After asking Rebekah’s mom about going to Fun World, and after she said it would be a good idea, the eight of them piled into the Castro’s mini van that only fit seven people. Tim sat in the passenger seat, Hanson in the middle, and the four girls in back. Tim was satisfied with his seat, because he wanted to control the radio.
Though she doubted it would be, Rebekah was kind of hoping "MMMBop" or "Where’s the Love" would be on the radio, so all of them could sing along.
"So, what is Fun World like?" Zac asked anyone who knew.
No one spoke at first, so Rebekah decided to explain, "Well, the first thing you see is a Ferris Wheel. They have arcade games and ticket games and laser tag, of course." Hanson nodded as she spoke.
The twenty minute drive was basically silent besides the radio. Everyone was imagining what Fun World would be like or worrying about Hanson being discovered. If they were caught, they would not be as lucky as they were at McDonald’s the other day, because it would be much more crowded there. Whenever a song came on the radio that someone knew, which happened a lot, someone would begin singing softly or mouthing the words. However, no conversations started until the car pulled into the Fun World parking lot.
"Do you think we’ll be able to take our hats off while we play laser tag?" asked Taylor.
"Maybe," Rebekah said. She was answering all the questions, because she felt that she knew the most about this place. Rebekah could have been wrong, though. She had only been there once or twice and had never played laser tag there. She admitted this to everyone, so they wouldn’t get on her case if she was wrong about anything. "If there are only guys playing, they probably won’t care."
Fun World was packed. Rebekah’s stomach twisted into a knot as she saw a familiar van driving out of the parking lot. "Hey, isn’t that Chris Root’s van?" Tim asked. Rebekah nodded silently. Katie groaned. Chris was a guy in Rebekah’s class who made fun of her all three years at that school. They had never been friends. She explained the situation to the guys. Isaac nodded sympathetically, remembering their little conversation in the tree yesterday.
"Do they know who Hanson is?" Zac wondered, hoping the answer would be no.
"Yes, unfortunately, I think I heard about you guys from him." The guys groaned.
Mrs. Castro handed Rebekah a wad of money. "I think I’m going to go run some errands and then come back for you guys later." They all nodded. "Do you have a watch?" Rebekah said she didn’t, but all three Hanson brothers did. "Be outside at 1:15. OK?"
"OK, Mom. You can trust us," Rebekah said, taking the money and stuffing it in her pocket. The second they got inside, Zac dove for the token machine. Rebekah halted him, "Wait, Zac, we should sign up for laser tag first, there’ll probably be a line." They walked over to the booth and told the man that they wanted to play laser tag. He said that there would be a forty-five minute wait. They decided to play other games until then. They paid and walked back into the main arcade. Zac hurried back to "his token machine" as he called it. A teenage oriental guy who didn’t look too friendly cut him off. Zac was about to tell him off, but Taylor stopped him. It wasn’t a good idea to cause a scene, especially if you’re famous.
"So, Ike, is this like the place you usually play laser tag?" Rebekah asked Isaac. Before he could answer, she saw Chris, with his light blond hair, towering above his three friends from Rebekah’s class. Mike, a guy who Rebekah thought liked Katie, noticed her first and pointed her out to his friends.
"Hey, Rebeks!" Mike called. She rolled her eyes. Zac laughed, but Isaac and Taylor, sensing the trouble, remained still. Taylor inspected the four guys. Chris was taller than Isaac. He had really light blond hair down to his ears. The guy next to Chris was dark-haired and about as tall as Isaac. The other two were Zac’s height. Mike’s straight, bleached hair was growing out, so Taylor could see his dark roots. The last guy had neatly combed light brown hair parted in the middle and glasses. None of them looked threatening. Mike moved closer to them. He was now about ten feet away. Neither Mike nor any of the other guys came closer. They didn’t want to be seen with Rebekah; they just wanted to make fun of her a little. "Hey, Tim!" Mike greeted Tim.
"Oh great," mumbled Tim, stepping next to Kristen and Sarah, who were behind everyone else.
"You brought Katie, too," continued Mike. His friends snickered.
Rebekah smiled unexpectedly, "Yeah, Mike, I did, why don’t you say hi?" She always liked giving Mike a hard time when it came to Katie. Katie had gone with Rebekah to her school dance earlier that year. Being forced into it by Rebekah, Katie had danced with Mike to “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. Rebekah wouldn’t let either of them forget that night.
Mike hesitated, but then also greeted Katie. He didn’t pause for Rebekah to say anything. Instead, he immediately went on, "Are these your boyfriends?" He asked, finally realizing that Hanson was with them.
Rebekah smiled again. That time, Katie did, too. "No, Mike, just friends."
Chris whispered something to Mike. "OK, well, you have a nice day there, Rebeks. We’ll see ya later!" Mike mocked in a high voice.
She remained cheerful, "Bye, Mike, bye guys!" she called after them. Now Hanson was really confused. Rebekah had been so depressed when she first saw Mike, Chris, and everyone else, but then she ended up happy and saying goodbye to them. The thing was, Rebekah didn’t really care about Mike or what he said. It was really the others that she didn’t like. They thought they were so cool. Mike just tried to be cool. Liking Katie and being as short as her was a weakness on his part also. This gave Rebekah an advantage. She tried to explain this to Hanson, but it didn’t really help.
Isaac listened intently while Rebekah talked. He couldn’t relate very well, because he didn’t ever go to school, but he thought it sounded interesting how she could be afraid of some guys but not of others. It seemed that height made a big difference in her mind. Isaac looked at Rebekah and realized that he wasn’t much taller than she was. He almost laughed when he compared Taylor and Katie’s heights.
Forgetting about the "Mike incident," Zac stuffed a five-dollar bill into the machine. It didn’t really concern him anyway. Tim took some money from his sister, got tokens, and ran off with Zac to the video game section. The others exchanged their bills for tokens and separated. Taylor and Isaac followed Tim and Zac while the girls all headed toward the ticket games section. For a while, Kristen, Sarah, Katie, and Rebekah followed each other around, playing all the really easy games, so they got lots of tickets and joking about how much of a rip-off some of the games were. Katie, Kristen, and Sarah ran over to Skee Ball, and all inserted a coin. Rebekah dragged her feet, wondering where everyone else was. At that moment, Zac raced to the girls, joining their Skee Ball competition. Well, Rebekah knew where Zac was. Katie was having too much fun to be bothered, so she just wandered off to find the others without telling Katie.
Katie watched Rebekah go without her knowing. She turned back to her game. She and her sisters were glad that Zac joined them. It made the game more lively. Katie achieved the highest score and Zac was still trying to beat it. He made Katie "bowl" with her left hand from then on. He tried to do it with his right hand. They were as good as each other using their weak hands, so that’s what they used. Sarah almost tied Katie, who still obtained the highest score, and Kristen was also close behind. After about five or six games of that, they looked around for more challenging games to play. Sarah suggested a game where you have to shoot a ball out of a canon and knock down little clowns. They agreed on each playing one game of that and see who got the most clowns down.
