Jack had been holding Jo's hand all night. She wasn't the most confident roller skater, but with Jack's experience in skateboarding, the activity was fairly easy for him. "Do you think you can skate on your own now?" Jack had been waiting for her to let go of her death drip on him. He kept trying to break off from Josephine, but she refused to release her hold on him. He was starting to get impatient, he just wanted to skate with Auggie and Anna for a while.
Her grip on him seemingly tightened, "no! Please don't make me do this by myself." He rolled his eyes, trying to avoid the pain in his left hand. He reached out to another skater who happened to be very close to him. "Hey, this is Josephine. Josephine this is..."
"Josh," the boy looked utterly confused. He didn't know who this guy was or why he had aggressively pulled him away from Matt and Olivia.
Jack continues with a thankful smile, "Josh, here, will help you skate, because I am done with you. You're hopeless." Her grip on Jack's hand loosened when she saw Josh. She wasn't expecting to see him here, let alone at all after she had seen him yesterday morning. He didn't return to the cafe today, nor had he texted Josephine. So, the encounter felt awkward for Jo, but Jack can't understand a social cue.
Jack removed his hand from Josephine's and replaced it with Joshua's. He closed their hands together and sent them a sarcastic smile and skated away.
Josephine's face presented pure shock. She let go of Joshua's hand, but the second she did she fell to the ground. She laughed, "can you help me up?" Joshua started to relax at her goofy nature. He grabbed onto both of her hands and hauled her up. Once she was up he locked his arm with hers.
"So, did you get fired?" Josephine was feeling a little bit of awkwardness in the air, so she wanted to remove it.
Josh chuckled, slightly looking down. "No, I didn't get fired." She smiled at him, "that's good."
"I was in a lot of trouble though. It was one of my first days."
She grimaced, "it's a miracle you still work there."
He shrugged, "guess I'm hard to replace" They were coming up to a curve on the rink. Joey held onto Josh even tighter as she focused on moving to the left.
"You aren't very good at this," Joshua stayed. She laughed, "no, I'm not. Thank you for reminding me."
A brunette came up to them, stopping right in front of them. "Hey, Josh."
"Oh hey, Liv," she sent him a knowing, yet questioning look.
It stayed quiet for a brief moment, "well damn Josh, aren't you going to introduce us?"
Joey laughed, already knowing that she'd like 'Liv' very much. "Oh uh, this is Oliva," he said to Josephine but gestured to Olivia, "Olivia this is Josephine."
"You can call my Jo," she took her hand out for Liv to shake, but it propelled her skates forward, and she collided gently into Olivia. Luckily, Oliva caught her by her shoulders, "Woah there!" She helped Jo gain her balance back.
"Sorry, I'm not very good at this. Like at all."
"That's okay. You can call me Liv, though." Olivia mischievously looked at Josh, "Hey, Jo, do you maybe wanna skate with us and our friends?" Jo looked at her surprised, once again pushing her forward, but Olivia anticipated it this time, catching her quicker.
She laughed at her clumsiness, "I don't think I'd be doing much skating than I would be falling on my ass!" The three laughed, knowing that with only a few minutes of interaction that she isn't the most talented roller skater. "I'm actually here with 3 of my friends. One of which handed me over to Josh, here." At that moment Jack skated past them and sent them two thumbs up. Olivia instantly knew that he was the one who gave her away to Josh.
"Larry's probably as bad as you are," Olivia giggled pointing toward her redheaded friend holding onto the wall desperately.
Josh laughed loudly, "I think he's even worse." Jo giggled along, "that makes me feel so much better."
Olivia turned back to Jo and Josh, "but we can go sit down and maybe get something to eat instead. You've endured enough falls." She giggled at Liv, "Yeah, sure. Just as long as you both help me there."
Josh and Olivia linked their arms around her and slowly slid to a table. At the table, there were a few other people. A tall brunette boy spoke, "Hey, guys. Who's she?" His head nodded to Josephine as she fell on a chair.
"I'm Jo!" her smile beamed at him. He sent her one back, showing her that he's friendly. Josh pointed to everyone sat at the table, "That's Matt, Julia, Frankie, and Dara."
Josephine marveled at the number of people there, "wow, is it someone's birthday? Cause you have a lot of friends here." Some chuckled were heard at her joke.
Matt spoke up, "actually we're fil–"
Josh cut him off, "we all work together." Julia and Dara sent him the same sassy look that read 'what are you doing?' He chuckled once again emphasizing their relationship, "we're coworkers."
"I think you mean co-stars, honey," Frankie sassed.
Josephine looked around the table, piecing the puzzle together in her head. Josh sent her a forced smile, trying to distract from his exaggerated truth. A light bulb turned on in her head, "Ohhhhh." They all gave her a look seemingly showing that she knows who they are. "You guys are the people filming at the high school!"
Everyone voiced their answers, all yes's. "I was wondering why they pushed winter break so long." Josh sent Olivia a worried look. 'Oh my God, I'm catching a case' his face said, but Olivia shot his look down with her own.
Frankie saw the looks Josh and Olivia we're sharing so he asked Josephine, "so, Jo, what grade are you in?" Liv looked at Frankie with gratitude while Josh still showed slight panic.
