*** I am not sure if anyone will even like this story, but please review and tell me if I should continue and where you want this story to go, please also read my other Fic " A New Year"… thanks!*** I WILL DEVELOP THE PLOT SOON SO DO NOT SAY IT IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE*** I don't own ANYTHING …don't sue.***

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**DO NOT COPY MY IDEA*** I do not own anything** *** 

** I changed a whole lot of things about the story... I recommend you go back and read it over to see the changes... sorry***

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                                               Prairie Lakes, 1893

            Miranda peered into the mirror in the tiny compartment of the circus train that was her home. The door was open, and out in the hall she could hear the chatter and laughter of her circus family as they wound down after the night's show.

            Miranda checked to see if she has removed al her stage makeup. She dabbed at a dark smear under one eye, wiping it away. Suddenly she saw a blonde girl in the mirror. She blinked hard. The second image was still there, just to the side of her own. The blonde girl's heart-shaped face with blue green eyes and silky blonde hair that was in a bun that stuck out from a green bonnet.          

            She whirled around. "Lizzie!"

            Lizzie laughed. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

            Miranda worked her mouth, but no words came out. For once in her life, she found herself speechless. "I don't believe it!" Miranda finally managed. In her six months with the circus she hadn't regretted her decision for a second. But she couldn't help missing Lizzie terribly. Time and time again she'd imagined being with her. Time and time again she'd pictured hugging her in a happy reunion. She flung her arms around her. "Lizzie, I've missed you so!"

            "Me too," Lizzie said." Miranda, it's so wonderful to see you!"

            "Same goes double for me," Miranda said. "Oh, I can't believe it! What are you doing here? How did you get here?" He questions rushed out like a blare of the circus trumpets. "Wait... Lizzie there's something different about you; I almost didn't recognize you, well almost. There's something in your eyes, your expression…" She stepped back and took in the rest of the picture. Lizzie was wearing a long, prim forest-green dress with a small bustle in the back, one which Miranda had seen on her so many times before. The bonnet matches the dress, and Lizzie's hands were covered by a pair of white globes. But the gloves looked a bit worn, and the dress was not as neat and proper around the edges as it should have been. Then she noticed Lizzie's quilt bundled under her arm.

            "Are you going to tell me how you got here, or not?" she demanded.

            "I hopped a boxcar," Lizzie said simply. "Well, several, to be more precise."

            "What?!" Miranda heard her cry of surprise echo own the passageway of the train. "Lizzie, you've never fibbed to be before in your life."

            "And I'm not fibbing now," Lizzie said." In Sioux Falls they told me the circus had moved to Rapid City, and in Rapid City they said you were here. Oh, I'm awfully glad you are, because I had only enough food for another day or so. And that was only because the first train was a milk train, so I was able to have a snack on board."

            Miranda stared at her friends as if she'd grown a second head- and not the fake kind that Terence Two Brain removed after the sideshow was over. "You Lizzie McGuire, stole milk from the milk train?"

            Lizzie looked offended." Stole? No, of course now. I left a few coins by the milk can."

            "Oh Lizzie, it is the real you!" Miranda laughed as she gave her a big hug. "But I just can't believe you hopped boxcars to find me. Whatever got into you?"

            "You know, Miranda, I think perhaps you left a few drops of daring behind in our bedroom, and I found them," Lizzie said.

            Miranda put the pieces together. "Don't tell me! You've decided to join the circus, just like I did!"

            "Miranda, I said a few drops of daring. Just enough to get me here. No I have my schoolwork in Prairie Lakes …and Gordo"

            "You're blushing," Miranda teased. "How is Gordo, I miss him too."

            "Gordo is still the most wonderful boy…" Lizzie's face turned an even deeper shade of red. "And you, Miranda? Is there someone special you've met in the circus?"

            "Oh, Lizzie almost everyone here is special," Miranda said. "I mean, not just because they are the fattest or the tallest or because they get shot out of a cannon, either. I've made so many wonderful friends- it's like we're one big, wild family, sometimes."

            Lizzie smiled. "It's good to see you so happy, Miranda. But I meant special in the way Gordo is special to me, you know?"

            "To tell you the truth," said Miranda, lowering her voice, "Mario Morelli is awfully handsome and awfully attentive to me. But sometimes I think his brother, Dario, is even better-looking. And when you watch them doing their flying trapeze act and they're so brave and graceful and skillful, well it's impossible to choice between the Morelli brothers."        

            Lizzie giggled. "Miranda, the circus hasn't changed you at all, has it?"

Miranda thought seriously about her question. "Well, I'm happier than I've ever been. I mean, I miss you dreadfully, but now you're here." She added quickly. "I'm getting to see all kinda of new places, and I love everyone here, and the best part of everything is that I get to ride every day and do my act for hundreds and hundreds of people. Oh, Lizzie, I can't wait for you to see me! It's so great you came to visit.

A shadow flitted across Lizzie's face "Well actually Miranda, It's not really a visit. I mean, it is, because I wanted to see you so badly, and I can't wait to meet all your new friends and watch you perform, but-well, there's another reason I came."

Miranda took in Lizzie's expression and heard the dark note in her sister's words. She felt her stomach drop, as if she were falling from her horse. "Oh no! What is it? Matt, Mama, Papa-"

            "They're fine, they all miss you very much, but it's not them. Miranda, its Abraham, he's very sick. He's going to die."

            "Abe?" Miranda pictured him as she had last seen him: strong and tall despite his age, leading Wind catcher across the grassy plain. "Abe…" Miranda repeated his name more softly this time. "But he was supposed to live forever." Her words came out choked, and she felt the sting of tears gathered in the corner of her eyes... Then she felt Lizzie's arms around her.      

            "I'm sorry Miranda. I know how important Abe is to you. He had become my friend, too, now. Maybe it was wrong for me to come at all. You're so happy here, and now I arrive with such sad news…"

Miranda looked up at the familiar face of her sister, her best friend, and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand, "No, it wasn't the wrong thing to do, Lizzie. I can't stop Abe from coming to his natural end, nut I'm glad you told me. Tomorrow, after the show, we move on to Montana. Well, the rest of the circus does. But I'll come home with you." It was hard to add the next part. "I'll come home to say goodbye to Abraham."

***Sorry so long since an update... I was out of town this weekend... please review this, if you want more... And please review a new year if you want it to continue*** thanks! ***