"It certainly was a step up from last year in LA," I agreed. Will gave us confused looks.
"Why? What happened last year?" she asked. Taylor blushed and looked away innocently.
"Oh, nothing…" he trailed off, walking out of the room. I turned to Will with a smile and explained how Taylor hadn't been feeling very well for Christmas dinner the year before and the oyster stuffing had just pushed him over the edge. She gave me a repulsed look and shuddered at the thought.
"Poor Taylor. It must have ruined his holiday," she said. I shrugged.
"Actually, he felt better afterward," I corrected.
"Come on guys, we're opening more presents!" Zac yelled to us.
"Be right in!" I shouted back. I turned to Willow and smiled slightly. "I think we should wash up a little first."
"I agree, Smokey," she told me, trying not to laugh. I glanced in the tiny mirror hanging on the wall and noticed that I had black smudges across my forehead and down my cheeks. I made a face at her as we walked into the kitchen. The smoke had cleared, but it still smelled of burnt pie. I wet a paper towel and handed it to her, then wet one for myself. Will didn't have really any black on her face, but she washed it anyway. I had only succeeded in making my face look worse. Will started laughing and I gave her a disgruntled look.
"You wanna try?" I challenged. She reached up and rubbed away the smudge on my forehead, then smiled smugly.
"See? Now, was that so hard?" she teased, making eye contact. I shrugged sheepishly. Willow grinned and continued to rid my face of any evidence of the smoke. When she was finished, she stepped back and scratched an itch on her chin, leaving a mark. "All done. That'll be five dollars, please."
She held out her hand, palm up, and smiled radiantly. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "You're too much, Willow Carter."
"I know. Don't you just love it?" she joked. She turned on the faucet and put her hands in the sink, then noticed that they were all black. "Damn."
"Nice mouth," I scolded, playfully shoving her away from the sink to wash my own hands. Will blushed.
"Sorry, I forgot," she apologized. I shook my head again.
"No, not that. You have soot under your lip," I explained. I reached up and wiped my thumb across the spot that she had scratched minutes earlier. Willow giggled.
"Why do I feel like an ape?" she asked. I raised my eyebrows at her in confusion. She laughed. "That came out wrong. I mean, cleaning each other. Apes do that."
A smile spread across my face. "If there was anything that you definitely are not, it's predictable," I informed her. She grinned.
"Is that a good thing?" I challenged.
"Does it have to be?" Ike shot back quickly. I punched him gently in the stomach and he doubled over in surprise, laughing. "I was kidding!"
He grabbed my hands to prevent me from hitting him again, and I entwined my fingers with his. He pulled me closer so that our feet were touching. I leaned up on tiptoe and rubbed my nose against his, giving him an Eskimo Kiss. Isaac smiled, then put our hands behind my back, keeping our fingers locked. He leaned down and rested his forehead against mine. I untangled my right hand from his left and reached up, grazing his lips with my fingertips. I trailed my fingers along his jaw line, then up his temple and back down his nose to his lips. Ike grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand away from my face as he crushed my mouth with his. I tugged both of my hands from his and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him still closer to me. Our kiss deepened, sending emotions flying between us. I felt his hands roaming my back, then stopping at the waist of Taylor's jeans before plunging his hands into the back pockets. He pulled away breathlessly and rested his forehead against mine once again.
"You know," he gasped, "you wearing my brother's pants is a really major turn off."
"It's not like I can take them off at the moment," I said. Ike removed his hands from my pockets and caressed my back all the way up to my shoulder blades, then leaned down.
"Nothing is stopping you," he moaned against the soft flesh of my neck. I smiled, enjoying the feeling that his lips left on my skin.
"Ike, control your hormones," I giggled. "We're standing in your kitchen with our families one room away."
I heard him sigh, and he slowly lifted his head. His eyes burned into mine and he kissed me softly. I brought my hands down over his shoulders, dragging them slowly down his arms until he clutched my hands in his once again. He broke our kiss once again, and I rested my head in the crook of his neck.
"Will you come upstairs with me?" he asked quietly. I pulled away quickly, giving him a startled look. Ike's mouth fell open in amazement at what he had just said, and he let go of my hands. His cheeks were bright pink. "Oh, no, no, no, no. That isn't what it sounded like."
