36 Questions: A Joanne Fanfiction

Question Nine:

For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

It was a couple days after the after party, and the pair still weren't quite themselves after Joe had left her on the terrace. It wasn't awkward by any means but the two had taken a more professional approach to teaching and learning. Dianne had told herself that it was a competition after all, that as lovely as Joe was he didn't have to be her friend, only a co-worker nothing less, and nothing more. She didn't expect the questions to be something they did again, not after she had pushed Joe too far when he clearly didn't want it at the time.

Meanwhile Joe was hitting himself every time he saw Dianne in 'teacher mode'. He missed her constant questioning and her funny anecdotes rather than her professional tone and her clear attempts to give him distance. She hadn't mentioning the party in the slightest. He'd seen her in a few people's stories when scrolling through Instagram the next day, appearing a bit lost but he didn't question it.

The cha-cha-cha in the meantime, could be going better. After too many of Joe's pitiful attempts to loosen his hips Dianne suggested that they took a break. Gratefully, Joe took a drink before noticing Dianne on her phone, scrolling through something she clearly wasn't paying attention to, judging by the speed of her scrolling. Sighing, he realised that he needed to apologise even just to put his mind at rest.

"Sorry for the other day. You were right but I was frustrated at the time. I shouldn't have left you outside like that, you were only trying to help."

She looked up from her phone on the other side of the room, visibly sighing in relief. "Joe there's no need to apologise. I pushed you too far the other day, when I knew that you were still frustrated. It's not your fault, I would have left too."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I." and they moved into each other's arms and hugged quickly, before pulling away and laughing at themselves.

"Look at us, apologising like we've done something completely horrible and dramatic." She said, a sparkle back in her eyes as relief flooded through her body. Although they hadn't argued this was a wake-up call for Dianne, as much as the strictly crew liked to tease her about their closeness, she was still far away from understanding Joe completely, but this had taught her she wanted to. She wanted to get to know him further, and learn his behaviour and wanted to understand him. 

"It was bound to happen." He reasoned. "It's easy to forget that I still haven't known you that long, and I think the questions can help and hinder us with that."

"True." She said thoughtfully.

Shall we do the next question?"

Surprise filled her voice when she asked: "really, I didn't think you'd want to do them anymore?"

"No, I think they're good for us. Unless you don't want to?"

"No I do, but we do have a lot of training to do, the cha-cha-cha won't learn itself you know?"

"Next break then?"

"Yeah, let's get back to it."

So the two went back to their practice, Joe's hips slowly loosening as they both relaxed into the dance. A little while later, it was time for their next rest.

"Right Di, I believe it's your turn first?" Joe asked his partner, who was still surprised about his interest.

"I think so yeah."

"Alright, here we go it's another deep one." He took a deep breath before reading "for what in your life do you feel most grateful?"

She smiled at the question, clearly having an obvious answer. "Easy." She said, taking a seat next to Joe on the bench at the end of the studio. "My family."

"What about them?" he asked, looking at his partner, smiling at her decisiveness.

"I'm so grateful that I got to grow up where I did. My family were so supportive of my dreams and I'm still so close to them all, despite being on the other side of the world. It's nice to have them supporting me behind everything I do. I miss them, but that just shows how grateful I am for them. I love having talking to my Dad about nothing in particular over a morning coffee, I love seeing my mum's progress in the garden. I loved and love having brothers who do nothing but tease me, but I know that if I was in trouble, they'd drop everything in a heartbeat, just as I would for them. I'm grateful that I got to grow up in Oz, even if it did make this dancing dream a bit harder to follow. So yeah, I'm most grateful for my family." She said, a distant smile on her face as she thought of home.

"Aww that's nice." He said, a jokey tone evident in his voice, but Dianne knew him well enough that underneath all of that, he was being genuine.

"Thanks." She laughed, feeling a bit lighter after talking about her family, they never failed to cheer her up. "Go on then Joseph, what in your life do you feel most grateful for?"

"Ummm that's a good question. Right now, I'd say my friends."

"Why's that?"

He paused for a minute, taking a deep breath in an attempt to settle his nerves. He was really finding this difficult today, but was desperate to prove to himself and Dianne that the questions were still a good idea. He knew that Dianne would never judge him for whatever reason he was about to come out with it, it had quickly become one of his favourite things about her. But still, he was nervous. "I've had a little bit of a crazy ten years, you know?" he joked anxiously.

"I can see that." She smiled sympathetically, having some understanding now of how out of depth Joe clearly was in his present situation.

He nodded quickly, before clearing his throat and starting again. "Well, I've learnt the hard way that some people aren't really after me for who I am, just that I make videos that lots of people watch. I found it really tough to begin with, to get used to. On top of that, I was trying to make friends with other Youtubers, without just being known as Zoe's little brother and was in the process of moving to London with virtually no one that I knew. But one thing I've always had are my friends back home. They liked me before I had all these subscribers, or followers or whatever and nothing has changed between us all as I've gained them. They have 'normal' jobs and I'm just Joe to them, which I love. They can still tease me about my inability to down a pint, and they keep me grounded. And I'm so grateful that we've all stayed in touch, they're all so important to me, they could have easily have dropped me when I moved to London, but they didn't, so I'm grateful for them. I'm grateful for all the friends I've met thanks to my job, I've had some amazing experiences with them and they've supported me through this journey when they didn't have to, as well as making me laugh when I needed it. So I'm grateful to my friends." He sighed deeply afterwards, feeling a weight of his shoulders thanks to this question. He was still not used to this specific feeling of relief that only came from sharing his problems or gratitudes, but he was growing to like it.

"Joe I'm so proud of you." Dianne said to him moments later.

He turned to her, confusion written all over his face.

"Look at you, this time two weeks you would never have said that to me."

"Or anyone." He laughed, a small smile creeping onto his face.

"Exactly. Look how far you've come."

"I wish I had come that far with this cha-cha-cha though." He said, causing Dianne to laugh.

"You'll get there don't worry. And Joe, I know we said that we've moved past the other day, but I need you to know that you deserve to be here."

"Thank you." He said softly, his genuine tone making her smile. She knew that he didn't believe it yet, but Dianne at that moment vowed to herself that if she had one aim in this competition, it was to get Joe to believe that he deserved every second of this.

"Right let's get back to that cha-cha-cha that was far too long of a break." She said, entering her teacher mode once again, but this time that sparkle of joy stayed in her eyes.

And with that, the two rehearsed the night away, a slow but sure progression on the cha-cha-cha accompanied with smiles and laughter. The two went to bed happy that night, their minds no longer preoccupied with guilt, only cha-cha-cha steps instead.