Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Miley sat up and swung her legs out of bed. The digital alarm clock on her nightstand blinked at her, showing that it was only six o'clock in the morning. Six o'clock on the morning of her first day of her senior year. Sighing, she turned her bedside lamp on and looked around her room.

Nothing much had changed throughout her years in high school. Her room was painted a deep purple, matching curtains covering the French doors that led out to her balcony overlooking the ocean. A few framed posters were hung up and a large bulletin board was covered with pictures of her and her friends, but mostly Lilly. Her furniture had been the same for the past eight years: the dark-colored wood dresser, complete with a mirror and a set of shelves, and her matching bed, nightstands, desk, and shelves. And in a year, her room would be practically empty because she would be off to college.

Her phone beeped and she picked it up off her nightstand, looking at the screen to see that Lilly was calling her. Smiling, she flipped her phone open and pressed it to her ear. "Hey, Lilly, what's up?" she asked cheerfully.

"How the heck can you be so happy this early in the morning?" the normally happy blonde grumbled, and Miley laughed. "Don't you dare laugh at me, Miss Don't-Talk-To-Me-Until-I've-Had-At-Least-Five-Cups-Of-Coffee. It is perfectly reasonable for me to be grumpy at six o'clock in the morning when I have to go to school in an hour and a half. Why are we getting up so early, anyways?"

"Because it's our last first day of school," Miley reminded her. "And we were going to go out to breakfast this morning. Unless you just don't want to hang out with me…."

Lilly sighed. "I'll meet you at your house in half an hour," she grumbled. "But you owe me. Big time." There was a click and Miley realized that the blonde had hung up on her. Laughing to herself, Miley shook her head as she shut her phone and set it back down on her nightstand. She stood up and walked over to her closet to choose an outfit. Absentmindedly pulling out a pair of jean shorts and a tank top, she thought about how her friendship with Lilly had progressed since she had given up Hannah.

At first, they had both been a little awkward and nervous when they started hanging out. Lilly had been curious about Miley's sexuality and Miley had answered her questions hesitantly, but had quickly caught on to the fact that Lilly wasn't going to stop being her friend and started opening up a lot more about it. And Miley could tell that Lilly was hesitant to get close to Miley, both physically and emotionally, but the brunette strove to show her that she wasn't going to act any differently than before. And Lilly had come to see that, as well.

But eventually the girls had grown closer than they had been before, with Lilly spending nights over at Miley's house, or vice versa, five or six days a week. They were rarely out of each other's sight, except for when Lilly got up really early to go surfing or spent a lot of time at the skate park or when Miley went to Hannah meetings scheduled to close the final contract and make sure than all of the requirements had been met.

Giving up Hannah had been hard for Miley, at first. She had a lot of spare time on her hands and, when there was no one to spend it with, usually sat in front of her TV or laptop, watching newscasts about Hannah's career or reading fan tributes to Hannah. Finally, her father had talked to her, and Jackson had started to spend more time with her.

That had been another thing that changed dramatically since Miley had stopped being Hannah. She and Jackson had grown closer together. Miley didn't know whether it was because of the ordeal she had been through with Lilly or because her father spent less time focusing on Miley than before, but she was content with her new relationship with her brother. They spent a lot more time together, walking along the beach, going out to eat, and Miley had even let Jackson start teaching her how to surf, something that Lilly had given up on after the first five minutes of her first lesson.

Smiling to herself as she thought about her first, and last, surfing lesson with Lilly, Miley stepped into her bathroom and turned on the shower as she started to undress. She tested the shower water with her hand before stepping in, closing the curtain behind her. Her surfing lesson with Lilly had been a complete disaster. It had been two weeks after Miley had first moved to Malibu and Lilly had been really excited about her brilliant idea to teach Miley how to surf. The brunette had warned Lilly about her clumsiness, but, as usual, Lilly didn't listen.

Miley squirted some shampoo onto her hand and rubbed it into her hair, stepping under the shower spray after it was completely rubbed in to rinse her hair out.

Lilly had brilliantly thought that since she was such a good surfer, she would be an even better teacher and that any student of hers would be able to surf perfectly on her first try. Of course, exactly the opposite happened. Miley had almost immediately wiped out, although she prided herself on the fact that she was able to stand on the surfboard for approximately three and a half seconds before she was knocked off by a seven foot wave. She was knocked around in the water, hit her head on the bottom of the ocean, and had to be rescued by Lilly, who ended up giving her CPR.

Of course Lilly would have chosen a beach where a lifeguard was never present.

