Group Four

"Group Four" is a Fashion Club fanfiction short story written by starmeshelion, which takes place in the post-canon period.

Inspiration
The inspiration for this fic can be traced back to the year 1998, and as such, to the time before the author considered himself a Daria fan. At its core, it is based on the author's vision as elicited from Scottish singer Elizabeth Fraser's vocal performance on the British trip hop group Massive Attack track "Group Four," which gives the fic its title. The vision that came with the song was always an ethereal an evocative image of a nocturnal party, which somehow involved a swing set merry-go-round that was spinning in the back yard of the house in which the party takes place. This image was used as a memory for Fashion Club Secretary Stacy Rowe.

Plot Summary
Four months after Is It College Yet?, Lindy invites Quinn and her Fashion Club friends to a party at her dorm. Sandi tries to use this opportunity for her own purposes, a plan which fails miserably.

Structure
"Group Four" is divided into a prologue and four chapters, one for each Fashion Club member. Each chapter is written differently, in order to reflect each Clubbie's individual personality. The third chapter, which focuses on Fashion Club Treasurer Tiffany Blum-Deckler, received more attention than the other chapters, if only due to its noticeable stream of consciousness technique and favour of style over substance. This is felt on the other chapters as well, albeit less conspicuously.

Critical Reception
Whilst generally considered a decent start for a new fanfic author, "Group Four" also received criticism, mostly for lack of an actual plot. It could be argued that whilst the basic premise is there, not much actually "happens," as each girl is separated from the others and left alone to think, with Quinn's chapter being the only exception of that. Richard Lobinske also pointed out errors with regards to Daria's overall timeline. At the same time, the fic was meant to be mostly character sketch from the start.

"Group Four" also received a fair amount of criticism due to the author's choice to not use any beta readers. That made him change his mind about the importance of beta reading for the general benefits of his work.