***Ike’s View***
	At 2:45, Taylor came in, gasping for breath. “God Tay, in a
hurry to start recording again?” I asked. He didn’t reply, just plopped
down in a chair at the table. “Well, at least he wasn’t late,” Dad said,
going back to reading the paper. Taylor leaned over & put his
forehead on the table. “Jeez Taylor, just run a race or somethin?” I
asked. He turned his head over to look at me so that his cheek was
still on the table. “You could..... say that,” he gasped. 
	I stood up & walked into the kitchen. I got a big cup of ice
water & pout it down in front of Taylor. “Thanks,” he muttered &
gulped down the water in about 5 seconds flat. “So, where were
you?” I asked. “I’ll... tell ya.... later,” he gasped & put his head back
on the table. Avie ran in & started pulling on Dad’s sleeve. “Daddy
Daddy! Zac’s making a mess in the bathroom!” she yelled, pulling
him toward the stairs. He stood up & followed her upstairs. 
	“Hey Ike,” Taylor said, bringing his head back up. His face was
still red, but his breathing had recovered. “You know how Sam’s
birthday’s on Tuesday?” he asked. “Yeah.” “Well, her parents won’t
let her have a party, so I was thinking, do you think Mom & Dad’ll
let us have a party for her?” he asked. “I dunno, what all were you
planning to do?” “You know, the usual. I don’t think she’s played
lasertag yet, so we should definitely go to LaserQuest. Maybe have a
sleepover-type thing,” he suggested. “That sounds pretty good. Who
all ya wanna invite?” I asked. “I dunno, I’ll ask Sam. I was thinking
about 10, 15 people.” “No way in hell will Mom let that many people
stay the night over here,” I told him. “I know,” he said. “I was
thinking maybe only 5 or 6 people stay the night. But first, I gotta ask
Mom, then I’ll ask Sam. This is gonna be awesome.” He sighed &
walked upstairs. I put his cup by the sink & followed him. 
	I had to cup my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing
when we got to the bathroom. Mackie was sitting in the full sink with
his shorts still on & Zac was drenched. Dad tried to lift Mackie out of
the sink, but Mac was a smart kid. He giggled & splashed Dad in the
face. The water was still on & it was spilling over onto the floor, so I
stood outside, not wanting to ruin my docs. 
	Zac reached over & turned off the water while Dad tried again
to get Mac out of the sink. Quickly, Mackie grabbed a nearby cup,
filled it with water & tossed the water onto my father’s head. Mac
dropped the cup on the wet floor & held his arms out to Zac. Before
Dad could get a hold of him, Zac picked him up & slid out of the
bathroom, leaving Taylor trying to mop the water off the counter &
floor & Dad wiping his face off with a towel. 
	“Isaac, help Taylor clean up the bathroom,” Dad commanded,
walking past me. “But Dad! It’ll ruin my shoes!” I complained.
“Isaac,” he warned. “Obey your father,” Tay commented. I glared at
him. Dad walked down the hall toward our room. 
	I sat down & took off my shoes. “For God’s sake Ike, you don’t
need to take off your shoes! You’ll kill everyone!” Taylor joked. “Shut
up & clean, bungwipe,” I mumbled & stood up. He flipped me off &
continued wiping off the floor. 
	The moment I set foot in the bathroom, the water seeped
through my socks to my feet. “Damn,” I mumbled & pulled a towel
off the rack. 

		***Zac’s View***
	“Zac! Get out here, now!” Dad yelled from outside the bedroom
door. “Hold on!” I yelled back. I frantically tried to dry Mac off with
some clothes off the floor. I grabbed some clothes from the cleanest
dirty clothes pile & put them on him. Thankfully, the water didn’t get
through his diaper. 
	“Zac!” he called again. “OK!” I replied. I walked with Mackie to
the door & opened it. “What is he wearing?” he gasped when he
looked at Mac. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was putting on
him, so I glanced down at him. 
