“Hello, Milwaukee!” Walker shouted into the microphone.
The four girls screamed along with the rest of the crowd.
“Kristen! Don’t scream in my ear!” yelled Sarah. Rebekah and Katie both looked at them angrily. While Walker finished his introduction, the girls climbed over each other to create a better seating arrangement. Kristen was still by the girl with the auburn hair, then Rebekah, then Katie, then Sarah. They finished right as Hanson ran onto the stage. The crowd went crazy.
Rebekah watched her friends carefully. They didn’t look nervous at all. Suddenly, a group of girls, all about fourteen years old, screeched, “Taylor! We love you, Taylor!” This made everybody scream. Sarah covered her ears with her hands and squinted her eyes. Kristen looked disgusted. Rebekah and Katie glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. They didn’t like it when girls were obsessed with one member of the group and didn’t appreciate all of them for their talent.
Taylor half-smiled. He also thought it was pretty pathetic, but his fans had made them popular, so he put up with it. Besides, who couldn’t love someone calling out his name? He walked up to the mike and said softly, “You guys are crazy!” into it. This made Katie laugh. Rebekah looked at her. It didn’t take much to make Katie laugh. Rebekah thought this was weird sometimes, even though she did the same thing.
“So, how is Milwaukee tonight?” screamed Isaac into his microphone. The crowd cheered their answer.
“What’s the first song, Tay?” Zac asked, speaking into his mike. They obviously already knew, but they wanted to build suspense.
“How about ‘Thinking of You?!’” he answered.
“It’s ‘Thinking of You!’” Sarah announced. The other three just glanced at her, all thinking the same thing, “Duh!”
Everyone in the crowd was on their feet, dancing. Some were in the aisles, but most people were in front of their chairs. The four girls joined in with the whole crowd and Hanson, singing “Have you ever stood outside a picket fence? You can see through, but you can’t get to the inside, oh...”
Katie stared at Taylor as he was singing “Thinking of You.” She had waited so long for this day to come. Taylor and his brothers were doing a great job already. Katie noticed that every free second they had, one of the Hansons would squint into the crowd. “Maybe they’re looking for us,” she thought.
Taylor glanced out at the crowd for what seemed like the millionth time. Where were they? He accidentally hit a wrong key on his keyboard and thought he should concentrate on his music more than finding his friends. He hoped no one had heard him mess up.
Isaac scanned the crowd again. It was no use. He wouldn’t find them. There were thousands of people out there and a light shining in his face. He gave up and sang the last chorus of “Thinking of You” along with Taylor and Zac.
They finished the song, ready for the loud screams and clapping that would proceed. The screams were loud but not as loud as some places they had been to. In Milwaukee there weren’t as many people as there were in other places, because not as many tickets were sold.
“Wow, we’ve got a great crowd tonight,” Taylor said after the clapping had stopped. The screaming started up again. This was really annoying Kristen. She was about to tell a loud group of girls standing by her to shut up, but she knew Katie would yell at her. She turned her attention back to Isaac, who was talking.
“We’ve got another great song for you. You all should recognize this one, too.” Ike and Taylor turned to Zac as he started drumming for the beginning of “Where’s the Love.”
Rebekah recognized it right away. She looked at Katie as they both said, “Cool drum part.” Rebekah was always saying a drum solo in a song was cool.
As the four girls listened to the song, they acted out some of the things Hanson did in the music video, like kicking the birds and rocking to the beat for example. They noticed people were glancing at them. Katie and Sarah decided to stop and focus on the band. They realized they wouldn’t see the group hardly at all after this concert.
The song ended. Too soon, Rebekah thought. Already, her face glistened with sweat. With all the jumping, screaming, and being so closely packed, someone could get really hot even though she’s outside. She swept the back of her hand across her forehead as Hanson finished “Where’s the Love.” She strained her eyes to hear the beginning of the next song. What Zac pounded out on his drums was unfamiliar to her. In confusion she turned to Katie. Katie shrugged.
“Where’s the love,” the guys sang. Finally, Katie and Rebekah understood. It was an encore. When the song ended again, Hanson left their instruments and met in the middle of the stage.
Zac finally got into the concert. He stopped thinking about the four girls as he and his brothers started singing “Madeline.” They were doing an acoustic version of this, standing at the edge of the stage.
After “Madeline” ended, Ike shifted his guitar on his shoulder and leaned closer to the microphone. “This next song is dedicated to everyone in Milwaukee.”
