Katie came back down the driveway and they continued walking. "I hope we don’t get a big crowd," Zac said, "I don’t think we’re ready for that."
"Don’t worry," Katie assured him, "Merton is so small, nobody will care even if they do notice you. Nobody ever comes outside anyway.”
“That’s what you said about McDonald’s!” Zac pointed out.
“Well…” Katie was speechless. They walked to the end of the road to find Jake, a twelve-year-old that went to the public school nearby.
"Hey, Chake!" Rebekah yelled to him. She had been tormenting the twelve-year-old since the Castros first moved into Merton nine years prior. “Ch” is how Jake pronounced his J’s, and Rebekah never let him forget it. Jake looked up but said nothing. "Hey, Chake," she repeated, "do you remember when we told you about Hanson?" She looked over to Hanson. They didn’t look too sure about what she was saying. She said, "Don’t worry" and continued, "Jake, this is Hanson." He didn’t look very interested so they just continued down the road.
"See," Katie said, "they don’t care." They turned at the end of the street. Since the Merton roads were never really busy, they weren’t afraid to walk in the middle. They continued to walk down the very old, worn out, asphalt road. Soon they passed the Serres house. Ricky Serres, a fourteen-year-old country music fanatic was out. Katie and Rebekah were surprised. He hardly ever came outside. He was good with girls and could probably find a girlfriend in two minutes. In fact, he had a crush on Katie and asked her out. She refused. Rebekah and him were also friends in kindergarten. Now they pretty much both hated him.
Katie and Rebekah both groaned when they saw him. The three Hanson’s laughed at the girl’s reaction. "So you know him?" Taylor asked with a smirk on his face.
"Unfortunately," Katie responded. Ricky saw Katie and walked down the driveway. He stopped when he saw Hanson and Rebekah.
"This Andy?" Ricky asked looking at Zac.
"No," Rebekah answered in a snobbish voice.
"Oh. How’s Andy?" he said, this time directing his question to Katie.
"I don’t know," Katie answered, not giving a straight answer.
"Katie broke up with Andy," Rebekah told him.
"Who’s Andy?" questioned Taylor.
"Katie’s ex," Rebekah answered quickly. She loved referring to him as her "ex."
"So, Katie’s a regular heartbreaker, huh?" Ike teased.
"Actually not," Rebekah said, "It’s really hard for her to hurt someone’s feelings like that. She actually had Kristen tell him the news." Rebekah decided to change the subject since she didn’t think Katie liked talking about it. "So, Ricky, you’re probably wondering who these guys are. Well, have you ever heard the song "MMMBop?"
"Yeah. Who hasn’t? What’s your point?"
"Well, Ricky, this is Hanson, the group that sings "MMMBop" and "Where’s the Love" Katie informed him.
His face was expressionless at first. Then he started doubting them. "Yeah right. Why would a famous singer come to Merton anyway?" Katie looked over at Hanson. Ike and Tay were looking at Ricky, and Zac was jumping up and down like he really wanted to leave.
Katie sympathized with him. "We better go. See you later." She added, "Hopefully not soon," when they were out of earshot. Rebekah laughed, agreeing with her.
"So, who is this Ricky and why do you hate him so much?" Zac finally said. "Well..." Katie said looking at Rebekah. She started explaining him to Ike, Taylor, and Zac.
"That just proves that Katie is a heartbreaker," Ike said, "that’s two guys now."
"Hey, Katie. Look! John’s out!"
"Is he another one of Katie’s lovers?" Zac said sarcastically.
"No, actually, he’s one of the few people that don’t like Katie," Rebekah exaggerated.
"I don’t even think he knows me," Katie added. Two teenage boys were playing basketball, while their younger sister was rollerblading in the driveway and attempting to talk on the phone at the same time. John looked over at the group and frowned when he recognized Rebekah.
"I don’t think he likes me very much," Rebekah said with a smile. They continued walking without saying anything. The two boys continued their game. As they were walking, Zac got a little behind, so he ran up and jumped on Isaac. Isaac just pushed him off.
"So, tell me," Isaac tried to make conversation, "what is your neighborhood like?"
"We don’t really know," Rebekah answered, "We don’t know very many people around here. We went to private schools that aren’t around here."
"Well, who do you know?"
"Pretty much the people you saw today," Katie said.
"Yeah," Rebekah added, "Jake, Ricky, John. That’s about it."
