What will happen if Jonah and Travis took the same class as Jojo? Wonder no more...

Chapter 13: Music Class

As the afternoon went by, Jojo went across the hallways of Whoville High and into his 4th period class; Music. Jojo loved the class and has shared the same period with Caitlyn, Misty, Cody, Marcus and Mike. As soon as he got there and took his seat, he sees Jonah sitting in front of his seat. He was surprised to know that he can have the same period as he is. Jonah turned around and saw Jojo there, which made him overjoyed.

"You're in this period, too?" asked Jonah.

"Yeah. It's my favorite part of school. The most favorite part of the semester." Jojo answered.

"I had my schedule changed this morning, but I'm still in first period with you."

"This is gonna be cool."

"I know, right? Me and Travis are in the same elective too."

Jojo turned around and saw Travis sitting next to the other row of the class and Travis looks at him and gave him a wave. Jojo turned to Jonah and smiled at him. Jonah then said, "Travis has always wanted to express his ability in his songwriting and also with his music ability and actually learn it. How cool is that?"

"Extremely. My best friends has the same period here as well."

All of a sudden, Mike, Caitlyn, Marcus, Cody and Marcus came in the doors as well, each taking their seats, when by surprise, sees Jonah and Travis in the same room. Mike was surprised when he saw Jonah there and asked, "You got this class?"

"Yeah, it's a good thing that we like music a lot." Jonah said.

"I don't blame ya. My family is pretty musical." Cody said.

"It has a musical background and our brother, Alex, was totally a rock for music." Mike said.

"Who's Alex?" asked Travis.

"He was our older brother. He's always been cool with us and we always look up to him."

"What happened to him?" asked Jonah.

"The past year has been difficult. He died after someone ran him over with a car, because he was late for a meeting." Cody explained.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's cool. Jojo's been an awesome friend to Alex as well and we've been friends to him since then. After Alex died, our friendship has grown more stronger than ever."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Jojo's been like family rather than a friend to us. It really means a lot." Mike said.

Jojo chuckled and said, "You guys are special, too."

"Do you guys have a tissue? I need a moment." Misty said.

Mike scoffed and said, "You're faking it, I know it."

"How am I faking it?"

"Your mocking crying voice."

"Well...I just got a little emotional."

"Oh, puh-leeze! That was a lot faker than when my dad tried to get a fake nose ring."

"And one of his nose wasn't even real." Cody said.

That stunned most of them and Mike asked, "Seriously?"

"You didn't know?"

"Okay, now I'm losing my appetite." Misty said.

"Well, pin a rose on your nose."

"I'll pin a needle on that brain of yours. How about that?"

Jonah chuckled and asked, "Are they always like this?"

"Nah, they usually argue." Jojo answered.

"Hey, you guys. Music teacher alert!" Caitlyn exclaimed.

Misty and Mike dropped the subject and focused on the arrival of their music teacher. As he came in, he said, "Good afternoon, class."

"Hey."

"What's up?"

"How's it hangin', teach?" asked Cody.

The music teacher looked at Cody and said, "Great. And it's 'Mr. Hanningway.'

"Sorry, sir."

He cleared his throat and said, "Today, we're gonna learn to express ourselves with our instruments. Each instrument is special in its own way and it's the perfect opportunity to let out all of your emotions. When you play them, you can definitely feel the music growing inside those minds of yours."

He hands out the violin and said, "Misty, show us your violin masterpiece."

Misty got up from her seat as the teacher handed her the violin. Mike groaned softly and said, "This is gonna suck."

Then, she started playing the violin and plays a tune that she hopes might touch anyone's heartstrings...well except for Mike. After only four minutes, she completed her concerto violin playing on a good note as he closed it with a slow chord. The students were clapping and she took her bow. Then, Mike started booing at her and said, "You suck!"

"Mr. McKinney! How dare you boo this young woman's fine masterpiece?" asked the music teacher.

"Seriously? Masterpiece, sure. Fine? Come on. She couldn't even play electric guitar, let alone a violin that can only torture every student for this."

"It's okay, Mr. Hanningway. He doesn't bother me one bit." Misty said.

"So you say."

"Thank you, Ms. Kirkpatrick."

"Yeah, thanks for finally giving me nightmares." Mike sneered.

"That's enough. If you think you can do better than her, why don't you show us what you got."

"Gladly, Otis."

Mr. Hanningway was puzzled and asked, "Since when do you call me 'Otis'?"

"In the office."

Mike got in front of the class and started playing guitar. He played a rock song and started to make a punk-rock feel into it as he managed to make it more heavy rock influenced as possible by hitting all the chords really high and then, he finished it off with a sustained chord. Then, after that, he closes it off with a rock sign on his hand. Then, he looked at Misty and said, "Top that!"

Misty ignored it and didn't say anything about it. Mike asked, "Does it not impress you, Mr. Hanningway?"

"Actually, it didn't. It sounded like a meat grinder that's stuck and makes this strange sound when you try to grind the meat, but it ends up broken. Thank you, Mr. McKinney."

