CHAPTER 4

((back again…but ill only update once today…the song from last chapter was In A Second by Aly and AJ…I DO NOT OWN IT!!! And correction…Happy Together is also performed by The Turtles…I DON'T OWN THAT EITHER!!! Alright here comes the next chapter…the one you've all been waiting for…just kidding…after this…I HAVE TO study for my finals because I've been abandoning them for this which is not a good choice…read and review…XOXO, CHRISTINE))

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Forgive me if I st-stutter
From all of the clutter in my head
Cuz I could fall asleep in those eyes
Like a water bed
Do I seem familiar, I've crossed you in hallways
a thousand times, no more camouflage
I want to be exposed, and not be afraid to fall.

I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have
And cannon ball into the water
I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have
For you I will
You always want what you can't have
But I've got to try
I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have
For you I will
For you I will
For you I will
For you

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"Oh my God, Lily, I can't believe I just did that," Miley fretted while in the private bathrooms in the back of the theatre for the stars. She was attempting to rid herself of the long mascara streaks running down her face. "I ruined my makeup, probably drew on a bunch of press, and now Jake thinks I'm some crying sensitive baboon."

"Miley, relax," Lily tried to comfort her. "He'll just probably think your like…happy for Miley."

"No, he probably thinks Hannah likes him," Miley cried.

"Well Hannah does like him," Lily pointed out.

"No Miley does."

"AHA!!! You admit it! You've never admitted it before!" Lily screamed triumphantly.

"Woo hoo, alert the press, get this in the evening edition. Miley Stewart also known as Hannah Montana likes Jake Ryan!" She yelled that a little to loud for a certain someone walked right past the room as she said that. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a dashing smile. His full name was Jacob Justin Ryan.

Jake's POV

I was walking by the bathroom door and I heard somebody yelling, "Miley Stewart also known as Hannah Montana likes Jake Ryan!" Did I really just hear that? Is Miley Hannah, and is Hannah Miley? Then who's Lola Luftnagle? She reminds me of…Lily. Of course. That's why Miley said she knows what it feels like, all the fame and glory. And that's why they seem so much alike, Hannah and Miley. I was never having a conflict with who I like at all. They're the same person. Wow, I really do love her. I hear them coming towards the door. I ran for it, not wanting to let on that I know the little secret.

Regular POV

Hannah and Lola finally came out of the bathroom. "Where to, now?" asked Lola.

"Let's just go to our seats," replied Hannah. "The movie starts in about twenty-five minutes anyways. We can talk to the people around us."

All the stars were sitting up on the balcony in the nice seats. Hannah and Lola got to sit with them right next to, big shocker, Jake. "Hannah are you okay?" he asked her, concerned. "You kind of ran off back there."

"Yeah, sorry," Hannah replied trying not to be forced into an explanation. "Did the press see?"

"I don't think so," Jake assured her. "There weren't any big uprisings. We weren't out in the middle. They were paying more attention to Emma and crew by then."

"Well that's definitely good," Miley answered.

"Hi Lola," Jake greeted nicely.

"Hi Jake," Lola replied. She noticed a look in Jake's eyes. He was looking at Hannah the way he looked at… "Miley," Lola accidentally gasped out loud.

"What?" Miley snapped. "What did you say?"

"Nothing," Lola responded still staring at Jake curiously. "Nothing at all. I must be dreaming."

"Dreaming?" Jake interrogated. "What do you mean you were dreaming? What's gotten into you?"

"Jake," Lola said between clenched teeth hoping Miley wouldn't hear, "I need to talk to you, right now. It's important."

"Right now?" Jake whined. "The movie's about to start."

"Right now," Lola snapped grabbing Jake by the arm and aggressively pulling him down the aisle. Jake shot an apologetic look down toward Miley.

Lily pulled Jake into a broom closet and locked the door. "Alright, Jake, cards on the table, how long have you known?"

"Known what?" Jake tried to sound confused.

"This," Lola pulled of her blue wig turning back into Lily.

"Lily?! Is that you?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Oh, don't play with me, Jake," Lola snapped. "I know you know. The way you were looking at Hannah back there was pretty obvious."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jake tried to deny.

"Come off it."

