"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you; Happy birthday dear Taaaylor, happy birthday to you!" Everyone sang at Taylor's house.
It had been a month since Paige's grandfather's funeral, and Paige and Tay had grown really close, taking what they had to the next level; Plus, Zac had become really good friends with Paige.
"Thanks for the cake, Sweetie," Tay said as he kissed Paige on the forehead.
"Taylor, your dad and I are going to run to the store and get some more pop."
"Okay, Mom. Thanks; See you later!"
As soon as Walker and Diana walked out the door, Billy, the boy from next door, yelled, "Now the real party begins! Let's play Seven Minutes in Heaven!"
"Yeah," everyone agreed.
Billy wrote Tanner, Katie, Alexis, Tay, Zac, Ike, Sierra, Caley, Kristen, his own name, and Ryan's names on paper and put them in his hat. "Okay," he said, "Let's see who's first."
He stuck his hand in his hat, "Zac and.....Alexis."
Oh, man, Zac thought to himself, She's so annoying. Why did I have to get her and not Paige?
Zac and Alexis headed into the closet and shut the door. Since Alexis was way taller than Zac, he stepped on a stool.
"What do you wanna do first?" Alexis asked in her hick accent.
"I don't know; I'm kinda new at this."
"Here, put your arms around my waist and open your mouth-I'll do the rest."
Oh, crap; What did I get myself into?
"Um, okay." Here goes.
When they finally came out, which to Zac seemed like an eternity, Billy picked two more names out of his hat, "Taylor and.....Ka..."
"Wait," Tay said, "Since it's my birthday, can I pick who I take in there with me?"
"Umm...sure," Billy agreed.
"C'mon Paige," Taylor said nervously.
When they got into the closet, both of them were very nervous and shaky. Here goes nothing, Tay thought to himself.
As their lips met, Paige placed her arms around Taylor's neck while he put his hands on her waist. Paige opened her mouth slightly and Tay's tongue entered passionately. After about a minute of this, Tay kissed Paige down her chin and stopped at her neck where he started sucking gently.
Paige held him tighter and started playing with his rattail. He slid his hands past her waist and down to her butt, pulling her closer. His mouth found his way back to her lips and he kissed her hungrily.
"Guys...guys? What are you doing in there? It's been over ten minutes!" Zac yelled.
When Paige walked out with what looked like bruises on her neck, everyone knew they had been "busy" in there.
"Dang, Tay, you didn't waste any time," Tanner commented, laughing.
"You know it," Taylor said as he gave Paige a side squeeze.
"Okay, time for two more names," Billy said from the couch. "Tanner and.......Katie." Tanner's face froze-He really didn't want to do this to Kristen, but he also didn't want all the guys to think that he was a wuss, so he followed Katie into the closet.
I can't believe this, Kristen thought to herself after Tanner and Katie were in there for way over seven minutes. She was about to walk into the bathroom and start crying her eyes out, but then they stepped out of the closet.
"Hey, Kristen," Tanner said when he saw the sad look on her face. He walked closer to her and put his arm around her as they sat down on the couch.
"Hi," Kristen managed to murmur out. Just then, Katie came up from behind them. She knew that Tanner and Kristen were dating.
"Can I talk to you for a minute, Kris?" Katie asked sympathetically.
"Um, sure,"Kristen managed to spit out, even though at this moment she was putting Katie at the top of her death list.
Katie pulled Kristen into the kitchen. "Do you honestly want to know what was going on in that closet?" Katie asked.
"I don't know if I do."
"You don't have a thing to worry about, Kristen. All I did was listen to Tanner talk......about you."
"Really?" Kristen said as a smile spread across her face.
"Yeah; he likes you a lot."
"Thanks, Katie," Kristen said as she gave her a hug.
When Kristen left the kitchen to go back to her faithful man, Sierra walked up to Katie, "You look so familiar," Sierra commented. "Oh, I know, you are that girl on Tulsa, Tokyo and the Middle of Nowhere. The one with Zac right before he gets splashed."
"Yeah-I have known the Hansons forever. I babysit for them all the time." Katie changed the subject, "So I hear you and Ike have something going."