	The belt that I’d wrapped around his waist to keep the shorts
up had come loose & it was trailing behind him about a foot. The
T-shirt almost covered his feet & it was inside out. A sock was
sticking out of the neck of the shirt. From the size of the sock, it looked
like it was Ike’s. 
	“Wellll.....” I had to think fast. “I decided to try these clothes on
Mackie because he’s gonna be wearing those in a few years & I just
wanted to see if it’ll look good.” Dad looked back & forth at me &
Mackie. “Zac I doubt these clothes will still be in one piece in nine
years, when he can fit into them. If Isaac’s clothes even last until he
can’t fit them anymore, they still wouldn’t be able to be worn, not
with you in the house,” he said. He was right. Usually when
someone had clothes that didn’t fit them anymore, I found another
use for them. Sometimes I’d rip the seams & staple the ends together,
since I would kill myself with the needle if I tried to sew, of a few
shirts for a spare blanket, but they never lasted more than a week. 
	“C’mon Mackie,” ad said, picking him up. When he did, the
legs of he shorts dropped down past Mackie’s feet. “Guess he’ll have
to be a few years older to fit into those,” I said. Dad groaned &
carried him out of the room. 
	I ran down to the bathroom to see what Tay & Ike were doing.
“Haha You hafta clean the bathroom!” I laughed. “You gotta help,
Zac, you made the mess,” Tay said. “No, actually Mackie made the
mess. I was just an innocent witness. Besides, Dad didn’t say I had
to,” I said. “Yeah, well, um, Dad told us to tell you to help us,” Ike
said. “Yeah, right. You lie,” I said & walked downstairs. 
	Jessie & Avie were in the living room performing some new
dance they learned in ballet class for a group of stuffed animals lined
up on the couch. I was sure they’d changed it a little because Jessie
started doing an altered version of the electric slide while Avie
paraded around her. I grinned & waked into the kitchen to get the
phone. 
	“Hi, is Janie there?” I asked. “Uh, no,” Janie replied in a fake
retard voice. “Funny. So, what’s up?” I asked. “Not much really. Hey,
don’t tell anybody, but Krissy’s planning on going over to your
house & surprising Ike,” she whispered. “Oh cool. But, Ike’s not
really looking his best today.” “Oh, really? Zac, what’d you do to
him?” “Me? Why, I’m a little angel! From what I heard, somehow a
bottle of lotion dumped out all over his hair. But I ain’t one to gossip,
so you ain’t heard that from me. No you didn’t,” I said, acting like
Banita on ‘In Living Color’. “Oh God. What did he do?” she asked.
“Well, he sorta slept through it,” I said. “You did it when he was
asleep! Congratulations, that has to have been one of the coolest
pranks you’ve ever pulled on them,” she said with a giggle. “Yeah,
him & Tay took a shower-” “Together?” she interrupted. “No, you
perv. Now their hair looks even worse, it’s so funny!” “I bet it is.
Sooo..... I talked to Tara.” “I’m listening.” “It seems she can put up
with you. Unlike me. In fact, if I heard her right, she wants to see
more of you.” I was silent for a few seconds when Janie interrupted.
“Do you hear that! Silence. Omigod you’re not talking. For once in
both our lives I’m talking my head off & not you. Whoa, like an
episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’,” she jabbered on. “Zac? Are you still
there?” she asked. “Yeah, yeah I’m still here. Are you serious?” “Uh
huh. I really was talking & you weren’t.” “No, I mean about Tara,” I
said. “Yep. She said for you to call her.” “OK, but I don’t know her
number,” I said. “Gee Zac, what a genius. You’ve had a crush on a
girl for who knows how long & you don’t even know her number!”
she exclaimed. “Nope.” “Well, I can’t remember it, I have it on speed
dial. I better check in the phone book.” 
