The next morning, Taylor awoke to the sound of feet running up and down the hall outside his room. He groggily got out of bed and opened the blinds on his window. He looked at it puzzled. "Huh, I thought I closed this window cause the airconditioning came on." He dismissed the thought and looked outside. It was a beautiful day, already 90ยบ and sunny. He could see his Mom by the pool, putting Mackenzie in a floatie and Jess and Avery were already splashing in the water. Zac burst into the room.
"Tay! Come on! Let's go swimming!"
"Okay, I'm coming. Just let me get on my bathing suit."
"Okay, I'll be down there. We're gonna play manhunt too!" He ran out of the room, tripping over his towel. "I'm oKAY!"
Taylor put on his bathing suit excitedly. Manhunt was a favorite Hanson thing to do when they stayed at this house. There was a wooded area behind the house and one person would be IT and would try to capture the rest of them. It could get very competitive. Five minutes later Taylor was sunbathing by the pool with the rest of his family.
"This is the life," he sighed.
"Well, don't get used to it," said Walker. "You're going to be very busy the next few weeks."
"Yeah, so I'll enjoy this right now," Taylor said as he jumped into the pool. His sisters were playing with a beach ball and he joined in tossing it back and forth. Jessica threw the ball to him and it flew over his head and rolled into the woods. He climbed out of the pool and ran into the woods to get the ball. He found it propped up against a tree. When he bent to pick it up, something shiny flashed in the sun. He leaned over to pick it up and gasped when he saw what it was. It was a picture of him torn from a magazine, with the word "Taylor" scrawled in what looked like blood and a ragged, dripping heart encircling the word. He looked at it in horror for a second and then crumpled it up and tossed it on the ground. He laughed nervously. "Just a crazy fan," he said to himself as he ran back to the pool.
Alison came out from behind a tree. "Your number one fan."
Later that day, the Hanson's were at the recording studio in Hollywood.
"I think this album is definitley going to be a edgier sound, more rock," said Ike.
"Yeah, people are going to hear us and say, 'this is Hanson?!'" said Zac.
"Uh huh," Taylor mumbled.
His brothers looked at him, concerned. "Are you okay, Tay?" asked Ike.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine...just tired. Mom woke me up at 2:30 last night for some reason."
"She said she heard something in your room," said Zac. "I was sleeping, though."
"I don't know what she heard. It was nothing, I guess," Tay said. He decided not to say anything about the picture in the woods. Their manager, Christopher Sabec, walked in the room.
"Hey, how's it going guys?" he asked.
"Good," they said.
"Well, you've been discovered already," Chris said. "There's about 40 screaming girls outside the studio, waiting for you to come out."
Ike and Zac laughed a little.
"I'm never coming out," muttered Tay.
His brothers thought he was just joking and they laughed.
"Yeah, me too," said Ike. "Well, let's show Chris the demos we did at home...wait, I left the tapes in the car in the alley. Tay, can you go get them and me and Zac will set up in here?"
"Yeah, okay," said Taylor. He went out the back door, peeking around the corner, making sure no fans would see him, and started out to the car in the alley. He opened the back door and leaned for the box of tapes. Suddenly, someone pushed him down on the seat and held him down.
"Not yet, Taylor," Alison said as she forced her lips to his. "It's not time yet."
He tried to push her off of him, but she held his hands against the car door. "Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter yet. You'll soon find out. I love you Taylor," she said, kissing him on the cheek. He struggled to get up and shoved her out of the car. She fell on the ground and cursed at him.
"You'll see soon, Taylor. We're meant to be," she said as she turned and ran, her black hair flowing in the wind. Taylor sat down in the car and caught his breath. What is it with these fans? They're getting more psycho every day,he thought. He felt his cheek and felt blood. She had scratched him during the struggle.
"She was definitley a weird one," he said aloud. "What was this stuff about it's not time yet? That's some crazy crap." He grabbed the box of tapes and saw a little buisness card on the ground. He picked it up and turned it over. An address was scribbled on the back of it and Tay reconized it as the address of the recording studio. On the other side was the name Daniel S. Foster, executive marketing manager, with the logo of a buisness called OmniTech Co. "Maybe that's her father or something."
He went back inside the studio and put the tape on a table. Ike and Zac were finishing setting up.
"Hey, what took you so long?" asked Ike. "We thought you got lost or something."
"Nah, some crazy fan attacked me by the car. Started kissing me and saying we were meant to be together."
"Hm, lucky you," said Ike.
"But it was almost scary. She was really weird and holding me down. I thought she wanted to kill me."
"Ew, that's not cool. You should tell Dad or someone," Ike told him.
"Yeah, I will," Tay replied. "I found this card with a name on it. Maybe this guy knows her."
"Who knows? Just be careful. Anyway, let's get working on this," Ike said, getting his guitar out.