"Katie, guess what?!" Rebekah said to her neighbor, "There’s some really fine guys at my house that I want you to meet."
"Who?" questioned Katie.
"Just come meet them," Rebekah answered impatiently.
Katie hesitantly followed her over excited friend. Rebekah sprinted towards her house, while Katie slowly walked yards behind.
"Hurry up!" Rebekah yelled. She was tall with long, straight, brown hair. Her and Katie were both fourteen and going into high school. Rebekah had a million personalities in one. It was hard to tell when she would be shy and when she would be hyper. At times she would be loud and outgoing. A lot of times, though, she was shy to the point of being rude. She thought that if she was just quiet and didn’t say anything, people wouldn’t make fun of her. What happened was the exact opposite. When Rebekah was hyper, she was also very wild and sometimes loud and annoying. Sometimes she would unexpectedly fall into depression. It was nearly impossible to make her happy when she was depressed. You just had to wait for her to get happy again.
Katie walked a little faster. She noticed that Rebekah was practically about to blow up. "Wait here," Rebekah said when they reached her garage door. She opened the door just enough so she could fit in and shut it behind her. Katie waited anxiously outside. She was glad that she was shaded in the garage from the hot summer sun. Katie was very short with medium length, wavy brown hair. She was jealous of Rebekah’s straight hair. She was very shy to certain people. It was really easy for her to talk to other shy people, but she was really shy around the loud, popular people. Maybe it was because she didn’t worry about what the shy people thought of her, but she cared what the popular people thought of her. That was bad, because then those people never got to know her true personality. Being shy was like hiding your identity. Most shy people are really nice; it’s just that nobody knew that they were so nice and considerate, so they just left those people alone. Katie had secretly promised herself that she would try to be more talkative.
After a few seconds that seemed like hours, Rebekah came back outside and ushered Katie in. Katie’s jaw fell open when she saw who was standing in front of her. "Katie," said Rebekah, "this is Ike, Taylor, and Zac Hanson."
Katie glanced at Rebekah with a look that said "Duh! They’re only my favorite music group!"
"They’re staying at my house for the night, because they couldn’t afford to have their whole family stay in a hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Hanson are going to pick them up tomorrow sometime before the concert. My mom and I picked them up at the airport this morning at 8:30," she continued, explaining the situation. "So, say hi." Rebekah was acting much more hyper and giddy than usual.
"Hi," Katie said quietly.
"Hi," said Hanson politely. They all stared at Katie, noticing that she was about as tall as Zac. Taylor let out a sigh of relief, realizing that Katie and Rebekah wouldn’t scream, just as they had promised in their letters.
"Take a seat,” Rebekah said, gesturing towards the couch in the family room. Isaac led his brothers to the couch and the three sat down. Katie sat down on the navy blue leather chair close to the couch. “Does anybody want something to drink?”
“Sure,” they all answered. Rebekah walked into the kitchen and over to the cup cabinet. When she realized she had five cups to carry, she called from the kitchen, “Hey! Does someone want to help me?”
“I will!” Zac jumped off the couch and skipped to the kitchen.
As Zac entered, Rebekah looked up from pouring the Kool Aid and smiled. She was afraid to say something because when she was excited, she could hardly breath. Rebekah was afraid her voice would shake if she tried to say something. She took three of the full glasses and Zac took two. “Let’s go!” Zac said. He was just like Rebekah had imagined him to be--always happy and hyper. No wonder he had so many friends, he was so fun to be around. Both Rebekah and Katie doubted that she would get depressed tonight. They had an unspoken agreement that it would be all hyper, all night. As Zac and Rebekah carried the glasses into the family room, Zac peered curiously at the lap top computer on the kitchen table. Rebekah noticed and hoped Zac wasn’t bored already.
While Rebekah and Zac had been getting the drinks, Katie, Taylor, and Isaac were having a tedious conversation. Katie knew she had a lot in common with Hanson, and they should get along well. She just had to convince them that. The problem was she would never start a conversation. Isaac decided to try, “So, Katie, what do you like to do?”
She wasn’t at all surprised by this question. “Um. Well. I like reading, writing, and rollerblading. I really like drawing."
