A day in Seth and Austin's house...for hanging out.

Chapter 11: Hanging Out with the Zuckerman's

Not long after leaving the observatory, the gang made their way into the Zuckerman's place. Jojo, Marcus, Cody, Mike, Chad and Zeke entered into the house and they were amazed by how it looks. Mike gasped and said, "This is where you guys live?"

"Yeah. It's not much, but we got separate rooms." Seth said.

"Separate rooms?"

"Back in WhatCity, we used to live a 2-bedroom apartment with our dad-dad had his room and we shared another room, where we had bunk beds. I had to top bunk and Austin had the bottom bunk."

"Which I was still jealous of." Austin said.

Seth scoffed and said, "Dude, you know that the top bunk went to be, because I was born older than you."

"By 10 seconds, big deal."

"Besides, you always toss and turn on the bottom bunk and snore louder."

"I don't snore."

"Yeah, you do. You had me awake most of the night that I grew sleepy every morning."

"That's big talk coming from someone who talks in his sleep."

Seth gasped in offense and said, "Name one time that I did that."

"One time? I could count hundreds-talking about school, monster movies, cheerleaders and also Maddie."

Seth's heart drops when Austin mentioned it. Chad asked, "Who's Maddie?"

"She's the girl we used to know in WhatCity Middle School that Seth had a crush on."

"Austin..."

Most of them were chuckling and stuff. Seth was embarrassed and asked Austin, "How'd you know about my crush on Maddie? I never mentioned one word about her."

"Dude, you had a crush on her, you named your pillow after her."

"Seriously?" asked Mike.

"That was one night."

"And kissed on it."

"Dude, you kissed a pillow?" asked Cody.

"Sorta."

Cody chuckled and said, "You got it bad."

"But she moved to Whokyo before seventh grade, so..."

"That's cool. Nice place, by the way."

"You guys like?"

"Yeah!"

"Show us your rooms."

"Sure thing."

Seth and Austin followed them upstairs to their rooms and they showed them Seth's room. Cody asked, "This is your room, Seth?"

"Yeah, this is my room."

"Looks kinda cool." Zeke said.

"This thing is the best room of the house as well as a view of the town. And also, I have an awesome guitar in front of you. To be honest, I keep all of my guitars in my closet."

"When you say guitars..." said Mike.

"I own 12."

"12 guitars? That's a lot of guitars."

"Well, my dad's a guitarist and back in WhatCity, he would give me and Austin some guitars. He worked at a guitar store and he loves music and everything."

"Man, I wish my dad was like your dad." Zeke said.

"Whoa, you like Who-kin Park?" asked Cody.

"Dude, love them. Me and Austin went to their concert one time and it was crazy-bananas good. And they even autographed it."

"Oh, man. That's cool."

"Totally."

"How many posters you have?"

"10."

"That's awesome."

"When I wanna get away for a little while, I just pick up my guitar and just have some time for myself. Get lost in my world and forget about everything."

"That's Seth's way of saying, 'Give me some space' or something like that." Austin said.

"Yeah, that too."

"Anyways, his room's cool. Not as cool as mine, though."

"Okay, let us see it." Marcus said.

Austin followed them to his room and when they came in, they saw that it looked more cooler from Seth's room. Jojo said, "Wow, this is amazing."

"Isn't it, though? This is my sensitive emo-rocky room. Kinda dark-not too dark-but somewhat of a punk-angsty vibe."

"Punk-angsty. Could be in the dictionary." Chad said.

"Like Seth said, our dad's a guitarist and I only have 11 guitars, so I'm almost to how many Seth owns."

"And this is your notebook?" asked Zeke.

"Oh, yeah. This is my songwriting book. In it comes lyrics. Mostly when I was in WhatCity and I started writing when I was 12, because I knew I was faced with serious tormenting in my life, so."

"Mind if I have a look?"

"Go nuts."

Zeke opened the notebook and sees that those are Austin's personal feelings written down in paper and reads one of them.

You must not have a heart have nothing on your chest to let it go for so long and let this go so far that it goes over your head

You could fool anyone with your plastic smile and you could live in your lie for only a while and I could only take so much and I admit this could be worse but it goes over your head

What does she have can you let go can you tell me what I am aching to know

"Wow. What was the purpose of writing this?"

"Basically, all girls who were pretty much trying to look like pretty girls like the kind of fake girls that you see on the hallways and they try to hide away from what their true feelings are, so they'd be afraid of being rejected."

"Geez. That's crazy."

Then, Zeke goes into another song that pretty much got into Zeke's mind that relates to him in several other ways in one way: pressure.

Maybe it's the things I say Maybe I should think before I speak But I thought I knew enough to know myself and do what's right for me

And these walls I'm building now you used to bring them down and the tears I'm crying out you used to wipe away

I thought you said it was easy listening to your heart I thought you'd say I'd be okay So why am I falling apart

Don't wanna be torn, don't wanna be torn, don't wanna be torn, don't wanna be torn

Zeke looked at Austin and asked, "What was the reason for that song?"

