Destiny lay on her mattress, staring at the ceiling, her arms flung to the sides and touching the floor. She couldn't rightfully call the thing a bed, because there was no headboard, boxspring, and no legs... but a mattress was the only part of a bed she really needed. Her knees were drawn up so her thighs and calves touched, and her feet were crossed. Her rich brown hair tumbled over her pillow and off the top of the mattress.
She was thinking of what sort of songs she wanted to play that night. She already had over fifty songs in her storage drawer, ones that she had never played, but she felt uneasy with those, and she only played publicly the ones that really fitted her style.
Destiny groaned, shifted her position, and lay on her side, drawing the pillow up beneath her head. It was way too early to be thinking about songs. The sun hadn't even begun to think about shining. Her junky, too-old-to-be-trusted clock was telling her it was eight thirty, but the thing was always three hours ahead. She didn't know how to switch it. Suddenly, she had an inspiration.
Now wide awake and full of energy, Destiny grabbed a pencil and her music notebook. She jotted down an intro, then quickly became lost with the melody and lyrics.
Five hours and three completed songs later, Destiny finally pushed herself off her mattress, promising herself that she would do four more before that night. She was running out of inspiration. Hobbling her way into her makeshift kitchen, she opened a rusty, squeaky cabinet, badly in need of oiling. When she stopped writing, her energy had completely left her, and now she was tired beyond belief... again. Blinking a few times, she tried to refocus and see what was in her cupboard. She decided on some Lipton. Grabbing one of her pots, she set it on the Bunsen burner and lit the gas. Then she gasped, hastily filled the thing with water, and scolded herself for forgetting.
She was in the middle of yawning and stretching when the phone rang, startling her. She made a quick check of the amount of water in the pot, then walked over to the ringing offender and picked up the receiver.
"Hello?" she muttered, hoping whoever it was didn't mind the grogginess in her voice. She wondered who would call her, especially at this hour of the morning. It was only quarter to eleven.
"Hey, Des!" came the all-too-hyper greeting from the other end of the line. Destiny's mind couldn't place the voice. She fumbled her way back to the boiling water, dumped in some pasta, and listened to the voice continue to speak. "Look, sorry about you needing to go yesterday and all, but I was hoping we could make up for keeping you late to wherever."
We, late, needing to go? Destiny's mind wasn't registering the information. "Who is this?" she grumbled as she stirred in the soup mix.
"It's Zac, you silly-o! Who else would I be?" Realization finally dawned on Destiny.
"Ohmygosh, Zac!" She refrained from slapping herself silly at not recognizing him. "I'm sorry! I can't believe I-- Oh no... hold on a minute." Destiny dropped the phone, hoping the sound of receiver against floor wouldn't jar Zac up too badly. In her sudden burst of enlightenment, Destiny had let the pot boil over, which meant a steaming mass of way hot water was seeping its way towards her.
Biting her lip, Destiny made a quick decision. She reached and yanked the pot off the burner, sticking it in the minute sink, hoping she wouldn't get too badly burned. Then she left the rest of the water on the counter to, hopefully, cool down a little before she cleaned it up. Then she turned on the sink and let the cold water rush over her aching fingers. After a few minutes, she turned off the water, wiped her hands on her jeans, which she had worn overnight, and picked up the phone again.
"Jeepers, Des, what was that?"
"Sorry, my water boiled over," she replied, eyeing the steaming mass. She hoped it wouldn't ruin the counter too badly. "Anyway, what were you saying?"
"Huh? Oh, that's right. We wanted to make up for keeping you after your performance. Can we meet you somewhere, take you out, whatever?" He sounded eager and ready to please. Destiny really wished she could be that carefree again. Growing up on her own for that past two years had dulled her childish edge, and now she associated with adults like she was one of them. They usually thought she was their age, too, or at least nineteen. It wasn't hard to fool them.
Destiny's mind zipped forward to present tense. Zac was offering her a day out, but she had reservations. "Umm, you guys are paying, right?"
