"Taylor turn the channel." Isaac said for the third time. Taylor who was enjoying watching his favourite cartoon show ‘Freakazoid’ had no intention of changing the channel.
"TAY! You have been watching this show for more than two hours now, can’t you change it to something a little more interesting." Isaac tried again to get his brother to change it.
"No! I might miss something." Taylor mumbled, fully absorbed in the cartoon.
"Tay, it has said it is Freakazoid day or whatever, you can turn it back to it later." Tay ignored him. Zac who had been watching his brothers argue for more than an hour already, got up and stood in front of the t.v. saying
"Okay! Since you guys are acting like two year olds, and mom and dad aren’t here I guess I am going to have to be the one to settle this." Isaac almost laughed, but thinking that he might actually be able to get Tay to turn the channel, changed his mind. Then Taylor shoved Zac away from the t.v. Zac fell on top of his lego castle
"OWW!" he yelled. "SHH!!!" Taylor said.
Isaac was not going to let this happen. He was the baby sitter and he was in charge. So he walked up to the t.v. and turned it off. Taylor said
"Why did you do that?? I was watching it!!"
"Yeah well that was before you pushed Zac over."
"Oh give me a break, he isn’t even hurt. Turn it back on!"
Zac felt like he would scream if they started arguing again. "Would you guys quit arguing already! Sheesh!"
"Zac stay out of this." Taylor told his little brother.
"No! You guys are being very im-mature. And that is pretty sad that someone that is younger than you can figure that one out! Please just stop arguing and pick a channel already!"
"Can you just turn the television back on PLEASE!?" Tay was worried he was missing the "good bits" in the cartoon.
"Your giving me a headache. I’m going to my room." Zac said fed up with trying to be Peacemaker. He went upstairs to the room they shared. Taylor had turned back on the t.v.
"Fine! Watch the stupid show!" Isaac said as he threw his arms in the air. Then he went over to the computer and connected to the internet thinking that he would up-date the Hanson web-page: hansonline. But since Taylor was the one who usually up-dated it he didn’t really know what to do. And he was definitely NOT about to ask Taylor how to do it. So he decided to go into a chat-room. He had been chatting for awhile when someone asked if they liked Hanson. Loads of people started saying "Hanson Suck." And "Hanson are gay." Isaac really didn’t need to hear that. He was about to ask what was so bad about them when someone typed that they were hanson, and they weren’t very happy about what they were saying. Ike laughed out loud. And thought about replying to the guy when he changed his mind and shut off the computer. Looking over at his brother who was still watching t.v. He said "You had better watch out, you could turn into a vegetable, if you watch that too much." Taylor ignored him. So he went upstairs to his room to see what Zac was doing. Isaac flopped down on his bed and asked "What’cha doin’?"
"Nothing. Just drawing." He said not bothering to look up from his drawing. Ike leaned over his shoulder and saw a drawing of an alien. "Cool." Then he asked "D’ya mind if I play some tunes?"
"As long as it is En Vogue." Zac answered fully aware that his older brother detested that group.
"UGH! I cannot believe you still like them." He said making gagging noises.
"How ‘bout some Aerosmith?"
"NO!!! I want Boyz II Men." Zac said.
"How about Natalie Merchant?" Ike asked
"Oh, All right." Zac said, giving up hope that he would play some of the music Zac actually listened to. But since he thought Natalie was OK he didn’t really mind. He actually liked all of Ike’s music. But he was hoping that he would play some of Zac’s cd’s. Then he continued with his drawing. Isaac then put in the cd and listened to her singing. While thinking of the next day when they would perform on t.v.
