Chapter 17

I Said Sorry

Lilly was starting to worry about Miley. She didn't wait for her this morning to walk to school together. Then in the morning classes that they had together, Miley didn't even try to talk to her or even acknowledge that she was there. To finish things off, Miley was not at lunch. Lilly racked her brains trying to think of something she might have done to make Miley mad at her. Lilly ended up with a headache by the end of the day. Closing her locker, Lilly hurried off to catch Miley at her locker.

Miley finished the day out being not so mad at Lilly, but she still didn't feel like talking to her either. Well, she really didn't feel like starting a conversation with Lilly. If Lilly wanted to start one, well, that was something else. Miley was just finishing up at her locker when Lilly came up. Miley closed the door to her locker and turned to walk to Oliver's locker. Lilly followed her. Miley didn't try to leave Lilly behind and Lilly didn't try to talk to Miley, yet. They both got to Oliver's locker to find Oliver waiting for them to show up.

"Nice to see you two talking again." Oliver said to both of them and not to anyone particularly. Miley pretended not to hear Oliver and Lilly just made I little face and quickly glanced at Miley. Oliver read the all to familiar signs and recognized the place in the make up process his two best friends were at. Once again, Oliver weighed the pro and cons of what to do and decided the pros won this time.

"So, you aren't talking I see."

"Oh, I can talk." Miley said to Oliver but was really saying it to Lilly.

"Well, I can talk too Oliver. It's just that no one is trying to talk to me." Lilly countered. Okay, here we go Oliver thought as they went out the front doors.

"That's right, you do know how to talk. It's the listening part I'm wondering about." Miley shot back.

"You never said you had anything important to tell me." Lilly clarified.

"Well if you would have stopped talking long enough to LISTEN, then you would have heard me say that something was bothering me."

"And just when did this happen?" Lilly asked.

"Yesterday after school. More to the point at my locker when you came running up to me and gushed about going off with the varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders." Miley had stopped and turn to look right at Lilly.

"You never said anything was bothering you yesterday." Lilly defended her self.

"You're right. I didn't because I couldn't get a word in edge wise."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Lilly said as her face fell.

"You know how I get sometimes when I really get excited about something." Lilly added.

"My point exactly." Miley snipped.

"I said I was sorry." Lilly tried again.

"Come on Miley, you know Lilly really didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Oliver said as he put his hands on Miley's shoulders.

"Besides, you were starting to be mad at me yesterday until I reminded you about my dentist appointment." Oliver gently reminded Miley.

Miley hung her head and looked at the ground. Even the thing with Jackson was just a misunderstanding too and one that she could understand at what Jackson had said. Miley had taught Lilly how to be a cheerleader and Lilly loved it. Lilly was even good at it too. Plus, Miley remembered she said that she wanted to support Lilly in her cheerleading just like she supported her being Hannah Montana, and she wasn't mad at Jackson or Oliver, so why was she still mad at Lilly.

"I'm sorry too Lilly." Miley said as she turned to Lilly.

"That my girls." Oliver said as he brought everyone into a group hug.

"Your…" Lilly started.

"…girls?" Miley finished.

"Hey, what can I say? I'm Smokin' Oken after all." Oliver said as he shrugged with his hands and shoulders.

"Well, your lucky that Amy knows we aren't really your girls." Lilly cooed.

"Which reminds me, are you going to be there too Lilly?" Oliver asked.

"If I don't have any homework or I have it all done. Parents."

"How are your parents getting along Lilly? Now that you mention them." Oliver asked.

"There still fighting a lot and I saw daddy starting to pack bags too. He doesn't know I saw him, but…" Lilly sniffled.

"We're here for you Lilly." Oliver said as he put his arm around one side of her.

"That's right." Miley said as she put her arm around the other side of her. Our trio started to walk home again as Lilly quietly wiped at tears. Miley looked on her friend and started to sing "True Friend".

Meanwhile back at school, Cooper and Jackson were in the middle of another workout. Well, Cooper was doing more of a workout then Jackson. With his ankle still healing, the most he could do was an upper body workout followed by swimming. Then the only thing he could do on the court was practice non-jump serves. But Jackson had to admit that all the serve practice was improving his serving skills ten fold. Poor Cooper had to go through the full practice. Once practice was done, it was time for the showers.

"So did you talk to Miley yet?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah I did. We worked it all out." Jackson answered.

"That's good." Cooper smiled.

"She even has me covering for her too."

"How's that?" Cooper asked.

"She give some passes to this Brian Weaver guy. She wants me to say I got them for her." Jackson explained.

"The football player?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"She like him?"

"Didn't say."

"Worried?"

"Not really. If I was, I'd tell Roxi." Jackson laughed.

"Roxi? Who is Roxi?" Cooper looked confused.

"Head of security. Ex-marine drill sergeant." Jackson was still laughing.

"Oh, I get what you mean." Cooper laughed too. "Hey, who is the guy I always see with Roxi then?"

"That would be Frank. Ex-Navy Seal."

"Wow! You guys don't mess around when it comes to security." Cooper commented.

"Not after that thing in 8th grade we don't." Jackson answered seriously.

"OH! You mean that thing with…" Cooper started.

"Yeah that thing." Jackson cut Cooper off.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to step on any toes." Cooper apologized.

"It's okay. I just don't like talking about it."

"Is that where Miley learned to do her little trick this morning?"

Cooper and Jackson headed to the locker room from the shower. They had this locker room to their selves, but Jackson still watched what was being said.

"Sure is. Frank is teaching them."

