Eighth World Wonder

Disclaimer: If I owned 'Hannah Montana,' I would be writing scripts for the next episodes instead of just sitting here in solitude whilst typing up this fan fiction. Duh.

Author's Note: Long story short, reviewers rock my fan fictional world. Thanks SO much! I'm terribly sorry for the lack of updating up until now…my excuse is being in all honors classes at school. I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter as much as the last one! Oh, speaking of the last chapter: I edited some parts at the end of it, so read it again if you desire (it won't kill too much time though, considering the shortness of that chapter…I apologize for that once again). That's all.

Shortly after morning, the home phone rang in the living room. Jackson, who had just stumbled down the stairs from his bed, padded towards the fridge in the kitchen to grab something to eat. He looked at Miley sitting on the couch, flipping through the TV channels while hugging her stuffed bear.

"Aren't you going to answer that? It's probably Lilly anyway," he said to his little sister. Miley frowned and brought her teddy bear closer to her body. Her eyes didn't leave the TV screen.

"It's probably not," she responded glumly. Jackson closed the fridge after taking out some bread and snatched the phone to answer it. A few seconds later, he announced that it was Oliver and tossed the phone to Miley.

"Hey, Oliver," Miley said as she took hold of the phone and pressed it to her ear.

"Yeah. Hey, Miley, uh, did something happen between you and Lilly?" he asked confusedly. Miley turned down the volume on the TV before answering.

"Um, yeah. Kind of," she replied guiltily, "How did you know?"

"I called Lilly this morning to see if she wanted to go down to the beach with you and me, but she-"

"She told you that she didn't want to see me or something like that?" Miley interrupted. She heard a pause from the other end.

"Yeah, something like that. What's up with you two?" Oliver demanded. Miley sighed.

"Gosh, Oliver; I don't know! I have no idea what I did, but she was just so mad at me last night," she responded, pained.

"You wanna talk it over at the beach?" he offered. Miley was about to answer when she heard a loud beep on her phone. She took a glance at it and saw that she had a call waiting from Lilly. She groaned.

"Uh…maybe. Lilly's calling me right now, actually; can I call you back to get back to you on that?"

"Yeah, sure. Good luck with whatever's going on between you and Lilly," Oliver said before clicking off. Once the line with him was disconnected, Miley immediately switched over to answer Lilly.

"Hello?"

Click.

A deep frown immediately graced upon Miley's features, followed by a sharp pain in her chest as she fought the urge to smash the phone down on the hard, wooden floor; which, would be much more satisfying than the carpeted floor of her bedroom. 'I can't believe Lilly just hung up on me again!' she thought, half miserably and half angrily. She was so stunned to the point where she didn't quite know whether to be more depressed or infuriated.

"What happened?" Jackson asked curiously, his rare caring, brotherly side speaking for a change.

Miley only let out a groan and began to stomp up the stairs without even glancing at him.

"Fine! See if I'll ever care about what's going on in your life again!" he shot back as he watched his little sister continuing to climb the stairs in silence.

.Monday.

The very next day, Miley awoke fifteen minutes late, grabbed her toast, kissed her dad bye, and rushed into the Seaview Middle hallways to change her books at her locker. Oliver spotted his friend struggling to open her locker and smirked. He sashayed his way towards Miley and leaned against the locker next to hers while he cocked his head to get his bangs out of his eyes.

"Does someone need the help of, ahem, the Lockerm-" Oliver said cockily before he was interrupted by a sudden, loud exclaim of frustration from his friend. Miley slapped her locker angrily. "Hey, Miles, calm down! What's going on?" he quit his egotistical act and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. Miley looked into her best friend's eyes before responding.

"Lilly hates me."

Oliver looked saddened, "She doesn't hate you! Listen to yourself, Miley!"

"Well, okay, she may not hate me yet, but I don't know why she's so mad at me!"

"…Do I dare ask how did you two's conversation go after we hung up yesterday?" Oliver asked hesitantly.

