"Jesse? Are you in here?" I stepped down the first few stairs to the basement and listened. 

"Jess...?....Well...I guess not then," I mumbled to myself. I turned back around and went down the hallway. Ezra stood in the entrance to her room, tacking a photo of some boy band on her door.

"Ez, have you seen Jesse around anywhere?"

She shrugged, "I dunno,"

I stared blankly, "You don't know...?"

She rolled her eyes, "I think he was outside, but that was a while ago,"

"Right...thank you. That wasn't so hard now was it?"

Ezra sighed and rolled her eyes again. Remarkably, she turned out to be right. Jesse sat on the antique park bench in the back yard, scribing madly into his notebook, his guitar close by. 

"Jess!"

"Oh hey Kirb," I cocked an eyebrow at Jesse. He hadn't even bothered to turn around. 

"Whatchya doooooing?"

".....writing a song,"

"Oh yeah, speaking of which, I still haven't heard that new masterpiece of yours," I sat on the other end of the bench and drew up my knees to rest my chin on. 

Jesse's expression changed although he continued to write, "I'm kinda busy, Kirb,"

"Can't you play a little bit?" I wined. 

Jesse kept writing.

"Reilly got to hear it!"

"Kirby! I'm busy!" He said firmly, his dark eyes glaring at me. He brushed the hair out of his face and kept writing. 

I stood up and left the yard without speaking another word.

The house smelled of meat pie when I went inside. Ezra and Indie seemed to be fighting over who sat in which place at the dinner table while Spencer giggled at them from his usual seat.

"Guys what's going on? Is Paul McCartney eating with us tonight or something?" I asked, Ezra looked up.

"Who cares about Paul McCartney," She scoffed. Indie shoved her over.

"Sir Paul McCartney is one of the last two surviving Beatles you little weed," Indie gave Ezra another firm shove.

"Seriously guys, who's the guest?" I was ignored while the girls decided the whole concept of fighting was more interesting than who got to sit in which chair so they began to wrestle. Spencer laughed even harder.

"Mum?"

"Your friend Zachary is staying for dinner," Mum said as she concentrated on rinsing the tomatoes.

"Zac?"

"Yes, bimbo," Mum laughed.

"But I didn't invite anyone..."

"I invited him," Reilly came into the room, his wallet chains jingling as he walked. He took a seat at the end of the table. 

"Oh. Well that makes sense," 

"Sure does," 

My ears piqued as Zac's voice sounded through the room, he followed behind Reilly, smiling his smile and sat down at the table. Ezra judo chopped India, causing a sharp scream, and plunked herself down on the seat next to Zac.

India growled and sat down next to her, feeling rather defeated.

"I bet you're feeling pretty pleased with yourself," I said, sitting down across from Zac.

"Whatever for?" He grinned evilly.

"Your little fan club. Looks like you'll be the next poster boy on Ezra's door,"

"Shut up Kirby!" Ezra threatened to jab me with her fork.

"Eh, what can I say," Zac spoke in ultimate modesty, "I guess it comes with the good looks,"

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to the basement)

Reilly, Zac and I made our way down to the basement after dinner as we often do whenever a Hanson is at our place. We put some music on and shared a block of chocolate between us.

"Jesse had a go at me before," I said, breaking off a couple of squares. 

"Yeah...I noticed you weren't really talking at dinner," Reilly said.

"What happened?" Zac asked.

"Well he's written this new song and I haven't heard it yet, and I saw him outside so I asked him again if I could hear it. But he snapped at me saying he was busy, so I just left,"

"He's been really distant lately," Reilly said. 

"I know. I miss talking to him,"

"I guess you'll just have to talk to him about it one day. Both of you," Zac suggested with a mouth full of chocolate. 

I nodded in agreement. 

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to school a couple of days later)

"Guess who just talked to me,"

I slammed my locker shut to find Zac standing behind it, leaning his weight against the lockers beside mine.

"Who?"

"Connor, Trent and Mark,"

"WHAT?"

"Yes, it's true. I was getting changed in the locker rooms after soccer and they came up to me," He nodded to reinforce the information.

"Elaborate! What did they say? What did you say?"

"Ok ok," Zac sat us down in the cafeteria. "Connor goes to me, 'Hey Zac'. I'm like, '...Hello...'. Then they started talkin to me like nothing had changed, sayin they were gonna score on the weekend. So anyways I go, 'Look guys, that's great that all you care about is your dicks, but I'm not interested. I thought I made myself clear that I don't want anything to do with you anymore.' "

My mouth dropped open.

"Then they just looked at each other in confusion, then Connor said, 'That's cool man, we don't care'...!!! Can you believe that? They just left me alone, no questions asked," Zac laughed heartily and shook his head.

"This is incredible, you're free!"

"Yes I am. I know I definitely am because you know what I found out after that?"

"No, what?"

"That Connor is the new quarter back on the team, he's better than I ever was. Suddenly, the name Zac Hanson seems all too unfamiliar to them,"

"Oh my god!"

Zac giggled, "I'm stone free to do as I please,"

I flung an arm around Zac as we headed towards the cafeteria line, "Stone free to ride the breeze,"

Lyrics: 'Stone Free' by Jimi Hendrix

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to the diner on friday night)

Zac and I had sat in the corner window booth with our legs resting on the table and surrounded ourselves with origami napkins. We were planning a big night out, starting with dinner and followed by 'partying hard', if you'll excuse the terrible terminology. Reilly and Taylor were running half an hour late.

"Where are they, damnit?" I asked, launching the napkin Crane at the window.

"Oooh someone's getting a little frisky," Zac cooed.

"Pardon me?"

"A little randy,"

"What the..."

