Taylor leaped up the stairs, taking two at a time. He popped his head into the family room and looked around for help. Zac was sitting in a beanbag chair, crumpled up in a way that looked like he couldn’t possibly be comfortable and concentrating on a video game. Jessica was sitting on the couch reading a book.

"Jes, come help me," he exclaimed getting his sisters attention.

"What for?"

"I need you to play a piano part, so I can work on the drum part of a composition," Taylor explained.

"Get Zac to help," she said ignoring him and turning back her book.

"Zac doesn’t want to be a part of our music anymore," Taylor said grabbing his sister by the hand and dragging her out of the room. Zac looked up, but didn’t volunteer to help.

"Tay, I don’t want to play the piano," Jessica complained.

"Come on Jes, just help me for a few minutes." Taylor begged. "Ike will be back any minute, just help me until he gets here"

"Ike won’t be back for a long time," Jessica scoffed wise to her older brother’s ploys. "And, he’s going to feel lousy when he gets here, ‘cause he went to the dentist and he always grumpy when he comes back from the dentist."

"Jes, just play the piano notes. That’s all I’m asking, please," Taylor pleaded.

Jessica gave a big sigh because she knew she would give in to her big brother. "Okay, but in return you have to watch me and Avie dance. You have to be our audience for a whole hour."

Taylor groaned. "Ah, Jes, I would but..."

"Fine," the ten-year-old announced and flounced towards the stairs, her long blond ponytail bouncing. She stomped up four steps and then she heard her brothers’ voice.

"Half-hour at max."

With a smile and a triumphant fist throw into the air, the young girl returned to the keyboard. "You know this would be easier if you didn’t write with your toes!" she complained looking at the handwritten musical score.

"You won Jes, don’t press your luck," Taylor gripped. "Just pick it up on the fourth bar."

Taylor got into bed and then jumped right back out, pulling the sheets and blankets off while mildly swearing at his younger brother without actually using swear words. Thanks to the roadies and production crew, he had an extensive vocabulary of swear words but he also had more common sense than to use them at home. All week, Taylor and Ike had been excluding Zac from their musical sessions. In some ways it was fun to just work with Ike and to be free to pound away at the drum set, really enjoying the freedom of movement and rymthm. In other ways they missed his input badly. Taylor and Ike figured if they wanted to get Zac back in the band they had to make him want jealous and the purpose of leaving him out of the loop was to drive him crazy. Zac was finding his own way of getting back at his brothers. Tonight, Zac had short-sheeted his bed.

"What are you grumbling about?" Ike asked from the doorway of his adjoining room.

Taylor looked up and gave a final tug to his blankets. "Zac’s revenge," he explained.

Ike nodded understanding immediately.

"Hey, you get your car tomorrow," Taylor exclaimed. 

"Yeah, finally," Ike said.

"Ike, how come you’re not excited?" Taylor asked. "If it were me, I’d be bouncing off the ceiling!"

"I am excited," Ike claimed. "It’s just been a long time coming. I’m just feeling kind of rotten right now. I don’t see the reason behind tightening these things when they’re going to come off in another couple of weeks."

"Bummer. Are you going out Saturday night?"

"Yeah," Ike admitted. "Carrie and I are going out to met some of our friends. No specific plans we’ll probably just grab a pizza and take in a movie. It’s kind of hard to do anything more than that."

"After the last time when you guys went to Lazer Quest and then had to make a run for your lives, I’m surprised that she’d even go out with you again." Taylor laughed.

"I think Carrie thought all the cloak and dagger stuff was paranoia on our part until she had to make a run for it," Ike laughed. "But, now when I say we’re going to the mall, she’s like ‘Are you nuts?’"

"Not the best idea, at least not for us," Taylor agreed.

"You know you can come if you want." Ike offered. "I mean Carrie and I aren’t really dating or anything, we’re just best friends, we just pair off because everyone else comes with a date. If you come, she can bring Jennifer so you wouldn’t be the odd man out."

"No thanks," Taylor said shaking his head.

"I thought you liked Jennifer," Ike said. "I thought you had a good time last time we went out."

