Finally, the (not so much) awaited ending to my two shot. Any criticism is accepted. However, please make it nice. Punctuation/grammar/spelling corrections or any old suggestions would be great because I've just handed it in for my coursework, but it's only the first draft. Your help and comments would be extremely appreciated.
Enjoy! Amee.
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Miley's eyes burst open. She had been haunted by that same dream almost every single night for four long, tiring years. She threw off the covers that were tangled at her feet and got out of bed, glancing at the clock on her bedside table – 4.50am. She didn't bother setting her alarm any more, she didn't need to. Miley knew from unfortunate experience that she wouldn't get back to sleep again without a vat of sleeping pills so she set about keeping herself busy. Looking around, she was surprisingly disgusted at how tidy her bedroom was, she could think of only one thing to do that could keep her mind off her mother; something she had been putting off as for as long as she could. The fourteen year old sighed as she separated the gruesome dresses and revealed the two lilac doors emblazoned with large "HM" signs. She was going to clean out her closet.
A few weeks after the funeral, Miley had a visitor. Her dad used to be a hugely successful country singer and his manager Marty Cline had come to her mother's funeral. The Stewarts sat on a couch, he stood.
"Thanks for letting me in to talk to you all." Marty rubbed his hands together. "I've already talked to your daddy about this and he thinks it's a great idea, as long as you want to." Miley blinked her wide eyes, unsure of what was happening.
"I heard you sing at the funeral, Miley, you blew me away. And since then I've wanting to ask you – what do you think about starting a career in the singing business?"
"What!" The girl stood up, confused. At the wake, she had begun to talk again, Marty understood that her confidence was gradually building again and he thought she would be ready after a few weeks.
"It's just an idea, Miles," her dad chipped in. "We don't want your talent to go to waste. You could be great. Your voice is one of the most amazing I've heard and you're my little girl, I want something good for you hon'. You deserve this." Robby Ray and his ex-manager had been working out the kinks for a fortnight, the plan was perfect. They most certainly hadn't been expecting this.
"No," Miley's voice wavered. She shook her head. "Not without my mom. I can't do it alone."
"Lilly in five!" Miley put down the phone and hurried to the fridge to grab a carton of orange juice. Jackson rushed across the room, vaulted over an armchair and flung open the French doors. The blonde haired girl, Lilly, flew in on her skateboard, glided across the floor, came to a stop at the breakfast bar to have the juice thrown into her hand.
"Come on Lola Luffnagle, we've only got two hours to get ready for my massive concert in San Francisco tonight. It's being streamed on LIVE TELEVISION! Let's move!"
Lilly drained the orange in ten seconds flat and slammed the empty carton down on the table. "What are we waiting for then?"
The two girls rushed upstairs and into Miley's room. They passed everything in their way until they reached her closet doors. Lilly, or Lola as she was about to become, smiled widely.
"Miles, what's up?" Her best friend looked worried, nervous. Lilly wondered why, Miley did big concerts all the time. She'd even performed for the President and his daughter Sophie. Why was she looking so contemplative? Getting ready was half the fun, at least it was for Lilly who was completely in awe of the Hannah closet, still. The Hannah Closet. Though Miley's closet looks normal when the doors are opened it isn't; push away the old birthday frocks and unwanted sweaters that hang there and appears the entry to the room that she probably couldn't manage without.
"Oh, nothing. I suppose I'm just a little scared. I mean, this is the concert of the year – everyone we know, everyone from out school is going to be travelling out to San Francisco just to see me. I bet some of them even camped out to get in line first and get a spot at the front. It's a big thing. They're all going to be watching me. All eyes are on me. It's just… It's frightening." Miley's voice quivered. Lilly gave Miley a confused look; she had never acted like this. Not in the whole time she had known her.
"What are you talking about Miley? This is what you do it for; this is what you always wanted. Don't you love knowing that you can be an amazingly successful pop star by night and then go back to school the next day and be just another girl?" Lilly walked into the Hannah closet with a grin and spun around in the middle of the floor.