	She gave me the number & I hung up. I dialed 3 digits of Tara’s
number, but got scared & hung up. I tried again. 4 digits. I sat down
on the couch in the TV room & stared at the phone. ‘It’s easy,’ I
thought. ‘People do it all the time. Just call her.’ I got 2 digits of Tara’s
number & hung up. 
	“Hey Zac, whatcha doin?” Tay asked, sitting down beside me.
“I’m tryin to call Tara,” I said, leaning back. “The Tara that always
ignores you?” he asked. “Yeah, but Janie said she told her to tell me
to call her,” I said. “OK, why?” “I dunno, that’s why I’m calling her,
duh.” “Well, either her number is 911, or you’re not dialing her
whole number.” “How’d you know?” I asked. “Duh! I can hear the
rest of the phones,” he said. The rest of the phones in the house
dialed the number when someone was dialing & beeped when
someone picked up the phone. 
	“OK, so I can’t get up the nerve to call her. So?” “Well, I could
help,” he said. “How?” “I’ll dial & ask for her & then give the phone
to you. If you hang up then she’ll be really pissed, so you can’t hang
up, K?” he asked. I thought about it for a second & agreed. 
	He took the phone & dialed the number on my hand. “Hello?
Can I talk to Tara?” he asked in a high voice. “It’s Zac.” “I do not
sound like that!” I protested, but before he could reply, he shoved the
phone in my face. 
	“Um, hi, Tara?”  stuttered. “Hi Zac.” “Uh, Janie told me to call
you.” “Oh yeah. Well, I was wondering if you could go to LaserQuest
on Saturday?” she asked. “Well, Jessie’s havin a birthday party, why
don’t you come?” I asked. “Jessie, your sister? Well, I don’t know,
what are we doing? I’m not into the whole pin the tail on the
donkey’s ass thing,” she said. “Well, we might play pin the tail on
Taylor’s ass, but that’s a completely other story.” Taylor, who was
standing in front of me now, kicked me hard in the shin. “Ow! No,
we’ll probably just watch a bunch of movies, that OK with you?”
“Oh, that sounds good. What time?” “You can show up whenever
you feel like it, just don’t expect anybody to rewind the tape,” I said.
“OK, well, I gotta go. Bye,” she said. “Bye.”
	“That sounded like it went pretty well,” Taylor said, sitting
down next to me. “Yeah, she said she’ll come to Jessie’s party. How
many people are showing up?” I asked. “Hmm. How many people
did you invite?” he asked. Quickly, I added them up. “Eight. You?”
“Nine. I’m gonna guess Ike invited that many too, so there are gonna
be about....25 or 30 people, just in here,” he said. “The littler kids will
just stay outside, I hope, & I know Jessie & Avie practically went
door-to-door inviting people, then Mom & Dad invited a bunch or
parents from that kid group Mackie was in. Sooo...” Silently, we both
calculated the number. “Omigosh, there are gonna be like 80 people
here!” I exclaimed. “Yeah, really!” “How are we gonna fit everybody
in here!” I asked. “Well, like I said before, I bet all the kids Jessie &
Avie’s age will stay outside, we’ll stay in here & watch movies & the
adults & really little kids will take up whatever’s left,” he decided.
“Yeah, I hope it’ll work that way,” I sighed. 
	“Boys!” Dad called from the doorway. “Huh?” “Let’s get back
out, we’ve taken long enough of a lunch break,” he said. “OK,” I
grumbled & stood up. 

		***Ike’s View***
	“Dad? Can we stop, we’ve been playing for almost 4 hours
nonstop!” Taylor whined. “Could we call it quit for today? My hand
kinda hurts,” I asked, flexing my fingers. “Alright. Sorry we had to
record so long, but we needed to make up for the past few days. We
need to get this done ASAP,” he said. 
	Zac jumped up & ran out the door. Taylor & I followed. “I
think I’m gonna ask Mom if we can have that party for Sam,” he said.
“Want me to help?” I asked. “Nah, I think I’ll be fine.” 
