The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes next morning, because of the feeling that I was being doused, was Kevin pointing me with a water pistol.
“Good morning!”
“When I get my hands on you….”, I shouted as I ran after him, trying to hit him with a pillow. I no sooner stepped out of the room than someone attacked me from behind with another water pistol. I turned to face a grinning Zac who immediately raced downstairs. I forgot all about Kevin and chased Zac down the staircase instead.
“You’re not gonna get away with this!”
“Zac, that’s enough!”
“Ouch!”
“Gotcha!”
“Georgia, put down that pillow of yours!”
“That’ll teach you not to oversleep!”
“Kevin, stop that at once!”
Zac and Kevin stopped soaking me and I put down my pillow. Helen was standing with her hands on her hips, looking really pissed off.
“Look at this mess! There’s water and feathers all over the place!”
“Sorry Mum!”
“Sorry Helen!”
“Sorry Helen!”
“Oh, all right… But next time I get you with water pistols inside the house….”
“Thank you!”, the three of us said in unison and raced upstairs.
“Well, excuse me Kevin, it’s not my fault that I have to dry my hair because of two insane boys that attack sleeping people with water pistols!”
“Well, we were supposed to go to my place but you were asleep…”
“You could just poke me Zac!”
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be so fun… Could you please turn that thing off? I can’t hear myself think!”
“You’re overreacting….”, I said as I turned the hair dryer off. “Besides, I’m almost done….”
Ten minutes later, we were on our way to Hanson’s house. When we got there, almost after a two-minute walk, Zac dashed inside.
“We’re home!”
A blond woman appeared from the kitchen; I assumed it was Diana Hanson.
“Hi Mom! This is Georgia”
We shook hands and she asked me to call her Diana.
“I’m glad to meet you, Georgia! All we have been hearing about for the past 2 months is you! The boys were so excited!”
“Really?” I could tell I was blushing.
“Mom, are you going to keep us here for the rest of the day?”
“Zachary! I just met the girl, shouldn’t I talk to her? Oh hello Kevin, I didn’t see you coming…”
“Hi Diana” Kevin made a greeting gesture.
“Anyway, it was nice meeting you at last Georgia”.
I tried to answer back but Zac was already dragging me into the living room. Taylor was watching TV, cartoons to be exact, when we came in.
“Hey there bro!”
“Hi Tay!”
“Hey…”
He smiled when he noticed me. “Hello there!”
“Hi Taylor…”
“Call me Tay, ok?”
I nodded. He smiled again, showing his cute dimples, making me realize that photos didn’t do full justice of him, and I vibrated when he made room for me to sit beside him on the couch. Zac and Kevin sat on the floor and we watched “Animaniacs” for a while.
“Um, well, I’m just gonna, um, look for something to eat…”, said Kevin.
When he was gone, I saw Zac sign at Tay, who immediately smiled and said something like: “Ahem, I’m…I’m going upstairs”. As soon as he started walking out of the room, Zac got up from the floor and sat beside me. As I glanced at him, I could see his sweet eyes casted on me. I wished he could just look at the screen, or I would start to blush uncontrollably. He finally got up, took my hand and made me get up.
“Come on, I want to show you something!”
I heard my footsteps clanking along the hallway as I walked out toward the backyard. I could see Zac’s golden hair flowing in front of me.
“Come on,” he giggled. “I have a surprise for you!”
I smiled at the thought that he was always full of surprises. We got outside. Zac took my hand in his and waved at a spiffy tree house in the background of the backyard.
“Do you like it?”
I grinned at him and said softly, squeezing his hand: “It’s beautiful!”
“Well, let me show it to you!”
He helped me climb up the tree and we were soon inside the tree house. It was small and low ceilinged and there were bolsters everywhere.
“I built it with Tay and Ike when I was almost 5”
“It’s amazing!”
We made ourselves comfortable on the bolsters. There was a silence between us for a couple of minutes. I wondered what had made him show me the tree house the way he had. I would have seen it sooner or later, but he made everything look so special… I glanced at him; he seemed lost in thought. It was me who broke the silence.
“Is it here that you take all the important decisions concerning the band?”
“What? Oh yeah, mostly…” He frowned again.
I couldn’t see him like this.
“Zac, what’s wrong?”
He looked at me for a moment before he answered. “Look,”, he said, “it’s just that we don’t want you to see as a successful band that has sold that many copies, we want you to see us as 3 normal guys to hang around with. Don’t feel like ‘oh, Hanson are my pals’ but ‘Zac’s my pal’ or ‘Tay’s my pal’. Do you get my point?” he said quickly and gave me a concerned look.
“Yes, Zac, I do.” I smiled. How could he know that I was too comfortable with him to see him as my favorite celebrity? A couple of hours were enough for him to become my best pal. I took his hand and looked into his sweet brown eyes. “Don’t worry” He smiled back.
“Come on, tell me about yourself!”
“Well, what do you want to know?” I laughed.
In just a few minutes he knew everything about me, my family, our sudden move to the U.S.A. It was so weird. Being rather introverted, I didn’t use to talk so much about everything to someone I had only known for just a day.
“Zac, Georgia, are you up there? Come down, the girls are here!” a voice called.
“What girls?”
“Oh, just the rest of the lot…”, replied Zac as we made our way down the tree. I saw two girls staring at me. The one was blond and the other one, who had darker hair, shook my hand and introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Tiffany, it’s nice to meet you!”
“It’s nice to meet you too…”
The blond girl hugged me and said cheerfully: “Welcome! I’m Kimberly, but call me Kim.”
They looked very nice and friendly.
“I see you ladies have already introduced yourselves! Tiff, where’s Jason, why isn’t he here?” Ike approached us.
“I don’t know Ike, he wasn’t home when I left.”
“Anyway, will you stay for lunch?”
The girls looked at each other and replied quickly: “Sure!”
We all walked inside and found Kevin setting the table along with three blond children; I assumed it was Jessica, Avery and Mackenzie. A tall man entered the room with a baby in his arms. Walker Hanson with baby Zoë, I suppose!
“Hi girls! Oh, and you’re Georgia, right? How are you? Are the boys taking good care of you?”
“Oh yes, they are!”, I laughed.
The girls giggled. “So, you’re a Tay fan?”
“Oh no… Actually, I’m more of a Zac fan…” I said. At that moment I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Ohhhh, Kevin didn’t tell me that!”, Zac said.
The girls giggled again and I blushed, for the third time that day because of a Hanson…