A/N: Yay! An updation! (Finally) I've been really busy, and this chapter was a bitch to write, which is why this update is so late. I know these have been (so far) going in a somewhat chronological order, this chapter is going to screw that up, so forget all that stuff. This isn't your usual Joanne chapter, but it's my first time writing Joanne, and it was really hard to write this chapter. Many thanks (and cookies) to Stella italia, and especially the-fraulein for her nice PM to me on compulsivebowlers, and her reviewing of 3 chapters (:). REVIEW and cookies shall come your way!

Snapshots

Chapter Five: Strawberry Flavored Lips (Joanne)

She dropped her strawberry flavored chapstick on the floor by my feet one day in class. That's the first thing I remember about her. That, and her hair. The long blond curls bounced up and down to her waist, with streaks of brown intertwined within them. I picked up her chapstick, which had fallen from her small black purse. She had one of those purses that look too small to possibly hold anything useful, but she managed to fit a bunch of stuff in there, from the looks of it. As I gave her chapstick back, I looked straight into her eyes, which were this wonderful pale blue color, and her big full lips, which weren't really chapped to begin with.

"Joanne! Cassandra! Are you listening to me?" Mr. Cambridge, our biology teacher, asked. It didn't matter, though, because the bell rang shortly after, signaling the end of the school day. Along with the bell, an impossibly loud thunderclap boomed at around the same time. The skies opened up with pouring, pulsating raindrops falling on the sidewalk. Shit. Normally Mother picks me up at school, but today she and Daddy are both working, so I have to walk home. I usually don't mind, but I just know that I'll end up looking like a dead rat in the rain.

As I gathered my various schoolbooks in my locker and start the trek home, I notice her again. Cassandra. What a beautiful name. She is so attractive, just look at her. Wait, who am I kidding? She's probably with the captain of the football team or something, with my luck. She'd never want to be with someone like me, she...

"Hey, Joanne, what's up?" It's her. Cassandra. Here.

"Hey...what are you doing here?" I ask. What a stupid question. She's walking home, of course.

"Just...walking home, I guess. I normally have choir practice after school, but it got cancelled today. So I guess I have to walk home today."

"Man, it's pouring out here. I mean, I don't even have an umbrella or anything. I'm gonna get soaked." What am I doing? Talking about the weather. Only the most boring topic ever. Of course it's raining, and I'm going to look horrible with my hair wet.

"You're right about that. I totally didn't expect it to rain today. I'm certainly not dressed for the weather." Cassandra was wearing a white T-shirt with a small cartoon drawing of a cat on it and pink shorts. But none of us suspected it would rain today, really- it came really abruptly. It had looked like a nice, sunny late April day until the rain started, screwing up the plans of a lot of people.

The rain was coming down even harder than it was when it started, and when it started it came down pretty quickly. And Cassandra was still walking right next to me. She must live at least remotely near me, or she would've turned down one of the many side streets, and we would've continued on our separate ways. But today she didn't have choir practice after school, and it was raining pretty hard, and she continued to walk beside me.

We were coming up to Edgerton Park, which wasn't really that much of a park to begin with. It had a rusty swing set, slide, and jungle gym for the little kids, a few barbeque pits and picnic tables, and a big wooden shelter with several picnic tables under it, but that was it. There was a main trail through the park that led right to my street, which I turned onto instinctively. Surprisingly, Cassandra turned onto the same trail. Now, I knew that Cassandra couldn't possibly live on my street, and I probably would've seen her walking to school or something if she lived near it. The rain continued to soak our clothes as we walked down the long trail.

"Joanne! It's raining really, really hard out here, and I'm really cold. Is your house really close to here so I can use your phone or something? I live really far away from here, and maybe my mom could pick me up." Mother didn't want me to have friends over when I was to be home alone. I suppose I could make an...exception for Cassandra though, given the circumstances. We soon reached my house. I put my key in the door to let us in, and went to turn on a light. Nothing happened.

"The power must be out," I said. "I guess you can't call your mom now."

"Can I wait at your house until the storm ends?" Cassandra asked. I hesitated. I would love to have Cassandra at my house, but I wouldn't want Mother to come home and have her jump to the wrong conclusion.

"There's a shelter at the park. Why don't we wait there for the storm to end?"

"We? Wouldn't you want to stay at your house?" Cassandra questioned. In truth, I would want to maximize my time with Cassandra as much as possible, given her attractiveness, but I didn't want her to know that.

"Yeah...the power's out at my house anyway, and I don't have anything to do." What a lame excuse on my part. Cassandra probably thinks I'm a little strange by now. Whatever. Me and Cassandra walked towards the shelter. Inside the shelter, the rain was pouring down hard on the roof. It sounded like a million little drum beats going off simultaneously. In order to say a word to each other, we had to shout.

For a while, neither of us could think of anything to say. I looked over at her. Cassandra's once lively blonde curls hung limp against her back. Her eye makeup was running down the sides of her cheeks because of the rain. Her T-shirt was completely soaked through. Her white T-shirt, which allowed me to get a very nice view of her body. I tried to not look like I was staring at her chest, but I think she ended up noticing anyway. Man, she's so beautiful. This is probably the only time she's ever noticed me, but I've seen her for a while. I've just never noticed how pretty she is until today. And after today, she'll probably never notice me again, as she always did. This might be my only chance to be with her. The storm didn't seem like it was letting up anytime soon.

"Cassandra?" I called to her weakly.

"Oh, Joanne, you can call me Cassie. Everyone does." Cassie. That sounds even prettier. What a nice name. I walked closer to her.

"Um, Cassie...this is gonna sound really weird, but I think you're really...nice." Nice. Now she really thinks I'm nuts.

"Thanks for the compliment." I knew she'd act like this. Oh well. I might as well just kiss her and get it over with. That's what I wanted to do all along. I pull Cassie towards me and put my mouth up to hers. I know she'll immediately pull away, but I just want to experience it for a couple seconds. Her lips taste like the chapstick she had on earlier. I wait for Cassie to pull away from me and run away but, amazingly, she doesn't. We just sit there, kissing, for what seems like a long time but probably isn't that long. Cassie's a great kisser. Then she backs off.

"Joanne, I'm sorry, but I can't do this. I know you probably think I was fine with us kissing, but I wasn't. It's not that I don't like you or anything, you're a sweet kid, but it's not like that at all. And I know you probably expected more, but that's all you're gonna get. You should be lucky I even let you kiss me. I'm...sorry."

Cassie walks away. I don't follow. The rain tapers off into a steady trickle. The sun peaks out from behind the clouds. I walk back to my house. What was I thinking? I knew Cassie didn't like me in that way. I knew it. And yet I still kissed her. But I'll always remember that kiss in the rain, and Cassie's strawberry-flavored lips, for a long time.