"Substitute 0 for x, and 3 times 0 is 0, 16 divided by 4 is 4..." I muttered, working my way through the easy problem. When I'd finished, I looked up at Olivia again. "Y=4," I stated.
"Good. Next problem..." I groaned. Olivia sat back against the oak tree we were sitting under. "Come on, Will, don't start this again. I know you hate it, so do I, but you need to know this."
"I know, I know," I agreed, watching a familiar car pull into the driveway. "Brad's home!" I shrieked, jumping up and sending my papers flying.
"Willow!" Olivia shouted, frantically trying to collect my scattering work as I ran over to greet my older brother.
"Will, are you giving Olive a hard time?" he laughed as I opened his door. I grinned angelically.
"No."
"Yes!" Olivia corrected, coming up behind me. She and Brad embraced, and I giggled. Olivia shot me a nasty look, then smiled. We started up the front porch into the house, but Brad paused.
"Willow, my favorite sister..."
"Your only sister..." I added.
"... Would you mind if I interrupted your lesson for a little while so that I can talk to Olive?" he finished. Olivia gave him a stern look, annoyed at having to stop yet another lesson, but Brad gave her a tender look. I grinned.
"Do I mind? No way! Talk all the time you need," I encouraged them. Olivia turned her stern look onto me before going into the house.
"Don't leave the yard, we won't be long," she instructed. As they disappeared into the house, I turned back towards the tree, giggling.
"Yeah, sure," I whispered. I sat back under the oak tree and grabbed my math paper, then proceeded to draw all over it. Movement across the yard caught my eye minutes later, and I looked up to see Brianna walking towards me, with her brother and their friends in tow.
"Hey Will!" she greeted. I waved, standing up and brushing grass clippings off of my shorts. "How is your, um... lesson?" she asked, looking around me at the empty blanket by the tree that Olive and I had been sitting on ten minutes ago.
I laughed. "Ahh, my saviors! Let me just tell you, Algebra is definitely not my favorite subject," I told her. Bri grinned.
"Well, would Olivia mind if we stole you away for a little while?" she questioned. I mouthed the word "we" back at her. Bri nodded over her shoulder, and I smiled when I saw Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson. Oh yeah, Jamie was there too.
"I don't think she'd mind. Where are we going?"
"I thought we might drop by our house, pack a lunch, and go to Kings Creek for a picnic," Ike told me. That sounded better than an Algebra lesson. Actually, anything sounded better than an Algebra lesson. I smiled rather shyly, then nodded.
"I thought we might drop by our house, pack a lunch, and go to Kings Creek for a picnic," Ike told me. That sounded better than an Algebra lesson. Actually, anything sounded better than an Algebra lesson. I smiled rather shyly, then nodded.
"Let me go ask." I dashed into the house, and found Brad and Olivia talking in the kitchen. All conversation ceased when I stepped into the room. I gave them odd looks, then asked if I could go with Brianna and the Hansons. With little pleading, I managed to get Olivia to let me go. I grabbed my sandals from the guestroom (a.k.a. my room) and ran out the door to join my friends.
"Our dad is at work, Jessi and Avie are at ballet, but mom and Mackie should be home," Taylor told Willow as we walked the two blocks to our house on West 78th Street. Willow looked confused, and Zac laughed.
"Six kids, remember?" he asked, proudly holding up six fingers. Willow nodded.
"Oh right, the Brady household," she teased.
"It's the story of a man named Hanson.." Zac started singing, skipping ahead of us. We all laughed, although Tay, Zac, and I had heard the reference to the Brady Bunch before. It wasn't long before we reached our house. My mother was thrilled to meet Willow, and Mackie seemed to like her too. I came to this conclusion when Mackie wanted her to pick him up just minutes after they were introduced. Usually, Mackie only wants my mother, father, Tay, or I to pick him up, and was very shy around strangers. But he seemed quite at ease with Willow, and wouldn't let her put him down.
"Let's boogie!" Zac announced after my mother had finished packing us a lunch. We convinced Mackie to let go of Willow, only after she promised to come back and see him again soon. We set off for the creek and got there in nearly 10 minutes.
