"Nora, What is wrong with you?!” Her friend Saundra scolded.
“I don’t know.. I.. I just don’t know.” Nora said sitting on Sands couch shaking her head vigorously. “I just couldn’t say anything back. It’s like no words would come out of my mouth!”
Sands was in pure awe. Nora had one of the former most loved by the
teeny bopper world rockstar.. Isaac Hanson, saying he loved her more then anything and all she could do was sit there, and look dumbfounded.
“I seriously don’t know what to tell you.” She said after a minute.
“I don’t know what you CAN tell me. WHY AM I SO STUPID?!” Nora said
slapping herself on the forehead.
“Why don’t you call him?” Saundra suggested.
“Yeah, and say what? ‘Isaac.. I’ve thought it over really good now and I DO love you too!’ Yeah right.. That’s pathetic Sands!”
“Yeah well, you came to me for advice.. and that’s my advice. Call the poor guy up and soothe his wounded heart.”
“Oh god.. don’t remind me of that sad face he made again.” Nora said
stuffing a pillow in her face.
“Well?” Sands asked.
“Well what?” Came a stifled moan.
“Are you ganna call him? He prolly really needs you right now Nora. So go for it.” Sands gave her a reassuring smile when she looked up at her. She spoke after a minute.
“Your right. Can I use your phone?”
“You know you can.”
Nora walked into the extra bedroom and dialed the familiar seven digits.

*************

“WHOA! I can’t believe Thanksgiving is in two days!” Abby shouted over the loud treadmill.
Taylor was doing his weekly workout. Abby just sat on the workout room’s couch. College vacations started yesterday and the campus was basically deserted.
“I know. And you leave me tomorrow.” Taylor said out of breath as he slowed the machine down to a halt. He grabbed a sweat towel and wiped his face and arms.
“Yeah, But my family misses me. So I have to get home sometime in the
near future to let them know I’m still a living human being on this
planet.” Abby laughed.
Taylor smiled. “Yeah, but my family is going to be mad your not joining us. Isaac is DYING to see you, ya know”
“I know.” Abby sat in thought for a minute. “Taylor how many days of
vacation do we have off after Thanksgiving?”
“Three. Why?” He asked from the weight bench.
“Well. I just had an idea. It takes me three and a half hours to fly to Tulsa from Ohio by plane. Right?”
This got Taylor’s attention and he sat up. “Yeah.. what are you getting at?”
“Well. Why don’t I leave Ohio right after lunch with my family. They always do the Thanksgiving lunch deal. Not supper. So If I leave around 3:30, Fly non-stop to Tulsa.. I’ll be here around 6:00-7:00 just in time for your
Thanksgiving dinner. What do you think?”
Taylor was already to his feet and bringing Abby into a hug. “You’d do
that for me?”
“No Tay, I just did all the figuring in my head the past ten minutes for the hell of it.” Abby laughed.
“Lets go get that plane ticket!” He said kissing her.


**************

Zac heard the music store’s door chime ring, but didn’t bother to look up. He sat engrossed in a skateboarding magazine.
After a minute he heard a female voice.
“Excuse me, could you over here?”
Zac’s head shot up. “Oh yeah, sure.” He put the magazine down and
walked around the counter then over to the acoustic guitars. The girl had shoulder length blonde hair and a slim face. She was very
much attractive and just a few inches shorted then Zac. She had to be about sixteen, seventeen at most. In fact. She was down-right beautiful.
“What can I do for you?” Zac seemed to stutter out.
“Well I was just wondering how much the price differences are between the white one and the plain wooden one.”
“Um, okay well..” Zac went on with helping the girl. Though he couldn’t remember a thing he had told her when he was done.
“Wow. Your pretty good at this.” She gave him a small smile then turned to walk out the door.
“Um.. Wait.” Zac ran after her. She looked back at him.
“Yeah?”
“Are you sure that’s all you needed? Didn’t you want to look into them a little more.. or maybe I can show you some stuff I know.” Zac’s eyes pleaded. All he wanted was for her to stay, just for a little longer.
“The girl looked down at her watch. “Yeah I guess I could. For a minute. I was checking them out for my brother.”
“Great.” He gave her a cute smile as she approached him and walked back to the guitar shelf.
Zac pulled up two stools and grabbed his acoustic guitar and another for her.
“What’s your name again?” Zac’s eyes never left the tuning of his guitar.
“Mandy..”
Zac looked up at her. “It’s nice to meet you Mandy, I’m Za-”
“Zac.. I know.” Mandy cut him off.
“Don’t I feel stupid..” Zac half smiled.
“No.. No, don’t. I really enjoyed you guys. You were different, a good kind of different.” Mandy reached out an put her hand on his knee, as if to say it was okay.
“You really think so?” Zac’s eyes sparkled. He had gotten many
compliments, but coming from such a beautiful, perfect girl meant more then anything.
At that moment Zac blanked out everything in his mind. Including Kari.