Mike scoffed and thought that he sounded great. Then, Misty looked at him and asked, "Who sucked now?"

"All right. Mr. Jojo McDodd. Please show us your amazing guitar talent."

Jojo gets up from his seat and Cody was excited to hear him play guitar. He got to a stool and started playing a soft melody. He strums the guitar and plays an instrumental of a classic love song. He's hoping that it might touch someone's heartstrings a little bit. After about four and a half minutes, he began finishing it slowly and kept his eyes closed the entire time. He finished it with a slow, soft strum and most of the students were emotional that he plays it so well and they were brought to tears, including Travis and Jonah.

Mr. Hanningway completely felt overwhelmed by it and said, "Mr. McDodd, you have always made the relationship between you and this guitar grow stronger and you achieve greatness everytime you play and it also touched a lot of hearts, including mine."

Jojo smiled and said, "Thank you, sir."

Jojo returned to his seat and then, Mr. Hanningway asked Jonah to see which part of his talents he can partake in the instruments. He went to the piano and starts playing a sad song. As he pounded the keys, he definitely released all the pain he's dealt with his stepfather and plans to express it by music. Jojo knew that the piano was a way to release all the angry feelings he's had to deal with and Jonah was driven on sharing his pain to everyone. After finishing the piece, Jonah felt totally emotional over it. And he went out of the piano and into his seat. The room fell in silence and in amazement with Jonah's talents. Mr. Hanningway asked, "Who taught you piano?"

"My mom. She taught me everything until she died. When I'm playing the piano, I can finally release all the pain and suffering and sorrow I felt after she died as well as other negative things in my life...like being beaten by my stepfather." Jonah answered, reluctantly.

"It's an amazing way to unleash all of that."

"Thank you."

Travis came out and picked up the guitar and started playing. He played a ballad that he's been hearing and wanted to make his own version of it. As he started strumming, all of the emotions were pouring out and Travis expressed it in more ways than one. Jojo was ultra-surprised that Travis actually played the guitar really well and that all of the feelings he had were now shared with everyone. He quickly finished the song with a slow strum and everyone was blown away from it.

Mr. Hanningway was totally speechless as Travis went back to his seat. He could tell that it really brought him in a state of amazement towards him. A few hours passed by and as the bell rung, everyone left the room until Mr. Hanningway told Travis and Jonah to have a word with them.

They sat down and Mr. Hanningway said, "You've only been here for today and already you have some music talent coming out of you. That got me impressed as well."

"My mom taught us everything about music and she taught us every instrument, including the guitar and the piano." Travis said.

"I think you'll fit in this music class just fine. Your brothers have been taking second period here and it was nothing I've ever seen or heard before in all my years of teaching music."

"We've got the music bug, basically. We just can't stop expressing our feelings and we release them in paper and stuff like that. It's kinda like therapy." Jonah said.

"All students love self-expression when it comes to music and that kind of talent will take you both far."

"We've always thought about being musicians."

"Keep that in mind. If you keep practicing, maybe all of this will happen in life."

Jonah definitely felt like music is a deep passion for him and he should pursue it instead of sports. Mr. Hanningway said, "Hope to see you tomorrow."

"We will."

Both Jonah and Travis walked out of the room and Travis turned around and said, "Thanks for talking with us."

"Thank you for coming here."

Jonah and Travis left the room, feeling confident that the music class has made a huge impact on both of them. Here they saw Jojo and the others waiting for them outside. Mike asked, "So, how was it?"

"It was great. Mr. Hanningway loved having us here." Jonah said.

"I like the music class." Travis said.

"It's the best period ever and you feel like you're in a place where you can really release your feelings, musically." Jojo said.

"It definitely feels that way."

"I love taking the class because I love music and all. Plus, I also like to make my own instruments."

"How do you make them?" asked Jonah.

"In my observatory."

Just then, Sam, Hawk and Cyrus walked in behind them and overheard that Jojo has an observatory. Cyrus asked, "You have an observatory?"

Jojo turned around and said, "Yeah, I was about to show your brothers there."

"You never told us you have an observatory." Sam said.

"Yeah, he did." Travis said.

"Oh, yeah. That's right. I forgot you have an observatory. Where is my head?" asked Hawk.

"Maybe it's not screwed on tight enough."

"Zip it."

"By the way, I loved your violin performance, Misty. It sounded awesome." Jonah said.

"Thanks. At least someone is in love with my violin playing." Misty said.

Mike scoffs and said, "That's just dumb luck. The teacher was like sucking up to ya, because he didn't want to really think you actually suck at this instrument."

"He said I did good."

"He has to say it. He's a teacher, duh!"

"But he was serious when he said the best performance said, duh!"

"Oh, whatever!"

"Are they always like this?" asked Hawk.

"Nah, usually they just bicker." Cody answered.

"Show them the observatory." Caitlyn said.

"What's it like there?" asked Sam.

"Follow me. It's pretty awesome there." Jojo said, as they lead them the way to the observatory.

The observatory scene is coming up soon! Stick around!