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It was a Monday morning when Mitchie Torres skipped gleefully towards her best friend's house on her way to school. She slung her backpack from one hand to another as she hummed a tune to herself. Upon reaching Miley's house, she knocked on the door twice before it was opened by none other than her best friend's mom. Smiling politely, she walked into the house she considered her second home and greeted the woman.
"Hey Mrs. Stewart! Is Miley ready yet?"
"I think so Sweetie. Hold on." She walked to the edge of the flight of stairs and called,"Miley! Mitchie's here!"
Silence.
"I'll go check up on her." Mitchie told the lady after which she climbed the all too familiar staircase. Upon reaching Miley's room, Mitchie pushed open the doors and walked in only to find Miley still sleeping. Why am I not surprised? She thought. Planting her hands firmly on her slender hips, Mitchie hovered over her quite oblivious best friend with an impish smile.
"Miley!" she yelled into her ear and backed up hurriedly as Miley sat up startled.
"What? Where's the fire?!" Miley rambled in dreadful panic as Mitchie just laughed mercilessly. Finally realizing what was going on, Miley groaned and sank into her oh-so-comfortable bed once again.
"Miley, get up. We have school. We're gonna be late."
"School!" Miley exclaimed once again sitting up straight in genuine surprise.
"Yes, school… You know that place where we go five days a week?"
"Oh my gosh! We are gonna be so late. Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" Miley asked as Mitchie stared at her in amusement. Standing up, Miley swiftly made her way to her closet to get ready for the day in the restricted amount of time she had as Mitchie picked up a fashion magazine strewn carelessly on the floor and settled into the chair while she waited for her to finish getting ready.
Fifteen minutes later ---which was a record for Miley--- the girls made their way downstairs. Miley grabbed a sandwich and gave a quick peck on her mother's cheek and ran out the door slinging her backpack over her shoulder. Mitchie followed her and began humming the song she had been earlier sounding cheerful.
"Ugh! How can you be sickeningly cheerful on a Monday morning?!"
"By practicing it every week until I'm good at it of course!" she replied with the same amount of sugar in her tone.
"Did anyone ever tell you that it's infuriating?"
Mitchie just laughed since she knew her best friend was not somber. "Why are you so acid anyways?" she wanted to know.
"Um… Everyone is one Mondays. That is, not including you!"
Mitchie shrugged.
"Well, not everyone has a boyfriend who they're looking forward to see."
"Oooooh, so that's your problem! You're jealous!" Mitchie teased.
"Of course not." Miley said to her friend in incredulity that she would ever think that she would be envious of someone dating Nick Grey. Although they do not have serious fights, they can never get along. Sometimes it's even as if they do it on purpose. They can't go one day without a lighthearted banter about something or the other. And generally, they didn't even deem theirselves as friends. To Miley, Nick was just her best friend's boyfriend and to Nick, Miley was just his girlfriend's best friend.
"Whatever you say." Mitchie sang teasing her as they walked through the huge double doors of their high school as the strident briiiiiing of the bell echoed through the corridor.
"Right in time!" mused Miley as the two of them scurried towards their lockers; hastily exchanged the books and ran to their homeroom as fast as they could not wanting to arrive after the late bell. They slipped into their seats huffing and puffing just in time next to Nick.
"Hey!" Mitchie said her voice filled with zest even while she panted.
"Hey, Mitchie. Why late?" The curly-haired cutie inquired.
"Well someone forgot to set their alarm." Mitchie said pointedly while whirling around to look at Miley with that accusing look while Miley feigned innocence and batted her eyes humorously making them all laugh.
"Or maybe she just doesn't know how tell time."
"It's Monday!" Miley yelled giving no further explanation causing Nick to turn to Mitchie scratching his head in uncertainty.
"You don't wanna know." Mitchie laughed out while she looked at her best friend slumped next to her with her arms crossed and grumbling something about how Mondays were stupid. God knows what Mondays did to Miley to earn her curses.