"You can’t forget Teddy," Katie reminded her.
"Oh yes," Rebekah sighed, "Who can forget that darling boy."
"Teddy?"
"One of my favorite baby-sitting charges," Rebekah said, rolling her eyes. Katie found a rock and started kicking it along the road.
“So,” Katie started, running after the rock that she had kicked a few yards ahead of her, “How’d you guys know you could trust us enough to stay at Rebekah’s house?”
Taylor answered, “We didn’t. We were kind of worried you guys would be like…”
Rebekah was surprised when Taylor suddenly stopped. “Be like what?” she asked.
“We were hoping you wouldn’t be like ‘Oh Taylor! I love you! Kiss me!’” Zac paused and thought. “Of course,” he said, “I wasn’t worried about that. Who would fall for a guy like Taylor when they can have a guy like me!”
“Only all thirteen and fourteen-year-old girls,” Rebekah answered.
“Most thirteen and fourteen-year-old girls,” Katie corrected her.
“Yeah, we would never do that,” Rebekah agreed.
Ike added, “That’s why we picked you guys. It was just a good choice I guess.”
Katie had been thinking while the conversation went on. “I probably would have looked for a girl closer to Ike’s age. She might not be as ‘grabbing at your feet’ in love with you.”
“How do you know?” Zac responded. “Those girls can be aggressive too!”
Katie changed her mind, “I guess you’re right.”
“But we still love ‘em all,” Taylor said putting his arm around Katie, “Even you guys.”
“Yeah,” Ike said doing the same to Rebekah, “Even you guys.”
“Hey!” Zac protested. “What about me?” He put one arm around Taylor and the other around Rebekah. The five made one long line across the road.
“You know, we’re lucky these roads aren’t busy,” Katie pointed out.
“They’re not even close. They look a little deserted to me,” Zac riposted. At that moment, a car went by the road ahead of them.
Katie turned to Zac, “You were saying?”
“OK. Maybe not completely deserted.”
Ike added, “I guess we’re just used to cars all around us with screaming fans doing whatever they can to touch us.”
“It’s a good thing those people don’t know you’re here. It might make a reputation for good ‘ol Merton,” Rebekah said. Katie laughed.
Ike turned to Katie, “You laugh at everything, don’t you?”
“Yes!” Rebekah quickly answered for her. She was good at doing that.
“Do you not want me to laugh?” Katie said, trying to sound defensive. Nobody said anything; they didn’t know what to say. “Fine!” She detached herself from the group and walked a few feet away from them.
Zac got excited, “She won’t be able to do it. With us here, she’ll be laughing in no time.” Zac also detached himself and started walking backward in front of Katie. He made funny faces at her, trying to get her to laugh. Ike came over and did the same. Katie was holding back the laughter.
Ike decided to use a new method. “I have an impression for you.” In a southern accent, he said, “Hello. My name is Joe. I will be your tour guide for this evening. Examine the beautiful trees and …grass.” Katie glanced at Rebekah and Taylor to see how they were reacting to this. “No! Dear God. Examine the nature, not those retards.”
Katie couldn’t take it anymore. She burst out laughing. Taylor looked at his watch, “Hey! Two minutes! It’s a world record!” Still walking back with Rebekah, Taylor heard “MMMBop” blasting out of a CD player in a nearby front yard. Two girls danced next to the CD player. They appeared to be practicing cheerleading. The taller one had dark brown hair, and the other one was blond. “Who are they?” asked Taylor.
Rebekah looked at Katie, willing to let her answer. She was in a deep conversation with Isaac and Zac and paid no attention to the question. “Cheerleading Hanson fans, I guess. But I don’t know them,” Rebekah replied.
The two girls stopped dancing and began whispering frantically to each other. They were both pointing and squealing. Rebekah ran to her four friends. Taylor followed, not wanting to be a loner. Zac and Katie were walking close together. Desperately, without any thought, she pushed through the two. “Look!” she practically shrieked. The girls ran toward the Hansons and their friends.
Katie shoved Rebekah off of her. “I know. I saw,” she snapped.
“Do you know them?” Taylor asked Katie.
Katie studied the girls. Immediately, she remembered the dark-haired one from summer school. “I think the brown-haired girl is Theresa. She was in summer school with me.”
“Hi, Hanson!” squeaked the blond. They could tell she was trying to control her voice and failing.