"Wow, you are a lot like Taylor," Isaac replied, turning to Taylor. Katie could feel her face turning red and could see Taylor's getting red. She was surprised. She rarely blushed. Ike tried to think of something else to say. "How good of a drawer are you?"
"Well," Katie started, "I'm not that good, but people say I am, so I'll take their word for it." Katie smiled. She had just quoted Zac on how well he played the drums. "No, well, I did win a contest for drawing in 8th grade."
"Really?" Taylor spoke up.
“Yeah,” Katie went on, telling them all about it. “In eighth grade I made an anti drug poster for D.A.R.E. and my poster won second place and was put in a calendar. I won a $100 savings bond.
Rebekah and Zac walked into the room and passed out the drinks. Rebekah had heard the word “drawing” from the kitchen and decided to bring it up. “So, you guys like drawing.”
Isaac informed her, “Katie was just telling us about the poster contest she won.”
"Yeah, it sounds really cool," added Taylor, staring at Rebekah’s dog, Mookie, who was jumping around the room. Mookie was a cocker spaniel/elkhound mix and was about fifteen years old in people years. Rebekah also saw her dog and went to go let her out. Out of the middle of nowhere, a huge bee flew through the door. Rebekah screamed and ran down the hall into the living room. Zac and Isaac saw her and started laughing.
"Shut up," Rebekah whined, trying to defend herself the best she could. "Is it gone yet?"
"Yes," Taylor yelled from the family room. "I let it out." Taylor just couldn’t understand how anyone would be that afraid of bees. He didn’t say anything, though, because Katie got up and moved to the window, which was farthest away from where the bee entered. He also figured she might be offended if he dissed her friend.
"My hero," Rebekah muttered sarcastically as she walked back into the family room. She glanced at the computer the same way Zac did a couple of minutes before. "Would you like to go on the Internet?" Without waiting for an answer, Rebekah walked into the kitchen and started setting up the computer and the modem. Zac sprinted into the room first with Isaac close behind, leaving Taylor and Katie in the family room. Rebekah handed the cord to Zac so he could plug it in, because he was the closest to the outlet. While the computer turned on, Rebekah pulled a chair up next to Ike’s. She called to the family room.
Katie walked into the kitchen with Taylor at her heels. She pulled up a chair and realized there wasn’t enough, so she got one from the dining room, placed it between Taylor and Rebekah’s, and sat down. Rebekah went into yahoo chat and created a private room called "Really Chat with Hanson." After waiting a few minutes, a name appeared under theirs. The name was "Middleofnowherechick."
"Is Hanson really here?" she asked.
"Yes they are," Rebekah answered.
"I love Isaac. He is so fine!" the screen read.
"Call me Ike," Isaac typed.
"How can I believe Hanson is really there?" Middleofnowherechick questioned.
"You could trust us or quiz us," replied Isaac. She proceeded to ask many questions, from "How tall are you?" to "Are you available?" The three Hanson brothers provided truthful answers to all of them.
"One last question. Where are you guys right now?" The five of them looked at each other, each wondering how to answer. Before they could, another name appeared on the screen. The name this time was "Manson666."
"Oh, great," Rebekah uttered, glancing at Katie uneasily. Katie seemed to be thinking the same thing, "This is a Hanson-hater."
"Hanson sucks!" Manson666 wrote, "They need a haircut and a shower. When’s that middle girl gonna go through puberty anyway?"
"Shut up, Manson, you’re just jealous. For your information, Taylor did go through puberty. You are so not-clued-in!" Middleofnowherechick said, defending her favorite group.
"Jealous of grease balls? Haircut! Shampoo!" chanted Manson666. Rebekah and Katie looked at Taylor, Ike, and Zac. They didn’t seem too concerned. They didn’t care what this guy had to say.
Katie tried to help by typing, "How do you know. You’ve probably only heard one song."
"Whatever. But they’re still grease balls," was all Manson666 could say. Then "Manson666 leaves" appeared on the screen.
"Good," Zac said, finally speaking up.
