Taylor lye on the hotel floor, face down, groaning.
"For God's sake Taylor, what is wrong?" Zac half whined.
"For your information, my stomach hurts, my head hurts, and your squeaky voice is working the last of my GOOD nerves!" Zac just screamed and marched right out of the hotel room, slamming the door. Taylor looked up at the clock, 9:23. Just then Diana opened the door.
"Taylor, what did you say to Zac? And where's Isaac? And why aren't you three in bed, you have to catch a flight at 4 a.m.?"
"Ok....Nothing, getting a coke downstairs, and because we are vampires" Taylor rolled back over.
"Well you're going to have to go to sleep, Count Taylor. Get ready while I go round up the others." She then shut the door. Waited, then opened it again.
"Taylor", she said warningly, walking over to him. She nudged him with her foot. He remained still, "Taylor, I'm serious" She grabbed his feet and dragged him around the room. He finally looked up and slowly brought himself to his feet. He lazily walked around for a few minutes before changing for bed. Once done, he collapsed on the bed. He was resembling an elderly person today. Slow in everything he did. He had been switched into slow motion. Just tired, everyone assumed. But that he was, at the moment. Exhausted, in fact, and it wasn't even ten o'clock yet. He didn't care though and crawled beneath the covers, settling in for a good night's sleep. Once his awareness had began to slip away, the door burst open and Isaac and Zac strolled in, laughing hysterically. Taylor shot up in bed, the noise startled him, leaving him extremely angry.
"Good Lord! Can't you two retards keep it down!?" Taylor yelled. The two stopped dead in their tracks, startled as well.
"Meow" Zac antagonized. "Oh don't even get me started, little dude!" Taylor jumped out of bed. "Whoa, slow down" Isaac jumped in front of him, "It was just a joke, calm down" Taylor just grumbled under his breath, he was still too tired to pick a fight with the two of them. Climbing in the bed once again he fell asleep within minutes. Zac sat around sulking.
"But he always picks on me, Ike! You know it as well as I do" Isaac thought about it.
"Well, you have a point but he just does it when his ego is on a joyride. Which is, when you think about it, just about every day, but he doesn't mean any harm by it. I did it to him, I'm sure" Zac looked around the room.
"Yeah, well" he mumbled, searching for the right words.
"ARGHHHH!" he jumped up again, frustration getting the best of him. He eyed his little sister's Barbie Caboodle lying on the floor, along with the huge nail polish stain she happened to make.
"Hmmm...." Zac walked towards it and sat down searching through it.
"Hey now, I think I'm getting another genius idea here" Isaac rolled his eyes.
"This can't be good"
"You're right it's not, forget it." he stood up placing the caboodle on the table again. "That was too easy, what are you up to, Zachary?" Isaac peered at him, suspiciously. Zac looked up with his most innocent look plastered on his face.
"What do you mean, I'd never do anything to our dear brother"

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Taylor looked at his hands, he saw remnants of blue and pink. He looked in the mirror once again.
"ZAC!!!!!" he screamed. Zac rushed into the bathroom and literally fell on the floor in a hysterical fit of laughter at the sight of his brother. Isaac came in next, stepping over the ball of legs, arms, and hair on the floor. He was speechless to see Taylor's blue eye-shadowed, red lipped, and pink cheeked face. But the green and purple nail polish put him over the top and he did all he could to keep from laughing but, of course he bust up as well. Taylor stomped on the floor, yelling.....Frustration is in the genes, obviously.
"ISAAC!" he yelled but then calmed his voice to a stifled growl, "Go get some make-up remover from mom....NOW!!!" Isaac made his way out the door, still laughing. All the while Zac had continued to roll around on the floor, tears in his eyes, from the continuous laughter. He got himself under control when Taylor shot him a serious death look. But once stable on his feet he got a glimpse of the pictures he'd snapped last night while in the act of making Taylor gorgeous. Once again, he was in the floor. Just then, before Taylor could kill him and steal the pictures, the door opened. Isaac stood with a box of make-up remover towelettes. Taylor growled again and snatched the box out of his hands, slamming the bathroom door behind him. Isaac and Zac, now silent looked at each other. They both smiled and continued with the laugh fest.

Zac sat tapping his pencil on the table. Taylor looked in his direction with hate in his eyes, Zac dropped the pencil.
"So, what are we to do about the pianist situation?" Hanson's manager presented a question. Taylor turned on his defense mechanism.
"Why do we need another pianist, I am the pianist! I don't need backup. Just give me a bigger amp." The manager sighed.
"Taylor we have already gone through this, you need at least two pianos or keyboards playing for a full stage sound. Now there's no two ways about it, if you want to tour, you're going to have to find another keyboardist."
"Well then you just find one and pay for it out of YOUR pocket, because we made you, mister. We got you off the streets!" Taylor exaggerated.
"Taylor!" Diana glared at him, "Show a little more respect"
"Whatever" he rolled his eyes and put his head down on the table.
"Very well then, we'll notify those who show interest of the audition date. Which will be held next Thursday, the 5th. We'd appreciate if you'd take part in choosing." Taylor stood up and walked towards the door.
"I'm hungry, Ike let's go" Isaac laughed and joined him, Zac trailed behind. Diana was left trying to apologize for Taylor's actions.


