"Hey, Kevin, come take a look at this." Zac tried to grab his friend's attention as Kevin strummed on Ike's guitar. "Kevin...come on."

"Wait. I'm writing a song." Kevin started to hum out a screetchy tune. "I'm sittin' here singing a song. Oooooooo."

"Kevin!"

"And Zac is being annoying. Ooooooooo. I'm going to rule the world. Ya! Ya! Ya! And I'm going to tell all my other friends that Zac's a freak because he likes this weird girl. Ooooooooo."

"You're the freak, freak. Why do I even invite you over." Zac hurled the tootsie roll he was about to eat at Kevin. "Ike's gonna kill you if he sees you with his guitar. That's his favorite one too."

"He won't see me. He's not even here."

"So?"

"So? I can do what I want." Kevin continued to strum.

"Whatever, man. You suck." Zac sat quiet for a moment, trying to show Kevin how disgusted he was with him. He looked down at the magazine he had been reading for about a half an hour. He looked back up at Kevin, who was still humming and singing insults into the air. "I guess I can forgive you."

"What?" Kevin stopped for a moment.

"Wanna see something really cool?"

"Sure!" Kevin threw the guitar down and it landed with a thud on the carpet. "Ooops."

"Oh, forget it. He'll never notice. Come over here." Zac opened up the magazine and laid it across the floor for his friend to see. "Isn't it awesome?"

"Zac...it's a park," Kevin muttered with dissapointment. He started to crawl back to the discarded guitar.

"Wait!" Zac pulled him back down. "It's a special park. You see that lake?"

"Uh...yeah."

"It's a magic lake." Zac grinned at his discovery.

"Ooooookay, whatever you say."

"I'm serious. It says right here that if you drink from the lake and make a wish that it will come true."

"It's a myth."

"It's true!"

"Zac, you don't actually believe that do you?"

"Well, no...I guess not," he mumbled. "But it couldn't hurt to try."

"What do you mean, try?"

"Let's go there...today. It's not that far away, just 10 miles or so past the bridge."

"Not far? For people without means of transportation, 10 miles is really far. How do you expect to get there?"

"The bus?"

"Goodbye, Zac." Kevin stood up.

"Come on! It'll be fun, like an adventure. I'll tell my mom I'm going over to your house. And your mom already knows you're over here. They'll never know. I figure we leave now and be back by 3:00."

"You're crazy. I don't wanna go on another one of your adventures." Kevin rolled his eyes and reached for a stray tootsie roll. "Remember what happened last time?"

Zac's eyes wandered and he shyly turned away. "No, I don't seem to recall..."

"Yeah, right. When you decided it would be great fun to hike up St. Andrew's Hill and 'conquer' it and put a freaky Hanson flag on the top."

"I dunno what you're talking about." Zac pretended to be intrigued with the magazine article.

"And then we got hungry and we couldn't find the trail back down. And you started crying."

"I didn't cry! It was my alergies. There was a lot of stray pollen in the air. My eyes were watering."

"Sure. All I know is that I don't want to do that again."

Zac got a pained look in his eyes. He grabbed Kevin's shirt. "Kev, please. I need to make a wish."

"What wish?"

"I can't say, but it's really important. And urgent."

Kevin heard the eagerness in his best friend's voice and couldn't help but feel for him. Whatever this was about, Zac was being serious. "Alright. But we better be back before 3:00."

A smile spread across Zac's face and his caramel eyes lit up. He jumped up and started to rummage through the room for 'adventure supplies'. "We'll be back before 3:00. I have to be. That's when we're all going to look at the dirtbikes."

Kevin let out a long sigh.

"Don't worry, Kev. This will be great, not like last time. I promise."

Isaac drove along Bradburry St. and turned a corner and Collins. He headed down the long stretch of road to Kennedy Heights, otherwise known as 'high-end Tulsa' or the rich part of town. It seemed like an eternity ago that he had driven down this road to pick up Ginger for their first date. He wasn't sure what to expect. Part of him was excited to find out who Ginger really was -- the sweet girl he had first met, or the domineering girl that had visited him on Christmas Eve. The other part of him wanted to turn the car around and forget about her, knowing that she may be more than he was ready to deal with.

