I haven't seen Mikayla for a couple days. . . I couldn't find her after we had dinner at the Russos' and I don't see her around. I haven't seen her ride Holly in a while, either. Mr. Russo and the boys were outside just yesterday and I asked them how everyone was doing. They were kinda working, or at least Max and Mr. Russo were, and I didn't want to bother them too much. . . so I talked to Justin. He told me Mikayla's been in a bad mood ever since the night Daddy and I came over. She's isolated herself in her room, away from everyone else, and has been "quieter than a church mouse in a chapel full of alley cats" in Justin's words. He told he she was kinda scaring him, because she's only acted like that once, and it was because of something that shook her really bad. I asked him what went wrong and he quickly changed the subject. I knew that meant something really bad happened; Justin will talk about anything if you him to. . .sometimes even if you don't ask him to. I really wanna talk to Mikayla about it; I wanna help her. I don't know if she'd open up to me, but it's worth a try right? Well, I'm starting school today at Mountaintop High. . . I hope I see her there. Maybe we'll have a class together. Man, that'd be perfect!

.oOo.

Green. White. Black. Those are the colors that decorated Mountaintop High School's walls and lockers. There was a wave of kids walking against me; I felt like a fish swimming upstream as I tried to get to my homeroom. Wait, where is my homeroom? I shut my eyes briefly, trying to remember, and a girl walking by bumped into my shoulder, knocking me to the side a bit. I tried to turn around and see who collided with me, but someone else bumped into me and knocked me to the other side. I sighed and felt a hand grasp my left forearm. Before I knew it, I was being pulled out of the crowd and onto the much, much calmer sidelines. I was now near the wall, standing in front of the pale green lockers. The hand on my arm slipped away and it's owner chuckled behind me.

"You have to be careful around here on the first day of school; everybody's scramblin' around like a chicken with their head cut off." a female voice said.

"Thanks for pulling me out of that." I said, looking up to meet the girl. Her hair was red and she was smiling brightly. She wore a black shirt with a big cherry on it, cherry earrings, and a red hairclip with a mix of red and black cherries on it.

"No problem, Stranger." she smiled. "You're new here, aren't ya?' She held her hand out to shake. "I'm Harper Finkle. Nice to meet you!" I shook her hand and gave her a grin.

"Hi, Harper. I'm Miley, Miley Stewart." I said. I started talking to Harper for a while and she's pretty cool. The fruit clothes are kinda weird, but she's still cool. We decided to walk around a bit. Harper gave me a mini-tour of the school, pointing out where all my classes were. We didn't have any classes together, which was a bummer, but we had the same lunch time, so we'd see each other later.

". . .and that's the Art Room," Harper continues. "And that's the bathroom, and over there is the principal's office-"

"Also known as Mikayla's home away from home." Justin interrupted. I turned my head and saw the oldest Russo child approaching us with a wave. "Hey, Miley. How's it going, Harper?" He stopped right beside me and leaned against the lockers as I offered a friendly "Hey, Justin" back to him.

"You know each other?" Harper asked.

"Yep." Justin and I replied at the same time.

"Miley's our new neighbor." Justin continued. "She moved in a couple days ago with her dad." Harper gasped excitedly and clasped her hands together.

"So you're the girl Mikayla was talking about!" she exclaimed with a grin. I felt myself smile. Mikayla talks about me?

"I guess so." I said, still smiling like an idiot.

"What did she say exactly?" Justin asked. The other girl's grin vanished and there was a flash of fear in her eyes, like she was remembering something bad. She quickly shook her head and looked away.

"Nothing, nothing." she said hurriedly. "For-Forget I said anything. It's not important." Justin and I shared a confused look before focusing on the red-haired, cherry-wearing girl beside us.

"Harper-" I began, but was cut off by Justin.

"Okay, feels like a girl talk coming on; I should go." he said. "Bye, you two." He walked off and I turned back to Harper. She was looking down at her shoes.

"Harper?" I asked. She looked up slowly and sighed when our eyes met.

"I can't tell you, Miley. Sorry." she apologized. "It's not my secret to share. I promised Mikayla I wouldn't say a word-"

"Ooh, what do we have here?" a new feminine voice said. Harper looked to a group of three blonde girls, who seemed to have dropped out of thin air.

