ZAC'S ROSE By Brandy

CHAPTER 1: ROSES ARE BOTH GIFTS AND VICTIMS OF THE WORLD

My name's Rose and I'm almost fifteen. I've lived in a small town south of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for my whole life. I met the Hanson's when I was in sixth grade, when they moved down the block from me. I'm the only teenager on the block besides Isaac, Taylor, and Zac, because we live around a bunch of old people. Zachary and I have been best friends ever since they moved here. Isaac treats me like another sister and Taylor, well I've always found it hard to talk to him, and well he's the hottest guy I've ever met.

I could never get the nerve to ask Taylor to one of my dances, and usually the Hanson's were never home when a dance came around anyway. Hanson's recent popularity with their song "MMMBop" caused the Hanson's to leave Tulsa and tour around the world. Finally, after three years of waiting, Taylor would actually be home for a winter formal. Too bad I couldn't ask him to it. No. Someone else didn't ask him, I just never got the chance to ask him to the winter formal, basically because I was chicken. So I ended up asking my best friend.

" You want me to what?" " Zac, please come with me. I'm begging you." " I hate dances." " Zac, come on you're my best friend. I always back you up when you need it." " Why can't you just ask Taylor?" Zac screamed. " ZAC BE QUIET! He'll hear you!" I said. " What's the matter Rose, are you chicken?" " No." " BAGAUCK!" Zac said making chicken noises. " Zachary Hanson, knock it off. Just please Zac, go with me to the dance."

" I don't want to." " What are you so afraid of?" " I'm not afraid of anything." Zac replied. " I just can't dance." Zac said in a faint whisper. " What Zac? I can't hear you." " I can't dance." Zac said a little bit louder, but still not enough for me to hear quite well enough." " WHAT?" I asked quite loudly. " I CAN'T DANCE!" Zac screamed loud enough for the whole house to hear.

All of a sudden Taylor's head popped out from the kitchen door. " You can't dance?" Taylor asked. " See what you've made me do?" Zac asked me. " HEY IKE, CHECK THIS OUT, ZAC CAN'T DANCE!" Taylor screamed to his brother upstairs. " NO WAY!" Isaac screamed back. " Oh great. Just terrific. Thanks rose. Now I'm going to be hounded by my brother's all night." " Sorry Zac, just please go with me to the dance. Pretty please with sugar on top?" " Alright fine! I'll go. I don't have to rent a tuxedo do I?" " Nope, you just have to wear nice dress slacks, black shoes, a nice shirt, and a vest preferably."

" Okay, I guess I can handle that. But not a word to your friends about me coming. I don't want that Robin girl clinging to me all night." " You got it. Well Zac, I better get going, it's getting dark outside." I said noticing the streets being pitch black except for the only to street lamps on my road. " I'll see you tomorrow okay." " Okay. Do you want Isaac to drive you home?" " No thanks Zac, I can get home perfectly fine." " Okay then, see ya later." " Bye Zac, and thanks for taking my invite to the winter formal." " Ya whatever, but you know because of this you owe me big."

I walked off the Hanson's porch and walked to the sidewalk. I put my hands in my pockets of my jacket and started to walk. I then close my eyes as the chilled air hit my face. The air relaxed me. I walked with my eyes closed for about two minutes before I found my eyes open as wide as they could. Someone came up from behind me, put its hands over my mouth, and used his strength to lift part of my body off the ground. I struggled to get lose. Kicking and screaming I tried to get someone's attention. " ZACHARY! HELP ME!" I screamed. The leather gloves covering my mouth muffled my voice.

The person pulled me to the woods with quite an effort. I tried to bite his hand, but he shoved me against a tree as hard as he could so I didn't get the chance. I tried to run, but he chasing me down and threw me against the ground. He forced me down with all of his might and started to beat me while holding one of his hands over my mouth. Next he stopped for an instant and said, "Don't tell." That's all the man said for the whole time. Of course I was only awake for a couple seconds after that. Then I was in dreamland.

CHAPTER 2: A TEAR TO REMEMBER

(The next day) " Hey Taylor, has Rose come over yet?" Zac asked curiously noticing that it was already two o'clock in the afternoon. " No, not yet. Why don't you call her house?" " I have; two times to be exact. Every time I call, all I get is the phone ringing a billion times." " Well maybe she went somewhere or something." " Where would she go? Her parents are working all day." " What are you Zac? Rose's schedule planner?" " Very funny Taylor. Look, I'm starting to worry. I haven't seen her all day. She usually comes over around nine in the morning. It's already two o'clock in the afternoon. Something's not right."

