Unexpectedly, the doorbell rang. Katie and Rebekah looked at each other. They both stood up. As they walked to the door, Katie said, "You guys stay here." Katie opened the door to find Tim, Rebekah's twelve-year-old brother standing before them. Without thinking, Katie and Rebekah quickly opened the screen door and shut both doors behind them. They had to tell Tim about Hanson before he saw them, which he would have been able to do if he had looked through the short hall to the kitchen.
Tim was as tall as Katie, maybe a little taller. Like Rebekah and Katie, Tim was really shy to the point of being rude. Whenever he and Rebekah had to meet one of their parent's friends, they would combine forces and try to ignore that person. Most of the time, the Castro siblings were close, but they also tended to get in a lot of arguments. Unlike his sister and neighbors, he wasn't really dedicated to anything. One day he would like something; the next day he would hate it. He hadn't always been crazy about Hanson, but he though Ike was cool at times. He seemed only to like them when Rebekah wasn't talking about them, which wasn't very often. But now, Hanson was standing before him. It didn't really matter that he thought they looked like girls. The point was they were famous people in his neighbor's house, and he was going to meet them. The feeling was overwhelming. After today, Rebekah was convinced that he would never hate Hanson again.
"Tim. You'll never guess who's in the kitchen," Rebekah started, trying to hold in the excitement. Tim waited for an answer.
Katie had to tell him. "Tim. Hanson is in there."
He didn't believe them, "I don't care about your imaginary Hanson..."
"No Tim, it's the real Hanson. Come and see." Tim followed, wondering why they were so excited. He knew when he got there. Taylor, Zac, and Isaac looked up as they walked in. He stopped short when he saw the three guys he was so familiar with and who his sister loved sitting at his neighbor's kitchen table. Tim's eyebrows shot up.
"Tim," Rebekah introduced him, "this is Ike, Taylor, and Zac Hanson. Hanson, this is my twelve-year-old brother, Tim."
"Uh, hi," Tim said, with a little wave. The guys each nodded and said hello to him.
"Hello," Taylor said. Tim started laughing, but only him, Rebekah, and Katie knew why.
"Tacos," Tim said, eyeing the food. Tim was a mooch and was always asking for food.
"No, Tim," Rebekah said.
"So, Tim," Zac wanted to get to know Tim most of all since they were the closest in age (and height), "what sports do you like."
"Uh, I like all sports. Basketball, baseball, soccer, football, golf."
"Basketball is cool. We all like basketball," Isaac stated.
"Cool, um, wanna play some b'ball in Katie's driveway?" Tim suggested.
"We're almost finished eating. You can do something with us later," Rebekah said.
"OK," he said, walking to the stairs. "I'll be outside playing basketball." They all watched Tim go.
Isaac turned to Rebekah, "He seems cool."
"Yeah, he is, when he's not ripping my head off. You don't want to see him when he gets mad," Rebekah said.
"Yeah," Katie added, "instead of fighting, most of the time they just destroy each other's property. Rebekah had twenty-three posters until Tim wrote 'you suck' on one of them."
They finished eating, dropped their plates in the garbage can and headed outside. "I think they'll get along just fine," assured Rebekah as they walked out the door. "Wanna play lightning?" she requested. Although Tim hated the game, he was really good at basketball and agreed to play anyway. Katie and Rebekah quickly reviewed the rules so everyone would understand.
"Everyone has to stand behind the free throw line. The first and the second people in line need basket balls," started Katie. "Then person number one shoots a free throw. Right after they shoot, person number two shoots a free throw. Those two people keep shooting until they make it. If person number two makes it before person number one does, person number one is out. If person number one makes it first, person number three gets the ball and shoots a free throw. Then person number three turns into person number two and tries to make a basket before the old person number two can. If he succeeds, the old person number two is out." Taylor and Zac looked at her in confusion. Luckily, Isaac had played this game before, but it was called something else in Oklahoma.
