***Sam’s View***
	That evening, around seven, I tried the Hanson’s to see if the
guys were home yet. 
	“No, they’re not here,” Jessie told me when she answered. “Do
you know when they’ll be back?” I asked. “Uh, I think about eight.”
“OK, can you have Taylor call me when they get home so I can run
the bandage-wrap thing back over?” “Yeah, OK. Oh, can Kay come
over tomorrow?” she asked. “I don’t see anything wrong with it. I’ll
tell Kay & she’ll probably call you before she comes over,” I replied. 
	At a quarter after eight, Taylor called. “Yeah, do you want me
to bring the bandage thing over now?” I asked. “We don’t need it
now, you can have it for the rest of the week,” he told me. “No, we
have one. Do you want me to run it over?” I asked. “If you want to,
OK. Try to avoid Zac, he’s moody cuz we’ve recorded so long. We
went in around seven & just got home. Thirteen hours straight can
kill a guy like him,” he told me. “What, no breaks?” I questioned.
“Barely. When one of us ate, the other worked on their parts. It’s not
fun,” he groaned. “Well, I’ll hurry over. Bye.” “Bye.”
	I brought the wrap up from downstairs & headed over to the
Hanson’s house. Jessie answered the door. 
	“Hey Sam!” she exclaimed. “Hey Jessie! Where’re the guys?” I
asked. “Uh, Ike’s putting Mac to bed, Taylor’s in their room, & I
don’t know where Zac is,” she told me. “OK, thanks,” I said. On my
way up the stairs, I spotted Zac sulking around in the TV room. I
didn’t interrupt him. 
	I walked up the stairs to the guys’ room & knocked on the
door. “Greetings, Sam!” Taylor said when he opened the door.
“Cheery, are we?” I asked. “I’m trying, & I seem to be the only one,”
he said. “Can you stay for a while?” he asked. “I guess. The only
one?” “Yep. Did you see anyone else?” he asked. “I saw Jessie & Zac.
Zac didn’t look too happy. But Jessie seemed fine.” “Well, OK, I’m
one out of two. Jessie’s happy cuz Mom said she can start soccer
lessons next Monday. Zac, Ike, & Dad are grumpy cuz of recording
all day. Mac’s grumpy cuz he missed his nap & Mom’s and Avie are
grouchy cuz Mac bugged ‘em all day. I’ve given up trying to put up
with them, as you can tell. Just kinda locked myself in here & waited
for everything to quiet down. Now at least I have someone to talk
to!” he exclaimed. “Fun. I can’t say everything’s perky over at my
house, but then I don’t have as many bitchy people over there
either.”
	“Here’s the bandage,” I said, handing it to him. “OK. I’ll just
keep it in here for a while until it’s safe to go out.” “So, you guys
have to work that long all week?” I asked. “Oh, no. We have to work
longer tomorrow. Go in at seven, leave at around nine. We have to
get it completely done this week. On Saturday, we go in at nine &
stay till they kick us out. We’re recording on the weekdays, then
Saturday we’re polishing it up,” he told me. “Do you guys know
when it’ll be on shelves?” I asked. “I think two or three weeks. We’re
starting class on Monday too, don’t forget,” he reminded me. “Oh,
crap, you’re right. What all are we gonna need?” I asked. “Nuthin
much, paper & pencils. We have books & all. Your parents already
paid for your books. Mom teaches the younger kids, Jessie, Troy, &
Kay, and Dad teaches you, me, Ike, & Zac. We hafta split it up so it’ll
be easier for them to not be switching around all the time.” “Didn’t
you say that you didn’t have to do the whole thing over? Didn’t some
of it survive?” I asked. “Yeah, but it’s scratchy. There’s only one song
that’ll work,” he told me. “Do you still have the tape?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure. You want it? We don’t need it now, & we don’t have
anything else to do with it.” “Oh, sure, why not. I need something
new to listen to, anyway,” I sighed. 
	Taylor stood up & got a tape from the dresser. “Here ya go. But
there are only about six or seven songs on there, we didn’t get
finished before Dad figured out that it was messed up,” he said. “OK.
Thanks! Then I’ll give you, like, uh, criticism, or something,” I
mumbled, grinning. “Yeah, whatever,” he said, grinning back. 
	“Dinner!” Mrs. Hanson called from below us. “Just now
eating?” I asked. “Yeah, meals are all skrewed up now. Mom doesn’t
want to have to cook dinner twice, so they just wait for us to get
back,” he told me. “Ooh, hectic. But at least it’s only for a week,” I
said, standing up. I walked with him downstairs, where his mother
was waiting. 