Miley and Mitchie, much to the teacher's annoyance, kept giggling about the outfit she was wearing that particular day. Mrs. Dean, a woman at her mid-thirties, had a very weird sense of fashion, no one could deny that. She wore dresses with the most bizarre; 'out of the ordinary' color coordination. Today she was wearing a stripped red and hot pink top with a bright green skirt. Their eyes hurt and tears almost stung by just looking at it. But regardless to how she dressed; the students liked her a lot because she was very pleasant and had a great sense of humor which is why they assumed she clothed like that.
"Auditions for the school drama slash musical will be held tomorrow after school. Those who are interested may prepare a song of their choice and perform it during the auditions tomorrow. Good luck to everybody."
Whispers started circulating among the student body. "A musical?" "A drama?" "I wanna be in it." "That's so cool." "Are you gonna audition?" and a million other whispers could be heard.
Mitchie turned to Miley; an excited grin plastered on her face. Miley recognized the look instantaneously.
"Oh no, I'm not doing it." She told her.
"Why not?" Mitchie pleaded.
"For the reason that I don't want to."
"Please? Pretty please? Just try out; you don't have to do anything else. Please? If you really are my best friend, you'd do this for me."
"Isn't that blackmail?"
"I don't care! Please?"
"No." Miley merely replied.
"Come on, Miley. Please? Pretty please? I'll nag you until you give in. You know I'll do." She added as Miley rounded her head to give her a bemused stare.
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"Where is that girl?!' Mitchie exclaimed glancing at her watch for the tenth time in like two minutes. And Nick shrugged with very little if not no awareness for the tenth time in like two minutes.
Five minutes passed and Mitchie got impatient. Finally; after what seemed like an eternity --to Mitchie--Miley trudged her way to them dragging her feet.
"Where were you missy?!" Mitchie demanded giving her best friend a stern glare.
"I thought if I delayed enough, you'd go on without me…" Miley mumbled; evidently disappointed that her foolproof plan had botched.
"Nice try." Mitchie smirked, this was so something what Miley would do. Giving her a dazzling smile she preceded on to saying, "How could I leave my wonderful best friend?"
Sighing profoundly; Miley followed Mitchie and Nick into the auditorium where auditions for the musical were taking place the following evening. Miley had no pleasure in being here. How did she get me to do it again? She though. Oh yeah, that's right; Mitchie had bribed her. She had offered her tickets to a Coldplay concert, and how in the sane world could Miley deny that? Besides, Miley thought, it's not like I'm guaranteeing a role by going, I'm simply going to audition then forget about it. Now that she thought about it, it didn't seem like such a bad bargain. The girls slipped into their seats and looked around at the room filled with bubbly conversations.
"Miley! Mitchie!" came an over exaggerated high pitched squeal. They turned to look at the source; not that they didn't recognize who it was right away without even looking. Turning around in their seats, Miley and Mitchie looked at Alex.
Everyone; meet Alex Russo. Alex was Miley's arch rival. Her enemy. Although neither of them even remembered what had caused this dispute, that did not stop them from being each other's nightmare. Well, mostly Miley minded her own business unless Alex pulled her into a fight. Alex was also the one only daughter of one of the most successful businessmen in the country. And the result? She was nothing but a spoilt brat living solely for the purpose of making people's life miserable, or so it was in Miley's and Mitchie's opinions.
Alex thought of herself as the best. If you ask her what she thought about herself, she would reply with no hesitation that she was gorgeous; smart; chaste; amazing; a boy-magnet and all those other complete lies about herself. Modesty was just not her thing. She was pretty, she was clever, but how she used these qualities was a whole different story. She used her clever mind to come up with devious; sneaky plans on how to make other people miserable, especially Miley's and since she was Miley's best friend, Mitchie was also a target. Alex kind of had a crush on Nick since he came to this school some months back. But she was devastated to find out that someone had already taken him before she could.
The best friends exchanged looks upon hearing Alex voice which was an evident that she was just feigning affability. Miley raised one perfect eyebrow questioning her.
"What do you want?" Mitchie asked.
"Just wishing you guys good luck!" she said still wearing that unbelievable sweet smile. "I didn't know you were auditioning. Maybe you shouldn't, you know it's not too late to back out now. You're just going to embarrass yourself if you go up there and sing." Alex said in the most annoyingly haughty manner as the smile twisted to devilish; superior grin.
"I'm sure we won't be the ones looking bad if you are planning on singing too!"
