The following week after my last class of the morning I spent my afternoon studying in the library. I had tried to study in my room the day before, but the two girls in the room across the hall liked to play their music really loud, which made it hard for me to concentrate. Normally I could study while listening to music if I liked the genre, but rap was not a genre I was fond of. By the time Shalee got back to the dorms, I was ready to go across the hall and kick the girls in the head.

Shalee grew annoyed immediately as I started to vent my frustrations and went across the hall to ask the girls to turn the music down. However, this seemed to amuse them and they turned the music up. Shalee had vowed to make a complaint about them, but I told her to just let it go. The last thing I wanted was cause any trouble, but Shalee was dead set on getting those girls in trouble.

At first I thought it was just out of spite, but I quickly realized that it was because the noise was causing her trouble with studying as well. My first impression about Shalee and school was that she would be the type to just scrape by with decent grades because she seemed too carefree, but as our workload started to pile up, it became quite evident that Shalee was a serious student. I was thankful to be proven wrong because her drive to do well seemed to push me as well, and even though we didn’t share any classes, we still studied together.

I studied at the library until I was sure Shalee would be back from class. When I reached the dorm, I found her stuffing all of her dirty clothes into a trash bag. She glanced up at me and smiled. “Hey,” she said.

“Hi,” I replied. “What are you doing?”

“I need to do laundry,” she said.

“Oh, so do I,” I replied, making a face. I always hated doing laundry – especially when it came time to fold my clothes. “Think you’ll be able to get in to do your laundry?” I asked. “I went to do mine yesterday and it was filled up.”

Shalee nearly snorted. “Oh, I checked. There’s no way I can get in down there,” she said.

“So where are you going to do your laundry?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m going to the Hansons,” she grinned. “I already called Diana – that’s Taylor’s mom – and she said it was cool.”

“Oh, well, that’s cool,” I said.

“Wanna come with me?” she asked. “You can do your laundry too if you want.”

I started to say no, but I thought about what Emmy had said about putting forth a little effort, so I nodded. “Sure,” I said. “Are you sure she won’t mind if I do mine too though?”

“Oh, Diana rocks. She won’t care,” Shalee said. “And I bet she’ll even fix us some lunch. Ah, a homemade meal,” she sighed dramatically.

“Okay, okay, don’t start salivating yet,” I laughed as I grabbed a mesh bag and began to throw my dirty clothes inside. I couldn’t help but think to myself that a homemade meal didn’t sound bad at all, but I didn’t get my hopes up.

After I gathered my things, Shalee and I headed down to her car and from there she drove to the Hanson household. “You might get to meet Zac,” she commented. “Taylor told Trey the other day that he’s supposed to be back home sometime this week.”

“Oh, cool,” I smiled. I hadn’t expected to meet another famous person so soon. Although I hadn’t really thought of Taylor as being famous since he had seemed pretty normal to me. I wondered if Zac would be the same way, but then I figured that if Shalee was friends with him, then he couldn’t be too bad.

“Where’s he been?” I asked curiously.

Shalee rolled her eyes. “Visiting the ball and chain,” she muttered.

I gave her a look of confusion and she sighed. “He was visiting his fiancée,” she reiterated.

“He’s engaged?” I asked with surprised. “But isn’t he only like eighteen?” I asked.

“He’s nineteen, twenty in October, but yeah, he’s engaged,” Shalee sighed. “Not one of his most brilliant plans,” she said.

“So, I take it you don’t approve?”

“Well, I might feel differently if I actually liked the girl he’s going to marry, but she and I have a mutual dislike for each other,” she explained.

“Oh, who is she? And why don’t you like each other?” I asked curiously.

“Her name is Kate. Her and Natalie were actually best friends in school,” Shalee explained. “And why don’t we like each other? Well, it really started with her. She seemed to think that I was after Zac for some reason. I don’t even know where she got this notion because, um, hello? I’ve been with Danny for almost six years. If I wanted Zac, I think I would have gone after him a long time ago,” she frowned.

“And you and Zac have always just been friends?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Shalee nodded. “We never dated or anything. He’s always been like a brother to me, and I’m not really a fan of incest,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s frustrating.”

“I bet,” I said. “Especially since she has such an unfounded reason to dislike you.”

“Yeah, but Zac says he loves her, so I deal,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Basically we just stay out of each other’s way when she’s here.”