"The pressure of most students thinking that I'm not good enough to be in every clique and it makes me feel torn inside, because I'm just being myself and the students aren't accepting that because they see me and my brother as emo."

"That's gotta make a huge impact."

"It has."

"What's the coolest thing about this room?" asked Chad.

"The coolest thing about this room is the mini-fridge and microwave. So, I got some food from here. Some water, soda and different kinds of food where I can literally snack on when I'm watching a movie or something."

One look at the mini-fridge and there's a lot of stuff there. Jojo chuckled and said, "That is a cool mini-fridge."

"Wanna see the basement?"

"Sure."

They followed them to the basement and Seth turned on the light and went downstairs and said, "Well, this is it. It's not much, but it could be the hangout room."

"You guys have a few things there, like a hockey table and a pool table." Marcus said.

"Me and my dad are working on it pretty soon and hopefully we'll make it totally rad."

"So, what do we do now?"

"Show us your guitar skills."

Seth brings out his guitar and plays a little song there. Everyone was getting into it and they see that Seth has been taking some lessons and completed the song within two minutes. Jojo chuckled and said, "That's awesome."

"Isn't it though?"

"Yeah, it is."

Everyone went upstairs and went to the living room and suddenly, they found out that Corey was here in the kitchen. When he walked in the living room, he was surprised that everyone was here. Seth said, "Hey, dad. We got some company here."

"Hello again, Mr. Zuckerman." Cody said.

"Cody, Michael, Jojo, Chad, Marcus and-"

He looked at Zeke and he grew confused, because he's never seem him before. He turned to him and asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Ezekiel Silverman, but I go for Zeke. I just moved here from Whoville yesterday." Zeke said.

"I'm Corey Zuckerman, Seth and Austin's father."

"Nice to meet you, sir."

They shook hands and he asked, "You're new here?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Are the boys getting along with you?"

"Yes, sir?"

Corey sees that he's a little nervous about meeting new people and he smiles at him and said, "There's nothing to be nervous about."

"Zeke's kinda...shy." Jojo said.

"Sometimes."

"Well, don't worry about it, okay? Since you guys are here anyway, I have pizza for you all." Corey said.

Then, Corey pulls out 3 boxes of pizza and sets them at the table. Everyone grabs some plates and eats some pizza. Marcus asked, "You took a job at a pizza place here?"

"Yeah. Reason why-I want to run my own pizza place, but I don't have much for it, so I thought I might work at a local pizza place in Whoville until I can actually afford to open up my own pizzeria. It pays like $50 a week."

"That's amazing."

"Second reason-my step-wife-I love her, but she's kinda the organic kind. Makes us eat some healthy, organic stuff and I'm not so much a fan of organic foods."

"Like this morning when you threw some of the organic eggs in the trash without her knowing?" asked Austin.

"She didn't even know that it was me."

"And spat out wheat grass?"

"That tastes like actual grass mixed with green puke." Seth said.

"Not at the table, please." Cody said.

"Thank you, Cody. It's not that my stepwife's a bad cook, it's just that organic foods-make me yak. I can cook a little, but pizza's like my only dinner I can go for." Corey said.

"My dad cooks like pasta, steak and he's also a snack guy." Austin said.

"That's how I live by."

20 minutes later, everyone's starting to get home and Marcus, Chad, Cody and Mike went with Zeke to take them home while Corey, along with Seth and Austin took Jojo back home. Jojo pointed the way back to the house and when they got there, Corey knocked on the door and Ned answeres the door and sees Corey along with Jojo.

Suddenly, Corey recognizes his face and Ned asked, "Can I help you?"

"Ned McDodd, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hey, it's me-Corey Zuckerman, pizza delivery guy here."

"Oh, nice to see you again."

"Well, anyways, I just...came to bring Jojo home, if that's all right with you."

"Sure, of course."

"These are my boys-Seth and Austin. This is Ned McDodd, the mayor of Whoville."

"Hello there."

"So, you're Jojo's dad?" asked Austin.

"Yes I am."

"He's told us about you a little."

"How much so?"

"That you're the mayor of Whoville."

"That I am."

"Well, anyways...I just wanted to make sure that Jojo made it back home safely." Corey said.

"Well, thanks."

Jojo comes in the house and tells Corey, "Thanks for letting me stay, even though it was Austin and Seth's idea."

"You're welcome here anytime."

"I'll see you guys tomorrow at school."

"See ya, Jojo." Austin said.

Jojo walks upstairs to his room while Corey clears his throat and said, "Well, we don't want to take too much of your time. We'd better get going."

"Thanks for brining my son back home."

"You're welcome."

"Nice to meet you boys."

"Same here, Mr. McDodd." Seth said.

Now that's cool! The songs are 'Over My Head, Below the Knees' from Newfound Glory and 'Don't Wanna Be Torn' from Hannah Montana. I've got some drama coming up in the next chapter, requested by my awesome friend, vampire1031. Hope you like it!