Chapter 9 is here! Yay! And there's a lot of stuff going on in here, some Loe, some Niley, more drama…And major props to bbymojo for the idea for the second little section of this chapter! And as usual, thanks so much for all the reviews/alerts/favorites. Can I thank you enough? Not possible. Anyway, here's chapter 9! I hope you enjoy!

I still don't own Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers. Shocking, I know, but I'm working on it.

JLJLJLJLJL

Chapter 9

Lilly took a deep breath as she admired herself in the mirror. She definitely had to hand it to the hair and makeup people. She had never looked this good. She was wearing a gold, knee-length, strapless dress with a fitted bodice and a fluffy, almost tutu-like skirt of layered tulle. It was pretty, but it kind of made her think of a ballerina…or her dog.

Lilly felt the flutter of butterflies in her stomach. Filming was starting today. She was so nervous…All of the frustrations she had gone through over the past five days all led up to this.

They were filming the first scene, which was the masquerade where Ramona and Julian met, and that was why Lilly was all dolled up. She had finished in hair and makeup early, and Miley was still getting made up so Lilly decided to come back to the trailer she was sharing with her best friend to calm her nerves. And she was definitely nervous. She knew stage fright shouldn't have been an issue. She didn't even have very many lines in the scene, so it wasn't like she had a lot of work to do. But still…it was the first day!

At a knock at the door, Lilly took another deep, calming breath. That was probably Joe. Since Creepy was still staring at her (his real name was Peter, but their group had already accustomed themselves to calling him Creepy), Joe was still acting like her pseudo-boyfriend. The past couple of days, when they were on set, he would hold her hand or put his arms around her during their breaks. He was just really affectionate and Lilly had to admit she liked it a lot.

She opened the door and grinned at him. He was wearing a simple black suit with a white shirt (no tie) and he looked really nice. "You clean up well," she told him teasingly.

"You, too. You look really nice." Lilly blushed prettily, and Joe smiled as he walked into the trailer. "It must be the dress."

Lilly laughed and punched him in the arm. "This dress actually reminds me of my dog. It's all golden and fluffy and…"

"Hairy?" Joe finished jokingly. Lilly glared at him balefully.

"My dress is not hairy! And I was going to say 'cute.'"

Joe nodded. "That, too. And so is the person wearing it."

She felt herself blushing again. It seemed like she did that a lot around him, but she tried to ignore it. "I honestly feel like someone can call me Thor and I'll answer."

"Your dog's name is Thor?" Joe asked disbelievingly.

Lilly raised an eyebrow. "You got a problem with that, Jonas?"

He raised his hands up defensively and shook his head. "No, no. Not at all. Is he at least a big scary dog? Something intimidating?"

"Well, no not really. Are you judging?" She crossed her arms and stared him down.

"Nope. As long as you don't expect me to call you Thor." They left the trailer and made their way to the high school gym.

"You do, you die," she warned.

Joe grinned and took her hand and her breath hitched. "Well we wouldn't want that, would we?"

"No," she said softly. "We wouldn't." They walked the rest of the way to the gym in companionable silence.

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Kevin watched as Lilly and Joe walked into the gym hand in hand. Lilly looked absolutely delighted by the transformation in the gym and was chattering on and on about something while Joe listened patiently. He just had to smile at the two of them. His brother could deny it all he wanted, but he knew Joe had a major crush on her.

Yesterday's rehearsal was testament to that. The six main actors had been in the main house, rehearsing the party scene, which was the final scene, where Ramona and Julian made up, Tyler and Rosalind got together and Marcus and Perri came to an understanding. They had done the scene before, but this was the first time they were doing it with all the extras around. Although there were two kisses in the scene, Kenny told them that actual kissing in rehearsal wasn't necessary.

Until yesterday.

After going through the scene a couple of times, he told Kevin and Lilly that the romantic chemistry was just not coming through. So Kenny thought it would help if they actually kissed.

Kevin laughed at the memory. Joe had been drinking water when Kenny had said it, and Kevin thought his brother was going to die choking. He did not look pleased, and Kevin didn't even know why his brother was still denying that he had a crush on Lilly.

Lilly and Kevin exchanged awkward giggles as Kenny called out, "Action!"

In the scene, Ramona and Julian kissed and made up at the party, but Perri caught them and made a big scene, fully expecting Tyler to do something about it. However, Tyler, thinking about a conversation he had had with Rosalind, simply told Julian to treat his sister right and walked away. Rosalind, happy with the decision he had made, kissed him. Then Perri, confused and upset, was confronted by a very gentle Marcus and they came to some sort of understanding.

