Joanna Morgan, a character from the Murder at Homecoming book, is a student and Gabbie's fiancée. She is first seen in Chapter 2.
Appearance
Joanna has long light brown hair tied into a braid, light skin, and gray eyes. She wears a black sweater and a long blue skirt.
Personality
According to you, she is a shy, mousy, and conservative girl who keeps to herself. When you see her crying at Gabbie's funeral, you deduce that she's either the most empathetic person in the world, or that she is hiding something. According to Millie, she is a straight-edge girl. While Gabbie found Joanna to be one of the most kind, genuine, and secretly hilarious people she knew, Joanna thinks of herself as a nerdy girl with no friends and an extremely forgettable face.
Chapters
Murder at Homecoming
Murder at Homecoming
- Chapter 2: Keep Your Enemies Close
- Chapter 6: Behind Closed Doors (Mentioned)
- Chapter 8: I Don't Want to Believe (Mentioned)
- Chapter 9: Case Closed?
- Chapter 10: Prisoner's Dilemma
- Chapter 11: Run, Rabbit, Run
- Chapter 12: To Tug at Tangled Threads
- Chapter 13: Pick Your Poisoner
- Chapter 14: Dance with Death
- Chapter 15: Prey For Me
- Chapter 16: Surviving High School
Relationships
During Gabbie's funeral, Joanna says that she and Gabbie were never close. However, in Chapter 10 and according to Gabbie's diary, it is revealed that she and Gabbie were in love and that she was "J" all along. They first fell in love while working as partners on an English class project discussing Wuthering Heights. Both girls disliked the novel, especially the character Heathcliff. They bonded over the book and became friends, Gabbie drawing Joanna out of her shell by talking about their sexuality. Once they got closer, they had their first date at the movies and the roller-rink, and shared their first kiss during the same night.
After months of being together, Joanna decided to end their relationship because she was scared and knew it would be harder to leave Gabbie if their relationship kept progressing. Joanna told her that when the former turns eighteen years old, she'd run away to New York City and find a place where she belongs and would be able to start over. Gabbie convinced her that they could be together if they eloped. They could run away to New York together and could be whoever they wanted to be. Gabbie then knelt to the ground and proposed to Joanna with a Tiffany charm, and she accepted. The plan was to leave on prom night, which would be a couple days after Joanna turned eighteen, and hop on a train to New York. They would use fake IDs to change their last names, and stay with Mr. Lewis's cousin for a few months until they could afford their own place. In the meantime, to avoid suspicion, they both found fake boyfriends.
The last night Joanna talked to Gabbie was the actual Homecoming game when they announced the court nominees and it's up to the player to determine what her last words to Gabbie were.
Your Character
You initially don't know each other very well, but regardless, she sits with you during Gabbie's funeral. She seems devastated, and says that it's so surreal because a week ago she was alive with hopes, dreams and plans, and now she's dead. When you confront her about her relationship with Gabbie and promise to keep her secret, she decides to tell you all the details about Gabbie and her family. She is temporarily angry at you for having the last remaining person who cared about her arrested. You tell her she has more people who care about her, including yourself. After Joanna being cast out by her parents, you can go shopping with her to give her a makeover, getting rid of the type of clothes her parents made her wear. She will occasionally offer to get you outfits too. Joanna also helps you and your group track down her own father when you suspect he was the one who killed Gabbie. You can encourage her to stand up to her father.
Mr. Lewis
When Mr. Lewis is arrested for supposedly having an affair with Gabbie, Joanna is very bothered by his arrest, and says that Mr. Lewis would never do that because he's a good person. In Chapter 10, it is revealed that Mr. Lewis was the one who purchased the necklace that was gifted to Gabbie, on behalf of her. It all started when she went to Mr. Lewis and asked for his help, since she could not purchase an expensive gift for Gabbie on her own without alerting her parents of her intent. She designed a locket and asked Mr. Lewis to purchase it for her. In exchange, she would buy him school supplies and anything else he needed over the course of months, making little purchases to add up to the cost of the locket. He agreed to help and became their trusted confidant, even helping with their plan to elope to New York City.
