Ya'll rock - I'm glad you like the story.

Part Six

"Oliver's gonna freak when he sees this." I held up a tabloid with a picture of us holding hands on the front. The title was even worse. 'New Romance Budding for Pop Star Hannah Montana.'

Lilly inspected the article. "How do they get this stuff out so quick? Geez, it hasn't even been twenty-four hours."

"Who cares how long it's been?" I wailed. "The problem is that it's out, and I just spent all last night trying to convince Oliver that they'd never publish a story based on one dinky little picture - a picture which proves nothing, by the way."

"You're right. You should call these people up this very instant and set them straight. Just 'cause you're holding hands on the beach, looking suspiciously close to kissing, doesn't mean anything's going on."

I wadded up the paper and threw in into the trash can. "I hate being famous!"

Lilly ignored my outburst and dove to rescue it. "Isn't this what you wanted? Now word is out that you and Mike are a couple. Everywhere you go with him, people will think you're dating. You've got all the excuses in the world to keep Oliver as your boyfriend. You don't even need Sammy anymore."

"Sammy." The sound of his name made my insides boil hotter than they did the time Luann spray-painted all my clothes pink so we would "match."

Impulsively I reached for an orange in the fruit bowl and tossed it into the blender. Holding the top down, I turned the blender on high. The orange burst apart and the blades chopped it into a gooey, lumpy pulp. I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and poured the entire contents of the blender into it. With an evil cackle I slammed the glass down on the counter.

Lilly watched with wide eyes.

"That's what's gonna happen to Sammy when I get my hands on him." There. I felt better already.

"Okay, now you're scaring me." Lilly slid down the counter away from me. "Sure it was mean of him to tell on you, but is it really that bad?"

"You haven't read the second paragraph of page three yet, have you?"

Lilly found the page and read out loud. "'Bystander Samuel Forster, star of last year's miniseries Romeo and Juliet, reveals that Hannah and Mike have been secretly dating for weeks. He calls their relationship "volatile," "immature," and "lacking real passion," and says her boyfriend is "jealous and unromantic." Forster claims he and Hannah have become quite close, and hints that there may be more in store for them in the future.'" Lilly looked up at me and grimaced. "This is bad, isn't it?"

I laid my palms on the counter and leaned toward her. "Ya think?"

She folded the tabloid up carefully and placed it next to the glass of orange goop.

I sighed heavily. "Lilly, what am I gonna do?"

"Uh…tell Oliver the truth."

"What? I can't do that!"

"Of course you can. Here, practice on me." She grabbed a baseball cap lying on the table and put it on backwards. Assuming the slouching posture of a rapper, she spoke in her best Oliver voice. "Yo Hannah, whatup?" She bobbed her head. "Nice hair."

"Lilly!"

"Okay, okay." She took off the hat. "But seriously, you should just be honest with him. He'll understand."

"Sure he'll understand, but then it'll be over." I came around the counter and faced my friend. "I can't lose this chance, Lilly. Mike and Hannah have to stay together until I can make Oliver like me. I'm not giving up."

I wandered into the living room, possibilities running through my mind. "Maybe you're right. Maybe this is what I wanted. If we can just go on a few dates and attend a few concerts without Sammy, Oliver will finally see how much fun he's having with me. I mean, he liked Hannah once. How hard can it be to make him like her again?"

Lilly gave me a disapproving look. "Have you ever thought that maybe forcing him into liking you isn't a good idea?"

Well, she had a point. But what else was I supposed to do?

Robbie Ray came down the stairs and moseyed into the kitchen humming a tune. He greeted us cheerfully. "'Mornin', girls. I had a thought on my way down here that I'd whip up some of my famous double decker egg sandwiches. Any takers?"

"Oooh, yes please!" Lilly went to get herself a plate.

Robbie stopped to inspect the glass of orange pulp. He lifted a curious eye. "Is this some kind of science experiment?"

I dove for the tabloid and leaned onto it with my arm. "Uh…yeah. We're studying the…effects of salt on citrus fruit." I grabbed the salt shaker with my other hand and shook it wildly over the orange.

Robbie didn't look convinced. "How are the results coming?"

"Oh, great." I pushed the tabloid off the counter with my elbow. "The salt makes it…"

"Taste like a grapefruit!" Lilly chimed in.

I knew Dad could smell my lies from half a mile away, and this was no exception. He walked around me and reached for the tabloid.

I stepped on it. "Oh, who wants to read that news anyway? It's just a bunch of useless, irrelevant gossip created for the specific purpose of turning people's minds into mush. You better let me throw it away, Daddy."

He yanked it from under my foot. I tried to steal it from him, but he held it up high. "Now don't that girl look an awfully lot like Hannah Montana." He studied the picture on the front. His eyebrows lifted. "And ain't that the scraggly-haired boy who shows up from time to time to clean out my refrigerator?"

I felt my cheeks burning. "It's not what you think."

"No Bud, I think it's exactly what I think." He took a second glance. "Yup, it sure is. How many times do I got to tell you to wear your shoes when you're down on the beach? The sand crabs bite somethin' awful."

