CHAPTER 3:
"I can't believe you live next door to the Hansons! Dolly, you are SOOOO
lucky!" gushed Hope.
"Mmmmhmm," said Dolly, with a dazed look on her face. When the brothers
were here, she kept thinking that this must all be a dream. But now, as
she realized that it was true, the Hansons lived next door to her, she
felt herself in a state of shock. She, Dolly Ahluwalia, was a friend of
the Hansons. The Hansons had sung with HER band! And although all this
was very important in her mind, the one thing Dolly couldn't forget was
the way Taylor smiled at her as he left. Like she WAS the only girl in
his world.
* * * * *
As the Hansons walked into their house, they found themselves thinking
back to the girls.
"Wow! This is great! Our first day here and we already have a gig!"
exclaimed Zac. But Taylor and Isaac had their minds on other things. As
Zac walked out of the room, Taylor sat down next to next to Ike and
turned to him.
"What do you think of them? Dolly and Beatrice and Hope, I mean."
"They seem really nice. At least, they didn't scream when we talked to
them," said Ike.
"Yeah, Dolly really is nice, isn't she?" Said Tay. Ike grinned.
"You like her, don't you?" he said. It was a teasing voice, but there
was
a brotherly tone to it.
"As a friend," said Tay, blushing.
"Not more?" said Ike.
"Not yet," said Tay. "We've only known them for a day." he said.
"But don't you feel like you've known them a lot longer?" said Ike.
Taylor's grin widened.
"Well, I know who you felt like you've known a long time." Now it was
Ike's turn to blush.
"I think Beatrice is really nice." Taylor raised his eyebrows.
"That's all?" he said.
"Yes. That's all," responded Ike.
"What's going on?" said Zac, coming out of the kitchen with a huge bowl
of ice cream. "What am I missing?"
"Beavis and Butthead. It started 5 minutes ago," said Tay.
"Ohh man!" said Ike and Zac at the same time. Zac ran and turned on the
TV.Soon he and Ike were engrossed in the show. Taylor, meanwhile, went
to
his room and turned on his keyboard. He took out a sheet of paper.
Thinking back to his conversation with the girls, he suddenly had an
inspiration for a song.
* * * * *
--That Saturday--
The guests were just starting to arrive at Dolly's house. Beatrice,
Hope,
and her were setting up the instruments.
"Did you tell everybody that Hanson is coming?" Beatrice whispered.
"Not yet," replied Dolly. Just then, Hope came running.
"They're here! Guys, Hanson is here!" screeched Hope. Dolly stepped up
to
the people in the pool.
"Hello guys. Ok, well I know we were going to play some music for you,
but wouldn't it be better if you could hear the real thing?"
"Hey Dolly! Have you been sniffing your nail polish early this morning?"
yelled Chris Hanes.
"No. It's just that I thought the Hansons could play a few songs for
us."
"Yeah, right," said Jenna Russell. At that moment, Zac jumped over the
fence.
"All right! Is everybody ready to paaaaaaaaarty!" he yelled. Everybody
in
the pool stood still. Then Ike appeared.
"Uuuhhh, are you guys, like ready to rock?" he said, imitating
Butt-head.
Then Tay came out wearing oversized sunglasses.
"Lets rock and Roll," he screamed. At this last remark, every single
girl
in the pool ran to the Hansons. Zac screamed.
"Ahhhhhhhh! Its a Mob! Helllllllpppp!"
And he hid behind a bush. But a loud whistle pierced the air. Then
Dolly's voice was heard.
"Ok, now I promised Hanson that they would not be mobbed. I'm talking to
YOU, Josy." The girls friend Josy was holding on to the side of the pool
and hyperventilating. Dolly turned to Tay and Ike.
"I think the danger has been averted," she said with a wink. Then Zac's
head peeped over the top of a bush.
"How'd you get them so quiet, Dolly? What did you do, shoot them with
tranquillizers?" Ike, Tay and the girls laughed.
"Nah. I just had to use my most powerful weapon of persuasion," said
Dolly.
"What, your whistle?" asked Hope.
"No. My lungs!" said Dolly, laughing. That made everybody laugh. Then
she
turned to Hanson.
"Are you guys ready?" she asked.
"For sure, dude," said Zac in a surfer voice. The boys put their
instruments next to the girls. Then Ike turned to the people in the
pool.
"What should we play?" he asked. "Well , I'm not sure, But I think you
guys should play anything but 'MMMBop'. I mean, You guys must get tired
of playing the same song always." said Dolly. Zac made a weird face.
