A/N: This is my first story on this website, so I hope you all enjoy. I am a big Jo/Rico shipper. It's obvious Rico has a thing for Jo, but it's also obvious that Jo likes Danny. I hope that Jo and Rico end up together!
Disclaimer: In no way do I own this show or have anything to do with it, for if I did, I would be certain that Jo and Rico end up together.
Chapter 1
Ever since the eight grade, Rico had liked Jo. They had been friends since the seventh grade, when they started junior high. Jo and Lacey were no longer friends, therefor Jo had no one. Rico had just moved to Green Grove and he knew no one. They ended up in the same homeroom and became fast friends.
Rico had never thought of Jo in a more than a friendly way up until he was 13. Jo had gotten her first crush and had made a complete fool of herself as she attempted to flirt with him, having no luck whatsoever. Rico had gone to her to comfort her and he had been surprised at the fact that even though she had tears streaming down her face and her eyes were red and puffy, he thought she looked absolutely beautiful.
Rico hadn't known what the sudden flip of his stomach or how his heartbeat picked up a rapid speed meant. He told her the guy was just a jerk and that she could do so much better than him. She had sniffled and threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. Rico had smiled into her hair and savored the scent that was Jo; something sweet, like vanilla. All he wanted was to make her happy again.
Over the next few days he felt different towards Jo. He started to notice things about her that he had never noticed before. Like how her forehead creased when she was concentrated on something. Like how her eyebrows furrowed together when she was mad or confused. Or, like how her eyes seemed to have a slight twinkle to them when she was happy. Rico was falling for his best friend.
He didn't want to like her. He thought it was weird. Jo was his best friend. He tried to push his feelings away. Tried to pretend that he didn't feel that way about her. The feelings were always there, but he managed to keep them at bay. Ignore them.
And then Danny came back to town. Rico had never met Danny before. He only knew what Jo had told him. Which wasn't that much, because Jo didn't like to talk about him. He had shown up and everyone thought he was guilty of Regina's murder except Jo.
It was all too obvious that Jo had a thing for Danny. And it made Rico mad. Jealous. His feelings for Jo that he had tried so hard to keep locked up, came hurdling back to him at full speed.
And he was trying to be friends with Danny for Jo's sake. Rico secretly hated Danny. He hated that Danny liked Lacey when Jo liked him. He had been at school, and had caught Danny and Lacey almost kissing in the hallway.
The thought made him feel sick. He didn't know how Danny didn't even have the decency to tell Jo that he wasn't into her, but Lacey. The least he could do was keep things between them completely platonic, not lead her on. And he was so leading her on. He saw the way Jo looked at him when they were slow dancing. And Danny just let it happen.
But Rico knew something Jo didn't. Something that looked very bad on Danny's part. Rico knew exactly what happened to the necklace. The necklace that Regina Crane was always wearing. The necklace that was the only thing missing the night Regina died. And also the necklace that belonged to Danny's aunt. The aunt he murdered. Danny's mother threw it into Dead Man's Pond. It was called that because supposedly a group of drunk teenagers killed some guy and threw him in the pond. Once the kids remembered what they'd done, they confessed to the cops. However, a body was never discovered. It's not the pond's real name, but it's what everyone called it.
Dead Man's Pond is the perfect place to get rid of something. Whenever you throw something in, that's it. It's gone. Everything and anything you throw in it will never be found again. It's how they never found that guy's body.
Rico had never really trusted Danny. He'd only said that he did because Jo trusted him. But now he sure as hell didn't trust him. No wonder he didn't tell them about the necklace. How would it sound if the number one suspect, the only suspect, for a murder, had possession of the only thing missing from the victim?
/
"I can't believe your parents are actually letting you go." Rico said.
He was sprawled out on his best friend's bed as she packed a duffel bag with a couple change of clothes.
"It's for three days. Besides, they don't even know Danny's going. As far as they know, I'm going to Connecticut with Lacey to catch up with some of her cousins."
"Right..." He laughed.
"And let's keep it that way." Jo pointed a finger at him sternly.
A few seconds passed before she zipped up her bag and said,
"Done! I'm all packed for tomorrow!"
"I'm gonna miss you, J." Rico sighed quietly.
