'Yea! I can't believe Heather is finally coming to visit.' Alexis thought happily. She was coming that day. Alexis got bored, so she decided to call Taylor.
"Hey Taylor!" She yelled from the bedroom that faced his. It was the guest room. She saw Zac's head pop up. "Hello dear." he called back in a high voice. She laughed."Hi honey. How are you sweetie pie?" "I'm fine. I was just.." Someone pushed him away from the window. Taylor was now there. "Hi Tay!" "Hey, what's up?" Taylor called to her. "Heather's coming later. Can you come over here and keep me company till my dad and her get here?" "Sure, be right there."
She watched him leave his house and run to hers. He ran inside. She went into her room and waited for him to come up. "Hi." he said as he came in the room."Zac wanted to come. But I told him no." She laughed. "My dad will be home in an hour. What do you wanna do?" Taylor flipped on the radio. They danced to a few fast songs for ten minutes. Then a slow song came on. Taylor blushed. "Still wanna dance?" She nodded and they danced close together. Then the song ended, but they were still clinging to each other. Then they sat on the bed and started kissing.
Chapter Eighteen--Taylor
"Hey, am I interrupting anything?" Alexis and Taylor broke apart. A girl, identical to Alexis, with the exception of her hair, was standing in the doorway, a goofy grin on her face.
"Heather!" Alexis cried, running over to her. "You're early."
"Yeah, my plane came early. It's a good thing dad was already there.
So," she nodded to Taylor, "who's the cute guy?" Taylor looked down. Even though he was used to girls saying that he was cute, he still got embarrased when they did. "Hi. I'm Taylor." he stood up, smoothing down his rumpled shirt. "Alexis! You've been here a month and you already have a boyfriend. Why didn't you tell me?" Heather asked."I mean, since he is your first." "I wanted to surprise you. Anyway, this is Taylor Hanson. He and his brothers, Isaac and Zac, are in a band called Hanson." "Cool, so, is this my room for the week?"
"Yup." "Oh great. I get 'the make out bed'." Heather grinned evily. "I hope you haven't done too much in here." Taylor watched as Alexis rolled her eyes. "Boy, have you changed. Now, put your bags down and we can go meet Tay's brothers." Taylor followed them out of the room. They hurried across the street. "Wait, Heather, lets do the switch." Heather nodded. Taylor followed them curiously to the side of the house. "Tay, turn around. We're going to change shirts." Alexis instructed him. He realized what they were doing, so he turned around. "Everyone has already seen me in this shirt, so we hafta switch." Alexis explained. "Okay, you can turn around." Taylor turned around, and saw Alexis and Heather, now wearing each other's shirt, covering all of their hair with funky, floppy hats. "I think they'd recognize me with my red hair. We got these hats a few months ago, back in New York." Taylor adjusted the hats so you couldn't see a strand of hair. Then the twins changed shoes. They were both wearing black jeans. "Perfect. I wouldn't be able to tell whose who." Taylor told them, smiling.
Alexis turned to Heather. "Can you still do my voice?" "But of course. How could I forget?" Heather said in a perfect imitation of her sister.
"Lets go." Taylor led them inside his house. "Ike, Zac, come down
here. Mom, dad, Jess, Avie, Mackie, you too!"
Zac hurried down the stairs. "Lex! I'm seeing double!" he ran to
Heather and tackled her, giving her a big hug. "Aren't you going to introduce
the great Zac to your look-alike?"
"Okay. This is Heather. Heather, this is Zac, Taylor's brother." Alexis shook Zac's hand. "Nice to meet you." she said. Taylor tried very hard to keep a straight face. Soon everyone crowded into the room. Heather introduced Alexis as herself. Alexis was about to burst out laughing. Then Isaac came walked over to 'Heather'. He started to shake her hand, but stopped. He looked closely at her. "This is Alexis!" he announced. Zac took a closer look. "Nuh uh." The three couldn't hold it any longer. They fell on the floor laughing. "Isaac's right."Taylor managed to choke out. "He knows who he likes."
Chapter Nineteen--Alexis
"I can't believe it. The week has gone by so quickly." Alexis cried. She, Heather, and her dad were in the airport. Heather's flight to Florida left in twenty minutes.
"I know. Well, you can visit soon." Heather said. "Yeah. I think....." "Flight 547, coach, is now boarding." came a voice on the intercom. "That's me. I better go." Alexis gave her sister a big hug. "Call me when you get home." "Okay." Heather gave their father a hug. "Bye." She hurried off to her gate and boarded the airplane.
