It was one of those rare summer days when the heat actually felt good, and only a week left before the Hanson concert.

Arming herself with her: batteries, gum, and money, Brittany stuck her Hanson tape in her walkman, and took off in pursuit of her goal of the moment, knowing she had no time to waste... the music store always got too crowded in the afternoon.

Concentrating hard, Brittany made sure that she was rollerblading correctly. It took her forever to get her parents to buy them for her. So now that she had them she wanted to make the most of it. She had no idea when she was going to get another thing from her parents, so she was savoring the moment.

This was her second month in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Visiting her aunt and uncle with her parents.

But she didn't get to see much of them. Every time she came home they just told her to go out back and go swimming. They were doing 'grown up stuff' and she wasn't allowed to be around when they did.

It didn't bother her though. She loved the swimming pool. Loved how it was so large and the water was always so cold. Plus she always had it to herself, so she could daydream and not get yelled at for not listening to someone yapping.

Brittany got so wrapped up in her thoughts that she forgot to pay attention to where she was going. When she finally saw it, it was too late react and stop.

Painfully her body slammed into the low brick wall. She tripped over it, stumbled blindly, and then fell hard face first onto the ground.

She didn't even bother to cry out for help, let alone cry. She was just too numb from the shock to do anything.

After a few minutes she heard someone rollerblading. Thinking about calling out to them, she quickly rejected the idea. She wanted to be brave and decided to get up on her own.

That was her mistake.

"What are you doing here?" An angry voice boomed loudly above her.

Brittany took a step back and blinked several times before her eyes could adjust properly on the larger figure in front of her.

"I was rollerblading." She had said it quickly, her small lisp appearing as she shook nervously and frightened.

The angry teenager started to approach her now. Coming closer, Brittany knew he wasn't going to help her, not at all. Not with that cold look in his eyes.

"Russ, just what do you think you are doing?!" A girl's voice shrieked loudly.

Brittany didn't pay any attention though. She kept her gaze and concentrated on the figure in front of her.

"This girl is trespassing on my turf!" The teen shouted loudly as he eyed Brittany.

The young girl approached the duo and briefly glanced at her. "She's just a little kid. Let her go. She probably doesn't even know about the boundary lines."

Brittany tried to follow the conversation but they were talking about things that she had no idea about.

"Jessie, she's probably here as a nark." The teenager, now known as Russ, stated as the two stared at Brittany.

"You got a name?" The girl identified as Jessie asked smiling kindly at her.

Brittany nodded numbly. "My name's Britt-Brittany." She got out shakily, her lisp still painfully evident even though she tried to hide it.

Jessie shook her head. "Russ, she's not a nark. Let her go." She said as she smiled at Brittany again.

Russ didn't move. "No, she's a nark." He replied.

Jessie's face burned with anger. "Don't make me get my brothers, Russ. Because you know they'll do worse to you than you ever could to this girl here." She warned him in a threatening tone.

Brittany finally breathed a sigh of relief after Russ looked at Jessie, then to her, and then left, leaving them alone. Quickly she held her breath again when Jessie looked at her.

But Jessie smiled at her again. "Don't worry about Russ. He's just paranoid." She said as she started to gather up the stuff that fell out of Brittany's pockets when she hit and fell over the wall.

Brittany bent down and started to gather up her change and dollar bills and the gum wrappers. "Thanks." She mumbled softly.

"No problem." Jessie said nodding her head. Then she held up Brittany's walkman. "Your tape is busted." She said as she showed the badly damaged orange cassette tape.

"Aww man!" Brittany whined as she took the tape in her hands. "I just got this one too."

"Hey, it's no problem. You can have mine." Jessie said as she removed the tape from her backpack.

Brittany stared at her in amazement. "Are you sure?" She asked tentatively. She knew that she would never give away her own copy.

Jessie nodded. "I have so many of these." She said laughing. "Plus, this one is better. It has their signatures." She said as she stood up and helped Brittany up also.

"No way." Brittany said in disbelief. But her mouth dropped open when Jessie handed her the cassette tape with the infamous scrawled signatures of Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson. "I can't accept this." She murmured in awe. With her head shaking, she started to hand the tape back to Jessie.

She simply shook her head. "Nah, take it. You deserve it after what Russ did." Jessie said grinning.

Brittany looked at the immaculate gift as they both started to go off in the same direction. "I can't believe you're actually giving this to me." She exclaimed as she delicately handled the tape as if it were a priceless gem.

Jessie laughed good-naturedly. "It's okay. I want you to have it. By the way, I'm Jessie." She said as she reached her hand out to her.

Automatically Brittany shook her hand. "I'm Brittany. But then again, you already know that." She said laughing nervously, a sheepish smile on her flushing face.

"Yeah, I do." Jessie said nodding. "So Britt, how old are ya? You look kinda young to be off by yourself in these parts."

Brittany laughed at the irony in that comment. "And you're not?"

Jessie looked at her and smiled. "Well, I'm ten. So I can do fine on my own. Besides everyone knows my brothers will kick their butts if they try and mess with me."

"Oh." Brittany said as her self-conscience attacked her again. "I'm seven. I normally go off on my own though. I'm visiting my aunt and uncle with my parents, and they're busy for me, so that means I can do whatever I want basically."

"Sounds kinda dumb." Jessie said sharply.

She softened though at the stricken look on Brittany's face. "I meant it's dumb that you aren't with them. I'm always spending time with my family."

Brittany could only shrug. She didn't want to speak at that moment, because she knew her lisp would show itself once again. And she hated that.

"Look are you going to the Hanson concert next week?" Jessie asked sweetly as she smiled at her.

"Definitely." Brittany exclaimed smiling. "I fought hard and got second row center." She said proudly.

