A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed my first three stories. With only three stories up so far (four, if you include this one), I must say I am quite honored to already have three of my favorite Liley authors reading and reviewing my work. So if anyone reading this has yet to read the works of TheBoredOne85, AlvinFan07, and dcjp, look them up and enjoy. They are awesome.

As always, please read and review. All criticisms are welcome.

This one is a little different from my previous stories. Okay, a lot different. This story is inspired in part by and dedicated to the late Ronnie James Dio, one of the greatest rock singers of all time, who passed away earlier this year. Rock in peace, Dio.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hannah Montana (though Christmas is coming, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed :-P ). Nor do I own any franchise associated with celebrities who may appear in this story. I also do not own any song or related intellectual property which Ronnie James Dio was involved in creating. No infringement intended.

Divers in the Dark

Chapter One

"What do you mean you never learned to dive?" Lilly Truscott was absolutely aghast. "How could you never learn to dive?"

"I've never been much for falling face-first into things," Miley said rationally.

"It's water, not a pit of spikes," said Lilly.

"It's still face-first off of solid ground," Miley said.

"You are such a scaredy-cat!" Lilly accused.

"Fine," said Miley, "I'm a scaredy-cat."

"Uh-uh," said Lilly. "After school tomorrow, we're going to the pool and I'm going to teach you how to dive off of a diving board."

"Not a chance," Miley said definitively.

"Absolutely," Lilly said, just as definitively.

Miley sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?" she said.

"Nope," said Lilly, shaking her head.

"Fine," said Miley. "After school tomorrow, we'll go to the pool and I'll make a fool of myself or hurt myself and then we can move on with our lives."

"You worry too much, Miley."

"I'll be the judge of that," Miley retorted, "after this is all over."

x.x.x

The next morning, Lilly's phone woke her up before Miley. She quickly shut it off and crept out of her bed, checking to make sure Miley was still asleep. Quietly, she tiptoed over to Miley's dresser, looking through it until she found Miley's pink one piece bathing suit. Folding it up neatly, Lilly placed it in her backpack. That was the only way she could be sure that Miley wouldn't "forget" to pack her bathing suit, postponing the diving lesson another day.

As sure as the sun rises in the morning, Miley never even opened the drawer from which Lilly had procured the bathing suit. She also skillfully never let on that she was intentionally neglecting to pack her bathing suit. Of course, Lilly knew better, and she had to fight to keep a mischievous smirk from rising to her face as she thought about how surprised Miley would be that afternoon when she found out Lilly had packed her bathing suit for her.

The school day was mostly uneventful, and the last two classes dragged on seemingly to infinite, as far as Lilly was concerned. She found herself preoccupied with the diving lesson she would give Miley later. Images flooded her mind. She could see Miley standing on the edge of the pool in her skin-tight, backless bathing suit, flexing her elegant toes nervously as Lilly slid her hands down Miley's arms, showing her how to position her hands. Lilly could see, and indeed, almost feel her hands on Miley's hips as she showed her how to stand. And Lilly could see Miley trembling, because she was afraid, and she saw herself placing a comforting hand on Miley's bare back, massaging gently to assuage her best friend's nervousness. And now she felt . . . what was this new feeling?

The new feeling turned out to be the eraser end of a pencil jabbing into Lilly's back, drawing her attention back to the real world. She must have drifted further into her thoughts than she had thought. She was glad Miley was sitting behind her, watching out for her. Lilly could be a daredevil, but falling asleep in Kunkle's seventh period was not something she cared to try.

At long last, the bell rang and Lilly put her books in her backpack, then turned to Miley. "All right, Miley, time to go diving," she said with a happy grin.

"Sweet nibblets!" Miley exclaimed. "I forgot to pack my bathing suit."

"Good thing I remembered it, huh?" Lilly said, producing the cerise pink bathing suit from her back pack and tossing it at Miley. The goofy grin on Lilly's face was evidence that she could barely contain her jubilance at pulling one over on Miley.

For her part, Miley grimaced at the bathing suit, then leveled a piercing gaze at Lilly. "Well," she said, "aren't you quite the little sneak?"

"Come on," Lilly said, standing up and slinging her backpack over her shoulder. "You're not getting out of this that easy. Let's go to the pool."

Miley sighed, resigned to whatever fate awaited her at the bottom of the pool.

While the Seaview High School gymnasium was attached to the main building, the pool had been constructed more recently and had its own separate building. When the girls entered the building, they were assaulted by the thick humidity that rose from the heated pool. Lilly didn't mind the pool building in December, as Malibu was just cool enough that the sudden moist warmth of the building was not entirely unpleasant. Miley, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the thick, wet air immensely.

