I don't own any of the camp rock characters
Chapter 1- Favors
A pair of heads bobbing behind an overstuffed trolley caught people's attention as they made their way through the arrivals hall of the JFK International Airport. The sun was streaming through the floor to ceiling windows of the building and bathing the organized chaos of the hall in the scorching heat of the summer sunshine. They made an intriguing site to their fellow travelers, two small young women with cascades of caramel colored hair that was shot with red and gold struggling to control the mound of luggage almost twice the size of both of them put together. They laughed easily together as they forged their way through the crowd at the same time as balancing instrument cases on top of their overstuffed trolley. It was as though the day was smiling with them and despite the spectacle they were making of themselves they seemed not to notice the curious stares thrown in their direction.
A woman who was waiting just inside of the arrivals hall doors smiled as she caught a glimpse of the teetering pile of luggage that was wending its way through the groups of people who were greeting family and friends. When she saw the music cases she was intrigued and tried to see who was pushing the trolley, perhaps it belonged to the two girls she was waiting for. When she finally managed to get a look at the two teenage girls struggling to keep the trolley under control as they laughed with each other she felt a small smile come to her lips, well the description their aunt gave me was pretty much on the dot thought the women to herself, despite the fact that she had never actually met them, there was no mistaking the fact that these were the Donahue sisters, a pair of 18 year old twins who although not identical were strikingly similar and they both held a strong resemblance to their aunt Mae whom Dee had known for several years. She stepped forward to stand beside the trolley and fell into step with the girls who had now drawn level with her position just inside of the doors, "Elizabeth and Georgiana Donaghue?" Dee asked them in her lilting Texas accent her blue eyes twinkling with her standard good humor as she smiled at the girls who looked slightly nervous.
The two girls slowed their pace and stopped, managing between them to draw the uncooperative trolley to a standstill before they turned to face the red haired woman who was decked out in jeans and a jewel bright blue shirt with a pair of large sunglasses shoved hastily up on her head pinning down the riotous curls. The woman looked nice and welcoming, the wide friendly grin on her face spoke to her easy going nature and good humor, she looked like the kind of woman that collected honorary nieces and nephews always ready with a hug and smile. The twins looked towards each other with matching relieved grins on their faces it seemed that at least one part of their long journey would be relatively stress free compared to the hellish flight they had just finished. The tension which had been building in both of them for the last few hours had had them bunching their shoulders and holding their backs stiff but it instantly released in the presence of the woman in front of them. Almost without the twins noticing she had begun to usher them towards the exit which led onto the car park, gently taking charge and allowing the two girls to simply follow and concentrate on keeping the trolley moving in a vaguely strait line. "Yes we're the Donaghue's thanks for coming to meet us and by the way it's Anna and Beth!" said Beth as she smiled back at the woman hoping that all of the staff at the camp would be just as nice.
The younger of the twins had a cheeky grin on her face as she chipped in with her own comment on the introductions, "I'm only Georgiana when I'm in trouble!" she stated as she poked her twin in the side, she retaliated by pulling one of her sisters curls.
"I'll keep that in mind although from what your aunts told me I doubt that I will need to resort to full names. You both seem like good natured girls and I think you will fit right in at the camp. Besides I know all about shortening names I am Diana La Duke but most people just call me Dee!" She was now leading the girls through a sea of shining cars as the sun beat down on their heads. Eventually as they were nearing the end of the row of cars Dee drew to a stop next to a large black SUV before turning to them, "So I can help you pack your things into the trunk if you would like or would you rather do it yourselves?" she asked the girls as she fitted the key into the lock on the back hatch before swinging it up.
"Um do you mind if we do it ourselves?" asked Anna in her sweet soft voice before letting out a small laugh that sounded like wind chimes being stirred by a spring breeze, "it's not that we don't appreciate the help or anything it's just that we know which bags have delicate stuff in them!" Anna finished as she laid her hand protectively on a large black case near the top of the pile.
"Oh don't be such a worry wart Anna," Beth teased her lightly, "we won't break your cameras, you put enough fragile handle with care stickers on that case that you could see it from space!" the older twin laughed out loud in a bolder rendition of her sisters, she found Anna's protective tendencies towards her camera equipment amusing although having said that she was almost as bad about her books even if she would never actually admit it.
