***Sam's View***
     As soon as the last notes as the song started to fade I clapped
 madly. "Hey guys!" Zac said."I think she liked it! Whoa, someone
 actually likes us!" he jokingly said. "Cool, huh huh" Ike said in a
 Butthead impression. "Well, I would've liked it more if I could
 understand you!" I said. 
     "Oh, oops."said Taylor."Well, it's supposed to be like that! It's
 called 'MMMBop'. The chorus is just a bunch of doo bop ba doop
 stuff, so don't worry, I don't blame you if you couldn't understand
 that." he smiled, blushing. 
     Zac started just tapping the snares, and soon Ike was messing
 around too. I could tell they had no idea what they were doing, cuz
 Zac would suddenly speed up & Ike would glare at him & struggle t
o catch up. Tay played a few notes, but they didn't know even wh
at they were supposed to do, so they only played like that for a minute
 or so. 
     "Fabulous! Just superb!" I yelled when the stopped. Zac did the
 little drum thing (AN- you know, like on Jay Leno or something, when
 they say something funny & the drummmer does that?) and Ike made
 a face. Taylor grinned & gave me a thumbs-up. Then he waved to
 me to come over. 
      "What, do you want to teach me how to play that WONDERFUL
 song?" I asked, still laughing. "No, I want you to show me what you
 can play." he said. "Oh, umm, well, I can't really play that well.
 Especially since the keys aren't labeled!" I exclaimed. Taylor 
chuckled & Ike just looked at us. "Inside joke" I told him as I stepped
 behind his keyboard. "Well, first I kinda have to warm up, ya know,
 remember how to play?" I said, as I started playing 'If you're happy &
 you know it', the first song I'd learned how to play. When it got to the
 'clap your hands' part, Zac tapped the bass drum. "Nice warm-up"
 Ike said. "Well, so-oory, I learned this first cuz it was one of those
 programmed-in songs," I said. Ike just looked puzzled. "Nevermind" I
 said, as I ended it. I started a little bit of "Lonely Boy' but I only had
 about 20 seconds down. "I don't know the rest" I mumbled. "That's
 OK!" Tay said. 
     "Hey, yesterday we said we'd help you unpack & stuff, right?" Zac
 said, barely staying in his seat. "Yeah jello-butt. You wanna come
 over now? I mean, it's only like 6:30. My rents won't be back till 11.
 You can stay for a few hours, right?" I said. "But, Try said your
 parents were already mad..." Taylor trailed off. "Oh, don't worry. They
 can't ground me or anything. They're never home. So they couldn't
 enforce it." I told him. "Oh, so they just, like, cut off your allowance?
 Or give you chores?" Ike supplied. "Uh, yeah, sumthin like that.." I
 replied, tripping over my words. "Well, let's go ask mom & dad if we
 can go!" Zac practically screamed, running toward the door. "Uh,
 yeah, you do that. We'll start over to Sam's" Ike said. "No, wait!" he
 yelled. Zac came bouncing back. "WHAT?!?!" he yelled. "We hafta
 tell Tay the good news" he said, with a secretive look in his eye. "Oh
 yeah, you might wanna sit down buddy." Zac said. pushing Tay into
 a lawn chair. "Uhh, ok..." Taylor said. "Well, you won't believe this,
 but a record exec wants 'MMMBop'!" he yelled. "No WAY!" Raylor
 screamde, jumping up. "But," Zac said, pushing him back into the
 chair, "we hafta record it next week." he said, looking disappointed.
 "Oh well!" Tay said, jumping up again. "Zac, go tell dad we're going
 to Sam's!" he said as he ran off toward my house. Zac sprinted inside
 while Ike & I chased after Tay. We had no idea Zac could run so
 fast. He caught up quickly & pretty soon we were racing down the
 street, tackling eachother and screaming at the top of our lungs like
 we'd been best friends since we were born, instead of just meeting
 the day before. 

                                   ***Ike’s View***
	I hadn’t been in Sam’s room yet, so it was pretty intresting. It was in the
 basement, and all it had been was cement walls. But she had covered them with posters &
 furniture. She had movie posters, music posters, anything you could think of, except
 teeny-bopper magazine pictures. 
	"Hey, no JTT!" I exclaimed when we got downstairs. "Ew! I hate him. He’s just
 so, worn out. I thought he was OK for like the first year he was on TV. Then he like sold
 himself out to those obsessed magazines. He didn’t keep it real. Plus, it makes me sick
 that people would plaster pictures of people they don’t know over their bed & fantasize
 about them all night when they’ve never even met them. It’s dumb." she finished. I must
 admit, it was a good explanation. Most of the girls I knew’s walls were covered in JTT and
 that Devon guy. 