"I thought it was Lilly. I always thought that it was a good idea. Making up my other identity – Hannah Montana. I mean, I guess it is. I'm simply thinking too much about it these days. Just… Let's get ready, we're running out of time. If I have to do my make-up in the limousine one more time because of you, I'll blow my nut. Hurry up!"
Miley and Lilly spent an hour trying to pick out outfits for themselves from the spectacular, rotating display of clothes built into the wall. Lilly chose a wig – bubblegum blue, her favourite - while Miley decided on shoes for themselves. With little more than thirty minutes to go, they rushed their make up while discussing trivial topics such as Jesse McCartney and The Jonas Brothers, the two acts warming up for her that night. Both of them noticed the strange tension in the air but neither mentioned it. The two best friends were prone to fall outs and arguments, frequent but unwelcome occurrences, talking about it might have set them off again which Miley and Lilly each did not want.
Five minutes remaining, the girls stood in front of the humongous mirror on the closet wall. "I don't know. Do these clothes go with my wig?" Miley had changed her clothes so many times that night she felt dizzy. She stood, comparing her pink, corset style top to her hair. When dressed as Hannah, she wore a long, blonde wig so that nobody could make the connection and realise who she was in real life. Miley was very conscious about who knew of her super-star alias; in fact, her two best friends had been kept in the dark for almost two years before they found out. Lilly had made her way into Hannah's dressing room after a concert and been shocked to see that her best friend was really her idol.
"Miley, you're Hannah Montana. Everything looks amazing on you. Seriously, stop worrying and relax. Your clothes are gorgeous, your hair is perfect and your make up is flawless. Oliver's waiting downstairs and your dad and brother are in the limo. Does it matter? Really? It's about a five hour drive to San Francisco. Take some extra clothes, your make up and do it on the way. We really have to leave or we won't make it on time!" Lilly almost screamed at Miley. She'd never known her best friend to be so scattered and indecisive, especially before a concert. Miley was normally organized and knew exactly what she wanted. She thought about this for a moment before snapping into action herself and forcing her friend away from the mirror. They shoved everything they needed into a bag and ran downstairs.
"You're not yourself today, Miley. What's up?" Oliver didn't look interested in the slightest, but he did care. He was trying his best to look casual, like Lilly had insisted; it wasn't working. But now she sat next to him, head in hands, regretting the decision she had made to actually tell him her concerns. Miley rolled her eyes and, shrugging him off, took a sip of the cool lemonade she had found in the limousine's mini fridge. She rested her head carefully on the faux leather arm rest, for Lilly had insisted that her dad booked animal friendly cars since she discovered her friend's secret, especially as she rode in them every week or so to concerts. Miley's dream filled slumbers did nothing for her energy so she tried to move as little as possible, saving herself for her fans, only God knew how much she would need it.
"Boy Oliver, what are you wearing?" Oliver looked gob-smacked, down at his attire - a shiny waistcoat on top of a ruffled shirt that looked like it had belonged to an English Victorian noble, not a fifteen year old boy from California. He clearly thought it looked good. Miley told him he could borrow some of her dancers clothes and when Oliver questioned her why it mattered because nobody would see him back stage, she quickly added "well, there'll be paparazzi, won't there?" He accepted her answer, but Lilly's face was stricken with a sceptical look. Casting her doubt aside, she began a conversation and noticed that, while Miley wasn't a big fan of the sport, she was still too quiet compared to normal.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Lilly straightened Miley's long, blonde wig as they pulled into the car park of their San Francisco venue. "And don't lie to me this time, I want to know what's going on." Miley breathed in heavily and sighed.
"Well, just between us three, I'm singing a new song tonight." Miley said. Oliver gasped girlishly, leaving the other two with wide, slightly scared eyes before Lilly turned back to Miley.
"What? You didn't tell us this! Why not? Wait, does your dad know?"
