Isaac Hanson pushed open the door to his younger brother's bedroom and watched him for a short moment before waking him up. "Zac, your phone is ringing." He waved the cellphone in the air and waited for Zac to respond. "Zac, wake up. Your phone is ringing."
Zac rolled over to face Isaac without opening his eyes. "No it's not. Go away."
"YOUR PHONE IS RINGING." He shouted after listening to the phone ring for the seventeenth time. He was counting.
"How do you know?" Zac mumbled and finally opened his eyes.
"Because I'm holding your phone in my hand and it's ringing." Isaac grew frustrated with the annoying ring that Zac had set up. He threw the phone lightly at Zac and laughed when it hit him in the forehead. Zac jumped and fell backwards out of his bed, almost hitting his head on the wall.
Zac mumbled and clicked the talk button on the phone. "Don't throw things at my head until I've been awake for more than an hour." He motioned for Isaac to leave and finally put the phone up to his ear. "Hello?"
"Is this Zac?"
"Mmmhmm."
"Did I wake you up?"
"Why would you think you woke me up? It's three in the afternoon."
"Because you told your brother not to throw things at your head unless you've been awake for an hour. I kind of drew my own conclusions."
Zac sat up, suddenly aware of the fact that he had no idea who he was talking to. Last time that happened he was deep into conversation with a fan that lasted an hour. "Hey, I don't mean to sound completely rude but who am I talking to?"
"This is Thea. I met you the other day at the mall and I figured I'd give you a call."
"Oh! Hi! How are you?"
"Well, I'm alive. How are you?"
Zac yawned. "Great. Wide awake, not at all sleepy." He yawned again.
"How about I call you back later. I didn't mean to wake you up."
"No it's ok. It's normal for me to wake up at three. It's not big deal. It's probably good you woke me up. I have to work today."
Thea thought for a moment. She knew who he was and who his brothers were but she didn't want to admit it to him. She was nothing like her sister. She was more tactful. "Oh really? Where do you work?"
Zac swallowed hard. This had never happened before. It was very humbling. She had no idea who he was. He wasn't sure if he should tell her the truth. It would be easy to say, "Oh, I'm flying to L.A. in two days to record an album with my brothers. I'll be there for a week. Same old, same old." But he couldn't bring himself to say it. "Uhm, I work with my brothers. Kind of a family business."
Thea smiled. "Sounds fun. Although, I don't think I could ever do that."
Zac yawned again. "Hey, this might sound lame but are you doing anything today? Or do you have to work?"
"Today's my day off. That's pretty much why I called. Why?"
"I don't know. Did you want to maybe do something?"
"Well, Madison is in the process of turning her bedroom into a shrine to cleanliness and it's driving me crazy. If I have to listen to the vaccuum for five more minutes I might pull all my hair out and turn it into a voodoo... hair doll... Ok if I ramble this long you really need to stop me."
"No it's ok. You sound like me. Uhm, we can just go for a drive or something."
"Cool. How about I pick you up?"
Zac thought for a minute. She would probably figure out who he was after driving up to his house. Maybe he should have her pick him up a block away. "Well, this might sound really macho of me but I'd really rather pick you up."
Thea agreed and gave him directions to her house and within minutes Zac had his hair combed and was on the way. He had worn a pair of brown cargo pants and a tight yellow shirt. Close enough to matching. Who cared?
He pulled up in front of her house fifteen minutes later and found her sitting on the front steps. She was wearing tight black pants that were slit up to the knees. They had various holes in them, filled in with lace. She was also wearing a dark blue t-shirt with jagged holes cut into the sleeves, showing off her arms. Her hair had purple streaks where the red ones used to be. Zac thought she looked beautiful.
Thea jumped down her stairs and swatted at a bee on herway to Zac's car. She pulled open the passenger side door and sat down beside him. "Hey."
"Hey. So, did you have any idea where you wanted to go?"
