Chapter 6: Haltertop from Hell

Zac awoke the next morning to the sound of Tay mumbling in his sleep.

"Yes...right there...oh yeah..."

Zac shuddered at the thought of what was going on in Taylor's mind. Over in Ike's bed, isaac was curled in a ball clutching his blanket tightly to his chest. Probably dreaming about Mara again...Zac thought. He smiled when he realized he was gonna be the first one in the shower. No cold water for him today! He happily walked down the hall and into the bathroom. He stripped off his clothes and hopped in the hot shower. He sighed at the satisfaction of warm water.

He stood thinking about yesterdays events. Last nights dinner had gone unexpectedly well. Zac was sure it was going to be extremely awkward for him, Tay, and Christina all to be sitting around the same table. But that wasn't the case at all, neither of the 3 shut up the whole meal. But that was probably because earliar after tay and Zac had their little "chat" and Christina came back from her *hour-long* trip to the bathroom, the three had sat down and had a nice little discussion about how Taylor wasn't thinking and none of that days events had meant anything. They all agreed to totally forget about Zac's wimpyness and Taylor's eagerness of the day.

The soap bubbles trickled down Zac's body as he scrubbed away. He lift up him arm to scrub his armpit. He froze. Was that a few armpit hairs he saw? He examined them closely. There definitly was signs of hair growth there, but nothing to be worried about. Cuz see, if there was too much hair, he knew he'd be on his way to the 'Land of changing voices' which is not a place he wanted to visit anytime soon. He sighed when he realized that there would be more hair soon. He estimated he had about about 6-9 months before his cute little voice took a turn for the worst. Oh well, he could work through it. Taylor did. But then again, Taylor doesn't worry as much as he does. This was just great, now he could worry about this for the next year. As if he didn't already have enough stuff on his mind. His thoughts were interupted by a banging on the bathroom door.

"Zac!! How long have you been in there?" Taylor called.

"I don't know. it couldn't have been more than 15 minutes"

"Uh, no Genius. Try about 45 minutes," Taylor replied. Zac realized he must have been thinking longer than he thought.

"Uh, yeah, I'll be out in a minute" Zac called. The once HOT water was now WARM water. Zac had managed to practically drain the hot water heater all by himself. The rest of the Hanson family wasn't going to be pleased. He threw a towel around himself and opened the door. Taylor was standing with his arms crossed in front of him, not looking very happy. Zac gave him and innocent grin and headed down the hall for his room.

After Zac was dressed, he went into the kitchen for some breakfast. He shoved a bagel into the toaster just as the phone rang.

"You listen Mr. Toaster. We remember the last time i was home don't we? yeah, I know you remember. You remember how you burnt my poor innocent unsuspecting bagel to a crisp while I was in the bathroom for about THIRTY seconds? Well, you behave while i go answer the phone because i can assure you one thing. You screw up ever again and your GONE. Because trust me you evil demon, we can definitly afford one. Hell, we can afford 50 MILLION," Zac said. He jumped for the phone realizing that his little "pep talk" with the toaster had lasted about 5 rings.

"Hello?"

"Zac??" The voice said.

"Eric?"

"Hey man!! i didn't expect you to be home!! i was just calling just in case"

"Well looks like itz ur lucky day!! Whats up? How ya been?" Zac said. he hadn't talked to Eric since the last time he was home.

"Pretty good. I've been seeing you on TV and stuff. You got REALLY popular!! Hey, I know ur extremely busy and all, but I'm having a pool party tonight, you wanna come?"

"Yeah sure!! Oh wait a second, Christina's coming to sleep over" Zac said. He nervously eyed the toaster. It seemed to be grinning at him. Zac snarled at it.

"Just bring her with you. i haven't seen her in a really long time. Since school ended I guess. School starts on the 10th for ya know. only a few more days" Eric said.

"Ok, I'll do that. Can you hold on one second?" Zac asked, putting the phone down and running to the toaster. He popped up his bagel and examined it. Burned. Zac glared at the toaster.

"I warned you..." He said. He unplugged the toaster and 'accidently' knocked it off the counter. He bent down to examine it. Still in one piece. He picked it up and dropped it again. Still no damage.

"Devil toaster," Zac said, picking the phone back up again "Sorry Eric, I'm back"

"Ok, well i gotta go. Come over at about 7, ok? the party ends at 11"

"Ok, see you then"


"Zac, is there something you forgot to tell me?" Christina asked, as she saw everyone in the pool.

"Ummm, no. Not that I can think of..." Zac said confused.

"Zac you doink, you forgot to mention this was a POOL party," She said lightly slapping his arm. he looked at her blankly.

"Hel-lo, since you didn't tell me, I didn't bring a bathing suit," She said.

"Whoops," Zac replied. Christina sighed, frustrated.

"Hey guys," Eric called, walking over. even though Eric and Christina were in the same grade at the same school, they weren't really friends. Eric was part of the "skater" group, while lately Christina wasn't quite sure what category her group of friends were. They weren't the snobs, but they definitly weren't the losers. They were the "Upper-middle-classers". Occastionally Eric and Stina passed a "hi" to each other in the halls, but never any real conversations. The skaters at her skool kind of intimidated her...they spent a lot of time around the snobs. Eric was one of the only "Semi-down-to-earth" skaters she knew.

