The next morning, I woke up early and made a card for Zac out of some construction
paper that I found (it had served as packing paper for some silverware, but I flattened it
out) and in it, promised give him a gift later. Mom said I was allowed to go to the party
that night, but I was supposed to be home before 12:30. I crossed the woods and
cut through the Hanson's backyard and knocked on their back door (sliding glass doors).
Mrs. Hanson answered it. "Hi, Tayler," she smiled. "I brought this
for Zac," I said, handing her the homemade card. "Oh, that's so thoughtful," she
took the card from my hand. "Hold on a few minutes, I'll get him." "It's okay, if he's
still asleep or something, I can come back later," I offered. "No, it's all right, he
should get up anyway," she shrugged. She asked if I wanted to come in, but I
declined. I sat down outside on a lawn chair. After a few minutes, Zac came to the door,
wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt.He looked like he'd just woken up. He was rubbing his
eyes and his hair was all tangled. "Hi!" I smiled as he stepped out on to the
patio. "Hi," he yawned. "Happy Birthday!" I cheered. "Thank you," he
plopped down onto a chair next to me. "Sorry I came so early," I said, feeling
guilty. "It's okay," he shrugged. He was so totally not awake... "What time are you guys leaving to go to
LaserQuest?" "I'm not sure," I he yawned and scratched his head. "Oh," I
said, looking around the yard. "I'm hungry, do you want to come inside?" he
wondered. "Sure." We went inside and Zac sat down at the kitchen table.
He poured some cereal for himself. I didn't want any cereal, but I began to peel an orange.
I realized I had to pee, but I ignored it like I usually do. Mrs.
Hanson came in with Zoe, put her in her chair, and began to fix her some breakfast. Jessie
came trotting in. "Hi," I smiled. "Hi," Jessie smiled back.
Avie entered and got herself some breakfast. "Zac, hon, can you go get Mackie?" his
mom asked, sticking baby food in the microwave. "Uh huh," Zac nodded
sleepily. Zac returned a few minutes later with Mackie, who was wearing cute
Superman pajamas. By then, I had to go to the bathroom even more than before,
but I was a little embarassed to ask. After a few more minutes, I decided to go ahead and do it before I peed myself.
"Zac, can I use the bathroom?" I whispered to Zac who had sat back down
next tome. "No, no bathroom for you," he teased. He laughed at my pained
expression, "Sure,use the one upstairs, it's right next to the stairs." He pointed with his
spoon. "Thanks." I walked to the base of the stairs, but jogged up them. I almost entered the wrong room, which must have been Jess or Avie's room. I
finally found the bathroom, and entered it in a hurry. I was feeling quite refreshed as I
washed my hands. I opened the door and jumped. A slightly sleepy Tay was leaning on
the doorframe. "Oh, hi," I smiled. "Robinson?" he looked confused, "What are
you doing here?" "I came over for Zacky's birthday, and I really had to pee," I
laughed. "Okay, whatever," Tay shook his head. He entered the bathroom and
closed the door. As I was on my way back downstairs, Ike came out of his
room saying, "Tay, you really should-" he saw me, "Robinson?" "Yes?"
"Why are you here?" "It's Zacky's birthday," was all I said. "Okay,
whatever," Ike shook his head as Tay had. I went back downstairs. Zac was
putting his bowl in the sink. "Zac, can you feed Zoe for me, while I find some
clean laundry for your sisters?" "I'll do it," I volunteered. "Thanks,
hon," Mrs. Hanson smiled. I scooped up some of the pear or whatever it was and
put it up to Zoe's mouth. She licked it off. After Zoe was almost finished, Mrs. Hanson
returned. "Tayler," she said, "would you like to come with us to Zac's party in
LaserQuest?" "Um, sure, but I've never played before," I shrugged. "That's
okay," Zac said slyly, "We'll teach you." "Yea, sure you will," I said
sarcastically. "They'll show you how," Mrs. Hanson nodded towards Ike and Tay
who came into the kitchen. After breakfast, I went home to talk to my mom about
going with the "guys" toLaserQuest. She said it was okay, and blah blah blah. So, in a
little bit I was back at the Hanson's. Ike and Mr. Hanson drove us to the LaserQuest place
and everything. They explained to me how to play the game (basically hide
and shoot), and we played one round. I didn't win (duh). After that game we ate pizza and
stuff. We played another game, this time with Avie, Jessie, and Mack, too. Then Zacky
opened his presents (he got like, some clothes, gift certificates, and
stuff). We played a few more games and then we went home. I picked out a
funky outfit for the party, a fuzzy black shirt, black boot-cut jeans, a little
kitten-ears headband, black Doc Marten boots, a little silver necklace that read "Meow",
and black(actually, it was "black orchid") lipstick. I left my house, cut across the woods,
and for the third time that day, went to the Hansons' house. Zac, Tay, and Ike were
waiting in front for me. "What are you supposed to be?" Zac teased, pulling my kitty ears off. "This isn't a Halloween party, you know." "I know that, dumb@$$," I grabbed the ears back from him and put them on, "Are we driving?" I asked Ike. "Yea," Ike
nodded, ushering us into the car. The house wasn't that far away. We got out of
the car and walked into the party. There were a whole bunch of people inside. Ike found
this girl and brought me over to her. "Robinson, this is Genevieve. Gen, this is, Rob-
um, this is Tayler Robinson." "Hi," the girl smiled, but looked around slightly
disinterestedly."Robinson, this is Gen's party," Ike explained. "Hi," I smiled.
