Chapter 56

The days went by slowly, with nothing to do, except clean the house once a week. That usually took two or three days to clean, because the house was so messy. On a Thursday afternoon, everyone was in their rooms. "Hey Tay," Zac said. "What?" Taylor replied. "I was just wondering why Beth said she had two sisters and we only met one of them." "I don't know. How come you want to know?" Taylor asked questionably. "I don't know. I guess I was just curious." "Do you want me to go ask her?" Taylor asked. "Would you?" "Sure, I guess," Taylor said getting up from his bed. He went to the doorway, checked to make sure his mom or dad wouldn't see him, then quickly ran across the hall. Taylor knocked on the girls' door. "Come in," Kate called politely. Taylor walked into the bedroom. "Hi guys." "Hi Tay. My mouth is really dry. I think I should go get a drink. Kristin, let's go get something to drink," Kate said gesturing for her to follow. "I don't want to-" "I said, let's go get something to drink," Kate said sternly. "I don't know why you can't go be you're self, but I'll go anyway," Kristin said getting up and following Kate. After they had left the room, Taylor turned to Beth, "Beth, can I talked to you?" "Yeah, sure. What's up?" Taylor sat down next to Beth on her bed. "Well we, Zac and I, were kinda wondering about your other sister. How come we didn't meet her? Didn't she ever come?" "You should get your hair trimmed, it's getting too long," Beth commented, trying to change the subject as she stood up. Taylor stood up too, and took her hand. Then he said, very seriously, "Beth, you can tell me anything." "Taylor, I don't want to talk about it!" Beth exclaimed as she started rummaging around her room with her free hand. Taylor took her other hand too, then turned her around so she was facing him. "Beth!" "Have you ever heard of a girl named Tracy? She was in the military in Texas, she was probably on the news in 1995, around February to April." "Yeah Beth. She was abducted, raped, and murdered with a tire iron. Sad. But tell me about your sister!" Beth looked him in the eye, she had tears slowly filling hers. "Beth, what's wrong?" Taylor asked softly and sincerely. "That was my sister," Beth replied even softer. "Oh Beth. I'm so sorry," he said as he hugged her. "I didn't know." Beth just cried in his arms. After five minutes, she had stopped crying, but hadn't backed away from his embrace. "Beth, would you mind getting up?" Taylor asked softly. "Oh, sorry," Beth said getting up with a tear stained face. "Do you want to talk about this?" Taylor asked with concern. "No, not really. It's too hard to talk about." "Ok, I understand," Taylor replied. The days just kept getting slower and slower, and they were becoming much more bored everyday. On the 30 of February, Hanson had to go to L.A. for a concert. The whole family, including Northern Lights, went with to the sound check, before the concert. When they got in the building, Hanson started the sound check almost immediately. Northern Lights was getting bored, so they decided to eat the lunches Diana had packed for them. When Hanson sang "Man from Milwaukee" and can to the verse with hyperventilating in it, Beth took her lunch bag and started blowing in and out of it as she ran across the stage. "Ok, somebody needs to get their head examined," Zac said after he had stopped singing. "Excuse me, but at least I don't speak alien to your mother ship all the time," Beth said. "What are you talking about?" Zac asked confused. "You know, all those words you say are just nonsense words? We know you're talking to friends on your home planet," Kate said joining in. "What do you mean?" Isaac asked, just as confused. "Don't play dumb! We're on to your little scheme to take over the world! We know you're really aliens," Kristin answered. "Now that you know our true identity, we're going to eat you!" Zac screamed as he chased after the girls. "Wait, why are we running? We're older than he is, and there's three of us! He can't eat us!" Kate said as the girls turned around. "Oh no!" Zac yelled as he started running away screaming, "They're gonna eat me!" "Girls! Zac! Settle down!" Diana called to them. Taylor and Isaac just laughed at this. "Zachary Hanson! Get back here and practice, unless you want a longer punishment," Walker yelled after him. Zac stopped running and walked back to the stage. "Ok guys. Start at the beginning of "Man from Milwaukee" again," said the producer. The girls sat back down at their table, then continued their lunches. Diana came over to them, "Girls, I expected more from you. I think you're a little too old for this. I don't ever want to see this again." "Sorry," they chorused in unison. After the boys got done with their sound check, they came over and sat at a table. Jason came over to them, "So guys, what did you do now?" "Oh nothing, just scared the living daylights out of Mackie, then disobeyed our curfew," Zac replied casually.