"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
-Abraham Lincoln
Daria Morgendorffer woke up feeling relaxed, refreshed, and ready to get the day started.
"That's weird," she mumbled to herself as she swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Grabbing a selection of school clothes - the usual outfit of brownish-orange t-shirt, black skirt, socks, boots, and dark green jacket - and a towel, Daria made a beeline for the bathroom. The door was only pulled to, but she knocked anyway, wary ever since the time she'd walked in on her sister blow-drying places she didn't want to see blow-dried.
No one was inside, so she stepped past the threshold, closed and locked the door, then prepared to take a shower. As she went about her business, she had the growing suspicion that something was off, but it took her several minutes before she realized that it was the very fact that she was in the shower. Thanks to her various shower-hogging family members, she had never gotten in the bathroom that early in the morning before.
Never.
Shrugging it off, she finished up and got dressed. Standing just outside the door were her father Jake and sister Quinn, each patiently waiting for their turn in the bathroom.
"Uh," Daria said to Quinn, obviously the next in line, "your turn?"
"Thanks, Daria!" Quinn said as she danced by happily. "I know I don't say it much, but I'm glad that you're my sister! I think I'm, like, gonna tell everybody at school today how proud I am to have a sister like you!"
"Hey, kiddo!" Jake exclaimed before Daria could escape. "Hey, the garbage under the sink is lookin' pretty full, and it's your turn to take it out, so better get to it! Also, I know that making Quinn's life hard is one of your favorite pastimes, but when she admits to being your sister at school today, go easy, wouldya?
"Oh!" he added as she started walking down the stairs. "And make sure your mom is cooking up some of that de-li-cious heart healthy breakfast stuff, okay? Your old man is gonna beat this whole heart problem thing, you betcha, so I can be here with my girls for a good long time!"
Daria's attempts to figure out what her father was babbling about were sharply cut off when the smell of frying bacon hit her nostrils. Even from the other side of the house, she could hear the sizzle of meat on iron, and for a second fear coursed through her as she imagined the house on fire yet again. Dropping her boots and socks, she ran barefoot through the living room and rounded the corner into the kitchen to find her mother standing over the stove.
"Oh, Daria, hi!" Helen said when she noticed her eldest daughter standing in the doorway. "Could you help me set the table? I'm afraid my hands are a little full trying to take care of all this wonderful food!"
The kitchen counter was a cornucopia of breakfast delicacies. Daria took her glasses off, wiped them with the edge of her shirt, and put them back on again, but the vast array of ham, bacon, eggs (scrambled, sunnyside-up, and hard boiled), jelly, toast, cereal, and various other appropriate foods remained exactly where it was.
"Yes, I know it's a lot," Helen chuckled, "but anything for my family! Thank goodness Eric, bless him, has finally seen that family truly is the most important thing and given me all of this free time to spend with all of you, not to mention extra pay to make up for the lost work hours! Now come along, dear, the table won't set itself! Chop chop!"
Feeling a strange numbness, Daria did as her mother requested, pulling out dishes and silverware to set before the four seats at the kitchen table. Once she finished, she grabbed the garbage bag under the sink, tied the top, and took it out to the larger trash can in the garage. Back in the kitchen, she washed her hands thoroughly and helped Helen arrange the food for maximum reachability.