	"Where do we start?" asked Zac, going through the boxes. "Well, why don’t
 you grab those crates over there & put the books into the shelves?" she said, pointing to
 the shelves by her bed against the wall. She had about 5 crates of books. I shuffled
 through them & found about 10 Stephen King books, 20 or 25 R.L. Stine books, about 5
 Anne Rice books, and a few more horror books by authors I was unfamiliar with. Then, in
 the last crate, I found some William Shakespeare novels. Wow. She was pretty intense for
 being only 13. 
	I walked over to the other boxes, where she & Tay were deciding in what desk
 to put what. I looked through a box and found a mysterious looking folder. I started
 opening it, but Sam snached it away. "Sorry." I said. "No, it’s ok," she explained. "It’s
 where I keep stuff I write. It’s personal, ya know?" she said. "Yeah, " I said. "I
 understand. I’m like that too."
	"Saaaam! Done!" Zac yelled from the other side of the room. He had neatly
 shelved the books and was dragging the crates back to where we were standing. ‘He
 must’ve gotten his neatness from Tay’ I thought. They were always so neat. They never
 let me take care of anything cuz I always ended up losing it. 
	"Cool. Hey guys, it’s only like 9. Let’s go rollerblade! I love going out at dark!"
 Sam said, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "Yeah! Oh, wait, we don’t have our
 blades!" Zac groaned. "Well, I left mine over here when we came back & didn’t you guys
 leave yours in the garage? You can just sneak in & get em," Tay replied. I could practically
 hear the gears in his head spinning. That boy’s constantly thinking & coming up with ideas,
 I thought. "Ok! Let’s move!" Zac yelled, running upstairs. "God that boy has energy," I
 said, trudging upstairs. 
			***Tay’s View***
	Sam was lacing up her blades. I already had mine on & I was scating in circles
 on the other side of the basement. Then suddenly someone grabbed my hand & I was
 being spun in circles, faster and faster. Finally I got away & I fell flat on my butt. "Ha ha" I
 heard Sam say, but I couldn’t concentrate. The whole world was spinning and I felt like I
 was getting thrown off a rollercoaster. I barely felt a hand on my shoulder, but I was too
 stunned. "Sorry. Guess I caught ya a litttle off guard, huh?" she said. I could kind of focus
 things now. I could clearly see a dead cricket on the floor about 10 feet away. I closed my
 eyes and layed down, hoping I didn’t lay on another dead bug. "Wow, are you ok?" she
asked. I sighed and mumbled "Jussa sec". Soon, my head slowed down so I could open
 my eyes. "You’re alive" Sam said & helped my to sit up. "Sorry bout that. Hope you’re not
 mentally damaged. Oops, too late!" she said. I couldn’t help but laugh. She was trying so
 hard to make me feel better. I could tell she felt pretty bad. 
	"Could you help me up?" I asked her. "Sure!" she said, standing up & extending
 her hand down to me. I grabbed her hand & yanked her back down. She twisted around &
 fell right on my leg. "Oww!" she yelled in pain, the rolled over laughing. She started
 pounding my leg, but it didn’t hurt cuz she was laughing too hard to actually hit me. 
	Eventually, we recovered & made it up the stairs. I saw that along with Troy,
 there was a girl a few years younger than him playing Sega. "Taylor, that’s Kay. Kay. KAY!
 This is our new neighbor, Taylor. He lives down the street." 
	The girl looked up quickly, then went back to her game. "I know Avie & Jess.
 You’re their brother, right? They told me ALL about you," she said. Sam shrugged at me.
 She looked at the clock & then went back to Troy & Kay. "Guys, I’ll be back in about 45
 minutes, 10:30. K?" she said, louder than she needed to. "What? Yeah, ok." Troy
 mumbled, too absorbed in the game. Sam started off toward the door & I quickly followed.
 "Kids" she mumbled. 