"Of course I'm gonna sing." Alex replied in duh tone.
Giggling, the girls turned back around much to Alex's annoyance. Alex opened her mouth to make a snide remark just when the drama teacher walked into the auditorium and clapped her hands to attract the attention of all the teenagers in the room. Everyone turned to look at her as a silence took over the huge room.
"Thank you for coming." She said into the mike. "We shall begin now, I will call up on your name, and you may come up here and perform your song… Jessica Feller." She said after checking the clipboard she held in her hand. A timid looking girl rose from her seat and made her way up the stage, evidently intimidated by either the teacher or the fact that she had to be the one to perform first.
A short while later, Ms. Collins called up on the much anticipating Alex. She rose to her full height and walked to the stage with chin held up high, an air of overconfidence hanging around her as everyone watched her. Much to everyone's, especially Miley's and Mitchie's surprise, Alex was a pretty good singer.
"I feel sorry for whomever it is that has to go on after her…" Miley whispered to Mitchie after Alex had finished her performance. Everyone clapped and the expression on Alex's face was of pure satisfaction as if she had won American Idol. Ms. Collins had to clear her throat to make Alex leave the stage.
"I know." Mitchie replied in a hushed tone.
"I'm really nervous, Mitchie. If I get sick up there, I'm blaming you!"
Laughing, Mitchie said," Don't worry, you have nothing to worry about. You'll do great. You have a great voice and you sang very well when we practiced yesterday… If it makes you feel better, so am I." Mitchie told Miley and gave her a small encouraging smile.
"Well, thanks. You were really good too. But I really hope it's not me nex—"
"Miley Stewart."
Miley stared at Mitchie in nervousness as her eyes widened.
"Go on." Mitchie told Miley and gave her a slight push.
Miley slowly made her way to the teacher completely aware of the fact that at least about fifty to sixty eyes were following her. She was handed a microphone, Miley looked at the object in her hand like it was infectious. This was the first time she was going to sing in front of other people, that is, other than her parents, sister, Mitchie, and some other selected people. They had always told her that she was talented, but she was not going to believe them. Her eyes frantically searched the auditorium for Mitchie but instead landed on Nick. He saw her looking at him; Nick could see the nervousness in her eyes. He smiled at her in encouragement surprising himself as well as Miley. Miley uncertainly smiled back and took a deep breath bracing herself for the worst. But when she opened her mouth and sang; the vocals flooding out of them were beautiful. Enjoying the feeling; Miley's eyes closed as she focused solely on singing.
I can almost see it
That dream I'm dreaming but,
There's a voice inside my head saying,
You'll never reach it,
Every step I'm taking,
Every move I make feels,
Lost with no direction.
My faith is shaking but I;
Got to keep trying;
Got to keep my head held high.
There's always going to be another mountain,
I'm always going to want to make it move;
Always going to be an uphill battle;
Sometimes you going to have to lose;
Aint' about how fast I get there;
Aint' about what's waiting on the other side;
Its the climb…
Miley's eyes opened as she heard the applause. Everyone who was hearing her sing for the first time was surprised. Miley's eyes shined in happiness as she joyfully skipped off the stage and ran to her seat to a Mitchie who was looking at her proudly.
"You were awesome, girl!"
"Thanks." Miley was still smiling. "Was it really that good?"
"Totally! What did I tell you! You were better than ever."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! Did you see Alex's face?"
The girls turned to look at Alex who was green with jealousy; almost having smoke coming out of her ears. Alex caught them looking and gave them a look which most of them might have found intimidating, a glare so stern filled with hatred, but Miley and Mitchie just laughed and turned around. As Mitchie went back to watching the try-outs proceed, Miley mouthed a 'thank you' to Nick, who simply smiled back at her.
You know, I've never noticed how gorgeous that guy's eyes were… Miley mused as she turned back around to face forward. Little did she know that there were many more things she was about to find about Nick Grey.
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A/N: First chap. pretty boring, huh? I know. I'm sorry. But after all, it is the first one. And first chapters are never that interesting. Just the background of all the characters and their roles in this story. Please review! And my faithful (lol) YT subscribers, if you are reading, of course you know what's gonna happen, but keep it to yourselves. Ok?