"I do, and I did, sorta," Taylor admitted. "But towards the end, it got kinda weird."

"How so?’ Ike demanded.

Taylor hesitated and then he sat back down on his bed. "Do you remember the lecture Dad gave us?"

"Oh, that really narrows it down." Ike exclaimed sarcastically. "Was that lecture series 101 on the ‘Facts of Live’ or 102 on ‘Responsibilities of Growing Up’ or...."

"Okay, okay," Taylor said holding up his hand to stop the series rundown. "I already know Dad gives a lot of lectures. The one I was talking about was the one where he told us that some girls would want to go out with us because of What We Are or Who We Are and not for ourselves."

"Tay, you’ve known Jennifer most of your life, are you saying she went out with you because you’re The Great Taylor Hanson, Heartthrob Pop Star," Ike asked doubtfully.

"Make fun of me," Taylor retorted. "Ike, she asked me to sign something so she would have proof for her girlfriends that she really went out with me!"

Ike smile disappeared and concern replaced it immediately. "I’m sorry, Tay. That was a lousy thing for her to do."

Taylor shrugged sadly and then grimaced. "Well, at least I’d been warned," he said very softly.

"You want me to say something to Carrie..."

‘No," Taylor interrupted, embarrassed that his brother wanted to come to his defense. "Just let it go."

"You’re sure." Ike asked

"Yeah," Taylor agreed. "That was lecture series 1 0 something: People You Thought were Friends Might Change, remember."

"Yeah, I was there," Ike said moving towards his door. He turned back to his brother with the doorknob in his hand. "Did you sign anything?"

Taylor grinned. "No, I told her autographs had to be authorized through our press agent and they weren’t valid unless there were three signatures."

Ike chuckled. "I thought you were the one that can’t lie," he claimed.

Taylor just laughed as his brother shut the door. "You got do what you got to do."

The entire family surrounded Ike’s new car when he drove it up into the driveway. They admired it and Avie and Mackie climbed in and out of it excitedly begging their older brother for the ‘first’ ride. Ike complied driving the kids up and down the long driveway a few times. Once the initial excitement was over Taylor and Zac piled into the car. Taylor got shotgun and Zac jumped into the back seat. 

"Ike be careful," Walker warned.

"I will Dad," Ike promised putting the car in reverse and performing a three-point turn before beginning to slowly drive out the driveway.

"And remember what I said." Walker called out. "I don’t want Tay or Zac behind the wheel."

"What does he mean, don’t let Tay behind the wheel?" Taylor demanded.

"Basically, just what he said," Ike explained. "He doesn’t want me to let either you or Zac to drive my car. I had to agree to that to get the car."

Taylor looked over at his brother in disbelief. "You torpedoed me," he exclaimed.

"No." Ike denied. ‘I just had to agree to get the car. Tay, just give me a little time to convince Dad that I’m a safe driver and then I’ll be able to convince him to let me take you out to practice."

"Great Ike," Taylor exclaimed sarcastically. "It only took you two years to talk him into a car. At that rate I’ll be eighteen before I even get a Learners Permit!"

"Tay, it won’t take that long." Ike exclaimed putting on the brakes at a stop sign.

Taylor opened the door and jumped out of the barely stopped car.

"Hey, get back in here!" Ike demanded.

"I’d rather walk!" Taylor shouted slamming the door and walking off.

"Hey, Tay. Come back!" Zac shouted but Taylor broke into a loose jog back towards their house.

The car stopped and Ike stood up looking over the top of the car but Taylor ran off the road and into the woods. Taylor stopped jogging and slowed to a leisurely walk back towards their house. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this mad at Ike. He felt like Ike sabotaged him. The longer Taylor walked the more his temper dissipated. He very seldom lost his temper and it disappeared as easily as it came. He was usually the negotiator between his brothers and sisters, not the instigator. He did have a temper, but it was usually aimed at problems not people. Logically Taylor knew that his Dad must have put the ‘no driving’ condition on Ike at the last minute. What he was mad about, was that Ike didn’t tell him. He knew his Dad was going to be a hard sell for him getting his drivers license. As he came to the fence surrounding their property, he climbed a tree and swung himself out on a limb and then jumped down on the other side. He sat down on a fallen log at the edge of the yard, but still out of sight, and waited for Ike to return to the driveway. If he showed up before Ike and Zac, there would be questions asked by his parents and he didn’t want to answer them. Taylor was frustrated. Fifteen was such a dorky age--to young to be a real kid, to old to be considered responsible enough for much of anything. At this rate he was never going to get his license. He needed to come up with an alternative plan.

