"Tonight, we are going to pack for the tour," Mr. Woodman announced. "Make sure you pack enough clothes so that you will last. Mom has your school stuff packed, because at the end of the tour, you three will start school."
"Okay, Dad," Andy said.
"Got it? Laurie, Mike?"
"Got it," they both responded. They all went up to their rooms. Laurie got out a bunch of shorts, including her green, orange, blue, and black Adidas shorts, her favorite Umbros that were orange with navy blue around the edges, a bunch of shirts including her collection of Old Navy shirts, her Adidas and Nike shirts, and her favorite tank tops. She threw out everything else necessary to go with her outfits and put them in a huge duffel bag they had gotten when the whole group went shopping. Laurie put her Adidas running shoes, her Nike shoes, her Adidas sandals, and her brown leather sandals on the bed. She threw in four bathing suits and tried to zip the duffel bags up. No such luck. She tried three more times.
"Andy!" Laurie called. He came into her room, eating a banana.
"Yes?" he asked her.
"Can you get this shut for me?"
"I'll try." He went over to her bed and zipped the bag up.
"Think you have enough clothes?" he said, teasing her.
"Ha ha, monkey boy. Thanks."
"You're welcome. He threw the peel from the banana in her trash can and walked out. Laurie put her CDs, books, videos, art supplies, and game boy with games into her bookbag. In another bag, she put her video camera and regular camera, along with blank tapes, extra rolls of film, and batteries. She put the bags against her wall and flopped down on her bed. She opened up the laptop she got for Christmas and played a game of Jezzball. Her mom came in.
"Sweetie, we're going to go walk up to the ice cream place with the Hanson's."
"Lets go!" Laurie shut the laptop off. She put on her Adidas shoes she left on the ground and joined her mom as they went down the steps and outside where everybody was waiting. They started walking the three blocks to Alfalfa's, the ice cream shop. The guys were talking non-stop about the tour! They were really excited about it. They finally got to the ice cream shop. Laurie, Jessie, and Andy got monster size strawberry sundaes. Zac and Avery got caramel sundaes made with cookie dough. Ike, Taylor, and Mike got these huge concretes made with hot fudge, caramel, and marshmallow, Mackie got a cup of vanilla which he generously shared with Zoe, Mr. Hanson and Mr. Woodman each got root beer floats, Mrs. Hanson got a pineapple sundae, and Mrs. Woodman had strawberry ice cream on a cone. They sat down at a long table and ate their treats.
"All packed up for Saturday, guys?" Mrs. Hanson asked.
"Just about," Laurie answered for everyone. "What about you guys?"
"Boy, I wish we were done," Mrs. Hanson said. Laurie smiled. She looked over at Isaac, who was sitting on her right. He was backwashing his ice cream. Laurie poked Ike.
"Yes?" he asked her.
"That's disgusting," she said.
"I know," he replied with an evil grin. He put some ice cream on his tongue and stuck it out at Laurie. Laurie made a face.
Everybody slurped up their ice cream and started to walk back. Ike held Laurie's hand on the way back. When they got to Laurie's house, he stopped and turned to her.
"We're going to have a practice session right now. Would you like to watch?" he asked.
"Sure," Laurie said.
"Great." Ike smiled. The Hansons and Laurie went over to the Hanson Mansion. The guys washed their hands and so did Laurie. They then went downstairs and started to tune up, while Laurie played with Tay's puzzle ball. Finally, though, they were ready and Laurie put the ball down. They played MMMBop for a warm up, then they played two new songs called More than Anything and Ever Lonely. Then they played some 3 Car Garage stuff, Soldier, Surely as the Sun, River, and Stories. They finished off with Man from Milwaukee. Laurie stood up and clapped at the end.
"Great job guys! You have come a long way ever since your first album."
"Thanks, Laurie!" they said.
"Hey, I have an idea, lets try something," Zac said. He pulled Ike and Tay in close. They whispered over an idea, then they turned to Laurie.
"Laurie, you're good at music, right?" Zac asked.
"Yeah," she said.
"You know the music to all our songs as well as we do, right?" he persisted.
"Well, almost as well," she said.
"Okay," Zac said. He handed her his drum sticks. "You get to play a song on the drums with Ike and Tay. Then you'll switch until you've played three songs. Okay?"
"Wait, Zac,I...." Laurie started, but it was no use. Zac pushed her over to the drums, and she sat down.
"What are we playing?" she asked.
"Thinking of You," Taylor replied.
"Okay-- wait a second," Laurie said. "Do I have to do my own singing?"
"Yep!" they all said unanimously with cheese eating grins.
"Great, thanks guys. See if I remember your Christmas cards," she said. They all started to laugh.
"All right, Laurie, quit stalling," Zac said. He leaned against the couch.
"Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4!" she yelled. She hit the crash cymbal as Ike started his guitar riff and she did the drum roll. The song went on smoothly until Laurie had to sing.
"Fly the wings of an eagle! No matter how high, I'll be thinking of you!" she sang as she got off beat. She caught herself quickly and got back on it. Tay and Ike looked over at her and smiled. The song finally ended, and Zac got back up to take the drums. Then Taylor pushed Laurie over to the keyboard.
"Thanks for the care, Tay," she said.
"Anytime," he said, grinning.
"Now what are we playing?" Laurie asked.
"Weird," Zac supplied.
"Zac, I know you are weird, but come on, I want to know the name of the song," she said.
"Uh Laurie, the song's name is Weird," he said.
"I know, just playing around," Laurie said.
"Okay," Zac said. He counted off the song. Laurie got most of the notes and chords right, and did a decent job with singing. Then Isaac made her play guitar on River. After that, Laurie had to go home. She ran across the yard and into her house. Her whole family was playing Nintendo 64 on the big screen downstairs. Laurie joined them and enjoyed one last family moment together in their house before they went on the road to Albertane.
Chapter 5
Chapter 3
Heading to Albertane
Kelly's Hanson Stories
