Rebekah found Isaac first, intensely punching buttons on a fighting game. She walked over to him. Although she knew better than to disrupt someone when they are playing a fighting arcade game, she did anyway. She gained a lot of experience with arcades and video games in her life. Both her father and brother were very serious about video games and used to go to the arcades often, dragging Rebekah along. Rebekah continued walking until she was right next to him and watched the screen. Isaac was losing, but she assumed it was someone really hard to beat. Then, she leaned against the game and looked at Isaac’s hands. It was something Katie might do, for she was always saying stuff about someone’s hands. His fingers were flexed and quickly tapped the buttons over and over again. Finally, she moved her gaze to his face. That is when Ike realized that she was staring.
"I’m almost dead," he said, not removing his eyes from the screen. He tried to concentrate on his game, but Rebekah looked like she was waiting for him to finish. Isaac might have beaten the guy, but he gave up.
"OK," Rebekah said quietly and backed off a little.
Isaac did die almost immediately after he said that. He shrugged his shoulders and turned to her, "What’s up?"
Rebekah blushed. She didn’t exactly know why she stayed there. The idea was to see what everybody was doing, not ruin their games. "I don’t know. I was just checking to see what everyone was doing. I didn’t want to mess anyone up."
"Well, I guess I’ll come with you then. I need to find a game to play anyway. Maybe I’ll find something good on the way." They slowly walked side-by-side, not knowing which one should lead the way.
There was an awkward silence. Rebekah was desperate for something to say. "Do you think we’ll ever see each other again?" she finally blurted out.
Isaac thought for a moment before saying, "Yes. Definitely. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll drag everyone over here if I have to. But I doubt I’ll have to." Rebekah smiled. "When do you go back to school?" Ike wondered.
"Katie and I start high school August nineteenth. But I don’t like thinking about it."
Isaac understood what she meant. Because she and Katie were so shy, he knew it would probably be hard for them to make new friends. "I think I have a test coming up soon," Isaac said, trying to make it sound like he had a hard school life, too.
Rebekah smiled, "Sounds fun." She didn’t understand why they kept getting back onto the subject of school. Luckily, they didn’t have to start a new conversation because they saw Tim and Adam, Mike’s friend with glasses, playing “Primal Rage,” an intense dinosaur fighting game, against each other. Taylor was at the next game over, pointing the fake gun at the screen. Rebekah and Isaac came up behind Tim and watched. It looked like he was winning. Mike, Chris, and the last guy, Andrew, stopped to watch Adam. They cheered him on, not wanting him to lose to Tim. Taylor finished his game, entered his initials in the Hall of Fame, and watched Tim. There was a large crowd watching now.
Coming around the corner, Zac and the other girls found eight people huddled in front of a video game. At first, they didn’t recognize anyone, but then Katie saw Rebekah behind her brother and Mike behind Adam. They slowly approached the group, adding four more people to the huddle. This huge group obviously drew attention. More people watched even though they didn’t know either of the kids playing.
Katie shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She couldn’t really see, but she didn’t care. Since Katie was from an all-girl family, she wasn’t at all interested in watching someone playing a fighting game. In boredom Katie looked around for something else to amuse her. She noticed Mike watching her, and it made her uncomfortable. When she glanced back at him, he turned away as if nothing happened.
Tim and Adam both had one hit left. If they got hit one more time, they would die. Chris, Mike, and Andrew’s shouts grew louder and more frantic. They thought losing to one of the least popular girl’s brother would be humiliating. Adam pushed one of the buttons and punched Tim’s guy. Tim ducked and kicked Adam’s guy, beating him. Adam slapped the game but then surprised Rebekah by sticking out his hand to Tim and saying "good job." Tim shook his hand, and Adam and his friends walked away. Rebekah grinned. On rare occasions, the guys in her grade could have so much class.
“Maybe we should head over to laser tag now,” suggested Rebekah.
