I stood at the dining room window, watching this whole scene unfold before me. I can't believe Taylor has the gall to go down there and do this in front of a girl, no a woman, he has never met. Everyone always thought that he was the shy, quiet one, he was actually the troublemaker of the crowd. Zac loved it and tried to follow in his footsteps, but he wasn't as slick as Taylor, he got that from my mom.
After the fall, he talked to her for just a minute before she ran off down the street, he probably scared her, I thought. Then I looked at my watch and realized it was past time for her to get her daughter from school.
I watched Taylor and hoped he would come back and tell me what she had said, but he just stayed down there in the street skating and looking back up. He was doing this on purpose because he knew that I wanted to know. I slammed my book closed and muttered to myself as Zac passed through the kitchen.
Pacing the floor, I saw Zac look at me and then head for the front closet to get his skates...I knew he wanted me to come, but I wasn't going to give either of them the satisfaction. I left and took my books to my room, and stopped to check the email real quick...the page flashed about 8 times and then stopped.
"good, a light day, I'll come back to this later," and signed off. Walking back down the stairs I passed the girls on their way up to their room.
"Hey" Jessie said "why aren't you out there with Taylor and Zac and your girlfriend?"
"B-what?" I stuttered and doubled my pace back down to the dining room. As I stepped up to the window, I saw they were all standing there in the street..Zac, Taylor, Kate and the younger one. Zac appeared to be hiding behind Taylor, --they must know who we are now, that's the only time Zac hides. I pulled the string on the blinds and let them down so that I wasn't visible to the crowd in the street. As I was doing this, I saw Zac put his arms up like he-man. "Man, that kid is a ham" I chuckled to myself.
"Who?" said my mom as she strolled into the room, "And who pulled the blinds down?" "It's a beautiful day, let the sunshine in!"
She walked over to my side and looked out,
"Ohhhh, now I see, go down with them, Ike"
"Mom"....
I know...stay out of it" she waved her hand as she started up the stairs, I could hear Zoe's soft wake up sounds coming from the monitor, then mom's voice cooing to her as she entered the room. A smile appeared on my face and I momentarily forgot about the many ways I was going to torture Taylor when he dared come back into the house.
I opened the front door and stepped inside. Only to see Lacey laying on her back in the middle of the living room floor with a huge grin on her face. I had to laugh out loud and she sat up to look at me.
"I am the happiest girl on the planet at this moment!"
"You don't even like boys, yet?" I aked her in more of a statement than a question. "Those aren't boys, Kate, that is.... Hanson!" she made me laugh once again, just yesterday she had been telling me about these horrible, evil, creatures she went to school with called.... 'BOYS'
I had heard the music coming from her headphones, and she had played one or two songs for me before, but I didn't remember anything clearly. I needed to start thinking about dinner, Rob was coming, I thought I would remember to ask her about it later.
"So is Rob coming to dinner" I yelled up the stairs to Lacey, I knew she didn't hear me because I could hear the strains of music pouring from under her door.
"Oh well" I thought. This is the happiest I had seen her in a long time, I would just let her be...
Heading towards the kitchen I glanced out the window towards the house that contained these famous Hanson's. What an unusual set of boys, and I had to wonder what the rest of the family was like. The two youngest seemed to be nice, but the older one with the nice eyes, he seemed like he had some secrets, like me...
I was in the studio in the garage, and I heard them coming, I had decided that I wouldn't ask, I'd wait for them to tell me what went on down there...even though I was dying to know. The door flew open and there stood Taylor and Zac with the goofiest grins on their face I had ever seen. They walked over to me and stood right in front of me, waiting for me to ask The silence only lasted a moment and they burst out laughing.
"So how much you gonna pay us, Ike?" Taylor snorted.
Zac added "Yeah, small unmarked bills!"
They both fell onto the couch in fits of laughter. It was contagious, and I couldn't help but join in.
"I can't believe you pulled the fake fall right in front of her...how obvious can you be?" I managed to get out before the next fit of laughter hit.
"She's really cute, Ike, but no way is she 30, I'm not a good judge of age but she doesn't look like she could be over 25 at the most!"
"Can you say teen mother , Ike? Zac huffed, out of breath from his laughing fit.
"So you guys talked for a while, give me all the gory details...." I couldn't hold out any longer.
"Ok," started Zac-
"She's Ma Kettermans grandaughter" interuppted Taylor " and she lives there now."
"Her daughter looks just like her, and ...."
"What color are her eyes?" now it was my turn to interrrupt.
