(No Hannah Montana. Miley Stewart is a normal, moderately popular and intelligent high school girl. The hot new guy wants to date her and she has a long running friendship with Oliver Oken. But then Lilly Truscott transfers in and Miley begins to feel strange around the new girl. Liley. Rather than say "Based on" I feel "Inspired by" the TV Movie "The Truth about Jane" is a better choice of words. Not all characters from the movie appear nor will the plot line be the same. I'm using only the basic theme as a guideline and expect the stories will diverge more and more as this one goes on.)
"Hey Miley!"
The slender, attractive brunette turned around. A smile broke over her face. "Hi Oliver!"
"Well, here we are. Seniors at last," gloated the dark haired boy as he pushed his way towards his best friend through the throngs of arriving students. "This is the year Smokin' Oken is gonna shine!"
Miley Stewart looked at him with a mixture of amusement and long-suffering patience. "You'll be smokin' all right if Joannie hears you talk like that, much less sees you ogling those freshman girls."
"Awww, I'm a senior. It's my right."
"What you are is a donut." She shook her head. "Speaking of Joannie how did the two of you spend the summer? I practically never saw you."
"We spent most of the summer hanging out at the rink. She's determined to make me a real roller hockey player if it kills me. How about you?"
Miley shrugged. "Lounged at the beach mostly. Tried to avoid Rico's amorous attentions." She brightened up. "I took some surfing lessons. I really enjoyed that. I wish I had a bigger allowance or someone who would teach me for free."
Oliver shaded his eyes and pretended to peer up and down the hall. "I bet we could find some guy for that. You want him tall, dark and handsome?"
"I want him to be able to surf." she looked thoughtful for a moment. "Of course it wouldn't hurt if he's cute too."
"Speaking of cute, or rather, NOT cute, what is Jackson up to these days? Is he still working at Rico's?"
"Part time. He couldn't get into UCLA so he's attending community college for a year or maybe two to get his grades up. That means of course that he's still living at home. I had so looked forward to it just being me and Dad." She grinned. "Of course that means Dad's attention is still on him most of the time, which means I can get away with stuff."
"Get away with stuff?" Oliver raised his eyebrow. "Surely not! Surely Miss Miley Stewart, that paragon of rectitude would never stoop to doing 'stuff'."
"Oliver that would be funnier if I believed you knew what either 'paragon' or 'rectitude' meant."
"You wound me."
"Oh please, don't tempt me. Besides, that's Joannie's job anyway."
Having exchanged pleasantries the two friends waded through the crowd of returning and new students, separating to find their guidance counselors and make any final adjustments on their schedules. Miley was delighted to find that what she had planned at the end of the last year was set in stone now.
She headed down to claim her locker, calling out and answering greeting to friends and former teachers alike.
"Hi Miley,"
"Hi Miz Johnstone." She waved to her old science teacher.
"Hello Miley, how was your summer?"
"It was great Mister Walters. I wasn't ready to come back."
"Neither was I," laughed her last year's Math teacher. "Are you taking Calculus this year?"
"Yes," sighed Miley.
"You'll do fine."
"Thanks Mister Walters."
Miley found her locker and proceeded to set it up to her specifications. She paused twice when she spotted new students standing with lost looks on their faces and directed them to their proper destinations. She found a freshman had the next locker and spent a couple of minutes chatting with the young girl and putting her at ease.
Miley liked people. She saw no purpose in acting the way that Amber and Ashley, the schools reigning queen bees, did as she watched them hold court. That court mostly seemed to consist of hurling put-downs at everyone in sight, including their fawning hangers-on. Miley was popular enough that she usually avoided being the target of those slights. Like most bullies, the "A-hole twins", as she thought of them sometimes, avoided anyone who might fight back.
There was Joannie Palumbo, Oliver's girlfriend. The two young women exchanged affectionate insults. She had hated Joannie and hated her more when Oliver had started dating the sometimes foul-mouthed roller hockey player. But they had grown to like each other once Miley had discovered the secret; that Joannie, unlike Ashley and Amber, enjoyed it when people stood up to her. She respected them. Once Miley had begun to snap back at her Joannie had accepted her as someone worth being a friend. And she really was good for Oliver.
Classes came and went, until lunch time arrived. Miley ate with Oliver and Joannie and a couple other friends. As she had started doing last school year, she slipped out behind the auditorium and relaxed by herself before returning to what already felt like the grindstone. Of course part of that feeling was due to gym being her next class. As Miley admitted to herself, when it came to sports she was a dunce. She was athletic enough; she WAS a cheerleader after all and she really felt she was developing some as a surfer but when it came to team or heck individual sports she fell flat.
She braced her hands on the backless stone bench she was sitting on and tipped her head to the sky, closing her eyes and letting her thoughts wander.
Oliver was right. It was their senior year and she should be seizing it. This time only came around once in someone's life. Oliver was already reveling in it. So was Joannie and heck, even more so Amber and Ashley. Everyone but her.
Miley felt, as she so often did, that in ways she couldn't explain she was someone looking in to all this from the outside, not really a part of this but an observer. Why she couldn't explain. She sat up and took stock of her life.
She should be happy. Okay, she missed her mom. A lot. But her Dad was a wonderful man who had soldiered on after the death of his wife. He didn't hold back his own sorrow but he had held Miley through the long nights when she missed her mom so bad she thought she wanted to die. He had got her through that and although she still felt the empty space in her heart she had come to terms with it.
And yes, well, her brother Jackson was a pain in the ass but he had always been that. She had good friends, she seemed to be reasonably popular and she enjoyed her extra-curricular activities; cheerleading and chorus. So why did she feel so left out?
Maybe it was because she didn't have a boyfriend. She had dates after all; she knew she was attractive. She didn't seem to have a lot of repeat ones though. Of course a lot of that was that boys seemed to expect her to put out immediately. Her East Tennessee upbringing didn't make her well disposed towards that. She knew better. Sex and you can become pregnant; sex and you can catch things; sex and they lose all respect for you.
Miley shook her head. It had to be more than that making her feel like such an outsider. But she didn't know what it could be. She sighed, lowered her head and opened her eyes.
And found herself staring into a pair of deep smiling eyes that nearly made her fall off the bench.
"Hey there, don't do that!" A firm hand gripped her arm and steadied her, then helped her to her feet.
"Hi, I'm Jake Ryan," announced the heart throb standing in front of her. "I'm new here. Can you help me?"
(To Be Continued)