Disclaimer: I don't own Hannah Montana. All I used to own was an iPod but some godforsaken bastard decided to steal it. Those people suck and now I need a new one.

Second Heartbeat

Lilly was bored out of her mind. It was Monday and school was being 10 times more boring than usual. It was close to the end of third period and she just couldn't wait for the bell to ring. Mr. Valerie was being ultra boring. What else was new? Finally the bell rang and Lilly all but pounced towards the door. Hopefully fourth wouldn't be as dull.

She quickly took her seat near the back of the class. The bell rang and Mr. Martin waited a few minutes for the late ones before standing up in front of the class.

"Settle down everyone," he said though nobody was really talking. "This week we will be starting a new project that will go on over the course of 3 weeks." The room itself seemed to groan. "Yes, I'm aware of how much you guys love doing these types of projects. For the project you will have to care for two small animals and see how certain changes in their environment affect their behavior. For example, let's say you have two mice and one of the mice gets more sunlight than the other. Your job would be to study how lack of sunlight changes the other mouse."

Lilly looked at the papers that Mr. Martin had passed around as he was talking. It gave a list of suggested animals and environment changes. There were so many little things on there that would seriously freak her out. Like spiders? No way, uh, never! She shivered just thinking about it. She looked up again as Mr. Martin continued talking.

"Now, this assignment will be done in partners," Already friends were looking at each other, "but I will be assigning them. It'll do this class some good to get a little mix in."

Lilly looked around the class. Well his statement was true enough. It seemed like every corner of the room was dedicated to a different group. In the back left corner were the "gangster" people, in the back right were the hardcore heavy rocker/ emo type people, the front was reserved for all the nerds and teacher's pets and around the middle was the normal in between people. Lilly blinked. Why did she never notice that she was in the rocker group before?

"I'm going to call out partners now. When I call out your name you can move over with whoever you are working with and begin thinking over your project." Mr. Martin picked up a clip board and started calling off names, with people moving every which way as they were called.

"Man, this sucks..." She heard a boy next to her complain as he was paired with one of the gangster people. "I'm going to have to do all the work!"

"Lilly," She came to attention. "...and James. Pair up and start brain storming." Wow, that was lucky, she thought. The only people that were left were the gangsters and she really didn't want to work with them. Lilly went over to James' desk.

"Howdy partner," James said in his cowboy voice. Lilly rolled her eyes. James stuck his tongue out. "Whatever then!"

"Anyways...let's get down to business."

"Fine...what little critter do you want to mess with?" James asked with an innocent smile.

"You make it sound like torture," Lilly said. James laughed.

"How about spiders? Oh! A tarantula!"

"NO! A big fat no!" Lilly exclaimed, "Anything but that."

"Rats?"

"James...what is wrong with you?" Lilly asked. James shrugged.

"A lot of things but it's gotten worse since I started hanging out with you," He replied with another smile. Mr. Martin came by.

"How are you two doing?"

"Uhh..."

"I suggest more thinking and less flirting, Miss Truscott, Mr. Medina," he said with a warning glance before walking away. Lilly and James blinked at each other.

"So about the project.." They said at the same time. They paused and laughed, getting another glance from the teacher. Finally they got down to some actual work and decided to use hamsters and see how different types of music work on them. An easy project.

"How about we start tomorrow? We can buy the little guys at a pet store and get things situated," James offered. Sounded good, plus Lilly's mom would not like any kind of animal other than a dog at the house.

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Saturday found Lilly at James' house, working on their project. They had had a few bumps and mishaps earlier in the week, mainly with James' mom demanding why James had brought home two hamsters without consulting her first, a bad move on his part. Those things had gotten settled eventually and finally they were able to being on the project. Today they were going to choose which type of music each furry animal would get.

"I think one should get like heavy metal, head banging music and the other get some classical stuff like pianos and violins," Lilly suggested. James nodded.

"Sounds like a good idea to me...but do you have anything classical 'cause I sure as hell don't," he stated. Lilly shook her head.

"Not even my parents have any of that." James snapped his fingers.

"Shoot, looks like we'll have to buy then." Lilly sighed.

"Alright then, want to just go right now since we're close enough?" They looked at each other and nodded at the same time.

One quick trip to Music Jams and everything was bought. James rummaged through the bag as he and Lilly walked out of the store. He pulled out two CDs and made a face as he read what was printed on the front.

"Poor hamster," he said, "Do you really think they'll be happy listening to...Motz rat and...Beet Heaven?" Lilly looked at him with a raise eyebrow. He had a seriously confused look on his face. He looked at Lilly and blinked.

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"Serious? About what?" he replied, still with the lost look on his face. Lilly couldn't help but smile at his expression. It just made him look so cute and made her want to go 'Aww'. Lilly shook her head.