	“Would you like to have dinner with us, Sam?” she asked. “No
thanks, Mrs. Hanson. I need to get home to watch Troy & Kay. I hate
leaving them home alone,” I told her. Actually, Kay was staying the
night at another friend’s house & Troy was absorbed in his Nintendo,
he needed no help from me. “All right. Well, I’ll see you around,” she
said. “OK. Bye,” I replied, walking out the door. 
	When I got home, Troy was still sitting in front of the TV.
“How long have you been playing that?” I asked. “A few hours. I’m
just about to beat the ninth level,” he said, not taking his eyes from
the television. “Nice.” I was headed for the stairs when I felt a cramp
in my stomach. I almost fell to the ground it was so strong & sudden.
I stumbled down the stairs & crumpled onto my bed. “Shit,” I
grumbled, squeezing my body into a ball. 
	I laid there for about fifteen minutes before the pain in my
abdomen died down. I pulled myself up & hurried upstairs. I
grabbed three aspirin & chugged them down. I retreated back down
to the basement & lay back down on the bed. After about a half hour,
the aspirin kicked in & I started feeling woozy. I stood up & changed
into a nightshirt & some boxers. I crawled back into bed & let myself
fall asleep. 

		***Sam’s View***
	The pain woke me up in the morning. I struggled to sit up, then
somehow pulled myself up the stairs. I yanked the bottle of pain
reliever from the cabinet & swallowed two of them along with a glass
of milk. I forced myself back downstairs & saw a red smear on the
sheet. ‘Great, just what I need,’ I thought & ripped the sheet off my
bed. 
	About an hour later, everything was nearly under control. The
sheets were in the washer & I had taken a shower & changed clothes.
Troy was still asleep. I knew because if he were awake, he would be
playing video games. Kay still hadn’t come home form her friend’s
house, but I guessed that she’d be back before two. 
	Sure enough, Kay arrived a little after one. I told her to call
Jessie, so she did. They arranged for Kay to go over there & came
home before they ate dinner, which would be until about seven. Troy
went over to Chris’s & got back around five. He told me that Jason
had asked about me, so he told him to call. He did, around six. We
talked for about an hour until Kay got back. Then I had to go to make
dinner for Kay & Troy. 
	Later that evening, I was completely bored with killer cramps. I
would’ve looked for my magazine box if I could’ve been able to stand
up for more than ten seconds. Then, I saw the stack of books that
Taylor had given me. I hadn’t even started them yet. I glanced at the
clock, 9:35. I knew that once I started a book, I couldn’t stop until I
finished it. 
	I’d listened to the tape that Taylor’d given me the day before.
Some of the songs I could barely hear, they were so badly recorded.
But there was one slow song on there that I really liked, I think it was
called ‘As Surely As the Sun’. Isaac was singing lead on it. So, just in
case I got caught up in the book & needed to get to sleep, I hurried &
made a tape that had only that song on it. It was slow enough so
maybe it would make me tired. About an hour later, I’d only read
twenty pages of the book because I had to keep messing around with
the tape, but the book was really good so far. 
	At about five o’clock in the morning, I finished the first book,
‘Flowers in the Attic’. When I woke up, I started the next book. I
hardly even stopped to eat. I slept about four hours each night. I was
finished with all five books on Thursday night. Amanda had called
that morning & told me that volleyball tryouts were at four on
Friday, the day before my parents were due to come back. But we still
didn’t know when soccer tryouts were. 
	Friday morning, I woke up at eight & took a shower. I was
getting a ride with Amanda so I wouldn’t have to walk all the way to
the Y. I searched for about a half hour in the storage room for my
kneepads before I remembered that Kay had used them the week
before. She gladly handed them over & I was ready to go by three. 
	At 20 till four, Amanda arrived to pick me up. She said we were
going a little early so we could warm up before tryouts. Neither of us
had played for a few months, so we were a little rusty. 
	When we got to the gym in the Y, about ten other girls were
warming up. Amanda ran over & got a ball & we practiced hitting it
back & forth. 

		***Sam’s View***
	Tryouts went fairly well. They said that on Monday we would
find out what teams we were on. Most of the other girls that were
there were very stuck up. But, there was one African-American girl
who was the nicest of all of them. Her name was Jade. She & Amanda
were the only people I had managed to talk to all through try-outs. 
