"The day....that I left Lucy....a tear fell from her eye... AAaaaaaagh!" Zac cried in aggravation. This couldn't be happening to him. He had been through it with Tay and Ike, but they had both been a little bit older than him at the time. And what would Meredith do when she found out that her boyfriend sounded like a cross between Taylor, Isaac, and Donald Duck?

"My life is over," he said, sitting down on the floor of his bedroom and rubbing his face in his hands. "I can't sing like this; I can't even talk right!" He noticed how his voice drastically went up and down as he spoke to himself. His voice was changing.

"Why couldn't it be a slow thing, like theirs?" he asked aloud, still thinking of when Ike and Tay's voices changed. "Why does my voice have to change overnight?"

"Zac, why are you yelling at yourself?" Taylor asked, stepping into the room and eyeing his younger brother. The kid was sitting on the floor in the fetal position, with his hands covering his face.

"It's the worst thing Tay," Zac said. Taylor's eyes grew wide and he quickly took a seat on the floor beside Zac, pulling his hands away from his face.

"Zac, repeat," he commanded, making sure that his brother's hands couldn't muffle his voice.

"My voice is changing," Zac stated flatly. "It sounds horrible."

"Holy shit," Taylor whispered. "Your voice changed in like, twelve hours! How did you do that?"

"I didn't mean for it to change!" Zac cried, then blushed at the new sound of his tone.

"Calm down man," Taylor said. "It's not that bad; but I think your voice is deeper than mine now," he added with a grin. Zac flashed him a quick grin.

"Really?" he asked, re-examining his situation.

"Really," Taylor said. "That sucks man. Now everyone's going to think that I'm the youngest." Zac was about to speak when the phone rang. "Get it!" he ordered Taylor, but his brother only shook his head and stood up. "It's now or never," Taylor said.

"Hello?" Zac croaked, picking up the cordless phone and putting it up to his ear.

"Umm....can I speak to Zac?" Meredith's confused voice rang clearly over the line.

"It's me Mer," Zac said, willing his voice to return to its high octave."

"Nice try Tay," Meredith said in a bored tone. "But you sound nothing like Zac. Can I speak to him now?"

"It's me, I swear," Zac pleaded, looking over at Taylor with an aggravated expression. Taylor was laughing his head off and turning bright red. You're no help, Zac mouthed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Taylor said, gasping for breaths between giggles. "Give me the phone." Zac handed it to him with a worried look on his face.

"Meredith?" Taylor said into the phone. He paused. "THIS is Taylor. That was Zac a minute ago." Another pause. "No, it wasn't Ike. It was Zac, I swear. His voice is changing." He paused again as realization hit Meredith. "I promise," Taylor concluded before handing the phone back to Zac.

"It's so different," Meredith stated when Zac was on the phone again and Tay was safely out of the room.

"I know," Zac said. "And we've got to perform on the Nickolodeon Kids Awards or something next week."

"The Kids Choice Awards?" Meredith asked.

"That's it," Zac said. "We're leaving to go to L.A. on Friday, and the awards are Saturday."

"Oh no!" Meredith cried. "My cousin is coming up Saturday, from Oklahoma city. She really wanted to meet you guys."

"How long is she staying" Zac asked. "We'll be back on Sunday."

"Oh!" Meredith said, mentally slapping herself. "She'll be here until Wednesday. So she'll get to meet you guys after all."

"Cool," Zac said.

"Yeah," she replied. "You know, your voice sounds really good."

"Ya mean it?" Zac asked.

"Of course I do," Meredith said. "It's like, mature and....sexy."

Zac was shocked. "You actually think my voice is SEXY?" he asked, his mouth hanging open. No one had ever told him that he was sexy before. He had been "cute, adorable, angelic, and sweet," but never sexy. "Wow. Thanks Mer."

"You're welcome," she said. "What are girlfriends for?"

"Hmmm....," he said, "I don't know. Pizza and Lasertag maybe?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Meredith asked.

"Would you accept if I was?" he asked back.

"I'd be insane not to!" Meredith cried.

"Then I'll see ya in ten minutes," Zac said, hanging up the phone.

"It's going to be great," Taylor said, rolling over and facing her. The two were enjoying the early April morning in the sun. "I hope we win those awards.....I mean, we're up against the Backstreet Boys. Kids love them just as much as they love us."

"You'll win," Nicole said, looking him in the eye. "They don't write their own music, or play it for that matter; and you guys are closer to the kids' ages. They look up to you guys."

"Plus all the little girls love Zac," Taylor pointed out.

"Well, at least you have that going for you," Nicole said, shaking her head and laughing. "Speak of the devil...," she trailed off jokingly as Zac's skateboard screeched to a halt nearby.

"Where's Mer?" Taylor asked.

"She had to be home at five," Zac explained in his baritone. "I just took her back."

"God Zac," Nicole said, taking off her sunglasses. "It really is deep, isn't it."

"I'm going to be getting this for the next couple of weeks, aren't I?" Zac said, rolling his eyes.

"Months," Taylor stated. "Some people still don't know that MY voice has changed."

"No kidding," Zac said. "That dude at the radio station still thinks we sound like shrieking banshees, and he tells everyone else that too."

"Oh, he's just jealous because you guys are famous and he's still 'that guy from the morning show on 95.1'," Nicole said. "When you guys first released MMMBop he was all 'I love this new band' and 'these guys are natives of Tulsa!' and everything."

"That's stupid," Zac said bluntly.

"Totally stupid," Nicole agreed. "But such is life, I guess. People like that just get on my nerves soooo-"

"Don't worry about that stuff guys," Taylor said, sitting up. "We don't need people like that anyways."

"I guess you're right," Nicole agreed. "Well, I guess I should go home and....pack for my first ever 'journey with Hanson'. How many girls would kill for that?"

"Speaking of girls," Zac said non-chalantly, "Meredith's sixteen year-old cousin is coming up from Oklahoma City this weekend."

"How long is she staying?" Nicole asked.

"Until Wednesday," Zac said. "So we'll have exactly three days to..." He cut off sharply and bit his tongue.

"To do what?" Isaac asked from behind Nicole and Taylor. He had just came out the front door and was now sitting on the grass, curious.

"Umm...," Zac said, searching for a cop-out, "until Meredith's birthday," he lied, looking down.

"What are you guys going to do," Isaac asked, "have a party?"

Zac considered this for a moment. "Yeah, that's it," he said, a plan forming in his head. "We'll have a party."