Lilly peered over his shoulder. "Oh, look at that. Bare feet. Shame on you, Miley. You gotta remember to wear your shoes." She tilted her head. "On the other hand, I think it's a great picture. Aren't they cute, Mr. Stewart?"

"Lilly!" I gave her an evil glare.

"I mean, never mind." She sat down.

Robbie put the tabloid down calmly. I wondered why he didn't look surprised. He turned as if nothing was amiss and opened the refrigerator. "I guess I better stock up in here if that boy's gonna be coming 'round more often." He started humming again.

I shrugged. That went well…right?

Robbie ate breakfast with us, then went upstairs to take a shower. Lilly and I were just about to go down to Rico's when Jackson came stumbling through the back door wearing his night goggles. His hair was sticking up and he looked tired.

"Did you stay outside all last night?" I asked.

He walked right past me, circled around the sofa, and collapsed into a chair. "Dang…ninja…squirrel."

"Don't give up." Lilly patted his head. "You were so close last night. Anyone would've thought that shoe was a squirrel. It was an honest mistake."

He kept muttering. "Dang…ninja…squirrel."

I rolled my eyes. "Jackson, get out of here. You smell like wet shoes and –" I sniffed closer. "Is that my perfume? Jackson!? What were you doing with my perfume?"

"Oh, that." Lilly blushed innocently. "I told him the fumes would lure Gimpy into his trap."

Jackson got up out of the chair and shuffled toward the back door. "Must…catch…ninja…squirrel." He stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind him.

I looked over at Lilly, my eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"What?" she squeaked.

"Oh, like you don't know." I crossed my arms. "I sent you home last night to pick out a new shirt, not to camp out on the back porch with Jackson making squirrel traps!"

Lilly lowered her eyes. "He needed my elbow pads."

"For what? Protection from those dangerous flying ninja kicks?"

"Yes." Her voice was very small. "And in case he fell out of the tree."

"What was he doing in a tree?"

"Picking acorns."

"Wait, let me get this straight." I paused for effect. "You gave my brother elbow pads so he could climb a tree to pick acorns for a ninja squirrel that is in fact not on the loose, but locked in Oliver's brother's pet cage a mile away?"

"I was just trying to help." She pouted.

"But you knew Gimpy wasn't going to come back."

"Oh, have a heart!" She pretended to wipe a tear from her eye. "It's all he has to live for!" She gave me a little scowl and fled out the front door.

I wondered fleetingly if she was going home to get her knee pads, too.

Oliver was down by Rico's sitting in a beach chair when I found him. He was reading the tabloids, and I noticed right away that the Hannah and Mike article had been cut out of the front page. He had scissors in one hand, and a stack of tabloids were chopped up by his feet.

"Uh, Oliver, what are you doing?" I approached him.

"He's costing me money and messing with my business, that's what he's doing." Rico squirmed in the chair next to him. Somehow Oliver had managed to tie the little devil up. I was mildly impressed.

"Discount papers over here!" Oliver waved one in the air. "It's just a buck fifty, yo my business it ain't shifty, you can buy one as a gifty, and it's all….really nifty!"

A random girl walked up to him and handed him money. She took the tabloid, glanced down at the front page where the picture was cut out, and gave Oliver a dirty look. She threw the paper at him and stole her money back.

"Fine!" Oliver shouted after her. "But you won't find a better deal anywhere! Anywhere, I say!"

Yup, this situation required immediate intervention.

I seized the scissors from Oliver's hand. "We need to talk."

"I have everything under control, Miles," he said. "My day is scheduled so that I can reach all the major newsstands in Malibu by nightfall. I even mapped out the driving route. See?" He held up a large piece of paper with scribbles on it. "If you help me we can be done by three o' clock and make it to Lilly's skateboarding competition."

I stared down at him. "This is crazy. You can't cut up all the tabloids in the entire city."

"Why not?"

"Um, let's see…'cause that would be stupid!"

Rico wiggled in his chair and kicked his feet, trying to free himself. "You're not gonna get away with this, Oken! You owe me sixty-three dollars and nineteen cents! And two hot dogs!"

We both ignored him. "Listen, Oliver, I have a better idea." I knew we couldn't talk in front of Rico, so I pulled Oliver up out of his chair. "Come with me."

Rico hollered vile threats after us, most of them involving pain and suffering.

"You should've taped his nasty little mouth shut, too," I said.

We stopped under a tree and faced the ocean. The waves were wild today, and a strong breeze whipped up around us. I remembered last night and wondered, as I had many times since then, what would have happened if the reporters hadn't found us. Would he have kissed me again? Or was the look I had seen in his eyes just my imagination?

"Miles, could you please hurry up? This delay is messing up my whole schedule."

I snapped back to the present. Oliver was looking at me impatiently, arms crossed.

"Okay, first we need to establish that your plan is not going to work. Take it from a girl who has tried this approach – the news is going to get out anyway. You can't stop it."

"Fine." He looked down. "But can I keep the scissors? They fit my hand perfectly and they don't pinch like the metal ones."

"Whatever." I handed them back. "Now listen, I know your reputation is important to you, so hear me out. In a situation like this, the best thing to do is play along with it and lay low, just until it all blows over. If we break up now, your name goes down in history as the 'jealous, unromantic' guy who dumped America's favorite teen pop star."

