"That was awesome," said Zac in the car ride home. "It was more than awesome, it was perfection!"
"It was mythical," agreed Ike. "Couldn't get any better than that!" The brothers laughed as they pulled into their driveway. It was around 11:00 when they finally were home and all three were exausted from the night's events.
"I can't wait to see what happens to them after tonight," Ike said smugly. "We sure showed them!"
"And how!" agreed Zac. Ike and Zac noticed Taylor was quiet. "What's wrong, Tay? You're not regretting what we did tonight, are you?"
"No, not at all. But guys, I'm worried. Tamara still hasn't called back since I left that message on her anwering maching last week," Taylor explained.
"About what the tabloids said?" Ike asked.
"Yeah," Taylor sighed. "I think she's pissed off at me again."
"Well, we all know that those pictures and articles were fake," said Zac. "She can ask us for proof!"
"Yeah, plus 3-D totally denied knowing us on MTV," added Ike.
"I know," Taylor said. "But I've only talked to her once since we got out here and it's already November! It seems like no one's ever home when I call the house!"
"Well, give her a call tommorrow," suggested Ike. "But for now, let's go to bed. This whole night has worn me out!"
The next afternoon, Taylor went home from the studio early because his throat was hurting a little and he didn't want to strain it. No one else was home, so he decided that this was the perfect time to call Tamara. He ran to his room and dialed her number. It rang 13 times before Taylor gave up and hung up the phone. It was 3:30 in California, which meant it would be 4:30 in Oklahoma, she would be home from school. I guess she's just at Phoebe's or somebody's, he thought dejectedly.
He tried calling the next day too, later in the evening and again, nobody answered.
"This is weird," Taylor said to Ike. "It's not like their family for nobody to be home. Her mom doesn't work and her dad just works in the city with something with the government."
"Maybe they went on vacation?" Ike guessed.
"Without telling me?" Taylor said. "I would hope I didn't do something so stupid to make her that mad at me!"
"Hmmm, it is weird," Ike agreed.
3-D was a big story in the entertainment news that week. Almost every tabloid had a picture of Mindie with her flashing the audience (blurred out, of course) and pictures of Tracie falling on her face and Sylvie looking horrified at the ifarted.com banner. They were also a running joke on the late-night shows. MTV News had a blurb about it the next night.
"Newcomers 3-D have already made a name for themselves this week, as their performance at The Vibe raised some eyebrows. Unable to sing and dance, or even wear their clothes properly, Tracie, Mindie and Sylvie made fools of themselves as they slipped and farted across the stage. Arista Records has announced that they have dropped 3-D from their label and the GenNext tour also declared that 3-D will no longer be part of the line up. Seems like these girls exposed the true them to soon for the public."
Ike and Zac cheered as they heard this news. Taylor knew that he should be celebrating as well, but something else was on his mind: reaching Tamara.
Taylor called and called. No one ever answered. By now he was getting quite worried. He was thinking of the worst possible senarios: they got killed in a car accident. They changed their phone number and didn't tell him. Then, one day the next week, he got lucky. Somebody finally answered the phone.
"Hello?" It was a voice he didn't recognize.
"Um, hi. Is Tamara there?" he asked hopefully.
"Who? No, sorry, you have the wrong number," they said and hung up.
Taylor stared at the phone. What? But the Souder's have lived there all my life! That has to be their number! He started to panic. Finally, he decided to call Phoebe's house, she would definitley know where Tamara was. He should have done this a long time ago.
"Hello?" Phoebe answered.
"Phoebe! It's Taylor," he said quickly.
"Taylor! Oh thank goodness you called! Something terrible's happened!" she cried into the phone.
"What?" he said desperatly. "Phoebe, where's Tamara?"
He heard Phoebe sob and take a deep breath.
"I don't know Taylor. One day I woke up and her whole family had moved out of the house that night without telling anyone. She's gone!"