He finally made his way up the now familar long driveway. He sat in the car for a few moments deciding whether to buzz the intercom or just back out.

"I don't know about this," he mumbled to himself. He put the car in reverse. Just as his foot released the brake a male voice blared from the intercom. Ike slammed the brakes.

"Either tell us who you are or leave the property."

"Oh, um. Yeah, my name is Isaac Hanson. I'm a friend of Ginger's." He mentally slapped himself for his jittering voice.

"Hold on a moment."

Ike waited. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. The radio was blaring The Wallflowers again. How many times do they play that dang song? Fifteen minutes later he figured he had made enough of a fool of himself and it was time to leave. Suddenly, the large gates started to creak open.

"Well, that's better." He rolled down the long road up to the front entrance to the mansion. He rounded the circular drive and saw Ginger waiting out front for him. She ran up to the driver's side of the car and opened the door before the car was at a full stop.

As soon as Isaac got out she flung her arms around his neck. "I'm so glad you're here!" she gasped.

"Wow. That's cool."

"I wasn't sure if you were gonna talk to me ever again."

"Of course. I said I was going to today and..."

"Want to come inside?" She grinned and grabbed Ike's arm. He found himself being pulled through the front door. Once inside he quietly gaped at the vastness of the room. The ceiling was at least 3 stories high. The walls were adorned with paintings of rolling hills and ice-capped mountains.

Ginger lead him up the long winding stairs and through a narrow corridor. They ended up in a spacious round room. Judging from the amount of pink on the walls and the array of stuffed animals spread across the room, he figured it had to be hers.

"This is my room!"

"I noticed." Isaac scanned the bedroom for a place to sit. The bed was covered with dolls and fluffy, lacy pillows. Her dresser caught his eye. Perfume bottles, various photos and postcards decorated the old-style wooden dresser. "What's this?" He picked up a flat pink case.

"Oh, um...that's nothing...important." She grabbed the case from him.

"Are you sure?"

"You don't really want to know what these are." She jumped on her bed, bumping off a few stuffed animals to the floor.

"Well, I wasn't all that interested before, but I must say that I am now." Isaac sat in a large fluffy chair. He felt a knot in his back and reached behind to pull out a Winnie the Pooh doll. He threw Pooh aside and returned his attention to the small girl on the bed.

"Okay, you really want to know?" She smiled shyly.

"Yeah, now I really do." He grinned back, amused at her apparent embarrasement.

"It's girl stuff. Like private girl stuff. Are you sure you wanna hear this?"

"I think we've established that I do. Come on, I know about girl stuff. I got sisters."

"Somehow I don't think your sisters are going to relate to this." She sat up on her bed and opened the pink case to reveal a circle of pills.

"What do those do?" He leaned forward to take a closer look.

"They regulate my cycle."

"You're what?" As soon as it came out of his mouth he realized what she meant.

"You know, my period." She blushed and so did he. He had never had a girl actually talk openly about such things to him before.

"Oh...okay." I tried to find anything else in the room to turn the attention away from the subject.

"They're actually birth control pills."

Ike nearly choked on his own tongue when he heard those words. She had said them so matter-of-factly. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, they have hormones and stuff in them to regulate me." She saw the shocked look on his face and shut the case. "They're not for...um...you know. Honest."

"Oh, I believe you." He pointed her desk across the room, hoping she would stop talking about birth control and cycles. "So, you collect troll dolls?"

"You are so freaked aren't you?" she laughed.

"What...no! No, I'm not freaked at all," he lied. "I'm just really interested in your troll collection." He smiled.

"Sure, right, Ike." She got up and set the case back on the dresser. "I always seem to freak out the good ones."

"The good ones?"

"Yeah. I always mess stuff up with guys. Either I do the wrong thing or I say the wrong thing. Now you're freaked and will probably never want to set foot in this room again."