Rebekah suddenly got a devilish look on her face. She turned to Isaac, "Hey Ike, how would you like to be set up with Middleofnowherechick?" Before he could answer, Rebekah wrote, "Hey, Middleofnowherechick." Isaac tried to grab Rebekah’s hand away from the keyboard, but Zac held him back as Rebekah typed, "How would you like to be set up with Ike?" While they waited for a response, Rebekah said to Ike, "Don’t worry, I’m just getting some information about her. You don’t have to date her." He looked a little better after she said that.
"YEAH!" Middleofnowherechick responded.
"OK," Rebekah typed, "What is your real name, what is your age, where do you live, how tall are you, what do you look like, what do you do for fun?"
"Olivia, 15, Kansas, 5'8", kinda long, dark blonde hair, blue-green eyes, I like roller-blading, basketball, and bike riding."
"So, Ike, how does she sound?" Rebekah asked him.
Isaac looked at Rebekah and then at the screen, "It’s hard to tell. I still don’t really know her."
"OK, Olivia, Ike still isn’t sure, so can I have your phone number and have him call you in about five minutes?" suggested Rebekah.
"Do you swear that you’re not lying?" Middleofnowherechick demanded. They promised they were telling the truth and wrote down Olivia’s number. Rebekah closed down the computer and re-hooked up the phone. She dialed Olivia’s number and handed the phone to Ike.
"Hello?" a voice said. Zac, Taylor, Katie, and Rebekah heard a high-pitched scream come from the phone after Isaac said, "hello." He took the phone away from his ear and stared at it, making a weird face. "This was a bad idea," he said.
Zac grabbed the phone and yelled into it, "OK, we gotta go, talk to you later!"
Katie looked at Rebekah and said pointedly, "Yeah, Rebekah, bad idea." Rebekah glared at her.
"So, what now?" asked Rebekah.
"We brought our rollerblades," said Taylor, "Do you guys have any rollerblades?" Katie and Rebekah loved rollerblading. They weren’t surprised at all that Hanson had brought their rollerblades since they also loved rollerblading.
Katie went home to get her rollerblades on while everyone else brought theirs outside and put them on. They all walked to Katie’s yard to wait for her there. Her driveway was better for rollerblading, anyway, since it was cement and Rebekah’s was asphalt. Katie slowly walked to the group in her rollerblades. She stood next to Rebekah and waited for her to start skating. They were feeling self-conscious in front of Hanson, who skated like pros.
"Why are you just standing there?" questioned Zac. He skated over to them, grabbed their wrists, and pulled them out onto the driveway. He let go of them and sent them flying. They didn’t know how to brake, so they just kept going, hoping to run into the grass or something. Katie was rolling down the driveway at top speed, half screaming and not really knowing what she would do. She wouldn’t have been as worried if she was on Rebekah’s driveway, which wasn’t as steep. Now she just hoped somebody could help her. Taylor careened down the driveway after her, hoping to catch up to her before she hit the rocks at the end of the driveway before the bumpy road. He grasped Katie’s arm from behind and slowed down. She was off-balance and fell on the driveway. Surprised, Taylor tripped over Katie and fell down just beyond her.
Isaac, Rebekah, and Zac rushed down to them, not sure whether to laugh or be concerned. Ike and Zac got there before Rebekah did because she was practically tripping the whole way. "Um, are you guys OK?" Zac asked, feeling guilty. Taylor and Katie rolled over, looking a little dazed and suddenly burst into laughter. The other three loosened up and laughed along with them. They sat there for awhile, not knowing what to say. Katie looked up and caught Taylor looking at her. He quickly averted his eyes. "Come on, guys, let’s blade!” Zac and Ike each took one of Katie’s arms and helped her up while Taylor jumped up by himself.
"Why don’t we go to the public school. It has a big parking lot and no hills," Katie suggested.
"Sure, let’s go," Zac said, still feeling a little guilty. They rode to the school in their rollerblades. They basically had to walk on the grass the whole time because the road was hard to skate on.
Katie suddenly groaned. Rebekah looked up. She had been focusing on not falling and wasn’t paying attention. Katie was staring at the parking lot of the public school across the field. There were three guys on rollerblades and two skateboarders in the parking lot.
"What’s wrong?" asked Ike.
When Katie didn’t talk, Rebekah explained for her, "Katie’s worried that those guys are punks.”
