Chapter 7 of Love, Pain, and Everything In Between
*2 1/2 weeks later*
Colleen rushed upstairs to her room and took a good look around. Their house had been broken into during vacation, and a lot of stuff was missing. The TV, both her parent's briefcases, her mom's laptop, and worst of all (in Colleen's opinion) her boom box. Colleen stared at the empty spot on the desk where her boom box had been. The rest of the house, including her room, was a mess. Drawers had been pulled out and dumped, their contents sorted through. Books were thrown around, boxes and storage cases had been pulled off their shelves and discarded. Closets were flung open, shifted and pawed through. Colleen had taken her collection of CD's with her to Arizona in a portable carry case, but her empty cases had been rifled through and broken, and many of the tapes she had had since elementary school were gone. Colleen sighed and went downstairs. Thank goodness their phones and computers had been left, though they, too had been examined. She found her dad walking around with his video camera, taping everything, as advised by the police.
"How's your room, hon?" Her dad asked.
"Messy, dirty, and my boom box is gone." Colleen replied with a sigh.
"Oh, your boom box? Lucky we got you that portable CD player for Christmas, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess." Colleen wandered aimlessly around while she waited for her dad to finish video taping so she could sign online. When she finally could, she was amazed at the amount of emails that had piled up. Man, I sure hope the burglars didn't do anything with our computers, especially not sign online. They could have seen Taylor's emails. There were only two from Taylor. One sent about a week after she left, saying he knew she wasn't home, but he missed her and was looking forward to talking to her. Yes!!! The second one was the day after Christmas, saying they were home for a few days, and what they had gotten as presents: Clothes, CDs, and an orange drum set for Zac. Colleen emailed back right away:
Hope you get this, I have no clue where you guys are now. An Orange drum set?? Woah, do you think he'll ever play it? I got CDs (Snowed In!!), beanie babies, money, etc. Call me when you get the chance!!
~*~Colleen
Colleen sent the email then went to gather her stuff for school the next day.
The next morning, Colleen woke up late. She rushed around, feeding her horse and getting ready, so she didn't get a chance to sign online and finish sorting through her mail. Once at school, Colleen was surrounded by her classmates.
"I'm so jealous of you!!" Sara walked along side her to her first hour class. At Colleen's quizzical look, she added, "You're so TAN!" Colleen laughed and they parted, heading off to different classrooms. The door to Colleen's was blocked by most of the guys from her class. Cheese. Colleen thought. I know they're here to make fun of me, they have nothing better to do with their pathetic little lives. Colleen was often made fun of or harrassed at school because she liked Hanson. Especially when she wore a Hanson t-shirt. Today was no different.
"Hey Colleen, like my new hat?" One of the most anti boys, Billy, had walked up to her. He turned around to display a "Hanson Sucks" sticker over the brim. Colleen sighed and ignored him, pushing through to her classroom. She had seen her teacher watching, and laughed silently to herself as the teacher stepped into the hall and pulled Billy away from the other boys. Colleen smiled, then sighed. It was only first hour, and already the torture had begun. Second and third hours would be the worst because they were with most of the boys in her small class of 15. She sighed again when she remember today was the day they had to give their speeches to the entire Spanish class. Colleen walked into the Spanish classroom and pulled out her speech. She sat down with her friends and listened to their cheerful banter. All of a sudden, a paper airplane thrown by a guy named Joe hit Liz on the head. Colleen tried not to laugh, but failed. As she pulled the airplane out of Liz's hair, she noticed it was a picture of something. She slowly unfolded it to find a picture, printed off the Internet, (***AN: Those with weak stomchs DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING. The events of today's Spanish class really did happen to me a couple months ago, so I have seen the pic many, many times. It is DISGUSTING***)of Marilyn Manson. As if that wasn't bad enough, he was surrounded by the bloody heads of Hanson, with Zac dangling by his hair from Manson's right hand. All color drained from Colleen's face as she held the awful piece of paper in her shaking hands. She felt faint, and closed her eyes.
