Chapter two! Chapter two! Sorry, I was really excited there for a minute…
Thanks for all the reviews and favorites/story alerts from the last chapter! They made me happy :-)
And I just wanted to give a special shout out to Vrai Amour for being so completely awesome and helping me out when I was really doubting myself. You totally rock!
Anyway, here's chapter two! I hope you guys like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers. But I totally wish I did…
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Chapter 2
"Well that was exciting," Nick sighed as he plopped himself down on the couch. He and his brothers were lounging around in the guesthouse they were staying at. They had just gotten back from a few hours of rehearsal at the high school and had the rest of the evening to do as they pleased.
"It definitely was," Kevin agreed, thinking back to the scream fest that Miley and Mikayla had engaged in before real rehearsals started. The two girls had come back from their separate corners half an hour later, sufficiently cooled off and pretending that nothing had happened, although tension did flare up from time to time. "It's definitely going to be an…eventful set if Miley and Mikayla keep going at it that way. I mean I never even suspected any bad blood between them!"
"Well," Joe mused as he stretched across the loveseat, his mind far away from the scene between the two pop divas. "At the very least we made a really cool friend."
"Yeah, Lilly seems nice," Nick remarked.
"Miley was really nice, too," Kevin added.
"I guess so," Joe said with a shrug. "The staring thing was a little awkward, though. She didn't do that the last time we saw her, did she?"
Nick thought for a moment. "Nah, I don't think so. Maybe it's just the heat?"
Joe seemed to buy that explanation. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense…so what did you guys think of Lilly?" For some reason, the blonde had kept popping up in his thoughts intermittently throughout the day. For example, he was running through some of his lines with Nick and he suddenly thought of Lilly. It was funny, because when he saw her and Miley today, his gaze was drawn to Miley first, but it lingered on Lilly. He didn't know how to explain it.
"She was nice. Not your typical girl," Kevin observed.
"No," Joe agreed. "She's not."
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"I can't believe Mikayla's here!" Miley groaned as she sat on her bed in the room she shared with Lilly. Lilly, for her part, was balancing on her skateboard, rolling back and forth on the hardwood floor in front of the door. The room was spacious, but cozy. It was very rustic, with a plush rug spread over the hardwood floor and two soft beds on opposite ends of the room. There were two dressers, two night stands, each with it's own lamp, and a spacious closet, and Lilly and Miley had wasted no time in making themselves at home.
"I know! Dealing with her is going to be awful!" Lilly commiserated. "Maybe we should try to get her fired again?"
Miley thought of something that made her feel a little queasy. "Honestly, how bad did that argument with her make me look?"
"Do you really want the truth?" Lilly asked, biting her lip.
Shutting her eyes tightly, Miley grimaced. "Truth."
"Like a spoiled pain in the butt…" Lilly replied honestly. "But if it's any consolation, Mikayla didn't look any better!"
"Ugh! Greeeeeeat…" Miley let herself fall back on the bed and covered her face with her hands.
"It's not that bad. I'm sure as soon as the guys start working with her, they'll see what a nightmare she really is and they'll totally understand why you hate her," Lilly reassured her friend.
Miley turned to look at the blonde. "But what if they think that I'm the nightmare and they hate me?"
"Not possible! Sure you may be a little bossy and controlling and a little selfish at times…" Lilly trailed off as she saw the look on Miley's face. "Sorry, not helping. What I meant to say is that despite whatever flaws you may have, you're still a great person, and that's what's going to shine through. Can you say the same for Mikayla?"
"No, I guess not…Am I really that bad?"
"Sometimes," Lilly admitted truthfully. "But it you're not a bad person. You're one of the best friends ever."
"Thanks," Miley said, shooting a small smile at her friend, who was still rolling back and forth on her skateboard.
"No proble—AHHHH!" A knock on the door startled Lilly, causing her to lose her balance and fall back on her butt.
"Lilly!" Miley cried, jumping up and running to her friend. She was obviously trying hard to stifle a laugh. The door opened, and Olivia Towers stepped in.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" the older girl cried as she entered the room. "Are you okay?"
When Lilly noticed the actress, she screamed, and not because she fell of her skateboard. The scream caused both Olivia and Miley to cover their ears. "YOU'RE OLIVIA TOWERS!"
