Janelle quietly crept past the Principal's office and began looking for her class. She looked down at her schedule. It read "Period One: Homeroom." Well so much for that, she had already missed it by 12 minutes. She read on, "Period Two: English Room 412." Janelle groaned realizing that she had to climb four flights of steps, especially since she was already out of breath from running from the parking lot into the high school building in a matter of 10 seconds. She took a deep breath and started climbing. She looked at the walls decorating the staircase. There were fliers and posers advertising stuff. One notice caught her eye. 'Valentine's Dance this Friday! Awesome music from Local Bands: Admiral Twin, Safari Sanity, and Hanson!' Janelle smiled to herself. They really were everywhere. She grabbed the flier and stuck it into her bag and continued walking. She had been able to round flight 3 and was almost approaching the fourth floor when she started giggling to herself. She remembered Track 6 of Hanson's Middle of Nowhere CD: 'Yearbook.' What if she really did see Johnny? Imagine purple smoke rising and-- she felt a soft tap on her left shoulder. She almost shrieked out loud, before she felt a hand cover her mouth. She turned around and saw none other than the macho freak Jordan. She was gasping and she thought that her heart was gonna explode. "Dammit Jordan! You nearly gave me a heart attack.!" She thought to herself, 'Not really, you were just letting you imagination take you off to Johnny land.' She brushed her thoughts aside and said to him, what're you doing out here? He grinned at her and replied, "Going to the bathroom. Why, aren't I allowed to do that?" She felt herself calm down, "Yeah sure$B)(Jtalk to ya later." She was still mad at him for picking on Taylor like he did yesterday afternoon. She didn't really want to talk to him anyway. She started to scurry down the hall towards 412, when she heard Jordan call after her, "Wait! I have to tell you something first." She sighed and turned around, "Yeah?" He approached her and said, "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to pick on Taylor like I did." Janelle looked at him and thought, "Geez, was he just reading my thoughts?" She cleared her throat and replied, "Yeah, well, you shouldn't be telling me that$B)(JYou should be apologizing to Taylor. Later." She turned her heel and continued down the hall. She heard Jordan walk into the bathroom, as she spotted her English class. She took a deep breath and walked in.
Somewhere on the other side of town, three brothers were doing their English homework. "Man, it sucks havin' your mom as your teacher," Zac complained as he tried to think of a good analogy for cook and pie. Isaac grinned and said to him, "Hey, don't complain, I'm doing Shakespeare here," he paused for a minute, "Actually, Shakespeare's cool, I mean, "Romeo and Juliet" was okay, but I don't get Julius Caesar." He turned to Tay and said, "Too bad, you're gonna hafta do it next year." Taylor was happily doodling on his notebook totally oblivious to what his brother just said, he answered, "Mm-hmm." Zac rolled his eyes and threw his pencil and hit Taylor in the arm, just as their mother walked in. "Zachary Walker Hanson! You could've poked your brother in the eye by doing that!" Zac looked sheepishly at his mother, "Aww, sorry Mom. I won't do it again$B)(J Promise." He smiled sweetly at his mother and she couldn't help but laugh. "So gang, have you finished the work that I gave you?" Isaac replied, "Yeah, almost finished here." "What about you Taylor?" Mrs. Hanson turned to look at her other son, "Almost finished?" "Mm-hmm," he replied. She stuck one eyebrow up and looked over at her other two sons with a look that said, 'you-know-what-the-heck's-going-on-with-him?' Isaac and Zac shook their heads, almost simultaneously and shrugged. She smiled and said, "Okay, well, when you're finished, you're free to do what you want. I'm going to go and do some Math with Jessie and Avie." She walked out of the room and Zac shook his head once more. He just didn't get this thing$B)(Jthis thing called love.
