Summary: When Sam finally gets to feel the pressure of the press and paparazzi, what will she do to get herself to focus? How will Nixie help, why are there chocolate chips cookies, and what's up with that damn blue truck? Read along to find out!

Rating: T, just to be safe.

Pairings (if any): Shane/Mitchie; Sam/Nate.

Disclaimer: Hey, if I owned Camp Rock, why would I be here writing a mini story? I'd be putting Sam and Nixie into the second movie, doi! I own nothing, of course. Wait, wait, wait! I actually do own Nixie! But not Sam, Nate, Shane, Mitchie or the blue truck… My truck is just white… There's no fancy opening door; I open my own door. And that's kind of depressing.

Stay Strong

Samantha Torres walked down the street sadly; her head hung low in shame. She had just told Nate that she was busy shopping with the girls, which was a lie. She'd told Shane and Mitchie that she was hanging out with Nate, which was another lie. She'd told Nixie that she was hanging out with Nate, because she knew that Nixie knew that Shane and Mitchie were out on a date. Truthfully, she had wanted to be alone for a couple of hours. Ever since she had become known as the one and only girlfriend of Nathaniel Johnson, she'd felt perfect. Like, nothing could go wrong. But, with all the press and paparazzi after her for interviews and scandalous pictures, Sam just wanted some time to think. She knew that she'd never get that, and she hoped that someone would come with her so that she could talk. But Nate was busy, and she didn't want to worry him. Nixie was good at listening, but she had recently gotten admitted to the school she had been dreaming of since she had been a kid. Shane and Mitchie were out on the town…

She sighed heavily, shoving her hands in her pockets as deep as they could go before her foot shot out and she kicked a stone with extreme force. The stone flew through the air before hopping twice on the pavement and stopping. Walking up to it again, Sam kicked at the rock again, but missed. She turned to glare at it for being stupid, and kept walking. What was she to think about? Sam sighed again, attempting to shove her hands further into her pockets. It wasn't working, but she wasn't about to give up. It helped her to focus on something.

Attempting to organize her thoughts, Sam thought about what she had gotten from the whole encounter at Camp Rock which had led to the greatest summer of her life with great friends. She'd made new ones, tightened the bonds with old ones. She'd worked her butt off for whatever she had wanted and she never gave up once she was on the track. Goddamn it, she had won.

But what had she won, really? Fame, for sure. But, fame can be a fickle thing. People want it, but once they get it they'd like nothing more than to be able to step right back out of the spotlight. A spotlight. Hah, that's what had caused this business, was it not?

She laughed harshly before she sharply pulled her hands out of her pockets and sat down on the curb. Her thoughts were racing wildly, from Nate to Shane to Mitchie to Nixie to Elliot to Giovanna to Jason to Ella to Caitlyn and even to Tess, once. This had only lasted for a second as Sam gingerly recalled how the blonde had treated her. It hurt her, true, the words and the comments, but what had hurt the most was not knowing if she had support.

Feeling something roll down her face, Sam raised a cautious hand and wiped at it, bringing the glistening tear down to be level with her eyes. Looking at it, she couldn't help but think that it 

was beautiful. Tears represented many things, Nixie had told her, such as fear, happiness, sadness, anger, stress, loneliness, irritation. Tears were not bad, they weren't weakness. Tears showed your emotions. Sam looked at the tear, and attempted to move it around on the pad of her right pointer finger. She sighed again, and buried her face in her hands. As if that wasn't bad enough, Sam felt her phone vibrate. Picking it up, she noticed that Nixie was calling her, for the girl's face was shown on the screen. It was Nixie sticking her tongue out, waving a hand in the air as she attempted to smack Shane. The two had been friends for as long as Nate had been friends with Sam, if not longer. Getting together with Nixie to talk about things was an easy thing, and Sam did it often. Depending on others, she thought angrily. She pushed a button and the vibration died.

Getting back to her feet and stretching to get the stiffness out of her back, Sam continued on her way, stopping at the café that she had been to numerous times with Nixie and Nate, never once thinking on it, and ordering a coffee and a cookie. Triple chocolate chip, she thought to herself with a laugh as she took a bite of the gooey goodness. There was a chime as the door opened and, as Sam looked over, she saw that Nixie had entered the café. Turning her head away from the raven haired girl, Sam focussed her attention on the rain that was falling against the window. It left small trails of water that looked like tears. Sam closed her eyes and let her head fall against the table. She heard a shuffle of feet before she sensed that someone was looking at her. Hoping that it wasn't who she thought it was going to be; Sam looked up and latched her eyes into Nixie's sensitive blue orbs. She just had no luck today, did she?