Ike drove up and down the roads past their driveway several times looking for his brother. Zac had crawled out of the back seat into the front seat in spite of his protests. Sometimes Zac forgot that he wasn’t small anymore. It was like his body was outgrowing his mental image of himself, so he sometimes forgot that he couldn’t squeeze into tight spaces anymore. Zac was peering through the windshield looking for his brother also, worrying about him. 

"You don’t think he run off do you?" Zac demanded.

"No, he’s just mad at me right now," Ike explained. He drove up to the gate, pressed the electronic key to open them and drove through, waving at the persistent fans that were parked outside of their driveway. They had showed up in the few minutes that he and Zac had been gone. They were used to fans parking outside their gates or setting up surveillance with binoculars and cameras. There would be pictures posted on the internet of Ike and his new car before the evening was over, and there would be internet polls and surveys being set-up by the following day on whether he had picked out the ‘right car for Ike’. Fans liked to second guess every decision made by Hanson, sometimes they became very aggressive in their misguided beliefs that they were the ruling forces behind every decision made by the band and its members.

"There’s Tay," Zac exclaimed pointing to his brother as he was strolled across the yard. 

Ike pulled up and parked the car expecting an apology from his brother. Instead as soon as he opened the door and got out, Taylor was shouting at him.

"You dork, you left the gate open!" Taylor shouted pointing at a car full of screaming fans approaching the house 

"Mackie, Avie, inside now," Taylor ordered as he snatched his little brother up in his arms and grabbed his younger sister by the hand. He led them inside and slammed the door behind him. 

Ike and Zac barely had time jump out of the car and get the doors shut when the fans arrived. Walker came out of the house and his imposing adult presence was enough to back the female fans off enough for Ike and Zac to escape into the house. He stood out in the driveway for a minute talking to the young ladies and politely and sternly pointed towards to main gate of the property and sent them on their way. Fans were the reason the Hanson family had been forced to move from their other home. He had purposely picked this property because of its privacy and security. Walker was not going to let fans invade their privacy a second time. 

Walker returned to the house with a frown on his face.

"Sorry, Dad," Ike exclaimed as soon as he entered the kitchen. "I forgot to hit the release when I drove through."

"I keep doing the same thing," Walker said. "I’m thinking of putting the gate on an automatic return. It would give us about twenty seconds to drive through and then it would automatically shut, but I was afraid that if some of the fans tried to sneak through it they might get crushed."

"Couldn’t a motion detector be put on the gate to keep it from hitting a car?" Taylor asked.

"That’s a good idea. I’ll ask the security company," Walker agreed.

"You guys can go back outside to play. It’s safe now." Taylor said setting Mackie on his feet.

"The Scream Squad all gone?" the four year old asked.

Taylor laughed. "Yes, all gone."

"How did the car handle?" Walker asked of Ike.

"Terrific, Dad," Ike exclaimed.

"Yeah, it’s cool!" Zac exclaimed.

Taylor didn’t offer his opinion. He focused his attention on getting a snack and then slipped out of the kitchen quietly but not unnoticed. Ike knew Taylor was avoiding him and probably still angry with him. 

Ike gave Taylor an hour before he sought him out. As he opened the door to the studio he heard Taylor practicing the drums. The thundering roll of the drums told him what Taylor wouldn’t. He was still angry. Ike walked down the steps and sat on the bottom step and waited patiently for his brother to finish. Finally, and only after he was sweating profusely, did Taylor take a breather. He looked up genuinely surprised to find someone in the studio with him.

