Danielle glanced at the tiny candy section in the gas station's store. She took down a semi-large bag of Jelly Belly jellybeans, her favorite. She loved jellybeans, and all kinds of chocolate, too. Danielle put it on the counter near the station's cash register along with a can of Coke.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. It read 4:17. When she looked back at her jellybeans and Coke, she found that the clerk was already ringing them up. He told her a price. She thought he'd said "3 dollars and 99 cents", but she quickly checked the cash register's digits to be sure. Danielle was right. She forked over 4 dollars and he gave her a penny back and smiled. She sort of half-smiled back and walked out.
Her parents were filling up their van's gas tank. They were nearly finished, so Danielle got into the white van and waited for them, the odor of gasoline drifting past her nose. In a minute or two, Danielle didn't really care for time, her parents stepped back into the car. Her mother cheerfully asked what she'd gotten at the gas station store. Danielle held up her jellybeans and Coke can, grinning. Her father then started their van up. The moving truck had stopped to get some gas as well, but was ready to continue the journey, and so started following them again.
About an hour or so down the road, Danielle got out one of her magazines that she'd gotten at Kroger. She did need to find out more about those 3 guys. The gorgeous, blond trio... Danielle caught herself. Hey, she thought, I don't even know who they are and I'm already falling in love with them!! Danielle giggled softly at herself. Must be hormones or something, she figured.
She read the cover of the magazine that she'd pulled out. The title was "TeenBeat" and it featured the 3 boys she'd been thinking about, as well as some other music groups, and a couple of major stars. Of course, Danielle wasn't as upbeat with the music and movie world. She couldn’t watch new theater movies, at least not well, or listen to music. She had to wait for the movies to come out on video, so she could rent or buy them. Just so that there would be a closed caption at the bottom of the TV screen for her.
She did recognize some of the actors and actresses, and some music stars from the other magazine covers. She was a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio... And Jeanenne Garafalo... And Christina Ricci. A couple others were Claire Danes, Nick Cage, and Skeet Ulrich. She owned a small movie collection. Some of those movies were The Craft, Romeo & Juliet, Scream, The Shining, and Casper. Casper was one of her older movies that she still liked. Christina Ricci and Devon Sawa were in that movie, and she still watched it...sometimes.
Danielle snapped out of her trance. She found that she'd been sort of staring at the "TeenBeat" cover for awhile. She finally opened it up.
Taylor followed after Zac, and Isaac after Taylor. They were greeted by a very pretty, very pregnant woman named Diana. She welcomed her three sons home quite warmly. Ashley and Walker followed a couple of feet behind, talking about the trip and such. Walker came inside and kissed his wife. All of a sudden, three ultra-hyper little blond haired kids streaked through the room. They ran to Isaac, Taylor, and Zac and wrapped their arms around the older three. Everybody laughed and the room seemed to be in high spirits.
Diana attempted to pry Jessie, Avie, and Mack off of their brothers. She successfully did so, and asked, "So, boys. How was New York?"
Ashley informed, "Actually, Mrs. Hanson, we didn't make it to the party, but had a blast, anyway." He smiled at her and the boys.
"We're all really tired," said Taylor. He yawned loudly, stretching his arms out dramatically.
Walker chuckled and suggested that they go up to their room.
Surprisingly, they all agreed and trudged upstairs. Diana sighed, trying to contain her other three children. They seemed to be absorbed in a game of 'Tag' and continued to run after each other. Diana summoned Walker and Ashley to take over, while she lay down to rest. She smiled at the sight of two grown-ups chasing after her three adorable kids. Soon to be seven, Diana thought, patting her stomach.
Upstairs, Taylor was already asleep. Ike and Zac looked at him, their hands over their mouths to prevent laughter from spilling through. Isaac sneaked over to the cabinet and took the small video camera down from the top of the cabinet. He shot an evil smile at both Zac and the sleeping Taylor.
Ike crept to their bunk bed. Taylor slept on the bottom bunk, Isaac on the top. Zac slept in a trundle bed that could actually go under the bunk bed. Isaac bent down and pointed the camera about 2 inches away from Tay's face. He and Zac zoomed in on Taylor for a good minute or two, when, suddenly, Taylor snorted. That move made the startled Ike and Zac stumble backwards. Zac tripped over one of Tay's rollerblades and fell on his back. Isaac, knowing that Zac wasn't hurt, started laughing. All of this woke up Taylor. He just rubbed his eyes and sat up, not really knowing what was going on. Then, he flopped back and instantly went to sleep again. Isaac and Zac laughed and laughed, getting more hysterical. They decided that they wouldn't be getting any sleep today, so they walked back downstairs.
Walker, Ashley, and Diana, holding the sleeping Mackenzie were sitting down in the living room and talking. They could hear, faintly, the sound of Jessica and Avery playing with their Barbies in the next room. Isaac and Zac ran down the stairs, not even disturbing Mackie. Ike held a video camera in his hands. They were laughing so hard, their faces were a bright red. "Uh oh," said Walker, looking over at them. "What mischief have you two been making?"
Ike and Zac just kept laughing, not answering their father's question. Finally, between breaths, Isaac said, "We...were...just...having fun!!"
Zac spoke up, "Yeah...Taylor..." he paused a moment to laugh, "well, he...he was...sleeping... and..." Zac couldn't go further, he was laughing too hard.
Walker sighed, smiling, and admitted, "I don't even want to know."
Ashley stood up and said, "Well, I should get going. I'll see you next lesson." He smiled at the family.
Diana and Walker said their goodbyes. Isaac and Zac waved, still grinning. Ashley walked out the door. Mackie suddenly woke up and complained, "Too much noise!!"
They all chuckled. Diana took him up to his room for an N-A-P, as she had specified. Mack whined, "No, I donwanna take a nap."
Ike and Zac, feeling pretty sleepy themselves, climbed the stairs as well and went to their room. Taylor was there, sleeping like a baby, as Isaac had observed. He and Zac got into their beds and were out like a light.