Chapter 7

The Kid's Evening

Our gang left Rico's and walked to the volleyball courts. Once again the largest crowd was around Jackson and Cooper. They had lost the first game and won the second. It was Jackson's serve. He gave the ball an overhand smash and sent it flying over the net. The opponent on the far right received the serve and bumped the ball to his teammate. The setter looked to see where Jackson and Cooper where. Jackson and Cooper were both standing mid-court. Cooper on the left and Jackson on the right. They were waiting to see where the set was going to be. The ball went to Cooper's side. Cooper ran to the net and timed his jump perfectly. The spiker changed gears and dinked it over the top of Cooper's out stretched hands. Jackson, seeing what was happening, dove to the ball and caught it on his fist. This sent the ball up at a weird angle. Cooper ran under the ball and set up to bump it from out-of-bounds to Jackson in front of the net. Jackson had to back up to get under the ball. He was around mid-court. He waited for the ball to come down. Then he jumped and made solid contact on an overhand hit. The ball sped right at the defender who timed his jump perfectly. The ball bounced off his arms caught the top of the net and flipped over to Cooper and Jackson's side of the net. Cooper recovered from his save when he saw the ball falling on their side of the net. He dove for the ball again and got enough of a clean hit to send the ball straight up. Jackson followed with a wicked spike. The ball split the defenders and landed cleanly on the sand. The crowd erupted.

It took ten more minutes to finish the game. Cooper and Jackson won. When Jackson and Cooper came over to the side, Miley noted that Maddie and Jackson were kissing on the lips again.

"Hey J-man, I got to go. See you at school tomorrow."

"I better be getting home too Oliver." Amy told him as she leaned up against him. Amy picked up her stuff and waved good-bye. Miley and Lilly were smiling at Oliver. Oliver looked at them.

"What?"

"Nothing," Lilly told him.

"Then why are you two smiling at me?"

"No reason," answered Miley.

"She likes you Oliver." Maddie told him as she took pity on him.

"OH! I knew that," he answered weakly.

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Everyone had finished gathering up their stuff and headed back to Miley and Jackson's house. Once there, Oliver and Lilly checked in at home and were given permission to stay until ten o'clock. With that settled, dinner was the next line of business. Pizza was the easy choose. Miley ordered the pizza as Jackson went upstairs to get cleaned up. Oliver, Zack and Cody took the time to get changed too. Once the pizza was ordered, Maddie, Lilly and Miley went to her room to change.

"I don't see how you can do it, Miley." Maddie began.

"Do what?"

"How can you be Hannah Montana and still live your life like you are just a normal teenager. It just amazes me that you can do it at all."

"Excuse me, but I don't know what you are talking about." Miley replied nervously. She looked over to Lilly for help. Lilly looked puzzled.

Maddie pick up the Hannah CD she was looking at and walked over to Miley and held it up to her face.

"It's in the eyes. Besides that, I found it very interesting that you and Hannah were never together in Boston. Plus I have an ear for music too and your voices sound just alike."

Miley looked at Lilly again. Lilly just shrugged.

"You haven't told anyone have you?" Miley asked a little scared.

"No, it's not my place to tell anyone your secret."

"Thank you, Maddie. And no, it's not easy. But having a few good friends that do know helps make it a lot easier."

"Awww……why thank you Miley." Lilly smiled.

"You like my brother don't you?"

"Yes I do. A lot." Maddie had a dreamy look on her face.

"He likes you a lot too. He saved all of you letters."

"He did?"

"Yup."

"I really hope he and Cooper make the team. They really are good."

"I think so too." Lilly piped up.

"YEAH……THE PIZZA'S HERE" Jackson yelled up.

The girls came down the stairs, and were greeted by the sight of four boys sitting around the pizza.

"Oh that's just great. Now there's none left for us." Miley complained.

"No," Jackson stated with a full mouth, "We have a cheese pizza for you girls right here." He held up a box.

Maddie walked up to Jackson and kissed his cheek as she took the pizza from him. Miley and Lilly looked at each other, nodded and went to Cody and Zack respectfully and kissed them on the cheek. Jackson smiled as he had and "EVIL" thought.

"Hey girls, what about Oliver?"

The three girls looked at each other and nodded. Then they went over to Oliver together. Miley to the right of him, Lilly to the left of him and Maddie behind him. On cue, Maddie tilted his head back and kissed his forehead as Miley and Lilly each kissed a cheek.

"Awww…." The rest of the guys went.

"That's right guys, they call me Smokin' Oken." Oliver was pleased with himself.

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After pizza, everyone was sitting around the living room discussing the week.

"Maggie and her mom will get here tomorrow around noon. Dad is going to pick them up." Jackson told everyone. "After that, they plan on getting settled in and just relaxing. Maggie really can't do anything. She is on bed rest and needs to stay away from people so she doesn't get sick. If she gets sick then they can't do the transplant."

"Okay then, if we stop and see her after school, then we can go out and start the fund raising."

"Can we help?" Cody asked.

"Sure. That would be great." Lilly added.

"Can I help too?" Maddie asked.

"Don't you want to spend time with Jackson?" Miley asked.

"Well yes." She smiled at Jackson, "But he's going to workout after school. This way I have something to do and I can help Maggie too."

"Glad to have you on board." Oliver smiled at Maddie.

"Okay, we going to do anything else tomorrow?" Miley asked.

"Well, there is homework and Cooper and I want to get a few more pick-up games in. And I'm sure Maddie wants to lead the cheering section." Jackson bumped shoulders with Maddie when he said this.

"Oh man! I totally forgot!"

"Forgot what Miley?" Lilly asked.

"Jake wants to meet Maggie. Well, we can do that after we get the donations," said Miley.

"Oliver, do you have Jake's number?"

Oliver took out his phone and called Jake.

"What does your schedule look like tomorrow?………Okay. You still want to meet Maggie?………Okay, just so you know, she has visitation restrictions. They don't want her to get sick. It would throw the operation off…….Okay, see you at school."

Oliver closed his phone.

"Jake has tomorrow off. So he's free after school."

"Okay. After Jake leaves, I just want to be here for Maggie tomorrow. That okay with you guys?"

Both Lilly and Oliver nodded. Zack and Cody nodded too.

Before they got any further, a car pulled up in the driveway. Soon, Robbie and Carey came into the house.

"Hi guys. How was your evening?" Robbie Ray asked the group.

Another car could be heard pulling into the driveway.

"We all had a great time, Dad."

"How was your evening, Daddy?"

"We had a great time too. But you three have school in the morning. Oliver and Lilly need to be getting home and you two need to hit the hay. Plus the limo is here." Robbie looked over his shoulder. "So it's time for them to go too."

"Thanks Robbie. I had a great time tonight."

"I did too, Carey."

"Alright you three, get your stuff and head out to the limo"

Maddie, Zack, and Cody got their stuff and went out to the limo.

"You two clean up and off to bed with you."

Robbie turned and walked Carey out to the limo. He came back inside a few minutes later. Jackson and Miley were just standing there smiling.

"Get to bed you two."

They went up to bed.