A week later, I arrived at the Hanson house to see them off before a short trip to Washington DC and I was greeted at the door by Zac, who looked to be in a hurry.
‘Where ya goin’ little bro?’ I asked him.
‘Gonna get me some cool new clothes.’ He replied, scooting out the door.
‘You won’t recognize me when I get home!’ he called before taking off down the path.
I walked into the Hanson house shaking my head.
Avie spotted me and called out to Tay.
Tay bounded down the stairs and wrapped me up in a giant hug, swinging me round in a circle.
‘Wow! I’m so glad to see you too!’ I smiled, planting a kiss on his cheek.
‘I just know I’m going to miss you that’s all and I wanted to get as many hugs in as possible before we left.’
‘Oh right!’
‘Oh! I have something to tell you!’ he grinned mischievously.
‘What? What? Tell me!’
‘No, not yet, we have to wait until your parents and Chris and that get here.’
‘Huh? What are you on about? Why are my parents coming?’
‘You’ll see! Oh, do you want a soda?’
I folded my arms across my chest.
‘No I don’t want a soda! I want to know what you have to tell me!’
‘Oh! But you’re not going to find out my sweet! Not until the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Thomas get here!’
‘Tay!’
‘Peta!’
Grumbling, I let him pull me into the kitchen and plonked myself down on a stool at the counter.
‘Orange or cola?’ he asked, head in the fridge.
‘You know I don’t like orange.’ I told him, picking up a paper titled, “MOE Records, Hanson, JFK Memorial Arena, Washington DC, July 21st, 1998.” Below it was a whole heap of instructions and notes on how the show would be run.
I was skimming through it when Tay suddenly snatched it from my hands.
‘Hey! Why’d ya do that for?’
‘Oh, ah, no reason. It’s just not finished yet and well, dad, you know....’
‘Tay, if you’re worried I’ll tell anyone any of your precious plans, you don’t know me very well.’
He grinned.
‘I guess. But it’s still kinda in the works right now.’ He came and sat down next to me and started showing me the song list they had to choose from for the concert.
It wasn’t long before my parents showed, followed closely by Hanson’s manager, Christopher Sabec.
Tay and I ran out to greet them, and saw big smiles plastered all over their faces.
‘Hey mom, dad! Will you tell me why you guys are here? Tay won’t.’ I shot Tay a look but he only laughed.
Walker had joined us outside and he, mom, dad and Chris walked into the house, motioning for Tay and I to entertain ourselves.
‘But if it’s about me, why won’t anyone tell me?’ I grumbled.
‘You’ll find out soon enough, I promise.’ Tay told me, taking my hand and leading me down the road and on a walk through the wooded area of Tulsa.
It was cool under the Spruce trees that made up the wood around the Arkansas River, and though I walked through there almost everyday, it was one of my favorite places in the whole wide world.
And the fact that Tay was here beside me, holding my hand didn’t hurt either.
In fact, I loved this wood, and indeed Tulsa so much that I had almost forgotten about Anaheim and all I loved there.
Almost.
Tay lead me to a quiet spot in the trees and we sat there for what seemed like hours, just talking.
We did that a lot, just talked.
Sometimes we kissed, but I liked talking too.
‘Sometimes it’s good you know. To do stuff like this. Be normal for once.’ Tay told me, lying down and propping his head up on one arm.
‘Yeah. It must be great.’ Suddenly I was not in the mood for talking.
Looking down on him like that had given me the incredible urge to kiss him, and kiss him lots.
When Tay and I got back to the Hanson house, mom, dad, Walker, Diana and Chris were still in deep conversation.
However when we entered the room, it halted.
‘Peta! Just the person we wanted to see!’ Walker called out.
‘Take a seat.’
I shrugged and took the seat offered.
I had just gotten comfortable and was ready to hear what they had to say when the front door swung open.
All the heads at the table turned to see who was joining us.
And all the mouths in those heads dropped open when we saw.
Standing in the door way was a man, barely five feet tall, wearing a smart, if only a cheap imitation, Armani business suit, complete with tie, briefcase, dark sunglasses and a hat not unlike one a gangster in a fifties film would wear.
‘Who the hell is that?’ Chris asked in complete amazement.
Of course we had no idea and merely watched as this person made his way slowly and deliberately into the kitchen.
There was no sound, except for the stranger’s footfalls on the tiles, until I heard a strange gasping noise coming from behind me.
Alarmed, I spun around to see Taylor almost falling off his chair with laughter.
‘What? Tay? What’s so funny?’ I asked him, puzzled.
But he was too far-gone.
The only thing he could do was point to the newcomer and burst into outrageous laughter.
Everyone else at the table was now looking between Tay and the stranger incredulously.
‘What? What the heck are you laughing at?’ I asked Tay again impatiently.
This time, Tay regained his composure enough to look to the stranger and cry,
‘Zac! It’s Zac! Look at him!’
Everyone’s eyes widened as we digested this new piece of information.
Then we all looked to the man in the suit.
He had now removed his hat and glasses and was standing, a little sheepishly in the doorway, head hung.
But it was Zac.
All of a sudden the room erupted into loud, booming laughter as we took in Zac’s new attire.
‘Zac, man! When you said you were getting some new clothes, I had not idea you meant anything like this!’ I managed to splutter through my giggles.
Diana was laughing and shaking her head at her son.
‘Zac, what are we going to do with you? You kids are always trying to grow up too fast, but this is a little over the top don’t you think?’
‘Yeah, somehow, even with that suit, I don’t think you’ll make it on Wall Street!’ Chris added, causing more laughter.
But while we were all having a good laugh on Zac’s behalf, no one noticed the tear sliding down his cheek, and we barely noticed when he dropped his briefcase and fled the room.
Then the laughter stopped.
‘I think we hurt his feelings.’ Diana admitted guiltily.
‘Maybe I’d better go see how he is.’ Tay suggested, jumping up from his seat and hurrying after his brother.
Chris cleared his throat, a little embarrassed.
‘Ok, ah, well then....back to business?’
Eyes darted ashamedly around the room and we started discussing the important news that involved me.
‘Tay! Tay! You’ll never guess what!’
‘What? What!’ he asked grinning. He could guess of course.
I ran over to him and threw my arms around him, squeezing him tight.
‘I am going to sing back up for your tour! Me! I am going to sing back up for Hanson!’
Tay laughed and planted a kiss on my cheek.
‘Dur! Who else would we get?’
‘I can’t believe it! Me! I’m going to sing behind Hanson! Oh my god!’ I cried gleefully, dancing Tay around the room.
‘Calm down!’ he laughed.
Suddenly a new thought hit me and I stopped abruptly.
‘Oh no....’
Tay’s eyes widened and he looked at me concerned.
‘What? What’s wrong?’
‘The fans, Tay. They’ll hate me. They already hate me, the ones that know about me. I can’t do it. I can’t do that to your fans.’ I pulled away from him.
‘What? Don’t be stupid! The fans won’t hate you, you are a great singer. And besides, why would it matter if they did?’ he pulled me over to the sofa.
‘But Tay, you’re Hanson. You, Ike and Zac. Not me. It’ll be like Hanson plus one. You don’t have backup singers. It’s not fair to the fans.’ I moaned woefully.
‘Peta. Why are you stressing? No one will hate you, in fact, and I don’t mean this to be cruel, no one will probably even notice or care. And it’s not like you are trying to join the group. And we have backup musicians and no one cares.’
‘Yeah, but they’re guys.’
‘Peta just live with it ok?’ and he pulled me in for a kiss before I could say anymore.
So it was decided, I would accompany Hanson on their next tour as a back up singer.
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