"Wow, this is pretty cool," Willow observed as we started down the narrow dirt path through the woods that would take us to our cove. I laughed.
"This is just the trail, wait until you see the actual cove. There is a little waterfall," I told her. Zac whapped my shoulder.
"Way to go, Fuzzy. That was going to be a surprise!" he reprimanded me. I shrugged, claiming innocently that I hadn't known he wanted to surprise Willow. She smiled at me, then at Zac.
"Don't worry, I'll still act surprised," she promised. Zac grinned, then ran ahead to catch up with Jamie.
"What is so funny?" Jamie asked Zac. Zac just shook his head, then dove into the picnic basket. Bri spread out the picnic blanket that my mother always used when we went on lunch trips to the park when we were little. Tay and Willow rejoined the group and we all sat down to eat.
"Thanks for bringing me here. It's so peaceful and beautiful," Willow observed, sitting cross-legged beside me. Zac and Jamie made a face at each other.
"Peaceful and beautiful? No way dude. We just come here to go swimming," Jamie told her, grinning. "We jump off the top of the waterfall into the deep pool below it."
"Wow, a whopping ten foot drop," I whispered under my breath, loud enough for only Willow to hear. She smiled. We ate and talked, and ate some more, and talked some more. It was warm enough to walk around in the water, but still too cold to go swimming. Zac and Jamie climbed up the rock formation beside the waterfall, laughing and shouting at each other the whole way. Tay and Bri started cleaning up the lunch and packing things away. I took off my shoes, sat on a big rock beside the water, and dangled my feet into the water. I heard a rustle beside me and looked up to see Willow. She smiled.
"May I sit?" she asked. I moved over to allow her room.
"Please, do," I replied. She lowered herself to the rock beside me and dipped her own bare feet into the water, then shivered. I grinned. "Cold?"
"Kinda," she replied with a smile. She looked away from me and up at the waterfall. "Wow. If two months ago, someone had told me that I'd be sitting here, with friends like you, Bri, and your brothers, I would have thought them insane."
"Why?"
"Because I've never had this before. Friends, that is."
"You've never had friends before?" I asked, disbelieving. Willow looked back at me, her blue eyes showing an emotion I knew no word for.
"Well, yeah, I've had friends. But none that were my age. All my cousins are either older or younger than I. And then there is my brother and my tutor, who are both older," she explained. "I'm just kinda in shock that Bri and you guys came along and accepted me into your circle of friends like you did."
"I don't believe that we have the authority to accept or deny anyone, but that God has his plan and does what He will," I told her. A small smile crept onto Willow's face.
"You're religious?"
"Very. Devout Baptist Christian," I answered her without a blink of an eye. Willow smiled, avoiding my look.
"I guess that doesn't surprise me."
"Why not?"
She didn't get a chance to answer because, from up on the waterfall, there was a splash. We both looked up to see Zac and Jamie engaged in a chicken fight. If you're not familiar with their idea of chicken fighting, it's when you stand on one leg and use the other to kick your opponent. Whoever falls or backs off first looses.
"Be careful!" I called up to them. Zac turned at my words, and Jamie kicked him in the knee. Zac's mouth shaped an O of surprise as he lost his balance, then toppled down into the cove with the rushing water.
"Oh my God, Jamie! What the hell did you do that for?" Bri shouted at her little brother. Jamie ran over to his friend.
"I am so sorry! I didn't know he was gonna loose concentration!"
"I'm fine!" Zac insisted. He pushed his wet hair away from his face and stood up. "Jeez, act like I've never jumped off that thing before," he grumbled. I started to wring out my wet hair, shivering from the cold. Zac approached me slowly. "You didn't have to dive in after me, you know."
"No, I didn't know," I snapped. Zac bit his lip and offered an innocent smile. "You scared me."
"Well, at least now I know you care about me," Zac joked, grinning. I rolled my eyes, starting to calm down. Isaac put the picnic blanket over my shoulders to help stop my shivering. He rubbed my shoulders lightly, and my teeth stopped chattering.
"We should go now," Taylor suggested.
