Chapter Three; School

A short elder lady came walking into the class room with her clipboard of all the students name's on it. She set her brief case down beside her desk and then she herself sat down as well. "Alright, class…I'm Mrs. Tavera. I will be teaching you the importance of our environment." Everyone groaned. Learning about the environment was beyond boring, it was torture.

The short women shook her head. Groaning was one of the many things that had irked her. "There will be absolutely no groaning in this classroom." She said, demandingly.

Time went on as she explained all the rules of her classroom and the expectations. As it got closer to the end of the period she had everyone get into a group of four, so they could all get to know each other. "Alright, the first group is uh…Miley Stewart, Lilly uh no last name here, Renee Sharter, and Amber Ringo."

Once she finished calling all the groups, all the students had found their group and sat in a circle with them. Miley made sure her younger sister was right beside her, of course. She hadn't let the girl out of her sight at all and didn't plan on doing so either. The other two girls in their group were both popular and treated neither girl with any respect.

"Ewe, I can't believe you decided to come back here tomboy." The girl with the darker colored skin said as the other snickered in the background. "I know, I mean you're the biggest loser of the school."

Miley glared at them both. She couldn't understand why these people could be so rude to the blonde girl. Lilly was the sweetest little thing, she and her family had ever met! And these horrible teenagers were treating her as if she were a piece of dirt you picked up from the ground. "Leave my little sister alone, both of you." The brunette gritted her teeth angrily at the two. She felt the younger girl, sitting beside her, scoot closer to her trying to hide from their partners. Miley turned to her in sympathy as she gathered her in her arms. "I won't let them upset you, sweetie." She whispered softly into her ear.

****

It was almost lunch time and the two sisters couldn't wait. The classes were so long that they literally could have fallen asleep in them. And to make it even worse, almost every person there was rude to the girls. That was until they came across a girl named Destiny.

She had been the only person there so far that had really made them feel welcomed there. The generous thing had even offered for them to sit at the lunch table with her. Of course both of them agreed, thanking her tremendously.

As they sat in their seats during the last couple of moments of homeroom, the blonde rested her head on the desk tired from getting up as early as they had. Miley was worried that something was wrong with her so she wrapped an arm around her shoulder to comfort her. "You okay, Lil?" Concerned written all over the elder sister's face. Lilly nodded as she anxiously waited for the bell to ring.

After the sisters purchased their lunches from the cafeteria they followed Destiny to her table, taking a seat beside one another. Besides the three of them at the table, the only person sitting there was a boy that Lilly had soon recognized. She studied the boy's facial features carefully; he hadn't really changed a bit. She smiled to herself.

"Oliver Oken is that you?" The blonde girl spoke somewhat cheerfully which had put a shocked look on both Miley and Destiny's faces. The older girl had never heard her sister speak as happy as she had only moments ago.

The boy looked over at her, noticing his long lost best friend sitting at his table, whom he hadn't seen in years. A huge smile came spreading across his face while he made his way over to his friend, pulling her into a tight a hug. "Oh my Lils, I've missed you so effing much! What happened? I mean after sixth grade you just disappeared…" Lilly looked down remembering that horrid night.

****

It was a dark, cloudy evening when the Truscott's had gotten into their old rattled up station wagon. But that hadn't ruined their family outing. Lilly couldn't wait until they got to their summer house down in Malibu, CA. She had been waiting for this trip since the beginning of the school year and now that it was here she was ecstatic as ever.

"Buckle up, baby. It's gonna be a long, bumpy trip." Her mother, Rosanna, said as she looked through the rearview mirror at their precious daughter who buckled her seat belt enthusiastically. She smiled at the blonde girl in the back seat; she and her husband Richard were blessed to have such a beautiful, sweet daughter. And Lilly was just as blessed to have such amazing parents to take care of her.

As the sky grew darker and the roads were bumpier, it became much harder for Richard to drive. The car started shaking along the road and soon it was out of control. Unfortunately the next thing they knew the car was smashed into a tree and both Richard and Rosanna were dead. On the other hand, in the back seat of the car sat a screaming Lilly who was smothered in blood that had dripped from her head.

The girl tried to get out of the car but her legs and arms were too weak to move. So the only thing she was able to do was scream for help though she had figured that nobody would be outside this late especially not where they were located. But little did she know a woman was driving by and saw the crash, so she walked over to the car.

"Is anybody in the car alive?" The woman asked as she was rushing over. Lilly screamed louder so she could try to get the woman's attention.

Fortunately the woman heard her and rushed over to see a small little girl who was covered in blood and glass. She gasped at the horrid sight. "Oh my Lord." She whispered as she tried to help the girl to get out of the shattered car. After a few pushes she finally got the blonde girl out and wrapped her in her arms while pulling out her cell phone to call an ambulance. "Don't you worry little girl, I'm gonna get you some help sweetheart." The woman spoke soothingly to her. And soon the girl was off to the hospital.

At the hospital, three hours after the accident, a nurse walked in with a defeated look on her face. She took a seat beside the shaken up girl and put a hand on her arm. "How are you feeling, honey?" The nurse asked softly to the little girl lying in the bed with fresh tears in her eyes.

"Everything hurts." She sobbed out. "Where are my parents?"

The nurse looked down. It was going to be hard having to tell the poor thing about her mother and father being gone but she had to tell her the truth, no matter how upsetting it was for her. She wrapped a gentle arm around her shoulder. "I hate to have to tell you this sweetie pie, but your parents…there gone." With that the blonde broke into horrifying sobs as her body shook with sadness. Her parents were dead. She had nothing left.

