"This is going rather well. Nothing thrown yet."

Matt looked around the stage at the other five. Kyle on base guitar, Shane on keyboard, Kim on drums, Sara-Jane on backing keyboard and Amy on backing guitar. Amanda, their manager, was standing at the  front of the roughly fifty-strong crowd with a camcorder, taping the show.

When they'd arrived at the hotel, the manager had taken an interest in all the instruments they were carrying.

"You guys in a band?" he had asked.

They told him they were, so he asked them to play in the hotel parking lot, and also in the hotel entertainment lounge that night. They had all gladly accepted. Their band, EmaNation, was not yet at the point where they could afford to be picky about where they played. Any size of a crowd was good. They'd done some major shows with really large crowds. But only as warm-up acts for the billed bands. All that would hopefully change soon.

He surveyed the demographic they'd drawn. Various ages. No-one too old though.

"Gee, I wonder why" Matthew thought wryly, while starting his grunge guitar solo.

The crowd wasn't all teenage girls. That was a good thing. Their music didn't exactly fit with the whole teenybopper thing. Quite a few guys in the crowd A few in probably in their late twenties aswell as younger ones. His eyes caught the stare of someone at the back. A boy. Looked about 14 or 15. With long hair. It was one of the three guys from the café. There was something about him. H had a look on his face like…like he'd lost he'd lost his most treasured possession, and now he'd found it again.

Having finished their show, they took a bow, then set about 'pouncing' on their audience to sell copies of their album. They had a large suitcase full of CDs. All safely wrapped in padding. Which meant more bubble-wrap than anyone could wish for. It was clear that there'd be a lot of CDs left over, even after the show tonight, but they'd underestimated the orders they'd get after their last show and were NOT going to let that happen again.

Selling CDs out of a car trunk wasn't exactly the best image, but it was also kinda fun.

"How much?"

"10 bucks"

The guy handed Matt a bill.

"You guys were pretty cool. You signed or anything?"

"Yeah. We got our own label and a distribution deal. Our first PROPER album will be out in May. It'll actually, hopefully, be in stores. Check out the website. The URL is on the CD liner notes."

"Cool. Thanks. Good luck n' stuff"

 Matt smiled to himself. Selling the CDs this way may not be the most up-market of operations, but getting to talk face-to- face with the audience was really cool. Interacting with people who got what their music was about.

The next person came up to him.

"Hi…uh..how much for the album?"

"Umm…10 bucks"

Matt paused. It was the kid with the long hair who'd been staring at him during the show. He examined him for a minute through his shades. He had that glazed look in his eyes again.

He handed the CD to him, and he handed Matt the money.

"Thanks"

"No problem" Matt replied, watching as the guy walked off examining the group photo on the CD cover.

"BOOO!"

Matt jumped "God don't do that. You'll give me like, high blood pressure"

Shane was standing next to him, grinning.

"You OK Matt? You seemed a little…I don't know…out of it there or something"

"Uh yeah. I'm fine. Just saw something weird. Nevermind. How many'd you sell?"

"Eleven"

"Cool. Lets go buy the hotel!"

 They both laughed.

"We'll be able to soon though, I can feel it"

"Maybe not the entire hotel Shane, but yeah, I hope you're right. Although now we gotta move half way across the country into our own personal hell"

Laughing again, the walked over to join the others. It wasn't that bad a situation, yet. Shane was sure of that.

"If we get good PR people and our own fan base, we'll do fine"

"So lets see. We've done Seattle, Salem, Portland, LA, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Little Rock, Chicago, Milwaukee…hehe…Detroit, New York, Atlanta and now Miami…and of course Bend."

"Wow, take a breath dude" said Amy, glancing up from her laptop.

Kyle had just reeled off all the venues they'd played over the past six months.

"Quite good coverage" he concluded.

"If anyone remembers us"

"Thank you for your optimism Shane"

"No problem"

Sara-Jane finished scribbling on a piece of paper.

"OK we're like, still in the red. But not by much."

She set the page in the middle of the table. The other five leaned on the table and examined it.

"Damn! That’s, like the closest we've come yet to breaking even."

"We would've made a lot more if we hadn't had to spend two and a half months freezing our butts off in New York recording the album."

"Oh sure Kim. Recording our first studio album is nothing more than a wretched inconvenience" Shane said, oozing sarcasm from every pore. "The fact that it just might succeed is totally irrelevant."

"That’s not what I meant. I just prefer doing shows, that’s all"

"I know. We all do"

"Then why'd you s…"

Shane grinned. Kim frowned.

"You little prick! You were winding me up"

"Yup"

The others laughed.

Amanda sighed a she watched them through the smoke of the hotel entertainment lounge. They'd just done their show there too.