The seven of them formed a line behind the free throw line, drawn on the driveway with chalk. Sarah watched. Rebekah was about to go first, but she made Tim, because she and Katie both hated being in front of him since he was so good. Rebekah stepped in behind her brother. Katie went behind her, then Kristen, Zac, Taylor, and Ike. Tim threw the ball at the basket. He hit the backboard, sending the ball into the grass. Rebekah quickly shot the ball as Tim was chasing his ball. He shot a three-pointer from the grass, worried that Rebekah would make it before he did. The ball circled the rim and went in. Rebekah soon got out when Katie made her free throw. Shooting free throws was practically the only thing in basketball that Katie was good at. After awhile, Kristen, Taylor, and Katie got out. This left Isaac, Tim, and Zac.
"You're goin' down!" Zac threatened Ike, using Rebekah's expression. Zac swished his free throw. Isaac was out. Isaac tossed the ball to Tim and joined the girls and Taylor. Tim and Zac ran back and forth, back and forth, shooting and rebounding, shooting and rebounding. You could tell they were both getting exhausted. Zac shot a free throw and missed. Tim then shot and also missed. They both spent about two minutes without shooting free throws, not making anything. Finally, Tim dribbled up to the basket and made a lay up. The game was over. Tim had won. Both of them collapsed on the driveway, panting for breath.
"I challenge you all to a rematch!" Isaac said.
"No!" shouted Zac, "Let's just play a regular game of b'ball." The girls didn't want to play a game of basketball with them, so they hit the volleyball around.
"What should the teams be?" questioned Taylor.
Ike, Taylor, and Zac looked at each other and said at the same time, "I wanna be on Tim's team!" Rebekah rolled her eyes. She was glad, though, that they liked her brother. With a little bit of arguing, they decided that Isaac and Tim would be one team, Taylor and Zac would be the other team. More than once, they had to call "redo" because of a certain volleyball that kept landing in their court. Rebekah and Katie noticed each other glancing at the guys A LOT and not paying attention to their game. The girls finally decided to give up since they couldn't concentrate and sat down on the grass to watch the game.
"Go Ike!" they cheered as he was shooting the ball just a few feet away from them. He missed and blamed it on them for blowing his concentration. Zac set himself ready to shoot the ball. Before he released the ball, Tim slapped at it and it flew out of bounds.
"Ooh, I got it," Rebekah exclaimed, running after the ball. She picked it up and hurled it at the basket, not even hitting the rim. Tim laughed at her and continued to play.
Rebekah and Katie pulled each other away from the basketball game. Rebekah tossed the volleyball onto the slanted roof of Katie's garage and waited for it to roll off. When it did, she set the ball, with a loud slap, back onto the roof. Katie bumped the ball when it rolled back down. They kept this going, keeping their eyes on the guys more than the ball. Kristen and Sarah joined in soon after.
Taylor tried not to glance at the girls while he was playing. He couldn't help noticing that they kept glancing at him and his brothers, too. He and Zac had agreed on each guarding a person. Taylor was supposed to be on Isaac, but he wasn't doing a very good job. Ike was fast and Taylor was having trouble concentrating on the game. He knew Isaac had noticed, because he caught Taylor looking at the girls while he dribbled to the basket, unguarded. Taylor was surprised Isaac could focus on their game. They were gazing at him just as much. Zac was obviously enjoying the attention. He flung himself at the ball and tried to distract Tim while he was dribbling. It worked a few times, and Zac got the ball away from him. Every time Zac scored a basket, he would do a hilarious victory dance and shout, "Animal strikes again!"
Sarah started cracking up at Zac for the millionth time that day. He was doing another victory dance. "Go, Animal!" she yelled to Zac. He turned around for a split second and beamed at her.
