ESTRANGESTERS
by Ostragoth

Jane Lane descended the stairs still pulling her shirt on, and hurriedly started a pot of coffee. Then she sat down and began putting on her boots. The new girl was going to come by on her way to school this morning. Jane tried to remember the last time she'd looked forward to an acquaintance coming over, and then realized that there were no such times for her to remember.

Jane had never made friends easily. She'd always been too perceptive, too quick to see the inconsistencies and stupidities of life, and the foibles and hypocrisies of people. And she'd never been good at keeping her observations to herself. It was amazing how quickly an offhand remark or two could drive people away. But this new girl, far from being put off by Jane's sarcastic observations, seemed actually to appreciate them.

They'd spent the last couple of days exchanging small talk and warily probing each other's defenses, and had exchanged notes and drawings in self-esteem class yesterday afternoon. That had been fun. On the walk home, they'd talked more freely and gotten to know each other better, and Daria had said she'd come by this morning so they could walk to school together.

A few minutes later, with a spoon and two forks stuck in her scalding hot mug of coffee to cool it quicker, Jane wolfed down some cereal as she thought about Daria. Strange girl, she thought. Sarcastic as hell when she wanted to be, but basically nice enough. Smart as hell, too, but… strange. Jane pulled the hardware out of her mug of coffee and took a cautious sip. A good kind of strange. But that sister of hers…

The doorbell rang. Jane went to answer it, mug in hand. It was Daria. Jane found herself wondering if it was an effect of the big round glasses that made her eyes seem to look right through her. Then Daria smiled a little smile that made Jane glad she'd gotten out of bed.

"Morning, Jane."

"Hey, Daria! Just a second, while I finish my coffee." Jane took as big a gulp as she could of the still hot brew.

"No rush; I'm a few minutes early. Go ahead and finish your breakfast."

"Naah. I don't eat much for breakfast." Jane finished the mug, set it down on an end table by the door, picked up her bookbag, stepped outside, and locked the door. "Gotta have my caffeine, though."

The corner of Daria's mouth twitched up a bit as they started toward school. "I like my java too, but I have to have a little fuel to get me to lunch, or I start to run down mid morning. Speaking of lunch, please tell me that slop they served in the cafeteria yesterday was an aberration."

"It was. It was better than average."

"Arg. Kill me now."

"Oh, sure. Then who'll kill me? I'm not falling for that one again."

Daria smiled again, a smile that made Jane think of the first faint ray of dawn after a long rainy night. Maybe this will be a tolerable year after all, she thought.

Suddenly aware that they'd been staring at each other for a fraction of a second too long, Jane returned her attention to the sidewalk ahead. She said the first thing that occurred to her. "What is it with that sister of yours? The way guys were following her around, fetching her sodas, and fighting to carry her books, it was almost like some sort of mind control."

"No 'almost' about it," Daria muttered.

"Eh?"

Daria glanced at her, then quickly looked away. "I shouldn't have…" She seemed to come to a decision. "Ahh, screw it. Mind control is exactly what it was, Jane. Quinn promised that she wasn't going to do it anymore when we got to Lawndale, but either she can't stop, or she's decided she doesn't want to."

Jane stared at Daria for several seconds, but the small brunette kept her eyes on the sidewalk ahead. "You're pulling my leg, right?"

Daria considered her answer for a few seconds. "No," she sighed. "You'll no doubt see more blatant examples of it soon enough. She can make most teenage boys do just about anything she wants, short of feeding themselves into a wood chipper. She can influence just about any male short of andropause to some degree. She has somewhat less influence over some girls, and a few older women. You're pretty unusual in that you can see that she's doing it."

"Great green gobs, how did she get a power like that?"

"I think it was the water."

"Huh?"

"We moved here from Highland, Texas. Ever heard of it?"

"Uh, it seems like I've heard the name. It doesn't bring anything to mind, though. Is there something unusual about Highland water?"

"It's contaminated with uranium."

Jane gasped. "Oh! Oh, yeah, I saw something about that on Sick Sad World! They showed these two deformed, brain damaged boys that had these huge, swollen craniums. Poor little bastards."

"Yeah. Beavis and Butthead."

"You knew them?"

"Went to school with them. I hate to admit it, but they were the closest things I had to friends in that awful place. I'd call it the armpit of the continent, but it's too dry."

"Geez! Well, thank goodness your family moved out of there!"

"Yeah," Daria muttered, "but we lived there five years before the uranium contamination was discovered."

"Oh, crap. But you're all right, aren't you? I mean, you don't glow in the dark or anything?"

Daria seemed to wince, then stared silently at the sidewalk in front of her for a few seconds. "My teeth do. Very faint. Greenish."

Jane was silent for several seconds in her turn while that soaked in. "Damn. Way to go, Lane. Open mouth, insert foot."

The corner of Daria's mouth turned up again. "Don't worry about it."

"I guess what I was trying to say is that they probably detected the uranium pretty soon after it showed up, if they're anywhere near competent, so you weren't exposed for very long."

Daria made a faint noise that sounded like a snort. "There aren't any competent people in Highland, Jane. The uranium showed up the first time they ever did the tests right. No one knows how long it was in the water before that."

"Double damn. So you think the uranium in the water is the cause of this ability your sister has? Do the doctors think so too?"

"If you mean the government scientists, she didn't let them find out about it. Quinn has a certain low animal cunning."

"Huh. Well, um if you don't mind my asking…"

"Did they find anything strange about me? Well, I'm pretty smart."

"Yeah, I noticed that in cl… wait a minute. How smart is 'pretty smart'?"

"Pretty smart." After a few seconds, Daria looked up to see that Jane was giving her a suspicious look. "Oh, all right. I'll tell you, but please don't repeat it. In my school records my IQ is listed as 173."

"Wow!"

"…but that's false. Actually, as far as they can determine, I got the highest IQ score of anyone who's ever been tested. It was 289 the last time they measured it, and still rising."