Josh Poncek

Josh Poncek is a fictional character in the Dreams to Reality continuity who has appeared as a main character in all three incarnations of the series Little is known about his family or past, except that he was Melinda Flint's boyfriend until several months prior to the beginning of the novellas and web series, though will begin the novel series as her boyfriend. He begins the novellas and web series as Nicole Halloway's boyfriend, and will eventually end up starting a relationship with her in the novels after several installments. There are plans to develop the character further in the novel series, but he will likely play a more limited role in the novel series than in his other appearances in the previous two incarnations.

Swapping One Girlfriend for Another
On October 30, 1999, Josh went on a date with Nicole Halloway, despite her being in a relationship with Jarrid Harlen at the time and him being in a relationship with Melinda Flint. During the course of Josh's date with Nicole, the two of them ended up spending some time at the Boardwalk over the river in downtown Eagle Creek. Unbeknownst to Josh at the time, his girlfriend Melinda was also on the Boardwalk and witnessed Josh and Nicole kissing. Melinda would then go to Jarrid and claim that she saw Josh and Nicole having sex, which would prompt Jarrid to break up with Nicole. Melinda would further agitate the situation by attempting to super-glue Nicole's Halloween mask to her face, after which Josh broke up with Melinda once and for all and began a relationship with Nicole. For the next seven months, Melinda was a constant thorn in Josh and Nicole's side, attempting to break them up any way she could think of, and over time, Josh would grow to hate Melinda, who believed that if she successfully broke Josh and Nicole up Josh would come back to her. Melinda did not seem concerned the possiblity that he'd be upset with her for any offensive strike she made against Nicole, apparently believing that Nicole had simply turned him against her and that she could win him back no matter how upset he was with her. (DtRW #1)

Melinda's Vendetta Turns Dangerous
One day in late May 2000, Josh went into his English class at Eagle Creek Junior High School and learned from Rachel McCarey and Michael Bennett that Rocky Fronset had returned a notebook to Michael with a note written on the back of it from a secret admirer, but that Rocky wouldn't tell Michael who wrote it. Josh would then tell Michael and Rachel about the argument he'd had that day with Travis Sirlon, who misunderstood something Josh had said to Rocky in an earlier conversation between the two of them. Travis believed that Josh, who said he was tired of Melinda's machinations in his relationship with Nicole and wanted to "call it quits," which Travis took to mean that he was planning on breaking up with Nicole and confronted him over it. The misunderstanding was quickly straightened out. After class, Josh was shocked and worried when he came down the stairs to find Danielle Grayson and Jarrid trying to revive an unconscious Nicole at the bottom of the staircase. Josh quickly went to help revive his girlfriend. When Lisa Walker came out of her science classroom and saw Nicole unconscious, she revealed to everyone present that Nicole and Melinda had gotten into a physical altercation during their previous class and that Melinda had threatened that Nicole would pay for starting a fight with her, forcing Josh to recognize that Melinda might have been responsible for Nicole falling down a flight of stairs. Two paramedics soon arrived at the school and lifted Nicole up the stairs on a stretcher, and Josh and Danielle followed them outside the school to the ambulance. Josh would try to get into the ambulance to ride to the hospital with Nicole, only to be stopped by one of the paramedics, who told him that he isn't allowed to ride with them in the ambulance unless he's a direct family member, upsetting Josh. However, just before the paramedic closed the doors to the ambulance, Josh and Danielle both heard Nicole weakly call something out to Josh, but her voice was too quiet for them to make out what she said, but Danielle pointed out that it was a good sign that Nicole had regained consciousness. Danielle then noticed that there was a second ambulance over by the baseball field across the street from the school, so the two of them made their way across the street to investigate. They fail to notice that a man wearing a skull mask is watching them from nearby along the side of the school building, who is armed with a long, metallic fish hook. Upon arriving at the other ambulance just in time for the doors to be shut so they can't see who is inside, Josh and Danielle encountered Ashley Chamberlain, who explains to them that Brandon Danber hit a line drive straight back at Mark Shane, which struck Mark square in the chest and knocked him unconscious for a brief time before he regained consciousness. Josh and Danielle would then explain to Ashley that Nicole and Melinda were in a fight during science class, which apparently culminated in Melinda pushing Nicole down a flight of stairs. Brandon would arrive at this point and confirm for the three that Melinda pushed Nicole down the stairs on purpose, and that she is very pleased with herself for doing so. Josh asked Brandon to confirm this, not thinking Melinda could do something this crazy no matter how desperate she may be. Brandon assured Josh that he spoke to Melinda in the principal's office, and that Melinda was happy with herself for doing that to Nicole. Danielle would propose the unsettling thought that if Melinda did this to Nicole on purpose, nothing is stopping her from trying to do something to her at the hospital. Ashley wondered if Melinda is capable of murdering Nicole, and an angry Josh said that he didn't know, but made it his business to find out. He walked back into the school and into the principal's office to find it abandoned save for Melinda, who sheepishly came out of the office at the sound of Josh calling for her. Josh wasted no time in demanding to know if Melinda pushed Nicole down the stairs, but Rose would return to her office at this point and confirm for Josh that Melinda did push Nicole down the stairs, but ordered Josh to return to class before he could say any more. Josh would then ask Rose if he and Ashley Chamberlain could leave school right now in order to go to the hospital to be with Nicole and Mark, respectively. Rose refused this request on the grounds that neither he nor Ashley could get themselves to the hospital because neither were old enough to drive. Josh realized Rose was right, shot Melinda a venom-filled look, and left the office. (DtRW #1)

