"Miley, you go girl!" A random girl shouted out as Miley and Lilly walked in the front doors of the school. Lilly shot Miley a 'what-did-you-do' look, and Miley shrugged.
A few moments later, they were approached more random praisers, but for the reason, they didn't know.
"Hey, I heard about you and Austin, way to go!"
"Hey Miley, wanna come over to my house tonight? We can have more fun than you and Austin!"
"What's going on?" Miley demanded of the next person who walked by them.
"You really don't know what they're talking about? Wow, do you have short term memory loss or something?"
"No! Just tell me what's going on!"
"Well, everyone knows about what you and Austin did."
"...what did Austin and I do?"
"Oh my god. You really forgot!"
"Just tell us what Miley did!" Lilly growled.
"She had sex with Austin. Duh!"
"WHAT?!"
"Do you need to talk to the counselor? I mean, if you forgot, she can talk to your parents and your doctor. You can work something out..."
"I did not have sex with Austin!" Miley said angrily.
"Well," the girl said, "have fun explaining that to everyone here."
Okay, this is good. People actually believed me! Now, it's time for the second rumor. Oh, Miley, Miley, Miley... if only you'd listened to me. Then, we wouldn't have to do this...
"Miley!" Jake yelled, running to meet the girl at her locker. "Tell me that scumbag didn't hurt you."
Miley stared at Jake, completely dumbfounded.
"What scumbag?" Lilly pondered aloud.
"Austin," Jake answered through clenched teeth.
"Why would Austin hurt Miley? He's like, totally in love with her."
"Don't say that, Lilly, he's not in love with me!" Miley finally understood what was going on. "You heard the rumor, didn't you Jake?"
"Which one?"
"Wait... there's more than one?"
"Well... uh," Jake looked extremely nervous. "Just tell me the one you're talking about."
"The one where we supposedly had sex," Miley crossed her arms over her chest. "That's the one, right?"
"I'd love to say that is the rumor I heard, but it's not."
"Then which one did you hear?" Miley asked, clearly confused.
Oh crap. She doesn't know... I wouldn't want to tell her... she might get hurt, Jake thought to himself. She does have the right to know. Jake hesitated a moment, but then answered. "I heard that Austin raped you."
"What?! He did not rape me! He is the most caring, sweet, considerate guy I've ever known! How could you even think that he would hurt me like that?" Miley was fuming. She seemed out of breath, and unable to say another word without bursting into tears.
"Why does everyone think that Miley and Austin either had sex, or that Austin raped her? Who told you that?" Lilly demanded, allowing Miley to dry-sob on her shoulder.
"Oliver told me. He said he heard from Becca, who heard from Amber and Ashley, who heard from Josh, who heard from Johnny, who heard from..."
"Jake! Just shut up, okay? I'm getting to the bottom of this, and you're helping. Got it?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Miley turned back to her locker and took out her things. "Thanks you guys. I can't believe someone would hate me so much that they would actually say things like that about me!"
"It's no problem, Miley," Jake said. "But this person probably doesn't just hate you. They most likely hate Austin too. I mean, both of the rumors are about you and him."
"Good point!" Lilly said. "But who do we know that hates Austin?"
DING! DING! DING!
"Let's go. We can figure this out later."
All throughout school, the group of friends, now including Oliver, tried to figure out who'd started the rumors. That was nearly impossible though. How were they supposed to figure out who'd done it? It's not like the person would just walk up and say 'It was me!', then go run off and hope they were to mad at them, whoever it was.
It was after school now, and the four were just as confused as before. They were arranged around the living room with lists of who it could possibly be. They'd read a name aloud, and if the others thought they were a possible suspect, they'd put a star by their name.
"Could it be Amber and Ashley?" Miley offered. "They've always hated me."
"Maybe. I mean, I can imagine them starting rumors about you, but why would they hate Austin? Last I knew, they were both crushing on him pretty hard," Oliver said thoughtfully.