***Sam’s View*** When Taylor & I finally got outside, I could tell he felt a lot better. He was smiling away when he saw that the street was completely empty. Ike & Zac raced up to us, being complete show-offs. Zac was jumping on & off the curb, losing his balance a few times & scraping his hand by keeping himself up. Ike was skating backwards towards my house, but he wasn’t paying much attention, because he crashed right into Zac. "Ow! What the hell do you think you’re doing?" yelled Ike, checking his leg for cuts. "Me?!?' screamed Zac. "You’re the stupid bunghole who ran into me!" "Shut up you two. You’re both decrapitated. " I said. We were standing in front of them now, and Taylor said, "OK, now you can tell us what decrapitated means." "Well, it can mean stupid or weird, like a person, or you can say your room’s decrapitated if it’s messy. You can say something’s decrapitated if it’s wrong or broken. There’s not an actual definition, I don’t think. " I explained. "You guys, let’s stop talking about decrapitated crap & let’s get moving!" yelled Zac. "Funny," I said, "That’s something my friends & I used to always say!" Ike rolled his eyes & chased after Zac. Taylor started skating backwards, twirling in circles every now & then. "You think that’s good?" I said, challenging him. "No," he replied. "I think this’s good." and he did a cartwheel and kept skating after he got back on his feet. "Oh yeah? Well check this out" I said. I was going to do a flip. I’d perfected it last summer, but I hadn’t done it since about May. I sped down the street, making sure there were no cracks or potholes in the road. Then, I flipped right past Taylor. Everything was going great. Except for one thing. There was a fairly large twig in the road & when my skates hit the road, my right skate landed on the twig. The wheels wouldn’t move, so the rest of me kept going. My left leg swung behind me, making me fall face-first into the road. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Since my right leg hadn’t moved, it was still in the same place while the rest of my body had twisted & turned. After I hit the ground, I heard a crack, and the pain rushed up my leg. ***Tay’s View*** Sam fell face-first into the ground. When she looked up, I saw a huge scrape on her left cheek. There was gravel all over her face. I started toward her, and the I saw her leg. Her foot was twisted almost backwards. It made my whole leg hurt just looking at it. When I got to her, she was biting her lip. Hard. "What hurts?" I asked her. She pointed to her cheek & then to her ankle. I rolled her over so she was sitting up. I started taking off the rollerblade. Her foot was already really swollen, so it was extremely difficult to get it off. After it was off, I examined it. It was about twice the size it should be. By this time, Sam had settled down a bit, and she was looking at her ankle too. "Ike! Zac! Get over here!" I yelled down the street. In a few seconds, Zac was crouched over Sam & Ike was looking around to find someone to help. "Here, lets just carry her back," I suggested. I knew it would probably take all three of us, two to carry her so we wouldn’t hurt her ankle worse & one to open the doors. She gave me a weird look, like ‘what are you THINKING?’, but she kept quiet. "Yeah, we might hafta do that." said Ike. "Here, I’ll take her legs," I suggested. It would just be too awkward if I took, well, the other part. "Zac, you lead the way. " I said. "OK!" he said & jumped up. "Wait. We might wanna take our blades off first. Or else we’ll be sliding all over." Ike told us. "Oh yeah, DUH!" I said. I plopped down & hurrily unlaced my blades. "Zac, you carry ‘em." I said. He tied all the laces together & flung them over his shoulder. Ike wrapped his arms around her waist & I stood to the side & held onto her legs. "This way men!" Zac commanded. Sam looked a little scared, but she didn’t dare move. Finally, we got to her front porch. Zac opened the door & strolled in. He sat down immediately by Troy. Kay reluctantly gave him his controller while Ike & I made our way to her bedroom stairs. "Well, we can’t really carry you down the stairs..." Ike trailed off. "That’s OK" Sam said. W put her down on her foot & I put her arm over my shoulder. "I’ll help you down" I said. "I’ll go drag Zac away from the game" Ike said, walking off. "Get an ice pack out of the freezer Kay!" yelled Sam. We slowly made our way downstairs & I helped her onto her bed. Kay bounded down the stairs & threw me an ice pack. I put a pillow under her foot and put the ice pack on top. I looked up to see her looking at me. "Well, I think we’ll be able to save you leg. You’ll live. Just don’t try to do gymnastics or anything in rollerblades anymore, K?" I asked, trying to make her feel better. "OK. Thanks for helping me down here. I would’ve sprained my other ankle trying to get down here myself!" she said. "Well, just sleep good tonight. And no sleepwalking! I mean it!" I said, trying to sound serious, but I couldn’t help it, I grinned. She grinned back. "So, I’ll see you tomorrow if I live through the night?" she said, still smiling. Then I remembered about why we had to be home at 10 tonight. "Well," I explained," We kind of have a performance tomorrow at 10. Maybe I’ll see you after that, cuz we hafta leave around 7. " I said, hopeful she wasn’t busy after that. "Hey, no prob, I’ll go! Where is it?" she asked. I racked my brain trying to remember. "Umm, over at that bar," I said, sounding like an idiot. "Oh, what’s the name! Oh yeah, Justin’s. Out in front at 10 until 11, I think. I guess we’ll be able to fit you in the van." I said. She got the hugest smile. "I’m there dude" she said, sounding exactly like Butthead. "Well, I gotta go. Hafta get rest," I mumbled, seeing on her clock it was ten till 10. "OK, tomorrow!" she said. "Yeah, bye Feel better!" I said, looking at her swollen ankle. "Oh I forgot! OK, bye!" she said. I walked upstairs. When I got upstairs, Ike had somehow gotten the kids to stop playing Sega. I’d have to ask him later how he had such power over kids. Troy ran up to me & started play-punching me. Obviously Ike had told him to do that. So I twirled around him & pinned him on the ground. Kay was watching some cartoon of two kids that looked like they were made of paper. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, so I looked around for Zac. "Ike, we hafta leave pretty soon Whe-" just then someone jumped my back, knocking me to the ground. I jabbed my leg up, kicking whoever it was right in the stomach. Not hard enough to actually hurt them, but so it would sting enough so they would get off my back. I heard a grunt & then the extra weight was off my back. I jumped up & saw Zac holding his stomach. He waved me off. "Let’s go," Ike said, walking toward the door & opening it. I looked back at Zac. He’d recovered and was hopping to the door. "See ya later Troy!" he said, sprinting out the door. I waved to them & said "Tell Sam to wake up around 6." Kay nodded & I left.

