"Hi, is Taylor here?" I asked when Isaac opened the door to his house.
"Yeah, come on in," he said, stepping out of the doorway and waving his arm behind him. "He's been up in our room for a little while now." He said, starting through the entryway and towards the stairs.
"Alright."
"How've you been?" He asked politely.
"I've been awesome. I'm practically glowing, can't you tell?" I said, trying to hide the huge smile that refused to leave me alone. He looked back at me and chuckled a little.
"Yeah, now that you mention it, you do look like you...swallowed a lightbulb or something." He said with a shrug. "Anyway, what brings you around here tonight?"
"Actaully, the thing that I'm so happy about brings me here. But I can't tell you yet. It's a secret. I came to tell Tay, and I'll let you guys know later." I said mystersiouly.
"Ok, I guess. This is our room. If he doesn't answer when you knock, just go on in because he probably has music on really loud and can't hear or something." He explained.
"Alright. Thanks Isaac." I said, offering a smile.
"You can call me Ike if you like." He said.
"Ike if I like?" I said sarcastically. "Did you think of that when your were seven?" He laughed softly and turned to go back down the stairs. I turned around and faced the door. I knocked lightly, and then a bit harder. I tried one more time but there was still no answer. I looked around the hallway, feeling guilty for just walking in to the guys' room, but twisted the handle anyway. I poked my head around the corner and saw Taylor sprawled across his bed on his back, face up, with headphones around his ears. The only sign that he was awake was his bobbing foot. I walked slowly over to his bed, so as not to startle him, and stood awkwardly by his side.
"Ahem..." I said loudly. Nothing. "A-HEM!!" I peered at Taylor. His eyelids fluttered open and he blinked a few times before focusing on me. He visibly jumped when he realized who it was.
"Holy Hannah!" He exclaimed, jumping off his bed and pulling his headphones off. "You scared me to death!"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to." I apologized.
"What are you doing here? I thought you had to play for the record guys."
"I already did." I said, trying my best to hide my smile.
"Really," He sat down on his bed, noting my somber expression. "Did you hear anything about their decision?" I hung my head for a few seconds and sniffed. I pretended to wipe away a tear. Taylor stood up and wrapped his arms around me, stroking my hair.
"Oh, Andrea, I'm so sorry. But don't give up. We got rejected so many times before anyone signed us." He said softly. "You just have to keep trying and keep plugging away at it, and soon, someone will realize what a gift you have and they'll be so glad someone else hasn't picked you up-"
"Taylor...." I interrupted. "I got signed. They signed me. I have a RECORD DEAL!!!" I said, breaking from his embrace and jumping up and down. A look of surprise washed over his face, but was quickly replaced with joy.
"I'm so proud of you! I knew you were good!" He grabbed on my hands and started jumping up and down with me. We were both laughing, jumping, and I had tears of joy running down my face.
"Um...Taylor?" We both spun around to see Zac standing in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Sorry to interrupt you guys from...well, whatever you're doing, but I need to change." Zac explained, walking in slowly and giving both of us a strange look.
"Oh, sorry Zac. Come on Andrea, we can finish talking about this somewhere else." Taylor said, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room.
"Sorry Zac!" I called over my shoulder as the door shut behind me. Taylor led me down into the dining room. He sprawled out on the couch and patted a place by his feet for me to join him.
"Tell me all about it. How did it happen, what did they say, where you're gonna record it-Hey, wait, you're not going to leave or anything, are you?" He asked suddenly, sitting up and looking at me with a scared expression on his face. My heart rate quickened, and I don't know why.
"No Taylor, I'm not leaving. In fact, I have some really good news to tell you about this whole thing." A look of relief washed over his face.
"Ok, good," he said, letting out a deep breath. "What's the good news?" He linked his fingers with mine and scooted closer to me, giving me his undivided attention.
"Well...the first good thing is that I'm going to be recording at the A&M Studios." I said, watching his face for a reaction. His face brightened.
"That's so cool! We'd be like, recording neighbors! I'd get to see you everyday during our lunch break or something!" He said excitedly.
"Yeah, I know. I suggested it, saying that I needed to at least stay close to UCLA because that's where I live and I'm taking classes and all, and they really liked the idea of not having to put me up for a few months." I explained. "You want to hear the other good things?" I asked, looking at him expectantly. He bobbed his head up and down. I continued. "Well, they were asking me about school and stuff, and I talked about the project we were doing, and how I'd been in A&M to record it, and they asked how two college students got into a major studio for a project, and you came up," I said, jabbing my finger into his stomach. "and they asked about our song, they were really interested, and then I left the room and played for them, and afterwards they told me that they'd called your manager, and we might be recording our song on my album! And you and I would still sing, but Zac would play the drums and Isaac would produce it, like we're doing now, so it's a full-fledged Hanson project!" Taylor's mouth dropped open.
