Jaya looked up from her magazine and over to her friend Chrystal. "Oh, yuck! Change the station. That's those stupid Hansons," she said, her nose wrinkled in disgust. Chrystal stared at the radio for a moment before turning the knob.
"You don't like ëem, Jaya?" Chrystal asked tentatively. She ran her long fingers through her honey-colored hair, trying to keep the unruly mass straight. Then she turned back to the radio to try to find a good station, which she was having plenty of trouble doing.
"No, I don't. They live five blocks from here, and I hate them. How come they're so famous all of a sudden, and I'm not? It's just not fair." Jaya flipped a page. "I mean, they got the number one single, for crying out loud, and I can't even tell and E from an A."
Chrystal raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. Fortunately for her, Jaya hadn't unglued her eyes from her magazine yet, so her expression hadn't been noticed. She flicked the knob sharply, starting to get frustrated. The radio sent out a loud static sound in protest.
"Oh, leave it alone, Chrys. Stick in a CD or something." Jaya flipped another page. Then she looked up, her eyes staring into nothingness. An evil smile crept up her face, and her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Chrystal didn't like that look. Both she and Jaya were eleven, going into sixth grade at the local middle school. Jaya had gorgeous, straight red hair to the middle of her back, which Chrystal was insanely jealous of. Her eyes were a strange green, which took on a slightly different shade depending on the light. In fact, in direct sunlight, her eyes looked light blue. Jaya was a definite petite. She was four foot eleven, exactly, and she only weighed eighty five pounds. When she smiled, and didn't have the maniacal look, she had dimples that most people described as "cute." Jaya despised being called cute.
"Okay Jaya, tell me now, what are you thinking?" Chrystal brushed her hair back again.
"Let's go... mess up the Hanson house," Jaya said slowly, shifting her vision from nowhere to Chrystal. Her friend didn't look happy at the prospect of going onto private property and deliberately messing it up. Her dark amber eyes looked out from under furrowed brows, and her small mouth was turned down in a definite frown. Her rich, thick blonde hair, which was just past her chin, was layered, and kept falling in her face. Chrystal kept claiming she would never make the mistake of layering it again. Her friend was three inches taller than her, five foot two, and was very athletic. And sometimes too nice. "C'mon Chrys! They're probably halfway to China by now. They aren't going to catch us, and there's nothing we're going to do that they can't fix."
Chrystal sighed, various thoughts flying through her mind. She didn't want to mess up someone's house, but she knew Jaya would hound on her until she did. She especially didn't want to be caught, but she also knew that the Hanson family was almost never home. "I-- oh, fine, Jaya... just nothing too drastic, okay?"
Jaya was getting excited. "Just let me at that house!"
The two stood up and left out the front door, talking all the way of what they would do.
"Now, we have to find a way in," Jaya said, looking around, scrutinizing the house with her eyes. It wouldn't be easy. Most of the windows were up pretty high, and all the doors were secure. Chrystal stood nervously behind her.
"Maybe we shouldn't do this," she said quietly.
Jaya turned around angrily. "Look, we were insanely bored, okay? Just treat it like another house, not the house of some rich idiots. Pretend Brandon lives here." Jaya swung around again. As she did so, she caught sight of a small building out of the corner of her eye. "Now, this holds promise," she murmured softly, making her way over to it. Her feet crunched on dead pine needles, and she had to stop from time to time to duck under a lowhanging branch. Chrystal followed, very unsure of herself and her friend's actions.
Presently they came to a small shed, which was what Jaya had seen. Jaya crossed her fingers, glanced at Chrystal's face (she was biting her lip,) and tried the doorknob. It turned easily. Jaya let out a sigh of relief. "Good, it's not locked."
She pushed the door inward, and glanced around. On the west wall were five different cans of paint, all sitting on a weird wire sort of shelf. Above that she spotted several spray cans. She didn't pay attention to anything else in the shed, but grabbed two spray cans, then motioned for Chrystal to grab some herself.
"But, that's sabotage!" Chrystal cried, not going close to the cans. She glared at her friend. "You said it wouldn't be anything drastic. This is going to take them weeks to fix! They'll have to re-paint their house!" She crossed her arms slowly, and her expression looked like that of a dark thundercloud.