"It isn't?"
"What I meant was, I don't want to give you your present in front of everyone else. It's special," he explained. My heart slowed its pace and I smirked.
"You better have meant that," I teased him. He took my hand and led me into the front hall. We quietly sneaked up the stairs and tiptoed down the hall to his room. He silently shut the door behind us and turned the lock. "A lock, Isaac? Is that really necessary?"
"It is if you don't want about 20 people barging in on you when you're giving gifts," he answered. I stood stiffly in the middle of the room, surrounded by clothes, CDs, magazines, shoes, and anything else you'd imagine finding in a room shared by three teenagers. Using his foot, Isaac cleared a path from the door to the bunk beds and then tossed all the clothes off of the bottom bunk onto the floor. He motioned for me to sit, and I complied. "Okay. Stay there, don't move an inch."
I smiled. "It's not like I am going anywhere. You have me locked in here," I reminded him. He grinned back and turned to one of the two dressers in the room and started rummaging through it. When he came back, he had a small box wrapped in shiny green paper in his hand. He plopped down beside me on the bed and then handed the gift to me.
"Merry Christmas Will, I hope you like it," he said. I turned the gift over and over in my hands.
"If it's from you, I know I will," I replied, not finding enough courage to look into his eyes when I said that. A blush crept onto my cheeks as I carefully undid the white ribbon and started peeling the green paper away. Ike laughed.
"C'mon, Will! This is Christmas. Just rip the paper off," he encouraged, watching eagerly. I smiled, then ripped the rest of the paper away from the small box. I flipped back the lid of the box and inside found a solid silver ring; much like the one Isaac wore on his left middle finger, only thinner. I looked up at him in surprise. He grinned and took the box from my hand, lifting the ring out of it. "It's like a friendship ring. Now we both have one."
"I don't know what to say," I whispered, feeling stupid. He held the ring up and tilted it so that I could see the inside. Inscribe on the ring was written: Isaac & Willow, 1997. Ike placed the ring back on the palm of my hand and looked at me. His smile disappeared at the look of bewilderment on my face.
"Y-you don't have to wear it, if you don't want to. I just thought-" he stammered. I reached up and gently touched his face and he stopped talking.
"It isn't that I don't want to wear it," I explained quietly. I slipped the ring onto my middle finger also. It fit perfectly. "It's just that this is so amazing. I've never been given a gift like this. I'm afraid that this is all a dream, and if I do or say something wrong, I will wake up and be alone again. This gift, this ring, means so much to me now. Thank you."
I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. Ike squeezed his eyes close and hugged me back, holding me longer than I had expected. When he pulled away, I gave him a sheepish grin.
"I have to go get your present. It's down in the living room," I explained, standing up. Isaac grabbed my hand and pulled me back. "Or I could just stay here," I joked.Ike reach over and gently rubbed the hair that framed my face between his fingers.
"I've already been given my gift," he whispered.
My humorous attitude disappeared and I stared at him wide eyed. I froze as he closed his eyes and leaned toward me. When his lips brushed mine, I took a ragged breath. Isaac's eyes opened and he gave me a concerned look. "Is something wrong?"
"Ike… you just said…" I trailed off. He held our gaze, unblinking.
"Yes, I know what I said," he assured me. Tears stung my eyes and threatened to spill over. My bottom lip quivered, and Isaac touched it softly. "Please don't cry."
"I can't help it," I said in a quaky voice. A tear smoothly slid down my cheek, and I smiled. "You're so wonderful! I've never met anyone like you before, and I don't think I ever will again."
Ike grinned. "Yup, mine is a dying breed. But don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," he joked. I laughed lightly, and he wiped away my tear.
"I'm not worried," I whispered. I leaned over and planted a kiss on his mouth, and started to pull away when Isaac grabbed my shoulders and held me there. We stayed together like that for a few minutes before breaking apart breathlessly. Ike brought his hands down to the waist of Taylor's jeans and tickled my skin just above it. His eyes flashed.