"That is SO cool! And they said they talked to Chris about it, our manager is Chris," he explained, "they talked to him about it and he agreed?" He asked excitedly.
"They said that it wasn't final yet, but he seemed interested, and he knew that we were pretty close..." Taylor squeezed my hand.
"This is so awesome!" He said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"There's more." I said, grinning.
"More!?" He asked in shock. "More!??!" I nodded, laughing. "Tell me tell me tell me!" He demanded, starting to bounce up and down on the couch.
"There's a possibility I might tour with you, as an opening act." I waited as the information sunk in. "They talked to your manager about that too, and he said that you guys usually picked your own opening acts, so it would be up to you, but they're seriously considering it." Taylor became a little more serious.
"That's true. And as much as I'd want you to tour with us, we don't even have our album recorded, so that's way in the future, but it would be just as much Ike's and Zac's decision as it was yours and mine. We'd all have to agree." He said.
"Yeah, I know that. But I thought it was cool." I said, a little hurt that he wasn't more excited about the possibility of touring together.
"Oh, gosh, that would be awesome! I'm totally for it, don't get me wrong, but it is a group decision." He explained. I nodded my head. He was right, it wasn't just up to him. I broke into a big smile.
"I still don't believe that it's finally happening, after so long!" I said, tearing up a bit. I sniffed. Taylor squeezed my hands and jumped up.
"Come on, this calls for a celebration." He glanced at his watch. "Do you have time to stay for a while?"
"Yeah, sure." I said. He lead me into the kitchen. His two younger sisters were stirring some hot cocoa in a pot, and Mrs. Hanson, who was on the phone, glanced over occasionally, making sure it wasn't boiling over.
"Alright Jean, I'll talk to you tomorrow then. Ok, bye." Mrs. Hanson said, returning the phone back to the cradle. She turned and saw me and Taylor standing in the doorway. "Well hi Andrea, how have you been?" She asked, smiling warmly at me.
"Mom, she got signed tonight to Arista records!!" Taylor said excitedly.
"That's great!! I'm proud of you, honey. I know you must be thrilled." She exclaimed.
"Oh, trust me, I am." I gushed.
"Mom, can I take her out for ice-cream or something?" Taylor asked. At the mention of ice cream, the two girls' heads shot up.
"Yeah! I want ice-cream!" One of them said loudly.
"Me too!" Said the other.
"Did you guys want to go alone or can you take your sisters with you?" Mrs. Hanson asked. I shrugged, I didn't even know this was coming.
"Oh no, I don't mind. I'll be back soon." He turned to face his sisters. "Come on guys, I'll go see if anyone else wants to go, be ready in five minutes, ok?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah, come on Jessie, let's wear those new outfits." Avery said, turning to face her sister.
"Ok, they're in our room, aren't they?"
"Yeah." The two girls left their pot of cocoa and ran up the stairs. I followed behind Taylor into another room. He opened the door to find Isaac sitting on the floor with Mackenzie and Zoe, playing with some dolls.
"What're you guys playing?" Taylor asked, leading me into the room.
"Robocop Ponies." Isaac explained, holding up a Robocop doll and a My Little Pony dressed in a wedding gown. "It's really fun, you should play sometime." He said, winking at me. I smiled back.
"Well, I'm taking Andrea and Jessie and Avie to get some ice cream, do you guys want to come?" Taylor asked.
"YEAH!!!!" Zoe yelled, throwing her pony across the room and running over to us.
"Yeah, I wanna come too. I want rocky road." Mackenzie said, standing and wiping his hands on the back of his pants.
"Ike?"
"Sure, I'll come. Let me go see if Zac wants to." He said, standing up as well.
"Ok, we're gonna have to take two cars if all these people are coming. I'm gonna go downstairs. Just come on down when you're ready, not too long." Taylor said, grabbing Zoe and putting her onto his shoulders. She squealed with delight as Taylor headed down the stairs with her, myself and Mackenzie following. We met up with Jesica and Avery in the living room, where kids were scrambling everywhere to put on shoes, tie up hair, and find missing shoes. Zac came down a few minutes later with Isaac.
"Wow, everyone's coming!" I exclaimed. Taylor looked excitedly at me.
"Don't you have an announcement to make or something?" Taylor asked with a grin. I wiggled my eyebrows at him.
"I got signed by Arista records today." I announced.
"That's awesome, Andrea, good job!" Jessica said, patting me on the back.
"Good job," Zoe echoed.
"Way to go! You must be really excited." Isaac said. "That's a really big thing." I nodded back at him, my smile about to fall of from using it so much.
"That's really cool! Where are you recording it?" Zac asked.
"A&M Studios." I said, waiting for his reply.
"No way! That's gonna be so much fun when we're there together!" He said excitedly.
"I know. She has some more really cool things, but we can talk about that later." Taylor said. "Right now, it's ice cream time."