Early January 1998

It had been stored away in a plastic folder in a box of old toys and pieces of Lego, the moment Zachary Hanson saw the leaflet marked CONTEST in bold letters, he was immediately intrigued, this belonged to him and his brothers – it had to belong to them because the box was marked with their names. The box was full of their childhood belongings. "Contest," he read out loud.

Isaac – Zachary’s seventeen year old brother - lifted his eyes from the box of clothes he was searching through. "Huh?" he asked.

Zac held up the leaflet. "That’s what it says. Contest…"

"Zac, we should be getting the baby clothes, not raking through memories," Taylor – another older brother of Zachary’s at age fourteen – muttered.

Isaac however got up and walked over to where Zachary was kneeling – the three brothers – and their two younger sisters – were in the attic of their home in Tulsa, looking out baby clothes for their sibling on the way. Their mother was only a couple of weeks due, and now, was the time of preparation for the new baby. Isaac took the leaflet out of Zac’s hand. "I remember this well," he confessed. "Don’t you?" he asked of Zac, his dark brown eyes questioned his younger brother.

"Nope," Zac admitted.

"What is it, Ike?" asked the youngest of the Hanson sisters, Avery, she waddled over, wiping her grimy hands on her light blue dress.

Jessica, the eldest of the sisters, got up and followed, "yeah, Ike," she urged. "What is it?"

Isaac smiled. "This…" he held up the leaflet. "This was before we done our albums…before we even finished writing Boomerang, I guess you wouldn’t remember much about that," he said to Jessica and Avery. "You guys would have only been five and three," he admitted. "Mom was pregnant when this happened…"

"Ike…" Zac began. "When has mom NOT been pregnant?"

Isaac chuckled. "Yeah, I see what you mean…" he smiled. "Anyway, she was pregnant with Mackenzie, and Tay wasn’t even in his teens yet…"

Taylor sighed and walked over, coughing from the dust in the attic. "The song contest, 1995, right?" he asked.

"Right," Isaac smiled.

"How could I forget," Taylor smiled distantly, and looked at the leaflet in Isaac’s hands. "That was one of the weirdest times of our lives," he gave a soft laugh thinking back to three years ago. "It wasn’t so much the contest…it was…just…Oh, I dunno," he shook his head.

"Is this gonna be a story?" Jessica asked, leaning against a large cardboard box.

"It’s a story alright…and look," Isaac motioned to the little circular window nearby. "A story for a rainy day…perfect…" he smiled, revealing his white ceramic braces, his expression crossed over at goofy and gentle. His brown eyes flickered with that gleam of excitement. Isaac loved stories, and he loved telling them.

"Well, c’mon, Ike…I don’t even remember this story," Zac urged Isaac, grinning impishly, he shoved his long blonde hair out of his eyes."

"Okay…where do I begin?" Isaac paused for a moment, thinking. "It was March 1995, not long before we discovered dad was gonna get us a deal to record some of our songs. Then we were only kids who performed at parties…I was fourteen, Tay had just turned twelve and Zac was nine," Isaac explained. "Me and mom had been in town and I always went into the music store – then it had been Coda – to check out CDs and I found this leaflet marked…"

* * * * *

Late March, 1995

CONTEST

The word was in big bold letters, coloured in by a child’s hand in red and blue, yellow and orange stars were stencilled in by a picture of a microphone. Clarke Isaac Hanson loved a challenge, which was why when he'd seen the leaflet on the CD store wall he’d taken it, intent of showing his younger brothers.

"Contest," his younger brother Taylor read aloud, his eyes – that rare colour of evening sky blue – squinted as he began going over the fine print in detail.

"I really like the odds," Isaac grinned, and looked over Taylor's shoulder at the leaflet. "I read over it a dozen times on the way home," he began, and he rubbed his hands together excitedly. "It’s a song contest."

"Song contest?" asked nine year old Zachary, the youngest of the brothers, he was sitting on his trundle-bed playing with Lego.

"Yeah," Isaac said. "Interested?" he asked of Zachary.

Zachary gave a nonchalant shrug and continued playing with his Lego.

"The terms are that we all have to be under sixteen – no problem," Isaac began ticking things off. "Also…we have to sing acappella – you know, without music…"

"We know what it means, Ike, we’ve been doing it for three years," Taylor reminded, folding his arms stubbornly.

In to the room, walked Jessica, their five year old sister, she was a pretty blonde, with big blue eyes, and rosy cheeks, people said she resembled Taylor more than anyone else in the family. "Dinner," Jessica said clearly.

"Tell mom we’ll be there in a moment," Isaac ordered, and let Jessica go off on her way to pass on the message.

"So, Tay?" Isaac pulled on Taylor’s braid – a braid which was longer than the rest of Taylor’s hair. "What do you think, interested?"

"What's the prize?" Taylor asked.

"A Trophy and CDs of our choice…its just for fun, I mean…the prize isn’t all that great, but I’d really like to try this out," Isaac explained, he took the leaflet back from Taylor. "I know we have a good chance."

"Of course we have a good chance, with all the practise we’ve had I wouldn’t be surprised," Taylor confessed, he looked at Zac. "Zac…you interested in this competition?"

"I dunno," Zac shrugged, and threw a piece of Lego playfully at Taylor. "Uh…okay, we can do it," he grinned, as if he’d just made up the whole decision himself.

"If he agrees…" Taylor trailed off.