"Got that right," he said.
"Ok, so why don't we play 'A Minute Without You' and we'll all sing,"
Ike
said. Beatrice, Dolly, and Hope gulped.
"US??" squeaked Beatrice.
"Yeah," said Ike. He looked a bit confused. "That was the plan, right?"
"Well, yeah, but now that you guys are here, we thought we'd kind of be
the backup band. Like if you guys got tired or wanted to go for a swim
or
something, we'd fill in," said Dolly.
"NO WAY!" said Zac.
"Yeah. Its either all of us or none of us," said Tay. He put his hand on
Dolly's shoulder. Dolly felt her whole body tingle at his touch.
"We're all in this together," Tay said.
"Right. So, you ready to play or what? I want to be finished before my
100th birthday," Zac screamed.
"Ok. Well, then, lets get this party started," yelled Dolly.
"Right on!" said Beatrice.
"Ok, everybody ready?" said Hope. She was replied with a chorus of
yeses.
"Great! Well Zac, you wanna start this off?" asked Hope.
"Sure!" said Zac gleefully. "Ready? A 1,2,3,4!" he said. He and Hope
started drumming. With the two of them, there wasn't even a need for
speakers. Then Dolly and Tay joined in on keyboards. Finally, Ike and
Bea
started carrying the tune on their guitars. Ike started singing, along
with Tay and Zac. But Dolly, Hope, and Beatrice remained silent. Tay
called out.
"Come on guys! Sing!" So Dolly chimed in. Then Beatrice and Hope did
too.
Soon everybody at the party was dancing on the lawn and singing along.
At
the end of the song, everybody started clapping and whistling.
"More! Play some more!" everybody screamed.
"Well, we have to respond to your fans," said Bea to Ike.
"OUR fans. You mean OUR fans," said Ike.
"Yeah. Our fans," said Beatrice, blushing.
"Hey Tay! Can we play 'Man from Milwaukee'?" said Zac.
" Sure! Lets go for it!" answered a smiling Tay. Dolly turned her head
to
her friends.
"Ok, now we're going to play a song by our very own Zac. Here comes 'Man
from Milwaukee'!" she screamed. Everybody at the party cheered.
"Lets rock," said Tay, pulling down his sunglasses. Ike and Bea started
playing the opening riff. Then they all started playing. Dolly and
Beatrice and Hope were putting all they had into their music. Hearing
the
crowd cheering them on made them play the best they ever had. At the end
of the song, they played encore after encore. Soon, though, peoples
parents started arriving to pick up everybody. Some people were pretty
upset. Josy had to be pried away by her whole family.
"I love you Taylor!" she screamed as she left.
"Whoa! I think her tranquillizers have worn off!!" said Zac, when
everybody had left.
"Yeah. It looks like you have some pretty big fans," said Ike, laughing.
Taylor blushed a deep red. But Dolly rolled her eyes.
"Well, duh. Tay is, like, the perfect guy. Great family, great voice,
good looks, great hair--"
Ike cut her off. "Good looks? What about me?! I'm, like, a Greek god
compared to this wimp!" Ike said, flexing and trying to act like a
muscle
man.
"Got that right" muttered Beatrice.
"Huh?" said Ike. Bea blushed.
"Nothing."
"Well, you know, you guys aren't so bad your self," said Tay. But his
voice was drowned out by Zac's screeching voice.
"What does that make me, chopped liver?"
"Of course not! Your definitely the cutest Hanson," said Hope. She
walked
over and gave Zac a noogie.
"Your right about that," said Dolly, walking over and pinching his
cheeks.
"Defiantly," said Beatrice, who went over to Zac and put him in a
friendly headlock. Ike and Tay stood alone.
"I feel so. . .so . . .alone," said Ike in a fake puppy dog voice.
"Well, we'll always have each other man," said Tay.
"Right on, my brother," said Ike. He and Tay hugged and pretended to
cry.
Zac untangled himself from the girls grip.
"I love you guys!" he said and jumped on top of Ike. Ike fell to his
knees.
"Need air," he choked out.
"Sorry bro I guess I just got caught up in the moment," said Zac.
"Anyway, I guess we've got to go now," said Tay. Was Dolly imagining it,
or was there a sadness in his voice? No, she was imagining it. Why would
he feel sad?
"See you guys later," said Tay, walking out the gate.
"Hehehehe. Later," said Ike, doing his Butthead voice again. Zac started
jumping up and down.
"This party was, uh, narly dudes," he said. Then he followed Ike.
