---------------------------------------------------------
Goodnight and Go - Part Nine
Written by: Amalea
---------------------------------------------------------
"And don't forget to use this shampoo!" Miley said, shoving a bottle into Lilly's hand, "It'll give your hair more volume and make it easier for me to do something amazing with."
Lilly took the bottle and rolled her eyes, "Why are we doing this again?"
"Because you're in love with my dorky older brother, now go! No more silly questions." Miley said, now pushing Lilly toward her bathroom.
"I already took a shower this morning, I really don't see how this is at all necessary..." Lilly tried protesting again.
"So you'll be super clean. Now GET IN!" Miley shouted as she backed out and slammed the door. Seconds later Lilly heard her add, "Don't forget to shave your legs!"
Lilly switched on the water in the shower and put it somewhere between hot and warm.
"I can't believe I let her talk me into another one of her plans. Though, I guess she has a point... she hasn't let me down yet." Lilly thought to herself as she lathered on shampoo and rushed through the showering process. Her rush caused her to nick herself two times while shaving. She winced slightly each time then proceeded to get out of the shower, throw on a t-shirt and some shorts and go find Miley.
Her hair was wet and tangled and the water was seeping into her shirt as she walked back down the hall to Miley's room. Just as she was about to pass the staircase, Jackson turned around the corner, a bowl of macaroni in one hand, heading to his room.
"Don't you have a home?" Jackson asked, raising an eyebrow at Lilly's wet hair.
"Not really," Lilly said absently and crossed her arms across her chest.
"Alright then," Jackson said, "Carry on."
Lilly finished her walk to Miley's room, but could feel Jackson's eyes on her as she left.
"Ok Miley, let's get this over with," Lilly said sadly as she pushed her wet hair back off her face.
"Well, glad to see you've accepted your fate!" Miley said with a smile, "Oh, cheer up, it'll be fun."
"Mmhm."
So Miley began her work, starting with Lilly's outfit. She picked out a denim mini skirt, which received many complaints from Lilly, but she eventually resigned as she always did, pointing out that "it was fine, but she'd have to stand in one place all night because moving in that thing is hardly an option". The top Miley picked out was a hunter green spaghetti strap shirt with lace (including woven-in sequins) at the top and bottom, this received no complaints but rather a gag. After Lilly put on the clothes Miley had chosen, work commenced on her hair.
After slightly burning her a few times with the curling iron, Miley finally finished. Lilly's hair was a perfect mess of soft curls which fell down to her chest. Some intense make-up work was performed and Miley was done.
"Now look in the mirror," Miley instructed, happily satisfied with her work.
Lilly sighed, got up, and turned to Miley's full length mirror.
"Wow," she gasped upon seeing her reflection, "I... I..."
"Look gorgeous?!" Miley said and clapped her hands together.
"Look nothing like me," Lilly finished, fingering her hair slightly, "This is so un-me, Miley."
"Well, that's kind of the point I guess, you know, try out something new?" Miley said, a little hesitant at her friends reaction.
"I guess..." Lilly turned to face Miley, "So this is what's going to work, huh?"
"Yes! Well, that and the mingling with the hott graduates."
"Alright," Lilly stated and turned back to look at her reflection.
"I'm going to go see if Jackson's left for the party yet," Miley reported and left the room.
Lilly tugged at the skirt she was wearing and messed with her hair again. "I guess I look kind of good... in a weird, not at all looking like me way?" she said to herself.
A couple of minutes later Miley returned. "He's gone!"
"So what now?" Lilly asked.
"Well, it's too early to go right now, it's only 6... the party starts at 7, we'll probably go around 8. That way, there will be plenty of people there when we make our big entrance."
"We?" Lilly questioned her friend again.
"Well, yeah. I can't just leave you hanging OR miss out on talking to all those cute boys." Miley stated confidently, "Now, I'm going to get ready. You occupy yourself."
So for the next hour and a half Lilly sat on Miley's bed watching stupid dating reality shows on the television. When her mind was thoroughly turned to mush she shouted for Miley, "Mileyyyy! Come on. I'm bored and you're taking forever."
Miley walked back into the room, striking a few poses so Lilly could check out her outfit.
"Great!" Lilly said with mock enthusiasm, "Can we go now?"
"Sure! Let me just make sure I don't have to add any finishing touches to you," Miley said and made Lilly stand up so she could give her a once over.
Pulling back out her make-up bag she added a few touchups to Lilly's face then smiled.
"Perfect!"
Lilly nodded, "So we can leave now?"
"Yep, let's go," Miley said and both girls exited the room and headed for Cooper's party.
