Chapter 10

Starting A New

"Thanks for letting me sit in on this night's stories Jill."

"No problem. So great-grandma, how did you get your sing career going again?"

"Wait. You mean you actually stop singing." Ricky asked.

"For about four months after my mom died. I just didn't have the joy anymore. However, one day, daddy brought my mom's diaries to me to read."

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"Who's there?" Miley asked from her bed in her dark room.

"It's me bud. Can I come in?"

"Doesn't matter if you do or not."

Robbie opened the door to Miley's room. It used to be a room of light and colors, happiness and joy. Now it was a room of dark depression. It had been four months since they laid Tori to rest. Miley had gotten so depressed about her mom that Robbie had the whole family going to a counselor. It had help Jackson and his self handle their grief, but nothing seem to be reaching Miley. The counselor suggested giving something to Miley that was extremely personal for Tori. Robbie had no idea what would help Miley, but when the nightmares started, Robbie had lost all hope for his Miley.

As part of his grieving, Robbie finally started to pick-up Tori's things and decided on what to keep and what to give away when he came across Tori's diaries. Robbie sat down on the bed and started to read.

"Dad. You okay?" Jackson asked as he checked up on his dad.

"What? Oh, I'm okay. I was just reading some of your mom's diaries."

Jackson walked over to his dad and joined him on the bed. Picking up a diary, Jackson started to read. After a while, Jackson broke the silence.

"Wow dad. It's kind of like being inside of mom's head. I can almost hear her saying this stuff as she wrote it."

"Thank you Jackson. I'm proud of you. Help me gather up the diaries."

Robbie and Jackson walked to Miley's room and Robbie knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" Miley asked from her bed in her dark room.

"It's me bud. Can I come in?"

"Doesn't matter if you do or not." Miley rolled over onto her side as Robbie and Jackson came into her room.

"Hey bud, I know you miss your mom. I know how you feel…"

"YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!!"

"Jackson and I loved your mom very much and we miss her just as much now that she's gone."

"DON'T YOU GET IT?!?! IT'S ALL MY FAULT SHE'S GONE!! She was driving back for me. It's my fault that mom's gone. My fault." Miley rolled back onto her stomach and buried her head into her pillow. Jackson walked to one side of the bed and Robbie to the other side and both of them sat down.

"This books where your mom's diaries. As you can see, she had quite a few of them. She was always writing in them. There's quite a bit in them about you and your singing."

On hearing, this Miley rolled onto her back and looked at her dad and Jackson through puffy red eyes. Her face was wet from crying.

"You really should read this Miles."

"We'll just leave them here on your desk bud." Robbie and Jackson got up, put the diaries on the desk, and went to leave. Robbie stopped and turned around and sat on the bed again.

"Everything is going to be alright bud." Robbie kiss his daughter on the forehead and got up to leave.

"Will it daddy? Will ever be okay again?"

"The answer to that question is sitting on your desk bud."

Robbie quietly close the door to Miley's room.

Miley laid there on her bed and looked at the diaries on her desk. Was the answer she was looking for really in them? Miley wasn't sure how long she laid there looking at the diaries, but as time went by, there was a pulling from inside of her. She tried to resist it at first but it keep growing. If she looked away from the diaries, she just had to look back at them. Miley just couldn't take her eyes off them. Not them really. It was more of an it. One book of all of the diaries seem to be calling to her. The more her mind tried to refuse the fact, her heart wanted nothing more than to go over to that diary and to start reading it. It was another thirty minutes, but in the end, the heart won. Miley got up slowly as the mind still put up resistance to the fact that it might not be her fault. She stopped in front of the desk and looked at the diaries as the mind made on last attempt at stopping her, but in the end, the heart won out again. Miley reached out and lifted the other diaries off the one she wanted. She put the others down and pick up the diary that was calling to her. Laying down on her bed, Miley propped her head up on her pillow and open the diary to the first page.

Year 2002: book two

June 12

Today was the first day of recording for Miley's first album. I was SO proud of her. All the hard work she put in is finally buying off for her. I so much wanted to tell everyone that was MY little girl!! But I knew I couldn't. Hannah Montana is as much my little girl as Miley is. After all, they are the same person. Everyone in the control room was just amazed at how well that Miley could sing. As one person put it: " Hannah has a God given voice to be shared with the world." She gets that from Robbie. Although when ever I tell him that, he always says the same thing. "She my have my voice, but she looks just like you." That my be so, but all I know is that God gave me two of his littlest angels and I get to help one of them do what she loves best and that is to sing.

As Miley read on, the tears of depression ended and tears of love started to come. Miley didn't stop reading until she came to the last entry. It was December 31. Miley couldn't bring herself to read it. She did noticed that there were still a few pages left in the diary. The first thing she did was to get a new box of tissues and push the used ones onto the floor. Then she went to her closet and pulled her guitar out from the back. After that, she got a pencil from her desk and sat down on the bed. Opening the new box of tissues, Miley dried her face off one last time. Then she thought about her mom and strummed her guitar a few times. This went on for about an hour before she returned to the top of the song.

I miss you. I miss your smile…

Robbie was just about to check on Miley when he heard her start to sing for the first time since the accident. He stood there and listen to the song that Miley had written. When she was done, Robbie decided to let her have time to herself. Besides, he needed a tissue.

"I promise mom. I'll never stop singing again."

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Fate has a strange way of working sometimes. At a family meeting, it was decided that Robbie would take over as Hannah's manager. Robbie worked hard on putting a new album together for Hannah. He knew that this would be the one that would make or break her career. The gap of time way from the music world and her newness to the singing world meant that she was not yet really established. This meant the next album had to smash it way into the charts to show that she did belong there. Robbie worked very hard to get the right mixture of songs put together for her. Hollywood Records worked hard on getting a new record campaign and major tour set-up. This is where fate stepped in. It was one year ago to the day that she started to record her first album.

As school ended for the year, Miley was able to turn her grades around. However, the big buzz was the release and tour of Hannah Montana. But before any of that could happen, Miley, Robbie and her counselor worked on her handling questions about Tori's death. The real problem was that Tori was not the mother of Hannah Montana, she was the mother of Miley. But it was Miley that had to answer the questions. So, they worked on it until she could answer the questions. All the hard worked paid off. The album lived up to the press hype and more; the tour was sold out in every city; the album destroyed the competition on the charts; and Miley was able to handle the questions about Tori on the talk show circuit and interviews she had. It seemed that the absence of Hannah Montana because of the accident only made the fan support for her even greater than anyone had expected. The numbers at the end of the summer were impressive. Hannah had the number one album, the number one single, the number one video, and had three songs in the top forty. Hannah and beaten the sophomore curse of teenage singers and was now a name to be taken very seriously.

As the new school year started, Hollywood Records and Robbie were starting to work on a new album for Hannah to work on in the spring. Miley for her part kept writing songs too. Some of the songs her dad took and polished for her so that they could use them. As the school year started to end, Hollywood Records decided two things. First, the third album they wanted to do live. The second was to ask Hannah if she would move to the Los Angeles area. This would put their "golden goose" by the headquarters and main production studios. The second decision called for a family meeting on the part of the Stewarts. After a long and sometimes heated discussion, it was decided to move. Jackson and Miley stayed with their grandma as Robbie went out to California to look for a new home.

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"By the end of the school, we started packing for the move to Malibu. Daddy was doing double duty. Not only was he getting things packed up for the move, he was also putting the finishing touches on the summer concert tour and making sure everything was ready for the live album."

"Was the move hard for you after your mom's passing?" Ricky asked.

"It was at first, but when we finally got settled into the new house, I met the two most important people in my life."