Zac glanced at his watch. “We have time. I wanna play more games.” Rebekah gave in and challenged her friends to a race on the cars. Four cars that race against each other were lined up in a row. Zac leaped into the blue car. Rebekah claimed the red one next to him. Taylor and Isaac got the last two. Although Tim wanted to be in the race, he wandered off to find someone else to challenge in a fighting game. Katie thought this was way too good to miss and stood behind Zac’s car to watch. Kristen peeked over Rebekah’s shoulder as she inserted her coins and chose a course. Sarah hovered between Taylor and Ike.
Taylor glanced at Rebekah. She bounced up and down in her seat along with the music blaring out of the game they were playing. He and Zac laughed at her. A green light appeared on the screen and the game beeped. They were off! Taylor slammed his boot onto the gas pedal and held it there. As the race went on, Taylor realized how hot he was. He was the only one wearing pants. Zac had been wearing wind pants, but he changed after they got soaked in the rainstorm. “I passed you!” Taylor heard Rebekah shout. He watched the red car bolt out in front of his green one. It didn’t take much for Taylor to pass her again since she ran off the side of the road.
“I guess he told you!” Isaac laughed as he also passed the stalled red car. Zac still remained in the lead. Soon the race ended.
“I won!” shouted Zac. He hopped out of the blue car and did a victory dance, trying to get Katie and Kristen to dance with him.
Tim came around the corner in time to catch the end of Zac’s victory dance. “So, Zac won?”
“Yep!” hooted Zac, “that’s what I said!” Tim tried to keep himself from rolling his eyes. He didn’t get as hyper as his older sister. “Anyway, the next laser tag game is about to start. They announced it on the loudspeaker.”
“OK, let’s go,” Rebekah encouraged everyone, taking it upon herself to lead. They walked back to the laser tag desk and stood in the line. There were twelve more people in line in front of them. Good. The teams would be even, ten on each team. "Now we have to decide what the teams should be again."
They divided their group into two teams, boys verses girls. Katie said she wanted to play against Hanson and not on the same team. She thought it would fun shooting them. Rebekah was surprised at first, but then she agreed, realizing that Katie was right. The twenty people in line were let into the small room to divide the teams. The girls stepped onto the green bleacher-like things; the guys went to the red ones. On the girls’ team, were also two black guys and a black girl who looked like they were there only to fool around, and three older teenagers, who looked like they were serious about the game. The guys also got two more white girls on their team, their boyfriends, who wanted to fool around, a black guy who seemed seriously obsessed with killing, and his friend, a white guy, who looked serious about the game.
Katie looked uncomfortable and out of place. Because she and her sisters had never played laser tag before, she was kind of nervous. Also, Katie was afraid of the guys on both teams. She thought they looked like punks. She was especially fearful of the only black guy on the red team. He was checking out everyone on the green team, trying to decide who would be easy targets to kill. He told everything he figured out to his friend next to him. His friend had a serious look on his face and nodded at what the black guy said. The black guy pointed at Katie and laughed. The white guy next to him smiled. "Four easy targets," they both said. Katie’s stomach contracted. Great, she was being hunted before the game even started. In hopes of calming herself down, Katie looked at the Hansons and Tim. They were in a huddle on the top riser, talking out a strategy. She smiled. Even though her team had no chance of winning, it was going to be fun trying.
Although she had played this many times before, Rebekah was actually tense. This was the first time she had been against her brother. They couldn’t talk about how nervous they were during the game anymore or laugh about how loud their dad was last time they played. Tim didn’t look nervous, though. The green team would probably have to depend on the three serious-looking teenagers to do the dirty work.
The employee was wrapping up his explanation of the rules. Sarah looked completely blank. Kristen and Katie thought that they got the basic idea down--shoot everyone on the other team. And of course, the three Hanson brothers, Tim, and Rebekah knew the rules. The people who hadn’t ever played laser tag besides the Hadlers were two of the three black people on the green team and the two girls and their boyfriends on the red team.
