The day dragged by. Jessica and Katie wouldn't leave the guys alone! The guys kept trying to talk to the Woodman's, but then the girls would say something. Laurie didn't like the way Jessica was hanging all over Ike and Katie was hanging all over Taylor. Zac pretty much joined the Woodman family, because the two girls weren't giving him the time of day.
"Just call me Zac Woodman," he said jokingly.
The group approached the slide thing once again.
"Okay, how about Taylor and Zac, me and Laurie, Andy and Mike, and Jessica and Katie?" Ike suggested.
"Sure," Laurie said.
"Ike, I want to ride with you. PLEASE?" Jessica begged.
Ike gave Laurie a look. "Ike, it's okay," Laurie said.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yeah, I can ride with Taylor and Katie can ride with Zac," she said.
"Okay," Ike agreed.
"That's cool," Katie said.
They got up to the guy and Andy and Mike climbed into a tube, as did Zac.
"Go ahead, Katie," Laurie said.
"I thought it was the other way around. Can I please switch with you Laurie?"
"Sure," Laurie said with a sigh. She got in by Zac.
"Gee, I feel so loved," Zac said.
"Don't worry, Zac, I love ya!" Laurie said. She gave Zac a big hug.
"Thanks Laurie. Ready to roll?"
"You bet!"
The guy pushed them off. They were really flying this time, probably because Zac was lighter than Taylor. They went down the slide, getting soaked. When they got out, they waited for Katie, Taylor, Ike, and Jessica. They finally came down. The guys helped the girls out. Laurie heard Jessica ask Ike a question.
"Ike, do you have a girlfriend?"
"You bet he does," Laurie said before Ike could interrupt her. She leaned up to Ike and they french kissed.
"Does that answer your question, Jessica?" Ike asked.
"Yes," she said. After that, she and Katie fought over Taylor. Finally, the guys said a small lie.
"Katie, Jessica, we'd really like to hang with you more, but we have to go now," Zac said, though it was only 2:30.
"Awww...well, could we maybe e-mail you?" Jessica asked.
"Give us your addresses and we'll write you," Zac said.
The girls wrote down their addresses and gave it to Zac. Zac put them in his shoe.
"See you guys later! Love ya!" The two girls exclaimed.
"Bye!" The guys yelled back. The girls ran off, and everybody smiled.
"Now, time for some fun!" Ike exclaimed.
They went over to this floor that had holes punched in it. On the ceiling, there were holes as well. You had to try to guess which one wouldn't spray you. The one who made it the longest won. Zac won. Then, they just went and swam for awhile.
"Hey guys, I'll be back in about 30 minutes or so, there's something I have to do," Andy said. Without waiting for a response, he ran off.
"Gee, I wonder where he was going?" Laurie asked.
"Who knows?" said Zac. They rode the Tom Sawyer ride again while they waited for Andy, then they climbed on this big jungle-gym thing that shot water at you as you climbed up. Finally, they met up with Andy whose brown hair was sopping wet.
"Where were you?" Taylor asked.
"Uh, nowhere," he said. "Just had to do something." It was clear that Andy didn't want to talk about it. The guys and Laurie left the subject matter alone and checked out a few more slides. They met up with their parents at about 6:30.
"Hey guys! Have fun?" Mr. Hanson asked.
"Oh yeah," they said.
"Great. We'll go home and all have pizza, okay?"
"Fine with us!" was the general response. They all piled into cars again, with the same seating arrangement. Ike pulled Laurie off to the side.
"I love you, Laurie," he said, giving her a kiss.
"I love you too, Isaac," Laurie said, returning the favor. They hugged and went to their respective cars.
Laurie jumped in the backseat next to Taylor. He was concentrating intently on putting a puzzle ball together. He didn't even notice Laurie get in. After a few minutes, he finally snapped the last piece in.
"Done!" he exclaimed. He tossed the ball to Laurie who managed to catch it.
"Careful, it's fragile," Tay said.
"Okay," Laurie told him. Laurie turned the ball around in her hand and gave it back to Tay. She leaned against the back of her seat. She shut her eyes.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Laurie, wake up. We're at my house," Taylor said, shaking her gently.
Laurie picked her head up. She was surprised to find it on Taylor's shoulder. She blushed a little. "I'm sorry, Taylor, I didn't mean to keep my head on your shoulder for the ride. Heck, I didn't even know it happened."
Taylor smiled. "I know you didn't, you conked out so fast, and I didn't want to wake you for a silly thing like that." He unfastened her seatbelt and helped her out of the car. She walked inside with everyone. The guys and Jessie and Avery went up to their rooms to change.
"Laurie, I'm going to go get clothes for you and the guys," Mrs. Woodman said.
"All right, Mom," Laurie said. Her mom came back about 5 minutes later. She handed Laurie a gray Nike shirt and blue silky Adidas shorts with her brown sandals. Laurie went into the bathroom and changed. She felt much better when she came out. She went downstairs and sat next to Ike.
"What are you guys talking about?" she asked.
"Touring," Zac responded. "It's gonna be great."
"Oh really?"
"Yes really."
"Don't get him started," Taylor advised. "Because it's the world's hardest thing to shut him up."
Zac bopped Taylor with a pillow. Tay threw one back at him, but missed him and hit Andy. Andy smacked Tay who smacked Ike and started a huge pillow fight. It was immedietely disbanded after the downstairs lamp broke and Mr. Hanson chewed them all out. They all sat down until Diana got their pizza orders.
