Hannah and Lola were in the guest dressing room backstage at Mack & Mickey in the Morning. Hannah had been a guest on the program many times in the past, so she and Lola were well-known, and well-liked, by the show's crew. As a result it was easy for the two girls to relax and enjoy themselves while they waited for Hannah's segment of the show to start.

"What's this appearance for anyway?" Lola asked. "You have something to plug?"

"Not directly," Hannah answered. "My new CD is almost ready, but it's going to be a few weeks before we start promoting that heavily. And the launch of my clothing line is still months away. So I'm just going to mention them both as things to watch for in the future."

"So this is mostly for fun?" Lola guessed.

"They always have a nice gift basket for me," the singer answered with a grin. "And the appearance fee will pay for some nice spa time this afternoon."

Lola smiled back. "Have I mentioned lately how much fun it is to be your friend?"

Once Hannah was out in front of the cameras, everything started off smoothly. Mack and Mickey were as overly perky and talkative as ever, but that was to be expected. They had nothing but nice things to say about Hannah, which led up to them showing a clip of a recent performance. In fact, it was of her most recent performance. They played a clip of her number from the Youth Scene Music Awards. There was nothing bad about the clip itself, her performance had been just fine...excellent, really. But it served to remind Hannah of how bad she'd felt at the end of that night when her finale had been cut.

"That was just super," Mack enthused when the clip ended. "Just super. You are so talented."

"Thank you," Hannah replied, keeping her smile in place and trying to push her negative feelings aside.

"The whole evening was wonderful," Mickey added. "I know I enjoyed watching it."

"Me too," Mack put in.

"And we weren't the only ones," Mickey went on. "I heard the TV ratings were through the roof."

That comment led to the two hosts joking, in their typical self-deprecating manner, about how they wished they could get those kinds of ratings for their show.

"It was a wonderful night," Hannah said diplomatically when they turned their attention back to her.

"It was, wasn't it?" Mack continued. "They had all the brightest young stars there. You, of course. And...."

As the man started naming off the performers who'd been at the show, Hannah was determined to keep smiling. She braced herself for the name she knew he was going to get to.

"...and Mikayla. Oh, now she was amazing that night."

"Stupendous," Mickey added. "I just loved her. Didn't you, Hannah?"

"She was something," the singer answered through a frozen smile.

From backstage, Lola looked on and felt bad for her friend. For the rest of the segment, all Mickey and Mack seemed to talk about was Mikayla.

When Hannah's segment was finished, she couldn't out of the studio fast enough. Though she'd remained polite and kept up a decent front for Mack and Mickey, she was extremely annoyed at how the conversation had gone.

"I can't believe it," she complained to Lola as they made their way through the back hallways of the building. "Do I have to hear about Mikayla everywhere?"

Lola tried to offer some supportive words, but never really got the chance to speak. Hannah's rant about her rival just wouldn't die down. Knowing how her friend was when she was in such a bad mood, Lola just listened patiently and gave Hannah a chance to vent her frustrations.

"You get it all out?" she asked when Hannah finally stopped to take a few deep breaths.

"Almost," the pop star replied. "Just one more outburst and I should be good." She took one more very deep breath, looked around to check that there were no witnesses and then let loose.

"Mikayla is a no-talent, two-faced, dirty little bobble-headed, pig-nosed piece of sh--"

"Whoa there sister!" Lola exclaimed, cutting off her friend's angry words. "You know I don't like Mikayla either, but come on. You're letting this whole thing get to you way too much."

Hannah paused. After a few moments of quiet thought, she looked embarrassed. "You're right. I'm totally freaking out over this."

"In a very freaky way," Lola agreed.

A look of resolve came to the singer's face. "Well, that's over with...starting now. There's nothing to be angry about. So people are talking about Mikayla. Why shouldn't they? She gave a really great performance at the awards show. I can admit that. And you know what? Good for her."

"There you go," Lola encouraged. "Way to be the bigger person."

"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet," Hannah continued. "You know how Mikayla told my Dad she wanted to bury the hatchet? Well, I'm going to call her and see if she's serious."

"Really?"

"Absolutely," she went on. "In fact, I'll call her tonight when we get back from our day out." She stopped as a thought occurred to her. "Oh...but by the time we get home, it'll be way late on the East Coast. That's no good. But I will call her tomorrow."

"Good for you," Lola commented. Then the two girls continued through the back hallways until they found a secluded restroom where they could change their outfits and turn from Hannah and Lola to Miley and Lily.

They had no idea that their conversation about Mikayla had not been as private as they had thought.