Kenny wanted to take it from where Rosalind walked up to Tyler after he left Ramona and Julian.

"So," Lilly said bashfully, taking Kevin's hand in hers. "I'm really proud of you."

"I didn't do it just for you, you know," he told her, taking her other hand in his and pulling her a little closer. "I did it to make my sister happy."

Lilly lowered her lashes and bit her lip. "Does—does that mean you did it at least partially for me?"

Kevin gently lifted her chin until she was looking into his eyes. He tried really hard not to laugh as he noticed a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "I think you know the answer to that, Roz. Someone once told me that they could never be with a person who held on to stupid prejudices and old hostilities. Do you think you could be with me now?"

"I think you know the answer to that," she whispered, raising herself on her tiptoes and was about to press her lips when a loud clatter interrupted. Both Lilly and Kevin looked up, startled.

A decorative brass bowl from the table next to Joe and Olivia lay on the ground.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, picking up the bowl. "My bad."

Kenny groaned. "Let's take it from the same place."

The scene went just as smoothly as the first time and Lilly was about to kiss Kevin again when Olivia suddenly cried out in pain.

"Joe! Why did you pinch me?" Olivia shouted, slapping upside the head then rubbing her arm.

"I—uh—I slipped?" Joe offered lamely.

Kenny rolled his eyes and had Lilly and Kevin start over. And it was a surprise to absolutely no one when the kiss was interrupted yet again, this time by Nick tripping and falling.

"JOE!" Kenny yelled in frustration.

Joe held up his hands innocently. "It wasn't me this time! Nick fell completely on his own!"

"Sure I did," Nick muttered grumpily as he rubbed his shin. He glared hard at Joe. "Sorry about that," Nick said through clenched teeth.

After about the sixth interruption, pretty much everyone it seemed (except for Lilly and Miley) had figured out Joe's game and people were just looking forward to seeing what Joe would do this time to stop the kiss.

Lilly, Kevin and everyone else were looking at him expectedly after he had let out a loud, girly scream. "I saw a mouse," he said defiantly, and Kenny groaned, massaging his temples. Kevin could tell that he was debating just having the couple kiss to get it out of the way, but apparently the director decided against it.

"Let's…let's just move on, shall we?" he suggested wearily. "We'll take it from Olivia and Joe's dialogue…"

Afterwards, Kenny took Joe aside and berated him for his behavior, but Kevin really couldn't be too hard on his brother. After all, it really must have sucked seeing the girl he liked so much about to kiss his older brother, even if it was just for a movie.

Kevin looked up, searching the gym for Lilly and Joe. He found them getting their masks for the masquerade from Kenny. Joe was trying really hard to tie his own mask on, but he wasn't very successful. It kept going on crooked or falling off or something, and he was getting increasingly frustrated. Lilly giggled and tied it for him. She looked at him appraisingly and brushed a lock of hair out of his face, and Kevin wondered when his brother was going to tell Lilly he liked her. And he wondered when he was going to figure out that Lilly liked him back.

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"You look amazing tonight," Nick told Miley as they slow danced together, multiple cameras and microphones following their every move. It was midway through the first scene, and just before their first kiss. Miley tried not to be nervous. After all, it was just a stage kiss "But I bet you look amazing all the time."

Miley ducked her head and blushed prettily. When Nick said things like that, even if it was scripted, it sounded so sincere and it made her feel all nervous inside. "You don't even know what I look like."

"I can imagine, can't I?" Nick asked cheekily.

"And does it matter whether or not I'm pretty?" Miley asked, eyes narrowing dangerously behind the mask.

Nick laughed. "Not at all. You could be horribly scarred behind that mask and I wouldn't care at all."

Miley giggled. "Well, there goes my secret…"

"And it doesn't matter to me!" Nick insisted. "As long as you're not really a man. You aren't are you?"

"No!" Miley asserted forcefully. She stopped dancing and pulled away from him slightly.

"Just making sure," Nick said teasingly. "Seriously, though. I know everything I need to know about you right now."

"Everything?" Miley questioned dubiously.

"Well, yeah. I know that you're nice, you have beautiful smile, you have excellent taste in music and an awesome sense of humor," Nick replied. Miley's breath caught in response. Nick's voice softened. "I also know that you make me laugh and I've never felt more alive than I do right now, right here with you."

"You don't even know my name," Miley whispered.

Nick smiled behind his mask. "And I don't need to." He pulled her closer and lowered his head to hers.

