Giving up on his stubborn son, Walker Hanson turned back to my father.

Zac grinned. He then surveyed the area, his big brown eyes finally landing on Evie, Lynn, and me. His grin seemed to widen and he walked - no, he moseyed - toward us. “So, what happened here, anyway?” he asked.

I opened my mouth to reply, but Lynn cut me off. “Well, Jaye was driving down the road and then the van just started going slower and slower. And she stomped on the gas pedal - but nothing happened. Then, Dad’s like ‘Pull over!’, and -” Lynn caught herself. For a minute, she seemed to lose sight of the fact she was almost deathly shy.

“Sounds like it could be the transmission,” Isaac said, inviting himself into the conversation. “Well, that’s what it sounds like to me, anyway.”

Nobody spoke after that. The Hansons all looked a little uncomfortable, Lynn had been struck speechless from her shyness, Evie looked like all the muscles in her face had gone numb, and I personally couldn’t think of anything to say. The only good thing was I had stopped shaking.

Finally, Taylor, who had been hanging back behind his brothers, stepped forward. “So, which one is Jaye?” he asked.

I took a small step forward. “That’s me.”

Taylor gave a little shrug. “Sounds like it was pretty scary,” he commented. I just nodded. Seeing this line of questioning was going nowhere in a hurry, he offered his hand to me. “Uh, Taylor Hanson,” he introduced.

I gave a small smile. “Jaye Morgan,” I said, shaking his hand. Then, a little unsurely, I added, “I knew who you were.”

Taylor smiled and seemed to blush a little. Then he walked over to Evie and offered his hand to her.

She smiled and took his hand. “Evie Sherman,” she said brightly, the muscles in her face springing back to life. “And at the risk of sounding ditzy, I’m a big fan,” she confided. Then, she hastily added, “So are Jaye and Lynn.”

I groaned inwardly. Smooth, Evie, I thought sarcastically.

Almost blushing again, Taylor walked over to my sister. “By process of elimination, you must be Lynn,” he said, again offering his hand.

Lynn didn’t move. She just stood before Taylor, completely frozen, brown eyes wide and transfixed on his face.

After a moment of standing with his hand suspended in the air, Taylor stepped away from my sister. “O-kay,” he breathed, rejoining his brothers.

However, Zac didn’t give up so easily. Just as his older brother came back to the little line opposite me, he broke from it and walked over to my sister. “Hey, there, Lynn,” he said quietly, crouching down a bit to be at eye level with her. Standing at only 4’9”, he had to do quite a bit of crouching.

Stubbornly, Lynnie just stood there. Zac smiled and slowly reached down to her side and took her hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you,” he said, his voice still quiet. Lynnie smiled.

Isaac cleared his throat. “Okay, let me get this straight,” he interrupted. He pointed at me, “Jaye Morgan.” I nodded in verification. He pointed to Eve. “Evie Sherman.” She nodded. Isaac gave a small smile and pointed to my sister. “Lynn . . . Sorry, didn’t catch your last name.”

“Lynnie Morgan,” I informed him. “She’s my -”

“I can speak for myself,” Lynn said, cutting me off. “I’m her sister. I’m twelve and my birthday is November fourth. Jaye-Jae is sixteen. Her birthday is March seventeenth - St. Patrick’s Day. And Evie’s going to be sixteen on Isaac’s birthday -”

“Okay, I don’t think they need a biography, Lynnie,” Evie interjected. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac laughed.

Well, I thought sarcastically, if I would’ve known it’d only take Zac Hanson to pull Lynn out of her shell . . .

“Taylor!” the boys’ father called. “Taylor!”

“Well,” Taylor said, seemingly not noticing that his father was calling his name. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

“Taylor!” Mr. Hanson yelled again. Frustrated, he yelled, “Jordan!”

This got Taylor’s attention. He turned and smiled innocently, blushing. “Um, yeah, Dad?”

“Get the flashlight out of the van, will you?”

Taylor nodded and obliged. He ran the flashlight to his father and then came back to where he had been standing before, still smiling innocently.

“Wow. He actually called you by your first name,” I said with a shrug.

Taylor gave me an odd look. So did his older brother. “What do you mean?” Isaac asked.

“Oh, nothing bad. Don’t worry. I just think it’s a little weird that you go by your middle names is all,” I explained. Good one, I told myself wryly. Offend the people who stopped to help you. Good strategy!

But they didn’t seem to be offended. “It’s really not that strange. We just like our middle names better,” Isaac rationalized simply. “I mean, if you liked your middle name better, wouldn’t you want to be known by it?”

I shrugged. “S’pose so.”

“Jaye! Lynn, Evie!” my dad called. “Come here!”

Evie, Lynn, and I jogged over to where my parents were standing. As we approached, Mr. Hanson walked past us, toward his sons.

“So, is it fixed?” I asked expectantly.

Dad laughed dryly. “Not even close. The transmission blew. Now, Walker - um, Mr. Hanson - has offered to put us up for the night. He says his son’ll drive you guys and your mom to their house. We’re going to get a tow truck and meet you there later.”

