Chapter 11

Jo

"Did you see that?" Jo hissed. "He kissed her, and she liked it! What about her desire to wait? We were in that together!"

"Jo, calm down," Crow said softly. "It's just a kiss."

"JUST a KISS?!" Jo snapped. "She made a promise, to me and to herself! She's letting us both down!"

"Are you going to hurt me if I do this?" Crow whispered. He leaned over and gave Jo a kiss on the cheek. Jo blushed.

"No…but that was the cheek! She had a real first kiss!" Jo whimpered.

"Jo…sing something," Crow ordered.

"LALALALALALA!" Jo belted.

"Something real, genius," Crow laughed. Jo sighed dramatically.

"Fine…I'll do Ghost of You…no, no! Some Queen song! Bohemian Rhapsody…do it with me!"

"I intended to." Crow's voice blended with Jo's, and almost the whole school heard the two voices singing crazy songs from a mile away.

"That was so fun!" Jo exclaimed. "You kept messing up on purpose, silly."

"So did you!" Crow retorted. "It made it better."

"I know. Hey, do those songs count as harmonies?"

"Pssh, well, duh. They're songs, aren't they?"

Jo's breath caught in her throat. "You…"

"Harmonized. Love you. Have orange hair," Crow joked.

"You love me?" Jo gasped.

"Yep, sure do!" Crow said happily. "And I'm not afraid to admit it. By the way…it's time for our scene."

Blushing madly, Jo nodded. "Uh…yeah. Let's go…!"

Crow grabbed her wrist and began pulling her to the stage. "If you're not happy when we do this, it ruins it, you know."

"I do know! Now let's get it done," Jo ordered. While Grace and Blue had wanted a dramatic play, Jo and Crow had decided on a more comedic approach.

Crow bowed. Jo waved. "We are going to do a scene from some show that we don't watch that happened to be on TV on Celeste's plasma-screen television last night, and Crow and I thought it was so hilarious that we printed out a script and memorized that scene for tonight," Jo explained. "I would like to thank Celeste..."

Celeste placed a hand on her heart, pretending to be touched.

"...'s television for happening to be on that show and scene that night," Jo finished.

Celeste scowled.

Score. Jo turned to Crow. "You start, remember?"

Crow nodded. Jo knelt down and pretended to be frantically working on something. Crow squatted next to her, pretending to be anxious, fearful, and angry, all at once.

"What do you think you're doing, you idiot?" Crow snapped, beginning the scene.

"I don't even know!" Jo wailed. "I think it has something to do with colorful rainbow wires!"

"You're supposed to be deactivating a bomb, not practicing your sewing!" Crow sighed, exasperated.

"I don't sew! I crochet!" Jo whined back. "O-OK...so if I disconnect green and blue and attach the red to gold...GAHH! This is too hard!"

Crow shoved the air right beside Jo, and Jo rolled to the side, making it look like he'd shoved her directly. Jo squeaked, almost instinctually. Crow began working on the invisible bomb.

"General Long?" Jo whispered.

Crow blinked. "What do you want, you imbecile?"

"The bomb was set for half an hour, right?"

Crow froze. "Yes...how long were you working on it?"

"About a half an hour."

"Oh, that's a—wait, what?!" Crow leapt to his feet. Jo began making very fast beeping noises.

"Oh, cru-"

"BOOOOOOOMMM!" Jo shouted.

Crow flinched. "...Uh...why didn't we combust?"

"I was practicing for a part in a play. I deactivated the bomb a long time ago." Jo blinked innocently. "Was I good?"

Crow twitched. Finally, he screamed and bowed. "We're done."

Jo laughed. "Yay."

The audience laughed and clapped. Grace cheered like a maniac. Blue cheered louder. Grace shoved him and screamed louder.

"YOU WERE EPIC!"

Jo grinned. "And now for the troublemakers."