Frankie grinned at his latest endeavor. In order to get the public notice of his studio up, he decided to start a recording branch as well. And with the help of Jess and Rach, he crafted his first album.
"In Need of a Hairbrush" An album composed completely of songs parodying and/or mocking Zac Hanson. The first single was a song called "I Wish that I Had Hair." The other songs on the album were "MMM Bahhhh," sung by Annie, and Rach's other babies, "Zacky," and several others. The single was released that morning, and would soon be on all the hit radio stations, at least for a few days, unless it didn't take.
There was no way that Zac could deny Frankie;s status as 'Prank King' now.
Saku and Zac
"Umm, Dad?"
"Yes, Saku?"
"I think you should turn on the radio."
Obligingly, but with raised eyebrows, Zac switched on the radio, only to catch the second half of a song that reminded him a great deal of "Wish that I was there" except that -
"No way!"
"Yes way," Saku nodded. "They annouced it - Frankie Muniz had done a parody album picking on you entitled 'In Need of a Hairbrush'."
"Crud."
"Yeah... that."
"I'm going to have to get him back. I never did for the furbies, although they backfired so..."
"Can I help?"
"Sure. But let's avoid setting anything on fire."
"Aww. But that would make a great prank - making him think that his studio is on fire, and then him calling the fire department, only to get fined for a false alarm."
Zac paused and looked at Saku, who grinned back.
"I like it. It's like ringing up pizza delivery and making them send 40 pizzas to someone else's address."
"Hey, let's do that too!"
"Naw, he could probably find people to eat all of them."
"Not if they had anchovies on them. I'm a cat and I don't even like anchovy pizza."
They laughed.
Orion, Frankie, Rachel and Kate
Orion ran in from the other room, where he was using the computer.
"Uncle Zac, Annie recorded a song called "Mmm Bahhhh," which is her singing MMMBop in baby talk."
~*~*~
"You think he's heard the song yet?" Frankie asked.
"I dunno, want to go over there and find out?" Rachel asked, fitting the babies in their carriage, since she would probably go over there anyway.
"Yeah, I have to see the look on his face."
"Me too," Kate declared. They got in the car and drove over.
Zac and Saku
"It gets worse," Zac said. "Right we are so going with the fire idea, Saku."
"Yes!"
"And the anchovies. We'll tell the pizza place it's a meeting of the Anchovy Pizza Lovers Club of Tulsa."
Saku laughed.
"We're gonna pull pranks on Frankie! Yay! Pulling pranks on Frankie is fun! What other prankies can we pull, Dad?"
Zac was about to reply, when there was a knock on the door. He stood, walked to the front door, glanced out the window, then opened the door.
"Well, well," he greeted.
Frankie, Rachel and Kate
"I take it you've heard the radio?" Frankie asked, a smirk on his face.
"Now, before you blow up, tell your daughter how proud you are that she's teh youngest Hanson to ever record a song," Rach said.
"Mmmbahhhhh," Annie babbled.
"Once we taught her that, she says it constantly," Kate said, regretfully.
Zac
"Good," Zac replied, letting them inside. "I hope Annie drives you crazy with it. You deserve it for mutilating my songs."
He refrained from commenting that he had only heard half of one.
Frankie
"Anyway," Frankie said, "I just wanted to remind you that the opening party for my studio is this Friday, you are coming, right?"
Zac
"Right," said Zac. "You were just coming to remind me about the party. Uh huh yeah sure. YOu just wanted to see my reaction to your album, that's all."
Saku grinned.
"Party! Do I get to come too? Puh-lease?"
Frankie and Kate
"Of course," Frankie said, "Orion too. It's going to be a blast. Jess and Isabel are even coming down for it."
"As well as a bunch of people from New York and LA, but heaven forbid we forget Jess," Kate said, giggling and rolling her eyes at the same time, a skill it took her a long time to master.
"SHut up," Frankie said, glaring at her.
Zac
"What's this?" Zac inquired. "Has someone got designs on my little sister?"
