Zac
"Can I?" Zac asked for the trillionth time that second.
"Zac, sweety, I'm pretty sure you can," Mrs Hanson replied, for also the trillionth time that second, "but I have to check with your dad."
"Okay, Mom."
With that, Zac skipped off to his room and began to dig through his closet, chucking shirts, hurling pants.
Did he need his swimming stuff? He remembered back to Taylor's birthday. They had gone swimming in that slimey pond, even though it hadn't been very warm out. Zac shuttered when he thought of it. Afterwards, they had all gotten swimmer's itch, but it was worth it all in Taylor's opinion. Zac had been very jealous that day, because Taylor had been kicked out of childhood, by the traditional thirteenth birthday. Zac frowned at the memory. He'd been the only Hanson brother (besides Mac) who was still in the child category.
He couldn't really remember Ike's. He remembered that he was afraid to stay in the cave without his parents, and he hadn't wanted to go swimming in the slime. But give him a break. He was only 8.
Shrugging, he continued chucking clothes around the room.
"What in the hell are you doing?"
Zac jumped. Taylor was leaning on the door frame, looking in disgust at Zac's pigsty.
"Getting ready for my party," he replied, "Duh!"
"Your birthday's not for one and a half weeks!"
"Oh." He had forgotten that tiny detail. It couldn't be one and a half weeks away! That was forever!
"Is not," he told Tay, sticking out his bottom lip, even though he knew perfectly well that it was.
"Is too."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Is not."
"Is TOO!"
"Is NOT!"
"TOO!"
"What's going on?" Mrs Hanson called from the hallway.
"It's all Taylor, Mom."
"It's Zac!"
"Hmph! If this is another one of those 'is too' 'is not' bickerings, it can end right now. Wasn't it even a little embarrassing when Jane Magazine commented on your "pissing matches"?"
"Sorry, Mom. But it was Tay!"
The boys waited until Mrs Hanson left the doorway.
"Is TOO!"
"Is NOT!"
Taylor
Cheyenne hadn't phoned yet. It had been two weeks since her exam. He knew because Jessie had taken hers, and she had been the last person tested.
At this moment, Taylor was giving the telephone death looks during commercial breaks of the program he was watching. As coincidence would have it, the phone rang in the middle of one of his "I'm going to phone her myself" ramblings.
He leaped for the phone, "Hello?"
"Hi Taysie."
"Oh, hi, Britt." Dammit!
"I'm so glad you're home, Taysie."
"Taysie?" Ew! Where does she come up with these? Kill me now!
"Yeah. It's your new nickname," Britt told him, lazily, "Anyhow, we are having a picnic."
"Great," Taylor muttered half-heartedly, "Who's we?"
"Me, duh," she exclaimed, giggling, "And Alicia. And you."
Tay groaned. Alicia drove him crazy.
"Shut up, Tay! I don't talk about your friends that way."
"I just groaned! That may or may not have been for Alicia."
"Whatever! Come by my house in 20 minutes. Bye, Taysie."
UGH!!
The very word sent shivers up his spine.
"Bye, Britt."
Zac
"Dad!" Zac called, poking his nose into Mr Hanson's office. Where the hell is he? This is important! "Where are you? DAD!!!!!!!"
"He's in the basement," Mac revealed, coming over to Zac, "What do ya want him, for?"
"My traditional thirteenth birthday party," Zac recited, bobbing his head with every word.
"COOL! Can I come?" Mac asked, jumping up and down.
"No, Mackie. Gotta wait for your own."
Mac's lip quivered and Zac felt guilty. Bending over, he picked him up, and plopped him on his shoulders, "But, I'll tell you what. When I'm done with Dad, how about we go and feed Avery's dolls' clothes to Wickit?"
"Cool! Carry me to her room?"
"Sure. Shhhh. We have to be quiet. She'll hear us."
In a stealth like motion, Zac deposited Mac in Avery's room and went off to find his Dad.
"Dad?" he asked, once he was in the basement.
"Hmm?"
"We'll be here for my birthday, right?"
"You bet. Your mom and I have discussed it with Mr Sabec and we are going to be here."
"YES!"
"Wanna help?" Mr Hanson asked, motioning at the pile of boards he was constructing.
"Nah. I promised to play with Mac."
"Okay. Don't feed your sister's toys to Wickit."
"Oh, we won't."
Taylor rang the doorbell.
"Taysie!" Britt exclaimed, giving him a hug and a kiss.
"Um, no."
"What?" she pouted.
"The 'Taysie' thing has got to stop."
"Well, sor-ry. Alicia!"
Alicia came outside and smiled at Tay.