"Hello, Gigi." Harper said cheerily, addressing the girl in front. Gigi shot her the fakest smile I've ever seen and quickly looked to me; Harper didn't notice a thing out of place. Gigi's attitude did a 360 turn when she spoke to me.

"And who is this little angel?" she purred, curling the corners of her lips up into a real smile. I don't know why, but it kind of scared me.

"Y-You mean me?" I asked. Wow, I'm stupid. The two girls behind her giggled and Gigi stepped closer to me. Harper and the other girls stepped back a little bit; I wish they hadn't.

"Of course I mean you." Gigi said. I tried to step back, but I forgot the lockers were behind me. "And I bet you've got a pretty name to match that pretty face, huh?"

"Umm. . .m-my name is Miley." I said, starting to feel uncomfortable. She reached out and grabbed my hand. I tried to subtly pull it away, but she was stronger than I thought.

"Beautiful." she said, bringing my hand to her lips to kiss the back of it. Umm. . .okay? I stared back at her and the other blondes "ooh"ed excitedly. Harper tilted her head to the side, trying to understand what was happening; I understood, but I didn't like it. I opened my mouth to protest, but was cut off by a familiar voice.

"Ugh! Now you have to disinfect your hand, Miley." Mikayla frowned. Where did she come from? She glared at Gigi and smirked as she continued. "You should know better than to play with this diseased rat-dog."

"Mikayla, that's not nice." Harper piped in. Gigi just chuckled and stepped back some. I was glad she let go of my hand, and that I had my personal space back. Mikayla walked to my side and stood in front of me, almost protectively, and crossed her arms.

"Stop scaring the new kid, Hollingsworth." Mikayla said. "She doesn't want-no, nobody wants you all over them." Gigi crossed her arms, too, and smugly grinned back at her.

"I wasn't all over the girl, Russo." she said. "We were talking, and I was just being nice." Yeah, real nice. . . "But I guess you wouldn't know the first thing about that, would you, Russo?"

"Aren't you late for a plastic surgery appointment, Pinocchio?" Mikayla sneered, flicking the tip of Gigi's outward-pointed nose. It is kinda long. . . Gigi and the other blondes gasped and Harper shot Mikayla a dirty look.

"I'll have you know this nose was a birthday gift from Daddy!" Gigi frowned, covering her nose with one hand. "And it cost more than every outfit you've ever worn in your life!"

"Well, you got screwed over, Princess." Mikayla laughed. Harper and I joined in and Gigi let out an angry groan. She looked at me and put her hands on her hips.

"Look, New Kid," she said. "I'm warning you now-" She shot brief glances at Mikayla and Harper. "Stay away from the rejects. They'll just drag you down the food chain to their level. No status, no friends-"

"I've got all the friends I need, Hollingsworth." Mikayla growled. Gigi scoffed and rolled her eyes, casting a quick glance to Harper.

"One friend." she said to Mikayla.

"Two." I said, finally speaking up. All the girls looked at me with shocked expressions. I took a place beside Mikayla and smiled. "I'm her friend, too." Gigi made a sour face and with a wave, sent the other girls away.

"You're crazy." she said to me. "But it's your life; you're doomed to be a social reject just like the rest of them. I tried, just remember that."

"I'm good right here, thanks." I said. Gigi let out an angry 'hmmph' and stormed off; I don't think she was expecting me to say that.

"Wow." Harper chuckled. "Attracted and rejected Gigi on your first day." She started clapping. "Bravo, Miley! Bravo!" I laughed a bit, but stopped when I noticed Mikayla walking away.

"Mikayla, wait! Where are you going?" Harper yelled after her. I jogged behind the dark-haired girl and called her name.

"Hey, Mikayla? Mikayla, wait up!" She stopped, but barely turned around.

"What?" she murmured distantly.

"U-Um, thanks for stepping in when you did." I said. "Gigi kinda came out of nowhere."

"Stay away from her and the Wannabes." she instructed. "They're nothing but blonde-haired, dimwitted trouble. Ruin everything they touch and brainwash every hormone-crazed teenager than passes by." She turned around a little more. "But Gigi's a lesbian; she only goes for the cute, clueless, innocent chicks. Brunettes; especially ones with pretty blue eyes-" I unconsiously tuned her out. Did she just say I what I thought she said?

"You think I'm cute?" I asked, cutting her off. "And my eyes are pretty?" Mikayla's eyes showed a glimmer of genuine surprise. I guess I caught her off guard.

