***Sam's View*** 
     I woke up to the phone ringing 'I missed that sound' I thought as I
picked up the phone by my bed. "Hi, can I talk to Sam?" a familiar
voice said. "Uh, this is her. May I ask who's calling?" I mumbled. "It's
me, Tay. Did I wake you up? Sorry!" Then I looked at the clock and it
was 8:30. Then my eyes started stinging. I almost screamed. Then I
remembered last night I had forgotten to take out my contacts. "Oh
crap" I said. "Huh?" Tay said. "Oh, nothing. Nevermind. Listen, can I
call you back in like 10 mins.?" I said squinting to find my contact
solution. "Yeah, sure. bye!" "Yeah, bye" I said & hung up the phone.
"OOWWWW!" I yelled, knowing no one was home. I took out my
contacts, cleaned them, & put in my purple ones. I wanted to see if
they'd notice.
	  I called Tay back & said "Hi, Tay?" "Yeah?" "Do you think you
can come over? Then I’ll have an excuse to leave.” "OK. Me & Zac'll e
over in a little bit. Ike went out to practice driving with Dad. Better
watch out." I laughed & said "OK. See ya in a few." and hung up. "Oh
crap!" I yelled again. I just realized I'd just invited them over and I
was still in wrinkled yesterday's clothes, smeared makeup and
tangled hair. I washed my face and brushed my hair & just as I was
about to change, I heard the doorbell ring. I threw a robe on & ran
upstairs to the front window. "Be there in a sec!" I yelled & ran back
down. I changed into my ZonZ jeans & white Lucky shirt. I ran back
upstairs & opened the door. "Sorry" I said, taking huge breaths.
	 "Cool house!" Zac said & started running around. Tay was
looking at me weird. So I said "What's wrong? Is my hair green?"
"No, just-" he cut off, got a big grin & got closer. "Your, they're," he
said, lookin for a sentence & finally blurted out "You have contacts,
right? I mean, your eyes are like purple!" he said. I giggled & said
"Yeah, I do that a lot, change colors. My hair is naturally a pukey
brown, but a few weeks before we moved I died it this color" I said,
referring to my red hair. "I'm kinda like a chameleon. C'mon, come
look at the house!" Just then Zac ran by. "Cool! It's big. Where's your
room?" he said, kind of out of breath. "Down here" I said, walking to
the basement door. 
                                     
		***Tay's View***
      As soon as we got downstairs, I knew about twice as much about
her as I had before. She had posters of movies, animals, and Magic
Eye. Zac immediately jumped on to her bed & switched on the TV.
"It's Mariah Carey!" he said. "And we'll linger on. Time can't erase a
feeling this strong...." he sang. "Zac, hit record." Sam said. Zac
jumped up and pushed the record button on the VCR. "Gee, your
own TV, VCR, phone, what don't you have?" I said. "My own
computer. I hardly ever get to use the one upstairs. But as soon as we
get a new one, I get the old one." she said. "Oh, neat. Do you have the
Internet?" I asked, doubting it because hardly anyone here had it.
"Yeah. We just got it about two months before we moved. You?" she
asked. "Well, yeah, kinda. We have a webpage too. All it is is a bunch
of words & links. Not much, cuz we hardly ever have time with
practice & all. But oh well." I shrugged. 
	"Wow!" Zac said, interrupting our technical conversation. "You
already got a William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet poster! That movie
just came out. How'd you get the poster so quick!?!" He said,
admiring the huge poster. "Well, I kinda bribed the theater. But it
only cost me $10!" she said. "Ten bucks!!" we said, mouths hanging
wide open. "Man, you must like that movie a lot!" Zac said. He
looked back at the TV and said "It's Hootie. Wanna stop the tape?" he
said. Sam jumped onto the bed & rewound the tape to the end of
Always Be My Baby. "EW! I wouldn't use a second of tape on them!"
she said. Zac got up & started snooping through all the still full
boxes. 
	"So, you like Shakespeare?" I asked. "I do now. I never
understood it till I saw the movie. But now I'm really into like old
stuff." "Oh really? Like what?" "Well, to start, old books, like Stephen
King books from the 70s. And last year in band we played a bunch of
old songs like 'La Bamba' and 'Rockin Robin'. It seemed like music
now is going like that again. Like heading back to its roots." she said.
I couldn't believe what I just heard. She was saying exactly what I
thought. but I wasn’t going to bring that up, not yet. "So, what
instruments do you play?" I asked. "Oh, lets see, flute, French horn,
ocarina, recorder, & some keyboard." she answered, counting them
off on her fingers. "Ocarina? Keyboard?" I said, puzzled. "Well, my
little sister got a Barbie keyboard & I stole it for like 6 months. But I
can only play if the notes are labeled. And my parents got me an
Ocarina a few years back. I'll show you as soon as I find it." she said.
"Barbie keyboard?" I asked, on the verge of laughter. "Yep" she
replied & we both cracked up. 