"What? Leaving so soon?" A voice asked. We all turned, surprised, to see a group of boys walking into the little cove. Two of them had cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, and they all wore black shirts with ripped jeans.
"Can we help you?" Isaac asked.
"We're just here to hang out," one informed us. He eyed me and Zac, raising an eyebrow. "It's a little early for swimming, don't you think?"
"Yup, we were just testing the water," Zac spoke up, trying to be friendly. The other guys snickered, puffing on their cigarettes.
"So anyway, it's too bad you're leaving. Why don't you hang out?" another one asked, sounding sarcastic. Bri turned to us, and excited look on her face.
"Yeah, let's stay for a little while," she suggested. Isaac and I gave her amazed looks.
"Brianna," Isaac whispered, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from everyone else. "Zac and Willow are soaking wet and freezing. We most definitely are not staying to hang out with these people."
"God, Isaac, don't be such a friggin prick," she retorted, yanking her arm out of his grip. They walked back over to Jamie, Zac, Taylor, and I. Isaac rolled his eyes and shook his head. "We'll stay for a while," Bri told her new friends. I started shivering again.
"We're not losers," Zac defended in a little, hurt voice.
"Whatever," Tucker replied nonchalantly. Bri was staring at him, practically drooling over him. I'd never seen her like this before. The only person I'd ever seen her have a crush on, in all four years of our friendship, was Brad Pitt. I bet you can guess how long their "relationship" lasted. She'd also confessed to me her feelings for Taylor a few weeks earlier, but she was obviously over him now.
"Who are you? I've never seen you around here before," Jake stated, staring at Willow. She avoided his gaze uncomfortably.
"I'm from Chandler, that's why," she answered dryly. Jake's eyes swept over every inch of Willow, then he sighed.
"That's a shame. I would have liked to get to know you better, if you know what I mean," he suggested, still staring at her. I didn't like the look her was giving her, like she was something to be owned instead of a human being. Willow looked up at me, her eyes wide. I nodded at her, sharing her thoughts, and got a plan.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" I challenged, putting my arm around Willow's shoulder, feeling the water from her clothing seeping through the blanket. Jake put his hands up innocently and shook his head.
"Hey man, I didn't mean nothing. I didn't know she was yours," he defended himself.
"Yeah, well..." I trailed off, seeing the funny looks that Zac, Jamie, and Taylor were giving me. I cleared my throat. "We should go now."
"Yeah," Taylor agreed quickly.
"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up later," Bri told us, her eyes never leaving Tucker's face.
Willow stuck close to my side as we gather our picnic things, hurrying to leave. When we hit the path, we all walked fast to get to the Jeep. No one said a thing the entire way. Once in the Jeep, with Zac, Taylor, and Jamie in the backseat, and Willow in the passenger seat, Jamie sighed. Taylor stuck his head in between the two front seats, looking back and forth between Willow and I.
"What was all that?" he asked curiously. Willow blushed, pulling the wet blanket around herself a little tighter. I shrugged as I started the car.
"That was nothing. I was just trying to get that guy to leave Willow alone," I replied.
"I think it worked!" Jamie piped in from the backseat. I heard Zac giggled hysterically.
"Isaac and Willow, sitting in a tree..."
"Zac," I started firmly, pulling away from the curb.
"... K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." he continued, giggling. Taylor and Jamie started to laugh. I glanced over at Willow, who was staring out the window.
"Zac, cut it out," I told him, shooting him a look-of-death in the rearview mirror.
"First comes love, then comes marriage!" Zac sang, bouncing around. "Then comes Isaac with a baby carriage!"
I slammed on the breaks, quickly making sure there was no cars behind me. Everyone flew forward, pulling against their seatbelts. Willow gasped in surprise, looking at me. Zac stopped singing instantly. "Zachary Walker Hanson, get out of the car."
"Here? No way dude," Zac protested, looking out the window at the road.
"Then I advise you to shut the hell up before I make you walk home," I told him. Zac shut his mouth, looking back at me in the mirror. I nodded, then let my foot off the break. Nobody spoke for a minute, then Taylor stuck his head through the seats again.
