Chapter seven. Yay! So…I got nothing else to say except much thanks for all the reviews/favorites/story alerts. I can't say it enough, but you guys totally rock. Also, much thanks to -xXAndreaVampXx- for her help on the second half of this chapter. Couldn't have done it without her!

Same old story, same old disclaimer.

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Chapter 7

Mikayla ran past a flabbergasted Joe and Lilly. It didn't matter to her where she was going; she just needed to get away. Although she honestly couldn't say that she didn't see this coming, it still hurt. She didn't know what was wrong with her. She knew that she was a talented actress, but she had such a hard time finding the willpower to focus and buckle down, then every time she saw Miley and her little friends she couldn't help but get angry.

Not caring where she was, she collapsed by one of the trailers pulling her knees up to he chest and hugging them close. She couldn't believe that she had been fired. Again. At the thought of it, tears welled up in her eyes and she started sobbing again. What was she going to tell her parents? Worse than that, what was she going to tell her manager? Her career had been in kind of a tailspin over the last year…her latest album hadn't sold as well as her other ones, she was selling consistently fewer concert tickets, she had been fired from a movie – Two movies now, she corrected herself. The point was, right now her manager was the only one who still really believed in her, and she'd be so disappointed when she heard about this. Her manager had had to pull all sorts of strings to get her this role after Demi dropped out. Mikayla rested her forehead on her knees, wondering what she was going to tell her.

"Are you alright?" a concerned voice asked. Mikayla looked up and saw Miley's friend, Oliver, stepping out of the trailer that she was leaning against. Great…of all the places she could have stopped, she had to stop in front of Miley's trailer. He would probably get a kick out of this whole thing.

"Like you care," she snarled angrily.

"I do," he responded sincerely, kneeling down next to her. "What happened?"

She was tempted to tell him, to spill everything. It was the first time in a long time that someone had looked at her and really…cared. About the girl, rather than just the pop star on the surface. Oliver looked so earnest, like he really wanted to help her out. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she remembered…this was Miley's friend.

"Just go away!" she snapped.

"But—"

"LEAVE!" she ordered, pointing towards the trailer door. "I don't want you here!"

"Fine," he sighed, getting up and starting to walk away. But then he abruptly turned around. "You know what? No. It's not fine. I was just trying to be nice, to be a friend because it looks like you need one right now. But no, you're too good for that, aren't you? You really believe that you're above asking for help. But you're not. Can't you just for once accept that someone just might want to help you? That you might need help?" Mikayla sat there, stricken. "Whatever." With that last pronouncement, Oliver shook his head in disappointment and walked away.

Mikayla sat there, watching him walk away. Was he right? She didn't want him to be, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that he was. But why did she care what he thought of her anyway? He wasn't famous, he didn't know what it was like being her, and he was friends with Miley. She didn't care about him. She didn't. But then she thought of that look in his eyes, as he knelt down beside her…

"Wait!" she cried out, unsure of what she was doing. She just knew that for this one moment, he had cared. And she needed that. Oliver stopped but didn't turn around. "I was—I was fired."

This brought on a fresh onslaught of tears, and Oliver came and sat down next to her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders comfortingly and Mikayla rested her head on his shoulder

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked gently. She was tempted to say no, because right here, right now, this was all she needed: someone to hold her and comfort her and to tell her that it was going to be alright. But at the same time, she felt compelled to tell him.

"It's more of a combination of things really," she sighed, hedging around the real reason Kenny fired her. "Kenny told me that my attitude was a problem, and that I didn't rehearse enough and that I don't care about the movie, but I do!"

"Is that all he fired you for?" Oliver asked, puzzled. "I mean, he knew all that stuff before, didn't he? About the attitude and the not rehearsing and – sorry…not helping."

"Yeah, that's all he fired me for. He told me that my attitude was getting to be too much and they found someone who was much better suited to the role of Rosalind and that he had given me all this time to shape up but it was too late and –" Mikayla burst into tears again and Oliver tightened his arm around her.

He was silent for a little bit, looking at the girl who had been his best friend's nemesis Miley and Lilly would probably be upset with him if they saw the two of them like this, but Oliver wasn't overly concerned. Mikayla needed someone's shoulder to cry on. It's not like they were going to be best friends or whatever. Oliver didn't harbor any illusions that Mikayla would change her entire attitude because of this one moment where she let her guard down. But right now, she wasn't his best friend's enemy; she was just a girl who needed a shoulder to cry on. And Oliver could give her that.

"I'm sorry you got fired," he said after a while.

Mikayla didn't reply. She just snuggled closer. Sitting there with him, it didn't suck any less to be fired. Life wasn't all suddenly sunshine and daisies just because he was being nice to her. But it helped. A lot.

