The girls followed Sarah's example and went into the house. "We have to ask if you can sleep over," said Rebekah to Katie.
"I wanna come," whined Kristen once they got into the house.
Rebekah couldn't blame her. "I'm sorry, bud. I would let you, but I don't think my mom would. You can see Hanson again tomorrow. We won't be doing anything exciting tonight." Katie and Rebekah went to ask her parents. Her parents didn't even hesitate to say yes. Katie bounced down the stairs with Rebekah following. For once, Rebekah was the more mellow one.
Katie stopped at the foot of the basement stairs, "You still have to ask your mom now."
Rebekah smiled, "I asked her yesterday."
Katie just smiled and continued to her room. She opened her closet and grabbed a duffel bag. "Should I bring anything?" she asked Rebekah. She turned to the window and screamed. Rebekah turned around and screamed too. Taylor, Ike, Zac, and Tim were staring at them through the window. Katie jumped on her bed and opened her window, "You guys scared us. What are you doing here?"
Isaac explained, "While we were walking back to Rebekah’s house, Taylor got the brilliant idea to sneak over to your window and scare you."
"It worked," Rebekah said.
They saw a flash of lightning, and the thunder that followed shook the house. "Maybe we should go," Tim said, looking a little afraid.
"OK." They all stood up.
"See you later," Zac shouted as they turned the corner.
Katie jumped down from the bed and started packing. "So, should I bring anything?"
"No. We’ll probably be talking about Hanson the whole night anyway," she answered.
"Yeah," Katie agreed." I never thought I would meet Hanson this morning."
"I know," Rebekah smiled, "Isn’t it great!" Katie finished packing and they went upstairs. Katie said good night to her parents. Then they had to escape without Kristen and Sarah knowing it so they wouldn’t have to listen to them beg to sleep over at Rebekah’s.
"Wait!" Kristen was running down the stairs. Katie and Rebekah sprinted out the door as fast as they could with Kristen right behind them.
"Kristen go home!" Rebekah shouted behind her, "It’s after ten!" Kristen finally gave up and went home. They were surprised. They had run from her many times before and she didn’t give up that easily.
When Katie and Rebekah walked into the Castro's family room, they saw the guys sitting, watching TV. Tim was on the leather recliner with his feet up clutching the remote. The three Hansons were on the couch -Taylor in the middle, Zac closest to Tim, Isaac by the window.
"OK, you guys'll have to move over, then Katie can go on the couch," offered Rebekah, "I'll take the floor."
"I want the floor," Katie argued. She always liked sitting on the floor. Rebekah shrugged. Zac moved over, then Taylor, then Isaac, so Rebekah would sit next to him. She continued to the kitchen, saying that she was making popcorn. She asked what everyone wanted to drink. The guys thought soda sounded good. Katie and Rebekah were having Kool-Aid. Katie got up to help Rebekah with the food. The two of them carried the drinks to the guys. They set up the tray tables in front of the couch and recliner to put the food on. Katie stayed in the family room while Rebekah brought in the popcorn from the microwave. She took a seat on the floor by the fireplace so she wouldn't block anyone's view of the TV. Rebekah set the bag on Taylor and Zac's tray table. She sat down by Isaac.
Taylor delicately picked up kernel by kernel until he had about six pieces in his hand. He stood up in front of the TV, tossed the popcorn in the air, one piece at a time, and tried to catch them in his mouth. The way Taylor threw the popcorn made it almost impossible to catch. Some throws were far to the side and he had to dive for them. Others he threw so hard they bounced off the ceiling and went too fast to be caught. He tried, though, and got three of the six pieces in his mouth. After all the kernels were either on the floor or in Taylor’s stomach, the others clapped. Taylor curtsied and plopped down between his brothers.
Tim turned to VH1 and reached for some popcorn. The ugly face of RuPaul appeared on the screen. "Oh yeah," Rebekah remembered, “‘RuPaul’ and then ‘Pop-Up Video’." They watched, not knowing who the guest was. He was some rapper that none of them had ever heard of. Rebekah turned to the guys and said, "Just promise me you’ll never be on this show."
"Why not?" Isaac inquired, "I think she’s pretty."
"Haha," she returned, just as sarcastically.
"I wonder what she looked like as a guy," Katie said.
"She’s really a guy? I thought that was a rumor," admitted Zac.
Rebekah was surprised Zac didn’t know that, "Sorry, Zac, it’s true. I read it in a magazine and said it in a report." This time Zac was surprised. So were Ike and Taylor. She went on to explain that she did a speech with her friend, Karen, called "The Dangers of Disney." It said in one of her sources that Disney, like, sponsored RuPaul’s book, Lettin’ It All Hang Out, or something like that. Their eyes widened as Rebekah explained some other dangers of Disney.
