I don't own the characters in the story, I just like to borrow them once in a while.
"Miley, come on! It's going to be amazing! The concert is totally free! That never happens!" Lilly Truscott bounced on the tips of her sneakers in the Stewart family kitchen.
"I know Lilly. It sounds awesome, but I promised my dad. He wants to do some father-daughter bonding. We're having dinner… without Jackson." Miley's face looked disappointed, but her eyes were hopeful that Lilly would accept the carefully concocted excuse. She knew the invitation was inevitable. The concert had been heavily publicized by the record label. Hannah Montana and several other new artists on her label were all appearing at a free concert to celebrate the opening of a new children's hospital. Miley knew Lilly and Oliver would go, and as much as she might have wanted to enjoy the other acts with them, she would be waiting backstage in a blond wig for her set, and she could not tell them.
"Fine with me. I should go alone anyway. That way I can get closer to my future bride and her golden locks of perfection." Oliver's face held a dazed expression while he stared into empty space. Miley was sure he was enjoying a vision she had no interest in seeing, and Lilly briefly contemplated the risk of seriously injuring him if she pushed him off the stool on which he was perched.
"Like your mom would ever let you go alone," she said. Deciding she did not want to risk the retaliation that was sure to occur if she pushed him, Lilly turned back to her best female friend.
"You've been gone almost all of spring break doing family stuff and I've been hanging out with Mr. Montana over there all week." Both girls glanced at the aforementioned boy who sighed at the name Montana.
"I know. But we spent so much time with other people, my dad doesn't think we've really had any daddy-Miley time." She rolled her eyes for effect, and Lilly finally gave in to her.
"Looks like it's just you and me tomorrow night, Oken." She narrowed her blue eyes at him. "If you do anything to embarrass me though, you'll be lucky that concert is across the street from the new hospital"
"Pssh. I am not a child. Ooh, Miley, you didn't say your dad made chocolate chip pancakes this morning!" He jumped off the stool and ran to the other counter to get one. Within thirty seconds, he had shoved an entire pancake in his mouth.
"And you guys think I'm the messy eater." Lilly scrunched her face up in disgust.
"I am not messy," Oliver said after he was able to swallow. "Just hungry."
"Then why are there little pancake bits all over my new sneakers?"
"At least I didn't get ice cream all over your favorite shirt."
"I told you that was an accident."
"Oh, will you two just give it a rest? I thought you wanted to go to the beach. Quit your jabberin' and let's go." Lilly opened her mouth, but Miley cut her off. "Next one who argues can just go home." She looked pointedly at Lilly before turning to go look for a towel. Lilly just stuck her tongue out at Oliver and followed closely behind.
"Bye, Oliver. See you tomorrow for the concert! Thanks for the ride Mrs. Oken." Lilly jogged up the driveway to her front door.
"Is Heather still going to be able to take you and Lilly to the concert tomorrow night" Nancy Oken led Oliver to their own front door.
"Yeah. She said she'd drop us off, and Dad's going to pick us up after his dinner with his client." Oliver bypassed the living room and headed straight for the kitchen. His mother followed him and found him rummaging though the refrigerator. "Aha!" Oliver emerged with a cup of chocolate pudding in his hand.
"Eat a fruit cup, it's better for you." His mother said this dryly, handing him a spoon. "You know, you spend a lot of time obsessing over this Hannah Montana. Every website bookmarked on the computer is about her or how to improve your surfing technique."
"Mom, she's only the most amazing person ever."
"More amazing than you thought Jessica Simpson was?" Nancy quirked an eyebrow, awaiting his response.
"That was just a phase. I was so young then."
"It was last year."
"Still, I've learned from my mistakes."
"I just think you should try to focus on someone more attainable."
Oliver put his hand to his heart as though in pain. "I'm so hurt. You don't think your own son has a chance with the goddess of pop? Once she meets me, she'll know we're meant to be."
"It's not that I don't have faith in you Oliver. I just don't want to get a call at the precinct tomorrow because my son got caught in a pop star's closet again."
"If there is one thing I've learned in the last year, it's not to get caught by security." Oliver headed upstairs.
"That's what you said last time. I don't want you getting Lilly into any trouble either," Nancy called after him.
Oliver's only response was to yell "good night" from the top of the stair case.
"Oliver, this is so cool! That guy is selling autographed Hannah Montana pictures!" Lilly grabbed her friend's arm and pointed to a booth set up near the entrance to a small convenience store.
"Doesn't she usually give pictures away to the people who see her backstage?"
