Professor Fear (Jonathan Crane x OC)

Chapter 3

Monday came and went with Daria participating close to nothing in classes. Teachers would stand behind her and find that rather than her usual three to four page notes it was one page of depressing cartoon comic doodles she'd invent on the spot.
Tuesday was almost a mirror of Monday. Psychology was on Wednesday and Daria sat as far away from the front desk as the room allowed. Dr. Crane was quite annoyed - and maybe slightly amused - to find that she had spent a great deal of the lesson drawing a scarecrow labelled as himself. Then again she'd drawn her large English teacher as a pumpkin so perhaps there was a halloween theme. 
Thursday was Daria's day off. She spent half of it on a gaming console and the other half writing a lot of the essays that were due in the following week. Her eyes glanced over to the far left of her desk where the overdue MPD essay lay. She took a breath before packing in into her folder for the next day. Then she went to visit Eric in the narrows again. 

"That was one trick you pulled on Sunday," She shook her finger at the man who had finally washed his hair for the first time in ages so that it had a fluffy lively look to it. Eric grinned back at Daria.
"How'd you come out of it?" He pulled up a barstool and sat beside her. "You're heavy by the way,"
"Thanks I guess," She stuck her tongue at him. "I didn't vomit but I felt like I needed to. You should have heard April's rant on how irresponsible I am though,"
"Oh that was April? She seemed sweet, like a deer in headlights." He poured a glass of water and passed it to Daria winking. 
"Whatever the heck you gave me did nothing at all except for straight after you gave it to me I passed out," She drank the water. "What I mean is, I didn't sleep better nor at all from it, so thanks but no thanks hit me up with something real," 

"Nah girl, I'm not going to let you enter the druggie world, You've got the respectable academic life going on," He put his hands up in surrender. "Maybe get a new doctor that ain't useless but don't come to the dark-side, I don't even meddle down that end of it for long," 
It had been the doctor that had caused Daria to think about the drug trade. Surely there were trials where people could get paid lots to see if a drug is the next happy pill "Seriously Daria, it's destroys people, find an alternative," to be free from the constant draining Daria currently was subjected to. Her mind wouldn't stop moving, and when it did stop she would 'white out' in public. "Or else you'll just end up like those people," 

She snapped out of her thoughts to see who 'those people' were. Just outside of the bar across the small street were two young men who were starring wide eyed at the empty middle of the road. They looked terrified of something that wasn't there. Hallucinating. 
Brimming with curiosity, Daria ran outside to the men. They must have seen her as a threat because they screamed as she came closer. Eric called her back from the doorway of the bar but she didn't listen.
"What do you see?" She found herself asking the strangers. 
"Snake!" one shouted. 
"Fire everywhere!" Said the other. 
It was the air that was familiar. Daria smelled something faint and sweet. It reminded her of laboratory work.
Of course! Hallucinations. Flowers. Dr Crane had been having fun in public. 
"what was that?" She asked the man who had been afraid of the fire. 
"S-s-carecro-ow, SCARECROW!" He began to repeat the word over and over. 
"Maybe the Doctor really is a scarecrow." she mumbled.

-----

"Get up! It's eleven in the morning!" April yelled. "Some Americans have lunch at this time!"
"I'm awake. Please don't shout." Daria's reply was a furious whisper followed by a groan and then a rush to the bathroom where the sound of retching and vomit dominated the silence that reigned for the next five minutes. Then Daria reemerged from the bathroom and got changed while brushing her teeth (a messy venture). After washing her face she ran back to her messy desk and finished her scribbles from the day before on the MPD paper that she had restarted after her observations in the narrows. April sat at the end of her bed patiently, worrying for her friend. 

"You got drunk yesterday!" April exclaimed again. "I can't believe you! It's so unlike you! I bet it was that weird man who brought you back the last time. He's a terrible influence." The two were walking through town to get some lunch - or breakfast. Of course another sandwich and black coffee would be Daria's habitual choice. Ethan joined them in the small shop they got lunch in every Friday. They bought the food and began to walk back up the hill. From the corner of her eye Daria noticed that once again her peculiar psychology teacher was in earshot of them. She dismissed it.
"Man might I say you look like crap," Ethan piped up "like a dump that hasn't slept in days,". His next words were complaints from Daria's hand connecting with his cheek.
"To be honest dude, you had that coming," April commented. Her hands were raised in surrender to Daria's ill temper.
"I'm sorry Daria," Ethan reposed himself. "Can I give you a hug?"
"Dude don't even try it, Daria is anti-hugs," April reminded him. Daria would have shoved April into a bush there and then due to the fact that Dr. Crane had just heard that weird fact and would probably use it against her.
"How can you be anti-hugs?"
"It's like short-term space invasion from another person,"
"You're totally missing the meaning of them!" Ethan protested only to have Daria walking faster up the hill.

As per usual the three friends parted ways for lessons at two thirty. Daria and Ethan walked to the Psychology department while April went to Microbiology. By the time they'd reached the psychology department it was the beginning of the lesson. The title on the board for today was the types of Manic Depression.
Once again Daria was the first to raise her hand. The other hand played with the fraying sleeve of her forest green hoodie.
"Yes Ms. Morrison,"
"Bipolar one, two, three, Hypomania, Cyclothymia,"
"Very good, Ms. Morrison, however you have forgotten one," even from her space at the back, she knew he was glad to see her not gloat at him.
"Does anyone know what that one is?"
"hypomania!"
Daria smiled as it rolled off of her tongue. She'd forgotten to raise her hand too. The doctor gave her a quick glare, much to her delight. What she didn't realise is that his glaring was an act so that the students wouldn't suspect his liking of her. 

Halfway through the lesson the professor left to quickly get something from his office. Once he had left everyone turned to their neighbours or diagonally to their friends and started talking.
"Did you see the glares he gave you?"  The boy in front of her asked, she called his name being Pete Wesbrook. "I thought he was gonna kill you with it," he laughed. For social reasons, Daria copied his laugh. "whatcha doin' this weekend?" He mirrored the question that Ethan had asked her at the beginning of the lesson.
"Going into Gotham, I'm probably going to just wander around,"
"By yourself?" As he was asking this, Daria had gotten out of her seat and had begun to scribble lots of things on his paper. "Are you giving me your number?"
"Nope I'm giving you an answer for a question Crane might ask you, then you'll get some credits,"
"Pfft, how do you know what that dude will ask"
"If I'm right, give me the $5 in your pocket," Pete felt for the money in his back pocket that had been on show. Daria rushed back to her seat as the door swung open and the tall thin professor walked in, watching everyone carefully in turn. He eyed everyone in the room and noticed how Pete Wesbrook was starring at the back of Daria's head. 

"Mr. Wesbrook, in reflection to the last lesson, what would a dissociative personality do while under attack and what would you connect this too?" Pete was surprised. Daria had guessed correctly. In his fear of the professor he'd forgotten to read the sheet.
"Read the thing," Daria hissed behind him. Though her whisper could be heard by everyone in the class.