Isaac zoomed through the hallway nearly falling over his own feet. "I got it! Don't get up! I got the door! I got the..." he managed to belt out before stumbling over Wedding Barbie and landing flat on his face.

"Ooooo! Wipe out!" Taylor laughed as he stepped over Ike and opened the front door.

"Hi Taylor. Hi...Isaac." Amanda Wallace stared at the frazzeled Ike as he tried to compose himself.

"Somebody, I mean, Avery must have left this here," he mumbled as he waved the doll around. "Oh, uh, let me just get rid of this." Isaac threw Barbie behind him and gave Amanda a weak, embarrassed smile.

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm here to talk to your parents actually. And you guys too, of course, about your schedule."

"Come on in. I think my dad is in the backyard. I'll get him."

"Thank you, Taylor."

Amanda stepped into the house and had a look around. It was a very cluttered space. The living room was filled with amps and other equipment. The only place to sit was the couch which was covered with Power Ranger action figures and Barbies. She brushed aside the toys and sat down.

"This is a nice home you have, Isaac."

"Oh, thanks. It would be cleaner, I mean it usually is cleaner but we just got back here yesterday and Avie and Jessie just had to get all their toys out to play and..."

"You should see my place. It's a disaster. This looks like Martha Stewert's home in comparison." She laughed and ran her hand through her hair. Isaac was beginning to see why Zac adored her so much.

"So, I heard you're getting married soon."

"Oh, well, actually I don't think that's going to happen as soon as I thought it was."

"What? You two having problems?" The moment he said it he wanted to take it back. Geez, Ike, how rude! "Sorry, that was none of my business."

"Oh, it's okay. Actually, no, it's just that Chris is leaving the country for a little while. It's his job that's taking him away."

"We know what that's like."

"So, where's Zac?"

"Hiding."

"What?"

"He's a little embarrassed."

"Why? It doesn't have anything to do with me I hope."

Isaac stared at her face. She genuinely seemed upset. Why should she care about Zac? he thought. He could actually feel a pang of jealousy starting to rise up.

"He's got a little crush on you." He couldn't believe he said it, but once it was out of his mouth, there was no taking it back.

"Oh, that's so cute," she said as she sighed.

Ike's mouth began to speak for itself after that. "Oh, yeah. He's had it for a long time. You're all he ever talked about. It was 'Amanda' this and 'Mandy' that. He even wrote 'Amanda Hanson' all over his notebook. Then he found out about Chris and the poor little guy was crushed. He couldn't stand facing you today."

"I'm so sorry. Do you want me to go talk to him?"

"No!" Ike shouted, making Mandy jump. "Oh, sorry. No, he just wants to be alone."

"Okay."

Isaac couldn't believe that he was actually jealous of the attention that Zac was getting from this woman. Why should I be jealous? He's 12 for goodness sake. Ike knew that Zac would be furious if he ever found out that he had spilled his secret to the one person that should never have known.

At that point, Walker Hanson walked in carrying his schedule book and a bunch of other papers. "Amanda, good to see you."

"Nice to see you again, Walker."

"How long are you staying in town?"

"I'm leaving after this. I actually got into Tulsa not long after you did yesterday."

"That's too bad. I told you that the next time you were here that Diana and I would show you the sites." Walker gave Amanda what Ike liked to call his "awe shucks" smile. It's the kind of fake smile his dad gives to guests which usually disappears the moment they leave. His father never really cared for the woman, although Isaac couldn't understand why. She seemed pretty perfect to him.

The rest of the afternoon his father and Amanda worked out the details of several of their upcoming appearances. After an hour of it, Isaac was bored and he slipped out to find Taylor.

Ike found Taylor out in the backyard leaning against a tree scribbling madly in his notebook.

"Watcha writing?" Ike asked as he sat next to his brother.

"A letter," Tay answered, not looking up.

"To who?"

"Rebecca."

"Why? I thought she hated you."

At that statement, Taylor looked up at Isaac in shock. "Who told you she hated me?!"

