Chapter 4:
It's June now which means it's pride month and Haida is in the bedroom getting ready to go out and celebrate it with Jojo. While Jojo is busy spraying his bang rainbow colors Haida is standing infront of the mirror wearing his wedding outfit. Jojo is looking at him laughing.
"Babe, its going to be like 93 degrees at noon, do you really think its smart to wear that outfit," Jojo laughs causing Haida to groan and toss his dress shirt on the bed.
"Then what CAN I wear? I wanna look good because this is our very first pride event ever together." Haida says lifting his head and pouting. Jojo goes into the bathroom to wash the color off his hands before going to Haida and giving him a boop on his nose."Why don't we just wear our tanktops and shorts? We aren't having dinner with the queen so we dont need to get all dressed up silly." Jojo says as he grabs his black tank top that has "HIS QUEEN" with an arrow pointing to the right. Haida grabs his tank top that says "HIS KING" with the arrow pointing to the left.
"Shit, if I had to dress up everytime I had dinner with the queen, I would have to sleep in a tux." Haida says kissing Jojo on the lips before he could answer, Haida then leans over and whispers into Jojo's ear, "Because you are my queen."
Since the location for the pride event was close by Jojo and Haida decided to walk there. Once they got near the location they could already hear arguments, you hear people shouting hurtful things about the community, and you have people in the community shouting hurtful things about the other side.
"Fucking dammit," Haida says placing his hand on his face,"We literally just got here and its already going to shit." Haida takes a deep breath as he grabs Jojo's hand and leads him down the sidewalk his teeth clenched. It took every ounce of energy Haida had not to snap at these people that was shouting things to Jojo
"DIE FAGGOT! YOU ARE AN ABOMINATION! YOU DON'T BELONG!" People kept pointing and shouting these things the whole time. Once Haida them got to the crosswalk he looks over at Jojo and is about to say something but stops when he sees a little trickle of blood. Haida with a trembling hand lifts Jojo by the chin and lifts his bang with another, a little trickle of blood can be seen on the side of his eye.
"THESE HEARTLESS FUCKS!" Haida screams as he turns around and about to sprint back into the direction of the protestors when Jojo grabs him by the arm and shakes his head. Haida sighs and the couple head across the street to the event. Once there Haida's attitude changes as he and Jojo are having a blast, talking to people, meeting others from different cultures and walks of life. While walking along checking out the things people are selling they come across this table with papers and pins.
"Oh what are these?" Haida asks.
"Oh we call it actions, so what you do is you grab a piece of paper, we have various permanent markers and you can write anything you want and you pin it to your shirt" A red panda says smiling and showing a set of braces with rainbow bands. Haida and Jojo look at each other and smile before grabbing a piece of paper and started writing something. Once they were done the panda was looking at what they wrote and had a confused look on his face.
"What is hug com, and what is reassurance bo?" Haida and Jojo pin their letters to their shirts and the panda's expression changes. " Ohhh hug and reassurance combo I get it now, thats cute let me know how it goes." The panda says waving as Haida them walk away. An hour passes since they been there and Haida decides to grab a quick bite since they woke up late and missed breakfast. While waiting in line for a food cart Haida feels a tug on his shirt. He turns around and sees a teenage badger holding her shoulder looking down.
"Can I help you miss?" Haida asks, the girl just points to his shirt and Haida understood. He tapped Jojo on the shoulder and nudged his head into the badger's direction. Haida and Jojo move to each side of the badger before embracing her in their arms. Jojo speaks first.
"I just want you to know I am so proud of you and everything you accompished and will accomplish, just know that even in storms things eventually heal." Jojo then uses his pointer finger to tap Haida on his arm.
"Me and my Husband want you to take this to heart, you are loved, you are precious, and you deserve to be happy just like everyone else, always lift your head high and be proud of who you are and where you come from, and know that you belong even if you tell yourself you don't."
