“I’m going to your aunt’s house,” Diana told her sons, carrying her youngest daughter, Zoë, in one arm and holding little Mackie by the hand.

“Are you taking Jess and Avie?” Isaac asked, currently serving as his sisters’ main source of entertainment.

“Yes,” Diana told him. “Do you want to come, too?”

Almost shyly, Isaac looked away. His brown eyes quickly darted around the room as if looking for inspiration. Then, he seemed to have found it. Me. “I think I should stay behind with our guests, Mom. It wouldn’t be right to leave them here alone, and I don’t think they’d be comfortable around our family.”

Diana nodded. “Good excuse,” she said dryly to her oldest son. She then looked at Taylor and Zac. “Are you coming?”

They both shifted uncomfortably. “I think we should stay behind too. It just wouldn’t be right leaving Ike here all alone to entertain our company,” Zac said sweetly.

“I wouldn’t trust Ike here all alone with some of our company,” Tay mumbled. Isaac jammed his elbow in his brother’s ribs. I hid a snicker.

Diana sighed. “All right. Fine. I’ll see you all in a few hours.” She kissed each of her sons on the forehead, glanced at me, Evie, and Lynn and smiled. “Bye, everyone.”

Isaac, Tay, and Zac all made some sort of embarrassed noise and wiped their foreheads as soon as Diana was out the door. I let go of the laughter I had been holding in and the three of them turned and glared at me.

I stifled my laughter. “It was a good excuse,” I offered, still grinning.

Isaac shrugged. “Well, it was true, wasn’t it?” he asked me. “Wouldn’t you be uncomfortable around my relatives?”

Lynn laughed. “Hey, we’re uncomfortable around our relatives!”

There was a moment of laughter followed by a short silence broken by Zac. “I’m bored,” he announced.

“Me too,” Lynnie added.

Everyone looked around the living room as if for an idea. After a good couple of minutes, Taylor suggested we go to the mall.

“We’ll have to walk,” Isaac pointed out. “Mom and Dad took the only cars.”

“I don’t mind,” Evie said with a shrug. As it turned out, nobody had any objections, and we were on out way to the mall within five minutes.

“How far is the mall?” Lynn asked.

Tay hummed to himself for a moment. “About a fifteen minute walk. Why?”

Lynnie just shrugged. “I just wanted to know,” she said simply.

And those were the last words spoken. For then next ten minutes, the six of us shuffled down the sidewalk in silence. I looked up and down the streets. Progressively, the houses became closer and closer together until we had entered mid-town suburbia, USA. Surprisingly, it looked a lot like my neighborhood in Warren, a city just north of Detroit. There were children of all different backgrounds playing together. Looking different meant nothing to them. They didn’t seem to see each other as “black” or “white” or Asian anything else. When they looked, they saw only friends.

Now, I thought distantly, if the adults would just look at these kids, the world wouldn’t be in so much trouble.

“Jaye, hang a right,” Zac called from behind me. I took in my surroundings. I was a good five feet in front of everybody else. Well, that’s what you get for thinking, my mind taunted. Ignoring my patronizing inner voice, I waited for the rest of the caravan to catch up before turning the corner.

“The mall’s just up here a block or so,” Isaac announced, sounding somewhat bored.

I picked up on this. “Don’t you sound thrilled?” I asked sarcastically. He just shrugged.

A minute later, we all walked into a small mall entrance. It lead to a long, thin corridor. We followed the corridor and ended up in an open foyer-like area. I looked around. It was your basic mall. Eateries, music stores, gift shops, et cetera.

With a small half smile, I turned to the Hanson boys. “Where to?” When the three of them just shrugged, I rolled my eyes and searched the surrounding stores. Finally, one caught my eye. “Okay, then. There.” I pointed to a store with pink neon lights and gag-gifts and pointless knickknacks in the windows. Spencers.

No one protested and we all started for the store. We were there in less than a minute. Lynnie - a regular at the Spencers by our house - immediately found her way to the jewelry section. Zac started for the key chains. Tay, Isaac, Eve, and I just began looking at whatever was hanging on the nearest wall. And what exactly was that, anyway?

“Eew,” Evie squeaked. “Who would buy this?” She picked up a bag of rubber dog turds and held it out to us.

I raised my hand. “And damn proud, I may add. Scared the heck outta my mom one morning,” I told her. Isaac raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m kidding,” I assured him obviously. He just shook his head. I rolled my eyes and took the bag from Evie. “This bad,” I told her - using terrific grammar, I might add. “No-no.” Evie giggled.