"You did." Isaac didn't like this. He could see all the old patterns starting up again. Taylor and Rebecca had been a couple for about 5 months. They had been friends for a lot longer and Tay had had a crush on her for at least a year before that. They did what most 14-year-old couples did, which was basically nothing but going to movies and hanging out. But somehow, Taylor had managed to grow deeply attached to her. After their break up, he was pretty bad off. Ike lost count of the number of depressing songs Tay wrote about a "lost love" which didn't come in handy when they had to sing the very upbeat "MMMbop" at least 50 times a week at appearances. He would write letters to her telling her how much he still "loved" her, but would never send them. Isaac didn't believe Tay was ever in love, just emotionally confused. At least that's what he hoped it was. It was only during the past couple of months that Taylor had started to forget about her and brighten up. That was until Zac had to go and mention her during the trip.

"For your information, Isaac, she never hated me. Plus, I'm writing her to tell her that I'm over her."

"And you're gonna send this one?"

"No."

"You're strange."

"I am not. How many love letters have you written, About a gazillion at last count. And this isn't even a love letter."

"That's not why you're strange. When was the last time you talked to this girl?"

Taylor threw aside his notebook and sighed. Isaac rolled his eyes. He knew his brother was entering Rebecca-la-la land again. "3 months ago. She wanted her Spin Doctors cd back." Taylor sighed once more and looked off into space.

"Okay, earth to Tay." Isaac was getting pretty annoyed with his brothers preoccupation with this girl. "Tay, I need to talk to you. This is serious."

"Isaac, we are talking."

"No, I mean I need to tell you something important."

Taylor pretended to be offended at Ike's obvious uninterest in his problems. "Fine, shoot."

Ike took a deep breath. "Okay, Zac is really gonna be mad, but I kinda told Amanda about his little crush on her."

"What?! Oh, you're in trouble."

"Tay!"

"Ike, why did you do that? He was even embarrassed to admit that to us. If he knew that she knew then...man, he better not find out. Why did you do that?"

"Well, I don't know." Isaac actually did know why he did it, but he wasn't ready to tell Taylor he was jealous of his 12-year-old brother. "It just came out, before I had a chance to realize what I was saying."

"Those things don't just 'come out'."

"Look, you're not going to tell him, are you?"

"No. That would kill him."

"Good. Maybe he'll never know. Plus, I don't think he can face her anymore anyway. She's leaving to go back to LA in a little while and Zac hasn't shown himself since this morning."

Isaac got up, reassured that all would be well. After he got back into the house he could hear Amanda's voice coming from the living room. She still must be talking to dad, he thought. His heart sunk when he heard Zac's voice also emminating from the living room. Oh, gosh. Zac's in there with her!

Isaac surpressed the urge to run into the room and tried to look casual as he strolled down the hallway. When he peeked his head into the living room he saw Zac sitting close to Mandy, laughing and joking around. Well, he can't know yet. He's laughing.

"Hi Amanda," Ike practically yelled as he entered the room. He smooshed his way in between Amanda and Zac on the couch.

"Oh, hi Isaac. I was just talking to Zac about this crush I had in elementary school." Amanda gave Isaac a sly wink.

Isaac had to stop this. Amanda was about to give Zac the cool let-down. "Well, Zac actually has to go now."

"Huh? Why? I don't have to go." Zac glared at his brother.

"You need to help me with something in the kitchen. Come on, it's urgent." Isaac grabbed Zac's arm and pulled him into the kitchen. "Zac, I thought you didn't want to see her anymore. I thought you were embarrassed."

"Well, I was, but I got over it. Isn't she pretty?" Zac was giving the same look that Taylor had just given.

This is worse than I thought. Ike put his arm around Zac's shoulder. "Zac, I wasn't going to tell you this, but Amanda talked about you to me."

"She did? What did she say?" Zac grinned from ear to ear.

"Um, she told me that, uh, that she thought you were cute...a cute little kid."

"A cute little kid?" Zac's whole body seemed to drop.

"Zac, she's too old for you. You have to know that." Ike hated lying to his brother, but he tried to convince himself that it was better this way. Zac would get over Amanda, and he wouldn't have to admit being a jerk.

"I guess you're right," Zac mumbled. He turned and walked towards the back of the house to their room.

Isaac felt so low. It was his mistake that was hurting his brother. If he hadn't told Amanda about Zac's crush, then Zac would've just kept on being happy with his little delusion. That is, until he got over her by himself. Now he felt crummy and Zac looked like the world had just crashed in on him. Ike walked back into the living room where Amanda was busy gathering her things together.

"Zac had to go and...do something."

