Isaac recalled the events of the day as he stared into the darkness of their Tulsa bedroom. He snickered into the darkness when he remembered how he and his brothers had raced down the five flights of steps only to see their sister sitting on the lobby sofa, singing "A Whole New World." When she had seen them, she huffed past them and said, "I'm taking the elevator, you guys can race back up if you want."
They had gotten a big lecture from the mother, "How could you just go and forget your sister in the hotel lobby?! Mature young men don't do that! Look at her! She must have been scared to death!" Isaac didn't think she had looked so scared. Geez, you don't sing when you're scared, but of course, he kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to get into more trouble than they already were. Zac, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get grounded, "But mom! It's not like we left her on the sidewalk or anything! We actually took her to the bathroom......wait, no, *I* took her to the bathroom, and I bought her ice-cream, and I sat next to her when we went to watch Titanic......" He droned on. Mrs. Hanson wasn't so interested in Zac's baby-sitting skills. She sharply said to them, "If this EVER happens again, you will never be allowed to go out alone again, do you hear me?" The three boys numbly nodded and slowly walked out of their parent's room. Isaac had to admit though, that their mother must have been in a good mood, because they had only been grounded for five days. Well, considering they HAD almost lost their sister......
THE NEXT MORNING
"Zac! C'mon! Hurry up in there!" Taylor pounded his fist against the door. He sighed, he had been standing in front of the bathroom door for 15 minutes. He saw Isaac walk out of their room with both eyes half-way shut. "Move, gotta use the bathroom." Taylor quickly stepped in front of the door, with his hands crossed across his chest. "Uh-uh! I was here first, I've been waiting for 15 freaking minutes." Which reminded him, "Hey Zac! Hurry up! What happened? You can't get the flush to work or what?!" Isaac sat down next to the bathroom door and muttered, "Probaly got his head stuck down there or something."
The door whooshed open, and Zac came out wearing shorts and a shirt, "Geez! Stop pounding already! Can't a guy get some peace around here?!" Tay said to him, "You were in there for almost half an hour, and you expect me not to pound." Zac muttered, "My toothbrush fell down the toilet." Tay started laughing hysterically, and Ike said, "See? Told you so," and he slipped into the bathroom shutting it in Taylor's face. Taylor started pounding again, "HEY IKE! C'mon!! I was waiting here first! Get the hell out!!" Isaac responded by flushing the toilet and saying, "What?! Can't hear you!" "AGH!! I swear, there is something seriously wrong with this family!!" said Tay, and he stormed back to his room. Or, actually, Isaac, Zac and Tay's room.
Mrs. Hanson was putting a pitcher of orange juice on the table when Zac came clumping in. Jessica looked up from her toast and said to Zac, "Zac, do you have to make noise everywhere you go?" Zac walked past her and stomped especially hard and said to her, "YES." Mrs. Hanson looked up and said, "Zac? Where are your brothers?" Zac slumped down in his seat, reached out for some toast, and replied with a mouth full of crumbs and butter, "Bafroom....bru-ing teeth...." Avery quickly pointed at Zac and said. "Zaccy, don't talk with your mouth full." Zac mimicked her and said in a high pitched voice, "Zaccy don't eat with your mouth full." Then he opened his mouth wide and smiled at Avery with toast hanging out of his mouth. Avery quickly stood up and ran to Mrs. Hanson and cried, "Mommy!! Zac's making fun of me!" Mrs. Hanson turned away from the kitchen sink and said to Zac in a stern voice, "Zachary, don't start, or you can spend more than five days in your room." Zac grumbled under his breath and silently ate his toast.
Taylor slumped down the stairs and into the kitchen which was already sitting the rest of his family. He was the last one. Mrs. Hanson asked him, "What took you so long sweetie?" Taylor mumbled, "THEY, " He jerked his head in the direction of Zac and Isaac who were innocently eating their breakfast and said, "THEY were the ones that were taking so long. SOMEBODY'S toothbrush fell down the toilet." He resumed to eating his breakfast and didn't say a word. Taylor thought to himself, "Man, this sucks so bad. I'm grounded for 5 days cuz of Avery, and now a sucky morning." Isaac was having similar thoughts, "Five days with these twerps. Shit." Zac was finishing the last of his breakfast and was thinking to himself, "Aww this sucks, "He turned and looked at Avery who was happily singing with Jessica, and all three brothers signed, almost simultaneously.
Isaac was listening to a No Doubt CD, when he heard Taylor say, "Hey, remember Janelle?" Ike took off his earphones and turned to look at Taylor, "Yeah, of course I do." Taylor continued, "She said that she was gonna call. She still hasn't." Isaac grinned and said, "Why? Ya like her or somethin?" Taylor continued reading his Rolling Stones mag and said, "NO." Isaac said, "UH-HUH. Yeah, sure whatevr." He put his earphones back on. Things were silent for about 10 seconds then he heard Tay pipe up again, "Do you think that she knew who we were?" Isaac took off his earphones for a second time and said to Tay, "Admit it Tay, ya gotta thing for the girl." Tay opened his eyes up wide and replied, "A THING? What THING? No, I don't have a THING for her. I was just wondering, that's it." Isaac stood up and went over to the CD rack. "Well, I guess she didn't, I mean, she didn't scream or anything." Taylor laughed and said, "Ha yeah. I guess we know who our fans are by how loud they scream." He flipped a page to see Maralyn Manson staring up at him, "Crap, it's Mr. Manson again, our ultimate enemy." He quickly flipped to another page and got to a page with all the latest singles. He saw three blonde boys staring up at him."Hey IKE! Check it out! We managed to getta tiny blurb in the Rolling Stones!" He jumped off the bed and held up the magazine to Isaac's face. "Look!" Isaac took them agazine from Taylor and replied, "Hey, cool!" He grabbed the magazine from Taylor and started skimming the small blurb. He read aloud, "Hanson the three brother band from Tulsa have just released their first debut single "MMMBop." So far, it seems to be doing well on the charts. Hurry and go get your copy today!" Isaac returned the magazine to Taylor, "Whoo Whoo....five crummy sentences." He continued flipping through his CD rack, and decided on listening to a Boyz II Men track. Taylor looked ruefully at the magazine and said, "Well, hey, not bad.....so far."