"Just forget it and let get back to the hamsters." James shrugged and followed after her.

"You know, we need to give these critters a name," he said as they started to skate away.

"Yeah I guess we should."

They got to the house pretty quickly and soon they were setting up the headphones and such. Basically all it was a CD player with the headphones placed on the cage. Their plan was that Lilly got one and James got the other and over the course of the experiment they would study and record the animals' behavior.

"So on the naming thing..." Lilly said as she put in a CD for her hamster.

"I'm naming mine Tika," James said.

"Tika?" He nodded vigorously.

"Yup, I think it means hyena."

"Why are you going to name a hamster hyena?" Lilly inquired. James shrugged.

"I just want to ok? What are you going to name yours?" he asked, changing the subject off his usual name. Lilly thought about it. What was a good name? Was her hamster even a boy or a girl? How the heck do you tell that? Lilly shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't even know is it's a boy or a girl."

"They're both boys, the pet shop owner dude told me," James told her.

"Jager!" Lilly exclaimed suddenly. James looked at her funny. "What?"

"Yeah, and you say my name is weird..." Lilly rolled her eyes.

"Whatever...so we're pretty much done for today. What do you want to do now?" James shrugged.

"I don't know but I do want some s'mores." His grey eyes lit up. "Oh! I think I have all the stuff, want to make some?"

Just looking at the excitement on his face made Lilly laugh. Somehow she couldn't say no to him. She nodded and he let out a happy sound then grabbed Lilly by the wrist and dragged her into the kitchen. Lilly shook her head at how incredibly cute he was being. James let go of her wrist to poke around the cabinets to find the essential ingredients for s'mores. He returned, all smiles, with chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows, and some metal stick things to stick the marshmallows on. He dropped the things on the counter and walked over to turn on the stove.

"My ghetto camp fire," he said with a chuckle.

Lilly got herself a marshmallow and headed to put it over the "camp fire." James stood back and watched her. He smiled and shook his head then walked over to her. He stood behind her and grabbed her wrists.

"It'll never get toasted if you hold it that high up from the fire," he said, "Put it more around this height." He moved her hands down slightly. "See?" he said as the 'mallow already started to brown. Lilly was tensed up. James was much too close for her comfort. He rested his head on her shoulder. Lilly swallowed and took a deep breath. James wasn't sure whether to frown or smile at her behavior.

"Oh..!" Lilly exclaimed in slight surprise when the treat caught fire. "What...?" James brought it up over Lilly's head and blew on it, extinguishing the fire. He laughed.

"Don't put it that low Hun," he said. He let go of her hands and instead brought them down to her waist and pulled her even closer. Lilly's heart seemed to race. What was James doing? His arms were wrapped around her. He was holding her like...like a boy would to his girlfriend. But Lilly wasn't his girlfriend. She was Miley's girlfriend.

Miley...

James frowned, almost as if he was reading Lilly's thoughts. James softly pressed his lips against the side of Lilly's neck.

"I'm going to make my own," he stated as he let her go. Lilly brought her hand up to her neck. What was that? Why was James holding her like that? Why did he insist on doing those things to her? What's worse, Lilly gasped as she realized, was that she liked it. She enjoyed having James so close to her and now she was almost aching for his arms to wrap themselves around her once again. Lilly shut her eyes as she thought this. What was going on with her?

"Is something wrong Lilly?" James asked as he came up. Lilly's heart jumped.

"Uh..I...I just remembered that I have to get home soon. My mom needs me," she made up lamely. James knew this was just an excuse but didn't press it.

"Ok then. Want me to take you home?" Lilly shook her head.

"No thanks, I'll be fine." She went into the living room and gathered her stuff quickly. James watched her from the kitchen. "Bye!" she called out as she made her way to the front door. James managed a faint bye as well. He stood for a moment before going to lock the door. He turned away and returned to the kitchen with a smile on his face.

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Lilly threw herself on her bed. She held a hand to her head as she felt a headache coming on. She was thinking to hard on this. So James definitely had some interest in her but did she have interest in him? She couldn't deny all those time he had been incredibly cute and how she seemed to actually like it when he showed her affection. Like earlier at his house when he was holding her.

But if she was developing (possible) feelings for James, what did this mean for her relationship with Miley? Lilly hated to admit it but she felt that if it ever came down to choosing, she'd probably choose James, solely for the reason that he was a guy. Lilly clenched her fist.

So what if James was a guy? Did she not love Miley a thousand times more? Who cares if Miley's a girl, Lilly still loved her. Lilly didn't know James as well as she knew Miley. She couldn't let James get between them. What they had was something special and Lilly wouldn't let anyone, not even death, destroy it.

But if she really loved Miley as much as she said she did, why was she falling to James' temptation?