"No, they hate him now. Yesterday during Science, he turned both of them down for dates. I'm sure they'd want to get even, and this was probably the easiest way for them to do it." Lilly sighed. "But I don't think it was them. I mean, not many people knew about you and Austin agreeing to go on a date in the first place."
"Right," Jake supplied. "So it would have had to have been someone who's locker is near ours, or someone who could've overheard us talking while they were walking by."
"So who all was there?" Miley wondered. She thought back to yesterday, but couldn't really remember anyone being around.
"Well, there's us and Austin of course. But do you think Becca heard? Her locker's not that far down from ours," Lilly said.
"Maybe..."
"What about Yolanda?" Jake asked.
"Who?"
"What?"
"Huh?"
"You know, Yolanda. She's a part of my 'fan club'. The red-head with glasses and freckles." Jake answered in a 'duh' tone.
"Okay, well why could it have been her?" Oliver asked.
"Her locker's like two down from mine. She easily could have been there the whole time without us noticing."
"I don't think it was her. I mean, why would any of your fanclub want to do anything to hurt Miley? They all know how close you two are."
"Maybe they wanted to hurt Miley because I'm close to her."
"No, I'm telling you, it wasn't her!" Oliver shouted.
"How the hell do you know?" Jake demanded.
"Because, it was me!" Immediately after that outburst, Oliver's eyes went wide, and his hand flew to his mouth."Oliver, how could you?" Miley demanded. She was shaking with anger and your face was turning an intense shade of crimson.
"Well... I..." Oliver was shaking too, but out of fear, not anger. He'd never seen Miley that angry before, and it scared him. "I like you Miley. A lot. I know that may be hard fo you to except, but it's true."
"So you spread rumors about me being a slut out of what? Affection? Love? You know how shitty that is Oliver."
Oliver looked defeated. "Miley, it's not like that!"
"Then what is it like, Oliver?"
"It's... I was jealous of Austin, because of your date with him, and you're always talking to him in the halls. So, I thought that if you heard those rumors, you'd think he spread them to make himself seem cooler or something. I'm sorry."
"You said those things because you were jealous of Austin?" Jake asked incredulously. "That's pathetic, Oken."
"I know. And I've already said I was sorry. What else do I have to do?"
"Go die on a branch!" Lilly blurted out. After receiving odd looks from Miley, Oliver, and Jake, Lilly blushed slightly. "Heheh, sorry. I'm just feeling very vocal today."
"Why don't you go to school and convince everyone that me and Austin didn't have sex, and that Austin didn't rape me. Then, we can talk."
Oliver's face took on a much lighter, paler color. He gulped. "How am I gonna convince them that I was lying?"
"You figure it out. If you could figure out how to get them to believe you, you can figure out how to get them to think you're a lying bastard."
"Fine. Fine, I'll do it tomorrow." Oliver turned, and left.
"Jerk!" Jake yelled after him.
The next day all during school, people would walk by Miley and give her disbeleiving looks.
"You know, Oken was obviously lying. I mean, who'd want to have sex with that stupid hillbilly?" Ashley commented while walking by Miley's locker.
"Oh, I know," Amber added, doing her best to make sure that Miley could hear them perfectly. "I mean, she's just so... ew."
They then turned and act like they hadn't seen Miley all along.
"Oh, Miley... so we heard that you really didn't have sex with Austin," Amber said.
"That would be the truth," Miley said, crossing her arms. "Just wondering... who told you?"
"Oken, duh," Ashley said, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, thanks." Miley walked away, heading to Directed Studies. On the way there, she rain into - you guessed it - Oliver.
"Listen Oliver," she said. "I just overheard Amber and Ashley talking. They said that they were convinced that you lied. How'd you get them to believe you a second time?"
Oliver just grinned. "That's for me to know, and you to wonder about."
"That's so not fair!"
"Okay, fine, I'll tell you. Just... not right now." Oliver gestured towards the looming doors of the Directed Studies room which was getting closer every second.
"Alright, alright. I'll wait."
Oliver grinned. "Good. Cause I'm not telling you until after school."