There was a slight hesitation at the unexpected question, but there was confidence in his quick decision of, "Yeah! Running low on cash or something?" She was about to answer, but he didn't let her. "Whatever, anyway, where should we meet you? You're not busy today, are you? How about the front of the high school, where the pine tree is?" He shot off questions like there was no tomorrow.
"Whoa, Zac, slow down!" Destiny heard a distant mumbling at the other end of the line, and suddenly there was a lot of clicking and wind current. Then, the same voice that had told Zac to slow down came on the phone. "Destiny, what's-- augh-- what's cool for you?" She managed to keep herself from giggling at Taylor's changing voice. She knew it wasn't his fault that the first 'what's' had sounded like a squeaky mess.
"Whenever. Zac's suggestion was good, the front of the high school. It's summer... everyone's out anyway. I'm not busy until tonight. I'm playing at the restaurant again."
"Oh cool!" Taylor sounded actually enthusiastic. Destiny was surprised. He had only said two words to her the night before, and now she was talking on the phone with him. She figured he would hate her, what with her misinterpretation of Zac's joke. She still felt bad for hurting Taylor's feelings, but he sounded ready to forgive. He went on: "I think we'll stop by tonight. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon, so this'll be the last time we can see you perform."
"Leaving? For where?" Destiny tried hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She had taken an honest liking to Zac, what with his up attitude and general love for other people.
"We're going to Japan, then stopping by China on our way to Australia." His earlier enthusiasm was suddenly replaced by a tired, drawn out sigh. "But what the heck, ehh? At least we're having fun."
"Why the heck are you going so many places? I would like, die to go to Australia. Well, maybe not die." She had a panging reminder of her parents. "But something close. Give an arm, maybe."
Taylor, like Zac before him, paused. "We'll explain later, Des. It's not important right now. Meet you in an hour, okay? And did I understand Zac to the point that you need some money?"
Destiny didn't like the word "need." She couldn't think of an alternative, though. "Kinda, yeah. It's not like I'm broke or anything," she winced at her own words, "but I'm not exactly well off." Well at least the last part was the truth.
"Okay, we'll bring extra. See you there!"
When Destiny got off the phone, she yawned, stretched again, and decided to try and remake her soup. Figuring the pot was cooled down enough, she set it on the Bunsen burner and tried again.
Isaac sat against the trunk of the pine tree, his hands folded, his eyes partway open. He was trying to get some rest and keep an eye on Zac at the same time. It was nearly impossible to do. He turned his head towards Taylor, who was sitting scrunched up with his head on his knees and his arms circling his legs. "Yo, Taylor," he mumbled. He was tired.
Taylor lifted his head and looked back at him. "Hmm?"
"Keep an eye on Zac, would you? He's going bananas, and I'm way too tired to watch him." He waited for his brother's reply, which was a quick nod, then leaned back and closed his eyes. A few minutes later, he was in blissful slumber. Taylor could tell from the light snores emanating from his direction.
"Zac, stay off that wall!" Taylor called, scared for his brother's sake. They didn't need a broken bone now. He watched until Zac climbed down off the five and a half foot brick wall circling the school, then glanced at his watch. It read twelve fifteen. Destiny was supposed to get there forty five minutes before. Confused and worried, Taylor kept his eyes peeled for her.
Zac, meanwhile, was restless. It wasn't any fun, being cooped up in the front of a high school to wait for someone. Taylor had kept him from walking along the brick wall, but there was a cool oak tree with several low branches that looked like fun. He raced over to it, grabbed the lowest branch, and swung himself up. He glanced back at his brothers, but neither was paying attention to him. "Good," he thought. "That way I can see Destiny first."
He continued to climb until he reached the halfway point of the tree. It wasn't a very hard tree to climb, but it was slightly difficult all the same. He lost his footing a few times, but managed to catch himself on the branches.
Zac sat in the same spot of the tree, watching out the bottom, where the tree reached out over the wall. He could see the sidewalk easily, and part of the street. He watched a few people pass below, but didn't think much of them. He was just happy they couldn't see him. Fifteen minutes passed uneventfully. Then two things happened at once.
The first was that Destiny walked into view. She looked out of breath and rushed, and she was walking down the sidewalk at a rapid pace. Zac saw her, and was about to call out, but for the second thing, which was that Taylor finally noticed Zac had disappeared.