Somewhere, not far away, Janelle was trying to get used to quieteness of her new home. They weren't living right in Tulsa, but more likely in the suburbian area of Tulsa. It was pretty cool, but then again, there was something missing. Back in California, she had lived in LA. Like, RIGHT IN LA. There had been NOISE. Here, in Tulsa, you could actually hear the birds tweet. She said quietly to herself and laughed, "Well, whaddaya know? Birds actually tweet." She shoved a big cardboard box to the side and flopped down onto her bed. She grabbed her maroon Jansport backpack and started rummaging through it. She took our her discman and skipped to track two, and started humming along to MMMBop. She searched a little further in her bag and pulled out the bright yellow Middle of Nowhere CD. She carelessly glanced at the cover as she was about to put it on her desk, when she noticed the vibrant stares of the three young boys. "Ohmegosh, " she started laughing, and took the cover out of it's case. She held it up closer to her face and thought, "No duh! So that's where I saw them! I don't believe it! Tay, Isaac, and Zac are Hanson!" She put the cover back into it's case and said, "They're actually pretty cool. Real laid back and nice."
"Who're you talking to sweetie?" Janelle whirled her head around to see her mother standing in her bedroom entrance. "Oh, nothing mom. Just talking to myself." She smiled and her mother walked over to her and raised one eyebrow up, "Talking to yourself Jan? I thought that only crazy people do that." Her mother laughed and opened a cardboard box, "Honey, have you seen that picture frame that we used to keep on the fireplace back in LA?" Janelle shook her head and replied, "Nope, sorry Mom. No sign of it. Why?" Her Mom smiled and said, "Oh, nothing really, I just thought that it would seem more like home with it on the fireplace mantel here." Her mom turned and walked away, "Well, I'm going to go down and help your father unpack some stuff in the kitchen, just holler if you need me." " I will, Mom, "Janelle replied.
Janelle sighed and picked up her stuffed bunny from the pale carpet of her bedroom. Her mom was having a hard time moving here too. She hadn't been too keen on moving to Tulsa either, but then it hadn't seemed so bad when she remembered that all her old college friends were still living here too. Janelle's mom had graduated from a local Tulsa college, and she had never been back since then. She always said that she was a city girl and that even LA didn't suit her needs, and that she needed to live in New York where everything was happening. Janelle thought again and had to admit that Tulsa wasn't as bad as she had thought. Janelle was interrupted from her thoughts when she heard the phone ring from downstairs. They had just moved in the previous afternoon, and they only had one phone hooked in. They couldn't seem to find the others packed in the other jumble of boxes laying around the house.
"Janelle! Sweetie? Telephone!" Janelle looked up quizzically and thought to herself, "Who the heck could that be?" She scurried down the stairs and took the receiver from her mom, "Thanks," she out her ear to the phone and said, "Hello?" "
"Hi! Janelle, remember me? Arwen? We sorta met on the plane the other day, " she laughed and said, "Betcha you don't do that very often." Janelle's face brightened as she reminiced the other day, "Oh Arwen! Yeah! Of course I remember you! So, how ya doing? Wassup with you?" "I'm doing pretty cool! I'm calling about the Music VDO that I told you about? Remember? That band Hanson who're releasing their first single in a couple of days?" Janelle nodded into the phone and replied, "Yeap, so what do I hafta do?" Arwen said, "Okay, here's the deal. We've got you and some other teens that have agreed to do the VDO with the band, but we need one more boy. If I remember correct, don't you have a brother?" Janelle laughed and said, "Ha! Brenden?" she giggled into the phone and said, "Okay, I'll ask him, hold on, kay?" She covered the mouthpiece and hollered, "BRENDEN! Wanna do a music VDO?!?!" Brenden poked his head into the kitchen and asked, "What?!" " A music VDO! Remember that other day on the plane?" she impatiently explained. "Oh yeah! I remember, what do we hafta do?" Janelle spoke into the mouthpiece and asked, "Hey Arwen, what do we hafta do?" "Well, nothing complicated really. It's just gonna be about teens having lotsa fun and stuff. No biggie." Janelle nodded and said to her brother, "Jes normal stuff with teens having a lot of fun, interested?" Her bro nodded and said, "Sure, count me in." Janelle spoke to Arwen, and after a couple more words in exchange, she hung up. Janelle turned to her brother and said, "Be ready by seven tomorrow." "WHAT?! That early?" Janelle walked past Brenden and said, "Yeah, there'll be lotsa chicks there." Brenden's face brightened and he said, "Whoa, okay, I'm there!" Janelle walked up the stairs and silently shook her head, "Egotistical freak, just wait till tomorrow."