Study Hall seemed to take forever to get over with. Miley was a bit unsure about whether or not she should forgive Oliver. She had given him her word, but could she really trust him now after all of this?
In an attempt to make time go by quicker, Miley sat next to Jake basically the whole time and doodled with him. They'd decided to draw a monster together, and Miley started first. She drew a slightly round (it was more square) body with odd looking globs coming out of the sides. Jake had drawn the hands, Miley the feet, Jake the head, and Miley the hair. With their absolutely wonderful work, they figured that the monster would be seen in horror movies everywhere starting that spring.
They just needed to come up with what kind of a creature he was and his name.
Jake had suggested Bob from The Deep Depths of Under Your Bed. Miley was forced to hold back laughter, but shook her head no. She then suggested Ralph from Inside Your Tube Socks. They couldn't agree on what to name him, so they did Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who would get to name him. Miley won, and he was therefor named Ralph from Inside Your Tube Socks.
The bell rang and they picked up their stuff, stacked their chairs since it was Friday, and went outside to wait for Oliver and Lilly. They didn't have a long time to wait though.
"Lilly!" Miley greeted. "You and Oliver have got to see Ralph."
The duo looked confused.
"Ralph?" Lilly asked.
"Who's Ralph?" Oliver countered.
"Ralph is the monster Miley and I drew," Jake said. "He's from Inside Your Tube Socks."
"Inside Your Tube Socks?" Oliver made a face. "That's the lamest name I've ever heard."
"I know! Jake agreed. "I wanted to name him Bob from The Deep Depths of Under Your Bed."
Oliver thought for a few seconds. "Yeah, Miley's is better."
They'd made it half way to their respective lockers before Miley remembered that Oliver had to tell her something.
"Hey, Oliver, tell me how you got the whole school to believe that Austin and I didn't have sex."
"Well, I just told Amber and Ashley that it was a lie. They were a bit skeptical at first, but then I reminded them of the rumor I started about you eating opossum, and they agreed with me, cause in their words 'Why would someone as hot as Austin want that hillbilly opossum eater?'. Then they started telling other people. So... sorry if some people start thinking you eat opossum again..."
"It's okay, Oliver. They stopped believing you after none of them saw me bring anything that looked like dead rodent to school for lunch."
"Yeah. I wasn't even a bit sure if you did or didn't eat opossum at first," Lilly said remembering that time in sixth grade.
"Wait a minute... Oliver told the whole school that you ate opossum?" Jake asked. "Why?"
"...I didn't know her then."
Jake rolled his eyes. "Whatever.""So... that movie was interesting," Miley said. She was at Austin's house for their date and had just gotten done watching Date Movie. For being talked about so much, the movie wasn't really all that great.
"Yeah. I think the best part was probably the part where Alyson Hannigan's character found out that Andy was a girl," Austin added.
"Mhm." Miley nodded. "The beginning was pretty funny too. With the whole 'Pimp My Ride' makeover, and the dating show."
"I didn't see that part. I guess I was too busy watching you..." Austin said smiling slightly.
Miley blushed and smiled. "Well did you enjoy watching me?"
"Very much. It was probably more entertaining than watching the movie."
There was a silence. Miley blushed even harder. Looking down at her feet, her cheeks seemed to go back to their normal color before she said anything. "You're so sweet, Austin." She looked back up at him. "Almost too sweet."
"Well, I try," he answered. And slowly, eyes closed, lips puckered, he leaned in to kiss Miley.
He's gonna try to kiss me, Miley thought to herself. Should I let him? No, I can't let him kiss me. I don't really like him. I... I still like Jake! And then it was the last second. The second where she had to choose. Kiss him, or don't. She turned her head to the side so his lips met her ear lobe.
"I'm sorry Austin," Miley stammered. "I can't kiss you. It's nothing personal, I just..."
"I know, I know," Austin cut her off. "You still like Jake. It's okay Miley. No hard feelings, I promise. But I don't think I'm the one you should be telling this to."
"Thanks for the date!" Miley hugged Austin before jumping up and gathering her things. With a wave, and her shoes in her hand, she ran out the door and the few blocks to the beach.
