Jo entered the confines of her home to hear the sound of a football match blaring from the living room's plasma television to the right of her.

"That you, Jo?" came the gruff voice of the occupant sitting in a recliner. He muted the television and turned his beefy self towards Jo, a blonde man with choppy hair and the slightest hint of a receding hairline.

"Yeah, dad it's me. Good news I managed to trim my time closer to my- our goal by thirty-five seconds. Not bad eh, commander."

"Not bad, not bad heh you know you have to do even better than that if you want that scholarship." He smiled at her but Jo knew he was totally serious.

"I know that. That's why I got this one guy to help me out with that."

"That lightning guy? Didn't think he had it in 'em. What with a scream that sounds like your mother's when she sees a spider in the sink sha-please." The father of the jockette known as Robert rolled his eyes at recalling lightning's cry.

"Actually it's this other guy I just met. Brick. In fact he's buying me breakfast so I'm just going to wash up a little and head out with him."

"Out? Like…a date?" Robert grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at his athletic daughter, watching her look from confused to shocked to incredulous.

"Wha-Ew! Dad!"

"Is he your type?"

"I'm going upstairs, dad. This conversation is over."

"Will he make me a good son? Is he as big as I was when I was his age? He's not a wimp is he?"

"Forget I even said anything! Just…go back to your game!"

"I'm just glad you're seeing someone is all."

"Dad I'm not seeing anyone. It's just breakfast and this will only happen once, okay."

"Whatever you say, Jo-Jo." was his last remark to the distancing jockette.

Jo slammed the door to her room with a little more force than necessary, a bit embarrassed at her father's remarks towards her dating life. She didn't need a boy in her life. All that matters now is to place in the fastest time and win that scholarship. And even if she was to date she could do way better than Brick. The little dweeb.

…

Jo took the family car to Brick's house and parked out front of the residence.

As she approached the door Jo was in a mini-conflict at either to knock on the door or ring the doorbell. She stood there only half-awkwardly with a raised hand hovering back and forth between the two. She made up her mind to ring but before her finger even reached the button the door opened. There stood a woman only a few centimeters taller than Jo. She had shoulder length auburn hair and shared brick's eye color. She looked to be in her late thirties -still beautiful but with the hint of a motherly essence.

The woman smiled at Jo who in turn looked at a loss - still gauging mother McArthur. "You must be Jo" she began in a warm, welcoming fragrance.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Jo. So…is Brick ready yet?"

"Oh, he's upstairs. I guess he isn't ready yet." She turned to look upstairs, wearing a knowing smile on her face.

'Still? It's been twenty minutes. You'd think a cadet would have punctuality at the top of their list.' Jo mentally fumed.

"But I'm sure he'll be right out. He's probably trying to be as fresh as he can. He's taking a girl out to eat after all."

"Look, it's not a date or anything. I'm just hungry and he offered." She shrugged on her words. Mother McArthur whom we'll call Anne lowered her smile a tad before raising it again. "Well, he' taking this very seriously. Whatever this is. Come, have some tea while you wait." Jo put up no fuss as she followed Anne into their kitchen, a room so clean and straight in it's country style knick-knacks, utensils, and containers she was surprised the kitchen went on used. They sat opposite of each other; Anne with an upright posture and Jo leaning back a bit with her left arm draped over the chair.

"You know he's been talking about you for a little over a week now i believe."

"Who me? Yeah right. What's he saying, stuff about how I crashed his work place and stuff?"

"No, none of that. Although he did tell me about how you two first met." Anne smiled, thoroughly amused and on the verge of a light laugh. "Yes, he tells me about how 'Jo is something else, mom' and 'Jo isn't like other girls, mom'."

"He said that?" Jo asked completely unexpected, the tone of the question encouraging Anne to carry on.

"Mm hmm. It's a shame you two don't hang out more often. Brick has quite the adventurous schedule."

