Zac sat slumped over in his chair. He wished he was anywhere else in the world rather than where he was. All he knew was that he felt sick and very tired. There were bags under his eyes and he had that darn fever blister on his lip again. It was in that horrid stage, where even moving his lip sent a sharp pain straight through his face.

"Zac? Are you okay?"

Zac turned to see Taylor next to him holding two Dr. Peppers.

"I brought you one. You seemed kind of out of it when we were practicing a little while ago."

"No, I'm okay. Just tired, I guess."

"Guess what? Ike can't stop talking about this girl that he saw at yesterday's performance. He's totally drooling over her, it's so pathetic. He said that...Zac? Are you even listening to me?"

Zac looked up at his older brother. Usually he loved a good "Ike drooling" story but Tay's rambling wasn't very interesting right now. "Sorry."

"Man, are you okay? You're acting really weird."

"I said I was okay! Okay?" He hadn't meant to sound so mean.

"Alright, alright. I guess someone's a little cranky today." Tay got up and set the soda by his brother. "Do you want me to get Mom or something? I mean you really don't look very goo..."

"Tay, I just want to be left alone right now, 'kay?"

"That's cool. Fine." Tay backed away tentitively. Something was definitely wrong with his little brother and he didn't think that it was just because he was tired.

Yesterday the guys had performed in front of 6000 fans at one of their "promotional" gigs. It was basically the same thing they had been doing for the past month. Mall after mall, radio station after radio station. It was fun, but a bit draining at times. Maybe it was taking its toll on poor Zac, who always had to be so energetic at the appearances.

Zac slumped his head over once again, thankful that he was alone for once. He was just starting to take in the peace and quiet when he heard the familiar sneeze of his mother coming from the other side of the rehearsal studio.

"Zac? Taylor said that you weren't feeling well. Are you alright, honey?"

"Tell me, Mom. Why does everybody keep asking me that? Can't a guy just want to be alone once in awhile? Can't that be a possibility? Or do I always have to be with the whole family, all together, crowded in a van singing road songs and church hymns. I'm growing up, mother. I mean, I'm 12 already. Okay? Can't I be moody too?"

His mom started to giggle.

"Why is that funny?" Zac was starting to get annoyed.

"Oh, no sweetheart, it's not funny. I'm sorry," his mom giggled. "I really am sorry."

"Oh, fine. Mock me why don't you."

"Are you sure you're feeling okay, I mean physically. Is that fever blister really hurting you? Did you put the stuff on it that I told you to?"

"Mom, I've had these things before. I know how to put on Blistex if that's what you're asking. I'm fine."

"Okay. But we're actually leaving in a couple of minutes to head back to the hotel. We have to catch a flight in less than 2 hours." With that his mom got up and left Zac to ponder what he was really sick about. He couldn't tell his brothers. They would just laugh at him. They think he's a baby. Little tiny Zac. But it isn't true anymore. He's not even that much younger than Tay.

He could picture her face. So sweet. She always looked so interested in everything he had to say. She MUST have feelings for him, right? It can't all be pretend. All he knew was that he didn't see enough of her. She rarely showed up at the performances and the only time he knew he was going to see her was when they met with the big guys at Mercury Records to discuss their latest promotional strategy. Ahhhhh, Amanda. What a beautiful name. He calls her Mandy. Ahhhhhh, what an even more beautiful name.

But yesterday she had shown up at the performance. She sat backstage and he could see her out of the corner of his eye. She was dancing and singing to every song. And she looked straight at him the entire time.

After the show Zac rushed off the stage to give her a big hug. She laughed and commented on the great reception she was getting.

"Zac, have you grown since the last time I saw you?"

Zac looked up at her. It was an innocent question, but one that startled him. She sounded like his Aunt. Has he grown?

"Um, I don't think so," Zac responded.

"Oh, well. Must be the boots then. Oh, Zac, I really want you to meet somebody. Chris!"

Zac stood there sinking in the beauty of her face.

"Zac, this is Chris," she squeezed the shoulders of a tall handsome man. "He's my fiance."

"Your, huh?"

"Hey, tiger!" Chris gave Zac a pat on the head. Tiger? What the...

"So, Amanda tells me you're quite the little drummer boy. Like to pound on things, huh?" he said as he laughed at his pathetic attempt at humor.

Zac wanted to say "Yeah, I like to pound on things. Your head might be a nice start," but he restrained himself, only because Mandy was still there.

"Well Zac, I have to get back to work. You guys did really great today."

With that she left and took 95% of his heart with her. At least that's what it seemed like.

Zac had managed a few more minutes alone before he was forced to get into the van to head back to the hotel. He still looked like someone had run him over with a zamboni. He loved that word. "Zamboni."

A few hours later they were on a flight to there next mall appearance. Ike was sleeping next to Zac and Tay was making interesting faces at the flight attendant who had her back turned to him.