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ Taylor heard his parents and his other siblings come in. He had gotten bored of watching Freakazoid. (after watching it for four hours straight!) and had fallen asleep. He kept his eyes closed hoping that his parents wouldn’t make him help with the grocery’s. then Avery came in and being the annoying six year old that she was yelled right in his ear "MOMMY WANTS YOU!" He had been grouchy all day and he couldn’t help but yell at her "AVIE!! Don’t do that!!" He slowly trudged into the kitchen and acted like he didn’t know what she wanted him for and asked "What?" His mom looked at all the grocery bags and thought that it was a bit obvious but she said anyway "Could you help me with these." He then helped her finish putting them up. And before she could ask him to help her cook dinner he sneaked out of the room and up the stairs. He walked into the room to find Isaac sleeping and Zac working on his drawing. He sat down on the floor and got out his Jewel cd (since their wasn’t music playing anymore) and put it in the radio. Without thinking about his brother’s slumber he turned it on as loud as it could go he smiled at the sound of Jewel’s beautiful voice singing "Who will saaaave your souls, if you wont saave your own." Isaac jumped about a foot into the air at the sound of the music. He yelled "TAYLOR!!!! TURN IT DOWN!!!!" But his brother couldn’t hear him over the radio. Isaac went over to it and turned it off. ‘HEY!" Taylor yelled "That was just a bit loud Tay." "This is MY room and I can listen to it as loud as I want to! Go away if you don’t want to listen to her." Ike couldn’t understand why his brother was acting so grouchy. "Scuse me? This is my room too! And I WAS trying to sleep. Anyway if you would have kept it at that volume mom would’ve come up here and you would be in BIG trouble!" "Whatever." Tay said as he reached over and turned back on the cd. He sat back and went all dreamy. Mesmerized by her voice. Zac was just as surprised when the radio started blaring. He had watched his brothers argue. Thinking how he couldn’t be anywhere without them coming in and start bickering. Isaac then turned off the music once again. "Would you stop turning off my music!!!" "NO! Couldn’t you listen to your cd-player with your headphones?" Just then Mrs. Hanson walked in and said "Who is listening to the music that loud?" Zac and Isaac pointed to Taylor. "Tay! I told you not to listen to it that loud. You woke up Zoe! Do you know how long it took me to get her to sleep?" "Uh. Sorry mom." "Well, you can come help me with dinner then." Taylor groaned, He could hear Isaac snickering behind his back. "SHUT UP IKE!" He yelled " Taylor Hanson! You do not yell at your brother like that!" Diana said she then walked out and said "You’d better be down here in five minutes." Ike tried to hold back his laughter but he couldn’t. He started laughing and he pointed to Tay saying "Oh man! HA HA You have to make dinner." Taylor hit him in his arm. "OW! You little punk." Then he threw a pillow at his brothers head. It hit him hard. "Jerk!" He yelled then picked up a pillow and started hitting his brother as hard as he could with it. Zac was fed up with his brothers fighting he ran out of the room to get his mom. Isaac was in the middle of sitting on Tay while hitting him with the pillow when their mom came in, followed by Zac. "CLARKE ISAAC HANSON! GET OFF OF YOUR BROTHER THIS MOMENT!" The pillow fell from his hands and he quickly got off of Taylor. Taylor sat up and held his head in his hands. Then he looked up at his mom with a weak smile. "I don’t think so Taylor your in trouble too." "But mom I…" "Don’t even start Tay. I want you both to stay in here until dinner." Taylor smiled Hey it got me out of cooking with mom. "I don’t think there is anything to smile about young man." He quickly wiped the grin off of his face. She then turned to Zac "And you can stay in here and make sure they don’t start fighting again." Zac started to protest when his mother left and went back downstairs. Zac sat on his bed "This is SO un-fair! I cannot believe when you are the ones who are in trouble that I have to stay here and baby sit you. This sucks!" "You deserve it you tatle-tale!" Isaac said Taylor was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed Ike was laying on. He said "HEY! We can listen to Jewel." And he spaced out. "Wake up!" Ike said pushing Taylor’s head. "Stop it Ike!" "DO NOT START ARGUING AGAIN!!!" Zac was on the verge of screaming at the stop of his lungs. Tay played Jewel again. But he had turned it down. Zac and Ike rolled their eyes. Zac said "You know she is like twice your age Tay." "So." He said dreamily. "Snap out of it Tay." Ike said he was about to hit his brother with a pillow when he thought better of it.
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ After arguing about practically everything, they had finally arrived at the t.v. set where they would be singing "MMMBop" They were backstage and at that moment the hanson brothers did not want to do anything with each other. But they heard the guy say "And Now HANSON." So they knew they would have to go out there and sing. Once it was over and they were once again backstage Taylor was looking at Isaac "Ike, do you have any idea how stupid you look doing that head-banging thing? Oh MAN! IT is so embarrassing." "Oh yeah? Well have you ever looked at ANY of our videos? You stamp your feet like you have ants in your pants or something." He started laughing "HEY! That’s cool! The girls like it don’t they?" "Yeah well. the girls will like anything you do!" Ike replied "No they don’t." "Yes, they do, I mean if you picked your nose they would probably faint or something." "Come on give me a break Ike." "You are the ONE that every girl in the whole universe likes." "Ike, are you jealous?" "NO! I’m not jealous. I mean I SO do not want a bijillion girls drooling over me." "STTTOOOOPPPP ALREAADYYYYY!!!!!!!" Zac screamed. They both turned towards him. "And you, ZAC, YOU should look happier while we are singing, I mean you ether look mad or REALLY bored." Taylor said. Zac was about to make a nasty remark when their father came in and said "Boys, this is getting out of hand. This arguing needs to stop. I am sorry to have to do this but once we get back home, your grounded." "But.." Tay started "Dad!" Zac said "AW MAN!" Ike said frustrated.