Katie said, “You should see my sister and her brother. They’re worse than me! They practically run away if they see anyone there. They think the skaters will beat us up or something.”
"Has that ever happened?" Taylor wondered.
"Kind of," Katie answered.
Rebekah explained again, "It was no big deal, but since then, both Kristen and Katie have been more terrified than usual. They just came up to us and asked us for money and threatened to kill all recreational skaters. But they were only about Tim’s age. Maybe fourteen, but no more." When they got there, two of the three rollerblading guys came up to them. They looked maybe fourteen or fifteen.
"What are you guys doing here?" the younger-looking one demanded.
"Rollerblading, of course," Zac said bravely. Katie stood a little behind Rebekah, and Rebekah stood a little behind the guys.
"Do you live around here?" the older one asked.
"We don’t," Taylor said.
"We do," Rebekah said, pointing to her and Katie.
"Where do you live?" he asked, "What street?"
"Irving Place," Katie said, a little too quickly.
"Where the hell is that?" asked the younger one.
The older one answered the question, "I know where it is. It’s up that hill off of Meadowlark." The other boy nodded.
"Got any money?" the younger one asked.
"Yeah, I do," Isaac said honestly. Rebekah and Katie looked at him in surprise. Even if they had money, there was no way they’d tell him.
"Give it to me," he commanded, holding out his hand.
"No, I might need it for lunch today," replied Isaac, frowning. The guy moved closer to Hanson and the girls. Rebekah tried to be brave and slouched as if she was bored and unconcerned with the whole situation. Katie just stood there, not sure what she should do.
"Just leave us alone," Taylor said. Rebekah glanced at him nervously. She would never say something like that. Her method was playing it cool. Katie was also surprised. Her method was surviving however she could.
Katie decided to just walk away this time. They didn’t have time for these losers. When both guys skated away for a second and started doing tricks, she said, "Come on, guys, let’s go behind the school." She and Rebekah both knew that the two strangers would probably be back. Hanson agreed and Katie and Rebekah led the way. The five of them headed to the other building of the school. The public school consisted of two buildings, a primary school and an intermediate school. The main parking lot was in front of the intermediate school. They went to the back of the other building and skated there. There was a lot of space, but not as much as the main parking lot. It also had a curb that they could jump on and off of. They skated around the parking lot until they were too hot to take it anymore. Zac and Taylor were jumping on and off the curb, frontward and backward. Rebekah, Ike, and Katie tried to jump off the curb. They were OK skaters and could almost master the forward jumping, but Katie and Rebekah just couldn’t understand how to jump on or off the curb backwards. They couldn’t do many tricks, especially Katie and Rebekah.
"So, what do you want to do when we get back?" asked Katie.
"I don’t know, but I’m really hot," Zac said.
"Did you guys bring your swimsuits? Katie has a pool," Rebekah suggested. To the girls’ surprise, the guys had brought their suits and thought swimming would be a good idea. The rollerblades were getting annoying on the bumpy road, so the five took them off and carried them home. This time when they left, the other skaters ignored them.
“Oh yeah, we showed them,” Zac said.
When they got back, Katie went into her house. Rebekah, Isaac, Taylor, and Zac went into Rebekah’s house. As soon as the Hansons and Rebekah were dressed, they met in the family room. Rebekah grabbed suntan lotion and goggles from the bathroom and walked with Hanson to Katie’s house. Katie’s mom was taking the cover off the pool and putting the ladder on. Katie grabbed goggles, tubes, noodles, and enough stuff to keep them busy for a long time. Checking the temperature of the pool water, Katie announced, "It’s 82 degrees.”
“So, who should get in first?" Ike asked.
"Go ahead, Zac," Taylor said, pushing Zac forward. Agreeing, Zac ran up the ladder and canon-balled into the water. Katie and Rebekah blocked their faces from the big splash that Zac made. Since Isaac was closest, he decided to get in next. He walked up the ladder and jumped into a purple tube that was nearby. While Zac was trying to find a pair of goggles that fit, and Ike was trying to get out of the tube, Rebekah jumped in and grabbed the goggles that she always used. She was recommending a yellow pair to Zac.
"Go ahead, Taylor," Katie said. Taylor looked at Katie with an unsure expression and jumped into the pool. Katie climbed up onto the ladder, waiting a few minutes, listening to Rebekah yelling at her to get in. Finally, she jumped in.
