"He is so cute!" sighed Mia Andrews to her sister Phoebe in their bedroom.
"Sure, whatever," Phoebe answered. "If you ask me, Scott is a LOT better than Ike."
"Yeah right!" Mia said defensivly. "If only he liked me..."
"Yeah, that is a problem," Phoebe said. "But I think he likes that Carmen girl that visited, remember?"
"But she treated him like crap...she was so mean and snobby when we met her," Mia said. "And she would probably never like him anyway, she probably has to marry some Italian embassador's son or something."
"Mia, if you really like him, you should talk to him...just be nice and act like yourself. If you act nervous, you don't act like the natural you."
"Thanks Taylor Hanson. Hey, maybe we could go to their house this afternoon..."
"But Tamara will be there and I don't really want to see her and Taylor together. They're so pathetic with each other," Phoebe complained. "It makes me depressed."
"Maybe Scott will be there."
"Good point. Okay, let's go!"
"It'll be just like old times, when our parents used to get together and eat at each others houses and stuff."
"Yeah! Maybe we could have like a party- our family, the Hanson's and Scott's family- the Rice's."
"That would be really fun- all of us together again."
Phoebe called Tamara, who called Taylor, who asked his parents to invite all the families over that night and soon it was set up that the families would have a late summer bonfire in the Hanson's backyard, complete with marshmellows and a barb-a-que that night. Diana and Walker thought it was a fabulous idea because they didn't get to see their Tulsa friends as much since the band hit it big.
Around 6:30 that Sunday night, all nine of the Hanson's, all four of the Andrews, all four of the Rice's, all three of the Souder's and Zac's two dumb friends Nick and Eric were sitting outside around a fire set up in the backyard. Everyone was having a blast and when they had finished eating their hamburgers and hotdogs, the parents went inside to the living room to talk about boring grownup stuff and the younger Hanson's went to the family room to watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch. That left Ike, Tay, Zac, Nick, Erin, Tamara, Mia, Phoebe, Scott and Megan outside by themselves.
Zac looked at them all misheviously looked at the group huddled around the fire. It was late September and the nights were getting a little chilly. "I think we should play Truth Or Dare," he said.
"That's most babyish," said Megan.
"Yeah, it's so third grade," said Phoebe.
"Come one, it's not dark enough to play manhunt yet, so let's just play this first," Zac said. "It could get interesting." The rest of them finally agreed and they sat in a circle around the fire.
"Okay, Zac, you go first, since this was your idea," said Taylor.
"Okay." Zac took a look around the circl and his eyes settled on Nick. "Okay, Nick, truth or dare?"
Nick, wanting to be tough and brave, said "Dare."
"Oh goody," said Zac, rubbing his hands together. "I dare you to kiss Megan on the lips." The older members of the group ooooed sarcastically.
"Zac!" said Megan and Nick at the same time.
"You have to do it," Zac said. "Or you have to lick your toes and pee in a cup."
"Oh,gross," said Nick. "Fine, fine. I'll do it." He leaned towards Megan and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. Megan looked ready to burst of happiness.
"Okay, there," said Nick. He looked around the circle and said "Mia, truth or dare?"
"Um...truth," she answered nervously.
"Okay, truth...if you had to see any guy here naked, who would you want to see?"
"Ewww," cried the girls.
"Isaac," Mia said quickly. She looked at Ike and he blushed. The rest of the group sniggered. "Oh, be quiet," Mia said. "The rest of you boys are too young for me anyway. Taylor, truth of dare?"
"Dare," he said easily.
"I dare you to...eat a marshmellow out of Scott's mouth!"
"Oh gross!"
"Ewwww!"
"Sick!"
"Thanks a lot," Tay said. "I was hoping you'd ask me to go do something to Tamara. Fine, fine."
Scott shoved a marshmellow in his mouth, leaviing it partially sticking out. Taylor leaned in to grab it with his teeth and from a bad postion, it would look like two guys kissing. Of course, with Taylor, it looked like a girl kissing a guy anyway. He pulled the marshmellow out from Scott's mouth and spit it on the ground.
The group clapped and Taylor wiped his mouth.
"I never want to see my boyfriend do that again," Tamara laughed.
"Alright, Phoebe," said Taylor. "Truth or dare?"
She bit her lip. "Um, truth...no dare, no...truth."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, would you ever go out with my good friend Scott here?"
Phoebe's eyes widened a little. "Um, yeah...yes I would, if he asked me, I would go out with Scott."
Scott looked at her for a second and then back at Taylor, who smiled a little at him, and then back at Phoebe. He got up and walked away from the fire and motioned for Phoebe to follow him. She got up and they disappeared into the darkness.
"Nice going Taylor!" said Mia. They exchanged knowing looks at each other. A few seconds later Phoebe and Scott returned to the circle, both grinning and looking a little embarassed. The whole group awwed and then continued on with the game.