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Lilly watched, mouth agape in shock as Mikayla hurried away. She looked at Joe worriedly. "Should we go after her?"

"No!" Joe exclaimed forcefully. "I mean—nah. She probably doesn't want to see y—I mean, talk to anybody right now. I'll go check on her later, though."

"If you're sure…" Lilly trailed off uncertainly. A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Oh my gosh! What are you guys going to do about Roz? I mean, who's going to take Mikayla's place?"

This seemed to fluster Joe a little. "I – er, well you see—um…" Joe broke off quickly and Lilly looked at him questioningly. "You know, why don't we go inside. I'm sure everyone's probably talking about it and, um, we should go and find them."

Lilly shot Joe a bewildered look, but followed him into the school. They found the rest of the main cast in the cafeteria. Olivia and Miley were seated on one of the tables and Kevin and Nick were on the seats on either side of the girls, and they were all talking excitedly. Olivia spotted them first.

"Lilly, congrat—" she started before a sharp shake of Joe's head stopped her.

"Huh?" Lilly was still confused.

"Wait, you didn't tell her?" Olivia asked, either completely missing or ignoring Joe's gesture for her to be quiet. "I thought I sent you a text to tell you that your plan worked and that Kenny said—"

Kevin tugged on Olivia's hand, stopping the rest of her sentence. "Ix-nay on the ecret-say," he whispered. The girl blinked down at him. "She doesn't know."

"Oh! But how can you tell…OH!" Olivia's eyes widened.

"Joe!" Miley reprimanded. "You were supposed to ask her already."

"Well you only texted me half an hour ago. There was no good way to breach the subject," he defended himself.

"Okay, this confused look is going to be permanently glued to my face if someone doesn't tell me what's going on…" Lilly warned. The rest of the group looked around nervously. "Well?"

They were saved from answering by Kenny coming in through the cafeteria doors. "There you are!" he cried happily, looking at Lilly. "I'm sure Joe's already talked to you all about this, but I just wanted to ask you personally if you'd consider taking Mikayla's place in the movie."

Joe winced as he watched Lilly's eyes grow to about ten times their normal size. "Say what?" she said dumbly.

"I asked if you'd like to play Rosalind." Kenny took her hand in his. "Please?"

Lilly just stared him blankly. "I—uh—I'm not exactly sure I'm qualified to be in a movie. I'm not an actress or anything…"

Joe looked at her incredulously. "What are you talking about? You're really good, and you're perfect for the part!"

She raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. "I don't know…Next to you and everyone else I'll feel like such an amateur."

"You've got to be kidding me! Sometimes I'm the one who feels like an amateur when I rehearse with you. You've got great timing, your expressions are always spot on, and there's this undeniable chemistry between you and me…" Joe stopped at the snicker from Kevin. "And everyone else in the cast," he finished loudly.

Kevin snorted in disbelief, but looked contrite when Joe glared at him.

"Please say that you'll at least consider it!" Kenny pleaded. "We need you're help."

Lilly still appeared to be completely stunned. "I—aren't people supposed to audition first or something before someone puts them in a movie?"

Joe looked at her apprehensively. "About that…" He trailed off. "You know, I'd say the rehearsals you've done with all of us are enough. I mean, Kenny could take our word for it that you're a natural talent."

"And you've got great instincts!" Kenny added. "That handshake you added at the end of that scene with Miley was genius!"

"Thanks," she said, a faint blush tingeing her cheeks. "Wait, you saw that?"

"Yeah. Didn't you know? That was your audition. I knew then and there that you'd be perfect for the role."

"I—How—What?" the blonde stammered in confusion. A question was trying to form on the tip of her tongue, but it seemed to be having a little trouble.

"Yeah," Kenny went on obliviously. "If it weren't for Joe arranging that whole thing, I'd still tearing my hair out trying to find a replacement for Mikayla. In fact, I might not have let her go at all. I'd been thinking about firing her for a while, simply because her attitude on set and her interaction with the rest of the cast was really unacceptable, but I was afraid of doing it because I wasn't sure I'd be able to find a replacement. But when Joe told me about you—"

Kenny's words finally appeared to be registering with Lilly, because she interrupted him suddenly and pulled her hand out of his. "Wait, Joe knew about this?"

The director nodded enthusiastically. "Joe set up the entire thing. He told me that I just had to see you act and he told me to come to the theater to watch you and Miley. And Joe was right."

Lilly gaped at him and turned to Joe, who had been trying to stealthily sneak away. "Joe is dead."

"But we need you, Lilly!" Joe begged.

"No you don't! You'll find someone else!" Lilly protested fiercely.

