Life at the Hanson household returned to a normal or at least to as normal as it had ever been before the three oldest had become internationally known pop stars. But, pop stars or not, they were still teenagers and still had to continue with their education. Their parents were strict and unwavering about their home schooling and about the quality of their education. When breakfast was finished and the dishes dispensed with, it was time for their school lessons. School always took place in what would have been the dining room in any other house. The Hanson always chose to eat in the kitchen and use the dining room for school setup. There was a long heavy table in the room with a blackboard on the wall and two computers set-ups. Diana took charge of the first lessons, which were History and English Grammar. History was a favorite of all five of the Hansons and it was received with enthusiasm but the English Grammar lesson was not as enthusiastically embraced. Each of them was on a different grade level from second to twelfth and although they knew it was a requirement it was not a favorite. Then Walker stepped in to relieve his wife, he took on the task of the mathematics lessons. All three of the older boys groaned in anticipation and were quickly silenced by a simple ‘look’ from their father. He knew math was not their favorite although Zac was just beginning to show the resistance that Ike and Taylor had displayed for years. But, he had also asked them repeated not to influence their younger siblings with their dislike for the subject. The boys dug out their books and went to work, but with a decidedly lack of enthusiasm. After the dreaded Math, they bounced back to English composition. This was more to the older Hansons’ liking. Ike was researching the production costs of music videos and he was writing a paper on it. Taylor was writing a composition on a Shrine they had visited in Japan and Zac was writing a paper on the exhibits that they had viewed at a modern art museum. Walker left the older boys to their writing and went to help his younger children with their compositions on various subjects. It was an easy hour of study. Taylor looked up from his paper and noticed that Ike wasn’t writing anything on his paper. He seemed to be more interested in reading something that was within his note folder. Taylor looked over his brothers shoulder and then nudged him because Ike was reading a brochure on the Dodge Stealth instead of reading his production notes. Ike looked up from his brochure, frowned at his brother and then shut his notebook quickly when Taylor went into a fit of sneezing that caused him to leave the study table and drew their fathers attention at the same time.

"Tay, are you okay?" Walker asked as he moved up the table towards his older sons. 

"Fine, fine," Taylor mumbled and grabbed a couple of tissues out of box to make the sneezing look realistic. He returned to the table, sniffed and shot Ike an irritated look and then looked over to Zac who recognized the diversionary tactic for what it was and was smiling slightly. 

An hour later with their lessons finished, it was time for serious work to begin again. It usually took days to recover from the rigors of travel. There was a mountain of luggage to be unpacked and equally extreme amounts of laundry that had to be done. After basically living on the road for three years the entire family had learned that it was easier to work very hard the first few days back and be done with it rather than dragging the reorganizing process out any longer than necessary. With the precision of professional movers, the older Hansons dealt with their chores seriously. Ike and Taylor worked as a team and their elusive younger brother Zac managed to make himself scarce. 

Zac was an expert at avoiding chores. He knew how to be conveniently absent when the chores were divvied out and knew how to appear just busy enough so that his parents wouldn’t catch on. Ike and Tay never ratted on him. He had some serious thinking to do. When he had talked to his Dad, he had been serious. He’d spent days and weeks thinking about it. He was tired of the repetition of their work, the stupid questions that interviewers ask over and over. He was tired of being on the road all the time and he was tired of being a celebrity. Tired of having to watch everything he said, everything he did in public and tired of being criticized regardless of how he acted. Being a celebrity had been fun at first, the attention, the girls, and the scream squads. Now it was a pain. He wanted to go back to being a nobody, to not be recognized and to be able to walk around and not be noticed. He had been sure that once Hanson was out of the spotlight that the attention would cease. Tulsa wasn’t exactly the celebrity capital of the world, it wouldn’t take long for another band to take their place with the fans. But now that Tay and Ike were planning on continuing that meant that the traveling would just continue. The only difference would be that he wouldn’t be part of the band anymore, just part of the family. That wasn’t how he’d planned it.

