Four days passed.

Isaac had been sleeping deeply on his top bunk, it was well after two in the morning when something had awoken him and he wasn’t sure what it was.

He blinked his eyes open tiredly, and yawned. "Tay?" he asked, immediately assuming it was Taylor trying to waken him up for some reason. But alas, Taylor didn’t answer, and Isaac knew only too well to call out Zac’s name because Zac was a heavy sleeper and never had to get up through the night. Isaac lay awake with his eyes open, looking up at the ceiling, thinking to himself. Isaac was frustrated that they couldn’t think of a song to sing. Taylor had been the one to decide that if all went badly – and within the next four days they couldn’t write a decent song for the contest – then they’d fall back on ‘Rain Falling Down’ or they’d pick an old Jackson’s Five song and do that instead. Either way, they’d have a backup.

Isaac thought about Ivy again. How could a girl so pretty be so mean? Isaac was sure her meanness was unnatural, because it didn’t seem to suit her well. Isaac hadn’t told anyone about the argument they’d had four nights previous when Ivy had stormed off after screaming that she never wanted to see the Hanson Brothers again. It was fine with Isaac if she never wanted to see him again, he didn’t want to see her either.

Isaac began to drift back into sleep again, when he heard a crack outside, the sound someone stepping on a twig would make. It was loud – mostly because everything was silent in the area – the sound seemed amplified ten times more than how it would have sounded in the daytime. Isaac sat up, frowning. He knew someone was outside, and a prowler no doubt – either that or a racoon. But did a racoon make that loud a noise stepping on a twig? No, he didn’t think so. Isaac climbed down from the bed, and rushed over to the window, tripping up on the blankets that Zac had kicked off of his bed earlier that night. He reached the window just in time to see a dark figure with a head of thick curly hair dash off into the woodland area near the house – where the treehouse Isaac and Taylor had built for Zac remained.

"Ivy," he muttered under his breath, and he quickly pulled on a pair of jogging pants, and sneakers, and he left his bedroom, tiptoed throughout the house until he was at the back door and he went outside, looking around, there was really no sign that Ivy had been there, but he knew he’d seen her dashing off. The direction she’d gone in was that of the small woodland area where the treehouse was – and also the area that led down to the river. He stepped away from the house, walking across the dark lawn, shivering – it was so cold his skin was prickling, the hairs on his arms standing on end. He hugged himself to keep warm, crossing the lawn carefully, being especially careful to not trip over Avery’s tricycle. He reached the edge of the woodland area, and he peered in cautiously, in the darkness, he could see the treehouse up ahead, just barely lit by the crescent moon above. Even though he knew how safe the area was – because most of it was fenced off on either side which prevented trespassers, he reminded himself that there was still the danger of the river.

He could hear it, as he began to make his way into the grove, passing by willowy trees and stumbling on twigs and rocks. "Damn her," he uttered under his breath. "IVY!" he called out loudly – not really expecting an answer.

What is she doing here anyway? Trying to sabotage us or something. God, she’s a little—

Isaac’s thoughts were cut off as he heard a shuffle near the bushes and he turned, squinting to see through the dark. He saw her, her eyes glimmered pearly white in the moonlight, for a moment, Isaac could have sworn she looked scared. He pictured a frightened rabbit in the way of headlights. "Ivy—" he began in a gentle tone.

That was all it took, she darted to the left of him, shoving him out of the way, he fell into the bushes, and cried out in pain as the dry sharp twigs of the branches dug into his bare arms. However, he didn’t give up hope that he could catch her. Isaac hauled himself to his feet using a low tree branch up and instantly, began to run in the direction his house was in – because he knew it was the only way to get on to the main street for Ivy to escape. He saw her just ahead, she hopped over a large log, and grabbed onto the branch above and swung forward, this propelled her even further, but Isaac managed to use the same trick to catch up.

His heart was pounding rapidly in his chest, and he was almost out of breath, finally, near enough to grab her, he leapt forward, hooked her by the waist, and pulled her to the ground along with her.

She let out a high-pitched scream of distress, and swatted out with her left arm, catching him in the side of the face with her elbow, he grunted, but kept his hold on her strong.

"Ivy! Stop struggling!" Isaac cried, holding her down. "Its me! Ike!" he gasped for breath, pushing down on her, his chest against her back.

"I know its you! Let go of me!" she cried.

"Not until you stop struggling. And stop screaming…I don’t want you to wake my parents up!"

"What? So they won’t catch you like this and figure out what you were trying to do?!" she demanded.

"All I was trying to do was stop you!" Isaac hissed. "What are you doing here?"

"None of your business!" she hissed.

"The hell it isn’t…you're on my parents land!" Isaac gripped her harder.

"GET OFF!" she struggled and eventually managed to break free, slapping him hard on the face before getting away from him, she took off, and this time Isaac didn’t bother following.