He chuckled. "You didn't say the wrong thing, Ginger. I was just being immature I guess. The last time anyone talked to me about something like that was when my mom sat Tay and I down and basically gave us the birds and bees speech. It was painful."

"My Dad just brought home a book from the library and it was laying on my bed when I got home from school. Oh, that was fun."

"I would rather have gotten a book."

"Nah, books can't answer questions."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it," she said, glad that the subject was finally being changed.

"You said that your dad was a filmmaker for PBS, right?"

"Yeah, he does documentaries and stuff."

"So how did you get..." He motioned around the room. "Um...all this?"

"The money?" She giggled. "That's a long story."

He stared for a moment at her face. She had the most beautiful eyes when she smiled. They turned up at the corners and made her whole face light up. She looked like a far cry from the girl who had made such a strong pass at him a couple of days ago.

"Is it interesting?"

"Well, how about I tell you later?"

"Fair enough."

"So, what do you want to do now?" she quietly asked.

"Let me think..." he grinned.

"Have you got the water bottles?" Zac put his backpack on and did a last minute 'adventure check.'

"Yeah, you got the Snickers bars?"

"Roger, roger. Let's move 'em out!" They quietly tip-toed past the living room, where Diana was resting.

"Zac? Where are you going?" Diana's weary voice called from the couch.

"Oh, man," he whispered. He turned and headed into the living room. "I'm going to Kevin's house."

"What's with all that stuff you have there."

"We're going to pretend that we're camping. We're gonna do it in his backyard." Zac was surprised at the ease in which his lies came out. He didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Okay, but just to Kevin's house and back, honey. Nowhere else, okay? Security around here is getting worse and I don't want you getting caught out there alone."

"I know Mom."

"And be back here by 3:00. You want to get the dirt bikes, right?"

Zac grinned. "Oh, yeah!" He walked up to his mother and patted her portruding belly. He leaned over and whispered something.

"What are you saying, Zac?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing. That's between me and baby."

"Okay," she smiled. "Remember, 3:00."

"I'll remember!" Zac yelled as he and Kevin flew out the front door.

"Man, Zac, that was close. We better hurry or we're not gonna catch the bus."

"Hey!" A small female voice yelled from across the lawn. Zac and Kevin turned around and saw Manda sitting on a lawn chair.

"Hey, Zac, it's your girlfriend."

"Shut up." Zac tried to looked annoyed that Manda was there, but in reality his heart had skipped at least two beats when he saw her.

"Where are you guys going?" By this time she had walked over to the boys.

"Nowhere of importance," Kevin muttered.

"Looks pretty cool. You got all this stuff here." She poked at Zac's backpack full of snack foods.

"We're going on an adventure."

"Zac." Kevin tried to motion for his friend to keep quiet.

"Really? Can I come."

"No." Kevin rolled his eyes.

Manda squinted her nose up at him and turned to Zac. "Can I go with you?"

"Um...sure, I guess." He tried to look as non-chalant as possible.

"Zac," Kevin grunted through his teeth.

"Coolness! Let me go get my backpack!"

Once Manda had left Kevin grabbed Zac's shoulders. "Why, man! Why must you torture me so!"

"Ease up, Kev. We could use some extra man-power...I mean woman-power...I mean girl-power."

"We're not the Spice Girls. She's gonna slow us down."

"You don't know that. She could be cool. Come on, at least give her a chance."

"Augh."

Manda returned with an extra large camping backpack. "I'm ready. Where are we going?"

"To the moon, Alice! To the moon!"

"What?" Zac stared at Kevin.

"Sorry, my mom was making me watch the Honeymooners. It's like a million years old."

The three boarded the bus and headed for the park and Zac's magical lake for their adventure, Zac Hanson-style.

"Gimme some lovin'! Gimme, gimme some lovin'. Gimme some lovin'! Aw. That's not it." Taylor ran through the chords on the keyboard. "Forget this. Ike and Zac should be here."

"You need to learn to stop talking to yourself."

Taylor looked up and saw Leigh-Ann enter the garage. "And you need to learn how to knock. Actually, we need to learn how to lock our garage door. Seems like everybody and their next door neighbor can get in here."

