'Beep,' 'Beep,' 'Beep.' Janelle flung her arm up over her dresser and shut her alarm off. She groaned and slowly sat up. She didn't want to go to school. She was still tired from the day before, and wasn't in the mood of getting stared at on her first day at school. Never the less, she dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom. She met her brother halfway down the hall. "Hey Brenden, what your two friends did yesterday afternoon was real shitty, y'know that?" "Whoo, watch your language or I'll tell Mommy, " Brenden mimicked at her as he walked past her and into his room. She sighed and walked into the bathroom. She started running cool water over her face as she looked at herself in the mirror and groaned, "Crap. Bad hair day." She heard a muffled voice from outside the bathroom door say, "You always have a bad hair day." She shouted over the running water, "Shut up Ethan!" Her little brother was going to be starting his first day at Tulsa Middle School. She had a feeling he would do just fine fitting in.
She stepped out of the bathroom and trudged back to her bedroom. She flung open her closet and tried to decide on what to wear. All she really wanted to do was climb back into bed and sleep for the rest of the day. She decided on a pair of white flares and a dark blue sleeveless tee. She quickly pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail and put on some makeup. She looked into the mirror and forced herself to smile. "Wow, lookin' great beautiful$B)(J she mumbled. She snickered, "Yeah right." She grabbed her Jansport backpack and started filling it with the usual stuff. Notebooks, pens and pencils, her discman, and her Middle of Nowhere and Savage Garden CD. She dumped some more stuff in, and started looking around for her wallet. "Crap, I could have sworn I put it in$B)(JTaylor's jacket. Yeah that's right, now I remember. Daaang, now where did I put Taylor's jacket?" She stood in the middle of her room, racking her brain, trying to remember, when she turned and spotted it sitting on a flower print armchair by the window. She walked over and picked it up. She reached into the pocket and pulled out her wallet and stuffed it into her backpack. Then, she looked at the jacket and thought, 'Great, what do I do with this?' She felt the soft flannel against her cheek and remembered the past events from the VDO shoot. Taylor was a really cool guy. He was so nice and easy to talk with, not to mention way fine. But then again, there was her competition: At least half the female teenage population across the world. She sighed and picked up her backpack, and with Taylor's jacket in hand, she raced down the stairs.
"Morning sweetie, sleep well?" Janelle's mom greeted her. "Yeah, sorta." She sat down at the kitchen table and saw her dad reading the morning newspaper. It read 'Tulsa World,' and smack on the front cover was none other than the three Hanson brothers. She shook her head and smiled. They were everywhere! She leaned over and said, "Hey dad, can I have the front page?" Her dad peeled his eyes from the 'World Business' page and said, "Huh? Oh, yeah sure honey. Here you go." He handed the front page over to Janelle as she quickly stuffed her face with toast and cereal. Her younger brother, Ethan, turned to her and said with a mouth full of Frosted Flakes, "Hei, awen't dose da guys," he paused and took another bite of his cereal, "dat -ou did dat mu-ic weedee-O wid?" Janelle looked up from her article and replied, "Yes it is, and will you quit spraying cereal all over my face? Yech." She wiped her face with a napkin and resumed reading. "Where is your brother?" Janelle's mother asked from the kitchen sink, "If he doesn't hurry, you'll both be late." "Don't worry Mom, he's gotta make sure he looks extra perfect for his first day here. You know, first impressions are always the most important right?" said Janelle without looking up from her cereal. Her mom smiled and walked to the foot of the stairs and called, "Brenden! Hurry up or you'll be late for school!" "I'll be right down!" Janelle rolled her eyes. She'd heard of girls being fashionably late for a date, but never of a guy being fashionably late for school. She flipped the page and continued reading on the opposite side, 'After a long and grueling day of constant recording and filming, the three brothers along with seven other teens managed to finish the brother's first Music VDO ever, 'MMMBop.' This single release is expected to be a big hit among teenagers around the world.' Janelle lay down the article and finished her toast when she saw her older brother sit down next to her.
She raised one eyebrow and looked at him with an amused look on her face. "What?" her brother demanded when he saw her staring at him with a smirk on her face. "Nothin'." Janelle continued on with her toast and tried not to laugh. Her older brother had probably used up half the bottle of gel she had upstairs in the bathroom. Not only that, he was wearing baggy-hangin'-all-the-way-down-to-his-knees-kinda-pants. She bet that if she lifted up her brother's shirt, she'd be able to catch a glimpse of his boxers. She rolled her eyes. The guy was trying to make that "hip-hop-cool-guy-from-LA-impression" on his first day of school. She quickly stuffed her last bite of toast into her mouth and wiped her mouth, and stood up. She looked down at her brother's hair and said, "Geez, I can almost see my reflection. How much gel did you use anyway?" Her brother was quickly trying to finish his orange juice, cereal, and toast all at once, and said, "None of yer business, dork." Janelle rolled her eyes and said to him, "I'm gonna go get my stuff. I'll wait for you in the car." She started to walk out of the kitchen and into the front hall, when she stopped and turned, "Hey, can we stop by the Hanson's on the way? I have to drop off Taylor's jacket." Her brother threw up his arm, "Yeah, sure whatever. Hey, do me a favor and get the engine ready. We're running kinda late." He turned around and threw her the keys to his beat up Chevy. She grabbed them, and her backpack and walked out the front door.