Ike make a fist and tapped himself lightly on the chin. "You want to take a shot at me?" Ike asked somewhat seriously.

"No," Taylor said looking surprised at the suggestion. "Although, I am ticked that you didn’t tell me!" 

"I should have," Ike allowed. 

"The person I’d really like to punch is Dad," Taylor exclaimed in frustration but at the same time checking to make sure the door was closed and lowering his voice just in case the same person should happen to be in the vicinity.

"Dad?" Ike exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes! Well, not really, but you know what I mean," Taylor exclaimed vehemently in a loud whisper. "Don’t you get tired of the over-protective crap? Doesn’t he realize how important it is for a guy to get a license and then get a car? I mean it is one of our inalienable rights of passage as a guy. You turn sixteen, you get your license and you drive. Why is he making it so difficult?"

"Actually, I think we made it more difficult," Ike commented thoughtfully. "I mean think about Tay. I got my license just before all this craziness started. Every time we leave the house now, security has to be considered. Just taking you out for a driving lesson practically requires a decoy car to protect you from being run off the road by crazy fans. We may not like it but Dad’s doing what Dad does best. He’s protecting us from getting hurt."

"He’s protecting us from growing up!" Taylor exclaimed and slammed the drumsticks down on the symbols.

"Relax, Tay," Ike exclaimed. "Dad will calm down. He didn’t want to give in on the car for me, so give him a few days to get used to the idea of my coming and going. If you’re frustrated, think how I must feel."

"No offense, brother, but you’ve got what you want." Taylor exclaimed. "You’re already driving and dating."

"Ah..." Ike exclaimed nodding his head in agreement and smiling.

"Ah, what?" Taylor demanded.

"Girls," Ike admitted. "This is more about girls, than driving. Tay, if you think that getting a license and driving is going to be some kind of a magical catalyst for dating you’re wrong. What you lack is nerve."

"I’ve got nerve," Taylor objected beginning to turn red. "What I don’t have is wheels!"

"If you say so," Ike teased enjoying his brothers’ self-consciousness. "The offer still holds for tonight. All I have to do is make a phone call. It might take lot of begging but I’m sure Carrie could come up with a date for you. Most of her friends aren’t that desperate but I’m sure she’d find someone."

"Funny, Ike, funny," Taylor grumbled. "Watch it, or your tires may suddenly go flat when you least expect it."

"As long as it’s on a lonely, dark, deserted stretch of highway, I wouldn’t mind," Ike said winking suggestively. 

"Yeah, right," Taylor snorted in disbelief. "Carrie would punch your lights out!"

Taylor was typing furiously on his computer when Zac entered his room. When Zac looked over his shoulder, Taylor turned the video screen to black. 

"What are you working on?" 

"Something private," Taylor admitted. "Go away so I can finish it."

"You might as well tell me now, I’ll find out anyway," Zac grumbled.

"Probably, but for now, it’s private," Taylor maintained. "What do you want?"

Zac make a flying dive onto his brothers’ bed and flipped over on his back. "I need eighteen dollors, actually with change it’s closer to nineteen, so it would probably be better if you gave me twenty."

Taylor turned around in his chair, straddling it backwards and put his chin down on the back. "What do you want now?"

Zac flipped over again and his face lit up with animation. "There is the coolest game out, it’s all samurai sword fighting and karate and it’s really cool."

"I thought Mom and Dad said no more violent games," Taylor commented wryly.

"Get real," Zac scoffed. "All the good stuff has violence and it’s not like I’m likely to go postal or anything."

"That’s good to know," Taylor exclaimed. "Because I’m not giving you the money."

Zac shot up in the bed with total surprise and disbelief. "Why not? You always loan me money to get games!"

Taylor stood up and leaned over his desk, picked up a paperback dictionary and threw it at his brothers’ head.

Zac caught the incoming missile easily.

"You need to look up the words: Loan and borrow," Taylor said. "Every time you get your allowance you’re in here a few minutes later wanting to ‘borrow’. ‘Borrow’ implies that you intend to pay back. You never do. I own as many of your games as you do."