"You know what would be an even better present next year?" he asked. I raised my eyebrows in question. He grinned and pulled me back into a hug. "If you wear my pants instead," he whispered against my neck. I laughed.
The day after Mother Nature had dumped four more inches of snow on Tulsa, Zac and I were outside shoveling. I found this task useless, since it was still snowing and all our work would be covered up in a matter of time, but still my father insisted on it. Zac had claimed the front walk, as usual, which left me with the driveway. Not an hour had passed when we heard someone calling Zac's name.
"Hey Reagan!" Zac called back. He stopped shoveling and looked in my direction.
"No, Zac," I said firmly, not even needing to look up.
"Working hard?" Reagan asked him from the top of the driveway. Zac laughed.
"Oh yeah."
"Can you take a break?" she questioned. Zac looked at me again.
"No, Zac," I repeated, continuing my shoveling. My back was starting to hurt. Zac dropped his shovel and bounded up the driveway, sending snow everywhere. I sighed. "Zachary! Where are you going? I said no."
"Taylor, my bestest and most favorite brother in the whole wide everywhere?" he asked sweetly, giving me puppy dog eyes. I gave him an annoyed look.
"Flattery will get you nowhere with me," I informed him. Zac gave me a desperate look.
"Please Tay? I won't be gone for long. Cover for me. Thanks!" With that, Zac and Reagan ran off down the street. It wasn't until they were out of my sight that I realized I didn't know where he would be. Silently cursing myself for not being more responsible, I heard the front door open and close.
"I see you've been ditched," a voice said.
"It wasn't my fault, I tried to stop him," I insisted, expecting to see my father when I turned around. Instead, I found Isaac picking up Zac's discarded shovel. "Oh, it's you."
"Gee, thanks," Ike laughed. If my ears and cheeks hadn't been pink already from the cold, I would have blushed.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," I apologized. Ike grinned and waved my apology away.
"I know." We shoveled in silence for a while, my mind whirling about Zac and Reagan. I looked up and watched Isaac shoveling Zac's half-finished walkway. He looked over and me and smiled. "Are you just going to stand there and pray for the snow to vanish, or are you going to help?"
"Oh, right. Yeah," I stammered, digging my shovel into the soft white powder. After a few more minutes, I stopped again. "Hey Ike? Do you think something is wrong with me?"
"Yes," he replied instantly. Then he paused. "Oh, wait. You meant literally."
"Funny, Ike," I retorted sarcastically. Isaac stopped and leaned on his shovel, looking at me.
"Why do you think something is wrong with you?" he asked, his big brother attitude shining through. I shrugged sheepishly.
"Well, Zac and Reagan have their little relationship, and you have… well, you have Katie, right?"
A serious look crossed my brother's face. "Katie?"
"Yeah, the babysitter. You like her, right? Didn't you make out with her or something at Zac's party?" I asked, kicking at my shovel to knock the snow off of it.
"No, I believe that would have been you," Ike teased. I rolled my eyes.
"Come on, Ike. It wasn't my idea to play Spin-The-Bottle," I argued. Ike held up his hands innocently. "Anyway, why is it that I seem to only attract psycho, stalking fans?"
Ike tried hard not to smile. "I thought you said that music was our first priority right now?"
I shrugged. "Well, it is. But that doesn't mean that I can't have inspiration for music," I replied. Isaac sighed and cleared a few shovels of snow before stopping again. He turned to me with a thoughtful expression.
"You know what? I'm going to tell you the exact same thing that I told Zac. What's with the rush? You have your whole life ahead of you to find someone," he told me. I smiled and shook my head. He gave me a curious look. "What?"
"Zac was right. You do sound like dad."
Tuesday dawned like every other winter day. We hadn't had snow since the end of December, and even that was starting to disappear. Zac, Tay, and I had a phone interview with some teenybopper magazine in the early afternoon. Dad was busy setting up another trip to New York for us to be on MTV Live in a few months. Besides the interview, we had the day off. Tay had all but locked himself in the sunroom with the poetry book I had gotten him for Christmas. Zac had invited Reagan over and they were most likely freezing to death outside in the tree house doing God-knows-what. I was bored and serious contemplating calling Will to see if she wanted to do something with me.
