The first room we went to was Tay and Zac's. We found Zac and Kay watching
TV there. They were still flirting.
"God, do they ever stop?" Tay whispers to me. I just shake my head no.
"Zac, how are you doing?" Diana says going over to where Zac is sitting and giving
him a big hug.
"Good," he says.
"So who is your friend?" Walker asks his son, putting his hand out for Kait to shake,
she does.
"I'm Kaitlyn Genasys Smith," she answers for Zac.
"Dad, Mom? Air and I are going for a walk, if you need us we will be around." Tay
takes my hand in his.
"Okay, your father and I were talking, and we think that all of us should go out to eat,
our treat, and get to know each other."
"Mom, I think I know you pretty well," Zac comments.
"Zac, you know I meant Kaitlyn and Aairana."
"I know." Tay and I leave quickly.
Once Tay and I are safely out in the hall, I say to Tay, "So is everything okay with
you and your dad?"
"Yeah, he just thinks we don't know enough about each other to be dating."
"Are you breaking up with me?"
"H-ell no. But I do agree with him, we don't know that much about each other. That's
why we're going on a walk. So we can talk and get to know each other better."
Once we got down to the beach, we sat down and I leaned up against Tay. He put his
arms around me.
"So what's your middle name?" He asks me.
"Kalle, I already know your's. Why DO you go by your middle name?"
"I don't really know. Ike and I have just always been called by our middle names. The
same with Mackie and our Dad. Zac's kind of the only one who isn't out of the guys. But that's
because his middle name's Walker and that would get a little confusing."
"I see."
"Do you have any family?"
"Lots. My mom and Dad had me and my sister Jada, who is 19 now. They got a
divorce when I was three, and my mom married her new husband Sid when I was five, and my
dad married his new wife Roxie when I was seven. My mom had Carlie, who is now five, and
Codie, who is now three. Roxie had Mackenzie who is four now. Do you know something really
freaky?"
"What?"
"Mac's birthday is only three days away from your brother Mac's.*"
"Kewl, well I have-"
"Wait, I'm not done!"
"There's more?"
"Yep. My sister Jada had a baby when she was 16, Nathan, and my aunt adopted him.
Then Jada got married last October and is due to have a baby in early February."
"Wow. I have three sisters, Jessica who's nine, Avery who's seven, and Zoe who is
about five months old, and then there's Ike, Zac, and Mackie. I'm sure you already knew all of
that though."
"Yep. But you can tell me anyway. Some of the stuff I read was probably wrong."
"Okay, do you have any pets?"
"At my dad's I have two dogs, Abby, she's cool but she's deaf, and Bailey, who is the
dumbest dog on the face of the earth. I also have a turtle named Speedy. How about you?"
"I have a dog, Wickit, he's cool, and a turtle named Godzilla#."
"Neat!"
"God we have lots in common!"
"I already knew that!"
"What grade are you going to be in?"
"9th."
"I'll be in 10th. So you're 14?"
"Nope, 13. I'll be 14 on June 24th."
"Cool. Do you play any sports?"
"Softball. I pitched for my team back home but I don't anymore, since I'm here. I don't
really like any other sports. I would much rather watch a movie, or watch TV or listen to music
or something. It's more interesting to me. How about you?"
"I like every sport! What kind of things do you like to watch on TV?"
"Everything. No one can ever understand how I watch like ten different shows at the
same time. I hate the commercials, so I always change the channel during them. Except when I
watch Mtv."
"Why not?"
"They have interesting commercials."
"I guess they do. I like the Live at the Ten Spot one. The one where they are sawing a
person."
"Yeah I like that one too. Most of them are very odd, I don't remember which one is my
favorite though."
"Me either."
"What do you like to watch?"
"Everything. I LOVE Freakazoid though!"
"That's a cool show." Even though I hate the show, he loves it too much.
"Really? You like it?"
"Yeah," I lie.
"Well then we'll have to watch it together." He gives me a gentle squeeze.
"Sure, why not?"
"What movies do you like?"