"Oh, then you must be Katie. And yeah, I like isaac alot-he is such a sweet heart.He told me that you were his first kiss."
"Oh yea; I remember that, if you really wanna call it a kiss. It was more like a bump between our heads." Katie laughed. "Well, I better go in the rec room and help watch the kids. That's what I'm supposed to be here for."
"Okay, it was nice meeting you. Maybe we could do something together sometime."
"Sure," Katie said, then she turned and headed for the rec room.
"Hey Sierra?" Isaac said when he walked into the kitchen.
"Yeah?"
"What do you say if we ditch the party for a couple of hours and go do our own thing?"
"Sounds good to me," Sierra said smiling. "What do you wanna do?"
"How about we go down to the creek?"
"Sure."
As Sierra and Isaac headed out the door, Isaac grabbed her hand.
"So, Sierra," Isaac said as they sat by the running creek, "How do you feel about me?"
"You know how I feel about you, Isaac." Sierra said, a little worried.
"No, I really don't. Will you tell me?"
"I like you a lot, Isaac. I can't stop thinking about you when you're not around."
Isaac smiled, "The reason I was asking is because I was wondering how you feel about being committed to me."
"You mean become your steady girlfriend?"
"Yeah, something like that. I like you a lot Sierra, and I want to take our relationship to the next level."
"I feel the same way. I would be honored to be your girlfriend, Isaac."
Isaac smiled, leaned over, and gave Sierra a kiss. She opened her mouth slightly and allowed Isaac's tongue to enter. He had never kissed her this way before. When Isaac pulled away, Sierra was smiling, and she mouthed the word 'wow'.
"We should probably get back to help clean up the mess," Isaac said as he stood up and reached out his hand to help Sierra up.
"Okay, sweetie," Sierra said, grinning.
By eleven p.m., all of Taylor's guests except Paige had left; Ike and Sierra were in the kitchen helping Diana put away the leftover food from the party, Zac and his sisters were in the rec room doing who knows what, and Mackie was "helping" Walker fix the bathroom sink.
Paige looked at Taylor and sighed, "Whew! It's finally over. Sorry, Tay-your party was fun, but I'm exhausted!"
"Yeah, yeah...I know the real reason you're glad it's over...you couldn't keep discreetly changing the subject when someone purposely asked you about the bruises on your neck around my parents without making it obvious you had a reason to avoid the subject."
"You know me too well, Tay-Tanner was making me a nervous wreck-he wouldn't shut up about it!"
Taylor laughed, "I don't care what my parents think about that, anyway. I like ya too much to back off of you because of their opinions!"
"Yeah, well, you're parents are nice, so I don't think we have to worry about it.
"Well, in that case," Tay said, "Let's go on up to my room." He grinned sheepishly.
Jessica sat with Avery in rec room playing Candy Land, Avery's favorite board game. Jessica was much too old for it, of course. She made sure to explain to everyone that she played it "only to help out her mom by keeping Avery entertained." They knew better, but hey, she had to try anyway.
Avery was taking an awfully long time on this particular turn. Jessica sighed. She would much rather be out shopping with her friends at the mall than here with her kid sister, plus Zoe who was sleeping in her crib aaand...Zac. Zac? Jessie hadn't even noticed him the in room.
What is he doing? she wondered to herself.
"Hey, Avie? I'll be right back," Jessica said, and walked across the room to stand behind her brother. He was writing in a book-it was his journal. She hadn't seen him right in that thing for a long time!
Zac didn't even notice Jessie, so she let her evil side come out-Jessica began to read over his shoulder:
Dear Journal:
Sorry I haven't written to you in so long! I've been busy...
Yeah, yeah, Jessie thought, and skipped down a few lines. Oh, yeah-now we get to the good stuff! She grinned and continued to read:
Dang it; Taylor is making me so mad! He's in the other room with Paige-MY girl. I'd be so much cuter with her than he would! But Tay doesn't know how much I like Paige...that's not why he's annoying me. Every time I try to talk to her, he comes over and interrupts, then puts his arm around her or holds her hand. Then it's like I'm expected to go away. But why? Paige is my best friend! Or one of them at least. She is so beautiful...I love the way she smiles and her dimple on her left cheek, the way her hair tucks behind her ear, and...