Bored with the contents of that shelf, I walked to another, leaving Isaac, Taylor, and Evie to sort through the odds and ends. While looking at a yellow sign that read “Alien Crossing”, I noticed two girls out of the corner of my eye. Both had brown hair, but one had darker, straight hair, and the other had shorter, wavy hair, and both looked to be just younger than I was. They were looking at the posters and trying hard not to point.

Keeping to the back wall of the store, I crept up behind them. Sure enough, the poster they were intent upon was of - none other than - Hanson. I rolled my eyes as they swooned, “They’re so cute,” and, “I dare you to go talk to them.” If I ever acted like that, I was afraid I’d have no choice than to throw myself from a building. A tall one.

Acting quickly, I walked back over to where Isaac, Taylor, and Evie were standing and poked my head between the brothers. “Just so you know, the two brunettes in the corner by the posters are swooning over your glossy pictures,” I whispered.

Taylor nodded. “Well,” he said slowly, with a sideways glance at the girls, “I say they’re not gonna make a move over here. They look a little too shy. But maybe it’d be a good idea to leave anyway.”

Isaac, Evie, and I nodded in agreement. Taylor walked over to Lynn and Zac - who were looking at lava lamps - and explained the situation. Reluctantly, they agreed to leave as well.

We hadn’t gotten more than ten feet from the store when I saw the brunettes emerge. “Great,” I muttered. “Now they’re on a mission.”

Evie grinned and began doing the “Mission: Impossible” theme.

“Yeah. Too bad that bag they’re holding is gonna blow up in five seconds,” said wryly.

Ignoring my sarcasm, Tay led us into another store. Sure enough, the brunettes followed us in.

“Okay,” Taylor said, stopping and motioning for us to gather around him. “The way I see it is if they want to say anything to us, they’ll come up and do it on their own.”

“Yeah,” Zac agreed. “And if we go up to them, they’ll probably scream.”

“And that doesn’t exactly put you in management’s good graces,” I added.

We all wandered the store for a couple minutes longer before leaving. As before, the brunettes followed us. We entered and exited another store. So did they. This pattern continued for about seven stores before Isaac snapped.

“This, my friends,” he said to us in the latest store, “is what bothers me. It’s great to have fans. It’s great to be recognized. But it’s not great to be stalked through a mall.”

“Yeah, Ike,” Taylor agreed. “And it doesn’t help that they keep checking you out.”

Isaac smacked his brother on the arm. “No, they’re checking you out,” he insisted.

“Oh, shush, you two,” I told them. “At least they’re not glaring at you. When they look at me or Evie or Lynn, they seem like they’re trying to melt steel.”

Just then, I had an idea. Mean? Perhaps. But an idea nonetheless. I turned to Isaac, slow smile spreading across my face. “How do you feel about role playing?” Without waiting for a reply, I told him, Tay, Zac, Evie, and Lynn my plan. A bit unsurely, they all agreed.

We split up into groups: Me and Isaac, Evie and Taylor, and Lynnie and Zac. With that done, we all left the store, each group going in a different direction. The brunettes now had three options: one - to abandon their operation (Not likely, I decided), two - to split up (Again, not likely. Considering they’re joined at the hip and all.), or three - pick one brother to continue pursuing.

As I’d predicted, they chose the latter of the three possibilities. While passing a store, I glanced in a glass wall and saw they had opted to follow Isaac. I looked over at him. “Time for phase two,” I said.

Isaac grinned. “Just tell me this: Do you actually sit around and plan schemes like this, or are they just spontaneous?” he asked.

“Hm.” I looked up at the ceiling. “Pretty much spontaneous, I suppose. Now, are we going to move on to phase two or what?”

Letting out a small laugh, Isaac took my hand. “Okay. Now what?”

I glanced in another glass wall. “We wait,” I said simply. And wait we did. Isaac and I walked around the same wing of the mall for about five minutes and the brunettes were still following us. “Well,” I said with a sigh, “we can’t say they’re quitters, now can we?”

Isaac didn’t seem to hear my comment. “Enough of this,” he muttered. “Time for phase three.”

I looked at him. “What phase three? There was no phase three in the plan.”

Leading me to a Taco Bell, he said, “Well, there is now.” As he ordered, I glanced over my shoulder. The girls were still following us, though looking slightly confused at this point.

Isaac tugged on my hand. “Come on,” he said. He picked up a small cup at the end of the end of the counter and grabbed a straw. The two of us then proceeded to sit at a two-person table, Isaac still holding onto my hand over the tabletop.

“What’re you doing?” I demanded quietly.

He sighed. “If they don’t get the picture by the time I finish this pop, I figure they never will,” he replied simply. He took a sip from his straw and said, “We should probably talk.”

I shrugged. “So talk.”

