"When did your heart go missing?"

"Ain't no party like the After-Party"

(Jason & Tess)

"Look at you, look at me…"

Jason stared at the pretty, blonde girl that had stepped on the stage to sing. He had seen her before and had heard of her (from Shane), but he had never seen her on full shine performing on stage.

Wow, she was pretty.

"Come on, come on, come on…" suddenly, Tess tripped and almost falls off the stage; Jason stiffened on his chair unable to do any other movement due to shock, unlike Shane and Nate who had made small gestures to stand up, when a pair of her dancers took her by the arms avoiding her to go further when she was a few inches from the border of the stage.

Jason's shock was replaced with worry when he saw the blonde giving his microphone to one of her dancers and running off the stage with watery eyes.

"Dude, is she ok?" he asked unconsciously to Shane in the ear.

Shane shrugged his shoulders in response and Jason remembered he wasn't sympathetic to the girl at all and had declared it out loud a few times while on phone calls. So he gave up asking questions, at least on loud voice, because he kept wondering what had happened to Tess and if she would still be crying.

Brown called out for a girl named Margaret Dupree to come out on stage and sing; her song was amazing but that wasn't enough to keep his mind off Tess.

He guessed, by what he had been told, that he had just seen her in what seemed to be her most vulnerable moment and he had felt curious of what this girl would be hiding behind her shinny lip gloss and high heels. Not that he didn't like the shinny lip gloss or the high heels she was wearing; she looked good on them, definitely good.

So after Brown and Shane called Margaret the winner of this year's Final Jam and the Final Jam Jam Session gave place for the Camp After-Party, all Jason could do was search through the campers in case he could spot the blonde girl.

It wasn't hard to find her talking to Ella happily; surprisingly she wasn't in the center of the party or talking out loud about her mother's new tour just to show off, the way she used to. Instead they were in a far away corner and they seemed to be having a normal girl chit chat.

He thought for a second if he could approach her…

But then he remembered he had nothing to do interrupting two friends talking; what would he say anyway? It was weird how a part of him wanted to go and talk to her but the other part just felt too shy to do it.

"She's pretty, Jason, quite a nice pick" he heard Nate as he felt in his back how he patted him sympathetically and realized he had been busted staring at Tess for longer than he should have.

"Who's a "nice pick"?"

Nate rolled his eyes, suddenly remembering Jason wasn't the brightest dude he knew "never mind"

"Ok" Jason shrugged his shoulders happily and then realized there was someone missing in the trio "where's Shane?"

"Went "canoeing" with Mitchie" he responded rolling his eyes once again; what had all the girls in the Camp that suddenly seemed to drive his mates crazy?

"Is she a nice pick?" Jason asked again, imitating the tone Nate had used on him seconds ago.

His friend laughed "Yeah, she's a nice pick, Jason"

Tess laughed in the distance and Nate noticed Jason's eyes drifting helplessly towards her again. He sighed at his hopeless friend that not only was childish and (to be honest) slightly dumb already but now had a "crush" too: he had no idea what could that feeling could cause in him, but as any good friend he had to encourage him:

"Why don't you go talk to her? I bet she's nicer than what Shane said"

Jason nodded in response with an enthusiastic look on his face "yeah, maybe I should talk to her…"

Nate saw with pride when Jason walked towards Tess and Ella, stopped in front of them and introduced himself to both:

"Hi, I'm Jason…" he stated, giving out his hand in a polite gesture.

"Oh, we know who you are!" Ella stated excitedly, shaking his hand "right, Tess?"

The blonde girl shook his hand too "yeah, just like half of the girls in the country, we know who you are" Tess didn't seem any impressed with the boy standing in front of her. Actually, for what had been her experience with Shane; she didn't want anything to do with pop stars anymore.

But Jason didn't notice it; he was too excited, happy and being his usual dummy and lovable self "I saw you guys perform; you were really good!"

"Thank you!" Ella gave him a smile

But Tess just shook her head at the clueless guy: of course he had seen them perform, he was judging! "What? Are you making fun of me?" she asked him bitterly, recalling how she had almost fallen from the stage.

"No" Jason responded truthfully "your singing is really good"

Tess looked at him with her eyes narrowed for a second; she was unsure of what this little distracted guy would want by approaching them so suddenly. He was a friend of Shane Gray so he could have been sent by him to play some kind of trick on her (now that Mitchie was his "girlfriend" he would surely want revenge for the time she had humiliated her or something) or he could be just trying to make friends, and she had already seen that he was dumb enough to approach the girl that the whole camp seemed to hate.

Being a bitch and having so many enemies was really tiring; you never know when people are really being nice to you, she thought.

