Kimberly watched as the third Hanson brother joined the group on the porch. Her first impression was of an incredibly attractive young man about the same height as his brothers. His blonde hair was cut short like Isaac's, though not quite as short, and it was kind of wavy. Despite the distance between them, Kimberly could tell that unlike his brown-eyed brothers, Taylor's eyes were a bright, clear blue. This is the kind of guy I could really get to like, she thought, blushing a little at that thought, since Taylor was really the first guy she'd thought about in that way before. For now, she decided to just wait and see what would happen.
"Hey, Tay," said Amy. "What took you so long?"
"I was working on a new song and didn't hear the doorbell. But what took you so long? I thought you were going to come over this morning."
"I was going to," she replied, "but then I had to go over to the school to sign up for classes for next year."
"You have to go back to school already?" Zac asked with a grin. "Didn't you just get out?"
"I got out last month, and no, I'm not going back to school already. We don't start again until August." Amy rolled her eyes at Zac, though she couldn't hide a faint laugh. Then she turned back to Taylor. "And I made a new friend there...she just moved here."
Kimberly stepped up to Amy and smiled shyly at Taylor. "Hi. I'm Kimberly, but you can call me Kim."
"Hi, Kim." He smiled back at her. "Where did you say you moved from?"
"Oh, I didn't...but it's Chicago."
He nodded. "And are all the girls in Chicago as beautiful as you?"
Kimberly could feel her cheeks turning pink. "Oh, they're all much prettier."
"Impossible!" said Taylor. "They couldn't possibly be."
Kimberly blushed even more furiously at that statement, and she attempted to change the subject. "You must be Taylor, right?"
Taylor nodded. "Yeah, but you can call me Tay. Are you a fan, then? You're definitely not acting like most of them do."
She smiled again, not quite so shyly this time. "Not really. I heard MMMBop, and really liked it, but that's about as far as it went. I couldn't get your CD, and I really didn't know who you guys were until Amy told me. I didn't even recognize the last name at first. But anyway...so Amy was the one who told me about you guys. She told me there were three of you...and with Zac being the crazy one, and Isaac being her boyfriend, that only leaves you to be Taylor. Unless of course you're the six-year-old...Amy never did tell me his name...but then you'd be an awfully tall six-year-old."
Taylor laughed. "That would be Mackenzie, or Mackie, and no, that's definitely not me."
"I didn't really think so, but you never know," said Kimberly. Everyone started laughing at that. "What did I do this time?" Kimberly asked. "Don't tell me that's another song title!"
"Okay, I won't!" said Zac.
Kimberly groaned, but couldn't help laughing. "I just can't stop doing this, can I?" Everyone laughed yet again, which produced yet another groan from Kimberly. "Another one? I need help, guys! I need to hear all of these songs, so I don't keep doing this all the time!"
"That can be remedied easily," said Taylor. "Come on inside!"
They all followed Taylor inside the house and down the stairs to the basement. Taylor immediately began rummaging through a box until he came up with a few CDs. He rejoined the group, handing Kimberly the CDs. "Here you go. Here's Middle of Nowhere, This Time Around...and if you want to hear how we used to sound live, here's a copy of Live From Albertane."
"Albertane?" asked Kimberly.
"It's supposed to be the capital of Mars. It comes from the song Man From Milwaukee from Middle of Nowhere, and it was also the title of our tour two years ago."
"Oh, okay. Cool." Kimberly stared at the CDs for a moment, then suddenly said, "One problem...where am I supposed to listen to them?"
"You don't have a CD player?" asked Zac.
"No, I don't have a CD player," she said. "We...we just moved here, and I haven't gotten one yet. I still haven't gotten used to living here yet."
"Oh," said Zac. "I'm sorry."
"Oh, don't be," Kimberly replied. "I was kinda upset at first about moving, and leaving all my old friends...especially my best friend, Jen...who's actually a lot like you, Zac, now that I think about it...but now I'm really glad we came."
"So am I," said Taylor, the look on his face causing Kimberly to blush once again.
Amy apparently sensed Kimberly's embarrassment. She quickly changed the subject, saying, "Well, I don't have any plans for today, and you guys don't either, do you?" she asked the Hansons, who shook their heads. "So if you want, we could go to the mall or something and you could get a CD player now."
Kimberly immediately shook her head. "No...I can't." She looked down for a minute. "What I should have said was, Mom doesn't want me to spend my money on something like that."
"Oh, don't worry about that!" said Amy with a smile. "I have an old one that we were gonna sell or something...it still works just fine, but my sister and I got a new one recently...and you can have it if you want it."
"Oh, I couldn't possibly take it!" exclaimed Kimberly. "I...I have to go now...Mom wanted me to be home already." She turned and ran out of the room.
Chapter 6
Untitled Untold
Story Page
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