"Great," Isaac said smiling. "We’ll go to Coda tomorrow and we’ll pick up the application for the contest. In the meantime we have to work out which song we’re going to sing," Isaac paused a moment. "I know its mostly cover versions everyone’s gonna be doing in this contest, but I think we should do something original, we have a few songs we’ve never shown anyone, originality could help us win too…"

"Think mom and dad will let us? We have to have permission from our parents…"

"Of course mom will—" Isaac began, but was interrupted.

"Boys…" Diana Hanson – a beautiful blonde(who happened to be pregnant with her sixth child) stepped into the boys bedroom. "Dinner."

"Yeah, mom, just a minute," Taylor motioned for his mother to go away.

"What's this?" Diana asked of her sons, she took the leaflet from Isaac’s hand. "Entering a competition are you?" she looked down at the piece of paper, long wisps of golden blonde hair fell over her shoulders.

"Yeah," Isaac said. "We need you to sign the application though…"

Diana showed immediate interest, because she was confident in whatever her three sons wanted to do. "Are you going to be doing a song of your own?"

"We’re thinking about it," Zac said, standing up from the bed, he walked over, still holding onto his Lego model.

Diana paused. "Isaac, it says the song has to be acappella, wasn’t that song you wrote when you were nine made to be sang just that way?" she asked in an encouraging voice.

"Yeah, mom…" Isaac nodded. "Rain Falling Down…" he announced the name of the song he’d written almost five years ago. "We’ll think about that," Isaac continued.

"Okay…" Diana nodded and shoved Zac playfully out of the room. "C’mon, guys, dinners getting cold."

"Okay, are you listening?" Isaac asked of his brothers, he was standing near the counter of the CD store with the application for the contest in his hand, reading out the possibilities, rules and other details.

"Yeah," Zac said boredly, more interested in checking out some Michael Jackson CDs.

"There’s gonna be as many tryouts as their needs to be in two days, but only ten bands or singers get to contend. That means there's tryout first, we have to show that we’re good enough to compete, then if we’re picked, we’ll be playing against nine other bands…" he explained.

Taylor wasn’t listening very well, he was more interested in some girls who appeared to be shoplifting.

"Are you listening?" Isaac nudged Taylor, and Taylor didn’t respond.

"Huh?" Taylor asked on the second nudge, then he turned to see Isaac. "Oh, Ike…do you think we should tell the guy at the counter that those girls just shoved CDs into their pockets?" Taylor asked.

"Are they shoplifting?" Isaac asked, surprised, turning to see the girls Taylor was talking off. There were three of them, all probably around thirteen, and were all obviously in the same group, they stuck together pretty much.

"Should I tell on them?" Zac asked hopefully, he loved telling on people, he was a little monster when it came to lagging on people.

"No," Isaac said. "It’s none of our business…" he decided. "Even if it IS illegal," he muttered. Isaac was tempted to tell on them, Isaac didn’t agree with crime, and certainly not with the crime that they were dealing with – those girls were well dressed and looked rich, they could probably afford those CDs, yet they chose to steal. Greed, Isaac thought. It disgusted him completely, he turned away. "Okay, so…like I was saying. Only ten bands are going to be competing in the end. I’ve decided we should do ‘Rain Falling Down’ for the tryout, so I’ve put that down," he explained.

"Then what?" Taylor questioned.

"Then we do another song for the competition itself, the competition is in two weeks, so we have time to write a song for it…"

"And what if we can't write a song?" Zac asked, looking up at Isaac – Isaac was the tallest out of the three brothers since he was the oldest.

"Then we’ll use one of our other ones…" Isaac suggested.

The seemingly oldest of the three girls walked over slowly, and almost in a slinky way, she reached out and grabbed the last application from the counter. She leaned against the counter, reading from the application.

Isaac nervously looked at her, he could see the Mariah Carey CD poking out of her pocket. She was undeniably pretty, her hair was long, thick and naturally curly, and it was a beautiful shade of mahogany (dark-brownish-red). Her eyes – from what he could see of them at a side glance – were deep, dark green, and her skin was ivory, and her cheeks rosy. She seemed like some beautiful fairy or something, so small and frail and childlike.

The girl turned slightly and looked at Isaac and his brothers out of the corners of her eyes, noticing the application in Isaac’s hand. "Planning on entering boys?" she asked, her voice soft.

"Yeah," Zac nodded immediately.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Good luck," she said, her voice thickening and honey-coated, then turned and muttered under her breath with a sweetness, "you’re gonna need it."

Isaac paused and watched as she walked away.

"What was that all about?" Taylor's expression was filled with confusion.

"Obviously she’s entering in the contest…" Isaac sighed.

"And her little friends," Zac pointed to the two blondes at her side.

"Who does she think she is?" Taylor folded his arms in a sassy way.

"Probably think she’s so much better than the rest of us…" Zac stuck his tongue out. "Girls are weird."

"You can say that again," Taylor giggled and stuck his tongue at the girl just as she was walking out, she didn’t turn and notice him doing so.

Isaac nudged his brothers. "C’mon, guys, lets fill these in."

Isaac, Taylor and Zachary were all nervous. They were standing backstage of the local high school auditorium, waiting for their tryout, distantly, they could hear the chatter of friends all entered in the competition. Only twenty four singers and groups were trying out, Isaac realised the odds were unbeatable – those kids could all be excellent which would make it hard for Hanson to ever get through a tryout, but still, he was keeping his fingers crossed.

"Ike…I don’t think I can do this," Taylor was breathing harshly, his blue eyes bugging out worriedly, he was filled with stage fright, even though there were only ten judges out there, he was extremely nervous.