Joe held Lilly's hand in between his. "Filming is supposed to start in three days. We won't find anyone that quickly! And you're good, Lilly. You really are."

The blonde continued to shake her head. "I really just wanted to spend the summer relaxing and hanging out and…I don't know. Adding filming a movie to that list seems like it would just be too much."

Joe searched her eyes, and Lilly felt nervous under his probing gaze. She knew that if he kept going, she'd cave and she just wanted him to stop. She didn't want to be in a movie. She was perfectly happy with her mundane life. Through Miley, she knew what stardom was like and she didn't really want it. And she didn't want people to think that that's what she was using Miley for.

As if Joe could read her mind, he asked, "What's the real reason?"

"That is the real reason," she responded defiantly.

"No it isn't. Something else is holding you back and I want to know what it is."

When Lilly saw that Joe wasn't going to back down, she relented. "I—Fine. I just don't want people to think that I'm using my friendship with Miley and with you guys to get famous or whatever."

"Is it because of what Mikayla said earlier? You know it's not true! All anybody has to do is watch you on screen and there won't be a shred of doubt that you earned this role."

There was a long silence as Lilly stared Joe down. The group at the table were all holding their collective breath, waiting for an answer. Kenny watched the pair anxiously, praying the girl would say yes. Joe just hoped that she wouldn't kill him and that he hadn't effectively killed any chance he had with her.

For her part, Lilly was fighting internally between saying yes and saying no. On the one hand, she'd always wondered what it would be like to be famous in her own right if she said yes. But if she said no, she'd have time to just relax and not deal with all the pressures she knew Miley had to face. Sure, she'd be doing just this one movie, but it was a movie with some of today's hottest young stars and the exposure and pressure would be that much more prevalent. And what about Oliver? Who would he have to spend time with while they were all filming and stuff? But then again, she'd be able to spend time with Miley and the rest of her friends. Especially Joe, a little voice in her head whispered, but she tried to squash it down. Speaking of Joe, he seemed to be trying to spur her decision process along by giving her a puppy dog look. She had to admit, it was really endearing, but she was not so easily swayed.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," she snapped. "I'll do it. But that look had nothing to do with my decision."

"YES!" Joe and Kenny exclaimed, exchanging high fives.

"Don't think I'm not still mad at you," she said testily to Joe.

"I know." He tried to look penitent, but failed miserably as he picked her up and twirled her around.

"We have a lot to do to catch you up," Kenny told her, coming up to the pair. "We need to start as soon as possible, so we'll start on the group scenes in an hour. I'll be back here, then." He disappeared shortly after that and Lilly ran over to Miley and Olivia to chat with them excitedly. As annoyed as she was with Joe and as nervous as she was about being in a movie, it was still really, really exciting.

Joe chuckled as he watched her gesticulating wildly and didn't notice his brothers coming up to him.

"So are you excited about spending time with your girl?" Nick teased. Joe shoved him good-naturedly.

"She's not my girl," he protested.

"Suuuuure," Kevin joked, rolling his eyes. "That's why you get upset whenever Carl comes within a ten foot radius of her."

Joe punched Kevin on the arm. "You know, it's perfectly normal to tell your friend that her friend's trailer is on fire so that she'll get away from a guy who isn't right for her. I was just trying to save them both some trouble."

"Mmhmm," Kevin murmured.

"Besides, he has a job to do. He shouldn't be wasting his time talking to my—to Lilly."

Nick smiled slyly at Joe's slip. "Alright then, so you won't mind the fact that Kevin's going to kiss her?"

Joe's jaw dropped. "What—what are you talking about?"

Kevin nodded. "It's in the script. One of the last scenes in the movie. You do remember that Rosalind and Tyler get together at the end, don't you?"

"Yeah. And I—I—uh—I don't mind," Joe lied. "I mean, why should I mind?"

Nick snickered. "Sure, buddy." He and Kevin walked back towards the girls.

"I don't mind if he kisses her! He can kiss her all he wants!" Joe yelled after them. The only response he got was his brothers' laughter.

He didn't mind. Really. It's not like Kevin was kissing her because he liked her. So this urge to tear his brother apart limb by limb was completely natural. He didn't mind. Really, he didn't.

But he couldn't ignore that little voice in his head that kept repeating, Liar, liar, liar.

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So I don't know if I have anymore author's notes to give…Oh! Mikayla might seem out of character to some of you, but my reasoning for that is that she's in a really vulnerable position right now and it's the first time on set that someone's actually cared about her. So for me, it's natural that she'd open up to him. Um, I hope you guys enjoyed it!

I'd totally love it if you guys left reviews to let me know what you thought, if you liked it or if you didn't, and any suggestions you have for me to improve my writing. Constructive criticism is amazing in my book.

Thanks for reading!
-v