"Ow…" Isaac touched his sore cheek gingerly. Slowly he climbed to his feet, and he began stumbling sorely back to the house, he crept in, and made his way upstairs to his room. Everything was silent, just as he’d left it.

He went to the bathroom, and turned on the light above the mirror, and examined his face, her hand had left a large crimson mark across his cheek. He winced in pain, and examined his bare arms, the swelling of scratches were beginning to appear near his shoulders. And a large abrasion – deeper than the others was bleeding near his elbow. "Damn," he muttered under his breath, he grabbed the bottle of surgical spirit from the cabinet and took a couple of balls of cotton from the jar on the shelve and began dabbing at the scratches with the surgical spirit. He hissed as he began to clean the wound on his elbow, the blood didn’t seem to want to stop flowing freely from it.

"Ike…what are you doing?" came a yawning voice from the bathroom door – instantly Isaac wished he’d locked it.

Isaac looked in the mirror, seeing the reflection of Taylor – rubbing at one eye tiredly, his wedged blonde hair mussed beyond belief. "Nothing, go back to bed," he said sternly to his young brother. "Its past two am, you know…"

"I know that…but do you?" Taylor demanded, stepping in fully, and closing the bathroom door behind him. "What happened to your arm, Ike?"

Isaac paused, wondering if he should tell Taylor the truth about tonight – not that it was particularly a secret, but he felt he should keep it from his brothers just now. Ivy had to have been near their house for a reason. "I thought I heard a prowler," Isaac said, "I went out to investigate, fell in a bush," Isaac lied.

"A prowler? Maybe we should tell mom and dad," Taylor suggested.

"Nah, actually it was just a dog roaming around…" Isaac continued with the lie.

Taylor shrugged. "If that’s so then why were you gone so long?"

"Huh?"

"I was awake when you went out, you were gone for almost twenty minutes…"

"I was chasing the dog off…"

"Gee," Taylor smiled tiredly. "Usually…wouldn’t it have been the dog be chasing you?"

"Tay, go to bed," Isaac sighed. Turning off the light above the mirror, Isaac turned and began to shove his brother forward. "We have to be up early for home-school…"

Isaac leaned back against a large oak tree in the local park, with a notepad rested on his knee, a pencil in his hand, he’d been sitting there for almost twenty minutes and had not come up with anything to write, he was five seconds away from giving up. Sighing, he took his eyes off of the paper and looked across the park to watch his brothers playing one on one soccer, Zac was winning. He’d thought about writing a song about them – he’d already written many songs about them before.

Eventually, Taylor gave up trying to win the game against Zac and he headed in Isaac’s direction, he sat down beside Isaac.

"Any luck with the song, Ike?" Taylor inquired.

Isaac gave an exasperated sigh. "Nope. And I’ve had it up to here with this stupid song – and Ivy," he muttered.

"I thought Ivy was going to revoke the Q-T’s in the competition?" Taylor asked.

"I have a feeling she’s not one to give in easily…" Isaac doodled on his notepad. "Tay…I lied about last night…"

"What about last night?" Taylor asked.

"I…I was lying awake and I heard something outside," Isaac began, he sighed. "So…I got out of bed and walked over to the window – looked out and who’d you think I saw?"

"Dad sneaking into the woods for a smoke?" Taylor asked, referring to Walker Hanson’s smoking habit which had supposedly been kicked before Avery was born, but had begun back up when he’d been sneaking into the woods to smoke.

"Uh…no, guess again…"

"Mom sneaking off to the woods with some disgusting sandwich filled with Pasta, Mayonnaise, Chocolate spread and Marmalade?" Taylor grinned in a goofy way…"

"Nope…"

"Then just tell me, dang it, I’m not gonna play guessing games," Taylor whacked Isaac on the head.

"Ivy…"

"Ivy was sneaking around our house?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah…when I saw her, she was running into the woods so I followed, she was hiding in the bushes so I called her name and she sped off, I caught her and held her down trying to get some info out of her, but she wouldn’t tell my why she was there, she just got away, slapped me and ran off…"

"Whoa, so that’s where you got all those scratches…and why your face was a little red last night…"

"Yeah," Isaac sighed.

"Man, she has one heck of a hand on her, certainly likes hitting guys…" Taylor thoughtfully rubbed at the bruise on his chin where Ivy had punched him last week.

Zac came bounding over, holding the ball under his arm. "Guess who I just saw…"

"I know who you’re gonna say…Ivy, right?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah…" Zac said.

Isaac got up. "Where?"

"Near the pond..." Zac said.

"You’re not gonna go see her, are you?" Taylor asked.

"Why not?" Isaac shrugged. "I want to find out what she was up to last night…"

"I bet you wouldn’t get the truth out of her even if you did ask…" Taylor muttered

Isaac didn’t take Taylor’s words seriously, he intended to get the truth out of Ivy even if he had to threaten to beat her up – she had done a good job on him last night anyway.

