What's a better way to escape the drama of the world? Having fun!


Chapter 9: Friday Night Fun

As Friday rolled around, Jojo and the rest of his friends walked across the hallways and they passed through a couple of high school jocks, hooting and cheering as they ran by. It definitely provoked annoyance and distaste for what was happening that day. Cody was the first one to react and asked, "Jocks...do they even have a reason to celebrate?"

Marcus sighed heavily in response and said, "The Support Your Jocks Overachiever Award. Honestly, who really cares about this bullcrap?"

"I'd seriously spend a Friday night just hanging out in my observatory and tinker with my instruments." Jojo added.

Brutus looked a little silent for a while as everyone else is talking. After opening up to Jojo, he wasn't quite sure about everyone else and then, Marcus turns to Brutus and he asked, "What are you doing tonight?"

"Probably nothing." Brutus replied.

"Hey, think you guys can head over to our place tonight to just hang around? We can watch a few movies, blast out to some music and eat some pizza." Mike said.

Everyone was definitely stoked up about this and then Cody asked, "What about you, Brutus? You look like you could use a night of fun with us."

Brutus was a little reluctant about tagging along with them, simply because of his father's temper and his distaste of him having friends, but then he suddenly realized that it might be a good idea to just have some fun for once and stop worrying and he said, "Sure, why not?'

Mike chuckled in surprise about Brutus' response and then he said, "Finally opening up, aren't you?"

"Jojo helped me out."

Jojo lets out a slight chuckle and he said to him, "I can promise you, it'll be the best fun you've had in a long time."

Brutus lets out a smile and he was able to look forward to a night out with his friends and they start laughing with each other as they exited out of the school and for the first time in Brutus' life, it was like everything is gonna be okay.

Later that evening, Brutus makes his way out of the house and he sees Jojo, Jonah, Cyrus, Hawk, Travis, Sam and Stephen walking past Brutus' house and he caught up with them and he said, "Heading to Mike and Cody's?"

"Yep. We'll show you where it is." Jojo replied.

Brutus went behind Jonah, Cyrus and Hawk as they made their way to the McKinney house and when they actually made it, they see Mike outside, looking eager and excited and they definitely gave them a great welcome. He chuckled and said, "Glad you could make it. Mostly everyone just showed up."

Jojo lets out a chuckle as they entered the house and when Brutus set foot there, he couldn't believe the size of the house and it was like walking into a mansion and he didn't know what to say about this and all he could say is, "Wow..."

"Pretty impressive, huh?" asked Mike.

Brutus lets out a small chuckle and replied, "I'll say."

Just then, Cody steps out of the kitchen and he looked very excited to see Brutus there and he said, "Welcome to the Casa of McKinney, BruMo."

Brutus looked a little confused by what Cody said and he asked, "BruMo?"

Cody lets out a soft chuckle and he said, "Whenever I meet new people who are cool with us, I give them pretty cool nicknames. Basically, I combined your first name with your last name, thus calling you BruMo. It was either gonna be B. Moka, MokaBru or B. Mo."

Brutus started chuckling at this and he said, "I like MokaBru the best, simply because I can still have some Who'aiian left in me."

"Awesome! Marcus should be here with some pizza any minute now. So...you wanna head to the theater room?" asked Cody.

"You guys have a theater room?" Brutus asked, in excitement.

Later on, the guys made their way downstairs to the basement and when they entered the theater room, Brutus gasped in shock at how it looked like and it was unlinke anything he's ever seen before. He exhaled deeply and he said, "I think I need a minute to take this all in."

"Bet they didn't have any home theaters like this in Who'aii." Mike said.

"No, not really. There were always movie theaters in malls and they've got like 15 of them in the area I was from." Brutus explained.

"Whoa! Where?" asked Cody.

"Honowho-lu."

Mike chuckled at this and he said, "Maybe you can take us there someday."

Just then, the others came along, including Marcus, carrying 5 boxes of pizza with Diego carrying another five and set them down on the ground. Jonah whistled and he said, "How much pizzas you brought with ya?"

"20." Marcus replied, trying to catch his breath.

Everyone was silent to find out that Marcus brought in 20 pizza boxes, but Marcus started laughing and said, "Just kidding. I brought 10."

"I was gonna say that we were gonna throw up after having a million and something slices." Cody added.

"Very funny, guys."

As everyone got settled in, Mike popped in a scary movie and as the lights dimmed, the movie starts and midway through, they saw two people in bed when they heard a noise and suddenly, the room goes to black and in a night cam, a strange figure comes in to kill the girl who's still awake, trying to find out what's taking her boyfriend so long.

"What is she doing? The killer's right there in front of her!" Austin exclaimed.

"How can she not see it?" asked Zeke.

And then, the strange figure vanished after making a creaking sound, which caused her to turn around and saw that there was nothing and sat down on the edge of the bed, hoping that she was seeing things.

Seth, Ryan, Dustin, Jared, Austin and Frankie were a little eager to see what was gonna happen next and Dustin looked over to see the creep's hands slowly coming under her bed and he let out a silent gasp and he said, "Did you guys saw those hands?"

"Dude, who didn't? She shouldn't even be sitting there!" Ryan added.

Suddenly, the boys leaped in fright when the killer's hand grabbed her ankles and when she tried to break free, the killer then dragged her under the bed with the girl still screaming. All of the boys were completely petrified of the scene and Jonah asked, "Where's the boyfriend?"

"Probably still finding the killer. Maybe he should've heard her scream by now." Jojo answered.