"Sarah!" she heard someone cry. She looked at Katie just as the volleyball beaned her in the forehead. She staggered back in shock. It hadn't hurt much thankfully. Katie, Rebekah, and Zac immediately appeared at her side, asking if she was OK. She was pleased that Zac had come to her rescue and assured them that she was fine. Zac went back to his game; Sarah went back to hers, deciding that it would be a good idea to pay attention. The guys soon became bored of their basketball game and joined the girls' volleyball game.
"Who won?" asked Rebekah.
"We did," Isaac said, slapping Tim's hand. Taylor knew that Isaac and Tim had had an easy time winning the game, because he hadn't been focusing very well.
Rebekah had the ball, so she served onto the roof. Katie, Zac, Tim, Rebekah, and Kristen all went for the ball at the same time. They were so smooshed together that nobody hit the ball. "Why don't we call it," Katie suggested, "that will prevent injuries."
Tim took the ball and "served." Rebekah saw her chance and loudly screamed, "I got it!" She hit the ball back up onto roof and quickly backed away for someone else to hit. Zac and Katie both ran for it, trying to push each other away so they could hit it themselves. They became more interested in pushing each other, and less interested in actually hitting the ball. It surprised them as it headed towards them. They covered their heads, defending themselves from the ball. It bounced off their hands and rolled to the rest of the group.
"Serve, Ikey-poos!" Zac said, stepping behind Kristen. Isaac picked up the ball. They continued to play until they decided it was getting a little boring and they should do something else. Tim suggested going on the swing set in the back of the Hadler's yard. It was something he and Kristen did a lot. They all walked to the backyard.
The swing set consisted of two swings with a set of rings in between them. Beside one swing was a teeter-totter and a slide. By the other swing were monkey bars and a family swing. The whole set was white with green, red, and orange stripes. The bar above one swing was bent in from their weight. They refused to let their parents take the set down, even though they knew they were too old and big for it. There were just too many good memories on that swing set and they couldn't part with it.
Katie, Kristen, Tim, and Sarah raced to the two smaller swings, because they each wanted one. Rebekah stayed behind with Hanson; she wanted the big family swing. Katie dove into the swing by the monkey bars. Tim, who was the fastest runner, was behind Katie, so he sat in the other swing. Sarah quickly decided to claim the big swing since she didn't get a little one and saved a spot for Rebekah. Kristen was furious that she didn't get a swing and started pulling on the chains of Katie's swing, making her violently shake back and forth. She suddenly remembered that Hanson was there and stopped. Instead, Kristen took a seat on the top step of the monkey bars, which was also bent in the middle. Rebekah was about to sit down beside Sarah but figured it would be rude to leave her guests standing. She offered the spot to them. Isaac accepted and sat down next to Sarah, smiling as he did. Zac led Taylor over to the small teeter-totter and they each sat on one of the sides. Katie was worried that Taylor and Zac would bump into Tim, since the teeter-totter and the swing were so close together and the guys were so big. She smiled at the thought. Rebekah hung out by the monkey bars with Kristen.
"Tell us more about yourself," Isaac said.
"What do you want to know?" wondered Katie.
"You know a lot about us, right? So, tell us that stuff about you." Taylor suggested.
Katie and Rebekah looked at each other. They did know a lot about Hanson. It would take some time before Hanson knew that much about them. And most importantly, where should they start?
"Well," Katie started, "Our full names are Rebekah Nancy Castro and Kathryn Michelle Hadler..." Katie was conveniently leaving out information about her siblings, because she knew that would take forever. "We wanted to start our own music group."
"Yeah," interrupted Rebekah, "but we'll tell you more about that later."
"We haven't had any really serious injuries. We both don't have boyfriends."
"But Katie used to," Rebekah reminded them.
Tim interrupted, "Rebekah never had a boyfriend and never will." Rebekah glared at him. Taylor, Zac, and Ike glanced at Rebekah to see her reaction to Tim's insult. Her face turned red.
Katie quickly continued, bringing the attention back to her, "We are both really shy. Rebekah and I both like volleyball, and she likes basketball. My favorite colors are blue and green. Rebekah's is yellow."
