Painful Mistake? Or Fate Intervenes? Chapter 1: The World is Tumbling, a hannah montana fanfic

This is the result of one of those ideas that came into my head so intensely that it blocked out any inspirations to my other stories. This is also the first story of mine in which Miley is not the victim. I began working this down before returning to my other stories (most naggingly Over The Edge, which still needs an ending) so that at least my mind be free of raging tides.

Hence begins this story. Simple mistake? Or Fate intervenes?

Oh yes, Lilly's rival Heather doesn't have a surname, so I named her after the actress who portrayed her, Gina DeVivo.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hannah Montana.

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"You're going down, Truscott."

"You first, Heather."

The two rivals faced one another in the final round of the skateboard competition, each not letting the other stare her out. After a long period of fierce competition, the time of the skateboarding finals had arrived, the finalists being Heather DeVivo and Lilly Truscott. It was the moment of destiny.

"See you in loser's heaven, then, Lilly."

"After you, Miss Big-Time-Winner."

Cheering from the stands were at least a good hundred-strong spectators, and the noise and heat was enough to make anyone feel the adrenaline rush. Amongst the crowd, a small party of people sat right at the front behind the edge of the stands, and they were the party that cheered the loudest. They were none other than Lilly's best friends, Miley and Oliver, as well as her parents who had come to watch their daughter compete.

"Yeah! That's right, Lilly! You kick that Heather all over the skate park!" Miley yelled from her place, waving a vividly bright red banner that said, "Lilly Truscott for Victory!"

"Go Lilly! Sizzle little Lizzle in the hizzle! Freaky freaky fresh, word!" Oliver ranted, sitting beside Miley, brandishing a foam finger. When Miley gave him an incredulous glare, he instead shouted, "You work it, Girl! Word!"

"Now that's the reason why she lost every year." Miley said flatly.

"Hey notice I'm actually here. And don't say things like that; you're gonna curse someone if you're not careful." Oliver retorted. Miley chortled in response.

"Since when did you believe in such things?"

"Since my mom started practicing Fong Shui and began reading old Chinese superstition books."

"Your mom reads Chinese?"

"It's better than you! You just eat Chinese."

Before Miley could think up a retort, the horn went off, signaling the beginning of the final event. As the voices of the crowd amplified in volume, Heather walked over to the top of the great arch, smiling toad-like at Lilly. Lilly returned her smile with a burning glare, arms crossed.

"See you later, worthless call-yourself-a-skater." Heather remarked.

"Hmph!"

Heather performed beautifully and ruthlessly, potentially winning the contest already. With landings and flips of brute force and determination, it would seem that Heather crushed Lilly's confidence, the way she did so for so many years. Finishing her demonstration with an impressive flip, then a 720-degrees spin before landing on the top of the arch, she snapped her gaze at the four judges, who promptly raised their numbers.

Judge number one raised a 9.

Judge number two raised a 10.

Judge number three raised a 10.

Judge number four raised a 9.

"That's a near perfect score of 38 over 40! Give it up for Heather DeVivo!" the commentator declared. Instantaneously half of the audience exploded with applause, doing their team cheers with high enthusiasm.

As Heather passed by Lilly, she gave her a gloating grin and said, "Your turn, Truscott."

Lilly steeled herself and grabbed her skateboard, declaring war coldly, "Oh, it's on." As she marched resolutely towards the top of the arch, Miley and Oliver yelled at their friend once more with utmost excitement.

"You can do it, Lilly! GO GO GO!" they screamed in unison. Beside them, Mr and Mrs Truscott watched their daughter in relative silence, but with glowing smiles on their faces.

"She can do it. I know it. Look at her! She even LOOKS ready!" Miley said to Oliver, who nodded in agreement.

"She'd better, or it'll be another year of cold disappointment." He replied darkly, earning him a weird look from Miley.

"You could give her a little more encouragement, donut."

Mrs Truscott pointed at the commentator all of the sudden, and all their heads were turned, distracted from the little argument.

"Now give it up for our second finalist, Lilly Truscott!"

Lilly flourished her hair proudly, bringing sparkle into the air around her. With her usual skater shorts and t-shirt, eyes shining a dazzling

Once on the top of the arch, Lilly stepped on the skateboard, tilted herself forward, felt herself fall, and the game was on. Her well-tempered technique and honed skill of manipulation guided her way to victory. With precise footwork and incredible dexterity, Lilly executed her moves with mesmerising grace, her stamina constantly replenished by the cheers of "Lilly! Lilly! Lilly!" from her loyal supporters.

