This chapter will put out a huge dramatic edge. It will make you wonder what's gonna happen. Well, the answers are all right here, and please believe me, it's gonna be intense!

Chapter 15: Disappointment Rage

A few hours later, back at home, Jonah was strumming his Who-Guitar to sort of take it easy for a while. After the music class, it seems as though he would pursue music over sports, something his stepdad was trying to push him into something that could literally pressure him. He stopped for a while, sighed heavily and just thought about what would actually happen if he could tell Paul about choosing music instead of sports, like he's worried about what the reaction he will get. Knowing him, he'd beat the crap out of him.

He continued on playing his Who-Guitar, hoping that he can tell him whenever the time is right. Until...

"JONAH!"

He abruptly stops playing and it was interrputed by Paul's voice. He shuddered silently and he puts down the guitar, hops out of the bed, walks over to the room and asked, "Y-Yeah?"

"Get down here, stupid!" Paul shouts.

He walks silently down the stairs, standing in front of Paul, looking incredibly ticked off at him. He asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Why all of a sudden are you taking music class?"

He knew the subject was up. His lowered his eyes down on the ground and replies, "My schedule changed."

"What kind of nimwit could change your freakin' schedule? We've only been here a week and already your schedule changes?"

"The prinicipal changed it."

"I'm gonna go to that school and force him to put you back in Physical Ed."

"I actually hate P.E."

Hearing this made Paul froze and it made him even more mad as he slowly turned to Jonah and asked, "What...did you say?"

"I hated P.E. since I first came here. I was sitting the bleachers with my brothers every day, cause we're not all sports people or fitness people."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing. You're gonna give up your dreams of being an athlete into this music?"

"That 'athletic' dream was your dream. Not mine. I hated sports!"

Paul slapped him in the face and shouted, "That's a lie! A BIG FAT LIE!"

"I'm not lying, dad! I don't want to pursue your dreams and I hate sports and I hated being treated like crap because of you!"

"Watch who you're talking to!"

"I can say whatever I want to say! It's a done deal. I'm taking music class!"

Paul was seething so hard and said, "This is all that young Who's fault-Jojo! Did he bring you into it?"

"No, my schedule changed and he never talked me into it. He was in the same class as me, but he never talked me into it."

"LIAR!"

Paul punched Jonah hard and shoved him to the wall. He comes at him and kicks the table around and then, Jonah started to run, but Paul threw everything at him to get his senses. Then, he runs towards him, lunged at his neck and grabs on it in a dangerous rage. He rolls over him, beats him down with punches and he's still strangling him. Jonah suddenly can't breathe, because Paul was grabbing his neck so hard, it's almost like he was dying.

Then, Paul lets go of his neck and looks at him with both disappointment and disgust. He backs away from him angry-like as he watched Jonah trying to gasp for air, but all he could do is just walk away and say, "You are useless. I don't even know who you are anymore. You're the most useless, stupid piece of trash that has ever threw off the face of the earth. I hope you die."

Then, he walks into his room, leaving Jonah gasping for air, helpless. He tried to get up and ran out of the house, running away. He reaches over to the McDodd residence, but his oxygen was almost starting to run out. He panted furiously, which made it even worse. He knocks on the door, but all of a sudden, he collapses in front of the door, choking for air. The door suddenly opens and it's Ned coming out and before his very eyes, he sees Jonah gasping for air.

"Help...me..."

Ned was horrified to see him laying down on the ground without any air coming in. He picks him up and takes him inside the house and then, as soon as he gets upstairs, Jonah's eyes were bulging out in unconsciousness. Ned sees his eyes closed and he suddenly panicks. Sally comes out of the room and sees Ned carrying Jonah. She looks at him, concerned like and asked, "What's wrong with Jonah?"

"I don't know. He looks unconscious."

He puts Jonah down and sees that something is wrong with him. She asked, "Think something happened?"

Ned didn't even bother to know who did it. He knows who it was. He angrily said, "I bet it was his stepdad."

"His stepdad? What are you talking about?" asked Sally.

"I know he had something to do with this, Sal."

"How do you know that he could even do something like this?"

"I saw what happened to him a few nights before. His stepdad was hurting him and so did his brothers. They couldn't see us, but I can tell that he's traumatized by it."

"Mr. McDodd!"

Then, they both turned around and saw Travis frantically running up the stairs, looking totally panic-stricken. He frantically said, "I saw my stepdad...he tried to kill my brother and I saw him runaway and I though he was gonna die and..."

Ned held his shoulders and said, "Calm down, Travis. Calm down. Take a deep breath, okay?"

Travis took a deep breath and tried to calm down and Ned asked, in a calm voice, "What happened to Jonah?"

Travis looked totally scared and said, "I saw Paul...grabbing his neck at him really hard and he choked him. He can't breathe."

Ned felt completely horrified of all this and Sally was shocked to hear something like this. She said, "I don't believe what I'm hearing. How could he do something like that?"

"Paul always gets mad at us for no reason and all the stress and anger turn into ultimate violence. He takes it out on us." Travis answered.

"Sally, can you give him some water?" asked Ned.