The girl begins to sob for a few mins and once she is done she wipes her eyes and smiles thanking looks back and notices the line got longer, he just shrugs his shoulder.
"Ah shit, I guess we stepped out of line, oh well lets go look for a smaller line somewhere else," Jojo says as him and Haida are about to walk away but stop dead in their tracks when they hear someone shout stop. Jojo turns around and sees a hairless cat waving them over.
"Yes did you need us for something?" Jojo asks, the cat hands them a piece of paper that appears to be the food truck's menu. The cat grabs a notepad and a pen from his sleeve.
"What can I getcha folks, you can order what you want and it's on the house buds, I saw whatcha guys did for that girl and well shit you guys were with her foyr 15 minutes." That cat says scratching the pen on his notepad,"Ugh fish n chips be right back this pen aint writing."
Jojo and Haida look over the menu, but then hears very familiar voices shouting, Jojo them turn around to see Jason, Caspser, Desoto, and Rosco running over and bowing real quick.
"Sup your majesties," the four college students say together in unison showing a cocky grin. Jason gives his dads a hug and they all start to talk.
"Oh...there's more of you" The cat says scribbling on his notepad making sure the pen he has now worked.
"Yeah sorry, don't worry we can go find somewhere else to grab a quick bite." Haida says,
"Oh don't your little skittle heart worry about a thing, I was just checking to see which pen worked and when I turned around i saw 4 more people, haha I thought the heat was getting to me, so now what can I get for ya...your majesties" the cat says taking a slight bow himself.
"Could we get 6 cheeseburgers, 2 of them delux, 1 no pickles, 2 no mayo." Before Haida can finish Jojo speaks up." Actually can I get a chili cheese dog?" Jojo asks.
"Sure thing bud, do you want bean or beanless, and if you look to the right of the name you will see 4 peppers no peppers is mild up to spicy so which would you like sir?"
"Can I get a mild beanless chili cheese dog...please" Jojo asks. The cat nods before going back into the truck, twenty minutes pass and the cat finally calls out to them telling them their order is ready.
"So sorry bout the wait, had to play catch up on some orders and well yea sorry bout that."
"Oh don't you worry your little skittle heart, we aint mad" Jason them say in unison causing everyone to bust out laughing. The cat hands them the food and drinks before thanking the group for waiting and hoping they have a good day, but before the cat could go back in Jason stops him.
"Oh, did you guys need more napkins?"
"No we are good, but I want to give you something, and you cannot say no, you must accept ok...by order of the queen." Jason says holding out a hundred dollar bill.
"Oh thank you but I..." the cat stops and just lets out a soft chuckle,"I cannot say no, so thank you very much it means so much to me" the cat says.
"And what you did for my dads...meant the world to them, and I want to thank you for your kindness" Jason says before turning around and seeing that the group was waiting for him. They find a nice little spot in the shade and they begin eating. Luckily they had a plate because when Jason bit into his burger the back half fell out and Jojo's cheese dog broke apart the moment he picked it up. Luckily he grabbed a plastic fork and began to eat the hot dog that way. While they are eating they see the protestors on their side of the street. Haida just lets out an irritated sigh.
"As long as they don't bother us babe we should be ok, we shouldn't let people ruin this day for us and our family," Jojo says finishing his hotdog. Jojo spoke to soon as the protestors began to make their way through the pride event and stopping by Jojo them.
"Hey dont you know that being gay is a major problem?! You people are always trying to shove your sexuality down everyones throats. We give you a foot and you guys take a mile, now it seems like every show or movie now has to have one gay character or closet case, you guys will never be loved, you will always be hated and shunned you guys will die alone!" A hippo yells at Jojo them. Jojo looks at the hippo and begins to tear up.
"Listen, I just wanna be able to spend this day with my husband my son and his friends in peace, can you just please leave us alone? We haven't done anything to you, we are just trying to enjoy this day that's all I ask please just leave us alone."