You're going down in flames, she thought viciously. This year, nobody's going to crush me. And everyone will bear witness to this; my mom and dad, Miley and Oliver. And the other ninety spectators as well. Prepare yourself, Heather.

Who knew a lapse of attentiveness could be fatal.

Lilly's POV:

"Hey! Truscott! Your hairclip's loose!" Heather yelled standing a distance from the arch in front of the stands.

I scoffed at it. Yeah right; it's just another distraction tactic to bring me off balance, I thought. Keeping my concentration on the game, I retorted, "Nice try, Heather!"

"No seriously! You're hair's gonna fall!"

"You can't fool me, you toad!"

What does she think she can do to me? Distract me enough so that I topple over and humiliate myself in front of the judges? I've practiced and trained hard for a year; as long as I keep my focus on the footwork, nothing can go wrong. I am so going to kick Heather all over the skate park this time.

I could feel the sweat on my brows, threatening to cloud my vision. Hastily, within a fraction of a second that I can spare, I shook my head vigorously to remove them from my brows.

It all happened in less than seven seconds.

Something fell off, and the next second, all I saw was a flash of gold that completely blocked my vision. The cascade of my own golden blonde hair fell forwards, striking and blocking my eyes as the force of the turn whipped them into my face like drapes.

"What the..."

Distracted, I tried to brush the offending golden hair aside. That move cost me two seconds, a moment's concentration, and it nearly cost my life.

Losing balance, I tipped right off my skateboard, my feet twisting into impossible positions. I tumbled forward, plummeting towards the ground so many miles below me.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

I could not tell whether the scream was mine, or the audience's, or Heather's. It seemed like the world was screaming; it was happening so fast. All I saw with my eyes were flashes of gold and blurs as the hair whipped out of my eyes.

As I rolled down the thirty-metres slope violently, I could feel my bones breaking; the force which I had gathered was too powerful for me to control. My backbone numbed, yet somewhere in the middle I felt a sharp shooting pain. Angry sickening "CRACK!" sounds were heard as I fell; I knew that my arms and legs were broken too. My intestines were probably ruptured; three seconds after the long tumble I was bent into a bowling-over position which was followed by a wrenching pain in the guts.

Twice I banged my forehead on the slope hard as I tumbled. Between my tears I saw the skateboard charge down and crush my nose. It was still a long way to go.

The intensity of the agony blinded me completely by now. My tears were mixed with scarlet. My nose was flattened, and a rib, maybe two, were snapped; I was vaguely aware of the damage on my body.

A hard bang on the back of my head, a snapping sound from my neck, and the next thing I saw was darkness.

Miley's POV:

I watched her fall.

I watched her hair whip in front of her eyes. Distracted, she tried to brush it all aside, but as she tried to do so, she lost her footing. The skateboard slipped out of her feet, no, she slipped off the skateboard...I wasn't sure; it was so quick. Everything in the world seemed to be going at slow motion as I watched Lilly roll down the gigantic thirty-metre high slope like a snowball.

My hands found my mouth, my eyes opened up wide in shock and horror, and I felt myself inhale a breath of air sharply. All the noise around me seemed to have stopped. Somewhere beside me, I heard Oliver whisper, "Oh no...Lord, no..."

After a long tumble for what felt like an infinity, Lilly finally slid to a halt at the depression of the arch, and my brain, numbed with shock, began to stir.

Comprehension dawned upon me like a crushing waterfall.

"LILLY!"

Without second thought, I jumped down from the stands and ran over to Lilly, unconscious and bleeding, lying at the depression. She seemed so far; I felt like as if I was getting further away from her. The feeling was so unreal. But I knew that Oliver was right behind me.

"Lilly! LILLY!" Oliver and I were yelling. We were then joined by other voices.

"OUT OF MY WAY! THAT'S MY DAUGHTER OVER THERE!" Mr Truscott yelled.

Somehow, I reached Lilly's side. She looked like a wreck. Her face was bloody; her nose seemed to have been broken. Her skull appeared to be smashed, and her neck was twisted in a grotesque position. Her arms and legs were lying in awkward angles, as if they had been broken – and indeed they were, every bone shattered. Her skateboard – a relic of the defeated champion – laid abandoned at the side.

