A/N: I thought I'd try my hand at another long Liley story. This one's AU, with Miley and Lilly growing up together in the same small (fictional!) town in Tennessee. I hope everyone likes it :)

HANNAH MONTANA

"TWO HEARTS"

CHAPTER ONE

CHECK YES OR NO

As small towns go, Pine Ridge, Tennessee, was both very small and very quiet. It was also very friendly, the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else, and neighbors were good friends. Once a year, every fall, it was home to the annual Harvest Fair, and everyone in town showed up on Saturday morning before the fair opened to watch the hometown parade down the town's one main road. They also had a Candlelight Procession every Christmas Eve, and of course, everyone went to church every Sunday morning.

For the most part, Pine Ridge seemed to be the sort of town where not much of anything happened – and the people who lived there seemed perfectly happy with that. Little did they know their tiny town would one day be the birthplace of world-famous pop star named Hannah Montana…

Nine year old Lillian Danielle Truscott (Lilly to everyone but her mother) made her way slowly to her new classroom to start 4th grade at Pine Ridge Elementary School. It was the first day of school, and although she already knew and was friends with most of the kids in school, starting out in a new classroom in a new teacher always made her nervous. All too soon, Room 14 loomed in front of her, and the moment of truth was upon her. Clutching one of the straps of her backpack, Lilly took a deep breath and walked inside.

She immediately realized, to her dismay, that she didn't recognize any of her new classmates, which was unusual. Fortunately, her friendly, outgoing personality had always made making new friends easy, so hopefully it wouldn't take her long to find a new friend in all the unfamiliar faces. She chose a desk at the back of the room and dropped down into her new seat.

"I sure hope the teacher is nice," Lilly muttered.

"She is," a polite voice replied. Lilly turned towards the voice, and saw a girl about her age sitting in the desk beside hers. She had long auburn hair, which she seemed to be partially hiding behind, and brilliant blue eyes. Her voice was quiet and shy, but something about this new girl made Lilly want to smile.

"You met the new teacher already?" Lilly asked her incredulously. The new girl nodded shyly.

"Um, yeah," she said quietly. "My mom dropped me off early, so I was the first one here."

"You must really like school," Lilly joked. She saw the new girl blush slightly and instantly felt bed.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that!" she added hurriedly. "Oh, and my name's Lilly."

"I'm Miley," the new girl responded, "Miley Stewart; nice to meet you." She smiled then, a radiant smile that lit up her whole face, and Lilly couldn't help but smile back. She wanted to ask Miley how it was they'd met before, but before she could the bell rang, and the new teacher clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

"All right everyone, let's calm down," she called out. "My name is Miss Tennison, and I'm going to be your new teacher. I'll take roll, and then we'll say the Pledge of Allegiance together…"

When morning recess finally arrived, Lilly found herself out on the playground doing what she did best: jumping rope. No one in her grade could match the blonde-haired tomboy when it came to her speed and skill with a jump rope. She was just hitting her rhythm when something across the playground caught her eye. It was Miley, on the far side of the playground all by herself, struggling to play a game of hopscotch.

Under any normal circumstances, it would have taken an act of God – or at least the recess bell – to get Lilly to give up her rope. Staring at Miley though, off all by herself and looking terribly alone, Lilly couldn't help but feel sorry for her, and suddenly jumping rope no longer seemed quite so important. With a sigh, Lilly handed her rope to an astonished girl standing nearby and made her way over to Miley.

"Hey," Lilly said softly as she walked up beside Miley. Miley jumped, startled.

"Sorry," Lilly apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's all right," Miley managed, smiling weakly. "Just wasn't expecting anyone to come talk to me."

"Why not?" Lilly asked. Miley just shrugged.

"No one ever does," she said simply. She hung her head. "I'm not real good at making friends." Lilly swallowed, feeling her heart ache for the petite brunette in front of her.