Jaya hated to admit it, but Chrystal was right. They shouldn't do anything to the house that would be hard to clean up, or leave permanent marks. She sighed, desperately hoping that there would be something else in the small shed. The confining space was starting to get to her, but she shrugged off her mild case of claustrophobia and looked around some more. There was nothing else she could see that would be of any use.
"Well, what do you propose we do, then?" Jaya asked angrily. She put her hands on her hips. "There's nothing else I can think of, and certainly nothing you would be willing to do if I ever did think of something to please you."
Chrystal's face relaxed, and her eyes became more calm looking and friendly. "Exactly. So let's just go home and forget about it, okay? We were bored, so what? We'll find something else, something that's worthwhile, to do."
"No! I absolutely refuse to walk all the way down here, then go back without having done anything! YOU go home, for all I care. I'm going to figure out some way." Jaya stormed out of the shed, leaving a confused Chrystal behind.
Jaya started running as soon as she left the door. She ran through to the back of the Hansons' yard, then stopped in the middle of it. Her eyes were filling with tears, and she couldn't see, so she didn't want to run into anything. She knew she was behaving childishly, and she couldn't seem to help it. Chrystal's attitude had hurt her a lot; more than she cared to admit.
She stood in the backyard, letting silent tears run down her face. She tried to breath, but couldn't, so she opened her mouth and started to sob. Putting her hands to her face, she sunk into the grass for a long cry.
When Chrystal left the shed, she couldn't see or hear anyone. Jaya had started running, that she knew-- whenever Jaya became upset, she always seemed to run. Chrystal knew it was to get away from people, so she could be alone, but it always felt as if her friend was deserting her. She tried to shrug off the feeling and made her way back to the street.
As she walked along the sidewalk, Chrystal saw a car approaching her. Hoping feverently that it wouldn't be the Hansons, she held her breath as a blue station wagon passed her, then the driveway, by. Her breath came out in a long sigh. She closed her eyes and placed her fingers on her temples, trying to rub away her stress. She didn't know where her friend was, but Jaya was most likely still in the vicinity of the Hanson house. Anywhere she could be away from people.
Chrystal ambled home, occasionally pausing to look in the windows of a passing car. She dipped her feet in the gutter, then left wet tracks along the pavement of the sidewalk. When she was close to Jaya's house, she bent over to pick a cosmo from a neighbor's yard. Straightening up, she looked over her shoulder at the passing van. She frowned, then squinted and tried to see through the barely-tinted windows. Was it her imagination? Was that actually Zac, taking a fake jab at Isaac? Or was it...
And then the van passed her by. "No," she thought. "I'm just being way too paranoid. That could never be Hanson." She made her way up to Jaya's front door.
Zac Hanson jumped out the van door and bounded up the front steps to his house. Grabbing the doorknob, he made a pitiful attempt to open it, considering the lock they had installed less than a year earlier as replacement for a broken one. Leaning all his weight forward, he shoved hard against the knob, trying to snap it off. "I can't believe we get home and I'm stopped by my own front door!" he complained as Avery came rushing up the steps. She was toting her small travel bag, which she had taken in the car to help ease the boredom of the long-distance road trip.
"Zac, you should be helping unload the van," she scolded him, pointing her finger at the red vehicle situated in their driveway. The rest of their family was crowded around the back, each helping to lift the large suitcases out of the way. She set her small bag down, then ran back to help.
The eleven year old turned to look at his door. He eyed it up and down, as if he were in a duel. Shrugging, he good-naturedly followed his sister back to the van.
Upon reaching it, he was instantly bombarded with conflicting orders from his family. "Zac, grab mom's bag, would you?" "Move that blue suitcase out of the way, Zachary! I can't move!" "Yo, bro, can you reach that handbag in the van?"
Zac first moved the suitcase out of the way for his mother so that she could set her load down on the driveway. Without time for thanks, he launched himself into the van and plucked the handbag out from underneath the back seat. Then he handed it to Isaac. Lastly, he picked up his mother's suitcase and said a belated, "sure" to Taylor.
With the flurry of activity abated, the family trudged up the front steps to their porch, where Walker set down his suitcase and fumbled in his pockets for the house keys. After a minute of searching, he turned to Diana, whose face turned a bright shade of red. She handed Mackenzie off to her husband, then dug in her pocket, emerging with the key. Zac held his breath in anticipation. He and his brothers had an unspoken challenge: Be the first in the house.
