part two

Alice spent the next few months in the company of Hanson. It was certainly a different company than she was used to. They even felt sorry for her and took her around the world with them. It was more humane than leaving her with Paul, and heck, it didn’t cost them anything. Mercury Records had been so kind in offering to pay all travelling expenses.
Alice felt very lucky. She had her first ride in an aeroplane, her first trip out of America, heard for the first time music that wasn’t easy-listening, and even got her first nickname.
"Hey, Allie," Zac said one day in England. It was about October ‘97. "We’re going in the hotel’s indoor, heated swimming pool. Wanna come?" Mrs Hanson had bought Alice her first swim-suit the day before, and she was eager to try it out. Alice agreed immediately. They taught her how to swim, that day. Allie didn’t at all mind having Taylor’s arms around her as he held her up in the water. She was beginning to think she had a fondness for Tay that went beyond even what she had felt for her favourite bus, back at the depot.
Nevertheless, sight-seeing all over the world and flirting with Taylor weren’t enough to keep Alice from being rather homesick for a bus. Sure, she had spent her whole life in them and it was nice to get out and stretch her legs, now, but Alice was very glad when Hanson began their American tour the next year.
But as if Alice’s life hadn’t changed enough, one evening when she was backstage at one of the concerts, singing along and lifting heavy boxes full of spare pairs of docs for the intrepid three on stage, a talent scout spotted her. No, don’t groan. He wasn’t a singing scout, he was from the Girls’ Junior Heavy-Weight Lifting Association, or the GJHWLA, which is just as hard to say.
"My, those are big arm muscles," he thought. And then said aloud, "How would you like to be a famous weight-lifter, little girl?"
Well, Alice had had enough of people calling her "little girl", but this was an offer not to be sneered at. She forced her upper lip not to curl.

Three months later, Alice Fastway was a household name, especially in house-holds with teenage boys. She creamed all her opponents in every competition, mainly because the judges were all male. For the first time, Girls’ Junior Heavy-Weight Lifting became a televised sport, in prime time TV. The camera-men made Alice wear very short tennis skirts, and positioned their cameras just behind her. Whenever our Allie bent over to pick up the bar, record-breaking audiences were on the edges of their seats. Life was good for Alice Fastway.
Over the next few months, Allie occasionally ran into Ike, Tay and Zac at fund-raising days at which celebrities under 21 appeared. They wrote once a week, and phoned each other once a month, but it wasn’t the same. To her surprise, she received a Christmas card from the Fastway company. They still addressed her as "little girl", but it was a kind thought, she supposed.
On the morning of her 16th birthday, in June ‘99, Alice sat down and thought long and hard about her life. "Why am I not happy?" she thought. The answer was obvious. "Because I miss Taylor and the tour bus."
Well, Alice was never one for sitting around doing nothing when she knew what had to be done. She ripped up her contract with the GJHWLA and hopped on a plane to Tulsa, where she knew Hanson were just about to start another tour, after the release of their second album.

Taylor stood on the front porch of his house, waiting for their tour bus to arrive. The blond 16 year old wanted to be the first to see what would be their new home for the next couple of months. As the bus rounded the corner, Taylor grinned. "Cool," he thought. The new bus was painted bright blue, with Hanson logos all over it. The bus pulled to a screeching halt at the curb, the door swung open, and Alice stepped out.
"Allie?" Tay gasped. He hadn’t seen her for a couple of weeks and she was even more beautiful than he remembered.
"Hi," she grinned.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, I figured out that what I really wanted to be doing was driving the tour bus for you guys, so I quit with the weight-lifting, and used the money I made to buy this bus."
"Well..." Taylor could scarcely believe she was really there. "Well, that’s... great!"

Three guesses what happened? Let’s just say that Taylor Hanson eventually became the first pop-star who was married to his tour bus driver. And Allie? For the first time in her life she was happy.

the end

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