Disclaimer: Lizzie McGuire series belong to none other than erm..It's creators. I have not done any research on its creators so I am going to leave it just as it is.

Rating: General. I don't know. Maybe it'll change as the story change but for now, it's for general audience.

Genre: Humor/Drama/Romance

A/N: I just started school and I am trying to get into the groove of writing again, so pardon me if there are tons of mistakes here. To those who is reading this story,:

Black Knight 03 : Thanks for the offer! ", I'll definitely need some help in terms of grammar editing cos' I'm not a stickler for good grammar. ;) Feel free to email me the errors and did I tell you I'm totally grateful for that? No? Well, now I just did! Hehe! And by the way, I totally love your M/G stories and I doubt I can even reach that level of writing! Do keep coming with more M/G stories!

Sethduck19: Thanks for taking the time to read the story! No, Miranda is not anorexic, but there's just a mystery behind it. Read to find out! ;)

Forever Friends

By nymphadora-era

3 Pillow Issues

Adjusting the strap of her bag to a more comfortable position on her shoulder, she scoured the areas around her for a familiar blonde head. Spotting the target of her search under a shady oak tree, she smiled to herself and bounded off towards the target, her satchel bumping against her side as she moved.

"Sorry, been waiting long?" Miranda asked as she reached Lizzie, who was currently scribbling away on her homework assignment and lying flat on her chest on the grass and legs dangling up in the air. Lizzie looked up upon hearing the voice and smiled.

"Oh, it's not that long," she shrugged, nonchalant and continued, "Anyway, it gives me time to catch up on my book review that's due this Thursday." Lizzie gestured to the work in front of her and grinned at Miranda. She shifted her books to the other side to make some room for Miranda to sit. "Oh, and where's Gordo? I thought you guys had Glee Club practice together?" She asked, looking at the absence of their other best friend.

Miranda dropped her satchel on the lush grass patch and plopped down beside Lizzie. She sat with her legs stretched out in front of her and adjusted her skirt so that it would not show things that need not be shown. She leaned back against the oak tree and crossed her arms in front of her.

"I don't know. He looked like he needed to go somewhere urgently. He told me to go ahead first, thus here I am. " She explained.

Looking at the homework assignment that's in front of Lizzie that's already halfway done, she commented. "Wow. You've already started doing it?" She asked, amazed. "I haven't even read the book yet! Good job Lizzie McGuire," she said after a while and patted Lizzie's back with an exaggerated ' I'm proud of you ' look on her face. " I've already pictured you receiving the val-what-to-rian at the end of high school," she paused before adding, " along with the David Gordon, the resident smarty pants of course!" Miranda grinned, while Lizzie just rolled her eyes at her exaggeration.

Just then, a voice interrupted, startling the both of them.

"It's valedictorian." Gordo spoke up from behind the tree. Both Miranda and Lizzie looked up to find Gordo looking down at them, just as he stepped out from behind the tree.

"Speak of the devil," Miranda muttered under her breath. "How long have you been standing back there?" She looked up at him, her eyebrows raised questioningly.

"Long enough to hear you say my name," he shrugged, "and by the way, it's valedictorian." He reiterated his earlier clarification of the wrongly said word of Miranda's.

"What?" She asked, looking at him in puzzlement. Gordo dropped his bag beside the tree and plopped down beside her.

"You were talking earlier about someone making valedictorian, weren't you?" He asked, exasperated at having to repeat.

"Oh yeah," Miranda finally admitted, once the realization about what he was referring to sink in her head. "So what about it?"

"Urgh! Nothing!" Gordo cried in exasperation. "I was just telling you what the word was, you know? Va-le-dic-to-rian?"

"Uh, whatever." She said casually with a flick of her hand and Gordo just rolled his eyes at her. Inwardly, she grinned to herself. It's fun playing dumb and seeing him gets all riled up. Lizzie just watched them, amused.

"So where did you go Gordo? How come Miranda came here first?" Lizzie asked, propping herself up slightly with her arms and turned to look at him.

"That's cos' Miranda is evil and did not want to wait for me so she walked extremely fast and left me there all alone by myself," he pretended to pout and look glum. Miranda just gave him a light whack on the head. "Ow! My head! See, she is evil! Now she's trying to destroy my brain cells," he whined while rubbing his head. Lizzie just laughed at her best friend antics while Miranda rolled her eyes at him.

Pouting definitely does not work for Gordo. She thought to herself.

"No, seriously," Lizzie asked, chuckling, "where did you go just now?"