"I think he only said those things because I'm probably the only physically active girl he's seen, that's nothing special, really. He should go to a gym more often, you'll see girls working their legs all the time. And did he ever tell you that he thought I was a dude? Plus we're just training buddies and this breakfast thing is a one time deal." Jo shrugged at the end of her ramble.

Anne turned to a look of concern and about to speak again but Jo got up from her seat. "I'm gonna go check up on him. Gettin' really hungry."

"Sure! First door on your right."

Jo gave a muttered thanks before ascending the flight of stairs towards Brick's room. 'His mom is actually pretty normal. Must have gotten all of his dorkiness from his dad then' Jo pondered.

The door was barely open. Enough so that a hand could slip through, and at this point Jo just wanted to go eat and rest up for the day's further activities. She flew the door open-all too stealthy- and seeing the contents of the room: a plain full-sized bed, a long stand dresser with photos and frames on top of it, dumbbells, a few stacked books and movies in the corner, and a naked Brick McArthur.

At least naked for a fraction of a second, but to her it was in slow motion. Brick had his back turned towards Jo and the moment she walked in on him was the very moment he was pulling on a fresh pair of boxer briefs. Jo continued to stare as if in some sort of trance at the cadet in front of her now bending now to the lowest drawer and pulling out two pairs of jeans from the drawer and holding them out in each arm at the helm as if inspecting them. He decided on a pair of faded greys and tossed the other aside for now. Jo saw as Brick lifted a toned leg up to insert it into the leg of the pair of jeans.

"Jo?" Brick turned to face her as if he sensed her presence.

Jo was shot back into reality and stared back at the cadet. Her own eyes growing in size.

"What are you doing here?" He asked completely unfazed by her intrusion while fitting himself into the jeans.

"What?! Me? I'm just here to get your ass to hurry up so I can freakin' eat!" Jo instantly became flustered when her saying the words 'your ass' recalled the literal viewing of said ass just moments beforehand.

"Sorry ma'am. I was trying to make good time."

"You had me waiting downstairs. Not very gentlemen of you." Jo was currently averting her gaze, still embarrassed, and staring at some spot to the left of her.

"So now you want me to be a gentlemen." He smiled playing along and oblivious to Jo's discomfort.

"Please, cadet. As if I need to be served hand and foot by someone who thought I was a dude."

"I said I was sorry. And it was the hoodie Jo! I swear!." He held his hands in defense.

"So not letting this go so long as you're training with me, Brickhouse. Get used to the guilt." Her confidence returned enough for her to look at Brick.

That still posed a challenge with Brick's finely sculpted torso still in view. "So put on a shirt and lets go already."

"Affirmative."

He complied as he strode towards his closet and took out two T's and repeating the process of 'inspection'. "Stripes or solid. Hmm."

"Geez, cadet. You're more than a girl than I am. Picking out outfits and what-not."

"I'm just trying to be fashionable." He said when he grinned at his decided T.

"Gonna be on Project Runway Canada. Brickhouse? Or would you prefer Canada's Next Top Model?" She couldn't help but tease him. And who wouldn't? The guy was just too much of a dork.

"If I'm lucky, why not both?" he countered smiling back at her. Jo couldn't help but laugh at that – the awkwardness subsiding faster than either had thought.

Jo turned to walk out, only mildly flustered from the whole situation. She took one last glance at Brick who was tying his boots to which Jo rolled her eyes to followed by a huff of air. And taking one swift glance at that bum.

...

Anne stood ways from the stairway rubbing her hands into a wash cloth.

"Are you alright Jo? You look a little distraught. It wasn't something Brick did was it? I'm sure whatever he did he didn't mean it."

"Nah, I'm alright. Just hungry is all." Jo confirmed whilst rubbing her left temple.

"He didn't mean to be late. He probably lost track of time. He can be a little forgetful sometimes. Just like his father." Anne's assuring smile returned but Jo wasn't paying her no mind. She kept her eyes shut as she stood there waiting for Brick.