Chapter Twenty--Isaac
"Boys, we need to talk to you."
Isaac looked over to his father. He, his father, his mother, and
Taylor were walking back to their van after grocery shopping. "What's up?"
"Well," their father started, "Remember how we sent a demo tape to
Mercury Records?"
He and Taylor nodded. "They want a record deal with you guys."
Their jaws dropped. "Yes!!!!!!" Taylor cried. They all climbed into
the van. "I can't believe it. Wait 'till Zac hears. He'll freak!" Isaac
exclaimed.
When they got home, they noticed Zac and Alexis sitting on their porch."Guess what!" Taylor cried as they hopped out of their van. Zac looked at them curiously. "We got a record deal with Mercury Records!" Isaac burst out. "Oh my gosh!" Zac started dancing around. "We're gonna be famous." "We're already pretty famous here. Maybe we'll be famous world wide." Taylor said. He pulled Alexis up from where she was sitting and they started dancing. Isaac watched them jealously, but then remembered that he'd given Taylor his blessing. He relaxed and laughed as Taylor spun her in circles. They all started to sing MMMBop, one of their most popular songs. Isaac walked over to Zac and whispered into his ear. Then they walked over to Alexis. Zac held her arms sown as Isaac lifted her onto his shoulders. "Hey!" she cried. She started laughing as he ran away from Taylor, who was chasing him. "Put me down before you drop me!" He gently set her down. Then they all started tickling her. They had learned that she was very ticklish on her stomach. "No!" she started laughing even harder. Soon they stopped and had to go in for dinner. "Hey, I have an idea. Lets have a party. To celebrate getting the record deal." Isaac suggessted. Alexis's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea." "Yeah, Ike. We could have it here at the house. Lets go ask mom and dad." Taylor said. Zac and Ike headed into the house and Taylor gave Alexis a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll call ya later." "Bye." Isaac watched as Taylor followed him into the house. "Kissy, kissy." he teased. "Don't you wish." Taylor remarked, elbowing past him, a teasing grin on his face. "Shut up."
Chapter Twenty--Taylor
"Lex, can you come over? We really need to talk to you." Taylor told Alexis over the phone. "Sure, be right over. Wait, does it have anything to do with the party?"
"Maybe." he replied, then hung up. Then he hurried downstairs to where the rest of his family was. "She's on her way over." he informed them. Zac answered the door when the doorbell rang. "Hi everyone. What's up?" Alexis walked into the room. "Sit down and we'll tell you." Zac said. She quickly took a seat next to Taylor on the couch. He took her hand in his. She smiled and turned to his dad. Taylor couldn't wait to see the look on her face when she found out the news.
"Well, the boys will be leaving in January to record their album." Walker started. "They'll be going to Los Angelas and New York and will rarely be home."
Alexis's smile faltered a little. Walker continued. "We thought, since you're such good friends with the whole family, and your father will be coming with us to tutor the boys, that maybe you could come with us too."
Alexis's eyes lit up. "Of course. I'd love to. New York, that's where I used to live. I could show you around the city."
She was grinning from ear to ear. "We already told your dad that we'd ask you, so now we'll just tell him you said yes." Walker got up and walked to the phone to call her dad.
"Also," Diana started, "we said yes to the party, since Taylor won't be able to have a birthday party in March because he'll probably be busy with the record and performances. So, it'll be in a week."
"Cool." Alexis said. Soon Taylor led her up to his room, along with Isaac and Zac. "We're all allowed to invite five people." Taylor explained to her. Alexis giggled. His voice was starting to change, therefore, it was a little squeaky. "Really?" Isaac said in a high pitched voice. He and Zac burst into laughter. "Tay's a mouse."
"Hey, I remember when your voice changed, so shut up. You sounded like a dumb. And Zac, your's will change soon, so you shouldn't laugh either." Taylor was blushing. It was typical of his brothers to embarrass him in front of Alexis. They had made it a habbit.
"Don't worry Tay, I'm sure you'll have a great voice. I mean, listen to Ike. He sounds almost like a grown up." Alexis comforted him. Isaac sat up. "Why, thank you for noticing." he said, lowering his voice an octave or two. Taylor burst out laughing. "I may sound like a mouse, but you sound like a frog."
