Printed from https://writing.com/main/interactive-story/item_id/1490986-Cartoon-Gluttony-and-Weight-Gain/cid/1803523-Daria-is-sent-away-for-her-behavior
The bus flew by the welcome sign as it barreled down I-68 on its way to Ohio. Inside an average looking girl sighed despondently as she watched it pass through the transparent reflection of herself. It wasn't like Daria to be genuinely depressed, normally her melancholy attitude was just her passive aggressive way of dealing with the world but this time she had really landed herself in a mess…
It hadn't been as deliberate or vindictive as Principal Li claimed it had been. It was obvious Li was just seizing the opportunity to be rid of her. Even if Daria’s expulsion would cost the school a sizable chunk of their test score average, Daria was too often an obstacle to Miss. Li’s profiteering schemes. For all she cared the school could become a wasteland of brain dead sheep, she’d always find a way to make money either from them or on them.
The Principal's latest scheme to exploit students didn't agree with Daria, as always, and she had voiced these opinions to any who would listen. When that inevitably failed to gather support Daria had to act on her own. The school was hosting a career open house for student’s to gather “real world” experience in working for various local businesses. What it had really been was a bidding war carried out under the table for the local market to pay for students to come and get a jump start on a lifetime of toiling for little money. Even the nearby army recruitment representative had put down enough money to snag a half dozen young men for a day of mock training in the base.
The biggest contributor had been Cluster Burger. Whatever they had paid had gotten them nearly three busloads of students to be distributed to various locations in the surrounding counties. Their regional manager eager to get a jump start on cultivating a new crop of out of shape greasy pimple faced teens to sling burgers in their restaurants. Perhaps an act of spite by Li, Daria found herself in one of those groups. She watched her classmates lining up to be paid in minimum wage and cheese burgers. While seeing the self-proclaimed fashion club headed for a future of modeling flabby guts hanging out of a tight Cluster Burger uniform had its enjoyment, Daria had to make a stand.
Daria figured if she did a bad enough job and several customers ended up with stomach cramps, complaining of bad meat, the school would take enough heat for sending students to work for a day that Li would be in hot water with the super intendant. Once they had arrived and been given their assignments Daria slipped into the freezer to grab a box of patties while Sandi’s tantrum over a broken nail from manning the fryer basket provided the perfect distraction. The idea had been to set the burgers out by the water heater to thaw and sit in a lukewarm box for a few hours. Then when the lunch rush came she’d serve a few burgers undercooked and create a PR nightmare for the restaurant and the school when people demanded answers. After all, a little food poisoning couldn’t be too bad Daria thought.
It was more than a PR nightmare for everyone involved, Daria included when an expectant mother ended up in the hospital with a nasty illness from undercooked meat.
In all there were 11 cases of food poisoning not including the soon to be mother who had to be rushed in an ambulance. Her case was mild but it was a media frenzy and the first reports were quick to claim the baby’s life was in mortal danger. This opened far more than just an investigation into why local students were spending a day in a restaurant as employee under school sanction. It quickly became a criminal investigation when the media coverage had pictures of a pregnant mother in a hospital gurney clutching her swollen abdomen and crying out for doctors to save her baby. Over hyped or not public outcry demanded someone be responsible that blame could be cast upon. Naturally it was Daria, who was caught on camera intentionally placing the patties by the water heater then turning down the grille heat before cooking them.
Li jumped at the chance to shift the focus to Daria and away from why she was there to begin with, tossing out her history as an anarchist and general trouble maker, claiming she had been beyond the school’s power to help with their current funding. The local news already enjoying a statewide spotlight for Daria’s victims took the claims a step further calling her a home grown terrorist. Daria’s face was on every newspaper and TV for days debating how a local girl had become so angry at the world.
Daria’s mother used her connections to get the PR debacle under control, citing poor judgment and Daria’s past doing charity work as proof she had no intentions of hurting anyone. Daria’s fate was unclear as voices on both sides of the bench argued over what to do with her. When it was suggested she be sent away, perhaps to a school for troubled teens in lieu of prosecution Daria saw a chance to escape the local focus for a while asking she be sent to stay with a close family member such as an aunt. Daria was more than happy to take her exile if it meant she got to go stay with favorite Aunt Amy and let everyone move on to forget about everything.
It seemed like Daria was in luck when the idea pleased everyone who had a real say in the matter. The attorney agreed to let Daria be under probation if she apologized and was sent away for a while. Her parents were happy to oblige her if it meant she’d dodge jail time or some embarrassing correctional facility for criminal teens. And Daria was thrilled to see Amy again.
But Amy was not who she was now on her way to live with.
Ohio welcomes you
Just a few hours away from her new home for the foreseeable future Daria’s stomach knotted up as she recalled the apologetic phone call with her Aunt who simply could not take Daria in. She was two weeks away from a trip to Europe with a business associate and would be there for at least a month. Needing somewhere to dump her right away and Aunt Rita absolutely unwilling to take her Daria’s fate was handed over to her Father’s sister Victoria. Daria had not seen her aunt from her father’s side in years. The last and probably one of the few times she’d met her had been at a wedding for Victoria’s son Richard. Daria didn’t really know much about Aunt Victoria either aside from being a bit spoiled by their grandfather and having a daughter named Ginger close to Daria’s age. Not long after she last saw her Aunt Victoria she had moved to some little town in Ohio and never had any contact with the family until Daria’s father reached out to her to look after Daria.
Welcome to Chirps Creek Ohio
Coziest little town on the Ohio River
The sign for Chirps Creek was rusted and half obscured by dead brush. Nestled in the preverbal armpit of Kentucky and West Virginia Chirps Creek was smack in the middle of a tri-state area. Daria knew the town was going to be hick city when she passed two bait shops and nearly a dozen fast food restaurants before she saw the first few homes, most of which were doublewide trailers.
Daria didn’t expect anything to be particularly different about her Aunt; it had only been a few years since she saw her, maybe three or four since she moved away. Aside from the basics all Daria knew about Victoria’s career was she worked for one of the biggest snack food manufacturers in the country, “Little Missy”. She seemed to have a good job judging from how well off a single mother of two lived when last she met her. Perhaps she’d fallen on hard times or gone slightly insane to have moved to this crummy town but nothing major could have changed. However stepping off the greyhound bus in the tiny bus terminal for Chirps Creek Daria saw the face of her red haired Aunt waving to her enthusiastically. The woman that sat there on the hood of her car was a drastically different Victoria than the prissy beauty queen who Daria had seen last.
Printed from https://writing.com/main/interactive-story/item_id/1490986-Cartoon-Gluttony-and-Weight-Gain/cid/1803523-Daria-is-sent-away-for-her-behavior
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