Isaac woke with a start as the hotel phone rang. He took a moment to adjust himself again - wherein the phone rang impatiently and loudly again - rolled over and picked up the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Good morning. This is your wake up call. It is 5am."
"Thanks," Isaac said, and hung up.
Whose idea was it for them to do an early morning radio show anyway? Grumbling, Isaac reluctantly got out of bed and headed for the shower.
Taylor
Taylor rolled over and groaned.
"Death to morning technology," he mumbled, eyes refusing to open.
Isaac
"Okay," Isaac declared as he exited from the shower. "I'm awake now."
He noted Taylor was in bed still and called out:
"Hey, Tay, you need to get up."
Taylor
"Need, maybe. Want, no. Go away or bring coffee," Taylor grumbled, eyes still refusing to open.
Isaac and Zac
Isaac chuckled.
It was at that moment that Zac let himself in from the adjoining room. With coffee no less.
"There you go Tay, and Ikers."
"Thanks," Isaac said, taking the cup gratefully. "Why ar eyou so cheerful this morning?"
"Oh nothing much. Brock decided to keep everyone up last night, so I've only had about three hours sleep, and I've already dosed up on so much coffee it's a wonder I'm not bouncing off the walls right now," Zac replied cheerfully, and rapidly, come to think of it.
Taylor
Taylor had sat up - in all his electrified hairstyle glory and eyes slit open barely milimetres - and reached over to snatch some of the coffee.
"Say that again but in slow motion," he mumbled.
Isaac and Zac
"I don't think I can," Zac replied, bouncing from one foot to the other.
Isaac eyed off Zac, and sighed.
"That's all we need. Zac on a coffee overload."
Zac laugh maniacally.
"I think we need to get downstairs and get some breakfast into you to take the edge off."
"No time. Gotta show to do."
Taylor
"Go run a lap around the block," Taylor suggested, one eye now open alot more than the other.
"Or three laps. And we'll meet you for food."
Isaac and Zac
"Oh, but cold outside this time in the morning," Zac complained.
Isaac eyed him.
"I doubt that will be a problem."
Zac poked his tongue out at him, but bounded off nonetheless. Isaac finished getting dressed.
Taylor
Somehow, within the hour, they were at the station. Albeit a little late.
"So guys, this is your first tour in a while..."
"Yeah, we had some minor setbacks with this record," Taylor began, hands over both headphones as if he were actually concentrating.
Isaac and Zac
"Yeah? Like what?"
"Alien abduction," Zac nodded with a big silly grin on his face. "We're the aliens and we got abducted."
The DJ laughed and Zac mentally scored another one for human creduality. Isaac put his headphones on and hid a smile.
"Okay, we're going to be on soon. Any taboo subjects?"
"Alien abudtcion," Zac replied.
"Jokes old, Zac," Isaac said.
"The joke is never old."
"Taboo subjects... let me see..."
Taylor
"It's not really... taboo," Taylor shrugged, "a lot of people know about it, but we did split from our record label Def Jam. Through creative differences. But we began our own label - 3 Car Garage..."
Isaac and Zac
"Ahh, I see," the DJ nodded. "That's awesome. Okay, we're on the air in five, four, three... You're listening to Gold Radio on 102.3FM! I'm here in the studio with three guests that I'm sure you've all be waiting for: Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson. Say hi to the folks out there."
"Hi," said Ike.
"Yo!" Zac put in.
Taylor
"Hello," Taylor leant in with a deepened voice.
"You guys have a show tonight, right?" the DJ invited them to talk about it.
"We certainly do," Taylor nodded, looking across at his brothers.
Isaac and Zac
"It's gonna rock," Zac said enthusiatically. "There's going to be gift bags, pyrotechnics, roller blades, green monkeys..."
"Or alternatively, none of the above," Isaac said, giving Zac a weird look. "Don't mind Zac; he ran around the block three times -"
"Or did I?"
"And I still don't think he's gotten the coffee overload out of his system yet."
Zac chuckled evilly.
Taylor
"Yeah," Taylor chuckled.
"Zac came into our hotel room this morning amped up on caffeine. It was rather scary."
Isaac and Zac
"Zac shouldn't be allowed to drink coffee," Isaac nodded.
"Too late! I have drunketh the coffee and now I'm having a coffee overload! And loving it! Mwahahahah!" Zac said.
"Ahem. As we were saying. Concert tonight. Should be a blast -"
"Pyrotechnics," Zac giggled.
"No pyrotechnics, but the music will be on fire," Isaac said.
Taylor
"It definitely will be. We might even dust off some of the old songs from Middle Of Nowhere and mix them up with songs never heard live before," Taylor grinned.
"Sounds very promising!"
"We hope so," Taylor nodded.
Isaac and Zac
"I think I should adlib in 'Look at You' again," Zac mused.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, when we recorded that - one of the songs on Middle of Nowhere, Zac felt the need to scream things about one-eyed geese... amongst other things," Isaac explained, giving Zac a dry look.
Zac chuckled.
Taylor
"I'm sure anyone who may be listening who owned the album will know exactly what we're talking about," Taylor mused.
