CHAPTER ONE

Zac stared out of the window of the hotel room – the beautiful view of the quaint city – the castle up on the mound, with its craggy bluffs and its brownstone walls. And all down the street before it, the gardens, the monument shaped like a cathedral with a hollow under belly with a statue hiding under its alcove. It was a wonderful sight. Zac had always been into scenery.

"This place is great," he said.

Taylor glanced over Zac’s shoulder. "Yeah, whoah, its like breathtaking," he admitted, he flicked a lock of golden hair back from his blue eyes. "Kind of makes you wish you could go out on your own and just sight-see – but there's no chance of that anyway since we’d have to take that big…what's his name – Don? – with us and plus we only have an hour and a half until we’d due to arrive for our photo session…"

"Where’s dad gone anyway?" Zac asked, "Isn’t he a little worried about leaving us in hotel on our own when they have complimentary matches on the nightstand – and we could set fire to something?" Zac grinned. "We’re all pyromaniacs…"

Isaac was putting clothes away in a big chest of drawers, trying to get things organised. "Dad went to see about a car rental," he answered.

"Tay, I gave you my Discman, what did you do with it?" Isaac asked, suddenly.

"Uh…" Taylor thought for a moment, still looking out over the city in aw. "I think I put it in my backpack," he said.

Isaac found Taylor’s backpack beside all the other suitcases and bags, and he began searching through it, "what the—" came Isaac’s surprised mumble.

Taylor straightened up, an "uh-oh" passed his lips, he turned and looked nervously over his shoulder.

"Taylor…" Isaac began in an irritated voice.

Taylor and Zac both looked at what Isaac was holding up.

Isaac read the label of the cigarette box. "Kensitas Club King Size?" he asked, frowning.

"Uh…those aren’t mine," Taylor said guiltily.

"Whoa, Tay…you are in so much shit when dad finds out," Zac bit his lip, somehow managing to suppress the urge to smile at his brothers situation.

"Then…uh…who do they belong to?" Isaac asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

"They’re Zac’s," Taylor lied, his face going redder than his shirt.

"Hey!" Zac said in shock. "I don’t smoke! I’m twelve for crying out loud!"

Isaac glared at Taylor. "Need I remind you this isn’t the first time I’ve had to confiscate cigarettes from you, Tay…"

"What? You mean he’s done this before? How come you never told me?" Zac asked.

"Because you’re a blabbermouth," Isaac answered simply. "Tay, I’m gonna go break these up and throw them down the toilet…and if you don’t like it you can lump it…"

"Aw…but Ike—!" Taylor whined.

"Need I remind you what could happen if the fans found out you were smoking? You’d be thought of as a bad example," Isaac reminded, then he went into the bathroom, moments later there were the sounds of the toilet being flushed, and Taylor’s expression dropped, his blue eyes dulled.

"I’ll just buy another packet," Taylor then told himself in a chipper way.

"You dare," Isaac’s voice floated from the bathroom. "I am soooo disappointed in you for this, you should know better by now."

"Yeah, well, It soothes my nerves…"

Isaac walked back into the room. "Just another excuse to use a worthless drug which will eventually end up taking around twenty years off of your life," He muttered, he then searched out his Discman out of Taylor’s backpack. He hooked it up to a pair of mini speakers and switched the radio of it on, and instantly a song called ‘The Day We Find Love’ began to flow through the room.

"Caffeine is a drug, I saw you drinking coffee the other day," Taylor pointed out.

"Coffee can’t give you lung cancer," Isaac shot back, tapping his foot to the song.

"Shut up you two," Zac muttered.

Isaac began searching through his clothes as he’d been doing before – putting things away. "You better pick out something to wear for the photo-shoot – and better pick out something to take with you and change into…"

Zac rolled his eyes. "I'm wearing what I have on," he said, motioning to the chocolate brown T-shirt he was wearing and the leather pants which were his favourites. "I’ll wait for you guys down in the lobby, because I really don’t want to hang around here and listen to you two arguing about a pack of stupid cigarettes," he said, he grabbed his backpack and made his way to the door.