Dee chuckled slightly watching the interplay between the sisters which demonstrated how truly close they were and thought that it was definitely going to be a good summer the carefree attitudes of the twins would mix well with that of the girls they would be sharing a cabin with for the summer, "All right girls let's get you loaded up and get on the road we won't reach the camp until late afternoon and most of the other campers will already have arrived by the time we get there." She went to start the air conditioner in the car which had already started to imitate a sauna in the short time that it had been parked outside the terminal whilst the girls started to load their cases into the back.
The girls made quick work of stacking the trunk of the SUV, Anna checking her camera bag twice and both of them gingerly strapping down their instrument cases. Although they both had different interests the one thing that they both loved above anything was music and they had learned to play the Piano from their mother at an early age. They were both highly accomplished on the piano and had each recently taken up other instruments as well; Beth had started to play guitar just over a year ago and Annie had fallen in love with the electric violin after going to a concert near where they lived in England. Once they were all ready to leave they quickly left the trolley in the bay next to the car before climbing into the back seat sitting next to each. They strapped themselves in thankful for the cool air that was running over their warm skin as Dee started the engine and maneuvered them out of the car park and onto the freeway.
"So are you girls looking forward to your summer with us at the camp?" she asked she was curious as to the abilities of the sisters as they were the only campers that had not submitted tapes to the camp with samples of their work. It was a competitive place and only those kids with true promise were offered a spot on Browns exclusive program which had turned out some of the finest musicians in the country in the last 15 years. She had spoken to the girls' aunt whilst the arrangements for the girls' summer were put in place as they were technically too old to attend the camp; however the girls had needed somewhere to spend two months of the holidays whilst their aunt was too busy running the ranch in Montana to have them come and stay with her. Dee had stayed on the ranch a number of times in the past five years which the girls' aunt ran as a riding retreat in the early spring when it wasn't too busy, she and Mae had become firm friends over the years and when she had asked Dee about the possibility of the twins attending the camp she worked at Dee had not hesitated to help her friend out.
"I can't wait!" Anna replied practically bouncing in her seat with excitement bubbling in her eyes, "there is nothing like camp rock in England and normally we don't get many lessons over the summer holidays so I am really looking forward to the experience although I'm sure it will be just a tiny bit scary to begin with."
"Absolutely," Beth continued on where her sister had left off, "Thanks so much for the opportunity Dee, aunt Mae told us that normally you have to audition well in advance to get into the camp…I hope it wasn't too much trouble and that we don't disappoint you!"
"Girls as long as you have a good time that's all that matters to me! I am doing a favor for my friend and you have nothing to worry about, judging by the equipment you're hauling you're pretty serious about your music but we will find out exactly where you are tomorrow so let's just concentrate on getting to know each other shall we?" Dee had put the twins at rest and the conversation turned to more general topics such as what they did for fun other than music and places that they had travelled to with their parents who worked for Medicines Sans Frontiers the reason that the twins were staying with their aunt in America for the summer whilst their parents were running a moving clinic in Kenya.
The drive from New York City and into the woodlands in the north of the state was beautiful, the scenery was like nothing either of the girls had seen before and Anna's fingers were itching for her camera. She just knew she would get some amazing pictures this summer to add to her collection over the course of the summer. Beth on the other hand was going over lists of adjectives to describe the scenery in her mind already planning poems she wanted to try and write over the coming days. They answered Dee's questions about the area of England they were from and how they would normally be spending their summers as Life Guards on the beaches. They had been on the road for about 3 hours when Dee told them that they were coming up on the camp grounds before turning off the main road and heading up a winding track through the trees. The girls caught glimpses of wooden cabins as the car travelled up the track before Dee pulled the SUV to a stop on one side of a gravel car park which held a large caterers van and a few other cars.
"Well it looks like all the parents have made it out of here already so lets' go and get you settled into your cabin!" She herded the girls towards the path at the side of the car park that led into the trees and towards the cabins that spread out around the edge of a wide glistening lake. The camp was almost silent, there was no one else around and all that could be heard was a slight melody from the opposite direction than that in which they were walking. Dee led them past a series of cabins and drew to a stop at the base of a set of steps which led up to a wide deck style veranda on a level with the top of the trees. By the time the three of them had managed to get the twins' entire luggage collection up the steps they were more than a little out of breath. Anna and Beth sat down on top of their cases whilst Dee lent back against the railing. Once they had started to breathe slightly more normally the girls looked up and when they saw the three cabins in front of them their draws dropped. The cabin in the centre was a huge sprawling long house with another smaller cabin on either end.