He watched at the key drew nearer to the lock, carefully fitted in, then turned sharply clockwise. The brass doorknob turned with the key, and Diana pushed open the door.
Zac dropped the suitcase he was carrying and barreled past Isaac, shoving Taylor out of his way. Avery and Jessica stood to the side, and he passed them in a blur of motion. He burst through the doorway and tossed his energetic body across the front hall. "The ceiling isn't the same color I remember," he thought to himself.
Taylor was next to come in. He looked down at his brother, shook his head in resignation, and then dropped his suitcase with a dull thud. "You win again, bud. Guess you're the champ." Zac pumped his fist in the air in response to Taylor's comment. The rest of the family followed the two in. Then Zac stood up.
"I'm gonna go reminisce, guys," he called over his shoulder, his feet pounding loudly on the stairs.
He was almost going to the top when Jessica called back, "Stay out of my room!"
Zac nodded, but he was already around the corner and out of view, so, realizing it was pointless, he stopped. He meandered down the hallway, poking his head in random doors. He avoided Jessica and Avery's room, respecting their privacy. Reaching the end of the hall, he ducked into the room he shared with his older brothers.
It was almost the same as he remembered. The two dressers, with the CD players, the bunkbed with his mattress underneath, the double windows on the two walls of the room... He plunked himself down on Taylor's bed and stared out the window. The trees were familiar, the sky was familiar, (for however familiar a sky can be,) and the view was, definitely, one of the most familiar and welcoming he'd come across. He sighed as he stared at the roofs of his neighbors' houses. Then, by chance, he glanced down at his backyard....
Jaya was startled as she heard the sliding glass door open. She quickly stood up, wiping away her tears, ready to run away. Before she could, she heard a clear voice cut across her muddled thoughts.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything." She didn't recognize the voice. She didn't want to. She hoped she was just having a bad dream. The voice came again: "Calm down. What's your name?" She felt a hand on her shoulder.
Slowly, very slowly, Jaya turned towards the speaker. She sniffed softly, then refocused her eyes to see who it was. When the realization dawned, she had to stifle a groan. She was standing next to Zachary Hanson.
"I-- I shouldn't be here," she said, trying desperately to figure out an excuse to get away. She turned her eyes from his, hoping and praying that he would just let her go. She was filled with an inner loathing, something she couldn't quite explain.
"Well duh," he said back, but she cringed to hear the good-natured teasing behind his words. "That's okay, I don't mind, and my parents won't either. It's not like you were going to hurt anything."
"If only he knew," she thought to herself. She looked back at him, her expression clouded. Her green eyes had morphed to a rich shade of blue, which were covered over with a thin layer of her tears, ones that had refused to fall. Her face was blotchy, mottled red and pale peach.
"So c'mon," Zac said, flinging his arms open wide. "Let's go up to the house! Everyone will be pleased to meetcha!" He grabbed her hand, ignored her protests, and bolted up to the back door.
Jaya was horrified. She struggled against his grasp, but he wouldn't let go. She considered biting his hand to let hers free. By the time that thought crossed her mind, it was too late. The were in the door and across the living room. She gasped unknowingly. It was a very pretty, well kept house. Probably credit to them not being home so often. The walls of the living room were a light yellow, and the trim was pure white. The furniture in the room looked newer than anything in her house. There were two couches, each an exotic oriental looking, facing each other. In between sat a rich cherrywood coffee table, which held a cool looking chess board, with wooden, hand carved pieces. A fern plant stood by the archway leading into the kitchen, through which Jaya could see a blue and white tiled floor. There was more, but Zac didn't leave her much more time for reflection.
"MOM! DAD! IKE! TAY!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. Jaya wrenched her hand free, finally, and covered her ears as he completed yelling out his family members. He turned to her with a flushed, happy face. Seconds later Taylor walked in a side door Jaya hadn't noticed before, carrying Mackenzie in his arms. His mother followed him. They looked at Zac expectantly, not at all surprised at the sudden outburst. When they saw Jaya, though, they looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
Isaac came thundering down the stairs, Avery and Jessica hot on his heels. They burst around the corner and into view. Upon seeing someone strange standing slightly behind Zac, Isaac came to a dead stop, and Jessica and Avery ran into him from behind. He regained his balance quickly and reached back to steady them. They looked at Zac curiously.
