"Zac, will you get off the computer? I need to use it," I begged my brother.
The day that had gone by was long and tedius. After signing tons and tons of autographs, we had finally returned home. I'd been looking foward to emailing Jennifer, but Zac called dips first.
"No, you want to use the computer. You don't need to. Besides, I'm busy," Zac corrected me with sarcasm in his voice.
"Oh, come on! Puh-lease! I need to email Jennifer. I promised her that I would."
"Oh, so this all has to do with your little love sceme, huh?" he teased. I glared at Zac. "What?"
"Look, will you just let me send her one stinkin' email?"
Zac sighed, got up, and motioned towards the computer chair. "Here's your seat, Mr. Taylor Hanson. Remember, only one email!" Zac gave in and trotted out of the room.
I logged into my hotmail account and clicked on compose:
From: Taylor Hanson (jellybean307@hotmail.com)
To: Jennifer (jensim@vt.edu)
Subject: Wazzup?
Hey Jennifer,
What's up? I hope everything's cool. Well, I'm back from the
concert now and I'm on the computer. How's Blacksburg? I've
missed you. We haven't talked in a while. Call me sometime
soon. Zac wants to get back on the net so I can't stay on long.
I wish we could go to a chatroom or something. Um.. I'm out of
stuff to say. TALK TO ME! Okay, I'll shut-up now. W/b.
Later,
Tay :D
I re-read my letter until it looked okay and hit 'send.' I had no problem getting a response as soon as possible. Jennifer was a bit of a computer nerd and you could always assume that she'd be online at any moment. Besides, it's useful to have a hacker around!
I checked my mail and found that I had a few new messages. There was one from Nancy, a friend of mine who I'd met through Jen, one from Emily, another friend, and a few online buds. Basically my regular friends. I replyed to most of my messages.
Soon after, Zac marched back in and demanded to go online. Fortunetely, I gave up my spot willingly and let him check his email. I found a cozy spot on my bed and got out my journal to write a quick entry.
It's weird, I wrote, because I've been having the same dreams over and over lately. Mostly, they involve Jennifer... and that stupid train crash! They won't go away. Basically, I've begun missing her... a whole lot. I know we said that long distance relationships don't work, but can't there be any exceptions? Plus, there are our fans. They'd be devistated if I got a girlfriend! I love my fans and I'd never want to hurt any of them like that. It wouldn't be fair to them. But being single like this isn't fair to me! I'll have to get together with Jen soon. We still have a week or so left of vacation before I go on tour with Isaac and Zac. Maybe.. just maybe... I can.
I closed up my book and set it back under the bed's matress. Zac was spinning in circles on the computer chair across the room. He was being a little maniac enjoying himself.
"Zac, what would you say if I thought we could visit Jennifer tommorow?" I asked him out of nowhere.
"I'd say you were crazy!" he replied while still spinning. "We just got back from Blacksburg a few months ago and I don't think mom and dad would be to thrilled at the thought of returning."
"Well then, what if we just picked Jen up and brought her back here?"
Zac stopped twirling and faced me with a blank expression. "You aren't giving up are you?" I shook my head. "Well, go ask someone besides me. I'm not in any form of authority!" he said and crossed his arms.
"Yea, whatever," I wandered into the hallway looking for one of my parents. I stopped at Jessie and Avie's room for a quick glance inside. They were playing Barbie's on the messy floor.
"Hey, guys, have you seen mom around?" I asked while leaning inside the doorway.
"She's outside in the garden," Jessica informed me and picked up her Ken doll.
"Okay, thanks!"
Sure enough, my mom was digging away at the flower garden in our front yard. I walked up behind her and gave her a quick tap on the shoulder.
"Taylor, can't you see I'm busy at the moment," she said without looking up. 'Maybe this isn't the best time to ask her.'
"Um, mom? I was kinda, sorta wondering... if maybe, possibly we could... well... can we..."
"Taylor, really, what is it that you want?"
