The familiar scene of students mindlessly ambling around seemed to be the overlying motif of the lunch room. The students could not really be blamed for their actions since it was before noon time and anyone who has ever met a teenager knows that in general they don't really wake up until after school is over. Lilly, Miley, and Oliver were seated at their usual table discussing what had happened over the weekend while they consumed their lunches. Their seating arrangement was the usual: Miley was seated directly across from Lilly, who was seated to the right of Oliver.

Their table was seated in an inconspicuous corner of the lunchroom, close enough to the exit for them to easily escape when lunchtime was over but far enough away for them to not be bothered every time someone rushed into the room. They had arrived at this location through sheer serendipity, but were now deeply attached to their position. They had displayed the strength of this bond to the table during the great food fight of late February, but that is a story for another time.

As Miley drowned Lilly in all of the extravagant details of her date with Jake, Oliver railed against his natural tendencies and focused his attention on something other than Miley's voice. Two tables away a humongous senior dressed in a grey shirt overlapped slightly by dirty denim overalls was going through an elaborate ritual with his food. He had opened up a bag of potato chips and was sprinkling it liberally over an opened pita bread sandwich. As he began liberally adding alternating dollops of ketchup and hot sauce to the concoction Oliver could no longer resist the urge to call his friends' attention to the bizarre food preparation taking place.

Oliver tuned back into Miley's voice just in time to hear her exclaim, "And then he ran screaming back into the limo!"

As Lilly gasped in shock at Jake's retreat, Oliver reached across the table to touch Miley on the hand and beg her, "Repeat this story from the beginning, please."

After raising an eyebrow at Oliver's sudden interest, Miley shrugged slightly and said, "To make a long story short, Daddy paid Jackson to hide in the bushes and scare Jake when we were in front of the house."

After sending a silent prayer of thanks towards patron saint Robbie Ray, the boy asked, "So how did Jackson do it?"

Miley's eyes rolled at the mention of her brother, but she explained, "My brother had some kind of zombie costume arm that he used to grab Jake's leg."

"Jackson is a genius," Oliver muttered while he imagined Jake running away in a blaze of zombie slaying shame.

This sudden praise of Miley's brother raised an alarm for his friends. Lilly immediately reached up for Oliver's forehead with her right hand to check for a blazing fever. After confirming that he wasn't delirious she shook her head at Miley who followed up by asking Oliver, "Are you sure you're ok there, bud?" Oliver was too far gone in his fantasy of dressing up like a zombie and randomly popping out at Jake for him to notice the actions of the girls, however. After an additional couple of failed attempts at grabbing his attention, the girls labeled him a lost cause and continued with their conversation.

As Miley turned her attention to her peanut butter and jelly sandwich Lilly gushed, "That new skate park they've been working on for forever is finally opening this weekend!"

After swallowing her latest bite of sandwich, Miley asked, "The one they were making in the warehouse a couple towns over?"

Lilly nodded emphatically, paying no attention whatsoever to her chocolate pudding cup. "They've been building this one for ages! All of the magazines say the layout of the park is gnarly! Oh, and remember that contest they held back in July for talented spray painting artists?" Miley feigned knowledge of the event with a nod. "Well the winners from that contest were paid to help decorate the park."

Smiling at Lilly's agitated words and excited expression Miley asked, "So I take it you're going to make a trip to the skate park this weekend?"

Oliver was awakened from his daydreams as Lilly popped up from her seat and yelled out a resounding, "Yes!" The conversation experienced a pause as Lily shrunk back into her seat and waited for the surrounding tables to stop staring at her. After she was sure that she had shrunk off of the teenage radar she continued in a comparatively miniscule voice, "My Dad promised to drive me there on Saturday."

It seemed to Oliver that there was something off about Lilly's declaration. Even in its quieted state, there wasn't enough energy put into it. There was a slight indentation on her right cheek, suggesting that she was chewing on it absently. Her body was leaning forward slightly indicating that she was waiting for something. Realizing what she was waiting for, Oliver asked, "Do you want some company, Lilly?" The blonde girl favored him with her brightest smile as an affirmation for his question. Smiling back at his best friend, he said, "Sounds like I'll get to give my old skateboard a workout on Saturday."

"I'm not doing anything on Saturday, so if ya'll don't mind a wallflower next to the half-pipe, I'll come too," added Miley. After a moment of pondering, the girl admitted, "I didn't know that you skateboard, Oliver." After slowly glancing over at each other, Oliver and Lilly burst into uncontrollable laughter. As the bewildered frown formed on her face, Miley complained, "Which inside joke didn't I get this time?"

After their laughter had subsided, Oliver began, "When I was 10 I had a gigantic crush on a skater girl I noticed while … does the ground seem less stable to you guys?" Miley turned her attention from Oliver's words to the state of their lunch table. It was most noticeable in her cup of apple juice. There were ripples forming from the center of the drink and extending outward at a frighteningly increasing pace. This obvious signal of a stampede could only mean one thing.

