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four days after sutton had moved into the hanson household, the rest of the hanson family arrived home from new york. the day that isaac, taylor and zac along with their father returned was a big day for sutton and diana. their plane was expected to land at 10:30am, and they were taking a cab home from the airport and diana speculated that they would be home around 11am. sutton and diana awoke early to prepare for their arrival, and let the children sleep, knowing they would be awake soon enough and anxious for their siblings and father to arrive home. sutton awoke promptly at 7am as sunlight streamed in through the large rectangular windows above her bed in the guest room. in the several short days that she had been living in the hanson household she had transformed the guest room into her own. with help from diana they created lavender floral drapes and brought up an old light oak desk from the basement and placed it in the corner of the medium sized room. sutton was thankful for everything diana was doing to make her feel comfortable and like she was a part of their family, and hoped that the boys and walker would be just as accepting. she pulled herself out of bed, her body only wanting to stay and lie lazily in the sunlight, and over to her closet. she slipped out of her blue pajama set, covered in clouds, and quickly pulled on a long sleeved white shirt and dark denim overalls. the tulsa weather was unpredictable, and the day was rather chilly, despite being may. sutton examined her hair, pulled it out of her face, and let it fall back over her shoulders as she sighed. she quickly pulled it back and rushed out of her room to meet diana in the kitchen. “i can’t believe its so chilly out,” she commented as she immediately helped to blow up balloons. “neither can i,” diana agreed as she took a blown up balloon and tied a ribbon at the end. “but who knows, next week it will probably be warm enough to go out in the pool.” “i hope so,” sutton smiled. “i am ready to get some use out of that pool of yours.” “certainly,” diana said as she tied ribbons to balloons that she had already blown up. then: “how about you help me with this sign?” sutton helped diana drag a large paper sign that read “welcome home” in bright colored letters and they stood on chairs and hung it above the couch, easily seen when entered through the front door. “well, what do you think?” diana asked. “it looks great, i think they’ll like it.” sutton smiled as she and diana stood in front of the front door, admiring their decorative work. “even though they’ve only been gone for a week, i thought that we might as well welcome them home properly,” diana grinned. “i agree.” “now we just have to wait. lets have some breakfast,” she said as she lead sutton back into the kitchen. “what would you like?” she held open the refrigerator door and pulled out a bag of bagels and a tub of cream cheese. “bagels are good,” sutton said as she stood to fix herself a plain bagel with cream cheese, and they sat back down at the table across from each other. sutton chewed off a piece of her raw bagel and sighed. “what are you thinking about, hon?” diana asked, as she sipped from a mug of coffee. sutton smiled nervously. “just how they’ll all react when they get here and if they’ll accept me or not or think that I’ve invaded their territory. its kind of hard since i haven’t talked or seen any of them in a couple months, really. except for random communication. we haven’t been able to really get together at all...” “the boys?” sutton nodded, and diana continued, “oh, don’t worry about them, dear. i can assure you things will be fine when they get home. they boys have questioned about you during phone calls and know how hard this is on you in the first place and only want to make it easier for you and make you feel at home here. i hope you’ll always be comfortable here.” “have they really...asked about me and stuff?” sutton asked. “of course. they’re anxious to see you again and have missed you, so don’t worry at all, sutton.” “okay,” she grinned, and took a big bite out of her bagel. “i still haven’t seen them in so long, though, it seems. and they haven’t seen me in that long, either.” “i know, hon. its really unfortunately that our families have lost touch in recent months, but walker and i both feel that what your parents are doing is very honorable and we’re happy to help out in any way.” “i’m glad you think so. we were all beginning to wonder if their dreams would ever come true, so it pleased us all when they finally got some contacts. i just hope they’ll be okay over there.” “they will, dear. don’t worry about them. they’re probably much more worried about you than you will be of them,” diana gave sutton a warm smile and put her hand on top of hers for a moment. “thanks diana, i appreciate it. i’m glad i’ve gotten to become closer to you these past couple days. you always were kind of like my second mom.” “so am i, i’ve greatly enjoyed your company.” sutton grinned and took a large bite out of her bagel. suddenly, the garage door in front of sutton popped open, and Isaac, taylor and zac came thundered in the house behind their father. diana and sutton, bagel in hand, jumped up, not expecting them for another couple hours. “what