¤ ¤ ¤
It had been a month and the brothers had finished their grounding sentence weeks and weeks ago. They hadn't spoken to each other (except for when they fought) since the day they had gotten grounded. Taylor was ready for them to be friends again. He had tried so many times to talk to both of them, but they had acted as if he wasn't even alive. Tay couldn't remember what they had been fighting about in the first place. Of course, they kept preforming and doing interviews, but they hadn't done any interviews except for magazines so far. The interviews were horrible, each brother would interrupt the other until everybody was yelling. The people who interviewed them usually got fed up 0.and left the room. Then they would call each other names and get into a huge row, and they wouldn't stop until Diana or Walker made them. The concerts went okay. The one thing they all agreed on was to not disappoint the fans. But none of them would make eye contact with each other for any reason. Taylor was on the couch pretending to watch T.V. while he really was thinking or his brothers and when they had played and joked with each other. Zac was in their room and Ike had gone to a friend's house. Taylor sighed and decided to try once again to try and talk to his brother. He pushed himself up off the couch and climbed up the stairs like he had weights on his feet. Finally reaching their room he looked at the closed door. Hoping that Zac would acknowledge that he existed this time. Then he knocked, Zac said "Come in." Tay almost smiled, thinking that he was talking to him. But he realized that Zac didn't know it was him on the other side of the door. He walked in to find Zac reading a comic book, spread out on his bed "Hey!" Tay said, trying to sound cheerful. As usual Zac ignored him. "Please.." Taylor began, but at that moment Isaac walked in. Then Tay thought of something else, something that had been bothering him a lot lately. He went over and sat on his bed. "If we keep this silence thing up we'll never get a song written. I can't do it myself, and neither can you! We can't just sign the same old songs over and over!" Zac kept staring at his comic and Ike was flipping through his cd's. "Fine!" Taylor said and walked out of the room shutting the door. As soon as it was closed he heard his brothers start talking. He couldn't believe this. They're ganging up on me! Shoving the door back open he yelled "Come on! What did I ever do to you? Hmm? What?" They stared at him, Hey! he thought At least they're looking at me. He threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. Then he stormed down the stairs and out of the house. He didn't know where he was going to go. After walking awhile he looked up again and saw he was outside of McDonalds. Realizing he was hungry Tay dug through his pockets until he found a couple of crumpled dollar bills, then he went inside. Once he had ordered his food, he was walking (head down, trying not to be noticed) to a table when he heard someone say "Look! It's Taylor, from that band...Hanson!" Oh great. he thought I'm not in the mood for screaming girls. But when he looked up Taylor didn't see girls. There were a group of boys around the ages of sixteen and seventeen sitting at the table nearest him. The same boy that had spoken, proceeded to say "Taylor?...Weird name for a girl." The group cracked up. Taylor stared stupidly at them. This was DEFINITELY NOT what he was expecting. They made a few more remarks then they started throwing fries at him. Taylor's cheeks went bright red, everyone was looking at him. The first thing he felt like doing was throwing his tray at them then to strangle them all, then he felt like running. But he just stood there. Then they got up and made their way towards him. The tray fell from his hands and clattered to the floor, sending pieces of hamburger all over. He didn't want to run, but if he fought them it would be all over the net and he didn't even want to think of what the fans would say. So he calmly walked out. Tay had walked all the way to his quiet and small neighborhood when he heard footsteps behind him. Taylor turned around and there they were, the same guys. No way. He thought. This is not happening. There were about four guys. He wasn't about to lead them to his house, so he didn't move. They were coming closer. Taylor didn't bother to think of anything, he wouldn't let himself think about the press, or about his fans. He was NOT going to show them were he lived so they could make fun of his brothers too. This had gone far enough. He knew he was going to get slaughtered but he stood his ground. "The girl wants to fight." One boy said. Then before Tay had a chance to even blink he was hit in his stomach, The air was pushed from his lungs. Gasping for breath he hit one of them. He felt his fist connect with the guys jaw. Then Tay was being hit in the face. Blindly he threw punches. Taylor kicked one of them in the shins. and as he hopped around Tay hit him again. Realizing he couldn't fight them all off he thought of another option 'run'. But dismissed it. He WAS NOT going to run! Finally one guy said "This guys to gay to even mess with." And they ran off. Taylor felt his lip, it was bleeding. Great day I'm having. He thought. Once he was home he went into the nearest bathroom and inspected his face, His lip was swollen and still bleeding, and his left eye would be black soon. The rest of his face was bruised. "Aww man!" He said quietly. After cleaning off the blood and getting an ice-pack he made his way to the couch. Putting the pack on his eye he fell asleep.
