The seven of them walked to the Hadler house to see Katie's room. "My room is in the basement," Katie informed them as they walked in through the back door. Katie's buff-colored cocker spaniel, Kacey, started barking as they walked in the house. She was also wagging her tail and whining at the same time.
Zac scrambled over to Kacey. Kneeling down, he stroked her soft fur. The young dog began trembling. Taylor, who was behind Zac, watched in horror as Kacey squatted and peed right on Katie's kitchen floor. Zac drew back his hand when he saw a yellow puddle coming toward him. "Ew!" he squealed. Then, guiltily, he turned to Katie, "Sorry."
"That's OK," Katie said and hastily grabbed a huge wad of paper towels and dropped them in the puddle.
"She used to do that to me, too," Rebekah assured Zac. Remembering something, she said, "Hey, Zac. You made my chicken do the same thing!" They all laughed, recalling the disgusted look on Zac's face earlier that day.
"Zac pooped on Zac?" Sarah realized like it was the funniest thing in the world. Katie threw away the soaked paper towels and opened the basement door.
They were about to go down the stairs when Katie's mom walked over. "So this is Hanson. I've heard too much about you guys. You play the piano, don't you?" Isaac and Taylor nodded. "You'll have to play something for me sometime since Rebekah never will."
"How about now. Where's your piano?" Ike questioned. Katie was relieved of showing off her room for now.
"Thanks," Katie's mom said, leading them to the living room.
"Yeah, thanks," Katie thought. Ike sat down at the piano and started playing something. Katie walked over to the keyboard beside the piano. Taylor followed.
"You said in your letter that you taught yourself the piano. What do you play?" Taylor asked her.
"I taught myself, so I can't be that good, can I?"
"Well then play something." Katie hesitated but turned on the keyboard. She turned the volume down so her mom could hear Ike playing. Although Katie wasn't as self-conscious about playing the piano as Rebekah, she still thought she couldn't even compare to Taylor's talent.
"I don't know what to play," Katie complained, "I don't know that many songs."
"Well, what do you know?" Taylor pressed. He was impressed that Katie taught herself piano since he and his brothers all had lessons.
"I don't know. The 'Entertainer', 'Linus and Lucy', 'Killing Me Softly', 'This Land'..."
"Play one of those," Taylor said.
"Why don't you play something," Katie answered, "You're the famous one."
"Because I want to hear you play," Taylor said back.
"Your turn, Tay," Ike said. Taylor hadn't realized that Isaac had finished his song and was waiting for Taylor to play something. Now that nobody was listening to her, Katie started playing "As The Deer" on the keyboard.
While Katie and Taylor were talking and Isaac was playing the piano, Rebekah, Zac, Kristen, and Sarah sat down on the couch and waited.
"Hey, Zac, why don't you play the piano?" Sarah asked him.
"I don't know. I tried it, but it just wasn't me."
Rebekah was about to ask him something, but Sarah tried sitting on her, so it came out as, "Zaaaaaaaac!" Sarah was always climbing on people, just like Zac did to his brothers.
"Sarah, get off me!" Rebekah screamed trying to push Sarah off. Kristen tried pulling her little sister off of Rebekah by her arms, but Sarah never gave up. Finally, her mom told her to get off and she unusually obeyed. Rebekah knew it was because Zac was watching. "OK. Like I was saying. Zac, who does your braids? I noticed that on 'Leno' the back wasn't finished. Did you run out of time or something?"
Before Zac could answer, Ike finished his song and Taylor sat down at the piano. Soon Katie started playing on the keyboard. Since the keyboard was so low, she wanted to sit down. The only chair in sight was a very small rocking chair that Katie owned for as long as she could remember. She grabbed it and sat down. Kristen lost interest in beating up Sarah and decided to torment Katie instead. She snuck behind Katie and started pulling the chair across the room. Katie squealed in surprised and grabbed onto the chair so she wouldn't fall off. As Taylor was finishing a song, Kristen put the chair back.
"Thanks you guys," Katie's mom said. She turned to Rebekah, "Will you play something now?" Rebekah still refused. "Sarah's friends will play for me, Hanson will play for me, but you won't play for me?"
"No, that's what makes me original," she replied with a cocky grin.
"You play the piano, too?" wondered Isaac. Rebekah nodded. She was clearly outnumbered but more stubborn than ever. "Play something."
"Zac didn't," she pointed out.
Ganging up on her friend, Katie added, "She's been playing for a long time." But not even Hanson-especially Hanson-could change Rebekah's mind.
Katie's mom sighed and walked out of the room. As she was leaving, she said, "We're having tacos tonight. Rebekah and Hanson can stay over if they want."
Katie turned to the group, "Is that OK with you guys?"
"Sure."
"Can we see your room now?" Zac pleaded.
"OK," Katie sighed and again led them down to the basement. They left Sarah behind playing something on the piano. They got to her room and luckily, Katie had made her bed that morning. Rebekah and Kristen flopped down on it.
"Whoah," Taylor said when he saw the posters on the closets. Katie's room was sponge painted blue and green. One of the walls was all closets. There was a little space that her desk went in.
"You have two closets, too?" Isaac questioned.
"No," Katie explained, "those doors have the water pump behind them." She pointed to the doors behind her daybed.
