Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
Hanson Through My Eyes
Chapter 6
I rolled over and the sun was just starting to come up. I thought, "Great! I’ve only been asleep for two hours." I rolled over to see if the other two were awake. No they were still snoozing. Then a thought hit me, "How mad would their parents be if they found out we were all sleeping in the same room together?...I’m not risking it." I climbed out of bed, grabbed a pillow and the blanket and went back into my room. Everyone else was still asleep, so I curled up on the floor and fell back into Dreamland.
Sometime after I fell back to sleep, the phone rang. I picked up the phone and groggily said, "Hello?"
A voice way too perky for me with a thick British accent said, "Good morning this is your wake up call. Are you awake?"
I thought, "Is this woman insane? Obviously if I answered the phone I was awake." But I was nice and politely said, "Yes, thank you." After hanging up the phone, I sat up and started to wake the others. Jessica and Mackenzie awoke to the sound of the phone but Avery and Zac were still asleep. I shook them lightly and they both groggily awoke; although Zac was still trying to deny the fact that he had to get up. "What time is it?" I heard his voice from underneath the covers.
"I don’t know, my watch is still on Boston time. How far ahead of Boston is London?" I was looking at my watch, trying to get my eyes to focus on the numbers.
"I have no idea."
"I’m guessing it’s about ten. But that’s just a guess. I think London is five hours ahead of Boston."
I got up and went to rummage through my suitcase for clean clothes. I grabbed my bag, full of shampoo and stuff and headed for the bathroom. Avery jumped off the bed and made a beeline before I got there. When I finally made it into the bathroom, I looked in the mirror and scared myself. My hair looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket and I couldn’t even describe how bad I looked. I stepped into the shower before the hot water turned on to try to wake myself up. After the initial shock to my body was over, I was definitely awake.
I finished in the bathroom and went to see if everyone else was awake. I heard rumbling from the other room and figured that the other two were awake. However, Zac was still underneath the covers.
"If you don’t get up, I will be forced to dowse you with cold water."
He silently got up and walked back to his room with a blanket still wrapped around him.
"Is he always like this in the morning?"
Jessie was brushing her hair and laughed, "They all are. Taylor is the only one you can speak to before breakfast and he’s not even that personable."
Just then a very sleepy Isaac poked his head around the corner, "Can we have our toothpaste back?" I handed him the toothpaste and tried to stifle a laugh, "Nice hair." He grumbled something under his breath before going back into his room.
Jessica just laughed, "I really wouldn’t insult them this early in the morning, it could come back to haunt you. They hold grudges."
I walked out into the hallway to find Mackie. He was in his parents room, squirming out of his mother’s arms while she was trying to put a clean shirt on him. Mrs. Hanson was already up, dressed and ready.
"Can I give you a hand with him?"
"No, you don’t have to. He’s just being himself."
"Hey, did you get a really perky woman on the phone this morning?"
"Yes, that woman has way too much caffeine in her system." She finally got the shirt on him and I asked him if he’d like to play a game.
"Would you like to play memory with me? I can’t play by myself." His eyes lit up.
"I’ll take him off your hands until everyone else is ready. When and where is breakfast?"
"Breakfast is generally in one of the conference rooms. It’s usually in the basement. But getting everyone ready is the hard part. Is everyone awake?"
"Yeah, I heard noises next door. I saw Isaac and I heard their shower, so I assume Taylor is awake. Although I don’t think they’re happy about it."
"They never are. The girls are always up and ready, but for some reason the...what’d you call them?...Trio of trouble...are just not morning people. Everyone tells me that girls are harder to raise than boys but that’s not the case in this family."
"It’s the same way in my family. I have to drag my brothers out of bed in the morning." Turning my attention to Mackenzie, who was standing on the edge of the bed, playing with my necklace, "All right, come on, Mr. Monster let’s go play that game"
"I’m not a monster"
"I know," I said. When we got back into our room, I asked the girls if they wanted to play with us.
"We have to play with cards since I don’t have the actual game with me." I had cards with large numbers on them so it was easier for the kids to read. Mackenzie was having fun for about ten minutes; then he decided it was much more fun to throw all the cards in the air. "Why don’t you go find Zac and torture him for awhile." He was up and running again. He has enough energy for three people. The girls and I continued playing until it was time for breakfast.
Mrs. Hanson came in and told us it was time. She had Mackenzie with her and he was trying to break free of her grasp.
I looked on the table, "Where’s the key?"
The girls looked blankly at me and I started searching the room for the key. I got down on hands and knees and pulled the blankets up to search under the beds. After shoving a few dust bunnies out of the way, I found it. Don’t ask me how the key made it under the bed, because I have no idea. I followed everyone to the elevators.
All the kids sat at one table and the others sat at a table next to us. I was next to Mackie and I cut up his pancakes for him. He picked up the syrup bottle while I turned to answer a question from Avery and just let the syrup come out. By the time I realized what he was doing, his pancakes were swimming in syrup. He found this amusing and proceeded to laugh uncontrollably while sticking his finger in the syrup. We all started laughing along with him, but I don’t really think we knew why. It wasn’t really all that funny but I think we were just punchy from lack of sleep.
Isaac asked, "Hey, when and why did you go back to your room? I woke up and you weren’t there."
"I wasn’t sure how your parents would react to me sleeping in the same room as you two. My father would probably kill you if he knew, he’s a bit protective. So I figured I’d just go back to my room."
"You’re father can’t be that bad."
"Wanna make a bet? I’m his only daughter. If he could, he’d have me locked in a room by myself until the age of 35. He interrogates every guy that comes to my house, and if he’s not bad enough, my brothers do it too. I don’t think your parents would be too keen on the idea of me sleeping in your room either...Besides, I really don’t think you’re ready to see me in the morning. It’s not pretty, I look like I stepped out of the swamps." I made a weird face to show emphasis that I was telling the truth.
Taylor said, "I’m sure it’s not that bad. I woke up in the middle of the night and forgot who you were. It took me a minute for my eyes to focus and remember who you were." Umm...thanks, I felt really loved at that moment.
"So what do you guys have to do today?"
"We have to sign CDs at a record store and we have a few magazine interviews"
I looked at all of them. I shifted my gaze up and down the table and laughed to myself, "This is normal for them. Interviews and signings are their reality."
"What’s so funny?" Zac finally came out of his trance of staring at his food, pushing it around with his fork. He is definitely not a morning person.
"Nothing, I was just thinking of something...Oh!" My sudden outburst caused Zac to drop the pancake that was on his fork just before it made it to his mouth.
