"Zac, the camera is over here!" the photographer yelled at me for the hundredth time. I wasn't paying attention. I had other thoughts than the thousandth photo shoot of my career.
"Sorry." I groaned at him and gave the camera a big fake smile that he immediately ate up by taking a ton of pictures.
I was so excited. That morning, Quaker had actually called me and invited me over after the shoot to her house to chill for a while. This is so awesome.
I must have been starring off into space again, because the next thing I knew, Ralph (the photographer) was shaking me by the shoulders.
"ZAC!!!!" I immediately fell out of the squatting position that he had put my in earlier and landed with a thud on my butt. Ouch. "Ugh, lets just call it a day. I'm never going to get his attention. Is he in love or something."
I raised an eyebrow at him, Taylor glared at me in disgust, and Ike snicked.
"And what's so funny pinkie?" I asked Ike in a sarcastic way. I knew he knew, I just wanted to see if he would say anything.
"Nothing....come on Zac I'll drive you home." he said back to me.
I can't wait till next year when I get my permit. Then I'll be driving both my brothers home. Heh heh, that will be the day.
Ike let me out of the car in front of Quaker's house and I rushed up to the front door and rang the bell.
A few moments passed, and then the door opened. There was a girl that I had never seen before starring at me. She was about a few inches shorter than Quaker, but had the same black hair as her. She was wearing a Dead Kennedy's shirt, and black Dickies pants that I didn't even know they made for girls. She took one look at me and then started laughing her head off. I gave her the weirdest look. Finally she calmed down enough to talk.
"You must be that Hanson dude that Quaker has been telling me about since this morning huh?" she said while looking me over. Then she went into another fit of laughter, looked up at me, got dead quiet for a minute, and said, "Man, your really tall.", and went into another huge fit of giggles.
"Okay, thanks, I think. Is Quaker here?" I asked rather confused. Who is this strange girl?
"Yeah, she's in the kitchen." she said between giggles and motioned for me to follow her.
We both walked into the kitchen. The moment that Quaker saw me, she leapt up from her seat, grabbed me by the arm, and pulled me into the hallway in front of the stairs.
"I'm so glad you came Zac! Don't mind Beano, she's not in her right state of mind at the moment. She just popped by for a minute, but now that your here I'm afraid she might stay, but I hope you'll like her, because when she's not high she's a really great person. Actually when she is high, if you want to hang out with her then well...." she trailed off and looked at me in a peculiar way. "Do you want something to drink?"
I gave her a weird look. "Um, okay I guess..."
She led me back into the kitchen and Beano gave me one look and started cracking up again.
"What's so funny?" I asked her while taking the seat across from her.
"Your a Hanson! Isn't that funny in itself?"
"Beano! That's rude man! Don't make me deprive you of food." Quaker said to her.
Wow, she stuck up for me, that's pretty cool. It's almost like we are real friends now even though we still don't really know each other.
"Okay, sorry Hanson boy." Beano said to me. I get the feeling that she was mocking me. Well I never!
"Hey Beans, got the stuff?" Quaker asked her.
"Yeah, It's in my bag. 10 dollars worth. Go get it."
Quaker walked over to a purse on the table, pulled something out of it very quickly and put it in her pocket, then give Beano ten dollars. Beano quickly pocketed that, and they shook hands.
"So Zac, how did the photo shoot go?" Quaker asked me.
"It didn't go very good at all. I wasn't paying attention, and the photographer kept yelling at me, then he called it a day because he couldn't get me to look at the camera."
"Sounds like that sucked." she said.
"It did."
The next thing I knew something hard came down on my head. "What the freak dude?" I said while spinning around.
There was Beano standing right behind me, grinning, and clutching a banana.
"Guess what Hanson boy, your it!" she squealed and thwapted me on the head again and ran.
"What's up with that?" I asked Quaker.
"Oh, she wants you to play tag with her. You don't have to if you don't want to."
"Okay, thank you. By the way, I gotta go to an interview in Oklahoma City soon, so I can't stay long."
Drat, that just ruins my plans. "Too bad man." I said. "Can you come back tonight?"
"Um maybe, what time?" he asked looking as if he had a palm pilot in his head.
"Oh say, around twelve?"
"Sorry man, but my parents would never let me out that late. There could be scary stalkers lurking around the fence that separates our houses." he said sarcastically.
"Why would your parents have to know?" I asked him slyly.
A look of complete shock came over him. "You mean sneak out? I can't do that."
"But I thought you were sick of your goodie goodie image." I said to him trying to make him give into my evil ways.
"Well, I am but...well I....mmmm I guess your right. How do I get in without your parents knowing?"
I won him over! Yes! "That's easy, just shimmy up my drain pipe. Knock on my window, and I'll help you in."
"Are you sure we won't get caught?"
"Positive."
"Okay, I guess I'll see you at twelve then."
"I'll be waiting." I said while smiling at him. He gave me an unsure crooked smile, and then left. Tonight should be very interesting.
I woke up in the car with my head on my little sister Jessica's lap. She was petting me. I saw she wasn't looking at me, so I quickly closed my eyes and acted like I was sleeping again.
That's what I like about Jessie. We are three years apart, but we act like were twins. We barely ever fight. Well, we do but not as much as we fight with our other siblings. I don't know what it is about her, but I just like her. Maybe it's because she's like my mother. I don't know, but we just have a close relationship. She actually lets me fall asleep on her lap without doing anything evil to me like Avery would. Avery would just sit there and pull out my hair strand by strand until I woke up.
