Lιttᥣᥱ Womᥱᥒ: Imᥲgιᥒᥱs

|| Hσω Tнεч Mεт Bυт...

(A/N); A modern retelling of how Laurie and Jo met. Depending on how this is received, I may make this into a miniseries. I didn't go too crazy with modern details. Honestly, it didn't need many changes to the original scene because the characters can be so ahead of their time enough as it is. But regardless, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

•••

Jo rocked on her heels, her back threatening to touch the wall behind her. Despite her sisters telling her not to hold her hands behind her back and rock in place because it would look suspicious...this was Jo March and she did what she wanted.

When her and her older sister Meg got invited to a party, it was just like Jo to ruin her only dress (that her sisters forced her to wear because it showed off her figure, in modest fashion of course)
In their fretting effort to make her look more stunning and girly, they accidentally achieved the opposite when they smeared foundation on the back of the skirt. The stain didn't want to come out, even after they tried numerous quick remedies to fix it but nothing would do. And not like Jo could fit in anybody else's dresses so her mission was to hide the skirt as subtly as possible. Which Jo couldn't pull off.

To make matters worse, there was a shy boy with ginger hair in the corner giving her the eye. The eye that middle schools boys often wore that meant, 'I'm a bit tongue-tied around girls but I'm gonna make my way to ask you to dance.'
And that was Jo's cue to escape.

Her skirt swept the crown bordering of the wall as she did a little river dance, scooting her way past furniture and people to find another living room or a bathroom, anywhere to escape the ginger who took off to go after her.
Of course he couldn't make this easy on me, Jo thought ruefully.

In her effort to escape Casanova, Jo's gaze was so focused on what was in front that she didn't notice the poor boy she was backing into. After she'd found a study to hide away in from the rest of the partygoers and luckily, her little ginger-haired would-be pursuer.

But when her skirt made contact with a foreign material, she let out a yelp and spun around to face a handsome young gentleman around her age with floppy dark hair and an understanding smile before she'd thought of an excuse. But of course she would explain anyway...

"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't know anybody was here!" She rambled, her ears turning hot.

"No, not at all! St-stay, if you'd like.." he reassured her with pleading eyes, hoping she wouldn't leave so soon when they'd only just met.

Jo got a glimpse of a familiar look. The stranger shared that same longing in his eyes that that ginger boy gave her but something about him didn't give her the I gotta run warning. But rather a warm sensation, like going to him was as if she was running to her safe place. He was different.
"I wouldn't annoy you?"

"No, not at all. I'm too socially awkward with the others here to make conversation so at least now I can go home and tell my grandpa I talked to somebody." He let out a dry chuckle, hoping the self-deprecating joke would make her feel more at ease.

His method worked, as she immediately related to his statement, "Heh. So am I."

"What's your name?" He decided now was a good time to introduce himself once he had got the ball rolling. He sheepishly held out his hand for her to shake, which she gladly did.

"My full name is Josephine March but I don't want to hear anybody call me 'Josephine' or 'Miss March.' I'm only Jo." She wanted to make that clear ahead of time.

"Then in that case, my formal name's Theodore Laurence but I'm only Laurie." He returned.

A smile threatened to tug at the end of her mouth but she tried to keep it at bay. Change of subject. Quick.
"So...why aren't you out there dancing? I know you don't know anybody but..."

"Well, I don't know how you do things here yet. I actually just moved here from Euro—"

"Europe?! Dude, that's so cool!" Jo interrupted his reply once she heard where he had been. But then she cringed, remembering what Meg had told her before coming in...

Don't rock on your heels, don't hold your hands behind your back, sit like a lady, and don't use the word 'dude.' Meg's voice daunted on her too little, too late.

"I shouldn't use words like that..." Jo muttered, even if she didn't fully believe that. She liked who she was. She wasn't fake or catty like—some people she knew.

"Says who?"

"Meg...my sister." Jo motioned behind her before she led him to the door. She slowly cracked it open where they both could see Meg laughing and dancing with a boy she only just met seconds ago. How natural socializing was for her. Men were drawn to her like moths to that one backyard, flickering light in the evening.
"Do you see her?"

Even though Laurie had followed her and tried to listen to be polite, he was more focused on Jo than her sister. Who frankly didn't look like she needed anymore attention than she already had.
"Mhm...sure.."

"You see, my dad's away in the army and Meg wants me to be good so he'd be proud of me." Jo sighed and turned back to the study where she plopped on the couch in a comfortable fashion, breaking another rule given to her by her sisters.
"All my life, she's been nagging on me to be more ladylike but that just doesn't come natural to me. I'm so disappointed with being a girl. Well—more like being told how to be a girl. And what a girl should be, by their standards."

Laurie followed her back inside and slowly sat in the armchair beside the sofa, his body language starkly contrasting hers. While Jo was open and relaxed, his position was more reserved and postured. Came from his wealthy and upper-class upbringing. Laurie could certainly relate to having somebody nagging on him to be someone he wasn't.
He wasn't sure if he knew anybody quite like Jo. So genuine to herself and so passionate. He had to remind himself that she was a real girl and he wasn't watching a scene from a movie.

"Jo, would you like to dance with me?" Laurie blurted, changing subjects so rapidly.

Jo hesitated, "I would but one, I'm not the best dancer. At least not like Meg. But the second reason...do you promise you won't judge?"

"Never."

"My sisters had to hold me down forcibly to wear makeup. And in their efforts, one of them got foundation smeared on my skirt. And Meg—" she pointed a vicious, accusing finger towards the door, "—told me to keep still so nobody would see it. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and laugh. It's funny, I know."

But Laurie didn't laugh, "I have an idea of how we can manage..."