"I need to call my parents and tell them that I made it here in one piece. They were worried I’d never make it out of New York. Excuse me, I’ll be right back."
I got up and headed for the hallway. I got to the elevator but forgot that you needed a key to access it. I took a deep breath and started up the stairs. When I got to the main floor, I opened the door to the lobby. The door locked behind me, "Well, I guess I won’t be finishing my breakfast," I thought. I started up the main staircase and silently cursed whoever made reservations for the top floor. By the time I made it to the eighth floor, I was out of breath. I went into the room and hunted down my father’s calling card. I dialed a bunch of numbers until I finally got in touch with an American operator. I told her the number and then heard my mother’s voice.
"Hello, I made it. We’re in London now, we should be here for about three days and then we’re heading to Australia."
"Samantha, that’s great. Is there a number we can call you at? It’s six o’clock on Sunday morning. When I finally wake up, I’ll call you."
The girls came back into the room and sat on the bed opposite me.
"Yeah, I’ll probably be back around 5 or 6 o’clock your time. I’ll talk to you then."
I hung up the phone and talked to the girls, "Eek! I forgot about the time difference and woke her up. It’s only six o’clock in Boston."
Zac came running through the door on the other side of the room. He was yelling something about a CD. About two seconds later, Taylor came running through the same door yelling at Zac. The two of them chased each other through the room and out into the hallway. It didn’t even phase the girls. "Apparently this is normal," I thought.
"Okay, what do we want to do now?," I asked.
"Now we wait until the boys are needed." Jessica said.
"So where have you been so far?," I asked
The girls started naming off countries and states like they were looking through an atlas. I sat in amazement. I thought, "These girls have seen more than I could ever imagine and they’re only 6 and 9. I hope they realize how lucky they are." They were comparing stories about where they went and how much they liked or disliked the country.
"So what do you miss the most about the United States?"
Both in unison said, "Tulsa"
Jessica went on to explain, "I miss being able to sleep in my own bed and have homecooked food. I like traveling but I miss home a lot."
I tried to pick the mood up again, "Well, I’ll try and make it as enjoyable as possible. I’ve baby-sat before but don’t usually live with the people I sit for. So you’re going to have to tell me if you want to do something or not. What do you like to do?"
"At home we dance and play with dolls and stuff"
"You play with dolls, I don’t." Apparently Jessica was trying to be more adult. Avery looked a bit hurt so I told them about the stowaway in my suitcase.
"I never really played with dolls but I have a ton of stuffed animals."
The two of them looked at me in surprise. I got up off the bed and went to my suitcase. I pulled out a stuffed bear that was a birthday present.
"My brother hid this in my bag before I left. I found it this morning. There was a note on it that said, ‘So you don’t forget us.’ I got it as a birthday present from a friend a few years ago. Avery is Teddy still with you?"
She leaned back and pulled him from underneath the rumpled blanket on the bed. She smiled a little as she hid her face in his tattered fur. Jason came in then and asked to talk to me. He led me into the hall and talked to me about general stuff. He handed me a piece of paper.
"This has numbers that you need to call if we get separated.
"Jason, you already gave me these numbers."
"I don’t care. I want you to carry them with you at all times." He took a deep breath, "By now you probably realized that the family is very close. Mr. and Mrs. Hanson want to keep the family intact as much as possible. Pictures of the younger kids are finding their way onto the Internet, so they are going to have to be watched more closely also. I don’t want to scare you but the teenage fans are not the problem; it’s the other whackos we worry about. There are sickos; you’ll probably meet them, I am telling you ahead of time so you know what to expect."
His whole non-scaring approach wasn’t really working. I was scared for the kids. Personally if I could, I would have locked them in a room and kept them there for two months, but that wasn’t happening. He went on to describe their schedule for the next month. After London, we were going to Australia where we would be for almost two weeks, then it was off to Indonesia and then Canada.
I walked back into the room. The boys had come in and were fooling around with my bear, "Hey, be careful. He was a present." I put the paper into my pocketbook and headed over to retrieve my bear.
"This is yours?" Zac had the bear now and he was looking at it curiously, playing with the purple bow around its neck.
"Yes, my brother put him in my bag before I left. Don’t act so surprised, I’m sure you all had stuffed animals when you were little."
"Yeah, we did. Avery still brings hers with her." Isaac was poking at her as he said it.
"I have a dog that was given to me on my second birthday. He looks pretty pathetic now, his fur is all nasty and an ear is falling off."
"Nasty?" they all questioned my choice of words.
"What! You’ve never heard nasty before?"
Taylor found this funny, "Yes, we’ve heard it before but just not used that way."
"I’ve noticed that you use some expressions that we don’t use where I’m from. Isaac, no one in Boston would ever say, ‘I don’t give a rip’. Their choice of words would be a bit different. I can’t repeat that expression right now, considering your sisters are in the room, but there are things that you say that I wouldn’t. It’s just the way people speak. My friend used to live in Ohio and she grew up calling soda, pop and a pop (as in a blowpop), a sucker. It’s just your dialect."
Jessie got a bit defensive, "We use bad words. I’ve heard Taylor swear before."
I laughed, "If you could hear me before I left home, you’d probably blush at my language. I swear constantly...well, not constantly...but I swear a lot. It has a lot to do with how immune you are to it. I grew up going to school and hearing words like that all the time, very few words shock me. It’s just normal for me. You never went to public school, so you probably rarely heard it. If your parents don’t swear, you most likely won’t. Last night when I stubbed my toe, I had to go out into the hallway and bite my hand for fear of swearing in front of you. Your parents would probably kill me if you guys started swearing."
We continued talking for awhile. In my eyes, they were no longer "Hanson", they were becoming friends. The whole family is extremely easy to talk to and fun to joke with. The older boys remind me of my brothers, so it’s pretty easy for me to relate to them. Plus stardom has not gone to their heads; they are still teenagers and enjoy doing everyday things that normal teenagers do. They just have a few hundred thousand people watching their every move. The younger kids are just fun to be with. They have so much energy it wears me out to watch them, and Mr. and Mrs. Hanson are extremely nice. The children never go anywhere without their parents with them.