"Does anyone wanna play the handstand game with me?" Rebekah yelled across the pool.
"I guess," Katie said and swam over to Rebekah.
"Sure," Zac said, "how do you play?"
"It’s easy," Rebekah explained, "you do a handstand, hopefully everyone can do that, then when you come up from your handstand, try to see the next person’s head before they go down to do their handstand." They all got in a big circle and started playing. Rebekah volunteered to go first. Katie was ready to go down. After Isaac went down, Katie and Rebekah noticed how tall he was and how his feet went over the bars. Katie couldn’t stop laughing. Rebekah saw her when she came up. Katie was out. After awhile, Taylor and Ike got out. It was Zac and Rebekah. They were both really good and were taking forever. Rebekah came up from the water, sputtering for air. Out of breath from laughing at Zac, she doubted she could hold out any longer. As Zac appeared above the water, Rebekah stopped him. “How about we call it a tie?” she said, almost begging him to accept her offer. He gave up and called it a tie. Zac challenged Isaac and Taylor to a race across the pool. He felt that he was on a winning streak. While the brothers tried to swim to the other side of the pool first, the girls did handstands and looked at them upside-down. When the guys passed Rebekah again, she dipped below the water. Gently pushing off the side, she swam as low to the ground as she could. Her stomach brushing the bottom of the pool, she swam right under Hanson. Rebekah popped up at the other side of the pool and grinned mischievously at Katie.
After the race ended, Isaac wandered around the circular area, looking for something to keep himself amused. "Hey, Katie, why is this rope here?" he asked, grabbing onto the white rope tied onto the metal fence around their pool.
"Oh, that’s our volleyball net," Katie answered, "our cheap volleyball net."
"Ooh let’s play," Zac said as he and Taylor dove for the ball.
"OK," Katie agreed, "what should the teams be?"
"Well, I shouldn’t be with Katie," Rebekah said.
"You also shouldn’t be with Ike," Zac added, noticing that they were the tall people, and Katie and him were the short ones.
"It’s going to be uneven. The bigger team should go on that side," Taylor realized, pointing to the side closest to the ladder since it was the bigger side.
"Well," Rebekah commented, "I can’t go with Katie or Ike, so they should go together, and I’ll go with Zac and Taylor on the bigger side." They all joined their new teammates and decided that Ike and Katie could serve first since their team was smaller. Attempting an overhand serve, Ike tossed the ball into the air and hit it with his right hand. The ball sailed over the opposing team’s heads and out of the pool.
"Oh, you’re getting that," Katie stated. "That’s the rule. Whoever hits it out gets it."
"Oh really?" Isaac stroked towards the ladder to retrieve the ball. The cool air sent Goosebumps all over his body. Since he was so cold, Ike grabbed the ball and leaped back into the warm water. Loose grass that he collected on his feet floated to the surface. Rebekah and Katie did handstands, as usual, while they waited for Ike to get back. Ike handed the ball to Taylor, who was the next to serve. Taylor slammed the ball over the net, executing a great serve. Rebekah and Zac went up and slapped his hand, congratulating their super server.
"Don’t worry," Ike assured Katie, "that was just a lucky hit."
"Oh sure," Taylor said, hearing Ike’s comment. He slammed another great serve over the net. But this time, Ike dove for the ball and sent it back.
Rebekah smiled to herself. She had expected the other team to win. The last time she checked, Katie was better than her at volleyball. Rebekah assumed Isaac would be good because of his height. She knew from experience that it was wrong to judge someone by his height. Often, people would expect her to be responsible just because she was tall, but sometimes she wasn’t. Still in thought, Rebekah was startled to see a ball heading straight toward her face. To prevent herself from getting hurt, she desperately threw her arm up. The ball slapped the palm of her hand and slid down her arm. "Oh krum (a favorite phrase of hers that she used much too often)," she said as she picked up the ball and threw it to Katie, the next server.
“Were you in ‘Rebekah-land’ again?” teased Katie. That’s what the girls called it when someone started to daydream and lose track of the world around them. Katie served and missed the return by Zac. She threw the ball to Rebekah, splashing her in the face.