" Zac, what could have gone wrong. She only lives six houses down. And in between our houses are a bunch of old people." " But Taylor, you don't understand this. It isn't like Rose to go somewhere without calling me before she leaves." " Zac, She'll be fine." " You know Taylor, I don't know why someone like her would have a crush on someone like you. You act as if you could care less if she never came back." " She has a crush on me?" " Now don't go thinking you are the king of the world just because a girl likes you Taylor." " But your best friend likes me?" Taylor asked again.

" Don't you think I'm as surprised as you are? Taylor forget about the crush thing, I just want to find rose." " You like her don't you?" " WHAT? I'm concerned about my best friend." " You have a crush on your best friend. And she likes me and not you. You're jealous aren't you." " Stop being in love with yourself Taylor." " I'm not in love with myself, I'm just merely pointing out how ironic it is for her to be best friends with you and have a crush on me." " I could care less who she has a crush on. She has never done this too me Taylor and I'm starting to worry." " Alright fine, let's go."

And with that, the two Hanson boys were off. They started by knocking on every house's door to see if anyone had seen me. I guess they made it seem like I was a lost puppy dog or something. But I didn't know this was going on. For I was hidden in the woods, with torn clothes and a large bump on my head. " Where am I?" I said as I rubbed my head. I felt a bump on my head that caused me some severe pain. Apparently something had happened to me that I didn't know about. With around four attempts to stand upright, I was finally on my feet. I started to walk toward the large houses that seemed only like a speck in the horizon from my location in the woods. While I was walking I heard my name being called from what seemed as a large distance away.

" ROSE!" Zac yelled as loud as he could. " Zac, no one has seen her. Maybe we should give up." " Give up? Taylor I have never heard those words from you before. A couple weeks ago, it's like those words didn't even exist in your vocabulary. Now that I can't find my best friend, we should just give up?" " Zac, Yelling isn't going to do any good. Maybe she can't hear you." " ROSE!" Zac screamed again. " Look Taylor, maybe she can't hear me, maybe she can. But I'm not about to stop trying. My best friend is out there somewhere, and I'm not about to give up trying to look for her. ROSE!"

" Do I know you?" I asked the blonde boy who was yelling my name. " Because apparently you know who I am. Unless you called for someone else." " ROSE!" the blonde boy screamed with excitement. " WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" The boy asked with concern in his voice before embracing me in a large bear hug. " Look, I don't know who you are, how you know me, or what happened, and frankly little boy, you are starting to scare me." I said. " What do you mean you don't know me. Oh I get it. This is a game isn't it Rose?"

" A game? Look I don't know who you are. Maybe you should start giving some sort of clues to why you know me." " Rose, I'm your best friend." " How can you be my best friend? I've never seen you before in my life." " Earth to rose, calling rose, come in rose. This is Zac. You know Prozac, animal, zany boy, maniac. You have to remember me." " I'm sorry Zac, I've never seen you before in my life." I stated matter-of-factly.

" Taylor, she has to remember me." Zac said to another blond boy. " I don't think she does Zac. Rose, this is Taylor, do you remember me?" Taylor said turning towards me. " I don't know. I recognize the name from somewhere, but not the face. Sorry." " Um Rose, I think we need to get you to the doctor." " Why? I'm perfectly fine. Except for a large headache." "Well you have dried blood on your head for some odd reason, and your clothes are torn. Did something happen to you last night?" " Honestly, I don't remember anything thing from last night, or anything from before last night. Except for my name, age, where I live, and my family, that's about it."

" Rose, would you let us take you to a doctor, I think that bump on your head needs to be checked out." " Sure, I guess. Do you mind if I see my family first Taylor?" " Oh go right ahead, I'm sure they are worried sick. Would you like me to go with you?" " Would you? That would be great, thanks." " Anything for a friend." Taylor said as he walked with me back to my house. "How can she not remember me? We've been best friends most of our lives! And now is seems Taylor is her best friend. Something is not right here. How could she recognize Taylor's name and not mine? How can she forget?

Oh man what if she's forgotten about the past? What if she forgot about our secret handshake, our password to get in the tree house, or the gigantic Lego castle we built together when we were little? How can she know Taylor but not me?" Zac thought as he began to cry. For the first time in a long time, Zac got down on his knees and prayed.

" God, I know this is a bit sudden, but my best friend doesn't remember me. Rose Joyce Allison doesn't have a clue who I am. I know you act in weird ways God, but do you honestly think making our memories disappear from her head is a good thing? Rose is the best thing to ever happen to me, next to you of course, and if she forgets who I am, how am I supposed to help her remember who I am. Am I supposed to tell her everything that's happened to us that I can remember, just to try and jog her memory? Please God, give her back her memory of me. I don't want me to be a lost soul in her head that might not be able to be found." And with that, he ended his prayer with a tear running down the side of his face.

