"Turn, turn. There's the sign!" She pointed her finger in her mother's line of vision. "Oh, my gosh, I can't believe we're finally here!" She was rambling. "Oh, wait. I told Shane I'd text him once we're almost there."
Connie sighed. "Oh, Mitchie..."
They were in the 'Connie's Catering van' after Brown had called them two weeks before, pulling into the entrance. Her daughter couldn't contain her excitement.
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing."
"Mom," Mitchie rolled her eyes. "Obviously it's something. I mean, you and subtle aren't very good friends."
"I know you and Shane talk all the time, but, you know, it's..." Connie sighed. The previous summer, former best friends had become boyfriend and girlfriend, but Shane had been called away to go on another world tour to make up for the one that had been canceled. "You actually haven't seen this boy in almost a year. I just don't want you to be too disappointed, honey, if he can't come to camp this summer."
"Mom." She shook her head. Shane was her boyfriend, a boyfriend that would FaceTime with her on their IPhones, or text and call her every chance he got. But on the other hand, he had only kissed her maybe two or three times; all of them being the previous summer
"I want you to have fun and focus on your music."
"Okay, first off, this is gonna be the best summer ever. And second, nothing can make me lose my focus." Something caught her eye. A sign that read 'Camp Star.' "What is that? Did somebody open another camp?"
They were unloading their things from the van, but Mitchie was still focused and angry about the idea of another camp competing with her own.
"Seriously, why would somebody open up another camp across the lake?"
Her mom handed her her duffel bag and her guitar case. "Oh, who knows, but I don't think it's anything to worry about."
She was about to respond when she saw the familiar curly of her best friend. She screamed, ruining her mother's hearing. "Caitlyn!"
Caitlyn turned to look at her, a grin spreading across her face as they ran to each other. Her hair was longer, her clothes still bright and cheerful. "Mitchie!"
They threw their arms around each other. "Hi! Aah! Caitlyn!"
They had had only small amounts of time to see each other during the school year, but this summer was theirs to reestablish their friendship.
"How are you?"
"I'm great."
They released one another, and her best friend twirled one of Mitchie's dark curls around with her fingers. "What's with the hair?"
"I wanted a change," Mitchie laughed, pulling away. She grabbed Caitlyn's arm. "Come on. Let's go."
Caitlyn reached out and wrapped her hand around the handle of the guitar case. "Let me take this for you."
"Thank you. I was so afraid that we weren't gonna get here in time, but doesn't look like many campers are here."
"Well, you know what this means." She said with a smile. Mitchie caught on fast, and then began to run up the hill. "Since we're the first ones here, we totally get our choice of..."
She threw the door open; both of them stopping when they finally noticed Tess, Peggy and Ella standing there. "Bunk."
They all seemed to stare at each other before screaming and running to hug each other. Their conversations were rambled together, all too excited to realize that they weren't making sense.
"I bet you sounded fantastic."
"Yeah? Oh, my gosh."
Tess Tyler hung back. "Well, I guess no one cares about my life."
"What don't we know?" Mitchie asked with a laugh, turning to face her. "I mean, you update your status like, every two seconds."
Tess was the former Camp Diva, and she was still the butt for all of their jokes. The girls laughed.
She laughed. "Fine. I have a question, and it's for Mitchie."
"For me?"
"So, what's going on with you and Shane?"
The girls giggled, as if they were thirteen and at one of their first sleep overs. Mitchie gave them an amused look before blushing in her famous way.
"Nothing is going on."
"That's a total lie." Caitlyn pointed an accusing finger in her best friend's direction.
"You guys are obsessed." She accused, shaking her head as they all laughed again. "No, seriously. I don't know, I just...I feel like if we never get to spend any time together then nothing is ever gonna happen."
"I have another question," Tess probed. They waited. "Mitchie, what's with the hair?"
"Just one more crank and I think I got it." Shane Gray announced. He was on his knees, wrench in hand as he tried to chance the tire on their tour bus. "That's good."
Nate Black shook his head, already fearing the worst. "Can we please just wait for the tow truck? Oliver tried and he couldn't get it."
"That's because Oliver's not properly motivated." He explained as he tried to free the wrench. "He's not trying to get to Camp Rock before Mitchie."
Oliver, their bodyguard and bus driver frowned. Their way to get to the camp had been Shane's idea in the first place. "We should have never taken that shortcut."
Jason shook his head, a small smile on his face at the thought of seeing his 'little sister'. "Maybe because Oliver doesn't even know Mitchie."
Nate pointed at Jason, as if to say 'you just proved my point,' before grabbing the tool and pulling it away so easily.
"Thanks." Shane told him, getting to his feet. They began to walk, his band mates not missing the smile on their friend's face. "It's gonna be really cool. I got it all planned. She'll walk in, and I'll be sitting there, and I'll say: "Hey, Mitchie." She's gonna be so surprised."
The youngest band member rolled his eyes. That was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. ""Hey, Mitchie"? That's your big line?"