"Jeez, Ike. Lighten up," he commented lightly.
"Okay," she said, indicating me to continue reading. I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued.
Actually, I do know where to begin. Life seems so unfair sometimes! First of all, as if I hadn't seen it coming, my mother moved out. She and my father had been fighting for as long as I could remember. So, one day in early June, she packed her things and walked out. My dad went into denial. He had always looked pale to me, but it seemed as though he had aged about 10 years overnight. Now he was left to raise a teenage daughter on his own. He became even stricter than he was before, always trying to monitor whom I was with or where I was. He stopped my lessons in Tulsa and made Olivia come to Chandler to tutor me. He even tried to fire her, but never actually went through with it. It felt like I was walking on thin ice that would break at any moment without any warning.
Second of all, right after I had gotten close to and become real friends with Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson, they told me that, because of the great success their music album had brought them, they were going on a trip around the world to promote it. It seemed to me like everything in my world was being taken away. Their promo tour started in the end of May, and they weren't sure exactly when they'd be back for good.
"We'll call as often as we can," Tay had promised me the day before they were to leave, when Brad had come and smuggled me out of my father's house while he was in a meeting.
"I'll write every week," Zac had said, squeezing my hand gently.
"Everyday," Isaac added, offering me a weak smile. That had been just about 4 months ago. In the middle of October, the guys came back to Oklahoma for three weeks to take a break from traveling. They were working on a Christmas album, and it was interesting to see them going through the writing process for the original songs they were adding to the album. Zac's 12th birthday was coming up and thing seemed, almost, back to normal.
"Hey Bri, feel up for a game of roller hockey?" I questioned my friend as we lounged around my house in Chandler. My father was out of town on business for the weekend and I had jumped at the chance to have Brianna over for a while. After going for a swim in the indoor, in-ground pool that my father had insisted on having, listening to my Jewel CD three times, and relaxing in the sauna, we were laying beside the pool reading old issues of Seventeen magazine.
"Uhh, sure. What time is it?" Bri pulled her dark sunglasses down the bridge of her nose and grabbed my wrist to look at my watch.
"It's 1:43. Relax, my dad won't be here for another 30 hours and 15 minutes," I assured her jokingly. Bri gave me a "look". Then she smiled smugly and stood up.
"It's not your father I'm worried about. I'm just anxious. I have a surprise arriving for you in just about half an hour. I gave her a questioning look, but she only laughed and ran into the house to change. Pretty soon, we both had our blades on and we were skating around on my driveway in an intense (well, partially intense) game of roller hockey. Just as I made my 10th goal against Bri, a familiar dark blue Jeep pulled into the drive. "Oh yay, your surprise is here. Tada!"
She smiled and skated over to the passenger side door. She opened it with flourish and out jumped, none other than the one, the only, Zac Hanson. He bounded over and jumped on top of me, knocking us both to the ground.
"Did you miss me?" he joked. I grinned and pushed him off me.
"How'd you guess?" I replied, smiling. He helped me get up, then looked over at the house and whistled. I realized that this was the first time they'd seen my house.
"Nice place," he commented.
"Did you get here alright?" Bri was asking Isaac when I turned around. Isaac rolled his eyes and waved his hands at her.
"Oh please, of course we did. I am a navigational genius," he replied. Bri just smiled at him, then turned to Taylor. He nodded.
"Yeah, we got lost. Ike wouldn't stop for directions, so Zac threatened to jump out of the moving vehicle if we didn't stop," he told her truthfully. Isaac narrowed his eyes at his brother. I walked over to them, and their eyes lit up.
"Hi," I greeted them, giving them each a hug.
"Hey Will, it's so good to see you," Taylor replied, picking up on my nickname from the many times he'd heard it. Isaac just smiled at me, a strange smile that caused a shiver to run down my spine. It was a good shiver. "I see that you guys were engaging in some heavy duty roller sports?"
Bri laughed. "Nah, she was kicking my butt. If it were real heavy duty, I'd be whippin' her." She grinned when I blushed, and Taylor and Isaac laughed.
