Chapter 7: Not So Secret Meeting
As time passed on, though rough at times because of our schedules, the
four of us still hung out a lot. Every chance we got, we were on the phone,
or at each other's houses or writing letters and e-mail. We were definately
connected. Finally, our schedules settled down and May 23 finally rolled
around.
"Zac, hurry up! We're going to be late picking the girls up!" I yelled
from the bottom of the stairs. Isaac had already started the car. Thank the
Lord for Isaac the taxi.
"I'm comin', I'm comin', just hold your freakin' horses Tay, geez. If
we're five minutes late they aren't going to flip our or anything." Zac called
to me. Luckily, right after that, he came bolting down the stairs.
"You're lucky, I was about to come up there and get you!" I grabbed his
arm and drug him to the car.
"Thanks Ike, I mean, for taking us and all." I said as I situated into
the seat.
"No problem Tay, it's not like I had anything better to do." he sighed.
I really felt bad for the guy, he had almost no life. The girls were on a sudden low, mom and dad were being cranky to him. I made myself a self
reminder to do something nice for him.
We pulled up to the house and the girls were waiting outside. Joey
looked really good. She was wearing an white tank top, some cut-off jean shorts with
tiny pastel flowers on them and her bathing suit underneath. She was wearing
some Doc Martins© sandals. Her hair was down and it looked a lot lighter. She must have gotten highlights or
the sun bleached it. Either way, the blond strands definately caught my
attention. I had to concentrate to keep my tongue in my mouth. My poor little Zac
was drooling over Kat. She was wearing a pair of jean daisy dukes, a light purple tank
top and had a purple and white bathing suit underneath. She was wearing some lavender
Airwalks© without socks. Her hair was in a high ponytail and she almost
looked like Jeanie from I Dream Of Jeanie. Her ponytail wasn't that high up though.
Anyway, the two looked great compared to me and Zac. He had a blue and black pair of trunks on, a
yellow shirt and some blue Airwalks©, with socks. I had a light green shirt,
some Doc Martins© sandals and some red trunks on.
They both had white canvas bags, which I'm sure, held all the crap we
told them to bring. And they both, coincidentally, had really cool Ray-Ban©
sunglasses on.
"Good morning ladies, don't you look nice today." I said as they sat
in they stepped into the van. Joey sat next to me and Kat next to Zac. I wonder why.
"Thank you sir." Joey tipped her sunglasses at me and laughed. She had
put a full old western accent into that one.
"You're mighty welcome Miss." I tipped my glasses at her.
"You two are crazy." Kat and Zac said at the same time. That set them
off and they both could not stop laughing. Well, their laughing caused Joey
and I to laugh. By the time we got back to my house, we were all in hysterics.
We had even caused Ike to laugh.
"That was so funny." Joey said, slapping her knee.
"I don't know why, but it really was." Kat said, still snickering.
"Yeah." Zac added.
"Are we all ready to go?" mom asked. Her and dad came down the stairs
holding kids and bags of stuff.
"Ready to go!" Zac ran over to help mom. I followed and grabbed some
bags.
"Would you like some help Mr. and Mrs. Hanson?" Joey asked sweetly.
She looked so inoccent.
"I could really use it Joey, thank you for asking. And please, for the
five millionth time, call me Diana. I insist, please." she smiled. My mom
had one of the most warm smiles and was one of the nicest people. And I'm not
just saying that cause she's my mom.
"We'll be glad to help." she pulled Kat over to help her. They took
some bags from my mom and Ike grabbed some that were sitting by the stairs.
“Let's rock and roll.” dad said his ever-infamous line. And we packed
up the vans and were on our way.
Chapter 8: The Whole Reunion Thing and the Ride Home
“I can’t believe you guys get to have your reunion at Big Splash. Our
reunions are always in stupid little gazebos in friggin’ parks,” I stated
sadly. It was true, my family was completely and utterly boring. We were
standing under a canopy that had been set up for the group of about a 150
people. I could barely believe that they were all Hansons.
“Well, my uncle suggested it, and it took a little begging on the
kid’s part, but we pulled it off,” Taylor explained.
“So, what’s our itinerary?” I asked.
“Well, first we sit through a boring speech by our great-grandma,” Zac
started.
“Then we get to sing the Hanson family song, oooooh, fun,” Isaac said
sarcastically.
“Wait, you guys have a song?” Kat snickered.
“Strange, isn’t it? But, yes, we do have a song. My grandmother wrote
it when she was a teenager, and it was unofficially our song until about ten
years ago, when we wrote it down in the official scrapbook,” Taylor informed
us.
“Okay...” I smiled.
“Anyway, after the song, we all have ice cream,” Taylor went on.
“And then we get to ride on the rides!” Zac interrupted.
“And the final thing we do, is get together once more for prayer and
our goodbyes. Most of the parents will stay here while the kids ride everything.
As you can see, most of them aren’t wearing swimsuits,” Isaac pointed out.
