The sound of the telephone ringing was clearly heard in the quiet Hanson house. Taylor, as a passer by picked it up and placing the receiver to his ear he spoke into it.
"Hello?"
"Hi, could I please speak to Zac?", Kimmy spoke back.
"Yeah, hang on a sec", Taylor said and then shouted out to Zac, "Zac, c’mon! Telephone for you!"
Zac ran down the stairs and grabbed the receiver from Taylor’s hand.
"Hey! Go easy will ya? You almost dislocated my shoulder!", Taylor told his brother off and then walked away towards the TV room where Mackie and his two younger sisters where sitting watching a kids program.
"Hello?", Zac spoke up, wondering who it was.
"Zac! Hi, it’s Kimmy! How are you?"
"Hey Kimmy… I’m okay… just a bit bored, not too many things to do around here sometimes".
"Poor boy, I’ve got a solution to all your boredom problems", Kimmy said excitedly.
"Really? Let’s hear it", Zac said curiously.
"Katie and I are going to the ice-skating center, and then we’ll go grab a bite. Interested?"
"Uh, sure, haven’t ice-skated for some time. When are you going?"
"We thought at five, is that good for you?", Kimmy asked.
"What’s the time now? Three? Yeah, it’s cool with me", Zac finally agreed.
"Great! Bring a friend if you want".
"Okay, I might tell Nick to come… if he isn’t grounded by his mum again", Zac chuckled.
"Alright, got to go now, we’ll meet you at the skate center, kay?"
"Yep, see ya", Zac said and after he hang up he ran out to find his mother and tell her his evening plans.
After Taylor had watched about 40 minutes of kids TV he decided that he had had enough and so left his younger siblings and raced up to his room. He found Isaac lying on his bed sleeping. He was going to sit there and maybe write a song but he knew what a hard day Isaac had had yesterday and he would probably be angry if he was woken, so he left the bedroom quietly closing the door behind him and went downstairs again. He went and settled in the TV room again, but this time he didn’t pay attention to the cartoons being played. Instead he thought of Simone. She had long jet black slightly wavy hair and intense blue eyes. He again felt the sympathy for her that he had felt when they had talked yesterday at the mall. He wouldn’t have liked leaving Tulsa either…. He loved his home. He suddenly felt a strange urge to help her feel more welcome, to try and make her love Tulsa as he loved it. That was probably impossible, but he wanted to try it. He thought of her face again. She was quite pretty, cute would describe her more than beautiful, even though he had thought that she was quite beautiful. It was strange how her face looked English… it was probably her fair skin and her eyes. Of course he wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t told him that she was from England, but the more he thought of her the more he agreed that she looked English. Her accent was definitely not American. She had a very strong and clear voice which he thought was quite attractive.
"Alright! That’s enough children! You’ve been watching TV for over an hour now. Taylor, turn that thing off please, don’t have it going on and on", Mrs. Hanson called out to her kids to turn the TV off. "Go outside and play, it’s too nice a day to be sitting inside".
Taylor got up and turned the TV off without thinking much, he wasn’t watching it anyway. Mac, Avie and Jessica just moaned and went outside. Sometimes they couldn’t understand why they couldn’t watch more television than they did.
"Mum, I think I’ll go for a walk", Taylor told his mother.
"Okay, but don’t forget you and your brother’s have to be home early because you have a lesson tomorrow morning and then you have to go to the studio. It’s not going to be a relaxing day tomorrow", Mrs. Hanson pointed out.
"I know I know… I won’t be late, just going for a walk… Might meet up with John and Sam…", Taylor said and walked outside. He wasn’t planning on meeting John and Sam though, what he really wanted to do was go to the mall and see if he would see Simone. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to see her but he just did.
"How’s everything with your parents today?", Lisa said to Isaac from the other end of the telephone receiver.
"Better… Mum’s probably over it but dad’s a bit more cautious with me now. It’s like he thinks that every time I walk out of the door I’m going to run away or do something silly, he’ll get over it though, he’s at work most of the time anyway so it isn’t too bad", Isaac explained.
"I’m sorry all this had to happen, you would have thought that what we did was completely innocent… For us anyway… God, I’m so embarrassed! Your parents must hate me now!", Lisa spoke feeling regret that they were so irresponsible.
"No they don’t Lisa! They love you! Don’t do this to yourself now, it wasn’t your fault anyway, I was the irresponsible one, now don’t blame it on you!", Isaac tried to make Lisa feel better, after all he did believe that he was the one to blame in the whole story, it was his responsibility to be home on time. It was his parent’s that he was letting down and making worry for no reason, he could have at least called, but he never even thought of it. "Now can we forget about it?"
"Yes… I suppose it will be better, we just have to be more careful next time", Lisa agreed to drop the subject.
"So, want to go out tonight? I promise not to forget to go home this time", Isaac joked.
"If your parents don’t mind, then I’d love to", Lisa said.
"Great, I’ll go check with mum and I’ll meet you at 6:30?"
"That’s fine with me, where are we going to go?"
"Certainly not where we went last time!", Isaac laughed remembering the place they went to the other night where they had been kicked out of for making too much noise.
"Oh I agree on that one too!", Lisa chuckled, "That waiter was so rude!".
"Yeah well I don’t think that we would be very welcome back there anyway", Isaac pointed out. "Okay, I’ll pick you up at 6:30, see you then".
"Yes, see you, love you!", Lisa answered back before hanging up.
"Love you too", Isaac said and hung up, then turned to go find his mother and tell her about his plans hoping that she wouldn’t make a fuss. After all he had learnt his lesson.