“Yeah I do. You guys were looking pretty good right before you stopped playing. I mean, people were really getting into the music. The whole new image was great.” Mandy went on. Zac sat there staring at her, just agreeing.
“Didn’t you think so?” Mandy asked after a minute of blabbering on.
“Oh! yeah.” Zac was brought out of his trance. He thought up something
quick to say. “But it wasn’t me who wanted to quit.”
“Huh?” Mandy asked with curious eyes.
“Well it was mostly Isaac and Taylor. Ike just got sick of it all, and Tay, well Taylor was just frustrated with the whole tour. Month after month.. non stop. I on the other hand, I loved it.” Zac started strumming a tune.
“I could tell you did.” Mandy laughed. “You cooed the crowd on pretty good.”
“You witnessed?” Zac looked up sort of surprised.
“I attended a few concerts. Yes.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean, who
didn’t?”
Zac laughed. Then changed the subject. “So why are you looking at
guitars again?”
“Oh, my brother’s in a band and I was checkin some out. Early Christmas present, ya know.”
“Ahh, I see. Do you play at all?” He asked, standing up and grabbing a smaller guitar off the wall.
“A little. Never really had the time to sit down and put my mind to it.”
Mandy laughed.
“Well come here. I’ll show you some cords.” Zac said pulling his stool up behind Mandy’s. She moved her stool back a little and put her back against his chest. He perched up over her and placed her fingers over the strings.
Zac looked down at her and smiled. The sparkles on her eyelids were
spread in little spots on her cheeks. “Okay what should I do?” She looked up at him and her nose touched his. They were inches apart.

*************

Nora sat in Sands bathroom on the toilet seat. Phone up to ear, listening to the rings over and over. After about eleven Ike’s answering machine picked up.
*Hey, You’ve reached my dorm, I’m not in.. prolly out with Nora...You
know the drill*
‘Yeah.. out with Nora, my ass!’ She though.
*BEEP*
“Isaac. It’s me. Baby, please pick up the phone. I need to talk to you. Bad. Um.. well when you get in give me a -”
Isaac picked up the phone.
“Nor?”
“Isaac, Your home!”
“Yeah I just walked in. Had to get some extra things before I leave
tonight. Is everything okay??”
“Oh my gosh! I totally forgot! TONIGHT?!”
“Yeah? Is everything all right?” Isaac asked again.
“I don’t know. Can I come over?”
“If you want.” Isaac said barely audible.
“I’ll be over in five minutes. DON’T leave.”
With that Nora hung up the phone. Not even giving Ike a chance to
comment.

“Great...” Isaac threw the phone down on the couch and went into the
bedroom to finish packing before Nora got there.

*************

“Mom I’m ganna go over to the store and see Zac, okay?” Kari
informed her mom. Vanessa nodded in agreement from the door of the
nail parlor. She had broken a nail that morning and was determined to
get it fixed before her meeting the next day.
“Sure baby. I’ll be about fifteen minutes.”
With that Kari headed across the street and down the two short blocks to the music store.
Kari loved dropping in on Zac during the day. Usually he was sitting in one of the stools deep in thought and she loved standing there watching him.
Kari walked around the corner and slowed down. She Peered into the
glass window at what looked to be Zac’s back to her helping a customer, she smiled.
‘He’s so diligent’
Kari moved closer down another window. Just then her heart sank and eyes widened at the site.

***************

Isaac headed for the door when he heard the knock. Nora stood there, He took one look at her and pulled her into a hug. Everything was going to be okay.