Chapter 1 : Nobody's Perfect
Jackson would never, ever remember to refill the toilet roll. Of the many household skills he had been taught, this one escaped him most often, followed by not drinking out of milk cartons and hanging up your coat.
Robby sat and drummed his fingers. He'd read all of Miley's many shampoos and conditioners a couple thousand times over. The crossword had been finished. The only interesting article was a Hannah Montana interview which Miley had proudly shown off so many times that he knew it by heart. Maybe the trashcan would offer more reading material? It was worth a shot.
Bubble gum. Okay, he wasn't a girl, but EW gross. It wasn't wrapped in anything. EW.
Half Empty Toothpaste. Who was wasting a perfectly good tube of toothpaste?
Spare Button. It was pink, but Robby had the feeling this was from one of Jackson's shirts. He was a strange boy.
Last week's People magazine. With yet another Hannah Montana interview.
A history paper marked "F". Jackson was dead. So, so dead.
A fluff of tissue paper. But it didn't look like a scrunched-up piece with boogers, or even lip gloss on it. There was a definite stick shape to the tissues. Tentatively wading through the mess, he pulled out a pregnancy test. A pregnancy test marked positive. A rush of memories overcame Robby. The first time she had just shoved it into his hand after a big fight, the second it had been hidden in a bouquet of roses. Many, many more had lain blue in the trash.
Wait, she was dead. There was only one girl in the house, and she was seventeen. A seventeen year old pop star who was dating a seventeen year old actor. It couldn't be Jackson's girlfriend's, she'd never even come over before they broke up. It had to be Miley.
A door slammed downstairs. High heels clacked on the wooden floor as the voices of two gossiping girl floated down the hall.
"Miles" he called angrily, "get me some toilet paper." The heels clacked faster. Blushing, she stuck a roll into the room, the rest of her outside the door. She was about to run back into the kitchen when he told her to stay. "Tell Lilly to go home, we need to talk." It wasn't a question, and it wasn't a request. Miley did as she was told.
"Lilly, my dad wants to talk to me." She told her friend as she walked back into the kitchen.
"Do you think he knows?" Lilly asked, turning from her purchases.
"I hope not" Miley sighed, "but he says you have to go home."
"Okay" Lilly answered, jumping off her stool. "Good luck." The two friends hugged. Lilly was halfway down the walk when Robbie Ray appeared in the living room.
"I am very disappointed in you" he said, glaring at Miley.
"What did I do?" she asked, hoping it would be something other than what she knew the answer to be.
"You know very well what you did." He growled, waving the stick in front of her. "You put your life, your job in danger. How could you do this Miles? How many talks have I had with you about this? How many times have I told you? Does your career mean nothing to you? Being Hannah Montana doesn't work like this. Your job puts money on our table, supplies mine and Jackson's jobs too. Did you even think? No, you didn't." he ranted, not noticing his daughter's eyes welling up with tears.
"Is that all you care about?" she asked angrily, "my career? I shouldn't even have a career dad, I'm seventeen. Isn't my life more important than that?" her hands protectively covered her stomach, which he now realized was slightly rounded. How could he have missed it? She turned to run upstairs when he grabbed her arm. "Let me go!" she cried, struggling out of his grip. He tried to pull her towards him, but Miley brought her open arm forward and dug her long fingernails into her father's arm. As he let go in pain, she darted up stairs, slamming the door of her room.
She instantly dived onto her bed, crying into a pillow and holding Beary close.
Those sobs broke Robby's heart. Had he just made his baby girl cry? Why? As painful as it was for him, he decided not to go and comfort her just yet. He needed to be calm and cool when he talked to her next, more screaming wouldn't do anyone and good. He needed a plan. And he knew Miley needed someone to talk to, but he didn't want it to be Lilly. He needed that someone to, while being kind to Miley, also stick up for him. Someone unbiased. One name instantly popped into his head, but Miley wouldn't want to talk to her. Instead, he dialed Aunt Dolly's cell.
Aunt Dolly was in Malibu as a surprise. She had wanted to move and live closer to her Godkids, and she was here looking at houses. She picked up on the first ring.
"Dolly?" he asked. "I don't have time to talk, but could you come over here, Miley really needs someone and I can't talk to her right now."
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"She's really mad at me, and I need her to calm down before I talk to her again. And I need time to calm down too."
"I'll be there faster than Earl can eat one of mom's apple pies." She promised, hailing a cab as she spoke.
"Thanks sis." Closing his phone, Robbie Ray sat down, pulling a pen and a notebook towards him. He scribbled questions, ideas, and comments. The page was only half full when Dolly entered. Ignoring both the doorbell and Robbie Ray, she hurried up the stairs, through the stairway. Stopping in front of a door covered in pink signs telling you that "Princess visiting hours are over". Calmly, she knocked on the door.
"Go away." Ignoring the warning, Dolly walked in. The room was a mess, and yet extremely organized. Piles of clothes organized by style and size took over a ten feet radius from the closet, a separate pile for three loose-fitting Hannah outfits and the blonde wig. One large suitcase was open, and Miley was piling clothes in it. A bulging backpack sat on the bed, spilling over with books and entertainment. The sleeping bag that had been gathering dust in the closet now lay next to the pack.
