All This Time (A Twisted Fanfic) by: one.w1sh

Disclaimer: I do not own Twisted or any of the characters from it. How I wish I did.

Chapter 1

I got out of my dad's car, hunkering down against the rain and pulling my bag over my shoulder. Rico caught up to me as I fought my way through throngs of people, talking in hushed voices, who didn't seem to care that it was raining.

"Rico! Hey, can I borrow your math book for 3rd period? I was studying last night and left it at home—"

"Yeah. Hey Jo?"

I looked up.

"Isn't he that guy you used to hang out with in middle school?" he asked, nodding towards an olive-skinned, long haired guy who was coming towards us.

"Oh my god, is that—?" I gasped. And indeed it was. Danny Desai was my best friend from the minute I was born until the minute he was taken to juvi for strangling his aunt with a jumprope when we were eleven. He hadn't sent me a single letter since he was there, which surprised me, but I figured he would be relocated after his five-year sentence was up anyways, and maybe he didn't want to make leaving any harder than he had to.

But now, he walked right up to me as if we'd never stopped talking at all.

"Jo!" he grinned, putting his hand on my shoulder. I didn't say anything. "You are Jo, right? I mean, you've changed a lot, but I'd recognize the hair anywhere."

I shook my head. "Hi, Danny." Rico cleared his throat, so I said, "Oh, and um, this is Rico." They shook hands, Danny smiling, but Rico looking extremely awkward.

"Listen," Danny said, turning towards me again. "I dunno how I'm gonna adjust here without any friends, so can you save me a seat at your lunch table?"

Rico laughed. "There won't be much saving going on, we're not exactly the popular table."

"Well I mean, what about Lacey and that guy that's all over her?" Danny asked, looking past us, where Lacey and her jock boyfriend Archie were making out under the shelter of a tree.

I tucked my hair behind my ear and said, "Um, Lacey doesn't sit with us anymore."

I didn't want to explain, but Danny didn't take the hint, and asked, "Why?"

"After you left, we kind of just stopped talking and…" I trailed off.

"And then she met me, so things actually took a turn for the better," Rico said, slapping his arm over my shoulders. "It's good to meet you though, man. Come find us at lunch."

"We'll be the loners in the corner," I said, trying to smile, as Rico guided me away.

Danny didn't come to our table at lunch, but after school, I went to the bakery where Rico and I always did our homework. Rico had a dentist appointment, though, so I sat at our normal table alone. I was in the middle of a very complicated calculus problem when someone slid into the booth across from me.

I looked up to see Danny. "You scared me," I said, blushing.

"Didn't mean to," he said. He was quiet for a minute while I finished the problem, and then asked. "Do you do this every day?"

I shrugged. "I don't have anything else to do."

"Well, maybe I'll start joining you."

"No, don't, you should get some friends that know how to have fun."

"The Jo I remember loved having fun."

"That was five years ago, Danny. Trust me, I'm boring."

"Maybe," he said, grinning, "But you're the only person who's talked to me, and not about me, all day. I'll take what I can get."

I looked up and was slightly alarmed at the way he was staring at me. Was he planning to murder me too?

He looked down awkwardly. "I don't mean to stare, but you've—" he cleared his throat. "You've gotten really pretty, Jo."

I blushed again, deeper red this time. "You're not as ugly as I remember you," I said, which was as close to a compliment as I could get.

He laughed. "Now we're talking! Hey, listen, that Regina girl invited me to a party at her place, and I don't really want to show up alone. Will you go with me?"

I put my pencil down at crossed my arms on the table. "What, no flowers?"

"I was planning on ripping some out of her garden on the way there," he told me, with so serious of a face that I wondered if he was joking or not.

"I've never been to a party," I admitted.

"What, and you think I have? Well, besides the parties in the killyard, oh, those are fun."

I raised my eyebrows. "I guess I'll go with you then. But I don't drink," I warned him. "Or drugs."

He nodded. "I won't open my jacket then. I've got all the best stuff, you tell your friends." He ran a hand through his shoulder-length, dark brown hair and said, "I'll pick you up at seven."