"Excuse me, and you are?" asked a balding man who had a faint trace of a British accent. Janelle uncomfortably shifted from foot to foot and replied, "I, uh, I'm new. I'm really sorry I'm late$B)(J I, uh$B)(JI sorta got lost." She couldn't tell them that she was late because her older brother had decided on spending an extra 20 minutes dressing up. Janelle slowly turned to her left, only to see 30 pairs of eyes staring at her. 'Damn,' she thought, ' it was worse than I thought it'd be.' "Ah, yes. Of course, please, please, do sit down. I'm Mr. Parsons, and I believe there's an extra seat at the back." All of a sudden, she heard the class door squeak open, and she saw Jordan on his way walking in. Mr. Parsons squinted his eyes and peered at him, "Mr. Trippiano, I hope that that is the last time you will need to go to the bathroom this period, hm?" "Yeah, yeah whatever," Jordan replied. He grinned at Janelle and sat down. Janelle looked at him, puzzled. 'What's he doing in my grade?' Then she realized that he must've stayed back a year or something. Janelle followed him down the aisle, to the last row. There it was, her forlorn seat at the back of the class, right next to$B)(J Aww crap, she couldn't believe her luck. There was Barbie Girl herself. 'I guess Tulsa really is a small town,' she thought to herself. She slumped down into her seat and took a notebook and pen out. She looked up only to see the whole class staring at her. She shifted her eyes around the room and up front at Mr. Parsons, who was also staring at her. "What?" she asked no one in particular. "Well, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Janelle looked uncomfortably around the room and replied, "Uh, yeah sure. I'm Janelle Landers, I'm 14 from LA, California. Uh, yeah, we just moved out here because of my Dad's job." Mr. Parsons smiled briefly at her and said, "Thanks you Ms. Landers for telling us that," he turned back to the chalkboard and continued, "Now, onto Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird$B)(J." Janelle tried to ignore the remaining 15 or so pair of eyes that still remained focused on her, and glanced over at Barbie. Steph flicked her hair over her shoulder and gave a short and perky wave along with a big cheesy grin. Janelle gave a shorter and perkier wave back to her$B)(J Along with a bigger and even cheesier grin. She turned back to her face the board. She sighed and slumped even further into her seat. She couldn't wait to go home.
Janelle looked around the crowded cafeteria with a tray of sloppy joes in her hands. So far, all the tables were taken. 'Great,' she thought, 'What do I do now?' Suddenly, she heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw a tall brunette smiling and waving at her from a lunch table of four, a couple of feet away from her. Janelle smiled and walked over.
"Hi! I'm Alicia, you're new right?" Janelle sat down and replied, "Yeah, just moved here a couple of days ago." "Well, hey if you need us to show you around, take you anywhere, y'know in case you can't find your way 'round or something, just tell us, and we'll be glad to help ya out." Janelle could tell that Alicia was a really sweet person, she smiled and replied, "Thanks, thanks a bunch. I sorta got off on a bad start this morning." A girl in a purple tee next to Alicia said, "Hey, don't worry, you'll get used to it after awhile. Oh, by the way, I'm Sabrina, and this here's Heather." She pointed to a shy looking girl who smiled and said, "So, you used to live in LA, huh? What's it like there?" Janelle laughed and said, "Well, I dunno, it isn't always sunny like everybody says," she smiled and continued, "It's really fun there actually. But I think that I kinda like Tulsa too. It's okay her--" She was interrupted by a couple of loud shouts coming from the lunch table next to them. She looked over and saw Jordan and his buds along with her brother. Janelle wanted to bury her head in her sloppy joes. "Daang, look at that guy over there$B)(J With Jordan and his guys. He must be new too," Heather said. Sabrina continued, "He is fine, fine, fine$B)(Joh! Look, they're walking our way!" "Quick, pretend you're eating," Alicia quickly hissed.
