chapter three

I grabbed an apple off the counter and picked my bag up off the floor.
"Bye Mom. I'll see you tonight."
"Okay honey. Have a nice day."
I like walking to school. On a good day, when I'm not running late, I can leave early and cut through the park, which takes about ten minutes longer. The park is really quiet in the morning.. a great place to think. This particular morning I had extra time, so I decided to take the park route.
I wandered along the path, eating my apple, and looking out over the pond that sits in the middle of the park. I was thinking about nothing in particular when I found myself on my butt in the middle of the path, facing a boy on rollerblades. I blinked once before I focussed on the boy.

He was absolutely gorgeous. He had the deepest, creamiest looking brown eyes and the most amazing hair.
"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, as I sat there, staring up at him. "I should have been paying more attention." He got up and offered me his hand. I blinked again and came crashing back down to earth. "I'm sorry too" I took his hand and let him pull me up, attempting a smile. I reached down to grab my bag.
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking me up and down.
"Yeah I'm fine, really. Are you okay?"
He smiled, and I just about fainted. "I'm fine. Well I better go. Sorry again," he called as he skated past me and off down the path. I let out the breath I hadn't realised I was holding and turned slightly to watch him go. "Wow," I said under my breath, before heading slowly back down the path.
It wasn't until later that I realised I knew him from somewhere. I spent half of my French period trying to figure it out, but I just couldn't place him. I gave it up as useless, knowing that I'd probably never see him again in my life anyway.

Meredith shook my arm. "Wyn!" she hissed, "Tom Matthews keeps looking this way!" I quickly turned my head and looked, and sure enough he was watching our table. I turned back to the group. Michael was listening to me and Meredith.
"I can't believe you guys get so worked up about him. He's in my Science class, and he's actually a bit of a jerk."
Meredith laughed. "We're not interested in his personal qualities, Michael.. we like him purely for aesthetic reasons" I nodded, and Michael rolled his eyes. That was becoming a habit.
"Sooo Wyn, have you decided yet?" Jess questioned.
I glanced at her. "You mean about the Hanson concert?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, I'll come. But I'm not going because I like them, remember that."
Jess grinned. "Yeah yeah, I will."
I fiddled with my ham sandwich and started cutting it into a C shape. I got a bit of a shock when someone cleared their throat behind me. I turned around, and looked up at Tom Matthews. He smiled.
"Hey Wyn. How are you doing?"
Vaguely aware that all conversation at our table had stopped, I smiled nervously. "I'm fine. You?" My voice came out all squeaky, like I'd just breathed in helium.
"I'm okay. Well, I'll see you round." he smiled again, and carried on past our table to join his friends by the doorway.
As soon as they left the cafeteria, the female contingent of my friends all started talking at once.
"Oh my god! Wyn, he talked to you!"
"Wyn, what was that about??"
"Oh wow, this is soo amazing, Tom Matthews stopped at our table!"
I didn't register what they were saying, I was too busy staring at the doorway and trying to make sense of it. When I got a hold of myself, I grinned at Meredith and successfully ignored Michael, before turning back to my sandwich, my heart slowly returning to its normal speed.