"And hey, you might get lucky and we'll play that song. Don't hold me to that though."
Isaac and Zac
"Yes. We could play it. Then again we may not. Or maybe we will. Or maybe," Zac began omniously.
"We get the point, Zac," Isaac cut in.
"Ha ha, awesome," said the DL. "So, Taylor, I hear that congratulations are in order?"
Taylor
Taylor glanced at his brothers, a little taken aback.
"Maaaybe," he covered with a slight shrug, "I did get married a few months ago."
Isaac and Zac
"Sounds like congratulations to me," chuckled the DJ. "How have the fans been taking it?"
"Well, I really don't know," Zac piped in before anyone else. "Not many people go around asking inanimate objects what they - oh, you're talking about human fans."
"You don't know, eh Zac?" Isaac asked. "But I thought you were one of those people who go around talking in inanimate objects."
Taylor
"Maybe he's still waiting for the fan to talk back. I know he got the toaster going at some point," Taylor added.
Isaac and Zac
"That could be it," Isaac agreed.
"You had a conversation with a toaster?" the DJ asked.
Zac looked around furtively.
"Yes," he said decisively. "A fascinating discussion. About toast. And why the toaster was refusing to pop it up properly so I could take it and butter it and eat it. Num num. But ohhhh noooo... the toaster was deliberately being obstructive and refused to let me have my toast, purposely wedging my toast underneath its rim. So rude."
Taylor
"But the toaster got what it deserved in the end I guess," Taylor added.
"He gave it a stern talking to and the next hting we know, there's a shiny new one in the kitchen that afternoon."
Isaac and Zac
"I fired it," Zac informed them. "It wasn't doing its job and it was being insubordinate to boot."
"At least he only sacked it and didn't actually light it on fire," Isaac said.
"Uhh..."
"You didn't, did you?"
"Let's just say it was a little on the melted side when I put it in the trash."
Taylor
"My brothers are both pyros," Taylor rolled his eyes in explanation.
"And I suppose you're not?" the DJ smirked.
"I used to be. Not anymore. I have a wife to look after and all, you know."
Isaac and Zac
"Did you hear that Ike? Tay's got a wife."
"I did," Isaac nodded. "Imagine that. And he thinks it's an excuse to stop being a pyro."
"It's so sad, isn't it? I wonder what Nat would think?"
"I think it was her idea, actually. You know what that makes Tay?"
"Whipped?"
"Well, I was going to say it make him a wuss, but yeah, I'll take your answer."
Taylor
"It makes me domesticated," Taylor said pointedly, "who the heck would want to marry a pyro like you? Or correction; take a pyro like you home to meet their parents."
Isaac and Zac
"Another pyro!" Zac replied brightly.
Isaac laughed.
"To a family of pyros?" he asked, grinning.
"Exactly."
Taylor
"They're demented," Taylor offered by way of explanation, "so let's talk tour."
"Right," the DJ nodded, "well tonight's show is almost sold out but isn't, so anyone wanting to take a last minute ditch and get tickets - you'd better hurry! And I trust that these guys will definitely put on an awesome show for you."
"We will endeavour to," Taylor nodded.
Isaac and Zac
"Great. And how has the tour been so far?"
"Good, good. Most of the shows have sold out," Isaac replied.
"Fans been doing any crazy things? Hanson fans, not electronic ones," the DJ clarified for Zac's benefit.
"What about paper ones?" Zac asked ingeniously.
Taylor
"So far nothing really out of the ordinary for us," Taylor shrugged.
"No fans sleeping under cars or hiding in our luggage or anything."
Isaac and Zac
"Sleeping under cars?" The DJ repeated.
"Yeah. I'm sure it seems like a good idea at the time, but when you wake up with oil all over you... yeah... not a pretty sight," Isaac nodded.
"And smelly," Zac added.
Taylor
"We've had it happen before. It was rather frightening," Taylor admitted, "but that's definitely not the worse-case scenario by far."
"Well guys I'm gonna have to stop you there for a song. You know what it is, mind introducing it for us?"
"Of course, it's our latest single," Taylor smiled.
Isaac and Zac
"Penny 'n Me," Isaac said.
"Not to be mispronuced 'Penny in Me'," Zac advised. "It's 'and' only deliberately slurred because that's how people talk."
"Yes, because we needed the logical explanation behind it."
"Hey, it's better than some other songs I could mention that deliberately mispell words for the sake of mispelling them."
Taylor
"We hope you like it, and ring up and request it more," Taylor shrugged, ignoring the brotherly banter beside him.
"We'll be back right after this," the DJ flipped the mics off and turned the song up.
Isaac and Zac
" 'Cause Penny 'n me like to roll the windows down," Zac sang along.
Isaac sighed.
"Maybe we should have just left him at the hotel?"
Taylor
"I tried to get rid of him," Taylor shrugged, "but jogging around the hotel was all I could think of and he wouldn't go for that."
Isaac and Zac
"Close our eyes, pretend to fly!" Zac continued to sing dramatically.
"This is true," Isaac nodded.