Olivia laughed and offered a hand to Lilly, helping her off the ground. "I am." Olivia was an 18 year-old up-and-coming actress who had already guest-starred in countless television shows, made a few made-for-TV movies and she had had starring roles in three major films. Lilly absolutely loved her.
"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my—" Miley cut Lilly off by covering the other girl's mouth.
"Lilly, breathe." Miley looked at Olivia, still keeping Lilly's mouth shut. "Sorry about that…she's a fan."
Lilly broke away from Miley's hand. "You're only my favorite actress ever! I really loved you in that remake of 'Sixteen Candles' and in 'Kill it Before it Dies' and – and – sorry…I just really love you!"
"You haven't done the screaming thing in a couple of years, huh?" Miley muttered teasingly under her breath.
Olivia just had to laugh at the two of them. They were just too funny. "I just wanted to come by and say hi. I figured if we were going to be spending the summer together, it'd be fun to get to know each other and everything. So I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Olivia."
"I'm Miley, and this is Lilly," Miley said brightly. "It was really sweet of you to come by."
Olivia laughed. "It was definitely my pleasure! And I know I shouldn't be saying this, but it's kind of nice to be away from Mikayla…She can be just too much sometimes, and today is definitely one of those days."
Lilly made a sour face. "Oh! I forgot you guys were living together!"
Miley gave Olivia a tight smile. "She's not so bad once you get used to her. I know that she and I aren't the best of friends, but there was a time when we didn't hate each other." Lilly and Olivia gave her a look. "Okay, just because I hate her doesn't mean that I want everyone on the set to hate her! Okay, maybe just Lilly and Oliver, but that's just because they're my best friends."
Olivia and Lilly exchanged glances and giggled. The older girl moved to sit on Miley's bed and Miley sat next to her while Lilly sat on her own bed.
"Well, I'm sure we'll deal with her," Olivia reassured the other two girls. "I know we'll have to spend a lot of time together on set, but if she gets too much we'll have each other!"
"And I don't have to deal with her!" Lilly added cheerfully. Miley and Olivia glared at her. "Sorry…not helping."
"I'm excited about the movie," Olivia began, changing the subject. "But I'll admit, I'm a little nervous about the whole cheerleading thing. I know you and Mikayla do at least some dancing, but I have all the coordination of an infant learning to walk."
"But at least we don't have to do any dangerous stunts or anything, and we are getting some training," Miley pointed out. "Plus, I'm a cheerleader reject."
Olivia's eyes widened in surprise. "No!"
"Yes! Lilly and I tried out for the cheerleading squad together a few of years ago. Lilly made the squad and I…I was the mascot. Just picture me riding around a gym on a pink tricycle with giant pirate head on…"
Olivia tried in vain to subdue her giggles. "Aww, I'm sorry. But hey! If we have any cheerleading questions, we can ask Lilly!"
"I don't know about that," Lilly said with a laugh. "I wasn't on the squad for very long. I sprained my ankle during the first game. End of cheerleading career."
Miley scoffed. "Don't listen to her. She's just being modest. If she had wanted to, she could make the high school squad blindfolded."
Before Lilly could respond, her phone rang. "Hey, hey, it's Lil-lay."
She heard the sound of laughter at the other end of the line. "Hey Lilly, it's Nick. And, um, you're on speaker phone."
Lilly blushed. "Um…hi guys." Miley looked at her friend questioningly.
"We were wondering if you guys wanted to come to dinner with us," Joe yelled into the phone. Lilly pulled the phone away from her ear.
"Joe, we're on speaker, she's not deaf," Kevin reprimanded. Lilly grinned. From his tone of voice, she could practically see Kevin rolling his eyes.
Joe sounded contrite when he spoke again. "Oh. Right. So about dinner…"
Lilly looked at the two girls across the room. "That sounds great. It's cool if Olivia and Oliver come along, too, right? Because Olivia's over here now."
"Who's Oliver?" Joe asked, as Nick was saying, "Yeah, sure! Do you want to head over to the main house or a restaurant?"
She thought for a moment. "You guys choose."
"Alright." It was Kevin this time. "We'll be by to pick you up in fifteen?"
"Sounds good, see you soon!" And Lilly hung up the phone. Miley and Olivia were watching her curiously. "I hope you don't mind, but I told the Jonases we were going to dinner with them in fifteen minutes."
