I'm unable to bear loud music!”

Quinn was online, chatting with Cindy when Daria let rip...

Geek_princess91: Noise! Noise! Noise!
Cindyquill: Huh?

Geek_princess91: Daria's music. Her amplifier must at full power.

Cindyquill: Oh.

Cindyquill: You have ear plugs?”

Geek_princess91: Somewhere, but not here in my room. Most likely in the attic, and the music would be louder up there.

Cindyquill: That's not helpful then.

Geek_princess91: Not at all.

Cindyquill: Would it be quieter downstairs?”

Geek_princess91: Possibly, but there isn't really anywhere to put the laptop where my parents wouldn't try to 'engage' me.

Cindyquill: I see.

Quinn signed off from her chat with Cindy. She knew that if she did try to talk to Daria about the volume of the music that one of their arguments would start. 'Not that it's so common anymore,' she remembered the time, just prior to the opening of the Coffee House, when Kristen talked to Daria. She had a thought. 'That's it! Kristen or Jane could ask Daria to turn the music down...' She then checked to see if Kristen was online.