Zac looked around. "Where's dad?" he asked, not ready to answer everyone's unasked questions.
His mother stepped forward a bit. "He went to the grocery store, Zac," she replied, smiling at Jaya. The girl looked like she needed some comfort. She was obviously very nervous to be in the house, and didn't look very happy. Her face left telltale signs of crying. "The fridge was empty when we got home, and the cabinets weren't much better."
"Should have realized," Zac said quietly to himself, then aloud, "Well, then maybe my friend can introduce herself without him home. I doubt he'd mind." He turned to Jaya expectantly.
Jaya stood in shocked silence, staring at Zac. "His friend?" she thought, bemused. "He doesn't even know my name!" It suddenly dawned on her that Zac didn't judge her before he knew her. She felt guilty and ashamed of her previous hatred for him and his family, and vowed to herself that she would make up for it. She sniffed again, trying to decongest herself, which didn't work. Then she started to tell the family about herself. "I'm-- Jaya Markson." She twisted the toe of her shoe in the carpet. Taylor smiled, recognizing the nervous habit. She went on: "I live five blocks away, on Trellion Way."
Taylor stood in the background, because although he sympathized with her shyness, it didn't overcome his own reservation. However, Diana stepped forward to shake Jaya's hand warmly. "Welcome to our house, Jaya." She smiled down at the short little girl. "I hope you have fun while you're here."
Zac himself was slightly relieved. When he had asked about his father, he had realized that he didn't know Jaya's name. Now that he did, he grinned a big grin and then gently pushed her towards Isaac. "Meet Iky, Avie, and Jess!"
"I-- uh, hi," Jaya stuttered. She blushed, but her face hadn't quite cleared from her crying, so nobody noticed.
"Hey, Jaya," Isaac replied, trying to calm her nerves. He had had practice with Taylor, so the pat on her back made her feel reassured and a little more welcome. "How old are you?"
"I'm eleven." Her voice was more composed and confident. At the look of Isaac's surprised face, she finally broke into a smile. "Why, how old did you think I was?"
"Oh, erm.... do you really mind?"
Jaya stole a peek at Zac's little sisters before answering that she didn't. "I've heard it all. From seven to fifteen," she laughed. "I'm sort of short for fifteen, but that's okay."
Isaac grinned back. "Well, I thought you were nine. That's a year older than Jessica, here."
After all the introductions were finished, the family all left to do what they had originally been doing. Jaya and Zac were once again left in the living room. The young girl's surprise for the friendliness of the family was evident as she and Zac sat down to a game of chess.
"Ha, checkmate!" cackled Zac gleefully as he moved his queen. Jaya frowned at the board, surprised by his move. Then again, she had only learned chess five months before, because her father had insisted she learn. She figured that Zac had been taught years before.
Jaya still was't comfortable around Zac. She had put on a cheery air for meeting his family, but she still didn't quite like them... even if they were friendly. There was something about them that she just resented. She figured it was their fame. She didn't feel as strongly about it as before, and wanted to be nicer and more friendly back, but so far she couldn't convince herself to be. Even her previous vow seemed to desert her.
"Yeah, well," she muttered crossly, folding her arms and turning away from the chess board. She always knew she was a sore loser, but to lose to Zac just topped it. If Zac noticed her sudden change in attitude, he didn't comment. Instead, he started resetting the chess board, making comments on the little figurines as he did.
"I never thought about it, but the queen on this board is taller than the king," he said, Jaya assumed to himself. He put the dark brown rook on one end, and the light brown one at the other. Then he picked up a pawn. "Dude, little guy, you need to lose some weight!" It was true. The pieces, being solid wood, were definitely heavier than the dinky plastic types.
Jaya sat in silence through Zac's mini-speech. She watched all the pieces eventually get back to their former place. Then she looked at Zac. He was watching her expectantly. His look sent chills down Jaya's spine. "What?" she asked, ready to freak out.
"Nothing. Hey, want something to eat? I'm starved." The next second he was out of his chair and in the kitchen. Jaya raised an eyebrow.
A huge crash came from the kitchen. "It's not my fault!" came the guilty voice, which was definitely Zac's.
"Well pick it up," was the answer. Jaya blinked, then recognized Isaac's voice.