Isaac pulled out his keys and unlocked the doors. Taylor grabbed the keys out of his hand.
"Isaac?" he smiled, really big. "Can I please drive your car? I've had a rough day. Hell, I've had a rough week!" Isaac thought for a moment.
"Fine" Taylor's eyes lit up. "I guess you do need to practice" Taylor wasted no time and jumped behind the wheel. Isaac climbed in the passenger's side, buckling himself in securely. He said a prayer or two and then told Taylor to start the ignition, put it into drive, and slowly press on the gas. He turned the key, put it in drive, and floored the gas pedal. Isaac screamed for dear life.
"BRAKE! BRAKE!!" Taylor slammed on the brake, throwing them both forward. Isaac looked around frantically.
"Taylor! Slow! I said SLOWLY on the gas!" Taylor smiled.
"Sorry"
"Ok" Isaac rubbed his forehead, "now, this time press on the gas, GENTLY. Gently, Taylor, you understand gentle?" Taylor rolled his eyes.
"Yes, Isaac" He then, slowly, took off again. Only going about 10 miles per hour.
"Ok, now you can give it a LITTLE more gas" he took it up to about 25. They circled the parking lot a few times, and he was doing fine. He then saw Zac come out of the office building. Taylor laughed, he had no intention of stopping for him either. Isaac on the other hand didn't see him.
"Can I drive to the Mc'Donalds?" Taylor, looked pleadingly at Isaac.
"Well it is an almost deserted rode..." Taylor wasted no time and headed for the exit. Zac screamed and chased after the car. Isaac heard him and looked out the window to see Zac running to keep up, flailing his arms around like mad.
"Oh wait up for Zac" he turned towards Taylor. Taylor turned out onto the road.
"No way! Why should I?" he kept the speed at only about 5 mph so Zac could run right along side them. Isaac just laughed, he guessed he couldn't stop what those two did to each other. Taylor laughed while keeping his eyes on the road, occasionally looking over to see Zac. He turned his head swiftly back to the road and everything became blurry. He suddenly was unable to even see anything clearly. He got extremely dizzy. Everything came together and he couldn't distinguish the road from the sidewalk. He was losing control over the car, swerving in and out of the lanes. Unknown to him the car was veering to the right. He then pressed on the gas, in attempts to get to Mc'Donalds faster. Before he or Isaac knew it, the car was on the sidewalk, and Zac was on the ground. At that moment his sight returned and he made a halting stop. They both jumped out of the car, and rushed to Zac's side. He was clutching his leg and screaming obscene things at Taylor. They both dropped to their knees to help him. Taylor tried his hardest to re-assure him that he didn't do it intentionally. Zac just screamed and slapped him across the face, with his free hand. Taylor sat there, about ready to smack him back but he didn't, he let him get away with that one.
"Can you get up?" Isaac asked Zac.
"I don't know! My leg's probably broken, I doubt it!" he shrieked. Isaac put his arm around him and tried to get him on his feet. Taylor grabbed the other arm and they managed to get him in the car without a fight. Isaac headed towards the driver's side.
"I'm driving" he looked at Taylor, he didn't argue.