"No you're a homo, a faggot, you are the problem of this world, the world has been tainted and corrupted with your foul existance." The hippo says, Haida looks over to Jojo to ask him if he is ok, but his heart just drops and his ears fold as he sees that blank stare on Jojo's face, that blank stare that he knew all to well, that stare was Jojo's way of saying "I give up."
Haida was about to speak when Desoto spoke up, "You wanna talk about shoving anything down people's throats, how many times have you guys forced your beliefs on others, if they dont believe what you believe that makes them less of a person than you?! I thought you guys were supposed to love everyone, but no it seems you only love those who believe in what you believe that is it. Now your fucking attitude and words are really making my best friend's dad upset and I really don't like that, so just fucking leave or I will call security. Normally I would just beat your ass but I don't want to ruin it for my friend's dads."
A few of the Hippo's friends begin to walk towards Jojo them but Jason, Desoto, Rosco, and Casper stand in the way.
"You are not going to get to my dads," Jason says arms crossed his eyes glaring at the opposing people.
"We are going to keep them safe, because we know they would do the same for us so take one more step and we are going to assume you intend to cause harm and we will beat your asses. As the two sides were about to square off a jackal comes over wearing a security uniform.
"Just what the fuck is going on here?" the jackal asks staring at both sides.
"These people were harassing us, and their words triggered my dad," Jason says walking over to Jojo and rubbing his shoulder.
"Triggered how?"
"Triggered as in, we cannot leave him by himself at the moment because if we do he may try to take his life." Haida says, holding Jojo by the waist.
"Sir are you feeling suicidal? do you want me to call you medical?" The jackal asks looking at Jojo, who just keeps his blank stare not saying a word.
"It's ok sir, we got this if we do need you guys we will come get you ok. Thank you for your concern." Desoto says trying to feed Jojo a bite of his churro. Jojo slowly opens his mouth to nibble on the churro.
"Ok yeah I think we will be ok sir thank you very much," Haida says nudging Jojo's neck. Jojo looks at everyone and lets out a small grin as he nods his head, everyone smiles as they continue to enjoy the pride event. Three hours later as the event is ending and everyone is leaving, Jojo hops into the passenger seat with a smile on his face as he nods off falling asleep while Haida drives to drop off Jason and his friends back at the campus before going home with Jojo.
August comes around and Jason is at home visiting his parents before going on a trip with Desoto them for spring break. Sitting on the couch the family is watching youtube videos when a recommendation pops up. Jojo seeing who it is quickly clicks on it. After the ad the video starts and there is an otter standing with a tea leaf lei around his neck. he begins to speak.
"Hey everyone, this is Sam Otter, I want you all to know that there is a crisis going on in Maui, Maui is one of the hawaiian islands and there was a huge forest fire, people lost their homes, some lost special items that cannot be replaced, some even lost loved ones. I know many of you may not know who I am or saw my past videos, but please if you can either donate, help in anyway you are able too or just send your best wishes to those affected...Mahalo and much much aloha."
The video ends and Jojo just gets up and walks away sniffling. While Jojo heads to the bedroom Jason looks at Haida. "Dad..Is there anything we can do to help? I mean Jojo is Hawaiian isn't he? Lets show our support and go help the families." Haida smiles and ruffles Jason's hair.
"You are such a wonderful son...don't ever change for anyone unless you want the change." Haida gets on the phone and calls Anai, Jason on the other hand runs to his room and begins going through his drawers finding cloths that he doesn't wear anymore and some old games he doesn't play. Jason begins to pack all his old stuff in trash bags when he hears a knock on the door. Jason goes to the door and opens it and sees his crew standing there.
"Hey J you ready to start heading out for our road trip?" Desoto asks.
"Hey guys, I am so sorry I know we had plans to go on a road trip but there was a really bad fire on one of the hawaiian islands so I was going to try and go with my parents to see if we can do anything to help out. You guys can go on the road trip and tell me how it is, take plenty of pictures for me alright."
