"It shouldn't," the doctor said as he walked through the door. I looked up at him, "Are you ready to get those bandages off?" I nodded, and the doctor got me to lift my head up. He unhooked the bandage clip, and slowly took my bandage off, which he rolled in a ball and threw away. He took the tape and gauze off the stitches, and rubbed some cream over the cut to keep it from getting infected. I smiled, I was so happy to get the itchy bandages off.

"Thank you," I beamed at the doctor, "thank you so much."

My doctor nodded his head and looked from Miley's dad to me, "are you ready for radiation tomorrow Lily?" I shook my head, "Do you have any questions or concerns?"

I thought about it, "How long will it take? Will it hurt?"

"The procedure should only take a couple minutes," the doctor explained to me. "But it will take half an hour. It shouldn't hurt, but afterwards you might have some nausea, lack of sleep, irritation of the skin where we'll be working on."

"Great," I mumbled, "I'm looking forward to that."

The next morning I woke up in a miserable mood – I really didn't want to have radiation therapy. But thankfully, I had my parents with me now, and my mom was beside me on my bedside. Mr. Stewart had gone home yesterday, and we had had a goodbye "party" in the cafeteria with everyone, which had included a piece of chocolate cake from the buffet line. From what I heard, Miley was super excited about her dad being back, and she had moved back as soon as he walked into the door. Miley had yet to find out that we were moving in as well.

"Are you alright sweetie?" My mom asked me immediately as I woke up – which was later than usual I noticed. In an hours time I would be going into another room for radiation. I shook my head, my stomach full of butterflies and elephants. "It will be fine," My mom told me, running her hands through my hair, which she proceeded to put into two bundles. "You'll be nervous for the first day, it will get better."

I nodded my head, "I guess that's it," I whispered to her. "Do you really think everything will be okay after this?" My mom nodded her head in agreement, and I turned my head to look at the ceiling until the doctor was called into my room.

"Everything is set," he told me and my mom while at the same time lifting me up from my bed and helping me and all my IV's into a wheelchair. "We'll be back in a half an hour," he told my mom before we left.

I was then wheeled into a large room where an ever larger machine was set up. The machine looked as if it were from a different planet – there was a long arm that hovered over a long white bed, and had technical looking buttons. I was placed on the bed, after being helped into a hospital gown by another nurse, and then I could hear the whirl of the machine turning on. The doctor sat down at the side, where all the buttons were, and I was told to stay still until he told me I could move. I couldn't feel anything throughout the procedure, but one half an hour later, I went back to the hospital room with a booming headache that just wouldn't go away.

Miley's POV:

When my dad got home, he made it seem as if he were never gone. The next morning when I woke up, he was downstairs making his famous pancakes, and humming some oldies song that I didn't know.

"Hey daddy," I smiled, sitting down on the kitchen stool and watching my dad flip the pancakes. "When's Jackson going to get home from Coopers?"

My dad looked at me once with a smile, "he should be getting back this afternoon." He told me before turning back to his pancakes. "But I don't think we should rush him.' I laughed, nodding and grabbing a couple of pancakes from the plate that my dad had placed in front of me.

"Did you miss being home dad?" I asked, after eating my first pancake. My dad turned to me again, smiling and turning back to the stove. He didn't say anything, but he had started to hum again. "How was Lily?"

"She's good," He told me. "We took a trip down to the cafeteria yesterday for a goodbye party and shared a small piece of chocolate cake. Of course, you and Oliver should have been there."

I nodded my head, "I wish we could have been," I told him enthusiastically. "But Mr. Oken had to work and so Oliver and I spent the day on the beach."

"Not too bad of a day," my dad mused, finishing off the batter, and finally turning off the stove to sit down across from me and have his own breakfast. "Did I mention I have a surprise for you?" He asked halfway through his pancake.

"No," I demanded, wondering what the heck this surprise could be about.

My dad laughed and put down his fork, finishing the pancake before he started to speak again. "Well," he started, and you could tell that he was trying to tease me. "Turns out the Truscott's have to move, and since we don't want them to leave Malibu, they're going to move in with us for a couple of weeks."

I clapped my hands in glee, completely forgetting to ask my dad why they had to move. "I can't wait!" I exclaimed to my dad, who then covered his ears with his hands and proceeded to eat his pancakes. "When are they going to move in?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Truscott are going to move in tonight," my dad told me. "And Lily's going to move in when the hospital releases her."

"Which is Sunday?" I asked remembering being told this one time before.

"Or sooner," he added. "It depends on how Lily's health is doing." I clapped in excitement again, and propped myself up from the chair so that I was sitting higher.

"This is so exciting," I announced eating the rest of the pancakes on my plate, and then putting the dirty plate in the dishwasher. "Where's Lily going to sleep? What about Blake?"

"The guest room across from your room," my dad replied, taking another bite from his pancake. "And Blake went to San Francisco with her aunt for the summer."

"Alright then," I said, running towards the couch and grabbing my book and m backpack, and running again out of the door. Unfortunately I had to go to school, but I was going to announce the good news to Oliver, so it made it even more exciting.

I got into school just as the morning bell rang and the announcements were going on through the loud speakers. I had English first, and luckily that was Oliver – so I would get to tell him before I exploded.

When I got to the class though, the teacher was already writing on the board, and I had to sneak into my chair across from Oliver in the back.

"Oliver?" I whispered, when I reached my seat and had my binder out. I started to take notes before Oliver responded, "I have some good news about Lily."

"What?" Oliver whispered back, pretending to take notes while still trying to pay attention. "Is Lily okay?"

I nodded my head, and held up my hand telling him to wait a second. I was going to write a note.

My dad says if Lily's health improves Lily can get out of the hospital earlier than Sunday, I wrote handing the note across to Oliver who took it from me.

How early are we talking? Oliver wrote back. When does she come back to school?

Depends on Lily's health, I wrote underlining the word depends, because obviously he wasn't getting it. And she comes back to school next week. Oh, and guess what?

Oliver looked at me after I wrote the note, and mouthed what, but I pointed to the note and wrote it down. Lily and her family are going to be living with me for a little while.

Oliver smiled at me, is everything alright at the Truscott household?

She'd have to move out of Malibu otherwise, I wrote. And we don't want that.

Oliver shook his head when we read the note, but when the teacher looked our way we had to hide the paper and start to look like we were actually doing something for the class.

"I'll explain it to you later," I whispered before I went back to work.