| Subject: Story of Joanne - P1 Ch6 |
Author:
Rose
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Date Posted: 02:50:25 09/20/02 Fri
In reply to:
Rose
's message, "Story of Joanne - P1 Ch5" on 02:48:38 09/20/02 Fri
~Chapter Six~
Jo’s Dance Partner
Joanne came down to breakfast the next morning with a large appetite, not having had any dinner the night before. She came into the Great Hall just in time to see Nicky and Ben pin a large banner with the words "Wheeler and Sheila" and a border of pink roses with red rims about ten yards away from Max’s head. Three-fourths of the Hall burst out laughing, including Mrs Davenport and Mr Gilmore.
Joanne slipped into her seat and was halfway through her bacon and eggs before Max noticed his adornment. He ripped it to pieces, which then scattered everywhere from the impact and began to float onto the West’s heavily laden table, into milk jugs and on top of porridge bowls.
The Main Hall exploded with laughter while Max sat with his hand on his head, looking rather stupid with a piece of banner draped around his head like a tiara (compliments of Mr. Stanton). None of the West’s ate much breakfast that morning.
Nicky had a large smile on his face that morning in English while Mr Lowe struggled to get his pen of his desk, apparently Nicky had another bottle of superglue. Then the pen suddenly shot off the desk and poked Amelia straight in the left eye, causing a lot of screaming and pulling of hair. She removed her hands from her left eye revealing a red pen mark all over her eye and a few strands of her hair.
Mr Lowe was a new teacher this year, so he didn’t quite take the concept of Ben and Nicky slapping high-fives in the back of the room.
Mr Lowe then took Amelia to the Medical Wing and gave the rest of the class a free day.
Later that day, at lunch, to be precise, Joanne found herself giggling at the account Nicky, Daniel, Ben, and Nathan gave of their last lesson of Maths, where there was Davenport’s high flying fall into the chalky blackboard after losing her chair, her dive into the first row of students after losing her balance and the entanglement her smart coat got in as she tripped on a football with the name Ben, printed all over it.
At that, Ben handed her a ball, with an additional adornment. Over the white surface it had freshly written words scribbled on which read “My Maths disrupter.”
“Nicky insisted that you should have this ball, and I agree, because you didn’t make the team.”
Nicky jumped in. “So you'll have a memento of the only time Davenport ever got her clothes messed up. Though, with us around, it won't be the last...”
“I doubt it will be, at that.” Joanne dunked her bread in her soup.
“So,” put in Daniel. “Do you think our house will win the House Cup this year?”
“Not if Nicky keeps getting merits taken off for his pranks!” Retorted Ben.
Nicky grinned proudly as if he had been awarded a metal for honourable prankster.
Joanne buttered a bread roll and gave Nicky a perplexing look. “You always try and find a way to disrupt a class. Why?”
“Because I know loads of the stuff they are teaching us already.” Remarked Nicky, tapping his nose.
Joanne made a face, “Oh, really. Then how come I was helping you with your Maths homework the other day?”
“Because…” Nicky thought for a moment. “’Cause you offered!”
Joanne scrunched her face up and walked out the Hall with Poppy.
They headed towards one of the four science labs and ignored the jeering remarks from Max Wheeler and Argon Simpleton.
Science class was a blast, the science teacher, Mr Cramer, honoured Joanne for her theory of Conduction, Convection and Radiation.
Most of the class clapped for her, though to Joanne’s displeasure Daniel, Nicky, Ben and Nathan were too busy wrapped in a physics experiment they were doing to notice any conversations going on in the room.
Joanne gritted her teeth and by the time she sat down next to Poppy, she thought about smashing some hydrochloric acid over the boys’ heads.
Joanne had made up with them though, over PE where they had been playing four a side basketball, and by the time it came to supper, she was laughing at their idiotic jokes.
As the food disappeared from the plates, Mr Gilmore made an announcement.