“Kids! Time for Grama’s speech!” Walker yelled from across the lawn we
were standing on. We all walked over to him, Diana and the rest of their
immediate family and sat down to listen to the rather long speech.
“....and we’re proud, so proud, to stand for what we believe,” the song
finished. Kat and I sat listening as the entire family sang their “theme song.” Actually, despite my first impression, it really wasn’t as corny
as I thought it would be. I was counting on it being more like the theme song
to the old TV show “Salute Your Shorts.” I figured it would be “Hanson the
family, we hold you in our hearts, and when we think about us, it speaks to my
heart!” Fortunately, it went more like an old soulful hymn. Taylor sat beside
me and I could hear him singing with his beautiful voice and I listened intently to him and only him.
Soon after we ate the tiny bit of ice cream, we were all released and
so we got to go to the water rides. Zac and Kat were in the mood for the wave
pool, but me and Taylor decided to go to the seven story water slide. We ran
off to the ride and got in the long line, the sun blazing upon our already hot
selves.
“You hot?” Taylor asked, laughing, noticing the sweat beads beginning
to form on my forehead.
“No, of course not,” I said sarcastically. “I can see that you aren’t,
either,” I laughed, wiping my hand across his damp neck. I then shook my
hand off, like it was covered with sweat. It was weird how I didn’t care that
I touched his sweat. Any other guy’s sweat would have been nasty dirty, but his
didn’t seem to bother me. A strange thought, but a thought nonetheless.
We chatted about nothing in particular to pass the time. Suddenly, we
got on a conversation that made the ever-present butterflies in my stomach take
in vigorous flight.
“You have pretty eyes,” Taylor observed as we stood there.
“You’re eyes are better. They’re such a gorgeous shade of blue,” I
commented.
“No, yours are better. They’re a beautiful shade of.....what color are
they?” Taylor laughed. “Lean over here.”
I obeyed and Taylor took my face in his hands as he stared into my
eyes. It was the most romantic moment, yet it wasn’t even meant to be. Soon, I
realized that one of his hands had fallen down to my waist and was now slowly
guiding my body closer to his. Our lips seem to take forever to get only a
small, precious inch apart. It would have taken only a slight movement to
finally make them meet in a sweet connection, but we stayed in that position for
a moment. Our lips were almost touching, our bodies pressed together, and
we were just listening to each deep breath that escaped our lips. Taylor
began to move towards me again to close our gap, but a sharp tap on my shoulder
interrupted it all.
“Excuse me, miss. You’re next,” the on-duty lifeguard huffed. I pulled
away from Taylor, wishing that we were anywhere but there.
I wanted to try to kiss her again after the ride, but the moment had
passed. It was gone and there wasn’t a darn thing I could do about it. I kept
looking for a time to try again, but soon, Zac, Kat and Isaac rejoined with us
to go on the Lazy River to cool down before we had to go. We all had tubes
paid for by Big Splash because of our reputation, and we linked together by hands
and feet to let the smooth water slowly move us down the channel. Joey and I
were linked momentarily by holding hands when Kat got torn from between us,
but Joey soon turned around, linking her foot onto the bottom of my tube. I
sighed, wishing she and I could hook up. I didn’t know why we were so hesitant, but we were. I hoped that all the waiting would prove to be a
good effect on our relationship--that is, if we ever decided to have one.
That was something that scared me slightly. Joey looked at me often,
flirted with me and made it seem as though she wanted to be with me in a couple
sense, but other times, she seemed completely friend-like. The scene on the
slide made me almost sure she wanted to be together, but after that, it was
like nothing had happened. I couldn’t help but wonder if she totally
regretted ever having any thought in her mind about doing such a thing with me.
When it was finally time for the entire group of Hansons and relatives
to rejoin for a final farewell, I could tell Joey was completely beat. She
had gotten a tan from the sun, despite putting on sunscreen and her wet hair
was laying limply on her shoulders. She held her bag in one hand and shifted
often from one foot to the other, her feet apparently tired. She had put
regular clothes on and was now wearing a pair of jean shorts and a simple white
tank top. I admired her while one of my many relatives I didn’t know bid
farewell to the entire crowd on a microphone.
“You look tired,” I whispered in her ear.
“That’s because I am,” she whispered back. Her breath tickled my ear
and I smiled at the sensation. “Don’t blame me if I fall asleep on the way
back. You’re the one who invited me.”
“As long as you don’t snore like Ike, I won’t care,” I joked. She
giggled and mouthed “Don’t be mean.” I just looked at Isaac who looked like he was
already half-asleep and was standing in a comatose state near my father and
mother.
Suddenly the crowd burst into quick goodbyes, and I realized that the
speech was over. I said good bye to my grandmother and cousins and aunts and
uncles as quickly as they would allow and then snuck over to where Joey stood
waiting patiently. I swore I saw her eyes light up a bit when I approached.