"Whoa," was all they could say.
"Wanna see the Disney movies with bad stuff in them?" Tim asked excitedly. All three Hansons passed. They couldn’t understand how someone could get so much joy out of gross things like that.
"No thank you," Zac said.
"We’ll pass," Taylor added. Katie was uncomfortable and laid down on her stomach. It was a little better, but now she had to tilt her head at a bad angle to see the TV.
"There’s no more popcorn," complained Tim.
Rebekah’s eyebrows shot up. "What?! Already?!" Katie sat up again and reached for the bag. She dragged her finger along the side of the bag and licked the butter off of it.
"Let me try that," Taylor said, holding his hand out for the popcorn bag. Katie handed the bag to him. He turned the top part inside out so he could get to it better. He stuck his face in the bag and quickly licked the inside. Taylor’s hair constantly got in his way. He came up from the bag and licked his lips. He looked around to find everyone either staring at him as if he was insane--Tim for example, or laughing--Rebekah for example. He had a spot of butter on his nose and a little in his hair.
"I guess I won’t be having any more of that," Katie commented. Taylor shot her a greasy grin.
“Here, Tay. I’ll get you a napkin,” Rebekah laughed. She hurried to the kitchen and back, not wanting to miss a second of the hyper Taylor. Taking away the bag with disgust, Rebekah dropped the napkin on her friend’s lap. Then she flopped down on the couch and reached her hand in the bag.
“Ew, he licked that bag!” Tim ejaculated.
Rebekah blushed as everyone looked at her in surprise. “Just watch,” she said casually. She recoiled in disgust as her knuckles brushed the slimy wall of the popcorn bag. “Taylor, this is really gross,” she told him.
“Sorry,” he apologized. Taylor couldn’t believe he had gotten so out-of-hand that night. Usually, he was the calm brother, but suddenly, he turned more hyper than Zac.
Noticing that Taylor was actually embarrassed, Rebekah smiled at him. Immediately, she focused on the bag and took out a single, unpopped kernel. She stuck it in her mouth and looked around evilly.
“Oh great,” groaned Katie and Tim at the same time. They were aware of Rebekah’s antics and expected her to do something weird and embarrassing. When Ike glanced at her warily, Katie smiled apologetically as if to say sorry for what her neighbor was about to do.
Rebekah took a deep breath and spit the kernel at the TV as hard as she could. Her goal was the hit RuPaul. She missed. Taylor grabbed the bag from her, saying that he wanted to try. Zac, Tim, Ike, and even Katie then got themselves some kernels and tried to nail the famous drag queen.
“I got her in the neck!” Tim called out proudly.
“I got her in the nose!” yelled Zac.
Rebekah suddenly became serious, “Shut up!” she said harshly. Then, a little calmer, “We can’t be too loud or we’re going to get in trouble.”
“No, we won’t,” argued Tim, “Mom’s asleep and Dad’s not home, luckily.”
“Mom’s a light sleeper!” Rebekah shot back.
“Not again!” Zac groaned. He and his brothers didn’t fight half as much as the Castros did. Zac thought of how well Katie seemed to get along with her sisters.
“Where is your dad?” wondered Ike.
“He’s out of the country. He’s in Latvia. Latvia’s in Europe somewhere,” Rebekah explained. “He’s been going to Latvia every six months for the last five years.” She grinned when she noticed how genuinely interested Isaac looked.
“Katie, do you ever fight like this?” Zac asked, completely altering the subject.
“Only all the time,” Rebekah answered for her. She realized what she did and apologized. “Sorry, Katie. I answered for you again. I always do that.” Katie didn’t care. She was used to it by now.
“I get along better with my sisters than they do with each other,” Katie said. “People expect them to get along since they’re so close in age, but they fight all the time over the dumbest things. Then they both yell at me when I try to stop their fight.”
“Oh,” Zac said, quietly. He tried to imagine what that would be like.
Breaking the silence, Taylor spit his last kernel at the TV. It hit RuPaul on her backside. Tim started laughing loudly. “Bullseye!” hooted Taylor.
Rebekah shot Taylor a warning glare and muttered under her breath, “Perverts.”
“We’re not perverts!” Zac stated indignantly, “We’re guys!” Finally, Rebekah smiled.
“Hey, guys, look at her butt!” Isaac said in a Butthead voice.