Both teams headed into the next room, the room where everyone gets their vests and guns. Wanting to get first picks on the guns, most of the older people pushed the younger kids aside. The ones who weren’t pushing them were Ike, the three older girls, and the black guy’s friend. Those people politely stepped aside to let the younger teens and preteens through. The black guy, who was obsessed with killing, elbowed Kristen out of the way. She stumbled backwards and crashed into Isaac. “Are you OK?” Isaac wondered sweetly. Kristen nodded and followed him through the doorway.
All twenty of them slipped on a vest matching the color of the risers on which they were standing. After Rebekah pulled the heavy green vest over her head, she helped the Hadlers put on their vests. Sarah’s was huge, and she was practically swimming in it. Kristen tried to adjust the plastic vest to make it more comfortable but failed. Katie was inspecting her gun and nervously looking around the small room. The guys were laughing at how clueless the girls were.
Rebekah aimed her gun at them, "You’re going down! You all better watch your backs," she threatened.
Tim rolled his eyes, "Yeah right."
They got in a line and charged the guns in front of the energizer. “I can’t get it to work,” complained Kristen. She banged the side of her gun against the energizer again.
“Be careful,” Rebekah hissed. Pushing past Sarah, she lifted Kristen’s gun out of her hands and laid it against the glass plate. Finally, the green light illuminated their faces, and they moved on. The four girls ran to the green headquarters, all huddled under the target.
The black guy, Randall, and his friend, Terence, instructed all four guys to go attack the green headquarters. Actually, they begged to attack so they could shoot the girls. Tim told Hanson that the girls would definitely guard their target if Rebekah got her way. Zac led the way to the green headquarters, bopping his head up and down to the music.
Zac spotted Sarah from where he was. Judging from what he already knew about Sarah, he figured she would be next to someone. He pressed himself against the wall and told the other guys to do the same. He talked out a plan to them. Zac and Tim would go first and attack. When it was safe or when Tim and Zac were down, Isaac and Taylor would back them up and shoot the target above the headquarters.
Taylor stood behind Isaac as Tim and Zac crept up to where they had seen Sarah standing. Taylor scanned the dark room to see if there were any green people around that he could shoot. He didn’t see any green vests. He tapped Isaac on the shoulder, "Uh, Ike, all I see around here is people on our team."
Isaac looked around, "That means no one’s guarding the headquarters!" he realized. He told Taylor to back up Zac for him. He would have to miss a chance to shoot the girls to go back and check on the red headquarters. As he stepped into his own territory, the only people he could see was one of the couples near a partition. Isaac smiled, thinking how sweet that was. But this wasn’t the time or the place. He decided to stay there for a while.
Isaac suddenly heard a laser shoot and spun around. His vest vibrated and little red lights in the box on it lit up. He came face to face with three members of the green team.
"Bullseye!" hooted Rebekah. The two white teenagers who were in front of her continued cautiously toward red headquarters.
Surprised, Ike shouted, "Help!" He fired his gun frantically, trying to hit any of the three green players. The couple in the corner finally emerged. Temporarily forgetting about his girlfriend, the guy jumped out and hit one of the green vests. The two guys in the green vests positioned themselves under the target and tipped their guns up until they were vertical. While Isaac and the boyfriend shot the green guys, the girlfriend tried to take on Rebekah. They giggled as they both missed shot after shot even though they were only a few yards away. After about five shots each, and after the opposing team had shot the target once, the three green-vested players retreated.
Rebekah ran back to her headquarters. She was glad that she agreed to back up those two guys, but she still vowed never to do it again. She preferred taking the easy way out and guarding. Rebekah turned the corner to find the three Hadler girls surrounding Zac. He was looking at each one of them, daring them to shoot him. While Zac distracted the girls, Taylor crept behind Katie. "Katie, watch out!" called Rebekah. All five of them spun around in surprise and confusion. Zac snapped back immediately and shot Sarah.
Kristen squealed and ran behind a tall, wide cylinder-like-thing. Her heart was racing. If anyone would have told Kristen a couple days ago that she would be playing laser tag for the first time with Hanson, she would have said, "I wish." She couldn't think of another time when she had so much fun. She was proud of herself for shooting Tim before Rebekah came back, and she shook off the time when she accidentally shot Katie.