"Oh, I'm a senior." Josh's face visibly relaxed. Good thing he was sitting across from Frankie so her attention wasn't on him. "If you guys weren't hogging my school I could be graduating in 3 months and 2 weeks but instead I have to graduate in 3 months, 2 weeks and 6 days." Julia laughed, "you seem very okay about it." She laughed cheekily at Julia's joke.
They continued talking, new and previous cast members coming and going from the rink, but Josh and Olivia stayed by Jo's side. After a while, Auggie, Anna, and Jack came up to the table. "Hey, Jo we're gonna head out but you can stay and talk to your new friends if you want," Auggie said to her. Anna waved at them, feeling a little shy.
"Yeah okay." Olivia nudged her new friend, "Oh, yeah so these are Auggie, Anna, and the other one!" Jo had mentioned them when chatting with her new friends.
"Hii," Jack spoke through food. His mouth was full of pizza, but he didn't seem to mind. He usually never does.
"And these guys are the people who invaded East High," Josephine joked. Anna's eyes popped out of her head, "Oh my God! No way! You're kidding!"
Liv chuckled at her reaction, "we're not. We were all so star struck when we first saw the school. It's so cool that you guys actually go there!"
Jack flipped his invisible hair, "I know right. But it's nothing like the movies; every time I try to break out into song I get thrown into a locker!"
Josephine laughed hysterically, "I remember that! You tried to sing the pop and lock part of Stick to the Status Quo and then Ricky T. threw you in Sharpay's locker! Freshmen year was the best."
Josh laughed, but stopped when he asked, "someone named Ricky goes to your school?"
Auggie nodded. "There were multiple Richard's so they were either called Richard, Rick, Richie or Ricky. Most of them graduated though," Anna explained.
Jack grumbled, "thank God Ricky T. graduated 3 years ago." Everyone laughed, Jack tends to be the funny one in the room. August is usually the nice guy, Anna is the shy girl, and Josephine is the bubbly one. They were all contrasting, but that's what made them...them.
"OH!" Joey gasped, she had just realized something very important, "I just remembered that I left my favorite highlighter in my locker!" Anna rolled her eyes with Auggie, but Jack pointed at her nodding his head in agreement, "you love that highlighter."
Josephine exasperated, "I know! I can't even bullet journal without it." Auggie rolled his eyes once again, "wow how tragic."
"Shut up Auggie! This is crucial. Okay so my locker number is 420, I know funny," the phrase earned laughed from around the table, "On it is a flyer that says 'happy birthday Joey'...unless you guys took it down."
Sofia looks at her castmates, "I don't think the crew did."
Larry nodded his head, "yeah the crew basically left it the same."
Joey let out a sigh of relief, "Wonderful. Anyways, when you open it you'll see that everything is color-coordinated. This is when you come in giant," she pointed to Matt, "you get to the yellow section which is towards the top, and then you'll find a cup full of markers and pens. BUT! You want the interchangeable highlighter. I would really appreciate it if you could get that to me." Josephine smiled, looking at a bunch of confused teens.
Joshua stares blankly at her, "that sounds way too complicated."
"Yeah, that seems like a lot. You're expecting too much from us," Olivia nodded.
Matt looked at Jo, "can you even reach that high?" Josephine shook her head, "no, I have a stepping stool on the floor of my locker." Auggie giggled, "I bought that for you."
"Only because I bought her one for her bathroom!" Anna argued.
"I'm a short king, leave me alone."
Josh proposed, "why don't you just go in and get it yourself? We could probably ask to see if they'd let you do that."
She beamed with the happiest smile, "are you serious?! Oh my fucking God that would be ... YES!" She slightly stood up from her seat and shook Joshua's shoulders. The table laughed at her outburst, seeing as it's the loudest she's been the whole time.
"I haven't seen her this happy since she got a car," Jack added, making, yet again, everyone laugh. "Speaking of, it's broken. So, let's wrap this up because my mom said she will lock me out of the house if I'm not home in the next 15 minutes and I need to drop this one off." He moved to put his hands on her shoulders.
Olivia stood to give Jo a hug, "text me. and all of us," they giggled. Everyone else gave her and her friends a goodbye, all of them hugging Josephine lightly. "We'll see you guys later! Don't be a stranger!" Josephine departed from her abundance of new friends.
Anna tackled Joey in a bone-crushing hug, "Oh my fucking God, Jo!"
"What, Ann?" Her smile was wide, but she didn't enjoy how Anastasia was trampling over her.
"That guy was staring at you the whole time! I think the cafe guy has a run for his money!" Jo had told Anna about Josh when they met the first time, but she wasn't expecting to see him anytime soon so she left out some sensory details, like his name.
"Actually, Josh is him."
Anna deadpanned for a moment, no longer attacking Joey, "huh?"
Josephine picked up her pace to keep up with Jack and Auggie, "I'll text you later!" Ann ran after her, realizing that they really were falling behind from the boys.
"You didn't tell me he was that hot!" Auggie cleared his throat, "But not as hot as you babe!"
Josephine and Jack gagged as they kissed, "Ewwwww!"
"Bye guys!" Jack yelled at the couple.
Once Jo and Jack were strapped in, Jack started to drive to her house. "So, Josh eh?"
"Shut up, we just met! We're friends Jackie."
He wiggles his eyebrows, head-turning away from the road, "JACK YOU'RE GONNA KILL US!"
"You either kill your self or get killed," Jack replied. Josephine chuckled, "whatcha gon do?"