She could already hear the heavy footsteps of the cadet descending down. "Sorry about that again, ma'am. You ready to go?"

Jo had to muster the remainder of her will power to not give a dead pin "duh" in front of his mother and instead chose to answer as straight forward as possible.

She smiled an all too fake smile when she said "Of course I am Brick. Now would you be a lamb and open the front door for me."

Brick could tell that she wasn't being serious but chose to play along.

"Of course! See you later, mom. Should be back by 1100 hours. Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine. You two enjoy your breakfast, okay?"

"Yes ma'am."

"See you later Jo!" Anne called out to the one walking away.

"Bye." Jo called back.

When the entered Brick's beaten vehicle and took off towards whatever restaurant they were going to Jo reached straight for the radio in hopes of preventing an awkward silence. She was surprised to find the CD he had on before her changing to radio was a metal band.

"Didn't take you for a metalhead, brick-house. Not bad. Looks like you might have a tough bone in you after all."

"Hey, thanks Jo. I actually got into it by accident."

"What, the teenage angst phase or something?"

"Nope. Good adrenaline rush for workouts."

"Nice."

"So, uh, are we going to do the same thing tomorrow?"

"This breakfast is a one time deal."

"I was talking about the running..."

"Oh. No. Tomorrow we're going to do aerobics. That is if you can even get out of bed."

"I promise I will."

Jo turned to search the radio for a station. "If you say so, Brick. If you say so. But I know what I'm talking about."

…

The rest of the drive was filled with Jo teasing Brick about his him being a momma's boy and Brick doing his best to be a good sport about it. And somehow they ended up singing the lyrics to bad company for half the song. Brick laughing like an idiot and Jo smirking at the window.

Brick took Jo to a small loft near downtown. It was small enough for conversation but not large enough that it gets loud and suffocating.

He turned to gauze Jo's reaction to his decision but saw no hints on her face of neither approve or disapproval.

Brick guided the two of them to he best place out of earshot. Once seated Brick saw that Jo was glaring back at the direction of the entrance. He craned to look to spot whatever it was was causing Jo such discontent.

The waitress in her attire walked up to them from the general direction of Jo's glare. He looked back at Jo to see that her eyes followed the waitress' approach to their little table.

Then it hit him.

'She knows Zoey? Is that good or bad?'

"Oh! Hi Jo! Funny seeing you here. And you too Brick it's been a while." chirped the perky redhead. "You look buff! Even more than Scott now."

"Morning, ma'am. And thanks, I've worked really hard for it." He rubbed his right bicep with something liken to being smug from Jo's point of view."How're you and Mike doing?"

"We're great! He's really taking charge of his MPD and it's doing wonders for our relationship."

"Glad to hear it. You two deserve that after the whole Vito-Scott incident."

Whilst the two continued to chat mindlessly, all Jo was doing was sneering at the hipster girl at their table, and didn't take her eyes off of her even when Brick tried to catch Jo's gaze.

"I wasn't aware you two even knew each other." the redhead went on.

"Uh, yeah. We're sorta-"

"We're just really hungry and would like to eat." Interjected Jo from the outer realm of the two-way conversation. Zoey turned to look at her with a hint of fear in her eyes. The same went for Brick. "Please." She strained from the tension intensifying turn of events.

"Right. Sorry Jo." Zoey took down their drink orders and left two menus and pattered away but not before giving Brick a confused looked about his choice of breakfast mate.

Jo had her face hidden in the menu for she knew Brick had questions to ask about Zoey and herself. It took merely a few moments for Brick to approach the subject.

"So...how do you know Zoey?"

Jo flatly dropped the menu and sighed. "Fine. We go to the same school and share a lot of classes together, okay."

She sighed while vaguely reading the contents of the menu to ignore Brick's unwavering gaze.

Zoey dropped off their drinks.

