She bounded into the lounge room just as the door opened to let her brothers, their wives and kids in. They had flown down from LA especially as a surprise.
"Hey Zoe! Happy birthday." Zac said, giving her a hug.
"Thanks. So, now that I'm nine, we can tour with you guys." Zoe said happily. "So, when do we leave?"
Taylor grinned.
"Well, I think after we promote this album." He said. "And in order to do that, we need to finish making it first."
"Yeah, that might be a good idea." Isaac answered. "Don't worry Zoe, you and Mackie will get to open some shows for us."
"Good."
"Let's start with celebrating your birthday first." Zac grinned.
"Oh, well, if you insist." Zoe joked.
Rita sat down next to Diana.
"At least this time we won't be doing a whole tour." Diana said to Rita, quietly so that Zoe (or Mackie) would overhear.
"A little too much for you?" Rita asked.
"Well, after doing it for so many years..."
"I understand."
Diana patted Rita's hand.
"Don't let Taylor make you go along if you feel like not joining him on tour sometime. You tell him you want to stay home."
"I will." Rita smiled. "I guess you're not all that happy with Mackie and Zoe's band being officially signed next year."
"Oh, it's not that I'm not happy. I just... touring gets a bit much after a while."
Rita nodded.
"So have you guys finally decided on a name yet?" Zac asked Mackie on the other side of the room.
"What, you mean we have to name ourselves something other than 'Mackie and Zoe's band'?" he joked.
"Well, you know, you could call yourselves that."
"Uhh, no. We could call ourselves 'Hanson: The Next Generation'."
Zac groaned.
"Oh, man, don't tell me you've become a Star Trek fan too."
Mackie grinned.
"Jess got me into it."
Zac threw his hands up in the air.
"What is the world coming to?"