"I don't know about diving," Miley said, "but I think I could sit in this building all winter."

"I like a heated pool as much as the next person," Lilly said, "but don't you think the air is a bit thick?"

"It reminds me of summer in Tennessee," Miley said, a wistful smile on her face.

"Thanks, but no thanks," said Lilly. "If I'm going to drown to death, I want to do it surfing, not walking around in the open air."

"It's not that bad," Miley said. "You've got to see Tennessee in the summer."

"Fine," said Lilly, "that's your reward for learning to dive. I'll go visit Tennessee during the summer."

"You'll love it," Miley said.

The girls had come to the locker room. Lilly set her backpack down on one of the benches situated between the rows of lockers. Fishing a quarter out of one of the bag's pouches, she turned to one of the lockers and put the quarter in the slot and pulled on the latch. She was rewarded by the sound of the quarter dropping and the door opening. She pulled her own teal bathing suit out of her backpack and placed the bag in the locker, leaving the door open for them moment.

Turning their backs to one another, Miley and Lilly started removing their school clothes. Lilly was just getting her pants off when she heard the tiny sound of clicking plastic that told her Miley had just removed her bra. She grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself not to turn her head, not to try to catch a glimpse of Miley's breasts, which must, she thought, be that same lovely porcelain color that her face and arms had been when she had moved to California in January eight years previous. Eight years in the Malibu sun had given Miley a gorgeous tan, but sometimes Lilly missed the china doll complexion that the Tennessee winter had given her. But Lilly would not ogle Miley now, lest she be caught in the act.

While Lilly was trying not to shamelessly stare at Miley's naked body, Miley was doing her best not to want to look at Lilly's. When Miley heard the thud of Lilly's blue jeans hitting the back of the locker, she couldn't help but picture the adorable, poodle-shaped birthmark on Lilly's butt that she had noticed years before during one of their first sleepovers. Nonetheless, biting her bottom lip, she found the resolve to maintain the loosening grip she held on the wall of denial she had put between her thoughts and her feelings for her best friend.

Finally, the girls pulled on their bathing suits, Miley in pink and Lilly in teal. "Let's get this over with," Miley said, turning to Lilly and sighing nervously.

"You're going to be fine, Miley," Lilly reassured her, grabbing her hand and leading her out to the pool.

"Says you," Miley retorted. "You're the athletic one."

"And you're the best dancer I know," said Lilly. "Diving is just dancing while falling."

"Falling face-first," Miley reminded Lilly.

Lilly scoffed. "You can't tell me that in all the years you've been dancing that you've never fallen flat on your face."

"Not once," said Miley. "I've fallen on my butt, on my side, on my back, but never on my face."

Lilly sighed. "I'm still not going to let you give into your fear," she said. "You'll be great at it."

"I'll try," Miley said.

The girls emerged from the locker room into the pool area. Lilly led Miley by the hand over to the pool's shallow end. "All right," Lilly said, "first things first, we need to take a dip in the water and get warmed up."

Lilly sat on the edge of the pool and slipped into the water, and Miley followed behind her. They started warming up by racing from one wall of the shallow end to the other. Lilly won the first race, but Miley won the next two. It was true that Miley wasn't much of an athlete, but as Lilly had pointed out, she was quite a dancer, and the resulting power in her legs made her a formidable opponent in water races.

Miley was about to start another race when Lilly dipped her hand open-palmed into the water, pushing forward and dousing Miley in the face with a giant wave of water. Miley sputtered for a few moments, but once she had recovered, a wild light appeared in her eyes. "You are so going to get it, Truscott," she said with a mischievous smile taking over her face. She sent a huge wave of water in Lilly's direction. Lilly returned fire, or in this case, water, and the girls spent the next five minutes exchanging volleys of handmade miniature tsunamis, laughing wildly when their faces weren't full of water.

Eventually, the water fight died down, and Lilly looked at Miley seriously. "It's time," she said.

The light in Miley's eyes dimmed perceptibly as she sighed tremulously.

"You're really scared, aren't you, Miles?" Lilly said, concern evident in her voice. Miley nodded her head stiffly.

Lilly swam over to where Miley was wading in the water and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Miley," she said. "I've got a lifetime in the water and lifeguard training, remember? Nothing bad is going to happen to you."

Miley let out a slow, shaky breath. "Okay, let's do this."