“Where does she live?” I asked. “Georgia? That’s where Natalie said she was from, right?”

“Yeah,” Shalee nodded. “She goes to college there.”

“Oh, I see,” I nodded.

“Despite his bad taste in girlfriends, Zac’s a cool guy,” Shalee said. “You’ll like him. I’m sure.”

I smiled. I guessed that I would be finding that out for myself if he was home.

We arrived at the Hanson household shortly after. It was a two-story beige house with dark wood trim out in the country, surrounded by a fence with a wooded area around back. There was also a pool house in the back, but Shalee informed me that they didn’t have a pool. She told me that she never understood the point of the pool house either, and we laughed as she parked the car.

I also noticed that there were a couple of cars in the driveway and some toys scattered around the front yard. I looked around for a moment longer, admiring the view. I had always lived in the suburbs, so I didn’t get to enjoy the beauty of the country often enough. When I noticed Shalee watching me with an amused smile, I blushed and quickly grabbed my bag before following her up the driveway to the front door.

She pushed the heavy front door open and looked around as she dropped her bag to the ground. “Diana?” she called. “It’s your favorite mooch.”

She grinned at me as I sat my bag down and waited for an answer. It came only seconds later.

“I’m in the kitchen, Shalee.”

Shalee smirked and grabbed my hand and pulled me down a long hallway past a large room. At the end of the first hallway was another one that led to the right and a moment later we were standing in a beautiful, rich colored kitchen. Shalee let go on my hand and rushed over to the woman standing behind the island at the center of the kitchen and wrapped her arms around the woman’s shoulders.

“Hi, Diana,” she smiled.

Diana smile and patted Shalee on the back before pulling back to look her over. “Well, you seem to be in good health so far, but you’ve only been at the dorms for a couple of weeks,” she commented.

“Mom told you to check on me, didn’t she?” Shalee smiled.

Diana tried to hide a smile as she nodded. “And who is your friend?” she asked, looking over at me.

“This is Jude,” Shalee smiled as she motioned for me to come farther into the kitchen. “Jude, this is Taylor’s mom, Diana. Well, she’s also Isaac, Zac, Jessica, Avery, Mackenzie and Zoe’s mom too, but you’ve only met Tay, Jess, and Ave, so …”

I cracked a smile as Shalee launched into a full on ramble. Finally Diana broke in with a warm smile and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Jude.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” I replied.

“Have you girls had lunch?” Diana asked. Shalee glanced at me and grinned widely before shaking her head.

“Well, why don’t you start your laundry and I’ll fix something to eat,” Diana suggested.

“Oh, Diana, you don’t have to do that,” Shalee said. Her voice sounded a little lame, and I think we all knew that even as she said those words, she was more than willing to eat whatever Diana fixed.

“Go start your laundry,” Diana said firmly. I followed Shalee back down the hallway to where we left our bags. We both grabbed our things and I followed Shalee down another short hallway that was to the left of the front door. The hallway led to another room with the washer and dryer.

“Do you just want to do our laundry together to save time?” she asked.

“Sure,” I shrugged.

“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t all creeped out by the idea of washing our clothes together,” she commented as she emptied the contents of her bag onto the floor. “I had a friend that got all squeamish when I mentioned the notion.”

“Why would it matter? They’re dirty anyway, and they’re going to come out clean,” I replied as I emptied my bag and we began to sort our clothes by color.

“Jude, you’re the coolest friend I’ve ever had,” Shalee grinned. “And that is because you think just like me – using logic.”

I smiled at her and shook my head. It made me happy to hear her call me her friend. I already knew that we were friends, but it was nice to hear it anyway. In high school I was always social enough and knew most of my classmates, but aside from Drea and Paul, I only hung out with a handful of them on limited occasions outside of school.

Drea always said it was because we were just too cool and didn’t need anyone else, but she wasn’t exactly a people person to begin with. Drea was such a complex person. She had always been outgoing and creative. I always felt like she had the capacity to be anything she wanted. Of course that could have just been my parents talking through me, but Drea was never interested in much of anything.

Dad always said she was a floater. I was never sure what he actually meant by it, but I supposed that he was right. She did just seem to float through life, from one place to another without any real direction or aspirations - unless it was trying a new hairstyle or sitting out on the balcony of her bedroom and drawing. She was always good at drawing, but she never showed anyone except me. She used to show my mom too. I don’t think she even shared any of her drawing with Mia.