Taylor smiled sweetly at the girls. He appreciated that they didn’t scream. “Hi.” He stuck out his hand to her. She shook it eagerly. As he shook Theresa’s hand, “Weird” started playing.
“Why are you guys here?” wondered Theresa.
“We’re here for a concert. We wanted to try staying at a fan’s house,” Isaac explained.
“Well, why didn’t you choose mine?” asked the blond.
“It was random,” Taylor lied.
“What are your names?” asked Zac.
“Amanda.”
“Theresa.”
“Are you guys going to the concert?” Zac wondered. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t heard any screaming today and he loved it.
“Yeah,” answered Amanda, “we got front row seats!”
“And backstage passes!” Theresa added excitedly.
Rebekah felt a pang of jealousy. She and Katie had good seats, but definitely not as good as front row. Not only that, but Katie and Rebekah didn’t even get backstage passes, and they were friends of Hanson. “Where’d you get ‘em?” demanded Rebekah.
“We just won them off a radio station a couple of days ago,” Amanda explained politely.
“We stayed up all night to win them,” continued Theresa, “And we had to wake up early the next morning.”
“Whoa!” Zac said, “just to win backstage passes to meet us?” He was noticeably impressed.
“Yeah, you guys are awesome!” Amanda gushed.
Katie stood quietly, surveying the situation, still standing next to Zac. She had smiled when she heard the envy in Rebekah’s voice. She wasn’t enjoying her position as a wallflower and decided to break her silence. “Were you in summer school at Merton? I think I remember you from some of my classes.”
Theresa studied Katie’s face for a second. “Yeah, I think I remember you.” Katie nodded happily.
“Guys, we should go,” Rebekah said, “My mom doesn’t know where we are.”
“OK,” Ike agreed reluctantly. “It was nice meeting you both. See you at the concert.”
Amanda was about to suggest that her and Theresa follow the group, but she didn’t want them to sound like obsessed fans. She couldn’t wait until the concert. The two happy girls walked back to their CD player and turned back to “MMMBop.” They continued choreographing their song, talking about how lucky they were.
Rebekah, Ike, Taylor, Katie, and Zac gathered again into a group on the side of the road, as they were about to turn.
Rebekah noticed the road they were now on, “Hey Katie, its ‘Short View’!
Taylor was confused, “What?”
Zac answered, “You know that sign up there? That’s called a street sign. They tell the name of the streets.”
“What a concept,” Ike said.
“But it says ‘Long View.’ Rebekah called it ‘Short View.’” Taylor explained his reason for confusion.
Rebekah told them, “It’s a nickname. A long time ago Katie and I said it should be called ‘Short View’ because this road is short. We forgot that the road continues after that hill.” They walked the rest of the way home silent. Katie realized that she had left her stone behind.
When they reached Rebekah’s house again, they were bored. Katie’s face suddenly lit up. "You know what we haven’t done in a really long time?" Katie said to Rebekah. "When’s the last time we climbed trees?" Rebekah rolled her eyes. She kind of figured Katie would say that, since she loved climbing trees. Rebekah also loved climbing on things, but she didn’t think it was a good idea with so many people there. She gave in anyway and led Katie and their guests to her back yard. There were two good climbing trees in the yard and three others that were harder to climb and not as fun. Katie immediately headed toward her favorite tree, the one in the middle. Everyone else followed her, not sure where they wanted to go.
Zac pulled himself up into the tree Katie was in and shouted, "Ready or not, here I come!" Katie looked down at him and grinned. Zac followed her up the tree, wildly throwing himself from branch to branch. Taylor, Rebekah, and Isaac watched them for a while. "Katie, I’m gonna try to go higher, can you move?" Katie obediently slid up on the thick branch she was leaning on, so Zac could pass.
Becoming bored, Taylor moved to the next tree over, closer to Katie’s yard. It was one of the hard-to-climb ones. It wasn’t before he climbed to the first limb that he realized he couldn’t get any higher. He sighed and tried to make himself comfortable. Looking over at the tree that everyone else was by, he noticed that Rebekah had climbed to the lowest limb and was sitting, facing his tree. Taylor turned back to Katie’s house and saw two young girls running toward Rebekah’s back yard. "Hey, Katie, are those your sisters?" he asked, pointing.
"Yeah," she said. She slowly and carefully descended the tree. Katie wanted to tell her sisters about Hanson before Rebekah could. She jumped down from the tree and rushed over to them.
