Parker
“No way,” he said, smiling at me.
“You’re right,” I said. “But, really, I don’t see anything so special about this store.”
“Neither do I. But Zac likes it,” he said. “He says that it has a wide selection of video games to choose from.”
“Ah, yes,” I said, remembering how I had seen him in the video game section of the store, his mouth hanging open and his eyes in complete awe as if he were in the presence of the first sign of the Second Coming. “He told me yesterday after a game of...I don’t even know what the name of game was, but we were playing some video game and he told me that I had learned much, but had much more to learn. Like he was the Yoda of video games or something.”
“He is,” Isaac said jokingly. “I would probably bet a good amount of money on Zac if he were ever in a video game contest somewhere. Since we’ve had those fancy nintendo things he’s gone almost undefeated every game he’s played against Taylor and me and anyone else who’s willing to sit through his victory dances.”
“Oh, yeah, those,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I won’t even give my opinion on those. I might be liable to go on for hours.”
“Me, too,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Zac’s a cool guy, though,” I said. “I mean, quite frankly, I expected him to be obnoxious and...loud...very extremely loud when I first met him, but it turned out that he’s not. Well, not all the time.”
“Yeah, he can be quite serious. Actually, he’s been pretty subdued since...you know, we found out,” he said.
“Oh,” I said, remembering Gina’s words about how my presence might place a strain on the family. I cleared my throat uncomfortably. The thought that I was the cause of whatever tension there was in the house had crossed my mind, but I never voiced it and chose not to now. Isaac had finally come back from whatever solemn vacation spot his mind had been in for the past few days and I didn’t want to ruin that for him.
“You guys!” Zac called from halfway across the store. He ran up to us, waving something in his hand.
I looked at Isaac. “Speak of the devil.”
Isaac smiled, not turning his attention away from the CDs he was flipping through.
“Look at the game I found,” Zac said, catching up to us. He shoved some video game cartridge thing in my hands. I examined it.
“Xander Does Dallas?” I said, raising my eyebrows as I turned the box over in my hand. I read through the back of the box, trying to see what the object of the game was supposed to be. Unfortunately, I didn’t find one. “How very novel.” I handed the box back to him.
“I think I’m going to get it,” he said. “It’s not that expensive.”
I nodded, choosing not to look at the price tag. I wasn’t exactly sure of what Zac’s idea of expensive and inexpensive was and I didn’t want to be disappointed.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to get this,” Isaac said, picking a CD out from the numerous ones he had been flipping through before. He examined both sides of the CD case before nodding with satisfaction.
“Are you going to get anything?” Zac asked me.
“Nah, I don’t think so,” I said.
“Are you sure?” Isaac said.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I said, nodding to emphasize just how sure I was. Actually, I just wanted to get the hell out of the store. There was just something about too much stuff in one place that overwhelmed me and began to bother me after a while.
“Okay,” Isaac said and led the way to the cash register. The guy standing behind the register smiled at us as we approached. Isaac smiled back uncomfortably, obviously knowing what was coming next from the guy.
“You’re those Manson brothers, aren’t you?” he said as he scanned Isaac’s CD into the computer.
I stifled a laugh and had to turn away so he wouldn’t see my grin.
“Uh, Hanson brothers,” Isaac said. “Yeah, that’s us.”
“Ah,” the guy said, nodding. “My sister likes you guys an awful lot. Especially you.”
I turned back around just in time to see the guy pointing at me. I raised my eyebrows and looked at Isaac, who was now the one stifling a laugh.
“Oh....really?” I said.
“Yeah,” he replied. “That’ll be sixteen fifty,” he added to Isaac, who began digging around in his wallet for the money. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I saw that he was one of those people who had to give the cashier the exact change, no matter how long it took to find the exact change. Gina’s sister did that. I remember when we had spent a week at her house one time, she had brought me to the mall with her on a shopping trip. By the end I was about ready to strangle her for taking so damn long counting change.
“There you go,” Isaac said, handing the money to the cashier, who took it and counted it before handing the bag containing the CD to Isaac, who nodded his thanks and moved aside so Zac could step up.
