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The summer of 1999 was about as boring as it could be when making a new album. Zac ached to get out and rollerblade and play kickball and laser tag with his friends, but the record label had them on such a tight schedule that the band spent most of their time in LA, trying to record their second album – Trying being the operative word. Zac grew more and more frustrated as days passed without recording a new song, or recording a new song only for it to be rejected by the label. He was almost 14 years old, for Christ sake, how could he be expected to keep his cool if he was confined to an enclosed space all day, every day? They were nearing the end of their third month in LA when Zac finally snapped. There wasn’t anything in particular that had happened, just more of hearing how their sound wasn’t exactly what the label wanted, could they try to tweak it this way or that, blah, blah, blah bullshit. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard before, but something about that day just set him off. Instead of agreeing to go over the song for a fifth time, he simply got up from the table and left the building. He expected someone to come after him, Taylor was the likeliest person to do so, but when he walked two blocks and still no one appeared, he started to celebrate silently. He hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to the nearest beach, grateful for the cash his dad had given him the day before. Once he saw the white sand and blue water, he felt his blood pressure go back to normal, or at least his normal. He never was a normal teenager, after all. He didn’t hesitate in taking off his shoes and rolling his pant legs up before wading into the cool ocean water. A genuine smile appeared on his face, the first in a while, and he closed his eyes, wanting to remember a time when his life didn’t feel so complicated. “Umm, excuse me?” Zac whipped around and stared down at a boy who was shorter than he was, but probably not much younger. “Uh, yeah, what’s up?” Zac tried to keep the confusion out of his voice and off of his face, the past couple years of media training had tried to help him realize that his face expressed everything he wasn’t allowed to say, but based on the look on the kids face, he hadn’t quite accomplished that. “A-Are you Zac Hanson?” A groan almost made its way out of his mouth, but he managed to keep it in. At least it wasn’t a hoard of screaming girls. “Oh, uh, yeah, I am. Nice to meet you.” He stuck his hand out and the kid shook it. “I’m Matty, I’m not a fan of yours, but my older sister loves you. Her and her friend are laying on the beach over there, would you mind coming over and saying hi?” The way Matty had asked him to come say hi made Zac smile and he nodded before realizing he had done so. He followed Matty through the sand, worrying about how weird it was going to look when he approached the two girls while not wearing any shoes. He was supposed to be some famous rock star person, right? Why the heck wasn’t he wearing shoes? When they finally got to the two girls laying out on towels, Zac found himself getting nervous. He wasn’t good around girls, Isaac was the Casanova of the group, and Taylor didn’t even have to try in order to get noticed. Zac had only really just started noticing girls as a different sex in terms of being attracted to them, and any time he was confronted with boobs or butts, he suddenly lost the ability to speak. His tongue refused to help form the words his brain was trying to push out and he ended up turning red and running away from the situation, wishing he could disappear. Rock star or not, Zac Hanson did not know how to talk to girls. “Nat, Kate, I brought someone to come meet you.” Matty sat down on the empty towel next to one of the girls as they both opened their eyes. They leaned up, shielding their faces from the sun, but he saw the instant they recognized who he was – the instant look of fake love and adoration flooded both of their faces and before he knew it, one of them was right in front of him. “Oh my god, you’re Zac Hanson! I’m Kate, I’m such a big fan, I love you and your brothers!” Zac was a little taken aback, as he usually was when a fan was overly enthusiastic, but his fake smile took over his face and he nodded along with what she was saying. He didn’t really have time to get a word in, she seemed to speak a mile a minute and he forgot about the second girl before Matty yelled out to her. “Katie, leave him alone! You look desperate!” Kate’s face turned red almost instantly and Zac almost felt bad for her, except that it made her shut up and go sit on her towel, so he couldn’t feel too much concern. The second girl was still sitting on her towel, but had been watching their entire interaction. When he looked down at her, he felt his heart skip a beat, legitimately felt it skip a beat, and he knew he needed to meet her. “Uh, hey. I’m Zac.” He crouched down so that he was eye level with the girl and stuck his hand out. She smiled and blushed, but took his hand and shook it. “I’m Natalie.” Her voice was soft, much softer than her friend’s, and he wanted to hear her speak more.
