Tonight was New Year's Eve. At midnight tonight, it would be 1999. One year away from the new millennium. A thousand years had flown by, even though the Hanson brothers were only around for approximately eighteen years of it. Mrs. Hanson was throwing a New Year party fo the family and some friends. She told the brothers that they could invite some of their friends over. Zac invited Chrissy, Tay invited Hallie, and naturally, Ike invited Kat. Everyone knew the ritual of kissing someone you loved at midnight, but with the tension between everyone, what would happen? Would Kat once again love Isaac? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Yay!" screamed an excited Zachary Hanson, who had Chrissy right behind, chasing him around the house. "It's New Year's Eve!"
Throwing confetti high into the air, Chrissy yelled, "One more year until the year 2000!"
Mrs. Hanson noticed Zac and Chrissy enter the kitchen as she took a batch of cookies out of the oven, "I see you two are excited about the New Year!" She smiled brightly at the both of them.
"Can we have some cookies?" Chrissy asked, eyeing the sugar cookies Zac's mom had made.
"Not now, honey. They are still extremely hot. Wait till they cool down."
"Okay," Chrissy smiled.
Both Zac and Chrissy spotted a huge bowl of M&Ms on the kitchen table for the guests. The bowl of chocolate nearly cried out to the two of them.
"Mom?" Zac asked.
"Yes, dear?" Mrs. Hanson answered, taking off her oven mittens, and setting the cookies down on the counter.
"May we," Zac tried to be as polite as possible, "please have some of the M&Ms on the table?" Zac was in the need of a good sugar rush. It had been awhile since he had been hyper off of some real sugar.
"Sure, take as many as you want."
Both Chrissy and Zac dashed over to the kitchen table. Their hands dug deep into the bowl, picking of handfuls upon handfuls of precious chocolate M&Ms.
"So, Zac," Chrissy said, sitting at the table and eating M&Ms, "have you made any resolutions for the New Year?"
"No, not really."
Inside though, Zac secretly thought, "Yeah, I resolute to never, ever cheat on you again. I resolute to be honest to you from now on."
"Oh, c'mon," Chrissy was sure that there was something he could make as a resolution, "there's got to be something!"
Zac said the first thing that came into his mind, "Um...I resolute to be nicer to my brothers."
"But, you and your brothers get along fine."
He tried again, "Okay, true. I resolute to be more honest with people."
Chrissy seemed pleased yet, curious, "You haven't been dishonest with me, have you?"
Zac tried to be as unhesitant as possible, "No! Of course not, Chrissy!" He took another handful of M&Ms before he said anything to get himself into trouble.
She gave him a serious look, "Good, you better not be lying to me."
"Hey, it's a new year," he thought, "I still got a couple more hours before I have to stop lying."
Zac felt a sudden uneasiness inside, and tried to switch the spotlight away from him as quick as possible, "So, what's your resolution?"
"Oh!" Chrissy was suprised he asked. "I need to lose ten pounds! I'm fat!"
"No, you're not!" he promised.
"Yes, I am, Zac," she tried to tell him.
He wouldn't listen, "No, you aren't. And Anyway, those M&Ms are going to help you lose weight?"
Chrissy lightly hit his shoulder, "Oh, shutup! I still have a couple of hours to veg."
Taking another nervous handful of M&Ms, he asked Chrissy, "How about we go play some video games?"
"Sure."
Zac and Chrissy got up amd left the room. It felt good to Zac to get off the subject of "resolutions" and being "dishonest." He still hadn't told her what had happened between him and Kelly. Zac was afraid of how Chrissy would react. Little Zachary decided he would tell her, just not now. Maybe on their next date. He just hoped Chrissy wouldn't blow the ideal out of porportion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in the boys' room, Taylor and Hallie were on Taylor's laptop making a New Year's banner for the party. Tay was trying to act as normal as possible around her, but he still couldn't believe the fact that she was going out with Steven. How could she hurt him so much?
"What colors should we make the words, 'Happy New Year!'?" Hallie asked Tay, smiling brightly at him.
"I don't know," Tay shrugged. "How about red, white, and blue? The colors of the flag?"
"That'd be cool."
Hallie had the laptop on her legs, and was busily clicking away to fill the words in with color.
"What do you think?" she turned the laptop around for Taylor to view what they had.
Tay nodded in approvement, "It looks fantastic, but I think it's missing some graphics."
Turning the laptop back to her, Hallie opened Taylor's graphics file and began flipping through. Soon enough, she came across a few graphics that she thought would look great with the banner. Then, she began clicking the mouse, and tried to add the pictures to the banner.