“In fact,” Zac added, “we really wrote it for you guys!” The crowd screamed in approval. Zac tried not to look so serious as he concentrated on his castanets as Ike began “Man from Milwaukee.” When the part in the song came where Zac had to use the megaphone hanging around his neck, he put it to his lips and screamed into it. “This is Mama Bird calling Baby Bird…”
The whole audience laughed and cheered. Zac sounded and looked hilarious, screaming into his megaphone. Isaac continued the song with his guitar solo.
“This is my favorite part,” Sarah told her sisters and neighbor for the millionth time.
“I like this part, too,” agreed Rebekah. Katie also thought it was a cool part, but she was too enthralled by the concert to add her opinion.
The song soon came to an end. Katie looked at her watch. The concert was probably about half over. She could tell everybody was having the time of their life. She smiled. If only they knew how much fun she was having. She was taken away from her thoughts when the whole crowd started screaming and cheering, including Rebekah, Kristen, and Sarah.
Taylor was having a lot of fun in Milwaukee. “You guys having fun?” he asked the crowd. The answer was amazing. He wondered if Rebekah, Katie, Kristen, and Sarah had cheered with everyone else. He hoped they were having fun, though he doubted they weren’t. Who wouldn’t have fun at a concert?
“We couldn’t sell a record,” started Isaac, quieting down the audience, “and we couldn’t do a concert, and we couldn’t live a minute without you!” he finished, strumming the opening chords on his guitar. “Well, I woke up this morning. And the night had been so long. It seems that I had had my mind on you,” Isaac sang into the microphone, starting “A Minute Without You,” Kristen’s favorite song.
Rebekah turned excitedly to Kristen, “Ikolas!” they said at the same time. “Ikolas” was a nickname that Kristen made up for Ike before the girls met Hanson. She said it once and somehow it stuck. Rebekah looked back at Ike. You could clearly tell he loved what he was doing. Rebekah’s mom was always saying what a nice voice Isaac (or as she said, “The big one”) had. It wasn’t until then that Rebekah really noticed. She took a deep breath and screamed as loudly as she could, “I love you, Ike!” Since Rebekah noticed girls all around her saying the same thing to Zac and Taylor, she figured Isaac might feel left out.
Isaac swayed back and forth unconsciously. Tim referred to his unconscious swaying as “Butchin’ it.” No one really figured out why. Bearing his braces proudly, Ike grinned out at the screaming audience.
Zac wanted to do something fun and outgoing for the crowd, but he didn't know what to do and he was stuck behind his drum set. “I hate always being behind these drums,” he thought, “I need to make this more fun.” He started speeding up, hitting his drums just a little bit faster. Taylor and Isaac nervously glanced back. Knowing they had no other choice, the older brothers sped up, too. They couldn’t stop the song and tell Zac to go slower!
Soon, Zac regretted making the song faster. “A Minute Without You” was hard to sing normally. Singing it fast was near impossible. The song turned out sounding fine. Taylor and Isaac were glad Zac didn’t have his burst of energy on a slow song.
“Uh, Rebekah,” Kristen called.
“What?” asked Rebekah, fearing the worst.
“I kinda have to go to the bathroom.”
Rebekah groaned, “Oh, Kristen, you’re goin’ down. Can you go alone?”
Kristen looked at Rebekah as if she had just suggested running around with her underwear on her head. “No! I might get shot!”
Rebekah laughed. It was something her brother would say. “Katie,” said Rebekah, practically slamming her friend to get her attention.
Clearly irritated by the interruption, Katie responded, “What?”
“I’m gonna go with Kristen to the bathroom.” Katie nodded and turned back to the stage. She couldn’t believe Rebekah was going so willingly.
Kristen and Rebekah squeezed past the almost drooling auburn-haired girl and walked down the aisle. As the girls approached the small cement outhouse, they saw a group of guys smoking in front of the girls’ bathroom. Kristen’s stomach constricted in fright. She was careful to stay close to Rebekah. Kristen glanced up at her to see if she was afraid. Rebekah was also struggling to remain calm. She tucked her long brown hair behind her ear and smiled encouragingly down at Kristen. Scenes from earlier that day when Randall had threatened to beat them up flashed through her mind. Rebekah raised her head and attempted to make eye contact with the smoking guys. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest, “Excuse me” she pronounced carefully, her voice trembling slightly.
The old teenager in the middle laughed with his friends. “Hanson sucks!” he snarled.
“OK,” mumbled Rebekah, “but can we pass, because she needs to go to the bathroom, so we can get back.” Somehow, Rebekah saw that the smoking teenagers wouldn’t hurt her or Kristen and was suddenly brave.
The only black guy came to the girls’ defense, sort of, “Let them go. They’re just a couple of worthless fagot-lovers. What would be the challenge if we pounded them right now?” His three friends, one white guy, two Chinese, glared at them but let them go in. Each guy blew hot smoke in the young girls’ faces as they hurried by.