Chapter 3: BOY IS ZAC CONFUSED

" Hello?" I said as I picked up the phone. " Hey girl! How's it going?" " Do I know you?" " Like HELLO! This is Robin, you know one of your friends." " Oh, Hi robin." " It's like you don't remember me or something." " Actually I don't remember you." " Funny Rose. You can't trick me." " Seriously Robin, I don't remember you." " Huh? We've been friends for like a year. Did something happen to cause you such memory loss?"

" I don't remember that either. I just woke up in the woods with a large bump on my head. I know who I am and everything, but for some odd reason, I don't remember any of my friends." " Including Zac?" " Yep, that boy is very odd." " I tried telling you that all this year. So have you asked Taylor to the winter formal yet?" " There's a winter formal?" " Oh girl, you are messed up. You know the winter formal. Apparently you have been crushing on Taylor for three years, and you are always to chicken to ask him to the formal. That and he has been gone every year we have actually had a formal.

You were going to ask him a couple days ago, remember?" " No actually, I don't." " Well you should ask him. And would you do me a favor?" " Sure robin, what?" " Ask Zac if he would go to the formal with me. Okay?" " Okay." " Chow!" And then she hung up. " I know there is something weird about this formal dance thing. I know I already asked somebody. But who in the world did I ask?" I asked myself. I basically don't have a clue what's going on.

Yesterday at the doctor's office, the doctor said I had some sort of selective amnesia. He said something about me being able to remember some things, but be totally clueless on other things. Clueless things being so far, the dance, Zac, and Taylor. Taylor was awfully nice to me yesterday, taking me in the doctor's and all, but I kind of felt weird with just leaving Zac there. I don't really know Zac that well, but something inside of me felt a little awkward. Like leaving Zac there was a bad decision. Before I knew it, the ringing of the telephone interrupted my thoughts.

" Hello?" I asked as I answered the phone. " Hey Rose, it's Zac, how are you doing." " I'm doing good. What's going on?" " Not much. I just wanted to know if you wanted to talk?" " I'm talking to you now aren't I?" " Well yes, but I meant like you coming over." " Oh, well sure. Where do you live again?" I asked. " Six houses over. The one with the giant porch." " Okay, I'll be over in a couple minutes." " See you soon." Zac said before hanging up the phone.

I picked up my jacket from the floor of the hall closet along with my shoes, and I headed out the door. On my way there, I saw a shiny object on the sidewalk. I picked up the piece of jewelry and placed it in my palm. It looked very familiar. " Friends forever, right rose?" Zac said lifting up his best friends necklace chain. " Right Zac, friends forever." I said as I lifted up my chain that was identical to his.

" It is now time for our traditional friend handshake and poem." " My name's rose." " And mine is Zac." " come after us…" " and we'll attack." " We get along…" " We never fight…" " He's always wrong." " she's always right." " I have a heart of steel" " and a brain of lead." " shut up zac." " bite me." " You ruined our song! Now we have to start over!" " no we don't!" " Yes we do. You're the idiot who added the part about me having a brain of lead." " Hey we could have made a rhyme with that line you know." " okay Zac, let's continue with the right lyrics this time!" " Fine." " ah hem. I have a heart of steel." " and a brain of air." " ZAC!" " sorry couldn't help it." Zac shrugged.

" I knew I recognized this necklace! It's the one Zac gave to me after a year of being friends. I rememeber that! We were getting ready to go into seventh grade and we got these for eachother." I rejoiced in my head knowing the fact that I was starting to gain some memory back. " But what is it doing out here?" I wondered " I see you found your necklace." Zac said coming from behind me. " Yep, I did, but I don't understand why it's out here." " Well mabye you struggled with a person or something." " Who knows." " Do you know how you got that necklace." " Yes, you gave it to me, when I was starting seventh grade." " You remembered." " I guess my memory is starting to come back to me." " Do you remember that one time when we were fighting over what color the lego castle was going to be?" " No not really." " How about the time when we sat in front of the television the whole day and watched Disney flicks?" " Nope, sorry Zac." " How about when Isaac and I were playing karate against eachother." " not that either." " You don't remember much do you?" " No." " Obviously I don't know why I had you come over, it might have been easier just to stay on the phone."

" Zac who's out there?" Isaac asked coming from the porch of their house. " ISAAC!" I screamed. " ROSE!" Isaac screamed back. We ran to each other and gave a big bear hug. " How's the bump?" Isaac asked refuring to the small goose egg on my head. " Still hurts, but the pain is slightly going away." I replied. "WAIT A MINUTE!" Zac screamed in disbelief. " You remember Isaac, but you don't remember me or taylor?" " I can't forget Isaac, no matter how hard I try." " Thanks Rose." " But Isaac is a guy that's like an older brother to me. Forgetting him would be impossible." " That's what you said about you forgetting about me. You said it would never happen." " Well apparently it has." " Hey rose, you want a cup of hot chocolate? I just made some." " That would rock Isaac, thanks." " No problem. Follow me." Isaac said leading me through the house to the kitchen. Zac felt he really need someone to talk to right now. Once again he got down on his knees. " Okay Lord, what did I do this time? I really don't get this. Why does she remember Isaac and not me? I'm her best friend, and she still doesn't know me. Lord she's changed so much, and I don't know what to do. She doesn't remember anything I tell her about the past. I need your help. I want my best friend back to normal. Please?"