--------------------
Lilly let out an involuntary gasp when they arrived at the party. "This is amazing!" she said, grabbing Miley's arm, "The lights, the music... it's insane."
"Yeah," Miley agreed, "Talk about an end of school party."
There were hundreds of high school kids standing around, eating, talking, or dancing on the beach. A DJ had been hired and he was playing some rap song at the moment, providing excellent dance music for those who were interested.
"So what now?" Lilly whispered to Miley.
"That," Miley stated and pointed in the direction of two guys who were standing nearby talking and watching them.
Lilly took a deep breath and smiled, "Here it goes." Still holding Miley's arm she walked over to where the two guys were standing.
"Hey," she said briefly.
"Hey," the taller of the two guys responded, "I'm Daniel." Lilly had to admit it: Daniel was cute. She could tell by looking at him that he was a skater. His clothes, his shoes, his stance, they all gave him away. He had brown hair, shaggy but pushed out of his face and absolutely stunning green eyes. Yes, she was here for Jackson, but there wasn't any reason not to enjoy herself a little, right? And wasn't this Miley's point? Mingle with cute boys, make Jackson want her. Seemed like she was following the rules.
"I'm Lilly, this is Miley," Lilly said, she had now let go of Miley's arm.
"Hi," Miley said.
"Hey," the other guy said, nodding at both of them, "I'm Steven."
After greetings had been exchanged, Miley began conversation with Steven and moved off to the side with him, leaving Lilly to talk to Daniel.
"So," Lilly began, "You skate?"
"Yeah, I love it," Daniel said, his eyes slightly lighting up at the chosen topic.
"Any good?" Lilly asked him, smiling.
"I'm alright, I enter a lot of tournaments and stuff, but I've yet to actually win first in one."
"Yeah, me neither."
"You skate?" he questioned, surprised.
"Since I could walk," Lilly responded happily.
"Wow, you don't really look like the type," he commented, then quickly added, "No offense."
"None taken," she said, "Actually, this is kind of... a special occasion I guess you'd say. I never dress like this normally."
"Did you just graduate, too?"
"Um, no..." Lilly said, and spotting Jackson out of the corner of her eye, shifted so he wouldn't notice she was there yet.
Daniel looked a little confused now, "So why's it a special occasion, then?"
"Um... no reason, just... you know..." Lilly said, trying to come up with a good excuse but failing. "Hey, you want to dance?" she said quickly, trying to change the subject.
"Uh, sure," Daniel replied and followed her lead to the area where everyone was dancing.
Lilly had seen where Jackson had gone, he was now standing just at the edge of where the dancing was going on talking to Cooper. So when they reached the "dance floor" Lilly strategically placed herself where Jackson might see her.
She grabbed Daniel's hand and he smiled at her. "Let me just warn you, I'm not really the best dancer," he said, a little bit shyly.
Lilly laughed, "Don't worry, I'm not either."
Their dancing started out a little awkwardly at first, but both eventually found their rhythm. They were laughing and really having a great time when Lilly suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Lilly?"
She quickly spun around to find herself face-to-face with Jackson.
She smiled a slightly faltering smile, "Hi Jackson."
"What are you-" he noticed Daniel standing there next to them, "Uh... sorry, could you give us just a minute?"
Daniel gave Lilly a questioning look to which she nodded. "Catch you later," he said, and walked off.
"Why are you here?" Jackson now said.
"To have fun?" Lilly said, being a little silly.
He looked her over, noticing the short skirt, and the slightly revealing top she was wearing, "What- what are you wearing?"
"Clothes," Lilly shrugged, and smiled at him. She was feeling pretty empowered by her ability to snag Daniel as she had. Noticing that the DJ had now put on a slower song, she smiled again.
"Dance with me, Jackson!" she said and grabbed both of his hands.
Jackson, clearly taken aback by the whole situation, hesitated a moment before placing his arms around Lilly's waist.
Lilly felt a chill up her spine when she felt his hands touch her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stared up into his eyes. "There's something I really think we need to discuss." she said slowly and moved just a little closer as they started to sway to the music.
---------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Sooo... there's about 1 chapter left. We'll see what goes down. Poor Daniel, getting all sent off like that. He was such a nice guy, haha. Um... so yeah, review. That'd be good... Tell me if you liked this chapter, or if it was no good. This one took me a while to write... and for the first time I didn't just sit down and write it in a couple of hours. Weirddd. I think this will be the first story I've ever actually finished. How exciting! Um, yup. Review! Then... you can all have the final chapter. Which may or may not be posted Saturday... depending on how much I work.