31 Slices of Jo/Blair life (bonus slice)
Fandom: FOL
Pairing: Jo/Blair
Note: In light of the fond memories of Blair vs. Louie the Langley Lion mentioned in the "favorite episode" thread, I thought maybe I should post this. It was actually too long for a slice and too short for a story so I wasn't going to do anything with it, but I'll just call it a bonus slice. (Sort of a triple slice, since it's 750 words).
Cav
* * *
Blair ducked down in front of the couch just as Jo hurried in from the kitchen to answer the phone.
"Blair’s not here," Jo said. ". . . Yeah, I’ll take a message."
Sure she would. Like she "took the message" about the postponement of the Helen of Troy contest last week. Blissfully unaware of this information, Blair had arrived at the gymnasium and walked onto the floor - twice - expecting to be crowned the undisputed winner, only to be tossed into the air instead and dragged up and down the court by Louie the Langley Lion.
Swatting Jo in the face with Louie’s tail - spoils of the now legendary Blair/Louie rematch - was just the beginning of Blair’s revenge. Her roommate’s real reward was yet to come - literally. Now that that little matter with the Aviation Security and Hazardous Mail Department had been cleared up, Blair checked the mail daily.
Granted, the basketball team had credited Blair with inspiring its amazing run through the playoffs, even giving her its honorary Sixth Man Award. And yes, she had been asked out by half the men in the stands who "liked her spunk," as one put it, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Jo had intentionally refused to give her an important message - Blair was convinced of that, in spite of Jo’s denials - and because of it, Blair had been tossed around like a human salad.
"Louie who?" Jo asked. "Oh, yeah?"
Louie? The only Louie that Blair knew was-
"No lyin’?" Jo laughed at her own joke. "Hey, you still got Blair’s shoe? Those things cost more than my Kawasaki."
That boorish mascot had the nerve to call here? Perhaps it was to apologize.
"Yeah, right, Langley spirit," Jo said. "She's full of it."
Blair gritted her teeth. She didn’t know which of the two to be more furious with.
"Okay, shoot."
From her vantage point, Blair couldn’t see what her roommate was doing, but the noises at least suggested that she was writing something down.
"‘Since Blair got a piece of your tail, you want a piece of her-’"
The cad! Blair had spent enough time around Jo to know what that meant.
There was a pause, and then Jo snarled, "Listen, Creep, Blair Warner is classy. You ever talk that way about her again and I’ll come down to the gym myself - and it won’t be just your tail that gets torn off."
Oh, my. No one could threaten bodily harm quite like Jo.
"You’ll be Louise the Langley Lion," Jo went on. "And while we’re at it, anyone ever asks you, that whole wrestling thing was Blair’s idea. You got that?" Whatever Jo heard next apparently satisfied her. "Okay." She slammed the phone down, threw her pencil onto the desk, and stormed upstairs.
Long after she could no longer hear the muttered "Jerk" and other four-letter descriptions, Blair remained on the floor.
A few days later, the doorbell announced the arrival of a package for a Ms. Joanna Polniaczek.
"No way." Jo backed away from the postman.
Blair got up from her chair, walked over, and signed Jo’s name. "Thank you," she said. She held it out to her roommate.
"Forget it, Blair."
"I thought you weren’t afraid of me," Blair taunted her.
"I’m not afraid of you," Jo replied. "I’m afraid of your mental illness."
With a sigh, Blair tore open the package, drew out the new motorcycle seat, and laid it on the table.
The other girls stared at it until Jo finally picked it up, holding it away from her body. "Is this gonna explode?" she asked.
"Only if your bike explodes," Blair replied. "Which should be any day now, the way you drive." She watched Jo run her hands across the smooth material, admiring the seams.
"I don’t get it," Jo said. "This is your revenge?"
Sounding a little confused herself, Natalie piped up, "Blair, that’s not what you-"
"Of course it is," Blair interrupted airily. "Can you think of a sweeter revenge than making Jo worry for two weeks for nothing?"
"This is supposed to make Jo sorry for not giving you the messages?" Tootie asked.
"I did leave a message!" Jo insisted. "The second time, anyway."
"One of us had to be an adult," Blair said, "and we couldn’t wait that long for Jo."
Her roommate’s expression was familiar, torn between insulting her and thanking her. Blair laid an arm across Jo's shoulder and said quietly, "I think we’re even now . . . ."