Marco brought her inside "Are you alright? What happened?"
"He knows, Marco...there is no other explanation..."Jo said.
"Who does? And what..." Marco sat her down on the couch and sat beside her.
"Spinner." That was all Jo had to say, Marco understood.
"Did he tell you? Did he hurt you at all? What happened?"
"He must have found out somehow when he snuck into my room...he hasn't said a word, not to me anyway. He acts like I don't exist! He made me so angry, not to mention embarrassed! And if he's a blabber mouth (which I'm almost positive he is) the whole school will be gossiping about me tomorrow! I don't think I can take this..." Jo held her head in her hands for she could feel a migraine coming on.
Marco sighed. He was going to have to have a chat with Spinner. "I'll do what I can...hopefully he won't tell..."
"Ohhh..." Jo groaned. Hopefully? That's encouraging. But than again, Marco can't control Spinner's actions. "Oh, once I get my hands on him..." she growled, but she couldn't finish, her head was hurting too much. "Ow...do you have any aspirin?"
"Your head hurts?" Marco asked, standing up. Jo nodded. "Just relax, I'll be right back." he said, then disappeared into the kitchen. With Jo's consent he would call Jimmy later. He knew he would take this well and would help them with Spinner.
Jo laid back on the couch. She couldn't remember the last time her head hurt like this...wait a moment, no she did remember, the morning she woke up in the hospital and remembered being rapped. And then the day when many of her friends back home had deserted her. Only a few of her straight stood by her side. One of them was Alex. Alex...oh it will be great to have her here. She missed her home, in California. Having somebody she knew well will give her strength for this chaos going on around her. It was like Scarlett O'Hara needing Tara.
Marco came in quietly with some aspirin and a glass of water for Jo. "Here, this will help."
"Thanks. I hope so." Jo popped the tablets in her mouth washed them down. "I have to meet Ashley and Paige. They are watching my sister for me."
"How about I go with you? Would you feel better?"
"Very much, thanks Marco. We can go, once my head stops pounding." Jo had her hands over eyes to keep out the light. But the pain killers were starting to kick in. She started to rub her temples.
"It really hurts doesn't it?"
"'Hurt' is an understatement, man." Jo said.
"Does this happen a lot?"
"Only when I'm really, REALLY upset about something, so no." Jo sat up. "But I'm feeling better...wow that stuff works fast."
After a few more minutes of waiting, Jo and Marco headed out to find the girls. Jo called Paige from her cell and learned that they were just a few blocks away at a little café.
They had just ordered drinks when they got there. Marco of course didn't mention what they had been talking about and Paige and Ash asked.
The rest of the day went on pretty smoothly. Jo smiled but in the back of her mind she was still very worried. Marco obviously survived when he came out to everyone...but, with boys, lots of the time girls will take their side, because the other guys get all freaked out. But when a girl comes out...well boys AND girls tend to freak. Boys get offended thinking a girl chooses other girls because they think boys aren't good enough (The boys who raped her made that clear.) When a girl comes out to her girlfriends there is always two things that could happen: One, they might be afraid she's attracted to them. Two, they might be offended if she isn't.
Jo was lucky to have friends to stuck with her back in California.
One Monday when Jo went to school, Jo was surprised to find that nobody acted differently around her, with the exception of Spinner who still acts like she was invisible. But it seemed he hadn't told anyone.
Jo met Marco at her locker. She kept looking around like any moment somebody would sneak up behind her.
"Jo, I think we should tell Jimmy. Spinner is keeping quiet for now, but if Jimmy knew he could make sure Spin doesn't do anything stupid." Marco said.
"You think?"
"Yes, he helped me through this, he would help you. Look do you want me to tell him?"
"No! No, I'll do it. Uh...We're reading our short stories in English today...I'll drop the bomb after that." The bell rang. Jo grabbed her English paper from her locker and headed down the hall.
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"Alright class, today, you will stand and read your short stories." said Miss Kwan. "Now who will like to go first?"
Jo looked around and saw barely anyone was excited about getting up and reading for the class. She decided to be the brave one and raised her hand. Miss Kwan motioned for her to stand in front of the class. Jo stood and faced her class mates. Spinner was there a few rows back he kept his eyes to his desk. Jo decided to prepare herself incase he tried to embarrass her. She wouldn't let him humiliate her.
"I wrote my story based on another story by Katherine Mansfield. It is told by another character's point of view and she tells about her past life."