He did find her by the pond, wearing nothing but black, she had on a lacy black top, and black PVC jeans, and chunky high-heeled bomber boots on, her hair was damp and slightly curlier than usual.

"Ivy," Isaac said, his tone stern, almost like an order. "I want to speak with you…"

Ivy stopped, and turned, and looked up, at him, her eyes were lined with black and her lids were dusted with green, she looked almost seventeen, which was quite a surprise since she usually looked around twelve. "Oh, go away," she muttered, turning away.

Isaac knelt down beside her, looking into the water of the pond. "I want to know why you were at my house last night…"

Ivy pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them. "No I wasn’t…"

"Ivy, do you think I’m stupid? Like I wouldn’t remember last night when I had you on the ground…"
"Oh, no, you wouldn’t have forgotten that," Ivy shot at him. "I bet you’ve been dreaming about it for a long time, monkey-boy…"

"Get real," Isaac muttered. "Like I’d want to get you to the ground."

Ivy frowned. "Trying to say you don’t find me attractive? I’ve seen you stare…"

"Yeah, I stare because I just don’t understand how you can be so nice looking, yet such a bitch in person," he stated.

"Oh, and like you’re perfect?" she asked.

"Did I say I was? No one is," Isaac grumbled, and turned away from here, there was a long silence between them, then Ivy spoke.

"You’re still in the competition?"

"Of course. And you?"

"Ask a stupid question."

"Lemme just ask you something…why’d you want to win?" Isaac asked.

"I don’t need to have a reason, I just want to win," she muttered. "Kick me for asking this," she looked at him. "How about you?"

"We love music," Isaac answered. "Me and Tay and Zac have been singing most of our lives…its what we want to do. We’ll probably go on doing it until we’re old, we might not make it famous, but it would still be worth it."

Ivy didn’t say anything for a moment, then she reached out for him, placing her hand on his back, Isaac felt the warmth of her touch and let out a soft sigh, turning to her. He saw something within her. Something that Tay and Zac just couldn’t see. He looked into her deep green eyes, they reminded him of twinkling emeralds set against her white porcelain skin. It was then their eye-contact caused a stirring between them, and they moved closer, on the very brink of a kiss, it would be Isaac’s first real kiss. They closed their eyes and moved closer, then, just as their lips were about to meet, Ivy’s eyes flew open, she let out a gasp of shock, then cried out "Don’t!" and she shoved Isaac hard. There was no intention of Isaac to go sprawling into the pond, but nonetheless that was where ended up, Ivy staggered to her feet and bolted.

Isaac wiped pond-scum off of his face, sitting up. "Damn," he muttered to himself flicking the stuff off, he looked up, just as Taylor and Zac appeared, large grins on their faces.

"Didn’t we tell you she wouldn’t tell you anything…"

"It had nothing to do with that," Isaac defended, climbing out, his clothes soaking wet. He groaned. "Look at me!" he whined.

"You’re the one who tried to stick your tongue down Ivy’s throat, you deserved it," Taylor said smugly, folding his arms.

"Ew, you were trying to put your tongue in her mouth?" Zac demanded, making a face of disgust to the situation.

"The thing was mutual," Isaac confessed wringing out the front of his T-shirt, "I didn’t think she was going to throw me into the pond!" he grumbled, squelching at every movement. "This is unreal," he muttered. "Totally unreal…"

"I thought it was kind of awesome," Zac giggled.

"You would, smug little brat," Isaac flicked water onto Zac. "I guess I had it coming though," he muttered.

"Is that what you call trying to seduct someone?" Zac asked, looking up at Ike.

Isaac snorted laughter. "Oh, Yeah, Zac, I let her seduct me real good…" he went along with that, but he thought to himself that he’d made a breakthrough. And also, inspiration came with a bang!

CHAPTER ELEVEN - Conflict

Isaac felt queasy and weak on the day of the contest. He guessed that had something to do with Ivy – nothing to do with the fact there were going to be at least a hundred and fifty people watching him and his brothers perform – he was used to that by now, they’d done so many parties and festivals over the last few years.

"You look nervous," Taylor stated, pulling on his black leather jacket. The boys were in the boys locker room in the high school – the last ones to get ready, because they were one of the last to perform, even from this area far from the stage, they could hear the singing travelling from the auditorium.

"I am," Isaac said. "I really want to beat Ivy," he stated, slicking his hair back with a hand full of blue hair-gel.

"Me too!" Zac pulled on a pair of black sunglasses and grinned, he stood with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "How’d I look?" he demanded in a suave accent, a spike of blonde hair fell over the edge of the sunglasses, he looked calm and cool.

"Like a Grease reject…" Isaac smiled for the first time that night.

