Brynn slid the pleather jacket off of her shoulders and handed it back to Taylor as she stepped onto the bus. Taylor smiled at her and dropped it onto the table. "Dad?" He called while Holly and Isaac sat down on one of the couches that faced eachother.
Walker came out from behind the curtain that led to the back of the bus and smiled at Holly and Brynn. "How are you doing today Brynn?"
Brynn was surprised that he remembered her name. "I'm fine. This is my friend Holly."
"Hello." He turned to his sons. "We're apparently staying here longer than we thought, maybe even 3 days. The hotel in Erie lost our reservations so we're going to just park somewhere here and stay on the bus. Then we'll head up to Erie the day before the show."
"Sounds ok to me." Taylor shrugged.
"But now I have to go because your mom wants me to come with her, Jess, and Avie, and Zoe to the mall. Fun stuff. Zac's already there." He grinned one last time and left the bus.
Holly watched as Walker disappeared and then she nudged Isaac. "Your dad is cool. Sucks about the hotel thing though."
"Yeah I'd rather be staying in a real bed. The bunks are cool for a while but after a few weeks your claustraphobia kicks in."
"I bet."
Taylor grabbed Brynn's hand and pulled her to the back of the bus abruptly. Holly and Isaac exchanged glances of confusion but then shrugged it off. "What's up?" Brynn asked as she scanned the bunks.
"Nothing, I just wanted to be able to have a conversation with you without having Isaac interrupt."
"Sounds good." Brynn tried not to laugh at his comment. It was just the night before when she and Holly were watching reruns of old Hanson appearances, yelling at Taylor for interrupting his brothers. Taylor had never really been Brynn's "favorite". She and Holly had always made vows not to pick favorites. It was actually Zac who appealed to Brynn the most. However there was something in Taylor's tone of voice and smile that made her never want to leave the bus.
Taylor held on to her hand as he showed her his bunk. "So this is where I sleep. Zac's always down there on the end because he prefers to not be around anybody else when he sleeps. Plus he snores and we yell at him for it. I guess he gets sick of that. Isaac's right under me. Mackie is across from us..." He continued, pointing out everybody's assigned beds.
Brynn watched him as he talked. He really knew how to keep a one-sided conversation flowing. He was still very different from how he was portrayed in the media. The only real similarity she saw was his knack for talking, and the way his cheeks flushed three different colors every time his eyes met hers. She smiled at that.
Still, she remained silent for most of the time, until a small hand came out of nowhere and grabbed her ankle. "AAARRGHHH!" She screamed and jumped back, he cast hitting the wall. "Ow..."
"You ok?" Taylor asked, concerned. Then, he glared at the small being that emerged from the bottom bunk. "MACKIE! Why aren't you with mom and dad?"
He shrugged. "They forgot me."
"That's... not good."
Brynn laughed and waved to Mackenzie. "Hi."
"Hi." Mackie leaned against Taylor and tugged on his shirt until he leaned over to his level. "Tay, she's real pretty." He winked.
"Yes... yes she is." Taylor pushed his brother toward the curtain. "Now how about if you go up front with Ikey and meet his friend, Holly."
"COOL!" Mackie bounced through the curtain and disappeared.
Brynn laughed and tried not to notice the bright red color of Taylor's cheeks. "So that's your brother."
"Yep, that's the little demon spawn himself."
"He's cute." She rememebered. "His hair is darker than I thought it would be."
"Yeah it got darker over the past year."
Kind of like the puberty eyebrow syndrome Brynn thought to herself remembering a conversation she had with Holly a few weeks back. Holly pointed out that every time a Hanson's voice changed, his eyebrows became three shades darker. "So uhm... you guys have to stay one the bus?"
"Yeah." Taylor sighed.
"Well... I was thinking, Holly is staying at my house for the week. You and your family could park in my driveway and we have some extra room in the house..." She trailed off feeling like she was being too intrusive.
"Thanks but I don't think my parents would really want to put your family out."
"It's not a problem. You, Me, Kris, Ike, and Zac could easily crash in the living room. My brother is at his friend's house tonight so your sisters could stay there. And your parents could stay in the guest room. It's really not a problem. It might actually be fun."