"That sounds like fun!" Olivia said with a smile.
Miley looked panicked. She jumped to her feet and smoothed down her skirt, looking for any wrinkles that may have appeared. "Sweet niblets! Do I look okay?"
"You look fine, Miles," Lilly replied soothingly as she went to the dresser that she had claimed and grabbed a pair of jeans. "Now I'm gonna go tell Oliver and then change, so I'll be right back."
"Should I change, too?" Miley asked worriedly.
Lilly shot her an amused look. "I'm just changing because I'm getting a little cold."
"Oh. Oh right." Miley took a deep breath. "I'm fine. I'm cool. Really."
"I'll be right back." With a last laughing glance back at Miley, Lilly quickly told Oliver the plan and changed. She ran back into the room a few minutes later and grabbed a thin white sweatshirt and shrugged it on, and put her wallet and cell phone in her purse. By the time Lilly was done, Miley had told her dad that they were going out and she, Olivia, and Oliver were ready to leave and waiting on the porch.
When Lilly exited the house, she was glad that she had changed. It had gotten darker and the temperature dropped significantly so she pulled on her sweatshirt. Lilly saw the group and Nick huddled around a small car. Miley looked like she was a bit unhappy about something, but she, Oliver and Olivia climbed into the car as Nick spotted Lilly.
The car drove away. Lilly was very confused as she walked up to him. "Um, hi…what's going on?"
"Hey, Lilly," Nick greeted with a grin. "We couldn't find a car to fit all seven of us, so we needed to take two. Kevin just took off with everyone else, but Joe should be here soon." He leaned in conspiratorially. "He was having trouble with his hair."
Lilly laughed, and the two made small talk until Joe pulled up a few minutes later. Joe rolled down the passenger seat window. "Sorry I'm late," he apologized. "I was having some problems with…with…"
"Your hair," Nick finished bluntly.
"Why thank you, Nicholas, you're ever so helpful," Joe muttered sourly. "You guys getting in?"
Lilly climbed into the front seat (at Nick's insistence). "So where are we going?"
"This little restaurant we like to go to whenever we're in town," Nick answered from the back seat. "Our cousin actually owns it."
"Yeah, we hope you like Italian," Joe added.
"I love it," Lilly told them cheerily. She was just so excited about hanging out with the Jonas Brothers and Olivia Towers. It was pretty much her dream come true.
When they got to the restaurant, the other group was already waiting for them. Nick was right. It was really little, but cozy and absolutely adorable. It was very comfortable, and there weren't many customers there, which was fortunate. The food was delicious and the conversation was easy. There were a few uncomfortable moments when Mikayla was brought up, but Miley took the opportunity to apologize.
"I just wanted to say I'm so, so sorry for how Mikayla and I behaved today. We just seem to bring out the worst in each other, but it's really no excuse," Miley said contritely. "I'll try to do better, and I apologize for the cattiness."
"Don't worry about it. Everybody makes mistakes," Joe started teasingly, brushing off any lingering awkwardness.
"Everybody has those days," Nick continued.
Kevin was next. "Everybody knows what, what I'm talking 'bout…"
"Everybody gets that way!" Olivia, Oliver and Lilly finished exuberantly.
Miley let out a choked laugh, grateful that they weren't annoyed. "Wow. That was…special."
"Now that that's out of the way, why don't we play a little game of truth?" Olivia suggested. It was late by this time and they were pretty much the only ones in the restaurant, and the owner didn't mind them staying later.
Lilly looked confused. "Truth?"
"Like truth or dare, but without the dare," the older girl explained. "I'll go first. Kevin, truth or truth?"
Kevin pretended to consider the matter for a moment. "Hmm… think I'll go with…truth."
"Alright, I'll start with an easy one. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?" Olivia asked.
"New Zealand," he responded definitely. "It's a gorgeous country and I love the accents. And kiwi birds are awesome. Nick, your turn. If you could write a book about your life, what would you call it?"
Nick laughed. "That's easy. 'Nick Jonas: the President, the Man." He looked around the table for the next person. "Miley, if you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?"
"Something with chocolate…mmm, chocolate covered strawberries!" Miley sighed. "Hmmm…Joe. What's your favorite pickup line?"