I cradled my broken best friend in my lap, ignoring the oozing blood from the back of her head staining my new blue denim shorts.

"Lilly! Lilly wake up! Can you hear me?" I half-shouted at Lilly in desperation, trying to breathe properly. I wanted to cry.

Oliver appeared beside me a blinking moment later, also combating his shock and trying to help revive Lilly. With a strained and controlled voice, as if he was fighting back tears, he shook Lilly gently.

"Lilly? Lilly, please wake up!" He said softly.

An immense pressure was piled on my throat, disabling my normal voice. My cheeks were burning; tears spilled out before I could stop them; I began to feel very hot and thirsty, and my breath felt constricted. My vision was swimming. Still struggling to get a hard grip on Lilly's arm, I shook it vigorously and screamed in utter desperation, "LILLY! LILLY! WAKE UP! PLEASE!"

There was no response, save shallow and irregular breathing to be heard from Lilly's mangled face. The pulse was barely existent.

"LILLY! NO LILLY! DON'T DIE! COME BACK TO US!"

Lilly neither twitched nor stirred. She seemed to be dying; her trauma left her an almost-nonexistent pulse. I felt my breathing stop when Lilly's breath ceased.

"NO! YOU CAN'T LEAVE US! WE PROMISED TO BE BEST FRIENDS FOREVER! LILLY! LILLY!"

I very nearly broke down there and then, until Mr Truscott shoved me out of the way roughly. Mrs Truscott also came running, a little handkerchief in her hand. As she tried to mop up the blood on Lilly's face to no avail, Mr Truscott tried shaking Lilly awake.

My eyesight began to swim even more; was I passing out, or was it tears? Unable to stop myself, I made to run at Lilly once more, only to be restrained by Oliver.

"Miley! Calm down! Control yourself!"

"LILLY'S HURT! AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?!"

"Don't, Miley! You'll do no good if you lose your head here!"

"LET ME GO OLIVER! LET ME GO!"

"MILEY!"

"NO! LILLY! LILLY COME BACK!"

Mr Truscott pulled away from Lilly, who looked a lot less bloody now, but still broken. He seemed to be barking something into his cellphone. Meanwhile Mrs Truscott was being forced back by the medical staff at hand, who attended to Lilly with bandages and stuff I couldn't make out.

My last nerve broke. Completely losing my head, I collapsed like a sack into Oliver's arms and broke down on his chest. Between my sobs and gasps I could hear Oliver whisper, "Calm down, just calm down." He was stroking my hair gently, with a shaking hand.

"Everything will be fine, just calm down, Miley..."

I kept sobbing into his chest, my hands clutching my heart; for suddenly I felt a sharp pain run me through the chest like a red-hot spear. Was I having a heart attack?

The ambulance arrived with a loud rousing siren. By now there was much commotion in the spectators, and quite a crowd had gathered around the arch. The paramedics from the ambulance plowed through the crowd like tanks, eventually reaching Lilly's side. Within moments, Lilly was on a stretcher, Mr and Mrs Truscott flanking her. I heard Oliver say, "Come on, Miles. We'd better follow."

My eyesight dimmed into pure darkness. I could no longer breathe, I was breaking cold sweat, my knees lost all strength and buckled, and despite feeling very very hot, I experienced a rippling sensation; a cold chill just ran down my spine and all of my body.

"Miley! You're paling! Are you alright?" Oliver half-shouted in concern.

Was my face turning sheet-white? I did not know. As an odd ringing filled my ears, I vaguely felt myself fall sideways onto the ground...

"Help! Help! I think she's in shock!"

Lilly...please be safe...

And all was darkness...

Erm! That was the best I can do at the moment. I hope I managed to portray Miley's state of shock well enough – if it does not give the intended effect, I will be back to edit it a little.

NO ROMANCE INTENDED! I keep a very strict policy of the three best friends enjoying a friendship of platonic love – meaning you will never see me writing Loliver or Moliver or whatever that improbable nonsense. Ouch, please don't flame me for it.

I want to make a point here that even though Heather is a bit of a toad, she is honorable. Despite Lilly being her hated opponent, she warned her about the hair clip, apparently screamed when Lilly met her disastrous defeat, and as we will see later on, she is not really as rotten as she appears. The same might not be true in the actual television show Hannah Montana, however. Even though she has never appeared again ever since the episode "You're So Vain, You Probably Think This Zit is About You".