"Ok, thanks" she answered finally, but walked off to the refreshments table; if the guy really was sent by Shane, she wouldn't give him a chance to humiliate her for a second time in the night.

Jason watched her walk away feeling slightly disappointed, when people like you, they don't usually walk away when you're talking to them. So Tess walking off didn't mean good at all.

"Don't worry, she just went to grab some punch" Ella assured him, noticing his disappointed look "she's been a little weird lately, anyway, I guess she's feeling bad about not finishing her performance… and her mother not listening to a word she says… and the fact she almost loses all her friends…"

He looked down at the petite brunette that smiled back at him "well, that's not bad; weird people are interesting" he responded her and she laughed slightly, it was a good sign he was getting along with Ella, as she was Tess' best friend.

Nate saw from the distance how Tess walked off his friend and looked down feeling ashamed for him. So Jason would need extra help… and "extra help" meant him, as Shane was pretty much not there.

So he walked to the refreshment's table and grabbed a glass. He faked his hand crashing against Tess' "Sorry" he told her and then offered to serve her punch for her.

Tess narrowed her eyes at him and the glass of punch he offered her "thanks" she said doubtfully, taking the glass. She walked off Nate too, but he caught up with her.

"I see you've met my friend Jason…" he commented with an innocent smile but she looked at him like he had mental issues.

"Look, I did apologize to Mitchie, ok?" she told him with a desperate sigh "and whatever I did to Shane, I'm not even aware of it; tell him I will stop stalking him, if that's what he wants. There's no need for his dirty tricks…"

"What do you mean "his dirty tricks"?" Nate asked her back "and what have Shane and Mitchie to do in it?"

Tess gave back to Nate the questioning look he had upon her "aren't you trying to bug me because I was a bitch to Mitchie?"

"What? Why do you think we would do that? We hardly know Mitchie…" Nate answered her "and even if we did; that'd be pretty low… if Jason went to talk to you is because, I believe, he likes you…"

She turned to look towards the place where she had left Ella and Jason talking "what? How come…?"

"Look, that's something I'm not supposed to answer; I'm just here to give him backup" Nate put up his hands "you see he's not really good when it comes to meeting girls…"

"Well, he seems to be doing just well with Ella" she replied, suddenly she felt that the brunette talking to Jason was having a little bit "too much fun"; it had been just an hour ago that she had promised to be a better person, so it wasn't much of a crime feeling jealous.

"Well, why don't you go and fix that?" Nate suggested her, catching the slight hint of jealousy she had put on her sentence.

She didn't even turn to look at him and before she knew, she was walking towards Ella and Jason "so, how good was I, then?" she asked, just as she approached them, putting up her best smile and directing it, in a very flirty way, towards Jason.

(Nate & Caitlyn)

As Nate watched his friend smile back at the blonde that had just arrived to join his conversation with Ella, he felt his mission was accomplished. He put his hands in his pockets and made a small "kick dance" of victory; but as he smiled to himself, proudly, suddenly noticed he was alone.

He sighed. What could he do now? Both his band mates were busy, trying to impress a girl. He looked around, hopefully; maybe he could… yeah, why not? There had to be a pretty girl around, someone he could try to impress himself, it wouldn't hurt to try.

He walked around the place, whistling a small encouraging song to himself when he spotted a girl in red skinny jeans and a leopard print top; it was Mitchie's friend, Caitlyn, and she was alone as well, probably because her friend was away (with his friend).

"Hey!" he approached her as he waved his hand in a friendly way.

"Hi!" she answered him, retrieving the same friendly smile

"Caitlyn, right?" he asked, offering her a hand that she shook right away and nodded "I'm…"

"Please, of course I know who you are!" she interrupted him "I would be hopelessly lost if I hadn't; I'm a big fan…"

"Thanks" Nate replied, his hands firmly back on his pockets, giving him the shy smile that girls usually melted at.

Caitlyn saw Nate's signature cute smile appear in his face and it was then when she realized that he was flirting with her. Her cheeks burnt red and she felt extremely flattered "so, is there a reason for a pop star to be alone at a party?" she asked him, trying to vanish the color in her cheeks.

"Jason and Shane are busy" he replied to her, noticing Caitlyn's red cheeks and feeling he was really close to getting a phone number.

She turned around to find Jason, not very far from them, having a very "deep" conversation with Tess and Ella; she didn't need to see Shane to know that he was somewhere around the camp, holding Mitchie's hand and smiling her that irresistible smile he was so good at. The blush in her cheeks ceased just as her excitement; it was clear now that Nate was flirting to her not to stay behind his band mates.

She had to run away, fast.

And just like in perfect timing, her cell phone rang "Sorry, I gotta take this one" she excused to Nate, who nodded in response.

