Alex smiled, relaxed. Finally. School was over! Flopping down onto her bed, she grabbed her iPod and stuffed the earphones into her ear.

Happily listening to Paramore, she flipped the pages of the closest magazine. Nearly half of the pages were ads, and half of the ads featured pictures of the Connect 3 in different poses. Not to mention the cover. Alex sighed. The Connect 3 were so full of themselves. Or at least Nate was.

Alex had heard Shane had an ego check last summer and fell in love. Apparently, Jason was just a ditz who loved birds. As Alex skimmed a page of lip gloss colors, bored, the door suddenly burst open.

"Guess what, Alex? I found the spinach, cheese, and raisin soup I made two months ago!" Max declared triumphantly, holding up a bowl of foul-looking green-ish stuff that emmitted a horrible odor.

Alex sighed again, irritated as she pinched her nose. "Thanks, I really needed to know that. Now get out of my room!" She threw a spork at him.

Max retreated out of the room, still looking victorious. Alex then heard a, "Dad Dad Dad! Guess what I found!"

Just as she finished another page of boredom, in walked Justin. "Guess what, Alex!" Justin announced, smirking.

Alex rolled her eyes and put the magazine down once again. "Doesn't anyone in this house ever knock?"

"Well the door was open, so I just assumed that-"

Alex cut him off with a wave of her hand before Justin started spazzing. "Whatever. Get to whatever unimportant, boring stuff you were going to say."

"I... W...ON...THE..." Justin said slowly, dragging out each letter.

"Without! The theatrics."

"I WON THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS CONTEST! IT WAS SOOO COOL! I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO KNEW HOW MANY NEUTRONS UNUNQUADIUM HAD AND SPELLED IT CORRECTLY ALL IN TWO SECONDS! HA! BEAT THAT, DUMB LOSER!" And, promptly, Justin blew a raspberry and strutted out of the door.

"What was the point of that?" Alex wondered at her brother's antics before turning to the main article. It was -gasp!- about the Connect 3.

In big, bold, flashing letters on the first page said: "POPSTAR NATE GRAY DUMPS SUPERSTAR HANNAH MONTANA!" And right below that were two pictures. One of a blonde haired girl (Alex assumed it was Hannah) kissing a blond haired boy, and one of Nate and Hannah screaming at each other at what looked like Starbucks. Pfft, Alex thought. Who cares?

She turned to page two, and realized that there were nine pages to the whole article. How could there be nine pages worth of this stuff? On this page, there was a picture of Shane Gray and a cute brown-haired girl walking hand in hand. The girl was laughing and Shane was smiling. The caption read, "Shane and his Mystery Girl" In the text, there was an interview and Shane described the girl as "perfect, cute, and humorous." He said he first met her at camp in the kitchen room. She insulted him even though she was covered in flour. "I knew there was something special about her," he commented. How cute.

Just as Alex was about to turn her attention to page three, she was distracted by yet another distraction.

"Everybody, come look at this exciting brochure!" Theresa Russo called out from kitchen in their sub shop.

Alex groaned, annoyed. She shut off her iPod and rolled off her bed. "What now," she muttered and stormed down the staircase.

"Look look look! It's a brochure for this wonderful camp, Camp Rock! There's instrument classes, singing classes, and dancing classes! And at the end they have a big competition with fabulous prizes! You should go! And, there's supposed to be good food." Alex's mother exclaimed excitedly.

"Science competition!" Justin said right after his mom was done speaking, ducking his head and running upstairs.

"Too young!" Max excused himself and followed Justin.

Jerry and Theresa stared pointedly at Alex, who glared back with refusal in her eyes.

"No. Just- no."

"Come on Alex, you like singing, song writing, dancing, drumming? Please?" Her father pleaded.

"You'll meet new friends!" Her mother promised.

"No. Period." Alex stood firm.

Theresa and Jerry exchanged glances. "Two weeks off of chores and full payment for it?"

Alex contemplated it for about three seconds. "Three, and it's a deal."

"Fine, three. Now sign this form..." Her mother handed a sheet to Alex who sighed. Off to the wilderness I go.

I hate swearing but I'll have to use some for the next chapter. Just a heads up if you're like, 8.

love, peace, alyce