The boys had to go to the signing, but we didn’t go with them. Mrs. Hanson wanted the children to visit Westminster Abbey, so we went there while the others did their thing. Avery and Jessie were kind of interested in the church, but Mackenzie was having more fun listening to his voice bounce off the high walls. He realized the louder his laugh, the louder his echo. He got much enjoyment out of this and clapped his hands every time his voice bounced back into his ears. He tugged at my shorts and I bent down. He whispered in my ear, "Sami, Listen!" He then proceeded to giggle and spout out words that would echo back through the church. This was adorable the first few minutes but it lost its cuteness by the time we had made it up the length of the aisle. Mrs. Hanson gave him, the "Mother" look (you know the one) and he stopped. We walked around London for most of the afternoon. A lot of the places we went to have been lost in my memory. We went to so many places throughout the summer, it’s hard to distinguish place from place. I like England, (possibly because I live in New England) it’s the closest you get to America without actually being there.
We met up with Mr. Hanson and the others just before dinner. We went to a restaurant in the center of London and this is where I first became aware of the boys’ fans. I ate at another table, partially because there was no room anywhere else and because Jason didn’t want people to associate me with them. I actually found it kind of fun, getting to eat without interruption. Every few minutes or so the boys had to stop and sign an autograph. They were very nice about it also, I would have been a bit annoyed but they were very courteous.
When I got up to go to the bathroom, I was in the back of a somewhat long line. I leaned my head against the wall and started to daydream. Two girls snapped me back into reality when they got in line behind me and were comparing the signatures they had just gotten from the guys. I had my back to them so they couldn’t see the smile that was on my face. I was amazed at how a signature had brought these girls so much happiness. They were planning their weddings to the guys before we even made it into the bathroom. I stood there and thought about how lucky I was. I not only got to travel the world, I got to do it with a great group of people.
When I sat back down at the table, Bob and Louis were in a heated discussion about the New York Yankees. I, wanting to add fuel to the fire said, "I like the Boston Red Sox." This started them on twenty minutes of statistics and facts about a sport I could care less about. I sat silently listening as they told me about Nomar Garciaparra and how it was stupid for them to have let Roger Clemens go. I didn’t care but it amused me to listen to them argue about what year the Red Sox won the World Series.
I looked over at the Hansons and realized how much of a family they were. They were sitting down eating and discussing just about anything and everything. Not that my family isn’t loving or anything. The Hansons just have something that I, personally, have never seen before. It’s hard to explain. Nobody’s perfect, I know that, but they come as close to the perfect family as I have ever seen. I am not saying this because my family doesn’t love me or anything. My family loves me very much, but they just have a way about them. At the risk of sounding corny, I will say this anyway: Mr. and Mrs. Hanson have instilled so many values and manners in their six children that they are in a league of their own. Whoever marries any one of the children will be the luckiest man or woman in the world. Not because of who they are, how they look, or how much money they have but because...I don’t know. Meet them and you’ll understand. But, then one of the Trio of Trouble will belch or something and ruin the whole moment.
When I first found out that they had six children I thought that was insane, no one I know has six children, I thought my mother was abnormal having three. When I got to know them, I wished they had a hundred children and gave them the same values and manners. The world definitely needs more parents like Mr. and Mrs. Hanson.
We finished and went back to the hotel. I collapsed on my bed. I just wanted to sleep, I didn’t care what anyone else did. All the children somehow assembled in the room and were discussing amongst themselves. I heard Mack say swim and thought, "God no, please, don’t let them want to swim." They all made the decision that they wanted to swim. I, on the other hand was not that thrilled with the idea. I tried everything to get them to change their minds, "Aren’t you tired? Shouldn’t you get some sleep?"
Isaac, always the level headed one, "No, it’s only seven o’clock, we could swim for an hour or so." Figures, he’d know what time it was.
"I really don’t want to go. I’ll just stay here and read."
The girls were a bit depressed, "You have to go, Mom will want someone to talk to."
"Fine, I’ll go, but I’m bringing a book and plan on reading the whole time."
I knew I was going to end up in the water somehow, so I put my bathing suit on under shorts and a T-shirt. I had my book in hand and followed the group to the pool. Mrs. Hanson and I were talking and discussing "stuff"-anything and everything. She brought a book also and we sat on lounge chairs. It was a Sunday so not many people were swimming and we were alone when we first got there.
I heard Mrs. Hanson suck in her breath. "What’s wrong?" "Cramp. You’d think after six I’d get the hang of it, but this one is being difficult."
"Who?," I was at a loss as to what she was talking about.
"The baby." I looked over at Mackie, thinking he was hurt, "No, the baby."
I am a little dense so I still didn’t understand what she was talking about, "What baby?"
"The baby"
"You’re PREGNANT!?!?" I turned to face her so fast I almost knocked my chair over.
"Yes, you didn’t know?" I was stunned, she didn’t look pregnant, "Samantha, come on, I feel like I’ve gained forty pounds."
"No, you look fine, I can’t believe it. Wow! When are you due?"
"The middle of January, I can’t believe you didn’t know. I thought I told you."
"No, I’m amazed...I’m pysched for you, that’s great." Well that explains why they needed me, I thought.
I kept looking up from my book at her and thinking how NOT pregnant she looked. Every time I looked at her, she laughed, "Samantha, if you don’t stop, I’m going to toss you in the pool."
The girls stayed in the shallow end and Mackenzie didn’t want to get off the top step. He was only sitting in about two inches of water but he was having fun, splashing around.
Mrs. Hanson was keeping a close eye on him, I could see her tense up whenever he moved suddenly. I looked up periodically from my book to make sure that everyone was all right. The boys were in the deep end fooling around. Zac is quite a bit shorter than the other two, so he was at a disadvantage in the deep end. The girls called me over to the edge of the pool and I got off the chair and walked over. They asked me to judge their handstands in the water. Mackie got up and came to sit next to me. We were splashing our feet in the water and laughing.
Jessica picked him up and was spinning him around in the water. After a while she got tired, so I had her give him to me. I slid forward to the edge of the pool and rested his arms on my knees, so his legs were in the water. He was facing out in the water, watching everyone and having a grand old time.
