"Help me!" yelled Zac Hanson, as he ran into his bedroom. Ike was in there on the computer and Taylor was reading the magazine, Teen Beat.
"Hey Zac, did you know that you have never kissed a girl, but "I do think about it from time to time"? Ha ha! Ike, check it out, you name your guitar after girls you've liked! I guess this one is Carmen, huh?" laughed Taylor.
"Shut up, Taylor! I have a crisis to handle!" Zac said dramatically. Ike rolled his eyes and turned from the computer screen.
"What now, Zac? Did one of your yellow boots get stuck in the sewer again?"
"No! It's much worse than that!" he said. "Megan Rice will not leave me alone!"
Tay and Ike looked at each other and laughed. "Is that it, Zac?" said Taylor.
"Is that it? That girl has not left me alone one minute since we got back from the tour. Everywhere I go, she's there. Everytime I turn around, she's standing right behind me!" He paced around the room. "I can't get away! She always has some stupid math fact for me or she wants to show me her sock collection."
"Sorry, can't help you, Zac," said Ike. "You'll have to get rid of her on your own."
Zac turned to Taylor. "Tay, she's your friend's sister! Can't you get rid of her for me?"
"Zac, even if I could do that, I wouldn't. It's mean. She might be a huge nerd, but she's still a person...sort of...and you shouldn't be mean like that."
Zac made a face at Taylor. "Fine. I'll get rid of her myself." With that, he stormed downstairs to the kitchen. Standing the refrigerator, was none other than Megan Rice. She was helping herself to some orange juice and doughnuts and was settling down to read the buisness section of the Tulsa Daily. She looked up when she saw him enter the room.
"Oh, Zachary! There you are, I've been searching most profusely for you. You should read this article about the discover of the Biamosstle funginus, it's a new mushroom they found. I had been performing my own study on this most fascinating species and it was going most well, until my room exploded under the pressure from the heat intensity from the flouresent lights."
Zac just looked at her for a second and walked over to the counter to pour himself a glass of soda. "Wow, Megan. That happened to me too."
"Really? Well, isn't that most unusual? Oh, guess what? On Monday in school I'm going to be awarded the Young Math and Science Award for most outstanding achievement in Physics and Chemistry. Isn't that most fantastic? You should come- it would be fun."
Zac choked on his soda and spit it in the sink. "Um, I'll think about it."
"Oh, do that! So what do you want to do this most lovely afternoon?"
"What do you mean?" he asked suspisously.
"I was thinking we could go to the museum in town and see the new Monet exhibit."
"We?" Zac said.
"Well, yes, we as in you and I...Megan and Zac and maybe Taylor and Tamara and Scott."
"I don't think that would be a good idea, Megan," Zac said to her. "No offense, but me and Taylor don't really want to waste our weekend in some old, smelly museum."
"Okaaaay," she replied slowly. "Well, we could go rollerblading down the street or something."
"Fine! I'll do that, since it's outside..." and I can get away from you, Zac thought to himself.
"Marvelous!" Megan exclaimed. "We can just run to my house and get my rollerblades, it'll only take a second." Zac unenthusitically followed her down the street and to her house. She let him wait in the living room as she ran up to her room to grab her rollerblades. While he was waiting, her brother, Scott, walked in the room.
"Hey Zac, what's up?" he asked as he got something out of a drawer.
"Nothing," Zac sighed.
"Why are you here, anyway? Is Tay here too?"
"No, I'm going rollerblading with Megan."
"With Megan?" Scott raised an eyebrow. "I thought you hated her?"
"I do!" cried Zac. "I was hoping I could get her to go away and leave me alone if I hung out with her this once. She's so annoying, she follows me around and always talks to me and she is such a loser! She doesn't even get that I have a girlfriend. She's so...ugh, I wish she would just disappear!"
They heard a rustling noise from top of the stairs and saw Megan with a tear-stained face standing there in shock. She turned around and flew back to her room and slammed the door. Zac opened his mouth to talk, but no words came out.
