Jojo muddled through the rest of the announcements, feeling as though she was on autopilot. Hermes tried to speak to her, but it felt like he was miles away. All Jojo could think about was what Sam had said to her. He's definitely going to try and hurt someone, which is bad. But what if it's somebody I don't like anyway? I certainly wouldn't be too beat up about it if he wanted to go beat down on Kenny, he could stand being knocked down a peg. Jojo turned to look at Kenny, standing next to Freddy and almost seeming to have a smile on his metallic face. Alright fine, I guess I would help if Kenny was getting attacked. To be honest, I'm not sure there's anyone I know at this school that I would be perfectly fine with them getting hurt.
"Why hello there fine citizen, what a wonderful day isn't it?" A pasty looking boy was standing next to her, at least half a foot shorter than her if not more. He was standing posed, his hands on his hips as he stared off into the middle distance. Might have been slightly cooler if he wasn't staring almost directly at the sun, forcing him to kind of squint, which really just pushed the situation from pretty weird to kinda funny. He turned back, having to step back a little to not make the height difference awkward. "I was in the neighborhood and noticed that you were new here. Just wanted to make your acquaintance." He held out a handshake to Jojo's crutch hand.
"Oh yeah, uh, thanks man, but I don't really have a free hand. Y'know, with the whole different sided injuries."
"Nonsense, you just need to try your best!" He was very enthusiastic, almost infectious with the way he wiggled his hand in front of Jojo's, trying to encourage her.
Jojo leaned against a staircase rail as she set down her crutch for a moment, shaking his hand. As she did, she felt a small static electricity shock, seeming to both come from her and the other guy. She shook it off, introducing herself, "My name's Jojo by the way, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too Jojo! My name's Peter Saban, you need anybody to show you around the school or anything?"
"Nah, I got someone lined up for that. Thanks for offering though." I don't, but no need to be a bother to this random dude.
He waved his hands in front of him in a placating gesture, "Oh please, it's nothing, really. Just doing what's expected of me." Suddenly his smile dropped, and he leaned in close to Jojo. "You need to be careful, they're everywhere around here." Holy fuck, is this guy a friend of my grandma's?
"Shit, stand users?"
"Who? No, obviously the putty men. They're everywhere, hiding in plain sight. What the hell is a stand user? If that's a new type of them, I swear I will rip you limb from limb." Goddammit, this dude's crazy.
"Oh, right yeah… Oh man, hear that, I think it's the bell, I gotta go to class, but cool meeting you man!" Jojo picked her crutch back up and began tottering away.
"Wait, I didn't even tell you about the Tenga! Also, I don't think the bell actually rang!" Jojo was already long gone, lost in the crowd from another bus that arrived, milling by the doors. Alright, well at least now I just have to find the counselor's office and get my schedule. Just gotta hope I don't get interrupted before I spend 20 minutes looking for it…
A knock sounded on the glass near the doors. "Hey, you Jocelyn Cujoh?" Jojo paused for a moment, then turned behind her before turning back and pointing at herself with a confused expression. "Well, are you? What, did you get brain damage after getting stabbed, or are you just stupid?" The person speaking was about 5'4", wearing a knitted sweater and yelling from inside the school on the other side of a pair of glass doors.
"Who are you?"
"You don't need to know, just head around the side of the school to the back. I'll be next to the playground." With that, she turned around, her beanie straining under the pressure of mountains of hair being thrown around.
"Hey! That's not an answer! Dude!" Jojo pounded on the door, to no avail as the girl turned a corner, disappearing from view. This can't be a good thing. She knew my name, was completely unwilling to talk to me, and told me to go to a secluded area in a place I've never been.
.
..
…
But y'know, you do only live once. And I mean really, what's to say this is a bad thing? Maybe they just want to tell me how cool and pretty I am. Maybe they're my guide for the school and they just don't deal with crowds all that well. Yeah, it's gotta be something like that. And with that incredibly impressive display of cope, Jojo started around the building toward what was hopefully the right side. As she continued on, past the small crowd, she saw Roger sitting next to a ventilation unit with a thick packet of papers he seemed engrossed in. Of course, Jojo has never claimed to be a quiet person, much less so now that she was clomping around with crutches, so Roger was able to hear her approach from
Roger looked up, quickly stuffing the packet in his backpack before standing up, waving as he said, "Hey Jojo, what's up?"
"Hey man, fun seeing you back here. Groupies abandon you?" Jojo chuckled, hoping to avoid their last conversation in the hospital.
"No, I just had to do some homework. Gets tough when you got the ladies breathing down your neck about how much they 'need you carnally.'" He put up air quotes on the last part, rolling his eyes.
"Oh yeah, completely understand, I'm just drowning in hoes myself. Gotta beat them off with a stick most of the time, it's probably my incredible personality and flawless sense of humor." She tried to gesture with her crutches, but apparently forgot she needed those to stand, toppling into an air conditioning unit.
"Whoa, shit, you good?"
Jojo patted herself, checking for bleeding. "I think we're good, but if I randomly fall over with a hidden wound, I need you to really hype up how cool I am and not that I didn't realize I was bleeding."
"Uh, sure man, I'll be ready to do that next time it comes up." He helped her back up to her crutches, careful to not touch the multiple places covered in semi-bloody bandages.