"Trust me. Everything's cool when I do it. I'm just excited to finally spend some time with her." Mitchie. His beautiful girlfriend. He was so ready to spend an entire summer with her, after having to break his promise about spending the rest of the summer at home the previous year. He was dying to look into her dark brown eyes and to kiss her.
He had even started to leave his hair curly for her, knowing how much she loved his natural look.
"Oh, here you go." Jason reached into his pocket, dropping it into his friend's hand.
Shane narrowed his eyes. "Is this from the tire?"
"Yeah. I saw it on the ground before. Thought it was important, so I put it in my pocket."
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
"How could I have told you if I didn't remember until now?"
"It's fine." He said with a sigh. "Just one bolt, right?"
"We good?"
"Mm-hm."
"Yeah."
They heard a noise and whirled around, watching with wide eyes as their tour bus began to lean to the left.
"Please. No!" Shane pleaded. "Oh! Please, don't. No, no, no."
It did no good; the bus tumbled over the edge of the cliff it had been parked on. Shane dropped to his knees, cursing everything he could think of.
"Told you it was important." Jason patted his shoulder before following Nate to try and get some help.
"Where is everybody?" Caitlyn asked. They were still in their cabin, already having unpacked all of their clothes.
"I know, right?" Mitchie glanced out the window. "There's like, barely anybody out there."
Peggy wandered away from her dresser, a hopeful look in her eyes. "I sure hope you've got something we can do at opening jam. Because if not, I've got nothing."
"Kind of, maybe, sort of. I don't know. I..." Mitchie picked up her song book, unsure. Ever since singing This Is Me with Shane last summer, she had been writing like crazy. She had let him hear a few lines every now and then, but she had mostly been keeping them to herself. Nate, he was always willing to listen and he had been the only one to hear her latest song for Shane.
"Can we hear it? Sing it!" The girls pleaded encouragingly.
"Uh, okay. It's not finished."
"It's okay. Come on."
Mitchie was stalling; the only thing she was thinking about was Shane and how it would feel to see him, to be back in his arms. The one place she so desperately wanted to be. "Not anything special..."
"Come on!"
She took a deep breath before beginning to sing the first verse. "Last year's old news . I'm breakin' out my six-string and playin from my heart..."
Peggy was smiling at her friend, excited about the new song. If there was one thing Mitchie was, it was a genius when it came to song writing. "That is amazing."
"I love it." Caitlyn promised her best friend, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder.
"Really? Thank you. That's all I got so far. I have a lot of lyrics, but the music's not really worked out yet."
"Maybe we could just sing the first part over and over again." Ella suggested. She grinned, pleased with herself.
Mitchie heard a melody playing, and she smiled. "That's it."
"Really?" She sounded surprised. "Nobody ever agrees with me."
"Barron! Sander!" She called, running outside. The two boys were sitting on the steps that led to their cabin, listening to one of their friends play the guitar.
"Hey, what's up?" Barron asked with a smile. He wrapped her up in a hug before sitting back down.
"Hey." Sander greeted the girls. He slipped his arm around Caitlyn's hug.
"Hi, how you doing?"
Mitchie sat down next to the guitar player. "Play it again." She asked with a smile.
"For you, Mitchie?" Sander nodded at his friend. "Anything."
"Let's rock."
Ohh ohh
Last years old news
I'm breaking out my six string
And playing from my heart
It's not deja vu
Cause it's another summer
That's how this chapter starts
I'm gonna run so fast 'til I can't breathe
Come along and follow me
Let's make some noise we never did before It's a brand new day
Don't you see me
Changing on my way
So completely
This time I'm gonna sing and you're gonna hear it
This time I'm gonna show you that I got the spirit
It's a brand new day
And I'm feelin good
And I'm feelin good
So drama free
So drama free
I'm all about the music I just wanna sing
Watch me live out my dreams
I'm gonna rock that stage and give my everything
I'm gonna dance until my feet can't move
Come along get in the groove
Let's shine so bright more than we did before
It's a brand new day
Don't you see me
Changing on my way
So completely
This time I'm gonna sing and you're gonna hear it
This time I'm gonna show you that I got the spirit
It's a brand new day And I'm feelin' good!
What you gonna do? What you gonna do?
I'm gonna laugh through the summer with you
Who you gonna be? Who you gonna be?
You'll just have to watch me carefully
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Anywhere my heart wants me to go I'm gonna sing
I'm gonna dance I'm gonna ride I'm gonna play I'm gonna try my game in everything
Cause It's a brand new day
(Don't you see me)
Changing on my way
So completely
This time I'm gonna sing and you're gonna hear it
This time I'm gonna show you that I got the spirit
It's a brand new day
It's a brand new day
It's a brand new day
Changing on my way
Changing on my way
This time I'm gonna sing and you're gonna hear it
Gonna hear it
This time I'm gonna show you that I got the spirit
Got the spirit
It's a brand new day
It's a brand new day
It's a brand new day
And I'm feelin' good Feelin' good
And I'm feelin' good!