"And she happens to drop Dawn, my neighbor, off at her home sometimes. Or rather her boyfriend drops her off. And then that's only because some kid named Cameron asks him to because he and Dawn are, like, library buddies or something."

"Oh." He turned his attention to play with his straw. "You've been good to her, right?"

"'Good to her' what is that?"

"She's a really nice girl Jo. Maybe a little bland but she doesn't deserve hostility."

This time Jo glanced up to glare at Brick – causing him to flinch a bit. "I'm not mean to her okay. At least no more so than I am with any other human being I don't care for. So there." She took a sip of her lemon water. Brick mimicked when she finished.

...

Jo didn't like it when her classmates were in proximity to her anywhere other than the confines of school walls. That's why she was so put off when she saw Zoey. Painful memories were the cause of all of this. Like that one time she was cornered in an alleyway by some juniors on her way home from school when she was a freshman. She knew it was stupid and probably juvenile in some way, but that's just how she felt. She didn't want to tell Brick that even if he asked.

But now she was thinking about something. Something she knew was there when the two of them saw eachother. She eyed the boy across from her accusingly before saying "You're in love with her aren't you?"

Brick's eyes shot open wide and he spurted half of his gulp and choked on the rest.

"What?!"

"Yeah! You're totally in love with her."

"I am not! How did you get that idea?" Brick's surprise and denial seemed genuine to Jo but she was pretty sure on her deduction.

"You're, like, overly protective of her and had those lovey-dovey eyes when she showed up."

"I haven't seen her in two years. I was surprised to see her here. And I wouldn't call it overly protective..."

"I was only joking, Brickhouse. Geez, didn't think you'd get that worked up! You should have seen the look on your face!" She tried to cover her failed deduction.

"That wan't funny Jo." Brick pouted into his menu while Jo rolled her eyes at his failure to laugh at himself.

Brick didn't want Jo to think that he was interested in what any other guy would call attractive. It would have only proved to Jo that all guys were a stereotype when it came to choosing the ideal girl.

"Oh, come off it. Don't be such a girl about it. I'm sure she's not your type anyways."

Jo reached to punch Brick's left shoulder to lift Brick's spirits. Brick did perk up after all but only curious as to what Jo thought his type was.

"And what type is that?"

"You know, the girls who wear camouflage short shorts and tops and knee-high combat boots who like to fire guns and do drills for fun."

Brick's face glowed with the shade of Dawn's cherry tomatoes. He took one long sip of his lemon water.

"Yup. That's definitely your type, Brickhouse. Look at you blush." Jo just couldn't get enough of causing Brick discomfort. He was just so much fun like this. She dipped her fingers in her drink to fling the water at his face.

"N-no I'm not! It's just-"

Brick counted himself lucky when Zoey arrived to take orders at just that moment. Maybe she was listening all along...

"So what may I get you?"

Jo's amusement died down. She awkwardly reached for the menu and hoping for Brick to get Zoey's attention. For some reason she felt guilty having been caught having fun by someone she particularly didn't care for.

Zoey looked from Brick to Jo then back again. "Maybe you need a little more time?"

Brick spoke up for them. "Maybe a few more minutes, yeah."

"I want a Dutch baby." Jo chimed in. Her self-assurance returning. "And some more water. No ice."

Zoey jotted down the order as fast as she could. Brick followed with his order.

…

Breakfast was mostly spent in silence, save for a few shortly lived topics of conversation. Although this may seem boring Jo would called it a success. No further awkwardness and troublesome events.

They were driving back to their neighborhood. Brick was trying to engage Jo in conversation, but Jo's feedback was maximized to a few words or a hum. Somewhere along the drive, however, her selective mutism seized.

"Hey, Brick."

"Yeah, Jo."

"Thanks for breakfast."

Brick took the moment to let the word of thanks sink in. It sounded so foreign coming from the take-no-prisoners girl he's come to favor. He felt warm and internally gleeful.