"This is it, your home for the next two months! The large one in the centre is the camp directors cabin, Brown is great and you guys should get on well he has been looking forward to having some other English people around…I think he has missed it after all the years he has been living out here in the US" she walked towards the cabin on the right and pushed the double doors wide to usher them into the entrance hall before walking through into the lounge area, "you have to share the cabin with me and two other girls but I don't think you should have any issues getting on with them…they're the two nicest girls at camp!"
She helped the girls carry their bags through the main room of the cabin to a large bedroom at the back that had four beds and a huge picture window looking out over the lake. "I'll leave you girls to unpack and get settled in, I have to run and help with some things in the main cabin for tonight's jam session…perhaps you guys will want to perform, there is an open mike tonight!" she grinned as the girls nodded their agreement, "great well come on over to the mess hall when you're done everyone will be hanging out there until dinner and then the jam will be later on this evening so don't forget to bring your instruments with you if you want to play them." She waved to the twins as she left the room and made her way out of the cabin leaving them alone to look around themselves and adjust to their new home.
Once Dee had left them alone in the cabin the girls turned to look around the room. There were four beds along the back wall of the cabin and the two in the middle were already taken. That left the two beds at either end of the room for the twins, "Well looks like there is going to be a no man's land between us!" Anna joked.
"Yeah I guess although Dee said the other girls we're sharing with are really nice, maybe we can ask them if we can switch beds and have two next to each other." Beth said as she wondered what the two other girls would be like. She shrugged slightly as she moved over to the bed closest to the door and put her back pack down, "This one's mine!"
"Oh I see so your 10 minutes of seniority give you the right to bugs the bed closest to only escape root in the room?" her twin made a face of mock annoyance as she moved across the room and put her bags down on the other bed in the far corner of the room. "Come on big sister let's start to get unpack I want to go and explore!" As she spoke she moved back towards the door to go and collect the rest of their luggage from the deck outside of the cabin. It took them another two trips to get their huge suitcases and instruments into the cabin. They spent most of the next hour unpacking their cases and arguing over whose cloths were whose but that was a common occurrence as although they didn't dress the same their styles were similar to an extent. Eventually they had everything put away and whilst Anna ran through a quick check of her black case to make sure nothing had been damaged on the journey Beth sat on her bed strumming on her guitar and humming to herself as she watched her sister compulsively check her stuff over. The slight frown line that had taken up residence on her twins' forehead seemed to disappear as she realized her precious cameras had survived the trip with no adverse affects. Once that was established she quickly assembled one of the cameras clipping on a short distance lens before snapping a couple of pictures of the room and Beth sitting cross legged on her bed before returning the camera to the box and sliding the case under her bed.
"What do you think we should do for the Jam tonight?" Beth asked as she watched her sister move on to checking her portable amp and then finally her lavender colored electric violin which was nestled in a hard travelling case to protect it on the journey.
"I don't know…do you want to sing or do you think we should keep that one quiet for now?" Anna and Beth could both sing but it was something that they rarely advertised as neither of them thought they were that good. They had no trouble accepting their skills with instruments as long as those instruments weren't their voices, despite that they loved to sing they just didn't sing in front of other people or let on that they wrote songs together.
"I vote for an instrumental piece but that's just me, most of our stuff you take the lead on vocals so do you want to sing tonight or not?" Beth replied knowing without her twin having to say anything that she didn't feel comfortable with the idea of singing in front of a room full of strangers.
"Um why don't we wow them without voices tonight and work our way up to the singing for them?"
"That my dear sister is a deal!" Beth smiled at her twin, "however it brings me back to my original question of what are we going to play tonight?"
"Well it should be something distinctly English…how about we take a step back in time and treat them to a Beatles song?" Anna grinned at the thought, the twins had a very eclectic taste in music and they played everything from classical through to soft rock.
"Sounds good now we just have to decide on one! Any ideas which one we should do? Will you play violin or piano?" Beth was starting to get into the idea of playing a golden oldie even if they were at a rock camp it just seemed right somehow.
"Piano I think, I don't want to have to lug my amp through the camp to the mess hall too much effort after today. How about Michele My Bell that's always good with piano and guitar!" As well as being a great song the melody was quite complex which should illustrate to Dee that the girls had the skills to fit in at the camp.
"Perfect! Come on let's get changed and head on over to dinner I am absolutely starving that meal on the plane was foul!" Beth said as her stomach rumbled at the thought of something other than the plastic goo they had been served for their lunch.