"Why, you wanna keep me out or something?"

"Nah, I guess I can make an exception for you." He flashed her a smile.

"I have really great news." She sat on Zac's drum stool. "My mom settled down. She doesn't hate you or anything. She says we can be friends."

"Friends? Is that all?"

"Don't push it, Tay. I'm not planning on telling her our new status for a little while yet."

"Aw, shucks, and I was so hoping on sending her a mother-in-law card."

"You're so funny I forgot to laugh." She swivelled the chair around. "Watcha doing?"

"I'm trying to work out the key of this song. We're gonna be doing it on tour. But it's kinda pointless if Ike and Zac aren't here. Neither of them seem to want to rehearse lately."

"It's vacation. Just give them some time. I'm sure they'll be aching to work once they get bored."

"I'm aching to work now." He pounded on the keys. "Blah. This isn't working. And we're supposed to be working on MOE too. But the way things are going, the magazine will never get out."

"Hey, I wanna subscribe to it!" Leigh-Ann got up and joined Tay on the bench by the keyboard.

"You're kidding, right? You wouldn't even listen to Snowed In with me."

"I wanna be in the 'MOE' too!" She laughed at her silly pun.

"Hey, that's pretty good!" He took out his notebook and jotted the phrase down.

"I was kidding, Tay."

"What else you got?" He looked at her with anticipation.

"That is so corny. You're not actually going to use that for anything are you? If you use that you might as well be ultra corny and say 'you get pictures, articles and much, much MOE!'" She giggled once again.

"That's great!" he said as he made some more scribbles.

"And you're the songwriter?"

"We can put that on the website or something." He set his notebook down. "Well."

"Well. I guess I better go home. I got chores to do."

"You know, it's kinda sad that your mom is letting us see each other now. I was kinda looking forward to the whole Romeo and Juliet thing." His blue eyes stared intently at the blushing girl.

"You're nuts," she sighed. "Here, let me play something."

"Sure, go ahead." He moved back so she could reach the keys. She ran her fingers across the keyboard and began to sing.

"Love, love me do! You know I love you! I'll always be true! So please, please, please...love me do."

"I didn't know you listened to the Beatles."

"Oh, there are is a ton of stuff you still don't know about me. But don't worry, it's nothing too surprising."

He pulled her hands off the keyboard and kissed her cheek. "You're so cool."

"Well, it's about time you noticed."

The bus stopped off a deserted road in front of the first busstop in miles. Three small adventurers disboarded and wandered around the large trees off the road.

"Okay, Zac, where's the map?" Kevin grabbed at the backpack that was still attached to Zac and rifled through the slew of candy bars. He pulled out the magazine.

"I think it's that way." Zac pointed out into the woods.

"How in the world can you tell? Every way looks the same." Manda strolled further into the forest. "Hey, I think I see a path."

"Zac, this map sucks. It doesn't have any paths on it or anything." Kevin turned the magazine every which way to see if it made sense upside-down.

"Let's just follow the path Manda found." Zac wandered up to where Manda was standing surveying the green shrubbery.

"Just follow the path? Don't you think that's a bit risky?"

"Come on, Kev, be a little adventurous, will ya?"

"Yeah, Kev!" Manda yelled back at him.

Kevin looked supremely annoyed that Manda even dared speak his name to him, but he followed the two anyway. "If we get lost I am never going anywhere with you again, Zac."

The three walked for about a half an hour without speaking a word. Every tree they past looked the same, and Kevin could have sworn he saw the same stump at least four times along the way. The path got narrower and more rocky. Manda seemed to want to lead the way and Zac followed like a puppy dog, stepping on every rock she stepped on, jumping over every fallen tree branch she jumped over. Kevin could only roll his eyes at his obviously whipped friend.

"Guys, are we actually getting anywhere?" he finally said.

"Sure we are. I think I see something ahead." Zac pushed past Manda and started to run up the path. Suddenly, he froze. Manda slowly walked up to him and saw the startled expression on his face.