"Really?" Zac asked, raising the glasses above his eyebrows. "Great! JUST the look I was going for!"

Isaac and Taylor laughed and put on their black sunglasses, looking into the mirror on the back of the door. "Hmmm…Even if we DO win, Ivy is gonna make fun of us for this," Isaac turned away from the door just as he heard a slight knock.

"Boys…" came the voice of their mother. "You’ll be on in five minutes, are you ready?"

"Yeah, mom," Isaac said.

"Well come on out and let me see the clothes you chose!" Diana Hanson urged.

"No, mom, just go back to your seat, you’ll see what we’re wearing when we go on stage, for Pete’s sake," Isaac called through the door.

"Okay, okay," came their mothers reply, after the contest, I’ll come backstage to get you, alright?"

"Whatever," all three said flatly, and listened to the fading footsteps of their mother leaving the hallway outside of the locker room.

"She’s gone," Isaac said.

Taylor was reading over his lyric-sheet one more time. "Ike…I hope you know what you’re doing with this song," he admitted.

"I know what I’m doing, alright," Isaac grumbled, " if anything can put Ivy in her place, that song can do it for her," he sighed, he grabbed the lyric sheet from Taylor and shoved it into the inside pocket of his leather Jacket. "C’mon, lets make our way to the stage," he said, and he opened the door, and stepped out, not looking where he was going he bumped into Ivy – though what she was doing standing outside the boys locker room hadn’t even crossed his mind yet.

"Ivy…" Isaac bounced back a little, lifting his sunglasses.

Ivy looked at him – as well as Taylor and Zac who came following out of the locker room after Isaac, she immediately burst out laughing. "Oh, god, look at the state of you!" she put a hand to her mouth, her green eyes glittering in amusement.

"What's so funny?" Zac asked. "I think we look cool…"

"Yeah, if you want to be thought as one of the cast of Happy Days," Ivy snorted. "I can’t believe you’re still going through with it," she said straight to Isaac, looking at him, folding her arms over her chest, she was dressed in a long dark grey dufflecoat, the hood up, curls of hair falling near her face.

"Of course we’re going through with it," Isaac stated in a careful tone.

Just then, the Ashcroft twins – Astra and Celeste – appeared, both had on identical white dresses and little lacework sweaters.

Taylor had to look close just to tell which one was Astra – the twin with the small beauty mark above her upper lip. It should have been obvious, he figured, since she was the one who was always smiling at him.

"Hmmm…" Celeste put a finger to her chin, looking thoughtful. "Let me guess…Danny Zuko from Grease?" she asked, referring to the look they’d been going for.

"Yeah," Zac said quietly.

"You look great!" Astra stated, her blue eyes gleaming.

"Thanks," Taylor admitted, blushing slightly, he looked at Astra. "You too…"

Ivy looked at Isaac. "You could just quit while you’re ahead you know," she said.

"Why would I want to do that?" Isaac asked. "We really want to win."

"So do we," Ivy stated. "So badly it hurts!"

Isaac sighed. "Look, what do you have against us, Ivy?!" he demanded.

"She’s jealous," Taylor suggested, smirking.

"The day I’m jealous of you super-star-wannabes is the day I lay down and die!" Ivy shot back.

"Ivy, just quit it!" Celeste hissed. "You’ve been on their case for two weeks, will you just leave them alone, they’re not doing anything to anyone…"

"Yeah, right," Ivy made a face, like I’ll give into them!"

"Stop it now," Astra warned. "What's your fight with them?"

"Monkey-boy was manhandling me!" Ivy cried.

"Huh?" Zac asked, turning to Isaac. "When was that?"

Isaac looked at the clock up on the wall at the end of the corridor. "We’re on, guys," he told his brothers.

"This isn’t over…" Ivy said to Isaac.

"You bet it isn’t," Isaac, turned, dragging Zac and Taylor off. "See you on stage…Poison Ivy," he looked back over his shoulder with a slight smile on his face.

Ivy stared back at him, her face going white. "Why’d you call me that?"

"You’ll see."

CHAPTER TWELVE – The Performance

Isaac stood at the edge of the stage, watching as the performer before them – Linda Grey – finished off her song with a slight flair, her voice loud and powerful – but not sweet and melodious.

Zac lowered his head, peering over his black sunglasses looking onto the stage. "We’ll beat her, no worries," he said.

"Don’t go blowing your own horn, Zac," Isaac warned, "it makes you over confident, and your performance won’t be as good," he explained.

Taylor looked over his shoulder. "I feel uneasy with Ivy standing in that corner watching us," he said.

"Yeah, if looks could kill, we’d be six feet under," Isaac agreed, looking at Ivy, her look was cold just for a moment, but when she looked away, her expression – once sour – seemed to slide into one of hurt, she lowered her eyes to the floor, folding her arms, then for a moment, glanced at each side to Astra and Celeste, she didn’t seem to be talking to them at the moment.

