Chapter 22

Friday School

Miley woke with the feeling that anything was possible this morning. She hopped out of bed and headed into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Fifteen minutes later with her hair in a towel and a robe on, she pushed her way past her normal clothes and went into her other closet. There she picked out her favorite concert blue jeans, they were in all the stores anyways. She also grabbed a favorite tank and shirt to go with the jeans.

Then a favorite pair of cowboy boots and she was heading back into her bedroom. There she dropped the clothes onto the bed and moved to her dresser to get the rest of her clothes. Back to the bed and off with the robe, she was dressed in five minutes. Next was her hair. She decided on a ponytail today located high on her high. Some make-up for her face to finish the job. Walking back into her bedroom, the smell of breakfast was creeping its way into her room.

"Morning, Daddy. Morning, Jackson. Hey Daddy, what time did you get home last night?"

"Yeah, I thought you would be yelling at me for getting back so late on a school night. Instead of you I find Miley sleeping on the couch."

"Well, after Carey helped me with Maggie's song, I thanked her by taking her for some ice cream and we talked for a while."

"A while? I went to bed at midnight and you still weren't home yet."

"Awww…do you have a crush, Daddy?"

"No bud, more of a friendship."

"Okay, Daddy." Miley said smiling.

Miley left the table with her breakfast dishes and took them to the sink. She went upstairs to grab her backpack and came back down stairs.

"Hey Miles, you and your posse want a ride to school?"

"No thanks, Jackson. And are you feeling okay?"

"Funny, very funny. Can't a brother ask his sister if she wants a ride to school?"

"Not for you, bro. Gotta go."

Miley left the house and went to the corner to wait for Oliver and Lilly.

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"Jackson. Are you and Cooper practicing after school today?"

"Yea. We have that pre-qualifier tournament next weekend."

"Sweet nibblets! I forgot all about that with Maggie and the Leukemia Fund Raiser Dance Contest."

"Thanks a lot dad! This is only one of the biggest thing going on in my life and you forget about it!" Jackson turned and slammed the door to the house.

Once again, he came in second! Well, at least Miley has it on her calendar in red letters and circled in red. Oh great! What if Miley can't be there because of THAT dance? That was more of a crushing thought than his dad forgetting about the tournament. All through his and Cooper's climb in the beach volleyball world, Miley had been their number one cheerleader. She had always made sure her schedule was clear so she could be at all of his matches. One thing that helped was the qualifier was in L.A. so things just might work out. And why was he killing himself like this? Jackson got out his cell and hit Miley's button.

"Hey. What's up Jackson?"

"Do you know what's happening a week from Saturday?"

"Your pre-qualifier tournament. Why?"

"Dad forgot."

"No, he didn't. He just forgot about the plan."

"What's the plan?"

"The dance contest dance is on Friday night. Fly home after the dance and be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the front row for you Saturday. You didn't think I would miss this for anything, did you?"

"Well, okay, dad got me thinking."

"You should know better than to think, bro." Miley laughed.

"Ha Ha. Very funny. Catch you later, sis."

"Bye, bro."

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Robbie worked on filling out Maggie's song. Which got him to thinking about what the song should be called. He would have to ask Maggie about that when he saw her today. Just then the phone rang.

"Hello, Stewart's"

"Daddy! How could you forget about the plan and Jackson's tournament?"

"I didn't mean too. Jackson just caught me at a time when I was thinking about something else, bud. I guess I need to apologize to him tonight."

"Yeah. I think you do. Volleyball is as important to him as……Hannah Montana……is to me Daddy and I have to support him just like he supports me. Sorry, Daddy. I'm at school now. Bye."

Robbie looked at the receiver and then hung it up. Miley was right. Besides that, it was something Miley put in front of Hannah Montana. Robbie just couldn't believe he blanked like that. He looked at the clock. Jackson would be at school now too and wouldn't be able to talk on his phone either. Light bulb moment! All he had to do was talk to Miley about it to get it set-up. With that, Robbie sat back down at the piano to finish filling out the song.

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Dr. Ryan was making the morning rounds and saw the notation the night on-call doctor had made in Maggie's chart. Every two hours after that was Maggie's temperature. She was a little concerned. Even though it was a low graded fever, it hadn't gone down in the time period that her temp was being watched. Matter of fact, it had gone up a few tenths of a degree. Two more tenths and it would go from a low graded fever to a full fever. Not a good way to start her treatment at all. She wrote orders for a full blood work and cultures to be run. She was concerned but not worried. Yet.

Dr. Ryan went into Maggie's room and talked quietly with Sara. Then she went over to the clean room and put on scrubs, mask and a hair cap. Next she washed her hands and a nurse held gloves for her to put her hands in. Once dressed the nurse hit the automatic door opener. The outer doors opened. Once the first set of doors closed, Dr. Ryan stepped on a button in the floor and the inner doors opened. She walked into Maggie's side of the room.

"How are you feeling today, Maggie?"

"I hurt all over."

"Well, your chart shows that you haven't thrown up in the last four hours. So if you are hungry, we can try a liquid diet."

"I hate liquid diets. But I would like to try eating something."

