"Man, I can't believe you did that!" laughed Ike as he, Tay and Zac hung out in the dressing room after they had finished their song writing sessions.
"You should have seen her face!" Tay said. "It was like, 'I hate you!' She said I better watch my back."
"How scary," added Zac. "But Tay, she did beat you up that one time, remember? You beat her the race at the pool and..."
"Zac, shut up. She did not beat me up," Tay glared at his brother.
"Well, actually, she did," Ike said. "You went home crying."
"Guys, that was two years ago. Just drop it, okay?" Tay pleaded. Ike and Zac laughed as their brother blushed furiously. Just then, Walker came into the room.
"We're leaving now. Are you almost ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," said Zac. Ike and Tay nodded and followed their dad out the door. Once outside, they all loaded a large van that was waiting for them in the parking lot. Only the Hanson family and Tamara were going to the zoo, along with a bodyguard who would stay close behind them the whole time.
The drive to the zoo was quick and soon they had paid and were talking about which exibit to see first.
"Since there's so many of us, how about we split into two groups?" suggested Ike. "One group can have 4 and the other can have five."
"Okay," agreed Walker. "Who wants to go with your mother?"
"Well, actually Walker, I'd rather us stay together. I might need some help with Zoe." Walker nodded.
"Well, you guys are old enough to off by yourself. How about Avery, Zac and Mackie come with Diana and me and the rest go with Ike and Tamara?"
"Uh, no offense Dad, but I don't really want to go around with my parents," said Zac. "Can I go with them?"
"Hey, I don't mind going with them," said Ike.
"Are you sure," said Diana. "It's all the younger ones."
"It's okay."
"Alright, so Me, Diana, Ike, Avery, Mackenzie and Zoe will go together and Zac, Tamara, Jess and Taylor will be in a group. Let's all meet back here at 3:30. It's about 1:00 now, so that should give us 2 and a half hours. Have fun guys!" Their group left for the elephants and left the other group standing there staring at each other.
"Have fun?" sniffed Tamara. "How can I have fun with this loser in my group," she said referring to Taylor.
"Me? The loser? What do you think you are?" he said back to her. Zac and Jessica looked at each other.
"I guess that makes me the most mature one in our group," said Jessica.
"I wonder if I can still catch up to mom and dad?" Zac wondered, looking in the direction that the other group went.
"Guys, just forget it," said Taylor. "Where should we go first? How about the..."
"Dolphins," said Tamara, in sync with Taylor. They looked at each other in surprise.
"Okay," said Zac and Jessica and they headed off the aquaruim. Taylor couldn't stop thinking about what they had just said. I can't believe she said dolphins too. No one else ever wants to see them first except me. He glanced over at Tamara, who was walking on the other side of Zac. She hadn't said anything about the security guars incident yet and he was hoping she had forgotten about it. She looks really good today, he thought, not knowing that she had thought the same thing about him earlier that day. Her hair looks really...wait a minute, what am I saying? I have a girlfriend! Besides, I can't stand Tamara, I hate her, he persuaded himself.
They had reached the aquarium and they went inside. The inside was filled with floor to the ceiling water tanks filled with every sea life imaginable. Beautiful tropical fish swam around in the tanks and lazy turtles sat on the bottom of the water, staring at the people who were walking by admiring them.
"Cool," whispered Tamara.
"Whoa, sweet," said Taylor. They looked at each other and then quickly looked away. Taylor felt his face getting warm. What is wrong with me? I'm going to see Sierra in 3 days! he tried to phsyc himself up.
Zac and Jessica had starting walking around the building, checking out the tanks. Taylor and Tamara quickly caught up to them and starting looking at the mamatees and dolphins. "Besides the dolphins, I really like the polar bears," said Tamara. "They're so adorable."
"Yeah," said Zac. "I like the King Cobras!"
Tamara made a face. "Sick. I can't stand snakes."
Zac laughed. "Neither can Taylor. Once I found this little gardener snake in our yard and I put it in his bed and he totally freaked..."
"Zac!" Taylor interuppted. "I didn't freak, I just wasn't expecting to find a snake in my bed." Tamara and Zac laughed. "Seriously!" Taylor tried to convince them.
"Sure sure," said Tamara. "You're probably so..." she stopped herself before she said anything nasty. Her and Taylor had been getting along pretty well so far and she didn't want to ruin it.