Miss Kwan nodded and Jo cleared her throat and began: "I woke up this morning in the alley when it started to rain. I clutched my coat tightly around me in hopes to keep out the cold. My name is Mary. I don't have any other name. I'm an orphan. I don't remember how I came to be. As a child I went about with no name at all. It wasn't until after I claimed sanctuary in the church that I called myself Mary, after the virgin..."
The students listened silently as Jo grew more and more into character as she read. It was a story of a young woman in search of kindness. As Jo kept on reading she showed no fear. She no longer cared about Spinner. The spotlight was on her once again and she was doing what she truly loved, acting. She paused before finishing the last paragraph.
"..."Thank you." And I left her alone. Whether she did it for me or for her own entertainment I don't know. But either way I am grateful to her. She saved my life that day. I had also left with a better sense of dignity. And after I left I took the opportunity to look into a shop window, and for the first time in my life, I saw how others saw me. Long dark hair, white clear face which must have been cleaned from the rain, bright blue eyes and pink lips, which were curved into a smile." As Jo finished her class mates applauded.
"A beautiful story, Josephine." Said Miss Kwan as Jo sat down in her seat "Very well written. Class you see that she put great detail into her character's emotions. Very good, Josephine."
"Thank you." Jo said.
Ashley, who was sitting next to her leaned over and whispered "That was great Jo!"
When class ended Jo was brought back to reality at the fact that she needed to talk to Jimmy. She found him at his locker with Spinner (just her luck). 'I'm not going to let him stop me...' she thought.
After a moment she summoned her courage and walked over to them. "Jimmy, hi!"
"Hey, Jo, what's up?"
Spinner rolled his eyes "Jimmy you don't have to talk to her..."
"Spin, shut up!" Jimmy shot at him.
"Whatever..." Spinner shook his head and walked off.
"I'm sorry about him, Jo. He's a jerk."
"That's ok Jimmy. But I need to talk to you...kind of about him." Jo started to ring her hands.
Jimmy looked from side to side to be sure nobody was listening. The halls were filled with students "Let's go outside and we can talk ok?"
"Alright" Jo nodded.
Once they were out of earshot of anyone, Jimmy was first to speak.
"Has Spinner been giving you a hard time?" he asked.
"How'd you know?" Jo looked up at him surprised.
"Oh...well he did this to Marco too, ya know when he came out."
Jo stopped in her tracks "Wait...you...he-and you? How did-...? You know, that I'm...?"
Jimmy smiled and nodded "Yeah I had guessed you might have been, but I didn't know for sure until Spinner took off out of your house the other day."
"He told you?" Jo was suddenly worried. Did he tell anyone else?
"Yeah, and I'm cool with that."
Jo sighed in relief. "I'm glad you're ok with it...but Spinner..."
"...is a homophobe." Jim finished. "Yeah I know. Don't worry though, it'll be ok."
Jo smiled, that was a lot easier than she thought. "Thanks Jimmy."
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"Alright where is this friend of yours?"
Ashley, Paige, Marco and Jo were at the airport with Brent, waiting for Alex to get off the plane.
"She'll be here in a minute, Marco."
Jo stood up on the many couches to get a better look. "Where is...wait, is that, yes! There she is!" Jo waved her hand high in the air to flag her down.
Marco and girls turned to see a girl with dark hair coming towards them. She was wearing military fatigues and air force sunglasses. She waved when she saw Jo and headed right over.
"Hey! Alex!" Jo hugged her when she made it over. "How are you?"
"Dude!" Alex placed her sunglasses on her head "I forgot how much I hate flying!"
"Oh tell me you brought me, my military pants!" Jo said.
"Yup, I got 'em!"
"Thank you! Alex, this is Paige, Ashley and Marco!"
"Hey!"
Jo turned to Brent who crossed his arms "And well, you know him..."
"Yeah I do!" Alex laughed.
Brent rolled his eyes but smiled. "Ok whatever lets get you suitcase and go."
"You're still taking us to lunch right, Brent?" Jo asked.
"Well I don't know..."
"Oh come on!" Everyone else joined in and Alex made her saddest face.
"Ok, ok you win! So long as Alex doesn't ever make that face AGAIN!"
"No promises!" said Alex.
And they all headed out. Jo was definitely looking forward to this weekend.
(A/N: Ok! That took a little longer than I thought but that wasn't so bad right? The story that Jo presented in class is actually the first and last paragraph of a story that I wrote for English and it's based on the short story "Cup of Tea" by Katherine Mansfield. So yeah there was a whole story behind that. Please Review. Next chapter coming soon!)