"Zaaaaaaaaac!" he called, and there was a worried tone in his voice. Zac refrained from saying anything, or moving, although he wanted to be the first to say hello to Destiny. His brother hadn't bothered to check on him, and now he was paying for it. "Zac?" Zac watched as Taylor turned to Isaac and started shaking him. He said a few words to their older brother, which Zac couldn't hear, but Isaac woke up with a start and stood up, narrowly missing a branch that was above his head.
Destiny turned the corner into the school and stopped, staring at Taylor and Isaac, who had their backs towards her. They had their hands over their eyes, and were trying to see to each end of the school, without much success. Taylor was squinting. Then Isaac called for Zac again, and Destiny immediately understood what had happened. She rushed over to the two boys.
"He just disappeared?" she asked worriedly, her brow creased and her expression tense. She was still breathing heavily from her fast walk to the school. The new situation didn't help any.
Isaac turned to Taylor. "You were supposed to look out for him!" he cried, not entirely blaming Taylor, but his tone was that of someone who was at a loss for what to do. Taylor stared at the ground, then suddenly seemed to realize that Destiny had come up and even tried to talk to them.
"Oh, Des, thank goodness you're here. Let's search for Zac, okay?" he then looked up at Isaac, almost forgetting about her again. "Isaac, let's both take one end of the school. I'll go that way," he said, and was about to dash off.
"Right," Isaac replied, and then Taylor left. Isaac glanced at Destiny. "I don't know where you want to look, but we've got to find him, so if you think of anything, let us know, okay?" Then he was gone in the other direction.
Destiny understood their worry, and even though she was slightly confused, she tried to think. She didn't want to go rushing off to look in every nook and cranny, passing up the obvious hiding places of a boy Zac's age. She looked around carefully. There were several trees, a tall brick wall, a small flight of stone steps leading to the front door of the building, and other than that, just a whole lot of grass. Her brow furrowed again, and she hardly even realized her hand cover her mouth as her other arm crossed her stomach and carefully supported her elbow.
That was when she spotted the oak. She knew Zac would be up it. There were several reasons for it to be the perfect place; first, it was away from his brothers. Second, most boys his age liked to climb, and it was the prime candidate for climbing. Third, he could see almost everything from up there. She looked up into the tree, and sure enough, there was Zac with a sheepish grin on his face.
"Hey, Des, nice to see you!"
Destiny couldn't help from laughing. "Zac's such a character," she thought to herself as she waved to him. Then she said aloud, "Come on down, Zac, you had us worried sick!"
"Doctor Zac to the rescue!" came the reply, and then Zac zoomed down the tree. Destiny moved closer so that she could help him down when, or if, he needed it. When he was almost down, with two or so branches to go, she saw him grab at a branch and, unfortunately, miss.
"Oh God," she whispered under her breath, and then she rushed underneath him. Zac managed to fall on top of her, and they lay there, a tumble of arms and legs underneath the base of the tree.
"Ow." Zac's voice was bland, and it sounded like an ironic declaration. Destiny hurt too, but she knew nothing was broken, and she stiffly pushed herself up to see if Zac was okay. He was grinning over at her, looking slightly in pain. She glanced along his body to make sure he wasn't too badly hurt. Running her hands along his leg, she encountered a slight bump that would no doubt turn into a nasty bruise, but that was about it.
Destiny shook her head, smirking at him. "We've got to stop meeting this way, Zac, or we'll be dead long before our time. You, sir, are very lucky that you fell from that branch instead of one higher up."
Zac looked very thankful. He grimaced, then smiled at her. "Well I wanted to be the first to actually say hello," he said. Then he let his head drop back down into the grass. Destiny couldn't see his face anymore.
"Zac!" Taylor's voice rang across the front yard as he dashed up. Destiny then knew why Zac had lowered his head. Taylor frowned down at his younger brother, hastily trying to reassure himself and reprimand Zac in the same breath. "I can't believe you scared us like that! Are you okay? Of course you're okay. Why are you lying here? What's going on? Zac, you shouldn't have done that! Don't run off again! Well you're here, everything's fine..." his voice drifted off as he saw the expression on Destiny's face. It was a mix between vast amusement and pacifying. She was trying hard not to laugh at Taylor, but knowing he was so worried, she tried to comfort him.
