Life Beyond Highland
Driving down the interstate in their pale blue Lexus, Quinn and Daria followed their mother who was cutting through the traffic in her SUV. The two sisters wondered how many cups of coffee Helen had in order to drive the eleven hours and counting. Daria called her mom and asked her to pull into the next rest area so that she and Quinn could switch off driving and use the restroom. The family still had another four hours ahead of them before reaching Lawndale. They would spend the night at the Dutchman Inn and wait for the movers to show up the following afternoon. Once they arrived at the hotel, Helen walked into her bedroom to take a nap while Quinn hit the pool. Daria went and sat out on the balcony and thought about where her life was heading.
Two years earlier, her father; Jake, suffered a major heart attack. Never being able to fully recover, he passed away six months ago. Although he had life insurance, it barely covered half of the medical expenses. Between the hospital bills and the enormous amount of debt his consulting firm had built up, Helen had to file for bankruptcy and was forced to close her own private practice and join a high dollar bulldog law firm. Her father's death left the nineteen year old with a hole no amount of books could fill. Her grades were strong enough to get her into any college of her choice, but her lack of involvement in extra-curricular activities made it hard for her to get scholarship offers. Although it wasn't her dream school Raft, Lawndale State had decent Creative Writing/Journalism program and her credits at Kilgore College would be transferable. With some hard work, she might go to Columbia for her Masters. Looking down at the pool, she saw that her sister was already being surrounded by a group of guys and chatting it up.
Flipping up her cell phone, she texted her aunt Amy and her friend Amelia to let them know that they had arrived in Lawndale in one piece. As she reentered the room, she pulled out her beaten up laptop out of her suitcase and took advantage of the free internet the room came with. She would not be starting classes until the following Monday, which gave her four days to die of boredom if she didn't find something to do in this town. Accessing her favorite message board, .net, Daria posted that she and her family had arrived in Lawndale in one piece. While catching up on some of the topics she had been following, her e-mail account popped up and said that a private message had arrived for her. Scrolling up, she clicked on her messages to see that one of the people she chatted with regularly; brushstrokes82, had sent her a message with the topic Lawndale MD? Curious, Daria opened the message and began to read.
Daria,
I remember you telling me you were moving, but I didn't realize that it would be occurring so soon. I hope that it isn't Lawndale Maryland. I have lived here all my life and damn is it the boringest place on Earth. If it is though, at least I won't be the only Sick, Sad, World fan here anymore. The fact that you posted your arrival told me that you let your sister survive the trip as well. Two drivers are better than one I guess. Talk to you soon.
Jane.
A slight smile came over Daria's face as she posted her reply. She joined the board shortly before her father passed away. Jane was one of the first people to pm her and they had been messaging each other on a regular basis since. After an hour and several messages going back and forth, Daria found out that she would be living near her fellow SSW fan and the two agreed to meet at the local Pizza King that Saturday to discuss their favorite show and for Jane to give her a tour of the town. As she turned off her laptop, Daria drew a long breath and sighed. Maybe I can start to put my life back together.