There was a cheer from the audience, lots and lots of applause, and Linda was taking her bow, Isaac snuck a peek around the corner to see the audience, there sure were a lot of people there. He felt a familiar nervous fluttering in his stomach.

"Not getting nervous, are you?" Taylor asked, placing a hand on Isaac’s arm.

"No," Isaac lied, and straightened his posture, cleared his throat and then listened as one of the ten judges for the competition began to announce he and his brothers.

"And next we have Isaac, Taylor and Zachary – The Hanson Brothers…"

There was a loud cheer from the brothers mother, father and two sisters sitting in the front row, clapping loudly. The brothers stepped onto the stage, and made their way over the microphones.

Isaac looked down at his father, who gave him the thumbs up, then he began counting off in a whisper "one, two, three…"

And then the three began to sing what Isaac had written about Ivy. He grabbed onto the microphone stand, keeping his cool, staying calm and half confident.

She calls herself a rose

But everybody knows

She’ll get you in dutch

You can look but you better not touch

Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy

Late at night when you’re sleepin’

Poison Ivy comes a creepin’ around

She’s pretty as a daisy

If you look she’ll drive you crazy

She’ll really do you in

If you let her get under your skin

Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy

Late at night when you’re sleepin’

Poison Ivy comes a creepin’ around

Isaac sang the third verse of the song, glancing sideways out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Ivy, standing near the curtain, her hands gripping the folds of dark red velour until her knuckles turned white. Her expression was extremely unreadable, Isaac wanted to so much see her face twist in anger, to get her back for how mean she had been to them from day one, for her causing arguments, and for her throwing him in the water – although he doubted it had been meant.

As they finished the song the applause was incredible, and the three brothers bowed in gratefulness, they made their way off stage, Isaac slowly passed by Ivy. "What d’ya have to say to that?" he asked smugly, stopping.

Ivy just looked up at him, her green eyes dulling, her lip curling into a snarl.

"And next, we have the Q-T’s!" came the judges announcement.

Ivy pulled off her dark grey dufflecoat to reveal the white lacy dress she was wearing underneath, she shoved past Isaac and made her way to the microphones on stage before Celeste and Astra did, they followed on a few seconds later.

Isaac leaned against the backstage wall, watching Ivy. He suddenly realised something was wrong, it was the look on her face, she didn’t seem very stable, and when she was supposed to start singing, she didn’t, she just stood silently, seemingly surveying the audience.

"Ivy!" Celeste hissed in a whisper loud enough even Isaac could hear from the end of the stage.

Taylor walked over to where Isaac was going. "What’s going on?" he asked in a whisper.

"Something’s wrong…" Isaac said. "She froze up…"

"Good, maybe she can't do it and she has to lose," Zac bounded over.

"Sssh…" Isaac whispered, listening as Celeste and Astra began humming the introduction to their song.

"Angel," Astra sang, Celeste hummed along to it.

Ivy seemed to snap out of her trance right then, she blinked, her hand shaking she reached out for the microphone, and she took it off of the stand – she held it close to her lips and began singing softly, her voice sweet.

"When I first saw you I already knew

There was something inside of you

Something I never thought I’d find

Angel of mine

I look at you, looking at me

Now I know why they say the best things are free

Gonna love you till the end of time

Angel of mine

What you mean to me you’ll never know

Deep inside I need to show

You came into my life sent from above

Better than a dream, such a perfect love

And I’ll adore you ‘til the end of time

Angel of mine

Angel Yeah

Nothing means more to me than what we share

No one in this old world could ever compare

I slide away, your love is still on my mind

Angel of mine

Isaac could have sworn there were tears falling from her eyes when she sang, and finished, and as the put the microphone back and made her way to the opposite side of the stage, he watched her, her movement quick as she dived off out of the backstage exit, holding her face.

"What was she crying for?" Zac asked stepping onto the stage after the curtains had been drawn shut.

"I think it was us that made her cry," Isaac realised.

There was a blast of music from the speakers – a song was going to be played while the judges were deciding on a winner, Isaac kept his fingers crossed, and listened as a funky Madonna song began to blast over the hall.

"Man, am I nervous now," Taylor confessed. "But I’d be happy if we didn’t win and someone else – anyone else but Ivy won," he said. "At least we tried our best, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Isaac nodded.

Zac took off his sunglasses and put them in the inside pocket of his jacket. "If we don’t win Ivy is gonna," he sighed. "You heard how good she was," he said in his childish way, he pouted unhappily.

Isaac looked at Taylor. "I’ll be back before the end of the song, guaranteed," he promised, then he rushed off to the opposite side of the stage. He stopped running as he was about to reach the backstage exit – which lead into another hall leading outside – and he began to slowly walk, and as he reached the door, he shoved it open, and he peered out, Ivy was leaning against the wall, crying into her hands.