"It's a surprise. Not even the band knows, I'll be singing it alone. Just me, my acoustic guitar and a live, 10,000 strong audience.
Lilly and Oliver walked down to the beach together every day. It was during their summer vacation and, being eleven, their newest phase was surfing. In fact, they were both becoming quite good at it.
"Hey, leave me alone! I haven't done anything to you!" Lilly and Oliver, both wearing identical, quizzical looks on their faces, ran the next 20 yards towards the raucous. There, they saw that Amber and Ashley, two popular girls that seemed to be the bane of their existence, were picking on a girl with long, brown hair. She was backed into a corner and was the subject of such remarks as 'hillbilly' and 'redneck trash'.
"Go back to Tennessee, new girl," Amber mocked the girl's strong accent.
"Yeah, what are you doing in California? You don't belong here." Ashley agreed. Lilly jumped down from a small cliff, just in the middle of two sand dunes.
"Well, Amber, Ashley, why don't you run off home to your pig-sties then?" After Oliver had seen that their attention had been drawn away from the new girl. He snook around the dune, grabbed her hand and pulled her into a run, as fast as they could to as far away as possible, until Oliver ended up tripping over his own feet and rolling around in the sand, both of them laughed hysterically.
Miley shook her head, clenched her eyes firmly shut and breathed deeply. She thought of how her mother must be proud, about how many children she'd been able to reach out to through her music, how she could still make even more of a difference. The cheers were getting louder and louder, they were calling for her. No, not for her. They were calling for Hannah Montana. She smiled and the confidence that had brought her so far surfaced. Running onto the stage, she threw a thumbs up to Oliver and Lilly, who were standing at the side watching, and screamed "What's up San Francisco?" The reply was deafeningly immense. The lights shining down on her blinded her and she had to prevent herself from squinting out at her audience. She couldn't see much detail of the crowd gathered there, but she could still make out the faces of two, unfortunately familiar faces right there in the front row – Amber and Ashley. Miley recognised more faces, those a little more welcome. Most of the fans in the standing area were from her school which worried her a little, she wanted to make a good impression, she felt like she needed to impress theses people. Whether she'd be 'just Miley' or not, the next time she would see them.
Miley's eyes were wide and watering. She knew the words. She knew the dance moves. She knew it all so well. She just couldn't do it. The two girls who had been bullying her that very same week were standing right at the front of her first ever concert. If they didn't like her, then she wouldn't have a chance – they'd spread the word that Hannah Montana was no good and that nobody should listen to her and, based on what Lilly and Oliver had told her, everybody would listen. Finally Miley, plucking up the courage, let out a hum and the first few notes of the song. Her band joined in hastily, not noticing apparently, that their hesitant pop star had started singing. Soon, the first verse flowed into the chorus and the listeners were taken aback by how amazing this girl's singing voice was. Even Amber and Ashley, who both seemed to be quick to criticize something, were blown away by this new singer's talent.
Looking at Amber and Ashley in the front row certainly discerned Miley, she bit her lip and began to introduce her newest song.
"I'd say I've never sung this song before. But that would be a lie. I have once, before. You just haven't heard it. You haven't heard of it. It was a long time ago, before I was famous, before I was even a teenager. It was just a song I wrote as a child and sang because I had no other way to express how I felt." The whole, gigantic room was silent. A pin could have dropped and you would have heard it, less anybody dared to move to drop one. "You know," she laughed. "Nobody knew I was singing a new song tonight until I told my friends about half an hour ago. My dad doesn't know, my band don't know. I guess I owed it to you to all, you have to know all there is to know. I don't want to lie. I don't want to keep you in suspense or anything. I just want you to listen. Okay? Can you do that?" Cheerful calls were returned and soon, to Miley's delight, they all stopped again, eager to hear the new song.