                                ***Sam's View***
 	Zac ran up to us just as we were getting under control and said
"Hey guys, this would be a great place to blade in the winter!"
"Blading! Yeah, Sam do you have some blades? We can go look
around town again!" Tay said, getting all excited. "Uh, yeah, I just
gotta look for em in the boxes" I said, getting up. "Here, us help" Zac
said, bounding off to the boxes again. "So, how'd you get my
number?" I asked Tay. "Oh, this is kewl. I knew my parents would
have it since they're like nice to everybody in town. So I asked them
& they said they got it cuz you're gonna be homeschooled with us!
Neat, huh?" I just stared in disbelief. "Homeschooled? Well, OK..
What's it like? And what times..." I trailed off. "Um, well I guess it's
kinda like normal school but you don't have to suit up for PE, no
school food, and it's from 9 to 4. Is that OK?" he asked. "Yeah, that
does sound pretty good. I mean, you don't have to be poisoned by
school food everyday. And no getting changed. Yeah, it sounds
kewl!" I said, getting back to normal.
	 "C'mon then, let's look for your blades." Tay said. Zac popped
out from behind a pile of boxes & said "Too late!" and jumped over
them to hand them to me. "Thanks. How'd you find em so fast? Oh
yeah, you've been over there for like 15 minutes, DUH!" I said, hitting
myself in the head. "OK, you put on your blades & come down to our
house. See ya in like 5 mins?" Tay said. "Yeah, see ya soon!" I said,
sitting down on my bed. 
				
		***Zac's View*** 
     I was really starting to get pissed. Tay was talking to Sam & barely
paying any attention to me. Oh well. Maybe Ike'd be home so I could
talk to him. While we were walking back I turned to Tay & asked
"Tay, do you like Sam or something? You guys sure were talking a
lot." "No," he said, for once in his life not blushing. "Does the name
'Emily' ring a bell?" he said. Oh yeah. I forgot Tay had this crush on
Emily for almost 3 years. She was one of those stuck up cheerleaders
with blond pigtails. Everybody knew she really liked Ike, but he was
already going out with Krissy. They'd been going out for a little over
a year. I was best friends with her little sister Janie. I had a crush on
Janie's best friend Tara, but she thought guys were God's worst
mistake.
	 As soon as we got home Ike & Dad drove into the driveway.
"What's the body count?" Tay said as Dad got out of the car. "None so
far, but we were seconds away from a ticket. He just can't seem to
lighten up on the gas." "Well sorry. I had to keep my eyes on the road
& not the speedometer." "You think you've noticed you were going a
little to fast at 50 in a 20 zone." "Fifty!" I said. "OK Ike, how cute was
she. You know, the girl you were trying to impress." Tay cracked up.
"Oh shut up" Ike mumbled and walked back into the house. "Dad,
can we go rollerblading with Sam? We wanna show her the rest of
the town. We'll be back by, oh," Tay said, looking at his watch.
"About 5. We'll drop by McDonalds. I have about 20." "OK, but be
careful" Dad said, checking the car for scratches. 
                                       
		***Ike's View***
      I was upstairs and started working on 'Man from Milwaukee'. We
had some of it worked out, but we were still figuring out the
keyboard & drum parts. We were hoping to have it on 'MMMBop',
which we were going to record in about 2 weeks. Right in the middle
Tay & Zac burst in. "Hey Ike, you wanna go rollerblading with us &
Sam? We're showin her the rest of the town & goin to Mickie D's for
lunch." Tay said while strapping on his blades. Zac mouthed 'Tay
likes Sam'. But Tay saw him & punched him in the arm. Zac tackled
Tay & before the could beat the living shit out of eachother I spoke
up. "OK, but we better hurry before everybody wants to tag along."
They stopped & resumed to putting on their blades. I reached under
the bed & got mine out. 