"Anything interesting. Except Star Wars. I hate that show. What do you like?"
"Star Wars, and just about everything. But I don't really like love stories."
"I like some love stories, but not all. Lots of them are fakey. I like realish ones. I think
if we don't do well in the music business I want to write movies. Maybe even if we do make it
I'll write. Kait and I always wrote stories before we got discovered."
"About what?"
"Everything. Do you guys ever go to the web pages about you?"
"All the time. It's cool. There are some weird people out there though."
"Do any of them ever scare you?"
"Yeah, some chick said that if we ever got girlfriends that she'd kill them."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I emailed her and said that that wasn't very fair, and she took that part
down."
"Cool. Some people are really huge fans. I used to be a really big one. I used to
daydream in class about meeting you. I if would've stayed focused, I might not have done as bad
on my report card. I had an F, three D's, three C's and one B on my last report card."
"Sorry."
"It wasn't all you guys though."
"What else?"
"Other guys, Shayne and Karl."
"Old boyfriends?"
"No, you're my first."
"Who then?"
"Really big crushes."
"Why would they not go out with you?"
"Not popular enough, not pretty enough, I have no idea. I never asked Shayne out, but
I know he would have said no."
"How could anyone not think your popular or pretty enough?? How do you know that
that Shayne guy would have said no?"
"I just know he would have!"
"I don't understand."
"He is WAY more popular than me."
"So?"
"So, he would have never gone out with anybody who wasn't in his group of friends."
"Why? I still don't get it." I shrug my shoulders. Tay would never understand what
public school was like.
"My school was really bad about that."
"Well I guess that's good for me! If you were going out with one of them then I
couldn't go out with you!!"
"I would dump Karl and Shayne BOTH for you! You are much hotter, and I have
more in common with you than I do with them. Shayne is really into partying, and Karl's a rich
snob."
"Well thanks. I think."
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For talking about other guys in front of you. It's rude."
"That's okay. We're getting to know each other."
"You mean you don't care that I talked about the guys I used to love?"
"I won't care unless you talk more about them than you do about me or us."
"Cool. Well it's a good thing that I can now rub it in their faces."
"Rub what in their faces?"
"If I get rich and famous."
"You will."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I've heard you and Kait sing, and you guys are really good. Even if I wasn't
going out with you and heard one of your songs, I'd go and buy your CD."
"Really??"
"Yes really."
"Thanks! You guys are good too."
"I was hoping you liked us for our music too."
"The first few times I heard MMMBop I was like, 'This song is really kewl', and
then I saw this picture of you and I was like, 'Wow', and then I got your CD and I loved
it."
"What do you want for your birthday?"
"Oh, anything."
"Like what? Money, clothes, CDs, Movies...?"
"CDs."
"Which ones?"
"Any, just not country."
"Okay, POLKA!!"
"Tay, you know what I mean! You could get Green Day, Beck, anything like that.
You know what would be REALLY beedo?"
"What?"
"Boomerang."
"Okay."
"You mean you would actually get me that?"
"Yeah, why not? We have boxes and boxes of them at home in Tulsa. We have
thousands of MMMBop too."
"Really? That would be the BEST!! What do you guys do with them?"
"Give them away to one fan club member a month.#"
"Cool. You guys are really nice to your fans. That's why you have so many dedicated
people."
"Thanks. We care about our fans." Tay stares off into space.
"I thought I'd find you here," a familiar voice says behind us. We look up and it's
Diana. "We're going to go out to eat now. You wanna come?" Tay looked at me. I shook my
head yes.
"Sure. Where are we going to go?"
"We don't know yet."
"Fancy?"
"Yes. We won't be seeing you for a while, so we're going to treat you all tonight. We'll
meet you in the lobby in and hour or so." She walked away from us. Tay helped me stand.
"I guess we should go and get ready, huh Air?"
"Yeah, I guess so. What should I wear?"
"A nice dress. Kind of like what you have on." He looks me up and down.
"Okay." We walk back hand in hand.
*True.
#Not true.
