8.

"I didn't know there was this much ink and metal in all the world until I came here."

"It's a stunning exhibit of a generation and a zeitgeist."

"I see that guy's arm is proclaiming his love for his dear old 'Mim'."

"I wish we had some magnets. You wish we had some magnets?"

"What's that band I can hear?"

"I dunno, but for ten bucks I can cover your ears."

Daria was glad she'd run off to Alternapalooza. It really was looking to be great fun.

First off, they had to track down Amelia. Finding a girl in a conservative blue dress among a sea of skimpy black? Not too difficult, it turned out.

There were four guys around her as they approached: individually, they were just random guys in black and more black and with the odd piercing. They would not be threatening on their own. As a group, they were closer to Amelia than you'd have thought she'd want, stood around as if fencing her off, and giving the impression of looming without being tall enough to do so.

As a group, they screamed "threat". Daria stiffened.

Jane yelled: "Hey! Amelia! Over here, don't wanna miss the next performance!" Her tone and face were light, friendly. Her face still friendly, she muttered to Daria "If she doesn't come to us, we go over there, but I'm hoping this throws 'em."

Amelia peeled off from the guys and walked fast towards the girls, waving and looking relieved. "I've eaten, but I didn't know if I should come back to you or let you come to me or what. What performance?"

"Hey, it's a festival, there's tons of 'em. Who wants to choose this early, amiright?…"

Jane had her eyes on Amelia, leaving Daria to watch the four men. They seemed amused but weren't coming after. That was convenient.

"Yes, let's innocently go to a performance in a non-threatened manner. Your choice of band, Amelia."

"Oh." She was still smiling, but seemed a bit surprised. "Thanks, Daria."

The three headed off. As soon as they had their backs to the male group, one of the men yelled "DYKES!".

"Our future voters, ladies and gentlemen," she muttered, trying to ignore the men's laughing from behind them.

When there was no reply, she glanced at Amelia. The girl was shaking, pale. Jane just looked as irritated as Daria felt, but Amelia looked upset. She looked scared.

Daria took a brief look back, quick enough to see what was behind them without anyone noticing she was looking. (Why encourage the prats?) The Four Stooges weren't paying attention to them anymore.

"It's alright, Amelia. They're not following."

She knew, in this situation, friends would hug or put a matey arm on their friend's shoulder. An act of solidarity and camaraderie. An act of physically touching another person and taking them into your personal space, of exposing yourself.

She raised a hand, stiffly, and rested it gently on Amelia's shoulder, light enough to be quickly withdrawn.

The girl smiled. "Thanks."

Apologising had been… difficult. Getting through the conversation – actually explaining things to Amelia – had threatened outbursts, and Daria had to pause every few seconds to calm herself.

"It was just too much, I needed to hide and now I can't stop…" Pause, breathe, pause, start again. "I'd be even worse off if you hadn't been there, you saved me from a complete breakdown and in return I… I…" Pause, breathe, clench fists, unclench, breathe. "I… I…" Pause, breathe, focus.

"You don't have to-"

"I DO! I'm going to finish!" She closed her eyes, ignored the metal chords dancing in her mind's ear. "I shut you out, I ignored you… I… excuse me… I shut you out after what you'd done and that was wrong and I'm sorry."

She was sweating, out of breathe, her throat and stomach clenched up. But she'd managed it. It was all out there now.

"I don't know what to say," said Amelia. "As in, I really have no idea. I've never been in this situation before."

"I tend to respond with cutting sarcasm before I forgive people."

"Hey, next time can you shut up instead of shutting out?"

"Good one."

She smiled. "I have a good teacher."

"I have a teacher whose eye explodes with every fifth word," said Jane.

"I wish he was my teacher," said Daria. "Sorry Amelia, I calls dibsies."

"You can have the wussy teacher who says things like actualise your potential."

"What does that mean?" Amelia asked.

"Whatever we want it to mean."

"Like 'play truant during my class'?"

"But then I can't nap."

"Do you go to school in one of Dante's circles of Hell?" asked Daria.

"Worse. Lawndale High is where Satan goes when he dies."

She blinked. "My sister goes there. Quinn."

"…Quinn Morgendorffer?" Jane frowned. "I thought she was an only child."

"Daria's her 'cousin', officially," explained Amelia. "Doesn't want people to think she's related to someone with a personality."

"You're really getting the hang of this!" Daria turned to Jane. "You live in Lawndale?"