****

"Lilly, come on, wake up sweetie." The brunette girl said, as she continuously ran her hand softly through the girl's hair. She was worried to death about the poor thing, still not understanding why Lilly had passed out or even what had caused her to.

After a few more moments passed by Lilly's eyes shot open as tears began to streak down them. She was unaware of where she was located and began thrashing around while her older sister tried to calm her down. Miley wrapped her arms tightly around the blonde's waist. "Oh God, honey what's wrong? Huh? I'm right here Lilly, I won't let anything bad happen to you. I promise. Shh." She tried to soothe the thrashing girl but failed miserably.

Without being able to help the girl, the school nurse came in and glance at both girls. Then she looked over towards the older one. "What's happened to her?" Miley sighed as she shrugged. She had no clue as to why her sister was acting like this. It's not like she blamed her though, the poor girl had had a rough past but she hated to see her baby sister thrash out in this way. She had guaranteed that was from her bottling up her emotions from their family all the time.

The nurse sighed sadly, watching the girl thrash out. In all of the time she had been a nurse here, she'd never in all of her career ever seen a student act up as Lilly had. Although it most likely wasn't the girl's fault. "I'll call your parents and tell them to come get her, alright?" Miley nodded as she rocked the girl back and forth in her arms.

Miley ran her hand gently up and down her sister's back. "Shh, you're okay sweetie. You're okay."

Soon enough Robbie and Susan had come running into the nurse's office with their brother and sister behind them. All of them including Jackson had concerned expressions on their faces. Susan rushed to her daughter, wrapping her in her arms as tight as she could, hoping it'd be tight enough to stop her from shaking.

"Lilly, calm yourself sweetheart. You're gonna give yourself a heart attack." Their mother said as she held her tight trying to stop the shaking. She looked over to her other daughter with a questioning look. "What happened, Miles?"

The girl sighed. She hadn't really known what had happened, although she thought it may have been from her thoughts of the accident. "I really don't know, mama. Her friend from a while back asked her a question about what happened and she just completely shut down. I've been trying to wake up for the past hour, it wasn't until about a few moments that she finally awoken."

****

Once they had left with Lilly, her parents insisted she stay, Miley headed back to class to see their new friend staring at her with concern. "Hey, Miley, is your sister okay?" She asked looking around for her. The brunette shook her head while she sat down beside Destiny who placed a gentle hand on her arm. "Poor thing's had such an awful past, she had just finally begun to open up to me but after today I'm sure that's not going to be happening again any time soon."

The other girl gave her a sympathetic look, feeling bad for what had happened. She decided maybe to make things feel better for the two girls is for them to get away from their house and hang out with friends. "Aww, that's sad." She said softly to the girl. "Hey…you know what I have an idea that might help you two take your mind off things. How about you guys come to my house over the weekend so we can hang out? My folks are gone for the week, business trip and all. Plus I can sense you two need some time away from your house."

Miley smiled at the sweet offer and agreed to it, she definitely knew that Lilly should have some time away from the house before things got too crazy for her and she had really thought they could become real good friends with Destiny.

"We'd love to." She smiled softly at the new friend she and her sister had made.

****

Miley rushed into her house, ran up the stairs, and into her room pulling Lilly into her arms. "Hey sweetie, you feelin' better?" The blonde nodded sleepily into her arms. Her sister smiled at her while pressing a kiss onto her cheek. "Well, that's good. God Destiny and I were so worried about ya Lils."

The blonde rested her head onto the elder girl's chest, sighing. "I'm sorry." She felt horrible for passing out like she did, of course she knew it wasn't her fault but she hated that she ruined their lunch with their new friend. Lilly hated herself for everything she'd done. And secretly she had wished she were the one who died in the crash and not her parents.

Her sister kept her arms wrapped around her so the girl could be comfortable and she then caressed her cheeks. "Lils, honey, you have nothing to apologize for." She said softly as she continued to caress the girl's cheek. "It's not your fault you passed out."

The girls just sat there like that for moments without saying anything until Miley remembered the plans she had made with Destiny about the three of them hanging out over the weekend. "Hey Lil?" She asked gently, caressing the girl's arm continuously. Lilly looked up at her, "Yeah?"

"You do like Destiny, right?" Lilly nodded, confused of why she was asking that. "Okay. Well she asked if the two of us would like to go over to her house this weekend and hang out. So I told her we would. Is that fine?" The blonde girl grinned while nodding her head.

The last time she was able to go over a friend's house to hang out with them was when she was only eleven. And the last friend she hung out with before that awful night had been Oliver. So when her sister had told her this she couldn't help but be ecstatic.

Miley smiled at the girl, engulfing her into a tight hug. "Good. Cause' you could definitely use some time to take your mind off everything." The other girl laughed, it sure had felt great to have a family that cared for herself again. Even if they weren't her real parents. But fortunately for her they acted almost exactly as her birth parents had. It was even better to have three really terrific siblings as well, though Jackson didn't really say much to her but she could tell that he wasn't hating on her.

She rested her head happily onto her elder sister's chest, with a soft smile on her face. "I never thought that having a new family would actually be a good thing." She said as the older girl pressed a kiss to her forehead. "And I never knew I would end with such an amazing sister as yourself." Lilly smiled, happy with her new life finally.