"Them?" Cooper asked.

"The Miley pack. Frank is teaching them everything he knows or something like that." Jackson answered.

"Are they any good?" Cooper asked.

"Did Dean look happy?"

"No he didn't." Cooper chuckled.

"Frank hasn't given them any belts, but I know they have reached at less the black level in several of the arts." Jackson answered thoughtfully as he got up on his crutches.

"Then in that case, I'll work very hard at staying on their good side." Cooper laughed. Cooper carried Jackson's gear and back pack as they walked out to Jackson's car. Cooper threw their stuff into the back seat and closed Jackson's door before getting in on the driver's side.

"So whatever happen to that guy that went after Hannah?" Cooper questioned.

"He's still a vegetable in a state hospital."

"Did he ever figure out that your sister was Hannah?"

"Yeah he did. That's why it's a good thing he's in a coma." Jackson told Cooper.

"Any chance of him coming out of the coma?"

"No. The doctors said that part of his brain that got damaged was unrepairable."

"So her secret is safe then?"

"As safe as it can get."

They drove in a comfortable silence for a while before Cooper thought of something else.

"Hey, Jackson, just how many people know your sister's secret?"

Jackson sat in his seat with a thoughtful look on his face as he did the math in his head.

"Well, only really close family knows, the band knows, of course, hmmm, and other then you, Lilly and Oliver, about ten other people outside of the family." Jackson answered as he opened the door to the car. Jackson had another appointment with the physical therapist.

"So is he cute?" Lilly asked on hearing about what Miley did for lunch.

"You could say that." Miley answered non-directly.

"Do like him?"

"I don't know, but he is very nice." Miley answered as she looked up at her ceiling.

"Are you two talking about a guys again?" Oliver asked as he came back to Miley's room after raiding the kitchen.

"No. We're talking about one guy." Lilly tossed a pillow at Oliver. Oliver easily dodged the non-targeted throw.

"So who is it and who is doing the talking?" Oliver inquired.

"His name is Brian Weaver. He's on the football team and a is a sophomore." Lilly filled in.

"And he is in choir too." Miley added.

"Oh hey, I've said his name a few teams on the sports updates." Oliver added thoughtfully.

"Miley, where are you?" They heard Robbie calling from downstairs.

"We're up here daddy." Miley yelled back.

"Thanks Miles. I didn't need the use of that ear anymore." Oliver complained as he rubbed at his ringing ear.

"What can I say, singer's lungs Oliver. Sorry." Miley patted Oliver on one of his legs. Robbie came into the room with an envelop in his hand.

"The first script just got her bud." Robbie said as he went to hand the script to Miley, however, Lilly had other ideas and grab it from his hand.

"At less you left me my fingers." Robbie said looking at his hand and shaking his head as he left the room.

"Wow! First script and there's kissing already." Lilly squealed with excitement.

"Give that here!" Miley demanded as she grabbed for the script.

"It's not like it's the first time you kissed Jake." Lilly teased as she tossed the script to Oliver.

"Yea, but it well be Hannah's first time. Give that to me Oliver." Miley demanded as she turned to Oliver. Oliver simply handed her the script. Lilly glared disappointly at Oliver.

"You'll have plenty of time to read it too Lilly." Oliver looked smug.

"Not if she keeps behaving like this." Miley said to Lilly and stuck out her tongue. Lilly made a face back. Oliver shook his head and so it went.

Jake sat in his dressing room reading over next week's script. It was the first show that Miley, oops, Hannah would be on. Jake smiled to his self when he came the kissing scene. However, his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Danny opened the door and came in.

"What are you smiling at?" Jake asked him.

"I see you have the new script." Danny started to set Jake up.

"Yea. So what about it?"

"Well, I noticed that there well be some kissing going on." Danny started to set the hook.

"And that surprises you how?" Jake asked.

"Well, I just thought it funny that the person you ask for advice with girls is the one you are going to be slobbering all over all season long." Danny laughed at Jake.

"Funny. Very funny. Don't quit your day job Danny. Oh wait, I should have said, don't get fired from your day job." Jake tried for a comeback.

"Ooo…, someone is touchy." Danny said as he sat down.

"I am not touchy. You're just not funny this time is all. Besides, I just might get lucky with Hannah." Jake smiled.

"I thought I heard the Big Head Club in here having a meeting." Nancy said as she opened the door to Jake's dressing room. Both Jake and Danny made a big production out of laughing at what Nancy had just said.

"I see the Biggest Ham Club is also having a meeting at the same time too."

"You know Danny, she is way better at you at thinking up put-downs."

"Why thank you Jake. It is nice to see that real talent is recognized."

"I have talent." Danny defended.

"Ummmm, no you don't." Nancy judged. Jake laughed.

"What are you guys doing anyways?" Nancy asked.

"I was just checking at the next week's script and Danny was trying to be funny."

"Ouch Jake. That hurts." Danny faked being stabbed in the heart.

"And you can't act either." Nancy added.

"Crash and burn Danny boy." Jake laughed.

"By the way Jake, does this mean we can get tickets to her concert this Saturday?" Danny asked.

"If you do, does this mean you'll be asking your Miley to go with you?" Nancy asked while wiggling her eyebrows.

"I don't think so. I have a feeling Miley will be busy Saturday night." Jake answered.

"Well, you'll won't know if you don't ask her." Danny joined in.

"Trust me, she will be busy Saturday night. Really busy."

That night, Lilly buried her head under her pillow and cried her self silently to sleep as her parents argued again yet another night.