The gang looks forward to Christmas break! As well as the party!


Chapter 9: Christmas Break

It was time for the beginning of the Christmas break and Jojo is eagerly excited for it. He goes through his locker to get his stuff cleared out when he sees Mike standing behind him. He turns around to see he's actually there. He smiled and said, "Hey, Mike."

"How's it going, Jojo?" asked Mike.

"Pretty good. You?"

Mike exhaled sharply and said, "I'm cool, despite being embarrassed by everyone in the entire school after Cody posted this thing on WhoTube."

Jojo started laughing, which made Mike a little more embarrassed then ever. Jojo looked at Mike and stopped laughing for a while. He cleared his throat and said, "I take you're not gonna forgive him, huh?"

"Not really sure. There's something in me that wants to not forgive him, but it's the holidays."

"So your brother posted an embarrassing moment over the internet. It's not like everyone in school's tormenting you."

"In some strange way, it hasn't. Most of them were cool with it, because they had that same moment I had and they're still laughing about it. In fact, this morning, a few guys went from the gym and told me stories about the time their brothers recorded an embarassing moment that happened on Christmas. In some way, it made me want to just laugh at myself for what happened when I was 12."

"You can take an embarrassing moment and you can still laugh about it instead of being mortified from it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Jojo."

Suddenly, Cody slowly walked past Mike and Jojo and fears that Mike's still mad at Cody, so he looks at Jojo and said, "Hey, J-man. How's it going?"

"Pretty good. I am ready for Christmas break. You guys still on for the Christmas party tonight?" Jojo replied.

"Stoked." Mike said.

"Excited." Cody said.

Cody took a deep breath and said to Mike, "Listen, I'm sorry about posting it on WhoTube. If you're still mad at me about it-"

Mike interrupted him and said, "Dude, it's cool. I'm over that. Just because it's my embarrassing moment doesn't mean I can hold a grudge aginst you for it. I'm too smart for something like that. I would always forgive my brother no matter what. Plus, it was kinda funny."

"Yeah, it was."

"It's the only memory I have since Alex passed away."

"I felt the same way when I had his camera. Everything reminded me of him is in the camera-the way he would film us together, when he pranked us and how we pranked him back. All the good stuff."

"Well, we can still make new memories."

"Yeah we will. So, we back to double bros?'

"You bet."

Both of them did their secret handshake and hugged each other. Jojo stood across the locker with his arms folded, smiling. Cody turned to Jojo and asked, "Is Dustin coming?"

"I'm not sure. I hope he's going."

"Hey guys!"

Zeke and Marcus waved at Cody, Jojo and Mike and Zeke said, "Hey, what's up?"

"Not much. Just talking."

"That's cool. Stoked up about the Christmas party tonight?"

"Dude, we're excited as you are." Mike said.

Suddenly, Jonah, Travis, Koa, Mana, Hawk, Cyrus and Sam came over gathered around Cody, Mike, Jojo, Marcus and Zeke, just talking and such.

"You ever had a Christmas before, Zeke?" asked Mike.

"Barely. My dad's not so much into Christmas. He doesn't get how everyone gets so cheery over the holidays." Zeke answered.

"That's sort of the thing. Everyone gets cheery on the holidays."

"I'm hoping this year everything will be cool." Travis said.

"It will. You'll experience the McDodd holiday traditions."

"What are the McDodd holiday traditions?" asked Hawk.

Jojo sighed and said, "I guess I'll have to teach you guys the traditions. My dad would get this 45-minute ramble about his first christmas, which will put you to sleep mostly, mom would make the best hot chocolate and my sisters would always want my dad play Santa. For what I do, I always tell a story to Hedy. She loves those stories a lot and she would often ask for more."

"Sounds cool. On our christmas traditions, my parents would play Mr. and Mrs. Claus for other kids and we would perform songs for them." Cody said.

"That's awesome. Wanna know what our family does for Christmas? My dad would make Christmas pizza and he would sing every Christmas song...off-key. I swear it sounds like something scratching underneath the floor and it gets irritating." Marcus said.

"Man, that must be brutal." Koa said.

"Big brutal. But my mom would make some cookies and snicker doodles. I swear, those are so good."

"Mana and I needed a Christmas so bad. We need a good Christmas this time and I'm hoping it will do something that won't leave us depressed."

"Depressed? On Christmas?"

"Yeah, our dad is very brutal towards us and somehow, he's not much of a Christmas person, so we spend Christmas Day being beaten by him over the small things, one of those being Christmas spirit." Mana said.

"That's kinda unheard of." Sam said.

"But that's how it goes."

"Well, don't worry. This year, you guys will have an awesome Christmas, cause you're with us." Jojo said.

"Hope so."

When they left the school, Dustin walked through the halls and the hallways were empty. He looked back and sees all the Christmas stuff around him, and he's hoping that he'll have the Christmas memory to have it locked in his mind. Suddenly, Jojo comes from behind and said, "Getting into Christmas yet?"

Dustin looked behind and told Jojo, "I guess so. I'm almost there, though."

Jojo puts his hand on Dustin's shoulder and said, "Don't worry so much. Tonight, you will definitely feel the joy you never felt before."

Both Jojo and Dustin walked out of the school, just laughing and talking and Dustin feels as if this is gonna be the best Christmas ever.


Stick around for more of this! The Christmas party is coming up next!