chapter five"Rhian! Wake Up!"
I opened my eyes to see my sister, Ellie’s face looming over me.
"Ellie! Leave me alone!", I mumbled, turning over and closing my eyes again.
Ellie frowned. "There’s a boy on the phone for you"
I sat up in bed. "What? What time is it? Where’s the phone?"
Ellie laughed. "Here" she passed me the portable phone.
It was Monday, the first Monday of the Summer Holidays, and two days after my date with Taylor. I grabbed the phone off Ellie and ushered her out the room, pressing the talk button as soon as she had left.
"Hello?"
"Hi Rhian. It’s me, Chris,"
I silently groaned. I had been hoping it would be Taylor, but instead it was my cousin, Chris. "Yeah, Hi Chris. What’s up?" I asked, as I headed back towards my bed. "Nothing much. Just me and the rest of the gang-" I cringed. Chris insisted on calling our group of friends ‘the gang’. I know what you’re thinking…she hangs out with her cousin? Well, he also happens to be my best friend’s boyfriend, and a pretty cool person, if you don’t count the ‘gang’ thing. " -were gonna check out the new movie complex and then go over to the park or something. Do you wanna come?" I hesitated. If I went with Chris and my friends, I could miss Taylor ringing, but I could also get a chance to talk to Adeline (my best friend), about him. "Sure, why not?" We set up a time, and I started to get ready."You met Taylor Hanson? You went on a date with Taylor Hanson???" Adeline was screeching in my ear. What made it worse was we were in the middle of the park and every face in the vicinity had turned to stare at us.
"Shhhh! Yes, I did. But be quiet!"
"I have to sit down! Now!" Adeline exclaimed, as she made a beeline for a picnic bench. I followed her, anxiously scanning the park to make sure no-one was still staring at us.
"Tell me every detail, and I mean every detail!" So I told her. But when I got to the kiss, I wasn’t quite sure what to say. "So he walked you home. That was sweet. Then what happened? Did he kiss you?"
I looked at my hands. "Well, yeah."
"Omigod! This is so big! This is bigger than big! This is-"
"Adeline, you can’t tell anyone."
She looked shocked. "Ca-can’t tell anyone?"
"No. Promise me you won’t. I don’t know if he wants anyone to know."
Adeline stared at me, and then out to where the others were, sitting on the grass.
"I promise." She said.
"Thanks." I said quietly. She smiled.
"You’re welcome. Come on, we better go over to the others."
She stood up, and held out her hand. I took it and she pulled me up.
"Rhian?’ she asked as we started walking.
"Yeah?"
"You are one of the most amazing people I know. If it was me in your place, EVERYONE would know about it,"
I grinned. ‘Thanks.""Hi, I’m back. Were there any messages for me?" I called as I passed my sister’s room. I heard her jump off her bed and follow me out into the corridor. She stood with her hands on her hips, watching me walk into my own room. "Well? Were there?"
She appeared in the doorway as I sat down on my bed. Ellie is two years older than me, which makes her 16. You wouldn’t know we were sisters if you saw us together. While I have red hair, Ellie has very light blonde hair. While my eyes are very brown, Ellie’s are a deep green. I think it’s cause I take after Mom, and she takes after Dad. But we are just the same, personality-wise. It’s funny, because people expect us to be so different, because of our looks, when really we’re just the same.
She watched me carefully. "Yes," she said slowly.
I glanced up at her when she didn’t carry on. "Well? Who was it?"
She took a deep breath. "Rhian," she said carefully, "Tell me exactly why Taylor Hanson would be ringing our house."
I glanced up from brushing my hair, and had to bite my lip to stop from laughing at the expression on her face. I tried to act casual.
"Did he ring, then?"
Her patience wore out right then. "RHIAN!!! Why??"
I grinned. "I, kind of, met him a couple of days ago."
Her mouth dropped open. "You met him, and you didn’t tell me?"
"sorry," I said, and tried to put my best innocent face on. "umm, did he leave a number or anything?" She stared at me.
"I can’t believe you’re so calm about this. You love Hanson!"
"I know. So, did he leave a number?"
"Yes. It’s on the fridge."
"Thanks," I said, and had to slip past her before she could ask more questions. I ran down the stairs and grabbed the post-it note off the fridge. It had Taylor’s name, and a phone number. I grabbed the phone off the stand and starting dialling the number as I went up the stairs.
"hello?" a man’s voice said.
‘Hi, umm, is Taylor there, please?"
"Can I ask who’s speaking?"
"Rhian Campbell"
"Just a minute, Rhian"
"Thanks" I said as the man put the phone down. I heard talking in the background, and someone shouted "Tay!!" There was a bit more talking, some movement, and then a voice said into the reciever, "Hi, Rhian."