Jaya stood up, then looked through the doorway to the front hall. While Zac was occupied, she decided to take a look around the house. She figured it wouldn't hurt, and no one would really mind. She made her way to the front door, then stood and looked at it for a second. She put her hand on the doorknob, but didn't turn it. "What's the matter with me?" she thought angrily. "I didn't want to be here. He forced me to come in. Now's my chance to get out. Why can't I turn to darn knob?" She sighed, taking her hand from the door, knowing she wouldn't-- couldn't-- do that.
With a glance to her left and right, Jaya decided to head to the upper level. Her feet treaded softly on the light green carpet, and she tried to see ahead. She couldn't tell anything, though, because there was a corner before anything else. Eventually she made it to the top and looked down the corridor.
There were five doors. Four were closed. She walked down the hallway, passing two.. she didn't want to upset anyone, and there could be people behind them. Knocking, of course, would aware them to her presence. Upon passing the third she heard loud squeals and laughing. She put her ear to the door and instantly recognized Jessica and Avery's voices. By the content of their speech, she assumed they were playing some kind of game.
She continued on, passing the fourth door, which was also closed. The last one, which was open, she glanced into. It was a bedroom, and no one was inside. She made her way in. The room she was in was, obviously, Zac, Isaac, and Taylor's room. Posters of their band were plastered on the southern wall, and on the eastern wall held two small doors. Closets, she assumed. On that side of the room she saw hundreds of legos, all strewn across the light colored carpet. Two dressers were against another wall, with two CD players sitting on top. "What is this?" she whispered quietly. "Do they have two of everything or something?"
She sat down on the lower bunk bed and looked out the window, not knowing that that was how Zac had spied her earlier. She looked out over the trees, trying to spy her house five blocks away. She couldn't. She realized that even if her house were closer, it wouldn't be easy to see anyway, what with the trees and taller houses in between.
"What are you doing here?" Jaya jumped at the voice, which she didn't recognize. She turned around guiltily, ready to make up any sort of excuse. She was good at that. She had just been caught very, very off guard in the backyard when Zac surprised her.
Taylor Hanson was standing ten feet away, obviously as startled as she was. That's when she realized that Taylor hadn't said anything earlier, when she was introduced. Otherwise she would have known what he sounded like. He looked at her curiously, then shook his head, shrugging. "Oh well. I guess Zac knows you're here, so it's okay." He turned over to the side of the room with the legos and stretched out on the carpet. Digging around for a second, he emerged with a dozen or so of the flat red pieces.
Jaya watched him build for a few minutes, then decided to tell him the truth. "Umm, Taylor?" She waited for a second, while he finished adding the piece in his hand. Then he turned to her.
"Hmm?"
"Actually, Zac doesn't know where I am... he was getting food--" Taylor snorted softly, none too surprised. "--And I came up here just too look around. I'm sorry."
He studied her for a second, his blue eyes flicking up and down. She waited for his response. Then he turned back to his legos and started digging again. "That's okay. He'll find you eventually. This house isn't so big. In the meantime, you can put on a CD or some radio station or something."
Jaya, dumbfounded, didn't move. She had not expected that kind of response at all. What was with this family? She and Taylor sat in silence. Or what could be counted as silence... with Taylor rummaging through the legos every ten seconds, it was't exactly quiet. She watched a tower grow before her eyes.
"Jaya! Here you are!" Zac walked into the bedroom, glanced at Taylor, who had started on a wall, then back to Jaya. "Why'd you leave the living room?"
"Look Zac, I gotta go home... Mom doesn't know I'm here." Jaya stood up, then noticed the bowls in Zac's hands. She looked at them questioningly.
"I made you macaroni and cheese," he said sheepishly. "I wasn't sure if you liked it, but I made it anyway... If you have to go, that's okay, Taylor can eat it..." He looked depressed. Jaya hated to leave him like that, just as much as she hated to stay. But she knew that she had to go home.
"I'm sure Taylor will enjoy," she said harshly, then froze at Zac's face. It was definitily hurt. She refrained from sighing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Taylor look her way with a confused expression. "I've gotta get out of here. Sorry Zac." She started to push past the eleven year old, but was stopped by Taylor's voice.
"Maybe you can give him your phone number, Jaya." The words stopped her. There was something in the tone she couldn't quite label. Something that made her turn around, grab a piece of paper from one of the dressers, and scribble down her number with a nearby pen. Then she dashed down the stairs and out the front door, feverently hoping he couldn't read it.
