The Hanson brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zachary had been in Los Angeles for two weeks and were beginning to record today. They had already submitted five songs that they wanted to record for Album X. Tay knew he couldn’t choose between Hallie and Victoria. He just couldn’t. Taylor didn’t have it in him to hurt one of them. Maybe it wouldn’t affect now, but what would happen in the future? Not choosing between the two of them could become fatal, and destroy friendships with the both of them. What would Taylor do? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“We be jammin’! We be jammin’! We be jammin’!” Zac joked, into the microphone.
Tay and Isaac both laughed, weakly. The two of them need a little light humor after waking up at 6:30 AM to record, for the first time in nine months.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how the song goes, Zaccie,” yawned Tay, laughing.
“Yes, it is! Ever hear of Vitamin C?” corrected Zac.
“Whatever, Zac,” Tay rested his head on the keyboard, shutting his eyes. “I’m going to sleep.”
Christopher Sabec came into the recording studio, seeing Tay taking his “break”. Chris smiled to himself. He felt pity for the boys, having to wake up so early, again, but this record had to be made.
Tapping Tay on the shoulder, Chris whispered, “Rise and shine, Tay. You’re in Los Angeles, now. You are making another CD.”
“No…” Tay muffled, sleepily.
“Yes…” Christopher mocked Tay’s tone of voice.
Ike pulled Taylor’s head up, yanking his hair, “Get up, man. He’s right. We gotta do this.”
“Ow!” Tay jumped. “You know, Ike I do have nerves in my head! You pull my hair and it hurts!”
“Sorry,” ike apolgized, “Oh Cranky One.”
Tay did nothing more than glare at his brother for his remark. He was too tired to truthfully react to it. Taylor just didn’t have the strength, right now.
“Which sequence are we doing first, Chris?” asked Tay, sitting up.
“The keyboards, so set up, Tay,” commanded Christopher. “Zac…Ike…out, so we can record the keyboard sequence.”
Isaac was strumming chords on his new fender guitar, “Okay.”
Ike put his guitar down, as Zac grabbed his trusty drum sticks, and began walking out of the recording part of the studio. The oldest and youngest members of Hanson walked out of the room, and into another room next door with a glass window, so they could watch their brother as he played.
“Okay, Tay. We are going to roll the tape. You ready?” Christopher spoke into a small mic to Tay.
Taylor started to play his keyboard. The passion for his music, flowed through his soul, to his fingertips, and onto his Kurzweil keyboard. Taylor didn’t just play his music, he became a part of it. It was obvious he belonged behind the keyboard.
From behind the glass window, Zac and Isaac watched their brother run his fingers, gracefully and gently over the keyboard. They, too noticed the concentration and in depth passion for music that Tay had. They noticed because they had the same unbridled passion for their music that he had. It was something that they couldn’t control.
As Tay’s concentration broke, he lifted his fingers from the keyboard, and placed them on his lap.
“That’s a wrap,” Chris told Tay, through a microphone.
Taylor stood up, and released his headphones from his ears. He gave his family and Chris, two ‘thumbs-up’ before walking out of the recording part of the studio.
Stepping into the room where his family was watching him, Tay asked, So, how was I? I think we are off to a good start, don’t you?”
Mrs. Hanson raved, “You were fantastic, honey.”
Tay smiled at his mom, “Thanks, Mom. That means a lot today.”
Isaac put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder, “Yeah, you did great. I think this is going to be an awesome CD. In fact, I know.”
“Thanks, Ike. I think it’ll be great, too.”
“Take a break, Master Taylor,” Christopher suggested.
“Okay,” Tay was glad he was given a grant to rest, “is there a phone I could use to call someone?”
“Who are you going to call?” he asked.
“This girl, Hallie,” confessed Taylor.
“Ohhh! I see, a girl. You like her, right? And you promised to call her from the studio, right?” guessed Christopher.
“Something like that.”
Christopher laughed, “Sure, you can use the phone. Mark, show him where the phone is.”
Mark Hudson had been in the studio watching Taylor play, and working with the controls. He had helped Hanson before, on their CDs, “Middle Of Nowhere” and “Snowed In”.