Zac left the room – immediately finding Don just standing at the side of the doorway. He looked at the tall dark-haired man with surprise. "Uh-hi…what are you doing here?"

"I’m supposed to be protecting you…"

"From what? A couple of boy-crazy girls who want to meet the famous Hanson brothers?" Zac smiled attentively, and rolled his eyes, he was about to go down the hallway when Don stopped him by placing one of his big meaty hands on Zac’s shoulder and bringing him back.

"Where are you going?"

"Down to the lobby, I’m sick of hearing Tay and Ike argue…" Zac answered.

"I better go with you…"

"Hey, I’m not a kid, I can handle things on my own," Zac admitted.

"Your father told me to stay with you at all costs and that is precisely what I'm going to do," Don stated.

"Look, Dan - or whatever your name is – its not like I have a murderer stalking me you know – there isn’t any guys with shotguns waiting downstairs to assassinate me," he added. "Besides," he grinned. "I got a machete in my backpack."
"Yeah, right kid," Don followed Zac down the hall.

"No…I'm not kidding…" Zac paused, held up one finger, then he searched into his backpack and pulled out a set of keys, the keyring was a tiny silver machete, it looked quaint and cool. "See…"

Don gave a laugh. "How…cool…"

"Yeah, Tay got me it when we went to New York…that was when I was feeling a little bit weird about going on stage…"

"I read about you – but I actually haven’t even heard your music…"

"You don’t listen to the radio?" Zac asked.

"No, I don’t," Don answered. "I don’t watch much Television either, don’t have time in my job," he answered. "What kind of music do you sing?"

"Well, we play it, and write it and sing it," Zac admitted. "Its…like…a combo of rock music, pop music, some R&B, it goes into its own category really," he shrugged, and threw his head back to shake his hair out of his face.

"I guess I’ll get to hear you perform some time this week – when are you scheduled to play?"

"Well…" Zac thought for a moment, then took a piece of paper with dates and places written on them out of his back pocket. "We’re to do a free concert in Princes Street Gardens tomorrow afternoon at three, and then on Wednesday we’re supposed to do a full-fledged concert at a place called Murrayfield Stadium…that’s up at somewhere called Meadowbanks, dad said."

"Sounds like you’re gonna be busy…"

They got into the elevator, and Zac pushed the ground floor button, the doors closed and the elevator began slowly making its descent.

"Do you have kids?" Zac asked nosily all of a sudden.

Don paused. "No, why?"

"Just wondering," Zac shrugged. "My mom, she has six kids – that’s me included and over the next week she’s going to have another one. We have a feeling its gonna be a girl…" Zac admitted. "My mom gets pregnant every three years or so. She’s never not pregnant," Zac laughed.

Don looked straight at Zac, he was silent. Zac knew it was hard to tell Don was looking at him – those sunglasses were pure black and there seemed to be no trace of eyes behind them – but the feeling of someone staring at him began to make Zac feel very uncomfortable. As if he were being studied somehow.

The elevator stopped – which Zac was thankful, and he climbed out, just as Walker Hanson was about to climb in.

"Zac…where are you going?" Walker asked.

"I was just about to take a look around before the photo-shoot," Zac shrugged and stepped out, just as Don stepped out.

"Well, I was just about to go up and get you guys – I thought we could go up and see Grayfriars, how about it?"

"Whatever Grayfriars is, that’s fine with me…" Zac admitted. "I’ll run up and get Ike and Tay," he stated then dashed back into the elevator and pressed for the seventh floor before Don could climb in. The doors shut quickly and the elevator began ascending back up.

In the elevator, Zac couldn’t seem to forget how Don had looked at him, as if he was studying him in detail. Still shaking off that feeling he was still being looked at – Zac left the elevator as it arrived back on the floor their room was on. Somehow, the way that Don had looked at him through those dark sunglasses still lingered with him.