"Okay, fine." Jake gave in. "I was walking by the bathroom you two were in tonight and I heard Miley say that she also known as Hannah Montana likes Jake Ryan. Happy?"

"Did you follow us?"

"No, I didn't mean to hear it. She just said it kind of loud. Anybody walking by could have heard it. Luckily it was me, instead of reporters."

"Yeah," Lily replied. "Very lucky."

"Well, listen, Lily, the movie is about to start and I will get introduced before it does, so we kind of need to get out of here."

"Just one more thing, are you going to ask Miley out?" Lily asked.

"None of your business," Jake commented. "No comment."

"Well, I have an idea…" She turned and whispered in his ear. As she did, a little boyish giddy grin popped up onto his handsome face.

Jake reached to open the door, but the knob wouldn't turn. He grabbed the lock and tried to twist it, but instead of unlocking, the knob of the lock fell off landing in his hand. He tried the door, but it was still locked "Oh shit!" he yelled.

"What?" asked Lily.

"We're stuck."

"What?! We need to get out of here!"

"Yeah! They're going to introduce me and I won't be there! Then there will be a huge press release on there, and then they'll make up some whopping rumor like they always do! This is not good!"

"Help!" Lily pounded on the door with her two little fists. "Get me out of here!" She continued to pound and scream.

"That won't help!" Jake was frustrated. "Everyone is in the movie!"

"Well it's better than nothing!" Lily retorted. "Help! Help!!"

"No it isn't," Jake hissed slapping his hand over her mouth. "If you're not careful, we'll get caught by the wrong people, and the press will find out and spread nasty rumors about why we were in a closet together. Don't you think that would look a little weird? And what would our story be?"

"Why is everything about the press with you? Who cares about them. We need to get out of her."

"The press can ruin people. They start bunches of rumors and send out psycho paparazzi who stalk you and threaten your safety as their job. You've seen the press. You're semi-famous. You're Hannah Montana's best friend!"

"Help!" Lily continued to scream.

"Lily…" Jake began.

"Don't you want to get out of here?!" Lily shouted. "There's no other way than to scream until someone hears us! Help!"

"Why are girls so stubborn?" Jake grumbled looking for another way out. "Look, Lily, up there…an air vent."

"I am not traveling through an air vent," Lily snapped. "You can do that to "save your image" if you want but I am going to pound on this door until somebody opens it. it's dirty up there, full of rats and mice and spiders and dust…EW!!!"

"It's the only way," Jake reasoned.

"Um, no it's not…there's a door," Lily pointed with a duh voice.

"Poor, Miley, she's probably wondering what we are doing, I have to get back to her."

"Good luck going through the vent," Lily said.

"Come on, Lil, come with me," Jake begged. "Miley will kill me if I come back without you. If we're lucky, this duct will come out right where I need to enter onto the stage when they introduce me."

"No."

"Please, Lily, come on."

"No!"

"Please, Lily, you won't see a rat, I promise."

"How can you promise something like that?! NO!!!"

"Fine, then you can spend the full movie in here because I don't have a key to that door, and then only people left out there are guards and they won't have a key either."

"But…" Lily started. Jake grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the vent. "Oh. All. Right."

Jake grabbed at the vent and noticed loose bolts. He carefully untwisted each one with his fingers, finally pulling off the door with a victorious screech. It looked to be just big enough for a person to slide through. "Ladies first." Jake moved out of the way to help Lily.

"Hell no, I am not going fist," Lily retorted, stepping off to let Jake go.

Grumbling, Jake hoisted himself up. "Grab my hand." He reached down to Lily who just stared at it.

"I'm a big girl I can handle myself…" she started.

"But if I get lonely I'ma need your help," Jake finished singing like a girl.

Lily rolled her eyes. "That WAS NOT funny." She climbed up into the vent, a disgusted look piercing her face. "Why don't they ever clean these things?"

"Because usually people don't go running around in them," Jake answered. "Who do you know that cleans vents for a job."

"Um…your mom?" Lily asked, shrugging.

"Oh now it's your turn to be funny I see," Jake retorted.

"Yep." They crawled around the ventilation system, stopping at each vent to check where it came out at.

"Okay," said Jake, taking charge. "I think it's this way."

"No," Lily reprimanded. "It's this way."