Chapter Twenty-One--Alexis
'What am I going to wear?' She stood in front of her closet door, wearing only a pair of green silk boxers and a white tank top. She had a limited selection. She couldn't wear red, because it would clash with her hair, green would make her look like a Christmas tree, and orange or dark purple would just look horrible. She pulled out a lavender halter dress. 'Perfect.' she thought. She pulled on the dress. It looked great on her, plus, she knew Taylor would love it. She had also discovered that Taylor's favorite color was red, and he really liked her hair that color. She put on some makeup and picked up two wrapped gifts. One with red wrapping paper, which was for Taylor, and one in green, which was for Isaac. Her gift for Zac was already at the Hanson house. She had wanted to get them something special, since they had gotten the record deal. They had basically practiced all their best songs non-stop the whole week. She was pretty sure her dad was already at the party. He was going to stay to talk with Diana ad Walker.
"Hey, anyone here?" she called. Suddenly Diana popped her head through the kitchen door. "Hi Alexis. Everyone's out back."
"Thanks, Diana." She started to walk to the sliding glass door.
"Hold on." She turned around. "You and my son are getting pretty close, aren't you?" Alexis turned a lovely shade of pink and nodded."Why?" "Before you moved here, Taylor was very quiet and moody. Now he's really coming out of his shell." she paused. "I really haven't seen him this serious before. He really likes you." Alexis nodded again."I really like him too." "I hope you know that, well, Isaac still really likes you." Alexis looked up, surprised. "Really? I mean, I knew he did at first, but I didn't think he did anymore." "Just be careful. He might think you like him, and if he realizes the truth, he could get really upset. He's very sensitive sometimes. Plus, I know he and Isaac got into a fight before. So, well, be careful with Ike." "Okay."
"I've talked to much. Now go ahead outside. I'm sure Tay's probably waiting." "See ya." Alexis hurried outside. 'I can't believe Ike still likes me.' she thought in amazement. She noticed Taylor was sitting by himself at a picnic table. "Why are you just sitting here and not dancing?" she asked him as she sat next to him. "I didn't have a gorgeous partner to dance with." he replied. Then he noticed the gifts. "Are those for us?" he asked excitedly. He looked like a little kid on Christmas morning. "Of course, silly. But you can only open them when your bothers are here. They have to get theirs at the same time."
Taylor stood up on the table. "Hey!" he shouted over the music. "Everyone come over here!" Twenty-two people, including Zac, Ike, Diana, and her father, walked over to them.
"Alexis got us gifts." Taylor informed them. Then Alexis handed him his gift. He quickly opened it. His eyes almost popped out. There were two Beatle cds, that barely anyone had. He had been trying to get them for months. "How did you get these?" "My friend in New York worked in a music store that sold rare cds. I figured you'd like 'em." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. She handed a gift to Isaac. When he saw what it was, he gave her a huge smile. "It's the brown leather jacket that I saw in the mall and really wanted. Thanks Alexis." He gave her a hug. She knew it lasted longer then it should have, but he wouldn't let go. She cleared her throat and he pulled away. She glanced at Zac, who was looking for his gift. "Zac, your dad has your gift. I had to ask him if you could have it." Zac spun around. Walker emerged from the house, holding a golden retriever puppy that had a blue bow around it's neck. Zac let out a shriek of delight and ran over to the dog. He scooped it up in his arms. "This is the puppy I've been begging my parents for." He ran over to her, set the dog down, and gave her a huge hug. "Thank you sooooo much." Then he let go and again picked up the puppy.
Alexis had had a hard time getting the gifts. Walker and Diana didn't want her spending a lot of money on the boys, but she insisted. She had a bank account with a lot of money because she worked for some rich people in New York, and she just saved and saved.
"What's it's name?" Taylor asked him. "Lexy, after the coolest person I've met." Zac told everyone. Then they all went over to the dance floor to dance, leaving Taylor and Alexis sitting on the picnic table. "These are really great." he told her, still examiming the cds.
Alexis was about to tell him what his mom had said in the house when Isaac walked over to them. "Lex, wanna dance?" "Uh," she looked over to Taylor. He just nodded and smiled.
"Okay." they went out onto the dance floor. Taylor danced with a girl who Zac had invited, that obviously had a crush on him, and Zac was also dancing with a girl he invited. They danced for two songs, and then a slow song, 'Glycerine' by Bush, came on. Isaac held out his arms to her. She looked over at Taylor, who had the girl's arms wrapped around him, and then decided it would probably be okay. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head on his shulder. She could tell Isaac was happy, but she wasn't even close. He was completely eccstatic.
