Hours passed, and I fidgeted. "Bored! Bored!!"
Jessica started in her sleep. She slowly opened her eyes and glared at me. "Shut the hell up." she growled, and turned over to get some sleep.
I stuck my tongue out, and ignored her. Zac turned to me from the next row up, and raised his eyebrows. "What's wrong with her?" he asked me.
"She always PMSes before performing." I explained, throwing my hands up, whacking Taylor in the eyeballs.
"Ow!" he yelled, holding his eyes. "Fuck all, Kris!"
"Sorry." I muttered, and patted his back. "I didn't mean it."
"You're out to kill me." he shot back, his blue eyes red.
"But our first show isn't for another day!" Zac broke in.
"Yeah, I know." I said, accidentally bumping Taylor. "Sorry." I told him again, wincing. Back to Zac, I said "Gives her more time to stew over it. Wait until the day. She'll be all over us like a rash, telling us what to do."
"Yeah. That's what Tay does." Zac grinned.
Taylor grunted, and went back to his book, rubbing his hazy eyes.
"Passonate Fires, Taylor?" I asked, eyebrows raised.
"What?" he asked, sidling away.
"Nothing." I said, fiddling with the upholstery. I wondered how British Airways would take it if I tore the seats up. "I said I was sorry."
"Okay."
"Bored." Zac said, bouncing in his seat. Ike poked him. "Hey!"
"Calm down, dork." Isaac said.
Jamie piped up from behind above her sister's snoring. "So'm I."
"What can we do?" I asked.
"Read?" Taylor suggested sarcastically.
"Taylor, I have read the menu and flight safety manual thrice! I can only take 'please take the door closest to you in case of an emergency' so much!"
"Okay." he mumbled, and went back to his book.
"Well, what am I going to do?" I mused looking around. I fiddled with the airconditioning. I turned it on high, and pointed it at Taylor. He shivered, and glanced up at me.
"Stop it."
"Sowwy." I said, turning the vents to the bald lawyer. He absently reached up to turn his aircon off. I laughed. He turned around and glared at me. Seeing my vents pointed at him, he pressed the Stewardess button.
I hastily corrected my vents, and grabbed the flight safety plan. "Ah." I said, as if finding the answer of the universe in the diagram of the jet printed on the page.
Zac was laid back in his chair, face bright red, laughing.
The lawyer complained to the attendant that had served me earlier, but she couldn't find anything wrong with reading the flight plan.
"Please tell me again if there's a problem." she told him, and gave me a warning and glanced at Zac like he was nuts.
I put the flight plan back, and sighed. "Still bored."
Zac laughed. "I know."
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Go to the back of the plane like you're going to the toilet, and see how many people recognise you."
I thought a bit. "Okay. You first." I told him, and we walked to the curtain dividing the classes. Zac walked through, and I peeked through the curtain. Jamie sidled up, and we giggled at the reaction.
A young girl of about 10 poked her mother and said, in the way all children do, very loudly "Zac, mum! It's Zac!"
Zac walked by, and she stared.
"1 point, Zac." I whispered, counting off on my fingers.
At the younger girl's cry, the whole compartment looked up. A teenage girl with her family stared. "It's Zac Hanson." she squealed.
"2 points."
A young man looked up and grinned. "MmmBop, man, MmmBop." he grinned, and Zac high fived him.
"3."
By this time, the whole coach was in uproar. People were finding things for Zac to sign, and he rushed back, almost landing in Jamie's arms.
"Whoa, man! That's like a gantlet!" he said, leaning against the wall, eyes wide. "So, how'd I do?"
"Besides a billion points, you did okay." Jamie teased.
"Your turn." he challenged me.
"Oh boy." I said, and walked from the curtain. Everyone was still looking, and grew disappointed when Zac or the other Hansons didn't appear.
"Kris, man, Kris." said a voice. I looked around and saw the young man who'd high fived Zac.
"Music buff, eh?" I asked.
"Yeah." he grinned. "You're cool."
"Thanks." I said, and turned back to first class. I pushed aside the curtain, and hit my forehead against Zac's. "Dumbass." I muttered, rubbing it.
"I win!" he cried. "And you're ugly." he added as a retort.
"Bah." I said, positive I was going to get a bruise. "You have to take into account that you've dominated the world for the past year or so, and our first single has just hit the UK." I muttered.
Zac nodded, rubbing his head. "Okay. But I still win 'cause I'm cuter than you!"
I blew a raspberry at him, and he did likewise.
I made my way back to sit down, and found that Taylor had fallen asleep. I eased into my chair, and picked up the book which he was grasping. Romeo and Juliet Unabridged?
"What is he reading this for?" I asked Zac, holding the play up.
"For an assignment." he explained, and shoved Isaac out of his seat. "Go sit next to Jess. I wanna talk to Jamie."
Isaac got up, and stepped over Jess, settling down. "There's about a million other seats here, but you choose the one I was sitting in." he mumbled.
"An assignment, huh?" I asked. I read the first act, up to scene 3, and my head was spinning. My thoughts consisted of thous and thees and such.
"I'm the cutest of us all." Zac was telling Jamie.
"Hast thou taken a loss of thine senses, Caz?" I muttered, holding my pounding head.
"Nay, ugly lady." he replied, laughing at my muddled version of his name. "Srik."
I chuckled. I put the book down, and shifted. Taylor fell over and his head landed on my shoulder. "God, not payback!" I muttered, pulling his hair out of my mouth. "If you gotta do this, Tay, at least you can be less hairy." I told the sleeping boy.
He snored softly.
I laughed. "I'm jealous of any guy who has more hair than me." I thought a bit. "And who is sexier!" He'd look great as a girl, I thought, and instantly felt mean. All the anti-Hansons of the world always chose to pick on their looks - the long hair and pretty boy faces. That's not what it was about. It was the music. But it was looks that affect greatly, and it was sad. (*It is true. I see people all over the net with sites who declare eternal love for Hanson, but as soon as they discover some rumor or such that Ike/Tay/Zac is going out with so and so, these people drop them like a hot potato. They're poor hypocrites.*)
You don't find ugly old 40 year olds making millions and touring and on the lips of every generation alive, now, do you?
It was the same for us. Zodiac. Jess had the home girl look. Fresh, nice and smart. I had the bad girl appeal. And Jamie? She was the third wheel who tags along. I sighed, watching Jamie and Zac bent over some amusement.
"It's not fair." I told the blonde hair leaning against me. "Cousin It." I muttered.
He shifted slightly, and burrowed his head into my shoulder.
"If that's the way you see things." I said, as if holding a conversation. Pah. Any guy who can fall asleep on a girl's shoulder is cute. I grinned down at his head. I felt almost maternal feelings.
Maternal feelings or not, I was really fidgety. I grabbed a pair of airplane socks (designed to keep your feet warm, or so they tell you) and grinned. I pulled them out of their plastic wrapper, and pulled them onto my hands. Instant sock puppets! (*Note: I did this when I came from the US to Australia. I was soooo bored, I chatted via sock puppets to the other passengers. They thought I was cute.*) I had a two way conversation with myself, and I turned to chat with the lady I almost tripped over earlier. She stared at me blearily, and I quit after trying to make the lawyer see reason in Puppet Rights.
"This is your captain speaking. We are preparing to land. Please put your trays up, and buckle in."
I hooted with joy. "Taylor! Wake up! We're here!" I tapped his head, and he sat up, groggily.
"What?" he asked, blinking.
I grabbed his face and planted a big wet sloppy one right on the mouth. "We're here!" I shouted, and buckled in. Finally! The torment of waiting was over.
Taylor just sat and stared sleepily as I buckled him in.