¤ ¤ ¤ Tay woke up to see Jessica looking at him "You okay?" She asked "Do I look okay to you?" He snapped "Did you get in a fight? Did you win?" "No...Well yeah, I sorta got in a fight...Why am I telling you?" He suddenly felt grouchy. She kept looking at him. "I was just wondering." "Sorry Jessi." "Well, then, what happened?"She asked again. "Nothing." "Your face shows that it isn't just 'nothing'." She sat down beside him. "You sound like mom." He grinned. "Sorry...Come on Tay...Tell me! Please?" "It's not really any of your business but.." Taylor had to talk to someone. He was so use to talking to his brothers about these kind of things, and they hadn't wanted to talk to him in forever. He never really 'talked' to his sister. "Jess, I know mom or dad's gonna ask me the same question and I don't really wanna explain twice, and I'm really tired now. You can hear it tonight when they ask me. Alright?" She looked disappointed but nodded her head anyway. Tay had felt now that he didn't want to tell anyone, ever. He didn't want to think anymore about fights, or his brothers. It seemed all he thought about anymore were Zac and Ike. Then he thought of something that would keep his mind off of it all, Jewel. He smiled as he climbed the stairs into his room. Only to find that Ike and Zac were sleeping. Thanks Guys. Then he sat down on his own bed and watched them sleep. He watched them for a few minutes then looked around for his cd player. Finding it he put the earphones on and turned it up as loud as it would go. After what only seemed like only a few minutes he felt someone shaking him. Taylor opened his eyes and there was Jessi...again. He realized that the cd was on it's last track. Must've drifted off or something. He thought to himself. Tay took out the earphones. Jessica said "Dinner time!" She smiled thinking of how if her parents ever asked Taylor about the fight it would be at the table. Then she left the room. Taylor noticed that Isaac and Zac weren't in the room anymore. He looked at his reflection in the dresser mirror and saw that his eye was now black and his whole face looked swollen. Sighing he hung his head hoping his parents wouldn't notice and went to the dinner table.
¤ ¤ ¤
After picking at his food for almost ten minutes, while his head was so low it almost was lying in his plate, his father said "Taylor, you know better than to slouch that low. Sit up straight." His mother piped in "Yes, and you need to eat up."
Without lifting his head he said " Could I be excused? I don't feel so well."
"What's the matter, honey?" His mother asked.
"I just don't feel good."
"I didn't hear you, try not to mumble. Could you look at me while talking?" she said.
Ignoring his mother's request to look up he asked "Please?" Almost desperately.
"Taylor! Look at your mother when talking to her." His father ordered.
Taylor figured there wasn't any way he was going to get permission to leave the table without looking at them, so he scooted back his chair. (Wincing slightly at the screeching noise it made) And was walking out of the room when his father called after him "Come back here, young man!"
There's no way I can not look at them until these bruises go away. Might as well tell them now.. So he turned around and slumped down into his char. Looking at everyone for the first time that night. He saw Isaac and Zac was staring at his face. Jessica was looking at her parents, waiting none to patiently for them to ask. Mackenzie was in the middle of trying to get as much food as possible onto the table. Avery said "EWW! What happened to your face?" And Walker looked, surprised, at his son, who he had thought, until now, didn't have any enemies. Diana asked "Oh, Tay, are you all right? Who did this to you?"
"I'm fine."
She asked "What happened?"
"Nothing really... Can I got upstairs now?" He asked, knowing that they wouldn't let him go without finding out what happened.
"Tell us what happened, Tay." Walker said.
"I told you, nothing. I just got in a fight, that's all."
"It isn't like this happens everyday, Taylor." Diana said.
"Especially not to you." Walker added.
:What do you mean not to me? You think I can't fight or something? You think I would just run?"
"No, it's not like that it's just..." He trailed off.
"Hello! Just tell us what happened!" Jessica yelled. Waking up Zoe and making her cry.
"Jessi!" Her mother scolded, as she walked up the stairs to comfort her youngest child.