"So, anyway, what are you doing back here? I usually don't see anyone in this area except for that one kid with the grievous scar wounds that haunts the school."
"Oh, fuck off, I'm not stupid. I'm just back here 'cause some random girl told me to go to a secluded area."
"Oh yeah, secret admirer. Happens to me all the time, but they usually get too nervous to say anything after they see my groupies. Fine by me, I don't have to reject them if they can't find the balls to say one little sentence. Want me to go grab them for you?"
"Uh, think I'm alright for now, she doesn't seem like the type to give up easy."
"Well, at least let me go with you for backup. You probably can't run in those crutches."
"Dude, what kind of people are getting crushes on you that you have to run away after?"
"Well, usually it's during when they try to go for the dive, but one time I did have to climb up a tree. Didn't really work all that well, but what are you gonna do." He said, shrugging.
God, I don't have enough time to get into that.Shit happens, I guess. Jojo slowly began crutching her way around the building, which seemed a lot bigger than you would think for a random small town high school. Sure, it was in a little disrepair, but it was two stories and seemed like there was quite a few interesting classes, like one filled with animal enclosures on every free surface, or another with a teacher waving incense sticks through the room with a crystal taped to her forehead. Okay, mainly the first thing, but still.
Finally, they rounded the corner and saw the girl from earlier sitting at the top of a slide, watching them. She slid down it, stone faced as she approached the two of them.
"Rei! Oh, it's great to see you! Gosh, feel like it's been forever. What, 10th grade or something, didn't we have Mrs. Cogletree? Jojo, don't worry, Rei is chill, we used to know each other. She was always messing around during our chem class. Hey, can you still do that thing with your chin?" He mimed unzipping his chin from left to right, grinning from ear to ear.
"Those were stiches, it's healed back now." She seems much less excited about the reunion than Roger. Shit, please tell me she's not gonna kill me.
"Aw man, Jojo, you should've seen it. It was incredible, you could see the bone and everything. Anyway, you should probably get it over with quick Rei, I think class is starting soon."
"Guess you're right. And I was having so much fun catching up." She had a hint of annoyance in her tone now, as she sat down on one of those chairs at an angle that spin, but she managed to balance on it perfectly, keeping herself completely upright as she crossed her legs.
"I know, I know, but you gotta pay the pipper eventually, especially when it's something important like this."
"Piper." Rei corrected.
Roger turned to Jojo, "But I hardly know her!"
Rei gripped the chair tighter, digging her nails into the plastic. God DAMN he sucks at this.
"A-anyway, what was the thing you wanted to talk about?" Jojo started, cutting off Roger.
"Oh, here, I'll give you two some privacy." He held his hands over his ears and turned around, staring at a tree with a squirrel bouncing through the branches as he hummed to himself.
Rei let out a deep sigh, then pulled out flashcards from a pocket as she began flipping through them silently. Jojo waited patiently for about 15 seconds, then continued waiting impatiently for about 30, before Rei looked back up at her, placing all but one card back into her pocket.
"Sorry about this, but I won't be for long," she said as she began biting into the card, ripping it into smaller chunks as she stuffed her mouth with paper, Jojo watching in confusion as Rei chewed and swallowed the notecard. Nothing happened for a couple seconds, before Rei fell to the floor, convulsing in pain as streaks of light shot through her skin. More light began ripping through her, as a spectral hand seeming to be made of the same light pushed through the gash in Rei's body.
"Roger. Roger! ROGER TURN THE FUCK AROUND!"
"Damn, what?" He looked at the arms now reaching fully through, pushing down on Rei's body. He stared in silence for a moment, then turned to Jojo. "What did you say, man?"
"I didn't say shit, she just started doing that! She like, ate a notecard and then she just fell to the floor convulsing." There was a head peeking through now, long hair flowing in every direction as the form pushed her full torso through. It seemed to be female, in the same way that a painting seems to be a landscape. It seemed too perfect, the light covering any possible imperfections, and Jojo could sense some enlightened good coming from it, as though it had achieved a higher form of existence than her. It was basically all the way through now, feet pulling out of the shriveled husk of Rei as the form hovered in the air. From seemingly nowhere, strips of light began floating in the wind towards it, wrapping around it's torso and changing into a matte pink color as a pendant on her forehead flashed in a bright light, revealing eyes beneath.
This feels… Familiar. She slumped into her crutches as the realization hit her. "Oh my god, we're getting fucking magical girl'd."
"Whaat? Nah, I'm chilling. You just gotta lock in."
"Dude, how are we gonna beat this shit?!" Jojo gestured as the form spun around with a baton, shooting off pyrotechnics as she did so.
"I don't know what this 'we' business is, but if you wanna be French, I support your journey." He lowered his head as he raised a fist, now about 15 feet away.
"Wh- wh- FUCK YOU!" Jojo said as a laser about the size of a baseball hit the space where her head would've been had she not turned at that moment. She turned to the building as she saw a smoldering tunnel going through the school. She turned back to see not a spectral form, but a 6'4" adult woman wearing a connected skirt and torso outfit, almost like a cheerleader, holding a baton with a large sphere on the end, still smoking from the shot she had just taken.
The woman giggled, "Oh man, I nearly got you right off the bat. Well, next time I won't miss."