"Tay? Have you ever...you know...liked a girl?"

"Uh...sure, why?" Tay managed to mutter in between faces.

"Stop that, Tay. I need to talk to you."

Taylor made one last facial contortion before sitting back to listen to his brother. "Funny, Zac. You didn't seem to want to talk to me earlier this morning. And I was being soooo nice to you too."

"Sorry about that. So, who did you like?"

"You know who I liked Zac, you only tormented me about her all last year."

"Oh, Rebecca. Okay. But have you ever liked anyone that was...um...that didn't like you back because maybe she was...older?"

"So, Amanda cut you down, huh!" Tay said with a laugh.

"What?!"

"Zac. You weren't exactly subtle about it. Everybody knew that you liked her. So that's what all that moping was about this morning. Zac, she's, like, 30. She could be your mom!"

With that loud declaration, Isaac sat up in his seat. "Who could be his mother? That woman that works for Mercury? What's her name...Amanda?"

"Oh, my gosh. Everybody knows." Zac buried his face in his hands. "She could not be my mother," he managed to say through his fingers.

"Do the math, Zac. She could be your mother," Ike laughed.

"Would you guys stop saying that!"

"Chill out dude, 'kay?" Tay tried his best to look like he didn't know the frazzled boy next to him. "You'll get over her. Look at it this way. Maybe she really did like you, but she made a commitment to Chris and she had to keep it."

"You know about Chris?"

"Uh, yeah. But he's nothing special. You're a much cooler guy."

"Thanks." Zac sat up. "I know you're just trying to make me feel better, but the thought was nice."

The plane landed an hour later. Zac calmed down enough to fall asleep for awhile. Taylor was the one that couldn't sit still. Zac just had to bring up Rebecca. She was his first crush and in so many ways he wasn't over her yet.

At the hotel Taylor plopped himself on the bed. He was glad that the performance wasn't until the morning. He was tired of late night shows. "Hey, Ike, I'm gonna look around the hotel. Wanna come?"

"Sure, Tay. Zac, you gonna come."

"Nah, I think I'm gonna take a nap."

The oldest two knew that was just an excuse so that he could be alone again. Taylor looked like he was about to make a joking remark about Amanda, but Isaac glared at his brother. He should just leave the love-struck Zac alone, at least for now.

Tay and Ike headed down to the lobby of the hotel. It was a huge place with foutains and sculptures. All the guests in the lobby looked like they were about to go to some important business meeting. Isaac and Taylor stuck out like sore thumbs.

"Let's get something to eat," Ike suggested.

"Yeah, I'm starving. I have this incredible urge for a Snickers bar."

"No, I mean in the restaurant." Ike motioned to the hotel restaurant. The same businessmen were eating and jabbering on their little cell-phones.

"Ike, that looks pretty fancy. Plus, Mom and Dad would kill us if we had dinner without them."

"I just want to check it out, okay?"

"Fine."

They headed up to the hostess.

"Two please," Ike said in his most responsible voice.

The hostess glared at the two scruffy-looking teens. "Okay. smoking or non-smoking?"

"Hmmm, Tay, what do you think? You going to break out the cigar this afternoon." Ike smiled at his brother.

Tay played along in his lowest and most adult voice. "No, not today, old boy. I might enjoy a good pipe later on though."

"Very well, good fella. I guess that means it's non-smoking for us today." Ike turned back to the hostess who didn't seem to be a bit amused.

"Alright, then, if you will follow me." She grabbed two menus and led the guys to the very back corner of the restaurant.

"Hmmm, Tay, my buddy. She seems to have put us in the dark dungeonous corner of this restaurant. Now, why could that be?"

"Oh, I don't have the slightest clue, brother dear." With that they both laughed and opened the menus.

Tay glanced over the items and realized that he didn't have a clue as to what most of the food was.

"What's this?" Tay pointed to some unpronounceable word.

"I think its chicken."

The guys ordered their mystery foods and sat back to enjoy the rare bit of freedom they were enjoying.

"Ike, remember Rebecca?"

"Uh, how could I forget?" Isaac was surprised he brought her up. Just a few short months ago Taylor was declaring that she had totally crushed him and broken him in two. Then he claimed that he was swearing off girls for the rest of his life, or at least until he was 15. "What made you think of her?"

"Oh, Zac."

"Yeah, Tay, I always know that when I think of Zac, I think of girls. You're strange, man."

"No. You know how he was talking about Amanda and he asked me about liking a girl and well, I thought of Rebecca. She was so pretty wasn't she?" Tay said in a wistful, longing voice.

"Taylor, she's not dead."