                         ***Sam's View***
 	As soon as I got to the Hanson's, I saw their dad, Walker,
outside looking at their car. I didn't mean to stare, but apparently I
was. He looked up & explained "Checking for damage. I took Ike out
for a quick run through on driving. Biiig mistake....." I laughed. "Oh,
the boys said you were going blading. Well, they just went inside a
minute ago, but you can come inside." he said, heading for the door.
"OK, thanks" I said. 
	I sat down beside Jessica in the living room, who was getting
her hair brushed out by Diana. "Hi Sam!" Jessica said. "Zam!" Mac
squealed & ran up to me, arms stretched outward. "Up we go!" I said
as I stood up & swooped him up & spun around. "Whatcha
watchin?" I asked Avie. "Animaniacs" she replied, still involved in
her coloring book. "I love that show!" I said & plopped down with
Mackie in my lap. He reached for an orange crayon but Avie got it
just in time. "No no, you don't eat THOSE." I told him. "Those are
yucky. You don't eat them. You color with them. Can you color with
them?" I asked him. "Yep!" he said & jumped out of my lap to color
the page opposite of Avie's. 
                                         
		***Tay's View***
	Before we got our blades on, we heard it suddenly get pretty
loud downstairs. Mac was screaming & jumping around. Zac, who
already had his blades on, whizzed down the stairs. Just as he got
down, me & Ike got done & we raced to the stairs. But before we
could get to the bottom, we heard Mom yelling. "Zachary Walker
Hanson, what do you think you're doing, running down the stairs
like that in rollerblades? Jordan, Clarke, don't think I don't know
you're doing the exact same thing. You think I can't hear you
thundering down those stairs like a herd of elephants?" "Sorry Mom"
we chorused. Sam gave us the weirdest look, so I knew we’d have to
explain the name thing, but we couldn’t right now. 
	"C'mon, let's get goin!" Zac said, racing for the door. 

                          ***Tay's View***
	We'd been rollerblading for about an hour. She thought it was
pretty neat about how me & Ike went by our middle names. That was
neat. Sam was really interesting, but like, different. She would act
ditzy & stupid and then, all of a sudden, get quiet. Or, she would get
really serious. She always seemed to be in a different state of mind.
As soon as I thought I knew what she was thinking, she completely
changed. 
	"So, have you ever been in a band, or like, a school band or
anything?" I asked her. She got this weird expression, like happy &
nervous & disappointed at the same time. "Well, I played in band
back home. In school, I mean. But my parents said I had to either
keep taking lessons or something or they'd sell my French horn. But I
half own my flute, so I can keep that. But she said I hafta take lessons,
& I don't wanna" she explained. "Bummer" I mumbled. "I could ask a
bunch of people if they could help, but I don't think they could.
Sorry." "No, it's not your fault. Don't apologize." she smiled.
                  
		***Zac's View***
	Tay had been talking to Sam the whole time we'd been blading.
It was really starting to piss me off. Ike had apparently been thinking
the same thing. "Zac, does Tay like Sam or something?" he asked
suspiciously. "Nope, I asked him that on the way home. He just said
they were friends." Ike started to say something, but I already knew
what it was. "No, he didn't blush when I asked him. All he said was
'Remember Emily?'." Ike shut up and just looked ahead. Then I saw
two familiar people coming towards us. "Look, it's Jason and Chris.
Now Tay'll stop." I said, speeding up. 
          
		***Sam's View***
	I saw two guys, one about my & Tay's age and one about Zac's
age. "Look, it's Jason & Chris" Tay said, speeding toward them. "Hey,
wait up!" I yelled. 
	When we got there, I saw the older one was about 5 inches
taller than me, only about 2 inches taller than Tay. The younger one
was about Zac's height, a few inches shorter than me. "Sam, this is
Jason" he said pointing to the older one. "and Chris." Hi," I said
blushing. I always get all shy like that when I meet someone. The
only reason I wasn't shy when I met Ike, Tay & Zac was because I
opened up immediately because it was so funny watching them.
Chris & Jason both had dark brown, almost black, hair. They weren't
as bony as Tay,  but not fat either. They were wearing blades too, and
Chris was spinning in circles. "I haven't seen you around" Jason said
smiling. "I just moved here" I explained, smiling too. Tay looked at
us, grinned, and said "Hey guys, let's get somethin to eat. I'm
hungry." By that time Zac & Ike had caught up with us. Zac was
panting and gasping "Finally....caught...up.... need... air..." Ike just
laughed at him, but his face was red too. "Hey, wanna go eat?" I
asked them. "Food...water.....yeah"  Zac said. Ike laughed even harder
& said "Yeah, I'm kinda hungry. Thirsty too." "I know exactly where
we can go & get some great food" Jason said. "Follow me".