“Students, this year we will have a Halloween ball. We generally just have a feast and costume parties in the common rooms, but we will give a ball a whirl this year, no pun intended. You will have thirty days to get a partner for the ball if you so choose, but none is required. It will be a formal dress ball, however, and all clothing to the ball must be sensible, preferring black and orange colours. When you have decided on partners, write your names down on the register in your common room, or if you are going stag, just sign your name.”
After that a loud talk spread among the tables and a lot of girls began giggling at the boys nearest them.
That night in the North Tower there was much discussion.
In the first year boys’ dormitory....
“Who are you going to ask?” Anthony Clark asked in general.
“Jo.”
“Jo.”
“Jo.” Daniel, Ben and Nicky all said simultaneously.
“WHAT?!” they all said.
“I'm going to ask Jo.” Daniel said.
“Well so am I!” Nicky told him.
“Both of you must have forgotten the little detail that I'm asking her.” Ben told both of them. “Anyway Nicky, I’d thought you’d go with Sheila.”
“We decided to have our own partners.” Shot back Nicky.
“Well, I don’t care I’m asking her.” Said Ben and Daniel at the same time.
“No you're not.” Nicky said, “And I'll settle this now, I'm going to go and ask her.”
Nicky tripped them up with skilful movement to distract them and went to knock on the first year girls’ dorm door.
Meanwhile in the first year girls’ dormitory....
“Who do you want to go with, Gen?” Amanda asked.
“I hope Anthony Clark asks me. And you?”
“Ben Winters. He is the best looking guy in our year. We know whom Amelia and Joanne wants. Amelia wants Nicky and Jo wants Dan.” Amanda told them all.
“Thanks for the P.A. Poppy, who do you want to go with?” Joanne asked.
“Well, I want that South boy, Luke McLain to ask me.”
“Dream on Poppy.” Amelia said cruelly. Then there was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” Joanne shouted.
“Its me, Nicky. Jo, I want to ask you something.”
“Shoot.” Joanne shouted back.
“Its private. Come out here.”
Joanne walked out and Nicky automatically said, “Jo will you go to the ball with me?”
“Nicky, I'm sorry, but I'm really hoping somebody else will ask me.” Joanne turned him down.
Nicky couldn't breathe, he was too embarrassed. He turned around and walked back down the stairs, then up the stairs to his dorm and met Ben and Daniel still in a groaning heap on the floor.
Daniel got to his feet and asked calmly, “Did she say yes?”
“Nope.”
Ben quickly grabbed Daniel around the waist and locked him in a nearby cupboard.
Joanne went back in the dorm and was immediately asked by Poppy, “Well?”
“Nicky asked me to the ball.”
“WHAT?” Amelia shouted.
“I told him no.” Joanne went on woodenly, then there was another knock at the door, and Ben shouted, “Jo, I need to ask you something.”
She walked out there with him and said, “What?”
“Will ya go to the ball with me?”
“I'm sorry, ‘Jamin, I was hoping somebody else would ask me.”
“Okay.” and Ben walked dejectedly down the same stairs Nicky and just walked.
Joanne went back in and said, “Can you believe Ben just asked me too?”
Ben found Nicky had already freed Daniel, and when he walked in Daniel asked sadly, “She said yes, didn’t she?”
“No.”
“Great!” and Daniel was off and running to Joanne.
“I wonder who she is waiting for?” Ben asked Nicky.
“Who knows?”
“I don't know what I'll wear, providing Daniel asks me.” Joanne said, “Orange looks terrible on me, and black? I don't know about that. I'll write my mum though, maybe she can find me something.”
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK
Then Daniel shouted, “Joanne, will you PLEASE go to the ball with me?”
“Yes I will!” Joanne shouted back, and then opened the door.
Daniel stared, “You will?”
“Yes.”
They smiled at each other and Daniel said, “I'll go write our names in the book.”
“Okay, see ya later.” Joanne said, and flashed him a dazzling smile, then backed into the room, shutting the door.
Joanne turned around and screamed, “YES!! HE ASKED ME!!!” and Daniel heard this halfway down the stairs, and smiled.
Joanne said, “Can you believe it?”