“You should hear her sometimes, like when you guys have an appearance on television or something. It’s all Manson brothers this, Manson brothers that,” he said, shaking his head. “She’s crazy about you guys.”
“That’s Hanson,” I said. “With an h.”
“So...I’d hate to bother you and everything,” he said. “I mean, I know you guys probably don’t get to venture out into the public too much without being recongnized and all that, but could you sign something for my sister? Her birthday’s coming up and, well, I haven’t gotten her anything yet. I know it would just make her day.”
“Sure,” Isaac said, smiling at the guy though it was easy to see he was vaguely annoyed.
“All right, wait here,” he said, disappearing into the depths of the large store.
“What’re you doing?” I whispered frantically. “That guy thinks I’m Taylor!”
“Well, it’s that or explain to him who you really are,” Isaac whispered back, amused by the fact that that was the cause of my annoyance. “Come on, this can’t be the first time you’ve done this. Signed an autograph as Taylor.”
“Our handwriting is totally different,” I said.
“So?” Isaac said. “Just write really sloppy. She’ll never know the difference. Besides, I’m sure no one’s memorized our handwriting or anything.”
I chose not to mention Devonny Wilcox, who could easily forge all their signatures if she wanted to. She had tried to show me Taylor’s handwriting once so I could try to copy it in case someone wanted an autograph (this was after I had signed the get well card for her. I had immediately become her best friend as soon as I returned to school after the incident). I knew that there were probably countless people out there who knew all three brothers’ signatures by heart and could copy them with their eyes closed.
“Here we go,” he said, coming back with a t-shirt and a black permanent marker. He rung up the t-shirt for himself and layed it on the counter. Isaac was the first to take the marker and quickly signed his name above his picture on the shirt. Zac took the marker second and did the same. Then, he handed the marker to me.
I took it in my hand and was just leaning toward the t-shirt to sign it above Taylor’s picture, trying to think of how I was going to do it when the guy’s voice broke through my thoughts.
“You’re left-handed?” he asked.
I looked up at him, wide-eyed. Damn. I had forgotten the difference in hand. Who the hell noticed things like that anyway?
“Uh, yeah,” I said, looking over to Isaac. “Why?”
“No reason,” he said. “They just said on some episode of Pop Up Video that I watched with her that Zac was the only left-handed person in the group. Guess they were wrong.”
“Yeah,” I said, shrugging. “I guess they were.”
I cleared my throat and scribbled Taylor’s name across the white space Zac and Isaac had left on the t-shirt above Taylor’s picture. Leaning back, admiring my handiwork a little (well, it slightly resembled Taylor’s writing from what I remembered of what Devonny had shown me) and then capped the marker and, with a smile pasted on my face, handed it back to the guy, who smiled back at me.
“Thanks, you guys. You don’t know how much this is going to mean to her,” he said, sliding the t-shirt off of the counter.
“No problem,” Isaac said, smiling back. “Tell your sister we said hi.”
“All right,” he said. “Thanks again!”
We nodded and quietly slipped out of the store before anyone else chose to notice who we were. Or, rather, who Isaac and Zac were and who I looked like.
“Well, that was weird,” I said.
“I can’t believe he noticed that you’re left-handed,” Zac commented as we climbed back into Isaac’s vehicle and Isaac turned the key in the ignition.
“Neither could I,” I said.
“You should’ve seen your face when he did though,” Zac added, starting to laugh. He stopped himself for just enough time to imitate the face I had made and then continued laughing.
“Well, jeez,” I said. “For a minute there, I was beginning to think that that t-shirt wasn’t for his sister after all.”
“I was thinking that, too,” Isaac said, pulling out in the traffic. “Is there any other place or type of place you’d like to check out?”
I thought for a moment, looking at the names of all the stores we passed as we chugged along.
Then, I remembered something I had promised Gina before coming here.
“Yeah, there is one place...,” I said.
Okay, this is either a major inconsistency or something that was only briefly mentioned in the beginning...
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Thirty