Rebekah decided to take over, "We've known each other since third grade. I always have an expression that I say all the time, which eventually annoys the heck out of everyone. We haven't gotten kicked out of anything yet, I don't think, but we have run away from volleyball camp." Rebekah paused to look at Katie. She had a sick look on her face. The guys seemed very interested in the last piece of information. "We won't go into that," Rebekah said. "We still feel guilty for doing that. Katie's favorite show is 'FRIENDS,' and I don't have one." She paused again, looking around at everybody. Katie seemed bored.
"What about this music group?" mentioned Isaac.
Katie explained the possible name of the band to Taylor and Isaac, since Kristen and Sarah told Zac about it earlier. She went on to tell about the songs that they had written, "We sort of wrote, like, six songs, but they are REALLY stupid."
"Yeah, they're pretty sad," Rebekah agreed.
"How bad can they be?" questioned Zac.
"Pretty bad," Katie answered.
"What are they about?" Taylor asked.
"There's one about going to Mexico and no one liking you, one about going nowhere fast, written by Tim, one about life in general. A song Tim wrote called 'Precipitation' is about being prejudice, I think," said Katie.
"They're about life and stuff. A verse in our song 'Excuses' talks about friendship. That song talks about struggles in life and how you can't use excuses to get through your life. If a problem strikes, you gotta stand tall," Rebekah went on to explain, quoting their song, "Excuses."
"They don't sound that bad," Taylor complimented.
"You haven't heard them," remarked Tim.
"I have to agree with Tim on that one," Katie said. Tim unexpectedly stood up and headed toward his house saying that he'd be back in about ten minutes, because he wanted to have some ice cream. Tim always left in the middle of a conversation to eat something, so the Hadlers and Rebekah weren't surprised at all.
Kristen dove toward the small swing that Tim was in. Zac quickly but smoothly slid into the swing Kristen wanted. When she got there, he sweetly grinned up at her. A tiny smile spread across Kristen's face. She dragged her feet back over to the monkey bars, mad that she didn't get a swing but happy that Zac Hanson had smiled at her. Zac got up off the swing and offered it to Kristen. She eagerly took it, wondering why he gave it up. He ran up the steps to the slide and slid down on his knees, screaming, "Weeeeeeeee!" Taylor grew sick of the low teeter-totter, which was lower now that there was only one person on it, and stood under the monkey bars by Katie's swing. Isaac and Sarah had started pumping their legs, trying to get the big swing to go as high as it could. Katie saw Tim coming back and let him have her swing. She was getting bored of it anyway. Instead, she asked Rebekah to get off the steps of the monkey bars, so she could go on top of them. Rebekah obeyed and moved behind the swing set.
"What are you doing?" Zac yelled to Katie as he was running up the slide.
"Going on top of the monkey bars," she replied, pulling herself up, "Want to join me?" She didn't expect him to say yes, but she asked anyway. To her surprise, Zac ran over and climbed up next to her. He climbed up the steps on the other side of the monkey bars where Taylor was standing. Zac got on his hands and knees and carefully lifted himself so he was standing.
"Come on, Katie, it's easy," he invited. Katie firmly shook her head. There was no way anyone could make her stand up. He cautiously took a few tiny steps toward Katie and even smaller steps backwards. They all watched in awe, all thinking how daring he was. Zac's foot slipped a little, and he quickly lowered himself to prevent falling. He slid his feet between the bars so he was sitting like Katie was with his feet dangling down.
Almost at the same time, three separate conversations formed. Kristen and Tim were talking about stupid cartoons while they did simple tricks on their swings. Sarah and Isaac sat on the big swing chatting about Spice Girls. Katie, Zac, Rebekah, and Taylor were in the middle of a conversation that turned into an argument. When their argument was over, they had come to the conclusion that it's stupid and pointless to argue about opinions. They were ready to put the argument behind them and do something else. Tim was getting restless and bored, too, and started bugging and making fun of his sister to pass the time.