"Yeah, but we always get chased off by security. Actually, you always get chased, and you make me leave too. Maybe I should come up with the plans from now on… I'm buying a picture."
Once Lilly had her picture safely tucked away in her bag, she and Oliver began to really take stock of their surroundings.
"If the stage is one of these outdoor things, where's the dressing room?" Oliver looked around, trying to figure out the answer to his own question.
"Isn't there, like, space under the stage?" Lilly and Oliver watched as a man in a security jacket walked out of the roped off crowd and around the side of the stage. The two friends looked at one another for about five seconds before simultaneously making the decision to try to follow the guard.
"Oliver, I've crawled under three bushes, climbed up two trees, and every door and window we've tried has been locked." Lilly angrily swiped a strand of her hair out of her eyes. Oliver was peering through the leaves of the bush they were currently hiding behind, and he paid no attention as she took off her shoe to fish out a pebble. At least, he tried to ignore her, but then she decided to throw said pebble at his shoulder.
"Ow!"
"I'm doing all of the work here and you weren't even paying attention to what I said."
"Yes I was."
"No you weren't."
"I was. I heard you."
"So, can we go see the show now? Hannah Montana should be up next."
"Just one more try." Lilly groaned and put her shoe back on.
"Fine. One more. And then I'm going to the show with or without you."
"Yeah, ok." Oliver straightened himself up and pointed to a door a few feet ahead of him. "People have been taking food and stuff in there."
"So it should be unlocked." Lilly smiled and stood next to him. "Sometimes you surprise me."
The two friends crept along the bushes, but Oliver suddenly pulled Lilly back. She was about to voice a protest, but she saw a man walking toward them on the sidewalk, a large cake in his hands. Oliver looked at Lilly expectantly. She thought for a second, then reached into her bag, finding a ketchup packet. Oliver quickly set to work.
"Mister, you've got to help me. My friend here hit his face on a tree branch." Lilly giggled a little, then cleared her throat. "I mean, a tree branch, how dumb was he?" She jerked her thumb behind her, where Oliver was stumbling from the bushes.
"Oh, it's pretty bad," Oliver groaned to the man with the cake.
"I think it's a gusher," Lilly added, stepping closer to the man.
"I… I think I have a first aid kit in the truck," he said looking at Oliver worriedly.
"Really?" Lilly brightened. Smiling sweetly, she said to the man, "I'll hold this for you while you go get it." She reached out to take the cake from his hands, and she staggered a little under the unexpected weight. As the cake man jogged off toward the parking lot, Oliver quickly wiped off his face and grabbed the other end of the cake.
"Alright, let's do this."
Not even fifteen minutes later, the two were running down the hallway trying to find a way out from underneath their favorite pop star's performance. Not only could they hear the pounding of footsteps behind them, but the notes of "The Other Side of Me" echoed all around them.
"So, what happened?" It was the next morning at the Stewart house. Lilly and Oliver had been relaying their story to Miley and Jackson for the last few minutes.
"We ran around for a while until Oliver tripped and fell into an open door." Lilly popped a grape into her mouth.
"That boy is luckier than one of Lilly's lucky hats full of four-leaf clovers," Miley quipped to her brother.
"Yeah. After being chased b security so many times, don't you think it's time to throw in the towel?" Jackson looked back and forth between the two people he considered to be his sister's craziest best friends.
"Why would we give up? We've gotten so close. Besides, we only actually got caught twice." Lilly looked a little too proud of that for Miley's liking.
"Yep. The other five times we got away." Oliver nodded his head emphatically.
"Isn't that sweet," Jackson remarked to Miley. "Hannah Montana has such loyal fans."
"Real sweet," she agreed sarcastically. Jackson retreated to the kitchen.
"At least I still have the autographed picture I bought." Lilly pulled her prized photo out of her bag.
"Uh, Lilly, I hate to break it to you, but that's a fake." Miley pointed to the name scrawled across the black and white snapshot.
"What do you mean?" Lilly's face was contorted in confusion.
"You got ripped off. That is not how Hannah Montana makes an M." At the shocked expressions on her friends' faces, Miley hurriedly continued, "I have an autograph upstairs, I'll go get it." Miley ran off to scribble on to a headshot of her alter ego.
"Don't worry. I have a fool proof plan for next time," Oliver told Lilly. She turned to him curiously. "I'm going to hide on the bus when she goes on tour."
Lilly groaned as she listened to Oliver detail his plan for the future and promised herself she was not helping with any plan that made her cross state lines. She may have been a huge fan, and Oliver may have been her best friend, but she did not want her mother to kill her.