He had also met her parents during PTA (parent-teacher association) meetings and could tell what sort of parents they were to her. When he is arrested, he is ready to go to prison and have his own life ruined as alleged sex offender because he promised Joanna not to tell anyone her secret and to do anything to protect her from being sent to conversion therapy again by her parents which would ruin her life. She tells you that he and Gabbie were the only people who ever cared about her. Joanna is present during his trial and called on as a witness against him but surprises the DA when she tells the truth about her relationship with Gabbie, confirming that he is innocent and resulting in her being cast out by her parents.
Parents
Joanna's parents are very old school and conservative, choosing which clothes she wore such as long skirts, and keeping her on a short leash. When she was twelve, they sent Joanna to conversion therapy and made her see a therapist because she said that she liked girls. If you mention that you thought conversion therapy was illegal, she says the therapist called herself a "counselor who educates teens about family values". At therapy, she had to talk to the therapist every week until she hated everything about herself and her life; then she was deemed "cured".
For this reason, she has kept her relationship with Gabbie a secret. Eventually, during Mr. Lewis' trial in Chapter 11, she had to tell the truth, and when word got to her parents, they kicked her out of her home. Part of her is happy that they kicked her out, because it gives her a reason not to see them again.
In Chapter 14, Joanna along with you, Donovan , Stevie, and Tyler find Dr. Morgan and Mrs. Ruby Jones in the teacher's lounge sprawled out on a couch in a heated embrace. If you decide to play as her, she tells him that she has had enough of his manipulations in her life and how she felt after conversion therapy. She also tells him that there was nothing to fix in her but that his continuous attempts were what made her miserable and that made her believe that true love could only be between a man and a woman and that what she felt for girls was just because she was a pervert.
But because of what she and Gabbie shared, she could think of herself as a monster but she could never think that what Gabbie felt about her was wrong and she makes it clear that she thinks all the things he told her about marriage and family were something he simply said to justify how he tried to control her and that he was the real monster and not her. Lastly, she takes a photo of her father and Mrs. Jones and decides whether to send it to her mother or delete it in exchange for her parents letting her live in peace without contacting her.
If you have chosen for her to delete the photo, she will reveal in Chapter 16 that her father so far kept his promise to not contact her. She would have pursued legal emancipation if her eighteenth birthday wasn't so soon, but she set up medical directives to avoid having her parents trying to get back into her life at a time she is vulnerable.
If the scene hasn't been taken, she will reveal instead that her parents are still trying to have her move back in with them and that they can still access her school records which is why she cannot wait for her eighteenth birthday.
When the truth about her relationship with Gabbie is revealed, the Navarros open up their home to her when she is cast out by her parents, seeing how much their daughter and Joanna loved each other. In Chapter 13, you mention that they promised they wouldn't let anything happen to Joanna. As of Chapter 16, they have helped Joanna set up medical directives and gotten her a real therapy. Joanna appreciates that she doesn't have to hide her grief around them and that they understand her. It's indicated that they have accepted her as daughter. They promised her Gabbie's college funds to allow her to go to university. Mrs. Navarro is mentioned to be tailoring a dress for Joanna to wear for Pride Month. Donovan says it helps the two of them to do "mother-daughter stuff".
Gallery
Other Looks
Miscellaneous
Trivia
- Her character model resembles Amy Stevenson from The Elementalists series.
- The name Joanna is of English, Latin, Hebrew and Greek origin and means "God is gracious". It's a biblical name that only appears in one Gospel[1] and the feminine variant of the name John.
- Like April Morris, Joanna has epilepsy.
- Her father reveals her full name if you choose the premium option to have her stand up to him.
- It's initially unclear if she is a Junior or a Senior as she had classes with both you (a Junior) and Gabbie (a Senior). In Chapter 16, her grade as Senior is confirmed when she reveals that she is about to graduate in May and will then take a year off before going to university. You say this means you two will start university at the same time and wonder if you will end up on the same one.
References
- ↑ Luke 3:27, 8:1-3, 23:55-56