“Thank you,” called Rebekah with a smile as she slammed the door.
Rebekah and Kristen ran back down the aisle and hopped into their seats. “That was fun!” Rebekah told Kristen with Katie listening.
“What took you so long?” demanded Katie.
“We ran into some druggies and Kristen insisted on waiting in the bathroom ‘till they left,” Rebekah said, accusingly glaring at Kristen.
“Yeah, but Rebekah, the jerk, was trying to get us shot!”
Smiling proudly, Rebekah explained, “It was no big deal.” They ended the conversation. Katie didn’t really care anyway. She concentrated on what the next song would be. She wanted to be the first one to figure it out.
Zac hopped up and down slightly on his seat. The next song would be “Lucy.” Zac was excited. He liked the crowd’s reaction when they heard the beginning chords of the song. Although he was excited about singing his solo, he concentrated on his drumming for fear of messing up like Taylor did before. His face grew serious for the first time since the beginning of the concert. He noticed that he could barely see the audience because of the darkening sky. Being an experienced performer by then, that didn’t bother him at all. Even though he couldn’t see the crowd, he smiled out at them anyway.
“Lucy,” Katie and Rebekah said when they heard the song beginning. They could easily name every song on “Middle of Nowhere” after they heard a few chords.
“This is going to be so cool!” Rebekah shouted excitedly. “We’ll finally be able to hear Zac sing ‘Lucy’ live!” Their eyes were fixed on the stage, their mouths moving with the words as if Zac’s singing had hypnotized them. Since the girls were enjoying it so much, the song seemed far shorter than it really was.
After “Lucy” ended, Zac ducked behind his drums and pulled out an armful of T-shirts, posters, hats, and CDs. Hundreds of arms flew up into the air, ready to catch anything that came near them, and hundreds of voices called out his name. Zac dropped the priceless items on the stage in front of his drums. All three brothers dug into their pockets for their clip-on mikes and hooked them onto their shirts. Isaac joined Zac by the big pile of Hanson merchandise and carried it to the front of the stage while Taylor fixed his mike. Zac grabbed a hat from the top of the pile. Isaac took a poster. “Who wants a hat?” Zac called out to the audience.
The response was deafening. “Uh-uh. You have to say please,” Zac teased, waving the hat back and forth. The crowd swelled again. Zac wound up his arm and threw the black hat as hard as he could, adding a little grunt.
Sarah watched as the hat fell a row behind her on the other side of the aisle. She watched the shirts, hoping that one would come to her. Katie noticed immediately that the CD Taylor picked up wasn’t “Middle of Nowhere.”
“Ready?” asked Taylor. He held the CD case like a frisbee. He chucked the CD, hoping the case wouldn’t break. His brothers heard it hit several hands before it fell and hit the ground. Taylor squinted to see who would get it. Zac’s hand was shading his eyes as he watched, too.
After Zac and his brothers had thrown every piece of merchandise they had brought, they walked back to their spots. Zac wished he could give something to everybody in the crowd, but he knew that was nearly impossible. It was kind of like the spots on the Hadler’s driveway. No matter how hard he tried, they would never get wet. No matter how badly he wanted to give every fan something, he never could.
Taylor was saying something, but nobody could hear over all the screaming. Hoping that what Taylor said was a good thing, they screamed louder.
“I wish everybody would shut up,” Sarah complained. This was the first concert Sarah had ever been to, and she wasn’t expecting it to be like this at all. “I can’t hear what they’re saying.”
“You’re not going to hear if you keep complaining,” Kristen shouted angrily. Kristen had to scream to be heard because she and Sarah were separated by the two older girls.
“Shut up,” Sarah snapped back.
“I was just saying—“
“And I said shut up.” Sarah never gave up until she had the last word in. Her sister hated how she was so persistent.
They continued to quarrel until Katie couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop fighting!” she yelled, which is usually the method she used to separate the two. It rarely worked. “I’m trying to hear the concert,” she added. That shut them up for awhile.
Isaac had almost completely forgotten about his friends. Making friends was nothing new to the Hanson family. They made friends everywhere they went. They really got along well with these girls. And Tim. Nobody could forget Tim. Maybe they liked this family so much because they weren’t like the girls at concerts. They didn’t scream, “I love you!” and obsess over them. They were like some guys Hanson had met. They wanted to be friends and hang out. Anybody could easily figure these girls were obsessed like the rest of ‘em. But this was a different kind of obsessed. It was hard to put in words.
