Time: Back In The Day / Kinsey: Age 10 / Pre-YIM
Rating: Fun For All
“Kinsey! Hurry up! We have to be at the Hanson’s in twenty minutes!” Jennifer Jackson shouted up the stairs.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Kinsey answered, running down the stairs, her thin legs bounding down two steps at a time.
“Be careful,” her father, warned with a smile.
“Sorry, Dad.”
“You look nice, just let me fix your hair,” Jennifer said, undoing one of Kinsey’s pigtails and smoothing the hair before putting the hair-tie back in.
“Mom, it doesn’t matter what I look like. It’s just the Hansons!”
“I know, now let’s go!” Kinsey ran to the car and opened the door to find her little sister, Brenna, already seated quietly in the backseat reading a book. Kinsey frowned at her and yanked the book from her hands before tossing it into the back of their SUV.
“What did you do that for?” Brenna demanded. Kinsey just shrugged and put on her seatbelt. Knowing that it wouldn’t be worth the argument for the short drive, Brenna conceded to just pouting and staring out the window.
“Here we are!” Anthony said a few minutes later as he pulled into the driveway of the large two-story home. Upon hearing a car pull into the driveway, two little boys with shoulder-length blonde hair ran around the side of the house.
“Kinsey! Come on! We’re going to play hide-and-seek!” the taller one yelled as she made her way out of the car as fast as she could.
“I’m coming, Taylor, chill out!” she shouted back, sprinting across the pavement to follow them out of sight. Anthony and Jennifer smiled at each other before heading around back with Brenna to join Walker and Diana.
“I don’t want to be It!” Zac exclaimed.
“What are you talking about? Being It is the best!” Taylor said, trying to convince his little brother.
“No it isn’t! Plus, I have the best hiding spot!”
“Zac, we all know that you hide behind the shed. You do it every time we play!”
“I do not!”
“You do, too!”
“Let’s make Kinsey be It. She’s the only girl!” Taylor said.
“Shut up! I don’t want to be It!”
“Geez… I’ll be It, okay?” Isaac said, “All right, rules. You can’t leave the yard. You can hide inside, but not in the basement or the attic or in Mom and Dad’s room.”
“Let’s go!” Taylor said, practically jumping with excitement.
“Okay, I’m counting to twenty and then I’m coming to find you all!”
“You’ll never find me!” Kinsey exclaimed. She had a brilliant idea. She was going to go where they would never expect her to go: their room. Isaac covered his eyes and began to count out loud. Taylor, Zac, and Kinsey all tore off in different directions, Zac for the shed, Taylor around the side of the house, and Kinsey onto the deck and into the back door. Her skinny, summer sun-kissed legs carried her effortlessly up the stairs and down the hall. Thinking fast, she dove under Taylor’s bed and hid between the boxes of toys that were crammed under there. She was completely hidden from the view of anyone who would look under there. With a quiet laugh, she made herself as comfortable as possible.
It took Isaac a matter of seconds to find Zac hidden behind the shed, exactly where he hid every time. He found Taylor a few minutes later, crammed tightly in between the branches of the pine tree that was in their front yard.
“That was a pretty good spot, Tay,” Isaac said, picking a needle out of his hair and flicking it at Taylor.
“Hey, knock it off!” he defended, pushing Isaac away, “Where’s Kinsey?” Isaac shrugged.
“She’s probably in the house somewhere. You want to leave her?” Zac laughed loudly.
“That’d be awesome! Let’s just go watch TV or something and see how long it takes her to figure it out!”
“Guys, we can’t do that!” Taylor said.
“Why not? It’d be funny!” Zac said, still laughing.
“It’s not nice.”
“Ohhh… do you liiiike her? Taylor likes Kinsey!” Isaac said, thoroughly enjoying the look of horror on his little brother’s face.
“Shut up! I do not! I just don’t want to get in trouble!”
“Taylor and Kinsey! Sitting in a tree!” Zac exclaimed, prompting Taylor to attack him, sending Zac sprawling onto the grass with Taylor on top of him. They wrestled for a few minutes before Isaac got tired of it and pulled Taylor off of Zac.
“Knock it off, guys! And Zac, Taylor is right. We’ll get in trouble if we leave Kinsey somewhere, but I still think it’d be really funny.”
“Well, let’s go find her then. Dinner will be ready soon. I can smell the hot dogs!” Zac said exuberantly, running towards the house.
“He’s so hyper…” Taylor started.
“…all the time,” Isaac finished for him. They followed him into the house.
“Where do you think she’d go?” Isaac asked.
“Probably upstairs. She’s probably in our room.” Isaac nodded and followed Taylor upstairs. They entered their bedroom to find Zac jumping on Taylor’s bed.
“What are you doing?!” Taylor exclaimed.
“She’s under here. I heard her move, but she won’t come out!” he answered, out of breath from his jumping.
“Did you ever think to move the boxes out of the way instead of messing up my bed? Geez, Zac,” Taylor said, throwing a pillow at him. Zac stopped as the pillow collided with his chest.
“Um, no. I didn’t think of that.” Taylor rolled his eyes and headed for his bed. He grabbed the first box he could find and pulled it from underneath the box spring. Behind it he found Kinsey, smiling sheepishly at him
“Why are you under my bed?” he asked. She sighed and worked her way out of the small space.
“I’m hiding, duh!” she answered, pushing him as she got up. Taylor lost his balance because of the heavy box in his hands and he fell from his squatting position to the floor, causing a plethora of action figures to go careening to the floor. He glared at her as she left the room, shooting a smile at him before entering the hallway. Without a word, he began to put the toys back into the box. Isaac and Zac couldn’t contain themselves any more and they started laughing at him.
“Shut up,” Taylor said, putting the last of the figures in the box and shoving it carelessly under his bed.
“Boys! Dinner’s ready!” Diana yelled up the stairs. Taylor huffed out of the room, leaving a laughing Isaac and Zac to follow him.