Rebecca was a girl that had lived next door to the Hansons ever since they had moved back to Oklahoma after being overseas. They use to play together when they were little. She would always want to play house, and Taylor, not being very assertive, always ended up being "the daddy." She was of course "the mommy" and sometimes Zac would be "the baby." It wasn't until he turned Zac's age, though, that he particularly enjoyed spending time playing "girly" games with Rebecca. But it wasn't the games, it was her. For the longest time he hated her long, curly hair. Whenever she would get too close to him, it would inevitably get in his face. But suddenly her hair was the most beautiful he had ever seen.

"Did I ever tell you about what we did in the garage?"

"Oh, Tay, I don't know if I want to know this," Isaac hoped his brother would get the hint to keep his story to himself.

"We just came home after being at the mall..."

Tay started his story as Ike groaned. He and Rebecca had been "dating" for a week by that time. He didn't know much about how to act around a girl. At least not a girl he liked. They sat in the garage. Tay messed around with a drawing he had been working on for awhile.

"I'm bored, Taylor," Rebecca said as she got up off the floor. "If we're not going to do anything fun then I might as well go."

"No!" Tay exclaimed, louder than he had wanted to. "I mean, we could go play video games or something. Or anything you want to do."

"Well, I don't know. I'm not very good at video games. I tried to play with my sister and she got so frustrated because I kept dying too quickly. I wouldn't be much fun to play with. We could always go see a movie or something."

"We were just at the mall." Tay looked down in dissapointment. Why did this always happen? He knew he liked her, but they were just so different. There wasn't anything that they could figure out to do that they both enjoyed.

Suddenly he felt a hand stroking the back of his head. Rebecca started to mess around with Taylor's hair. "Your hair is so soft. I wish mine wasn't so frizzy."

Taylor started to shiver. He didn't know why. Her hand wasn't cold or anything. "Um, maybe you better go home then."

"Oh, okay." She looked upset. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No. I don't think so. I just...I mean...your mom's probably expecting you for dinner."

Tay once again picked up his pencil and began outlining part of the drawing on the wall.

"Taylor?"

"Huh." He tried his best to look engrossed in the drawing.

"I want to..."

"What?"

"Well, I was talking to Alison yesterday and...well, you know how she and Alex are going together? Well, she said that she and Alex..." She looked down like she was embarrased.

"What?"

"Well, Alex has this basement and they were, you know, making out and stuff and...why don't we do that?"

"What?"

"Can't you say anything else?" She grabbed his hand and started to fiddle with his fingers. "We are 13 now you know and...I want to...kiss you."

Tay dropped his pencil. He didn't know how to respond. He had thought about kissing her. He had thought about a little more than that, actually. You can't live with an older brother without getting a few lessons. He hadn't expected her to say that, though. Girls don't say that, do they?

"Um, okay."

Rebecca sat down in front of him. She gently stroked his hair. She tried to think about how they did this on her mom's soap opera. Well, maybe she didn't want to go that far. Taylor crinkled his nose up and gave her his puppy dog look.

"Tay. What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. Nothing. Go ahead."

"Taylor. This kind of takes two people to do."

"Okay, okay."

She placed her hands on his face. He closed his eyes and started to lean in. He felt her lips on his. They sat there for a little while like that, not quite sure where to go from there. She started to lean in more and...

"Here's your food, sir."

"Taylor? Taylor. Where have you been?" Ike waved his hand in front of Tay's face. "You started to tell your little garage story and you just stopped and went into your own little fantasy world. I'm kind of glad. I don't think I want to know what you did in the garage."

Isaac started to play around with the unrecognizable food on his plate.

"Oh, well, we just kissed, that's all."

"You positive?" Ike said, not really wanting to know.

"Yeah." He was positive about that. Just as things were about to get good Rebecca realized that her mother had wanted her to be home in 10 minutes and she left. "What time is it? We've been gone for a long time. Mom and Dad might get worried or something."

"It's...oh my gosh! It's 11:00! I didn't realize that it took so long for the food to get here. We gotta go, Tay."

The two rushed up to their room and were greeted by their father who didn't look to pleased to see them.

"Do you realize what time it is? Have you any clue how worried we were. All I heard from Zac is that you two went off exploring. What about your dinner? We had to go eat without you and I had Jason go out and search for you."

Jason, the boy's bodygaurd sat on the bed snickering. He was more appreciative of the boys' antics.

"Sorry, Dad," Isaac replied in the most innocent voice he could delve up.

"Do you know what time your performance is tomorrow? You boys have to be up and ready by 6:00 am. Do you realize that? I don't want to hear any complaints about how tired you are tomorrow morning."

Their Dad and Jason left the room.

"Darn," Tay muttered under his breath.

"What?" Zac turned in his bed to face his brother.

"Go back to sleep, Zac," Tay said as he layed back onto his bed. He just wanted to go to sleep. Hopefully, he thought, he wouldn't be dreaming about her. "Yeah, right, Tay," he thought. Rebecca. Why now? Taylor slipped under the covers without taking off his shoes. He just wanted to sleep.