"It’ll be okay, just keep to your lines and don’t go off key," Isaac placed his hand on Taylor’s shoulder. "They’re announcing the first group on now," he muttered to himself. "We’re number three so we don’t have too much to worry about…" he said. "Just one verse and one chorus, okay?" he asked of Zac and Taylor.

"Yeah," Taylor nodded, taking a deep breath and sighing. "I dunno why I’m so nervous, I mean…its YOU who’s gonna be singing…"

"Well hello, hello…"

Isaac paused, recognising the voice that he heard from his back, he turned and looked around, seeing the girl from the CD store who’d shoplifted the Mariah Carey CD two days previous. Her mahogany hair was up in a high ponytail, and she was wearing a yellow denim jacket over a short lacy sundress. This time, they made immediate eye contact – her eyes were the colour of emeralds, and sparkled just as much. "Oh, uh…hi," Isaac said nervously.

"Thief," Zac sneered.

The girl acted casual, and looked at Isaac. "What number are you?" she asked.

"Three," Isaac said, he paused, listening to the sound of a local boy singing a Michael Jackson song on stage. The boy was good – Isaac wondered if the boy was good enough.

"We’re four," the girl said. "I’m Ivy O’Hara," she made no attempt to shake his hand or to even smile politely.

"Isaac Hanson…and this is Taylor and Zac," he motioned to Taylor and Zachary casually. "We’re brothers…"
"I guessed that, you all sort of look alike…slightly," Ivy shrugged. "What song are you doing?" she asked of interest.

Isaac frowned slightly, she’d been sort of haughty two days ago and now she was acting as if that hadn’t happened. Probably PMS, Isaac figured.

"Rain Falling Down," Zac put in, looking at Ivy. "Is that hair colour natural?" he asked smugly, a devious smile twisted on his lips.

"Zac!" Isaac admonished.

"Sorry," Zac bit his lip and tried to remain guilty, but he kept smiling.

"Of course its not her natural hair colour, Zac," Taylor smiled wryly, and laughed inwardly at the look on the girls face.

"Tay!" Isaac elbowed Taylor in the side. "Sorry," he said to Ivy. "Kids, ya know…" he shrugged. "What song are you doing?" he asked of her.

Ivy paused for a moment, seemingly deciding if she should tell him or not. "Irresistible," she answered. "It’s a song we wrote ourselves…" she put this in rather a smug way.

"Ike wrote Rain Falling Down by himself," Taylor said, as if to prove that he were so much better than this girl. Isaac was surprised by Taylor’s tone of voice. It was almost…mean.

"Okay," the girl looked at him as if to say ‘so what’, and looked over her shoulder. "I have to go find my friends now…see you later, boys…"
"I don’t like her," Taylor said flatly the moment she’d ran off.

"Me neither," Zac made a face, and pursed his lips tightly together.

Isaac paused, then turned to his brothers. "I’m shocked to know that," he said, he sighed deeply. "You didn’t give her a chance…"

Taylor ignored Isaac’s comment. "did you see the look on her silly little face when you asked her about her hair?" he asked of Zac.

Zac stifled his laughter by placing a hand over his mouth, his eyes sparkling in triumph.

"She looked really pissed off when I said that it obviously wasn’t," Taylor paused, for one second he seemed guilty, but then he burst into fits of laughter, holding his belly.

Isaac swatted Taylor on the head. "Grow up, will you?" he demanded, "and stop swearing, mom would throw a fit if she walked in at that moment…"

"C’mon, get ready, they’re about to call us up…" Taylor ignored Isaac’s words – as any younger brother would do if he didn’t agree with the older brother – and motioned to the stage.

"The Hanson Brothers?"

Isaac held his breath when he heard their last name called from the auditorium outside the stage. "Here goes nothin’."

He stepped onto the stage, brothers in tow, and took the microphone from the stand, holding it out so the three were able to sing into it at the same time. "One, two, three," he whispered, counting down.

Rain falling down out of my eyes

And I’m wondering why did you say goodbye

And leave me baby, all alone in my life?

As I think back when you were around

And we were together

We didn’t care about the weather

‘Cause baby we were together

But now that you’re gone I have to say

The rains falling down each and every day

Out of my eyes, and I'm wondering why

The brothers ended their song there.

The first judge, a man in a white T-shirt and black jeans looked up at the from the front row of the seating section. "Be back tomorrow to find out if you’re one of the ten finalists…" he said.

Isaac, Taylor and Zac looked at each other, and climbed down.

"Q-T’s?"

"Lets go," Taylor urged, noticing their mother was waiting backstage with Jessica and Avery at her side, her long hair was left out free at her back and shoulders.

"No, wait…" Isaac said, turning as Ivy – and the twins made their way onto the stage. "I want to see why Ivy is so sure of herself…" he admitted.

Zac groaned – only wanting to get home in time for dinner – and Taylor just wanted to get away from Ivy, he hated her for some reason.

Ivy stood in the middle – with a twin at either side of her – and she and the twins began singing in harmony.

Irresistible

Baby you are

You are, you are

You’re so adorable

Baby you are

You are, you are

The first time I saw you, I knew that it was you

There was nothing that I could do

And I was all alone, but now I’m on the phone with you

With you all the time

You’re so adorable, so irresistible, just so adorable to me

Isaac was stunned, Ivy had one of the most beautiful voices he’d ever heard, it was loud and clear, and soft like summer rain. The twins high pitched voices complimented hers nicely.