"Is anyone thirsty? We can go inside and get some lemonade or something," I suggested, purposefully changing the subject since it was true, that the only reason I had been winning the game was because Bri wasn't trying. We ditched our rollerblades in the front hall and lead the way to the large kitchen.
"We took an elevator to the very top of the Eiffel Tower and it was so high. I felt so sick looking down," Taylor was saying animatedly. I rolled my eyes. How some tall tower in France had such an effect on my little brother is beyond me. Willow offered a polite smile to Taylor and he continued his story. I was beginning to think that it wasn't just being around Willow, that Taylor actually does love the sound of his own voice. We sat there like that for about 15 minutes until Bri suddenly let out a quick shriek, startling me out of my haze.
"Oh my God, I forgot that I was supposed to meet Tucker at his house 10 minutes ago!" she exclaimed. Willow looked upset. Taylor looked annoyed.
"Ooh, Tucker," Zac sneered quietly, sarcastically. Bri gave him a curious look.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing..." Zac replied casually, going back to his game. Bri looked at me for a moment before dashing up the stairs to Willow's room to get her stuff. The room was quiet until Bri came thundering back in.
"Ike, my bestest friend, can I get a ride home with you guys?" she asked, out of breath. I sighed and stood up.
"Yeah, sure. We've got to leave now anyway," I said. Bri grinned.
"Thank you thank you! I'll talk to you later, Willow," she called, running out of the room. Zac put down the Game Gear and stood unhappily next to me.
"Do we have to leave?" he whined. I nodded. Zac pouted. "I hate Tucker."
"Hate is a strong word, Zac," Willow pointed out to him. He shrugged.
"Thanks for having us over," Tay told Willow, smiling.
"Thanks for visiting. I missed you guys." We walked to the front door and saw that Bri was already climbing into the Jeep. "Bye Zac."
"I hate Tucker," Zac repeated. Willow looked at me, as if searching for a reply, but she didn't say anything. I looked down at the floor for a moment, as Tay and Zac left.
"Sorry," I apologized.
"Don't be," Willow replied. She smiled. "He'll get over it."
"I know. Bye, Will." I put my hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek in a friendly farewell, before following my brothers. We piled into the Jeep and headed back towards Tulsa, dropping Brianna off along the way. Dad was bringing Zac, Tay, and I to a photo-shoot and interview in town that night. Mom was bringing Jessi to her friend's birthday party, and staying to help chaperone. Our usual nanny had quit days earlier because she was getting married, so my parents had hired a baby sitter for the night. This was the first time she was going to be working for us and we were all anxious to meet her.
"I wonder if she'll be anything like that English nanny person on the news?" Zac wondered out loud as we turned the corner onto our street. Tay and I exchanged looks, then burst out laughing.
"No Zac, I don't think so. Sorry to disappoint you," I informed him.
"Why would I be disappointed? I don't any of my younger siblings in her care, just my older ones," he joked, hitting me on my head lightly. When we arrived home, dad was waiting for us.
"Let's go, let's go. We don't want to be late," he said, trying to usher us into the van. The three of us scattered around him, eager to see the new baby sitter. We found her in the living room, playing Legos with Avery and Mackie.
"Hi guys!" Mackie greeted. He waved a pudgy little hand at us, then went back to building his, uhh... Well, he went back to playing with the Legos. I didn't quite recognize what he was building. Dad came into the room and sighed, then introduced us to the sitter.
"Guys, this is Katie. Katie, these are my sons: Taylor, Zac, and-" Katie cut him off, smiling.
"Isaac. Yes, I know who you are." She shook our hands. Oh great, a fan, I thought, smiling as best as I could. You see, we'd had bad luck before with babysitters who were fans. A couple times before, things had started disappearing from our home. First, it was Tay's hairbrush. Then about ½ a box of our Legos. One girl even stole our basketball. The list goes on and on.
"Nice to meet you!" Zac, forever bubbly and easily excited, pushed me away to get a better look at Katie. He grinned and offered his hand, which she shook quickly, then smiled shyly at me.
"Guys, let's go now," our dad suggested, walking to the door. We all said goodbye to Mackie, Avie, and Katie, then headed out the door to the van.