"Hanging out with Nate, huh?" she asked gently, taking a sip of the cappuccino that she held in her gloved hands, "Where is the great wonder?" she asked again, knowing full well that Sam had told her the wrong information to get some alone time. Sam ignored her and drank her coffee. Nixie leaned back in the seat, watching the steam that forced its way out of the small hole in the lid of the Styrofoam cup. Sensing that Sam wasn't going to talk to her, Nixie leaned closer and looked over out the large window. "Sam," she began, wrapping and unwrapping her hands around the cup absently, "You know that you can talk to anyone, ANYONE about anything. Tell someone how you feel. Tell Nate. Tell Mitchie. Tell me. Hell, tell Shane. He's bound not to open his trap."

That got a laugh out of Sam and a large smile out of Nixie. Exhaling to see her breath go through the steam, Nixie watched her friend. Sam had bags under her eyes, along with her black hair-with-red-streaks-thrown-in-for-adventure-and-fun hair in a sloppy ponytail. Nixie ran a hand through the tips of her own black hair and took another sip of her cappuccino. Nate had called her in a panic, for he managed to get a hold of Mitchie, who denied a girl's day and suggested that the curly rock star calm down and call Nixie. Nixie had been shocked, but promised the boy that she would go and look for Sam. It had been a great success, Nixie finding the girl at their favourite café. The brunette frowned into her drink as she heard nothing from the girl across the table.

They sat in silence for the next five minutes, Nixie sipping occasionally while Sam remained still. Nixie, however, felt strangely comfortable in the position that she was in. Leaning against the back corner of the booth with her feet propped on the bench, she studied her friend. Sam looked exhausted, her eyes not full of life and her hands randomly folding and unfolding on the table. Nixie knew that she had to be upset about being in the limelight like that, because it was certain to make her lonely, even with Nate by her side. Nixie had always felt like that, but it was less because of the fact that her and Shane were NOT dating and also because of Mitchie. Before the record deal with Alpine Records, Shane had always been a happy person that was always depended on. Nixie had become fast friends with Sam when they had met at Camp Rock. Mitchie, Jason and Nate she had met before.

Sam was lost in her thoughts, surprisingly thankful to have Nixie sitting across from her. She was thinking about what it was like before Nate, and she was thinking about what it was like now. Sam sighed, and leaned forwards with her head propped up in her hands. Nixie watched her with a motherly look decorating her face until she couldn't stand the silence any longer.

With both her hands and legs crossed, Nixie leaned forward and looked at Sam. "So," she began, hesitating slightly, "Nate called me." Sam's head snapped up, and her eyes widened. "You told me that you were spending the afternoon with him, and said the reverse to him." When Nixie looked at Sam, the hurt was visible in her eyes, "Why wouldn't you tell anyone that you wanted alone time?" she asked the brunette, her eyes swimming with tears. "I mean; tell Shane or Mitchie, at least!" she unfolded her arms and smacked both fists on the table. "Or tell me! You know that I wouldn't tell anyone if you didn't WANT me to!"

There was silence in the café that was broken by the waitress walking over to the table with her hands out in front of her, hips swinging to the music and she placed a hand on Nixie's shoulder, "Hey hun. You're going to need to calm down and not yell or I'm going to have to make y'all leave." Narrowing her eyes at the waitress, Nixie crossed her arms again and looked at Sam with her jaw set angrily. Her hurt had dissipated into extreme anger but was almost certainly going to cool off too soon. Nixie watched the nosy waitress walk away and pull out her phone, no doubt calling either all of her friends or the paparazzi. Nixie had more experience with the nosy reporters coming to her door, but she wasn't a fan.

"Come on," she said, getting to her feet and throwing some money down on the table out of habit, "Let's get out of here." Sam, startled, got to her feet and was pulled out of the café just as a news van screeched to a halt outside of it. "How the heck…?" Nixie protested as she dragged the black haired girl away from the front of the café, and towards a small blue Dodge truck that she started automatically from about twenty feet away, with both front doors opening. When she got a startled look from Sam, she just shrugged and replied, "Shane pimped my ride."

Sam nodded and got inside, ducking down because she saw that there were reporters flooding to the front of the truck because they had seen Nixie and Sam. Mostly Sam, because they knew that she was linked romantically to one of the three members of Connect Three. Nixie ignored the calls through the window, throwing her jacket down in a casual gesture over Sam. The black haired girl saw right through the casualness, for Nixie would never throw the jacket down in normal circumstances, and pulled it over her. She knew, from experience, that reporters who were anxious to get a story would stop at nothing to get to the people involved. Sam kept her head down as Nixie unrolled her window in a desperate attempt to shoo the reporters out of the way. "Ms. Adams! Ms. Adams! Can we talk to you about Ms. Torres?" was yelled at her. Sam closed her eyes in embarrassment as she heard people ask very personal questions about her to Nixie. Nixie, however, merely ignored everyone and eased out of the small parking lot.