	Right when I walked into the TV room I knew something was
wrong. Jessie & Avie were being unusually quiet, especially since it
was a commercial. They were both smiling too. 
	“Hey guys, what’s up?” I asked, plopping down on the couch.
“We’re just drawing, that’s all,” Jessie said. “Yep, that’s all we’re
doing is drawing,” Avie added. 
	Something was definitely wrong. The cartoon came back on, so
the girls gave most of their attention to the TV. I closed my eyes &
laid my head back on the couch. The girls started giggling, but I
didn’t pay attention to them. Suddenly, a pair of legs dropped over
my lap. 
	“Huh?” I said, opening my eyes & snapping my head up. “Hi,”
Krissy said. Avie & Jessie grinned even wider & left the room.
“How’d you get in here?” I asked, patting her leg. “I’m magick,” she
replied. I grinned & pulled her into my lap. 
	“You guys sounded good in there,” she sighed. “Thanks. We’re
tryin, but it makes you soo tired. But ya know what?” “What?” “It’s
great to have someone to snuggle up with when you’re worn out,” I
said. “Ain’t it?”  she said, ruffling my hair. Normally, I would’ve
done something about it, but I didn’t. I changed the TV to MTV & we
settled back to watch Alicia Silverstone & Liv Tyler drive around in
‘Crazy’. 
		***Tay’s View***
	“Hi Sam!” I said. “Oh, hi. What did you do today?” she asked.
“Oh, not much. Except my hair looks like shit, my fingers hurt & I’m
tired.” I decided not to tell her about the lake incident, she might get
suspicious. “What did you do today?” “Not much. Just laid around in
bed. I got a letter from my friends back home, that kinda cheered me
up,” she said. “Neat. So you think you’ll be better by Saturday?”
“Yeah, I hope so.” “Your birthday’s on Tuesday, right?” I asked.
“You still haven’t told me what you were talking about.” “I know. So,
would your parents mind if we had a party for you?” I asked. I’d
asked my mom earlier & she said it was OK, as long as we didn’t
invite the whole town like Jessie & Avie. “I doubt it. Why?” “Well,
my parents said that we could have a party for you. We could go to
LaserQuest-” “Laser-what?” “LaserQuest. Have you ever played
lasertag?” “Never in my life. What is it?” “Um, it’s kinda hard to
explain, you kinda hafta experience it.” “That sounds like some
adventure or something. ‘Experience the laser’. Oh God that didn’t
sound good,” she mumbled. “So Sam, have you experienced the laser
yet today?” I asked. “Oh shut up, I didn’t mean it that way.” “How
often do you play with your laser?” She screamed. “Taylor, dammit I
didn’t mean it like that! You stupid little shit!” “Hey,” I whined. “I’m
not shit or else I would smell.” “You do smell.” “OK, I would smell
worse.” “Better.” “Anyway, about the party. Mom said we can invite
fifteen people to LaserQuest not including you & me & 6 people can
stay the night over here. She said she doesn’t care what we do, no
nasty jokes, as long as we don’t wreck the house or wake anybody up
at three in the morning,” I said. “Cool. Damn, I can’t make any nasty
jokes. Guess I’ll just hafta tell a not nasty joke-” “Sam, you better shut
up now, stop being a stupid ass. That’s my job.” “Hey, can I call you
back tomorrow? I gotta go.” “Don’t go on the phone, it’ll ruin it.”
“Shut up. I’m serious.” “Bye,” I said & hung up. 
	I stood up & walked into the kitchen. “Hey, want some jello?”
Jessie asked. “Shouldn’t we save it for Zac?” I asked. “He just made
another bowl, he didn’t even know there was another one in here. I
hid it.” She grinned. “OK, dump me out a bowl.”
	She scooped out some jello into a bowl & handed it to me. I
brought it into the TV room with me, but stopped when I saw Ike &
Krissy. I didn’t like to intrude on their little ‘moments’, I usually got
my ass kicked by Ike later. 
