This chapter is dedicated to disneychic248c!! Thank you loyal reviewer!
The first day of school felt like the others, she didn't want to get up, she didn't want to get ready, but she did anyway. It was about 7:40 and she found herself waiting for something, and then she realized she had been subconsciously waiting for Ace to be honking his horn and driving her to school.
"Shit….shit, shit, and shit." Jo muttered, grabbing her backpack and dashing out the door, she had to make it to the school by 8:00. And with how tired she was and feeling like shit this was bound to be another tardy in her infamous list…It was actually amazing at how often she was late, even when her and Ace had been dating at about the last couple of months of school last year, they'd been in the parking lot; Jo could at least lie and say she forgot something and they would let it slide, most of the time, but the list was still lengthy all the same.
She really needed to cut back on smoking, she found herself exhausted after two blocks; Jo paused for a little bit, and she saw Vince Desjardins cruising by. He put on the brake a few feet from her and gave a smile,
"Little girl need a ride?" He said, raising an eyebrow at her and winking. Now if he had asked any other time, she wouldn't be even remotely considering it. Johanna rolled her eyes and came forward,
"…yeah actually. You drop me off at school?" Her voice doing its best to not sound anything other than innocently asking. Vince laughed a little and nodded, "Sure, get in." He was being decent, probably because his '54 Studebaker was his baby. She stayed on the passenger's side, and avoided looking at him. Though she felt like maybe she should say something… "So, did you put new seats in? I don't remember them being black." Jo said, and Vince looked over with a grin. "Sure did. Sexy aren't they?" She laughed and gave a nod, "Yeah…"
They got to the front of the school, and there was about 15 minutes left until the bell rang; Jo got out and went towards the driver's side.
"Thanks Vince, what do I owe ya?" She said, giving him a glance that just knew he wanted something. He smirked and slid his hand down the steering wheel,
"Just a kiss, anywhere you like, I'll be nice." He said, giving her a puppy dog eyed look that made her laugh.
"Fine, okay." Johanna kissed him just by his mouth, but more towards his cheek. Vince hovered close, and was satisfied;
"Have fun." He said, as she backed towards the school with a smile. Jo waved bye, and headed over to Chris, Gordie and Vern; Teddy was no where to be seen.
"There she is, did Vince Desjardins just give you a ride?" Gordie said a surprised look on his face.
"Yeah, he was being oddly nice…it happens occasionally." Jo said, shrugging and lightly hitting Chris on the shoulder.
"Hey, you make it okay last night? You were dead weight by the time we made it to your place." She said, Chris seemed a little nauseous at even thinking about last night.
"Yeah…Eyeball woke me up, actually he was jumping on my bed and that woke me up; fucking asshole." He said, Vern and Gordie nodded in agreement. Some of Jo's girl friends were waiting near the door,
"I'll talk to you guys later, okay? I need to be girly now." They didn't mind, and she felt Gordie grab her wrist, and put a piece of paper in her hand and close it into a fist. With a glance back she gave a questioning look but went on to the door anyway.
"Jo you look so amazing! Oh you so have to let me borrow that jacket."
She looked down and noticed she was wearing a jacket that Ace had stolen for her a few months ago. Jo was in between wanting to throw it at her, and keeping it. It was a really nice leather jacket though, with a copper colored zipper and, a shiny black outside, and beige inside that had pockets at the breast.
"Ginger I will, maybe when you actually have a date with a tough boy instead of those preppy guys on the football team."
Ginger and her other friend Callie laughed, and made a you-so-didn't-say-that-face.
"What? It's true; besides, it looks killer with a short skirt and heels. I wore it a while ago to a movie; I got a free soda and some chocolate from the guy behind the counter." Johanna winked, and they started laughing again.
"You so are such a flirt, you didn't eat the candy did you? What if put something in it, like a roofie or something." Callie said. Johanna put a finger to her lips and widened her eyes,
"Oops. Well either way, Ace had been there, he'd have taken care of that guy." They noticed Jo got a little quiet after that, and they came closer.
"Why did you say his name like that? All quietly and distantly?" Ginger said, Callie leaning close and giving a look that said 'spill it'.
"We broke up; the party at Caleb's was…a bad idea to say the least. So I'm single again, you know what that means."
All of them made a loud cat call, and all of the students around them looked over. Laughing Ginger, Callie and Johanna struck a model pose, and blew a kiss towards them. This was a riot with the guys, the jocks even.
Now Ginger Henderson, Callie Allen, and Johanna Zamora weren't part of the 'Popular' clique, they all were different parts of the school stereotype. Ginger was the rich girl, who was on the cheerleading squad, but she had an issue with anyone who made a big deal about it; Ginger didn't want to be known for being like that, she wanted to be known for how smart she was. She had gorgeous long black hair that she wore in childish pigtails, and dark brown eyes; she was tall, about 5'9'' and she had the typical dancer's body, lean and beautiful.
Callie was the girl next door type, she was good at everything, she had ash blonde hair cut to her shoulders, and hazel eyes; she was toned, about 5'5" and she had the best imagination; she was a complete story-teller, she loved making rumors and spreading them to see how much of the school would know; it was a strange past-time, but pretty entertaining too.