At the end of the school day, Melinda walked towards a secluded stairway alone, until Josh suddenly stepped out in front of her from behind a set of lockers, startling Melinda. Josh icily asked her, "Wiorried? You should be." Melinda greeted Josh and admitted that he had startled her and asked him what's up. Josh was furious that "What's up?" was all Melinda had to say, prompting Melinda to joke, "Well, what do you want me to say, 'What's down'?" Josh snapped at Melinda to "shut the hell up" and to shut her mouth, saying that he can't believe her nerve to pretend like she didn't "damn near kill Nicole" today. Melinda defended her actions by claiming that Nicole had tried to kill her as well, but Josh dismissed this claim and accused Melinda of lying because she had admitted to him what she had done earlier in Mrs. Manning's office, and demanded to know what she was "trying to pull." When Melinda tried to say that she wasn't up to anything, Josh lost his cool and grabbed hold of Melinda's shoulders, dragging her over to the head of the stairs. Josh furiously told Melinda that she had pushed Nicole down the stairs and challenged her to give him one reason why he shouldn't do the same to her. Melinda pleaded with Josh not to push her down the stairs and asked what he was doing. Josh repeated his challenge to give him one good reason why he shouldn't do to Melinda what she did to Nicole. Melinda reasoned that she could be killed, but this doesn't move Josh, who then told her that she didn't care about that when she had sent Nicole "bouncing down the steps like a rubber ball." At this point, David Richards and Mandy Marin arrived on the scene, with Mandy getting in between Josh and Melinda and break the two apart, and allowing Melinda to move away from the top of the staircase. Josh demanded to know what Mandy thinks she's doing, and Mandy reasoned that he could have killed Melinda. Josh said that Melinda deserves everything she gets, and Melinda asked Josh not to say that, prompting Mandy to tell Melinda to shut up. However, Josh turned on Melinda again, demanding to know why he shouldn't say that, reasoning that Nicole may die because of what Melinda did and demands to know why she shouldn't be the next one to "take a tumble." Realizing that the situation is still very volatile, Mandy reasoned with Josh to think about what he's doing, pointing out that if he pushes Melinda down the stairs, he would be no better than she is. David told Josh that Mandy is right and told him to stop this. However, Melinda sarcastically retorted, "Oh, please," and Mandy turned on Melinda, who ordered Melinda to say what she has to say. Melinda responded that Mandy is acting like Josh was actually going to throw her down the stairs. Josh yellled at Melinda that he actually was going to, calling Melinda a "stupid whore." At this point, David stepped in and led Josh away, telling him that they need to talk. David and Josh walked away from Mandy and Melinda and went down a nearby hallway, where Josh asked David "what the hell" he was doing. David responded that he was stopping Josh from making the dumbest mistake of her life and pointed out that Josh could have killed Melinda. Josh claimed that he wasn't really going to do it, but rather was trying to scare Melinda to the point where she would get out of his and Nicole's lives for good. David supposed that killing Melinda by pushing her down the stairs would indeed get her out of his life, and Josh again insisted that he wasn't really going to do it and that he was just trying to scare her. David asked Josh what would have happened if somebody else had found them, like Mrs. Manning, and asked him if he wanted to join Melinda on Mrs. Manning's "shit list." Josh wasn't concerned by that prospect, though, because in ten days, "we're out of here for good" (implying that the end of the school year was ten days away and then Josh and David's class would move on to high school), and that it doesn't matter. David then told Josh that he should get to the hospital to be with Nicole, and Josh agreed. (DtRW #2)