"Jessie? What are you doing?" Jessica's reading was interrupted when Avie yelled across the room at her, causing Zac to turn around, catching her red-handed.
"JESSICA HANSON, what are you doing?" Zac shouted angrily, jumping up and turning to face her.
At first, she was apprehensive she would get in trouble, but then her bad side took over again.
"Don't use that tone of voice with me, Mister Ellingston wanna-be. If you tell or if you mess with me, I'll just have to go and tell Paige, or wait, no, TAY, how you feel about Paige."
"You wouldn't."
"I would!" Jessica smirked and kicked Zac in the shin with her shiny purple Doc Marten.
This angered Zac. Who did she think she was, almost three years younger and ordering him around?
"Jessica, you are the snobbiest, rudest, and most two-faced person I know, or even have met! And ya know what else? You think you're so cool with your expensive clothes and ugly-colored Docs. Well, for your information, you wouldn't even have such nice things if it weren't for me and Tay and Ike! You use us and our money we get from singing to buy whatever you want. You even try to get fame from being our sister! And that's just sick! Plus, you were to lazy to even be in our band when we asked you to be the bass player! You're mean to everyone, even little defenseless Mackie, and you think you're all that! Well ya know what? NO ONE LIKES YOU!!!" Zac shouted.
This did not even phaze Jess. If she was not her evil self right now, she might would have changed into some of her old clothes that had not come from Zac's money. But, instead of being upset, she just turned and ran towards Taylor's room, where she was sure he would be, doing who knows what with Paige. Zac jumped up and chased after her.
Taylor had taken Paige to his room to have some privacy. Usually, Paige was sort of shy about kissing and things like that, but not today. She had pushed Tay on his bed and began kissing him like he had never been kissed before.
Paige massaged Taylor's chest with her fingers and made him lay back on the bed, kissing him forcefully. Taylor rested his hands on Paige's stomach and kissed her back when all of a sudden his bedroom door flew open.
Jessica skipped in and smiled a huge smile. Taylor sat up quickly, as did Paige, and Taylor griped at Jessie, "Jessica-you know the rules. KNOCK before you come in!"
Zac hurried in after Jessie, but when he saw Paige and Taylor on his bed, his face turned white and he stopped abruptly.
"Sorry, Tay," Jessie said in a too-sweet voice, "Zac just had something he really needed to tell you two!"
"Me? Umm, no I didn't!" Zac said, almost too quickly, and Jessica grinned at him, "Did you see, Zackie? I came in and Taylor was making out with Paige!"
"Jessie!" Taylor yelled, embarassed, "I was not!"
"Whatever," she said, turned, and pranced out of the room.
Zac murmurred an apology to Paige and Tay, turned, and followed his sister.
"I wonder what that was about?" Tay said questioningly.
Paige replied quickly, "I dunno...now, where were we?" and leaned towards Taylor again.
"Wait-Paige?"
She looked up, "Oh...yeah?"
"I have to talk to you," he said with an apologetic look on his face.
After washing the dishes and smearing a little of Tay's leftover birthday cake on Sierra's face (it was tradition, you know), Isaac and Sierra went outside so they could take a walk. It was midnight, and there were millions of stars sparkling in the big black sky. Isaac took Sierra's hand and smiled, remembering how the month before he would have been afraid to do such a thing, much less actually kiss her.
Their first kiss was one to remember. Taylor had been teasing Ike that even though he was the younger brother, he had kissed Paige before Ike had kissed Sierra. That was the night before it actually happened. The four of them were at the Spring fair, and Sierra, along with himself, had each boughten a chocolate chip cookie from the Godiva Chocolates booth.
As Paige, Taylor, Ike, and Sierra were walking alongside the flower gardens at the fairgrounds, Sierra got melted chocolate chips on her mouth. When Ike reached to help her wipe it off, Taylor, being the helpful brother he was, had pushed Ike towards Sierra and their lips met.