"Sadly."

"Erm… It might be rude to ask, but could your brother give me a lift there? My family's there and…Well, you know how I ran away from Grove Hills to come here? I hadn't actually thought about what I was going to do after."

Amelia was aghast. "I was starting to wonder about that…"

"What the hey, gives me someone to talk to on the way home. Consider yourself in the Tank crew. So… anyone up for music?"

"Wow, they have bands as well as interpersonal relationship angst? No wonder this festival is a hit."

"Autobots, transform and dance off!"

"I don't dance."

"I can't dance," said Amelia.

"I will, I can, and I'm willing to show you two how." Jane winked. "I'll try to avoid leading you into the romantic songs."

Amelia blushed again. "Aha."

"Can we dance to the ones about suicide? That would be fun."

Once you were close to the bands, the songs engulfed you: the rhythym and lyrics got into your head, whether you liked it or not, and you felt yourself become one of the crowd. Even the fact the band was called Ciggie Butt couldn't ruin the mood.

Jane was giving Amelia dancing tips, and the girl was starting to look less nervous and happier. Daria just stood there, one woman against the forces of having to move.

The song was going from maudlin to angry power chords at random, and the lyrics appeared to be concerned about how a girl wasn't noticing him but was noticing some jerk instead. The beat was quite catchy.

Daria closed her eyes, tapped her foot in time with the beat, and drifted into a calm oblivion.

When Alternapalooza had ended, Daria was still floating in a cloud of musical bliss, happier and calmer than she could remember being in months. Grove Hills was in another world, her parents something that could be faced. Everything was fine.

Jesse had been press-ganged into moving Daria's suitcase from Rob's car to the Tank – which gave Rob and Trent more time to chat about the awesomeness of Nirvana, and Daria a chance to cautiously eye Trent. (God she hoped she was going to sit with Jane; hours of staying calm around that? Gah.) Jane had finished talking to Amelia and was off directing Jesse, ensuring he could remember the way.

Amelia and Daria mutually fidgeted, unsure what to say.

"Jane's nice," began Amelia.

"Yeah. But she talks to me anyway. I seem to attract nice people."

"Oh hush."

She took out a piece of paper, torn from a Grove Hills textbook and scribbled on. "This is my parent's address and phone number. When they ground me for all time for running away from school, I'll need some correspondence. Hey, déjà vu."

"I'll send you a cake with a file in it."

"I've got Jane's address and number on there too. She'd give it to you in person, but she says there's a real danger Jesse will walk to another state without supervision."

Amelia blushed darker than she ever had before. "I, I, I'm sure Jane's just being polite, she's bound to have other people to talk to…"

Wheels turned in Daria's head. "You can plead the fifth here, but… are you nervous of talking to Jane for the same reason I'm nervous about talking to Trent?"

Amelia went from blushing to pale. "Ah crap."

"Ah."

"That's not why I wanted to be your friend, I swear to god, it's not like-"

"Amelia. Jane likes you. I promise. Not in that way, but she thinks of you as a friend. I don't think she'll make the sign of a cross because you're… um. And for the record, I won't either."

She smiled nervously, blushing again. "I get a bit paranoid over it. Sorry."

"Hey, I get paranoid too. And it turned out someone really was dumping uranium in Highland's drinking water, so there you go."

She put a matey hand on Amelia's shoulder, firmer this time. "Next time, I'm evacuating you from your school."

Smile. "I'll hold you to that."

The Tank had not gotten filthier, despite being parked in a muddy field – it was like all the dirt and human sweat was afraid of being polluted by it.

"Prepare for six hours of my brother driving, God help you all," said Jane.

"Hey, you know my sister. I'll swap. I'll even pay."

"What is it like, being related to an Amazon Model?"

"…oh god. I thought Mum said something about that in a phone call, but I wasn't paying attention and thought I'd hallucinated it."

"If you want, you can eat the fossilised sandwich in the back and die before you get home…"

Before Rob set off, he turned back to his sister and, with some worry, asked: "Have a fun time, sis?"

"Yeah," she said, and to his amazement and joy she sounded like she meant it.

The Tank coughed through the night. After a while, Trent managed to thump the radio into working. Black Sabbath's Iron Man filled the van, threatening to blow out eardrums.

"Cool." He suddenly remembered the girls. "I can turn it down…"

"No," said Daria. "It's fine."

She sat back with her eyes closed, letting the music wash her away.

THE END