Taylor thought for a moment. He didn't know how to tell her no. "I'll ask my parents. It would be fun."
"Cool." Brynn smiled back at him.
"You're really cool, you know that?"
"Huh?"
Taylor blushed. "I mean, we don't really get to hang out with a lot of fans who are like... die hard fans. And they tend to be so weird you know? All they seem to want to do the whole time is hug us. It gets crazy."
"We respect you." Brynn shrugged. "And really, you guys are so completely normal it's scary."
"Well thanks." He laughed. "Isaac and Holly are hitting it off."
"Holly makes friends everywhere she goes. She knows that her gift is to make people smile. Sometimes she gets really down on herself and we have to remind her of that. But she knows it's there."
He nodded. "She's really cool. You know," he trailed off slightly, "I was worried about you all night last night."
"You were?" Brynn swallowed hard.
"Well yeah, I mean, you got hurt because of us. I felt really bad."
"It wasn't you. It was the flaming wad next to me." She laughed. "Don't sweat it. I'm tough."
"I can see that." Then, he leaned over and gave her a gentle hug, trying not to put pressure on her wrist.
She hugged him back, surprised. The fans she'd talked to before were right, he gave great hugs. Gentle, yet firm, and he rubbed her back with his hand while he hugged her. Then, he let go. "What was that for?" She asked.
"I don't know." He shrugged. "It just happens sometimes."
"HI!" Mackie screamed and jumped through the air, landing on the floor in front of Holly. He stared at her, very impressed with her colorful, plastic, bracelets.
"Well, Hi." She held out her hand. "I'm Holly."
"I'm Mackenzie." He shook her hand rapidly and winked at Isaac. "Are you my brother's girlfriend?"
Isaac glared and Holly smiled. "I just met your brother today, Mackenzie. Why?"
"Because if you aren't his girlfriend, could you be mine?"
Holly looked at Isaac and shrugged. "I have an idea. How about, sometime before you leave, I'll take you out and we can get ice cream, just you and me. How does that sound?"
"AWESOME! I HAVE A DATE!" Mackie jumped back up and ran to the back of the bus where Brynn and Taylor still were.
"He's got some major juice." Holly laughed.
Isaac stared at her, shocked.
"What? What did I do now?"
"Nothing, I just... I've never seen anybody handle him like that before. Either they get annoyed or encourage him and tell him that he's the cutest little thing in the world. Even Zac can't handle him like you just did."
"Does Zac ever offer him free icecream?"
"No."
"Well see, that's it. All you gotta do is offer the kid something sweet and cold and he's happy."
Isaac smiled and touched the green frog scrunchie on her wrist. "You like kids don't you?"
"Yes." She said quietly. "I'm the youngest of 5, so I never got the chance to be a big sister to anybody. I kind of live vicariously through babysitting."
"That's cool though. You don't try to be their mom. You try to be their friend."
"I guess that's just what every kid needs. I just want to give them what I never had." Holly smiled hesitantly thinking about her own childhood and how hard it was for her to make friends. She wasn't always the loud outgoing girl that Isaac was meeting today. She went from being timid, shy, and lonely, to having a keychain that said, "I'm irresponsible, annoying, uncoordinated, and loud, but I'm FUN". But deep down inside she was still timid, shy, and lonely. She had definite demons hidden behind her smiles and bright, shiny, plastic jewelry that nobody knew about except Brynn. That's what best friends were for.
However, Isaac saw it right away. He knew there was something else there and for some reason, he wanted to learn what it was. He just had to figure out how to do it in 3 days.
Before he had a chance to ask her anything, Taylor, Mackie, and Brynn came back into the main area of the bus. "WE'RE STAYING AT BRYNN'S HOUSE!" Mackie screamed.
"Huh?" Isaac and Holly both looked confused.
Taylor rolled his eyes at his younger brother. "I just called dad on the cell phone. We're going to park in Brynn's driveway and crash in her house."
"Kind of a sleepover." Brynn grinned at Holly.
"That's cool." Holly smiled back and shrugged. But what she and Brynn were really thinking was... TRUTH OR DARE in the dark.