There was a knock on Lilly's front door and the blonde hurried to open it, smiling when she saw Miley standing on the front step, shielding herself from the rain with a black umbrella. "Hey, come on in for a minute while I grab something to eat really quick," Lilly said, stepping aside so Miley could come in.

"Lilly, who's at the door?"

The blonde turned to see her mom standing in the entrance from the hallway to the foyer. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she was dressed in a professional business pantsuit. Her eyebrows were raised as she looked questioningly from Lilly to Miley and back again. "Who is this?"

"Mom, this is Miley, my girlfriend," Lilly pronounced boldly.

Her mom directed her searching gaze on Miley. "What's your full name?"

"Miley Rae Stewart, ma'am," the brunette answered.

"And what grade are you in?"

"I'm in my junior year."

"Do you have any colleges in mind, yet?" Lilly's mom questioned.

"Not yet, ma'am, but I've started looking at areas of study I might be interested in," Miley replied. Lilly bit her lip nervously as she hoped that this would be the end of her mom's interrogation. "My father is in the music industry, so I'm considering going into a profession in music and having my dad help me along a little."

"That's… interesting," Lilly's mother said.

"We have to get going to school," Lilly interrupted. "Come on, Miley, we don't want to be late."

"But…."

"Come on," Lilly said firmly, her eyes connecting with Miley's and telling her without words that staying any longer would be a bad idea. The brunette nodded quickly and went out to her car.

"Lilly," her mom said, following her as she walked into the kitchen and took a couple breakfast bars from the cupboard beside the refrigerator. "Why are you with this girl? She doesn't seem to have any goals, and while her father is supposedly in the music industry, she doesn't seem to have any connections in high places. She's not going anywhere in life. What happened to Leann? She was a nice girl, had goals in life, her father was important, and her mother was agreeable."

Lilly paused in the doorway from the kitchen to the foyer. "Leann's dead," she said shortly before she slipped her shoes on, shouldered her book bag, and went out to Miley's car. She got in the passenger's seat and slammed the door shut, angrily buckling her seatbelt as Miley backed out of the driveway.

"You're upset, what's wrong?" Miley asked softly after a few minutes.

"She freaking asked me why I was with you when I could be with Leann," Lilly growled, pounding her clenched fist on her knee. "I mean, she's my own mother and she didn't even have the decency to know that my ex-girlfriend was dead! Then she goes and insults my current girlfriend! I hate her!"

"Don't say that," Miley whispered.

The blonde then realized that she had never heard Miley talk about her mom. She looked at Miley. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

"You know what, what do you say we just take a day off?" Miley asked, slowing down and pulling into the turning lane. "There's been a lot of stress recently and I don't think any of our teachers are going to miss us for one day. So how about we just take a day, you and me, and hang out? My treat. I'll cancel my Hannah CD signing tonight and you can sleep over and it'll be a real girl's day out."

"Miles, we can't miss school and you can't miss a CD signing," Lilly sighed.

"Hey, I haven't missed a single day of school yet and I haven't missed a Hannah day in my life. I think it's okay to do this in extenuating circumstances. I'll call my dad and he'll get everything at school taken care of for us."

"Okay, fine, but promise me that we won't do this every time something like this happens with my mom, because I have a feeling that it's going to be happening a lot," Lilly relented, leaning against the window as Miley turned onto the road leading to her house. "She's going to be home more often in these next couple months because most of her business is going to be taking place in Los Angeles."

"Let's forget about all this today and just have some fun," Miley said, pulling into her driveway. "My dad just took off to coordinate some Hannah stuff, so I'll call him really quick. Come on in and after I get off the phone with him, we'll figure out some things we can do."

Lilly followed Miley inside, sitting down on the couch as she watched Miley talk with her dad on the phone. A couple minutes later, Miley hung up and set her phone on the kitchen table. She went and sat down next to Lilly, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.

"I love you, you know that, right?" she murmured.

"Yeah, I love you, too," Lilly answered, snuggling into her. "So what do you have planned out for our day? I know that you already have a couple ideas and you're going to end up using one of them."

"What do you say that we take some of your paintings to that art show that's supposed to open tonight and see if they'll display them?" Miley asked, smiling down at Lilly, who had a shocked expression on her face. "Mr. Friedovsky wanted to start having your artwork circulate around the area and Professor Bilks specifically mentioned it to you, remember?"

"You'd really do that for me?" Lilly asked in an awed voice.

"Of course, Hannah already had a few of her art friends scope it out and they said that it's run by some pretty reputable people," Miley said. "All we have to do is take your artwork there and the guy running the thing will look it over and probably display some of your pieces."

"Oh my God, I can't believe you're doing this for me!" Lilly exclaimed, kissing Miley full on the mouth. Then she deflated. All of her artwork was at her house, and chances were that her mom was still there. They wouldn't be able to go back and get any of her pieces. "But all my stuff is at my house…."

"Except for the stuff that's here at my house," Miley said with a smile, and Lilly's eyes widened when she remembered that she had left many of her paintings at Miley's house after they had come back from the art class at Pepperdine the night before.

"Miley, you're a lifesaver," Lilly exclaimed, a grin spreading across her face as she kissed the brunette with fervor. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too," Miley laughed. "Now let's grab your paintings and head out."

I'm sorry that this is late, but I had a butt load of work to do yesterday. I was up until midnight finishing it up. And I'm sorry this is so short, but this is sort of a filler chapter and the next one is going to be longer, I promise. There's just a bunch of stuff that's going to be happening and I wanted another sort of happy little chapter in here before things got really dramatic. Thanks for the reviews from: AllyK00, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, -7RyPtoPh4n-, AlvinFan07, 20kels, Sophie20, Jamiecat2013, and dare 121. You guys really are awesome and are the ones who keep me writing this story. Thank you all so much and next update will be next Sunday.

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