"Well, you got me over here," Lilly said, smiling. "You must be doin' something right!" She looked down at the hopscotch course painted on the asphalt ground.

"Looks you're pretty good," she said to Miley, noticing the little pebble resting on number seven. "Mind I play with you? I bet I could teach you a few tricks!" She smiled again, to show she was being friendly.

"You… you really want to play with me?" Miley asked, certain she hadn't heard right.

"Sure," Lilly replied, grinning. "I haven't played a good game of hopscotch in like, forever!" She watched as Miley smiled gratefully, her entire face lighting up just like it had before.

"Thanks," Miley said sincerely. She nodded at the hopscotch course. "We can start over… you go first!"

"You're on!" Lilly laughed. She picked up the pebble and gave it a toss.

Lilly and Miley ended up playing hopscotch together all recess long, and Lilly couldn't remember having more fun. Despite how shy and timid Miley seemed to be at first, when she finally opened up a bit, Lilly found herself truly enjoying Miley's company. Finally the recess bell rang, and everyone began hurrying back to class. Lilly usually took her time going back, determined to spend every last moment she could on the playground, but this time she ended up walking back with Miley, and they made it back to the classroom together, with plenty of time to spare. After they sat back down in the desks, Miley turned to Lilly and smiled.

"That was fun," she said softly. Lilly found herself smiling again.

"Yeah it was," she agreed. "We gotta do that again sometime!" Miley blushed and turned away.

"I'd like that," she replied, apparently too shy to face Lilly when she answered. Then the bell rang again and class resumed. Unfortunately for Lilly, the first subject after recess was math, by far her worse subject. She quickly found herself struggling and becoming frustrated with some of the more challenging problems.

"They must use this stuff to torture kids," she grumbled. "How am I supposed to know what nine times eight is?!"

"Seventy two," Miley replied quietly. Lilly looked over at her, astonished.

"Whoa… you really are good with this stuff," she said in awe. Miley just shrugged.

"It's not so bad," she responded, filling in another answer. "I could help you, if you want."

"Really?" Lilly asked, Miley's kindness taking her a bit by surprise.

"Sure," Miley said. "As long as you teach me how you hopscotch so fast!" she added with a smile. Lilly grinned.

"Deal."

At twelve noon exactly, the students were given their lunch time, and Lilly hurried into the cafeteria clutching the brown paper bag her mother had sent her lunch in. Today she had her absolute favorite, a peanut butter and banana sandwich, and she couldn't wait to tear into it.

As she walked into the cafeteria, she immediately noticed Miley sitting at the far end of one of the long lunch tables, once again all by herself. Without so much as a thought, Lilly walked over and sat down beside her.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked playfully. Miley smiled.

"It is now," she answered. Lilly wasted no time in pulling out her sandwich and devouring it. Miley smirked.

"You must be really hungry," she teased.

"It's my favorite," Lilly replied around a mouthful of peanut butter. She swallowed the rather large bite she'd been chewing on and washed it down with some milk.

"Thanks for helping me with my math earlier," Lilly said softly.

"Ah, you're better than you think," Miley replied. She paused. "Thanks for playing hopscotch with me this morning." Lilly smiled.

"We make a pretty good team, Smiley."

"Smiley?" Miley repeated. Lilly swallowed.

"Sorry, it's just that you smile a lot," she stammered, "and, well, your name is Miley, so…"

"Oh, it's okay," Miley said shyly. "My parents call me that too." She blushed slightly.

"Really?" Lilly asked. Miley nodded, and Lilly cocked her head slightly to the side, looking at her appraisingly.

"Smiley it is, then," she said with a grin.

"Okay," Miley responded with a laugh. "So what do I get to call you?" Lilly opened her mouth to say something, but Miley cut her off.

"Silly," she said. "You get to be Silly."

"Silly?" Lilly repeated, laughing. "Why Silly?" Miley shrugged.