“See?” Rebekah smirked. Tim stuck another kernel in his mouth and shot it. “You guys!” Rebekah scolded playfully, “I’m gonna have to clean all this up!”
“OK, we’ll stop,” promised Isaac. He didn’t like how all these arguments started.
“Yeah, jeez,” Taylor added sharply, slouching in his seat, pouting.
Rebekah leaned forward and gently shoved Taylor’s knee, “Faker,” she laughed.
They all faced the TV to see some old white guy singing on the RuPaul Show. Hanson said they’d heard of that guy before, but Katie, Rebekah, and Tim were clueless. RuPaul stood up to interview the man. She was at least a foot taller than he was.
A loud clap of thunder boomed outside. Taylor let out a little cry and dove under the blanket that was folded on top of the couch. Under the covers, he shook violently. Ike laughed and said, "It’s OK, Tay, the storm won’t hurt you."
Zac peeked under the blanket. "It’s all gone, Tay, you can come out now," he reassured his brother. Taylor came out from under the blanket, his eyes as wide as saucers. He suddenly threw the blanket off of him and burst into laughter, assuring anyone who didn’t get his joke that he was OK.
As RuPaul was saying her closing statements, Rebekah dramatically wiped her brow, "I survived the ‘RuPaul Show’!"
"Next is ‘Pop-Up Video’," Katie reminded them.
Isaac leaned back on the couch. He was exhausted. He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night or on the plane this morning and could barely keep his eyes open. If only the couch wasn’t so uncomfortable, he’d fall asleep right there.
Zac noticed. "Ike, you wanna lay down? We’ll sit on the floor." Zac glanced at Rebekah to see if it would be OK if the three of them moved. She looked at Isaac and nodded. Zac, Taylor, and Rebekah joined Katie on the floor. Isaac thanked them and stretched out on the couch, much more comfortable now.
"Can you see?" Rebekah asked Ike.
"Not really,” Ike admitted.
“We can fix that.” All four of them lay on their stomachs so Ike would be able to see the TV screen.
“Thanks,” he said.
They waited anxiously to see what videos would be on ‘Pop-Up Video’ that night. "What do these brothers do while they’re home alone?" the voice on the TV asked while showing a clip from “MMMBop.” The six of them laughed at the irony, each equally surprised. Throughout the whole video, Hanson was saying, "Yep, true, very true," or "Oh, that’s interesting," or telling anecdotes about their lives that had to do with the video.
After the show, they decided it was time to get to bed. Actually, Rebekah’s mom decided. Before she headed up to bed at ten o’clock, she had told them to go to bed at eleven. Katie turned around and glanced at Ike. He had his eyes closed. It looked like he was asleep. She nudged Taylor, who was next to her, and quietly said, "I think Ike’s asleep."
"I’m not," Isaac said, opening his eyes. Zac and Taylor, realizing that Isaac was still tired, each took an arm and hoisted him off the couch. Tim walked up the steps first, Taylor and Zac close behind, then Isaac, and finally the girls, carrying Katie’s bag.
Tim immediately walked into his room and shut the door. They all said good night and went to their rooms—Katie and Rebekah into her room, and Hanson into the back bedroom, which was Rebekah’s old room.
Katie and Rebekah changed and jumped into Rebekah’s double bed. They were definitely not going to sleep right away. "This is so cool. Hanson is sleeping in my house!" They sat there, not believing what they were thinking.
"I wonder what they’re talking about right now," Katie said. Right away she knew what Rebekah was thinking.
"Let’s find out," Rebekah jumped up.
Katie, at first, didn’t look too sure. Then her face changed to looking just as mischievous as Rebekah’s.
They opened Rebekah’s door and slowly walked down the hall to the room Hanson was in, trying to avoid creeks in the floor. “Do you think your mom will hear us?” Katie whispered.
“I hope not.” They knelt at the door and tried to hear what the boys were saying.
"...has been a great day. Better than I thought it would be," someone was saying.
"Yeah, I know," they heard Isaac say. He still sounded tired, "I thought they would be these obsessed fans that would scream all day and tell us how much they love us."
"Yeah," Zac said, "They are obsessed, but they are pretty cool."
"What do you think we’re going to do tomorrow?" Isaac asked.
Zac looked at Taylor for the answer, still remembering his joke about being psychic. Taylor gazed thoughtfully into space, "Well, we’ll probably wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and then do stuff."
Zac rolled his eyes. "Really? Good guess."
Taylor altered the question, "What do you want to happen tomorrow?"