Drea and I used to always joke and say that our mom’s got mixed up and I really belonged to Mia and she belonged to my mom because I was more like Mia, while Drea was outgoing like my mom. But Drea was really more a contradiction in itself. While she was strong and outgoing, I don’t think she ever believed in herself, thus the floating. I loved her anyway though. She was my best friend, my anchor, and my family. Even though we were only cousins, I always felt like she was more of a sister to me than anything.

I really missed her a lot, but being around Shalee seemed to help fill that void. Though they were very different, Shalee’s antics reminded me of Drea.

“Well, we logic using people have to stick together,” I finally commented, grinning.

“Damn straight!” Shalee laughed.

After the clothing was sorted, Shalee turned on the washer and poured in the soap and we started to throw our clothes into the washer. Shalee then shut the lid and suggested to go see what Diana was fixing us for lunch.

If there was one thing I’d learned about Shalee, it was that she loved food. Danny always teased her, saying that one day her metabolism was going to slow down and she was going to turn into a blimp. But even as he said it, it was more than obvious that he would still love her just as much.

Aside from their argument after the barbeque, Shalee and Danny hadn’t had a single fight, which I was both grateful for yet surprised by. Of course I really didn’t have any basis for judgment myself, but from what I had seen of other people my age who were in serious relationships, they seemed to be arguing off and on all the time. Of course Shalee and Danny didn’t appear to be an average couple.

The first time she told me that she and Danny had been together for nearly six years, I thought she was joking, but after she went on to tell me that they started “going out” in the sixth grade and had been together ever since, I was a little taken aback. She admitted that they had broken up a few times over the years, but they always wound up back together. In a way I envied her because I wished that I could have had that kind of relationship with Paul, but instead of going for it, we both seemed to wait too long, and by the time our feelings were out in the open, other things seemed to get in the way and ruin it for us.

When we reached the kitchen, we found two steaming bowls of chicken noodle soup and two freshly grilled cheese sandwiches. “What would you like to drink?” Diana asked when she saw us enter the kitchen and approach the plates at the table.

“Dr. Pepper, of course,” Shalee grinned.

“And for you, Jude?” Diana asked.

“Dr. Pepper’s fine,” I smiled. She took two cans out of the refrigerator and brought them over to us.

“Well, dig in,” she smiled.

“Yes, ma’am,” Shalee nodded as she picked up the spoon laying beside the bowl and scooped up a heaping spoonful of noodles and shoveled them into her mouth. I shook my head and started to eat my food. At least Shalee wasn’t shy about eating. I had to give her that.

Diana sat with us and asked a few questions about college. And I found out that she had and still was home-schooling all of her children. I tried to picture what it would be like to have my parents as my teachers. My mom would have been too out there to actually get anything relevant done and my dad would have to been too strict, so in the end I decided that I was glad I’d gone to public school.

After eating Diana proclaimed that she had things to do like go pick up her two youngest children from a friends’ house, so Shalee suggested that we go watch a movie while our clothes were being washed. Instead of going to the living room to watch the movie, Shalee headed upstairs and after walking down the hallway to the third door on the left, we were in what appeared to be a guy’s bedroom.

“This is Zac’s room,” Shalee explained, apparently noticing the look on my face. “And this is clean for him, so feel privileged that you saw his bedroom on a good day,” she grinned.

“Shouldn’t I just feel privileged to have seen Zac Hanson’s bedroom?” I smirked.

“Oh, yes,” Shalee said, rolling her eyes. “I keep forgetting that he’s a celebrity or whatever.”

I laughed as Shalee walked over to a pile of DVDs beside the television and began to sift through them. “Ooh, Zac has The Notebook,” she snorted. “Run out and tell all of your friends. Hurry. You can be the one to ruin his macho rep.”

I laughed as she dug through the DVDs before picking up another one. “Oh, look – How To Deal. Hmm … me thinks Zac likes chick flicks. And here I thought I should be worried about finding porn or dirty magazines. Zac has let me down. I thought he was a guy ... guess not.”

I couldn’t help but laugh some more as Shalee continued looking through the DVDs. Finally she pulled out one with a delighted squeal. She held up the DVD for me to see and I couldn’t suppress a smile as I recognized the cover of Pirates of the Caribbean.