The feel of the cool sand between her toes was oddly relaxing. Miley slowed down to a walk. She looked out at the ocean for a moment to watch the moonlight reflect off the deep blue water. But she couldn't stop for long. It was getting late, and who knew how many weirdos were lurking on the beach at night?
Miley just kept walking and made it home in no time. She walked in the front door and up the stairs to her room, dropping her things by her door as she sat on her bed and got out her cell phone. She flipped it open and looked at the time. It said 8:14. Not too late. As she set her phone on her bed and got ready to lay back and think things through, the cell vibrated. Flipping it open for the second time in less than a minute she saw that it was Jake.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Hannah, it's Jake. I was invited to this party tonight and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me?"
A party Hannah wasn't invited to? That's weird. Miley thought.
"Well, where is it?"
"It's at this friend of mine, Evan Standerheim's house."
"I don't know Jake. I mean, I don't think I've ever heard of this guy. Besides, no one else is home, I wouldn't have a way to get there."
"I can pick you up, no problem. Can I actually see your house this time?"
"No Jake, sorry. But there is a beach close to my house. There's this little restaraunt there, Rico's. I'm sure you've been there a few times..."
"Yeah, I know where it is. So do I pick you up there?"
"Uh huh, that would be great."
"Alright, I'll be there in a half an hour."
"Awesome. Oh, and Hannah, Evan's not a bad guy. He's really great."
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye."
Miley hung up and ran into her Hannah closet. She had to get dressed fast.
She was dressed in a light blue long sleeve shirt with a matching blue and green flowered tanktop over it. She wore blue jeans with H's on the butt pockets and her black boots. Oh, and, of course, the Hannah wig.
She'd barely been at Rico's for five minutes when she saw a dark figure coming towards her from the shadows. Miley squinted, barely being able to make out who it was.
"Hannah! Is that you?" a voice called out. A very familiar voice... Jake's!
"Jake!" Miley waved and waited until he was closer. "How are you?"
"I'm great. Thank you so much for coming with me. Evan's great and all, but the party would be nothing without a teen pop sensation."
"Aw, you're making me blush!"
"Should we get going then?"
Miley nodded and allowed herself to be led to Jake's limo with his arm around her shoulders.
When they got to Evan's house, Miley found that it was full of people. A lot of the people she had never seen before, but some, she had met.
A girl with long brown hair and a high nasally voice walked up to Hannah and greeted her. "Hannah! It's so good to see you! Ooh, Jake Ryan? Are you two dating?"
"Whoa, Traci, calm down. We're just friends!" Miley said nervously. "Well..." she shot a look at Jake who wasn't even paying attention. He was talking to a boy about his age who Miley assumed to be Evan. "we're just friends for now."
Traci squealed. "You two would be great together!"
"Yeah, I know."
Then, Traci spotted someone who was much more interesting than Hannah and left, waving. "Tootles!"
"Evan," Jake said, noticing that Traci was gone, "I'd like to introduce you to someone who is a very good friend of mine." He turned to Miley. "This is Hannah Montana. Hannah, meet Evan."
The two shook hands. "It's nice to meet you Hannah," Evan said. Miley couldn't help noticing how much he looked like Jake. They had the same bone structure, same eyes, and were even close to the same height. The only difference was that Evan had dark brown hair.
"You too. I love your house," Miley said.
"Thanks. Hey, I gotta go greet some more guests. I'll talk to you guys later, alright?"
"Okay, bye," Jake said. After evan left, Jake led Miley to a couch so they could sit.
"So, Miley, like the party so far?"
"Yeah, it's pretty cool."
"Well that's good."
"How did you meet Evan?"
"We were shooting a movie together. The director thought it was so weird that we looked alike, so he had us play the same person, but different personalities. Like, the character was crazy or something..."
And Jake went on and on. Miley found it extremely boring, so she just tuned him out, nodding and saying "Yeah" or "Okay" every once in a while. Jake didn't even seem to notice that Miley wasn't paying attention. Does that boy ever get sick of talking about himself? Miley wondered.
