Your reviews have been awesome everyone! I love them all! And you too! There will be some special guests in the chapters to come; starting today!
"This is so COOL!" Lilly squealed as she and Miley entered their five-star hotel in New York City. The room had white marble tile, two king-size beds, a Jacuzzi, and a balcony with a clear view of the Statue of Liberty. Miley chuckled at her friend's excitement. Next-door, Oliver could be heard jumping up and down on his own king-sized bed. What really creeped her out was that her dad and that 25 year old schlub of a 'mom' were sharing a room.
The thought sent shivers down her spine. Then she heard an extremely loud shriek, and remembered where she was. Lilly was currently examining the fully stocked, complimentary mini-fridge. Miley rolled her eyes at her best friend, but went over to see what it was abut nonetheless. It was full of strawberries and microwaveable chocolate fondue. Miley groaned.
Oliver and Jackson had come to the door and now the three were admiring the chocolate covered strawberries. Miley decided she'd go check out the lobby. Anything was better than watching her two best friends and her older brother drool over caffeinated fruit.
When she got down there, she saw a group of about 30 or so kids entering. They looked about Jackson's age, and were all fairly tanned. A mop-topped boy was in the middle, clinging to his basketball desperately. It was pretty amusing to the small (compared to them) brunette girl. She felt a presence beside her, and saw three chocolate covered faces looking at the group.
"What's with that kid and his basketball?" Lilly asked, cocking her head to the side and raising a questioning eyebrow. The group of four was giving the gut strange looks. "He almost looks like Johnny Collins. Don't ya think?" Miley stared at the dark brown mess on his head, and realized that he DID look a lot like her former crush.
"Yeah, I guess he does." Miley said. She looked at her posse, only to see that Jackson was gone. He had gone over to flirt with a pretty blonde girl. She had huge sunglasses, designer clothes, and a real Prada purse. Miley guessed she was stuck up and rich, like Amber and Ashley.
When the blonde scoffed and walked away, Jackson moved on to a Hispanic-looking, pretty brunette girl. She looked really nice, not Jackson's type Miley realized all too quickly. Then an attractive boy slid his arm around the girl's shoulder and Jackson hung his head in defeat. It perked up when he saw a gorgeous girl typing furiously on her laptop. Right before he was about to make his move, the mop-top came up behind her and covered her eyes. She giggled when she realized who it was.
Jackson walked away. "Three strikes. You're out!" Oliver said and Jackson shot him a deadly glare. Oliver shrunk away. He knew that soon, though, he'd be able to overlook Jackson, and then he'd be sorry. But until then he'd hide behind his tough, blonde friend.
Miley felt sorry for the girls Jackson had harassed, so she went over to apologize. "Hey, sorry about my brother. He can't get a date to save his life, but he tries anyway." Miley apologized, getting stuck in her ramblings as usual. "I'm Miley, by the way." She held out her hand and the dark haired, nice looking one shook it.
"I'm Gabriella, and that's ok." She said, though it was apparent she was holding back laughter at the look on her boyfriend's face. He looked pretty mad. Miley suppressed a giggle too. "Hey, haven't I seen you somewhere?" Gabriella asked curiously. 'Here it comes.' Miley thought miserably. Every time she's met someone new recently it's been the same question. And every time, someone else answers it with-
"Oh my God! It's Jake Ryan's girlfriend!" The blonde rich girl said excitedly. All heads turned towards her, and she inwardly groaned. But she plastered a smile on her face. Gabriella looked embarrassed for her clueless blonde friend. Miley knew that feeling well.
The bushy-haired kid walked over to the blonde and asked, "Are you sure? I didn't know they were even still together." He said and Miley's mouth fell.
"Oh, and what does THAT mean?!" He looked shocked. Gabriella's boyfriend started laughing as he handed his basketball-clutching friend a magazine from a nearby table. When he saw the picture on the front, his face paled. There, plain as day, on the front was Miley and Jake at a movie premiere the previous month. Miley had her arms crossed, and she raised her eyebrows in a manor that said, 'HA?!'
"Well, it's just, his relationships never last this long." He answered in a scared way. Even the girl with laptop was giving him a 'what the fudge?!' look. Miley, Lilly, Oliver, and Jackson looked at eachother. Then they broke out in hysterical laughter. The group of, now, 8 students looked at eachother, clearly not getting the joke.
"You mean the costars that he only shows up with at movie premieres?" Lilly asked, explaining the joke in question form.
"Yeah, I never got that." The blonde said and her friends shot her a 'are you completely clueless?!' look. "What?" She asked.
"He was never really dating them." Oliver explained. She took her time figuring out what he meant.
"Thank you, Oliver." Lilly said in an annoyed way. She had decided that it was a bad thing he came the moment she caught him staring at the hot tub in the pool area. Anger bubbled in her stomach like lava in the bottom of a volcano. And she knew sooner or later she was gonna blow. Miley would probably start calling her 'Mount St. Lilly'.
This, added to all the earlier Oliver-bashing, convinced Miley that something was up between her two best friends. "Lilly, can I see you over there for a minute?" Miley asked sweetly, and Lilly knew that Miley was gonna make a big deal about something. And she had a pretty good idea what it was. And she wasn't too excited about it, but she knew that if not now, than it would be at night. She decided on bed time.
"Later. First I wanna get to know our new friends here." Lilly gestured around at the 8 older kids.
"Fine. But we WILL talk about this." Miley said.
