The hours until the show passed quickly. I had the job of gathering up the meet-and-greeters and leading them inside to meet their beloved band. I watched as they took pictures and signed autographs with the fans, waiting for them to be ushered back into the line. I got that job again and got praises from Nadine, who said I had handled it “very nicely”. I felt proud, but still homesick.

As the boys got ready to go on stage, I ran around getting towels and bottled water for them. Finally, they were due to go up. I could hear the roar of the crowd as the house lights dimmed. I watched the boys high-five each other as they were coming near me – I was the last person they’d see before they went on.

“Good luck, Zacster!” I said, giving him my biggest, most excited smile. “You’re gonna rock!”

Zac threw his arms around me. “Thank you, baby! I love you Trish!” he grinned, before running out. The screams got louder as he got onstage.

“Ikenator, good luck, kick some ass!” I smiled. He smiled back, high-fiving me as he hit the stage. Again, the screams got louder.

One more Hanson to go, the one I loved and hated the most. “Hey Taylaroo, good luck on stage,” I said, expecting a hug or something.

“Thanks,” came his simple, short, unfeeling reply. I felt my heart drop as he walked onstage. “HELLO PORTLAND!” he yelled to the throngs of fans out in the venue.

And so I sat backstage, in the wings, listening to my boys play their hearts out. They covered some Stevie Wonder, played old favorites, and just basically brought the house down. The came in the wings for a moment before going out for their encore, ending it with their song “Hey”, making the crowd go crazy. I was applauding loudly, whistling and screaming at the end of the concert.

“Time to party!” Isaac yelled, as he came backstage and received a mess of “Congratulations” and various praises from everyone.

“Time to SLEEP!” countered Zac, coming up to me and hugging me. I grinned, pushing him away.

“What’s wrong, baby? Why are you pushing your lover away?” he pouted.

“Zac, you’re sweaty and gross,” I giggled.

“Aw, you no love me no more!” he whined, coming at me and grabbing me in a fierce hug.

“Oh, Zac, come on now!” I cried out, trying to push him away. “Ew!”

We laughed and I looked at Taylor, who was behind Zac. He had a hurt look on his face, but as soon as his eyes met mine he turned away and walked out with Miranda, who was gripping onto his elbow.

“Let’s go, hurry,” Nadine said, pushing Zac and I along. Usually, the boys didn’t make such a hasty exit – but tonight, we needed to get out of there, pronto. Another event was right after and we needed to empty the place. So, Zac and I ran out to the waiting limo, hand in hand, laughing as we got in. The ride back to the hotel was filled with energy and Zac and I bounded upstairs to our room. I let him shower first as I made a phone call home, then went to shower myself.

When I had finished drying my hair, I let out a long yawn. It was only eleven thirty and I was dead tired. Zac was reading an old People magazine and wanted to know why I was turning off the light on my side of the room.

“Tired,” I mumbled, bringing the blanket over my head.

“Aw, Trisheroo, you didn’t even kiss me goodnight.”

“I’ve never kissed you goodnight, Zac.”

“Then there’s always a time to start, right?”

I giggled, shaking my head. “Goodnight, Zacster.”

“Goodnight my Trisheroo, I love ya.”

“I love ya, too.”

The next morning we had to be up and about by 9 AM, when the boys were due to do an interview for a local radio station. At 7:45 AM I woke up, then went to Zac’s bed to wake him up. I had been stuck with a difficult task – waking Zac up. Isaac had called it “Waking up the Beast.” Luckily for me, he wasn’t being difficult this particular morning – he just opened his hazel eyes and rubbed them a bit before saying, in a gravelly voice, “Good morning, Sunshine.”

“Good morning,” I replied just as sleepily, getting up and going to gather my things to take a quick, non-hair-washing shower. “We gotta get ready to leave by 8:45, so get your things ready. We’re checking out soon.”

Zac grumbled something and I stumbled into the bathroom, shutting the door. I went about my business, taking my shower and changing and brushing my teeth. I emerged from the bathroom Zestfully clean and smelling of Country Apples. Zac was going through his suitcase, looking for the perfect shirt to wear. He was donned, so far, in new khaki shorts and a white wife beater.

“You can use the bathroom now if you want,” I said, going over to my side of the room where my make-up was located.

“Sweet, thanks, ‘Roo,” he said, jumping up and going to the bathroom to pretty himself up. I applied my make-up and shoved everything into my suitcase, then sat around to check my messages on my phone. Three new, two from my sister to tell me of new bands she had heard and one from Taylor. I opened it, my heart doing a little skip of nervousness.

need 2 talk 2 u. RE: miry. 2nite ok? luv u. tmb. “Need to talk to you. About, Miranda. Tonight okay? Love you. Text me back” his message read in actual language. About Miranda? That couldn’t be good. Maybe he was going to dump her gold-digging ass. Either way, I took it as a sign that things were okay between us.

2nite’s ok. Iluvu. I texted back. Zac walked out of the bathroom, awake looking, that hair of his sticking up all over the place. I smiled at him and he smiled back, obviously confused as to why I was doing that but not questioning it.

“What shirt should I wear? This old Rolling Stones one or this one with the stick-man on fire?” Zac asked, holding up two shirts for me to inspect.

“Which one’s the clean one?” I asked him.

“The stick-man one.”

“Then that one.”

“You’re so smart.”

“I know.”

Zac laughed, slipping on his shirt. “What time is it?” he asked me, picking up some gel and running it through his hair to tame it down a bit.

“8:15. Ash said that we have to be down by the bus by 8:45 or earlier. He said he’d call us or something.”

“I thought so. Are you all packed up and ready to go, ‘Roo?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be. Are you ready, ‘Ster?”

“Haha, ‘Ster,” he chuckled. “I’m ready.”

“We’ve got time to kill then.”

“Mmhm. I’m going to kill it by making myself look drop-dead gorgeous,” he grinned at his reflection in the mirror confidently, popping an invisible collar. I had to laugh; he looked too cute for me not to.

“Aw, but Zachary, you’re gorgeous enough!” I gushed, getting up and throwing myself on him. He stumbled back a bit, caught by surprise, then got his revenge by pinning me to the floor.

“OW!” I cried out, laughing. “God, don’t you know your own strength?!”

“I’ve been told that I’m quite a Gladiator,” he grinned. “And I’ve also heard that I’m quite the animal in bed,” he added, licking his lips enticingly. “Would you like to see if it’s true?”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “In your dreams, Zac,” I giggled.

“Baby, in my dreams we’ve confirmed it over and over again,” he said, winking.

“Ew, Zac!” I yelled, pushing him off of me as he burst out laughing. “Too much information!”

“You like it!” he exclaimed, pulling me into his lap, hugging me and nuzzling my neck, much like Taylor did. “You wouldn’t be laughing if you didn’t, Trisheroo.”

I grinned, patting his back. “I laugh because it’s ridiculous,” I told him.

“Not to me it isn’t.”

Suddenly, Zac’s phone began to ring. He got up quickly and I fell to the floor, collapsing into heaps of laughter. Zac started laughing too, and as he answered the phone, he was still laughing. I covered my mouth to subside my laughter and Zac got a hold of himself. It was Ash. “Hey Ash, how’s it goin’ man? … Thirty minutes, sure, sure … Yeah, we’re ready. What are we doing? We’re drinking tea and eating biscuits, of course! … Okay okay, thirty minutes, I promise … Breakfast? Great! I’ll be right there.” Zac hung up his phone and joined me on the floor. “Ash says they bought some food for all of us, and it’s in his and my dad’s room. Want something? I’ll go get it for us.”

“I’ll go with you,” I said, letting him pull me up.

“No no, I’ll get it,” he grinned.

“You sure? I’m an assistant, you know.”

“I know, but I’m a big boy, in more ways than one,” he winked.

“Enough,” I giggled, pushing him. “Go get that breakfast.”

Zac grinned and bolted out the door. I flopped down on the bed and in seconds, Zac had returned with two croissants and two cups of coffee. We ate the croissants in silence and drank our coffee in almost silence; he had cried out when he had burnt his tongue on it.

When our thirty-minutes had been up, we met in Mr. Hanson and Ash’s room, our luggage in tow. Isaac was there already, reading the newspaper. Taylor and Miranda arrived shortly after, Taylor’s cheeks flushed. Nadine came in right behind them and met my eyes, shaking her head and looking at the two lovebirds in front of her.