"Well, I'll see if they have any pop icicles. Okay?"

Maggie nodded.

"I'll also get you something for the aches. Anything else?"

"Can I have juice?"

"Sure. But let's stay away from the hard acid ones like orange juice for now. All right, in five more days, we'll be giving you your new bone marrow. Then all of this will be over. Just hang in there."

"Okay."

"Bye, Maggie."

"Bye, Dr. Ryan."

When Dr. Ryan got to the nurse's station she entered the new orders into Maggie's chart and mentally crossed her fingers.

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After morning announcements, Amber and Ashley were quite pleased with themselves.

"To bad you guys are going to lose, hillbilly."

"Are you deaf? Our group has a very nice lead over you two."

"Well that was before my dad made his donation to the drive."

"I hear Amber's dad made a VERY big donation, if you know what I mean."

"Oooo….Tssss…."

With that Amber and Ashley walked away laughing.

"Why, I'm going to…….."

"Slow down, Miley." Jake said as he grabbed her arm.

"They're not going to win, Miles." Lilly told her.

"How do you know?"

"You owe it all to Jake. It was his idea." Oliver told her.

Miley narrowed her eyes and turned to Jake.

"Just what did you do?" Miley asked in a low menacing voice.

"I talked to the head of the studio when I heard what they were up to."

"AND?"

"I got him to agree to a very nice donation."

"How nice?"

"Well, the number starts with a one and is followed by six zeros."

"Miles?" Lilly waved her hand in front of her face.

"Miles?" Oliver started to shake her. Miley broke free from Oliver and grabbed Jake by the shoulders.

"Your not just saying that, are you, pretty boy?"

"No, I showed the check to Lilly and Oliver yesterday." Oliver and Lilly nodded their heads.

"Look Miley, I know how important this is to you because of Maggie. I also know that Hannah has a friend with leukemia. I heard that in the news. So this must be really important to her also. It's quite obvious why Amber and Ashley are doing this. So I thought this would be a good way to turn their money back into what it was supposed to be raised for in the first place."

"One more time, but clearer."

"It's easy, Miles. If Amber and Ashley don't win the night on the town with Hannah, then the money they thought they were using to buy the night on the town becomes plain old donated money for the Leukemia Foundation. Get it?" Lilly asked.

"Oh, okay. And you came up with this all by yourself, pretty boy?"

"Well," Oliver and Lilly were nodding their heads behind Miley, "yes."

"I guess there is hope for you yet." Then Miley stepped forward and gave Jake a quick hug. Miley stepped back, blushed a little, turned and went to her locker.

Jake looked at Oliver and Lilly.

"You expected her to hit you or something?" Oliver asked.

At lunch, Miley decided she had the time to check in with Mr. Aaron. Even though Oliver and Lilly had backed Jake up on what he had said, she had to find out for her self.

"Hi, Ms. Darcy. Is Mr. Aaron in?"

"He was expecting you. Go on back."

Miley went back to Mr. Aaron's office and knocked on the door.

"It's open."

Miley opened the door and closed it when she was in.

"I thought I be seeing you today." He smiled at Miley.

"So how do the numbers look?"

"Restraint, I like that. But that is not what you came to check on, now is it?"

"Guilty. I want to see if what Jake said is true."

"Does it matter?"

"No."

Mr. Aaron looked at her.

"Maybe."

Still looking.

"Okay. I don't want to have to spend a night being with Amber and Ashley because she got her dad to buy the night. It's not the purpose of the fundraiser. The fundraiser is about helping others, not helping your selfish self."

"Kind of like right now?"

Miley looked down at the floor.

"What do you want Miley?"

"I want Maggie to be fine."

"By the time of the dance next week she should be."

"Are you sure?"

"No one can be with something like this Miley. That's why you have to have faith."

"It didn't help me the last time."

"That was a different situation if I remember right."

"She still died." Miley stated with a few tears.

Mr. Aaron sat there and waited for her emotions to run their course.

"The answer to your question is yes. Jake's studio made a very large donation. From what the numbers from the web show, our school will be the winner. I'm sure your dad will have all the information by tonight. And your group is the winning group."

"Thanks." Miley turned to leave, then stopped. "Sorry."

"Everything is going to be okay, and the door is always open."

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When Miley got to her locker at the end of the day, Lilly was waiting on her.

"Where were you at lunch time?"

"Talking with Mr. Aaron."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Who won?"

"You'll have to wait until tomorrow. Just like everyone else."

"Come on Miley, spill."

"Yeah Miley, spill. What we talking about anyways?" Jake asked.

"Girl stuff." Lilly told him.

"Oh"

"So, what are you up to tonight, Jake?" Oliver asked as he joined them.

"New script reading. But on the bright side, I do have tickets for tomorrow's concert. Anyone interested?"

"Sorry. I have plans for Saturday." Miley told him.

"Me too." Lilly added.

"Oliver?"

"Sure Jake, I'll go with you."

"I'll call you later tonight then. Well, off to work. Boy! You guys are so lucky to have a normal life." Jake told them as he left.

"Sure, normal life. That would be nice." Miley commented as they headed home.