Music to My Ears -Chapter 12-

A few days had past, and Jojo and Natalie were still together, but the plan was still that Natalie would move house, now in only three days her mum said. Natalie was getting really anxious, and so was Jojo. Neither of them knew what will happen. They truly did need a miracle.

It was Friday, and school was finally over for another week. Natalie couldn't believe the week she'd had - this time last week she was going home excited and happy about her first date. She couldn't have even imagined it would all end like this.

Jojo had a detention after school so he said he'd see her later on, so today she was walking home alone. It felt weird walking home on her own now - she was so used to Jojo always being by her side.

All of a sudden, the ground shook and everything was sliding everywhere. Was she witnessing an earthquake? She really didn't know. It was as if the whole world was put on it's side and everything was falling off. Then, she remembered Jojo on his own at school. Lots of different thoughts rushed through her head.

-

Jojo sat in the classroom waiting for detention to end. He was the only one there, even the teacher had gone out the room. 5 minutes left. He just sat there in silence. He didn't see the point in trying escape or do anything. He was bored out of his mind. Suddenly, the floor started to shake, and everything started to move towards the back of the room. Jojo jumped onto his desk as not to get squished between all the other moving desks. He thought of Natalie walking home on her own . Lots of different thoughts rushed through his head.

-

Suddenly, it all stopped. Everyone flocked to the town centre to talk to the mayor. Natalie rushed there too. She hoped Jojo would be there, safe and well. She couldn't see him anywhere. She was really worried.

"Natalie, dear, are you ok?" her mum came rushing up to her, hugging her.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Natalie said, hugging her back, but still most of her attention was on looking around for Jojo. She still couldn't see him.

"Hey, Mr. Mayor! Something's wrong!" various Whos started shouting out,

"My basement is in the attic!"

"The science museum is history!"

Just then, Natalie saw Jojo appear in the distance, hitchhiking on the back of a vehicle. She was so relieved he was ok. He jumped off and quickly looked around for Natalie. He spotted her, and was about to run towards her when he saw her mum standing next to her, so they just smiled at each other instead.

"I am declaring a state of emergency!" Ned shouted to the whole of Whoville. He got interrupted by the chairman, who came up on a small balcony that moved. Jojo didn't like the chairman, he was always so ignorant. 'Finally, my dad's talking sense for once -'

"Horton is a giant elephant in the sky! Don't bother looking he's invisible. And he is the one, risking his life to get Whoville, which by the way is speck on a clover, to safety!"

'- and now he's completely lost it.' Jojo thought.

The whole of Whoville laughed at this, of course. It sounded ridiculous.

"I can't believe he's still running this town! He's such a joke," Natalie's mum said to her. She didn't know Jojo was his son, thankfully. But Natalie liked Ned. He was really funny, and even though she knew he had a screw loose somewhere, he was an amazing dad to his kids, even if Jojo didn't think so.

Jojo jumped onto the side of the water fountain next to him. He didn't really know how to take this. To be honest he didn't know his dad had such problems with the Whos, he thought everyone loved the Mayor. He didn't realize they also thought he was a crazy person. Suddenly, the wind became very harsh.

"Everyone!" Ned shouted, "look at the wind! What do you think that that means?"

"It means…er, it means…" the chairman was trying to find an excuse, "let the kite flying race begin!"

The whole of Whoville cheered and got out their kites. Jojo's mum ran over to him.

"Are you ok?" she said hugging him. He just hugged her back. All of a sudden, the mayor came running out to them.

"I'm so sorry I let you down, but… this is bigger than me. Just get all the family together and get somewhere safe," he said, running off again.

"Ok…I believe you," Sally said to Ned as he ran off.

Jojo ran off to find Natalie, hoping she wasn't with her mum anymore. He saw her, thankfully alone. He ran up to her.

"Natalie, are you ok?" he said, hugging her.

"Yeah Jojo, I'm fine, I'm fine," she said returning the hug.

"Natalie, what are you doing?" A voice came from next to them. They looked up, and to their horror it was Natalie's mum, standing there. Natalie and Jojo quickly pulled away, then looked at each other, then at her mum, then back at each other. They had no idea what to say or do. They weren't even meant to be friends, let alone a couple!

"I thought I told you not to go near him anymore!" she said to Natalie with a raised voice.

"Mum, I know you did, but I love him!" Natalie said boldly, putting her arm around Jojo's waist.

"So you were sneaking around behind my back? How dare you!" her mum said, almost shouted, grabbing Natalie's hand and pulling her away, walking away from Jojo. Natalie looked back at him just standing there. He didn't know what to do. Would he ever see her again?

Just then, there was a large crash and everyone ran for cover. Most of Whoville was in ruins.