“Hey, do you guys like the song “I Will Come to You?” All the girls screamed. “Well, in November, you’ll have to watch for it, because it will be our next single.” The crowd screamed again. They figured “I Will Come to You” would be the next song Hanson would sing. But Ike continued talking, “Also, on the single will be one of our never-before-heard songs, ‘Cried.’ How many of you have heard this song?” Only a few confused fans squealed.
Zac took over, “How many of you want to hear this song?” The crowd screamed again. That time they were far more excited.
Hanson started playing the song that none of the girls had ever heard before. Katie and Rebekah squealed when they heard the unfamiliar introduction. Rebekah put her arms on Kristen’s shoulders and jumped a little. “We’re listening to a Hanson original!”
“I know! This is so cool!” Katie hollered above the sound system and the crowd.
Sarah stood up on her seat and tried to take a picture. An ignorant boy that was seated a few rows behind them shouted, “Sit down up there!” Sarah quickly took her picture and stepped down from her seat. She looked a little embarrassed.
The song was really cool. It was fast paced, and reminded the girls of the song, “Speechless.” It started off with guitar, and Taylor singing lead. Katie liked how Taylor sang the choruses. He kind of whispered the first lines, and then it seemed like he got a little mad.
The crowd, particularly the teenage girls, screamed as loud as they could. They loved it. The song ended with the guys’ quick-paced harmony, “Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. He told you goodbye.” The audience roared in approval of the new song.
“Ok,” Taylor said, “When we go like this,” Taylor demonstrated clapping his hands above his head, “you have to clap along. Can you do that?” They screamed once again, ready to clap.
Rebekah, Katie, Kristen, and Sarah screamed as “Speechless” started playing.
Kristen turned to Rebekah, “Please don’t pinch me!”
“What?” It was hard to hear anybody, even the people standing next to you, unless they yelled as loud as they could.
“Don’t pinch me!” Kristen repeated.
“Oh,” Rebekah laughed. On the CD, after Taylor sings the first verse, he says “Ow!” Kristen once said it sounded like someone was pinching him. Since then, Rebekah or Katie had tried to pinch her so she’d yell along with Taylor.
As Taylor finished singing the first verse, the girls were ready, but he didn’t do it. Probably couldn’t get that high anymore. Kristen sighed in relief.
It was funny listening to the crowd singing during the chorus. It seemed like everybody was doing something different. Some sang Taylor’s part, and some sang Isaac and Zac’s part. Kristen sang both. “The way, the way you walk around me; the way, the way you talk around me. You act so speechless¼ð She d start singing one part and finish singing another.
Hey, Kristen, Katie called, I want to live in Central Time. Kristen laughed. Once, Kristen had been singing the part that goes, Oh baby, you think I’m so blind. Oh baby, I’m not playing around this time.” The problem was, Kristen had forgotten the words in mid sentence, so she sang, “Oh baby, you think I’m so blind. Oh baby, I want to live in Central Time.”
As that part in the song came up, everyone knew what Kristen was thinking. She was so predictable sometimes.
The song slowly faded away. Taylor and Ike grabbed their water bottles. Their throats were very dry. That annoyed Zac. “Let’s get on with the show!” he yelled into the microphone for everyone to hear. Because he was trying to hurry for Zac, Taylor put his bottle on the edge of his keyboard without screwing the cap on. He put his fingers on his keyboard, ready to play the next song.
“OK,” Ike began, looking back at Zac, “I’ll make a quick introduction since Zac is waiting, so patiently. Next is ‘Weird.’”
Kristen and Sarah had gotten used to all the screaming. They even did a little screaming themselves. They didn’t think it was nice to scream while Hanson was playing; they didn’t think Ike, Taylor, and Zac enjoyed that very much. They could barely hear themselves play.
“Isn’t it strange how we all get a little bit weird sometimes. Oh.” Zac was ready to play his drums. His part was coming up. He stared at Taylor’s water bottle as if he was trying to mentally knock it over.
Taylor nervously glanced at his water bottle. He shouldn’t have put it on his keyboard. While he was playing the keyboard, the bottle wobbled precariously. He tried to ignore it, but he knew it would eventually fall over and he couldn’t stop in the middle of the song to move it.
As expected, the water bottle fell forward. The bottle clattered to the stage, and the water splashed out over the people in the first row. Luckily, the girls loved it. Taylor smiled and continued the song singing happily, even though it was supposed to sound sad. The rest of the crowd acted no differently, swaying to the song. Some people had lighters. They would use them for “I Will Come to You” also.
After the song ended and the screaming died down, Taylor said somewhat embarrassed, “Sorry about that.” The girls screamed to show once again that they had loved it.