"I said go aw-" Miley turned, looking up. Seeing her aunt, she ran forward, capturing her in a bear hug. Millions of questions ran through both women's heads. Why was Aunt Dolly here? Why was Miley running away? A fresh batch of tears slipped out of Miley's eyes as she retreated, sitting down on her bed. Dolly followed suit, handing her goddaughter tissues.
"What's wrong Miles?" she asked. Her thick Tennessee accent was more comforting than Miley could put into words. Something she'd grown up with, but didn't hear much of anymore. A slice of home, of a time when her family had been complete. Both her and Jackson's were slipping away. Even Robby Ray's was fading a bit, though it would never fully leave him.
Miley just shook her head, accepting a tissue.
"Come on Miley, you can tell me."
"It's a long story." She mumbled into the tissue, "but it doesn't matter, I'm leaving."
"Please tell me Miley."
Silence filled the room. Aunt Dolly was just about to speak again when Miley drew up the courage to tell her story.
"Ten weeks ago, I went to a party. I wasn't really invited, but I just needed to go. My boyfriend, Jake, had disappeared for a movie a couple weeks before. I really missed him, and it was rumored that he was going to be there, and I just had to see him. There was alcohol, and we were kind of…crazy" she admitted. "We'd gone that far one before…but we forgot about protection. Too drunk, too happy to care.
"I didn't think about it. I mean, I did, but not really. We fought for a bit, but we're good now. Or at least, we were." She paused, gathering a shaky breathe, "I've missed my period twice now, and three tests came out positive." She said in a rush. "Daddy found one of the tests, and he's so mad." Tears were falling again. "I know he won't let me stay. I have to go, I want to leave on my own accord, not be thrown out."
"Oh Miles." Aunt Dolly sighed, holding her close. She let Miley cry as she tried to soothe her. "My daddy hates me. When he found it he started ranting about how this put Hannah in jeopardy. He likes my secret identity better than me! Like we haven't saved up all the money from the past two years incase something happened and I couldn't be Hannah. Incase I got tired of it."
Ten minutes later, the sobs ended and Robby had finished his list. Trying to distract himself, he concocted three strong loco hot cocoas. Sprinkling cinnamon-sugar on top of mountains of whipped cream, rainbow sprinkles, and mini marshmallows, he had run out of distractions. After spending ten minutes adjusting this all to be slip-free on the tray, he made his slow ascent.
The door was open, so he stepped right in. Miley and Dolly must have heard him coming, because they'd both stopped talking a minute before he entered.
"Hi" he mumbled, placing the tray awkwardly at the foot of his bed. He sat across from it, on a hot pink rolling chair. Miley adjusted her positioning on the bed. She was half-sitting half-laying down. Her legs thrown to her right, her left arm holding her up. The way she was seated, her loose shirt didn't hide her secret well. Everyone took their cocoa.
"Well, I'd better go." Aunt Dolly announced, standing.
"Please stay Aunt Dolly." Miley begged, looking up at her aunt pleadingly.
"I really don't think I-"
"You should stay." Robbie told her. Maybe it would be less awkward if she were here. "You are the closest thing that Miley has to a mother right now." He put a lot of emphasis on right now.
Miley knew that her father was engaged. He'd announced it three weeks ago, in fact. And sure, Miley liked Rosa, but it was truly awkward around her. What was Rosa to her? Sure, she seemed nice, but it was weird. She'd survived so many years without a mother that it was something she'd learned to do without. Plus, she was seventeen, not exactly a child. When they got married late this summer Miley would only have her senior year of high school left. But would she go to her senior year of high school?
Aunt Dolly sat.
"There's no easy way to do this bud." He began, taking out the notebook. "I only have a couple of questions. I hope that you'll tell me the story, not the details, but in general, but I understand if you can't."
"I..I think it would be too hard for me right now." She told him truthfully, "but I want to, eventually."
"I respect that." He told her, "so, just Q&A?"
"Q&A." she answered, taking the notebook. Q&A was a Stewart tradition. When something new came along, say, a new school year, instead of having the kids go on and on about their new classes and teachers, Robby would ask them to fill out a Q&A of everything he wanted to know.
Looking down at the sheet, Miley filled in the answered.
How far along?
About ten weeks.
Who's the father?
Jake Ryan
Who knows?
Just Lilly, you, and Aunt Dolly. I was planning on telling Jake next week.
What do you want to do about Hannah?
I'd really want to keep the secret. I don't want to give that up.
Do you want to go to college?
Yes, but I'm okay with waiting a few years.
She handed the paper back, and he read over it.
"We need to set up a doctor's appointment and tell the Ryans. I think I know a way to keep the Hannah secret, and I'm proud that you want to go to college." He told her. "I don't think we can talk about the future too much before we talk to the Ryans. We really have to talk to them sooner, rather than later. " the room was silent for a minute. "I'll invite them over for dinner on Friday, that gives you a week to tell Jake, fair?"
"Fair." Miley agreed.
Author's Note. This is a re-write of That Hannah Bell. I've re-read the story, and think that it's somewhat sugar-coated. The storyline is similar. There will be more coupling, more secrets, more drama, and more family in this version, but it is the same basic story. Please tell me what you think and comment on this story. If I don't update in more than, say, a week, please PM me and tell me to get my sorry butt moving on the next chapter, because that's the only way I'm updating at that point. Oh, and I have nothing wrong with guys who wear pink.
Click the button. If you don't know what to talk about, tell me about your first day of school.