The Trio of Trouble suddenly got very quiet and grouped together. They all broke apart and started swimming toward me with evil grins on their faces. Now, I have two brothers of my own, so I know when guys are up to something (plus it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were going to do). I quickly picked Mackie up and placed him back onto the edge of the pool. I pulled my legs from the water just before Taylor went to grab for them. Zac went for the side of the pool and pulled himself out of the water. Dripping wet, he came after me. Being six inches taller than him, I overpowered him and pushed him back into the water. The other two were now out of the water and coming after me. I played along with the game but, in all honesty, I didn’t want to get wet. They chased me around the pool. When they separated and came after me from both sides, I moved closer to Taylor since he was the smaller of the two and about my equal in height. I locked hands with his and he lost his footing and fell back into the water, narrowly missing Avery, who was laughing uncontrollably. I turned, just as Isaac came up behind me. He is about two or three inches taller than me, so he had the advantage. I tried to turn him and push him back in, as I did to Taylor, but he was stronger and he ended up pulling me in with him. When I surfaced, I was the center of a huge splash war. Mrs. Hanson was now in stitches, she was clutching her sides laughing so hard. I’m glad she thought it was so funny. I really didn’t find it that funny but, whatever. I went under again and swam back over to Mackie. He was still sitting on the edge of the pool kicking his legs to splash, "Are you mad?"
"No, I knew that was going to happen. I have two brothers of my own, remember." I held my hands out and he stood up and jumped into the water. We were having a lot of fun just fooling around. At least while I was holding Mackenzie, the guys didn’t risk splashing me too much.
Somehow I became the judge for a race between Zac and Jess. They raced back and forth through the pool at least four times because they kept getting back to the edge of the pool "at the EXACT same time" (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). Mrs. Hanson was inching her chair further and further away from the pool because no matter how hard she tried to not get wet, she kept getting soaked.
About that time four girls came around the corner and gasped. I could see everyone in the pool tense when they noticed them. Everyone in the pool was moving closer together, apparently there is safety in numbers. The girls got over their shock and came over to swim. The guys started to relax and cautiously went back to swimming. I went over to the boys and tried to talk to them, "Guys they’re not even talking to you. Come on, we were having fun." Mrs. Hanson was eyeing the girls, she was a bit cautious but said hello to them. Jason and Mr. Hanson came into the pool area at that moment and I took that as my time to exit. I gave Mackenzie to Taylor and got out of the pool. I picked up one of the towels and my book and followed Jason out.
We stopped just inside the door so I could dry myself off a little bit. I was soaked from head to toe and was dripping everywhere. Jason was looking back through the glass door, "Which one finally got you?" "Isaac, the other two tried but failed miserably" Jason laughed. I took this as laughing at me and pulled my hair out of the scrunchie. I furiously spun my head left and right. Everything in the room got wet, including Jason, he wasn’t amused. "Jason, they’re just girls. They’re not going to hurt them. I don’t think she’s packin’ heat in her bikini."
He laughed and turned around, "You ready yet?"
"Yeah, how did you know they were there?"
We started walking back into the hotel lobby, "From the window, we can see the pool. We were watching you from there"
"You were spying on us?"
"I work for them, it wasn’t spying. What were you talking to Mrs. Hanson about? I thought you were going to tip your chair over."
"She’s pregnant. I didn’t know, she just told me. Isn’t that cool?"
"Yes, I’ve known for a while but the rest of the world doesn’t know yet. That’s her decision to tell or not, so keep it quiet."
By that time, we were back upstairs and I reassured him that I was not going to tell anyone. I went back into my room and he went to his.
I took my T-shirt off and stood over the tub. I twisted the water out of the shirt and grabbed a dry towel, my bathing suit was soaked and cold so I changed into dry, warm clothes. I walked back into the main room and tried to go back to reading my book but with little success. I kept thinking, "Why are they still down there? What are they doing?" The girls were really pretty and as much as I hated to admit it, I was a bit jealous. I don’t really know why I was jealous, but I was. The guys are nice looking, yes, but I didn’t fall madly in love with them when I met them. Still, I couldn’t help but feel...envious.
I got off the bed and put shoes on.
I wrote a note to the girls: Hey, I went out and will be back in about an hour-Sami
I went to tell Jason I was going for a walk and after ten minutes of arguing, he let me go. Possibly because I was begging, but whatever. I thanked him profusely and headed for the elevator.
I got outside and felt much better. Not that I didn’t love being with the family, but it was good being able to get out. It was only about eight o’clock so I headed toward a group of stores I remembered seeing earlier in the day. I wasn’t quite sure about the Underground (London’s subway system) and I didn’t want to chance getting lost, so I walked. I wandered through the streets, buying a few presents for my friends and after about an hour I headed back.
The lady at the front desk must have remembered me from the morning because she gave me a nasty look as I got onto the elevator. I could see her from the elevator and just as the doors closed, I stuck my tongue out at her. Granted it was juvenile, but I felt much better after doing it.
I got off the elevator and when I reached my room, there was chaos. The two girls were jumping between the two beds and Mackie was running around in circles making airplane noises. I heard Avery say, "Mackie come here, we’ll jump over you."
"Avery don’t even think about it. Mackenzie, stay away from them."
Music was coming from the boys room and when I went around the corner they were all jumping on beds, singing along with the radio. You have not experienced hysterical until you see a sixteen year-old guy trying to jump on a bed and not slam his head on the ceiling.
I turned back around when Jessica started talking, "Mom’s mad at you. She’s in her room."
I sheepishly put my bags down and went across the hall. I knocked on the door and Mrs. Hanson let out a huge sigh of relief when she saw me, "I didn’t know where you went. I saw the note, but Jason didn’t tell us where you went until a few minutes ago. I thought you just left. I thought I was going to have to explain to your parents that we lost you. Oh, your mother called, she said she’d call back in about a half an hour."
"Thanks, I’m sorry. I went shopping. I got some gifts for my friends. I’m sorry if I scared you but I just wanted to see the city at night." I was lying, I just didn’t want to have to stay in the hotel room by myself. I reassured her that I would tell her if I decided to go out again and walked back into my room.
Jess and Avery were waiting for me, "Did you get in trouble?"
"No, she was just worried about where I went."
"Where did you go?"
"I went shopping." "But where?"
I got up and opened the curtains. Pointing out the window, I told them that I went to the shops down the street. You really couldn’t see them from the window but they didn’t seem to care. "Did you get us anything?"
"No, I didn’t know you wanted anything. Do you want to see what I bought anyway?"
They climbed back onto the bed and waited for me to pull the gifts out of the bags. I showed them and I got their seal of approval on everything. Curiosity got the best of me and I had to ask, "So did you guys have fun without me?"
The two of them made faces, "NO!" Avery continued, "They got all gooey and went to talk to the girls. Zac’s angry because one of them pulled his hair."
"Oh! That was mean."