I settled back in my chair and switched on the TV. I had one hour until I was due at the Garden's house and I intended to watch an incredibly mind numbing programme. I changed the channel to a soap, and sat back.
"Wyn! Phone for you!" I sighed, dropped my book on the table and headed for the kitchen, where my Dad had the phone.
"Thanks Dad," I said as I took it off him and headed up the stairs.
"Hello?"
"Hello Wyn? This is Tom. Tom Matthews." My mouth dropped open and I started internally screaming. Tom Matthews was ringing me! oh my god oh my god oh my god...
"Hi Tom. How are you?" I said, relatively sanely.
"I'm great. Listen Wyn, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Halloween dance thing at school. With me, I mean."
oh my god oh my god oh my god...
"Yeah, that sounds like fun."
"Great. Well, I have to go, so I'll see you at school sometime."
"Okay. Thanks for asking me. Bye,"
"Bye."
I put down the phone and screamed. A real scream. "Oh my GOD Tom Matthews asked me to the HALLOWEEN DANCE!" I danced around my room and threw myself onto my bed. "Oh my goooooood!" I was lying there grinning at the ceiling when my sister rushed in. "God Wyn! Are you okay?! What are you screaming about?"
I turned to my sister and grinned wider. "TOM MATTHEWS asked me to the Halloween Dance. TOM MATTHEWS!" Bri laughed.
"You, my dear sister, are completely and utterly insane." She smiled, shaking her head, and walked out the door. I sighed. I was in such a good mood, and now I had to go babysit the tyrants. I glanced at my watch. But I still had time to ring Meredith and tell her!

I knocked on the door and stepped back. A few seconds later, the door swung open and Mrs Garden smiled at me.
"Wyn! Come on in, honey." I stepped in and she closed the door after me. "Now, we're almost ready to leave. We'll be about five minutes I think. Umm, the emergency numbers and the number for the restaurant are where they always are, and the kids... well, I think Josh and Mark are in their room, and the girls are having a bath. My sister's kids are in the lounge watching a video, so how about you go in there and I'll just finish getting ready," She smiled, and rushed up the stairs. I dropped my bag in a corner and headed for the lounge.

I was about to go in, when The Boy came out. I stopped dead. It was the boy from the park, the one with the roller blades and the amazing eyes. He smiled. "You're the babysitter? Nice to see you again. I'm Zac." I smiled back.
"Hi Zac. I'm Wyn."
He nodded. "I'm just going to the bathroom, but the others are all in there." He stepped past me and headed down the hall, and I wandered into the lounge, shaking my head. For the second time in a minute, I was rendered almost speechless. I was facing the Hansons. The same Hansons that were doing a concert in Oklahoma City in a few days. It all began to fall into place. Zac was.. Zac Hanson. And here was his famous family. I smiled politely, and hoped my shock hadn't shown. "Hi," I said, walking over to a spare chair.
"Hey," said the oldest looking one, "I'm Taylor, and this is Jess, Avie, Mac and Zoe," He indicated to each of his siblings in turn. I smiled back at them all. "Hi guys. I'm Wyn."
Taylor glanced over at me again. "So how do you and Zac know each other?"
I laughed. "We ran into each other at the park.. literally."
"Oh Okay." he grinned. I was about to say something else when Mr and Mrs Garden came in. "Oh, good, you've all been introduced." She smiled, smoothing her dress out.
"We're leaving now, so you kids have fun and behave yourselves." I nodded.
"Bye kids."

chapter four

"Josh!" I stood at the bottom of the stairs, with my hands on my hip. "This is not funny! Get out here right now!" When the kids had gotten bored with tv, we'd moved on to an innocent game of hide and seek... but then Josh found a really good hiding place. I had Isaac and Taylor searching outside, and Zac in the basement, but I hadn't heard anything from either area.
I sighed when my shouts got no reply, and headed for the basement.

I pushed open the door and started down the concrete steps. Zac's torch was moving in the corner, and it swung towards me. "Oh, hey" he said, "Found him yet?"
"Nope. I guess that means you didn't find him either."
"No. He's really well hidden, wherever he is."
I carried on down the steps, and onto the floor. "It's really dark in here... is there not a light?"
"Nah, the bulb's dead." Zac finished searching the corner, and headed over to me. The Garden's basement is really huge.. like the size of their whole first floor.. and it's absolutely stuffed with, well, stuff. There are boxes of books, boxes of toys, boxes of reader's digests, old furniture, everything. He shone the torch around the perimeter of the room, stopping on a stack of boxes in the other corner. "Hey, I didn't check over there yet.." We started in that direction, stepping over boxes and piles of magazines.

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