"Oh, god…" Taylor groaned. "She…she’s…whoah, she’s good, Ike…"

"Yeah…she is…"

"When do you find out if you’re good enough to be in the competition?" Diana Hanson asked of Taylor and Isaac that night just before dinner, they were helping around the kitchen – or rather Isaac was doing the cooking and letting his mother sit down, worried that she’d drop the baby at any moment from the looks of her.

"We find out tomorrow," Isaac said. "We’re to go back to the auditorium…" Isaac began to explain, "and the judges will tell us up straight who made it on the list and who didn’t."

Diana flicked back a long lock of blonde hair from her shoulder. "I think you will be in that ten, honey," she said to Isaac.

"Not if that weirdo-Ivy-girl has anything to do with it…" Taylor was passing by Isaac with the silverware when Isaac purposely tripped him. Taylor tripped slightly, but didn’t fall. "HEY!" he protested against Isaac’s meanness.

"What?" Isaac asked innocently, looking up to the ceiling.

"Clarke Isaac Hanson!" Diana yelled in a sudden tone of surprise. "I saw that!" she growled.

"Uh…saw what?" Isaac wished he’d made sure his mother hadn’t been looking before he'd went ahead and tripped Taylor.

"You know damn well what," Diana stood up. "What if he’d fallen on the knives?!"

"Sorry mom, I didn’t think," Isaac sighed. "But I was just getting Taylor back for being a pain and embarrassing me today…" he looked away from his mother guiltily. "He was really nasty to this girl…he and Zac were making comments about her hair…"

"Is that true?" Diana asked, turning to Taylor.

"Well, her hair colour is so fake you can see it, mom," Taylor complained.

"That’s no reason to make comments about it…" Diana stated.

"She’s a mega-bitch, mom—!" Taylor suddenly slammed his hand to his mouth realising he’d just sworn in front of his mother. "I mean ditz, mom, I mean ditz!" Taylor tried to lie. "I didn’t mean to say that. I swear I meant ditz!"

"Jordan Taylor Hanson! Go to your room now!"

"Okay, so maybe I did mean it, but…if you’d only met you would have—"

"I said go to your room NOW!" Diana hissed, the anger in her expression showing.

"Okay, okay, okay!" Taylor hurried off, convinced he’d said enough.

"You too," she said to Isaac.

"What did I do?!" Isaac demanded.

"You acted without thinking – you could have seriously hurt your brother just now, go up to your room and think about what you could have done – and don’t bother coming down for dinner either…"

"Fine!" Isaac frowned. "I’m not hungry anyway!"

"You mind and come back down to do those dishes!" his mother called after him.

Isaac groaned and made his way up to the room he shared with Taylor and Zachary.

Zachary was already in there, drawing on a large white sheet of paper and Avery (their three year old sister) was colouring something Zac had just drawn.

Taylor was sitting at the Lego table, his arms folded, his expression broody.

Isaac stepped in, closed the door behind him and looked at Taylor. "Didn’t I warn you about your swearing?" he asked.

"So?" Taylor demanded instantly, turning away. "You got me in trouble, I hate you."

"Fine, but hate me quietly, I want to work on the song we’re supposed to be writing…"

"Forget it, Ike," Taylor gave in, he sighed. "Ivy and her friends – what did they call themselves – Q-T’s – are too hard to compete with, they were good, man…"

"Too good," Zac chimed in. "Ivy was excellent, she sings like Janet Jackson. And her backup singers are identical twins!" he seemed upset, and downhearted. "I hate her."

Isaac frowned. "Okay, so The Q-T’s maybe good, but we’re just as good too…"

"They’re…I hate to say it, but they’re cute…" Taylor sighed, he stood up and walked over to face a mirror on the wall, he ruffled his blonde hair to try and make himself look sexier. "We can't compete with that…"

"C’mon, Tay, they’re hussies!" Zac rolled his eyes.

Avery raised her head. "What's hussies mean?" she asked with that childish innocence only a three year old could have.

"It means nothing, Avie," Isaac said, he walked over and pulled her down from his bed. "C’mon, you, go downstairs and help Jessie clear up the mess you made," he said.

Avery grumbled unhappily as she left the room.

"Any other words you guys want our family to hear us say?!" Isaac demanded once Avery was gone.

"Aw, hussies isn’t swearing," Taylor defended Zac – for the first time.

"Forget it," Isaac groaned. "Listen, we have to write a song and it has to be good. We have to be good, so if you’re so worried that Ivy and the Three Seasons will beat us then you guys better get your butts in gear and start working on it with me. We have two weeks – actually less than two weeks now – and that’s not so much time, so…"

"So…" Taylor grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from the desk and lay down on his bed, leaning on a Spiderman folder. "Lets get cracking…"

Isaac could see Ivy O’Hara, from the corner of his eye, she was sitting at the edge of the stage, talking to her two friends – they were twins, both were blonde and identical – and identically dressed also. Ivy was giggling happily, like a baby almost.

"Will you stop staring," Taylor nudged Isaac.

"I’m not staring…" Isaac turned to see Taylor – Taylor’s hair had been put in stylish little dreadlocks, and he was wearing a checked polo shirt. Zachary had the front of his hair braided and beaded, and was wearing a brown striped T-shirt, Isaac on the other hand, didn’t want to look as cute as his brothers, and had only come with his hair slicked back, and a black waistcoat over a red T-shirt. They were waiting to find out if they’d been chosen to be one of the ten contestants.