"I wanna sleep until noon," moaned Isaac, "Sorry to be a party-pooper, but I gotta get some sleep. I don’t wanna fall asleep during the concert."
"There’s no way you’re gonna fall asleep during the concert. Milwaukee will be just as noisy as every other concert we’ve played at," Zac told him. Isaac collapsed on the bed.
Thunder shook the house. Isaac and Zac looked at Taylor to see what he would do. He didn’t seem to notice it. "Tay, what’s up?" asked Isaac.
Taylor snapped back into reality, "Huh? Oh, sorry, I just have something on my mind that I think I should talk to you guys about."
Rebekah got excited. She was about to hear one of Hanson’s private conversations! Then she felt guilty. Would she want them invading her privacy like this? It might be embarrassing. She tried to focus and to listen intently, but she couldn’t get herself to pay attention. She didn’t know exactly why she felt so guilty, but she did. She glanced over at Katie. Katie had a worried look on her face, wondering what Taylor was going to say.
"You can tell us," Zac said.
"If you want," Ike added quickly. He didn’t want Taylor to feel pressured into talking with him.
Taylor sat silent, trying to think of a way to tell them. "Katie’s cool, isn’t she?" he started.
Zac and Ike made eye contact. "Yeah," Zac said, not sure what his brother was getting at.
"Yeah, they all are." Isaac added sleepily. He was trying to pay attention to Taylor’s needs, but he was so tired.
"You like her, don’t you?" asked Zac.
Isaac shot him a look. "It’s OK if he likes Katie. She’s cool."
"And nice," Taylor said.
"And fun," Zac added.
The brothers looked at each other. They didn’t know it, but they were all thinking the same thing. Isaac was the brave one. He voiced what the others only thought. "And cute."
Rebekah and Katie didn’t even flinch when he said that. She got that a lot. Everyone was always telling Katie she was cute—Ricky, Andy, Kristen, you name it.
"Yeah, at least, I think I might like her. Who knows?" Taylor said, confused, and collapsed on the bed next to Ike.
Isaac didn’t know whether to change the subject or not. He didn’t know if Taylor still wanted to talk. Zac changed the subject for him, so he didn’t have to worry about it any longer.
"What was your favorite part of today?" Zac asked his brothers.
"The park." Taylor said immediately. When Isaac and Zac looked at him, wondering why he came up with an answer so quickly, he added, "Rebekah asked me the same question earlier."
"Why is that your favorite part?" wondered Zac.
"It was fun, I guess, I don’t know. You know, going on the swings and the slide. It was just all fun. And because we didn’t have to wear our hats." Rebekah and Katie also knew that it was because he tried to listen to the girls’ "telephone" conversation.
“You sound like a little kid,” Ike laughed. “I like the slide and the swings,” he said, imitating a little boy.
“Yeah,” Taylor agreed. “I guess you’re right.”
"I liked climbing trees. That was fun. They’ve got some good climbing trees. I also liked meeting Tim. He’s cool. We like some of the same things," Zac said.
"Yeah, Tim’s cool," Isaac commented with his eyes closed. They all waited for Ike to tell them his favorite part. "I like the Internet," he said, smiling. "No, I’m kidding. My favorite part was playing kick the can. No one did kick the can, but thinking up the strategies was fun."
"Yeah, I liked kick the can, too." Taylor said with a corny smile on his face.
Zac chucked a pillow at him. "I liked kick the can, but definitely not for the same reason," he said, laughing. Taylor gently tossed the pillow back on Zac’s little mattress-thing on the floor. He wasn’t in the mood for fighting.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Zac said, "I’ll be right back.”
Rebekah and Katie, not expecting this, ran for Rebekah’s bedroom. Rebekah tripped over Katie, slamming Katie’s shoulder into the corner of the stairs. Katie laughed and leaned on Rebekah, trying to get up. When they finally reached the room, they collapsed onto the bed and cracked up. “That hurt!” Katie moaned, rubbing her shoulder.
Zac opened the door while they were struggling to hide. He got out of the bathroom and knocked on Rebekah’s door. "You know I saw you, don’t you?"
"Yeah, we kind of figured that," Katie said.
"You better watch out," he said. The girls heard him walking back to their room and closing the door. They knew he was telling his brothers about them.
"That was fun," Katie said.
"Yeah," Rebekah agreed. "So, do you like Taylor?"
Katie’s smile faded. It was replaced by a look of confusion.
“Why wouldn’t you? Taylor’s awesome,” Rebekah went on to explain his good points, “He’s nice, funny, cute…rich. No, I’m kidding. That doesn’t matter.” Changing the subject abruptly, she said, “So, Katie, what was your favorite part of today?" Rebekah asked, knowing Katie wouldn’t answer her first question.