Remembering the rule that says, "No running," Katie followed Kristen into her hiding place. Katie looked around for Ike. She wanted to shoot him and Zac before the end of the game. She already shot Taylor. Katie recalled the look on his face when he felt the vibration from his vest. His eyes had grown wide and he had smiled at her accusingly and said, "I'm gonna get you back." She smiled and started laughing softly. Kristen was babbling but suddenly stopped to ask Katie what she was laughing about. Katie told her to forget it and emerged from her hiding place to find Isaac.
Taylor watched Katie and Kristen from afar. Both red and green-vested players were circling around him, so he had to be careful. Because Taylor was having so much fun, he forgot about his concert that night. A piece of hair that fell from his ponytail brushed his face. As he tucked it behind his ear, Taylor felt the grease from the popcorn that he didn’t have time to wash out. “Hopefully I’ll be able to take a quick shower before the concert,” he thought. Tim raced past Taylor warning him about some psycho green person. Tim was awesome. He was a lot like some of Taylor's friends from Oklahoma. That's probably why he liked Tim so much. He would have to remember to invite the whole gang over some time. Taylor followed Tim to safety. They found Zac by their own headquarters talking to Isaac.
"Sarah looks so cute in that vest!" Zac was saying.
"I know, it's hilarious," agreed Ike. "She barely knows how to handle that laser gun."
"I'm gonna go back to the green headquarters. Scare the girls again. I love laser tag!" exclaimed Zac. He walked quickly away from his brother back to where he was before. Zac heard Randall yelling from the other end of the large maze. He couldn't understand what Randall was saying so he got closer. He spotted Randall hovering over some people, yelling at them. As Randall came into view Zac caught his breath. Randall was standing over Rebekah, Katie, Kristen, and Sarah. Sarah was crying, and Rebekah was glaring at Randall. A bunch of other people stopped to watch. Zac saw Isaac, Taylor, and Tim sprint around the corner.
"What's wrong?" Ike demanded, looking at Randall and then at Rebekah for the answer.
"I didn't see the whole thing," Rebekah explained, assuming Isaac expected her to answer. Everyone looked at Randall for the answer. Zac and Taylor knelt down next to the girls. Tim stood up beside Isaac.
"That bastard tripped me!" shrieked Randall, pointing disgustedly at Sarah.
Randall's friend came up beside him to settle him down, "Cool it, Randy," he said, laughing, "I bet she didn't do it on purpose." Randall continued to use as many swears as the girls had ever heard and more.
One of the Fun World employees joined the group and demanded the whole story from Sarah. Katie decided it would be better for her to explain. When Randall was about to speak, the employee silenced him and looked at Katie. "Sarah was just, like, standing here and then this guy comes RUNNING by, and then he, like, tripped over her, and they both fell, and he, like, hurt her, and now she's crying."
"What hurts?" asked the employee, kneeling in front of her. Sarah pointed to her ankle and sniffed. The man slowly twisted it in several different positions to determine if it was sprained. It wasn't, but the game was immediately halted anyway.
Sarah leaned on her sisters as all twenty players took off their vests and guns and exited the laser tag rooms. Everyone waited by the desk to pick up their score sheets. The Hanson's, Hadler's, and Castro's stood the farthest away, so Sarah wouldn't get trampled.
"Katie, it hurts to walk on it," whined Sarah.
"Want me to carry you?" Ike asked, a wide grin on his face.
Sarah glanced at Katie and smiled. At that moment, Randall walked over to them from the desk. "Look out for trouble," whispered Taylor.
"I can take him!" Zac said, practicing his karate on Tim. The seven younger kids laughed at Zac. Isaac, on the other hand, glared at Randall and Terrence. It was one thing to mess with him. But to threaten his brothers and his friends, especially the younger two, that was inexcusable.
"Come on, punk, let's take this to the parking lot," Randall challenged, “Wanna go?”
