“Hey, Sara?” yelled Jessica from her bedroom to her cousin in the connecting bathroom. She had just gotten out of the shower, and was brushing a paddle brush through her long, wet hair. “Yeah!” called back Sara, getting ready to get into the shower herself. Jessica placed down her brush and stared back at her confused face in her vanity mirror. She couldn’t seem to figure it out. “Have you ever seen Taylor before? Like does he seem familiar to you in anyway?” she asked her cousin. She could hear feet padding across the bathroom tile, and then heard the door creak as Sara opened it an inch to poke her head out. “No, I don’t think so...why, Jess?” Jessica sighed heavily. “Never mind, Sar, I guess I’m just being stupid.” “Yeah, it figures,” Sara replied, shoving her head back into the bathroom quickly, not wanting to be hit with the brush Jessica held up threateningly. Jessica sighed again, but this time in giving up.
The family had just gotten back from a day of riding. All the muscles in Jessica’s body were straining from lack of exercise. She was sure though, that they would snap out of that after a few weeks at the ranch. Even ice-skating once a week at the rink at home couldn’t get her ready for that kind of work...even if you were just sitting on a horse. You worked out a bit more than you realized. Jessica had guessed by the way the Hanson family had gotten off of their horses at the end of the day, that they had no idea of this. She had almost laughed out loud when she saw the look on Taylor’s face when he first touched his feet to ground at the first pitstop they made. They had stopped for lunch at a waterhole about 3 miles off of the ranch. By the time they had made it into town, and then back again, it was nearly 5:00 in the afternoon. All had needed a little rest before dinner, and had headed back to their rooms.
It was now about 5:45, and Jessica was remembering the events that had occurred before their ride. Her mind was still boggled by the fact that she had felt so at ease talking to Taylor in the stairwell. After That Night, Jessica was sure that she wouldn’t have had that kind of conversation with a guy again...at least not until they were 25. That was the age that men were thought to mature at. Well, at least she had read that somewhere.
As soon as Jessica had left behind her life of popularity, she came to realize that most teenagers didn’t have a clue...including her there for awhile. She still couldn’t believe that she had thought that getting the “right” pair of shoes for a school dance was more important than someone’s feelings, or what you believed in. For Brenden, it had been the same. Pretending to love someone to get them into the sack was what he was all about. And everywhere Jessica went, she seemed to get the same impression about all guys in general. Sure, maybe she was blocking out the good to protect herself from the bad. But if she was doing that, then how could she see the good in the eyes of Taylor Hanson?
Taylor wasn’t like any other boy she had ever met, and she knew that for a fact. By just looking at him. She knew of just one other guy that seemed to meet the same expectations...and that was Taylor. Well, the other one of course. Her Taylor. The one she felt so alive with whenever they talked. Okay, so what she had were two guys: one with a good heart and mind, and one with a good *ahem* body, and what looked like a good heart. Confusing as heck, but Jessica believed that God didn’t give you your dreams in perfect packages. And He couldn’t always open them for you.
But He did deliver, and she knew that much. All she needed now was for some of the confusion to go away. Besides, Jessica knew that she could never give up Taylor...for Taylor. It just wasn’t happening. In fact, she was even sure that right then God was trying to tell her something, but she didn’t know what it was. For the past two years, Jessica had always counted on God to help her on her way to recovery from her past. She was almost there, with His strength to guide her. He knew her computer Taylor was Godsent. He made her believe that good people were actually out there. He gave her someone to talk to directly, and this helped her beyond comprehension. Falling in love with Taylor was no mistake, and God had made that clear to her. What she didn’t understand was the new Taylor in her life. The sudden way her emotions turned haywire at just the thought of him. Could it be that she had just put her own Taylor’s heart with another Taylor’s body? Jessica didn’t seem to think so, given the fact that probably any other girl her age would probably feel the same way just looking at him. No, something was different...Jessica was listening, but she sure wasn’t hearing anything.
