The Popular Girl
The Popular Girl (or simply Popular Girl) is a gossipy teenager who made her most noteworthy appearance on Daria in "The Invitation," with her only speaking role. She has appeared occasionally through the fifth season of Daria.
History
In "The Invitation," Popular Girl stands with Sandi and Tiffany at Brittany's party, making snide comments about the party guests, such as, "Those three aren't popular at all. I don't know what they're doing here. Maybe some kind of exchange program." After "The Invitation," fans speculated whether Popular Girl remained a student at Lawndale High, or was perhaps the graduating Fashion Club leader, passing the torch on to Sandi. She does, however, appear in the back of classes taken by Quinn Morgendorffer and the Fashion Club, indicating she is in their grade at school.
She is also seen in "Too Cute", standing among the group of popular girls admiring Brooke's new nose job. Notably, she is one of the volleyball players on the team opposing Daria's in the opening scenes of each show.
Fanfiction
Since she had no name in the series, Austin Covello gave her the name Tori Jericho in his spring 1999 fanfic, "Boy Fiend." This name has since been widely adopted by other fanfic writers.
In "It's All About Respect," Tori is shown as on-air reporter/anchor for Lion Tales, the LHS in-school news program. It's also commented that she has a predilection for wearing very tight sweaters while on the air. This role, too, has been adopted by other writers (e.g., "Four Play," by Crusading Saint). Canadibrit has included Tori Jericho in many of her The Look-Alike Series tales as Lawndale High's "one-stop gossip shop and popularity gauge on legs."
External Links
Fanfiction featuring Popular Girl as Tori Jericho
- "Boy Fiend," by Austin Covello
- Novelization of "The Invitation" by Martin J. Pollard (adds fanon background to the character)
- "It's All About Respect" (chapter 2), by Brother Grimace
- "Four Play," by Crusading Saint
- "Silly Rabbit, Matrix Are For Kids!" by John Berry
- "Lover's Lane," by John Berry (Tori hooks up with Robert)
- "Battle Royale: Beyond Blunderdome," by Canadibrit (non-TLAS tale in which Tori meets a sad end)
- "Snowball in Hell," by TAG (Tori is in an AU rock band)