Title: The Birdhouse Effect
Author: Tally/Live2TiVo/MusicalJunkie
Pairing: Jason/Peggy, or Jeggy, if you will ("Get Jeggy with it, na na na na na na na)
Word Count: 1284 without this thing at the top
Rating:G/K
Summary: Jason goes to the Craft Cabin hoping to find a birdhouse, what he finds is Peggy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Camp Rock. If I did, there would be some very noticeable plot changes.
Dear Diary,
So, this whole Camp Rock think with Shane went according to plan…if the plan was for Shane to stop being such a pretentious ass, spend the entire Summer trying to track down a girl with a voice—not to mention finding her at Final Jam--, and getting a new sound for Connect Three.
Now everyone's happy. Shane has his girl with a voice; Nate has a sound to work on and obsess over for the next few months. Well, not everyone's happy—I still don't have a birdhouse! (Maybe Shane thought I was kidding, but I totally wasn't.)
More Later,
Jason
Jason closed and locked his diary before hiding it in the usual spot (the pick box in his guitar case). Sure, Nate and Shane knew where he kept it, but after the jokes about Jason keeping a diary grew old, they'd stopped reading it (at least as far as Jason knew.) There were the occasional wisecracks when he pulled it out on the tour bus, but it didn't bother him.
What did bother him, however, was the noticeable lack of a Shane Grey original birdhouse among his possessions. There was no way Shane could have forgotten—Jason mentioned it every time they spoke on the phone. Of course, Shane, in his usual diva fashion, could not be bothered to make one measly birdhouse for his band-mate. Jason was hurt.
It was too late now. Final Jam was over, meaning that there were only two days of Camp Rock left—Packing Day and Pick-Up Day. Even if Shane managed to tear himself away from Mitchie (or "Voice Girl" as Jason had come to know her), there was no way the paint would have time to dry before they left camp. Nate would never let him bring wet paint in the limo.
After dinner on the eve of Pick-Up Day, Jason decided to wander down to the Craft Cabin to see if anyone had perhaps left an unclaimed birdhouse behind which he could take as his own.
As he approached the brightly colored building, Jason wondered just how many campers knew Camp Rock actually had a Craft Cabin. It was a one-off, really, buried deep in the woods away from the Dance Cabin, Camper Cabins, and Mess Hall. There wasn't even a crafts instructor (there didn't really seem to be a need for one at a music camp.) The craft Cabin wasn't a secret—it was on the camp map—but it had been deemed unimportant years before, and Dee didn't even mention it during orientation. Nevertheless, the door was always open and campers were free to come and go as they pleased.
Jason wasn't sure who was responsible for re-stocking the supplies, but he recalled from his summers as a camper that the paints and other materials had been replenished every few days when needed.
Long before Jason's first summer at Camp Rock, some campers had taken advantage of the lack of supervision and painted the entire cabin in bright colors—inside and out. They had signed their work and since then, anyone who discovered the cabin had painted their name on the building as well. His name was there too—JASON in big letters over the doorway.
After pausing to look at his own name in bright blue (among Shannon in green, Louis in orange, and Tabitha in purple), he pushed open the door. Expecting to find it empty apart from various crafts, Jason was surprised to see a girl standing in the corner, staring at the wall.
Peggy was trying to decide what she should paint to leave her mark on the Craft Cabin. She could write "Peggy", which was what everyone at camp knew her as, or she could write "Margaret", which was the name she had used when she finally gained an identity at Camp Rock outside of "Tess Tyler's back up".
It was during her internal debate that she heard the door open. She turned around, wondering who else had business in the Craft Cabin at 8:00 on the last night of camp.
"Jason?" Peggy gasped, stunned to see the eldest member of Connect 3 standing in the doorway.
"Uh, yeah." Jason stared at Peggy for a few moments before finally registering who she was. "Hey, you're that Margaret girl who won Final Jam."
"That's me." Peggy blushed; she was still getting over the fact she'd actually won. "Although most people call me Peggy."
"Really? I like Margaret better. It's very sophisticated, and I think it suits you."
"You really think so?"
"Definitely," Jason paused. "Would you mind if I called you Margaret? I'm terrible with names, and now that I know you as Margaret, it'd be hard to remember to call you Peggy. Besides, it's your stage name, and you are going to be recording with us."
This surprised Peggy. "I thought I was only recording with Shane."
"Are you kidding? With a voice like that, there's no way the record company is letting you out of the studio with only one song."
"You really think I'm that good?"
"You were incredible at Final Jam. I mean, you were singing, playing guitar, and moving around the stage…at the same time!"
"I've seen you play before—you do all of that plus jumping and spinning."
"Exactly. I know that it's harder than it looks."
"It doesn't look that easy, but it does look fun."
Jason laughed. "Being a rock star is fun…even if you band mate refuses to make you a birdhouse."
"A birdhouse?"
"Oh. I asked Shane to make me a birdhouse. One measly birdhouse, but, no, he was too busy finding a new sound and looking for 'Voice Girl'."
"You mean Mitchie?"
"Yeah, her. Anyway, I don't think he ever intended to make me one."
"He probably thought you were kidding."
"I know, but I wasn't, so I came down here to see if anyone possibly left a spare birdhouse lying around the Craft Cabin."
"Planning a little Grand Theft Birdhouse?"
Jason chuckled, "Something like that, yeah."
"Do you want me to help you look? I didn't see anyone but me here all Summer, but you never know."
Jason accepted her offer, and the two began looking through the Craft Cabin for a spare birdhouse. They looked in cabinets and drawers, under tables and chairs, and on the highest shelves in the supply closet. Unfortunately, their attempts were fruitless. They didn't even find so much as a nail (except the ones in the walls, but those didn't count.)
"I guess that's that then." Jason sighed. "No birdhouse."
"I'm sorry. What if I make you one and bring it with me when I record with Shane. He can pass it along to you."
"Nah. I'll just come to the studio, and you can give it to me directly."
"Sounds like a plan."
"That's because it is a plan."
Jason and Peggy smiled.
"So, um…" Peggy began. "I guess I'll see you in the studio."
"Yep." Jason paused for a moment. "Do you want to walk with me back to the cabins."
"Actually," Peggy replied, "I still need to paint my name."
She grabbed a brush, dipped it in the closest can of paint—red—and scribbled "Margaret" on the wall with a flourish at the end.
"Margaret," Jason read. "I like it. Very sophisticated."
"It is, isn't it?" Peggy said, beaming as she rinsed out her paintbrush. "Let's go watch Tess try and repack all twelve of her suitcases."
"Sounds fun." He offered her his arm, which she took.
And with that, the pair walked back to the main area of Camp Rock, arm in arm, picking the colors for Jason's new birdhouse.
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