Ike was still fuming the next week. "And I can't believe I almost chose Tracie over Carmen!" he was saying to Taylor at breakfast.
"Yes Ike, you made a mistake," Taylor said absently. He had gone over this routine with Ike for five days.
"And I can't believe I chose some stupid girls over my own brother!" Ike moaned.
"It's okay, I forgive you," Taylor said, helping himself to the comic section of the newspaper.
"When they try to make it big, oooh, just see and what happens! They'll never beat our record sales, never!"
"Yeah, they'll turn out like Haley Adiela," Zac said, walking into the kitchen. "SHE sure didn't get famous!"
"Thankfully," Taylor said, shuddering at the thought of Haley. "And we owe it to the Backstreet Boy fans for being so darn jealous of her and Nick that no one would buy her record."
"Doesn't the tour seem like years ago, guys?" Ike thought outloud.
"Yeah," agreed Zac. "I really want to go on tour again. I miss performing live."
"That's why we've got to get this record done," Tay said, finishing his bowl of cereal. "We've got to go on tour again!"
"Well, we might as well get on down to the studio then," Ike said. "We gotta get to work!"
They had a long day at the studio and finished the vocals for "If Only." Around 8:00 that night, they were all in the living room at the house watching MTV. There was an interesting show on about up and coming music groups, ranging from some dumb Backstreet Boys- wannabes called O-Town, to hard rock bands and finally new girl groups. Ike, Tay and Zac all looked at each other warily.
"You don't think that they would..." started Zac.
"Not yet," said Taylor. "Not yet..." They continued to watch the show.
"And finally our last new artists this evening are Arista recording artists, 3-D," said the host. "These three girls, hailing from Los Angeles, California, have been performing in dance clubs for about three years now when their demo was discovered by Arista exec, Clive Davis. Here's their story," he said, turning to a moniter screen. The screen changed to show 3-D in a rehersal room, practicing their dance moves in front of a mirror.
"Tracie, Mindie and Sylvie, ages 17, 15 and 13 respectively, have been singing together since they could talk. Starting their own group, orginally named Sister 2 Sister, in 1995, they worked the street fair and elementry school assembly circut before getting hired as one of the regular performers at the dance club The Vibe, in L.A. Putting their show together from scratch, the sisters have earned rave reviews as dancers and performers." The screen shot to Tracie, who was sitting in front of the mirror.
"And we've never had a dance or voice lesson," she said, stretching her legs.
"What's cool is," said Mindie, who was standing in front of a poster of their new album cover, "is that we get along really well and have learned so much from performing at the clubs. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world."
"Oh puleese," scoffed Taylor.
The screen shot to the club, where 3-D was performing. "After scrapping enough money together, the girls used the money to record their demo cd, which was eventually picked up by Clive Davis, who signed the girls immediatly after seeing them perform at The Vibe."
"Scrapping enough money together?!" shouted Ike. "WE payed for their stupid demo!"
The next shot was all three girls sitting on a couch next to each other, being interviewed.
"Who have been your musical role models and inspirations through the years?" asked the interviewer.
"Oh, defintily Backstreet Boys and Madonna have helped us with our live show. Also all the girl singers out there today," said Tracie.
"What's these rumors about you three and the Hanson brothers being items?"
The three girls laughed together. "Honestly, I don't know how some things get started," said Mindie. "We have only actually met them one time, at the club because they had heard about us and wanted to check us out. But nothing happened between any of us and them. They actually weren't that nice anyway."
"But remember, our album comes out May 9th, so be sure to go and get it!" Tracie smiled at the camera.
"And we'll be performing one last time at The Vibe this Saturday!" Sylvie said.
"Well, there you have it," said the host, the screen going back to him. "3縫, next pop sensation. Until next time, this has been Unsigned. "I'm Kurt Loder, goodnight everyone."
The Hanson's stared at the TV in shock and disbelief. "We only met them ONE time?" Ike shrieked.
"We're not that NICE?" Zac whimpered.
"Their album comes out May 9th?" Taylor said in shock. "But... that's the day our's comes out! They can't do that!!!"
They looked at each other with worried looks on their faces.
"What are we going to do, Tay?" asked Zac.
"We're going to show them that you cannot mess with Hanson," he replied, his face grim.