Once on the highway, Nixie pulled her jacket back up and on. "Brr," she shivered, "It's mighty cold out there." Sam rolled her eyes and got back up onto the seat, buckling her seat belt quickly before reaching forward and turning the heat on easily. Nixie exhaled with a sound of pleasure as the heat hit her face. "That's nice. Thanks Sam."

She turned to look at the girl beside her, but saw that Sam's jaw was set. Feeling tears come to her eyes, she signalled and pulled into her driveway. "What are we doing at your house?" Sam asked, hoping that there was some reason to Nixie's madness. She should have known now that there was NO reason to Nixie's madness… Even Shane had figured that out by the time that she had been five and he had been eight.

"Stuff," Nixie relented, "And no. You don't get to know."

Sam slumped against the seat, pouting before getting out after throwing a string of profanities at Nixie… In Spanish, of course. Nixie ignored them and opened the door to the two storey house and shooed Sam in before her. Sam sighed and sat on the couch. "Can I get you something to drink?" Nixie asked, her voice calm and sincere again, "Or something to write on?" she offered slyly, knowing that Sam wrote out her emotions in songs. Sam kept a stubborn face on her face before sighing and turning to Nixie with a bright smile on her face.

"Paper and water would be great," she said, noting that Nixie had already gotten a notepad and a glass of water, "Why do you even ask anymore?" she teased sarcastically. It made her feel better that Nixie was there, because she felt a sense of security. Nixie shrugged and sat on the chair across from Sam with her feet tucked under her. She flipped over the book that was sitting there and thought back to what had happened mere minutes ago. She'd been immersed in the latest Maximum Ride novel, reading about what had happened to the Flock always made her feel like she wasn't alone on days like this. Her sister was staying at a friend's house and both of her parents were at a conference in another state. Anyhow, she'd been in the exact same spot that she was in now when Nate, ever the ruiner of books, had called her frantically. After scolding him for his lack of manners to interrupt his time with Sam, she had been extremely shocked to find out that Nate hadn't been with Sam.

Instantly her mind had been filled with the worst case-scenario that you never want to have to go through in your mind. Kidnapping, murder, being mugged, being attacked, being… Well, to say that Nixie wasn't worried would have been a terrible understatement. She was terrified that something had happened to her friend. After calming Nate down, she had gotten to her feet and paced. The book had been thrown haphazardly to the chair while she paced. Nate and Nixie had brainstormed the places that they normally went to when they were busy with their thoughts and wanted to be alone. Nixie had kept the café to herself, because she had no idea that Sam and Nate went there often. She was headed to the café to get something to warm herself up after the search that she had been on. She'd been out for two hours, searching the streets, asking the police, avoiding the paparazzi with a carefully developed skill, before she had decided to break for a second and grab a cappuccino.

When she had entered the tiny coffee shop and seen that Sam was sitting in a booth, she had felt her heart soar. Knowing that the two had made eye contact, she ordered and moved to the booth swiftly. Sam had scared her, and Nixie was about to call Nate when she realized what Sam had been doing. Sam had been trying to achieve some alone time. She should have KNOWN that she could come to hang at Nixie's to calm down and be left alone. Nixie would have understood AND covered for her.

Reading her book, Nixie felt herself get drawn into James Patterson's world of flying humans with the intent to save the world from global warming. After she had gotten to a good part, Sam had shuffled over and handed her a piece of paper. Nixie looked up at Sam, who was now carrying a guitar that Nixie had stuffed somewhere in her stuff for Sam, Nate, Shane or Mitchie. The piece of paper that was now in Nixie's hands read:

Title: I Need To Stay Strong

For Nathaniel Johnson, the only One for me.

In Sam's messy writing, Nixie saw the potential for a great song. She turned to Sam and smiled, before giving the girl a hug and she felt Sam begin to cry. "Hun, hun," she said, moving so that Sam was sitting beside her before turning to the girl with one arm still around her shoulders, "It's alright; it's going to be okay. If there's one thing that I think you should do, it's call Nate."

Sam nodded and wiped at a tear, "Thank you Nix."

Nixie smiled and said, "It's no problem," sincerely.

--

A/N: And there we go, Sam! I told you that it was going to be a one shot, but I got a tad carried away… xD There's too much for one chapter. It's now a two shot. YZMA FAN CLUB MEMBERS TO THE END!!

xD

And to all you who read this, please drop a review! The second chapter will be up A.S.A.P.… I hope you liked it and thanks so much for reading it!

And for anyone who reads it and likes it, check out the story A Camp Rock Summer by my bestest best fan fiction friend, FreakyBirdGirl. She's better known as Sam! Thanks! Please read it! Oh, and there is a most awesome song in the next chapter, courtesy of Sam.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!

Lys.