"Hi, Tay."
Taylor shuddered inwardly and grabbed Britt's hand.
"Let's go," he ordered, pulling on her hand.
Taylor wasn't happy to be going. Zac and Mac were going to feed Barbie clothes to Wickit and he wanted to play too. It was fun doing that!
"Whoa, Britt! Check out the blond at 6:00!" Alicia exclaimed.
"Shit, Britt! Check out his butt! Ooooooo!" Britt squealed.
"Hey, Britt," Taylor muttered, touching her arm for a second. Had she forgotten him already? Jeez, why'd he answer the phone?
"Sorry, Tay. Your bum is cuter," Britt consoled, without taking her eyes off the other blond.
"Britty, take a second look at him," Alicia ordered, "His butt is way hotter!"
Tell him again why he didn't like Britt's friends?
Britt took a second look and made a face.
Good! Maybe his butt isn't nicer than mine. Tay looked over his shoulder at it. No, Alicia needs to get her eyes checked.
"Lishy, look who he is looking at!" Britt exclaimed, grabbing Alicia's arm. Taylor groaned. This was a park trip from hell.
"Ew, Britty!" Alicia whined, "Cheyenne Spring is so not pretty! Not even cute!"
"I know."
Cheyenne? Finally! Somebody normal in a boy crazy park!
"She is so pretty!" Taylor disagreed.
"No," Britt argued, placing her hand on her hip.
"Yeah. Look at her hair! And she has a cute smile."
"Her hair is worse than your mom's. Don't look at other girls. You're taken!"
WHAT?!?!
"Britt, if you ever say another word about-"
"Oh, don't get all riled up! You can be such a defensive baby! Lishy, I'm thirsty. We are going to get a drink. Stay, Tay," Britt ordered, pointing at the ground. With that, they turned and left.
Stay? Who the hell was he? Wickit now? And how dare she even say something about his mom? He was mad. But he knew what he was about to do would cheer him up.
Isaac
Isaac looked angrily at the phone. Shae had no reason to be mad at him. He should just call her and give her a piece of his mind. Yes, that was exactly what he was going to do! He picked up the phone and dialed her number.
"Hello?"
"Hi." This wasn't Shae.
"Can I help you?" the stranger asked.
"Uh, yeah. Who is this?"
"Tracey Chapman."
Ah, so this was the much spoken about Tracey.
"Is Shae there?"
"Yes, she is," Tracey told him, "But I think you're Isaac Hanson, and she gave certain instructions about talking to you."
"Tracey, please?"
"Hold on and I'll see. No promises, though."
Isaac waited.
"Make it quick, Isaac," Shae greeted cooly.
"Hey, Shae. Why are you mad?"
"Because you lied."
"I lied?"
"Yes, you did. Remember on the hill? You promised that you would never turn your back on me! You agreed with my mother!" Her voice was accusing.
"Well, Shae-"
"Listen! I.....I don't know! I don't have anything else to say to you, and Sam is crying. Good bye."
"Shae, don't hang-"
It was too late. The click cut him off. Grouchily, he hung up the phone.
"Isaac, have you started to study?" Mrs Hanson asked, appearing in the doorway of Isaac's room.
"No," he sighed.
"So," she began, crossing her arms, "What's wrong?"
"Shae's mad at me."
"Why?"
"Well, we took the twins to the park in her old neighborhood and happened to bump into her mom. This was the first time she'd seen Shae and the twins. I think she wanted to forgive and forget, but Shae took all her comments as critizm, and I pointed out that her mother had been trying to make up with her, and, whoa! Look out for Shae the ticking time bomb!"
Mrs Hanson nodded, "You are just stuck in the middle. I knew this would happen."
"What?" Did he have a pyschic mom now?
"Shae needed somebody to lean on, so she leaned on you. You would be pretty easy to lean on, you know, dear," Mrs Hanson smiled fondly at him. "Anyway, then Shae's mother showed up, ready to accept her and the twins, but Mrs....Mrs...."
"Morgan."
"Mrs Morgan hadn't been there for her. Then you, the person she trusted totally, agreed with her mom. So, naturally she's mad at you. Want to know what I think?"
"Yeah," Isaac nodded.
"I didn't like this from the start. Shae is very different from you. You've practically come from different worlds. But, I didn't want to say anything because your dad and I figured that you would do what you wanted anyway. Tay and Zac are different. They're younger and we still have a say in what they can or cannot do."
"You approve of Britt and not Shae?"
