And this is where Jojo shows his new friends the observatory for the first time.
Chapter 10: A Tour of the Observatory
After school, Jojo walked back home from school, and as soon as he was trying to get a minute to himself, his dad comes in and said, "Hey, how's my 'soon-to-be-mayor' doing?"
Jojo scoffed sharply, but answered, "Fine."
"Listen, son. I've thought about this and I thought maybe that once I retire from my office when you're finished with college, you can have my office. It would make me so proud to see my son standing in my office."
Jojo didn't really feel like hearing the entire conversation, so he walked off and his dad said, "Good talk, son!"
He then went to his room and slammed the door and sat down on the edge of the bed. He groaned lowly and puts his head over his head and feels totally annoyed by his dad for his constant expectations of being mayor.
He stares at the ceiling for a while and wants to get away from the conversation for a while. But his dad's voice keep echoing through his head and it wouldn't stop for a while, which irriates the living crap out of Jojo. Frustrated, he got out of the room, went to the window and went out for a little air.
He walks out of the house for a while and went to the inventional enterance to the observatory. As he got there, he walked in and got some time to himself by just making some instruments. He looked around for some new stuff inspired by his notebook and plans to invent a guitar/piano instrument. He tinkers around with a few items around the observatory and starts building.
20 minutes later, he receives an unexpected visit from his friends. Jojo looks at the magnifying glass and sees someone's face there. He suddenly turns around and sees Cody and Mike there. Jojo chcukled nervously and said, "Hey, how'd you guys get here?"
"We figured you'd be here, so we thought we'd all look around and find you there." Mike said.
"How do you mean?"
Suddenly, Seth, Austin, Marcus, Chad and Zeke entered the observatory and Jojo was surprised that all of them would come by and see Jojo's 'getaway'. All of them were amazed to see the observatory for the first time. Marcus said, "So, this is the place where Mike and Cody told us about."
"What gave it away?" asked Jojo.
"Dude, you showed us your observatory, remember? So I figured we'd show our new buds the most awesome place that Jojo calls his 'second home'." Cody said.
"So, this is the place to actually get away from your dad?" asked Seth.
"Yeah, this is it."
"You know, it looks pretty cool."
Jojo smiled and said, "You guys wanna see cooler?"
He went on top of the observatory and turned on every invention he created that made music and sounds and with every invention he made, he showed it to his friends and all of them were impressed. He held on to the kite and then, went around the bells and landed on the giant rubber band balls, in which he pushed them down, jumped out of them and grabbed on the string and the rubber band balls bounced and he pulls down the lever and little metal balls dropped from the ladder and Jojo slids on the ladder railings.
All of Jojo's friends were amazed and surprised about the entire thing. Then, Jojo comes up and lands on the basket and all of his friends followed him as Jojo pulled another level, which sends them up to the air and into another part of the observatory and opened the roof, which overlooks all of Whoville.
All of them gasped and Jojo came down on to the ground and asked, "So, what do you think?"
"I think I wanna live here." Chad said.
Jojo chuckled and said, "It's an amazing place to sort of do inventions or I could get away from my dad."
"This is where you escape your dad and head out to some place that is totally you and nobody else?" asked Austin.
"Yeah, Austin."
"I could definitely come here and get away from my dad." Zeke said.
"Really, why?" asked Marcus.
Zeke sighed heavily and said, "My dad has a thing for sports and he's been a football player before I was even born. He told me that he's gonna pass it down to me and excel in sports. To be honest, I hate sports."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Did you try to tell your dad that?"
"Are you kidding? If I do, he'd disown me and I don't wanna disappoint him. Plus, he can be the physical type."
"How physical?" asked Chad.
"I've gotten several scars on his 'football boot camp practice'. I screw up and he throws some footballs on me. He's like, 'You got to do it perfectly and you got to do it right!' I mean, it makes me sick to my stomach just hearing him that."
"I bet that's gotta suck." Cody said.
"It does. And most times, he'd leave me jerseys, sports memoirabillia, all the crappy stuff I don't need. I've already took up music, because it can help me relate to everyone who's had the same experiences as I have, trying to be perfect when I know I'm not and they're not, because they're trying to be as perfect as possible but they know they're not and they're afraid to know the real deal about themselves. I write my own songs and most times, they just relate to me so deeply, I just feel so vulnerable deep inside of me and it's like a deep, dark hole of pressure, basically. And I don't want to be in his position."
"How long has this been like that?" asked Jojo.
"Since I was pretty much eight, when my mom died. Do you know how hard it is to have your father as a sports junkie trying to make sure everything you want him to do has to be 'perfect'? It sucks to me."
Hearing Zeke talk made Jojo understand the position he's in with his own father. He looks at him and said, "Zeke, I've only known you for a few hours, but it seems like we've got a huge connection going."
"I know."
"And you guys are always welcome to my observatory anytime you want."
"You mean it?" asked Chad.
"As in, we can come here, whenever we want?" asked Cody.
"Yeah. Just try not to mess up this place."
"Oh, sure. We'll try our hardest."
"Hey, Jojo. You make musical instruments too?" asked Seth.
"Yep."
"You guys wanna hang out at our house for a while?"
"Do we ever!" exclaimed Cody.
"Hey, Zeke. You can come too."
"Really? Thanks, guys." Zeke said.
"Don't mention it."
Everyone followed Seth and Austin to their place and it seems as though the observatory became an awesome place for them to see, because they can finally see that this is Jojo's getaway from his dad.
Sounds like the next chapter is gonna be fun! Stick around!