"Zac's okay. He just fell out of the tree, and landed on me." Taylor's expression changed to aghast, and he hastily turned to Zac. Before he could say anything to the younger boy, Destiny's voice cut through again. "Don't worry, we're both okay, and it wasn't his fault. It was the tree's." She thought that would amuse Zac.
"Yeah, it kicked me out. What a mean tree," Zac laughed, and Taylor relaxed.
"Well, okay, if you're sure... oh, here comes Isaac." Zac couldn't see Isaac this time, and Destiny could, since he was coming from the opposite direction. The older boy rushed to Zac's side.
"Zac, you little devil... what's going on?"
To this, Zac calmly replied, "I fell out of a tree, and Des cushioned my fall." Then he turned to Destiny, and said formally, "Thank you, Miss Destiny, for catching me on my way down from this unrespectable tree. It was very kind of you." While the other boys laughed and released their tensions, Zac struggled to get up. He carefully pulled his leg out from under Destiny's back, then his arm out from under her own leg. He pushed himself off the ground, tottering uneasily.
Destiny was immediately off the ground and by his side, steadying him. "Are you sure you're okay, Zac?" she asked worriedly. He waved her off, then took a few steps on his own. It was obvious to see that he was limping, and badly.
Zac looked back at everyone, then down at his leg. Destiny knew he didn't understand why it hurt so much. She moved over to him again and made him sit down, then rolled up the leg of his pants. Luckily, they were huge, baggy ones, so it wasn't hard.
The leg was swelling slightly, and a weird shade of black and purple. She once again ran her hands up and down it, pausing when she noticed him wince. He looked at her, then asked, "Why didn't it hurt before, Destiny?" His voice wasn't the happy, hyper Zac all three knew, but a scared, feeble question from a different boy's mouth.
Taylor and Isaac were trying to stay out of Destiny's way, but it was difficult, because they were tremendously worried about their brother. A few times Taylor had to check himself from running to Zac's side. Both waited impatiently for Destiny to finish her examination.
When she turned back to them, both looked at her expectantly. "Isaac, be careful... try to lift Zac up. Do you have your car?" He nodded, but didn't say anything. "Carry him over to it, and put him in the back seat. Taylor?" He quickly lost his worried look, and was instantly alert to her voice. "There's not much you can do, but sit in the back seat and try to keep Zac comfortable. We're going to take him to the hospital."
Taylor and Destiny sat in the waiting room, both extremely nervous and unhappy. Zac was on their minds, and because they didn't know quite what had happened to him, all their worries seemed to be magnified tenfold. Isaac was sitting in the emergency room with Zac, because only one person had been allowed in, and he was the oldest. Destiny thought that was really stupid of the hospital, but she couldn't complain as long as they were taking care of Zac.
"Destiny?" She barely heard Taylor say her name. Fortunately, years of being called that had trained her ear to it, and she responded to Taylor's muttering.
"Hmm?" Destiny glanced at him, stooped forward in his chair, hands clasped and hanging between his legs, elbows resting on his knees. He was staring at the floor.
Hardly raising his voice from the previous volume, he said, "Do you think he's okay?"
"Of course he's okay." As she said this, she also reassured herself. She found herself placing her hand on Taylor's shoulder as silent reassurance. She gave him a few comforting pats, then said, "I've never actually needed to go to a hospital myself, but they'll take good care of him... and we'll know what's happening soon."
Taylor looked at her thankfully, then sat up straight, and she took her hand away. "Des... shouldn't you call your parents or something? They ought to be worried about where you are."
Destiny looked away, down the hall, in the direction that Zac had been taken. "He should be coming back out soon," she commented, trying to ignore Taylor's probing eyes.
