Zack's Son - Chapter Four

Scott reached Horace Green Prepatory High School around ten minutes before the bell was due to ring. Outside the main entrance stood Scott's friend, Tyler.

"You couldn't have come any faster?" Tyler asked, removing his headphones from his ears.

"Sorry. My mom was having one of her 'tearful moments' again," Scott said as they entered the building. "So, what group where we listening to today?"

"They're called School of Rock," Tyler said. He handed the CD case to Scott. "They were pretty popular a few years ago. They're not as well known as some other bands are, though."

"That's cool," Scott said as he opened the case. There was a picture of the band. The bassist was a girl with short dark hair. The drummer was a blonde male. There were three females holding mircophones; most likely singers. Then there was a man who was much older then everyone else in the picture. He was holding was guitar. He might have been lead.

Then Scott saw another figure off in the corner.

It was a young boy with dark hair and hazel eyes, holding a guitar.

"My eyes," Scott thought to himself. "Those look exactly like my eyes!"

He stopped walking as he stared hard at the picture. "He looks like me!" Scott thought. "Man, this is bizarre!"

"Hey! Why'd you stop walking?" Tyler said as he walked over to Scott.

"Tyler, who's this?" Scott asked as he pointed to the young guitarist.

Tyler took the album and looked at it. "I don't know," he said. "All I know about this group is that the lead guitarist and singer's name was Dewey Finn. He formed the band when the kids were only ten years old."

"Do they still perfrom?" Scott asked.

"No," Tyler responded. "According to my dad, School of Rock broke up when the guitarist died in a motorcycle accident."

"This guitarist?" Scott asked as he pointed to the boy.

"Yeah," Tyler said. He looked at his watch. "Shit! We got to get to class!"

It was lunch break at around noon at Horace Green Prepatory High School. Scott jabbed his fork at his pasta. Tyler sat across from him, listening to another rock group (The Doors). All morning Scott could not stop pondering about that guitarist. 'Who was he? Why does he bear a strange resemblence to me? Am I related to him in some way?' were all questions that swirled inside Scott's head.

Finally Scott through his fork on his plate and stood up. "I can't take this anymore!" he exclaimed. Tyler put down his headphones, the lyrics for 'Light My Fire' barely audible.

"What?" Tyler asked.

"I'm going to the library," Scott said in a much calmer tone of voice. He strode away from Tyler. Once in the library, Scott stationed himself at a computer much as far away from the librarian as possible. Then he went straight to Google. Scott put 'School of Rock' in as the keyword. He waited. Finally, the websites and their addresses appeared.

The first few were about the CD and stores that you could buy it cheaply on. Then Scott came to a website with the 'The Rolling Stones' website attached to it. Scott didn't know much about rock, but he did know that 'The Rolling Stones' was a rock group consisting of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and a rock and roll magazine.

He clicked on the link and waited for the page to load. Finally it did. The page read:

' In an article borrowed from Rock Weekly, we have the following information that is most likely apparent to any rock and roll fan.

On February 18th, two members from the widely popular rock group School of Rock were involved in a motorcycle accident. Freddy Jones, twenty - six year old drummer, walked away with a sprained arm. But the group's guitarist died when he was thrown violently from his motorcycle. The cause of the accident, aside from the fact that both members were drunk and riding about recklessly, was that there were patches of black ice from a previous snowfall left unmelted on the road.

"I still can't believe Zack's gone," Freddy Jones was quoted at a press conference. "One moment he's there, alive. Then the next moment he's gone."

Futher investigation of the case is still underway.'

Scott sighed. That was it? That was all that there was to say? There wasn't even a name for the guitarist!

"Hey Scott," a cheerful voice said as someone sat next to him. Scott turned and immediately went red. Sitting next to him was Mallory Faey, a classmate of his. She smiled sweetly at him.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, taking a glance at the computer.

"I was looking up information. On a band. Called School of Rock," he said once he found his voice.

"School of Rock is a great band," Mallory replied. "My father loves them. Their song was one of the first ones that he had taught me when I learned how to play guitar. I can't remember what it was called, but it was written by the guitarist that died. I think his name was Zack Mooneyham or something like that."

Scott's heart skipped a beat. "What's his name?" he repeated, slightly dazed.

"Zack Mooneyham, maybe," Mallory replied.

Scott felt faint. "Excuse me for a moment," he said. He ran out of the library and back to the cafeteria. Tyler was still sitting where he had been minutes before.

"Show me your School of Rock album!" Scott cried out. Tyler searched throughout his bag and handed it to him.

"Are you okay?" Tyler asked. "Your face is pale."

Scott didn't hear him. He flipped through the through the album until he reached the information about the songs and who their composers were. Scott scanned the page until he found one called, 'School of Rock'.

It was there, right under the title.

Z. Mooneyham.

His father's name was Zack.

Z. Mooneyham.

It was all beginning to come together. The eyes. The face. The last name. They were all the same.

Z. Mooneyham.

"Shit!" Scott cried out.

"What's wrong?" Tyler asked, worried for his best friend.

"Ty, look at the guitarist again." Scott said as he handed the album back to Tyler.

"What about him?" Tyler asked.

"Ty...that guitarist...he's...my dad."