Shaking her head, Miley applied conditioner to her hair, brushing it out with her fingers under the spray of water. She washed her body quickly when she realized that she had been lost in her thoughts and wouldn't have much time to get ready if she prolonged her shower, grateful that she had shaved her legs the night before.

She quickly turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping her body in a towel and trying to look in the foggy mirror before ultimately giving up and walking out into her bedroom, only to run into something as soon as she set foot on carpet.

"Oof!"

"What the-?"

"Lilly?"

"Who else, doofus?" Lilly replied sarcastically from the floor. She had a hand held to her forehead, wincing as she stood up, and Miley wrapped her arms around her chest, glancing down to make sure that her towel covered her body adequately.

"What are you doing here?" Miley asked, horrified and slowly backing up into the bathroom.

"Well, hello to you, too, Miley," Lilly said sarcastically. "Why thank you for asking, I'm doing fine on this incredibly early morning. How are you? Oh, wait, you're running late again, aren't you? Because you just stepped out of the freaking bathroom in a towel when you knew that your best friend was coming over!"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Miley rushed to say as she hid her body behind the partially closed bathroom door, leaving just her head visible to her best friend. "Can, um, can you get my clothes on the bed?"

"Oh, so I'm your slave, now, too?" Lilly asked, still holding a hand to her forehead as she walked over to Miley's bed and snatched up the clothes. "Lilly, it's nice to see you, why don't you take a seat while I finish getting ready? Oh, no, Lilly, that's okay, I can walk over to my bed like a normal person and get my clothes myself."

"You're pushing it, Blondie," Miley growled, grabbing the clothes from Lilly and quickly closing the door in her face. She did her best to shut out the angry mumbles of her best friend as she quickly dressed herself and ran a brush through her hair. Deciding that she didn't want to spend time on her hair, she quickly put it up in a ponytail and went back out into her bedroom where Lilly was still muttering to herself angrily.

"Look, Lilly, I'm really sorry about how I reacted before, but you surprised me right after I got out of the shower, and it's six-thirty in the morning, and I just… it's the first day of school," Miley sighed, tossing her towel onto her bed and sitting down on the floor next to Lilly. "I'm really, really sorry."

Lilly gave her a small smile. "Me too," she whispered. "How about we forget all about this and head out to breakfast. We can waste away our last hour of freedom before our senior year officially starts."

"Sounds good to me," Miley grinned, standing up. She reached down a hand to help the blonde up and hauled her to her feet. "Now how about we get going before my dad wakes up and insists on giving us a big lecture about the responsibilities of our senior year and then starts crying cause his 'little girl is growing up?'"

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Lilly said, scrambling for the door. Miley laughed, grabbing her book bag from beside her bedroom door as she followed Lilly into the hall, downstairs, and into the driveway where Lilly's old green Volkswagen Beetle, which the blonde was insanely proud of, was parked.

The Beetle, which Lilly had named Randy (Miley had no idea why), wasn't exactly in the best condition. Miley and Lilly had been looking for a car to buy together two years earlier and Lilly had called Miley up one night after a day of fruitless looking to tell her that she had found the absolutely perfect car, and that, even better, it was free. Squealing excitedly, Miley had rushed over to Lilly's house to find the beat-up Volkswagen in the driveway. And she had refused to spend any of her money to bring it back to life.

It had taken Lilly three months to scrape together the money, which she had mostly gotten from begging her parents for it, she needed to revamp the Volkswagen, which left it with peeling paint, rusty bumpers, and a radio and air-conditioning that didn't work. When Miley had pointed this out, Lilly had snapped for her to get her own car and proceeded to tell her that the heating worked perfectly fine. Miley was still trying to figure out how this was a plus in Malibu, California.

Miley and Lilly walked through the student parking lot to the high school, book bags slung over their shoulders. They had gone out for breakfast to a small, locally owned café and spent the better part of the last hour there before leaving. Miley had concluded that it was the best way to spend the last hour of their last high school summer together.

"I hope we have the same classes together," Lilly commented absentmindedly.

"With our luck, we probably won't," Miley replied, instantly bringing the mood down. She winced as Lilly glanced at her with an expression of shock on her face and bit her lip as she looked away. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."

"It's fine," Lilly said gently. "Come on, let's get to homeroom."

They walked through the halls, shoulder-to-shoulder, and went into their homeroom, the homeroom that they'd had together for four years straight. The homeroom they'd had with Oliver for three years straight. Miley saw Lilly glance around the room and deflate when they walked in and the brunette put a comforting arm around the blonde's shoulder. Lilly shook it off, dragging her feet as she walked over to her desk and sat down.