"Ivy?" he asked.

She didn’t answer.

Isaac was so taken aback by the sorry sight of her, crying, he was tempted to run over there and just hug her and tell her he was so sorry, but there was no way he could do that now, not after her attitude towards him and his brothers. "Ivy…I—"

"Go away!" she screamed at him, taking her hands away from her face, revealing her red tearstained cheeks, her eyes glassy, her lip quivering. "I don’t ever want to see you again! Do you know how much you embarrassed me by that song?! God, I’ve stooped pretty low in my time, Isaac, but I have NEVER done anything as humiliating as that!" she hissed.

"Do you want to know why I did it?" Isaac asked.

"I said I didn’t even want to see you again, are you stupid as well as ugly?!" she demanded.

"I’m not stupid," Isaac leaned against the wall beside her. "Ivy, we did it to let you realise what it is you’re doing – and I hope you learned a lot from the song," Isaac paused, looking away from him. "And if you didn’t, then god help you…" he moved away from the wall and began to leave her alone. "Good luck, Ivy," he said, then he stopped at the doorway back to the backstage area. "And goodbye."

Isaac reached his brothers not long before the song was due to finish.

"What happened?" Taylor immediately demanded.

"It’s because of us alright," Isaac sighed. "I told her why I we did it, and…well, she didn’t say anything, but I know she’s probably thinking it over."

The song by Madonna trailed off as the announcer.

"And the winner of the 1995 Coda Singing Contest is…." There was a hush over the audience as the announcer was going over the sheet with the winners name.

"Goodness, it’s a tie…"

Isaac blinked. "What?" he asked in shock. "A Tie?"

"The Hanson Brothers and The Q-T’s!" called the announcer.

"WHAT?!" Taylor demanded. "Aw, no!" he slapped his own head. "We’re in a tie with THEM?!"

Isaac nearly dropped when he found out they were in a tie with the very group they’d been trying to beat, but it still was better than nothing, after all.

Taylor lead the way onto the stage, then Zac followed with Isaac at his back. From the opposite side, the Q-T’s – Ivy, Celeste and Astra – made their way to the middle of the stage, it was Ivy who was handed the Trophy, she didn’t seem that thrilled to be holding it though. She held it high, the audience cheering and clapping. None of the six winners seemed to be happy they’d won, they just stood looking down over the audience, in low spirits.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – Rescue

Days later…

Zac didn’t mean to kick his soccer ball down the bluff in the woodland area near his house. He cursed himself, he should have known better than to be hanging around kicking a ball around that area anyway, he wasn’t even supposed to be there – if Isaac found out he’d gone into the woods unsupervised then he'd probably throw a fit. No one under twelve was allowed in there without someone older with them – just in case. It was their parents rule, not theirs.

Zac sighed to himself and passed by some poison ivy, thinking about it, he thought ‘I’ve had enough Poison Ivy to last a lifetime, that’s something I don’t want to even see again’, he turned away from it and headed down the bluff. He’d never even been to this area of the woods without his brothers by him – it meant punishment if he was caught. He began to slide down the area near the river, seeing his ball caught beside a rock near the rotting log that had been used as a bridge across to the stepping stones. Zac groaned, seeing the ball so far up the river, bobbing about, the river was kind of rough today, and it would probably be swept away. Zac reached the edge of the river, where the log was and he cautiously took a step onto it, then paused.

Maybe I should go get Ike, he thought.

He was about to turn, but then it popped into his head he couldn’t otherwise Ike would go mad for him being in the woods in the first place.

He then thought of Taylor – only Taylor was at a friends.

He decided to get the ball himself, it didn’t look that difficuly. Slowly, he stepped right onto the log, and began to cross carefully. It was slippery, and he immediately regretted going to the midway section, still, he kept on going, and reached the end, resting on one large rock jutting out of the water, where the ball was caught between a branch and the rock itself. He knelt down log, and reached down for the ball, it was too far down, his fingers barely brushed against it, he fretted on this.

Darn, how am I gonna get it? He asked, he sighed and looked around, then his eyes lit up as he saw small rock down below, without thinking about it, he climbed down onto it. That was when disaster struck, the rock wobbled, although it was large, and in the deep section of the river – it wobbled because it probably rested on a larger rock below, Zac bit his lip and grabbed onto the log, his hands slipped and he fell, bashing his elbow on the rock, and then plunging under the water, he let out a scream, it was too deep, and too wild, and he couldn’t swim, he managed to get himself afloat to scream for help, but then began to plunge back down again, he struggled flinging his arms about himself, kicking his legs, his heavy boots, and clothes were weighing him down, they’d soaked up much water and become much heavier, they were trying to drag him down. Water began to fill his lungs, he struggled to the surface, choking up water and trying to take a breath before his next plunge, he managed to scream out "HELP!" before his last plunge, falling into the depths of the water, he felt his lungs filling and he couldn’t do a thing about it.