"Yo! L'il sista, how yo doin' so far?" greeted her older brother. Janelle looked up and said, "Brenden, enough of the ghetto language already." She picked up her fork and continued poking at her sloppy joes. Jordan leaned over the table and peered into her eyes, "Hey Jannie, I promise I'll apologize to Taylor for ya, if you'll go out to the Valentine's Dance with me." Janelle looked back up and said, "I don't take bribes." She would never ever go to any dance with him, much less be seen with him. She still was mad at him$B)(J Even if he was going to apologize to Taylor, like he said. He still was a jerk for doing that to him. Not only that, he had asked her out in front of the whole lunchroom, who was now beginning to crowd around the table. And as for her brother, he looked like a wannabe dork. Alicia seemed to sense Janelle's uneasiness because she said, "Hey Jordan, go away will ya?" Jordan backed up and put his hands up with a grin on his face, "Hey, hey, I know when I'm not wanted. I'm leaving, I'm leaving." He started walking out of the lunchroom, trailing behind him was Brenden and his new 'homeboys.' Janelle sighed, she hoped her brother wasn't gonna be friends with Jordan and his gang. Why couldn't he hang out with cool laid back guys like Isaac? They were the same age anyway. She turned back and saw her three new friends looking at her. She cleared her throat and explained, "That was my brother, Brenden," she continued, "He's doesn't always look and act like a dork though, hard to believe I know." Sabrina giggled, "Well, I think he's way fine." Janelle grinned and shook her head, "Well, he's available if you're interested." She smiled to herself, looks like her brother's gel smothered hair was paying off.
Taylor stared intently at the phone. Should he call her? Or would it seem too, ah, direct? Nah, maybe he should just go over to her house? No, then that'd seem too impulsive. Maybe he should just--. "Hey Tay, Mom's going out, you want anything?" Zac asked poking his head through the door. Taylor snapped his head up and replied, "Uh, no thanks." Zac looked curiously at his brother, shook his head, and closed the door. Once outside in the hallway, Zac thought to himself, 'What is it with girls? How could his brothers actually like them? Yech.' Even though little Zac wrote and sang songs about love and girls that didn't mean that he actually understood them.
Taylor continued staring at the phone, before he made up his mind to just get it over with and call Janelle. He picked up the phone, dialed the seven digit number that he had remembered so diligently, and tapped his fingers against the cradle. He almost considered hanging up when he remembered the reason why he was calling her, but found it too late when he heard someone answer on the other end. "Hello?" Taylor quickly sat up and croaked out, "H-hi.. uh, can I talk to Janelle please?" The person on the other end told him to hold on while Taylor's palms were sweating like crazy. 'Crap,' he thought, 'I croaked! I croaked! Damn, I must've sounded like a major dork.' He heard someone pick up the phone and then say, "Hello?" It was Janelle. Taylor cleared his throat and said, "Hey--!" He sort of froze in mid sentence, then it was silent for what seemed like 5 hours, but only really was 2 seconds. "Hello? Is anyone there?" Janelle pondered. "Yeah, uh, hi Janelle, it's me, Taylor." "Oh, hey Taylor! Whatcha been up to?" Taylor quickly relaxed and replied, "Oh, nothing really. Y'know, schoolwork and rollerblading around$B)(J The usual." Janelle laughed and said, "Oh yeah, I stopped by this morning to drop off--" "Yeah! The jacket, thanks Ike gave it to me." Taylor interrupted. He silently yelled at himself for interrupting her, but decided to just continue on and just get it over with. "Um, Janelle, have you heard about the Valentine's dance at your school?" "Yeah, I have! I heard that you guys are gonna be performing! That's gonna be so awesome$B)(JI'll getta free front row Hanson concert." She laughed. Taylor gave a weak laugh in return, "Yeah, that's right, "he continued on, "Anyway, I was sorta wondering, I mean, if you're not, uh, busy or already going with someone else, if$B)(Jyoudliketogooutwithme." He had rushed through his last phrase so quickly, Janelle almost thought she hadn't heard correctly. She was silent for a few seconds causing Taylor to think that she was trying to think of a way to put him down and quickly said, "But, hey if you're busy, that's okay with me. Maybe some other time." Janelle quickly replied, "Oh no, Taylor, I'd love to go with you." Taylor let out a huge sigh of relief and replied, "Great! I'll see you on Friday then!"
Go To Chapter Ten