"What? Arn't you going to say anything to me, like what a loser or wimp I am?" Taylor said incredously. Tamara just shook her head.
"Forget about it." She walked over to another display case and looked at the little tropical fish inside of it. Taylor walked over to her.
"Look, I'm sorry about the thing this morning, with the security guard? It was really mean and I shouldn't have done it," he said quickly. She looked at him suspiciously.
"Are you serious? How do I know you're not just saying this and then you're going to do something horrible to me like..."
"I AM serious, okay? Truce?" He held out a hand for her to shake. She looked at it and then shook his hand.
"Deal," she smiled. Again Taylor noticed how pretty her eyes were, how cool they looked with her brown hair. She noticed him staring and said,
"What?" she said, secretly pleased.
"Nothing," he said quickly. "Hey, where did Jess and Zac go?"
"They were right over there..." she said as her voice trailed off. "Uh oh." They started searching the building, but Zac and Jess were nowhere to be found.
"What if some physco got them?" Taylor said. His eyes darted around looking for them.
"I don't think anyone got them, Taylor," Tamara said. "Just keep looking." They went down a long hallway that led to a door.
"What's this?" asked Tay. "Maybe they went in here." He opened the door and Tamara followed him. The door closed with a bang behind them and they both looked into the room in which they had entered.
"Uh, I have a feeling we are not supposed to be in here," said Taylor. There were no lights on and the place was totally deserted.
"Great," said Tamara as she ran back to the door. She tried to open it, but it wouldn't open. "Oh great! The door won't open! Good job, Taylor!"
He came over to the door and tried to open it too, but it wouldn't budge. "It must have locked behind us," he said.
"You IDIOT!" yelled Tamara. "You would get us in this mess! Look what you did- we're locked in, Zac and Jessica are gone, we're gonna die in here!"
"Shut up! We're not going to die in here. If you would just shut your fat mouth for a second maybe we sould bang on the door."
"Good idea." They starting banging on the door and yelling for help. After about five minutes of this, no one had come and they sat down on the floor. "This is all your fault," said Tamara.
"So? You would have done the same thing," he defended himself.
"Yeah right. I'm not as stupid as you," she said harshly. "You always do this- something stupid..."
He grabbed her arm. "Why don't you just shut up?" he glared at her. "You're the meanest person I know, so just SHUT UP."
Tamara tried to jerk out of his grip, but he was holding on too tight. "Taylor, let go of me!" She tried to hit him with her free arm, but missed. "You don't want me to beat the crap out of you again, do you?"
"You're just a girl," he said as he grabbed her other arm and pulled it behind her back.
"Ow!" she shouted. She spun around quickly and grabbed both of his arms. She shoved him up against the wall and held him there. "I might be just a girl, but I can still beat you." She held him there for a few seconds looking right into his eyes. He was still against the wall and she was about five inches away from his face. She let go of his arms slowly and felt her face get warm. "Um, uh, sorry," she said shakily. He took her hands and held them for a second.
"Tamara?" he said softly. "I..." He let go of her hands and she leaned up against him. He put his arms around her waist and she reached up to put her arms around his neck. He placed his lips on hers, pulling her in closer as the kiss got deeper. Tamara ran her hands through his hair as he kissed her. They broke apart for a second and looked at each other.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting for that," she said as she reached up for another kiss. They started kissing again and Taylor turned around and put Tamara against the wall. They were still doing this when the door opened, sending a bright light through the room. They broke apart and looked up, startled. There was an old janitor standing in the doorway.
"Hey! What are you kids doing in here? Get outta here! You can't be back here!"
He was still yelling after them as they ran out of the room and down the hall laughing. Taylor took her hand and they walked through the aquarium talking.
"Did you see his face? Ha!" Tamara said as they were rounding a corner. They smacked into two other people who were rounding the corner.
"Zac! And Jess- where have you guys been?" asked Taylor sternly.
"Where have we been?" said Zac. "All we did was go to the bathroom. Where have you guys been?" He looked down and saw that they were holding hands. "Whoa. Did we miss something?" he asked.
"Um, I'll tell you about it later," Taylor said quickly as he dropped her hand. "Come on, let's go see the lions now." They all left the aquarium and Taylor knew that from that point on the tour would not be the same.