Here's the next chapter.

"Come on girls, I need to go to a meeting for Hannah and I can't be late," Mr. Stewart said. "Besides, you can't be late for school, either. Did you even eat breakfast this morning? You two had better be dressed or I'm just going to leave without you."

"Daddy, you're forgetting that Lily is injured," Miley said, coming down the stairs and grabbing the toast she had bribed Jackson to make for them. "It takes her a bit longer to get ready than usual, okay?"

"And what about you?" Mr. Stewart asked, his hands on his hips.

"I don't want to leave her alone up there for any longer than I have to," Miley said defensively, spreading strawberry over two of the four pieces of toast. "Do you know if we have grape jelly? Lily only likes toast with grape jelly on it and I don't want her to go without eating cause she'll be complaining all until lunch about how hungry she is."

"It's on the third shelf on the door of the refrigerator," Mr. Stewart said.

"Thanks," Miley said, pulling it out and putting it on the two remaining pieces of toast. She set them on the counter and raced back up to her room, coming back down with Lily's suitcase and both of their book bags. "Lily, did your mom have to pack a whole suitcase for you? I mean, really, you were only staying one night."

"Complain to her," Lily said, limping down the stairs on her crutches. "Sorry Mr. S, it's kind of hard to get ready with a broken hip. Hopefully I'll be able to get off these crutches on Monday, though."

"If it still hurts…" Miley said.

"I'm fine," Lily snapped. "For the fifth time in the last twenty seconds."

"Miles, you should probably calm down a bit," Mr. Stewart said. "I'm sure she gets enough of that from her mother, she doesn't need you doing it, too."

"Daddy!"

"Just saying."

"Are we going to school or not?" Lily asked, standing by the door. "I mean, we could not go to school, I really wouldn't mind that. We could stay here and watch movies, or go to the mall, or…"

"You're going to school," Mr. Stewart said with finality. He picked up Lily's suitcase and her book bag, leaving Miley to grab her own. "Come on, I'm five minutes late for the meeting already and you two are going to be late if we don't hurry up. I don't want to have to walk you in and explain to the principal why I'm not dropping you off on time, okay?"

Miley grabbed her book bag and went out to the car, helping Lily into the back seat and getting into the passenger's seat. The ride was quiet, broken only by the sighs Mr. Stewart breathed every time Miley glanced back at Lily to give her a loving smile. He pulled up to the front of the school just as the first warning bell rang, giving them five minutes to get to class.

"I'll drop your suitcase off at your house after my meeting," Mr. Stewart said to Lily as Miley helped her out of the back seat. "Have a good day, girls, and please try to stay out of trouble."

"We're going through with the plan, Daddy," Miley said.

He sighed. "I really wish you would think this through a bit longer," he said. "I don't want either of you getting hurt…"

"Look, we're going to be late for class if we don't hurry up. I'll call you later, okay? Remember, I'm going over to Lily's after school today, and then we're coming back home to get ready for the concert. See you later!"

Miley grabbed their book bags and they managed to make it to their first class just as the bell rang. The teacher glared at them until they took their seats, and then started teaching about mathematical equations. Lily took notes like she was supposed to while Miley zoned out in the first fifteen minutes, glancing around the classroom, focusing in on Amber and Ashley, who were whispering together, and Oliver, who was staring at the teacher with the attention that he had never had during class.

The bell rang and every packed their stuff up. Miley stood, waiting for Lily to finish up before following her out of the classroom. "Amber and Ashley were talking about something all class," Miley said as soon as they were out of earshot of anyone that mattered. "They weren't paying attention at all."

"And you weren't, either," Lily said, opening her locker and pulling out her books for our second class. "Miley, you can't dwell on Amber and Ashley all the time. You should actually pay attention during class…"

"Like Oliver was?" Miley asked.

Lily froze. "He was acting weird," she whispered. "Do you think he's ever going to come around?"

Oliver stalked past, kicking Miley in the back of the knee, making it look like an accident. Miley stumbled forward against the lockers, catching herself before she fell. "That would be a no," she said.

"Maybe we shouldn't have told him," Lily whispered.

"Oh, yeah, and then told the whole school, right?" Miley whispered back.