"It's not that we don't approve of Britt or Shae. Shae is a nice person, but her life is more complicated than you deserve right now. Britt is, well, Britt is different, but Tay seems to like her. He'd probably break up with her if he didn't like the treatment he was getting. And, Zac is young, but Stephanie's the kind of girl I'd want him with if he insists on doing what he's doing so young. See my point?"
"Yeah."
"Good luck, dear. She'll come around, or she isn't worth it. And it's obvious you think she is worth it, right?"
She gave him a hug and left."
Zac
Zac thumped the bass drum with his foot and Mac began to pound the cymbols and the snare. The two "angels" had tried to feed the clothes to Wickit, but he didn't want to eat them, which sucked.
"Zac!" Avery yelled from upstairs, "The door's for you!"
Zac, who hadn't even heard the doorbell over the racket they had been making, said, "Be back, Wacky Macky."
"See ya, Wacky Zacky," Mac imitated.
Zac sprinted upstairs and found Cassie at the door.
"Hey Cassie!"
"Hello, Zacola!"
They did the 'secret' greeting, which consisted of smacking hands hands twice, bumping butts once, and doing some sort of dance, before bounding off to the living room.
"That is immature. Too immature for me," Cassie told him, sitting on the couch, sticking her straight nose in the air.
Zac draped his arm over her shoulders and pretended to punch her, "Shut up, Cas. You know you like our greeting."
Cassie elbowed him in the ribs, and stifled a giggle, looking more reserved.
"Ow! Why the hell'd you do that?" Zac exclaimed, rubbing his offended rib.
"I dunno!" she giggled out right, "To hell with this! Can you come to the party?"
"What?" Zac asked her mockingly, "Not attend my own party?"
"Cool, Zman!"
"Well, Cgirl!"
Taylor
"Hey, Cheyenne," Taylor greeted.
Cheyenne jumped and tried to cover the loose papers she'd been writing on.
"Hi, Taylor." Her clear eyes darted in the direction Britt and Alicia had taken off in, and continued, "Please don't talk with me. Britt'll be furious."
Taylor gahumphed, and glanced in the direction of Mr Cute Butt (gag him). He was still staring at Cheyenne. Ha! Who was talking to her know, though?
Cheyenne was oblivious to this. She still was staring with her weird eyes. They were brown, but had flecks of grey in them. They always held an innocent look, that was totally uninnocent in some way. He found it fascinating.
"Whatcha got there?" Tay asked, pointing at her papers, which she had tried in vain to hide.
"Nothing," she replied, grinning sheepishly.
"Oh? Then why are you hiding them?"
"I'm not." Such an obvious lie, it was pathetic.
"I think you are," Taylor told her, grabbing the papers.
"Taylor, give 'em back!" Cheyenne exclaimed, giving Taylor a reproachful look.
Taylor turned his back to her, and began to read in a teasing voice, "Missed. By Cheyenne Rachel Spring."
He read a few lines in the same voice, before saying, "Whoa, Cheyenne, these poems are really good!"
"Nah."
"Sure they are. Does your mom read 'em?"
Cheyenne looked surprised, "That's an odd question."
"Is not. My mom reads my songs."
"Oh, um, she, ah, used to."
"Used to?"
Cheyenne didn't have time to answer, for a loud, angry voice shouted, "Taylor! You miserable little cheat! You're talking to her! I told you to stay!"
"Really, Britty! You can't tell me what to do. I'm just talking!" Taylor said, glaring at his girlfriend, who had fire and spite in her eyes.
"No! You can't talk to other girls!" Britt practically screamed, "First you think........AH!"
"Are you done?" Taylor asked, glancing at Cheyenne, who was literally shaking.
"NO! And Cheyenne!"
Cheyenne's head jerked up, and she looked Britt in the eyes, "What?"
"I don't know who in the hell you think you are, Cheyenne Spring, but let me tell you something-"
"Britt, don't-" Taylor interjected.
"Shut up, Taylor! Cheyenne, I can tell you exactly who you are. You are the daughter of some failure at his job father, and shall I even mention your mother? I'm sure you wouldn't mind. I'm also sure you'd like to run home to her, but you can't, can you?" Britt's voice had lowered in volume, but it was the menacing, mocking way she said her words that stung, "Too bad she is dead and rotting! She must be absolutely beautiful-"
"Brittany, cut the crap!" Taylor yelled, but he was cut off by a sound that resembled a clap of thunder. Britt's hand flew to her cheek, that was now red and splotchy where Cheyenne's hand had struck it.
"Why, you little bi-"
"Don't you ever talk about my parents that way!" Cheyenne cried, grabbing her papers, "Bye, Taylor." With that, she turned and left.
"Tay, did you see that?"
"Leave me alone, Britt," Taylor told her, turning in the direction of home.