"Did you hear me, Destiny? I said that--"
"Yeah, I heard," she interrupted him. After a second, she sighed, then decided to just tell the truth. She looked over at Taylor. "Taylor... when I was twelve, my parents were in a car wreck. They're dead." She said this last part a little too bluntly, and Taylor's face was one of instant concern. She continued. "I convinced the police and the foster kids agency to let me stay on my own, once they saw I could make it by playing my music. I don't go to school anymore... with what I do, and hope to keep doing, I don't need education. Especially in that restaurant, where they don't care who you are, as long as you're friendly."
Her voice had grown quieter, and more wistful, as if she wished it were different. Taylor, trying to reassure her the way she had done for him earlier, gently placed his hand on her knee. She gave a faint smile, but didn't look at him.
"You know," Taylor began in a thoughtful tone, "our manager was talking about how great your voice and song writing abilities were. He said they almost rivaled ours."
"Your manager?" She looked confused. Taylor suddenly remembered that she didn't know who in the world Hanson was, or anything about their music whatsoever.
"Oh.. yeah. Well, you've explained about your life, I guess I should explain about ours... even though they kind of.. um... contrast. Anyhow, five years ago, Isaac, Zac and myself started writing music. We loved it... and continued for a long time. After a while, we sent some demo tapes out to labels. They got refused. Twelve times." He rolled his eyes. "Then, last year, we were playing at a festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we live. Our manager to be was there, and he heard us play. He immediately took us in tow. After a long time, we got signed to Mercury Records. They're really cool there. We've released a CD, called Middle of Nowhere, and it's gone double platinum. The downside to all of this is now we have girls obsessing over us right and left. It's kind of embarassing."
Destiny was amazed. She had never known she was talking to famous musicians. She suddenly grew very self conscious, and felt herself blushing. It was almost like a dream. Then a warning light went off in her mind: "Don't get too uptight. They're the same people as they were before."
"Oh," she said faintly.
Taylor smiled. "Yeah. We didn't really want to tell you, but it kind of needed to be told, I guess. Anyway, back to our manager... I think you should talk to him. It should be interesting. He'll probably want to get you signed immediately. They won't refuse you like they did us, especially after the following we've gotten--" he said this rather reluctantly, but he knew it was true. "So you shouldn't have any problems."
"What would that mean, exactly?" Her mind didn't want to speculate. She couldn't even consider what it would mean.
"It means a shot at having more people hear your music, having it spread around the country-- possibly the world. It means you can go back to school again, if you want, and least importantly..." he hesitated, then corrected himself, "to us, that is, probably not to you... least importantly, more money. If you're successful, which you're very likely to be."
Destiny's mind boggled. She didn't even know that Isaac and Zac had come back with the nurse, Zac's leg now in a cast. When they started towards her, she snapped back to attention, and barely refrained from gasping. "Zac!" She had, for the moment, forgotten about the prospect of fame. "What DID you do to that leg?"
"I fractured it," he said sheepishly. "It should be mended in a month or so. But until then, I'm supposed to take it easy." He made a face. Destiny knew what he was thinking... Zac Hanson, taking it easy? It was almost too funny to consider.
"Well I'll hang with you Zac, for as long as you stay here. Taylor told me about you guys... I guess you'll be leaving sometime soon." There was a hint of saddness in her voice, which only Taylor caught. He gave her a reassuring smile.
"I'm sure we'll see each other again, Des. Especially if you get signed."
Isaac's brow raised, but he didn't say anything. Zac didn't either.
"So how does it feel, Zac?" Destiny asked, wanting to find out more about his leg.
"They put me on painkillers, and I'm really sleepy..." She suddenly noticed Zac's eyelids drooping, and his struggle to stay upright. "So I can't really feel it. But if I could, I'm sure it wouldn't feel too good."
Destiny smiled. She ruffled Zac's hair, then turned to Isaac. "Okay, I guess Taylor can carry him out or something..." She stopped to laugh at Taylor's attempts to flex his muscle, then continued, trying to ignore him. "And we'll get back to where you're staying. Where is that, anyway?"
Isaac smiled, then ruffled her hair much as she had done with Zac's. However, it was slightly harder for him, because her hair was thicker and longer. "You'll see when we get there, Destiny!"
