Chapter 57

The next week, the days went a little faster. Every time they pasted a mall or a movie theater, everyone would whine, "Can we please stop?" Kate asked when by a mall. When they passed a movie theater, Beth once said, "Can we please stop? I'll even see Spice World." "You're not that desperate, are you?" Kristin asked. Taylor hit Beth in the shoulder, then hit Kristin in the head. "If we did go to a movie, that's what we'd see," he said. "Oh, yeah? You couldn't drag us into that movie if you tried," Kate said. The next couple of days, they were pretty bored. They spent most of their time with the littler kids or reading their books, which they traded with each other when they were finished with them. On the 11th of February, Hanson had a Valentine's concert in Oklahoma City. The concert was at 5:00 PM. They got there around 4:00 and goofed off in the back after a quick sound check. Before the concert, Taylor got a big box of candy hearts. He had three bags, one for each of the girls. He look at each of them, then picked a bag to put them in. Zac watched over his shoulder. "So, watcha doing?" "Nothing, just getting some hearts together for Beth, Kate, and Kristin," Taylor replied. "I like the ones you're putting in Beth's bag. That is Beth's bag, isn't it?" "Yeah this one is," Taylor said pointing to a bag. "Come on guys. It's almost time to go on," Jason told them. Taylor had already put tags on them and they both left the room. As they passed Diana, Taylor told her about the bags of hearts and to make sure the girls got them. The girls had gone to get something to eat at the concession stand. After they had got some candy and some pop, they walked to the back of the stage. "Now ladies and gentlemen, here's Hanson!" The announcer yelled. All of a sudden there was a blast of volume. "Whoa! That's loud," Kate said. They got to the security guards that were blocking the backstage door. "Can we get in please?" Beth asked. "Oh sorry girls, sure," said one of the guards. "Are you sure we should let them in?" asked the other guard. "Of course we should. They're Northern Lights. They live with the Hanson's," the first one replied. "Oh, sorry," the second guard said as he unlocked the door for them. "Thanks," Kate said as the guards let them in. They walked through all the hallways until they found the Hanson family.Walker was peering out of the curtain, Diana was trying to keep an eye on the little kids as they ran around the room. "Where were you girls?" asked Diana. "We went to go get something to eat at the concession stand," Kristin replied. "Ok, just stay back here for the rest of the concert," Diana said to the three older girls. "Ok, we will," Beth said. They went over to the table to talk and eat the candy they got. "Can I have some M&M's?" Kate asked Beth. "Sure, if you give me some Skittle's." "Fine," Kate agreed, and they traded candy. The concert was almost over when Diana walked over to the girls. "Girls, I forgot to give you these earlier,:" she said as she set the three bags of candy hearts on the table then walked away. "Mmm, candy hearts," Kristin said. They all took a bag, not looking at the tag. "Uh, Beth, I got yours," Kate said. "And I got Kristin's," she answered. "I got Kate's," Kristin said. They all traded so they had their own. Taylor put his name on the bottom of them all. "I wonder why Tay did this," Kate wondered out loud. "Maybe he was bored," Beth replied. They opened the bags to eat them. Beth's mostly consisted of Love, Love Me, Cutie Pie, Kiss Me, So Fine, True, and things like that while Kate's and Kristin's consisted of I Will, You Bet, Go Girl, www.cupid, Nice Girl, and saying like that. "Gee, I wonder where he got these," Kristin said. Then the three brothers came out from the stage sweating. "Gosh, that group was crazy!" Taylor said to no one in particular. "Guys, get ready for the people getting let backstage," Jason told them, "Go sit down at that table over there." The table was just a few feet from the table the girls was sitting at. They sat down right when a mob of girls came in carrying pictures to get signed. Beth was sitting closest to the boys, and Taylor was sitting closest to the girls. "Let's get hitched!" Beth exclaimed reading a heart, "Aren't we a little young?" Taylor was blushing now. "Tay, you really should have looked at these before you gave them to me." "He did," Zac replied. Beth, Kristin, and Kate started laughing. All the girls gave Beth weird looks. Beth didn't say anything else for the rest of the time. It was over around 9:00. Everyone went to a hotel because it was too late to drive back to Tulsa. Walker and Diana got three hotel rooms. One was for themselves, Mackenzie, Jessica, and Avery. One was for Hanson and the last one was for Northern Lights. Taylor went into his parents room, "Mom, can we please go swimming tonight? I know it's past 9, but its really hot, and I want to go swimming. Please?" "Ok, I guess you can go just this once since your punishment ends tomorrow." "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Taylor said running to his room. "Guys, Mom said we could go swimming for an hour!" "Yes!" Zac exclaimed. Taylor ran over to the girls room and started beating at the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming," Kate said. She flung open the door to see Taylor. "What?" Kate asked. "Get ready, we're going swimming," Taylor said excitedly. "How? We're grounded til tomorrow," Kate asked confused. "I talked Mom into it, now get ready. We only have an hour." Kate swung the door closed in Taylor's face. "You're welcome!" Taylor called. Kate told Beth and Kristin, and they all got ready as fast as they could. They went down to the pool to find the boys already there. "Hey, let's have a splash war! Boys against girls!" Zac yelled as he and his brothers started splashing the girls. After the girls won, Zac decided another way to divide up teams and had another war. After the war they all went into the hot tub. Then Walker and Diana came down with the younger kids, so Mackenzie, Jessica, and Avery could go swimming. Everyone was in the pool, except Beth, who was standing at the edge. "Aren't you going to come in?" Taylor asked. "No, she's a wuss, she says the water's too cold!" Kristin exclaimed. "Oh just jump in! It's not that cold!" Isaac continued, noticing his dad walking up, very quietly, behind Beth. "Last time I jumped in it felt like ice! I learned my lesso- Whoa!" Beth screamed as she fell into the pool (well, actually when Walker pushed her in.) "It's not that cold now!" Walker said as everyone started laughing. "Yes it is. It's even colder!" Beth cried as she shivered. At 10:00 Walker called to the all, "It's time to get out of the pool, and go to bed." "Can't we just stay in for a couple more minutes?" Zac pleaded. "Nope, we let you stay up past your bedtime, so now you have to go to bed now with no complaining. Besides, you think you'd be happy to go to sleep, since tomorrow you don't have a punishment," Walker said to them all. They all got out of the pool and started to dry off.