***Sam’s View*** I woke up again to the phone ringing. "I hope this doesn’t turn into a habit" I mumbled to myself as I answered the phone. "What d’you want Tay?" I mumbled, sitting up. "How’d you know it was me?" he asked innocently. "Well, it took me a while to single out all the people who call me in the morning when it’s still dark outside" I mumbled, trying to get my contacts in. "Well, I had a good reason. We hafta leave in an hour. That is, if you still wanna go." he said. "Huh? Go to what?" I asked, wiping the contact solution from my face. "The performance, duh!" he said."Oh crap!" I yelled. I dropped the phone & jumped up. I immediately fell on my butt. Then I remembered about my ankle. I reached over & grabbed the phone. "Why didn’t you remind me about my ankle?" I asked. Tay was laughing to hard to answer me. "You-- ankle--dumb--fell--ahh!" he gasped. "Gee, nice to know you care.." I mumbled. "You gonna be ready? I mean, you need help of whatever?" he said. "Yeah, I should be. In about a half an hour, just let yourself in & go downstairs. I think my parents are already gone & the kids are, or at least they used to be, asleep. Bring over all the kids if you want, or if they can come. I need someone to entertain the other two. You think they can?" I asked, looking at my ankle. "Yeah, I’ll bring the whole clan over. Oh, by the way, it’s 5:48. The sun’s coming up. So I didn’t call you when it’s dark." And with that he hung up on me. "Asshole" I mumbled, limping to the stairs. When I got out of the shower, The kids weren’t out in the living room watching TV yet. "Weird. Guess it didn’t wake them up after all." I slowly made my way downstairs. My ankle was killing me, but I knew I just HAD to see them play today. I went over to my bed to see Taylor stretched out watching TV. "Gee, go ahead & make yourself at home. No need to be so formal." I said, brushing my hair. ***Tay’s View*** "So, I guess Kay didn’t tell you when to wake up." I said after she stopped brushing her hair. "Nope," she replied. "She never remembers crap. Where’re the kids" she asked. "Ike took’em out. Said he’ll meet us back at the house after lazybones is ready." "Shut up” she shot back. "It’s not my fault I’m stupid & forgot to set my alarm." she said, putting some powder on. "You know," I said in my best valley-girl accent, "that nail polish doesn’t do with your outfit. You should paint them royal blue. " I said. She was wearing orange nail polish & a huge blue & black shirt with long GX shorts. She stopped & flipped me off & replied, "You know, you should let me paint your nails. Mountain purple would go so well with your outfit." I was wearing an orange shirt. I went back to my normal self. "What the hell are you thinking?!? That would suck! And besides, I don’t wear nail polish. I’m not a Dennis Rodman wannabe." I said, eyeing her. She burst out laughing & started tying her shoes. Finally, when she was done with her beauty work, which I didn’t really think she needed but she insisted on it cuz she said without it she looked like "a big fat pizza-face", we got to the house. She only had one hardly noticeable pimple on her chin. I just didn’t get it. We got there just as Dad was loading up the van with the drumset & my keyboards. We always brought the instruments over first so we could practice a lot. "Hey. If you kids want, I could bring you over early. You can’t go in, but you can check out the area," he told me & Sam. I looked over at her & she nodded. "OK, sure! Let’s move!" I said.