“I love me some Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom,” Shalee sighed dreamily as she turned on the DVD player and put the DVD into the tray. She grabbed a remote off of the TV stand and dived onto the bed. She looked at me expectantly and I looked back at her as if to ask what she wanted.

“Are you planning on standing there to watch the movie?” she finally asked. “Because, frankly, it’s making me nervous.”

I rolled my eyes and walked over and sat down beside her on the bed. She pushed the play button on the remote before sitting up to fix the pillows until she was comfortable. I couldn’t exactly make myself as home like her though. I felt a little awkward sitting on the bed of some guy I had never met, who on top of everything else happened to be famous. But as the movie started, I leaned back against the pillows and started to relax.

We watched some of the movie before Shalee paused it and ran downstairs to check on the laundry. I started to go with her, but she told me to stay put, so I leaned back against the pillows and took a closer look at the room. The walls were dark blue, which made the room appear to be dark. There were a few posters on the wall, mostly of older bands like the Beach Boys and Grateful Dead. There was also a Blues Traveler poster, which made me think of the song Hook. Drea and I had spent a week trying to figure out the hook of the song.

I started humming the tune to myself for a moment before I quietly launched into the words.

As I was doing my rendition of the song, my voice grew louder with more confidence. I was surprised by the fact that I actually remembered the words because I hadn’t heard the song in years.

I closed my eyes as I tried to remember the rest of the words. Usually by that point in the song, I would have run out of breath and given up, but I took a deep breath and tried to remember the rest of the words.

Just as I was about go into the chorus of the song, I was surprised to hear a male voice sing perfectly in tune.

I opened my eyes and was surprised to see Zac standing at the doorway. I knew it was him because Natalie had pointed him out in one of the pictures, and he looked virtually the same except his hair was shorter. I felt my face flush at being caught singing. I never sang in front of anyone. Most of the time I just hummed along unless I was in my car alone. Sometimes Drea and I would blare the radio and sing along with the songs, but that was more yelling than anything.

He watched me for a moment before he finally spoke. “I hate to sound rude, but, um, who are you and what are you doing in my room … on my bed?” he asked. “Not that I have a problem with finding pretty girls in my bed …”

I felt my cheeks grow even warmer as I tried to find my voice to introduce myself. I wanted to find a cave and crawl into and never come back out. I had never been so embarrassed in all of my life. Not only I was a caught singing by Zac Hanson, he had no idea who I was and probably thought I was some freakish fan who had snuck into his house to lay in his bed.

Luckily Shalee showed up at precisely that moment. “Zac!” she exclaimed and ran over to tackle him into a hug. “I see you’ve met my roommate, Jude,” she said as she practically wrestled him to the ground, hugging him.

“Ah, so you’re Jude,” he said, looking over at me. “We hadn’t exactly got to the introductions yet, Shal. Your roommate was serenading me.”

“What?” Shalee laughed as she finally let go of Zac and looked at me.

“I was singing ...and he caught me,” I blushed. “And I’m begging you never to speak of this again,” I said.

Zac laughed and shrugged. “I’ll think about it,” he smiled and winked at me as he threw his bags down. “So, what are you guys doing here?” he asked. “Being my welcoming committee?”

“Actually, we’re here to do laundry and eat, but if it makes you feel better to think that we’re here for you, then that’s fine,” Shalee replied. “So, you just got back?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “My flight was late. The airport was hell. I thought I’d never make it home.”

“Were you that anxious to get away from Kate?” Shalee smirked.

Zac smirked back and rolled his eyes but didn’t answer. “So, where’s everyone at?” he asked.

“Your mom went to pick up Mack and Zoe at friends’ houses,” Shalee answered. “I have no idea about everyone else.”

“Oh,” he sighed. “I can see that they were all anxious to see me again then. So, where’s Danny?”

“He had class,” Shalee shrugged. “He’s probably back at his dorm now though.”

“Ah,” Zac nodded. “Are you guys going to be around for a while?” he asked.

“Yeah, we have a lot of laundry left to do,” Shalee grinned. “And I’m hoping for an invite to dinner.”

Zac rolled his eyes. “You know that invitation is always open,” he replied. “I’m gonna go take a quick shower though, okay? I feel like crap.”