"Oh." The three Hanson's examined Katie's room the same way they had to Rebekah's. Zac was looking at a picture that Katie had drawn of Christina Ricci.
"Wow. That's pretty good," he said, "what's this first place ribbon from?"
"I drew that for the Wisco Art Fair. That's a high school. I got a first place ribbon and almost won a 'best of fair' trophy."
"So, you've won two drawing contests," Taylor added, remembering the drug poster she had told him about earlier that day.
"Yeah," Katie said, "The calendar is over there." She walked over to the calendar above her desk and showed them her poster.
Zac's gaze turned to the window above Katie's bed. "What's that?" he asked pointing to the white ladder below the window.
"That's my fire escape."
"Cool. You can spy on your neighbors from down here." Zac ran over and climbed up the ladder.
"I don't think you want to spy on them," Rebekah said, laughing.
"Yeah," Kristen added, "They're kind of wacko."
"OK," Zac said, jumping down. He stood there, thinking awhile. Then he got a devilish look on his face. "Hey Katie. Do you have any photo albums?"
Katie laughed. "Don't even go there."
Ike noticed a piece of paper with pictures on the outside of Katie's open door. He walked over to it. It said "Congratulations on you graduation Kathryn Hadler." Above it was a collage of pictures of Katie. "What did you graduate from, Katie?" he asked her.
"What?" She looked at the door. "Oh. I graduated from eighth grade. Some seventh grader at our school made those for everybody."
"What about the pictures?" Zac asked, joining Ike at the door.
"Everybody in the class gives pictures from their lives and they make a collage out of it. I kept mine." Taylor was curious and joined his brothers.
"Who's this?" Taylor asked, pointing to a picture of Katie and another girl at about six-years-old
"That's my friend, Mandy," Katie explained, "She's going into eighth grade this year."
"You're so cute, Katie," Zac said.
"Yeah right," Katie disagreed. She didn't think she was an ugly baby, she just didn't want to sound like a snob.
Sarah came down and announced that supper was ready. They went upstairs to find everything one would need for tacos covering half the counter, which is also used as a table. Sarah was sitting at the counter, eating.
"Where's mom and dad?" Katie asked Sarah.
"They're outside," she answered after swallowing. "They said to eat without them. They're going to eat later."
"OK," Katie said. "Then I guess you guys can go ahead." Katie wanted to be polite and prepared her food last. She talked while she waited. "I'm surprised my parents are being so nice to us. They don't really like us being 'dedicated fans.'" She grabbed a plate and continued. "I'm not surprised that they're staying as far away from us as possible."
Katie looked for place to sit. The only seat left was the third chair at the counter. She sat down in that seat, next to Taylor who had volunteered to sit by Sarah.
After sitting down, Katie looked at the kitchen table. Kristen and Zac were across from each other, Kristen being the closest to the counter, and Rebekah and Isaac were across from each other.
"So, Sarah," Taylor said, "how long have you been playing the piano?"
"Since second grade," Sarah said. She didn't have to think about it. She was good at remembering things like that.
"Do you like it?"
"Yeah," Sarah answered. Actually, at times Sarah hated practicing her piano lesson, but she didn't want to admit that to Taylor who obviously loved the keyboards.
There was a short silence while everyone was thinking of something to say.
"Hey, guys," Rebekah said, "what are we going to do tomorrow?"
"Let's go see a movie," Sarah suggested.
"I don't know, what movies are out now?" Katie asked.
Rebekah knew Ike, Taylor, and Zac liked adventure movies, so she tried to think of a movie they would want to see. "I think 'The Lost World' is out now."
"Cool!" Zac exclaimed. "I want to see that one!"
"What kind of movies do you guys like to see?" Ike wondered.
"I know Rebekah likes the blood and guts movies," Katie said.
"What, are you trying to get back at me for answering for you or something?" Rebekah retorted.
"No, it's just that in an interview I remember Taylor saying girls like all the romance movies and guys like the adventure stuff."
"Oh, so you were trying to prove me wrong?" Taylor tried to sound angry.
"Gosh, don't gang up on me! It was an interview!" Katie fought
"OK, break it up, break it up," Ike said. "We better get eating so we can go outside again and let your parents eat."
They ate again, all thinking about that interview.
"Do you guys like interviews?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah," Taylor answered
"I'd think they would get boring after awhile. Everybody asks you the same questions," Katie said.
"Yeah. But they're still fun," Ike said.
"The cameras can be blinding," Zac commented.
"I believe it," Rebekah agreed.
"Do you get sick of the cameras?" Kristen asked, realizing she hadn't been talking for awhile.
"Well…" Ike didn't really know how to answer.
"It's like we're sick of it, but we love it at the same time," Taylor tried to explain.
"I would hate all the screaming," Sarah put in.
"Yeah," Taylor agreed, "But we love that too."
"I don't like it how girls scream when they meet you or shake your hand," Kristen said, "I just want to punch them sometimes."
"I wouldn't go that far," Zac laughed. He acted like he was punching a fan. All the girls laughed. Isaac and Taylor just smiled, used to Zac's wild antics.
"It looked like Rebekah was about to punch those girls we met when we were walking," Katie said.
Rebekah stood up for herself, "Uh-uh." She said quietly, "It's just that I was jealous because they had front row seats and backstage passes." She looked down at her plate as if she were ashamed of herself. She looked up to find Ike smiling at her from across the table.