"Um, this is really cheesy but...it's 'I've lost my number, can I have yours?'" Everyone let out a disgusted groan. "What? It works! Who's next…Lilly! Um, I'm really bad at this…um…do you have a boyfriend?"
"No," Lilly answered emphatically. She might have been imagining it, but she thought Joe looked pleased by that information. Brushing it off, she moved on to Oliver. The game went on for almost an hour. The questions got increasingly ridiculous, like, "Would you rather be a panda in the North Pole or a penguin in China?" and they were all in stitches by the time they realized it was almost midnight.
"We'd better get going," Kevin announced with a yawn, holding his stomach, which still ached from laughing so hard. "We have rehearsal bright and early tomorrow morning."
"I guess so," Miley agreed reluctantly. They all gathered their stuff, settled the bill (the Jonases insisted on paying for dinner), and were getting ready to leave when Lilly asked them to wait so she could use the restroom. When she got back, she found that Joe was the only one waiting there. She ruthlessly tamped down an unexpected fluttering feeling in her stomach.
"You know," she remarked casually to Joe as she walked up to him. "This is the second time this has happened to me today. I'm starting to think people just want to leave me behind.
Joe laughed heartily. "No, it's nothing like that. I just figured that since we have an early morning tomorrow, it'd make more sense to get as many people back as soon as possible and I volunteered to wait for you."
Lilly hoped Miley wouldn't be too upset about not riding with Joe. "Thanks. I'm just surprised Miley didn't wait, too."
"She wanted to, but Kevin insisted that she go with the first group. So I guess it's just you and me. I hope that's okay with you." Joe looked at Lilly with a nervous uncertainty that she found incredibly endearing.
"It's fine." They walked out of the restaurant and to Joe's car, and Lilly was a little perplexed when Joe walked over to the passenger side of the car.
He opened the door for her. "My lady," he said with an exaggerated bow.
That strange fluttering in Lilly's stomach returned full force but she suppressed it once again. He probably did that for every girl.
They chatted easily during the ride back to the guesthouse Lilly was staying at, discovering that they had a similar sense of humor, as well as similar tastes in music, movies and books. He also desperately wanted to learn how to skateboard.
"So you've gotta teach me sometime this summer," Joe demanded as they were pulling up to the house. "I've always wanted to try it, but for some reason my mom never let me…"
"Gee, I wonder why," Lilly retorted sarcastically. "I just don't want the wrath of Kenny falling on my head when one of his stars breaks his neck."
"I completely resent that! I would only break my arm!"
Lilly laughed. "I don't think that's much better."
Joe stopped the car and turned off the ignition.
"Um, Joe, you know your stop is that way right?" Lilly questioned, raising an eyebrow and pointing towards the Jonas guesthouse.
Joe rolled his eyes at her. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. I'm walking you to your door."
"It's less than fifty feet away. I think I'll be okay."
"You ever heard of chivalry? Now wait here."
Lilly sat while Joe got out of the car and ran around to her side of the door to open it for her.
"My lady" he said again, reaching out a hand to help her out.
She grinned up at him, taking his hand. "Thanks." When they go to the door Lilly punched his arm playfully. "You know, if this is how you Jonases always are, it's no wonder why girls are constantly swooning at your feet."
"We try, we try." The two laughed and without warning the moment became awkward. They stared at each other uncomfortably for a moment. Joe tentatively reached out and touched her cheek. "Good night," he whispered softly, sweetly. He let his hand rest there for a moment. Suddenly he pulled his hand away and his voice returned to normal, like the moment had never happened.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he said cheerfully.
Joe walked to his car without looking back, leaving Lilly wondering what the heck had just happened.
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Just a few quick story notes: I changed the location of the story in the last chapter from Arizona to northern California because it fit what I wanted to do better. And I hope I didn't make Miley appear too negative in the last chapter. I just wanted to make it clear that I don't intend to vilify Miley or make her seem like a terrible person. "Kill it Before it Dies" is a little tribute to my love of the TV show Charmed. And "Sixteen Candles" is one of my fave movies.
Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter, and I'd love it if you guys left reviews to let me know what you thought. Comments, questions, and any suggestions you have for me to improve my writing are all welcome. And constructive criticism helps a lot!
Thanks for reading!
-v
