Joey McCoy is a total daddy's girl. (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} imanursenota__) wrote,@ 2014-11-19 03:57:00 |
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"Honestly, Joanna," says a dark-haired woman with a stern expression on her sharp featured, pretty face. She sounds equal parts annoyed and disappointed. Joey's five and her arms and legs are wrapped sloppily in gauze and medical tape. The woman crouches down and starts to remove it, just this side of rolling her eyes. "He's the last person you should want to be like."
The little girl looks up at her mother, confused. "Daddy's a doctor..." she says, like she doesn't understand why that's not something to want to emulate.
"Will be. Maybe," the woman corrects her with a frown. "Come on, now, clean this up and go get ready for bed."
Joey looks upset, but she nods and pushes herself to her feet before bending again and grabbing armfuls of wasted medical supplies disentangled from her chubby little limbs by her mother. She throws them away, just like she's been told, and starts out of the bathroom to head to her room. As she's walking way, she pauses just outside the door looking horrified, having overheard her mother muttering something under her breath.
"I can't take this anymore, I've had it. That's it. I have to get out of here."
The little girl runs off out of sight to keep from being caught eavesdropping.
She's twelve and she's sitting alone in the bleachers, an ace bandage around her knee with a book in her lap, and she's watching the boys with basketballs tucked casually under their arms talking to a couple of girls in her class. None of them seem to notice she's there at all.
Fourteen years old and top of her class already, Joey's really excited because it's lab day and all the cool kids always end up getting dispersed amongst the losers, so she'll get to talk to people that would normally completely ignore the fact that she exists.
They're building volcanoes in Earth science lab. Joey's grouped with three of the semi-popular girls that are always telling stories about things that happened at their slumber parties or on their group dates and Joey's hoping to soak up some of the cool by association.
As soon as they start the project, though, it's way less of a they and way more of a Joey doing all the works and listening in while they all chatter animatedly amongst themselves like she's not even there.
At sixteen, she's staring down at the test in front of her and mentally preparing herself before actually starting it. She's spent the whole weekend studying for it and she's ready.
"Pssst. McCoy."
She looks up and over to the seat beside her where Shawn Fuller, easily the most popular and cutest guy in her graduating class, is looking back at her, nodding down to her paper.
"Let me copy you," he whispers.
Joey falters for a second before realizing that he's never talked to her before. Ever. She gives him a shy smile and nods. "Yeah, okay. Just mark a couple of them wrong on purpose so nobody can tell?"
Shawn gives her a charming smile and winks. "Thanks, McCoy," he whispers back before turning around to respond to the tap on his shoulder from his girlfriend. Joey deflates and looks back at her paper before starting the test.
"I'm not going to prom by myself, Aunt Donna, that's so lame," she complains, looking put out by the very idea of it.
"You only get one prom, JoJo, you'll regret it later if you don't go," her aunt is telling her and Joey's shaking her head against the pillow, lying on her stomach on the bed. She's actually already in the dress and her hair is done up.
"I'm not going, forget it."
"You already have the dress on," her aunt points out unhelpfully.
Joey turns her head and looks over, staring daggers. "Yeah, well, an hour ago, I was supposed to also be in a limo on the way there, but that didn't happen, either."
"He's a stupid boy. Why are you letting it bother you so much?"
She finally sits up and looks back at her aunt incredulously. "What kind of loser gets stood up for the prom? Me, Aunt Donna. That's what kind. I'm not. going. That's it."
"Can I borrow your notes?"
Joey doesn't realize she's even the one being addressed until the girl beside her actually taps her on the shoulder. When Joey looks, she recognizes her. They're sitting in the middle of the lecture hall in crisp, Starfleet Academy uniforms, because all of the good seats are gone. This is the girl that Joey sees flirting with the TA after every class and sleeping through half of the lectures. She's also Joey's roommates best friend.
"I said, can I borrow your notes?"
"I'm trying to actually take them right now," Joey counters, frowning, before tacking on a "shh," for good measure.
The girl rolls her eyes. "And you wonder why Camilla hates you," she hisses.