"Hey bud!!" Zac said, very happy to see his friend. A girl named Chelsea wandered over to join them and put her arm around Eric. Stina knew Chels from a few classes last year. Christina was glad that there was at least one other person there besides Zac and Eric that she knew and got along with. But as she looked around she realized that there were a lot of people she liked that were there. She sighed with relief when she realized Eric had mostly invited neighborhood people that she knew and got along with.

"Hey guys," Chelsea said smiling "Wow Stina i haven't seen you since school ended"

"Yeah I know. Time flies," Christina said. Chelsea was wearing a blue one piece swim suit. Her hair was damp, so she had obviously already been in the pool.

"You wouldn't have happened to have brought an extra suit, would you have? Brainboy forgot to tell me this was a pool party," Stina said rolling her eyes. Zac grinned and Chels laughed.

"i think Zac just wanted you to go skinny dipping with him and knew he'd have more of a chance of you doing that if you didn't have a suit with you...just kidding. Actually ur in luck. I brought along a two piece with me just in case there were any hot guys here and I wanted to show off more than this suit does," Chelsea said, look at her bathing suit that really didn't show too much "But looks like i won't be needing to do that now will I?".

Stina laughed and followed Chelsea into the house. Chels pulled out a really pretty light blue halter top and shorts bathing suit out of her black Jansport school bag.

"here ya go," She said, handing them to Christina.

"What size are these?"

"Small top, medium bottoms"

Christina handed her the shorts back.

"Those will just slide right off me. i usually need small bottoms with a medium or large top. I'll find a way to squeeze into the halter and i can just wear the top with my underwear. They match," She said grinning.

"Hmm, I think you just wanna show off your undies for someone. Shall we say...ZAC?" Chelsea said, raising an eyebrow. Stina blushed.

"No...I just like my underwear," She said dissapearing into the bathroom to change.

A few minutes later she emerged in the top and her underwear, carrying her JNCO cargo shorts, cK bra, and her tank top.

"Here, put those down and let me see," Chelsea said. Christina put down her clothes and gave Chelsea a "this-isn't-working-look". Stina was litterally FALLING out the bottom of the halter. She knew that if she jumped in the pool, or even ran, she was totally be out of the top. Chelsea frowned.

"Just, um, don't make any sudden or quick movements and don't lift up your arms and you'll be fine...it actually looks really good. But kind of slutty" Chelsea said laughing. Christina smiled.

"Thanx for the reassurement"


Christina spent the next hour walking around very very carefully, and getting mad at Zac every time he attempted to push her into the pool.

Christina and Chelsea were on their way to the snack table when Stina felt a shove. She caught herself before she fell in the pool. She whirled around a found Zac laughing his ass off (oh what a surprise). Chels rolled her eyes wondering how many times Zac was gonna push Christina before he finally succeeded.

"Zachary!! That is REALLY getting old!! Would you like to see me topless? Is that why your trying to push me in?" Stina asked, getting fairly annoyed.

"No, I just find it fun. And by the way, ur almost totally out of the bottom of that top. I have nothing else better to do. All the guys here are jealous of me cuz none of the girls are paying attention to them. So all the guys are glaring at me, all the girls are batting their eyelashes at me, and Eric dissapeared into the bushes with some girl named Cindy. So therefore, that leaves me with no one to talk to" Zac said pouting.

"Aww poor baby," Christina said sarcastically,adjusting her bathing suit. Her guard was down, so Zac took the oppurtunity to leap forward and shove her. She screeched and fell backwards into the pool and up flew Mr. Halter top. Her head appeared above the surface of the water. She only came up to her shoulders because she hadnt fixed her top yet. Zac was cackling. Stina was currently the only one in the pool, and no one had seen Zac push her, so she wasn't really that mad. Stina and Chelsea made eye contact and Chelsea smiled as she seized the oppurunity to push Zac in. it's not like it mattered since Zac was just wearing his bathing suit, but Zac swallowed like half the pool so that made it worthwhile.

"HEY!!" He screamed at Chelsea. She grinned. Stina was laughing, but then realized she was half naked it a pool with Zac. She tried to pull the halter back into place, but it had gotten way too screwed up. She was gonna have to take the whole thing off and then re-tie it. She turned so she wasn't facing Zac and took the top totally off. As she put it back in place and reached back to tie the strings around her neck, Zac grabbed the strings and before she knew it, he was holding the top. he held it triumphantly over his head.

"Zachary Walker Hanson!! Give that back immidiatly!" Christina screamed at him. People were starting to notice the scene...every single person had gathered around the pool to watch this little show. Zac just laughed in reply to christina and started to swim away, she quickly dove underwater and shanked him. She managed to get his trunks totally off. Once again, only her head appeared above the water. It was her turn to laugh.

"Give them back!" Zac exclaimed.

"Are they skinny dipping?" Someone asked.

"Nah, she still has her undies on," Chels called in reply. Before anyone could say anything, Zac had dove underwater and managed to take her light blue undies. Everyone was silent as the two stood, totally naked, just staring into each others eyes.

"Trade?" Zac said holding out her clothes. She eyed him caustiously before grabbing back her top and bottoms and throwing his blue & black trunks at his head. They briefly smiled at each other before retreating to opposite sides of the pool to re-dress. Stina wondered if this was gonna create another "awkward silence spell" between the two of them, but immidiatly realized that it wasn't going to. After yesterday, practically nothing could.


Back to Chapter 5
Back to Forever Together table of contents
Back to *~Christina's Hanson Cloud~*
On to Chapter 7

Email: stinaloveszac@gurlmail.com