are you doing home so early?!” diana exclaimed as she immediately gave her husband a hug. sutton leaned against the kitchen table and chewed on her bagel as the boys rushed past her with their suitcases that they thumped in the foyer and all came back into the kitchen as walker was giving sutton a hug, bagel still in hand. when she released from her embrace with walker, the boys noticed her. “hey sutton,” taylor wandered back over to sutton who leaned back against the kitchen table. she was surprised when he wrapped his arms around her neck and gave her a quick hug. sutton smiled and put her free arm around his neck and said, “hey. i haven’t seen you guys in so long,” she released, suddenly nervous. she had forgotten about how adorable taylor was and was taken aback by his actions. taylor moved on to his mother who enveloped him in a huge hug, happy and relieved that her boys were home. “hey sutt,” Ike said next as he genuinely put his arm around her shoulder as everyone began filing around the kitchen table. by this time the other hanson siblings were awake and ran down the hallway at the sound of their brothers voices. sutton smiled as she sat between taylor and Ike and across from zac as mackie jumped into his mother’s arms and avery jumped into isaac’s. “ohhh, i missed you,” ike cried as he gave his younger sister a bear hug and she jumped off his lap and onto taylor’s. sutton felt a bit out of place as the hanson family greeted each other, and leaned back into her chair and finished the last bit of her bagel as diana and walker joined them at the table. she felt very lonely despite her close relationship with the hanson’s, and hoped that she wouldn’t always feel this way. her thoughts were interrupted by walker who had begun explaining their situation and their early arrival. “nothing extravagant happened. our flight was scheduled for 9:30am, but they simply mixed up our flight times and put us on the earlier plane, and here we are.” “here we are.” zac repeated. “well we’re definitely are glad you all are home,” diana smiled. “so how did it go?” sutton looked to Isaac to her right and to Taylor on her left and smiled, anxious to hear about their experience at their concert in the Beacon. taylor grabbed at the chance to tell all about their experiences and began with, “it was so wonderful. its so amazing to finally be able to do this, what we’ve wanted to do forever. that concert at the beacon i think is kind of like a little taste of what touring will be like.” “i haven’t even heard you guys play in so long, it seems. even though i watch you guys whenever you’re on tv, i’m sure you have some different songs that i haven’t ever heard before.” sutton commented. “i think we can arrange a private concert for you, sutt. just you, though.” zac grinned as he pulled out the orange juice from the refrigerator. “i think we’ve definitely perfected all of our songs by now. even though we’ll need to brush up on some of them before we tour.” “thats for sure,” taylor yawned and leaned back in his chair, tilted back and plopped his chair back on the floor after receiving a stern look from his mother. “you’ll have plenty of time to do that later. i think everyone needs to take a break and relax for awhile,” diana said. “i don’t think any of us are fully realizing how strenuous this tour will actually be -- for all of us.” “yeah, whenever is fine. do you guys know the dates for the tour yet, and where you’ll be playing?” sutton asked. “not wholly. we’ve arranged a few things, and we’re definitely starting out overseas. i think our first show will be in france, and then we’ll move down to maybe germany and england, of course.” ike explained happily. “we’re definitely starting out overseas, though. the france date is june 9th, right dad?” “well lets not get ahead of ourselves quite yet, son. nothing is definite yet, but yes, we’re starting off in europe. then to canada and then to the states.” walker explained. “how many tour dates all together?” sutton asked. “like 14 or 15, i think,” taylor grinned at his brothers and back at sutton. “its going to be one fun ride.” sutton nodded, and smiled, then frowned. “why so few? that doesn’t seem like that many dates.” isaac shrugged and looked to his brothers. “well nothing is definite, of course. maybe if we sell out all our shows, and we get a lot of feedback and imput from the fans and public we’ll be able to add a ton of more tour dates after the last, which should be in late july, and we’ll be touring until like, september or october!” isaac exclaimed. “calm down, ike,” zac called from the kitchen. “thats right, lets focus on the present. we’re all very proud of you guys though,” diana smiled. “for now, how about we celebrate? celebrate both the success of the boys and the start of the tour. and, of course, the wonderful addition to our family. we’re happy you’re here, sutton.” “thank you, i’m glad to be here. i love all you guys.” sutton looked around the table at all of the smiling faces. “i’ve already made reservations for us for dinner the day after tomorrow at 7pm. jessica and avery are spending the night at the david’s house, and mrs romano across the street is going to watch mackie.” “that sounds wonderful,” sutton smiled, as everyone stood, stretched and abandoned the kitchen table. |