"A little horn-"

"Zac!" I reached over the table and pinched him.

"Owwww!"

"Tell me what you're on about and I won't pinch you harder,"

"Ok, ok, I surrender,"

I let go of him.

"You and Tay have been getting a little...you know, close,"

"What! No we haven't," I shook my head.

"Kirby, I may be pretty but I ain't dumb!" Zac slammed a clenched fist on the table. Jokingly, of course. 

"Ok, you got me. But that's all there is to tell, we just get a little physically close sometimes,"

"And you're telling me you're not going out?"

"Yeah. I mean no. I mean we're not going out,"

Zac stroked his chin, "But what about that date to the movies the other night?"

"That wasn't a date!"

"There were only two of you,"

"So?"

"Why don't you wanna go out with him?"

I sat back and crossed my arms. "Because...because I don't think he's for me...Taylor's so sweet and he's a great friend, but I just can't see him in any other light,"

"You're not going to hurt him, are you?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, showing him affection when you don't want to go out with him,"

Silence.

"Hey guys!" Reilly's exasperated voice broke the silence as he clutched his chest and waved.

"Hey Rye," I smiled at my brother who'd just come from his mysterious band practice. I shoved over and let him sit next to me.

"How's things?" He asked.

"Good, good. Why are you puffed out?" I asked.

"Cause I'm late!"

Reilly and I started talking about the plans for the night when Zac interrupted us.

"Kirby, I need to talk to you,"

I glanced at Reilly. "Zac..."

"What I was trying to say was he's been messed around by girls his whole life, I just don't want him to get hurt,"

"But it's ok Zac, we're not in the position where we're romantically involved. There's no obligation for there to be anything more,"

"I hope that's true,"

"It is Zac!"

"I don't want you to get angry with me, you know what it's like, you've gotta look out for your brother,"

I smiled at Zac's face, scrunched up with concern, "I know...and I don't want to hurt him, so I won't. He's special to me too."

Reilly sat quietly, his eyes darting from Zac to me, his face filled with utter confusion.

"I'm sorry Kirb," Zac said sweetly.

"It's ok Zac," We held hands over the table and smiled like idiots.

"Ahem," Reilly cleared his throat.

"Um, don't worry Rye, it's nothing," My lame excuse was hardly convincing, although Reilly didn't seem to care.

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -

(cut to the next morning)

The next morning was perhaps a confusing one at first. I woke up with half of my body underneath a coffee table and my head resting on someone's jacket. I sat up and straightened up my clothes and hair. 

Zac was close by, he slept in a tight ball on the sofa. I could make out Reilly's legs hanging out from behind the sofa and Taylor was sprawled out on a rug. The more I woke up and looked around, I realized that I wasn't in the Hanson house, and I certainly wasn't in my own house. 

Zac stirred on the sofa and started coughing. He started coughing harder which snapped him awake. His big brown eyes flashed open.

"Hey you,"

"Hey," He said in his husky morning voice. Zac rubbed his eyes and face and propped himself up on his elbow and looked at me, smiling that dazed kind of smile that only comes when you're waking up.

"Um, Zac...Where are we?"

Zac looked baffled for a second as he looked around, "Um............I dunno, Kirb,"

"This is weird,"

"Let's wake them up," He said, hopping off the couch. I stood up and followed him over to Taylor. 

Zac giggled and started nudging Taylor's side with his foot. Taylor wriggled and scratched his cheek. Zac nudged him again. This time he wriggled even more, turned over and put his hand over his face. 

"He's such an actor," Zac said. 

"TAYLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!!!!! THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE!!!!!!!!" Zac screamed at the top of his lungs which well and truly woke his brother up, as well as Reilly who immediately swore. Several times.

"Fuckin hell, what the fuck is going on. Don't you shits appreciate sleep? Fuck! This is fuckin insane," Reilly got himself up and wobbled a little bit, as did Taylor.

Taylor scowled at the two of us, "Just so you know, I'll never forgive you for that,"

"Yeah, anyway, we have bigger problems," Zac said dismissively. 

"Such as what?"

"Such as where the hell are we?" I butted in. Taylor looked confused.

"We're at your house...?"

I shook my head and Taylor looked even more confused. 

"So we're at some stranger's house?" Taylor asked. 

Zac and I nodded.

"HA! I knew it! We did get drunk," Reilly exclaimed. 

"But..." I was baffled as to how we all got so plastered that we ended up in a strange house.

Zac looked out the window, "Well we're still in Oklahoma...so that's a good sign."

"I just don't get it," I walked around with my hands on my hips, "We would have to have gotten blind drunk somewhere after the pool hall because that's the last thing I remember...but how could that have happened?"

"We were drinking a hell of a lot," Reilly said. 

"Yeah...But how can anyone get drunk enough to actually travel somewhere without remembering a single thing?"

"Maybe we'll remember something when we're properly awake," Taylor suggested, "Is there any food in this place?"

We watched after Taylor in amazement as he went into the kitchen in the strange house and helped himself. 

"Let's look around." Zac said, walking down the hallway. 

"Are you sure you wanna do that, Zac?" I asked, just waiting for the owners to crawl out of bed and shriek 'Intruder! Intruder!'. 

After a good search of the house for any sign of life, the results came back negative. Not one living person in any of the rooms. 

"This is weirding me out," I said, "It's like that movie where the people are at a deserted airport and they know something is really wrong, but all they can hear are these weird noises,"

"The Afhdfh" Reilly said.

"That's it!"

"Well this isn't a movie, it won't solve itself. So we better figure out who the hell lives here before I explode with curiosity."

Zac started going through the kitchen draws trying to find a mystery object. He obviously couldn't find it when he took off to the study and came back with a white envelope held firmly in his hand.