“Yes, we can. You've had guys falling all over you ever since your makeover.” Poppy told her.
“Thanks you guys, I owe you so much for that.”
“No problem.” Gen told her.
Daniel wrote their names in the book in the centre of the common room, theirs was the third entry. Then he walked back up to the dorm.
“Well, did you get turned down too, Dan?” Ben asked,
“Nope, she said yes.” he said blissfully.
“WHAT?” Ben and Nicky shouted with identical expressions.
“She was waiting on you to ask her?” Ben asked with disbelief.
“She turned us down for you?” Nicky continued.
“Hey, watch it.” Daniel said with mock hurt.
“Sorry, but I can't believe it.” Nicky said.
“Well believe it. Joanne Beckley is going with ME to the ball.”
The next morning at breakfast Joanne and Daniel sat next to each other, earning the evil eye from Nicky and Ben, though they weren't really mad. Ben asked Amanda, and they agreed to go to the dance together. Nicky couldn't bring himself to ask Sheila, as she would think he was being desperate and decided to put it off for a while.
They had fun classes that day, and it turned out, they were all succeeding in them. PE was fun too, but the warm up wasn't. They were sharing this lesson with East house today as well, so they were having a bit of competition.
They were just about ready to start the warm-up, which consisted of running the entire distance around the Castle grounds, then a partner run, when Amelia came running out from the gym over to Nicky.
“Nicky!” she panted, “I'm so glad I found you. I wanted to ask you to the ball.”
“Uh, NO. I would rather go with my sister than go with you,” he said flatly.
“Fine, Stanton. But you will be sorry for messing with me. My father is second in command for the owner of Mentinen.”
“Haven't you learned your lesson yet?” Joanne asked in an exasperated voice. “My father is the owner of the company, so I don't think you should mess with one of my father’s friends children.”
Miss Smith shouted, “Okay, run all the way around Canton School property, you will see fluorescent flags that mark the boundary.” then she took off, and everybody followed her. At first everybody thought ‘how hard could this be?’ and were joking around, all of the boys, started tripping everyone up, but they didn't mess with Belinda Baker, she was too tough for them. Joanne however was free game, so often got caught in trip falls, but she just turned angry eyes to whoever did it and haughtily demanded they help her to her feet, and they obeyed. They were about halfway around the castle grounds when they started panting, and when they finally made it back to the starting point everybody collapsed, excluding Joanne and Miss Smith, who was in better shape than everybody else, but they were breathing hard.
“Okay everybody, ten minutes then the partner run, I'll explain that in a minute." Miss Smith shouted, and everybody groaned.
“Okay.” Miss Smith shouted five minutes later, “I'll let you choose your partner today, but if it gets to be a problem we'll have to draw. What we're gonna do is a military drill. What you do is carry your partner piggyback at a run, or as fast as you can for 25 yards. We'll progress to longer distances as the season goes along. Then we'll switch, so that each partner has to be the runner once. Okay, on three pick your partner. One.... two.... three!”
“JOANNE!!” Every person in the class shouted and ran over to grab her.
Joanne looked at all the people who wanted to be her partner. One of the boys HAD to weigh 250 pounds. She knew she should take the lightest of the lot.
“How dumb do you think I am? Belinda, will you be my partner?”
“Sure.” and everybody groaned.
Nicky eyed Ben and Daniel, “Dan, will you be my partner?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Ben went and asked Miss Smith to be his partner, and then there was only one person left, and Miss Smith announced,
“Since there are an odd number of players, the odd person will have a heavy rock placed on them.”
Robert Piggletus -the 250-was the one without a partner.
Nicky, Ben, and Belinda would run first. Joanne and Belinda thought she should go first because Joanne would probably be too tired to hang on after she ran, because Belinda was about 30 pounds heavier than Joanne’s own 98.
Just before they started running, Daniel grinned at Joanne and said, “This should be fun.” They were running, and as it turned out, Ben came in third out of three places. Then it was Joanne's turn to run, and Belinda kept sliding off. She finally made it past the finish line, coming in the same time as Daniel.
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