"Look you guys, I don't know how many times I have to say this but STOP WORRING ABOUT THE MONEY!"

"We know, but its like, it makes it easier for you. You called in a whole lot of favors to get us this far. It makes us feel better if we know that you can say to them all that you were right about us being a good investment"

"That’s sweet, Sara, and I appreciate the thought, but thinking of money is only gonna confuse the issue for you all. Concentrate on the music and ignore everything else. Besides, the money that everyone put up for you guys to get your own label is like a drop-in-the-well to them. Sure it would be a large amount if only one company had sponsored you, but there are like six. They lose that kinda money down the back of their couch. And compared to what Ed and I did for them, this is like nothing. They all wanted to help you guys out. Remember that."

Shane grinned."I wouldn't mind having their couch when they're finished with it"

Amanda decided now was the time to lift the conversation to a less serious level.

"So have you guys chosen your cars yet?"

"Yeah about that, we..uh..don't feel right about this"

"Nonsense! I told you that when you all got your licenses I'd buy you all cars. Besides, its Christmas"

The six sighed, then Kyle produced a bit of paper and handed it to her.

She scanned it. "Hmm…well nobody wants a Ferrari anyway. Lets see…so everyone wants a Sport Utility except..Shane- you want a Lexus….ONLY a Lexus?! You don’t want a Rolls Royce or something, your Highness?"

"Are you offering?"

"No. Just think guys, it'll make it easier when you move if you can all take your stuff in individual cars."

"About the move, Amanda. When did you find out about it?"

"Around the same time you guys did"

Kyle looked concerned "What are we gonna do though, I mean, we did all those shows in Oregon, and now we have to start all over again, half way across the country in Oklahoma"

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. You'll have to do a lot of shows and stuff to raise your profile when you first get there. But that’s fine. It means you'll be REALLY well known in two states instead of just one. Oklahoma's closer to New York anyway, so you won't have to travel as far to get to your own recording studio."

Amanda's words didn't quite seem to convince them. They stretched in their chairs. It was late. About midnight. The show had gone fine. They guessed there'd been a large crowd in the lounge watching them, although they couldn't see clearly through the smoke. For once, it wasn't all coming from them either. Although Matt and Shane were still hooked, the other four had managed to quit.

"OK guys, listen up"

Everyone's attention was turned to Amy, as she finished fiddling with her laptop.

"Here's everything I could find out" she cleared her throat "Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the banks of the Arkansas River, elevation:744ft, population: um…a lot. Interesting stuff - Arkansas River prone to flooding, it's bang in the middle of Tornado Alley…well kinda. It was the location for the filming of the movie Seige In Waco. It was also the subject of the movie Keys To Tulsa…which incidentally is where they got THAT five-day-bleeder line for the South Park Movie. Although Keys To Tulsa was actually filmed in Texas….so the Texas movie was filmed in Tulsa and the Tulsa movie was filmed in Texas…makes sense."

"Aren't you forgetting something" Kim asked slyly "The bit Matthew's been waiting for" she looked over at her brother "Matthew? Damnit! Why does he always have to fall asleep when you don't want him to?!"

"You only want him awake to piss him off"

"Is there a better reason Sara?" Kim leant toward Matt "Oh Uncle Traveling Matthew? Wakey wakey!"

"That’s not how you wake him" Shane said with a smirk. He shook Matt just enough to stir him slightly then…

"BOOO!"

Matt jumped, almost making his chair fall over.

"Wha..what's going on?" he asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

Kim grinned "Amy was just telling us about Tulsa, but she forgot to mention your favorite part about the person who shares your middle name… not to mention your appearance."

Amy repeated all that she had said about Tulsa.

"Hmm…although I don’t think any of our houses are near the river, they stand a high chance of getting swept off their foundations by a twister? Oh goody. Why didn't they just throw in a fault line and a volcano to REALLY complete the deal? But at least it sounds like an interesting place. And damnit Kim I look nothing like Hanson."

Kim waved off his protest. "Denial is such an unfortunate thing"

Now that Matthew thought about it, he hadn't heard anything about Hanson for months. Neither had any of the rest of the country, apparently, 'cause he didn't get teased anymore about his hair or his resemblance. There had been no Eugene mall incidents for almost a year. Not that it was a bad thing. Especially since they were now going to be moving into Hansons very own backyard. Still, it was strange. He ran his hands through his hair. It was slightly unruly, and he'd gone through three stylists to get it the way he wanted it. The first stylist had left it looking like a Persian cat that had just been put through a spin cycle. It looked pretty good now though.

Nope. It wasn't Taylor Hansons hair, it was HIS hair damnit!!