I put down the empty pint container that had held Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream. I licked my lips and licked the last particles of chocolate off my spoon. Yum.
It was a week later, and by now Mom had finished painting the just about every room and I had finished weeding the garden (yes, it took me all week to weed the garden. So sue me for being lazy). I had a break to eat my ice cream, and now mom was going to make me get up and either go outside to scope out the area (which I had already done) or paint, sand, wash, clean, unpack, or something. I decided to go outside to escape the fumes of Comet and ammonia.
I wandered, instead of into the woods, onto the other side of the street where there was some kind of overgrown meadow thing. I wandered through the field, singing quietly. All of a sudden, somebody leapt out from the waist-high grass and screamed.
"What the?!" I screeched.
Zac erupted into laughter, rolling on the ground.
"Zac! You little," I stopped myself.
He continued laughing.
"You stupid little punk!" I gritted my teeth.
"You should've seen your face!" he guffawed.
I squinted my eyes and leapt onto him, wrestling him in the grass. I'm sure I was cursing at him... I was pretty embarassed.
"Hey, stop!" he giggled, tears forming in his eyes from laughter.
I pinned him to the ground.
"Hey, you're pretty strong, for a girl!" he cackled.
"What did you say?" I asked, pinning his arms to the ground.
"You wrestle like a girl!"
I let him up slightly, but then slammed him back down, causing him to smack his head on the ground.
"Hey!" he said, in pain, but still laughing.
"That's what you get. Now, what did you call me?"
"A girl!"
I slammed his head down again.
"Ow!" he complained, but still laughing. He attempted to get up. I sat on his stomach.
"What did you call me?"
"Um..."
"Come on," I prodded.
"Fine, fine," he gasped, attempting to be serious, "you're not a girl."
"That's not i-it," I said in a sing-song voice.
"Okay, okay, you're not girly, you're really cool, and you are a very good singer," Zac admitted, rolling his eyes at the end.
"What's with the eyes, Zacky?" I asked.
"Well, you know-"
Someone interrupted, "What are you two doing?!" It was Taylor.
I brushed the hair that had been hanging in my face behind my ears and climbed off Zac immediately. Taylor raised one eyebrow.
"You hurt me," Zac whined, stretching his back and rubbing his head.
"You asked for it," I commented.
"Uh, guys?" Taylor asked, still confused.
"Oh, yea," I laughed, "That must've looked pretty bad."
"Bad for you maybe, but good for Zac," Taylor shrugged and smirked.
Zac smiled and shook his head. He had bits of grass in his hair.
"You look like a native child," I laughed.
"I can run around naked like one if you want," Zac offered, beginning to take off his shirt.
"No, no, that's okay," I said, pulling his shirt back down. Freak.
"Okay," Zac shrugged.
"You guys have serious problems," Taylor shook his head.
I shrugged.
"Hey," Taylor hesitated, "Tayler, um, do you want to come see our treehouse?"
"Sure whatever," I said, putting my hands in the air. I just hoped they weren't going to gang rape me or something... not that they were intelligent enough to know what to do with a girl in their tree house... All right, I shouldn't make fun of their wholesomenes..
Zac got up and offered me his hand to help me up. I got up by myself. "I don't need your help."
"So, Zac, you really think I'm a good singer?" I asked while we walked.
"Yea, you're not so bad," he shrugged.
"I'll take that as a complement," I smiled, "Thanks."
We approached a tree house behind the Hanson's home. It was nice, but looked pretty much home made.
As we climbed up the ladder, Taylor asked, "So Tayler, what were you doing on top of Zac?"
Ike, who was in the tree house and overheard laughed and looked at me with his eyebrows raised, "You were on top of Zac?"
"She was," Zac bragged.
"I pinned him there," I shrugged.
Taylor and Ike cast sideways glances at each other.
"She did," Zac boasted again.
I looked at Taylor and Ike's surprised faces and began to laugh, "You guys, it was totally innocent, I swear!"
Ike looked skeptical.
"He scared me when I was walking, and so I wrestled him, smashed his head on the ground a couple times, and overall won."
"Okay," Taylor shrugged. He seemed like he didn't believe me.
We began to talk. I talked about New York City and stuff, Broadway, divorce, and moving. They talked about becoming famous, music, and lots of stuff.
"Hey, Tay," Ike began.