After a few minutes, Miley was becoming bored. She looked around, but couldn't find anyone else she knew.
"Jake, I need to talk to you... somewhere else."
"Why, what's wrong?"
"We just need to talk."
Miley got up and dragged Jake across the living room. They went upstairs and Miley searched for an empty room. Finding one, she lead Jake in.
"Whoa, slow down babe," Jake said amused. "Let's get to know each other first."
Miley locked the door of the room and flipped the light on. She turned to Jake with a disgusted look on her face and she muttered 'pig' under her breath. She took a look around the room and saw that it had a bed against the far wall. The bed was covered in an odd purple, pink, and blue pazlie design. The walls of the room were all painted light purple. There was a shelf on one wall filled with stuffed animals. Another shelf on the opposite wall filled with glass figurines of ballerinas and snow globes. This was obviously a little girls' room.
She looked at Jake again. "Jake, why do you always have to talk about yourself?"
"You don't like it when I talk about myself? But everyone else does," Jake sat on the bed and looked at Miley with confused look plastered on his face.
"No! Do you just think about yourself all the time? Are you really that stuck up and I've just never noticed before?" Miley demanded.
"I only think about myself. I mean, come on, what else is there to think about?"
"Gee, I don't know, other people's feelings? School? Wars?"
"I didn't know those things were important to you," Jake said looking down at his feet.
"Well obviously you didn't! You don't listen to anyone but yourself! You're so stuck up, Jake! Can't you just grow up?" Miley glared at Jake. "And you know, if you'd paid a bit more attention to me, maybe you'd have realized that..."
Jake looked up, surprised that the string of insults had stopped flying. He saw that Miley's eyes were slowly filling with tears that almost fell over the brims until she reached up and wiped them away. "I would've realized what? Hannah, are you okay?"
Miley drew in a long shuddering breath and sighed. "You would have realized that... that I'm Miley." She reached up and tugged off the long blonde wig and her brown hair showed instead.
"It's about time, Miles," Jake said. He patted the space on the bed next to him. "Sit down, we need to talk."
Miley didn't move. "Excuse me?"
"I already knew you were Hannah. Now sit down, Miley."
She hesitated, then sat down next to him. "How did you know I was Hannah?" she asked quietly.
Jake put an arm around her and sighed. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you, my dear, are the one and only, teen pop sensation, Hannah Montana. You've got the same gorgeous eyes, same voice, you're around the same height, you've got the same face shape..."
"Okay, okay, I get it. But why didn't you tell me you knew before? It would've saved me a bunch of heartache if you'd told me you'd known all along." Miley gasped suddenly. "That's why you called me Miley earlier isn't it?"
Jake nodded. "I didn't think you'd noticed because you didn't say anything. But, Miley, I just wanted to see if you'd tell me on your own. I wanted to see if you could trust me." He suddenly turned sad. "I guess you can't, though. I don't even know why I had bothered with you." Jake stood up to leave, but Miley pulled him back down.
"Jake, stop. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I don't just tell everyone I'm Hannah. I had to make sure I could trust you, and if you hadn't 'cheated on me' with Hannah, I would have told you. I was actually planning on telling you the day you canceled our date."
"Really?"
"Yeah. But I should have told you sooner. I guess I wasn't a very good girlfriend..."
"No, I wasn't a very good boyfriend. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Jake."
Someone rattled the door handle and there was a loud banging on the door. "Hey, you guys done there?!" they yelled.
"Get lost!" Jake yelled back. "If we were done we would've come out already!"
Jake looked at Miley. "I love you, Miley."
"I love you too, Jake. So can we get back together now?"
"Alright, as long as you promise me one thing." Jake smiled at Miley.
"What's that?"
"No secrets. From here on out, we have to be completely truthful with each other. Got it?"
Miley nodded. Leaning forward ever so slightly, she caught Jake's lips in a light, romantic kiss. She knew from that point on that everything was going to be okay.
THE END