"You were staring," Taylor snorted, folding his arms. "I saw you. You’re drooling over Ivy O’Hara, admit it! You think she’s kind of cute…"

"I was not drooling…but, yeah, I’ll admit she is sort of cute…"
"You think she’s cute?!" Zac demanded in a tone of disgust – being nine, he didn’t understand the obsession Isaac could have over certain girls.

"I didn’t say I was in love with her or anything," Isaac rolled his eyes. "I don’t even have a crush on her…I just think she’s cute…"

Isaac heard the calling for people to pay attention.

"Here are the names of the ten who will be competing in the finals in two weeks," one of the judges announced and began reading from a piece of paper. "Jason Anderson, The Hanson Brothers, Q-T’s, Hannah Brannon—"

The names went on, but Isaac didn’t listen, he simply sighed in relief they’d made the cut of the ten who were competing, however, he was disappointed that Ivy and the twins were also going to be competing, they were too good.

Ivy and the twins immediately walked over to the brothers. "Looks like we’re in competition," she said, she turned as the twins walked over. "Let me introduce you to Astra and Celeste Ashcroft," she said.

"Hi," both twins chimed at the same time, Astra – who could be easily told apart from Celeste by a necklace with her initial on it – smiled at Taylor, Taylor didn’t smile back, although he felt slightly taken aback because she was sort of pretty.

Zac took the chance to be dumb as usual. "Hey! You know…you two look awfully alike!" he pointed out.

The twins looked at each other blankly, and then back to Zac and smiled in confusion of his humour.

Taylor joined in on the joke. "Yeah! You could almost be twins!" he began giggling in hysterics.

All three girls rolled their eyes after exchanging glances with each other.

Zac looked at the twins with an interested eye. "Do you always dress the same?" he asked.

"Yes," both twins answered in unison.

Zac stepped back when they answered at the same time. "How do people tell you apart?" he asked of interest

"Celeste has a C on her necklace," Astra admitted.

"Astra has an A on her necklace," Celeste answered in unison with Astra.

"Celeste has a little mole on her neck…" Astra continued.

"Astra has a beauty mark on her upper lip…" Celeste said in unison with Astra’s sentence.

"This is freaky," Taylor’s blue eyes were widened.

"You get used to it eventually," Ivy said, putting one hand on her hip. "If they don’t have their necklaces on, even I have trouble telling them apart," she leaned against the side of the stage, her hand brushing against Isaac’s arm.

"You were good," Isaac felt he had to admit to Ivy and the Ashcroft twins. "You have…a good voice…"

"Thanks," Ivy said in a fashion that told Isaac she’d been told this before and was used to hearing it by now. "You weren’t so bad yourself, Isaac…" she said, though her voice held no real sincerity when she said this.

"Ike is a great singer!" Taylor protested instantly, frowning.

"Did I say he wasn’t?" Ivy shot back.

"Taylor, just calm it, okay?" Isaac warned.

Taylor grumbled something nondescript that no one was really supposed to understand and turned away.

"You have a good voice, Taylor," Astra announced. "You could go far with a voice like yours…"

Taylor looked over his shoulder at her. "Really?" he asked, feeling a little flattered.

"With the right lucky break…" Celeste gave a shrug.

"But the music industry isn’t into ten year old boys with no real interest for the business…" Ivy reminded Celeste and Astra in a smug way.

Taylor frowned at Ivy, his anger bubbling to the surface. "Oh, I forgot. The music industry are into little girls with fake hair colours with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum as side kicks?" he shot back at her.

"Tay!" Isaac nudged Taylor.

"My hair colour is NOT fake!" Ivy protested.

"Oh, puh-leeze and a half!" Taylor snorted. "I’ve seen that colour on sale at the K-Mart on the corner for ninty-nine cents!"

"Oh, and like your mom doesn’t bleach her hair?" Ivy hissed in agitation, obviously her hair colour was a weak point.

"Our Mom does NOT bleach her hair!" Zac joined in. "She’s a natural blonde!"

"Yeah, right!" Ivy squinted, her eyes on fire. "I suppose she doesn’t have extensions either – I seen those extensions at the discount hair salon!"

"Our mom’s hair isn’t fake!" Isaac stepped forward, looking down at Ivy, his gaze one of warning.

"And this is my natural hair-colour," she folded her arms, staring up at him, frowning.

"Sure," Taylor made a face, and stuck out his tongue.

"This isn’t over!" Ivy growled.

"You bet it isn’t, bitch!" Taylor growled.

"Why you little—!" Ivy was about to lash out but Celeste and Astra grabbed her by the arms and hauled her back.

"Forget it, Ivy!" Celeste grunted.

"I’m not letting that little shit get away with calling me a bi—" Ivy looked over Taylor's shoulder, seeing Mrs. Hanson appearing through the stage-hall doorway, coming to pick up her sons. She stopped struggling immediately. "Like I said, this isn’t over, freaks," she said in a barely audible whisper, then she turned on her heel and she and her friends took off.

Isaac leaned against the stage feeling helpless. "She’s…"

"She’s a bitch…" Taylor said quietly. "How dare she say stuff like that about mom…"

"She’s doing it to get to us…" Zac decided. "I hate her, she’s a hussy."
"Will you two shut up, moms nearby!" Isaac swatted the back of Zac’s head gently.

"Lets go," Taylor muttered.

