A/N: I feel like it's been forever and a day since I even thought about my alphabet challenge for myself. I'm sorry it took so long to get going on this. I just couldn't decide what to do with it. The word this time around was suggested by multiple people, but I think IheartORANGE was the first one, so this installment is thanks to her. This one is definitely more trio oriented than just Lilly too, but, oh well. I have a couple of things in mind for the next few letters, but if anyone has any suggestions, don't hesitate to throw them out there. They are always appreciated, even if I don't end up using them.

G is for gummy bears.

"I'll trade you a snickers for those red hots."

"No way. I love red hots."

"Okay, two snickers."

"He's not gonna give them up Miley, you might as well just drop it."

Miley threw an exasperated look across the table at Lilly and continued to sort her candy. She had a pile designated for chocolate, another for gum, one for lollipops, and then there were the assorteds. Some of them she didn't even recognize.

Lilly watched her work, then dumped her own haul in her section of the kitchen table. A few pieces of bubblegum in blue and yellow wrappers spilled into a pile that included the coveted red hots, and Lilly giggled as Oliver leaned far back in his own chair.

"Lilly! Get that away from my candy!" Oliver's lip curled back in disgust and he made a shooing motion with the hand that was not clutched around a small bag of skittles. If the pieces of gum had been a fly, that might have worked. As it was, the waving of his hand only served to make the puffed up sleeve of his shirt that he had tried to roll up fall back down around his wrist.

"Relax, it's not like it's been chewed yet," she said to him, snatching up the pieces and depositing them on the other side of the pile.

Oliver pointed to his own candy and gestured for Lilly to continue degumming his treats. She just rolled her eyes and picked the gum out of the pile. She handed him two caramel apple lollipops in exchange for the eight pieces of gum she removed. It had been the standard deal with them since they began spending Halloween together when they were five. Oliver got all the caramel and/or apple candy and she got anything that had gum in it.

"Hey, how come Lilly gets all that?" Miley protested as she watched him fork over a handful of lollipops with gum in the middle. All Lilly gave him was another two caramel apple lollipops, and a green apple flavored jolly rancher.

"She's grandfathered in," Oliver explained. "She argued about how fair it was when we were five. She was saving me from the gum. It's easier to not fight with her about it." He shrugged his shoulders and Lilly nodded her head in satisfaction.

As far as Lilly was concerned, the Apple-Gum treaty, as she liked to call it, was the best deal her five-year-old self had ever made. Every year she ended up with more candy than Oliver because half of their neighborhood usually bought candy with gum in it. It was the perfect way to earn more sweets. Miley, however, was not having it.

"But that's not fair. What if I would have traded you something better for it?" She gave Oliver a pointed look, and Lilly started laughing. Miley had no idea what she was getting into.

"What could possibly be better than this?" Oliver asked her sharply, holding up one of the bright green lollipops covered in caramel coating. His fingertips gripped the top of the cellophane surrounding it and he stared at it almost reverently.

"Red hots," Miley stated triumphantly, quickly changing her tactics and pulling the crown she had been wearing from her brown curls with one hand and showing him one of his favorite candies with the other.

"That's not fair!" Oliver looked torn. He really wanted to keep the red hots. No one gave those out anymore. On the other hand, he didn't want to lose out on a chance at caramel and apple goodness either. In his opinion, there was nothing like a caramel apple lollipop. Best invention ever. Next to the skateboard. Or maybe the surfboard. He looked at Lilly, expecting her to offer up some sort of advice, but she was busy scanning their piles to see if there was anything else she wanted to trade.

Miley tapped her plastic crown impatiently on the table.

"Fine!" Oliver picked up the two very tiny boxes of cinnamon candy and made the trade.

"Oliver!" Lilly suddenly exclaimed.

"What?"

He and Miley both turned to look at Lilly in alarm, thinking something was seriously wrong. Her eyes were wide and her lips slightly parted. The effect was a little startling since she had so much pale make up on her face. For the first time that night, Oliver actually thought she looked a little zombie-like.

"You didn't tell me you have," she paused to reach across him and move some of the wrappers in front of him out of the way, "seven of the little bags of gummy bears! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Is he supposed to clear his candy through you?" Miley asked her curiously.

Lilly narrowed her eyes at Miley. Obviously Miley, who she thought knew her almost as well as Oliver after over a year of friendship, knew nothing of what constituted the perfect haul on Halloween.

"Anything with the word 'gum' in it, remember?' Lilly asked Oliver sweetly when she turned back to him.

His forehead wrinkled and he thought about it. "But… I don't think gummy bears actually have gum in them."

"They're chewy… like gum," Lilly tried to tell him in the same sweet tone she used before, her eyes wide and innocent again, but she faltered a bit in her reasoning.

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "Do you think it's made out of the same stuff?" He poked one of the small bags with his finger, testing the consistency of the little bears inside.

"Absolutely," Lilly said, just as Miley remarked, "Not a chance."

"Lilly, come on, there's no way gummy bears have gum in them," Miley added, rolling her eyes.

