#jo kessler

[nicolawritesnovels]

But I did decide that Coach knew who Ally was. He’d met her a few times, but not much. 

Anthony knew her. Anthony knew her well. The same Anthony that Jo had a crush on. I think that the other daughters (they need a name for their little club) kind of laugh at Alex’s obsession with Ally Stratten when she’s not there. Aileen does it when she is there, because Aileen refuses to sympathize or even consider what happened to Ally. Which is interesting, because her dad is one of the ones with the least guilt in this. I think Fiona or Gabrielle might have known her, they were younger. Maybe they went to school together, I’m not sure. 

But I think that as this story line progresses, Jo is going to end up going back to that gym where Coach died. And none of them know it yet, but Anthony runs that place now. He was older than they were. Thirteen when Jo was ten, when Alex was nine. So he’s older now. Graduated high school. And he runs that place. He’s struggling, I think. Alex might step in and help him out, get Tim to give him some money because that place is important to a lot of people. But Alex goes there and talks to him. And convinces him to let Jo come in and do the same, despite what her father did to Coach. And so Jo talks to Anthony, and they end up talking about Ally. And Jo starts to come around to the idea that Ally was a wonderful person. Because Ally saved lives, including Anthony’s. 

I should try not to forget the other daughters though. Marisa Louis. Mary-Kate Saratoga. Richelle Rivera. I kind of forgot they existed for a few years. 

[nicolawritesnovels]

I’ve learned a lot of new information about Jo in the last few days, because honestly, I didn’t have that much before. 

And I kind of want to catalog that information, but I’m going to write a little first, because otherwise, I’ll end up getting sucked into organizing old story bits again, and while I do need to do that, I don’t want to spend my actual writing time on that. There is time for other stuff too. 

[nicolawritesnovels]

Also, in yesterdays writing, things got a bit weirder than I was expecting. 

So I had Alex talking to Terry about what she’d learned about Coach and all that, but then I started thinking Alex and the other daughter’s of the victims. Because Jo’s been in a few scenes this week and honestly I think this might be the most development she’s gotten in the last 9 years, so I was thinking about that. 

So then I had Alex go to Jonathan, and since part of his MO was an attack on his victim’s daughter (the nature of which I’m still determining, since I no longer entirely feel like my original plan for that fits with his character and his motives for his crimes), she was asking which one of her and her sisters it would have been. Because it’s always been that Jonathan broke a pattern with Jahan. Jahan had nothing to do with Ally’s death, and Jonathan knows that now. He’s apologized, which means nothing, but it’s there. But he always attacked the daughter of his victims in a way I’m still determining. So Alex went to him and asked who it would have been. And honestly, I always assumed the answer to that was Alex. Because there was a mention that she was away when it happened. But it’s not. It’s Andi. But Jonathan didn’t tell her that. He wouldn’t. And he revealed a bit more creepy depth that I hadn’t seen him show Alex before, so that’s new. 

I know I need to develop the details of his crimes better, but I want to wait until I’ve finished going through all of my material from all of my old versions of it, so I can sit down and find out what I’ve already established and see if I can work with it. 

[nicolawritesnovels]

I should investigate what happened to the daughter’s of Jonathan’s victims. 

Gabrielle Mycroft. Fiona Mycroft. Jo Kessler. Aileen Nance. 

Andi ends up with custody of Alex and Mini, because she’s old enough. 

But what about the others?

Is Rye technically still a foster kid, or do Khae and Pat adopt her? Would they even be allowed to? I mean, Pat is non-binary, but I’ve always worked with the assumption that they are AFAB. I don’t even know if they are technically married. Gay marriage wasn’t legalized in NY at that time. Not until 2011, and Birtch was arrested before that. 

[nicolawritesnovels]

So Jo knew Coach, apparently. Wanted to box at his gym but her father wouldn’t let her. 

Coach was working against the gangs, all of them. Didn’t make him popular with Kessler or Mycroft. 

But Jo hung around anyway. Coach probably knew her. She would have been about 10 when Coach died. Said she knew the boy that was with Coach when he died. I think I’m going to call him Anthony. Anthony will be relevant. Not sure entirely how yet.