"To the men's room." He replied casually.

"The men's room" Miranda said, amused. "That's the big mystery place that you so urgently needed to go? And here I thought it was a case of life and death."

"Well, looks like no mystery there." Lizzie declared and added, "Just a case of an uncontrollable bladder." Miranda chuckled at her words.

"You took that right out of my mind!" She high five Lizzie and they snickered while Gordo just made a face at them.

"Oh brother." Gordo muttered to himself and a yawn followed it.

Around them, other students of Hillridge High were also milling around, either sitting on the grass patches and under the trees as they chatted with their friends or just lazed about. It was a normal scene after school as some were waiting for their friends to get out of extra curricular activities and they usually hanged about in their school compound.

"So how was Glee club practice?" Lizzie asked as she went back to doing her book review. Miranda was gently fingering the flowers beside her that were scattered around her under the tree and replied.

"It was alright. The same as all the other glee club practices," she shrugged. Gordo let out a yawn.

"Yeah. The same old boring practices where we practice our breathing through the diaphragm before 'letting our voices flow naturally'. Or what Mr. Escobar always said." He mumbled and another yawn escaped his lips.

"You're look really tired Gordo," Lizzie noticed.

"Oh really? I hadn't noticed," he muttered sarcastically.

"And you're extra sarcastic today. Did you eat a pill of Miranda's?" She teased but only a huge yawn answered her. She did not notice Miranda's glare for making that joke.

"Why don't you take a nap while I finish my book review here-," she suggested, "-and we'll wake you up when we're ready to go home, won't we Miranda?" looking at Miranda for confirmation.

"Yeah, I think I'll do that," he agreed. Miranda however, has this strange look on her face.

Gordo noticed it too and backed away slightly. "What?"

"Are you alright Gordo? Are you sure you're not having a fever or something-" she brought her palm up to his forehead and frowned, "-cos' you're behaving a tad strangely today. First, you zoned out to another planet during American History and said that it was boring and now you're agreeing to take a nap?" One eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"Will my answer of 'I'm just tired' suffice for you?" He asked, tired and sleepy and another yawn is threatening to escape. "Or maybe cos' I've had too much for lunch that it's taking its toll on me now," he yawned.

"Well, you did eat a lot just now.... enough for three persons maybe," she teased.

"Hey!" He cried defensively while she and Lizzie just laughed.

"Fine. Go take your nappy you baby you," She conceded teasingly but he just ignored her teasing.

"Thanks. So do you mind?" He was looking at her as if asking for her permission which she will find out why a moment later.

Miranda looked at him, puzzled. Why is he asking me that?

"Mind? Why would I mind?" She replied, with a frown on her forehead.

"Thanks," he smiled gratefully and his next action made her gasp in surprise as he rested his head on her lap and stretched out such that he was lying parallel to Lizzie who was spread out flat with her chest on the grass and doing her work beside Miranda.

"Gordo!" Miranda gasped, horrified that his head was on her lap. She tried wriggling to get his head off her but to no avail. Lizzie tried to stifle a laugh that turned to a cough upon seeing Miranda's threatening glare. It was a hilarious scene though, watching her trying to get Gordo's head off her lap.

"Please...you already said you don't mind...c'mon...lemme sleep for a while..." he mumbled with his eyes already shut, trying to make Miranda's lap stay still by firmly lying on top of it. "And could you please stop wriggling? It's kinda making it hard for me to sleep..." he said sleepily and he folded his arms across his chest as he drifted off to sleep.

Miranda gave up from trying to get Gordo's head off her lap and smacked his head lightly and rolled her eyes at him, even though the gesture was futile cos' his eyes was already shut. She fumed slightly just as he lulled into sleep. "Fine. But if I get cramps in my leg, I'm going to hurt you. Hear that?" She threatened as she looked down at him, and a muffled 'Mmmm..' was all the response that she would be getting for now.

"Oh Miranda," Lizzie finally spoke up, "just let him sleep. He does look terribly tired and that nap is probably the best thing for him." She reasoned and watched as Gordo's breathing began to rise and fall at a slower pattern and she smiled.

"Look at him. He looks so peaceful doesn't he?" She said softly, kinda in a dreamy like state and Miranda raised her eyebrow at her.

"Uhuh...yeah.....right." Miranda said sarcastically. "He gets to take a nap and I get to be the pillow.." She muttered under her breath and looked at Lizzie who was still staring at Gordo, lost in thought.

