Chapter 9:

Lilly watched Miley closely at school as the weeks moved on. Quickly she saw her go from the mostly-good girl who had been her best friend to an airhead who thought she was better than everyone else. Each time something at Lilly singing class went well she still found herself wanting to talk to Miley about it, whenever anything happened at all she still found herself wanting to talk to Miley. She had spoke to Miley about everything for years and she couldn't deny that she missed that. But she couldn't talk to Miley about anything the way she was being.

When the school started advertising the Homecoming Dance, Lilly instinctively knew it was only going to get worse. People were asked to put forward candidates for Homecoming Queen and Miley was the first name on a lot of people's lips. Lilly had never cared about who was Homecoming Queen, it had never been an issue for her. Nine times out of ten it went to a shallow girl who used it as an excuse to be horrible to people. But every year before this year Miley had had that opinion as well. Now, Miley was quickly becoming that shallow girl.

Lilly was sat at a table in a café at the mall. Miley had come in with a couple of girls from school that Lilly didn't even know the name of. She knew the type though, popular wannabes. They dressed to impress, wanting all the attention of everyone. They clothes couldn't help but get that sort of attention, skirts so short they barely existed and tight tops. Perfect people for Miley to be hanging out with. Miley didn't seem to realise what Lilly knew, these girls were only hanging out with her because being friends with Hannah Montana did wonders for that social status. Or, Lilly knew was more likely the case, Miley was aware of this and was shallow enough not to care.

'Non-fat, sugar free, mochacini' Miley ordered. Adding 'please' sweetly.

'Coming up' the woman behind the till replied.

'Could you maybe, I don't know, hurry it up a little?' Miley asked after a short moment. 'I haven't got all day'

Lilly wanted to be shocked to hear Miley talking like this, but it had become so normal for Miley that Lilly wasn't even surprised. She watched as Miley got the drink and walked over to a table after glaring at the woman at the till. As Miley passed Lilly's table they caught eyes for a short moment. Miley looked away almost instantly.

'Is that Lilly Truscott?' one of the girls with Miley asked.

'Yeah' Miley replied.

'I can't believe her' the other girl said. 'It's so horrible how she dumped you as a friend when everyone found our your secret.'

The first girl nodded 'It's so shallow, it shows how she was just using your friendship as an excuse to see famous people. At least we're not like that.'

Lilly could hardly believe her ears and found herself acting before she thought. She got up an walked over to Miley's table. 'All right, you stupid little airheads, you listen to me' she said 'I was never anything other than a great friend to Miley. If you want to believe the rubbish she is telling you about why we're not talking then that's your choice. But calling me shallow makes me think of the words pot, kettle and black'

The two girls just looked at Lilly, making no comment. Lilly turned and started to walk away. That's when the comments came. 'What a cow' one said. 'totally' the other agreed.

Lilly found herself walking around to try and calm down. She could deal with the Miley/Hannah drama at school. She could deal with not having Miley as a friend anymore. She could deal with stupid airheads. But the one thing she couldn't stand was people lying about her. Walking didn't help calm her down at all, the more she walked the more she thought, and the more she thought the more annoyed she became. What gave those girls the right to assume the had the first clue about anything? Did they know anything about Miley?

After a while, Lilly just headed home. She didn't know what else to do. She didn't want to see Oliver and moan about Miley again. She knew Oliver didn't mind, but she felt like all she ever did was moan about Miley to him and she didn't think that was fair on him. Once she was at home, Lilly stuck music on quite loud and sung along to it. Singing calmed her down and improved her mood dramatically. A feeling that was only emphasised as she remembered she had a singing lesson the next day.

HM

At her singing lesson, Lilly asked Claire whether she'd be able to write songs anytime soon. Over the couple of months that she had been having lessons Lilly felt she had learnt a lot about music. She could read music without hesitation and could pick out different instruments in piece of music. She could recognise a note when it was being sung, so she felt she'd be able to write lyrics to go with music.

'I shouldn't see why not' Claire said. 'Take it slowly at first, though. The chances are the first few things you write will go disastrously. Now, I don't mean that you won't be able to do it, I just mean that it's… normal. The first few times you try to do something it goes wrong and you learn from your mistakes sort of thing. And you've been learning pretty quickly since you've been having these lessons so I should imagine you'd be able to write good songs pretty soon'

Lilly smiled gratefully. She felt like she owed so much to Claire.

HM

When Lilly got home after her singing lessons, she sat down to write something. From what Claire had said she thought that practise would make perfect. She didn't have a clue what to write though. She thought about writing something about how she felt about the whole Miley situation but she was in too good a mood to write something like that.

In the end she just jotted down a few tuneless lines that she hoped she'd be able to shape another time. 'Got my own dream, got my own plan, got my own style, got my own way' and 'Not going to cry anymore' she wrote.