Johanna of course, was the girl with the bad reputation, she hung out with the wrong types, she was poor, and happened to be really pretty; always a bad combination. With her blonde hair that was past her shoulders, and blue eyes, she was a classic beauty; she was 5'3" almost 5'4" and was average in size, she wasn't skinny, but she wasn't athletic either; just a normal sort of size, considering she couldn't afford food all the time, and she had to live off of what was on sale at the store. Trust that it could be gross.
The bell rang and they went in, the paper in Jo's hand was getting sweaty, and she shoved it into her jacket pocket. Callie grabbed her hand and they headed to the bulletin board to see where they needed to go. Jo and Callie were always in the same classes, it never failed. And it was true for this year too, they read the list of all their classes and put them to memory, first up was History. Ginger went to Math.
"See you later, we have Study Hall during 5th, tell me more about the party!" Ginger said, as she headed up the stairs, and waved to Jo and Callie.
History was at the end of the hall, and they took their seats in the very back. It was common law that first come was first serve, and these seats would remain theirs until the end of the year.
"Okay, so in detail what happened?" Callie said, leaning towards Jo and digging in her bag.
"From what time, to when?" Jo said, getting out a notebook and a pencil.
"The party you ditz." Callie said.
"Caleb came up to me and stole me away when Ace had been dancing with me; then he kissed me, yeah I know what a sicko, I kneed him in his junk and stormed outside, Ace hadn't done a fuckin' thing to stop him. So Ace comes out following me, and he is clueless, he doesn't understand at all. So I tell him I'm not going with him anywhere ever again, and he can't do anything to make up for that. Well he's all pissed off then, and is all we're done and tells me to go back to Teddy, where I belong."
Callie made a face that was in shock and disapproval, "That asshole, what then?"
"I go to the park, and I hung out with Chris, Gordie and Vern. And I take Chris home, he was so drunk. And I … talked to Eyeball too."
"That's weird. So do you…you going to talk to Ace again?"
Jo scoffed and shook her head, "Not if I can help it, he said it himself, we're done."
"Gosh I thought you guys would get married, you were always all over each other." Callie said, the teacher came in was getting her stuff together.
"Any thoughts I had about him are so over. I just want to forget Ace Merrill and get out of his shadow, I swear, he's the biggest mistake of my life." Jo said, then why was saying that making her feel sad? Class started, and the rest of the day droned on at a snails pace. She told the same thing to Ginger later, and didn't get some peace until 7th hour, that was when she got a trip to the office for smoking in the girl's bathroom, and three days suspension. Jo sat in the hallway next to the Principal's door, which was open, and his desk and chair near enough so he could check up and make sure she was still there. Given this free time she took out the note from Gordie.
'Hey, I need to talk to you after school, meet me at the oak tree by the parking lot. You really need to hear this!'
She was very curious, the exclamation point at the end just the bonus to make her feel nervous. The bell for 8th hour rang and she high-tailed it out of there. Gordie wasn't at the oak tree yet, and she rested against it watching as the other kids with cars had the luxury of driving home. Gordie came running from the gym, and he tossed his bag down beside Jo and took some time for a breather.
"What you got to say Lachance?" Jo said, smiling as he sighed and wiped some sweat from his forehead.
"You got a suspension the first day? Jo you really know how to out do yourself don't you?" He said, smirking and hearing her mockingly mimic him.
"Whatever right? The cigarette was so worth it…" She said, as Gordie made a 'sure it was' face.
"Anyway Vern overheard something this morning, before he got to school. He heard it from Billy, who heard it from Charlie, who heard it from Jack that Ace got arrested last night, and Caleb isn't getting' him out. I also heard that he wants to talk to you. Vern made it out like Ace really did it this time, he started throwing bottles at passing cars, and he hit the police cruiser."
Johanna crossed her arms and kicked at the ground, her black converse digging into the dirt.
"What the hell does he want to talk to me for? That asshole. Gordie, what the fuck should I do?" He shrugged, and picked his bag up.
"Beats me, but I guess it depends on if you have anything else you want to say that you didn't last night."
"Yeah…I do actually, he's at the station then?" She said, picking up her bag from the opposite side of the tree and walking with him down to the end of the block.
"I guess. Do you think he's gonna try getting back with you?" Gordie said, looking back to see if Chris or Vern were anywhere nearby.
"I don't know, and I don't care. That fucker's lucky I'm even going to see his sorry ass." He laughed and shoved a can out onto the street with his foot,
"He was lucky you even dated him." Gordie said, glancing over, and seeing her smirk.
"He was. So why's Teddy gone? He still hung over?"
He nodded, "Yeah, his mom bought that he'd caught a bug or something, she came home at like 3 in the morning and he was hugging the toilet. He better be grateful that we picked up before we left." Johanna laughed and they paused at the stop sign.
"I'll talk to you later; I'll go see what he wants." Her bag slipping from her shoulder, and she adjusted it with a little trouble. "Okay, bye." He said, going his own way to walk home.
The Station was by Main Street, and next to the shitty Pawn Shop. It wasn't somewhere she'd been a whole lot, the only time she had was when Jo had made the mistake of spray painting 'No more whites' at the Laundromat and the cop had driven by at the same time, it was just a case of bad luck.
"…Is Ace here?" Jo asked, when she got inside, and the cop at the desk looked up from his coffee.