Isaac cleared his throat. “Tay?” he said, a hint of nervousness in his tone.
Quickly, Taylor pulled away from Missy and sat up straight. He turned to his brother, hoping his cheeks didn’t flush too badly. “Yeah, Ike?”
“I thought we were going to practice,” he said simply.
As if he’d forgotten something terrible important, Tay groaned and smacked his head with his palm. “Sorry,” he said, standing up. He met his brother in the doorway before turning back to Missy. “Want to come?”
She shifted uncomfortably for a moment before standing. “Okay,” she agreed slowly, “on one condition.”
Taylor gave her a strange look. “Which is . . . ?”
“No ‘MMMBop’.”
Isaac tossed his head back and laughed. Taylor gave a small smile and shrugged. “Um, okay, I guess,” he said unsurely.
Slowly, the three of them made their way to what Tracy could only suspect to be the guys’ bedroom. It was composed of white walls with little decoration, a bunk bed, two dressers, two CD players, and a table in the center of the room covered with Legos.
Zac was already in the room, sitting on the floor and banging a tambourine on his palm, murmuring the lyrics of a song to himself. He looked up as Taylor and Ike entered the room and smiled as their guest followed. “Come to hear us play?” he asked Tracy.
“Yep,” Isaac replied for her. “But on one condition: No ‘MMMBop’.”
Zac let out a laugh. “You don’t like that song, Missy?”
She looked at him and gave a smile. “Let’s just say it’s not one of my favorites,” she said simply, not wanting to add, “I feel like ripping out Taylor’s vocal chords every time I hear it.” (Author’s note: I like the song ‘MMMBop’ . . . My character doesn’t.)
Isaac crossed the room and sat down on the bottom mattress of the bunk bed. He picked up an acoustic guitar and rested it on his thigh. “What song do you guys want to do first?” he asked.
“How about ‘Madeline’?” Tay suggested after a silent moment. Isaac and Zac both nodded in agreement.
“Ready?” Ike asked, forming a chord with the fingers of his left hand and preparing to strum the strings.
“Hold on,” Taylor requested. He climbed up onto the top mattress of the bunk bed and sat so that his feet were hanging off the edge. Picking up the tambourine on the blanket beside him, he said, “Okay, let’s do it.”
With that, Isaac began strumming his guitar. Zac, who had set his tambourine down on the floor, was now shaking a set of hand-held castanets. Taylor began singing.
Tracy was amazed; not only at how good an acoustic guitar, a tambourine, and a set of castanets sounded, but at how different Taylor’s voice sounded as compared to “MMMBop”. Wow, she thought, he actually sounds like a boy now.
A few lines into the song, Isaac picked up the lead and Zac began holding a single high note in the background. Tracy smiled. She actually liked this song. It had a nice beat and was kind of catchy. By the end of the song, she caught herself mumbling the chorus along with Isaac, Taylor, and Zac.
“Madeline, here we go around again / You know it, I know it, don’t try to pretend / You know it could be so much better than it’s been / Aooooooh, here we go around again,” Tracy sang under her breath. Taylor caught her eye and smiled. She smiled back.
When the song was over with, Tracy found herself clapping.
Isaac grinned. “You like that, do you?” he asked.
She smiled. “Yeah, I do. I like it a lot,” she told him. Then, after eyeing each of them suspiciously, she asked, “So, who’s it about?”
The three of them all laughed slightly. Isaac picked at a few strings on his guitar before looking at her and saying, “Well, there was this one girl . . .”
Taylor threw a pillow at his head. “Don’t lie,” he insisted. Then, turning back to Missy, he said, “We had the ‘Here we go around again’ part, and it just sounded better with the name. That’s all.”
She smiled slyly at him. “Sure it is,” she said.
“Hey, this isn’t right,” Isaac protested, “I get a pillow in the face for my comment and she doesn’t?”
“She’s a guest,” Taylor said pointedly.
“She’s a girl,” Zac said with a grin.
“Wow!” Taylor cried sarcastically. “How long did it take you do figure that one out?”
Tracy smiled. “Brotherly love,” she commented.
Zac looked at her. “Do you have any brothers?” he asked.
“Zac,” Isaac said through clenched teeth, throwing a pillow at his brother’s head.
“What?” he demanded. “I didn’t ask her anything about her sister!”
Isaac was about to say something else to his younger brother when Tracy cut him off. “No, Zac. I don’t have any brothers. Just the sister,” she said quietly. “Well,” she added a moment later. “Not that I know of.”
“Not that you know of?” Zac echoed. He cast a sideways glance at Isaac, as if awaiting an impending blow. However, it didn’t come. Instead, Ike stared at Tracy, a questioning look on his face.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m adopted.”
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