Finally today, the Hanson brothers had no worries about anything. There was no anxiety whatsoever for them to feel on this gorgeous April morning. They were just relaxing in their house with some of their friends. Ike invited Kat, Adam, and Amy over and they were in the family room watching “The Real World”. Naturally, Zac had Chrissy over, and his friend Bobby from up the street. The three of them were in the tree house, laughing loudly enough for you to hear from Pennsylvania! Tay had invited Hallie, and Shane over. They were in the playroom, playing with the Playstation. There was still a little tension between Taylor and Hallie, but they both that all aside for today. This April day was just another normal day for the Hanson brothers...or was it? They’d get a surprise today from someone that they didn’t expect. Would this surprise affect everything that happened today? Maybe it wouldn’t...or maybe...it would. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This show is sooo ubelieveably rigged,” Adam commented, about “The Real World”.
They were watching one of the new “Real World” season shows. The season had just begun, and already it was addicting.
“You think?” Isaac said, full of sarcasism. “They are paid like, two hundred thousand dollars per episode, I swear.”
“They are paid for this?” Amy seemed shocked to hear that people were actually paid to live in paradise.
“Yes, Amy. They are paid to do this,” Ike nodded, with his arm around Kat.
“You know what, though?” Adam spoke as he gazed at the screen. “I truly don’t think a bitch like Amaya should be paid to do this. She should be paying them for letting her even be on the show.”
“Like you said,” Ike reminded Adam, “It’s rigged. She’s probably not a bitch in real life. She’s probably paid to have an attitude.”
“No,” added Kat, who felt left out of the conversation, “you can tell she’s a bitch in real life. Just the way she holds herself gives it away.”
“Very true.”
“Why don’t you just drop it, Ruthie! God!” screamed Amaya from the TV. In this episode, Amaya and Ruthie weren’t getting along at all. Amaya was rejecting Ruthie because of her drinking problem, but she was still denying about herself that she had an eating disorder.
“These people are so stupid,” Amy shook her head, as she took a sip from her Mr. Pibb.
“You know what? This is extremely stupid for us to be watching this. It’s so...so...pointless,” Ike stated.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Adam agreed.
All of a sudden, the both of them were hit with a rush of couch pillows, “Both of you shutup! I love this show!” Amy you could tell had a tinge of annoyance flowing through her veins at their comments.
“Okay, you watch the show. We’ll go do something else,” Isaac came back. “You comin’, Kat?”
“Nah,” she blushed, “I’m gonna stay here.”
“Alright, we’ll be back later, love you. Bye Amy!” Ike bid her good-bye.
“Bye,” was the only response he received from Amy.
Adam and he both got up and headed toward the kitchen. “The Real World was getting pointless and too easy to follow. Plus, the people acted as if they weren’t born with brains. Adam and Isaac both decided that even their lives would be more interesting to watch on TV than just some weird actors who are paid to conform their lives around their characters. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Zac was in the treehouse with Chrissy and Bobby. They were just goofing off and having fun, separated from everyone else. Chrissy, Bobby, and Zac were just being kids, with their own personally twist. This time, there were no devious plans for water ballon fights, no sudden outbursts, they were just chillin’.
“Hey, Zac?” Bobby asked.
“Yeah?” Zac had his arms around Chrissy as he talked.
“When do you leave for L.A.?” inquired Bobby.
Zac gave Bobby a disgusted face, “I don’t even wanna think about that right now, Bobs.”
Zac knew that the day to leave for L.A. to record his new record, was approaching fast. Faster than he wanted it to, really. Going to record the new record meant he had to leave Chrissy behind, and oh how he wished that he could take her with him. He hated to leave her behind for such a long period of time.
Chrissy spoke, in her soft, sweet voice, “Zaccie, when you leave are you going to call me from the studio?”
“Everyday,” Zac promised.
Bobby saw that Zac felt a little uneasy talking about the subject, so he switched it, “Well, what do you all want to do now? I’m completely bored out of my mind.”
“Me, too,” Chrissy chimed in.
“Me, three,” Zac stated.
The three sat in a state of thinking, and pondered over what to do today. It seemed like there was nothing left to do in T-town. It was such a small town that they felt like they had done everything that there was to do.
“Well...” Zac started with a suggestion. “We could always...gather up a bunch of other people and play soccer or something.”
The suggestion was taken in by the others, but wasn’t rightfully accepted by all.
“That sounds cool to me. And you, Chrissy?” Bobby politely asked her.
“I’m not too into sports, anymore,” she replied very sheepishly, afraid to disappoint them.
“That’s okay.”
This time, Bobby had an idea, “We could get Ike to drag us to the mall.”
“He won’t do it,” Zac told him. “He’s too wrapped up in Kat right now.
“Just like I’m too wrapped up in you right now,” Zac whispered into Chrissy’s ear.
Chrissy giggled, and blushed slightly.
“What did you say, Zac?” inquired Bobby, curious.
“Nothing to your importance, Bobby. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to hear what I have to say,” Zac laughed.
“Okay.”
“Anyway, anymore ideas on what to do from anyone?” Zac asked, gazing about the tree house.
“Um,” said Chrissy, sheepishly, “I have an idea.”
Her voice was so soft, and so sweet that you could barely hear her. You had practically strain your ears to understand what Chrissy was saying to you.
“What’s that?” smiled Zac, looking into her eyes.
“Well, we could do what we do every day. We could go down to LazerQuest and play Lazer tag. Isn’t it practically a daily ritual by now?” she suggested.
Neither of the boys had thought of that, but it seemed like a great idea and something to do.
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Bobby looked at Zac as he talked.