Ike wandered into the music studio and stood behind his brother for a minute listening to him repeat the chorus line over and over again and finally stop and pick up the pencil to write the line out on the score paper. 

"You got something for us yet?" he asked his brother.

Taylor looked up and shook his head. "It’s not ready yet. But, it’s coming along pretty good."

"Whenever you’re ready," Ike suggested. "I’ll go upstairs and work on breaking down the acoustical guitar parts for "Time for Love".

"I really like that one," Taylor exclaimed, referring to a ballad that Ike had recently written.

Ike grinned and turned to leave but turned back when his brother pulled a pamphlet out of his back pocket. It was the sales brochure for the Dodge Stealth.

"Do you really think that Dad is going to let you buy this?" Taylor asked very impressed with the brochure and the car.

"Dad couldn’t really stop me if I really want to get it." Ike said. "I mean it is my money and I am over 18."

Taylor looked up at his brother in disbelief. "You’re going to say that to Dad?" he asked.

Ike laughed and shook his head. "Do I look suicidal or stupid?"

Taylor grinned. "For a second there I was thinking maybe I was going to have a solo career whether I wanted it or not, ‘cause if you say that to Dad, you’re dead."

"I know, but it’s awfully frustrating. So far he’s managed to come up with a whole lot of excuses why I can’t have a car. This time I really want to nail him down on it." Ike said.

"Well, whatever arguments you use, make them good, because my getting a car hinges on it too," Taylor said.

"Thanks for the support!’ Ike quipped.

"I’m serious." Taylor exclaimed. "At least with you, he’s had the excuse that we’ve been on the road for so long. I can’t even get him to take me out to practice."

"That’s because you’re a lousy driver," Ike exclaimed. "Maybe if you’d put off pestering them to let you drive it wouldn’t be so hard to break him down on letting me buy a car. Every time he takes you out, he just uses that as ammunition for not letting me have a car. You’re scaring them to death!"

"I’m not that bad!" Taylor denied.

Ike raised his eyebrows at that exaggeration and just looked at his younger brother with an amused look until Tay blushed as he knew he would.

"Well how am I ever going to get better if no one will let me practice!" Taylor demanded. "But, if you get a car, then you can take me out to practice."

"Only when no one is around," Ike warned. "Dad doesn’t think I’ve had enough experience to teach you and besides it’s slightly illegal, since I’m not twenty-one."

"Then I’ll just keep pestering them!" Taylor threatened.

"Pester them after I get Dad to take me out to the car lots. Once I’ve got the car then we’ll work on him about letting me teach you, at least around the property. That’s not illegal." Ike suggested.

Taylor let that bit of information sink in, and gave a deep sigh and agreed. "Okay."

Ike stuck out his little finger to seal the deal and Taylor reluctantly linked his with his brother’s to seal the deal. He would lay off pestering their Dad and Mom about driving until Ike talked them into letting him purchase his first vehicle. Taylor hoped it didn’t take to long he only had four months before his sixteenth birthday.

Walker Hanson stuck his head around the corner. "Hey, guys dinner is ready. Have you seen Zac?"

"Not for a while," Ike said. "Last time I saw him he was downstairs playing a video game."

But Zac wasn’t in the family room and when the family spread out all over the house to find him he wasn’t to be found. Finally, the family sat down for dinner and Walker said grace although he was a little aggravated at his one missing son. Attendance at meals was mandatory at the Hanson household unless you asked for prior permission to be elsewhere. They were halfway through the meal when Zac careened through the back door still on his rollerblades, red-faced and sweaty from exertion. 

"Where have you been young man?" Walker asked.

"I was skating on the concrete water runoff area. It was great, but I forgot my watch!" Zac exclaimed.

"Since when do you leave the house without telling someone where you’re going?" Diana asked her son sharply.

In a fraction of a second Zac’s smile disappeared. He bent down to untie his skates and to think fast. He was in trouble and he knew it. He would have to think fast to get out of this one. Both his Mom and Dad had a tendency to be over protective since they had had so many skirmishes with mobs and crowds. 