"Alright, well now we know all your names, I think it's our turn." The laptop girl said. "I'm Taylor." She held out her hand and the 4 Malibu kids shook it. Then, the still embarrassed mop-top kid stepped forward and said, "And I'm Chad." The hand thing repeated.
Gabriella's boyfriend was next. "I'm Troy." When his hand reached Jackson, the smaller man apologized. "Look man, I'm sorry." "It's cool. Just don't let it happen again." Troy said. Jackson sized him up, and said, "Oh, you can count on me." He said, trying to keep his vice steady.
The blonde and her brother, so they guessed from resemblance, came fourth and said, "I'm Sharpay. And this is my brother, Ryan." She said. The two held out their hands. Than, the last two, came out and introduced themselves as Zeke and Kelsi. Kelsi seemed kinda shy, and Zeke was extremely tall.
Miley surveyed the group. Troy and Gabby, as they had nicknamed her, were definitely dating. Sharpay and Zeke weren't official, but there was a little something. A boy named Jason had come over and sat pretty close to Kelsi. Miley guessed either sparks or relationship. It was hard to tell. Chad kept flirting with Taylor. They'd probably been on a few dates, but they weren't official, yet. And than there was Ryan. He was a loner, so far. And yet, he seemed content at being Sharpay's sidekick.
"So, Miley. Is Jake here?" Sharpay asked and looked around hopefully. Miley rolled her eyes.
"He said that he'll probably come up after filming gets done in a week or so." She replied simply and truthfully. He'd been getting more into work, and she was getting worried. Not to mention angry. She had givin him a second chance. She could've easily dumped him after that incident with the little girl so many months back. And she was pretty sure that he knew. Lilly kept trying to reassure her, but they both knew it was skeptical.
Sharpay looked excited, and the others were obviously trying to hide that they were too. "Hey, did you guys here that Hannah Montana is having some concerts here this month?" Gabby asked and everyone started murmuring excitedly.
"I bet I could pull a few strings and get all 13 of us front row seats and backstage passes." Sharpay said. Miley, Lilly, Oliver, and Jackson all looked around nervously. "Do you guys wanna come?" She asked the four, and Miley quickly thought of an excuse.
"Uh, gee, we'd love to, but Jackson and I are gonna be too busy with wedding plans." Miley said, and Jackson looked impressed. The others nodded understandably, and turned to Lilly and Oliver.
"Well, uh, ya see… We only came along to help, and it wouldn't be fair." Lilly lied horribly. But, they seemed to buy it. Than, something went off in Taylor's head.
"Hey, are you the Jackson from 'Jacksannah'?" Jackson happily said, "Yes. Yes I am." He loved being recognized by girls as Hannah's modest 'brother'.
"Wow, so that practically makes you guys famous." Chad said in amazement.
At dinner that night, they all got one big table and ate together. Robbie and Candace were arranging something important, though Miley and Jackson couldn't careless about it.
The girls from New Mexico, as Miley and the gang had found out earlier, noticed that Lilly and Oliver kept glancing awkwardly at eachother. They mistook it for flirting, and so Taylor asked, "So, are you two dating?" Lilly spit out her water and Oliver choked on a piece of bread, and Taylor looked taken aback. She leaned over to where Miley sat next to her, and said, "I obviously struck a nerve there."
"O-h yeah." Miley said in amusement as her two best friends explained their friendship since pre-k story. Miley found it bull crap that they kept repeating to everybody that they'd always be just good friends.
Jake was extremely exhausted from constantly working, but he had to have everything perfect. It needed to be just right, so he needed the money. Since he split all of his paychecks among his large family, there wasn't much left for special things like this. But he'd managed to get the next month off, and he got on the first available plane to NYC. He sat in regular seats and wore his brown Jared wig. He had a slightly less chance of being recognized in this than in his regular look.
He got a smallish one bed suite at her hotel, and dressed for dinner. It had been over a month since he'd seen his girlfriend, and he wanted to impress her. He knew she didn't like huge surprises, so he had one red rose in his had as he headed down to the hotel restaurant. He had on a Black and gray button up shirt, with the top two unbuttoned, and black faded jeans. For shoes he chose black vans with a white stripe and white laces. He washed his hair and blow dried it to the right.
When he got there, he saw a table for 14, with only thirteen there, and coincidently the only open seat was right next to a familiar brunette. He lost his breath for a moment, and then broadly, and sneakily, walked over to the table. When he was behind her, and not seen by her friends, he pulled out his iPhone and dialed her number.
Miley heard her phone start softly playing I'll Be by Edwin McCain and she squealed in excitement. The table turned to look at her, and Lilly said, "I'll give ya three guesses as to the identity of this 'mystery caller'." Miley rolled her eyes as she pulled out her phone.
Jake had, of course, been right about which one she was. He had called Lilly to find out which hotel they were at, and when he heard her voice, he knew for sure that she hadn't been pranking him. "Hello?" Miley asked like she had no clue at all who was calling. He hushed his vice as he said, "Hey babe. You look hot tonight."
"Huh?" She asked, and he could just imagine her lip curling in adorably confused way. He chuckled slightly as he said, "Turn around." She did as she was told, and when she saw him holding out his single red rose, she squealed as quietly as she could manage.
Alright, here's what you can expect in the next chapter. The reaction to Jake from everyone, minus Lilly, Oliver, and Jackson who had been in on the plan. The thing Robbie Ray and Candace had been planning. Jake's surprise will be a little later.
Luv Wendy:)(: