Chapter 26

What Does Jake Know

Jake woke up feeling pretty good. His plan to stop Ashley and Amber had worked. Hopefully this would put him in a good light with Miley. But he would have to remember what Hannah told him about just being Jake. No blowing his own horn. Jake got dressed and checked his day planner to see what was on the schedule. The morning was filled with church and the afternoon was wide open. Maybe he'd go and see Maggie in the hospital today. Finished with getting ready, Jake went downstairs for breakfast.

After lunch, Jake went up to his room to change. His parents said it would be okay for him to go see Maggie in the hospital. Once changed, he got a head shot and signed it and put it in an envelope. He took it and headed outside to the limo. Sitting in the limo, Jake reflected on the last time he talked with Hannah. It had helped him realize what a jerk he was at school. Oh yeah, there was also what Hannah had said the last time he had talk to her about Miley. 'Some times it important to know people like you for who you are and not because you're a celebrity.' Well, he really had to admit that was true for Miley, Lilly and Oliver. But it was his being or more like him acting like a celebrity that was getting in the way of him getting to know Miley. But it had helped with him getting to know Hannah to open door for him to get to know Miley. And as far as he knew, she wasn't seeing anyone. That is, as far as he knew. Come to think about it, he really didn't know that much about Hannah at all. Oh that's just great! Am I crushing on two different girls? Well that was a question for another time. He was at the hospital.

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"Hello?" Jake asked as he entered Maggie's room.

"Oh hi. Jake Ryan right?"

"Yes ma'am. I was wondering if it was okay to stop by?"

"Sure. Come in and have a seat by Maggie." Sara offered a chair to Jake.

"I brought a picture for her."

"Tell her. She's awake."

Jake was by the wall and did see Maggie was awake. She was watching a replay of the concert from the night before. Hannah was talking to the audience. It must have been just before her last song. He noticed Hannah wiping at some tears.

"Hi. Remember me?"

"Yeah. You're Jake. We met at Miley's house."

Jake smiled at the answer.

"I brought you a picture." He held up the envelope.

"Have mom open it."

Sara took the envelope and opened it. She showed the picture to Maggie and then she read what was written.

To Maggie,

Keep up the good fight.

You're truly everyone's hero.

Your Friend

Jake Ryan

The Zombie Slayer

"Thanks. Mom, can you put it by Hannah's picture please?"

"Sure thing, honey."

Jake noticed the picture frame on the table by the glass wall. The picture was turned so Maggie could see it.

"May I look at the picture of Hannah, please?"

"Sure." Maggie told him.

Jake carefully picked up the frame and looked at the picture. In the frame was a three quarter body shot of Hannah in one of her more recognized outfits. He then read what was written on the picture.

To my very special friend Maggie,

I feel very honored to have gotten

To know you these last few days

Keep in touch

Love

Hannah Montana

"So how did you meet Hannah again?"

"Through Make-A-Wish." Maggie told him.

"That's not what Hannah said last night."

"Make-A-Wish arranged the concert tickets and backstage passes that we had. We were out here to meet with Dr. Ryan. The concert was going on at the time we would be out here so Make-A-Wish set it up." Sara helped out her daughter.

"Makes sense." Jake was looking real closely at Hannah's handwriting. It was like he'd seen it before. But he had never really seen her handwriting before. So why does it look so familiar? Jake set the picture back down so Maggie could see it.

"Wait a minute. Never mind." Something was trying to fit together but what? Jake set it aside for now and would worry about it later. After all, he came here to see Maggie.

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Jake was sitting in the back of the limo heading home. What was it that was bothering him now? Maggie is Miley's friend. So they met at some time. Maggie was also the special friend of Hannah. Okay, how Maggie met Hannah happens all the time, but how did Miley meet Maggie. For that matter, why does Hannah's handwriting look so familiar to him? It wasn't one of those 'oh that's Hannah Montana's writing' it was more of 'I've seen that writing all the time' feeling. Well as for the 'how did Miley and Maggie meet' question, he could ask her tomorrow at school. Speaking of school, I still have some homework to get done.

"I'm back. I'm going to my room to finish my homework." I announced when I walked in the door.

It took some time but he finished his writing assignment, Spanish assignment, and his science assignment. That just left algebra and studying his lines for the next show. Jake opened his algebra book and got started. He was okay in math, but he hated solving quadratic equations and plotting them on the XY-axis. What did it really matter if the line went up, down, sideways or diagonal, anyway? As Jake got to the harder problems, he started to get stuck and to go back and check his notes. For one of the problems, he didn't have notes. He missed that day because of his show. But Miley had lent him her notes that he photo copied. Now, as he was looking at the notes, something in his mind told him this looked familiar. But of course it did. They were Miley's notes. But something else wouldn't let it go. He closed his book frustrated and would just have to ask his teacher tomorrow. Jake packed up his schoolbooks and got out his script for this week's episode of Zombie Slayer. Before he knew it, his mom was calling him down to dinner.

After dinner was over, Jake and his dad went out to the batting cages and hit a few. On the way home, they stopped and picked up some DVD's for family night. Jake's restless mind but his puzzle away as he relaxed with his parents and watched the movies that they had picked out. His mind didn't pull his puzzle out again until he was lying in bed trying to go to sleep.

When he finally fell asleep, he still had his puzzle to solve.