The Hanson Brothers started to become Tulsa’s preteen heartthrobs when I was nine years old. I remember when they performed at my school. All the girls were going nuts watching them sing a Capella. They loved their dancing. I would go to almost all their gigs. They brought me along with them since Zac and I were such great friends. I watched them perform when I was 10 at the Blue Rose Cafe and at Mayfest, twice. By 1995, they had moved on to instruments. Zac was playing the drums which was very fitting for his personality. He liked to have control over the beat. I remember when I was 10 years old and Zac was having his 10th birthday party, there were fans there. It was at the Hanson home, I didn’t like not having all of Zac’s attention. He was my best friend and I didn’t want girls diverting his attention from his best friend. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but I guess I had started to develop a little crush on Zac. For my birthday & Valentines he had given me what he was good at, a song, so for his birthday I gave him what I was good at. I drew him a drawing. It wasn’t much, but I could tell he liked it. It was a picture of me and him playing Car Chase. I also made him a huge layered cake of green jello- his favorite! My mom helped me get it to balance, but I made the jello molds myself.

I remember when The Hanson Brothers sent their 2nd indie album MMMBop to over a dozen record companies and over a dozen turned them down for various reasons. They even put my personal favorite song on the MMMBop album, our”River song” now just called “River.” I thought it was so amazing that they had a dream and were really reaching for the stars. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up, yet The Hanson Brothers, now only Hanson, had already put out two awesome independent albums! They were so good, so genuine! I remember how hearing their sweet harmonies made me feel. It always cheered me up when I was feeling down, and it still does. After Zac’s 10th birthday party, I went home and listened to Boomerang, the first independant album, and then MMMBop. The party made me upset because I didn’t have all of Zac’s attention, however after hearing the songs, I felt a lot better. I also realized that I had so much more than those other girls had. They liked Zac, but he was my best friend. I sat in silence for a good ten minutes just being thankful for such a great friend I had.

The next day Zac came to sleep over. My sister went to sleep over Susie and Kathy’s house because it was dance night and at my house! Dance night was when Zac and I, sometimes Taylor and Isaac would join us with some other friends, would go to one of our houses and just dance! We would sing loudly while breaking out hte newest moves and playing the best games of all dancing games limbo and freeze dance! We also played Twister. Twister had to be my favorite. I think it was everyones favorite, even my parents, and sometimes Walker and Diana would play also! Tonight it was only Zac and I. My parents were downstairs watching a movie. Twister wasn’t the same with only two people. Zac and I tried our best to make it more lively though! We got ourselves into huge twists and tried to make the other one fall first. After we were pooped from all our twister and dancing. We played sega until we were too tired to move the control sets. This time came at 10 pm, and I crawled into my bed and Zac sat next to me for a minute to talk before he creeped into his sleeping bag.

“Goodnight!” Zac half whispered, half spoke.

“Goodnight!” I smiled and rolled onto my side.

Zac was still sitting on my bed. Then at that moment, he leaned over and I felt his lips slowly press against my cheek. As he brought his head up from my cheek he quickly jumped into his sleeping bag without another word. I didn’t say anything either. My body felt warm with joy as I blushed in the dark. I smiled and soon dozed off.