Just then, the boyfriend comes back and finds her gone. He frantically tried to find her, but she couldn't be seen, causing him to go into a panic mode while still holding on to his baseball bat. Suddenly, he looks under the bed, sticks his hand under there and suddenly, he gets caught by the killer, causing the boys to exclaim in fear as they see the scene where the killer consumes his hand.

All the boys groaned in disgust as they saw this happening and Josh asked, "Where'd you guys get this movie?"

"Diego got it at What-Mart for Halloween after he saw the movie in March. If you guys think that's scary, wait until you see the director's cut." Cody replied.

"Yeah, it's got 42 minutes of awesome bonus stuff that didn't even make the final cut." Diego said, chuckling mischeviously.

"I'll be looking forward to that." Sam added, sarcastically.

Brutus was excited about the whole thing and he said, "That was the best scary movie I've seen in a long time."

"I know, right? So...wanna jam out to some tunes?" asked Cody.

"YEAH!" everyone exclaimed.

When they got to the music room, they played some rock tunes and they were all jamming into it and had a great time dancing and playing their instruments in there. Suddenly, there was strobe lights blinking all over the place and Brutus brought out his glow-in-the-dark sticks and yo-yo's and decided to show them some of his amazing fancy tricks, which impressed all of them.

Cody was surprised to see how he managed to do that and he said, "Where'd you learn how to do these things?"

"One summer in Honowho-lu when I was home alone that I started to do something like this after seeing someone doing a little rave glow in the dark party lights on WhoTube. I may not be old enough to go to raves, but I got the hang of it as I practiced." Brutus explained.

"You have to teach us those things someday." Hoagie said, excitedly.

"So...what are you gonna do for the talent show in 2 weeks?" asked Dustin.

Just then, Brutus broke out his who-kelele and decided to strum a little song, which caught everyone's attention and Cyrus asked, "What's that?"

"An old who'aiian instrument; a who-kelele. I'm just gonna play you guys a little song that I wrote while I had a hard time dealing with so much bullying in my life.

With that, he strums his ukelele while Jojo, Marcus, Cody and Mike brought in the guitars and played behind Brutus as he began to sing.

Maybe, I'm just not good enough for you
And maybe, i just don't wanna be like you
And maybe I just don't wanna know
How low you're ready to go
I'm not gonna change, you can't make me, WHOA

[Chorus]
You don't, You don't, You don't, You don't
You don't mean anything to me [x2]
You're what I never wanna be

Tell me, does it feel good to be like you
And tell me, why should I waste my time with you
Cuz maybe you always bring me down
And I'm sick of being pushed around
I'm not gonna change, you can't make me, WHOA

You don't, You don't, You don't, You don't
You don't mean anything to me [x2]
You're what I never wanna be

I know you think you know me
You don't know anything
I know you wanna help me
I don't need anything
Don't tell me where to go
I don't need you to know

You don't, you don't, you dont, you don't
You don't mean anything to me
You don't you dont, you don't, you don't
You don't me anything to me

Everyone cheered for Brutus after the song was finished and Brutus definitely felt like he's got all the friends he needed and Marcus looked at him with an impressed look on his face and he asked, "When did you write this?"

"Like in seventh grade, I guess. It was not only about dealing with bullying, but also dealing with my dad's abuse. It's like he doesn't mean anything to me at all because of the way I am and that I shoudln't even exist anymore." Brutus replied, in a sad tone.

All of them felt so sympathetic towards Brutus and they all felt like that song connects to everyone in particular, including Marcus. He puts his hand on his shoulder and gives him a huge hug for support and comfort. He then told him, "That's his problem. He just doesn't understand anything. I never met the guy, but if I did...I'd just tell him to shove off and that we're gonna be the ones to protect him no matter what."

"Yeah, you got us and we're always here for each other because no one in our school accepts us for who we are. Those stupid cliques can make and break us, but they'll never break this friendship apart." Travis added.

HEaring those words made Brutus feel like he can rely on them for support when he needs it most and he said, "Thanks, guys."

"Anytime." Marcus said.

"So...you guys wanna see the director's cut now?" asked Diego.

Everyone headed back to the theater room and they watched the director's cut for a while and after a few hours, most of them were asleep on the theater room. Cody was on top of Mike while Marcus was asleep next to Jojo and almost everyone was a little sleepy. Mike woke up and sees Cody on top of his head and he gets himself up, unaware that Cody's grabbing onto him and he shoves him on the floor, waking him up.

Jojo yawned as he opened his eyes and he looks around and sees everyone getting up and he asked, "How long have we been asleep?"

"I have no idea." Marcus replied.

Brutus woke up as well and scratched his back and asked, "What time is it?"

Cody looked at his watch and replied, "11:45."

All of them were alarmed that they were out this late and everyone realized that it was past their curfews and Marcus said, "Man, I gotta get back before my folks realize that I'm still out."

"I'm with you." Josh added.

Everyone thanked Mike and Cody for inviting them to their home to hang out as they made their way out and Brutus walked out of the room and then, he looked back and he said, "Thanks for everything. I had a lot of fun."

Cody chuckled and said, "I'm really glad. Our place is open anytime."

Everyone made their way home and when Jojo and Brutus said bye to each other, Brutus felt like there are good things coming...and he hopes that it'll stay that way because of the tumultuous relationship with his dad, he's gonna need any ounce of support he can get.


Coolio, huh? The song is 'You Don't Mean Anything' from Simple Plan. The Canadian band knows deep true angst to connect to us! Hope ya like!