"Ike, truth or dare?" asked Phoebe.
"Um, dare, I guess."
"I dare you to french kiss my sister."
"Okay, fine," said Ike. "But I am not going to do it in front of ten people."
"Okay, go to the treehouse or something," said Taylor. Ike left and went to the treehouse, with Mia following him. They climbed up the ladder and sat awkwardly on the floor.
"You don't have to do this, if you don't want to," said Mia.
"No, I have to," said Ike as he pressed his lips roughly against hers. She kissed him back and put her arms around his neck.
"Why do you have to?" asked Mia, between breaths.
"Cause then I have to pee in a cup and lick my toes. And that's a lot worse than kissing you."
Mia pushed him away from her. "What does that mean?"
"Well, it's just, you're like a sister to me, Mia," he said. "I mean, this would never mean anything to me."
"What?" whispered Mia, her eyes filling with tears.
"Oh no, you didn't actually like, think that this meant something? Because you know I have a girlfriend, right?"
Mia shoved Ike out of her way and started to climb down the ladder.
"F you, Isaac. F all guys!" she yelled as she ran across the yard to the street.
The rest of the group saw her go running by and heading in the direction of her house. The game had broken up and they had decided to go inside and catch the end of Sabrina on T.V. They looked at Ike questionly, who just shrugged and said, "Chicks."
But the night wasn't a total loss. Phoebe and Scott were going out. Megan had gotten her first kiss from her crush. And Zac had peed in a cup because he was not going run around the neighborhood naked and screaming, "The British are coming!"
Tamara and Taylor decided to stay outside on the porch and sit in the swinging chair and watch the stars.
"You know, there's this new LFO song, called "Girl on TV"," said Taylor. "And everytime I hear it, I think about you."
"Why?" asked Tamara. "I'm not on TV."
"Yeah, but you're on 24/7 in my mind," said Tay.
Tamara laughed. "Oh man, Hanson, that was corny!"
He laughed too. "Yeah, but it was true. Wish for you on a falling star, wondering where you are."
"I'm always here," she said softly.
"Do I ever cross your mind in the warm sunshine?" he sang.
"And in the rain and snow and fog," she answered. She gave him a hug and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"I wonder what happened with Ike and Mia?" asked Taylor.
"I don't know," she said. "But I can't see them together at all. Plus, he's got Carmen. She'll get over it."
"I'll never get over Isaac Hanson!" cried Mia, into her pillow. She was all alone in her room, in her house, while the rest of her family was still at the Hanson's. She wiped her eyes with a tissue, but that didn't stop the tears from falling down. "I'm sick of always being rejected! I wasted five years of my life liking Isaac and this is all I get! So I'm not as pretty as Phoebe or Tamara or Carmen." She gritted her teeth. "Stiil, I could make him so happy."
She walked downstairs to the kitchen and opened the medicine cabinet. She found a half empty bottle of morphine that her dad had needed after his knee operation. She also grabbed some asprin and a couple of strong sleeping pills. She poured herself a cup of water and headed back to her room. She was relativley calm as she entered her room. She took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote,
"Mia, truth or dare?"
"Dare."
"I dare you to kill yourself."
Because of Isaac Hanson, she scribbled.
She swallowed the morphine pills first. She downed all thirteen of them in two swallows. Feeling a little shaky, those things work fast, she grabbed the advil and swallowed them. Then she took the rest of the sleeping pills and swallowed them as well. By now her h ead was spinning and she climbed into her bed and lost all consiousness.
"You can come up real quick," Phoebe said to Scott. The families had all gone home after a fun time at the Hanson's and Phoebe wanted to show Scott a picture of them when they were seven. The group had been joking all night about the time when they set up the slip and slid one summer and dishsoap in the water, so the whole thing was a bubbly mess. They ran up to her and Mia's room and Phoebe thought that Mia was asleep so she tiptoed to the nightstand where the picture was kept. Scott stayed in the doorway of the room. Phoebe gasped as she saw all the empty pil bottles and her hand trembled as she read the note that was left on the table. She screamed and dropped the note on the floor.
"Go call an ambulance!" she screamed at Scott. His eyes widened and he ran downstairs to call.
"What's the number?" he yelled up to her.
"911 dammit!" she screamed. She ran over to her sister lying in the bed. She slapped her face and tried to wake her up by shaking her. But Mia hung lifeless in her arms. Her parents walked in the door downstairs and ran up to see what her wailing was about. When they saw that their daughter had overdosed on pills and was lying unconsious in her bed, their faces got pale and they scrambled towards the phone.
"Scott already called," Phoebe gasped. Scott ran into the room breathless.
"They're on their way," he said. He put his arm around her and held her until they heard sirens in the distance and the paramedics game and took Mia away.