	I wanted to go on the Internet, it seemed like ages since I had,
but Mom was on the phone. I sighed & walked into our room. 
	“Hey guess what!” Jessie asked as I walked upstairs. “What?”
“My birthday’s tomorrow!” “I know. What do you want for your
birthday?” I asked. “Silly, you can’t ask me now!” “Why not?” “Cuz
my birthday’s tomorrow! There isn’t enough time!” “Well, you can
still tell me, can’t you?” I asked. I knew Mom & Dad were enrolling
her in soccer & all her friends were getting her all kinds of artsy stuff.
Mackie & Avie were getting her new ballet slippers, so I didn’t know
what else was left. I would’ve gotten her some new clothes, but she
wasn’t too crazy for new clothes for her birthday. She’d rather have
toys & stuff. “Hmm. I want some jewelry. Maybe some new
necklaces like yours. But not so many, they make too much noise. Or
some rings. But nothing dumb.” “OK, I’ll make sure not to get you
anything dumb. OK?” “OK.” We grinned at eachother & continued to
where we were going. 
	“Hey Zac,” I said when I got inside. He was stretched out on
my bed, pigging out on a bowl of jello. “Hi. Where’d you get that?”
he asked, pointing to my bowl. “It fell out of the sky, right on my
head.” I rolled my eyes. “Duh,” I mumbled. “Well, you eat slow. I’m
done already,” he said, pulling himself off the bed. “You’re a pig. Did
Janie tell you Krissy was comin over?” I asked. “Yep. When I talked
to her. But I couldn’t tell, I’d get dead.” 
	He balanced the bowl on top of the broken CD player on one of
the dressers & sat back down. I walked over to the window & stared
outside. 
	“Hey, you wanna come to Sam’s birthday party?” I asked him,
turning around. “Is that an invitation?” “No, Mom said you guys
hafta come if you can. But nobody wants you to come, we don’t like
you,” I said. “Yeah, cuz I’m just so special! I’m hyper boy!” He
jumped up & raced around the room. “Um, OK Zac, that’s, uh, nice.”
I picked a shirt off the floor & threw it at him. “Bullseye!” I cried. It
hit him right in the head. “Whoa, this is just a gorgeous hat,” he said,
wrapping the shirt around his head. “Zac, stop right now or I’ll lock
you in the treehouse.” “It’s impossible! First, you’ll never get me up
there. Second, there isn’t a door to lock & even if you untied the rope,
which I wouldn’t advise, I’d just jump down. It might kill me, but I’d
get down.”
	“Fine. Put a CD in then,” I said, stealing his place on my bed. A
few seconds passed, still no music. “Zac?” I asked, looking over at
him. “Just tryin to decide which one to listen to,” he said. His face lit
up & he shoved a CD into the player. Suddenly, ‘Rockin Robin’ filled
the room. “Yes!” I yelled. “Turn it up!” He did. I jumped up & sang
along, perfectly. “Just a singin their song. Rockin Robin.” “Tweet
tweet tweet!” Zac chirped. We both grinned & kept singing. Halfway
through the song, we heard someone outside the door. No one in the
house ever complained when we blared oldies. Soon, the door
opened & Ike burst in, yelling along with the song. Krissy was
behind him, cracking up. Zac started laughing so hard he fell down. I
played along & kept singing. Krissy stumbled into the room &
collapsed on my bed, her face looking exactly like Rudolph’s nose.
Zac’s face wasn’t much different. But Ike & I kept singing our hearts
out. 
	“Ike! I can’t...believe.....you did that!” Krissy gasped when the
song was over. “Well, I did,” he said, walking over & pulling her off
the bed. “Well, I gotta go home. Dad said not to be here too long,”
she said. “OK, I’ll walk ya home,” Ike said. “Just then, the next song
started. Ike turned to Krissy & gave her a puppy dog face. She shook
her head, grabbed his hand & pulled him to the door. 
