“Thank you,” I said wondering who this cute boy was.... “Do you want to
challenge me?” I asked. I have to admit I was pretty outgoing for an
8-year old girl....

“Sure,” the cute boy said, as he hopped in the little car. I jumped in
the other seat.

We played, and I won after 3 minutes.

“You’re pretty good,” The cute boy said, “what’s your name?”

“My name?” I think I started to blush, I was a pretty outgoing little
girl, but this was an older boy I was talking to! Not just an older
boy, but a cute older boy... “Samantha,” I finally got out. “What’s your
name cute boy?” Cute boy! I couldn’t believe what I had slipped out.
I put my hand on my mouth and sort of hugged my elbow as my shoulders
came together in embarrassment.

He laughed. “It’s nice to meet you, Samantha, my name is Taylor,
Taylor Hanson. Is that your sister over there?” He asked.

“Yes, her name is Jamie, she’s 14. I’m 8,” I said, I was talking very
quickly to try to get over my cute boy comment.

Jamie walked over and said hello.

“I’ve got two brothers, over there,” He pointed them out, “Hey Zac and
Ike, commere!” Taylor called.

They came over toward us, the smaller one who looked about my age, was
trying to jump on the other ones back as he walked over. The older one
I noticed had really crooked teeth. He was cute though, not like Taylor,
but he was cute. The one my age, well, at the time, I never wanted to
admit that boys my age were cute, but I thought he was.

“HEY TAY! Hey that rhymes! Hey Tay!” The little one greeted Taylor,
I chuckled. The little one looked over at me.

“Zac, Ike, this is Jamie and Samantha,” Taylor said, “Samantha here
beat me at Car Chase!”

“Did she really?!” Zac exclaimed, “I want to play her!”

Zac jumped into the little car and I followed after him. I suppose my
sister chatted with Taylor and Ike while we played. It was a pretty
long game, I didn’t usually have long games since I was so good I beat
the competitor right away, but Zac was pretty good at Car Chase. It
went on for nearly 15 minutes until I beat Zac! He and his brothers
were all amazed that I had beat Zac, the master of all video games.
Hehe. Zac bought me a Dr. Pepper and we sat chatting about everything
from legos to tree houses! It was fun! I was so sad when my sister
told me it was time to go home. Zac and I agreed to meet back there for
a rematch tomorrow, Sunday morning, at 10 am.

As my sister and I walked back, she told me that Isaac, Ike’s full
name, and Tay, Taylor’s nickname, were 13 and 11 years old. My sister
was nice with them, but I don’t think she became too chummy with either.
She already had her best friends. Susie and Kathy, they were twins.
That was besides the point, I had found myself a new playmate!

When we got home, I told my mom all about my new friend Zac. She was
thrilled about it, and was interested in meeting Zac’s mother. I said
okay, that she could sometime. Jamie’s friends, Susie and Kathy, were
taking her shopping Sunday, they said they would drop me off at
LaserQuest but that I had to call mom from there when I wanted to come
home.

Sunday morning I woke up at 7. I was so excited to see Zac! I was
going to beat him at Car Chase again, I knew it. I flexed my fingers,
thinking about how long this game would be. I got dressed and brushed
my shoulder-length brown hair. I waited downstairs after breakfast for
my sister. She was late, she couldn’t find her new shirt. It ended up
being in the wash, so she had to wear another one. By the time I
actually got to LaserQuest I was 15 minutes late! I hoped Zac had
waited for me!!

I walked in and saw Zac sitting at the same table we had shared our
conversations with the day before. “I thought you were scared you’d
lose and you weren’t going to show,” Zac said.

“You? Beat me? I think not!” I made a mad dash for the Car Chase.
Zac followed and we began our game. Game after game, until we reached
our 5th game and our 3rd hour there, I had beat Zac. The 6th game had
taken the longest and we had tied. After this, we wanted to end it. We
were both rather sick of Car Chase, not to mention we felt weird about
the line forming behind us! We were really hungry. After 4 hours of
playing, who wouldn’t be? It was 2pm already! Zac asked me if I wanted
to go to his house to eat. I asked him where he lived.

“78th street,” he replied, “Its not too long of a walk from here.”

“Really?? 78th! I live on 76th!” I said joyfully.

“Cool!” Zac said. “Let’s go!”

I had to call my mom before we left to tell her where I was going. She
agreed with it and was happy to hear Zac was so close by. She asked for
his address which I got from Zac and told her. She was going to pick me
up at 5pm though, that only left us 3 hours. That was okay with us
though, we could run!

We ran all the way to Zac’s house.

“Beat you!” He called when he touched the side of the house.

“Barely!” I said as I walked the last few steps and touched the side
also.

We walked in, both famished. Zac’s stomach growled as his mom entered.
She had really pretty long blonde hair. That was the first thing I
noticed, just like all three of her sons. I guess they got it from her
because their dad had dark brown hair, like mine. I also noticed that
Mrs.Hanson had a belly, but was not really fat, I wondered about this.
I heard a rumble on the stairs and looked over. One after the other.
Isaac, Taylor and two young girls hopped down the stairs. They were all
in swimsuits. “We’ll be out back in the pool!” Ike called. It was the
end of September, but a warm day, so I guess it was nice that they were
swimming.

Zac’s mom walked out of the kitchen to greet us. “Ohhh! You must be
Samantha! I’ve heard a lot about you! I’m Mrs. Hanson, you can call me
Diana though, that’s Mr. Hanson over there, you can call him Walker.
Walker waved, he was in what looked like a laundry room. Now, you two
missed lunch with the others, but I’ve still got some left overs. We’ve
got some subs and cheese sandwiches.”

“Cheese!” Zac called out.

“And you, Samantha?” Diana asked.

“I’ll take cheese too, thank you,” I replied.

“You’re very welcome!” Diana said smiling as she got out some plates.

“I think it’s great that Zac has found such a nice friend who is also
his age!” Diana said as she served us.

We ate very quickly so that we’d have more time to play outside. When
we did go outside, Zac introduced me to his younger sisters Jessica, 4,
and Avery 2. Jessica was wearing “swimmies” on her arms and Avery was
wearing a float that looked like it was attached to her bathing suit!
She sure was adorable! They were playing in the shallow end while Ike
and Tay were in the deeper part. I think I took too long looking at
Taylor swim because I stumbled and almost fell. After recovering from
almost falling over, I looked for Zac. He wasn’t anywhere in sight.

“Up here!” Zac called. He was up a tree! That was sooo cool! I ran
toward the tree and Zac threw down the rope ladder. I climbed up using
the trees limbs for extra support. When I got all the way up it was so
refined! It was a little house that was made rather nicely. It was
only about 6 feet by 6 feet, but it was the nicest tree house I’d ever
seen! “My brothers and I made it, with only a little bit of help from
my dad,” Zac said showing an inch between his fingers symbolizing the
little bit in which his dad helped.

“So, you want to play a game?” He asked.

“Yeah!” I said.

We sat there for about 5 minutes trying to think of something to play.
We ended up playing down in the sand box for an hour and half until my
mom came. She talked with Diana for nearly a half hour though which
gave Zac some time to show me his room. He shared it with his brothers.
It was messy but it had all sorts of nice crayons to draw with and so
many legos!! I was so excited about those legos! We just took them out
when my mom called for me.