For in a side hallway close to where Hannah had unleashed her outburst, a mail room worker had been taking a shortcut to go outside for a smoking break. And this worker just so happened to have a cell phone with a built-in video camera.

"This is gold," the young man declared with a satisfied grin as he watched the playback of the video he'd secretly taken of Hannah and Lola. The picture was clear and the sound was perfect.

"...bobble-headed, pig-nosed piece of sh--" That was where the video had cut off. The phone only had so much storage space after all. But it was still enough footage to fetch a great price.

The man decided to take the rest of the day off so that he could shop the footage around to various media outlets. As he left the building he wondered how soon it would take to find a buyer.

The answer...not long at all.

It was getting late in Boston, but there were still a number of reporters and photographers gathered outside the Tipton hotel. These particular members of the news media were rewarded for their persistence, for they were present when London's limo pulled up to the front entrance. Inside were Mikayla, London, Cody and Zack who were returning from a night out. The four teens had received a lot of attention all evening, so when they saw the reporters waiting for them, they weren't fazed in the least.

"Hey, why don't we give these guys a thrill and actually take a few questions from them?" Zack suggested. Of all of them, he was enjoying his newfound celebrity status the most.

"Maybe a few," Mikayla added. She was also enjoying the limelight again, after having been out of it for so long. "If it gets annoying we can just run to the elevators."

Cody smiled at his girlfriend. He had no objection to her plan. "I don't mind having my picture taken when I'm standing by the most beautiful girl alive."

"Yeah, and Mikayla's here too," London said. Mikayla responded by trying to give her a dirty look but the two girls ended up laughing while Zack and Cody grinned.

"Face it bro," Zack said. "We've got the two hottest girls in the world."

Cody nodded. "We're lucky men."

And so the quartet was in high spirits as the filed out of the limo and smiled for the cameras. But when the reporters started shouting questions, smiles were replaced with looks of confusion. The questions were all directed at Mikayla and they all were about the same subject.

"How long has Hannah Montana hated you?"

"What's your response to Hannah's comments?"

"What began the feud between you and Hannah?"

"Wait a second," Mikayla shouted, silencing the reporters for a moment. "What are you talking about?"

Several people tired to answer at once, but the singer and her friends were able to get the gist of what they were talking about. Apparently a video had surfaced earlier in the day of Hannah saying some unkind things about Mikayla. It had aired on several entertainment reports and was already available online as well.

"Look, I haven't seen the video so I can't comment on it," she finally answered.

This response caused one reporter to step forward with an iPhone in his hand. "Here, take a look."

All four teens watched as the entire video of Hannah's rant was played. Many of the photographers got excellent shots of the shocked looks on the quartet's faces.

"Pig-nosed?" Mikayla said self-consciously as she raised a hand up to cover her nose. While she knew there was plenty of bad blood in the past between Hannah and herself, she was still taken aback by the venom in her rival's tone.

Cody and Zack were both angry. Zack started to say something but his twin stopped him with a warning look. As mad as Cody was, he didn't want anything to cause more embarrassment to Mikayla in front of the press. "Let's get upstairs."

Cody put a supportive arm around Mikayla while Zack reached out to London. But unlike her friends, the heiress had no qualms about speaking her mind to the press.

"Hannah Montana has no class! Mikayla is a wonderful person and my best friend and anyone who would say those things about her is...is nothing but street trash!" London paused and then added what she felt was the worst insult imaginable. "And she has no style either. The clothes she wears are hideous!"

"Come on babe," Zack urged. "Let's go inside."

The heiress turned to comply, but before she reached the door a reporter called out a fateful question.

"Miss Tipton, since you say Hannah has no style, what are your thoughts on your father's company distributing her upcoming clothing line?"

"Huh?" London had no idea what the man was talking about.

"Hannah has a new clothing line coming out later this year from Top Shelf Fashions," the reporter explained. "That company is solely owned by Tipton Industries, correct?"

"London, how do you feel about your father doing business with Hannah now that she's insulted your best friend?" another reporter called out.

"Babe," Zack urged once more. "Let's get out of here."

But London's eyes were burning with outrage at this point. Her lips curled angrily as she reached into her purse.

Cody and Mikayla, who had retreated into the lobby, came back to the doorway to see why Zack and London hadn't joined them. They saw that all the photographers were pointing their cameras towards London. The heiress was ignoring them all as she spoke - loudly - into her cell phone. It wasn't hard to figure out who she was talking to.

"DADDY!" she yelled.

To be continued...

author's note: Anyone think things are going to start to get ugly? Please review.