"It's this way…I'm sure of it," Jake confidently pointed.

"I'm sure of it being this way," Lily retorted pointing the opposite direction.

"Alright, we'll race," Jake said, annoyed. "You go that way. I go this way. The person that finds the exit first wins."

"Fine," Lily inclined. "Go." They both scrambled in opposite directions. Lily crawled as fast as she could trying not to look down afraid of what she might see. She look out the vents. "Aha," she muttered. She was looking out into the theatre. She looked up towards where she was supposed to be sitting. Miley wasn't there. They must have gone down to get ready to go on stage and be introduced. Miley must be getting an introduction. She quickly crawled in the direction of the stage. She was going to win. She knew it.

Jake looked out of the nearest vent. He was in the backstage area. He was so close. There was a vent up ahead that must be backstage. He hastily crawled towards it having a hard time avoiding his head hitting the ceiling. He was going to beat Lily. He could hold it over her head forever. He was so close, almost there, when he saw Lily out of the corner of his eye crawling towards it from the other side. They reached it exactly at the same time.

"I win!" they triumphantly shouted at the same time. "You did not!" They were still in unison. "I got here first!"

"Come on," hissed Jake angrily. He worked at the door and got it to pop off, not looking out where he was going. He began to crawl out and help Lily down. As soon as she came down, he heard at least one thousand clicks. Standing behind them were at least fifty camera people snapping pictures. Reporters fumbled for their microphones wanting interviews.

"Mr. Ryan!" they all were shouting, "why were you and Miss Loftnagle together in the vent. "Are you two dating?!"

"No we are not dating!" Jake shouted angrily. "We are just friends!"

"Then why were you in the vent?!" a reporter shouted.

"We got stuck in the closet and had to find some way to get out!" Lily shrieked.

The reporters went even wilder at this one, making sure their recorders and video cameras were taping this confrontation.

"Lily, that was a horrible answer," Jake hissed. "No comment. No comment. No comment." Jake pulled Lily through the crowd. They continued to go backstage where the entrance to the stage was. "Hannah!" Jake called out when he saw her pulling Lily along.

"Where were you guys?" Miley asked slightly annoyed. "And why are you all dusty? You're both a mess."

"Yeah well we were talking about something in a closet…" Jake began.

"Talking about something in a closet?" Hannah asked raising her eyebrow. She burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Lily confused.

"It was obviously Lola's idea," Miley choked out. "She has to be extreme and weird. That's my Lola."

Lily sensed it was a cover up. She played along. "Yep. I'm a strange one alright."

"Well," Jake continued, "we accidentally locked ourselves in, and so we had to climb through the vents to get down here."

"Obviously Lola's idea too," Hannah continued to laugh.

"Actually, HAN-AH, it was Jake's," Lola disagreed. "I didn't want too because…"

"You didn't want to get dirty," Hannah finished.

"Yeah," Lily stepped up, "but when we got out of the vents, a bunch of reporters saw us, and now they think we are together. WHICH WE ARENT!" She jumped away from Jake as far as she could. "Me and him…just no." She gave him a disgusted look.

"So now you're going to be all over the place in the papers," Hannah said. "Well, Jake, that's going to suck to cover up. There's no real good cover story when it comes to that. Unless, you tell me and them what you were discussing…" Miley added hopefully.

"Not a chance, Hannah," Jake replied. "Don't worry about it." Miley didn't know what to think. She had no idea what it could have been. Unless… "Well, I have to go clean up. I'm about to get called on stage. See you in a few minutes."

"Bye," Miley said. She turned to Lily. "It wasn't about the "thing" was it?"

"No, he has no idea," Lily assured her. "It was something else that has nothing to do with you. It was not important"

"I don't believe you. If it was so "unimportant", it could have waited until later."

"Oh, look at that," Lily abruptly changed the subject, "they're about to call you onstage. I'm gonna go sit up in the balcony…bye, Hannah!" Lily quickly made her way through the crowd to go back upstairs. "Well," she said to herself. "I wasn't lying. This doesn't have anything to do with Hannah, but it has everything to do with Miley, and while she has her wig on, she's Hannah."

((I hope you liked it…I will reveal the song in the next chapter…guess it…reviews please…XOXO, CHRISTINE))