Isaac, Taylor and Zac were cleaning up their room that night.
“Guys, why didn’t you spend the night with us down stairs. You promised.” He said the last looking at Taylor and feeling a little hurt.
“Well Zac….” Taylor began, “Our dear little sister was all alone. She had no friends over and was in her room using her teddy bears as party guests. I guess just looking at her made me realize that she needed us as much as you do so we thought that since you had so many friends over and she didn’t that you wouldn’t mind us slipping out and staying with her.” He said cleaning up the Lego table.
“What about Jessie and Avie?”
“They went to Grandma’s. They wanted to stay out of your way.” Isaac said struggling to make his bed.
“Oh.” Zac said feeling slightly guilty as he ran his brothers words over and over again in his mind. “Really? She was using teddy bears as party guests?”
“Yup, they had hats on and the whole nine yards.” Taylor said aiming a Lego at the can and getting it in there on the first try. “Yes,” he said quietly.
“I did have a lot of fun during the make over.” Isaac laughed. “Didn’t you, Tay?”
“Oh yeah, that was a blast. You should have seen your hair.” Taylor laughed.
“Well, yours looked about the same there, Taylor.” Ike laughed.
Just then a knock at the door interrupted their laughter. Taylor answered the door. There stood Alex, all smiles. He looked down at his sister and smiled.
“Here Tay.” She said and handed him two envelopes. He took them as she disappeared down the hall. He closed the door and handed one of the envelopes to Ike.
Taylor sat down on his bunk and opened the envelope with his name on it. On the front was a big yellow sun with a smile and wearing shades. He opened it.
Thanks for brightening up my birthday. Thanks for everything.
Alex
Diana had considered for a week now what she could possibly do to have Alex show off her talent of writing. After a couple of days of thinking she came up with a plan. She was going to make the four eldest Hanson’s do a report.
She was going to make Isaac do a photography project so he could learn that there was more to life than music. She was making Taylor write a song, and perform it all alone, to show him that he needed to rely on others as much as he relied on himself. And Zac, well Zac just needed to be included so she had him complete the mural in the garage, or draw an entirely new picture. And she had assigned Alex to write a short story.
All of the kids frowned at their assignments and pondered what exactly they were going to do. Alex was the only one who didn’t have a lot of work to do. All she needed to do was pick a story out of her collection and type it. After a lot of time considering which story to type she selected one of her favorites.
She went to her brother’s room. “Taylor...” Taylor looked up from his writing and pushed his glasses up on his nose, “May I use your laptop?”
“Sure go for it. It’s beside the dresser.”
“Thanks.”
She took it downstairs, and decided that she would work on it in the boys practice room. She opened the door and found Zac painting some sketches. She was always taken aback by his talent. He was everything she wasn’t, smart, talented, and funny.
The reason she had chose the practice room was that she figured that maybe by being surrounded by all of the talent that maybe just maybe some of that talent would seep into her. Now she felt stupid. She turned to leave the room.
“No stay, Alex. I don’t mind.” Zac said absentmindedly.
“I don’t want to bother you.”
“You don’t bother me, sis.”
Alexandra didn’t say anything. She just sat down next to the wall and plugged the computer in and began typing up her story. After a while she looked up and watched Zac shade in a portion of the sketches.
“It looks good, Zac.”
“Thanks. What ya writtin'?”
“My story.”
"Lemme hear.”
Alexandra was shocked. “Mommy says I have to read it in front of all of you on Wednesday.”
”Duh. I knew that. I’m so dense sometimes. I can’t wait to hear Tay’s song.”
“It’ll be wonderful, I know it will.” She sighed. And continued typing. After a little while Zac ran upstairs because their mother was calling him for one reason or the other.