Rico and Jo had never been apart from each other for longer than a day or two since they became friends. Rico didn't know if it was the fact that he wasn't going to see Jo for three days or the fact that she was going to be with Danny for three days, that made him uneasy.
"Ri, it's three days. I'm sure you'll survive." She smirked.
Jo put her bag next to her desk and collapsed on her bed next to Rico.
"Jo..."
Rico wondered if he should tell Jo about the necklace. It was important, right? She needed to know before she went on a trip with him, right?
"Yeah?"
She tilted her head to the side to look at him. One of her light bulbs was out, making the room darker, and the dim lighting caused an almost romantic setting. At least in Rico's mind it did. There seemed to be that special twinkle in her eyes, the one that he had been seeing a lot more of.
"Um..."
He glanced down at her lips involuntarily. They were pink and so...kissable. Rico had never kissed a girl before. He thought if Jo had ever kissed a boy before. He also thought of how easy it would be to just lean in towards her and press his lips to hers...
"What is it, Rico?" She asked him, breaking him out of his daze.
"Oh, uh..."
He forgot what he was going to say...Damn it! Curse Jo and her abilities to make me want to kiss her!
"Ri, I'm tired. I have to get up early to leave. Can we go to bed now?"
Rico was spending the night. They had done so countless times before.
Necklace! He was going to tell her about the necklace!
"Danny...Necklace..." He mumbled.
"Goodnight to you too."
She wiggled around and got under the covers, for they were both already in their pajamas.
"But Jo..." He whispered.
"I'm sure it can wait..." She muttered sleepily.
Rico sighed and got up from the bed to turn the light off. In the darkness, he kept a hand out to keep from bumping into anything as he made his way back to the bed.
/
There was a movement in the bed, waking Rico up. He opened his eyes slowly to see that Jo had just gotten up. She looked to him and said,
"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."
Rico loved the feeling of waking up to Jo. It was a wonderful sensation that made him...happy. He wished he could wake up to her every morning.
"No, it's fine. I wanted to be up before you left anyway."
Her bed hair was a mess, as it always was when she first got up.
"You know you could come with us...if you want..."
He sighed. Maybe he did want to go. And if he went, then he could keep an eye on Jo and Danny. Besides, he was a part of this whole mystery thing too! Actually, he didn't know why he wasn't invited in the first place!
"I guess I could tag along..."
"Great." She smiled at him, causing him to smile too.
"I'll text my mom."
He rubbed his eyes and picked up his cell from the nightstand as Jo sat down on the bed. He sent a quick text to his mom, asking permission to go on a road trip to Connecticut with Jo. After thirty agonizing seconds, she replied back with a, yes, just be careful and have fun.
"I can go." He told her.
"Well then you better get packed. Danny and Lacey will be here in 45 minutes. We want to leave before my parents wake up." She laughed at his eagerness.
"Right. Be back soon."
/
"Hey guys, is it okay if Rico comes with us?" Jo asked Danny and Lacey when she opened the front door to them.
They glanced at each other uncertainly.
Jo gave a frown. "Come on, I mean, he already knows like, everything."
"You told him about the envelope?" Lacey screeched.
"Well yeah, you know he was with Danny and I to try and solve the murder before you came to Danny. If the three of us are teaming up to do this, Rico should be included too." She shrugged.
"Fine, I guess." Lacey shrugged too.
Right then, Rico came towards the door, a piece of toast in his mouth.
"You all set, Ri?"
Rico nodded.
"All right, then."
/
They were two hours into the trip and had stopped to get gas. Rico walked out of the bathroom and spotted Jo at the cash register. He started walking towards her when Danny appeared next to her, a drink in his hand. He took a few tentative steps closer to hear what they were saying, but still far enough away to be unnoticed.
"Thanks for paying for my drink." Danny said.
"No prob."
Jo had gotten snacks, so as the cashier rang everything up, Danny spoke up again,
"So Rico was at your house pretty early."
"He slept over."
"Oh...What's going on with you two anyway? Are you guys like, 'together', or something?"
Oh how Rico wished.
Jo let out a forced laugh and replied,
"What, no! We're just really great friends!"
"Yeah, 'friends'." Danny chuckled.