"Oh no!" he groaned. "She heard all of that! And now she's going to hate me forever! Taylor was right- I'm nothing but a mean old loser!" He felt awful; he hadn't really meant all those things he said about Megan, they had just slipped out of his mouth. It was true she was annoying and was a nerd, but she wasn't all bad. And now he had gone and ruined everything. Him and his big mouth. He had to go and talk to her, say something so he wouldn't feel so awful inside. He crept up the stairs slowly and searched for her room. He found it and entered slowly. After looking cautiously around the room, he saw that Megan wasn't there. He glanced at some of the pictures on her dresser. As he looked closer, he saw that one was of him, at last years block party. It was before Hanson had struck it big, and there he was, in shorts and a t-shirt. He was holding a hotdog in one hand and smiling goofily at the camara. He picked up the frame and saw that painted on the wood was the words "My Best Friend." Zac gulped. Megan thought that he was her best friend! He saw a journal by her bed and he picked it up and opened it up to the last date. He looked around the room to make sure no one was watching and then he started to read the entry.
Dear Diary,Zac and his brothers are back today! I am so happy because I missed them a lot. Me and Zac are going to have so much fun together. He's the best friend I've ever had and he's so funny and cool. And cute too, but I don't look at him that way like all the other girls do. I'm just glad we're friends. Oh, did I say that I'm going to win the Math and Science Award at school? I finally get to...
Zac closed the book and dropped it on the bed. Then he sat on the bed and put his head in his hands. He couldn't believe how mean he was and how he had hurt someone so easily. As he was sitting there, Megan walked into the room, rubbing her eyes. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that he was in her room. He jumped up quickly and sheepishly scratched his head.
"Um, look..." he started to say.
"Why are you in my room?" she asked quietly. She took off her glasses and wiped her eyes with a tissue.
"I am so sorry...I didn't mean any of those things that you heard me say downstairs," Zac said to her.
"Yeah right," she hissed. "You hate me. Why didn't you just tell me in the beginning, so I would've just left you alone?"
"I don't hate you. Those words just popped out of my mouth and I didn't mean it..."
"Come on Zac," she said louder, interuppting him. "Don't you think I know that people make fun of me and talk about me and stuff? Don't you think I know that they call me a nerd and a loser and other names? But I thought you were different- I thought you liked me for me. I guess I was wrong about you." She turned away from him.
"No! I might have called you some things I shouldn't have, but the truth is, I don't hate you. I think you're pretty cool in your own way. You might be a little nerdy or a computer geek, but that's what makes you different. You're cool because you're an individual. You don't care what the other kids say. I look up to that. I hope you accept my apology," Zac said quietly.
"Why should I?"
"Because...I don't want to lose you...as a neighbor, as a playmate...or," he said as he looked at the picture frame, "as a friend. I mean, we've had some pretty fun times together."
"Yeah," she said, looking up at him. "I guess so."
"Yeah, like the time you helped me lock Taylor and Scott in the treehouse and they couldn't get down until our parents got home?"
She gave a small laugh. "Yeah, or the time that you helped me solve that equation so we could pour the potassium poroxide sulfide in Ike's hair?"
"Yeah, he couldn't get that out for weeks!" laughed Zac. "So, I'm sorry, okay? Sometimes I am just a selfish loser and I don't think about other people's feelings. I thought you...liked me or something...and I got scared, I guess, and wanted to keep you away."
"Why would you be scared that I liked you?" she asked slowly.
"Well, because, I have, you know, a girlfriend and she would probably be mad if I was hanging out with another girl or something."
"I never liked you like that Zac. I just wanted to be friends with you," she said. "But you wanna know who I do like? I like your friend, Nick Furst. He is most...uh...hot!"
"Really? You like Nick? Well, I never would have guessed!" he laughed. "Phew, I feel relieved."
"I guess I forgive you for all that stuff you said," she said.
"Oh, good! I really am sorry. So are still up for some rollerblading?" he asked her.
"Yeah, sure!" she smiled as she picked up her rollerblades from the floor. "Rollerblading is most amusing!"