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It was Sunday and Miley and Lilly were spending the day at the beach. Lilly was still having some stray thoughts about the previous day but she forced herself t cast them aside. Now was the time for her girlfriend.

The beach was basically deserted since it was the first week of November but the girls liked it that way. There was no one else to interrupt them or give them those all too familiar stares, which they just ignored. They basically had the beach all to themselves.

They were both sitting in the cave Lilly had found a long time ago, giving them even more privacy from those few who were at the beach. It was their own personal spot, just for the two of them. They were sitting side by side, watching the dark waves crash against the shore with occasional chatter crossing between them. Lilly shivered and snuggled up to Miley.

"I'm cold," She said bluntly.

"Well no duh! You're not even wearing a sweater and it's cold out here," Miley said. Lilly nuzzled her head against Miley's neck.

"But that's why I have you to warm me up." Miley smiled and put her arm around Lilly.

"Hmmm...lucky you," She replied. Lilly smiled.

"Yes, lucky me. Know why?" She asked, looking up at Miley.

"No, why?" Miley played along.

"Because I have the best girlfriend in the world," Lilly answered, giving Miley a kiss. Miley blushed faintly. Lilly giggled. "Aw, you're so cute," Lilly said. Miley laughed.

"Well, I must be for you to stick with me."

"Hmm...true but there are so many other things about you that I love so much."

"Like?"

"Oh you know, like your cute laugh or the way you squeal when I poke you in the ribs or how you always end up in crazy situations," Lilly said, counting off her fingers, "or how sometimes you can be more of a blonde than I am," Lilly said, sticking her tongue out.

"Are you calling me dumb?" Miley said, mock angrily.

"I rest my case," Lilly said with a sweep of her hand.

"Pssh, whatever," Miley turned her head away. Lilly leaned her head against Miley's shoulder and put her arm around her waist.

"Aw, c'mon Love, you know I'm just playing." Miley grinned and turned to Lilly.

"Of course I do," Miley said, kissing Lilly's nose lightly.

"That's good because I could never stand to have you mad at me."

"Yeah but it's very hard to get mad at you so I think you're good on that." Lilly pumped a fist into the air.

"Woot! Once again Truscott scores." Miley shook her head and laughed.

"C'mon, I think it's time we get home before it gets any later," She said, looking up at the sky. It looked like rain. Lilly sighed and stood up.

"Man, I was having fun," She pouted. She reached out and helped pull Miley up. Miley dusted off her jeans.

"Let's just go before it pours down on us." They started walking in the direction of Lilly's house holding hands with their fingers interlinked. As they walked the rain began to pour down. Miley shrieked and attempted to cover her hair. If it got wet it would frizz and she did not want that.

Lilly on the other hand was having fun with the rain. She tilted her head up and opened her mouth, catching the rain. She stretched her arms out and started to twirl. Miley watched with a small amused smile.

"What are you doing?" She asked. Lilly stopped and looked over at her.

"Dancing in the rain," She replied, "and you can too." She walked over and took Miley's hands into her own. Then they both started spinning and playing. The rain was soaking them through but they either didn't notice or didn't care. They were having fun. Miley started chasing Lilly around. Somehow the chase had taken them right in front of Lilly's house. Lilly chuckled lightly when she noticed.

Miley grabbed Lilly by the waist and pulled her closer. She put her forehead against her girlfriend's and started into her eyes.

"You know," Miley said, "sometimes I still can't believe that you came up to me and said, 'I love you.'" Lilly smiled. "But you did, and now you're mine." Lilly's arms wrapped themselves around Miley's neck.

"Yes I am. There's no one else for me, I belong to you and you belong to me." They stared at each other for a moment before leaning in for a kiss. At the moment both girls felt like their hearts were so full of love that they were going to burst. Nothing could've been more picture perfect. The sight was incredibly cute.

The two girls sprang apart when they heard an 'Ahem' from the house. They turn to see Mr. Truscott leaning against the open doorway, arms crossed and a smile on his face. They blushed.

"I think it's time for me to get inside," Lilly said, a sheepish grin on her face. Miley's face mirrored Lilly's grin as she nodded. "See you tomorrow," Lilly said, giving Miley a small kiss before turning to her house. Miley gave a small wave to Lilly's dad and he nodded towards her. Miley started off towards her house, shoulders shaking with laughter.

"I see you had a good time today," Mr. Truscott teased as Lilly walked in. Lilly laughed and headed upstairs to get her dripping wet clothes off and change into some warm dry clothes. As she changed she wondered how she ever could've questioned her love for Miley.

A/N: Sorry if the transition from the James and Lilly part to the Lilly and Miley part was badly done. I had the Liley part written a looong time ago while the James and Lilly (Lames? Jilly? Jally?) part had just popped into my head. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter and sorry if you found some parts in there boring, because speaking for myself, hamsters don't interest me much.