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Part Four

Lilly rolled through my living room on her skate board. "No luck, Miley. I called Sammy's agent and he refused to give me Sammy's number. He said I sounded underage and up to no good." She huffed. "Imagine that!"

I groaned. "I couldn't find him on set, either. Turns out there really is a mini series called 'Romeo: The Later Years.'" I dropped onto the sofa. "I tried to sneak in disguised as a monkey trainer but they threw me out. Sammy was right about those monkeys. I think one of them stole my bracelet."

Lilly picked something up off the floor. "You mean this bracelet?"

"Oh." I took it from her with a dejected sigh.

"Don't worry, Miley. We'll just move on to plan B."

"Without Sammy there is no plan B. There's not even a plan C."

"Yes there is." She grinned proudly. "Lupe."

"Lupe is plan B?"

"It's simple," Lilly explained. "He's going to be your new number one fan tonight at Tracy's beach party."

"Oooh! You're brilliant!" I jumped up, considering the possibilities. "Wait – are you sure this will work? Can Lupe act?"

"Pul-leeze. He used to star on a Spanish soap opera. Drama is his middle name."

"Yeah, but can he speak English?"

Lilly laughed nervously. "Of course…he just…he might need a little help."

I put my hands on my hips. "Lilly…"

"No, it's okay! I made him note cards. See?" She held up an orange index card. "'Oh Hannah, I love you!' How's that?" She flipped to the next one. "'You are my favorite singer ever! Please be my girlfriend!'"

I fell back onto the sofa. "This is never going to work!"

"Stop being so pessimistic," Lilly scolded. "I've got it all worked out. You just have to trust me."

"The last time I trusted you I ended up with chocolate pudding all over my face."

Lilly looked down apologetically. "You didn't duck fast enough."

"Whatever. Are you sure Lupe can pull this off?"

"I promise. I'll take care of Lupe. All you have to do is convince Oliver to help you again."

"I can do that." At least, I hoped I could.

Someone was rapping frantically on the back door. "Let me in, let me in!" It was Jackson.

Lilly opened the door for him. He was out of breath and clearly spooked. "You'll never believe this! I just got chased all the way down the street by a ninja squirrel!"

Lilly and I stared at him, disbelieving.

"Did the ninja squirrel kick you?" Lilly teased. "Or did it just threaten you with its noisy chatter?"

"It bit me! On the foot!"

Lilly laughed. I yawned.

"I'm not kidding." Jackson held up his foot. "He followed me all the way to Rico's, hid in the bushes, and when I got up to come home, he attacked!"

"Maybe you got his order wrong," I suggested with a roll of my eyes.

Lilly peered at his toe. "I don't see anything."

"Why would I make this up? Go look. I bet he's waiting on the back porch for me to come out again, snarly little varmint that he is."

The three of us gathered around the glass door. Sure enough a cute, innocent looking squirrel with a crippled paw sat patiently on the porch.

Jackson made a face at the squirrel. "Next time I come out, I'm coming out for battle!" He turned around with a determined look in his eye. "Okay, I'm gonna need boots, elbow pads, night goggles, an acorn, and something really sharp."

"You can borrow my skateboard gear," Lilly offered.

I gasped. "Don't encourage him!"

Oliver walked through the front door just then, dressed for Tracy's beach party. "Whatup guys? Ready to go? Mike is in the house, so let's get this par-tay started!"

I gave him a long look, admiring the way his hair was kind of messy tonight.

Jackson clapped him on the back. "Oliver, go get your camera. A ninja squirrel just attacked me and I'm about to give him a little somethin' somethin' in return."

"Dude, I've got my own problems. A crab bit me this morning when I was down at the beach. It still hurts."

I threw my hands up. "You two are the biggest babies in the world. Get over it!"

"Yeah," Lilly agreed. "I mean, maybe if you were nicer to the animals, they'd be nicer to you, too."

"Hey, he started it!" Jackson retorted, pointing to the squirrel.

