Authors note: Ok i promise this will get interesting, but I dont want to give anything away yet so youll have to read it.

Disclaimer: I dont own JoA, although no one else does ne more so i dont understand why i have to write this

Chapter 1

Joan was tired. That was an understatement. Either way here he came, with his corduroy jacket. She rolled her eyes. Why couldn't she just take a break for once. Things were going good for her and Adam. And, yet, God still proceeded toward her.

"Hi, Joan, miss me?" His spiky hair seemed to mock her.

"For what? Like the two seconds you were gone?" She found herself wishing he had British accent, something more interesting to listen to.

"I want you to--"

She cut him off. "I just got done with a mission. Can't I have a break?" Screaming in God's face was probably not a very wise thing to do.

"Imagine what would happen if I took a break." He turned around and started walking back the way he came.

Joan spun him around by the collar of his jacket. "You cannot tell me you are not snippy today." She gave him a joking smile.

"Ready to listen. Good. I want you to learn how to play the guitar."

Joan's eyes shot open. "That's not exactly easy to do, you know. And where am I going to get a guitar. I have NO MONEY." She showed him the space between her fingers where money should have been as she followed him down the hall.

"Didn't Kevin use to play?" It wasn't a question. She stopped and glared as he kept going. The wave, of course, today it made her angry.

Joan handed Kevin a plate out of the dishwasher to be set on the table for dinner.

"Hey Kev, do you still have that old guitar?"

"Yeah, somewhere. Why? Another one of your crazy hobbies."

She hated the crazy shots, but she decided not to go there. "Yeah, sorta. So can I borrow it?"

"Sure." Joan handed him more plates, smiling triumphantly.

Dinner was served and the Girardi family sat down for their meal. Beef stew, not exactly Joan's favorite, and by the lack of garlic neither was it her father's. She pulled it apart and shoved it around to look like it was being eaten while taking microscopic bites.

"Joan, I thought you liked beef stew." Helen could always catch Joan. Of course, she'd been doing it since she could use a fork. Hiding food under the napkin, fortunately, had been nipped in the bud.

Joan sank. She knew she'd been caught. The only thing she could save herself with was to change the subject to something very interesting. She needed a savior.

"Mom, I need knew socks." She pulled her leg above the table to reveal holes on her heal and toes. To her pleasure Luke also had some sock issues and she was saved.

Kevin rolled into Joan's room later that night with a beat up, brown guitar laid on his lap. Not exactly girly or, for that matter, sanitary.

"I would have tuned it for you, but I didn't know how, so enjoy." He left her room in a rush. She found it weird, but she didn't really care. She laid it across her lap and tried to play what she thought might be a cord. All that happened was a rattled, out of tune, car crash-like sound. She decided to give up for the day.