Taylor jumped up and ran out the door. He kept running until he had gone down their street and was half-way down the next. Then he started walking. Tay was in the middle of the road. Seeing headlights in front of him, he moved to the side, and watched as the car sped past him. Then he sat down on the side walk. His thoughts wandered. He wondered why his parents couldn't just stay out of his life, and why his brothers suddenly didn't want to be a part of it. He thought of what would happen to 'hanson'. It would obviously not work out. If they didn't talk to each other they couldn't write songs, or decide on what to preform. The interviews would definitely get worse, and so would the concerts. If the band broke up he wouldn't know what to do; music was his life. Taylor kicked at a rock that was beside him and watched as it skipped all the way across to the other side of the road. Then he stood up and walked home.
Hiding
The next day they were preforming again. This time on T.V. Taylor felt horrible. He was very self-conscious about how his face looked, and the questions that would be asked. He still hadn't told his parents. He heard someone say "HANSON!" and they walked onto stage. They usually ran, but ever since hadn't spoken to each other they had walked onto the stage. Taylor's head was hanging as he walked to his keyboard. He didn't start with his usual "How you guys doin'?" Tay just waited for Zac to start drumming. Once he heard the beat he knew that it was to fast. But he sang anyway. It went horrible. Isaac was way off key, Zac missed all of his singing parts and the drumming was fast through it all. And Taylor who hadn't looked up through the whole song, was late on every part and missed many notes on the keyboard. After it was over, there was silence for a few minutes then people started clapping. They walked off the stage and Taylor ran to the nearest room and locked the door. It was some sort of office. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He planned to stay in here until his brothers got finished being interviewed. This was the first time since they had gotten grounded that they were going to get interviewed in front of an audience. Taylor didn't want to have to explain about the fight. And he knew that his brothers would be happier without him there. Also, there wouldn't be any arguing or yelling. He had figured that they were mad at him. But he didn't know why. Taylor made his way over to the desk and searched through it 'till he found a blank paper. Sitting down he got a pencil from the holder. He was planning on drawing but instead he started thinking. Now Jessi was mad him too for not telling what happened to him. He had told her he would tell her at the table but instead he had run out. It seemed all of his sibling had been ignoring him, and his parents still wanted to know about the fight. Eventually he would have to let the fans know. Taylor got rid of his thoughts as best he could. Then he started drawing. He drew the three of them, preforming, smiling. They were all looking out into the audience. Everything was back to normal. Then he heard someone trying to open the door. Tay jumped. Someone was now knocking and saying "Could you please let me into my office?" Tay grabbed the drawing and shoved it into his pocket and ran to the door. Opening it, he saw a man who looked quite mad.
"What were you doing in there?"
"Uh...Nothing." Taylor said as he tried to slip past the man. The guy grabbed him.
"Did you steal any of my stuff?"
"No!" Tay looked at him with his one good eye. Hoping that he would believe him.
"Then why did you lock the door?" The guy asked. Taylor didn't know how he could tell him without leading to more questions so he said "I was hiding."
"From who?"
"I need to go before my mom leaves me here. Can I go? Please?" He said desperately.
"Show me what's in your pockets... I got to make sure you are telling the truth and you didn't steal anything." Taylor was relieved that he wasn't going to ask any more questions. So, he emptied out his jean pockets, which held some change, and the drawing. The man looked at the picture and said "You're that kid from hanson aren't you?"
"Um.. Yeah.. I really need to go though. Can I have my picture back?" Tay held out his hand and the man handed him his picture and moved out of the door way. As Taylor walked past him he said "Better luck next time." Taylor figured that he was talking about the performance. He ran down the hall, bumping into a woman who was carrying papers "Not now!" He yelled. She looked at him suspiciously. Tay quickly helped her gather her papers then asked "You know that band that played here? Called hanson? Have they left yet?" Taylor was hoping from one foot to the next. No, one believed that he was shy, but when he wasn't with his brothers he became nervous talking to people he didn't know.
"You're the other boy that is in the band! They looked all over for you. I don't know if they have left yet though, sorry."
He thanked her then ran off towards the parking lot. To see if their van was still there. He stopped when he heard his father yelling "We've checked this whole building! He isn't here! I don't know where he is. Maybe he went home." Tay was so glad that they hadn't left him. He stepped into the room and found his mom and dad talking.
"Dad" he squeaked.
They both turned around, Diana with baby Zoe in her arms. Walker started yelling while his mother just looked at him. "Where were you? Where did you go? You're in big trouble Taylor!"
Tay couldn't believe they had been so worried over him just being gone for a little while; his father always yelled when he was worried.
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