“Sure, we’ll be here,” Shalee grinned. “Sifting through your collection of chick flicks, naturally.”

“You know that shit ain’t mine,” Zac said, rolling his eyes as he dug through his dresser and picked out some clothes.

“Sure,” Shalee said in a disbelieving tone as Zac disappeared out the door. While he was gone, Shalee and I went back to watching Pirates of the Caribbean.

A little while later Zac came back into the room, wearing a shirt that said ‘Life On Hiatus’ and a pair of jeans that were nearly wore out at the knees. “What are we watching?” he asked as he combed his fingers through his still wet hair and hopped down across the foot of the bed on top of mine and Shalee’s feet.

“We’re watching Pirates of the Caribbean,” Shalee answered as she tried to kick him off of her feet. “Hey, why don’t you get your ass off of my feet?” she said after struggling for another minute.

“Hey, why don’t you get your ass off my bed?” Zac countered.

Shalee stuck her tongue out at him while making a face. “You’re such a shmuck.”

“Why thank you, Leelee,” Zac grinned. “I love you too.”

Shalee rolled her eyes but gave up on getting Zac to move. I just sat there, feeling amused by their interaction with each other. It was more than obvious that they had been friends for a long time, and I could easily see why Shalee was friends with him. I’d know him all of thirty minutes, twenty of which he was in the shower, and I could already see that he was a cool guy.

We watched the rest of Pirates of the Caribbean before we all went downstairs. Shalee went to check on the laundry, and I went with Zac into the kitchen to help him get us all something to drink and snack on because Zac hadn’t eaten since early that morning and Shalee said she was still a little hungry.

After getting some snacks from the kitchen, Zac and I headed back upstairs as he told me a little about him and Shalee. He claimed that when she was about seven and he was nine, she made him sit on the corner of her street at a lemonade stand every day for a week.

“By the end of the week, I think our parents were in debt,” Zac laughed. “I kept drinking the lemonade because I was bored, and no one was buying any of it. Shalee kept yelling at me for drinking the ‘product’ though. She’s always been bossy. I think she has the makings of a really terrifying tyrant.”

As Zac was finishing his story about the lemonade stand, Shalee came upstairs. She only heard the end of the story, but she immediately launched into a story about playing barbies with Zac.

“You played with barbies?” I laughed, looking at Zac, who suddenly seemed quite embarrassed.

“That is never to leave this room,” he said.

“Oh, I’ll think about it,” I said and then just out of spite, I winked at him like he had done to me in response to my plea about keeping the singing a secret.

We wound up hanging out in Zac’s room and watching Meet the Parents while we did the rest of our laundry. By the time the movie was over, our laundry was done and ready to be folded. Shalee forbid Zac from going with us to fold our laundry because she said didn’t want him to see her undies, so Zac went to see his mom and siblings, who had returned while we were watching the movie.

“So, was I right or what?” Shalee asked as we sifted through the clothing, trying to decipher what belonged to whom.

“About what?” I asked.

“Zac, silly,” she laughed.

“Oh, yeah,” I nodded. “He’s cool.”

“Well, you better get used to him. I imagine he’ll be hanging around the dorms from time to time while he’s home,” she grinned. “I know he’s kind of obnoxious and sometimes he sticks, but he’s good for laughs.”

I shook my head and laughed. “If you talk that way about your best friend, I’d hate to hear what you had to say about someone you don’t like,” I commented.

“Hey, it’s all in love,” Shalee shrugged.

After we finished folding our clothes and putting them into our bags, we headed back upstairs. Diana, of course, invited us to stay for dinner, and, naturally, we accepted. I was introduced to Zac’s two youngest siblings, and later their dad, Walker. His other two sisters, Jessica and Avery, who I had already met at Taylor's, arrived home just as we were getting ready to eat.

During dinner, there was a lot of talk. It was a very pleasant setting though I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to be one of seven children. But everyone seemed so nice and normal it was hard to believe that they had traveled the world, touring with the three eldest children. If Shalee hadn’t told me about the band, then I probably still wouldn’t have known who Taylor or Zac were.

After dinner, we stayed for just a while longer before we decided that we should get back to the dorms to do our homework. Shalee swore that if the annoying girls across the hall were still blaring their music, she was going to kick some ass as we were driving back. Luckily, when we reached our floor, all was quiet in our wing.