	At around nine, Taylor called. “Long time, no see, er, hear,” he
mumbled. “You don’t sound so good,” I commented. “Yeah, I’ll be
lucky if I can whisper tomorrow. I’m all sung out,” he groaned. “You
sound it. Have you tried gargling salt water?” I asked. “I haven’t had
the chance. We just got back,” he told me. “God, you were there for a
long time!” I exclaimed. “What took you guys so long?” I asked. “Zac
was havin a lot of problems. We all were, but Zac especially. He
couldn’t get his part down, so after like an hour of trying to help him,
I ended up playing it instead,” he moaned. “Oh, so now you’re
multi-talented, huh?” I joked. “I call it tired as hell, but you can call it
whatever you want. God, I can’t wait till Sunday. I’ll probably just
lay around all day & rest,” he sighed. “I think I’ll do that too. I’ve
barely gotten any sleep this week, & it’s all your fault,” I griped.
“Why’s it my fault. I didn’t call you & wake you up! In fact, this is the
first time I’ve called you since Monday.” “I never said you woke me
up by calling me. It was those books you gave me. I got about three
hours last night because I wanted to finish the last one. And it’s all
your fault.” “Nuh uh. That ain’t my fault because you deprived
yourself of a full night’s sleep just so you could read a dumb book.
Nooo, that was all your doing,” he protested. “Yeah, but who got me
the book?” “Uh, Princess Diana? Yeah, she just, uh, signed it as me,
yeah,” he stuttered. “Then why was it in your handwriting?” I asked.
“Uh, I dunno. Hey, how would you know what my handwriting
looks like? You’re never seen my handwriting before!” “You had a
title thing on the tape you gave me. The writing matches,” I told him.
“OK, whatever you say Sam. Anyway, I gotta go, Ike’s yellin for me.
Somethin bout Avie. I’ll talk to you Sunday, K?” “OK, bye.” “Bye.”
	I called Amanda, & she called Jason three-way. We decided to
meet eachother that night at midnight in the Hanson’s treehouse.
Jason said that Taylor had told him that we could use the treehouse
anytime, just not to mess it up or anything. Since my parents weren’t
home & Kay & Troy knew I snuck out at night, I changed into my
‘midnite’ outfit around eleven. Out of habit, I turned the lights out &
left the TV on. At 11:30, I headed out for the treehouse. I knew it was
a little early, but it couldn’t hurt. 
	When I got into the treehouse, I rummaged through the bag
until I found the notebook. I grabbed a pen & started drawing. The
year before, one of my friends got us hooked on drawing half-opened
roses. We all had our own variation of it, we didn’t all want to be
identical. When we were bored in class, we would draw the roses on
our fingers & hands, kind of like tattoos. 
	At about ten till, Amanda joined me. “Hey, whatcha drawin?”
she asked as she sat down. “Roses. My friends & I used to draw ‘em
on our hands when we got bored. Want me to show ya?” “OK,” she
agreed & extended her hand. 
	When Jason joined us, I had finished Amanda’s hand & had
started on one of mine. “What the hell are you guys doing?” he
questioned, examining Amanda’s hand. “Drawing. You want me to
put it on your hand?” I asked. “Uh uh, no way. That’s way too
girlie,” he told us. “OK, if you insist,” I said, going back to my hand. 
	After I got my hand done, Jason was getting really impatient.
“Can we go now?” he whined, standing up. “OK, fine, you big baby,”
I sighed, standing up also. “We clumb down from the treehouse, but
we didn’t know what to do next. 
	“Well, you were in such a hurry to get down here, what do you
want?” Amanda asked Jason. “OK, I got an idea. You guys follow
me,” he said, starting out of the yard. We followed him. 
	After about ten minutes, we were standing in front of a house.
Jason had a mistevous look in his eyes, but only said, “C’mon,”
leading us into the backyard. “Now, we hafta find a hose,” Jason
muttered, walking around the house. “Why? Who’s house is this?” I
asked. “Don’t you know? It’ Ashley’s,” Amanda said, grinning. Just
then, Jason ran up to join us. “C’mon,” he said, leading us to the side
of the house. 
	Very carefully, Jason turned on the hose & soaked a small
portion of dirt. “There, now grab some handfuls & come with me,”
he commanded, walking back out to the front of the house. 
	On the front of the house, Jason spelled out the letters “Y-O-U”
in mud. “I get it!” I exclaimed, as Amanda & I joined him. About five
minutes later, the mud was starting to dry & we had clearly written
“YOU SUCK” on the front of Ashley’s house. 
	“OK, now let’s hurry & get outta here!” Amanda exclaimed,
running down the street. Jason & I followed. 

