Chapter: One
The whole of New York was in chills in the month of February. When the excitement and warmth of the holidays was wearing thin on most of the citizens of New York, Maureen Johnson and Joanne Jefferson were adding more layers to their growing, and often heated relationship. Maureen had all but abandoned her cold, and large apartment she shared with her room mates, Roger Davis: the Musician, Mark Cohen: the Film maker, Thomas "Collins": the Philosopher, and lovers or Collins and Roger, Angel Dumont Shunard: drummer extraordinaire, and Mimi Marquez: the building's S&M dancer. More and more Maureen was staying at Joanne's, she was getting used to the upper Manhattan apartment. It was nice to have heat and electricity as common basics rather than as luxuries. She was even surprisingly good with Joanne's younger, mildly retarded brother, Michael.
There was one thing that Maureen was unable to get used to and her name was Cordelia. Cordelia Layden was Michael's personal care giver and she lived at the Jefferson residence. She was there to assist Michael with becoming more independent and with staying on task, primarily when Joanne wasn't around. Joanne's schedule had changed dramatically when she met Maureen. She was always a lawyer, but now she was working on more cases for the underprivileged and doubling as stage manager for Maureen, which meant more time away from Michael. It wasn't Cordelia's looks that threatened Maureen but the girl's constant access to her "pookie". Maureen was at Joanne's on a Friday when she decided to share her feelings. Cordelia had just got Michael on the bus for school and was utilizing the bathroom mirror.
"Pookie, its just not right," Maureen was picking at some red grapes on the breakfast bar.
"What do you mean, "not right"?"
"She just, she just comes and goes. Does what she pleases. What do you really even know about her anyway?" She popped a grape into her waiting mouth.
"I know enough. Besides she's rarely here, she's either in class, with Michael, or god forbid, cleaning or reading. What do you want me to do throw her out?"
"Well, she can work for you, just,"
"Maureen!" Joanne reproached, "She needs to save up. Besides I'm not going to risk losing her. She's great with Michael, he loves her and frankly so do I." She sipped her coffee unaware of the impact her words were having on Maureen, who's eyes narrowed and face became taut.
"Cordelia this! Cordelia that! Delia's a haarrd worker, Delia's a grreeaat student. She's greeaat with Michael. Well if you love her so much why don't you be with her?!"
"You know what I meant Maureen." As Joanne and Maureen started each other down Cordelia slid into the kitchen grabbed a banana, and her jade backpack.
"Uh, I'll be home early if that's okay. I was wondering if I could use your computer?" Cordelia took a juice from the refrigerator. She gave a slight smile but kept her gaze away from Maureen.
"Yes, that's fine. See you tonight."
"Bye." Cordelia left uneasy.
"Great." Joanne folded her arms over her blouse and suspenders. "I'll see you later." She said to Maureen. "Make sure you eat more than that." She grabbed her briefcase and coat and walked out the door leaving Maureen standing alone in her kitchen.
A/N: For anyone who skipped the A/N and disclaimer, the only thing you might have missed was that there will be more Mark later in the story as well as Cordelia. It will take longer to get chapters up, b/c I'm writing as I go. Usually I have most if not all done before I post, but I just couldn't help myself this time. So please review if you can, I know there isn't much there yet, but thanks for reading!