	“Thank God. Thought I was gonna barf with all that mushy
crap,” Zac mumbled, getting off the floor. I shrugged. “Guess it’s just
their thing.” “No it’s Ike’s thing. That is if he had one,” Zac said.
“And how would you know?” I asked. “You told me.” I decided to
put an end to this pointless conversation & keep my mouth shut. Zac
grinned at my sudden silence & started singing again. 

		***Sam’s View***
	“Briiiiing!” My eyes snapped open & I glared at the telephone.
Clumsily, I pulled the phone down & held the receiver to my ear.
“Back to your old tricks, I see,” I mumbled into the phone. “It’s my
birthday!” screamed a high voice. It was followed by a fit of giggles &
two people fighting for the phone. 
	“Still there?” Taylor asked. “Nice twist to your usual prank,” I
said. “I told Jessie not to call you. You told me you waned to get your
beauty sleep, but she just wouldn’t listen,” he said. “Uh, no?” I said.
“Nu-uh Tay, you told me to yell ‘It’s my birthday’ or you wouldn’t
give me my present!” I heard Jessie yell in the background. “Who do
you believe? Me, your goodest friend, or Jessie, he little liar?” he
asked. “I’m telling Mom!” Jessie yelled. “Her. So, who all’s comin to
the party tomorrow?” I asked. “Um, a lotta people. I’m not telling.
You’ll hafta wait & find out.” “Fine. What movies re you getting?”
“I’m not telling you anything about the party, you’ll hafta wait & find
out. It’s a surprise.” “Be a bunghole then. Hey, did you find out when
soccer tryouts are yet?” I asked. “Yeah. I think they’re in 3 weeks, but
I can’t remember.” “Cool. So, you guys takin a day off recording?”
“Yeah, we’re busy getting ready for Jessie’s party. I think me & Zac &
Ike are gonna buy her some new blades real quick today. We decided
we weren’t gonna let her open her presents till tomorrow at the
party, so she’s been moping around. Depressing, actually,” he said.
“That’s nice. But those things are kinda expensive.” “Uh huh. We’ve
been saving up some allowance for about a month, since hers was the
closest birthday. Now for a few years we don’t hafta get her anything
as expensive.” “I dunno Taylor, as girls get older, they get more
expensive.” “Oh well, she’ll just hafta deal with it.” “So, what else
does she want? I still hafta get her a present too,” I asked. “Well, she
told me last night that she wanted a necklace like the ones I always
wear,” he said. “What, she wants a million of ‘em?” I questioned.
“No, just one or two, She says they’re noisy.” “Well, they are. I can
hear you from a mile away.” “Not my fault you hear better than a
dog. Wait, you are a dog, nevermind.” “Jordan Taylor Hanson, do
you wish to die!” I screamed. “I’m kidding! Look, me & Ike gotta go
get Jessie’s present. I’ll talk to ya later, K?” he asked. “OK. Bye.” 
	I hung up the phone & put in my contacts. I decided that I
would wear my green contacts for the party. I needed a change, I’d
been wearing clear for a while.
	I grabbed some jeans & a t-shirt & headed into the bathroom. I
glanced at the mirror & grinned. The bruises on my face were almost
invisible. Even if there was still a trace of them the next day, I
wouldn’t need to slop on the concealer, I could just use powder.
Suddenly, I stopped grinning & groaned. My face was completely
broken out. I hadn’t been able to wash my face for about two days,
and the results were obvious. ‘Dammit. I knew I shouldn’t have used so
much concealer,’ I thought. 
	 About an hour later, I stepped out of the bathroom. Id cleaned
my face the best I possibly could & skipped all the makeup. I tightly
tied my hair back so that the grease from my hair wouldn’t rub off on
my face. 