“Okay gang, we need to run through our schedule today,” Nadine said loudly, making everyone quiet down a little. She went through what was happening in the world of Hanson, handing me a sheet with everything that needed to be done. Once again, I was a gofer, which I didn’t mind. It was better than sitting around idly, worrying about things I shouldn’t worry about.

We all trooped out of the hotel and to the large blue bus, where the driver was standing outside waiting for us. We shook hands with him (his name was Gus and immediately I was reminded of My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and boarded. Nadine showed me my bunk – or box, basically – which was right above Taylor’s. We waited for the boys to sign some things before we took off to the radio station. We reached it in no time and were greeted by more screaming girls.

“Let the screaming begin,” Mr. Hanson said under his breath, as we all stepped off the bus. I smiled to myself, taking shelter behind Nadine and Ash, who were pushing the boys along. We had two minutes left to spare – not bad, considering the boys were late a lot.

We made our way through the building and up four floors. The boys got led into the booth and Miranda, Ash, Mr. Hanson, Nadine and I sat in a room adjoining it. Miranda was giving me death looks occasionally and I tried my best to ignore her. We all sat there, listening to the DJs ask the same questions and letting some girls talk to them over the air. The boys performed an acoustic version of their new single, “Penny and Me”, answered more questions and then got let free. Once again, we rushed back to the bus, allowing the boys a minute or two to sign autographs.

I went to my bunk, planning to take a short nap while we were on our way to NYC. I opened the curtain and saw that whatever had been mine had either been moved or had morphed into someone else’s.

“What in the hell …” I mumbled, confused. I stepped back to make sure that it was still my bunk – it was, Taylor’s bag sat near his. I looked over to the side and saw all of my stuff on the floor.

“What in the hell!” I said again, as I caught sight of a name on a small teddybear. Miranda Jayne Weaver.

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind, Trish, but I swapped bunks with you,” a sickly sweet voice said next to me. “I figured that since Taylor and I are, you know, an item, we’d sleep near each other.”

I looked at her in disbelief. “You spend enough time with him during the day, don’t you think?” I asked icily.

Miranda shrugged her thin shoulders and flipped her long, mousy brown hair back. “Not enough. I want to be near him when he sleeps, just in case he needs me,” she responded just as icily. “Besides, you get along better with Zac and Isaac than I do. Your bunk is right under Ike’s but next to Zac’s.”

But I wanted to be near Taylor, I thought angrily. “Well, too bad,” I managed to say.

“Too bad what?” Miranda asked, a bite in her voice.

“Too bad I’m not letting you take over my bunk,” I snapped, grabbing her stuff and going over to her actual bunk.

“Don’t you dare move those!” she yelled, coming after me.

I shoved her stuff into her old bunk and yanked my bag off the floor. “Too bad, I did,” I said, as she stood in front of me, blocking my way. “Now if you would be so kind as to move –-“

“NO!” she screamed shrilly. “THAT BUNK IS MINE!”

“What’s going on?” I heard Taylor ask. Oh, great.

“Tay, she won’t let me switch bunks with her! She got the one above you and I have to sleep near your stupid brothers!” Miranda turned to face him and yelled, obviously still outraged.

“Miranda, don’t you dare call my brothers stupid EVER again!” Taylor snapped at her, his cheeks flushing angrily.

Miranda’s face fell and her lower lip trembled. “Oh, Taybear, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it,” she whimpered, taking his hand into hers. To my surprise, he snapped it away.

“No, don’t. You stay in the bunk you were assigned to, okay Miry? It’s no big deal,” Taylor said calmly.

“You don’t want to be near me?” she pouted.

“Of course I do. But we need a break from each other once in a while.”

I heard a snicker and looked past Taylor, watching Isaac and Zac watch this with amusement. Mr. Hanson and Ash stood behind them, stunned by what was going on. Nadine, on the other hand, was sitting in the booth, going over stuff.

“But Taylor—“ Miranda started to protest, but shut her stupid mouth when Taylor shook his head.

“We’ll still see each other in the mornings and stuff. Just not while we’re sleeping. It’s no big deal,” Taylor shrugged.

“Fine,” she pouted, glaring at me again. She pushed past me and went to her right bunk, where Taylor followed her.

But not before meeting my eyes, taking my hand in his and squeezing it lightly, letting me know that everything was going to be okay.