“Follow me, buddy,” Mark lead Taylor out of the room, to show him where the phone was located.
“Okay, Zac. You’re up,” Taylor heard Chris say, as he walked out of the room.
Mark lead Taylor down to the very end f the hallway. It was the main office of the studio, and the only room in the entire studio house, with a usable phone in the room.
“You can use this phone,” confirmed Mark.
“Thanks, man,” thanks Tay, as he began to pick up the back phone.
“No problem,” Mark told him. “Stay on as long as you want. We still have to record Zac and ike before we have to bother you, again.”
“Okay,” Tay laughed, putting the phone to his ear.
As he left, Mark shut the door behind him to give Taylor some privacy. Mark was a fellow musician and singer when he was just about Taylor’s age, so he respected that Taylor wanted some time to be alone during the recording.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Miss me?” smiled Taylor.
“Oh, of course!” exclaimed Hallie, who was lonely back in Tulsa. “Hey, you sound really tired. What did they do to you?”
“They woke me up at 6:30 in the morning to drive over to the studio,” explained Taylor. “I fell asleep at 1 in the morning. I’m exhausted.”
Tay rubbed his tired eyes, as he spoke to her. It was a good thing that she wasn’t there to see the dark circles that had already formed under his eyes, and how his hair was no longer being brushed in the morning, along with many other signs that this Hanson was tired.
“6:30?” she questioned. “What time did you start recording?”
“We aren’t really even recording,” complained Tay. “Everything they are putting on tape today is strictly instrumental. We started at 8:30. They wanted us to be there at 7, so they could give us a so-called ‘pep talk’.”
“A pep talk?” Hallie raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think pep talks last an hour and a half.”
“I know.”
“Well,” continued Hallie, what is the instrumental background for? Which song?”
“A song called ‘Smile’,” he informed her. “It’s a pretty cool song, I think.”
“That’s cool,” commented Hallie. “Have you called Victoria, yet?”
“No…” Tay replied, shakily. “Why?”
“No reason,” she told him. “I saw her yesterday. I went to Blockbuster WHEREhouse, and she was there.”
Tay remembered how he had met Victoria. He was on his way to buying Hole’s CD, “Celebrity Skin”, and had literally bumped into her there. He remember how he felt like he had seen an angel. His heart stopped, his world began to spin, and he had felt like he had found the one person who would make everything okay, again. Victoria was an angel sent to him, to make everything better.
Tay seemed surprised, “Really, that’s cool. How’s she doin’? When I left she was really sick.”
“She’s not sick, anymore,” Tay was informed. “She looked really sad, though. Victoria had this look on her face like she had just found out that her best friend died.”
“Poor girl,” sympathized Tay.
“Anyway,” Hallie moved onto the next subject, “when are you going to write me a letter from L.A?”
“I’ll write you tomorrow. Promise,” he told her.
“Good,” Hallie was satisfied, “cause I got a whole lot to tell you. Also, tell Zac to write Chrissy. She’s got a bunch to tell Zaccie, too. A lot has happened since you left, and you’ve only been gone for two weeks.”
Taylor smiled, “That’s Tulsa.”
Hallie laughed, “Yeah, I know. Well, I gotta go. Are you going to call Victoria?”
“No, I can’t,” explained Taylor. “We are only allowed one phone call per day, and I decided to waste it on you.”
“Waste it?” Hallie exclaimed.
Taylor corrected himself, “Well, when it’s you that I’m talking to, it really isn’t a waste.”
Hallie smiled, as she told Tay, “Well, I really gotta go, now. I’m supposed to be babysitting some little kids, and I need the money.”
“O-tay,” Taylor said, smiling, “Bye!”
“Buh-bye!”
Both ends of the phone hung up, separating the connection between Tulsa and Los Angeles. Tay wondered how long the saga between him, Victoria, and Hallie would continue. He missed both of them, but was still extremely indecisive about what the future would be between all of them. He hated to do this to both Hallie and Victoria, not to mention, himself. Only time could tell what would happen between Tay, and the two of them.
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