We went into the boys’ room and they now had Mackenzie in with them. They had stopped jumping on the beds but were munching on various snacks. Zac had a bag of chips in his lap and Mackie was trying desperately to get a chip from the bag. The look of determination on his face was adorable. Every time he would reach for a chip, Zac would turn and the bag would get just out of Mackenzie’s reach. I asked Mackenzie if he wanted a soda and he flew back into our room. I followed him and grabbed the change that I had accumulated during the day. Somehow this became a field trip. What was an innocent trip to get a soda became a family outing. Mackie was pulling at my hand, yelling Coke and the girls were talking amongst themselves. The Trio of Trouble was going through their change, trying to distinguish which coins they would need. Nothing is more frustrating than to figure out how much a soda costs in a foreign currency.
I stood in front of the machine, looking at the unfamiliar monetary symbol. I shrugged and put a bunch of coins in the slot. I must have put in enough because it gave me a Cokeâ . Before I could bend down to retrieve it, Mackie already had it in his little hands and he was running back down the hall. It gave me back a new set of coins, so I put those back in the machine and asked Avery what she wanted. This went on until everyone had their drink of choice and we walked back to our rooms, "Hey Zac, How’s your head? I heard someone tried to get a souvenir."
Instinctively, he put his hand to his head and rubbed it, "She yanked hard. It hurt, one minute we were talking and the next she was attacking my hair."
Taylor was snickering, "They seemed really nice, but she grabbed at him and held on for dear life. I thought we were going to have to cut his hair to get her hands off."
Zac was a bit peeved by now, "It wasn’t funny."
I laughed, "Well that’ll teach to watch out who you flirt with."
Isaac was looming behind, "Actually that reminds me, SOMEONE stole my towel from me when we were at the pool."
"Hey, that’s your own fault. Next time don’t pull me into the pool. You’re lucky stealing your towel was the only thing I did."
We were back at our rooms now. Mackie was sitting on the edge of the bed, drinking his soda. "Mack, how did you get your soda open?"
I don’t know that much about three year olds but my guess is that they can’t open cans of soda by themselves. He held up his soda, which caused a little bit of it to spill down his shirt, "Mom did it." I went into the bathroom and grabbed a towel for him.
"It spilled"
"I know, Sweetie. It’s only soda, it’ll come out."
We all sat in the boys' room and they were arguing over who got what for food.
"Hey, where’s the clicker?"
"The what?!?"
"The clicker...oh wait...let me guess...you call it the remote control?"
"No, we call it the remote and Zac had it last."
Great this could take hours, I thought, Have you ever tried to find the clicker after a guy has had it? It’s like a security thing, they hide it in the damnedest places.
I got down on all fours and searched for it. Throwing up the covers, I looked under the beds. Nope not there. Looked under the desk, behind chairs and inside drawers. It was missing and no one was helping me find it. I had to climb over people’s various limbs, trying not to step on them. I went into the bathroom to try to find it, but it wasn’t there either. I searched the room from top to bottom but it wasn’t anywhere. Finally, Taylor helped in the search, "Zac you had it last, where is it?"
With his mouth full of God-knows-what, he replied, "I don’t know...maybe in my suitcase." At least that’s what I think that’s what he said, I couldn’t tell with the food in the way.
I had to ask, "Why would it be in your suitcase?" All I got in response was a shrug.
Taylor got up and searched through until he found it. Unfortunately, that meant that Taylor became The Remote Rambo and switched channels before you could even tell what was on. Not that there are a lot of channels in England but still. I would like my eyes to have the chance to focus before the channel is changed. He finally decided on some cheesy eighties movie and we were forced to sit through it.
Until my mother called.
I got up and went back into my room to get the phone. We talked for a few minutes before she handed the phone to my father. They asked basic questions about London, how the flight was and how the kids were. My brothers were home and I talked to them for awhile too. My brother’s girlfriend was there and I talked to her, "Do they have a computer because we can talk on-line for a lot less money?"
"I don’t know, let me check." I got off the bed and went in to ask. Peeking my head around the corner, I asked. Isaac was the only one to pry his eyes off the TV screen, "Um...yeah, it’s in my parents’ room, I think. Tay, where’s the laptop?" He kicked Taylor with his foot and tried to get an answer out of him, with little success. Isaac pulled himself off the bed and walked to the door to the hallway. I went through my room and met him in the hallway. He called into his parents room and we got our answer. "Yeah, the laptop’s in there."
"May I use it? Do you have any screen names other than Mmmbop? I don’t want to be harassed by little thirteen year olds thinking I’m you."
"Yes we have other screen names and yes you can use it. I don’t know if we have a converter to plug the modem into, but someone can probably find you one tomorrow."
"Thank you, I want to talk to my friends and using the Internet is much cheaper than calling on the phone."
"Are you on the phone now?"
"Yeah, it’s my brother’s girlfriend, Mary. Wanna talk to her? She’s really nice, but don’t get any ideas because my brother would hunt you down and kill you."
"I won’t get any ideas."
I went back to watching the movie and Isaac came back in after a few minutes, "Your parents said goodnight and Mary is really nice. I talked to your brother and he told me about an incident in first grade involving your teacher and milk."
"He didn’t!"
"You really poured milk into your teachers lap?"
"Yes, but she deserved it. She made fun of my friend and wouldn’t let her eat her lunch."
By now the whole room was listening. Avery asked, "Did you get in trouble?"
"Actually no. Apparently teachers are not allowed to deny a student their lunch so the teacher was reprimanded and I didn’t get in trouble in school. My parents, were another story; my mother yelled for hours, screaming about respecting authority and stuff. They got over it though. I’d never do it again but she had no right to take my friends lunch away."
Mr. Hanson came in then and told us that we had to go to bed soon. The girls and I went back to our room to get ready for bed and Mackenzie went with his father to take a bath. When Mackie was done, I read the story to them again. This time everyone stayed awake for it and Taylor came in to listen. Seven kids were all piled together on one bed. It was a little cramped but it was fun. They all laughed when I did the voices. It was a lot of fun, I forgot how cool Dr. Seuss was.
After I finished, we all dispersed to our own beds and fell asleep.
"Should we wake her up?" I heard Zac’s voice. I was just starting to wake up and could hear the guys. Everyone was up and ready. Taylor, Ike and Zac were standing over my bed, debating whether to wake me up or not.
Taylor finally said, "Didn’t you get a wake-up call this morning?"
Avery was sitting on the opposite bed putting on her shoes, "No, the phone never rang. We need to get her up or she’s going to miss breakfast."
I was just starting to come back to reality. I rolled over and I felt someone looking at me. Before I could open my eyes, Mackenzie grabbed my eyelid and yanked it open, "Sami, get up. You’re late."