“Jess! Could you go to your mom’s room, and get my shampoo from her shower? I had to take one in there yesterday!” Jessica stopped looking at her pondering reflection, and hopped up from the vanity stool and headed toward the door. “Sure, Sara, hold on a minute!” she yelled back behind her. Strolling into her mother’s room down the hall, she retrieved the bottle of Pantene off the white rack, and began back to her own room. Her mother was probably in the kitchen working on dinner. As she neared her bedroom door, she stopped as she turned the handle, to glance at the closed door a little ways down the hall. The only noise she heard was the faint twinkling of voices coming from the kitchen downstairs. “He’s probably sleeping in there...” she muttered, leaning her head against the white doorframe. The thought of his hair tousled on his pillow, and the slow breathe of sleep escaping him was enough to make anyone... “Jessica!” she told herself firmly, turning the knob all the way this time, and stepping into her haven, “stop it!”
As soon as Jessica had handed her cousin the bottle of shampoo, and had sat down on her cool, lavender comforter, that overwhelming feeling came over her again. “Ugh...” she muttered, rubbing her temples, “come on, God. English this time, k?” After sitting there in silence for awhile, she realized that it wasn’t going to come to her that easy. Suddenly becoming very bored waiting for her cousin to get out of the shower, she decided to see if Taylor was online. Butterflies entered her stomach as she started up her computer. “See?” she told herself, “he makes me do that too!”
Upon seeing that Taylor was in no way online, she sighed and began surfing the web to get over her boredness. She hadn’t done that in awhile, having always ended up in chat rooms, getting upset over what people actually talked about in those things. She went into Yahoo! and looked at the WHAT’S NEW section. “Pamela Anderson gets her boobs done...again...talk with newest pop star Britney Spears!!” the top stories said. “Ew!” Jessica commented, deciding to leave those two alone. “Join Yahoo! clubs! Star Wars...N-Sync...Hanson!” the article went on to say. “Yeah, yeah...” Jessica uttered, not even blinking an eye. Having no luck on finding something interesting, she shut the top of her laptop and flopped herself down on her stomach. Her earlier conversation with Taylor came popping into her mind. How they had talked about Avery’s love for horses. Even though she knew her face was beat red, she still felt somewhat at ease talking to him. Like he was trying to be her friend. No guy had actually done that before. They were always to engrossed with her looks for just talking. It disappointed her that their talk only lasted but a brief moment. If Angela hadn’t had come out of her room at that moment, Jessica was sure that they would have talked much more. There was something inside her that made her want to talk to him forever...kinda the way her computer Taylor made her feel.
“Darn, Angela,” Jessica muttered into her sheets. She certainly wasn’t helping Jessica’s stay to be enjoyable. Just the thought of her touching Taylor’s arm the way she did the first night the Hanson’s came, was enough for anyone’s skin the crawl. But somehow, she had found a link between her and Angela. For one thing, Jessica had been in her shoes before.
But not saying that Jessica didn’t dislike her. She did. Immensely. Anyone like that would be on Jessica’s list of people she disliked. She didn’t like to be in a constant state of competition...and she was sure Angela was competing. Any respectable person would have least put on a robe over their pajamas...especially in a house full of guys. But how else was Angela going to win? Show off her winning personality? “Yeah, right!” Jessica snorted. But even though Jessica liked Taylor...a lot...didn’t mean she was going to compete with Angela. It wasn’t worth it. She wasn’t the type to play games like that. Besides...she didn’t think Taylor would appreciate that much either.
Suddenly, Angela’s last words on the stairwell came back to her... “You don’t mind if I call you Tay, do you? I mean, all of your fans do!” said Angela’s all too fake voice. And then, Taylor had looked at Jessica liked he was trapped against a wall...
Jessica’s head popped up from the bed. “His fans...” she muttered. Surely if he was some sort of actor, or musician, Jessica would know about it! Well, at least the actor part. Jessica’s tastes in music differed greatly after her change in friends. Instead of bubblegum pop, she now listened to Christian Alternative, and SKA. And she didn’t even listen to that much either.
Jessica’s heart beat faster, and faster in her chest. Who was he? He was defiantly hiding SOMETHING! “Okay,” she thought, “Taylor Hanson...who is that?” She tapped her nails on the top of her laptop. “Taylor...” she repeated over and over, “Hanson...where had she heard that before?” Realizing her nails tapping loudly on the gray plastic, she released her hand, and stared at the box. Why was she just sitting there and not finding something out in the reference on her computer? She opened the lid, and found that the screen was still in Yahoo! She directed the mouse in the SEARCH box and started typing in “TAYL...,” but suddenly, her eye caught the bright blue lettering of one single word. “HANSON” was the word staring right back at her. She gulped, ignoring the SEARCH box, and clicked the familiar heading. Her jaw dropped, as about 3,000 titles came up on the screen. “THE Taylor Hanson Club!” “Wacky Zacky Club!”