Lilly glared at the girl she had decided would be her friend last year. Miley was really not getting this. It was gummy bears! Her third favorite candy, ever, and something that almost no one thought of using at Halloween. It wasn't exactly the first treat that came to mind when you thought of the pseudo-holiday where kids focused on candy and scare tactics.

"Miley," Lilly said through gritted teeth, "don't you remember that movie last week, with the gummy worms?" Lilly waited for her words to sink in.

Not too long ago the three friends had decided to go see a movie together, and Oliver had tried to steal Lilly's sour gummy worms half way through. They were, of course, her favorite, number one on the list, and always best enjoyed while watching a scary movie. In order to get Oliver to stop taking them from her, she had informed him that they were made out of the same things that could be found in bubble gum, and did he really want to risk getting one that had not been made properly? What if they put the gum ingredients in one batch, not the worms? Lilly reasoned with him, that really, she was only looking out for his best interest. Miley had gone along with all of it, knowing that the blue raspberry and green apple worms were Lilly's favorite. Besides, Oliver already had his own container of those chocolate covered cookie dough pieces. He really did not need any more candy that night.

"Ooohh, right." Miley nodded her head, now understanding just where Lilly was going with this. "I completely forgot that they were made with the same ingredients."

"See?" Lilly asked Oliver.

He narrowed his eyes, looking back and forth between the two girls, now a little suspicious, and placed one of his hands protectively over the bags of bears. Truth be told, he had kind of been suspicious at the movies as well, but everyone around them had been telling them to be quiet, so he decided to let it go instead of getting thrown out of the theater.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the appearance of a teenage boy dressed completely in black at the bottom of the staircase. He was armed with a pack of toilet paper.

"Whatdya think you're doing?" Miley asked her brother.

"I'm going to a party with Coop," Jackson told her quickly, shoving the toilet paper behind his back. "This is my costume."

Lilly and Oliver both laughed, but Miley was most definitely not amused.

"You are goin' to be in so much trouble!" she told Jackson, rising from the table.

"Oh, come on, Miles, we're just havin' a little fun. You'd wanna have fun too if Kunkle was your science teacher."

While Miley was distracted by Jackson's attempt at a puppy dog pout and his pleading with her to not tell their dad, Lilly inched her hand closer to Oliver's, hoping to be able to at least swipe one of the bags of gummy bears from him. She thought he would have his attention on the bickering siblings, but apparently she miscalculated, because his other hand closed over hers just as her fingertips inched on to the hand he had covering the candy.

"Oliver, come on, please?" Lilly tried. "You know I love gummy stuff."

"It doesn't really have gum in it, does it?" Oliver asked, keeping both of his hands firmly clamped down, one on the pile of bags, one on Lilly's hand, while she tried to wiggle her fingers free.

She huffed and stopped trying to free her hand. "No."

"I knew it!" If he hadn't been so intent on making sure that Lilly could not take any of his candy, he would have pumped his fists in the air in victory.

Lilly rolled her eyes and asked again, "so, can I have one, just one?"

"No way. You've exhausted your trading privileges this year."

"You sound like your mom."

"I'm going to go ahead and take that as a compliment since you like her so much."

"It wasn't one."

"It should've been."

"Ugh. Oliver!"

"Lilly!"

"Do your friends always hold hands when they're fighting over candy?" Jackson asked Miley. He had given up on trying to convince her not to tell their dad, figuring he was just going to have to leave soon, so he at least had the chance to participate in the festivities at his least favorite teacher's house before Miley gave him up to the old man.

"No, sometimes Lilly pinches him too."

They watched as Lilly tried to pry Oliver's hand from her own. The two of them were still arguing.

"Oliver, you're squishing my fingers."

"Maybe you shouldn't have tried to steal from me."

"I wasn't stealing! I'll trade you something!"

"I don't see anything I want."

"Oh, really?"

"Really."

'What about…"

"No."

Jackson laughed at the expression on Lilly's face. Sometimes his sister's friends were more entertaining than their family back home.

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you," Miley told him out of the corner of her mouth. "You should see them when they really get going. It could get ugly."

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"Cause I don't want anything!"

Lilly gave up on the arguing and stopped trying to loosen the grip of his fingers from her own. She was just going to have to attempt a different tactic. She snaked her free hand around to his side and started tickling him.

"Lilly! Not fair!"

Oliver jerked his body away from her, but since he was still trying to protect his candy with both hands, he didn't get very far.

"Just let go of my hand!" Lilly yelled at him.

Oliver was laughing hysterically now, and he did let go of her hand, but only to use his hand to launch an assault of his own on her side.

"Well, at least they aren't killing each other," Miley remarked shrugging her shoulders.

"Ah, young love," Jackson sighed as he made his way to the back door.

"Love? You really do have something wrong with your head, you know," Miley called after him. She watched Lilly for a second. Love? Nah. Lilly just liked to antagonize him. And Oliver never knew when to give up. She winced as a few of Lilly's pieces of gum rolled from the top of the table and on to the floor when she tried to back away from Oliver. Miley groaned, then shouted, "guys, be careful! You're going to mix all the candy together!"