I grabbed him around the waist and tickled him until he was practically screaming. I let him go and he ran over to Isaac. I sat up in bed and faced the guys, they all sucked in their breath. Again, I must reiterate, I am not attractive in the morning. It’s pretty bad. The guys tried to cover the fact that they were scared, but I knew.
Taylor was the first to speak, "Umm...ah...g..good morning"
"Ugh! Morning, what time is it?" I was wiping sleep out of my eyes and finally got up.
Zac followed me toward the bathroom, "What’s wrong with your voice?"
I grabbed the blue container and turned away from him. I took both my retainers out and put them in the container.
"You wear retainers?"
"Yeah, I had braces for two years and now I have to wear these at night. I sound like a moron, I know, which is why I put them in just before I go to sleep and take them out as soon as I get up." I put my nasty looking hair in a scrunchie and went back into the main room. I grabbed clothes and stuff and headed back toward the bathroom, "Guys, head down to breakfast, I’ll be down as soon as I’m done. I don’t want to make you late."
When I was ready, I went down to the front desk and asked for the key to get to the basement. The evil lady was back at the front desk. She looked frighteningly like Ursula from the Little Mermaid and she wasn’t in a good mood. She made me go all the way back upstairs to get my drivers license as an ID. How many American girls does she get asking to go to the basement at 5 in the morning? I was a bit angry because I had to go all the way back upstairs but, Jason was still fuming about the girls at the pool so apparently he told the Ursula look-alike not to let anyone downstairs. She scanned my driver’s license top to bottom, front to back. And after what seemed like ten minutes she said, "All right, I’ll accept this." Was I supposed to be honored she believed me?
She came around the desk with the key in her hand. She shuffled over to the door and opened it for me. "Thank you." She gave me a nasty look and went back to her spot behind the desk.
Everyone was almost done eating by the time I got down there (Thanks to Ursula). The guys had a television appearance on a British morning show. I was excited I was going to get to hear them live.
I grabbed a bagel and started eating. Isaac leaned over, "Don’t you want cream cheese or something on that?"
"No, I’m not a big fan of cream cheese. I like bagels plain." I got the strangest look from him, but whatever.
Mr. Hanson came up to me then and asked me to come and meet the back-up musicians. He told me all of their names and I hoped that I could remember them. Granted there were only three of them, but I’m not the best with names. Andy was the back-up keyboardist and Ravi is the other guitarist and Scott plays the bass. They were all between twenty and thirty five and seemed very nice. They had been with the band for about two months and were used to the screaming crowds. I, on the other hand was not looking forward to being among the masses.
Mrs. Hanson was sitting at the table and as I walked by she said, "Sami, I hope you’re going to dry your hair before we leave. I don’t want you getting sick." Do all mothers go to the same school of parenting or something? She sounded exactly like my mother at that moment. "Yes, just let me finish my bagel and I’ll go." I know she was only looking out for my health but, I still felt like I was four when she said it.
We got to the television studio about an hour before they were supposed to play and I was more nervous than they were. Zac was playing with Mackenzie as if they were at home. I was sitting in a chair biting my nails. I couldn’t believe they were this calm about performing. The two older ones were talking to the hosts of the show and giving them basic background information. Avery came over to me and we were joking around, but I was petrified for them. I kept sneaking glances at them, looking for signs of nervous, but they were all completely comfortable.
I went out near the sound stage and was watching the audience come in. They had signs and posters with messages written on them. Some of them wrote the names of the guys on their skin with face paint. You could tell that the crowd was going to be vocal because the girls were screaming already. A man with headphones around his neck was standing in front of the audience, prompting them as to when and when not scream, applaud, etc. He was yelling, trying to be heard over the girls’ screams but to no avail. He knew that no one was going to listen, but he had to do it.
I went back to the guys’ room and opened the door. Taylor was the first to turn around and I gasped. I think I hurt his feelings, I didn’t mean to, I just wasn’t used to seeing them with stage makeup on. Stage makeup is a heavier than regular makeup; it’s very thick and cakey (and it’s a pain in the butt to get off-you can scrub for hours and it’s still on your skin). I know if they didn’t wear it, they looked (literally) dead under the lights on-stage, but it was just a bit shocking. After a second or two, I got used to it, but they still looked weird.
We were all standing backstage waiting for them to be introduced. I told Mrs. Hanson where I was going and took Avery with me. We snuck around to where the audience was sitting, so we could see the guys from there. I picked her up so she could see and we listened to them from there. They performed, "Where’s the Love" and the audience went nuts. Avery was so excited, she was singing along with them. I was having fun watching her reaction to her brothers. She was yelling for them and clapping furiously. I had to tighten my grip around her because she was bouncing around so much, I was afraid she was going to fall. It’s great to watch them on television but to hear them live is a hundred times better. We went backstage while the guys answered questions. The whole family was crowded around. You could feel the energy from them, they were delirious they were so happy. The guys were literally jumping when they got offstage. The excitement was only slightly dampened when Jason shoved all of us back into the green room. He was still seething about the "hair" incident, so he was extremely protective.
The boys were rushed out the back door into a waiting car and everyone else waited for it to die down for a few minutes, then followed them back to the hotel. People were following the guys’ car and screams were coming out the open windows.
The guys have to be nice and cannot say this, but I can. Why must everyone scream? It gets so annoying after a while. The guys notice you, there is no need to scream at them. It won’t make them like you anymore. A simple, "hello" works wonders with them. They’re normal people, they don’t like being screamed at.
We got back to our hotel and fooled around for a few hours before we had to pack up and go to the airport for Australia. When I got back to the hotel, I had a craving for chocolate. I went out to the store at the end of the street and got a big bag of M&MsÒ for the girls and I.
We were in our room and we had the radio on. The girls and I were singing along and eating the candy. I was sitting on my bed, braiding my hair. Jessica brought over her brush and asked me to braid her hair.
"Yeah, just let me finish mine and I’ll do your hair." I’m used to braiding my own hair, so braiding someone else’s took me a few tries. I was sitting on the edge of the bed and Jess was sitting on the floor in front of me. We were all having tons of fun, just talking about everything. I was teasing them about having boyfriends, "So do you two have guys waiting for you back in Tulsa?"
They both gave me an immediate answer of, "NO!"
Jess turned her head, "Do you have anyone waiting for you?"
"Just my cat."
Avery was throwing pieces of candy in the air and trying to catch them in her mouth, "You have a cat?"
