All about Jo, Annie's oldest sister!!
General
Jo is the oldest of four siblings, the twins Penelope and Charlotte in the middle, and Annie being the youngest. It's rare anyone calls her by her full first name of Josephine, same as how no one calls Annie by his full name. She owns her own construction company called Jo's Rubble, and she's been providing for her younger siblings for years with their parent's absence.
Besides construction work, she loves her house plants, and loves to share advice and be apart of her community. She usually prefers quiet nights in because of how loud her job is in the day.
Construction
Jo's Rubble is a company Jo founded when she turned 16, and was driven and lucky enough to be turning profits from it within a year. The neighborhood they lived in was always needing fix-ups, with tons of potholes, buildings in shambles, fixing windows and door hinges, and more. She also did projects for her parents, remodeling their house and doing favors for friends of her parents while still getting paid. This also led her to a better understanding of what her parents were involved in, with conversations she overheard and locations she worked on for extended periods of time.
Cropped Tail
Rat and mouse tails often get in the way of work rather than help make it easier, despite their use for balance. Many who regularly work dangerous jobs, or jobs with a lot of heavy lifting and/or dirt their tail may drag through, end up getting their tail surgically cropped. Tails are typically cropped at three different lengths: A foot from the base, halfway, or a foot from the end to prevent drag. All three cause significant loss in feeling through the tail. Jo chose to get hers cropped halfway.
Parents
Jo hardly talks about it, but their parents are not in the picture. If pressed, she will divulge that they’re both in jail. If asked why, she’ll say it’s pretty impolite to ask, but that she and her siblings are better off without them. If asked if she ever visits them, she’ll give an ambiguous answer of, ‘Not really’. As a side note, if you ask Annie about his parents, he’ll say, “I’ve only really ever seen Jo as my parent. She’s always taken care of me.”
Jo has been taking care of all three siblings since she was 18. It took some serious work, and a bit of dishonesty and string-pulling, but she successfully proved financial stability and independence upon her parents' arrest. She kept all three of her siblings out of the orphanage system by legally adopting them as well. At their time of adoption, Penelope and Charlotte were 15, and Annie was 10.
Relationship to Annie
Jo and Annie lived together longest after their parents were jailed. The twins both got scholarships to schools in the city on finishing high school, then both moved out after finishing college. Jo during this time grew her hair out often to let Annie have someone to practice on regularly, as he wanted to be a cosmetologist. She helped him through the end of elementary, through middle school, and all of high school, and they lived together for both years he was in trade school and for several years as Annie bounced around local haircutter shops and jobs that didn't quite working out. moved together out of their childhood home, to the same town Dr. Zo lives in.
They spend a ton of time together, and check up on each other often. At this point Annie lives on his own, with his dog Bingo, and Jo lives within a ten minute drive away.
Relationship to the Twins
Penelope had been in ballet classes since she was very little. Once their parents were arrested, Penelope came to Jo crying thinking she wouldn’t be able to continue dancing. Jo assured her not to worry about it. Talking to the dance instructor, Jo offered free repairs to the instructor’s house and studio, and gained free entry for Penelope for years despite heavy losses to her own business in materials, time, and energy. Jo also begrudgingly went on a date with the instructor, at the instructor’s threat to write a bad recommendation letter for Penelope to get into the college she had her heart set on. She’s never told Penelope.
Charlotte is into interior design, and so she would often go in after Jo’s construction projects and offer to spruce places up and take photos to build her portfolio. Charlotte gave Jo the most heartache about their parents; she blames Jo for their arrest. She was also closest with their parents, and didn't enjoy Jo assuming the role of their caregiver. Even so, Jo helped her as much as she could with giving her the space she needed, then with organizing her portfolio, with applying to a few different colleges, with arranging scholarship opportunities, and with financial help buying everything she would need for the fancy arts school she was accepted into.