"What?" She strained her eyes to try and see what he saw.

"There is something moving behind that tree," he mumbled.

Kevin caught up with the two. "What? Let's go! I wanna get home before the end of eternity."

"Shhhhh," Zac hushed. "There is something up there and I think it's growling."

"What if it's a bear," Manda whispered.

"Okay, that's it. I'm gone." Kevin turned around and stepped on a loose twig. It cracked under his feet.

"Oh, my gosh! It knows we're here," Zac yelled.

The leaves started to russle and from behind the tree and large, knatty-haired animal snarled and displayed its sharp, yellow teeth. The three kids started to slowly back away, but it was too late. The animal lunged forward from the brush.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" They all screamed and started to zip through the forest, skipping over rocks and ignoring the worn path they had been following.

"Rabies! Rabies!" Zac yelled as he tried to push Manda to run faster.

"Zac! You're dead, man! You are dead!" Kevin shouted. He shed his heavy backpack to speed himself up.

The animal continued to chase the kids, gaining on them with every bound. The three finally got to an open area of woods. Zac tripped over a rock and landed on his face. "Aaaaaaaah!" he screamed as the animal jumped on top of him...and started to lick his face. "Oh, gross!"

Kevin and Manda heard his scream and turned around to save their friend. When they reached him they saw Zac cuddling with a small fuzzy mutt-dog. "That's it?!" Manda huffed, trying to catch her breath.

"Isn't it cute?" Zac continued to play around with the puppy, teasing it with a small stick.

"Ha, Zac. You always overreact." Kevin went back to search for his discarded backpack.

"That's great that you found a new friend, Zac. But have you noticed that we don't know where the heck we are?"

Zac looked around. Every tree looked the same as the next. "Wait a minute. Look at that." He pointed to a glimmering coming from between two tall oaks. He stood up and headed towards the sparkling light. The puppy followed close behind. When he emerged through the trees his eyes scanned the the most beautiful, shimmering lake he had ever seen. "This is it!"

"It's pretty. Looks better than in the magazine."

Zac knealed down and scooped up a handful of water.

"Are you sure you should be drinking that. I mean, there could be microbes and bacteria and..."

"If I don't drink, we would have come all this way for nothing. I need to make my wish." Zac slurped up the sour water and closed his eyes. Manda watched him as he concentrated. When he opened his eyes he smiled and started to walk away from the lake.

"That's it?!"

"Well, unless you wanna make a wish."

"Um, nah."

Zac turned towards Manda, who was looking at him expectantly. "Wanna know what I wished for?"

"Won't that ruin it?"

"Nah, I figure that now it's set, so it's okay."

"Okay, then. What did you wish for?"

"It's about a girl." He smiled down at her.

"Really?" she said as her eyes lit up.

"Yeah! I wished that..." he paused when he heard the trees russling.

"What?"

"Oh. I wished that my sister would be born okay."

"Oh." Manda looked down, trying to hide her dissapointment. "That's pretty sweet of you."

"Well, you hear about all these babies that aren't born so lucky. You know, how they're sick and stuff. And I don't want that to happen. I want her to be okay. So, I figured this was the only thing I could do to help. I mean, I pray and stuff but you gotta cover all your bases, right?"

"I didn't know you thought about stuff like that."

"I'm an intellectual man!" he grinned and ran ahead of her.

When they reached the open grassy area they found Kevin wandering towards a large sign. "Hey, guys! You won't believe this."

"What?" The two ran over to the sign.

"Thank that dog you found. We just ran all the way back to the busstop."

The sign above pointed them in the direction of where they were originally dropped off 2 hours ago. They waited for another hour at the busstop until they were picked up. Zac looked down at the small dog who watched them board the bus. Without thinking, he grabbed the puppy and tucked him under his arm. Luckily, the burly bus driver didn't notice the animal.

"See?" Zac said as he made himself comfortable. "What a great time!"

"I'm still never going on another one of your adventures."

Zac leaned back and closed his eyes as the puppy squirmed in his arms. He considered his mission a total and complete success.