Hey, the guy could think what he wanted. Maybe if he thought that Jo and I were together, he'd back off. But Lacey had a boyfriend and Danny didn't seem to care about that.
When she turned around, she noticed Rico standing there.
"Hey, I got you a pack of Swedish Fish." She smiled at him in that way that made his stomach do a summer-salt.
"My favorite."
"I know."
/
Rico stepped out of the car, shoving one of his last pieces of candy into his mouth and stretching, for having been in the car for a couple of hours. Jo and him stayed by the car while Danny and Lacey went inside the hotel to check in.
"Thanks for coming." Jo said, coming around to his side of the car.
"Yeah, of course. You know I'm technically part of this whole mystery gang too."
Jo laughed. "Mystery gang?"
Rico smirked at his best friend.
"Yeah, that's right, I said it." He spread his arms out, the bag of candy clutched tightly in one hand. "Come at me."
She rolled her eyes at him, used to his silliness by now.
"You know you wanna slice of this, J." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
She giggled. "Shut it, Ri."
Rico dropped his arms and leaned against the car. "So, um, are you like, into Danny, or something?" He asked her nonchalantly.
"What do you mean?" She answered innocently.
"Like...do you have a crush on him...?"
He felt embarrassed to be talking about this with her. After all, he was head over heels for the girl.
"I dunno, Rico. Everything with Danny's kinda fuzzy. Part of me just wants to go back to being his best friend...Like I said, I don't know. Besides, the whole thing with trying to figure out who killed Regina..."
"Jo, that's exactly what you told me in class!"
Rico huffed as Danny and Lacey came out of the hotel.
"Okay, we booked two rooms with two beds for two nights. Girls in one, guys in the other." Danny smiled, not paying fuming Rico any mind.
"So let's head over to the apartment to see who's behind the letter?" Jo said.
They all agreed, well Danny and Lacey did, Rico just stood there silently with his arms crossed. He knew he needed to calm down on the ride there. His bad mood wasn't going to help anything.
/
"This is it." Lacey came to a stop at one of the doors, glancing up from the address on the letter. All four shared a quick look at each other before Lacey hesitantly raised her hand up and knocked on the door. There was no response. She knocked again. Still nothing.
"I think I know a way to get us inside." Rico said, an idea coming to him, and all eyes went to him.
Rico looked at Danny and Lacey. Danny; the guy that had suddenly came back to town after five years and sweeped Jo right off her feet. Lacey; the girl that had waltzed right in, waving the stupid envelope around like she had won the frickin' lottery, kicking Rico out of the group. Well, he was pushing his way back in. And he needed a way to impress them.
"Jo, give me a bobby pin."
Jo scoffed. "Who do you think I am? Barbie? I don't even own a stupid bobby pin!"
Danny started laughing hysterically, like it was the funniest thing in the world.
"Here." Lacey said, reaching into her purse, obviously catching onto Rico's plan. She pulled a bobby pin out and handed it over. Rico took it and fit it into the lock on the door. He jiggled it around until he heard the click of the door unlocking. He took the pin out and swung the door open.
"Jesus Rico, when did you learn to pick locks?" Jo asked in amazement.
Rico shrugged. "My uncle taught me when I was like, 10."
"Cool." Lacey nodded.
"Bet they didn't teach you that in juvie, did they?" He said snottily to Danny, and he almost regretted his words, until Danny smiled. "No, they didn't."
Rico was the first to step into the apartment. It was dark and smelled musty. "This is gonna be fun."
A/N: So here is the first chapter! In this story I'm putting my own little twist into it, seeing how Rico does not go with Danny, Lacey, and Jo to Connecticut. I just thought it would be better if Rico went too, because Rico was helping Danny and Jo before Lacey finally came around and decided to join them. It isn't fair that just because Lacey is joining them, Rico has to leave. So obviously the main pairing in this story will be Rico x Jo. I just love them together. As this story goes on, everything will be different than in the show. I'll make what I want to happen. I'm still not sure if I'm putting Tyler into the story, whereas I have no idea how him and Jo meet. However, it would create even more jealously from Rico, so maybe he will be in the story. Hope you all enjoyed and sorry for this long A/N, I will go now.
-Amber XX