Grinning, Isaac said, “I’m drinking. You talk.” I was about to open my mouth and ask him about what when he suggested, “Tell me about you and Evie.”

I shrugged. “Well, we’ve known each other since . . . hm . . . the fourth grade, I think. We were kinda just school friends then. I mean, we didn’t spend the night at each other’s houses and we didn’t see each other outside of school -”

Just then, Isaac squeezed my hand harder and leaned forward across the table. “The stalkers just took the table off to the side and behind you,” he informed me.

I nodded and leaned forward as well. “Anyway,” I continued, “We really didn’t start hanging out together until the eight grade. That was - what? - three years ago? Yeah. We’re going into the eleventh grade so . . .” I caught myself. Don’t get off track, I reminded myself. “Well, I invited her to a birthday party I had and we just totally hit it off. My mom says we’ve been inseparable ever since. I mean, we’re so much alike, it’s not even funny. We like the same TV shows, the same movies, the same movie stars, most of the same music. We’re kindred spirits, really. And one day, we promised each other -” I cut myself off and looked away.

“What?” Isaac prompted, sounding genuinely interested.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw no trace of the brunettes. “Well, it looks like the stalkers finally got the hint. We’d better go meet up with everybody . . .” I tried to stand up.

“Nope. You’re not getting off that easily,” Isaac said, still holding onto my hand.

I sighed and sat back down. “All right. Fine. I’ll tell you. But you have to promise not to think it’s stupid,” I demanded. Isaac nodded solemnly. “And even if you do, keep it to yourself,” I added. He nodded again, smirking. “Okay. A couple years back - Freshman year, I do believe - Evie and I made a pact that we’d always stay best friends. We’re kindred spirits. We’re like sisters, only a little deeper. We can’t let go of that. It just wouldn’t be right. Anyway, we said we’d never let anything come between us. Not an earthquake or an ocean - or even something really important, like a boyfriend.” I grinned.

Isaac smiled too. “Okay. We’d better go meet up with everyone,” he said, standing up. “They’re probably worrying those girls kidnapped us.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s go.” As we started for the meeting place, I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder. Expecting the brunettes to pop out of nowhere, I was pleasantly surprised to see no one behind us.

When we got to the Spencers, we walked in. Tay, Evie, Zac, and Lynn were all already standing around, looking aimlessly at various shelves. Isaac and I walked over to them.

Zac looked at us unsurely. “Are they still following you?” he asked slowly. For the first time since I’d met him, I realized how absolutely adorable Zac was. Sure, I’d often commented about this fact when looking at him in posters, but it was different somehow standing right in front of him. His light blond hair was tucked casually behind his ears, his brow was puckered, and his lips were slightly parted. I wonder what he’ll look like in a couple years? a far corner of my mind asked.

“No,” Isaac said. “They’re not following us. Why?”

Zac shrugged. “Well, you two are still holding hands.”

Isaac and I quickly took our hands from one another and stepped away from each other. I hadn’t even realized we were still holding hands until Zac pointed it out. I glanced over at Isaac. He was blushing slightly. I wondered if I was too.

Taylor grinned evilly. “Yeah, you two. What took you so long getting back here?”

Isaac ignored his brother. “Are you guys ready to leave? I’m ready. Let’s go,” he said, starting out of the store. We all followed.

“Awe, c’mon Ikey. You can tell us,” Taylor pressed, still smiling ear to ear.

Picking up, Evie smiled too. “Jaye, what exactly were you two doing?” she asked as we entered the corridor that led to the exit. I rolled my eyes at her in response.

Finally, Zac cut through the subtleties and yelled, “Ike and Jaye are in love!”

Isaac glared at his little brother. “Oh, grow up, Zac,” he said, pushing through the door.

We all filed outside. What I saw there startled me slightly. The brunettes.

“Um,” the one with straight hair said quietly, walking up to Isaac, Taylor, and Zac, “we were just wondering if we could have your autographs? If you don’t want to, that’s okay, but -”

“Sure!” Zac yelled, cutting the girl off. “We’d be happy to!”

The wavy-haired one joined up with her friend and began giggling. I smiled. The girls both looked elated and I was actually happy for them. And I almost felt sorry for hatching my plan to get rid of them in the mall. Almost.

Isaac looked at the girls. “Well, what do you want us to sign?” he asked.

The girls’ faces fell. They looked to one another and shrugged weakly.

I gave a slight smile and dug into my back pocket. “Here,” I told Isaac, handing a small notebook and ball-point pen to him.

He gave me an odd look. “You carry a notebook and pen with you?” he asked. I just shrugged. Isaac smiled and turned to the girls. “So, what’re your names?”