Third Floor Common Room, Saturday Evening

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

The thing about doing the Hoedown Throwdown in front of an audience was that it tended to exhaust a person. So while Miley and Lilly had planned to spend the evening going out and being social, there was a slight change of plans when they got up to the third floor. 

And that was when the loco hot cocoa recipe came in handy. They made two mugs of that, popped a bag of popcorn with movie theater butter, changed into pajamas, and conquered the couch in the common room. A movie was on (one of Miley's favorites), but they were talking through most of it. And if Lilly was a tad bit unenthusiastic at first, she seemed to warm up once they got to the trading-stories part of the evening.

"No way," Miley said emphatically, shaking her head. "No way. Oliver did not do that."

[[Open common room full of chipper teenage girls!]]

Comments

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"He did!" Lilly insisted over her own mug of loco hot cocoa. "Called me up and asked me!"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"But come on," Miley insisted. "No boy is that stupid. I mean, it was your birthday!"

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"Hey! Let's not judge," Lilly interjected. "He may be a little slow sometimes, but..."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"But he's your Olliepop and you love him," Miley parroted dully, rolling her eyes.

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"Wait, remind me -- who was it again that always listened to your stories again? First it was Johnny, then Jake, then Jesse... hey, take out Travis and you've got yourself a pattern there!"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Sure, if you don't count -- wait, his name was Josh," Miley remembered. "Or -- no, that was Julius. And let's not even mention the Jacksannah scandal."

Huh.

"There is a cute boy with a J name around here," she added coyly.

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"There is?" Lilly asked, scrambling to face her. "Ohmygosh! Details!"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Well," Miley said, shifting around and stilling Lilly's hand in the popcorn bowl for a minute. "His name's Jeremy. And he's famous and super sweet and we went out for ice cream one time, and... his sister was the one who did that monologue at the recital."

Yeah, well, no one could be perfect. Sorry, Juliet.

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

Lilly winced. "The one from Wizard of Oz? Yowza."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Well, she's super sweet!" Miley defended. "And we're both TAs for that Friendship class I was telling you about."

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"The one with the -- ?"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Yes, the one with the pony," Miley interrupted her, in a tone of let's not start this again.

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"So you guys are, like, TAs together? What do you do?"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Well, last week, we..."

Pause.

"We pretty much talked about having Hannah play at her birthday party," Miley admitted.

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

Oh, that stung, Miley. Really stung.

"On purpose?" Lilly asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Uh," Miley said. "Yeah. Pretty much."

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"So... did you, you know, tell her?"

Because Lilly was not about to repeat the mistake of just assuming. That had gone horribly enough at the recital.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"What?" Miley could be astonishingly dense sometimes. "Tell her -- what? No! Lilly! I would never!"

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

That stung too, knowing that Miley had been out here being a loyal friend and Lilly had possibly ruined one of her new (but not unfaithful!) friendships here. How could she not feel guilty about that?

"Yeah," Lilly said, slumping slightly. "Guess you wouldn't."

She drew in a little closer on herself, then nodded toward the screen. "Hey," she said. "Musical number coming up."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"It's my favorite paaaart!" Miley sang out, shifting eagerly and tossing back some popcorn.

Sorry, Lilly.

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

"And this is one of the common rooms," Freddie said, leading in his own friend to up the kids show crossover factor.

"Hey everybody, this is Gibby," he introduced. "I made him leave the duck behind, in case you're worried."

"Come on, we can't let it go back to the pond all ashamed," Gibby said.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"...duck?" Miley repeated, raising her eyebrows.

Lilly peered at the new arrivals, bemused. "Hi," she said with a tentative wave. "I'm Lilly."

[[And I'm lame and about to sleep -- SP for great kids show crossover justice?]]

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

"Be grateful you didn't see him embarass himself," Freddie said.

Gibby just gave Freddie a look. "Dude, I don't have the capability of being embarrassed."

"...point taken," Freddie said. "It's nice to meet you, Lilly. Are you Miley's sister?"

[luckybracelet.livejournal.com]

"Just her best friend," Lilly corrected him breezily. "Nice to meet you too!"

"That's Freddie," Miley informed her. "He works on the show I was telling you about." Beat. "From the... time I hosted it."

Not from special-guest-starring or anything.

[randomspanish.livejournal.com]

"Hey wait," Gibby said. "Aren't you that Dakota girl?"

"...why on earth would you think Miley is from one of the Dakotas?" Freddie said, eyeing his odd friend.