Now, it's her turn to look amused at Lizzie. "So...how much longer do you think it will take you to finish your book review Lizzie?" she asked, snapping her out of her reverie. " I don't want my legs here to become a dead weight if this guy here," gesturing at Gordo, " sleeps much longer than he needs to."

"Oh, just a few more paragraphs and I'm done. Don't worry, he'll be off you sooner than you know it," Lizzie assured, giving her a small grin and continued scribbling on her paper.

They stayed under the shady oak tree in comfortable silence, with Lizzie on her book review, Gordo dozing on Miranda's lap and Miranda lost in thought.

In between moments, she would try to cross her legs to be more comfortable but the load on her lap prevented her from doing so. She also did not realize that her hands had moved from playing with the grass to the brown curls on her lap, or more specifically, Gordo's head. As she glazed out deep in her thoughts, her fingers were gently curling itself around Gordo's mop of brown hair as she unintentionally played with it.

Fortunately for Miranda, Lizzie did not see it as she was furiously scribbling away on her book report. Gordo was subconsciously enjoying it from the look of the small smile that adorned his lips but was unnoticed by both gals.

After another few minutes of silence, save for the scratching sound of pencil on paper, Lizzie suddenly cried in jubilation, rudely jolting Miranda out of her daze and her fingers yanked itself from Gordo's hair, causing Gordo to yelp out in pain and jerked him out of his nap.

"Finally! I'm done! Yes!" She pumped her fist in achievement and turned to look at her friends. A double pair of eyes greeted her, one with a steely glare and the other with droopy lids. She suddenly realized that she had rudely awakened her friends up and she gave them a sheepish and apologetic smile. "Whoops, so sorry guys." At least she had the sense to look ashamed.

"Well you should be...nearly made me have a heart attack." Miranda muttered and rolled her eyes. Gordo was rubbing his head to ease the pain of his hair nearly being yanked off his scalp. However, he did not question Miranda why her fingers were in his hair.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so relieved that I've finished this book review," she explained, "The book that she assigned us is so hard! I can't believe i can even finish reading the book."

"Urgh..No need to remind me. I still have to try reading past the first page, let alone read the entire book." Miranda groaned.

"Well, you should've tried reading it when I reminded you the other day, " Gordo told her. "See, now you only have three days left to do it. Be like Lizzie, the good girl," he smirked.

Miranda just made a face at him while Lizzie laughed light heartedly as she stuffed her book and things in her bag and set them aside. She stretched herself out a little, releasing the cricks in her neck.

Gordo straightened up and stretched out his back, releasing a huge yawn but looking slightly more afresh.

"Urgh..Close your mouth when you yawn Gordo," Miranda said, disgusted. "You look like a hippo. So unsightly."

Gordo just looked at her, amused.

"You sound just like my mother."

"Oh and do you use your mother's lap as a pillow too Gordo?" She retorted sarcastically. Lizzie chuckled at her words. Gordo rolled his eyes at her and stuck out his tongue at her.

"So now you're a five year old? Real mature." Miranda scoffed. " First the nap and now the behavior. I really wonder what you ate at lunch to reduce your mentality to that of a toddler." She muttered aloud but not in a mean kind of voice, just a teasing one.

"Can we get up and leave now before she mock me any further?" Gordo urged with a pleading voice to Lizzie. Lizzie just laughed at them light heartedly, still lying on her back facing up to the both of them.

"You guys are so entertaining! It's so fun to watch and see who gets the upper hand and looks like this time Miranda scores one point! She wins!" She cheerily declared, and pretended to clap for her, while Miranda acted as if she had just won a beauty pageant, and waved a hand in the air to an imaginary audience and mouthing 'Thank you, Thanks you! You really like me!' that made Gordo slap his head in despair and shook his head is exasperation.

"So now you're taking her side in this? I'm disappointed in you Lizzie..." Gordo pretended to be crestfallen and played on, ". After all this while I've stood up for you and this is how you repay me?" He pretended to be hurt by it and started to rise from his position on the ground as if going to leave.

"Aww...poor Gordo...can't even handle a quick wit like me!" Miranda teased looking up at him as he picked up his backpack that was resting against the oak tree.

Gordo laughed disbelieving at her and retorted. "Hah! You? Quick wit? More like a smart alec to me."

"Alright," she conceded, "I'll accept that. AT least I'm smart something so I'll settle with that," and she leaned back, contented with herself. And for the umpteenth time, he rolled his eyes at her.

"Can we go now? Or are you guys going to stay here until the school closes?" He said sardonically.