		***Sam’s View***
	In a few minutes, we were panting in front of my house. “Man,
I wish I could see his face tomorrow when he finds what we left
him!” I exclaimed, still trying to catch my breath. “No...kiddin,” Jason
struggled out, then sat down on the ground. Amanda & I did the
same. 
	After about five minutes, we had all caught our breath & were
cooled off. Even though it was one in the morning, it was still
eighty-some degrees out. 
	“So, when does you guys’ school start?” I asked. “About two
weeks, on Friday,” Jason said. “I still don’t understand that! I mean,
why Friday? It’s like ‘Get up at six in the morning this day, then have
two days rest, then do the same thing.’ Why not Monday?!?”
Amanda exclaimed. “Guess they’re just stupid like that,” I sighed.
“Don’t you start Monday?” Jason asked me. “Yep,” I replied. “Haha.
You know, you’re lucky you even got a break. Diana was just tryin
out this ‘summer break thing’. I think she’s probably gonna skip
weekends too, cause you guys aren’t used to going everyday,”
Amanda told me. “Yeah,” Jason said, “I was talkin to Taylor & Zac &
they were talkin about how glad they were that you moved in when
you did.  Diana was just about to change her mind about the break,
but then you guys moved in so she stuck with it.”
	After we sat around for another ten or fifteen minutes, we
decided we’d better not risk our chances of getting caught, so they
went back to their houses & I returned inside. Troy was still awake,  I
could hear the Nintendo going. 
	I knew I needed to go to sleep, but I just couldn’t relax. Finally,
I flipped on the radio to check if there was anything good on. 
		***Tay’s View***
	We got home near ten, & Zac was vary cranky. Ike was worn
out, but Dad was excited. He kept talking about that it would be
completely done in a week, & then we could start sending it to
recording companies. We’d already gotten seven rejections, but Dad
just said, “That’s just more people that will be kicking themselves
once you guys get signed.”
	Jessie & Mom were the only ones awake when we got home,
but Mom wasn’t in a good mood, either. She kept complaining to
Dad about the garbage disposal not working & that he’s said that he
was going to fix it that morning. Jessie was trying to tell Dad
something, but they snapped at her about interrupting. Zac headed
to the kitchen for something to eat & I trudged upstairs. 
	“Errrk,” Ike groaned when I turned the light on. “Wake up,
sleepyhead,” I mumbled, tossing aside a pile of clothes. “What do
you want?” he asked into the pillow. “It’s my room, I don’t need a
reason to be in here,” I told him. “Yeah, well it’s my room too & I say
turn the light off. I didn’t get any sleep last night,” he groaned.
“Why?” I asked, looking at him. “Dunno. I was thinking.” “Oh, so
that’s why you had a headache this morning,” I joked. “Shut up,
fucker!” he snapped. “Hey, I was just kidding! Thinking about
what?” I asked. “This whole recording thing. I mean, what if we keep
doing this & we never get signed? Are we wasting our time?” he
questioned, looking out the window. “I hope not. But I don’t think
it’s a waste of time. You like playing, right?” I asked. “Yeah,” he
answered. “Well, I think it’s kinda like history. It might be a waste of
time, but it’s kind of cool,” I said. “Yeah. Remember that one time
when we were in Venezuela & Mom & Dad kept telling us all kinds
of stuff about it?” he asked. “Yeah. He was trying to tell us the
history of some monument, then the guy goes, ‘No, this is just a
model. The think collapsed a long time ago’.”
	Just then, Zac burst in with a fistful of Twizzlers. “Hey Zac,
remember when-” “No,” he answered, shoving a Twizzler in his
mouth. “OK, nevermind,” Ike grumbled. “Have you guys seen my
notebook?” I asked, opening a dresser drawer. “Which one?” Ike
asked his pillow. “The green spiral one that I keep my song ideas in,”
I told him, searching through the drawer. “Oh, I saw that one-”
“Where?” I interrupted. “About a week & a half ago by the table.
How can you possibly concentrate on a song now. That’s all we’ve
been doing all day,” Ike groaned. “I’m just looking for it. Zac, have
you seen it?” I asked. “Yeah, I ate it for a midnight snack,” he
mumbled, choking down another Twizzler. “Gee, you guys are great
help,” I said, looking in the next drawer. 
	After about a half hour, I found my notebook, but was too tired
to mess with it. By then. Ike was already snoring away & Zac was
lying in his trundle, but I couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not. I was
too tired to change, so I flopped onto my bed & dozed off.