"Well it’s not my fault that my allowance isn’t big enough," Zac complained. "You get double my allowance!"

"And, Ike got twice as much as I do, at least he did before he turned eighteen and started getting a salary." Taylor explained calmly. "They’re Dad’s rules. You got a problem with it, take it up with Dad."

"But, Tay, my allowance isn’t big enough to do much of anything with," Zac complained.

"It’s about triple what I was getting at your age, before we hit it big," Taylor reminded his brother.

"Yeah, but what’s the use of having all that money if we can’t use it."

"You’d better take that up with Dad, too" Taylor suggested. "And good luck, ‘cause he’s so paranoid about someone taking advantage of us that he’s got most of it locked up in trusts that we can’t touch for years!"

"Come on, Tay, it’s only twenty bucks," Zac pleaded.

"Nope, I’m going to need all my allowance for something that I want to do," Taylor refused.

"But, you’ve got a whole wad of bills in your sock drawer. You can spare twenty bucks!" Zac pleaded.

Taylor got up and advanced on his younger brother and Zac rolled off the bed and backed up realizing that by admitting that he knew about his brother’s money stash, he’d admitted to snooping into his stuff. Both Taylor and Ike hated it when he invaded their privacy but sometimes he found it just to hard to resist. 

Taylor picked up a dirty, still damp towel off the floor and started rolling it up tightly. Zac was backing up and trying to get a clear path to the door to his room.

"You," Taylor threatened as he got closer and continued to roll the towel. "Had better stay out of my stuff. You are acting like a spoilt brat."

"I am not a brat!" Zac protested.

Taylor got within flipping distance and he let the towel fly. 

Zac yipped even though he jumped back and wasn’t hit. "Aaw Tay!" Zac bellowed, but he kept jumping back and after three unsuccessful strikes he made a run for it out his brothers room with his brother on his heels. Zac slammed his own bedroom door closed and leaned against it to keep Tay out just in case he wanted to pursue him. But, listening through the door he heard his brother typing again on his computer. Zac knew Taylor’s password so he knew that he could find out what he was working on later but he thought he’d better steer clear of him for a little while. Zac made a dive onto his bed and grabbed the newspaper ad and looked at it longingly. If he had to save his own money for the game it would be two weeks before he’d have enough money. And, that was providing that he could go a whole week without spending his allowance and that was nearly impossible. Zac looked over at the stacks of video games that was piled up on his desk and dresser and the games that had carelessly fallen on the floor and were still lying there. What Taylor said had a ring of truth to it. He did get a bigger allowance than any of them had gotten before they had gotten famous. But it never seemed to be enough. Zac sat up and looked out the window pondering his thoughts. Before they had gotten famous, he and his brothers had spent lots of time outside playing games and tons of time in the tree house. Suddenly, Zac made up his mind and he emptied his pockets and placed his newly received allowance in an old plastic pencil box. Then, deep in thought, he wandered out of his bedroom and out of house. 

Zac took a long walk across the lawn, hands deep in his pockets, head down in concentration. He sat for a while inside the shed doorway and then finally ended up sitting on a small planked bridge that crossed a trickle of a stream of water. Another thing that didn’t make this new house ‘home’. Their home before had been surrounded by three sides with streams. Big enough for fishing and wading and all kinds of fun stuff. 

"Hey, kido,"

Zac looked up as his Dad handed him a coat and squatted down to join him on the bridge. 

With their legs dangling off the edge of the planks, Zac and his Dad sat quietly for a few moments. 

Walker tried to catch his sons’ eye but Zac was leaning forward and his hair was covering most of his face. Having watched his son walking circles in the back yard for the last hour, he’d given him time to be alone and then finally had decided that maybe something was bothering him and had come out to bring him a coat and see if he could offer help. "Son, do you have something you want to talk about."

Zac shook his head negatively and they sat for a few more minutes.

"Dad, we need a tree house." Zac finally said, pulling his legs up and sitting cross-legged on the bridge. 

"Haven’t you outgrown a tree house?" Walker asked. 