"But, Mom I did tell someone I was going." Zac declared. "I told Tay!"

This was news to Taylor. But it wasn’t the first time that his little brother had put him on the spot to bail himself out of trouble. As both his mother and father turned to him for an explanation he shrugged. 

"Actually, I do remember Zac coming into the studio, but I wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying. Sorry." Taylor said, covering for his brother but trying not out right lie about it. Zac was in and out of the studio all the time.

Walker shook his head and turned back to Zac. "You know better than to try to get Taylor’s attention when he’s zoned out."

Zac took deep breath of relief. His parents were buying it. "It’s not my fault, if Tay is a space cadet."

"Hey!" Taylor objected.

"Okay, guys don’t start anything," Walker intervened. "Zac, next time, make sure you tell either Mom or me before you disappear."

"Okay," Zac agreed and he ran off the bathroom to cleanup before he slid into his seat at the table. As soon as his parents were occupied with filling his plate he mouthed a "thanks" in the direction of Taylor. 

Taylor just nodded his head slightly because he knew his little brother was going to pay for that ‘almost lie’ that he had dragged him into. He watched as Zac chowed down on his dinner without a second thought about the position he had put his brother into. He waited and watched and finally at the end of meal he got his chance. Maybe because she was happy to be home, Diana had baked a cake for desert. They didn’t often have desert, she felt they were exposed to enough junk food and sugar because of the catering at every function that they attended. This desert was Zac’s favorite, chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a filling of cherry filling. Zac was a confirmed choco-a-holic. Taylor saw his brother eyes widen when their mom brought the cake to the table and he hurried to finish his dinner. In a household of nine, a single cake didn’t go far. Taylor enjoyed his slice and then just as Zac was reaching for his lone piece left on the plate, he intercepted him with a "Thanks Zac, I appreciate it!" and he scooped the cake onto his plate.

Zac glared at him but Taylor was already digging into it with relish. Sometimes paybacks were very, very good.

Ike assessed the situation, set up a tactical plan and set about executing it. The situation was his Dad didn’t see a need for Ike to buy a car. His reasoning was that they were seldom home and when they were traveling they were either on the bus or being chauffeured in limousines. His Dad thought buying a car was an extravagance that would sit in the garage and depreciate while they were away traveling. Ike’s plan was to change his mind. He’d had a license for two years now and he had driven every thing from the family van to the tour bus. Of course, his Dad didn’t know that he’d taken a turn at driving the bus but that was beside the point. To Ike, owning a car was a symbol of independence. All he had to do was convince his Dad. The place to start that campaign was with Mom. Mom was usually easier. It only took a day a half and she was okay with the idea of him getting a car. Then he turned his full attention on his father. Ike spent hours and hours of the next several days talking to his Dad. He had had two long years to compile his facts. For every objection his father came up with to discourage him, Ike had two incontestable facts to refute them. Finally, on the fourth day, Dad caved. 

Ike knew the Dodge Stealth was not a real possibility. But, that hadn’t been his original target anyway. He had only used that as a starting point from which to start bargaining. He and his Dad went onto the Internet and started compiling research of the different real possibilities. Dad wanted ‘sensible’ so if it sat in the garage depreciating it wouldn’t be a total loss. Ike wanted sleek and a little sporty. After a lot of negotiating they settled on the Saturn. It was priced well within his Dad’s ‘sensible’ range and sporty enough to satisfy Ike. Walker went his son down the dealership and they ordered a sleek metallic green Saturn. It would take a week for it to be delivered. Ike was elated but his Dad delivered one more ultimatum before the deal was signed. Under no circumstances was he to allow Taylor or Zac to drive the car. Then he launched into a lecture about car ownership about how a car was not a toy but a responsibility. Ike agreed. He didn’t have any choice but he wondered how he was going to explain it to his closest brother. Taylor had kept his promise about not pestering either of their parents for driving lessons. Ike wasn’t going to be able to keep his promise. At least not immediately.