"We could've skipped that part."

"But I thought you wanted…"

"I really miss Oliver."

Miley sighed. "I know, I do, too, but it wouldn't have felt right if we hadn't told him. I would've felt really bad. He deserved to know, he was our best friend."

"What are you two whispering about over there?" Amber asked, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at the two of them. Ashley stood beside her, an identical look of disgust on her face. "Would you like to share it with the whole hallway?"

"You know, sometimes I really wonder about you," Miley said, opening her locker and pulling out the books she needed. "You're nice one moment, and the next, you hate us again. I would really appreciate it if you stopped going through these mood swings so fast. You're giving me whiplash."

Lily started to laugh, but stopped when Amber and Ashley stepped closer to them, so close that their faces were almost touching. "Meet us behind the school in the orchard at lunch time," she whispered. "Trust me, please."

Amber and Ashley walked away, leaving Miley and Lily staring after them in confusion. "Since when does something like that happen?" Miley asked.

"Do you think we should go?" Lily asked.

"I'm going," Miley said. "And I don't care if I get in trouble. They could be setting us up to get in trouble, telling a teacher that we're skipping school and stuff, but I'll just tell them that they told us to me them there. I want to know what this is all about. It's confusing."

"Well, then I'm going, too," Lily said.

Lunch came and Lily and Miley left the building through a back door, heading towards the orchard behind the school where Amber and Ashley were supposed to meet them. They found them standing under one of the apple trees, talking with each other urgently. As soon as they realized the two girls were walking towards them, they both shut up and turned to face them.

"We weren't sure if you would come," Amber said, relief showing on her face clearly. "We wanted to talk to you about something…"

"Why couldn't we just do this in the lunch room?" Lily complained.

"Because I don't want anyone overhearing this," Amber said, looking around to make sure no one was listening in. "Look, I know you're really confused about the way me and Ashley have been acting, but the truth is… we've wanted the two of you to get together for a long time."

"And why is that?" Miley asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"They didn't want to be the first ones to announce their relationship," Lily said. "They wanted someone else to be gay together before them so they could see how everyone reacted. What they don't realize that it isn't how everyone else reacts that matters, but it's how they react is what matters. Everyone else reacts based on how they do. So if you accept us, everyone else will."

Amber and Ashley looked at Miley and Lily in surprise. "But how… how did you know?" Amber whispered.

Lily shrugged. "It's something I've sort of always known," she said. "I mean, it was kind of obvious when I saw you two kissing under the mistletoe at the Christmas party last year."

"You never told me that," Miley said accusingly.

"It never came up," Lily said, and she turned to Amber and Ashley. "So, am I right? Is that the reason you wanted us to get together?"

"Yes," Ashley said. "We were scared. I mean, aren't you scared that everyone will hate you when they find out that you're together?"

"Doesn't worry me much," Miley said. "I mean, really, it isn't like we're the most popular girls in the school. Now if we were popular, I would really worry about it because so many people would dislike us for being so mean to them."

Amber's face fell. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "But… you two were a threat. You were too likable, everyone would have liked you a whole lot more than they would have liked us."

"I don't really want to help you," Miley said.

"Me neither," Lily said. "Actually, I'm getting hungry and the salami sandwich I packed for lunch is calling to me. Come on, Miley, let's go." They both turned to leave.

"Please," Ashley said, making them both stop in their tracks. "We're not asking you to help us keep our popularity; we're asking you to help us… come out with our relationship. We're tired of keeping it a secret and we want to be able to… to show affection for each other when other people are in the room."

Lily turned to the two popular girls. "Just do it, then," she said. "There's no one stopping you but yourselves. You shouldn't care what anyone else thinks." She turned back to Miley and they headed off to the cafeteria to eat lunch.

There you go. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter:

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Once again, thank you all for posting your thoughts. I don't know why I put Finding Nemo in that last chapter, but I really do love that movie. :) You guys have no idea how encouraging it is to see so much good feedback. I really appreciate it. If it wasn't for all of you, I probably wouldn't have continued this story. I'll get the next chapter up as soon as possible, so please REVIEW!!! Thank you all again!

ReallyObsessiveWriter