Disclaimer: I do not own the characters nor do I know Disney or any of the cast. I am just a huge fan of the show.

Chapter Four

A Day at the Mall Does Not Always End Well

(At the Mall)

Miranda and Lizzie were having a blast. They had resolved their differences, and were chatting like old times. Coming up to Burger World, Lizzie offered to buy Miranda a Strawberry shake. Miranda nodded her head, and both girls sat in a crowded food court. They spotted some people from their school and waved, but never truly communicated with them. One hour later, Matt McGuire showed up at the food court, surprising Lizzie, but not Miranda.

"Hey girls, what's up?"

Toon Lizzie: Spit out out her shake, and wiped off the access on her face. "No, this can't be happening." She said brushing off the mess.

"Matt, what are you doing here. Who brought you? Does mom know?" Lizzie asked hysterically standing up to her brother.

"Well, when you left the house, mom wanted to know where you went since you didn't tell her, so I did. She brought me here." Matt felt bad, that he was lying to his sister. But, he figured it was all worth it.

"So, Lizzie you owe me. I saved your butt from mom." He grinned crossing his arms. Lizzie did not want to admit it, but he was right. She didn't tell her mom, and yet she could have been freaked out not knowing where her daughter was. Maybe… just maybe… Matt was growing up.

"Okay, what will it be?" She asked shrugging her shoulders and searching his eyes, to see if he was lying. Matt took a deep breath and peered at his sister with deceit.

"I am not doing well in school, and since you have already been through junior high, I was hoping maybe you could…" he winced. "Help me?" Those words out of Matthew McGuire were going to haunt him for the rest of his life. He knew that Lizzie tolerated him a lot, and yet with this newfound ground he had plotted on his sister was going to make her HATE him even more.

Lizzie couldn't believe her ears; her brother was really doing badly in school? Sure he got in trouble by doing pranks with Melina as his accomplice, but she never thought about his grades. I think this could be a start to a rekindled friendship.

Toon Lizzie: Held up a picture frame of Matt and Lizzie glaring at each other. "No more of that" she replied happily tearing out the picture and replacing it with a decent picture of them smiling.

"Okay, Matt. When do you want to do this?" She asked sipping her shake. Matt replied rather quickly and Miranda thought he had blown his cover. A quick and positive response could get one into trouble. Luckily, Lizzie didn't take that directly to the grave, she just nodded her clueless little head. "Oh Lizzie, you have no idea what you are getting yourself into!" Miranda thought, smiling to herself. She knew Lizzie was too busy talking with Matt, so she just sat back, and tried to hold back an evil laugh.

(Meanwhile Back At the McGuire House)

Lizzie and Matt were just finishing up his "homework" when Lizzie asked, "Do you want to help me pick out a present for Gordo's birthday next week?"

"Oh yeah, I would like that. Gordo is cool. I like him." Matt said placing his book on the floor.

"Yeah, I like him too." Matt couldn't believe his ears; his dorky sister like liked cool Gordo. Suddenly, Matt didn't feel too bad about what he was doing to his sister. I mean who knows the plan might back fire and still she would have feelings for him. While Lizzie rambled on about how wonderful Gordo was, Matt stretched out on his bed and thought about the conversation Miranda and he had yesterday.

Matt's POV

I was busy getting my camera set up for another one of Lizzie's mishaps. I often wondered if she was adopted and her original family didn't like her because she was a klutz. I couldn't help but smile on that. Somewhere along the line her family is clinking glasses and laughing together on some exotic island, or some planet; lucky them. My thoughts were immediately interrupted when the phone rang. At first I didn't want to answer the phone, but figured it might be Lanny. Lanny was out of town for the weekend, and we hadn't talked since. Maybe it was Melina calling. Oh, who am I kidding it's probably Gordo or Miranda. The name sounded wonderful coming from me. Miranda. No one, not even Lizzie knew I had a secret crush on her. Though there was that one-day where Lizzie was a working girl, and I was acting strange around Miranda. I think Gordo could somewhat tell, I didn't care. I wanted Miranda that day. But ever since then, I haven't done anything about it. I figured Miranda wouldn't want to date a 12 year old. Oh well, I sighed and picked up the phone on the third ring.

"Hello" I said in a deep voice.

"Matt?" said the voice. It was Miranda, oh lucky stars. I was so happy and whispered to know one in particular that I knew she would come back. My thoughts were shattered when I forgot about her being on the end. Oops. Luckily I came up with an excuse, and she bought it. I mentally kicked myself for lying to her.

"So what do I owe the pleasure of your call?" I asked politely. I heard a deep sigh coming at the end of the receiver, and started to get a little worried. She told me that Lizzie ticked her off and needed a favor. Now of course, I would do anything for Miranda especially if it was to play a prank on my weirdo sister. Although it never occurred to me what she would do to return the favor.