"Hm?" Tay and I both said at the same time.
"Okay," I shook my head, "This isn't going to work. One of us needs to be called something other than Tay."
"Robinson," Zac said, biting his thumbnail and not at all seeming to pay attention.
"What?" Ike asked.
"Robinson, for her," Zac nodded toward me.
"Why?"
"Because that's my last name," I explained.
"Okay then," Ike nodded, "If that's all right with all parties present, then Robinson it is."
"Okay, whatever," I nodded. Sometimes he can be so corny...
"Boys!" somebody from below called.
"Yea?" Zac yelled.
"It's time for lunch!"
"How cute!" I teased.
"Wanna come?" Ike asked me.
"Sure, okay, whatever."
We climbed down the ladder and we jogged into the house. There were grilled cheese and ham or bacon sandwiches with soup for lunch. After eating, we decided to go for a walk in the woods.
Zac ran ahead. "Seriously," Taylor asked, "What's up with you and Zac?"
"What?" I laughed.
"Seriously," Ike repeated.
"Seriously? Nothing," I shrugged.
"Hey, Robinson, look at me!" Zac called from up ahead where he was dangling from a tree.
"Wow, you sure are cool, Zacky, why can't I be more like you?" I called sarcastically.
"Anyway," Ike was saying, "you can tell us, I mean, we won't tell Zac if you don't want us to."
First of all, like I was supposed to trust them after only a week? Second of all, Zac? Fourteen year old Zac? Hells no. I bit my lip not to laugh, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there's nothing to hide. No secrets," but because I like feeling powerful, I added, "Even if there was something going on, I'm not sure I can tell you, yet."
I jogged up ahead to where Zac was climbing another tree. Tay and Ike looked at us skeptically as we romped around.
Zac and I climbed up to the a branch of a tree. Just before Ike and Tay walked under us, we leapt out of the tree and landed in front of them.
"If you had misjudged that a little bit, you could've killed us," Ike noted.
"But we didn't," I pointed out.
"Yea, but-" Tay began.
I interrupted, "But we didn't."
"So, how long are you guys staying home?" I wondered.
"The rest of the week," Ike explained.
"That's all?" I questioned.
"Yea, we came home for his birthday," Tay shoved his finger at Zac.
"It's your birthday?" I asked.
"Yea, tomorrow," Zac smiled.
"How old will you be?" I wondered.
"Fourteen."
"Wow, you're really getting up there in your years," I teased.
"Ha ha," Zac grumbled, probably because his brothers had taunted him a lot.
"So then you'll be gone for like, ever?" I questioned.
"Yea, but we might come back for Ike's birthday, in November," Tay stated.
"And I think we have some kind of gig in Tulsa a few weeks after my birthday," Ike said excitedly.
"My mom says I have to go to school starting Monday," I complained, "she said I'd missed enough for setting up the house and moving in."
Zac laughed. "We get to go to Europe, and you get to go to English class!" he giggled.
I grabbed him and put him in a headlock. "Don't mess with me, Zacky," I warned. "I hate school enough as it is..."
"Sorry, ma'am," Zac apologized.
"Wow, I've never heard him break down like that," Ike sounded surprised.
"Yea, well, I'm good like that," I smiled, letting Zac go. "So anyway, Zacky, are you having a party?" I wondered.
"Not really, but we're going to Laser Quest," Zac explained.
"Cool."
Just then I heard my mother calling, "Tayler?"
"Be there in a minute!" I yelled back.
"Hold on, I'll be right back," I told the boys. I took off running to my house. When I entered the back door, mom was waiting for me.
"Tay, I've gotta go to the store, and then I'm going to the airport to check and see about our things, and I've got a few other things I need to do. In short, I'll be gone most of the day. Do you want to come?"
"Not really," I shrugged.
"All right, I figured that. Order pizza or something for your dinner; there is money on the kitchen table."
"Okay." I kissed my mom on the cheek and waved as she drove away.
I jogged back into the woods where Zac, Tay, and Ike were waiting.
"My mom had to go out," I explained in short.
"So anyway," Ike began, "What do you guys want to do?"
"Something," Tay said.
"Definitely something," I agreed.
"Well what?" Ike shrugged.
"We can go to the arcade in town," Zac suggested.
"Ok, sounds good to me," Tay nodded.
"Me too," Ike said.