“Well, Natalie, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Are you guys from around here?” He already knew the answer was no, both Natalie and Kate had southern accents, but he couldn’t quite place them. Natalie laughed softly and shook her head .“No, we’re from Georgia, just here on a family vacation. It’s my first time in California.” “I’ve been here three times before!” Kate’s voice was loud and almost made him jump out of his skin – he’d almost forgotten she was there. Zac nodded at her, but turned his attention back to the other girl. “How are you enjoying it? It’s a lot different from Georgia.” Natalie laughed again and Zac knew without a doubt that he needed to live the rest of his life listening to that girl laugh. “It is, it’s a lot faster, there are so many people, and they’re not that nice!” The look of indignation on her face made Zac’s stomach flip, she was so animated and so… Real. He had missed people being real with him, ever since the band got famous, it’s like people just acted the way they thought he wanted them to act, not how they actually were. “They really aren’t.” He agreed. His knees started to protest his position, but instead of standing up, he just sat down in the sand and stretched his legs out. “This place makes me miss Tulsa so much. I always thought that LA would be so awesome, and it’s fun, but it’s too big and it takes five hours to get anywhere!” Another laugh came from Natalie and Zac felt his heart start to pound, he was the one making such an angelic noise come to exist! They sat on the beach for another hour, talking about anything and everything. Kate tried to interject a couple more times, but when Zac brushed off her contributions, she huffed off somewhere, not that he really cared. Matty stayed behind, not talking, but definitely keeping an eye on Zac, as though he would try to do anything. For the first time in years, Zac finally felt his age again instead of like a bitter middle aged man hating his life. Natalie made his feel cool, and not just because he was famous, but because of his own interests. She liked laser tag as much as he did, and while comic books weren’t her favorite, she was able to keep up a good conversation thanks to her brother’s inability to talk about anything else. Reality came crashing down when Natalie’s parents came back to pick up the three of them. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he knew that if he didn’t get back to the studio soon, his parents would kill him and the police would be out looking for him. He stayed with them as long as he could, helping to pack everything up and load it into the car, and then it was finally time to say goodbye. Kate got into the car without a word to him, though he wasn’t terribly upset about it, but Natalie stood in front of him, obviously trying to come up with something to say, anything, just like he was. “Can I have your number?” He blurted out finally. The look of shock on her face was beautiful, and Zac knew he would never be able to live a day without talking to her again. “Sure, let me just get a pen and paper.” She went to the car and was back quickly, thrusting a piece of paper into his hands. “I don’t have a cell phone yet, my parents don’t think I need one, but that’s my home number. You can call me anytime.” Zac looked down at the paper and smiled as he noted the curly, girl handwriting. He shoved it in his pocket and looked back up at her. “Thanks for letting me crash your beach hang out. I had a really good time talking to you, Natalie.” He stepped forward and gave her a hug, though he felt a little awkward doing so in front of her parents and brother. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed him tight. “I had a really great time with you, too, Zac. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?” They broke apart and she walked to the car. As she opened the door, she glanced back at him and smiled, giving him a small wave bye. He watched the car take until he couldn’t see it anymore, and hailed another taxi. As he settled into the back seat, he sighed and looked out the window, trying to remember every single detail about his time with her. He wanted to commit everything to memory. When he finally walked back into the studio, he was rushed by his dad and both brothers, all of them giving him grief for leaving at the same time. He didn’t even care, he had had an amazing afternoon and no amount of reprimand was going to get his mood down. Taylor finally told him to get behind the kit because they were going to try another song, and he moved obediently, feeling as though he was walking on a cloud. “Uh, Zac? Where the hell are your shoes?” Taylor’s voice broke through his daydream and he looked down at his bare feet. A laugh built in his stomach until it burst out of his mouth and he doubled over with laughter, unable to speak. Losing a pair of shoes was a solid price to pay for falling in love.