"Alright alright," Lizzie sat up and brushed herself and collected her books off the grass. Looking at Miranda who was still sitting there, she urged. "C'mon Miranda, let's go."

"Hmph. Fine," and reluctantly, she tried to get up but pain shot through her legs just as she tries to do so. "Arrhh!"

"What? What's wrong?" Lizzie and Gordo asked in unison, looking at her in concern.

"My legs! Now I've got leg cramps!" she moaned and settled herself back on the ground and tried massaging it to ease the pain.

"I think it's because you sat too long," Lizzie presumed and tried to help her get up on her feet.

"No, I think it's cos' Gordo," glaring up at him, "used me as a pillow and now my legs feel like a heavy load! I've already warned you that if I got cramps I'm gonna hurt you," she looked at him with fury in her eyes and made use of Lizzie's help to get back on her feet.

"Gordo, give me a hand here!" Lizzie urged him, who was just standing there looking at them and at her command; he went forward and place his arm around Miranda's waist on the opposite side and together they hoisted her up to her feet, with Miranda moaning in pain.

"I'm so sorry, Randa," Gordo apologized, looking at her with sympathy, but a cheeky grin appeared after it, "but you sure do make a good pillow!"

"What did you just say?" She glared.

Gordo chuckled even though he was still struggling to get her wobbly feet stable on the ground, even with Lizzie on the other end.

"You do! It's not too hard for the head cos' it's soft and cushiony," he admitted even though he knew of the consequence. Just as expected, he received a smack on the head, but not from Miranda but from Lizzie.

"You sure are dead meat Gordo," she shook her head despairingly at him.

Miranda was still in shock at what she had just heard. "Are you insinuating that I'm fat???!!!" She demanded, and tried to stomp her feet in anger but due to her condition right now, it only made her leg cramps worse. "Ow!" she moaned and tightened her grip on the shoulders of her best friends, in which her arms were draped across, Gordo's a little tighter, making him wince in pain in return.

"Ow! Ease on the grip there lady! You'll break my shoulders with that strong claw of yours," he grumbled but continued to hold her up.

"Well that's for saying that I'm fat!" she fumed.

"I didn't say that you're fat. I just said that you have soft and cushiony laps!" he defended.

"Which also means to say that I'm fat!" she snapped.

"No! It just means that you have soft and cushiony laps," he insisted.

"Oh and I am supposed to be offended or complimented by that?" she looked at him, deadpanned. Before he could answer, Lizzie interrupted.

"Okay guys! Time out here. Miranda," turning to her, "Trust me, you are not fat. You never have been and you never will be." She said firmly.

"Oh and how do you know that?" Miranda looked at her with raised eyebrows, slightly curious.

Lizzie grinned. "That's cos' if I see that you're pigging out on too much junk food, I'll drag you to the gym and make sure you work it all off! Just like you will for me." That made Miranda chuckle and Gordo breathed a sigh of relief that she is no longer mad, thanks to Lizzie. I owe her one he thought.

"Thanks Lizzie," Miranda smiled and squeezed her shoulders in appreciation and then turned back to Gordo. With her other arm around his shoulder, she reached out and smacked the back of his head.

"That's for causing the cramps and saying that my legs are cushiony." She justified.

Gordo just muttered under his breath. "Man, by the time I reach home, I'd probably have bruises all over my body." He let out a sigh and added, "well, that's the risk you're gonna take for having two violent friends, even if they are girls."

They ignored his comment and Lizzie spoke up.

"How's your leg Miranda? Are the cramps easing away?" She asked, concerned

"Well, they're a little less painful for now, but after a few steps, hopefully it'll go away. It just needs some exercise after been stretched out in the same position for so long." Miranda reasoned.

"Well, I could call my mom if you want."

"Oh no, no need for that," Miranda shook her head vehemently, "it's just cramps. There's no need to trouble your mom."

"All right, if you say so," she shrugged.

"Besides," Miranda added, "what do, I tell her what caused the cramps? Gordo slept on it too long?" she scoffed.

"Well," Lizzie considered it for a moment, "probably not." She shrugged. "But you sure you can wobble all the way home?"

"You kidding me? I'm not going to wobble all the way home! I'm just gonna wobble all the way to the bus stop and ride the way home." Miranda grinned cheekily.

Lizzie shook her head and chuckled. "Alrightey then."

"Well, then," Gordo spoke up, "C'mon. Let's go if we want to catch the next bus home."

So together, they helped Miranda wobble to the bus stop where they waited for the bus to shuffle the three amigos home.

TBC