Oliver crouched down in front of the door to check him out. "Oh, that little guy? That's Gimpy. My brother adopted him this morning from the wildlife rescue center. He must've escaped."

Jackson was peeved. "Pet or no pet, he attacked me, and he's going down. Now where did I put my night goggles?" He disappeared upstairs.

"I think Gimpy is cute," Lilly said.

"Yeah, I better call my brother before Jackson annihilates him." Oliver started toward the phone.

"I'll get it for you," I offered, reaching across the back of the sofa toward the coffee table.

My arm wasn't long enough, so I stretched on my tip toes. Then suddenly my balance gave way and I flipped over the sofa, crashing into the coffee table. With a groan I stuck my hand out toward the phone, but only succeeded in pushing it against an opened coke bottle, which tipped over and spilled onto a stack of sheet music.

Lilly burst out laughing, and Oliver came around to make sure I was okay.

"I wasn't in that much of a hurry, you know," he said, helping me up. "I was actually debating whether or not watching Jackson battle a ninja squirrel was worth the pain of listening to my brother scream all night when he finds out his pet isn't coming home."

"Who says Jackson's going to win?" Lilly reminded him.

"Good point. I'll call my brother." He picked the phone and dialed.

So once again, Oliver was being completely normal, and I was a freaking mess. At least he hadn't figured out why I'd jumped to get the phone for him. It was embarrassing enough as it was.

Oliver's brother picked up Gimpy five minutes before Jackson found his night goggles. We didn't tell Jackson where the squirrel had gone, so he camped out on the porch with a firewood prodder and a bowl of acorns, waiting for his return.

That disaster averted, Lilly, Oliver, and I headed off to Tracy's party. The big event was at her grandfather's beach house down the coast, so we decided to walk. We heard the noisy guests, smelled the hot dogs, and saw the glow of a small bonfire long before we arrived.

Oliver walked beside me complaining about the crab bite on his foot. I could barely look at him without getting butterflies in my stomach, and putting together a coherent sentence was impossible. Yet he rambled on and on about how we should have taken the limo to spare his poor bruised foot.

"Hannaaah…how good of you to cooome!" Tracy greeted in her nasally voice. "Oooh, and you brought Mike with you. How wonderfuuul." She traced a finger along the collar of his shirt. "Make suuure you come say hi later…I'll be sitting over there under the pink umbrellaaa." She smiled suggestively.

I didn't like the way she was looking at him. At all.

"Toodles!" She winked at Oliver and walked off.

"Stay away from her," I said, pushing Oliver toward the hot dog stand.

"Don't worry, ever since that concert last week when she tied me to a chair and fed me chocolate-covered strawberries, I get queasy when I'm within fifty feet of her."

"She did what?" I echoed.

"Yeah, I had to rescue him," Lilly piped in. "The chocolate was everywhere. In his hair, down his shirt –"

Oliver glared at her. "I thought we agreed never to speak of that again."

"Sorry." Lilly looked down at her hands. "But if it makes you feel any better, the chocolate wasn't everywhere. There was one little spot on your elbow that she missed."

See, yesterday before the Save-The-Whales charity event, I would have laughed at him for falling prey to Tracy's schemes. But now I just wanted to tie her up. And it wouldn't be chocolate I'd smear all over her, either.

I spotted Lupe walking towards us. He was dressed in beach clothes and had a stack of orange index cards in his hand.

This was going to be a disaster.

"Oh my gosh! It's Hannah!" he read from the card. He looked up at me, then glanced over at Lilly, who urged him on with a nod. He flipped to the next card. "I've always wanted to meet you!"

Was he batting his eyes at me?

"Hannah," Lilly pointed out the obvious, "it looks like you have a new fan."

"Si, number one fan!" Lupe grinned at me innocently. I wondered if he even knew what he was saying.

"Maybe you should tell her your name," Lilly hinted.

Lupe flipped to the next card. "My name Lupe is." He looked up, still grinning.

We were doomed. Oliver was never going to buy this.