	I brought my pajamas with me downstairs & glanced around. I
needed to find the box that had my makeup in it, there would be tons
of people at the party. Plus, it had all my jewelry in it too. I had a few
necklaces like Taylor’s that I used to always wear, but like a
stupidass, I packed them. The box got mixes up with all my other
ones, so I couldn’t find it. ‘Today’s as good as any,’ I thought. ‘But, you
can’t work on an empty stomach.’
	“Kay?” I called, standing outside her door. It was unusual for
her not to be up before 8. “Kay, are you in there?” “Yep. God, I slept
in!” she exclaimed. “Uh huh. Kinda freaked me out, I was awake
before you, & it’s all Taylor’s fault.”
	I walked down the hall to Troy’s door. I could hear him playing
Sega inside, so I knocked & let myself in. He always kept his door
unlocked, except when our parents were home. 
	“You had breakfast yet?” I asked. No answer. “Troy!” “Huh?”
“You eat breakfast yet?” “Nope. Not hungry,” he said. I could tell
there was no use in talking to him, so I left, shutting the door behind
me. 
	I walked into the kitchen & got out a container of yogurt. I
poured two glasses of orange juice, one for me & Kay. I grabbed a
spoon & started eating. 
	“Thanks,” Kay said, as she drank some. “Sure. Did you forget
to set your alarm?” I asked. “No, the station was set on a bunch of
static, I could barely hear it.” I nodded & sat down at the table. 
	“Mom & Dad are probably gonna call today.” I could tell what
she really meant. Mom was gonna call. Dad never bothered with us. 
	“OK. When was the last time the laundry got done?” I asked.
“Hmm. I did them about three days ago. I think it’s your turn again.”
“OK. Man, I still hafta do laundry, search my boxes, & buy Jessie as
present today.” “Well, I’m free today. How about while you’re doing
the laundry, I’ll search the boxes?” she offered. “That would be great!
Just, don’t snoop in the personal stuff, K?” “Swear,” she said. 
		***Zac’s View***
	We finished getting ready for Jessie’s party, so we had time to
waste. Mom & Dad said we could do whatever, as long as we didn’t
break the law or bug anybody. Tay, Ike, & I had already wrapped
Jessie’s present & put it with everybody else’s in the TV room. Isaac,
of course, went over to Krissy’s & Taylor walked over to Jason’s. I
would’ve played Nintendo, but my thumbs still hurt from playing for
two hours that morning. 
	“Mom? Can I go down to Janie’s?” I yelled. “Yeah. Be back by
dark!” I ran out the door and towards Janie’s house. 
	“Why hello Zac! I haven’t seen you for awhile!” Janie’s mom
exclaimed when she came to the door. “Yeah, we’ve been busy
recording for the past week.” “Oh really! That’s great, I’ve talked to
some people who heard it, including myself, & they all loved it!”
“Thanks, we try. Where’s Janie?” I asked. “In her room. Do you have
a time you need to be home?” she asked. “By dark!”
	I opened Janie’s door & let myself in. “Hey stranger. How’s
‘MMMBop’ goin?” she asked. “Good. We should be done in a few
weeks. But it’s sooo tiring!” I threw myself onto her bed. 
	Whatcha doin?” I asked. “Oh, I don’t really know. I forgot. I
was looking and.... oh yeah! I was looking for my swimsuit! I’m
gonna call everybody to see if they can go swimming on Sunday!” I
gave her a puppy face. “Yes, I was gonna call you! What are best
friends for?” “I dunno, butt wipers?” I asked dumbly.
“Butt-wiper-err,” Janie said like a Budweiser frog. “Huh huh, you
said butt.” “Oh yeah. You wanna listen to some music?” she asked.
“Sure, why not?” She rustled around for a little before the music
started. 
	“So no one told you it was gonna be this way. Your job’s a joke,
you’re broke, your love life’s-” “You forgot to clap!” Janie exclaimed.
“Oh oops!” “Turn it down!” Janie’s mom yelled. Janie turned down
the volume a little & we resumed singing. 

This many people read this much of the story. OK....