"Hey Zac," Laurie asked when Mrs. Hanson went upstairs.
"Hey Laurie," he said.
Laurie ignored him. "Can I play your drums?"
"If you want. Hey wait, hold on, I want to show you these special drumsticks I got," he said, racing up to his room. He came back about 30 seconds later, holding a jumble of wires. Somewhere in there, there were two drumsticks.
"See, you plug these in and they light up," Zac said.
"Oh cool! Can I try them?"
"Sure, knock yourself out!" Zac said, tapping her on the head with one.
"Ow!" Laurie said, playing around. She took the sticks from Zac and started to play. She was doing pretty good until the drumroll. Then Zac came over and helped her a little. She let Zac take the drums over while she and Ike worked on a guitar duet.
"Ike! I can't get this one part," Laurie complained for the thirtieth time.
"Don't worry, you'll get it soon," Ike said.
"You said that 30 minutes ago," she retorted.
"Here, let me try," Andy said. Laurie handed him the acoustic.
"Start at the beginning, Isaac," Andy said. Isaac counted off and they began playing. Laurie had never seen Andy so concentrated. She knew he was good at the guitar, but-- wow! Ever since she had last heard him play, he had improved a great deal.
Andy reached the part that Laurie had trouble with and flew right over it.
"See, next time use the alternate chord for it, if you don't your fingers can't move fast enough to make the next ones," he explained to her. He showed her the chord. Ike and Laurie started over, this time Laurie nailed it. They finished the song.
"Thanks Andy!" Laurie said, giving him a small hug.
"You're welcome, no problem," he said.
"Pizza's here!" Diana's voice rang through the house. There was a small stampede as everyone rushed for plates and slices of the gooey, warm goodness. There was pepperoni, sausage, canadian bacon, and cheese. Laurie helped herself to two slices and went downstairs. Soon, Ike came down. He sat next to Laurie.
"Laurie, I'm sorry if I've been ignoring you," Ike said, sliding closer to her and putting an arm around her. "Just with the tour coming up, there's a lot to think about. It's our first tour, the first ever Hanson tour, and I want to make it perfect."
"It's okay, Ike, I totally understand. It's a big thing for you."
"Great," he said, giving her one of his famous grins. He gave her a quick squeeze and took a bite of his cheese pizza, stretching the strings of mozzarella out as far as they'd go.
"Wonderful, Ike," Laurie commented.
"Thank you!" he said, grinning.
Just then Taylor, Zac, Andy, Mike, and Jessie came downstairs. Zac jumped on the couch next to Laurie and Ike and "accidentally" broke Ike's cheese strings.
'"Zac! Thanks!" Ike exclaimed sarcastically.
"Anytime," he said with his Cheshire cat grin. Taylor and Andy plopped on the other couch while Mike and Jessie took beanbag chairs next to each other. Soon, Avery and Mackie came down and sat at a little table.
"Did you guys have fun today?" Andy asked Mackie and Avie.
"Yeah, especially when you came to the little kids pool with us and played Puff the Magic Dragon!" Avery exclaimed.
"Yeah, that was the best," Mackie enthusiastically agreed.
Five heads turned toward Andy. He smiled and blushed a little. "I promised them that I'd play a game with them at the water park," he said sheepishly.
Oh okay," they said. They tried to hold their laughter in as they imagined Andy playing Puff the Magic Dragon, but some, especially Laurie and Zac, weren't very successful.
"Lets play hide-and-seek," Zac suggested.
They all quickly agreed. Hide and Seek was an awesome game to play in the Hanson Mansion, as they affectionately called it. They put a hand in and decided who was "it" first. Jessie "won." She counted off to a hundred while everyone else hid. Laurie and Andy ran upstairs and his in the spare bedroom behind a pile of boxes. They heard footsteps coming up the stairs, heading into Zac's room. They then came into the spare bedroom and glanced briefly. When Jessie left, Laurie and Andy breathed huge sighs of relief.
"Now we gotta make it to base," Andy whispered. Base was the couch downstairs in the rec room. They crept quietly out of the room, down the stairs in the basement. Laurie caught a glimpse of Jessie's red t-shirt. She and Andy ducked into the bathroom for a moment. They then continued their voyage to the basement. Avie was already there, vegging out on the couch.
"Hey guys," she said calmly.
"What's happening, Avie?" Laurie asked.
"Not much. Jessie didn't find me," she said.
"That's cool, she didn't find us either," Andy said.
Just then, three pairs of feet came storming down the steps.
"I got you, Zac!" Jessie exclaimed.
"I didn't feel it!" he yelled back. "You probably got Taylor!"
"Nope, it was you, Zac," he said. "I saw her."
"See, Zac?" Jessie said.
"Okay, okay, I'll be it," he said. Then he turned to the stairs. "HEY IKEY POO! COME ON DOWN, WE'RE STARTING OVER!"
A minute later, Ike was down there. They played a few more games of hide and seek, then a game or two of cops and robbers. By the time they were done, it was 10:00 and the Woodmans had to go home.
"See you guys later!" the Hansons said.
"Bye!" Shouted Laurie and her family. They made the quick drive home. When they got home, Laurie went straight to her room and went to sleep, dreaming about the great day they had had.
Chapter 4
Chapter 2
Heading to Albertane
Kelly's Hanson Stories