"Blue" both of them said at once and laughed. Zac continued about her daughter-
"Her name is Lacey, fit's her, she's real cute too"
"She knew who we were, and she filled Kate in, they were both real nice and Lacey didn't even go teenie on us, she just said we had nice music and left." Taylor stated as he walked over to the keyboard and started to tick off some notes. Zac and I joined in- it was the best jam session we had in a long time. Finding new fans always was good for us, especially in unexpected places.
Dinner was called and we all piled around the table, there were at least four conversations going on, I loved this, just to sit back and try to catch pieces of all the conversations. Mom sat across from me at the end of the table, spooning somthing resembling our dinner, but in a near liquid form into Zoe's mouth.
"So what'd the boys find out about your Kate, today?" my mom said quietly in my direction. I looked up and smiled.
"She is NOT my Kate, mom, and not much more that I already knew." I said as I took a long drink of milk.
" I did find out that she wasn't Ma 's nurse, she's her grandaughter...."
"Oh, the poor dear" my mom started, "and raising that child all on her own.."
"Kate Alert!" Zac's loud voice peeled through all the others at the dinner table and all heads turned out he window to see the dark haired man arrive and Lacey run up and jump into his arms. They all laughed and headed into the house.
"Lacey's father" I silently thought and looked at Taylor, our eyes met, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing.
"Who's on dish duty tonight?" dad questioned.
"I wash, Jessie drys, and Zac is put- away."
"Okay, then Taylor, I need some wood in for the fire, take Mack with you to help." stated dad as he excused himself to get the fire ready for the evening.
Mom followed him into the living room with Zoe in her arms and they sat down on the couch together. I watched from my seat that I was still at on the table as my dad leaned in and kissed Zoe gently and then mom. I love watching my parents together, even after 20 years, you can still see the love they have for each other. I knew someday I would find the right person, but that was far in my future. I had college and my career, and ...well.
I finished the dishes and mopped up the floor, like I always have to when Zac is involved with the dishes, and headed up to the room. It was my turn to do email tonight, and I was in a good mood, maybe I would make a few girls day and answer some letters. Taylor was laying on his bunk with his history book, and I walked in and signed on.
"So you think he's the father? I wonder what happened, if they were ever married?" Taylor said as he laid the book on his chest.
"Don't know" I said as I saw the screen flash 6,7,8,9,10..
I picked out 1 or 2 letters and read them, and then leaned back, wondering if I'd ever get use to this facination with us. They had no idea who we were, but yet they seemed to think they did. I opened another , and another...I laughed loud, and Taylor put his book down,
"What?"
"Haven't had one of these in a while"-"Taylor, she wants to marry you!" I heard him get up and come up behind me.
"Too funny, Ike, print this one for me, I like to keep these for my scrap book" Taylor reached over and hit the print button.
After clearing out most of them, I kept a few with interesting titles and decided I would answer those. Opening one, I had to smile, she was 7 and she had just heard us for the first time, "Where's the Love" was her favorite, I wrote back:
Jenny, Nice to have fans that are new to us, and I hope that you continue to listen. thanks! I/T/Z
The next one was from a man in New York, thanking us for the music and letting us know that we have fans of all ages and types out there.
Another from a teenie, you could almost hear her screaming through the email. I'd had enough. I signed off and flopped down on the bunk. Next thing I knew, Zac was shaking me, I had drifted off. It was 10:30, too early for bed, but too late for anything else.
Loping down the stairs, two or three at time, I rounded the corner into the living room. Mom and dad sat snuggled on the sofa with some nameless show on the t.v., they weren't watching it anyhow, they looked absorbed in some sort of a conversation.
Mom looked up as I entered the room..
"Hi hon, come here, talk to us.."
"we were just talking about now that you boys had some time to yourselves, that we thought you should start seeing some of your old friends more."
"Mom, if this is going to turn into the 'go on some dates Issac' conversation, I'm leaving" I looked at my dad.
He wasn't looking at mom, he was looking right at me.
He started..
"Ike, you boys have put your social life on hold for so long, now's your chance to have some fun before it all starts again when the new album comes out"
I had sauntered over to the window while they were talking to me. I knew they wanted to see their boys have normal lives, but it wasn't going to happen. We didn't go to public school, we couldn't go out in public, very well, how were we supposed to meet girls? And when we did, they went all teenie and you never know whether they like you for you, or for...the fame.
Looking down at Kate's house, I saw a light on in the front window.
"I'm going to take Wicket out for a walk" I said, ending the discussion.