Huge butterflies fluttered around in Katie's stomach. She swallowed, trying to get the lump out of her throat. That was what she was always afraid of when they went to the public school. She looked around at the others. Tim looked like he desperately wanted to run, for that's how he liked to escape danger. Sarah was leaning on both her and Kristen, looking completely terrified. Kristen tried to be tough, as Rebekah instructed once, by pushing Sarah off of her. Katie was too scared to yell at either one of them. Taylor and Zac were behind Ike, also trying to look cool. Katie could tell they were equally afraid, though. Taylor was nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot. Zac was barely moving at all.
"We don't want to fight you," Isaac said calmly, his voice quivering a little. Rebekah and Isaac had been in the front the whole time, but Rebekah figured it would be safer in back even though she would have to desert Ike and began to inch back slowly.
Just in time, a tall, strong-looking man in uniform marched up behind Randall and Terrence. Since Randall was too busy intimidating the children, he didn’t hear the security guard. "Is there any trouble?" asked the guard, surprising all of them.
"No, sir," answered Randall. His face was calm and relaxed as if he had been lying to policemen his whole life.
The guard didn't even look at him. He kept his eyes on the younger children. "Well..."
"I'll say there's a problem," Zac said, bravely, "This guy was about to beat us up just because this innocent little girl accidentally tripped him." He continued, adding dramatic gestures. The security guard nodded and pulled Randall and Terrence’s arms behind their backs. Without warning, he pushed them through the glass doors into the parking lot.
"What was that all about?" asked a voice behind the eight of them. They turned around and came face to face with Mike, Adam, Andrew, and Chris. Mike had asked the question.
"That guy was just about to beat us up," Taylor explained.
"Why?" asked Andrew.
Rebekah decided to answer that one, "Well, apparently, he tripped over Sarah." She pointed to the little girl leaning on Katie, "And he hurt her ankle. I guess he was mad that we ruined his game."
"I could have taken him," Andrew boasted, "He wasn’t that big."
"No, but he was mean," Isaac put in.
Zac demonstrated his karate moves again, "The two of us could’ve taken him," he said, gesturing to Andrew and himself.
"Who are these guys anyway?" questioned Adam. All eight of them exchanged nervous glances, and each wondered what to say.
Chris had been studying Hanson’s faces the whole time. Finally, it clicked where he had seen them. "Aren’t you guys Hanson?" he ventured.
"Yeah, it does look like Hanson," Adam agreed. Mike and Andrew broke out into a chorus of MMMBop.
Taylor turned to his brothers and friends, "We might as well tell them. It won’t do any good denying it." He faced the other guys again. "Yeah, we’re Hanson," Taylor said quietly, lifting his hat up a little. Zac dove at Taylor and pulled the hat down on his brother’s head again as a group of girls Tim’s age walked by.
"Come on, you guys, we have to go," Adam told his friends.
"Your mom can wait a little longer," Chris said to Adam.
"Why are you with them?" Mike asked Hanson, emphasizing the last word.
"Yeah, why aren’t you in a hotel?" added Andrew.
"Two reasons," Zac started, holding up two fingers. "Number one, our whole family wanted to come, and we couldn’t afford to stay in a hotel."
"Aren’t you rich?" interrupted Mike.
"Well," Zac said.
"It’s not about the money," Taylor added.
Isaac explained, "We’re saving our money for new equipment."
"Anyway!" continued Zac, "The second reason is we were afraid that the fans would be able to track us down much easier in a hotel."
"You were afraid?" repeated Andrew.
"Sure," said Isaac, "you know, hundreds of screaming girls coming toward you can be pretty terrifying."
Andrew, Chris, Mike, and Adam looked at each other and started cracking up, "Doesn’t sound that bad to me," Andrew said, still laughing.
"Guys, we have to go soon," Kristen said, glancing at Taylor’s watch.
"OK, but what are your names?" Taylor asked the four guys.
"Yeah, you know ours." Zac added.
"I’m Mike."
"Chris."
"Andrew."
"I’m Adam, and my mom’s coming in." The guys saw Adam’s mom and quickly said goodbye, knowing that she was probably running late by now.
