Heart Attack
Chapter 1: Act Like a Girl
Summary: Jo's never really been a girly-girl. She's always been more of a tomboy, but with Danny's return to Green Grove, that starts to change.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twisted.
The morning after her dad took Danny away from the school assembly to question him about Regina's murder, Jo woke with a small smile. Despite all the controversy surrounding him, there was a part of Jo that was happy that Danny was back. Nothing had seemed complete without him around, so to have him back, it felt nice; it felt right. After getting up earlier than she usually did, Jo decided to take special care to look nice. The part of her that was happy that Danny was back also wanted to look nice for him. But after looking through her closet, Jo let out a sigh. She had absolutely no girly clothes. She had always been a tomboy and had never really seen the need to get dresses or skirts. She silently cursed Lacey's luck in that department. Grabbing the most flattering pair of jeans that she owned and a simple gray tie-dyed tee shirt, she quickly got dressed before walking into the bathroom.
Not used to actually putting effort into her appearance to get a guy's attention, Jo stood in front of the sink staring at her reflection for a couple of minutes. She could not understand how other girls were able to do their hair and make up on a daily basis without getting frustrated. With a shrug of her shoulders, Jo grabbed the curling iron that she had gotten a couple years ago, but had never used. She hadn't felt the need to ever look nice for Rico, but Danny was different. Plugging it into the outlet on the wall, Jo let it heat up some while she grabbed a thing of lip gloss. She had worn it on occasion, so she was at least used to that. After a couple minutes of waiting for the iron to be hot, Jo gently curled her hair. It wasn't much of a difference, but it was hopefully a noticable one to Danny.
"Jo, breakfast is ready." Tess called from the bottom of the stairs.
"I'll be down in a second mom." Jo called back. Giving her reflection one more once over, she sighed. It was the best that she was going to get for a first try.
When Jo walked into the kitchen, the change in her appearance was noticed immediately by her parents.
"You curled your hair." Tess commented simply.
"And you're wearing lip gloss." Kyle added.
"Yeah." Jo said not meeting either gaze.
"This wouldn't be for Danny Desai, would it?" Kyle questioned his daughter.
"Of course not. I just wanted to try something different today. Is that such a problem?" Jo asked as she grabbed some toast and bacon.
"We just want to make sure that you are doing this for you, not a boy." Tess replied before her husband could say anything else.
"Mom, Dad, relax. If I were interested in a guy enough to change my entire appearance, you would know." Jo said.
"Okay, well, eat your breakfast, I need to get to the station early today." Kyle said as he drank his coffee.
As Jo ate in silence, she hoped that she would be able to see Danny before their first classes. Unfortunately, the only class that they had together was their psychology class, so if they didn't see each other before then, they wouldn't get much of a chance to talk to each other. After Jo was done eating, she went up to her room and grabbed her backpack and her phone. Opening a new text, she typed out a quick message to Danny.
If you have time before class, meet me at my locker. – Jo
After hitting send, Jo went downstairs to leave with her dad. As they were driving towards the high school, Kyle tried to get more information out of his daughter on why she suddenly decided to change some of her look, but Jo wouldn't have it. Every time that he tried to bring it up, Jo would change the subject. By the time that they reached the school, Jo was giving her dad the silent treatment all together. As she got out of the car, she slammed the door shut without saying goodbye to her dad. Hurrying to her locker, Jo was surprised to see Danny already waiting for her. Since his back was to her, Jo silently walked up behind him and covered his eyes with her hands.
"Guess who?" Jo muttered.
"Usually I am terrible at guessing games, but since I got a text from her this morning asking me to meet her at her locker, I'm going to say it's Jo." Danny replied as he turned around with a smile.
"You aren't terrible at guessing games Danny. You were able to guess that one correctly." Jo commented.
"You changed your hair." Danny said as he gently brushed a stray strand of hair that had fallen into Jo's face behind her ear.
"I wanted to try something different today. Do you like it?" Jo asked in a small voice.
"I love it. Did you do it for me?" Danny asked.
"Kind of…" Jo trailed off as she looked away from him.
"Hey, there's no reason to be embarrassed by that Jo. I really like it. It works for you." Danny said as he tilted Jo's head up.
"My parents asked me if it was for you, and I told them no. My dad doesn't trust you, so I can't let them find out that I lied." Jo said quickly.
"Jo, like you said, your dad doesn't trust me. And while I believe your mom might give me the benefit of the doubt, she's not warming up to me being back as fast as you did, so who would tell them the truth?" Danny asked.
"I don't know, I was just saying that I can't let them find out." Jo said again.
"Don't worry Jo. I won't tell them." Danny said with a smile before taking Jo's hand in his.
"Jo, Danny, there you guys are. We have a problem." Rico said as he came hurrying over.
"What's wrong man?" Danny asked.
"Regina's friends are passing out a petition to get you out of here Danny." Rico replied.
"All of her friends?" Danny asked.
"Yeah; Lacey, Sarita, Archie and Scott. All four of them have clipboards with petitions asking people to sign them. If they get enough, the school board with have no choice but to suspend you." Rico explained.
"Does Principal Tang know about this?" Jo asked as she squeezed Danny's hand.
"I don't know, but if we are going to do something, we have to do it fast." Rico replied.
"Let's go see the Principal, see what he says about all of this." Danny suggested.
"Look what we have here." Archie said with a sneer as he came around the corner with Lacey by his side and Sarita and Scott close behind. "Socio and his loser friends." He added.
"Archie, don't do this." Lacey whispered.
"Why not babe? Feeling sorry for your old childhood friends?" Archie asked.
"No, I just don't want you to get in trouble for getting into a fight." Lacey replied.
"Does Principal Tang know that the four of you are trying to get Danny suspended?" Jo asked.
"Not suspended, expelled. We're working on getting Socio expelled from school." Scott corrected.
"Whatever. Does Principal Tang know?" Jo repeated.
"He will just as soon as we have enough signatures. People don't feel safe with him here, so we're doing something about it so that no one else ends up like Regina." Sarita said with a glare.
"Well, it seems like you are following Chief Masterson's example and accusing me without any real evidence." Danny said.
"We've told him everything. Every little encounter that you had with Regina leading up to her death." Sarita said.
"Oh really? Were you all present for all of those? Because there was one or two where Regina ambushed me and none of you were in sight. How could you have told Chief Masterson about every encounter Regina and I had. And while we're on that subject, why I don't just let you all in on what happened each and every time Regina and I had an encounter. She tried to get me to sleep with her, I turned her down every single time." Danny said as he looked at each of them in turn, resting his gaze a little bit longer on Lacey than the other three. "But, if you will excuse us, Jo, Rico and I have to talk to Principal Tang about all of this." He added as he led Jo away from the others with Rico following.
"Danny, that was probably the bravest thing I have ever seen. I mean standing up to Archie, Scott and Sarita at once is amazing." Rico said.
"Thanks man." Danny said before he turned to Jo. "Are you okay?" He asked.
"I'm a little shaken, but I'll be okay. I just can't believe that Lacey is helping them try and get you out of the school." Jo replied.
"Well, if Principal Tang has anything to say about this, then I won't be leaving any time soon." Danny said as he placed a small kiss on Jo's forehead.
End Chapter 1: Act Like a Girl
A/N: I hope you liked the first chapter. I am absolutely in love with Twisted, and I adore Jo and Danny together. I will be posting chapter 2 as soon as I can, so let me know what you want to see in it. – Emma