“Let’s go wait by the car,” I suggested. She nodded and I quickly told
my father where we were headed. We then went out the front gate and toward
our large, white van. “I can breath!!!” I exclaimed as we headed away from
the droves of relatives. “You know how many cheek-pinchers there are in a group of
250 relatives?”
“I’d guess quite a few,” Joey smiled.
“Seventy-eight. I counted. Trust me,” I informed her.
“Ouch. Painful. What’s worse is when they kiss you after they pinch
your cheeks. They like to kiss right smack dab in the middle of the forehead
with their hot-pink lipstick. Ugh. It drives me absolutely insane,” she laughed. We
continued to talk for a few more minutes, our conversation never steering away
from non-romantic subjects. Soon, the rest of my family joined us, letting us
into the car and preparing to leave.
I’ll never forget the drive home. It wasn’t anything monumental that
happened, and it probably only meant something to just me, but it was
still unforgettable in my mind. As we drove, Joey sat on the outside, beside
the window, I sat in the middle and Avie sat on my other side. Avie fell
asleep against the arm rest almost immediately, but Joey tried to stay awake
for a few minutes. Soon, she yawned and looked at me, with her eyes half open.
She leaned over to my ear and said, “Do you mind if you become my pillow?”
“Of course not,” I smiled. Then, she laid her head down softly onto my
shoulder as I put my arm around her.
“Thanks,” she said quietly.
“No problem,” I returned. We stayed like that the entire way home. I
kept myself awake since I didn’t want to slip and wake her. She breathed
softly, and her snores weren’t really snores. They were more like little sighs
that came regularly. Each sigh warmed my heart and made me wonder how I could
ever live without her.
It was the stupidest thing. On the way back home in the van, I though
of my favorite part of the whole trip was the stupidest thing, but it meant so
much to me somehow. It made me turn to mush every time I thought about it. It
wasn’t the way Zac pulled me aside and kissed me after getting ice cream. It
wasn’t when he took my hand and kissed it. It wasn’t when he kissed my necklace and told me he did it for good luck. It wasn’t even when he
told me straight out that I was the best thing that had ever happened to him. It
was his family. Seeing Zac hugging and kissing his younger brother and sisters
like he did nearly made me cry. Seeing him listen intently as his grandmother
told him a story of how she wrote the family song. Seeing him smile sweetly as
his baby cousin tried to walk along the grassy hill. It made me want to be in
his family--to be a part of that bond he had with everyone there. I suddenly
wanted to be his sister rather than his girlfriend.
My mom and I have lived alone for six years. That’s six years of no
father or siblings. Six years of two-person meals, and many times just a lonely
meal by myself. I had never had brothers or sisters. There was no one to hit and
gripe at when they bothered me; no one to look up to and yell at when they wouldn’t
let me tag along. I often wished for a large family. When I was about four,
and my parents were still together, I prayed and asked God to make my mom pregnant with four babies at one time. I didn’t know what they would be
called. I knew they wouldn’t be twins or triplets, so I said I wanted fourplets. I explained my situation to my mother at five years old, and
she told me that there were so many problems when she was pregnant with me,
that the doctor told her another child would put her and the new baby in serious
danger of dying. I told her to adopt. She said there wasn’t enough money. I
told her to kidnap. She said it was wrong. There was always an excuse, whether
it was good, or better. (I knew that none of her excuses were bad, but they
were still excuses.)
Watching Zac made me only wish I had a chance to love a younger brother
or sister. I knew it wasn’t going to happen though, so I decided to slowly
accept that and be glad in the fact that I did have a mother.
“Kat? Are you still with us?” I heard Zac call suddenly. I closed my
eyes and shook my head, breaking my stare that had been off into space.
“Oh, yeah, sorry,” I apologized. “What were you saying?”
“Just that I was wondering if maybe you could come over tomorrow. We
have the whole day off, and plenty of time to spend with my favoritest girlfriend,” Zac
said.
“How many unfavorite girlfriends do you have, Zacky boy?” I eyed him.
“Just you, but you’re still my favorite,” Zac smiled.
“So I’m your unfavorite, and you favorite? Fine, whatever you say. Anyway,
I’d love to, but I’d have to ask Joey,” I turned to look at Joey behind us,
and saw the sweet scene. Taylor was staring out the van window, oblivious to
me and Zac staring at the snoozing Joey laying on his shoulder. I knew I
couldn’t pass up a Kodak moment like this, so I quickly whipped out my
infamous camera and flashed it before Zac or Taylor or anyone else could stop
me. As the flash went off, Taylor looked at me quickly, then looked at Joey to
see her still sleeping soundly. He gave me a dirty look and then looked away.
“You bad girl. Tay-Tay is mad at you now...” Zac used his fingers to
“tsk, tsk” me. I didn’t pretend to be sorry. Joey would thank me a million
times over when I showed her the picture.
Chapters 9-10
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