"Yeah," Zac agreed. "But it was cool to have some place to go to that was really private. We had that and the little kids are going to need it too. Probably more than we did. Because of us."

"I’ll think about it, maybe we’ll build one in the spring." Walker suggested. "When it’s a little bit warmer."

Father and son sat quietly for a few more minutes. Walker was patient. Zac’s personality was a contrast of extremes from wild and zany to quiet and retrospective, but he was never shy about talking out his problems. Sometimes it took a while, but he would eventually come around.

"Dad, are we rich?" Zac blurted out bluntly.

"Very," Walker said. "Have you been asleep during all those monthly meetings?"

"No, I’ve been there. They’re boring, but I’ve been there," Zac admitted. "But, it really feels like we’re playing with Monopoly money. It doesn’t feel real. And, we don’t actually get it or see it or even spend it."

"Well, I’ll admit sometimes it doesn’t seem real to me either," Walker admitted. "But, as an accountant I can tell you it is very real. Maybe numbers on paper don’t seem real but it is there and it’s being taken care to the best of my ability. I’ve set as many safeguards in place, as I know how, to ensure that it doesn’t get wasted away and it will be there when you get older. That’s one of the reasons I make the family sit through those meetings."

"Dad, I’m not saying I don’t trust you. I wouldn’t even go there," Zac said quietly. 

"Well, thank you," Walker said giving his son a squeeze. "What are you saying then?"

"I don’t know," Zac puzzled. "It’s just we don’t see it. The only difference I see, is that we live in a bigger house, and we get to travel in first class, and I know that’s a tax write-off. Mom still clips coupons and you still bargain for everything. If we’re so rich, how come we don’t get to act rich? How come we don’t get all the stuff we want?"

Walker chuckled. "Well, for one because you’re still a kid and we wouldn’t be doing you any favors by treating you like a ‘star’. We’ve discussed all this before. Hanson being part of the ‘rich and famous’ stops at the stage. Acting rich and spoilt is a good way to lose everything you’ve worked for. In fact, that’s how most stars do lose everything. They don’t use the good common sense they were born with. Mom is probably always going to clip coupons and watch for sales and I’ll always want to bargain with the prices. That’s simply who we are. We’re just simple people with simple needs who live rather well. Would you feel more comfortable with a pocket full of money?"

"I’d like to try it!" Zac admitted with a smile.

"Well when you’re old enough to understand the value of your money you can." Walker promised. "But, buying stuff doesn’t make a person happy, son. Stuff is just, well stuff. You and your brothers didn’t get into music for the money. You got into it because you loved to sing. The money is just a nice side benefit. What makes a person happy is what’s inside. Love for what you’re doing and love of family is what life is about."

"Are you really happy Dad?" Zac asked seriously. "I mean, you had to give up your career and everything for us."

"I couldn’t be happier," Walker admitted seriously. "I have your mother, the love of my life. I have you kids. That’s what makes me happy. I don’t regret having to give up my job for one second. Actually, I like being able to be home with you guys. Zac, we’re living an adventure that very few people get to experience. Watching you and your brothers has been amazing and I’m enjoying every second of it. But, if it stopped tomorrow, then I just go on being your Dad, and proud to do so. You’re too young to understand now, but being a father is the most important role a man can have in his life, other than being a husband. Career, money, success, all that is secondary to being good husband and father."

"You are a good Dad, Dad," Zac said. 

"Well thank you again," Walker said. "That’s my job, and I’ll try to keep doing it even if you do get mad at me."

"Who me?" Zac quipped with a smile.

Walker laughed out loud. "Yes, you. What’s all this about? Are you wrangling for a bigger allowance?"

"No, but that would help," Zac hinted.

"Not going to happen," Walker said. "Anything else bothering you?"

"Nope, just working some stuff out in my head," Zac admitted.

"Okay," Walker said. " I’m going to go back inside. Don’t stay out too much longer. It’s turning colder."

Zac nodded and watched his Dad go back to the house. He punched his hands down inside his coat pockets and continued to sit on the bridge. He still needed to talk to a parent but he had a feeling that the next talk wouldn’t go so easily.