"Arcade?" I laughed, "Now I know I'm not in New York."
"Hey, what's the matter with arcades?" Zac whined offensively.
"Nothing," I shrugged, "If you live in the 1985."
Zac scowled at me.
"Fine fine, we can go to the arcade," I rolled my eyes.
We went to the Hanson's house, borrowed their mother's car, and drove (well, Ike did) to the arcade. When we got there, Ike, Tay, and Zac headed over to the area where they had three of those virtual reality games where you ride the motorcycle, skateboard, or snowboard. They wasted about five bucks each on those over-priced games, and then we headed over to the other, more normally priced ones.
"Hey, Robinson, I'll play you in Mortal Kombat," Tay offered.
"Sure," I shrugged.
We went up to the console and I chose one of the few girl characters; Tay chose Sub-Zero. As soon as the guy in the beginning told us to begin to fight, Tay froze me, beat me up, and won. I frowned at him.
"That's not fair, I don't know any of the secret codes like you do," I whined.
"Well, that's too bad."
We started the second round. I swung and missed at him, and he froze me again and beat me.
I frowned again, "Aw, come on, take pity on me."
"Fine, I won't use the special weapons," he rolled his eyes.
"Thanks," I smiled. During the third round, I got in a few punches, but he beat me easily.
"Okay, so maybe that's not my game," I pouted.
"I'll play you in that," he pointed to some old Ninja Turtle game.
"Whatever."
We went over to the game, put in our quarters, and began to play. Tay beat me effortlessly. I ahte video games.
"What next?" Tay smiled.
"You're the expert, not me," I pouted.
We played almost every game there, from skeeball to PacMan to Super Mario to car racing games. Tay beat me in every single one.
"This isn't fair!" I whined pitifully.
"Wanna go play that snowboard game?" he asked, pointing to one of those over-priced games.
"Nah," I shook my head, "You go, I'll play Zac in pinball."
Tay nodded and went away. I saw Zac and challenged him to a game of pinball.
"But pinball is only a one player game," he commented.
"So, you go first and write down your score, and then I'll go and whoever gets the higher score wins."
"Okay."
Zac began to play. He did a good job, but when I tried next, my score was about 500,000 points higher. Ha! We played again, but I still won by 445,000 points. I beat him two more times, and then Ike came over. I challenged him to a game, and won by 60,000 points. We played a few more times, and I won every time (once only by 789 points).
I got bored with pinball, and feeling hyper from winning, I went to find Tay. He was playing Mortal Kombat again.
I tugged on his ponytail and leaned on the console next to him, "Hi."
"Hm?" he asked, not looking away from the screen.
"Play me in pinball?" I asked.
"Hold on," he said, still not tearing his eyes from the screen. He finished the game and then came over to the pinball machine with me.
"You go first," I smiled. He went. His score was high, like 1,900,000. I played, but got 1,994,000, making me the winner. I beat him twice more.
"Ha! Yes!" I threw my hands up in the air. "I win I win I win!"
"Yea, congratulations, whatever," Tay grumbled.
"I beat you! Finally!" I teased. "You are no longer the Video Game Wizard!"
Ike and Zac found us. "I am sooo hungry," Zac whined.
"Let's go eat somewhere," Ike suggested.
"Call your mom and ask," I said.
We found some telephones outside the arcade and called home, Ike asked his mom if we could eat out, and she said yes. Ike drove us to some cheap little diner place near the arcade.
The waitress seated us in a booth in the corner, and we ordered and stuff.
"So, Zacky," I said after the waitress served us our drinks, "Tomorrow's the big day."
"Yea, presents, Laser Quest, and food!" Zac yelled.
The waitress gave us our fries and stuff, and promised to bring our food in a few minutes.
"So there will be no party for the big 1 4 birhtday?" I asked Zac.
"Kinda," he shrugged, stuffing his mouth with fries. "My friend is having a party and we're going."
"Cool."
"You can come if you want to, it's just a big bash," Ike offered.
"I don't know," I said hesitantly.
"It'll help you get to know some people better," Tay explained.
"I'll ask my mom."
The waitress brought us our food. We ate for a bit, laughing at Zac's little antics. When we were done, Ike dropped me off at my house. My mom wasn't home, but I took a shower and went to bed. She returned just before I fell asleep, but she didn't interrupt me.