Jessie grinned. "Listen if you let me come over tomorrow, and if you hang out with me, I'll make sure that I get you better seats. And backstage passes." She bargained.

Brittany stared at her, completely speechless. "Are you for real?" She asked shocked beyond belief.

"Yeah." Jessie said laughing. She was really starting to like Brittany. She had the same little lisp as her brother did. Not to mention she looked so pretty and petite.

Brittany grinned at her newfound friend. "Yeah. Of course!" She screeched as she hugged Jessie instinctively.

Jessie laughed and hugged her back, smiling at her new friend's enthusiasm. "Is your house close by?" She asked when they released their holds on one another.

"It's right down East Thirteenth Street." Brittany answered smiling happily.

The two new friends talked fast about their plans for the next day. They decided on skating, swimming, and then going over to Jessie's house to meet her family.

"Bye, Jess." Brittany said as she walked up onto the porch steps of her aunt and uncle's house.

"Bye, Britt. See ya tomorrow." Jessie said grinning as she started down the sidewalk towards her own house.

Brittany walked inside happily. Whistling and bopping her head. Immediately she headed for the backyard. She stripped down to her bathing suit that laid under her clothes and dove into the cool clean pool.

She couldn't wait until tomorrow. She was going to hang out with her new friend Jessie and Jessie was not only get her better seats and backstage passes but she was also going to go with her. That was beyond one of the greatest gifts Brittany herself ever received from someone.

Brittany's thoughts wandered and she stopped paying attention to what she was doing. After a few minutes of splashing around in the pool she decided to try out the deep end of the pool. She felt happy and invincible.

Once she got down there, she got scared because she was in the center and couldn't touch bottom. Brittany started panicking and called out for her parents twice.

Yet no one came and Brittany swallowed the chlorinated water as it stung her eyes and lungs. Getting weak, she stopped struggling and saw black.

Closing her eyes, she sank slowly into the deep water. Never coming up back up again.

Jessie whistled as she ran up to her house and slammed the door shut behind her when she walked inside.

"And where have you been, Miss Sunshine?" Mrs. Hanson asked as Jessie grabbed for a cookie.

"I met a girl today. And I'm going to take her to the concert next week." She stated proudly.

Mrs. Hanson smiled down at her daughter. "Is she nice? What's her name?"

Jessie laughed. "She's beyond nice, Mom, and her name's Brittany. But I get to call her Britt."

She laughed at Jessie's enthusiasm. "That's great, Jess." Wink she suggested, "Why don't you go tell your brothers?"

Not having to be asked, Jessie was already gone and searching for her brothers. "Guys guess what, guess what, guess what." She said happily as she ran into Taylor's arms and he picked her up.

"What, what, what?" Taylor asked as he spun her around.

Jessie squealed in delight, clinging to his neck. "I met this girl and she's coming to the concert next week. And she's like totally in love with your music!"

Isaac and Zac smiled at their sister's happy face.

"How old is she, Jess?" Taylor asked as he placed her on his left hip and went over to his keyboard.

"She's seven and she's super duper nice." She exclaimed as she played the first notes of Beethoven's seventh symphony.

Taylor smiled at her proudly and set her down. He showed her a few tips and she re-played the first few notes. Then continued on about her new friend as she played the rest of the symphony for her brothers.

Jessie ran to Brittany's house late the next morning but stopped suddenly when she saw an ambulance and a police car in front of the house.

Mustering all of her courage she walked forward and stopped one of the officers. "Umm, Officer, could you tell me where Brittany is?" She asked shyly.

The man looked down at her curiously. "How do you know her, little girl?"

Jessie sighed. "I met her yesterday." She explained nervously. "We were supposed to hang out today. Why what's happened?" She asked quietly, her body trembling, knowing something bad had happened.

The officer didn't say anything and when she was about to ask him again, a stretcher came out with a bag over what small thing laid under it, followed by four people in handcuffs.

"Little girl," The uniformed man started, "Brittany drowned in her pool late yesterday evening."

They both watched as the body was placed in the back of the ambulance.

"Where are they going?" Jessie asked, as she pointed to the four adults, unsure if she really wanted to know.

"They're going to jail for methanphetamine, little girl." He said tiredly, wiping his brow then he walking off, leaving Jessie standing alone in the middle of the yard.

Slowly everything began to sink in for Jessie. She wasn't going to see Brittany today. Nor was she going to be able to take her to the concert next week, she wasn't even going to get to tell her the news that she was Hanson's little sister.

Brittany wasn't going to grow up and have her first real crush, her first kiss, her first high school exam, her first boy girl party; she wasn't even going to go to a school dance now.

No, none of that was going to happen now. Now Brittany was dead, living in heaven and not on earth, living the life of an angel instead of living the life of every other seven-year-old girl.

Jessie wasn't even going to get to see if Brittany was going to out grow her tiny lisp. Out of everything, she decided that she was going to miss that small detail, that tiny little insignificant detail, the most.

After a few hours or just sitting and standing in Brittany's front yard, Jessie finally started back towards her own home. Walking slowly and sadly, trying to think of ways to tell her family about what had happened to her friend without breaking down and crying.

When Jessie walked into her warm house she couldn't help but cry. She looked around and saw everything that she really had for the first time in a new light.

Now she knew she had to live each day like it was the last, now she knew the true meaning to her brother's song.

"Britt would've cared." Jessie said sadly as she slowly sank onto the steps that led upstairs; and laid her face in her arms. She cried then. Softly and quietly.

"In an Mmmbop they're gone. In an Mmmbop they're not there. In an Mmmbop they're gone. In an MmmBop they're not there." She sang in between her sobs.