Heading down the drive, I fully intended to turn right and head towards the school grounds, but for some reason, my feet had other ideas and I found myself right in front of her house with Wicket sniffing around a bush that was right below her mailbox. Glancing over at the lit window, I could see Kate inside standing in front of the sink, doing dishes, her back to me. The t.v was flickering in the background .
"Must be hard to be a single mom," I thought to myself.."early mornings, getting Lacey off to school, late nites, doing dishes and housework," I realized I had been staring and Wicket was tugging at the leash. I continued on, around the corner.
30 mins and several daydreams later, I found myself closing in on her house again, as I walked past, the front door opened and Kate with the dark haired man stepped out on the front walk. I thought about hiding but didn't want to get caught hiding in the bushes in front of a strange womans house. The press would have a hey day with that one.
I watched as I approached the house, and she gave him an affectionate hug and said "bye", then her gaze turned to me walking past.
"Hi, Ike, out late tonight? her voice was young too, I hadn't noticed that earlier. "I, uh, yeah, -" that sounded real bright.
"I met your 2 brothers this afternoon, they seem very nice."
"Well, um yeah, they can be when they want to...", jeez, when do I get tounge tied around girls? Just then the dark haired man started down the walk, towards us,
"Ike, this is Rob"--- that's it, "Rob" I thought, "Rob who, Rob your boyfriend, Rob the housepainter, Rob who?" my mind was going crazy as I held my hand out to shake his, he just nodded and said to Kate,
"See ya -Tommorrow!" and got in his truck and left, leaving us standing out in the cold, she shivered,
"Well I gotta finish the dishes before bed ." She turned and went back into the house. Continuing across the street and up the drive, I had that same small smile on my face as this morning.
center> Chapter 15
Going back to my dishes after Rob left, I felt a small smile creep up on my face. He seemed so shy, how could he be a pop star that had thousands of girls screaming at him?..The other two boys were far from shy, gregarious was more the word I word peg them as.
My mind drifted to the next week..This was my big week, I turned 16 tommorrow, I was taking my drivers test, my hearing for the emancipation was Monday, and I had two luncheons to cater after that. I felt a cold shiver down my spine and I broke out in a sweat. I know I can get through this, in one week, I'll be done and life will take on a new track,I told myself as I sat down to watch Leno before I turned in for the nite.
I woke up to Lacey shaking my shoulders the next morning, "Kate, come on , you slept through the alarm, we have to leave in 20 minutes!, breakfast is on the table" Well this was a reversal of roles, Lacey taking care of me.
Not caring what looked like I threw on some sweats , ran a brush through my hair and tied it up in a loose knot behind my head, and ran down the stairs. Rounding into the kitchen, I found a perfectly set table spot with a ballon that said 'Happy Birthday' and my favorite breakfast, --cold pizza!
"You turned my alarm off on purpose," I smiled and looked at Lacey.
"Yeah, well I thought on a big day like today, you deserved to sleep in"
"Happy Birthday Kate", she leaned in a gave me a big hug as I stuffed the pizza in my face. "So when is Rob going to be here to take you for your test?" she continued.
"10-"I said through a mouth full of pizza.
"you nervous?" I thought for a moment..
"Well no, not really, I know how to drive, and I've studied those books more that I care to, I'll do fine"
For some reason I was strangely calm about this. I grabbed my pack and headed out the door with Lacey.
"So will you drive me to school tommorrow wilth your new license" Lacey said with a new excitement in her voice.
"I enjoy our walk in the morning, Until it get's too cold or rainy, we'll keep walking" I said thinking how I would miss the morning smells and noises if I were to drive the short distance to school.
Leaving Lacey at her class, I went back the same path as I came and as I passed the Hanson house, I looked up to the open window. One of the boys stood there in the window with a coffee cup. They all looked the same with their long blond hair. I smiled and lifted my hand in a wave to whomever it was and continued on towards home.
Grasping the pink piece of paper and walking up the sidewalk with Rob, I felt as if I couldn't contain my joy...not only had I passed, but I passed with a 97 score!
Looking up at Rob who had his arm around my shoulder, he kissed me on the top of the head. "I'm proud of you kid, you know that I could never take on what you have, but I'm right behind you all the way!" He gave me this little lecture all the time, it felt good, but when push came to shove, I knew that it all rested on me.
"Rob, go back to work, you are a free man--I gotta go get Lacey from school" I opened the door and stepped inside to leave my paper of new found freedom on the counter and then started off down the walk in the direction of Laceys school.