“I know,” Zac stated. “She’s right, we do play LazerQuest every single God-given day. That’s what we’ll do!”
“Yeah!” Bobby shouted.
“You guys wanna go now?” Zac looked at both of them for approvable, only to see both of them nod ‘yes’.
“Lady’s first,” Zac motioned Chrissy out of the tree house and helped her climb down. He watched her climb down the tree, making sure that she didn’t hurt herself going down.
“Alright, Bobby. Go,” Zac said, as he let his friend go first.
Bobby climbed down slowly, careful not to miss a step and fall down the tree.
After Bobby reached the ground, Zac jumped down from the top of the tree house, landing on his feet. He hurt his ankle on the way down, but he’d be okay. Zac knew that he didn’t land that hard.
“Ouch,”Zac said, feeling the pain in his ankle.
“You okay?” Chrissy checked on him, concerned.
“I’ll be fine, sweetie. It’s just a little bruised,” he reassured her.
Bobby tapped on Zac’s shoulder and Zac turned around, “Yes, Bobby?”
“I need to go inside for a sec. I have all my money inside,” Bobby explained.
“Alright.”
Zac took Chrissy’s hand as the both of them followed Bobby inside the house. Why didn’t Bobby carry his money with him? Why did he take it out once he got inside the Hanson’s home. That was a little weird.
“Gosh, this kid can be so stupid sometimes,” Zac kept to himself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tay was in the middle of battling Shane and Hallie in a tedious game of “Metal Gear Solid”. He didn’t know that Hallie was just as good at this game as he was. She had sworen that she had never played it before, but was mysteriously excellent at it for this being her first time playing it.
“Man!” Tay screamed, slamming his fist on the ground, after his player died.
Shane laughed, “You’e losing your touch, Hanson.”
“No, I’m not,” Tay shot back. “I’m just really tired, okay?”
The truth was, Tay was just nervous. Taylor still hadn’t talk to Hallie about what she had said the other day to him. Having her sit next to him and have nothing straighten out between the two of them, felt kind of awkward.
“Hanson, I’ve played you when you were asleep with one eye open, and you still played better than this.”
Tay knew Shane had a point, “Shutup, Shane.”
“RRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNG!”
Taylor was saved by the ringing of the phone. He thanked God that the phone rang and released him from his cage of questioning.
“I’ll get it!” Taylor Hanson yelled. “Pause the game guys.”
With that, he dashed to the kitchen, only to see that Isaac had gotten to the phone before him.
“Who is it?” Taylor mouthed to his brother, who seemed to be having a serious conversation with someone.
His older brother, Isaac grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down, “It’s Steve Greenberg. Go get Zac. He says that he has a message that he wants all of us to hear.”
Taylor was shocked, absolutely shocked. His body somehow managed to dash across the house though, to find Zac, Chrissy, and Bobby nearly walking out of the door.
“Zac....stop!” Taylor gasped.
“Huh?” Zac looked at his brother as he opened the door. “What’s wrong, Tay?”
“Steve...Greenberg...is on...the phone. He wants...to talk...to...to...all of us,” Taylor managed.
“Oh my gosh!” was all that came from Zac.
Tay snatched Zac by the wrist and practically dragged him to the kitchen. He couldn’t believe that Steve Greenberg had called them after all of this time.
“Okay,” Zac and Taylor heard Isaac say, “we’re all here now. I’m going to put you on speaker phone, okay?”
Isaac pushed the button and activated the speaker phone for Mr. Greenberg.
“Hi, guys! How are ya doin’?” Steve asked, cheerfully.
“We’re good,” Taylor answered.
“That’s good, that’s good,” Steve replied. “I was told to call you and remind you all about your next recording. We have a date set.”
“Really?” the brothers inquired in unison.
“Yeah,” said Steve. “We want to start recording by May 25th, is that okay?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Zac responded.
Steve smiled, “Great! Just fantastic. Well, you guys only have a month and half before you have to leave to record so I suggest you guys start packing your things very soon, alright?”
“Alright.”
“Well, it’s been good to hear from you guys and I can’t wait to see you guys on the 25th of next month. Have a good day!” Steve concluded.
“We can’t wait either,” Tay told Steve. “You have a good day, too.”
“I will, believe me,” Steve said. “Bye!”
Then, the boys turned off the speaker phone and hung the phone back up. They had never realized how quickly the date for their recording was approaching. It seemed just like yesterday when they pulled into their driveway after that long summer tour. Now, they were getting ready to head off again.
Zac walked back to him friends, “We aren’t going to LazerQuest, guys.”
“Why not?” Chrissy had a disappointed look in her eyes.
“Because, that was Steve Greenberg on the phone. A guy from our label. He said we have to start packing soon to go recording in L.A. They’ve set a recording date,” Zac averted his eyes from everyone as he spoke the news.
“Wow,” Chrissy said, plainly. “When are you going to start packing?”
“Probably in like, a couple of weeks to a month.”
“I’ll miss you, man,” Bobby told Zac, putting his arm around Zac.
Zac smiled, “I’ll miss you, too, Bobby.”
Just to think that he was leaving in a month and a half to start all over again, was pretty amazing. In a month and a half, he was taking the same trip to L.A. that he had taken to record “Middle Of Nowhere”, and he was going to the same place in Miami to mix. It was all sort of a deja vous. He’d miss Chrissy with all his heart. Zac was praying to God though, that her love was just as strong and that she wouldn’t find someone new when he left for L.A. Zac prayed that she wouldn’t forget all the times that they spent together while he was in T-town. Starting today, he was on a new path heading toward another record in L.A.
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