"Lilly, we both knew that he wasn't going to show up," Miley murmured, sitting down next to her and reaching out her hand and lightly touching Lilly on the arm. "I know it hurts, but you have to get over him. I'm not saying this to be mean. I'm saying this as your best friend."

"Some best friend," Lilly snorted.

Miley retracted her arm, stung.

"No, Miley…."

"It's… it's fine," Miley muttered, standing up. "I'm… I think I'm gonna go get a drink."

"Do you want me to…?"

"I can go by myself," Miley snapped.

The blonde nodded as Miley strode out of the room, struggling to hold back her tears. She really didn't need to be seen crying on her first day of school. Shrugging past a crowd of freshman boys, she quickly walked down the hall towards the nearest girls' bathroom. Suddenly her path was blocked by an arm clad in a long, black sweatshirt sleeve. Her eyes followed the arm up to a shoulder, a neck, and finally the face of the hottest senior boy in the school.

"Hey, Miley," Gabe Lammatti said, a smirk spreading across his face.

"Hey, Gabe," she muttered, ducking underneath his arm only to be, once again, blocked.

"Miley, I was wondering…."

"Look, Gabe, right now really isn't a good time, okay?" Miley snapped. "I really appreciate the attention, but I really don't feel like talking right now."

Gabe's eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead as a confused expression made its way onto his face. "I don't get it," he muttered. "Every single girl in this school is falling head-over-heels in love with me. You were falling head-over-heels in love with me. Until now. The only girls who don't pay attention to me are girls who have dated me. And I know we haven't dated. Not yet, anyways."

"Can I please get past?" Miley asked, starting to get angry. She could feel the tears in her eyes start to accumulate.

"Why don't you like me?" he muttered to himself. "Who else doesn't like me that I haven't dated? Sarah, but she's… she's gay, isn't she? Oh my God, Stewart, you're gay, aren't you? Stewart's gay!"

"No I'm not!" Miley protested weakly, blood rushing to her face.

"Yeah, you are!" Gabe exclaimed, doubling over in laughter. "Oh my God, I can't believe it! Miley Stewart is gay! And here I thought you were just trying to play hard-to-get! Hey, Thomas, guess what! Miley's gay? Who do you have a crush on, Stewart?"

Miley pushed past him angrily, tears streaming down her face as she ran to the bathroom. She could feel people staring at her as she pushed the door open and ran into one of the stalls, slamming the door shut behind her and sliding the lock across the stall door with shaking hands. Sitting down on the ground, she pulled her knees to her chest and cradled her head in her hands, letting her sobs wrack her body.

There was a soft knock on the door of her stall and Miley lifted her head to see a pair of feet clad in gold flip-flops showing in the space under the stall door. She sniffled, grabbing a piece of toilet paper and wiping her nose. "Who is it?" she called out, wincing at the sound of raspy voice.

"It's Ashley."

Surprise shot through Miley's system. She shakily got to her feet and slid the lock back, yanking the stall door open to reveal a sympathetic-looking Ashley. "Why should I trust you of all people?" she snapped.

The popular girl sighed. "Because there's no one else here," she murmured.

"Where's Amber?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "She's in New York City at some prestigious school. She says that she's at Juilliard, but I seriously doubt that," she scoffed. "For all I know, she could be in Oklahoma touring a lame college. And, honestly, I don't care what she's doing right now. She's a bitch."

"What?" Miley asked, surprised.

"You don't think that I'm honestly as stupid as I act, do you?" Ashley asked, laughing and shaking her head. "How do you think I manage to keep up in all of those Advanced Placement classes Amber and I are enrolled in? She just makes me look bad… okay, maybe I make myself look bad, but she has… stuff over me. If I don't abide by every single word that comes out of her mouth, then I'm doomed."

"What does she have over you?"

"It's not something I just go around telling people," Ashley murmured, shaking her head. "It was a mistake to tell Amber in the first place, and I'm not going to take that chance again. Let's just say that my social life would be over if my secret got out."

"Well, what do you want then?" Miley snapped.

Ashley sighed. "I heard what Gabe said and saw you run in here and thought that you might need someone to talk to," she explained. "Look, I know that you don't trust me, and I totally understand that. I don't blame you. If I were you, I wouldn't trust me. But… everyone needs someone, right?"

Miley stepped forward, walking past Ashley, and leaned her hands on the sink, her head dropping down. She felt like she was going to be sick. Gabe Lammatti had announced to the whole school that she was gay. Lilly absolutely hated her because she had a crush on her. And she was standing in the girl's bathroom before homeroom on her first day of school with Ashley, her eyes red and puffy from crying.