"Actually my family has four. But yes, my cat’s name is Rajah. She was a birthday present from my friend Chrissy."
"You got a cat for your birthday?"
"Why not? She’s the best, I love her and I miss her a lot. It’s so weird waking up and not having her asleep at my feet. I miss that, she keeps my feet warm."
"What does she look like?"
"She’s a gray tiger and she’s tan colored on her belly."
We called Mackie in from the boys’ room. He stood at the doorway between the two rooms with his hands on his hips, "What!? We were playing."
"Well! Aren’t we Mr. Assertive? We wanted to know if you wanted some chocolate, but if you’re going to be rude, we won’t give you any."
He was across the room like a flash of light. He had his hands out and I poured as many as would fit in his little hands. He ran back in with the boys, spilling a few on the floor as he went. After a few seconds, I heard Isaac’s guitar stop. The three boys were at the door looking for the candy. They eyed the bag in my hands and came after it.
"Yes, you may have some." They came over and I poured some into their hands.
"What are you guys working on?"
Taylor was the only one that wasn’t inhaling the candy, "We’re releasing a Christmas CD and Ike and I were throwing ideas around."
"I could hear you guys, it sounded really good."
"It’s just a few chords now but hopefully it’ll turn into something."
"I’m sure it will, I have faith in you."
I happened to look down at my watch and noticed it was getting really late, our flight was leaving in a few hours and I hadn’t even packed up yet. Everyone scattered to pack. Well, everyone except Mackenzie. He was sitting in the middle of the bed, eating the rest of the candy. I looked over at him and he was covered with chocolate.
"Mack, you have chocolate all over you. Don’t touch anything." I picked him up and brought him into the bathroom. I sat him on a towel on the sink and grabbed a face cloth.
"Mackenzie, how did you get chocolate in your hair?" He was licking the melted chocolate off his fingers.
"It’s good."
"I can see that, it’s all over you."
We finishing packing and everyone met in the hallway. Somehow I got nominated to return the key to Ursula. I don’t think that woman sleeps because she was at that desk every time I went by.
We were walking through the airport and I was talking to Scott, the bassist. He’s the one that usually stands behind Isaac, with the blond hair. There was a group of girls that followed us through the airport. One of the girls obviously couldn’t handle seeing the guys in person. When the guys turned around to talk to them, she passed out. She was toward the back of the group, so the guys couldn’t see her and the other girls just stepped over her to get closer to the guys. I helped her up and asked her if she was all right. She was dazed and wasn’t sure about where she was. The guys were on the move again before she was completely awake and I had to leave her there. I knew that she was going to be okay but I felt bad leaving her there. I wished I could have gotten the guys’ attention so they could say hello or give her an autograph or something. I looked back at her and her friends were now crowding around her, so I felt a little better. I still felt guilty about not being able to do anything for her.
I found my seat on the plane and kept thinking about that girl. I wondered if she even got to see them before she passed out. I am sure if the guys knew what happened, they would have done something. I wished I had her name or address so we could mail her an autograph.
I sat back in my seat between Isaac and Zac and took out my CD player. I was listening to Dave Matthews when Zac’s head fell on my shoulder. He was asleep and I didn’t want to wake him, so I let it go. Then about twenty minutes later, Isaac fell asleep and his head fell on my other shoulder.
I had two options: wake them up and risk getting snapped at for waking them or let them sleep and be uncomfortable. Not that I don’t love the guys, but I’m not a pillow. I gently picked Zac’s head up and pushed it to the other side. I went to pull my hand back when I realized my class ring was caught in his hair. I couldn’t move too much because Isaac was asleep on my other shoulder, so I slid my finger out of the ring and let it hang from his hair. I turned my attention to Isaac and pushed him off, but was careful not to let my rings get caught. I turned to face Zac and after ten minutes of untangling and cursing under my breath, I got my ring back.
Mission accomplished, Zac didn’t even wake up.
Australia was fun, but it’s kind of weird to have people tell you that its winter when its fifty degrees out. Winter to me means snow-lots of snow.
It takes a while for your body to get used to the time change, but unfortunately we were not allowed to. Our internal clocks said it was time for bed, but Australia wasn’t. There is, maybe ten hours difference between London and Sydney and if I remember correctly, the guys had an interview that afternoon, so by the time we got to bed, we had been awake for over 30 hours.
The hotel was nice, I got my own room and it had a balcony. Actually, I don’t know why I had my own room. Either everyone was in my room or I was in theirs.
The family was going sightseeing and I just wanted a day to myself. I asked if I could go out on my own for the day. I knew that after Australia, we went to Indonesia and I don’t speak any other language other than English (and my pathetic attempt at Spanish). So I wouldn’t be going out on my own after we left Australia. Jason gave me a lecture on what to do and what not to do, etc. I promised him that I wouldn’t get myself killed and he finally let me go. He’s worse than my father sometimes.
I slept in until eight. I was getting used to getting up at four or five in the morning with the guys, so sleeping till eight was heaven. They usually have to get up early for morning radio or television shows. Or if they have to perform at night, they usually don’t get to sleep in that late the next day, so they get tired rather quickly.
I stopped at a few of the stores and found a mall (Whoo hoo!). I went into the music store there and started to hunt for Middle of Nowhere. I had the Mmmbop single but hadn’t bought the whole CD yet. So when Zac asked me what my favorite song was, I had to come up with the really lame answer like, "I like them all. I can’t choose a favorite." Meanwhile, I was praying they didn’t ask me anything about the CD. Thankfully, they didn’t and I was lucky enough to find one copy of it in the store.
"Have you got Hanson there?" I almost dropped the CD when I heard a voice behind me. One of the men that worked in the store had come up behind me and scared me half to death.
"Um...yeah. I’ve heard good things about the band."
The man gave me kind of a confused look and said, "You’re not from around here, are you?"
I kind of cringed, "No, I’m American...from Boston actually."
"Oh...you live in America and you haven’t bought the Hanson CD yet? I thought everyone had it there." His accent was kind of neat, I liked it. It was different from anything I was used to hearing.
"No, I’ve been out of America for a few weeks and haven’t been able to buy it yet."
"Actually the band is in Australia now." He leaned back against a pole.
I kind of smiled to myself, "Really, I didn’t know that. I’ll have to find out where they’re playing and go see them live." If he only knew.
"The girls around here scream whenever any of their names are mentioned. I really don’t know why girls like them so much. Their music is good though, you really should try to hear them live."