"Okay, so how does this one sound…" Isaac was stretched out on the grass in the local park, over a notebook, Taylor on one side of him, Zac on the other. The three had not been able to obtain any peace and quiet at home – not even in their own room! – so they’d had to retire to somewhere their sisters couldn’t interrupt.

"You have so many relationships in this life,

only one or two will last,

you’re going through all this pain and strife,

then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast." Isaac sang clearly, and waited for his brothers to comment.

"It sounds good, Ike, but we’ve been working on this for ages and we still can’t come up with a chorus for the song…" Taylor admitted. "And anyway, your voice is just too changed to sing at that pitch now, you sound like you’re being put through a giant food processor or something…"

Zac was holding a magnifying glass over an ant using the sun to try and burn it. "I think we should stick to rain falling down…" he suggested.

"Gimme that!" Taylor realised what his brother was trying to do to the defenceless bug on the grass and he grabbed the magnifying glass of him. "You're evil, I swear it…" he muttered.

"I’m not evil!" Zac then squished the bug with Taylor’s notebook, and examined the disgusting mark left of what was once a living creature.

"You little freak! I’m tellin’ mom on you!" Taylor warned.

"Like she’d care? She kills bugs all the time! She killed a beetle the other day…" Zac uttered/

"That was different, it was in the house, it was on our property, this is different, we’re on the ants turf." Taylor explained.

"Guys! Will you pay attention!" Isaac growled at his brothers. "We have eight days to complete this song…"

"Ike, we could be at this song for YEARS and we’d never finish it," Zac looked fed up. "We started writing this verse about a year ago! And this Mmmbop background thing doesn’t work…"
"Yeah, well we better start Mmmbopping our brains in working order or we’re gonna lose to the Q-T’s and there is no way I can stand that humiliation – that Ivy would just be too smug. God, I’d like to smack her one," Taylor sneered.

Isaac didn’t understand Taylor’s dislike for the girl – sure Ivy was a pain, but Taylor was letting it get to him too much.

"Okay…" Isaac began flicking through the notebook for the verses of other unfinished songs. "How about that one we started two months ago?"

"What one?" Zac asked, he’d lost all knowledge of the song Isaac and Taylor had been writing then – because he'd been more interested in watching television.

"This one…" Taylor pointed to the page.

"Something special about you babe,

Maybe its your smile…" Taylor hummed the tune, because this part of the song had no words written yet.

"Big bang, it hit me like a boomerang…"

"I think we should start a brand new song," Zac muttered.

"He’s right," Isaac agreed. "We need something fresh and new for this contest – otherwise it just won’t feel right…"

"Okay, fresh and new, fresh and new…" Taylor began repeating to himself.

"Well, well, well…"

The brothers looked up as Ivy appeared, Ivy kicked dirt in Taylor's face deliberately, then pouted pitifully. "Oops, sorry," she said.

Taylor leaned up, frowning. "Oh, I bet you are," he grumbled.

"What's this?" Ivy picked up the notebook and began flicking through it. "Trying to write a song are we…"

"Actually…" Zac grabbed the notebook back from Ivy glowering at her. "We’ve already written one," he lied.

"Yeah," Taylor joined in, he went along with the lie to feel superior to Ivy. "In fact, we’ve already written three songs, we’re just trying to decide which one to sing…"

"Oh, yeah?" Ivy asked, folding her arms. "Another song with meaningless words in it?" she muttered – having noticed the word MMMBOP in the notebook.

"It does have a meaning!" Isaac said – although it really didn’t, but he just felt so angry with Ivy and so provoked he had to lie about it.

"Oh, yeah? Tell me, Hanson, what is an Mmmbop then?"

"It’s a…" Isaac trailed off for a moment.

Taylor noticed the silver watch on Ivy’s wrist, and grinned. "It’s a minute…or an instant, shall we say…" he smiled.

Isaac looked at Taylor. Actually, that word fitted his description somehow.

"Oh, sure," Ivy rolled her eyes, "whatever," she added.

Taylor stood up. "Y’know what, Ivy? I don’t like your attitude…"

"Maybe I don’t like your attitude either, Blondie," Ivy retorted.

"Fine by me, ya walkin’ add for Constance by Clarol!" Taylor took a step forward, an angry step, a taunting step.

"Shut up, you little shit!"

"Make me!" Taylor took another step forward.

Ivy lashed out at him hard in the chest, he fell back, and she immediately threw herself on him, catching him in the face with a punch.

Soon, the whole thing was turning into a fight, kicking, scratching – even biting! Taylor was managing to get a few punches, but Ivy was bigger than him and had no trouble in hitting and punching and holding him back to do more damage.

Isaac – who’d just about seen and heard enough of Taylor and Ivy’s fight – grabbed Ivy powerfully, and dragged her off of Taylor – because she was bigger than Taylor she was also the stronger one, and Isaac didn’t find that fair. Isaac wrapped his arms around her tightly, blocking her arms from moving, he lifted the kicking and screaming girl with great difficulty and held her back.

Taylor leaned up from the ground, wiping blood from a busted lip. "Bitch!" he accused of Ivy, he was about to shoot up to punch her, but Zac caught him by the shoulders and hauled him down with difficulty.

"Bastard!" Ivy retorted, trying to kick, she struggled with Isaac.

"STOP IT!" Isaac cried – and right in her ear too.

"Let go of me you monkey-faced blonde piece of garbage!" Ivy yelled at Isaac, still struggling, kicking him in the leg, but he managed to keep a hold of her.

"What in the world is going on?!"