Once again, she turned the laptop around, "What do you think now, Tayles?"
She had added graphics on each side of banner. One side with sparklers, and another with a countdown saying, "3...2...1...".
"It looks great, Hal. It should take like, ten minutes for it to print out," Hallie was informed by Taylor.
"Okay."
Hallie pushed the printer button, then got up and sat next to Taylor, on the floor.
"How can she do this?" Taylor thought to himself. "How can she play this little game and not feel guilty inside?"
"Hallie, can I ask you something?" Tay finally turned to her, and faced her.
"Sure, Tay. Anything," the way Hallie's sweet voice comforted him, seemed too comforting right now.
"What do you think makes a good relationship between couples?" he asked, over the sound of the printer.
"Well, they need to be attracted to each other, they need to be caring about each other's feelings, they need to show that they love each other, and most importantly, they need to be able to trust each other," explained Hallie.
"Trust? How can she even bring that up?" he thought.
Tay questioned her again, "Do you think that we have all of those qualities?"
"Yeah," Hallie answered, "we're obviously attracted to each other, and care about each other's feelings. We show that we love each other, definitely. Plus, I trust you, and I sure hope that you trust me."
"I wish I could," Tay thought.
"Yeah," Tay mumbled softly, "I trust you."
"Good," smiled Hallie. "Why are you asking all of this, anyway?"
"No special reason," said Taylor, "I'm just making sure that we are on the same grounds. That's all."
"Okay, cool."
Tay stood up, "I'm hungry, are you?"
"Yeah," she said, reaching out her hands.
Tay pulled her up, like he always did. It was just a little thing of theirs that they always did. And to be absolutely truthful, whether Hallie was cheating on him or not, he still loved the little things that she did.
"Okay, let's get something to eat," Tay said, as he opened the door. "After you, Hal."
He was being a gentleman, trying to act normal in this awkward situation.
After she went through the door, he followed her and they headed toward the kitchen.
It was going to be a long New Year's Eve with the tension he felt around Hallie, but he knew he would have to get over it. He came close to telling her that he knew about Steven, but the timing wasn't right. He would wait a little longer. But, could he hold in all he wanted to express until then? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was five minutes until it was officially 1999. Isaac had spent the entire night with Kat. Both of them seemed a little nervous at first, but within the first half hour of the party, they had ease up. They were having a great time, but what comes next for the New Year?
"Well," Kat started, glancing at her watch, "in four and a half minutes, it's 1999. Almost a new millennium."
"Yeah, I know," Isaac smiled. "It's pretty sweet that we are going to be alive for the new millennium."
"Yeah."
"Oh, by the way, Ike? I was wondering if you would like to come to dinner with me on Friday. Are you interested?" Kat seemed hopeful.
"I'd love to, Kat," he was relieved that she wanted him to come. "Anyone else going?"
"Well...," she hesitated, "...I was thinking, it could be just you and me."
Ike laughed, "That's great! Of course I'll come!"
"Okay, great!"
Isaac was extremely happy right now. Though he and Kat weren't going out, she wanted to have dinner with him...and only him. Maybe, by chance, her feelings for Tay were gone and her feelings for him had returned, strong as ever. Isaac could only hope and pray that, that was what was happening. He couldn't wait until Friday!
Coming from the TV, Ike and Kat heard, "Ten seconds and counting! 10...9...8..."
"Hey, Ike? Ever hear that you gotta kiss someone at midnight?" Kat spoke as quickly as she could.
The clock continued, "6...5..."
"Yeah, why?"
"...3...2...1..."
"Happy New Year," Kat said, quickly.
"0! Happy 1999!"
By Isaac's surprise, Kat kissed him the second the ball had dropped. He couldn't believe it. It was the last thing he had expected to happen. And probably, the last thing that Kat had expected to happen tonight, too.
When she pulled away from him, she was fire engine red, blushing, "Happy 1999, Ike!"
"Happy New Year to you, too, Kat," he too, was flushed a little.
Quickly, Kat tried to hide her red face from him.
"I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back," she told him, embarrassed.
Isaac thought to himself, "Did that actually happen?"
The year had started off on the right foot for Isaac. But, did it start off on the right foot for his brothers, too? It had been a difficult jungle to get through in 1998. Would this year be just as bad? The Hanson brothers would just have to wait and see and hope for the best.
Main Page
Chapter 15-Visions
Chapter 17-The Girl Is Mine
Tulsa's Long Road Home