“What in the heck?” Jessica exclaimed, reading some of the titles of the various clubs. One of the title especially popped out at her. It read “ITZ All For God.” Jessica took a deep breathe as she decided to click that one. “These people can’t spell...” she muttered, noticing the ITZ. Upon entering the club message boards, her hand instantly went numb and she couldn’t even begin to feel the mouse she was directing in her hand. Familiar sparkling blue eyes met her view as she went down the page. “Oh my gosh...” Jessica replied, not totally believing. “That’s Taylor! And Zac! And...who’s that?” she thought, squinting for a better view. “Hmm,” the commented. Thinking back, she recalled Diana talking about her oldest son, Isaac. “That would probably be him,” she said to the empty room.
Jessica still couldn’t hardly believe it. There had to be millions of clubs and webpages of these people! And they were staying in her house! “Well,” she said, “that’s what I get for not listening to regular music.” She looked toward the bathroom door between the girl’s two rooms. Her cousin was finally out of the shower. “Sara! You’ve gotta look at this!” she yelled to her, and continued to search the Hanson pages. ************************************************************************************
“Jess, why can’t I say anything again?” Sara whined for probably the third time. And this time, Jessica popped her in the back of the head. “Ouch,” was the muttered response. “I just told you! Obviously they don’t want anyone to know. I mean, come on, Sar, it’s their vacation. After all the things you read coming from their fans, you would think they would need a break!” “Yeah, I know,” replied Sara, still rubbing her head, “I just wanted the have some fun with Zac, you know? I mean, it’s so easy!” Jessica smiled. Yup, her cousin was defiantly hooked on a Hanson...along with the other million or so girls around the world.
Just five minutes earlier, the girls were on Jessica’s bed, checking out the many sites on their guests. But now, they were heading downstairs for dinner. “How’s my hair look, Jess?” Sara asked, looking at it in the mirror. Jessica was at the door, knob in hand. “It’s fine, Barbie, now let’s go!” Sara glared at her from across the room. Jessica sighed. “Fine, then,” she said to Sara, “I’ll race ya!” Sara’s eyes immediately turned devilish. Jessica had known better than to challenge a track and field runner. But then again, she wasn’t planning on winning either.
Both girls eyes each other, and then the door. The slight turning of the knob in Jessica’s hand gave the signal to run. Jessica fled out the door, and into the long corridor. Hearing Sara’s running steps behind her, she jumped as soon as she met the stairs. She landed on the second wing, a trick she had perfected about 5 summers ago. She then started the stairs down to the main floor, but before she could hit the last one, Sara came flying by and circling the corner into the kitchen. Jessica was laughing as she ran, knowing that she was never going to win anyway. They had been doing that since they were 5, and she hadn’t won yet. She was surprised Sara still went for it everytime.
But still, there was no way she was going to slow down. Losers did that. She always kept on going anyways, even though she knew she lost. Today, this was probably not the best thing to do, seeing that as soon as she rounded the corner, she ran face first into Taylor Hanson’s chest, sending both of them sprawling onto the marble tile.
Jessica closed her eyes, waiting for the impact of the hard floor, but instead landed very gracefully...upon something. She stayed still for a second, not bothering to open her eyes, trying to see what that something was. A slight “ugghhh” was heard in that brief second. “No way!” Jessica was screaming in her head. No way did she just land on...
Upon opening her eyes, she came face to face with the something. She bit her bottom lip as she saw the beautiful blues flinch in pain. “Oh, my gosh!” she whispered. Taylor opened his eyes and stared at the girl on his chest. “Hi,” he said simply. “I am so sorry!” she whispered. “It’s okay!” he whispered back, mocking her. Jessica stopped the whispering. “Did I hurt you? Cause for a minute, I thought I did.” Taylor shook his head. “Why do you always look into my eyes when I talk to you?” Jessica thought. She swallowed. “I’m still on you, aren’t I?” she asked slowly, realization hitting her. Taylor cleared his throat. “Um...” he replied carefully. Jessica sighed as she slowly slid off of him, embarrassed as heck. She could feel the pink start to rise...
