3
Jackson had noticed the eighteen-inch TV in his upstairs bedroom during his last cleaning effort. He rarely watched TV on it as long as he had the big screen downstairs in the main room. A little more cleaning for Jesse's sake and Jackson discovered he had a DVD player as well to play movies. This meant they could play movies upstairs as well as downstairs. Unfortunately, the route from the bedroom to the kitchen was a bit longer. The solution: move the food closer to the TV!
"I brought my DVDs from home." Jesse sipped a can of root beer between helping Jackson raid the fridge. "Have you ever seen Night of the Demons?"
"Uh-uh…" Jackson sounded with a pork chop held in his teeth.
"You won't believe what this girl does with a tube of lipstick." Jesse placed his hand on Jackson's shoulder. "And in the sequel, this one girl's…. Oh, you got to see it to believe it!"
"I love horror movies!" Jackson squealed out loud grabbing up a night of snacks and food to last them the night. He started stacking and piling up the things he wanted to take with him. If only he could pull the bathroom closer to his room. "I got the deviled eggs, hot pockets, hot dogs and leftover hamburgers." Jackson crowded his arms with food. "I'll run up first, and you bring the bucket of chicken, bags of chips and four bottles of soda! Got it?"
"Got it!" Jesse turned to gather up his supplies as Jackson headed up first. As he picked up the bucket of chicken from the bottom of the refrigerator, he noticed little over half of a large chocolate cake in a plastic cake container. Taking that too, he placed it over the bucket of chicken and then set it briefly on the island counter to wrap his arms around it and the sodas as he clenched his fingers around the tips of the bags of chips. He was going to do okay carrying this stuff, but as he gathered his bearings to head out, he heard sounds at the top of the stairs. He froze where he was, and tried to think of something to do. He could not let himself get busted raiding the fridge by Jackson's father! He lowered himself down behind the oven out of sight. His eyes peeked out over the range top at Lily wearing a green wig and purple dress with a lot of extra jewelry. Miley was in her Nashville-chic look with her golden blonde Hannah wig on her head as she partially checked the room. The coast looked clear to her. Jesse just watched from just out of sight. She was Hannah again! He knew it! He just knew it! Despite all their chicanery and illusions, he knew she was Hannah… and he couldn't do a thing about it!
"We're doing it!" Hannah silently cheered to Lily. They saw no sight of Jesse! "We're doing it!" She adjusted her wig again. "Come on, the limo is waiting for us at the bottom of the hill!"
"I just thought of something." Lily stopped short. "Why didn't we just change at my house?" Hannah stopped and glared back at her.
"Now you come up with an alternate plan?" Hannah snapped at her harmlessly and pushed her from the house. They started away from the house and down the driveway covered by a canopy of tree limbs for the limo. "Britney, here we come! I hear Orlando Bloom and Lindsay Lohan will be there!"
"Hello, Lindsay…" Lily started practicing her voice for meeting big celebrities and pulled the door shut behind her. Behind her, Jesse stood up straight again. Still in love with her, he followed in Lily's footsteps a few feet trying to see her off with Miley as their alter egos. He then backed up again, his fingers tensing on the tips of the bags of chips while balancing the cake on the bucket of chicken and turned in his bare feet up the stairs up to Jackson's room. As he turned the corner, he discovered Jackson busted and standing in the hall with his father.
"Oh, sweet niblets!" Robby looked at his son's partner in crime. Jesse tried to back out of sight, but instead realized he was caught and continued onward. "Did you guys leave me anything to eat down there?" Robby looked them over. Jesse and Jackson looked at each other.
"The vegetables…" Jackson answered.
"A carton of eggs." Jesse recalled. All Robby could do was shake his head. He noticed Jesse with his cake.
"Give me that back!" He took it from him. "At least you two can keep it quiet. Don't wake up Miley or Lily…"
"They left." Jesse revealed. "They went out. I heard them say something about going over to Lily's house…" He found himself covering for Miley and didn't mention anything about her dressed as Hannah to see Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. All Robby could do was look at him like a dad.
"Fine…" He took a deep breath. "Then don't make any noise to wake me up. My cake and I will be downstairs."