Zac looked to be in complete comfort. He lye in bed, two pillows under his leg, four pillows surrounding him and under his head, the remote in one hand, and a coke in the other. A half-empty pizza box sat near the edge of the bed, it seemed he would play up this "Broken Leg" to no end. Isaac sighed and rested his head on the bed. It landed with a thud, he had no pillows. He decided he might as well be somewhat productive.
"So what do you guys think about the whole keyboardist thing?" Taylor turned away, trying to keep his mouth shut.
"Other than Taylor's definite objective commentary" Taylor stuck his tongue out at him. Zac looked over his mountain of pillows.
"I think it's a disgrace. I mean what a shame, our brother can't hold up his end of the rope. Even I can drum for all of us, can't you at least try and pick up the slack?" Taylor could scream. He was trying to conceal his hateful thoughts, he just wanted to get this thing over with.
"Well I guess I don't really care, two must be better than one" Isaac looked rather shocked.
"You don't care? This is a surprise"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Any suggestions on who?" Taylor muttered. At that Isaac's eyes grew huge, and he got extremely excited. He ran over to where is suitcase was placed, unzipped it, and began ravaging through it. Taylor looked at him like he had lost his mind.
"What on earth are you doing?" Isaac looked up, crazed.
"This girl I met at the Grammies, she's a keyboardist and she's now unemployed. This is perfect!" he proceeded throwing things out of his bag and all over the floor.
"So what are you looking for, did you stow her away in your bag or something?" Taylor laughed slightly. Isaac growled.
"No, she gave me her number. I thought--"
"Ooohhh. Isaac's got a girlfriend." Zac cut him off, "Bout time" Isaac ignored him.
"Anyway. I thought we could give her a call and ask her if she'd like to audition."
"Might as well" Taylor said emotionless.
"Here it is!" Isaac announced with glee, grabbing the phone. As soon as he lifted the receiver it rang, scaring him half to death. As the phone dropped to the ground Taylor made a reach for it. When he did his eyes blurred over again. Frightening him the phone fell at his fault this time. The room spun out of control. And then in a split second he was fine. Isaac sat, the phone extended.
"It's Mark, or Scott. One of the two" Taylor took the phone.
"Hello? Scott, hey. What? What do you mean he's in the hospital? You're kidding right!? Oh my God, no, you're kidding. Is he ok?" He became frantic.
"Calm down, he'll be fine. We just all need to pray for the best. He is in intensive care, but they think he'll recover quite well, and soon in fact." Scott was worried himself, you could tell, but he tried not to show it. Taylor stood up and grabbed the cellular phone.
"Hey, I'll call you right back ok?" Then he left, leaving Isaac and Zac in the dark as to what was going on. Downstairs, Taylor dialed Scott's number and waited for an answer.
"Hello?"
"Ok, so what happened?!" Scott sighed.
"He went out with some friends and they just kept pushing the envelope. Blood tests show over 7 different drugs were present in his body. But who knows there could even be more, unseen. You have no clue how mad I was. I mean how dumb do you really have to be. That, or how blasted you have to be."
"I'm sorry, you must be taking this pretty hard. Will he be in rehab or anything? How are your parents?" Taylor paced around the hotel lobby.
"Oh, God they're just sick with him by now. I mean they had their notions but they didn't think it to be this serious. And he's definitely going into rehab, that's a given"
"That's good, hopefully this won't happen again." Scott tried to change the subject.
"So how have you been? With everything?" Taylor breathed heavily.
"God, I don't even know. I think I have a confession, at a Grammy party I took something that I think is going to fuck me up for life."
"What was it?"
"Like I know! Some kind of little papery thing. I don't know what it was but it scared the hell out of me. I thought I was being attacked by snakes and stabbed to death and everything. And now, just today, every time I turn my head or something my vision gets so blurry." he was raising his voice which was probably very stupid.
"It was more than likely acid or LSD or something of that nature. That would explain the blurred vision."
"Explain!" he suddenly got anger and turned around, leaving him cloudy again. "GOD!" he screamed and slammed the phone shut. Zac hobbled down the stairs just in time to see Taylor storm out the revolving doors of the hotel.
"Uh oh" Zac turned and ran towards the elevator, stopping and smiling, looking down at his leg. "He he, oops" he mumbled to himself, stepping into the elevator.


"WHAT!?" Isaac screamed, upon receiving the news of Taylor's departure. "Where did he go!?"
"I don't know! He just left, that's all I saw"
"Great, what are we to do now?" Isaac threw his hands up, he was overreacting a bit.
"Well he does have the cell phone with him, I guess we could call him." Isaac reached for the phone. He called the number and waited for a while.
"He turned the power off, Great"


Taylor examined his surroundings carefully. He didn't know exactly where he was, or where he was going. Why was he even out here? (Frustration, maybe?)
"I should just go back and go to sleep, I can't have blurred vision if my eyes are shut" But still he high-stepped it, unaware of his destination.


"WHAT!?!" Diana and Walker screamed simultaneously.
"Are you serious!? Have you called the cops? Did he leave alone? Did someone kidnap him? Oh my God! Should we try and find him? Why did he even leave!?" Walker tried to comfort her and calm her down.
"Mom, it's ok I'm sure, but we don't know where he is, or why he left, or anything. He just up and walked out of here" Isaac informed her.
"How long has he been gone?" Isaac looked at his watch.
"About an hour" Diana's eyes grew even wider.
"AN HOUR!? And you waited til now to tell us!? Had you even thought about what might happen to him!? Well that's it, I'm calling the cops."


Taylor opened his eyes, he couldn't see straight, but he did focus on his watch.
"Two hours, what on earth. I must have fell asleep. Shit, what am I gonna do now? I don't even remember how I got here." Amidst his continuous babble to himself, a man drew nearer to him. Taylor looked up to see a person coming to him. But the streets were so dark he couldn't make out his or her face. The person shined a flashlight in his face. Although blinded temporarily, he made him out to be a police officer.
"Son," he said, "you're going to have to come with us"

Home
Chapter Eight
Chapter 10