Lilly pulled herself out of the pool, and Miley got out after her. As they walked toward the deep end of the pool, Miley grabbed Lilly's hand and pressed herself as close to Lilly's side as she could. Lilly could feel Miley trembling against her. Now they were standing on the side of the pool on the deep end. Miley glanced up to the springboard that loomed six feet above the water, then turned her gaze and stared despondently into the water. Lilly put her hands on Miley's arms and turned the frightened girl to face her.

"Don't worry," Lilly said, "we're not going to start off on the board. We're going to start right here on the edge of the pool."

"I'm taller than you," Miley said. "It's still a longer drop for me."

Lilly smiled. "You'll be amazed at how easy it is once I show you how to stand and bend your knees right."

"Okay," Miley said, exhaling nervously.

"First," Lilly began, "press your legs together."

Miley followed Lilly's instructions.

Lilly sighed. "Facing the water, Miley," she said. Miley turned to the water and stood rigidly, like a soldier at attention.

"Okay," Lilly said. "Now you have to bend your knees."

"How far?" Miley asked.

In response, Lilly knelt down and put a hand on the backs of Miley's knees, pressing lightly as Miley bent her knees in response. Lilly felt a shudder run through Miley's body as the tips of her fingers lightly caressed the side of Miley's leg. Lilly wasn't entirely convinced that this shudder came from fear.

With Miley's knees bent properly, Lilly stood up and leaned in to whisper in Miley's ear. "You all right?" she asked.

Miley nodded her head unconvincingly.

Lilly walked around behind Miley and put her arms around her, grasping Miley's arms. "Okay, now put your hands out like this," Lilly said as she moved Miley's arms, placing one of Miley's hands over the other and angling her arms parallel to her knees.

"Now," Lilly said, "bend your head just like this." Lilly gently pushed Miley's head forward until Miley was looking directly into the water.

"See what I mean?" Lilly said. "It's not so far to fall now."

"Yeah," Miley said, her voice still shaky, but now sounding nervous rather than afraid. "That's not so bad."

"Now's the easiest part and the hardest part," said Lilly.

"What do I do?" Miley asked.

"Fall forward."

There was a long pause.

"Miley?"

"I can't," Miley said matter-of-factly.

"You're most of the way there," Lilly said. "The first time is always the hardest. Just lean forward and let nature take its course."

Miley leaned forward subtly, then back again. "I can't," she repeated.

"You can," Lilly encouraged. "Either you lean forward until you're in the water, or I'm going to have to push you."

Miley took in a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and leaned forward. For a moment, Lilly thought she was going to do it, but just before Miley had leaned forward too far to return, she jolted backward again.

"Okay, Miley, let's try a different approach," said Lilly. "Remember when Jake kissed you and then you pushed him off that wall?"

Miley smirked maliciously at the memory. "How could I forget?"

"Okay, now imagine that you're looking over that wall again, yelling all those words that almost got you arrested for public obscenity."

A bitter laugh escaped Miley's lips. "Okay, I'm leaning over the wall," she said.

"Now imagine that Jake isn't lying on the sand," said Lilly. "Instead, he's floating on his back in the water. And if you dive just right, you can knock the living crap out of him."

Another dark laugh bubbled out of Miley's throat. "I'm coming for you, Leslie," she said, a snarl that would have scared Jake Ryan more than any army of zombie high-schoolers ever could fixed on her face. Miley leaned forward, eager now, and gracefully slipped hands-first into the water. A moment later she emerged triumphantly to hear Lilly clapping and cheering for her. Miley opened her eyes, a huge grin lighting up her face. "Got him right in the gut!" she cried victoriously.

"Go Miley!" Lilly shouted exuberantly, her voice reverberating loudly in the large open room. "Ready to try it again?" she asked.

"Yeah," Miley said, pulling herself out of the pool. "That was actually pretty fun."

Miley positioned herself just as Lilly had shown her before, and dove effortlessly into the water once more. She repeated the dive from the side of the pool three more times before she felt like she was ready to try the springboard.

"Are you sure you're ready, Miley?" Lilly asked, concerned. "Just ten minutes ago, you were scared to death to dive off the side of the pool."

"I guess I got over it," Miley said, a confident smile on her face.

"Okay," said Lilly. "Just remember, when you're on the board, you need to push off instead of just leaning forward. When you leave the board, your legs should be straight."

Miley climbed up the ladder to the top of the springboard and walked to the edge. She got into position, adjusting her angle for the new height from which she would dive. Then, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes, she pushed off the board and was airborne. She felt like she was flying. With her eyes closed, she couldn't see that her angle was all wrong. She heard Lilly gasp and opened her eyes, but then her body struck flat against the water, and everything went black.