"Colleen? What is it?" Liz asked. Colleen felt the paper being pulled out of her hands. Then she heard the barely surpressed laughter of her friends. She opened her eyes to find them all with their hands over their mouths, trying to keep from giggling.
"We're sorry," Sara managed to choke out. "But it's soooo funny! I mean, look at the expression on the little dude's face!" She burst out laughing again, pointing to Zac. Colleen slowly took the paper from Sara, walked over to the trash can, and ripped it up into little tiny shreds, then calmly sat back down. She was still very pale.
"Hey, that was mine!!!" Joe protested. "Marie," he was now speaking to the teacher. "That was private property! Make her get me another one!"
"Joe, you gave it to her, it was her right." Marie shot me a look of sympathy as she spoke. "Now Joe, you shall give your speech first."
"Aw, I don't care," said Joe, opening his folder and pulling another awful picture off of a stack of about twenty or so. Colleen's eyes widened when she saw it. I cannot believe how immature these idiots are!! She thought as Joe taped the new picture to the front of his folder. The teacher frowned but did nothing. When it finally came time for Colleen's speech, she stood up and went to the front of the classroom. Only a few lines into her speech, she heard some of the boys whisper "Hanson Sucks" under her breath. Colleen glanced at the teacher, who shot the boys a dirty look, and continued reading. When the whispering did not stop, Colleen stopped reading and walked over to the teacher. Colleen handed her speech to her teacher and slowly gathered her books and walked out, while the rest of the classroom, even the teacher, sat in complete silence. After a few minutes had passed, Marie rounded up the offending boys and sent them off for a talk with the principal. The rest of the day was rather uneventful, except for the Manson and Hanson pictures that continualy appeared in her locker or somewhere nearby. . Colleen was mad at her friends, so she ate lunch alone with the one other Hanson Fan at her school, Kari. After hearing the events of the morning, Kari was just as mad at the whole 8th grade as Colleen was. When Colleen got home from school, she checked her email. Alright!! I guess they're home after all! She thought when she saw an email from Taylor. It was a quickie, written just before they left for L.A, and a promise that Taylor would call Friday night, just like always. Colleen smiled and went to do her homework in such a better mood that she was even able to do Spanish without much pain. Although she did have a little trouble concentrating. At about 10:30, the extension in Colleen's room rang. "Hello?" she said, picking it up.
"Hey," said Taylor on the other end.
"Taylor?! I thought you weren't calling till Friday!"
"Well, I wanted to surprise you."
"That's great, I am really surprised, but why are you calling so late?"
"Late?" Taylor asked. "It's only 7:30 here, so it should be 9:30 where you are."
Colleen laughed. "Nope, L.A is three-hour time difference from Michigan, not two."
"Oh, I thought it was only two." he said. "It's only a one-hour difference in Tulsa. I'm sorry for calling so late, but I have great news!"
"That's okay, what's your news?" Colleen asked expectantly.
"Well, we're going to be doing a radio station interview in Michigan in a couple of weeks, and we want you to come watch then go out to dinner with us afterwards."
Colleen's mouth dropped open. She quickly shut it, although Taylor couldn't see her. Meet Hanson? Face-to-face? WoW! she grinned. "I would love to. When are you going to be in Michigan, and where?"
"January 24th and 25th, in Detroit. Are you close to Detroit?"
"About an hour and a half away. That sounds great, but I have to go now." Colleen could hear her mother yelling at her to get off the phone. "I'll talk to my mom, and tell you what she said- wait, are you still calling on Friday?" she asked.
"Definitely." Taylor replied.
"Great, then I'll let you know for sure then." They said their good-byes and hung up. "Mom!!" Colleen said, running down the stairs. "You'll never guess what that call was about!"
1998 by Hanson Lovers
Chapter 8
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