I nodded. “Okay, Dad,” I said. Evie and Lynn nodded as well.

“All right,” Mom sighed. “Let’s go.”

We walked over to where the Hansons were standing. “ . . . Now, don’t forget to call your mom after you call the tow truck. And remember the mile marker we’re at. I’ll see you guys when I get home.”

“Okay, Dad,” Isaac said. “I’ll remember.”

Walker headed back over to my father and Isaac headed for his father’s van. “Okay, everybody,” he said with a sigh. “We’d better get going.”

Everybody piled into the van: Isaac in the driver’s seat, my mom in the passenger’s seat, Zac and Lynn in the bucket seats in the middle of the van, and Taylor, Evie, and me on the bench seat in back.

Nobody said much. Isaac pulled into the first gas station we came to and called a tow truck and his mother to tell her about their guests. I just hoped she didn’t have any objections. It was her house, too, and I hoped her husband’s decision was one she would agree with.

I’m not sure how long it took us to arrive at the Hansons’ home. I fell asleep about ten minutes into the drive and woke up with Evie shaking me slightly. “We’re here,” she whispered. Everyone was already piling out of the van and into the driveway. Groggily, I followed suit.

The front door was unlocked and we all made our way inside, Isaac indicating for us to be quiet. We entered the living room to see a woman with extremely long blond hair sitting on the couch. She smiled brightly at us as we came in. “Why hello,” she greeted.

I smiled and approached her. “Hello. And thank you,” I said, shaking the woman’s hand.

She stood up and shook hands with her guests. “I’m Diana Hanson,” she introduced.

My mother smiled. “I’m Colleen Morgan,” she replied. “I can’t thank you enough. Our car broke down, and . . .” Mom explained as Diana led her to the kitchen.

“Here,” Isaac said to Lynn, Eve, and me, “I’ll show you guys where you’re going to sleep.” We all nodded and Isaac led us out of the living room and down a hallway. He stopped at the first door and opened it. “Excuse the mess,” he said with a little smile.

“Can’t be any worse than Lynn’s room,” I told him, shrugging.

Lynnie smacked my arm. “Hey!” she cried. I giggled.

Stepping carefully over Legos, Isaac led the way into, presumably, the brothers’ bedroom. “Just kick things out of the way. That’s what we do.”

“I can tell,” I told him. Isaac looked back at me. I smiled. He shook his head slightly, hiding a smile of his own.

“This is great,” Evie said slowly, “but where are you and your brothers going to sleep?”

Isaac shrugged. “The living room. I’ll probably take the couch and Tay can have the love seat. And I don’t know about Zac. If he can’t fit on the chair, he’ll just have to sleep on the floor . . .”

“Stop,” I said. “You’re making me feel bad.”

Isaac grinned. “I’m not trying to,” he said seriously. “Besides, Zac’d kick me or Tay on the floor before he slept there.” I laughed. “Well, good night.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Good night. And thanks again.”

With that, Isaac left the room, closing the door behind him. I looked around the room. It was something like I had imagined it would be like from descriptions in interviews. There were Legos seemingly everywhere - except, of course, on the massive Lego table in the middle of the room. And if the Legos weren’t bad enough, there were clothes strewn about the room as well.

Yep, I told myself. Just like Lynnie’s room. Except, she doesn’t have the Legos.

“Dibs on top bunk,” I said, climbing up the wood frame of the bunk bed in the far left corner.

“I get bottom!” Lynnie announced, flopping down on the mattress.

Evie groaned. “I suppose that means I get the trundle?” she complained. While rolling the small mattress out from under the bunk bed, she looked up at me. “Hey, where are your parent’s gonna sleep?”

I rolled over on the bed. “The Lego table,” I suggested sarcastically. “I don’t care. I’m too tired to care right now.” With that, I pulled the blankets over my shoulders and closed my eyes.

“Move over.”

I opened my eyes and looked around. Something was wrong. That was it - the ceiling was too close. Yeah, duh, I thought mockingly to myself. Remember where you are?

“Move over.”

I looked at where the words were coming from. Evie was kneeling at the foot of the mattress, shaking my leg. “What do you want?” I asked groggily.

“Your parents kicked me off the trundle bed. I tried sleeping on the floor, but there were too many friggen Legos,” she explained.

I rolled my eyes and scooted over. “There,” I offered. “Enough room now?”

Evie laid down beside me and took one of the pillows I was using out from under my head. “Thanks, Jaye-Jae,” she whispered.

I grunted. “You wake me up, you take my pillow. If you push me off the bed, I’m gonna have to kill you,” I told her. Evie giggled. “I’m serious,” I added.

Still giggling, Evie pulled the covers over her shoulders. “Fine. But it wasn’t your pillow anyway. It’s Isaac’s.”

I rolled over on my side, away from Evie, and smiled to myself at this thought. Still smiling, I fell asleep. It had been a long day.