"Do… do you want me to get Lilly?" Ashley asked hesitantly.

"No, I'm fine," Miley sighed. "I'll just go to homeroom, now. The bell should be ringing soon, anyways." As if on cue, the warning bell rang, signaling that they had three minutes to get to homeroom. "Thanks, Ashley. I have no idea why you're doing this, and I don't know if I can trust you, but I really appreciate it."

Ashley smiled at her, then a look crossed her face and she started digging through her purse, pulling out some cover-up, mascara, and eyeliner. "Here, you can use this," she said, thrusting the items into Miley's hands. "It's waterproof, so… well, you're gonna have a hard day and it sucks to have to cover up everything after spending the five minutes between each class crying in the bathroom. Trust me. I'll tell Mr. Jacobs that you're in the bathroom."

The brunette stared down at the makeup in her hands and set it on the little ledge jutting out from the mirror, picking up the cover-up and starting to apply it. As much as she didn't trust Ashley, she agreed with her on the point that it was most likely going to be a hard day for her.

"Hard day" was an understatement. As soon as Miley walked into her homeroom, guys started whistling and girls started whispering. She sat down in her desk next to Lilly, her face a bright red. The blonde elbowed her lightly as Miley put her head down on her desk and put her hands over her ears so she could pretend that she was anywhere else in the world. They got their schedules and Miley discovered that she had five of her eight classes with Lilly, plus lunch, and their other three classes were right next to each other. Miley was too sick to feel excited.

And Ashley had been right when she said that it sucks to cover up everything after spending the five minutes between each class crying in the bathroom. As soon as every class let out, she ran to the old girls bathroom in the west wing of the school which no one used because all of the toilets were broken. She was late to every class and had multiple notes thrown at her during her classes, asking her if she would make out with a girl on videotape or if she knew that she was going to Hell.

Lunch was spent crying in the girls bathroom, and she ignored Lilly's question of where she had been when she rejoined her in French class after lunch. After that, Lilly stopped asking questions and sat looking straight ahead, a stony look on her face. Miley mentally punched herself in the face for messing things up with Lilly again.

After school, Miley waited by the front doors for Lilly to show up. They didn't have their last class together and Lilly had said that she needed to go to her locker to get some things. Miley had no idea what she needed to get, but she didn't want to walk through the halls and endure all of the stares, whispers, and jokes, so she had agreed to meet her by the front door. Lilly showed up ten minutes later, book bag slung over her shoulder, rubbing her right hand and wincing in pain.

They were in Lilly's car and were about to pull out of the parking space when Miley spotted Gabe Lammatti. She gasped in surprise when she saw that he was sporting a rapidly darkening black eye and that there was blood all over his face, which seemed to have sprouted from his now-crooked nose. Lilly snorted and Miley shifted her gaze from Gabe to Lilly.

"Lilly, why does Gabe look like he just got beat up by somebody's big brother?"

The blonde shrugged. "He had it coming for him," she muttered, looping her arm around the back of Miley's seat as she turned to look out the back windshield and started to back out of her parking space. "Somebody needed to deflate his big head."

"Lilly!" Miley gasped. "What would have happened if you did that while he was surrounded by his big football player friends? What if the principal finds out? God, Lilly, the principal is going to find out! He has a black eye and a nosebleed!"

"I actually broke his nose," Lilly bragged. "I heard it crack when my fist hit his face!"

"Lilly!"

The skater girl shrugged as she shifted the car into drive and stepped on the gas. "Like I said before, he had it coming for him. He totally deserved it."

"But why?"

Lilly paused. "He hurt my best friend."

Miley sucked in a breath, unsure of how she was supposed to respond, and then chose not to because they were speeding down the road and Lilly was chattering about mindless events that had happened throughout the day, which included a freshman hitting on her (fruitlessly, she added), the English teacher refusing to call her Lilly and going by her full name, and some sophomores thinking that she was a freshman and trying to direct her to the wrong classroom until they realized she was going to AP Calculus.

These were the moments that she loved with Lilly, the moments that defined Miley's love for her. Miley settled down in her seat and listened to Lilly's mindless chatter, smiling to herself. The blonde had this way of making a horrible day just a little bit better.

Well there it is. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: sulpicia29, AlvinFan07, 20kels, MarkofConquest, XxuntouchablexX, .287, zzCharmedzz1, karleen3863, dcjp, Freudian Slips Cause Problems, mile Truscott, Breyton2009, LuisaHUAH. You guys really are awesome and I'm posting this chapter a little early because of all of these amazing, wonderful reviews!

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