"I-I uh-" she stammered nervously. She turned back around, quickly regaining her composure. "I also said clueless." But you still said I was cute. I put my hand on her shoulder and she briefly looked down at it; I could feel her muscles tense up. She looked away and looked straight ahead.

"Hey, Mikayla? I uh-"

"I have to go to class." she said. And before I could say another word, she sprinted off and disappeared into the newly forming crowd. I stared after her, just stuck in place for a whie, trying to make sense of everything that had happened.

"Miley?" a familiar voice called. I turned around to meet a confused Harper. "Where'd you go?" She peeked over my shoulder. "And where's Mikayla?" I shrugged my shoulders and offered a quizzical murmur to her.

"She ran off." I sighed.

"Aw, Miley-" Harper began. "Don't be upset. . . Mikayla does that kinda thing all the time. She's always walking away from someone. . . she's even walked away from me when we were in the middle of a conversation. She doesn't mean to, it just happens."

"I don't get her." I said. She keeps sending these mixed signals; first she hates me, then we're playing around at dinner, then she ignores me, after that, she's all protective, then she gives me a compliment, and finally she runs away from me. I mean, what is that? Seriously.

"Well, it just takes a while for people to get used to Mikayla and vice versa." Harper said. "But she's really nice, I promise. She's just . . ." She trailed off and picked back up. "She's just . . . complicated." Yeah, no shiz. Harper's voice got softer as she continued. "She's been through a lot in the last year, and she just hasn't been the same since."

"What do you mean?"

"Miley, I've been her best friend since 6th grade. I know her; she's practically my sister. But. . ." She sighed. "I don't know, it's just different now." I breathed a soft "Oh" back to her and she chuckled at me.

"Some first day, huh?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah." I laughed. She smiled and motioned for me to follow her. "Come on, I'll walk you to your homeroom before I go to mine." So my red-headed friend led me upstairs and across the hall. We were about to go down a corner, but she stopped.

"My homeroom's right down here." she said, pointing down the corner. "Yours is right here, third door to the left-" A long arm appeared from nowhere and grabbed Harper's arm. She was pulled down the corner and I peeked after her as she went. The arm belonged to Mikayla; she was speeding down the almost empty hallway with Harper following behind her. She stopped abruptly and turned around, almost colliding with Harper. They each took a step back and Mikayla groaned.

"What were you doing with her?" she hissed, folding her arms. Harper walked to the wall and leaned against it, propping herself up with one foot.

"Who? You mean Miley?" Harper replied cheerily. "Oh, I was showing her where her homeroom was." Mikayla moved so that she was standing in front of her friend.

"Fine, okay then. . ." she sighed warily, letting her arms drop to her sides. What's her deal? Harper crossed her arms and shook her head.

"Just give Miley a chance, Mikayla." Harper said. "She's really nice, you know." Mikayla groaned and looked at her feet.

"I know." she murured quietly. I almost missed it. "And I feel like an idiot. I've been treating her like crap for what now? The four days I've known her."

"But it doesn't have to be like that, Mikayla." Harper said gently. Mikayla looked up with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Yeah, it does." she said. She actually sounded upset. "It started out just like this, Harper. . ." She paused for a moment. "I-I can't go through that again. I can see it happening all over again-"

"But it won't happen this time." Harper encouraged. What are they talking about? Mikayla shot Harper a hard look.

"No. . . no, it won't. I'll make sure of that." She began to walk off; Harper sighed.

"Mikayla, don't do this to-" Mikayla whipped around and groaned again.

"Don't do this? To who?" she asked.

"Yourself." Harper replied in a small voice. "I've seen the way you look at her. You stepped in to protect her this morning. When she first moved in, you called me and said your new favorite color was blue." She got louder as she went on. "And I saw you smile, Mick. A real, genuine smile. I haven't seen you smile like that since you were dating-" Mikayla's eyes clouded over with pain and anger.

"I don't want to hear her name ever again!" she snapped, interrupting her friend. She turned around and stalked down the hallway. Whoa. Now I might actually be a little closer to figuring her out. . .

Why did Mikayla run off? What's HER name? And WHERE did Max go? I think I lost him. XD Sorry it took so long to update this, but I've been super UBER busy with finals coming up next week...but enough of my issues lol Review plz. Love it when ya'll do! ;)