Miley felt her heartbeat quicken as Nick pulled her closer. This was so weird. She liked Joe. She wasn't supposed to be feeling this way about his brother, right? She wasn't supposed to want to kiss him. But she did, and desperately. Ever so slowly, Nick brushed his lips against hers, teasingly at first, then more firmly. The kiss was in the script. She knew it was coming; she expected it. But she didn't expect how it made her feel. Nick's arms tightened around her waist and Miley felt her knees wobble and a feeling of pleasure and excitement ran down her spine, making her shiver pleasantly. As he slowly pulled away, she realized that he was supporting all of her weight. Miley's eyes fluttered open (she didn't remember closing them) and Nick's lips curved sweetly.

Miley's eyes met Nick's and Miley couldn't understand what exactly it was she was feeling. The two stared at each other for a long moment before Nick smoothly took up the dialogue again. She knew that they finished the scene, but she couldn't remember saying her lines or doing any of the blocking. All she could think about was the kiss.

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"We're soooooooarin', Flyyyyyyyyying! There's not a star in heaven that we can't reeeeeeeach!" The horrendous singing was coming from Olivia, Lilly, Joe and Nick. The four of them were skipping back to Lilly and Miley's trailer, linking arms and singing at the top of their lungs into the night. Well, not so much singing as screaming. They were exhilarated about wrapping up the first day of filming

Kevin and Miley hung back, walking in a more subdued fashion, rolling their eyes at their friends. Kevin noticed that Miley was unusually quiet.

"You okay?" Kevin asked in concern, nudging her shoulder.

Miley smiled at him. "Of course. Just thinking, is all."

The two lapsed into a companionable silence, wincing as they listened to the others butcher "Breaking Free."

"You did good today," Kevin said after a while. "I didn't get a chance to see all of it, but you and Nick were really realistic."

"Thanks," Miley said with a grin, half wondering if he was going to bring up the kiss. She hadn't stopped thinking about it all day. She didn't get a chance to find out as Lilly came skipping up to her. "How can you do that in heels?" Miley asked incredulously. Everyone was still dressed for the masquerade (sans masks), but Olivia had taken her shoes off to skip and Miley was walking.

"I don't know," Lilly shrugged. "I'm just weird, I guess. But I can't wait to tell Oliver about our day!"

Miley sighed. "Oliver went back to the guest house, remember?"

"Oh. Right." Lilly let out a sigh of her own. "He never sticks around anymore. I guess I'll talk to him when we get back. And ugh, these shoes are killing me!"

"Honey, those shoes aren't meant for skipping," Miley explained patiently.

Lilly laughed merrily. "Yeah, well apparently they aren't made for walking, either. Or dancing. You know, I hope every day of filming is like this! It was just like one big dance!"

"For you, maybe," Nick said, stopping to look at his brother and his friends, leaving Olivia and Joe to their singing and skipping. Miley looked at him and blushed. "Miley and I actually had to work today."

"Hey! I had to work today, too!" Kevin protested.

Nick snorted derisively. "Saying, 'Come on, Rosie, let's dance' and then disappearing aren't exactly my idea of a hard day's work."

"It's harder than you think!" Kevin joked. They talked for a few minutes longer until they reached the door to the trailer Miley and Lilly shared.

Lilly picked something off the ground and waggled her eyebrows. "Oooh, la la. Another gift! And this time there's a noooooote!" It was a flower taped to an envelope, and Lilly studied it for a moment before handing it to Miley. "It's a heavy note…"

Everybody circled around, wanting to see what it was. Miley quickly detached the flower and handed it to Nick, who was on her right, and opened. Lilly saw that it wasn't just a note…there were pictures, too. She noticed Miley's lips quirk as she read the note, but her face paled as she flipped through the pictures.

"What is it?" Joe asked impatiently.

Miley shook her head and handed the note and the pictures to Lilly. "I think this is for you."

Lilly read the note, confused, then flipped through the pictures. She felt the blood draining from her face and stared at them uncomprehendingly. They were all pictures of her, around the set and around the main house, and not just of her rehearsing. There were some of her eating, sleeping, talking, rehearsing. Lilly recognized the outfits she was wearing in the pictures. It was all from over the last five days, but Lilly couldn't remember seeing anyone with a camera following her around.

She looked at the note again. It only said two words, but it still creeped her out:

Be mine.

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So when I called this "The Drama Summer," I was not kidding, because obviously love triangles (or love squares, I guess, if you include Nick?), enemies and movies are not enough. I added a little shoutout to "A Cinderella Story" in the chapter.

And for those of you who are missing Oliver, he will show up again next chapter! I promise!

I'd really love to know what you all thought; whether you liked it or not, suggestions, questions, constructive criticism…I love and appreciate it all!

Thanks for reading!
-v