"Hi. Sorry I missed you before."
"That’s okay. Umm, the reason I rang was to see if you’d like to do something tonight"
"Sure, do you want to meet somewhere or what?"
"you can come over, if you want. Then you can meet Ike and Zac’
"Okay, so what time?"
We set up a time, he gave me his address and after chatting a bit longer, we hung up.I chose a button-down knee-length skirt, and a dark blue top for that night. I was ready an hour before I was supposed to be there, so I sat in my room, counting the dots on my wallpaper, and waiting for my Mom to come home from work and give me a lift. When I’d rung to ask her about it, she had promised to be home in time to take me, but I was still nervous. I was up to 465 dots when I heard the car pull into our driveway, with fifteen minutes to spare. I ran down the stairs and jumped in the car without even giving Mom a chance to change out of her work clothes.
"Whoa, honey, you still have fifteen minutes, calm down," she said, laughing. "This must be one special guy. What did you say his name was?"
"I didn’t, but it’s Taylor Hanson."
Mom stared at me. "Isn’t he-"
"Yes, he is. Take a right here" I said, as she made her way through down-town Tulsa. Mom just mumbled something and followed my directions. I had gotten out a map that afternoon, and memorised the route to their house, so I knew exactly where to go. Mom pulled up outside a red-brick house, surrounded by grass and a large back yard. "Is this it?" She asked.
"Must be" I replied.
"Well, maybe I should come in and ch-"
"NO! I’ll be fine. See you later on" I said, jumping out of the car before she said anything else. I slammed the door after me and started up the stone path to their house. When I knocked, a little girl, who looked about nine opened the door. She took one look at me, turned back around and called out, "Mommy! Taylor’s girlfriend is here!" She turned back to me, and said, in a much quieter voice, "Do you want me to get Tay-" She was interrupted by feet bounding down the stairs and Taylor’s voice saying, "Jessie, did you have to say that?" Taylor himself appeared at the door a minute later, closely followed by a little boy of about three. "Sorry, Rhian, do you want to come in?" I grinned. "Sure."
Taylor opened the screen door which Jessie had failed to do.
"Do you want something to drink?" Tay asked as he led me into what looked like a lounge room.
"No, thanks, I’m fine."
‘Are you sure, becau-" He was interrupted by a woman standing at the door, who I recognised from the mall.
"You must be Rhian. I tell you, Tay’s been talking about you all weekend!"
"Mom!" Tay said, blushing. "Rhian, this is my mother. Mom, this is Rhian Campbell."
"Hi, Mrs. Hanson." I said, "It’s nice to meet you."
She walked into the room, followed by Jessie, and the little boy, who was hiding behind her skirt, and reached for my hand. "It’s nice to meet you too, Rhian. Now, do you two know where you’re going tonight?"
I raised my eyebrows at Taylor.
"Um, we’re gonna go to a movie, Mom."
"Oh, that's nice. Which movie?"
"We’re going to decide when we get there." Tay said.
"Well, have fun both of you. Do you want a ride? Or are you walking?"
Taylor glanced at me. "I think we’ll walk, Mom."
"Okay, honey." Mrs Hanson smiled at us both, and then gathered up the two kids and ushered them out the room.
Taylor looked over at me.
"Is that ok? Walking, I mean?"
"that’s fine," I said, smiling.
"TAY! WHERE’D YOU PUT MY - oh"
I turned around to find Zac grinning sheepishly at me from the door. He walked over to me and stuck out his hand.
"Hi, I’m Zac."
"Hi, Zac, I’m Rhian." He nodded. "Hi."
He turned to Tay. "Where’d you put my baseball mitt?"
I stopped listening to their conversation, and started to pay more attention to the room. It was quite big, with a brick fireplace set into one wall. As I turned around, taking it in, I noticed Isaac standing in the doorway, watching me.
"hi, Rhian, is it?"
"Yeah. Umm, hi." I walked over to shake his hand, and Tay spoke up.
"Oh, you guys met already." He said as he walked over. Zac, who was following, turned to me and said; "So, you like computers?"
"Yeah, I do. Why?"
"Do you wanna come see ours, then?" He asked looking hopefully at me.
"Sure." Zac grinned.
"Follow me." He started out the door and up a staircase, with me, Isaac and Taylor in tow. We went through a door on the second floor, and into one of the messiest rooms I have ever seen. There were clothes everywhere, and what little space left after that was taken up by a set of bunk beds and a large table covered with lego blocks. In the corner was a desk with one small chair and a computer.
"It’s Tay’s, really - but we all use it. Have you played doom before? The new version is really awesome. Do you wanna play?"
I nodded, and he turned back to the computer and started to set up the game.