"Yes, it's me!" he said. I threw my arms around him and he threw his around me.
"I can't believe it's you!" I said. "It's been so long!"
"It has! I'm so sorry I didn't write or call."
"I'm sorry, too," I said. We let go of each other.
"It's really great to see you, Kelly. I never forgot about you," Isaac said.
"I've never forgotten about you, Isaac," I said.
"A lot of people call me Ike, now."
"Okay...Ike," I said. Andy came over to us.
"Kelly, who's the guy?" he asked me. He looked at him. His mouth dropped open and his eyes got very wide.
"Isaac?" he asked in a quiet voice.
"Hi Andy," he said.
"What are you doing here?"
"We moved back to town yesterday. My brothers and sisters and I go to public schooling, now."
"Sisters?" Andy asked. "You gotta come home with us. Our mom'll die to see you again."
"Can I call my mom from here first?" he asked.
"Sure," Andy said. We walked to the office where the pay phones were located. Isaac--excuse me, Ike-- told his mom that he would be home later and he'd call from when he would need to be picked up. We piled into Andy's car and went home. Luckily, Mom wasn't working today. We ran inside.
"Mom, Mom!" Andy and I yelled.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Mom asked.
"Get in here!" I yelled.
"Honey, are you hurt?" Mom asked running inside. She saw Isaac standing in the living room.
"Hi, Mrs. Bartolacci," Isaac said.
"Isaac Hanson?" Mom asked.
"Yep, it's me," he said.
"Oh my lord! It's so great to see you again! Does your mom know you're here?"
"She knows I'm out. She doesn't know I'm at your house."
"Call her up and tell her you're here," she said. "I'd like to talk to your mom."
"All right," Isaac said. He went with my mom to the phone to call his mom. I grinned. I couldn't believe that after all these years, my best friend in the whole wide world was back.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"So, how have things been?" I asked Ike. We were in my room, sitting with our backs against our bed. We each were drinking a Coke and eating an Oreo cookie.
"Busy," he said with his mouth full. He swallowed. "Taylor, Zac, and I formed a band. We're trying to get noticed by a record label. We've been playing a lot of gigs and stuff. We made two CDs, called MMMBop and Boomerang. They're decent, for what we had to work with."
"That's awesome," I said. "Where did you guys come from?"
"Oh, we've been all over South America, because of Dad's job," Ike explained. "We'd live there for a stretch as long as a year and a half, come back here for about two months or so, then we'd have to go back out there, because he'd have some other type of job."
"Wow," I said. "How come you never tried to get in touch with me when you were back in town?"
"I tried a few times, but I'd get chicken or I'd get distracted. I thought you wouldn't remember me," he admitted.
"Wouldn't remember you? Ike, you were my first best friend. You rescued me from Mikey Anderson, remember?" I asked.
Ike grinned. "Oh yeah...he threw sand in your face, or something like that, then I shoved him and told him not to treat girls like that."
"Yeah," I said.
"I can't believe how dorky I was," he said.
"I didn't think it was dorky then, and I don't now," I admitted. "I think it's kinda cool."
"Then I'm glad I did it," he said. An awkward silence filled the room.
"So, how are the kids in the neighborhood?" Ike asked.
"Oh, great. The Presario's moved about five years ago, so did the McNelly's, but my friend Chris's family moved into the Presario's house, and this really young couple who just had a baby moved into the McNelly's house."
"Cool," Ike said. "Who moved into our house?"
"Oh, the Thomases," I said. "They have kids who are 11, 9, and 6."
"Cool," he said again. "I wish we could move back to this neighborhood."
"Where do you guys live now?" I asked, tracing a pattern into my rug.
"We live about 4 blocks away from here, San Fernando St."
"That's cool. Too bad you couldn't life here," I said.
"Yeah, really. Then things would be great," he replied. "So, how's public schooling?"
"Great. Everybody on the block switched to it about five years ago. It's a lot better now," I said.
"I'm still trying to get used to it," Ike said. "It's weird getting used to going all over a huge building for your classes when all you used to have to do was go to a different room in the house."
"I hear ya," I said.
"So, have the kids in the neighborhood changed much?" he asked.
"Well, a little," I said. "We all hang out at the park instead. It's closer than the elementary school playground, but our parents wouldn't let us go to the park for a long time because of the lake."
We spent the next few hours reminiscing over old times. I couldn't believe that I had my old best friend back. Ike ended up staying for dinner. He surprised my dad, to say the least. When Mrs. Hanson came to pick him up, she brought Taylor and Zac with her. I couldn't believe how much they've changed. Taylor remembered me, but Zac obviously didn't. He was a little on the hyper side, but not too bad. Mrs. Hanson invited our family over for dinner on the weekend. She had to go home and we all said our good byes. I headed up to my room. I put the pictures of Ike and I back up on my mirror, and couldn't believe that we had met again today. That had to be the biggest thing that happened all year.
Chapter 4 *not up yet*
Chapter 2
Those Were The Days
Kelly's Hanson Stories
