Chapter 19

"Well, do you know Taylor's address... or better yet, even if he is home?" Vega asked Annie.
"Well duh, I think everyone around here knows their address, but I haven't seen them come back yet. They went to Detroit last I heard," Annie said.
"Yeah I know that they were in Detroit, because..." she stopped, not wanting Annie to think that she was some type of obsessed stalker. She shrugged and came up with a quick fix. "...because... my friend Alanna told me. She's really into the Hanson stuff online, and she seems to know everything about them! She's the one who first told me when Taylor got his ear-ring," she finished, nodding at her quick recovery.
"Alanna... ? Who's that?" Annie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Just this one chick I know from New York," Vega answered, wanting a subject change. "So, what's the address?" she asked, chewing on her pen.
"Well, I'm headed out that way myself, so if you want I can take you there..." Annie offered.
"Oh... that's real nice of you, but I kind of have my car here..." Vega said, realizing that she had the stolen convertible. "Never mind. We can take yours. I'd really appreciate it if you'd drop me off or whatever!" she continued.
"Sure it's no problem!" Annie said, taking on last sip of her drink and getting up.
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"Okay, so are we ready to get going now?" Taylor asked the other three people seated at his table in the small cafe. "I'm kind of getting bored just sitting here," he commented, hoping he hadn't sounded too rude.
"Yeah I'm with you Tay. Totally bored!" Becca replied. "Let's ditch this popsicle stand and drive!" she said, making a little motion to go along with the weird phrase she had just said.
"Umm... sure..." Taylor said, looking at her as if she was psycho. There was a breif moment of silence, and then he said, "Ok, let's pay and get out of here!".
Becca collected the money and went to pay for everyone up at the cash register and say good-bye to her friend. I should move here when I get out of college, she thought to herself. It's so nice! She finished paying and after one quick hug, the two Hansons and the two girls piled into Ike's bug. Taylor and Jacqui seated themselves in the back seat while Becca called "shotgun" next to Ike. As soon as Ike started the engine, Becca reached for the radio. "Kiss Me" by Six-Pence-None-The-Richer was on. She started singing and dancing in her seat.
Taylor looked at Jacqui and mouthed, "Is she always this weird?".
Jacqui nodded and rolled her eyes, even though most of the time, Jacqui was the much more outgoing one of the two.
"So where are we going?" Isaac asked Becca, turning down the radio and pulling onto the on-ramp of the freeway.
"That depends on where you want to go," Becca said, being a smart-alec.
Isaac sighed. "Well, our hotel is in Grand Rapids," he said, trying to keep his cool. Becca was becoming more and more annoying by the second.
"Well, then you want to go NorthEast," she said, remembering the many vacations her family had taken to the same city, and then driving out to the light-houses. Isaac pulled onto the right site of the freeway and turned off the radio. The car remained silent for a while except for Isaac's occasional complaints about how much Michigan's roads sucked.
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Back in Tulsa, the car Annie and Vega were in was quiet as well. The two girls didn't really have much to say to eachother anyway though. Vega was dreaming of how Tay would react to seeing her again, while Annie was concentrating on driving down the twisting backroads to get to the Hanson residence. The slowed and pulled onto a gravel driveway leading up to a decent-size dark brown house surrounded by green trees with a basketball hoop in the front. "Is this it?" Vega asked, unsure of her surroundings.
"Yeah, this is it. Good luck. Tell 'our' boyfriend that Annie says hello," she finished. Vega nodded and stepped out of the car and onto the grass. She then waved good-bye to Annie, and approached the front door.
She knocked on the door. No reply. She hesitated, wondering if the Hanson's plane had even left Detroit yet, and kicking herself for not finding out that before she had left her mother at home alone and stolen a car. She knocked again, praying that someone would answer.
An eye peeked through the blinds shading the front door and a loud, yet very shy-sounding voice rang out, "They aren't here! Go away!".