Oh goody. Ammunition.
Rachel, Frankie and Orion
"You couldn't tell?" Rach asked, her eyes glinting.
"Shut up," Frankie said again.
"Even I knew that," Orion said. "The entire free world knows that Frankie Muniz is in love Jessica Hanson, and has been for years. Everybody but her, and apparently you." Frankie made a mad dash to the bathroom, so that nobody would see the tears in his eyes, especially not Zac.
Zac and Saku
"Well," said Zac. "My sister and one of my best friends were involved. And I'm a guy. Do you really expect me to figure that kind of stuff out?"
Saku giggled.
"Hey that would be a great prank! Sending Frankie love letters signed from Jessica, and then we arrange a dinner for him, and he thinks he's going to see Jessica and - hey! Better idea! We send both of them letters signed their secret admirer. And then we arrange for them to go to dinner to meet their secret admirers, except they meet up with each other instead and think they the other had been sending them letters, even though they haven't and -" Saku ran out of breath.
Kate and Rachel
"Except," Kate said, interrupting, "Frankie plans on telling her everything at the party. And don't you guys go spoiling it."
"Especially," Rach said, giggling, "Since Isabel tells me that Jess is planning on telling Frankie she likes him too. And if any of you," she said with pointed looks at Zac, Saku and Orion, "I will make sure none of you have the equipment to reproduce." she and Kate exchanged a high five.
"If you really want to pull a prank on him," Kate said, "He's awfully fond of his hair. If it were, per se, to suddenly change colour right before the big party, he might be completely beside himself."
"Or if it were shorter on one side than the other," Rach added, "He might go completely insane. He's fixed his hair in the mirror 13 times this morning alone."
Saku and Zac
"Hair, huh?" Saku mused.
"This could be fun," Zac said. "But enough of pranks - we know not where the Frankster has gone and he could be listening in. For all we know, you could be setting us up."
He gave the girls a mock-suspicious look.
Orion and Rachel
"He went to the bathroom so you wouldn't see him crying," Orion said. He had his mother's gift for reading people, though he was a whole lot more sane.
"We all knew that," Rach said gently, "We just didn't say it out loud, we were trying to not embarrass him. You know, sometimes we forget you guys are still technically toddlers. Just because you can read somebody, doesn't mean you should."
"Sorry," Orion said. "I think I take after Mum a bit too much sometimes."
Zac
"Hmph, why'd he cry about me finding out I have no idea," Zac commented. "I mean, what do I care? I know Frankie well enough to know that he's going to treat Jessi right, so it's not like I'm going to threaten to beat him up or anything."
Rachel and Kate
"It's more of an issue of him trying to deal with it. He's cared about for her for years, but was so afraid of accidentally hurting her, that he hasn't said anything," Rach explained.
"He only recently admitted his feelings to me," Kate said, "And next to you, I'm his best friend. He's just afraid she'll say no. Actually, part of the reason he did the parody album was so that he could work together with Jess on something."
Zac and Saku
Zac nodded.
"Saku? I want you to learn from this," he said.
"Learn what?" Saku asked.
"Learn that women in every shape or form are obsessed with understanding people's feelings."
"Okay."
Rachel and Kate
Rachel and Kate grinned at each other thn tackled Zac, tickling him in an effort to make him scream like a sissy boy.
Zac and Saku
Saku laughed.
"Hey, knock that off!" Zac objected.
He started atomically shocking the girls every time they touched him.
Kate and Rachel
"Spoilsport," Kate declared, pouting.
"He's no fun," Rach agreed.
Zac and Saku
"Mwa ha ha," Zac said. "I win."
"Yay, Dad wins!" Saku cheered. "Okay, so bored now. What we gonna do now?"
Rachel
"Um," Rach "Go get pizza?" Rach suggested.
Saku
"Yay," Saku cheered. "I love barbeque chicken pizza. Num num num."
"Right, I guess that means that one of us should hunt down Frankie and drag him out of his little cry fest," Zac nodded.