"Lupe," I said, "it's really nice to meet you, but I'm here with my friends now, so maybe we can talk later."

"Okay," he said cheerfully, not the least bit disappointed. He turned to leave, but Lilly stepped in front of him and cleared her throat. He looked at her questioningly, and she made a motion with her hands for him to flip to the next card. He obeyed. "This is best day of life my. So happy to meet you!"

I glanced over at Oliver, afraid to see the look on his face. But he was drawing in the sand with his toe, apparently oblivious to everything that was happening with Lupe. "Hey look," he said, pointing to the sand drawing. "It's a hot dog."

I groaned.

"No, wait." He drew a line over the top. "Now it's a chili hot dog!"

"Mike," I said impatiently. "I could use a little help right now."

"Why? What's up?"

"This guy here is totally going crazy for Hannah," Lilly explained. She nudged Lupe with her elbow, and he flipped another card. "Oh, Hannah! I you love! You make my heart faster beat!"

Oliver gave Lupe a once-over. "Dude, why are you reading off a note card?"

"Yeah, why are you?" I echoed, giving Lilly an evil-eye.

"He's just shy, and his English isn't very good," Lilly said. "But that doesn't lessen how he feels, does it, Lupe?"

Lupe half nodded, half shook his head.

"Hey, aren't you the guy Lola was hanging out with last night?" Oliver asked.

Oh God, if Oliver figured out what we were doing, I was going to die of humiliation.

"He was afraid to talk to Hannah," Lilly said, "so he came to me. Of course I told him Hannah already had a boyfriend, but he wouldn't listen to me. He insisted on declaring his love for her." She flipped the next card for Lupe.

"You are my singer favorite," he read. "Please be my girlfriend?"

Oliver looked annoyed. "Where do you people come from? Just leave her alone, okay? I'm getting a hot dog." He walked off.

Lilly and I exchanged looks.

"What happened to 'I'll take care of Lupe. Just trust me'?" I accused.

"Sorry. He was doing so well when we rehearsed it, I thought –"

"No, you didn't think. This was a bad idea. I knew it wouldn't work."

Lilly hung her head. "I was just trying to help."

"Well, stop trying, okay?" I turned away from her. "I'm getting a hot dog, too."

I knew I was being unfair, but I couldn't help myself. Why did things have to be so complicated? Why couldn't Oliver just like me back? Or better yet, why couldn't I just go back to not liking Oliver?

I watched him as he squirted ketchup on his hot dog. He was relaxed, confident in himself, content to be right where he was – hanging out on the beach. I really liked that about him. He took all the worries of life in stride and never let it change who he was. He was constant, and somehow I knew he always would be.

I walked up beside him and grabbed a hot dog and a bun. "Those crazy fans," I laughed. "Gotta love 'em."

Oliver shrugged. "I can understand the crazy fans – I mean, I used to be one, too – but when the film stars all start groveling at your feet, it gets a little weird."

"Well, Lupe's new to America. He probably does that to every blond girl he meets."

"If that's the case," Oliver mused, "he must go through an awful lot of index cards."

We walked over to the bonfire and ate our hot dogs. I wanted to tell him the truth, to just come out and say it, but it was like my tongue was glued to the top of my mouth. The words refused to come out no matter how much I willed them. So I suffered in silence.

"Isn't it illegal to build fires on the beach?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know, but Tracy never does anything that's legal."

"So that little paintball skirmish going on in the water," he pointed toward a group of rowdy teenagers, "is probably illegal, too?"

"Yeah, you want to join them?"

He grinned. "Why not? I didn't promise my mom I wouldn't get in trouble tonight."

We started toward the waves. But there, standing directly in our path, was a tall blond guy with pretty blue eyes…and he looked like he meant business.

"Hannah, I forgive you for last night," he said, holding out a red rose. "'All these woes shall serve for sweet discourses in our time to come.' Will you now receive my love?"

Oliver and I looked at each other, and I knew things were about to get very interesting.