He watched the girl walk out of the mess hall to have a better hearing of whoever was on the other side of the phone and sighed happily. Caitlyn was really good looking and for what he had seen yet, she was really cool; he had made a "nice pick".

Caitlyn came back inside the cabin, still holding her cell phone in her hands and smiling significantly "Oh, Peter" she exclaimed, showing Nate his cell phone "he just won't stop worrying about me…"

"Peter?" Nate asked, he couldn't help the disappointment look that rose up his face.

"My boyfriend" she replied, nodding "he's back at New Jersey…"

"Oh" he really didn't know what he could say next "that's-that's nice… that he worries about you and, you know... all that"

Caitlyn gave him an odd look "are you ok?"

"Yeah, but I… I better go take some air" he responded her and before she could reply anything, he stormed off the mess hall.

Caitlyn closed her cell phone and put it in her pocket; she felt slightly bad she had tricked Nate, and some part of her mind knew that a normal girl should never blow off a cute pop sensation like him; but she wasn't a normal girl and no matter how good looking and famous the guy was, she wasn't just "meat on the market" for him to come and entertain himself when he felt bored.

Nate hit the door open maybe a little harder than he should've because he scared a couple that was making out in the stairs; he didn't really mind saying sorry, it was actually better for him at this moment not to see them going all over each other.

He didn't know what was wrong with him; he never acted this way when he was blown off by a girl.

Maybe because he had hardly been blown off before made him slightly bitterer than he should.

He sighed, looking as Shane and Mitchie approached the mess hall to join the party at last; they were holding hands and before they stepped inside, he stole from her a small peck on the lips.

Nate rolled his eyes and turned around, to avoid looking at the lovebirds.

He knew the way back home with Shane and Jason would be a pain in the ass.

(Nate as "Mr. Bitter")

"So, how did you guys do at the party?" Shane asked his mates, climbing into the limo; he had just had a really long goodbye-conversation with Mitchie Torres and looked slightly red in the cheeks, also, his wide smile was utterly uncommon for a guy that had spent his last months being a jerk to the world.

"Awesome…" Jason replied to him, putting his hand up to high five him; he had the same daydream-like smile as Shane and held in his other hand a small piece of paper in which Tess had written his e-mail address and cell phone number.

After high fiving Jason, Shane looked at Nate that had his arms crossed in front of his chest and looked at both his friends with a disgusted look "What about you?"

"I did good, thanks for asking…" he replied, but really, in his mind all he could think about was the urge of puking that both his "bedazzled" band mates caused in him, couldn't they notice they were being corny as hell? All he wanted was for Shane to finally shut the limo's door so they could get out of that Camp and far from Mitchie and Tess (who had such a horrible impact in them) as soon as possible.

Still he was pretty sure Shane and Jason would be stuck to their laptops and cell phones, emailing and texting both girls, at least for the next 3 months if not more.

"Uh, Mr. Bitter, what got you so upset?" Jason asked him, giving him a face that a mother playing with her baby would put up.

Nate groaned "nothing, let's just go…" he replied and folded his arms even tighter.

"Oh, please… there's obviously something bothering you" Shane insisted "what happened?"

"Well, it's you! You're… look at you! You're both drooling over Mitchie and Tess like San Bernardo dogs; it makes me sick!" Nate finally exploded out. Jason laughed at him and made him feel angrier, though he wasn't really sure he was mocking him or just laughed because, well, he was Jason "ok, shut up! And Shane, close the damn door already!"

"Ok, fine" Shane gave him the "you're crazy" look and closed the limo door shut "but you clearly got issues, dude…"

He shrugged his shoulders "whatever…" the limo pulled off towards the airport where they were supposed to take a flight to L.A. and he felt slightly better.

"So, what happened that got you in such crappy mood, Nate?" Shane dared to ask after a few seconds.

"Yeah, weren't you talking to that chick, Caitlyn?" Jason intervened

Nate tried to hide it when he nodded to answer Jason's question, but in his eyes there was a gleam of disappointment and his bad mates knew him well enough to notice it and translate it.

"She blew you off?" Shane asked him, but there was no need, because he already knew the answer

His friend rolled his eyes and groaned once again "she's got a boyfriend" he replied, knowing that it was better to tell it out once and for all, before they started mocking him.

"Bummer…" Shane patted him in the back for a little comfort, but instead of comfort, it only caused Nate to want to punch him in the face.

"Just shut up, ok? I really mean it when I say I don't want to discuss it ever again" he threatened both his friends and after they gave him identical understanding nods, he threw himself back in the limo's seat and closed his eyes deeply shut in hope he could fall asleep soon.