Thea grinned. "Actually, I was thinking we could take my car and I could drive you to one of my favorite places."
Zac bit his lip. "That sounds good."
They switched cars without saying a word and suddenly Zac found himself sitting in the passenger seat of Thea's Plymouth Valiant. "Your car is the size of a boat."
"Yes. I like it that way."
"What kind of car does Madison drive?"
"A uhm... BMW."
"Surprise surprise."
Thea laughed and turned off of her street, heading towards a field and some dirt roads. "You know, I've only lived here a couple years, but this town has more cows than I've ever seen in my whole life."
Zac laughed and looked out of his window. "Where exactly are we going?"
"Dunno."
"But you said we were going to your favorite place."
Thea nodded. "My favorite place is nowhere. I don't really have a favorite place. I don't fit in anywhere, so I just go anywhere I want and be whatever I want."
"I don't really fit in much either."
"I'm sure you don't." Thea laughed. "A guy like you?"
"What do you mean a guy like me?"
"Well, you're funny and you seem smart. And you're really hot. I don't see how you couldn't fit in anywhere you go?"
"I could say the same for you." Zac smiled and looked around him. "We're pretty much in the woods."
"Yeah, there's a lot of cool back roads out here. I like driving on them. You can go really fast and nobody is around to care." Thea stepped down on the gas and the car lurched as it sped to forty five miles per hour.
"Yeah. Fast is fun. Just make sure you don't hit any houses or anything." Zac grabbed a hold of the car handle.
"The 'oh shit' handles are more effective for that." Thea laughed.
"The oh what handles?"
"The 'oh shit' handles. Right up there on the roof. People grab them when you swerve and tend to shout, 'Oh SHIT'."
"Right. Got it." Zac laughed. He grabbed the handle as Thea swerved around a corner. "Hey, this is fun and all... but maybe we should mosey on down back to thirty or so. Dirt roads aren't really good on your car and..."
Thea hit the breaks and slowed the car down. "Sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out."
"You didn't. It's ok. It takes a lot to freak me out. You probably couldn't do it."
"I bet I could."
Zac smiled and looked out his window. She really had no idea who he was. At first he thought she might but she was too afraid to mention it. Or maybe she was too polite. Or maybe she was one of those people who would post in chatrooms about how much she hated Hanson. He swallowed hard. "Hey Thea, what kind of music do you listen to?"
"Uhm. Mostly metal and rock. I mean, I'll listen to pop if it has a rock edge. It's all about rock." She seemed to glance at him when she mentioned pop.
Zac's heart beat a little harder. "Oh. Yeah. Me too."
Thea stopped the car and turned it back around. "Ok, this is about as far as I go back here. There's too many animals around and I'm always afraid I'll hit one."
"Good idea. Hey, do you think we could maybe... go out and get something to eat?"
Thea blushed. "I didn't bring any money along."
"My treat."
"Like, a date?"
"Yeah." Zac smiled and Thea smiled back.
"Hey, did you know that Madison and I are twins?"
"What? No. She looks so much older. Are you sure you're twins?"
Thea laughed. "Last time I checked."
"But you're so different."
Thea shrugged. "It's really cliche to think that twins are all the same. We don't look alike. She's always been the pretty one and I've always been the bitch that everybody is afraid of."
Zac shook his head. "Other way around. You're the pretty one." He trailed off, suddenly shy and not knowing what to say.
"Thank you." Thea whispered. Zac though she was going to say something else but before she had the chance, she turned the wheel suddenly and the car jerked to the left, throwing stones everywhere. Zac grabbed the handle in the car and tried to see what she swerved to miss but he missed it. Thea panicked when she realized the car was out of her control. Instead of holding onto the wheel with a firm grip she let go and grabbed the seats. Zac put his hand on top of hers and jumped over to try and steady the wheel. Everything happened in what seemed to be a second and Zac never had a chance to turn to wheel to miss the tree. Everything went dark and he never heard what Thea was about to tell him.
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