"Make it quick, okay? It's bad enough it's our first day of school, we don't wanna be late too," Brenden called as Janelle got out of the car. She carelessly nodded her head and started walking up the Hanson driveway. She saw a tricycle and a purple baton on the front lawn. She walked up the front steps and rang the bell. Almost immediately, she heard a herd of little footsteps running toward the door. She heard two voices: "Lemme open the door!" "NO! Last time when Mrs. Greene came by to drop off that yucky casserole, you already gotta open it, so it's my turn!" She heard a sigh then someone say, "Alright, fine, but next time it's my turn." Janelle smiled, she suspected the two voices were Avery and Jessica. She had never met Jessica before, but she remembered that Avery was absolutely adorable. Just then, she heard a timid voice say, "Who is it?" Janelle cleared her throat, "Uh, it's Janelle. I'm a friend of your brothers." She heard some whispering on the other end of the door and then, "Janelle who?" Janelle replied, "Janelle Landers." She waited for some kind of response, but instead heard the two sisters carry out another intense conversation on the other end of the door. "It's Janelle! I know her! Last time when we all went to Oklahoma City to record Ikey, Tay, and Zaccy's album, I met her, and she's real nice." Jessica replied, "She's a stranger!" Avery shot back, "She's a nice stranger!" Just then, Janelle heard what sounded like Isaac's voice, call to them, "Avie, Jessie, open the door already!"
The door flung open, and presenting Janelle with an amused look on her face. She saw Isaac walking towards her and saw the two little Hanson's standing, ready to slam the door, in case it was a "bad stranger." Avery let out a sigh of relief, "You see? I told you it was Janelle! You didn't believe me!" "I didn't say I didn't believe you, I just said that we had to be careful!" Jessie replied. Isaac rolled his eyes and gently pushed the two sisters towards the kitchen, then he turned to Janelle. "Hi, so what brings you here this lovely Monday morning?" She smiled and said, "Hi, they're quiet a pair. I was actually having fun listening to their little combat over there." Ike laughed, "You wanna come on in? We just finished breakfast." Janelle quickly shook her head and said, "Oh no, I just came over to drop off Taylor's jacket. I forgot to give it back to him yesterday." She handed the flannel jacket to Ike and continued, "Besides, I gotta hurry, it's our first day of school, and if we're late$B)V(Jhh, that's gonna be really embarrassing, y'know, walking into a class with everyone staring at you." Isaac smiled and said, "Yeah, I know what you mean. Well, in that case, I'll be sure to give this to Taylor." Janelle nodded and smiled, "Yup, tell Tay thanks for me, and I'll see ya guys later." She was about to turn around when something struck her, "Hey, what about you guys? Don't you have to go to school, too? Ike laughed, "No, actually we're home schooled. So we learn here at--" "Home." Janelle finished for him. "Yeah, basically that's how it works," Ike replied with a grin. She heard her brother let out a long and annoying honk. She turned around and yelled, "I'm coming!!" She turned back and faced Isaac, "Anyway, thanks a bunch, I better go, I'll talk to ya guys later." And with a quick wave goodbye, she raced down the front porch, and down the driveway, and into her brother's car. "What the hell took so long?!" He had sped off so quickly, Janelle had to strain on putting on her seatbelt. "Now we're gonna be late!" He quickly swerved a stop sign leaving Janelle gaping at the elderly woman and poodle that he almost ran over. "Christ Brenden, slow down! We're already late, it's okay if we're a minute or two later, just don't run down the whole of Tulsa." Her brother was muttering and grumbling on about how the only reason they were gonna be late was because of his idiot sister who just had to drop off some idiot singer's jacket. Janelle decided that she'd be better off with her mouth shut, because her brother was really peeved. Besides, she didn't understand why he was so mad$B)(Jit was almost like he was looking forward to school.
Isaac shut the door and walked into the garage where Taylor, Zac, and Mac were fooling around with the drums. "Hey brother #2! V.I.M.F.A.V.I.P!" Taylor dropped his drumstick and scrunched up his face, "What the heck's a V.I.M.F.A.V.I.P?" "Very Important Message For A Very Idiotic Person." He threw Taylor's jacket into his face and brushed past him and whispered, "Ahem, from Janelle." Taylor looked at his brother with a confused look on his face, then he remembered that he had loaned his jacket to her yesterday. Isaac interrupted his thoughts, "Hey, piano boy, don't drool over it." Taylor smiled and threw the jacket onto a bench and replied, "She, uh, she didn't say anything did she?" Isaac waved his hand in the air, "Nah, just said that thought the jacket smelled like crap, and that you seriously need to change your deodorant." Taylor looked up with wide eyes, and ran over to the bench where his jacket laid, and picked it up and took a whiff of it. Isaac started cracking up, "Hey chill Tay, I was just playin'." She just said hi and told me to tell you thanks for letting her borrow your jacket and stuff." Taylor threw the jacket back onto the bench and said, "It smells like her now. It smells good." He grinned and walked back to the drums. Zac started pounding on his drums singing, "Stop the mushy stuff!!" (*Author's Note: Sound familiar, devoted Hanson fans? Hehe)
Go To Chapter Nine