"Oh hell no, you are not going to go to a Hawaiian Island and think that you can leave us behind, we been to one island already we see the culture we see the people we see the love they have, if you are going to help then so are we...if thats ok" Casper says. Haida hears the conversation and peaks through the kitchen and simply smiles and throws up the rock sign. Seeing the approval from Haida the friends all smile at each other and kneel.
"We will assist his majesty Jojo in any way shape or form that we can," The friends all say in unison before standing up and giving each other a high five. Desoto and the others all head home to gather things that they no longer use and agree to be back at the house the next morning.
The next morning Jojo's alarm goes off and he gets up scratching the back of his head and letting out a sigh. After brushing his teeth he heads into the living room to see Jason and his crew, Anai, Tadano, Henry and Haida all standing there wearing the hawaiian shirts they got from their first visit to the islands.
"What's going on guys?" Jojo asks.
"We are going to go help out those in Maui, but we gotta hurry its a long ass trip. we already have a ship carrying canned foods and other things that headed out this morning but lets go and help out those that need us...your majesty." Tadano says. Jojo lets out a sniffle before smiling and they all head over to Tadano's private airport and hop on his plane and make their journey to Maui.
After the long 8hr flight they begin their descent. Jason them all stare outside their hearts drop and tears begin to form in their eyes. The beautiful land, now charred and ashes. When they land they grab there stuff and get off the plane, looking at the damage all around them. They can hear families sobbing their hearts out, they can see medics taking care of the wounded,
Jason chokes up a bit before speaking, "Dad...anything you need us to do, name it and it will be done." Jason places his head against his dad's chest before sobbing. Jojo kisses the top of Jason's head letting his own tears fall. Haida, Tadano, Henry Anai, and Jojo begin to hand out some meals and drinks to families that are struggling and to the people working hard to help the situation.
Jason's heart begins to ache, so he grabs his amp and finds a decent sized rock wall. plugging his guitar into his amp and turning it on before clipping a microphone onto his shirt. he begins to talk.
"Um excuse me, I know that I am not a local or anything, but my dad is and he is so proud of his culture and his roots as he calls it that we flew all the way here to help. so I would like to sing some songs to try to help the mood out, and I just want you all to know, that from the bottom of my heart...we will win and things will be ok, we are all here as one big ohana.
It feels like you are all alone
having the grief weigh heavy on your shoulders
do not stumble my friend, I will catch you before you fall
dry your tears my brothers and sisters for in the end we are standing tall
against the flames of our heartaches, we brace ourselves for the storms
In the time of great grief reach out to me, my shoulder will catch your tears
If you are weak, fall into my arms my friend for I am your armor today.
Chorus
e kū pū me aʻu e lilo wau i hoaaloha nou
Aia wau ma kou ʻaoʻao a hiki i ka hopena
koa mākou, ikaika mākou
i ka hopena o ka lā
e hookiekie i ko kakou mau poo
ke loaa ia kakou kekahi i kekahi, e ike kakou i ka lanakila
I ka hopena e lanakila mākou
e manaʻoʻiʻo mai iaʻu e like me koʻu manaʻoʻiʻo iā ʻoe
(stand with me and I will be your friend
I'll be by your side until the end
we are brave, we are strong
at the end of the day
let's hold our heads high
when we find each other, we will see victory
In the end we will win
believe me like i believe you)
Jason and his crew continue to sing the chorus with people joining in, after a few minutes, they end the song with soft rhythm. You can hear the islanders shouting Hana hou and cheering, Jason hops off the ledge when he sees an otter walking up to him.
"Hey mahalo Jason for you and your friends coming out and showing your support," The otter says extending his hand.
"Hey quick question, you wouldn't happen to be Sam Otter would you?" Jason asks letting go of his hand.
"Oh, haha I'm guessing you saw my video on youtube huh, yeah that's me."
"Dude this is awesome, my dad is a huge fan, he actually showed me some of the videos that you made that talk about the culture and everything. It was awesome...Oh oh oh...would you be willing to meet my dad?" Jason asks.