Then, suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around, him and dragged him to the surface, where he could breathe, he spat up water, struggling for one moment, then realised he was being dragged to safety.

He blacked out for a moment, he knew he had because when he was next aware of anything he was on the ground, flat on his stomach, someone was standing over him.

"Breathe, Zac…" he felt someone’s hands on his back, and all he could do was take the advice of whoever it was. He felt completely hazy, and almost dizzy, as if his world were spinning around him, he closed his eyes tightly, trying to fight off the need to want to throw up, there was so much water in his lungs, and for a moment he couldn’t bring it up. Then he leaned up, choking up more water, choked up with sudden shock, tears pouring from his eyes.

"Zac…its okay…you’re safe now…" he felt a soothing hand brushing back his soaking wet hair, and he relaxed, he knew he was safe, but he wasn’t feeling good, he felt cold and wet and ill. The water in the river had felt like ice, and he’d only just realised it.

"WHAT' HAPPENED?!" Zac heard his brother Isaac's voice, he closed his eyes for a moment, too weak and half terrified by his experience to even speak.

"He fell into the river…

Zac opened his eyes, suddenly realising that Ivy was the one who had been speaking to him, telling him to breath, telling him it was okay. He looked at her, her hair was plastered to her head and shoulders, her blue cotton dress so wet it was clinging to her body, her eyelashes were also wet, making them black and spiky.

"Oh, my god!" Isaac cried. "He’s he okay?!"

"I think so…he’s coughed up a lot of water…he should be alright…but we should get him dry before he ends up with hypothermia or something!"

"Iiiiiivy?" Zac asked.

Ivy was breathing heavily. "Yeah, Zac…its me."

Isaac fell by Zac’s side, the rest of the family were on their way down – even the little ones.

"Stay back!" Walker warned the girls, and they stopped far away enough from the bluff to be safe from the river.

"What happened?" Diana Hanson demanded.

"He fell in…I happened to…be around and I heard…him screaming for help…" Ivy let out in short gasps. "So I went in after him…"

"Thank god you were here…" Diana sighed in relief, she hugged Zac – even if it meant getting wet. "Gosh, Zac, what were you doing down here in the first place?! You should know better than to be in the woods without someone else with you! If Ivy hadn’t been here…gosh Zac…why were you near the river?!"

Zac coughed. "Trying to get my ball…" he whined, then burst into more tears.

Walker Hanson picked up Zac with ease. "C’mon, we better get this two to somewhere warm and dry before they catch their deaths…"

Isaac helped Ivy up. "Why were you here?" he asked of her, it quite not being able to hit him yet that this girl had just saved his brother from a death of drowning.

Ivy turned to him, and looked at him, her green eyes blinking as if she were having trouble keeping them open. "I…I was here…isn’t that…all…that…matters?" she was still gasping for breath.

"I…guess," Isaac said, still in the shock of it all. He put his arm around Ivy to help her keep her balance she seemed quite weak and unstable.

"We’re taking Zac to the doctors to make sure he’s alright," Walker admitted. The moment, they got to the house, they’d pulled Zac's wet clothes off, and gotten him into a warm dry jogging suit.

"I’m sure he’s okay," Isaac said, handing a large towel to Ivy who was standing by the fireplace in her bare feet – her shoes had been left outside since they were soaking. She was still all wet.

"Just to be on the safe side, we better take him up there," Diana said. "Isaac…you stay here and dry off…you got wet too…and besides, someone should be here when Taylor gets home…"

Isaac looked down at his shirt and realised he had gotten wet when Ivy had been leaning against him on the way up to the house.

"We’ll be taking the kids with us…" Diana added. "Now…Isaac…I think you should search out some dry clothes for Ivy…" she suggested.

"Yeah, mom," Isaac nodded.

"Hopefully, we shouldn’t’ be too long," Walker said, helping Zac up from the couch where he’d been lying in a tired fashion, his eyes closed lightly. "C’mon, Zac," he said and lifted the boy halfway over his shoulder. He urged his wife and daughters out of the door and then followed, then they were all gone.

There was an uncomfortable silence between Isaac and Ivy, then Isaac spoke. "Uh…I’ll go get you something dry to wear…" he said. "Wait here," he added.

She nodded slowly, and watched as he disappeared.

Isaac returned with the only clothes he could find that would fit her – they were actually his own – Taylor and Zac were smaller than her, and his mother was a lot bigger than her, so he’d had to use his own.

"This is all I could find," Isaac said, he held up the clothes.

Ivy reached out for them, her fingers brushing against his as she did.

"Uh…" Isaac took a step back. "I hope they fit you…I’m a little bigger than you but…well, I’m the nearest to your size in this house," he smiled.