Instead of getting embarassed and backing off, they had kept kissing. Taylor had applauded, making the people around them stare. Yup-it was pretty memorable, all right. Isaac wished Taylor hadn't drawn attention to them, but some day he would have to thank him, anyway.
"Isaac?"
"Hmm? Oh, sorry-I was just thinking."
"'Bout what?"
"About this," Ike said and gave Sierra a quick peck.
She smiled and they kept walking along the road.
"It's a beautiful night, Isaac-it reminds me of the first time we went out together."
"Yeah," Ike laughed, and he began to sing, "Kiss me down by the broken tree house," in a mock voice, and Sierra swatted at him playfully.
Isaac sighed and put his arm around Sierra, and she leaned her head on his shoulder.
"What's the matter, Ike?" she asked.
"It's just, I'm gonna miss you a lot next week. I know we'll only be gone a few days, but it'll seem like centuries."
"I know what ya mean," Sierra said sadly, but tried to bring Isaac's spirits up, "Well, I'll call you every night and email you every day and then, before we know it, you'll be back!"
They were referring to on Monday (it was currently Saturday night), when the Hanson's would leave for California, where they would stay for four days. Hanson's manager had scheduled them to be on Jay Leno, then they would have promotional autograph signings and press conferences the rest of the week.
"Has Taylor told Paige about it yet?" Sierra asked Ike as they rounded the corner, heading back towards Isaac's house.
"He was planning on telling her after the party tonight," he replied.
They arrived back at the Hanson's, and Isaac lead Sierra to the porch swing on his back porch.
"Here," Isaac said as he sat Sierra down on his lap and held her in his arms.
They rocked back and forth until Isaac spoke, "Sierra Jensen, it would be my honor if you would go on a date with me tomorrow night. It will be the last time I can see you until Friday morning. I've made reservations for two at Senor Pazzoli's...that place is booked up for months in advance, but I called and told them my situation and they let me in."
"Yeah, right-you just told them who you were," Sierra grinned, and Isaac admittedly said, "So? I had to get us reservations somehow!"
"Oh, Isaac-you are so sweet!" Sierra kissed him on the cheek, and he held her tighter, as if to keep her warm.
"I'd love to go with you!"
He smiled warmly at her and added in, "Afterwards, you pick where we go...I'll take you anywhere."
He kissed her forehead, and they laid there together in the silence of the night.
".......But we'll be back in four days," Taylor explained to Paige, hoping she wouldn't be mad.
She wasn't mad at all!
"Taylor, you're so cute! Why would I be angry with you for doing something you love to do? I'll miss you while you're gone, but I'll be thinking of you the whooole time, and I'll be right here waiting when you get back!"
Tay brushed Paige's hair out of her face with his fingertips and got down on one knee.
Paige giggled to herself, He's proposing already? I don't even know if he wears boxers or briefs yet!
Taylor looked up at Paige on his bed and took her hand, "Paige, would you give me the pleasure of your company...will you go out with me tomorrow night?"
They had done stuff together many times, but had never been on an official date.
She jumped up and hugged his neck *very* tightly. I guess that's a 'yes', Taylor thought, gasping for air.
Zac stood quickly as Paige walked into the living room alone.
"Hi, Paige! Where's Tay?"
"Oh, he fell asleep. I didn't want to wake him, so I thought I'd just go and find Sierra to take me home."
"Oh..well...he told you about California, right?"
"Yeah," Paige said, and smiled at Zac, "It'll be hard to be away from you for four days, Zac-I won't have anyone to talk to about stuff! You have to call me eeevery day, okay?"
"Yup, I will! Aaand Paige? I've been thinking about what you told me about telling my crush I like her..."
"And?"
"I think I might soon."
"That's good, Zac! Good luck with her, whoever she is! She has to be an amazing girl for someone like you to like her!"
"Thanks, Paige. And umm...tomorrow do you think maybe you'd wanna go rollerblading with me? One last talk before you leave?"
"I'd love to, Zac! Just you and me! Pick ya up at noon?"
"Okay," he agreed, and smiled to himself as Paige went to find Sierra to take her home.