I was kind of curious, the guys had only performed live on a radio show in Australia at that time, "You’ve heard them perform before?"
"Not live, I saw them perform on an American television show. Two hosts, a woman and a man..."
"Regis and Kathie Lee?"
"Yes, them, I couldn’t remember the name."
"Yeah, I saw that too, it was about six weeks ago...Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to buy this."
I brought my portable CD player with me and took it out of my backpack. I opened the CD as soon as I got out of the store and was immediately engrossed in Thinking of You. I was looking through the pictures in the jacket and was thinking of how different they looked. They had aged so much in only a few months. Zac looked kind of the same but Taylor and Isaac had changed so much. They looked more...made up. In the pictures from Middle of Nowhere, they looked young and innocent. Not that they didn’t look innocent in Australia or now for that matter, it’s just they looked like anyone that you would see at school or at the mall. Does that make sense? On the road, they have an army of people that tell them how to dress, what they should do with their hair, etc. Before, they didn’t have that.
I’ve met the people that dress them. One of them, Candace, does not get along with me at all, but I don’t get along with her so the feeling is mutual. We have only met a few times, but every time, we’ve butted heads. Personally, I think that at 16, 14 and 11-the guys can dress themselves. Did they walk around Tulsa in rags? I don’t think so. Plus, I am not a fashion plate, I wear what I can afford, which means I do not shop at the Gap or the Limited. I just wear T-shirts and jeans. She sees me as opinionated, I look at her as a stuck-up snob. Needless to say, we don’t get along.
Anyway, I got to see a lot of Sydney that day. It is a beautiful city, I loved the Opera House and got to see a few museums. There is a restaurant on one of the streets near Centennial Park that has really good pizza. I almost brought one back for the family but the thoughts of carrying a pizza box around the city didn’t thrill me.
I headed back to the hotel and after several security checks, I was allowed to go upstairs to my room. Girls were camped out in front of the hotel, so security was really tight. Considering I would be the perfect candidate for someone sneaking in-female and 17, I didn’t mind the security precautions.
I got upstairs and Jess was running around yelling, "three days!" I was confused, "three days till what?" She followed me into my room and was jumping around, "three days till my birthday."
"Seriously?! Are you going to be ten?"
"No, I’m turning nine." She was still hopping around the room.
"I thought you already were nine." I could have sworn that I read somewhere that she was nine. I was under the impression that she was already nine.
"Nope, not yet, but in three days I will be."
"Cool, I’ll have to find something for you for your birthday." She stopped jumping and started grilling me for information about what I would get her for her birthday, "Come on, tell me."
I took my shoes off and sat down on my bed, "Nope, you still have three more days. I’ll give you the gift then."
"You’re mean, you know that?"
"Nope, insults aren’t going to get you anywhere, Jess. I’m still not going to tell you. Where is everyone else? Did you have fun? I got to see a lot of the city, it’s nice huh?"
She thought for a second, "In their rooms...yes...and yes. Wanna go see if they wanna go outside?"
"Jess, your parents would have a fit. Come here."
She followed me over to the balcony and I eased open the sliding door. She was leaning over the concrete wall with her legs swinging, trying to see. "See them, if you go outside, they’ll eat you alive." She looked down at the crowd of girls that was at the front door to the hotel and frowned, "I know, they mobbed us when we got back." A girl looked up at that moment and we stepped back into the room as fast as we could. The crowd started screaming and the two of us groaned, "let’s just hope they stop soon."
There was nothing fun to do in my room so we went back to find Avery and see if she wanted to do anything. I found the rest of them in the guys’ room watching TV. I walked over to the desk at the other side of the room and sat in top of it. Avery asked how my day went and stuff. The guys were pretty engrossed in the cartoon.
"My day was good, I got to see a lot of the city."
Taylor momentarily tore his eyes from the screen and said, "Did you miss us?"
"No not really." He turned his head to face me again and I went on to explain, "I couldn’t get away from you. Everywhere I went you were either rumored to be going there and girls were swarming the building or you just left there and the girls were swapping stories about how you looked. I couldn’t even get into one of the museums, there were too many people crowding the front door."
"Did any of the girls say anything nice about us?"
"I was kind of talking to a small group of girls, but when they started analyzing Isaac’s butt, I left." I purposely said that to get a reaction out of Isaac because he seemed to be comatose. He looked up and turned bright red from embarrassment.
Zac found this funny, "What’d they say about his butt?"
"Yeah, right, like I’m going to repeat it. No, it was just girls being...girls, I don’t think they meant anything about it. What did you guys do?" Actually when that did happen (they were talking about Taylor and not Isaac), I couldn’t look at Taylor for two days, it was so embarrassing. I was talking to a group of girls and they were really nice until they started discussing Taylor; that was when I walked away.
They were all interrupting each other telling me about their day. I was trying to keep up with who was speaking, but they were all talking at once. It was hard to keep track of everyone. From what I understood from them they saw a lot of the city but were followed everywhere they went. The guys didn’t really mind it, the were really flattered.
The TOT (Trio of Trouble) had an interview that night so we all went with them to the radio station. The girls, Mackenzie, Mrs. Hanson and I were all in a room that, I guess, was reserved for people to wait in. There were magazines and stuff and it had speakers mounted on the wall so you could hear the interview. I brought playing cards and the kids and I were sitting on the floor playing and listening to the guys. We were teaching Mackenzie how to play cards. We split up in two teams and it was me and Mack against the two girls.
Avery stopped for a second, "How come they all ask the same questions?"
"I don’t know, I guess they just can’t think of anything else to ask them. Remember the guys have never been to Australia so people here have never heard an interview with the guys before." I don’t think she accepted my answer but she didn’t pursue a further explanation.
The station was taking calls from listeners and a girl called. The girl couldn’t even speak, she was babbling incoherently. The DJ tried to calm her down and get her to ask a question but it became apparent that she was beyond help. We all laughed when the DJ cut her off. I really don’t understand why she got so emotional. If she was standing in front of the guys-I could see it, but she was only talking on the phone. Oh well, at least she didn’t scream-she was only tongue-tied. Most of the questions after that were pretty basic, no one asked anything that most fans didn’t know.
We were only in Sydney for two days, but from what I saw of it it was nice. The guys performed on a cruise ship. That was fun, the audience won a contest from a radio station and the prize was to see Hanson perform. They also did a radio show with this guy Ugly Phil-don’t ask. He was really nice though, I kind of expected him to be weird, but he was pretty cool. He gave the guys really cool T-shirts.
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