"Of course, we gotta show aloha right, to everyone for everyone" Sam says
The crew walk through the crowd with Sam behind them, as they come across Jojo them sitting down and eating musubi's and taking a break.
"Hey dad, we got someone who wants to meet you," Jason says grinning widely.
"Oh really? Who son?" Jojo asks, just then Sam steps out from behind them and Jojo's jaw just drops
"OH NAH! IT'S REALLY YOU, SAM OTTER! BRAH WHEN I WEN MOVE TO DA MAINLAND I SHOWED EVERYONE YOUR VIDEOS BECUZ LES BE REO FO A MINUTE, YOU REALLY SHOW THE TRUE CULTURE AND NOT SOME VIDEO VLOG CLICK FOR LIKES BULLSHIT." Jojo says standing up wiping his hand on his pants before holding it out. Sam lets out a laugh as he grabs Jojo's hand in a firm handshake.
"YESSUH!" Sam exclaims as both him and Jojo let out a cheer (Chee Hoo) next thing you know, it was like a domino effect you hear one cheer after another like a breeze of hope after a storm.
Jojo them stay for a few days to continue to help with cooking for the people of Maui as well as helping unload the trucks and and boats that arrive. The islanders thank Jason them constantly as they are about to leave they hear some voices behind them, when they turn around they see a few children holding some food and a can of juice,
"Mahalos for showing some aloha and coming to help us during this trial times." A little boy says. Jason them all nod as they head back to the airport. Once they are all on the plane they begin their trip home, an hour into the flight everyone is fast asleep. Haida and Jojo are the first to wake up and notice they got about another hr left till they land.
"Hey my queen, you did a great thing helping those that are facing a disaster. Your heart no matter how much times it has been broken will always run to the aid of people who truly need it." Haida says kissing Jojo on the nose.
"My king, I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you and Jason and the rest of our kingdom, you guys didn't have to assist but you all knew of my culture and how much it means to me and." Jojo begins to sniff trying to hold back the tears, "You guys came to the rescue as always, no matter what even if I am not rich in finances I am rich in love and support." Jojo says wrapping Haida's arms around him nuzzling up against his husband. Once the plane lands and everyone wakes up, they grab their belongings and head back home. Tadano invites Desoto them to stay the night.
After a well deserved sleep and a nice shower, the gang all decide to go out to eat breakfast at a diner, once seated and looking at the menu they hear the tv going talking about the events that are currently still going on in Maui. The whole gang look at the tv at the same time when they hear a familiar voice. on the TV they see Sam wearing a tea leaf lei around his neck.
"You know, things have been still bad but little by little and day by day we are trying our hardest and best to help these locals as best as we can. We had some unexpected help from the mainland, I know alot of islanders moved to the mainland for a better future and I know alot of them would have come to help if they could but we did get help from a braddah named Jason and his friends, who said they came because his dad is a local and he knew how much his dad's culture means to him so they came and helped. Jason even played lived music, one local was able to record the band so here is a video of them singing a song. I want Jason to know that, you may not be born a local but you got the heart of one. I will repay this kindness one day. Lastly Jojo you and your husband are raising a fine kid." Sam raises a shaka and lets out a cheer wihich sets off a chain yet again. Once the cheering is dies down Sam lets out another "YESSUH". Jason them all smile and let out a "Yessuh" of their own.
The waitress brings their food and the family begins to dig in, an hour later after eating their meals and having dessert Haida raises his hand for the bill. The waitress comes by and tells them that her manager said that their meal was free and that the world needs more people like them.
Not wanting to be rude they left a 40$ tip and left, spending their day off hanging out with each other and going to the the amusement park. Back on Maui Sam looks at his phone and sees that he has Jason's number added, placing his phone back in his pocket he looks out to the ocean with smoke still thick and hard to see past he softly says. "Yes I will return the favor."