"Faker." I heard Jessica say.
I flicked one of my eyes open at her.
"You can't trick me, I saw you open your eyes before, Zac."
"Darn, your too fast for me." she smiled in satisfaction when I said that. "Are we almost home. it's pretty late."
"Yeah, a few blocks away. Your head is heavy." she said while brushing the hair out of my face with her hand.
I laughed at that and sat up in my seat so I wasn't laying on her anymore. Even though she is twelve, she still has that childlike airness about her which I find cute.
The interview went well. Well, if you could call everyone ignoring me as usual, and my brother answering all the questions well, then it was good.
We pulled in our driveway around ten o'clock. As soon as we got in the door I acted like I was all tired and crap, and went upstairs.
I went into the bathroom, locked the door, and started to undress, avoiding the mirror. I can't stand to look at myself like that.
I turned the faucet on and climbed into the shower, and started to lather shampoo into my hair.
Man, how am I going to pull this one off? I have never deceived my family before. I have always been the almost perfect son that they could trust. I don't wanna ruin that image, but I really want to meet Quaker and see what she wants. I wonder why she wants me to come so late. This is weird man.
A few minutes later I got out of the shower and toweled off. I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked to my bedroom. Taylor was asleep already, and Isaac was up reading a really fat book by Steven King. He seemed distracted enough, so I quickly pulled on a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. Good, he didn't look up.
I walked over to the dresser and started brushing my hair.
"Ouch!" I squealed as I hit a knot. Ike looked up.
"And that's why you should use conditioner you big dummy." he said mocking me.
"Shut up man!" I said and then gave Isaac an evil look.
One minute I'm in a bedroom with a kid who is being attacked by bees in "The Shining" by Steven King, and the next my not so little brother is on my back with his wet hair dripping all over me.
"Ack dude, get off me!" I said while laughing.
"Say uncle, then maybe I will free you my prisoner!" he said in a very bad Terminator accent.
"Oh yeah?" I asked tauntingly
"YEAH!"
I got that same evil glint in my eyes that he had got only moments before. I quickly turned him over and pinned him so he had no chance of moving.
"You are fast, but not fast enough to beat the master!" I said
He looked a little intimidated which is all I get from him now a days. When he was younger he would be wetting his pants right about now.
"What are you going to do to me almighty guru of the art of pinning ones younger brother?"
"Heh heh heh, I shall now seek my revenge!" I said, and preceded to tickle him to death. I know it may be a childish thing to do, but I couldn't resist it on Zac. He's just so ticklish, and he is really cute when he laughs. Don't get me wrong or anything, I don't swing that way, I just mean the cuteness that a big brother sees in his little brother. Don't let this get around, but I always did like Zac better than my other siblings. Sure I love all of them, but Zac and I have a brotherly kinship that can't be broken. "Now who's the one that needs to be screaming uncle?"
"UNCLE! UNCLE!" he screamed while squirming around the bed try to catch his breath.
"I so whipped you!"
"Okay okay, you did. You ain't that old of a man."
"Hey, I'm not old."
"Old enough." he said while walking over to his bed. "I'm going to bed man."
"But Zac, it's only 10:30. You never go to bed at 10:30."
"I'm just tired Ikeman."
"No, but if you go to bed then you'll leave me alone, and then I'll have to go to bed. You can't do this to me man!" I whined at him. I didn't want to go to bed now. I'm not a geezer like my parents, that need to go to bed early. I may be 20 but I'm not any geezer.
I looked over at Zac's bed, and he appeared to be asleep. Something is not right with him. This is strange. Come to think of it, he is barely ever playful anymore. He only gets that way when something is bothering him. Something's up. I better stay up to see if anything happens.
I lay in my bed for a couple hours with my eyes glued to Zac's bed, watching for any sign of movement. Nothing.
I was finally starting to give up hope that he would do anything out of the ordinary, until suddenly he got up, pulled his pants on, and walked right out the door.
I glanced at the clock which read 12:00. Where is he going at this hour?
I got out of bed as quietly as I could, and followed him sticking as close to the wall as I could. From the landing in the middle of the stairs I watched him very stealthily open the front door and go out.
As soon as I was sure he was gone, I stood up and watched him out of the window, run over to the neighbors house, and oddly enough, climb up the drain pipe.
What the freak? The window opened and he climbed into it.
He was visiting Quaker! That rat!
There was nothing to do about it now, so I went back to my bedroom and sat on my bed to wait for Zac to come back.
I had a surpassingly easy time climbing up the pipe. I guess all those years of climbing trees paid off.
I knocked quietly on the window, hopeing that Quaker could hear me. Sure enough, the window opened and there she was.
"Glad you could make it." she said while holding out her hand.
I took it, and she pulled me in.
"How ya doing?" I asked her.
"Okay, but the question is how are you doing."
"Huh, what do you mean?" I asked confused.
"Sit down Zac." she said while leading me to the same spot where I sat yesterday.
I sat down and gave her a confused look.
"Remember yesterday how you were telling me how much you don't like life and how you wish things were different?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, I've got the answer to your problems."
I watched as Quaker took out a small wooden object, lit a match, and then put it in a small tin part of the wood thing. To my suprise, while she lit it, she held the object to her lips and inhaled in the smoke. Woah, she's a pot head!
After she did that, she held out the wood thing to me. I took it.
"Go ahead Zac." she said. "Take a puff."