"There's nothing to know, Oliver. The conversation between Lilly and I was nonexistent. She hung up on me again," Miley said flatly. Oliver looked apologetic and was about to hug her when he spotted Lilly walking down the hallway. He tried to look bright.

"Hey, Lilly! What's up?"

Lilly smiled at him, "Hey, Oliver."

"Hi, Lilly!" Miley tried to say in her normal, cheerful self.

Lilly automatically opened her mouth to answer, but caught herself. She took in the sight of Oliver's arm around Miley and felt a sharp pain in her chest. She shook her head at both of them and walked off in the opposite direction to get to homeroom early. Oliver looked down before he exchanged sad, confused glances with Miley.

The rest of the day was not much different. The entire day of Lilly ignoring Miley turned into nearly the entire week. Oliver's attempts at trying to get the two stubborn girls to talk their problems over always failed. 'What the heck could they be fighting about, anyway?' Oliver would think to himself, completely clueless with more than a hint of his own frustration in the matter.

.Wednesday.

"Alright, this is driving me crazy! I can't take this anymore!" Oliver whined to Miley during lunch. Lilly, even though she sat on the furthest end away from Miley, actually had sat at the same, regular table with them this week. Today, however, she was at the Skate Club meeting and Miley and Oliver were alone. "What kind of problem could you two possibly have that's so bad to keep you two apart for the past few days?" he demanded. Miley sighed and reluctantly put her sandwich down back on her lunch tray. 'This is going to be a little embarrassing,' Miley thought before clearing her throat. It was dry. She reached for her chocolate milk and took a sip. She nervously gulped it down before starting. Oliver waited patiently for her.

"Well…okay, this is really kind of dumb," Miley started sheepishly. Oliver said nothing; he looked at her as if to tell her to continue anyway. She tried to organize her thoughts before speaking again. "I think the reason why Lilly's mad is because…she thinks I've been keeping some big secret from her."

Oliver looked puzzled. "What other big secret could you have besides the fact that you're-" he lowered his voice, "Hannah Montana?"

Miley shook her head and smiled at Lilly's ridiculous thought, "Lilly thinks that I'm in love with…you!" She felt relieved now that she said it. Talking to Oliver about this situation suddenly became a lot easier for her. She began to babble. "I don't know, this is kind of weird. I think the only reason why she's angry is because she thinks that I like you and I didn't tell her. Can you believe it? I mean, come on! It's you and me we're talking about here. We're just best friends, right?" She laughed, thinking that he would join in, but she was confused when he didn't. Miley watched as Oliver's deep brown eyes widen and his body seemed tense. "Hey, you okay?"

Oliver winced as discreetly as he allowed himself to at Miley's words. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm…fine," he muttered despite that he was far from feeling fine in reality. The truth was that, no matter how much he tried to make himself stop, he has always had feelings for Miley since day one. More than just friendly feelings. He fidgeted in his seat and used every effort he had to not let the heartbreak he was suffering show on his features. He began to calm himself down by taking deep breaths. But, his mind was still echoing Miley's innocent voice saying, 'We're just best friends, right?' He sighed and got up to put throw the rest of his lunch away. Suddenly, he wasn't so hungry anymore.

"Are you sure, Oliver?" Miley asked in confusion. She placed her hand comfortingly on his. "Friends always stick together and I'm always here if you need to talk about something."

He felt like the world shattered. He wanted to confide in her about how he felt about her. But, at the same time, he felt his own irritation take over. He didn't want her to say his name right before "friends." He didn't want to be stuck as Miley's best friend forever. Oliver pulled his hand away from underneath and half-smiled at her, "Yeah, sure. I- I'm going to go put up my lunch tray." Before even waiting for her reply, he got up quickly and strode sadly towards the trash can. Miley watched him walk away. She felt even more confused, and a slight pull at her heart, at what happened next. After Oliver hastily slammed the tray down against the rest of them, he walked intentionally towards the double doors; and without glancing back at Miley, he left the cafeteria.