Thinking fast, Sally got downstairs to the kitchen to get some water and suddenly, he heard a raspy breath coming from behind Ned and Travis. They slowly turn around and it was Jonah. He moaned heavily and started coughing weird-like and violently. Travis quickly ran up to him and Ned asked, "Is he okay?"

"I don't know."

Jonah slowly got up and walked slowly and stopped into a wall, looking like he's been traumatized. He looked up and saw Ned standing there. He asked, "Are you okay, Jonah?"

He blinked twice and Jonah groggily answered, "No..."

Then, Ned can see Jonah looking like he was gonna throw up and Ned quickly took him to the bathroom and just vomited on the toilet. For Travis, it was a disturbing sight to see...his own brother puking. Sally quickly returned upstairs and saw Ned in the bathroom with Jonah, regurgitating. Jonah moans heavily and said, "I need some water."

Sally quickly gave him the water and starts drinking it. After he swallows it, he wipes off his mouth and starts panting. Then, he looks at Travis, looking horrified and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you losing air. I was so scared that I was worried that you would die."

"Paul really lost it, didn't he?" asked Ned.

"Really hard. He just bruised me and choked me so hard."

"Travis, can you call Jojo?"

"I can send him a text."

"Where is Jojo?" asked Jonah.

"He's at the observatory."

Travis sent him a frantic text to Jojo to his phone, and he send it to him. Sally and Ned picked up Jonah and took him downstairs to the living room and puts him on the couch. Jonah took a deep breath and he exhaled heavily, then he grabbed his neck, wheezing softly. Then, he sits up and shakes his head a little bit, hoping that he's okay.

Travis was mortified to see him like this. Jonah looked at Travis and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm so worried about you taking a beating from Paul. When I saw him choke you, I thought you were dead."

"Why didn't you come help me?"

"If Paul sees me in fear, he'll do the same thing to me as he did to you."

"Good point."

Ned and Sally came in and Sally said, "It's a good thing you came here when you did."

"You told us about what happened in a situation like this. It takes guts to do that." Ned said.

"It does?" asked Travis.

"Yes."

Suddenly, the door opens and closes quickly and it's Jojo, looking worried. He said, "I came as soon as I got the text."

Jojo looks at Jonah, moaning in agony and Jojo was shocked to hear what happened. He turned to his parents and asked, "What's wrong with Jonah?"

"Paul choked him." Travis said.

Jojo turns around and sees Travis sitting there, looking panic-stricken. He asked, "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough."

"Tell us what happened." Sally said.

Jonah took a deep breath and said, "Well, the reason why he did that was I told him I took music class, because my schedule changed. He was disappointed that I took music class over P.E. and then, he lost it. He just lost it. He wanted me to pursue in sports, but that was his dream to put me in it. I took music class over P.E. and he went beserk. Then, he lunged at my throat and beat me down and threw me with everything in the house. It was so horrible. Then, after he choked me, I couldn't breathe. I felt my life was flashing before my eyes and he called me, 'useless, stupid excuse for a stepson' and also 'piece of trash' and ended with 'I hope you die.' That was brutal and it felt like it stabbed me in the heart."

Sally was horrified to hear something like that and Ned covered his face, because he was totally upset that Paul could do something like this for no reason. He sighed heavily and said, "We are genuinely sorry that this happened to you and we are sorry that you had to see that."

"At times, I would often cry at night because something terrible might happen to us and Paul would do it to us. All five of us don't feel safe there."

Jojo blinked his eyes and held on Jonah's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry that he did this to my best friend."

Jonah looked into Jojo's eyes and tears were coming out of his face as he heard 'best friend' again. He said, "I've never had someone care for me that much."

"How do you mean?" asked Ned.

"Well, when we first moved to Whoville, we're afraid that people would judge us for who we are and they wouldn't be friends of us, cause we're different and they'd call us 'emo' and they wouldn't care if our stepdad abused us, because we'd be the laughingstock of the school."

"What Jonah's saying is that we're pretty much outcasts and nobody would care about us in a situation like this...until Jojo came." Travis said.

"We would care about every situation that you're in. It's been a few days since I've known you, but I'm sorry to see you and your brothers in this situation and our hearts hurts for you." Ned said.

"There must be something we can do about this." Jojo said.

"Forget it. It's hopeless. Paul is a monster and we can't get him mad." Jonah said.

"Well, if there's anything we can do, just let us know and maybe we can help." Sally said.

Jonah and Travis looked at both Ned and Sally and then Jojo and they feel like they're angels helping them. Travis started crying softly and Jonah hugged him tightly as he cried in his shoulders. Ned got totally misty-eyed and Jojo said to them, "I wish you guys were my brothers."

"So do we." Jonah said.

"I feel the same way." Travis said, tearfully.

Ned, Sally and Jojo reached in and hugged both Jonah and Travis. Ned starts thinking that those boys shouldn't have to live in this situation and he hopes to do something to make it stop and also to get away from Paul. He looks at Jojo and sees that he's lucky to have friends like them. Inside and outside of him, he's deeply proud of Jojo for being there for them when needed. That makes him a better friend.

Was that dramatic or what? Good thing he got some help, though. Stay tuned for more!