“Well, that’s one way to kill an idol...” she muttered as she got to her feet. Taylor, still on the floor, snapped his head up to look at her. “What did you say?” he asked her, his eyes questioning. “Nothing,” she replied, holding out her hand to help him up. He took her hand, but only to pull her down to the floor again. “No, I’m sure I heard you say idol,” he said, this time whispering himself. He looked in the direction of the kitchen. Luckily everyone was out on the patio at this time, setting up dinner out there. Somehow, Jessica thought this was incredibly funny. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. As Taylor turned toward her again, he noticed the look on her face. A small smile lit his face as he asked her what was so funny. “Nothing Double O’ 7,” she responded sweetly. “Oh, man!” she exclaimed in her head, “am I flirting with him?” Taylor just stared at her, but still smiled. “Cute,” he replied, and went on, “I’m guessing you knew all along, huh?” Jessica looked confused. “About...um...Mmmbop?” she asked him. His eyes narrowed, and Jessica flinched. “Okay, maybe you don’t want me to use those choice of words then...” “No,” he replied, running his hand through his hair, “it’s just that Angela said an....um...comment to me this morning, that’s all. It wasn’t you.” “What did she say?” she asked him, a smile starting to play again, “she call you Mmmbop boy or something?” Taylor’s mouth dropped. “How did you know?” he asked her. Jessica’s smile disappeared. “Do you mean to tell me I actually guessed what she said? When every word that comes out of her mouth is something about the mall or dating? Okay, shoot me now!” she said, really only half meaning it. Taylor just laughed at this, which told Jessica that he wasn’t too keen on Angela either. “Yes!” she screamed inside...and then, “okay, Jessica, you’re really starting to scare me here.”
“So...why didn’t you tell anyone you knew about us?” Taylor asked her, this time being the one to stand and give his hand. Jessica took it. “Well, obviously you didn’t want anyone to know,” she replied, dusting off her capris pants, “and plus the fact that I only found out an hour ago.” Jessica suddenly saw some of the light go off in Taylor’s eyes. Why had she said that? Now he knows that she doesn’t know any of their music...which, seeing firsthand, was obviously important to him. “I...I...I mean, I’ve heard about you guys, but I didn’t like find out...okay, fine you got me,” she said, giving up finally. Taylor grinned. “Jessica, it’s okay if you don’t like our music,” he responded, “I mean, a lot of people don’t.” “No! That’s not what I meant! I mean, I’ve never heard your music...or anything,”she said, lowering her voice at the last part, seeing that this was probably worse. “Ditz, ditz, ditz,” she thought to herself. Taylor just looked at her. “You’ve never heard it?” he asked her, trying hard to believe. Jessica gulped. This was more embarrassing than ever. Finally, she sighed. She had to stop being so nervous around him...she had to tell the truth sometime!
“It’s not just you, Taylor,” she said to him, leading them into the kitchen area. Everybody was still outside. “It’s everyone mostly...I mean, I only listen to Christian music.” She sneaked a look to his face to see if he was understanding. It seemed like he was. “Christian music? Well, that’s cool, I listen to that too. But you’ve never turned on MTV at all? Or the radio?” (***author’s note: I have no idea if the guys listen to Christian music or not...so don’t quote me on that!***) Jessica smiled. “Well, yeah, but I mostly listened to that stuff before you guys went big. Didn’t you guys first come out in 1997?” she asked him. “Yep, in May,” he replied. “See? I stopped listening to all that in like December. So it’s not you, it’s me,” she said, swiping her finger in her grandmother’s homeade frosting sitting on the counter for a taste. Taylor sat down on a bar stool, and looked at Jessica over the sink. “I still can’t believe you don’t listen to ANY other music,” he retorted, looking amazed, “ I mean, do you know what you are missing?” Jessica stopped to think for a minute. “Drugs, violence, sex, alcohol...yup, I know!” she responded, going back to the frosting. Taylor’s stare became questioning. “I’m guessing your trying to get away from all that...” he said softly. Jessica swallowed and nodded. “Well, just so you know...I’m not like that,” he said. His words gave Jessica hope somehow. It was like he was trying to tell her two different meanings in them at once. “I know,” she replied softly.
****I am in no way associated with Hanson or Mercury Records. What you are reading is purely fiction. F-I-C-T-I-O-N.****