"Um… What is in it for me?" I asked grinning like an idiot and thanking god that she couldn't see it. I could hear her getting very annoyed with this conversation, but answered anyway. She told me that since I was a genius at making Lizzie's life miserable that I should have no problem trying to destroy her. I started to agree with her, but she cut me off. I sat down on my bed, and looked up at the ceiling casually working up the courage to ask what Lizzie did that ticked her off. She explained to me the whole situation about lunch, the Digital Bean, the lockers, everything and how it got out of hand. Yes, that is Lizzie for you, always taking something way to into extremes. Miranda asked me if I had done any pranks to her recently. I went into detail about the graduation and how she screwed that up. I also told Miranda that I sent the tape to Diane Sawyer and CNN. I couldn't believe that she was laughing hysterically because of this. Did Miranda Sanchez have a grudge on Lizzie? And how can this little prank send her over the edge laughing? Oh, I will never understand girls. We talked a little while later, and she ordered me to "bond" with Lizzie. I felt sick to my stomach all of a sudden. Bond. Lizzie. Those two words were not in the Matt McGuire English language. But, as I said before, I would of done anything for Miranda.

She told me to take as much time as I wanted with Lizzie, and I replied annoying with, "Are you psycho. Did you take too many blows to the hair dryer?"

She laughed at that but said, "No", and left it with that.

I then asked her, "Why I had to spend time with lizard breath?" She opted that this would give her a chance to comfort our young Mr. Gordon in his presence of the absent Lizzie McGuire. That way Miranda could get some words out of Gordo of how much he really loves Lizzie and what he would want changed about her. Next, Miranda would use this info to Lizzie's advantage. So, I was a decoy. I was being used to distract Lizzie. Oh well, sounded good to me. It was brilliant. Imagine Lizzie McGuire being broadcast on live TV without her even knowing it. Even if she woke up in the middle of the night to watch TV, and the stuff happened to be on, she probably would be oblivious to it. She literally IS to everything around her. I mean Kate told her about Gordo liking her. Heck, the whole school knew. My school even knew. My mom probably knew, because Lizzie and Gordo had been best friends since birth, and it was bound to happen at some point. It seemed that whatever crossed Lizzie's path; she always seemed to miss it; poor Lizzie. I almost felt bad for her… almost. I stopped thinking for a while and looked to see if Lizzie had left. Nope, she was still swept up in her little one-way conversation on the edge of my bed. I shook my head, and drifted back to thinking. Yes, the plan was absolutely perfect. It had to be. Suddenly chills ran down my spine and my stomach churned. Something inside me was still uncertain about this, but I shook it off. The plan had to work. Right?

Fade TO Black

(Lizzie's Bedroom)

Lizzie was sitting on her bed reading a Young and Modern magazine when suddenly the phone rang. She looked to the left of her nightstand and saw on the caller ID "Gordon". Lizzie screamed excitedly and picked up the phone. At first she heard Gordo's voice, and then hears snickering in the background.

She automatically lowered her brow and yelled into phone, "Matt, you little worm get off the phone now before I tell mom." She screeched. She heard shuffling of feet in the background, and then a click. "I am so sorry about that Gordo, miniature Rat couldn't take the hint." She said, lying back onto her bed with legs in the air.

(Gordo's house)

Kicking his hacky sack in the air Gordo answered, "That's all right Liz.

So, how did your day go?"

"Fine I guess, Kate kept coming up to me and asking me when I am going to call her." Lizzie shook her head at this, and rolled her eyes. Gordo nodded, and remained fixed on his hacky sack.

"Well, you remember in that letter she said she would help us?" Lizzie nodded at this, but he can't see it and asks him to go on. "This is just my opinion, but I…"

"You what?" asked Lizzie.

"I… I just don't know if we should trust her right away, you know?" replied Gordo. Lizzie didn't say anything, so Gordo continued. "I mean, she was so mean to all of us in Junior High, and then when we got to Rome, she became a total different person. …But, if you want to believe her you can, I am still skeptical about this."

Gordo thought she had left and cried out, "Lizzie?"

No answer.

"Lizzie, are you there?" He tried a second time. Now he was getting worried, and was about to hang up to when he heard sniffling. "Lizzie, baby you okay?"

Lizzie couldn't hold it anymore and cried into the phone. "Yeah… Gor… I'm" sniff "…Here. I just don't know what to do either. I am so" more sniffling "…Confused." Gordo was tired of kicking the hacky sack so he walked to the edge of bed, cuffed the phone to his left shoulder and started taking off his shoes.

"Shh…it's okay, Liz. How about you meet me at the Digital Bean tomorrow, and we talk about this?" He soothed. Sniffle

"Okay, that sounds good. Thanks Gordo. What time?" She asked blowing her nose. Gordo began thinking and decided three forty-five. They said their goodbyes, and both eventually fell asleep; dreaming of what the next day would be like.

Ok fans wondering what the next day will be like? Please read and review for Chapter 5.