Isaac turned, seeing a cop frowning at all four of them, he let go of Ivy and she dropped to the ground with a hard thud. "Uh-Oh…" Isaac bit his lip.

"Fighting!" Walker Hanson exclaimed that night, looking at his three sons who were seated on the couch in the living room – the cop had only recently left – after having driven Ivy home and the brothers home and having to have explained the situation to both their parents. "Fighting – and worse of all – fighting with a girl!"

"It was her who started it!" Zac whined, folding his arms around a big cushion, he leaned back in the couch, looking away from his fathers direction.

"I don’t care who started it – what were you doing arguing with the girl in the first place?!" Walker demanded.

Taylor looked away from his father, knowing he couldn’t answer – it had been a mutual fight – both had started it, he didn’t want to have to explain why the girl had been bothering him so much.

"Who is this girl anyway, Ike?" Walker asked of Isaac. "Care to explain?!"

Isaac sighed, looking down at his hands. "Her name is Ivy O’Hara, and she’s in competition with us for the singing contest next Saturday," he began. "She’s…listen, I hate to have to use this word in front of you and mom, dad, but she is a bitch, really, she is. She’s weird and she’s really sure of herself, she’s really freaky…she starts making weird comments and stuff…"

"I don’t want to hear you using that word again, Ike…" Walker warned.

"Dad…it was just a little comment that Tay made about her hair that set her off, suddenly she was dissing mom – I won’t tell you what she said – but she said it and Tay got mad. Then today at the park she was picking on Tay – kicking dirt in his face and stuff, and she started getting nasty, told him to shut up, he said ‘make me’ and she lashed out at him. So it was practically her who started it in the first place…"

"How old is his girl?" Diana asked, she’d been sitting in the chair by the fire – she’d been silent up until now.

"Not sure," Isaac answered. "She could be around fourteen – give or take a year," he shrugged.

"We’re pulling you out of the contest," Diana decided bluntly.

"What?!" Taylor demanded, immediately standing up. "You can’t!"

"Yes, I can, if this girl is picking on you or more to the point – you’re picking fights with her – its probably the stress of the contest that’s making this happen…"

"We need to be in that contest – besides, there's no drawing out – its in the rules, mom, you should have read the fine print," Isaac pointed out. "And anyway, it could be a big break for us, what if some record producer or something ended up at that contest and we weren’t there – the Q-T’s would win for sure and they would sign her up."

"Don’t be ridiculous. No record producers going to be there," Walker grumbled.

"It doesn’t matter," Taylor sighed. "We want to be in that contest! We have a good chance of winning – I know it doesn’t matter if you win or lose – but just to beat the Q-T’s…"

"Its not the Q-T’s I’m interested in beating," Isaac admitted. "I just want to win to know for sure if we’re really as good as people say we are…"

"You don’t need to win a contest to find that out," Diana pointed out.

"No, but its something I want," Isaac confessed. "And I’m sorry, mom, but we’re not drawing out…"

"Then what do you suggest? You’re going to have to face this Ivy girl again…" Walker reminded.

"We’ll deal with it…"

"I have an idea…" Diana decided, she stood up. "I’ll call her parents…"

"Huh?" Zac asked, confused.

"Yeah, mom…why?" Isaac asked.

"I’ll invite her parents and the girl over for late dinner, that way, we can apologise to the parents for the way you all behaved today, and you and Ivy can get better reacquainted – in a controlled situation – we’d be here to make sure you didn’t get into anymore fights…"

"Don’t, mom!" Taylor pleaded.

"Why?"

"Because!"

"Because why?" Diana asked, pausing.

"Because I don’t want to have to face the girl who kicked my ass, okay?!" Taylor screamed, and then shot passed his mother, tears streaming down his face.

"Whoah…that was not good…" Isaac bit his lip. "I didn’t think being beat up by a girl would bother him that much…"

"Would it bother you?" Walker asked to prove a point.

Isaac realised it would. "Mom…you’re gonna have to call her parents and invite them over… if I’m there, then I can stop anything from happening between Ivy and Taylor…"

"Why couldn’t you before?"

"Because last time I think Taylor was in the right," Isaac confessed, got up and then left the room, and went upstairs to the bedroom he shared with Zac and Taylor.

Taylor was stretched across his own bed crying into his pillow.

"Tay, it was just a fight, and I wouldn’t say she kicked your ass because I stopped her before she could…" Isaac said, sitting on the edge of Taylor’s bed.

"I hate her, Ike! She’s a snooty thief! She’s an arrogant bitch and the only reason she’s in this contest is because she knows she can beat us!" Taylor whined in tears.

"She can’t beat us, I won’t let her beat us," Isaac promised. "We’re just as good as she and the twins are, and I swear we can beat them, I know it…"

"Yeah, but how am I supposed to face her knowing she could beat me up?"

"You face her knowing that it was unfair because she was older than you…next time she tries anything though, I’ll stand in for you though, she wouldn’t be able to knock me over…I’m like a foot tall her than her!" Isaac grinned

"She’d kick your ass too!" Taylor whined.

"No she wouldn’t," Isaac laughed, the paused. "Tay, mom is inviting Ivy and her parents over, so we’re gonna have to show Ivy that she can't get to us no matter how hard she tries…"

"Yeah, right, everything she does gets to us!"

"To you maybe, but I think that was what you were looking for – competition…do you want to feel better than Ivy?"

"Yeah!" Taylor sat up, rubbing his teary eyes.

"Then don’t let her get to you, and help me and Zac try and beat her and the Q-T’s!"