"Excuse me guys, I 'll be back later," Gen said, moving along. Tay called
from across the room, "Robinson!" I went over to him, "Can you not yell across the
room please? Thank you." "Robinson, this is my friend Mike. He lives on your
street, but like, not close to your house," Tay explained. "Oh," I said, not really
interested, "Hi." The guy smiled and nodded at me. The rest of the
night went on pretty much the same, I met like twelve people that lived on my or the
Hanson's street. All of them nodded and smiled, but were more interested in talking with a
few of "more popular" girls who were congregated in a corner. At quarter after
twelve, I found Tay and told him that I needed to go home. Rather than have Ike and Zac
leave as well, Tay volunteered to walk me home. "So," Tay muttered as we collected our jackets, "What do
you think of the Oklahoman folk?" "Um, I guess they're cool, but most of them
were more interested in those'popular' people." "Yea, that's Tiffany, Nicole, and
Lisa, they're like, you know, like..." he blushed. "What?" "Sluts."
"Oh, I see," I laughed."So that's why you all wanted to be around them," I
elbowed Tay in the ribs. "I wouldn't ever go out with any of them, I mean,
unless one of them asked me out, because then it would be like, you know," Tay
rambled. "Yea, whatever," I shook my head in disgust. Sounding
flustered, he simply said, "You know what I mean." If nothing else, I could
tell that Tay thought those girls were pretty hot. All I knew was that just from being in the
same room with them, they were bad news and not at all people I wanted to hang around
with. They were those nasty teases who hooked up with like fifteen guys at parties like that and then broke all their hearts. I began to wonder why the Hansons had even brought me there. Boy, would they be
surprised at a New York party. There's always something cool going on there.
While I was pondering all this, I noticed that Tay was looking
rather uncomfortable because of the silence. I had to say something. "So, that um,
Genevieve girl, um, she's not like, um, one of those popular people, is she?"
"What?" Tay sounded confused. "Genevieve." "Oh, um,
no not really." I felt like such an idiot, Just flash a big LOSER sign above my
forehead. "So," I sighed. "So." I looked up at the sky. There
were a lot of stars, I mean, a lot more than you can see in New York or New Jersey
anyway. "So, do you guys get to go to New York?" I asked. "Yea, for
Christmas," Tay answered. "Cool." "You know, you can go back to the
party, if you want, I know my way back from here," I said, not wanting to hold him back
from having fun. "No, it's okay, it's better being out here with one person, being
you, than in there with a zillion people, you know, like those girls." I didn't quite
know what to say. Was that supposed to be a compliment? I glanced at him. He was
looking straight ahead with his hands shoved in his pockets. The dim streetlight
emphasized the thoughtful look on his face. Uncomfortably, I shoved my hair behind my
ears. I felt guilty. Maybe I had underestimated him. Feeling bold, I questioned him,
"Have you ever loved anyone? And like, I don'tmean your mom." He looked kind of
surprised, "Not in any kind of relationship." "Well, have you ever loved anyone at
all?" I said, not really caring that I was making him extremely uncomfortable. "I'm not really
sure, but you can't just expect me to answer that without me wanting to know what you
have to say about it." I didn't expect him to make this conversation about me. I made
a little white lie and said, "I mean, I was just wondering because there are so many girls
out there who like, adore you. I remember in my class, there were these three girls who wrote
love poems about you and talked about having sex with you all the time." "Oh," he
half-smiled, but he chose to ignore the last half of my comment, "Well, I guess I don't
really know. I think I'm kind of confused about all that." "Yea, I mean, with so
many people saying they love you when they've never met you, it must be hard to find out
what love means," I said quietly. "I'm not sure how you knew that, but that's
basically it," he said. I could sense he was getting a little less uncomfortable.
We rounded the corner of my street. I was wishing we weren't because it was
the first time I'd actually talked to anyone in a non-joking way since I'd moved, and I wanted to hear what else
he had to say. "It's kind of hard to love, or even like somebody when you sometimes
are on two different continents in one day. I'll like, talk to some girls in interviews and
stuff, and I'll learn stuff about them, but it doesn't matter if I like them or not because they
say they love me, but they don't really know me, and the sad part is I'll probably never see
them again," he frowned. I expected him to stop in front of my house, but he kept
on walking with me all the way to the door. "I can't say I understand, but I know what you
mean," I said in a voice that was only a little above a whisper. We stopped on my doorstep.
"Thanks," he smiled. "Thanks for walking me." "No prob." He even
opened the front door for me. "I'll see you tomorrow," I smiled. "You
bet." He turned around and stepped quietly down the stairs. I closed the front door
and sighed deeply. I trotted upstairs to my room, feeling rather funny about the
whole experience. I wiped off my make-up, changed, and silently went to bed.