Vega didn't know how to reply to that. She was wondering who would be at the Hansons house when they weren't there and how she didn't know her way back to town. She finally shouted through the door. "Who isn't here? I'm lost, can you please let me use your phone?".
The person who Vega could now tell was a woman, peered through the blinds one more time and cautiously opened the door. "Who are you?" the woman asked.
"My name is Vega, and you are?" Vega responded, trying to sound polite.
"My name is Sandra. How are you lost?" she questioned, still not totally opening the door.
"I'm from Michigan and I came here looking for a friend of mine, and I just have no clue where I am!" she said, pretending to break down into a fit of crying.
"Oh honey, come on in, tell me the whole story, it will be okay!" the woman said, guiding her into the home.
A girl who looked very much like Isaac was sitting on a floral-print couch watching MtV. "Who's here Ma?" she asked, not caring enough to look for herself.
"Someone who's lost, Steph. Could you please grab some tissues?" Sandra told Steph who appeared to be her daughter. "Would you like a drink, Vega?" she asked, her motherly instinct kicking in.
"Sure, can I just have some ice-water, please?" Vega whimpered.
"Certainly. Just have a seat on the couch and make yourself comfortable, I'll be right back," Sandra turned, going toward the fridge.
Vega took this opportunity to take a peek around the house. She noticed a few scattered pictures on the walls of the well-furnished home. One of them was of the three Hansons. Ha!, she thought to herself. At least I know I'm in the right place! Now I just have to figure out who these people are!
The woman named Sandra appeared from the kitchen with a tall glass of ice water and some cookies on a plate. Vega eyed them hungrily. Luckily, Sandra offered them to her.
"Here you are. Now tell me please what is going on!" she said, setting the water and the cookies on the near-by coffee table.
Vega started to explain that she had driven all the way down to Tulsa looking for a friend of hers when the girl named Steph came in and chucked a box of Kleenex at Vega, hitting her right on her nose. "Ouch!" Vega cried out in pain.
"Stephanie Judith Hanson! Why did you do that?!" her mother asked her.
Hanson! Vega thought, almost smiling, but the pain from her nose deterring that possibility. Stephanie... Stephanie... Hmm... I guess she could be a cousin or something! her thought bubble continued.
Stephanie shrugged and turned to leave. "That girl..." Sandra started. "One second Vega, I'll grab some ice for that... and a band-aid!".
Vega couldn't believe her luck. She was inside the Hanson's home! Everything was going great... except for the fact that her nose could be broken!
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Isaac continued North-East until he saw a turn-off for Grand Rapids. He steered the car smoothly onto the exit ramp and looked in his rear-view mirror. Taylor and Jacqui were both asleep against opposite windows, but sharing the same blanket. He glanced at Becca who also appeared to be sleeping... and drooling. MMM! he thought sarcastically to himself. Something he saw startled him. It was a woman carrying a baby, and they were on the side of the road, standing next to an old white car that appeared to have a flat tire. Well, here's my hero duty of the day! Isaac thought pulling over. The car came to a stop and Becca woke up, but Jacqui and Taylor were still asleep.
"What's going on?" Becca asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes, and also wiping her wet chin.
"We're going to help this lady, come on," Isaac said, pulling Becca out the door with him. He approached the blonde woman holding a baby and said, "Can I help you out here?".
The woman looked at him with recognition, but said nothing about that. "Yes, thank you. I think my tire has a flat," she replied pointing.
"Well, do you have a spare?" he asked, giving her a "duh!" look.
She shrugged and said, "I'm not sure!".
Isaac rolled his eyes and motioned for Becca to follow him to the trunk. It was already slightly ajar, so together they opened it and looked inside. There was a lot of junk in the back, and it took Isaac about 5 minutes to dig through all of it and decide there wasn't a spare tire. "Well miss--," he said turning around. But she wasn't there. The engine on Ike's bug had started and the woman whom they had stopped to help was in the driver's seat. Before Isaac could stop her, she pulled into moving traffic... with Taylor and Jacqui still asleep in the car.