"Okay…I will!"

Ivy sat across from Taylor – Isaac across from Zac and Ivy’s parents John and Irene were seated across from Walker and Diana. Actually, John and Walker had a lot in common, and it turned out Diana had gone to school with Irene, so they had a lot to talk about. However, Isaac, Taylor and Zachary kept silent, not once speaking to Ivy. Ivy kept kicking what she thought was Taylor's leg under the table – actually it happened to be Isaac’s leg, he was ten seconds away from kicking her himself – only he knew if he did that he'd probably really hurt her and she’d tell on him in spite.

When dinner was finished, they all retired to the living room – the adults with coffees. Zac complained that he wasn’t feeling good so Diana had sent him to bed. Isaac wondered if Zac had just made up his feeling ill to get away from Ivy – whom he obviously hated too.

It was almost nine when Ivy suddenly spoke for the first time that evening. "Mom…dad, can I go home? I’m kind of tired…" she admitted, she glanced over at Isaac for a split second, then to Taylor, a look of triumph in her eye when she spotted his bust lip, and a slight bruise just under his chin.

"Well…I guess that would be okay, honey," Irene O’Hara – a tall red-headed woman – stroked her daughters hair affectionately. "But are you sure you want to walk in the dark…"

"Its not that far," Ivy stood up, smoothing down her white blouse and her caramel coloured pants.

"But there are a lot of weirdo’s out there who would attack a pretty little girl and do away with her…" Irene fretted.

"Mom…I’m not a baby!" Ivy blushed, clearly embarrassed.

"Don’t worry, Irene," Diana spoke up. "Ike can walk her home…he’s a big lad, so no one would dare think about attacking her while he was with her…"

"No…its okay, really…" Ivy admitted – clearly not in the mood to be in Isaac’s company.

"No, we insist," Walker said.

"Dad…Ivy is old enough to walk home on her own…" Isaac protested.

"Go get the girls coats for her, Clarke," Diana ordered.

Ike sighed, and reluctantly went to fetch the girls coat, he appeared back with the thin yellow denim Jacket that she’d been wearing the day she introduced herself to him – and held it up for her, trying to help her get into it.

"I can do it myself," she pulled away, she sniffed in disturbance, and pulled the jacket it on, and didn’t wait for him as she left off into the hall, opened the door for her and she left the house herself, Isaac had to run to catch up.

"Wait up!" Isaac called.

"Look, Clarke or Isaac or Ike or whatever you call yourself…"

"Ike’s fine…" Isaac began.

"Look, Ike," Ivy stopped in the middle of the street, folding her arms, looking at him. "I can walk myself home in the dark, I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again, so just let me go my way, you go yours and my parents don’t even have to know…okay?" she turned to walk away.

Isaac caught her by the upper arm, and stopped her from leaving. "Your parents are right, its not safe – even in these streets…"

"I’ll be okay!"

"No, you won’t, and I’ll get into deep shit if something does happen to you on the way home and I wasn’t there to help you…" he reminded. "So I’m going, like it or lump it…"

She sighed and just began walking, Isaac began walking beside her. There was an uncomfortable silence between them for four minutes, then Isaac decided to speak up. "Why did you pick on my little brother today? In fact, why are you picking on us at all?" He asked.

"I didn’t pick on your little brother – he picked on me – remember? He was the one who started it all about the hair thing…" she uttered under her breath, frowning to herself.

"That’s just Tay’s way of being cocky," Isaac admitted. "Why are you so mean?"

"I’m not mean!"

"Yes you are," Isaac said. "You kicked dirt in Taylor’s face, you punched him in the face, bust his lip, bruised his chin, scratched his neck and arm. You dissed my mom, you called me a monkey-faced blonde piece of garbage, you called Taylor a little shit…" he began ticking things off. "Is there a reason you’re so bitchy? PMS perhaps?" he asked.

"I know what I’m saying, Ivy. You’re a bitch and…also a thief, don’t think for a moment that me, Tay and Zac didn’t see you taking that CD from Coda the day we met you. I should have told the guy at the store on you right then. I should have known you were trouble…"

"Look who’s talking. You can’t even control your brothers! To me you’re the ones who are trouble!"

"Look, my brothers might be a little unruly, but they’re just kids, Taylor is totally hyperactive eighty percent of the time and Zac has a tendency to be nasty to people he doesn’t like…can I help it if that’s who they are?"

"Oh, and what about you? You hurt me today, I have bruises all over me from when you manhandled me this afternoon!"

"I wasn’t being rough…" Isaac began.

"Oh no?" Ivy stopped, and lifted her blouse up to her ribs, there were extensive bruises on her waist, and Isaac could tell he was the ones who’d made them. "Look at what you did!"

"You attacked my little brother! What was I supposed to do? You’re two years older than him and you’re bigger than him so I don’t think it was fair…"

"Maybe you’d like me to attack you instead?" she asked, turning away. "I didn’t attack Taylor, he was asking for it!"

"He was being protective of himself because of the way you were acting. You didn’t have to be so mean. You know, now I know why Taylor and Zac hate you so much!"

"Yeah, well now I know why I hate you all so much!" she cried at him. "Leave me alone, Isaac, I don’t want to ever see any of you again!" she cried.

"Fine by me!" Isaac retorted.

"Fine!" Ivy hissed, then she sped off down the street.

Isaac stood alone in the dark street hoping that Ivy would be the one to withdraw from the contest – because sure as hell, it wasn’t gonna be him.