I didn't wanna listen to what you were sayin'
I thought that I knew all I need to know
I didn't realize that somewhere inside me
I knew you were right but I couldn't say so
I can take care of myself, yeah, you taught me well
I learned from you that I do not crumble
I learned that strength is something you choose
All of the reasons to keep on believin'
There's no question, that's a lesson, that I learned from you
I'm grateful for all of the times
You opened my eyes
I learned from you that I do not crumble
I learned that strength is something you choose
All of the reasons to keep on believin',
There's no question, that's a lesson
I learned from you
You taught me to stand on my own
And I thank you for that
You saved me, you made me,
and now that I'm looking back
I can say I learned from you that
I do not crumble
I learned that strength is something you choose
All of the reasons to keep on believin',
There's no question, that's a lesson that I learned from you
I learned from you
I learned that strength is something you choose
All of the reasons to keep on believin',
There's no question, that's a lesson that I learned from you
I learned from you
After singing this song, Miley pulled out a tall stool that she was planning to sit on while performing another later on in the show. She settled herself on it and prepared to pour out her soul to thousands of strangers.
"I grew up on a farm in Nashville, the capital of Tennessee. That was with my mum, dad and my big brother. I had a pretty normal upbringing, not much different from most of yours, I suppose. I did normal stuff. I knew normal people. Heck, I was one! I took singing and dancing lessons from about the age of six. My dad was a country singer, a really successful one as well, Billy Ray Stewart. You might have heard of him, or maybe your parents have. My mom was a vet, she worked particularly with horses and cattle. She was really talented at it, animals loved her, it was her calling. Just like I think singing is mine. Her devotion to helping animals, doing what she loved, was partially why I decided to follow my dream, no matter what it would take me." Most of the crowd smiled at this point. Each person can always relate to 'dreams', to think of following one's dream is heart warming and, unfortunately, often feels impossible. She continued "When I was 10, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and died almost a year later. Not long after this, I decided to do what she had always encouraged me to. To follow my dream."
Hannah had never had such a quiet audience, it wasn't that they weren't as enthusiastic as others, they were all just trying to sympathise. This information had never been disclosed. Not much was known about her family at all.
"Marty Clein, my dad's old manager, visited me. Surprisingly, I declined. I thought that perhaps, I didn't want to be a singer if my mom wasn't there by my side, the whole way. But then I changed my mind. I realised that by singing, I still would have that link to her, that she'd be by my side even if I couldn't see her, touch her, or hear her." Miley explained that arrangements were made and she ended up moving to Malibu, a very popular place for new faces in the music industry. She told them all a little bit about how she met her friends, without giving too much away. She said about how it was hard to get to the top, to become so successful and such a popular favourite artist for both young people and adults.
"This, this is the reason that I have to tell you something. I've worked so hard to get where I am today and, for goodness' sake, I'm still only fifteen!" The whole venue straightened with attention, their eyes suddenly a little more interested than before. Hannah Montana was going to announce something important, they all knew it. Why else would she need to give it that big introduction? Why else would she spend half of the time she had booked for this concert, telling everyone about her past, when she should have been singing? Nobody knew what was going on but they did know it was going to be exciting. "Sometimes, I feel like... Even though I've made it to this level of fame and success, I still feel like I've cheated. Like I've been cheating myself all along. I've been doing not only what I love more than anything in the world, but what my mum loved as well, singing. I'm told how much I'm like my mother so often, but I failed to realise that my mom wouldn't have done what I did. She wouldn't have lied to everyone, and she certainly wouldn't have lied to herself." Miley braced herself for what was about to come, what she was about to do. She knew there was no other choice, she couldn't go on living like she had been. She placed her right hand flat on her head, took hold of her long, glittering blonde wig and pulled.
The emotion in the room was exhilarating to experience. Thousands of people just watched what nobody had ever suspected, their idol was not really a glamorous teenage girl who had lived everybody's fantasies and their wishes, she was somebody that they had never seen before. At least, most of them had never seen her before. Shocked expressions were plastered across her classmates' faces. Never would they have expected that the dorky girl that didn't seem to be exceptional at anything important could actually be somebody they looked up to, a worldwide success. Amber and Ashley's looks were priceless.