"Well I’ll serve I guess," Rebekah retorted, rubbing water out of her eyes. She ran to the back of the pool as well as she could and served. Ike jumped up and blocked the ball before it could get all the way over the net. It slammed in front of Taylor who stared in amazement at the ball in front of him.
"Oh that’s it. You’re going down, boy," Rebekah threatened.
“You did the same thing,” Taylor reminded her quietly. He braced himself for her reaction.
“I know,” she said, taking the ball and hurling it at Isaac, “I was just kidding.” She grinned and repositioned herself. Isaac caught the ball after if hit him painfully in the stomach. Trying to keep in mind what happened last time it was his ball, he served perfectly this time.
Rebekah and Zac dove for the ball. They bumped heads, but the ball went flying behind them. Zac yelped in pain and plunged into the water, pretending to be unconscious. The four of them looked at the spot where Zac had gone down, waiting for him to come up. His older brother instincts kicking in, Isaac nervously eyed the spot Zac went down. He glanced at Rebekah, who was rubbing the sore spot on her head. Looking back into the water, Ike smiled when he saw Zac desperately struggling to stay fully underwater.
When he finally came up, he was gasping for air, "Don’t you guys care?!" They all laughed and assured Zac that they would have rescued him if he would have been down a second longer.
Ike took the ball and served again. The ball hit the side of the pool and then hit the water. It was hard to tell if it was out or not. "That’s out," Rebekah said, taking the ball and giving it to Zac. Isaac raised his eyebrows but didn’t respond. Zac served over the net, a "Yah!" along with it. Katie tried to spike the ball over but was unsuccessful. She took the ball and passed it to Zac. He was about to serve when he suddenly said, "You know, I’m kind of hungry."
Rebekah looked at Katie, "What should we do?" she asked.
"We could go to McDonald’s," Katie suggested.
"Where is it?" Taylor asked.
"It’s about five miles from here. We can go on the bike trail. You won’t be recognized as easily there," Rebekah assured them.
"What about when we get there?" Ike questioned, "Is it busy there? Will we be recognized?"
Katie answered, "It’s not that busy. If you wear hats, you’ll probably be fine."
"OK, let’s go," Ike finally decided.
Everybody climbed out of the pool. Rebekah got out first and threw Ike his towel. After a few minutes of drying off, Ike, Taylor, Zac, and Rebekah headed to the Castro’s to change. “I don’t feel like getting mobbed today!” moaned Zac, wrapping his striped blue towel tighter around his bare shoulders.
Rebekah swung her own towel around her shoulders. “You won’t,” she replied confidently, “You’ll wear your hats. It’ll be fine.”
Ike groaned quietly. He tried to avoid hats as much as possible. His brothers looked much better than he did. Besides, hats didn’t stay on his head very well.
For a moment, Katie stood on the deck staring after Hanson. All she could think was, “I played volleyball in the pool with Hanson!” Snapping out of her reverie, she sprinted into the house and down the stairs to change, which is where her room was, singing “MMMBop” the whole way. As she changed, she stared at her many Hanson posters. Katie compared the posters to the real thing. “They look the same,” she decided happily. Laughing, she grabbed five dollars and ran back upstairs and into the bathroom to brush her hair. After practically throwing the brush into the basket, she skipped out the door. While she waited for everyone else to join her outside, she inspected her driveway. She wrote on her driveway that morning when Rebekah invited her over to meet her guests. It was decorated with names of Hanson songs, lyrics, “I love Hanson,” and cute drawings of the guys.
“Oh yeah, Katie,” she heard Isaac yell from Rebekah’s driveway, “I forgot to compliment you on your artwork!”
“Um, thanks,” Katie responded, almost wishing she washed that stuff off that morning. “Yeah, right,” she thought, “like I would wash it off.” It took her awhile to finally notice that the guys had hats on. She tried to stifle a laugh.
She walked over to her neighbor’s yard, and they went to find some bikes to borrow. Rebekah’s brother, Tim, had a small bike that Zac could use. Both Katie and Rebekah’s mothers had a bike that Taylor and Ike could use. With Katie and Rebekah in the lead, the five rode to the bugline that started in downtown Merton.