"Way to rub it in," he murmured.

"And not only does your reputation go down the drain, but mine does, too. Everyone will think I'm a cheater who has bad taste in guys, and the moment we break up, Sammy's gonna pounce. I mean, this could be bad for my career."

Oliver's brow wrinkled. "So what do we do?"

"It's simple. We just stick together, make a few appearances, show the press that our relationship is fine. Everything will blow over, and then next Friday when I'm on Collin Lassiter's show, I'll announce the break up. I'll make it nice and sweet like I did with Jackson, and everyone will love it." I elbowed him. "Hmm, what do you think?"

He looked at me long and hard, and something in his eyes made my heart catch. He trusted me, and for a split second I almost told him the truth. But the words wouldn't come out. I couldn't risk it.

"Oliver, you know I didn't mean for this to happen, right?"

His gaze was so intense, I had to look away. "I know," he said softly.

Why did I feel so guilty? It's not like I was lying to him. All of it was true. I was doing the best thing for both of us.

I pushed the feeling away. "So are you in?"

He let out a long breath. "Okay."

And thus our public relationship began.

Everyone was talking about it in school on Monday. They passed around pictures, spread rumors about things they'd "heard" over the weekend, and speculated on how long the relationship would last. It was worse than the buzz with Jackson.

Oliver bore it remarkably well all morning, but when we sat down for lunch in the cafeteria, he cracked. "How can you stand people talking about you like that?" he whispered in my ear.

"You just have to remember that they don't know the real you." I patted his shoulder. "It gets easier with time. You just have to roll with it."

Amber and Ashley walked by, fawning over the tabloid picture. "Like, why haven't we noticed him before? He's sooo cute!"

"Does he have an album out?"

"I don't know. I think so. We should buy it."

"Only if the pictures are good. 'Cause I want one to put in my locker."

"I mean, like, look at his hair. I've never seen anyone with hair like that."

"I know! You could just –"

"Run your fingers right through it!" they exclaimed in unison. They looked at each other, grinned, and touched fingers. "Oooh!"

I clenched my fists together. "Oh, they're gonna get it." I started to jump up, but Oliver grabbed my wrist and pulled me down.

"What happened to 'you just have to roll with it'?" He hissed in my ear.

"But…they…I don't…you…" I threw myself onto the table and groaned.

"On the bright side," Oliver said, "at least now I know it's my personality that repulses them." He seemed pleased with this revelation. I had no idea why.

Lilly slid her tray in across from us and sat down. "Hey, so did you hear about Mike and Hannah?" she asked loudly.

Oliver and I glared at her.

She laughed and waved a hand. "Just kidding. Who cares about them? They're just random famous people. Nobody I know. Or want to know." She dug into her spaghetti. "So what's up, guys?"

This was going to be a long two weeks.

Rico came strutting into the cafeteria a few minutes later carrying a stack of flyers. "Hey everyone, mark off your calendars, 'cause next Saturday is game night at Rico's!" He tossed the flyers onto tables, stuffed them in students' hands, threw them into the air. "Tickets are five dollars each, and there will be prizes. Only the strongest will survive!"

He came around to our table and sneered at Oliver. "You better bring your mommy, Oken, 'cause you're gonna need her to rescue you when I unveil my Double D50 Annihilator SSG."

"What's a Double D50 Annihilator SSG?" I asked Oliver.

"It's a straw spitting gun," he said, then turned to glower at Rico. "You better bring your blanky, little boy, 'cause my straws are gonna fly, so high they'll hit the bulls eye, over and over again until it makes you want to cry."

Rico's eyes were greedy with revenge. "Bring it on!" He marched off.

Lilly put a meatball in her mouth. "So Oliver, you think this is the year you're finally gonna beat Rico at straw-spitting?"

"What, you don't think I can do it?"

"Oh, I know you can't do it." She waved her fork in the air. "He's beaten you for the past five years. Last year you surrendered when he started lighting the straw wrappers on fire."

"He was smoking up the place! I couldn't see the targets and I could hardly breathe," he protested. "And anyway, it was against the rules. I should've won by forfeit."

"Well, that's not half as bad as the first year when you had to go to the hospital to have that straw-wrapper ball removed from your left nostril."

I snapped my fingers. "So that's why one is bigger than the other!"

Oliver held his hands up. "Ladies, ladies, calm down please. This year it's going to be different. Rico changed it to a team sport so he could pair up with Rosalita. So all I have to do is find me a partner who can spit a mean straw-wrapper."

He looked back and forth between me and Lilly. Lilly stared at her plate and started humming.

Oliver turned to me. "So Miles, you want to help me bring the little devil down next Saturday?"

Did I want to? Oh, he had no idea. "I am so in."

"Great." Oliver smiled at me – a very shy smile – and went back to his French fries.

My stomach did a little flip. This was going better than I had expected. The whole world thought Hannah and Mike were together, I had two weeks of dates to look forward to, and for the first time since I had met him, Oliver had chosen me over Lilly for a sporting event.

What could possibly go wrong now?