Miley laughed a little. "You know, I didn't tell anybody that I was going to do this. Not even my dad. I bet I get grounded or something." A lot of her fans laughed with her, some even quite satisfied that she could be so normal like them. She gestured to Oliver and Lilly to come on stage. They did so, fumbling a little as they walked over to their best friend for neither was very stage confident. They both sheepishly took off their wigs and revealed to world that neither of them were who they had been pretending to be. Lilly waved at the crowd slowly, still taking in how many people could see her up there. Her eyes rested on the two bullies at the front and narrowed.
"Yeah," she directed at them. "The same girl you bully every day is up here, guess who isn't. You. She's amazing, famous, a celebrity. She's popular, she's idolised. Miley is everything you're not." It seemed that Lilly's self consciousness was now nowhere to be seen.
"I guess I should get you all caught up, right?" Miley laughed again. "Well, my name is Miley Stewart. I live in Malibu. My big brother is called Jackson, my dad's name is Robbie Ray." She pulled her dad onto the stage, where he took off his itchy, fake mustache and pulled his daughter into a warm, one armed hug. "This kid over here is Lilly Truscott, my best friend and my muse. Then there's Oliver, my other best friend. He's the funny one who, whether he intends to or not, makes the stupidest jokes and comments that can keep you laughing for days." Lilly beamed, Oliver nodded foolishly, 'like a chicken' as Miley would say often.
She started to talk about how she didn't want to lie to her fans at all. "I thought it would be easier this way. For the most part, it was much easier. Making up my alias, Hannah Montana, was the only way I could stand to be a singer. I always knew that I would live my dream, I was determined to do it on my own terms." Jackson had joined the gang on the stage now, characteristically taking advantage of this abrupt opportunity to look popular and to try and flirt with girls in the audience, none of whom were bothered – they were all too interested in what Miley had to say. "I wanted to be a singer. Here I am today, I've made it. I just couldn't leave my normal life behind. You may desire to be flawless in the public eye, to be a total diva and get everything you want. It's not that great. Sometimes you need to be reminded that at the end of the day, you're just a normal person."
Robbie Ray Stewart glowed with pride. His daughter had always known that her secret would get out sometime, this was such an amazing way to do it. It wouldn't be leaked to a tabloid paper or magazine, it wouldn't become a scandal. Now, it was just a brave young girl showing the world her true self. Miley carried on.
"It's painful being a teenager, we all know that. But this way, I get to live through hard school work. I deal with the bullies. The embarrassing moments like tripping over walking down the hallway, with everyone watching. I know that it's those moments that make you want the floor to open up and swallow you whole. But it's also the aftermath of those moments that remind you that everything blows over and that this kind of thing happens to all of us. When I started out as Hannah Montana I knew that I was entering into a cruel business where you can't have moments like those. As weird as it sounds, when you can't act stupid without it mattering, those moments become like treasure. They're precious. People in the public eye are expected to be perfect. Nobody is perfect." Her dad butted in -
"Hey, that's a good idea for a song."
"Yeah, I agree." Lilly piped up as well.
"Anyway, like I was saying. Those awkward teenage moments mean that you can have hope that maybe, things aren't like that when you're older. If they're absent from the start, how can you grow up thinking that things will get better?"
At this point, the whole venue erupted with applause, wolf whistles, screams and shouts. Miley felt like she had never felt before. Everything she had been worrying about was for nothing. Originally, her secret getting out and then nobody accepting her for herself, they'd rather have Hannah. It was the most exceptional, harmonious sensation, that everything could work out. She could have the best of both worlds after all.
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Okay, guys. What do you think? I know that I explain things that are obvious to the fandom, but this was aimed generally at someone who has never seen the show because by the time I wrote this chapter, I knew it was for my coursework. I also understand that you will have read many, many badfics about Hannah being revealed as Miley. I hope I did it well. Anyway, tell me! What did you think? Any place I can improve it?