"It rhymes with Lilly?" she replied, trying not to laugh at well. Lilly nearly choked on another bite of her sandwich as laughter overwhelmed her. Miley took one look at her and started laughing as well.

"All right, I can live with Silly," Lilly managed. "Just warn me next time you're gonna do that!"

"I'll try," Miley laughed. "No promises!"

"So what'd you bring for lunch?" Lilly asked when she finally stopped laughing. She craned her neck to try and see what Miley was eating.

"Just a baloney sandwich," Miley replied, smiling.

"That's kinda boring… got anything better for dessert?" Lilly joked.

"Stop that!" Miley gasped, laughing again. She reached into her lunchbox and pulled out a cup of pudding.

"Ooh, chocolate!" Lilly exclaimed. "Feel like sharing?" She flashed the sweetest, most innocent smile she could manage. Miley grinned and shook her head.

"All right, but only 'cause you asked so nicely," she said with a laugh. She pulled two plastic spoons out of her lunchbox and handed one to Lilly. Then she peeled off the cover of the pudding cup and placed it between them.

"Just try to leave some for me, Silly," Miley said playfully.

"I'll try, but it's hard to control myself around chocolate!" Lilly replied teasingly, already swallowing her first spoonful. Miley looked slightly taken aback.

"I'm only kidding, you know," Lilly promised. "Come on, Smiley… dig in. There's plenty of chocolatey goodness for both of us!" Smiling, Miley joined her, and they enjoyed the dessert together.

After lunch, the day dragged on – or so it seemed to Lilly – and by the time the teacher had finished going over their first lesson in the use of adverbs, she thought she might die of boredom. Idly, she looked over at Miley, who was paying rapt attention to Miss Tennison and writing down a few notes for herself.

It was hard to believe they had been complete strangers just 24 hours ago, and already Lilly felt herself smiling with happiness whenever she looked at Miley. She found she really enjoyed being with Miley and spending time with her, more than she had ever expected she would, and was very glad to have met her.

Making certain no one was watching her, Lilly pulled a piece of notebook paper out of her binder and wrote a quick note on it. Then she folded it up, until she could hide it in her hand. Taking great pains to ensure Miss Tennison's attention was elsewhere, she quickly leaned towards Miley and slipped the note onto her desk. Miley noticed it and looked over at Lilly.

"What's this?" she whispered.

"Open it," Lilly whispered back, smiling. Sliding the note under her desk, Miley cautiously unfolded it and read what Lilly had written:

Miley – Will you be my friend?

 Yes

 No

Grinning, Miley used her pencil to draw a large 'X' in the 'Yes' box, then carefully folded the note up again and slipped it back to Lilly. When Lilly read it, she broke out into a huge grin of her own. This time, however, Miss Tennison finally noticed the two girls were up to something.

"Miss Truscott?" she called out, making Lilly jump. "Is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

"No, I'm fine, Miss Tennison," Lilly managed. "Just really enjoying learning about those adverbs!" Beside her, she heard Miley choke back a laugh. Miss Tennison arched an eyebrow, clearly not buying it, but in the end she chose to let it go and turned back to the chalkboard to continue her lesson.

After school, Miley and Lilly walked out of class together, neither one saying a word for a few moments. Miley finally broke the silence.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"For what?" Lilly asked, not understanding.

"For being my friend," Miley responded, blushing slightly. Lilly smiled.

"Well, thanks for making it so easy to be friends with," she replied. Miley returned the smile with one of her own.

"So, do you take the bus too?" Lilly asked her. She was hoping Miley would say yes, so they could talk on the way home. She was disappointed when Miley shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry; my mom drops me off and picks me up," she answered. "We'll see each other tomorrow, right?"

"Sure we will," Lilly answered with a smile. "Tell you what – let's meet by the monkey bars before school tomorrow, okay?"

"You gonna show me some tricks on those too?" Miley teased her. Lilly laughed.

"I just might, Smiley… I just might."