"You wanna run to the store with me?" Dad asked early that evening as I sat at the kitchen table with my guitar, pen in hand writing down some notes.
"No, thanks," I replied not looking up. Dad grabbed his jacket.
"If your mother asks, tell her I'll be back soon," he told me. After he left, I gave up on the music and brought my guitar up to my room. I pulled my worn, green folder out from underneath the mattress on my bed and shoved the music sheet into it. Nobody knew about my secret music folder, so far as I knew. I put all of my working music in there until it was finished. I went back out into the hallway and as I passed my parents' room, my mother appeared beside me.
"Isaac? Where's your father?" she asked. Her voice sounded strange, worried.
"He just left for the store. Why?" I replied, giving her an odd look.
"Oh, no reason." She turned and started back to her room before pausing. She turned to me again. "Well, maybe one. I think we should call Dr.Pearson."
"Okay…" I said slowly. "Is something wrong?"
"No, not really. My water just broke is all," she answered simply. My eyes widened. "Help me down the stairs and we'll call him, okay?"
"Oh my God, now? You're having it now?" I cried, hysterical. "No! You can't have it now!"
Mom only smiled. "I don't think we really have a choice, Ike," she informed me. We stopped at the top of the stairs and she grabbed the banister. "Oh, I almost forgot. Go get my overnight bag for the hospital. It's on the floor in the closet in my room."
I ran back to her room, grabbed her bag, and went back to help her down the stairs. As soon as we reached the kitchen, I dialed the number for St. John's Hospital and handed the phone to mom. "I'm gonna go get Tay to watch everyone," I informed her. While mom talked to the doctor, I ran frantically into the sunroom. Taylor looked up, annoyed.
"Isaac, I'm reading. You know I don't like to be-"
"Shut up, Tay. Mom is in labor. I'm taking her to the hospital. I want you to watch the younger kids until Dad gets home and tell him we left," I told him in a rush. Taylor's face lit up.
"No way! I'm coming too. Let me go get Zac to watch everyone," he insisted. I went back into the kitchen while Taylor ran outside to let Zac know what was happening. Mom gave me a worried look.
"What now?" I asked. She pointed at the basement door.
"Jessi, Avie, and Mac. I don't want them to worry," she told me. "Let me just go tell them that I'm leaving…"
"No, mom, Zac will tell them everything. Tay is coming with us to the hospital. Let's go get in the van," I ordered. I picked up her bag and helped her out of the house. When we reached the front walk, I realized that Dad had taken the van to the store. "Oh, um, stay here. I'll get the keys to the Lincoln."
I ran back inside and nearly collided with Taylor. I switched sets of keys, and hurried back outside. We helped mom into the backseat then Tay jumped in beside her. It took us nearly half an hour to get to the hospital in the rush hour traffic of everyone getting out of work and going home. I pulled up in front of the hospital and got out to help mom out of the car. Luckily, the nurses were ready for her and had a wheelchair waiting for us. I gave Tay a shove towards the car.
"Go park it," was all I managed. Taylor gave me a crazy look and ran alongside me into the hospital.
"Isaac, are you insane? I'm 14 years old! I can't drive!" he shrieked. I turned to him with a frustrated look.
"I don't care! Do it anyway." I left him standing there, bewildered, as I went to the front desk to fill out some papers. Everything happened so fast. Mom was wheeled away while I finished the paperwork to the best of my knowledge. Taylor had somehow parked the car and came running back to my side. Since dad wasn't there and I was the oldest, I put on the green hospital gown, the cap, and gloves, and went into the delivery room with mom. This was supposed to be a normal childbirth. Out of us six kids so far, only Tay and Avery had been cesarean sections.
"Where's Walker?" Mom demanded when I reached her side again.
"He's coming," I promised her. He'd better be. I don't want to stay for this whole thing, I thought. Forty-five minutes and four contractions later, Dad skidded into the delivery room, dressed identical to me. Thank you God! I smiled.
"I got here as soon as I could," he said breathlessly. I slide unnoticed out of the room and went down to the waiting room, discarding the green outfit on my way.