A Masked Threat
A while later, Josh and David had met up with Travis at Portage General Memorial Hospital, where they filled Travis in about Josh's confrontation with Melinda at the top of the stairs at school. Travis asked Josh, "You almost pushed Melinda down the stairs?" and David said that  Josh had "lost it." Josh angrily demanded to know how many times he had to say that he only did that to scare Melinda. Travis assured Josh that they believed Josh, but added that it's just "a little out of character" for him. Josh rationalized his actions by saying that Melinda needed someone to "put the fear of God in her," because from what Brandon had told him, Melinda was "extremely happy with herself" for doing what she did to Nicole. "How sadistic is that?" Josh asked, saying that he had just wanted to teach Melinda a lesson. David asked, "But did it work?" and Mandy arrived on the scene sporting a red mark on her right cheek from where Melinda had slapped her after David took Josh away from her. Mandy answered David's question for Josh, saying that it didn't work. Josh asked Mandy what happened to her face, and Mandy explained that Mellinda had thought that it would be nice to slap her and then threaten her with "a tumble down the stairs." David asked Mandy where Melinda was now, but Mandy didn't know, nor could care less. At this point, Jack Brock, Dustin Finley, Michael, Jarrid, and Rachel approached Josh, David, Travis, and Mandy. Jack noticed Travis' presence there and asked him what he was doing at the hospital, because Travis was absent from school today and asked him how he knew about Nicole and Mark. Travis explained that Josh had called and told him and that Josh's mother had picked him up and brought him there. Michael then asked Josh how his confrontation with Melinda went, and Josh asked him how he knew he had confronted Melinda. Michael replied that he figured that Josh would, and Josh admitted to him that he had figured right and said that he had nearly pushed Melinda down the stairs, to their shock. Dustin commented to Jack privately that it was no wonder that Melinda thought that she and Josh belonged together, as they are both complete psychos. Jack told Dustin to shut up, while Josh, sick of defending himself, again explains that he tried to scare Melinda, and succeeded. Michael then changes the subject back to the original reason they had approached Josh, David, Travis, and Mandy, saying that Jarrid, Rachel, Jack, and Dustin "about pissed their pants" when a note attached to an arrow was shot at them, landing in the side of Jarrid's mother'sbrand new Pontiac Grand Am. Michael added that Jarrid's mother was "quite ticked" about the incident, but had gotten over it when she read what the note had to say. Michael handed Josh the note and told him to read it, which read that Nicole was dead and that Jarrid would be next. Josh asked who shot the arrow at them, and Jarrid replied that he didn't know, asking Josh if Nicole was really dead. Josh assured everyone that he had just seen Nicole a couple of minutes prior, and that she was conscious now. Jarrid was relieved by this news, and Michael asked Josh when exactly he had seen Nicole. Josh responded that it was just a couple of minutes prior, at about 2:55. Jack said that they had gotten the note right after school, so whoever shot the arrow at them was lying about Nicole's apparent death, but Rachel was more mysterious, saying, "Maybe." Josh would then ask Rachel what she meant by that. Rachel explained that she didn't want to think like this, but whoever shot the arrow at them must have been at the school at the time, and hypothesied that whoever shot the arrow at them, thinking it would scare them to death, and then planned to come to the hospital, kill Nicole, and get out of there before they came to check on her. Jack accused Rachel of seeing too many horror movies and said that when they start seeing Jason [Voorhies] or Freddy [Kreuger] skulking around Eagle Creek, they should start worrying, but until then, they should assume that this was "probably just some stupid prank or something." Michael added that they couldn't be sure about that, because whoever shot the arrow obviously has no qualms about hurting someone, and pointed out that one of them could have been hit by the arrow, and proposed that the shooter probably wanted to hit one of them anyway and had missed, or else this person is an a sharpshooter. Josh agreed with Michael, suggesting that there might be a full-fledged psychopath running around Eagle Creek who may want to hurt one of them. Mandy suggested they call the police, but Travis voiced his opinion that Jack is correct and that this was just a stupid, sick joke, and assured everyone that nobody's going to kill Nicole or Jarrid. Travis would go on to say that unless they start seeing Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette in Eagle Creek, they shouldn't worry about this. Josh agreed that they should wait and see if this was just an isolated incident. Soon after, however, the group was surprised to hear Nicole scream loudly from her hospital room, prompting Josh and Michael to rush towards Nicole's hospital room. Josh and Michael narrowly missed spotting a man wearing a skull mask trotting away from Nicole's hospital room as they ran towards Nicole's room. Once inside Nicole's room, Josh asked her what had happened. Nicole pointed at the window, where she had seen the skull masked man moments prior, but the man was no longer in the window. Nicole wondered where the man was, explaining that she had woken up moments before and had looked out the window of her hospital room and saw someone wearing a skull mask looking back in at her, and added that it was like she was in Scream. Josh asked Nicole if she was sure she didn't just dream it. Nicole insists that she was awake, because  she had just woken up from a dream about "that bitch Melinda pushing me down those stairs." She added that Melinda could have killed her before returning to the topic at hand, that the man in the skull mask was standing there looking at her and had been holding a large hook that he pointed at her. Nicole thought that the man wanted to kill her, and Josh and Michael immediately excused themselves to go talk in private. Nicole asked what was going on, and Josh assured her that it was nothing, that he and Michael needed to talk about something for a second and assured her that they would be back. Josh and Michael exited Nicole's room and into the hallway, where Michael asked Josh what was going on here, that first the note was shot at them, and now Nicole is seeing serial killers threatening her in the window. Josh admitted that he doesn't know, and Michael asked if Josh thinks this was all just a coincidence. Josh didn't want to just assume that, because if Nicole was somehow in danger, he would never forgive himself if he didn't do something about it, knowing what he knows. Michael thought that this couldn't be a couple of coincidences and prompts Josh to look at the note again. Josh re-read the note out loud, and Michael noted that the note claimed that Nicole was already dead, and then Nicole saw the skull masked man threatening her with a hook. Michael asked Josh if he thought that this guy, "Skullface," wrote the note and came here to kill Nicole. Josh didn't even want to think about it, and Michael decided that they should call the police. Josh agreed, but did not want Nicole to think anything of this until later, and suggested that they go back inot her room and act like there's nothing wrong for now. Michael agreed, and the two went back into Nicole's room. Nicole asked them if their "little abrupt tete-a-tete" was over now. Josh told her that it was, and Nicole asked what is going on. Michael assured Nicole that it was nothing, but then couldn't explain what they were talking about and asked Josh to tell her, claiming that Josh would do a better job of explaining. Josh thanked  Michael and told Nicole that when she told them about the masked man, they remembered that they had to ask a doctor about something. Nicole didn't question them further and changed the subject, asking where her "biggest fan," Melinda was. Josh asked, "Who cares?" and Michael added that Melinda is probably off trying to find another way to "try and fail" to win Josh back. Soon after, after Michael and Josh told Nicole about Josh's confrontation with Melinda at school earlier, Nicole was surprised to hear that Josh had nearly pushed Melinda down the stairs, but Michael told her that this is a sore subject. Josh again claimed that he only tried to scare Melinda, and thinks that it worked. Nicole asked if he was trying to scare Melinda out of their lives for good, and Josh told her yes. Nicole hoped that Josh's scare tactic worked. Michael would then walk off on his own a bit as he entered into a precognitive trance for a brief period as he then experienced a psychic vision. When Michael came out of his psychic vision, he gasped loudly, alerting Josh and Nicole that something happened to Michael. Nicole asked Michael what was wrong, and Michael was clearly frightened by what he had seen in his vision. (DtRW #2)