CHAPTER FOUR: ALL A DREAM?

I threw two pebbles from the Hanson's driveway at Zac's window. I was careful not to wake anyone, and to throw the pebble just enough to make a sound, but not to crack or break the window. " Huh?" Zac asked tiredly. He got out of bed and made his way over to the window. " Who's out there?" He asked. " Who else would be outside at two thirty in the morning?" " Rose? What are you doing up? And how do you remember me?" " Zac you moron we've been best friends for like three years. Now what do you want to talk about?" I yelled up to him. " Wait a minute Rose, I'm coming down." Slowly Zac made his way out his window and down the ladder attached to the side of his house.

" Okay Rose, what are you doing here?" " What are you talking about? You called me and said you wanted me to come over to talk." " I did?" " Zac, did you call me while you were sleeping again?" " I…I honestly don't know. By the way, how do you remember me? I thought you had amnesia." " Um Zac, maybe you should go back to bed." " Seriously though Rose, you got hit over the head with a baseball bat and you remembered everyone in my family except Taylor and me."

" Did you forget to take your medication?" " I'm not on medication." " Well at least we found one solution to our problems. Look Zac, you were just dreaming. Trust me, if I got hit over the head with a baseball bat, I'm pretty sure I would know." " But you asked me to the winter formal since you were too chicken to ask Taylor." " Maybe you're the one who got hit with the baseball bat. Zac, I haven't even told you about the winter formal, let alone chicken out asking Taylor, and dragging you along. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that too." " So it was all a dream? You don't have amnesia? You weren't raped? You know who I am?"

" Zachary, go back to bed." " Good idea. Goodnight Rose." " Sleep Tight Zac." I said in a cheerful sort of tone of voice. " You too, and don't let the bed bugs bite!" Zac yelled back now starting to climb up the ladder. As I started to walk home, I heard Zac yell, " HEY ROSE, WAIT UP!" " What is it now Zac?" " Can I walk you home? After that dream I had, I want to make sure you get home okay." " If you want. I don't care." " Here, you can borrow this tonight. It's kinda cold out here." Zac said handing me his sweatshirt that he had on over his T-shirt and boxer combination.

" Zac, you'll freeze!" " Oh well, I would rather have me get sick then to have you get sick." " Maybe you did get hit with a bat. Why are you being so…so…sincere?" " Because I don't want you whining about how you got sick because I called you to come over at two thirty in the morning." " Good, I knew there was a reason to you being so nice."

(The next day)
" Come on, get up." I said pulling the covers off of zac. " But I don't want a ferby for Christmas mom, I want a tickle me elmo." Zac said not yet waking up. " Um, yeah okay Zac. It's time for reinforcements." I said as I left to get an Ice cold glass of water from the bathroom. Before I made it out the door I heard Zac say, " But Mommy, how come Taylor gets Malibu Barbie and I don't?" "How come I'm friends with the most strange of the family? Why can't it be the cutest or the oldest?" I asked myself outloud. " Because Cute and young, and cute and old, can not be combined. They have to be separate. I am the cute one right?" Taylor asked coming out of the bathroom. " Uh…" was all I could say. By this point my face looked like an over size tomato. Not just the fact that I was talking to and about Taylor, but I was talking to Taylor when he was as cute as ever. In just Boxers. " Taylor, is that a new.um fasion statement or something?" I asked nervously. " Oh you like? I picked it out especially for you." " Heart boxers, nice Taylor. They show your sensitive side." " Yea, everybody loves fruit. Fruit of the loom are for me." " Obviously." " Well I have to get dressed now." " Do you have to?" I asked out loud, but wished I hadn't.

" Sorry Rose, I can't model for you right now…besides it's kinda cold out in this hallway and there is a slight draft." " That's interesting. Thanks for the info Taylor." I said to him as Taylor walked into his room to get dressed. I stood there still not believing I actually talked to Taylor. " What's up with you rose? It looks like you've seen a ghost.' Isaac asked concerned. " Nothing, I just saw a half naked boy stroll down the hallway." " You know, we should really start to teach Mac to get dressed in his room." " No Isaac not Mac…Taylor." " Ah. And so the quest for Taylor's love begins."