"Oh. I was going to try and let him down easy. You know, explain about how we all get crushes and how he shouldn't be embarrassed."

"Don't worry about him. He'll get over it. He's always into something new every week." Ike caught himself. "Oh, I don't mean that you weren't important or anything."

"Isaac, it's okay."

Gosh, she's pretty, he thought. "Where did my dad go?"

"We're actually done here and he went to check on your mom. He said she wasn't feeling well today. I hope everything is okay."

"Oh, yeah. It's just that whole pregnancy thing. She always gets morning sickness throughout her entire pregnancy."

"Hmmmm, sounds nice." She continued to pack her things up. "Well, I have to go. I have a flight in about 2 hours to take me back to LA. It was lovely seeing your home and getting to talk to you Isaac. Tell Taylor, Zac and the rest of the kids 'bye' for me, okay?" With that Isaac let her out. Relief swept through Ike.

The Hansons filed back into their house after Sunday church. Taylor bolted down the hallway and into his room.

"Hey Tay! What's the rush?" Jessica yelled at him. "Got a hot date?" Mackie giggled at this statement.

"Tay's got a girlfriend!" Mackenzie screamed over and over.

"I do not!" Taylor responded and then shut the door.

When Taylor emerged he had his best pair of jeans on and his favorite maroon shirt. "It's amazing that this shirt wasn't dirty. Zac wears it so much," he said to nobody in particular.

"Wow, don't you look snazzy," his father joked.

"That wasn't exactly the look I was going for." Taylor examined his outfit.

"I was joking. Where are you going?"

"I'm just meeting Leigh-Ann."

"Leigh-Ann? You haven't talked about her in awhile. I thought you two were on the outs."

"Nah, see you later," Tay said to escape further questioning. He zoomed out the door.

"Gee, I love those father-son chats we have," Mr. Hanson stated to the empty room.

Taylor rang the doorbell to the Miller's house. Leigh-Ann opened the door. "Hey Tay. I got good news. I finished Huckleberry Finn last night at 3:00 am just so that we could hang out." She let him in and they went up to her room.

Taylor was shocked at Leigh-Ann's willingness to forgive him so completely. "Great. What do you want to do?"

"Well, I rented 2 movies and we can make popcorn balls and play on my PlayStation. I got 3 new games since you've been here last."

Taylor looked around her room. It was exactly like he remembered it. "I thought you were going to take down these silly posters."

"Hey! JTT and Brad Renfro are so cool."

"Uh, okay. Whatever you say," Tay laughed. Leigh-Ann giggled along with him.

"This one is new, though. Do you want to see what's on the back?" She carefully took down a large picture of Jonathan Taylor Thomas sitting in a corvette.

"Oh, no. Let me guess."

Leigh-Ann turned over the poster to reveal him and his brothers wading in a pool. Taylor cringed. "Oh! I look so stupid in this picture. Isaac chose this one to print because he thought he looked good soaking wet."

"No, you look cute."

"I look like a girl."

"You do not, that's ridiculous. You look adorable."

"And that's just what I want to be," he said with a smirk. "Turn that over, I see enough of those pictures on the internet. Sometimes I get tired of seeing myself."

"Yeah, you're right. It is pretty tiring having to look at you." Leigh-Ann and Tay started laughing. It seemed just like old times again.

"Come on, let's pick a movie."

"Okay, well, I rented one that I knew you would like, and one that I knew that I would like."

Taylor picked up the bag of tapes and took one out. "Oh my gosh. No way. I am not watching this...again."

"Oh, come on. You loved this movie."

"Maybe...possibly...the first time. But after you made me watch it the second and third and fourth times it kind of wore out its welcome."

"But it's got adventure and I was just reading about these characters and so I was thinking about it. I really, really want to watch it again."

"You just want to see JTT and Brad Renfro in action. What else did you rent beside the ever-popular and always oh-so-thrilling 'Tom and Huck'?" Tay reached inside the bag again, hoping to find something he could stand watching. "Alright! 'True Lies.' That's more like it."

"Okay, we can watch that first if you promise you'll watch 'Tom and Huck' with me after."

"Do you really need me there watching you gawk over those guys?"

"Think of it this way. At least I'm not gawking over you." She left to go into the kitchen to pop the popcorn. Taylor thought about her statement for a moment. He smiled to himself. Gawk over me. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. He went into the kitchen to join his friend.