Melinda Flint
For a time prior to October 30, 1999, Josh was in a relationship with Melinda Flint. In spite of this relationship (of which very little is actually known, other than that Melinda was clearly more personally invested in it than Josh was), Josh would ask Nicole Halloway out on a date. Josh and Nicole went on their date, but unfortunately were seen by Melinda, who reacted by telling Nicole's boyfriend, Jarrid Harlen, that she just walked in on Josh and Nicole having sex, when all she actually saw was the two of them kissing each other. The day after this, on Halloween, Melinda attempted to super-glue Nicole's witch mask to her face, and succeeded in doing so. The resulting chaos from Melinda's reaction to his date with Nicole would prompt Josh to break up with Melinda and immediately begin dating Nicole. (DtRW #1)

After Melinda pushed Nicole down a flight of stairs at school, Josh would confront Melinda at the top of a secluded staircase at school and nearly threw Melinda down the flight of stairs in retaliation for her attack on Nicole early, but David Richards and Mandy Marin interrupted the confrontation and broke the two apart before Josh could do any harm to her. (DtRW #2)

Nicole Halloway
Josh's relationship with Nicole Halloway began within a relatively short span of time after their first date on October 30, 1999. When the two of them went on their date, they were both dating other people--Josh was dating Melinda, and Nicole was dating Jarrid Harlen. However, Melinda would ensure that Jarrid broke up with Nicole, and also tried to super-glue Nicole's Halloween mask to her face, so Josh broke up with Melinda and began dating Nicole immediately. Ever since, Melinda has tried to break them up numerous times, failing each time, which would lead to a very dangerous situation for Nicole as Melinda ramped up her advances against Josh and Nicole's relationship by pushing Nicole down a flight of stairs during an argument at school, knocking Nicole unconscious and causing her to be hospitalized, infuriating Josh. (DtRW #1)

Background & Trivia

 * Josh's role in the series has slowly but surely eroded over time. In the novellas, he was a very influential character; in the web series, he had an influential role but wasn't as prominently featured as was orginally planned; in the novel series, he will be more of a background character, who will make appearances and influence various different storylines, but likely will take larger breaks in between influencing storylines. This is simply due to the sheer size of the novel series' cast and not having as much for the character to do. He'll become more prominent once the love triangle that played out in the web series becomes a "live" storyline in the novel series, but that will not be for almost ten installments, and it's likely that the love triangle will be a back-burner storyline anyway.