As Oliver and Lilly stood up and began gathering their lunches Miley threw an apologetic smile their way. By the time they had cleared out of the table to their secondary position in the lunchroom, Jake had entered the room followed by his usual gaggle of adoring female fans. After spotting Miley in her usual position he turned on his 100-megawatt grin and marched over to her. The gaggle dispersed as soon as they saw he was heading towards his girlfriend. It ruined the illusion when the object of your undying devotion was focused on another girl.

After he had taken a seat across from Miley, Jake took a moment to look around the lunchroom and send nods of recognition or smiles at different people. It was a point of contention among her friends whether this was to increase his popularity with the student populace or impress Miley with his social connections. After he had finished his ritual, he leaned forward and asked, "So Miley, you remember that club I was telling you about last week?"

Miley's eyes shifted slightly as her memory tried to filter out the mass of words that were usually devoted to himself and find the small parcels that were not. "You mean that new club downtown that has a special section for teen celebrities?"

"The one and only," grinned Jake as he ran his hand through his blonde hair. "I was thinking you and I, minus my itchy wig, could check it out Saturday night."

Miley head was bouncing up and down excitedly even before Jake had mentioned the day. Hannah Montana had of course been invited to the club, but her dad had forbidden it due to the fact that the media was starved for new Hannah Montana information. She hadn't performed in concert recently to rest up her voice for the wave of public appearances that were due when her next album launched.

While Hannah Montana had grown older, the paparazzi had grown bolder. During her last concert, one cameraman had somehow snuck into her backstage bathroom and hidden underneath the counter. If Roxy hadn't been around, he would have been treated to a front row seat of Miley's wig touch-up. Because of incidents like that one, her father understandably didn't want to risk an appearance of Hannah Montana in a non-secured area.

If she arrived as Miley Stewart on the arm of Jake Ryan, however, her dad really wouldn't be able to complain. They had learned from previous experience that the paparazzi focused their cameras solely on Jake. This was thanks to Jake's publicists working around the clock. The media hadn't really taken to Miley since her runway fiasco last year, so it would be bad for Jake's business if the public found out that Jake was still going out with the crazy girl in the swan dress. The word in the paparazzi underground was that any paparazzo who sold a picture of Jake that included Miley in it would subsequently be blackballed by all of the major magazines due to the movie star's political clout.

As Miley tuned out Jake, who was currently regaling her with another tale about a place he had been to when he was shooting a movie, she realized that her date conflicted with her trip with Lilly. After carefully weighing the two against each other she came to the conclusion that Lilly wouldn't mind if she skipped a round of being a spectator. She would just have to apologetically text her the next time that Jake was occupied.

Lunch had just ended, releasing Lilly and Oliver back into the hallways. FST was up next, so they had a considerable walk ahead of them. They, with a heavy emphasis on Lilly, spent most of the walk talking about their plans for the skate park. They had begun the conversation with equal speaking rights, but Oliver's had been limited after his suggestion that they arrive at the skate park dressed up in black and white polka dot clothing with the words, "Malimoo Skate Duo" scribbled on the back. As they were rounding the corner for the final hallway, Lilly's phone stated in Miley's voice, "It's me, bud." Ignoring Oliver's envious stare at her cell phone, Lilly flipped it open to read the text message.

Oliver liked to play a little game when it came to Lilly's text messages. He had known her for so long that her face was an understandable language to him. The game was simple; he would take a peek at her face then guess what the message was about. After a quick scan of her face, he asked in an uncertain voice, "Did you win the lottery?"

Aware that her face was giving away her immediate feelings, Lilly forced a frown on her face as she answered, "No, Miley can't come with us on Saturday."

The young man immediately came to a stop, forcing Lilly to halt her forward motion and peer up at him questioningly. In a calm, not very inquisitive voice he asked, "What came up between now and five minutes ago?" The words were more of a stall than a concern, because the frown residing on Lilly's face was her special "I'm hiding something" mask. That text message had incited something inside her that she didn't want to share.

Lilly realized that Oliver was scanning every crease of her face now for a sign of the now invisible outburst of giddiness. If he kept it up, she would melt under the gaze of his deep brown eyes and be forced to reveal her joy at spending the day alone with him. Luckily, Miley had given her the perfect ammunition for this situation. It was a magic word, and it went along the lines of, "Jake."

Oliver's scanning gaze was effectively dispelled as a wave of jealousy overtook him. He proceeded into the FST classroom in a zombie like manner, his feet barely clearing the ground as he hunkered forward. It was such a convincing mimicry of a zombie that it probably would have frightened Jake if he had witnessed it. Lilly smiled slightly to herself before following the boy into the room. She knew she should feel guilty about forcing Oliver into a mindless state, but knowing how to push his buttons was a sign of their intimacy. The happiness she felt due to that realization far outweighed her feelings of guilt.

As she sat down at her desk next to a defeated Oliver, she sent a text to Miley forgiving her for breaking their plans; conveniently leaving out the fact that Miley had done her a tremendous favor. Once that was finished she glanced over at Oliver who had lain his head down on his desk. His head was turned away from her, so she was able to trace the outline of his head with her eyes without fear of being caught. She narrowly avoided a sudden urge to reach out and gently stroke his dark brown hair, fighting it down with the notion that it would be an inappropriate action for a best friend. For now, she contented herself with daydreaming about the upcoming Saturday.