"I have to answer that, don’t I," Katie complained.
"Oh yeah!"
Katie thought for awhile. "Well I guess I—" Rebekah suddenly put her finger up to her mouth, silencing Katie. She got up and walked over to the door. She jerked it open to find Zac and Taylor staring up at her.
"Where’s Ike?" she questioned. She was trying to get them to not think about what she was talking about. She hoped they hadn’t heard her, but she doubted it.
"He fell asleep," Zac informed them.
"You just better be glad we weren’t talking about something personal," Katie said from the bed.
"Actually, that’s what we were hoping for," Taylor smiled.
"I know, that’s what we were hoping for, too," Rebekah confessed. No one brought up the Taylor and Katie conversation. The last thing anyone wanted to do was make them feel uncomfortable.
"We’ll go now," Zac said, leading Taylor back to their room.
Rebekah shut the door, beaming from ear to ear. "This was such a fun day!" she exclaimed, leaping over Katie and onto the bed.
"Wait till we tell everybody on the Internet," said Katie, excitedly. They loved chatting on the Internet. A couple of times they even pretended to be Hanson. One thing that they would never ever lie about is meeting Hanson. Now they wouldn’t have to lie.
"Not even our friends on the Internet would believe us," commented Rebekah. Katie already knew this, but figured that at least one person would believe them. They imagined a conversation they would have with someone in their favorite chatroom. The two of them would tell the person about Hanson’s personalities and everything.
"What should we do tomorrow?" questioned Katie.
"Well, um, they’ll probably have to leave in the afternoon. I know what we can do!" Katie looked worried again. "Oh, don’t worry. The eight of us could go to Fun World and play laser tag!" Katie reluctantly agreed. It was a good idea. It was something Hanson liked to do. "We’ll ask them tomorrow if they want to. Maybe we’ll even see someone from my class." Fun World was near Rebekah’s school, and people from her class sometimes hung out there.
Taylor climbed up onto the bed and leaned against the wall. Zac sat on his low bed facing Taylor. "We should have been more subtle," said Taylor.
Zac nodded, "What do you think of Sarah?" inquired Zac.
Taylor smiled. Honestly, he thought she complained a little bit too much. "She's cool. I mean, she does whine sometimes, but she's pretty cool. Who doesn't whine?"
Zac agreed, "Yeah, I like all of them. They are all funny in their own ways. They also all have good points and bad points."
Taylor became interested, "Bad points? Tell me about them." Taylor knew that if he asked Zac what the good points were, he'd just say that everyone was "cool."
Zac grew uncomfortable, "OK. Rebekah always is thinking of match making schemes. Katie is quiet and..." Zac didn't want to go on for fear Taylor would start a pillow fight if he said anything bad about Katie.
"Go on," urged Taylor.
"Katie, I don't know, actually, she's just more quiet sometimes than the rest."
"Not always," Taylor argued.
Zac squirmed, "I know, sometimes she's loud. Well, OK, I can't think of a bad point for Katie now. She's perfect, OK. You happy?"
Taylor shook his head, "Nobody's perfect."
"Tim makes fun of Rebekah," Zac continued. "Kristen...oh great, I can't think of anything for her. Well, I guess she copies Tim. Tim was complaining to me before that Kristen steals all his phrases and talks like him. Sarah is violent. That's what Kristen said. This is harder than I thought it would be."
"OK, what about good points?" Taylor asked.
"Why don't you do good points, Tay? I had to do bad points."
"OK," he slowly responded. "Rebekah is funny and doesn't seem shy at all. Katie, well, Katie is...We've already covered Katie's good points." Zac let that one go, so Taylor went on, "Tim likes sports and is good at them. Kristen is funny, I guess, but in her own little way. Sarah, well, I don't know Sarah that well."
"Sarah laughs a lot," Zac told Taylor. "I hid with her behind her pool for kick the can. She told me about a story they read off the Internet about us. I guess whenever they find a story they make fun of it. In this story, the main character, Trina, was your long lost twin. Sarah said Trina made it sound like she was fat or something."
"And that is Hadstro," Taylor said looking at Isaac. He looked so peaceful. He must have been really tired. Taylor suddenly yawned and lay down.
"So are you ready for the concert tomorrow?" Zac asked Taylor, also lying down.
"I don't know, but we really should go to sleep. Mom and Dad will kill us when they find out we've been up this late."
"Yeah, you're right," Zac walked over and turned the lights out.