She looked at the clothes – in amongst what he’d given her was a pair of grey marl jogging pants, a black T-shirt and a Thick blue plaid shirt, a pair of thick cotton socks and a pair of boxer shorts.

"Sorry about the boxers…but…well…you’ll need them…" Isaac blushed having to explain. "Its okay, they’re brand new, never been worn," he said. "Its just…well, your underwear is probably wet too…"

She nodded, understanding.

"You’re not talking to me, are you?" he asked with a sigh.

"No…its just…you know…" she trailed off for a moment. "Is there anywhere I can get changed?" she asked.

"Yeah, you can use the downstairs bathroom…"

"Okay," she nodded. "Where’s that…"

"C’mon, I’ll show you…" Isaac said.

He showed her to the bathroom, and he let her in, she closed the door behind herself. Isaac stood outside the door. "So…what were you doing around the woods anyway when Zac fell into the river?" he asked.

There was a long silence, Isaac had almost gave up on getting an answer.

"I…I was going to check on the cubs…"

"Cubs?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah…" came an answer, and the door opened, Ivy stood dressed in the clothes Isaac had given her, they were slightly baggy, and the pants were too long, but they fitted okay otherwise. "Me, Astra and Celeste found a dead fox near this street, it had been run down. So we went to the only place we figured we could bury it – the woods at the back of your house. Then we found the cubs – there's of them…they were barely old enough to get food for themselves so I’ve been going down there with food for them…I guess they’ll be okay now, but…I wanted to check…and THAT’S what I was doing down there today…"

"And last week when I caught you…" Isaac realised. "Why’d you keep it a secret…"

"Because I did, I don’t need a reason," she muttered.

"I was also down this way, intending on talking to you…about the contest," she sighed. "I know it was mean of me to…you know…I don’t even know why I was so mean in the first place…just habit with me I guess…"

"Did you think about what I said?" Isaac asked, leading her into the living room.

"Yeah, I did," she nodded, and stroked back her wet curly hair. "And I guess…I should say I’m sorry to you…"

"And Taylor…" Isaac added.

"Yeah, to him too," she sighed. "Its sad that it took your song to make me realise what a bitch I am…"

"I guess I should have thought about it before I did it, I didn’t really consider your feelings that well…" he sighed.

"If you hadn’t…I probably wouldn’t have…realised what I was doing…"

Isaac shrugged, and there was an uncomfortable silence. "I also should say how thankful I am that you did save Zac…after the menace he was being to you…"

"Ike?" she asked of him softly.

"Uh-huh?"

"You’re my angel," she said, a little shyly.

"Huh?"

"When I first saw you…I kind of knew there was something about you…you’re special…and you’ll probably go far being the way you are," she admitted.

Isaac smiled slightly, reaching out for her putting his hands on her arms. "Are you saying you…like me?" he asked in a sly voice.

Ivy pulled away. "Please Isaac…not so fast…" she pleaded.

"Sorry…but I’ve liked you for a while – and I had lost hope especially after that almost-kiss-thing…why’d you stop if you already liked me? Why’d you push me away?" he asked suddenly.

"Because I was scared…I don’t really know why…I just was…" she shrugged.

"How about now? Are you scared now?" he asked.

"No…" she shook her head.

"Then…" Isaac stepped forward, and took her in his arms. "You won’t mind if I do this…will you?"

"Ike…" she whispered. "You REALLY shouldn’t…"

"Why not…?" Isaac asked.

"Maybe because Taylor is standing by the door watching us?"

Isaac turned slowly to see Taylor with a weird look on his face.

Taylor folded his arms. "My, my, how things change…"

Early January 1998

"So…after that me and Ivy did go out a couple of times," Isaac said. "Then a while we grew apart…I only ever seen her a couple of times after that, and its been two years since I saw her last…"

"I just vaguely remember that…" Jessica said. "Zac falling into the river – I mean…"

"I vaguely remember it too…and I was the one who fell into the river," Zac grinned.

"So…you never exactly told us what Ivy said to you…"

"She told me I was her angel," Isaac smiled, thinking back on it.

Taylor laughed. "I remember how much I hated her – even when you were going out with her…." He admitted. "I was livid," he shook his head, barely believing he’d been that way. "I guess things DO change."

"Yeah, they do…" Isaac thought back some more. "But also…sometimes they stay the same.

Isaac and his brothers and sisters began to search out the baby clothes they’d been intent on finding previous to the story. Isaac’s mind strayed. There was never more memorable a march than the one of 1995, and never more memorable a contest. While it hadn’t been the most wonderful experience in his life, it had taught him a lot. Maybe more than he even knew himself. And Ivy had been right, he had gone far – he and his brothers – just like she’d said, being the way they were, they would go far. He smiled to himself as he stood by the dusty window of the attic, he stared out, just distant in his memories.

And as the day went on the song Poison Ivy played itself in his head time and time again.

The End