Zac was confused, “How could you guys like that? Now you have water and Taylor’s spit all over you!”
“Exactly!” one girl shouted. They all screamed again. The three guys shook their heads.
“We’re going to take a short break before we continue,” Ike informed them. He pulled the guitar over his head and set it down. He grabbed his water bottle and took a drink. Before he could set it down, Taylor ran over and grabbed it from him. Ike handed it over willingly. What else was he supposed to drink? Taylor gulped the last few drops from the bottle and handed it back to Isaac. The three walked behind the stage for the ten minute break. Taylor made a mental note to grab another water bottle while they were back there.
Few people in the crowd left. None of them wanted to risk missing anything. At one time, Hanson logos flashed across the big screen to hype up the crowd. It worked. They were definitely going nowhere.
The ten minutes went very slow, but soon Hanson came back again. The crowd greeted them.
“And now, we want to thank some very special girls,” began Isaac, shouting above the ruckus. Rebekah and Katie turned to face each other. Was Ike doing what they thought he was doing? “Instead of staying in a hotel like we usually do, we wanted to try staying at a fan’s house.” The audience screamed, although they didn’t know what he meant. Rebekah and Katie screamed, too, because now they knew what was going on. “They gave us great food, comfortable beds, and a lot of fun.”
At this point, Rebekah was close to hyperventilating. Katie and her sisters struggled to calm her and themselves down. Other girls around them looked at them in confusion.
“Let’s have Sarah, Kristen, and Katie Hadler, and Rebekah Castro come up on stage!” shouted Taylor.
Rebekah squealed. Kristen slapped her arm angrily. “Shut up,” she growled.
“Stupid,” Katie mumbled as she pushed her sister and friend out of the row. Rebekah breathlessly followed the Hadlers down the aisle and up the stairs to the stage. Since she had become so nervous, walking was hard for her. She stumbled up the stairs. Her face immediately turned bright red. Taylor put his hand over his mouth to stifle a giggle. He came out from behind his keyboards to lead his friends to some chairs across the stage by Isaac. He didn’t even try talking to them, because he knew they wouldn’t be able to hear each other. Katie started shaking as she followed Taylor to the chairs. Hundreds of people were staring at her and probably laughing at her tall, clumsy friend. Through Rebekah’s hysteria, she noticed Katie’s trembling. For some reason, that made her more confident. She waved at Ike as she sat in the chair closest to the end. Katie made her scoot over so Sarah could sit there. Katie knew Kristen and Sarah would not fight, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
“Katie,” Sarah said, leaning forward in her chair, “isn’t this cool?”
“Uh-huh,” Katie answered absently, staring at Zac. She was nervous—not terribly nervous, just butterflies in your stomach nervous. So many people she didn’t even know were watching her jealously. Katie could see some of the girls in the front row. Two girls were sitting in their seats, pouting. That made Katie smile. She was the luckiest girl in the world!
“OK everyone,” Zac began. The crowd was suddenly silent. Most of the teenage girls were probably too busy pouting to scream. “These are the girls. We are very grateful and wanted all of you to know how cool they really are.”
“Yeah right,” Katie and Rebekah said simultaneously. They laughed, but quickly stopped, remembering they were on stage and didn’t want to make fools of themselves.
“You ready for another song?” Taylor asked. This time, the crowd cheered. They had had enough of this house issue. Taylor headed for his bongos, and his fans immediately knew what they were playing. Sarah’s head snapped back to watch Ike finger the chords of “MMMBop” on his guitar.
“Oh!” Taylor sang. The audience cheered again. Kristen plugged her ears in an attempt to block out the deafening sound. Now she knew why Hanson wore earplugs. Ike glanced at her from the corner of his eye and smiled. He understood what Kristen was doing.
“You have so many relationships in this life. Only one or two will last,” Taylor sang. The crowd screamed the words along with Hanson. The four girls on stage didn’t sing as loud as they would have in the audience. They didn’t want to contribute to Isaac’s lack of hearing at the end of the performance.
Rebekah sang along happily. As she sang, she unconsciously swayed in her seat and stared at Isaac. Telling herself not to stare, Rebekah mentally hit herself. She instead squinted out into the audience, trying to find the auburn haired girl. Rebekah giggled to herself when she thought of how shocked the girl was when she found out that the four girls next to her were friends of Hanson.
After the famous song was over, Zac sent his friends back to their seats. “Alright, go back to your seats, you crazy girls.” As they walked across the stage, they waved at each Hanson and the guys waved back. All eyes were on them as they walked back to their seats. Everyone wanted to get a look at Hanson’s “friends.”