"Is it okay if Jennifer can spend the summer with us when we tour?" I spit out and then bit my lip hoping she'd agree and say it was a good idea.
Mom stopped her digging and planting to turn around and give me a look. "Um, would that be considered a 'no'?" I asked sheepishly.
"Honey, I'm not the one who should decide. Go ask your father," she told me and went back to working on the garden.
I slumped right on the spot. Why does everything have to be so difficult? I asked myself as I ran back inside to find my dad.
"Daaaaaaaddddd? Dad, where are you?" I called through the house.
"He's in the kitchen," a voice from beside me said. I hadn't noticed that Isaac was in the same room. He smiled over at me and quickly went back to drawing on the piece of paper he had.
"Thanks, Ike," I told him and dashed off towards the kitchen.
My dad was grabbing something to eat when I came in. He looked up and smiled at me. "Hello, Taylor. What were you yelling at me for?" he asked.
"Well, remember my friend Jennifer?" he nodded. "Well, would it be okay if she could spend the summer with us? Like, she could travel with us when we toured and all?"
I fiddled with my fingers while waiting for an answer. Dad looked up at me and thought for a second. "Well, I really don't see a reason why it wouldn't be okay, except..."
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cried out and began jumping up and down.
"Woah, Taylor. Hold your horses. Just think about this for a second... would it be fair to the fans? Also, would you even have enough time to spend with her on the road?"
"Oh, come on, dad! There's always time to spend with Jen. Besides, the fans don't have to find out she's traveling with us, do they?"
"Well..."
"Puh-lease?"
"Oh, okay. Go call her on the phone just to make sure she can come along," he told me and I had to hold my breath to keep in the excitment.
"Okay, dad!" I exclaimed and took off towards the nearest phone.
Zac had left the computer abandoned in our room so I could be all alone to use the phone without anyone eavesdropping. I quickly picked up the phone off its hook, but stopped in mid- air.
I had a better idea. I was positive that Jennifer couldn't refuse to spend the summer with me no matter what. So, maybe it would be more fun if I just happened to show up at her doorstep one day and asked her to come on the tour with us. I smiled to myself at the genius plan! Instead of calling Jennifer, I found myself dialing Alex's number.
Someone picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"
"Hi, is Alex there?"
"Yea, this is her," Alex said.
"Alex! This is Tay!"
"Oh, hi Taylor! What's up?"
"You would not believe what's going to happen!" I squealed into the phone.
"What? What happened?"
"Jennifer's coming here! Here... to Tulsa. And then she'd gonna tour with us."
"Oh my God, I'll get to meet her!!! Yes!" I could just picture Alex jumping up and down.
"I know. Just don't mention it to her. I'm gonna make it a surprise by showing up and taking her away with me," I sighed sarcastically.
"Ha, you little love bird," Alex giggled into the phone.
"Oh, please!" I answered her teasing.
"Well, it sure seems like you like her."
"Uh huh, whatever."
* * *
That night at dinner my dad and I broke the news to everyone.
"Yeah! I get to see Jafur 'gain," Mackie exclaimed and clapped his hands.
"So, Taylor, did Jennifer say she could come when you talked to her on the phone?" my mom asked.
"Um... yea. She said she could come. She's really excited about seeing us again," I lied.
"Well, good. So, when and how should we pick her up?"
"Well," I started, "I was kinda thinking that Zac, Ike, Dad and I could take a plane tommorow and go pick her up. We could get there right when she comes home from school."
"That's actually a good idea. I think it might work. I'll go reserve us some seats on tommorow mornings flight," my dad said and got up to use the phone.
I took another bite of my spagetti. "This should be an exciting summer," Zac said while twirling his fork in his spagetti.
As soon as we were excused from the table, my brothers and I ran to our room to pack for a day or two's worth of vacation. Isaac suggested that I bring something for Jennifer as a sort of 'welcome back' gift. I shrugged at the idea and decided that it was a possible time passer when we arrived in Blacksburg.
This is definetely going to be one excellent summer! I wrote in my journal taht night before dozing off.