"Don't laugh, but it's been a while since I've ate with anyone other than my family." She turned to face him. "And actually enjoy it." she added as an after thought.

"Anytime, Jo."

"One time deal, Brickhouse."

"Offer's always on the table."

"If you say so." She turned back to stare out the window. "You know. My dad thought you were my boyfriend or something."

Brick whipped his head to her with his unibrow up his forehead. "Huh?" He swirved nearly getting off track.

"I know! Like, dad, I don't need a boyfriend. And Brick is...ugh. I have that track scholarship to get. That comes first."

"So track means a lot to you right now, huh?"

"More than you know."

"I'll help as much as I can. It's my code to help those in need."

"So you keep saying." She sighed to convey her disbelief.

"I mean it, Jo. Just call me when you need me. And when I'm not working. I live just a few blocks away after all."

"..."

"So...is there any chance you'll be looking to date after you're done?"

"Maybe. Doubt it. I don't know. If I find someone I like I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

They remained in silence after that. Long enough that they reached Brick's home without further discussion.

Jo hopped out of the vehicle as soon as they stopped in the driveway.

"I'll see you tomorrow Brickhouse. Make sure you get those legs massaged and soaked in warm water."

"Maybe you can do that for me!" Brick hollered from the driver's side of the vehicle.

Jo gave him this look as if to say "really?" followed by "did you really just say that?".

She walked to her own vehicle a short distance away without a word further. Ignition started and warmed up she began to take off towards her own home. It was to her attention that Brick ran up to her side. With a sigh she rolled down her window to see what the little dork wanted this time.

"Hey Jo. I forgot to get give you my phone number. You know just in case."

" Oh. Sure, I guess."

She dug through her pocket to retrieve the cellular device and handed it to Brick – he too handing his over.

"Oh, and by the way..." Brick began as he handed the phone back to her. "Would you, um, like to go to the movies with me and a friend?"

Jo didn't say anything. Just looked at him. She's never been invited to the movies before. Not even Dawn has asked if Jo ever wanted to go see a film together.

A text message chime broke her attention away from him. It said "We need to talk", from Dawn it seems, speak of the devil. Jo threw her head back in exasperation. 'I shouldn't have to see her until monday'.

"I don't think that's a good idea Brick." she answered once she was over her anguish.

Brick frowned. His unibrow scrunching up.

"That's alright. Maybe some other time." He stepped away from the car, the sudden (expected) disappointment slamming him down enough to make him feel the urge to distance himself from her.

She sped off without another word and completely unaware of Brick's disappointment.

Brick went inside his home. His mother greeting him followed by numerous questions about their 'date'. He reframed from answering any with the excuse of feeling sore from Jo's training and went to lie down in his room.

…

Noah was finishing up the last of his AP chemistry homework when he got the call. He knew very well who the number belonged to, but knew that she would try time and time again – in more extreme efforts – to get his attention.

He picked up the phone. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Hello~o Noah. How are you?" came the Heather's deathly sweet voice.

"Yeah, lets just get to the point here. What do you want."

"Is that anyway to treat the one who holds your deepest, darkest secret in front of my hand?"

"Still playing the blackmail game. Classy. Look, whatever it is I'm not interested, okay. Go find some other poor pawn to assist you."

"Have you forgotten how blackmail works?"

"Have you forgotten you're a total bitch."

"Can it. You know what it would do. You know she will find out if this little secret of yours goes viral. I know that will harm you more than anything else."

Noah couldn't help put think of Heather's words. The very thought that his crush finding out about that incident which occurred over a year ago would be social suicide and the loss of any chance he would have at trying to win her affection.

He bit his lower lip, thinking about any escape out of Heather's clutch. No results were found. He had no choice.

"What do you want."

"That's a good boy. Now... I need you to plan something for me. Something for that lesbian named Jo Sommer."

Author's Note:

Thinking about cutting this fic but it's whatever you want.